Georgie swallowed hard and tried to think around the emotions crashing over her, and her bodies reaction to the scent and feel of Cooper pressing into every inch of her. "You're all werewolves?"
"No." She blinked at his hard answer. "Werewolves are movie monsters controlled by the moon. We are shape shifters. We have two forms, wolf and man. We do not turn people with a bite or eat anything but what a wolf would normally hunt in the wilds."
Georgie closed her eyes and shook her head at the conversation they were having. First things first. "Is there a reason we have to have this conversation with you naked on top of me?"
"A reason we have to?" he asked, and she had to open her eyes to see if the satisfaction in his tone played in his eyes. Yep. He was definitely enjoying this. She was back to wanting to bite him, and not in the sexy way he was clearly thinking. "Not particularly."
"Then, do you want to get off me?" she asked belligerence coating the words.
"Not particularly."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Let me up."
"No," he said and then went on right over her growl. "You wanted to know why I took you and brought you here?"
"Yes," she hissed, bristling with frustration.
"I took you because wolves do not live outside a pack, even when they are half-blood latent’s who have no idea what they are."
Georgie had no idea what she had been expecting. Her mind had gone through a multitude of wild and insane ideas but that was one even she had not hit on. She started to laugh. "You think I'm half shapeshifter? I think it's clear looking at my ass that I'm not remotely like the rest of you,"
He blinked down at her and she had the satisfaction of seeing confusion in his eyes. About time it was not all one sided. But what he said next turned those tables right back around. "You think there's something wrong with your ass?"
"Um," she started, feeling the color hit her cheeks. She cleared her throat when he continued to look down at her expectantly. His face was as impassive as ever but there was something in those heated green eyes that had her own eyes narrowing. "Are you laughing at me?"
"Only a little," he assured her. "I have no fucking clue what you think is wrong with your ass, or what that has to do with you being part wolf shifter, but you're a woman, and I have learned a woman's thoughts rarely follow a logical course."
She decided ignoring any reference to her ass was the way to go and instead gritted out tightly. "I would know if I was part wolf shifter."
He arched a brow at her and she felt her jaw clench even further at his arrogance even before he spoke. "Really? How?"
Georgie opened her mouth to blast him and then had no idea what to say so instead she tried bucking him off her. "I am not having this conversation with you naked on top of me." He didn't budge, rather he shifted his hips a bit to settle himself even closer to the pulsing core of her, and like most times when she was in his company, it was definitely pulsing.
"That is the first thing you have said that I agree with. I can think of any number of other things we could be doing in this position besides talking."
She might be doing her best to ignore him, but her body was more than aware and if she was not holding herself so carefully she would be melting all over the arrogant ass. Worse, she was sure he knew how much it was costing her to show no reaction. But she was more than whatever chemical cocktail he sent thundering through her body whenever they met, and he needed to understand that. Right now.
She met his eyes and allowed the truth she was speaking to be reflected there, along with stubborn resolve. "I don't know or trust you. Forcing me into doing what you want me to do all the time is not going to change that."
He was quite for a long moment his eyes on Georgie as he studied her carefully and she had the strange feeling he was really seeing her for the first time. "There are things you don't understand."
"Then explain them to me. I'm not a child. Because the only thing I have seen from you is a bully." She pressed her lips together thinking of the few moments of care he had shown her the night before, while forcing her back to his will, mustn't forget that last part, but she was still compelled to be honest. "And a few brief moments of tenderness," she finally admitted. Then hastened to add when his eyes softened. "Very brief." She really needed to curb that need of hers to tell the truth and be fair. It was not going to help her in these circumstances.
Again, he studied her, his probing green eyes making her feel as if he was stripping her bare and seeing more than she wanted to show. Finally, he stood up and off her, pulling her up with him so that they both stood. It was a marginal improvement as he was no longer pressed hard and hot along her entire length. She had to look way up to meet his intense stare.
"Very well," he finally said reading her relief and no doubt how much she was working not to look anywhere else but his eyes and chest. His chest was enough of a distraction from logical thoughts. "I will get dressed and meet you downstairs in the library. I will answer any questions you have until you are satisfied that bringing you here as I did was the best thing for you."
He turned to walk away and she closed her eyes against the need to stare at his perfect hard ass. She still called out her question though, even as she kept her eyes carefully closed against the temptation that was Cooper Hayes. "And if you tell me everything and I don't agree that staying here is best for me?"
Her eyes popped open on a shocked gasp, when he whispered his answer right against her ear. "Then I will have to convince you." Then he nipped her ear before turning and once again leaving the room.
This time she kept her eyes open and on him, he moved too fast and quiet to trust anything but her eyes on him. But lord, did the man have to be so beautiful everywhere? As soon as the door finally closed behind him Georgie sagged in relief taking stock of her own reactions. The little nip on her ear felt heated, like a fresh brand. Her breasts were erect and aching, her core felt empty and wet with moisture, enough that it was dripping down her thighs wetting her pajama bottoms, something he would not have missed, and every inch of her skin felt bereft and needy now that her kidnapper had left the room.
