She gasped. “Damon.” She shook her head. “If I’d left…. Would you…?”
He stared down. “I don’t know. I’ve been adamant that I’d never have a mate.” He took one of her hands in his and searched her eyes. “Until I met you. And then I finally realized no matter what happened, it’s worth it.”
Sophie’s eyes widened, her expression torn with anguish. “I almost left.” Her face turned white. “I didn’t know. If I knew what it would do to you…” She rubbed her temple with her free hand. “I was just—confused.”
“Of course you were, Sophie. I hadn’t told you any of this. And part of it was because I was a coward. My wolf sensed you were my mate right away, but I refused to believe it. I was so terrified that what happened to my father would happen to me.” He shrugged. “Maybe I acted like an idiot to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
She gazed at him with eyes warm and full of love. “That’s sounds like a very human thing.” She smiled. “I’m glad you told me. And as time goes by, you’ll tell me more about what it’s like to be a wolf and to live as part of this pack and all of it.” She exhaled with a whoosh. “But maybe not all in one night.”
“I understand completely. There’s one more thing I want to tell you, so it doesn’t scare you when it happens.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“When shifters find their mate, instinct urges them to claim their partner. It’s usually done with a bite to mark them.”
“Have you felt that with me?”
“Absolutely,” he declared. “Never so much as last night. My fangs emerged while we were making love. It took all my self-control to hide them from you. But I promised you, no more secrets.”
“Fangs?” she repeated. “While you’re a human?”
“Yes. I thought you should know in case you see them.” He shrugged. “Then you’ll know why. It’s nothing to fear. It just means that I want to be with you—always.”
Sophie gazed at him, her eyes wide. “Thanks for letting me know.”
Rafe interrupted, Is everything all right?
Damon motioned to Sophie. “Hold on one second. It’s Rafe.”
Yes. We’re still in my cabin, recovering.
I’ll be there in ten minutes.
Damon returned his attention to Sophie.
Her expression turned confused. “What’s going on?”
“Rafe is the alpha of our pack. He just communicated telepathically to check on us.”
Her eyes widened. “You can do that?”
“Yes.”
“Oh boy.” She took a sip from her mug. “I have a lot to learn.”
“He’s on his way here. I need to explain what happened in more detail. This will make things worse with the Sacco pack.”
“Will there be consequences?”
“Yes.” Damon exhaled with a low groan. “What that means yet, I don’t know. My priority is you.”
“I’m fine, Damon.” She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Do whatever you need to do.”
When Rafe came, Damon told him all that had happened in front of Sophie. From now on, there would be no secrets.
Rafe’s expression was hard. “Killing one of their wolves has brought this to a new level.”
“He kidnapped my mate,” Damon said.
“It’s true,” Sophie added. “He grabbed me right out there.” She pointed to the front of Damon’s cabin.
“I’m not faulting either of you,” Rafe said. “The fact that their wolf had trespassed and kidnapped Sophie justifies your action in my eyes, but that won’t matter to Kane.”
When Sophie furrowed her brows, Damon added, “Their pack’s alpha.”
“Things may be tense for some time,” Rafe warned before he walked outside. “Be careful.”
Guilt prickled Damon again at causing more anguish for his pack, but he knew with a certainty that he’d do it again to save Sophie. She was worth it and a thousand times more.
After Rafe left, Damon said, “With everything that happened, I’m sure you’re more eager than ever to go home.”
Sophie bit her lip. “I thought about that. I’ve thought about everything about a thousand times tonight. I thought I’d want to go home to process all this—but I don’t.”
“You don’t?”
She shrugged. “I can already picture it playing out—kicking myself for being an idiot and trying to be rational and trying to distract myself with work, while all the while worrying about you here, knowing I left my heart here in the mountains with you.”
His heart beat in response with a loud, resounding thud. “Sophie.”
“No. Whatever this is that you feel connects us, I feel it, too.” She motioned between them. “I may not understand the mate concept yet, but I know I want to be with you, Damon.” She took a step closer to him.
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was he dreaming? “You want to be with me?” he repeated.
“Yes.” Her smile was wondrous, like the morning sun warming the cold snow that covered the mountain. “You saved me more than once, Damon. I’d be a fool not to believe that there is something bigger out there connecting us. Whether it is soul mates or fate or something beyond my comprehension—I know it’s there.”
“We don’t have to rush anything. We’re together now and that’s all that matters.” Damon took Sophie in his arms and held her tightly.
“Damon—”
“What?”
“You’re crushing me.”
“Oh. Sorry.” He released her and gave a sheepish grin. “I’m just afraid of letting you go.”
