Chapter 15
Mark Ruhl somehow managed to allow her and Cody to walk away after giving their statements, without having to go into the police station. Jeremy was not so lucky. But hey, he was alive. Beyond that, it wasn’t her problem.
Cody held her snugly against her side the entire time, and now walked her to her truck. He opened the passenger door for her, though, and held out his hand for the keys.
Another time she might have argued. Right now, she could hardly form sentences, and the sight of Cody’s blood-drenched clothing kept reminding her of the horror of the moment when she thought he’d been killed.
She should have known he was all right. Should have remembered from Ashley’s story of Ben getting shot when she’d been blackmailed, but all she knew in the moment was white dread. Terrifying, heart-stopping fear that Cody had been murdered. Because of her. And in the shock of the moment, her greatest regret had been that he would die not knowing what he meant to her.
She climbed in the truck and sat, numbly waiting as Cody started it up and drove back into town. She didn’t register their direction, or anything around her. Her ears still rang from the gunfire and the images of death flashed in front of her eyes in gruesome repetition.
“Cody…” Her voice cracked. She had to try to tell him—to make amends for the things she’d said. “I never thought you were… just a construction worker.” Her tongue felt too big in her mouth. Pressure built behind her eyes and nose. “I’m sorry?—”
“Hush, baby. I know.”
“No, please… I want you to know something.”
He turned to look at her, his face weary, eyes haunted. “What, baby?”
“I was bluffing,” she whispered. “When I said it was just sex. Every time I pushed you away. You were too much my type and I was afraid of making another mistake, but I never thought you were beneath me.”
Cody parked the truck and reached over to squeeze her fingers. She looked out the window, not recognizing the place. They were in the Old North End neighborhood, but not on his street. A huge Victorian brick house stood on a recently landscaped lot. The house had a worn look. Some of the siding trim had rotted in places, and it desperately needed a new roof and several coats of paint.
“Where are we?”
Cody didn’t answer, but he walked around and opened her door for her, offering a hand to help her out. He tucked her back against his side and walked her to the door, pulling out his keys and fitting one into the lock.
“Is this one of your houses?”
“Yeah.” He led her inside.
Her realtor’s instincts kicked in, a blessed diversion from the shock of the scene they’d just left behind. She made mental notes about what would need to be done to make the place livable and how much it would deduct from the selling price. But no, if Cody owned this place, he would fix it up himself. Which meant he’d probably list this place for at least eight hundred thousand dollars. Way, way out of her range.
“It’s not finished yet—obviously. I’m just getting started. But this is the house I thought you might like. It’s the reason I didn’t accept your offer on the other one.”
She felt like her brain just couldn’t get in gear. “I don’t understand.”
Cody released her, stepping back to rub his forehead. “It’s bigger, see. Something we could grow into.”
“ We? ”
Misery seeped into the lines on Cody’s face. “Or you can have the other one, if you like it better. Or my place.” His shoulders sagged. “You can have any house you want. Melissa?—”
Tears pooled in her eyes. She drew a shaky breath, but didn’t speak, wanting to be sure she understood what Cody was saying.
He lurched forward and caught both her hands. “Please don’t cry. I need you, baby.” He spun her and wrapped both his arms around her from behind. “This house, princess,” he whispered, his breath feathering across her ear. “I’ll make it perfect for you. For us, if you’ll have me. There’s room enough for pups, here. Lots of them if you want.”
Something fluttered in her chest. The hope she’d been afraid to let herself feel. She laughed through the tears streaking her face. “I do want lots of them. At least three.”
Cody stilled, then turned her slowly in his arms to face him. “Yeah?”
She nodded.
“With me?”
She cocked her head to the side. “Well, I was thinking I might live in your house but invite Jeremy?—”
The inhuman growl from his throat made her shriek as he plowed her against the wall and covered her mouth with his own, swallowing her laughter. His tongue lashed into her mouth as he yanked her knees up to his waist, pressing his bulging cock against her sex.
“That’s not funny,” he growled. He shoved two fingers in her mouth while his hips ground against her.
She sucked his fingers, heat flooding her core.
“Don’t you ever say that name to me again.” He yanked at the waistband of her jeans.
“Wait,” she cried, afraid he’d rip them right off her body. “I’ll take them off.”
His eyes had turned pale blue. “I’m going to fuck that name right out of your consciousness. Understand?”
She almost orgasmed right there, just from his possessive threat. Her fingers fumbled on the button of her jeans and she shoved them down her hips.
He removed his fingers from her mouth and glowered. “Now, Melissa.” Were his canines longer?
