I force myself to keep eating as I push my wolf down. He’s trying to rush forward to claim her here and now.
Her eyes flick to mine, and I know she can see him in them. “Yours.” That one word has him retreating without a fight.
Sitting on the couch with one leg across the back of it, I direct Selena to sit in the V of my legs. Her back against my chest.
“I’m heavy. I might crush you,” she says with a wary look.
I give her a raised brow. “Get your mighty fine butt on this seat, or I’ll have to skip the movie and carry you to bed to show you how heavy you aren’t.”
She lets out a sweet giggle before sitting exactly where I’d suggested. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She leans back without any hesitation, resting her head against my shoulder as I wrap my arms around her waist, placing them on her beautiful bump.
I give the top of her head a quick kiss before pressing Play on the remote and once again settling my hands across her bump. I mindlessly caress it as the movie starts, letting out a loud laugh as I realise what movie it is. “I should have guessed. You always loved Sandra Bullock movies.” She would watch Miss Congeniality over and over again. The pack hated it. In fact, I think someone even went as far as throwing the DVD out after the fifteenth viewing.
“I couldn’t find Miss Congeniality. So I chose the next best thing. Heat.” Hearing the smile in her voice has one creeping across my own face as I settle back to enjoy the movie with my mate in my arms.
Fourteen
CLAIM ME
Selena
Cain’s breath hitches against my ear as the baby wakes up and performs a somersault against Cain’s hand, which has been resting on my bump rubbing circles here and there throughout the movie. The menu comes on the screen having run through the credits. I ignore it as I place my good hand over Cain’s.
“Holy shit… it felt like she just rolled right over.”
I laugh at the excitement in his voice. “He did.” Butterflies flutter in my stomach at the thought of whether it could be a boy or a girl. There’s a kick against the tip of Cain’s finger, and he slides his palm over the spot.
“I can’t imagine there’d be enough room for that. Wow.” The awe in his voice keeps me lying there and allowing his hands to chase the baby’s limbs as it moves around in it’s little home.
The minutes pass and the movements start to become further apart and much gentler. “I think it’s worn itself out. Or at least gotten comfortable,” I say.
“Hmm. Well, I wonder what I should do with my hands now?” Cain asks, his voice gruff in my ear as one hand roams lower. Fingers brush under the edge of my underwear.
I let out a moan as I slip my hands behind his neck, awkwardly pulling him towards me with my casted arm so I can nuzzle at his throat.
His fingers rub over my sex and my core clenches. “Fuck, you’re so responsive.” He dips a finger inside as he rubs at my clit. The fingers on his other hand pinch at my nipple. His mouth descends on mine before he kisses his way down my jaw. The sensation of him being everywhere causes an orgasm to crash over me. He removes his hand from my underwear and I capture it in mine, tugging it back, greedy for more.
“Please, Cain.”
“Shh. I’m not finished with you yet.” His lips brush over my temple. “I just want to get you somewhere more comfortable.” He manages to sit me up and eases out from behind me. He stands, and I move to slide my legs around so I can join him, only to be blocked as he bends and effortlessly scoops me into his arms.
“Cain, put me down.” I push at his shoulders, trying not to be too hard with the heavy cast. “I’m too heavy for you to carry me.”
Picking up his pace, he takes sure strides to his bedroom. “It’s not my strength that will be in question if I drop you. It’s your wriggling, so stop it.”
Realising he’s probably right, I pause my fidgeting and make the most of my position as I kiss my way up his jaw. My nibbling at his earlobe entices a growl from him.
“That’s not exactly helpful either.” He picks up his pace, and I struggle to track the things we pass, which tells me he’s most probably tapping into his supernatural power. I’d seen Stu run this fast, but I’d never imagined I’d be able to experience it like this.
His door makes a loud bang as it hits the wall with force. It doesn’t have the chance to hit us as it rebounds because I’m suddenly laid out on the bed with Cain standing over me. The heat in his eyes has me squirming in anticipation.
