by R. E. Butler
“I’m glad you don’t feel that way.”
He grinned. “Do you want dibs on the shower?”
She thought about how good it had felt to make out with him the night before, and how disappointed she’d been when he was called away. She hadn’t wanted to stop what they were doing for even a second. Waking up with him this morning had been heavenly, even if they’d been clothed. It would’ve been even better if they’d been tangled up together, skin to skin.
“How about we share?”
His eyes darkened. “I’d love that.”
They headed into the bathroom, which was very manly. Everything was navy blue, from the shower curtain to the towels to the rugs. She’d had a very girly bathroom before with a butterfly and flower motif, but she liked how simple and clean everything looked with just one color.
“We can do some decorating and change things up,” he said, as if he was reading her mind. He turned on the water and stripped, and she took the cue and followed suit. They didn’t take their eyes off each other as they shed their clothes. Shifters had a certain level of comfort with nudity because of shifting together, but Weylyn had never been allowed to shift with the other red foxes after the first time she’d changed into something other than what was expected.
But she wasn’t nervous about baring herself in front of Rehlik, she was excited.
He stepped under the spray and adjusted the angle of the head.
“I like the way you’ve decorated the bathroom,” she said as she joined him.
“Okay, but I want you to feel like this is your house too. It should reflect both of us, not just me.”
Nodding, she soaped up and watched him wash his hair, the suds slipping down his muscular chest and heading toward her new favorite thing—his hard and ready cock.
He tipped her chin up. “My eyes are up here, woman.”
Giggling, she said, “Then don’t point that at me unless you’re going to use it.”
He let out a soft growl, his eyes flashing. Her body flooded with heat and she bit her bottom lip.
“Let’s hurry,” he said, gruffly.
“I was thinking the exact same thing.”
He switched places with her, and she rinsed off. He leaned against the tile and watched her, his eyes hooded and fangs peeking from his parted lips. He lazily stroked his cock. She’d never seen anything so sexy.
Wringing the water from her hair, she put her hands on him, letting her fingers splay across the hard planes of his chest.
He cupped her face. “You’re so fucking sexy.”
“You are too.”
Their lips pressed together and then opened, their tongues sliding and tangling, making her stomach flip. He banded an arm around her waist and drew her close, his cock trapped between them. She let out a moan when he massaged the back of her neck with his free hand and then slipped it down to her breast, giving it a squeeze before running his thumb around her nipple.
She touched every inch of his skin she could reach, from his broad shoulders to his trim waist. Everything about him was big and rock solid; he was a huge male and he made her feel petite and precious.
He reached behind her to turn off the water, then scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed.
She was on her back and he was between her thighs in a heartbeat, but he didn’t just dive down on her like she expected. He stared at her center, spreading her thighs wide for his shoulders and opening her folds gently with his thumbs.
He looked at her up the length of her body and smiled. “Ready to fly, sweetness?”
“Yes,” she whispered, biting her bottom lip.
He lowered his head slowly, holding her gaze, and swiped his tongue up her folds with a slow, deliberate stroke. He curled his tongue around her clit at the end, and her eyes crossed at how good it felt. He slipped his hands under her bottom and lifted her from the bed, delving his tongue into her center and lapping at her heat. He stroked his tongue in and out of her, his wolf letting out happy growls. Lowering her to the bed, he slipped a finger into her channel and flicked his tongue over her clit.
She stretched out on the bed, curling her legs over his shoulders, and reached a hand to the top of his head. She fisted his hair gently and arched her hips, seeking more contact for her needy clit. She was spiraling toward a climax as he pushed a second and then a third finger into her, playing with her clit enough to drive her wild but not send her careening over the edge.
She wanted to tell him to let her come, but when she opened her mouth all that came out was a deep moan and his name, chanted over and over. He closed his lips around her clit and sucked on it, his fingers curling inside her and finding a place along her heated walls that made everything within her turn to lava. She gripped his hair as she plunged into ecstasy, his name on her lips and her whole body twisting and turning inside as pleasure stole over her.
From one minute to the next she was on her hands and knees, her male behind her and cupping her hips as he plunged deep inside her. The force of his thrust made her head kick back and a scream of pleasure leave her lips as another wave of climax spread through her like fire. She felt his claws against her skin as he fucked her hard and fast, and she liked that his wolf was joining them.
She spread her thighs more and lowered her upper body, giving herself completely to him. He growled his approval as his hands tightened on her, continuing his hard and fast pace.
He slid one hand across her belly and down, touching her clit and rubbing it swiftly. She didn’t think she could come a third time, but he was relentless, his fingers touching her just right. Her pussy locked down on him as she came again, her vision blurring with the strength of her climax. He roared his pleasure, his cock thickening inside her as his heated come filled her.
He leaned over her and kissed between her shoulder blades. “Mine. Weylyn, you’re mine.”
