“What good am I to the pack if I can’t shift?”
Aloe’s face scrunched up. “Is that who you are, merely a shifter who can no longer shift? Or is there more to you?”
“I hope there’s more to me.”
“Of course there is. When I first met Zachary, I could barely open my mouth to talk to him. He was so overbearing. I felt small and insignificant compared to an enforcer. He’d say, ‘It’s not the size of the shifter, but the size of her heart that matters.’”
Tess liked that saying. Maybe Aloe’s mate had a point. She needed to focus on what she could do, as Tess. “Oh, I’m displacing two shifters. Will your mate be mad?”
“Zach…” Aloe closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “My Zach was killed by humans shortly after our blood-bonding ceremony.”
Tess’s heart sank for Aloe. “I’m sorry for your loss. And here I am pitying myself.”
“Get moving, Aloe,” one of the guards shouted through the door. “Damien wants the human isolated. Gossiping about the pack isn’t what he meant by isolated.”
“I’m not human,” Tess yelled back to him. “At least get that part right!”
Aloe rose from the couch and squeezed Tess’s forearm. “As I said. Alpha.”
* * *
DAMIEN
Damien requested another meeting with Liam and Drake. The messengers returned an hour ago. Liam refused, again, this time on the grounds that Damien was allowing humans in his pack, and Drake accepted under the condition that Hayden not be allowed to attend.
To ban Hayden from such a high-level meeting—for a second time—was an insult to him, which is why Drake made it a condition. It was a damn pissing match when it came to stroking everyone’s egos. After the last meeting, and the way Hayden had reacted, Damien had promised not to exclude Hayden from future meetings, but the packs needed this meeting. The ramifications of what Alex was saying were too great to fight this battle alone. The distrust between packs would have to end, at least for a temporary alliance. The survival of shifters everywhere was on the line. Damien knew Hayden would understand, at least Damien hoped he would.
As for Tess, Damien didn’t know what to do about her, other than give her time to cool down. Two days had already passed, and she hadn’t requested to see him. Damien found himself pacing, much like his wolf could not rest. He needed to see, smell, hear… touch Tess to soothe his inner beast. But that would be giving in to her, which was not something he was used to doing as alpha.
The very prospect of giving in angered his wolf, but not giving in left his wolf restless. He had been shortsighted when he’d issued the proclamation that she would stay put until she was willing to speak. He hadn’t taken into account how agitated his wolf would be, how crazy he’d start to get without her calming influence nearby.
Damien knew from Mason that Aloe had been checking in on Tess, staying for long visits, but when Damien asked Aloe about Tess, he got a polite but curt, ‘Why don’t you go see for yourself?’
Sometimes Damien wondered if Zach got himself killed because he woke up after the blood-bond haze had cleared from his mind and he realized he’d bonded a female who was way out of his league, one he wouldn’t be able to handle in time. She was stronger than most gave her credit for, much like Tess.
Now Damien found himself standing at Aloe’s house, knocking. It aggravated his wolf that he’d come to her, and that he was knocking no less. Wasn’t he the alpha here?
Before he could turn and leave, the door swung open. Ever beautiful, with sparkling, green eyes and the sweetest smile he’d ever seen, Tess stood at the door, confident and strong as ever—and no longer pissed, thankfully. The sun struck her hair, revealing the red in her dark-brown hair that hung loosely about her shoulders. He wanted to sink his hands in the thick tresses and pull her to him, to take her scent in as he captured her mouth and tasted her.
“May I help you?” she asked.
He quirked a brow at the cold greeting, then inhaled a deep breath, giving himself a chance to think. She was intentionally trying to throw him off his game, and it was working. Not that her enticing scent had anything to do with it, but he forgot why he had come.
“I was told there is an issue here.” There, that was logical, and he wouldn’t appear as if he was groveling. As alpha, it was his duty to oversee the welfare of his pack.
“Really?” she said, her voice pitched high and mocking as she turned to Mac who was on guard duty. “Is there an issue, Mac? Other than the fact that I burned that last batch of cookies?”
“They didn’t taste burned,” he said, then caught Damien’s glare. “No issue, Tess, except I’m still hungry.”
“I’ll bring more out.”
She was feeding her guard cookies, and he was enjoying them. That irritated Damien, on both counts. “You’re on guard duty,” he snapped at Mac.
Damien had no control over the slight growl that escaped him. His wolf didn’t like this familiarity between her and her guard. What exactly had been going on here for two days while he was quite a distance away, in his big house, sleeping alone?
“Later, Tess.” Mac moved twenty feet away, toward the trees, giving Tess and Damien privacy.
“Great,” Tess said, drawing his attention. “No issues, Damien. Bye.”
She shut the door. She fucking shut the door on him. He glanced at Mac, who had the good sense to keep his face stoic and his eyes focused on the woods. If he had snickered or even curled his lip, he’d be a very dead guard right now.
Damien stormed away, only to remember once again that this was his pack, his territory. Everything and everyone in it answered to him. They didn’t slam doors in his face, or even politely shut them unless he was ready. He decided when he would leave, not some smart-ass woman he should bend over his knee and spank for her insolence. In fact, that sounded like a very good idea right about now.
