by Renee Rose
He spun her around and picked up her small, smooth hands, placing them on the wall, one at a time. Like before, just touching her bare skin fired his inner wolf. He stroked his palms up her arms to her shoulders, savoring her soft skin. He slid them down her sides until he reached her hips, then he lifted one hand and brought it sharply down on her ass.
Her sharp intake of breath made his cock throb. “I think your sister already told you what I’ll do,” he rumbled in her ear, his voice deeper and more gravelly than usual.
The silly girl didn’t know wolves have excellent hearing. Walking to the other side of a room didn’t preclude him from hearing every word of their conversation.
She didn’t answer, but appeared to be frozen, listening intently, waiting. He caught no sign that he’d intimidated her. No, all he got was interest. That’s what he’d smelled when she was on the phone, too. Good, that was the way he wanted it. He’d feel like a douchebag if he genuinely scared her.
“If you try to leave here, I’ll spank you until this perfect ass is red and your sweet little pussy is dripping wet.”
Pink stained her cheeks. Her exhale sounded shaky. She didn’t look at him, but remained in the position he’d put her, staring at the wall. The heady scent of her arousal told him he’d already achieved the second goal. And damn, he’d never wanted a human this badly before.
“Let me know when you want me to take care of that ache between your legs,” he murmured, then stepped back. “I’d be happy to bury my cock between those thighs and fuck some warmth into you.”
His taunt worked, because she drew herself up, yanking her hands away from the wall and spinning on him, cheeks flushed red. “Go to hell,” she huffed and marched right for the front door.
“Don’t do it,” he warned.
She took a final look over her shoulder at him and threw the door wide, taking off running the minute she stepped outside.
His inner wolf took over. Before he could rein himself in, he charged after her, vision domed, the thrill of the hunt upon him. No, the thrill of mating. In a flash, he was upon her, the animal in him roaring to…
Could it be?
Mark.
His inner wolf wanted to mate with her—permanently.
Somehow, he stayed in human form. He caught her. With one arm wrapped around her waist, his free hand ripped her skirt up out of the way and went straight to her core. Without any permission from his brain, his fingers rubbed her clit over her lacy panties while he carried her, kicking and struggling back into the house.
He didn’t hear her screams, didn’t even know what he was doing as he charged into the bedroom and threw her down on her hands and knees on his mattress. The beast had taken over. She was his she-wolf and he needed to claim her, to make her his, to embed his scent in her, forever. He yanked at her panties, tearing the pink lace in half to get them off. He went for the button on his jeans as he crawled up, ready to mount her.
Only then did her body posture and expression finally sink into his wolf-addled brain. She hunched into a defensive position and her face wore terror.
He froze.
Oh, hell.
No. What had he done? He shook his head, trying to recover his human self, his rational mind.
She’d backed all the way up against the headboard, huddled in a little ball, her blue eyes huge, pupils tiny with fear. It physically pained him to see her like that, almost as much as it pained him to pull back from claiming her.
As his vision returned to normal, he scrubbed a hand over his face and drew several deep, cleansing breaths. He couldn’t think what to say, except the first thing that popped into his head. “Now do you see why you need to listen to me? You nearly got fucked to within an inch of your life.”
He touched his teeth with the tip of his tongue. They felt normal, but he knew he’d been about to mark her. The sweet secretion he would’ve embedded in her skin pooled in his mouth. Had his teeth lengthened? Was that why she looked so scared? Not that the fact he’d almost raped her wasn’t horrifying enough.
He glared at her, as if it were all her fault. “Never run from an aroused wolf. Especially not an alpha. It triggers the instinct to claim.”
She blinked.
Way to blame the victim, asshole.
The scent of fear had dissipated, but she shivered at his words.
Fucking hell. He’d screwed this situation up royally.
You’re a sorry excuse for a wolf. You’ll never amount to anything. The only female who would ever lower herself to mate you is a human. His father’s sneering prediction the night he’d tossed him out on his ass at age sixteen came ringing back in his ears.
