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

by Honor James

  A blush spread over her nose and cheeks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t take into account that your hearing is so spectacular.” She would have to remember that. As an animal, his hearing, taste, smell, and sight were all far better than hers could and would ever be.

  Kissing the end of her nose, he shook his head. “It’s okay. It’ll take a little while for you to get used to. I more than understand that. Just, don’t yell please,” he asked, stroking his fingers over her cheek. “It’s brutally hard on Wolf hearing. That’s one reason I hate malls. The cacophony of noise from too many voices is painful.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said again and leaned into his touch. “What would you like on your sandwich?” She pointed toward the meats, breads, cheese, and tomatoes. “I love tomatoes, very much I love tomatoes, so what do you want on yours?”

  “Anything and everything that you can pile onto it without it falling apart,” he told her with a shrug. “If the kitchen sink fits, you can throw it on there, too.” He smiled slightly. “I’m going to test-drive the burrito while you make my sandwich. I want to watch you moving around our space.”

  She grinned and shook her head, her hair falling over her shoulder in a light wave of silky mass. “All right, go sit and eat I will make you a monster of a sandwich.” She began to cut the tomatoes and pile them up even as she piled meat and mayo onto the bread.

  Sitting at the counter, he pulled out the burrito and, unwrapping it, he took a careful bite. It wasn’t too bad. The mix was a little odd, but he knew what the spices were that they’d put into it. Chewing, he watched her as he ate, not really paying the food much attention as he enjoyed her concentration in making the sandwich.

  Once she had them all made, she wiped her hands with the towel and grinned. “There, they are monstrosities.” They were piled so high that they were toppling, and only by cutting them in half and leaning them on each other was she able to keep them upright. “Look all right?”

  Smiling as he sipped his pop, he nodded. “Absolutely perfect,” he told her, even though he hadn’t once looked at the sandwiches. His smile took on a wicked edge as she blushed slightly. He loved making her blush as long as it wasn’t embarrassment pinking up her cheeks. He was thrilled with her gaining a bit of color.

  “You are really wickedly wonderful, you know that?” She moved so that she could sit at his side at the counter and took one half of one of the sandwiches and placed it on the paper plate she had fished out from one of the drawers. “You can take that plate and I’ve got this one.” She would clean up her mess in a few minutes. For now she just wanted time with him.

  Pulling the plate in front of him, he took a half, flattened it down with a good amount of pressure, and began to eat, his eyes on her the whole time. She ate delicately. She was taking little bites and enjoying each, it seemed. Sipping at his pop, he leaned over and kissed her cheek lightly. “I love you,” was said for no reason other than the fact he had the right to do so.

  She grinned and shrugged. “I know.” Her eyes danced merrily as she began to eat with a little more speed. She was half through her sandwich half and leaned back. “All right, you get my other half because I couldn’t eat another bite.” Which was the truth. She had eyes bigger than her stomach, it seemed.

  Popping the last of his into his mouth, he took hers with a grin. “Thank you,” he said as he continued to plow through the food. “Don’t worry, when you change this will be nothing more than a snack,” he told her after taking a sip of his drink. “Especially for the first while as your body adjusts, you’ll be eating almost nonstop, or so that’s the rumor.”

  “I don’t know. I mean in a way I hope you’re right.” She eyed the too-large meal. “But in a way I really think you’re wrong. I don’t think that I have ever in my life eaten that much.” She shrugged and grinned. “But if you say that I will, I believe you. Just double your grocery bill and we will be golden, right?”

  “Totally.” He grinned back, bumping his shoulder to hers. “It’ll take a little adjusting on everything, but I think you’ll be just marvelous. Personally, I can’t wait until we can go for a run.” If not for the concern that something might go wrong during the change, he would be thrilled with the prospect of her becoming a Wolf. Those rumors were plentiful, horror stories that were truly nightmarish in detail.

