OH LORDY.
I forgot how attractive Tom is. Huge, masculine, muscular goodness. Immovable as a wall, both physically and emotionally.
But he’s an alpha male, so when Chas asked about yoga, he couldn’t stop himself from throwing his dick in the ring. Yeah, mixed metaphor. My specialty.
How emotionally immature.
And slightly flattering.
Well, it might have been flattering if he hadn’t pretty much given me the brush off. So now it’s just annoying. Like he doesn’t want me, but no one else is allowed to have me either? I don’t think so.
I’m not playing that game, big boy.
I’m not playing any game with you. If you want me, come and get it. But if you’re still not ready, don’t waste my time. I have a life to live.
I head back to my tables and start packing things up for the evening. I haven’t sold a single piece today. Which is ho
THIS WOMAN IS FUCKING KILLING me.I mean, seriously. I might die. Not just the stretching part, although that sucks. I’m a wolf, though.Indestructible. It may hurt now, but I’ll recover in twenty minutes. No, it’s the fucking cock tease.I have little Miss Yogi wrapping those heaven-scented hands around my hips—so close to my dick—and there’s only one thing running through my mind.Pound. Her. Hard.I have an urgent need to get the woman on her knees and show her the best use for that stretchy lithe body.And the worst thing is every time she walks anywhere near me, guiding us with that sing-song voice of hers, I get a half-boner, which is really fucking hard to hide in these gym shorts.This is pure agony. It was absolute idiocy that spurred me into coming. Except that dickless prick from the gorge is front and center, trying to show off his prowess. So yeah. I
I DON’T KNOW what possessed me to invite Tom for cocktails. This isn’t his crowd. Definitely isn’t his scene. But I guess I’m not willing to say goodbye yet. Not when being near him lights my whole body up like a Christmas pole. I mean tree.I take his hand and lead him into the restaurant. I don’t know why I grabbed his hand—maybe to send a message to Chas, whose attention is getting way too annoying. Maybe it’s to send a message to Tom that I’m still interested.Either way, it’s too intimate of a gesture. The air between us charges. He chokes on a breath. My nipples go taut.Chas looks back and takes it in, expression falling.Tom growls like a wild beast.It’s Animal Kingdom weird and hot as hell.I slide into the giant circular booth seat where Adele, Charlie, Sadie, Chas and a few other random yogis are gathered and scoot over to make room for Tom.He frown
WHAT AM I DOING?What in the fuck am I doing?I find myself circling Jasmine’s VW bus in the parking lot across the street from the plaza. I meant to march out here, get on my bike and drive off.It was a solid plan.Okay, fuck that. It was a cowardly plan. Jasmine had taken off for the bathroom, and I had a boner as big as the Sears building, and I couldn’t get my wolf under control.So I bailed.But now I can’t bring myself to actually leave. Which seriously pisses me off.Damn that ridiculous and beautiful human.The thought of hurting Jasmine’s feelings shouldn’t be such a big factor here, but it is.Well, she is my daughter-in-law’s mother. She’s like family. I wouldn’t want to give offense and piss off Tank or Foxfire.Or Jasmine.Yeah, it’s totally about Jasmine.There’s something magical and mystical, and fuck, ye
I NEARLY SHIFT RIGHT THERE in the street.Somehow, I know the crash involved Jasmine. I sprint at top speed to the intersection as a wrecked silver Volvo tears off down a side street.And there, in the middle of the intersection, is Jasmine’s bus, smashed on the side like she got T-boned, and spun around facing the sidewalk.“Jasmine!” I shout, leaping over the wall separating me from the road and nearly tearing her door off its hinges.There’s no airbag, nothing soft for her delicate human face to hit. Jasmine’s forehead rests on the steering wheel and the smell of her blood makes my vision dome. I’m ready to shift to defend her, but there’s no one left to fight. The assholes took off after smashing into my lovely human.“Jasmine. Fuck, Jasmine.” I want to tear the bus apart to make space for her crumpled body. I draw in a deep breath to calm the fuck down.Chri
I’M TRAPPED in a room with a giant wolf-man and no hope of escape.Seriously, it’s that bad.Tom insisted on bringing me to the little cottage he airbnb’ed. My car is parked out front, but I haven’t been allowed to see the damage. It was too dark when we got here last night, and Tom won’t let me out of bed today.He’s standing in the bedroom doorway now, doing his best to intimidate me into climbing back under the covers.Unfortunately, I find his form of intimidation lethally attractive.“The doctor said I’m fine,” I insist. Just some lacerations and bruising. A stiff neck from whiplash. And the broken arm. Which still throbs, even inside the cast.“I’m gonna call bullshit on that one. Get back in bed before I put you there.”Despite my aches and pains, my pulse picks up at the threat. I don’t mind the idea of Tom manhandling me a little. He m
