by Amanda LeMay
“Damn, baby, I wanna do that again.”
I giggled. “Absolutely. But not until I look at your stitches.” I pushed at him and he rolled away easily.
“I’m fine. Healed up quick.” A mischievous smile curved his lips. “Ready to go another several rounds between your legs.”
“Wow, you’d think it was the full moon, the way you carry on.”
“This is nothin’. Just you wait. Full moon is hours of non-stop lovin’.”
I didn’t think his smile could get any wider, but it did. He stretched out on the bed beside me, his arms up over his head.
“Hmm.” I leaned over and inspected his torso. “I’d better build up my strength, then.”
“You betcha.”
I couldn’t keep the smile from my lips as I gently poked and prodded to see if he’d flinch. Nothing. No flinching, no twitching. Nothing. The stitches looked great. The only evidence that he’d been injured was a tiny, white line that ran down the center of Kern’s handiwork. I touched his jaw, moving his head to the side to inspect his neck wound. It looked the same as his chest—completely healed.
“Are there scissors in your bathroom?”
“Nope. I think Derry has some in the kitchen.”
THE SOFT CLICK OF THE back kitchen door froze me in place. I stood just the other side of the bat-wing doors, so I couldn’t see who had entered. It was probably one of the males who stayed in the bunkhouse, sneaking in for a snack. I sucked in a deep breath to catch his scent. What hit me was familiar, but not male and not of this pack.
Gardenias.
My fangs shot out of my gums as every hair on my body stood up, ready to lengthen into a shiny black coat. The wolf in me wanted out. Now. I held her tight, controlled my animal side the same way I’d kept her hidden all my life, though it seemed harder now that I’d accepted her as a large, wonderful part of me.
Still, my mother was alone, her packmates dead, and until Blaze and Neeta found a pack that would take her in, she possibly felt she had nowhere else to go. The only way I might find out why she was here was to face her.
I inhaled one deep breath after another, willed my racing heart to slow, as my fangs slowly slipped back into place. I’d face my mother while in control. I’d be civil and kind if needed, but she could not stay. I wouldn’t allow it. I slowly pushed the bat-wing doors open as I spoke.
“Mother, why are you here?”
She stood only a few feet away from the back door. Her two-toned eyes narrowed on me. The overhead lights glinted off the barrel of the gun she held at her side.
“That hole in the wall wasn’t an accident.”
There would be no talking. No suspenseful movie build-up before the first shot. No one-sided conversation about how I ruined her life. If I stood there long enough for her to raise the gun and aim, I would die on the spot.
I didn’t wait.
I turned and ran.
Less than a second after the gun’s thunderous discharge, pain exploded like a bomb in my right shoulder, slamming me against the doorframe as I fled. The bat-wing doors swung back and forth as I spun around to see my mother stalking through the kitchen toward me. A mask of calm covered her face. Pushing away from the wall, I dodged the sideboard just as the next shot slammed into my left arm. I heard the bone break and saw the path of the bullet as it exited out my bicep. Blood sprayed hot against my bare back. The pain threw me into the dining chairs, where I tripped and fell to the floor.
“Run.”
I’d never seen so much hatred on my mother’s face before, but now that I did, I knew it had been there all along.
“Get up! Run!” she screamed. “Give me a challenge!”
The gun discharged again. I felt the vibration of its passing as it soared by my ear. My mind scrambled as I rolled under the dining table. My left arm flopped around uselessly as it banged against the chair legs. Pain burst in my flailing limb. The next shot hit somewhere in my hip. I screamed as I rolled away.
The ground seemed to shake under me as I scooted myself along with one leg. The chairs began to vibrate across the tile as the ground beneath them shook in a strange, rhythmic pounding. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought we were in the middle of a major earthquake. The windows rattled in their frames as pictures and knick-knacks fell to the tile and shattered.
A roar sounded off, like a gigantic locomotive traveling at high speed as it moved through the house and crashed into the room.
