Chapter Nine

Garrett

 

Even with the wolf screaming to be set free, my mind works to be present for Amber. “Baby, do you understand what this means?” I ask as I carry her to the bedroom. I don’t know how she even knows about marking.

“Yes,” she whispers. “That you’ll mate me for life.”

“That’s right. Once I’ve marked you, I’ll never let you go—not for any reason. I’d follow you to the ends of the Earth to keeps what’s mine.”

Miraculously, she doesn’t seem disturbed by that. My tough little independent lawyer appears to be willingly giving herself over to me.

“Do you hear me? You will belong to me. Forever. You’ll be mine to protect and hold. To pleasure.”

“I want you to mark me,” she repeats, seemingly undaunted by my words.

I shut the door behind us. “Do you know what it involves? I’ll have to bite you, Amber. A wolf bite. It will definitely hurt, and most likely scar you.” And if I fuck up, I could kill you. Fates, I don’t want to do this to her. She doesn’t deserve this kind of trauma.

She nods. “I saw the scars—in a vision. That’s how I know this needs to happen.”

A vision. Thank the fates. I can’t be making a mistake if she saw it.

I sit down on a chair, Amber straddling my lap. I figure I need to stay on the bottom. Anything to slow me down, keep me from mauling her. I palm her ass cheeks in both my hands, squeeze them. She rocks her pelvis down, grinding over my rock-hard cock.

I tug her shirt off and unhook the pale-pink bra. It’s sweet and delicate, like her. She definitely doesn’t belong with a guy like me, but I can’t stop myself from claiming her, now that she’s offered.

My position in the pack will be altered. My dad’s predictions that I’d never be able to lead my own pack will prove true. I don’t give a fuck. Amber’s mine. I need her, like a wolf needs to run.

Her perky breasts spring out of their satin enclosure, and I attack one, sucking the stiff bud into my mouth.

Amber lets out a wanton cry that nearly has me jizzing in my jeans. I’m one stroke away from coming, as it is. One breath away from piercing her with my lengthening teeth. The second I sink into her, I’m going to go off like a cannon. But I owe her so much more than that. I don’t want her to remember her marking as only pain and trauma.

I turn my attention to her other nipple, flicking it with my tongue, grazing my teeth over it.

“Shirt off,” she murmurs.

“Hmm?”

She hooks a finger in the collar of my T-shirt. “I want your shirt off, too.”

I smile through my haze of lust, drunk on desire, and peel off my T-shirt. She runs her hands over my pecs and arches into me, rubbing those beautiful tits against my bare skin.

A growl erupts from my throat. I have to mark her soon.

“I need to be inside you, baby.” I lick a line from her solar plexus to her throat.

She wriggles off me and loses the rest of her clothing. “Good,” she encourages.

“No,” I groan. My breath comes in short little pants now as it takes all my effort not to throw her to the floor and pound into her until she splits in two. “I doubt it will be any good. I’m going to come the second I’m inside you.” I unbutton my jeans and release my straining cock.

I pull her onto my lap, facing away, and bring my fingers to the notch between her thighs. “I’ll make it up to you later, I promise,” I manage to say. “I’ll make it up for the rest of our goddamn lives.”

A shiver runs through Amber. I don’t know what it means. I sure as hell hope it wasn’t foreboding.

But her pussy is wet. I know she wants me. I rub the head of my cock along her dewy slit. My entire body shakes with the effort it takes him to keep myself in check. Every cell in my body screams for me to throw her down and fuck her roughly, marking her forever with my teeth.

She shifts to line her sweet channel up with my throbbing length, and I snap my hips, spearing into her. A shudder of satisfaction runs through my body. Like I’ve just found home.

Nothing has ever felt so right in my life. My vision domes and sharpens as the animal in me surges forward. I grasp Amber’s waist and lift and lower her over my cock, hoping to the fates I’m not bruising her, not scaring her with how hard I grip, how deep I thrust.

My hips lift to meet hers and I’m falling, falling into deeper, darker need.

