She hugged him, burying her face in his fur. “You can’t leave me, boy. That’s twice you’ve saved me.” She cupped his head in her palms. “You’re staying with me forever, got it?”
He softly chuffed.
Her boss had bought a huge bag of dog food for the Lab and sent it home with her. When she tried to give Den some, he turned his nose up at it and stared at the remaining bag of beef jerky on the counter.
She laughed and fed him the whole bag. “You earned it. I should feed you filet mignon, you big stud.”
He softly chuffed in agreement.
She tried to call Scudder and reached his voice mail. She left a brief and hopefully not too worrisome message before curling up in bed with Den. It was still daylight out, but she was exhausted.
Wrapping her fingers in his thick fur, she held on to his collar and buried her face against his neck. “I love you. God, I should have listened to Scudder. He was right.” She gently nudged the dog. “You’re not allowed to growl at him, hear me? You’re named after him, and I love him. Got it?”
His tail thumped.
* * * *
She awoke sometime after two o’clock in the morning. Den had rolled over in bed, but she still had her fingers around his collar. She opened her eyes and realized she was face-to-face with him, his huge, golden-brown eyes staring into hers.
Just like Scudder’s, she thought, then froze.
The dog watched her with awareness, his eyes narrowing slightly.
What she thought she heard before she passed out, that was her imagination, right?
“No.”
She gasped.
Den’s eyes followed hers, locked in an intense gaze, her fingers still tangled through his jet-black fur…
She sat up. Den didn’t move, just watched her with those huge, golden-brown eyes.
“Oh. My. God.”
He slowly sat up, his eyes never leaving hers.
She ran her hands over his fur then cupped his face again. Okay, she was going to blame this on a bad side effect of what Ron had doped her with.
Den softly chuffed and gently pushed his nose against her hand.
Full moon.
She scrambled across the bed away from him, staring.
“Tess, please.” His eyes pleaded with her.
“They said a man called 911.”
The dog nodded. She drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them to her. “So this is what it feels like when you lose your mind?”
The dog chuffed again and lay down, belly crawling across the bed to her, softly whining.
“You’re not crazy, Tess.”
“Oh my God!”
Those huge, golden-brown eyes. How could she have missed it? She’d never seen anyone or anything with eyes like that before, and then to have a dog show up with Scudder’s eyes and hair…
“If you’re really him, then change back!”
The dog jumped off the bed and went to the window, his front paws up on the sill, nosing through the blinds. Apparently satisfied, he returned to the bed and sat in front of her and nuzzled her hand. Once she had her hand on his collar, he looked her in the eye.
His face shifted, changed. Suddenly, Scudder was crouched on the bed in front of her, and she had her fingers tightly hooked through the collar around his neck.
Tessa’s eyes widened in shock. She finally sat back, releasing the collar. Then she realized he was naked.
Shock took a momentary backseat to desire, because he was extremely well endowed. Then back to shock.
“You…what…no…”
He nodded, not speaking, fixing her with those sweet, golden-brown eyes. After a few minutes, he unfastened the collar and dropped it to the bed. “I’m sorry, Tess,” he whispered. “It’s not like I could just tell you.”
She stared.
After another silent minute, he carefully shifted position so he sat cross-legged on the bed and made no attempt to cover himself. “I couldn’t very well order you not to go to the party. I damn sure didn’t want you there alone with Ron,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
None of the words she tried to form would come out as anything other than a random, jumbled series of vowels and consonants that made no sense.
* * * *
He slowly reached out and took her hand. She stared at it, but didn’t pull away. “Please, Tess,” he whispered.
After an agonizingly long time, she met his gaze again.
He leaned forward and kissed her, and as if a spell was broken, she fell into his arms, greedily kissing him back.
There was no way he could resist her now, not after what happened and what she knew. He took his time making slow, sweet love to her, enjoying her scent on his skin, making her moan with pleasure.
He’d waited so long for this, to make love to her, and he’d damn sure make it last. He worked his way down her body with his lips and tongue, pausing at her breasts and licking her nipples, gently biting at them. The responding moan he received from her made his cock throb even more, but he refused to rush.
Her fingers plunged into his hair, her nails digging into his scalp and adding a pleasant bite of pain to his pleasure. When he finally reached the juncture between her thighs she moaned even more loudly and held on tight to his head.
With his hands wrapped around her thighs, he slowly laved his tongue through her pussy lips, closing his eyes at his first sweet taste of her. He lapped at her clit, not letting her escape his grasp until he knew he’d gotten three orgasms out of her and she begged for mercy.
He stalked up her body, his cock painfully hard and dying to be embedded inside her sweet hole. “I want you to be mine. Forever.”
She looked dazed from the last echoes of her climaxes bouncing around inside her, but she eagerly nodded. “Please take me!”
He crushed her lips with his and thrust, hard and deep, inside her. With every ounce of his will, he held still, wanting to regain a little of his control. Following the line of her jaw, he traced her flesh with his tongue, down her neck, to her shoulder, where he grazed her flesh with his teeth.
