by Jenika Snow
She shivered at his words.
“It’s been fucking hard, so hard that I’ve wanted nothing more than to just break down your door and throw you over my shoulder, making you mine.”
“Garrison,” she breathed out, her voice shaking.
“Right now your pussy is wet, your nipples hard, and your animal craving my touch.” He breathed out slowly, then inhaled deeply, as if trying to take in her scent. “I’m a bad male, but the darkness inside of me keeps this pride safe, keeps your father and you safe.” He looked at her lips. “And I’ll have you, in every way imaginable, Odessa, and you’ll give yourself to me, won’t you?” He looked at her face again, stared right in her eyes. “You’re tired of fighting this attraction, this mating, aren’t you, baby?”
She wanted to just give in to him, but the stubborn part of her made her stand still.
“How much longer are you going to run from me, run from this mating?” His gaze was unwavering. “How much longer do you think I’ll let you run, mate?”
Chapter Two
Garrison hoped she’d run even though a part of him wished that she’d stay. Whenever it came to Odessa he was always conflicted. There would never be another woman for him. Odessa was going to be mated to him, and because of that, he couldn’t bring himself to let her go. Even though he loved it when she turned her back on him, as he got to see her lovely ass, and Odessa never failed him in that department, just once he’d love to see what would happen if she just stayed. For the last two years when she’d tried to make herself less attractive to him, ignored him, and made it seem like she wasn’t interested in mating, she’d only served to enthrall him more. No other female held his interest. He lived, breathed, and dreamed about Odessa, and had done for the last two years. He needed her, wanted her, and was going to have her. The scent coming from her was making him hard as fucking rock. Her scent was one of the reasons why he didn’t stop chasing her. She wanted him even though she denied him. In fact, whenever he saw Odessa, scented her, he was hard for her. His dick didn’t know when to stop, and he never put up a fight.
“I’m not your mate,” she said, biting out the words between gritted teeth. They didn’t have fated mates, but when a lion found that one female who was theirs, who would be theirs, then nothing stopped them from having her.
He smiled. “Fight me, little lion.” He moved his hand from the trunk of the tree to place it on her shoulder. Compared to a lot of pride females, Odessa was curvy even after all the training she’d undergone. Garrison loved her fuller curves, loved the bumps and dips that made her all woman. When he did finally take her, she’d fight just enough so he’d have to use force, but within moments, she’d be screaming out her pleasure. This wouldn’t be when he claimed her virginity. No, he’d take his time and love her body the way she deserved. He could wait. Until that moment, he was going to give her a little taste of what it meant to be owned by him.
“You’re fucking sick, Garrison, obsessed, and to the point of being a stalker.”
He didn’t respond, because it was the truth. He was obsessed with her, wanted to posses her, own her … claim every part of her. He brought his hand down over her full tit. Her nipple poked against his palm letting him know she was just as affected by him as he was her.
Pressing his cock against her stomach, he made her aware, without shame, how hard he was. Garrison wanted to show to her how beautiful she was, what her body alone did to him. “You think I’m sick? I’m not the one who has been turned on by the sight of blood. The destruction I can cause with my bare hands.” To prove his point he rested his palm around her neck, pressing slightly cutting off a little of her air. She didn’t look frightened. The scent of her arousal intensified. “I could hurt you, and no one would ever know it was me, wouldn’t even question it. I’m a bad male, a dangerous, violent lion who has to be this way in order to protect what I hold dear. But I don’t want to hurt you, Odessa. I never want to hurt you.” He inhaled deeply, loved she was growing even more aroused. The truth was, he’d never hurt her. He loved her with all of his heart and soul.
He released her neck. Odessa didn’t take a deep breath. She simply inhaled.
“What do you want?”
Oh, she knew what he wanted. She always knew what he wanted. He could tell by the way she watched him.
Garrison smiled, placing his hand between her thighs, and touching her heat he felt even through the fabric of her jeans. “I want to fuck you, to claim you. I want to make you mine, Odessa. I’m not going to fuck you though, not even when I know this virgin cunt is begging for some hot cock, for my big cock.”
She went to hit him, and he caught her wrist, trapping it against the trunk of the tree. The bark had to be biting into her wrist. “You’re fucking insane.”
Laughing without any amusement, only dark intent, he shoved his hand right down inside her jeans, cupping her naked pussy. If at any time he believed she didn’t want him, he’d have stopped. Garrison was many things, but a rapist wasn’t one of them.
“Someone didn’t wear panties.” He slid his finger against her pussy, watching her eyes go wide as he stroked his finger over her clit. She hissed as he pinched her nub, and he watched her shake in need. Odessa was fighting herself as much as she was fighting him. “You can fight me all you want. You and I both know you want me. If your mother hadn’t died, you wouldn’t be the alpha’s only child. You’d have grown up expecting to be mated, trained to submit to me. I have to say, I’m pleased you’re not a submissive, Odessa, even though I bet part of you wants to be.”
“Fuck off.”
He slammed his lips against hers, biting down on her bottom lip. Garrison nipped just a little too hard causing blood to spill and bathe his tongue. He swallowed the taste of her, knowing her blood wouldn’t be in anyway comparable to the sweetness of her pussy.
