She was tired, but she still would have liked to at least see him naked. "Okay, Michael. If you're going to get all noble on me, then I guess I can deal with it." She blinked innocently at him and then leaned up and kissed his ear. "I am awfully horny, though."
He groaned lightly, and it shifted to a growl. She wondered how smart it was to tease a werewolf, but she knew in her heart that Michael wouldn't ever hurt her. "I need a cold shower." She laughed at his remark and thought that probably wasn't a bad idea.
"Tell me the truth, about my bosses," she said with a yawn as he lifted the covers from the bottom of the bed and covered her.
"They came into our territory and attacked me. I'm second in rank of the pack, I can't let that go without addressing it. I haven't decided what to do yet, but I'm meeting tomorrow with my brother and a few other high-ranked wolves to discuss the situation." He tipped her chin up again and waited until she met his eyes. "Besides that, they broke into your car and then tried to mark your home as their territory. I want them to steer clear of you except at work, and then only professionally."
It was pretty clear that he didn't want her to go back to work there, and right at that moment, she would have been content to quit and stay right there with him. But he wasn't exactly asking.
"I have classes tomorrow night."
"Can you cancel them?"
She chewed on her lower lip. People depended on her to be there. More than just her students, the boys expected her to live up to her commitments.
"I can't, Michael. I wouldn't feel right about it."
"Then I'll drive you and pick you up."
She could live with that. "Fine, you slave driver."
He smiled, but it disappeared quickly. "I just want you to be safe. The worst thing for me was seeing you afraid. I could taste your fear, and I never want you to be afraid like that again."
She nodded, and he kissed her again and got up, saying he was going to clean up and join her for bed. When the shower turned on, she found her phone where it had dropped on the floor and responded to Mason's text.
I'm okay. See you for work tomorrow.
The light was off in the room when Michael came out of the bathroom, and the light from the bathroom showed him to be wearing boxer briefs and nothing else. Nice. He flicked the light off and moved to the bed, pulling the covers back. He offered to sleep on the couch, but she patted the bed with a yawn and said she didn't mind if he didn't.
"You have to keep your hands to yourself, you know," he teased.
"Afraid I'll take your virtue?" She laughed as he pulled her against him and rested his arm across her back. She laid her cheek on his chest and snuggled against him, finding him warm and comfortable to lie against.
"Yes, I'm quite the innocent maiden." His chuckle rumbled in his chest, and she smiled and peeked up at him.
"There isn't anything innocent about you," she said, and he just grinned.
She fell asleep quickly, the soothing sound of his heartbeat was comforting, and he rubbed her back in gentle circles until every muscle in her body relaxed and everything went dark.
In the morning, she woke up with Michael's arms tightly around her. It was the most comforted she'd felt in, perhaps, forever. He was like a balm to her soul, slowly healing the old wounds caused by loss and grief. She could lie in his arms forever, she realized, and be perfectly content. Nothing mattered at that exact moment in time save for the steady beating of his heart under her ear.
Michael stirred under her, shifting and turning to hug her close to him with a yawn and sigh combined. "Morning, love," he murmured, pressing his mouth to the top of her head.
She couldn't resist snuggling closer and enjoying his warmth, "Morning."
"How about I go fix us breakfast while you get dressed, and then we'll talk for a bit?"
Tilting her face up so she could look at him, she said, "Sounds good to me." Although she didn't want to get out of his bed, she did want to talk. A very large part of her was hopeful that the talking might be about what it meant to be the girlfriend of a werewolf.
He eased from under her, and she rolled to her back and stretched. Although the evening had started out kind of crappy, it had ended so well, and she'd slept wonderfully in his arms. In the light of day, she watched as he walked purposely through the bedroom. His lean, muscular body moved with animal grace as he stopped to grab clothes from the dresser before heading to the bathroom. And that ass. Yummy. She had a thing for a great ass, and he sure had one. The events of last night played through her mind, and her body warmed considerably. He really was a sweet guy. Concerned, caring. She'd never had a guy stop from having sex so they could have a conversation. That was damn cool.
When he emerged several minutes later, he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. "You drink coffee, baby?" he asked.
"Sure."
He winked and headed out of the bedroom. She got up, rummaged in her bag and pulled out some clothes, and went into the bathroom to clean up. While she brushed her teeth, she touched the dark bruise on the side of her throat where he'd given her one hell of a hickey. It had felt incredible at the time. She liked the mark. She hoped it would last for a while.
After dressing in shorts and a fitted purple tank, she went out into the kitchen. Michael was just divvying up scrambled eggs onto two plates on the coffee table, where coffee mugs sat waiting. He gestured for her to sit down on the couch, and she did, sinking down into the soft, cool leather.
He joined her a few moments later with a pot of coffee on a towel, a small plate stacked with buttered toast, and another with sausage links. Her stomach rumbled at the sight. She fixed her coffee with sugar and milk and took a sip before digging into the eggs.
He dropped his fork and said, "I feel like a total dick."
"Excuse me?" she said in surprise, her fork poised just inches from her mouth.
"I don't even have a kitchen table. I'm a complete asshole. You're probably totally miserable here."
