by R. J. Blain
Sanders sucked in a breath.
I sat straighter, my wolf voicing a low growl through me. Wendy’s gaze flicked to me. While my wolf recoiled, I refused to back down. “I’m not so fragile, thank you. If he’s not interested, he’s not interested. I’m aware of what the word no means and its usage.”
My wolf hated me for my words, and her fury burned at me from within. I shuddered at the intensity of her disapproval and dismay, but I couldn’t afford to look away. If I was going to invest in someone, if I wanted to be happy in a relationship, I had to protect him, not just guard an opportunity to be with him.
“I see,” Wendy said, releasing Sanders and backing away to her chair.
I meant to ask if Wendy really did understand, but before I could, Sanders popped a piece of lobster into my mouth. I blinked, chewing so I wouldn’t choke on it.
Sanders shook his head, licking sauce off his fingers. “I never said I wasn’t interested, Sara. I simply refuse to treat you like a cheap, one-night fling.”
Swallowing the piece of lobster, I caught my breath and stated, “It seems you have misunderstood something, Mr. Sanders. I do not enjoy one-night flings, so I’m afraid I have expectations of a lengthier relationship. Take it or leave it. If you take it, I will be expecting your dedicated attention, as I do not like sharing.”
Desmond snickered and stood. “Wendy, darling, let’s leave them to their discussion. I can think of a few things to keep us occupied in the meantime. Shall we go down to the casino? Don’t wait up for us, puppies. We’ll come by in the morning. I will, however, require my car for the evening, Sanders. Go get changed, dear.”
Chuckling, Wendy headed into the bedroom.
“I’m adding a day of owed time with it,” Sanders grumbled, wiggling to dig his keys out of his pocket. He tossed them to Desmond. “Already reneging on your debts. I see how it is.”
“I’ll return your phone in the morning, along with the keys.” Desmond smirked, grabbing his suit jacket. “Have a lovely evening, Sara.”
Wendy returned wearing a pair of jeans and a button-up blouse, linked her arm with her mate, and pulled him out of the room. “Good night, you two.”
Completely baffled by the Desmonds, I murmured, “Good night.”
They left before Sanders could argue with them.
“I can’t believe he did that. He stole my phone,” Sanders spluttered.
“Your keys, too,” I pointed out, focusing my attention on my lobster, but keeping an eye on Sanders for his reaction to being left alone with me.
He sighed. “I apologize if I offended you.”
“Am I supposed to be offended?” I asked, abandoning my food to pay full attention to him. “There’s nothing wrong with disliking one-night flings.”
“They… they hired you,” he mumbled.
“Is that the problem?” I demanded.
“You’re not property!”
“Sanders, I’m a stripper and a showgirl. In this town, there’s not much difference. I needed the money; I won’t deny it. I missed work, because… because…” I bit my lip and stared down at my hands, clasping them together so tight my knuckles turned white.
“Because of the full moon,” he supplied.
“Yes. I don’t make enough to miss work.”
“I don’t understand why.”
“Why? You mean why I’m a stripper?”
“Why you don’t make enough to miss work. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re gorgeous.”
Sighing, I leaned back against the couch, gathering the duvet to keep warm. My wolf wanted Sanders to keep me warm with his body, but I ignored her lust. “I don’t prostitute, not often. Not unless I absolutely must. I take a course or two when I can, but at the rate I’m going, it’ll be at least ten years before I have enough credits to get any sort of degree. Well, they made an offer I couldn’t refuse. You don’t want to know how much they paid to get me off work.”
“I do.”
“You’ll get upset,” I whispered.
“I won’t get upset at you, I assure you of that. I’ll be annoyed at Desmond for a while, I’m sure. He loves when he annoys me. That said, I appreciate having the chance to meet you.”
My wolf delighted in his words, and I flushed. “He just wanted to do something nice for you.”
“I know. That’s part of why I’m annoyed, Sara. He didn’t have to.”
