Claimed in Forbidden: A Wolf Shifter Romance (Alphas & Alchemy: Fierce Mates Book 1)

by Keira Blackwood

  Rain had started last night, and was continuing to pour down. We had the windows open for ventilation, and the drops hitting the trees and the roof made a soothing soundtrack after last night’s excitement.

  Moira was back at the rental doing admin work today. Finn, James, and Brody were off getting quotes on various things for the bedrooms and bathrooms. The bedrooms from the asylum had shared a bathroom between every two, but Daphne had said that was unacceptable for a B&B and she wanted each bedroom to have its own bathroom. Well, they’d be tiny bathrooms, but fine—Daphne was the boss, after all. So Brody was looking at toilets, sinks, and shower stalls. Finn was getting quotes and samples on tile, and James was looking at furniture for the bedrooms.

  “We’ll have to dispose of the Slug King’s body,” I said, turning to look at Daphne. I’d brought the monster’s shriveled corpse out to the edge of the woods yesterday so we wouldn’t have to see it, but burying it would be best.

  Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, and a streak of “pineapple sorbet” highlighted a lock.

  I knew this yellow was called pineapple sorbet because her scrapbook was open to a page entirely dedicated to different shades of yellow. They all looked the same to me, but she’d circled and added star stickers to this particular swatch.

  Still facing the wall, she answered, “Yeah, sure. I guess we do. Just let me know when you want to head out there.”

  “You don’t have to help with that. I can make Finn and Brody do it.”

  “It’s on my property, which makes it my problem,” she said.

  “Do you have a page in your scrapbook dedicated to monster corpse removal?”

  I regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. I hadn’t meant to sound so sarcastic.

  She said, “No. I don’t.”

  She didn’t turn around. She didn’t rage at me, tell me I was a dickhead, or anything.

  This wasn’t right. She was supposed to argue with me. Had all of her fight gone into salting the Slug King last night?

  Or...was she scared of me now, knowing I could shift into a wolf?

  The idea that Daphne would be frightened of me...no. That was a shitty thought.

  I cleared my throat and rolled a long stripe of yellow up the wall. “You, uh, you know I would never hurt you, right?”

  “Yeah,” she said slowly.

  From the way her voice echoed in the room, I could tell she was still facing the wall. Then I heard her move to add more paint to her roller. I did the same with my own paint tray before returning to the wall. This conversation would be a lot easier if neither of us looked at each other.

  “I care about you,” I said.

  Massive understatement, but it could never be more. She was human, I was a shifter. I’d tried that kind of relationship before, and my ex-girlfriend had thought I was unnatural. She’d said my existence was against God’s wishes and that monsters like me should be put down. Rejection on so many levels.

  Daphne didn’t respond. The only sounds I heard were her faint breathing, the sound of our rollers moving over the wall, and the rain outside.

  “When I shift,” I said, “it’s still me in the wolf. I don’t turn into a monster or anything. I’m not like the Slug King.”

  After a long moment, she said, “But you are like him, in some ways. You’re both magic. You’re both dangerous—or you can be, if you want to be.”

  Not my proudest moment, being compared to the Slug King. I shoved the hurt aside. I’d get over it. My ex’s reaction had been worse, sure, and she’d been so convinced that I was evil, I was afraid she’d start a mob in Forbidden. I’d had to ask Pearl, the witch, to wipe her memory of me.

  Swallowing down the bad feelings, I got back to work.

  I finished my wall, then turned to watch her finish the one she was working on. Her cute little ass filled out the jean shorts she was wearing, and when she climbed the stepladder to get the high places, I was riveted.

  Finally, she was done. She turned around. “Oh, I thought you’d left.”

  Fuck. “Nope, I’ve been standing here, watching you.”

  “Okay.”

  She was still so fucking distant, it was driving me crazy.

  But...maybe that was best?

  “I guess I’ll go get rid of the corpse,” I said. “If you really want to be around for that, I’m not going to try to stop you.”

