by Anna Lowe
A warm hand slid over his belly, and half the blood in his body rushed to his groin.
Idiot, his boar growled. You’ve got a perfect, naked women in front of you, and you stand there, in love with her voice?
He blinked a little at the word. Love? Was this love?
He looked down at Beth, so close now, so at home in his arms, that his heart soared. The hesitancy was gone; he’d never seen her look so sure of anything before.
Love. He’d always figured it had to be good. But this good?
“Need to open this book,” Beth murmured, working down the buttons of his shirt.
He chuckled, and the butterflies in his stomach fluttered away.
“Nice cover and all,” she continued, pulling his shirttails out of his jeans. “But I want the pages inside.” She pushed the button-down shirt over his shoulders, then pulled up at the T-shirt beneath. “The naked pages.”
He grinned. The last time he’d been undressed by a woman must have been back when he was about six and facing a whole different kind of bedtime.
A second later, the grin fled and he went stiff all over. She popped the button of his jeans, unzipped the fly, and slid her hand inside.
Axel held his breath.
She gripped him and exhaled so long, he figured she’d stopped breathing, too.
“Axel,” she whispered, stroking his shaft.
Ache shouldn’t feel so good. Need shouldn’t give him such a high.
She worked his jeans down, and damn it, the denim resisted. His skin prickled as the boar fought to break out.
Let me jump out of this human body and rip out of these useless clothes, the boar roared inside.
He batted it down with a surprisingly harsh, No way! And just as surprisingly, the beast backed down.
All right, all right, already… the deep voice grumbled inside.
That was a first. The beast had always had the upper hand on the man, taking control whenever it wanted, for as long as it wanted. This time, the human side won the tug of war.
That alone would have been enough to make him pause in triumph—at any time other than this. Because the jeans were finally off, and his boxers, too, and Beth was pulling him forward…
She dropped to sit at the edge of the bed and looked up at him. Cupped his dick in both hands and looked into his eyes. Her tongue moistened her lips.
Whoa. Every man’s fantasy come true. But even better than a fantasy, because it was his angel, eager to do that for him.
He threaded his fingers through her hair as she guided him closer. Opened her mouth and slid over him and—
His eyes rolled back in their sockets; his lungs filled with air.
Axel, she murmured into his mind, and Christ, she sounded dreamy, too.
Heaven. Just…heaven.
She leaned away, angled him a little, and sucked him back in. Set into a rocking rhythm that seemed to match the pulse of the earth.
Not too hard. He ordered his boar. Not too fast.
But Christ, did hard and fast feel good. Her fingers squeezed his ass so tightly, the nails dug in. With every stroke of her full lips, every slick glide inside, his boar threw himself at the bars of his cage, trying to escape.
Beth mewed under him, and his boar clawed at the ground.
See! See! She wants this! Pound her! Push her! Bury us deep inside!
He winced at the words. Were they really coming from him? He gritted his teeth, tried shutting his ears to the goading voice.
I’ll show you how to take a woman. I’ll prove—
Axel cuffed the beast so hard, it flew across its imaginary cage and smashed into the other side.
He wasn’t taking Beth. He wasn’t proving anything.
“Axel?” Beth squeaked, reaching for him. Looking uncertain. Looking hurt.
Crap, now look what the beast had done. He glared into the mental corner where his boar huddled, waving a white flag.
He dropped to his knees and wrapped her in his arms. Squeezed the hurt right out of her and whispered in her ear. “I want this to be about you.”
About us, he wanted to add, though he didn’t quite dare.
Her chest swelled under his embrace with a deep, shaky breath, and her arms tightened around him. “I won’t break, you know.”
She might not break, but he might if he cut his beast too much slack.
You might break from loving her too much, too, the voice of caution whispered from the recesses of his mind.
A risk he was willing to take, because her neck was right under his chin, and all it took was a tilt of the head to kiss her. Find the full lips and lick and taste himself on her, and howl with the triumph it sent over him like a wave.