She almost hoped she did have some latent wolf genes inside her, because at least then she might have a supernatural explanation for why she reacted the way she did to him and had from the first. But if she did, what exactly would that tell her about her past? And what did it mean for her future?
CHAPTER SEVEN
After stalling for as long as possible by using the bathroom, brushing her teeth and taking as long as she could to pick out a simple pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt, Georgie finally pulled on a pair of thick wool socks and hiking boots. A new pair since she had no idea where her old pair had gotten to. Someone had supplied the bathroom with moisturizer and all the toiletries a woman could possibly need. All of them in their original packaging and all of them nothing she could have afforded in her real life. She ignored most of it anyway, only opting for the moisturizer that smelled faintly of roses and made her skin feel like a dream. Without a drop of the make-up so generously provided she went to meet her nemesis. One Cooper Hayes, Wolf shapeshifter and presently the man who thought he was in charge of her destiny.
Before she headed out the door she sat down with a whoosh on her big bed and really thought about what she had learned. Luckily no one was around to see that it took her two tries to get her hips high enough to sit on that massive bed. At least now the crazy cult mentality of the town made more sense. Their clan was not just human, but a wolf pack that answered to an Alpha, or as they called him, a First. The question of why everyone she had met, most of which she had liked had kept her here was answered. Their actions, the way the wolves and pups acted. The children that seemed to be on their own with the wolves a good bit of the time. Turned out they did have supervision, in the form of wolves. They weren't brainwashed, just not completely human. Huh.
Now for all my new questions, Georgie thought. Why did he call me Omega? And what if he was right abou
t me being part wolf shifter?
Georgie snorted at the thought. The rest she could believe, because she had seen it with her own eyes, but her being more than human? Not likely. She looked around at the lush but impersonal room she had been moved into. "And why did he move me into his own home?" She said the words out loud and grimaced as she thought about all the possibilities. Did the First get his pick of all the new females? Suddenly 'The First' took on all kinds of negative connotations in her imagination.
She needed to get downstairs and find out what was really happening here before she scared herself into doing something as foolish as her last plan had been.
But, she assured herself as she headed down to talk to her kidnapper. If he thought he was enacting some archaic Alpha wolf sex shenanigans he was in for some serious hurt.
She had almost convinced herself she could handle the man, wolf, whatever, at least until she reached the first floor and saw the open door that she assumed led to the library. Then she chickened out and studied the rest of the house from the stairs where she hovered.
From where she stood on the grand staircase she could see the front of the house and, through the wall of windows, the mountains and forest beyond.
It looked like the town was significantly farther than she had assumed from what the others had let slip the few times they had referred to the big house their First lived in. It was also more elegant and refined than what she had seen of the rest of the town.
She might never have had money of her own, but she had seen enough magazines and home decor shows to know that no expense had been spared here. Unlike the smaller homes she had seen and the simple comfort of Patrice and Phillips house this one was a showplace. A wide brown leather sectional that could seat twelve easy wrapped around the walk-in fireplace that had natural stone going up the high arching ceilings. It was the only part of the wall that wasn't glass. A large dark wood coffee table that looked solid and big enough to be a small dance floor sat between the sectional and the fire. And not one but two big leather recliners sat in the same space. Above that giant fireplace was the first modern appliance she had yet seen in the town. A giant flat screen tv. The wide planked wood floors were stained dark and looked hardly walked on. A sitting area was off to the side of the room and she assumed that the open door led to the library, since from here she could see shelves with books from floor to ceiling and more windows.
She turned and looked over the stairs to see a large open kitchen through an arched wall opening and a hallway that led to more rooms for who knew what on the other side. She had seen enough doors upstairs to know that there were quite a few rooms up there as well and it had her wondering at the silence.
Where was everyone?
"Coming in?" that voice again. She sighed, at least she was becoming accustomed to the reaction he caused in her. Had to be a wolf thing. The thought reassured her in some ways. At least she was not some weird kinky girl who liked a crazy man that kidnapped her and held her hostage, turns out he was not human, so she could excuse her reaction to him. Though thinking about it, she was not so sure being so attracted to a wolf shifter who kidnapped her and kept her hostage was all that better. Especially when he was so very dominating. "Or are you still trying to pretend you don't want to?"
Dominating and arrogant, she added to her own thoughts with a narrowing of her eyes when he stepped into the doorway and blocked her line of sight to the rest of the room. Did I mention arrogant?
She chose once again to ignore the way her blood seemed to heat at the first sound of that voice, and the way just the sight of him had her body readying for mating. She had to ignore it, for her own piece of mind. "Are you actually going to answer all my questions this time?"
He motioned to his big body in jeans, hiking boots and blue flannel. "Fully clothed as per your request."