Without a word to Mac, Damien stormed into Aloe’s house, slamming the door shut behind him, only to see Tess standing at the fireplace, holding a picture of Aloe’s family.
Tess’s fingers gently glossed over the photo. “Aloe has a sister. I wonder if she’s still alive.”
“She is.” All his anger washed away when he heard the pain and longing in her voice. She missed her family, her pack, and he’d been isolating her from his. He hadn’t intended to hurt her, to keep her from making new ties here.
“Yanni blood-bonded a shifter in Liam’s pack three years ago, right before Aloe lost Zach.”
Tess returned the picture to the mantel. “I’m glad Aloe still has some family left.”
“Tess, I’m sorry about your sister, and the rest of your family. You can accept us without dishonoring their memory.”
She half-laughed, then took a deep breath. “I miss them, okay? When you rescued me, I thought I’d see them, soon. I never imagined I wouldn’t return home to them, that there wasn’t anyone to return home to. Or that I wouldn’t even be a shifter anymore. At least they didn’t have to see what I’ve become.”
Damien surged forward with such speed her hands went up to block him, but he wasn’t going to let her stop him. He crushed his lips to hers and let his tongue and his body tell her what he thought of her, human or shifter. When he finally pulled back, her lips were puffy, and her eyes confused, but there was no hatred for him there.
“Damien, there can’t be anything between us. I’m human now.”
“Still a shifter. At least get that part right!” came Mac’s shout from outside.
Damien didn’t know what that was all about, but it made Tess giggle. “You’re relieved from duty till morning, Mac,” Damien yelled back.
“Till morning?” Tess asked. “You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Maybe I’m being hopeful, but I can’t spend another night up in my house without you, Tess. I need you in my arms, my bed, my life.”
“An alpha doesn’t need anyone, least of all a shifter who can’t shift.”
&nbs
p; “I don’t need you to shift. I need you to be you.”
“That’s the sexiest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she said as she circled her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Her tongue dipped between his lips and parried for control as she pressed her curvy body against him. Then a very dainty, determined hand unbuttoned his jeans. Her hand slid over his cock as she reached for his zipper. Slowly, torturously slowly, she unzipped his jeans. His cock was beyond rock hard and throbbing, waiting for her touch when two lovely fingers reached in and stroked him. He wasn’t sure what had been going on in this house between Aloe and Tess, but he was starting to like the effect it was having on Tess.
She freed his cock entirely, and he had to resist the urge to bend her over the sofa. His little shifter was learning how to control. It was his job as alpha to encourage her learning, even if it meant submitting to her, for now.
She broke the kiss, only to slide down his body until she was on her knees before him. Oh yes, he was going to encourage her new friendship with Aloe.
After a coy glance at him, Tess’s exquisite tongue licked the bead of pre-cum from his cock. He and his wolf were torn between the need to dominate, to bend her to his will, and letting her continue. Then her lips wrapped around his cock, her eyes, lovely and wide like a doe’s. Never had she ever seemed so beautiful, so innocent, even with his cock in her mouth.
He traced the line of her jaw with one finger as she sheathed him with her mouth. The feelings his Tess stirred within him made him feel so alive, so very powerful.
She pulled off. “I’m not sure what I’m doing.”
He chuckled. Definitely inexperienced. “Do what feels good to you. If it feels good for you, then it will feel good for me. No teeth.”
“Why would I use teeth?”
“Teeth can be quite erotic. Don’t worry I’ll show you later.”
Then she was there, her mouth on his cock, licking him from base to tip. She pressed light kisses to the tip of his head. As she took him in her mouth, he moaned and had to strain from thrusting. This had to be about her, not him. There’d be plenty of opportunities to fuck her mouth the way he wanted. Right now, he would enjoy the twinkle in her eyes as she took more of him in her mouth, inch by blessed inch. She backed off and surged forward, tempting him to pump his hips. She was a tease, his Tess, a gorgeous, sweet tease that he could never live without.
Wet heat enveloped his cock with a tight grip, fueling the pleasure, the desire to explode in her mouth. He wasn’t sure he’d last long. Warm, liquid ecstasy. He wanted to last, for her more than himself. She had only begun to realize the power she held, and she had yet to learn how to wield it.
She moved on and off of him, creating a wonderfully tight friction that had no comparison. Her head bobbed, the hollow of her cheeks a fascinating sight to behold. He’d have her pussy one day soon, but right now, he would defer to her, let her control and learn what pleased her, as well as him. He sank his hands into her hair, desperately trying not to move her head against him or to thrust more of him into her than she was willing or able to take. Her devilish ministrations elicited a moan from deep in his throat. His orgasm was approaching fast.
“Fuck, that feels so good, Sweetness. But if you don’t stop, I’m going to come inside your lovely mouth.”
Her eyes fluttered upward, challenging him. He lost all control and shot his cum against the back of her throat. The sight of her swallowing and swirling her tongue around his cock before pulling off of him with a wet sloppy pop awed him. Too damn sexy, his Tess.
“That was fun,” she said, her smile sweet and innocent, even as she wiped the wetness off her lips.
