by Golden Angel
She shrugged, sliding her hands down her body while he watched, and then onto his, bringing them to rest on his chest. "I didn't want to forget to ask again."
With an irate growl, Mr. Don't-Question-Me flipped her over onto her back, pinning her hands by the side of her head and looming over her like the irate, alpha male that he was. Bethany could sense his astonishment that she would even question him over this, as well as his impatience with and affection for her.
"Woman, you are going to drive me insane," he snapped out. "Yes, you would be my true, fated mate, period. That's how it works. The only way we wouldn’t be is if we'd met after I'd mated someone else, that bond would have already been broken and we would have never known."
Now it was Bethany's turn to growl at the idea of Steele mated to someone else. He grinned down at her, pleased at her show of jealousy. Asshole.
"So you're saying you're stuck with me, even though you wouldn't have chosen me."
The expression on his face was priceless. Totally worth it. She didn't really think that way - he'd been pretty obvious about making their relationship more than just a biological urge. Plus, she could feel his emotions towards her, and they were far more than just tolerant or resigned acceptance. In fact, right now, she was pissing him off and turning him on, simultaneously. Yay multi-tasking!
He narrowed his eyes at her and rocked his body, pressing her wetness against his hard cock and making her gasp. Bethany was very suddenly aware of just how big and heavy he was atop her, and how helpless she was with his big hands pressing her wrists into the mattress and her legs spread over his hips. She licked her lips as arousal shot through her. Steele rocked again and she shuddered as the pleasure shot through her.
"I would have chased you down and made you mine even without the mate bond," he said, rocking his hips again for emphasis. Bethany whimpered and writhed, her pussy pulsing as he pulled his hips back and slid just the head of his cock into her pussy, teasing her with it. "You're tough, you're funny, you're protective, bossy, independent, and you're a survivor. You're everything I ever wanted in a mate."
Lowering his lips to her ear, he paused for just a moment.
"You never had a chance, sweetheart," he whispered, and thrust his whole cock into her slick sheath to punctuate his claim. Bethany cried out as he stretched her with his thick length, lifting her hips to take all of him, her body greedy to have him inside of her.
She wanted to reach up and touch him, but Mr. On-Top-and-In-Charge had completely taken over. Between the teasing and then her questions, he needed to reestablish his dominance, and he'd obviously decided to do so by fulfilling the promise that he'd made her. Even though she wanted to touch him, she found herself loving this display of alpha-male aggressiveness. That could also be because it felt really, really good.
This was one area she was totally okay with him being Mr. Bossy-Without-Pants. It didn't tick her off, in fact it totally turned her on.
"Harder!" she demanded, pushing up off the bed to meet each of his thrusts.
Growling, Steele pulled out instead and she squealed her protest as he flipped her over, gasping when he pushed back inside of her the second he got her on all fours. Holy crap... he felt even bigger in this position... and she suddenly realized that it was a very submissive position. Which, she was totally okay with.
As his cock pressed into her, it rubbed right over her g-spot, making her shudder as the sensation rolled through her. His body pressed against her ass, one hand pushing down the middle of her back, the other wrapped around her hip to hold her in place. And it felt a-fucking-mazing. Both her human and animal sides were totally in sync on this position and loving every second of it.
******
His mate's rounded ass rippled with the force of his thrusts as he pounded into her, the whimpering noises she was making driving him harder and faster. Having her completely at his mercy, taking his cock with every evidence of enthusiasm, and lifting her hips to take him deeper, had his own control sliding away.
When she screamed his name, it completely undid it.
His wolf howled as he threw his head back, unloading all his stress and fear and adrenaline from the fight into her willing body, her pussy clenching around him and milking his cock. Leaning forward, pressing his hands onto the bed next to hers, he covered her body completely as his orgasm left him feeling utterly, satisfactorily, drained.
