by Sam Crescent
Stepping beneath the spray, he washed away the night, but still, she lingered. Her nails had sunk into his back as he rode her. He’d made love to her until they had both passed out.
Lucas had hoped, come morning, it would all be different, that Mabel would miraculously have fallen in love with him.
It hadn’t happened.
There was so much Mabel didn’t know about him. Her parents had been sworn to secrecy. She didn’t know that he’d spent many nights sitting in her room. He’d read her diaries. Each detailing the pain and anger she’d felt toward him. He held her pillow, breathing in her scent. She didn’t know about the shirts he took so whenever he needed to, he could breathe her in. It would help to calm the beast that had so many times wanted to break free and drag her home.
He’d made her life a misery in high school and by leaving him alone, she’d made his.
The last three years, he’d been lonely. The only time he’d been able to feel anything was at the mention of her returning home. His friends had pitied him as he’d hidden in the shadows to wait for a glimpse of her. He’d become a stalker. Keeping to the darkness so she didn’t see him or feel him.
This was fucking insane.
With the shower complete, he turned off the water, wrapped a towel around his waist, and entered his bedroom. He came to a stop.
Mabel sat on the edge of his bed.
Her hair was slick and she wore another of those tempting sundresses. Her feet were bare. She rested her hands on her thighs.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“What are you doing in my room?”
She turned to look at him. “You’re right. I … I know what I did last night, and I’m sorry. I don’t regret it.” She licked her lips, and he saw the tears in her eyes. “I wanted to hate you so much, and I … I didn’t want to be here. You know that. I don’t want to let this work, but you’re different. You’re not like the asshole I remember. The guy I know well. He, I hate. He is the one I can resist. Who I don’t want to ever be mated to. Ever.”
“He’s not coming back, Mabel.”
“But what if he does?”
“He won’t. I promise you. He’s gone. I don’t even … I can’t make excuses for the way I was.”
She held her hands out and took a breath. “Can we like agree to not talk about then?” She looked toward him. “I … I did my research, and severed mates … they don’t.” She stopped and glanced down at her hands. “They never find anyone else. They’re doomed to be alone.”
“You don’t want to be alone.”
“It wouldn’t just be me, would it? You’d be alone as well. Even if you slept with all the women in the pack, you wouldn’t find anyone else.”
“Mabel, don’t think about me, okay?”
She swiped at the tears, and it fucking destroyed him to see her crying. “Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to be mated. It’s not that I wanted a man or felt I needed one, it was just that I saw my parents. The couples in the pack, and they always looked so happy. Even when I was younger, I saw the way single people looked at them. They wanted what others had.” She pressed her lips together.
He folded his arms across his chest. The need to comfort her was strong, but he held himself in check. “Mabel, what do you want from me?” he asked.
“I don’t want anything from you. I swear. It’s just that, I want to give this a try with you. I won’t fight it anymore. I won’t try to make sure we’re separated before it’s over. I’m open to this with you. If you are willing as well.”
On the inside of his arm where Mabel couldn’t see, Lucas pinched himself hard. There was a shot of pain, but he didn’t wake up. “You’re willing to give this a try?”
“If you are. Do you want to?” she asked.
“Yes, I do.”
She smiled at him. “Then, would you like me to move into this room?” She stood up and tucked her hair behind her ear. “It’s what mates do, right, share a room?”
Chapter Eight
Her clothes were next to his. It hadn’t taken Mabel long to put her stuff away in his room. Lucas had carried everything, and now she stared at their wardrobe, acutely aware of him standing close by.
This wasn’t a mistake. Even as her nerves were at an all-time high, she didn’t doubt her decision.
“I’m going to go and make breakfast,” Lucas said. He gripped her shoulders, giving her a massage. She was so hungry that her stomach growled.
Lucas chuckled.
He kissed her head. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.”
She closed the wardrobe and glanced around the room. Some of their stuff had been taken from their own rooms back in town. She spotted a couple of picture frames, and she went to them. Lucas with his father and his friends, Ben and Rupert. A family picture with his brothers and sisters.
Lucas was the eldest by several years, that much she did know.
She sat on the edge of the bed and glanced at the cabinet. Opening the top drawer, she found a photograph album. Pulling it out of the drawer, she stared at the blank front, wondering what it was.
His room was private.
She really shouldn’t open it. Only, she did.
Much to her surprise, a picture of her high school graduation stared right back at her. Why did he have a picture of her? Turning over the page, she was surprised to find more of them. Some of her as a baby, then a toddler. The first day of school. Playing at the park. Then when she’d moved up into high school. She scanned through each one until it must have happened after the mating, because the other pictures were taken at a distance. Some of them were out of focus. A few were close-ups of her face. When she turned to the final picture, this was of her staring out of her bedroom window.
Lucas had taken these, of that, she had no doubt. The others he must have gotten from her parents, but why?
