by Lisa Kessler
I went around to her side of the table and settled in the chair beside her. Taking her hands in mine, I whispered, “I should’ve told you about being my mate earlier, but I felt so shitty about dating those other women while you babysat that I wanted a chance to win you over first.” I ran my thumbs over her knuckles as I searched her eyes. “You deserve to be swept off your feet, Bec, and I keep fucking it all up.” She chuckled, and I smiled, shaking my head. “I am the luckiest bastard on Earth that fate tied us together. And someday I hope you’ll feel the same way.”
She leaned forward and gently kissed my lips. The tender caress had my entire body on fire. When she opened her eyes, her gaze looked directly into my soul. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
She squeezed my hands. “For being honest with me. I’m still grappling with the reality of all this. Between finding out shifters are real to discovering my mom’s brother is involved in some kind of mission to wipe you all out.” She shook her head. “It makes it tough to bask in the glow that this amazing single dad with an adorable set of twins is in my house letting me kiss him…” She raised a teasing brow. “It’s going to take me a little while to process all this.”
I wanted to hold this memory forever. She was so fucking resilient. Could anyone else have handled being shot at and discovering impossible secrets and still be sitting here smiling at me forty-eight hours later? No. My mate was special. She was my missing piece.
“Take all the time you need.” And I meant it. She was worth waiting for.
“The more I try to wrap my brain around all of this, I keep thinking I was brought to this moment, we both were. I had no idea my uncles were in the Transparency Collective, or that werewolves were real, or that I settled in Sedona where my blood family would collide with my friends. And you came here with no idea you’d be bitten or become a dad or find me. What are the chances? And yet, here we are eating Chinese food…”
Her voice trailed off as she met my eyes. “I never would have been able to afford to stay here if it wasn’t for my uncle Burt. He’d made a fortune when his tech company sold some widgets and codes to Google, and when he died in that car accident on his way home from a fundraiser for Senator Hanson a few years ago, he left me a trust fund. That’s how I bought this house.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Don’t tell Asher, but I only work for him because I enjoy it. I don’t need the money.”
I chuckled. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Maybe the Sedona metaphysical vibe is rubbing off on me, but it seems like we were drawn here for this moment, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “I agree.” I set my chopsticks aside. “There’s something else we should talk about.”
“Okay…”
“Your uncle thinks he has a cure for my sons.” I ground my teeth, struggling to control my emotions.
“I know, but if he met them, he’d see they’re perfect. I can’t believe he’d go through with it, but…” She broke eye contact, staring at the floor. “There’s so much I didn’t know.”
I hooked my finger under her chin, lifting her face until her eyes met mine. The wolf growled in my soul, sensing my rising aggression. “If he tries to take my children or hurts them in any way, I will kill him.”
The words hung heavy in the silence, but I needed her to understand that this wasn’t an empty threat. “We live in a dangerous world where death is on the table every day. I wish it could be different, but this is my reality. I don’t know if Asher made that clear before. If your family comes for mine, I will sacrifice everything, my life if I have to, and I will protect those little boys.”
I held my breath, waiting for her to respond. She finally nodded slowly. “I hope it won’t come to that, but if he abducts children, then I never really knew him anyway.”
I cupped her cheek, memorizing every angle of her face. “I hope you never regret this.”
She turned to press a kiss to my palm before meeting my eyes. “I’m no stranger to regrets, but I feel good about my chances.”
I tipped my head. “Says the woman who got shot at the first time she ever came over to my place.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Hell of a meet-cute, right? ‘It took a sniper for them to see they were meant for each other all along.’”
I smiled as I fused my lips to hers. She was a damned miracle.
CHAPTER 12
Becca
His tongue tangled slowly with mine until heat smoldered low in my belly. I wanted so much more than a kiss. What did that say about me? He’d been clear about the line in the sand. If my uncle crossed it, Gage would finish this battle.
And instead of protecting my biological family, I had chosen the pack. They were my family now.
The realization had me reeling. It was as if my life had been on hold since I lost my dad, and suddenly the tether snapped and I was free-falling.
I broke the kiss, breathless. “I should put the food away before it goes bad.”
He raised a brow, his chest heaving a little. Desire burned in his eyes, and part of me loved seeing he wanted me, but the other half of me wondered if I really have that kind of effect on him or if it was all the wolf instincts?
I stood, but he caught my hand. “Talk to me.”
What could I say? I couldn’t pull my thoughts together coherently right now while my body was screaming to forget everything and get him naked and my head was questioning if I was a traitor to my family.
Or had they cut me out long ago and I had just never noticed?
“I just need a minute,” I said.
He released my hand. “Do you want some help?”
I chuckled. “That would defeat the purpose of getting my head together.”
He raised a brow. “Are you saying I might distract you?”
“You are a walking distraction.” I went into the kitchen and started closing all the takeout containers. He must’ve bought one of everything. It was pretty adorable.
I risked a glance into the dining area. Gage was texting on his phone, treating me to nice view of his profile. His features were rugged and masculine. The hard angles of his jaw were in opposition to his warm smile and soft lips, and his green eyes were so easy to get lost in.
