He picked up speed as his muscles loosened and his frustration started to burn off.
He had shadowed the group of three, Henry, Emma and Kate, as they closed in on the last few miles of their den earlier today. He had been taken with Kate the second his wolf had laid eyes on her.
He'd heard her say something about being afraid of zebras and monkeys, and had the sudden, unexplainable urge to wipe all of the zebras and monkeys from the face of the earth, for her.
She'd bent over at one point, to tie her hiking boot, and it had taken all of his self-restraint not to mount her then, to take her there, and make her his, before she'd even realized he existed.
She would be his, he knew it deep in his core. He was just irritated that family business had kept him from staking his claim, before someone else became enamored of her.
He ran for many miles, the moonlight glinting off of his fur as he did an impromptu patrol of a small part of the borders of the pack's land as he tried to burn off his frustration of finally choosing his mate and being unable to actually have her.
After a long while, he turned back toward his pack, his all out running slowing somewhat to a steady pace as he got nearer to home.
He had been letting his mind wander as he ran, clearing it for sleep, when he felt Kate's presence.
He knew that once he had claimed her, and they had mated, that the link between them would be established and would over time grow stronger, but he was quite shocked to feel her calling out to him as he neared the cabins.
His wolf felt her first, and he slowed his running to concentrate on her. He could feel her. She was sleeping, which might explain why her guards were down enough for him to feel her calling out to him.
He felt her flittering around his wolf's consciousness, so he stopped on the trail and concentrated on calling out to her.
"Mine!"
His wolf howled out to her before he could decide how to try to reach her. He could feel her respond. It almost felt like she was running toward him, which was impossible. He felt her still sleeping in her bed.
His wolf knew it was possible, and called out again, "Mine!"
Galen was shocked to hear her respond, even as his wolf rejoiced.
"Where are you?"
"Come. Come to me, now, and I will make you mine!" His wolf called out to her, drawing her closer.
"I'm trying. I can't find you!" Her voice echoed in his head.
He answered her.
"My wolf has claimed you as ours. Your wolf blood is too thin, I can barely feel the thread of you. I want to feel more of you. I need to claim all of you."
With that, he almost felt her, throwing herself into his arms as he mentally reached out to her.
"You. You are why I've been unable to claim a mate."
His wolf spoke the words, as he sat back and watched. He'd heard of this connection, all the wolf pairs spoke of it, but he'd never realized it could feel almost real.
His wolf spoke more words to her, naughty, needy words, and then kissed her, hard. He could almost feel, in the flesh, what their minds were conjuring in the spirit.
He could almost feel her, in his arms, his hands gripping her ass, his fingers sliding between her wet pussy lips as his wolf told her she would be his.
And she accepted!
He called out to her, "Come to me now, and claim what is yours!"
The connection was broken in a quick snap.
He had lost her, the link easier in her sleep.
He shifted from his wolf form, and found himself standing near his own cabin, naked, with his cock fully erect and pointing up at the night sky. It ached for her, he wanted to claim her and make her his, forever.
With a desperation, he called out one more time, hoping the link was still there, even if thin.
"Come to me, mine!"
Shadows of her danced across his mind. His cock throbbed for her, he needed to sink his teeth into the tender flesh of her neck and claim her as his mate, both in sex and in marking her for the whole pack to see.
She was destined to reign beside him when he became Alpha.
Suddenly, from his shadowed spot under his own porch overhang, he saw her. She was barely dressed in a sheer little nightgown. As she ran toward the bonfire, it lit up behind her, showing him the silhouette of her body under the very thin fabric.
His human cock and his wolf spirit cried out almost painfully for her, to complete themselves, they must become one.
"I am here!"
His mind aimed the words toward her. Back-lit by fire he saw her hear him, deep in her soul, and turn toward him.
She ran to him, in only her thin gown and panties, unknown to him before today, but claimed fully by his wolf.
