Mated (3 page)

He worked her clit as his tongue drove in and out of her, drinking her cream and dragging against her sensitive sweet spot. Delicious cries of pleasure burst from her mouth and she tossed her head back and forth, her hips bucking up to his marauding mouth. He plunged into her again and again. She rode his tongue, squeezing it, crying out as pleasure rippled through her.
Cale
knew he’d never tasted anything better in his life.
Ever.
When he felt the contractions of her pussy intensify, he drew back, withdrawing his tongue and holding the lips wide open.

“Oh, oh, oh,” she cried, hips lifting as she sought relief.

He pinched her clit, hard, throwing her into her climax. He held her open, watching as the inner walls of her cunt
spasmed
and undulated, her sweet juice pouring out of her hungry channel. He stared at her, hypnotised by the convulsing of her inner walls. At the peak of her orgasm, he slipped one finger inside, gathering her cream, then withdrew it and pressed it hard against the tight ring of her anus.

“Oh, God!” she screamed.

As she pushed her hips at him, he pressed the tip of his finger inside that hot, dark tunnel and her entire body convulsed. She came so powerfully that it grabbed her entire body. She thrashed as he held her open, her
spasming
cunt just begging for his tongue, his fingers, anything to fill it.
Cale
didn’t think he’d ever seen a prettier sight in his life. But he worked her over and over; so hard from the picture she presented he had to grind his teeth to keep from coming himself. He massaged and manipulated her body and kept her going until at last the violent spasms subsided to aftershocks. Rising from the floor, her legs still over his shoulders, he positioned himself at her opening and drove into her wet, delicious pussy.

Shit!

She was burning him alive. Fire singed his thick erection, searing him and spreading to every part of his body. He was glad she’d had a good climax already because he wasn’t going to last nearly as long as he wanted to. He wanted to take the time to explore every curve, every dip and hollow of her body—hell, it was what she deserved. But
his own
body didn’t want to listen to the command to behave itself. Wanting to make it last, unwilling to tip over the edge and end this incredible experience, he sucked in a breath and forced himself to back off. He drove into her slow and deep, his blood pumping through his veins so hard he could feel it everywhere.

Finally, unable to hold back any longer, he palmed her buttocks, lifting her to him, and drove into her with a madness he’d never felt before. Hard, fast, powerful, he fucked her as her orgasm built again, her ankles locked behind his neck and her body taking every one of his powerful strokes.

She was hot, liquid, clasping—pure heaven, and he was drowning in the erotic lushness of her body. He wanted it to last but already he felt the lightning sizzle along his spine and his balls draw up tightly. He increased his pace, again moving one hand so his fingers could rasp against her clit, rubbing it hard and fast. The heat and pleasure forced his hips to thrust harder, to push him into her deeper and deeper.

Now! He wanted her to come now!

And just as his own climax ripped through him, she exploded. Her cunt was like a vice around his cock, the contractions gripping him and milking him. Sensations swept through him like a powerful summer storm. He spurted into her again and again, not ever wanting to lose this incredible feeling. The powerful detonation of their shared climax gripped his heart and squeezed it, imprinting her on his soul. His blood raced and he was sure he’d never be able to breathe again. Just that quickly this woman was inside him, a part of him, bonded with him.

Mine!

Then, again,
Mate!

At last he was spent, gasping for air, heart
jackhammering
against his ribs. Carefully he lowered her legs to the bed, easing them down,
then
sliding her further onto the mattress so he could collapse beside her. He tipped her face up so he could taste her lips, just a gentle touch, but suddenly, even in his depleted state, he was kissing her with more passion than he’d possibly thought he possessed. He didn’t even know where it came from.
Where this came from.
What was usually just sex to him—just fucking—had taken a one-eighty turn.

Mate!

It echoed in his head again.

Shit.
Where did he go from here? Where did
they
go from here?

“
Cale
?”
Her soft voice was like gossamer fabric washing over him.

“Yeah, honey?” He pulled her against him, stroking her cheek. Her eyes held so much meaning he was afraid he was misreading her.

“W-Will you stay with me tonight?”

