Chapter 2
2
Mark
I wake late—which is totally unlike me, but I spent the entire night fucking my fist. Having my mate under my roof, sleeping in my guest bedroom, drove my wolf out of his mind. To make matters impossible, I knew my mate was touching herself, too. I scented her arousal and heard her quickened breath and restless movements through the door, and knowing she was probably as needy as I was drove me out of my mind.
I finally fell asleep as the sun was rising and got a few hours of shut-eye in.
Now, the smell of something sweet is coming from my kitchen. I yank on a pair of jeans and pad down the hall as I pull a shirt over my head. I detect the soft snore of her pups still coming from the guest bedroom.
I head down the stairs, and my dick goes horizontal—or as horizontal as possible trapped behind the denim—at what I find in the kitchen. Colleen is standing in a pair of panties and the oversized t-shirt I gave her to sleep in, flipping French toast in a frying pan. Last night when I locked myself in my bedroom to keep from barging in her room and helping her get satisfaction, I resolved to take things slow today. I don’t know everything she’s been through, but I can tell my mate has been terrorized for a long time.
She’s not ready to trust, and she doesn’t know me from Adam. Just because our biology tells us we’re fated to be together doesn’t mean she’s willing or ready to accept that.
But seeing her like this—catching the earthy cinnamon notes of her delicious scent—aggression takes over. My need to pleasure her, mate her, mark her is all I can think of.
“Aw, babygirl,” I rumble, stepping up against her back and filling one palm with the curve of her ass. I wrap my other arm around her waist to hold her captive against my chest. “I ought to spank this gorgeous ass for the cock-tease you’re giving me right now.” I massage her round cheeks, unable to stop the low rumbling growl in my chest. “You look so delectable this morning.” My fingers trail below her cheeks to brush her most intimate parts.
The scent of her arousal perfumes the air, and she throws her head back on my shoulder. She may not be emotionally ready for me, but her body already knows its master. I slide my hand down her panties in front to dip a finger in her wetness. “Would you like that, babygirl?” I murmur in her ear. “You need your wolf-daddy to pull these panties off you and spank your ass red?”
She moans softly.
“It would serve you right after the night I had. I barely slept with your scent wafting through my place like a drug.”
Her juicy cunt squeezes around my finger. My cock presses against her back, dying to get in on the action. Fifty different ways to take my little she-wolf plow through my head—bent over the counter, up on the table with her legs spread wide, straddling my shoulders for a mustache ride. I’m so caught up in her little mewls of pleasure and the glorious feel of her slippery flesh beneath the pad of my finger that I fail to detect the sound of movement behind us.
“Leave her alone!” a small but fierce voice demands.
Colleen gasps. I release her and whirl to find Jayden standing at the foot of my stairs, his blue-green eyes wide and frightened, despite the angry slash of his brows. I draw in deep breaths to push back my lusty wolf, which probably shows in the color of my eyes.
“ Jayden ,” Colleen remonstrates. A blush turns her cheeks a pretty shade of pink, setting off her eyes, which are the same shade as her son’s.
“It’s okay.” I wrap my hand around her nape and stroke my thumb along the column of her neck. To Jayden, I say, “She’s all right. I wasn’t hurting her. I would never hurt your momma.”
“Apologize,” Colleen instructs Jayden.
“No,” I cut in, then backpedal. “I mean, I’m not trying to overrule your parenting, but I don’t need an apology. He’s protective of his momma—that’s how it should be.”
The boy looks uncertain but then must see something in his mother’s face because the fear drops away. “Momma, your teeth!” he exclaims.
Colleen runs the tip of her tongue along her top teeth and smiles. “They grew in overnight.”
My heart beats fiercely in my chest, the need to avenge the crimes against her warring with my satisfaction that her body has reset back to normal so quickly. One orgasm from her mate was all it took.
Just wait until I get my cum inside her. I try to push that filthy thought from my mind.
“Let me see,” Angie cries, running down the stairs. She throws her arms around her mother’s waist and looks up at Colleen’s pretty smile.
I squeeze Colleen’s nape before I release her. “I’m going to take another cold shower,” I murmur.
