by Renee Rose
“That’s all for you, angel.” I shut the door behind me and advanced on her.
She stopped retreating, letting me in close. She gripped my wrist and pulled the hat away from my crotch, guiding it up to my head instead. “Is this why you’re so big? Because you’re a wolf?”
“My dick?”
“All of you.”
I offered her a shrug and a small smile. I was reassured she hadn’t shot my ass, and I was inside, both good signs. I’d fucked up before. There was a chance I’d do so again. “Something like that.”
She peered up at me for a moment, then shook her head. “This is nuts. I don’t believe it.”
“I think you do. Question is, what are you going to do about it?”
She looked down at my erection and reached for it. Wrapped her fingers around the base in a firm grip. Stroked. “About this?”
I groaned.
I should’ve had a serious conversation with her. Answered every single one of her questions about what she’d just seen, what I was. Why. How. Everything. I should have made sure she wasn’t afraid of me. Made sure she wouldn’t tell anyone. But her little hand was short circuiting all brain power, so all I could do was choke out, “Yeah.”
“I can think of a few things.” She held my gaze as she slowly lowered to her knees. “Tell me you don’t turn into a monster at the full moon.”
My breath came out on a shudder as she flicked her tongue over the slit of my cock. “Not… not the way you think.”
“How, then?”
My abdominals flexed at the pleasure of her lips engulfing the head. I fisted a hand in her thick red hair. I forced my eyes to stay open, to watch as my dick parted her lips nice and wide.
“You’d have to tie me up to keep me off you.” I resisted controlling her head, even though the need to pull that lush mouth all the way forward had my thighs shaking.
“Mm. That could be arranged,” she murmured when she popped off and licked her lips. “But would I need to keep you off me? Why would I want to do that?”
I recognized that she was asking a real question, so I struggled to rein in control. I took a deep breath, let it out, even though I could barely process for the pleasure. “My only danger to you, Natalie, is lust. The full moon could make me get too rough in bed. I’m the pack alpha. The leader, which makes my strength and power even more intense. Plus, I’m… old for an unmated shifter.”
She made a sound in her throat as she licked a drop of pre-cum from the slit.
“Fuck. I might… might want to mark you with my teeth.”
Might. Understatement of the year. I was barely hanging on to control right now. The thought of tossing her over my shoulder, carrying her to the nearest horizontal surface and fucking into her as I sank into her shoulder rode me hard. It wasn’t even the full moon… yet.
I gripped her wrists, kept them from touching me, so I could talk. My dick bobbed, angry and so hard it hurt, between us. I met her green gaze. “It’s not like the movies. We don’t roam the nights killing humans or turning them into our kind. We’re just another species trying to keep from extinction. So, angel?”
“Yes?” Her eyes were wide, pinned on my face. I let go of her, and she took hold of my cock again, intent. I took a mental picture because it was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen.
“You can’t tell anyone.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
Reaching out with as much gentleness as I could muster, I set my fingertips to her chin. “I mean it. No one. Not a soul. Do I have your word?”
She’d just found out the person who she’d been fucking was a shifter. I’d expected panic. Fear. Disgust. But she had my dick in her hand with a blatant plan to put it back in her mouth. And suck. “I promise. As long as your kind isn’t hurting anyone, your secret’s safe with me.”
“We don’t hurt. We protect,” I explained. “As alpha, I set the rules. Enforce them.”
“Of course, you’re the alpha,” she said.
“Angel, you need to know the truth, all of it. I want nothing between us. I hated keeping it from you because you deserve no secrets. I’m literally standing before you. Bare. Hiding nothing.”
The smile fell from her lips and something shifted in her eyes, like her mind went somewhere else. It was quick, but I saw it clearly.
She had a secret, too. Something to do with that gun she carried.
But she wasn’t ready to tell me.
Then her lips curved before she opened her mouth and took me deep, and I didn’t care.
