His roar of completion was followed by the feel of heat coating her womb deep inside. Maggie clutched him tight to every inch of her body she could reach him with and shuddered out a final climax right along with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The morning light in the mountains was diluted by mist, turning the rays that flickered through the tall trees hazy and cool. Even after weeks, when the change in season started to make the wind bitingly cold, Maggie loved it. She had to huddle under blankets for warmth on the back deck, her feet tucked up beneath her on the matching lounge chairs, but she did not give up her early morning porch time.
Eli had laughed when she just smiled and looked excited about the prospect of snow fall. Then he kissed the tip of her cold nose, rubbing it back and forth with his own before he headed out to the woods. She had no idea what he did out there, but since he always came back within a few hours in his panther form she didn’t question it.
She was taking the days as they came. Eli worked on his computer doing whatever he did on the elaborate multi-screen tech room in his basement. She had asked him about his work only once. And understood about one word in twenty of his explanation. It was not the first or last time she understood that Eli might be a rogue and a scoundrel, but he was also a genius. Who would have guessed that?
After he had been gone about 45 minutes she was about to get up to turn on the coffee, knowing that he would be there before much longer when she heard a car pull up at the front of the house. Then she saw a familiar black panther slide through the trees on her right heading for the front and she breathed easier. Knowing that Eli was there she hopped up and headed for the front. It had been weeks since they came to Eli's and in that time, she had seen only him. Which she had not minded in the least, but she still wanted to see who had shown up, because she knew from what Eli had said that no one should have shown up without his prior approval. And no one without approval should have been able to find their way to them. So, it was a curiosity.
At the same time, she was a little sad. They had existed in a bubble of Eli's making for a while now, and you would think that she would be ready to head back to the real world. Apparently not. But that did not mean she wasn’t going to see for herself who had shown up in their little paradise. Before they were sent them on their way again.
Eli snarled low as the delivery truck came to a stop at the front of his house. In the entire history of him owning the property he had never received a package. He did not like that one was coming now. Especially when he had no idea how they had found the house. He heard movement towards the back and yipped his annoyance before he moved to his pile of clothes and shifted. He had thought about stopping and telling Maggie to wait on the back porch while he checked out the truck, but he refused to waste the time, especially when he knew it would do no good.
He didn't bother with anything but his sweater and jeans before he hustled barefoot towards the encroaching truck. How the hell had they found the house anyway?
Recognizing the driver some of his tension drained away.
"Dutch," he growled by way of greeting as the burly man stepped out of the one and only delivery truck that operated within a hundred miles. Dutch and his sons had been there before. When he moved in they came by to give him a friendly warning about whose territory he was settling down next to, and he had brought all his sons and a few of his brothers to make his point. They had been casually friendly ever since. He was thrilled to see that today it was just Dutch and his youngest nephew.
"Yo, Eli. Got a package for you." The big man stood head and shoulders over Eli in both width and height, all of it solid, not necessarily all muscle, but solid. He wore his beard close cropped, but on the rugged side, and regularly forgot to cut his hair until his small five foot nothing wife accused him of looking like a vagrant and shaming his name. Their five sons were the spitting image of their father, all dark haired, tan, with the same deep brown eyes that did not go with the punishing hard look of the rest of them. His sons were all muscle and hitting one of them was tantamount to hitting a brick wall with bare knuckles.
Bear shifters, he thought with a snort. Loved to embrace their stereotypes.
"Since when do I get packages?"
"Since Lenora added you to the route,” Dutch answered matter of factly, his voice as deep and growly as he looked. “She said to tell you not to get used to this kind of service, but this package was not going to sit around the post office in town and wait for you to mosey on in when you finally bothered. Somebody paid a special delivery service to hand deliver it, and I agreed to take on the last leg of the journey."
Eli raised a brow at that. He rarely got anything but junk in his P.O. Box. He only had it because it was where he received his bank statements and tax forms. Otherwise he stayed off the grid as much as possible. His power was solar, and his water was septic. His house and land he paid for in cash, and his cars were all registered to Lionsgate. The only address that was on his public records was a p.o. box and no one was going to find their way to him without directions. Barring the bears, who were shifters themselves and not likely to tell a stranger anything but to go away.
Before Eli could question him further Maggie came around the corner and Dutch's youngest nephew, who was already nearly six feet tall at fourteen stepped out of the back seat. Both bears, young and old, raised their noses to the air and sniffed, their eyes moving to Maggie and in Dutch's case, lighting up with pure appreciation. His nephew, Baxter, Bax for short wobbled the awkward box he was carrying and looked like he had been hit by a brick.
Eli snarled a little as both bears took in Maggie with her hair down, with no make-up and all comfy and relaxed looking in his old t-shirt and her clingy yoga pants. The fuzzy boot slippers on her feet did nothing to detract from the picture she presented. Even he had to take a minute to appreciate all that was Maggie, and he had seen it every morning since they came here. He kept expecting the impact to lessen, but it didn't. Then she smiled, and it was like the overcast day was suddenly full of sunshine. The impact of that did not lessen either. And that Eli knew, never would.