"I'm not."
"Bullshit. I'm a dick, and you're just being polite." He looked very unhappy, and she put her fork down and turned to face him.
"Michael, I promise, I'm not miserable at all. You're a single guy. This," she waved her hand around absently, "is what a single guy's house looks like. It's pretty clean, too, except for the bathroom."
He looked sheepish. "One of the pack females has a cleaning company. She's due today."
She smiled and then began to laugh, trying to hide her amusement at his discomfort while he narrowed his eyes at her. Before she could apologize, he knocked her backwards gently, trapping her hands above her head and growling softly.
She laughed again and tried to wiggle free but couldn't. "You can't just tackle me because you don't like what I'm doing or saying."
"Yes, I can." He nuzzled her cheek with his own and took a slow breath in, causing her skin to goosebump and her body to shiver. The scruff of his unshaven jaw scraped against her skin as he moved down her neck, stopping at the crux of her shoulder. His tongue stroked there, and it was as if every nerve ending in her body reacted to him by lighting up. Pushing up against his hands, she struggled to free herself and then groaned when she felt him smile against her skin.
As he lifted his head slowly, the smile touching the corner of his mouth, along with his heated gaze, told her he knew exactly what he was doing to her. She raised a brow, "Do you really want to get into a contest to see which of us can last the longest through sexual torture?"
He shook his head with a laugh and released her hands, pulling her gently up and into his arms. With a light kiss, he chuckled, "Maybe later, love. Right now, we have breakfast and a long discussion ahead of us."
They turned back to their plates, and he asked her what she knew about werewolves and their mates. She had to admit that she knew relatively nothing about them, her only interaction being Trav's boyfriend who had turned out to be a player and a jerk. And, of course, she also knew the things that the boys in the gym had told her,
but she was pretty certain she couldn't trust anything they said when she now knew what their motives had been.
Finished with their meal, they turned to face each other on the couch, and he took her hand in his. "I'd like to say that being a werewolf and choosing a mate is a simple thing, and it is in some ways, but it can also be very complicated. For a wolf, there are only two things that are important — his mate and the pack. There are wolves that will say the pack comes above all else, and sometimes that's the case. Karly was kidnapped by her psycho ex, and when Linus called for help, everyone in the pack dropped what they were doing for him. The pack is like our extended family, and Jason and Cadence are the leaders. I'm second in rank of the males, and that means that I'm not only accountable to Jason as one of his wolves, but I'm also responsible for the welfare of the lesser wolves in the pack. It carries a lot of responsibility with it, and that's what makes being with a werewolf complicated.
"You're not a wolf, so you couldn't join us for our full moon hunts or pack meetings, but that doesn't mean you'd be excluded entirely. You could be with me during the day and then wait for me to come back after the hunt, if you'd like." He reached to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. "Cades doesn't shift, but she does join us for a while as female alpha, and Karly doesn't hunt either, so you wouldn't be alone." He paused for a few moments. "Shyne, I'm in love with you. I'm absolutely crazy about you, and I want you to be my mate and my wife."
Stunned, she felt her eyes go wide, and she stared at him in shock for long enough that he frowned and started fidgeting. Snapping out of her reverie, she threw herself into his arms and mashed her mouth to his. He pulled her tight as he opened his mouth to her questing tongue, pressing their bodies together. Heart bursting with joy, she pulled away from him only long enough to whisper that she loved him, too, before diving back onto his mouth.
His hand slid through her hair, and he fisted it gently and pulled her away. It took a moment for her eyes to focus as she panted for breath and tried to rein in her out-of-control libido. What was it about him that made her feel all squishy inside?
Surprising her, he nuzzled under her chin with a low growl that made her body tingle further and then released her and pulled her into his lap to hold her close. She felt like he was trying to calm her down, maybe calm both of them down. Relaxing into him, she hugged her arms around him and sighed.
He kissed the top of her head. "You test my control, Shyne, and that's not a bad thing under normal circumstances. But we're heading out in about an hour, and that's not nearly enough time for us to continue what we were doing."
Peering up at him, she quirked her brow. "You do plan to make love to me eventually, right?"
"Yes, woman," he growled, but the twinkle in his eyes was pure amusement.
When prompted, he told her that he had a meeting with a few top ranked in the pack to discuss the situation, and he wanted her to come along so he knew where she was, which was okay with her. She didn't want to just sit around his place and be bored.
They spent the rest of the hour before they had to leave discussing werewolves and packs. Since she had no experience with them, he started out telling her about the inner workings of the pack and their hierarchy, the differences between the male alpha and the female alpha and their rule, and what happened to bad little wolves that got out of line.
Before his brother had taken over the pack, their father had been the alpha. He stepped down after getting injured, and so did all of the older wolves who were in positions of power. "What happened wasn't entirely normal, but for this pack, a Gerrick is always in power, and he chooses those that he trusts to stand by him and lead with him. When Jason took over, many of the older wolves that were loyal to our father stepped down from their rank. Some left to find other packs, but most still participate in the full moon hunts and live in town, they just don’t hold ranked positions."
