Cutthroat City Wolves Volume 1: BBW Werewolf Shifter Paranormal Romance

by Lyra Valentine

  “Disgrace? Disgrace!” Tiana lept to her feet. “That’s what you call trying to force someone to be a mate and take over another pack? He threatened my alphas!"

  Cameron winced. “I didn’t know you were part of that pack.”

  “Part of the pack? Boy, I’m the second. Right now, I’m in charge while they’re honeymooning. I can’t believe you brought me here. I won’t leave the Inferno Wolves leaderless while some Ross tries to take us apart again.” She started to cross the room to the elevator.

  “Tiana, wait.” Cameron hurried after her. “I didn’t know any of that. Well, I knew about Colin, of course. But I didn’t know you were involved, and I certainly don’t want to break apart your pack."

  What did they say about redheads and tempers, Cameron reminded himself. Tiana directed a smoldering look his way when he took hold her of arm to stop her leaving. Her deep red hair looked like glowing embers of the fire she wanted to stick him in. He took his hand back immediately before she could bite.

  “A Ross needs to be in charge. It’s not just tradition, it’s how the firm is structured. We have an executive committee comprised of pack members, but ultimately the business is run by a Ross. It’s always been this way.

  “Colin was the heir, and I was mainly left alone. I got my law degree like a good little boy, and that was it. They let me live the way I wanted, and stay out of the way. When Colin did what he did, my parents called me up and told me it was time to take responsibility for the family. So I came home."

  He saw her temper melting away bit by bit as he spoke. There was so much more he wanted to tell her and couldn’t. He wanted her to know he regretted the end of their summer together, how much he wished he had been given the chance to say goodbye. He wanted to tell her he had spent years alone in the crowd. He was unable to let anyone into his cursed life and unwilling to curse someone else.

  “I want to change things for the better,” he finally said to fill the silence.

  Chapter Five

  Changing things for the better had a nice sound to Tiana, but she was used to being disappointed by the results. Changing jobs never worked out, changing friends never worked out, even changing cities never worked out. The same flawed situations always came back.

  She’d shoot Xander a message in the morning, though, and surprised herself with the thought.

  Why shouldn’t she still stay the night? She could tell the tale as a supreme seduction of the enemy and cast Cameron in a weakened light. She’d get her end goal and keep a good distance between the packs.

  “I want you to kiss me,” she told him.

  The hard Adam’s apple in his throat bobbled with a hard swallow. “I… You… What?”

  She smiled at the confusion. “I want you, Cameron, to kiss me, Tiana,” she said slowly.

  He didn’t need another order. He pulled her close to him and molded her body against his. His lips crashed down on hers and set her slowly on fire from her mouth to her toes. Flickers of flame ignited her skin when his hands grabbed her hips to pull her closer.

  His tongue pushed her lips open and tangled with her own. Tiana grabbed the collar of his shirt to stay upright. Heat coiled in her belly and she only wanted release in one way.

  Cameron tugged her with him and they kissed and stepped their way down a hall. They reached the bedroom, where he hit a button on the wall and shades drew up from the windows. The city lights slowly became unmuted and greeted them as they did in the great room.

  Cameron didn’t pause for effect. He pushed her further into the room and to the large bed at its center. His teeth caught her lower lip and the bite stung. Stung like her little teen heart when she realized he’d left her. She would get what was owed to her.

  She turned in his grasp, and pulled her shirt off. She’d long come to terms with her curves, and men had always been appreciative of them. She shimmied out of her pants and then dove for the bed. The sheets were silky smooth and she luxuriated in them. She spread her red locks away from her head in a shower of color and looked up at Cameron.

  She should feel the cold of the room. She should be upset at his Ross relations.

  Instead, she focused on his face. His strong jaw, his straight nose, and his lips. The bottom one was wet from where he licked it nervously. She wanted those lips on her body.

  “You joining me?” She asked coyly.

