Before Onyx’s car had fully come to a stop, Tasha was attempting to jump out of the passenger seat. She might have been successful if Onyx’s arm hadn’t clamped around her waist. “Wait.” He didn’t release her until she nodded. Tasha thought it was strange how he could sound so unyielding yet so gentle at the same time. Taking a proper look outside, her mouth fell open in horror as she saw the front windows of the salon almost completely shattered and the door hanging from its hinge. Pieces of broken glass littered the sidewalk like glistening diamonds, and the salon’s sign had been splashed with black paint. “Oh my God.” Her wolf whined, anxious and angry. Once Onyx had opened the passenger door, Tasha was out of the vehicle and dashing toward the salon only to, once again, be hampered by an arm around her. “It’s okay, baby, Jean’s not inside. She’s over there.” Jean caught sight of her at the sam
Before Jean had even revealed the Anti shifter ’ involvement, Onyx had known they were responsible, because he could clearly see Jace among the gathering humans. His expression was smug and daring. Little bastard. Vandalizing Onyx’s mate’s—or girlfriend, as Jace believed—place of work definitely counted as personal and was definitely one very good way to rile him. As both Tasha and Jean tracked Onyx’s hard gaze, they each snarled at Jace as the same realization dawned on them. “He’s got balls, showing up here after what he’s done,” hissed Jean, moving toward him. Trevon’s hand on Jean’s arm stopped her. “Not balls,” said Trevon. “He’s hoping Onyx will react.” Trevon briefly explained the situation. Onyx had expected Jean to be pissed with him, to blame him to some degree for bringing this trouble to her salon. But Jean gave Onyx a look of sympathy. “I can’t imagine what you must have gone through in that place. A lot o
shoulder hard, he flinched. “Hey, what was that for?” “You don’t get to blame yourself for other people’s actions.” Her wolf fully agreed. “I won’t allow it.” The fierceness in her tone surprised him so much, he found himself smiling. “Is that right?” “Yes." “I am not stupid.” She patted his chest patronizingly. “No, of course not. You just have bad luck in the thinking department.” Scowling, he turned on the ignition and began heading back to her house. Unfortunately, he got there to find his mother, Kass, and Sansa was waiting outside the motor home. Surprised by their anxious expressions, he exchanged a confused look with Tasha. No sooner had they got out of the car than the three females were in front of them. “My God, I saw what happened to the salon.” Kate studied Tasha, rubbing her arm. “Are you okay, honey?” “You saw what happened?” Onyx
Though Onyx’s expression was reprimanding, he kept his voice low and sensual. “Don’t make me bite you again.” Her pupils dilated, and she took an unsteady breath. “Oh, you liked it, did you?” Her snort said, Don’t flatter yourself. He placed his mouth to her ear. “I can smell your arousal, Shay.” The tips of her ears were suddenly as scarlet as her cheeks. “What I really want is to taste it again. What I want more than that is to be inside you. You have no idea how badly I need it.” “Then what are you waiting for?” He smiled against her lips. “For you to beg.” Because he needed an element of surrender on her part—he knew he wouldn’t get her total emotional surrender yet, so if he had to settle for this, it was enough for now. Her mouth fell open. “That’s so not going to happen.” “We’ll see.” He cocked his head, running his finger along her collarbone. “You didn’t give away the mov
Tasha snarled at the woman sitting a few seats away who was ogling Onyx…just like Tasha had snarled at the waitress in the restaurant, and at the girl who served them popcorn, and at the group of young women who had been behind her and Onyx in the line. Annoyingly, the guy was ogled wherever they went. Although it was perfectly understandable, Tasha—much like her wolf—did not like it. Most of the time, he didn’t seem to notice the ogling, though that was probably because his focus was on Tasha. When he did notice, he never reacted other than to come closer to Shaya or to touch her, almost as if he sensed that it bugged her and that the reassurance eased her irritation. Maybe he did sense it. After all, she wasn’t exactly discreet with her snarls. The ogling had been a little easier to deal with when she’d rejected the idea of giving him a chance and had kept an emotional distance between them; it had dimmed the po
Tasha was a calm, practical female who was not reduced to being tongue-tied and shaky at just a guy’s presence. But as she and Onyx stood in the hallway like two cowboys about to have a showdown, it was exactly what happened. His intensity and power wrapped around her like a cloak—not just his power as an alpha, but his masculine power. It seized and overwhelmed both her body and her mind, and she felt totally captivated by it and by him. Tasha's need to have him and be taken by him was primal and potent, making it hard to keep her breathing even and her hands steady. Her mouth was suddenly bone-dry, and her heart was pounding. He hadn’t even touched her, and yet she felt owned at the possessiveness now blazing from his eyes. Then he spoke, and his even, deep, authoritative tone made her and her wolf snap to total attention. “Come here. Last night, I pounced on you. This time, I want you to come to me.”