He stabbed his fingers through his hair. Not even a human woman would have an asshole like him. Despite all these years of trying to prove he could make it his own way, he was still as bad as that wild teenage wolf his father hadn’t seen fit to keep in his pack.
“I’m sorry.” It shouldn’t have taken him that long to apologize.
Her head wobbled around on her neck, and she opened her lips, but no sound came out. He hated seeing her like that, wanted the uppity little real estate agent to return and insult him. But it was probably just as well she kept silent. If they went back to their verbal sparring, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold back—she had his lust on a knife’s edge as it was.
Even with his brain back in function, his cock strained painfully at his jeans. He wouldn’t allow himself to look, but her bare pussy flashed between her legs, because—oh, yeah—he’d destroyed her panties. They lay torn where he’d thrown them on the floor. Guess he’d be going to Walmart sooner rather than later.
He walked to his dresser and pulled out a t-shirt and pair of boxer briefs and tossed them near her on the bed. “You can wear these for now. I’ll get you some clothes in the morning.”
She didn’t answer or move. Her breath pumped rapidly in her chest, berry lips parted.
“Are you hungry?”
He half expected her not to answer—he’d deserve the silent treatment after what he’d almost done, but she nodded immediately. He tried to think what he had in the house. Not much. He’d have to go grocery shopping for her too.
Taking care of anyone besides himself was an entirely foreign proposition. As alpha, he’d lay down his life for any of his pack mates, but that didn’t mean he had to worry about their basic needs. They were all young and tough like him.
Damn, Ben Stone was definitely going to owe him big time for all this.
* * *
Melissa shucked her blouse and pulled on Cody’s clothes with shaking fingers.
What had just happened?
She’d almost been taken. Except she knew Cody hadn’t meant to hurt her. He’d half-shifted—teeth long, irises sky blue. She remembered that had happened to Ben before he marked Ashley, and he’d been devastated about what he’d done. Maybe this was why humans and shifters didn’t mix.
What would’ve happened if she’d been a wolf? Or a full wolf, because she and Ashley were one quarter wolf. They hadn’t known it, but their grandfather had been a shifter. After Ben had marked Ashley and she recovered more quickly than expected, they’d taken a road trip up to Wyoming to visit their Grandma Jane to uncover the family secret. She hadn’t said much—the memory seemed painful to her—but she’d confirmed the man they knew as their grandfather hadn’t sired her father. He’d been conceived by a shifter, whose pack had forced him to abandon her because she was human. He’d left her before he knew she was pregnant and she never made any attempt to tell him.
They told Grandma Jane about Ben, but the three had agreed to keep Ashley and Melissa’s parents in the dark about it all unless there became a compelling need for them to know.
Would a full wolf have welcomed Cody’s ‘attack’? No, the situation never would have happened, because she would’ve known better than to run.
She slid her fingers through her tangled hair. Honestly, until she saw the lengthened teeth, she had wanted
him. She would’ve parted her legs and let him plunge his huge cock—she was only guessing, but based on the size of the bulge in his jeans, it had to be—right into her core.
So what did the teeth mean? Surely he wasn’t going to mark her. That would mean they were mated for life, and Cody didn’t seem to even like her, apart from the sexual attraction between them.
Regardless of what it all meant, one thing had been confirmed—her instinct that this bad boy was as much trouble as her last boyfriend was dead on. She needed to keep her head, cross her legs, and wait this out. Soon, Ben and Ashley would be back and she could leave the protection of the silver wolf and find someone totally normal. And human.
Except those thoughts fell flat and thin as a crepe. She’d never be happy with normal, would she?
Sighing, she pushed open the bedroom door, the rumble in her empty stomach becoming more insistent than her desire to avoid Cody.
