Tempted: A Cowboy Shifter Romance (Two Marks Book 2)

by Renee Rose

  “Did you have a fated mate?” Something made me ask her.

  Marne shook her head. “No. Shelby’s dad and I weren’t true mates, and he walked out on me when Shelby was a girl, like a coward. But my story is very rare. Wolves generally mate for life—fated or not.”

  She didn’t seem heartbroken at being left, but it had been a long time. Perhaps he wasn’t a nice man, or perhaps… well, it wasn’t any of my business.

  “I don’t mean to be intrusive, but I can tell they haven’t marked you yet.” Shelby held out her hands. “I’m not judging. Believe me—I wasn’t ready to be marked right away either, and I’m a wolf.”

  “They haven’t pushed it,” I admitted. “Actually, they haven’t even asked me. God, is it something you ask? I mean, do they just say, I want to bite you and mark you as mine forever?”

  Both women laughed, and I gave a small smile.

  “But then, I just learned about it this morning,” I added, so they knew the time frame.

  “Well, don’t make them wait too long,” Shelly advised. “Their wolves will be agitated and restless, and they will be overprotective and possessive as hell until they do.”

  “They aren’t overprotective and possessive now?” I asked, and they laughed again. “What if… what if I say no?”

  Shelby and her mom exchanged a glance. “They could go moon mad. It’s when—”

  “I know,” I interrupted grimly, remembering that was how Wade’s dad died. “I know that one.”

  “They won’t ever stop pursuing you,” Shelby said. “They can’t. It’s literally ride or die, if you know what I mean.”

  I smiled at the urban culture reference.

  “So… I basically have no choice? These guys are mine, whether I want them or not?”

  Shelby tipped her head. “Or you condemn them to death.”

  I was shocked, but no part of me wanted to refuse Wade or Landry. I never had. And the idea that I couldn’t… well, it actually sent something warm and gooey floating through my chest.

  “So that’s why you need to know you’re in the driver’s seat. You own them. Make them work for it, if you want. Make it work for you.” She glanced toward the house. “My two just showed up at my work one day, wanting to carry me off here to Wyoming. It was a tough thing for me to swallow. I didn’t want to leave my pack, and I was especially upset about leaving my mom behind. As soon as they figured that out…” She spread her hands.

  I smiled. “They brought your mom, too.”

  “Yep. So give them a chance to work out whatever roadblocks you have. I’m sure they’ll move mountains to be with you.”

  Landry opened the door and stepped out onto the deck with us, the sun picking up the dark glints in his hair. “Any mountain, sugar,” he said, obviously overhearing. “Which one do you want moved?”

  I laughed and stood, stepping into the circle of his arms. “I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “I’m still assimilating.” I lifted my face to his. “Am I really your true mate? Forever?”

  He brushed his lips across mine. “We’re both yours. Forever.”

  18

  WADE

  Caitlyn seemed excited on the drive back to my place. Sexually excited. Even without the sweet perfume of her arousal—which I couldn’t miss—I would have known by the way she kept shifting in her seat, or by the slight flush to her skin. The way she kept touching both of us as she squirmed between us.

  Something Shelby had shared had our mate turned on, which made my jeans way too fucking tight in the crotch area. A perpetual problem.

  “What secrets of ours did Shelby spill?” I asked, my heart stuttering when she stroked a hand up and down my thigh. Fuck me, even that was hot. Pre-cum was probably staining my pants.

  Caitlyn went still, and I tried to figure out why that had been the wrong question. “She told me if you don’t mark me, you could go moon mad.” Her voice was rusty, like fear was choking her, and her fingers dug into my thighs, as if that would keep me from shifting.

  “Oh sugar, you don’t need to worry about us,” Landry said immediately, setting a hand on her leg. “We aren’t anywhere near that. There’s time for you to get used to the idea. You know only a little about what moon mad means.”

  She nodded, looked up between us. It was when she was wedged between us like this that I realized how tiny she was. “Yes, some. Cord explained this morning." Another wiggle of her hips had my cock punching against the zipper of my jeans.

