“I’m already leaving.” She didn’t correct him. Right now, he didn’t deserve to know she only needed space. Let him believe she wanted to leave Los Lobos for good.
She grimaced. Up until that moment, she’d considered leaving for good. She might not be able to live with the choice she had been forced to make if she stayed.
She let out a breath. In all honesty, she’d already chosen. She just needed time to process how much the decision would cost her in regards to her relationship with her father.
“I couldn’t refuse the challenge, and I won’t apologize for how it ended.”
She glared at him. “Pack law.”
“This is how we resolve issues, Rebecca.”
She turned away from him.
“Elijah’s doing well. He should recover in a couple of days.”
She choked on air and faced him. He sported a bruised lip and a swollen eye. Her gaze raked over him, but his clothes covered the rest of the injuries she knew he had.
“By tomorrow, this will have faded.” He pointed to his face.
“Good for you.”
“Rebecca….”
“What do you want me to say?”
“You’ll come home.”
A kaleidoscope of butterflies seemed to wreak havoc in her belly. Her traitorous hands wanted to reach out to him. Blaine being here turned her world right side up, though she didn’t want to admit it yet. “Even if I wanted to, it won’t change anything.”
“It would change everything for me.”
Her hands shook at the plea in his voice, and she fisted them.
“Elijah didn’t know the whole truth.” The tone of his voice softened as if what he was about to say might cause damage.
She dug her fingernails into her palm. “Just say it.”
“Gee knows how to ease your transition and how you can control your wolf.”
She nodded for him to go on. My wolf? With everything that went on, the theory of what she could become hadn’t penetrated that far into her reality. Her heart hammered in her chest. Becoming a wolf was what she’d be signing up for as Blaine’s mate.
She licked her suddenly dry lips.
“According to Gee, Drew’s alpha power and I, being a dominant, will help you to accept your wolf. If your father’s alpha had helped him, your mother might still be alive.”
“And you believe this?”
“I believe Gee, so yeah, I do.”
Her mind raced with all the possibilities—going on runs with the pack, being able to understand all the dynamics of the community, and sharing every aspect of being mates with Blaine. “Say something.” He broke into her thoughts. “I want you, Rebecca. You’re my mate. I’ll always want you. I love you. I fell in love with you the first time we met and I would do anything for us to be together—”
“I know.” She couldn’t look at him. If she did, she would jump into his arms as though this afternoon hadn’t happened. And she still needed to come to terms with that.
“I’ll go with you.”
She blinked. “You’d leave the pack?”
“I go where you go.” A sound between a laugh and a choke escaped from her mouth. “But I want us to stay. I want us to build a life here.”
She uncurled her hands and flexed them over the steering wheel. Then she unbuckled her seat belt and turned to him. “Will you take me home, Blaine?”
A brilliant smile crossed his face. “Yes.”
“But first….” She leaned over.
He didn’t think she meant for this to happen, but he wasn’t complaining. Tilting his head, he deepened the kiss then hauled her out of her seat. She straddled him, not seeming to care as much about his drenched state as she had when he’d first entered.
Her hands glided to the back of his neck, pulling him closer. He slid his hands to her hips, cradling her to him.
He had to keep control of the situation or they might never make it out of the storm and to town. But he lost grip on reality when she started to rock against him.
“Rebecca,” he groaned.
She didn’t know what she did to him. Her soft kisses across his jaw relieved the ache in his body but caused him to want more. “We can’t do this here.”
Her head snapped up. “I attacked you!”
He chuckled. “It seems to be a family trait.”
She scowled at him.
He cocked his head. “Too soon?”
“Too soon.”
They switched seats, and he started the truck.
After Rebecca left the clearing and he ran off to clear his head, he knew he had to talk to her. He needed to tell her that her dad hadn’t known the whole truth. He’d taken a risk by fighting Elijah, but it’d had to be done.
Elijah would never have let go of Rebecca.
Blaine hadn’t needed to go to her apartment to learn she had taken off. He’d found a forlorn Niq outside on the steps of the library.
He’d followed her rich vanilla-and-cinnamon scent, making quick work as the rain started to come down. As he neared the parked truck, he’d already chosen, in spite of what he’d sworn to his alpha, he would choose his mate over anyone. He would go where Rebecca went. He couldn’t live without her again.
He drove them to her place. He hoped Niq wasn’t still there because no one could keep him from claiming his mate.
Chapter Twelve
Rebecca hated how she loved unequivocally to the depths of her soul while having tremendous sadness also beating through her.
One part of her life ended while the other began.
Blaine, in spite of her protest, had swept her out of the truck and carried her inside. A drizzle had reached Los Lobos, and the streets were empty. The town seemed to have given itself time to breathe after what happened.
After posting the closed sign on the door, he headed straight up to her apartment. Both of them were damp from head to toe.
She couldn’t stop kissing him as they stumbled into her room. Now she had chosen her mate, she couldn’t get enough of him. His smell, his hands, his mouth…she greedily coveted all of him.