Beneath him, Bethany slumped, her bottom still tilted up, but he could feel her going lax. Wrapping one arm around her waist, he fell onto his side, pulling her with him to keep them intimately connected. Nuzzling the back of her neck, he slid his other arm under her head to pillow her.
"Mmmm..." The absolute content in her voice had him grinning with smugness. It was probably a good thing they were spooning so that she couldn't see his face.
Still, he couldn't help but feel that there was a trap somewhere in here for him.
"So, you definitely accept that you're my mate?"
Her body shook against his as she giggled. "Didn't we already go over this?"
"Just making sure." His fingers tickled her stomach, making her squirm and giggle even more. "After all, you didn't reassure me that you want me as your mate for all the right reasons."
"It's because you have a huge cock."
Steele growled and she giggled again, then shrieked as he tickled her harder, thrashing and trying to get away from him. Squirming around, she met his gaze, mischief in her bright blue eyes. He scowled at her. "I demand a recounting of all my best attributes to sum up why you've accepted me as your mate. My huge cock only counts as one."
Laughing, she poked his stomach and shook her head ruefully. "Not ticklish at all."
"Nope." Huge lie, but he wasn't going to tell her about the backs of his knees. That information was going to be kept from her for as long as possible. Which meant that he needed to keep her away from his sisters for as long as possible too.
She sighed. "Fine. You're hot, you have a huge cock, you're a really fantastic lover-" He growled at her again and she rolled her eyes. "You're kind of a woman with how much reassurance you need - eek! Wait! Stop!" She burrowed into him as a defense, and he stopped tickling her because he really liked the way she felt all pressed up against his chest. With her face buried underneath his head, her voice became a little softer, a little more vulnerable - as if it was hard for her to actually say the words. "You're protective and bossy, but I truly believe that you care, and you make me feel safe - which I didn't think would ever happen - and you make me feel comfortable. Even though everything is new here, I feel like I'm home."
The admission made Steele cough a little. That escalated quickly. They were both a little emotionally raw now. Holding her tight, he knew his voice was a little gruff but that couldn't be helped. "Well as long as you know and acknowledge how awesome I am - ow!"
She'd bit him!
******
When they woke up a few hours later, Steele wasn't surprised to smell that the first floor of his house had pretty much been taken over by his pack. Everyone wanted to know what was going on, of course. Plus, check out to make sure the alpha couple was okay. They’d been remarkably patient, considering that no one had come upstairs to wake him and Bethany from their nap.
He could tell that Bethany was a little surprised and uncomfortable with the large crowd of people, but she held her own. It helped that everyone enthusiastically went out of their way to make her feel welcome. They were all thrilled that Steele’s mate had finally accepted the position - and that she was such a strong asset. Everyone had been curious about her animal too, and seeing Bethany's surprise, consternation, and then awe as everyone accepted her completely made him grin.
Before they'd come downstairs, she'd asked him if her animal bothered him and he'd been shocked that she was even worried. That was one big, badass bunny she had inside of her and Steele was thrilled that his mate could take care of herself - and wanted to. Although, if she jumped in front of a bullet
again, he still reserved the right to spank her, protective turtle shell or no.
In the kitchen, Kasim and Dr. Phil's wife, a koala shifter named Aubri, were showing Bailey how to make meat stew - Steele could also smell a roast already in the oven, and there was a veritable buffet already laid out on his kitchen table. Dr. Phil and Doc were in close conversation near the television, which made them hard to overheard, so he guessed they were probably talking about the Bunsons. Jacqueline, Jordan, and Raoul were all crowded onto the couch with their squads ranged around the room, watching the college basketball game on the television. The group near the food, which mostly consisted of older females, were the ones currently fussing over Bethany.
Lacy King, Vivian March, and Edith Bryant, the three matriarchs of the pack, were all in full on mothering mode. He had a feeling they were miffed at being denied their chance to mother Bailey and be involved in the cooking lessons, so now that Bethany was available to them, they were taking full advantage. Especially since she was the new alpha female. The talk centered around having a mating ceremony, just to make things completely official and to give the pack an excuse to celebrate. Bethany seemed to take their enthusiastic planning with good humor.
