“That’s the taste I’m addicted to,” Shadow murmured against my ear. “Because I did that to you. I want to be the only man who makes you feel this way.”
I nodded, my mouth still working his fingers. Shadow kneeled, dragging his hand away from me. I was totally in his thrall; he wanted my body and it was his. If he could save me from the demons that had haunted me since the accident, dealing with werewolves would be nothing.
He slammed his cock inside me as he fell forward, his face over mine. He couldn’t lie to me with his body and he slid out slowly, only to fill me completely again. I knew Shadow needed this as much as I did. He rocked back and forth, inch by glorious inch, his tempo bringing me to my next undoing. I pulled his face down—I needed to taste him again. Shadow’s lips crashed onto mine, just as needy as his cock. He was in total possession of me, and I wanted to stay in this place forever.
Shadow kissed me so sweetly as I came again, much harder than the last time. He was still a part of me, body and soul. His shaft swelled and his body slumped. I pulled him up by the hair so I could see his eyes.
“Please,” I whispered.
He nodded, rolling off me. I took his cock in my mouth immediately, coaxing every last drop of his orgasm from his body. He’d surrendered his body to me, but he was in complete possession of me. We owned each other. We saved each other.
“Hey.” Shadow still hadn’t caught his breath as I nestled my head on his chest. “How are you doing?”
“Amazing.” I rubbed my finger lightly over his nipple. “You?”
“That’s a pretty good word for it.” He chuckled, pulling me in tighter. “And that’s what I hoped you’d say. I thought I scared you.”
I picked my head up. “How?”
Shadow’s eyes glazed over, a smile playing on his lips.
“Your body makes me crazy, Trina. You make me crazy.” He chuckled, running a hand through my hair. “I meant every word I said. No one’s going to hurt you. Let me have your heart. I’ll protect it with my life.”
I put my hand over his heart. It was beating wildly under my touch. “It’s already yours.”
He kissed me on the lips. “Get dressed,” he said against my mouth. “Let’s go make those s'mores.”
Chapter Twenty
Shadow
“Here’s my plan for Ryker,” I said to Major when I got back to the forest. Nothing had happened to Trina or the shelter during the day and I felt confident leaving the ladies on their own. Tonight we were going back to Trina’s house to get more clothes and her gun. We’d take every precaution. “We confront him next full moon, when we shift. We don’t have to worry about human law, and we can settle the score on an even playing field.”
“Isn’t that cute, you have a plan for Ryker.” Major’s smile was floppy and fake, and I ignored the snickers of the men that sat behind him. “Who came up with it, you or your girlfriend? Is that what we’re calling her? How do dogs refer to their human owners?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” My glare scanned the room, and everyone behind Major fell quiet. They might have fallen in line with him but depending on how the next few weeks shook out, they’d be sorry they laughed at me. “Do you have a better idea? I haven’t heard anything from you.”
“I’m handling it.” Major leaned forward. “I don’t have to consult you. Leaders act, followers ask. Remember that, Shadow. You might see it as keeping the peace, but you’re showing weakness. Everything you’ve done since we shifted is weak.”
“Weak?” I was inches away from his face. Shea stood right behind Major, all rippling muscles and attitude, ready to pounce like a bitch if Major said to. I hoped Baron and Dallas looked the same behind me. “I put one of Ryker’s goons in the ground the other night. I wasn’t feeling very weak then.”
Major laughed and my heart fell into my stomach. Anything I said in Sawtooth could and would be used against me. I didn’t flinch; it would show that he worried me.
“No, but hopefully you were feeling stupid. You think Ryker’s not going to notice that one of his own didn’t come back from an assignment? Let me tell you something, Shadow, Ryker accounts for everything. If something’s missing, he’ll want it back.”
Now it was my turn to laugh.
“You totally contradict yourself.” Major’s eyes widened. “Leaders act. You said it yourself. Instead of dancing around what you’re doing to make Sawtooth yours, why don’t you just fucking tell me what you’ve done since we’ve been back.”