  He peeled his shirt off, and she groaned inwardly. Her eyes caressed his broad shoulders. His wide chest tapered down to a lean waist. She caught a glimpse of the wolf rune on his left pectoral, right above his heart. Lightly tanned skin contrasted with the dark pants. He popped the button on his jeans, and eased them down.

  He was glorious. She had felt the hard outline of him before, and the memories of teenage fondling came crawling back with a rosy blush to her skin. She’d grown since then, and gained experience in the art of fucking. She’d been with big men, and small men, but never before had she wanted someone as powerfully as she wanted Cameron at that moment. He was straight as an arrow, and thick, too. Werewolves were always big, but he took the cake. She’d be satisfied even if he turned out to be the worst lay in her little black book.

  His weight depressed the bed, so she scooted higher up. He knelt awkwardly on all fours and his limbs formed a cage around her. She reached up to rub a thumb over his lower lip. His skin was so soft.

  His blue irises were losing ground to the black of his dilating pupils. She knew desire when she saw it, and she reveled in causing it in others. The approval always urged her on to more daring acts.

  He wanted his mouth on her, too.

  His lips parted and he caught her thumb between his teeth. He swirled his tongue over her thumb, and she shuddered. She wanted that attention elsewhere. She pressed her knees together and let out a soft moan.

  “Did I hurt you?” Cam asked, concern lacing his voice.

  “Not at all,” Tiana grinned at him. The hurt was deep in core, where she ached to feel him.

  He tilted her chin up and forced her to look him in the eyes. He sounded tortured and unsure when he asked, “You want this?"

  “I want you.” She butterflied her knees open and forced him to adjust so he knelt between her thighs. Teenage hesitation had no more place in her life. She knew what she wanted.

  She shivered with excitement. He held her in pose that meant submission in their world. She was offering her throat to him to do as he pleased. He could tear it out, or run his long, wet tongue up and down its length. She knew what she would prefer. “Don’t hold back,” she told him.

  With a strangled moan, his lips crashed down on hers again. She met him with a gasp and sucked in his hot breath. It filled her to the brim and set her ablaze again. His hand slipped from her throat to rest between her full breasts.

  She twisted in the space between them and put one breast right beneath his large palm. His hand jerked away from her, as if he’d touched a hot iron. He returned only a second later and closed on her flesh. She arched into his hold and moaned into his mouth.

  Another hot rush of breath exploded from him, and she took full advantage of his open mouth. Her own tongue probed his and tickled over his teeth, then danced with his tongue. He jerked back again, going to his haunches. His eyes were wide and his breath came in wild pants.

  “Cameron Ross, are you still a virgin?” She blurted.

  He reared back, and she feared looping her ankles around his very firm backside was the only thing keeping him on the bed.

  She smiled at him. She never expected he wouldn’t have experience. Any girl in her right mind would have died to get in bed with him. Sudden uncertainly welled in her, and she frowned. “Do you still want me?"

  “Tiana, God, yes,” he said hoarsely. He leaned back over her, and his breath tickled at her collarbone. “How do I know what to do for you?”

  “I can tell you what to do,” she assured him. Another smile curved her lips upward. “Your hand felt great on my tits."

  He placed his
hand gently back on her. “So soft. You almost don’t fit in my hand.”

  “Now roll my nipples between your fingers.” She was thrilled to have such a willing student, and not some bull in a china shop.

  His thumb traced a spiral around the tightening peaks before his forefinger joined the party. She gasped at the pinch and bit her lower lip.

  She swallowed. “Do you want to lick them?”

  He crouched lower, and she got a good whiff of his scent. It was a heady aroma, dark and thick like cigar smoke, but light with mint and sea salt. She made a low sound in the back of her throat. He smelled gorgeous.

  His hand plumped her breast while his tongue retraced the pattern of his thumb. His teeth grazed the tightened peak and another gasp blew through her lips. He moved back and forth between her nipples, kneading at one and nipping at the other, until she felt fire racing through all her veins. The ache in her core was unbearable and she whimpered with need.

