Mating Rights (3 page)

“I mean you no harm!”
he said, his voice rusty through his dry mouth and throat.

“Liar!” she said,
straining against him with her last reserves of energy.

He felt her weakening
from her exertion. What fight she had left remained only in her mind. Her body
had given out.
He narrowed his eyes, tightening
his thighs around her waist to control her. The fact that he was naked gave him
no pause, but her quick, fevered glance at his body revealed she had not missed
the state of his dress.
Tension seeped from her
arms and legs. Her skin sheened with perspiration, tinged with the unmistakable
scent of fear.
Jaxon’s nostrils flared. His
mouth tightened into a hard line.

“Let me go,” she
demanded, quietly seething when he made no move to release her.

“Will you stop fighting
me?”

All expression dropped
from her face. She went stiff and still. “Yes,” she said, her tone carefully
controlled.

The long pause before
she answered made his hackles rise.

“I don’t know why, but
I don’t believe you,” he said, his voice sarcastic and edged with distrust.

She blinked rapidly,
her thick black lashes making her golden eyes appear innocent.

“Don’t even try that
shit on me,” he said. “You could have outrun me if you’d shifted. Why didn’t
you shift? You could have gotten away.”

She swallowed
convulsively, watching him warily. “I didn’t think about it.”

He felt a vein throb in
his temple. “Didn’t think about it.”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m
not used to being chased. Did you hurt my parents?”

He frowned. “I’m not a
monster. Alpha won’t allow his people to be hurt without cause.”

“Alpha?”

Did she know nothing of
pack law and rule? He understood sheltering a child from the harshness of
reality, but this was going a little too far. “Alpha Nicodemus, pack leader of
the Black Wolf Clan.”

“Oh. Yeah. Can I stand
up now? You’re making it hard to breathe.”

He watched her a long
moment and finally decided it was safe to allow her some measure of freedom. Hiking
his leg to the other side of her body, he stood, pulling her wrists as he rose
until she stood with him.

She twisted her arms,
her fingers wiggling as if her hands hurt. “You don’t have to hold me so
tight,” she hissed.

He bared his teeth in a
smile. “I wouldn’t want you to get away again. Why did you run?”

She lowered her eyes.
“I was scared.”

He clenched his jaw,
striving for patience. “Why were you hiding? Everyone knows all females of
mating age must attend mating rights. What makes you think you’re exempt?”

“My parents were
scared. And very protective.”

His voice dropped an
octave as his irritation rose. “You’re chock full of information. I’d hardly
call you a young girl.”

“Are you trying to insult
me now? You’re no spring chicken,” she said through a tight jaw.

“Insults will get you
nowhere with me,” he said.

She made no reply.

He ground his teeth and
tugged her wrist, pulling her along behind him as he strode back through the
forest to his waiting men. Her feet dragged in the dirt. “What’s your name? Or
are you too scared to tell me that too?” His limp was noticeable with the
activity.

“Mali,” she said, quiet
and meek as a mouse.
She didn’t fool him one
minute.

“Well, Mali, I’m Jaxon.
We’ll just forget that this ever happened. Your parents won’t be punished. You
won’t be harmed, but you have to come with me. Pack law demands every unmated
woman attend the Moonlight Festival for mating rights whether you want to go or
not.”

Glancing back at her
over his shoulder, he saw her hang her head. Thick, black, curly hair fell over
her forehead. Sticks and leaves clung to the clumpy curls from their struggle
on the ground.

“Most women are eager
to find a mate,” he said. “They don’t hide from it.”

“Do you have one?” she
asked, looking up at him.

“No. And I don’t want
one. Women are too much damned trouble,” he grumbled, limping through the woods
until he found his clothes.
Jaxon bent and
collected his clothing, eyed Mali, then decided he’d wait until he got back to
Ranger and Torolf before redressing. He didn’t trust that she wouldn’t bolt
back through the woods, this time as a wolf, while he had his pants down and
his ass in the air. He’d never live down the humiliation of allowing a slip of
a girl to get the best of him.

Reaching the clearing
where the cottage squatted, Jaxon felt annoyed to see Ranger and Torolf
chatting on their horses.

“Glad you made it
back,” Torolf said. He ran his gaze over Jaxon’s naked body. “Had to shift to
catch her, huh?”

He glared at Torolf’s
smirk then turned on Mali. “Don’t move,” he said, releasing her wrist to dress.

“She a lot of trouble?”
Ranger asked, looking relaxed and rested.

Jaxon snarled at him,
agitated. “Do I look like I wanted to just take a run through the woods?”

“Good for the heart,”
Ranger said, laughing.

Mali rooted to the spot
watching him slip his clothes back on. Behind them, standing on the porch,
waited her mother and father. They remained silent but watchful.
They knew they’d disobeyed pack law by hiding their
daughter from him. He should report them for punishment, but they were old and
might not survive what pack law handed down to them. Added to that, he didn’t
feel up to the hassle of restraining them. He had enough shit on his plate
right now. Jaxon didn’t feel up to having another confrontation right now, and
he’d won anyway. Getting one more female, even if it hadn’t been easy, was the
objective.

Jaxon snatched his
reins from Torolf. Turning to Mali, he grabbed her round the waist and lifted
her on top of his mount before joining her.

Mali’s back went rigid
against his chest. He wrapped an arm around her small waist then turned his
horse away from the cottage. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to suffer my touch
for long,” he muttered, feeling a strange sense of guilt as he watched her wave
good-bye to her parents. Her mother covered her face with her hands, visibly
weeping, while her husband hugged her chubby shoulders tight to his body.
For some reason Jaxon felt disturbed by the scene,
but chose to ignore the voice of doubt niggling inside his head.

