Mate Claimed su-4

by Jennifer Ashley

  It was too bad Eric would have to slap a Collar on her. They were obviously pretending Iona was human for now, but word would get out to the humans that an un-Collared Shifter was hanging out in Shiftertown, and the humans—especially those like that dickwad, Kellerman—would be all over her. Eric had better have some kind of plan in place for that.

  “You a Shifter?” The question jolted Graham out of his thoughts.

  A human woman was sitting on the barstool next to him. Her question wasn’t eager—she sounded almost bored.

  Graham looked her over. The young woman had dark brown hair pulled back into a sleek braid, a sexily plump little body, shown off by a silky, sleeveless dress, and assessing brown eyes. She studied Graham without fear but without much interest either.

  “Yeah, I’m a Shifter,” Graham said, after looking her over a moment. “You a Shifter groupie?”

  The woman gave a delicate snort. “Not me. My friends are. They dragged me here tonight. Said it would be fun.”

  “You’re not enjoying yourself?” Graham asked.

  “Neither are you. You’re as bored as I am. Picking up Shifter groupies not your thing?”

  “Don’t know. Never tried to pick one up before.”

  Her gaze roved him again. “You okay? You look…beaten up.”

  “Fight.”

  “You lost, right?”

  Graham started to bristle, but it was hard to work up anger at this little morsel of a female.

  He wasn’t a good judge of human age, but he put hers about thirty, older than the college kids who flocked here, and old enough to have acquired a cynical outlook on life. She’d already learned that the world wasn’t always a happy place.

  Graham took a sip of his beer. “Fight was a draw. We were working off steam.”

  Again the assessment. “Must have been a lot of steam.”

  Graham let out a laugh. “Yeah, it was.”

  “I thought Shifters couldn’t fight. They have Collars.”

  “That’s true.” Graham wasn’t about to tell a stranger that he’d learned to fight through the pain—most Shifters had. How Eric had learned to suppress his Collar like that, Graham wasn’t sure, but he’d find out.

  “So how’d you fight tonight?” she asked.

  “Carefully.”

  She laughed, the sound somehow soothing. “I’ll bet. I’m Misty, by the way.”

  “Misty?” Graham stared down at her. “What kind of fucked-up human name is that?”

  She didn’t look offended. “It’s what my mother calls me. My real name is Melissa, but I couldn’t pronounce it when I was little. They tried to call me Missy, but I kept saying Misty. So my mother decided that would be my nickname.”

  “My name’s Graham. Everyone calls me Graham.”

  She grinned. “So, what kind of fucked-up Shifter name is that?”

  Graham held back a laugh. “It’s Scottish. My family comes from Scotland.”

  “A Scottish Shifter? What do you turn into, the Loch Ness monster? Or maybe a sheep?”

  Snarky little human female. Graham could take her out with one blow. Then again, her brown eyes were sparkling, her scent was nice, and she was more interesting than anyone else in this place.

  “Wolf,” Graham said. He bared his teeth. “Big, bad wolf, sweetheart.”

  “Sure.” Misty’s gaze moved to his tattoos. “Don’t get the idea that I’m going to let you pick me up, Graham. I don’t like Shifters, and I don’t like guys with tatts.”

  “What’s wrong with tatts?” He stretched out his arms, now scratched and bruised, and displayed the tattoos on his muscular forearms. “A true artist made these.”

  They were flames, red and yellow and orange, outlined in black. The lines were delicate, finely drawn, each flame different from the others. The tatts had taken a long time and much patience from both Graham and the artist.

  “Yours are kind of pretty, I admit. But I can’t imagine anyone painting on me with needles. It’s painful, right?” Misty displayed her bare arms, which were delicate and pale but not too thin. Graham didn’t like skinny women.

  “Not as painful as a wildcat biting off half your shoulder,” he said.

  “Is that what happened to you tonight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ow.” Her gaze went to his shoulder under his T-shirt. “You okay?”

  Graham stopped. Her voice held concern. She was worried that the fight might have hurt him, that he might even now be sitting here in pain.

