Awaken a Wolf (15 page)
Her back arched further, and she screamed his name as her pussy clamped down on his fingers when she came. He eased her forward, and she planted her hands on the ground, her fingers curling into the earth. Keeping his palm on her clit, he unzipped his jeans with his free hand and then lifted the back of her skirt. Her body, beautifully wet and bare, called to a deep part of him. He pushed into her, grinding his palm into her clit and feeling her pussy clench with each twist. Seated fully, he gripped her hips with both hands and straightened, lifting his head to the sky and seeing the moon. It was pure white, an almost ethereal glow surrounding it.
It was their moon, he realized. The first full moon of their mating, and the one he’d remember for the rest of his life. Cinder moaned softly, and he felt her ardor fading slightly as pain surfaced. He couldn’t let that happen.
Turning his attention back to his mate, he gripped her hips tightly and began to move. Their bodies collided as he took her and felt the heat of her body as she responded to his claiming. He growled her name, and her pussy clenched him like a fist, making his vision darken for a brief moment of pure bliss. He increased the pace, holding her firmly. She stretched out her arms, lowering her body to the ground and wiggled her legs further apart. Her pussy tightened, and he tilted her hips with his hands, driving deeper into her core.
Swiveling his hips, he knew he’d hit her sweet spot when her hand curled and her now entirely black nails dug a deep trench into the ground. Growling, he fucked her hard and fast as his vision blurred and pleasure swamped him. She screamed and her body locked down on his, pulling him into his own climax.
Bending over her, he curled his arms around her as they came together. He saw the glow of their pleasure in his mind’s eye and knew that Cinder had seen it too when she gasped. With a gentle push through their connection, they shared their pleasure with the pack, who greeted them with howls of acceptance and love.
“I love you, Cinder. I fucking love you so much.” He kissed her neck and hugged her close.
“I love you, too. I –” She groaned and then her body jerked.
He pulled out of her and stroked his hands down her arms. “Don’t fight it. Just let the shift come. It’ll only hurt for a moment, and then you’ll be free to hunt with me and our pack.”
She groaned and rolled to her back. Her hands were curled under her chin, the thick claws clicking together. “I want to see the whole territory.”
“What?”
Her back bowed and she cried out, her joints cracking. “I have to, for the
lygisa
. I have to know the land.”
He pressed a kiss to her furry cheek. “Okay, love. Let me see your beautiful shift.”
She rolled to her side and curled into a ball with a muffled sob. He wanted to help her, but there wasn’t anything he could really do except be there for her. The first shift was always scary and difficult, but Cinder was at a disadvantage because she was older and hadn’t grown up knowing what to expect.
He glanced around and saw that the whole pack was waiting for her to shift. He’d expected them to take the shared pleasure and go enjoy themselves, but they were waiting, watching to make sure she was okay.
Cinder rolled to her stomach as her bones cracked, the sound loud like fireworks. His wolf whined in sympathy as Cinder made small pained sounds while her body slowly transformed. She’d been a beautiful woman, but the creature before him was magnificent. Her fur was the color of spun gold and sparkled in the moonlight. Her eyes glowed like shiny gold coins.
She sat down on her rump and lifted a paw, looking at Adam plaintively.
He scrubbed at his eyes. He’d never thought a female’s first shift would mean so much to him, but seeing Cinder struggle and come out on the other side victorious had touched him to the core.
He cupped her head and kissed her snout. “You’re so beautiful. I’m one lucky male to have you as my mate.”
She licked his chin and then pressed her nose to his throat with a soft growl. Her paw now rested on his thigh and her claws ripped through his jeans. He chuckled. “Let’s get you undressed first and then I’ll shift. We’ve got some territory to see.”
The skirt had come off as she’d shifted, but the tank top was looped around her waist. He tugged it over her head and tossed it aside and then he stood, pushing his jeans down his hips. He shifted, quickly taking on his wolf form. His natural coloring was a stark contrast to her shimmering gold.
He found her sweet scent even more intoxicating in her shift as they scented each other. The pack had shifted at the same time that he had, and as he and Cinder walked away from the bonfire, they parted and let them lead.
The night passed quickly and the pack stayed out until dawn, which was the first time Adam had stayed out hunting that late on a full moon since he was a teenager. Keeping his promise to Cinder, he and the pack took her around the entire territory. As she trotted the edge of the territory, he saw that she was leaving something behind, a golden trail of glitter that faded as quickly as it was been shed from her fur. She was marking the territory through her
lygisa
power. His pride in his mate had no bounds.
