Jason

by Erin Havoc

  But Jason takes a deep breath and steps back with a smile. “Because I met you.” He offers his arm, and I take it, my fingers burning where they touch his arm.

  We walk the rest of the way, talking about what comes next with the policies. What he hopes to see, and what he knows his pack brothers want to be accomplished. We talk about Senator Callahan and his ideas, but we don’t talk about us.

  Though that subject’s on the tip of my tongue when we stop at my building’s entrance. Jason’s eyes are so stark against his complexion and the caramel hair, he is all I see. They are bright like lighthouses, guiding me to safety. He leans closer. I do the same.

  “I want to see you again,” he says in a hoarse voice.

  “I want that too.” I pick my phone up. “Give me your number. Also, I’ll unblock you on the app.”

  He opens a large grin and I notice his canines are sharper than usual. It’s really hot. “Good thing I found you. I couldn’t have slept straight if I didn’t.”

  We exchange numbers and I dig the phone into my pocket as I tilt my head back to meet his gaze. “I’m glad you did. When I saw you on TV today, and I really saw you, I regretted it. Having blocked you. I shouldn’t have.”

  Jason leans further, his face hovering inches from mine. I gasp, his chest brushing mine and eliciting all kinds of delicious shivers along my body. His breath coats my tongue as his hands come up to my arms.

  “I have been holding back just fine, Meghan. But I think that’s as far as I can go.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have to kiss you. Just one kiss or my brain will explode.”

  I lick my lips, hungry for his taste. His words bring an unfamiliar sensation through me — lust, unabashed, unstoppable. Powerful. It coils in my lower stomach, tight between my legs. My panties grow sodden and I press my thighs together as I hug Jason around his hips.

  “Okay,” I breathe, pathetically, and I watch the space between us disappear.

  His lips slide over mine, his breath brushing against my cheek, and I melt. My hands shoot up to his shoulders, and he holds me around the waist, keeping me pressed to him. The touch is searing, powerful, and bright. Jason pries my lips open and dips his tongue inside.

  A wave of arousal crashes over my body and I groan, opening my mouth wider to take him in. Our tongues clash and dance as if we’ve trained this forever, and it’s absolutely delicious. His body pressed against mine is all defined muscles and hard edges, and I’m dying to touch him beneath his shirt.

  My desire grows, blinds me, and the kiss drives me on. My nipples are so hard they hurt me, and I brush myself against him, seeking release from that blissful pain. Jason makes a sound deep in his throat, something like a snarl, and I jump. Not out of fear.

  No, I’ve never been this aroused in my life.

  Bringing him closer, I kiss him harder. He keeps it up, never missing a beat. When I find the hard length in his pants, I almost black out of too much heat. It’s long and thick as hell, and sweet baby Jesus, I need to feel that.

  My hands fumble with the collar of his shirt and his shoulders, and soon enough I’m trembling as I reach for his waistband. Jason growls again, his fingers digging into my backside for a moment. Hard. So hard I release a moan against his mouth. It’s a desperate cry, and I’m begging him to take me, but he pulls back.

  I cry out, snapping my eyes open to look at him. His hair is mussed and his eyes wide and glazed, his lips swollen from abuse. I know I don’t look different and the knowledge just serves to arouse me even more.

  “Meghan,” he says, his voice breaking. “My beautiful, beautiful Meghan. You drive me crazy.”

  I bite my lower lip, tugging on his waistband. “Don’t you... um... Don’t you want to come up?”

  Who the hell is this girl who has possessed me? I would never invite a guy up on the first date, and I know how serious sex with a shifter is. Even so, I can’t think of anything else.

  With heartbreak across his face, Jason presses his forehead to mine. “There’s nothing I want more. But sex with you would lead to mating, and mating means forever. I don’t want you to do it and regret later. It’s a binding of souls. It can’t be undone.”

  I sink my teeth into my lip, ready to tell him I feel the same connection, but I hold it back. I have done something impulsive the last two days and came to regret it. I blocked him. He’s right to be unsure.

  Nodding, I take a step back. “We’ll see each other tomorrow then.”

