by Bianca D'Arc
Her head lolled to the side and she realized they had to be in his room. It was masculine and furnished in sturdy, carved wooden furniture with a slightly rustic charm. She didn’t register much more than that because she still felt too damn good—and boneless—from the incredible orgasm he’d caused. He’d rocked her world and she still hadn’t recovered. She wondered idly if she ever would.
The bed in this room was much bigger. That thought registered loud and clear as he set her gently up on the soft quilt.
She wanted to open her eyes and look around a bit more, but she was completely wiped after the way the earth had just moved. Well, not just moved, but had a massive earthquake, rolled around, jumped up and down, moved light years in space and back again, all while she was along for the ride. She’d never felt anything like it before, but oh, how she wanted more of Sexy Shane and his galaxy-shattering orgasms.
Chapter Five
Shane could hardly believe he had the pretty professor in his bed. He’d had the best of intentions to stay away from her, but all it took was her close proximity and he was a goner. He’d been a goner since the kiss in her house, if he was being honest with himself. After the first taste of her, he should have known he would never be able to resist her for long.
As it was, all she had to do was bump into him and he’d grabbed her and then all was lost. Truth be told, he’d been crowding her. He couldn’t stay far from her delectable body. Her scent enticed him, her smart mouth made him want to kiss her, and her sharp mind made him want to make her his own…forever.
He stroked her hair—with the sassy streaks of red—back from her face. She was asleep in his arms, a gentle smile lifting the corners of her lips even as breathing flowed deep and even.
He’d admired her since the moment he first saw her, but he’d stayed away for a lot of reasons. One of them being that she was way too classy for a rough guy like him. She was highly educated where he’d done his time and got out of school as soon as he could. He liked learning things, but on his own terms. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that. But she was really serious about her education—enough to make a career out of it—which was something he had never even imagined for himself, or for his future mate.
Of course, his destiny had been mapped out for him long before he’d ever taken his first steps. He’d shown signs of his dominant Alpha nature from birth and he’d been groomed to take a leadership role among his people since then. He’d known where his duty lay and he’d done all he could to make himself the best Alpha possible.
He’d learned to run businesses from mentors. He’d watched the best Alphas he could at work and tried to follow their examples. He’d picked up knowledge here and there, starting with his parents and brothers, but because he was one of the youngest in his family, he’d had to go out on his own to find his place. This pack was it. This was where he’d made his stand to lead this group of wolves into the future.
His family was supportive, but they’d all known that with so many Alpha sons in the family, a few of them would have to strike out on their own if they wanted to lead their own packs someday. So far, Shane was the only one to have found a place, but it wasn’t as secure as he’d like it to be.
Finding his mate in the pretty professor was both unexpected, and would cause some difficulties. The wolves here probably wouldn’t be too thrilled with her, for one thing. Her research into shifters was another issue that might come between them. And most important of all, he had to find a way to keep her safe—from the two idiots who had tried to trap her last night, and from any other shitheads who might try to do the same or worse—especially once they began to realize she was Shane’s mate.
He hadn’t meant to kiss her again. He’d sworn to himself that he was going to keep his distance, but all of his best laid plans had disintegrated the moment she turned to him in the doorway of the guest room. She’d looked so damned beautiful. So vulnerable. So perfect in every way. He’d had to kiss her.
And then he’d had to take things further—a lot further than he’d ever expected she’d let him go on such short acquaintance. She had to feel it too. She had to feel the connection between them. That’s the only way she could have been so responsive, and so willing, to give him anything he asked for.
He had marked her. He left his mark on her so that other shifters would know she was his. He hadn’t meant to do that, but she’d been heaven in his arms. Heaven brought to Earth, just for him, and he’d loved every second, every touch, every caress. He’d made sure she’d enjoyed it too. She was everything to him, and her well-being was his most important goal.
The pack would have to take second place to his mate. That’s just the way it was. The pack structure was designed that way. An Alpha pair ruled. The Alpha male putting his mate first, as the Alpha female did the same. After them came the rest of the pack—each mated pair putting their respective mates before all others. Pups came next in the hierarchy, then the rest of the pack. Such was the natural order of things.
How the rest of the wolves would react to Maria as his mate was an idea that troubled him, no doubt about it. She had gained a bit of a reputation over the few weeks she’d been in residence. Some laughed at her attempts to get to know more about shifters. Some cursed. But he suspected all would raise their eyebrows at the idea that she could become their Alpha female.
He didn’t think he had any choice though. He couldn’t really hide it now. He’d marked her. And oh, how enjoyable that had been. He wanted to claim her right here, right now, but he also wanted to talk to her about it first. Shane felt it was only fair to give her the facts and let her come to him on her terms. She had pride. He admired that about her, and he wouldn’t force her into anything without her consent, no matter how much his furry side wanted to bite her and claim her and fill her belly with his pups. The wolf side of him could be a bit of a Neanderthal at times.
He’d bitten her last night but she hadn’t complained. In fact, he thought she’d liked it. He hadn’t broken the skin, but it had been a very near thing. If he made love to her again, he wasn’t sure if he could hold back.
