Black Wolfe's Mate (Paranormal Shifter Romance) (7 page)

“It is unlike you to put so much faith in such an intangible concept as Fate or Destiny.”

“Yes, and yet it rings of truth, does it not? That a human female should command the heart and soul of an Alpha so effortlessly? That she could survive mortal injuries long enough to attempt a transformation? That even now, she continues to display an inner strength that should, by all logic, be impossible? No, Silas, everything about this woman defies logic. And yet, here we are.”

“Here we are,” Silas agreed.

“Do you doubt me?”

His trusted sentinel met his gaze. “No, Derrick. As your pack, we feel your conviction, and as such, share it.”

“You will accept her?”

“We already have.”

Profound relief flooded through him. He had sensed as much, but hearing Silas say it while looking into his eyes was the proof he’d hoped for. The matter was now closed; no further discussion was required.

“Any developments on the Northern Tier attack?” Derrick asked. He had sent Nikos and Dieter back to the site, hoping they might find some missed clue to help them identify those responsible for the slaughter. They had mentally checked in with him upon their return, but Derrick had been preoccupied with Angelica’s care for a full debriefing.

“Nothing good,” Silas frowned. “Niko discovered a cave in which he believes the attackers were hiding. Human males. By the remains, they had been there at least two days prior.”

Which meant they had been watching, waiting for the most opportune moment to attack. “How were they not detected?”

The look on Silas’s face was one of pure disgust. “They covered themselves in the skins of freshly killed animals. It masked their own scent.”

Derrick closed his eyes. It was a trick as old as time itself, and still so perfectly effective. “No sign of the missing?”

“No.” 

Derrick knew what Silas wasn’t saying. Not finding the bodies of those still unaccounted for meant they might have been captured. God help them all if the human monsters managed to capture living, breathing Weres.

––––––––

“E
asy, my sweet,” Derrick said softly as he freed her limbs, baring her perfect honeyed skin to the black velvet skies. He had carried her to the most remote section of the island, under cover of darkness and wrapped in blankets, while his men secured the area and stood guard around the castle to ensure no guests unwittingly made their way to them.

Silas was positioned closest to them. As Derrick’s second in command, Silas would be the one to take Angelica down as humanely as possible if the transformation failed. The specialized gun and darts treated with lethal amounts of sedatives to stop her heart quickly and painlessly hung heavily in his pocket. Through their mental connection, Derrick knew Silas hoped he would not be forced to use them.

Derrick reverently placed gentle kisses on her eyelids, her nose, her lips. “It is time. Rise for me, sweet Angelica. Hear my voice. Obey my call.”

She stirred beneath him, her skin glowing in the silver moonlight.

“Yes, Angelica. That’s it. Hear my voice, love. Come to me. Only to me.”

Her body arched sharply, twisting and turning in on itself as the change began in earnest. Her face contorted in pain as she cried out. The sound was like a blade to his chest. Though Christophe had been very specific about the process and what it would entail, Derrick never could have fully prepared himself to see her hurting like this. He steeled himself against it, forced himself to be strong. She needed him.

“Don’t fight it, Angelica. Let it claim you. Give yourself over to it. Give yourself over to
me
, love.”

She opened her eyes, gasping for breath. Derrick placed himself in her line of vision. “See me, Angelica. Know who claims you. Accept your beast. Accept your Alpha.”

He held his breath. This was it. Either she would accept this, or she would die.

Sensing Silas moving restlessly nearby, Derrick moved fully in front of her. She would make it through this. She
would
.

Her eyes finally locked onto him and her body stilled. On some visceral level, her inner beast recognized his scent as the source of the power coursing through her veins.

“Yes,” he coaxed, allowing his voice to turn into a half-growl. “Come to me, Angelica. Choose me. Only me.”

She watched intently as he began to unbutton his shirt and then unfasten his pants, removing both until he kneeled naked before her. She rose to all fours, intent, focused as she became more animal than human.

“Derrriiiccckkk,” she rasped, her voice a rough purr. “Yes,” he answered in a husky growl as he began his own shift, waiting until the last possible moment so he could continue to speak to her in the way she was most accustomed.

