The Mermaid's Mate (5 page)

As she caught her breath, Timber poised his erection at her center. She could feel his tip, the hard, thick head of him, push against her tingling flesh. And as Timber leaned down to kiss her once more, she lifted her hips. He took what she offered, sheathing himself completely in a single stroke. He moaned as their mouths collided and he slid his tongue past her lips.

There was nothing but this moment and this man.

He thrust into her again. And again. His body was taut, glistening with sweat—a vision Marian branded into her memory. They moved as one, the sound of flesh meeting flesh and heavy breathing canceling out every other sound in the world. She whimpered as he dove deep, pounding against her hips.

When he propped himself up on one arm and used his other hand to massage her engorged clit, Marian cried out. Timber went rigid, and the intensity of her orgasm heightened. He plunged into her one last time, pitching them both over the edge.

Chapter Eight

When Marian came to, she hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep. She was tucked in the nook between Timber’s arm and shoulder, her head on his chest. They were naked, their arms and legs tangled together, nothing but the sound of their breathing filling the den. She craned her head to look at him—his eyes were closed and his mouth had fallen open slightly, letting the soft sound of sleep escape his lips.

She loved this moment and wanted to capture it. She loved Timber. She hadn’t told him so, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel it.

As the urge to sigh and nuzzle against him hit her, Marian flinched.

The only reason Timber made love to her was because he finally trusted her. Now she had to leave his bed and finish her mission, betraying him the way
she hadn’t
two years ago.

But Timber had to understand that Marian wasn’t betraying him to fulfill a mission from her Emperor. Well, she
was
obeying an order, but her sense of duty stemmed from more than that. She was saving the Mer people. Without the largest chunk of Mer stone in close vicinity to their home, they would weaken. Their ability to shift into mermaids might be slowed, muddled, or might not happen at all. They wouldn’t be able to access their home beneath the waves. And if Ryder planned to negotiate the terms of the release of the stone back into her Emperor’s hands, what would he ask for? More land? Treasure that had been passed down along family lines for centuries? Her people could be reduced to nothing—no home, no wealth, with no ability to shift.

She had to save her colony.

Moving slowly so she wouldn’t wake him, Marian slinked out of bed and scrounged around for her pants and shirt. She shoved them on, her gaze fixed on Timber. He looked so content—his skin was nearly glowing bronze, and a smile had quirked the corners of his full lips. The sheet was draped over his hips, his arms still reaching to the side as if she were still there, cradled against him. He had no idea what was about to happen to him.

Stalling is only going to make it worse.

As Marian dressed quietly and tiptoed through Sapphric’s den, she got the feeling there was no turning back. Timber had been angry the last time when he assumed she’d betrayed him. Now that she was really going to do it...he’d be livid when he found out.

What else could she do? She couldn’t stand back and let that Ryder steal their stone. If Timber took the fall with him, she’d be heartbroken...but it couldn’t be avoided.

“Forgive me, Timber,” she whispered, lifting the fur hanging over the entry. She stopped and looked back, saying the things she didn’t have the courage to say to his face. “You’ve got your duty and I’ve got mine. Unfortunately, my loyalty doesn’t align with my heart.” She steeled herself for the agony she’d feel when she turned her back on him. “My loyalty lies with my people and protecting our stone.”

* * *

Timber reached out for Marian and brushed his hands across a cold sheet. She must’ve sneaked out to find Sapphric and thank him for healing her. If she hurried back, they might be able to have another few moments alone together before they left for Mer territory.

“Where is she?” a scratchy voice asked from behind him.

Jerking upright, Timber set his sights on Ryder. The bastard was dressed head to toe in combat gear: black leather pants, matching shirt and coat, thick-soled boots and knives on his belt.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Timber stood, searching over Ryder’s shoulder to the fur blocking the entry. Ryder should’ve been back at the lair—he and Marian hadn’t been gone that long.

Marian.

“I asked you a very simple question,” Ryder said, striding closer. “Where. Is. She?”

Timber was asking himself the same thing.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Timber felt his shoulders hunch as the instinct to shift into wolf form nearly overtook him. “But since you’re here, you’ll save me the trouble of tracking you down—I was about to head back to the lair to report that there’s been a death.”

“Your mermaid?”

“No.” Shaking his head, Timber snatched the sheet off the bed and clutched it against his loin. “Slater. He slipped off the rocks near the southern edge of the mountain and fell into the river.”