Silence fell thick over the crowd that had gathered to watch our showdown. More like a slime that slid down our skin. No one challenged Major—successfully. All our lives he and his brothers had beat anyone that questioned them back into the place he thought they belonged, or more recently he’d been giving me these bullshit answers. I saw that as an improvement, he might actually be taking me seriously. After six months in the trenches with this bastard, he knew that I was tenacious and that I believed in what was fair.
I didn’t care what war I started between the packs. Ryker wasn’t going to hurt Trina.
“I’m going traditional,” Major said with without his usual snark. “We’re smaller now, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We need to get back to basics. We need to take care of our own.”
So he was still dancing around the answer. Fine. I had other ways of getting the information. I waited to see if he’d elaborate, but apparently a half an answer suited him fine. “Are you going to help me take care of Ryker on the full moon? Once he’s gone, we can get down to business here.”
“Yeah.” He lifted his closed fist to me. I bumped mine against it. “It’s time to take care of him once and for all.”
“SIT DOWN AND EAT!” Mom looked like an air traffic controller trying to get the three of us to settle at the table. “You’re all so skinny. It breaks my heart, thinking about what you went through.” She hugged herself, a shudder rolling through her body. “I’d like to ring that bastard’s neck.”
“We’re taking care of it,” I muttered as I dug into the casserole. Mom was the casserole queen. Raising four boys on her own since our old man passed away, she had to master quick, efficient, and cheap. Now that I was an adult, I realized how much she’d struggled, and I appreciated how effortless she made it look. If I needed inspiration in this new chapter of my life, I didn’t need to look any further than the tiny woman who stood at the head of the table with her hand on Baron’s back.
“What’s your plan? Will you be able to save your business?” Mom rubbed Baron’s shoulder as she spoke.
“Haven’t got that far yet,” I said after I swallowed a bite of turkey tetrazzini. Perfect, just as it always was. My brothers raised their eyes to me to see where I was going with this, but they continued eating. “The transition back to being human hasn’t been very smooth.”
Mom raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on?”
“Same crap as always. Just more of it.” There was no need to worry her. Ryker might be ruthless, but he’d never mess with my mom. They’d grown up together, and truth be told, my money would be on my mom to win the fight. “Nothing good comes easy.”
“That’s for sure,” Dallas added. We didn’t talk about pack business in front of Mom, but from the look he gave me, I knew he’d want to talk. It was his night to come back to Granger with me and stay with the girls. It didn’t take long for my brothers to see the perks in this arrangement and they’d stopped fighting me on it.
“I want to meet these ladies,” Mom called after us as we headed back to the truck. “Soon.”
We stayed in Sawtooth until dusk. It felt damn good to be home. Mom sent us back with fresh baked oatmeal cookies for our hosts. She knew how to get on anyone’s good side.
“What’s up?” I asked Dallas as we began driving down the dirt road. His truck had been left at Mom’s before we’d been captured, and it was all we had left from before the fire. “Now you can tell me what’s really going on. And don’t hold back. I know w
hen you’re lying to me, Dal.”
“It hasn’t been safe to talk until now.” Dallas chuckled, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel. “Everyone’s so up in arms about everything, words get twisted fast.”
I rolled my eyes. Dallas had been spending too much time with the Lowes, and he was talking in circles. “Is Major working with Ryker?”
“No.” The answer was quick and I knew it wasn’t bullshit. “Major’s too pissed that an old man made a fool out of him in front of all the packs to ever work with him. Now that he’s cheated death, as he sees it, he thinks he’s untouchable.”
“Yeah, what’s this about taking mates?” There was no way he could do it without stirring up some major shit. And he had nothing good to say about me hanging around Trina.
“He wants all us to take our mate. By any means necessary.” A chill spread over my skin. Dallas emphasized the same words I’d said to him and Baron about Kiera and Lyssie. “He thinks that strength can overcome wealth.”
