Conquer Me (Sawtooth Shifters, #4) (7 page)

“Fuck.” Major’s head fell back.

“Eyes on me,” I teased. “Remember? That’s your fantasy.”

It was mine, too.

I took as much of him into my mouth as I could, cupping his balls as I sucked. Major writhed underneath me. I clamped down hard with my tongue, then licked just under the tip. My fingers worked in tandem with my tongue, until Major grabbed me by the hair, pulling me away from my new favorite toy.

“Cass,” he pleaded. “That’s amazing, but you have to put the condom on me.”

“I don’t think I heard the magic word.”

“Now.”

It wasn’t the one I had in mind, but it would do. I rolled the latex down over him, giving a couple extra strokes to make sure everything was in place. I licked his balls before he hooked his hands under my arms and pulled me back to kneeling position. He moved me like the rag doll I was—it took everything I had to stay upright when he let me go, only to clasp my hips. 

Major stopped. His cock bumped against my opening. “Look at me, Cass.” He pushed up inside me, and my mouth fell open. We’d always been one soul, separated, and now we were one in every way possible. He pulled me down into the sweetest kiss. “Thank you,” he murmured against my cheek.

I shook my head. There were no words. I could barely think as he started moving inside me. Long strokes, slow at first, building as he found his rhythm. My body came alive moving with his, circling, teasing, and meeting him thrust for beautiful fucking thrust. 

Never had I felt so alive, so much like a woman, as I did with Major pounding against me. The waves of my orgasm couldn’t be stopped now. I collapsed, but Major didn’t miss a beat. He rolled me over on my side, hooking my leg over his body, sliding right back in like he belonged there.

And he was right. 

Eye to eye, our bodies slicked with sweat, Major caught my lips as I cried out. He rode my orgasm with me, kissing me the entire time. I loved the ones that didn’t quite connect the best—on my chin, cheeks, and even my nose. He swelled inside me, his rhythm quieting with his hot release.

We lay there together, not saying a word, fingers trailing over each other’s bodies, for a long time. Too long. If only I could figure out a way to make time stop.

“I can’t believe I have to leave you.” My words shook as hard as the rest of my body. But he’d made good on his promise. I had no idea what waited for me at home, but nothing Walter could do would take this night away from me.

Major cradled my face in his hands, planting a kiss on my forehead. “For tonight. That’s all. You’re always with me.” He picked up my hand and placed it over his heart.

M
ajor

“Stay with me,” I said as I watched Cass get dressed. She was like a vacuum—she’d take my whole world with her when she left.

Cass blinked rapidly. She sat on the edge of my bed, hair wild, my scent clinging to her. “You know I can’t do that.”

“You can.” It was going to kill me to watch her walk out that door, sending her home to Walter to do God knows what. I should’ve never touched her while her husband was still alive.

Stupid bastard. He should be worshiping this incredible woman, instead of treating her as a second class citizen. Shadow didn’t want a class war, but if we were to have any classes at all, it was unavoidable.

“I have no choice. If it were just me, I’d say screw all of this. Just like when we were kids and we talked about running away. But we’re not kids anymore, Major. I
have
a kid. I don’t want Emma to grow up and have my life, I have to keep her safe. Even though I’d love for us to be a family,” her voice broke, “the reality is I have to go back to that house and be a voice for her. Figure out how to get her out of this mess. One wrong turn and Walter will make sure I never see my daughter again.”

It ripped me in two. The wrong answer was the right thing to do. We’d been selfish tonight, not to mention fucking stupid. Walter would use everything at his disposal as a weapon, especially his daughter. “You always have a fucking choice. With me, at least.” I sat up and gripped her arm. “Remember that.”

There was no staying away from her now. My wolf awakened, and I had no idea it had been slumbering. These emotions were so much more intense than the wild, unleashed ones that always brewed in me. Cass completed me in a way no human woman ever could. Before I thought lust fueled my mission, our magnetic attraction, but now I knew why wolves mated for life.

No more of this sold off to the highest bidder bullshit. We were meant to choose our mates. So many of the arranged ones seemed happy, and good for them. Maybe they were in love. Or maybe they didn’t know any better.

Now that I’d been with Cass, I did. And nothing would keep us apart.

