Claimed by the Mate, Volume 3

by Kate Douglas

  The response he didn’t want to give but suspected was going to be the only way to end this conversation. He hadn’t known Marena long, but what he knew for certain was that she was used to asking questions and getting answers. In fact, he was betting that her mind was whirling right this moment with ways to get the answers from him that she wanted. All of which showed her skills as a talented litigator. For some odd reason, that made him proud.

  “I’m not good with connections. My parents left me at an orphanage when I was five years old,” he told her, and was surprised at how simple the words sounded to his ears.

  The admission had long since lost its initial sting, but normally the afterthought angered him. Tonight, for whatever reason, it didn’t. That was just another event in his life, one he’d managed to overcome, much like all the others.

  “And for a time you blamed yourself for their decision.” She spoke quietly but matter-of-factly. Almost as if she knew the story he was about to tell.

  “When did you finally come to your senses and realize you had no control over what they did?” she asked.

  Phelan almost smiled at her candor. People didn’t always say exactly what they meant, nor did they mean what they said. He was beginning to realize that Marena, however, most likely did both.

  “I was ten when I experienced my first shift,” he told her, still keeping his distance but watching her carefully and attentively.

  “It’s a little younger than most born lycans, but my father predicted it might happen that way. My parents made sure to tell me everything there was to know about lycans and our origin before they left me. I guess that was a plus for them in the parenting-skills department. Anyway, I grew stronger from that point on, until one day in middle school I actually turned the teacher’s desk over because she’d given me a failing grade on a test just because I didn’t put my name on the paper. That’s when I learned I also had the ability to cross over to the Olympic realm.”

  “What’s the Olympic realm?” she inquired, immediately curious.

  “It’s where the gods reside, the place from which the lycan curse originated. When Zeus changed Lykaon into a wolf, the change also gave Lykaon the power to move within the realms. Lykaon passed that power along to Nyktimos and I was lucky enough to get that particular slice of DNA through my full-bred lycan parents.”

  “So you can be here one minute and in another world the next?”

  Phelan shook his head. “Something like that, yes.”

  She was quiet then, the air around them still.

  “Is she from that other realm?”

  “No,” he replied, wondering why when he’d just told Marena about one of the greatest tragedies of his life she was still asking about Eureka.

  “You didn’t want any connections because your parents left you, so you thought everyone would eventually leave. But then she came along and you let her in, and she hurt you. Physically and mentally.”

  “She cursed me,” Phelan said instantly, and regretted it the moment Marena’s eyes grew wider, her brow lifting.

  “Cursed? Are you serious?”

  He sighed, feeling instantly like he and Marena were not alone. Looking around, trying to see through the darkness, Phelan ignored her question for as long as he could.

  “I’m serious about the fact that she tried to curse me. About whether or not the curse is real, I’m not totally on board with that one.”

  “Good,” Marena said with a slight chuckle. “Because I was about to declare you all the way crazy.”

  “Really?” Phelan replied, taking steps to close the distance between them. She hadn’t made any mention of being in pain; for whatever reason he still wasn’t sure. Only that it could possibly be because he was in his rooms, so that even though his body wasn’t physically close to her, his personal space was.

  At any rate, he didn’t like not being physically close to her. That wasn’t something Phelan had wanted to accept before, but now, tonight, he suddenly wasn’t in the mood to deny it.

  “You think I’m crazy because I’m a lycan and I live out here in the midst of the mountains with a pack of lycans. But what about you?” he asked as he came closer to her, so close that when he reached out a hand his fingertips instantly brushed over the line of her jaw.

  “What about me?” she asked, lifting her chin defiantly, her eyes already tinged with desire.

  Phelan absolutely loved that about her. The way she so quickly went from resolute, pissed off, or downright angry to totally aroused. Her long lashes fanned as her blinking came slower like she was already intoxicated, when he hadn’t even offered her a drink.

