Juli wound her way past a few groups still cleaning up picnics they’d brought to the game, then found herself approaching a press of men wearing the Ospreys’ blue-billed ball caps.
A tall, slim man looked Juli up and down and let out a low whistle. “When Statham decides to play, he doesn’t play around.”
Juli started, cocking her head. She wasn’t used to men looking at or talking about her that way. The beast within her wanted to give him an education on what “not playing around” really meant, but she restrained the urge. She cleared her throat. “Is Neil here?”
Neil emerged before the other man had a chance to answer, shoving his way through the laughing group and avoiding their attempts to high-five him. “Juli,” he said, her name heavy with meaning when it passed through his lips. “What are you doing here?”
One of his teammates nudged him. “Statham, you’ve got game, but you have to learn how to play. Don’t stare at her. Take her to see Ollie.” The man winked meaningfully.
Juli narrowed her eyes. “Who’s Ollie?”
Neil made it the last of the way to her side and took her elbow. “He’s the mascot. And don’t look at me like that. He’s a real osprey who lives in the outfield. But... he might also be a euphemism.”
She laughed in spite of herself. Her body leaned toward Neil’s as if pulled by gravity. She wanted to touch him and so much more. She wanted to be free to be his mate, without so much political complication. “Maybe we should go visit him.” She took a deep breath. “I want to talk to you.”
He squinted and stared out toward the outfield. Her heart pounded in her chest. Since the night of the challenge, she’d lived in fear of this moment, when Neil might tell her he’d had enough. Finally, Neil nodded, and it seemed to Juli that the world started moving again. “Yeah, I guess we’d better get away from these jokers.” He tipped his hat in the direction of his teammates and led her toward the outfield. Catcalls accompanied them as they went.
Away from the press of bodies, the night felt cooler. They walked together silently, until Neil took her hand. “I didn’t think you would come.”
“How could I not?”
He shrugged. “The two of us don’t make a lot of sense, do we?”
“I know one way we make sense,” Juli said. Neil raised an eyebrow at her invitation, and she dropped it, feeling awkward again. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”
He sighed. “I’m going to be okay, I think. I called the Diamondbacks, and they’re happy, actually. They’ve asked a few times if I want to move up in the Minors, and if I ever want to do that, I can’t wait until I get much older.”
Juli swallowed, the pain of losing him even more real now she knew he had a plan. “Where would they send you?”
“They want some time to review my stats, but they were talking about Mobile, or even Reno.”
“What does that mean, other than those places being far away as all hell?”
Neil sighed, dropped her hand, and turned toward her. They stood in the shadows of the outfield bleachers, and she couldn’t read his face. “I’ve spent my career so far making peanuts playing the lowest level of Minor League ball, because I wouldn’t leave Missoula. These guys on my team are right out of high school, Juli.” He grimaced a little. “That’s why they don’t know how to talk to a woman. I’m in my mid-twenties, and I work part-time at a convenience store so I can afford to eat. Darrow didn’t even charge me rent. It’s embarrassing.” He rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes and looked up toward the stadium lights. “The Mobile BayBears pay something a lot more like a real salary, and the Reno Aces—that’s just a step away from the Majors. Maybe it’s time to get my own life. Take lycanthropy suppressants, whatever the Council wants me to do.” His eyes slid down to hers, and she could not mistake the heat they contained. “All I know is I’m tired of giving up everything that means anything to me.”
Juli bit her lip. Neil deserved to reap the fruits of his hard work in some way. The conversation she’d come to have would disrupt things for him yet again. Still, Mobile, Alabama, might as well be on the other side of the world. She couldn’t let him go without a fight—not after everything that had passed between them since her father died.
“Neil, if I asked you to, would you stay?”
Disbelief broke over his face. “What kind of question is that, Juli? You know I can’t. Those Lewistown goons escorted me away from the challenge site like I was a criminal.”
“You’re my mate,” she whispered. “I can’t forget that, and I can’t pretend it never happened.”
