Wolf and Punishment (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 1) (7 page)

“Seriously?” she’d asked. “Even if it’s a rom-com?”

He shrugged. “Whatever you want, baby. Long as we get a big bucket of popcorn, I’m cool.”

Yes, he certainly was cool. And she sensed he wasn’t just being gracious for the sake of being gracious. He seemed to honestly enjoy spending time with her, even out of bed. After the movie, he insisted on taking her out to a nearby diner for hot chocolate and dessert, where they’d discussed the film she’d chosen, a dramedy about two superheroes going through a divorce, at length. Though they disagreed on the ending. Janelle had left the theater feeling a little sad that the couple hadn’t been able to work things out with each other, despite successfully vanquishing a super villain together at the end of the movie.

But Mag said, “I’m glad they got divorced. There ain’t nothing worse than two people who stay together after their marriage goes to shit.”

She peeked at him over the rim of her hot chocolate. She had the feeling he was speaking from personal experience. “Do you... um… wish your parents had gotten a divorced before they died?”

His eyes went to a shadowy place. “You know that wouldn’t have happened. We wolves mate for life.”

“But it’s no longer illegal to divorce. The Lupine Courts even hear custody cases these days. I mean, it doesn’t happen all that often, but it happens a lot more than it used to.”

He shook his head. “Not in Freedom Town. They’re not even trying to hear about divorce there. You got dudes still fighting to the death over the right to claim a unheated girl. And once they’re mated… well, let’s just put it like this: we don’t consider ‘til death do us a part’ an alternative. The only way either of you is getting out of your marriage is if one of you dies.”

“Wow,” she said. “That’s ironic, because you call it Freedom Town, but it doesn’t sound like you’re all that free once you get married.”

He turned his eyes to his plate. “Yeah, when I finally lay down my pledge, believe me, it’s going to be for life.”

Whoever he mated would be a very lucky girl, she thought. Jealousy sparked through her veins at the thought of some other girl in his bed, receiving his kisses, carrying his pup inside her belly.

“That will probably be a hard lifestyle adjustment for you after all the girls you’ve…” What did Kenny say? “…hooked up with.”

He grinned at her. “You jealous?”

“No,” she answered. Too quickly to be believed, she knew.

And his grin grew even wider. “That’s too bad,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind you being jealous. I wouldn’t mind that at all, yeah?”

He made her want to kick him under the table. He also made her want to kiss that smug look off his face, right here in public. The fact was, Mag Lonewolf made her want to do a lot of things a princess shouldn’t do, including take a hold of his hand as they walked back to the hotel room.

Which was a mistake. A huge mistake.

As they passed the movie theater, a voice called out to the right of them, “Hey, Lonewolf! What’re you doing over on this side of town?”

Then before she could stop him, Mag stopped and turned toward the voice, putting her in complete view of Kenny, the Wyoming prince’s soon-to-be beta.

7

M
AG would have said Janelle dropped his hand like a dead fish, but he was from a pack that had true respect for the meal a dead fish could provide. No, he’d say she dropped his hand like a dead rat. Like he was a dead rat she’d been caught doing things that you shouldn’t be doing with a dead rat.

The she-wolf he’d been making love to all day disappeared, and the morning show hostess came back with a one hundred megawatt smile.

“Oh, hi, Kenny! How’s it going?” There was nothing in her voice to say that them running into someone they both knew was anything less than a pleasant coincidence. “Are you going in to see a movie?”

“Yeah, I’m here to see a movie. What are you up to?” Kenny looked from her to Mag then back to her again. There was a small human by his side, a blonde wearing a zip-up CCD hoodie over a pink dress, which explained why Kenny was at a movie theater in downtown Denver. The Community College of Denver’s campus was just up the street. The human’s presence also meant Kenny wouldn’t be able to talk openly about certain stuff—like him, Janelle, and Mag all being werewolves.

A fact Janelle took full advantage of. “Oh, I was in town again and decided to go see a movie, and wouldn’t you know it, I ran into Mag here as I was going into the movie theater! I guess he came over here because the movie he wanted to see wasn’t showing near campus.”