At this point, I’m not sure a bucket of ice could cool me down. I leave Colleen to feed the pups and go back upstairs to get in my shower. Once there, I fist my cock, closing my eyes and leaning my forehead against the cool tile as cold water drenches my back. I beat off to the image of Colleen’s legs, the ripeness of her sweet cunt, but something won’t let me come. Which is a huge problem. There’s no way I can be near her if I can’t clear out some of this raging lust.
I groan, banging my head against the tile and fisting my cock even harder.
Her scent magically fills the shower as if conjured by my fantasies, mingling with the steam.
Mark. I hear my name spoken in her voice, the sound driving me wild.
No, wait. My eyes flare open, and I release my cock, spinning around.
She’s standing in my bathroom, with the shirt off, wearing nothing but a pair of panties. I push the shower door open, but leave the water running to muffle the sounds I hope we’re about to make. The kids have the keen hearing of shifters, but I hear them playing downstairs, and the shower noise will drown out our activity.
I step out, dripping wet. “Did you come for your spanking, little girl?”
Her nipples bead up, her long hair falls over one shoulder. “Yes.”
I fucking love the new confidence she shows. Like she understands how much power she has over me. That she doesn’t have to be afraid.
I want to go slowly—I mean to go slowly—but I’m too out of my mind with lust. I barrel into her, not taking time to dry off or be gentle. I grip her hips and spin her to face the counter. “Bend over, sweetheart,” I tell her roughly.
By some miracle, she’s still not afraid. She braces her hands on it and pushes her cute ass out. I stroke my hand over her panties. They’re the practical kind—plain, cotton, heather grey.
“I’d better leave these on you, or we’ll make too much noise,” I tell her right before I lift my hand and crack it down on one side of her ass.
She makes an approving sound, uhhnn , and that’s all I need to continue. I spank her hard and fast with one hand as my other dips down the front of her panties and rubs over her clit.
“Mark!” she gasps, her little button swelling under my fingertip, her pussy leaking the most delicious juices.
“Say it again,” I command, spanking harder. “Who’s your daddy?”
She presses her fingers over the top of mine with a desperate whine. “You are. Mark. You’re my daddy.”
Oh, fates, I’m going to lose it. I’m going to lose control and sink my teeth in her. But the moment my gaze goes to her shoulder and tracks the scars her asshole ex left, I regain control.
Her teeth grew in, but those scars still haven’t healed, which means they run deep. I’m going to take that asshole alpha ex-mate of hers out for what he’s done to Colleen and his pups.
And I won’t betray her trust. Ever.
I channel my need into spanking her harder and faster, knowing a she-wolf loves a little pain with her pleasure, remembering how her pussy turned molten when I threatened it downstairs.
I sink two fingers inside her with my other hand, cupping her mons and pressing over her swollen clit.
“Please,” she pleads, and I stop spanking, in case she’s begging for mercy. “No,” she says quickly. “Don’t stop. I need it—please.”
“What do you need, babygirl?” I thrust my fingers deeper inside her as I squeeze and knead her ass.
She twists to look over her shoulder, and her gaze drops to my erection.
“You want a long, wet ride on my cock, babygirl?”
She licks her lips, making me groan. “Yes, please.”
Yes, please. This girl.
I yank a drawer open to find a box of condoms and roll one on as my beautiful she-wolf shimmies out of her panties. Fates, I hope I can control myself.
But Colleen trusts me, and that makes me desperate to be worthy of that faith. I know it can’t be easy for her. I drag the head of my sheathed cock through her juices. “Is this what you need, sweetheart? Daddy’s cock?”
“Yes, please.”
I push her lower back to angle her ass up more, then shove in, filling her. I have to stop, closing my eyes and willing back the need to mark her. My teeth are long and extended in my mouth, dripping with the serum that contains my scent, that would forever mark her as mine.
“Please,” she begs.
Fuck.
I wrap my arm around the front of her hips to keep them from slamming against the hard counter, and then I drill into her like our lives depend on it. Maybe they do. I find one of her nipples with my free hand and squeeze and pinch it. “Baby,” I rasp. Being inside her is doing crazy things to me.
