Mate? Had I just thought of her as my mate?
“Damn it.”
“What?” She jumped at my outburst and I shook myself quickly to apologize.
“No. I’m sorry. That wasn’t directed at you. Let’s get that tired changed and you into town, Lily.” I said her name for the first time and couldn’t wait to say it again and again as I buried myself balls deep in her body and put my mark on her neck.
<><><>
Lily, one week later
I felt his hands on me, his lips, the rub of his thick cock against my leg. My back arched as kisses landed on my belly. Lower and lower until I parted my thighs. I did it, no coaxing needed. I wanted him there. I was wet and it was all for him. I wanted him to know I ached for him, that I was ready. I wanted that cock deep inside me, stretching me, filling me. I wanted him to come deep inside, to literally coat me in his seed. Mark me. Claim me. I wanted to smell like him.
“Yes,” I murmured. “Please.”
I wasn’t beyond begging. I needed it.
It wasn’t his cock that slid over my heated folds, but his tongue. He knew exactly what he was doing, exactly what I needed. And when he flicked my clit, I came. Just. Like. That.
“Yes!” I cried again, this time I opened my eyes, saw the dark dorm room. Felt the cool night air on my sweaty skin. Shook from the remnants of the orgasm that still hummed in my body. It wasn’t a guy’s head between my thighs, but my fingers. I was alone in my room, thank god, because I’d had the most intense sex dream.
My white nightgown was up about my waist, my thighs parted, sheets tangled. Yeah, if I’d gotten a roommate instead of a single, she’d think I was a sex starved nympho.
Well, I hadn’t been until now. Until Black Falls. God, the second I’d settled into my dorm, I’d turned into a horny mess. No, it hadn’t been then. It had been the second Kade appeared on the side of the road. I’d been instantly attracted and even making myself come didn’t ease the ache. It was only getting worse and I was going insane.
He’d come by every night, taken me to dinner, held doors and behaved like the perfect gentleman. But I didn’t want chivalry at the moment, I wanted him to shove me up against a wall and fuck my brains out. No one had ever done that. Hell, I’d never wanted it before. But since meeting Kade? My nipples were always hard and my bras chafed the tender tips. My pussy was dripping like a damned faucet. I’d already ruined several pairs of panties. I was going crazy thinking every time a soft breeze came in through my open dorm window that I could smell him. I’d had to touch myself twice yesterday, locking the door, leaning against it and sticking my hand down my shorts.
And those hadn’t been the first times. After Kade helped me carry my things up to my room and left with a quick smile and a heated gaze, I’d had to lift up my sundress and make myself come sitting on the side of my bed.
I wanted sex. I needed it. And every one of my fantasies had involved Kade. I thought maybe I was just losing my mind, but then I’d seen the other guys in my building and felt…nothing. Many of them eyed me the way Kade had, as if they wanted to gobble me right up.
The way I was behaving, I couldn’t blame them. It was like they could sense how wild I was feeling, believed all they had to do was push me, just a little, and I’d be begging. God, it was like I had a bright neon sign on my forehead that said I’m desperate, fuck me now.
I pushed my nightgown back over my thighs, but my fingers were sticky with my juices. Groaning, I got up, grabbed a robe to go out into the hall and down the hallway to the bathroom. While I had a single, I was just like every other person on the floor sharing a communal bathroom.
I didn’t turn on my light. I didn’t need to. The light from the full moon offered a bright glow to my stark room. I also had keen eyesight and could see quite well in the dark, always could, since I was a little girl. Other little kids asked for night-lights and glowing toys. I put the covers over my head so I could huddle in the dark and actually fall asleep.
I opened the door to the hallway and gasped. Backlit by the industrial lighting stood Robbie.
“Hey Lily,” he said. “Couldn’t help but overhear you.” He took a deep breath. Another. With a dark look in his eyes I’d never seen before, he leaned closer and nearly pressed his nose to my shoulder. A shiver raced over his skin when he straightened, as if he’d just been shocked with a jolt of electricity.