He could feel his mate's wonderment as she soaked up the attention; nervous but pleased to be fussed over. That kind of surprised him since she seemed to consider his fussing to be overprotective and bossy, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The ladies would be able to help Bethany with everything she needed to know about everyone and everything in the pack, and they'd be thrilled to do it. Besides which, he had no doubt the Bunson sisters could use a little benevolent mothering.
Leaning back against the wall, he looked over his little kingdom, feeling that everything was just as it should be.
Epilogue
Bethany couldn't believe how quickly she'd been assimilated into town life after just a couple of days. She'd thought it would be difficult, considering how long she and her siblings had been kept in a laboratory, but everyone seemed to want to help. Even Steele's ex-lovers had been incredibly sweet and helpful... which she thought she would find weird, but ended up just making sense. None of them had expected to mate him and so they were happy for him that he'd found the perfect mate.
While she obviously wouldn't be so cavalier about him if she was his ex, she could understand why none of them were bitter about not being his mate. They wanted their own mates, not someone else's.
Going by what Edith said (and Bethany was quickly learning that when it came to gossip, Edith's word was gold), none of them had expected to be his mate either and they'd only ever had the most superficial of relationships. Plus, it helped that Bethany had been perfectly nice to them when she'd met them. Of course, she hadn't known they were Steele's exes at the time, but she'd decided it was probably better that way. They were just part of the huge group of people living here and she preferred that they blend into the crowd.
Besides, she had no energy to be jealous. There was too much to see and learn. Not only were she and Bailey catching up on the news and culture that they'd missed while they were being held captive (so many movies to watch!), but there was plenty to learn about the town as well. Vivian, Edith and Lacy, three older ladies who were best friends and had been kind of holding the position of alpha female collectively, had taken both Bethany and Bailey under their wing. Now that Bethany was no longer resisting the idea of being Steele’s mate, and was willing to talk about holding a ceremony, she had no problem spending time with them them. And they were a lot of fun.
There had been feminine pampering in the form of haircuts, manicures, pedicures, and some painful waxing at Vivian's salon (their hair done by Vivian herself, which Edith informed them was a rare treat, since Vivian rarely cut hair herself anymore), shopping, endless introductions to the residents, training with Steele's squads, runs with Bailey to get her used to her shifted form, and learning how to do all sorts of things they needed for day-to-day life. Poor Bailey was even more behind than Bethany; she'd never had the chance to learn how to cook or do the laundry or all sorts of day to day activities. Bethany wasn't much help since she barely remembered how to do a lot of that either.
Kasim had really stepped up to the plate when it came to helping Bailey out while Bethany was busy... Vivian was like a shark scenting blood when it came to pushing the two of them together. Lacy whispered to Bethany that Vivian and her husband Arthur had never had children so Vivian took it upon herself to mother everyone. And she considered herself the resident matchmaker. So far neither Bailey nor Kasim seemed to be interested in doing more than flirting, but that was okay. He wasn’t the only one Bailey was flirting with either, but he didn’t seem to mind, so it wasn’t like they were fated mates or anything. Besides, they would have known right away if they were, the way Steele had known with Bethany.
Despite Vivian's pushy personality, she and Bethany got along incredibly well. It helped that Vivian was balanced out by gossipy, flaky, friendly Edith, and shy, sweet Lacy.
Everything would be perfect... except that she knew her mate was hiding something from her.
Whenever she went to visit Mr. Too-Good-To-Be-True? at work, he would come rushing out to meet her outside his office door - which he always closed behind him. As if he didn't want her to even be able to look in there. Which, considering how fucking awesome Bethany was being about meeting his ex-lovers, she was pretty ticked about. Just what was so bad that he didn't want her to know about it?
