Authors: Katie Reus
With an almost mischievous grin she began strumming
her nipples with her thumbs. Each time she did, she
tightened even harder around him.
Though he wanted to drag this out, he needed to see her
come and he needed release. The thought of coming
inside her even with the condom on was
almost
enough to
make him lose it. Soon enough he wanted to be in her with
no barriers.
Right now he planned to see pleasure playing across her
face. As he increased his movements he leaned down and
took her mouth with his. Her fingers threaded into his hair,
cupping him tight as their mouths met in a frenzied clash.
The energy that pulsed off her became as wild as their
unrestrained movements. One of her hands moved around
to his back and down to his ass where she gripped him
tight. He flexed underneath her fingers with each thrust. The
feel of her nails digging into him was a mix of pleasure and
pain.
When her inner wal s began convulsively tightening
around him, he knew she was close. Groaning as she tore
her mouth from his, she let her head fal back. Her entire
body shuddered as her climax ripped through her. Her
moans fil ed the cave, echoing off the stone wal s like an
erotic symphony and her grip on him didn’t lessen.
Burying his head against her neck, he let go of his last
shred of control as his orgasm punched through him with a
violent urgency. When the pleasure slowly ebbed, for one
brief, horrifying moment he thought he’d marked her. His
canines had involuntarily extended, his need to sink them
into her neck while they were making love and claim her
was a living thing inside him. It beat against his skul ,
commanding him to take what was his.
Blinking, he pul ed slightly back. Gabriela’s eyes were
closed and a blissful expression was on her face. And she
didn’t have any markings on her neck. He pushed out a low
sigh of relief. He wanted it, but she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe
she’d never be.
Opening her eyes, Gabriela smiled and stretched her
arms above her head. “That was…nice.”
“Nice?” he growled.
Grinning even wider, she grabbed on to his hips and
reversed their position so that she was on top. “It was more
than nice. And I want to do it again.”
Despite his intense climax he was stil hard. Perk of
being a shifter. Returning her smile, he tugged her down so
that her breasts brushed his chest and her hair fel around
his face. “We’re just getting started, sweetheart.”
Her inner wal s clenched around him in response and he
inwardly smiled. By tomorrow morning, he’d have her
convinced that one night would never be enough. Even if
she didn’t realize it yet, he knew that their bodies were
made for each other.
Before Gabriela opened her eyes she knew she was alone.
Owen’s scent lingered strong in the air, as if he’d just left.
Sitting up, she glanced around. Light filtered in from the
entrance to the cave, letting her know it was early morning.
Owen’s clothes were scattered next to hers and the fire had
dwindled down to nothing.
Gathering her things, she quickly dressed, though she
was glad she could stil scent Owen al over her. It was
almost as if he was in her skin. The thought pleased her.
She’d scented herself deeply embedded in him last night,
too. Normal y only mated couples carried that distinctive
fragrance of their other half, and she and Owen definitely
weren’t that. Though he’d scraped his canines against her
neck more than a few times last night. He’d come
dangerously close to breaking the skin and a very deep
part of her had ached for him to do so. If he’d pierced her
skin with his canines and marked her, it would have told
everyone she was off-limits. And if she’d marked him
back…they would find themselves mated. Something that
seemed too surreal to even think about.
Gabriela unzipped her backpack and pul ed out one of
the chocolate bars she’d re-wrapped a few hours ago. After
the third time they’d had sex last night, they’d devoured
most of what was in her pack, but there was stil a little left
over. As shifters they had extremely high metabolisms and
needed to eat a lot to keep up their energy, and right now
she was famished. While she was devouring it, she heard
the soft padding of Owen’s paws outside the cave. It was
fol owed up with his distinctive earthy scent.
Seconds later a white wolf with familiar blue eyes stood a
few feet in front of her. Then Owen shifted, returning to his
human form with a grunt of discomfort as his bones
realigned. Tearing her eyes away from his naked,
gorgeous form was difficult, but she met his gaze and
shook her head at the lust in his eyes.
“You’re wearing too many clothes.” Growling softly, he
knelt on the sleeping bag she was sitting on and crawled
toward her until she was flat on her back.
Heat spread across her bel y and ventured lower, but she
pressed a hand to his chest and shook her head. “I’m too
sore.” Even though she’d spoken the truth, she knew that
she could go another round—or three—but she needed to
mental y evaluate everything that had transpired between
them.
After last night she felt so comfortable around Owen it
was a little scary. She’d only returned to Bear Mountain to
get some downtime and think long and hard about what she
wanted to do with her life. After her last mission the thought
of going back to work without her team, her
friends
, was so
depressing it carved at her insides. She swal owed back a
sudden swel of tears, forcing herself to think of Owen and
the present.
Jumping into bed with him had never even crossed her
mind. If anything, she’d planned to do everything in her
power to ignore the sexy male. Last night made everything
so confusing. Especial y since he was currently looking at
her as if he’d like to ravish her again and her body was
completely onboard with it.
