Call of the Wild (11 page)

“Water, I beg of you,” she croaked out.

Aaron grunted and then got up to walk into the bathroom. While he was gone, Marsha took stock. Various muscle groups were making themselves felt. She wanted to soak in the tub for about an hour. A glance at the clock told her she didn’t have that luxury. It had been almost twenty-four hours since she’d been shot. She needed to eat and make her report. She’d also missed a bunch of meetings while she spent the day having a sexual marathon.

Aaron brought her a glass of water and helped her sit up to drink it. She couldn’t believe it when she noticed him getting hard again.

“You keep that thing away from me. I need to eat and that’s not the kind of meat I’m thinking of,” she told him.

“I think I’ve made enough of an impression. As long as you acknowledge who you belong to,” he said, running his hand up her thigh. He had to keep touching her.

“Is that so? Well, I have a few fun facts you need to keep in mind too. There’s one thing about cougar shifters. Our human selves have one thing in common with our cat. We’re forced ovulators, it means repeated sexual encounters will bring on our heat. Did you remember the condom every time? I’m thinking there were a few times when we didn’t. You never let me speak, every time I tried you got me all worked up again. If you’ve gotten me pregnant, you
will
be marrying me,” she said, using the word ‘marrying’ instead of ‘mating’ on purpose.

She enjoyed seeing all the blood drain from his face. He obviously was thinking back too. She didn’t wait to see what his reaction would be. She headed to the shower as she contacted Maggie House and asked her to have Lila bring them some food. A few moments later, Aaron joined her.

“Call me insatiable,” he muttered as he took her against the wall. “If you get pregnant, so be it. That just means we start our family a little early and I get to feel every inch of you coming all over my cock every time. You’re mine. I’m never going to let you go. You’ll have to get used to that too. No more wandering the woods alone. From now on, we’re a unit,” he said as he picked up the pace of his thrusts.

He’d gone a little crazy last night when he heard about her getting shot. He was an intelligent man. He’d waited a long time for the right woman to come along. He had the example of his parents’ marriage, and he wanted that for his own. During the long hours of the night, he’d had time to think. All the comments about mates, the way she had rubbed up against him the first time they met, and then been angry with him the second time. They were mates and she was going to be his. He’d made so many life changing decisions in the last twenty-four hours he was a little surprised he wasn’t dizzy. He knew if he sat down and tried to think logically his current plans would seem crazy. Right now though, he didn’t care, he was thinking with a different organ than his brain. If he had to keep her in bed to make sure she was with the program, he was up for the challenge.

“I like the way…you drive…a point home,” she got out just before her climax roared through her, and she screamed his name again and again.

Awhile later, when she left the shower and dried off her body, she had lost her feelings of self-consciousness over her big ass and many curves. Aaron had made it
abundantly
clear that he loved her body, especially her ass.

Pulling clothes out of the closet, she saw the way he was eyeing her and the bed. He had that glint in his eye—again! She was going to be one happy shifter! Food first, and then she had to report for duty. For now, though, she grabbed her clothes and, ducking around him, jumped back into the bathroom and shut the door. When she locked it, she could hear him laughing on the other side.

By that time she was dressed and had fixed her hair. She didn’t bother with make-up; she didn’t even own much. She walked out of the bedroom and saw Aaron transferring food from a cart to the table.

“Where’s Lila?” she asked.

“I told her I’d put the cart into the hallway,” he said.

“Did you explain? Kobolds get insulted if they think you’re taking away their jobs. It’s like telling them they don’t do it right,” she said.

“I thanked her for the food, and told her I wanted to fix it for you. She smiled and said she’d wait outside,” he said.

“Hmmm. Well, I guess as a declaration, it will do. By the time we finish eating, everyone will know you’ve chosen me as your mate.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. Not that he cared. He had inadvertently done exactly the right thing.

“In Kobold culture, the preparation and serving of food is strictly done by the females. The only exception to the rule is with mates. When a male makes or serves food for a female, it’s a declaration.”

“Fine, now let’s eat. I’m starving.”

Marsha was knocked for a loop. It was finally starting to sink in that he
wanted
to be mated…to her. She decided now was not the time to push for more, he was human. She merely sat down and began to eat. Once she started, she realized how hungry she really was. She’d had nothing to eat since lunch the previous day. If Aaron felt she was eating too much, well, then, too bad. It took a lot of calories to maintain her girlish figure. Plus, she’d burned a lot of energy the day before shifting and healing. And let’s not get started on all the exercise she’d had since she woke up. Her thighs were still protesting.

Aaron had no such qualms. Ever since Marsha had mentioned the possibility of children, the mind he’d trained to make fast decisions had begun making plans.

“I’m resigning my commission. I’m really close to full retirement, anyway. With my pension and investments, we’ll be set. Besides, it looks like your new shifter army could use my skills. Uncle Sam trained me well.”

Marsha paused in her eating to give him a look. She had been prepared for a slow courtship, but Aaron was moving at shifter speed. It was time to pull up her big girl panties and join him in the discussion.

“Where should we live? I’m required to live within a certain distance of Moleville while I fulfill my terms of service,” she said.

“Moleville?”

“Don’t blame me; your sister is the one who named it that. It is becoming a bit of a rabbit warren down here,” she said as she poured a second cup of coffee from the carafe.

She’d eaten a large helping of steak and eggs with hash browns. Now she was enjoying her coffee, and eyeing the cinnamon rolls.

Aaron lifted the plate of rolls, took one, then offered them to her.

“These quarters are nice, for what they are. However, I do have an entire suite of rooms upstairs. Do you think you could be comfortable there? At least until we build a house of our own? Don’t get me wrong, I love my family. I just want the privacy our own place will give us,” he said, making his eyebrows dance.

