by Claudy Conn
“Zoie, I bought this place the day after I looked at you in Aric’s place. I marked you, I know, without your permission. I couldn’t help myself and I believed you wanted me as well. I want you. I know you are my mate. I think you know it as well. I want to marry you and raise little hybrids, as many as you want. All I want in this world is to be with you.”
She put a hand to her forehead and fought off tears as she wagged a finger. “I know your type. Get me saddled with babies and go off and do your own thing…and…if the portal opens to your native home, poof, off you’ll go.”
“No, baby, that isn’t me. I want to be here with you and when we make a family of our own, I want to be there for them. I will never leave you. I can’t. I can’t live without you. Zoie, how can I make you believe I want only you? I mean for this to be my—our permanent home.” His hand went through his hair with wild abandon. “Look, when I was growing up, sure, I adored Deliah…but yeah, I waited for my parents to find a way back to me. But I am all grown up and this is my world now. I chose this place because it is close to your family—your pack. I mean to be a part of your pack if your father will allow…Zoie…?”
She eyed him as her resistance slipped away. Besides that, she was ravenous and, oh no, she realized, she was thirsty—thirsty for blood!
“I suppose you could do a few halfway normal things to make me believe you. Take me to dinner. Talk to me. Watch “The Notebook” with me when I’m in the mood…tell me about yourself. I don’t even know how you make a living and if it will take you away on business?”
He interrupted her immediately. “Nothing will take me away, but, boringly enough, I have made my living over the centuries with various investments and no longer work, other than to manage my finances. We are, by the way, quite wealthy.”
“Centuries? Jeez…I am dating an old man!” Zoie’s hands went to her face.
He laughed, picked her up and spun her around. “So then we are dating! Yes. Where shall I take you to dinner first?”
“Feed me now, Owen. I…something is wrong with me. I am thirsty,” she said, and realized her hands were trembling.
“Oh, baby, of course, you need your first drink. We’ll start out small and forgive me, I know you love animals, but you have to have a drink now, right now. In the future, we’ll have a stock of pig’s blood on hand from the butcher. Stay here, baby. I’ll be right back.” He kissed her lips and zoomed off.
Zoie stood for a moment. Oh no, it had already started—the craving for blood. How could she survive this? How would she ever get over drinking blood?
He was back with a large hare he had apparently just killed, and she cried as he put its open neck to her lips. “No. Oh no, I am a monster.”
“Were you a monster when you sat down to eat a nearly raw steak as a shifter? Were you a monster when you ate bison burgers at the diner in town? Drink baby or you won’t survive, and I so need you to survive.”
Zoie Bracken’s survival instinct drove her and although she sobbed before and after, she had her first drink of blood.
* * * * *
Immediately after her long drink of blood, Zoie felt a rush she couldn’t seem to control. It swept through her veins and all at once, she was hot, so hot, and it was less than sixty degrees outside. She doubled over, but not in pain, in surprise. She was flooded with a very real sense of power.
She pressed herself against his body, needing him in a way she simply couldn’t deny, and didn’t want to.
His hands went to her hips and he bent to her lips, brushing them gently with his own.
She was naked under the jacket. The blanket her mother had draped over her in the kitchen had not survived their vamp speed trip.
His lips moved from hers and nibbled at her ear as he said, “I love these curves, baby…” His fingers spread out over her, then grabbed her butt roughly and possessively.
He pulled her into him hard and pressed his erection to her naked belly. “I love your full, absolutely perfect ass. Ah hell, baby, I can’t get enough of you.”
She drove and thrust her body against his and knew she was going over the edge of no control. She licked her lips, then licked his nipple.
Zoie reached for his sweats and pulled. He ripped them off, shrugged out of the open shirt, and picked her up off the ground to spin her in his arms.
“Zoie!” The sound of her name on his lips was the sound of joy.
She gave him joy. Could this all be true?