After closing the book, she returned it to the drawer, and then paused as she saw an item of her clothing beneath it.
Lifting it up, she knew it was her shirt. Her scent was faint now.
She put the item back and went in search of Lucas, finding him at the stove, cooking them breakfast.
The shirt he wore was tight across his back and muscular arms. The ink stood out. Those arms had felt wonderful wrapped around her last night. The way he touched her, the feel of him inside her.
She sat down on the available chair at the counter and winced.
Lucas looked toward her with a frown. “Are you, er, sore?”
“It’s fine.”
“Do you want me to run you a bath?”
She shook her head. “I’ll be fine. We’ve got wolf blood, remember? I’ll be healed before you know it.”
Forcing a smile to her lips, she watched him. He stared at her as if he had doubts, but suddenly a piece of toast started burning and he quickly returned to breakfast.
She watched him, wondering why she didn’t know much about him.
“What have you been doing these past three years?” she asked.
He glanced back at her. “Learning what I need to in order to succeed my father. There’s a lot more to learn than merely taking the role of leader.”
“Like what?”
“Democracy, patience, not killing people for petty squabbles.”
“Really?” she asked.
“You’d be surprised. I don’t know, I guess being part of a pack, I naturally assumed everyone was civilized.”
“And now?”
“And now I know being in a pack with civilians close by, we’re always on our guard. The tensions can run high.” He finished dishing up their breakfast and she got to her feet, following him into the dining room.
“What else have you been doing?” she asked.
“Learning the family business. I don’t know if you’re aware, but my family owns several factories in town, and my dad also has several stocks and shares. It’s how he’s able to invest in the pack. They always come first, I mean, after my mom and us. But sh
e’s always by his side, helping him.”
“Nelle is a lovely woman,” she said. She’d met his mother a few times during the three years she’d tried to be as far away from him as possible.
Lucas sat opposite her. “She’s been worried about this. Us.”
“Why?”
“I told her everything,” he said. “Dad knew I hurt you in high school. He didn’t ask for the details, but Mom, I told the absolute truth to. For a few weeks, maybe even a month, she wouldn’t talk to me.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She didn’t realize she’d raised a cruel son, and knowing the shit I did upset her.”
“Oh.”
He nodded. “She was angry at me for risking so much. She told me repeatedly that mates didn’t come around often. I’d always done everything to make my parents proud, you know? That was the first time I’d ever upset them or let them down.”
She wanted to ask about the book. All the pictures.
“I … It was hard,” she said. “Staying away from you. I fought it all the time. Being in the city helped a lot. There were so many distractions that it helped not to think about you at all.” She scooped up some tomatoes and took a bite. “When I came home, though, I was sure I could feel you all the time. I figured it was because you lived there.”
He cleared his throat. “I was always close, Mabel. When I heard you were coming home, I’d always hope to catch a glimpse of you. To see you. I needed to know you were okay. That you were happy.”
“You were close?” she asked.
“As close as I could get without freaking you out.” He didn’t say anything more.
The pictures in his photograph album. They were taken by him.
She started to eat her breakfast, all the while, completely aware of him by her side. “Have you watched the weather?”
He chuckled. “You notice every single time our conversation gets strained, you want to talk about the weather?”
“I got the sense of a storm coming.”
“I did as well.” He looked out the window. “I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to check.”
She pushed some hair off her face. “Do you want to walk until it does?”
“I’d like that.”
Eating their breakfast in silence, memories of his hands on her, the way he held her, commanded her body, flashed in her mind. It was like a constant taunt and tease to what they could have. Her body started to burn at just the reminder. His hands were bigger than hers, but the pleasure he’d given her had been out of this world. Watching him now, she wanted those hands back on her body, touching her.
With the full moon already finished its peak, they could either run tonight or not. There was no sudden need to. In the city, when the moon was high, she’d take some medication to help subdue her. She didn’t always make it home.
Now as she sat in Lucas’s company, she felt more like a fool in denying herself. They finished their breakfast and took a walk together. This time, the storm didn’t strike quite so fast. The moment the clouds began to darken, they headed back to the house. Enough time had passed for her to start dinner.
Again, they ate in companionable silence, and still, her thoughts were pulled back to the photograph album.
He’d kept it and added to it.
What did it all mean?
After the dishes were done, Mabel excused herself to take a shower. She expected Lucas to follow, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The shower she took was long as she let the water fall down around her while she thought of Lucas. Closing her eyes, it was like she felt his touch on her body.
Go to him.
Her wolf was beginning to be a demanding pain in the ass.
She climbed out of the shower and went to the bedroom. Opening the wardrobe, she looked at the items of clothes on offer. Nothing really called to her.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she glanced back at the drawer. It taunted her.
Ten more months alone with Lucas.
She wasn’t playing a game anymore. Her mother had warned her about severing from Lucas. In the few cases it had happened, the people had been recorded as being nothing but shells of themselves.
