The Omega's Heart (Wilde Creek Four) (8 page)

He stiffened. “I’m
non
.”

“Non what?” She nuzzled his chest, rubbing
her cheek against his firm pec.

He gripped her shoulders firmly and pushed
her to arms’ length. “A non-shifting wolf. You need to go back to
the pack, you don’t belong here.”

“I don’t belong here?” She couldn’t stop the
hurt from filling her voice as her eyes stung and her mouth went
salty.

“Ah, shit,” he grumbled. Cupping her cheek
with his big hand, he tilted her head until she was looking at him.
“I’m not worthy of a beautiful she-wolf like you. I’m a defective
freak of nature. You better run back to your escort before someone
realizes you’re gone and comes looking for you.”

She felt like someone had just upended a
bucket of ice water over her head. She was in the presence of her
mate and he didn’t want her. Wasn’t that just the icing on the
fucked-up cake of her life? Maybe he’d heard that she was bad news.
He’d be right, of course, but that didn’t make it any easier.

He growled softly, his thumb stroking a tear
from her cheek.

She went on her toes and nuzzled under his
chin. “Don’t send me away.”

“I’m
non
.”

“I don’t care. You’re mine.” She slipped her
hands from his hips up his back, feeling the flex of his muscles
under her fingers. He didn’t push her away again, but he didn’t
draw her closer, either. He stared down at her, his face a mixture
of arousal and wariness.

“I can’t be yours, Honey. I’m a genetic
failure, do you understand? I can’t shift. I can’t protect you. I
can’t do any of the things that full wolves should be able to
do.”

Her nails abraded his back as she stroked
down and back up again. “I. Don’t. Care.”

He fisted her hair and her head tipped back
with a soft groan as he bent and pressed his nose against her
throat. He inhaled slowly and growled, the sound so soft it was
almost a purr.

“Mine,” he snarled the word softly and
pressed his lips to her throat.

Relief filled her. “Jeremiah,” she
whispered.

He nipped her neck and swung her up into his
arms; she looped her arms around his neck as he carried her into
the house. He kicked the door shut and looked down at her as his
hands flexed on her skin. “I want to tell you to leave.”

“Why?” She lifted her hand and stroked his
throat.

“Because of what I am. I don’t want you to
regret me. Stop me now, Honey. Tell me to take you back to the
alphas before we go too far.”

She frowned as she stared up at him. “I don’t
want to go. Don’t send me away, please.”

He groaned and lowered his mouth, pressing
his lips to hers. Instantly her body flooded with heat as he licked
across the seam of her mouth and she opened, their tongues sliding
together. She pulled herself closer to him, sliding one hand into
his hair and feeling the soft prickle of the shorter hair on the
sides. He tasted decadent, sweet and dark, like the scent of him
that had called to her.

He began to walk, their kiss continuing as he
strode through his house; he lifted from her mouth for only long
enough to push open a door and step inside. Carrying her to his
bed, he laid her down, holding her hand as he tugged open a drawer
on the nightstand and rummaged inside. He flicked a lighter and a
small flame erupted, which he touched to the top of a candle inside
a frosted glass globe. The flickering light illuminated the room
enough for Honey to see that there wasn’t much to it. The only
furniture was the bed and nightstand, a chair in the corner, and a
tall dresser. She didn’t see any pictures on the walls or framed
photos on the dresser. It seemed pretty devoid of anything
personal.

Jeremiah squeezed her hand and looked down at
her. She could see that he looked torn about her being there; not
because of who she was but who
he
was. He’d been honest from
the get-go, and guilt flooded her. She needed to be honest,
too.

She sat up, keeping hold of his hand, and
willed her nerves away. She’d found her mate. It meant she could
stay in Wilde Creek and her father couldn’t make her come home. But
she didn’t want Jeremiah to think she was using him.

“Your alpha ordered me to leave by dawn,
because my father wants me home on Wednesday.”

He snarled so loudly that it sent chills down
her spine. “Mine.”

