“I don’t think so, Dad. Fight your own battles.” Lucas sounded sad. He glanced at Dara, then away, blushing.
“I will, if you push me. I will!” The packmaster blustered. “I won’t let you throw me out of my own pack.”
“You don’t deserve this pack. You certainly don’t deserve a woman like Dara. I have doubts you’re even a real alpha. I challenge you, Packmaster! Yield or die.”
“Please. Haven’t I been a good leader?” he whined. “I let you go, Zack. Even after you abused our hospitality.”
Zack ground out, “You lied. You’re the abuser, aren’t you? Raping women in the forest. Hurting them because you like it even when they don’t. You know what? I hope you don’t yield.” His nails lengthened to claws and his eyes flashed to yellow even as Dara watched, stunned.
Who was this alpha that had nearly taken her? He’d raped women? She edged away from the packmaster.
“Fight me,” Zack invited. His muscles rippled. He was the most frightening, yet glorious thing Dara had ever seen.
Before Dara could take another step, the packmaster grabbed her by the neck. With his forearm pressed to her throat, he called out, “Back away! All of you. I’m your packmaster. I demand obedience.”
A low rumble of disapproval vibrated from the throats of everyone gathered there. “Hiding behind a female instead of fighting?” one of the watchers asked.
“Threatening a defenseless mate? What a coward,” said another.
“Let my sister go!” Lucas shouted at the same time.
Zack didn’t say anything. He attacked.
With a speed and grace that thrilled Dara, Zack shifted into his wolf form. As a large gray wolf with narrowed yellow eyes, he personified the passion and ferocity that had captured her heart. Iron-hard muscles bunched as Zack leapt right at Dara.
The packmaster shrieked, flinging Dara toward Zack, who twisted with easy agility in midair to avoid hitting her.
Zack’s shoulder crashed hard against the packmaster, sending the older man tumbling over backward. Dara turned to watch just in time to see an arcing spurt of urine shoot from the packmaster’s now-flaccid penis. The packmaster whimpered with terror, his mouth stretched into a tragic mask of humiliated terror. He wrapped his arms around his head and just trembled, clearly shamed before his own pack.
Zack cocked his head, then huffed. He shifted back into his human form. “Yield,” he demanded before his throat finished shifting. Zack’s voice emerged as a rough, rage-filled growl.
The sound made the packmaster tremble more violently. “Yes. I yield.” He fell on to his side gracelessly, then rolled onto his back to assume the traditional stomach-and-throat-bared position of submission.
A shout went up from the pack, startling Dara. “Packmaster!” The volume was deafening. The entire community had gathered, it seemed to her. She saw Lucas—he was her brother? she’d need more time to adjust to the fact she actually had a family—with his arm around his mate. He was the only other familiar face, and the only person who didn’t wear a smile. He met her gaze with an abashed expression and blushed again. He glanced at his father, the former packmaster, with a look of deep shame.
Dozens, maybe even hundreds, of people had witnessed it all. They watched in a respectful half-circle. One by one, they sank to their knees. “Packmaster!”
Zack nodded, accepting the title. His yellow gaze swept the crowd, then he seemed to dismiss them. He turned to Dara. His regard hit her like an electric shock. She took a step back reflexively. A shiver made gooseflesh of her skin. She couldn’t help trembling.
“Afraid of me?” he asked her in a darkly silky tone.
“N-no.”
“I told you, don’t lie. Not to me.” He took a step closer. His eyes remained a deep, determined yellow.
Zack looked menacing. She felt her hackles go up, even though she didn’t have hackles at the moment.
Then he leapt at her.
10
Zack’s aggressive move triggered Dara’s deep-seated instinct to flee.
Even as he lunged she ran. The thrill of terror competed with another kind of thrill, pouring endorphins through her veins. A deep ache pounded between her legs. She dashed away as fast as she could, frightened yet exhilarated at the same time.
Dimly, she heard an approving roar go up from the pack.
In her peripheral vision she could see a house of some kind, and found her legs propelling her toward it automatically.
Before she reached it, Zack tackled the back of her knees, sending her sprawling ungracefully onto the grass. She wriggled away, half-playful and half-terrified.
