Her body goes limp, and she falls over.
I guide her down to lay on me. Her shoulders twitch, and then her muscles relax as sleep takes over.
Sprawled across my chest, her head fits under my chin. Her breathing is deep, like one who has been spent.
It satisfies me to know that my dominion is content, for now.
There are things I want to do to her which I’ve never wanted to do to anyone else, and that in itself is a shock.
Since she’d walked into my space and I had taken a whiff of her scent, I’d known she was mine.
Call it primitive, but it is the wont of the leader to dominate, and any dominion chosen by me had better be grateful I am going to see her through her heat cycle.
I tighten my arms around her, and she moans. It’s such an inherently feminine sound, so completely contradictory to everything I am, that I harden again.
She burrows in deeper, and warmth floods my chest.
I unhook
His voice whispers in my ear. Seductive, beautiful, it shivers over my nerve endings. The heat of his body cocoons me. I feel safe and secure. And that can’t be right. A flicker, a hum of contentment rolls out of me. I rub my cheek against the hard, unforgiving planes of his chest. He curves his body around me, and it feels so right.Is this what it feels like to be home? But I don’t have a home. Not since my country was invaded, and my father made a deal with the Vikings— virgin dominions for the life of his people.I’d managed to escape with as many of the dominion women as I could save.We’d stowed away on a ship to Scotland, and the leader of the Scots had agreed to protect us. On one condition. I had to comply with his plan of sneaking into the General’s stronghold and killing him.I had failed in my mission.Now I was going to meet the fate of almost every dominion captured by an
I’d meant to take her, put her in her place, show her that she is an dominion who has to submit to me. I’d meant to be harsh, not caring for her needs. And I wasn’t. I was only satisfying myself. If, during that time, I also gave her pleasure, well, what is the harm in that?As it is, I can’t get enough of her body, her soft skin, her warm, tight pussy that clasps around me.The still rational part of my brain twinges, and I push it away.I shove aside all thought, everything except for the desire that tightens my groin. The blood that rushes to my shaft, thickening its head so it flares up and knots into place. I am going to make sure that none of my fluid slips out. Make sure every part of my hardness is sheathed inside her. Under me, she thrashes her head from side to side. Her back arches off the bed and slams into me. Her arms push down on the mattress, shoving the curve of her spine into my chest.
I am not sure how long I snoozed for, but the sound of the door opening sweeps through my subconscious mind. I stir and wake up, wondering where I am. The ceiling above is unfamiliar, the bed below me too smooth, too soft. I shudder and take in a breath of air and find it is scented with his fragrance. The beast has left, but his musk is everywhere, on me, in the room.I turn and crack my eyelids open. My eyelashes are caked. I wipe away whatever is clogging them, knowing it is a mixture of sweat and his cum and our fluids, the fluids he’d dribbled into my mouth that I had swallowed down like it was the last drop of moisture I’d find in the world. The memory of how I’d given myself to him and asked him to take me, all of it crowds in on me.My body shudders in remembrance of his touch. Slick gathers between my legs. There’s movement in the room, and I know I must sit up, but I can’t. I groan, and my voice comes out all wrong. I can barely
I stride down the corridor without cleaning myself up. Perhaps I should have showered, but the fact is that I want her scent on me.I want to show her claiming mark and I am still unsure why. It isn’t that common for dominions to mark their leaders. Rarer still for leaders to flaunt them. But I want to do so.A sign to them she is mine and off limits to anyone else. She is my mate, the one I chose…the one who chose me.Or maybe it’s just this primal need inside me to make sure they can smell her on me, feel my satisfaction and know that she waits for me back in my suite.Not that any of them would dare to touch her, and if anyone dares look at her, I’ll burn out their eyes, I’ll gut them… I’ll—A touch on my shoulder snaps me out of my thoughts.“She’s in your head.” I look around to find Ethan standing at my shoulder. His features are calm, his gaze wary.When I had
The pain shudders over my skin. My shoulders jerk, and my chest thrusts up and off the floor.My stomach twists, and I taste the acidic tang of bile. I want to scream, but all that emerges is a whimper.I moan and curl in on myself.There is this hunger gnawing at me. It churns at my guts, growing bigger by the second, as if it’s going to tear open my skin and rip out of me at any time. I am hungry, so hungry. And it’s not for food. I want him… need him…to fill me. To shove aside this hollowness that’s drawing me in, threatening to overwhelm me.I want him throbbing inside me. The thought is so intense I almost imagine he is here, his massive body bent over me, his hard thighs pushing my legs apart, then him slamming into me, burying his brutal length in me, holding me down, folding his body around me, protecting me, taking me, cherishing me. The thought sends heat shooting through my veins. Sweat beads my brow.My c