The huge Breeder couldn’t have been a bigger target.
The gun in my mother’s hand swung around in Gunner’s direction. A crashing noise came from inside the kitchen. The bat-wing doors flew from their hinges as two growling Breeders, one coal black and the other white as snow, charged into the dining room. I recognized them by their scents. Blaze. Neeta. Blaze hurdled into my mother.
“No!” The sound of the gun going off drowned out my scream.
Then Blaze was on her. Blood ran down her arms in bright red rivulets as his sharp claws dug into her, tearing the flesh from her bones. And she laughed—a high-pitched crazy sort of laugh that I’d only heard come from her one time before, when she’d beaten me after I’d begged for her help. Blaze’s huge jaws clamped around her slender throat. A small crack. The gun fell from her hand and clattered on the tile.
He released her. Her limp body slumped to the floor. The two-toned blue eyes I’d inherited stared out at me, unblinking. Lifeless.
The big, wooden dining table flipped away from me and crashed onto its side behind me. Gunner scooped me into his arms and carried me into the living room. He shifted into his human form as he laid me on the couch. My wounds weren’t fatal—broken arm, messed-up shoulder, hole in my hip—I was okay. I closed my eyes, and sighed.
“No, baby. No, baby. Open your eyes. C’mon, Simone, look at me. Stay with me.”
Gunner’s frantic voice made me smile.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Ah, fuck, baby, don’t move, okay. You’re bleeding all over, I can’t see...”
“Shhhh...I’m going to be fine. She missed...the important stuff.”
She’d missed.
Whether she’d missed on purpose to torture me, or because she couldn’t bear the thought of killing her only offspring, I would never know. I opened my eyes to see Gunner staring at me, tears coursing down his cheeks. Neither of my arms worked and I wanted to touch him, wipe away his worries.
“Gun, call Kern.” He started to stand. “Wait...”
“What?” His hands reached for me again.
“I love you.”
“Oh, baby...” A smile brightened his face like the sun beaming through a passing storm cloud. Then his hand was under my chin, his fingers spanning my throat as his lips came down on mine. I tasted salty tears on the edges of my mouth. Pulling away, he released me, strode over to the huge picture window, and slid it up and open.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m calling Kern.” His body blended back into his Breeder form.
The piercing howl he let out seemed to ring in my ears for minutes afterward, but it worked better than any phone call. Within seconds, the sound of many howls echoed back.
From where I lay on the couch, I saw bright, colorful, far-away fireworks burst high in the Texas night sky. Neeta and Blaze rushed into the living room, carrying a large white case. Neeta pulled the throw from the back of the couch and covered me as Blaze pulled gauze compresses from the first aid kit.
“Careful.” I nodded at my left arm. “This one’s broken.”
Neeta smiled. “You’re gonna be okay.”
“I know. I’ll be more than okay.” I sighed as Gunner turned back to face me, his green eyes bright and shiny. His rich, smoky leather-and-lemon scent filled the room as his Alpha power soothed and comforted me. Gazing at the male who loved me more than I could ever have imagined, I knew he was my life, my home, and I would devote the rest of my life to being all he would ever want—his worthy mate, h
is loving female, his everything.
EPILOGUE
“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA how much I love you?”
Her eyes sparkled up at me and it was as if she’d torn my chest open with her nails, reached in, fisted my heart in her hand, and squeezed.
“Yeah, I do, baby. I surely do.”
There was my female, lying in a bed I’d shared with no one else, ever, after I had given her exactly what she wanted, just the way she wanted it, askin’ me if I had any idea how much she loved me.
I did. Holy fuck, did I ever.
I’d done her right.
Earned her trust.
Loved her so damn much, the thought of being without her shredded me.
After the tribunal and all the shit with her dead bitch mom, first thing I did was give her body back to her. Kern found us a specialist in Houston, and Simone and I spent two weeks getting those fucking brands erased from her beautiful body.