Sighing, he rol ed onto his side and tugged her with him
so that she wrapped her arm around his waist and
snuggled against his hard body. “Sorry I left, but I didn’t
want to wake you. I scouted the area for signs of intruders.
Only found normal forest animals.”
Despite his relaxed hold, she could feel the underlying
tension humming through him. “Were any of the humans
attacked specifical y associated with your pack?”
His shoulders lifted slightly. “Sort of, but no one with a
close relationship and no more so than anyone else in
town. The first man kil ed was a hunter who shops in one of
the pack’s pawn stores. The second was a tourist in town
on one of those paid big-game hunting trips and the last
was a rancher who lives on the outskirts of town. He buys
bags of feed for his horses from our feed and garden store.
As far as I know, none of them have any relationship with
each other and definitely not anyone in my pack. Of course
the sheriff isn’t looking for stuff like that because these are
animal attacks as far as she’s concerned.” There was an
undeniable spike of anger in his words.
Gabriela traced circular patterns across his chest. The
randomness of it al was frustrating. Jaguars weren’t native
to this area and she hated that someone was not only kil ing
innocent humans, but making her family a target in the
process. “What’s Sharon like as sheriff?” She knew what
Sharon was like as her friend but was curious for a
multitude of reasons. One being that Sharon had not so
subtly told Gabriela she had a standing job offer any time
she decided to move back to Bear Mountain. Something
she’d never considered until now.
“She’s fair and wel liked by just about everyone. A few of
my pack members have shown
interest
in her.” His voice
was resigned and she knew why.
If a shifter mated with a human, that human would be told
everything about their species. Bringing humans into the
loop on anything about them went against every fiber inside
shifters. Of course for Gabriela, she’d gotten over her
issues with that a while ago. Some of her bosses had been
humans and they knew pretty much al they needed to about
the different shifter species around the world. Many
branches of various governments did. It wasn’t something
that could stay hidden forever and it was the reason she’d
been recruited in the first place. “Sharon would handle
knowledge of us wel , I think.” When Owen didn’t respond,
she splayed her palm over his chest, wondering how he’d
respond to Sharon’s job offer. Gabriela cleared her throat.
“She offered me a job.”
Owen went impossibly stil . “Are you considering it?” he
asked careful y.
She shrugged against him, feeling confused about
everything. “It’s sort of an open-ended thing. I don’t even
know if she stil —”
“Detective McGowan is retiring this month.”
Gabriela was silent for a while, unsure what to say. Wind
whistled outside the cave, though with Owen’s body heat
and the leftover warmth from the nearly burned-out fire she
was more than comfortable. Owen’s grip tightened on her
as he stroked a hand down her back. She might have told
him that she could only give him one night, but now she
wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
“What was it like coming back here to be Alpha at such a
young age?” Not exactly light conversation but she wanted
to know. “It was difficult. I’d planned on a long military
career but Ethan, Skyler and my mom needed me.”
“And the pack?”
His chin brushed against her head as he nodded. “They
needed a leader, too, but I came back for my family more
than anything.”
“I’m so sorry you had to give that up.” He was silent so
she didn’t say any more. Just tightened her grip on him and
closed her eyes. The feel of his steady heartbeat was
grounding and familiar. She wasn’t sure how long they lay
there in each other’s arms, but when a vibrating sound
interrupted the quiet, they both stirred.
Owen cursed under his breath and grabbed his
discarded jeans. He dug out his cel phone then let out
another curse before answering. Thanks to her
extrasensory abilities she could hear the cal er speaking.
The conversation between Owen and a male voice she
didn’t recognize was brief. Once he snapped the phone
shut she knew they were leaving.
A black jaguar had been spotted on wolf land ten miles
from their current location about an hour ago. The young
wolf cub who had seen the other shifter had luckily
remained hidden. As soon as she’d been able to, she’d
raced back to the pack to relay the information.
Since Gabriela was the only black jaguar in her family
and she certainly hadn’t been out roaming around, it was a
good chance this might be the shifter behind the attacks.
Unfortunately it meant she and Owen had to head back to
the real world. “So what happens now?”
Owen paused for a moment, then gave a brief nod
almost as if he’d decided something. “If this jaguar has
gone to the trees there’s a good possibility that he wil be
harder to track. He was last seen by the abandoned mine
about…”
She stripped off her shirt and he trailed off. “I heard
where and I’l track him. This bastard has made my family
targets of your pack. We’re just lucky you were with me last
night or they might have thought that was me out there.” At
least the pack member who had cal ed Owen hadn’t said
anything about another attack. Just a sighting.
As she began to shimmy out of her jeans, Owen said, “I’l
be with you but if you have to head to the trees, I’l stil be
tracking you. If you find this jaguar, do not confront it. Wait
for me.” At her raised eyebrows, he added, “Please.”
“It’s this guy’s fault that my mother is afraid and hasn’t
been able to properly hunt for weeks.” Neither had the rest
of her family but her mother internalized stuff and this had
been eating away at her. Gabriela only wished she’d
shared this concern during any of their last dozen phone
conversations. She’d have been home a lot sooner.
“Gabriela.” There was a warning note in Owen’s voice.