  “Well I hope you can wait for a while, because I’m not ready yet.” She really wasn’t and hoped that he understood her need to wait until she was fully ready. “I will get cleaned up in here while you finish.” Leaning in, she pressed a kiss to the side of his neck and grinned. “I love you, Wolf boy.”

  Growling, he snapped his teeth closed by her ear as he wrapped his arm around her waist to hold her close. “We won’t do anything at all until you are truly ready, love. You are all that is important. If you’re not ready or happy with the choice, then neither am I.”

  “Thank you for that, Janos.” He was very much her other half. He accepted her without question or judgment. “I love you. Now you finish eating and I will clean up.” She wiggled out of his hold, patting his shoulder with a grin and stepping away so that she could do their dishes and put the meats and everything away.

  Chapter 39

  Sighing, he shook his head at her back and continued to eat his way through the last half of a sandwich. Chewing thoughtfully, he leaned an elbow on the counter. “Here’s a question for you, my love,” he threw out into the quiet after he finished the sandwich. “What do you think about having the rest of the family of hairballs over here for dinner on Sunday?”

  She looked back at him and smiled. “Really?” She very much wanted to meet his family, to know all of his brothers and feel like she was a part of them. “I would love that, Janos. Do you really think that they would all come on Sunday, just to meet me?”

  “Honey, I tell them that I have found the woman that’s willing to put up with me for the rest of time and we’ll have to leave the gates open, otherwise they will take them out in their haste to meet you,” he said with a grin and chuckle.

  She snickered and shook her head. “It isn’t that bad, Janos. They wouldn’t do something like that. Now I can see them asking my name, date of birth, social security number, and everything so they could do extensive background checks on me to make sure that I’m not taking you for anything.”

  When he went to argue she held up her hand. “I would expect no less, Janos. You are their baby brother. They love you, and we live in a society where it is every vulture for themselves.” Not her though. She had never been one of those people who used others to get ahead or get something.

  “Honey, you are my mate. You carry my mark. There isn’t any way you could take what I’ve freely given,” he pointed out, getting up to move around to her. “But, I should warn you, Miklos, the middle kid, is a cop, and he is paranoid and delusional or something and will run a background check. He’ll put you through every database out there and some that I don’t know about, I’m sure.”

  She shrugged and looked up. “I don’t mind. I have nothing at all to hide. I was a foster kid in the system. I will give him the name of all the homes I was in until I gained my emancipation, and after that I got a job at the beer company and worked there until the little incident.” She blushed as she recalled just what that incident had been. “That was amazing, for me to be awake and you dreaming, making me scream like that.”

  “Have I apologized for that yet?” he asked with a wince as he remembered that had gotten her canned from her job. “I really didn’t mean to do that, love. As much as I enjoyed every moment of it”—he grinned—“and trust me, I really, really enjoyed it, I should have had some sort of control.”

  “Don’t you dare,” she said with a grin. “I’m glad that it did happen, Janos. If not, who knows where we would be right now, right?” She did lick her lips as she added, “I want that again, Janos. I enjoyed each second of it and do not want to ever give that up, so please don’t ask me to.”

  “Never,” he
told her softly, stroking his hand up and down her back. “But with us working the same schedules, unless I have an unexpected nap, you won’t be having one of those waking orgasms again.” He smiled slowly as he wondered if he could manage one just for her.

  She shrugged and grinned. “Probably a good thing, because I think your brother would have a heart attack.” A brother who she was positive had already called the other brothers to tell them that their baby brother found his mate. “How long do you think we were out of his office before he called your oldest brother and then middle brother?”

  “Who are you kidding?” he asked with a snort. “He conferenced them all into one call and they gabbed like a bunch of fishwives. I’m actually amazed they weren’t all here waiting for us to come home.” Of course, they may have been and then got bored and just headed home.

  “I doubt that, Janos. They would have waited for doomsday if they had been here, honey.” Well, she thought so at least. “Now, how about you and I”—she walked to him and wrapped her arms around his middle—“go to our bedroom and try out that Jacuzzi tub that you have in there?”