"Well now,' Dutch said his eyes sliding over all that was Maggie. "I suppose I can tell Suz to stop worrying about you up here all on your lonesome."
"Hello," Maggie said. Her smile slipping only slightly when she got close enough to see just how big Dutch was. Her eyes widened a bit and then she gave Eli a look and moved to come down the porch stairs to join them. "Eli, are you going to introduce me?"
Predictably Maggie’s words took on a proper lady of the manor precision that turned Eli right the hell on, and had the bears blinking. It turned him on because while it was a reaction to a new situation, but when she was with him she was just Maggie, soft and comfortable in her skin.
"Maggie, meet Dutch and his nephew Baxter," he said easily enough, but as soon as she was close he pulled her into his side and anchored her there. Making his claim in no uncertain terms. He might not have anything to fear from Dutch who was mated, and Baxter who was too young to be a threat, but he wanted it made clear to the rest of those big bear bastards when Dutch told them about her, that Maggie was off limits.
Maggie gave him a surprised questioning frown at the move but turned a true smile to Bax when she caught the boy watching her with a stupid expression on his face.
"A pleasure to meet you," she said. Clearly meaning it. "Would you like to come in out of the cold for some coffee or tea," she looked at Baxter one more time and her eyes softened at his clear awkwardness. "I can make some hot cocoa, if you would prefer."
Eli would have growled his displeasure at the idea of bears in his house, but before he could, Baxter made a sound between a wheeze and a chuff that had Maggie looking concerned. Not that Eli could blame him. Maggie was, well, Maggie, and the poor bastard was fourteen, and a shifter. Only so many hits his hormones could take before it affected his brain.
Dutch must have come to the same conclusion because he made his own loud chuff
that had Maggie jumping and Bax fumbling the box in his hands again. "Boy, put your eyes back in your head and tell the pretty lady hello before she starts to think you were dropped on your head one too many times as a child."
Maggie laughed a little nervously and then clamped her lips together, her eyes going to back to the boy and softening even further, and he knew she was worried he would take it the wrong way. His face had gone a strange shade of ruby red.
She cleared her throat and stepped away from Eli to take the boys arm and lead him towards the house. A move Eli liked not at all. The box in his arms jiggled, and without thinking Eli was between Maggie and the contents, his nose raised to scent the air.
"Why am I smelling canine?" he asked. Maggie placed her hands at the small of his back and looked around him at Bax and his now wiggling package.
Dutch laughed. With Maggie mostly out of sight Bax found his brains enough to thrust the box at Eli. Though his eyes kept coasting to the side for another glimpse of her. Eli took the box and read the letter attached to the top. He growled again, this time long and loud.
"Damn wolves," he muttered. He ripped the letter off none too gently and turned to hand it to Maggie at his back. "Rebecca sent you a present."
Maggie snatched the letter out of his hands with a beaming smile and looked at it. She tore it open with one eye on it and the other locked on the box he had clutched with one arm to his side. He started shoving her to the house.
"I have a feeling we are going to need walls when we do this," he said dryly.
Dutch chortled behind him. "What about our coffee and hot cocoa?" he bellowed after them. Eli did not bother to answer just flipped him the bird over his shoulder.
Maggie gasped and turned to talk to them remembering they had company, but she could only call out over Eli's shoulder as he hustled her away. "You are certainly welcome to join us," she said only to have Eli snarl.
Dutch just laughed a big booming laugh. "Some other time Maggie, when I can bring my family along."
At that Eli snarled long and loud in obvious pissed off cat warning. Like fuck he was bringing any of those sons of his around Maggie. Maggie slapped at his arm and glared at him while Dutch just laughed. Then something occurred to her and she got close enough to Eli to whisper. "Are they shifters too?" as he pushed her across the porch and into the house.
"Bears," he said with obvious disgust.
Maggie's eyes widened. "There are bears?" She turned to get one more look at them before Eli shoved the door closed sealing the bears out and her in.
They could still hear Dutch's booming laugh as doors opened and closed, then something slammed onto the porch. Since Eli could smell what had been deposited on his porch he let that go. Finally, more doors opening and closing and then they were driving away, thank fuck, as Eli answered Maggie.
"Unfortunately," Eli said. Something in the package growled and yipped, drawing Maggie's widening eyes to the package.
"What on Earth?" she said forgetting about the bears and his rudeness in favor of her mystery gift. She did not spare even the letter another thought but dropped it and reached both hands for the top of the ventilated box. It opened with a tug and they were both looking down at big liquid brown eyes. The wolf cub sprang out of the box and into Maggie's arms, giving her no choice but to wrap the beast up with both arms and try to keep her face out of licking range. All the while she was giggling in a way that assured Eli that there was no going back from this.
"That's a wolf pup," he said. His tone making it clear what he thought of that. Not that Maggie was paying any attention to him.
She was too busy dropping down on the wood floor and trying to open the letter while holding on to the puppy, who seemed intent on licking every inch of her face. Eli snarled a little.
"According to this it's a mixed breed wolf that Rebecca found on a rescue Internet site," she said between laughs as she read and tried to hold the puppy at the same time.
