Chapter 10

GRACE STARED AT the mark on her throat the next morning.

“Now everyone will know you’re mine.”

Shivering at the memory of the way he’d run his finger over the spot when they finally got home after making out like teenagers, Grace decided not to cover it up with makeup. She was proud to be Cooper’s. And it wasn’t as if her packmates had any doubts about his intentions, she thought with a delighted laugh, her entire body humming with anticipation for the night to come. The fact her wolf had accepted him at her throat…

Happy and excited and a little bit terrified—in the breathstealing way of a woman who knew a sexy, dangerous man would soon be in her bed—she went to work with a smile on her face, ready to handle the teasing.

What she was not ready for was for her brother and sister to turn up. The two took one look at the unmistakable mark on her throat and lost it, their eyes turning an identical wolf amber swirled with green.

“Are you insane, Grace?” Pia yelled, having dragged her out into the sunshine-drenched forest so they could talk without being overheard, her petite size no indication of her temperament. “The man is a lieutenant! Not only that, he’s a lieutenant with a reputation for being a total hard-ass. He eats submissives like you for breakfast!”

Slender Rev was more elegant in his choice of words but no less violent in his repudiation. “You need someone gentle, someone who knows to treat your wolf with care. Thank God we talked Dad out of coming with us—he’d be ready to spill blood after seeing that bruise on your neck.”

As she opened her mouth to point out that the “bruise” was a very welcome love bite and that she’d seen plenty like it on the throats of Revel’s various lovers, her sister went off again, so she folded her arms and waited. Pia would eventually run out of steam, or pause to catch a breath. Meanwhile Rev would wait for Grace’s reply to rebut her words. It was an aggravatingly familiar pattern—but she knew the doofuses were freaked out because they loved her.

Her wolf sighed in exasperation, put its head on its paws, and waited.

Except the pattern altered in a rush of fury as another man snarled into the clearing. “Are you all right?” was Cooper’s first question, his irises ringed with that distinctive feral yellow that said his wolf was riding him.

“I’m fine.” Shifting closer, she put her hand on his chest. “What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter?” It was a snap of sound. “I get a report that two unfamiliar dominants hauled you bodily out of the den, and you ask me that?”

Suddenly infuriated, she narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you use that tone of voice with me.” She would not take it, not from anyone, and especially not from the man with whom she intended to share skin privileges both intimate and precious.

His response was to shove her behind the wall of muscle that was his body. “You”—his words were snapped out at Pia and Rev—“have three seconds to explain why you dared lay hands on her.”

“She’s our sister.” All black hair and wolf eyes, Pia was magnificent in her anger—she would also be mincemeat if Cooper took offense at her aggression. “And you have no right to use your position to force her to share skin privileges.”

Grace wanted to beat her head against a mountain of brick at that ugly statement from her generous-hearted, talk-before-she-thought sister. But she didn’t have time, because Cooper’s claws had shot out, a violent growl coloring the air. Slipping around his body and gripping at his arms with her own claws when he picked her up and attempted to put her back, she raised her voice to be heard over the cacophony of her siblings’ cries for her to get away, to run.

“Cooper. Cooper!” Twisting her head when she felt Pia and Revel move, she said, “No!”

They halted, unvarnished shock in their expressions. Grace never yelled. Not at them.

Satisfied she’d bought a fraction more time, her feet still dangling off the ground, she leaned forward and did the bravest thing she’d ever done in her life. She bit Cooper hard on the jaw…and got no response aside from a slightly irritated snarl, his gaze locked on her siblings. “Cooper,” she said, digging her claws deeper into his flesh, “you ignore me now and that’s it. We’re done.”

Her desperate gamble worked, his gaze ricocheting to her, the yellow so bright, it was a shocking kind of beauty. “They challenged me. They said I hurt you.”

“I know.” Allowing her own wolf to rise to the surface, to guide her, she held his gaze…and wasn’t afraid, not of his anger. Because even though she’d bitten him, clawed him, he held her with a gentleness that was a silent rebuttal to any accusation of abuse. “And I know I’m asking a great deal, asking you to go against your every instinct, but please don’t hurt them.”

His lashes came down, thick and straight and inky black. Lifted again. Yellow eyes stared at her, and she knew the wolf was listening but wasn’t convinced, especially when her siblings continued to yell in the background.

Blowing out a breath, she concentrated on Cooper and played her ace. “How will you face my mother if you send Pia and Revel home in pieces?”

A pause, then—“I’d tell her she birthed stupid pups.”

Dark growls from the pups in question, but she knew the danger had passed. Cooper’s response had been sharp, sarcastic. “Thank you,” she whispered, because it was a gift he’d given her, this dominant wolf whose instinct it was to respond to any challenge with a show of violent force.

His next words were subvocal, for her ears only. “I like your claws. Next time, use them on my back while I’m inside you.” Wrapping an arm around her waist after that wicked request, he tucked her to his side, ignoring her attempts to check what damage she’d done to his forearms.

“I should break every bone in your bodies for that display of insubordination,” he said to Pia and Revel, his tone so coldly harsh that her siblings went quiet at last, a little of the color leaching from their skin. “But,” he continued, “that would hurt Grace, so you get a single free pass.”

