ROMANCE: Paranormal Romance: The Valley (Book One) (Fun, Sexy, Mature Young Adult Vampire Shape Shifter Romance)

by Charlotte Swanpol

  “Did you do a background check on me?” Hanna asked him as it sunk in how he’d figure out all her personal details. She should have known; I mean it was what he did for a living. Nodding affirmatively at her, he let her go now that she’d relaxed a little bit. “I mean no offense, but I am protective of my pack, and I had to figure out who you were first. The fact you are trying to do the right thing to protect those you care about and not harm innocent people says a lot about your personality. Those are the type of people I want in my pack. It’s what we do here. We protect people. Being a wolf gives us unique abilities to be very good at that job. I’m guessing even as a human you’ve noticed the strength, agility and other perks that come with the wolf gene.”

  “Yes. The first time I opened a jar of pickles it exploded on me, I had to learn to be more gentle with things after that.” Hanna said sighing. She remembered standing in her kitchen with glass all over the floor and counter and the pickles had shot everywhere. She’d been covered in the vinegar and garlic smell for days. It had taken numerous showers to get the smell off of her.

  Avery observed her for a few minutes. He wasn’t entirely sure she’d be the kind of wolf who’d like packing a gun and doing security work, but he had other jobs she could do. Plus, the moment he met her, he knew she was his mate. The problem was not completely scaring her off. He had to win her trust, then her heart before he made the announcement. She was as skittish as a horse right now; he was worried she’d run at the first sign of anything that overwhelmed her. He had to be careful how he handled this situation.

  Clearing his throat, he gave her a big smile. “Why don’t I show you around, explain what we do here, and then go from there?”

  “I haven’t decided what I want to do yet, so I guess that’s a good idea,” she nodded at him. He offered his hand to her and she hesitated for a moment. Searching his face, she didn’t know why she should trust him, but she did. Placing her hand in his, he let her give her a tour of the facility.

  Chapter 3

  Hanna lay in bed awake that night, thinking about Avery. She couldn’t get his intense eyes out of her mind, or those broad shoulders. She knew she was attracted to him, that she wanted him physically, but she hadn’t been with anyone since she was turned. She hadn’t even had a boyfriend since her senior year in high school, and she’d done it the first time on prom and then he’d dumped her. She’d experimented with a couple of boys her freshman year of college, but it had been a long time. She’d been focused on school, work, and getting good grades; then this had happened.

  Avery filled her thoughts and she wondered if it was just because he was offering her a way out, a way to learn about her new life, a way to control herself. Or, if there was something more to the way she felt about him. She didn’t believe in love at first sight, but weirder things had happened to her lately that had her believing in things she never thought existed before.

  She decided that she would take the job. She wasn’t really interested in carting around a gun or learning Kung Fu or whatever they called it. She’d seen them doing hand to hand combat in a training room and it didn’t appealed to her. She’d been going to college for computer science and she was a genius with both hardware and software when it came to electronics. She could build almost anything with just a few scraps of metal.

  He had a position in his firm for security that was behind the scenes. It required monitoring computer equipment, GPS locations, looking information up on databases, things that would suit her skills. When he’d given her a number on salary she’d nearly choked. It was more than she’d have made in any other starter job out of university and she hadn’t even finished her degree.

  He’d joked about wolf teeth and dental benefits, but she’d still been reeling from the number he’d quoted her, and he’d told her that raises happened every six months along as performance requirements were met. She knew his firm did well, but she hadn’t known it was able to pay their employees that much. He was a lot richer than he acted. She admired that he wasn’t cocky or arrogant. He was confident, blunt, and straight to the point, which for some reason made her feel very safe with him.

  Okay, so she had a crush on him. He was going to be her boss. She had to get over it. He was giving her an opportunity to get her life back on track; she needed to focus on that, not on his forearms, or the way his lips curved when he smiled.

  The only thing that was part of the job that made her slightly uncomfortable was spending time with the other wolves a few hours a week to talk in a support group he ran for wolves that were new to being shifters. They did an educational class once a week where they worked on shifting and other skills to learn to control their animal instincts and had training runs in the woods one night a week on top of it. It overwhelmed her thinking about it, but in reality when she considered how she was living now, it was a small price to pay to fix all of this. No, not fix. Live with it. Live with it and move on.

  As soon as she accepted her new job, she gave notice to her old company and would begin working for Avery the following Monday. Breathing slowly and heavily, she talked herself through everything that had recently transpired. She could do this. She could be brave and face this head on. She wouldn’t run away anymore or hide. The only thing that continued to occupy her mind and curiosity was not yet finding out who it was that turned her. This still upset her and part of her wanted to slap whichever man it was who had done this to her.

  Chapter 4

  Hanna’s was off to a great start at her new job. She was happy, thriving, and surviving the other aspects she had to do to keep her job and make Avery happy. He checked on her frequently to make sure she was doing well, and sometimes it almost felt like he lingered a little too long. He’d touch her gently, randomly, intimate touches that made it hard to focus on her job, yet he never kissed her or pushed her. She couldn’t decide if her attraction to him was her imagination and she was just seeing what she wanted to see on his side, or if he wanted her too and was just being slow about his interest in her.

