by M. L. Briers
“Bedroom!” Macy spat out in disbelief, a sense of panic shot through her. Her eyes locked with Rudd’s and she saw the flash of desire that tore through the man, saw the way his eyes darkened with that desire, and she swallowed hard. Only Link could make matters worse, she thought, debating whether to punch Link or slam her forehead down onto the counter top in dismay.
“It’s the room that has a bed in it.”Rudd offered as the amusement swept through him and he saw his mate literally bite down on her annoyance.
“I know what a damn bedroom is…”
“Sleeping and other things.”Rudd offered, as if she needed an explanation and she ground her teeth. It was the way he had said other things, with a little glint in his eye and a feral growl to his words that made her body respond, even as her brain was screaming a protest at her.
“You really need to get over yourself.”She informed him, reaching for her mug as a dismissal of the man himself and batting it across the counter top instead, sending coffee everywhere and a string of curses from her lips.
“Why are you fighting your attraction to me?”He offered, grabbing a handful of kitchen towels and throwing them over the spill.
Macy reached for the paper towels and started cleaning for want of something better to do. It didn’t take her mind of the fact that he was standing there.
“You’re not an unattractive guy, but you’re not my type, and what do you expect me to do, just jump into bed with you?”Macy snorted her contempt. That was a guy thing, not her thing, that wasn’t to say that some women didn’t do that kind of thing, and that was their thing, if they were happy with that then fine, but she wasn’t, at least she’d never been before…
That didn’t mean that she couldn’t be tempted, because she could. Just one look at those puppy dog eyes with the thick black lashes and she could imagine all sorts of things. Things she’d done, things she could do, and things that she’d never thought to do, but would probably do with him because he was just so…
But she’d regret it, all of it, every last bit of it… or would she? Maybe for once in her life she should be the dog, the mutt with fleas, the one who got to be spontaneous, and grab hold of life with both hands, and boy what she could do with those hands…
“Yes.”Rudd’s answer made her hands stop moving, made the thought of the coffee spill the last thing on her mind, and she brought her eyes up to his and just stared back at him lost for words. “Although if you prefer it doesn’t have to be a bed. A wall, a chair…”He took a step forward and placed his palms down onto the counter top and gave her a wolfish grin. “This counter top…that stool.”
Her mind was reeling. Everything he said conjured up an erotic imagine in her mind until she was practically running a porn movie in her head featuring the two of them in clip after clip, after clip.
The cautious side, the practical side of Macy’s brain screamed at her so loudly that it basically slapped her upside her head and she jumped to attention on the stool. Trying to distance herself from him and those damn images in the fun, the carefree side of her mind, she practically jumped from the stool. One of her heels caught in the foot rail and she lost her balance.
The floor came up to greet her as she felt herself falling, almost in slow motion as the realisation that she couldn’t do a damn thing to stop herself washed through her, and then she felt hands on her body, fingers that dug into her flesh as she was snatched back from face planting the kitchen floor.
A squeal followed by a yelp sounded out inside her mind, echoing off the walls of fear and futility as they escaped her lips, and she found herself planted back on her feet. A kind of dizzy wave at either the speed of it all, or the disbelief of it all, swept through her and her hands shot out and she gripped his forearms like her very life depended on it, akin to finding the last chocolate bar in existence in the middle of a scrum.
“I’ve got you.”His deep velvety tone knocked her for six in the midst of her shock and awe phase.
“How’d you…?”Her head snapped around to where he had been standing and then back to the thick muscled chest in front of her, and admittedly she had to force her mind off the detailed appraisal of his chest and those ripped muscles that were still moving beneath the thin material of the top that, unfortunately, covered them, and back on trying to equate speed and distance.
This was when you really wanted those science lessons to kick in. The one’s you thought you would never need to rely on in the real world, with equations that looked like a two year old child had gotten hold of the chalk and drawn lines and ticks between an adults sums… Speed, velocity, distance…damn… how did that go again?
If a bus leaves the depot at ten in the morning, travels at a slow arse speed and makes two stops along the route, how long will it take to reach your destination? A lot longer than by car…she though, but that was just unhelpful.
If a man left his point of origin across the great divide of the counter and managed to get to you when you did something stupid and nearly kissed the floor, is that possible? Her brain said it wasn’t, his actions proved otherwise…
“I was already on route to you…”He answered easily, thinking on his feet. And he watched her as she raised her head, bringing her eyes up to his, eyes that questioned his answer, but she didn’t dispute it.
“Nice catch. Thanks.”He felt her fingers still wrapped over his forearms, they hadn’t eased against his flesh, they still held him like he was a life raft, and the sensation of her touch was like an electric shock that made him harder than a hammer.
“You’re welcome…”He growled down at her, unable to curb the pure animal need for her in his tone, and she blinked up at him, twice.
She might have heard, or thought she heard him growl a couple of times, but what she just heard rumble along with his words was a pure animalistic sound that made her toes curl within her shoes so tightly it felt as if she had the cramp.