Grace met her siblings’ eyes. “You do it again, you deserve anything he dishes out.” The hierarchy existed for a reason and could only be bent so far. Cooper had gone well beyond what might be expected of him, and she wouldn’t ask it of him again.

“You’re mad at us.” Revel sounded lost.

Sighing, Grace went to walk toward him, found herself restrained. She looked up, asked another gift from Cooper, this man whose wolf was so close to his skin. “Let me go for a second. I need to say good-bye properly.”

He released her, but she felt his eyes watching her every step of the way as she went into Revel’s arms, squeezing him tight, then doing the same to Pia. Before she could speak, explain to them that her relationship with Cooper made her so, so happy, Revel jerked back, his eyes flicking to Cooper over her shoulder.

“Shit,” he muttered, but not low enough that she missed the word. “Come on, Pia. We need to catch that shuttle.”

Pia scowled. “What—”

But Revel was already dragging her away, waving good-bye to Grace as he went and calling out to say, “I apologize, Cooper. I didn’t get things. Thanks for not shredding us.”

When Pia squawked something, Revel hissed at her under his breath. Her sister stopped struggling, twisting her head around to stare at Grace and Cooper, her mouth falling open before an enormous grin crossed her face. “Bye, Grace! I’ll tell Mom and Dad you’re fine!”

Grace stared after them as they disappeared into the trees, a dark suspicion forming in her gut. There was pretty much only one thing that would’ve eliminated her siblings’ protective worry with such absolute effectiveness. “Cooper, are we in the mating dance?” The male always knew when the dance began, and more than a few of them were less than inclined to tell the female half of the pair until said female was too committed to back away.

“If we are?” A challenge.

“Don’t you think you should’ve told me?”

“No.” The infuriating male kissed her. Unlike his coaxing kisses before, this one was a demand, a raw melding of mouths that swept away her foundations and left her floundering.

Then he grinned. “You’re not afraid of the big, bad wolf anymore, Grace.” Picking her up, he backed her into a tree, her legs going around his waist. “I want you.” Clever fingers on the buttons of her shirt.

“Stop.”

Hearing the panic, Cooper froze, realizing too late that he’d made a huge tactical error. Though Grace hadn’t been frightened by his anger, that didn’t mean she was ready to give him the kind of intimate trust he needed from her if they were to share a bed. During the fight, she’d been in that protective mode where a submissive could become oddly fierce, her body high on adrenaline.

But the fact was, she’d only offered him her throat last night. It was way too soon to expect more, any demand apt to push her into an instinctive submission that’d scar them both. “I’m sorry.” He pressed his hands palms down on either side of her body. “Baby, I’m so—”

Fingers on his lips. “I’m not afraid of your anger,” she whispered, eyes flicking up to meet his for a single, brilliant instant. “In fact”—a slow smile—“I’m proud I stood up to a lieutenant and forced him to listen.”

He laughed at the adorable hint of smugness, tension snapping. “You also clawed him and he’s keeping score.”

A nuzzling kiss that told him she was utterly unrepentant, even as her hands stroked over the already healing cuts. “But deep inside,” she continued, “the wolf already knew you’re built to protect rather than hurt those like me. The other…the intimate skin privileges…that’s new, unexpected, and the vulnerability it asks for…it frightens my wolf until it forgets what we’ve already shared and retreats into the rules of the hierarchy.”

Fingers on his nape, petting gently before worried eyes met his for another fleeting moment. “You won’t give up, will you?”

“Hell, no. You’re mine and I’m keeping you.” Conscious all at once that she’d softened around him, and made no protest to the fact he had her pinned against the tree, his hips nestled intimately against her, he brushed his lips over hers. She opened on a sigh, her hands sliding to grip his shoulders.

Much as he wanted to use his own hands, he kept them on the tree trunk, and in spite of the fact she wore his mark on her throat, he didn’t attempt to move his mouth down to that sensitive area. Not today, when he’d inadvertently frightened her wolf in his impatience. Today, he’d just kiss her…and plan the next step in their dance of courtship.

•   •   •

COMING home after a midnight-to-six shift on the perimeter, Cooper crashed for a few hours. It felt as if the nightmare gripped him in its jaws the instant he closed his eyes and shook, until he woke screaming. Angry and frustrated, he punched the wall until his knuckles bled. It took teeth-gritting control to shake off the dark effects, and he kept his distance from Grace, not wanting her to see the emotional damage with those too-perceptive eyes of hers.

Instead, he sent her miniature peanut-butter tarts to have with her lunch, got a note in return saying he would make her fat…as well as a pink cupcake decorated with their initials in a frosting heart. Laughing when he hadn’t thought he’d smile today, he bit into the cupcake and sent back a note saying he liked something to hold on to in bed.

When he finally dared go to her that afternoon, her eyes danced at him and he had to steal a kiss, squeezing her hips the entire time. Her touch warmed the ice-cold places deep inside him that no amount of hot water could reach, her fingers soft against his cheek. “You didn’t sleep well.” She brushed at the smudges under his eyes, a frown marring her brow.

“Yeah, I’ll sack out early tonight…unless you want to crawl into bed with me? Then I’m sure I could be motivated to stay awake.”

The frown didn’t disappear. “You’re doing it again.”

“What?”

“Using sex to muddy up the waters.” Cupping his face, she rose on tiptoe and kissed him until he was breathless. “Talk to me.”