by Dixon, Ruby
“You can stop by and I’ll gel you in the morning if you want.”Really, it’s a public service for women everywhere if I do, I tell myself. “Until you get the hang of it.”
Chance turns and looks over at me. He steps a little closer. “Or you could just do it for me when you wake up in the morning.”
“When I wake up in the morning?” I echo, not following. Then a hot blush steals over my face as I realize what he’s talking about. He means after I roll out of his bed.
I ignore him and yank the cape off his shoulders so hard the snaps sound like gunshots. “Just stop it, Chance. “
The man clearly does not know wolves very well. If he did, he’d know that we’re loyal above all else. As in, we’re excessively clingy. Unless he wants me—all of me—he’s setting me up for heartbreak, and I don’t have time for that shit.
8
Chance
I curl my fists in frustration. What the hell does she want? I spent three hours tracking just the right buck for her. Not too young but not so old that the meat would be tough and leathery. I dragged the carcass here in front of her human pack and laid the trophy at her feet. She looked at me as if I was crazy.
When that didn’t work, I slapped my ass into this tiny thing she calls a chair and let her rub goo all over me. Not saying it didn’t feel like a damned miracle, her soft fingers smoothing over my rough skin and through my scalp.
And yeah, I can see I look a lot less scary now, although I’m still reserving judgment on my haircut. I look like one of those guys wearing makeup on the cover of magazines in the checkout aisle.
I build shit. I don’t stand around smiling and sucking in my gut for pictures. But…if this is what she wants. If slathering shit in my hair will keep her, then I’ll do it five times a day if that’s what it takes.
I glare at the floor, wishing I had more experience with women. I don’t know what she wants, and I don’t know what will win her over. In the old days, I could just drag her off and no one would bat an eye. She’s got my scent on her and that’s enough to keep the predators away today, but when it wears off, the other shifters in this area will be beating a path to her door, and some of them are going to know what they’re doing with this wooing business.
Maddie bustles around me, sweeping up the evidence that she’d worked me over and binning it in a nearby trash can. She’s treating me like I’m just another customer, like I didn’t have my tongue, fingers, and dick up her pussy for hours last night. Like I didn’t claim her as mine.
I’ve got a couple of choices here. I can walk out that door and try to forget Maddie, or I can remind her who marked her last night.
A couple of years ago, I’d gotten angry with Dad and yelled at him for trying to kill himself. He’d told me nothing was worth living for anymore. I’d lost my temper and raged at him and at the whole damn mate business and how it wasn’t worth it. He hasn’t seen a sober day since Mom died, but in that moment he looked at me with such fierce lucidity I wondered if he’d been faking it all these years. “Son, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he’d said in a low, tobacco-ruined voice. “Even if it meant not feeling this endless godawful pain, I wouldn’t trade even one day with my mate.”
I stormed off the porch and sat inside my truck so I wouldn’t say something I’d regret, but as I look at Maddie’s bent head, I get it. Shutting my eyes, I try to envision a future without her. All I see is a bleak, dark, and endless winter. I made her feel good in bed. Real good. So I just gotta remind her of that.
I’m not going to spend another day without her, even if it means taking her by force. My eyes snap open, and I survey the room. The customers are watching every move I make. Pine Falls is a small town, and the winters can be long. Might as well give them something real juicy to talk about.
I stomp over to the counter and pull out all the cash in my wallet. I’d done a small job for Houston Wilkins, a shifter two towns over, and he’d paid me in cash. I lay all two grand out on the marble surface. “Is this enough to cover Maddie’s wages for the day?”
The counter girl shoots a wide-eyed glance over to the owner, Adelaide, who gives me a thorough look. My pretty-boy makeover must have convinced her I’m a safe bet, because she gives me a firm nod.
“Great.” I stalk back to Maddie, who’s still standing by her chair, sweeping up the last vestiges of my haircut and shave, and dropping it in the trash. Kind of like her memories of last night.
I bend down and toss her over my shoulder. With a brusque nod to the gaping patrons, the wide-eyed counter girl, and the smug face of the owner, I carry Maddie out of the salon.
She beats at me with her tiny fists and yells about how I should let her down and what the hell I’m doing.
I pop open the passenger door to the truck and shove her squirming body inside. “I’m taking you home.” She pushes at me, but I outweigh her by a good hundred pounds, maybe more. Leaning across, I find the seat belt buckle and fasten her in.
