by Amanda LeMay
“I’m sorry—”
“No. That word is not allowed, either. Not unless you really did something worth apologizing for.”
A nervous giggle escaped my lips. “Any more rules I should know?”
He rolled his eyes as his hands came away from my face. “Lay back, baby. I need to get you naked.”
I did. He grabbed the edge of my panties and pulled them over my thighs, past my calves, and off my feet. I gazed the length of my body as he spread my legs wide. Even in the dark, I could see his tongue move across his lips. I shivered as another wave of gooseflesh covered my body and my hard nipples peaked even more.
I fully expected to see open bite marks over the top of my breast, but there was nothing except small, pink dots where Gunner’s teeth had been. I touched them, feeling for broken skin.
Nothing.
Gunner growled. “Simone, do you have any idea how sexy that is?”
“What?” I probed a little more searching for even the slightest tenderness. Nothing.
“Watchin’ you touch yourself is hot as hell.”
I’d need to remember he liked watching, but still, I didn’t take my eyes from my breast.
“Gun, you bit me. I smelled blood. But...they’re already healed.” By the enthralled look on Gunner’s face, I knew he hadn’t heard a word I said. “Gun?”
His hungry eyes flashed up to mine as if he had to tear them away from my breasts. “Yeah?”
“How and why am I healing so quickly? I have never healed this fast before. Ever.”
He cocked his head to the side, his face finally registering my concern.
“Alphas heal extremely fast.” A huge smile spread across his face. “Especially a mated Alpha.”
“But I’m not a mated Alpha.”
“Just because we haven’t gone through the mating ceremony doesn’t mean your physiology hasn’t begun the change. The second we met, it started. I knew it happened, felt the bond all over my body. You just didn’t know it. By the time I’d stumbled out of Kern and Maygan’s house to bring you some food, my scent had already changed. For males, the scent change is noticeable within minutes. For females, the bond is usually a gradual change and depends a lot on how much time they spend around the male they’ve bonded with.”
“Still, that doesn’t explain why I’m healing so fast.”
“Yeah it does. You’re part of an Alpha pair, and well, for the first time in your life, you’re eatin’ good, eatin’ like you should. Wolves are carnivores. Eatin’ fish was for lean times when no other game was around. You can live on it. It tastes pretty damn good when it’s fried up right, but it doesn’t do shit for your wolf metabolism. The most important thing is this sakana connection we got goin’ on. It’s one of those evolutionary things from back in the caveman days when Alphas fought for territory and for mates. The faster an Alpha pair could adapt to whatever the hell was around, the longer they survived to reproduce. So it wasn’t only survival of the fittest, but also survival of the smartest.”
“But, I’m not...” the fittest. And no matter how strong and fit Gunner might be, any offspring I gave birth to would not be the fittest, either. Rule’s bloodline would live on in my offspring, their blood tainted with incest and inbreeding.
I looked into his eyes.
“... kids... not my top priority...”
Good. Fine. Rule’s bloodline had to end. And because of my father, it would be better for all if I never carried Gunner’s offspring.
I gasped as the sharp pain of loss gripped my heart.
How can it hurt so much to lose something I never had?
“Simone.” His warm hand touched my face. “Whatever the hell you’re thinkin’, you need to shut that down right now.”
And I did. I shoved the sadness away, locked it up.
I sighed and tried to smile. “This sakana bond seems to be as much of a curse as it is a blessing.” I traced my fingers down his neck, then looked for the evidence of his first mating. “Why doesn’t your mating mark show?”
His eyes glinted playfully as he grinned. “You have to bite me first.”
“Not my mark. I assumed since you mated with Neeta, she would’ve marked you, but you don’t have any.”
His grin fell away. “They disappeared.”
“Why?”
He leaned up, his enormous body looming over me, forcing me to lie back on the bed.