When she’d marked the entire territory, they turned their attentions to the hunt. It was the best night of hunting he’d ever had. The game was plentiful, and Cinder was a fast learner. She first caught two rabbits, but instead of claiming them for herself, she gave them to two young females who had recently shifted. When she helped him take down a buck, she had shared the kill only with him, and he’d never seen anything sexier than his mate as she prowled toward the big creature.
When they finally reached the backyard as the sun began to rise, she shifted smoothly into her human form and sat down on the grass with a yawn.
“Tired, love?” he asked as he sat next to her. The pack shuffled into the yard, saying goodbye and heading to their homes.
“I am completely exhausted, but in such a good way.”
“Do you feel different?”
“I feel the same but different, if that makes sense.”
“Not remotely.”
She slapped his shoulder with a laugh. “I mean, I know I’m still me, but there’s this new part of me that feels like it’s been there all along. The power is there in my mind, in the background. I know I can call it whenever I need it, the same as my wolf. The pack is my family now. I feel like I’ve known them forever.”
He nuzzled her throat. “I feel the same way.”
She hugged her arms around him with a sigh. “On the next full moon, I’ll get to perform blessings. It will be like the vision we both shared before I came here, when I shifted in front of the fire with the pack.”
He hummed in agreement. “We’ll be ready.”
She looked at his face, her eyes brimming with happiness. “Did you really like my shift?”
“You’re beautiful.”
“You’re pretty handsome yourself. You actually blend into the shadows, but I stick out like big gold thumb.”
He chuckled. “And there was the glitter thing.”
She made a face. “It wasn’t glitter. It was the
lygisa
power marking the territory.”
“Wolves usually just pee on stuff. That was glitter.”
“Adam,” she growled.
He tried not to grin, but he couldn’t help it. She was so cute when she was mad. A piece of fabric hit him in the face, and Cinder snorted a laugh. He glared at Solan who looked sorry he’d thrown it. Adam looked down to see a robe and a pair of shorts.
“I think the robe is for you, but if you’re going to be mad at me about the glitter thing, then maybe I’ll take the robe, and you can have the shorts.”
Seeming to be aware suddenly that she was naked, she covered her breasts with one arm and reached for the robe. He held it just out of reach.
“Adam!”
“Say you shoot glitter out of your butt, and you can have the robe.”
“I do not!”
She struggled to reach it but couldn’t.
“Say it. Say you have a glitter butt.”
“You can’t be serious!” She huffed.
“Alright,” he chuckled, “say you love me.”
Grinning, she nodded. “I love you. Even though you’re a total ass sometimes.”
“You know me so well, babe.” He laid the robe over her shoulders, and she slipped her arms into it as he stood and tugged on the shorts.
Solan, who had quickly disappeared, was replaced with Adam’s mom. “I made coffee.”
“Thanks, Mom, but I think we’re just going to bed. That is, if it’s okay with my mate.”
Cinder’s answer was a yawn. Adam lifted her into his arms and carried her into the house. She was asleep before he laid her down on their bed. It took only moments to divest them of their clothes, close the curtains, and lock the door before joining her under the covers and pulling her close.
He would never have guessed that a trip to Lykos and seeing his mate would lead him to this place, where he held her close after a night of hunting, the pack completely content, and their territory safe. Cinder would keep the pack safe through her power, but Adam would keep
her
safe. He and his wolf silently vowed to be ever vigilant and protect her against anything and everything that might come.
Their meeting had awoken the wolf inside her and given her amazing power, but she’d given him much more in return. He’d spend the rest of his life making sure that she knew just how special she was to him.
Cinder settled into the chair behind the reception desk at the clinic. She hadn’t been to work in a week. Adam didn’t really want her to keep working, and she knew in reality that as alpha female, she really shouldn’t work away from the pack, but the clinic needed a receptionist and she promised Dr. Whalen she’d train her replacement.
A chair scooted behind her, and Cinder moved to make room for Angie. They’d toured the facility already, and she was teaching her the position responsibilities. “Okay, so it’s really a pretty simple job,” she said. She explained the ten-line phone and the messaging system. “When Dr. Whalen’s door is open, he’s taking calls. Otherwise, he’ll call whoever it is back, unless of course it’s the leader of one of the were-groups or someone calling on his or her behalf. Do you know all the leaders?”
Angie shook her head.
“The head of the bear den is Adriel, and his mate’s name is Filene.” Cinder peeked over as Angie typed on the small keyboard attached to her iPad, where she took notes. “Then, you have Jesuit, the falcon prince, and his mate, Danika, and the male who shares her, the white lion prince Chance; Midas, the tiger king; and Tosh the dragon prince, and neither of them are mated. Of course I don’t have to tell you about Mishka, the master of the vampire coven.”