Tasha woke to the feel of a hot mouth kissing her nape and a large hand sliding up and down her bare thigh. Images of last night flashed in front of her eyes, feeding the need that was building in her system. A moan slipped out of her when Onyx's hand dipped between her legs and his finger slid between her folds. But when she shifted to try to take that finger inside her, he withdrew his hand—a message that he was leading here. Cheeky shit had done stuff like that all night. When an impish idea whispered into her mind, she smiled. “God, that feels so good, John,” she rasped. Instantly she was flipped onto her back and there was an extremely pissed male draped over her. As she laughed uncontrollably beneath him, realization dawned on Onyx. He narrowed his eyes. “That was sneaky. And who the fuck is John?” “No idea. I was just paying you back for teasing me—again.” He spoke against he
As she entered the room, Royd straightened from where he’d been leaning against the wall and came toward her wearing a devilish grin—yep, he had every intention of flirting with her to annoy Onyx, just like he did to all the mated females to provoke their mates. Well, it wasn’t so much flirting as delivering cheesy lines, but it had the desired effect on the mated males. She halted him with a look. “Royd, if you value your life, you won’t aggravate him right now.” Not while Onyx was being forced to cope with her being in the presence of a number of males, particularly when two of them were unmated. Possessiveness would be haunting him, just as it did her when Sansa was around. Royd, to her surprise, raised his hands in surrender and dropped his smile. “Okay, fine, but I was just going to give you a little kiss. If you don’t like it, you can always return it.” “Royd." “Watch it, blondie,” warned
few years later. Opening your eyes to find that you’re upside down can’t be good, can it? Through the cobwebs clouding her mind, Kass realized that it wasn’t just she who was upside down. The car had toppled over.Well, that sucked. Clearly the fuck-up fairy had made an appearance.Strangely, Kass felt no rush of panic, no fear. And despite that she was pretty sure her head was bleeding, there was no pain. There was only a feeling of weightlessness. Even the fact that her wolf was frantic didn’t disturb Roni in this dreamlike moment. Her brain distantly registered that the car kept leaning sideways, as if something was repeatedly pulling at it. But it was the various sounds that penetrated her mental fog: low moans, a phone ringing, a child crying, and strange voices arguing.Sensing that the ringtone and the moans were coming from her left, kass turned her head to find a male wolf shifter in the driver’s seat, e
When she finally untangled herself from him, he explained, “It’s not just the only lodge here now. The owners built and rented out several other lodges on the land, which would be perfect for the ‘pack’ to live in. It means you and I will have our own space.” Touched to the point that she was tearful, she said, “I really, really can’t believe you’ve done this. I never would have guessed. I suppose I should have—you always try to spoil me.” “It’s my right, and it’ll happen a lot, so you need to get better at accepting gifts.” She waved away that comment. “You know what else I can’t believe? That the prejudiced humans sold the place to a shifter.” When he opened his mouth to speak, she raised a hand. “Don’t tell me…Your contacts got involved, right?” “Right,” he confirmed. “Want to go inside?” “Do Dalmatians have black spots?” “One thing first: I made a few…changes.”