Remembering how he’d made me feel downstairs, I pull at my stretchy maternity pants as I try to get naked. “Cain, I need you.”
Cain stills my hands with his. “Let me.” His hands taking over the job and he deftly removes my underwear and pants all in one gentle tug. Moving onto my top, he starts undoing the buttons one by one, and I curse myself for choosing to wear something so hard to take off. Having worked his way through the buttons, he peels the two sides open and runs a finger over the edge of my bra. I cringe internally as I picture the unflattering maternity bra I put on this morning. But the way Cain is looking at me wipes my thoughts away. He’s looking at me as if I’m wearing the sexiest lace money could buy. He licks his lips before his head dips, and the feel of his warm, wet tongue traces the same path his finger had just been on. My eyes close in ecstasy. “Honeysuckle… mmm… I’ve missed the taste of you.”
I arch my back to get closer to Cain just as his hands snake underneath me. The pressure of my bra releases and his fingers brush over my chest as he lifts the bra before finding a nipple with his mouth.
“I need you, Cain,” I beg once again. “My hormones have made me so sensitive. Please….” I sit up as he helps me out of my bra and top.
Reaching for his jeans, I work on freeing him from their confines with the zipper and button.
“Selena.” He breathes my name like a caress, sending goosebumps down my arms. “I—”
I kiss the rest of his sentence away as I shove his jeans and boxers down his legs. I wasn’t kidding when I said I needed him.
The warmth of Cain’s body follows me as I lie back on the bed. I wrap my legs around his waist, making our bodies come together where I need him most. “Cain….” I rub myself against him wantonly, hoping he catches on to what I’m aiming for because words are failing me.
He pauses and pulls back enough that our groins are no longer touching. I lock my legs around his waist to stop him from leaving completely. “Honey, I can’t… the baby.”
I frown as I lock eyes with him, seeing the concern etched into his face. My mind tries to make sense of his words. The baby… what about the baby?
“The baby won't care,” I say, tugging at his arms as I try to pull us together again, but he’s like a statue, solid and unrelenting. “It will be fine. Pregnant women have sex all the time.”
I slide my hand between us and try to direct him to where he needs to be, only for him to pull away another inch.
“I swear to God, if you don’t fuck me….” I let the sentence fall short, the threat to find someone else is on the tip of my tongue, but I daren’t say it. If I say it and he can’t follow through, I wouldn’t want to find someone else. I open my mouth and say the only thing that I know will get him to past his irrational thoughts of harming the baby.
“Claim me, Cain.”
Fifteen
PACK MAGIC
Cain
I twirl a strand of blonde hair around my finger, watching the sun shimmer through it. It looks like spun gold.
“Look, that one looks like a wolf.” Selena’s excited voice tears my eyes away from her hair and up at the sky.
We’d woken up at dawn—Selena unable to sleep because of the baby tap dancing on her bladder, and I wasn’t willing to sleep when she couldn’t—and decided to lay in the garden, to watch the stars go to bed as the sun rose through the trees surrounding the property.
A good hour passes by and Selena’s guessing shapes of the clouds. I look where her f
inger is pointing and laugh.
“That looks more like an elephant. The ears are massive. Do you even know what a wolf looks like?” Her sudden silence makes me run over my words in my head. What the hell did I say that would take away her excitement so suddenly? All the other clouds we’d disagreed over, she’d laugh and insist she was right before moving onto the next one.
She turns her head to look at me as I change my position to lie on my side. Our new mate bonds tell me she’s nervous, but I’m so used to reading her face I need to watch it now. “Actually, I’ve never seen a wolf. Well, only on TV.” The look in her eyes is demanding. Does she really want what I think she does?
“Do you want to see one?” I ask tentatively. All the while, running names through my head of who I would be able to have change before her. It would have to be a submissive wolf. I wouldn’t want a dominant wolf changing around her in case she spooks them or makes them see her as prey.
