The Werewolf Ranger (Moonbound Book 3) (9 page)

She snapped her seatbelt on and took Rain’s hand again. He was making a promise he couldn’t keep. No one could. Even if Rain tried, he couldn’t watch her one hundred percent of the time every day for the rest of her life. But they could enjoy the time they did have, and make the absolute most of it before her father invariably caught up with them.

Eventually a fight would come. Edward Cavanaugh wasn’t a man who gave up. But Nora was a Cavanaugh too, and she was just as stubborn.

Fate had given her another chance, and she would fight tooth and nail to keep her second chance at happiness.

She nuzzled against Rain’s shoulder and let the vibrations of the plane soothe her into a restful sleep.

R
ain put
his arm around Nora’s waist and shimmied her through the door. The night had fallen and it was cold for a North Carolina November evening. The street in front of his house on base was almost deafeningly quiet, and he was glad to put the door between them and the prying eyes of the Black Wolf company.

Nora shivered and looked around his dark living room. “Why all the sheets?” She picked up the edge of one that covered his couch.

“I wasn’t planning on coming back.” Rain pulled her into his arms and then down onto the floor.

Her sigh was audible and she relaxed against his chest.

“You’re still tired?” Rain stroked her back, having a momentary flashback of her choking on the table in the plane. He’d give all the blood in his body never to see that happen again.

“Mmhmm.” She burrowed against him, settling between his legs and molding her body to his.

“You slept the whole flight.”

“You didn’t?” Nora gazed up at him and Rain felt something close around his heart.

She had that glowy, hazy aura about her that he remembered from that morning in Guadalajara. The way she looked so completely… his.

He hadn’t been able to stop staring at her the whole time they were in the air. She’d just curled against him like this and fallen asleep, and he’d been captivated. So captivated, he couldn’t even bring up the obvious. Bonding.

No one had ever belonged to him like this before. His family had all been killed with his cousins’ when he was young, and Francis had taken him in and acted like his father, but Rain had never felt that sense of wholeness that came with someone being
only
his.

His brother, his parents, his sister…they had been his. But Francis had belonged to the whole pack. Even Reyna and Aria had become like sisters when Rain had just stayed on the perimeter.

The unit was the closest he’d ever come to family, but even then, he hadn’t let them in quickly or easily.

Nora was another story. When Francis overrode her alpha bond and made her part of their pack, something inside Rain had shifted, and still threatened to overwhelm him.

He couldn’t explain any of it to Nora, who had grown up with a mother and father and sisters and power and home. And a mate. She’d already been mated, so she even knew what that was like, where he had only heard vague stories from his buddies in the unit.

He couldn’t even remember the words to the spell.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he finally said, resuming the rhythm of strokes on her back.

“Well, let’s rectify that situation.” Nora leaned up and took his lips with hers. She moved forward, almost climbing his body, deepening the kiss and straddling him all at once.

And of course, she wasn’t wearing any fucking underwear, so the scent of her arousal almost immediately filled his senses.

“Just…wait.” He tamped down the rising lust, but it was still burning under his skin and he wanted to throw her on the floor and drive into her, more than he’d ever wanted to have sex with her. “I promised Francis I would call.”

The thought of his alpha helped him to gain some control. Francis was the closest thing he’d ever had to a father, and without him, Nora would be on her way back to Boston in chains. Or metaphoric ones. And he would have put himself in front of a bullet to get her back.

Nora’s hands on his stomach and her lips on his neck did little to reinforce his willpower.

“I slept the whole flight,” she reminded him with an uplift to her voice. “I’ve got energy for days.”

Rain settled her back on his thighs, far from his pulsing cock, and dug in his pocket for his phone. “Just let me call Francis. I promised I would check in.”

She crossed her arms and pushed out her bottom lip in this cute, bitable way.

Something inside Rain opened up in an animalistic roar. Now that they were finally back in his home, he wanted to lock her here and never let her see the light of day until they had brought some kind of justice on her father’s head. And they would. But the protectiveness wasn’t just about her father. He didn’t want anyone to see her like this. Ever again.

He wanted to be the only person who saw this kind of raw lust on her face, ever. The only person who would ever hold her or touch her or kiss her. His body almost buzzed with how much he wanted her.