Everything was happening so fast, but it seemed right and proper that it should. Part of her gamely rose to the occasion, lifted her face to snarl at Zack, snapped at his firm jawline in a way that should’ve felt unnatural.
It didn’t feel unnatural.
He snarled low in his throat, lowering himself onto her in a totally dominant move that left her breathless. She loved the feel of his abs of iron on top of her soft stomach.
The trembles that rolled through her in response to the full contact with Zack left her gasping. Her core seemed lit afire, pulsing in time to her need. The grass was cold against her half-naked body, but Dara barely felt it as Zack yanked her legs apart and settled his weight over her. His cock radiated heat, so close to where she wanted it most.
Zack propped himself up on his elbows and kissed her.
And Dara began helplessly shaking.
Zack broke off the kiss. They stared at each other. He blinked and the yellow in his eyes dimmed slightly. “Dara?” He gazed searchingly into her eyes. Like before, his face displayed an uncanny awareness that she trusted implicitly. “You’re starting to shift again. We’re out of time.”
“Then take me now.” Lust rippled through her body along with the change that she fought against. She caressed his face. “I want you to.”
Zack’s eyes dimmed further. “But you’re no wolf, brought up around rough play and violent sex that bruises. Love-bites can be brutal with us. And you’re a virgin.”
Dara gritted her teeth against the shifting. “I’ll be a virgin Golden Retriever if you wait much longer.”
He clenched his jaw as if he was trying his hardest to stay composed. “I don’t want you to be traumatized. I don’t want to be like that old packmaster.”
“You want me.” She could feel the hard evidence of it, and could see the desire lurking behind his anguish. This was why he’d stopped earlier. Not her voluptuous hips or her generous naked curves. Just his consideration for her. It was all that held him back.
Zack had denied himself what he’d wanted for her sake alone.
The revelation shook her harder than the shift-urge. Joy burst like sunshine throughout her body. “You want all of me!”
“Always. Forever. Dara, I’ve been alone for so long. I want to be your alpha. Will you be my mate?”
In answer she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him down by his hips as hard as she could. “You’ll have to claim me first,” she taunted. He was powerful, gorgeous, and able to bring her intense pleasure. And he’d made it clear that as mates, it would be like this for the rest of their lives. What more could she ever ask for?
But her shaking grew intense. “Zack…” she said worriedly.
His eyes went back to their intense yellow gleam. His teeth flashed in the moonlight. “You’re mine.” Finally he moved further up between her thighs. Once again Dara felt his erection throbbing against her bare skin as he started to grind his hips down, pumping in a delicious friction to position his cock right against her virginal opening.
Reaching down with one hand, Zack grasped his length and guided the tip of his cock to where she pulsed wetly with frustrated desire. Dara sighed with delight, knowing she couldn’t have handled waiting another minute for him. Just as her tremors started to take her over, Zack drove his cock roughly up into her.
He thrust hard, pushing in f
urther, stretching her walls. It filled her with heat and hardness, and she savored the sense of being invaded. Dara arched and cried out as his thick cock crammed in deeper and harder. A pinching pain tore through her as he penetrated her virginity, and then he was in her to the hilt and filling her completely. She cried out.
He pulled back as if to take it easy on her. His cock had felt as if it was splitting her apart, but the intensity of it had excited her. She wailed with loss as he started to withdraw.
In response Zack thrust harder and deeper than ever, growling and pumping for all he was worth. Dara could feel his fat cock growing and pounding inside her where nobody had gone before. Her virginal soreness faded, to be replaced by a delicious friction. Each thrust touched a spot inside her that created an ache of desire that seemed bottomless. Tingles shot through her and pleasure scorched every inch of her body, spiraling in to her core on waves of ecstasy.
Zack grunted and pummeled her with a lustful abandon that inflamed her. He began to punctuate each thrust with a soft growl as he grabbed her hips with nails that raked a pleasure-pain into her skin. He bit her throat with teeth longer and sharper than a man’s. Each rough touch scratched an itch Dara had never known that needed scratching, sending new eroticism coursing through her veins. It was an agony of desire that seemed to go on endlessly.