Nothing has ever felt so right. The need to satisfy her, to satisfy myself overwhelms me.
“Yes!” she whisper-shouts, eyes closed. The sight of her expression in the mirror as she’s about to orgasm sends me over the edge.
I hold in my roar as I fuck her hard and fast, shifting my hand between her legs to rub her clit. Her mouth opens in a silent “O,” and her muscles start squeezing around my dick. I slam in hard and stay, rubbing her clit and watching in the mirror as we both hurtle over the edge into ecstasy.
I throw my head back, but it rebounds and time blurs as I realize I’m about to mark my female. I manage to cover her shoulder with my palm right before I strike, driving my fangs into the back of my hand.
“Oh!” Colleen’s cry of dismay makes me pull out and step back.
She whirls, her nostrils flaring at the scent of my blood. Her eyes widen when she catches sight of my self-inflicted wounds. “Mark.”
“I’m sorry, baby. It happened so fast, I thought I had it under control.”
She grabs my hand and examines it, her brows knit. “You bit… yourself .”
“Well, yeah. I wasn’t going to bite you. Not without your permission.”
She’s gone stiff now. Tension shows in the set of her shoulders. “You can’t mark me. Not now, not ever.”
Colleen
Mark shows nothing outwardly, but I sense his pain like a sharp knife to the gut. I expect him to walk away. Or try to hurt me. Or do any of the normal things people do when you push them away, but instead he picks me up by the waist and sits me on the bathroom counter.
“Why not, babygirl?” He cages me between his arms, leaning his hands on the quartz.
I try to swallow around the lump in my throat. “I don’t want that.” I curse the quaver in my voice.
He cups both sides of my face, cradling it so gently I want to weep. Lowering his head to mine, he murmurs, “You know I’m your mate.”
Tears pop into my eyes. “I don’t know anything.” My lips tremble, inches from his.
“You’re lying.” It’s no more than a whisper. He’s trying to coax honesty out of me, but I just can’t give it. It’s not safe. Not for him, not for me, not for my pups.
I turn my face away, but he gently turns it back.
No one has ever held me so tenderly. Touched me with such reverence. The sex was incredible, but this? It guts me.
“Let me take care of you, babygirl.”
Babygirl. He called himself Daddy earlier after he spanked me. I don’t know anything about this dynamic, but both my body and my being respond like I’ve just found home.
Tears spill from my eyes. I’m crying because I can’t accept his offer, no matter how badly I want to. Not until I somehow get free from Dirk.
He thumbs away my tears. “Please.”
I duck my head and revert to what I know—showing deference to the alpha. “May I take a shower now?”
I sense his frown before I peek at it. He studies me for a moment, the corners of his mouth downturned. This is where I’m sure he’ll walk away, but he still doesn’t. He scoops me from the counter and carries me into the shower where he lowers me gently to my feet and begins to soap every inch of my body.
I whimper at the sweetness of it. The delicious caress. Having my mate naked in a small space with me. My legs tremble as he slides his hands up my inner thighs, stroking softly when he reaches the apex. He kisses between my legs, but doesn’t bring me to orgasm like he did at the pool last night. Instead, he continues the slow torture of worshipping my body.
“We don’t know each other, babygirl. But I know you’re mine. And I’m sure you know it, too. Let me in, sweetheart.”
“Please,” I weep. Because he’s killing me. Because I want to say yes so badly. I want to be his, to let him mark me, take care of me, call me babygirl and treat me with both passion and tenderness.
He stands and wraps his arms around me, sliding his fingers into the cleft of my ass, soaping my most intimate place. “I don’t believe you,” he says. When I search his gaze to understand what he doesn’t believe, he says, “I don’t believe you want me to stand down. But I will, babygirl. Because I need you to feel safe. I need you to know I’ll honor your wishes.” The entire time he speaks, he runs his fingers over my anus, sudsing between my cheeks.
I whimper. My bare breasts press against his muscled torso. I drag my lips over the soft hair of his chest.
He curves his fingers lower and sweeps them between my legs. “I’m keeping a tally of your lies, little girl.” His fingers brush over my opening. I press closer to him, hoping he’ll take me again. “There will be a reckoning.”
