by B. J. McCall
“You’re graduating in June, right?”
Derek nodded. “I can’t wait. Ella and I are going away to the same college.”
The elders encouraged education. If grades were high and behavior excellent, the pack footed the tuition costs. “What happens when you graduate?”
“If things haven’t changed around here, we’re not coming back.”
In recent years the pack had seen an increase of young male wolves moving away because the availability of females was limited within the Arasani clan and the Chanta females were off limits.
Things needed to change or the pack numbers would shrink.
Nash understood Derek’s attitude. He loved the pack, but he loved Fawn more.
Derek finished his coffee. “Do you think she’s okay?”
“I’ll go check.”
Nash walked past the admitting area to speak with the doctor on duty, Nevi McCay.
Blonde and blue-eyed, Nevi was an attractive she-wolf. She was smart and blessed with a good sense of humor. They’d dated for a few months, but it wasn’t love. Nevi moved on and Nash just dreamed about Fawn, the she-wolf he really wanted.
Nash glanced at Ella, who was sitting up in bed with a special jacket for hypothermia wrapped around her torso. She was sipping a warm drink loaded with sugar. She wasn’t the first wolf to fall into the cold river fed by the mountain snow pack. Ella’s dark hair was dry and the color had returned to her cheeks.
“She’s looking better,” Nash said.
“I’ll be able to release her as soon as she’s able to shift. She’s young and should recover quickly. Even after she shifts, she shouldn’t be running the hills tonight,” Nevi said. “She should be driven home. Maybe you could take her as far as the bridge.”
Nevi understood the ramifications of driving Ella home. It would cause a flap with elders of both packs.
“You’d think the Chanta would be more worried about the health of their teens than having an Arasani step on their land without permission,” Nevi said.
“I think I have a way to get Ella home without raising anyone’s hackles,” Nash said. He walked outside and climbed into his vehicle and dialed Fawn’s number. He’d been aching to hear her voice.
She answered on the first ring. “Hi. I’ve been thinking about you.”
Nash’s heart thumped wildly. “Good thoughts?”
“I wish we’d had more time together.”
Her voice was soft, wistful.
“I would have liked that.”
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. He wanted to ask her about her plans, tell her not to take a mate. He had no right to make any demands and he really didn’t want to hear whom she’d chosen.
Best to stick to the problem at hand.
“I need your help. Ella Rayne fell into the river. She’s in our clinic.”
“Is she okay?”
“Dr. McCay is treating her for hypothermia. She’ll be fine, but she’s weak. The doctor thinks she should be driven home. I don’t want to stir up trouble. Can we meet in a half an hour?”
“Where?”
“After you cross the bridge onto the Arasani side, take the service road upriver for a hundred yards. There’s a clearing by the river’s edge where we can meet.”
“I’ll be there. Thank you, Nash.”
* * * * *
Fawn changed out of her pajamas into jeans and a sweater. She brushed her hair, put on lipstick and her jacket and headed out the door. A tremor of excitement surged through her as she drove to the agreed meeting spot. With Ella present, she wouldn’t be able to jump into Nash’s arms and kiss him senseless, but at least she’d get to see him.
The elders’ mandate that she take a mate lay heavy on Fawn’s heart. They’d never accept Nash. If she defied the elders, she’d be banished from her pack. It wouldn’t go well for Nash either. His career, everything he’d worked for, would be destroyed.
Headlights cutting through the trees brought her out of her depressing reverie. Fawn parked alongside Nash’s SUV. In the backseat of his vehicle were two wolves, Ella and a young were. They were nuzzling muzzles.
Fawn met Nash at the rear of his SUV. She held out her hands. She might not be able to hug him, but she had to touch him.
“You look good,” he whispered.
“So do you.”
His hands were big, strong and calloused, his touch gentle. The memories of their lovemaking swamped her to the point of tears. She fought them back.
