by Anna Craig
Right now, she didn't care at all. She was on fucking fire, and she loved it. The appreciative look in his eyes was more than enough to encourage her to continue. Heat licked through her body, readying to explode out into screaming bliss.
Leaning forward a bit to grip his shoulders with her hands, Cassie whispered, “This feels so good. Ah...fuck, yes,” she dared to say, loving the feeling her words created as soon as she said them. Trevor groaned as her pussy clenched around him.
“Sweet, beautiful Cassandra.” His deep voice rumbled through her body, shooting her higher and higher. “You possess a foul mouth for such a gorgeous creature, my mate.” He rocked his hips beneath hers, sending a sharp tremor that Cassie knew meant she was about to come, and hard. “Do not stop it.”
Another savage groan as he held her hips so tightly she knew she would have light bruises from his fingers. White heat burst through her, sparking through her head and making everything clear at once.
“Trevor.” Almost breathless as she rode him faster and faster, Cassie felt the bindings that had stopped her, worried her, snap free and disappear. “Trevor, yes. Yes. Do it.”
“Say it,” he growled, holding her eyes with his darkly intense ones. “Say you want it.”
Cassie almost yelled the words, so feral in her need nothing else in the world existed. “Make me a wolf. Now!”
Chapter 7
Trevor's head almost exploded as his gorgeous mate begged him to do the one thing he'd hoped she would ask. Watching her atop him, her hair flung every which way, her eyes deepened to dark blue from the multiple desires raging through her, guiding each movement, had brought him to the brink of climax. He'd valiantly fought losing himself to it, waiting for her to lead. Aroused almost beyond belief at the strength and boldness of this most fascinating, incredible woman.
Despite the depth of his longing, never would he have forced her to submit to the bite of turning. The deep conviction of her voice in this, the most vulnerable moment, assured him of her absolute certainty.
He wasted no time, even as his own urgency rose with unstoppable force within him. “Yes,” he said, feeling his teeth lengthen even as he spoke.
Without another pause, he leaned forward in a single move to sink his canines into Cassandra's soft, exposed neck.
The second the power of Trevor's bite launched into her bloodstream, Cassandra cried out at the shock of mingled pleasure and pain. Her mouth dropped open as she shuddered so hard around his cock he could no longer contain himself. Deftly sliding his canines out of her so they would not hurt her, Trevor put one hand on her cheek and kept her head from tipping back, away from him.
“Look at me when you come, Cassandra, my beautiful wolf,” he said. His voice was so low, so roughed by the snarling need within him, he was surprised she could understand him. “Look at me now.”
She looked at him through glassy eyes, breath gasping in and out before she abruptly clenched so tightly around him, crying in out a rising crescendo, that his own climax roared over him with brutal fury. He barely managed to hold her, cheek in one hand and hip in the other, as the force of his orgasm threatened to topple him sideways, taking her with him. His mate screamed and sighed, keeping their eye contact with such intensity it spurred on the volcanic explosion in him to a height he almost thought might render him unconscious.
Helpless against the riot of pleasure slamming through him, the same pleasure he saw reflected in Cassandra's eyes, Trevor simply held her as their bodies melded together while the magic of his bite flowed through her, changing her.
As the last tremor flowed over her, his sweet mate groaned in release and melted down onto him as he loosened his grip on her. Her tangle of golden hair spilled across his chest as she sprawled over him, warm and vibrant and completely his.
His beautiful, powerful, stunning wolf shifter mate.
~~~
Cassie felt like she'd been wrung dry in the juiciest, best way possible. Every nerve ending was soothed, every tension eased. With the rock-hard body of her mate beneath her, she felt utterly content and safe.
And—she was a wolf now. A wolf. He'd bitten her, she let him, and she liked it. Whoa. She'd let her wolf shifter mate bite her. Her world had changed so much in a few weeks, it was crazy. Somehow, though, it felt right. This was where she was meant to be. Here, in her mate's arms.
A wolf shifter now. A true mate.
Cassie let long moments pass, lulled by the sound of Trevor's heartbeat beating under her ear. First galloping, then slowing back to a normal pace, the sound reassured her of his existence. The fact that he was here, and so real.
Yet even as she let herself be quietened by his presence, the flicker of excitement grew huge within her, until she couldn't contain it any longer. Lifting her head, she kissed his collarbone, then licked him just to taste the yumminess of his skin and sweat and that male essence that drove her completely wild. Searching his eyes, she said, “So what does it feel like? Do I just—shift?”
Trevor chuckled, the vibrations of it rolling through her body. She really liked it when he laughed, or smiled. It made him less scary wolf shifter, more approachable mate.
Not that she had to worry about that now. Because she was a wolf shifter as well. Holy shit.
“You can feel it, singing through your blood.” His voice carried through the room. “It's like a hint of wildness that's always there. I never understood it when I was a cub. But I spent far more time as a wolf than a human when I was young. Being human more often as I grew older helped me appreciate the nuances better.”
Cassie sat up, jittery with anticipation. She didn't particularly feel anything, aside from the wonderful heaviness of her limbs that always happened after sex with this most stunning man of hers. “Do I just—picture myself as a wolf?” She looked at him expectantly.