Macy suddenly realised that she was still holding onto him, and as reluctant as she was to break the contact, she managed to snap her hands open and put her hands up in front of her as if she was holding him back. Maybe subconsciously she actually was, because this man was moreish, the more she got the more she wanted, and right now, boy did she want more.
“Stop growling.”She bit out. Trying to take a step back from him, but he hadn’t let go of her yet and she was basically anchored in place.
“Stop making me.”He offered down at her, less growl and more grin as he flashed two rows of perfect white teeth that reminded her of a predator with his prey, and she damn well knew that she was that prey.
“I’m not making you do anything…”She squirmed against his hold. Wanting to put her palms against his chest and push, but knowing that to touch him again would be like fighting against quicksand, the more of her that touched him the more he sucked her in.
“You’re making me want you…”There was something extremely possessive in the way he said those words that made her body shiver it’s awareness and she was back to panic stations again.
“Let go…”Her hands hit his chest with all the force that she could muster and she pushed backwards with everything she had, just as his hands released their hold on her and instead of her pushing him away, he seemed to stand like stone, cemented to the damn floor, and she found herself propelled backwards as her heels tried to find purchase on the tiled floor.
Slipping and sliding backwards she had no other choice than to reach out and try to stop herself from falling on her backside. The trouble was she kind of knew what she would find when she did reach out, and she wasn’t sure that ending up on her backside wasn’t the easiest option.
Rudd’s arms snapped out, his hands gripped on her hips and he yanked her back towards him. She was grateful for the save for about two seconds before reality kicked in and she realised that this time she was pinned against the length of his body with something rock hard between them, and it wasn’t a gun…
“You know subconsciously I thin
k this is where you want to be.”He flashed those teeth in a wolfish grin again and she felt the whoosh of a hot flush rush through her body, from her head to her toes and back up again.
“I will seriously damage you if you say one more word.”She growled out a warning of her own, and Kudos, she told herself, her growl was every bit as good as his…
The sound of his mate growling held him motionless for all of a second. His heart stopped in his chest before it kicked started like a bolt of thunder had torn through him and brought it back to life. He was sure his hair was even smouldering from that imaginary lightening strike as the heat of desire swept through him. And damn it to hell, but he had to hold onto his beast in the most profound way possible…
‘Mine.’
He quickly released his mate and stepped back away from her. Spinning on his heels, he turned back towards the kitchen counter and slammed his palms down onto the surface as his beast reared its ugly little head within him.
‘Mine.’
The sound of his claws against the marble side clipped loudly in his ears as his pulse sped up and he snatched his hands away, fisting the claws against his palms, and digging them into his own flesh as he bit down on the fangs that wanted to descend from his gums.
‘Mine.’
CHAPTER FIVE
Christ, but he was losing the battle. To turn here in front of his human mate was something he couldn’t afford to do, and the panic tore through his mind as his body shivered with a need to shift…
“Rudd, are you…?”Macy nearly jumped out of her skin when a booming voice sounded into the room from behind her.
“Well would you look at that!”Macy’s eyes were wide as she spun on her heels and clocked Rick pointing towards the window- giving it a wide eyed stare. Her heart pounded inside her as her eyes shot to the window to see what all the fuss was about.
The sound of a stool crashing to the floor not too far away from where she was standing made her spin around yet again, and she found an empty space where Rudd had taken up so much of the kitchen before, and a stool on the floor near her feet. The sound of cloth tearing caught her attention, but she wasn’t about to go look for herself. That was how people died in horror movies and she’d been scared enough…
“What the fu…?”She spat out. Turning back towards Rick, who had also managed to pull off a disappearing act and left her alone in the kitchen to try to still her heart and throbbing body from the countless shocks to her system, and to realise that something was not quite as it should be… But for the life of her she didn’t know what.
“What the hell did you do?”Rick back heeled the office door closed and growled down at the upturned face of the wolf before him expectantly.
The wolf’s eyes glared back, but it wasn’t anger at his Beta, but anger at himself that flowed through him. He’d all but shifted in front of his mate for Christ sake. What next, a show and tell at the local school? Perhaps he could walk into an old people’s home and shift right in front of the damn residents?
Rick watched his Alpha’s head twist on his neck as he stared up at him. The sound that came from his lips was akin to a cartoon character’s questioning stance, somewhere between a dog and a wolf, and then the low growl that followed had Rick raising just one brow.
The Beta didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the absurd situation he found himself in. His Alpha had broadcast his distress loud and clear that he was about to shift and Rick had pulled out all the stops to get to the damn kitchen in time to distract the human…
The door to the office burst open and slammed into Rick’s back, sending him forward and almost over the top of his Alpha as Jack rushed in, closely followed by the damn Vampire. Great, Rudd thought, ‘why don’t I just sell damn tickets!’ He growled out into his mind and Rick snorted his laughter.
