Their gazes locked.
All time seemed to stop.
Nothing else mattered in the world but her.
Beautiful.
He wanted to keep her forever.
And he would.
His wolf pushed past him and, in one earthshattering instant, he knew she was his. She was his forever. He’d do anything to protect her, even lay down his life. He’d spend every waking minute with her, loving her, cherishing her.
His cock swelled, stretching her pussy. She screamed out his name as she threw her head back and dug her nails into his skin. His body exploded, knocking him off his feet. He wrapped his arms around his love, protecting her from the fall. He fell onto his back, cradling her to his chest.
Chapter Fourteen
Lajos lay beside Meisha, watching her as she slept. Her lips were pink and a little swollen from his kisses. He brushed the pad of his thumb across them. When he did she smiled. He knew she was still asleep, her breathing was even and slow. The reaction had been involuntary. The thought made him happy, knowing that even while she slept he could make her smile with just a touch.
I’m mated.
While he still couldn’t believe it, his wolf seemed content with the fact. His wolf sent him a picture of him in wolf form and Lajos swore his wolf’s chest was swelled with pride. He’d claimed a mate—a beautiful, sexy and smart one.
After he finished with his business here, Lajos would take her back to Michigan with him. She couldn’t stay in Florida and he couldn’t pick up and move here. This place was too… He searched his mind for the words. His wolf projected a picture of people standing shoulder to shoulder.
That’s right. This place was too crowded. There’s too much going on and too much activity for his senses to take in for any kind of long-term basis. At home his wolf could run free almost whenever he chose. Here, he was stifled.
Plus there was the matter of her safety. He’d chosen a human mate and he’d do everything in his power to protect her. There were plenty of enemies out there who would like nothing better than to get their hands on a wolf’s mate. Their enemies knew that there would be virtually nothing he wouldn’t do to get a mate back. He understood everything now. Being without Meisha was inconceivable. His fate was tied to hers. Their hearts beat as one, their bodies were aligned. To lose her would be like losing himself. His heart began to ache with just the thought of not having her by his side.
Mates were protected at all costs. Wolf females weren’t coddled or kept hidden away. No, they would never go for something as demeaning as that. But a human mate? Up until a couple of days ago it had been unheard of in his lifetime. Kristof imprinted on Trudy and he would outlive his mate just as Lajos would, guaranteeing that neither brother would live to a ripe old age. But right now it didn’t matter to Lajos. All that mattered was that Meisha was his and his to protect.
He ran his hand over her silky hair and picked up a lock. He brought it to his face and rubbed his nose in it, drawing in a deep breath. She smelled wonderful. Everything about her was wonderful.
His phone buzzed from the nightstand. The only thing that could pull him away from making love to his mate again was his Alpha, Andras. He rolled to his back and grabbed his phone and, without looking at the caller I.D., answered the call. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Trudy is working hard at auditing the accounts. She hasn’t found anything yet but Kristof and I have faith in her,” Andras replied, giving him the updates.
He twirled Meisha’s hair in his hand. “Shouldn’t she be resting? She’s been through a lot this week. She’s not a wolf. Do you think you and Kristof should be pushing her?”
“She’s fine. She recovered quickly and I guess being mated to a shifter is helping her metabolism already. Plus, it’s her decision to keep working. Kristof keeps bugging her to eat and to get some rest, but so far she’s refused him. We’ll have to explain her body’s changes to her later. We wouldn’t want her to work herself into the ground with all of her newfound energy.”
“So is that one of the side effects?” Lajos asked, his curiosity pulling at him. “Humans that mate with wolf-shifters have an increased metabolism?”
“So far that’s what it’s looking like. Of course we’ll need to get her checked out by one of our physicians. We’ll also need to study and track their progress. The information we find will need to go in the archives.”
“Yeah, we could learn a lot of good information, in case there’s ever another human-shifter bonding.” The archives were more of a genealogy of his family, spanning back to when they first began to write down their history. When he returned home he’d look through them himself to find out all he could about a human-shifter pairing.
Wait. Andras said he would need to track “their” progress. “Wh—”
“I was wondering how long it was going to take you to figure it out,” Andras said, interrupting him. “I know about your imprint on Meisha.”
“But how?” He whispered into the phone even though Meisha was still asleep.
Andras snorted. “You and Kristof must think being the Alpha means sitting here and looking pretty all day. I know when someone leaves my pack and I know when someone joins it.”
“But she’s human. How would you even be able to connect with her mind?” As the pack leader, Andras was in touch with everyone who was under him, which also made this business of a thief in their midst so unbelievable. Andras should’ve been able to pinpoint exactly who was hiding something from him and the culprit should’ve been dealt with long before now. But the fact that he couldn’t was leading them all to think that either the person didn’t know they were being used to embezzle millions of dollars from Dark Wolf Enterprises or that the person was just that good at being deceitful.