She ought to be afraid. He definitely might hurt her. Except she didn’t care. She wanted him to claim her, own her, demand every last bit of her. With a couple of hops on one leg, she managed to untangle herself from the jeans and panties.
Before she’d even stood, Cody had her pinned back against the wall, shirt up to her neck, bra down. His lips clamped around one nipple and he sucked hard, teeth scraping across her sensitive flesh.
She screamed.
“You’re my mate, Melissa. I need to claim you. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I kept fighting it.”
“I’m sorry, too. I wanted you to claim me but I was trying to protect myself from getting hurt.”
He yanked open his jeans to free his cock. “I can’t stop now,” he grated and shoved into her without warning.
She shuddered, clenching around him. He snapped his hips and thrust again and again, while she continued to climax.
“Who do you belong to?” He roared it this time. “Say it.”
“You! Cody Steele. Only you.”
His teeth had definitely grown longer. She must’ve looked frightened, because he covered her eyes with his hand. “Don’t look,” he panted. “Don’t move. Oh, God, please don’t move.” He sounded like he was in pain. Her pelvis banged against the wall behind her with bruising force as he fucked her hard and fast. “I can’t stop,” he moaned. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”
With her vision obscured, her need became even more intense. She pounded her fist on his rock-hard shoulder. “Do it,” she yelled.
He shoved in deep. A sharp pain sliced into her shoulder, front and back.
She screamed.
His body shuddered and jerked, then gradually relaxed. The teeth came out and he licked the wound he’d inflicted, laving away the pain.
Her internal muscles still fluttered around his cock, but she, too, had relaxed, and a terrific sense of well-being filled her. She remembered Ashley saying the serum coating his teeth—the serum that had just marked her forever as his—produced a drug-like effect to ease her pain.
She sank into the wall, her muscles going limp.
“Baby…” Cody eased his hand from her eyes. “Oh, God, you’re crying.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
But Cody thumbed tears away from her face.
“I’m sorry. Are you hurt? I mean, of course you’re hurt. Fuck.” He pulled out of her and shifted to scoop under her knees. “It’s okay, baby. You’re going to be all right.” The anxiety on his face as he peered at her made her heart twist.
He cursed.
“Cody,” she mumbled, wanting to soothe him. “I’m okay.”
“Can you stand? Just for a second, so I can get your clothes back on?”
He dressed her, then swung her back up in his arms and carried her out to his truck. Although it was completely insane, and she tried to tell him so, Cody insisted on driving with her cradled on his lap, her back leaning against the door, feet spilling into the passenger side. Fortunately, it was less than a mile to his house.
He carried her into his house and onto his bed, where he sat with her nestled in his arms, dropping kisses on the top of her head as she drifted off to sleep, floating on a euphoria of love and peace.
Cody balanced the hot coffee and bag of breakfast sandwiches and muffins in one hand to unlock the door. The sound of the shower running made him smile. His mate was up.
Yes, mate.
The concept still stunned him on a minute by minute basis. He’d spent the entire night holding Melissa, watching her wounds close and start to heal, painfully slowly compared to a shifter, but still far faster than they would on a human.
Ben and Ashley had shown up at his door not long after they’d returned, but he’d refused to let them in. He’d been covered in his own blood and hers, and Ashley had been terrified, but Stone guessed at what had happened.
“You marked her,” he’d said, nostrils flaring.
He half-expected Stone to challenge him, and his inner wolf growled, willing to fight to the death for her. But once he’d assured them she was all right, just sleeping off the serum and healing, they left.
The shower turned off. He set the coffee and goodies on the dresser and waited for her to emerge.
She came out with a towel wrapped under her armpits, her pale skin flushed from the water. The smile she flashed him dazzled.
He stepped over to her and moved her hair from her shoulder, examining her wounds for the millionth time, then kissing each one. “How are you, baby?”
“I feel wonderful, actually.” She beamed up at him. She did, in fact, radiate good health and well-being. Her skin glowed, her eyes were bright, smile so full of joy, he wanted to be sure he never wiped it from her face again. “How are you?”
He’d showered and changed but hadn’t slept—his worry over her had kept him up all night. “I’m fine—see.” He grinned and pulled up his shirt to show her the bullet wounds had completely healed.
She reached out to brush her fingertips over his abs, sending a shudder of the deepest recognition through his being.
Mate.
He gripped the edges of her towel and pulled her up against his body. Her damp heat permeated his clothes, made his skin itch to be in direct contact. “We do have a score to settle before we can move forward.”
Her eyes dilated, nipples stiffened against his ribs. “I was hoping you’d say that.” Her voice was husky.