She shakes her head. “Not just any wolf, Cain. I want to meet your wolf.”
I swallow as my wolf perks his ears, jumping to attention in that deeply hidden place he lives when I’m not in his form. “I… I’d never forgive myself if he hurt you.”
She lifts her good hand and caresses my jaw with her palm. “He would never hurt his mate.” Her hand slides down my neck and rests over my heart.
I place my hand over hers and feel my wolf come forward, knowing the eyes she can see in my face are his ice-blue ones. “Never,” my wolf says.
She rewards us with a heart-warming smile before pushing herself up and taking my lips with hers. Conscious of the strain it must cause her to be in that position, without breaking the kiss, I lower myself, so her head is once again resting on the ground.
I pull away, leaving us both panting for breath. I’d love to worship her body like I had last night, but not here in the garden where anyone could walk up on us.
Theo and Bel had stayed at a hotel last night, wanting some privacy from the pack, so we’d been lucky to have the privacy ourselves. Mum had stayed at Chloe’s to give us space, and I’m assuming someone must have spoken to the rest of the pack because it’s not often a night will go by without a pack member dropping by. Someone is bound to arrive home soon.
“Well then, I guess we should give our mate what she wants,” I say, not quite sure whether I’m addressing her or my wolf. Maybe both. Standing, I start undressing, discarding my shirt on the floor as I bend slightly to tug down my jeans.
“Do you have to be naked to change?” she asks, her curiosity showing in the higher than normal pitch of her voice.
Fully naked, I throw my jeans on my shirt and glance down at her, my hands on my hips. “We don’t have to be naked, but it’s much more uncomfortable with clothes on. Not to mention, you ruin a lot of clothes if you shift in them.”
Her gaze moving to my groin has it suddenly springing to attention under her scrutiny. Her tongue sneaks out to lick her lips, and I clear my throat, causing a blush to flow over her face at being caught ogling my dick. The sight makes me throw my head back and groan as I cover myself with my hand. “If you don’t stop looking at me like that, you won’t get to meet my wolf today. He’ll force me to take you right here and now.”
Her eyes suddenly pop up to meet mine. “How do you all manage to be naked in front of each other without, you know?” She nods in the direction of my dick while fighting to keep her eyes on mine.
“What, without jumping each other?” She nods, and I let out a laugh. “Nakedness isn’t sexual for us. Not when we’re doing it to shift. It’s a necessity.”
Selena frowns, and I feel like bending down to rub the cute crease between her brows away. I can’t though, because I’ll be too close to her and I’ll want to do other things.
“So, you don’t get turned on seeing the female wolves naked?” she asks.
Suddenly realising she may be feeling insecure about the female wolves, I grab my boxers and slide them back on. “I want to sit with you while we talk about this and I need clothes on to do that,” I say, answering her questioning look.
Once beside her, I rub a hand over her beautiful bump as I let the words form on my tongue. “Like I said, being naked is a necessity to shift. It’s just natural. Over time my eyes have learnt to avert themselves and I barely even notice they’re naked. Obviously teenage guys are constantly getting wood, so seeing the females naked was a definite an issue during puberty.” She nods, but I can tell she still has reservations by the sharpness of it and absence of even a small smile. “We try not to be naked in front of each other out of respect for mates, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. I promise you, I have never had a female wolf look at me full of lust like you just did.”
“Really?” she asks, her eyes wide in disbelief. “They must be blind… or crazy.” She presses her lips against mine before pulling away all too quickly. Missing her mouth on mine, I try to connect our lips again only to have her lean back out of reach. “Nope. No more kissing until I’ve met your wolf.”
With a roll of my eyes, I stand up and remove my boxers once again. “You are such a fun spoiler.”
“Fun spoiler?” She lets out a giggle. “I’m not spoiling. I’m just postponing.”