“Your Derrick, Angelica. Only yours.”

Her fangs lengthened, perfect and white, as she threw her head back and howled. Her silky hair spread, covering her entire body until she glistened in radiant gold. A rainbow of silver, gold, and every hue in between shimmered around her as her form changed and shifted, until she stood before him, a perfect she-wolf. Panting heavily, she dropped to the ground, regarding him with glowing amber and gold eyes.

“You are breathtaking,” he breathed, her she-wolf far beyond anything he could have dreamed. Small, yet sleek — perfectly proportioned for speed and grace.

No longer able to contain the change, he shifted into his wolf form in a burst of blue and black. She whimpered, and he scented her fear.

He growled softly — as gently as a wolf could — and lowered his massive snout, nuzzling her. He licked her face, butting her in soft demand until she licked him in return.

Then he rose and stood before her, magnificent and proud. He lifted his head and growled. This time, not in warning, but promise.

* * *

P
ain. So much pain
.

Angelica awoke in pure agony. It felt as if her body was being torn apart. Blood boiled in her veins, bones popped and realigned themselves, muscles pulled and stretched to their limits. And then, when she thought she could not endure another moment, it stopped just as quickly as it had begun.

Weak and breathless, she dropped to the ground and tried to take in her surroundings.

This new world was so strange. Familiar, yet...not. She recognized things around her: the sand, the palm trees, the wind, the ocean — but they were different. Things looked different, as if someone had just given her a new pair of glasses and she was seeing clearly for the first time. They smelled different, too — a thousand times more powerful than before. In the air alone, she scented a hundred new unique and wondrous things.

And then, there was
Him
. That magnificent beast with fur like thick black threads of the finest silk and eyes bluer than the clearest summer day. His cold nose prodded her, licked her, and nipped her, until she gave him her full attention — until this new, amazing world consisted of nothing but him.

Yes, he was her world. He was everything.

He rose before her, a huge, magnificent beast, and growled his demand. He wanted something. Needed something. Something only she could give him. Oh, she wanted to please him, but how? She whimpered and licked him in response.

He growled again, a rumbling command her mind could not comprehend, but her body did. A deep ache in the center of her body, an urgent demand that had to be fulfilled, a bond that must be forged. He turned in the moonlight, revealing his desire for her. Her eyes widened at the sight of him; another whimper escaped.

She answered him, a soft purr of submission. Instinctively, she lifted her haunches, offering herself to him.

Blue eyes blazed with approval. He padded on silent feet behind her until she felt his hot breath on the most feminine part of her, now swollen and sensitive. She whimpered again and moved her hindquarters to entice him, lure him.

He growled in warning, a low sound commanding her to stop. She lifted her behind again, in invitation and defiance.

A huge paw swiped at her hip, holding her in place as his nose nuzzled between her legs...

* * *

D
errick filled his lungs with her scent. Soon, she would bear his as well.

He gave her a long, lingering lick and she nearly collapsed. A feminine howl of pure torment released, leaving him stiff and aching with the need to claim her as his mate.

He mounted her, penetrating her with the force of the Alpha he was. As a man, he would spend the rest of his life seducing her, romancing her, but as a wolf, it would always be like this: hot, hard, feral.

She was the sweetest heaven. Her untried sheath grabbed him like the tightest fist, his massive cock continuing to grow and lengthen inside her perfect she-wolf’s body.
His
perfect she-wolf’s body. She belonged only to him.

His huge build caged hers, his heavy and muscled chest pushing her down into the ground as he claimed her with pure animal abandon — complete carnal need. She growled her acceptance, encouraging him to give her more.

And he gave her everything.

He felt his release coming, knew he was close when the barbs around his penis engaged to hold them joined. As jets of pulsing seed ejaculated into his mate, he lifted his head and howled to the moon — a declaration of the claiming – and then sunk his teeth into the tender area between her shoulder and neck.

* * *

A
ngelica had never known such bliss. Her Alpha claimed her. Her Alpha.
Hers
.