She felt her fangs drop and she wanted to sink them into his neck and mark him as he had marked her. Did hybrid females do that? Well, hell, she was going to do that.
He was her mate.
He was her one.
Primal desire flooded through her, and she discovered, when she reached and stroked his erection, that she needed him mind, body, and soul. His knee was bent as he kissed her, and she climbed onto it and began humping him like a bitch in heat.
Ah, hot damn, that felt good, so good, and she pumped harder, rubbing back n’ forth as fangs grazed his chest.
He moved and began to lift her off. She objected, “Sweet holy hell. No, don’t. Let me do this, let me. I like it, Owen…I like it.”
His response was feral and wild, and guttural as he growled and picked her up off his knee.
“Baby…before I let you go off this time, I want you to say you are mine, once and for always. Then, sweetheart, I am going to bring you to the edge, and make you come over and over.”
She wiggled against him, frustrated, wanting to finish. It occurred to her that he was very alpha, forever lifting her into his arms as though she was a featherweight and she wasn’t, but hot damn, she liked it. He was so strong…and virile, and all at once she wanted him inside her.
Memories of their lovemaking assaulted her and the pool of wetness that immediately accumulated within her sex seemed to spill over onto her thigh.
He carried her up the short set of steps to the porch, and somehow got the door open. She wasn’t sure just how he managed that.
He carried her inside and set her down on her bare feet on the hardwood floor, in what looked to be a huge open floor plan. A part of her wanted to explore the house, another, much more insistent part wanted to ravage him, suck on his tongue, lick his nipples, his chest, his fucking cock and…jerk it off against her belly. She wanted it all and she wanted it immediately.
She was aware of his eyes as she slipped off the black leather jacket that only partially covered her nakedness. She dropped it to the floor.
“You beauty, you!” he murmured as his gaze traveled over her, burning and leaving a path that shouted of hungry desire in its wake.
She touched his chest, where some of her blood had lodged itself from earlier. It had already dried.
He walked her backwards to the only piece of furniture in the house, a torn, brown leather sofa.
“Zoie, this is it, no more running away from it. I am not letting you leave here ‘til you admit you are mine,” he whispered into her ear as he lowered her to the couch.
“Then looks like we are staying for a very long time,” she answered.
He groaned. “Please, Zoie…”
She burst out laughing. “Well, since you are asking so nicely, it would appear that, as I am an independent woman, all I will admit is that I am linked to you. That, Big Bad Wolf, is as far as I will go, for now.”
He grinned. “My wolf marked you and my vampire added his approval, and I damn well am not letting anyone else have you. Marked, and mine.”
Zoie waved a hand in the air. “We’ll see. Mating—marriage not happening yet. First, dating and then we’ll get to know if we really like each other, Owen Slade. Agreed?”
He smirked. “Agreed, my ass. I’ll ask you again in a few moments.”
“You can’t know that you want to be with me forever,” she objected. “Think, Owen…forever is eternity.”
“Ah,” he said, and licked his palm before he rubbed it on her nipple. “But you do know me and, baby, I don’t thi
nk I could know you better. I want you forever, right into eternity. What the fuck do you think I have been telling you?”
“Stop it. This is not a joke and I am not a plaything. I could be someone who irritates and annoys you. Right now, you have this hot and sexy thing going on, but you could be a total asshole when you aren’t saving my life, or making love to me. We owe it to ourselves to...”
“No, you are everything I want, and I mean to be everything you want. No one has ever accused me of being an asshole, and no one ever will and walk away unscathed. Better face up to it, Zoie, you are mine with all that it entails,” he said, and bent to suck her nipple.
Her head went backwards against her will, and she squirmed as her pussy became drenched and its muscles clenched with need. If he touched her there now, he would know she was his, absolutely and forever.
“Zoie…whatever you need, whatever you want, all you have to do is look to me and while I don’t promise you a fairy tale, I will always try to at least give you what you crave.”
She started to speak, and he stopped her with his lips on hers, and as his hands roamed over her body, she tensed with passion.