“That so?” Ryder scrubbed his hands over his head and exhaled heavily. “Well, we’ve got about a dozen trackers on your mermaid’s tail, so I guess we can afford to lose one. Sapphric sent one of his scouts to let me know you were here. Good thing he did. I was starting to wonder about you.”

“I don’t have time for this shit.” After snatching his pants off the floor, Timber shoved his legs into them, zipped up and brushed past Ryder, giving him a shove with his shoulder as he went. “I’m going back to the lair to call it a night.”

He had no intention of going back, but Ryder didn’t have to know that. Timber would make sure Marian got out of Were territory and back to her home in one piece. Only then would he return.

“You’re so full of shit, I can smell you from here,” Ryder hollered after him. Ryder followed Timber into a dimly lit antechamber that separated Sapphric’s main quarters from the ones designated for his patients. “I command you to tell me where I can find your mermaid friend.”

Timber stopped in his tracks, blood beginning to boil. Being that Ryder was his Delta, his superior, commands were followed under penalty of death.

“You can find her where you find the other mermaids. In her colony.” Timber listened carefully for whispers or the quiet thump of a foot on hardwood. Any indication of where Marian and Sapphric might’ve gone. They weren’t hiding out in the patients’ den. They weren’t in here and he couldn’t sense them anywhere close.

“See, that’s what bothers me.” Ryder stalked around Timber, pulling back his shoulders in a way that was meant to intimidate. “I know she just left. I can still smell her scent on you.”

The tension coiling inside Timber unraveled with a crack. “Fucking prick.” Timber grabbed Ryder by the throat and rammed him against the wall. Cabinets shook, shelves rattled. “You don’t know when to quit, do you? You could’ve had everything in the main pack, Ryder. You were only a few positions below the Alpha. You could’ve had control over the young pack mates, teaching and training them to be better wolves. But no.” As the words tumbled out of his mouth, unfiltered and teeming with rage, Timber’s arms twitched. He banged Ryder’s head against the stone wall to relieve more pressure. “You have to be a greedy son of a bitch and go after everything. You really think our Alpha is going to give you property in Were Mountain just for turning over the Mer stone?”

Ryder just smiled, his lips pulling back into a devilish grin. “I think our Alpha is so desperate to keep peace, that she’ll do anything to return the stone to the mermaids.”

No refuting Timber’s words. No denying his mission. Ryder really was going to steal the Mer stone and use it for his own foolish gain.

“What the hell are you thinking, dragging the rogue pack into this mess?” Timber sensed something, or someone, right outside the wood-slatted door—the one that led back to the edge of Were Mountain. He was too distracted by fury to know if it was Marian or Sapphric. He spoke quickly. “There are some decent Weres in the rogue pack who don’t deserve—”

“Decent Weres like my brother?” Ryder spat.

Timber’s gut twisted. “There was more going on with your brother than you knew.”

“Don’t talk like you knew him better.” With a hard-hitting swing of his arms, Ryder jerked himself free from Timber’s grasp. “You don’t know shit about my brother or what he
deserved
.”

“If you think your brother would want you to steal the Mer stone and use it to get the upper hand against wolves in the main pack, then yes, I did know him better.” Timber shuffled his feet so that the moment Ryder struck, Timber could knee him where he was most vulnerable. “The only reason Rison was in the rogue pack was to keep an eye on you, to make sure you didn’t do anything royally stupid.”

“Release your grip, Timber, or lose your hand.”

“I’d like to see you try that,” Timber gritted through clenched teeth. “Someone’s got to get through to you before you make a bigger mess of things. Rison defected from the main pack to make sure you wouldn’t get yourself killed. But he stayed with you, on the southern edge of the isle, because he fell in love with a mermaid.”

“
Lies!
”

With a flash of movement Timber barely registered, Ryder drew back, then snapped his neck forward. The hard ridge of his forehead clashed into Timber’s own, causing stars to dance before his eyes. Reacting without sight, Timber crouched and rained drumming blows against Ryder’s sides. If his Delta couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t fight.

Instead of hitting back, Ryder shook, trembled, his sides expanding against Timber’s fists. Muscles exploded from his torso and charcoal-tinted fur blanketed his body. His wolf form was huge, all snarling gums, razor-sharp canines and a daunting frame. Timber backed away, feeling his own skin tremble, anticipating the coming shift.

Timber roared as the pressure building inside him released into a wave of bursting muscle and sinew. His jaw expanded, his teeth stretched and his nose elongated. Tendons widened and strength surged through him. Snarling, Timber fell to all fours and let the last effects of the shift soar through him. Keeping a keen eye on Ryder, Timber shook his inky-colored coat, feeling like he was stretching out his legs after being cramped for too long.