He groaned.
“Sorry.” Her hand had skimmed his side. She lifted his shirt, revealing dark blue-purple bruises coloring his skin. “Blaine! We can’t—”
His mouth covered hers. “We can. We have to do so slowly.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Not claiming you hurts me.”
A shiver went through her. She stood on her toes and cupped his face. “And you are mine.”
“You’re killing me.”
Smiling, Rebecca planted her hand over his heart, its beat strong and true. The connection with him was deeper than anything she’d experienced. Conrad may have been her first, but Blaine would be her last.
She tilted her head and took in his shape. The hard planes to the laugh wrinkles around the eyes and the sharp Cupid’s bow composed the man she loved.
They stepped into a kiss that rocked her to the core. He didn’t only take, he gave. He shaped her lips with his, tracing the outline, nipping, teasing, soaking up her essence and leaving his taste on her tongue.
She swept her hands to his shoulders as the bed dipped under their weight. Blaine had moved them. After what happened, this felt like coming home.
“Mate,” he whispered against her mouth.
She shivered. The world tilted, and she found herself on her back.
“Blaine.” His name sounded perfect when she said it. “Mate.”
She broke away from him.
“No,” he said on a whine.
She laughed. “Clothes.” Her clammy top stuck to her, and she struggled to get it off, but she did away with her jeans surprisingly without effort. Clearly, someone upstairs liked her.
He still had his jeans on and rose from the bed to shrug them off. She took in the strength of his form. His muscles bunched, accentuating the power he kept on a tight leash.
&n
bsp; She wanted to put her clothes on the chair in the corner of her bedroom, but Blaine beat her to it. With all the confidence of a werewolf in human form, he strode naked, depositing their clothes in a pile.
She edged up onto the bed and lay down, nervous. She had only made love to one man before. How will it be with Blaine?
“Beautiful.”
She bit her lip. He is beautiful. His café au lait skin tone gave off a healthy glow in spite of the bruises. The gashes along his broad chest had closed and become faint lines. He didn’t kid when he said by tomorrow his swollen eye would have faded. Even now, the area had gone down.
His biceps flexed.
Her gaze dipped down his torso, and her mouth went dry. Before she could utter a word, he joined her on the bed and drew her in with a scorching kiss.
He set her onto a pillow.
Blaine’s wolf stared at her, and her hand traveled up of its own accord. She ran a finger over his canines, his defined cheekbones. The hair on his head had grown a couple of inches. She touched his pronounced nose. His metamorphosis wasn’t complete but enough to recognize the gray wolf she saw during the challenge.
He could crush her.
His watchful gaze took in her slightest movement, the pitch in her breath as she inhaled sharply when he flicked out his tongue to lick her finger, as if to chronicle how to please her.
He didn’t frighten her.
His chest had broadened with the small transformation. The few scathes he had disappeared. She knew he would heal more rapidly in wolf form.
“How are you able to shift so fast?” She had never dared ask her dad.
“Every wolf is different. According to our family lore, we’re direct descents from the she-wolf that saved Romulus and Remus from the river.”
Rebecca stopped stroking his face. She had read about the mythical twins who were fathered by the god Mars.
“But I don’t agree. It’s an evolutionary trick.”
“How you can shrug off an ability that would make other wolves cocky as hell?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “There are more important things in life.”
“Really, like what?”
“Claiming and marking the woman I love.”
“What are you waiting for?”
With a growl, he claimed her.
The world shrank, became focused. There was no slow going in spite of what he said.
Once the fever struck, they covered every inch of the other. Rebecca tasted, licked, bit, and held on.
She’d been afraid she wouldn’t know how to please him. Drenched in his scent, a heady earthy musk from the woods and a burst of fresh citrus, none of her worries mattered because she only saw Blaine. She didn’t fret about how she appeared. The fire in Blaine’s stare showed her how loved, cherished, and adored she was.
Heat filled her being as he dipped his head between her legs.
“No, I want you now.” Rebecca rose on her elbows.
She was ready for him. She didn’t need him to go slowly, next time definitely, but not now. She needed hard and fast.
He placed a hand on her stomach and held her in place while he opened her up with the other. Her aroma permeated the air.
She fell on the bed with a frustrated groan. Then she squealed as he licked from her anus up to her clit. “Blaine!”
He grinned. “Never had anyone do that before?”
“Of course not!” He gave her another lick for her trouble and pressed down on her nub. “Dammit, Blaine.”
She could do no more than submit. Her pulse beat a frantic tattoo, and she gripped the covers.
He didn’t stop. Not when she pleaded for him to, not when she cried out her first orgasm, and not when she had her second, but, by the third one, she was a vortex of pleasure.
She gave labored breaths as he crawled up her body. Her arms covered her face as she tried to orientate herself. He kissed her navel and sucked on the side of her rib cage.
He moved up to her breast and teased the nipple with his tongue. “I think it needs some lubricant.”
She peeked at him and then placed her arms out of the way.
