Reckless: A Prowl Novel

by AJ Merlin

I growled right back, the sounds intermingling between us as I lifted my hands to his shoulders and pulled him flush against me.

  He didn’t seem to mind. If anything, the rumble in his chest sounded pleased, and he moved his hands to tangle one in my long, already disheveled hair.

  “It’s a shame,” he began, pulling away enough for us to both gasp for breath. “That I don’t have enough time to do what I want with you tonight.”

  “Oh?” I asked, lifting one hand to comb my fingers through his messy hair and pull him back to me for another kiss. “Why?” I couldn’t help but ask, and couldn’t stop the words escaping my kiss-swollen lips.

  “Why?” Wilder growled, as if the question was unexpected. He blinked, then pulled back for a moment. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “Perhaps just because you are…you. And I find everything about you absolutely magnetizing.”

  He paused, then went on with his prior thought. “There are so many things I want to do to you, love. Even if we had all night, I don’t think I’d be satisfied.”

  His words made heat curl low in my belly and my lips parted. Though, I didn’t know what to say.

  “Pick one,” I said at last.

  “Oh, I’m very far ahead of you,” he chuckled. “I already have.” His fingers gripped the shirt I wore, and he raised his brows. “Your clothes had better come off quickly if you’d like to wear them out of here.”

  Irrationally, I’d rather he rip them off of me. But logically I knew I did need something to wear.

  I barely needed any urging, though still slowed down my movements, eyes locked on his, as I pulled the white shirt over my head.

  Wilder growled when I threw it to the side, fingers hooking in the hem of my borrowed sweatpants. “I’m not sure we have the same definition of quickly,” he said, and shredded them.

  I gasped, hips jerked forward as he tore them off of my legs and let them fall. “Oh great, Wilder. That’s going to be so helpful in walking out of here-“

  “I have other clothes you can borrow,” he informed me, just as his gaze dipped from my face to my body.

  He wasn’t shy about it. His eyes drank in my curves, his hands on my hips again as he looked at me.

  “I’m sure we can put everyone off,” he said, dropping to his knees in front of me. “For a while longer.”

  His hands slid down my hips, gripping my thighs as he urged them apart.

  “How long’s awhile?” I asked teasingly.

  He didn’t bother to answer.

  Or rather, his actions were answer enough. With my thighs locked in his grip, Wilder leaned upward to press his mouth against my hip, trailing downward until his breath blew hot over the place I wanted him most.

  Unlike Roman, Wilder didn’t bother with teasing me. He buried his face against me, causing me to gasp. My hand flew down to tangle in his hair at the feeling of his tongue against my clit, and the dire wolf growled in approval as my fingers curled against his scalp.

  “Wilder-“ I choked out, his tongue circling over my clit a few times before lapping against me.

  I wasn’t sure whether to yank on his hair or urge him against me. Though, he was definitely doing a damn good job without any input from me.

  I hadn’t realized that his hand had disappeared from my hip, and when two of his fingers pressed against me, then into me, I couldn’t help my cry of surprise.

  He didn’t pull away, and he didn’t slow down. He fucked me with two fingers, tongue still assaulting me without mercy.

  All I could do was yank on his hair and breathe his name, trapped against the wall as I was.

  Finally at a particularly hard yank from me, Wilder stood.

  “Yes, love?” He purred, his face close to mine.

  “I want something more than your mouth,” I declared, wondering where the brazen words had come from.

  How had I so quickly gone from ‘omega who beats up alphas’ to ‘being fucked by the dire wolf against the wall.’

  Oh and wasn’t that a distracting picture? But I wanted it. I wanted Wilder inside me, buried deep as he came.

  Pushing that fantasy away for the moment, I crushed my lips to his in a bruising kiss, loving the way I could taste myself in his mouth.

  Wilder growled against my lips and I drank in the sound, pulling his hands to my hips before reaching between us to curl my hand around his already erect cock.

