To the Edge and Back [The Royal Wolves] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Honor James

  “There is birth control both for while you’re still human and ones for if and when you change. The Wolf ones are pretty potent and, for the first while until your body adjusts, kill your sex drive,” he told her.

  He couldn’t lie to her and he wasn’t about to start hiding things either. “You’ll pretty much kick me to the curb for about three weeks straight and then, if what I’ve heard can be believed, we’ll need about a week in a locked room, no work, no phones, and no interruptions while you make up for it.” He grinned at that idea.

  “Right, and by the way”—she turned and made him look at her—“I want to be changed. I want to be like you. I have made up my mind and I want forever, Janos, so you will just have to figure out how we change me and when we change me.”

  She nodded deep in thought and then asked, “And three weeks without you?” She frowned but then added, “But we will figure it out, and by the way, just so you know, I won’t kick you out of our bed, because I love sleeping there with you, but most likely we won’t have sex if you say so.”

  “Not a lick of it,” he muttered, “which you’d better make up for after the fact or I’m going to be damned cranky,” he told her. Leaning in, he kissed her softly. “I’ll talk to the brothers and see if they know of someone to help us figure out the change.”

  “All right, Janos.” She patted his chest and grinned. “Sounds like a good idea. I look forward to knowing just how things work. In the meantime, we should likely get on birth control just so that we will have that so that there are no mistakes.” Because she knew that condoms would never work, not with the way that he more than doubled in size.

  “You’re thinking about sex again,” he said with a grin, her eyes dilating, giving her away. “But you’re right. Unfortunately that’s all going to be on you, love. I feel bad though. I really wish there was some way for me to help out with that.” Unfortunately they’d yet to figure out how to make a condom for a Wolf.

  “Don’t even go there. I happen to really, really love having you releasing deep down inside of me. I am more than willing to take the medication to take care of it.” She hadn’t, however, asked him. “What do you want to do? I hadn’t thought to ask you. Do you want children right away or are you all right with waiting?”

  “Waiting is fine, Mina,” he said with a smile. “I’m perfectly willing to wait for whenever you are ready to have kids. Besides”—he moved a little closer and kissed the tip of her nose—“I like having you to myself for a few years without having to share you with our children.”

  “Me, too, I think that having you alone with me for a while just us and getting to know every single thing about you is what we both need.” They needed to become a unit before they had children. “All right, so that choice is made, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a smile. Kissing her lightly, he stepped back. “Into the car, love, we have shopping to do and then we should head home.” Shutting her door after she slid in, Janos moved around and carefully, very carefully sat in his seat.

  Chapter 35

  “Are you all right?” she asked with a smirk, knowing why he was moving so carefully and slowly. “I can’t wait to go and shop with you, Janos. I want to experience everything with you, and this is only the start of these things, isn’t it?”

  “I’m fine,” he said as he adjusted his zipper as carefully as he could so it wasn’t biting into him quite so badly.

  “I hate shopping, just so you know. I like to go in, get what I need, and that’s it,” he told her. “But”—he sighed—“for you I’m making an exception. This is a rare thing, so you’d better enjoy it completely,” he added as he pulled out onto the street and headed toward the mall.

  “I will enjoy it.” She hated to shop, too. “A mall?” She watched all of the people as they began to park and licked her dry lips. “I really don’t want to do a mall, but it makes sense. We can go in and get everything that we need and be in and out quickly.” Because the sooner they were out the sooner that they weren’t around the crowds and the sooner that they could get home and be together.

  “One-stop shopping,” he said as he found a spot and parked. Gripping the steering wheel, he stared at the mall and the hordes of people. “I hate malls,” he muttered. Not for what she was likely thinking. Malls were bad for Wolves. Too many scents layered on top of other smells. It messed with their noses. He’d have to watch out for the perfume counters. Those could put him into shock for a week if they doused him.

