by Camryn Rhys
“There’s food in the fridge and Cap’s wife brought some clothes for both of you. Not sure what kind or anything, but it’ll be enough until we can go to the PX in the morning.” Viper waved with one hand and Hannah pulled him onto the front porch.
When the door closed, Clara turned to him and pulled her arms around her body. “So, this will be our house now?”
He nodded and looked back out the window. “It seems like a good place to start a new life.”
“It doesn’t sound like you believe that.” She walked up behind him and her hands skimmed his hips and clasped around his stomach.
Owen leaned back against her. “I might as well start saying it.”
They stood still until their breathing synced. It was something he’d taught her to do through the wires, in the cage. Breathe together, be together. Clara had done it like it was second nature.
Maybe it was.
“I still don’t understand why we didn’t go to Iowa.” Her voice was low, whispery, like the wind. “Not that I mind. I just…you talked about it like you needed to go home, and now, we’re free, but we’re not going back.”
Owen’s heart sped a little, knocking at his throat and taking his voice. When Rain had suggested joining the Rangers, he’d jumped at the chance before he even talked to Clara, forgetting that they were bonded in the way they were. Once they were on the plane, he knew it had been a hard choice. But he couldn’t explain why he needed to come to North Carolina. It’d just been a draw.
He wasn’t sure how to explain it to Clara any other way. Maybe, after days or weeks, he’d find the words. But at the moment, there were none.
“I do want to take you to Iowa.” He rested his hands on hers.
A light came on across the street, and he watched Viper and Hannah’s curtains close. He wasn’t friends with any of these people. But he could be.
Owen turned around and settled Clara against his chest, stroking long strands of her red hair between his fingers. “I’m not ready to go right now. But someday, I’ll take you there.”
“But you think you…will like the Army?”
He smiled and grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her head back so he could kiss her. Her lips were warm, her breath hot. She moaned against him.
Owen smiled his way out of the kiss. “I like you.” The laugh that whispered through him eased some of his tension. “Being here, with other wolves, I think it will be good for us. The only thing that matters to me is that we’re together.”
Her eyes practically glowed when she looked at him, and he felt the energy growing between them. His body responded to her nearness, and he got hard as quickly as his breath raced.
“I’ll never get enough of you,” he whispered, lowering his lips to her neck. She squealed and wiggled against him, which made him harder.
He pressed his body over hers until she lay on the hardwood floor, spreading herself below him and smiling.
If this was how their life together was going to start, then he would take this house, and the life the Army offered. His home wasn’t in Iowa, and hers wasn’t in Mexico.
Their home was each other, and it would be for a hundred years.
Viper closed the curtains in his new house and blew out a long breath. The Ranger unit worked fast. The guys must’ve been working around the clock since the morning to get his new house and Owen’s and Gabriel’s all ready for occupancy in twelve hours.
This was the benefit of the secret unit. They had more leeway than the other units. They all lived together, in a corner of the base near the edge of the forest, and no one bothered them. It generally meant more people in his business, which was never a good thing. But he stayed away from the nosy ones, as much as he could.
Until now.
Hannah had changed everything.
Cap’s wife would want to meet her, and Nora would want to spend time with her. Everyone would be interested in Hannah.
But he just wanted to lock her in this house for days and never leave his bedroom. He hadn’t even seen her naked yet, and all he could think about was sex. He’d been imagining having her thirteen ways from Sunday, ever since they’d fallen asleep in that tent on the beach.
Maybe that was moving too fast for her, though. Maybe that was why she’d disappeared into the back of the house. She was hiding from him.
“Hannah?” Viper called, but his voice just echoed back on him. He thought he heard water turn on somewhere.
Was she going to take a shower?
Dammit, how long was he going to have to wait to seduce his own mate? He’d been ignoring magick for long enough.
He needed to be inside her.
“Hannah?” he kept calling as he walked through the house. The lights were off everywhere except the back, so he followed the glow.
“In here,” she finally called back.
He pushed the door open and found a barely lit bedroom. The carpet was a light tan, but the bedspread was dark, so the middle of the room seemed to disappear into the dark.
Except that on the bed, gold skin provided a sharp contrast to the darkness. Hannah’s body was gloriously naked, and the only dark patches were below her abdomen and on her head. Otherwise, everything shone like a beacon.
Viper walked across the room, his blood racing faster with each step. He’d felt her body before, had kissed her before, but he’d never seen her like this. He’d never seen anyone like this. Someone who belonged to him the way Hannah did. Every inch of her skin was his. And every inch of his belonged to her.
Some inches more than others.
She rolled over onto her side and her smile spread slowly as her eyes traveled up his body. “I know you’ve been waiting for this.” She lifted her top leg, just enough to remind him of what was between them. “So patient,” she cooed.
He knelt on the bed at her feet and touched her soft ankle, rubbing his hand up to her calf. “You’re a fast mover, Hannah Lee.”
“When I know what I want, I go for it.” Her eyes blinked lazily. “How do you think I got through med school?”
