by Strider, Jez
Mara, flattered by his compliments, glanced down. “I guess never running out of soda is a good thing.”
“You better believe it.” He hesitated, before speaking again. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
His question caught her completely off guard and her happy expression faded slowly until it was gone. “No.”
“Me either. Unless it’s pie.”
She groaned, relieved and strangely disappointed by his comment at the same time. “You’re a weird man.” The last bite of her meal was taken as she studied him.
“I like to keep you guessing a little bit.”
“Well, that meal was amazing. Most nights it’s too late to cook when I get home. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad to do it. Ready for dessert?” He asked.
“There’s dessert? Let me guess. Pie.”
He gave a small scoff. “I am a man of many tastes. It’s chocolate cheesecake.”
Mara gathered up their dishes and placed them in the sink while Taylor cut the cake. “We can eat in the living room.” She said.
He handed her a plate and nodded. She flicked on the floor lamp while Taylor looked through her CD collection. “Garbage, No Doubt, Poe, Smashing Pumpkins… you’re stuck in the 90’s, aren’t you?”
“Sort of. That’s my collection from when I was a teenager. Haven’t bought music for myself in years.”
Jak came through the house before Taylor could respond. “I’m going to spend the night with Eric.”
“It’s a school night.” Mara said.
“We have a project due tomorrow.”
She sighed, but nodded. “Be careful, okay? You have your pepper spray?”
“Yes. Though you may need it if Dad shows up again.” He lifted his head to Taylor. “Thanks for the food.” Then, he was gone without another word.
Mara found Taylor staring at her when she faced him again. She leaned into the couch and indulged in the ultra-rich dessert. “What are you thinking? Go ahead and say it.”
“I’m concerned as to why you would need to use pepper spray on your son’s father.” He sat down beside her.
“Jak is trying to stir up drama. Don’t worry about it.”
He placed his dessert on the table and stretched his arm along the back of the sofa. “Well, guess we have the place to ourselves.”
“Listen, Taylor. I like you. Tonight was great, but I’m not looking to get serious or anything. I told you that before you came over.”
“I know. We’re cool. Do you want to get together again? Maybe see a movie or something? My treat, always.”
She thought about it for a moment, started to say no, but was already nodding. “Yeah. We can do that. I think we should probably call it a night. Work again early in the morning.”
He didn’t look angry, disappointed maybe. “It is getting late. I’ll call you or maybe see you at the diner first.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
They exchanged goodbyes and Taylor started to walk away, but stopped and turned back. Mara stepped into the hallway, pulling the door up behind her. He put one hand on his hip and shook his head. “I’m not sure what I want to say. I…” He sighed. “You’re a cool woman and…” His head leaned in closer and she knew he was going to kiss her.
Instead, a deep growl interrupted him. Standing in the hallway was an enormous, black wolf with fangs bared. Taylor reacted quickly and moved between Mara and the beast. Bad idea.
“No.” She ran from behind him before he could stop her and toward the snarling beast. Though Mara had never transformed into a wolf, or even seen Kaden as one, she’d been around her fair share in their secluded hometown.
“What are you doing!?” Taylor screamed in horror.
“He’s my neighbor’s guard dog. They must have left the door open and he escaped. You know how dogs are, very protective.” She stroked the top of Kaden’s head, trying to soothe the beast. “See? Get out of here before he hurts you.”
Taylor didn’t budge, but the wolf’s menacing rumble became more persistent. “You’re sure he won’t bite you? That doesn’t look like a dog.”
“I’m sure.” She wasn’t, actually. “He’s mixed with a wolf or something. Just go and don’t tell anyone, please.”
He cleared his throat and nodded. “Good boy.” Kaden lunged forward a little, snapping at Taylor. “See you soon, beautiful.” He told Marala. Without waiting for her response, he darted for the stairs, making haste to get out of the building.
