by Amanda LeMay
“Kern and I wouldn’t miss it.”
“Dain, you gonna bring this pretty lady?” Chuck’s chin lifted in my direction.
Another blush crept up Dain’s neck as he looked at me. “Thinking about it.”
Chuck clapped a hand on Dain’s shoulder. “Y’all have a good day.” He touched his finger to the brim of his cowboy hat and nodded, climbed up into the truck, drove it out the other end of the barn, and headed out to the main road.
Maygan glanced at Dain, then at me. Her dark eyes widened in surprise the second she saw the mark her son had placed at the base of my neck. Her mouth opened, closed, and then spread in a grin.
“Lunch is ready, if y’all are hungry.”
She turned and walked out, leaving Dain and me looking at each other from across the barn.
The sun streamed in through the big barn doors. Dain turned into the warm rays of light, his cowboy hat shading his face. There was a blush on his cheeks; whether it was from the physical work or from plain embarrassment, I didn’t know. He wanted me. That I did know. He’d put his teeth to my flesh and made it clear that if any other male came near me, I was his. If we truly shared a sakana bond, I was his already.
Get over here and kiss me. Bite me. Rip my clothes off. Something. Anything.
Please.
Still, the way he stood in the sunlight, his back to me like he regretted being so impulsive, made me want to burst into tears.
As if he’d read my mind, he looked up, his gaze soft as he held out his hand. I didn’t hesitate. I wrapped my fingers in his and held on. We walked out into the sun toward the house. Halfway there, Dain stopped, tilted his head and placed a soft kiss on my neck right where his sharp teeth had been only minutes ago. I must have swayed because his hand braced the small of my back again, holding me steady. His incredible male scent engulfed me, making me shiver. My entire body ached with pent-up need. Couldn’t he tell I was dying to touch him, to kiss him? To roll around naked on him?
His mouth brushed my ear. “Jessy...” His tongue swept over the curve of my neck. “You are...”
My mind filled in the blank as he paused—Mine? Crazy? Killing me?
He lifted his head and cleared his throat. “Come to the dance with me?”
He asked me to a dance? Sweet heavens, I felt like a sixteen-year-old and the hottest boy in school just asked me out. Giddiness bubbled up in me. If I opened my mouth to speak, I would probably have exploded like a shaken can of soda. I nodded my head, pretty sure I looked like some silly bobble-headed doll. He graced me with another one of his perfect smiles, squeezed my hand, and walked into the house leaving me standing in the yard, utterly speechless.
CHAPTER TEN
IT STARTED AGAIN AS it had every night since I’d been there, the faint, rhythmic creaking coming from the second-story master bedroom.
I’d grown up in an extremely large wolf pack. It was perfectly normal for mated couples to engage in multiple acts of coupling throughout the day and night, especially as the full moon neared. Even though it was a little unnerving since, yeah—my dad and Maygan—but the evidence they were happily mated made me glad.
I pulled my oversized One Less Vampire T-shirt on, grabbed my earbuds and phone, and stretched out on the bed. Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” thrummed its way into my bones while the scent of male floated into my lungs—fresh clean skin, soft cotton blankets, sweet alfalfa. That masculine scent called to my blood like no other male ever had before.
My skin tightened. My breasts swelled slightly inside my lacy bra. The soft fabric of my nightshirt tickled my hardened nipples with each breath I took and caused a rush of pulsing heat between my legs.
Oh yeah, the coming full moon tuned my senses to high and I could smell Dain all the way down the hall in his bedroom. Every inch of my body hummed with sensitivity. Easing the burning ache would take only a few seconds and, sweet heavens, with his scent filling my lungs, it would feel so damn good.
I touched the curve of my neck, felt the barely-there indentations of his bite. From that point on, his shyness around me had evolved into something different and unexpected. After marking me and asking me to the dance, he’d left me alone to wonder if he regretted that one impulsive decision. When all I wanted was to be near him, he managed to find ways to disappear whenever I came around. He hadn’t even come to the table for dinner.