***

Mali resisted her
impulse to ram her elbow into the stranger’s jaw, bolt off the horse, and take
off back into the woods.
He’d caught her, but it
didn’t mean she’d given up the fight. She’d chosen to submit until a more
opportune time arose when she could escape. Eluding three men on horseback was
a little much for her, even if she did know these woods like the back of her
hand. Their advantage in shifting was naturally stronger than hers. She’d never
be able to outrun three wolves.

“Loosen up or this is
going to be a rough ride,” he said behind her.

Mali remained stiff,
unwilling to relax against the hard muscles of his chest and belly. From the
look of his face, which had three ragged scars sliced across his cheek and
interrupting the left eyebrow, he was some kind of warrior. He was considerably
older than the other two males behind him, but that just meant he had
experience where they probably did not. It made sense given his rugged looks,
broad chest and shoulders, and the touch of silver threading through his long,
dark brown hair. His once aquiline nose had a crook in the bridge, as if it’d
been broken in a fight.
Whatever he was, he
wasn’t very good at healing. Either that or he’d lived a hard life fighting for
the clan. She didn’t want to imagine what circumstances had led to the state of
his body, only that she needed to be aware of the fact that he was experienced.

“Get this mop out of my
face,” he said, his voice dripping with irritation as he swatted her hair.

Mali flicked her hair
back in his eyes, smirking inside when he sputtered and spit her hair out of
his mouth.

“I’ll chop it off,” he
warned with a low growl.

“I lost my ribbon when you
tackled me to the ground,” she said through clenched teeth. “I don’t have
another one. I don’t have anything with me but the clothes on my back. I lost
my shoes…”

“You shouldn’t have
run.”

“You shouldn’t have
chased me. You have no right—”

“We’ve already
established I have every right.”

Mali gripped the pommel
of his saddle, fuming inside at his arrogance. “How am I or my family supposed
to know that? You broke into our house—”

He cut her off again.
“Your father let me in. But I would have come in regardless, it’s true. You
must be precious to them for them to hide you away like that.”

She sniffed, feeling
emotion swell in her chest. Tears sparkled in her eyes, and she blinked them
away. “I’ll probably never see them again.”

“Why would you say
that? It isn’t as if you’re facing an execution.”

She knew he had no idea
what she would face when the clan discovered she was a freak of nature that
could only partially shift into a wolf. Somewhere in her ancestry, human
tainted her blood. The knowledge was enough to sentence her to death, or
something worse. Her mother and father both carried the recessive trait. She’d
just been the unfortunate one to suffer. It was why they’d hidden her away from
the others, and why she could never attend this or any other mating festival.
For what clan member would want a woman who couldn’t run as a wolf with them
and would put their children at risk of being tainted as well.

“How would you know
anything? I’ve never been away from home.”

“I can tell,” he said.

“What’s that supposed
to mean?”

“Take it how you want.”
He remained silent a long moment before finally speaking again. “You can call
me Jaxon, you know.”

“Beast sounds like a
better name for you. Not that I care.” She wanted him to be quiet so she could
think of some way to get out of this and back home. They weren’t that far away,
not yet.

His arm tightened
around her middle. The edge of his palm skirted the underside of her breasts,
making her keenly aware of their differences. The foreign heat of a man’s touch
permeated the thin dress covering her skin. She didn’t like it. Mali wiggled
against him, uncomfortable at his grip on her waist.

“You got ants in your
pants? Hold still,” he grumbled.

Her wiggling had done
something to his lap. A blunt object poked the dip in her back, giving her an
idea that just might lead to her freedom.

“I’ll sleep with you if
you’ll let me go,” she said, feeling her face heat with embarrassment at her
suggestion.

“I’m not tired right
now. It’s still morning,” he said, feigning stupidity.

Mali sensed his tension
and played on it. She cleared her throat, feeling her heartbeat quicken for
some odd reason. She relegated it to her bold move. She just hoped the others
were far enough back they couldn’t hear her. She could handle sleeping with
one, just not three. “I…I mean…I’ll have sex with you. If you let me go, that
is.”

“How exactly would you
do that if I let you go? The first thing you’d do is go runnin’ back to ma and
da.”

He wasn’t making this
easy on her. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I’m nah interested,”
he said gruffly.

“What?” she asked,
flabbergasted at his refusal.

“You heard me. I’m not
interested in bucking someone willing to barter with their body. How do I know
you have nah done it before?”

If he’d been facing
her, she would’ve slapped his face despite the charming brogue he let slip.
“I’ll have you know I’m a virgin,” she said, her voice brimming with disbelief
and outrage.

“I’ve heard it before.
It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m following orders, ma’am. No sweet little brown
tail is worth losing my arse over.”

Mali gnashed her teeth.
Her grip tightened on the pommel until her knuckles paled and her joints ached.
She didn’t have enough experience to talk her way out of the hole she’d dug.
Her pride stung that he’d rejected her bid for her freedom. Her mother and
father had always ensured that she felt treasured and beautiful. That this man,
Jaxon, would arbitrarily dismiss her giving him her virtue was enough to
shatter her self-confidence.

“I think you’ll find
the others will keep you better company anyway. I’m sure you’ll feel more at
home with them than testing your wiles out on me.”

“Others?” she asked,
keeping her eyes trained ahead on the small trail.

Jaxon lifted his arm,
shielding her head from a low hanging branch that tried to snatch at her hair.
“The other women. We’re escorting them to the festival.”

As they passed beneath
the tree, Mali could see a balding giant of a man sitting on an open air bench
with his chin propped in his hands and the reins to a pair of plow horses
across his thick thighs. Behind him, white canvas stretched over the frame of a
wagon. Her ears pricked at the cacophony of female voices drifting through the
flimsy barrier.