“Oh yeah, which movie is that?” Kenny asked Mag, his voice tight.

Kenny, Mag knew, was from a rich Wyoming family, and had already been handpicked by the Wyoming prince to be the guy’s beta when he graduated. From what Mag could tell, all those rich wolves seemed to know each other before they got to Denver University, so he wasn’t surprised Kenny knew Janelle. And by the way he was looking at Mag right now, he could tell the brown-haired wolf didn’t think his poor ass had any business sharing any kind of company with her.

It made Mag’s blood burn hot with frustration and rage. Where did Janelle get off lying about them running into each other? And where did Kenny get off questioning him about her cover story like he was the fucking Lupine P.D.?

But he could practically feel Janelle pleading with him to play along behind her fake unicorns-and-rainbows expression.

“
Luminous Beings
,” he answered, the name of the superhero indie now a sour taste in his mouth, even though he hadn’t been lying to Janelle when he told her he’d really enjoyed it.

Kenny’s eyes narrowed. “You came over here to see
Luminous Beings
by yourself?”

“Sure,” he answered, holding Kenny’s gaze. “It’s got superheroes in it, don’t it? I wouldn’t have minded if it had some more action scenes, but it was all right.”

“What are you and your friend going to see?” Janelle asked, sounding like she was going for gold in the Being Fake Olympics.

Kenny answered with the name of an action flick but his eyes stayed on Mag. “So you guys ran into each other in the movie theater? Then what happened after that? You got something to eat?”

“Just dessert at a diner Mag knew,” Janelle answered. “And now he’s walking me to my hotel before he heads back to campus to meet up with a girl. So sweet of him! I really appreciate it.”

“I can walk you back,” Kenny said, stepping forward.

Janelle shook her head. “No, I’m already delaying Mag from his date and I couldn’t possibly rip you away from yours just because I’m a little neurotic about walking at night by myself in a big city. That would be so rude!”

“It’s okay,” Kenny said. “She can wait.”

“Naw, I got it man,” Mag said. He ended the conversation by walking off. “See you later, K. C’mon Janelle,” he called over his shoulder, like he was just doing what she said and couldn’t wait to get back to campus to hook up with his imaginary date.

He didn’t look back to see Kenny’s reaction, but soon enough Janelle’s heeled footsteps fell in besides his.

They walked back to the hotel in total silence.

“Mag, I’m so sorry,” she said as soon as the hotel door closed behind them.

“Save it,” he said. “I just came up here to get my stuff. Then I’ll leave, yeah?”

“You don’t have to go. I mean, don’t go. I don’t want you to go.”

His heart actually lit up with a pitiful little firecracker of hope because she said she wanted him to stay. But then he reminded himself those were just words, and her actions had just proved how she really felt about him—loud and clear. He hated himself for the way he was feeling right now, like an insecure sorority girl, wondering if a frat guy likes her even after he’s made it obvious he doesn’t give a flying fuck one way or the other.

“I have a date, remember?” he sneered.

She flinched like he’d hit her, but quickly recovered, saying, “We can fix this. The weekend’s not over yet.”

“What’s there to talk about? You don’t want to be seen with me. I get it.”

“No, no, that’s not it at all,” she said, fanning her hands toward him, like she was trying to figure out how to keep him there without touching him. He wanted her to touch him, reassure him, and make the ugly, doomed feeling inside his stomach go away. That made him even angrier.

“Then what is it?” he bit out. “Why the sudden interest in acting like you don’t know me from Adam when Kenny showed up?”

She inclined her head to the side. “Mag, you think I don’t want to be seen with you, but I would love to be seen with you. You are so wonderful, so beautiful, believe me, if it was up to me, I’d be seen with you everywhere. But it’s not up to me. And Kenny knows my parents. If this got back to them, I’d be in a lot of trouble.”

Mag shook his head, confused and angry he was still having this conversation with her. Why didn’t he just leave, walk out the door?

“Wait, did I get your age wrong? Are you a minor? Because if you’re over eighteen, you can do what you want.”