“You let me go,” she demands. Her hands fumble with the buckle, but I shut the door and lock it and keep locking it every time she tries to unlock the door.
I hurry around to the driver’s side door and climb inside, keeping the lock button on the key fob depressed. Once inside the cab, I clamp one hand around her thigh and use the other to engage the drive shaft and get the damn truck into gear.
She sits silently on her side of the truck as we rumble toward home.
“What’s it going to take to get you to stay, Maddie?” I ask as I steer down the long gravel road that leads up to the house.
“Something you can’t give,” she retorts. Her arms are crossed.
Fuck. What could it be? I have some money. Maybe she doesn’t know that. Maybe she thinks that I’m broke as shit and can’t afford to feed her. “I’ve got plenty of money, and you know I can feed you. There’s more venison around here. Do you prefer a doe? I can catch that next time,” I offer.
She shifts in her seat and glares at me. “Are you making fun of me?”
“What? No!” I resist the urge to beat my head against the steering wheel. “I just don’t know what you want. You tell me and I’ll get it for you.”
“I’m tired of shifters,” she says, and her voice does sound resigned. “I’m tired of someone chasing me hard only to decide that they don’t want me after all.”
“Don’t want to be with you?” I echo in surprise. What in tarnation is she talking about? “Little wolf, I’m kidnapping you and taking you to my den. That’s about as opposite of not wanting you as it gets.”
“Fine, you want me now, but what about tomorrow or the next day? I don’t want to get involved with someone who’s going to throw me over for someone else.”
“Another woman? Why would I want another woman? I want you!”
“For how long?”
“For goddamn ever!”
“For—” She breaks off. We stare at each other. Our chests are heaving like we’ve just fought a fierce physical battle. “You don’t do mates, remember?”
“I…” I stick my tongue in the corner of my cheek. Fuck. I did say that. When she was first here, I was trying to remind myself not to get attached, but it was already too late. It was too late from the moment I walked into the bar.
Maddie huddles on her side of the cab seat, and I realize that no amount of words is really going to convince her of my intentions, but I’m putting forth both words and action today. I give her a firm nod. “You’re right. I said that because I’m a stupid man, and I was trying to avoid what happened to my dad. See, Mom was his true mate, and after she died, his spirit went with her. He hasn’t been the same since. I didn’t want a mate because I figured it was better to live without one than to suffer the loss. But having just the tiniest taste of you makes me realize that I don’t know nothing about life and living it. You probably don’t believe me, so I’m just going to show you what I mean.”
“Wait—” she calls out, but I’m out of the
door and rounding her side of the truck. I pull her out and fling her over my shoulder.
She pounds on my back again. “You can’t keep tossing me around like I’m a bag of flour.”
“You know your safe word. Say it and I’ll take you back.” I hold my breath because even if she says it, I’m ignoring it. I’m not letting her go again. That was my first mistake, and I ain’t gonna repeat it.
Her fists of fury pause in mid-strike. “No,” she says softly, “I’m not saying that word.”
“Good,” I grunt. The relief I feel at her response makes me weak in the knees, and I almost stumble near the porch. It doesn’t get any easier when her hands stop making fists and start rubbing over my back and ass.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asks. Her voice doesn’t sound as hollow or tired anymore, and the slight scent of musk rises to fill my nose.
“I’m tying you up and keeping you in bed until you agree to be my mate.”
She shifts a little, and the musk scent gets stronger. I move faster, through the door and then up to the bedroom.
“And after I agree to that? Then what?”
I toss her down onto the bed and watch with satisfaction as her ample chest jiggles as she bounces on the mattress. I dig out some rope that I use for climbing and wrap it around her wrists. “Then I keep on keeping you, but you can go to work and shit so long as you come home to me every night.” I pause. “How many other men are you going to be doing this to?” I wave a finger in front of my face.
“After they see your transformation? The whole town, I’d guess,” she teases.
I frown. I don’t much like the idea of her rubbing all those other men. “You giving those rubdowns as part of every cut?” I force myself not to tie her too tight to the bed.
“No, I can have the shop assistant do that,” she admits. “I did it for you because I wanted you to feel good.”
“It felt too good.” I rub a hand across my aching dick. “I’ve had a hard-on since I sat in your chair. Don’t want you making other males feel like that.”
