Claiming His Need (11 page)

Gates kept his eyes on mine for a beat longer than normal before he gave me a single head bob.
 

“Isn’t that cute.” Chinoo struggled to his feet. “Your white knight’s come to your rescue once again. I guess that’s what growing up as the adored princess of the pack will do to you—make you weak.” He smirked at Gates. “Pretty sad how helpless she is, man.”

Gates laughed, throwing his head back. Long and loud and full, as if Chinoo had just said the funniest thing in the world. Chinoo watched him with a wary, uncomfortable expression.

“Helpless? I watched her plant your ass halfway across this field. I would never call her helpless. Besides, I wasn’t coming over here to rescue her. I was just making sure she had a getaway ride”—his voice dropped to a growl as he stared pointedly at the younger wolf—“in case she killed you.”
 

Chinoo choked and sputtered before turning and walking away at a fast clip. The coward.

Gates wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his hold. “Which reminds me, Sandman and I have a meeting with the Cleaners and your pack leaders. How about we head out for a little run as wolves before the meeting starts? Just you and me.”
 

He stared down at me, his eyes filled with a heat that made my heart race.
 

“That sounds perfect.”

We ran through the woods along the trails leading to the houses of various packmates. Weaving in and out of trees, following in the footsteps my ancestors had tread for hundreds of years. The air rushed by, ruffling my fur and bringing with it the sounds and scents of nature around me. I loved the land I’d been raised on, loved the freedom the relatively remote location brought us. Even in the depths of winter, when the cold and the snow battered the peninsula and forced the humans indoors, I loved to run across the terrain as my wolf. There was nothing like the feel of fresh powder under my paws and a brisk, icy breeze teasing my nose.

Gates ran right behind me, his black-as-night wolf following me over the hills and across the flats. When we reached a heavily wooded section not far from the coast, I turned to go around, but Gates yipped and led me to where three pine trees had grown closely together. Their bottom boughs hung heavy, creating a kind of cave under the branches. Gates led the way inside, and then shifted into his human form.

I whined, the sight of his naked thighs making me want to follow his lead and shift, but he shook his head.

“I want to talk to you, beautiful. And if you shift, you’ll be naked. And I’m naked. And that’s not quite where I want this conversation to go. At least not yet.”

I huffed and spun, racing out of the den he’d found and across the grassy field. He yelled after me, but I didn’t stop. I ran all the way to the edge of the hills where my brothers and I had often played as children. Inside a hollowed out tree trunk were three cloaks. The pack kept them scattered about the land in case we needed them, though none of us was particularly uncomfortable with nudity. Clothes were more of a hindrance than a necessity most of the time, but one never knew when humans would wander onto our land.

I pulled a cloak from the pile with my teeth and ran back the way I’d come, returning to the little pine den my mate had found.

“Smart girl.” Gates smiled when I rushed in, tan fabric in my mouth. I dropped it in his lap and curled up next to him, his thigh brushing against my fur. He wrapped the cloak around his hips and sat back against the center tree trunk.

“I heard what Chinoo said”—his eyes met mine—“and I saw your face. I don’t want you to think that my not coming for you yet is a sign of rejection. If it weren’t for these nomads putting you in danger, we’d be deep in the Rites of Klunzad right now. But I can’t lose my focus and put you at risk.”

I sat up and faced him, eye to eye with the man who would be mine. His eyes turned dark and intense as he stared into mine, his face serious.

“I have waited over four hundred years for you. A few more days to make sure you’re safe is nothing in comparison.” He fisted his hands in the fur around my neck. “Please don’t believe someone as obviously jealous as Chinoo. He knows nothing of my intentions.”

Unable to take the pained look in his eyes, I shifted to my human form, scrambling into his lap with my legs on either side of his hips.

“I believe you. When this is all over, we’ll have our three days to bond. And I’ll give myself to you fully, as you’ll give yourself to me.”

He nodded, his eyes locked on mine. So soft, so filled with emotion. I leaned forward and placed my forehead against his.

“And before the three days are over, we’ll exchange our mating bites and tie ourselves together forever.”