She’s making encouraging sounds—wanton sounds.

“Amber... Amber... I want… I need—” Fates I can’t even put together a sentence. I bounce her over my rigid cock like I’ll die if I don’t get enough. If I don’t get deeper. Faster.

I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting back the impulse to fully claim her. I pull her over my cock hard and fast, owning her body, dominating it completely as I wrestle with my wolf for control.

“Yes, Garrett,” she cries out.

“Who do you belong to?” I snarl, riding a wave of lust so high I’m delirious. Each thrust into her tight channel makes me crazier.

“You! Please, Garrett, I’m so close.”

“I’ll give you what you need,” I growl, hoping I can deliver because the fever that’s taken over me is hotter than magma. I stand and bend her at the waist like a rag doll. Now I can drill into her with more force.

She screams. “There! Oh God, right there. Oh God, don’t stop, don’t stop, pleeeeeease.” She tumbles over the crest into orgasm. The moment her tight little pussy clamps down on my cock, the leash on the wolf snaps.

My movements grow jerky as she continues to squeeze my cock with her finish. Growls fill the room. and I open my eyes, realize I’m making the sound. My fangs drip with the secretion to embed into her flesh. I want to give it to her so badly. Every muscle is coiled, ready to spring.

And just like that, I go off. Cum shoots up my shaft. I sit and yank her down tight in my lap, my feet stomping on the floor, a roar echoing off the walls. If she were a wolf, I’d bite the back of her neck, but I have to be so fucking careful. I sweep her pale blonde hair from her neck and sink my teeth down on the fleshy part of her trapezius, where I’m least likely to seriously injure her.

I hold back the torrent of energy demanding I snap my jaws with force, bury those teeth deeper into her flesh.

She cries out, and I squeeze my eyes closed against the surge of guilt. My stupid cock doesn’t get the message, and I come again, thrusting into her. Shaking, I extricate my fangs from her flesh and lick the wound clean. The antibodies in my saliva should speed her recovery. “It’s over, baby. I’m so sorry.” I grab my T-shirt and ball it up to press against the wounds and staunch any flow of blood.

Amber gives another gasp and a whimper. She turns to look at me, and her wide blue eyes fill with tears.

“Oh fates,” I choke, my own eyes smarting.

She touches my face. “No, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

I lift her from my lap and grab the blanket from the bed, wrapping it around her.

I must look horrified, because she holds up her hand. “I’m okay. I’m okay.” But—fuck!—blood’s soaking through the shirt at her shoulder. I want to smash things, everything within reach. My female is hurt, and it’s my fault.

“Amber.” I speak her name like a prayer. Like a lament. A beg for forgiveness, even though she’s already granted it.

A knock sounds at the door. “Everything okay?” Trey asks through the wood.

I lift Amber and ease her onto the bed then pull on my jeans and open the door. Trey stands there, Jared behind him.

I’ve never been more grateful for my pack mates’ support, especially considering I just tried to smash their faces in. “Do you think she needs stitches? Or whatever it is humans do for wounds?”

Trey walks in, radiating calm. “Let me see it.” He takes the shirt from Amber and peers at the wounds. “No. these look okay to me. No major arteries. I think she’ll be okay. They don’t do stitches for puncture wounds anyway; they want them to get air to prevent infection.”

Thank fuck. I hope to hell he knows what he’s talking about.

Jared produces a bottle of Spanish-labeled pain reducers. “I went out to get you some ibuprofen,” he says to Amber. “And coconut oil because it’s supposed to be anti-bacterial and anti-fungal.”

“Not for a major wound, you idiot,” Trey says and Jared punches him.

“And I have liquor, too, if you prefer that.” Jared holds out a bottle of Jose Cuervo.

I shove the bottle of Cuervo away. “No liquor. Yes on the painkillers. Can you get her a glass of water?”

Amber accepts the ibuprofen. She’s looking pale, which fucking kills me, so I scoop her up and climb to the head of the bed, settling with her cradled against my chest.

Jared returns with the glass of water and three ibuprofen. “Do you need anything else?”