She hides a smile, and the band around my chest starts to ease. I fasten her wrists and feet to the bed.
“Hang on,” I tell her. Downstairs, I prepare a quick venison sandwich and bring it up along with a tall glass of milk.
“You’re going to eat in front of me?” she asks, torn between laughter and dismay.
“Nah, baby, this is for you.” I set the tray on the bed and then pull out my hunting knife. “We’ll buy you some new clothes, but around here, you wear nothing.” She doesn’t protest when I slice the clothes off. Instead, her eyes grow diamond bright, and the heady scent of her arousal fills the room. I take a deep drag, like a drug addict draining his pipe dry. My cock pulses behind the zipper of my pants, but I ignore it because there are more important things to do, like feed my mate and then make sure she comes so hard she can’t remember anything of her life before me.
“You really like your style?” she asks between bites of her sandwich.
“Yeah.” I stroke my fingers across the soft beard. “You left me with some hair, which is good. You like it?” That’s what’s important. I’d be bald if that was what she wanted.
“Yeah, I like it.” She jerks her hand against the restraint as if she’d like to touch me. “Can’t you untie me? I want to pet the beard.”
“Later.” I feed her the last bit of sandwich and then hold the glass to her mouth. “Now you tell me what happened in California that got you all gun-shy about this mate bond, because I’m not the only one who was feeling unsure our first night.”
She gulps down the milk and then releases a long sigh. “The story makes me sound pathetic.”
“Nah. If it involves a shifter that didn’t want you, then he’s the dumbest thing on four feet.”
“It’s a short story. I was with a wolf in the Thorne pack. The alpha died in a freak lightning incident and my guy—” A growl builds in my throat at her using the possessive word in conjunction with another male. “The guy,” she corrects and then raises an eyebrow at me. I give her a nod to go ahead, and she rolls her eyes. “Anyway, the guy became alpha, found his mate, and then asked me to join the two of them.”
“He’s not your real mate then,” I declare. “He’s defective because true mates don’t want anyone but their mate. Mated threes exist, but it’s a mate bond that goes through all of them. He’s either not found his mate or can’t bond. And that’s on him, not you.”
She rubs her lips together thoughtfully. “You think we’re mates?”
“I know we are because only a true mate would be worth the pain of loss, and I know that not having you would be worse than living alone. You’re worth the risk to me, and I’ll spend the rest of my life convincing you that I’m worth the risk to you.”
She struggles harder against her bonds, not because she wants to get away but because she wants to be close. I know her now. The mate bond is hardening. I shuck off my clothes and brace myself over her body.
“You’re worth the risk to me,” she whispers.
I reach between her legs to find her soaked pussy ready for me. I position the head of my cock at her entrance. “I love Maddie Thorne, and I will for the rest of my days want only you.”
She gasps and arches toward me as I drive into her. “I want only you, Chance Eddington. My true mate. My true love.”
Her words seize me by the balls. I dip a hand between us to find her precious little clit and work that as I jack into her. She trembles and shudders beneath me, finding her release quicker than I could have hoped for, and I follow her over that cliff of ecstasy where it’s only her and me and a blanket of euphoria.
Yes, this is all worth the risk. She is worth the risk.
“I never wanted a mate until you, Maddie,” I mutter as I move down her body, worshipping every spot of flesh available. “I’ll never want another mate.”
And then I proceed to show her how much I want her, how much I need her, how much I love her.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear Readers,
I’m a big fan of Alexa Riley’s smutty novels and she loves shifters. Me too! We agreed that we would write a few shifter novellas for each other.
This January, please enjoy the four Bear Bites novellas. After January, I'll be returning to the big blue aliens we all know and love. Stay tuned!
Lastly, if you enjoy the books, please, please leave a review. Tell me what you think and who you’re hoping to see in future books. Tell me if you want more books and what kind! I want to know your thoughts and leaving reviews helps me as an author in so many ways.
— Roo
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I’m a loner for a reason. I don’t have much in the way of social skills. I’d rather sit on my deck and watch the sunset than hit a tavern with coworkers. My idea of grooming is to trim my beard with a straight blade when it hits my collarbone. I can’t put two words together in the company of a pretty woman…and they don’t come much prettier than wolf-shifter Madison Thorne.
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Book 1 – now available on KINDLE UNLIMITED! Click here to borrow.
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