As the ache built to a crescendo and fireworks seemed to explode in front of her eyes, Dara whimpered and moaned, biting and clawing at Zack mindlessly. Zack continued to pound her in his animalistic way, biting and clawing her too. Everything in Dara’s life up to that point suddenly made sense to her. Every relationship she’d been in that had inexplicably failed. Every look from strangers and friends alike that seemed to say she was different from them. Every lonely moment she’d spent with her beloved dogs instead of people. Every broken heart she’d ever had, only to blame herself for her chubby thighs and curvy belly and hips. Now she knew better.
The relationship she’d been destined to have was the one she’d just found as the mate of Zack, her very own alpha werewolf.
The realization spiked her pleasure sky-high, hurtling her past the point of no return. Her orgasm exploded through her, pulsing and pounding in time with Zack’s thrusts. All her muscles flexed, first contracting then fluttering violently in release. She couldn’t contain her outcry of pure bliss.
A harsh animal sound emanated from deep within Zack’s chest as he slammed relentlessly into her. His eyes were fixed on hers, a blazing yellow that pierced her soul. His beautiful face was a mask of furious passion as she felt his cock swell and throb inside her. Moments later he clawed her even harder and his eyes squeezed shut as if with pain. He plunged ferociously with his final thrusts and spurted his hot seed deep inside.
Dara felt him coating her insides with the shooting fluids.
Her world turned over on itself as she shifted.
The stars and moon and tops of trees swirled. Zack’s face faded in and out as Dara panted, trying to drag air into her lungs.
Then she howled. Her body felt too long and tight, her bones instantly rearranging in a new formation. Pinpricks rippled her skin and muscles twitched and re-formed in an eyeblink. Her flesh took a different shape, accommodating her strong heartbeat, her sex, her fierce gladness that Zack found her, and her emotions of contentment and wonder. When it finished, Dara lay on the grass curled into a ball.
The grass held unfamiliar scents. Dara’s nostrils flared, scenting something alluring. Food? Not food. Mate. Her vision sharpened. Each blade of grass held detail she’d never noticed before.
Dara sucked in a long inhalation of fresh mountain air, filling her lungs. It smelled like sex. Hot, rough sex with mate. Dara enjoyed the aroma. She looked at Zack and tried to tell him how strange she felt. Strange yet good.
Her voice wouldn’t cooperate.
“We did it.” Zack sounded smug. He sat near her, slick with sweat. He patted her head.
She looked down at herself and saw a silvery gray paw tipped with ivory claws. Dara yelped with surprise. Looking behind herself, her gaze caught the side of her flank and her long, silver-gray bushy tail. The moonlight made her coat shine like a precious metal. She yipped with excitement and sprang to her feet. She turned in a circle, trying to see the rest of herself. She fell but sprang back up, too happy to be embarrassed.
Zack laughed. “You’re gorgeous,” he assured her. “You’re perfect.” His eyes shone with devotion and satisfaction. “And I’m the packmaster. An alpha beyond any shadow of a doubt. I’m the leader of this pack, which is my home and yours now. And you, Dara, are my mate for life. Neither of us will ever be lonely again.” He said the words with a rumbling satisfaction that thrilled her anew.
Dara stared, rapt, as Zack changed into a wolf too. His familiar larger frame was even taller than hers, with enormous paws nearly as big as human hands. He nuzzled her ear, then licked it in a brief caress. She almost licked back, but then he surprised her by nipping her ear playfully and running for the woods. He paused to look back expectantly.
Dara growled and chased after him, the wind streaming past with the speed of her passage. The earth softly tickled her paws and the moon shone brightly overhead.
She was home.
END
***
A Note from the Author:
~ Want to be notified of new releases? Sign up for my mailing list now and never miss a new story! Newsletter: http://www.carolineknox.com/newsletter ~
Also by Caroline Knox:
Curves for the Alpha Wolf
Curves for the Lonely Wolf
Curves for the Billionaire Wolf
You can find all of Caroline Knox’s books on:
AMAZON
***
Guardian Wolf (Black Mesa Wolves #1)
By J.K. Harper
Dedication
To readers everywhere who love stories about the big, bad, sexy wolf shifter.