Mine! My mate!
He groaned and pressed her back into the mattress, leaning forward to come down over her. No more putting this off. She wanted him; he wanted her. But he’d do it with the human in firm control, not the beast.
She wiggled higher up the mattress, and it was the most natural thing on earth to follow. To nestle between her legs and let his cock tease her entrance. But only tease, because she’d taken the time to pleasure him first; he owed her the same.
He slid a hand over the rise of her bare stomach. Everything about her was soft and warm. Even the sounds she made were soft—nothing like those the average javelina made.
Just as quickly as he made the comparison, his mind jumped away. There might as well be no other woman in the world. Only Beth.
Mate. My mate.
There it was, that voice again. And if he’d heard her cry of terror from across a hundred miles of desert, what else could she be? Heard her clear as a bell, which could only mean…
Mine. My mate.
He suckled at her breast and flew straight to the next level of heaven. His lips toyed with her tight, round nipple while his finger slipped inside her core. His cock swelled and it hurt in the very best way. The moon’s rays slanted through the window and danced in the flickering candlelight.
“Axel,” she groaned, pulling him closer.
His whole life had been spent pushing up against the sharp, unforgiving edges of the desert. Beth was gorgeously soft and pliant. Her breasts were a pillow, and he scrubbed his cheek against them until she whispered his name.
“Axel…” Even her voice was soft.
Heaven. Heaven was this she-wolf, wrapped around him.
Chapter Eleven
The couple of times Beth dared open her eyes, candlelight flickered. Muscles bulged on either side of her as Axel held up the bulk of his weight. Even so, the heavy blanket of his body pushed her deep into the mattress.
One thick finger worked her in slow circles, and she could already imagine the hot, hard slide of his cock inside.
“More,” she moaned. “More.”
One finger became two, surging deeper every time. She was so wet, the movement was easy, sure. Stretching her while he hummed in her ear.
“Is that good?”
A moan was all she could muster. God, it was good. Hard and hot, if slow. And slow was good, because there’d been a moment of fast when she thought he’d be too much for her. Not just the size of him, but the sheer power. Watching him teeter on the razor’s edge of man and beast had been thrilling, but frightening, too, like standing in the path of an impending desert storm. But the human won, and the light in his eyes morphed from fiery red to a gentler yellow glow. Like the lights of home, calling her back from the night.
The man had defeated the beast, and now he was claiming his prize.
Two thick fingers closed in on her G-spot, and she sucked in a sharp breath.
“Axel!” She turned her head to the side, exposing her neck.
Take me, her wolf cried. Claim me. Make me your mate.
Which was crazy. Did boars even exchange mating bites?
Yes, the points of his teeth promised. Yes, we do.
Please! her wolf begged.
But Axel kept the beast firmly in check and distracted her w
ith that divine touch.
“Yes!” she cried as he drove deeper, spreading her wider. His thumb raked over her folds, then tickled her clit. “God, yes…”
“Beautiful,” he whispered. “You’re beautiful.”
She should have felt far from beautiful, splayed out on a bed, begging for more. But the reverent tone of his voice made her believe it. She wasn’t just Beth. She was a goddess, a dream. The most beautiful woman in the world, driving this man to extremes.
“Please,” she protested when Axel drew his fingers out, halting the heavenly pressure.
He climbed over her, gently pushed her legs apart with his, and dipped his hips. His cock prodded her folds, seeking the way in.
Their eyes locked, and she saw eternity in there. A view of space, with stars and supernovas and comets, shooting with promise and joy.
He pushed in. Deep, deep in, and she bit back a cry at the hot, searing slide. God, he was big. God, did it hurt so good.
“Beth?” His voice wavered. The muscles of his face ticked as he fought to hold back.
“Keep going,” she urged. “God, don’t stop.” Thank God there was no need for a condom—not with shifters immune to disease. And not when she wasn’t in heat, despite how unbearably turned on her body was just then.