**

“O
h, honey, she’s beautiful.” Renee ran her hand over the body of the motorcycle, straddling the seat. She batted her lashes at her husband, Mike. “How do I look?”

“Hot, as always,” Mike answered before devouring her in a kiss.

“I didn’t know you guys liked to ride.” I’d been surprised to see Cass’s best friend and her husband waiting for me outside the shop this morning. He’d custom ordered two bikes, sparing no expense. These bikes were nicer than the one I always used. I had several, but my first was still my favorite. Of course, I’d been working on it for years, adding things and refinishing when I wanted a change. I loved it and we’d been through a lot together.

“Not yet.” Renee bounced with excitement.

“Gotta to keep this girl on her toes.” Mike swatted Renee’s arm. She squealed, and I threw up in my mouth. Out of envy more than anything. “We took a cruise for our anniversary. Fifteen years. Renee dragged me parasailing, and I loved it. Now we’re looking for the next high.”

“This is going to be awesome. We’re going to take riding lessons over the winter, so we’ll be ready to take the bikes into the mountains in the spring.” Renee grinned. “We’re getting matching outfits, too. I can’t wait to see this guy in leather.”

“And we like to support our own, Major.” Mike motioned to the paw print decal in the window. We called it the Sawtooth Business Association, but it was a secret code so shifters in Granger Falls could take care of each other.

Renee climbed off the bike, squeezing my arm. “We want to support
you
.”

I took their money with a smile but the sale felt dirty. Cass and I were no secret, and I’d been too lust-drunk to pay attention to what was going on around me. No more. I needed to strike before Walter took me down at the knees. He had many more supporters than I did.

The Lowes had a bad reputation, hard-earned with bloodied knuckles and busted lips. It worked in our favor. I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone. Shea fought no matter what form he was in, but I liked to settle my trouble when I was a wolf. I didn’t have that luxury this time.

“What do you know about engines?” I asked X. I’d been wound up all day, unable to stop thinking about Cass, her body writhing with me inside her. Where I fucking belonged. But Walter, that bastard, crashed the party, even in my head. My blood ran cold every time I thought of what waited for her at home.

Shea, bored out of his mind with no job, picked up grinders. He cracked open a beer, and passed the rest of the six pack around.

“Take ‘em apart, put ‘em back together, pretty basic stuff. Why?”  X narrowed his eyes over his beer.

“Can you make them run independently?  Or give them commands?” I did finishing work and ran the business. I knew nothing about the electrical end of things. This was all X’s department. He was a magician with that stuff.

“Like a robot?” Shea talked with his mouth full. He sat on the front of X’s desk, legs spread wide. “Cass is a screamer, huh?”

X snarfed his beer behind him. I glared at them both. “Fuck you, Shea,” I growled.

“Absolutely. I can holler like that, too.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Since that’s what you’re into. But if you really want to turn me on, you’ll tell me you got me that job.”

“You have to talk to Trina. She’s really the alpha.”  I laughed when his mouth dropped. Good luck to him. Trina blamed herself for not getting in between Shea and Archer before the fight turned fatal. If he got that job, both my brothers were magicians.

Shea jumped off the desk, dropping his grinder wrapper in the trash. “Once she gets to know me, she’ll see I’m not an asshole.”

Poor X wore more of his beer than he drank. “Shadow said he’s coming later,” he said as Shea grabbed another bottle and passed second ones to both of us. “Back to the engine. What the hell do you want that for?”

“Of course he is.” I groaned. I hadn’t solidified my plan yet, still playing around with ideas. “I want something I can detonate.”

“That must mean I have the job,” Shea said. We both ignored him.

X his beer down. “You want me to build a bomb.”

“Pretty much.”

“I can’t fucking do that.” X raked his hand through his hair and paced in the small space between desks, stepping around Shea.

“Why not? If I sent you out in the forest as a wolf and told you to rip Walter’s head off with your teeth, you wouldn’t think twice about it. This is simple. Clean. What you do every day. Hit a button and it’s done.”

“I’d do it, but I don’t know shit about building engines.” Shea shrugged. “And I’d rip Walter’s head off, too. Whatever you need.”

‘Thank you’ didn’t seem appropriate, but I did appreciate it.

