by Alexis Wilde
And as sweat glued them together, as her wolf rolled and writhed inside her skin, Jackson caught her hair in one tight fist, yanked her head to the side and closed his teeth over the muscle that connected her neck to her shoulder.
Pain seared into pleasure so tightly that she couldn’t differentiate. Didn’t care. As if he reached into her very heart and wrapped his large, callused hand around it, she was lost.
Her climax burst, rolled over her on a wave of primal certainty. She screamed as he drove his cock so high that her knees lifted off the floor, sobbing as his teeth bruised the sensitized nerves under her skin.
And as his hips jerked, as he held her tight against the heat of his body, he growled things in her ear she couldn’t hear—but didn’t need to.
She knew. With every part of her heart and soul, every instinct, she knew. It had to be Jackson. It always had to be Jackson.
Her fingers clamped in his hair. With every part of her still shuddering, she sank into his arms. Collapsed, more like. The strength left her, bled out of her body so completely that not even the pressures of the Yellow Canyon wolves could stir her to care. She folded, never doubting for a second that Jackson would catch her.
He did. His arms, strong and muscled and gleaming with sweat, wrapped around her, guided her against him. Her head came down on his shoulder, and he placed a warm, possessive hand at the back of her neck. “Mine,” he growled softly.
Her vision went double.
The last thing she remembered was Nico’s quiet tenor. “She’s Lost River, now.”
Yes. That felt right.
Chapter Fourteen
Hours later, Jackson made his way down the hall, following scent and sound to the kitchen. It was the heart of the cabin, Nico’s favorite place to hold meetings.
His body thrummed in weary, satiated bliss—a feeling he’d never in his life thought to feel. It was…nice. Sweet.
Perfect.
He stretched as he stepped inside the kitchen, smiling lazily at Ben and Nico in greeting.
It faded when Cameron straightened from his lean against the counter, a wary tension slipping in under the other wolf’s good-natured mask. He wasn’t fooling anyone. “Please don’t throat me,” he said, a tease that had too much truth in it to laugh at.
The simmering contentment in Jackson’s skin stretched to predatory awareness. A sharper edge than he was used to. His nostrils flared, gaze flicking to his alpha. “What is he doing here?”
Nico held up a conciliatory hand. “The rest of the Yellow Canyon Pack left. They took Victor with him.”
“Don’t worry,” Cameron added. “I’m not here to mess anything up.” He laced his hands loosely behind his back, and for all his shoulders squared, even Jackson realized he was doing his level best not to offer any sort of challenge.
It was just respectful enough that he forced down the restless urge welling inside him. The instinct that said Cameron was a threat—to the pack, and to Natalie.
Ben poured a cup of coffee, looking at none of them with his usual deep waters disinterest.
Jackson knew better. One wrong twitch, and Cameron would never know what two ton boulder came out of nowhere to hit him.
“The rest of the pack offer apologies and renumeration,” Cameron continued, his deep voice matter-of-fact.
“So they didn’t know?”
Nico’s wolf eyes flicked to Cameron, who had the grace to look sheepish. “We knew,” he confessed, lowering his gaze when Jackson’s teeth bared. “But our alpha ordered it. We know full well what kind of stain we carry.”
It wasn’t exactly the blood Jackson wanted to see on the floor, but even that was new enough that he throttled it back. Mating in one part eased him, and in the other, sharpened all his aggressive instincts.
Protect Natalie. Every cell demanded it.
His wolf bristled.
Nico reached across the counter to put a hand on Cameron’s lanky shoulder. His gaze, however, pinned on Jackson.
The message was clear. Cameron was under his alpha’s protection.
“Victor won’t stay alpha for long,” Cameron volunteered. An edge cut his smile. “This was the last straw. There’s going to be a line of pissed off werewolves looking to unseat him after all this bullshit. We won’t have a coward for leader.”
Jackson stared at him. “You first in line?”
“First,” Cameron replied, his dark eyes finally meeting Jackson’s. “And last.”
