Wild Embrace (21 page)

“What bruises?” He'd felt nothing but pleasure, was still drunk on it.

Sitting up fully on him, she checked his abdomen and side regardless. “This one's going to turn a lovely shade of purple soon,” she muttered, petting the spot with a tenderness that made something deep inside him ache.

“I'm good,” he managed to get out. “It was worth it.”

“Wasn't it?” A bright grin before she touched his jaw to nudge his head to the side. “I marked you,” she said, her tone deeply satisfied. “Now everyone will know you're mine.”

He grew harder inside her, his skin stretching tight over his body and his heart hurting with emotion. That wasn't just sexual possessiveness in her voice, in her expression; it was the kind of bone-deep possessiveness he'd seen in Indigo's eyes when she looked at Drew. It said,
Mine,
and told everyone else to back the hell off. It also held a deep, deep vein of affection . . . maybe even of . . . love.

“I love you,” he said, taking a risk that could destroy him.

Desiree's face lit up. “I love you, too,” she said without hesitation.

It threatened to make his heart explode. But even with emotion crashing over him, never had he felt more content in his skin—he was a predatory changeling submissive and his lover's every word, every action, every smile told him he was perfect exactly as he was. Desiree, he knew with absolute confidence, didn't want him to change, would never see him as not enough.

“Mine,” she said aloud with another possessive smile. “Gorgeous mind, huge heart, a body built for sin, and deliciously talented hands.” A kiss punctuated each word. “And all of you is mine.” She pricked his chest with her claws.

He hissed out a breath. “What was that for?”

“Just staking my claim.” A narrow-eyed look but he saw the playful cat behind it.

Felix's lips curved in a smile that surely cracked his face. “All yours,” he said, his wolf daring to imagine what she'd do if he made the same blatant claim in turn.

When she leaned down to suck on the bite mark she'd made over his pulse point, he groaned at the raw pleasure of being touched by this woman who was his lover in every way . . . but his wolf was suddenly distracted by something even more powerful, even more primal.

Maybe it was a subtle change in Desiree's scent, maybe it was the way she looked at him with those feline eyes that were so affectionate and so delighted with him, maybe it was just visceral instinct, but his bones sang with a knowledge so beautiful that it gripped his heart and squeezed,
squeezed
.

“Felix?” Desiree raised
her head, her eyebrows drawn together over eyes glowing yellow-green. “What's the matter, baby?”

It was only then that he realized he'd gone motionless as his wolf tried desperately to calculate his next move. But he couldn't calculate. He was too fucking happy. “Now I
know
your cat likes me,” he whispered through a throat scraped raw with emotion.

Tilting her head slightly to the side, Desiree rolled her eyes. “Of course my cat likes you. Who do you think bit you?”

He smiled, feeling just a bit wicked. “Come here, cat. I want to pet you.”

Smile playful, she stretched out her upper body over him as they kissed. He couldn't stop grinning and when she raised her head, suspicion painted her expression. Nipping at his lips and jaw, she growled in the back of her throat. “You look like you have a secret.”

Grin even wider, he tried to flip them, was stopped by the senior soldier now scowling at him. He laughed. “You really hate not knowing, don't you?”

“Grr.”

“God, I
love
you.”

Her eyes shifted from cat to human. Nuzzling him affectionately, she allowed him to flip them this time, their ensuing loving
slow and deep and full of soft whispers. “Dezi?” he murmured when she was once more boneless in his arms.

“Hmm?”

Holding her gaze, he smiled again. “We're in the mating dance.” It was a changeling truth that the male always knew before the female so he could figure out ways to hold on to his wild mate, but until the dance had kicked in, Felix hadn't known if that would hold true for a submissive male paired with a dominant female. “Your cat
really
likes me,” he said as Desiree's mouth fell open.

“You sneak!” She threatened to claw furrows down his back. “That's why you had that smug happy look on your face.”

“Yes,” he admitted, smug and happy.

Wrapping his arms tight around her, his wolf in his eyes, he growled at her. “I'm going to catch you, cat.”

“Do your worst, wolf.” Slitted green eyes. “This cat doesn't plan on being easy prey.”

That was a serious challenge from a dominant female, but Felix was playing for keeps. “I never expect easy with you,” he said, dipping his head and biting her exactly where she'd bitten him, his wolf as possessive of her as she was of him.

And that wolf knew she'd permit the aggressive caress.

She did, her purr vibrating against him.

Now we dance.

•   •   •

Felix
was still dazzled and overwhelmed the next morning, his wolf ecstatic. But he also knew he had to push himself even more than he'd already done. Dezi wanted to be with him, but he had to win her, had to convince her cat their lifelong dance would be worth it.