  “You’re not crazy for working yourself to the bone just to please a family that obviously already loves you?” It was a serious question, part of the things he’d observed about her in the days that he’d known her.

  She blinked quickly and almost looked away, but that stubborn part of her refused. “I just want them to be proud of me,” she replied. “And how do you know they love me? You don’t know anything about me or my family.”

  “I know that you’re willing to face the lycan that took your humanity without a second thought in order to get a job that you may or may not be able to keep in the long run, just to impress them. That tells me that they must mean a lot to you, and as you don’t strike me as a woman that would waste her time or emotions on someone that didn’t deserve them, I’ve concluded that you come from a very loving and supportive family. Your parents are probably already proud of you and would be if you were flipping hamburgers at a local McDonald’s.”

  Phelan hadn’t realized he’d come to all those conclusions about her until this very moment. Truth be told, he hadn’t wanted to admit how much he’d thought about her since the night he’d followed her into that B and B. He seemed to be admitting all sorts of things tonight.

  “You don’t know me,” she said, and this time she did look away.

  Phelan caught her chin in his palm, turning her slowly until she faced him. “I know what you’re about to become,” he told her seriously. “I know how you feel when you’re about to climax into my mouth or over my dick.” He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip, pressing inside until the tip of her tongue swiped across his skin. “Oh,” he groaned. “I know you very well, Marena. So well, I know exactly what you need at this moment.”

  She shook her head, even as her body quivered against his. “I don’t need anything,” she told him defiantly.

  The words lost a good measure of steam, as when she’d spoken them her tongue had touched his thumb again and her eyes had grown darker. Phelan smiled knowingly and she moved away from him. He watched her walk back into the room and waited a beat before following her.

  “You don’t need this?” he asked, cupping his already-erect cock.

  The entire time they’d been standing outside she hadn’t once looked at him. Of course she’d already known he was nude. It’s the way he always slept. She hadn’t said anything about it when she’d climbed onto the opposite side of his king-sized bed, and Phelan hadn’t been in the mood to ask her personal preferences. He’d slept naked beside her the night before and planned to do so again, for however long it was that she would be sleeping with him.

  She turned to face him, standing on the other side of the bed. Her nipples had already gone hard, poking through the thin layer of her tank top as if they were calling him out personally. His erection throbbed in his hand at the thought.

  “I’ll say it again,” she started, glancing briefly at his rigid length, then lifting her eyes up quickly to meet his. “I do not need anything.”

  When he didn’t speak but continued to stroke his length, staring at her knowingly, she huffed.

  “Damn! Is that all lycans think about?” she questioned. “Kira and Caroline were talking about it earlier. Malec and Channing both watch Caroline’s every move as if they’re ready to pounce on her at any moment. And the only reason Blaez’s desire for Kira might seem a little on the tame side—
even though I saw them in the kitchen and let’s just say if I hadn’t walked in they would have been on that counter doing more than tossing the salad we had for dinner—their yearning for each other is almost palpable at any given time. I swear it’s like this place should be a brothel instead of a home.”

  She’d grabbed a pillow when she was done, pounding her fists into its sides, then tossing it down on the bed in frustration. Phelan almost smiled, but he knew better. He knew exactly what Marena needed—a lesson in lycan lust. And he was just the one to teach her.

  Moving without speaking, he picked up two remote controls, one he used to switch on the seventy-inch flat-screen television that fit perfectly into the built-in shelves across from his bed. The other operated the Blu-ray player. Opening a black box on the very last shelf, Phelan pulled out a disc and slipped it into the Blu-ray. He stood back then, pressing the PLAY button, and waited for the picture to appear on-screen. He didn’t turn to see what Marena was doing because he knew she was still standing, still battling between what her body wanted and what her mind thought was appropriate.

  The screen became alight with none other than the full moon and Phelan sensed her body going totally still. The newborn lycan in her immediately coming to attention. Smoke rolled from the bottom of the screen, lifting upward until it almost covered the moon, but the orb grew brighter, getting closer, until it filled the entire screen, its luminescence washing over the room. Phelan felt his muscles tense as he put down the remotes and let his hands fall to his sides. This particular video always affected him in the same way.