If this was what Ryder wanted—a fight with one of his own wolves—then so be it.

He couldn’t stand idly by and watch Ryder steal the Merfolk’s most valuable possession.

Ryder attacked, fangs bared, aiming to take a chunk out of Timber’s neck. But Timber saw the attack coming as if it were in slow motion. Bowing his head, Timber ducked out of the way and reached out, clawing his talon-like nails along Ryder’s side. Ryder landed with a howl, his side bleeding through five deceptively deep scratches.

You’ll pay for that
, Ryder said, projecting his thoughts. The process of speaking through their minds was the way that the pack communicated while in wolf form. In Ryder’s case, it was the way he degraded them.

How would you like me to pay?
Timber lifted his paw, and watched in morbid indulgence as Ryder’s blood dripped from the tips of his claws.
Do you take cash
,
credit...or blood?

Gums pulled back into a sneer, Ryder paced around Timber in a circle, back hunched, paws hitting the floor like anvils. Timber matched Ryder move for move, inch for inch. When Ryder snapped, Timber reacted, dodging, then swiping his paw against Ryder’s muzzle.

Timber could sense anger mounting in Ryder, could feel his unchecked fury begin to whip through him.

You think you’ve got the upper hand
,
loverboy?
You think you’ve got me on my hind legs because you’re faster
,
or can sense a strike coming?
Even Ryder’s thoughts had the tone of a snarl.
Bet you don’t know that your precious mermaid swam back to her colony to report we’re going to steal their stone.
Bet you didn’t know she’s going to rat you out the way she did two years ago.

Couldn’t be. Yet Ryder’s thoughts had a ring of truth to them. Where was Marian? Why couldn’t Timber sense her anywhere? Now that he was in wolf form, he could sense the unmistakable odor of an aging male outside the door. Not a woman. Definitely not Marian.

Liar.
Timber let the floodgates holding back his thoughts swing wide open.
If you knew she was going back to her colony
,
you wouldn’t be here asking me where to find her.

Ryder’s gums pulled back into what looked like a twisted smile.
Before I killed the old man
,
he told me about you and the mermaid.
He told me that she left you cold and alone this morning to run back to her Emperor.

Sapphric
, Timber thought.
What did you do?

But then I thought
,
if that crazy healer knew Marian’s plan and let her leave
,
anyway
,
how could I trust him?
Ryder lunged, leaped, snapping for Timber’s side. He missed, but continued to pace around Timber like a caged animal.
I
had to cover all my bases
,
had to know if you were hiding her from me.
You’re dumb as a rock
,
you know that?
You let a mermaid seduce you into bed
,
let her get all kinds of valuable information from you
,
then let her walk out while you slept!

Timber couldn’t get his thoughts to connect. They raced all over the place, from Marian in bed, curled up in his arms, to the empty spot he’d skimmed his hand over this morning. His mind tracked back to his talk with Sapphric, how Marian had been there all along, unconscious in bed. She must not have been unconscious after all. His thoughts were laced with concern for the old man and tangled in a web of anger over Marian and her betrayal.

This time, he couldn’t misinterpret the situation.

Marian had gotten everything she needed, slept with him, then took off back to her Emperor.

Son of a bitch. How could he have been so stupid?

As a member of my pack
,
you’re with me
,
guts or glory
, Ryder interjected into Timber’s thoughts as he stopped pacing and towered over him.

Damn the debt he owed Ryder! Rison’s death wasn’t Timber’s fault, but it wasn’t like Ryder was going to listen to reason. He never had. The fact that Rison was sleeping with a mermaid and fooling around near the cliffs didn’t change the fact that Timber should’ve been paying closer attention. He should’ve never let Rison get that close to the edge. He should’ve...

You should’ve done everything in your power to bring my brother back in one piece.
Ryder raised his furry chin higher, giving off an air of dominance that reeked, burning Timber’s nostrils.
You know the cost
,
Timber.
Until you repay the life that was lost
,
you are a pack mate of the rogue pack
,
and as such
,
you will take the fall—or the glory—with us.
Unless we get to the stone before your mermaid does or stop her before she can squeal
,
all will be lost.
I
could use your expertise as lookout while I dive down to their trove.
I’ve found a handful of chips from the blasting—just enough to share them and dive down and back.
So...what do you say?