  “We can sit and let the jets do their thing to relax us even more and, if you behave yourself…” He wagged his brows at her to suggest she better not, too much. “If you do, I will change for you tonight and you can play with your own personal Wolf for a while before we hit the sack.” He gave her a straight look and shrugged. “If you’re interested at all, that is.”

  “I am.” She was all smiles. “I am very interested, Janos, because I want to know how you feel, how you look. In fact, I think I am pretty much going to demand that you change for me tonight so that I can feel you and touch you, darling.”

  His whole body shuddered at her words and he tried, really tried to glare at her, but he was pretty sure it came out more like a lovesick kind of look. “Telling me you want to feel me and touch me is not conducive to making me want to change, love.” Pulling her closer to him, he showed her just what he was talking about. “Now, if you get this”—he grinned—“under control, I might be able to focus.”

  She felt the hard and undeniable evidence of his need and her body swiftly responded with wetness for him, in need of him. She looked up at him and leaned close, her lips pressed to his chest as she grinned. “Maybe we should try out the shower and not the tub, or I fear that I will never feel my mate in his Wolfish form.” Her body rubbed against his only moments before her hand closed over his cock lightly, teasingly.

  Rocking into her touch, Janos growled playfully at her with a grin. “I wouldn’t want to drown before we had a chance for you to at least see my other side.” Stopping, he blinked and then burst out laughing. “Damn, I sound like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all of a sudden.” He chuckled.

  She snickered and nodded. “You do, but I love it.” Her fingers linked in a circle at the base of his cock and she squeezed lightly. “So are we going to try out the Jacuzzi together, Janos, or do we get cleaned up separately?”

  Scooping her up, he dumped her over his shoulder and headed for the bathroom, smacking her bottom lightly. “I love you, darling, but you keep stroking me like that and I’m going to spill in my pants. That would be bad, just so we’re on the same page. I much prefer spilling inside of you, sweetheart,” he said, nibbling on her hip gently.

  She laughed and braced her hands on his back. “I happen to love you spilling inside of me, too. I love the way that it feels when you lock tight inside of me and then the explosion of your seed, the warmth of it filling me to capacity and beyond.” She shivered. Good god, she never knew she would be such a nymphomaniac, but she was, only for him.

  Swallowing hard at her words, he stroked his hand up and down her inner thigh as he reached the bedroom, moving slowly to the bathroom. Ducking, he put her on her feet and stood, slowly moving into her. “I need you, Mina. I need to have my cock inside of your hot, sweet, slick pussy as I fuck you into oblivion.”

  “I need you, too. I need you inside of me, making me scream and forget everything but you as you take me hard and fast.” She licked her lips and reached out to him. “I need you fucking me so hard that we both forget our own names, but whatever we do, I need it now.”

  Growling at her, he pulled his shirt off. “Get naked now or I’ll strip you and it won’t be pretty for your clothing,” he promised and warned in one sentence. Undoing his jeans, he pushed them down his legs to take off his boots, socks, and the pants in one move.

  She tugged her clothes and within the blink of an eye was standing before him in just the pretty bra and panties he bought her. “I want you to fuck me while I’m wearing these, Janos.” She loved that growl, the way his eyes had turned Wolf and were staying there. Oh yeah, it was good to be her.

  Licking his lips, he moved forward and caught her against him with a smile. “Gladly, love,” he said. Lifting her up, Janos carried her into the shower, completely bypassing the Jacuzzi for the moment, and turned on the spray.

  Stepping back slightly, he watched as the lace and silk became transparent before his eyes. “Oh yeah,” he murmured with a devilish grin. “I’m liking this idea more and more with each moment,” he told her before leaning his head down to take her nipple right through the lace of her pretty little bra.

  Her fingers clenched on his shoulders and she leaned her head back in pure unadulterated delight. “I think that I am a freaking damn genius.” She rubbed her leg against the back of his as she fought for control of herself.

