But Jesse had seen enough killing in the past few days.
“Submit, you fucking bastard,” he ground out. “Don’t make me kill you.”
He intensified the pressure.
Nash pushed back—and Jesse felt something snap inside the other man. He crumpled to the ground, blood trickling from his nose and ears.
“Time,” Brezit said calmly, as if there wasn’t an alpha lying bleeding on the ground. “Mr. Travis wins the challenge. Sophia Jenkins is a free agent, no longer under the jurisdiction of the Nashville alpha, and free to mate where she wishes. Since she has demonstrated the ability to control her tiger manifestation, the Council’s investigation into her status is hereby at an end.”
Jesse stood panting as healers rushed to Nash. He looked around, not knowing what to do. There was deathly silence in the garden, everyone staring in shock at their once-invincible alpha.
Sophia ran to Jesse, wrapping her arms around his waist, and he buried his face in her hair.
“Holy fuck,” Rafe said. “Did Jesse just off an alpha with the power of his mind?”
Chapter 26
It turned out Nash wasn’t actually dead. He’d suffered some kind of brain overload from the clash of alpha energy, and he’d been airlifted to a special medical facility run by the Shifter Council, where he could get 24/7 care without the risks of being in a human hospital.
In the absence of the alpha, Nash’s Second had quickly agreed not to contest Sophia’s free agent status—as if he could, when Brezit had announced it in front of everyone. Jesse wasn’t sure which the guy had wanted more—to get rid of Sophia, or to get far away from the wolf who had beaten his alpha to the ground without even touching him.
Jesse didn’t know whether to feel like a badass or an alien freak.
At the moment, though, he didn’t care which he was. He was lying on a comfy sofa in the sitting room of one of Nash’s lavish guest suites, with his head in Sophia’s lap. She was stroking his forehead, partly to help him get rid of the monster headache his duel with Nash had caused, and partly because they just liked touching each other.
He couldn’t believe how lucky he was, that this amazing, kick-ass tiger-wolf had chosen him. As soon as this headache let up, he was planning on taking her to bed for about a week.
The door opened and Jace walked in, followed by Emma, Rafe and Terin. Kane brought up the rear. After shooting Jesse one of his patented stone-faced glances, he moved to an out-of-the-way corner, leaned against the wall and started messing with his phone.
Nobody but Kane could hang out in a room full of his pack mates and still give the impression he didn’t know any of them—and didn’t want to.
Rafe was bouncing off the walls, babbling like an idiot.
“Geez, Rafe, dial it down, would you?” Jesse said, wincing. “You’re making my head hurt.”
“It already hurts,” Rafe said, plunking himself down on the other end of the sofa and pulling Terin into his lap. “From you being some kind of Jedi mind warrior. That was so cool. I wish I had that power.”
“Yeah, well, you can have the headache,” Jesse said.
Jace sat down in the chair opposite him. “It looks like we both have a few more headaches coming,” he said. “I had a meeting with the Wolf Council members that are here, and they’re considering naming you alpha of the Nashville pack.”
What the fuck?
Jesse struggled to sit up. “But Nash isn’t dead, is he?”
Jace shook his head. “But he’ll likely be incapacitated, even if he survives. So, technically you bested him in combat, which makes you…”
“The alpha.” Jesse put his hands over his eyes and groaned. “Please tell me there’s a way out of this.”
The last thing he wanted was to be stuck with a huge pack full of contentious assholes who were strangers to him. He wanted to go home to Silverlake and take his mate with him.
Kane spoke up from the corner. “I could whup your sorry ass and take the pack myself,” he suggested.
Rafe looked over his shoulder. “He’s kidding.” He looked at Jace. “He’s kidding, right?”
Jesse wasn’t so sure about that. He looked at Sophia. “What do you think about this?”
She bit her lip. “It’ll be a political mess,” she said. “I don’t want to stay here permanently, unless you do, but if you’re alpha, I’m not sure that you stepping down wouldn’t be even more of a problem.”
