Redeemed: True Mates Book 4 (BBW Wolf Shifter Romance) (A Craggstone Paranormal Romance) (3 page)

Visions of wrapping it around my hand while I sank into her body crowded my mind. Her pink lips parted in a perfect ‘o’ as I started to thrust, her back arched, ass thrust high, accepting all of me.

Now I was the one who needed a drink. I busied myself grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, setting one on the counter for her. Twisting the lid off, I took a long swallow.

Her eyes followed the movement of my throat, her tongue darting out, wetting her lip.

It took every ounce of willpower I had not to stride over to her, not to pull her against me and steal a kiss.

Despite myself, I took a step forward, lurching to a stop when I locked my knees in place.

Wolf, dammit!

“Can you
please
tell me what you want from me?” My voice was a husky growl, reminding me of the animal inside, the animal I didn’t let out to play. The one I ignored, wishing that he’d just disappear and cease to exist.

This wasn’t good. Not good at all.

“We need your help—”

“You said that. What with?”

“Your old pack.”

I flinched. I couldn’t help it. I had put the past behind me and moved on, but it looked like it was trying to claw me back one last time.

“I don’t have anything to do with them. Or any shifters. I live as a human now.” I didn’t bother to soften the words or the message they delivered. I wasn’t going back there.

Her lips formed that perfect ‘o’, the one straight out of my fantasy.

She pursed her lips. “We need to find Bert; he’s a wolf shifter and we’re pretty sure he’s running the Sunclaw Pack. Problem is, we don’t know where the Sunclaw Pack is—but
you
do.”

I turned my back to avoid her pleading eyes. “I can’t help you. Sorry,” I added as an afterthought.

“He’s a really bad man and has hurt some of my friends. Even worse, he terrorized a whole pack, and you can bet that’s what he’s doing to Sunclaw, too!”

I spun around, not bothering to hide my anger. “Sunclaw isn’t being terrorized. They are a
part
of the problem. Don’t you see? They don’t want to be saved!”

She took a step toward me. “Bert hurt my pack. He hurt my friends. He needs to be stopped.”

“You okay in there?” a deep voice filtered through the door.

I shuddered, the feral urge to assert a claim over Macey surging through me. “Don’t let him come in here, not unless you want a fight on your hands,” I murmured, my voice strained, my hands gripping the slick countertop.

She tilted her head, eyeing me carefully, like you would a scared or wounded animal. “Everything is fine, Cole,” she called out, her eyes never leaving mine, before continuing in a lower voice. “Will you help me, please? If you can’t, or just plain won’t, tell me now so I can stop wasting my time. Hell, I don’t even know if you have a clue where they are!” She threw her hands in the air, her whole demeanor sparking with frustration. “You’ve been living as a human for how long?”

“Over twenty years.”

“
Fuck!
” she hissed, her eyes growing round in shock. She took another step closer, and it was as if the air had been sucked out of the room, her scent surrounding me, clawing at me, pulling me in.

“Don’t—”

“You must shift. I mean, why wouldn’t you? That would be just—”

“I don’t shift. Not anymore.”

Another step closer, then another.

My legs strained with the need to move, my whole body demanding to touch, to feel. A whisper in my mind, so long silent I didn’t recognize it at first.

Mine!

The animal. The coyote, awake again.

CHAPTER THREE

Macey

He was eyeing me like a dog might eye a juicy fillet steak. A dog that had been starved for years, or maybe living on dry kibble.

His eyes that had previously been a pale, icy blue had darkened to a deep violet, flickering and streaking with different hues of purple. I had never seen anything like it; they were mesmerizing in their intensity.

Heat radiated between us, pooling and circling, the current tugging me forward.

“Don’t—” he repeated, his voice hoarse, but it had no strength. It was a lie.

My hand rose, acting as though it had a mind of its own, hovering above his arm in indecision. What was I doing? I needed this man’s help, not his body. I pulled my hand back abruptly, telling myself that I was thankful that I had not made contact, not touched his skin, not felt the strength of his body.

In a whirl of motion, he grabbed me, dragging me against an incredibly hard chest, his lips mashing down on mine, swallowing my gasp of surprise. Towering over me, he tilted me back, strong arms supporting me easily as he moaned into my mouth, his tongue darting out and licking at my lips.

“Yes,” he hissed, deepening the kiss a little further, exploring my mouth with what felt like reverence.

For the first time in my life, I felt small and delicate. My body that I had desperately tried to hone through hours of physical torture, that I had secretly hated for retaining all the soft curves, fit perfectly against his. Molded perfectly. Ached, tingled,
burned
for him.

I could feel the thick length of him against my stomach, hard and ready for action. Heady lust ricocheted through me, leaving me wet and panting, squirming in his arms, practically begging for him to take me.

“Uh, you still all right in there, Mace?”

I stiffened at the sound of Cole’s voice, the barely contained sarcasm coating his words. Of course, with his shifter hearing, it wasn’t like he
couldn’t
hear what was going on.

The moans, the gasps. The groan that Jason made when I pulled away.

“You’re my mate!” he muttered, half to himself, his eyes closing in what looked like shock.

Shit!
That explained a few things. Like why I felt like I was permanently in heat since laying eyes on him. Why I wanted to wrap my legs around him and ride him until we were both spent. My
true mate—
a coyote
.
Well, that was a kicker.

“Probably,” I agreed, taking a step back, putting some distance between us, even though it felt like pure torture.

