A Jaguar's Kiss (8 page)

With an almost mischievous grin she began strumming

her nipples with her thumbs. Each time she did, she

tightened even harder around him.

Though he wanted to drag this out, he needed to see her

come and he needed release. The thought of coming

inside her even with the condom on was
almost
enough to

make him lose it. Soon enough he wanted to be in her with

no barriers.

Right now he planned to see pleasure playing across her

face. As he increased his movements he leaned down and

took her mouth with his. Her fingers threaded into his hair,

cupping him tight as their mouths met in a frenzied clash.

The energy that pulsed off her became as wild as their

unrestrained movements. One of her hands moved around

to his back and down to his ass where she gripped him

tight. He flexed underneath her fingers with each thrust. The

feel of her nails digging into him was a mix of pleasure and

pain.

When her inner wal s began convulsively tightening

around him, he knew she was close. Groaning as she tore

her mouth from his, she let her head fal back. Her entire

body shuddered as her climax ripped through her. Her

moans fil ed the cave, echoing off the stone wal s like an

erotic symphony and her grip on him didn’t lessen.

Burying his head against her neck, he let go of his last

shred of control as his orgasm punched through him with a

violent urgency. When the pleasure slowly ebbed, for one

brief, horrifying moment he thought he’d marked her. His

canines had involuntarily extended, his need to sink them

into her neck while they were making love and claim her

was a living thing inside him. It beat against his skul ,

commanding him to take what was his.

Blinking, he pul ed slightly back. Gabriela’s eyes were

closed and a blissful expression was on her face. And she

didn’t have any markings on her neck. He pushed out a low

sigh of relief. He wanted it, but she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe

she’d never be.

Opening her eyes, Gabriela smiled and stretched her

arms above her head. “That was…nice.”

“Nice?” he growled.

Grinning even wider, she grabbed on to his hips and

reversed their position so that she was on top. “It was more

than nice. And I want to do it again.”

Despite his intense climax he was stil hard. Perk of

being a shifter. Returning her smile, he tugged her down so

that her breasts brushed his chest and her hair fel around

his face. “We’re just getting started, sweetheart.”

Her inner wal s clenched around him in response and he

inwardly smiled. By tomorrow morning, he’d have her

convinced that one night would never be enough. Even if

she didn’t realize it yet, he knew that their bodies were

made for each other.

Before Gabriela opened her eyes she knew she was alone.

Owen’s scent lingered strong in the air, as if he’d just left.

Sitting up, she glanced around. Light filtered in from the

entrance to the cave, letting her know it was early morning.

Owen’s clothes were scattered next to hers and the fire had

dwindled down to nothing.

Gathering her things, she quickly dressed, though she

was glad she could stil scent Owen al over her. It was

almost as if he was in her skin. The thought pleased her.

She’d scented herself deeply embedded in him last night,

too. Normal y only mated couples carried that distinctive

fragrance of their other half, and she and Owen definitely

weren’t that. Though he’d scraped his canines against her

neck more than a few times last night. He’d come

dangerously close to breaking the skin and a very deep

part of her had ached for him to do so. If he’d pierced her

skin with his canines and marked her, it would have told

everyone she was off-limits. And if she’d marked him

back…they would find themselves mated. Something that

seemed too surreal to even think about.

Gabriela unzipped her backpack and pul ed out one of

the chocolate bars she’d re-wrapped a few hours ago. After

the third time they’d had sex last night, they’d devoured

most of what was in her pack, but there was stil a little left

over. As shifters they had extremely high metabolisms and

needed to eat a lot to keep up their energy, and right now

she was famished. While she was devouring it, she heard

the soft padding of Owen’s paws outside the cave. It was

fol owed up with his distinctive earthy scent.

Seconds later a white wolf with familiar blue eyes stood a

few feet in front of her. Then Owen shifted, returning to his

human form with a grunt of discomfort as his bones

realigned. Tearing her eyes away from his naked,

gorgeous form was difficult, but she met his gaze and

shook her head at the lust in his eyes.

“You’re wearing too many clothes.” Growling softly, he

knelt on the sleeping bag she was sitting on and crawled

toward her until she was flat on her back.

Heat spread across her bel y and ventured lower, but she

pressed a hand to his chest and shook her head. “I’m too

sore.” Even though she’d spoken the truth, she knew that

she could go another round—or three—but she needed to

mental y evaluate everything that had transpired between

them.

After last night she felt so comfortable around Owen it

was a little scary. She’d only returned to Bear Mountain to

get some downtime and think long and hard about what she

wanted to do with her life. After her last mission the thought

of going back to work without her team, her
friends
, was so

depressing it carved at her insides. She swal owed back a

sudden swel of tears, forcing herself to think of Owen and

the present.

Jumping into bed with him had never even crossed her

mind. If anything, she’d planned to do everything in her

power to ignore the sexy male. Last night made everything

so confusing. Especial y since he was currently looking at

her as if he’d like to ravish her again and her body was

completely onboard with it.

