by Zoe Chant
He didn’t get the chance.
Ken leapt a split-second after he did, and they collided in mid-air. The wolf’s leap went sideways, and they landed hard on the grass, all of Ken’s considerable lion weight slamming into the wolf’s body—and his claws were out.
The wolf let out a high-pitched yip and showed his throat. One glance at the other one showed that he was backing away.
Oh, no you don’t. Ken shifted, standing up smoothly and stepping back out of claw range. “Shift,” he ordered them. “Now.”
They shifted to human.
Lynn followed suit. There was a long moment where they all eyed each other.
“Well,” Ken said finally, “why don’t we go on around to the front of the house, where I guess your friends probably are. I’m sure we all want to have a nice talk.”
The two wolves exchanged glances. “How about we just get out of your hair?” one suggested.
“How about not,” said Lynn. Her tone was steely. When the wolves still didn’t move, she shifted back.
“Okay!” said the one who’d spoken before. “Okay, okay, fine, let’s go.”
Ken shifted too, and he and Lynn flanked the two men and herded them out of the yard. Working in tandem with his mate like this—well, the circumstances could’ve been better, but the experience was something Ken wanted to have again, for sure.
They emerged around the side of the house to find the rest of the pack facing two snow leopards and another lynx. There were four wolves to the three cats, and the wolves were still hesitating, not sure if they had the advantage or not.
Not, Ken could’ve told them. Definitely not.
At the sight of their buddies trudging, defeated, in human form, followed by another lynx and a big male lion, the pack startled. They fixed on Ken especially; he was as big as any two of them, and he let a low growl escape his throat, watching them size him up.
Finally, one of the wolves gave an exasperated twitch of his ears and shifted to human. This one was the pack leader for sure, Ken thought, and his suspicion was confirmed when the man said, “You guys were supposed to be backup. Stealth backup.”
“They were waiting for us,” one of them whined.
The other three wolves shifted back, too, and at that, so did Stella. Lynn stalked up to sit behind her, teeth bared.
“Who the hell are all of these guys?” Todd was saying to Stella, nasal and unhappy.
“None of your business who they all are,” Stella snapped back.
“Hey, boss,” one of the other wolves said in an undertone to the pack leader. “We should watch out for the snow leopards. I’ve been hearing some things about the snow leopards out here by Glacier. You don’t want to mess with them. There’s a whole lot of them, and they don’t like people threatening their friends.”
“You never mentioned any of these people before,” Todd kept on. He took a step forward—and Lynn snarled at him.
He took a step back.
“That’s my sister,” Stella told him. “I told you about her.”
“But you never said—” He looked around wildly. “You never said you had a pack.”
“So what?” Stella snapped. “So then it’s okay to run after me and harass me? It’s okay to make my daughter afraid to live in her home? Just because I don’t have a pack? That’s still not okay, Todd!”
“I just want you to come back,” Todd grumbled. “But not if you hang out with a bunch of assholes like this.”
“Todd…” Stella rubbed her eyes. “Please just…”
“I’m not going to just anything,” he said in a flare of temper. “Not if you’re going to hide behind all your friends like this. I guess we can’t talk to each other for real, if this is how you’re going to—”
Lynn shifted.
Todd broke off speaking, startled, as she took three quick steps forward, putting herself between him and Stella. “Shut up,” she said.
He frowned. “Hey—”
“Shut up. You showed up here with your pack like you had some right to be here, to harass my sister. If you found more than you bargained for, that’s your fault. Stella’s got a family, she has people who care about her, and we’re not going to put up with you hanging around like this. She’s worth a hundred of you. Of any of you,” she added, looking around at the pack.
Ken padded forward to take up a position next to her, looking around himself. None of the pack looked like they wanted to argue.
“So. I’m only going to say this once,” Lynn said. “Get out.”
There was a long pause. Finally, the pack leader said, “Come on, guys, this isn’t worth it,” in a disgusted voice.
“But boss,” Todd whined.
“You want to fight two women, a lion, and a bunch of goddamn snow leopards? There’s probably fifty more of them out in the forest,” the leader snapped. “Let’s go.”
As he watched them walk away, Ken was struck by a feeling he’d never known before.
He’d protected people plenty of times. As a Marine, sometimes just as a big guy who didn’t want to see a woman hassled.
But he’d never protected his family before. Never stood up and made someone realize that this was his place, his pack, and no one who lived here was ever going to be vulnerable and alone again.
So as the wolves disappeared from sight, Ken shifted back and caught Lynn up in his arms. “That was amazing,” he said into her hair. “You were amazing.”
“I could only do it because I knew you were right there behind me,” she murmured back.
Was it possible for your heart to actually grow inside your chest? Ken kissed her mouth, tasting happiness, and thought that he had everything he could ever have wanted.
***
Back inside, Lynn couldn’t believe it was all over, just like that.
Mavis and Wilson said their goodbyes, waving off Stella’s thanks like it was nothing, and departed with smiles. Stella hugged Eva hard and said, “Let’s go for a run together, honey, okay?”
Eva grinned. “Awesome.”
