He moved the curtain of her hair, leaving the creamy expanse of her throat bare and inviting. Leaning forward, he licked the flesh that tasted of salt and sweetness. Tasted of Julie. His wolf hungered for her, the need driving the animal into a frenzy of uncontrolled lust and energy. His mate.
Their mate was before them, submitting, as eager as they were to complete their union. How did he know this? One hand clutched his thigh, her fingernails digging into the hard muscle.
“Don’t fight me.” His voice was harsh as he curled his body around her, the tight grip of one hand on her shoulder holding her in place for his rough thrusts. He felt his cock swell and registered her moan as the knot formed again. He was so far gone, so lost in sensation that the sounds of her pleasure didn’t really register. The wolf rose inside him, and his fangs lengthened. The sensation almost that of a shift, where, for that brief moment of time both his human soul and animal spirit co-existed in the same instant of time.
At that moment, when he was both man and wolf, he took his mate, his teeth plunging into the flesh of her shoulder and his body locked itself inside hers. He shook as he sprayed his seed—planted—his seed inside her.
Her scream mingled with his howl as they experienced the pleasure only a mate claiming could bring.
On autopilot, Hunter pulled back, lapping at the wound he’d caused. Her breathing was ragged. “Julie, baby, are you okay?”
She didn’t respond, lying still beneath his body, her eyes closed, her long lashes fanning down on the almost translucent skin of her face. His heart clenched. “Julie,” he demanded, a firm hand under her chin, turning her towards him, “answer me.”
Her eyelids fluttered half opened, revealing the startling beauty of her dark blue eyes. They held a tinge of amber for an instant. “Can’t a girl enjoy the afterglow of a good orgasm in peace?”
He breathed out a sigh of relief. He would cut off his own arm before he’d ever harm her. Harm his mate.
His mate.
His animal rumbled at him, mocking him for his earlier hesitation in embracing what fate had given him. He felt the contentment of the animal, the completeness. It was a new sensation, and he, the man felt it, too.
Complete.
Because of his mate.
The animal gave one last low rumbling noise and then settled down, happy to relinquish the man control.
Hunter wrapped his arm around her waist and lowered them to their sides, hugging her close. His cock was still knotted, still pulsing sporadically inside her pussy. He started to settle in close before he realized she’d soon be cold. Bringing her body with him, he reached down for the covers he’d slung to the side earlier and pulled it over them. She snuggled deeper into his arms, moving her ass back, making him groan when it caused his dick to move inside her.
They lay for several moments, each savoring the sensations still singing through their bodies. The heating unit kicked on, and the warm air made the curtain above it sway, revealing a small sliver of light. It was snowing again. Not the hard wet kind of before. Just a few flakes falling slowly from the heavens.
“It’s snowing again,” he whispered near her ear, unable to resist nibbling on the pink shell for a moment.
“It is?” her voice was drowsy, and he realized she’d been on the verge of sleep when he’d spoken. “Do you think we’ll get stuck here again?”
“Would it be so bad if we were?”
“Only if you promise to always come to my rescue.”
“Always, my love. Always.”
SIX WEEKS LATER…
At the Naval Station in Chicago, Illinois, a frowning Julie waited impatiently for Hunter’s plane to deboard. It had landed over twenty minutes ago. Where was he? She bit her lip in worry.
“Calm down,” a rough masculine voice chided her. “You’ll upset him if he sees you so agitated.”
The man who had spoken stood to the side, his arm wrapped firmly around the shoulders of a woman almost as curvy as Julie. She smiled up at the handsome man at her side, and Julie couldn’t really blame her. Jarod McCall was handsome. So was the man who stood a little further away, whispering into the ear of yet another curvy woman. That was Logan McCall. Hunter’s brothers.
His sister and her family couldn’t be here, and his parents had bowed out, his mother wanting to spend the time making sure the big celebration they had planned went off without a hitch.
Julie looked around, her hair blowing softly in the warm breeze at the Naval Station airport just minutes from O’Hare. It was a much different environment than when Hunter had landed before. Sunshine and clear skies. No more snow.
After this year’s record snowfall, Julie was hesitant to tell anyone about her new love for the fluffy white stuff. They looked at her like she’d suddenly grown two heads. She laughed softly, unconsciously rubbing her hand across her stomach. But then, maybe no one else had gotten such a beautiful souvenir to remember the storm by.
“He’s here.”
Julie twirled around, seeing the lone figure walking toward them. They hadn’t been allowed on the tarmac so they had to wait inside. Not that she had really anything to worry about. He’d come through his last mission with no injuries—so he’d assured her. She still wasn’t certain if he’d lied to her or not. Injuries that would have crippled an ordinary human weren’t life threatening to a were. She had a feeling he wasn’t always completely honest with her about that part of his life.
“Hunter!” she screamed his name and started running across the smooth tile floor.
“Careful!” Logan and Jarod yelled at her at the same time, each making an instinctive move to stop her before the women in their arms stopped them with a gentle hand to their chests.
