by Kele Moon
“Yeah. Let’s all go up to Brandi’s.” Roni laughed as Jazz walked up to them. “I can’t wait for you to see her place.”
Jason nodded, and draped his arm over her shoulder, clearly determined to keep her close. Brandi glanced up at him and felt nervous as they walked back to her building. She hoped he didn’t have the reaction that Roni had.
Roni took the lead as they headed upstairs and Brandi found herself almost dragging her feet. It turned out her nervousness wasn’t misplaced.
When Jason walked in the door, he halted as if he’d run into an invisible wall. Brandi watched his eyes widen as he took in her apartment. Then he turned back to her, staring at Brandi as if he didn’t recognize her.
She smiled, hiding her apprehension, hoping he couldn’t smell it. “I packed my things already. It’s all on my bed. The rest I’ll donate to charity.”
Jason blinked, and looked physically pale like she’d never seen before. Strange that he could fight deadly Werewolves with no problem, but her apartment shook him up so noticeably. Jazz and Desmon were silent and unusually still, making it obvious they were surprised too.
Jason tore his gaze from hers to look around the apartment again. Then he released her hand and walked into the bedroom.
“Help out, guys.” Jason’s voice was barely human. “She’s a woman. They pack a lot of shit.”
Jazz and Desmon followed him into her bedroom, both of them still quiet.
Roni sighed softly once they were alone. “Not good.”
“Why is he so upset?” Brandi asked, even if she knew the men could probably hear.
Roni gave her a sympathetic smile, and whispered when she spoke. “He’ll get over it. They are really proud. It’s a wolf thing, and you have nicer shit. He found you with nothing in the woods. He provided everything for you. Now he walks into this. He just got a reality bitch-slap.”
Brandi moved fast for the bedroom door.
Jazz and Desmon were watching Jason with scowls on their handsome faces. Jason was at her dresser, with her jewelry box open. He lifted her grandmother’s diamond tennis bracelet. He dropped it and picked up a few of her diamond rings before he softly growled.
“Jason?” Her voice was shaky.
He turned, and the look in his eyes almost scared her. He seemed confused, maybe even hurt, and she went to him on instinct
“I’m not taking that.” She closed the lid to her jewelry box. “My stuff’s on the bed.”
He frowned at her. “You didn’t tell me you came from this.”
“From what? A museum?” She used Roni’s word, thinking for the first time how much it fit. Her old life seemed so cold now that she had Jason. “None of this matters, but you want to know what does? You’ve given me the things I’ve always wanted. A real home. Happiness.” She moved closer, until they were touching. “Love. Great sex. You make me like myself. I feel daring and sexy when I’m with you. You make me naughty in a way I never thought I’d have the chance to be.” She grinned at that one. “You make me feel alive. The knowledge that every night, when you hold me in your arms, I’m in the one place in the world that I want to be most…that’s what matters to me.” She hugged him because she couldn’t resist. “You give me yourself, Jason.”
He reached down and brushed her face with the back of his knuckles before he slowly smiled. “Are you really giving it to charity? I hate this shit, but I’d sleep in a pink and white bed if you were in it. I’d feel less sexy, but I’d do it.”
Relief and happiness filled Brandi. “It’s so gone. I love your bed much more. It’s got great springs. It’s got better memories too.”
He chuckled before he eyed her bed again. “We could give yours a try.”
“Are you kidding?” She gave him a look of horror. “That old thing? It would snap apart the second we got undressed.”
Jason planted a kiss on her that left her breathless. “Your jewelry box comes. My mother would have killed for any of this shit. You’re a woman. I bet some of it is from your family. My mom had a few nice rings from her family that were passed down. She said girls do that.”
She nodded. “They do.”
Jason turned and lifted the jewelry box. He gently handed it over to her. “You carry that. We’ll get the bags.”
She smiled and walked out of the room. Roni was standing there, trying to look casual, but she winked conspiratorially.
“Good save,” Roni whispered when she walked up to Brandi. “I’m impressed.”