“I’m not sure. I could feel the minute Kristof imprinted with Trudy. Your imprinting on Meisha, it was different, but it was there. I had to meet Trudy face-to-face to get a good lock on her and I expect I’ll have to do the same with Meisha but, other than that, it was just the same as a shifter to shifter imprint.”
“So Meisha is part of the pack now?” he asked hesitantly.
“She is. You’ll need to bring her in as soon as possible. I don’t like the idea of vulnerable members so far from the rest of us this early. She’ll need to get acclimated to our life and we’ll have to make sure our allies are aware of her too.”
“Yeah, I know. After this is done I plan to bring her home with me.”
“Do you foresee any issues with her not wanting to come back with you?”
Lajos paused. There could be many issues, but really, would she have a choice? The farther they were away from each other, the sicker they would become. Physically they wouldn’t be able to sustain being apart for too long. “I’ll see that she understands what needs to be done.”
“Good. Keep her safe. I suspect now that you have a mate you’ll want your team to help keep her safe.”
Lajos smiled, thinking about how his team would react to Meisha. They’d love her. “I want them, but not until tomorrow. I want to go out one more night on my own. I was going to have Meisha get information about the shifters and their habits from the clerks at the liquor store, but I’ll pay someone else to do it now. I’ll need to gather as much information as I can about who we’re dealing with. I have a feeling that as soon as the plane lands with my security team on board, the Russians will figure something’s up and try to leave. I want us to hit them hard and strong.”
“So tomorrow night then?” Andras asked.
“Yeah, I’ll meet the team at the airport and we’ll go straight to their house. They won’t know what hit ’em.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“I’ll talk with you tomorrow.”
“Take care.”
When Andras disconnected the line, Lajos set his phone on the dresser and rolled back to cuddle against Meisha.
She stirred from her sleep. “What was that all about?” she mumbled.
<
br /> “It was Andras.”
She yawned and then stretched. “Yeah? When is he sending back-up?”
“My team is coming tomorrow. That’ll give me time to do some more reconnaissance. We’re going to hit them fast and hard when my team gets here.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.” She yawned again. “I have to get up and shower. I don’t want to go out smelling like hot shifter sex.”
He smoothed her hair behind her ear. “I got this. You stay here and rest.”
She raised a brow. “Um, no. I’m going with you.”
“There’s no need for you to. I’ll be there and back before you’ll even miss me.”
She snorted. “I won’t miss you because I’ll be by your side.”
He pulled away from her. “You can’t go this time. I let you tag along before, but now the stakes have changed. I have to keep you safe.”
Her body stiffened. “You let me tag along?” she said slowly. “I’m not a puppy.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just…things have changed. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“So what, before we had sex it was alright for me to get hurt or killed, but now I’m precious or something.”
“Yeah…no.” He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts and figure out the best way to tell her that their lives were forever intertwined without making a mess of it. Well, a bigger mess than he was already making.
She rolled off the other side of the bed and stood, glaring at him. Her arms were crossed in front of her and she wore a scowl on her face. She was as naked as the day she was born and instantly his mind was muddled again. “You can’t go. You’re vulnerable and weak. It’s my responsibility to protect you.”
That came out all wrong.
She raised a brow. “Really? I’m weak now.”
He took a deep breath. “Meisha, I’m trying to explain myself but you’re making it hard for me. Put some clothes on so I can think clearly.”
“What I’ll do is get in the shower and dress. I’ll be ready in ten minutes. You can explain anything you need to me on the way.”
“No.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “No? Do you really think you can stop me Lajos?”
He wasn’t quite sure how to answer her. The way she watched him scared him—just a little. “No I can’t. But I’m asking you not to go. It’s for your—my own good”
“Right, because I’m vulnerable and weak and I might somehow slow you down.”
“You will. You’ll be a distraction. I’ll spend the entire time worried about you and not getting the information that I need.”
She drummed her fingers against her arms. “I suggest you stop talking. You’re about three seconds from finding out just how wrong you are about my weak state.”
“Meisha—”
She threw up a hand, stopping him from saying anything further. When he snapped his mouth shut she grabbed her overnight bag and stomped off into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
He lay on the bed, not knowing what to do next. But when the shower turned on it came to him. He had no other choice. He got up and threw on his clothes and ran a hand quickly through his hair. He grabbed his keys and hers off the table and stuffed hers into his back pocket. She was going to kill him for sure. But at least for tonight she’d be safe. He went to the desk and, using the hotel stationary, he left his phone number for her and hastily wrote a note and left it on the bed.
Yeah, she was going to kill him.
Chapter Fifteen
I’m going to kill him.
She fumed as she heard his keycard in the lock. He was trying to sneak back into the room after leaving without her. When she’d come out of the shower and found him gone she’d been livid. She dressed, taking her time, thinking about every curse word she could and saying it with his name behind it.
Motherfucking Lajos.
Bitch Lajos.
Asshole Lajos.
Son of a twat Lajos.