She wasn't sure what looked more inviting hugging that big hard body, the jeans or the soft flannel, but she was determined to ignore all of it. "Then lead the way," she said going for self-assured to match his arrogance and ignoring how dry her mouth was, or how wet other places were at the reminder of his previous naked state. "After what you have already told me, I cannot wait for the rest of it." I am so full of shit, she thought keeping her shaking hands out of sight at her back.
He arched a high-handed brow at her tone but turned and led the way back into the library. Georgie did her best not to notice how well he filled out the soft denim of his jeans.
She blew out a breath as quietly as she could manage and followed him into the library. Then had to catch her breath again as the windows of the great room continued into this one. Only she would bet money by the way they kind of shimmered in the sun that these ones were treated. Which made sense in a library where the books would need the protection.
Besides the one wall of windows, the other three walls were floor to ceiling books, including the one she walked through, with book shelves all around the large door opening. Another sectional and multiple comfy looking leather chairs adorned the space and another fire place graced the center of the wall of windows with the same stone from floor to arched ceiling. Only this one was smaller and had a glass window that looked like fire but gave off the steady heat of a gas flame out of a protected vent. Very nice. She could imagine sitting in several places in this room reading in the lap of cozy luxury.
"You like to read?" she asked having a hard time knowing where to look next. More than one antique looking rug covered the wood floor that flowed throughout the house and she wondered if he ever lay on that rug before the fire and read.
"When I have the time," he answered as quietly as she had asked. "You?"
"Love it." She smiled at the man and walked over to the first shelf as if drawn by a magnet. "The library was my place of refuge when I was a child. No matter what town or home I ended up in there was always one to lose myself in."
"You needed a refuge a lot as a child?" The new harder tone of his voice drew her eyes back to him and she stopped short of pulling a book off the shelf, knowing that now was not the time. She licked her dry lips at the anger she could feel hiding behind his usual cold mask. She did not even stop to wonder how she knew what he was feeling.
"Doesn't every child," she said downplaying her past as best she could.
He didn't go for it. "Someone hurt you?" How he managed to bring heat and ice to the same statement she had no idea, but it made her heart, already beating hard at his presence, escalate.
She decided to tell him the truth before his anger on her behalf gave her a heart attack. "Foster care is never a fun place to be. Even when people have the best intentions." She shrugged. "And I was never really with anyone long enough to form familiar attachments for one reason or another." She thought about her best friend David and what he had gone through. "Plenty of kids had it way worse than I did." She met his eyes. "To answer your question, no. I was one of the lucky ones. No one hurt me."
He had moved closer while she spoke, and he was suddenly within touching distance, his finger running down one cheek. "Then why did you need a sanctuary?"
"Books showed me what kind of person I wanted to be." She turned her head escaping the hand that had fallen to the mark on her shoulder and rested there, almost as if he was establishing his claim.
"And what kind of person was that?" he asked. His eyes hooded as he watched her pull away from him.
"Someone who made her own choices and didn't have to live by anyone else's dictates or expectations."
He said nothing to that, just studied her as she moved away toward the fireplace. Georgie took a breath knowing she needed to end the awkward talk they had fallen into. "Are you going to tell me all of it?"
When he did not answer she turned to find he had followed her and was closer than she expected. She swallowed hard and moved around the couch so she could take the single chair to the right of the fireplace, forcing him to take another seat, she hoped. He did, but he made her stew first, studying her for a long moment be
fore he sat down on the couch across from her and smiled.
She breathed slowly in and out and tried for patience and calm, neither of which she seemed capable of at the moment. "Why did you bring me here? I know you think I'm a half wolf in disguise but even if that is true, why yank me off the street? And how was it for my own good?" She looked around at the opulence surrounding them. She was not ready yet to ask her final question. Why his home and why was he acting like he was claiming her for more than just a place in his pack?
"If you had been found by the First of the San Francisco region, you would have been at his mercy. I needed you in my territory to assure your safety." His eyes went hard. "Raoul is not someone I would trust with my fiercest wolf, let alone a rare Omega."
She tilted her head and studied him right back. "What's an Omega? Is that your name for half breeds? And what," she went on, “makes you think I am one? Also, if I am one, will I be able to shift at some point, hypothetically speaking?"
"I am a First. Most wolves might have missed it, but I would not, nor would another First. And as rare and sought after as your kind is, many of my kind would not have been half as gentle as I was in the handling of you." He paused his eyes heating noticeably. "There was also the fact that you reacted as a compatible mate would. Either reason would have assured you caught my attention. Both?" he said, and she was sure he could see the blush that crimsoned her cheeks at that. "There was not a chance in hell I was leaving you vulnerable and alone for another male to find. And no," he said finally. "You would have shifted with puberty if you had that gift, but our children will have the ability."
The word mate she figured she needed no translation on, but when she got over the oomph that word triggered in her stomach followed by the shock of his talk of "our" children she decided to ignore it for now. It was a little like she was placing both hands over her ears and screaming 'la, la, la' at the top of her voice to avoid his words, but she was going to go with it for now. Electing instead to keep on with her questions.
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