  It was driving her nuts. Her mind was filled with Avery when she ran into someone walking down the hall. Her file fell out of her hands and the papers scattered all over the floor. She’d been taking a document she’d printed up for Avery to him when she’d walked into a tall skinny man. When she bent down, they bumped heads.

  “Ouch, I got this, just back up before you hurt me.” She muttered and then got a good look at him and froze. Memories of fear and him chasing her through the dark sunk into her brain and she nearly screamed. This was the man who’d bitten her. What was he doing here? Snarling, she dropped the papers she’d picked up and nearly attacked him.

  Avery was on her in a flash to stop her before she shifted and tore his throat out in the middle of the hallway.

  “Stop Hanna, Stop!” He said firmly in her ear. “Control yourself. What is going on here?”

  “This is the man who turned me, he nearly killed me.” She continued to growl low in her throat as she glared at him, still struggling against Avery’s hands, she wanted to wrap her hands around the man’s throat and strangle him. He fell back against the wall with a terrified look on his face and panic in his eyes. The scared man looked at Avery not moving.

  “Tom, go to the conference room down the hall and wait for me please. Maddie will come talk to you.” Avery waited until the man jerked a nod and quickly walked away. Pulling Hanna back, he pulled her into his office and shut the door firmly.

  “Why did you stop me? He violated me; he’s the reason I’m in this mess instead of with my family or getting my degree. He’s the reason I can’t sleep at night and have nightmares of wolf eyes glowing at me and trying to rip my throat out.” Hanna snarled and started to pace Avery’s office in agitation.

  “Hanna, listen to me. Tom was bitten, just like you. That was his first shift, the night he bit you. He didn’t mean to; he didn’t even know he was going to turn until it happened. The girl who bit him got drunk in a bar and didn’t bother to
stick around after she’d bitten him. We’ve already taken her into custody; she’ll be judged by the wolf pack and be dealt with. Tom didn’t kill anyone. He found us after he found the girl who turned him. He’s the reason I know about you. He told me that he bit you. Me being in the woods that night was not an accident, I was hoping to talk to you, but you ran off so fast.” Avery walked over to her and took her hands in his own. “I know this is hard to understand but it’s not just about you, Tom was a victim too, and I know he deeply regrets what he did to you. You don’t have to face him or deal with him if you don’t want too, but believe me when I tell you that he completely regrets what he did and what happened to you.”

  “What’s going to happen to the wolf who bit him?” She asked him changing the subject, not wanting to talk anymore about what happened to her.

  “It depends on what the wolf pack council decides. As the alpha in this territory she’s under my law. It could be something as simple as exile from our territory, to a death sentence depending on the situation.” Avery sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “This is why training wolves like you and Tom is so important. You don’t know our laws, you don’t understand how pack territories work and it puts everyone in danger. Humans don’t know about us because we are careful. Doing what she did to Tom can lead to a cascade of events that risk exposing all of us.”

  “I can’t talk about this anymore,” Hanna said and wanted to cover her ears. She knew she was being childish, but she was just too overwhelmed. When she looked up at Avery he put his hand on her cheek, offering her a look of comfort. The look in his eyes made her throw caution to the win and she suddenly kissed him, hard and passionately.

  This is what she’d been dreaming about, fantasizing about since she’d first seen him in his human form. She wanted him and right now, she just needed to feel something that wasn’t scary.

  “Hanna,” he moaned against her mouth and then took charge of the kiss. One hand came up to fist in her hair and hold her head against his. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her up against him tightly. She could feel his erection through his slacks and nearly melted. She could feel her knees going weak.

  Avery for a split second worried that if it went any further than this kiss, she’d regret it. Then when her hands came up to wrap one arm around his neck and shoulders and the other touched his heart he forgot those worries and lost himself in their kiss. She started unbuttoning his shirt and when her fingers touched his skin she sighed softly into his mouth.

  “Hanna,” Avery pulled back and looked down at her, searching her face. “If you touch me like this, I’m going to strip your clothes off, set you on my desk and take you right here. I need to know this is what you really want, if we go much further, I’m not going to be thinking about how you might feel after. This is your chance to change your mind before it goes any further.”

  “I want you, I have from the moment I saw you. Please,” she whispered as she kissed his chin and tightened her hand on the back of his neck, pressing herself up against him. Moaning, Avery stopped talking and worked his hands under her shirt and skillfully unsnapped her bra in the back. When he pulled her shirt and bra off over her head, he broke the kiss long enough to let her clothes fall to the floor. He lowered his hands and started working on unsnapping her pants and realized she wasn’t wearing any panties.

  “I didn’t have time to do laundry.” She muttered and felt her cheeks grow warm when he realized she was naked under her pants.

  “No complaints here,” he said grinning at her. He helped her step out of her pants and set her on the edge of his desk. He shrugged out of his shirt and stripped his clothes off until he was just in his boxers. Kneeling down between her legs he pressed gentle kisses starting at her knee. He slowly worked his way up until he reached her hip. He pressed a kiss against her heat, sliding his tongue between her lips. He grabbed her hips hard to hold her in place and buried his face hard against her pressing with his lips and tongue until she was bucking against his face.