As she ran across the distance that separated them, Julie’s eyes ate him up. Her breathing became so erratic at the picture he made that she thought she was going to have to stop and take a deep breath. He wore his dress blues, his coloring sexily set off by the uniform. His chest held multiple rows of colored ribbons and the new Lieutenant Colonel insignias on his shoulders gleamed proudly in the light from the windows.
“Hunter,” she whispered his name as he drew closer and she launched herself at him. He caught her easily, his strong arms wrapping around her like bands of steel. She relished his strength, feeling whole for the first time in weeks.
His mouth sought hers, and they greeted each other with a feverish melding of lips, grinding of body parts, his cock already hard and growing by the minute.
“I missed you,” he whispered against her lips as he let her come up for air. An instant was all she had before he was kissing her again, trying it seemed to devour her with his mouth. Her fingers slid into the thick locks of his hair, a little shorter than when he’d left, no doubt, she thought, to conform to military regulations since he was in uniform.
He had decided, without any prodding from her, to make this his last mission. He was retiring from the marines. When she asked him why, he’d told her he and his wolf couldn’t bear the strain of being away from their mate for so long. The look in his eyes had melted her heart—right along with her panties. She was almost positive that had led to the—
“Why the hell didn’t someone tell me!” he roared as he put her away from him, his eyes searching her face before falling to the soft swell of her stomach beneath the full skirt of her dress. She wasn’t showing yet, but she knew he could tell the difference in her body just by looking at her.
His eyes flared with anger as he turned his attention to the two men and women who had joined them. Julie hadn’t even heard them approach, so caught up in reuniting with her man.
When he started toward his brothers looking like he was going to tear them limb from limb, she grabbed his hand, stopping him. She noticed both Logan and Jarod had put themselves between the angry wolf and their mates. “Stop it. I told them not to tell.”
There was no use pretending that Hunter didn’t know she was pregnant. Logan had warned her that he would know as so
on as he got close to her. That he would smell the difference in her scent.
Hunter stopped, but only because going forward would have meant he would have to drag Julie along with him, and he couldn’t risk hurting her. He tugged until she was in his arms again. His hand cupped her face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew you’d react just like you are now.”
“And how’s that?”
“Like an overly protective mate and father.” This came from Jarod as he stepped forward and clapped Hunter on the back. “Congratulations, bro.”
Logan joined his brother, and soon the three men were talking and smiling, the women, forgotten for the moment as they congratulated Hunter on his new baby. Sara, Jarod’s mate, drew Julie forward. “They are so pretty, aren’t they?” she said dreamily, her eyes fixed on the three men—three wolves—who were now laughing and joking.
“Yes, they are,” Julie agreed.
The other woman nodded.
They waited, silent, each lost in their own thoughts, until the men turned toward their way, remembering them once again.
As Hunter walked the short distance that separated them, Julie caught the hungry glint in his eyes and her pussy creamed. It was the same look he’d given her in the hotel right before he’d punished her that night. The same one he’d given her when she’d refused—at first—to allow his family to look after her while he was deployed. Again, right before he punished her.
Maybe, just maybe, she thought with a secret little smile, her mate might punish her tonight for keeping the knowledge of her pregnancy from him.
She certainly hoped so.
Part III
Saved by the Wolf
LOGAN
Logan McCall had always wanted to be a family man—in spite of, or maybe because of—his playboy reputation. He wanted to find his mate, have a few pups and settle down into a long, loving relationship. That sounded good, real good to him. During a winter storm that rocked Chicago for three days, Logan found fate had a wicked sense of humor when it sent Katie Wilson tumbling into his life. A woman who had sworn off men because of their womanizing ways.
Driving along a snow covered highway in the middle of a blizzard, Katie cursed the entire male species. It was a man who had put her in this dangerous situation. Well, a man and her stubborn pride. Unwilling to waste the romantic getaway that had already been paid for at a secluded mountain cabin just outside the city, she decided to enjoy the weekend all by herself—if she didn’t count the adult toys she had packed in her suitcase and the multiple pints of ice cream she planned to buy on her way out of the city.
The last thing she’d been expecting on her binge-eating, binge-crying weekend was being saved by the Wolf.
Chapter 13
Katie knew the moment the first snowflake hit her windshield, that she had made a colossal mistake. At first, she’d been so proud of herself, leaving the city before the storm hit. What she hadn’t expected was the vicious northeast turn it had taken. It seemed to be dogging her tail, following her the entire way.
Of course, deciding to take the romantic getaway at the mountain cabin her boyfriend had rented for them—using her credit card for the non-refundable deposit, even though he made four times as much as she did!—was just the latest in the string of colossal mistakes she’d seemed to have made over the last year of her life.
Turning her wipers on high to try to gain some visibility, she realized the futility of… well, everything.
Why had she talked herself into going to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, in the dead of winter? Well, technically it wasn’t the dead of winter. It was closer to spring than winter, but still… she was driving in a freaking blizzard! If this weekend had gone off as planned, she wouldn’t be driving her ten-year-old car up the side of a steep mountain. Instead, she would have been sitting in the passenger seat of a luxury SUV, a vehicle meant to travel through such weather conditions. And she’d be sitting at the side of the man she loved, Dr. Brad, can’t-keep-my-dick-in-my-pants, Huston.