I took a slight step back. Was he sniffing me?
“Um.” I didn’t say more than that. He’d overheard what? Me crying out as I came in my sex dream? That was embarrassing. I avoided his gaze, but when he said nothing more, I looked up. His eyes. They weren’t brown or blue or even green. No, they were gold. Like weirdly gold. “What are you doing here, Robbie? How did you find me?”
“Mr. Windbourn sent us after you, Lily. You should have told him you were leaving. It’s dangerous.”
That roused me from my embarrassment and I latched onto the rage flooding me with a sense of relief. Anything was better than feeling helpless and weak in front of him. “I’m a grown adult. I don’t need permission to do anything.”
He laughed, the sound harsh, one I’d never heard from him before and it made my nerves twist like pretzels until my entire body felt on the verge of an explosion. “You are so naïve, baby. Of course you need permission. The Benson brothers are waiting in the car. Pack your shit. You have ten minutes.”
I dug my heels in and crossed my arms. I’d worked hard to get into this school. I filled out all their forms, took all their tests, handled all the financial aid on my own. No way I was going to tuck tail and go home just because Robbie was looming over me with a frown on his face and two of my Grandad’s henchmen were in the car. “I’m not leaving.”
His expression changed to one I did recognize, lust. “There is another option.”
“What’s that?”
“We finish what we started in your bedroom.” He lifted a hand to my cheek, his thumb gently stroking the remnants of the bruise around my eye, and for the first time ever, my body heated at his touch. I still wanted to punch him, but I wanted to sleep with him, too. No, not sleep. My pussy throbbed, yet I knew I didn’t like him, that I wasn’t interested in him as a man, only as a…
As a what? I wasn’t the kind of girl who did casual sex.
But maybe I was.
“Sorry about the doctor,” I muttered, my guilt rising to the surface just like every other emotion I’d ever felt in my life appeared to be. I was a mess, my head spinning, my body totally out of control. All I wanted was someone to make it all go away, to touch me and make me come, then hold me and tell me it was all going to be okay.
“Nothing to be sorry about. Let me come in and I’ll take care of you.” His voice was calm and deep and gentle, as if he already knew he’d won. Maybe he had. My breasts were heavy, my heart racing. Something was wrong with me and his next words confirmed it. “You need to be touched, don’t you? Filled? You need about a dozen more orgasms, baby and I can give them to you.”
His finger traced my lower lip and it took a supreme act of will not to flick my tongue out over the tip and taste him. I stepped back some more, put my hand on the knob. I was equally eager and repulsed by his offer. I didn’t want him, but I definitely wanted.
I shook my head. I was not a stupid animal. I was not a stray dog in heat. If I was going to sleep with someone, it was not going to be Robbie from back home. Or the stupid Benson brothers. “No. Go away. Go home and tell Grandad to leave me alone.”
Slamming the door shut, I flipped the deadbolt and backed away.
His sigh was loud, so loud in my ears that I winced. “I can’t do that, Lily. You need me, need me to kiss you and touch you and make you mine.” His hand must have been pressed flat to the door because I heard the slide of his palm on wood as he spoke, and imagined he was touching me instead. “You need me, baby. I’ve been waiting for this. It’s time for us to be together. Let me in, I promise I’ll make it good for you.”
> I did. I did need, but not him. I needed someone, and that scared the shit out of me. Why did I feel like I wanted to grab him with both hands, pull him into my room, tug up my nightgown and beg him to take me? Why did I want him to bend me over my bed and sink into me as hard and fast as he could?
Shit. There was something really wrong with me. Had I been drugged? My skin ached, literally ached with the need to be touched. I ran my hands up and down my arms, around my neck and into my hair in an effort to soothe myself. But it didn’t work. Nothing worked.
