Of course, he had. He was from the Mahlikari pack. They were a savage race that took pleasure in their animal sides. He probably hadn’t known any better. But that still didn’t soften the blow that she now belonged with him.
Jesus, what a mess.
“You don’t even know my favorite color.” She moaned mournfully, wishing she could’ve at least been able to choose her mate. Someone she knew. Someone who grew up in a society that was at least somewhat similar to hers.
She’d known everything about Matt before they’d slept together their first time. Sure, she’d had a few one-night stands with guys she knew next to nothing about. She had a healthy sexual appetite, after all. But she hadn’t been planning on setting up house with any those dudes. Yet, here stood this feral wolf who had just convinced her they belonged together, forever.
He tilted his face to the side, studying her curiously. “And you think your preference over a certain color might change my feelings in some way?” With a confused shake of his head, he murmured, “If that is how it is with you humans, I’m glad I rescued you from such—”
“That’s not what I meant,” she muttered. “And I’m a half-breed, not a human. I’m just saying. We don’t know anything about each other. How can we just...bond as if this is it, we’re stuck together for the rest of our lives? I don’t believe in that bullshit.” She didn’t want to anyway. “My parents know each other inside and out. They’re like...they’re inseparable and can finish each other—”
“Sentences?” He guessed with an arch of his eyebrows.
She scowled. “Anyone could’ve finished that sentence.”
With a twitch to his lips, he took her fingers and kissed her knuckles. “I’m guessing your parents have been together for a while.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
He nodded right back. “Then they have had time to learn each other. After we’ve been together that long, we’ll know each other inside and out, too.”
A shudder of longing ran through her. She’d always wished to have a connection with someone as deeply as the one her parents shared. No secrets, no hidden lifestyles, just open honest love. And here stood a male, promising they would. Despite how crazy she knew this was, she was tempted to just...accept him no matter how horrible his past was.
“But what if we end up hating each other and can’t stand to be around one another? I know a mated pair that keeps as far away from each other as possible until they want to mate. After they’re done rutting, back to their own lives they go, ignoring the other’s existence until the urge to fuck strikes again.” Pressing a finger to her chest, she said, “I don’t want that kind of existence.”
“Neither do I,” Gannon agreed. He pulled her close and hugged her, kissing her hair. “I wouldn’t be able to protect you from afar. I will need you close. Always.”
She chose to ignore the way that pleased her because he was being so obtuse about the whole point of her argument. “But I want to like you,” she cried in exasperation. “Or whoever I mate with. And I want him to like me, like being with me.”
“Oh, I like being with you,” he said, his eyes lightening with sexual hunger as he drew his finger down over her breast to make her nipple bead. “There’s no doubt about that. I think we’re very compatible together.”
“In bed,” she muttered, and slapped his hand away.
“That’s a very important place to be compatible.”
“But...don’t you want more?”
“Yes,” he said, coming in for a kiss. “And that’s why I intend to take more.”
She jerked away, refusing him her lips so she could groan and bury her face in her hands. “Oh, my God. You’re impossible to reason with.”
He gave a sudden grin. “See, you’re already learning me well. Impossible and controlling. Those are my leading traits.”
Her mouth fell open. His smile fried a couple of her brain cells; she could do nothing but gape at him. But, damn, he was gorgeous when he smiled. And the fact that he could smile warmed her. Then there was the teasing. Thank God, he’d teased and made a joke about himself. She had worried he wouldn’t have a sense of humor at all.
No way in hell would she want to be tethered to some dull, domineering man wolf for the rest of her life who didn’t even know how to smile and laugh.
“Brynn,” he murmured, and cupped her face. She liked the tender way he touched her, as if her feelings actually mattered to him. Looking up, she prayed he’d say something to make her want to stay with him, because, strangely she wanted to want to stay with him.
He gave her a warm smile as if he understood her concerns and wanted to ease her mind. “I want to know every detail about you, from the way your mind works to what makes your heart melt with affection. You have my pledge that I will devote the rest of my life to you, striving to give you exactly what you need.”
Her eyes watered as she licked her lips. “I just...the only thing I need is for someone to love me for who I am.”
“Done,” he said, as if it were as simple as that.
She frowned, realizing he wasn’t taking this seriously at all. “But—”
He kissed her quiet. The bastard. She shoved against him, but he opened his mouth and tangled his tongue with hers. And her fingers found themselves curling into his chest and tugging him closer instead of pushing him away.
“No fair,” she whined, against his lips. “How do you keep doing this to me?”
“Simple. Like this.” Steering her away from the furs, he backed her against an old sofa.
Chapter Eight
When Brynn sat on the sofa, Gannon lowered himself with her, on top of her until they were lying against each other. Pushing inside her, he fucked her slow and deep. She arched her neck back and wrapped her legs around his waist. But God, he felt so good inside her, moving and pulsing with just the right amount of friction.
Gannon kissed her throat and palmed her breasts. When the sharp point of his canines nipped her throat, she shuddered. A shape-shifter’s fangs only came out once in their life, when their instincts told them to bite their mate and bond them permanently together.