Neil winced. “I wish I could pretend I never said that. It was dumb, and I didn’t mean it at all.” He lifted one hand to her cheek. “I don’t want to leave you, Juli. I don’t know how I’m going to keep breathing. This just isn’t something I’m choosing.”
She stepped closer, reassured by his words. Whatever had gone wrong, the strength of the pull between them hadn’t abated in the least. Neil’s arms closed around her. He whispered her name into her hair. The sharp scents of the game’s sweat and dirt reminded Juli of another night’s exertions. She shivered and pressed her cheek against his chest. “I can’t let you go.”
“I would ask you to come to Mobile with me if not for the pack. You know that, right?”
Juli craned her neck up toward him, terrified of how he would respond to the question she wanted to ask. “After everything you’ve sacrificed for the pack, I almost want you to go,” she said finally. “Not selfishly—I don’t know how the hell I’m going to lead here without you beside me. But for your sake. You deserve better than all this—better than this place, better than the money you’ve made here, and certainly better than the way the Council has treated you.” Her throat tightened. “Better than I treated you.”
“Juli, we both made mistakes.”
She shrugged, too exhausted to get into all the old arguments right then. She rushed forward before she lost her nerve. “If we tell them we were mated when the challenge happened, the laws surrounding the whole thing change.” She gave him a wry smile. “For some reason, the Council gives a little more leeway to mated alpha pairs, almost like they might get in big public fights and then change their minds at the last moment. Our fight the other night would be considered an exhibition, not a true challenge. Of course, we’d have to share the alpha position for this defense to work.”
Juli fingered the leather ring in her pocket, a replica of her father’s. She didn’t know how to find the right moment to give it to him, so she held it out to him then, her heart pounding.
Neil stepped back and blinked at her, looking stunned. “Surely, there’s a catch. No way could the Council have a regulation that sounds sensible and would actually be helpful for us.”
She chuckled bitterly. “Well, this is a great solution because you don’t get thrown out of the pack, but if we tell them we’re mated, we’ve got various fines and penalties to work out for having mated without notifying the Council, shifting for two significant periods within the same full-moon exemption, improper use of Council personnel and resources, failure to follow procedure for the background checks required for an alpha’s mate, and probably a dozen other things Heather Compton will unearth for us, with regulation numbers and all.” She ticked off each infraction on her fingers as she spoke. Much as it annoyed her, she grinned by the end, since the mess of paperwork all this would entail seemed like nothing if it meant she could keep Neil at her side.
Neil’s face relaxed slightly. “Okay, that sounds more like it.” He took the ring, pausing to examine it before slowly sliding it onto his finger. He leaned in and kissed her, his hands finding their way inside her clothes without hesitation.
Juli’s body wanted to melt, but her brain wouldn’t let her just yet. She pulled away from him, shaking her head but still smiling. “Much as I like where you’re going with that, Neil, what the hell? What does that mean?”
He pulled her tight against his body and the erection tha
t had sprung up between them. “What does it feel like it means?”
“What about Mobile? Or Reno?”
His hands froze, and the expression transformed to something more serious. He sighed. “Would I like to move up with the Diamondbacks? Sure. I dreamed about playing Major League Baseball all the time when I was a kid. But if that dream were the most important one in my life, I would have left the first time the Diamondbacks offered me a promotion. If it meant anything at all to me, I would definitely have left the third or fourth time, when they started talking about how I might not get another chance. I wouldn’t have been able to turn them down so many times if that was the way I really wanted my life to go. Every time before, I chose the pack. I chose your father.” His arms tightened around her. “This time, I have an even better reason to stay.”
She frowned. “I don’t know how bad the penalties are for all those things I named. It doesn’t look like any of it’s going to get us thrown out or put on lycanthropy suppressants, but they’re not going to make things pleasant for us.”