  “So you understand why we do it?” Landry asked.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  "Are you… willing?" I asked. If Cord had told her, then that made this conversation a lot easier. Of course, I didn’t think we’d be doing it in my truck. "We'd be gentle with you, Caitlyn. We’d never hurt you."

  She nodded again. “I know. I… I want you to mark me," she said in a rush.

  "You sure?" Landry asked, his voice dropping an octave.

  "Not marking me will only endanger you both,” she countered.

  She was the one pushing for it, and we were the ones resisting. The tables had been turned.

  “Why delay what’s inevitable?” She looked up at me with those dark eyes.

  Yeah, it was inevitable we’d mark her and make her ours. I’d considered her to be mine forever since the bar in Granger, and for Landry, it was when he got his first hit of her scent at the fence.

  But she was human, and we hadn’t gotten around to working through all the complexities of her being two shifters’ mate. We’d been slow. Patient. But thank fuck for Cord.

  I wouldn’t have to strangle him for even looking at Caitlyn any longer. I owed him a thanks and a beer.

  “I’m ready.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath at her words. My vision sharpened like I was on a hunt and my teeth punched through my gums, ready to mark her right here, in the truck.

  Caitlyn gasped. “Your eyes… they change color! I don’t know why I didn’t realize that before.” She twisted to look at Landry. “Yours change to… gold.”

  Clearly, Landry was having a hard time holding his wolf back too. His fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white as he drove the rest of the way.

  He skidded the truck as he pulled up in front of my place. Threw it into park. I was out the door, gripping Caitlyn by the waist before the engine was off.

  She wrapped those slender legs around my back, her husky laugh a sound I could drown in. She couldn’t miss our eagerness. No, not eagerness. Fucking necessity.

  I took the porch stairs two at a time and threw the unlocked door open with a bang.

  “Right behind you,” Landry said, his footsteps pounding behind us.

  I carried Caitlyn into my bedroom, where I laid her gently in the middle of the bed with total reverence. Our mate was about to be marked.

  We were going to mark Caitlyn and make her ours forever. This was a once in a lifetime moment.

  Landry moved in to untie her shoes and pull them off as I removed her shirt. We kept stripping her until we had her naked on the bed, her long dark hair fanned out around her, her pretty nipples beaded up without a single touch.

  I remedied that situation, climbing over her to flick my tongue over one nipple, then suck it into my mouth. Caitlyn moaned and arched, thrusting her small breast against my lips. I sucked harder as I fondled the other nipple, then I moved up to claim her mouth.

  I wouldn’t hurt her, but I couldn’t be gentle. Not now. Not when she was going to satisfy me fully, man and wolf.

  Landry stripped while I saw to our mate’s breasts, a duty I took damn seriously.

  “Where do you want your marks, sugar?” Landry asked, gripping her calves and sliding her closer to where he stood at the foot of the bed. I took the change in position as an opportunity to strip out of my own clothes.

  “Um… I don’t know? Is there a certain place?” Her lips were swollen from my kiss, her eyes glassy and dilated. The scent of her arousal was stronger now.
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  “Traditionally it’s in the shoulder and neck region, but on you, it may scar, so… we could get a little more creative with where we place them.” I flicked my brows, then raked my gaze down her body.

  “Somewhere far from a major artery,” Landry warned. “Where it won’t bother you while you heal.”

  Caitlyn flushed like the question was embarrassing. It wasn’t something she’d been asked before. Or would be ever again.

  “You pick,” she whispered, and fuck if that trust in us didn’t make my cock stand out even straighter. Our mate was willing to surrender to us, to give her body over to our care, and it made me feel as tall as a mountain. This was forever, and sure, we had shit to work out, but we’d work it all out together.

  Landry wasted no time in pushing Caitlyn’s knees up and spreading them wide. She moaned when he licked into her. The ripple of satisfaction I felt of having our mate pleasured was just as incredible as if I were tasting her myself. My mouth watered for my own turn at that dripping fountain.

