Chapter 13

Candice sniffed the air, her ears perking up when she heard a squeaky cart and thought the waiter might be bringing their food. The steaks sure smelled good. She hoped it was their food and not somebody else’s. She felt hungry enough to make the waiter give her the food if it wasn’t theirs. Because she was a wolf. So much for her being a highly trained obedience dog.

Before the waiter reached the door, Candice suddenly had the urge to shift and jumped off the bed. As soon as she landed on the floor, her whole wolf form blurred into a human’s.

“Talk about perfect timing,” she said, turning to get her bag. “You know you didn’t have to make me do that many tricks to prove I was a good little doggie.” She wasn’t annoyed with him, just harassing him. She grabbed her bag and headed for the bathroom. “She got the point after a couple of them. Were you trying to prove how good you were with training your dog? Just be prepared if the roles are reversed one of these days.” She smiled.

Owen took hold of her hand and pulled her into his arms for a warm embrace, not about to miss the opportunity to show how much he cared about her. “I would do anything you commanded. Though in my defense, I have to say I wanted to make sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she believed you were a dog.”

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess. I’m sure you were glad to get your own shifting more under control, and the prospect of dealing with someone like me who has more trouble isn’t what you had in mind when you came to find me.”

“Are you kidding?” He kissed her lips and ignored the fact the cart was nearly to their door, as if it didn’t matter that she was naked in his arms. “I meant what I said about loving you. I want you for my mate. My mind’s made up.”

She laughed. “That wouldn’t have anything to do with me being an heiress, would it?”

He laughed. “No. Truthfully, we already have quite a fortune between us. Which is why we were able to buy so much land and build our homes. With the sale of our homes in the Seattle suburbs, the sale of our business, the money we had saved, and the inheritances some of us had, we’re set.”

“Room service,” a man said, tapping at their door.

“Coming,” Owen said.

“Did you say there were two of us and a dog?” Candice asked as she slipped out of his arms and into the bathroom.

“Yeah.” Owen waited for her to shut the bathroom door, then opened the door to their room. She heard the waiter carry in the trays of food and set them on the table.

After Owen paid him a tip, the waiter left and Owen locked the door. “All clear,” he said to Candice.

She was just glad she could eat her meal as a human, enjoying the steaks and the rest of the meal, rather than wolfing the food down off a plate on the floor.

She wasn’t entirely surprised Owen told her that he loved her. Everything he did showed how considerate and concerned he was. How he desperately wanted her to be part of the pack, but was trying hard not to show his desperation.

From the moment she met him—once she was certain he wasn’t a daddy wolf with a mate—Candice had known he was someone to trust and rely on. But it was more than that. He was her inspiration—the hot wolf she needed in her life to make the hot wolf scenes even more real in her books. When people asked her where she got her inspiration, she would be able to point to him. He could be hers right now, and she didn’t have any reason to doubt he was the one for her.

Would she have felt any differently if she hadn’t been turned? She didn’t believe so. She was still worried about eating before she shifted again, so she’d let him know how she felt after they ate.

“This looks delicious.” She sat down across from him.

“I was so afraid you were going to have to eat as a wolf.”

“Believe me, so was I. I don’t know. Suddenly I smelled the steaks, and it was like that triggered the shift, though food never has done that before. It might have just been that I’d been a wolf long enough. I have to say you were amazing when you rescued me today.”

“Hell.” Owen cut into his steak. “That’s something I’ve never had to do before. I envisioned my big feet still sticking out from underneath the stall door as the women came inside. Believe me, I was relieved I made it in time.”

Candice laughed.

“What happened? I thought you could control it for about a half hour.”

“You must know how it goes. I can sometimes. But when I’m feeling stressed, that’s another story. I don’t think I’ll be able to safely help you drive to Houston.”

“No problem. I love driving, so I’ll be fine all the way there and back.”

“About that.” She cut off another piece of tender steak. “After I sign all the paperwork, it’s going to be really close to the night of the fullest full moon. What if you can’t control your shifting any more than I can? Then what are we going to do?”