“We’re done talkin’ about the past.” His hands wrapped around my waist. He lifted me as he climbed up on the bed between my legs. “The only words I wanna hear comin’ out of your sweet, sexy mouth for the next few hours had better be regarding speed, depth, and duration.”
I traced my fingers down the ridges of his chest. “I can do that.”
“A few comments like, ‘Oh, Gun, you are amazing,’ would be mighty appreciated as well.”
“An Alpha even in bed.” I smiled and with my fingertips, I urged his body closer.
“When I’m done makin’ love to you just the way you want, we’ll talk about whatever it is you got on your mind. But if you make me wait, after I made you come once already and tasted your blood on my tongue and have seen with my own eyes how fuckin’ wet and ready you are, I’m gonna end up coming all over you instead of where I want to be.” He lifted my right leg and hitched my calf over his hip. “Which is...” he smoothed the head of his cock up and down, spreading my wetness before he pressed into me, “right here.”
“Yes...” I lifted my other leg, hooked it around his hip as he slid all the way inside me in one slow thrust. I cried out as he stretched and filled me in a way I had never been stretched or filled before. “Oh, gods!”
He moaned, then his mouth was on mine, making me crazy for more of him.
“Oh, damn, baby. Feel so good. Just wanna...oh, Simone...need you...need you so much...”
Tears welled up in his eyes as everything he felt for me flooded my body through our sakana bond. Blissful elation I’d never experienced before filled me up and burst like tiny bubbles full of happiness and joy all over my skin.
“Never felt like this before,” He murmured against my lips. “Tell me how you want me, baby, tell me.”
I couldn’t speak. I could only hold on and moan in ecstasy. He slid out and thrust back inside. “Slow? Or...” He slid out slowly again, then rammed into me hard and deep and fast. “Like this?”
I came hard on the third, deep thrust. Grabbing on to his shoulders and arching my back, I met his thrusts with my hips, taking him as fast and hard as he gave it to me.
“Yes, Gun, I want you this way,” I panted out. “Just like this.”
He settled his weight on his elbows, his arms beneath me as I held on to him to keep from moving up the bed every time his body slammed into mine. And it was perfect.
I smiled and gave him what he wanted. “Oh, Gun, you are amazing.”
“Simone, look at me.” He growled.
I did. A wild, almost savage look sharpened the planes of his face.
“I want you to see what you do to me.” His mouth touched mine again. His canines playfully nicked my bottom lip. “Don’t close your eyes. Watch me, baby.”
His pace quickened, he pounded harder, and I loved every brutal stroke.
“Holy fuck.”
He was close. I felt his rising climax as if it were my own.
“Holy fuck.”
Every muscle in his body tightened and strained. He clenched his jaw, his extended canines pressing deep into his bottom lip as he groaned. Each exquisite wave of his climax rushed through my body and kicked me into another orgasm of my own.
An animal wildness rose up inside me, dark, fearless, and untamed. My canines descended as the uncontrollable urge to put my teeth to his skin overwhelmed my human sensibilities. I buried my face in the curve of his neck. His flesh muffled my scream.
Gunner’s blood flowed over my tongue and down my throat, a salty, savory blend of smoky mesquite, leather, and lemon.
“H
oly...fuck, baby!”
I pulled back, licked my lips, and gazed at the mating mark I’d left on his skin. So beautiful. Something about the fact we were making love when I bit him seemed perfectly natural. And extremely...satisfying.
I looked into his sparkling eyes.
“You weren’t lying when you said you bite back.” His lips were on mine, mercilessly ravaging my mouth and tongue. His body started moving again, slow and easy, and just as deep as before. He broke away, leaving me breathless and wanting more. “I’m yours, Simone, always. Now and forever.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“C’MERE, BABY.”
Gunner lay naked, spread eagle on the bed. His cock stood erect and proud. The soft suede cover had been kicked to the rug hours before, leaving only the sheet bunched up in a heap at the foot of the bed.
With dawn approaching, though there were ribbons of light at the skyline, darkness still filled the room.