  “Damn, she tastes good,” Landry said when he lifted his head, his lips and chin glistening. Caitlyn had been right—his eyes glowed pure amber now, and I could see the tips of his teeth extended, ready to mark her. We’d been friends for a long time, but I’d never seen him like this.

  “Make her come with your tongue first,” I suggested, even though holding out on our own pleasure would be torture. I needed to know she was well satisfied before we inflicted any pain on her.

  “Oh, I intend to,” Landry said as he lowered his head once more.

  I returned to her mouth, kissing her until the pleasure Landry was inflicting made it too hard for her to kiss me back, then I returned to her breasts.

  Landry had two fingers inside her, using the come-hither motion on her inner wall that tickled her G-spot as he continued using his tongue around her clit.

  I sucked and licked, kneaded and squeezed her breasts. Perfectly in tune with my mate, I knew the moment she was going to peak in orgasm. I had to fist my own cock and pump as I continued sucking her thickened nipple because my own climax was just a few strokes away.

  Caitlyn screamed, arching up. My balls drew up tight, my thighs shook. I didn’t plan it, but my top two canines sank into her breast, claiming it—and her—as my own. My cum spurted in a hot spray into my own fist.

  She screamed again, a shudder of pleasure-pain rippling through her. I heard the wet sound of the pumping of Landry’s fingers. Caitlyn jerked, crying out a third time. Landry had marked the curve of her ass to the right of her pussy while he continued to coax her orgasm with his fingers.

  “Sugar,” I murmured softly, carefully disengaging my teeth and quickly licking away the blood, hoping the serum in my saliva would aid in healing her wounds. “Tell me you’re okay.” My heart pounded, my need to protect and soothe my mate outweighing the pleasure of my orgasm and marking her.

  My wolf was preening and replete. Sated and satisfied. But still worried that she might not have found the marking as satisfying as it could have been if she were a shifter herself.

  “Is she okay?” Landry asked tersely.

  Her eyes blinked open, but they were unseeing. “Th-that was amazing,” she moaned to the ceiling.

  I let out a chuff of relieved laughter and Landry added his, slipping his fingers from her and licking them clean. “Thank fuck.”

  She brought one hand to cup her marked breast, the other to the claiming bite on her ass. “Oh my God, that was so sexy. I think I’m going to come again just remembering it.”

  “Let me help you with that.” Landry flipped her to her belly and put on a condom, then easily entered her from behind. He rocked his hips against her marked ass with slow, steady strokes.

  “Landry!” she cried, arching her back. I moved so I could see the red marks his teeth had left behind, but it was nothing more than a scratch. She was not in pain, not the way she moaned and clutched at the covers. Or the way she begged him for more. Harder. Deeper.

  Now, watching my mate receive pleasure from my scent-match, the languor of my orgasm washed through me. Warmth and contentedness replaced all worry, love for both of them coursing through me. I sank onto the bed to watch them come to a second climax, experiencing as much pleasure as if I were a direct part of it.

  It was done. We were a family now. Sure, we still had a lot to work out, but our mate was marked. Claimed. She belonged to us in every shifter way, and every wolf would know it.

  That satisfaction couldn’t be bought. Not at any price.

  The rest, we would figure out.

  CAITLYN

  I spread my legs wide as Landry arced in and out of me from behind. I’d never been more wet in my life. Never felt more sexual. Worshipped.

  The pain of the bites had been fleeting. Neither of my mates—I was thinking of them in those terms now—had bitten deep. More just punctured the surface a little. In fact, the resulting sensation of pain only heightened the pleasure I experienced now. Every time Landry rocked into me, my breasts pressed against the bed and his loins hit my ass, reminding me of the erotic locations they each had chosen to leave their marks.

  Two marks.

  I was now part of the pack. At least, I hoped I was. I hoped my role as a wolf biologist—and my human status—wasn’t hard for some to accept.

  Landry’s breath grew rough at my nape, his movements jerky as he plunged in harder and faster.