  “I hate malls, too,” she whispered and then told him, “I don’t like crowds. I know it’s really weird, but I really don’t like crowds.” She licked her lips and looked over at him. “Maybe we can go somewhere else? Go to a smaller shop, maybe even somewhere further outside of the city and closer to home?”

  “We’d have to hit four different stores minimum,” he told her, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “All right, we go in, hit only the places we have to, and get out. That’s our mission. I have your list and we know you need a new jacket, too, on top of a few additional clothes. We can do this. You protect me from the perfume people and I’ll scare off the crowds, deal?” he asked, looking to her.

  “Deal. We are very much a team, aren’t we?” They were more than that. They were two parts of the same whole. She was about to reach for the door handle and took a deep breath. “All right, I’m ready. Are you ready?”

  Pocketing his keys, he looked to her. “We’re a unit, love, two halves of one whole.” He smiled at her. Touching his door handle, he nodded. “Ready,” he said and got out quickly before he changed his mind. Locking the car, he took her hand in his as they headed for the chaos and mayhem of the mall.

  She walked hand in hand with him and then grinned up at him. “It is close to the holidays. Isn’t it a wonderful time of the year?” There was just something about Christmas time in New York.

  Janos made a sound in his throat as he pulled open the door. “It’s interesting, to say the least,” he murmured as they were assaulted by the sounds of too many people talking and loud tunes playing over the speakers of the mall. Wincing slightly, he led her inside toward where the map of the mall was. Stopping, he did a quick scan and headed toward a store that sold winter clothing.

  She watched everything that was happening around her and more than once slid in closer to him. When they entered the store, it was thankfully not that busy. “I guess everyone else has gotten their winter things earlier, haven’t they?” she teased as she looked up at him and then nodded. “All right, let’s find me a good winter coat, sturdy boots, and gloves and such so that I can go on midnight walks with you and our pets at home.” And by pets, she knew that he would understand what she meant.

  “And a scarf, too, love, don’t want your beautiful neck getting cold,” he said softly with a smile as he ran his fingers up said portion of her anatomy. “I’m just glad it’s not packed. I’d likely have had to run screaming out of here if there had been more bodies than this here.”

  She shivered as his fingers lightly touched the mark that he placed on her. “I think that you want me to wear a scarf so that I don’t show this off to people.” Yeah right. “All right, we will get me fitted with some nice warm clothes so that we can move on to the next store.”

  “Get shopping, woman, before I kiss you silly and we forget where we are,” he told her, shaking his head.

  The next half hour was spent in choosing a warm coat, gloves, boots, and scarf as well as a hat or two.

  Holding all her new stuff, Janos followed her as she meandered, the only word for it, through the store. She would pick up something, stare at it, turn and compare the colors to what he held, and then either sneak a not-so-unobvious peek at the price or just put it back.

  She finally looked at him and smiled. “I think that I’m done and ready.” She had a coat, scarf, gloves, and boots and had tapped out all the cash she had left, so she was done, fully and completely. “Thank you for holding everything, Janos. Are you
sure that you’re good with it?” She took her things from him as they walked toward the cash register.

  “I’m fine,” he said with a grin and, through a little well-planned fumbling, had his card out and in front of the cashier before Mina could say two words. “Put it away,” Janos told her softly as she tried to get the girl to take her card instead. “I’m the one that thought this trip up. Let me pay for it.”

  She frowned at him and shook her head. “I’m getting to buy us lunch then,” she said with a nod and smile. “Thank you, Janos.” She looked at the cashier who was grinning ear to ear. When they had her bag, she let Janos take it and slipped her hand into his other one as they moved out of the clothing store and toward a pharmacy in the mall.

  “What are you getting us for lunch then?” he asked as he wove in and out of all the people window shopping. Cutting through a crowd, he made it into the pharmacy with no problem and let her guide him wherever they needed to go.