She was dreamily aware of his big body emptying into hers as a chorus of celebratory howls from all directions reached her ears.
Yes! Her pack!
She wanted to howl in joy, but she didn’t have the energy to do anything more than whimper and purr as a sharp pain blinded her to everything except bliss...

A
ngelica woke amongst a cloud of softness. Opening her eyes, she found herself in a sea of fluffy white pillows and silken sheets of gold.

The delicious aroma of food roused her interest. She sat up carefully — her entire body was extremely tender — to find a tray next to the bed. It was heavily piled with all sorts of things: pastries, an omelet, sausage, bacon, pancakes, fruit, and coffee. It was the latter she went for first.

It tasted different than she remembered, more bitter. But she was also able to discern subtle undertones of cacao and hard earth, which she hadn’t before. It had also been brewed with desalinized water, she realized. And the cream had been neither pasteurized nor refrigerated. Even the sugar she spooned in - one sniff was all it took to know it had come from sugar cane fields of southern Georgia.

But how could she possibly know all of this?

Her eyes were drawn by the slightest hint of movement. She turned to find
him
watching her intently — Derrick Wolfe, the man who had been dominating her dreams. He was every bit as beautiful as she remembered. That silky black hair. Those haunting blue eyes that spoke to her very soul.

The image of him blurred with that of a magnificent beast, shiny and black with those same evocative eyes and long, razor sharp canines.

Her heart instantly soared, her body tingling from head to toe. She had been attracted to him before, but this...this was so much more than that. Waves of need, of desire, of something powerful and all-encompassing, rose up within her.

“Mr. Wolfe?” she asked breathlessly.

He smiled slightly, as if amused. “Mr. Wolfe now, is it?” he asked, his rich, deep voice stroking between her legs as plainly as if he’d put his hand there. He rose and began to walk...no, stalk gracefully across the room to her bed. She pulled the coverings up to hide her suddenly swollen breasts and swallowed a groan as the silk rasped against her impossibly hard nipples.

“Come now, Angelica,” he said softly, seductively, “you can do better than that.”

As he drew closer, a barrage of erotic dreams rushed into her mind. Images of nuzzling, licking, begging, pleading, and carnal pleasure overwhelmed her. Of her insatiable need as a black beast mounted her, over and over again, glorious and demanding and never enough. No, not her. A wolf. A golden wolf with her eyes.

She squirmed beneath the covers, pressing her lips together to stop the desperate moan vying for escape. Visions — memories? — of him thrusting into her, filling her from the inside out, washed over her again, a searing wave of heat and desire that left her breathless.

What was it about this man that made her want to spread her legs and lay herself at his feet? She had never been an overly sexual woman, but then, nothing about her seemed quite the same. The silken feel of the sheet was like a lover’s caress over her heated skin. Each inhalation brought with it a potent male musk that had her body preparing itself for him in a variety of ways. Some parts of her pebbled and hardened. Other parts softened, swelled, and wept.

“It’s not possible...” she whispered, even as her body betrayed her, growing hot and wet beneath his gaze.

He paused beside her, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply. When he opened them again, they were glowing with approval. “Ah, you do remember,” he said, sitting beside her. She stared at him, eyes wide as he took her hand in his and kissed the back of it very gently.

“I know this must be very confusing for you, Angelica, but know, above all else, you are safe and adored. Do you understand?”

Oddly enough, she did. Some part of her, some primal part, recognized his words as the absolute truth. With him, she was safe. He would never let anything happen to her.

My Alpha. Mine.
The words in her head were little more than growls. Where had they come from? Who had spoken them?

“Can you tell me what happened? Where I am? What I am?” The questions tumbled out, bubbling up in her head faster than she could speak them. “And you, what are you? Why am I here?”

He smiled indulgently. “I will answer all of your questions,
mea dulcis lupa
,” he promised. “But first, I must feed you.”

As if in response, her stomach growled loudly. It was followed immediately by a telltale heat rushing into her cheeks. It made him laugh.