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against his body.
“Absolutely.”
He dusted butterfly kisses across her mouth. “I don’t think you could get rid of me. Not after that. But just so we’re clear, we won’t be doing a lot of sleeping.”

“I hope not.” Her grin was flirty and she threaded her fingers through the thick hair on his chest.

“You’re not afraid of my wolf.” He said it almost with wonderment.

She shook her head. “I want your wolf. I want you.” She lowered her eyes and her eyelashes brushed her cheek shyly. “Is that so awful?
For me to say that?
Do what we did? I mean, when we just met?”

He tucked her head against his shoulder. “Do you know how difficult it can be for a shifter to have a relationship with a human? There’s always the expectation of fear or worse, revulsion. To be welcomed as you have done with me is very rare.
But
Linnea
?”
He tilted her face up to him. “This is more than that.
More than just a spectacular tumble in the sheets.
I hope you know it.”

She ducked her head. “I-I felt it, too, but I was afraid…”

“That you were reading something into it that wasn’t there?”

She nodded wordlessly.

“It’s there, honey. Trust me. And tomorrow, when we talk about finding what happened to your sister? We’ll talk about this, too.”

Chapter Three

They drank coffee watching the sun come up.
Cale
had been right. They hadn’t done much sleeping. And it had taken them much longer to shower together than if they’d done it separately. But they both agreed it was worth it. And rather than suffering from exhaustion, they were invigorated with an energy that seemed to burst from them. They teased each other with long, slow kisses before they finally acknowledged it was time to get to business.

Linnea
followed
Cale
to The Sentinels offices where Brian was waiting for them. He took scant minutes to transfer the contacts from her cell to a burn phone. They kept several of those prepaid cell phones around the office so each person on the team would always have one phone for regular contacts and one to make calls that would, in effect, be untraceable.
Cale
would use the burn phone as he attempted to retrace Cathy Porter’s steps on the day she disappeared.

“Be careful today,” he told
Linnea
as he walked her out to her car.

“I’m fine.” She smiled at him, his blood racing just from the effect of that expression alone. “No one’s after me.”

“We won’t take any chances, okay?” He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small satin pouch, handing it to her. “I got this out of the safe while Brian was transferring your contacts.”

She stared at it curiously. “What is it?”

“Open it,” he urged.

She lifted the tiny flap, reached in and pulled out…

“A whistle?”
The tiny gold charm dangled from her fingers on a delicate gold chain. “It’s beautiful,
Cale
, but what’s it for? Wait a minute. Regan wears one just like this.”

“Luke and Sierra were the first to mate and expand our little group. When she and Luke met, she was being hounded by some crooks that wanted to steal her land. After Luke kicked their ass and got them out of her life, we decided that since she couldn’t shift she should have something that would let us know in the future if she were ever in any kind of trouble. Then we got one for Regan. Now I want you to have it.”

Linnea
looked at it, puzzled. “But what
help
is a charm?”

“This isn’t just a charm, it’s a real whistle. The pitch can only be heard by shifters. You get in trouble, you blow this and we’re there before you can blink. Turn around.”

Turning obediently,
Linnea
lifted her hair. His fingers stroked the nape of her neck, a sensuous caress before fastening the chain around her neck. When it was in place, nestled in the hollow between her breasts, she turned back to look at him.

“Thank you.” She lifted on tiptoe to brush her lips against his. “Thank you for wanting this for me.”

The kiss was just a soft caress but
Cale
immediately wrapped his arms around her and turned the kiss into something hungry and devouring. He had to force himself to release her and take a step back. It took every bit of personal discipline he could muster to get both his breathing and his body under control.

“Don’t expend too much energy at work today,” he told her. “You’ll need it tonight.”

She blew a kiss at him, grinned and got into her car.
Cale
stood watching her until she disappeared into the stream of traffic, then trudged back into the office to get
himself
a cup of coffee.

Brian was already in the little room where they kept the coffee and other things, filling his own mug. When he looked at
Cale
, one corner of his mouth turned up in the hint of a smile.

“I see things are moving right along with
Linnea
.”

“What makes you say that?”
Cale
very carefully kept his voice neutral. “How do you even know anything happened?”