Angie giggled. “He’s on the news a lot.”
“Well, he’s really photogenic.”
“That’s code for gorgeous, right? I mean, those golden eyes.” Angie fanned herself exaggeratedly.
Cinder smiled. “If any of the big dogs, or their mates, call here and want to speak to Dr. Whalen, he will automatically take their call unless he’s in surgery, and any pack members too. Everyone else has to leave a message or call back.”
“Are you sad to leave your job?”
“Yes and no. There’s a lot to do in the pack. It’s been a while since you’ve had an alpha female who was actually a wolf, and I have a
ton
to learn. I miss the Wiccans, but we’re still in touch, and I won’t actually miss being up on the bluffs, naked, for the ceremonies.”
The front doors opened, and a young couple with a small, crying boy rushed in. The male was carrying the boy, who had a blood-soaked bandage on his arm. Cinder stood immediately, with Angie in tow, and she led the parents to one of the exam rooms while she sent Angie to get Dr. Whalen.
She sniffed and caught a scent of tiger.
“He was on the slide at the park, and he went too fast and slid off. He tried to grab hold of the slide, but his arm slipped underneath and was ripped open,” the father said as he set his son on the table but kept his arm protectively around him.
“Aw, poor sweetie,” Cinder said. As Dr. Whalen and two nurses rushed in, Cinder slipped out of the room to where Angie watched from the hallway. They walked back to the reception desk.
“My heart is pounding,” Angie said, as she took her seat.
“It’s like that here – really boring with the occasional emergency. You get used to it. Dr. Whalen is really great to work for, and because you’re a wolf, it will help put the supernatural patients at ease.”
“Could you heal that little boy?”
“No, because he’s a tiger and not a wolf. My
lygisa
won’t help him. If he were a wolf, though, yes.”
“Do any of the other groups have special shifter witches for themselves?”
“Not that I’m aware of, but I didn’t even know about
lygisa
until I turned into one.”
There was a creak as Solan, who had been sitting in the waiting room during Cinder’s shift straightened. He cracked his neck and walked to the desk. “I’m going to trade with Joe and patrol outside, Alpha.”
Cinder smiled. “Thanks, Solan.”
The two wolves traded places, and Solan walked briskly around the building as Joe settled into one of the chairs. Cinder’s phone beeped. She opened the drawer and pulled it from her purse.
“It’s from Arissa,” she said, reading the text from her Wiccan friend who was the beloved mate of a vampire named Brone. Keeping her voice low so Joe wouldn’t hear, she said, “Arissa said that you can come to the club before sunset on Saturday night. She’s going to send her friend Alli, a fallen angel, to bring you to the club and keep an extra eye on you.”
“I’ve never met a fallen angel before, have you?”
“Arissa has a guard who’s an angel too, his name is Darien. Because she works at the store two nights a month and has to be there before sunset, her mate sends her with four guards he chose and two dragons she is personally tied to. Two of her chosen guards are wolves, but they’re not from our pack, and the other is a leopard.”
Angie drummed her fingers on the desk. “I can’t believe I’ll actually get to meet vampires.”
“Alli will be your special guard, and Arissa will make sure that you’re well looked after. Don’t wear
anything
white, because that’s the color the humans who let the vampires feed on them wear. Also I am going to make you a protection ward just to be safe.”
“What’s that?”
“Just a little something extra to make sure you’re going to come back to the pack in one piece.”
Angie rubbed at her neck absently and stared out the front windows. “Adam wants me to go to a multi-pack gathering to try to find my mate. He even said we might host one in the spring.” At Cinder’s confused look, Angie clarified, “It’s when single wolves from neighboring packs gather in one place to basically see if any of them are mates. Our pack hasn’t ever hosted one.”
“It makes you nervous?”
“Adam wants me mated. I think he doesn’t want to worry about me anymore.”
Cinder gave Angie a hug. “He’ll always worry about you because you’re his sister. I’m sure he just wants you to be happy.”
Angie said nothing, but her risen brow was evidence that she didn’t really believe the sunshine Cinder was trying to blow her direction. She didn’t know what it was like to have a protective older brother, but she did know that Adam had good intentions when it came to his sister.
A young male entered the clinic, and their conversation stopped as he signed in. A discreet scent told her that he was a falcon.
“Dr. Whalen is dealing with an emergency. It could be a little while,” Cinder told him.
“That’s okay,” he said, running his hand through his dark hair. “I need to get a physical for my job, and this is my only free night. I don’t mind waiting.”