The way he says it makes punishment sound more like some delicious reward. Of course, I just learned what it feels like to be spanked by him, and I adored it.
I lift my face, letting water stream over it. “What kind of reckoning?” I hardly recognize my own voice, it sounds so husky.
He moves his finger back up to my asshole and circles there. “The kind that ends with this gorgeous ass red and hot and my cock buried deep between these cheeks.”
I almost orgasm right there. Just from his threatened punishment, which sounds far more like a reward than anything. I reach down to take care of my own needs, since he seems more inclined to tease, but he catches my wrist. “Uh uh. Not when you’ve been naughty, little wolf. No more pleasure for you until I decide you can come.”
A mini-orgasm rips through me, and I shiver against him, catching my breath.
Mark chuckles darkly. “That goes on your ledger, babygirl. Disobedience.”
He releases me and positions me away from the spray of water to shampoo my hair. I close my eyes, too dazed with lust and confusion to do anything else. When he’s finished, he turns off the water and wraps me in a warm, fuzzy towel.
“We’ll go to Target to buy clothes and necessities for the three of you today,” he tells me.
I nod, not trusting myself to speak.
“And then, I’d like to take the pups to do something fun. Would they like an amusement park? Or mini-golf?”
I stare at him. Both options seem outlandish to me. So outlandish, I almost giggle. This is no time for an amusement park. I have to keep my children hidden from their psychopathic father. And yet, the idea of denying my kids such an extravagance feels cruel. Our life in Kentucky with Dirk was horrible, but moving away and staying on the run hasn’t been a picnic, either. My sister gave me enough money to get away, but because Dirk’s an alpha, I was afraid to ask other shifters for assistance.
Cody, the alpha in Colorado Springs, found us by accident and gave me money and his help, but until then, we were struggling just to eat.
Maybe we could go have some fun. Just this once. I know we can’t stay here with Mark—not permanently. This is just a temporary resting place while I wait to see if Dirk knows where I am and if he’s coming for us. We may have to run again. Maybe soon.
“That would be nice,” I tell him.
He lowers his head and brushes his lips across mine. It’s another tease because I don’t get a real kiss. He tucks the towel around me, turns me around and smacks my ass to send me out the door of his bathroom.
I send a small smile over my shoulder as I scoot back to the guest bathroom where I left yesterday’s clothes. I put them on and open the door to the guest bedroom.
Jayden and Angie are playing Kings on the Corners card game on the bed. “Go and jump in the shower,” I tell Jayden. “Mark is going to take us shopping and then to do something fun.”
“What?” Angie demands as Jayden scrambles off the bed.
“It’s a surprise. I’ll let him tell you,” I say. “You’ll like it.”
“What is it? What is it?” Angie starts bouncing up and down on the bed as I pull my clothes on.
“Don’t!” I say automatically, that familiar rush of adrenaline kicking in, my frayed nerves firing in protective fear. “Don’t jump on the bed, angel.”
“She can jump.” Mark leans in the doorway, dressed in a black t-shirt that molds to his muscles and a faded pair of jeans. He looks sinfully handsome, but more than that, his indulgent smile as he watches Angie makes my eyes smart again.
It’s too late, though. Angie heard the fear in my voice and came down off the bed to glue herself to my side. “What’s the surprise?” she whispers to me.
Mark winks. “I’ll wait until your brother is out of the shower, and then you two can vote.”
“There’s only two of us,” Angie says, warming to Mark far more quickly than I would expect. “Who’s the tie-breaker?”
“Your mom,” Mark says immediately, pushing off the door frame and sauntering down the stairs.
My need to follow him, to stay close to the warm sphere of energy he projects makes me rock on my feet. But I need to call my sister—to find out if she’s heard anything about us through my dad’s pack.
I take my burner phone into Mark’s backyard to call Meagan. He watches me through the window, like he’s afraid to take his eyes off me, but it doesn’t feel controlling. Just protective.
I let Angie come out with me, and she starts picking up fallen leaves, examining them and comparing their colors.
“Hello?” It’s a new number, so my sister doesn’t recognize it.
