Mate Claimed

by Jennifer Ashley

  Iona ran. Her panther stretched and flowed, paws pounding through the soft pine needles, the sharp chill drying her sweat.

  Eric came behind her, his leopard’s breath loud in the still air. They ran under soaring trees, leaping over frozen streams and snowbanks that cut through the woods.

  Iona always marveled how different the world was up here. They were only short miles from the desert floor, but the mountain climate was alpine—cool summers, snowbound winters, vast pine forests that opened into surprising meadows of flowers in the springtime.

  Iona’s family’s cabin was a little way from the clusters of cabins that filled Mount Charleston and the surrounding area. She loved it up here, where she could shift and run, run, run.

  Now she was being chased. Eric sprinted behind her, running flat out, and Iona stretched to keep ahead of him.

  He would catch her. She sensed his determination, felt the earth trembling under his stride.

  Eric would catch her, and then…Iona shivered and increased her speed.

  The air was thin at this altitude, Mount Charleston reaching about twelve thousand feet at its peak. But Iona had more or less grown up here, spending her summers at the cabin to escape the heat, part of her winters up here skiing. She knew every nuance of this mountain, every cranny and place to hide.

  But she couldn’t ditch Eric. He’d driven them up here in her pickup, Iona still too frenzied to get behind the wheel. She’d cuddled next to him in the front seat, and he’d held her with his arm around her as he drove, like they were in love.

  Once inside the cabin, while Eric laid a fire in the big stone fireplace, Iona had given him an impish grin, thrown off her clothes, and dashed outside. The minute or so it had taken her to shift lost her the advantage though, and she’d had to run fast to get ahead of Eric.

  Now he closed in on her. She heard his growls, felt his paws swat at her back feet. His breath touched her tail, and she flicked it out of his reach.

  Iona doubled her speed. Her long panther legs should have been able to outdistance Eric’s compact leopard body, but Eric was fast, and he was strong.

  Eric leapt, pushing off with his powerful hind legs, and landed on Iona’s back.

  Iona went down with a snarl and an explosion of pine needles in the dark. Eric’s leopard was on her, his Collar shining in the moonlight, his big paws pinning her down.

  Iona writhed and struggled, but Eric fastened his teeth around her throat, not enough to penetrate the skin, but enough to make her still. Growling, he rolled her panther over onto her belly and covered her body with his.

  The panther went still with shock when the leopard entered her. Eric rumbled softly, teeth gentle in her furry neck. Then Iona’s wildcat brain took over, and Iona the human ceased to think.

  The panther in her both fought Eric’s domination and reveled in it. This is what Shifters were for—to fight, to mate, to breed. The leopard was strong, the best of his clan, perfect for cubs. The panther had made him chase her and catch her, exactly as planned. She made a little yowling sound and turned her head to lick his paw.

  The leopard held her down, his wildness crazy as he loved her. At last he backed away, flipped the panther over onto her back again, and shifted into his human form.

  The panther held Eric against her furry body for a moment, then Iona slowly shifted to human.

  She lay, panting, on her back, Eric pinning her hands and smiling into her face.

  “How do you shift so fast?” she asked, still trying to catch her breath. “It’s not fair.”

  “Keep it simple. Think of the form you want to be, then be it.”

  Sure. Simple. “I want to be this one, right now.”

  “I want you to be this one too.”

  Eric kissed her lips, his mouth hot, his eyes still Shifter white. He licked her neck, pausing to give her a love bite.

  “Mmm,” Iona said, arching her head back. “I know why you like it when I do that to you.”

  “You don’t have a Collar,” Eric said, licking where the band would go. “I rejoiced in that the first time I saw you. I still do.”

  Iona touched the Celtic knot gleaming against his throat. “I wish this could be off you.”

  “Someday. We’re working on it.”

  Her caresses on his chest became firm presses. “Damn you, Eric. I still want you.”

  He laughed softly. “Mating frenzy.”

  He locked his legs around hers and rolled over. She rolled with him, landing on top of him.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, half laughing.

  “You want leaves and pine needles poking you in the back?”