“He’s your friend.”
Sanders sighed, smiling even as he shook his head. “It wasn’t always that way. He’s not an easy person to be friends with sometimes. He didn’t always have friends, Sara. That’s why he does shit like this. He’s used to being rejected from Fenerec social circles. Richard didn’t like the situation and twisted my arm to force me to keep Desmond company since his territory is actually within mine. Honestly, I probably would have ended up being friendly with him without the push—although Desmond was as determined to make friends with me as Richard was for me to make friends with Desmond. Turns out I like the ass, but don’t tell him that.”
Having already told him so much, I couldn’t think of a reason not to tell him the full truth. Steadying my nerves by drawing a deep breath, I said, “Desmond’s angry at the boss.”
“Because you were drugged at the club?”
“No, because the boss told them I had agreed before I actually had,” I corrected.
Sanders growled. “You’re serious. He sold you?”
“He had fifty thousand reasons to sell me.”
“Desmond paid the club fifty thousand,” Sanders stated. The acrid bite of his fury stung my nose. “And you?”
Unable to stop the tears from coming, my eyes blurred, and I angrily wiped at them. “Not as much as the club. They offered more than I get paid in a year to go out for dinner and stay the night. But the boss…”
“He had you drugged. He had you drugged with wolfsbane, too—or someone did.”
I nodded. “It could have been one of the VIPs, I guess. It… happens sometimes. They pay the boss, and he makes sure a girl goes home with the right buyer, using drugs the VIPs provide is my understanding of the situation. It hasn’t happened to me, though, not before tonight. It’s usually one of the new girls, one who lasts more than a night at the club.”
“I don’t take advantage of women, Sara. I’m not going to take advantage of you. I refuse. I want you to want me because you want me, not because some damned drug makes you want me!”
“Maybe I was interested in you before I was drugged,” I growled, glaring at him. “Maybe I don’t care if I’m drugged. I certainly don’t want Desmond. Wouldn’t I want him if the drugs made me want men?”
With the way things were going, I’d consider myself lucky if I managed to get a single kiss out of him, let alone what my wolf wanted.
“Point,” he acknowledged with a sigh. “A very valid point.”
I swallowed, and as had happened with Desmond, my mouth developed a will of its own, resulting in me blabbing, “She doesn’t leave me alone. All she wants is food and a mate. She’s desperate. She’s mad at me because I said no, that I’d walk away without mating with you. They were going to kill me, and she saved me. I owe her, but I don’t want to be handed around to every male she sees. She wanted them all, Sanders. All of them. I couldn’t go to the grocery store without her wanting me to jump in bed with everyone. She knows I noticed you before she came around. We have an… understanding.”
“Oh? You noticed me, did you?” The amber of Sanders’s eyes brightened, and he leaned towards me, lifting his hand to twirl some of my hair between his fingers. “I like your hair. The color’s nice. Wild, like the sun and sky. It’s different.”
“I’m sorry about your mate. I don’t want to intrude. If you don’t want me—”
The way Sanders moved reminded me of a stalking cat more than a wolf. He slid across the couch, his arm sliding behind my back and working me down beneath him. I sucked in a breath, my eyes widening as he eased his weight on top of me.
Sanders growled, tangling his hands in my hair while he nibbled on the side of my neck. Shivers ran through me, and his touch made me burn for more. I ached with my wolf’s lust and need for him.
“Please,” I begged, squirming in my effort to free my arms so I could prevent him from escaping.
“Please what?” he murmured in my ear.
“Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.” My breath came hard and quick.
“Maybe I want to take my time with you and make sure you enjoy this even more than I will,” he murmured, pausing to nibble on my throat. I closed my eyes, heat spreading through me from his touch. “When I’m finished with you, you won’t be capable of looking at anyone else. You’ll be mine, and I will do with you as I please. You’ll like every moment of it.”
