“Yup.” I grinned and blew him a kiss. “My classes were super easy this morning.”
“You need me to put extra money on your account for books?” he asked.
Thinking about the wad of cash he’d handed to me before he headed back home on Sunday, I laughed and shook my head. “Nope, I’m all set on that front. I was calling because I wanted to introduce you to someone.”
“To who?” His eyes narrowed. “Has one of the girls at the dorm worked her way into your good graces and turned your threesome into a foursome?”
“Dad, seriously. You can’t call Allegra, Calliope, and me that.” I wrinkled my nose as though I smelled something bad. “It’s gross.”
“You damn well know I’d never say something crude about my baby girl and her friends.” He shook his head and sighed. “Now quit trying to stall and introduce me to whatever little friend you have waiting in the wings. Mac needs me over at the clubhouse soon, so I don’t have all day.”
Recognizing the serious tone in my dad’s voice and not wanting to irritate him, I leaned back so he could see who was sitting next to me. “I wouldn’t call Kace little since he’s taller than you.”
“And who exactly is Kace?” my dad grunted with a scowl.
“He’s my…” I struggled for the right word. It wasn’t as though I could call him my mate. Dad would freak out and drive up here to drag me back home.
“I’m her man,” Kace answered for me.
A muscle in my dad’s jaw clenched. “What the fuck, Larissa? You’ve been dating someone and didn’t tell me about it at Thanksgiving?”
“Watch how you talk to her,” Kace growled, flinging his arm over my shoulder to pull me close.
My dad tilted his head to the side, a speculative gleam in his eyes as he looked at Kace. “My girl knows I don’t mean anything by swearing. She grew up around that shit.”
“Maybe,” Kace conceded. “But my woman doesn’t need to hear shit like that directed at her.”
“That’s fair.” My dad nodded, his lips twitching in a way I knew meant he was fighting a grin. “You got a job?”
Kace gave me a little squeeze as he answered, “Yeah, I’m the mayor of Timber Ridge. It’s two towns over from Larissa’s school.”
“My baby girl hooked up with a politician?” My dad let out a bark of laughter, shaking his head. “Fucking priceless.”
“I also own a bar, if that helps,” Kace added with a cocky grin.
“We’ve got one down here, so I can relate. But that won’t stop me from hunting you down and killing you if you don't treat my daughter right,” my dad warned.
“That’ll never happen, but you’re welcome to try.” Kace grinned. “Although it’d be good to at least know the name of the man who’s threatening my life.”
“Oh, crap. Sorry,” I apologize. “I forgot that part. Kace, this is my father, Lincoln Nash.”
“Nobody uses my full name. Call me Link,” my dad corrected.
“It’s nice to meet you, Link.” Kace picked up my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. “I promise to take good care of your daughter.”
“You’d better.” An alarm went off on his phone, and he grimaced. “I’ve got to run, but I expect regular check-ins from you, Larissa. Now that I know you’ve got a man in your life, none of this a couple of times a week bullshit. Until I get the chance to meet him in person, I want to see your pretty face every day.”
Kace nodded, seeming to easily understand where my dad was coming from. “You’ve got it.”
“Love you, sweetie.”
“I love you, too, Daddy,” I replied a split second before he disconnected. Heaving a deep sigh, I collapsed against the couch. “Phew! That went better than I expected.”
“If that was good, I’m not sure I want to know how you thought that was going to go,” he chuckled. “You might not see it because you love him, but your dad is scary for a human.”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t scary, just that you didn’t need to worry about him since you have the shifter advantage. You know how Allegra said I’d help her bury a body if she murdered someone?” Kace nodded. “If my dad thought I was in danger, I wouldn’t need to kill the person because they’d already be dead. And I’d probably never find out I was at risk in the first place.”
Kace brushed his thumb over my knuckles. “Now you have me to keep you safe, too.”
