Fifty-three
Glenna knew she was awake, but she lay there trying to identify the myriad odors in the room and why she felt like her aching body was locked in a straitjacket. Was she really that bad off? Had they given up on her?
Her newly sensitive sense of smell identified that she was back in her sickroom at the cabin. She sighed. Locked down in the cellar again. But under the acrid smells of smoke and blood and medicine lay a spicy smell she desperately needed to make sure was really Sam.
Her eyes were gritty and sore, but she opened them anyway. All she could see was bare skin covered with whirls of hair moving up and down as he breathed.
Relief flooded her. She was in the cellar, but Sam was with her and he lay wrapped around her, holding her so tight she couldn’t even move.
Glenna released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d sucked in. “Sam?” Her throat was just as sore and gritty as her eyes and she coughed, trying to clear it.
“You’re awake.” He growled the words out, his deep voice rough with smoke and wolf.
“Sam, you’re skin is on fire.” She went to sit up, but his arms clamped tighter and he shuddered.
“Don’t move. I can’t control it any longer.”
“Control what?” She held still. “Sam, you’re going to have to explain.”
“Glenna, if you reject me, I’ll be able to go. But you need to do it now, before I just don’t care anymore and I take you by force.”
“Sam, I don’t understand.” She wanted to move, wanted to look him in the face, but her small wiggle had him clamping down again, and the shudders racking his body became fiercer.
“The fever is eating me alive. I’m at the end, Glenna.” He panted for breath. A drip of sweat dropped off his brow and trickled down her collarbone. “I wanted to go earlier, but I had to find out, had to know. Can you take me on? I won’t take you against your will, I’m no Alastair.”
A sudden picture of Alastair’s frenzied face made her shiver.
“Glenna,” Sam ground out. “I’m holding on by a thread. I didn’t want it to be this way. You should have a choice, you should be able to get to know all the potential mates and pick someone who you really want. You deserve to choose without the change forcing you to.”
Glenna hadn’t even thought about the change. She felt for her wolf and the reassuring presence was there. A solid, silent voice deep inside that told her that her wolf had no qualms about Sam. In fact her wolf desperately wanted to be claimed. Her need came through loud and clear and carrying with it a sexual vibration that slid into Glenna’s veins like liquid gold.
“I want you, Sam.”
His body shook. “You aren’t through the change yet, it’s too soon. It could take months for you to balance out. I remember, it took a long time. How can you be sure it isn’t just the hormones? How can I be sure you’ll even want me once you sober up?” Another shudder ripped through him. “I should go.” He shifted his weight, rolling back on the single bed, his face tortured.
“Wait.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Just wait.” She didn’t feel unbalanced, didn’t feel overcome with emotion or unable to make a decision. She’d felt all that before the change, and right afterward it had gotten better. Now she tested her wolf out. Tested herself out.
“Sam, why do you think I’m unable to make this decision? I feel fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, absolutely fine.” She sat up a little, drawing the blanket up to cover her body, which she suddenly realized was black and blue. “I’m tired, and sore, and my lungs hurt like hell, but I’m so much more than I was a few days ago.” She giggled with the joy of knowing her wolf and felt an answering joy inside. “I’m a wolf shifter. And I’m happy.” She smiled at Sam.
“You sound like you’re still crazy.” He moved to get up.
“No.” She held tight to his arm and he stopped, his shoulder muscles twitching under her touch like a spooked horse. “No, I’m not crazy. I’m completely sane and sober. I think you are underestimating what happens to an adult under the change.” Her wolf’s smug agreement had her continuing, “I’m fine Sam. I’m not an adolescent dealing with hormones and a changing body at the same time learning how to live with a wolf. I can make decisions.”
His eyes were somber. “This is for life, Glenna. So much more than death do us part.”
“I choose you, Sam. I love you. You’ve always been there for me. You push me, and it turns out, I like to be pushed.”
A storm of desire blew through his eyes. His voice dropped even lower. “You need to be absolutely sure, because I am not stopping. Once I start, this is forever.”
She leaned in and kissed him, firmly. She put all her new knowledge of herself and her love for him into it. His lips trembled under hers and his grip on her arm tightened painfully.
“Claim me, Sam.”
His eyes flashed hot and he rolled her under him in one swift movement. She forgot about the bruises and the bumps and held on as he opened his mouth and kissed her. This was so right. She growled softly in satisfaction as his mouth trailed heat down her collarbone and across the top of her breast.
“I love you, Glenna. It’s not just the fever. I’ve wanted you since I saw you fighting not to take a bite of that lasagna. I wanted you like I’ve never wanted anyone and I knew you would be my downfall.” She pressed her hips up to his. Fire burned through her veins. “I can’t wait anymore, I have to take you now.”
“Don’t wait.” He’d turned her on so fast and so hard that she didn’t need or want a warm up. What she wanted was him inside her. What both she and her wolf wanted was the satisfaction of his teeth in her neck. The Bite.