“Can you talk?”
“Hang on a sec.” I hear the bang of a door, and my sister’s footsteps crunching over leaves. I picture her walking out the back door of the little cabin she shares with her mate and two small pups toward the woods. “Okay, I’m good. How’s it going?”
“Have you heard anything? About me, I mean?”
Meagan is still part of our father’s pack, the second largest pack in Kentucky. She stayed at home and mated her high school boyfriend after getting pregnant. They’re not fated mates, but they do love each other and make a good match.
The largest pack in Kentucky belongs to Dirk, which is why my father offered me up to be mated to him in some kind of medieval uniting of kingdoms. Things were horrible right from the start, but I couldn’t tell my father because Dirk told me he’d kill my father and take over his pack if he ever challenged him.
“No, is everything okay?”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Good. Yes. Well, no. Jayden got hit by a car and was taken to a hospital—he’s fine, of course—but I was afraid word might somehow get back to Dirk if he’d filed a missing persons report.”
Meagan scoffs. “He wouldn’t do that. He told Dad that you two had a misunderstanding, and you were being stubborn, but you’d be home soon.” Meagan hesitates a moment then adds “I know you didn’t want me to, but I finally told Dad the truth. I told him what Dirk had done to you and that you three were running for your lives. Dad’s beside himself. He hasn’t gone over to challenge Dirk yet because he needs proof to show the pack if there’s going to be a war.”
I swear softly. “I don’t want a pack war over me, Meagan. Dad’s pack won’t win. Dirk would kill Dad just to hurt me.”
Meagan’s quiet. “I know. But Dad has the right to know. And now that you’re out of that house, I feel like it’s time to stop keeping the horrible secret.”
Tears spear my eyes. “Don’t let him challenge Dirk,” I beg. “Promise me.”
“I’ll do what I can. What about the humans at the hospital? Did anyone witness Jayden’s healing?”
“No. I called the alpha in Colorado Springs, and he just came and pulled us out of there before Jayden got checked or anything.”
“That’s a close call. So you’re under his protection?”
“Not exactly.” I glance toward the house, everything warming as I think about Mark. “I’m in Denver… with my mate.”
Meagan gasps. “Oh my God. Are you serious?” Her excitement practically vibrates through the phone.
“Yeah, but Meagan, what am I going to do? Dirk will kill us both if I let him mark me.”
Meagan goes quiet for a moment then says fiercely, “Fuck Dirk. Why did you leave him if you’re not going to live? Are you just going to stay in hiding for the rest of your life?”
“I’m just trying to keep my pups safe and alive!” I cry, angry tears forcing their way to the outer corners of my eyes.
“Fuck. I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Meagan soothes, even though I’m the older sister. She’s the only reason I was able to get away. She brought me enough cash to get bus tickets to Colorado and to pay the first month’s rent on an apartment. We didn’t have time to plan things out—it was a hasty decision after Dirk got violent with me and Jayden.
“I gotta go. Let me know if you hear anything.”
“This is your new phone?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his name? Your mate, I mean.”
“Mark. Mark Ruhl. He’s a DEA agent and a shifter council enforcer. He’s older. Like in his forties.”
“A silver wolf.”
I can’t stop the way my lips curve thinking of him. The way I’m instantly soothed from the anxiety of a moment before. “Not too much silver, but yeah. Super hot silver wolf. And he likes to be called Daddy .”
“Oh my gawd. That’s so hot.”
“Super hot.” I laugh. It’s the first time I’ve ever had anything sexual or fun to share with Meagan. I was just out of high school when my dad pawned me off, and I couldn’t share the joy of Meagan’s exploits when she started sleeping with her mate because my life was so traumatic by then.
“Let him mark you, Co-co. You can’t delay living forever. At some point, you have to claim your own life.”
I don’t answer because my sister can’t even begin to understand the mental slavery I’ve been in for so long now, and I’m not going to defend myself.
“Love you,” I say simply.
“I love you, too. Text me a pic of Mark. I promise I’ll delete it as soon as it comes through.”
I laugh softly because it’s the best thing I’ve ever had to text my sister about. “I will. Bye.”