“I like being safe, but I could’ve sworn there was some talk about getting that call over with so you could take me to bed?” I reminded him.
“Forget that plan,” he growled, standing and pulling me up with him. “The couch will work fine for what I have in mind. Strip, baby. I can’t wait to get inside you again.”
I didn’t need convincing and started to toss my clothes off my body. Kace got naked faster than me and helped drag my panties down my legs. “You’re so fucking beautiful.” He ghosted his fingers down my chest to the tip of one of my breasts. His thumb flicked over my nipple, making me tremble. “I love how sensitive your tits are.”
His fingers drifted lower, finally coming to rest at my hip. With a gentle touch, he guided me around the couch. “Turn around and put your hands on the back of the couch.”
I followed his instructions, feeling vulnerable as I could practically feel his gaze travel down my body. He pressed his body against mine and murmured, “Easy, baby. You’re always safe with me.”
“I know.” My breath hitched in my throat when he licked the shell of my ear. “It’s just that I feel exposed like this.”
“You don’t need to be nervous. All I want to do is show you how gorgeous and sexy you are.” He kissed his way down my spine and nipped at my butt cheek to punctuate his statement. “By making you come and then fucking my cock into you until you fly apart around me and take me with you.”
It sounded like an excellent plan to me, so I tilted my butt up to give him better access to my body. Rising to his full height, he piled my hair up in a fist and traced his lips down my neck. His other hand glided down my back, over my butt, and moved between my legs. My clit throbbed, aching for his touch, but his fingers circled my entrance instead. “Please,” I whimpered.
He started kissing down my body. His tongue flicked over my back, trailed over my butt cheeks, then aimed for my pussy. “So fucking delicious,” he murmured against my damp flesh before stiffening his tongue and thrusting it inside me. My cries of pleasure turned to pleas when he stopped, but they quickly changed to moans when his fingers replaced his tongue, and he sucked my clit into his mouth. I flew apart, my hands clutching the back of the couch.
He finger fucked me through my orgasm, driving me back up for another one. With his digits still deep inside, he cupped my clit with his palm. “This is all mine.”
“Yes,” I gasped, my hips wiggling as I neared the edge again.
“This time, I want to feel what’s mine clench around me as you come.” His fingers left my body, to be replaced by his cock. With one powerful thrust, he filled me as one hand slid around my body to strum at my clit.
The pleasure was so intense, my eyes rolled in my head. “Kace!”
He gripped my hips, and he powered into me. Over and over again until a scream burst from my lungs. He anchored himself deep, and a guttural yell broke from his chest as his cock jerked with the force of his orgasm. “Mine!”
I collapsed against the back of the couch, my legs barely able to hold me. Kace scooped me up and carried me around to stretch out on the couch with me sprawled on top of him. He ran his fingers through my hair while we both caught our breath. “Move in with me, and I’ll give you as many orgasms as you want every single day for the rest of your life.”
“I’m pretty sure you’d do that anyway.” I pressed a kiss to his chest.
“True,” he admitted. “Then move in because you hate the idea of being away from me as much as I do.”
“I really do want to be with you, but I’m worried about Calliope.” I stroked my fingers down his abs
while thinking about her. “When we left for Thanksgiving break, she was living with her two best friends. One day after we get back, she's going to be stuck in our dorm room all by herself.”
“She can visit as often as she wants.” Kace’s arms tightened around me. “Hell, I’ll move her into a house on this street if that’s what it takes to make you worry less.”
I tilted my head to stare at him with wide eyes. “Really?”
“If she wants to live closer to you and Allegra, we’ll have to tell her about shifters. She’ll have to keep our secret,” he warned. “But from everything you’ve told me about her, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”
“It won’t. Calliope will keep it in the vault along with everything else Allegra and I have confided in her,” I promised. “The hardest part for her will be getting to and from campus for her classes because she’s way more serious about school than we are. She’s studying to be a fashion designer, which has been her dream forever.”