Silence falls over us as I crouch and allow my wolf to come forward. My shift doesn’t take long. Ever since I defeated my dad—my alpha—my shift has been quick. It’s still painful, but it’s something I can handle. I’d expected my shift speed to revert to a slower pace once I handed the pack to Theo, since most alphas can use the power of the pack to speed up their shift, but it never did. Maybe it was a perk of defeating my alpha. Who knows? I guess it’s just another mystery of the werewolf to add to the list of mysteries we seem to carry.
I shake out the last tingles of the change and let out a sneeze as my nose deals with the assault of all the extra scents it’s picking up. I say I, but I can’t help but wonder whether I should say my wolf since he’s the one at the forefront. He never has complete control of my body, even when I’m in his form. It would be too dangerous; he’s a predator and wouldn’t think twice about taking someone down if he felt threatened. He needs my humanity to hold him back from running on instinct. If I left it to him, I’d probably end up lost in his form forever because he feels weak as a human, without his claws and teeth, so he’d never shift back.
Selena’s gasp catches his attention. Lifting his head marginally, he takes the sight of her in. We both see the awe shining in her eyes, but he only knows what it is because I do. She looks different as I look out of his eyes, but her scent is the same. If not more intoxicating. He growls appreciatively as we breathe it in, before slowly padding towards her.
She doesn’t move.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t scent any fear, I’d guess her to be scared. I nudge my snout against her hand, hoping to ease any anxiety she may be feeling.
“You’re beautiful,” she states as she runs her fingers up my snout and over my head. I lay beside her, allowing her to play her fingers through my fur as she wishes, closing my eyes and basking the sensation. “You like that, huh?” She eases back down, still trailing her hand through my fur, and I’m aware we’re resting just as we had been before I shifted.
* * *
The sound of an engine nearing has my eyes popping open and my muscles tensing, ready to attack if the visitor is an unwelcome one.
Selena’s breathing beside me is steady and as I glance at her, I see she’s fallen asleep. Going by the sun’s position in the sky, it doesn’t look to have moved a great deal, so not much time could have passed since we’d lain down.
The patio door slides open and I wait for our visitor to announce himself. Two distinct sets of footsteps on the decking tells me it’s not one person like I’d thought. My wolf releases a warning growl before I can even try to use my other senses to identify them.
“Hey, that’s no way to welcome us back from our extremely short honeymoon.” Theo’s voice has us relaxing. There�
��s no threat; it’s just my idiot brother. I had been expecting him back today, so I don’t know why we’d been on edge in the first place. My wolf growls at my thoughts. Making me grasp exactly why I was on edge. My pregnant mate is beside us, and all his protective instincts are kicking in full force, for her and our young.
Selena stirs beside us as I reposition myself to get a clear view of Theo and Bel. “Cain?” Her hand sinks into my fur. “You’re still… I thought I heard voices.”
“You did,” Bel says, causing Selena to suddenly push up into a sitting position. I glare at Bel for making Selena jump, and Theo returns my growl.
“Don’t growl at my mate.”
“I wouldn’t need to growl if she didn’t scare my mate.” I think towards him, forgetting not all wolves can communicate telepathically and especially out of wolf form. I’d hung around Frankie for too long. She was wolf born and had the gift of communicating telepathically with wolves, regardless of her form.
“That wasn’t her intention. And besides, you know as well as I do that she isn’t scared. There’s no scent of fear.” I lift my head, surprised he’d heard my thoughts. An amused grin spreads across his face. “What good is it to have a beta if I can’t communicate with his wolf?”
“It’s not official.”
“You would have been my beta a long time ago if shit hadn’t gone pear-shaped. Maybe being official in our hearts is enough for the pack magic.” Bel takes Theo’s hand in hers before giving it a comforting squeeze, obviously hearing something in his voice that I didn’t. All alphas can communicate with their pack mates in wolf form, and their betas can communicate back. Some alphas have enough power that their whole packs can communicate in wolf form. Unfortunately, we aren’t one of those packs. The only one I’m aware of is the Rossi Pack over in Western Australia.
Mount Roxby Box Set Page 48