He thought of what he'd seen his packmates do to court their mates. Drew with his tricks that had annoyed Indigo, then made
her laugh; Hawke throwing Sienna over his shoulder and carrying her out of a bar—though, admittedly, Felix wasn't sure Sienna considered that part of their courtship; Cooper with his messages and song requests on the packwide radio frequency.

All those acts had fit the man in question and the woman he wanted to claim.

The thing that would fit Felix and Desiree . . . it would take a little planning.

“Hi,” he said to Desiree that night, after meeting her at the end of her watch. “Want to go for a run?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You want to go for a run? After
ignoring
me the entire day?”

“Sorry. Busy day.” She had no idea. “We could run to your place.”

“Yeah, why don't we do that?”

Then she took off. This time, she wasn't playing—and she was
fast
. That was fine with Felix. He enjoyed tracking her . . . and thinking about the look on her face when she reached home.

•   •   •

Desiree
was steamed. There were
rules
to the mating dance. Well, okay, maybe there weren't actual rules. It was different for every couple. But if written rules had existed, the one thing the rule book would say in bright flashing neon letters was that
you weren't supposed to just ignore it
!

Her leopard snarled. It adored Felix, but right now, it could've cheerfully clawed him bloody. She wasn't expecting high romance, she thought with a stabbing pain in her heart. Felix knew she wasn't good with the girly thing, maybe figured she didn't really need any of the trappings of the dance. Her eyes burned. Stupid. He was amazing. Just because he didn't want to dance with her didn't mean that she should be angry.

Only she was. Really, really angry. And sad. Mad and sad . . . and home.

Breath coming in hard pants, she looked over her shoulder and realized she'd left Felix behind long ago. Great. Now he'd probably be angry about that. He'd never given any indication that he had a problem with the fact she was stronger and faster, but men could be idiotic about such things.

She thought about going back for him, but if he was mad, her return would just rub salt in the wound.
And
, she was still mad at
him
.

How could he just ignore the mating dance? He'd said he wanted her. He'd said they were going to play, that he was going to win her. Didn't he realize that he had to convince the leopard to be his? The human heart's love wasn't enough to bring the bond into being. The cat had to agree and right now, that cat was feeling as feral as the human woman.

Confused under the mad, she climbed up to her aerie, her nostrils flaring at the autumn and earth of Felix's scent. It was on her skin now, in her blood, in her home. But . . .

She frowned.

There were far too many scents emanating from her home, sweet and wild and unexpected, but she sensed no danger, heard nothing to say anyone else was nearby. Opening her door with care, she stepped inside . . . and yelped as something fell on her. It was soft and smelled pretty and it was red and pink and yellow and white and a hundred other colors.

Laughing, her leopard batting at the petals that were all over her, she waded her way through the thousands,
millions
of flower petals that filled the aerie. How had he even done this?! Utterly delighted, she fell back into the petals. There were so many that the scented carpet cushioned her fall, the velvety petals touching every inch of exposed skin. She wanted to be naked in them.

Heart giddy with wild joy, she shifted. The beautiful pain of the change rippled through her, her body turning into a million sparks of light before re-forming into the leopard who was her other half. That leopard pounced and played in the petals and, when it caught the scent of its mate, hid itself in the delicate forest.

“Desiree?”

The leopard pounced, taking Felix's big, muscled body down into the mass of petals. Laughing, he wrestled with her, his hands in her fur and yellow and peach-colored petals stuck to the mink-dark of his hair. “My wolf wants out,” he said a heartbeat before he shifted.

She watched him shift, didn't interrupt, and once the wolf shook its skin into place, they played again, tussling in the petals. The crushed softness released sweet, sweet scents into the air as the wolf growled and bit playfully at her throat. She growled back, pretending to claw him. He huffed in his throat.

They both shifted back at almost the same instant and Desiree found herself pinning down a gorgeous naked man with eyes of wolf-amber. “You liked it,” he said, his cheeks deeply creased.

Desiree nuzzled him in answer. She'd heard she was supposed to play it cool with some of the mating dance stuff, but she didn't want to play it cool. She wanted to lick him up like ice cream. So she flicked out her tongue, tasted him. “How did you get all these petals in here?” she asked, licking her way up his throat and along his jaw until she reached the firm but sensual curves of his mouth. She nipped his lips, met his gaze. “Tell me.”

“Nope.” Hands moving over her back to cup her ass, he squeezed. “I'm not done, either.”

Feeling all happy and bubbly inside, she growled at him again. “I can make you talk.”

“I'm tough.” He reached down between her legs, stroked.

