Claiming His Mate (11 page)

“He might be alpha, but he listens to my mom…sometimes. I’m not going to lie, they’re both angry at me, but I’m a grown woman. They can’t force me to do anything. Even though I know they’d love to. I made it clear I was staying for a while.” She looked over at the door to his walk-in closet.

For the first time he noticed it was open and all her stuff had been moved in there. Elation built inside him in a rush, the feeling almost foreign.
Lauren was staying.
That was all he and his wolf needed to know.

Hell, yeah.
“So I don’t have to worry about them barging in here later?”

She grinned a slow, wicked smile and leaned closer to him. The scent of her desire was potent and addicting. “Nope.”

God, he wanted to cover that hot mouth with his. He slid fully on to the bed and grabbed her hips so that she had to straddle him. Letting one of his claws extend, he sliced through the delicate scrap of her panties. It didn’t make a sound as the soft material fell from her body. Her thighs settled on the outside of his legs as her slick, wet opening rubbed right over his erection. This is what he’d been wanting. Still… “Are you positive you’re okay with what happened?”

She pursed her lips in annoyance. “I’m fine. Yeah it sucks that a maniac drugged me, but things could have been a lot worse. No humans saw us, she didn’t actually hurt me and now she’s gone. And…I’ve got a naked, sexy man between my legs. I don’t want to talk anymore.”

He didn’t want to either and before he could blink, her lips were on his, her mouth searching and hungry as he slid his fingers through her hair and cupped the back of her head in a tight grip. He wasn’t letting this woman go. Not ever. After the way she’d tried to shove him to the side earlier, to protect
him
—nope, she was his.

They weren’t done talking, not by a long shot, but she was right. They had more important things to do. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she lifted up over him, stroking her wet slit right over him, teasing the head of his cock. He was so thankful they didn’t have to use a condom. Since they were both shifters they couldn’t give or receive diseases and he could scent it wasn’t her fertile time. He could be inside her with no barriers.

He wanted to plunge right into her, but knew he needed to work up to it. To test her slickness first. Somehow he released his other hand from her hip and went to cup her mound but she took him totally off guard and slid right onto him with a strangled moan.

The feeling of having her tight sheath wrapped around him made his balls pull up tight and his brain short circuit. She was so
wet
. The scent of her desire was almost overpowering and he hadn’t been expecting that.

“I was fantasizing about you before I fell asleep,” she rasped out, her eyes heavy-lidded, the need in them clear.

He tried to make his voice work. Right now he felt like a randy cub barely able to control himself. But he wasn’t going to embarrass himself before they’d even gotten started. “Don’t move,” he commanded, impressed that he’d found the ability to speak, though his words were more growl than anything.

Dipping his head to her breast, he kissed and licked a path around one hard nipple, never making contact with the tightened bud. Each time he got close, he withdrew, keeping his strokes light against her breast. And each time he pulled away, her inner walls tightened around his cock. Tiny little contractions that drove him crazy.

He could feel the tension humming through her as she forced herself not to move. As he’d ordered. Soon she started to rock against him, but he increased his grip on her hips.

“Tease.” Her voice was urgent, shaky, and he smiled against her satiny skin.

Yes, he was. And they were only getting started. Moving with the quickness of a shifter, he repositioned their bodies so she was flat on her back with him still buried deep inside her.

Much better.

Pushing up so he was on his knees with her legs spread wide around him, he stared down at her. “Beautiful.”

Her cheeks flushed at his words as she reached up to stroke her palms down his torso. Just the feel of her touching him lit him on fire and he loved seeing the hunger in her gaze. Loved seeing how much she desired him.

Her scent was enough to drive him insane but actually witnessing that hunger was erotic in a way he’d never imagined.

Reaching down, he slowly rubbed her clit as he kept his gaze on her face. Her lids grew heavy as she sucked in a quick breath. Her breathing was unsteady, but she didn’t tear her eyes from his. When he removed his hand, her inner walls clenched around him and she let out an annoyed growl.

Before she could say anything, he reached up to cup one breast and said, “Touch yourself. I want to see what I missed in the shower.” Ever since finding her in the shower like that, he’d wanted to actually see her doing it. He’d imagined it, but knew his fantasies would pale in comparison.

Her cheeks flushed pink again and she paused for only a second before reaching lower and pressing against her sensitive bundle of nerves with her middle finger. Watching her, he began rubbing his thumb over her hardened nipple in soft little strokes.

He studied how much pressure she used and paid attention each time her sheath tightened. The small contractions around his cock from before were growing tighter and tighter, milking him so hard he knew he was about to lose it.

But not yet.

Rolling his hips, he began moving inside her, his stomach muscles tightening as he controlled himself from coming. Her amber and vanilla scent grew stronger, headier. She was so close and he couldn’t wait to push her over the edge.

He leaned down and sucked her other nipple between his teeth, hard. She cried out, her free hand sliding into his hair and gripping him with the strength of a supernatural.

“I’m close, Max.”

His name on her lips—it made him absolutely crazy. He began pumping faster, her tight body welcoming him with each hard thrust. His body trembled with the need to release, the feel of her satin hold on him too much. Pleasure poured to all his nerve endings, but he restrained himself.

Barely.

Max teased her nipples with both hands and mouth as her grip on him tightened. Then he felt the trembling invade her. Her inner walls rippled around him, squeezing almost painfully as her orgasm hit.

With a soft cry, she reached around him and dug her fingers into his ass while he pumped harder and faster. He could feel the warmth of her release as her nails pricked his skin. The pleasure/pain was too much. With a growl he tore his face from her breasts, burying it against her neck as he came.