  “You are a genius,” he breathed, changing to her other breast. Nibbling on her flesh, he started to suckle her as he moved a hand to stroke her wet pussy through the wet lace. Pressing a finger over her clit, he rubbed gently, teasing her already swollen flesh even more.

  “Don’t tear them,” she whimpered when she heard the light tearing of the seams. “I want to keep them, Janos. Please just push it aside.” She was rubbing hard against him. “Need you, Janos, please.” She felt his need, and it was making her all the wetter.

  Growling, he pushed the lace aside and slid his fingers into her cunt as he stood and kissed her hard. “I need you, too,” he bit out, lifting her and pressing her to the wall. Pushing past his fingers, he slid into her pussy and began to just take her. “I always need you, now and for all time, Mina. You make it all better,” he whispered against her cheek.

  Her legs wrapped tightly around him and her arms held him close as she moved with him. “I always need you, too, Janos. You make everything right in my life. You are my savior in this life and I never will be without you.”

  “Good,” he said, softly gripping her ass in his hands and holding the lace a little further out of the way. “Because I don’t intend to ever let you go, love.” Moving her up and down him as he pushed into her over and over, he nipped at her throat even as he moved his mouth to her mark to tease it lightly.

  She clenched him tightly as she moved with him and whimpered, “Good, because I am never letting you get away from me, Janos, ever.”

  Growling, he moved harder, pushing into her pussy as he braced her to the wall, the water sluicing over them and making their flesh warm and adding to the sensations. “Mine, always mine,” he breathed out against her skin. Nipping at her mark, he licked at her skin over and over, tasting her flesh.

  She whimpered and then cried out as he nipped the mark on her neck and she felt herself squeezing him hard. “Always yours, Janos!” She held tightly to him and then leaned into him, her teeth scraping against his neck roughly and biting him just enough to mark him, but not enough to break the skin.

  “That’s it, love,” he whispered against her ear, licking along the shell of it and blowing softly over the damp flesh. “I love you,” he murmured, his hips slamming against her and driving himself in deeper with every stroke. “I love you so much, Mina mine.”

  Mina screamed as he pumped into her harder and harder. Her mouth found the curve of his neck and she bit him roughly, hard enough to break the first layer of skin as she exploded in a
sparkle of feeling and need.

  Jolting when she bit him, Janos came hard, the shock and surprise of her move stunning him and electrifying him all at the same time. Yelling her name as he pressed into her deeper, he shivered as his seed spilled deep into her womb, his whole frame shaking from the explosion.

  Chapter 40

  She gasped when he swelled and locked deep inside of her pussy, the feeling of his seed spilling so hard and deep making her forget how to breathe. Her nails bit roughly into his back as she held on for her very life and rode out the pleasure that rolled through her.

  Shuddering slightly, Janos pressed his forehead to her shoulder, the feeling of her hands on his skin making him swell even more. Gasping again, he jerked slightly and groaned at the feeling as her cunt clamped down on him even harder. God only knew if he’d survive making love to her when she changed, because he knew that it would be even more explosive if this was anything to go by.

  She went limp in his arms, gasping for air and reveling in the feel of him. “I think we both died just now.” Because they had to be in heaven for something to feel as good as what they were doing. It was perfection, sweet and undiluted, perfection.

  Nodding slightly, he groaned and reversed their positions, pressing his back to the tile. Sliding his hands down, he cupped her ass and held her up as he slowly slid down to sit on the floor of the shower stall. “I can’t feel my legs.”

  She smiled slightly and nodded. “I can’t feel mine either, which is why I firmly believe you have just killed us with that amazing and spectacular display of pleasure.” She patted his chest even as she lay there curled into him and sighed. “If we are dead, this is definitely heaven right here in your arms.”

  Snorting at her words, he shook his head before resting his cheek to her hair. “You’d think heaven would at least be dry,” he pointed out with a grin.