“I am,” she said breathlessly. “And you’re mine too.”
“One hundred percent.”
He kissed her back once more and then pulled from her body. She immediately felt the loss. He dropped to his back on the bed and pulled her over so her head was on his chest and she could hear his heart pounding. She’d never had sex like that before. Her body was still humming.
She shivered and her fox chittered in her head. He brought a blanket up from the bottom of the bed and covered them, then kissed the top of her head.
“That was amazing,” he said. “I didn’t...well, it was more than sex, right? Not just for me but for you too?”
She lifted her head and smiled at him. “It was. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s never been like that for me.”
“Me either. I think it’s supposed to be that way when the people are mates.”
She liked that idea. It was sweet.
“You don’t have to leave anytime soon, right?” She laid her head on his chest and snuggled closer.
“Nope, nothing until tonight. Some of the high-ranked males are coming by for dinner. Dillon’s going to bring the food with him as a welcome to you. His mate, Mona, is coming too so you can meet her.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.”
He yawned and she knew he was tired. She was too. She’d stayed up until well past midnight, but she had no idea when she actually fell sleep.
“Later we can talk about what happened last night,” she said.
“Good. I’d like to get your thoughts on things, since you’re the alpha female.”
“Well, not yet. Not until it’s official with the pack.”
“Technically you are,” he said, his words punctuated with another yawn. “We can make it official next week during the festival if you want. We can still wait to mark each other if you’re not ready.”
“Okay.”
She let his words roll around in her head for a bit and had to ask herself what she was waiting for. They were mates. She could feel it in her bones and her fox was of the same mind. He was it for
them, and he said she was his mate. So if they both agreed that they were mates, then why did she want to wait to mark each other? She wanted to get to know him better, but there wasn’t anything wrong with marking each other and then getting to know each other, right? He was giving her the reins to determine the timing of the marking, and she appreciated that he wasn’t trying to rush her.
Now that they’d had sex, though, she realized waiting was kind of nuts.
“I think we should mark each other,” she said.
He didn’t answer, so she tipped her head up to look at him and found him fast asleep.
“Aw,” she whispered. “Sexy male. All mine. I’m so glad I came to Cider Falls and found you. We can talk later.”
She kissed the corner of his mouth and then settled back against him, closing her eyes and quickly drifting off to sleep, thoughts of marking him on her mind.
Chapter Eight
Vega Sonight looked at the GPS program on the tablet and switched to the satellite view. The town of Cider Falls wasn’t that big by human standards, but for a sanctuary town for hybrids and exiled shifters, it was huge. Lots of good hunting grounds in the woods, plenty of homes and small businesses, and even a school for the kids. He took a screenshot of the image and then used the pen to mark where they were going to place traps.
“How many we got again?” he asked, not looking up.
“Six,” Flint, his right-hand, said.
“We need to get some more.”
“We’ve tapped out the stores in a fifty-mile radius,” Rip said. “We can order online, but we’ll have to use one of those drop box places since we don’t have an address.”
Vega finished marking where the six traps would go with red x’s, and then he put the pen on the table and sat back. He and his crew had been looking for a place to call home since they’d been run out of a small town in Louisiana. They’d tangled with the local bear shifters and even though he’d nearly killed the alpha, they’d still been defeated and had to beat feet to get away with their lives.
Now they were traveling in a couple RVs, living like hobos. He didn’t want this life for his people. It was hard as fuck being a hybrid, and he’d scraped and groveled as a teen to be let into his home pack, then he’d been rejected. He hadn’t had the luxury of a cushy place like Cider Falls to go to; he’d had to stay under the radar of the alliance so that he didn’t get hauled into jail for not having a home pack. It was a fucking catch-22. The laws governing the shifters in the States said that every shifter, from purebreds to hybrids, was required to be part of a legitimate group. If they were exiled for any reason, they had seventy-two hours to locate a new home group and be registered as a member. But what the alliance didn’t seem to care about was that ten years ago, when he’d been unable to shift and the truth of his heritage had come out, there hadn’t been a place for him to go. He’d had no choice but to go into hiding. Others had found him over the years, and it had been tempting to go legit, but the problem with that was he was a wanted male. If he tried to register as alpha, he’d be taken into custody and so would anyone allied to him.
So he’d stayed under the radar, rebelling against the alliance and everything they stood for, just so he could carve out an existence for his people. If he could take over Cider Falls, he could use the town’s legitimacy to give his people a home. He’d drive away or kill the alpha and assume his identity. People could follow Vega or leave; he didn’t particularly care about the current townspeople, he only cared about his people.
“I found some,” Flint said, interrupting Vega’s train of thought to the past.
“Yeah?”
“They’re about two hours away, but they’ve got a big stock of them. It’s a hunting surplus store.”
“Grab a couple males and go,” Vega said.
“Can I go? I need some lady things,” Sadie, the only female in the clan, spoke up.