Which was why he had to get out of bed before she woke up. Otherwise the temptation to make love to her again and again would win out over his better intentions.
The sun was just starting to rise when Shane made himself leave the bed. He didn’t want to. His inner wolf wanted to whine at losing the touch and scent of its chosen mate, but his human half prevailed. There was a lot to do today to settle things before he could fully claim his mate.
And he’d decided in the night, he would claim her, pack be damned. If the old farts in the far-flung parts of his territory couldn’t handle Shane choosing her, then they could find themselves another pack. He was just about fed up with the old codgers second-guessing him all the time anyway. It was time he laid the law down and told the stubborn wolves how it was going to be from here on out.
Shane grabbed his clothes and tiptoed out of his room, opting to use the shower in the guest room rather than chance waking Maria. He had things to do before she woke, the most important of which was tracking down the two assholes who had threatened her safety last night. He felt a grim sort of anticipation about ripping their heads from their bodies if they put a toe wrong in his presence.
He’d give them a chance to explain before he bled them, but that was the human side of him trying to be fair. His wolf was all for killing them on sight, but Shane knew he had to ask a few questions first and find out why they had targeted his mate. If there was an ongoing threat, he needed to know about it.
When Shane stepped into the living room after showering, he was still tucking his shirt into his waistband. Suddenly, the scent he was after came to him from the doorway, seeping in through the tiny seams around the small windows. Just the two shifters he wanted to see, and they’d come to him. Chances were, this wasn’t going to go at all smoothly.
The only reason he could think of that those two assholes would track him down here was for c
onfrontation. Shane walked briskly toward the door.
Good. The sooner he killed those two, the sooner he could get back to his mate.
That thought slowed his steps a fraction. He could tell by the sounds coming from the kitchen, that Patty and Mina were in there. Shane took a slight detour, poking his head in the kitchen archway.
“Bob gone already?” he asked quickly, receiving a nod in response. Damn. “Could you keep an eye on Maria? I’ve got some people to take care of, and they’re waiting for me outside.” Shane didn’t want to say anything that might alarm the child, but he didn’t have to worry. Patty’s head came up as if she immediately sensed his mood.
“Trouble?” was all she asked.
Shane nodded, looking at Mina, who was happily playing with her scrambled eggs rather than eating them. Patty looked at her daughter too, then snapped her gaze back to Shane.
“Is she worth it?” Patty asked, sounding coldly concerned.
Every wolf in the pack knew what it would mean if their new Alpha took up with a human who didn’t know their ways. The pack was unstable enough as it was. Getting involved with Maria could only complicate things, but his heart was set. It was Maria, or nobody. Shane tried to be as honest with Patty as he could.
He hadn’t yet discussed any of his plans with Maria. She didn’t even realize he was thinking long-term—as in permanent. She was his mate and he would never let her go. Not in the normal course of business.
Sure, if she denied him, he would do his best to change her mind. If, somehow, he couldn’t convince her to be his mate, he would watch over her for the rest of her life—even if she never saw him again. His heart was fully and completely hers. She just had to be made to understand what that meant among shifters.
There was no time now. An inpatient knock sounded on the front door. Time was up.
“She’s my mate,” Shane said, laying his feelings bare to Patty. She had a mate. She knew what the bond was like. She knew how important Maria was to Shane’s continued existence.
Patty smiled and Shane realized he’d been holding his breath, waiting for her reaction. Patty was one of the pillars of the pack, despite her young age. A breeding female, she represented the hope for the next generation, and guided the direction the pack would take in the coming years, as her children grew. If Patty accepted Maria, it would go a long way toward convincing the rest of the pack.
“I swear to protect her as I protect my young,” Patty said, giving Shane more than he had anticipated. Maria would be in good hands while Shane dealt with the trouble waiting on his doorstep.
“Thank you,” he said, meaning so much more he didn’t have time to say, but he knew Patty understood. She was fast becoming like a sister to him. She and her mate were good people.
“Go. Take care of business. I’ll get Maria and feed her breakfast. We’ll be right here, in the kitchen,” Patty assured him. “No matter what.”
Shane headed out the front door, ready for anything, his inner wolf howling to be let loose on the two who waited outside, but they weren’t alone. No, Dumb and Dumber had brought some of their illiterate backup to the party, forming a loose half circle facing the house.
The front yard, then. That would be the battleground where Shane finally laid down the law to his new pack.
This had been coming for a while, but he never expected the fight would be over a woman. A very special woman who had turned out to be his mate. In a weird sort of way, he should probably be thanking Russ and Jon for getting him together with Maria, but there was no way he would ever thank them for planning to terrorize her—or worse.
“You got that college woman in there?” Jon asked. He was the brighter of the two wolves, but that wasn’t saying much.
Brothers who lived out in the far hills, Russ and Jon McCarthy weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. The rest of the inbred family wasn’t much better, and most were arrayed behind Russ and Jon at the moment, as if waiting for the show to start.