  She rummaged through a Forbidden Hardware shopping bag on the newly-installed granite counter and pulled out a pair of industrial rubber gloves.

  “Do you happen to have a second pair of those?” I asked.

  She grinned. “Nope.”

  I wasn’t ruining my best pair of work gloves by touching the Slug King. Looked like I’d have to touch it with my bare hands. Hiding my shudder, I said, “Well, let’s get this over with.”

  She led the way to the far end of the asylum, where the building reached toward the forest. Black oaks nearly touched the outer walls, the fingers of their branches looking like grasping claws.

  I followed Daphne, simultaneously trying not to stare at her ass and build up my courage for touching the sodden corpse. I was sure the rain hadn’t done the piece of shit any favors.

  Suddenly, Daphne stopped.

  “What is it?” I immediately searched the ground, afraid we’d walked into a slug nest or something.

  “It’s gone,” she said.

  I came up to stand beside her and we faced the spot where I’d dragged the Slug King’s desiccated corpse last night. Sure enough, there was nothing there, no sign that he’d ever been there.

  “I know that wasn’t a nightmare,” Daphne murmured. “I couldn’t have dreamed that up if I’d tried.”

  “No, it happened, all right,” I said.

  Squatting down, I looked carefully at the grasses around us. The rain was quickly washing away the evidence, but a long, shiny trail of mucus was leading away from the site.

  Straight back to the asylum.

  Chapter 13

  Daphne

  My clothes stuck to my skin, cold and heavy from the downpour of rain. My shoes were completely soaked through, and I shivered down to the bone.

  The Slug King was gone.

  “You can’t go back inside,” Declan said. “Not by yourself.”

  Thunder roared, seemingly out of nowhere. It was so loud I could feel it. The sky flashed, and lightning struck one of the nearby trees. The wood split, and a branch twisted and fell, crashing a few feet away.

  “Come on.” Declan grabbed my wrist and gently pulled.

  I wanted to fight. I wanted to tell him he couldn’t boss me around, decide where or when I could go places. But I didn’t have any fight left. The Slug King was alive, and the slime tracks said it had gone back inside my house.

  First, my beautiful mansion turned out to be a disgusting pit of dirt and filth. A freaking condemned asylum with a major bug problem. The guy I wanted to be there for me, the one I’d slept with like an idiot, didn’t even like me as a person. He hated my scrapbook and my plans. He hated the kind of person that I was. It was all too clear when I tried to show him one of my ideas. He’d built a bed to keep me away. Oh, and he was a freaking werewolf shifter.

  Worst of all, through our fighting, I seemed to be falling for him. I actually cared what he thought. I really, really cared. I could do hard things, but this wasn’t just hard. My bed and breakfast dream was impossible.

  I’d passed my limit. It was all too much.

  I let Declan lead me across the yard, inside my house, and I listened to him talk about towels and salt. And I was in a haze. It was time to go, time to leave Forbidden.

  I knew my parents would welcome me back to the nice apartment they’d built for me over their garage, to the life where they tried to control everything I did. Even after I’d sent them away. Maybe I could try to escape later, or maybe staying with them for my entire life was inevitable.

  Declan deposited me by the fireplace in the area I’d inte
nded to turn into a sitting room. Given the countertop and the old chairs, it may have once been used as a break room for doctors and nurses. Now it was storage for everything we needed moved, including the big-ass kitchen table Declan seemed particularly attached to. He pulled a canister of salt from one of the low cupboards, and poured a circle of salt around my feet. He grabbed some logs and newspaper from the chest nearby and started a fire.

  “Stay put. I’m going to check the house for the monster and find you some towels.” He grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes, worry clear on his face.

  His words barely registered, and as soon as he walked away, I did, too. I made my way back to the kitchen and grabbed my scrapbook from the counter.

  I returned to the fire, pulled my phone out of my pocket, and glanced at the screen. One phone call and my parents would be en route, all too happy to take me away. One phone call and it was over.

  Not yet.