  “What else?” he asked from between her breasts. Both were cupped in his large hands, and he peaked at her from the middle.

  “I need you all over me. Hands, mouth, everywhere. I want you.” She reached down and closed her hands around his large cock.

  The long and thick shaft turned her on like a faucet. Her fingers traced the long vein and his hips surged him into her hands. She thumbed over his head and let his own juice help slide him into her hand on the next buck of his hips.

  She guided him toward her entrance, and offered herself to him in two places. Her head tilted back to expose her neck and her legs opened wide to accommodate him. He hesitated with his cock nudging between her folds.

  “You won’t hurt me,” she said. She raised her hips to him and took in another inch.

  He groaned her name and she knew she would never hear anything as sexy again. It caressed her ears and tickled at emotions she thought were safely behind thick walls. Oh, it felt good to finally have him in her arms.

  He gazed down on her with eyes no longer full of Cameron. The wolf had taken hold, and the wolf knew what it wanted. He shuddered, and sank into her. They fell into the bed together, him fully into her, and her into the mattress from his weight. She wrapped her legs around him to hold him tighter.

  He stretched her wide, and they were both hot and slick with desire. She lifted her hips to meet him at every thrust and they created something new from the rhythm as old as time. He didn’t take long to master the motions.

  She spread her knees wide and let him sink all the way to the base of his thick shaft. Her breath caught as she felt him shudder. She reached down and touched her clit to hurry her own pleasure to his level. Her other hand found her breast, and she used her fingers on herself, faster and faster, as they raced to the finish together.

  His arms wrapped around her body, one hand buried in her hair and the other burning between her shoulder blades. He slammed into her with the expected explosion, burying himself deep and throwing back his head with a wordless howl. Her own strangled cry echoed his own and she jerked upward as her mind and body broke. She shattered to pieces around him and because of him, and felt the walls in her mind crumbling.

  He held them together, and she could feel his heart racing just as fast as her own. Their breaths came in pants, and still her held her. It wasn’t until they breathed and beat normally did he release her.

  She dropped back and lazily gazed up at him. He held himself stiffly on his arms, and his dark hair fell in his eyes. His tongue hesitantly wet his lip, and her body responded with tiny ripples of muscles again.

  He collapsed to her side, and moved to bring her hand to his hair. She stroked his hair and found the dark locks silky in her fingers. She could picture herself doing that every night before bed, and the thought suddenly terrified her. The walls her down and Cameron was there. She didn’t know how to act with someone else.

  “That was damn good,” she voiced to keep the panic down.

  Chapter Six

  Cameron watched as something took hold of Tiana. Her eyes changed from droopy and relaxed to wide and panicked. He eased to the side and sighed. He didn’t want her to leave, ever.

  He knew he should pull away to protect her. He didn’t want to encourage any bad blood between the packs. He didn’t want to scare her off. But he couldn’t bring himself to disengage. Not when they were younger, and certainly not after the experience she gave him.

  He had avoided girls growing up, and that continued when he was on his own. His parents wouldn’t let him socialize outside of the pack. He couldn’t look sideways at a girl without his brother swooping in and claiming her for his own. “Pack leader’s right,” became the common phrase, first with toys, and then with girls. Though, Cameron mused, Colin seemed to consider them the same thing.

  He socialized only to keep from being a complete social outcast while in university, and then it was the bare minimum. It was too difficult to explain away his regular absences during the full moon. It was easier for others to chalk it up as his usual antisocial behavior than to let someone into his other life.

  The ones his parents and Colin approved of weren’t the type Cameron wanted to be around. They were snooty and stuck up with their pride attached to their money and lycanthropy. They were a society of snobs with closed ranks.

  The ones he wanted to be with weren’t made for his world. He wanted to be around the wild, flower children of the past. He wanted to know the people who worked with their hands for a living. He wanted to get in the muck.