I growled at him, wiggling in another attempt to extricate myself from the duvet. He kept me pinned in place with the weight of his body, continuing to tease my neck with his lips. “What if I want to do with you as I please?”
He pulled away from me, and I opened my eyes in time to watch him smirk. “I suppose we’ll just have to take turns. Alas, I’m afraid if we do that, we’ll have to be up until the wee hours of the morning. A small price to pay, I suppose. I will make you mine.”
Narrowing my eyes, I struggled in earnest to free myself from the duvet. I snarled my frustration at being trapped and unable to get my hands on him. “Is that a threat?”
“No, Sara. It’s a promise.”
For the first time since the full moon, my wolf was satisfied, and so was I. Waking up in a strange bed with a man should have frightened me, but a single deep breath reminded me the man was Sanders.
Maybe it was a strange bed, but the man beside me was mine. The certainty of my claim was reinforced by my wolf, and she regarded him as partner, prey, mate, and the wolf destined to father our puppies.
My wolf amused and puzzled me; she understood so little about the modern world. How could she understand how birth control worked? I’d be due for a renewal of my shot in two weeks, but it’d be something I’d think long and hard about. Would I need—or want—it with the man my wolf and I had claimed as ours?
Sanders slept at my side, one of his arms draped possessively across my stomach. I breathed in his scent and was pleased by the sweetness of it. Before I had become a monster, I never imagined joy and happiness had a discernible smell, but they did.
I made him happy.
Burrowing under the blanket, I squirmed until I pressed close to his side, my chin resting on his shoulder. I touched my nose to his neck, breathing slow and deep.
If the night before was any indictation, Sanders would be easy to love. Even before taking me to his bed, he had been gentle and kind, tempering his desire with consideration.
Most men I had slept with cared only for themselves. When I had driven him wild, he had taken me with him, and I had loved every moment of it, as had my wolf. My wolf wasn’t interested in the more human way of dating and picking a partner after weeks or months of dancing around the idea of mating.
She liked what she saw in Sanders, wanted him, and had claimed him. The rest we’d sort out over time. I didn’t mind.
Morning had come, and he remained at my side. I shifted until I could stare at his face. Light stubble marked his jaw, and I brushed my fingers over his skin. I liked the feel of his shaved face, but there was something delightfully wild and untamed about the bristly start of a beard.
When I reached his mouth, he nipped me, seizing one of my fingers between his teeth. It didn’t hurt, and the way he teased me with his tongue made me shiver.
“It’s too early to be awake,” he murmured, rolling towards me. For a long moment, all he did was stare into my eyes with a faint smile on his lips. “Good morning.”
I thought my wolf was satisfied, but the instant he looked at us, she wanted him all over again. I gasped, speechless from the intensity of her lust.
Sanders’s eyes narrowed, and his smile widened into a grin. “Is there something I can help you with?”
There was a lot he could help me with, and the longer I thought about it, the more embarrassing my thoughts became. Heat spread over my cheeks and down my neck. “Mine,” I blurted.
Groaning at my nonsensical reply, I covered my face with my hands.
Sanders laughed and covered me with his body, pinning me with his weight. “That’s promising,” he murmured in my ear. “What happens to me now that I’m yours?”
My wolf persisted in her inability to think outside of her constrained box, and she wasn’t at all interested in food. I peeked through my fingers. Sanders’s amber eyes burned, and all it took was a single breath to catch the scent of his desire for me.
Instead of giving him an answer, I made a thoughtful sound in my throat.
He slid his hands beneath mine, pushing them away from my face so he could kiss me. “I have nothing to do today. Do you?”
The question startled me, and after a moment of thought, I sighed. “Class at four. At least I did my studying already.”
There hadn’t been much else for me to do after the full moon. Determined to forget about what Rory and Isabella had done and eager to please my wolf and my mate, I slid my hands through Sanders’s hair and kissed him until all I cared about was the feel of him against me.
