“Did you hear what I said, Ariel Jones? I want you to be my mate,” Matt declared, boldly stating it again. “I know you haven’t been a werewolf long, but finding your perfect mate can happen really fast between the right couple. No one really knows what triggers the sort of connection that just instinctively clicks in all areas.”
“Matt—I like you too—but I don’t know if I’m ready for another serious relationship yet.”
Matt put his forehead against Ariel’s. How could he explain it in a way she could really hear what he was saying?
“I was already feeling possessive of you. Then I saw you lying on the ground and thought you had died. I lost my mind. I was ready to kill everyone who had anything to do with harming you. If you don’t win your fight tomorrow, I’m going to be at war with the Black Wolf pack. I won’t be able to stop myself from avenging your death. Reed called me to come to you even though he knew damn well that’s how it would be. He wants us to have a chance, Ariel. I want us to have a chance too. Don’t you?”
“Yes. So I guess I better win tomorrow,” Ariel said firmly, swallowing the lump in her throat. “If you have to avenge my death, just take out Travis and Hanuk, and maybe their betas. Promise me you’ll just kill the bad people, Matt. Leave the others. They’re just regular people like the ones in your pack.”
Matt snorted over her plea. Her logic drove him crazy, but it also made him love her more. “Okay. I promise to only kill the bad people. How will I know which ones are bad?”
“I’ll point them out to Gareth and Ryan before I die. They can tell you,” Ariel joked.
Terrified by her teasing, Matt buried his face in her neck, kissing the mark on her collarbone. He regretted making her angry, but did not regret making her his in even so small a way. “I can’t stay the whole night. It would look very bad if I were caught here with you.”
Ariel laughed. “I know. Gareth already gave me the lecture. How good are you at quickies?”
In answer, Matt lifted his weight and rolled her over under him. He slipped the leggings she was wearing down to her knees. He lifted her hips and spread her thighs until she was open for him. His hands slipped inside the front of her undershirt to cup bare breasts in his palms. His aching erection stroked between her legs, torturing them both as he lovingly massaged.
“I don’t know if I like this position, Matt. It seems impersonal not to look in your face while we do this,” she whispered.
Chuckling, Matt pulled her hips back against his crotch and ran one hand around to her front until he could slip two fingers inside her. Arching over the back of her, his mouth ran up and down her neck, stopping to nip and suck as he aroused her with his probing fingers. Her moaning and rhythmically rocking back against him made him laugh.
“When I make you mine forever, I’m going to bury myself so deep in you that your womb is going to call out for our children to be conceived. Then I’m going to sink my sharpest teeth into your shoulder just as deeply. Our shared climax is going to make us mates—real mates—the kind who stay with each other no matter what happens. So if your destiny is to be the Black Wolf alpha for a while, Dr. Jones, you better enjoy that time of power before you come back to me. I’m not going to be able to let you go so far away again.”
Ariel trembled at his words and at his actions. Matt held her on the edge of her climax—and she knew he was purposely doing it.
“Matthew, you suck at quickies,” she accused, not returning his romantic words at all. What could she say to answer his pledges of lifelong devotion? Nothing. She could say nothing until tomorrow was over and she’d had time to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her strange new existence.
Matt clamped a hand hard on one breast as he used the other to guide his erection to her opening. Plunging hard inside her in a single thrust, Ariel’s legs shook with the speed of his entry.
“Now you’re making me be rough with you to prove my point. I wanted to be loving…gentle…supportive. I’m trying not to show you my true alpha side yet. It would only scare you to know how demanding I will be once we are mated.”
“Okay. We’ll talk about it later. But right now, can we do this a little harder and faster?”
Ariel flinched in surprise when Matt pinched a butt cheek in retaliation for her request. Then she laughed as Matt held her hips and thrust like he was trying to break her. His swearing about how good she felt made her feel sexy…and wanted…and nearly invincible.
“Better?” he asked roughly.
Groaning, Ariel lowered her chest to the bed to make the angle even better for him to go deeper. Matt’s increased swearing echoed in the room as he throbbed and bent further over her back. Finally, he grabbed a handful of her hair and twisted her face to his until he could clamp his mouth over hers. His plunging tongue drove her over the edge she was riding as much as his persistent thrusting. She quivered around him as he finished himself. Matt always slowed his movements as he neared his own peak. He always tried to draw out every second of being in her, obviously not wanting their lovemaking to be over. For the first time, Ariel found herself wondering if it really could always be so good between them.
When her mouth was free, she sniffled back tears from her emotional epiphany and bared her soul to him instead. “Okay. I admit it. I’m probably falling in love with you too, but damn it, this is some seriously shitty timing for me, Matt. Can we talk about this when I get back to Wasilla?”
Hearing her sweet admission of loving him at last, Matt yanked Ariel upright by her hair and twisted her face to his again. He stared into her teary gaze, still pleasantly firm inside her heat despite his climax. His. She really was his. He wanted to yell at her for waiting so long to tell him. His teeth sharpened. He knew his sharp canines were visible to her when he smiled.