“I meant every word,” Brandi told her solemnly. “This place feels so lifeless to me now. I bought possessions to fill the hole in my life. It’s all I had. None of this stuff ever made me happy, but Jason does.”
Roni’s smile widened. “You’re definitely the right woman to be Jason’s mate.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jason and Brandi made love frantically once they got back to the cabin. Then Jason left early the next morning, and she’d known where he was going. He wanted to be present when Desmon and Jazz interrogated the six men who’d been captured stalking her apartment building, to say nothing of the alpha who’d had her kidnapped and almost killed.
The nightmare was actually over.
Jason showered when he came home and Brandi had breakfast waiting for him when he walked back downstairs. She sat across from him as he ate, but she wanted to wait until he was done before they talked about anything unpleasant. Unable to resist, she went to him and sat on his lap when he pushed away from the table. Brandi smiled as he hugged her closer to him, and then rested her head against his chest.
“How did it go?” she finally asked.
“Good.” He rubbed her arm soothingly as he said it. “It was a small outfit. They were looking for a new territory after a company came in and built condos on the little running land they had in the city. They heard we were a small pack. Which we actually are, but then again, we have two alpha best friends who run our pack. It’s always been an ace up our sleeve. Most packs only have one alpha to defend their pack. They were planning on using you to get our attention. He probably thought it would scare us off.” Jason shook his head. “We don’t scare off, and it’s too bad for them they didn’t get the memo, because their territory problems are solved now. Permanently. They’ll never be bothering us again. We found them a new home in hell.”
Brandi was quiet for a moment as she considered his words. She wasn’t the least bit bothered that the man responsible for almost killing her was dead, but he wasn’t the only one. They were all gone now. Maybe his pack members didn’t deserve to die with him, but if the others she met were anything to go by, they probably did.
Something about Jason’s wolf mentality was rubbing off on her. It seemed fair in the world of kill or be killed these Werewolves live in. The Nightwinds had just been minding their own business and this pack attacked them.
That was their mistake.
Brandi tilted her head and smiled up at him. “I can’t see anything making you run away in fear.”
“You’ve never seen me in the mall. I hate those places. Too many people. Too many smells. It’s not natural to have that many damn stores in one place. I run to the nearest exit to get the hell out every time I try. I don’t last ten minutes in those places.”
“Malls?” She laughed. “Really?”
“Says the woman who screamed about a tiny spider in the shower stall the other morning.”
“It looked mean,” she said without apology. “They have eight legs. Eight. That’s not right.”
“It was a baby.”
“Babies have mothers. If the baby was that scary, imagine how terrifying the mother is.”
“If you say so.” Jason wrapped his arms tighter around her and admitted, “You make me happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“Same to you,” she said softly. “I love you, Jason.”
“I know.” He grinned, looking unabashedly pleased. “I love you too, darlin’.”
Her smile grew broader,
and she knew the uncontained happiness showed. “I know.”
Then Brandi gasped when Jason gripped her hips and lifted her. She heard his dishes hit the floor and he suddenly had her pinned on top of the table. “I’m still hungry.”
“Really?”
Jason nodded as he reached for her skirt, shoving it up. When he smiled, his canine teeth were long as he confessed, “Starving.”
“What big teeth you have,” she said with a false look of horror.
“The better to eat you with,” he promised as he pulled at her panties, sliding them down her thighs. “How does that sound?”
“Sounds fair to me, but maybe later,” Brandi decided as she reached for the front of his jeans. “I have a real craving for something myself.”
Jason growled at her, and a shudder of pleasure washed over Brandi. The sounds he made always turned her on in the worst way, and it was obvious he could smell it. He tossed her panties towards the sink and pushed her thighs wider apart as he closed his eyes to breathe her in with another low growl.
“I’d tear yours off, but you don’t wear any.” Brandi laughed as she unzipped his jeans and shoved them down.
“I wish you didn’t.” Jason’s voice was still raspy and primal. “We’re in the woods now, darlin’. You don’t need those things.”