He flashed me a sexy grin. “We’re two for two so far, so maybe we’ll luck out and Calliope will turn out to be the fated mate of one of my pack members, too. That’d solved everything because he’d move heaven and earth to make sure she has whatever she needs.”
Epilogue
Larissa
Kace growled in frustration when there was a knock on the door. He stopped nibbling on my neck at the spot where he’d marked me as his, causing a small mewl to escape my mouth. His eyes had already been smoldering with desire, but when he heard the sound, they flared into burning embers. “Don’t tempt me, baby. I’m a heartbeat away from ignoring my responsibilities, ripping off your clothes, and fucking you right here on the couch.”
I held my tongue since the only thing I wanted to say was, “Yes, please.”
He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s Tane, baby. He’s back from his trip, and he’s here to meet you and show his support over our mating. If we don’t talk to him now, we’ll have to do it later. And I have plans for you that require days of uninterrupted time.”
I felt my cheeks heat, even as a wide smile spread across my face. He held out his hand, and I immediately placed mine in his waiting palm. When he pulled me to my feet, he gently tucked me into his side and kissed my temple. He was so sweet. A word I was sure no one else in his pack would use to describe him. Over the past few weeks, I’d seen the beast inside him nearly unleashed to protect me, watched him deal with disputes among his pack, and had my world constantly rocked by his insatiable appetite for my body. Kace was a freaking badass. But with me, he was nothing but gentle and loving. And it was all for me. Only me. Which made me feel cherished and...loved. He hadn’t said it yet, but he constantly showed me.
Not that I’d worked up the courage to say it either. I mean, jeez, we’d only known each other for a few weeks. It was a flimsy excuse, though, because I knew I was madly and hopelessly in love with Kace.
Kace called out for Tane to enter, and the door opened, revealing a tall, blond man with brown eyes. He stepped in and smiled warmly at me until my man growled. The smile disappeared—mostly—from Tane’s face, and he immediately dropped his eyes and bent his head to expose his neck.
“Welcome home, Tane,” Kace finally grunted. “Glad you’re back.”
When Tane lifted his head again, the smile had become a slight smirk, and I noticed that he avoided looking in my direction. “I guess what they say about the power of the mating in the beginning is true.” He chuckled and though his eyes sparkled with humor, I caught a flash of longing.
Hmmm...I’d been bummed when Calliope came to visit and none of the males in the pack had been her fated mate. But there was one shifter she hadn’t met.
Kace glanced down at me, and I wiggled my eyebrows with a conspiratorial smile. He chuckled and shrugged, before turning back to his packmate.
“Tane, this is my mate, Larissa,” Kace introduced us. “Larissa, Tane, my third.”
“I’m happy for you both,” he replied. “I’ll leave you to...whatever I interrupted.” He smirked again, and Kace rolled his eyes.
“Everything good in New York?”
Tane nodded. “Yeah, my dad fell and broke his hip. He shattered it so badly that they needed to do surgery to reset it immediately. Which was probably for the best anyway, if his shifter healing had already kicked in, the bone might have healed wrong. Even though my sisters were there, I wanted to be at the hospital. He came through it like a champ.”
“Happy to hear it. Now get the fuck out of here so I can be alone with my mate.” Tane laughed and spun around, quickly exiting and shutting the door behind him.
Kace maneuvered me around until I was cradled in his arms with my hands on his very impressive chest and his even more impressive hard on digging into my belly. “Now,” he murmured as his head lowered, “where were we?”
I raised my lips to accept his kiss, but my mind was a little distracted. I pulled back and grinned up at Kace. “Calliope is still staying with Allegra for a couple of more days. We should get her and Tane together. Maybe she’ll be his fated mate!”
Kace kept right on kissing, his lips sliding down my neck, but he mumbled what sounded like an agreement. Then he grabbed my butt and lifted me, wrapping my legs around his waist. As he headed toward our bedroom, I asked, “You really don’t mind that I’ve been trotting out your pack like a meat market to see if they are fated with my friend?”