“Agreed,” Jace said. “I’ve persuaded the Council to defer the decision until we can meet with their representatives and the Nashville Second, and hammer out an agreement.” He threw a decorative pillow at Jesse. “Good thing I’ve got a crack negotiator on my team.”
“Uhhh,” Jesse said, deflecting the pillow and leaning back against the couch. “The way my brain feels right now, I couldn’t negotiate an ice cube out of the governor of Alaska.”
Kane snorted.
“Shut up, Kane,” Jesse said. “Jace, thanks for the heads-up. And the support. And I’ll be happy to discuss this with you later. But is there any way you could all leave us the hell alone for a while?”
“They want to fuck,” Rafe whispered loudly to Terin.
“Shut up, Rafe,” Jesse said.
Terin gave one of her tiny smiles and ruffled Rafe’s hair affectionately. “Maybe we should leave them to do that, then.”
“Ah, yeah,” Jace said. “Sorry, but there’s one more thing I need to talk to you all about before that happens.”
He pulled a thumb drive from his shirt pocket and said, “Some of our Enforcers have been working with the Council, going through the shifter videos Jesse found on Alexander Grant’s server. There’s one I think you should see.”
“Is it gruesome?” Rafe asked seriously. “Because if it is, Terin probably shouldn’t watch it. Now that she’s pregnant, gruesome stuff makes her puke.”
Jesse sat straight up in shock, looking at Terin. “You’re pregnant?”
Terin gave Rafe a gentle head slap. “I told you not to tell everyone yet.”
Rafe gave her an injured look. “You didn’t think I was going to keep it from Jesse, did you? He’s my bro.”
Jace and Emma clearly already knew, but to Jesse this was a complete surprise. He moved down the sofa to give both of them a bear hug.
“Congratulations, guys! This is awesome.”
“This is a disaster,” Kane said from the corner. “Don’t you idiots remember what Rafe was like as a cub?”
Rafe was not at all offended. “We know you like us, Kane,” he said. “You admitted it to Jesse. No takey backsies.”
Kane didn’t look up from his phone. “I said I liked Jace. A long time ago. I still don’t like the rest of you.”
“You do sooooo,” Rafe singsonged.
Jace just shook his head, and Emma rolled her eyes.
“Can we get back to the point?” Jace said. “So Jesse and Sophia can get some rest?”
“Or fuck,” Rafe mouthed.
Jace went on, “And Terin should stay, if she doesn’t mind. I’ll try to skip the gruesome parts.”
Terin shot Rafe a questioning glance, and he shrugged, protectively pulling her closer. She leaned her cheek on his hair.
Seeing them together made Jesse smile. He moved closer to Sophia and took her hand.
Emma got Jesse’s tablet off a side table. It had been recovered out of Grant’s bunker, which he was grateful for. He’d put a lot of work into building it. Jace plugged in the thumb drive and a video queued up.
Jace, Emma and Kane leaned over the back of the couch, and the rest of them squeezed together, Sophia snuggling up to Jesse with her hand on his thigh.
It was a lab surveillance video, grainy and poor quality, but Jesse could recognize Volkov and the tall, slender man with the long blond hair who’d escaped with them. Sophia sucked her breath in with a hiss when she saw Volkov. Jesse raised her hand to his cheek and held it there. Seeing that sick bastard’s impassive face gave him the willies
, too.
“We don’t need to watch the whole thing,” Jace said. “This is the part I wanted you to see.”
He reached past Jesse and hit the fast forward button, then stopped the video. Volkov hit the man with one of the tasers, and with a roar, he shifted into a wolf. His clothes slid off as he struggled to his feet. Volkov hit him again with the taser, and he was knocked back into his human form, but not before they all saw that his fur was snow-white.
“Another white wolf?” Terin said. She looked at Rafe, but he was staring at the screen, a look of concentration on his face. “Like me?”
Rafe said, “Jesse, run that back, would you? Frame by frame.”
