Running Free (18 page)

When she starts to sniffle, I stroke her back. I’m beginning to doze off when Cutie Pie yelps. Frankie scrambles out of my lap and soon she wraps up a sleeping human-looking Suzie in her blanket.

“Here, I’ll carry her. You get the guest bed ready and grab one of my T-shirts from the drawer. We’ll get her put to bed and then I have plans for my wild animal lover in bed later,” I tell her with a wink.

She smiles a bashful smile but it’s the most beautiful thing in the entire world. Twenty minutes later after we’ve tucked Suzie into bed with a very watchful Cutie Pie protecting her from the pillow next to her, we sneak into my bedroom.

Frankie peels her clothes off in a slow seductive way and I watch with a lopsided grin. God, she’s so fucking beautiful and all mine. I don’t give a rat’s ass if she’s a shifter. That shit doesn’t make sense in my head but having seen her physically transform, I can’t help but believe it. Earlier when we sat next to the fire pit, she’d voiced her concerns about accidentally shifting while we had sex. I told her I loved her no matter what and she could shift into a wall for all I cared as long as she still had a hole to put my dick into. She wasn’t amused. Truth is, I’d probably lose my head a bit if she shifted while we made love. I’m going to cross that bridge if we ever get there but certainly am not allowing the weird thoughts to infect my mind with worry.

This woman is mine. All the parts of her. The confusing, unusual, and utterly beautiful parts. All mine.

“You going to stare at me all night, or are you going to mark me, lover?” Her voice is thick with lust as she taunts me.

I make quick work of shedding my clothes and grab my aching cock to stroke it when she bends over the bed. She’s beautiful and her ass is fucking amazing. When she looks over her shoulder at me with a pouty
come hither
look, I nearly blow my wad. This woman is hotter than any
Playboy
magazine model I’ve ever whacked off to. And as exciting as it would be to fuck her “doggie style,” I’m not going to.

I can’t see her eyes.

With Frankie, I like to watch her emotions change the browns in her eyes from dark chocolate to swirls of caramel goodness. When she comes, those pretty lashes cover her emotion-telling orbs and her plump lips part in ecstasy. I’d miss all her expressions and right now, I simply don’t want to miss a thing.

I stride over to her and drag my cock along her wetness causing her to moan. My dick twitches to be inside of her so with a quick push, I enter her roughly. She cries out and fists the sheets, preparing for me to ram her. Instead, I pop back out of her and flip her onto her back. Those mocha-colored eyes find mine and she smiles. There’s relief in her smile — relief that she’s more to me than a great fuck.

Slipping an arm under her, I haul her up the bed and settle on top of her. Once I’ve guided my thickness back into her throbbing sex, I find her mouth with mine. We’re not even aware of our bodies as we kiss — we’re simply sharing our souls. Emotions and sensations are on high-alert as we make love. As I thrust into her, tangling my tongue with hers, I pray that wherever Mom is that she’d put in a good word for us.

Frankie deserves a happy ending and I want to be the one to give it to her.

“Gun,” she whimpers as her climax nears.

I kiss her deeply until she unravels in my arms. Her pussy clenches around me and I can’t hold back my own release. Once we’ve come down from our high, I snuggle into her hair and kiss her neck.

“You’re mine, hádanka.”

“It will always be you, Gunnar Mason,” she says with a happy sigh. “You’re mine too, you know. Sometimes I think it was you that imprinted on me, not the other way around.”

I chuckle at her words and lift up to look at her pretty face. “What exactly does this imprint entail? Does it mean you’ll be my sexual slave for life or my barefoot and pregnant housewife?”

She rolls her eyes but smiles. “No you, pig.” Her lips fall back down and she regards me seriously. “It means that I’ll never love another. That I’ll be one-hundred percent devoted to you. I’ll be yours in every sense of the word.”

The idea of her being completely mine for the rest of my years is a feeling I never want to leave my heart. Ever.

“I don’t need no imprint telling me that shit,” I tell her with a smug grin. “I knew you were mine the first time I saw you.”

And it’s true. From the moment I laid eyes on this woman, she snared me in her trap and tied her heart to mine. I willingly handed it over and don’t ever want it back. I’ll be happy spending my years with her doing whatever it takes to make her happy.

“Hádanka, give the old man a rest. He said he can feed himself.”

She shoots me a fierce glare that says
back off
but drops the spoon back into the pudding. I wink at her, causing her cheeks to tinge pink, and stand from the hospital chair. Strolling over to Otis’s bedside beside her, I put an arm around her waist and smile at him. “Looking better, Otis. Thanks for trying to save Suzie.”

His annoyed expression morphs into a happy one. It’s clear he loves Suzie like his own. He’ll make a great grandfather one day to our kids. My sperm may be terrible swimmers but I’m going to do anything in my power to make her a mom one day. Frankie is so good with Suzie and deserves more kids. I don’t care if we have to adopt the whole goddamned animal shelter — I’ll give her the family she deserves.

“You did all the work, Detective.” His voice is raspy but I can tell he’s strong and will make it through this eventually.

“I had a little help from my friends,” I tell him. “I’m just glad to see you’ll be okay.”

He smiles. “I’ll be just fine. They’ll probably let me out of here in the next day or two.”

The door pushes open and a tiny, mousy female nurse with dark hair streaked with grey pulled into a bun walks in. Her wide eyes are kind and she smiles at all three of us.

“Mr. Brock, how are you feeling?” she questions as she checks his vitals.

He winces with pain I’ve yet to see on him and I raise a speculative brow at him. The look he flashes me says,
just go with it.

“Oh, Sheila, I’m hurting. Thought I might need a little help in the bathroom though,” he replies, giving her impressive puppy dog eyes for an owl. “Last time you took such great care of me.”