“Come in the house, Kaden, before someone calls the police.” Firmly, she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and guided him through the front door. He followed her willingly. Otherwise, she’d have never been able to move the stocky animal. They kept going, passing through the kitchen and into the bedroom. She shut the door and locked it behind her before leaning back against it. “Shift back into a human.”
He flashed his fangs again, walking closer to her. His nostrils flared as he sniffed up her body. She wanted to run, but terror held her in place. Mara knew she could never escape him anyway. This was no pup. Kaden Dakota was two hundred and fifty pounds of alpha, both as wolf and man.
“Don’t hurt me, Kade. Please.” She closed her eyes.
Kaden shifted into human form, pinning her against the wall with his large body. His long hair brushed against her face as he leaned in and drew a slow, deep breath, smelling her. “Where’s the boy?” He growled out, still sounding feral even though he was no longer a wolf.
Gone. She tried to say, but the words caught in her throat. “Gone,” eventually came out in a whisper. Her eyes were still clenched shut.
The lycan male ran his fingertips along her face, before grasping it. His thumb pressed into one cheek while his four fingers rested on the other. He lifted her head slightly. “Look at me, she-wolf.”
Unable and afraid to resist the command in his voice, she opened her eyes and gazed into the threatening darkness of his. “If you had mated with that man, he would be dead now.” He sniffed again. “But, the only arousal I smell is yours.”
“Kade.” She said sweetly, making sure to affectionately shorten his name. “I’m not ready to die. Jak needs me.”
Kaden’s unrelenting glare faltered for a split second. Then he wound his arm around her waist and picked her up easily with just the one. Carrying her over to the bed, he lay her down forcefully and before she could move covered her body with his much larger nude one. “You’ll survive this. Don’t worry.”
Mara swallowed hard, her throat parched and breathing intense. She wondered what telling him no or screaming for help would do, but not for long. Her primal body consented and she lacked the willpower to argue. Potent pheromones hung in the air, thick like Kaden’s erection on top of her jeans, pressing against her thigh.
If the encounter had been only a few days earlier, during the full moon, she would have officially became his mate at the moment of her first shift. The fact that the long awaited bonding would not occur did little to diminish either of their desires.
Shaking beneath his body that radiated heat, she watched as he lifted a hand and his fingers morphed into claws. With the deadly, natural weapons, he scraped down the front of her chest. Her eyes shut tightly once more and she waited for the pain. Only, it never came. He’d shredded her favorite t-shirt, not cut her, to expose her bare flesh… her heaving bosom.
“My, how you’ve grown since the last time we were together.” His fingers returned to normal, the large hands now that of a man. With both, he cupped her breasts. His eyes closed and his mouth arched open slightly.
Her hands slipped down to her waist and she unbuttoned her pants. On a normal day, she wouldn’t have behaved this way, but the laws of nature were guiding both their actions now. Kaden jerked her pants down and off in one motion. Then he flipped her over and she rose up onto all fours. A threatened alpha would always exert dominance over his female if another male, wolf or not, came into the picture.
Marala had been well trained in the ways of the wolf, after all, she was at one time destined to be the pack’s alpha female. She pushed back against Kaden, giving him what had long ago been his. He entered without hesitation, filling her instantly. When he stayed there, unmoving, she grinded against him. His hands went to her hips and he gave her control for a few minutes before taking over and laying into her with pounding thrust after thrust.
His eyes fixed on the brand on her right shoulder. The symbol of the pack, of him. The scar in the shape of a small wolf print. When his hand went over it, Mara could have sworn it grew warm.
Their moans and groans of wild pleasure occasionally resonated in unison into a beautiful howl that only wolf mates could vocalize. All sense of time melted away. Both their bodies glistened with sweat and their damp hair clung to their foreheads. Before long, Mara had lost count of her orgasms. Kaden would release, pause briefly, and then take her again for what seemed like an eternity.