  I knelt down by the fire and stared into the flames. The heat dried the chill slowly from my bones. I flipped open my book, the symbol of my dream, and without looking what page I was on, I tore one out. The sound of tearing paper should have made me cringe. It didn’t.

  I tossed the page into the fire. Orange and red flames flicked over the canary and pineapple chevron pattern. The paper browned and curled, until it was nothing. Poof. And a weight lifted.

  Instead of tearing out a second, I tossed the whole book in. The fire roared its thanks as the flames licked and devoured the paper.

  “Daphne, no.” Declan appeared out of nowhere and shoved his hands into the fire.

  I flinched for him, imagining it had to hurt like hell.

  He pulled out my book. He saved it.

  “Why?” I broke away from the fire and turned my gaze to Declan.

  His hair was dripping, he was wet all over, but his eyes ensnared me, so deep, so full of worry.

  “This book means everything to you,” he said. “I couldn’t let you throw it away.”

  “It used to mean everything,” I said. “I was naive. With everything that’s happened, not to mention the cost...”

  “I’ve never met someone so determined. Daphne,” he said, lifting up my chin so I had no choice but to look at him. “If you run out of money, we’ll figure it out together.”

  “I couldn’t take your money or take advantage of your family,” I said.

  “That’s not what I’m saying at all,” he said. “It could be a loan. I’m just saying we could work with you. Because you’re honest, and you’re one of the best, kindest, hardest-working people I know.”

  “If you give me some motivational speech,” I started to warn him.

  He didn’t speak, though. He simply wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips to mine.

  Chapter 14

  Declan

  Daphne tasted like rain and strawberries. When I touched my tongue against her lips, she opened for me and gave a soft little moan.

  She still held her scrapbook from where I’d taken it from the fireplace and given it back. One of the corners pressed painfully into my pec, but I ignored the damn thing and held Daphne closer.

  Resisting her had been stupid. She was nothing like my human ex, and I’d been an idiot for even making the comparison. I didn’t care that she wasn’t a shifter, I didn’t care that she was a newcomer to Forbidden.

  I didn’t care about anything except making her happy and making her mine.

  I snagged the scrapbook out of her arms and set it on the counter. I didn’t need this particular cock-blocker in my life.

  Grabbing her ass, I lifted her up so we faced each other more easily. Our kiss was fervent, hot. I worshipped her with my tongue and mouth. Her shirt and jean shorts were damp from the rain outside, and I skimmed a hand over her curves until I could cup her breast.

  “Declan,” she whispered. “Wait.”

  I stopped immediately, pulling back my hand. “What is it?”

  “The…monster?”

  “It’s nowhere inside. I checked. No trails, nothing.”

  “Good.” She paused. “Your brothers and sister?”

  “Won’t be back for awhile.”

  Without a word, she took my hand and put it back over her breast.

  I trailed kisses down her throat while I lifted up her shirt. She had on a simple white bra and I kissed every exposed inch of her breasts before unsnapping it and dropping it to the floor.

  She grabbed my head while I delivered sucking, biting kisses to her nipples. I took a moment to look up. Her head was thrown back, her eyes closed, her mouth partly open. Fuck yeah. The sight of her enjoying herself like that had my cock straining even harder against my zipper.

  I let her slide down my body so I could get a hand into her jean shorts. Her pussy was wet, hot, ready for me.

  I had to get her upstairs to her bed. I wanted to feel her arching beneath me, hear her screaming my name. But when I started tugging her toward the hallway, Daphne made a noise of protest and wouldn’t come with me.

  “What is it?” I asked, stopping in my tracks.

  “I can’t wait. I need you now,” she said.

  I did some quick calculations. My brothers had all checked in an hour ago from the next town over with estimates of when they’d be back, so Daphne and I had at least another thirty-five minutes. Not as much time as I’d like to rock her world, but we weren’t going anywhere—I’d get her there again tonight, and every night after if she’d let me.

  She reached for my zipper and freed my cock. Yep, looked like we were doing this here. Her soft hand encircled my girth and I pumped into her grasp.