“Good.”
Ben pushed the cup of coffee into Jackson’s hands. “Whatever else, it provided you the opportunity to mate.”
Not exactly the way he’d wanted it, but Jackson couldn’t complain about the end result. He frowned into the dark brew, then glanced at Nico. “I don’t get what happened.”
The alpha shrugged lightly. “My guess is that while you were on her radar, her wolf needed to know you’d shed blood for her.”
“Sexy,” Cameron muttered.
Ben put a large hand on Jackson’s shoulder. Just in time. The sudden urge to tear over that counter and make the wolf eat it welled up like a wild demand.
Jackson’s fists clenched. Then, with a deep breath, he loosened them.
“Cameron.” Ben sighed. “Please don’t provoke the newly mated male.”
Nico ignored them both. “Sex is one thing,” he added, “but her wolf is too strong to settle for just a good lay.”
Jackson still remembered the taste of blood on his tongue. The violence pounding in his veins.
Still remembered the way she’d clocked that bastard in the throat, and it filled him with mingled pride and lingering fear.
She was nobody’s prize. Nobody’s doll.
His mate.
Ben let him go, turning to glance at the door. “She’s up,” he said. Two words, and they filled Jackson with such fierce pride. Pride of victory, of claim.
Of love.
As one, all four men turned to watch Natalie step inside. Even without the newfound bond forged between them, Jackson couldn’t bear how adorably rumpled she looked. He wanted to tuck her aside, hide her from the eyes of the men who watched her so openly.
A different kind of possessive. But one, he thought as she ran a hand through her tousled waves and blinked sleepily at all of them, he could deal with.
“Morning, sunshine.” Nico’s smile curved in obvious affection.
She muffled a yawn, but managed a murmured, “Morning.” She passed Ben, reached out to touch him gently on the arm.
The serious wolf’s mouth eased into something that almost passed for a smile.
Cameron watched her, as well, and as Jackson shot him a hard look, he couldn’t help but notice the way the other wolf’s expression tinged faintly regretful.
Too bad. She was Lost River now. She was Jackson’s.
A fact she sealed as she smiled softly at Nico, but stepped completely into Jackson’s embrace. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her soft, warm body into his own and glared daggers at Cameron over her head.
Bring it.
The other wolf raised his hands in surrender. “Natalie, I just wanted—”
A growl bottled in Jackson’s throat. He hadn’t even realized he’d intended it until Natalie’s elbow dug into his side and he swallowed it back.
“Sorry,” he managed.
Nico’s amusement filled his eyes. “You’ll get used to it.”
“We’re all going to have to get used to it,” Ben added dryly.
Natalie tipped her face up to Jackson’s, her beautiful eyes filled with so much warmth. So much love. She hadn’t even said it yet, but he knew. He could feel it.
The bond between them throbbed like a second heartbeat. So alive.
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “Really.”
“Really,” Cameron added, with the tone of one who knew very well he courted death and did it anyway.
The look Jackson shot him blazed.
He grinned, then took a smart step back.
“Natalie, the Yellow Canyon Pack formally extends its apologies. We owe the Lost River Pack a favor. Call on us anytime.”
She glanced at Nico, who nodded.
She did, too. “Thanks, Cam. And, um…”
The edge eased from his smile. “Don’t worry about it.”
Jackson was just human enough to understand the subtext. And just freshly mated enough not to care. He curved one long hand around Natalie’s throat, his palm gentle but his lips peeled back from his teeth.
Nico didn’t have to step in this time. Cameron knew the game, even if he enjoyed testing the rules. He looked away, rounding his shoulders, and took another step farther back.
Natalie sighed. “Men.”
“Wolves,” Ben rumbled.
Jackson didn’t care. He tightened his grip around her waist, nestling her securely against him.
She turned in his arm, reached up and caught his face in both her palms. Her eyes brimmed with joy. Her body with his seed. Maybe she would carry his children.
Maybe, he thought as his body stirred against her, she’d let him fuck her again.