“Hopefully not like this.” Viper smiled and when his fingers brushed across her knee, she smiled.
“No, not like this.”
“Good.” He moved closer, his fingers grazing her thigh. “Let’s make a deal.”
She moaned and her legs spread the tiniest bit, as his fingers slipped to the inside of her thigh, still inches away from her sex, but close enough that he was within reach. He stopped and gripped the skin, massaging the sensitive flesh inside her thigh.
“I can’t stand the idea of other guys having seen you like this, and we don’t know each other well enough to have expectations about our pasts yet, so let’s make this deal.” Viper’s fingers slipped a little higher.
Hannah’s eyes closed and her mouth dropped open with a little sigh. “What deal?”
He moved a finger across the seam of her sex and her sigh turned into a moan. Her legs spread open and she rolled onto her back.
“No history.” His fingers slipped inside her hot wetness and Hannah arched her back. He smiled and moved his finger pads until he felt the little, sensitive nub that would make her call his name.
“No history,” she panted, grabbing for the bedspread.
“I don’t want to know about any other man, and I won’t tell you about any other woman.” He stroked her clitoris, and she squirmed, biting her lip hard. His jaw dropped open, and he felt his breath coming faster. He was getting harder and harder, straining against his pants, but he wasn’t ready yet.
She wasn’t ready yet.
Hannah had been torturing him since they met. It was his turn.
“No history,” she repeated, bucking her hips for more contact.
“I mean, as far as we are concerned, there’s been no one else.” Viper lowered his head and delved his tongue into her pussy, while she writhed beneath him. He spread her lips with his fingers and found the sensitive flesh that sent her to pieces under his tongue.
> Hannah cried some unintelligible words and wound her legs around his back, jerking her hips forward, harder. She wanted more.
Viper slipped two fingers inside her and stroked her from inside, enveloped by the sweet scent of her arousal.
Her breath hitched and she fisted the bedding hard. Just as he heard her breath reaching a crescendo, he pulled back.
“Aaaahhhhh,” she moaned. “Don’t stop, Josh. Please.”
“Promise me,” he growled against her thigh, kissing the skin he’d grabbed only moments before. “No men before me.”
“No men before you,” Hannah moaned, looking down across the flat plane of her stomach and meeting his eyes.
“And no men after me.”
“No men after you.” Her chest heaved with each long breath.
“Promise me.” He kissed the other thigh, so close to her sex that he could almost touch it with his tongue.
She groaned. “I promise. No one but you.”
Something hot and hard rose in his chest, driving him past her throbbing core and up her body, to take her mouth. She belonged to him. She would always belong to him.
Hannah reached for the front of his pants and fumbled with the zipper as he kissed her. The brush of her fingertips on his erection almost sent him through the roof.
Viper growled and turned her hard on her back, pressing her into the bed, crushing her, owning her.
He freed his cock and guided himself to her entrance, pausing to look in her eyes. “No one but you,” he whispered, and drove into her.
The wet heat of Hannah was a balm, as much as a driver. He couldn’t stop the momentum, needing to be inside her over and over, more and more. But it soothed some kind of burning just under his skin.
Her knees anchored around his hips and she pulled him into her, panting against his shoulder as he fucked her. Her crescendo began again, with her legs spread wide, and the sound of her pleasure sent him into a tailspin.
Tension gathered deep in his abdomen and their rhythm increased as they both edged on their orgasm. When he was coming into her, listening to her come down from her pleasure, he felt a warmth spreading through his chest with each little moan of hers.
She was his.
Whatever tomorrow would bring, nothing mattered anymore, except this.
Hannah was truly and fully…his.
We hope you loved HUNTED WOLF!
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- Camryn Rhys & Krystal Shannan
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For your reading pleasure, here is the first chapter of the next VonBrandt Family Pack book (which takes place at the same time as The Werewolf Cowboy) and is Moonbound release!
TO FIND A MATE
Chapter One
Somewhere, TX
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Adam VonBrandt heard footsteps in the hall and resumed his pensive-stare-out-the-window look. For good measure, he hoisted the heavy snifter of his brother’s sixty-year Macallan Scotch off the windowsill. If this wasn’t the perfect image of the tortured ex, he didn’t know what was.
He hadn’t exactly felt the mate pull with Deirdre Trewitt, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to see her with those green tattoos on her wrists. Doubles. Mated.
There hadn’t been time to have it out earlier—not with his brothers and sister and cousins and three other packs in the room. But she had gotten his meet me in the library at midnight text. He’d seen the little Read icon show up under the bubble.
She should be coming.
The last time there’d been footsteps, it hadn’t been Deirdre, and he’d been forced to listen to his brother’s new girl toy whine about how Allan wouldn’t play the mating game.
Fuck his brother.
Although the girl-toy was obviously off to try just that. His lucky brother.
Adam had expected to get fucked himself, until Deirdre showed up with the tattoos.
She could have texted him.