Neil’s jaw set. “Good. They can try me.” He stroked her back. “Juli, you are my mate now. A few little punishments aren’t going to keep me away from you. I can handle it, especially if we’re facing it together.”
She frowned. “That night... The night we mated... It wasn’t something we planned. It felt like our bodies got away from us, like the wolf parts took control, and maybe...”
Neil shook his head and put a finger over her lips. “Don’t ask if I regret it. Sometimes, I think the wolf parts are a lot smarter than the human parts. It’s a damned shame the Council goes to such lengths to keep them caged. The wolf parts of us have always known what’s supposed to be between us, and how much have we screwed things up by over complicating and over-thinking? I may not have planned to become your mate that night, but I can’t deny it happened. I would never do that. I wanted to be with you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
Juli smiled, but worry wouldn’t stop flowing from her. “I don’t know what’s going to happen...”
“No one does.” He traced her collarbone, her fingers lingering at the edge of Juli’s shirt. Neil glanced over his shoulder. “Look, there’s one thing I do know. There’s a little shaded area near Ollie’s nest that is pretty hidden from view.”
Juli laughed and shook her head. “I see why Ollie is a euphemism.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Juli. Not if there’s even the slightest chance I could stay by your side. And I’ll serve this pack until the day I die, no matter what it costs me.”
“I’m so sorry, though, Neil.”
“Don’t be. You walked away from your job in Lewistown to follow your duty to the pack. You’re not going to be doing forensics. I’m not the only one making sacrifices.”
“You should get more recognition for everything you do.”
A smirk played over his face. He winked at her. “You know, I think you’re right. There’s a part of me that really needs recognition, and you could be the one to start it off.”
“You’re right, Neil. The wolf parts are a lot smarter than the human parts. They know when to stop talking.”
“Let’s definitely stop talking, then.” Neil lifted Juli off her feet as if she were a woman half her size. He carried her to the shadow of the osprey nest while she laughed and pretended to beat her fists against his chest.
She couldn’t keep up the pretense for long, though. It felt too good to enjoy the rightness of his body against hers, to know he returned every one of her feelings and intentions. Human habit made her want to search out the words to express all this to him, but the wolf in her did know better.
Neil set her down in the outfield grass. The spot he’d found preserved the night’s blackness despite the enormous stadium lights that blazed above them. “I’m going to at least make you come before I lose my head,” he said, undoing buttons and pulling Juli free of her clothing.
She gave him a wicked grin. “Not that I had any trouble coming before.”
Neil pulled his jersey over his head and started on his pants. “Forget the altruism, then. I’ll be totally selfish about this. I want to taste you.”
Arousal shot down both of Juli’s legs. “Yes, please.”
He licked playfully at the side of her face. “Maybe I won’t even try to act human.”
“As long as the Council doesn’t find out...”
“Oh, I know much better than to say I won’t tell.”
Juli would have had another smart response for him, except that his tongue found its way to her earlobe. He flicked it with precision. “This is what I’m going to do to your clit,” he said. His lips closed around her earlobe, warm and wet, and the tip of his tongue pressed her flesh, slipping firmly and ever so slowly across it. The act gave Juli plenty of information about what she would soon feel between her legs. Neil toyed with her ear and brought a hand up to explore her.
The night they’d mated, there had been too much urgency to spend much time stroking each other. He more than made up for it now, tracing the shape of her jaw, the side of her neck, and the line of her sternum. Juli wrapped both her arms around his chest and pressed as close to him as she could get. She felt for his shoulder blades, his spine, and the curve of his firm ass.
He touched her nipples with a delicacy she would not have thought possible, feeling them with no apparent agenda until Juli ached for more stimulation. She groaned and arched up into his hand, struggling to be patient. She wrapped her legs around Neil’s thigh and rubbed against it as he continued his maddening teasing of her earlobe.
A light sweat broke out over Juli’s skin from the summer heat and the strength of her desire. A dusting of downy fur followed soon after. Even when he touched her slowly, he made her want to abandon herself to the beast.