  He studies me for a moment before he smiles, pecking me on the lips. “Tomorrow. I can’t wait.”

  Unlocking the front door, I slip inside my building, watching him watch me through the crack in the door before I close it. My heart’s light as a feather as I climb the stairs to the second floor and enter my place. Flipping the light switch on, I release a sigh, knowing I’ll have to touch myself to get rid of this monstrous arousal Jason has brought me.

  But when I lock the door behind me and turn, I’m not alone.

  “Look who has decided to show up,” Carl says from where he sits on my couch. He opens a smirk that would have looked pantie-melting on Jason, but just looks threatening on him. His canines are also pointy, but I fear the way he might use them on me.

  My arousal washes off in a wave of panic. Adrenaline hits my veins in a burst and I whirl around for the door. Carl’s hands slam to each side of my head, his chest touching my back as he keeps the door shut.

  His lips brush my ear ever so slightly. “Where do you think you’re going, little lamb?”

  6

  JASON

  My wolf has never been so mad at me in my entire life.

  Meg wants me. I know she does, and I know she feels the same connection. But she has said nothing, and I need her to be sure. To put her feelings into words. A mating bond is unbreakable, and I’d hate to put her in a situation she regrets.

  She has to want me not for the sex or the attraction. Not for the moment. She must want me forever.

  So she’s gone and I’m left here. Standing in her sidewalk with the most painful erection I’ve ever had. My damn cock pulses, pressing achingly against the fly of my jeans. And my damn wolf doesn’t help. He keeps pacing inside me, snarling and growling, pissed she invited me in and I asked her for some time.

  He’ll have to deal with it. She’s my damn mate. I can’t bear the thought of us sleeping together today for her to regret it tomorrow. Even if the mating bond stretches both ways, and I know she must experience the same attraction I feel for her, I don’t want her to leave, to part from me. It would be too painful.

  And talking about painful.

  I grip my dick over my pants, tugging at it, trying to make it calm down. But it’s impossible. Her smell, her taste... It’s arousing and inebriating, and it’s stuck to me like a second skin. And the moment I smelled her arousal, her sweet juices calling me from between her legs... My balls grew heavier, and I knew I was a goner for her. There’s no way out.

  Stumbling like a drunk to the back of the building, I follow the smell of her to a window on the second floor. The light is on, and though it’s far up, I can smell her inside. Faintly. Fuck, I could be up there right now. Kissing her to oblivion, touching her smooth skin. Burying my cock between her creamy thighs.

  The sounds she’ll make when I ram into her wet cunt... I can’t wait for the sweet pain of her nails raking down my chest. How do her breasts look like beneath that shirt? I imagine her nipples, rosy as the blush across her cheeks, pebbled, waiting for me to suck them.

  “Fuck,” I groan, baring my teeth.

  And I can’t believe I’m about to do it, but I have to. I need to. Yanking at the button of my pants, I let the zipper down and allow my cock to spring free. The street is deserted, but this is the epitome of desperation. Her smell clings to my clothes, and I can still feel the burning of her fingertips against my arms. Licking at the corner of my mouth, I try to recapture any of her taste.

  Circling the base o
f my member with a hand, I shut my eyes and imagine Meghan. On her back, her breasts on display, her legs parted. Her dewy flesh ready for my taking. Jerking from base to head, I feel the telltale of an orgasm run down my spine. I have never been this aroused, this needy. My entire body is so focused I can’t think of anything else.

  Flipping Meghan’s body in the mental image, I wonder about her plump backside. Up for me to take her from behind. Mate with her in a forest floor as if we’re animals. Rut against her ass-cheeks and cover her lower back in my seed.

  Fuck, no. Not for the first few times at least. My come goes inside her, straight into her womb. Deep, deep within her walls. She’s going to take it over and over until her belly swells with my first cub. Then, and only then, I’ll allow myself to come anywhere else over her perfect body. Cover her tits. Spray over her lips and nose.

  My dick twitches between my fingers and I pick up my pace, grunts, and snarls leaving me as I press a hand to the wall, keeping my balance as pleasure threatens to swallow me. My balls grow heavier still and I bare my teeth and roar my climax as I come, spurt after spurt of my thick seed sticking to the wall.