She blushes at his kind words and sets to helping him get out of the bed. My eyes find the old man’s again and he winks at me. Bastard likes this nurse. Well good for him. I hope he goes for her.

“That’s our cue to leave, Otis. Be good,” Frankie chides, clearly sensing his duplicitous motives, “but not too good. Who needs a swan when you can have a mouse?”

I’m not sure what it means but I figure it’s shifter-speak for
go for the nurse
.

“Where is Suzie anyway? In school already?” Otis questions as he sits up.

Frankie groans and I chuckle. “Ugh, no,” she says in annoyance. “I left her with Luca. He’s a terrible fucking babysitter. We need to get back before he’s taught her how to maim small animals or some shit. Love you.”

The last part is blurted out with nonchalance and she heads for the door. I glance over at the old man who now has tears in his eyes.

“I love you, too, darlin’,” he assures her. “Always have. Always will.”

My heart is full but my belly is empty as we leave. “Want to stop off at the house and grab a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before we pick up the kiddo? Surely she can’t maim too many animals in an hour.”

Frankie giggles and throws herself into my arms. Her brown eyes dance with a happiness I’ve never seen exist in them. “Your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches always lead to wild, dirty sex.”

My eyes darken and I seize her lips with a kiss that promises more wild and dirty sex than she could ever imagine. “You like my sandwich and sex sessions.”

“Last time I ran away,” she says with a laugh, arguing my words.

I cup her cheeks with both hands and kiss her again. I’ll never get enough of this woman. “You can run all you want, hádanka,” I say with a growl. “But I’ll always catch you. You’re my weird little shifter and I love every complicated piece of you.”

She sighs and rewards me with a breathtaking smile. “I love you too, my uncomplicated human.”

Frankie

Several months later…

“And thank you for this beautiful family, Lord. We are so blessed to have come together. Amen,” Gun says.

As soon as the prayer before we dig into our Sunday dinner is over, I flit my gaze across the table over to my husband’s. His dark eyes swim with desire and I want to admonish him for having such lust-filled thoughts shortly after a heartfelt prayer. But, my heart flutters under his gaze, and I’m soon imagining all sorts of wild things I want him to do to me later. I’ve worked myself into such a frenzy that I’m about to drag him down the hall and into the laundry room to let him have his way with me.

“Woah, Frankie. Calm it with the love shit,” Luca grumbles from beside me.

Like he has room to fucking talk. He follows Casey around the whole damn town kissing her ass. At least Gun is my husband now. Casey is a fiancée… one he still hasn’t had the joy of taking the virginity from yet.

And just like I have to feel his teenage horny fantasies of taking said virginity, he has to feel me gushing with love over Gun. We drive the rest of the pack insane. They were happy to get rid of us for the afternoon so they could go act like animals and get some strange. Winston claims I’m turning him gay with all my sexual thoughts of Gun. I told him to stop dreaming about my husband’s dick or I’d cut his heart out. He’d simply laughed at me. Asshole.

“Stay out of my head, asshole,” I murmur to Luca low enough so Casey won’t hear. He plans on telling her one day that he’s a shifter, but he wants to seal the deal first and have a ring on her finger. I think the big bad wolf is afraid of Goldilocks. It’s good for him.

He laughs and I punch him on his massive thigh which throws Suzie into a fit of giggles. “Gramps,” she tattles to Otis, “Mommy and Uncle Luca are fighting!”

Scrunching my nose at her, I gasp. “Traitor! I’ll get you later when I’m reading you a story and the tickle monster comes out to play.”

She screeches and jumps out of her seat. Cutie Pie yaps at me from under the table, warning me to leave her alone, and I kick at him. Instead, my foot connects with Gun’s and heat creeps up my leg. When my eyes find his again, I can see he wants a washing machine quickie as well.

“Seems like Mommy needs a spanking,” Gun says with innocence.

Suzie giggles and agrees that I do while the rest of the table groans, knowing the double meaning.

“Okay, you animals. There’ll be no spanking in my house. Save that for when you go home,” Otis chides.

Sheila, the nurse he’d set his sights on in the hospital, grins from beside him. Turns out, she’s a Mouse shifter. And despite Otis’s claims you can only imprint once, he had no problems when she imprinted on him a few months after they started dating. They’ve been incredibly happy ever since.

“Did you hear back on your offer?” Otis questions.

My heart patters. We haven’t heard back yet but it looks promising. When the animal shelter went up for sale last week, Gun and I jumped at the chance to buy it. The place has potential to be more than just a place for unwanted souls. It could be a place to find sweet pets like Cutie Pie loving homes and shifters like Suzie a place to learn about who they are. Gun and I, with Otis and the Grey Lotharios’ help, can do this.

“Not yet,” Gun says. “But how are they going to say no to a cop and a pregnant lady?”

We all chuckle and I flash him a loving grin. Our realtor said offers weren’t exactly being thrown all over the place to buy the shelter so we’d probably have no problems buying the place. We’re holding onto hope that this time next month it’ll be all ours.

“Speaking of pregnant,” Gun says, interrupting the chatter as we all begin passing dishes around, putting delectable foods on our plate. “Frankie and I have some news for you all.”

I smile. They all know I’m pregnant. Gun and I were both shocked when I got sick not long after we started dating and I took a pregnancy test, only for it to show up positive.
Pretty much sterile my ass.
One little swimmer made it in there. The smug bastard’s been strutting around like a proud fucking rooster ever since. I’d like to say I was annoyed but I wasn’t. Both of us were surprised but happy that we’d have a child together despite the odds against us. Gun took me down to the courthouse the following weekend and made me his wife.