Marala collapsed onto her stomach, Kaden falling against her, not removing his cock from her body, but careful not to put his full weight on her. His entire body quaked as he emptied for the last time into the ravaged hole.
He slipped away from her and rested with his back on the mattress. “Are you hurt?” His hand lifted and he reached out to pet her head gently.
Jerking away from his touch, she buried her face against the pillow in shame, hating the part of her that was lycan. There would be time to scream and cry later, but she refused to give Kaden the satisfaction of seeing her distraught.
“You should go home to your mate.” She said, voice muffled and strained.
“I am unmated.” He drew his hand away from her and stared up at the ceiling.
Mara rolled over, sat up in the bed, then remembered her nudity and tugged a blanket up to cover her body. When she looked at him, she saw several scars across his chest and arms. Instinctively protective, she reached out and ran her fingertips lightly over one. “You were to take over the pack after your first shift because your father was ill. Pack leaders cannot survive this long without a mate.”
“Yeah, well, I had little choice in the matter. My mate ran away with my child, in case you forgot.” He turned a pair of eyes filled with fury and pain toward her.
She removed her hand, shaking her head. “I proudly loved you, Kaden. Studied the ways of the pack, spent hours upon hours with the female leaders. I wore your brand upon my flesh with pride. Made love to you under the moon when I was only a teenager. Gave you every part of me. When I found out I was pregnant, I ran to our meeting spot in the forest to tell you the news. I was ecstatic, although I knew it would delay allowing me to complete transition when I was supposed to.”
“Then why did you abandon me?” He propped himself up with his elbows pressed into the bed a little ways behind him.
“How can you be so oblivious? What were you doing the night before I disappeared?”
He squinted, trying to remember. “Drank some moonshine with the guys. Can’t think of anything else. I was pretty wasted.”
A single tear fell despite her best efforts and ran down her cheek. Angrily, she swiped it away. Too many had been spilled that night and in the years since. “Like I said, I ran to the clearing where we were going to meet, as always. Only you weren’t alone. You were screwing another girl.”
“So you threw aside our life as pack mates because I had meaningless sex that I don’t even remember?” He gave an infuriating scowl in her direction. “The pack raised you when your parents were killed by hunters. Is that so easy to forget?”
“You’re blaming this on me? I’m done talking about it. What’s done is done and I want you gone. I can’t believe I let you into my bed.” She wrapped the blanket around her, walked to the bedroom door, and unlocked it.
Kaden crossed the room and put a hand to her cheek, for the first time touching her tenderly. “Maybe it was both our faults, but you need to come back home with me. I can’t continue on this way. I need a bonded mate.”
“No.” Now that the animal appetite had been sated, her self-control had returned. “I don’t want to be a wolf and I don’t want to be with you.”
“I’m returning to see my son tomorrow. You will have changed your mind by then.” He brushed by her, opened the door leading into the hallway, changed to wolf mid-stride, and disappeared silently down the corridor.
Marala slumped to the floor and buried her face in her hands. The emotions overwhelmed her. The feelings of first love and of old betrayal tore her heart apart. If Kaden stuck around, the wolf in her would win. She curled into a fetal position, clinging to the blanket, and cried like she hadn’t in ages. She’d worked too long and too hard for everything to unravel because her formerly betrothed had returned.
Jak showed up at the apartment early the next morning before school to retrieve a few textbooks he’d forgotten. Dishes were still in the sink and his mother’s purse on the counter. She should have been at work. Fearing a break in, he tiptoed down the hallway toward his mother’s room. When he found her on the floor wrapped in the blanket, he shook her.
“Mom!”
Her eyes flew open wide. “Jak. What is it!?” She looked around frantically, disoriented.
“Thank god, I thought you’d been murdered. Why are you on the floor?”
Mara kept the blanket wrapped around her body. “I had a strange evening.”
“Did that Taylor guy spend the night or something?”
“I did.” A loud voice said from the hallway. Kaden towered over them.