  As they looked at the razors, she turned and had her back to him. Grabbing soap and shampoo that smelled a little more girly, she looked over her shoulder. “I was thinking that maybe we could just do burgers or tacos.” She saw his look and shrugged. “I don’t know, honey. You tell me what sounds good to you, honey?”

  Shaking his head, he smiled at her. “Whatever you want. Though, to be honest, I’ve actually never really had tacos,” he said. When she gave him a gaping look, he chuckled. “Not everyone has, love,” he pointed out softly.

  “It’s been about three years since I had any. They had these tacos that were only thirty-nine cents each. It was cheaper than the noodles I have been living on lately.” She shrugged and grinned. “We will do it. You need to be able to say that you have had tacos at least once in your life, all right?”

  “I’m up for it,” he told her even as he made a mental note to make sure that they always had more than enough food around. He never wanted her starving herself again. He’d make her lunches or ensure that Ben fed her. His brother was good that way and always went the extra mile for his employees, but this was Janos’s mate, completely different ballgame.

  “I heard they have these new nacho things, and so I can’t wait to try them. Hopefully they are as good as they looked on the television.” The “Loaded Nachos” looked so good that Mina had actually found herself drooling, funny really.

  “Well, then we’d better hurry up with the shopping,” he told her. They still had to get her a few other pieces of clothing to beef up her wardrobe a bit as well as what they were in the pharmacy for, too. “Grab what we need so we can finish up, and then I think we’ll hit a restaurant instead of the food court.” He’d seen the sign for a taco place in the food court, but that many people in one place was just too much.

  “Thank you.” He understood her too well. “Are you sure that you haven’t been following me around just so that you can learn everything about me?” Because he seemed to know everything about her, what made her tick and what made her freeze.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head as he looked down at her. “Why would you say that, love?” he asked, worried that she actually thought he’d do something that creepy.

  “Because you seem to know me so very well in such a short time. You are already seeing to my needs and understand my fear of the crowds and are offering to take me out of it just because you know that I don’t feel comfortable. It’s a good thing, Janos, a very good thing.” She grinned at him.

  “Shouldn’t I know you at least a little by now?” he asked, relaxing slightly. “You’re actually pretty easy to read, Mina, and body language is something I’m good at decoding.”

  “True, I just love that you are that attuned to me, Janos. I’m happy that you love me so much. It gives me happiness that I will never be able to explain to you.”

  “You’ll get there, too, you know,” he said with a slow smile. “You’ll be able to pick up on things that normally you likely wouldn’t. It’ll just happen without any real thought. It’ll just be,” he added with a shrug.

  “Well I can’t wait to see what I can learn about you.” She automatically steered them, however, from the woman in the center of the walkway who held the perfume bubble in hand and placed herself between the woman and Janos. It was purely unconscious on her part.

  Growling at the woman, Janos had the pleasure, albeit brief, of seeing her jump and spin around, looking for where the sound came from. Hurrying Mina past her, he shuddered. “I hate the perfume women. They just keep spritzing even though I say no. Bloody puts me out of commission for like a month after they do it.”

  “Well, we will have to make sure that they don’t do that, because I would be really, really unhappy with them if they put you out of commission for a month from me. I don’t know that I can survive if I couldn’t be with you for a month.”

  Looking to her, he chuckled. “No, love, I mean I can’t breathe. Wolves can’t stand strong scents as it hurts our sense of smell. Too much of it and it throws our whole system out of whack until it dissipates and our system can readjust or compensate.”

  “Oh that’s even worse.” She gave the woman a dirty look over her shoulder and hugged him closer. “I will need to remember that.” Good thing she never wore perfume, and she voiced that as well along with, “Good thing that I don’t do smelly lotions, don’t you think?”

  “I’d have doused you in water and scrubbed you down if you had,” he said with a straight face, his voice droll. Laughing at her stunned look, he shrugged. “Actually I likely would have started sneezing, gotten hives, and gone into convulsions until I couldn’t breathe anymore.”