Flint shrugged. “Sure.”
“I had an idea about the traps too,” Sadie said. She looked over Vega’s shoulder at the map.
“Oh?”
“Why don’t we put them around the alpha’s house? Or the bar?”
“Because we can’t get that deep into the territory,” Vega said. “For now we’re working on the fringes. We’ll take out the patrolling males and maybe if we’re lucky we can abduct someone for collateral.”
“Ah, okay. I thought we were just trying to kill Rehlik.”
“In a perfect world, yes,” Vega said. But the male was a purebred timber wolf and smart as hell. “We’ll get him eventually I’m sure, but for now we’ll work with what we have.”
He watched four of his people leave to gather new traps and made plans to lay the traps they had in Cider Falls at dawn. Soon he hoped his crew would have a permanent home, and then they’d see about making some changes to the way the alliance treated hybrids. It was about time someone stood up for the underdog.
* * *
Rehlik felt supremely lucky as he watched Weylyn and Mona set up the dinner for the high-ranked males. When he’d told Weylyn she didn’t need to do anything but hang out and get to know the people, she’d insisted on helping. She and Mona were already thick as thieves, and he couldn’t have been happier. He’d been alone for such a long time that it was refreshing having someone care about him. The pack cared about him because he was their alpha, but it was different with a mate. And he was just learning how different that actually was.
“Alpha?” Dillon asked.
Rehlik blinked a few times and shifted his gaze to him. “Sorry, what?”
“New-mate-itis,” Dillon said with a chuckle. “I remember what that was like. But what I was saying is that we’ve got most of the motion cameras up and running, the rest should be up before dark.”
“Good.”
“Dinner’s ready,” Weylyn said, calling them to the table Rehlik had set up in the dining room. The room had stood empty since he moved into the house, and he’d had to borrow the big folding table and chairs for everyone from Dillon and Mona. He made a mental note to take Weylyn shopping for a real dining room table so they could have get-togethers more often.
He stopped at his mate’s side as she watched the others mill into the room and find seats. He kissed her cheek. “It looks amazing,” he whispered. “You really went above and beyond.”
“I always wanted to help out with the clan like this, but I wasn’t allowed. My mom said I was a born caretaker, and I think she’s right. I just like seeing everyone happy. Especially you.”
“I wish I’d met you years ago.”
She gave him a smile. “Me too. But I’m glad we’re together now. Right time and place.”
They walked into the dining room, and he pulled out her chair for her then took the seat next to it at the head of the table. The roast was huge, as were the platters of roasted vegetables and the basket of rolls.
He didn’t think his house had ever smelled so good.
He lifted the heavy platter of meat and held it for her.
“I…you want me to go first?” she asked.
“You’re my mate. First I take care of you, then myself.”
She beamed at him. Made him feel about ten feet tall.
She put a slice of meat on her plate and then several on his. He grinned at her as he handed the platter to Dillon, who followed suit, letting Mona fill her plate and then his. Once all the dishes had been passed around, they all tucked into the food, easy conversation flowing around them. Mona and Weylyn talked about the anniversary party. Rehlik looked down the table at Gunner.
“How’s the garage doing?”
“Great,” he said. “We just got in some new computer equipment. We want to do up the reception area.”
“For your mom?” Rehlik asked.
Archer shook his head. “Nah, she’s happy back in the kitchen and doesn’t like messing with computers at all. We want to hire a front desk person.”
“Anyone in town fit the bill?”
“Not really
,” Gunner said. “We’ll put out feelers, but we think we’ll end up doing a public job post to the other hybrid-friendly towns.”
“Let me know if you need any help,” Rehlik said. “If you don’t get any bites after a week or two, I can make some calls.”
“Thanks,” Archer said.
Rehlik liked to see the town growing. He wished there were more businesses within the town, because it would be more of a draw for people to join with them. But there were only so many places to work within Cider Falls, and there weren’t a whole ton of jobs outside of their territory for hybrids, exiles, and supernaturals. While it wasn’t technically legal to discriminate against someone for being exiled or a shifter or having supernatural abilities, it happened all the time and there wasn’t much that could be done about it.
The meal wrapped up with cupcakes that Patrice sent over for them. Rehlik and Dillon handled the dishes while their mates talked at the table, and when everything was cleaned up, Rehlik turned to his friend.
“I want to make our mating official during the anniversary celebration.”
“That’s awesome,” Dillon said. “We could do it after the cookout before we set up the dance floor.”
In the town square was a wooden gazebo which was often used as a stage. He could picture the mating ceremony held in the gazebo, the pack watching on as he declared his beautiful mate as his alpha counterpart and gave her authority over their people.
“I’ll put a plan together,” Rehlik said. “I want it to be perfect.”
“It’s about time you found your other half,” Dillon said. “There’s nothing better. Well, kids are pretty damn nice too, but finding your heart is life-changing.”