  No one spoke to Graham McNeil like that; no one had in years. No one asked about his well-being—to ask might force Graham to admit a weakness. A pack leader, clan leader, and Shiftertown leader could never show his pain.

  He thought about Eric’s people closing in around him to help him and take him home. Eric would be no less their leader tomorrow, even though his sister, son, mate-to-be, and even his human in-laws had converged on him to take care of him.

  Graham never had been able to risk showing weakness. His wolves didn’t so much have his back as were waiting to take him out the first chance they could. He understood—they’d lived on the edge of feral for so long, they didn’t know how to behave any other way.

  “I’ll be all right,” he said gruffly.

  Misty put her hand on his shoulder, and Graham winced a little. The bite did hurt. Eric had sharp teeth and knew how to use them.

  “I hope so,” she said.

  Her touch, her concern, her voice loosened something inside him. Graham’s worry, anger, and frustration didn’t go away, but they eased the slightest bit.

  Because a human woman had touched him, had spoken to him like she cared.

  Shit.

  Misty glanced behind her and grimaced. “I have to go. It looks like my friends have given this place up as a bust tonight. I guess I’m the only one who got a Shifter.” She laughed and patted Graham’s arm, right on the tattoo. “See you, Graham. Nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise,” Graham said. He lifted his beer in a silent toast as she slipped off the stool and made her way through the crowd to meet two women wearing fake cat’s ears. Misty’s legs weren’t long, but the mile-high shoes she wore made them strong and sexy.

  “Misty,” he said, trying out the word. He liked it.

  A human. Interesting.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Eric leaned back in his tiled shower, hot water washing away the blood. He was weak and sick, doubly so because Iona had rejected the mate-claim.

  Water cascaded over the deep scratches and gouges in Eric’s body, cleansing him, but unable to ease his pain.

  He knew why Iona had done what she’d done. Smart move. She’d shut out Graham and made him admit that he didn’t want her in the first place—in front of the entire Shiftertown. A bold stroke by a female, one that hadn’t been done before. Eric was proud of her.

  Proud and bereft. Once he got his strength back, though, he’d convince Iona that she needed to stay with him. Eric didn’t trust Graham not to find another way to use her, or hurt her, plus the other Shifters now knew she was technically free of Eric, making her fair game again.

  She couldn’t leave. Eric wouldn’t let her.

  The bathroom door opened, steam swirling like fog in wind. Iona closed the door, undressed, and walked into the shower stall.

  Eric remained against the wall, the cool tiles at his back. Iona came against him, cupped his face in her hands, and kissed him.

  A slow kiss that opened in him all he was trying to shut down. Eric’s arms went around her, and he scooped her slick, warm body to his.

  He was falling in love with everything about this woman. Her scent, her touch, the way she knew when he needed her. Iona was afraid of being Shifter, and of her mating hunger, and of losing the life she’d made for herself. And yet, she’d come to him.

  “Better?” she whispered.

  For answer, Eric turned around with her and pressed her into the wall. The shower poured over them, soaking Iona’s black ha
ir, beading on her skin. Eric licked the water from her breasts, loving how full and round they were, how dark her nipples grew under his touch.

  Eric ran his tongue around her breast before drawing the nipple into his mouth. Something eased inside him. She tasted like sunshine.

  Iona sucked in a breath, her hands smoothing his wet hair. Eric widened his mouth, wanting more of her, her breast heavy on his tongue. Her body moved, a slow rising to him as he suckled.

  He finished feasting on one nipple and took the other, giving it as much attention as the first.

  His pain ebbed as he sucked on her. The touch of the mate, Eric had told her. It calms and heals.

  Whether she’d rejected the mate-claim or not didn’t matter, he told himself. Mate-claims, Challenges, and the rituals to finalize the mating were trappings Shifters had invented to keep themselves from going feral.

  Shifters used rites to formally acknowledge the mating, but a true mate—one who shared the mate bond—was a magical, unexplainable joy. The mate bond sealed mates to each other, ritual or no ritual.