He stood at the stove, somehow managing to look both manly and incredibly sexy as he flipped something in a pan with a spatula. His broad shoulders rippled with muscle, and his torso tapered to a narrow waist followed by the best ass she’d ever seen on a man. There was something about those ripped, worn-out jeans.
Yum. Just yum.
She cleared her throat. “What are you making?”
The way he paused before speaking told her he’d known the whole time that she’d been standing there watching. Well, of course he had. He probably had extrasensory wolf instincts. She wondered what other gifts wolves possessed, apart from being able to jump from two-story windows, catch one hundred twenty-five pounds of falling woman, and drive a motorcycle like the 1970s hotshot Evel Knievel.
“Grilled cheese.”
She snorted. “I should’ve figured that, Walmart boy.” It was a low blow. Actually, she loved grilled cheese, but Cody had decided she was some kind of diva, so she figured she’d play the part just to goad him. It worked.
He whirled, brows down low over his eyes. “I didn’t promise to feed you,” he warned, with a shake of the spatula at her.
She smirked and sauntered forward, pretending he didn’t look scary as hell. Backwards though it was, after what had just passed between them, she’d lost much of her fear of him. She’d seen his limits. “Keeping me alive probably involves feeding me, though, don’t you think?”
His lips pressed together in a thin line. “Don’t push your luck.” He turned back to the stove and flipped a grilled cheese onto a plate beside a whole tomato. He thrust the plate in her direction, without turning to look at her.
She took it and looked down at the tomato, wondering how in the hell he expected her to eat it. Also, there was nowhere to eat. She hadn’t noticed before, but he lacked a table and chairs. Rolling her eyes, she walked to the sofa and plopped down. No wonder it seemed dirty. This was where he must eat all his meals.
A moment later he joined her, his plate stacked with four grilled cheese sandwiches and two tomatoes.
Because she enjoyed needling him, she picked up the tomato. “How exactly do you expect me to eat this?”
The tic showed up in his jaw again. “I don’t care how you eat it, or whether you eat it, princess. In fact, while you’re here, maybe I should put you in charge of cooking.” His eyes slid sideways and she caught the glint of goading in them. “I could use a live-in housekeeper around here.”
That thought shouldn’t turn her on. Especially not after living with Jeremy, who did absolutely nothing around the house. It must be the wicked way Cody looked at her that made her heart tumble and her flesh heat. She imagined wearing a little French maid’s costume and running around to serve him under threat of a spanking while he waited with those powerful arms folded across his chest.
Stop it. Just stop. This guy was another Mr. Wrong. Definitely not the guy for her.
To throw it back at him, she held his gaze, picked up the tomato and took a big bite of it, as if it were an apple. Juice and seeds dribbled down her chin, but she didn’t move to wipe them away.
Cody stared at her mouth, his expression turning hungry.
She jumped, pulse racing, when he leaped to his feet and stalked toward her.
“What are you doing to me?” he demanded in a guttural voice.
She froze, the tomato still gripped in her fingers in front of her mouth, juice dripping down her arm. She wasn’t sure what he meant.
He grabbed the tomato out of her hand and then his mouth was upon hers. His tongue lapped up the juices before his lips descended on hers in a brutal kiss.
She gasped.
He hooked one hand behind her neck and hauled her to stand, body pressed against his, and took her mouth again and again.
Her nipples, bare beneath his oversized t-shirt, puckered and stood up, rubbing against the soft cotton.
When he broke away, he stared down at her like a man possessed. “Are you really sure you want to play that game with me?”
Dizzy with desire, she probably would have fallen over if he hadn’t been holding her tight against his hard body.
She thought about playing innocent and asking “what game?” but they seemed beyond that. Cody had effectively put her on notice—nearly anything she did that might be construed as sexual put her in danger of getting fucked by him. And she bet he fucked hard and rough, like his manners.
She stared at his stubbled chin, not quite able to lift her eyes to his face.
The idiotic part of her wanted to wave the white flag and surrender. Take me! it cried, like the pathetic quick-bonding female she was.