He saw her eyes find him in the dark, and he opened his arms to her as she barreled directly at him at full speed.
He wanted to shift, to match her blind, mindless need with his animal form, but he remembered she was only human, so he planted his feet in the grass instead, protecting his cock with one hand, and bracing for the impact as she threw her body against his and his mouth found hers.
His arms wrapped around her as she hit his chest. His tongue dove deep, claiming her mouth and sliding over her tongue as his cock strained, pressing against her soft stomach.
Her hands were in his hair, tugging and pulling in desperate need as he kissed her thoroughly. He'd never felt such passion before, not from a simple kiss.
He tightened his grip around her and boosted her up, lifting her high as her legs wrapped around his waist and her panty covered heat pressed against his hard cock.
"You will be mine? My mate? Forever in all things?"
He tore his mouth from hers to ask the questions, to be sure before he claimed her.
"Yes! I've never wanted anything so badly."
With a grunt that was almost a growl, he carried her up his porch steps and into his den. He kissed her the whole time, knowing the way easily in the dark. He carried her through the cabin and plopped her down on his wide bed, enjoying the way she jiggled as she landed in the middle of his comforter.
Her gown had risen up her thighs as her knees bent, and he found his gaze traveling slowly from her knees, up her firm thighs, grazing over her panty-covered heat, and rising up to watch her breasts heave with her breathing as she looked up at him from the middle of his bed.
"Last chance, my love. The claiming will be forever."
"Take me, Galen. I am already yours."
With a growl, Galen yanked her panties from her hips, sliding them down her legs and tossing them somewhere behind him.
He smiled down at her as she wiggled her way out of her nightgown, pulling it over her head and offering herself to him, naked, spread out on his bed.
"Your scent is intoxicating. If I didn't know you to be human, I'd swear you were a she-wolf in your heat."
She started to answer him, but it became a groaning, mewling sound instead, as his mouth found her inner thigh and licked in one slow movement from mid-thigh to the apex between her legs.
He buried his face into her scent, at once inhaling her and sliding his tongue deep inside her. He meant to lick her slowly, building her passions one teasing lick at a time, until she screamed out his name and came against his tongue, but her smell made slow seduction impossible.
He slid his hands under her ass cheeks, tilting her just right. He was rewarded with a sound somewhere between a sigh and a squeak as he positioned her just so and filled her with his tongue.
He kissed her there, drinking deeply. He loved the way her hips rocked against him as she gave into her needs, offering herself to him, open and unashamed.
He saw, from the corners of his eyes, as she fisted his comforter in her grip, just as her thighs opened even wider for him and her hips arched higher in welcome.
He wanted to take things slowly, to seduce her and make their very first time together something special, a slow claiming worthy of his forever mate, but he was afraid that he wouldn't
be able to control himself. Not if she kept reacting to him as wantonly as she was now.
Her moans underneath him drove both him and his wolf crazy.
All he wanted was to sink his cock so deeply into her, as he simultaneously claimed her neck with his fangs, for all the pack to see. This tasting of her was his way of trying to hold off, to not scare her with his needs, so he slid his fingers between her folds, trying to hold off, trying to bring her pleasure before he filled her with his own desire.
He teased her, touched her as he still kissed her, bringing her closer and closer to her release.
She came almost instantly. Her head rocked back and forth against his bed, and her hips thrust themselves against his mouth and fingers, again and again, pulling them deeper.
She started chanting, begging for him, causing him to almost embarrass himself by shooting his need all over his bed. Her chanting seemed to mean that she was as desperate for him as he was for her.
Her words danced in his head as he fought to control himself.
"Oh, Galen! Oh yes! Get up here, I need you. I need to feel you deep inside me. We have forever for sweet lovemaking, right? Tonight I need to feel your claiming. Take me, you beast! Fuck me, oh god, please fuck me. Fill me, ride me for all you're worth. Please Galen, I need...!"
He didn't resist her any longer. Hell, he couldn't.