But when she looked for her keys and found them missing, her anger had turned up to ten. She was going to mutilate him. She was going to remove his thieving fingers one-by-one and ship them back to his precious pack.
She’d dialed his number so many times that she’d finally programmed him into her phone and assigned a speed dial number to it. When he hadn’t picked up any of her calls, she sent him text after text threatening him with bodily harm. Normally she wouldn’t put a threat like that into a text but she figured what the hell. It wasn’t like he’d be calling the police on her. What would stop her from telling the officer that he was a wolf shifter? Nothing. She could threaten and torture him all she liked and he would keep his mouth shut about it.
Four hours.
That’s how long he’d stayed gone while she had nothing to do but think about all the ways to hurt him. The first two hours had been the worst. Her anger was in rare form. She used the same stationary that he’d used to write her a note and began to list all the things she would do to him.
Number one, punch him in his motherfucking throat. Two, get satisfaction at watching him gag. Three, kick him in the nuts. Four, laugh hard. Five, punch him in his kidney. Six, punch him in the other kidney. Seven, kick him his kneecap and watch it blow out. Eight, hope by now that he’s pissing blood. Nine, break his nose.
When she’d run out of paper on one side of her list, she turned to the other side and continued. By the time she was done she had five front and back pieces of paper filled with all the things that would make her a happy woman. The next hour she lay on the bed, arms crossed and waited for him so she could make good on her list. The last hour she had ripped the comforter from the bed and thrown it on the floor with a pillow. And not one of the good soft pillows either. She’d given him the fabric one that everyone knew didn’t get washed at all. Let him sniff on that all night, she thought.
When the lock clicked, he opened the door very slowly at first. Meisha was sure he expected her to jump from the closet and attack him. He must’ve spotted her in the bed because she heard him sigh.
You’re not out of the woods, sucker.
She’d learned one thing in her time of solitude. He didn’t think she was his equal. He thought she couldn’t handle herself. But he was wrong.
She would prove it to him.
He walked into the room and stopped where she had made his pallet on the floor. Well, where she had thrown the comforter and pillow.
“Meisha, don’t be mad. I did what needed to be done,” he said softly. “It was for your own good.”
She pressed her eyes and mouth closed. She wouldn’t be answering or looking at him. It was for his own good.
Even though she was silent he kept talking. “Alexei is in the house now. I smelled him there. It was good that you stayed away. He’s going to be out for blood. I can’t risk him catching you.”
It took all of the composure that she’d worked to maintain for the past hour not to jump from the bed and go crazy on his ass. She took a deep steadying breath.
“I’m just trying to protect you Meisha. You’ll understand why later.”
I’ll prove to you that I don’t need your protection. Against anything.
* * * * *
“Don’t do it, fool!”
The sound of Meisha’s yelling pulled Lajos from his sleep. The dream of her fucking him wildly vanished and the lust he felt just seconds before was replaced by alarm. He sprang from the floor, jumping into a defensive stance. “What’s going on?” he quickly scanned the room, trying to locate the danger. No intruder, but Meisha sat cross legged on the bed and the television blared. “What’s going on?” he asked again.
Meisha didn’t turn to look at him. “Nothing.”
His wolf flashed him a picture of Meisha with her back turned.
I’m not an idiot. I know she’s mad at us.
He wanted to go to her and touch her, but the thought of her breaking his wrist stopped him in his tracks. “Meisha, can we talk
about last night?
She continued to keep her eyes on the screen. “What’s there to talk about? You left me, end of story.”
“But do you want me to tell you why?”
“You already told me,” she said tersely, keeping her focus on the television.
“Can I at least explain myself?”
“No need.” She erupted from the bed. “Oh my God! You cannot be serious!” she screamed at the television.
He looked toward the television. One of those “You are not the baby’s father” shows were on. A woman and two men were sitting on a studio couch, arguing, with burly men in black T-shirts surrounding them. Lajos guessed they were security to break up a fight that was bound to happen.
“So you’d rather put all your energy into a show like this than to talk to me?”
“They’re more interesting than you.”
Ouch.
“I deserve that. So tell me, what makes this show so interesting.” He’d never watched one. He’d always breezed past these types of shows, they never caught his attention. But he wanted to know everything there was to learn about her. After all, they were going to spend the next two hundred years or so glued at the hip.
“Everything.” She waved at the television. “These fools are dysfunctional and they both thought they were the father of that girl’s baby. Now it turns out neither of them are and she wants to bring in a third man for a paternity test. Are you serious?” she screamed at the girl on the television. “A third man? And to make matters worse that fool on the end just asked her to marry him. Jesus, some people were hit with a stupid stick when they were born.”
He watched her as she talked animatedly, her hands flying in front of her as she did. There was something cute and insane about how wrapped up she was in this show. Insanely cute.
She huffed. “Where are these people’s mothers?” she muttered.
He eased back onto the floor. “And all this is interesting to you?”
“They’re the only thing worth watching during the day while I’m working. I’m tied to the house and to my computer.”
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