I choked on my breath, my eyes rolling back in my head. She knew the truth about me and still wanted me. Nothing could be more pleasurable than having my mate’s mouth on my cock.
19
WILLOW
“I think I’m too old for the floor,” Rob murmured, kissing the top of my head.
We were lying in the entryway, both of us naked now. I’d pretty much sucked Rob’s balls dry, but his dick hadn’t even flagged. Not one bit. He remained hard and stripped me bare before getting me beneath him, fucking me. Hard, quick, dirty. I had his cum dripping from me and down my thighs as I rested my head on his shoulder, his arm around me and caressing the skin on my hip.
I’d never gone without a condom before. Not until Rob. We hadn’t used one when he’d fucked my ass the other day, but there’d been no worries about pregnancy with that. I was on the pill, so I had that covered after this latest round. I didn’t think Rob was negligent. We had both been… feral.
So wild for each other we hadn’t even thought about protection. Maybe that was what something so fierce as what was between us was about. It was mindless. So intense that all smart thinking fell away in tatters like his destroyed clothing. And mine.
He’d said he’d wanted no secrets between us. He’d told me he was a shifter. Part wolf. Nothing else he could say could be a bigger surprise. Maybe he killed a guy. Maybe he liked to wear women’s panties on Saturdays. None of that was as big as what he’d shared with me. Sure, he’d shifted because of his protective nature, yet he’d exposed himself.
Me? I was the one who held all the secrets. I wasn’t even Natalie.
“Want to try that again, in a bed?”
How could I do that, have sex which wasn’t just sex, it was a connection, with a lie between us? How could I tell him the truth? It was a federal case I was involved in. I couldn’t even tell my mother, if I had one.
And yet, I did want to try that again. In a bed.
“Food first.” I was starving.
“I have no clothes here. I’m not sure if cooking naked is a good idea.”
“Walking home naked is?” I countered.
“I’ll stay here until dark, then shift and run home.”
Something he’d said before made sense now with some context. “I’m guessing the dog Markle shot wasn’t a dog?”
He moved me, so I lay mostly on top of him, one of my legs settling between his. He stroked back my hair from my face. I had no idea where the hair tie went, but I had no doubt it was a wild snarl now.
“It was one of the younger wolves—just a teen—cutting across your property to meet a girl.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “You shifters are a randy bunch.” Another thought came to me. “Audrey came by the other day. Is she—”
“No. She’s Boyd’s mate. Wife, too. She’s human like you. Her sister, Marina, is mated to Colton.”
“Mated?”
His skin beneath me was almost hot to the touch. I swirled my finger through his chest hair.
“When a shifter finds the female for him, they mate.”
“Is that a kinky word for sex?”
“It’s a permanent bond, a lifelong one. Mating occurs during sex when a male bites his mate.”
My mouth fell open, and I met his gaze. “That’s why you said you’d want to mark me with your teeth.”
He blinked. “Yes. It embeds our scent into the female’s skin, so the other males will know she’s bee
n claimed.”
“And the full moon...makes you want to mark a woman?”
He shook his head. “Only one. You only get the urge to mark the female your wolf chooses.”
I swallowed. “And you have that urge with me.”
I caught a vulnerability in his gaze—the first time I’d seen him anything but strong. He nodded. “My wolf chose you.”
Oh my God.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. He wanted to mate me? As in a lifelong, permanent bond? With me?
“I… I don’t know what to say. I mean it’s—”
He put a finger over my lips. “Don’t freak out. It’s too much to take in all at once.”
“So, what makes the wolf choose?”
He shrugged. “No one knows. Fate, I guess.”
I suddenly recalled his use of the word fate during sex when we were at his place. Like a curse word. Or praising a deity.
“So, what happens if your wolf chooses someone you can’t stand?”
His laugh was explosive. Hearty.
I absolutely loved hearing the rich baritone.
“Impossible. She might drive you fucking nuts. She might even point a gun at your chest every time she sees you,” —he winked at that— “but you find it all utterly intoxicating.”