Jesse took over from Jace, and the video jerked back until Rafe said, “There.”
Jesse stopped. The man’s head was lifted, profile to the camera, a clear shot.
“Shit,” Rafe breathed. “Ter, he looks just like you.”
It took them another fifteen minutes to clear the room. Terin had sat for a long time with her fingers touching the still picture, just staring at it. Jesse didn’t blame her. She’d spent the last ten years not knowing who she was—or why Frank Beckenham had been hunting her.
The idea that she might have a relative who could fill in the blanks must be overwhelming to her, especially now that she was going to have a cub. Jace had said that the Enforcers would be trying to track down the shifters who had been held prisoner, to see if they needed help.
The part he hadn’t said in front of Terin was that the Council also wanted to make sure none of them were so crazy they had to be put down. Jesse hoped not. He owed some of them big time—including the white wolf.
But Jesse couldn’t deal with any of that now. All he could think about was wrapping his mate in his arms and making love to her about a thousand times, with occasional breaks for the servants to bring them food.
He swept Sophia into his arms and carried her into the bedroom, her legs wrapped around his hips. “You are incredibly sexy,” he told her, raining kisses down on her face and neck. “I want to bury my hands in your gorgeous hair, and lick every part of you, and make you come as many times as I can.”
Sophia closed her eyes. “Mmm,” she said. “I think you want to tit fuck me again, too.”
“I absolutely do,” Jesse agreed. “Can I?”
Sophia licked her lips seductively. “I can’t wait,” she said. Jesse thought about feeling her mouth on his cock each time it slid between her breasts, and he almost came on the spot.
He threw her on the bed and lay down beside her. Turning serious for a moment, he brushed her hair gently back from her face.
“I love you,” he said. “And I’m so proud of you, do you know that? For who you are, and what you’ve done the last few days.”
She lifted a hand to his cheek, eyes soft and serious. “It’s because of you,” she said. “You believed in me. You saw inside me, who I really am, and you loved me for that. I never, ever thought that would happen to me. You’ve given me a whole new life I never thought I’d have.”
She reached up and drew his mouth down to hers. Her lips were so soft, so sweet, but Jesse knew it was more than that. A sealing of their bond.
“I love you too,” she whispered. “And I’m proud of you. Proud to be your mate. You are the strongest man I know.”
Sunlight blossomed in Jesse’s chest, and he could feel his heart breaking apart, growing larger to make room for her. They held each other, kissing slowly and deeply, saying things that could only be said with their bodies.
Finally he asked the question that was on his mind. “Will you mind leaving here?” he said. “When I figure out a way not to be alpha?”
She smiled and shook her head. “This is a cage,” she whispered. “A golden cage.”
Jesse nodded. “Good,” he said. “But if you’re going to be a redneck like me, there’s a lot of things I have to teach you. Muddin’, for one. And beer pong. At least you’re from Nashville, so you like country music and barbecue. That’s a start. And I’ll get you a tire swing. You can’t be a redneck without a tire swing. And some of those really short denim shorts. Up to your ass.”
Sophia was giggling. “What I really want is my own bakery business,” she said. “Can I have one of those?”
Jesse kissed her luscious lips. “I’ll talk to Jace,” he said. “If we don’t end up taking over Nashville, I’m planning on negotiating a crap-ton of money out of them for the privilege of being left alone. I’m pretty sure we can get you a bakery out of it.”
Sophia pulled back. “Seriously?” she asked, breathless, her eyes shining.
“Sure,” he said. “If it would make you happy, I’d buy you a dozen bakeries. I can’t wait to see you in business for yourself. With honey on your hands and flour on your nose.” He paused. “Though I’d like to put some honey in other places and lick it off you,” he said.
His hand skimmed down her hip and hovered between her legs. He could feel the heat of her through the leggings she wore.
Sophia grinned at him. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She smoothed her hands over his shoulders, reveling in the feel of the lean muscles, the gentle strength of him. He lifted her shirt over her head and tossed it away, then kissed his way down her stomach. He took the waistband of her leggings in his teeth, and drew it down slowly, then moved up to kiss the delicate skin he’d uncovered.