  Iona hadn’t noticed them, not with Eric’s heavy warmth on her. Eric took her hands and raised her to a sitting position, her knees on either side of his torso.

  “Wait,” she gasped. “We’re in the woods.”

  “In the dark, a long way from anywhere, love. You want to walk back to the cabin first?”

  She didn’t. Iona’s excitement was still high, her blood hot. She held Eric’s strong hands while she rose over him and, as she had on the couch, slid herself down onto him.

  This second time was easier than the first, but no less incredible. Iona moaned as his cock entered her, his hardness penetrating and opening her. Eric sucked in a breath as she settled on him, pressing his hips upward as she came down.

  He fit into her tightly, every long inch of him. Iona knew she’d been made for this joining, to feel Eric pushing high inside her. He opened her wide, her female places so wet that he thrust up and in without any barrier.

  She started riding him, knees and toes burrowing into the wet earth. Eric slid his hands beneath her breasts, his hands so warm, his thumbs teasing her nipples. The tingle of his touch spiraled down to join the tight, hard need where she rocked his cock deep inside her.

  The scent of their lovemaking, sweet, heavy, and exciting, blended with the scent of pine and old leaves. The night air brushed frigid fingers over them, but Iona was toasty warm with Eric inside her.

  She wanted this to go on and on, she forever locked with him in the splendid silence of the night woods. Moonlight filtered through the trees to touch them like a gentle embrace.

  But their bodies wanted mating, the basic need to procreate driving them on. A wave of black pleasure washed over Iona, beginning where Eric joined with her and rippling through every inch of her body.

  Eric! I love you!

  Iona cried out as the thought tore through her, and she nearly fell, but Eric held her upright, his hands rock steady. He groaned low in his throat, and she felt his seed scalding her, filling her up, heady heat and pleasure.

  The sensation sent her over the top. Iona’s cries rang out into the night, blending with Eric’s as they sealed themselves together. Mating.

  Iona collapsed on top of him, laughing again, so happy to be gathered into his arms. She was warm, safe, well.

  I love you, Eric, the voice whispered inside her, and Iona shook.

  They shifted to run back to the cabin, this time side by side. Eric’s leopard’s shoulder bumped Iona’s as they negotiated narrow parts of the trails.

  Their breaths steamed, the November night cold and clear. The rivulets of snow that ran through the woods were hard packed, their paws making no indentations in it.

  Eric flowed back to his human form when they reached the cabin porch, and he turned, watching her expectantly.

  Think of the form you want to be, then be it.

  Iona pictured herself as her human, tallish and bare, with thick dark hair and eyes of icy blue. She took a step forward, visualizing herself easing into human form as quickly as Eric had.

  Her limbs distorted and changed as slowly as ever, her muscles protesting as they moved from long-legged panther to a woman with hips more curved than she wanted them to be.

  “Ow,” she said, when her mouth became human.

  Eric shook his head. “You’ll get it.”

  “What are you laug
hing at, hot-ass?”

  “Not laughing. Enjoying.”

  Eric shoved open the door and let himself into the cabin first. This let Iona stand back to observe his oh-so-nice butt. Tight and smooth, it was fine indeed.

  Iona followed Eric into the high-ceilinged front room, enjoying watching him bend down to touch a long-handled lighter to start the fire he’d laid.

  “You don’t have to bother with that,” she said. “I’m not cold.”

  “Me either.” Eric set the lighter back on its shelf. “The mating frenzy makes you forget about hot and cold, and sleep, food, and safety. You can die from not paying attention.”

  With warmth and need wrapping around her, Iona couldn’t quite grasp that. “You’ve been in the mating frenzy before.”

  Eric looked up at her, his eyes quiet. “Yes.”

  “With Kirsten.”

  “Yes.”

  Iona touched her hands together. “You must have loved her very much.”

  Eric nodded. “Yes. Very much.”

  “Then why do you want another mate?”

  Eric pushed himself from the fireplace and came to her, the first flickers of fire shadowing his tall, naked body. He skimmed warm hands down her arms.

  “Because I saw you.”

  Words stuck in Iona’s throat. The heat of his hands made her realize that she truly was cold, and she shivered.