“I like you fighting me, Odessa. In fact, I fucking love it. I don’t want a submissive in my bed. I want a fighter. A woman who’ll stand up to me yet wants my touch.”
“I’m never going to be yours.” She tried to fight him, but he had both of her hands locked above her head, his hand holding both of her wrists together. There was no chance of her getting free. Another reason he loved Odessa, she still tried to fight. When she went to slam her head against his, he released her pussy, slid his hand up her throat, and captured her chin. Sliding his fingers slick with her cream into her mouth, he watched her fight him for a split second more before giving in, sucking the cream from his fingers as her pupils dilated.
He took the fingers out of her mouth and sucked them clean, licking away her pussy juices and her saliva. “That’s how you taste, Odessa. Warm, wet, and oh so fucking sweet. Don’t try and fight me and I’ll give you an orgasm of a lifetime.”
“Let me go.” Her fight was half-assed now. She didn’t want him to let her go.
He captured her lips with his, pressing her head against the trunk of the tree. With his hand free once again, he slid his palm down her jeans, and started to stroke her swollen clit. She was wet, and he couldn’t wait to get her naked so he could relish each curve of her body along with the taste of her cunt.
She moaned, and he saw her eyes roll back in her head. Breaking the kiss, he didn’t leave enough distance for her to do any damage to him. “Garrison?” She moaned his name, calling out for him.
Her body just suddenly stopped fighting him. She began pressing toward him, begging him with her body and with little moans that drove him crazy. He refused to let her go.
“That’s it, baby, give yourself to me.” He started to whisper against her ear as he slid his fingers over her pretty pussy again. She began to thrust onto his fingers, panting his name. “You can fight me, Odessa. Fight me, curse me, but you will love me. You will be my mate and give yourself to me fully.” He stared into her eyes, pinching and stroking her clit. For once he wanted her to give in. She’d been good and fought him to start with, so now she could give in. She shook in his arms, and if it wasn�
�t for him holding her up, she’d have fallen.
Again, she spoke his name, begging and pleading with him, slowly giving in to his touch.
“You don’t need to fight these feelings. I know you’re strong. Give in. I know you want me as much as I want you. Our lions are ready for each other.” He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. They both moaned, holding onto each other, begging and gasping for each other.
Their lions wanted the mating more than either of them. His lion saw his mate and respected her strength along with her beauty. She was the most gorgeous woman in the pride, hell, in the whole fucking world, and she was his.
“Ride my fingers, baby.”
She did so, finding her peak, and he threw her over the edge into bliss. She came, and his fingers went from wet to soaked with her cream. He released her hands, quickly wrapping his arm around her waist, holding her up. She was shaking, completely sated, and growing weak from her own need.
Pulling his hands from her pussy, he took each digit into his mouth, licking her clean.
“You taste so damned good,” he said.
“I can’t mate with you,” she said, sighing, sounding defeated. Odessa was giving in. She didn’t want to mate with him, yet she knew it would be only a matter of time. After two years he’d finally get the woman he’d been craving.
He took them both down to the forest floor. Garrison lay at her back, holding her close. The lion inside him wanted to tear her clothes off and ravish here. Instead, he held back, knowing he couldn’t do that just yet, not until she was fully giving herself to him.
Garrison wanted Odessa to fight but only because she wanted him more than she could even begin to understand her own body.
“You’re breaking me down. When will you quit?” she asked, once several minutes had passed.
Garrison rested his face against her neck, inhaling her sweet scent. His cock was rock hard and throbbing but he wasn’t going to fuck her, not yet. She needed to beg him before he finally took what he wanted from her. Odessa needed to be ready.
“I’m not quitting.”
She glanced toward him. “It has been two years.”
“And I’m not going anywhere. You and I both know you want me. You’re just fighting.”
“Like you said, I’m my father’s only child. You’re the enforcer and know how things are—”
He caught her face in his hand and forced her to look at him. “You’re not going to get the pride when your father steps down. He’ll never pass it on to a female, even if it’s his own daughter.”
She jerked in his arms. Odessa had obviously never once thought that her father wouldn’t give her the pride. Garrison wondered what she was thinking. She looked like he’d struck her. The only time he’d spank her was when his palm met her delicious ass and pleasure followed. He looked forward to giving her a little pain to make the pleasure even more intense.
“Why did you say that?” She sat up, tucking some hair behind her ear.
“It’s the truth. You and I both know it.”
“What will happen to the pride?”
“He’ll give it to your mate, if he’s worthy, or he’ll find another male to lead.”
“But you want to mate me, and my father knows it.”
Garrison reached out, taking her hands within his. They were so small, so delicate. They hadn’t killed a man for sins against the pride. He’d killed men and women to ensure the safety of the pride. There were times he didn’t want to touch Odessa because of the horrible, dark things he’d done with his hands to protect her and her father. He’d take the whole truth of the cruelty he’d inflicted on others to his grave.
“He knows you’re stubborn.”
“Does he want you to be my mate?” she asked.