That image wasn’t something she wanted for her life, or for Lucas. There was no way she could be that cruel to him.
****
Lucas sat reading his book.
The hour grew late, and still, he kept reading the same page he had for the last half an hour.
Was Mabel back in her room or asleep in his bed?
He wanted to go up and see, but he held himself back. Disappointment was a feeling he knew and had experienced often.
He continued to stare at the page until he finally gave up. Reading was supposed to relax him. Not make him even tenser than ever before.
He ran fingers through his hair and expelled a breath. He wasn’t in the best of moods. Mabel was different. At breakfast and dinner, he’d noticed her stares, and he was too fucked up to even ask her why. Like so many times before, he ignored it.
At the moment, their relationship was too volatile to keep on questioning everything.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Mabel said.
He turned to find her wearing a silk nightgown. “I thought you’d be in bed by now.”
“Is that why you’re here? Hoping to avoid me?”
The silk molded to her waist but flared out, covering up way too much of her body. She stepped into the room.
“I never want to avoid you.” Arguments, he did. They tended to draw the worst out in each other.
“Is it a good book?”
“Apparently.”
“You’ve been reading it since we got here.”
“It started out great. I don’t know what the fuck I read tonight.” His hands itched to touch her. She’d walked closer so she was right in front of him now, their knees practically touching. All it would take was for him to reach out and he’d be able to hold her.
He stayed perfectly still.
“I was thinking about you upstairs, us.”
“Anything good?”
She played with the belt of her robe. She tugged it open and he watched in amazement as she removed the robe from her body and stood before him naked. Her long hair fell around her, framing her body.
She spread the thighs open and then she straddled his lap.
As he ran his hands down her back, his cock was instantly to attention.
“I was thinking that we haven’t given ourselves a chance at all to even get to know each other.” She leaned down, brushing her lips against his. “To explore. Last night, I gave you my virginity, Lucas. Tonight, I think it’s only fair we have some fun.” She pressed a kiss against his neck, flicking her tongue across his pulse as he closed his eyes. He grabbed her ass and moved her right over his cock, feeling her against him.
She reached behind her, grabbing his hand, and pressed it between her thighs. She was so wet.
“That’s what you do to me, Lucas.”
He grabbed her and spun so she lay beneath him.
“I can make you wetter than that.” He slammed his lips down on hers as he pressed against her, being careful not to hurt her as he was fully clothed. “What is this, Mabel?”
“I’m not fighting anymore. I meant what I said. I want us to take this chance. I’m not going to run or hide anymore. Just us.”
He stroked her cheek. “No question?”
She shook her head. “None. Do you want me, Lucas?”
He pressed his cock against her pussy. “There is no reason to doubt it.”
She began to tug at his shirt, and he eased back, removing it and tossing it across the room. They both attacked the button and zipper of his pants. He shoved his jeans down his thighs, kicking them off.
Naked, like her. He settled back between her thighs.
“No biting,” she said.
“I’ll hold back.”
She ran her fingers up his back. “You sure you can handle it?”
<
br /> “Don’t underestimate me. I’ll surprise you.”
“You already do.”
He took possession of her lips and moaned as she kissed him back. Her nails traced down his back, going toward his ass. She squeezed him tightly and he groaned, loving her hands on him.
Pressing his face against her neck, he flicked his tongue against her pulse, sucking her tender flesh before moving down. He wanted to claim her, but for now, he was more than happy with just being as close to her as he physically could get.
He didn’t stop at her neck, making his way toward her breasts. He pushed them together and groaned. “You have no idea how many times I’ve thought about these tits. They are so fucking beautiful.” He slid his tongue across each peak then rubbed his face against them. Sliding his tongue between the valley, he continued his journey, kissing her stomach and then spreading her legs.
The scent of her was intoxicating. Opening the lips of her sex, he moved his tongue between the slit and circled her clit before gliding down to thrust into her cunt. Her cream exploded on his taste buds, and he relished every single drop. Lifting her up to his face, he grabbed her ass cheeks and sucked her lips and pussy into his mouth before taking her clit. He let her go then stroked over her nub, watching her slowly come apart.
Her responses were heady, and the sounds spilling from her lips continued to drive him wild. His cock already leaked pre-cum onto the sofa.
“Please, Lucas.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“To come and you to fuck me.”
He plunged two fingers into her pussy, thrusting in and out as he focused on her clit. He didn’t let up, feeling her orgasm starting to build until she screamed his name. Her release was a sight to behold as she didn’t hold back. She gave him everything, and he loved it. Never had he felt so connected with a woman.
She was so pure and all his. All he wanted to do was show her everything she could look forward to with him.
“Please, please,” she said, moaning for more.
He let go of her pussy and put his cock to her entrance. Then he started to sink deep inside her, watching as he disappeared. She was so tight. After pulling out of her, he slammed back in. He repeated this, and they both groaned, their cries of pleasure filling the air.