Let him deep inside her, to stroke all her hot and secret spots until her voice broke on his name.
Mated. Jackson could get used to this.
Natalie lifted up on tiptoes to press her lips to his. “Relax,” she said against his mouth. She still tasted like him. Still smelled like his sweat and his body. “I’m yours. I love you.”
Watchers be damned. Jackson caught her chin in his fingers and tipped her face to seize her mouth, sweep his tongue between her lips and claim her breath, her words. He kissed her deeply, thoroughly, tasted her lips, her tongue, until she was pliant against him and gasping.
That was it. No fucking way was he interested in playing nice. Jackson bent and hauled her up into his arms, throwing her over his shoulder like he was some kind of gorilla. She squealed in surprise, braced her hands against his ass and tried to wriggle down, but he wasn’t letting go for anything.
He glared at Cameron with obvious, prickly challenge.
The wolf laughed outright.
“Jackson, wait—” Natalie began, only to shriek as he slapped the soft curve of her ass with one wide hand.
“No,” he said succinctly, and hauled her back out of the kitchen.
“Yeah.” Ben’s chuckle was graveled, deep and throaty. “She’s one of us.”
Nico’s voice barely managed this side of serious. “Definitely.”
Natalie’s fingers dug into his waistband. Found his naked skin. “Put me down, or I swear—”
He shuddered. “I’ll put you down in the bedroom,” he said raggedly. “And then I’m going to fuck you.”
“Again?” she gasped.
“Again,” he repeated. A dark, hungry growl. “Forever. You’re one of us.” And then, because he couldn’t help himself, he added fiercely, “You’re mine.”
He eased her off his shoulder as he slammed the bedroom door behind them. Let her body slide down his chest. Curve to muscle, softness to his harder planes.
Her breath caught. Her nipples beaded under her shirt—his shirt. He’d give her more of them. He loved the way the soft cotton draped her breasts, her hips.
He’d give her whatever she wanted. Whenever she wanted it.
Her eyes sparkled. “Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m yours. Forever.”
Jackson’s fingers tunneled into her silken hair. God, he loved her. The first female in the Lost River. The bond that made them pack.
She was everything Jackson could have hoped for, and so much more. Against all odds, she loved him.
“I will never,” he promised roughly, “let you go.”
She ran her tongue over his bottom lip. “Good. Now make love to me, Jackson King. I want to learn everything there is to know about being mated.”
His palms cradled the soft curve of her breasts. His smile widened, his heart pounding warm and heavy in his chest. It echoed her own. Linked forever. “I know,” he said huskily, “just where to start.”
Exclusively Yours: From the Author
Thank you for coming along for Natalie’s story in Mated for Keeps. The Lost River Pack is officially in business, and it’s all thanks to you. I’m so glad you continued reading!
While the adventures are over for Natalie, new adventures are just around the corner. Join me for the launch of the intensely erotic, dark and dangerous world of The Curse-Maker’s Collar. In the city of New Orleans, a secret war brews between the supernatural families that run the streets.
In Bound by Blood, the scion of a powerful family has finally found her—a woman whose untapped power compliments his own. Olivia Crane is fiercely strong and wildly sexy, as devastating in her allure as she is stubborn in her defiance, and Nathaniel St. Cross never turns down a challenge.
Olivia's blood marks her as his for the taking, legacy of a pact thousands of years old. All she has to do is allow him to train her, bind her; teach her that there is no limit to the pleasures he can bestow. But even as she succumbs to his determined torment, she refuses to submit to his control.
Nathaniel already owns her body. What sacrifice is he willing to make to lay claim to her heart?
* * *
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Thank You For Reading
Visit Alexis Wilde’s website at alexiswilde.com to learn more about her sexy paranormal serials, or sign up here to get announcements for the release of Bound by Blood.
See you in the next world, wolfies!
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Mated for Keeps (The Lost River Pack)
Copyright © 2015 Alexis Wilde
All rights reserved.