He’d told Maygan he needed to study.
Study, my ass.
It was freaking Christmas vacation! His online classes were on a break! He was avoiding me. I didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or just pissed off.
I breathed in deep, pulling his scent in over my tongue and letting it squeeze my heart. I wasn’t only in lust with him, I knew that. Lusting for someone made you hungry, not heartbroken. The two voices in my head started up their usual arguments.
Don’t cry.
It hurts.
I told you so.
Give him a chance.
You’re an idiot.
Stop it!
Close the damn door!
Okay!
But I didn’t want to close the damn door. I wanted to jump from my bed, run the length of the hall, and pounce on him. Kiss him. Lick him. Devour him. Strip him naked and ride him all night.
My inner wolf growled in agreement. The human side of me, not so much.
Close. The. Damn. Door.
I pounded my fists on the bed to the beat of the music in my head. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity. Fuck.” I sang in frustration.
Fine. Whatever.
I didn’t have time for a serious relationship, anyway. I couldn’t allow myself to get sidetracked. At least living in Albuquerque, I’d be closer and could visit more often. A long-distance relationship wouldn’t be so bad. And I had more than enough toys to satisfy my needs.
I rolled over to face the door, opened my eyes, and looked toward the long hallway that would take me straight to the male object of my desire, if I only had the guts to go there.
Standing like a shadow in the frame of my bedroom door was the male my crazy female lusting hormones wanted most, so still, so perfectly...magnificent. Yeah. That’s what he was. Magnificent.
And because I was inclined to believe my heart was clearly making my eyes see what I wanted to see and not what was really there—I blinked a couple of times. His silent silhouette hadn’t moved.
His shoulders were so wide they almost touched the sides of the door frame. He had a trim, lean waist with the nicest obliques, abs, and pecs I had seen in a long time. From what I remembered from my anatomy course in college, I could probably still name all those muscle groups so well defined on his amazing upper body. His old, faded jeans sagged enough to give me the sense that he either had on really skimpy drawers beneath them, or nothing at all. He looked like a freaking sculpture with all those perfect lines of muscle and bone. He had filled in better than I ever imagined. What made him that much more handsome was the fact that he didn’t realize what a drop-dead gorgeous hunk of male wolf he had become. As far as wolf life-time went, at twenty-one, he was still a pup. He wouldn’t reach his sexual maturity until he was somewhere in his thirties and his sexual peak would last for the rest of his long life.
“Dain.” Inside my head the one word was more of an adoring sigh than a question.
His mouth moved, except with my music so loud, it was only muffled noise. But...I plainly saw the word “fuck” cross his lips. I yanked off my headphones.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
He cleared his throat and tugged the white T-shirt, he had been holding, over his head, stretching it over his shoulders and smoothing it down his chest and abs.
Oh. Sweet. Heavens. I stared. I couldn’t help it.
I wanted to grab his hands and make him stop. His body was too perfect to hide under a piece of white cloth. Well, watching his hands move over all that muscle was a treat in itself, too.
Don’t look at him like that.
Shut up.
“I came to see if you wanted to watch a movie—or something?”
I sat up, shocked that he’d actually spoken to me again and—that was definitely not what his mouth had said the first time.
“Uh...movie? Sure!” Jumping from my bed, I knocked my phone to the floor. I reached to grab it. Dain stepped in. Our heads knocked together with a thunk.
“Ouch!” I fell back onto the bed, giggling and rubbing the spot on my forehead where it had connected with his.
“Damn, I’m so sorry.” He leaned over me, his big body taking up all the space in the room. “You okay?”
No. I want you.
And even though I sucked air into my lungs, I was breathless. I wanted to spread my legs and wrap them around his waist, pull him down on top of me and kiss him until he was just as breathless. I wanted more than a kiss. I wanted all of him, all over all of me.