She was right, they had forever to make love, to explore each other inch by inch. But he had finally found his mate! And she obviously felt the same desperation he did.
He crawled up the bed, widened her thighs with his hands and aimed his throbbing cockhead into the very center of her. He took himself in hand and rubbed the tip of himself back and forth along her wet slit, taking just a breath or two before claiming her.
"Please, Galen. Please stop teasing me and oh...!"
He slid inside her then, hard and fast.
He felt her walls grip every inch of him as he slid home hard. He stayed there, deep inside Kate, trying to gain just a bit of control, but she wouldn't let him.
She rocked her hips underneath him, raking her nails down his back, gripping his ass and taking the last bit of control he possessed from him. She called out his name, using her grip on his hair to pull his mouth to hers.
She kissed him deeply, first his mouth, then down the side of his neck, biting him there as her hips rocked, her pussy squeezing around him, faster and faster.
He lost it then, pistoning into her hard and fast, all control left behind.
Her needy chanting set his rhythm, he drove deep, pulling back out quickly just so he could drive deep once again.
She met him stroke for stroke, her legs wrapping around his waist and her moans filling his ears as she said sexy shit like, "Oh fuck yes!" and "Oh, Galen, you're going to make me cum again!"
He still held onto the tiniest thread of control, even as she dug her nails into his ass one minute, and then slid her hands up his back and into his hair, yanking hard the next, keeping himself controlled, right up until her second orgasm hit her.
He felt her squeezing him in tight, rhythmic, sucking squeezes as she came, her pussy urging him on, milking him with every wave of her orgasm.
That did it. He yelled an animal yell as he felt himself tighten up, preparing to release everything he had inside of her.
Her squeezing walls milked him, and he went over the edge, filling her full of hot, spurting seed, just as his teeth buried themselves deeply into the soft, tender skin of her neck, marking her forever as his.
The pain of his bite only lasted a minute, overshadowed by the heavenly feel of him emptying himself inside her, his weight a welcome feeling as he lost all control above her.
He claimed her, filling her with his heat and marking her with his bite as his mate, for all the world to see. She was his now, and they were one.
Chapter 8
The bright sunlight slanted through the curtains, landing squarely on Emma's face.
She grunted her disproval, moaned something about it being too early, and rolled over, pulling her blankets over her head as she settled back in to sleep.
Something didn't feel right.
The sun never woke her. Her bed was in the deepest corner of her bedroom, and she had black-out curtains, ensuring she could sleep into the afternoon hours most days at home, much to her father's chagrin.
This was not her bed. Or her room.
Memories of the day before poked and prodded at her consciousness until she was fully awake. She climbed out of bed, pulled on her ignored pajamas from last night, and padded out to the kitchen to start some coffee.
Kate's bedroom door was shut, so she tried to be quiet. Then she decided she needed to talk to Kate, to hammer out their thoughts about everything that happened yesterday together, so she started slamming down her coffee mug, and opening and closing cabinet doors without bothering to see what was inside them.
As the pot filled, she stood outside Kate's door, fanning the smell of fresh-brewed goodness under her door with a plate, hoping Kate would join her without her actually having to go in and wake her up.
The coffee pot signaled that it was done, so Emma went back into the kitchen, poured herself two mugs, and headed to Kate's bedroom to wake her.
The sound of a knock on the front door startled her as she was half-way to Kate's door, so she swerved that way instead. She juggled both mugs, and opened the front door wide, squinting against the sun as it silhouetted a massive, masculine shape in her doorway.
She handed a mug to her guest, and used her now free hand to shade her eyes, realizing that it was Elam who filled her doorway. He was dressed in low-slung jeans and nothing else.
His bare chest was flushed, liked he'd been running, or chopping wood, or something else equally manly.
"Come in, come in, have some coffee. Kate can get her own, when she gets her lazy ass up. What time is it, anyway? And why are you naked?"