X shook his head. “Pack business is pack business. You do this, humans get involved. You’ve been a prisoner once—do you want to risk that again? Think about the full moon. You get stuck as a wolf in jail and you put the whole forest in jeopardy.”

“That’s not what I want at all.” I sighed, pissed he was right. That bastard had me at every turn. “I have an agreement with Walter—“

“You have a what?” X’s eyes were about to fall out of his head. “You’ve lost your fucking mind. I get it, I want a wolf mate, too. But they’re not all miserable like Cass. More of them are like Renee, happy as shit with the rich guys. Would you want me to tear her out of her home, away from Mike, to prove your point?”

“I want her to have a choice.” I slammed my fist on the desk, scattering the rest of my sandwich. “If Renee, or any wolf, is happy with her husband, then she should be with him. But if she isn’t, she deserves better. Anyone who sold their daughter and didn’t think they could be bought and sold next is a fucking fool. It won’t stop with the women. Next it will be us. We’ll be slaves on our own land.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you made a deal with the devil,” Shea said, backing away from me.

“No one ever lets me finish.” I glared at both brothers. “Everyone’s so quick to remind me that Walter’s going to fuck me over, but never does anyone think that maybe that’s
my
plan, to fuck with him.”

Shea’s mouth dropped, then formed a toothy grin. He held his hand up to high five me, but I shook my head.

“Still crazy,” X muttered, craning his head to the showroom. “Shadow’s here.”

I pushed Shea, trying to get him to shut up before Shadow changed his mind about giving him a job. I doubted that was the reason for Shadow’s visit, but Shea had enough working against him already.

Shadow smirked when he came in the office. “Surprised I didn’t see you guys the other night.”

“Yeah, we missed the run.” I’d given him shit for the same thing last month.

“Didn’t expect it, since we had a deal.” Shadow came deeper into the office, leaning against my desk.  My brothers narrowed their eyes in confusion. “Thought you’d want to get some work done.”

“We didn’t have a plan.” I didn’t like Shadow thinking he had an edge over me. Captivity had made him bloodthirsty. His lack of expertise in the area made him dangerous. After years of fighting, I knew when to throw a punch, more importantly, when to hold it. Since our rescue, Shadow swung first and asked questions later. If at all.

“Turns out we didn’t need one.” Shadow grabbed the last beer, twisting it in the hem of his shirt to open it.

Fuck.
“You killed him.”

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted Walter dead. But that was supposed to be my kill. It would never give me the same satisfaction unless I felt his heart stop beating.

“Nope. Didn’t have to. We forgot something very important. Walter isn’t like his father. He hid behind Ryker his whole life. Let his daddy fight all his battles. One on one, he couldn’t stand on his own. His guys wouldn’t fight our new guys, since they’d all worked together for so long. So it was me and Dallas against Walter.”

“What happened?”

Shadow look a long sip of his beer, trying to suppress a laugh. “He fucking ran off a cliff. Full speed. His eyes must’ve been going or something. At first, I thought it was a trick. Like he disappeared and was planning some sort of retaliation. But I went back today, and he was pretty easy to find. The buzzards are picking him clean.”

Holy shit. Walter was dead. Which meant...

“You all right, Major?” X asked. “This is pretty fucking good news.”

“Yeah.” I shook away the shock and turned to Shadow. “We’ve got some work to do.”

C
ass

“Calm down.” Connie glared at me. Emma snuggled against her, and Connie smoothed her hair down, rocking her back and forth. “You’re upsetting the baby. And Walter will come home when he’s ready to be here.”

Three days since he’d been home. It wasn’t unusual for him to disappear, but never for this long. He hadn’t answered my calls or texts, and his voice mail was full. No one on the ranch had any idea where he was, either. Weird. A strange chaos swirled around the property. He hadn’t left instructions. No one liked to guess what Walter wanted. It was a recipe for disaster. I punched code after code over his voicemail message, trying to open his mailbox. Hip to my game, he changed the password frequently. “She’s not a baby. And I don’t care what he does. He should at least have the decency to call.”

Connie rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to convince me you’re concerned about your husband.”

“It’s about respect.”  I wasn’t familiar with the emotions churning inside me. Something wasn’t right. And last night with Major skewed everything. I’d always felt like a visitor who’d outstayed her welcome in this house, but now my wolf was rumbling under my skin and she needed to run.