  Eric’s eyes darkened. He cupped Iona’s face in his hands and drew her up to kiss her.

  His mouth was as warm as his skin. Eric kissed her with slow seduction, the frenzy slightly abated from all their lovemaking, but not by much. His lips sought, touched, warmed. Iona slid her arms around him as he kissed her, and pulled him close.

  The surging fire began to grow, the only light, filling the room with a rosy glow. In it, Eric lifted Iona and carried her to the thick rug in front of the hearth.

  On this rug, where Iona had played as a child, cuddled with her mother as a preteen, and daydreamed with her little sister as a teenager, Eric laid her down and made slow, sweet love to her. With his warm weight on her, his jade green eyes watching her, Iona knew she wanted to be no other place.

  “Iona,” he said, his voice rasping. “Say you’ll be my mate. Sun and moon. Please.”

  The please had so much emptiness in it, so many years of loneliness, that it wrenched Iona’s heart. “All right,” she whispered.

  They spent the rest of the night making love, first on the hearth rug, then in the large bedroom on the first floor. Eric said very little after her acceptance, but he kept looking at her with such triumph in his eyes that he made her nervous.

  Iona’s nerves wound up even more in the morning when they banked the fires, locked up the cabin, and headed back to Shiftertown.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Iona noticed a change in the Shifters when she returned to Eric’s house, and not just the smirks that told her that everyone knew how much sex she and Eric had enjoyed last night. The Shifters seemed to know, without being told, that she’d agreed to be Eric’s mate.

  Shane, who’d entered the kitchen to talk to Diego, snapped his head around to look at Iona as she and Eric came in the front door. Then Shane took a deliberate step back, as though acknowledging he should stay away from her.

  Cassidy rushed to Iona and hugged her hard, kissing her on the cheek. “Welcome to the clan,” she said.

  Jace’s embrace, coming a second later, was as warm and heartfelt. “Thanks, Iona,” he said in her ear. “Dad needs you.”

  Diego laughed and grabbed Iona for another hug, this one Diego-and-Cassidy scented. “It’s not so bad here once you get used to it,” he said, with a slow wink at Cassidy. “Eric, you need to build on to your house. You can’t stuff Iona into that shoebox-sized room of yours.”

  “I’ll vacate my room and sleep downstairs,” Jace said, sounding unworried. “I’d rather, with all the mating that will be going on up here. I’ll need the quiet. The babies can have Dad’s room, until they get big enough to start screaming for their own space.”

  “You’re very thoughtful, Son,” Eric said, deadpan.

  “He just wants the man cave to himself,” Cassidy said. “Diego and I might have to join him down there if Eric gets too loud. He is clan leader, after all.” She laughed and then slid her hand to her abdomen. “Ooh, she’s ready to fight her way out soon.”

  “You don’t know it’s a she, chiquita.” Diego leaned to Cassidy’s ear and licked it. “We’ve never had an ultrasound.”

  Cassidy shrugged. “I just know.”

  Iona believed her. Shifters knew things, especially about cubs, just as Iona had scented that her sister was pregnant before Nicole even acknowledged the possibility.

  Eric put his hands on Iona’s shoulders. “Don’t scare her, and get her whatever she needs, all right?”

  “Sure, boss,” Shane said. “You ever feel like booting him out, Iona, you know where I live.” He sent Eric an evil grin and departed out the back door, already yelling the news to his brother and mom.

  “What do I do now?” Iona asked. “I feel like I’m supposed to do something, but I don’t know what.”

  “Nothing.” Eric kissed the top of her head, lips gentle. “You’re part of the family now. We’ll have the full sun ceremony as soon as I bring in someone to do it, and then the full moon as soon as there’s a full moon. A few nights from now, I think.”

  “Who? A priest or priestess?” Iona was still a bit fuzzy on Shifter religion. So much to learn.

