United (The Ushers) (8 page)

Mated.

Fionn had never known anything like it in his entire life. He felt a wave of awe that she had survived losing her first mate, and he kissed the back of her neck again.

“Robert would be happy for us.” Monica smiled up at him.

“I know,” Fionn replied. “I’m grateful to him.”

“I sensed that.” She giggled a dreamy little laugh. “I’ve been alone so long, I thought maybe I’d imagined how perfect this feels. Being with my mate. Feeling you in my heart brings back so many happy memories of that time.”

“It’s okay, love. I understand. Through this metaphysical mojo we got going on.” He traced the outline of his bite on her skin. “I understand everything now. I’m sorry the last five months…”

“The last five months are the past. We…together like this…are the future.” She stopped him with a finger against his lips. “Tonight, I want to sleep in my mate’s arms and dream about happy things, not the past.”

Chapter Eight

M
ONICA
A
WOKE
W
RAPPED
I
N
F
IONN’S
A
RMS
, the memory of making love with him burning in her. She rolled to face him and studied his face in sleep. In spite of his lush beard, Fionn looked quite young in sleep, his strong features softened by dreams, his hair tousled. Watching his pulse beating in his throat, Monica felt a wave of tenderness washed over her. She had, for so many years, known she would mate again. She remembered her first mate fondly but still had been unprepared for how strong the bond would be when it took her again. Had her mating with Robert even been this strong? Maybe not, as she herself hadn’t been this strong back then. What if it took losing her first love and forging a new life to be worthy of this wild, charming man in her bed?

“Mmmm you’re awake.”
She heard Fionn in her head, felt the bright clear touch of his mind.

“You, too?”

“Almost. Is it morning?”

“No. It’s still night,”
she reassured him.

“Run with me?”
She could feel his love pulsing through their bond like a living thing.

“Yes.”
She sat up and stretched, then watched as he rolled out of the bed, eyes still closed.

“I used to run to be alone,” he whispered, scratching his chest absently. “Now I want to run with you more than anything.”

“Let’s do it.” She took his hand and led him to the elevator. He smiled a sleepy smile at her, and she blushed.

“I like you naked.” He grinned. “You blush everywhere.”

“Don’t tease me, Fionn Murphy. I’m a big tough Alpha.”

“You’re my big tough Alpha, with the cutest little brown nipples that turn red when you blush. And look how hard they’re getting just from the attention.”

He caught his lower lip between his teeth, and her knees buckled. The elevator doors opened, and he swept her inside, nibbling at her ear.

“Have you ever?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What? In an elevator? No.”

“You live in a library with your own private elevator, and you’ve never done it in here?”

“No! Are you kidding? Who would I screw in the elevator?”

“Me.” He grinned.

She rolled her eyes. “Okay, yeah, but not right now.”

“How come?” He actually looked hurt for a split second before he caught her reasoning.

“Because you need to claim me as a wolf, too. I want that, now.”

“Yeah?” He looked surprised.

“Yeah. It completes the bonding. Didn’t you know?”

“I had no idea.” He frowned for a moment and then grinned. “I like being mated.”

She threw her head back and laughed as the elevator doors opened.

As soon as they were outside, they shifted and began to run. Monica felt Fionn’s presence in her and around her as she bounded toward the woods, with him right at her heels. She realized that he was as fast and strong as she, and she didn’t need to hold back, so she stretched her legs and really ran, the ground flying beneath her feet.

“Fuck yes!”
His joy rolled through their link as he sped up, too.

She’d never met a wolf who could keep up with her before. She’d always held back. The freedom of really, truly, running all-out was something she hadn’t felt since she was barely more than a pup. Even Robert hadn’t been able to match her speed. Her heart was pounding and her lungs were burning, and it was the most amazing thing she’d felt in years. When she’d finally exhausted the novelty of the speed, she slowed and came to a stop, watching her mate do the same.

They stood for a moment, nose to nose.

“That was…amazing.”
Monica touched her gray muzzle to Fionn’s black one and rubbed her face along his, melding their scents together. When she presented herself to him, she felt his uncertainty.

“I’ve never…”

“It’s okay. Just follow your instincts.”

Taking her fur between his teeth, Fionn made love to his mate as a wolf, and both felt their bond strengthening. Afterward, they lay together under a big tree and let their human sides shift back. She held his head in her lap, stroking his beard.

“So, when are you going to tell me about Tavis Kirk?” she asked.

“I didn’t think we’d talk about it naked in the woods, in the middle of the night, I can tell you that.” He grinned up at her, teasing one nipple with his fingers.

“What better time?” Her face was serious. “Tell me.”

“He only has one leg. He sits alone in his bed, no wheelchair to be seen. He’s a libertarian, a Christian—” her eyebrows shot up when he said that “—and I think he might be at least a little bit crazy.”

“Interesting. I’ve never heard of a Christian wolf before.” She frowned. “So, not an ally in the cause, then?”

“To unite wolves under one leadership and restore the Goddess? No, not his scene.”

“So, he’s the head of the whole southeast?”

