Lover Claimed (13 page)

His cock swelled, stretching her pussy. She
screamed out his name as she threw her head back and dug her nails
into his skin. His body exploded, knocking him off his feet. He
wrapped his arms around his love, protecting her from the fall. He
fell onto his back, cradling her to his chest.

Chapter
Fourteen

Lajos lay beside Meisha, watching her as she
slept. Her lips were pink and a little swollen from his kisses. He
brushed the pad of his thumb across them. When he did she smiled.
He knew she was still asleep, her breathing was even and slow. The
reaction had been involuntary. The thought made him happy, knowing
that even while she slept he could make her smile with just a
touch.

I’m mated.

While he still couldn’t believe it, his wolf
seemed content with the fact. His wolf sent him a picture of him in
wolf form and Lajos swore his wolf’s chest was swelled with pride.
He’d claimed a mate—a beautiful, sexy and smart one.

After he finished with his business here,
Lajos would take her back to Michigan with him. She couldn’t stay
in Florida and he couldn’t pick up and move here. This place was
too… He searched his mind for the words. His wolf projected a
picture of people standing shoulder to shoulder.

That’s right. This place was too crowded.
There’s too much going on and too much activity for his senses to
take in for any kind of long-term basis. At home his wolf could run
free almost whenever he chose. Here, he was stifled.

Plus there was the matter of her safety. He’d
chosen a human mate and he’d do everything in his power to protect
her. There were plenty of enemies out there who would like nothing
better than to get their hands on a wolf’s mate. Their enemies knew
that there would be virtually nothing he wouldn’t do to get a mate
back. He understood everything now. Being without Meisha was
inconceivable. His fate was tied to hers. Their hearts beat as one,
their bodies were aligned. To lose her would be like losing
himself. His heart began to ache with just the thought of not
having her by his side.

Mates were protected at all costs. Wolf
females weren’t coddled or kept hidden away. No, they would never
go for something as demeaning as that. But a human mate? Up until a
couple of days ago it had been unheard of in his lifetime. Kristof
imprinted on Trudy and he would outlive his mate just as Lajos
would, guaranteeing that neither brother would live to a ripe old
age. But right now it didn’t matter to Lajos. All that mattered was
that Meisha was his and his to protect.

He ran his hand over her silky hair and
picked up a lock. He brought it to his face and rubbed his nose in
it, drawing in a deep breath. She smelled wonderful. Everything
about her was wonderful.

His phone buzzed from the nightstand. The
only thing that could pull him away from making love to his mate
again was his Alpha, Andras. He rolled to his back and grabbed his
phone and, without looking at the caller I.D., answered the call.
“What’s up?” he asked.

“Trudy is working hard at auditing the
accounts. She hasn’t found anything yet but Kristof and I have
faith in her,” Andras replied, giving him the updates.

He twirled Meisha’s hair in his hand.
“Shouldn’t she be resting? She’s been through a lot this week.
She’s not a wolf. Do you think you and Kristof should be pushing
her?”

“She’s fine. She recovered quickly and I
guess being mated to a shifter is helping her metabolism already.
Plus, it’s her decision to keep working. Kristof keeps bugging her
to eat and to get some rest, but so far she’s refused him. We’ll
have to explain her body’s changes to her later. We wouldn’t want
her to work herself into the ground with all of her newfound
energy.”

“So is that one of the side effects?” Lajos
asked, his curiosity pulling at him. “Humans that mate with
wolf-shifters have an increased metabolism?”

“So far that’s what it’s looking like. Of
course we’ll need to get her checked out by one of our physicians.
We’ll also need to study and track their progress. The information
we find will need to go in the archives.”

“Yeah, we could learn a lot of good
information, in case there’s ever another human-shifter bonding.”
The archives were more of a genealogy of his family, spanning back
to when they first began to write down their history. When he
returned home he’d look through them himself to find out all he
could about a human-shifter pairing.