"They couldn't send you a kitten?" he asked, in what he thought was a reasonable enough tone. Under the circumstance. "That thing is going to be nearly as big as my panther when it’s fully grown."
"Don't be silly," she scoffed. Cuddling the vicious half wild licker to her soft breast and smiling down at him adoringly. "He's adorable."
Eli felt his lip curling. Maggie looked up in time to catch the look on his face and lost a little of her sparkle. "You don't like dogs?" her voice was hesitant enough to draw his ire from the puppy mauling her in time to catch the worry in her eyes. She clutched the puppy a little tighter to her chest.
Eli remembered what her ex had done to her last dog and nearly snarled again, but she would have taken it the wrong way just then.
"For obvious reasons," he said dropping the box to the side and sitting down beside her and her new puppy on the floor. "I prefer trouble of the feline or female variety." He took a quick peek and pulled Maggie into his arms, smelly dog and all. "A male, wonderful," he groused, even as he rubbed the big ears and took a lick across his cheek for the team.
Maggie laughed again, the relief and happiness in the sound making it all worthwhile. Besides the little bastard was cute, in a big footed, gangly sort of way. He had not exaggerated, he knew, taking hold of one of the giant paws and looking at it with an inward sigh. The size of small dinner plates. The thing was going to be nearly as big as he was in his feline form. He met those big liquid brown eyes over Maggie's shoulder and said as sternly as he could. "There are going to be rules. You will follow them."
A long adoring lick was his only answer.
Yeah, he sighed again, that was about how he expected that to go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Nearly a week later Maggie walked back into the house with Loki scampering at her heals. They had found his adoption papers, with his name, shot records and assorted paraphernalia when Eli had walked back out onto the porch and brought her a big bag of fancy puppy food, and a second box, including all the paperwork, a big puppy bed, bowls, a leash and some chew toys and bones.
Eli had sneered at the leash in some kind of animal solidarity and refused to allow her to use it, despite her worries Loki would run off and get lost in the woods. Eli had assured her that all he needed was training and if he ran off he could find him easy enough. She had worried about predators eating him in the meantime, but apparently they steered clear of Eli's territory, so she had nothing to worry about.
She still worried for the first few days, until the puppy got out of the house on his own and she had to send Eli after him. Whatever the puppy’s reaction had been to being stalked through the forest by a big panther, he had trotted back to the house at his heels easy enough.
So today when they entered and closed the door against the cold winds she was not surprised that the puppy ran straight for Eli in his fancy computer room. The pup never let the hisses and cat snarls bother him, in whatever form Eli wore.
Maggie would have joined them, but she heard voices and almost turned back, figuring Eli was on a business call. She knew they were both going to be heading to the Lionsgate pack lands in Napa the following week and then back to the island for a visit and she was looking forward to seeing everyone. But she was still leery about interrupting his business.
He did a lot of security work for Lionsgate and she tried to give him the same privacy he gave her when she was in the office. Granted her time was mostly spent handling the affairs of her trust and looking into the local animal shelters and what she might be able to do for them, or talking on Eli's upgraded version of Face time with Rebecca and baby Sam, but he still gave her that time. She afforded him the same respect. Then she recognized a voice and a laugh and shot forward with a smile.
Griffin was on the computer and had obviously seen the puppy. "See you haven't eaten him yet," he said mildly enough a glint of humor in his eyes. Then it disappeared as he continued with the discussion Loki had interrupted. "You could have warned me. If I had not already pulled out of all business I had w
ith Baxter I would have taken a hit."
"If you had not already pulled out I would have warned you,” Eli shrugged. "Though, maybe not, if you were still doing business with Baxter after what he did to Maggie I would have been fucking pissed and might have figured you were getting what you had coming."
Eli sat back and Maggie met his eyes as she came around the door frame into his room. He had known she was coming and had done nothing to moderate his voice or words. She liked that. She did not like to think he was actively keeping things from her. She was still shocked at what she was hearing. "If you had not already figured out what I was going to do to that fucking prat color me surprised. You had to know I would take his business apart, since he was human and I couldn't just kill him like I wanted to."
Griffin caught sight of Maggie and smiled at her. His predatory smile disappearing but not before she felt a cold shiver at the mayhem promised there. Her best friend’s most intimidating mate looked her over carefully before that smile turned a shade warmer, though he saved the real smiles for his mate and child, she appreciated the returning warmth just the same. "You are looking well, Margaret. The wilds of Washington seem to agree with you." He turned his eyes on Eli. "I know it can't be the company."
Maggie laughed and allowed the arm Eli snaked around her waist to draw her into his lap, front and center on the monitor. "How are Becca and little Sam?"
He got a soft look on his face that never failed to melt her heart. “They are thriving."
His lips pinched a little as he clearly thought of something he did not like. "Though if our son would sleep a little more or allow someone other than his mother to feed his ridiculous appetite she might actually get enough sleep." He seemed to be warming up to his complaints because he went on with a growl. "And she insists that she is going back to work soon, taking the baby with her, out of the house."
"No," Eli said with a hint of humor lighting his wicked eyes. "Not out of the house? What is she thinking?"
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