“We’ll play it by ear. We can get a hotel where they allow pets and sit it out if we need to. We could just put up the Do Not Disturb sign and put out the card that says no room service. Then no one would bother us. After that, we could settle in for a long wolf’s winter nap. Together.”

“Okay, sounds like a good plan for now.”

When they’d finished their dinner, Owen set the trays outside their room and bolted the door again. “I was serious concerning how I feel about you.” He pulled her into his arms and held her close, his blue eyes beautiful as he gazed down at her.

Smiling, she shook her head. “You told me when I was pretending to be a dog.” She slipped her arms around his waist. “I can’t go back to the way it was before. All I’d think of was you and wanting to be with you if I returned home to stay. Since the change, I haven’t felt this happy in a long time. I haven’t felt like I was part of a family. I’ve just been drifting along, doing what I needed to for work and taking quiet runs by myself as a wolf when I could. You changed all that for me. I can’t imagine not waking up to smell the coffee already on, or hearing you talking to your characters when you’re trying to work out a scene in your head. Except it’s not exactly in your head.”

He laughed. “Sorry about that.”

She smiled at him. “It’s okay. I might steal some of your ideas.”

“I’ll have to be quieter then.”

“By all means, talk away. You were right there to rescue me when I shifted so unexpectedly. I mean, how many guys would crawl under a woman’s stall door to rescue her and risk getting caught?”

He nuzzled her cheek. “I’m serious, Candice. I would do anything for you.”

“I have to warn you,” she said, running her hand up his back. “You’re going to be in all my books.”

“As long as I’m not the villain, I’ll do whatever I can to give you new experiences you can write about.”

“Ohmigod, yes! Let’s get started.”

Owen’s jaw dropped. “Wait, you mean it? You want to mate me?”

“Did you ever doubt I would want to? That you couldn’t convince me you were the only one for me?” She smiled up at him, loving him.

“You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in the last seven years, and I’m not exaggerating.”

“You don’t think it’s too impulsive of us? Are you sure I won’t be too much trouble?”

“Hell no. I couldn’t live without you, no matter the trouble we get into. I loved you from the moment I saw you standing across the river. I just never had any hope I’d find you again.”

“The other guys—”

“Will love that you’re in our pack and treat you as protectively as any of us will.”

“Like I’ll protect them back.” She took a deep breath and placed her hands on either side of his face and pulled him down for a kiss. “I love you.” And that was all the talking she was going to do.

He kissed her right back, and she started tugging at his sweatshirt. He was trying to unfasten her jeans when his phone rang, and he growled.

“Better make sure it’s not important news,” she said, as much as she didn’t want to be interrupted.

“Yeah, Gavin, did you get anything?”

“No, we just wanted to make sure Candice is okay.”

“She shifted back, and we just had dinner. We’re kind of busy. Let’s talk later unless you’ve got really important news.”

“Ah, hell. Man. She agreed to mate you? You were supposed to bring her home so we could have more of a chance to prove one of us is the one for her.”

Owen laughed. “Not this time, buddy. We’ll talk later.”

“Congratulations. Hell, now I’ve got to be the one to tell David. We’ll only call you if it’s really an emergency.”

“Thanks. We appreciate it.” Owen hung up and set his phone on the desk, then turned to help Candice out of her clothes, but she was way ahead of him.

Owen jerked off his shirt, and Candice slid her hands up his bare chest. He paused to cup her face and kiss her, their mouths fusing before he gained entrance, plundering her mouth and deepening the kiss. He inhaled her scent—sweetness and light, desperate need, sexy and compelling.

She slid her hands down his hips to his pants and tugged to unfasten the belt. He kissed her cheek and nibbled on her ear as she undressed him. Then she unfastened his zipper and ran her hand over his boxer briefs, her warm fingers caressing in a tantalizing way, his erection jerking under her touch.

He quickly kicked off his boots and tugged down his jeans, tossing them aside. He yanked off his boxer briefs and removed his socks before he placed his hands over her silky, red bra. Her nipples pressed against his palms. He captured her mouth in another searing kiss, not believing they would soon be mated.