Leaning back on the pillows, looking as content as she felt yet with the same spark of excitement that lit her, Trevor nodded. “That is part of it, yes. You simply imagine yourself in that form, and it happens.”
“Okay, then!” Cassie bounced a bit, which made her mate laugh again, then closed her eyes and concentrated. She pictured herself a sleek wolf, all strength and beauty and deadly claws.
The better to swipe you with, my dear, she thought, and busted out a giggle.
“Focus.” Trevor's voice was stern. She felt his hand settle on her thigh, warm and grounding.
She focused. She concentrated. She visualized.
Nothing happened.
Opening her eyes, Cassie looked at her alpha. A slight wrinkle had appeared on his forehead. “Try again,” he said.
Keeping her eyes on his, she nodded and tried again. And again. And again.
Nearly twenty minutes later, she was almost in tears. Crouched on the bed, looking down at the sheets as she uselessly squeezed them in her still-human hands, she said, “I don't understand.”
An agonizing silence from Trevor made her lift her head. He'd sat up during her efforts, body tense and mouth tightening with an increasingly grim cast. Something like doubt framed his eyes. When he opened his mouth, the words that came out sent Cassie's heart into a shattering tailspin.
“It is supposed to work.” He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as much as her. “Every alpha has this power. Every alpha.” He ground out the last two words with a punishing force.
In spite of his dark, fierce expression, Cassie knew without a doubt his anger was not directed at her.
“What?” Her voice came out more high-pitched than she wanted. “What is it you're not telling me?”
Her gorgeous, strong mate suddenly let out a bitter laugh that scraped at her heart. Jaw set so tightly she thought he might break it, he shook his head, hard. Closing his eyes for the briefest of moments, he clearly forced out words.
“My own mate, and I cannot protect you.” The glance he leveled at her said he was hurting, and bad. “This is an ability all alphas possess. Yet—” His voice snapped off before he
slowly went on, looking down at his own clenched fists. “Truth has shown herself here as a vindictive thing.”
Taking a harsh breath, he said, “Cassandra, I have never done this before.” He looked right at her as he spoke, owning the words with their bald truth. Cassie sucked in her breath at the stark, fearless way he admitted that. Voice suddenly an uneven whisper, he went on, “And it seems it is something I cannot actually do.”
The silence after that was so cold Cassie actually shivered, even though the room was warm from the summer air outside. When he spoke again, the mix of fury and self-disgust in it shredded her already battered heart.
“If I cannot protect you from any other fools who ever dare to question your worth, I do not know how to keep you safe. This means I have failed you. As both your alpha—and your mate.”
~~~
The evening breeze whispered across Trevor's body in a welcome kiss of coolness. Behind him, Tamsin said, “Ah, that feels good. Look, Cassie, we're almost there. The sunset will be amazing. I promise you'll forgive me for insisting we come up here.”
“My aching legs,” Trevor's sweet mate groaned, though he could hear the smile in her voice. It soothed him. Although he knew she'd been tremendously, sickeningly disappointed she could not shift like them, she was not angry at him for failing her.
However, he could barely contain his own anger at himself.
For an after-dinner stroll, they'd hiked to the top of the highest ridge above the estate. Although the trees grew too close to most of the ridge edges to offer a view, this one spot opened up for about fifty feet, allowing them a spectacular view of the valley below, where Wicked Mountain Town sparkled with a few early lights and the snaking river glinted in the long, golden rays of the sinking sun.
“Wow.” Cassie hurried toward the cliff edge for a better look. “Wow, you weren't kidding. This is amazing!”
“Watch the edge, Cassandra,” Trevor warned.
He made to go after her, but Tamsin caught at his arm. “Wait,” she said, fumbling in her pocket. “That will be a perfect photo. And she's not an idiot.”
Looking at Cassandra's lovely legs, encased in sensible hiking shoes and topped off with shorts that were delectably short, and the genuine delight on her face as she took in the stunning vista, Trevor nodded. No, his mate was not an idiot. And yes, a photographic memento of this would make him smile every time he saw it. The breeze swirled her hair about her face as the dramatic scenery behind her spread out in every direction, all highlighted with the soft golden haze of the lowering sun.
“I'll even pose for you, my hunk of a mate!” She put one hand to her head and the other cocked on her hip, rolling her eyes even as she grinned at him.
Tamsin laughed out loud at Cassandra's cheeky words. While Trevor repressed his smile, he took deep satisfaction in his mate's confidence and presence. He had failed her, yes. She would never run with him as a wolf. But no matter what any others might say or think, Cassandra was alpha mate material and then some. She'd come into her own a little more with every passing day.
Perhaps one day she would not regret being unable to fully enjoy her life as the mate of a wolf shifter.
“Like that,” Tamsin called, holding up her silly modern phone with its camera so she could capture Cassandra. “Big smile. Bigger!”
His beautiful mate complied with a smile that flashed pure joy over her face. “I want one with Trevor in it, too, okay?”
As Trevor opened his mouth to reply, a streak of gray burst out from the trees and barreled straight for Cassandra, growling in pure menace.