  It gives me some relief, but it’s lukewarm and sad. It’s nothing like Meghan will feel between my arms. Beneath my body.

  Zipping up, shame crawls up my neck and face when I analyze what I just did. “Fuck, I must be out of my mind.” I want to clean the mess up but I have nothing to do it with. Approaching the wall, I look up and hope Meghan never looks down here.

  A smell wafts down to me. Not Meghan. Not her sweet, mouth-watering smell that already has me addicted. Another scent, one I have already smelled today...

  The wolf. The stranger I smelled outside the boutique she works at. How strange.

  Stepping away, I take deep breaths, capturing the scent, and studying it. A wolf, for sure. There’s a hint of something else, something like a warning...

  An alpha. Fuck, there’s another alpha in town. The place is not my territory — my territory is up the creek in the woods, but even so. Even so, what the fuck is this outsider doing here? And around my girl?

  My wolf perks up inside me. He’s feeling it too. Something is off. Something has changed. And not for the good.

  With the wolf’s smell, another one drifts down to me as I walk back to the building’s entrance. Fear. The stink of fear is clear, loud, and bright as a beacon. We use it to find prey. But here, it’s mixed with Meghan’s sweet smell.

  My heart jerks inside my chest as I stride back to the front and up the steps to the entrance, not thinking twice before I grip the doorknob and smash it between my fingers. I’ll fix this shit later. My wolf claws inside me, saying “shift, shift, let me take care of this bastard!” but first I have to get to her. Get her out of the way. She won’t feel exactly safe with a wolf bursting into her place.

  Unbridled rage fights its way up my throat as I follow Meghan’s smell to one of the doors. The wolf’s stink is all over the place now, and it has all my possessiveness coming up to the surface. My wolf fights for control, and I feel the fur scratching to burst over my skin, my jaw lengthening. My teeth grow into fangs and I snap my jaw as I ready to end this fucker’s life.

  No one messes with my mate. This fucking wolf is dead.

  7

  MEGHAN

  Carl grips me around an arm and manhandles me to the couch. My heart’s hammering so hard inside my chest, all I hear is its desperate thump-thump. Air’s not coming in, no matter how hard I try to fill my lungs. They’re collapsing. Fear settles on my stomach like lead and my throat closes in on itself. I don’t think I’m even able to scream.

  He shoves me onto the couch and sits next to me as if everything is perfectly fine. As if he’s my boyfriend and has just surprised me with a visit. Carl smiles casually.

  He’s everything but.

  His eyes bore down on me, pinning me in place. A sly grin crosses his face as he leans, hovering over my face. I pull back, my eyes widening as I look for a way out.

  Carl clutches my chin and forces me to look at him. “Did you fucking block me on the app, my princess?”

  I hate it when he calls me that. I’m not a princess and I’m not his. “You were annoying. I told you I was not interested,” I say with as much fierceness as I can muster, and it’s not much. My voice still trembles.

  He smiles as if I’m a silly child doing silly things. “Of course you are. We have eighty percent compatibility. That’s the highest I’ve ever had. You will not find anything much better, my princess. I am an alpha. Leader of my pack.”

  I pull my chin from his clutches. “I don’t care about that. What does being a leader matter if you’re such a jerk?”

  He makes a mock-insulted face. “Me? A jerk?” Carl laughs, and it just enrages me. He does this thing, acting as if he’s so superior and I’m stupid. “Come now. What for?”

  “You’ve just broken into my house. You won’t let me leave.”

  He shrugs. “Just staking my claim.” He bares his teeth, and the sight of his canines makes my heart jump. “I can smell another wolf on you, Meghan. But you’re already mine.”

  “I am not yours. I have met my match,” I say, scooting farther on the couch and trying to create some distance between us.

  He snarls. And it’s not sexy. Just makes me quiver with panic. “I don’t fucking care if you think you’ve found your match. No one says no to me, Meghan. And you will not be the first.”