She grabbed another fistful of his hair and held on tight. At this rate, he might end up with bald spots, but he realized he didn’t care. He sank his teeth into her shoulder as he started fucking her again, enjoying the feel of her body engulfing him as she screamed out in pleasure from another climax. He didn’t let go, holding on, marking her inside and out as his own release ripped out of his balls and pumped deep inside her.
They collapsed onto the bed, sweaty and spent, his arms protectively cradling her to him.
* * * *
As they lay entwined on her bed, she whispered, “You called 911 from my car.”
“Yes. I shifted back long enough to do it. That’s why I couldn’t leave your boss’s house once they took me back there, because I had witnesses around all the time. From what I heard, you were doing okay. I figured it was best to wait for you. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be at your side.”
“So, am I going to turn into one, too?”
He laughed and rolled over on top of her. “It doesn’t work like that. I was born this way.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You called me your mate!” She playfully shoved him.
“Yeah, well you called me your boyfriend. You said you loved me.”
She blushed. “I thought I was talking to a dog.”
“You were talking about me.” He nuzzled her nose with his. “I love you, too, Tess. I was afraid to tell you. I’m sorry you had to find out like this. I’m sorry I couldn’t—”
She kissed him hard. “I should have listened to you about Ron. You saved me.”
He stroked her cheek. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “This is going to take some getting used to.”
His golden-brown eyes never left hers. “I know. This is the other reason I wanted to take it slow.”
“I thought people like you turned into vicious werewolves.”
?
??That’s a myth. Shifters change into lots of things, not just wolves.” He laced his fingers through hers, kissing her hand. “I hate to interrupt this, but do you feel like going to work?”
“We need to. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do.”
He sat up and pulled her to him, kissing her again. “Then you need to take me to my car so I can get my clothes.”
A sly, playful grin slid across her lips. “What if I want to keep you naked?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You can have me naked all you want at home, sweetie. But we don’t want to get fired, and spending all day in bed doesn’t pay our bills.” He nuzzled her neck. “You can have me every night if you want me.”
Warm, erotic heat flooded her. He was so much more than she ever dreamed he’d be, and not just the weird shifting stuff, either. “Promise?” she whispered.
He nodded. “I promise.”
It was still dark, and he wrapped a large beach towel around his waist for the walk to her car. He gave her directions, and in a few minutes he’d retrieved his clothes and car and followed her back to her place.
“I need a shower,” he said, stretching. Dawn painted the sky as he carried his overnight bag inside her house.
“Want some help?”
He caught her around the waist and pulled her to him, kissing her throat. He growled. “Do you even need to ask?”
* * * *
Scudder drove them to work. They even managed to make it on time. The corporate grapevine went into overdrive. All morning, people dropped by their office to see how she was doing and offer their support and sympathies.
Including two men who Scudder instinctively sensed were off. This time, Tessa deferred to his judgment, allowing him to scowl and run them off with grumpy warnings that they were buried in work with no time to chat.
But she smiled, and at lunch she closed and locked their door.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She crawled into his lap for a long, deep kiss. “That.”
* * * *
After two weeks, she moved in with Scudder. By the next Halloween party, fortunately during a waning quarter moon, they sported wedding bands. For their party costumes, she went dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, while Scudder went dressed as a biker.
Complete with a studded, leather collar.
A Nearly Cat-astrophic Christmas
Tessa put the finishing touches on the Christmas tree and stood back. The beautiful star looked perfect perched on the topmost branch. She plugged the lights in, then turned and gasped at the effect.
Their first Christmas in their new house.
Beautiful!
They had family and friends coming over tomorrow night for a holiday party and dinner. It would be interesting to see how everyone got together.
She hoped the fur didn’t fly too badly.
Literally.
Jeremy and Genna Bruin, the pack Alpha and his wife, were coming over for the first time. So were Ivan and Lindsey Biendino, the pack Beta and his wife. And Scudder’s family.
And her relatively normal family.
Normal being relative, as opposed to a bunch of shape-shifters. Although calling some of the members of her family normal was a pretty far stretch to begin with.
Scudder walked in from the garage with an armful of garland for the mantle. She’d shooed him out of the living room when he insisted on helping her and instead drove her nuts. He was sweet, but he spoiled her rotten.
Being the wife of a shape-shifter had taken a little getting used to. Tessa found out that Scudder’s branch of the family still had a tendency to be guided by the moon. Not like the bullshit Hollywood myths, but it was a more powerful time of the month for them. Although she felt sorry for Scudder’s parents. With six girls and Scudder the only boy, Colin and Sherrie Harris must have had their hands full when their children were kids…
Well, pups.
“The tree looks beautiful,” he said, leaning in for a kiss. “How are you holding up?”
“Nervous as hell. Lindsey said one of Ivan’s cousins is coming with them.”
“Oh, good!”