She screams, and the noise rips through my guts. It shouldn’t affect me. She is just someone I had decided to take for my own and keep on a whim… except that’s not true, not anymore. Fact is, from the moment I had seen her, scented her, laid eyes on her, there was a powerful pull toward her. One I can’t yet understand.Except I need her with me, need to bury myself in her softness and slake my hunger.To satisfy her while I am at it, too. Why is it so important that I soothe her? I don’t want to go to her and yet I cannot help myself. I am not aware that I am on my feet and moving to her, not until I am sitting next to her on the bed. Not until she’s flung herself at me, tearing at me with her nails. She growls, and there are tears dripping down her cheeks as she flings herself at me again and again. Pain comes off her in waves. And terror, the sheer terror of the unknown. Mixed with it is the whiff of hunger. A need s
He pushes me away, and I am not sure why. Does he not want me anymore? No, that can’t be true.I sense the need in him, the want to tear into me, to break me. And I am not unhappy about it or threatened.All I feel is a relief that finally he’s revealed his true self to me. Just as I have to him. I watch him walk to the door, open it, and speak in a low voice to the soldier stationed outside. Footsteps approach up the corridor. A tray exchanges hands. He steps back, holding it. The door snicks shut behind him. It’s a soft sound and yet it shivers over my sensitized skin. The scent of food wafts over to me, but that only twists my stomach.He places the tray on the table, then turns and folds his arms over his chest. He doesn’t say anything, just waits for me to comply with his unspoken command. Every line of his body indicates he’ll patiently wait until I give in.I want to say no, want to deny him, but all that
I plunge inside her.Hot. Moist. Sensations spiral out from my groin. Warmth fills my chest. All my nerve endings seem to fire at once and I grit my teeth. The feeling is so different, so intimate. My muscles bunch, my throat closes, and…this can’t be right.It can’t feel so good to be inside her, to have her pussy clamp around me and milk me. The need to pound into her is so strong, and yet, overriding it is this need to protect. All emotions I have never experienced before, least of all for this dominion whom I hadn’t known until a few days ago.My thigh muscles lock, and my biceps tremble as my arms support my body weight.She digs her heels into my back. “What are you waiting for?” She bares her teeth.And, really, she is only a tiny thing, less than half my size. And I am leaning over her, my muscles far stronger. It would take only one flick of my wrist to overpower her. The she
THE LOCAL SHERIFF and his deputy arrived first. I was still a little lightheaded from the gunshot, or maybe from discovering I was a shifter, but years of protocol pushed to the forefront.“Agent Johnson?”“Yes, sir.”After I’d shifted back, I’d called Vaughn and tried to convince him to send backup, so we could catch whoever showed up with the empty trailer for the cows and drugs, but he wouldn’t have it—especially after he heard I’d already been shot at. He’d notified the sheriff to get there immediately, and the sheriff had arrived with lights flashing, which prockyably meant whoever was responsible for driving the drugs across the border would keep right on driving past.I kept my hand over the wound at my side as I reached out to shake his hand.John and Jenny had brought me a change of clothes, which I’d stained a little with blood from
CATHY STRUGGLED, rolling to her side, then emitting a yip of pain. She was panicking, her amber eyes wild and almost feral. This hadn’t been one of her secrets. I was sure of it. She hadn’t known she was a wolf—or part wolf— because she sure as hell had smelled like a human before.Which meant… she’d never shifted before and only did so now because of the pain of being shot. Her biology kicked in to save her life. No one had seen her like this before. No one knew how perfect she was… human or wolf.I stroked my hand over her soft fur. “Shh… settle.” I put alpha command in my voice. “It’s all right. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re a shifter, like me. That’s why my wolf chose you.” I smiled down at her. “I know you hurt, but shifting is a good thing. You’ll heal and quickly. Your body knows what to do. Don’t be afraid, you’re go
I KNEW IMMEDIATELY GRACE—CATHY—WASN’T in the house. I would’veheard her breathing. Hell, even her pulse. Now that I’d made the choice that she was to be mine… officially, my wolf was attuned to her. Or the lack of her.Her scent was in the air around the exterior of the house but not strong. There was a distinct path of the scent. She rarely used the front door. My wolf picked her up going in and out of the back door more. I followed across the back porch and back down the steps, across the grass and toward—“Fuck,” I said, cutting through the night. She was at Sam’s.I knew it. My wolf knew it. It was after eleven. Unless she was at his place to fuck, she was there for work. I didn’t even give the first any thought. I’d satisfied her. She didn’t need Sam for that. Besides, now that I could see past my anger at her secrets, I knew she wo