  He couldn’t bring someone into that life. Humans were delicate soufflés that would collapse at the knowledge of the otherworld, his world. Even if he did reveal himself, the person wouldn’t have the type of bank account his parents deemed worthy. No, it was easier to avoid the matter altogether.

  “Where did you go?” Tiana whispered. She sounded strained.

  “Just thinking about growing up.”

  Tiana made a face. She rolled to her stomach and stretched her limbs long. He ran a hand down her back and over her bottom. She was so beautiful. She was everything his parents would hate. It was time that he did something for himself.

  “I want to run,” she announced. “That was a good time, but the outdoors is calling. The night looks spectacularly clear, so let’s enjoy it.”

  “Run? Here? In the city?” His confusion must have shown on his face.

  “No, on the outskirts. What, you don’t have a place to go?"

  “No. We don’t really run. Most of us have our safe rooms for the moon.” Running with your wolf was for the private events at the summer homes. City life was for work. When in the city, the wolf was allowed out only by being vicious in the boardroom and cutthroat with deals.

  She cocked her head at him. “No wonder you city wolves are so pent up. You don’t let your wolf breathe. Come on, we’re going out."

  Chapter Seven

  Tiana directed Cameron to the Inferno Wolf pack house. Xander and Stella were away on their honeymoon, and the moon wouldn’t be full for another week, so the wolves were on their own. Sure, they had their own cliques that gravitated toward one another, but none of those were at the house. They wouldn’t all gather again until the alpha and his mate were back in town.

  Tiana had readily agreed to watch the house while they were away. She loved the fast pace of the city, and was comforted by the constant commotion. But the solitude at the outskirts held some charm.

  Tiana didn’t know all the details, but Xander was a real estate mogul in his own right. As old neighbors moved away, Xander swooped in and bought up their properties. Between the land he owned, and what was protected by the state as part of the park service, the city sprawl was directed away from the neighborhood and the Inferno Wolves had a large amount of land to call their own.

  The street was quiet when she directed Cameron to park. Just as she suspected, no one was at the pack house. Even with no one around, she kept quiet as she urged him around the house. She had her key, but where was the fun in that?
It felt like old times with her partner in crime. Instead of sneaking off for stolen beer and cigarettes, they were sneaking around for a run in the woods.

  They rounded the corner and Tiana motioned him to have a seat at the patio table. She fumbled a key out of her pocket and slipped inside, returning a moment later with two cold beers. “Make up for interrupting our drink earlier?"

  She took a seat next to him, and they stared out into the darkness. Night activity was in full force just inside the trees edging the property line. She wondered if any of her pack mates were out there tonight. The quiet street made her think they were all safely tucked inside city limits.

  She took a long swig of her beer and said, “You Cutthroat City Wolves don’t know what you’re missing."

  “You call us what?” Cameron sounded amused.

  “Cutthroat City Wolves. You have a reputation for being ruthless, and for being typical, asshole businessmen. We don’t ever smell you outside of the city. I guess I know why, now.” She shouldn’t be surprised he didn’t know of the name. Their packs didn’t fit together. They were the socialites in the local news, not the average otherworlder working with their hands. Her pack leader owned a landscaping company, and she tended bars. Clyde’s was the nearest thing to a mixing ground, and Cameron was the first Cutthroat to step foot in the place.

  “It must be horrible to deny yourselves time to shift,” she shrugged.

  Cameron toyed with the bottle in his hands. “It wasn’t always like this. Not from the pictures I’ve seen, anyways. Somewhere along the line, the wolf came to mean only ferocity in business. Maybe your name fits."

  “It doesn’t have to be one thing or another. You can be ambitious in your careers and still be a werewolf. Hell, Xander runs his own business and he’s a pack leader with all this land. I’d say he’s a mite happier than those boys the Nephilim picked up."

  “Those ‘boys' were my pack mates. One was my brother.” Cameron growled. His eyes flashed in the low moonlight.