His hands reached out for me, and I scooted back another step. “Whoa there! Whether we are or not—”

“We are.” His mouth was set in a thin line, his eyes daring me to deny it.

“It doesn’t matter at the moment. I have to finish what I was tasked to do—find the Sunclaw Pack and report back to my Alpha.”

“Let me guess, a local wolf pack, the Alpha of the Colstone Pack?” His words were a sneer.

“Yeah. James Colstone. Do you know him?”

“No. I met his father, though. Briefly.” His face had shut down, his expression impassive.

From steamy hot to ice cold in seconds. Steamy hot Jason had wanted to tear my clothes off. Ice cold Jason showed no emotion, except maybe disgust. The man was messed up! “I heard about that. He gave you a second chance, told you to go back to your pack and carry his warning?”

“And I did. But when I got back, carrying my dead Alpha’s body, I was punished and beaten. You see,
I
should have died for my Alpha.
I
shouldn’t have been allowed to live.”

“But…who? Your Alpha—Marcus—was dead!”

“Marcus wasn’t the brains behind the operation. There had always been someone else working in the shadows. I met him that day. The day he killed my family for my disloyalty. Demonstrated to everyone in the pack what was expected of them.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. But I do know he was a wolf. One wolf killed my family, the other killed my Alpha. Both sentenced my family to death.”

“It must have been Bert, even back then.”

“Maybe. It doesn’t matter. Not now.”

“What do you mean
it doesn’t matter
? You just told me he killed your family!” The man was infuriating! Not thinking straight, I shoved him in the shoulder, just like I would do with any of the packmembers that were pissing me off.

“Don’t push me, little wolf,” he growled, his eyes flashing back to violet, his accent deepening.

I squared up to him, or tried to, given that he was a fucking giant. “Or what? You’ve admitted you don’t shift anymore. That you’ve turned your back on all shifters, on our way of life. Just what are
you
going to do to me?”

“I could do lots of things to you. Things you would plead me for, beg me not to stop—”

“You are so full of—”

“Do you want me to show you? Right here and now? Because I can. You just need to ask…”

I let out a squeal of frustration, spinning on my heel and stalking away. I was shaking, every inch of me trembling. The problem was, he was right; I was seconds away from begging him to take me back in his arms, to show me exactly what he could do with that huge body of his. To turn me into a puddle of lust, wiping away all duties and responsibilities.

I had thought the day I found my true mate I would be ecstatic. Not bouncing back and forth between frustration and
quick-how-fast-can-I-get-my-clothes-off
lust. I also hadn’t counted on him being a coyote, or a loner.

I needed to clear my head. Maybe getting away from him for an hour or so and getting his scent out of my nose would help. I started toward the door, not looking back.

In mere seconds he was in front of me, blocking my path. “Where are you going?”

“Move out of the way,” I growled, flexing my fingers in frustration. He was just too damn close. Too tasty looking.

“I said, where are you going?”

“Out. Away from you.”

“Why?”

“What’s with the twenty questions? You said you didn’t want to help, so now I need to come up with another plan.”

He frowned, and unfortunately for me, it didn’t make him look pig ugly—just the opposite.

“How do you deal with it?” I wondered without thinking, the words flying from my lips.

“With what?” His brow scrunched even further, and I had to mentally strap my hands to my sides to keep from tracing the furrows with my fingers.

“The attention you must get, you know, looking like you do.”

“By ignoring them. That’s the only way. I didn’t ask to look like this, so…
unusual
. Or so tall.”

“Or big,” I added, just in case he hadn’t looked in the mirror recently. “You could shave your head,” I suggested, hating the idea already. My fingers already itched to stroke through the icy white strands.

“Tried it. Didn’t work. In fact, it made me even more
unusual
looking.” He sneered the word, as though it was a curse.

“Why do you keep using that word?
Unusual.
”

“Because that’s what I am. A freak of nature.”

“You’re fucking gorgeous! That’s why people stare!”

Blue eyes blinked at me, no hint of deception or self-deprecation in sight. He really didn’t know.

I poked him in the chest. “Do you own a mirror?”

He nodded, pointing at his chin, then moved his hand in a sweeping motion, mimicking shaving.

“Well then.” I folded my arms across my chest, waiting for the thunderbolt to strike. And waited, then waited some more.

Eventually he shrugged, holding his hands out. “I just see me. The same me I’ve seen every day since I was a child. Just a little bigger.”

A sharp rap sounded on the door behind me. “Listen, this is swell and all. I’m sure you lovebirds have plenty to talk about, but can we focus on the task at hand for a minute? What we actually came here to do? I’m getting pretty bored sitting out here, though I have ordered pizza and it’ll be here in five, just so you know.”

“Can he come in now?” I muttered, then called out to Cole, “Keep your hair on. We’re just negotiating.”

“Negotiating when you take your clothes off, more like,” Cole grumbled under his breath, knowing full well I could hear him.

“Is he always like this?” Jason asked, flicking his eyes to the door.

“Always. Cole’s like a
brother
to me.” Hint—not competition,
so let him come in, caveman
.

Jason hesitated, and I could tell that he didn’t like the idea. Not one bit. Then he nodded, taking a step back.

I pulled the door open and Cole sauntered into the room, brushing past Jason then slouching down onto the couch. “So, what’s the deal then? You going to help us or not? Because, Mace, if he’s not going to, then we need to get out of here.” He jerked a thumb toward the door, his face set in determined lines.

Jason turned to me, giving Cole his back. “You don’t have to do this anymore, not now.”

“Now, what?”

He flicked a finger between us, swirling it in the air.