  “So eager, aren’t we love?” The dire wolf teased. “You only just met me. I could turn out to be the bad guy.”

  “You are kind of the bad guy,” I agreed with a grin. “But I’m not the hero, so therefore I’m not exactly afraid.”

  “No…” he trailed his eyes down my body and shuddered under my touch, a breathy moan escaping his lips. “You’re much too bloodthirsty to be the hero.”

  He captured my lips in another kiss, this one just as filthy as the ones before it, and hooked a hand under my knee to pull my leg upward.

  Seconds later I felt him brush against my entrance and shivered, the anticipation and want thrumming in my body.

  Thankfully, Wilder didn’t keep me waiting.

  With one long thrust, he was buried inside me, body pressed to mine and seated deliciously deep.

  “Oh fuck,” I complimented, wrapping my arms loosely around his neck and going along with his urging to wrap my leg around his waist.

  With bright, wolf-like eyes, Wilder watched me as he drew back to slam home again, his gaze drinking in my small sounds and expressions while he fucked me.

  “Perfect, love,” he purred, finding and holding a steady rhythm as he fucked me. “You take me so well. Like you were made for me.”

  Some of his words, I found, were lost under my own beating heart, and the way electricity pulsed through my body as he fucked me.

  He felt amazing, but it wasn’t just because of his actions. It was a combination of him inside me, his low growl, and the way he watched me that had me squirming in no time, hands gripping his shoulders and digging deep against him.

  “You don’t give yourself enough credit,” I gasped as he leaned in close, our gazes snapping together. “I think you’re not so bad at this yourself, Wilder.”

  “Of course you don’t,” he agreed arrogantly, but I could see the way his composure was beginning to shred, and how he was starting to come apart at the seams. “But you don’t give yourself enough credit,” he went on, his voice lowering to a hoarse growl as his thrusts started to lose their rhythm. “I love how you feel around me-have I said that?”

  “I think you may have mentioned it. But I don’t mind hearing it again.”

  His chuckle was a low growl. “Then let me elaborate.” The dire wolf wrapped a hand loosely around my jaw so I had to watch his face as he fucked me. “You’re fucking perfect like this. With that flush on your face. Those little moans you make-and you’re close, aren’t you?”

  He wasn’t wrong. I was close-so close to coming apart around him.

  But I wanted so badly for him to cum first.

  “So are you,” I challenged in the face of his amused snarl.

  “So cheeky,” he purred, and reached between us to find my clit.

  I yelped at his touch, writhing against the wall and rising on my tiptoes as he rubbed it hard.

  “Wilder-wait–that’s really not fair–“

  “Life’s not fair,” the dire wolf agreed, and surged forward to bite down on my shoulder, just barely not breaking the skin.

  I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I came, crying out loudly but barely hearing myself as my body spasmed around his cock. He fucked me for a few more strokes, then buried himself inside me and pressed his mouth more tightly to my throat, sucking a mark onto my skin that would barely last a few minutes, I knew.

  But it mattered more that, for a moment, I would bear a mark from his teeth.

  He shuddered but remained against me, until finally the dire wolf drew back enough to meet my gaze. “What did I say?” Wilder asked with an arrogant twist of his lips. �
��You’re perfect.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The ringing of his phone made the dire wolf sigh, eyes closing in irritation.

  I watched him, and when Wilder drew me in for another kiss, I met his mouth with enthusiasm.

  “Time’s up, I guess,” he muttered darkly, and went to the counter to pick up his phone. “There’s a duffel bag in my bedroom. You can grab another pair of pants from there, love,” he added, then hit the accept button.

  “Thanks,” I whispered, not wanting to interrupt his call.

  “Yes, I know,” the dire wolf greeted, not bothering with any pleasantries.

  I could hear a male voice on the other end, but I didn’t recognize it.

  Plus, I wasn’t about to eavesdrop. That was rude.

  I picked up the t-shirt from the floor and walked to his bedroom, pushing the door open just enough for me to step inside and find the duffel bag he’d talked about.