The two of them went out the back and shifted together. Eva’s lynx form was still rangy and young, and she bounded ahead as Stella trotted behind her. Lynn smiled after them, and turned to Ken.
“Hi,” he said, grinning.
“Hi.” She smiled back.
“That was amazing,” Ken said. “The way you told him off.”
Lynn shook her head. “What’s amazing is how you organized this entire thing. I just gave a single jerk a piece of my mind, that’s all.”
“I could watch you give jerks a piece of your mind all day.” Ken leaned down and kissed her. “I love how you’re always so certain of yourself.”
Reflecting back on the last couple of days, Lynn had to say, “I’ve been uncertain about a lot, recently.”
“Not what I meant, exactly.” He frowned. “Even when you think you’re wrong, you don’t hem and haw. You say, ‘I need to think about this,’ and then you think about it and come to a decision. And if you know you’re right, you’re completely unafraid about it. I love it.”
Lynn had always just thought she was blunt. She considered this new perspective. “You do?”
He nodded. And then grinned. “It’s hot.”
Lynn rolled her eyes and caught him around the neck, pulling him down into a kiss.
She’d just meant to distract him, but she guessed he did find her bluntness hot, because he opened his mouth on hers and sent the kiss spiraling upward into a hot, gasping thing, in a way she hadn’t been anticipating. When they broke apart, she was quickly forgetting anything that didn’t involve her hands on his body.
“Upstairs,” she managed.
“Sounds good to me.” His voice was heated, and he turned and led the way. Lynn watched his hips move as he went up. She hadn’t paid much attention to the back view before, and she’d clearly been missing out.
When he reached the top, he vanished into her room, and by the time she caught up, he was half-undressed. Laughing, she fol
lowed as quickly as she could, stripping her clothes off and joining him on the bed.
He caught her up in his arms and kissed her. As always, the feel of his mouth sent shivers of desire through her body. “Mmm,” she said, and twisted to roll them over so that she was on top, straddling his hips.
He raised his eyebrows at her. “Switching it up?”
“It’s my turn,” she informed him. “Any complaints?”
He grinned. “Not a one.”
Lynn couldn’t wait to take advantage of the chance to explore his body, as he’d already explored hers. Watching her look, Ken stretched his arms up over his head, giving her a view of the muscles shifting in his chest, letting her know it was up to her.
God. Where to even start?
She spread her hands over his pecs, luxuriating in the knowledge that all of this was hers. His chest hair was the same silvery-auburn as the hair on his head, and when she touched a nipple experimentally, he let out a breath. She tried it again, and he made a quiet noise. That was good to know.
Lynn explored further, moving off of his hips so that she could run her hands over his abs. After a second, she gave into the half-formed desire she’d had since the first time she’d seen him shirtless, and bent down and licked them.
His muscles shivered under her tongue as he laughed. “Like what you see, there?”
“You bet I do,” she said as she lifted her head.
Then she got more serious with her exploration. She came up and licked his collarbone, kissing up to his neck, while stroking her hands down his sides to grab his hips and hold on. She wondered if she could ever hold him down—he’d have to let her, she thought, but she bet he would let her if she asked him. The idea sent a rush of heat through her.
She bit the join between his neck and shoulder, listening to him groan, and then moved to kiss down his breastbone to his chest again, paying more attention to his nipples with her mouth. He shuddered when she bit one, very lightly. She’d never realized that men could have sensitive nipples just like women could.
When she reached his stomach again, she didn’t linger; she was on a mission this time. She kissed the soft, thin skin over his hipbone, and then couldn’t resist a little nip there, too—and had to pull back fast when his hips jerked up.
“Sorry,” he rasped. He sounded breathless. Lynn looked up at him, and was arrested at the sight—he was breathing hard, his eyes dark with desire, bottom lip caught between his teeth.
She’d done that. He looked like he was caught up, overwhelmed by lust, and it was because of her.
“Please feel free to keep going,” he said after she’d spent a long minute just looking at him. It sounded like putting the words together took a lot of effort.
Lynn grinned and looked down again, this time further south than she’d been yet.
He was hard as a rock, his cock flushed with blood and lying flat on his stomach. That was one part of him Lynn hadn’t tasted yet, and finally, she bent down and took him into her mouth.
The noise he made felt like it might shake the earth. Lynn’s stomach was liquid with desire, her clit pulsing with the knowledge of what she was doing to him. To her mate. His taste filled her mouth, salty-sharp. She sucked lightly, moving her tongue around the head. He groaned.
Lynn hadn’t done this much before. With other men, she’d found that she felt degraded, like they were looking down on her for doing it.
Not with Ken, though. She wanted to linger, to really taste him, hear all the sounds he made. To know that she had her mate in her mouth, and remember how he’d made her feel when he’d done the same to her. She reveled in his shallow, aborted thrusts, like he was trying to stay still for her, but the feel of her lips and tongue was too much and he had to move.
That idea made her clit pulse, her stomach liquid with desire. She sucked harder. Everything was wet, and hot, and smelled like sex, and she couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d want to be than here.