He slid his hand under the back of her hair and stroked her nape. Her arousal filled the room. He opened the corners of her towel wide, then let it drop, drinking in the sight of her. Now that he’d marked her, the itchiness was gone, but incinerating desire still flamed bright.
He kicked his shoes off and crawled up on the bed, settling with his back against the headboard and patting his knees.
She crawled over to him, her breasts bouncing with the movement, hair falling over her shoulders like a curtain. With a tug, he pulled her over his lap and popped each cheek with a loud smack.
She squirmed, hands flying back to cover her ass.
“Uh uh.” He caught her wrists and pinned them against the small of her back with one hand, and delivered a few spanks with the other. “You don’t get to cover.”
“Ow,” she cried. “Mercy!”
He laughed and rubbed her ass again. “I admit I am inclined to show you mercy. In fact, I’m prepared to worship between your legs for hours on end today.”
She moaned and parted her legs.
His fingers slid between them, delving into her sweet nectar and rubbing it over her clit.
She raised her ass higher and parted her legs more.
“Baby, what happens after you’ve been punished?”
“My reward,” she gasped immediately, as if she’d been waiting for it with great anticipation.
He chuckled and continued to rub between her legs. Her juices leaked from her exposed pussy, coating his fingers. His own desire took over and he rolled her onto her back and fell down over her, pinning her wrists above her head as he kissed and bit down her neck to suck the stiff peak of her nipple.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled his hips against her core. “Take me,” she breathed. “I need you now.”
The beast roared to life within him. He tore off his shirt and shoved down his jeans, impaling her with his cock.
Her eyes flew wide, mouth opened, but only a strangled gasp came out.
“Is this what you need, baby?”
“Yes,” she moaned.
He rocked into her again, shoving deep, stretching her wide. “I’m not wearing a condom, do you know why?”
“Why?” she gasped.
“Because I’ve claimed you, princess. And I’m going to put a pup in that sweet little belly of yours before the month is through.”
He didn’t even know where those words came from. He’d never thought about having pups, except in the very distant future. But mating Melissa had changed everything. The idea of starting a family with her seemed the only right thing in the world. Besides keeping her in his bed and making that smile stay on her face, forever.
“You’re nuts,” she laughed.
He leaned on his fists and pounded into her. “Is it okay? I’ll pull out if you want me to,” he managed to say.
“No!” she shrieked. “I’m so close.”
“Come for me, princess.”
She climaxed, her internal walls squeezing his cock, milking it. With a roar, he came, too, still fucking her deep and hard, thighs shaking with the pleasure of release.
He held himself up on his forearms and nipped her neck, kissing and sucking down to her shoulder. Still buried inside her, he stroked her hair back from her face.
“We can live in the house you put an offer on while I finish the big one,” he said. He had a list of important items to discuss with her and didn’t want to wait another minute.
The eye visible to him crinkled as she smiled. “What about this place? What will you use for a workshop?”
He kissed her temple and eased out of her. “This could still be my workshop. And my man cave when you get sick of me and kick me out.”
She laughed. “No way. You don’t get a man cave. Why don’t we just stay here?”
“Because you hate this place.”
She rolled over to face him and nestled right up into his arms. “I don’t hate it. I wouldn’t mind redecorating, though.”
He kissed her nose. “Anything you want, baby.”
She raked her fingernails through the hair on his chest. “I want to be your real estate agent.”
“Yeah. I want that, too.” It had been on his list of things to settle between them.
Her gaze flew to his. “You do?”
“Are you kidding? You think I’d let anyone else show my houses? Or help me buy them, for that matter? I didn’t even know there was such a thing as the right buyer for a house until I met you. I’m not settling for anything less again.”
She beamed at him.
He leaned his forehead against hers. “Are you really all in with me? No regrets?”
“Not yet.” She flashed an impish smile. “I am a little nervous, though,” she croaked a moment later.
“About what?” He wanted to slay every dragon she had.
“Everything. I’m afraid you’ll change your mind. Or end up being an asshole, or a drug addict or pimp or something.”
“We both already know I’m an asshole, so there’s no solving that. But a mated wolf doesn’t change his mind. Once you’re marked, you’re mine forever, baby, and I’ll never grow tired of you. That’s the way it works.”
She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Promise?”
“Alpha’s promise.” He kissed her back. “Do you really want kids?”
“Yep. Definitely.”
“Right away?”
“Didn’t you promise I’d be pregnant in a month?”
He grinned and pushed her onto her back, kissing her hard. “I’m sure as hell going to try, baby. Morning, noon, and night.”
The End