“What’s he doing?”Jack looked at Rick, uncertain of why her Alpha would have shifted into his wolf when his mate was in the house, when he was in the house…
“Looks like an impression of a wolf to me, but I’ve been known to be wrong before.”Link offered sarcastically as he followed his mate into the room and was answered by the low warning growl that rumbled through the Alpha. It was so much more menacing when he did it in wolf form, but Link still cracked a smile and chuckled in amusement.
“Something made him shift…”Rick shrugged in confusion.
Rudd cursed his wolf up hill and down dale, and that only reminded him that he needed to go and run off some of his beast’s energy… But the hell was he going to give his damn beast what it wanted, and he pulled everything he had into shifting back again.
His muscles shivered as he forced the shift and he pulled his body up to his full height, uncaring that he was naked and unnoticed by those gathered within the room.
“She growled at me and my damn beast lost it.”Rudd informed them, somewhat shamefully in his own mind, although he was a proud man, an Alpha, and he would never show it.
“That’s not good. You’re going to have to break it to her before that happens again…”Link informed him with a certain amount of glee at the Alpha’s situation.
“I know.”He growled back. The scent of his mate filled the air and his eyes met hers as she peered over Link’s shoulder to see Rudd totally naked and the centre of everyone’s attention.
Her eyes couldn’t help but take in his naked body and widen in delighted surprise at the sight of him. Wow, she was practically drooling from the muscled torso that couldn’t hold her gaze from dropping to the thing that was starting to stand to attention for her benefit.
Thing… whoa… definitely a thing. The size of it alone dictated that it should be a separate entity, thick and long with a way of waving at her that made her lick her lips in anticipation of her surrender. If she had been a dog she thought she might have flipped onto her back on the floor and allowed him to rub her stomach as she waged her tail in friendship…
What the hell was she thinking? She physically slapped her palm against her forehead as she tried to drag her eyes away from it…him…no it.
“Whoops.”Rick bit out quietly and Link and Jack spun to look at her as she stood there, flushed and so very confused, staring at the object of her affection, and not Rudd’s face…
Link snorted out his amusement as he caught the look on her face. Horror mixed with glee as she took in her mate.
Rudd stood there frozen. He liked the way his mate was looking at him, and yet he knew he was going to have to come up with a plausible explanation for why he was standing in his office naked with everyone else around him… He swallowed hard…
“You’re…”The shrill yelp of her voice made her clamp her lips together and swallow down her tongue, at least she hoped it was her tongue, her brain might have led her to do something really stupid…
“There’s a funny story that goes along with this…”Link blurted out and she tried to make her eyes snap towards him, praying for some kind of reasonable explanation, but they wouldn’t move, only her head shook from side to side as she just kept staring at the hardness that was still waving at her…
“He’s…”She managed to force out from between dry lips, but that was all that would come out, the rest was lost in the haze of her mind, so occupied with thoughts of his penis and the sheer size of it that she couldn’t think clearly, let alone speak.
“He is.”Link informed her. Stashing another snort of laughter at the sight that was his best friend Macy. Damn, but he loved this girl because she never failed to amuse him.
“Why?”She still hadn’t taken her eyes off his penis, but they were starting to take in the immediate area of hard muscle as well now, the line of hair that ran down his hard stomach, the ridges of muscle over his hips, as her brain fought to make something rational out of the surreal.
“Hot.”Jack offered with a shrug of her shoulders. Even she couldn’t find fault with that explanation…
“He certainly is…”It was out of Macy’s mouth before her brain was in gear, b
ut it was the sound of laughter from at least three other people in the room that made her brain finally snap out of it, and she tore her eyes away from his attributes and blinked up at Rudd’s face.
“Thank you.”He offered with a large wolfish grin and flashing those white teeth again as she frowned at him in disbelief.
“And weird.”She spat out in disbelief, shaking her head as she started to back away from the room.
She didn’t know why he was naked and quite frankly she didn’t want to know. She didn’t know why he was sharing his nakedness with the rest of them or why they wanted to be there, frankly that was between the occupants of that room and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know…
Putting her hands up in front of her chest she continued to back away from the spectacle. This was a little too weird on the sharing, caring front for her, and what four consenting adults did in their own time was frankly none of her business, but she wasn’t about to get involved in it.
“Count me out and have fun.”She announced, turning on her heels and stalking back towards the kitchen. Retreating from the orgy that was sure to follow…
“I didn’t know you were that way inclined, mate.”Link bit out. The thought of it annoyed him to hell, that his mate would be with anyone but him was more than distasteful, it was downright impossible not to consider his bloodlust at such an event.
The thought that Macy had assumed the worst, well, not the worst exactly, she hadn’t assumed that two Lycans and a vampire were watching an Alpha shift back into his human form…Thank God… But she had thought they were about to have an orgy and that she might be invited… well that was just as funny as hell.
His mate growled up at him, and she showed two rows of perfect white teeth and even a little fang that got him all excited.
“Oh baby, you know what I like.”He beamed back, showing her the same amount of his fangs as she had shown him, and she turned her nose up at him.