During the worst of those two weeks, her heat hit her like a bomb. Even though it about killed me, with all the pain she was in while healing up, I didn’t touch her. I wouldn’t touch her, for fear of hurtin’ her more. I wouldn’t even sleep in the same bed with her. Just the movement of the sheet over her new skin caused her pain. With the way I moved around, getting up and down and reaching for her when I did sleep, I wouldn’t go there. So, we suffered through it. Together.
When we walked out of the doctor’s office after her last visit, I’d grabbed Simone’s slender hands, held them up to my mouth, and kissed them. Not letting her go, but knowing I couldn’t hug her the way I wanted to, I looked into her gorgeous, two-toned blue eyes and said, “Rule didn’t give you a choice when he did what he did. Having those brands removed, I didn’t give you a choice, either. I hauled you down here, got you the best treatment I could buy, and do you understand why?”
She shook her head slowly.
“I never wanted you to look at me again and wonder what I was thinking when I looked at you. You were beatin’ yourself up over that.”
A murderous glint flashed in her eyes. “I’m going to kill Derry.”
I smiled, but went on. “Baby, if you shared that with Derry in confidence, she didn’t share that with me. She kept that for you. I didn’t need anyone else to tell me what I could see with my own two eyes. And what I was going to say is, I’m giving you a choice now. I realize I’m not any kind of male you ever thought—”
“Don’t. You. Dare.” That murderous glare got darker.
“What?”
She shoved me away—her eyes flinchin’ like she’d hurt for a second—grabbed the passenger side door handle, and yanked it open. “Get in the car.”
“Baby, I—”
“Get in the car.”
Okay. She was pissed. “Baby?”
“Gunner. Stop talking. Get. In. The. Car. Now.”
Gunner? Not Gun. Shit.
She was pissed.
She pointed, and I dropped my ass in the seat as I held out the keys. Thank fuck I’d taken the time to give her a few lessons on how to drive a stick shift.
Once she got in behind the wheel, she drove like she knew where she was goin’, and once we got there, she pulled right up and parked. She turned in the seat, her face pinching a little at the pain she was feeling, and looked me in the eye.
“The first time you made love to me I made a promise to tell you what I want, when I want it, and how I want it. From the moment we met, you accepted me for who I am. You’ve done nothing but support and encourage me in every way. You protect me, shelter me, and love me unconditionally. This is what I want. This is my choice. As soon as I’m fully healed, let’s say two more weeks or so, we are going to mate in front of your pack, including all the traditional wolf pack stuff that goes with it, and since I have no clue what that entails, you’ll have to help me out, there. As soon as that ceremony is completed, Gunner Bodolf, we are going to get married, and I’m not asking for a big, fancy, over-the-top-type wedding. All I want is you and me, a justice of the peace, a few of our family and friends, and the promise that you will love me for the rest of my life.”
All the oxygen must have been sucked from the car because I barely drew in enough breath to say two little words. “I promise.”
And thank fuck again those were the only two words she wanted to hear.
Simone slipped from the car and I followed.
We’d probably driven past the place over a dozen times on the way to and from her appointments. Never been in a jewelry store before, never saw the need, and holy shit, this was one fucking big jewelry store.
My female scanned the glass-covered cases, tugging me by the hand past rows and rows of dazzling diamond engagement rings. Nothing seemed to catch her eye until she hit a case filled with rings set with different colored gemstones. She looked up at me, her blue eyes sparklin’ in the way they do when all the happiness she’s holding inside is threatening to burst out of her and fill the room.
The sales clerk, who’d been trying to keep up with us as we raced around, collected himself and asked, “Is there something I can show you?”
Simone pointed. “That one, right there.”
“Ah, yes. Tsavorite garnet.”
I never took my eyes from her gorgeous face. When the clerk brought out the ring, I took it and slipped it on her finger, saying, “I swear to do you right in every way, every day of our lives. And yes, Simone, I promise to love you forever.”