  Installing the surveillance cameras at Club Entice had been so he could keep an eye on Eureka and her guests. Not along romantic lines, but Phelan wanted to know if she was making any alliances with otherworldly beings or even humans that he should know about. His gut told him he still needed to keep an eye on her, even though over the years since they’d been apart she’d made no attempt to come after him or Blaez.

  Marena’s gasp echoed throughout the room, but Phelan did not turn to look at her. He continued to watch the scene where the two female lycans had entered the room, naked. One grabbed the other around the waist and leaned in to kiss her mouth. The kiss was heated and wet, the camera zooming in to show the women’s tongues dueling with each other. As the kiss progressed, one of the women slipped her hand between the other’s thighs, fingering her until the woman was gasping with her own pleasure. This continued for a few minutes more with one woman sucking the other’s breast as she continued to thrust her finger deep inside the woman’s pussy.

  Two male lycans entered the room at this point. Both naked. They stood right beside the women, looking at them for a brief moment while stroking their rigid cocks similar to the way Phelan was now stroking his. When the men moved closer and kissed, with the same intensity that the women had previously, Phelan wondered what Marena was doing and what she was feeling. He did not turn around to see.

  After the kiss the men moved to stand behind each woman, grabbing their breasts and pressing their dicks against the women’s asses. In the next seconds it became a licking and sucking fest that eventually turned into the foursome fucking like the uninhibited creatures they were.

  Another gasp from Marena, this time one that sounded more like a moan, had Phelan finally turning around.

  “Why would you do that?” she asked from where she was now lying on the bed, her shorts discarded, legs spread wide, hands cupping both breasts.

  Inwardly Phelan smiled. Her lycan was definitely beginning to take over.

  “It’s what you needed to see, what the lycan in you needed to relate to,” he told her as he moved to the end of the bed closest to where she lay.

  From there he could see the pretty folds of her pussy and the rise of her ample breasts as she tweaked and pulled her nipples.

  “Every kiss, lick, suckle, we feel it all, tenfold,” he explained to her, jerking his cock so hard he thought he might actually come simply from watching her. “You felt those kisses, didn’t you? When the two women were kissing, you could feel the desire building inside you and you tasted their tongues as if they were in your mouth.”

  She shook her head then, her hair splayed like dark tendrils along the pillow.

  “I’m not . . . I . . .” she attempted to say, then paused. Her breath was coming in quick pants now, her tongue licking along her bottom lip, then over the top line of her teeth. “I don’t do lesbian,” she finally managed to say.

  “We don’t bother to name what we do or feel,” Phelan told her, moving closer until he was now standing at the side of the bed, using one hand to rub along her inner thigh.

  The skin here was so soft, so pliable. He loved clenching his fingers, grabbing it as tightly as he could, then releasing it. Marena sucked in a breath when he did that.

  “I’ve never watched porn before, either,” she admitted, her brown eyes gazing up at him.

  Phelan stared down at her, shaking his head. “Again with the titles and names. That’s a human thing,” he told her as he leaned down closer to lick his tongue along the top line of her teeth the way she had. “You’re a lycan now, Marena. A hot and insatiable lycan that I’m going to enjoy fucking until she can no longer think straight.”

  “That’s not what I’m here for.” She whispered her reply, but when he lifted her thigh so that her entire leg was coming up, her foot planting itself firmly on the mattress, Marena did not resist.

  No, instead she let her other leg fall farther back onto the bed, until the lips of her vulva were peeling back like a lovely flower, revealing the sweet nectar inside.

  “Beautiful,” Phelan murmured while staring down at her.

  She wasn’t cleanly shaved, but her dark curls had been trimmed to a landing-strip patch that was tempting every ounce of his strength. He wanted to lick along that path, straight down to the skin just above the hood of her clit.