“I’m going to need to take a hot bath or shift before you get any sexy ideas, mister. So just hold your water. Besides, we’ve got meetings to attend, remember?” she asked, holding a hand, palm out. It was hard to protest because her panties were growing damp again. She was going to buy stock in panty liners with Aaron around full time.
Thump, thump, thump!
She tried telling her body it wasn’t in any kind of shape for more sexy times…it wasn’t listening.

“Maggie House—is anyone waiting for us?” he asked.

“One moment, Aaron,” she said, and then played some weird hold music over the speakers in the room. “It is understood you’re newly mated. You’ve been excused. You’re expected one hour before dinner in the main living room and not until then. Congratulations,” she said, then went quiet.

“Shift and shift again, so you can be naked faster. I’ve been out of your body for too long. Besides, now that one kind of hunger has been satisfied, I can give in to another. I didn’t get a chance to taste you. I need to rectify that.”

Okay, now her panties were drenched. She was one lucky girl!

When they arrived at the living room, they discovered Laura had put together a quick mating celebration for them.

“Alex had to leave. He asked me to give you his best wishes,” said Laura, giving her brother a hug.

Aaron looked at the cake and all the people filling the room. He was really touched. Steven waited until Marsha was over in the corner talking to Laura, Frieda, and Mara to approach his brother. He handed him a beer as David and Benji joined them.

“Fast work, bro. Is there something in the water here or what?” asked Steven.

“Maybe. I don’t know and don’t care. I’m thirty-seven years old and for the first time, I’ve met a woman who does if for me on all fronts. I’ve gotten more hard-ons in the past twelve hours than I’ve had in the last two years combined. I’m planning to get her pregnant and keeping her that way for the next five or so years.”

“Damn! I’m surprised she can walk straight,” said David.

“It’s the upside to being a shifter—switch to your animal and back—good as new. Instant cellular regeneration. She doesn’t even have scars,” said Aaron.

Steven saw the fear that flashed through his brother’s eyes. “Scars?”

“You haven’t heard? Last night she went for a run in her fur, and some idiots shot her. Keeping her safe is going to be the hardest job I’ve ever taken on.”

“Shit!” David exclaimed, almost spewing out the beer, of which he’d just taken a sip. “What are you going to do? It’s not like you can lay down the law. Of course!” he said, slapping his knee. “Hence your plan to keep her pregnant for five years. Do you really think that could work?”

“It couldn’t hurt. I’m not so worried right now. Their enemies don’t know about this stronghold and she’s stationed here. Kind of like Mom—she reads Intel and makes plans. I’m hoping we can work together here at what Laura calls Moleville.”

Before Steven or any of the others could comment, Marsha walked over with Mara and Frieda. Aaron immediately pulled her into his lap. When she was near, he needed to be as close as possible to her. It was like a fever in his blood.

“Ah, you are definitely the son of a changeling,” said Frieda.

Aaron didn’t know how to answer that, so he just smiled and nodded.

“Mara wants to know if you want to hold the mating ceremony before or after I take my team to West Virginia,” said Marsha.

She started talking about what she wanted and who should be there. Aaron didn’t hear any of it. All he heard was that she was planning to lead a team into an area where some crazies were planning to kill everything and everyone they saw. There was a word for that: genocide. And his mate was planning to be in the thick of it.

“Over my dead body!” he said loudly, interrupting the talk of ceremonies.

For Marsha, it was like being stabbed in the heart. The pain spread through her chest until she felt numb. Then she got angry. She stood and slapped his hands away.

“What do you mean? You’ve changed your mind? Well, fuck you, Aaron Donahue!” She started to storm off, but he managed to catch up and get a hold of her.

Before the situation evolved into a shouting match or worse, Marsha unleashed her claws causing Aaron to lose the best thing that had ever happened to him, Steven put two fingers in his mouth and blew a shrill whistle.

“Listen up you two, we are not going to have one of those idiotic romance novel situations my ex was always bitching about where a stupid misunderstanding keeps people apart for days. Marsha, Aaron wants to be your mate. That’s all he’s been talking about since we sat down,” he said while the women all looked at him as if he was from Mars.

He had her attention, though she kept slapping at Aaron’s hands, so he continued. “I was getting a little worried about the happiness oozing out of him. It’s so not like his normal grouchy personality. What he meant when he made that knee-jerk exclamation had nothing to do with the mating plans you were talking about. You lost his attention when you mentioned taking your team to West Virginia. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but that’s when his eyes changed,” Steven explained before going quiet.

David and Benji backed him up by nodding their agreement.

Marsha wasn’t ready to stop being angry with him. She just had a new topic to be angry about. “You were right there when we made the plan. Hell, most of the plan was your idea. How come you’re upset now?” she asked. She had stopped slapping at his hands; however, her back was poker straight and her muscles were tense. She wasn’t relaxing into his hold.

Aaron knew that what he said in the next few moments was critical. Say the wrong thing, and not only would the mating be postponed, but more importantly, he’d be sleeping alone tonight. So long as he was in her bed and in her body, he knew he could talk her around to rescheduling a postponed ceremony. On the other hand, he couldn’t stand the idea of Marsha being in danger.

“Marsha, Laura can tell you how protective of her we’ve been all her life. Now I have a mate too, a possibly and very likely pregnant mate. Those protective instincts go into hyper-drive. When you were in the planning meeting today, I assumed you had a role similar to our mother’s. You stayed here and oversaw operations, took part in the planning and analysis. Hearing that the mother of my children was soon to be running around in the woods, where we know fanatics are going to do their very best to kill you—either by gun or forest fire…well, I just had a knee-jerk reaction. Knowing you might be pregnant doesn’t alter your perception of the situation at all?” Aaron asked. “Also, let’s not lose sight of the two bullets you took last night,” he added, purposely putting her on the spot.