Tempting His Mate

by Savannah Stuart

  Eventually Eve pulled back, her eyes puffy as she wiped away stray tears. “Do you forgive me?”

  “Of course I do. Now sit and let me tell you a few things.” As her sister sat back down, Ella grabbed two wine glasses. “Frederico and I never fit. Not even a little bit.” They’d had chemistry for a while, but that was the extent of their relationship—which hadn’t been all that long anyway. There had been no depth. She didn’t get into all that though. “I might have been the one who broke up with him, but I just happened to do what we’d both been hedging around. We hadn’t even…” Ella felt strange telling her sister any of this, but decided to just lay it out there. “Slept together in months before the breakup. I’m pretty sure he’d started developing feelings for you before we broke up.”

  Her sister’s face reddened and she knew she’d guessed right. When another thought occurred to her, anger snapped inside her. “Did you sleep with him while we were together?”

  Eve’s eyes widened. “No! Never! We didn’t do anything, not even flirt. I just…I liked him and thought he was funny and smart. Whenever he came over to Mom and Dad’s weekly dinners I looked forward to talking to him. And felt insanely guilty afterward every time. He never…we never…” She gestured wildly with her hands for a moment as she trailed off.

  Ella breathed out a sigh of relief she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as she poured both their drinks. “I saw the way he looked at you one Sunday and that was the clincher for me. I honestly think I just beat him to the punch.”

  Eve took the extended drink. “Yeah, that’s what he said too.”

  Ella lifted her drink and softly clinked it with Eve’s. “It’s water under the bridge then.” The apology went a long way in soothing her hurt feelings, especially since Eve was sincere. She was surprised by what her sister had said though. Ella hadn’t thought Eve had any insecurities.

  At the sound of the front door opening Ella peered around the corner into the hallway and saw Asher. Her heart jumped in her throat. Every time she saw him it was the same, her belly filled with tingles and she just wanted to jump the sexy male.

  He gave her a lopsided smile as he strode down the hallway. His steps faltered once, probably because he scented a stranger, but he continued to the kitchen. Without pause he pulled her into his arms and gave her a bone-melting kiss before turning to nod at Eve. But he kept his arm wrapped tightly around Ella’s shoulders.

  “Asher, this is my sister Eve. Eve, this is my mate, Asher. She’s going to be joining us for dinner.”

  Eve seemed nervous as she shook his hand, but also pleased by what Ella had said.

  They both murmured versions of ‘Nice to meet you,’ before Asher dropped a kiss on Ella’s head then headed to the bedroom to change out of his suit just like he always did. He might work in the civilized world, but nothing about him was. He didn’t stay in a suit longer than he had to.

  Once he’d gone, Eve slid off her chair. “I’m going to go see Lauren and smooth things over with her as well. She was really pissed about what I did too.”

  Ella shook her head. “You don’t have to go. Dinner will be ready in forty-five minutes.”

  “I’ll be back by then.” Eve nodded in the direction of the bedroom. “I think even a human could scent his need for you. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting anyone so go have fun with your man. I’ll be back soon.”

  “Are you in town long?” Sadness filled her at the thought of Eve leaving so soon. Right then she realized how much she’d missed her.

  “I brought a bag, but…” Eve shrugged.

  She probably hadn’t been sure of her reception. “Bring your bag when you come back. You can stay with us for a few days. I’ll show you around and we can catch up on everything.”

  Eve lunged at her then, throwing her arms around her neck. “I’ve missed you, Ella.”

  She returned the hug, holding her sister tight. “I’ve missed you too.” More than she’d wanted to admit even to herself.

  Once her sister had gone, Ella hurried to the bedroom. To her surprise Asher pinned her against the wall the second she stepped inside.

  He was completely naked, his thick erection pressing against her belly as he nuzzled her neck. “I’ve been thinking about you all damn day. You can tell me about your sister later, but now…” He playfully nipped the sensitive area where her neck and shoulder met.

  Moaning, she arched into his kiss and instinctively wrapped her legs around him. Without pause, he gripped her behind and she knew that in seconds she’d be stripped and flat on her back. Either on the floor or the bed. Depended on how wired Asher was.

  She held onto the back of his neck and squeezed lightly. “Kiss me,” she demanded.

  Lifting his head, he crushed his mouth over hers, giving her exactly what she craved. The need to taste him was too much. When they landed on the floor, she knew things were going to be fast and furious this first time. She couldn’t wait.

  Life with Asher was more than she’d ever hoped for. They fought like any other couple and had normal problems, but she’d rather be fighting with him than be without him. He made her feel whole in a way that seemed unreal. “I love you,” she murmured against his mouth.

  “Love you too,” he whispered before reaching between them and practically ripping her jeans free.

  Oh yeah, her mate was going to turn her into a puddle of need by asserting his dominant side in the bedroom. Ella smiled and stretched out beneath his weight, savoring the feel of his warm, hard body against hers. When he surged into her with a primitive growl, she wrapped her arms around him and cried out his name, claiming him in turn.