I couldn’t scarcely breathe. “So… you’re intoxicated? By me?”
“Yes.”
“What happens when it wears off?”
“Wolves mate for life. A she-wolf could leave her mate, but he’d always follow. He’d always have the need to protect her. To provide for her. He’d try to fix whatever went wrong.”
“Sounds a little stalker-ish.”
Rob grinned. “Yeah, I guess it might. There are bad matches sometimes. The greater danger to our species is not finding your mate.”
I went still. “What do you mean?”
“An unmated male could go feral. We call it moon madness. He gets stuck in wolf form and can’t change back. Then he’d have to be put down to protect the pack.”
A shiver went up my spine. “Are you saying if we don’t do this… mate thing, you’ll go mad?”
He was quiet for a minute as he studied a lock of my hair. “Not necessarily. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You just found out what I am.” His hand slid down my back and cupped my ass. His fingers slid over my pussy, and I felt a growl rumble from his chest.
“I love feeling my cum slip from you.”
I set my head on his chest, listened to his heart beat as he ran his hand over me, up my spine, over my bottom again, and then back between my thighs.
He’d have to be put down.
Rob could die all because I couldn’t mate him.
I couldn’t do it. I had a job in Phoenix. I wasn’t Natalie Shefield. I wasn’t even the person his wolf needed. He couldn’t be stuck with me forever. Well, his forever would be short because he was going to die.
If there was another woman, someone else who his wolf liked, then he could mate her and wouldn’t die. The idea of him laying like this with another woman made me want to claw her imaginary eyes out.
“Shh,” he crooned, and his fingers slipped between my thighs to play. “I can practically hear your mind working. Don’t worry about me, angel. I’m the alpha of the pack. The alpha of you, too. I handle all the worries.”
I let out a puff of air at that. Ridiculous man—wolf. I didn’t mind his alpha male assertions though. All the men in law enforcement were alpha types. I was completely used to their style, and in my opinion, Rob wore it best of all the men I’d known. I wiggled my hips because his touch, remarkably gentle for everything we’d done together, was getting me going again. Especially since it was his cum that was making me so slick.
“Rob…”
“Let me play now.” He rolled us, so he was on top and slid down my body, nudging my legs wide as he went.
I pushed at his head. “Rob, I’m all messy.”
He looked up at me from between my thighs. He ran a finger through my trimmed patch of curls above my clit. “I like red here. Let me play. I love the scent of us together. Knowing you’re marked by me. This pussy is mine, angel. Any shifter will scent me on you now.”
He licked me, and I forgot everything. Only Rob. Only what he was giving me. I blinked my eyes open and stared at the ceiling as he ate me out. He was giving me everything, and even though I’d sucked his dick, I couldn’t give him what he really wanted. All of me. The real me.
Even I didn’t know who that was. I wasn’t Natalie Shefield. I wasn’t even Willow Johnson, for that was the name a social worker gave me when I first went into the system.
I might be a mate to Rob, but I was one hundred percent a lie.
20
ROB
I came in from the stables a week later to find Marina whipping up a storm in the kitchen. Colton and Boyd were both at her mercy, her calm orders getting them to do her bidding. Get the eggs from the fridge. Fill the big pot with water to boil. Not that platter. The big one.
Audrey sat at the table peeling potatoes. She didn’t look too thrilled, and as she was the first to admit she couldn’t cook, it was probably safest for her with a table between her and the sharp knives. While she could wield a scalpel in the operating room, she couldn’t chop onions without disaster.
“Where’s your phone, asshole?” Boyd demanded. He glanced up from the sink where he was filling a pot. “You haven’t returned any of my texts.”
I checked my back pocket, found it empty, then groaned. “I don’t know. I must’ve left it at Natalie’s last night.” The thing was probably dead by now.