  Iona was the mate of his heart. Eric knew it like he knew the sound of his son’s voice. Iona knew it too, though she might not admit it.

  But her body knew it.

  Eric licked the warm space between her breasts and took kisses down to her navel. He let his tongue play there, enjoying how she jumped with laughter as he tickled her. He got to his knees and kissed the wiry hair between her legs.

  The mating hunger in her responded instantly. She was wet there, not just from the shower, the scent of her honey filling Eric’s senses.

  Eric knew she’d never been with a man—he could smell that. She’d probably been too cautious to take a human to her bed. She wouldn’t know how not to reveal the Shifter in the wildness of sex.

  But Iona’s body knew what it wanted. Eric slid his tongue over her clit, licking the little berry to life. Iona rose on her tiptoes, moving her hips to press herself to his mouth. She made a noise of pleasure, a woman learning what it was like to have her sexual places touched.

  She tasted of salt and musk, and beautiful female. Eric clasped her hips, leaned into her, and drank.

  Iona’s legs slid apart, wet feet moving to let Eric take more. Eric slid his mouth over her opening and let the goodness of her fill him.

  Iona alternately groaned and whimpered, her strong body pressing at him, wanting more. She wanted all of him, he knew, his cock filling her up, the Shifter female craving the male’s seed.

  That would come. For now Eric assuaged his weakness by tasting her, letting himself drown in her scent and her heat.

  “Eric.” Her voice filled the tiny room, echoing from the tiles. Iona shivered, though the hot water coated her skin.

  Eric slid his tongue inside her in slow thrusts. He tasted the depths of her, savoring her heat on his tongue. She tasted of nectar and incredible sweetness, smelled glorious.

  Iona’s fingers bit into his shoulders. When Eric looked up, it was to see her head rocking back, her mouth opening with her cries, the ends of her drenched black hair curling on her breasts.

  The hair he licked was as black, her petals wet with her honey. Eric drank her, his hands cupping her buttocks, and Iona went into shudder after shudder of pleasure.

  Eric plied his tongue faster, liking how she responded. She was coming beautifully, her cries blending with the patter of the water. He drank her, lapping her goodness like a greedy thing, then he rose, rinsed his face in the shower’s stream, and kissed her.

  Iona responded hungrily, tongue tangling his, lips bruising, mouth opening to take him. Her fingers caught on his Collar, and for a moment, she tugged at it, as though desperate to unfuse it from his skin.

  Someday.

  Iona’s roving hands found his erection, which stood out straight and hard from his body. As she had in the back hall of her house, Iona closed her hand around him and began to stroke.

  Eric broke the kiss to pull her close. She’d learned well, squeezing and pulling, the crazed ecstasy of it almost unbearable. Eric’s hips moved as he thrust into her hand.

  “That’s it, my Iona,” he said softly. “You’re beautiful. So beautiful.”

  Iona sped her strokes, her tongue busy on his chest and neck, her teeth latching onto his throat. Eric would have more love bites for his family to tease him about, not that he minded.

  They were locked together, Eric’s arms tight around her, Iona in the curve of his body. Eric felt the need for her deep within him, the urge to mate and mate and never stop.

  He braced his hand against the wall as he thrust into her fist, the squeezing almost as good as being inside her would be. Almost.

  “Iona. Damn.”

  His release shot out of him, right into her hands. Eric dragged her close, thrusting and coming, fucking her hand like he wanted to do to her. Iona smiled up at him, her blue eyes soft.

  The beauty of her, coupled with the erotic joy gripping his body, took away all pain, all thought except the joy of being with her.

  Eric knew he could never let her go. He’d never be whole again without her. Iona completed him like no other person had since Kirsten—he’d not felt this at peace since his mate had passed at Jace’s birth. So many years with emptiness inside, and now…Iona.

  Eric kissed her, slowing now, his pain gone.