“You’re so tight…” The bass of his voice meant it as praise, but the scratchy undertone communicated concern.
“Don’t stop. It’s good. God, is it good,” she murmured.
Slowly, carefully, he pushed deeper, and she groaned at the stretch inside, the sweet firewalk over the coals of pleasure.
“More.”
He slid out then back in, and it was easier this time.
“More. More.” She pulled her legs higher, tightening around his hips.
Axel moaned, too. She could feel the head of his cock glide along her walls, the heat building.
She wanted to pull his body closer and wrap her arms around him. His chest was too broad and the scars around his shoulder, though healed, seemed a little too pink to bear her touch just yet. So she wiggled her arms lower and gripped his hips. Commanded him to go faster and harder, now that the fire was down to a perfect, simmering heat.
“Please, Axel…”
His skin shone with a thin layer of sweat. It glowed in the candlelight, just like his eyes and the edges of his rust-colored beard.
“You sure you’ve never done this as a human?” Her voice was shaky, just like her hands. She’d slept with some of the local guys over the years, and why not? But that was before she knew there were men like this. Big, but not blustery. Hard, but gentle. Tough, but careful, like a bull who’d sworn never to break any china ever again. Bristly and covered with battle scars, but soft on the inside. Soft enough that part of her worried about hurting him. What if she didn’t make him feel as good as he made her feel?
Right. Her wolf snorted. Look at him.
His jaw was slack, his eyes at half-mast. His lips quivered with unspoken words. The sinews in his neck rose as he thrust deeper, again and again.
This wasn’t a lonely girl’s fantasy. It wasn’t an outsider’s dream come true. It was the dance of destiny, bringing two souls together as one.
She tightened around him, inside and out, and he groaned.
“Tell me what you want,” she whispered, suddenly desperate to see him unravel. “Tell me what to do.”
He thrust once more and stayed anchored there with closed eyes, mumbling something.
“You tell me,” he murmured at last.
The man’s touch was paradise, his weight balanced perfectly. What else could she desire?
“Here,” the wolf urged her to say. She thrust her chest out. “Kiss me. Touch me.”
The glow in his eyes flared as he dipped his head once more and sucked her nipple in. One huge hand slipped under her rear and raised her hips so she was arched backward, with a breast thrust toward his mouth and hips hauled hard against his.
“Like this?” he asked, picking up the rhythm again.
Her hands flailed helplessly as he sucked hard and thrust harder. So hard, she could have skittered up the bed if that strong hand hadn’t anchored her in place.
“Axel!” she howled, clenching around him. “Deeper…”
Teeth raked her nipple, and a wet, crushing wave gathered within. Rising, rushing, rearing higher and higher.
Axel panted into her skin, and his thrusts grew harder still. Desperate, even. His thick, muscled thighs spread her wider, and she felt the world tilt. The wave tilted with it, and she clenched over him with everything she had: her arms, her legs, the muscles of her core, all of them milking him for one last, hard run.
“Ax—”
The wave tumbled, sweeping her with it. “Axel!” She cried his name, clutched the sheets, quivered against him.
Axel groaned so low, her wolf hearing barely picked it up, and he shuddered from every joint, emptying inside her.
Mate. My mate! Her wolf gloried in the feel of his heat, spreading inside. Tilted her hips and clenched harder to hold it inside. Forever, preferably, or at least until the next time he tossed her over a mountain cliff and sent her flying into puffy clouds. And the next time, and the next…
Axel shuddered once more, then melted onto her like molten steel. She cradled his body with hers and brushed her lips over the nearest expanse of skin. Somewhere at the point where shoulder met chest like a couple of rugged tectonic plates.
“God, Axel,” she murmured. She was going to be spoiled for life.
So keep him for life, her wolf sighed dreamily. Keep him forever. Make beautiful babies and—
She cut the wolf off, because she was absolutely, positively not thinking that far down the road. Absolutely, positively…
The image of a tiny, cuddly wolf with Axel’s chocolate eyes and oversized paws hit her. She held her breath, hanging on to the image.