Sighing, he rol ed onto his side and tugged her with him

so that she wrapped her arm around his waist and

snuggled against his hard body. “Sorry I left, but I didn’t

want to wake you. I scouted the area for signs of intruders.

Only found normal forest animals.”

Despite his relaxed hold, she could feel the underlying

tension humming through him. “Were any of the humans

attacked specifical y associated with your pack?”

His shoulders lifted slightly. “Sort of, but no one with a

close relationship and no more so than anyone else in

town. The first man kil ed was a hunter who shops in one of

the pack’s pawn stores. The second was a tourist in town

on one of those paid big-game hunting trips and the last

was a rancher who lives on the outskirts of town. He buys

bags of feed for his horses from our feed and garden store.

As far as I know, none of them have any relationship with

each other and definitely not anyone in my pack. Of course

the sheriff isn’t looking for stuff like that because these are

animal attacks as far as she’s concerned.” There was an

undeniable spike of anger in his words.

Gabriela traced circular patterns across his chest. The

randomness of it al was frustrating. Jaguars weren’t native

to this area and she hated that someone was not only kil ing

innocent humans, but making her family a target in the

process. “What’s Sharon like as sheriff?” She knew what

Sharon was like as her friend but was curious for a

multitude of reasons. One being that Sharon had not so

subtly told Gabriela she had a standing job offer any time

she decided to move back to Bear Mountain. Something

she’d never considered until now.

“She’s fair and wel liked by just about everyone. A few of

my pack members have shown
interest
in her.” His voice

was resigned and she knew why.

If a shifter mated with a human, that human would be told

everything about their species. Bringing humans into the

loop on anything about them went against every fiber inside

shifters. Of course for Gabriela, she’d gotten over her

issues with that a while ago. Some of her bosses had been

humans and they knew pretty much al they needed to about

the different shifter species around the world. Many

branches of various governments did. It wasn’t something

that could stay hidden forever and it was the reason she’d

been recruited in the first place. “Sharon would handle

knowledge of us wel , I think.” When Owen didn’t respond,

she splayed her palm over his chest, wondering how he’d

respond to Sharon’s job offer. Gabriela cleared her throat.

“She offered me a job.”

Owen went impossibly stil . “Are you considering it?” he

asked careful y.

She shrugged against him, feeling confused about

everything. “It’s sort of an open-ended thing. I don’t even

know if she stil —”

“Detective McGowan is retiring this month.”

Gabriela was silent for a while, unsure what to say. Wind

whistled outside the cave, though with Owen’s body heat

and the leftover warmth from the nearly burned-out fire she

was more than comfortable. Owen’s grip tightened on her

as he stroked a hand down her back. She might have told

him that she could only give him one night, but now she

wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

“What was it like coming back here to be Alpha at such a

young age?” Not exactly light conversation but she wanted

to know. “It was difficult. I’d planned on a long military

career but Ethan, Skyler and my mom needed me.”

“And the pack?”

His chin brushed against her head as he nodded. “They

needed a leader, too, but I came back for my family more

than anything.”

“I’m so sorry you had to give that up.” He was silent so

she didn’t say any more. Just tightened her grip on him and

closed her eyes. The feel of his steady heartbeat was

grounding and familiar. She wasn’t sure how long they lay

there in each other’s arms, but when a vibrating sound

interrupted the quiet, they both stirred.

Owen cursed under his breath and grabbed his

discarded jeans. He dug out his cel phone then let out

another curse before answering. Thanks to her

extrasensory abilities she could hear the cal er speaking.

The conversation between Owen and a male voice she

didn’t recognize was brief. Once he snapped the phone

shut she knew they were leaving.

A black jaguar had been spotted on wolf land ten miles

from their current location about an hour ago. The young

wolf cub who had seen the other shifter had luckily

remained hidden. As soon as she’d been able to, she’d

raced back to the pack to relay the information.

Since Gabriela was the only black jaguar in her family

and she certainly hadn’t been out roaming around, it was a

good chance this might be the shifter behind the attacks.

Unfortunately it meant she and Owen had to head back to

the real world. “So what happens now?”

Owen paused for a moment, then gave a brief nod

almost as if he’d decided something. “If this jaguar has

gone to the trees there’s a good possibility that he wil be

harder to track. He was last seen by the abandoned mine

about…”

She stripped off her shirt and he trailed off. “I heard

where and I’l track him. This bastard has made my family

targets of your pack. We’re just lucky you were with me last

night or they might have thought that was me out there.” At

least the pack member who had cal ed Owen hadn’t said

anything about another attack. Just a sighting.

As she began to shimmy out of her jeans, Owen said, “I’l

be with you but if you have to head to the trees, I’l stil be

tracking you. If you find this jaguar, do not confront it. Wait

for me.” At her raised eyebrows, he added, “Please.”

“It’s this guy’s fault that my mother is afraid and hasn’t

been able to properly hunt for weeks.” Neither had the rest

of her family but her mother internalized stuff and this had

been eating away at her. Gabriela only wished she’d

shared this concern during any of their last dozen phone

conversations. She’d have been home a lot sooner.

“Gabriela.” There was a warning note in Owen’s voice.