After three hours of discovering how perfectly mind-blowing making love could be, Gunner had dragged me into the shower, not only to rinse the sweat from our bodies, but also to determine if shower sex was as hot as it sounded.
And it was hot. Wondrously so.
I dropped the towel on the rug, climbed up, and settled between his legs. His erection pulsed hot and needy against my belly as I collasped on his chest. Though Gunner seemed ready for another lovemaking marathon, after the workout he’d given me, every muscle in my body felt loose and relaxed, ready for a nice little nap.
During the last few hours, I’d managed to add a few more words to the short list Gunner had given me. Words like “more” and “please” and “oh yeah”. And as he’d promised, he’d given me what I wanted, everything I wanted, just the way I wanted it.
He let me give him a little something, too.
And yes, he was amazing. Simply amazing.
As I lay against him, I waited for him to pull me up the length of his long body and sink back into where he’d been for the last few hours, but he seemed content to give me a little time.
“You don’t seem to suffer from downtime,” I murmured.
“Breeder.”
I looked up at him. “You say that a lot, but since I’m so uneducated about our culture, that one-word explanation really doesn’t cover it for me.”
He grinned, his white teeth flashing in the dark. “Breeder. Well, as you said, it means that I really don’t have any downtime.” His fingers sifted through my hair. “I can make love to you for hours, especially during the full moon. And, you better believe it, full moon comes, I’m gonna plant myself between your legs and not come up for air ’til the sun comes over the horizon.”
“How do you know that, if you haven’t had sex in years, and when you did have sex, it wasn’t as a human? How can you be so sure your body isn’t subject to the same need for recovery as any other human male? I mean, yes, I’ve seen what you can do in just a few hours, but still, sundown to sunup? I’m not so sure.” I smiled, teasing him.
“Listen, baby, just because I haven’t had any other female in my human form before you, and the fact that I haven’t bred in years, doesn’t mean my equipment hasn’t had a workout.”
He was either bragging or telling me a secret. Or maybe both.
“But...” I propped myself up on my elbow. “How can you be so certain?”
He grinned. “Simone, you need me to spell it out for you?”
“Umm...oh...you...” I snapped my mouth shut. If he’d been without a female for all those years, of course he would see to himself, tend to his needs.
But maybe not...
“Does another male share this bed with you?”
Gunner chuckled. He wrapped an arm around me and shifted me off to his side. “Do you smell another male here?”
No. I didn’t.
“No.” I bit my bottom lip for a second before going on. “But I understand some males do...and that’s fine, but...”
Why did I even want to know if Gunner had been with another male? It didn’t matter.
“Yeah, they do. Sometimes unmated males get together and use sex to work out the need the full moon brings on us.” His smile never wavered. “There’s nothing wrong with that. But I don’t and never did. I spend the full moon alone, in the cabin, with nothin’ but my hands to keep me company. When I said I’ve never made love, I guess I should’ve made that clear. I haven’t had sex of any kind with anybody else.”
I nodded, feeling strangely happy, then wrapped my arm around his waist and laid my head back on his chest.
“You never...touched yourself?” Though his words were spoken softly, I heard them rumble throughout his chest.
“No. Never.” A blush filled my cheeks at the thought of touching myself in such an intimate way. Gunner seemed to act as if doing such a thing was completely normal. “It was unacceptable to succumb to the pull of the full moon. A virgin female giving in to her sexual desires? Never. At least, it wasn’t something anyone would ever talk about. That’s why my dishonorable behavior in college reflected badly on my mother. That’s why she...” Threatened to kill me and anyone I’d been with.
Gunner’s muscles went tight. “That’s why she what?”
“You know what she did.”
“Yep.”
Though he should have heard it from me, not second-hand.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”
“See there, that’s something it’s fine to apologize for.” He chuckled, his erection pressing hard against my hip. “You got any other dishonorable behaviors you want to tell me before I roll you on your back, or maybe on your belly?”