Owen reached behind her and unfastened her bra, throwing it on the floor. His cock, hard and throbbing with need, pressed against her as he straddled her on the bed. “Condom,” he said belatedly, thinking he needed to fish one out of his bag. It was way too soon to try to have little ones. They needed to get to know each other inside and out as a couple first, and he needed to give her more time to adjust to being a wolf.

“Got it covered.” Then she frowned. “It does work for shifters, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. Faith and Cameron already have triplets so they use birth control. I only know because David was asking why they weren’t having another litter of pups.” Owen assumed she was using birth control, not knowing how rare it was to have a shifter baby with a human and wanting to be prepared.

“I use them to regulate my periods,” she said, smiling, as if she knew just what he was thinking.

He smiled at her, then they were kissing again, and he was rubbing himself against her glorious body, loving the silky, warm, soft feel of her. Loving her. Ready to make a whole new life for himself, wrapped in her love.

* * *

Candice never thought of herself as impulsive, and she usually thought things out more than she had this time. Yet every part of her being believed Owen was the right one for her as he kissed her senseless and began to sweep his hand down her belly toward the center of her. He stroked her hard, then soft, sending sparks of desire shooting through her.

She hadn’t realized what she had been missing for the last two years, but it wasn’t the same as being with anyone else. The raw, primal passion she felt for Owen as she raked her nails gently down his back, his familiar masculine scent, spicy and musky, made her feel at home with him. The way he set her world on fire with his strokes only helped to confirm how much she needed him in her life.

His blue eyes were darkened with lust as he devoured her mouth again, as if he couldn’t get enough of her. She clasped his face with her hands and kissed him back just as hard, before they were frantically licking and tonguing each other again. And then she felt heaven and earth collide in a shattering orgasm like she’d never experienced before, the headiness leaving her thrumming with pleasure.

“Ohmigod,” she said. “Owen. I. Love. You.”

He smiled at her and then centered himself between her legs. “I love you too, more than I can say. Are you sure you’re ready?”

“Yeah, we’re mating and you’re not getting out of it.”

He chuckled, leaned down, and took her nipple in his mouth. He teased the tip with his tongue, enjoying the sweet taste of her, the heat of her body warming him on the cold night. “Wouldn’t think of it.” And then he pushed inside her until he was all the way in and began to thrust, his muscles tensing. He felt her wet heat surrounding him, her inner muscles just as tense until he began kissing her again.

Then Candice relaxed and the driving need to take, to consume, filled him with an overwhelming necessity to finish this, knowing full well it was only the beginning.

Releasing his seed inside her, he felt relief and joy—that she was his, and he didn’t have to fight any longer to win her over. Not that he wouldn’t do everything he could to make her happy for the rest of their mated lives, but at least the pressure was off to prove he was the best-suited wolf for her. He couldn’t love her any more than he did.

Owen rolled onto his back, pulled her into his arms, yanked the covers over them, and snuggled with her. He suspected she had not had sex with anyone in the last couple of years due to the trouble with shifting and the possible complications of a relationship with a human. He was so glad she was with him and all his.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Hopeful that you haven’t made a mistake in me.”

He snorted. “Why? Because you’re the wolf of my dreams, and I might think differently when I wake in the morning? Not on your life.” He rubbed her arm and kissed the top of her head.

“What if I turn into a wolf in the middle of the night?”

“I’ll love you just the same. What if I shift in the middle of the night?” he asked.

“No animals allowed in bed.”

He laughed. “We’ll see about that.”

She might push him out of bed if he was kicking in his sleep as a wolf, chasing after rabbits in his dreams, and that was all right with him. If she shifted, he was pulling her close and hugging her. He couldn’t be more pleased to have her in his bed or in his life, no matter what form she was.

They made love two more times that night before he woke to find her kicking him in bed as a wolf. He was going to prove he loved her just as much in that form. Half asleep, she woofed while he petted her head until she woke enough from her dream to sit, as if she hadn’t realized she’d shifted.

“Come on. Lie down with me.”

She licked his cheek first, snuggling between his legs, her head on his crotch. He’d never last like this.