• CHAPTER 10 •

She hadn’t marked her mate.

That thought penetrated her sleep, filled her mind as she felt Dog slide into the bed beside her, his powerful body warm as he pulled her against him. She hadn’t known how chilled she felt until he wrapped around her, or how aroused until she felt his hardened shaft against her belly.

“Hmm, you’re warm,” she whispered, caressing his chest with her hand as she slid her leg along his.

“So are you.” Amusement rumbled in his voice, but she could sense the disquiet beneath.

“Ever’thing okay?” She pressed a kiss to his chest, feeling the muscles tighten beneath his flesh.

His hand slid along her back to her buttocks, calloused flesh rasping her skin and awakening pleasure centers beneath her skin that fed the arousal already beginning to burn.

“It is now.” He groaned as her tongue licked over a flat, hard nipple.

One hand tightened in her hair, tugging at the strands sensually as she rasped the small disc with her teeth.

She pushed against his shoulder, a lazy sensuality taking hold of her. It was unlike anything she’d experienced so far with him. It was deeper, overtaking her, but without the imperative race for fulfillment. It was wild, hungry, but with a need to relish every taste, every nuance of touch.

“What do you need, little halfling?” he whispered, turning to his back as she lifted herself next to him, her head lifting and lowering to his.

“My mate.” Her lips brushed against his, then her tongue. “All of him.”

“Then take him. I dare you.” His lips parted, taking her tongue as it slipped against him, his lips closing on it, suckling at it for brief seconds before giving her his in return.

The kiss was slow, deep. His taste and hers merging through her senses as the mating hormone began to infuse the pleasure they shared.

When she pulled back, her lips slid down his neck, nipping at the tough skin over his jugular, licking his Adam’s apple and then laving a path back to his chest. Her hands stroked over his shoulders, his sides. The need to touch as well as taste, to pleasure as well as take, folding over her like an erotic storm.

Dog stared down at her in wonder, the scent of her pleasure overwhelming him. It wasn’t the pleasure he’d sensed from her before. This was both wilder and lazier, her pleasure drawing from his as she kissed and stroked her way slowly to the engorged length of his cock.

His fingers tightened in her hair as he bit off a ragged groan and restrained the need to push her to her back and come over her, to give her the same pleasure she was giving him. At the same time he just wanted to lie there and soak in the sleepy need and rising emotions he sensed beginning to flow from her.

He hadn’t sensed this before. This ebb and flow of emotions, both fierce and gentle, like the woman herself. And never before had he sensed both the woman and the animal instincts she possessed reaching out to him as they were now.

Lowering his hands to the sheets beneath him, he clenched his fingers in the material and eased the control he kept on the inner beast fighting to rise to meet her hunger. Just a little, he told himself. He could sense the creature she hid as well reaching out, searching, and he knew what it sought. That connection on a level never known before.

Breed to Breed, mate to mate, man to woman. Animal to animal. That dark core of a Breed’s soul where the animal waited, watched, content to lounge until needed. Or when called free by its mate.

As he let those instincts free, he felt hers leap, surge closer. Suddenly, his skin was more sensitive, his cock harder if possible, throbbing desperately to bury inside her.

He could feel her pleasure mounting as well, the scent of it infusing the air, merging with his own. And when her tongue swiped over the head of his cock, it was pure, undiluted rapture.

The growl that tore from him was met with a feminine one of her own. Her hands stroked along his abdomen to his thighs, her lips parted over his cock head, sucked it inside the wet heat, only to release it moments later.

His thighs tightened, his lips pulling back in a snarl of denial, then one of pure pleasure as she licked her way down the shaft to his balls. There, she laved, played, kissed and sucked at the sensitive flesh until the need for her was agony.

“Oh hell, Cassie,” he groaned as she licked her way up his hard flesh again. “That hot little tongue is going to make me insane.”

She rolled it over the engorged crest, licking free the pulse of pre-cum before drawing the head into her mouth again.

As her lips lifted seconds later, he had to restrain the need to force her mouth back.

“I love how you taste,” she sighed against the sensitive skin of the crest. “The feel of you taking my mouth, taking my pussy.”

His enter body jerked at the sensual whisper. Ah fuck yeah, he loved hearing her talk dirty.

“And I love fucking your mouth and pussy,” he groaned, staring down at her as her mouth covered him again, sucking him deep, tongue lashing at the underside and straining his control.

“Fuck. I’m going to come in your mouth.” His voice was a tortured rasp.

She released him then, rising beside him before she shocked him, blew his mind as she threw her leg over his hips. Reaching down he gripped the shaft and lined it up with her slick inner lips. Rubbing it in the sensitive slit as a whimpering gasp fell from her mouth.

“Are you gonna ride me, baby?” He tucked the wide crest at the opening to her body and felt the hormonal pre-cum pulse from the head to the ultra-snug channel awaiting him. “Take what’s yours.”

She pressed into the penetration, moaning as the crest began stretching her, parting and exciting the slick inner muscles as he felt them close over the tip of his cock.

“Fuck. So sweet and tight. Go ahead, baby, take my dick.”