“This is where it gets weird. He bared his neck to me—he pretty much had to. He was lying in bed and he’s only got one leg, and I just sort of let loose on him. I felt his brothers in him—one was there, but the other…not. I felt a few other wolves, but it seems the pack there isn’t really connected to each other. The loyalty I felt in them was not so much to him—but their God. And they aren’t strong, like Mid-A or Amazon. Their bonds to each other are superficial, not like family ties. I didn’t feel mate bonds, or parental bonds. Nothing solid.”

“Oh boy. So, they have no real leader? So you have to hunt them down and woo them all one at a time?”

“Goddess, I hope not. Annie wants to research the history of Appalachia to see what exactly is going on down there. It could be that the pack is divided into smaller, rogue packs. I just didn’t get a feel of ‘Pack’ from Kirk and his brothers.”

“Okay, we’ll follow Annie’s lead on this, then. I trust her. Fionn, when you go, I’m going with you.”

“But the pack…” He frowned.

“I’m going to sever, Fionn.” She said it calmly, carefully, as if it were the most mundane thing in the world.

“Mo, it’s very lonely, being unaffiliated. I don’t want you to give up Amazon for me.”

“You’re such a sweetheart, mate. Listen, you and I have a mutual destiny. Unification. I’m gaining more than I’m giving up. Besides, Bianca will be a fantastic Alpha. She’s smart, strong, very fair-minded, and an easily recognizable figurehead. I can’t think of anyone who would handle it better.”

“What about Jackie?”

“Your brother has no desire to be Alpha. He’s a damn good Guardian—as good as Bianca—but he doesn’t want the top spot. He hates politics.”

“You’ve really thought this out.” His brow furrowed. “I’m different, Mo. I can feel all of them, my wolves. I don’t know if you’ll be able to feel them, too.”

“I can,” she said, smiling at him. “When we mated, I felt all your connections. That’s why your mind is so bright when it touches mine. It’s all those wolves. I never realized it before. You have all of Amazon, all of Mid-Atlantic, Kirk and his brothers, all the packs that were at that awful council where we were ratified. All those wolves are in you, and now they’re in me.”

“You
can
feel them. That’s great.” He grinned. “Well, that spares me the severance guilt-trip. There’s another connection there, too, of course.”

“Oh yes, I feel her, too. She’s asleep.” Her mind brushed Annie’s in something very like a caress, and she felt a sleepy purr rumble back through the link.

“Ah, she likes that.” He smiled. “She is really happy for us.”

“It’s a little redundant, feeling her and you describing it, you know.”

“Old habits die hard.” He paused. “Mo, there’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

She saw Devon in his mind, felt a pang of sadness.

“You told the kids.”

He nodded. “Dev didn’t take it well. Annie said they needed to know.”

“Well, the Guides tend to know when something is inevitable. It’s happened for a reason.”

“You’re not mad? I’ve exposed us.”

“You didn’t expose us. You shared a family secret with your kids. It’s done.” Her eyes met his, and she shrugged. “Seriously, Fionn, don’t let it take up valuable brain property.”

He traced the outline of her lips with a finger. His thoughts rolled through their connection—love, lust, wonder. He was still reeling from the impact of their mating. But it was a good kind of wonder, almost giddiness.

She felt the same and named the feeling: love drunk.

“Love drunk.” He grinned before tugging her down for a kiss.

She let her tongue slide slowly into his mouth, teasing at him. Running her hand along his chest, she felt his nipple ring and gave it a gentle tug. His gasp made her smile into his mouth, and then she nibbled down his jaw to his chest. She kissed the bite mark that had healed over his heart, leaving a brand-like scar. She felt his groan rumble up through her lips as she sucked the nipple, ring and all, between them.

“Don’t ever stop touching me.”

“I never will,”
she promised, running one hand down his thigh and then back up to grip his erection in her hand.

His eyes closed, and his mouth fell open as she explored him, learning him with her hands, the softness of his skin over the hard heat of his erection, the way his shaft was actually wider than the tip, the veins pulsing around him. She learned the taste of him and the way he liked to be stroked, and when he fisted his hands in her hair to guide her movements, she groaned around him.

He tugged her up to him gently, sitting her astride him. As she sank down on him, they both sighed in satisfaction at the sensation of being complete. Leisurely, she rode him, stroking his hair, his beard, every part of him she could reach while his fingers teased at her clit. When their tempo became more urgent and she started to tremble, he took her hand and bit into her palm, smiling in satisfaction as his bite took her over the edge and she shuddered her fulfillment around him. When her shudders subsided to small tremors, she returned the gesture, sinking her teeth into his hand and watching his head fall back and his muscles tense in exquisite pleasure. Tasting him in her mouth, his culmination was the most beautiful thing she’d ever witnessed. She felt his pleasure sweep into her soul, and she bared it to him, feeling his wonder as he shook in her arms.

“Mo…” he breathed her name reverently, and his eyes half-closed in a decidedly lupine way.

She grinned down from where she perched, his body still inside hers, and tickled at his beard, just needing to touch him.

“We should get back.” She loathed to separate herself from him.

He sat up, holding her tight to his chest, smoothing his hand down the tumble of black hair that surrounded her shoulders. She felt a curious protective bent in him. She could tell that within his human exterior, his wolf paced nervously. A little whine slipped from between his lips. She met his eyes with a sad smile.