He’d spoken long and hard with her father. They’d talked about what her future would mean in the pride as his mate. “He wants what’s best for you, but he wants you to be able to decide what you want.”
She bit her lip, and he saw the tears well up in her eyes. He hated to see her cry. Garrison was a hardened man, a lion enforcer. He wasn’t affected by anything, and yet the sight of Odessa’s tears made him want to kill the person responsible.
“He’s hoping I pick you.”
“I’m not speaking for my alpha, Odessa.” He wanted Odessa to pick him because she possessed feelings for him, something deeper than simply liking him.
“But he wants me to be taken care of, and if I can’t run the pride, then he wants someone who is capable. It’s you, not me.” She pulled away, going to her feet. He watched her brush off some leaves and a few twigs.
“Calm down, baby.”
“I can’t do this. Not right now. I’m attracted to you, but I don’t want to be. You don’t love me, and I can’t live without love. I don’t even know if you’re capable of love, Garrison.” She stared at him. “My mother and father loved each other. But now he is alone, and I know he finds comfort in the willing females of our pride. He doesn’t take another female as his mate, though. My father loved my mother, and that’s what I want.” She inhaled sharply, glaring at him. “I don’t want to just be your mate, but your one and only female, Garrison.”
The walls he’d broken down with her orgasm, were now back up in place. He’d have to fight once again to get her to melt against him. It would be so easy to tell her he loved her, yet in that moment, he held the words back. She wasn’t ready to hear them as she wouldn’t believe him.
For the time being Garrison would have to love her from afar and wait to have her screaming out his name when she came with his cock deep within her pussy.
****
Garrison waited outside of Odessa’s house so that he could tell her something. He was leaving the pride for a few days, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave until he talked to her. Pacing up and down, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that if anyone in the pride was to see him, they’d take the piss out of him.
Glancing back up at the house, he saw her light was on, and he moved up to the door about to knock then stopped himself, walking back down the steps. Two years she’d rejected him, and he’d not once shown her how it hurt. He could take days and weeks of being tortured, yet it was getting harder for him to handle Odessa constantly pushing him away.
“What are you doing on my front porch?” Yosef asked.
“I wanted to see Odessa before I left.”
Yosef looked up toward Odessa’s window. “You’re still determined to have her as your mate.”
“Yes.”
“Is this about the pack, Garrison? You want the pack?”
“No. I don’t want the pack. I want her as my woman before I want anything else. I love her. The pack, it doesn’t mean shit to me without her. I love the pack, but if Odessa asked me to leave with her, I would.”
Yosef raised his brow. “Okay, at least I know where I stand, but I know my daughter. She’ll never make you leave the pack. This is her family, her life, and her love.”
“I want to be the one she loves.” Garrison hated how petty he sounded. Only pussies allowed themselves to be in this position.
“I like you, Garrison. I hoped Odessa would pick you as her mate. I promised her at a young age that I wouldn’t force her into anything she didn’t want, and I stick by my decision.” Yosef once again glanced back at the house. “Odessa is a lot like her mother. She’s stubborn and believes submitting to a man will make her weak. Prove to Odessa it won’t.”
“You fought with Odessa’s mom?”
“That woman was my heart and soul. Why do you think I’ve never re-mated? She was my everything.” Yosef slapped him on the shoulder. “Give her time and she’ll come around.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then you show her exactly what kind of man you are, the good and the bad?”
Yosef walked back into the house, leaving him to stare up at Odessa’s window. He could wait. He’d waited two years. He could wait a little longer.
Chapter Three
Garrison had been gone for a week now, pissed the entire time, aching inside because Odessa was still so confused about them being together. Garrison couldn’t blame her, though. This had to be difficult for her to understand. He’d gone on a mission to survey their land, making sure precautions to protect the pride were intact, but his mind had been on her the entire time. He didn’t know how to prove to her that she was it for him, the only female he’d ever want.
He’d shifted into his lion, and was running through the woods, and trying to get his aggression and arousal out of him. He ran harder, felt his mane move around his face as the wind whipped by him. His paws dug into the soft earth with every step he took, his nails curling into the ground for stability. He weaved in and out of the trees, heard every little thing that surrounded him: The chirp of a bird, the smells all around him, even the sound of a squirrel in the near distance running up a tree. He tried to focus on those things, tried to not let his need for his woman override who and what he was. She made him a softer male, made him want things that he’d never thought he’d be able to have. He actually thought of children with her, of being able to hold her and let his defenses down. She was the only shifter and human alike that he knew he could truly be himself with. The thing was he just needed to show her that even more.
God, he wanted her, still smelled her in the air from when she’d clearly run through the woods this morning. He’d find her tonight and show her that he could be a good man, but only for her.
****
It had been a week since Garrison had gotten Odessa off in the forest, and all she could think about was him. He was due back this evening, but she was going out with Sashi tonight, getting away from him, their pride, and, she hoped, the arousal that beat like a heavy drum inside of her.
She grabbed her purse and headed out. Her father had gone with Garrison and a few of the other enforcers in their pride. Maybe Garrison would want to see her when he got back, but the truth was she felt off balanced by what had happened back in the woods with him.