He carried her easily, even though Lillian knew she was no lightweight. She had too many curves and actually liked to eat rather than pick at her food and complain about the fat on a lettuce leaf. Jack was gorgeous, so why he was interested in her she didn’t know, but she could see it on his face as he looked at her. He made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. For that alone, she’d walk through the fires of Hell.

His arms were like iron bands around her back and under her knees. She didn’t bother worrying whether she was too heavy. He wasn’t human. She might have finally tipped over the edge into madness, but that little fact didn’t bother her anymore. In fact, the differences between them both thrilled and fascinated her.

Silence filled the room. There was no need for talk. Looks and touches were enough. He paused by the small bed and put her down, every curve pressing against the plains of his hard, muscled body. Her breath caught in anticipation and sensual excitement. All that power and control, hers to command.

His hands stayed lightly on her hips as she reached out to touch him. The world outside the closed door ceased to exist. For now, it was just the two of them in the little room, with the sun beating at the window and the smell of summer hanging in the air. Her lips pursed as she traced the scars over his skin. Too many hurts, so much violence.

Leaning down, she kissed them one by one, as though she could kiss the hurts away. Under her lips, his skin was satin heat, his scent clean and earthy at the same time, like the forest after the rain. She moved down, the muscles beneath her kisses jumping when she reached his abdomen.

“Might want to be careful down there, sweetheart. Straying into dangerous territory.” His soft chuckle was a little shaky as she neared his waistband.

The area below it was tented impressively, the heavy length of his erection pressing hard against the zipper. A wicked grin on her lips, Lillian shot him a look, then leaned down to plant a kiss against the fabric.

Jack swore, his hand finding its way into her hair. Emboldened by his reaction, she opened her mouth and grazed her teeth lightly over the head of his cock within the fabric.

“Fucking hell. You’re killing me,” he groaned as he tightened his fist in her hair to hold her in place. Not too tight, but enough that she could tell he was fighting to stay in control.

The devil on her shoulder couldn’t leave it at that. It just couldn’t. It would only be content with pushing this powerful man as far as she could and damn the consequences. Sliding to her knees, she started to unbutton the waistband of his pants.

He shifted, spreading his legs for better balance. The low rumble that escaped his chest was a mixture of pure torment and eager anticipation. The first button popped, then the second. By the third, his cock sprang free eagerly, as if it couldn’t wait to be in her hands.

He was huge. Lillian swallowed nervously. She’d seen him before, but he looked bigger now. Worringly so. Her mind did a rapid rewind. Every time he’d held her, kissed her, he’d never pressed fully against her. Had he been worried about scaring her?

A huff escaped her throat. She wasn’t that easily scared. Wrapping her hands around the thick, purple-headed shaft, she explored him with soft touches and strokes. He watched her, his eyes midnight with desire. She liked that, liked that he liked to watch. It spurred her on, encouraged her to do things she wouldn’t have done otherwise.

Wouldn’t have done otherwise? Hell, she was already out of her comfort zone and heading over the horizon. Not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, most of her sexual experiences had been with “safe” men. Men who undressed and folded their clothes as they went. Men who liked sex with the light off. In a bed. Once a week. Men she quickly got bored with, needing something else, needing something more.

Wrapped in her own little world, she leaned forward and licked him experimentally. Her tongue contacted the wide head of his shaft and his taste exploded on her tongue. Musky and salty-sweet, it wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, she liked it, a small sound of pleasure in the back of her throat as she concentrated on what she was doing.

Licking again with the flat of her tongue, she wrapped her lips around the flushed head of his cock. He gasped a strangled, choked-off sound as she hummed in pleasure and amusement.

She smiled around him and slid him deeper into the warm wetness of her mouth. He tasted good, and although she’d never been particularly fond of this act before, she was developing a new appreciation for it.

“Oh God, sweetheart. That feels so good.”

Jack held her hair lightly. Not to control her but, she suspected, more to have something to hold on to and ground himself with. Feminine satisfaction ran through her. She loved that he was so gentle even though his body trembled as he held still. She loved the fact she had this power over him, even though he could easily snap her in two if he wanted.

His cock jerked under her hands and lips, the big vein on the underside of the shaft pulsing. A drop of pre-come leaked from the slit at the tip. She lapped it up eagerly. A tortured groan left his lips as she took her time about it, and he pulled away.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I won’t last long enough like that,” he whispered as she pouted. His hand still in her hair, he urged her to her feet and backward onto the bed. “And I have far more I want to do to you, and with you, before that happens.”

They fell onto the bed together, a tangle of limbs as he rolled over her. His fingers looped around her wrists, and he pulled them over her head, pinning her in sensual slavery under his hard body. She arched her back and pressed her breasts against the solidly muscled expanse. They ached, she ached, her pussy ached…an ache she knew instinctively only he could ease.