Worse? My eyes ached, and even though I hadn’t turned on the light, I could see everything in my room perfectly, which was normal. But now I could even read the small black print on the package labels on my favorite crackers across the room. I could smell the dirty laundry hidden behind closed closet doors, and the scent of the pine cleaner they’d used in the bathrooms down the hall. I knew without trying hard that the two students that lived across the hall had eaten pepperoni pizza with olives for dinner.
I could smell it, all of it.
Chapter Three
Lily
“Lily?” Robbie knocked on the door once more, the sound so faint I shouldn’t have been able to hear it, but I could. I could hear the blood rushing through my veins, the insects inside the walls? Little legs, millions of them, scrambling and moving with purpose.
“Lily? It’s okay. I can hear your heart racing. Don’t be scared. Just let me in. Everything will be all right, I promise.”
No. It wasn’t all right. I wasn’t all right. And he wasn’t going to go away. He wanted to get me naked and I wanted him to do it. That disturbed me more than anything.
I jumped when he tried the doorknob, ran around to the far side of my bed.
“Lily!” he shouted.
I went to the open window, looked out into the darkness. The moon lit up the trees, my side of the dorm backed up to a large open park, and beyond that was national forest. Being on the ground floor, I could see nothing beyond, but knew the forest stretched on for miles. Something was calling me to climb from the window, to go out into the night.
And then I saw the reason. A tall form, his white shirt almost blindingly bright under the light of the moon. I knew who it was, could see him as clearly as if it were broad daylight. My nipples ached and my clit throbbed as I took in his dark hair and full lips. He wore the same snug style jeans, but he looked wilder somehow, his hair sticking up as if he’d been running his fingers through it.
I wanted to run my fingers through it. No. Forget that. I just wanted him. All of him.
Kade.
If the choice was stay in my room and try to resist Robert’s advances or do something completely insane? I knew what I had to do.
Putting my hands on the window frame, I shoved the screen out of my way, climbed through the wide opening, took a deep breath and jumped.
<><><>
Kade
She climbed out the window, her white nightgown all but glowing as it billowed around her thighs. She was running to me, her pace swift, her gait smooth. I met her, wanted to touch, to kiss her, but she didn’t stop, only tugged on my wrist.
“We have to go. Now.”
I heard the frantic energy of her voice, scented her arousal. It was growing stronger which meant her time was upon her. I glanced back at her dorm, saw the silhouette of a figure standing in her window just before we cut into the woods.
“Who is he?”
“Later. I’ll explain, I promise, but we have to go now!”
She was mine, and she was with me so I let it go…for now. We ran then, but I led. I knew the forest, knew it like the back of my hand. Knew where to go to keep her safe.
“We should shift.” Escaping danger in wolf form was safer than in human. Did she not shift? Was she unable? A thought flicked through my brain. Did she even know she was a wolf?
Fuck, that meant—
“Shift what?”
When I didn’t answer, she kept talking.
“He followed me,” she said, her voice coming out in pants. I slowed to match her shorter gait. “He followed me all the way from home.”
“Who is he?” It didn’t really matter, only that it was someone she didn’t want to see. Someone she was afraid of. That she was willing to climb out a window to escape.
“Robert. He followed me from Tennessee and brought two of my Grandad’s goons. They drove all the way from East Springs.”
A wolf—he had to be one—had followed her across the country? It wasn’t much of a surprise. I’d picked up her scent in the woods earlier and it had called to me, all but pulled me to her again like a magnet. It would have been easy for the wolf to follow her, especially if he knew her well. “Two goons?”
She laughed but there was no joy in the sound. “Babysitters. That’s one of the reasons I left.” Her laugh turned to a sigh and she slowed to a stop. “It’s one of the reasons I left home. Ever since my mom died, Grandad has these guys following me around all the time. I mean, yeah, I’m from a small town, but it’s ridiculous. I’m not a three year old. I don’t need a keeper.”
But she did. She just didn’t know it. Not that it mattered. Not anymore. She was mine now. Mine, and if the idiots who followed her tried to take her from me I’d rip out their throats and send them to Lily’s grandfather special delivery.
“They’re your grandfather’s men?”
“Yes.”