Not going to happen.
She put her hands on his sculpted chest and pushed.
He moved back, but it was after a moment’s hesitation, as if to show her that her feeble pushes meant absolutely nothing to a man—wolf—as strong as him. His eyes bored into her as if she stood there naked.
He brought the dripping fruit to her lips, offering it for another bite.
After his warning, she ought to have known better, but she sank her teeth into the soft meat of the tomato and closed her eyes with the explosion of taste, made all the more potent by her fascinated observer.
He ran his thumb over her lower lip, corralling tomato seeds into her mouth. “You’re not going to last long around here.”
“What do you mean?” Her voice only quavered a little. She licked the juice from her lower lip, missing being mashed up against his body. Despite the ill-fitting t-shirt and boxer shorts ensemble, she’d never felt so desirable in her life. Cody made every cell in her body spark to life, alert, simmering for his touch.
He gripped her hips, fingers firm against her flesh. “I’m already dying to bury my cock deep and pound until you scream my name.”
Her mouth dropped open. She ought to be shocked by his crudeness, but dirty talk must be her thing because the flames of desire only burned hotter. Her breasts ached, swollen for his touch; her clit throbbed in time with her heartbeat.
“I-I can’t,” she somehow managed to stammer.
What she meant was she could. In a heartbeat. But it would be something her old self would do, and she was trying, very hard, to stop being the loser twin and do something right with her life for a change.
He released her and took a step back. The scorn returned to his expression. “Then stay clear, princess, or you might find yourself in a compromising situation.”
Chapter Three
“I’m going to take a shower,” Cody growled, stalking away from the tempting little human. A cold shower. Jesus, what was it about her?
He shut the door to the bathroom with a resounding click and stripped off his work clothes. Ben Stone had seriously fucked up his life with this little alpha-to-alpha favor. He sure hoped it was worth it. With cold water on full blast, he climbed in, letting it pelt his body until the internal heat began to fade. He closed his eyes and rubbed a wet hand over his face, trying to erase the image of the way she’d looked with that tomato dripping down her chin.
That shouldn’t
have been so erotic. But there was something unique about this female that made her different from other humans. Maybe that’s why Ben Stone had fallen for her sister. The fact that the powerful leader of the Denver pack—the billionaire CEO of a gaming company, who could certainly have his pick of any she-wolf in the world—had chosen a human said something.
He looked down at his cock, which still flew at half-mast. He’d better take care of it before he went anywhere near that human again, or there’d be trouble.
Fisting it, he leaned one hand against the tile and closed his eyes, allowing Melissa to screech into the forefront of his brain. Images flashed before his eyes—the flash of white thigh when her skirt had ridden up on the motorcycle; the way her arms fit around his waist so perfectly; her scent, intoxicating despite its humanness.
He pumped his aching cock and let the next batch of images flash through his brain. The dampness of her pink lace panties when he’d rubbed her clit, the flash of her pussy after he’d ripped them off. It had been shaved bare—for whom? That asshole of an ex-boyfriend? The thought made him grind his molars, the fingers on the tile wall curling into a fist.
He went back to replay the moment when he’d tossed her on the bed, on all fours, imagined what would’ve happened if she’d welcomed him—the look she might have tossed over her shoulder. A she-wolf would’ve bared her teeth, lowered her front haunches to give him her ass.
Yes… fuck, yes. He shot hot ribbons of cum against the tile wall, his eyes rolling back in his head with pleasure. Turning back into the stream of water, he rinsed off, noting that his cock still remained hopeful, despite the release.
Not going to happen, buddy. Get a grip.
* * *
Melissa drew several deep breaths to recover from the intensity of Cody’s presence. His phone buzzed on the table and she glanced at it. Was Jeremy calling back? She shouldn’t care about his welfare, but she couldn’t help it. She picked it up, but the caller came up as ‘Ed Smith.’ Must be one of Cody’s acquaintances.