“God, please,” he mumbled, and she rocked against him. He palmed her breasts in his hands and she smiled, almost laughing in delight as she braced against him, feeling the delicious and aching friction of them grinding against each other through their jeans. He pinched her nipples and she yelped and laughed, her hair falling in front of her face.
It was all fun and games until he reached to push her hair behind her ear for the second time that night and they caught each other’s gaze, her laughter fading.
“Sweetheart,” Gunner said, and she almost burst into tears before she was able to unzip his fly and her own. “Oh, sweetheart…” She shut her eyes as she guided his cock into her, wanting to etch that moment in her mind forever; his whisper as he entered her.
She rode him and he held her firm as she braced her hands on his shoulders and kept his eyes locked on hers.
Mine, she thought fiercely. At least tonight you’re fucking mine. Nobody else’s.
His mouth was parted, his lips pink and swollen, and she ducked down to bite them and make them even more debauched looking, if possible. Gunner growled then and rolled them over on the bed and Megan gasped as she fell back. He took her thighs in his dirty hands and pushed them up before plunging back into her. She let him take control but wrapped her legs around him, the strong muscles of her thighs embracing him. She bucked into him again and again, feeling engulfed, surrounded by his scent and everything that was Gunner.
“Baby,” she whispered. His hair fell over his eye as he looked down at her. He kept getting a surprised expression on his face as if he couldn’t believe what was happening even in the middle of it and now he nodded. “Tell me you’re mine,” she whispered, and cried out as he seemed to swell yet more within her at her words. “Tell me…”
“I’m yours,” he breathed, kissing her lips and her neck and moaning into her skin. “I’m yours, Meg.”
She came, clasping his hands in hers, every muscle tensed as he pulsed inside her. She felt his cum filling her and her legs were tight as a vice around him, holding him there as their bliss throbbed through them.
“I’m yours too, baby,” she whispered.
The girls had texted from the hospital. They were fine and Megan felt a bit of relief even as she tossed her phone aside and collapsed beside Gunner, throwing an arm over him. She turned her head to kiss his chest. Their lovemaking had been fevered and harried. She hadn’t had the opportunity to take her time and now she admired the little dips and curves of his ribs and his abdominal muscles. She followed them with her fingertips. She tweaked his nipple and raked her fingers through his dusting of dark chest hair and felt him kiss the top of her head.
“It’s okay, you know,” he said quietly. “I know you’re going to say this can’t happen again.”
She felt tears well up immediately but he was right. She had been about to say that. She just wanted to lie there for a little while first and pretend everything wasn’t impossible.
“I understand,” he said, and his voice was so small and raw. She could feel heartbreak radiating through him. “I just wanted to get as much of you as I could. Just once.”
She leaned on her arm and looked down at him, a tear sliding down her cheek. He smiled sadly and traced it with his fingers before squeezing her chin. “Oh, sweetheart,” he murmured.
“Does…” She tried and failed to swallow around the lump in her throat, her words choked off by tears. “D-does it feel like...like we’re, like I’m your-”
“Mate,” he whispered. He sat up and kissed the tears away and kissed the tip of her nose and the corner of her mouth. “Of course you’re my mate, my love.”
She whimpered at that and kissed him firmly, their mouths hot and salty. “Then let’s pretend it’s fine. Can we? Just until sunrise. I’m your mate and you’re mine.”
“Okay, sweetheart.” He kissed her sweetly, carefully. “Whatever you want. Whatever my mate wants.”
Chapter Twelve: Delilah
“What the hell!”
She had been enjoying a frozen hot chocolate at a trendy coffee house when The Oracle had started buzzing and chiming and vibrating in her hand, flashing red swirls on the screen.
Wolves had attacked Meg and her fox pack and Gunner had been there.
She had taken Katz’s words to heart. Sort of. She’d been checking in on Meg and Gunner but everything seemed fine. They’d grown closer so quickly. Delilah had been sorely tempted to shove them together but she thought she’d leave them to themselves a little while and see what happened.
Then this had happened.
Now she was crouched outside of Gunner’s bedroom window. They were curled up in bed asleep, their faces both streaked with tears. That didn’t bode well. Although she was glad they’d sealed the deal.
Katz appeared out of thin air and leaned back against the wall beside her. She was crouched on a ledge, while he was able to hover beside her. She couldn’t fly. It was not considered a needed skill for angelic agents of her level and she grimaced at Katz, a little bit jealous.
“Wolf attack, huh?” Katz said, narrowing his eyes at her.
“I just checked on them!” Delilah said. She wanted a cigarette badly. “They were fine!”
“See, but as I pointed out, Oracle’s been so glitchy-”
“I know Oracle’s been so glitchy,” she snapped. “But I would have thought it could see a wolf attack coming.”
“I wouldn’t assume anything if I were you,” Katz said, scratching his neck thoughtfully.
“It doesn’t know anything!” She slapped the side of the Oracle device and it whined in protest.
“I don’t think that’s going to help.”
“Well… But what if there’s some threat I don’t even know about! Where did those wolves come from? They weren’t Gunner’s pack! Who the hell were they?”