Wait. Andras said he would need to track
“their” progress
. “Wh—”

“I was wondering how long it was going to
take you to figure it out,” Andras said, interrupting him. “I know
about your imprint on Meisha.”

“But how?” He whispered into the phone even
though Meisha was still asleep.

Andras snorted. “You and Kristof must think
being the Alpha means sitting here and looking pretty all day. I
know when someone leaves my pack and I know when someone joins
it.”

“But she’s human. How would you even be able
to connect with her mind?” As the pack leader, Andras was in touch
with everyone who was under him, which also made this business of a
thief in their midst so unbelievable. Andras should’ve been able to
pinpoint exactly who was hiding something from him and the culprit
should’ve been dealt with long before now. But the fact that he
couldn’t was leading them all to think that either the person
didn’t know they were being used to embezzle millions of dollars
from Dark Wolf Enterprises or that the person was just that good at
being deceitful.

“I’m not sure. I could feel the minute
Kristof imprinted with Trudy. Your imprinting on Meisha, it was
different, but it was there. I had to meet Trudy face-to-face to
get a good lock on her and I expect I’ll have to do the same with
Meisha but, other than that, it was just the same as a shifter to
shifter imprint.”

“So Meisha is part of the pack now?” he asked
hesitantly.

“She is. You’ll need to bring her in as soon
as possible. I don’t like the idea of vulnerable members so far
from the rest of us this early. She’ll need to get acclimated to
our life and we’ll have to make sure our allies are aware of her
too.”

“Yeah, I know. After this is done I plan to
bring her home with me.”

“Do you foresee any issues with her not
wanting to come back with you?”

Lajos paused. There could be many issues, but
really, would she have a choice? The farther they were away from
each other, the sicker they would become. Physically they wouldn’t
be able to sustain being apart for too long. “I’ll see that she
understands what needs to be done.”

“Good. Keep her safe. I suspect now that you
have a mate you’ll want your team to help keep her safe.”

Lajos smiled, thinking about how his team
would react to Meisha.
They’d love her
. “I want them, but
not until tomorrow. I want to go out one more night on my own. I
was going to have Meisha get information about the shifters and
their habits from the clerks at the liquor store, but I’ll pay
someone else to do it now. I’ll need to gather as much information
as I can about who we’re dealing with. I have a feeling that as
soon as the plane lands with my security team on board, the
Russians will figure something’s up and try to leave. I want us to
hit them hard and strong.”

“So tomorrow night then?” Andras asked.

“Yeah, I’ll meet the team at the airport and
we’ll go straight to their house. They won’t know what hit
’em.”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

“I’ll talk with you tomorrow.”

“Take care.”

When Andras disconnected the line, Lajos set
his phone on the dresser and rolled back to cuddle against
Meisha.

She stirred from her sleep. “What was that
all about?” she mumbled.

“It was Andras.”

She yawned and then stretched. “Yeah? When is
he sending back-up?”

“My team is coming tomorrow. That’ll give me
time to do some more reconnaissance. We’re going to hit them fast
and hard when my team gets here.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me.” She yawned
again. “I have to get up and shower. I don’t want to go out
smelling like hot shifter sex.”

He smoothed her hair behind her ear. “I got
this. You stay here and rest.”

She raised a brow. “Um, no. I’m going with
you.”

“There’s no need for you to. I’ll be there
and back before you’ll even miss me.”

She snorted. “I won’t miss you because I’ll
be by your side.”

He pulled away from her. “You can’t go this
time. I let you tag along before, but now the stakes have changed.
I have to keep you safe.”

Her body stiffened. “You let me tag along?”
she said slowly. “I’m not a puppy.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just…things
have changed. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“So what, before we had sex it was alright
for me to get hurt or killed, but now I’m precious or
something.”

“Yeah…no.” He shook his head, trying to clear
his thoughts and figure out the best way to tell her that their
lives were forever intertwined without making a mess of it. Well, a
bigger mess than he was already making.