  “You gonna come for me again, little female?” he asked, nipping at my ear.

  “Yes,” I gasped. I knew I would. I’d been on the edge of another orgasm from the moment the sensation of their marks set in. The pinch and tingle of pain mingled with some heady endorphins. I wondered if anyone had studied the secretion from their teeth that left their scent. That might be another interesting… “Oh!” I cried out as Landry found the perfect angle. “Please,” I begged, suddenly desperate and forgetting anything but the feel of my mate in me, over me. His dick. How he worked my body to excruciating pleasure.

  “Oh, I aim to please,” Landry said, riding me hard and fast on that perfect angle.

  I sucked in a breath, my belly quaking as I held it, and then I came. The moment my muscles started squeezing, Landry shouted and slammed in a couple more times before finding his own epic release. His roar shook the cabin walls—and the cabin walls were made of log.

  I forgot who or where I was, spinning out into the atmosphere, visiting the moon, the stars, the planets. When I returned, Wade was stroking my hair, massaging my scalp.

  Landry eased out, then brought a washcloth to clean me up before dropping down beside me.

  “You, too,” I murmured, reaching for Wade. He stretched out on my other side, sandwiching me tightly between them. Two big, brawny, very virile men surrounding me.

  “This,” I sighed, drifting into an orgasmic stupor.

  “What about this?” Landry murmured, his hand stroking idly up and down my thigh, even cupping my butt where he’d bit me.

  “This is what life is all about.”

  “Damn straight,” Wade agreed, kissing my neck and shoulder. “Until I met you, I had no idea.”

  “Me neither,” Landry agreed. “But now we have a mate, and it all makes sense.” He lightly traced a fingertip around the puncture marks Wade left on my breast.

  They didn’t say anything else. It was as if they couldn’t stop touching me, so I reveled in the feel of their hands. And I fell asleep, content in my world. At least for now.

  19

  CAITLYN

  The rest of Saturday had been spent between Landry and Wade. They’d been gentle with me. Cautious. Studiously checking my skin where they’d bitten me. They’d been intense during the actual act of marking me, where they’d been wild and almost… rough. As if they couldn’t control themselves. After that, they’d been perhaps too controlled. Keeping me in bed, feeding me there. They still hadn’t been able to keep their hands off me, but now it was as if they were making love. I’d been on top wit
h Wade, setting the pace. Landry had gone all basic and missionary.

  Nothing crazy. But the orgasms. God, it didn’t matter if they were frenzied or tame. They ensured I came not once, not twice, but sometimes three times before they finished.

  It was because of all this attention that I slept late Sunday morning. It wasn’t two burly, horny guys who woke me, but my cell and an annoying, bossy boss.

  After I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and saw Dr. Andrews flashing on the screen, I knew this wasn’t going to be a fun call.

  I sat up, tugged the sheet over me. The room smelled like sex. I smelled like sex. My muscles felt like I’d had it all night long. Which I had.

  That didn’t mean I wanted to have a conversation with my boss in the middle of all that.

  I grabbed the blanket off the bed, wrapped it around myself as I answered.

  “Dr. Andrews,” I said.

  “Good morning.”

  I dropped into Wade’s reading chair in the corner, and looked out the window. Anywhere except the unmade bed where I’d been thoroughly fucked. And marked. By shifters.

  “I don’t see any new targets on the monitoring program,” he said.

  His words meant he was in the office. On a Sunday morning.

  “That’s right. I wasn’t able to tag any yesterday.”

  Or ever again. The idea of tranquilizing a friend of Landry and Wade’s, or possibly even them, made me panic a little.

  “Your data will—”

  “I was reminded that it’s better to have ample data on fewer sources than nominal data on many.”

  Dr. Andrews was silent, so I pushed on.

  “If I’m going to write this paper and publish it, then I need solid, long-term research. Continuing to tag and track new wolves is only going to… well, kick the can down the road, so to speak.”

  “Are you saying you’re done with your wolf study?”