~

 

Kiel rocked back on his knees, taking his mate with him, and locked one strong arm around her body to keep her in place. His other hand fisted her hair and opened her neck and shoulder to his longing gaze, and his hips didn’t miss a beat.

Mine…

He was powerless to stop his beast from pushing forward. The need to taste her blood was like a fever in him that was never going to be denied, and as his fangs elongated, he could feel her inner muscle clamping around his thrusting cock, and he all but lost his mind to the perfect moment.

Ashley cried out at the sheer intensity of the orgasm that hammered through her body. Caught up in the whirlwind of pleasure, she barely noticed the pain of his fangs as they tore into her flesh.

Kiel tasted her blood on his tongue, and his beast roared at the bond that was formed between them. Body to body – soul to soul – those moments of joining was magical.

When he released his fangs, he made short work of sealing her wound with his tongue. The fever within his blood was burning like lava once more, but this time; it was with the need to place his seed within her womb and find his own release.

Kiel pushed up onto his knees. His hands palmed her backside as he held her up at just the right angle to be able to bury his cock to the hilt.

With the heady aroma of their arousal in the air and the guttural sounds that were coming from Ashley’s lips, he was wild with need.

Every muscle in his body strained, burned, and begged for mercy, but he wasn’t listening. His mate was close to coming undone around him, and he gave her that release before he took his own.

The powerful clench and release of her inner muscles sucked his seed from his balls, as he craned his neck back on his neck and howled like a wildling. Over and over, he buried his cock to the hilt and gave her everything that he had to give.

Body to body and soul to soul they rode to oblivion together.

 

~

~

~

 

If Jeff had a cat, then he might just have kicked it. He wasn’t in the best of moods, and was it any wonder when his mate had rejected him?

But the sound of his brother’s mating howl had just put the damn cherry on top of the icing on his miffed off cake.

He stomped into the kitchen and gave Nancy a hard stare as he grumbled a growl and looked as if he was chewing a wasp. It would have been hard for her not to notice the big behemoth seething was annoyance.

“We need to talk…” he growled out.

“With you looking like someone stole your toys from your cradle, not bloody likely.”

“Why did you protect me from the faeries?” He took a step and demanded an answer from her.

“Because I could.” She lied.

She’d protected him because she had the overwhelming urge to do it, but whether that was because he was her mate, or not, didn’t make a damn difference in the big scheme of things to her.

“I scent something in the air, and it’s not the smell of roses.”

“I suggest you have a shower.”

Jeff growled long and hard. Yes, she could run verbal rings around him, but that wasn’t the point.

He wanted answers, and he wanted them now. If she was going to reject him, then he wanted to know. He needed to leave before his beast pushed forward and he became a rogue wolf.

He wouldn’t put his family in danger.

He wouldn’t put his pack in danger.

He wouldn’t put his mate in danger.

Jeff stalked toward her. He saw her body snap to attention. He saw the way that her eyes narrowed on him, she was unsure — and that look gutted him.

Jeff ground to a halt. He scented the air looking for the smell of fear.

He might not have been able to smell it, but he sensed that there was a streak of it within her.

“What are you doing?” She looked like a viper that was coiled and ready to strike.

“Leaving,” Jeff growled.

His beast clawed within him, needing to be set free, and he slammed that cage door shut. He turned and started for the back door.

“You’re what?” Nancy couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.

Leaving?

How the hell could he be leaving?

Wasn’t he supposed to be wooing me?

Did I miss something somewhere along the way?

It’s not like I want to be wooed, but still, I’m sure he’s supposed to be in wooing mode.

“You obviously have made up your mind about being my mate…” He tossed over his shoulder as he reached for the handle of the door, and he hesitated only when she spoke again.

“I have?” Now Nancy was really confused.

She certainly didn’t remember telling him to take a hike. Especially in a snowstorm.

“Haven’t you?” He demanded as his fist closed around the handle.

“I’m … thinking,” she said, and she was too.

“My brothers have already mated…”

“I didn’t get the timetable.” She shot back.

Jeff closed his eyes and allowed his head to fall forward on his neck. He didn’t understand women — he didn’t understand her — but he was trying, and failing.

It was Christmas. He thought that magical and things were supposed to happen at Christmas, he guessed he was wrong.

“Where are you going in the snow?” Nancy asked.

She knew he was a shifter, she knew he had a wolf, and yet, the thought of him being out there alone in a blizzard didn’t sit well with her. Maybe if the damn snow hadn’t started again, it wouldn’t be so bad, but it had.

“Away,” Jeff growled.

He didn’t want to go away. This was home — this was his pack — she was his mate, why would any sane, rational person leave all that behind?

Because if his mate rejected him, then he was going to turn into a mindless, soulless, beast of a rogue that would attack without thought. Kill anything and anyone in his path.

He wouldn’t allow that to happen.

“That’s not an answer…”

“What makes you think you get to ask me that question — any question?”

“Well, der … I’m your mate.”

“Are you?” Jeff’s heart was beating in his ears.

She may not have meant it the way it had sounded, but it sounded damn good to him.

His mate.

If only.

“So you said. Of course, you could have been lying through your wolfy fangs, I’m not to know, right?” She snorted a chuckle. “I could just be the poor sap that you claim as a temporary mate until you find your real one — how would I know?”

Jeff turned on a long, hard growl of annoyance. He stalked back across the small space between them.

His dark eyes were locked and loaded on her. He looked like a predator that wanted to rip her throat out.

“Are you damn insane woman?” He growled long and hard.