“Neil,” Juli whispered. “You have to let go of my ear. I can’t stand it.”
He did not release her ear.
“I’m going to scream so loud that damn osprey won’t come back to its nest for days.”
His laugh forced him to let her go, and Juli took the opportunity to turn the tables. She rolled him onto his back, her hands braced against his chest, straddling his leg. She surveyed him beneath her, pleasure curling through her belly simply at the knowledge that this man had given himself to her as mate. She licked her lips.
“What would be good revenge?” Juli asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Hey now, I said I wanted to taste you.”
She pushed her fingers into his mouth. “Here you go.”
Smiling impishly, Neil began the same treatment on her fingers that he had given to her earlobe, tonguing them with sensuous circles clearly intended for her clit. Juli swatted him with her free hand, but he employed a little bit of teeth and held on tight. She lost her balance and collapsed onto his chest, giggling. Before she could snatch her hand away, he took hold of her wrist and began a pattern of licking that thoroughly claimed her attention. Before Juli knew it, she’d rested her cheek against his chest and begun sighing and moaning as she ground a slow rhythm against the hard muscle of his leg.
Only then did Neil loosen his jaw and allow her fingers to fall from his mouth. “There.” He sounded pleased with himself. “Don’t you want to let me taste you?”
“If you put your mouth between my legs, I’m going to scream so loud security comes to investigate. I’m going to turn into a wolf and howl.”
“That I’ve got to see,” Neil murmured. He flipped Juli neatly so she landed on her back again. His mouth slid down her neck to latch onto her left nipple, his tongue as hot and patient as before. Juli let out a shuddering breath. She wrapped both legs tight around his waist. He smiled against her breast and slipped his head lower, licking his way down her stomach.
She ached for him to touch her there, but she truly feared for her ability to stay human. She fisted her fingers in his hair and saw fur and claws. “Neil, you’re driving me crazy. I’m not kidding. I’m going to growl and m
ake all kinds of wolf sounds.”
“Mmmm. That sounds hot as hell.” With that, his tongue flicked out and caught her clit. Juli shrieked. Even after the buildup, the touch itself surprised her, making her hips jerk as if a spark had hit her.
Neil wrapped his arms around Juli’s thighs and opened them wider, his face burrowing in between. Before he licked again, he rubbed against her juices, spreading them over himself from cheek to cheek and nose to chin. He inhaled noisily, then lifted his head with a wolfish grin. “I could never get tired of that smell,” he told her. Then he lowered his mouth onto her clit and went to work.
He swirled circles, nudged her clit from side to side, and rubbed up and down it with the point of his chin. Juli knew she was losing control, but she didn’t have the heart to make him stop. Stretching her arms wide, she grabbed fistfuls of the outfield grass. She dug her ankles into the dirt and lay open to him while the pleasure of his tongue prompted a kaleidoscope of feelings and forms to pass through her.
Her orgasm began to shape itself at the tip of his tongue, growing and withdrawing in time with the rhythm Neil set. Then he pressed his tongue flat against her clit and the sensation took hold within her. Raw pleasure filled her clit, then burst through her body and spread to her every far-flung limb. Juli felt formless in the grip of it. She basked in a rare moment of forgetting, a space and time in which it did not matter whether or not fur covered her skin, or whether she displayed human or wolf teeth when she opened her mouth.
Neil held still while she growled and writhed and tugged him closer against her. Then he crawled onto her body, and he too had transformed to something other than human or wolf. She knew Neil and recognized his features, but he stared down at her with wide, yellow eyes. His face had widened and flattened, and sharp teeth protruded from beneath his lips. What had earlier been a five o’clock shadow had grown into thick fur. Neil grasped Juli’s upper arms with clawed hands. Between his legs, the cock of a beast had sprouted, larger and thicker than what she had seen when he first removed his pants, and hot enough that Juli was surprised it didn’t sear her inner thigh.
Not The Leader Of The Pack Page 11