"It's almost noon, and I'm not naked. I just finished repairing the roof of one of the smaller cabins, and was headed back to mine. I passed your cabin, and realized I hadn't seen you up and around yet. Thought I'd check in on what you thought about Kate. The pack is excited about the mating. Are you just getting up?"
"What mating? Who mated? And what do you mean, 'what I thought about Kate?' Her door is still closed. I was bringing her coffee when you showed up, all...like this."
"Like what?"
She almost said, "All hot and bare-chested," but she let the words trail off instead.
She led him to the couch and sat down, nodding for him to sit. When he did, settling into the spot beside her, and turning to face her, she regretted not leading him to the kitchen table. He and his bare chest were entirely too close.
She sipped her coffee, trying to hide her sudden discomfort behind the cup.
For some reason feeling defensive, and needing to put something out there between her and his bare torso, she said, "You were fixing a roof? Aren't you like a prince or something around here? Don't you have underlings, or peons, to do that stuff?"
He laughed. "I am the Alpha's son. That is all. It does hold certain responsibilities, though. Like helping to keep a roof above our pack's head. Ash was doing well repairing his own roof, I just wanted to help out. And you are one to talk about being naked. I don't mind it. My people are very open about it, shifting all the time and such. You look quite fetching in your tiny little shorts, I must say, but you aren't exactly fully dressed either."
Emma looked down at herself, noticing how high her shorts had ridden up her legs when she sat down, and realizing that she wasn't wearing a bra under her thin pajama top.
She felt herself flush bright pink with embarrassment, and tried to cover it with a straightening of her shoulders and an upward tilt to her chin.
She sipped her coffee again, both for something to do as she tried to gain her equilibrium around Elam, and to get some more hot caffeine to flow into her brain.
"You really haven't heard about
Kate?"
His question brought her eyebrows high up toward her hairline.
"What about Kate? She isn't up yet."
He laughed a low, sexy rumble and muttered, "I'm not sure she got any sleeping done at all last night. She isn't here. She and Galen are one. The pack is thrilled that Galen finally took a mate. Although there are some very disappointed she-wolves out there this morning. The new blood will be good for us, though. There is to be another celebration feast tonight. I'm glad he mated before Thomas passed. It will be easier on Thomas, knowing the new Alpha has found his other half. Thomas said he'd be even happier if he could see both of his sons mated before he crossed..."
He said the last bit as he looked at her pointedly over his coffee mug, his words drifting off before he took a sip.
Emma didn't catch that part though. She stood quickly, padding toward Kate's closed door, quite sure Kate would have told her before going off and becoming some wolf's mate.
She flung Kate's door open, only to be greeted with the sight of her friend's empty bed.
"Well fuck me!"
She didn't notice Elam's smirk at her heated words as he watched her over his cup while she paced and mumbled and cussed her friend out for not telling her what she was planning on doing.
"How do you just up and become a wolf's mate without telling your best friend? Don't you guys have engagement periods or ceremonies in front of the pack or anything? Her parents are going to flip. We're only here for a year. It's supposed to teach us to be better, more productive members of society or some shit to be here with your pack. She's not here twenty-four hours and she's a mate to a son of the Alpha? I bet her dad will wish he'd taken her to Africa after all. What does that mean, exactly? To be a mate? Can she still go home in a year?"
"Wolves mate for life. She can't leave him, it will kill him. And her."
"It won't kill her. She's not a wolf. Human's divorce all the time. She can just chalk this up to a Britney Spears moment, that's all."
"That is not so. Wolves do not divorce. They are connected now. Only death will separate them. If one of their souls cross over, the connection lessens. The one left behind will grieve a very long time, and they can eventually mate again. But not when both souls still walk this earth. When a mated pair is separated for long, they both wither. They are strongest together. Kate is one of us now. She wears his mark, he now flows through her veins. We won't know for a little while, but she may also be carrying his pup."
Howl & Growl: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 50