“You’re wearing way too many clothes,” he breathed by her ear, then paid homage to it, nibbling along the edge before pulling the lobe into his mouth and suckling. His tongue played with the tiny gold loop she wore, the flickering motion shooting hot and cold chills through her body.

“Then take them off,” she panted, baring her neck. She needed more. More of his kisses, more of everything he was doing…more of him.

He chuckled, the sound a rumble against the tender skin of her throat. “Bossy little minx, but who I am to argue?”

The question was rhetorical, so Lillian didn’t bother to reply. His large hands moved over her with a speed that spoke of desperation, and an efficiency that said he knew his way around women’s clothing.

Somehow, she didn’t think he was a cross-dresser.

“Done this a few times before, huh?”

She arched an eyebrow at him as he unsnapped her pants and yanked them down her legs. Her blouse was just as swiftly whipped up over her head.

He sat back on his knees and looked down at her. Lillian shivered at the heat in his gaze, like a blue inferno. Suddenly she was pleased she’d worn something pretty for work. Floral satin, the pattern tiny and delicate, covered her breasts, and the tiny thong made her feel that little bit naughty. Even though she didn’t have a boyfriend, she liked expensive lingerie, liked the feel and sensuality of it against her skin.

Correction, she hadn’t had a boyfriend.

Although…was boyfriend the right word to use for the man looming over her with carnal intent in his gaze? It was far too benign and nice a word for the heat that licked at her skin and dampened the lace between her thighs.

His nostrils flared and his eyes darkened another notch, until she was looking into midnight velvet. The humor died away as he leaned down and drew a line from her lips, all the way down her body with his fingertips. He traced the deep cleavage between her breasts and onward, down over her stomach until he reached the lace of her thong.

Sliding a finger under the tie on one side, he pulled it down, inch by slow inch. He didn’t speak as his other hand joined the first in a mirror image, hooking under the lace and satin. She swallowed as the panties slipped down over her hips, her thighs. The lace between her legs peeled away, as though he were unwrapping a birthday present, to reveal the neat, dark triangle of clipped hair that covered her mons.

“Perfect.”

His voice was so soft she wasn’t sure she heard him properly, until he repeated himself. “Absolutely perfect.”

He pulled the thong free, the satin skimming over her legs and feet to hit the floor somewhere behind him. His large hands wrapped around her delicate ankles and urged her legs apart. Soundlessly she obeyed, transfixed by the feral look on his face.

He was going to…oh God, he was.

Her eyes fluttered closed, unable to process anything but the feel of his lips across her skin as he kissed his way back up the inside of her leg. He paused for a second to flirt with the back of her knee, but soon moved on again and blazed a trail of kisses over her inner thigh. His broad shoulders forced her legs wider.

Even though the room was warm, being completely open as she was meant her pussy was exposed. A shiver rolled through her as a slight breeze of cooler air from the window washed over her lips and teased at her clit.

“More than perfect—amazing.”

His voice was reverent. She bit her lip as his warm breath replaced the cooler breeze. Everything within her narrowed down to the ache between her legs and his next movement. Anticipation roared unchecked. Time slowed as she waited.

He brushed his tongue over her, and she nearly came off the bed. Pleasure cascaded as he circled her clit once and latched on, drawing the little bud of pleasure into his mouth to suckle on it. He sucked, nibbled and licked, concentrating on the tiny button of flesh. He didn’t let up, driving her higher and higher with his lips and tongue until she couldn’t breathe. She needed to come. Needed it so much that she was going to go insane with wanting.

Broken whimpers and pants filled the room. Belatedly, Lillian realized they were hers. Her hands twisted and tormented the sheets on the small bed as Jack gorged himself on his sensual feast.

“Oh…oh my God, I’m coming,” she gasped, tapping at his arm as he cupped her breast through the lace. A silent signal for him to stop. Her previous boyfriend had always wanted her to wait to come until he was in her. Since it took him under a minute to finish, sometimes she had to get the timing right, or the main event was done and dusted before she got into her groove again. She’d made up for the loss with a large collection of vibrators.

Jack didn’t stop. Instead, he growled and continued to feast, lashing her over-sensitive clit with his tongue until she screamed and shattered around him. Pleasure hit her hard, a blitzkrieg of sensation that left her breathless as it rolled through and around her. Jack thrust his tongue deep inside her, tongue-fucking her as she spasmed and stretched the feeling out until she was weak with the force of it.

“Oh my. That was…”

He pulled away as the last tremors rolled through her and crawled up her body. His long fingers hooked into the front of her bra and released the heavy fullness of her breasts to his hot gaze and hotter lips.

“Amazing. Simply amazing. You’re amazing,” he finished for her, his hair-roughened thighs brushing against hers. The bed shifted as he dipped his hips and fit the broad head of his cock against the slick wet lips of her pussy.