She smiled. “I could be tempted to toss them all in the trash.”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “Really? And what would I have to do or say to get you to do that?”
She pulled him down on top of her in response. He followed her lead easily, pinning her under him, making it obvious that was exactly where he wanted to be. She loved his weight on her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to keep him there.
Then she leaned up and kissed him, before she whispered against his lips, “I want you.”
Jason kissed her back. “You got me, darlin’.”
“Then there goes the underwear. Consider them all in the trash.” She wrapped her legs around his waist. “I want you right now.”
Jason entered her, and Brandi moaned his name at the feel of his thick, hard cock stretching her, setting off every pleasure sensor she had. She tightened her legs around his hips, clinging to him, desperate for the hard, driving need to take over. Jason pushed into her deep, but then he stopped. She opened her eyes, giving him a look of silent protest.
“Tell me you love me again,” he demanded. “Let me hear it.”
“Now?”
“Tell me.”
“I love you,” she promised him. “You’re everything to me.”
“You’ve really made me the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.” He brushed his mouth over hers. “I love you, Brandi. You have no idea how much I love you.”
“But I would have an idea if you decided to start moving again.” She shifted under him to make her point. “You could show me, you know, because I’m not feeling the love when you hold still like that.”
He softly growled. “Hang on to me, darlin’, ’cause I got a hell of a lot of love for you, and I’m going to spend the rest of our lives showing you how much.”
“So, shut up already and prove it.”
“Consider it done,” Jason chuckled as he leaned down and kissed her again.
THE END
TITLES BY LAURAN DOHNER
NEW SPECIES
Fury (New Species Book 1)
Slade (New Species Book 2)
Valiant (New Species Book 3)
Justice (New Species Book 4)
Brawn (New Species Book 5)
Wrath (New Species Book 6)
Tiger (New Species Book 7)
Obsidian (New Species Book 8)
Shadow (New Species Book 9)
Moon (New Species Book 10)
True (New Species Book 11)
Darkness (New Species Book 12)
Smiley (New Species Book 13)
Numbers (New Species Book 14)
CYBORG SEDUCTION
Burning Up Flint (Cyborg Seduction Book 1)
Kissing Steel (Cyborg Seduction Book 2)
Melting Iron (Cyborg Seduction Book 3)
Touching Ice (Cyborg Seduction Book 4)
Stealing Coal (Cyborg Seduction Book 5)
Redeeming Zorus (Cyborg Seduction Book 6)
Taunting Krell (Cyborg Seduction Book 7)
Haunting Blackie (Cyborg Seduction Book 8)
Loving Deviant (Cyborg Seduction Book 9)
Seducing Stag (Cyborg Seduction Book 10)
VLG
Drantos (VLG Series Book 1)
Kraven (VLG Series Book 2)
Lorn (VLG Book 3)
ZORN WORRIORS
Ral's Woman (Zorn Warriors Book 1)
Kidnapping Casey (Zorn Warriors Book 2)
Tempting Rever (Zorn Warriors Book 3)
Berrr's Vow (Zorn Warriors Book 4)
MATING HEAT
Mate Set (Mating Heat Book 1)
His Purrfect Mate (Mating Heat Book 2)
Mating Brand (Mating Heat Book 3)
RIDING THE RAINES
Propositioning Mr. Raine (Riding the Raines Book 1)
Raine on Me (Riding the Raines Book 2)
Claws And Fangs
TITLES BY KELE MOON
* * * *
BATTERED HEARTS Series M/F
Defying the Odds (Battered Hearts Book 1)
Star Crossed
Crossing the Line
UNTAMED HEARTS Series M/F
The Viper
The Slayer
The Enforcer
EDEN Series
Beyond Eden M/M/F
Finding Eden M/M
Claiming Eden M/M
STANDALONE NOVELS
The Queens Consorts M/M/F
Starfish and Coffee M/M
Packing Heat M/M
SHORTS
A Kiss for Luck M/F
Mercy Bound M/F