“Damn girl, will you stop wiggling around on me like that.” He pressed the contact for Francis and the phone connected. “I swear, you’re going to be the death of me.”

She leaned forward and put her hands on his hips. “Not for a very, very long time, though.” Nora pressed her lips onto his and slipped her tongue into his mouth.

Rain groaned deep in his throat and was just about to put the phone down when Francis’ voice sounded in his ear.

“Are you safe?” his alpha asked.

“Yes.” Rain pushed Nora back and sat up straight. “Why? You sound…worried.”

“Nora’s father came to the airport not long after you took off.” Francis hissed and away from the phone, muttered something with the words
not so hard
to someone.

“What is it?” Rain pushed Nora to the side and jumped to his feet. “What happened?”

“Oh, just Cavanaugh flexing his muscles.” Francis coughed and there was a long pause, as if he moved the phone. “As long as you and Nora are safe, that’s all that matters.”

Rain fisted his hand and pushed the fist into the wall beside his door. “I don’t want you fighting my battles.”

“We didn’t. Cavanaugh wouldn’t dare touch me, after the way the wolves in the South have been aligning these last few weeks. He’d have to fight an army. That’s why I sent you away.”

“I still don’t like leaving you exposed.” Rain felt Nora’s hand on his back and he raised his shoulder where she was touching him. He had to keep calm so she wouldn’t worry.

“We’re going to fly home as soon as the alphas have finished meeting. Cavanaugh can’t do anything to me. I’m the only link to you that he has, now. Plus, he needs this unbonded wolf situation to be handled. Nothing is more dangerous to a man like Edward Cavanaugh than information he can’t control.”

With a deep breath, Rain turned around and pulled Nora into his chest. “That’s why Nora will stay here. No one will ever find her here.”

On the other end of the line, Rain heard voices and recognized Aria’s. The other must have been her new mate. At least they would be there to protect Francis.

“Aria says she heard from your friends in Mexico,” Francis said. “They sent some wolves up into the mountain tribes looking for these men. We’ll keep you informed of their progress, but it sounds like this Maggie Gallagher is pretty on the ball.”

A smirk took Rain’s lips. “She is that.”

“What about Maggie Gallagher?” Nora pulled back and her eyes went round.

With a laugh, Rain said, “Francis wants me to have a harem. You and Maggie for starters. Maybe that hot chick from LA.”

Nora punched him so hard in the stomach, he lost his breath and doubled over. But he came out of it laughing and pulling her into his body, spreading his legs and leaning back against the wall so she’d lean against him.

He loved the fight in her.

“You don’t have to worry about them, anyway,” Francis said. “They’ll keep us all in the loop.”

There was a long pause and Rain could sense something coming. Some bomb that was going to drop and explode him. He tensed, waiting for Francis to continue, and Nora glanced up at him with worry etched on her face.

“You’re not going to be able to come back to New Orleans.” His alpha’s voice was so laced with sadness, it drilled down into Rain’s heart and wounded him.

“I know,” he said.

“Cavanaugh will have people watching us.” A twinge of sadness was evident in Francis’ tone. “You’ll be safer.
We’ll
be safer.”

“I know,” Rain repeated. “But you’ll know how to find me if you need to.”

Francis’ sigh just about broke Rain in two. “We’ll miss you.”

That was as close to a goodbye as Rain was going to get, and he choked on the silence that built inside him. He clicked his phone off when the line went dead and gripped it in his hand.

Nora rubbed his chest. “What did he say?”

Rain tried to focus on the steady rhythm of her hand, and not on the ball that was forming inside. “He loves us.”

She slid her body against his and stayed pressed against him for a long silence. “He is a good man.”

“The best.” Rain put down the phone. “Your father is neutralized, at least for the time being. And the team in Mexico is going to have to function without us.”

Nora nodded. “Ah. So that’s what the Maggie Gallagher comment was about.”

With a smile, Rain took her hand and pulled her onto the couch near the door. “Jealous?”

She raised one eyebrow. “Should I be?”

Something about the moment took Rain’s breath away. She was straddling him, her black dress a stark contrast to the white of the sheet behind her. She was so poised and regal and conservative, but she was so raw and real and genuine.

Everything he never knew he always wanted.