Kace snickered, and I shivered when I felt his canines scrape gently along my throat. We reached our room, and he walked to the bed and took a seat, keeping me straddled over his lap. His hands came up to cup my cheeks, and his eyes roamed my face hungrily, making me feel sexy. When our eyes met, though, there was a serious note to them. “I’ve told you, baby. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. Besides that, why would I take away an opportunity for someone in my family to find the love of their life? Now that I’ve found mine, I understand their acute desire to have what we have.”
I sucked in a harsh breath and froze. A couple of heartbeats later, I blew out the air that had been stuck in my lungs and gasped, “Love of your life?”
Kace’s expression softened, and I felt warm and fuzzy all over. “Yeah, baby. How could you possibly think anything else? You’re the center of my world, and I love you more than my own life.”
The smile that stretched across my face was almost painful, and my heart was bursting with joy and love. “I love you, too,” I breathed.
“Damn straight,” he growled before kissing the heck out of me. To my surprise, he released my lips after a few minutes and didn’t make a move to remove my clothing. Instead, when his hands slid under my shirt, they rested on my belly. “And I already love our little cub.”
My jaw practically dropped into my lap. “What?” I shrieked. “I’m not—um—how could I possibly be?”
Kace raised an eyebrow and looked at me knowingly. I huffed in annoyance because he had a point. Okay, so we hadn’t exactly been careful, but it had only been a few weeks! Besides… “How could you know before me?” I asked indignantly.
He laughed and put his hand on my hips to urge me up onto my knees. Then he raised my shirt and pressed his lips against my belly, setting off a storm of butterflies. He inhaled deeply, and a grin split his face when he dropped his head back to look up at me. “I can smell it. You have a different, but no less delicious, smell now that you’re pregnant.”
I was still getting used to the heightened senses thing, so his explanation threw me for a bit of a loop. Still, I had trusted Kace from the moment I met him, and that hadn’t changed. If he said I was preggers, I had no reason to doubt him. Other than freaking out because my dad was going to kill him for knocking me up before he married me.
“Don’t worry, baby. You’ll have my last name before our cub arrives.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “I thought you couldn't read my mind.”
He smirked and drawled, “I don’t need telepathy to read your mind,
baby. You wear your thoughts on your face.” Then he nuzzled my stomach before adding, “I love that you're only that way with me.”
Sighing, I melted into him. He really did say the sweetest things.
“That’s how I know you’re also excited about our little one.”
I smiled happily and hugged him close. “I can’t deny that. I love you, and I’m ecstatic to be starting our own little family.”
“Love you too, baby.” In a split second, I found myself flat on my back on the center of the bed with Kace looming over me. “Now,” he growled playfully, “let's practice making the next one.”
Epilogue
Kace
“Baby, we need to have a talk with our daughter.”
My wife stopped dropping cookie dough onto a tray and turned to face me. “A talk?”
I growled as I prowled over to my gorgeous mate, struck by the beauty she’d passed down to our five-year-old, Brea. “She’s decided that she doesn’t want to wait until she grows up to find her mate.”
Larissa snorted with laughter and buried her face in my chest.
“This isn’t funny, mate,” I grumbled. “Zeke just called to tell me that Jake caught Kyla walking Brea and Alena all over the neighborhood, knocking on everyone’s door to see if their fated mate lives there.” Alena was Calliope and Tane’s oldest. She was two years older than Brea and Kyla, but they were thick as thieves.
Now, Larissa doubled over with laughter, and I scowled. “She’s five, Larissa. She shouldn’t be thinking about mating until I’m dead.”
Just then, our seven-year-old, Talon, came strutting into the kitchen with his little chest puffed up. “Don’t worry, Dad. Jake and I threatened all the boys at school. They won’t go near our sisters,” he stated proudly.
Her Alpha Page 5