  Thank you for reading Tempting His Mate! I really hope you enjoyed it. Please consider leaving a review at one of the major retailers. It’s a great way to help other readers discover new books.

  Keep reading for a sneak peek of Claiming His Mate, a sexy paranormal novella set in the same world as Tempting His Mate.

  Excerpt from

  Claiming His Mate

  by Savannah Stuart

  Copyright © 2013 Savannah Stuart

  Lauren Hayes shoved a wayward strand of hair under the knit cap she wore as she slid up to the outside back wall of the quiet, two-story house. The black cover over her hair had nothing to do with the chilly October weather. Right now she was all about blending into the shadows this cold fall night. Which meant dressing in all black, like a sneaky burglar.

  Because she was about to do something stupid. Incredibly stupid. She inwardly berated herself.

  There was no turning back now. Shifters were notorious gossips and word had spread through the grapevine that Grant Kincaid, alpha of the Kincaid wolf pack in Gulf Shores, Alabama was on a honeymoon.

  With his new human mate.

  That by itself had shocked the shifter world. Kincaid’s father had been a brutal bastard—before he’d died. A shitty alpha who’d hated anyone who wasn’t supernatural. Or at least that’s what Lauren had heard.

  The current alpha was two hundred years old and she was twenty-five so it wasn’t as if they’d ever run in the same circles. She’d also heard Grant wasn’t like his father and from the brief meeting she and her pride had with him six months ago, she had to agree that he seemed pretty decent.

  Even if he was a stubborn ass who refused to give her family back what was rightfully theirs. Now that the alpha was out of town, she and some of her pridemates had decided to break into his house.

  To steal from him.

  Maybe steal was a bit of a stretch, she thought as she moved against the side of the house. Wind whipped around her, sending another shiver racing through her. She was simply taking back something that belonged to her family’s pride. She had to remind herself of that. Her sister was getting married in two weeks and the broach the elder Kincaid had taken from her family almost a hundred years ago was supposed to have been a wedding gift when the oldest Hayes daughter got married. The piece of jewelry had been in their family for centuries. Well, the je
wels had been. Three, four-carat—colorless—diamonds and a handful of emeralds had been passed down from oldest daughter to oldest daughter in some form of jewelry ever since. When Lauren’s mother had received a necklace from her mother, she’d had the jewels put into a broach instead.

  And Lauren desperately wanted to give it to her sister Stacia as a wedding gift. She deserved it.

  Since Lauren was one of the few shifters on the planet who could mask their scent from other shifters, vampires and pretty much all supernatural beings, she’d been more or less volunteered for the job by her cousins. She also had a knack for breaking into places. Not that she was normally a thief. Her cousin Tommy, however, was. When she’d been twelve he’d taught her a lot of tricks, including picking locks and hotwiring cars. Her parents had been so pissed when they’d found out. After she stole back what was rightfully theirs, she bet they’d be glad she had those extra skills. Of course they’d be angry at her for doing this, but she’d known if she told them they would have ordered her not to. She figured it was better to do this then beg forgiveness later.

  She had a few pridemates waiting a mile away in case she ran into trouble, but they had to stay out of sight unless she called them.

  Right now they were all on Kincaid territory. Didn’t matter that it was a touristy beach town right on the Gulf Coast and that humans had no idea a shifter pack had carved out an area to live here. As a jaguar shifter, she knew she shouldn’t be here without permission so if she got caught she was so screwed. Wolves weren’t known for being forgiving. And stealing from an alpha? She shoved those thoughts out of her head. If she was scared, she couldn’t work.

  Here goes nothing.

  The two story house was raised like most houses on the beach but he also had an upstairs patio that she planned to use to her full advantage. She shimmied up one of the columns with a preternatural speed and hoisted herself up and over the lattice style barrier. Being a cat, she was nimble and quick on her feet, but it still took strength to do this in human form.

  Crouching low to the ground, she carefully looked around the large patio at the closed French doors and then back at the beach. The waves sounded softly about a hundred yards away, the calm methodic rhythm doing little to soothe the nerves punching through her. She was about to break into an alpha’s home. So, so, so stupid. But it would make her mother and sister happy.

  Thankfully the quarter moon was hidden by clouds, further helping her cover. She’d been watching the Kincaid pack’s comings and goings for the last week in preparation for tonight. It was midnight so almost every one of them was at one of the many bars or the hotel Kincaid owned. They all worked together as a big family. Their hours were more like vampires’ than shifters’, but clearly it worked for the pack because they were ridiculously wealthy.

  Owning beach front property anywhere could be pricey, but they also owned an entire condominium building next door to Kincaid’s personal residence. At least almost everyone was at work. And even though she knew for a fact they had a security system, she’d thrown a giant boulder through the back French doors a couple days ago in preparation.