Fawn glanced at the teenaged wolves in the back seat. “Is he the reason Ella was on the Arasani side of the river?”
“They can’t be together unless they break the rules.”
“If Ella’s parents find out, she’ll be grounded until she graduates in June.”
“Give them a break. They’re in love.” Nash let go of her hands. “Let’s take a short walk and let Ella and Derek say goodbye.”
Fawn’s heart pounded as they walked down the road. Once they were out of sight, Nash pulled her into his arms.
His lips sought hers, molding deliciously together until they both were breathless.
Fawn threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tight.
He buried his face in her hair.
They clung to one another. Neither spoke.
Fawn wanted him to tell her he loved her. She ached to hear those words again, but if he said them, her heart would break and stay broken for as long as she drew breath.
But she wasn’t going to her grave without him knowing her heart. “I love you, Nash. I should have told you that day at the cabin. I messed up everything, but I wanted you to know.”
“Don’t say it. If you can’t be mine, I can’t bear it.”
She heard the pain in his voice and her heart squeezed. “I think it happened that day I met you at the Chinese place for lunch.”
“That was summer before last.”
“I felt your eyes on me as I walked across the room. You told me I looked dazzling. No one had ever said I was dazzling. Then you picked up your menu and stared at it for at least five minutes without saying a word.”
“You look great in red.”
“You remember what I was wearing?”
“A red top. Cut low enough that I was thinking things I shouldn’t over a business lunch. Your skirt was white with red flowers, soft and flowing. It swirled around your knees. Your legs were to die for.”
She was shocked he’d remembered. But then, Nash was head of pack security. His position was the equivalent to a police chief of a small town and cops have an eye for detail. “I’m impressed.”
“What was I wearing?”
“Green chambray shirt, short-sleeved, and jeans. Am I right?”
“I have no idea what I was wearing that day.” He stroked her hair. “You haven’t been promised?”
He knew. Fawn’s heart twisted. For packs that pretended the other didn’t exist, the rumor mill was efficient. “Not yet, the elders are working on a list of suitable mates.”
“Maybe we should leave. Tell the elders to go to hell and leave. Go to another state. Start a whole new life.”
Fawn wanted him, loved him, but she knew the consequences. The deaths of her father and brother had sent shockwaves through the Chanta. If she ran off with Nash, she’d throw the pack into chaos. The rifts brought about by Fawn’s cousins challenging her for pack leadership would become chasms. “If we leave, we’ll be banished. I’m a Rivers. I can’t do that to my family.”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t be pack leader.”
She caught the angry edge in his voice.
“You think I don’t want to be with you? I do.”
“I’ve business tomorrow at the county seat. I’m staying at the Plaza Suites. Give me one more night.”
“We’d be breaking the rules, acting like those teenagers.”
“Haven’t you wanted to break the rules?”
Responsibility had been drilled into Fawn since she’d learned how to walk. Never emba
rrass the Rivers name. As a child, she’d always been too scared to break the rules, but Fawn was more scared of never making love with Nash again. “I can get away after six. Call me and leave a message with the room number.”
He cupped her face and kissed her, a long, slow kiss that curled her toes.
“Tomorrow,” he said. “Get there as soon as you can.”
They walked back to the vehicles. Nash opened the back door of his SUV. Fawn did the same.
Ella hopped out of the backseat of the Arasani security SUV and trotted around to Fawn’s car.
Nash was standing by his vehicle as she drove away. By the time Fawn dropped Ella off at home, she’d learned how Nash had jumped into the river and saved the girl’s life. That Nash hadn’t said a word about his heroic part in Ella’s adventure didn’t surprise Fawn. He was an amazing man and he’d make an exceptional mate.
The elders had it all wrong, but what could she do about it?
Chapter Eight
Nash opened the door. “Bless the Moon God, you look good.”
Fawn was wearing a red sweater and he figured she’d chosen the color to please him. She stepped inside, dropped her overnight bag and purse, yanked off her jacket and jumped into his arms.