  “It would be better if you were bare,” he said gruffly. “Much, much better.”

  “Nobody’s ever said that to me before,” Marena replied.

  “Then they were all fools. You’ll feel everything from the brush of my breath to the slap of my palm deeper and more intensely when you’re bare.”

  “The what?” she asked, and Phelan knew exactly what part she’d wanted him to repeat.

  Instead of doing so verbally, he moved the hand from her thigh, bringing it back slightly before slapping his fingers against her pussy. She jerked off the bed and he did it again. This time she hissed and arched her back. When she settled, looking up at him with pleasure-filled eyes, Phelan did it again, this time keeping his hand on the warm flesh and cupping her tightly.

  She undulated her hips, rubbing herself thoroughly into his palm, her hands now gripping her breasts. Her eyes were hot and intense on his and Phelan moved in closer, until his dick was only inches away from her mouth. She blinked and then moved so that her tongue could swipe over the bead of cum that had surfaced at his slit. Phelan moved in closer, until he was all but kneeling on the bed beside her, his hand directing his cock into the warmth of her mouth.

  Marena sucked him in quickly and Phelan slipped two fingers into her dripping center. Closing his eyes, he relished the feeling of warmth from her mouth and her pussy, his teeth clenching tightly together as he wondered distantly if he’d ever felt this good with a woman before. He wasn’t even fucking her and yet there was this complacency, this comfort zone he felt himself slipping into. It was blissful and satisfying knowing that however he touched her, however she touched and sucked him in return, they would each be satisfied beyond measure. If he had to pull his fingers and his cock out of her right now, Phelan would have known the delectable feeling of her, no matter what.

  He’d never had that knowledge or feeling for any other woman. Not even Eureka.

  With that thought he wanted to be inside Marena right now. He pulled away from her, hearing her groan of displeasure.

  “Don’t worry, baby. I’ve got you,” he said,
moving her over on the bed.

  When Phelan climbed onto the bed he angled his body on top of hers. She gripped his thighs and then his cock, taking him deep into her mouth once more. He stretched her legs wider, diving in with tongue extended to lick her glistening pussy. The more he licked and sucked, the more she did, until their noises were much louder than the television, filling the room with not only their combined scents but also sounds. It was erotic as hell as Phelan clenched her thick thighs between his fingers, while pumping his cock into her mouth.

  She was taking him that way without any problem, letting him thrust in and out of her mouth as if it were her pussy. The sweet, wet, and hot pussy that his tongue couldn’t get enough of, until his spine tingled, his legs stiffening as he was about to come into Marena’s mouth. Pulling out quickly, Phelan shifted on the bed, turning Marena over and bringing her up onto her knees.

  He leaned in, nipping her plump ass with his teeth, then kissing the spot and licking it. Over and over he did this until he felt like he’d covered the entire globe.

  “Phelan.” She whispered his name, poking her voluptuous bottom back into his face.

  On a groan Phelan pulled back, rubbing his hands over her plump ass, opening her cheeks and watching intently as the head of his cock made its way to its destination. The craving was deep and almost debilitating, wrapping around his throat and squeezing as he looked at the lightness of his cock moving between the slightly darker complexion of her ass. She was so wet, the head of his cock slid from her pussy entrance back to her anus and Phelan had to close his eyes to the immediate and intense pleasure shooting through his body as if someone had set off fireworks.

  Marena pulled away quickly, her head turning until she could stare at him over her shoulder.

  “Shhhh, baby. Not yet, I know,” he told her, vowing to himself that he would take her there. He would own her ass before all was said and done.

  Not wanting to inquire where that thought of ownership had come from or what the hell he planned to do about it, Phelan aimed his cock and thrust into her pussy with one smooth movement. She bucked beneath him and he grabbed hold of her hips, settling himself deep inside of her. When she was wiggling beneath him he knew she was more than ready and he began to pump, hard and fast, until they were both screaming, both letting loose the most powerful orgasms they had ever experienced.