She gave a half-snort, half-hysterical sob when she thought of the ass she’d been involved with until just hours ago. She’d like to think of herself as naive instead of unbelievably stupid. Unbelievably stupid that she’d been involved with a man who was fucking his way through the entire nursing staff at Chicago Memorial. Something she’d found out the hard way.
She was new to the city, having only moved here six months ago. She was an emergency room nurse, so she didn’t socialize with many of the other nurses, there simply wasn’t time. When Brad had been called to the ER to attend one of his patients, it was as if the dating god and goddess had finally smiled down on overly abundant Katie Wilson.
She’d watched the tender way he’d dealt with his patient struggling with high blood pressure. When he was writing up the discharge orders, he’d asked her out so casually, she’d agreed before she knew what she was doing.
They’d dated for a month, every Thursday night, just like clockwork. That should have been her first sign. He never varied in his routine, always saying he had to work should she suggest they go out on a Saturday night or heaven forbid, a Friday night.
With her emotions quickly becoming involved, she’d starting weaving vague dreams of being a doctor’s wife and having to deal with his busy scheduled. That dream had turned into a full-fledged nightmare this afternoon and now Katie’s spirits were as gray as the overcast sky.
She knew it had to do with this time of year. The holidays were long over, and spring was nowhere to be seen. Winter seemed to be lingering and lingering. There was no doubt she snorted this time. Lingering was too mild of a word. Storm after storm had pounded the city for weeks.
And this latest one appeared to be the worst yet.
Hunching over the steering wheel, she concentrated on staying on the two-lane mountain road. There was no place to pull off even if she wanted to. The weather was so bad she’d decided not to stop for groceries which would have included the thirty-one flavors of ice cream she’d planned to use to drown her sorrows. Now she had no food except for a few non-perishable items she’d packed ahead of time.
Brad was supposed to have met her at the hospital after her shift. The plan had been to stop on the way to the cabin and get enough food to last them the weekend. She had arrived at the hospital a little earlier than expected. The picture of his white butt cheeks as he’d pounded into one of her co-workers in the supply closet flashed through her mind.
For the first time since starting her trip, she wondered if she really had lost some of her marbles. Not that she’d been thinking when she’d left the hospital. But she had thought she’d have time to make it to the cabin before the storm worsened. It was moving faster and in a different direction than the forecasters had predicted and she’d be lucky to finish her journey without having to call for a tow truck to come to her aid.
She’d almost landed in the ditch at the side of the road a couple of times in the last few minutes. What should have taken her an hour, was turning into a two-hour ordeal.
Going away in the middle of winter to a strange cabin in the woods might not have been the smartest move on her part. But hurt pride had been making the decisions for her all afternoon. Twenty minutes later, she’d reached her destination.
“Well, well, well,” she murmured as her headlights swept past a wooden mailbox. “Maybe Brad didn’t have such bad taste after all.” The house before her looked like it should be on the front of a ski resort brochure, not on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Well, that wasn’t really true. There were ski lodges in the area; they were just fifty miles away.
Through the curtain of snow that was still falling, the log exterior looked warm and inviting. Safe. Feeling a little bit better, she thought maybe she would use some of the adult toys she’d packed. No sense in letting a new pair of batteries go to waste.
Her car struggled up the steep driveway to the house. Halfway up, she started to slide but managed to straig
hten the car out and keep going until she reached the flat area in front of the garage which was built on the side of the house. Tapping on her brakes, she stopped before hitting the garage door. The rental company had mailed her the keys to the house and a garage door opener. They’d had to since it was her name on the credit card. Taking out the opener, she pressed the button, and it opened as if welcoming her home.
For the first time that night, she allowed herself to smile. She had no trouble moving forward and drove inside the spacious two-car garage and let out a sigh of relief as she turned off the engine. She’d made it to her destination safe and sound.
There was an inside door to the house so Katie didn’t have to go back out into the storm. When the key she had didn’t open it, Katie cursed in frustration. Even if she knew where the rental office was, there was no way in hell she could make a trip back down the mountain tonight. Hell, she’d be lucky to make it back down when it came time to leave Monday morning. During the last half hour, the storm had increased in intensity.
Taking a deep breath, she told herself not to panic. Yet. She folded back the welcome mat to look for a key. Stranger things had been known to happen. When that didn’t produce the desired result, she stood on tiptoes and ran her fingertips over the door casing.
“Monkey guts,” she mumbled. She looked around the well-appointed garage and realized there were a thousand and one places a spare key could be hidden. Deciding that maybe her key only worked in the front door, she got out her garage door opener.
This time, her curses weren’t so PG rated when the clicker didn’t open the door, and she couldn’t raise it by hand. Great, now she was stranded in the garage. Or was she? She spied a small metal door at the back and took back all the nasty things she’d been thinking about her guardian angel the last twelve hours.
Alphas for the Holidays Page 112