Brian laughed. “You mean besides the fact the air around the two of you is so hot I was afraid I’d get burned? Or that you’ve got a goofy grin on your face? Buddy, she’s got your scent all over her.”

Cale
stared at him. “You set me up, didn’t you?” He smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.
“Of course.
I should have seen it the minute I walked into that house. All that stuff about her ‘wanting her own shifter’ and ‘being fascinated’.”

Brian grinned. “Guilty as charged. Regan and I both thought the two of you would be good together.”

Cale
poured some of the dark brew into his mug. “What would you have done if someone else had stepped up to the plate? Fixed her up with them?” The idea of someone else with
Linnea
suddenly filled him with a mixture of dread and anger.

“Nope.”
Brian clapped him on the shoulder. “We’d have manoeuvred it somehow. Not to worry. So am I right? Things are going good? Last night worked out okay?”

Cale
gave a sharp nod. “Yes. And that’s all I’m telling you about it. Listen, I need to call the ranch and make sure everything’s squared away with my foreman for a few days. Then I want to get started down the list of people Cathy Porter saw her last day and also talk to her friends. Is everyone still around so we can split up the names? And can you run a quick search on each of them?”

“Yes to both questions.” Brian looked at his watch. “I spoke to Mack and Luke already this morning. They’ll be here with their wives, as well as Drew and Ann Marie. The others will call in for their marching orders.”

“Drew will need to get back to his own ranch,”
Cale
pointed out.

“They drove back down there last night. He checked in with me while I was still at home, said he’s squared away and they were starting back up.”

Cale
whistled. “That’s a lot of driving.”

“They’re good. They’ll stay with us for a few days. Mack and Kelsey are bunking in with Luke and Sierra at the condo Luke still keeps.”

Cale
studied his friend. “This is really all for Regan, isn’t it?”

Brian nodded. “
Linnea’s
very important to her, and there’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t do for my wife.”

“I’m beginning to understand what you mean by that. Listen, I’d like to ask you to do a deep search on Cathy Porter, see if there’s something maybe her sister—or her boyfriend, even—didn’t know about.”

“Sure. I’d already planned on it. I don’t think you’ll find anything, but it needs to be done.”

He headed off to his office while
Cale
camped out in the conference room to make his calls. By the time he’d finished, the others had arrived and they divided up the list of people to see,
Cale
taking the key people for himself.

He made a detour to a mall to pick up some things he needed, not having expected to spend the night.
Any night.
And he wanted to have something besides jeans on his body when he called on the people Cathy worked with. He’d showered at
Linnea’s
, but he used the mall men’s room to shave and change clothes. It was late morning before he was ready to hit up the people on his list.

He decided first he’d tackle Gray Fisher, the director of The Gage Foundation. He called to make sure the man was in his office.

“Please, come right over,” the man told him, in what
Cale
was sure was his polished professional voice. “I should be free by the time you get here.”

Cale
was there in twenty minutes. The offices took up an entire floor in a six-story building at the northwest end of the city. When the elevator doors whispered open, he stepped out into a reception area with thick carpeting and a curved desk manned by a young woman. Girl, he amended.
Probably not more than twenty.

He introduced himself and asked her to let her boss know he as there.

“Do you know Cathy Porter?” he asked, after introducing himself and she buzzed Fisher to tell him his visitor had arrived.

 
“Oh, yes.” Her face took on a sober expression. “We all love Cathy. She’s just the greatest person. Everyone’s so scared and worried about her.”

Cale
leaned casually on the semi-circular reception desk. “Was she having any problems with anyone here? I mean, that you know of?”

Her eyes widened so much he was afraid they’d pop out of her head.

“You don’t think anyone here did something to her, do you? Oh, my God. That would be…” She shook her head, curls bouncing. “No, no, no. We all loved her. She was such a hard worker. Sometimes she’d work real late making sure everything for the clients was being processed properly.”

“Worked late?”
Cale
leant a little closer. “Maybe she was working late the night she disappeared. Would you know about that?”

“She wasn’t here.” The girl said the words emphatically. “She never came to the office that day.” She looked around, suddenly nervous. “Anyway, we’re not supposed to talk about it. All questions have to go through Mr. Fisher. He was very specific about that.”