He broke our kiss, pressing his fingers to my mouth. “Before we get too distracted, let me bring you into the pack, Sara.”
“The pack?”
“My pack. My family of wolves. I want you to meet them all; I want you to know them.” He smiled at me, ducking his head to nibble at my neck. “You won’t feel much of anything—if anything—at first, but in time you will. They’re my family, and so are you. I want you to feel wanted and welcomed.”
My wolf’s excitement at his offer surged through me, and her thoughts of puppies vanished, overwhelmed by her hope of having other wolves and a family we could call our own.
I didn’t know what was so special or important about pack, but if my wolf desired it so much, I would give it to her. “Okay.”
“It won’t hurt,” he promised, kissing his way up to his jawline. “You probably won’t feel much of anything at first. You’re still young for a Fenerec, and the bonds strengthen with age. For now, it’ll just make me feel better knowing you’re mine in all ways.”
His cheerful admission warmed me. He nipped my throat, and bursts of electricity flared through my body, leaving every nerve tingling. In its wake, I was aware of a faint howling in my head. Surprise accompanied something else, and with a start, I realized it was dismay.
I was also aware of Sanders as a steady warmth, and when he kissed my neck where he had bitten me, I forgot about everything other than him.
I would’ve been happy simply nestling against Sanders all day, but my hunger woke and turned malicious, eating away at my stomach until my wolf’s demand for meat overwhelmed my desire to enjoy my mate’s company. I meant to nip him awake, but in my need for food, I bit harder than I meant to, startling a cry out of him.
My stomach gurgled its demand for sustenance. Laughing, Sanders rolled away from me. “I’ll feed you,” he promised.
“What time is it?” I mumbled, crawling to the edge of the bed in search of the bathrobe I had stolen from Wendy the night before. I spotted it in the hallway near the door.
All things considered, I was grateful it hadn’t stayed in the sitting room.
“One. We have enough time to get something to eat before your class. Do you need anything from your apartment?”
“Yeah, my clothes,” I grumbled. “I’m going to have to go home naked.”
“Like hell you’re going home naked,” he growled, prowling across the room to fetch my bathrobe. Instead of tossing it to me as I expected, he brought it to me and, with a smile, helped me into it.
It took a few brushes of his hand for me to catch onto his ulterior motives, which I answered with a kiss.
“Food, class, dinner after class, perhaps a nice date, and then we’ll enjoy each other some more,” he murmured, pressing his mouth to the side of my throat. “You’re lovely.”
“I’m not good at dating,” I confessed.
“Practice makes perfect,” he countered. “We can skip the date and go straight to enjoying each other’s company, if you’d prefer.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Whatever you want. Maybe we’ll steal Desmond’s credit card in retaliation for last night. You can distract him by being so pretty. I’ll grab his wallet. We’ll make a run for it and go spend all of his money having fun. We could hit the casinos, watch a few shows, or just run away together. I’m game.” Laughing, he hopped to his feet, grabbed hold of my hands, and pulled me upright. “Take a bath if you’d like. I’ll put on real clothes and find you something to wear from the shops downstairs. Then I’ll take you somewhere nice for lunch before the Desmonds return and bother us.”
I was sore and achy, which made the decision easy to make. “It’d be a nicer bath if you were with me,” I replied, grinning at him.
“There will be plenty of time for us to share baths,” he promised. His smile was radiant. “I won’t be long.”
It surprised me how much it bothered me when he left the suite despite knowing he would return. The sense of dismay I had felt earlier in the morning intensified, and there was a new undertone that bothered my wolf. Puzzled, I shook my head and decided to ignore the feelings.
It was probably my imagination.
While I waited for the tub to fill, I investigated the television mounted on the bathroom wall. I turned on the news, setting the remote out of harm’s way. Restlessness drove me out of the tub within ten minutes. Disgusted at myself, I toweled dry and paced the suite wrapped up in the bathrobe.