“Adam?” Her voice was a whisper, and he kept waiting for it to thrill him that they were meeting like this, but it didn’t.
The desire for her body had left him when he saw her bond on her skin.
He swirled the glass of Scotch and the ice cubes clinked in the empty room. He didn’t turn around. “Hi, Dee.”
“Your text said to meet you?” She padded into the room, but stayed on the other side. They’d never had that powerful bond that Adam had heard about, so it wasn’t like his physical proximity was going to pain her. But he got it. He didn’t want to be near her, either.
“I’m not trying to seduce you.” He toasted some imaginary, far-off concept. “I have too much respect for the mate bond.”
Her sigh was so loud, Adam was fairly certain anyone in a ten-mile radius could have heard it. Gods, she really thought he was that kind of douche? He set the glass on the windowsill.
“Why did you want to see me, Adam?”
“Not for a heart-to-heart.” He turned on a boot heel. “I just figured you’d want to explain why you didn’t even text me to let me know you’d picked out someone else.”
Deirdre’s shoulders went up and down, quickly. “I can’t explain it. I guess you have to feel the mate call to know what it’s like.”
Adam raised an eyebrow. “Like, Fate?”
“Yes.”
“In that case, you sure as shit should’ve told me.” He took a couple of steps toward her and she tensed. “I’m not gonna mess with Fate, Dee.”
“Then why did you want to meet in the library in the dark?”
“Because this isn’t a conversation you have in front of your dude.” Adam turned to his right, like the beefy cowboy was standing beside him. “‘Gee, Harry, I’ve had your new mate fifty ways from Sunday over the last ten years, and figured we’d get married someday. By the way, don’t forget to try the veal.’”
A tiny smirk flowered across Deirdre’s face. “His name is William.”
“Because that was the most important detail in that little speech.” Adam pushed a hand through his hair. “Gods, Dee. Ten years.”
She shrugged again, like she was ready to be rid of him. “Let’s face it, Adam. We were placeholders until something better came along.”
He waited for some kind of sting to rise up inside, but it didn’t come. Instead, he found himself chuckling. “You’re saying he’s hotter than me? Cuz… I’m not seeing it.”
Dee’s laugh was less tentative than her smirk had been. She was warming to him. “Always with the sarcasm.” She walked to the high-backed chair and put her hand on the leather. “I’m saying he’s my Fate.”
“I get that.” He wiped at the air, like it was the slate he wanted to clean. “But next time, text a guy you’re having placeholder sex with, just as a heads-up that he’s not getting laid this weekend.”
A full-out laugh. Her eyes sparkled when she laughed again. “This really is about sex?”
He pulled one corner of his mouth up. “Like you said, we both knew we weren’t Fated. No kidding around there.”
Deirdre took in a long breath through her nose. “Yes, there’s nothing quite like feeling Fate tell you who your match is.”
“So I’ve been hearing.”
The sparkle was back in her eyes. “He’s my Fate. I can’t change that, nor would I want to, honestly.”
“I promise, this isn’t a ploy to get in your pants.” Adam picked up the snifter and took a long swig. “I’m sure there are plenty of girls here this weekend who would be happy to ride the A-Train.”
Deirdre squeezed the chair. “You probably shouldn’t say that to them.”
“It worked on you.” He let a little for old time’s sake slip into his
voice.
“Well, I’m special.”
Adam pursed his lips. She’d been a consistent part of his life for ten years. Every other month, he was either up at the Trewitt’s getting his horse trained, or buying a new horse, or going to a rodeo.
She’d been his sexual distraction from the generally unappetizing romantic life of Somewhere, TX, where all the wolves were family and all the townies were human. Humans were messy.
But he wasn’t sure if he thought she was special in the way he wanted her to be. She had been a great companion, and an occasional lover. They hadn’t ever had the magick that she undoubtedly felt with William, or that Aaron and Tonya had.
Plenty of wolves never found a Fated match, and they still chose a mate and said the spells to bond. Adam always assumed he and Dee would be wearing the matching tattoos someday.
It should hurt more that she’d bonded with another man. Only it didn’t.
Adam found himself swilling the last of the Scotch and rolling the glass in his hands. He turned back to the window. “What does it feel like?”
“What?”
“The Fate stuff. What does it feel like?”
He waited for her to answer, but part of him didn’t want to know. In a family where everyone who was married was also Fated, he didn’t want to know what wasn’t in store for him.
“It feels like… a magick rope. Wherever you are, you’re pulled toward them. It’s like you’re in their orbit, like you couldn’t get away from them if you tried.”
He nodded and set the glass down on the side table, turning to face her. “That’s not us.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“And that’s okay.” He rimmed the glass with his finger.
“I love William, and I am glad for every day we have together.” A distant look caught in her eyes and her voice went hot. “I think about him when I’m not with him, and I feel him wherever I’m at.”
“You can feel him now?” Adam looked out the door, into the semi-dark hallway.
“I can. He’s waiting for me to go run with him.”