“Too bad about the timing of our demanding relationship, Dr. Jones. No apology will be given for it. Instead, I intend to do all I can to keep you in my bed and my life. It’s all I can do not to finish this today. Be grateful I have learned some patience over the years.”
Even with tears running down her face over his declarations, Ariel laughed. Matt wrapped her so tightly in his arms, she had to wiggle just to be able to breathe.
“You call this being patient? I saw you flashing your wolf teeth.”
“My wolf wants the same thing I do. Win your fight, give the pack back to Reed, and then come the hell home to us,” he ordered roughly.
Unable to restrain his wolf completely, he nipped Ariel’s shoulder because he couldn’t resist. Her flinch as she tried to pull away made him instantly regretful. “I’m sorry. Truly. It’s just that I’m worried for you. I don’t want to leave you here alone, but I can’t stay without causing more trouble than you can handle. My frustration has no outlet.”
Ariel nodded as she sighed. He’d never believe that she was less concerned about the fight with Travis and Hanuk than what kind of mark he had left on her this time. Apparently, she was a vain werewolf. She didn’t want to be sporting a brand like she was a cow or a sheep he owned.
“I’m a lot less worried about tomorrow than you are. Being with you makes me stronger because I always think better afterward. So I’m really glad you came to see me. I’ll get Gareth to call you with an update as soon as it’s all over.”
Slipping reluctantly out of her at last, Matt crawled around her body on the tiny bed until he could pull her into his arms. “I understand your decision to fight—I do. I know you can’t help being an alpha and following the urges it brings. Though I frequently wish like hell you weren’t one, I will learn to support you in dealing with it. I wish now I’d been more focused on teaching you how to fight better, instead of getting you into bed as often as I could.”
Ariel was drowsy as she lifted a hand to his face. “My wolf loves to fight. Without your uber alpha presence, she’d have me attacking people all the time. Thank you for being there to advise me about my urges…and for everything else you’ve done. You’ve been better to
me than any man I’ve ever known.”
Knowing Ariel was only moments away from sleep dragging her under, Matt rocked and held her, holding them both on their knees, repeating how much he loved her over and over.
When Ariel’s full weight sagged against him, he gently redressed her before tucking the bed covers around her body to keep her warm while she slept. Never in his life had he wanted to stay with a female so badly. Caring for the unconscious, sleeping Ariel was just as humbling now as it had been the first time he’d felt that sort of protective urge for her.
But it wasn’t safe for him to stay. If his presence was discovered in the Black Wolf pack, it wouldn’t help her or Reed. He placed a final kiss on her cheek, happy at least to leave her smelling of his love and lust. He hoped it would comfort her as much as it did him.
“Fight well tomorrow, Alpha Ariel. I will be waiting anxiously for your return.”
Shifting back to his wolf, Matt reluctantly left to make the long, lonely run home alone.
Chapter 16
The crowd around the large painted circle didn’t faze Ariel. Her arrogant wolf preened under the focused attention while her human eyes searched the crowd to determine their mood. It looked like most of the townspeople had come to watch, but every face was frozen in a frown as they stared at her.
Followed closely by a vibrating Brandi, Ariel stepped into the circle where Travis, Hanuk, and another male she didn’t recognize already waited.
“Where is your third, Ariel Jones?” Travis asked.
Ariel met his gaze steadily as she answered. “I don’t have one, Travis. I can’t risk Heidi. She’s a healer. Skills like hers have to be protected.”
“I am Ariel’s third,” Reed declared, stepping into the circle.
Ariel’s gaze swung to Reed. Given the shocked whispers running through the crowd, she wasn’t alone in her surprise. “I can handle it. You don’t have to do this.”
“Child, there was never any choice in the matter, but I thank you for trying to spare me.”
When Hanuk laughed at their personal exchange, Ariel’s irritated gaze returned to him. “Do you have any redeeming qualities at all?”
“Yes. I can kill without a single bit of remorse. I learned it from my grandfather,” Hanuk stated flatly. “It makes me a strong, worthy leader.”
“Or just a mean asshole,” Ariel added quietly, speaking low enough that only he could hear.
“The female alpha is mine to fight. No one touches her but me,” Hanuk declared.
Brandi turned to Reed. “I can’t prove what I’m about to tell you, but I’m pretty sure Travis was the one who shot you and left you on Feldspar’s doorstep. Maybe that makes things a little easier for you, Reed.”
“Since today I will finish what I failed to do before, I see no reason to deny it was me,” Travis offered.
Reed looked at Travis. If he hadn’t heard the boy say it, there would have always been doubt in his mind. “But why would you betray me, Travis? You were my choice for alpha. I offered to help you challenge Hanuk.”