Cinder told him to have a seat as she took the paperwork he handed to her. She let Angie fill it out for the doctor and make copies, and then they discussed the filing system. The evening passed quickly, and they weren’t able to pick up their conversation again, but Cinder was confident that Angie would be safe.
The following morning, Adam gave Cinder the oldest book of pack laws he had, and she sat on the couch in his office while he worked and read. In the old, old days, the pack had rules for everything, from how old pups should begin their hunting training to divvying up the patrol duties.
Adam sat down next to her after a few hours and kissed the top of her head. “How’s it going?”
“Pretty good. This book reads kind of like a diary with rules sprinkled in between. The alpha who wrote it gives reasons for all of the laws. Like this one, where the pups can’t begin training for hunting until they’re twelve, because a ten-year-old pup was chasing a rabbit and fell down an embankment and got hurt. The alpha said that he was too young to hunt and pay attention to his surroundings at the same time, so an age limit was made.”
Adam leaned over and looked at the open page. “Guidelines keep the pack safe. A lot of it is common sense, but there are always people who don’t have enough of it and need some help.”
She closed the book and set it aside, snuggling against him. “Our kids will shift, right?”
“We’re both shifters, why wouldn’t they?”
“I wasn’t born a wolf, though. My shift came through the power of my
lygisa.
”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re not a Wiccan anymore. You’re a shifter, and that means that what you are at the core of your being is a shifter. It’s my understanding that our sons will be alpha-powerful and, if we should have any daughters, they will become
lygisa
when they meet their mates.”
“If?”
He shrugged. “Male births are more prevalent than females. It has to do with how dominant our species is. For every ten males, only one female is born. Add in the number of non-shifters because of human mates, and that means even fewer females that have the capability of creating shifting children.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that unless our pack suddenly starts having a lot of baby girls, the next generation is going to be fighting for eligible females. And
that
means eventually there won’t be wolf shifters, because the males will look elsewhere for mates and pure wolves will become a thing of the past, even with our very long lives.”
“That totally bums me out.”
He leaned, pushing her flat to her back. “We can just have a lot of kids, sweetheart, and cross our fingers for females.”
He nuzzled under her ear with a soft growl that sent shivers racing up and down her spine. She eased her hands under his shirt and ran them up his strong back. “I like the sound of that.”
Their lips met, and her wolf howled in happiness. She put aside the thoughts of the future state of the pack and the idea that their sons might end up fighting over females and concentrated on her sexy mate.
She found it difficult to believe that only a month ago she’d thought she was happy, living a life with no real emotional entanglements. The truth was, though, that her happiness now was proof that she’d never really
known
what being truly happy was. She couldn’t explain the soul-deep connection to Adam, but she knew that she’d never really been complete because a part of her heart had been missing and she hadn’t even realized it.
Somewhere between him making her friends disappear and coming to save her, he’d shown her that being a mate meant being there in every capacity. It wasn’t just about love; it was about commitment and loyalty. She had a lot to learn about being a wolf, but she had a great teacher who was currently slowly unzipping her jeans.
“I’m so lucky,” she whispered, as he kissed the space just below her navel.
He gave her jeans an experimental tug. “I’m the lucky one, sweetheart.”
She mentally declared it a tie as she stroked her fingers through his hair and bit her lip while he pulled her jeans down her legs. She’d found heaven in the arms of an alpha male, and she never wanted to be anywhere else.
The End
* * * * *
My alpha isn't the only bad boy looking for love, the Bad Boy Alphas series continues with The Alpha's Justice (Huntville Pack Book 2) by Michelle Fox!
What’s an alpha to do when he’s found his fated mate, but she reacts to the news by kicking him in the balls?
Gretchen Halbmond became a diehard Daddy’s girl the day her mother ran out on them both. She doesn’t believe in love and isn’t looking for it, but when her ailing father is attacked and left bloody by wolves on the wrong side of the law, she goes out in search of what she does believe in: Justice.
Sheriff Talon Garde has way too much on his plate. Humans have breached shifters' carefully guarded privacy and are about to go public. If he can’t stop them, what happened to Gretchen’s father is going to be the least of everyone’s worries.
More importantly, despite Talon’s rep as a bad ass alpha whose growl strikes fear in the hearts of criminals, Gretchen’s scent makes him go all squishy inside. She’s THE ONE, he’s sure of it. There’s just that small matter of convincing Gretchen it’s pointless to fight fate…and surviving the way she fights it.
Standalone novel with NO cliffhanger.
* * * * *
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Wiccan-Were-Bear Novella Series
A Curve of Claw
A Flash of Fang
A Price for a Princess
A Bond of Brothers
A Bead of Blood