  Hanna grabbed the end of the desk and gripped her fingers into the desk so hard she hurt her fingers. His tongue felt rough and was pushing in circles on the swollen nub that had her wanting to wrap her legs around his neck and shoulders. She wiggled against his face and let her head fall back as she used her arms to brace herself. The tension was building, it made her curl her toes and clench her stomach muscles. When his tongue hit just the right spot and pushed her over the edge into an explosive climax, she let out a howl. Her hips bucked hard against his face and she fell off his desk, knocking him down so she landed on top of him.

  Avery was so surprised that he started to laugh. She Collapsed on top of him with her breasts smashed against his face. Taking advantage of the beautiful chocolate lobes in his face he sucked one of her nipples into his mouth and grabbed the other with his hand. Massaging one nipple gently with his fingers, he used his tongue to swirl around the other nipple.

  Hanna slowly caught her breath and wiggled her way lower until her hips aligned with his. She pulled her breast out of his mouth and pressed her lips against his as she grinded her body against him. She could feel the outline of his cock hard against her thigh and she was wet. Soaking his groin and boxers she kissed him like she’d die if she didn’t.

  He reached down and pushed his boxers down so his penis was skin to skin with her body. She arched her back slightly and realigned her hips so the tip pressed against her wet opening. She hovered there, not quite ready to move.

  Grabbing her hips hard, Avery pressed her down on him and thrust up fast, burying himself to the hilt inside of her. He could feel her walls squeezing him tightly. He clenched his entire body tight as he tried to control his passions. When her lip tickled his he lost control and started to thrust up and inside of her hard and fast. She met him eagerly. Her tongue stroking his own as she bounced up and down on top of him.

  “Beautiful,” Avery whispered to her when she broke the kiss long enough to catch her breath. They both were breaking out in a sweat and it made their bodies slick and they slid easily against each other.

  “This feels so good, I didn’t know it could feel like this,” she whispered, panting. Shutting her eyes tight, she could feel his fingers digging into her hips. She could feel the way the head of his cock rubbed against the insides and the way her muscles squeezed him hard, gripping him tight as he slid out and then relaxing to give him access as he pushed back inside. His groin was slippery with her arousal. It was sloppy, and messy, and wet. The sounds vibrated in her ear of skin slapping against skin. Her breasts were bouncing up and down above his face as she sat up to take him deeper and help move her body.

  Closing her eyes, she placed her hands on his chest and rode him hard, the explosion behind her eyes left her entire body shuttering. Realizing she had been holding her breath, she nearly choked from lack of oxygen as she gasped for air as the colors and lights exploded behind her eyes.

  Her entire body tensed up, squeezing him so hard she nearly pushed him out of her body, Avery let out a shout as her body clamped down around him and sent him over the edge of his own orgasm. His hands shook on her hips and he laughed a little as the high of his climax ran through his system.

  Leaning down, Hanna kissed him again and then curled up against him, giving her and her body time to recover from the amazing orgasms he’d just given her. She wasn’t sure what this meant for the two of them, but she knew she wanted to repeat the experience he just gave her.

  “This wasn’t just sex for me,” Avery said. He traced her breast with his fingers and spoke softly to her. “You can feel it between us, can’t you?”

  “I feel something, but I don’t know what it is exactly.” She told him truthfully. Sitting up, she grabbed her clothes and got dressed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about something so intimate right now. Her body was still humming with pleasure and deep relaxation and she didn’t want to ruin it.

  “We will talk about this, and soon Hanna.” Aver
y told her as he sat up and grabbed his clothes.

  “Maybe,” Hanna said, and with a final look over her shoulder at him, she escaped his office and ran to her own and spent the rest of the day hiding and avoiding him.

  She didn’t resent the wolf who bit her nearly as much as she did when she woke up this morning, but he’s the only wolf she knew who was in her shoes. She was over wanting to strangle him, but now she wanted to know how he felt. She needed to talk to him.

  Chapter 5

  Hanna waited for Tom outside of the conference room. Maddie had left him alone in there and Hanna was observing him through one of the glass walls and saw that he looked sad and she felt bad for him. She’d nearly scared the wits out of him in the hallway. She knew at the time, she’d been justified in her feelings, but knowing he’d been in her shoes, she pitied him now. When he didn’t get up and come out, she decided to go in.

  Opening the door, she walked in, shut the door and crossed her arms. She stared at him for a moment and then walked over to the table and stood there debating on if she should sit down or not.

  “So,” Hanna started to say and then noticed that Tom was crying. Feeling sorry for him she walked around the table stood next to him, then leaned over and gave him a hug. When he jerked away from her and fell out of his chair to the ground, she just stared at him. The man in front of her didn’t seem like he had his crap together, and she apparently intimidated him. He looked up at her with fear in his eyes and didn’t say a word.

  “I’m not going to eat you,” Hanna told him and offered him a hand to help him up. “I’m sorry about the hallway earlier. I didn’t know the whole story. It sounds like you got put in a tough spot too. Do you want to talk about it?”