  “A clan leader or Shiftertown leader,” Eric said. “I’m both, but I can’t mate bless myself. Graham’s the equivalent rank for now, but I don’t want him doing it, so I’ll have to bring in outside help. For now…” Eric kissed her again and released her. “Do whatever, but stay near Cass, Diego, Jace, or Nell. They’ll protect you when I’m not here. I hate to leave, but I need to see Graham and talk to some of the wolves that were abducted.”

  Yes, he needed to figure out what had happened. Eric was leader, which meant, despite his statements last night that he would rather mate with Iona than anything else, he had plenty to take care of.

  “Do whatever,” Cassidy repeated, shaking her head at her brother. “You’re such a male, Eric. Iona has tons to do. We need to move her in here, bring stuff from her house, move Jace’s stuff downstairs, redecorate Jace’s room, and introduce her to all the other females in Shiftertown, since she’ll be their alpha now—”

  “Wait, what?” Iona stared at her. “Why will I be their alpha? You’re Eric’s sister—his second-in-command, right?”

  “Second in the clan, but you’re top female, and all the other females will respect that,” Cassidy said. “Don’t worry, you’ll catch on.”

  Iona hoped so. It was difficult though—she was surprised how difficult it was—to kiss Eric good-bye and watch him walk away between the houses in his nonchalant stroll to return to the business of being leader.

  Eric spent his morning talking to the Shifters who’d been abducted. Graham insisted on accompanying him to every interview, stating that the wolves wouldn’t let a strange Feline ask the questions, Shiftertown leader or no. Eric knew the truth of this, so he let Graham precede him and introduce him.

  The new Shifters lived in houses vacated by Felines, Lupines, and bears of this Shiftertown as late as yesterday. Most of the new wolves didn’t want Eric inside their homes, indicating with body language, scowls, or outright declarations to Graham that they’d talk to Eric—maybe—but only outside.

  The wolves who’d been abducted could tell Eric very little, but one female whose son was in his teenage years did remember some of it.

  “The bus pulled off the highway,” the woman said, while her lanky son stood behind her, hands on her shoulders. “It was very late, and most of us were asleep, but I looked out the window, thinking we’d stopped for gas or at a rest area. I was hoping I’d be able to get out and stretch my legs.

  “But some men got on the bus—humans. They wa
lked down the row, stopping at every seat. I wasn’t sure at first what they were doing, then I realized they were sticking needles into every Shifter, tranquilizing them. Most of them were already groggy—I think they put something in the water bottles they provided, but I hadn’t drunk from mine. I tried to fight when they came for me—I screamed, but they jabbed my son, and then they got the needle into my neck.”

  Her son rubbed her shoulders, his distress scent nearly overwhelming hers. Graham put a hand on the boy’s and nodded for the woman to go on.

  “They must not have gotten enough into me, because I came to when they were taking me out of a cage in a hospital room or clinic somewhere,” she said. “They strapped me down to a bed, and I was too weak and sleepy to fight them.

  “Then some doctors came. At least, they wore white coats, surgical masks, and sterile caps. I almost peed myself, I was so scared they were going to kill me, but all they did was draw a little blood and scrape some skin into a tube. Then they left me alone. I thought they were prepping me for something, but I was too exhausted to stay awake. I passed out again, and when I woke up, we were on another bus, and he was there.” She pointed at Eric. “But my son was back with me, and everything was fine. Well, as fine as it could be.”

  Her son leaned down to embrace her, shutting out Eric and even Graham, his worry and emotion pouring from him.

  “They were human, these doctors?” Eric asked.

  The woman nodded around her son’s shoulder. “They all smelled human. No Shifter or half Fae or…” She shrugged. “Nothing but human.”

  “Dead humans if I find them,” Graham rumbled.

  Eric didn’t disagree. He touched both the female and her son on their shoulders. “Thank you,” he said. “We’ll let you rest now.” He gentled his voice as he said a Goddess blessing, and the two Lupines looked startled but grateful.

  “We know Kellerman hired the bus to take the Shifters out there,” Eric said to Graham as they left the house. Across the street, the Shiftertown fence had come down, and surveyors were marking the ground with stakes for the new houses. The bus driver had gotten it out of his boss that Kellerman had asked for the bus. The boss had almost bragged that someone so prominent in town had wanted their services.