Brynn wanted to feel his teeth sink into her flesh, her jaguar was straining within her, wanting to let her canines grow as well, but she was scared. So she didn’t tell him he could proceed with the bonding rites.
Respecting her wishes, he continued to thrust steadily into her until she came. When he released his seed, she felt as if she were home. Curling her arms around him, she lay sated in the aftermath of their lovemaking.
For a Mahlikari wolf, he was so tender and loving with her. She threaded her fingers through his hair, dazed by their joining, but unable to stop thinking about what this meant for them. He had put his own life in danger to bring her here and heal her.
“Why are you willing to give up so much just to be with me?”
Lifting up off her just enough to look down and meet her stare, he blinked as if he didn’t understand her confusion. “Because you are mine. And I am yours.”
She sighed, disappointed. “And it’s just that simple for you, huh? Your mate could have been any random girl off the street and you just...you would’ve been exactly this devoted to her. Not me.”
“But there is no other her. There’s only you.”
“Yeah, well I don’t want some miserable pure-blooded wolf to settle for me just because fate made him think we belonged together. I want someone to love me for me, okay.”
“And I said I would.” Anger leapt into his gaze as he grabbed her arms, pinning them over her head. “Listen to me, you damn infuriating female. No one will ever love you the way I will. No one will ever put you first in his life the way I already have. You. Are. Mine. And I am yours. We share a soul, and whether we chose this connection or not, it’s there, and it’s already stronger than any kind of connection you could ever try to form with some other male of your choosing. And just so you know, if you do try to go to another, I’ll kill him.” When her eyes sp
rang open wide, he cracked out a laugh and shook his head as if amused. “Jesus. If I didn’t adore your suspicious, contradictory, rebellious nature so much, I’d be tempted to spank you right now until you begged me to fuck you senseless.”
Brynn blinked, taken aback by the fever in his voice. He actually liked something about her character? Already?
She gulped. Maybe fate did know what it was doing, knew what she needed more than she did.
Her resolved slipped. She bit her lip as she studied him, wondering what he’d do if she went ahead and begged him to fuck her senseless anyway. He’d been right about one thing, that was for sure. Physically, they were more than compatible together. He fit her better than any male—human or shifter—she’d ever been with. Glancing down at his powerful frame on top her hers, her arousal bloomed, bright and strong.
“So you like that about me, huh? What else do you like about me?”
His nostril twitched and his cock grew inside her. He could smell what he was doing to her. She kind of liked that too. No matter how much she had wanted to settle down with a human man, it was a total turn on to know when a male recognized he aroused her.
Gannon ground his hips to bury himself a little deeper inside her. “I like when you command me. No one, save my father, has ever had the nerve to tell me what to do before. And the only ones who haven’t followed my orders are now dead.”
She shivered, but not with revulsion. She liked knowing he was so powerful. The animal in her was totally drawn to that vicious but superior aspect. She bit her lip and squeezed her inner muscles around him. “Tell me more.”
His eyes flared with heat as they focused on her top teeth sinking into her own flesh.
“I also like it when you do that to my cock. Squeeze yourself around it. And when you bite your lip.” His face closed in on hers. “It reminds me of the first time you took me into your mouth. And it makes me want to bite that supple little tissue for you.”
Dipping his head, he took her bottom lip gently between his teeth and tugged it into his mouth, sucking until their lips aligned and they were kissing. Fully hard again, he pulled most of the way out of her and thrust back in, strong and steady. Breaking their kiss to rest his forehead against hers, he panted, and spent a few second just pushing in and pulling out. Her hips moved with his, meeting in the middle to let their genitals rub before separating again.
Then his mouth once against hovered over hers. “This is called kissing, correct?”
Huh?
“Uh…” Brynn arched an eyebrow. “Yeah. Why?”
“I like it too. No one in my pack kisses. I think it’s a human thing. But I like it.”
Her mouth fell open. “You’ve never kissed anyone before me?”
“No. And I can’t imagine kissing anyone but you.”
Oh, honey, he would never kiss anyone but her again. His mouth was her bitch now.
“Kiss me some more,” she whispered, since he liked it when she told him what to do.
He did, pressing his lips to hers with great enthusiasm. The man was a quick learner because he kissed like a pro. His tongue melded with hers and he knew exactly how much pressure to give and take. She cupped his face, sinking into it. Their hips began to slap faster against each other. Her organs were constricting with pressure, needing another release.
“And I like taking you face to face,” he said against her mouth, as he continued to take her...face to face.
“Really? Was I...was I your first time for that, as well?” She was breathless as he started to plunge harder, rocking against her more urgently. When he nodded, she groaned. “How do you...how do you usually do it?”
“From behind and never in human form.”
“N-never?” She was about to come again. Jesus, what the hell was the record for most orgasms in one day? “I hate to break this to you, pal, but...but...oh, God, faster.” When he shoved harder, she groaned and gasped, “I’ve never done it in animal form before, and I...I can’t even imagine doing it that way.” Would never do it that way.