She lost herself in it for a while, the taste and feel of him, until finally he rasped, “Lynn, you’ve gotta stop if you want me to be good for anything else. I can’t last much longer.”
Lynn had to make herself think about that for a moment. She wanted to bring him off with her mouth, she realized—she wanted to really feel him lose control like that. Already she was almost holding him down anyway, her hands on his hips, keeping him mostly flat on the bed.
But she wanted him inside her, too. Her core ached with the need to feel him sheathed in her. So reluctantly, she pulled away, catching her breath.
He shuddered. And then suddenly he was moving, catching her around the waist and switching their positions, kissing her hard. If she’d had a moment, Lynn might have wondered if he’d hesitate to taste himself on her, but he didn’t—he devoured her mouth, and she moaned underneath him.
“Now?” he asked, urgent.
“Now,” she said, and he thrust into her. She was so open and wet that he went straight to her core in one smooth glide, and Lynn shuddered, already starting to twitch and clench around him.
“God, your mouth,” he growled as he drove into her. “Never felt anything like it.”
“Back atcha,” she managed to gasp, and he laughed, and shuddered, and laughed.
“I love you.” He kissed her, then nosed his way down into her neck, scenting her as he moved inside her. Muffled, he repeated, “I love you.”
“I love you,” Lynn said back, feeling herself tensing with the beginning shudders of climax. “I love you, I—oh God—”
Orgasm flooded her, leaving her clinging to Ken as she cried out and clenched down, shoving herself up to feel him as deep as possible while she spasmed around him. He held her tight, gasping with each of her tremors until the last one tipped him over the edge too.
It took a long time before either of them wanted to move.
Finally, Ken lifted his head, resting his chin on her chest and looking up at her with those tawny eyes. “Hey,” he said.
Lynn smiled down at him. “What?”
“I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” He grinned.
Lynn felt her own smile growing, until she wasn’t sure it was ever going to leave. “Me, either.”
Epilogue
Only a week ago, Lynn thought, she wouldn’t have recognized the woman she was today.
This morning, she’d woken up to her mate kissing her softly on the forehead. She’d wished Stella well in heading off to get Eva registered at the local high school, and then gone to work with a studied unconcern.
Last time Stella had moved back home, Lynn had been convinced that she wouldn’t be able to keep track of all the meetings and paperwork the school would require, and so had insisted on coming along and supervising the whole thing. Stella had been resentful and irritated the entire time—and had actually forgotten a couple of things, so Lynn had felt completely justified in interfering.
Now, she had to wonder if Stella had forgotten those things in part because she’d been distracted by being annoyed with Lynn. But also, really, she had to remind herself that it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. Stella could’ve come back to get them or set up another appointment. And that’s what she’d do if she forgot anything today.
Fortunately, Ken had borrowed Stella’s keys and gone back to Todd’s house while he was at work to get Stella and Eva’s things. So they had all of their possessions back, including Eva’s birth certificate and so on.
Stella had thanked Ken profusely, and he’d waved it off. Later, he’d confided to Lynn that every time he did something for any of them, it cemented the feeling of belonging he’d discovered.
“Keep asking me to do stuff,” he’d said seriously. “It’s like—you know, I never thought I’d want to be tied down, but every time I do something for you or Stella or Eva, it’s like I’m anchoring myself further to all of you, and it’s amazing.”
For Lynn, it was a little different—she’d always been anchored to this place. It ha
d been her home for her entire life. But now it was like the house was just a foundation, and there was a family building up on top of it.
But she definitely agreed that it was amazing.
Now she was back at the office after a day of leading clients around Glacier Park, and she was filled with a strange sensation—the desire to finish work already.
Normally, her job was her favorite part of the day, and leaving work to go home was just…movement from something interesting to something boring. A house with half the rooms shut up, a microwaved dinner, and eight hours’ sleep before getting up to come back out to what she really cared about.
Now, she was hurrying through the office tasks so she could get out quickly. It was strange.
The office door opened, and Nina came in. They’d only had time for the barest of greetings today, both busy with clients. Now, Nina was grinning.
“So,” she said. “My mom told me she had a really interesting time with you and Ken Turner the other day.”
Lynn rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. “All right, all right,” she said. “Get all the teasing out. Who knew this old crusty woman would ever settle down, et cetera.”
Nina’s expression softened. “I’m not going to tease,” she said. “I just wanted to say how happy I am for you. If you’re happy.”
Lynn frowned. “What do you mean, if I’m happy?”
“Well,” Nina said slowly, “you always said that you never wanted a mate. And I—well, when Joel and I got together—it was a little rough at first. Neither of us knew what we were doing, and it was….it was hard to work out what we wanted. We were both scared.”
This was something Lynn hadn’t known at all. She’d always thought Nina and Joel had been blissfully happy from the outset. “But it worked out okay,” she said, testing.
Nina brightened immediately. “Oh, yes. We figured it out—with some help from the rest of the pack. Don’t worry about us. I just wanted to make sure that you and Ken were happy together.”
Most shifters that Lynn knew would never have doubted that someone would be happy with their mate. She had to admit, she was a little touched that Nina wanted to make absolutely sure.