  Black leggings were folded in the bag and I grabbed them, pulling them on quickly so that I could leave the room that smelled deliciously like the dire wolf’s signature mint and cold.

  It would be so easy to throw myself on his bed and inhale his scent.

  It’d be even easier to not get dressed and wait there for him.

  Don’t even think about it, Alek, I warned my inner, lust-filled self.

  This wasn’t the time, nor the place.

  Besides. Was I so sure I wanted to add Wilder to my already overfilled dance card of confusing relationships that made me weak in the knees and willing to roll over and beg to be fucked?

  Yeah, I so totally was.

  Fuck.

  Once I was dressed, I walked back to the main room, surprised to see that Wilder was no longer on the phone and had already gotten dressed.

  “Can I use your phone?” I asked, gesturing to it offhandedly. “So my roommate can come get me later?”

  “Don’t trust me to take you home?” Wilder inquired, his tone carefully neutral.

  “It seemed rude to assume you would. Can you leave the Heights?”

  “Oh yes. Once a month, the mighty Ahlleron clan lets me go on a field trip if I’ve been good.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want you to use up your once-a-month field trip on me.” I reached for the phone again and he handed it to me. “Thank you.”

  While I knew he could hear me if he wanted to, I still went into his bathroom and closed the door behind me to give myself at least the semblance of privacy.

  Once I was there, I dialed Noah’s number and put the phone to my ear while I finger combed my hair in the mirror.

  “Hello?” Noah’s voice was puzzled and very careful when he answered.

  “Hey, Noah. It’s me,” I greeted.

  “You got arrested again, didn’t you? I knew he’d end up finding you–“

  “Who? And no, I didn’t get arrested. I’m…” I hesitated, trying to think of what to say. “I’m in the Heights. How’s the woman?”

  “She’s okay. She came around after you left and the enforcers took her in for medical attention. Wait-what are you doing in the Heights?”

  This was dangerous territory. I did not want to have this conversation on the phone, that was for sure.

  “That’s where the bear shifter went,” I said simply.

  “Right…but why are you still there? And whose phone is this?”

  “I uh, I made a friend.”

  “Oh god, not another one-“

  “Was someone looking for me?” I interrupted, remembering his previous statement.

  “Uh, yeah. Roman. You know, the guy you brought out to this shit show? He said he was going off to find you before you did something really dumb.”

  “He hasn’t found me. And good news! I did not do anything that’s an arresting offense.” I hesitated, then added, “I think.”

  “So…Calli’s boyfriend is still alive?”

  “Well…no.”

  “You killed him?!” Noah yelped incredulously.

  “I did not, actually.”

  My roommate was silent for the span of a few heartbeats, during which I stared into my own eyes in Wilder’s mirror and contemplated my recent life choices.

  “Who…did?” he asked finally.

  I paused, unsure exactly what to say.

  Finally, I decided on the truth.

  “The dire wolf.”

  “Oh my god, Alek! What happened? Where are you?”

  “At his apartment.”

  “You’re at the dire wolf’s apartment?”

  Before now, I’d never known Noah’s voice could go so high. He sounded as if someone was strangling him, and I wondered if he was breathing okay.

  “Don’t freak out, okay, but-“

  “No. No. The next thing you’re going to tell me is ‘oh, Noah. The dire wolf was just so enchanting so I had to get sexy with him and now I’m going to live in the Heights and marry him.’”

  That was a better guess than I’d expected.

  “Uh, no,” I replied.

  “Damn right it’d better be-“

  “I’m not going to live in the Heights and marry him.”

  Noah went quiet.

  Had he died?

  “I think you need an intervention,” my roommate stated at last.

  “No, I need a ride home. But…not right now. I promised Wilder-“

  “Wilder-?!”

  “That I’d stay and help him with the enforcers.”

  “You mean help him with Roman. Remember him? Roman? The enforcer who likes you?”

  A headache was beginning to form in my temples, and I pressed my fingers to my forehead. “I’ll figure it out,” I sighed. “Just…can you come get me? In awhile?”