“He’s a panther.”
Scudder nearly choked. “Um, okay.”
She poked him in the chest. “I won’t have anyone teasing him or making catnip jokes. Understand?”
He nodded. “Yeah.” He put down the armful of garland where she told him to. “This’ll be interesting.”
The next evening, Tessa nervously finished up the last of the preparations with Sherrie’s help. She loved her mother-in-law and felt extremely close to her, as close as with her own mother.
Sherrie grabbed her by the shoulders and made her look at her. “Stop worrying.” She smiled. “I remember how nervous I was the first time I hosted a family gathering.” Sherrie wasn’t a born shape-shifter, but had been married to Colin nearly forty years. “Everything will be fine.”
“And if the fur flies? Remember, my family doesn’t know about the shape-shifting stuff.”
She shrugged. “I brought extra bourbon to spike the eggnog.”
Scudder and Colin’s job was to greet people, take coats, and get drinks for their guests while Sherrie and Tessa put on the last touches. By the time Tessa discovered all their guests had arrived and it was time to serve dinner, she realized she hadn’t yet been introduced to Frank Biendino, Ivan’s cousin.
She supposed he was the handsome blue-eyed blond hunk standing in the corner with a cup of eggnog and chatting up her pretty and single cousin, Kaylie.
Oh, boy.
Nervous, she tried to calm her stomach, but when she caught sight of the two of them sharing a good-bye kiss on the front porch at the end of the evening, she elbowed Scudder. “Aren’t you going to do something?” she hissed in his ear.
“Do what? Wish them mazel tov?”
“He’s a…” She realized her voice was going up. She quieted her tone. “Shouldn’t we warn her off or something?”
He shrugged, turned, and planted a panty-melting kiss on her lips. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, “Would you have wanted someone to warn me off of you?”
Gulping, she shook her head. No, she loved Scudder.
“Then let Cupid have his fun. And them, too.”
* * * *
Kaylie drove home, her head spinning. Frank Biendino was a cutie, a total hunk. With blond hair and crystalline blue eyes that seemed to penetrate to the depths of her core, she realized halfway through the evening her panties had a huge wet spot, and that was just from talking with him!
Now she had his number programmed into her phone. He’d promised to call her in the morning, once she had a chance to check out her upcoming work schedule, to set up a date. She never had good luck with men and didn’t want to get her hopes up too much, but…damn.
She got home, took a hot shower, and went to bed with her vibrator sporting a fresh set of batteries. Two orgasms later, with Frank at the center of her fantasies, she finally managed to get to sleep.
The next morning, she found she had absolutely no problem springing up out of bed and rushing into work at the department store she worked at. Her supervisor was just posting next week’s schedule when Kaylie rounded the corner at a dead run into the employee lounge.
“Is that it? Next week?” she eagerly asked.
The woman laughed. “Yeah. What’s up with you? Got a hot date to plan?”
Kaylie smiled when she saw she had Tuesday night off and all of Wednesday. “Something like that, Lily. Met a hunk last night at my cousin’s Christmas party.”
“Sexy and single?”
Kaylie giggled. “Yep! For once, I think I found a handsome, normal guy who isn’t a freak!”
* * * *
As promised, Frank called her and set up a date with her. When he hung up, he smiled and licked his lips. He’d spent the entire evening trying not to drag Kaylie into an empty bedroom and fuck her brains out.
Finally, in a room full of dogs, he’d found a mate
.
Ivan will love to bust my balls over this.
He didn’t care how much his cousin would tease him. He could close his eyes and conjure Kaylie’s scent, complete with the overlying musk of her arousal.
He’d made women horny before, but never had someone responded to him like that before.
Ever.
By the time of their date Tuesday night, they’d spent several hours talking on the phone. When he picked her up at her apartment a little after five, it took every last ounce of his will not to push her back inside, rip her clothes off, and claim her right then.
But that kind of claiming was generally frowned upon nowadays, even if he already knew she was the one for him.
And he knew. She was already wet, and they’d only walked from her apartment to the car.
He’d picked a small family restaurant near his townhouse in Hyde Park, west of downtown Tampa, for their dinner. Decorated in beautiful Christmas lights inside and out, it was romantic, quiet, and even better, only five minutes from his door.
* * * *
Kaylie excused herself to the bathroom. She couldn’t believe the lack of self-control she had over this man. She was already a wet mess.
I should have brought spare panties.
Fuck it, hopefully her panties would be off by the end of the evening. She’d even brought a few condoms with her in case things worked out the way she hoped. If it made her a slut, she didn’t care. Just the fact that he turned her crank the way he did was good enough for her. She’d been over a year without a man in her bed and was sick of being alone.
She returned to their table and caught his amused smile.
“What?” she asked as she took her seat.
He leaned in and nipped her earlobe. “You are a wet, wet girl, aren’t you?”
Her body heated at the purring tone of his voice. How the hell could he purr when he hadn’t said any r’s was beyond her, but he did.