  Iona leaned him into the wall, strength in her slim body, and pressed openmouthed kisses to his face, his neck. “Eric, I want…”

  “I know, sweetheart.”

  “Now. Why can’t it be now? I need you.”

  The feral beast in Eric, so close to the surface, agreed. Take her now, to hell if they drowned, and do her for days. Graham and his wolves, the human world—everything else—didn’t matter, as long as Eric could bury himself inside this beautiful woman.

  “I don’t want to drop a cub on you,” Eric said rapidly, his body crying out in protest. Like your father did to your mother. “Not until we’re joined under sun and moon. Join with me, love, and then we’ll slake the mating frenzy—I don’t care if it takes a month or a year of nonstop screwing.”

  She didn’t laugh. “Live forever in Shiftertown?” She shook her head. “I don’t know, Eric. I just don’t know.”

  “Shh.” Eric pulled her close, his body and hers warm with their release. “I’m keeping you near me, no matter what, love. I need to protect you, and I need you to ease this pain, whatever it is.”

  Iona’s fear turned to concern. “Are you all right? I was so scared.”

  “Fine now.”

  She ran her hands down his chest. “What is happening to you?”

  “I wish I knew. There’s a couple of people I need to talk to, who might have some answers.”

  “You told me you’d felt something like it before, when you took the Collar, but you never finished explaining.”

  Eric went quiet. He didn’t like to think about the dark days of their initial confinement, when the Collar first fused to his neck, when he had to fight the humans every day to keep his family together and unharmed.

  He pulled Iona closer, letting the warmth of her body comfort him. “When Shifters were rounded up, some of us were experimented on. The humans wanted to know how we did what we did, how much physical stress we could stand, things like that.” He shuddered, involuntarily, remembering. “They wanted to use Jace. He was young enough to stand the experiments, they said, but old enough to be a good test subject. I refused to let them take him, so they took me in his place.”

  Iona rubbed his chest again, her instinct to comfort. “That’s awful. What did they do to you?”

  “A lot of things. Pumped me full of adrenaline, tortured me to see how much pain I could take, filled me with tranqs to see how many I could stand. They provoked my fighting instinct so it set off my Collar—again and again and again. They did that, they said, so they could adjust the Collars. I spent a year in a cage, mostly in pain, until a Shifter rights group got the experiments declared inhumane, and
we were released.”

  Iona leaned into him and closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I got through it. This pain now is like some I suffered in the experiments, but I don’t know what’s triggering it, or why.”

  “Your Collar?”

  “Don’t know. Which is why I’m talking to some Shifters who might.”

  Iona kissed his chest. “You were suffering like that all those years ago, while I was hiding in my mother’s house, pretending to be human. That makes me feel bad…weak and scared.”

  He rubbed her cheek. “You were a cub, a half Shifter. I don’t like to think what they would have done to you if they’d found you. I’m glad you were safe.”

  He truly was. Iona might feel guilty, but Eric had no anger at all that she’d escaped the attention of the humans too curious about Shifters.

  Eric kissed her again, enjoying the hint of afterglow. As he pulled back from the kiss, savoring her taste, he reached over and shut off the water.

  “Let’s go to bed,” he said. “We’ve used all the hot water, and Cassidy’s going to kill us.”

  Iona woke when sun came pouring through Eric’s high window. Eric slept next to her, spooned into her side. His face was relaxed, his sleep, peaceful.

  As Iona lay back, trying not to think about what she’d have to face today and the decisions she’d have to make, she wondered why Eric, the big, bad Shiftertown leader, had what must be the smallest bedroom in Shiftertown.

  The room was wide enough for Eric’s bed and a nightstand, and that was about it. A corner closet had been built into the wall, not a very big one. The rest of the walls were blank, long and narrow.

  Iona thought about the way Eric wanted her to alter the plans for the new houses, and she studied the walls around her with interest.

  Eric stirred beside her, coming awake. His body was warm, his cock plenty stiff against her thigh. For a night not filled with sex, it certainly had been sensual.

  “Morning, love,” Eric murmured. He pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder.