Defying Pack Law (15 page)

“
So did you mean what you said,
though? Have you decided?” Nathan eyed her anxiously, and she could
see equal interest in John’s eyes.

“
That’s for me to know and you to
find out,” she challenged. Then she took off running.

* * * *

Nathan’s heart stuttered at her
declaration.
Is she finally ready to let
me claim her?

“
You go after her. I’ll meet you
back at the house,” John said. “Good luck.”

“
Thanks, man.” Nathan gave his
friend a respectful nod, but didn’t linger. He had a feisty woman
to catch.
Mine.
Nathan took off after Dana, and had to work to keep up because
she ran like the wind even on two legs. She gave no warning about
her intention to shift. One moment, she sprinted. The next,
clothing burst from her in tatters, and a golden wolf went bounding
off into the woods that were a part of the compound.

Damn, she’s gotten fucking good at
shifting.
Considering she’d lived alone for
the last twelve years, she’d mastered her wolf side better than
those who’d lived with it a lifetime. Nathan followed suit, his
clothes shredding as his muscles thickened and his bones reshaped.
He landed on four paws, his senses even more acute, and continued
to give chase.

He thanked the fact they were finally alone.
Maybe now he could plead his case with her, or even better, show
her without words how he felt. He followed Dana through the woods,
the exhilaration of the hunt making his blood pump. The towering
trees shaded them from the sunlight, but enough filtered through
the branches to lift the shadows.

The pack had managed to corral over two hundred
acres in order to provide a safe running ground. Not the ideal
solution for a species used to racing miles when the moon madness
hit, but at least they needn’t fear casualties from the rogues. The
forest ringed around the houses in the compound with a cleared
strip between it and the electrified fence.

As he bounded over the fallen logs and stirred
up the dead leaves, he thought over Dana’s claim she was his future
mate. He’d prayed and hoped for this day, and now that it appeared
on nigh, he didn’t want anything to fuck it up. So long as he was
her first, he could handle the rest. And besides, now that he’d
readjusted himself to the mind-set of sharing, he could admit that
the idea titillated him.

One step at a time. First I need to
mark her, then, along with my pack brothers, show her how it could
be.

His enhanced sight saw Dana, in the distance
ahead, burst free from the forest cover, and worried she might have
forgotten his warning about the fence, he poured on the speed and
shot out of the woods and stumbled in shock. He yelped as he lost
his footing and rolled in a tangle of limbs. He landed muzzle-first
on the ground.

Her laughter bathed him as he shifted back to
his human form and glared up at her in mock anger. Who could retain
any ire—or sense, for that matter—with her standing, glorious and
beautiful, in all her naked glory in front of the fence?

“
What happened to your modesty?” he
grumbled. The Dana he remembered had a thing about nudity in front
of others, even him.

She grinned at him saucily and planted her
hands on her hips, drawing his eyes from her face to the body she
proudly displayed. “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

And she did have it. Nathan drank in the sight
of her breasts, full and perky with light rose-colored nipples that
puckered as he watched. His cock rose as he further perused her
from her indented waist, to her flaring hips, and the curls that
hid her woman’s core. But even hidden, she couldn’t mask the scent
of her arousal.

“
Dana.” He took a step forward, and
the cocky woman disappeared for a moment, hidden behind the girl he
remembered who chewed her lip in uncertainty. She whirled from him
and gestured with her arms to the fence.

“
Holy shit. You weren’t kidding
about the fence. This must have cost a fortune to put in. How the
hell did you get the local human government to agree?”

Nathan didn’t want to talk. He was more
interested in the view of her heart-shaped ass and wondering how it
would look bent over. She threw him a look over his shoulder as she
waited for his answer.

“
The mayor for the township is a
dormant male from the pack. He pushed it through claiming we needed
it for protection from wildlife.”

The irony wasn’t lost on her. “That’s
hilarious.”

When Dana kept studying the fence, instead of
facing him, Nathan took the steps that separated them and folded
her into his arms, drawing her back into his body. She stiffened at
first, then relaxed.

Nathan rubbed his face against the top of her
head, breathing in her fragrance while his cock pushed hotly
against her back. Her body trembled slightly.

“
Is it stupid to be scared?” she
whispered.

“
Don’t be. I won’t let anyone hurt
you ever again.”

“
I wasn’t talking about rogues. I’m
scared of the whole mating thing. Scared that I’ll tie myself to
you, the others, and wake up and realize it was the wrong decision.
That I’ll get hurt or end up miserable like my mom.”

“
You don’t have to choose us
all.”

“
But the pack law—”

“
Screw it. I lost you once over it.
I won’t let it happen again.”

She turned in his arms and peered up at him.
“You’d defy the council’s laws for me?”

“
I would.” And he meant it. The
blinders of youth were gone. He’d achieved everything he wanted,
but without the woman he loved, it meant nothing. He was
nothing.

“
And if I choose to mate with others
and obey the law?” she asked tentatively, staring at a spot on his
bare chest.

“
Then I’ll share you. I ask only one
thing, though.”

“
What?”

“
Mark me first. Let me be the first
to claim you.”

Dana peered up at him and smiled. “I think that
could be arranged, although you do realize that it’s not the order
of marriage that decides the dominant male in the
relationship?”

The lead mate in a polyamorous grouping went by
dominance. As alpha, Nathan, no matter what order he was marked,
would end up lead mate.

“
I know. But, I want to be the first
to call you mine. The first to make you cry out in pleasure. The
first to tell you I love you.”

