Blake, Abby - Suddenly Wolf (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (11 page)

Holy fucking cow! Every nerve ending was alive, screaming for release. Never had she been taken so roughly, so completely, so overwhelmingly. Damn, if she’d still been human, it would have hurt. But the wolf part of her reveled in the rough fucking, celebrated it with gleeful abandon, willingly submitted to her alpha mate.

“Come for me,” he demanded with the full force of his arrogance. If she’d been able to deny him, she probably would have, but he pushed a hand between them, found her clit, and squeezed. Every cell in her body reacted. She screamed into his mouth, her body undulating, shaking, the rocking, rolling, sliding rollercoaster ride drowning her in liquid heat.

She moaned as he released her mouth, fucking her even harder as he groaned out his own orgasm and then finally stilled. He dropped his head to her shoulder, his mouth opening over the skin, his teeth rasping over her flesh. Instinctively she knew what he wanted, understood what would happen if he bit her at this moment. She shifted, touching his head, pulling him closer, inviting him to finish what he’d started.

But instead he pressed a kiss against her skin and moved away. Confusion washed over her, and she whimpered as he pulled his cock from her body. “Please.” The word escaped before she could call it back, and she closed her eyes as humiliation replaced her confusion. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he was denying that they were mates, she had to compound her idiocy by begging.

Shit, she’d obviously learned nothing from her disastrous marriage.

He still held her trapped against the mattress. “Get off me,” she growled in a voice an octave lower than she’d been capable of before.

“Why?” Xavier asked with a confused smile.

She rolled her eyes again and answered his question with one of her own. “Why did you come here?”

Xavier frowned, his eyes narrowed, but he answered in a mild voice, “Because I missed my mate.”

“Oh, so I am your mate. You admit that much.”

“Of course I admit that.”

“Then why didn’t you claim me?”

Two identical gasps came from the doorway, and she looked around the man lying on top of her to realize that Daegan and Isaac had been watching the whole time. Desire swirled again, pooling in her womb as naughty thoughts sped through her mind.

Xavier searched her face, for what she had no clue, so she gave him a belligerent look and waited for his answer.

“I haven’t claimed you yet because I didn’t think it was what you wanted.”

Damn.

Logic.

How was it that she was angry over him not doing something she didn’t want him to do in the first place? She should be grateful that he’d held off. So why wasn’t she?

* * * *

Isaac stepped into the room, feeling his mate’s confusion. It had been so unfair that they’d had to change her the way they had. The fact that she would have died without it didn’t really matter in the face of everything she would lose. It had been more than obvious over the past three days that she loved the life she led and had been quite content in this small town.

But it didn’t change the fact that in less than two weeks the full moon would force her to change into a wolf.

“How long can you stay?” Isaac asked his brother.

“I’ve cleared my schedule until Thursday. I’ll need to head back Wednesday night at the latest.”

Daegan whistled, the high-pitched noise sounding very much like disbelief. Five days off in a row was longer than Isaac could ever remember his older brother taking. Hell, the guy rarely stopped for weekends.

Xavier was a very big reason why their pack was financially secure. He worked tirelessly to make certain that everything in both business and pack life was running smoothly. The fact that he’d taken five days off to be with his mate said a lot about his state of mind.

“Excellent,” Daegan said with a wolfish grin. “Maybe it’s time to finally claim our beautiful mate.”

“Or,” Isaac said with what he hoped was the right amount of enthusiasm, “we could head home and take care of business while Xavier spends some time with Andrea.”

Daegan didn’t look happy, but thankfully after a rushed telepathic explanation understood why Isaac was making the offer. Xavier looked surprised by the words, but didn’t say anything.

“You’re leaving?” Andrea asked, sounding a little lost.

“Only for a few days,” he assured her. “We’ll be back before Xavier needs to leave.”

She glanced at Xavier, then at Daegan, and then turned her gaze on Isaac. She looked like she was going to be belligerent, but then her determined expression faltered. Andrea dropped her head into her hands. “Shit, I don’t even know what you two do for a living,” she said through her fingers.

“We design computer games,” Isaac told her as he pulled her into his arms. He could feel her genuine distress over not having asked them earlier and wanted to assure her that they hadn’t minded. Their lives would change a little now that they’d found their mate, but it was nothing compared to the impact becoming a werewolf was having on hers.

“Games? You’re computer geeks?” She asked the question with such genuine confusion that he couldn’t help but laugh.

“I suppose we are,” Daegan agreed as he also wrapped his arms around her.

“I dated a couple of geeks in high school, and they didn’t look anything like you two.” She ran her hand over Isaac’s abdomen, and he laughed as he realized what she’d meant. The sheer number of hours they spent sitting at a desk would certainly have affected their physiques if they hadn’t already been werewolves. They still made time to stay in shape, but their werewolf DNA made it a whole lot easier.

“We’ll be back Wednesday lunchtime,” Isaac promised as he held her close and tried not to think about how hard the next few days would be. He glanced at the stunned expression on Xavier’s face and knew that their leaving was necessary. Andrea and Xavier needed to spend some time together, and it would do Xavier good to realize how much Andrea cared for, and was respected by, the people in this small town.

* * * *

Xavier watched his woman work. All day she’d alternated between helping her customers and creating or repairing jewelry, and it was becoming quite obvious why the fates had chosen her to be an alpha’s mate.