Gates growled deep in his chest. I’d always been told of how the idea of exchanging the sacred bites would excite the males of our species. I didn’t know if that was true for all, but it definitely worked with Gates. His eyes practically glowed with a lustful fire as he hardened underneath me.

“You want to exchange mating bites right away?” His voice, normally so smooth, came out rough and dark.

I slid closer, pressing along his erection as I adjusted my position.
 

“More than anything.”

He practically whimpered as he pulled my hips toward him.

“I want that too. So much.”
 

Without a second thought, I crashed my lips to his. He responded in kind, quickly taking over the direction of the kiss. His hands gripped my ass, rocking me over his dick. I wiggled until the hardness pressed where I wanted it, where every slide made me gasp and shiver. We continued that way for what felt like hours, me writhing naked in his lap, him kissing me breathless.
 

My hands explored every dip and curve of his muscled body I could reach. From the strong cords running down his neck to the hardened peaks of his nipples, the light hair scattered across his chest to the rippled plains of his abdomen. I happily ran my hands and fingers over his flesh as we kissed and rutted and breathed each other’s breath.

“You have tattoos,” I whispered as my eyes caught the faded amber ink across his collarbone. I followed the foreign words with my fingertips. “My crazy life, yes? But you switch to English for this one.”

I placed my hand against the word “Trust” on his ribs, feeling a scar my eyes couldn’t see in the shadows of our little pine-tree den. Our hips slowed as he watched me watching him, our movements measured and sultry instead of fast and frantic as they’d been. The change in rhythm made me growl and shiver as pleasure rippled up my spine.

“That’s it, princess. Feel me.” Gates licked the length of my neck, pausing only to place gentle bites along the way. I dropped my head forward as tingles shot from my toes to the top of my head. The feel of his body against mine, even with the irritating fabric between us, was so much better than anything I’d experienced before. Every brush of his skin against mine brought equal parts pleasure and relief from my heat.
 

Gates groaned and pulled me down harder against his straining dick.
 

“Fuck, I want to see you come.” His words made me moan, my head falling as I worked my hips harder, snapping them back and forth. My breaths came in pants and my thighs burned, but my orgasm was so close, the tension so strong. I just needed a few more minutes. A few more slides. A little—

With a growl, Gates flipped us over. The sudden roughness of dirt and pine needles against my back caused my eyes to fly open. Gates hovered above, holding himself up with his arms, peering at me with unmasked desire.

“I want you so much, Kaija. Not just like this.” He thrust against me, angling his hips to slide the head of his dick from the bottom of my opening to the top of my hood and back. “I want you to be mine, forever. I’ll take care of you. I promise. I’ll always make sure to keep your happiness in mind. Just please give me a little time. Let me clean up this nomad mess. Trust that I’ll do right by you.”

I reached up and fisted my hands in his hair, pulling his face down to meet mine.
 

“Yes, yes, yes. Always yes, my mate. Always.” I pressed my lips to his before arching into his touch.

He growled and dropped his head to my shoulders, thrusting harder and faster against me. The thin cotton of the cloak did little to keep us apart, the fabric wet and rough as it kept him from going where we both wanted him to be. A few more thrusts and I was teetering on the very edge of desire, ready to fall over. But I couldn’t quite get there. I needed just a little more, a little something, a little push—

On a gasp, I bit down on the side of his neck, my body locking down as the taste of his skin kicked off the biggest orgasm of my life. Every inch of me shook, every muscle clenching and releasing in time with my pussy. Gates hissed and thrust harder, no longer able to keep a rhythm.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, Kaija. Fuck.” He groaned, loud and long in the silence of our pine-tree den. He arched and threw his head back as he came, beautiful in his release. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, pulling him into my embrace as soon as his high began to wind down. I needed to feel him—his weight, his heat. I needed him to be real, to be with me. To be mine.

“Baby.” His whispered endearment was followed by a brush of his lips and a nuzzle of his nose. “So beautiful. So ridiculously beautiful.”

“I feel the same way.”
 