Glenna trembled.
“Are you afraid?”
“No, I’m excited.”
She wanted him on her, in her. She wanted his teeth sunk into the nape of her neck. She pushed on his chest.
“Tell me what you want.” He pinned her arms above her head and nuzzled her nipple, barely touching it and sending crazy spirals of desire shooting through her veins. “I can’t hold on, Glenna. Tell me what you want before I break.”
She thrust her hips at his. “I want to roll over. I want you to take me from behind. I want you to bite me.”
Sound came from him in a shuddering rush. “You undo me, woman.”
Love rushed through her, amping up her desire even as her frustration level rose.
He slid his naked body along hers and she didn’t even feel her bruises and bumps, just the glory of his skin against hers. Fire licked through her. This was it, and she wanted it. Now.
He licked her nipple, sucking it in and out of his mouth. A moan ripped from her and she rubbed her hips against his, spreading her legs wide until she cradled his erection. Two could play at this game.
He slid to the side, pinning her legs with his.
“Nope, not gonna let you distract me. I have enough distraction with the fever pushing me to take you now.” Sam growled low against her throat. “Hold still and let me play. I promise, it won’t be long.” He sucked and dragged his teeth down her ribcage.
Glenna bucked and moaned, trying to flip over. “Sam, now.”
He chuckled, but his voice was strained. She reached for his cock, taking it in her hand and pumping it. He groaned. “Damn, woman, I was trying to do that for you.”
“Quit trying to control me.” She fought free and turned over. He rose up behind her and she brushed her ass against him and widened her thighs. “We’ve waited long enough.”
She felt the growl all along her skin as he took her hips in his hands and pushed the tip of his cock into her pussy. She urged him on with throaty moans, holding still so he could get it done. Then he was inside and moving and she screamed out her pleasure.
He thrust hard and she met him thrust for thrust her orgasm spiraling up and up until she shuddered into it. He bit her.
Her skin tore in Sam’s teeth and Glenna’s vision went red.
Her wolf howled inside and Glenna howled as Sam bit deep and she came at the same time. She rose into the orgasm in a way she never had before, color washing through her brain. The red went orange, then white as she shuddered with her mate, forming the bond that would last forever.
Glenna collapsed onto her belly with Sam’s large body pinning her down.
“Umph,” she said into the mattress.
He rolled over. Satisfaction such as she’d never realized existed flooded her body. She curled into him and he held her tight, brushing her hair away and kissing her wound.
“So this is it?” she asked. Her world twirled on its axis and she held onto Sam until the spinning stopped. Colors seemed brighter, her wolf felt stronger.
Sam touched her, and everywhere he stroked her skin burned and shivers skittered down her spine. “How do you feel?”
“Exhausted, drained, incredibly happy.”
He gripped her chin and turned her face until they were eye to eye. “I hope to God this is what you want.”
“Oh, Sam, how can you doubt it?” She gazed into his eyes and sent waves of love to him. His eyes widened in surprise, his hand dropped to his side.
“I felt that. At least I think I did. What did you do?”
“Nothing. I don’t know.” Inside her wolf laughed. Knowledge flooded through her from her wolf. “We’re mated.”
“I didn’t know—I didn’t realize it was like this.”
She smiled at him. “I hope this is what you want.”
“From the moment I first saw you I wanted you. If I’d had any idea it would be like this, you would have been claimed that first day.”
Glenna smiled at him. “No, you wouldn’t have. At every turn you’ve pushed me away, offering me the chance to leave you almost hourly. If there’s one thing I know about you it’s that you would have given me the choice.”
“Would you have taken it? Would you have stayed with me that first day?”
“No way.” She laughed and wiggled her eyebrows at him. “But maybe after I saw you naked in the woods.”
She thought back over the last crazy week. Here she was mated for life to a man her family would never approve of, never accept. And she was never going back to them.
A wave of sadness flooded through her. Sam’s embrace tightened.
“Hey, I felt that too,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
Anxiety poured off him and she struggled under its weight. “I just...” she sighed. “I miss my sister and I’m not sure I’ll ever see her again. How can she accept this? If I see her, will she be in danger?”
“I’m sorry.” Sam stroked her shoulder and she felt his anxiety turn to a comforting reassurance. “You’ve given up a whole life.”
“You know, I have given up a whole life, but it’s funny, I feel free.”
She smiled at Sam and he grinned back at her. “Sarah is alive and well and smart enough not to get tangled up with Roger. I have a new life, a wolf and a mate. She has the old life, but I’m getting a whole new one. And it’s going to be so much better than I ever thought my life could be.”
Sam pulled her in tighter and whispered in her ear, “I love you, my mate and now that I have you, I’m never letting go of you again.”
Every bit of Glenna—the new Glenna, the old one, and the wolf—all glowed with new-found happiness. Who would have guessed when she’d woken up in the hospital that her fatal diagnosis would mean so much change—and so much love.