And I was his mate, the partner chosen for him by fate.
I still wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I liked Gage, and the more time I spent with him, the more I liked him. He made me laugh, he gave me space when I asked for it, and he didn’t seem to get butt hurt over it. Which was good because I was used to being alone. I liked it.
But so far, being with him hadn’t felt suffocating. I had run from my last romantic relationship, unable to breathe. My dad had helped me dust myself off, and then I’d lost him, too. I shoved the dark thoughts away and started loading the leftovers into my fridge.
I reached for a cleaning wipe and got started on the counter. Cleaning was a compulsion when I needed to sort things out. Being able to control something, to have a visual outcome that was up to me, helped me calm the trouble brewing in my head.
When I finished the counter, I started on the sink. The thoughts, however, kept swirling.
If Gage had never been bitten, would we have ended up here tonight? Would I have kissed him today? Henry and Hawk never would have been born. My heart twisted at the thought. And Samantha… If she’d never been bitten, would she still be alive?
Then something else popped into my head, and I froze. Had Uncle Mitch been in the Transparency Collective before Samantha had come to Sedona, or had his obsession with hurting people who were different began after his daughter had been taken? It seemed like an important question. I reached for the handle of my junk drawer and sifted through the loose batteries, screwdrivers, lighters, and tiny flashlights to find a pen and pad of Post-its.
I jotted the thought down, followed by one more…
Could Samantha have known about the Collective?
I set the pen down and turned around to find Gage leaning ag
ainst my cabinets. “Everything okay?”
I glanced at my notes and back to his face. “Did Samantha ever mention her dad to you? Did you know he was a judge?”
He shook his head. “No. Why?”
“Because if my uncle Burt was involved with the Collective when he died, that could be when my uncle Mitch got pulled in. And if that’s the case, then this vendetta against werewolves has nothing to do with them taking Samantha.”
He came closer. “What are you saying?”
“I’m not sure yet.” I set the Post-its on the counter and met his eyes. “I was thinking about Samantha and how we all ended up here in Sedona. If I hadn’t have come here to meet her for the retreat, and if you had never been bitten, we probably never would have met.”
He took my hand. “I was thinking about that earlier, too. It’s like we all got woven into this world without our knowledge, like there’s a plan but I didn’t get to make it.”
“Exactly.” My pulse kicked up, and not because he was close—although, no one would blame my heart for responding to such a hot guy standing in my kitchen. My heart was racing because he and I were on the same wavelength, and it felt like we were getting closer to unraveling something important.
Then I recognized it. Passion. And not just for the physical draw to him but for putting together pieces of a puzzle. God, I hadn’t felt this good since…since I’d dropped out of college. This was the high I used to get discussing cases with my dad. This was what I had always imagined I’d be doing with my life—protecting people through investigation.
I looked up at Gage. “You said General Sloan might have told Caldwell you’d make a good werewolf, right?”
“It’s definitely possible.”
I took his hand. “And Henry and Hawk weren’t born in the hospital. They don’t have birth certificates?”
“That’s right.” He paused. “I’ve been trying to figure out how the judge could’ve found out that my kids could be related to him.”
My breath hitched. “I don’t think my cousin was bitten by mistake.”
He frowned, shaking his head. “What are you saying?”
“I need to talk to my uncle to be sure, but I think there are two possibilities.” I tapped the Post-its, thinking out loud. “Either Caldwell chose Samantha to punish my uncle because he knew about Uncle Mitch’s involvement in the Collective.” I met Gage’s eyes again. “Or Samantha was in the Collective, too.”
Gage came closer to me, staring at the Post-its. He shook his head slowly. “You think she knew about werewolves when she came to Sedona?”
“I think it’s a possibility.” I waited for him to look at me and added, “She must’ve called her dad after you defeated the old Alpha. There’s no other way he could know about those boys.”
He rubbed a hand down his face. “She loved those babies. I can’t believe she’d turn them over to be studied or exposed to the world as monsters. She wouldn’t.”
The thought turned my stomach. “That’s why I need to talk to my uncle.” I looked at my note. “We may never know, but I don’t see how he would know about the boys unless either Caldwell or Samantha told him.”
He ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. “Fuck.”
I set the notes aside and crossed my arms. “I’m going to go to Phoenix.”
He caught my hand so fast I almost gasped. “No.” He shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Uncle Mitch thinks I can help him. As long as he believes I’m an ally, I’m safe.”
He pondered that and met my eyes. “What good will it do? You’re not going to be able to persuade him to give up his mission.”
“I have to try.” I placed my other hand on his chest. “Remember when you asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I couldn’t name anything off the top of my head?”
“Yeah.” His thumb caressed my knuckles in a silent show of support.
“I was in college studying law enforcement. I wanted to be an FBI agent, like my dad. I lost my way after he died, and I’ve been floundering ever since. But tonight you…” I searched his eyes. “You helped me find this missing piece of who I am.”
Saying the words out loud cracked something in my chest. I wasn’t a werewolf. I didn’t have a mate. I didn’t have an instinct pushing me to care about this man. But I did care. And God, he had just given me something I’d spent years in Sedona searching for…myself.