“You have no idea,” he said, pulling her to her feet and kissing her. He could taste himself on her lips. Nothing was as satisfying and exhilarating as knowing she had willingly taken him like that. Soon, they’d blood-bond, and no one could ever take her from him.
Chapter Fourteen
TESS
“Maybe you should move back into Damien’s house?” Aloe said as she leaned back in the grass on the hill overlooking the lake where the last-minute preparations for the blood-bonding ceremony were well underway.
Tess shook her head. She couldn’t explain it, but something had changed between her and Damien. She had played hard to get, shutting the door in his face. When he had come back, in under three minutes, and started kissing her with reckless abandon, she’d forgotten about everything except Damien. The next thing she knew, she was on her knees doing something she never thought she’d do in her life. And she liked it. That was the scary part. She liked making him moan, watching him fight against his urge to pin her down and take her. Watching him struggling to keep his hands off of her was thrilling and arousing. Even when his hands twined in her hair, she felt the shudder of his muscles as he resisted taking charge. It was all she could do to keep herself from stripping bare and getting down on all fours, the way she knew he wanted to take her.
The pull toward Damien, the need to be with him, to touch him, to have him inside of her grew with every touch, every glance. But she didn’t want to be an extension of Damien, and that’s what would happen if she moved into his house. It would be different if they could blood-bond, where their souls would join. Without the bond, she’d never be more than a friend-with-benefits.
This was her new reality. Shifter by birth, but too human to ever blood-bond, to have that true merging of souls, with Damien. Then there was Aloe. Tess’s first true friend here. Even if Tess could never have a family, she could have friends and a nice life with Damien’s pack. She had to find her place, and she couldn’t do that standing at Damien’s side, living in his house, warming his bed. What happened with Damien yesterday could never happen again, or she’d never move past him and carve out a life here.
Her first goal was to accept the new Tess, with all the limitations that came along with her. Checked… partially. She had been working on that for a while, and every time she made progress, she slid back.
Goal number two, make friends. She had Aloe, so again, checked… partially. More than one friend would be even better, so Tess didn’t become a drag to Aloe every time she needed a sounding board.
Box number three, let the pack get to know her, to see her as Tess, not just Damien’s human or Damien’s little fuck toy—that last being a name one of the male shifters had called her when she passed by the maintenance shed a few days ago.
She had gone down to the shed on part of her exploration of the territory, still trying to figure out which paths led where. Usually it was Frank or Mac who accompanied her, except for that day. Neither of them would have put up with the comment, but she had had a new guard, Ty. She was about to tell the shifter off and what toys he could use to fuck himself, when Ty had snickered at the comment. With her guard siding with the obnoxious shifter, she lost her confidence and kept walking.
She thought of telling Damien, not about the man who’d made the slur, but about her so-called guard. She didn’t trust Ty, but in the end, he was probably no different than the rest of the pack, a bunch of shifters who had no reason to trust her.
Reporting him wouldn’t improve the situation, and she couldn’t run to Damien with every little problem. He was the alpha, with more important issues than dealing with her feeling like an outsider. She’d have to reclaim what little confidence she could and shore up her ability to ignore stupid insults for the next time, because there would be a next time.
“You can move back to your house, Aloe,” Tess finally answered. She had stayed long enough and needed to assert her independence if she was ever going to survive here.
Four shifters carried in the dais for the ceremony. They set it half in the water, half on the shore, symbolic of the two worlds shifters straddled as well as the bonding of two shifters’ souls. Tess considered moving closer, so she could hear the ceremony, but she didn’t know Bethany or Kyle, the shifters bonding. Being on the outskirts of the pack felt safer. When two sh
ifters passing by her and Aloe on their way to the lake eyed her, Tess averted her eyes. So much for asserting herself.
“Thank you again, it’s been wonderful staying in your house.”
Aloe waited until another group of shifters passed and found a place to sit by the lake. The ceremony wouldn’t start for another ten minutes. “You’re moving back in with Damien?”
“No. But you should be allowed to go back to your house. I’ll find somewhere to go.”
“You can stay with me. If you don’t mind the company,” Aloe said. “I have plenty of room for both of us. The extra bedroom was supposed to be a nursery, but we never had a chance.”
“Are you sure about this? Do you really want me underfoot?”
“Positive. And you wouldn’t be underfoot. Besides, where else would you go?”
“To my house,” Damien said from behind.
Damn, was he listening from a distance again or did he simply had good timing?
“We’ll talk later, Tess.” Aloe stood up, brushed the grass off of her skirt and gave Damien a slight nod as she headed down to sit near the dais.
“Aren’t you needed to officiate the ceremony?” Tess asked as Damien took Aloe’s spot on the grass. Already, Tess’s body was eager to lean against him, to absorb that glorious warmth he radiated. Learning to live without her wolf had so many challenges, the least of which was that she was more sensitive to the cold.
“A blood-bonding doesn’t require someone to officiate. The couple can do it themselves.” His brows pinched together. “Precisely what part of shifter life did your pack actually maintain down in Florida?”
“Not much, but we did have blood-bonding ceremonies. I guess I didn’t expect to see you back here with the commoners.”
Damien’s Dilemma Page 19