“So he wants you to abduct already claimed female wolves?” I side-eyed Dallas, who nodded. “How the hell does he expect to pull that off?”
“Strength will pay more than wealth when money has no meaning.” Dallas imitated Major’s voice and shook his head. “He thinks the rich guys are weak, and they have no recourse. Pack politics go through the alpha and Southworth is corrupt as shit.”
And up for re-election. Which could make things interesting if those cuckolded husbands greased his palm.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” It was going to start a war in the forest, no matter how it shook down. “You realize what a horrible idea that is, I hope. You guys are getting awfully friendly with the Lowes every time I’m there.”
“Because you’re never there,” Dallas growled. “No. I think it’s an awful idea. A lot of those women are our friends. We’ve grown up with them. It’s bad enough they’re stuck in arranged marriages. I’d never rip them out of their homes and away from their families. I’d rather have no mate than one that hates me.”
Those weren’t the only two options. “How are things going with you and Lyssie?”
“She’s shy. And human.” Dallas shook his head, but the corners of his mouth turned upward. I was going to plant that seed as many times as I needed to make it grow. “I want to talk to you about that.”
Good. “Yeah?”
“You need to make Trina your mate.” Dallas had just pulled into the shelter parking lot, and he still hung on to the steering wheel. He gulped. My brother would never be an alpha, but whatever he had to say could be a complete game changer. “Soon. Before Major pulls off whatever shitshow he’s got planned. Set the pace, Shadow. Make the pack see they have an alternative. Give them hope. They’re just fucking waiting to die out there.”
I stared at the shelter. The girls had a chance to work on the building today, and the plywood had come down off the front window. It was a place that was quickly becoming my home. “It’s just a word.”
Yeah, right. It was everything.
“Then do it.” Dallas hesitated before getting out of the car.
Chapter Twenty-One
Trina
“Our babysitter’s here!” Kiera exclaimed. The girls were trying to act like they hated the idea of the Channing brothers going home with them but all they’d done was gossip about Baron and Dallas all day as we put the shelter back together. Kiera looked out the window that Shadow had installed before he went to Sawtooth today. “Let’s see who’s getting a bedtime story tonight....Lyssie, it’s you!”
“What’s this about bedtime stories?” It never occurred to me to ask about sleeping arrangements while the Channing brothers worked security, but they sounded cozier than I anticipated. You go, girls.
“Nothing.” Lyssie turned bright red. My heart swelled, this is exactly why we were here. The animals were supposed to be a bridge back to the real world. The Channing brothers were the perfect next step.
“This whole thing is so ridiculous. We’re grown women and Shadow’s treating us like children. Sorry, Trina, I know he’s...whatever he is to you, but this alpha thing is going straight to his head. So as a joke, I suggested that Dallas tell Lyssie a bedtime story. He did it.”
Kiera shot a glance over at Lyssie, who gave me a floppy smile in confirmation.
“I had Baron do it last night, too. Let me tell you, he did not put me to sleep.” Kiera fanned herself. “Ask Shadow to read you a story. Thank me tomorrow.”
Oh, she was smitten.
Hell, so was I. The love bug had bitten me right in the ass and a lot of other places last night. I’d expected all the ill side effects of having such amazing sex to swirl around and make me sick today, but it didn’t happen. No guilt, no self-loathing for actually daring to let myself feel good. No wondering what the hell a man like Shadow Channing was doing with a crazy old cat lady like me. Instead I was smiling just because, singing my favorite songs when they weren’t on the radio, and counting down the seconds until Shadow came back to me.
I didn’t have many more to go. My heart actually skipped a beat when he got out of the truck, like I was seeing him for the first time. I was always shocked he wasn’t a daydream, but something I could actually reach out and touch. More importantly, he touched me back.
A normal person would chalk this giddiness up to falling in love. Normal was a place I hadn’t visited in a while, and that’s why this was such a breakthrough for me. Shadow, in the span of a week, had shattered through barriers that an army of medical professionals, many pharmaceuticals, and a boatload of sweet animals looking for a home couldn’t come close to cracking. He was the miracle I’d prayed for.