Nash carried her through the sitting room of the hotel suite and into the bedroom.
She kissed his face, his neck, and he was in heaven.
He couldn’t wait to get her naked, to hold her in his arms and be inside her. All day he’d watched the clock, but the minutes had ticked by so slowly, he’d wanted to hit something.
She was here and all was right with his world.
Nash pulled off her shoes, flipping them over his shoulders.
He reached for her jeans and had them unbuttoned and unzipped in seconds. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of her thong underwear. A tiny triangle of sheer red material nearly brought him to his knees.
His heart pounded in anticipation as he pulled off her sweater. He sucked in an audible breath. She was wearing a sheer red bra and thong, his fantasy had come true.
That day she’d walked into the Chinese restaurant, he’d wondered what she was wearing beneath the red top and flowing skirt. He’d imagined underwear exactly like this, a bra she was more out of than in and a thong with straps so delicate they’d be gone with a flick of the wrist.
He touched the lacy edge of her bra, running his fingertip over the curve of her breast. “I feel like it’s my birthday and I’ve been given the most beautifully wrapped package.”
“I bought them to wear at the Moon God cabin. My surprise for the second night.”
“We should have had that night. You have the power to dazzle me. You always will,” he said, his words coming deep from his heart.
He slid his fingertips over the front clasp and down her belly to the tiny triangle of red. She-wolf heat seeped through the red silk, penetrating his skin.
Need clawed through him, desperate need unlike anything he’d experienced in his life, the kind of need that bonded true mates. His heart swelled, his senses sizzled, his balls ached and his cock strained.
He popped the front hook of her bra and cupped her breasts. He sucked on one rosy nipple, then tasted the other. In wolf fashion, he rubbed his face on the silky smoothness of her breasts and belly. She was his mate, the only wolf for him.
His face hovered an inch above the thin red triangle of fabric. His heart twisted at the thought of losing her. Tonight might be the last time he’d make love to her. He wasn’t going to waste a moment of their allotted time together, but come tomorrow, how would he face letting her go?
He inhaled. Her rich she-wolf scent spoke to the wolf within him. She was his mate, the she-wolf he needed to share his life. The she-wolf he wanted to bear his offspring.
A shiver ran the length of his spine as he touched his lips to the sheer red fabric shielding her pussy. He suckled gently, wetting the thin material, then rubbed his face against the damp silk.
“Don’t stop.” She fisted the bedspread. “Don’t stop.”
Nash wanted to please her, to make her shudder with ecstasy.
He sucked deep, using his tongue to create a light friction between the fabric and her clit.
She bucked, thrusting her pussy against his face. Then she stilled, her climax evidenced by the quiver between her legs.
Her breath came in shallow puffs. “My pussy is humming.”
Nash hooked his thumbs beneath the tiny straps and drew the thong down her silky thighs, over her knees and calves. The slow journey to her feet was a pleasure he wanted for the rest of his life.
Fawn rose to her knees and reached for his shirt. “Let me unwrap my present.”
Nash unbuckled his belt while Fawn unbuttoned his shirt. He stripped off his shirt and shoved his slacks off his hips. Shoes, socks and underwear followed. Naked and throbbing, he stood before her.
His heart rate jumped when she slid off the bed and dropped to her knees. She palmed him, running the pad of her thumb along the underside of his shaft.
“That feels so good.”
He gasped as her lips closed over the head, then shuddered as she swallowed him down to the root. Her mouth was soft, hot and moist. She suckled gently, drew her lips back and sucked him in again, all the way to the hilt.
“That feels better,” he said, his voice strangled.
The sensation of her tugging on his shaft sent swirls of heat through his groin. Needing to touch her, he forked his fingers through her silky hair.
Her tongue circled the sensitive head of his cock, then furrowed a path along the pulsing vein on the underside of his shaft, all the way to his balls and back again.
His blood thundered and his balls grew heavy, throbbing on the edge of climax.