A purr formed in her chest. Nuzzling Felix again, she sat up to
straddle him, this man who gave her romance, who danced with her. Claws out, she raked them lightly down his chest. He groaned, his hands once more on her ass. “Come here.”

“No. I'm going to torture you, make you tell me the details of how you did this.” Shifting lower down on his thighs, she wrapped her hands around his cock, stroked up then down.

Felix shuddered, muscles rippling. When his claws pricked her skin, her leopard prowled to the surface, her vision altering as her eyes semishifted. “So you think you can convince me to mate with you?” She caressed him with her hands again.

His breath caught, his hips pumping up into her grip. “Yeah,” he said, before doing something sneaky and unexpected that managed to flip her.

She fell into the petals, not having anticipated the maneuver from her submissive lover. Brushing the petals from her face, she said, “Where did you learn that?”

Coming down over her, his body braced on one arm, he kissed her and the kiss was long and soft and delicious. “I asked Drew to teach me a few things,” he said afterward, his hand firmly on her breast. “I figured I needed to get myself some tricks to deal with my mate.”

She ran her claws down his back, hard enough to bite. “I'm not your mate yet.”

“Just a matter of time.” That gorgeous smile back in full force, he bent down to scrape his teeth over her jaw.

Growling, she tussled with him, tumbling him to his back. He managed to get her under him again, their bodies rubbing against each other. The scent of arousal grew hotter, deeper, until the tussling was slower, her claws kneading his shoulders as she welcomed him into her body. His cock was thick and hard; the stretching sensation made her moan and wrap herself around him.

She held him close as they moved together, his breath mingling with hers and his skin sliding hot and a little damp over hers. She loved how he smelled, how he felt, everything about him. Her leopard was in full agreement, but she was a cat, wanted to play some more, wanted to see what else he had up his sleeve.

•   •   •

Felix
received more than a bit of gentle ribbing after people glimpsed his smile the next day—and especially when he stripped to go for a run and word got out about the claw marks on his back. Whistles sounded from his packmates, but he could handle it. As long as Desiree wanted to be his, he could handle everything.

Including a mating dance with a cat.

He thought of her smile the previous night, of the way she'd pounced so playfully on him, and knew he'd got it right. He'd surprised and delighted her. But the game wasn't over yet, wouldn't be over until he'd won her. So he found out her watch route and left her cake pops, sparkly bracelets made of faceted crystal, tiny chocolate sculptures, and other silly, fun things in secret places, then messaged her clues.

Her DarkRiver packmates accidentally found a few of the treats and, after figuring out what was going on, started turning up along her watch route to see what she'd discover next. Word spread to the wolves, and suddenly Felix had to avoid not one but
two
groups of nosy packmates when he went to hide the treats.

Then there was his mom, who beamed at him whenever she saw him, then tried to get him to confess his plans, and his dad, who slapped him on the back and said, “That's my boy! Showing these cats how to court a woman.”

His sister, meanwhile, teamed up with Drew and Sienna to distract packmates so Felix could slip away quietly to hide his surprises for Desiree.

As for Desiree's parents—Harry had taken his measure during a work shift, while Meenakshi had invited him down for a “little chat” that turned out to be more of an interrogation. Felix had liked Harry since their first meeting and, during the interrogation, he fell a little in love with fierce, protective Meenakshi. Apparently, he passed muster, because they'd smiled and wished him luck—then told him he'd need it with their independent and strong soldier daughter.

His courtship of Desiree had become far more public than he'd intended, but Felix found himself dealing with it without worry.

Because he had Desiree.

And he was going to keep his cat.

•   •   •

Desiree
bit into a cake pop with a goofy grin on her face. Felix had hidden this one high up in a tree. The climb had to have taken him forever, which made it matter all the more. Sitting on the tree limb, legs swinging, she suddenly caught his scent when the breeze shifted. She froze and, finishing the cake, walked very carefully through the canopy until she was almost right on top of him.

He was hiding something else, this time in the roots of a tree. She saw the hint of a sparkle before his body blocked it.

Her leopard grinned at having caught him.

Muscles bunched, she pounced. They went rolling to the forest floor, Felix's startled eyes looking up into hers as she stretched out on top of him. “You were meant to be in the other sector,” he said with a scowl.

“I know.” She'd swapped sectors with another soldier after deciding to see if she could find some of his hidden treats before he sent her the clues. “What did you hide for me?”

He gripped her hips. “Bad kitties don't get presents.”

Pretending to growl at him, she wiggled out of his hold and went to the tree roots. His gift was hidden in a small hole among the roots. It wasn't a necklace or a bracelet. No, it was a string of tiny sparkling beads meant to tie off braids. Her eyes burned at the beauty and perfection of the gift. “Where did you get this?”