by Rosko, Mandy
Her brother put her into baseball when she was a kid. Anna hadn’t pitched in years, but she hoped her skills hadn’t entirely left her as she pulled her arm back, then launched her projectile.
She heard the smack of rock against bone on the head of the wolf shifter she’d wanted to hit. It actually yelped and jumped off Dennis’ back. Anna fell backwards, hardly able to believe she’d actually hit the damned thing.
“Holy shit.”
The wolf snarled, those glowing eyes practically on fire as they looked in her direction.
Her heart stopped.
Dennis slid between her and the two wolves still struggling to get to them. His hackles were raised up high; he opened his mouth, revealing long, bloody teeth, and roared a noise Anna didn’t think she’d ever heard before in her entire life.
It made her shiver. She watched the creatures in front of her, her own inner wolf cowering before…no, not all three of them. Her inner wolf wanted to submit to the raw power in front of her, but not from these other two.
Only from Dennis. He was the only one who affected her like this. The only one she could feel herself wanting to give everything over to. The other shifters, while powerful, made her want to growl and snap her teeth, not to submit to their strength.
They could fuck off.
Dennis stopped roaring at the two in front of them. Anna didn’t understand what happened next. There was always something about alphas who stared each other down, as though they were in the middle of a contest of sorts.
Whatever silent message was being exchanged between the three shifters, Dennis seemed to win it.
With reluctance.
The two other wolves didn’t stop growling, their hackles remained high, and their eyes continued to glow as though they wanted to lunge.
But there was something about their stance. Anna tried to pinpoint exactly what it was. Dennis seemed taller than they both were in that moment. Were they crouching away from him?
As though the sheer force of will, his power as an alpha, kept them from getting too close.
With one last parting glance at Anna, both shifters made a wide circle around Dennis, still keeping outside of that invisible force field he’d seemed to create around himself and Anna.
They melted into the darkness of the trees, running away, and this time, Anna couldn’t make out the sounds of their paws stomping against the earth.
She supposed they felt they had a big reason to stay quiet this time. They weren’t chasing down prey.
They were running from a predator.
Dennis groaned.
Anna looked at him, noting the way the bear-sized wolf stumbled.
Anna rushed to her feet, flying to him, her hands pushing into his fur, keeping him on his hind legs as he melted back into his human shape.
“Don’t fall over. If your body crashes into the ground right now, they might feel it and come back.”
And if he was really struggling that hard with staying up, then it was the last thing they both needed.
Anna expected, even hoped, to hear the sound of his voice once more in her head, but it didn’t come. Dennis melted down into his human shape, still leaning against her body.He smiled down at her, the sheen of sweat on his face preventing the situation from being entirely lighthearted.
“This looks familiar.”
“But you’re not bleeding all over the place anymore, thank God.”
Dennis rubbed his face, blinking his eyes wide, as though he was having trouble keeping them open.
“Christ, I didn’t think I’d get to you in time.”
She almost didn’t want to ask. “What happened with Laurence?”
“I killed him.”
The point blank way he said it made Anna’s guts seize up. Part of her didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t want to believe that he could do such a thing…
But that was stupid. Of course he would kill people if he needed to. He’d already killed people in his life. He’d killed her own father, and she was mated to him.
“I’m sorry.”
Anna shook her head. “Don’t be. I think…all of this is just getting to me right now.”
Her mate had killed people, and as much as she wanted Garret to accept this, there was no way he was going to let this go so lightly.
He’d known their father. He’d been killed when Anna was so young; the only reason why she knew what the man looked like was because of the photos she’d seen.
Maybe that was why it was easier for her to forgive Dennis. She held little to no love for the people he’d killed over the years, and everyone else she cared about who had been hurt…there was always something to explain it away.
It wasn’t entirely his fault. He didn’t know; he was young.
Why did this have to hit her now? Was it the adrenaline? The constant need to run and defend and attack and hide?
Maybe, because all of a sudden, Anna didn’t think she could stay on her feet either.
“I’ll get you home, Anna.”
She looked up at him. He turned away from her, limping forward. She went with him.
“You don’t have to see any more of me after that.”
“The thought of that hurts just as much as not being able to have you at all.”
A low growl escaped Dennis’ throat as they limped along. “You shouldn’t say things like that to me.”
“Why?”
He looked at her, and though his eyes never stopped their glowing, there was something about them right now that made them blinding in the night.
“You know why.”
Anna tensed, and deep down, she did know why. She knew exactly what he wanted.
And she wanted to give it to him.
It was a bad time, it was a dangerous place to do anything other than trying to get away, but she did have the perfect excuse as Anna pushed herself up onto her toes, wrapped her arms around Dennis’ neck, and pressed her mouth to his.
He didn’t move. His hand slid down to her hip and stayed there, but otherwise, he didn’t touch her. He didn’t even kiss her back.
And that hurt.
Anna pulled back, looking at him, searching for what was wrong and unable to see it. Then she thought she got it. “Right, we shouldn’t do this right now. They could come back.”