“You don’t need to be.” Her soft voice was soothing. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He caressed her face. “Good.” He bent down and kissed her. “You’ve changed my life for the better, Sophie.” He took her hand and covered his heart. “All the chaos out there doesn’t matter because you calm me.” He searched her eyes and promised, “No matter what happens from this point on, we face it together.”
“Together,” she repeated.
The palpable heat that often hovered between them grew hotter. Damon’s throat turned dry, and he swallowed. “Beyond this whole mate business, I want to tell you something.”
“What?” Her eyes sparkled.
“I’m falling in love with you.” He cupped her face and kissed her again, more deeply this time.
Damon wanted to show her just how much. As their tongues tangled, he didn’t hold back any of the desire he felt for her. Passion rose higher, turning practically explosive in the cabin.
Sophie ran her hands over his bare chest and skimmed them inside his shorts. When she stroked his shaft, he moaned in pleasure. But, when she slid the shorts off his body and lowered herself to her knees, he gaped, turning speechless.
She licked him from tip to base, and then sensations rocked pleasure throughout his entire body. Then she took the head in her mouth and teased the tip with her tongue. What sweet torture.
Under her spell, she captivated every thought and every sense as she worked him with her mouth and hand.
A shudder ripped through him. “That feels incredible.”
Before he came too soon, he pulled her up to stand. “Now I want to play with you.”
He carried her to his bed. He took his time as he stripped the clothing from her body, kissing and branding her with his love with every inch that he revealed. The scent of her desire grew stronger, that feminine musk that drove him near insane. He had to taste her.
Splaying her legs wider, he buried himself in between her sweet thighs and tasted the nectar he craved.
“Oh, Damon!”
He licked and suckled, driving up the intensity with his mouth and fingers and then pulled back.
She clutched the sheets and ground on the bed. “Please,” she begged. “I can’t wait any longer.”
He’d do anything she asked, so he didn’t tease her any longer. She climaxed with a cry and
her walls quaked so hard around his fingers, he had to pull them out.
He crawled over her body. Her face in this rapturous state was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. “I love tasting you.”
She smiled. “The feeling is more than mutual.” Then she pulled him closer. “But now I need you inside me.”
“Yes.” He grabbed a condom and sheathed himself at record speed before easing inside her.
Damn, she felt incredible. So tight, so wet.
As he rocked in and out of her, his fangs extended, and his wolf demanded, Claim her now.
Sophie’s half-closed eyes widened.
He slowed his pace. “Shit, you see them?”
“Yes.” Her expression turned curious. “Does that mean—” She didn’t complete the sentence.
“The urge is back. Don’t worry, I’ll ignore it.”
He attempted to do just that and tone down his instincts as he thrust deep inside her. His pace quickened and she arched against him from below as the pressure grew higher.
“Damon.”
“What is it?” He attempted to pull back, but she held him close.
“You can do it. Bite me.”
His eyes widened as he searched hers. “Do you mean that?”
“I do. I don’t want you to hold anything back around me.”
He exhaled. “You understand what it means—that I’m claiming you with this bite?”
“I do.” She took a slow breath and released it. “Because I love you, Damon.” She then turned her head to the side on the pillow and bared her neck for him.
She loved him? The instinct that he’d been struggling against so desperately rose like lighter fluid dousing a bonfire. As he thrust into her again, he leaned forward, and his fangs pierced the gentle flesh where her neck and shoulder met.
She moaned with a gasping sound and held on to him.
Her blood rushed over his tongue, mingling with the addictive taste of her honey. Sweet nirvana rushed through him. All the mysteries of the universe remained but one thing was so certain—their bond was sealed.
His thrusts grew wilder and more frantic, and the pressure coiled with him like a funneling storm cloud.
She grasped onto him from below, limbs taut and skin scalding. “Oh—oh my—I’m—I’m—” Her words ended with a scream.
She shuddered with a climax that pulsed so tightly around his shaft, it shot him right over the edge, too. Desire rushed through him, alighting every sense, and he exploded deep inside her.
His wolf settled, content for the first time. Finally.
Damon retracted his fangs and then gently licked the spot as his saliva would seal the bite mark. He rested his weight gently on her, satiated with a euphoria like he’d never felt before—and feeling something foreign—contentment.
He pulled his head up. “Are you all right, Sophie?”
She smiled. “I’m eight thousand degrees, but just had the most epic orgasm of my life, so I’d say yes.”
He kissed her. “Me, too.”
After he rolled on his side, he ran his fingers in figure eights over her hip. The coming days would be tense dealing with the repercussions of killing a Sacco wolf, but his future was still infinitely better with his mate at his side. He’d suffer torture at their hands for the exquisite happiness that flowed through him now.
With Sophie at his side, Damon could face anything. Even if it meant sacrificing himself to save her and the pack.
“Earlier, you said I’d saved you, Sophie, but you’ve done the same for me.”