“All three of them?”
She bit her lip and looked away, a flush covering her cheeks. “I used to date one of them, but I don’t want him.” Her adorable frown turned confused and when I saw the confusion shift to fear, I pulled her into my arms and held her close, pressed her to me so her wolf would know I was here as she continued. “I never wanted him before. But I think something’s wrong with me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Running my hand up and down her back to soothe her, rage filled me as she melted into my arms. But holding her, being the one she came to felt perfect and so right. I’d been running on instinct until now, a lone wolf serving as enforcer for my alpha. Now? Nothing mattered but her, and everything inside me settled around that truth. She was like gravity. I didn’t question her existence in my life, or her importance. She was just…mine.
How was it that she’d never been told what she was? True that some children didn’t carry enough wolf blood to shift. Those people lived their lives unaware of their genetic history. But Lily was the granddaughter of the Windbourn alpha. The odds of her not becoming a full wolf were—well—next to none. She should have been told.
There would be no place safe for her to hide. The wolves chasing her would be able to scent her. And the one I’d seen in her window? He wanted her for himself. Hell, every unmated male wolf in Black Falls would be able to scent her. None could miss the ripe essence of her, ready to be claimed, fucked and mated.
My balls ached to have her, to make her mine.
Mate, my wolf howled.
Yeah, no one would get her but me. But there was only one way to make sure no other wolf would touch her…ever. Both the Black Falls pack and Lily’s pack from home all followed the same universal laws.
No enforcer entered another pack’s territory without permission.
Which meant my alpha knew the Windbourn wolves were here. Which meant he knew Lily was here. And that was going to work to my advantage. My alpha was not an idiot. And having one of his enforcers mated to a Windbourn would make our pack stronger. I’d get no argument from him on what I planned to do.
Now I just needed to convince my sweet mate.
She trembled in my arms but didn’t pull away. No. Her arms tightened around my waist. “I’m serious, Kade. I think something is wrong with me.”
I pulled her down to sit beside me beneath a tree where the moss was thick and soft. A perfect bed on which to take her. “Tell me,” I said, taking her hand, wanting the connection.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Shouldn’t we keep moving? He
’ll follow me. He’s probably following us right now. And he’s not alone.”
“No one will touch you, Lily,” I vowed and I meant it. She searched my gaze for long seconds before settling next to me in an act that made me want to pound my chest with victory. Mine. She was mine. She trusted me. Wanted me. “He can follow all he wants, but he won’t touch you.”
But he would follow. This Robert who had her running scared would not give up. Not that I could blame him or every unmated male in Black Falls. Unless I wanted to fight a half dozen challenges tonight, I had to take her to the Claiming. I had no choice. But first I would listen. “Tell me,” I repeated.
“Robert. He’s from East Springs. We dated. Went out. Whatever.” She picked at the moss, looked up at me through her lashes. Even with the moon hidden by the thick forest, I could see her clearly. Her pale eyes, her round face, full lips. Even the hard points of her nipples through the thin white nightgown.
My teeth lengthened at the sight, but I pushed my wolf back. I would claim her, but not yet. I had to wait, follow the rules. Protect her with both my body and pack law. I had to wait, but not long. The moon would be at its apex soon. A few hours, and she’d be mine forever.
“He wanted me. He said he’s been waiting for the time to be right.”
A grunt escaped me at that bit of news. I knew exactly what he was waiting for, for Lily to be so out of her mind with lust and need that her wolf would force the woman to accept him. He must want her badly to take such a risk.
Because once the awakening was over and she came back to her senses? Well, no one could control a female werewolf full of rage. She probably would have killed him, and he would have deserved it. Add her blossoming power to the fact that she was a Windbourn and the wolf chasing her had to be out of his mind in love with her, or desperate.
“What did he do? Did he hurt you?” I’d kill him.
“No. But he wanted to come into my room. I don’t even like him, but I…I pushed him away and fled.”
Wild Wolf Claiming: A Howl's Romance Page 2