Rain pulled her down on top of him and found the zipper for her dress. “I want to see you,” he whispered into her neck as she writhed against him.

Nora sat back and shimmied out of her dress, standing in front of him and discarding the garment.

He took a moment to just gaze at her. Her long torso, the round swell of her heavy breasts, the naked curve of her shaved pussy. He slid his hand up her thigh and spread her labia with his fingers.

She shuddered and her nipples pebbled.

“I haven’t seen you like this before.” Rain stroked her, finding the warm, wetness and sinking fingers inside her.

Her legs buckled and he caught her by the hips, hauling her toward him and settling her pussy over his face. He spread her legs wide with his hands and she petaled before him.

Nora grabbed the back of the couch as he latched onto her clit with his tongue, reveling in the sweet, musky taste of her. She propped one high-heeled foot over the back of the couch and hitched her hips forward for more, better contact.

Rain sucked on her clit until she cried out his name and the urgency building inside him reached a pinnacle. He had to be inside her.

He set her on the couch and tore off his clothes. His erection bobbed in the cool air of the house, and cold pricked at every inch of his skin.

Nora’s half-orgasm-haze face ignited him again and he pressed down on top of her, finding her lips and kissing her until she wrapped her legs around him.

“Fuck me, Rain,” she panted in his ear.

His cock throbbed and touching it was almost painful, but he guided it inside her and they quickly found a rhythm that matched his heartbeat. Frantic, passionate, relieved. He drove into her like he’d found his home and could never leave.

Nora groaned beneath him and when his fingers found her clit, she closed her eyes and let out a moan he felt in every molecule of his body. She gripped him with her knees and pushed him back until he flipped to his back on the couch.

She held his hand between her legs and rode him, panting and calling his name, and he could have frozen time and been perfectly happy forever.

When he came, all the tension he’d been carrying melted away, and there was only Nora, smiling down on him in ecstasy, whispering over and over words he’d been struggling to remember.

“
Chun tú Geallaim mo chroí agus anam go deo
.”

In the fog of his orgasm, he felt magick wrap around him and pull at all of his insides. Something burned down his body, from his head to the soles of his feet, and in the flashes of streetlights that filtered in through his shaded windows, he saw marks began to form on her body.

Sitting across her shoulder, the mark appeared like writing from a wide pen, and swirled around itself into a Celtic knot. The swirls continued around her arm until they were two thick, green bands of knotting, encircling her arm. And the other arm as well.

She touched his arm in the same place and Rain looked up to see tears forming on her cheeks. He swiped at them and pulled her down against him.

The touch of her skin on his had a new hum, a new singing, and when she rubbed against him, he could feel the tingle in her clitoris, as though he was experiencing it through her skin.

Rain shook himself. All of the sensations were new to him, but being able to feel her pleasure, it was a drug that was quickly going to swallow him.

She continued to touch his arm, tracing something along his skin, and he looked down to see that he had a matching set of tattoos to hers. The green on her wrists had disappeared, and the green on her arms stood out nicely against the contrast of her alabaster skin.

He could get used to seeing her branded like this. His brand.

“I didn’t want to wait any more,” she whispered against his ear, sending a tickle through him that lodged in his heart.

“I didn’t want to wait, either.” Rain didn’t move her, loving the feeling of their joined bodies, and reveling in the moment.

He was mated. Bonded.

With the double rings of tattoos that he’d seen on so many of his friends.

This brought a whole new level of responsibility on him. Nora’s safety was in his hands, as much as her heart was, and the trust it took to give both of those things to him was overwhelming.

She sat back and the light from the streets settled against her skin again, illuminating shards of her new tattoos. He would never tire of seeing those marks on her, and he would never forget watching the magick brand her. Just the memory brought a stirring to his cock again. He would never get enough of her.

A noise startled him. The sound of a door opening and closing, but it was outside. Across the street. The silence of the night had lulled him into forgetting that he wasn’t alone. And Nora’s gorgeous, naked body was far too tempting. But he needed to get them settled into this place. Their new home. And that meant, it would be time to meet the guys.

He picked her up off his lap and set her on the couch, amid protests.

“Don’t you have a bed we can go to?” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, a secret look in her eye. “I’m not done with you yet.”