  Bracing myself, I jump up and try to run around the coffee table to reach the window. Maybe, maybe if I open it and jump down... It’s just the second floor. Even if I break an ankle, maybe I can scream loud enough for someone to hear me. If I’m lucky enough, Jason’s improved hearing can save me.

  But Carl’s too fast and I don’t reach the window before he plucks me up like I weigh nothing and drops me on the couch again. His body comes over mine, a hand fisting my hair with painful strength.

  “You know what’s missing, Meghan? Mating.” His free hand comes up to my hip, and he readjusts me beneath him. His erection presses against my core and I cry out. “Once we mate and I mark you, I’m sure you won’t have any other complaints.”

  “No! Please, don’t,” the words stumble out of my mouth with cries, tears slipping down the sides of my face as he immobilizes me beneath his powerful body. “Please!”

  The door bursts open so hard I think the building has exploded. It slams against the wall and comes back, hanging by a thread to its hinges. Carl and I look at it with wide eyes, and the moment seems frozen in time as Jason struts in.

  Relief washes over me, then I catch a glimpse of his face. He’s not... the Jason I have just left. His features twist in rage, his cheekbones elongate. There’s silver fur sprouting from the corners of his cheeks as if he just developed sideburns. Jason locks eyes with Carl, still bent over me. He bares his teeth and snarls. But he has no teeth anymore — just fangs. White and gleaming and ready to defend me.

  “Jason!” I cry out, fighting under Carl’s hold.

  Carl lets me go, jumping to his feet and facing Jason. His shoulders square and he reaches down to pull his shirt out. I stare at them as Jason pulls his too.

  I shouldn’t notice. This is so not the right moment... But my fingers itch to run down Jason’s six-pack and the hard planes of his pecs. Wow, he looks like he’s been carved out of marble.

  Carl undoes his pants and Jason copies him. I sit farther back on the couch, wondering why in the world are they undressing.

  In a heartbeat, Jason reaches out and punches Carl. It happens so fast I just notice it when Carl’s head snaps to one side. I gasp, covering my mouth, and in the blink of an eye, the two are fighting furiously.

  Jason slams his fist into Carl’s face again. “You don’t fucking touch my mate!”

  “She’s not mated yet, pal,” Carl snarls back, spitting blood at Jason. He tries to land a punch and Jason dances away. With a kick, Jason pushes him back. He’s much taller than Carl, and I’m surpr
ised the latter doesn’t cower. “She’s free to mark.”

  Another set of punches and Carl’s face transforms. His jaw elongates to a muzzle, longer and longer as his body shrinks. I watch in astonishment as his legs and arms bend and turn with stomach-churning sounds, black fur sprouting from his face and down his exposed body.

  Then there’s a wolf in my living room. Not a regular wolf, it’s evident — he’s huge, much bigger than a normal wolf. He slips out of his pants and shoes and jumps on Jason, fangs bared, ready to take a piece out of my mate. Jason lifts his arms to protect his face, and Carl’s jaw snaps shut around Jason’s arm. Blood gushes out and I shriek, wanting to pry my eyes from it and unable to do so.

  Jason roars, fisting Carl’s fur with his free hand and swinging him toward the window. The wolf crashes through the glass and flies down to the street.

  Jason whirls back to face me, his features still twisted in hatred. “I’ll be back in a moment, love.”

  I’m gasping like a fish out of water as he jumps out of the window after Carl.

  My heart rate calms down a little, and my legs feel steady enough for me to stand. Running to my broken window, I peer outside. Two forms fight in the darkness, and I can hear the barks and yelps as one jumps on the other, jaws snapping, roars echoing into the night. It’s too dark for me to tell one from the other.

  I can’t let Jason get hurt. He’s bleeding. For me! Because of me, because he wanted to defend me.

  Though my entire being tells me to not get involved, I need to be at his side. My heart chants his name, and I know, more than ever, that we’re mates. We’re meant to be. My heart cries for him, for his safety.

  Ambling into the hallway, my gaze darts up and down, my mind a thousand miles per hour developing a way to help. My gaze lands on a fire extinguisher down the corridor.

  I could use that.