I WATCHED Sam’s place from the master bedroom window all evening. His fancy pickup truck had been gone all afternoon. My guess was he’d gone to pick up the drugs from wherever Murrieta dropped them. I didn’t take Sam for the kind of guy to go pick up drugs. It was beneath a billionaire to get his hands dirty. But he was the minion now. Murrieta’s mule. Literally. Unfortunately, we didn’t know about that angle of the operation, but if we got Sam in cuffs and in an interrogation room, we’d be able to get the details. Especially if we had him with the drugs. To Murrieta, Sam was a little fish. As for Sam, he only cared about himself, and if he could finagle any kind of deal with the DEA, I figured he’d squeal like a pig.I kicked myself for not seeing him leave, so I could tail him, but so long as I got him with the drugs now, we were in business.It was eleven o’clock when I heard the crunch of t
THE SHAKING of my bed made me groan.“Get up, asshole.”“What the fuck?” I growled.“You’ve had two days.”Seth.“I’ve never known you to drink yourself into a fucking stupor.” John.I blinked, tried not to have sharp spikes drill into my skull as I did so. My bed was soft. Warm. I didn’t want to move. I was pretty sure I’d been in it for twenty-four hours straight.“I’m keeping away the moon madness,” I muttered. “And thoughts about Grace. I mean, Cathy. Whatever the fuck her name is.”One of them kicked the bed.My stomach flip flopped.“You smell like the floor at Cody’s after closing.” Again, Seth.“Are you still wearing the same clothes as at the picnic?” Fucking John. Groaning, I sat up facing the window. It was dark
I MARCHED to the end of the property and split the barbed wire to step between it.Rocky and I had repaired the fence where the bull came through, but I had yet to confront Sam about it. I’d been saving it as an excuse to be on his property at some point. And truthfully? I’d been too wrapped up in spending time with Rocky for the last week to use that excuse.Now? It was time.I’d wasted a week, but now I was back on the job.Except the time hadn’t been wasted. It had been everything I needed to live. Now it was all gone. Returning to the life I had before Rocky felt like jumping in a lake with cement shoes on.Nothing could be done about that.I’d hurt him. He wasn’t going to forgive me. Even if he did, I couldn’t stay. I had a job back in Phoenix. Or wherever I went on assignment next.Except that thought made the brick in the pit of my s
WHAT THE FUCK was I going to do? In the past eighteen years as alpha, I’d never come across such a fucking mess. I was used to working out prockylems for other people. Handling disputes. Leading mating ceremonies. Funerals. But this?It was all about me.I stood stiff and still as the she-wolf was brought to me for introductions. My pack wanted to match me to this alpha’s daughter. I’d balked at the idea because Grace was to be mine.But what in the fuck did it matter?Grace wasn’t Grace. The whole thing had been a lie.I didn’t have a mate.And my pack needed me to take one.Maybe they were right. Maybe I had no fucking sense of what a mate was.That had been proven, loud and clear, when John had helped suss out the truth.How long would she have faked it with me?Unlike Cathy, this pack princess was a shifter. She would ease the minds of assholes like Nat
I STOOD ROOTED to the ground, staring at the beautiful alpha wolf meant for Rocky. The one Layla had told me about.Oh God.This was the train wreck I saw coming.Rocky wasn’t looking at her, though. He was looking at me—the pain of betrayal burning in his gaze. I’d made him look at me that way. It was my own doing.I scrambled into the car and rushed to start it. I had to get away. Leave him to get on with his life. I backed up fast, tires skidding the dirt, then took off for home.Home. Ha. What a joke.I tried to stay strong, but halfway back to the house, I broke down and cried the whole rest of the short drive. It was any wonder I didn’t end up in a ditch. Everything I’d thought would happen, had. Rocky learned the truth and felt slighted. No, that wasn’t the right word. Betrayed.He’d bared his soul, and that of his community, to me
WE WERE NEARING the full moon, but this wasn’t a get together to shift and run in the moonlight. Instead, it was an afternoon picnic. By five o’clock, about twenty pack members were in the field behind the house. Usually, we met in the barn, so there was some shade and a roof in case it rained, but the construction project wasn’t finished. Sawhorses with boards across were set up as tables for the hefty quantity of food everyone brought. From Layla’s and Jenny’s potato salad to peach pie, hamburgers and even homemade ice cream had been devoured. The Barn Cats were tuning their instruments and setting chairs beneath a tree where they’d perform. Some laid out blankets, so they could sit and listen. Others had brought fold-up chairs.Grace sat beside me in a pretty green sundress that matched her eyes and had me wanting to slip the little straps off her shoulders and devour what was beneath. I’d kept as close as I could to her since she