  “What’s awhile?”

  “I’ll let you know when I know.”

  “Yeah, yeah that’s fine.” He barely sounded grumpy, and worry had seeped into his tone. For a brief moment, I wondered if this would be the time he told me I’d gone too far with my impulsive actions.

  “Just please be careful, all right? I’m worried,” Noah sighed.

  “I will be the most careful.”

  “Sure you will.”

  He hung up, making the phone beep.

  I glanced at it with a frown, then paused before I could open the door.

  In my conversation, I hadn’t been paying attention to the sounds around me.

  Now I did pay attention.

  I grabbed the doorknob and swung it open, eyes narrowing at Wilder who stood just on the other side.

  “I doubted you needed to come so close to eavesdrop,” I informed him.

  “I could’ve heard you from the kitchen, sure,” Wilder agreed. “But I thought your friend would have been quieter, so here I am.” He raised a brow. “You really didn’t notice, love?”

  “I was distracted.”

  “Hmm.” Thankfully, he didn’t bother to comment further. “So, we have a little thing for Roman the enforcer, do we?”

  “Really? You’re really going to comment on a conversation you eavesdropped on?”

  He shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly. “Hate to say it, but there’s no way in hell he won’t scent me all over you.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “And I doubt he’ll miss that you smell like-“

  “I know,” I interrupted.

  “Oh well.” Wilder shrugged his shoulders, now clad in his leather jacket from before.

  “Thanks.”

  This time, Wilder didn’t reply. He moved aside when I exited the bathroom, following me to the kitchen until I turned and handed him the phone.

  “Sorry I don’t have any shoes for you to borrow,” Wilder said, pocketing it. “My sister didn’t leave any when she visited.”

  “Your…sister?” I repeated, my earlier assumptions burning to cinders in my brain.

  “Yeah. What did you think, love? That I had some old girlfriend’s clothes lying around in my bedroom?”

  “I wouldn’t say that…” But I ha
d been thinking it.

  And what did it matter if they had been? I couldn’t be jealous over someone I’d never met before tonight.

  Right?

  His eyes narrowed slightly and Wilder fixed me with a flat look.

  “If you’re ready, we’re going back to the warehouse,” he said, snagging his keys off of the counter where he’d laid them earlier. “The enforcers called because they’re there, and they’d like to know what happened.”

  “Aren’t you just going to tell them that you killed him?” I ventured.

  “They frown on me killing people for no reason. Even if this is my territory. We’re going to tell them what happened, and I’m going to tell them that I thought he was going to kill you.”

  He tipped his head to the side when I opened my mouth to protest.

  “Or would you rather both of us get hauled in for questioning tonight? Well.” He glanced away. “Probably you. Not so much me.”

  Wow.

  “Fine,” I sighed. Because no, I did not want to go back to shifter jail tonight. Not after the unpleasant experience last time around.

  Instead of walking, we drove back to the warehouse in Wilder’s sleek, black Camaro.

  It was nicer than anything I would ever own in my life, and I took my time appreciating the heated seats, fancy console, and smooth ride.

  “Are your windows tinted?” I asked, glancing through the glass.

  “Of course,” he said simply, pulling into the lot.

  Two SUVs were there, identical to the ones from the day before.

  Please, please don’t let me go to shifter jail, I begged any higher power that might listen. I’m much too weak to be a convict.

  “Hey.” A hand rested gently on my knee, prompting me to glance over at Wilder. “You aren’t going to get arrested,” he said slowly.

  “Again,” I added lamely. “Since I was already arrested yesterday because of Michael Fairfield.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” Wilder continued, voice full of infinite patience. “Promise, love.”

  In a surprising gesture of affection, the dire wolf lifted his hand to cup my jaw, then pulled away.

  Was it just me, or had confusion and warmth gone through his gaze when he touched me?

  As he exited the car, I stared after him with parted lips and racing thoughts.