She bit her lip again as he slipped half an inch into her without pushing. She was so wet…she’d never been this wet for anyone before.

“Please,” she murmured, and lifted her hips in invitation. He slid another few inches, and her body stretched around him.

With a mingled groan of need and feral possession, he pushed into her all the way. It was a long, hot ride of pleasure as his thick cock stroked every nerve ending in her sensitive feminine sheath. Finally his hips met hers, his cock kissed the entrance to her womb and she had to try and remember how to breathe.

“God, you’re tight. I’ve never felt anything so wonderful before.”

He braced himself on one forearm, planted in the sheets next to her head. Holding his body rigid, he closed his eyes. She gripped his upper-arms as she waited for the slightly uncomfortable, full feeling to fade. She felt stretched, stuffed beyond capacity, and it burned.

It shouldn’t hurt. It wasn’t like she was a virgin or anything. Frustrated beyond measure, she shifted to try and get more comfortable.

“Ohhhhh…”

The moan of pleasure was torn from her lips as the slight movement stroked those nerve endings again, all at once. The burning disappeared, leaving her with just the full feeling and an irresistible need to move.

She did. She rolled her hips again. Jack swore, his cock swelling even further as it jerked inside her.

“Sorry, sweetheart, this isn’t going to take long,” he apologized, kissing her as he started to move. Long, slow pumps of his hips as he worked his thick cock in and out of her.

“I don’t care. Just…just…faster.”

She knew she was begging. She didn’t do begging. Right now, she didn’t care. She’d get down on her hands and knees and crawl over broken glass if he’d just keep doing what he was doing.

He groaned and increased his speed. The bed beneath them squealed in protest, slamming against the wall rhythmically as he took her. With fast, heavy thrusts of his hips, he claimed her and made her his.

His lover. His woman… She felt the truth clean down to her soul as he drove into her.

Their movements got faster. Skin slapped on skin as the scent of sex and arousal filled the air around them like a fine perfume. Even though she’d just come, Lillian felt the familiar tightening between her thighs.

“That’s it, baby, come for me again. I want to feel it, I want to come with you. Together,” he whispered in her ear as she struggled to keep up with him.

It was there, the edge of the chasm. She screamed and fell willingly, pushed over as he slammed into her a last time and roared his own release.

She was in heaven. She’d come home.

* * *

Although he was sprawled on the bed, flat on his back with his arm around the slender woman at his side, Jack wasn’t asleep. Far from it. Instead, he was in a comfortable cocoon. Not asleep, but a step from being truly awake. Ignoring the pull of full consciousness he lay, warm and comfortable.

He’d slept. Actually slept. The realization was one he was still trying to absorb as Lillian’s evocative scent wrapped itself around him, ensuring he was just as trapped in her web as he had been hours ago when he’d finally claimed her as his mate.

He hadn’t slept properly since the night he was turned. Most of the time he was like an insomniac on speed. As soon as it looked as though sleep would claim him, something…he had no idea what it was…kicked in and he was wide-awake. If he got an hour or two snatched here or there, then he’d had a good night.

Part of him desperately missed sleep, missed those lazy weekend mornings when the world consisted of little more than a soft mattress, a warm duvet and the blessed knowledge that he had nothing pressing to do or anywhere he needed to be until he reported back for duty on Monday morning.

However, another part of him rejoiced, if that was the right word. His life had changed. People who slept put themselves in danger. Any moment, Project heavies could burst through the door with tranq guns and silver chains, or worse, shove a newly turned Lycan through the door instead. Jack wasn’t sure which was worse—the heavies meant another long spell enduring tests and the second option meant he and his pack had to subdue an often wild, usually terrified wolf. Sometimes they were too far gone into the madness and fear. He didn’t like those. It meant a brutal and painful death under another wolf’s claws. Usually his. He was pack alpha, it was his responsibility. He wouldn’t put that on his men.

So he was always watchful, he was always vigilant and he was always waiting for the Project to try something.

That made the fact that he’d fallen asleep wrapped around Lillian all the more surprising. He’d have thought he’d be more protective, more watchful, now he had a mate to look after, rather than fallen asleep like a babe in arms.

She lay draped half across him, using his chest as a pillow. Her hair covered him like a blanket. The soft whisper of her breath caressed his chest and stirred the slight line of hair down the middle. In a lazy movement, he lifted his hand and tangled it in the long dark locks as a smile crept across his lips.

Memories of having her under him, around him, rose sharp and immediate. His cock was already hard, ready and raring to go. It was like she tapped into all the primal male aspects of his psyche and brought them out to play.