 
That was interesting.

“Well, then.” He found a smile for her. “I don’t want to get you in trouble.” He took out a business card, wrote his cell number on it and handed it to her. “But if you happen to think of anything, I’d appreciate it if you could give me a call.”

“Okay, but I don’t really have anything to tell. Mr. Fisher said he’d be a few minutes. Would you like some coffee while you wait?”

“No, thanks.
I’m good.”

He sat down in one of the plush chairs arranged in a little grouping and spent his time studying the area and the people who moved through it as they went from one office to another. He took note of the fact that everyone seemed slightly on edge.
Cale
figured it was natural giving the circumstances, but he also wondered if any of them knew something and that knowledge was what was making them so nervous.

At last Gray Fisher emerged from his office, still in hushed conversation with a tall, lean man. Both men had grim looks on their faces, but when they spotted
Cale
, the frowns smoothed away to be replaced by professional smiles. The tall man headed for the elevator and Fisher came over to greet
Cale
.

“Sorry for the delay,” he told him as he led
Cale
into his office. “A meeting with the foundation’s attorney ran a little longer than expected.”

He tried to tell himself not to let his opinion of Fisher be coloured by the fact that he kept
Cale
waiting for more than half an hour, despite the fact he’d told him he was available. Or by the smooth, well-manicured appearance he presented when he finally stepped out of his office.
Or by the unpleasant softness of his handshake when he came over to greet
Cale
.
What was important was to make sure the man had told everything he knew about Cathy’s disappearance.

“Of course.”
He kept his voice neutral, despite disliking the man on sight.

Gray Fisher sat across from him with an acre of desk between them, as if separating himself from
Cale
. He wore a concerned look on his face, which
Cale
would have bet was from his arsenal of professional expressions. He’d met men like Gray Fisher before, impressed with themselves and their positions, carefully creating a persona for the wealthy donors they dealt with. His conciliatory attitude rubbed
Cale
the wrong way, and he had to mentally bite his tongue to keep from telling the guy what he thought of him. He was Cathy’s boss and they’d get no information if he antagonised him. In the end it turned out he got nothing anyway.

“I wasn’t aware that Miss Porter had hired a private investigator.”
Cale
could almost see him turn up his nose.

“She’s very concerned that the police have turned up nothing. She wants to know what happened to her sister.” He paused. “And she hopes everyone else feels the same way.”

“I want to assure you,” he said in his smooth voice, “that we are all extremely upset over the situation with Cathy. Of course we want to know what happened.”

Cale
stared at the man. “I think it’s a little more than a situation. She’s disappeared without any trace at all. From what I understand, she isn’t the kind of person to do that
.“

“No, no.” Fisher smoothed a hand across the immaculate blotter on the desk. “I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I just can’t imagine what could have happened to her.”

“And she never came into the office at all that day?”
Cale
wanted to grab the man by his throat and shake him out of his practiced silky veneer. He could imagine Fisher clucking over some well-heeled prospect while he finessed them out of every dime he could.

“No. As I told the police and Cathy’s sister, she was out on calls all day.”

“And she never checked in? Isn’t that unusual?”

He shook his head.
“Not at all.
There was nothing pending we needed to touch base on and I don’t think there was anything going on here that needed her input. She’d gone over her schedule with the staff and me the day before. If anyone had to get in touch with her, she always carried her cell.”

Despite careful probing,
Cale
got nothing new from the man. He called up his wolf senses to see if he could detect anything beneath the surface of Gray Fisher. He didn’t like him at all, or the scent he gave off, but that didn’t make him a liar or guilty of something.
Just an unpleasant person.
At least to someone like
Cale
.

“Sorry I couldn’t be more help.” Fisher stood up, signalling the end of the meeting.

“If you think of anything, please give us a call.”
Cale
handed him a Sentinels’ card.

He punched in the office number as soon as he got into his truck.

“The guy’s an asshole,” he told Brian when he came on the phone. “Unfortunately that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s hiding something. I’d feel a lot better, though, if you’d do one of your ‘pull everything out of the closet’ searches to see else what we can find on him.”