“We shouldn’t do anything at all. Your brother is already going to enjoy pushing needles under my fingernails, and I don’t want him doing that to my son.” He hesitated. “Besides, this is clearly too fucked up for you right now. You don’t want to deal with this any more than I do.”
“You don’t want me.”
He groaned. “You’re pressing your breasts against my chest, and you just kissed me after I thought I wouldn’t be able to save you. I do want you. I want you so fucking much it hurts.”
That made her excited. It made the wolf inside her sit pretty and tail wag.
Her heart slammed. She could hardly seem to catch a breath. “You do want me.”
“You’re my mate. Of course I want you.”
“Then let me do this. It helps you heal, right?”
And he was still clearly hurt after his fight with Laurence. He was tired. He needed the boost. Why shouldn’t she give it to him?
She leaned in for a kiss, annoyed and hurt when he turned his face away. “Anna, if you kiss me again, I’m going to tear you out of your clothes and fuck you, and it doesn’t matter how hurt I am, this is not the place to do it.”
Anna listened carefully to the sounds around her, the sounds of the night. An owl hooted somewhere. Crickets chirped. The air was cool, and the moon bright.
She didn’t hear any noises of anyone trying to sneak up on them, but he was correct.
“You’re right. This isn’t the place to do something like that.”
He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as she stepped back. But then he groaned a low, pained noise when Anna pulled her shirt over her head, exposing her bra.
“You don’t need to get me a
ll naked, and we can make it a quickie.”
The flash in his eyes was there again, and then Dennis lunged for her, grabbing her, his mouth on fire as he pressed his rough lips against hers.
And something wild and uncontrollable lit up inside Anna’s body as she kissed him back, struggling to keep up with him as Dennis pulled her into his arms.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, holding on tight, feeling the heat of his erection through his jeans.
And she ached to have that inside her. She ached to be one with him.
Dennis hadn’t been kidding. He really was out of control.
Luckily, so was she.
7
He couldn’t hold himself back anymore, and he wanted to. God help him, Dennis should not be doing this, but the wolf inside his head had taken over. Wild and as desperate as he was.
They needed their mate. They needed to inhale Anna’s sweet scent, to taste every inch of her perfect body.
To bury deep inside her and listen to the sounds of pleasure she made when she came.
He hadn’t done that yet. It was almost enough to make him laugh even as he held Anna in his arms and she pushed at what was left of his shredded clothing. He’d transformed so fast there was almost nothing left for him to be pulled out of.
And Anna tasted so sweet...
Did she just push her tongue into his mouth?
A thrill of pleasure rushed through his veins.
His mate thought she could try to dom him, did she?
He adjusted her weight in his arms, his hands sliding down her waist, around the perfect globes of her ass, and gripped hard.
The shocked squeak Anna released was more than enough for him to get her right where he wanted her.
Pushing his tongue deep inside her mouth, licking her, tasting her, and loving the way she trembled in his arms from his attack. The way she moaned.
Anna had mentioned they could have a quickie. He didn’t like that word. Because he could give her so much more. He could give both of them so much better than something as cheap as a quickie.
But that’s exactly what this was going to be.
He’d had her all this time, and this was the most he’d ever been able to touch her. Her breasts were too confined with her bra in the way, but he could feel her heat and her skin more than he’d had since first meeting her.
He wasn’t going to last. Not with the way she moaned his name, her hands clawing at his back.
He had to get her down on the ground. He could fuck her while holding her in his arms, but he couldn’t get her jeans off like this.
Well, he could do that too, but if he brought her back to Garret wearing no clothes, then it wouldn’t be needles the man shoved under his fingernails. It would be corkscrews.
“I need you,” Anna moaned. She pushed her fingers through his hair, fingers scratching against his scalp.
The barrage of sensation got to him, and Dennis growled.
“Hurry.”
“You shouldn’t be asking me for this.”
Her fingers gripped at his hair tight enough to hurt, her voice a threatening growl. “Don’t tell me what I should want.”
Dennis started at the glow in her eyes for a few long seconds, captivated by them. She had no idea what she did to him.
And he just learned how much he enjoyed it when his mate tried to boss him around. “All right, just remember you asked for this,” he growled, pulling her jeans down and around her hips, dragging her pink panties with the denim.
He leaned in, pressing a kiss to the spot just beneath her navel, working his way down.
And he loved the way her body heat kept increasing, the way he saw her skin blue as he kissed his way down her sex.
“I’ve been thinking about doing this from the minute I first saw you.”
He kissed her sex, pushing his tongue forward and teasing her.
Anna arched her back, and if he thought her grip on his hair was painful before, it was nothing compared to what he felt now.
He ignored it. She could scalp him for all he cared, and he would still kiss her, still taste her.
She was perfect, and the aches and pains in his muscles from all that running, all that fighting, melted away as though he were drinking from the elixir of life.