She sucked strong and deep, causing a sensual shockwave. A ridge of fur sprang up along Nash’s spine and his climax erupted, pumping into her hot mouth.
She released him and licked her lips, the action so sexy Nash drew her to her feet and kissed her. He liked tasting his pleasure on her tongue.
Everything about her stirred his lycan receptors. This was what was meant to be. The Moon God had brought them together.
He broke the kiss and stared into her blue eyes. His jaw clenched. Fawn was his.
“What’s wrong?”
“I love you, Fawn. The thought of you with another wolf is tearing me apart.”
Her eyes filling with tears, she cupped his face. “I love you, Nash. I don’t want another. If I can’t have you, I’d rather be alone.”
Nash felt the same way. If he couldn’t have Fawn, he wouldn’t take a mate.
He drew her down on the bed and held her. For the first time in his life, Nash was on the verge of shedding tears. Fuck, he’d never cried, not once. But then, he’d never felt as though his heart was being ripped out of his chest.
She kissed his face, her soft lips a balm to his hurting heart. “Love me, Nash. Love me.”
Sliding into her nearly stopped his heart. Every cell shivered in pleasure as they joined, moving as one in a rhythm as old as time, as new as the next breath.
She surged up, meeting each stroke, squeezing him so tight he thought he’d die from the pleasure.
It wasn’t just sex, the exquisite physical joining leading to climax that made Nash’s skin heat and his muscles shudder. The mating instinct slammed into him, every lycan instinct on alert, every receptor burning. The drive to mate came with centuries of wolven DNA. His ancestors had felt the power of the moon and Nash was feeling it tonight.
Fur sprang out across his back and receded as he fought the shift. His cells were changing, the battle lost as the heat of alteration burned through skin, muscle, blood and bone.
Nash withdrew, rolled Fawn onto her stomach and yanked her up to her knees. He growled, demanding the she-wolf submit in the way his ancestors had done for thousands of years. His face reshaped. His teeth grew long and sharp.
He nipped her shoulder and tasted fur.
Silky wolf fur covered her back, her head and pointed ears. Her keening howl echoing off the walls, Fawn pushed up onto her four paws.
Her musky scent filling his nostrils, Nash pawed her back.
Her tail flipped up in acceptance.
Claws digging into the bedding, Nash mounted her. He plunged his cock deep into her swollen folds, locking them together in a climactic knot.
Fast and shallow, he thrust. His howl joined hers as he came in hot spurts, filling her with wolven semen.
Nash licked her fur until the climactic knot eased, allowing their bodies to separate.
Exhausted, he rolled onto the bed. He’d never had mating sex before and the intense experience had drained his strength.
Fawn lay beside him panting, a beautiful she-wolf with pale-brown fur and amazing blue eyes.
She was his mate, the one the Moon God had chosen for him.
He’d claimed her, mounting her as an alpha male. Every wolf who got near her would know she belonged to him.
He pawed her flank.
Are you sorry?
Fawn licked his muzzle, then rested her muzzle on his shoulder. We’re in a hotel, but I felt the moon. It was as if we were outside drenched in its light.
Nash’s heart thumped in his chest. All the forces in their lives, the elders and their families, would be against them, but it was their destiny to be together. We’re mates.
Now we have to figure out how we’re going to handle it.
She jumped off the bed and shifted. Her shape changed, her face reforming, her muzzle and tail disappearing as fur became skin, paws turned into feet and hands. She was beautiful in either form.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
He waited for her to invite him to join her. Instead, she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
Nash worried that she’d accepted what had happened, but she wasn’t experiencing the same joy he was feeling. He jumped off the bed and shifted, experiencing the process of change he’d watched Fawn perform.
He liked being with her in wolven form, but a city hotel was made for humans, not wolves. The bed was a mess of ripped sheets and fur. Mating sex was better done outside than in a bed. He’d have to pay extra for those sheets.