I shake my head.

“All right, we’ll leave you alone, then.”

The two boys walk out. Maybe it’s because my chest has been ripped up, leaving my heart standing open and unprotected, but my gratitude for their loyalty overwhelms me.

 

~.~

 

Amber

I lean back against Garrett’s solid chest. “I feel...kinda weird.”

“The serum that coated my teeth contains a drug that will make you a little high. It calms the female after she’s been mauled.”

“Is this dangerous for female wolves, too?”

He shook his head. “No. shifters have incredible healing capacities. It would be a temporary pain for a she-wolf. She’d be out of pain a few hours, healed by morning.” He strokes my hair back from my face, worry etched in the lines of his face.

“I’ll be fine, too.”

He runs his thumb along my cheek. “You are incredibly brave. You’re alpha material, even if you aren’t a wolf.”

I study him. “What does that mean, exactly?”

His face closes, as if he has something to hide. “Nothing. Just that you’re a good mate for an alpha.”

Ah. I understand now. “Except that an alpha’s mate should be a wolf.”

His jaw tightens. “I don’t care about that.”

I don’t have to be psychic to know he’s hiding something. Protecting me from something. Shitballs. My certainty about wanting to be marked erodes. “So it’s a problem that I’m human? Of course it is,” I answer my own question. “Because you won’t produce shifter offspring.”

“May not,” he corrects. “And that’s inconsequential. Me being alpha is of no matter, either,” he declares.

Goose bumps stand up on my skin. My head’s foggy from the drug in the serum, and I give it a shake to clear it. “Wait...you might lose your position as alpha? Because you’re mated to me?”

His face hardens. “You’re not just a human. You’re a paranormal, with second sight. You’re a perfect mate for an alpha,” he repeats as if speaking directly to my would-be detractors.

My vision blurs. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” he says fiercely. “Not sorry. You’d better not be sorry for me, because I’m the lucky son-of-a-bitch who found his fated mate. Do you think the urge to mark happens every full moon, with any female? It doesn’t. I’ve never felt it before I met you. So, I may have held back, but it wasn’t because I was worried about losing my position as alpha or of the stigma of mating with a human, or anything like that. Do you understand me?” He cups my chin. “It was only out of my fear of hurting you, and because it wasn’t fair to claim you under these circumstances.”

“What circumstances?”

His face clouds. “I strong-armed you into helping me. I brought you here against your will. You hardly know me. And you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into by mating with me.”

The serum has relaxed me now, taking away the agitation and sharpness of the pain. “What have I gotten myself into?” I bring a teasing lilt to my voice. “A dominant wolf who threatens to spank me when I don’t follow orders?” Just saying the words reactivates my lust from earlier, and when Garrett inhales sharply, I know he’s scented my arousal.

“You have a mate who’s going to use your little body any and every way he pleases, anytime, anywhere,” he growls in my ear. Wrapping a fist in my hair, he tugs my head back.

My pussy clenches.

“When you displease me, I will pull down your panties and spank you with my hand. I’ll shove my big cock in your ass, and I won’t let you come.”

A shocked giggle comes out of my mouth. My body turns to liquid desire as orgasm looms close without my lady bits even being touched. He seems to know because he slides his thick fingers between my thighs, somehow finding the swollen nub of my clit through my jeans.

“I’ll tie you to the bed and fuck you senseless. And when I’m finished, I’ll shove a big plug in your ass and spank you, just because I feel like it.”

“Y-you’re crazy,” I mutter, but my thighs scissor together, and an orgasm rips through me. My pelvic-floor muscles lift as my pussy contracts in a series of waves.

Garrett palms my nape. “Damn, girl, even having marked you, I don’t know how to make it through the night without fucking you six ways until Sunday.”

“What’s holding you back?” I ask in my best bedroom voice.

“The open wounds on your shoulder.” That killed the mood. “And knowing my father will be here soon.”

A flash of knowing flickers. “He’s here now,” I say, just before a loud knock sounds on the suite door.