“Gun.” I nipped at his chest. The desire was there, but my body was exhausted. “You may not suffer from downtime, but I guess I do. Give me a little time to recover. Catch my breath. Talk about...stuff.”
I was starving, too, but there was no way we were leaving this room to get something to eat.
“I’m lying here with one helluva hard-on and you wanna talk?”
“You’ve been in that condition for hours...you can wait. The anticipation will do you good. Besides, you said we would talk.”
“You can talk while I’m inside you,” he murmured as his hand slid across my hip to caress my bare bottom.
“No, we can’t.”
“Yeah, we can.”
“No, we can’t.” I looked up at him and smiled. “The next time you come inside me, my mouth will be too busy making it happen.”
Gunner’s fingers pressed hard into my flesh as the rest of his big body went taut. His heartbeat raced in his chest. I knew I’d won when he sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Damn, Simone, that’s not fightin’ fair.”
“Well, you can complain to me later when my mouth is too busy to argue about it.” He laughed. I squeezed him and snuggled my face into his neck. “Now, about this mating ritual. Why do we have to have sex in front of the pack?”
“How the hell am I supposed to concentrate and answer questions, knowing that beautiful mouth of yours is gonna be...” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Fuck!”
I laughed again. “Do your best.”
He tucked his arm up behind his head and squeezed me tight with the other arm.
“Pack ritual. So they recognize you as my mate. Our animal side needs this connection. You’ll understand once you start spendin’ more time in your wolf form. It’s not scary. It’s natural and it’s usually done quick-like, since it’s a full moon and any male without a female has to head up to the caverns for the rest of the night. If you want, I’ll take you to a mating ceremony so you can see what it’s all about.”
“I’d like that.”
“Yeah, you will.” He chuckled as his hand gave my bottom a light smack.
“Now, what does your saliva and my blood have to do with sealing a bond between us? You’ve bitten me multiple times, now. Doesn’t that count?”
“It’s a kind of chemical reaction that only happens
in our wolf forms. My saliva gets into your bloodstream, your blood flows into my mouth, and the bond happens. It’s a ritual that’s been carried from one generation to the next from ancient times, revolving around the full moon, survival, and sex.”
“Is it for life?”
“Yep. As long as one of us is alive, the bond will be there.”
“And you share this mating bond with Neeta?”
Gunner took a breath, but didn’t speak.
Don’t be jealous. Don’t be jealous.
I waited. I didn’t push him to answer. Finally, his arm came out from behind his head. His fingers wrapped around my jaw and lifted my face.
“Yeah, I share a bond with Neeta, but it’s different, baby. And when we mate, our bond won’t be the same.”
“How do you know?”
He paused for a moment before answering. “Because the day Neeta gave birth to Tabitha, she said she was done. I had my little girl in my arms for five fucking minutes when Neeta dropped that bomb on me. Five years later, her heat came on with the moon and I told her, if she wanted me, she knew where she could find me. She never showed up. The bond I had with her wasn’t gone, it just kinda broke, and we didn’t work to fix it.
“After that, I kept to myself when the full moon came around, locked myself in the cabin and took care of my urge to breed with my hand, and never bothered Neeta again. She’d given me nine healthy offspring. Way more than I’d hoped for when we mated. She’d done her duty and I respected her decision. Neither of us brought it up again. We went on with our lives together, her sleeping in her room and me here in mine, the way we’d always done. We worked together, loved our kids, watched them grow up and go off and have lives of their own. Neeta spent lots of time visitin’ the ones who moved away, getting to know our grandkids and bringing them back here for the holidays. We were still pretty damn happy for all we didn’t share together.
“The day my little girl turned eighteen, Neeta came to my room that morning and said she was leaving. By that night, my mating mark had faded away to nothin’. Another Alpha thing. Neeta wasn’t even out of the house for a full twenty-four hours and my body was making it known to the wolf world that I was ready to take on another female, whether I wanted to or not, which I sure as hell did not.