What were they talking about? She honestly couldn’t remember and had lost all train of thought.
His finger was inside of her, flicking her clit with an expertise that sent her into abandoned and feral arousal. Everything about their touching had become intensified. Was that because she was now a hybrid like him?
Another finger joined the party, and made a circular motion inside of her. He used his hybrid speed as his fingers vibrated her most sensitive spot. She arched to the motion and called out his name, “Owen! Yes…don’t stop…do that—do it!”
And of course he stopped, and murmured, “Say it, say you are mine.”
“No.”
“Say it, baby, and I will make you go off like you never have before,” he told her hungrily. “Ah, Zoie, your pussy is soaked and waiting for my cock. Do you want me inside?”
“Yes, yes, now!”
“Say it,” he demanded.
“Okay…but inside me…now!”
“Say it.”
“Yours…if you are mine,” she answered.
“Yes, Zoie, I am yours,” he whispered, and rammed his cock inside of her, pushing harder, deeper, faster with each movement. His grunts of pleasure thrilled her and she met his thrusts with strong lunges of her own.
He filled her insides with his huge erection and she pumped against him, groaning as she found herself at a pinnacle and reached for that release. When it came, it was like a star inside of her bursting, filling her with delicious sensations that shook her body over and over.
The muscles of her sex squeezed around his dick, and he howled out a sound of wild exhilaration and satisfaction as he buried himself deeper inside of her and shot off his load.
“Zoie! You beauty, you, I love your tight perfect pussy!” His voice was low and feral and his cock remained inside of her as he said, “I can’t get enough. I want to live inside you, baby.”
She was still in a whirlwind of pleasure.
He scarcely drew a hard breath as he began rotating his erection against the walls of her sex. She opened her eyes, wide with surprise. His stamina was incredible.
All at once, he pulled out of her and lifted and redirected her body so that she was on her knees on the floor. Gently, he bent her upper body over the sofa and told her, “Hold on, baby…hold the cushions of the sofa. I am taking you for another ride.”
His hard-on never subsided, she thought as she pushed out her ass towards him. Was she his? Was he hers? At that moment, it sure felt like it.
Anything he wanted to do, she wanted him to do to her. She never knew what erotic pleasure was before Owen Slade.
He pushed the head of his cock inside her and pulled it out only to dip it back in and brush the tip of his erection against her clit. Then he rubbed the walls of her wet canal with his throbbing cock and moaned to tell her, “I love your pussy, baby. It’s mine…all mine.”
His free hand went under her waist and reached up and cupped her breast. His voice was hoarse and sounded as though his hunger could never be satiated.
“You are a feast, baby, a feast a man would die to have.” He flipped her nipple and she shivered as he said, “Your tits are big and fine, so fine. I love the way they fill my hands.” He then pulled on her nipple. “Luscious. Drives me crazy wild.” He rammed his cock all the way inside of her, then slowly rotated it before he pulled it out.
“No…don’t stop…inside, get the fuck inside me,” she told him.
He laughed and the sound was filled with joy. “Why, Zoie? Am I the one—the only one? Tell me, then tell me what you want. Tell me clearly so I understand.”
“You are the one, the only one, so fuck me, hybrid, fuck me now. Is that clear enough for you?”
“Ah, baby, that is what I am going to do, but first…I need a taste,” he whispered as he spread her further apart and put his face at her rump and then lower as he nosed his way between her thighs. He buried his nose in her pussy and swept his tongue along her walls, lapped at them, licked and flicked them before he nibbled at her nub.
“Hot damn, hot damn,” she screamed, and arched high as the edge of release teased her. She whimpered for more of his touching and licking.
He gave her ass a slap, then sucked at her sex. “Want me, Zoie? Tell me over and over.”
“Yes…yes…want you,” she cried desperately. “Now…now—do me like that, yes. I’m there, Owen…right there!”