He didn’t get it. Even before he was turned, he’d been strictly a “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” type. Not the touchy-feely type, and not the type for a long term relationship. He could be called away at a moment’s notice and be gone for months, so it had never seemed fair to ask a woman to wait around on the off-chance he might make it back. He’d never felt this way with a woman before. Never felt this need to cuddle up and wrap himself around her. To make sure every guy, human or wolf, knew she that she belonged to him.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled her scent into his lungs. So deeply down inside that she became a part of him. His wolf, usually close to the surface and ready for a fight, stirred lazily and then went right back to sleep. Damn idle creature.

The ever-present smile widened some more as he let the wolf sleep. If there was danger, he’d be off the bed in a heartbeat, the creature inside fully awake and both of them ready to fight to the death to protect their mate.

What was it about her? What made him feel this way? It wasn’t protection. She was human, she couldn’t fight her way out of a paper bag and the idea of Little Red Riding Hood protecting the Big Bad Wolf was ludicrous.

Clearing his mind, he concentrated, filling his senses with everything about the woman lying over him. The sound of her heart filled his ears, the soft whoosh of her breathing, the siren call of her scent filled his world.

It was her, just her, he finally decided. Something about her pulled him in, triggered something deep within and had its hooks into his soul. His arms tightened around her slender form and he knew that he’d go to the ends of the earth for her. He’d lay down his life in an instant to protect her, and if anyone ever threatened her…

The snarl rumbled up through his chest unbidden, nearly escaping from his lips. With iron control, he forced it back down. If anyone threatened her, then they’d better have a king’s ransom in silver bullets handy, because he’d rip them limb from limb and dance in their scattered entrails.

She murmured, a frown on her face, as though she could sense his mood even in sleep. Her delicate hand fluttered against the toned muscles of his abdomen. A soothing movement.

Releasing a sigh of pent-up emotion over a threat that currently was only imagined, Jack dropped his head back to the soft pillows and studied the ceiling. They were in no danger. They’d escaped the trap at the hospital. He knew the Project—they would regroup and send more teams out, but that would take time. Before that happened, they would be gone. So there was no need to worry, but now that sleep had finally fled, he was wide-awake.

His gaze wandered over the ceiling. Wooden cladding covered it, the same as the walls. Light, dimming now as twilight approached, filtered in through the shuttered window above the bed. He liked the room; it screamed old-country rustic.

It was also highly defendable, with its small window and solid door. The soldier in him appreciated such things. The wolf in him was drawn to the link with nature, the fact that everything about them had once been part of something living, unlike the steel and concrete of their barracks back on base.

Jack snorted to himself. Barracks. Yeah, right. They might have been at one point, a couple of decades ago. Now they were little more than the shells of buildings ringed with reinforced girders and steel mesh. Oversized dog pens. They were lucky they had Richards in the squad. He’d been a plumber before joining up, a skill he’d never expected to have to use in the army. He’d managed to keep the toilets and showers working. Otherwise they’d have been pissing on newspaper in the corners like common mutts.

His heightened senses warned him a second before someone rapped on the door. He tensed, his body ready for a fight. The door slid open a few inches, and Jack was on his feet, stark naked and with a warning growl low in his throat.

The door stopped. He strode forward and threw it open to reveal a startled Sanders. The wolf’s gaze flicked over Jack, over his broad shoulders before doing a quick dance down his naked body. When it reached his groin, a flush burned across Sanders cheeks, and he quickly found somewhere else to look.

Belatedly Jack realized giving the only gay wolf in the pack an eyeful wasn’t the best, or most sensitive, idea he’d had all day. They’d left most of the homophobic crap behind with their humanity, but that didn’t mean Sanders was going to find it easier to find a partner. The rest of the wolves in the pack were as hetero as they came, aggressively so.

“What’s up?” Jack grabbed his pants and stuck his feet in the legs before dragging them up to cover himself.

“We’re changing watch, boss. LT said to wake you, see if you wanted in.”

Jack zipped the pants up with a swift movement and looked up. Just in time to catch the wistful look on the other man’s face as he looked at the sleeping form of Lillian in the bed. His wolf didn’t react, recognizing Sander’s longing for a mate of his own, not for Lillian. His voice was soft when he spoke.

“It’ll happen, Joe.” He ushered the smaller man out of the room and closed the door behind them. “One day you’ll find a guy who just can’t resist you.”

Sanders sighed as his gaze darted across the room. It was subtle, almost not there at all, but Jack caught it. For a split second, Sanders’s face was wide open, his expression twisted with longing and need, as he looked over at the half-naked form of the pack’s former plumber, Richards.

“Yeah, I know. But will he measure up?”

Heart wringing in sympathy, Jack dropped a hand on Joe’s shoulder and squeezed. He’d never suffered the agony of unrequited love, but he knew it when he saw it. “Of course he will. More than. You’ll see.”