After getting a good look at the ring she’d picked, I was damn glad I didn’t try to surprise her with something, because it was nothing like what I would’ve come home with—a plain white gold band with yellow gold accents holding up a big, oval garnet the same green as my eyes. The sales clerk babbled on, sharing the importance of the stone, the fact it was rare and came from only one mine on the planet, which was perfect for my female...uncommonly rare and precious.
Before we got out of the place, Simone had picked out a ring for me, because she wanted every female, wolf or otherwise, who might look in my direction to know I was taken in every way I could be.
We checked out of our hotel, drove home to Comfort, where Simone wasted no time showing off her new, sparkly ring and started making plans with Jessy, Maygan, and Derry about our mating ceremony and little wedding—that somehow expanded to include every wolf in our pack, and then some. After growing up the way she did, Simone liked her privacy, but it was wonderful to see her sharing her happiness with her new pack.
I also knew my female loved making love. She liked being free to let loose without others hearing her, and I wanted to give that to her, too. So, as a surprise wedding gift, while she was healing up, I turned the little stone cabin into our personal love shack.
I hauled a monster-sized generator out there to replace the smaller one that only supplied power to the tankless water heater. Installed a small refrigerator, a wood-burning stove, and built a custom BBQ outside, along with a small shed to hold my fishing gear.
No distractions. No interruptions. Nobody walking down the hall, no phones ringing, people talking, or trucks coming and going. Just the wind through the trees, the river flowing over rocks, and on cold nights, a cracklin’ fire in the fireplace. And us.
During that time, I refused to rub my big-ass body against her perfect little one until she was completely healed, which lucky for me, she healed up quick. Not until after her first brand removal procedure did it hit me what kind of hell I’d go through not putting my hands, mouth, and lips on all of Simone’s sweet spots, but damn if we didn’t figure out how to show our love in other ways. She showed me there was not a thing wrong with her sweet mouth, lips, and tongue, and she enjoyed using them on me every chance she had.
As for me, every chance we got, I ran my eyes over every inch of her naked flesh, touched every inch of her that didn’t cause her pain, whispered in her ears everything I was gonna do to her once she healed up, and made her come with my kisses alone. Even though it hurt her a bit, she bore the pain in order to
enjoy the pleasure.
After a couple more weeks of healing up, once she was feeling herself again, and after not doing much but eating healthy, lying around, and recovering, my female had put on some weight. Not that I didn’t love her the way she was when she first showed up, but with her height and her frame, and being a wolf, she needed the extra padding.
And I loved the way she filled out.
Her pretty breasts got full and firm. Her hips got curvy and her sweet ass got plump, and soft, and round.
For those two weeks, she’d been wearing nothing but loose fitting summer dresses. No bra. No panties. The first time she tried to put on a pair of her jeans, she barely got them up past her hips. I’d noticed her white, cotton panties looked tight when she put them on, but she didn’t say anything. I laid on the bed, watching her struggle with one pair of pants after another until she gave up. She grabbed a bra out of a drawer and even though it fit around her, her breasts spilled out over the cups in a way that had me sitting up on the bed waiting for the emotional storm I was sure gonna sweep the room.
She dropped the bra at her feet, slipped the panties down her legs, and stood there, assessing her new body in the mirror with a critical eye.
Me? I was happy as all get-out not seeing her ribs stand out so prominently anymore, or her hip bones sticking out. Those hollows in her cheeks had filled in, and her breasts looked pillow-soft. And perfectly smooth.
There I sat, trying to figure out an answer to the question I was so damn afraid she was gonna ask me. Do I look fat? To me, she looked perfect. Healthy. Sexy as sin. And I couldn’t wait to sink my dick between her legs and show her how much I loved her, in ways words could never say.
Like she read my vibe, her blue eyes flashed in the mirror, staring right back at me on our bed.
“I’m afraid I’m right back where I started when I first arrived in Comfort.”
“How’s that?”
“I’m naked with nothing to wear.”