“I don’t know, kid,” Katz said, seemingly amused by her confusion. “You might have to put some actual work in.”
“Hey! I don’t think that’s-
Abruptly he disappeared and she frowned at the air.
“Fair.”
She sighed heavily, thinking it wasn’t fair either that he could vanish without warning like he was Batman, and she couldn’t. She stared through the window at her targets and frowned. They had made love and that was good. They’d admitted their feelings for each other. But they were up against it, now. They’d hit a wall. Meg, Delilah knew, was going to insist nothing else could happen between them. Things were about to go from cute and fun at work to awkward and weird. And also full of sexual tension. She’d have to step in now. Shove them in some broom closets, break the air conditioning again so they’d just start tearing off their clothes.
She rubbed her eyes and hopped down from the ledge.
A matchmaker’s work was never done.
Chapter Thirteen: Gunner
Gunner rolled in twenty minutes late to work the next day but he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be penalized for the lateness since Meg had left his house just a few hours before with teary kisses that he could still feel. The app was live which meant the staff as needed was in place. That meant everyone else was very busy and he was not. He mostly had to maintain, see to any complications they hadn’t seen coming, and plan for the expansion. He’d been prepared for that and now he was irritated that he didn’t have more to do. It would have distracted him from the heartbreak.
He felt as if a piece of him had been torn away. Love was so strange that way, he thought, as he sulkily made himself a cup of coffee at the bar. You could be doing just fine on your own and then this other person came along and created a need that hadn’t existed before.
He needed Megan. That’s what having a mate was. He needed her like he needed his legs or his sense of humor. The thought that it was impossible for them to spend the rest of their lives together seemed itself also impossible.
It was starting to piss him off.
It wouldn’t be easy, he knew. But he thought they shoul
d give it a chance. When he’d told her he knew she was going to say their night together was just a one-time thing, he’d really been hoping she would surprise him. He kept picturing her changing her mind even as she walked away in the morning and climbed into a Lyft.
Fuck the clans, she’d say. We belong together and nobody can tear us apart.
Nope. All he’d gotten was some kisses and tears. He’d felt nothing but heartbroken for her and himself before but now as he stomped into his office, glowering over his mug of coffee, he decided it was easier to be angry.
He had two emails from Meg, unanswered from the night before, and he ignored them. He answered everything else, angrily typing, punishing the keys.
John Byeler, the creepy new admin guy, appeared in his doorway and stared at him until Gunner acknowledged him.
Gunner all but snarled. “Do you need something?”
“You hurt your shoulder?” He said in a monotone.
Gunner jerked and glared at him. “How’d you know that?”
“Um, you’re bleeding through your shirt?”
He’d taken off his jacket and sure enough, he saw as he turned his head, there was a spot of blood where he’d bled through the bandage. “Ugh. Yeah… It’s fine.”
“What happened?”
He wanted to tell John to piss off but just shrugged and said, “I just fell down funny. At home.”
“Hmm.” John nodded and peered at him over his own cup of coffee. He had that eerie look to him like he was taking Gunner’s measure. Gunner wondered if they’d hired him through some kind of ex-con program. Not that Gunner was one to judge him for that. Only, he kept feeling like he was about to get socked in the face and he was still wary of the slightly magic vibe he got off the guy. “Fell down funny.”
“Yeah…”
“Alright.” With that, he left, with an impish little smile on his face that made Gunner shudder, though he didn’t quite know why.
“I was going to grab a salad at Tom’s.” Meg was hovering in his doorway. This time he didn’t want to flirt and just bask in her presence. This time he was angry. “You want me to pick you something up?”
“Nope.” He didn’t deign to look at her, keeping his eyes on his laptop.
“I’ll spot you,” she said, sounding oddly desperate since she was just talking about lunch. “It’s no problem.”
“I said no.”
“Are you okay?” Now she was looking at her shoes. Likely because she already knew the answer.
“No, Meg, I’m not okay,” he said, finally raising eyes. She’d wept again. He could tell. She’d tried to cover it with makeup and maybe teabags. But she’d definitely cried. He had a strong urge to comfort her. Then again, he was pissed, and she was an alpha. She could take it. “I turned against my own kind, you know-”
“I know.”
“Do you?” He said snidely. “Do you know? Because you haven’t had to do it. Sooner or later, this is going to get back to my pack, somehow. I don’t even know what the consequences could be.”
“I’ll stand by you,” she said.
“Oh good,” he said. “That’ll be real helpful when I’m called before the entire clan’s alpha. To have a fox sticking up for me. His name is Hank by the way, and he’s huge.”
“I just meant-”
“I know what you meant. It’s not helpful.”
“Okay,” she said, and tapped his doorway before finally leaving.
This was easier, he thought, as he beat up his keyboard with unnecessarily aggressive keystrokes. It was much easier to be mad. Anger could bury the hurt a little deeper. Mute it a little. Better that than the keen pain in his heart whenever he smelled her, which was always when he was at the office.