The air in the shelter thickened when Shadow and Dallas walked in. None of us quite knew what to do. I bit my lip and twisted my hands together painfully to keep from wrapping myself around Shadow’s body and shoving my tongue down his throat. My gaze slid over to Lyssie, whose emotions were practically turning her inside out. She couldn’t even look at Dallas.
“Hey.” Shadow approached me like he forgot there was an audience, and then pulled back at the last minute. “Looking good so far.”
“Thanks. You have us working hard.” I stretched my arm behind my head, Shadow’s gaze fell to my cleavage that swelled out of the V-neck of my shirt. Every muscle in my body throbbed. We’d spent the day hauling plywood away from the building and painting the new storefront. I was used to physical work, but on top of our regular duties, I’d be crawling later.
After my bedtime story, if I was lucky.
Shadow grinned, not lifting his gaze. “We’ll take care of that.” He snapped up, suddenly remembering the other people. Yeah, they disappeared for me when he was around, too. “I’ll be able to finish it tomorrow.”
“They brought cookies!” Kiera took the plate away from Shadow, offering it to Lyssie before putting one in her mouth. “They’re delicious.”
“Are you ladies ready?” Dallas asked.
“Yes!” They both chimed in like they’d practiced it. No one ever had to ask Kiera and Lyssie if they were done working twice. They were great employees, but when their time was up, they were done. That was the difference between owning a business and working at one. “Want to pick up a pizza?”
Dallas held the door open for them as they argued about pizza toppings.
“Hey,” Shadow said again, taking one more step toward me. His hands slid around my waist, calloused fingers brushing my skin when my shirt rode up. My mouth watered, needing to taste him. We leaned in for the kiss in slow motion, I’d never craved anything in my life as badly and as his lips moved against mine, and it was worth the wait. “I can hardly concentrate on anything when you’re not around. You’re all I can think about.”
We’d barely parted. This was how I always wanted to be. In Shadow’s arms. His hair tickling my face.
“Likewise.” I could’ve melted from the heat coming off of his body. “How did everything go?”
He sighed, pulli
ng away from me and running his hand through that glorious hair. “I actually want to talk to you about that.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Before three weeks ago, I had no idea there was any such thing as a werewolf pack outside of local legend. But what I did know of them included pain, suffering, and violence. Not much else. Anything good I knew about werewolves came directly from Shadow. And that had nothing to do with the pack, it was him as a man.
“Major’s not working with Ryker, which makes it easier to focus on where these attacks are coming from. We’re going to take care of that on the full moon,” Shadow growled. I didn’t doubt in a similar manner to the way Shadow had taken care of the guy on my property. “Then we can finally put that shit behind us.”
I envied Shadow because he could have closure to his nightmare. He could confront the person who attempted to ruin his life and get the last word.
“I like the sound of that.” My stomach rumbled, Shadow’s scent drove me wild. I wanted nothing more than to devour him, push the piles of paperwork off my desk and invite him back inside me. My mouth watered, but instead of licking that musky scent mixed with pine and ambition off his skin, I pulled away. I wanted to hear what he had to say and it was too hard to focus when he touched me. “Let’s make dinner while you tell me the rest.”
“Will you let me cook?” Shadow wiggled his eyebrows.
Like this man could get any more perfect. “I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing.”
“There’s a lot you still don’t know about me.” He looked over his shoulder as he readied the grill. Shadow squatted down, his whole body on point as he worked. Power and muscle. I nearly dropped the tray of food I was carrying. Even though he was still human, he was pure wolf.
“Let’s take care of that.” Our eyes locked as I handed him the plate of hamburgers and hot dogs. He joined me on the stoop once the meat was on the grill. Tonight was warm for early November, but Shadow’s arm around me sent a shudder through my body. “Tell me a story.”
Her Captive Wolf (Sawtooth Shifters Book 1) Page 12