  Grinning widely, she winked at me. “I can do hard things,” she said. “Like this hard thing.”

  The big table that I liked was just behind her. I knew she wanted to get rid of it, but I’d never seen such a beautiful piece of furniture in my life. It was sturdy, and the perfect height. I swiped the assorted tools and hardware off of it. They clattered to the floor.

  Now that my work space was free, I shoved Daphne’s jean shorts and panties down her legs.

  “Don’t lose my underwear,” she said.

  I laughed. “They’re right here.”

  Then I lifted her up and set her on the edge of the table.

  She was beautiful, tits and legs and that gorgeous face, flushed with desire. I got on my knees in front of her and licked around the edges of her pussy, purposefully avoiding her clit.

  “Declan,” she said, trying to direct my head.

  I nipped and nibbled, kissed and licked. She writhed against me, gasping. So wet, so beautiful. I couldn’t wait anymore either. Standing up, I reached for my wallet and pulled out a condom. I slid it over my length. Daphne’s eyes grew wide with appreciation. Then I stepped forward and drove my cock into her, glorying in the sensation of her fitting around me.

  She tugged on the edge of my shirt. “Take this off. I want to see more of you.”

  “Your wish, my command,” I said, yanking the fabric over my head and off.

  She splayed her hands over my chest, touching my skin, admiring my form. The wolf inside of me preened—our mate liked what she saw.

  The rain pounding outside was a beautiful backdrop to the gasps and moans I drew from Daphne with every pump of my cock, every tweak of her nipple.

  “Touch yourself,” I told her, threading one of her hands with mine and bringing it down to her clit. “Let me feel how you like it.”

  Blushing, she did as I asked, and I learned what felt best to her, how fast she moved, how much pressure she applied and the direction she sent her fingers. I leaned forward and took one of her nipples in my mouth, felt her pussy walls grip me.

  She cried out, “Yes,” and tightened her legs around my waist. Her walls gripped me rhythmically as she came, so I let loose, pumping harder and faster until the pleasure gathered inside of me and burst outward into ecstasy.

  Still inside her, I leaned forward, kissed her soft and sweet. Then I relucta
ntly pulled away.

  “I hate to make this so fast,” I said, “but my brothers should be back soon.”

  “Yep, time to get dressed,” she said, sitting up.

  I tossed the condom in the trash and tucked my cock back into my boxers and jeans. Her jean shorts and underwear were close by on the floor, her bra and shirt next to the fireplace. I gathered them up for her.

  She got off the table and stood, swaying.

  “You all right?” I asked.

  “Marvelous.” She shot me a brilliant, sex-kitten grin. “Just a little shaky, is all.”

  I helped her dress, then put on my own shirt.

  “Presentable?” she asked, doing a slow spin.

  “Perfect.” I tugged her into my arms again and kissed her sweet lips.

  “You’re not going to disappear on me again and build some kind of clue saying you don’t want me, are you?” she asked.

  “Fuck no,” I said. “That was a misunderstanding. I just wanted you to be comfortable and safe. But you can sleep with me anytime you want. Or I can sleep with you, if you want me here.”

  “I think I’ll always want you here,” she said, then clapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide, surprised. Moving her hand, she added, “I can’t believe I just said that. Forget I said it, okay?”

  “Forget it?” I said. “Hell, no.”

  She looked confused.

  “This might not be what you want to hear yet,” I said, “but you’re it for me, Daphne. You’re the one.”

  “You can’t know that so soon,” she said, shoving me away with a smile.

  “No,” I said. “I can.”

  Her smile faded as she took in my earnestness. “Really?”

  “Really. And I get it if this is too soon for you. That’s fine. I can wait until you know for sure. But...I need to tell you that I love you. I’ll do anything for you.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. Yep, I’d fucked this up royally and made her cry.

  “It’s crazy,” she said.

  “I know, but it’s true.”

  “No, you’re not crazy, I am. I can’t believe how strong these feelings are.”