Tears stung her eyes again, as the possessive
tone of his voice told her that he wasn’t going to let her go.
Tugging on his hand, she said, “I don’t want you to get into
trouble with your alpha, but there’s a problem. My dad is my alpha.
He threatened to send his beta after me if I didn’t get a cell and
call him every hour so he could track my journey. I thought I could
run away from him and he’d let me go; I even thought I could just
take off from here at dawn and go a different way and hide forever,
but I’d be stupid to do that.”

He frowned. “Why does your father want you
home?”

“I don’t know for sure, but my gut tells me
that he’s arranged a mate for me.”

Jeremiah didn’t growl so much as roar his
displeasure. Considering he’d tried to push her away a few minutes
earlier, she smiled in spite of the circumstances. Cupping his
face, she said, “I don’t want to go. I’m scared to stay, though. My
father’s beta is a nutcase.”

Jeremiah pushed her to her back and settled
on top of her. “We’re mates.”

“I know. I followed your scent through the
woods and it’s all I can do not to rub myself all over you.”

He snorted and grinned. “Maybe later. First,
be mine, Honey. Be my mate even though I’m not worthy of you. I
swear I’ll do everything in my power to protect you and keep you
safe. If we’re mated, your father can’t take you away — it’s
against the laws.”

She wiggled under him, and the rough seam of
denim made her skin ache. “I don’t want you to think I’m using you
to avoid going home.”

He moved, slipping into the cradle of her
hips until the fly of his jeans pressed against her pussy. She
moaned when he flexed his hips. He did it again. And again. Her
stomach tightened, and her nails dug into his back as she gripped
him.

“You’re going to make me come,” she said
breathlessly.

He stopped flexing his hips and stared down
at her. “You’re not using me. You can’t stop your body’s reaction
to finding your mate.”

“You tried to push me away before,” she
pointed out, wrapping her legs around his waist.

“I didn’t want you to think I’d kept anything
from you. My
non
status is enough to make anyone walk away.
I wouldn’t have blamed you if you did.”

“I don’t want to walk away, but I don’t want
you to get hurt, either.”

His brow furrowed as he traced his fingertip
down the side of her face. The gentle touch made goosebumps appear
on her skin. “I don’t know if every wolf who finds their mate feels
like this, but the thought of you leaving me is making my wolf go
nuts. Whatever happens tonight, we’re mates, and that means we
can’t be separated. I don’t care what your father or Acksel thinks;
that’s a basic mating law.”

Warmth spread through her. Silently, she
congratulated her wolf on finding such an honorable mate.

“I should call the alphas’ house and tell
them that you’re here with me, but I don’t want to do anything but
be right here with you.”

Her heart fluttered at his declaration. She
stroked her hands down his back to the waistband of his jeans,
pushing on them a little. He grinned down at her.

“Want something, she-wolf?”

“You. Naked.”

He slipped away from her, standing between
her legs. His fingers rested on the button of his jeans for a
moment as he looked down at her. Then he unfastened the button and
slid the zipper down before shoving them down his legs. He
straightened slowly, his body tensing as she took in every
mouth-watering inch of him. He had a gorgeous body, and she was
tempted once more to rub herself all over him.

The hesitation she’d seen before, probably
born from years of other wolves telling him he wasn’t worth
anything, was gone, and she was glad. She didn’t know what it was
like to be a non-shifting wolf, but she didn’t mind that he
couldn’t shift. He was hers and she was his. Nothing had ever felt
so right.

His fingers rubbed her ankles, his touch firm
and warm. He pushed gently and she bent her knees; then he spread
her legs apart, baring her body for him. He climbed onto the bed
slowly, his fingers tracing small patterns up her calves, around
her knees, and over her thighs, until her whole body trembled.
Brushing the back of his knuckles over the top of her pussy, he
caressed her bare sex with the gentlest of touches.

She whimpered and he chuckled, bending as he
wedged his broad shoulders between her legs and touched his tongue
to her clit. He stroked his tongue around her clit and looked up
the length of her body, meeting her gaze. She wanted to say
something profound or sexy right then, but she couldn’t think past
how turned on she was and how right it felt to be with him, skin to
skin.