Glacial shock poured over him as the traitorous, treacherous Aliana made an enormous leap toward his defenseless mate. He heard his own hoarse voice scream, “NO!” but even then knew it was too late to save her. He could not reach her in time.
“This will never be your pack,” Aliana snarled as she launched at Cassandra. “Never!”
She hit Cassandra with her huge wolf's body, sending them both hurtling out over the edge of the cliff into the deep, empty space below.
Only Cassandra's terrified scream echoed back as Trevor helplessly watched his mate fall and disappear into the void.
Mated to the Pack
Wicked Wolf Shifters 4
Chapter 1
Cassie was falling.
Her stomach dropped with a sickening lurch as air whistled past her head. The sheer impact of having a wolf slam into her with full force was nothing compared to the sensation of gravity doing its thing on her body.
For the first time in her life, she felt light.
She also felt so shocked her fear seemed to fall away into space as well.
Trevor's howl rang in her ears, the pure horror and helplessness in it twisting her heart even as she hurtled toward the ground far below. Poor Trevor, she thought from some weirdly distant place. He'd just found her, and now he was about to lose her. Her sexy alpha sure was having a tough year.
Aliana's snarl slashed through the air, punctuated with a note of triumph.
Well, at least that bitch was going down with her. Literally.
In the next heartbeat, something sharp and really painful sliced across Cassie's leg. Aliana's snarl sounded again directly in her ear as they fell together, Cassie still tangled up with the wolf's body.
Pain, more shock, and something that felt a lot like anger flashed through Cassie. That wolf bitch had just slashed her with a claw. Still trying to hurt her, even though she was about to die anyway.
With a wrench, Aliana suddenly yanked herself back from Cassie, snarl-laughing in a kind of insane way. Her furry body tumbled off and away, flipping to the side and then down toward a ledge below the lip of the cliff.
As if she knew what she was doing. As if that fucking bitch had planned this.
How dare she.
Rage began to replace shock.
Cassie was alone in the empty air.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling.
The cliff she'd just been shoved over pinwheeled in front of her spinning vision, alternating with wild glimpses of sky. It really was a pretty sunset, Cassie thought, again from that distant place that didn't seem to be a part of her. She knew mere seconds were passing, but it felt like a thousand years. Such a pretty, colorful sky streaked with reds and oranges and pinks, swiveling around with flashes of the cliff and the ground far below her.
Hard ground. So very far below. Ground that was going to end her life. Her brand-new, crazy but amazing life. The life that had been getting bigger, better, more interesting than she'd ever imagined her life could be. The life she was meant to share with her mate. With Trevor.
Her very life.
Something hot, sharp, and determined spiked inside her, roaring up out of a place she didn't even know she had.
You will not die.
The words were hers but not hers. They sent a blast of willpower through her, sizzling through her every nerve.
No way. No fucking way was she about to die like this. She wanted more time with her amazing new mate, with her new life, and she wasn't going to get cheated out of it. Any of it.
She was going to live. No matter what it took.
~~~
Trevor's heart stalled for a moment before it seemed to explode in a crazed rhythm of beats, pounding in his chest with the fury of a charging wild boar.
“NO!” tore out of his throat, a deep, ragged scream of agony and denial at once. He lunged for the cliff, teeth already lengthening in his mouth as the wolf in him howled for release.
Strong arms caught him, latching onto his shoulders and chest. A foot simultaneously hooked his leg to send him sprawling to the ground.
Tamsin's fingers dug hard into his skin, refusing to let him go. He sensed her wolf-enhanced strength as she held onto him, combined with what must be an adrenaline rush from her own fear giving her a momentary burst of strength powerful enough to hold him, even if only for an instant. But he was already throwing her off
and struggling to his feet.
“Don't! The cliff is too high to survive a fall, even for us.” Tamsin's breath heaved in a ragged gasp. She whispered, “She's gone, Trevor. You can't save her.”
Her voice was as pain-soaked as Trevor's soul felt. Coldness draped over her tone as well, lending it a glaze of ice he knew was pure shock.
Shaking his head, Trevor wrestled himself completely free of her desperate grip. He lurched toward the cliff, despite reason telling him she was right. But his wolf refused to believe it.
His wolf would do anything to save his mate. Anything at all.
Tamsin hot on his heels, Trevor reached the cliff edge, nearly overtaken by his wolf before he got there. His sister grabbed the back of his shirt before he could careen over the edge, her fingers grasping both cloth and fur as the shift rippled over him. He snapped with involuntary reflex as his fur pinched and pulled in her hand, his teeth seeking something to bite, something to latch onto and vent his engulfing rage and sorrow.
And his guilt. Crashing through him, galloping over every nerve he had. The seemingly endless old guilt drove him to sheer desperation as he prepared to launch himself over the cliff after his mate in a frantic attempt to save her. Desperately, pointlessly, he willed either of his earth-bound shapes to sprout wings so he could reach her in time.
Damn Tamsin and her grasping, clutching fingers. Refusing to let him also fall to his death, which would at least relieve him of the terrible burden of guilt he now held for the loss of not just one, but two mates.