“Mine, say you are mine.” His voice held a primal demand. “I can’t hear it enough.”
“Yours, I am yours,” she answered, and gasped as he straightened and then rammed his hard throbbing shaft inside and pumped her full of himself.
She rocked to his manipulation and screamed out his name as she climaxed with a force that sent her into space. Her muscles clenched around his cock and squeezed. He tensed as he lost his control and shot his load deep inside of her.
Their joined aftershocks shook both their bodies against one another and she pressed back and into him. He whispered her name over and over again as he slid over her wet and salty body with his own, also slick from their exertions.
They lay there together before he pulled his dick, still hard and still huge, out of her. He rolled over onto his back, took her hand and put it to his lips. “More, I need more of you, baby. So ride me, ride me ‘til I fill every fantasy you have ever had.”
“And when I do,” she whispered into his neck, “you’ll have to finger fuck my ass while you fuck my pussy.”
“Ah, baby, do me now.” He was breathing hard again, and the sound excited her beyond her imagination.
She climbed on and slowly, tantalizingly sheathed his cock inside of her while his hand first cupped and manipulated her ass before his finger found its way inside.
That did it. She couldn’t believe how easy, how fast, her orgasm came and took her away and she wanted more. He wasn’t the only one that couldn’t get enough, and now, she had hybrid energy as well. Their eyes met and Zoie’s emotions exploded into a wave of light and heat and she was on him again. She took hold of his cock and held on for a moment before she positioned it at her opening. A wondrous happiness that was more than lust filled her and blended with her desire as she sheathed his shaft inside of her and rocked him forward and back, and forward again.
He moaned as her movements quickened. She began rotating her hips, and incorporated the movement into her dance, and damn, all she could feel was driven by sensation and that sensation was better than anything she had ever known.
Her pussy squeezed his dick as she fell onto his chest and her mouth covered his. Their tongues met as she rocked forward on him. Her muscles tightened around his throbbing cock, then she surprised him by lifting off him. She turned and positioned herself as she took his cock into her mouth.
“I love you, baby!” he bellowed as Zoie lost all control and wor
ked him with a sucking force that made him grunt with exquisite pleasure.
She was primal. She couldn’t stop the animal grunts she made as her body convulsed with pleasure over and over again. She stopped working him just before he went off, giving him some of his own, then she laughed as she climbed back on his dick and rode him hard. “Like this, hybrid?” she asked, and sounded to herself like an escaped wild animal.
He moaned. “Baby…I love everything you do.” And with that, he went off hard, heavy, and complete.
She tensed, her body shook. She couldn’t believe that she could go off again, but she did, and Zoie let go as all of her burst into rocket sparks before she collapsed onto his chest.
He loved her? Had that been words of the moment? Could he mean it? Should she believe him?
Chapter Ten
HE KISSED HER long and heatedly before he got out of his car and came around to the passenger side, where she had already opened the door and set down her feet.
He reached for her hand and whispered, “I was raised to be a gentleman, and if not for my woman—then for who?”
Ah hell, he was good. His dreamy eyes devoured her and if she didn’t get control, she would be all over him, all over again.
She gave him her hand and he walked her to her door. She was still naked, so she giggled and said, “Better take me to my bedroom window.”
He grinned. “Yah.”
It wasn’t locked and easily opened. He stopped her from climbing in and said, “I am meeting the Wolfe brothers late this afternoon. I think your father will be there as well, but as soon as the meeting breaks up, I will be back for you.”
She nodded and lowered her lashes. “What if…will I…will I be er…thirsty by then?”
“I picked up on the scent of blood. Your mother must have already put up a supply in the garage fridge. You will need it more often right now, baby. You are a newbie, Zoie, and will need to drink more often. Don’t be shy.”
“Can I eat? I am so hungry,” she said.
He laughed. “You better. I don’t want this luscious body to lose an ounce.” He slapped her on what she always thought of as her substantial rump and chuckled. “Later, baby.”