He lowered his gaze back to the apex of her
thighs. His hands slid under her, cupping her ass and lifting her
off the bed. Her knees went over his shoulders as he buried his
face in her pussy with a soft groan; his tongue pushed inside her
and he growled. The vibrations felt so good that her legs clenched
his head and her hands fisted the blanket under her.

He rumbled again, delving his tongue into her
depths. Then he licked the length of her pussy, swirling his tongue
around her clit, before closing his lips around the firm bud. Their
eyes met just a heartbeat before he sucked on her clit, teasing it
with his tongue, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Her stomach
clenched and the center of her body turned to molten lava as he
drew her close to the edge of pleasure. Spots formed before her
eyes, and her knuckles cracked as she clenched the blanket tightly.
Her back bowed as she came and he held her closely, drawing her
climax out as she screamed her pleasure. He lowered her to the bed
gently, pressing a tender kiss to her throbbing clit before he
moved up her body.

She caught his hips with her legs. His cock
pressed into her pussy and they both groaned. He felt like heaven.
He slipped his arms under her back and cradled her close as they
lay motionless, his cock deep inside her, their bodies wed tightly
together.

“You feel so good, Honey,” he said
hoarsely.

“Jeremiah,” she moaned, tilting her hips to
take him deeper inside.

They both groaned.

Flexing his hips, he slipped from her body
slowly. He raised his head, and they looked at each other as he
pushed back in. Even though she wanted to close her eyes and just
feel
what they were doing, she didn’t want to miss anything,
so she forced herself to keep them open. She cupped his cheek, her
thumb stroking the swell of his bottom lip. He bared his teeth and
nipped her. Grinning, she tightened her legs around his waist and
began to meet his slow strokes, lifting her hips and grinding her
clit against him.

Pleasure bloomed inside her again as she met
his hips with her own; her stomach clenched and her body flooded
with heat. His hands curled around her shoulders and he began to
pull her against him, driving her down as he thrust up. He snarled
and swiveled his hips as he drove into her, and her whole body
shuddered as he rocked against a spot that made her vision
blur.

Growling with pleasure, he stroked over that
spot again and again, until her climax struck and she screamed his
name. He shouted as he came, his cock spasming inside her, and the
hot flood of his come made her sigh in happiness.

Panting hard, he nuzzled her throat, his
voice hoarse when he whispered, “Please?”

She tilted her head and buried her fingers
into his hair, encouraging him to mark her. “I’m yours.”

He snarled softly and sank his teeth into her
neck. She hissed as his fangs imbedded into her flesh, shivering as
her wolf howled in happiness at finding their mate. He released her
neck, stroking his tongue over the mark, and then rolled to his
back. She rose up over him as he turned his head, baring his throat
to her. The males in her father’s pack didn’t allow the females to
mark them. Stacy told her that the males believed it was a
submissive gesture, to bare their throats to a female, and no male
wanted to be seen as submissive to anyone but the alpha. As she
gazed down at Jeremiah’s throat, she realized those males were
wrong. It didn’t make Jeremiah weak to give his throat to her, it
made her strong. He didn’t know her, but he trusted her, and he
valued her mark on his neck as much as she did his on hers.

Her fangs elongated and she sank them into
his throat. He growled, his arms wrapping around her tightly.
Extracting her fangs, she licked the marks, tasting his blood on
her tongue.

Jeremiah cupped her face and their eyes met.
“I’m yours, Honey. Better, worse, hell or high water. Whatever’s
going on with your old pack and your family, we’re mates, and that
means I accept your problems as my own. I know I’m not worthy of
you, but I’m going to do my damnedest to keep you safe and take
care of you.”

Tears stung her eyes at his sweet
declaration.

“I’m not worthy of you either, Jeremiah, but
I’m going to try to be the best mate for you.”

His mouth curved up in a half-smile. “I think
we’re off to a good start.”

She dropped her head to his shoulder with a
chuckle and then yawned.

“In the morning we’ll go get your things and
talk to the alphas.”

She was worried about what the dawn would
bring, but at least she wouldn’t face things alone. She didn’t know
how it was possible to feel so connected to a total stranger, but
she did. Her wolf was basking in the afterglow of finding her
perfect mate, and Honey had finally found some peace.