When he told her that a wolf and a human together produced human babies, she frowned and went quiet, not listening as he continued to talk. Fingers snapped in front of her face, and she startled from her thoughts.
"Where were you?" he asked, looking concerned. "I didn't say something stupid and hurt your feelings, did I? I do have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth."
"I hadn't noticed," she laughed, but waved her hand at him. "No, it's not that, it's just...wouldn't you rather have a she-wolf so you can keep your family line going? Have someone you can share all that wolfy stuff with?"
A snarl tore from his throat, and her breath seized in her chest. "I want you, Shyne. If I wanted a she-wolf, I would have settled years ago, but I wanted to wait and find my truemate, the one woman that is right for me and my wolf. I found her in you. Our children will be honorary members of the pack, and it won't matter to me that they never shift or that you don't." He cupped her face and stared into her eyes with his blue ones. "There isn't anyone that's ever made me feel the way that you do. Out of control possessive, head over heels in love, and crazy out of my mind with lust."
Her whole body warmed, and he closed his eyes and inhaled and it ended on a growl. "Woman," he cautioned, opening his eyes only enough to glare at her through the slits.
She knocked his hands away and pounced on him, sending him backwards to the couch. Sitting astride his waist, she leaned over and gripped his shoulder with one hand while fisting his hair with the other and stretching his neck until it was bared for her. With a slow lick, she marked the same spot where he'd bruised her. She pressed her mouth to the place where his pulse hammered, and he trembled and gripped her arms.
"If you bite me, we're not going to be leaving this house for at least a day, and we really do need to go."
She sat up, releasing him. "A whole day?"
He nodded and swallowed hard, and she saw his eyes had flashed amber again. He sat up slowly until they were face-to-face. "If we didn't have to leave, I wouldn't stop you."
"Just so you know I take the 'whole day' thing very seriously."
He smiled and extracted himself from underneath her. As he stood up in front of her and offered his hand, he said, "I'll be sure to keep that promise."
Chapter 8
They took his bike to Jason and Cadence's house. He really, really needed to get a car. And a house. He hadn't worried about the trailer until Shyne stepped foot into it. He'd suddenly felt like a teenager, with all those ridiculous posters on the walls and no damn kitchen table. He could hardly feed his woman right, and that was entirely unacceptable.
After introducing her to his mom and dad, she went with his mom into the kitchen to help Cadence and Karly get lunch set up. He sat down on the couch in the front room between Jason and Bo. Linus, his father, and his grandfather Abraham sat on the other couch.
Jason asked him to explain the situation of the last few weeks again so that they were all up to speed. He started with the moment he met her and the possessive way the hyenas had acted and finished with the marking at her apartment, her genuine dislike of what they were offering, and her acceptance of him as mate.
The room went quiet. Although yesterday Jason had teased him a good bit about becoming a zoo experiment, and Linus had made insinuations of his sexual preference after finding out about the jail, the time for teasing was gone.
Jason cleared his throat, "Well, first things first. They came onto our property and drugged you, kidnapped you, and what's worse in my book is that they used your woman to do it. You're just not supposed to fuck with a wolf's mate, period."
The others nodded.
His grandfather rubbed his whiskered chin. "If they want your woman, then you have to challenge one of them to a fight for her, and at the same time you can gain vengeance for what they did to you."
Linus grunted, "You haven't seen those guys, Abe. They're monsters, even the little one. And one of them is a professional boxer. No offense to Michael, but he could take out our whole pack with one hand tied behind his back. We're not trained to fight in our human forms."
"So don't h
ave the fight in human form," Bo said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "If you invoke a fight to first-blood in animal form, you'd have a much better chance of beating one of them. You're a great fighter, man."
Michael smiled at Bo's words. Everyone knew that Jason was their best fighter, but he couldn't ask his brother to take his place to defend his right to Shyne. This wasn't just about them dropping him in the zoo, this was about them staying away from her forever.
Jason decided to call for a meeting with them in neutral territory that afternoon. They would lay out the rules ahead of time and plan for the fight to be as soon as possible.
When lunch was called, Jason stepped out onto the front porch with the phone number for the gym and called to speak to the oldest brother, whichever one he was. Michael found Shyne talking to his mother and smiled at the scene. His mom met his eyes and smiled, and Shyne turned to find him smiling at her and returned it. Fuck, she was gorgeous. His wolf whined in his head. The one bruise on her throat wasn't nearly enough marking in his opinion. He wanted to see her wearing his real marks, the tell-tale white dots over the spine that made sure everyone knew who she belonged to.
"Everything okay?" Shyne asked, looking up at him with worry in her eyes.
He kissed her forehead and hugged her. "You bet. We'll talk back home, okay?"
She nodded, and he led her to the large dining room table that was laden with food. His stomach growled at the buffet in front of him. He sat between his dad and Shyne, with his mom on her other side. As was customary, the men all waited while the women filled up their plates, and then they set on the remainder like locusts.
He heard his mom say, "If you want seconds, you should always take it first. Male wolves are like bottomless pits."
The Wolf's Mate Book 4: Michael & Shyne Page 9