His heat flooded her as she met him stroke for stroke, her own cries of pleasure mixing with his until they both lay limp and sated for the moment. But this was just the first round and they both knew it. That had barely taken the edge off.

His cock was half-hard inside her as he raised his head to find those big brown eyes watching him with so much warmth.

“I’m glad you caught me sneaking into your alpha’s house,” she said softly, cupping his face with her palm.

He leaned into her hold, loving the skin to skin contact. “Me too…though I would have come for you soon anyway.” It was the truth and he needed to tell her how he felt. Max didn’t want any secrets between them.

Her eyebrows drew together. Sighing, Max pulled out of her, his body immediately protesting, and stretched out along her petite body, tugging her close against his chest.

Lauren immediately curved into his hold, pressing her breasts against him as she nuzzled his neck and chin. “What are you talking about?” she murmured, her breath warm against his skin.

“Six months ago, right after you left I felt…” He struggled to find the right word, but she supplied it for him.

“Lost?”

He pulled back to look at her, searching those dark eyes. What he saw floored him. It was total understanding.

“Yeah,” she said, reading him perfectly. “I felt it too, but I convinced myself a wolf and jaguar had no chance at a future. That I’d worked up that weird pull in my mind, like it wasn’t real.”

He snorted softly at her words. “It was real all right. I would have come for you sooner, then my mom died.” It was strange to admit it, but he wanted this woman to know everything about him.

Her expression softened even more. “Max, I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head, not needing anyone’s pity. Not that he felt that particular emotion from her. “Right after your pride left, I couldn’t function for a week straight. It was like I’d gotten your scent tangled in my senses and couldn’t shake it. My wolf was angry and confused when you were gone. I was ready to chase after you like a randy cub but my mom died. She was killed by rogue vamps and I had to take care of business. Her mate certainly couldn’t,” he spat the words, unable to hide the disgust he felt for his deceased mother’s useless mate. Max blamed him for keeping his mother sequestered, living the life of lone wolves. She should have been living with a pack where she would have been protected, but there was nothing he could do about it now. “After I killed the vampires who’d attacked her, I came back here and was in no shape to court you.”

Lauren smiled, at the word court, he guessed. Being so much older than her, it was a word that made sense to him, but was probably lost on her. Well, maybe not lost, but foreign. Dating was a stupid word to him though. He didn’t want to fucking date her. He wanted to mate her. And courting was the only stage before that.

“I was practically crawling out of my skin the past couple months,” she confessed quietly, rubbing her cheek against his chest. “Work was the only thing that kept me sane. When the opportunity to come back here to steal the jewels was brought up by one of my cousins I jumped at the chance. Not…for my sister, but because I wanted to see you again. I don’t think I even admitted that to myself until just now.”

Max could scent the truth rolling off her so potent it was a punch to his senses. The thought of scent triggered something else in him. “When I first scented you, you seemed surprised that I could smell you.”

Lauren was silent for a long moment, her cheek resting against his upper body as she moved with the steady rise and fall of his chest. Finally she lifted her head. “I have some rare qualities and one of them is that I can cover my scent completely when I want. I have to concentrate harder than normal, but I can do it. There are only a few others like me and according to them, only their mates can scent them all the time. When I realized you could scent me, it freaked me out because you’re a wolf and I’m a jaguar. My cat seemed to recognize you on a primal level but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Of course you just won’t take no for an answer.” Her smile matched the teasing of her last statement.

“I won’t. My wolf has already accepted you and the past couple days have already proved correct what my inner animal already sensed; that you’re perfect for me.”

“You don’t care that I’m a jaguar? You realize that if—and this is a big hypothetical—we have cubs one day, we could have jaguars.”

Instinctively he reached between their bodies and placed a hand over her abdomen, his fingers slightly clenching against her bare skin. “As long as they’re healthy, I don’t care.”

Her smile grew then, transforming her entire face as she kissed him. It was a raw, primal dancing of tongues that told him they were in for a long night. The first of many. It didn’t matter that they had a lot to learn about each other, they had a hell of a long time to figure everything out and Max planned to start memorizing each and every nuance of her body starting right now.

Epilogue

Two months later

Lauren could feel Max’s gaze on her butt as she pulled another covered dish out of the oven. “You better be arranging those vegetables and not watching me,” she said without turning around.

He snorted and a second later as she was placing the dish on the counter, Max was right behind her, moving with the stealth of a wolf. He nipped her ear as he slid his hands down her sides and settled on her hips, pulling her backside tight against his hardness. “I bet we have time for a—”

“You better not say quickie.” Turning in his arms, she smacked him with one of her oven mitts. “This is important!”

Grinning in that wicked way she loved, he brushed his lips over hers sensually and she almost melted in his arms.

Almost.

But her parents, sisters—including her oldest sister’s new mate—and Lauren’s new alpha and his mate were coming for dinner. It was the holiday season, but Thanksgiving had passed a week ago. This was just about getting two alphas together—her father and her new one—and showing her new pack, which still felt weird to say since she was a jaguar, that there was no ill will between the Hayes pride and the Kincaid pack.

Ever since all that insanity with Naomi, Lauren had integrated well into the Kincaid pack. Of course Max had been the reason everything went smoothly. If anyone even thought about looking at her wrong, he growled at them in that deadly way of his. As of a week ago she’d finally got her newest day spa up and running in Gulf Shores. Most of her employees were pack members, though she had a few human hires too. Hiring packmates had been a big sign of how serious she was about staying here. Of course now that she and Max had officially mated—which was stronger than human marriages in so many ways—and his scent was embedded under her skin until one of them died, it was pretty damn clear she was staying anyway. If she even thought about the night they’d mated, with him taking her hard from behind, biting her as she came, her body turned into a quivering mess of desire.