A cry whispered from her lips as her hips jerked, taking more of him. With each increment she forced inside her, the pulse of the hormone filled her, easing the muscles, sensitizing them, making her pleasure hotter, brighter, as it sensitized his own flesh.

She was tighter than a fist wrapped around the head of his cock. Her hips rocked, shifted, lifted, then lowered again, working him inside her until Dog was sure he’d die from the incredible pleasure. It was like sinking into the center of an ecstasy so pure he could feel it against his skin, taste it against his tongue.

His hands jerked from the sheet to her hips, gripping them as he felt her trembling above him.

“Scared, baby?” he whispered up at her as her head tossed, her hands suddenly gripping his wrists as she levered herself straighter, her hips rocking against his. “You’re so fucking tight. It’s pleasure and pain at once.”

Her juices spilled along the head lodged inside her as another harder, fuller pulse of his pre-cum ejaculated inside her. Her muscles clenched and rippled, tightening on him and sucking his erection deeper inside her.

“Harder, baby,” he groaned. “Work yourself on my cock harder. Take it. Let me hear you cry for it.”

She was trying to restrain her cries as well as the hunger building inside her.

“Let the fuck go,” he snarled up at her. “Damn you, don’t you pull back now.”

Levering his upper body up, he caught a hard nipple in his mouth, sucked it in deep, hard. His mouth closed around it, tongue lashing at it as she froze for one timeless second.

Then, the wild, inner core of her jerked free of her control, surged inside her. Her hips bucked, one hand locked in his hair, bearing down, taking him deeper, deeper …

Ah fuck. He was buried full length inside her, throbbing, her grip on his cock so tight several ejaculations of the hormone filled her one after the other. He released her breast and his back hit the bed, hips arching as he forced his eyes to stay open, just to watch her.

Her cries washed over him. Straightening, she tipped her head back and began to move, rocking, lifting and falling as her hair caressed his thighs, licked over his balls. His fantasy come to life, his wild little halfling riding him as those sensual curls teased his flesh with the lightest touch.

It was the most erotic experience, the most sensual pleasure, he’d ever known in his life, and he wanted nothing more than to hold her there forever. Just let the world recede and do nothing but spend his life buried in the heat and acceptance this one woman wrapped him in.

But the world wouldn’t recede, and as her flesh milked and stroked over his cock, the pleasure tightened, rose, began straining at his senses with the need to come. His teeth clenched, hips arched to her, a growl rumbling in his chest.

Then he felt her stiffen, felt her losing her breath. Gripping her hips, he gave her what she needed, moving beneath her, thrusting hard and deep inside her as he felt her unraveling. Her pussy locked around his shuttling cock, so fucking tight, rippling, sucking at his erection as her orgasm exploded through her.

The intensity of her release, the pleasure whipping through him, sent his own senses exploding, his seed shooting inside her as he felt his cock swell halfway up the shaft, locking him inside as his release gained momentum and he swore took the top of his head off.

Son of a bitch …

It was like fucking dying in ecstasy. He heard her cries echoing around him, felt her collapse against him, and all he could do was hold her to him as his hips jerked between her thighs, each ejaculation milking him dry.

When it was over, he had to fight to breathe. His breaths were sawing from his chest, his teeth locked in her shoulder, and hers locked at his chest.

He could feel her canines piercing his flesh, her tongue spilling the heat of her mating hormone to the small wounds, marking him as no other woman ever could.

She was marking him.

The primal satisfaction that raced through him was nearly as heady as the physical release. She was his. Completely, irrevocably. God help the man or Breed who thought he’d steal her from his arms.

 • • • 

The room was still dark when Cassie found herself suddenly awake. She lay against Dog’s side, his arm beneath her head and his body curved over her, holding her to him. Her hand laying at his heart, his covering it. And he was sleeping. Funny, but in the time they’d spent together, she’d only known him to nap.

Frowning, she blinked, lifted her gaze, then froze.

At first, she thought she had to be dreaming. In all the years she’d watched spirits walk around her, she’d never had an occasion to actually have a male visit her. And he was definitely a spirit. Tall, broad, so obviously Dog’s father given the fact that they shared the same features, the same coloring.

The spirit stood, military straight, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression curiously gentle despite the savage cast of his features. He was dressed in military fatigues, the shirt stained with blood. His blood if the torn cloth at the chest was any indication.

He laughed when he was boy, the spirit said softly, the voice filled with regret.> He had a coyote pup that would come out of its mother’s den and play with him. His laughter always reminded me of his mother.

Pain flickered across those hard features, and though he spoke to her, he never took his gaze from Dog.

I lost her, in childbirth. He glanced at her, but only for a second. She was too weak, from the damage to her body days before, when they’d found us again, to survive it. As she held our baby, she slipped from me.

Cassie didn’t speak; she didn’t think he expected her to speak.

He was ten when they found me. I’d left him in the mountains while I went for supplies. He looked at his chest and sighed before looking at Dog once again. I’d tried to train him to survive in case I didn’t return at some point, but ten is so very young for a child to be left alone. Even one trained to survive.