Jak and Mara both gulped.
When neither spoke, Kaden turned his attention to Jak and extended his hand in offering. “I’m Kaden, leader of the Dakota wolf pack.”
“So, not only is my mom a lunatic, so is my father. Wonderful.” He reached out and shook Kaden’s hand despite his disbelief in what he was hearing.
“I can prove it to you. Join me for a short road trip. I will return you home safely.”
Jak turned to his mother. “Mom?”
Her eyes slanted, but she nodded. “Bring him back, Kaden, or I will hunt you down, skin you, and use you as a living room rug.”
He laughed and the hearty sound caught Jak of guard, making him jump a little. “Spoken like a true she-wolf. Let’s go, son. I’ll let you drive.”
“I, uh, don’t know how to drive.” Jak said, jogging a few steps to catch up to Kaden who was already heading out.
“It’s easy. I’ll show you.”
Sure, his parents might be crazy, but Jak found himself grinning. For the first time in his life, he had a father.
The ride out of the city was relatively quiet. Kaden had trained his fair share of kids, before and after transition. Speaking to his child was proving more difficult. He pulled onto the shoulder of the road when the city faded and forest spread outward from both sides of the road.
“Why hasn’t your mother taught you how to drive?” He asked.
Jak shrugged. “She works a lot and we don’t have a car. They don’t teach it at school either. Lack of funding or something.”
“I see.” He scratched at his chin. One night in the woods and another in Marala’s bed had left him a bit scraggly. Being covered from head to toe with fur as a wolf was fine, but he sure hated a beard. “It’s been hard for you two, right?”
“Well, yeah. Mom works at least twelve hours every day, often times more. She tries to get me what I want and need, but doesn’t do much for herself.” He sighed and glanced toward the forest. “Sometimes she drinks and smokes. That’s her only indulgence.” Suddenly, Jak clammed up.
Kaden waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. “Is it during the full moon? That she behaves strangely, I mean.”
“Maybe, I think. I never paid that much attention. Listen, don’t tell her I told you this. I feel guilty for talking about her behind her back. I don’t even know you.”
“No, you don’t. That needs to change. See that road over to the right. Want to practice
driving on it? It leads by where we’re going.” He pointed toward it.
His son hesitated, but then nodded. “Sure. Can’t be much different than playing Grand Theft Auto, right?”
“Only completely.” He laughed a little. “We’re not jacking vehicles or shooting bystanders.”
“You play?”
“Sure I have. Hanging out with the guys in the pack involves lots of video games. Other things, too. Pool, poker, battles. I have the scars to prove it about the fighting.” Kaden opened his door and jumped out. Heavy black boots hit the pavement as he walked around the Jeep to switch seats with his son.
Jak didn’t bother getting out of the car, just climb across the interior and into the driver’s seat. “That sounds like fun. I still don’t believe all this wolf stuff.” He added, though not sounding as convinced as he had at the apartment building.
“It’s a good time. Occasionally it can get you in trouble.” He frowned, thinking back to what Mara had said she’d found him doing. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember cheating on her. He believed he’d done it. The boys had gone into town and picked up a few girls they’d met at the bowling alley.
“Hey. Earth to Kaden. Hello?” Jak said loudly.
“Sorry, son. There’s a lot on my mind. Start the ignition and put the vehicle into drive. It’s not a straight shift, so this will be easy.”
Jak did as he was told. He pressed the gas carefully, looking to his left before pulling onto the highway. “Are you thinking about Mom?” When he reached the dirt road Kaden had pointed out he turned right carefully. His foot was a little heavy on the break, but otherwise, his driving was fine.
Kaden gave a small grumble in response, not wanting to discuss the matter.
“She doesn’t really date or anything. I thought it was because she was like me and didn’t really care to, but I think she’s been hung up on you all this time. You must have really pissed her off. She’s usually a pretty forgiving person.”