She rolled off the other side of the bed and
stood, glaring at him. Her arms were crossed in front of her and
she wore a scowl on her face. She was as naked as the day she was
born and instantly his mind was muddled again. “You can’t go.
You’re vulnerable and weak. It’s my responsibility to protect
you.”

That came out all wrong.

She raised a brow. “Really? I’m weak
now.”

He took a deep breath. “Meisha, I’m trying to
explain myself but you’re making it hard for me. Put some clothes
on so I can think clearly.”

“What I’ll do is get in the shower and dress.
I’ll be ready in ten minutes. You can explain anything you need to
me on the way.”

“No.”

She narrowed her eyes on him. “No? Do you
really think you can stop me Lajos?”

He wasn’t quite sure how to answer her. The
way she watched him scared him—just a little. “No I can’t. But I’m
asking you not to go. It’s for your—my own good”

“Right, because I’m vulnerable and weak and I
might somehow slow you down.”

“You will. You’ll be a distraction. I’ll
spend the entire time worried about you and not getting the
information that I need.”

She drummed her fingers against her arms. “I
suggest you stop talking. You’re about three seconds from finding
out just how wrong you are about my
weak
state.”

“Meisha—”

She threw up a hand, stopping him from saying
anything further. When he snapped his mouth shut she grabbed her
overnight bag and stomped off into the bathroom, slamming the door
behind her.

He lay on the bed, not knowing what to do
next. But when the shower turned on it came to him. He had no other
choice. He got up and threw on his clothes and ran a hand quickly
through his hair. He grabbed his keys and hers off the table and
stuffed hers into his back pocket. She was going to kill him for
sure. But at least for tonight she’d be safe. He went to the desk
and, using the hotel stationary, he left his phone number for her
and hastily wrote a note and left it on the bed.

Yeah, she was going to kill him.

Chapter
Fifteen

I’m going to kill him.

She fumed as she heard his keycard in the
lock. He was trying to sneak back into the room after leaving
without her. When she’d come out of the shower and found him gone
she’d been livid. She dressed, taking her time, thinking about
every curse word she could and saying it with his name behind
it.

Motherfucking Lajos.

Bitch Lajos.

Asshole Lajos.

Son of a twat Lajos.

But when she looked for her keys and found
them missing, her anger had turned up to ten. She was going to
mutilate him. She was going to remove his thieving fingers
one-by-one and ship them back to his precious pack.

She’d dialed his number so many times that
she’d finally programmed him into her phone and assigned a speed
dial number to it. When he hadn’t picked up any of her calls, she
sent him text after text threatening him with bodily harm. Normally
she wouldn’t put a threat like that into a text but she figured
what the hell. It wasn’t like he’d be calling the police on her.
What would stop her from telling the officer that he was a wolf
shifter? Nothing. She could threaten and torture him all she liked
and he would keep his mouth shut about it.

Four hours.

That’s how long he’d stayed gone while she
had nothing to do but think about all the ways to hurt him. The
first two hours had been the worst. Her anger was in rare form. She
used the same stationary that he’d used to write her a note and
began to list all the things she would do to him.

Number one, punch him in his motherfucking
throat. Two, get satisfaction at watching him gag. Three, kick him
in the nuts. Four, laugh hard. Five, punch him in his kidney. Six,
punch him in the other kidney. Seven, kick him his kneecap and
watch it blow out. Eight, hope by now that he’s pissing blood.
Nine, break his nose.

When she’d run out of paper on one side of
her list, she turned to the other side and continued. By the time
she was done she had five front and back pieces of paper filled
with all the things that would make her a happy woman. The next
hour she lay on the bed, arms crossed and waited for him so she
could make good on her list. The last hour she had ripped the
comforter from the bed and thrown it on the floor with a pillow.
And not one of the good soft pillows either. She’d given him the
fabric one that everyone knew didn’t get washed at all. Let him
sniff on that all night, she thought.

When the lock clicked, he opened the door
very slowly at first. Meisha was sure he expected her to jump from
the closet and attack him. He must’ve spotted her in the bed
because she heard him sigh.