He chuckled and dropped his forehead to rest on my chest. “This wasn’t my intention, you know. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“I like the way we talk. We seem to not be able to keep from
talking
when we’re alone.” I grinned as he pulled his head back and smiled at me. “Besides, we did talk. I heard you, Gates.”

He sighed. “My real name is Luke. Well, technically that’s not true. My original name, the one my parents gave me, is Lorenzo Martinez de Caballero. We shortened it to Luke when we moved into the United States, or what was the United States at the time.”

“Then why does your team call you Gates?”

“It’s called a road name.” He rolled, taking me with him. “We all have them. It’s a way to bond with the brothers of the club. There’s a whole process to joining the Breed, but once you’re through the majority of it, you’re given a road name. Sometimes it has to do with something you did, like Shadow, who’s one sneaky SOB in wolf form. Other times it has to do with something about you. There’s a man in our club named Rebel. We call him that because he was turned during the Whiskey Rebellion, fighting the government over taxes on whiskey.”

“On whiskey?”

He chuckled. “Yes. It seems ridiculous now, but back then, whiskey was a way to make good money for farmers. Rebel didn’t take too kindly to the government trying to get a cut.”

“So why are you Gates?”

“Because I’m the gatekeeper, the protector. Even before I was named Sergeant-at-Arms of our den, I was the one making sure our clubhouse was safe and secure. Most of us live in what used to be offices in our den on the north border of the city. I protect the den and my brothers within.”

I pressed my lips together as I tried to make sense of his words. “You call them brothers, but they’re not.”

He nodded. “The Feral Breed is a brotherhood of men fighting the same fight. We have to be more than friends… In our jobs, we must trust each other with our lives. No simple friendship is enough. Though I do have an actual brother. His name is Beast, and he’s close to two hundred years younger than I am. He’s the reason for the tattoos.”

“No other family?” My heart ached as his face fell.

“All the rest are dead.”

“I’m sorry.” I snuggled into his hold and rested my head against his chest. “I’d like to meet this Beast.”

“Then you will. Once we’re done here, we can head to the Lower Peninsula and I’ll introduce you to him.” He ran his hand down my arm and over my hip, clutching me in a way that spoke of possession. “People are, at times, a bit afraid of him.”

“He’s your brother; I won’t be afraid. I’ll treat him like I do you, and everything will be fine.”

He growled. “Not exactly like you treat me.”

I grinned as his lips met mine. “No, not exactly.”

He kissed me hard, stealing a few more moments of privacy before we had to leave our den and return to the Alpha house…and the danger circling the pack.

After grabbing a second cloak from the hidden stash—bright red this time, quite obviously one belonging to the Alpha clan—Kaija and I strolled to the main house. The talk had done us good, as had the two rounds of intimate play. I felt more connected to her than before. It’d broken my heart to see the doubt and pain on her face when that fucker used my protective instincts to imply that I didn’t want her. She was funny and beautiful, witty and smart, and the fates had chosen her as the perfect match for me. The pack wolf she’d fought with was completely cracked if he thought there was any way I wouldn’t want her. I wanted her like the sun wanted to shine or the tide wants to roll—constant and unable to stop.

When we reached the yard leading to the house, the scene before us made me pull Kaija closer to my side. My Breed brothers stood on the porch as if waiting for me, Half Trac a few feet in front of them. Wariksen and Uuna stepped out from around them as well, all watching our approach.

“Do you think we’re in trouble?”

I shook my head and squeezed Kaija’s hand. “No. I think something’s happened and we won’t like it.”

We slowly approached the porch, waiting for someone to begin the conversation. Finally, after we stopped at the bottom of the steps, Half Trac addressed us.

“The nomads have sent a message through one of the Valkoisus packmates they saw in town. We’re to meet them tomorrow morning.”

“What do they want?”

Half Trac’s eyes darted toward Kaija before landing on my face. It was a tiny tell, a slight change most people wouldn’t have noticed. I not only noticed it, I read the intention behind the move. They wanted Kaija. My chest burned and my joints ached as I fought the urge to shift and protect her.