For the past week, I’d spent all my spare hours over at the Shefield place. My wolf was happy. I was happy. My dick was happy. Natalie’s pussy was very happy. I made sure of it. While I was with her, I almost forgot that I was alpha. I thought of myself as her man. Her mate.
She wasn’t a wolf, so she didn’t understand the dynamics of me being alpha. Didn’t understand the importance of it, of what her role would be if she were the alpha’s mate. Some female shifters had wanted to be my mate for status alone, not for me. I’d learned that early on, still a teenager. A hard lesson, but I’d been careful ever since. I wasn’t keeping my position from her, but it didn’t really come up. Pretty much the only thing that did come up for the time we were together was my dick.
She wasn’t big on sleepovers, and I didn’t push, just spending evenings over there. She was fiercely independent—I had to respect that and take things slow although the closer it got to the full moon, the stronger my need was to mate her.
Alphas didn’t stop being alphas because of being sidetracked. It all came down to pussy. Sure, it was a crude term, but I loved Natalie’s. But I still had some pack princess from Canada coming down to meet me, and everyone wanted me to fall in love with her pussy. To be so obsessed with it that I’d sink my dick in it and bite her and end my moon madness once and for all. Or so they believed.
I didn’t want the pack princess. Hell, I didn’t even know her name. I wanted Natalie, and I had no fucking idea how to make it work. I had shit to figure out if I was going to actually claim her when she was ready.
After it got dark each night, I shifted and ran in the hills to ease my mounting aggression before heading to my shower and bed. Alone. It was for the best because as the full moon drew closer, my urge to mark her grew stronger. But it wasn’t just that.
I wanted her here in this kitchen now. Part of the family. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull it off, but it was impossible to doubt how perfect it would be.
Why would my wolf choose a human if it wasn’t meant to be?
“What’s going on?” I asked, grabbing a glass from the cabinet and filling it with ice and water from the dispenser in the fridge door.
“Picnic. We thought we’d have a pack potluck, so everyone could meet Natalie,” Marina said, chopping celery on a wood cutting board. “Audrey stopped by on her way back from the store and invited her.”
I paused, mid-drink. “Why would the pack want to meet Natalie?”
Maybe it was the low tone of my voice or the fact that I spoke very slowly that had Colton stepping in front of Marina, shielding her from me.
“She’s your mate, you dumbass,” Colton said. Since he was now out of the military, and he was getting it on the regular from Marina, my brother was more relaxed than I’d ever seen him. Except now when his mate was threatened.
I wasn’t going to hurt Marina. Colton knew that, yet still, his mate instincts were strong.
She pushed him out of the way. “I’m not afraid of the alpha. I’m armed, remember?” She waved the knife, rolled her eyes and went back to the celery.
“I know Natalie’s my mate. You four know. Clint, too. But I don’t want the whole pack to know. Boyd, you were at the meeting last week. You saw what a fuck-up that turned out to be.”
“We’re not telling anyone she’s your mate,” Boyd said. “She’s the new neighbor. And she’s old man Shefield’s great-niece. Most of the pack remember Mr. Shefield, and it’s neighborly to have her over. I’m sure she’d like to hear all the good things everyone has to say about her kin.”
When he put it that way, I felt like an asshole. I took a big swig of my water, then put the glass in the top rack of the dishwasher. Leaving it for Marina to put away would only make me more of a dick.
“You’re right,” I sighed. “That is a good idea. It would be odd if we didn’t.”
“I was thinking of having the Barn Cats come and play,” Boyd added. “Our wedding reception was cut short because of the storm. When I talked with Natalie on the phone before she moved, she said she was a concert violinist. You remember Shefield was a fiddle player. I’m thinking that was what she had in common with him—why he left her the place.”
That’s right. I’d spent a full week with Natalie, and she hadn’t shared anything about that part of her life. Sure, I knew she had thirty-seven freckles on her shoulder, and her left nipple was more sensitive than the right. Music? It hadn’t come up. She’d been as sidetracked as me.