With his next breath, he gasped and every muscle in his body bunched up tight. My body, the ultimate betrayer, gave off mating signals I had no control over. The look in his eyes changed from concern to something wild. Something hungry. His finger lifted my chin while he tilted his head to the left.
Yes. Kiss me. Lick me. Devour me.
He leaned in, hesitated—caught himself and stepped back. A crimson blush covered his cheeks.
What? Was he sorry he’d marked me?
He took another small step away, but before he escaped, I grabbed his hand.
“Dain, I’m fine.” I giggled nervously. “A movie sounds great.”
His big hand engulfed mine. I used it as leverage to pull myself up from the bed. He moved away again as if the small distance between us had made him uncomfortable, wary. I smiled and stepped past him into the hall and hoped to hear his footsteps following behind me. However...if he kept his feet planted in my bedroom for one second too long, I would shut us in together and that “or something” he mentioned was going happen, whether he was ready or not.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DAIN HAD BEEN SILENT since we left my bedroom, so, apparently, it was up to me to engage him in conversation.
“So, what classes are you taking?”
“Mostly Gen Ed right now. Once I get into the upper-level classes, I’ll have to start actually going to school, doing labs and some volunteer work.”
Dain’s shoulder brushed the wall as he tried to keep way too much space between us.
“Have you decided on a degree program?”
“Yeah, equine vet, like, Da...uh, your dad.”
I grabbed his thick arm with both my hands and gave him a playful tug that caught him off guard. “That’s awesome!”
He didn’t pull away and I took that as permission to loop my arm inside of his as he pushed open the door to the den. He stopped just inside the room and looked down at me with a touch of sadness in the set of his mouth.
“Rand was never one to encourage me to get an education.. Thought, for me, school was a waste of time and money. He didn’t encourage me to do much of anything. But Dad, uh, Kern—your dad—he’s a good male. A good father—a real dad.” His warm hand closed over mine. “Growing up working the ranch, I thought I knew all there was to know about cows and horses and stuff, but uh, Kern’s taught me a lot.”
Dain’s respect and love for my dad showed on his beautiful face. He reminded me of the many, many reasons why I loved my dad so much and how miserable I’d been when I thought he didn’t love me.
My eyes began to sting so I turned away and pretended to busy myself by looking around the room.
Too busy watching Dain move around the house, I hadn’t really noticed the home theater thing when Dad had first showed me. But, yeah, they had a freaking mini movie theater, complete with a soda fountain and mini popcorn machine. The screen covered one entire wall, with leather recliners for viewing. Everything looked relatively new.
“This is so cool. I guess you have to drive pretty far to see a movie around here, huh?”
“Yeah, over to Kerrville, but if you want to see something in IMAX, you need to drive on over to San Antonio.” He walked over to the wall behind me. “Dad gave it to Mom when they mated. I should say, he converted the room. This had been Rand’s private den. I helped Dad get it ready. Good thing he wanted to make it a surprise and kept Mom out of the way. You wouldn’t believe the amount of porn we found in here when we started cleaning Rand’s crap out.”
A deep, red blush covered his profile. It must have embarrassed him to find his father not only looked at porn magazines and books, but may have been addicted to that kind of stuff. Well, either that, or just the fact our conversation revolved around something having to do with sex.
“I hadn’t stepped foot in here since Rand died. Mom said she would hire someone to clean it out. Once Dad and I started moving stuff around, I figured she must have found some of what Rand had hidden and was plain too embarrassed to let anyone else in here. She must’ve warned Dad because he didn’t seem surprised. Hell, I guess it’s normal to enjoy looking at pictures of naked women, but damn. He had so much. Not just the typical magazines, he had stacks of those, but more like ‘how to’ books. Most of it just normal stuff, but some of it was well, not nice. Not...natural.”