And her moans were sweet. Dennis’ cock throbbed with each breath she released for him. Every time she sighed his name.
Much as he ached to be inside her, he craved her taste even more so than that, which was why he couldn’t bring himself to stop, or to pull back from her sex as he licked deep inside.
He felt the clench of her sex on his tongue, and he loved it. His wolf loved it. The surge of pleasure that hit him, again and again, was too strong, and he wasn’t touching himself, was barely touching her.
He just wanted to taste. He could come like this and be perfectly satisfied. The wolf side of his brain felt that way, and the side that was still a man wasn’t far behind.
Anna did come to her pleasure, fast.
She arched her spine forward, her claws coming out and scratching into his scalp. He didn’t care. There was more of her to taste, and he wanted it all.
Anna slumped onto the ground, gasping for breath as Dennis continued to taste her.
Unexpectedly, she started to laugh. “God, you’re…really dedicated to your craft, aren’t you?”
He pulled back, smiling up at her before crawling over her body, keeping her legs spread as he positioned himself.
And the look in her eyes, so eager, so wanton. God, how the fucking hell was he supposed to give her back to her brother?
He pushed forward, sliding home, barely conscious of the barrier in his way, but it was too late, it was broken. Anna’s body tensed. She gasped and cringed, holding herself tighter around him, as though waiting for the pain to disperse.
Dennis was too horrified to move. “Jesus Christ, are you a virgin?”
There was the briefest of hesitations. ”No.”
He couldn’t believe it. Actually, he could. She was twenty-three. That wasn’t so unbelievable an age to still not have had sex.
She smiled at him. “Surprise?”
Dennis groaned. “Your brother is going to murder me.”
“I won’t let him.”
It was nice that she seemed to think she had a say in this, or that she would be able to stop Garret from tearing Dennis’ head off when all was said and done.
If it was his sister this was happening to, Dennis would play with the man for days before making him beg for an end. He would have fun killing him.
And Dennis didn’t even have a sister.
Anna threaded her fingers through Dennis’ hair. “It’s all right.”
He doubted that.
“You might as well keep going. Not like you can give my virginity back or anything.”
That had him quirking a brow at her. “Huh, well I suppose you’re right about that.” He canted his hips forward, enjoying the clench of her sex, trying not to grit his teeth or make it too obvious that he did. “Not like I can take it twice.”
He kept his pace nice and easy. As much as he was trying not to show off how much she had him wrapped around her little finger, it was clear just from looking at her that she was trying not to show how much it hurt.
Even so, she groaned and pushed harder against him, meeting his thrusts.
“You need to hurry.”
Dennis shook his head. “I’ve got you. We’re good.”
He didn’t hear Laurence or anyone else getting near them. If he did, he would be able to stop. He wouldn’t let himself be swept away to the point where he couldn’t protect his mate.
“They might come back.” A spark of pleasure ignited in her blue eyes. She gasped for breath a little more, which meant the pleasure was finally overriding the pain. Good. That was how he wanted her. He knew it was supposed to hurt, but he didn’t want that for her. At least not for long.
He wanted better than this for her first time. He d
idn’t want to be the sort of guy who took a woman’s virginity in the middle of the woods, especially after a narrow escape from werewolves.
It wasn’t right.
He would give her roses, a nice bed, and soft music. That’s what was supposed to be offered for something like this.
He didn’t deserve her, but he was too damned selfish to want to stop or to send her on her way, and every time he did pull together the willpower to send her away, or to go off on his own, she pulled him back in.
And now he couldn’t stop. She groaned, lifting her hips a little more for him, getting into the rhythm of it.
And now he could tell. He was free to be a little more loose with his movements. To go at it a touch faster.
All the while, he promised the next time, if there was a next time, he would do so much better for her.
The wolf inside his head growled. It ran circles inside his head, desperate to get out. Dennis wouldn’t let it. This was for him. He was not sharing his woman with that damned hairball.
The wolf scratched at the inside of his skull, howling in pain as Anna moaned with pleasure.
She wrapped her arms around his back. Her claws dug into his skin. Dennis hissed at the pull against his flesh, but the other side of him loved it a little too much. He growled, the wolf whined and scratched as though it were being given the best belly rub of its life.
Dennis fucked into her harder. He couldn’t stop himself. The desire to take his time, to make this as easy for Anna as possible, was gone. Raw desire was all he was left with as he slammed into her.
Anna threw her head back, and when she looked at him, her eyes glowed the perfect gold he loved so much. That color called to his own wolf, and he kissed her, a little too hard, but she didn’t seem to mind. Anna held onto the back of his head, holding him tight, as though she was scared he would decide to get up and walk away.
Not now. Not ever.
Dennis moaned long and hard, the pleasure building just beneath his belly, finally releasing deep inside her. Her sex clenched around him, a shout escaping Anna’s lips as she followed him over that edge.
Dennis and the wolf were both satisfied with this. He slumped on top of her, feeling the heat of her body, the thumping of her heart, and the moment was gone.