He spent the rest of the day mainly brooding. So much for compartmentalization. It was Friday. He wasn’t needed for the weekend so he went home to brood some more. He kicked off his shoes and when he walked into his bedroom, he was assaulted by the scent of their sex and of Megan; she was all over the place. He collapsed on his unmade bed and buried his nose in the pillow she’d slept on and wrapped himself in the sheet she’d slept in.
Freshly paired mates, he had always been taught, were especially sensitive in the beginning of a relationship. They could even get sick if they were kept apart too long and they were prone to anxiety and depression without their other half, before they’d formed a firm bond and settled in with each other.
He wondered if there was any chance Megan was not his mate and thought it must be impossible because he felt feverish and at loose ends as he curled up in bed, clinging to Megan’s scent.
He wondered too if Megan was in as much pain as he was and found that as angry as he tried to be, he still did not ever want her hurt.
At midnight, he was shaking. His shoulder was mostly healed but it was still a bit sore. He hadn’t eaten and he couldn’t fall asleep. He’d taken two showers and now he was in bed again, watching bad TV. He wanted to go for a run but thought it was likely a bad idea. That pack could still be out there. He’d wait another week before he went out again. He could have called his pack for the back-up but he thought it best to lay low. Besides which, the last thing he wanted was that bunch of mystery asshole wolves facing off with his own pack.
Do you know what he did? They’d say. Do you know he betrayed his own kind for a fox?
A fox who didn’t even want him, he thought morosely.
He had a few candid pictures of Meg that he’d taken at the office for WellDrop’s Instagram account. Now he flipped through them, his heart aching.
On a sudden impulse, he texted Megan even though it was late and he didn’t expect an answer at all, much less a good one.
I’ll leave my clan for you. Fuck them. They’ve never done anything for me. I’ll leave them all behind. I love you.
He threw his phone in the sheets and buried his head under the covers and minutes later he felt it buzz. He scrambled for it, fumbling as he read her reply.
I believe you, my love. But where would we go?
Fair question. He knew he wasn’t being practical. He didn’t care. He felt like a kid who didn’t understand why his favorite toy had been taken away. He didn’t care about being rational. But he also knew it was all impossible.
Come back, he thought. One more night. One thousand more nights.
He texted her back: Jupiter.
He sighed and fell back on his pillows. He could not comprehend how he would go into work every day with his mate for life there, but just out of his reach. He wondered if he should ask to work from home.
It was two in the morning when she texted him back and when he read the text he began to howl his misery at the moon.
I love you too.
Chapter Fourteen: Megan
When Megan thought about Gunner she tried to distract herself. She threw herself into work, which was getting more difficult as the wolf in question had formed for her a solid team who really didn’t need her micro-managing everything. It seemed to satisfy Lane and it might have satisfied Megan too, normally, but now she needed stuff to do or else she was afraid she’d storm into Gunner’s office and kiss him silly. She thought about it often. When she wasn’t thinking about that, she was fantasizing about living in his cozy cabin by the woods and waking up next to him on Sunday mornings to lazily scroll the old iPad while he dozed next to her. She imagined him taking her out to the opera, which he had once mentioned he actually enjoyed. She imagined Star Trek marathons in pajamas on the sofa. She imagined a whole life.
But it was hard not to think about the possible consequences of that life. That stuff was a lot less fun than Star Trek. Her pack, she knew, would come around, or anyway, she was pretty sure they would. Lane had seemed to know exactly what was going to happen after that fight in the woods anyway. But Gunner’s pack, she had no idea. And even if they stood by him, there were the clans on top of that. All it took was some fox or wolf in public sniffing them out and seeing the two of them together before eve
rything went to shit. The truth was, she was much more concerned for Gunner than herself and she hadn’t told him so. Which was likely more reason for him to be angry. But she got the feeling his pack would be no help. He wasn’t as close to his pack as she was to hers. She also had the advantage of being an alpha.
Her office was almost directly across from his. He had his blinds partially drawn, but she could occasionally make out his hand when he moved it a certain way. She found herself with not enough to do, sitting and staring forlornly at that hand when it made an appearance and remembering again and again what it had felt like as it slid down her body. He’d worshipped her. That was something. It was hard enough being a shifter and looking for your mate, but being an alpha woman and looking for your mate was another thing again. Some shifter guys, even ones who’d grown up with the idea of female packs, were threatened. She considered that a huge weakness. But Gunner was strong and confident in himself and thus comfortable with her strength. It made him all the sexier. He could let her take over in bed and a moment later grab the reins away. She liked that give and take. She hadn’t thought she’d ever find it with anyone, and she’d found it with a wolf.
The girls kept asking what was wrong and she put them off. Lane seemed to know better. She trusted her pack implicitly. They wouldn’t say a thing. But for their own safety. the less said the better. They were already treading on thin ice.
He would leave, she thought, melancholy washing over her. He might have stumbled into this job, but he could easily find another one. He was great at what he did. He would leave and if she ever saw him it would only be in passing or at some tech mogul’s party. She would catch some faint whiff of him in the forest.
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