I DISCONNECT one of the wires to Jasmine’s alternator, just in case she’s serious about leaving. I don’t think she will, but the woman is pretty stubbornly independent.And it wouldn’t be the first time she’s run off on me.I rub my forehead as the testier part of me grumbles that I should let her leave if she wants to leave. I’m not looking to get tangled up with her again anyway. But there’s no way I can let her fend for herself like this.A few days until she’s out of pain and I can get her bus repaired. Then we can part ways before things get intense again.It’s the only decent thing I can do.I walk over to the diner and pick up three orders of the huevos rancheros (two for me, because I have a wolf’s appetite), and I get a couple giant bear claw pastries too.My wolf gets cheerful on the walk back, like the idea of providing for a fema
I’M UP, showered, and sitting on the couch reading on my Kindle app when Tom returns. “I found the guy who hit you.”A car pulls into the drive and a scrawny guy with a t-shirt stained with blood tumbles out of the passenger side.“Tom… what did you do to him?”“I busted his nose,” Tom answers like it was the only logical action he could’ve taken. “And I told him he’d better fucking fix your bus. So he’s here to take it. Toss me the keys.”My mouth drops open. I’m not sure what I think. Whether Tom is a hero or someone I really should distance myself from. Violence isn’t something I condone.I do appreciate him arranging to have my VW fixed, though.I pull out my keys and then hesitate. “What if he steals it?” I mean the guy looks totally sketchy. Definitely a tweaker. That’s probably why he left the scene of the acciden
FATES. I can’t believe I just tried to mark Jasmine.A human.That doesn’t happen. That shouldn’t happen. Something’s seriously off with my wolf if he’s picking a human to try to mate with. After all these years, after him never choosing to mark Barbara, the mate I chose.It’s insanity.The worst of it is Jasmine somehow knew. I don’t know what she sensed, but she screamed right when I was about to sink my serum-coated teeth into her flesh to forever mark her with my scent.A bite that could be fatal on a human.Fuck.And now she’s scared.And possibly hurt.“You’re not strange,” I lie. My rational mind tells me not to get within ten feet of her, but the scent of confusion and pain fills the room, and there’s no way I can heed my own warning system.She touches the goose egg on her forehead. “You know, I think I&rs
I thought when I bonded with Jasmine that we were complete, somehow, I had been wrong. I don’t know why we waited to introduce our wolfes, but somehow that had made a world of difference. I felt whole now, stronger somehow and closer to my mate than ever.We’d gotten back from a short mission where the only real excitement had been the cat Alex had rescued, and insisted on bringing back home. Who knew the big person had such a soft spot? He was now a proud, crazy, cat owner.On the drive back from the airfield he’d made us stop off at a pet store where he bought everything he could think of that the damn cat might need. I was convinced that he had lost his mind, and we were getting close to needing to do an intervention. He was the last single person on the team, and I feared that was weighing on him more than he let on.Then, when we got back to the Lodge, all hell broke loose. The second we stepped out of the vehicles we w
I’d had some weird dreams and didn’t know what to make of them. I awoke with a sense of doom lingering in the air.I rolled over in bed and hit a brick wall.“ Tom?” I asked. “You’re back?”He was already awake and staring at me with a look of utter confusion on his face. “Uh, okay. You don’t remember?”He looked truly horrified. I had to pee badly though, so I climbed over him then froze halfway.He had a heated look in his eyes, and it brought back vivid memories from my dream.His hands found my hips and I gasped. My hand flew to my mouth. “Did I seduce you in my sleep?” I blurted out.My cheeks were on fire with embarrassment as I recalled just how aggressive and turned on I’d been. It had felt like a dream. And then we’d talked, and I had gotten upset and rolled over and went to bed angry.I groaned and covered m
When Alex changed our plans and sent us on an emergency mission, I was not pleased. Jasmine had been gone when I went home to tell her. I was a little grateful for it. I hadn’t called her because of that. Instead, I’d left a stupid note. I did feel bad for that.I’d never had to worry about anyone else before. As a courtesy I would call Leslie to let her know when I got called out on a mission. Mostly that was just because I knew she’d give me shit if I didn’t. I hadn’t called her this time either.I had thought the mission was taking us back to Colorado bear country to extract Sonnet, but this one wasn’t about that. The team was being sent down to New Mexico to rendezvous with Echo team.Alex hadn’t come with us. He was acting a little stranger than usual and was determined to have a clean extraction. He was working closely with Jake and being hush-hush on why we were being delayed. The rest of
