by Mandy Harbin
“Oh, fuck, Krista,” he groaned. She was taking off her clothes.
“I love you, Toby. You love me. If you don’t want me with you for the rest of our lives, you’d better say so right now.” She pulled out some kind of dart gun. “I’ll tranq you and leave. Your choice.”
“You. Are. Not. Going. Anywhere,” he gritted.
“Come to momma.” She smirked as she tossed the gun aside, and he pounced.
There was no finesse. His clothes and the rest of her clothes were torn from their bodies. She clutched at his shoulders, trying to kiss him, but he wasn’t having that.
“You will submit to me,” he growled, flipping her around and shoving her onto her hands and knees on the floor.
“Oh, yes, Toby, take me. Make me yours.”
He bit her neck, not breaking the skin, but to hold her in place as his cock thrust into her. He fucked her hard, not caring about any preliminaries. His mountain lion was in control right now, and it wanted to claim its mate. He’d play with her later. Right now this was about marking his woman, his lioness.
She moaned, wiggling her ass against him. He released her throat and pushed her shoulders to the floor. When she rested her head on the hardwood, her body completely open to him, he felt pride and love for his mate swell within his chest. She wanted him just like he wanted her.
Feeling his feral side relax, he eased out of her, turning her to sit astride him. She eased down on his cock, wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her face in his hair as she rode him. He gripped her hips to help guide her and thrust up into her on each downward stroke she took.
His woman. His mate.
“God, I love you so much,” he groaned, feeling his balls draw up as her pussy fluttered around him. She stroked one of his fangs and he snarled, but then she threw her head back and screamed as she fell over the precipice.
He roared as he starting coming, then sank his fangs into the smooth column of neck she’d exposed for him.
She whimpered as he held her tightly against him, but he couldn’t let go. Not right now. Not while they were both coming. When her pussy stopped convulsing and his cock quit jerking inside her, he pulled away from her throat and licked the wounds, purring as he did so.
She giggled and squirmed against him. “What’s so funny?” he asked in an amused voice. He couldn’t help it.
“That tickles.”
“I’m grooming you, baby. Get used to it.”
She gasped and pulled away. “Oh, my God! You did lick my hair the first night we met, didn’t you?” Her look was a mixture of incredulity and humor.
He felt his cheeks burn. Fuck, he must be blushing. How embarrassing. “I, um, it’s a natural—”
She shushed him as she kissed him lightly. “That’s okay. You can lick me anywhere you want.”
“Good. Because I intend to lick you every day for the rest of our lives.”
“Mmm . . . Sign me up for the licking. I can’t wait to taste you all over again.”
“I’m all yours, baby.”
“Yes, Toby.” She pulled back and stared into his eyes, gently rubbing his beard-roughened cheek. “Yes, you are.”
Epilogue
Ariel Owens pulled up to the huge log cabin, excited to see if what her sister had told her was true.
Oh, she had no doubt her sister believed it to be true, but the idea of people turning into animals was so huge she needed to see it with her own eyes.
She got out of the truck and was immediately greeted by her sister and a damn fine-looking man. He was holding her hand. Interesting. Ariel never remembered seeing Krista date. She was always too busy burying her nose in some history, government, or law book. Not that Ariel hadn’t been book-smart, too, but she didn’t let her work life interfere with her private life. At least until last year.
“Hey, girl,” Krista said, walking toward her. “This is Toby, my, um, fiancé.”
Ariel gaped at her. Wow. Good for her. But if he was one of the mountain lion shifters . . .
“Are you two mated?” They both beamed like kids on Christmas morning. Ah, the honeymoon look. They didn’t need to answer her question, it was written all over their silly smiling faces. “Never mind. I’ll take that as a yes. But, um does that mean you’re a mountain lion shifter, too?”
“Yeah. I didn’t shift right away, though. We were too busy, er, getting reacquainted.” Krista blushed, then fidgeted. “C’mon. I’ll take you inside and introduce you to everyone.”
Ariel followed her sister and this Toby dude inside the house and into a huge den. Holy shit. There were four more guys standing in here and three of them looked to be around Toby’s age. They were all sexy as hell—even the older one had a little something going on. Had she fallen into some alternate universe with alpha male animal shifters with bodies to die for?
“This is Thomas Woods, Toby’s father.” Thomas stepped up and shook her hand.
“It’s a pleasure, Mrs. Yates.”
“Oh, no you don’t. It’s Ariel and don’t you forget it, Thomas.”
He smiled at her. “I think I’m going to like having you here.”
“This is Toby’s brother, Josh, and his mate, Mikaela.”
“Nice to meet you two.” They shook hands with her, returning the greeting.
“And these two over here are Jack and Rob, Toby’s other brothers.”
Those guys shook hands with her but watched her closely. She got a different vibe from them than she did the other two. Maybe it was because these two were unmated.
“So, Mrs., er, Ariel, what are your plans and when do you want to get started?” Thomas asked.
“Well, I want to start right now.” She shrugged, looking at Jack and Rob. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m not married anymore. How does that make you feel?”
There was a collective gasp in the air.
“What the hell are you talking about, Ariel Michelle?” Krista admonished. “What about Will?”
“We grew out of love a long time ago and got tired of the pretense. Our divorce was final three months ago.” She turned to the two brothers she’d addressed earlier. “I’m not involved with anyone either. I’m a totally and completely available woman. How does that make you feel?” she asked again.
“Shit, Ariel, are you lying?”
“My divorce papers are in my briefcase. You can call Will if you want. He’s vacationing in Italy with his new girlfriend, though.”
“Fuck, get her out of here!” Josh yelled right as Rob and Jack shifted into snarling mountain lions.
Ariel smiled. They were real. No fucking way. This was going to be the highlight of her career.
The End
About the Author
After reading Danielle Steel’s Summer’s End, Mandy became hooked on reading romance. Of course she was probably too young to be reading books like that at the time, which made it that much better! She dabbled in writing throughout adolescence and justified studying it in college under that wonderful umbrella of liberal arts. Living in Arkansas, she figured writing was a dream and not a career, so when she went back to get her master’s degree, she studied business. It wasn’t until she was staying up late to write—after working full-time, spending time with the family, and studying mind-numbing business nonsense—when she realized something had to give. The love of writing prevailed. She still lives in Arkansas with a few classes shy of an MBA but is now a multi-published author living her dream.