  Lauren had felt like a total jerk doing it, but she’d needed them to replace the doors. Which they’d done this morning. The chances of them having already replaced the security contact that would be standard with the system on the new doors was about five percent. More like zero percent considering she’d been watching the house practically ever since she’d ruined the doors. And when she hadn’t been spying, one of her pridemates had.

  As she examined the French doors now she realized the lock was also new. And it wasn’t the cheap kind either. But, she was very good at getting into places she shouldn’t.

  Less than sixty seconds later she was inside the master bedroom. After a quick perusal of the top part of the door frame she breathed a sigh of relief to see no new contacts in place. Carefully closing the door behind her, she paused and glanced around the giant room. With her supernatural eyesight she didn’t need to turn on a light to see everything—not that she would anyway. Might as well just put up a bright neon sign that she’d broken in.

  The furniture was masculine, but there were definitely feminine touches. Not that Lauren cared about any of the décor. Now she was focused on looking for a safe. If he were going to hide diamonds and emeralds, it would definitely be in a safe. There was a slim chance he’d put it in a bank vault, but shifters and vamps, especially one as old as him, were weird about that stuff. No, they liked to keep their valuables close on hand.

  For all she knew a silent alarm had gone off. There weren’t any visible sensors in the bedroom, but that didn’t mean shit. She knew that by breaking in blind without knowing the complete layout of the security system she was taking a chance but almost no one had sensors in their bedrooms. It didn’t make sense. Living room areas and downstairs areas of course, but bedrooms and any upstairs saw too much foot traffic on a daily basis.

  Moving quickly and quietly she went to the most obvious place to hide a safe. The closet. Nothing there. She searched behind picture frames next, then everywhere else she could think of before moving to the next room. The door was open to reveal an office.

  Pausing, she could hear only the wind and waves outside. There were residual scents in the house but that made sense. She stepped inside the room, her boots silent against the rich hardwood floor. Two steps in, she realized she wasn’t alone. It was like an abrupt assault on her senses and her inner animal simply knew.

  Before she could turn fully around, she was tackled to the ground by a huge male. Definitely supernatural.

  Strong, muscular arms encircled her from behind, throwing her to the ground, the male on top of her. Somehow he managed to angle their fall so he took the brunt of the impact on his arms. All the air left her lungs in a whoosh as panic slammed through her. She hadn’t heard him, hadn’t even scented him. That alone told her how dangerous he was.

  Though all her animal instinct told her to fight, she knew she was at a disadvantage. Going limp, she didn’t struggle. The second she was set free or her captor loosened his grip, she was running. Wolves might be strong, but jaguars were wicked fast. In human and shifter form.

  “What the hell are you doing sneaking around in wolf territory in my alpha’s fucking house?” a familiar male voice said near her ear, a trickle of his fresh scent that reminded her of the beach in winter enveloping her.

  She hadn’t scented him before, probably because of her own fear and panic at doing such a stupid thing—but now his scent covered her. She shivered at the sound of Max McCray’s voice. Kincaid’s second-in-command. He was supposed to be at the Crescent Moon Bar tonight working.

  Lauren swallowed hard. “I want my family’s fucking jewels back,” she gritted out. There was no sense in lying. He’d be able to scent the bitter, acidic stench if she tried. She could normally cover her scent well, but right now she was nervous and couldn’t keep her gift under control. Blind panic hummed through her, her inner jaguar telling her to run, run, run.

  But she couldn’t. Not with Max’s massive body on top of her, keeping her pinned in place.

  She was ashamed to admit that she’d had more than a handful of fantasies about the dark-haired, muscular shifter with the piercing blue eyes. None like this, with her flat on her stomach and him behind her… Okay, that was a lie. She’d had those types of fantasies too. Of course they’d both been naked and she hadn’t been working as a thief.

  Complete Booklist

  Miami Scorcher Series (paranormal romance)

  Unleashed Temptation

  Worth the Risk

  Power Unleashed

  Dangerous Craving

  Desire Unleashed

  Crescent Moon Series (paranormal romance)

  Taming the Alpha

  Claiming His Mate

  Tempting His Mate

  Futuristic Romance

  Heated Mating

  Claiming Her Warriors

  Contemporary Roman
ce

  Adrianna’s Cowboy

  Tempting Alibi

  Tempting Target

  Tempting Trouble

  About the Author

  Savannah Stuart is the pseudonym of New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katie Reus. Under this name she writes slightly hotter romance than her mainstream books. Her stories still have a touch of intrigue, suspense, or the paranormal and the one thing she always includes is a happy ending. She lives in the South with her very own real life hero. In addition to writing (and reading of course!) she loves traveling with her husband. For more information about Savannah please visit her website at:

  www.savannahstuartauthor.com

  Acknowledgments

  I’m very grateful to Kari Walker and Joan Turner for their input with this story. I’m also incredibly thankful to Tanya Hyatt who does so many behind the scenes things for me so I can spend more time writing! As always, a huge thank you goes out to my readers. I hope you enjoy this newest story.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek—Claiming His Mate

  Complete Booklist