She propped herself on her elbow and gave him a curious look.
He kissed her bare shoulder. “In more ways than you’ll ever know, you’ve saved me.”
Epilogue
Grayson
Grayson hung up the phone and exhaled. Some days his role as pack beta and CFO of Franconia Resort were easier than others. This situation with the Sacco pack made it one of the hardest negotiations yet.
Although he didn’t fault Damon for killing the Sacco wolf, Grayson had the unlucky job of dealing with the mess. As happy that he was that Damon had found his mate, the cost for the pack was high.
As the most rational one, Grayson kept things running smoothly at the resort and within the pack. Yet, it was growing more difficult to keep the restless wolves restrained. They prowled the mountain, ready to respond to the slightest provocation from the Sacco wolves.
Discussions were failing. Each side accused the other of spying. The Saccos were convinced the Franconia pack was trying to encroach into their territory and expand the Franconia Ski Resort.
“We need an outside mediator,” Grayson told his alpha, Rafe.
Although he knew the basics of law to run operations at the mountain, that mattered zilch when it came to navigating territorial claims when it involved rival packs.
“Whatever you think will keep this situation from escalating,” Rafe said. “We are not going for their eye-for-an-eye demand and giving them Damon as a bloody sacrifice.”
Grayson agreed. Damon wasn’t just pack to him, he was family. He’d been so lost when his parents abandoned him that Grayson had taken on a caretaker role. He’d do anything to protect him.
Grayson called a supernatural network in Salem, MA, and asked if they could suggest someone to help.
“Yes, we have a witch skilled in negotiations we can send up. She has helped other supernaturals deal with territorial disputes.”
A witch. His muscles tightened. Witches and wolves were far from allies and regarded each other with wariness, just like other supes. Not a trusting bunch.
Still, Grayson was desperate. “Please send her right away.”
The sooner she arrived, the better. Grayson needed an outsider’s help to douse the spark that ignited the battle before it flamed to full out war.
Even if it meant bringing a witch up to Franconia Mountain.
Author’s note: I hope you enjoyed the introduction to the White Mountain Shifters with Damon and Sophie. Grayson’s story is next in The Wolf and His Forbidden Witch!
This series is set in a fictional region in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I love to visit there with my family to ski and hike, so created a resort inspired by the magic of the area.
This series is a spinoff from the Underground Encounters series, which is set at the Gothic club Vamps where Damon, Grayson, and Rafe entered at the opening of the book. Enter a world of steamy paranormal romance where the statues are so much more than stone.
The series features different couples and doesn’t need to be read in order.
Shifters, vampires, witches, and demons—who will you meet at Vamps tonight?
Read the Underground Encounters series today!
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Acknowledgments
As always, I am tremendously grateful to everyone who helps make each book possible, helping me shape the strange ideas in my head into a coherent story. Huge thanks to my critique partners, editors, beta readers, proofreaders, ARC readers, Street Team, and you, the reader! Thank you for spending time with me in these worlds with characters I love.
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Lisa Carlisle loves stories with dark, brooding heroes and independent heroines. Her romances have been named Top Picks at Night Owl Reviews and the Romance Reviews.
When she was younger, she worked in a variety of jobs, moving to various countries. She backpacked alone through Europe, and lived in Paris before returning to the U.S. She owned a bookstore for a few years as she loves to read. She’s now married to a fantastic man, and they have two kids, two cats, and too many fish.
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Book List
White Mountain Shifters
Howls Romance
Fated mates and forbidden love. When wolf shifters find their fated mate, the trouble is only just beginning.
The Reluctant Wolf and His Fated Mate
The Wolf and His Forbidden Witch
The Alpha and His Enemy Wolf
Underground Encounters
Steamy paranormal romances set in an underground goth club that attracts vampires, witches, shifters, and gargoyles.
Book 1: SMOLDER (a vampire / firefighter romance)
Book 2: FIRE (a witch / firefighter romance)
Book 3: IGNITE (a feline shifter / rock star romance)
Book 4: BURN (a vampire / shapeshifter rock romance)
Book 5: HEAT (a gargoyle shifter romance)
Book 6: BLAZE (a gargoyle shifter rockstar romance)
Book 7: COMBUST (vampire / witch romances)
Book 8: INFLAME (a gargoyle shifter / witch romance)
Book 9: TORCH (a gargoyle shifter / werewolf romance
Book 10: SCORCH (an incubus vs succubus demon romance)
Chateau Seductions
An art colony on a remote New England island lures creative types—and supernatural characters. Steamy paranormal romances.
Darkness Rising
Dark Velvet
Dark Muse
Dark Stranger
Dark Pursuit
The Reluctant Wolf and His Fated Mate: A Howls Romance (White Mountain Shifters Book 1) Page 13