  “Well that would be bad.” She licked her lips and then gave him a look of heat. “How about you douse me in water and scrub me down anyway? I would love to feel your hands on me, bathing me and rubbing soap into my body.” Yes, she was being mean because they weren’t done shopping yet and she knew it.

  Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her hard, his tongue stroking over hers as he growled, the sound pouring from him into her. “How about we do that when we get home?” he suggested, rocking his very evident need against her belly.

  “I think that is the best idea of all. I want to do this. I need to do this, because god, I need you.” She growled just as much as he was, taking her cue from him. “I think that the rest of our shopping needs to be really fast and over soon. We will eat and go home so that you can make sure that my every single inch of skin is without scent other than the one that we share.”

  Biting her lip gently, he nodded as he lifted his head. “A most excellent plan,” he murmured. Rubbing his hands up and down her arms, he smiled. “And we need to work on your growl. It’s kind of girly sounding.”

  “I rather like my growl.” Which turned to a purr as his hands rubbed up and down her arms. “Right, all right, I see what you’re saying,” she said with a grin and then said, “So we need to go.” She stepped back and tugged on his hand. “Come on, love. The sooner we are done, the sooner we are home.”

  “Right,” he said with a sigh and let her lead him to their next stop. Glaring at a guy who was eyeing her up, Janos had the very real urge to kick the guy’s ass. Lucky for them both, his wife smacked him over the head and then proceeded to rip him a new one.

  “What was that growl for?” she asked with a frown, not seeing the man eyeing her or the wife hitting him either. “All right, I’m lost.” She was petting him now, her hands moving up and down his arms to try to soothe him as she did so.

  “A married man was eyeing you up and I felt the sudden urge to rip out his throat is all,” Janos told her honestly, knowing that if he lied it could hurt them. “His wife beat me to it and smacked him around a bit before dragging him out of here by his balls.”

  Mina just looked at him for several long moments and then grinned. “Someone was eyeing me? Are you kidding?”

  Chapter 36

  When he didn’t change the look he was giving her she laughed and shook her head. “I am so not used
to this. I can’t believe someone would actually look me up and down.” Although now she had to admit that wouldn’t be too strange, because he was always looking her up and down. Janos would give her these looks and it would make her whole body quiver and melt.

  “And why not?” he asked her as they started moving again. “You are a sexy and sensual woman, darling. You are built like a woman should be. You are graceful, elegant, and beautiful, but you don’t even realize it, which makes it all the more alluring. You make my heart pound every time I look at you.”

  “Well, I’m glad that I do, because I look at you and sometimes find it hard to breathe. You are the most amazingly handsome man that I have ever seen in my life.” She smiled up at him. “I love you, Janos.” And they had to get out of that mall soon or she was going to do something that she was very, very much going to be embarrassed about later.

  Smiling at her, he shook his head. “See, you know just what to say to embarrass my socks right off,” he teased her. Clearing his throat, he ducked his head slightly. “We have shopping to do, love, before we can get down and kinky,” he reminded her gently.

  “Then we should hurry before I lose my mood.” Her smile was radiant. She tugged him once more toward the next store. She needed to get this over and done with because she was really, really desperate for him.

  “Oh, undies,” Janos said with real interest as he came to an instant halt by the lacy underwear. “You interested in this kind of thing or are you going more practical?” he asked as he picked up a lacy bra and stroked a finger over the cup, his eyes turning toward her.

  She could practically feel him stroking her as he stroked the lace of the bra. “Right, yes, you know that looks really nice. Why don’t I try that on and you can come in and tell me what you think?”

  His body leapt to attention and he licked his lips. “Oh hell yeah,” he said, his voice as close to a purr as he could physically get. Looking at the tag, he replaced it and found one that was likely her size or close to it. “Go and try it on. Once we have your size we can pick out some other styles and colors,” he encouraged, knowing he was going to blow a wad on her underwear and was all too damned happy to do it.