Guardian Wolf
With a single glance at the insanely hot cowboy leaning over the end of the bar, Lily knew to the ends of her toes he was trouble. The best, most devilishly creative sort of trouble.
“Good grief, Lils.” Her Packmate Sara sipped a third gin and tonic and eyed the cowboy with appreciation. “He's really gorgeous. I mean, really.”
Lily nodded, too rapt in her own appreciation to respond verbally. The cowboy was long. Strong. Dark hair, dark eyes, skin that whispered of the sun-drenched desert and a hard fitness. Deliberate intention coiled around him, fitting to his muscles and informing every graceful, unwasted motion he made, from signaling the barkeep to touching the brim of his black Stetson with his fingers. And what gorgeous, talented fingers they seemed. Lily bet they could play her up, down, and sideways, setting off little earthquakes she'd deliberately forgotten how to trigger. Her wolf reared up, eager for the heat of mating. The heat she had denied herself for way too long now.
Of course, right then the dark, sexy cowboy turned his head and looked directly at Lily. Molten gaze. Heated blood jangled through her nerves in time to the toe-tapping of the band's fiddler. The noise of the bar became a muted background as Lily stared back, the hunter in her refusing to give an inch. This interaction she recognized. He was a predator. Like her. And right now it was clear she was his intended prey.
Lily shivered. But not from the guilty fear that had gripped her for the past two years. Sudden desire tongued through her instead, curling down her spine and tickling deep inside. Realization shook her like that crazy thunderbolt she'd heard about and always laughed off. She wanted the wolf. For the first time in ages, she actually wanted to mate.
“He's your type, Lils.” Sara's voice broke through the roaring. “He's perfect. He's the one.” The last words dropped low, giving them a portent that snapped through Lily's lust-filled thoughts.
Abrupt coldness scissored her body as the memories slashed through. That cold guilt washed over her again and threatened to consume her. Dammit. No. She had to be the responsible w
olf here.
“I can't.” She managed finally to wrench her gaze from the gorgeous cowboy and studied the smooth wooden tabletop instead. “No way. I won't let it happen again.”
With a precise, almost angry thunk, Sara set down her glass. Startled, Lily looked up into her best friend's serious eyes.
“Liliana Bardou, you listen to me. It happened, it was unavoidable, you dealt with it, and it's over.” Sara's voice was as firm as her expression. “It was something you had to experience for whatever hellacious reason, but it's over. And now it's time for you to take up arms again. It's time for you to regain your power, and the only way you're going to do that is with someone like him.” She jabbed an emphatic finger in the cowboy's direction. “Besides, you know he's Pack. You can't turn him by accident. He's already one of us.”
Still reluctant, Lily took a deep breath to reply. Sara beat her to the punch and went on.
“Lily, we're wolves, for crying out loud. This is what we do. Hot, wild beasts.” Sara's lazy grin punctuated her words, and Lily found her own mouth start to turn up in a smile. “We get down, because we like it, and because we have to. If you don't mate soon, Lils, you'll start losing your mind. And that will not be good.”
Although the thought could still make Lily blush a little, she knew Sara was right. Wolves had to unleash their intense sexual energy or it could overwhelm all their reason. As her wolf already threatened to do, bit by longing bit. She knew it was time, her wolf knew it was time. Hell, her Pack knew it was time. She had to resume her Pack Guardian duties. Her alpha expected that from her.
Lily slipped her gaze over to the gorgeous man once more and sucked in a sharp breath. He was staring directly at them. A raised eyebrow, a sardonic but bone-melting smile tugging his lips up...god. White heat zipped through her again and left her insides electric. Like the way she felt when she was on the prowl at night. The way she hadn't allowed herself to feel in these past two dead years. The scent of people crowding the bar, alive and lush with their needs and hopes, washed over her. And whispering through came the promise of a lusciously self-indulgent mating frenzy—if she allowed it.
Howl & Growl: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 6