He slid back a panel on a cabinet to reveal more Blue Ray discs and DVDs than I had ever seen outside of a movie store. “What do you like?”
Now, if he had been talking about sex and “how to”, we might have had quite a discussion, concluding with a show-and-tell segment, but that completely innocent look on his beautiful face said he spoke in movie-preference terms. It sure put a damper on the wicked little smile I had on my face. Dang it.
“Surprise me. I’m easily entertained.”
He didn’t ask again, just scanned the titles while I curled into one of the double recliners. I would have sat there all night listening to Dain talk, but I didn’t dare say that. He might shut right up after he realized I was listening.
“Do you mind that I call him ‘Dad’?” he asked quietly from behind me.
I looked back over my shoulder, enjoying the view as he bent over and ran a finger across a row of movie cases. Did I mind?
“Not at all. I’m glad you’re comfortable enough to call him ‘Dad’. Besides, I’m used to hearing males call him that. I’ve got three older brothers, remember?”
He glanced over his shoulder and gave me a strange look before he turned away, slid out one of the cases, and popped the disc into the player.
“Not that I think of you like a brother,” I burst out, “but my dad considers you as a son.”
And Dad had left it up to me to make the first move. Well, I didn’t have to. Dain did that all by himself, by putting his teeth to my skin. Nevertheless, if we were going to progress any further, I would to have to be the one to make the second move, or my time here would be up. It didn’t seem fair to Dain, though, to start something and hope that he didn’t mind seeing me whenever I found some time off from work.
“...really like you, Jessy,” Dain mumbled.
“What?” Busy worrying about the future, I’d missed what he’d said.
“Mom...she really likes you,” He spoke up this time.
“Oh! Thanks.” It wasn’t what he said, but getting Maygan’s approval was a good thing. “Your mom is fabulous. She’s taken me in, opened her home to me. I love her. I really do. And it’s obvious she makes my dad pretty dang happy.”
I had to admit, after spending a week with Maygan, and seeing how in love she and my dad were, I had been such a blind idiot—one who still needed to find the courage to apologize.
“Yeah.” He smiled. I melted. “I thought the honeymoon phase would only last for about a month or two, but two years...well, you’ve been here a week, you’ve seen how they are.” He shook his head and smiled again. “Believe me, this is not just a full-moo
n thing. They’re like this all the time. Something to do with their sakana bond.”
Their sakana bond was the reason I needed to apologize. Because of that bond, they’d fallen madly in love the moment they met. They recognized it immediately. I should have tried harder to understand.
“I guess you haven’t spent much time around many mated couples, huh?”
“No. At least, not around couples who really love each other. The wolf population is so spread out here, we don’t interact much more than once a month, and then, most of the time, that’s only the single males. Once in a while, there’s a mating ceremony and we get together, but with the shortage of females around here, that’s not often.” He sat down in the recliner next to me and picked up the remote.
“Yeah. I noticed the last time I visited, Comfort has a serious shortage of females.”
“Well, growing up here, not too many females want to stick around once they get a taste of the city life. Personally, I don’t see the appeal. Why would any wolf want to live in a big city?”
“I think it depends on the city. And—maybe who you’re with.” I smiled. Would he get the hint? If I were to suggest we pursue a long-distance relationship, he’d never have to come to the city, I’d be the one doing all the traveling. And that was fine with me. But...after getting his mark on my neck, I was beginning to believe staying away from Dain would be the hardest thing I might ever do.
“Yeah. Maybe so.” He rubbed his hand across his chin. “I hope so.”
“You hope so?”
“Well, I mean, otherwise there’d be a lot of unhappy wolves out there. If you’re with your sakana, you kind of can’t help but love them so...it doesn’t matter where you live, right?”
I sighed, hoping he would remember this conversation later.
“You’re right, it shouldn’t matter.”
Damn, I really had to get off this topic before I started questioning my own reasons for not wanting to stay in Comfort. I blurted out the next thing that popped into my head.