I bunched my hands in his shirt, pulling him closer, and his fingers slid into my hair as he bent to claim my lips. Sparks ignited behind my eyelids as our tongues wrestled urgently. I clung to him like a lifeline in a storm. The passion he stoked in me was physical, mental, and emotional. I felt it all the way to the depths of my soul. This was something I’d never experienced, something I wanted to drown in, something I would fight to protect.
He picked me up, setting me on the kitchen counter, and I opened my thighs, aching for him. It had been years since I’d been with a guy. Would I still know what the hell to do? I slipped my hands under his shirt, my fingers exploring his smooth, hard torso. All the insecure whispers were silenced by raw hunger.
I needed him, this closeness. He broke the kiss long enough to yank off his shirt, then mine. He wrapped me in his arms, claiming my lips over and over as he unfastened my bra and took it off before dropping it to the floor. His gaze wandered over me with a yearning that made me feel like the sexiest woman alive.
He cupped my breasts, toying with my taut nipples, and kissed me hard and slow, growling against my mouth. “I hate that I didn’t bring a damned condom.”
His admission meant he’d been telling me the truth earlier. He really hadn’t come to my place with an agenda. I knew he wanted me, but he still would’ve given me all the time I needed.
His lips moved down my neck as I ran my fingers through his hair. “I’m on birth control,” I whispered.
He licked my nipple, drawing a raw moan from my throat. He groaned in answer. “If I don’t have you naked soon, I’m going to lose my mind.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” I didn’t recognize my own voice, so breathy with yearning.
Gage stepped back, his gaze locked on me as he unbuttoned his jeans. I suddenly realized we were going to have sex in my kitchen, and instead of dragging him to my bedroom, I hooked my thumbs in the top of my leggings and lifted my hips so I could wriggle them lower down my hips.
He came to me and tugged them off my legs, dropping them on the floor with the rest of our clothes. His mouth curved into a sexy crooked smile. “No offense to the Chinese food and the movie, but you were all I really wanted tonight.”
He kissed me long and deep as he slid his hands under my thighs and drew me to the edge of the counter, pushing my knees even farther apart as he trailed kisses down my neck and to my breasts. I watched his tongue slowly lick my nipples as his gaze locked on mine. He pressed searing kisses lower and lower until he was between my legs, sucking at the inside of one thigh and then the other while he traced his finger along my core from top to bottom. My hips bucked as I rested my hands on the counter behind me, bracing myself.
His tongue followed the trail of his finger and my head lolled back as pleasure shot through me like lightning. He moaned into me as he parted my lips and devoured me with his mouth and tongue. I writhed on the counter, lost in the pleasure. He brought one hand up, squeezing and kneading my breast until he’d kindled a war inside me—half of me wanting this never to end while the other half screamed for release.
He pinched my nipple, drawing a gasp from my lips as he slid two fingers, and then three, inside me. I worked my hips into him faster until my inner muscles clenched and my orgasm slammed into me. My hips raised from the counter, but Gage kept me from sliding off and kissed his way up my body as the aftershocks made me tremble.
He brushed his lips to mine as his erection teased at my opening. “Are you ready for me, Bec?”
Holy shit, I almost came again. I nodded, moaning into hi
s mouth. “Yes. Please.”
He entered me slowly at first, his teeth catching my lower lip, sending a shiver through me. Between tasting myself on his lips and the way his hand was gripping my ass like I was his, some primal whispers echoed through my head. This was my mate, my man. Gage was mine.
Our tongues danced as he filled me completely. I wrapped my legs around his waist as his thrusts came faster. He held me tight with one arm and his other hand moved between us. When his fingertips brushed my sensitive core, I broke the kiss with a breathless moan. “Right there.”
He grinned, kissing down my neck. “I want to feel you come.”
Oh, and I was going to. Between his hips pounding into me and his fingers playing me like we’d been lovers forever, I was so close to the edge I could barely breathe. My nails dug into his shoulders as my orgasm swelled. My inner muscles clenched and took him with me as he erupted deep inside me.
We clung to each other in my kitchen. His ragged breath warmed my neck as I stroked my fingers though the back of his hair. It was like an erotic dream. I wasn’t really naked on my kitchen counter. But I blinked my eyes open and spotted our clothes in a pile on the floor.
His calloused thumb traced a lazy circle on the small of my back as he moved his other hand from between us. He nibbled at my earlobe and whispered, “Are you all right? Cold?”
Was I? His body was hot against me as an exhausted smile tugged at my lips. “I’m okay as long as you don’t move.”
His erection pulsed inside me, and I chuckled. “Hey.”
He lifted his head with a grin. “Aftershocks. Not my fault.”
His smile softened as he stared into my eyes. His pupils widened as he sucked in a slow breath and whispered, “I give you my heart, my protection, and my life.”
I brought my hand to his cheek. “You barely know me.”
But there was something in his eyes, something wild and fierce. The wolf. He was still Gage, but I was certain the whisper had come from the animal.