Travis snorted in reply. “Why would I challenge the only real family member I have? When I was most ashamed, it was my brother Hanuk who lured my talkative grandmother out into the cold to stop the spread of the information. It was my job to make sure you never returned to challenge what we were doing. Hanuk has things running the way they’re supposed to in the pack. Giving you to the humans seemed an easy way to keep the blood of your death off my hands. They were carving up wolves and tossing them out in the trash nearly every day. Only they never tossed yours out. I never bothered to find out what they were really doing. How was I to know they were creating fake werewolves like them?”
Ariel stared at Travis, who was pointing at her and Brandi. She didn’t know whether to be relieved he and Hanuk weren’t in league with Feldspar, or appalled to know his grandsons were seriously trying to kill Reed just to keep a secret no one probably would have cared about.
“Enough talking. Let’s get this farce over with. I have three other pack members to punish today,” Hanuk declared.
Ariel turned back and glared. “Your punishing days are over, Hanuk.”
Before her eyes Hanuk morphed from a grinning man into a large snarling black wolf. A slow smile spread from her mouth to her eyes as she calculated his size. “Well, I guess that explains why you feel the need to make people fear you, Hanuk. Can you say the word compensating? Glad I got my genes from the giant wolf side of Reed’s gene pool. Hold on a second. You’re going to love this.”
She let her form dissolve until she glared back at him from all fours. When he leaped at her, she leapt too, instinctively grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. Without stopping to think about the reaction, she literally slung Hanuk out of the fight circle. The crowd parted to let him land at their feet, but no one offered any encouragement to him.
Her edge in their battle didn’t last long though because Hanuk jumped up immediately, insanely angry about what she’d done. Teeth snapping and eyes flashing, he charged back to where she calmly stood her ground. She let him come at her full force, her wolf quivering in anticipation of their clash. She waited until he leapt again before rising to her full height on her hind legs. Using her greater size and weight, she met his flying body with a hard push from her paws. Hanuk went flying backwards, landing and rolling several feet away. Before he could rise, she pounced on his back and locked her jaws around the back of his neck. One hard bite and he went still. But as much as she intended to keep biting until she had killed him completely, Ariel found that just couldn’t do it.
Lifting her confused gaze to the others, she saw Brandi in human form standing over the beta’s still human body. Arms crossed, Brandi stood watching Reed and Travis, two of the largest wolves she’d ever seen, circling and snarling. If there was ever a match that could turn out to be a draw, it was that one. But maybe not if she gave Reed a psychological edge.
Dragging the unconscious Hanuk over with her, she dropped him near where Reed and Travis were sparring. She sat down beside Hanuk’s body and offered up a triumphant howl that split the air. People outside the circle grabbed their ears. Suddenly, she felt Brandi sitting next to her, also in wolf form. Her second howl had a sharper accompaniment which made the air tremble. Between the two of them, their combined howls sent all onlookers to the ground in pain.
Travis stopped circling Reed, backed up, and looked around in stunned surprise at all the kneeling people. Reed looked at Hanuk’s still body and immediately morphed back into his human form. She and Brandi trotted over and took their place on either side of him. Travis whined in rebellion at their unity, barked several times, and then whined some more.
Then surprising them all, he turned and fled the circle, barking loudly to split the crowd as he ran.
Ariel stood, intending to chase him down, but Reed restrained her. “No. Let him go. He’s not evil. He’s just hurt and confused.”
Then they realized the three of them were alone in the circle—well them and the two males who had lost the fight. Brandi swiftly changed back again to a human. Ariel huffed in frustration at Brandi’s fully dressed body and leaned against Reed’s leg to brood about it. She was not going to shift and embarrass herself. Reed was still staring where Travis had exited and not smiling, but his hand came out to rest lightly on her head in understanding.
Ariel turned and looked around in amazement. All the Black Wolf pack members were still on the ground, with their gazes lifted cautiously to her. Ariel whined in gratitude when Heidi walked into the circle with a small blanket, shaking it out to drape it around her wolf form. Ariel shifted and stood tall, wrapping the blanket around the middle of herself. At least it covered the important parts.
“The beta is dead. Check Hanuk. He was still alive when I dropped him,” she ordered.
Heidi looked worried about the request, but took a tentative step toward the motionless black wolf. Ariel heard Brandi snort before she headed in the same direction. “I
’ll check him,” she declared.
She turned and looked at Reed. “So what happens now?”
“You tell me,” Reed ordered, cupping her jaw in his hand. “You defeated the resident alpha, Dr. Jones. Under pack law that puts you in charge.”
Ariel shook her head. “Not a good idea. I took Hanuk down, but I didn’t kill him. Regardless of what a bastard he was, I couldn’t bring myself to kill someone who looked, smelled, and felt so much like you. Would you have killed Travis if he hadn’t escaped?”
Reed nodded, his mouth tight. “Yes. I was willing to kill them before I stepped into the circle.”
Ariel sighed. “I told myself I was too, but it didn’t work like that for me. Killing Crane was easy. Killing Hanuk was not. I don’t think I’m ready to kill twenty challengers to the alpha position over the years like Gareth said Matt has had to do. I can’t even imagine what kind of challengers you’ve had to handle.”
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