My man, her wolf hummed, sweeping its tail in long, satisfied strokes. My mate.
Chapter Twelve
The best three days of Axel’s life passed in a happy blur. Three days—plus three amazing nights—with Beth, and no one seemed to mind at all.
Not Aunt Jean, who didn’t seem the least bit shocked to see him leaving Beth’s house the next morning at an hour that could only suggest one thing.
Not George, whose bushy eyebrows lifted the second Axel carried Beth’s feminine scent into the smithy with him, rubbed deep into his skin. A moment later, the eyebrows dropped, and that was that.
Not even Ty, whose nostrils flared when their paths crossed, nor Cody, who winked. And certainly not Tina, who positively hummed with satisfaction when she found Axel sitting at the picnic table with Beth every day.
No looks of horror. No cutting remarks. No commentary. It was as if he and Beth had always been together. As if the lonely javelina had grown up with the rest of them on this paradise of a ranch.
“Hiya, Axel,” Cody murmured, walking Heather home from school.
“Hey, Axel,” Rick called absently, pulling Tina into a kiss on the afternoons he stopped by.
If anything, everyone seemed happy for him. Well, everyone but Audrey, who shot slitty-eyed looks in their direction on the rare occasions they passed. It seemed Ty had talked to her, too, because she kept her distance for a change.
Otherwise, everyone was great. Encouraging, almost, as if they’d long learned to recognize destiny at work and figured everything would be all right. Axel almost convinced himself, too. Even his inner beast stopped wrestling for control and accepted his human side as boss. Life had never been so good.
He’d seen Cody kiss Heather and whisper, “I love you” in her ear, and it made him grin. Love. Now he knew what it was. It was Beth’s hand on his cheek, her smile in his eyes, her voice ringing in his ears.
Love made his step lighter, the sun shine brighter.
“Hi,” Beth would breathe when she trotted out of the library to meet him for lunch. The way she said it at the end of the day whe
n she pulled him into bed was a little huskier, and the way she said it come morning was bright and hopeful, like a bird singing in the spring. Progress on the gift he was making for her slowed down a little because, suddenly, the looming deadline was gone. Ty and Cody had said he could stay at Twin Moon Ranch for as long as he wanted.
It was great. It was amazing. It was heaven.
If only he didn’t keep hearing that onerous voice in the back of his mind. The one reminding him that sooner or later, his father would reappear and most certainly protest. Dark, judgmental eyes would look him up and down, and massive ivory tusks would dip as his father frowned. Three hundred pounds of restless javelina would paw the ground and order Axel to get his butt in gear.
But Axel had dealt with a hellhound; surely he could deal with his father. And anyway, his father was probably chasing down trouble hundreds of miles away. He wouldn’t have to be dealt with for a long, long while. Javelinas were known to wander far and wide for months, even years at a time.
Axel nodded. Years. He could start with that.
“You’re almost late,” old George muttered when Axel strode into the smithy that morning, still glowing from a night with Beth. And not just glowing from sex. More like the wonder of being able to sink his nose into her hair and hold her for hours on end. From the joy of sleeping in peace all night through, waking up only to stroke her arm or watch the moonlight stream into the room. Hell, just eating breakfast with her made him glow.
“Morning, George,” Axel said, trying not to grin too widely. He was nowhere near late, but old George liked to keep him on his toes. “Ho, Ho, Ho.”
The Ho, Ho, Ho was practice, because not only had the wolves invited him to stay, they’d also asked if he could act as Santa’s helper at the Christmas Eve party that night. Old Frank, the white-bearded wrangler, played Santa every year, but the honorary job of Santa’s helper rotated.
“The kids would love it.” Cody smiled when he and Heather had asked Axel the favor.
Of course, he said yes. He’d do anything for this pack. Anything.