There were also the occasional phone calls that he always took outside. Or in his home office, which was soundproofed, much to her dismay. Not that she'd tried to listen in. Well, she hadn't tried really hard, anyway.
Even Bailey agreed that he was being kind of sketchy, although she insisted that he would have a perfectly logical reason for his behavior, if Bailey would just talk to him about it. But Bailey also worshiped the ground Steele walked on, and she just didn't understand how hard it was for Bethany to talk to Steele about this.
Anything else - hell yeah. They talked about anything and everything. He told her about his sisters - Violet, Iris, Rose, Lily and Pansy - and the way his parents spoiled them. They talked about how his father had taught him to be both an alpha and a wolf, and why he'd eventually started his own pack without actually meaning to. It had just kind of happened when he'd created the town and then his soldiers had started wanting their mates to live with them, and they'd all needed basic services, and it had just eventually become a small town, filled with all sorts of shifters. That was, in part, because Steele was happy to accept any kind of shifter into his pack - which was probably why they all accepted the Bunsons so easily. There were all sorts of shifters, from Jacqueline the honey-badger to Walt the camel to Brian the manatee (who was, strangely enough, afraid of water). It was the only place a bear-sized bunny could possibly hope to fit in.
Which was why she was so afraid to talk to Steele. She didn't want to lose what she and Bailey had here... whatever he was hiding, it had to be bad. He'd told her pretty much everything else about his life and his work, no matter how embarrassing or awful it was.
The man had even admitted that his real name was Stephanotis. Yeah, that's right, like the flower. Just like his sisters. He'd trusted Bethany with that - after swearing her to secrecy, she couldn't even tell Bailey - so what did he feel he had to hide from her?
She didn't think he was cheating on her or anything like that. They had sex in every position imaginable, at all times of the day, and (if that weren't enough reassurance) she was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to block that through the bond. And yes, he was definitely blocking something from her, but all she was able to pick up a low level of consternation and a tiny bit of guilt.
It was driving her fucking insane.
So really, it was nobody's fault but his that she did something a little crazy.
"Ouch."
"Shhh," Bethany hissed.
"These vents are too fucking small," Bailey
mumbled.
"Shhhh!"
Bethany was regretting bringing her sister along, even though she'd wanted Bailey there for moral support.
They were breaking into Steele's office. He thought they were at the florist's, learning about flowers from Edith's daughter Maybelle, but Maybelle was covering for them. She was a sweetheart, just like her mom, although much less flaky than Edith was. Of course, Edith was retired and Maybelle was running a shop, so that might have something to do with it. It was easy to be flaky when you didn't have any responsibilities.
Unfortunately, moving through the vents in Steele's building wasn't as easy as anticipated. Bailey was taller and had longer limbs than Bethany did, and so she was having much more trouble moving along.
"Ouch!"
"You should shift," Bethany whispered, poking Bailey’s ankle.
"What?"
"Shift!"
"Oh... why didn't I think of that?"
A couple seconds later, Bailey's clothes crumpled, empty, and the little white bunny nosed its way out of the cloth. Bethany sighed. Great, now she was going to have to drag Bailey's clothing along as she moved. Bailey twitched her nose, like she had come to the same realization and was laughing inside.
The good news was, they moved a heck of a lot better now, even with Bethany having to drag Bailey's clothes. They'd both dressed in identical black pants and t-shirts - not that anyone could see them, but it just seemed like the right outfit for sneaking. She'd even put a black knit hat over her blonde hair. It made her feel very ninja.
Of course, none of that mattered now with Bailey's fluffy white ass hopping through the vents. She was moving a lot faster than Bethany, being careful to stay as quiet as she could. When she slowed down, Bethany knew that they must be getting close to Steele's office.
Her heart pounded as Bailey stopped and she drew closer. Part of her wondered if she really wanted to know what was going on... but she knew that if she didn't find out soon, she was going to explode all over her mate and not in a good way.