Sophia moaned. In most of her relationships, she had been the aggressor. It was completely erotic just to let Jesse take charge, let him drive her crazy.
He dragged her leggings halfway down, and then kissed his way back up to her mouth. “Why did you stop?” she moaned. “I want you. I want you to take me.”
“Patience,” he said, smiling at her.
‘I don’t have any.” All she could think about was feeling his mouth on her pussy. She was so wet the dampness was coming through her panties to her leggings. “Make me naked,” she said. “I want you to kiss me everywhere. Lick my pussy. Please.”
Jesse laughed, low and sexy. “Soon,” he said. “Soon, tigress.”
She moved her mouth down his neck, biting, kissing, and then tongued his chest, his own nipples hardening under her attention. She ran her nails lightly over his pecs, wanting to make him crazy, and then slid her hand down and ran them over the bulge in his jeans. She felt his cock straining.
“I’m so wet for you,” she murmured. “I want you to feel me.”
He reached down and dipped his fingers between her legs, into her slippery cleft. She moaned and tried to open her legs, but the waistband of her leggings bound them together. She tried to push them down, but Jesse laughed again and pinned her arms gently above her head with one hand.
With the other, he dipped again between her legs, rubbing his fingers lightly over her pussy. He slid them over her clit, and she writhed and moaned. Then he left her tingling nub and slid his fingers down further, deeper, moving them slowly up and down the length of her pussy, making her crazy. He pushed two fingers inside her, curling them so that he touched her g-spot, and again she strained to open her legs to him. The constriction made her even more insane, feeling him dipping in and out, light and soft, then deeper and more intimate.
Finally, he relented and sat up, pulling her leggings down in one quick movement. He climbed between her legs and Sophia opened them for him, ready to beg him to go down on her.
She didn’t have to. He kissed her softly between her legs, his tongue brushing her clit once, twice, three times. She felt like molten lava.
He brought her to the edge, just about to come. Her head was thrown back and she was clutching his head with one hand, and the blankets with the other.
Jesse stopped just long enough to pull his jeans off. Then he moved over her, positioning his cock at her entrance. “I love you, Sophia Jenkins. Wolf, tiger and woman, I choose you.”
“I choose you back, Jesse Travis,” she said. “Negotiator, nerd, Jedi mind warrior, wolf, redneck. I love you.”
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He slid into her with one quick thrust, and Sophia cried out at the exquisite beauty of it. He slipped one arm under her shoulder and cupped the back of her head with the other hand. He began to move slowly, looking into her eyes. She matched his rhythm, desperate to climax, and at the same time wanting this to go on forever.
Just when she thought she couldn’t stand it anymore, he moved faster, harder, pumping deep into her and sliding out again. She pressed against him, moaning and whimpering, until she exploded around him, submerged in waves of orgasmic ecstasy.
“God, Jesse. I love you,” she murmured, over and over until his release took him, and he buried himself in her with one last desperate stroke, pumping his seed into her, making them one.
Their bond swirled around them, shattering and re-forming them into something new and precious, whole and translucent, shining with strength, truth and love.
Up Next for the Silverlake Shifters:
Silverlake Shifters – The Enforcers: KANE
Coming in December 2016
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About the Author
Anastasia Wilde lives in the deep forests of the Pacific Northwest, where sexy shifters may or may not be found hiding among the tall, ancient trees. She writes hot paranormal romances about wild, passionate shifter men and the strong women who are destined to win their hearts. Broken, complicated, devoted, protective—love heals their wounds and smooths their rough edges (but not too much!). When not writing, Anastasia is traveling, nomming on any food involving bacon or melty cheese (ideally both), adding to her magical crystal collection, or relaxing with a glass of wine, watching the sun set behind the mountains.
Tiger Mate (Silverlake Shifters Book 3) Page 17