Janelle’s eyes flashed with something he’d never seen in them before: irritation. “No,
you
can do what you want. People in my parent’s income bracket do not let their daughters run around with wolves they don’t know. I’m twenty-two, but that hot chocolate we had at the hotel? That’s the first time I’ve ever been alone with a male wolf who wasn’t related to me. My younger sister has to take my cousin, Vince, with her everywhere she goes when she leaves our kingdom town, like an escort, until she turns twenty-one. And my middle sister had to agree to live in an apartment with one of our aunts until she turned twenty-one or my parents never would have let her go to college. I know you have a lot more experience than I do, but there are some things about my class of wolf you don’t understand, that you’ll never understand.”

But then her face softened. “However, please believe me when I say I like you, Mag. I like you so much. I wouldn’t be down here if I didn’t really, really like you.”

Mag didn’t know what to say. She was right, he didn’t understand. He didn’t hang out with any girl wolves other than Chloe, who was lower class just like him and could come and go as she pleased. But it sounded like Janelle was involved in some intense shit with her family, like she was in one of those human news stories he’d seen about countries that didn’t allow women to go anywhere by themselves or so much as talk to a male who wasn’t part of their family.

He put his hand on his head, fisting his hair. “That’s really how it is?”

“That’s really how it is,” she assured him, her voice serious for real, like a heart attack. “If my parents found out about you and me, it would be bad for me. Really bad.”

“Rafe says he can help me get a wild card from the Council,” he said.

She blinked. “What?”

“The Lupine Council doesn’t want too many wolves on human football teams, but every year they clear a few to play professional ball. They call them wild cards.”

“I know what a wild card is, my dad’s a Seahawks fan, and he’s always complaining that they need to recruit a wolf—he says they would have won the Super Bowl if they’d had a wolf on their team like the Steelers,” she said. “But what does that have to do with any of this?”

“I got a few teams scouting me right now, including the Los Angeles Suns. If I play good for the rest of the season and get a wild card from the Council, I’ll probably go top five in the human draft.” He took her hand in his. “A year from now, I could be rich, baby. Good enough to bring home to your parents.”

Understanding dawned on Janelle’s face. “You…” She covered her mouth with her free hand, and for a moment it looked like she would cry. But she got a hold of herself and said, “You are the kindest, sweetest, most decent wolf I have ever known. I acted like I didn’t know you in front of Kenny, and you’re trying to think of ways to be acceptable to my parents?”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Please don’t cry, baby.”

She shook her head, blinking back her tears. “No, it’s not okay. I don’t deserve you.”

He had thought the opposite thing so many times over the past two weeks. Telling himself not to flirt with her at the club. He didn’t deserve her. Trying to convince himself not to take her virginity since he didn’t deserve her. Chastising himself for calling her on the phone every single night, because who was he to bother her just because he didn’t want to go to sleep without hearing her voice?

After all that time spent telling himself he had no right to chase after her the way he was, it was a shock to hear Janelle say she was the one who didn’t deserve him.

“Baby…” he said, pulling her in for a hug. “One year, that’s all I need. One year, and I’ll prove to you we deserve each other.”

JANELLE HATED THAT MAG had to go down on her before they could make love that night. But he insisted, at least once, and as always, his skills were beyond phenomenal. He had her coming undone, her hips rocking up into his face in record time. And he must have felt the same desperate neediness she did, because he was buried inside of her before she even finished coming.

His entry sent another spasm of waves through her body, extending the climax she was having even as he began to carefully construct another one, his hips rolling, rolling, like a well-oiled machine as he pistoned inside of her—but then he abruptly stopped and pulled out. “Can I…? I want you in wolf position.”

Wolf position. What humans called doggy-style. His request sounded like an apology. But he had nothing to be sorry about. Nothing whatsoever. Janelle got on her hands and knees, more than happy to try a position she’d only heard about.

When he pushed into her from behind, stretching her out and filling her up at the same time with his thick length, she understood why this position was so popular. Soon she was undulating her hips on his shaft and she heard him expel a rough hiss of air above her.

“Hell, Janelle, this view!” His fingers tightened around her hips. “And the way you’re using me to get off. I wish I could just stay still and watch this all day. But I can’t, and I’m not going to last long, baby, I’m sorry.”