Oh, they’d get a show all right. Shane was through taking any of their shit and not one of them was wolf enough to best him. All of them, though? Well, if they attacked as a pack, he might have a little problem, but there was no way the rest of the greater pack would follow a coward who had to gang up on someone to win. Dominance fights were always one-on-one—especially those that decided who was Alpha of the pack as a whole.
If the McCarthy clan wanted to stage a coup and take over the pack, putting one of theirs in the role of Alpha, the rest would have a thing or two to say about it. Thing was, nobody else was here right now to witness the McCarthys’ dirty tricks. Nobody but Patty, little Mina and Maria.
The women wouldn’t stand a chance if the McCarthys bested Shane now. They couldn’t leave any witnesses to their treachery. It would be a bloodbath.
That thought sent a chill down Shane’s spine—a chill that sobered some of his unrelenting rage and made him start to pay a little more attention to strategy. He had to be prepared if they rushed him. There had to be at least a dozen McCarthys altogether, and just one Shane.
He wished now that he’d told Patty to take Mina and Maria, and make a run for it while he kept the McCarthys busy. Patty was the only real protection her child and his mate had. She had to watch over those two and not get involved in this dominance fight. The McCarthys may have no honor, but Shane sure did. He would face them one at a time or all at once, and he would prevail. He really had no other choice.
He only wished he’d told Maria that he loved her. If the worst should happen, he wanted her to know that she held his heart now and forevermore. She might not believe it. He knew human relationships worked on a slower timeline. But for him, she was it. The one woman he would happily grow old with—if they were given the chance.
First, he had to neutralize the threat the McCarthy clan posed. They’d be lucky if he let any of them walk away from this unscathed.
Fur rippled under his skin as he strode out into the sunlight. There were no trees in the area in front of the house. The lawn served as a sort of buffer zone to the house and was purposely kept clear of obstructions. That feature also made it the perfect place for a fight.
“I just have one question for you two,” Shane said as he stalked toward the two men who stood to face him. “What did you plan to do with Maria once you had her in your clutches?”
Stupid, evil grins told the story. Shane didn’t even have to hear the words. Maria would not have made it out of the forest alive last night, and her death wouldn’t have been a pretty one.
“What do you think, Shane? It was long past time someone shut her up, permanently,” Russ said, sneering all the while.
“The fat cow shouldn’t have been nosing into our business,” Jon backed up his brother.
The pathetic name-calling would cost him, Shane decided. “Which of your legs do you like the least, Jon?”
“What?” Jon’s mouth opened as the stupid look on his face intensified. Shane really hated these two. The pack would be better off without them, his wolf prodded him. It wanted them dead.
“I’ll be lenient and shatter that one first,” Shane said, still advancing, rolling his head so that his neck cracked menacingly. “Then I’ll shatter the other one, along with the rest of your body before I let you die a slow, agonizing death.”
“Big words, Shane,” Russ mouthed off while Jon went white as a sheet. “When you’re the one who’ll be dying today.”
“You’re welcome to try, of course, but I’m the Alpha here, Russ. That’s not just a word to me. It’s what I am.” The wolf wanted out, and barring that, it wanted blood. “Enough words. Get ready to bleed, McCarthy.”
Despite his tough talk, Shane let them bring the fight to him. He wouldn’t attack first. He’d give them a chance to back away slowly, but the assholes didn’t take it. Just as he’d thought, they rushed him—or tried to.
Shane sidestepped them both, faster and more agile than either one of the brothers. And then the game was on.
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Shane got first blood on both of the McCarthys, but it wasn’t long before Shane had a few shallow scratches as well. So far, everyone was still in human form, but he knew that was going to change. And so far, the crowd of at least ten other McCarthys was holding back, just watching and cheering on the brothers.
This wasn’t a real dominance fight. Not the way it should be—one-on-one. It just showed how dishonorable this crowd was. Even if Shane let some of them live after this, he didn’t want them in his pack. He’d run them out of the area, personally, and with great pleasure.
Russ came in for a low swipe, just missing Shane as he scooted back in the nick of time, but Jon was waiting to slice at his unprotected back. Son of a bitch! That stung.
The crowd hooted at the cheap shot and Shane got his head back in the game. He couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything but cleaning the floor with Russ and Jon’s faces.
That thought firmly in mind, Shane set to work.
Chapter Six
“What in the world is going on out there?” Maria asked Patty as fierce noises erupted from the front yard.
Patty had knocked on Shane’s bedroom door a few minutes ago, promising Maria breakfast and no judgment…in just those terms. Maria liked Patty’s no-nonsense approach and decided to bury her embarrassment and emerge from Shane’s bedroom, head held high.
They had just sat down to coffee and toast when the noise started. Patty looked nervous, if Maria was any judge, and even Mina was quiet, her eyes darting nervously around the room.
Patty didn’t answer, but Mina whispered. “They’re fighting.”
“Who’s fighting?” Maria’s gaze flew to Patty. The older woman seemed subdued and even more worried than before. “Is it Shane? Shane and those two jerks who set me up in the forest yesterday?” Maria asked.