I hadn't really planned on talking about that with him, to be honest. He was just so easy to talk to. And I wanted him to understand how I was feeling. Why these things scared me. Why these things made me feel self conscious."I guess that explains some things. I truly do understand where you're coming from. It's hard to have such godly role models to try and live up to. When I took over the pack from Parker, I didn't have a ton of supporters. I was tense all the time for almost two whole years. I was nervous I was saying the wrong things and worried about what people thought of me. But finally, I realized that I had to try. I refused to be the guy who quit being the Alpha of his pack because a few people didn't like him. You have to try, Cleo.""How cliche." I say with a smirk. We're approaching his car now. I wonder if our date is done."That doesn't mean it isn't true." He shrugs, and I see him pulling his keys from his pocket. My heart sinks a little, but I keep a straight face. T
"I don't know what he's thinking, giving her that many clients, she'll only..." My cubicle neighbor Amanda is droning on about some new girl that the boss likes more than her, definitely because of her ass and not because she went to business school and actually shows up to work on time. We're sitting at one of the round plastic tables in the break room, both of us relaxing for a moment after eating our lunch and before returning to our desks. I'm barely listening to her though. I'm stuck on Ike's Instagram again, just like I had been since our date. "Holy shit, are you smiling?" I hear Amanda exclaim suddenly. I look away from my phone then to meet her bright blue eyes. I think for a moment. Amanda and I aren't exactly bff's, but we eat lunch together every once in a while, and sometimes go to the gym together. She was nice to me from the very beginning, showing me where the "good" coffee pods were when I first started here and telling me who not to trust in the office. She's human
I can't believe you got fired.I could feel my face heating up with embarrassment and shame as I shoved the small box of my personal belongings in the back seat of my car. I could feel my stomach churning with anxiety and the back of my throat burning with the threat of tears. What am I going to do? This was not how I thought my day was going to go when I woke up this morning.I collapsed into my front seat, hesitating a moment before I drove home. I pull out my phone and check my bank app. I have enough in my savings to pay my bills for the next three months. Other than that, I have the paycheck I got last week, and will have one more coming in a couple weeks. I breathe out a shaky breath. It's okay. I've got this. I've been in worse situations before.I think back to when I first decided to leave my foster family.I was seventeen, no money, no idea what I was doing. I had just bought my first car, the one I still had today. I had been saving up cash from my job I had after school as
By the time I got back home my anger had fizzled down to just plain ole sadness. What was I going to do? I needed a job, one that paid enough to take care of all my expenses. I was alone. I had no one to fall back onto if I came up short on rent. I would just be kicked out of my home. But considering the fact that I wasn't actually a legal citizen, it made finding something as good as my last gig kind of hard.I looked around my house then, taking it in. It wasn't a big place, one bedroom and one bathroom. But I liked it. I had a soft brown couch I had snagged from a flea market for only a hundred bucks, a flat screen TV I had bought from someone at work, posters on the wall, plants hanging from windows and tucked into corners. I had food in the fridge, all the things I liked and wanted. There were clothes in the closet, clothes I bought myself with my own money.I liked my life as it was. It wasn't particularly interesting, but it was comfortable and made me feel safe. But without a j
I'm not as careful and slow when I pull into the park's parking lot as I have been in the past.Tears are now threatening to spill over. I swallow thickly, trying desperately to keep my shit together for just a little bit longer. Let me help you. I pause and nod my head. I know my panther has better emotional control than me, and to be honest, I don't feel like trying right now.After tucking my car keys away, I hid behind a patch of spiky bushes, and practically ripped my clothes off. For once, I don't fight the change. I actually enjoy the physical pain that comes from shifting. It distracted me from the emotional.I sit in the back of my mind, watching my panther take control. She lets out a scratchy, horribly loud roar and begins crashing through the forest, following our scent to where we both know Ike is. How can I need someone I barely know this badly?I reach the edge of his pack in mere minutes. My panther has torn through the woods, leaving a path of broken branches and scare
Her lips taste like watermelon.Her hair feels like silk as I intertwine it in my fingers.I love the way her soft flesh feels as I squeeze handfuls of her butt in my hands.God, her breathy moans make my dick hard. I can feel myself losing control as I grab a handful of her hair and yank her head back, forcing her to expose her neck to me. I growl as I begin nipping and sucking on her soft skin. My teeth graze just above her collar bone, right at the spot where I will leave my mark on her one day. The mark that tells everyone who she belongs to. The mark that will bind our souls together.My wolf begs me to sink my teeth into her. The smell of her arousal is driving us both fucking insane. The thought of taking her here and now makes me dig my fingers even harder into her ass cheeks. I'm struggling to control myself, and she isn't helping as she begins grinding against me."Cleo." I force out, letting go of her hair and instead grabbing either side of her face. Her eyes are wide and w
I try to bite my tongue, to watch my tone. I really do. But just knowing how Cleo really feels about herself makes something stir inside me that I've never felt. I feel angry, like I need to prove her wrong. Like I need to show her what she's missing. I can't help the words that slip out because of my irritation, even though I know they will only piss her off. "Can you not fucking say that about yourself, please?" She narrows her eyes at me, and I almost literally see the wall going back up around her. She smacks my hand off her face and I fall back a little. You knew better, and you did it anways. "I'm a monster, Ike. I've known it my entire life. So, stop trying to pretend otherwise." She's glaring at me now, her eyes glowing like a pair of pumpkins. I watch her carefully.I don't know Cleo the best, not yet at least, but I can already tell a few things about her.She's tough, although I'm beginning to think the reasons for that aren't exactly cheery. She's careful, untrusting. Eve
"Do you want me, Cleo? Do you want me like I want you?"I didn't even have to think about that. There was a hot pool of liquid in between my legs right now, my panther was going fucking crazy, hell, I was going fucking crazy. Never did I imagine Ike to be like this. I knew we'd sleep together eventually, because hey, I have needs. But I really didn't come over here to smash and dash.I want to say that, I do. But instead I moan and say, "Please Ike, I want you so bad." He growls, and rips my shorts down to my knees. I kick them the rest of the way off, and watch as he pulls one leg of his pants off, too impatient to mess with the other."You want me inside you?" He asks, returning to my neck. He trails kisses down my collar bone, biting every once in a while. I nod, closing my eyes and rolling my head to the side. He brings his mouth to my ear, and wraps one hand around my throat, squeezing softly. "Beg."I feel my stomach flip and the insane heat and tension building in my lower abdom