Ten was far too young, she agreed silently.

I swore to his mother I would always watch over him, so she could go peacefully to the other side. That I wouldn’t desert him until his mate found him, as mine found me. A thread of amusement touched his whispery voice. He’s a stubborn boy. Getting him to that island and getting him into place so I could draw you to the balcony that day took considerable effort, you know?

It was his presence she had sensed all those years ago, she realized. Hidden from sight but pushing her all the same. He was the reason she had agreed to those deals over the years, trusting Dog when logic told her it was insane. Because he was there, assuring her that Dog could be trusted.

You knew. I didn’t have to tell you. Though sometimes, I admit, I may have whispered assurances to the creature inside you. Your animal listens far better than you when it comes to my boy. He tilted his head as Dog shifted in his sleep, his hold tightening around her.

He survived, he whispered, once again somber. A boy, no more than ten. Alone. And until you, he never forgot he was alone. With you, he found hope.

And he’d given her hope. But her heart ached for the spirit who stood watching over his grown son even as he must have watched over him as a boy.

You should accept your animal, girl. It’s not truly Wolf, not truly Coyote, but a being as unique as your creation. It’s one creature, instinctive, accepting as no other could ever be. To survive, you must accept it as it accepted you, he warned her, taking his eyes from Dog only long enough to level a demanding look her way.

I named him Cainis, I called him Cain, the spirit told her, turning back to his son. I didn’t know how to be a father, but as I held my son and watched my mate die, I knew that small being was all that mattered. And as I died, unable to reach him, I couldn’t leave him. I’d sworn.

She felt a tear slip down her cheek, hurting for this Breed and for his loss, as well as Dog’s.

Now his mate has found him, and mine’s calling to me, he told her, his expression gentling as Dog’s hand gripped hers, holding it to his heart.

The spirit turned his gaze to her, his expression hardening then. Warn him, Cassie. Before you leave this place, warn him. His enemy knows him for who he is, for what he is now. The princess consorts with the enemy, it’s whispered, and Cain’s image has reached him … The voice trailed off, and fury flashed in eyes nearly black as the image wavered.

She could see him talking, his lips moving, his gaze fierce as he faded from sight, leaving only his regret and his fear for his son behind.

“Cassie?” Dog whispered her name, his voice scratchy, his hand stroking her arm as she realized she’d jerked upright, staring at the image as it faded, trying to read lips that she couldn’t see clearly to begin with. “What do you see, baby?”

Her head jerked around, staring down at him, and she realized she was shaking, trembling in reaction.

“Cainis, he called you Cain,” she whispered, her voice strangled as she fought to breathe. “It’s said the princess consorts with the enemy, and your image has reached him. He knows. He knows who and what you are …”

Fear tightened in her chest, a cold sweat breaking out across her flesh as Dog jerked upright and pulled the quilt around her before dragging her to the warmth of his chest.

She was so cold. Brutally cold. Ice flowed through her veins and she swore she could feel death breathing over her shoulder.

“It’s okay. Shhh. It’s okay, Cassie.” Dog kissed his mate’s brow and tried to warm her as he drew her back to lie against his chest. “It’s okay. Let me get you warm.”

It took long minutes to calm her breathing, to warm her, to convince her to just lie against him. It took even longer for her to drift back into a restless sleep. And all he could do was stare into the dark, the hairs at the back of his neck stiff with warning.

Cainis, though the spelling was different it meant the same thing. Dog. But his father had called him Cain. He barely remembered the father who’d raised him, who’d trained him to survive in a harsh wilderness. But he’d always remembered the warnings. If he was ever caught, his name was Cainis. He was created in Red Lab Three, but it was destroyed the year of his creation and he was rescued by a nurse who had since died. Always remember his enemy was Major. His mother was an angel. The warnings were always clear, repeated to him daily, and he’d repeated them back.

Until the day the man he called father hadn’t returned to the wilderness.

Cain. His father had called him Cain, but he was to never, ever allow the shortened version of his name to be known. If he was ever asked his name, he was Cainis. He was Dog. He was to beware of Major, and his mother was an angel.

He still carried the picture of his mother that his father had kept in the cabin. Blond, eyes a pretty blue, she’d stood tall, close to five-seven, and she’d stared up at her human mate dressed in military fatigues and glaring at the camera as though it were the enemy.

That picture was tucked in his pack, hidden in a slit he’d cut in the leather.

And the only way she could have known any of this was if the ghost of one of his parents had come to her.

It would have been his father, he decided, remembering the somber, taciturn man who had raised him. He hadn’t been one to give hugs; he’d avoided them. But he’d often found ways for Dog to have a reason to laugh. At some point, Dog had realized his childish laughter eased the pain he sensed coming from his father.

Fuck.

It was said the princess consorted with the enemy and his image had reached him . Because of him , his parents were dead. Someone he knew only as Major. And this faceless, unknown threat now knew who and what he was. He was a hybrid, born of a Breed mother, a human father. And now someone knew. And they would know he’d mated another hybrid.

Goddamn.