As Bree yapped beside him at the dining table about something or other, Onyx forced a smile for her. Oh, she was a nice enough girl and stuff, but he just didn’t do the friend thing, and apparently a person didn’t have a choice in the matter when it was Bree He noticed that his mate, who was sitting on his other side, was stifling a smile of amusement at his discomfort—as usual. Just a little longer, he reminded himself. Just a little longer, and then he and Tasha would be finished with their evening meal and leaving Sliver Pack territory, and they would only be returning as visitors. Since the night of the battle, he and Tasha had been living on pack territory temporarily. Although they had slept in the motor home outside the caves, they were still constantly harassed and, as such, had had very little time alone. Onyx and Tasha weren’t the only ones who had remained on pack territory. Trevon,
Abruptly, she snatched the knife her father had long ago given her that was tucked into her boot and speared it into his chest.When a stunned-looking Chubby came charging at her, she rolled to the side and sliced both his Achilles tendons as he stumbled past. Like a sack of spuds, he fell to the ground, crying out. Rolling once again, she seized the rifle and twisted to see that Chubby was trying to crawl away. He froze when she cocked it and gave her a pitiful look. She shrugged. “I told you I’d kill you.” The bullet hit him dead-center in his forehead. It was then that Merk swung the door open. But she had already cocked the gun again, ready to shoot, and was aiming it as his head. “You should have run, Monkey Boy.” But the awkward bastard dove to the side, making the bullet skim his ear. “Fuck.” Then a wall of flames suddenly formed around the hut, and Merk slammed the door closed. “Double fuck.” Before she could even think of acting, a
There was gunfire, there was growling, there was screaming, there was yelling as the wolves came at the group from all directions. It was also the go-ahead for Tasha to act. Aiming for those who she judged the biggest threats and of whom she had a clear view, Tasha fired one bullet after another, gratified down to her gut as she disabled the bastards. One of those bullets hit her target’s arm rather than his heart, and he dropped his gun as he flinched with the pain. When Onyx wolf turned his attention to him, the human turned and ran in what could only be described as a blind panic. He suddenly screeched in pain and fell to the ground, having stepped on one of the barbed-spike plates that were planted around. Onyx dived on him, closing his jaw around the asshole’s throat. The wolves were all merciless in their assault. Ethan wolf had gone feral by this point and was tearing into whatever human was near him. Although he’d taken a bull
Entering the living area a little while later, they found Jaime, Ace, Kass, Marcus,Royd Grace, Lydia, and Sansa. The smell of Onyx and Tasha’s combined scents seemed to hit everyone at once, because they were all smiling—even Sansa, despite that it was fake. “Well, well, well,” said Bree, delighted, as Onyx and Tasha perched themselves on the gigantic sofa where everyone other than Kass and Royd, who had each claimed an armchair, was sitting. “It would appear things are moving along nicely.” Bree swapped places with Ace so that she was then sitting by Onyx, winking at Tasha when he stiffened at her proximity. “How’s my BFF doing?” When Onyx gawked at her, Bree said indulgently, “Not you, sweetie, I was talking to your mate.” Tasha would have been pissed by people continually poking at him if she didn’t know this meant they accepted him. “Fine, thanks.” Tasha patted Onyx’s thigh soothingly. “I’m glad things are working out for you gu
As it was important that Onyx knew every inch of pack territory in preparation for the attack, Tasha took him on a thorough tour of the land while they were in their wolf forms after breakfast. She showed him every lake, every clearing, every hidden entrance to the caves. She even showed him the “hut”—the small building where trespassers were taken to be interrogated by Dante.When they stopped at a particular lake, she shifted back to her human form. “This is my favorite spot on Sliver land. Come on, I want to swim.” Back in his human form, Onyx glanced around, taking in his surroundings. Instantly, he understood. “You used to come here to be alone, didn’t you?” he asked, smiling. It was almost funny, considering she was so sociable. “Yes,” she admitted, slowly going deeper and deeper into the lake. “Sometimes a girl likes a little alone time.” He gasped in mock outrage. “All this t
knock at the door the next morning was quickly followed by Trick’s voice. “Tasha you’ve got visitors. If Tala right, you might not be too happy about it.” As those words penetrated her sleep-dazed brain, Tasha groaned. She didn’t have to ask who the visitors were. Her mother had been trying to contact her nonstop over the past two days, but Tasha had ignored her calls. Caleb would have told her that Tasha had returned to Sliver Pack territory. It had only been a matter of time before the woman showed up. Sleepily, she called out, “I’ll be down in a minute.” “They’re waiting for you in the kitchen.” The sound of Zeeb's footsteps faded down the tunnels. Any other time, she would have been stumbling around the room on just waking. But knowing her parents were here was enough to galvanize her into action. Hopping out of the bed, she told Onyx's “It’s got to be my parents. You might want to sit this one out.” F
“I have a feeling the shifter behind all this will come with them,” said Ryan. Nick was surprised to hear him speak. “Me too,” said Zeeb. “He hates shifters anyway, and now that he’s no longer making money from charging humans to kill our kind, I’d say he’ll be pissed enough to join Jace in the attack.” “Let’s hope so,” growled Tala. She rose from her armchair and approached Onyx. “It’s time. We need you at top strength. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to heal you, but I can certainly do my best.” She then turned to her pack. “Grace, you know what I need. Ryan, the window.” While the short brunette nodded and left the room, the grumpy-looking enforcer opened the window wide. Determined to only think positive thoughts, Tasha rose from his lap. “Lie down on the floor, flat on your back.” “That’s usually my order,” rumbled Onyx, smiling at her blush. Hoping against hope that the Alpha female would