She knew people. She was quiet and sensible with old Mrs. Keaton, loud and boisterous with Mr. Jackson from the hardware store, and knew exactly how to handle Jonathon Yates’s rude manners. Quite simply she knew people—how to treat them, when to say what was on her mind, and when to back away. He had no doubt that she’d handled the robbers who’d almost killed her with the same amount of skill.

He’d almost leapt the counter when some guy named Jed came in to let her know that he’d joined AA and wanted to apologize for trying to rob her the other day. But his woman had even known how to handle him. She’d sent a single word to Xavier’s mind—“Stay”—but had put just the right amount of humor into it that he’d hesitated long enough to realize the guy was genuinely remorseful and truly had no idea he’d actually nearly killed her. He’d even had tears in his eyes as he’d explained how relieved he was that the drunken memory he had of shooting her had been wrong.

Andrea had been kind but firm. She’d encouraged him to give up the alcohol, congratulated him on his progress so far, and explained what would have happened to him in prison if he’d “really” had a gun. Xavier shook his head in wonder. He couldn’t imagine anyone brave enough to drink after being given a talk like that.

“You’re not Daegan,” an elderly woman accused as she moved closer to the counter. “Where’s Daegan?”

“He had to go home for a while, ma’am. He should be back in a few days.”

“That’s good,” the old woman said as she assessed Xavier from head to toe. “Who are you?”

A little astounded to be spoken to so bluntly, Xavier glanced around the shop. Maybe being the alpha really did shield him from some people’s behavior. Nobody in the pack would have the audacity to speak to him in this way. He spotted Andrea, but she was busy with a young couple wanting to buy wedding rings, so he really didn’t have a way out of this conversation. “I’m Xavier. Daegan’s brother.”

“So he left you to look after her?”

“Something like that,” Xavier said, not wanting to lie to the old woman but feeling fairly certain Andrea wasn’t ready to explain why she had three boyfriends.

“Good. You make sure that Daegan takes good care of our Andrea. She’s a lovely young woman, but there was always a sadness in her eyes, until he came along.”

“Do you know why she was sad?” Xavier asked, unable to resist the chance to learn more about his mate. But the old woman shook her head.

“Nobody knows for sure, but Mavis and I reckon it had something to do with her time on the police force. Something happened to put those shadows in her eyes. Meeting Daegan made them go away.” She shook a gnarled, arthritic finger in Xavier’s face. “You make sure Daegan keeps things that way, or he’ll be answering to me and Mavis.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Xavier answered very seriously. He wanted to grin, but since he had absolutely no doubt that the woman would come after him and his brothers if they even looked like hurting Andrea, he decided against it.

“You’re a good boy,” the lady said as she reached up and patted him on the cheek. “Just like Daegan.” She smiled a toothless grin and then turned and shuffled from the store.

“Are you okay?” Andrea asked as she came to stand beside him. He laughed quietly.

“I’m fine. Daegan might not be if your latest customer thinks he’s no good for you.”

Andrea grinned and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Yes, Mrs. Thomson is very protective. She and Mavis make quite a frightening team when they set their minds to something.”

He could sense her genuine affection for the old woman and finally realized that he knew very little about Andrea. “When were you a police officer?”

She grimaced, and he could sense her searching for a way to change the subject without answering. Without conscious thought he growled low in his throat, the sound more wolf than human. He didn’t like not knowing, and he wasn’t going to let her avoid answering questions about her life before he and his brothers had exploded into her calm existence.

“Stop growling, pooch,” she said with an annoyed sigh. “I was on the force for eleven years. I left three years ago to start this shop, and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you leave the force? Why did you move here? Why jewelry? Pick one. Answer them all. Just give me something. Tell me what made you sad.”

“Wow, you and Mrs. Thomson managed to have quite the conversation, huh?”

“Stop avoiding the question,” he said, feeling his anger rise. What he really wanted to do was haul her over his knee and smack her ass. Shit. Apart from the fact that wouldn’t help him get an answer—and she’d probably kick him in the nuts—he usually preferred spanking to be part of sexual play, not a barbaric form of punishment. Jesus, he was losing his fucking mind.

Her eyes widened as if she’d heard every thought in his head, but she let out a deep breath and started talking.

“I resigned the day my ex-husband was gunned down by drug dealers. Nick survived, thank God, but it was just one of those life-altering things that made me reassess everything.” She shrugged like the story didn’t really affect her on an emotional level, but thanks to the mating link, Xavier could feel the ragged feelings clawing at her heart. “Nick and I were high school sweethearts, we did everything together—went to college together, joined the LAPD together. And even when our marriage fell apart and we got divorced, we still worked together.” She glanced up to see his expression, perhaps sensing the jealousy worming through his heart. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

He nodded once, grinding his back teeth as he tried to bring his own emotions under control.

“Anyway, the day he got shot, I rushed to the hospital, and all of our friends were there. His parents, other cops from the precinct, almost everyone we knew, but when I went in to visit him there was a woman sitting by the bed.” Andrea pushed the hair from her eyes, and Xavier felt a little more off balance when he realized her fingers were shaking. “I’d never seen the woman before. Her eyes were red and swollen, her fingers entwined with his, and it finally hit me that he wasn’t mine anymore. I’d built my whole life around what Nick wanted and even after the divorce had somehow fooled myself into thinking that things would work out eventually.”