I woke up all alone in a strange bed in a room I didn’t recognize at first. The only thing familiar at all to me was the intoxicating scent of my mate.“ Tom?” I called out but I could tell he wasn’t there. He’s left without even saying a word.I sat up with a huff.Feeling the call of nature, I jumped out of bed and ran for the bathroom. While there I went ahead and jumped in the shower trying to wash away some of the fears I had as the reality of my situation was starting to sink in.I’d mated a man I didn’t know. I’d sold my business and currently my only source of income. I’d uprooted my sisters and dragged them down this rabbit hole with me. I gulped. I lived with a very large pack of wolves. There had to be hundreds of them if not thousands.My head felt like it had been in a haze since the motherent Tom walked into my life.That veil was slowly lifti
The drive back to San Marco was just as stressful as the drive to Womack. Leslie still wanted to stop every hour to stretch and pee. I even tried banning liquids and that woman still had to pee. I suspected she was doing it just to drive me insane.With three cars our caravan ran at a slower pace than I normally would have driven by myself. We had five drivers to rotate between them, so it wasn’t too bad. Leslie had even taken turns riding in each vehicle.“I just want to get to know my new granddaughters is all,” she insisted.I loved that she was already accepting them into our little family pack. It meant a lot to me, but I suspected it meant a great deal to her too.It was late afternoon before Jasmine finally took a break from behind the wheel and road shotgun with me. I held her hand grateful for a few minutes alone with my mate. I’d missed her even if I did see her at every single stop Leslie insisted on.We were making good
We had no idea where we were going or what to expect. My car was largely packed with all of my stuff. We still had Sapphire’s car to fill with her stuff. Sage’s would have to be dispersed between the three vehicles. Not wanting to pay for a moving truck we all agreed to stop and buy air mattresses. We weren’t going to take any of the furniture or big stuff. Only necessities and important personal items.That proved easier said than done. While I had never really had much, Mother had spoiled the other girls with an over abundance of clothes, shoes, and well, stuff.“If I’m being honest, I don’t even like this stuff. Can I just pick out the things I actually want to wear and just start over buying what I need when I need it and can afford to do so?” Sapphire asked. “I mean look at these?”She pulled on an orange, yellow, and green dress that had the gypsy appeal our mother loved. She fancied herse
“ Tom,” I said as I answered the mobile.“Well at least you’re still alive. We just got back, and I figured I’d check in since I hadn’t heard anything. I’m assuming no news is good news?” Alex asked.“Yup. All good on this end. How was the mission?” “In and out, nothing exciting. Yours too?”I almost smiled. Mine was far from boring.“I identified our attacker.” For some reason I didn’t want to share the fact that she had been my mate, at least not yet.“So he’s been dealt with?”“She, actually.”“Oh really?” he asked, suddenly sounding interested. “Tell me.”“Shifter. She’s looking for her sister. I’m going to need to put an inquiry out on one Sonnet— hold on.” I covered the receiver with my hand even knowing Alex would st
I wasn’t opposed to going with Tom. Despite what he had tried to say, I knew what I had done when I tied myself to him. For me to believe otherwise would take time and examples. Layla had always warned me about it. “Don’t give away your soul and body to a man. Bonding it forever, Jasmine,” she would say.I had done it in a motherent of passion, but Tom appeared to be a good man and for some reason I had no regrets. Logically, I thought I should, but I didn’t.Tom motioned for Sapphire to come back over.“Check please,” he said.“No,” she said.“Look, I need to talk to your sister and not here in the open,” he said as if I weren’t sitting right there between them.“Did you realize you handed me over $800 yesterday?” Sapphire asked him.“I am and you aren’t giving it back.”“ Tom, that&
I awoke to an empty bed. I had reached for my mate with a huge smile on my face, but the bed was cold beside me.I was on full alert as I jumped up from bed and checked the bathroom for her. It was empty. I swept the room for any signs of Jasmine. The only thing I found to show that she had even been there at all, was one shoe peeking out from under the bed. Well, that and the mark she had left on my neck when we had sealed our bond.My heart ached and I was finding it hard to breathe.Had she regretted binding herself to me? Anger erupted within me. It was too late for regrets. What was done was done. As far as I knew, there was absolutely no way to undo a bond. She was stuck with me whether she liked it or not.Logically I knew my thoughts were merely a firewall protecting my heart. It was failing though. She had already breeched that too. I had to find her.I was trying to think through what I knew about my mate when there wa