“Don’t worry,” he assured her with a light kiss down the side of her throat, even as his body tensed. He was close; she could feel how taut he was holding himself back to keep from coming. “After experiencing it this way, I don’t want to go back to the other, anyway.”
“Oh, good. Thank God, because I can’t see how a wolf and a jag could even—”
He kissed her again. She kissed him back until she was overcome with the need to bond with him this very second.
“Bite me,” she moaned when his lips left hers only to trail down her throat.
He faltered mid-thrust and lifted his face. His eyes shone with hope, and she loved that, loved knowing he wanted her so badly. “Are you sure? We can wait until you’re—”
“Bite me,” she growled, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and yanking him back to her neck. “Now!” Then she keened out a low moan as she began to come around his cock.
“Jesus.” Heat, and passion, and maybe even love flared in his expression. His canines elongated and his eyes glowed with his animal intent. Her hormones jolted from the way it turned her on and she exploded even harder.
When his teeth punctured her skin, she screamed from the punch to her orgasm. So powerful was the connection that she came for a solid five minutes.
He pressed his hand over her mouth to quiet her, and she bit his palm, her own teeth tearing through her gums and growing so she could claim him right back. He made a sound of pleasure and she bit down harder as his cock slammed forward to impale her some more.
Then he fucked her hard and fast, and she came again, and again, until she lost count of her orgasms, quivering around him, unable to stop pulsing, her body writhing from the total loss of self as they became one, sharing every particle of their being with each other.
She was his. And he was hers. That was all that mattered.
After her orgasm settled and her body stopped trembling from the release, he kept fucking her, lifting her legs and spreading her thighs as if nothing could ever stop him and his hips were on autopilot. She moaned and shook her head, thinking she needed a break. This was too strong, stronger and more powerful than anything she’d ever experienced before.
Gannon’s fangs retracted from her throat, and he licked the wound closed. She didn’t want to let go of her hold on him; she wanted to keep this connection forever. So she bit down harder, scared to stop.
He growled as if he liked her rough play and he banged his body into her hers with more fervor. It lit her up all over again. She arched her hips, and his cock plowed through her tender, swollen folds, wedging into her tight sheath that contracted around him and squeezed until she screamed again from one last orgasm, her teeth soaked with the blood from his palm.
He cursed and flooded her channel, filling her with more of himself.
Once he was limp and sated, he collapsed on top of her, dead weight. And she loved that too. She sucked his blood away from his palm, taking his life force into herself.
“It’s okay to let go,” he murmured in a slurred drowsy voice as he stroked her hair. “The connection will still be just as strong. Trust me, my love.”
She liked how he knew what worried her, almost as much as she liked how he called her “my love.” Trusting him, she eased up on his hand, her teeth instinctively retracting. Her body gave a shudder but their bond stuck. A relieved sigh heaved from her lungs.
He lifted his face and smiled, tears glittering in his eyes. “Do you understand now?” he asked.
Her own lashes filled with wet happiness. “Yes,” she said, and kissed his face. “Yes, I understand now. We belong together.”
Chapter Nine
“So, what do you call this thing?”
Brynn glanced up from the piece of beef jerky she’d been gnawing on and paused in her digging through the dresser drawer where she’d found a stash of candy.
After their marathon sex, she and Gannon had passed out on the couch and slept for a fe
w hours, only to wake up starving. He’d been afraid to leave her unprotected, so they’d raided his things, only to hit the jackpot with Twinkies and Twizzlers and beef jerky galore she’d found in this bureau.
Gannon’s first taste of a Twinkie had been classic.
She grinned as she saw a dab of white still stuck to the corner of his lip. After he’d tasted one, he’d devoured all of them in the drawer.
“That...is a hand mixer,” she said. How the hell had he gotten a hand mixer?
He examined it for a moment. “What does it do?”
She chuckled. “It mixes stuff. Like food.”
“Oh. Hmm. So, what is this tail thing?”
Her chuckle burst into a full laugh. “That’s the cord where you plug it into an electrical outlet in the wall.” When he only sent her a blank look, she sighed. “Man, I have a lot to teach you about the civilized life if you don’t even know about electricity.”
His tongue swept out and licked the bit of Twinkie cream from the corner of his mouth. “If the civilized life tastes anything like these, I have a feeling it won’t be as bad as I originally worried.”
The thought of teaching him everything he didn’t know excited her. “So...does this mean you actually want to go there? To the civilized way of life?”
He set the mixer down. “Well, we can’t stay here. And it’s what you know, so I can’t imagine going anywhere else.”
It was strange, but that depressed her, for like half a second. She glanced around Gannon’s home. She’d miss these tacky bright red shag carpeted floors and warm, golden walls with shelves and desks crammed into every bit of available space. It was where she’d met her mate. Okay, maybe she wouldn’t miss the bear furs, or that cage, or the whole threat-to-their-lives aspect, but...maybe she could take a picture and keep some memories alive. Surely, he had a camera somewhere in his junk pile.
“Do you not want me to go back to your home with you?” Gannon asked as he slowly made his way to her through the jumble.
Body to Barter (Half-breed Shifter Series) Page 5