His lust-filled gaze roved over her chest, and his hand dipped down. “Ah.” He coated his fingers in her juices and then covered her nipple with it.
She couldn’t believe what he had done. “You’re insane.”
He ran his tongue over her, and she gave a satisfied sigh.
“Only for you.” He did the same to the other. “I love the taste of you.” He positioned himself above her. “And guess what?”
She reeled from his touch. “What?”
“You’re ready for me.”
She bit her lip. “I wasn’t born under a rock, but do wolves, uh…?”
“We are superior to human males,” he replied with a calmness she envied.
“It’s so…big.” His mouth twitched, and she knew he laughed at her, but she wasn’t being coy.
He lay down beside her. “We’ll fit.”
He kissed her before she could voice her concerns about what she perceived as a great discrepancy in their anatomies.
He molded her flesh to his, and she threw her leg over his waist, unable to stop the pull to be close to her mate, to have him mark her. He pressed himself onto her, and the need to have him clawed inside of her.
“Even if I can’t walk for a week, this will be worth it.”
He twisted to let her on top of him. His erection pushed on her belly. Hardness and softness. Yin and yang.
She started rocking, slow and deep, her world zeroing in on where their bodies mashed together. He cupped her breasts, and she moaned.
She geared up for another orgasm when he groaned. “That feels good. But I have to take over if I’m going to survive this.”
“I’m sorry.” The “sorry” whooshed out of her as he positioned them, and she spread out underneath him.
He pinned her on the mattress, keeping her hands captive above her head, and she wrapped her legs around him.
He glided inside her with a moan. “Rebecca.”
He started to thrust, and a muffled cry escaped her. She curved her back and grazed the hard flesh on his shoulder with her teeth.
Love for him overflowed, their connection pushing her beyond her limits.
A growl echoed through the room. Blaine.
He changed their position again, his hands going underneath her bottom, raising her for better access.
“Ah!” She strained against him, and his pace quickened. His face buried in her neck, his teeth grazed her, and she slanted her head so he could have better contact. Yes.
She held him close, in no way wanting to let go.
Their bodies created a delicious friction, their skin damp, and she crested on the brink again.
A snarl filled her ears. Mate.
“Ah!”
Her flesh tore open. Pain mixed with pleasure engulfed her. Her eyes closed, and her mind opened. A gray wolf leaped toward her, and panic coursed through her. A deep authoritative growl stilled her. The wolf still came toward her.
His hardness pulsed inside her. Every molecule in the air magnified, their mixed scents and others in the room she hadn’t noticed before.
A groan ripped out of her as he thrust again.
“Bite me. Now,” he ground out.
He angled himself, and Rebecca sank her teeth into his flesh. A howl went off beside her ear, but she didn’t relent until she knew her mark would be permanent.
All restraint vanished. They lost their rhythm.
Her body convulsed and gripped him. A blinding light flashed behind her eyelids.
A white wolf, beautiful, graceful, lay entangled with the gray wolf. His body protectively covered hers.
“Blaine!” She gasped for air.
She broke into pieces. The world splintered. The scream she gave was not human.
His body jerked above hers, and he
joined her to shout out his own release.
He held her tight as shudders went through him like the aftershocks of an earthquake. His breaths came out in gulps that lessened with each inhale and exhale.
“I saw her.”
Tensed, coiled, she couldn’t move.
He lifted his torso, the separation of their sweaty chests creating a sucking sound.
“Wow, your eyes.”
She hadn’t caught her breath yet. “What about them?”
“They’re glowing.”
***
A week later…
Rebecca had been getting used to her transformation and how any heightened emotion brought her shining eyes to the forefront.
Her wolf had shown up in her mind a week ago when Blaine marked her. She had panicked because the sensation of having “someone” else inside her head had been strange. But Blaine’s essence allowed her to be one with her wolf. And, even though she hadn’t shifted yet, the white wolf’s presence remained under the surface of her skin. The wolf had started to push some of its thoughts forward, like every time Blaine came near them, the animal clearly projected the word mate.
Blaine’s wolf had a calming effect on hers. Whenever he changed into the gray wolf, hers leaped with joy.
Tonight, they would have their first run together because she could only shift under a full moon, in theory. She had tried to copy Blaine the day after they mated, but she couldn’t change completely into wolf form. She was nervous. Who wouldn’t be? But excitement also bubbled under her skin.
Mate.
Blaine strolled into the library. He had moved in with her a little over a week ago. His scent tickled her nose.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
She giggled. He stood in front of her in seconds, and she gave herself up to his embrace.
“Ah yuck!” Niq had made himself comfortable in one of the aisles with a stack of books. “I’m going home.”
Neither of them acknowledged his grumpiness.
“It can’t be that wonderful,” he added.
Rebecca broke away from Blaine. She didn’t want to torture Niq further.
“Can I join you tonight?” he asked.
Rebecca looked to Blaine. Would having him around be a good idea for her first run? For all she knew, she could go bonkers and bite someone’s head off.
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