“
Do you? I’m not the same girl you
remember. I’m a lot more ruthless and violent than I used to be,”
she admitted ruefully.

“
You call it ruthless. I see it as
strength, the perfect attribute for the woman who will rule this
pack at my side as mate and wife.”

Her eyes brimmed, and she leaned up. Nathan
bent to meet her, his lips claiming hers. The touch electrified
him, and his already hard cock pulsed against her bare stomach. Her
arms twined around his neck, hugging him to her tightly, and he
returned her embrace, squeezing her nude body to his. The feel of
her skin against his drove him mad with lust.

It’s been so long . . .
so long since he’d buried himself in her moist
heat, the small taste of her passion the night before just a
teaser. He dragged his lips from the sweetness of her mouth and
down the column of her throat. She moaned as he nibbled her skin.
He didn’t linger. Too long had he dreamed of this moment. He let
his tongue lead the way to her breasts, and he circled her nipple,
teasing her so that she gasped. His hands cupped her bottom as he
bent her back. He leaned over her and took a nipple into his mouth,
sucking the shriveled berry. The smell of her arousal wafted up and
made him groan.

He switched breasts, torturing her other erect
nub with his mouth and teeth, tugging on it and then sucking her
globe into his mouth until she cried out and her fingers dug into
his shoulders, her nails biting him in a way that made his desire
rage fiercer.

With her bent backward and him folded over her,
it was kind of awkward. He dropped to his knees and nuzzled her
belly with his face. She clasped his hair.

His hands spanned her buttocks, and he squeezed
them as he moved his face lower to rub against her pubes, letting
her scent mark him.

Her thighs were clamped, and he pushed at their
seam, parting them enough to flick his tongue out to touch her
sex.

She moaned his name.

Encouraged by her response, he stroked her
again. “Part your legs for me, baby.” With trembling limbs, she did
as told, and he ducked slightly under her to open his mouth wide
over her damp lips.

She cried out, and her body buckled. He caught
her with the hands on her buttocks and supported her as he tasted
her. She was like honey on his tongue, and he lapped at her moist
core while inhaling deeply of her fragrance, a musky aroma that
made his cock strain and bob between his legs.

He found her clit with his lips and worked it,
relentlessly flicking his tongue against it back and forth, spurred
on by her tightening grip in his hair.

Her climax hit without warning. Dana wailed as
she bucked in his grasp, but he held tight and plunged his tongue
into her sex, enjoying the flexing of her muscles as she quivered
her release.

The shocks in her body subsided, and with one
last kiss to her cleft, Nathan went to his feet. He

kept his arms around her and smiled in
satisfaction as she gazed up at him with heavy lids.

“
Wow,” she whispered.

“
It’s not over,” he promised,
nudging her belly with his cock.

Her eyes widened, and a shiver went through her
body.

About to tell her to bend over, a rustling
sound from the woods behind them instead had him pushing her behind
him as he turned to face whomever approached.

A mottled wolf emerged from the forest, and
Nathan sighed as he recognized Jeffrey.

Jeffrey changed, and before he spoke, Nathan
knew his claiming of Dana would have to occur later.

“
The council needs to speak with
you.”

“
Race you back,” Dana said before
shifting behind him and springing forth with a yip.

Jeffrey watched her bound off and had the
decency to look chagrined. “Sorry. They said it was important, or I
wouldn’t have interrupted.”

“
I know. Did they say what it was
about?”

Jeffrey shook his head. “Just that they needed
to talk to you ASAP.”

Nathan wondered what they wanted. Only one way
to find out. “I better go, because if she beats me, I’ll never hear
the end of it.”

But, he’d underestimated Dana, for she beat him
to the house and blew him a saucy kiss as she strode in, stark
naked.

Nathan grinned, and his wolf yipped,
the anticipation of the night exciting them.
It won’t be long now until you’re mine.

Chapter
Twelve

Dana ran up the stairs to her room,
her brave immodesty of moments ago a sham to drive Nathan
wild.
And it had worked.

Twelve years of abstinence had turned her into
an instant wanton, it seemed. Now that her sexual floodgates had
opened, she couldn’t seem to stop the flow of emotions and desires
swamping her. Nor did she want to. How she survived all those years
in her sterile, lonely world, she didn’t know. She did, however,
realize she could never go back, not if she ever wanted to find
happiness.

And she had three men to thank for that, John
with his calming presence and fleeting touches, Kody with his
ribald humor and bold flirtation, and Nathan with his dominating
presence and touch. Just remembering the way he’d pleasured her out
in the open made her nipples tighten and her sex flood with
moisture.

What a shame about the interruption. Seeing
Nathan so aroused, because of her, made her want to go find him and
drag him back to the room to continue what they had begun. But a
quick glance at the clock showed the dinner hour approached, and
she didn’t want to shove it in John and Kody’s faces that she and
Nathan had become intimate. Besides, she looked forward to seeing
all of them.

The hot sex and marking that would signal the
beginning of her new life as part of a pack again could wait until
later. The anticipation was sure to be a titillating foreplay of
its own.

She showered with a smile on her face, her
hands slickly stroking her body as she recalled the afternoon’s
tryst. When she came out, horny as hell, she saw bags heaped on the
bed, along with a lounging Kody.

Dana clutched her towel around her and cursed
her straggly, damp hair state.

Kody grinned. “Hmm, wet, just the way I want
you.”

She blushed at his innuendo, but her body,
already aroused, responded to his words with a quiver.

“
I bought all the stuff you asked
for,” he said, gesturing to the bags. “I also picked you up a
couple extra things, like a few dresses and shoes.”