Chapter 15 Mates
MATES
Ah. Gus understands now.
Mother has finally chosen her wolf. Good.
He is tasty.
— gus
The shower curtain yanks back. I get one look at Max, and if I could still drop, I’d be dropping fast.
Only I don’t. Instead, I stare at him, unsure what to say—or how to apologize. A low, guttural sound rolls from the depths of his chest. A sound so dominant, it’s more instinct than speech. I don’t faint, but I do freeze, one hand still in my damp hair.
“Max?”
There’s no keeping him away from me. I’m hot and I’m wet—and I don’t just mean from the shower. My scent perfumes the air; so does his. He breathes in deep, body flexing. The Alpha doesn’t shift, but it doesn’t matter. His boxer briefs literally tear right off of him.
Naked and oh, so tempting, he joins me in the shower, tugging the shower curtain closed. He blocks me, as though thinking I’m going to flee. Going to escape.
Nope. I’m doing everything I can not to fling myself at him.
I gulp, staying where I am with the exception of lowering my hands.
“What is that scent?” His voice is rough, strained, almost confused. “It’s been there, underneath everything. Under sugar, under coffee, under whatever charm you’ve been hiding behind. And you… you’ve been hiding it, haven’t you? That you’re my… my…”
He can’t say it.
I force myself to. “Mate.”
His eyes flash so brightly, I want to wince. Shit. He’s pissed. I figured this would happen, but… “I’m sorry. But you weren’t supposed to notice.”
He laughs once, sharp and disbelieving. “I didn’t. Because you’ve been muting yourself.”
Truth’s out, isn’t it?
I nod. “I had to. You’re a wolf, Max. And I’m—”
His hand comes up, trembling just slightly, brushing damp strands of hair from my cheek. “Say it.”
“—an opossum,” I finish, voice thin. “Prey. And I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want you to feel obligated, or worse, disgusted, if—”
The growl returns, softer this time, a promise instead of a threat.
“Honey.” My name is possessive on his tongue. How am I only just noticing that now? “You’ve been mine all along, and you didn’t tell me.”
It’s hard to look at him, and not because he’s an Alpha. It’s because he is my mate, and I hurt him. “You would’ve treated me differently.”
“Damn right I would have,” he murmurs, voice thick. “I’d have protected you, stayed close, made sure nothing touched you.”
“You did,” I blurt out. “You’ve been doing it all along. As if you knew—”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t. I always… No. I didn’t know. You did.”
I can’t deny that.
“Yes.” The word is a whispered admission. “I’ve known since the first day I caught your scent. The most delicious pine… you were sitting in your cruiser, writing something down. You glanced up, looked at me for a moment, and I knew. But then you looked away and I also knew that you—”
“What? You thought I wouldn’t want you?”
“I thought a wolf would never want a possum. You hunt. I hide.”
Steam from the shower curls between us. Max’s finger hovers just above my upper arm, close enough that I can sense the tremor in his prolonged restraint.
“You hid your scent for months,” he murmurs, voice impossibly low. “You must’ve thought I’d tear you apart the second I knew who you were to me.”
I swallow hard. “Not tear me apart… I always knew you weren’t that kind of predator. I believed that Fate wouldn’t have led me to you if that was the case. But see me as something fragile because opossum shifters are classified as prey… something to protect. Something weak—”
His jaw flexes. “You think that’s all I see when I look at you?”
I shake my head, flinging water drops everywhere. “I think you see everyone that way, Max. It’s not a bad thing. You keep us safe. You’re an Alpha. That’s what you do.”
He exhales slowly. “You have no idea how hard it’s been, Honey. Wanting to keep you close and not knowing why. Every time you smiled at me I wanted to—” He cuts himself off, eyes flicking away. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” I whisper, placing one shaky hand in the space between his pecs. “Tell me.”
His gaze snaps back to mine, eyes wilder than I’ve ever seen from the self-contained sheriff. “You felt like home. Even before I knew what you were or had any thoughts about who you could be. And I told myself that was dangerous.”
The confession lodges somewhere between my ribs. “You’re scared,” I say softly.
The big, bad wolf is terrified.
“Of hurting you,” he admits. “A predator doesn’t know his own strength sometimes.
And you’re fierce, Killer. You can be feisty.
You’re still smaller than I am. In your fur…
” He looks my naked body up and down, the heat in his expression burning me up more effectively than the shower spray. “... and in your skin.”
I slide my palm up his damp skin, curving my fingers around the side of his throat. “You’d never hurt me. I’ve known that for a while.”
He lets out a rough breath that sounds like a laugh. “You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?”
“Of course I am,” I admit. “You’re a wolf, Max. I’m an opossum. We’re not supposed to fit, but Fate says we do. I always knew it. I just… when you didn’t, I thought it was because your instincts wanted to keep you from recognizing that I was prey.”
“My instincts are idiots.” His thumb strokes across my knuckles. “It took me long enough. You had your reasons. I can blame the charm all I want for being blind, but I see you now. You’re mine, Honey.”
My lips quirk into an honest smell. “That’s all I’ve wanted to hear.”
He goes still. “You mean it? You want this? You want me?”
“I do. I always have. I just thought you wouldn’t want me.”
He inches closer, closing the last space between us. “I’ve wanted you every damn day since you rolled into town. I just didn’t understand why it felt like it hurt me to stay away.”
The words steal my breath.
“Then stop staying away,” I whisper.
That’s all the permission he needs.
Max is an Alpha. I’ve never been able to forget that. His dominance is a big part of who he is, and his type of wolf gives him abilities that I don’t have. One of them? Speed.
He moves so quickly, so decisively, changing our positions so that my back is to the tiled wall, the shower spray falling between us.
His body completely consumes mine. He has one paw on my hip, the other is braced by my head, trapping me beneath him.
All I breathe in is Max. His scent. His aura.
His everything. The length of his erection digs into the side of my belly.
His chest is heaving, or maybe that’s mine.
There’s barely two inches separating us.
He bows his head, forcing me to make eye contact.
The only challenge going on here is Max daring me to deny him, to deny that I feel this bond thrumming between us, this aching need…
the mate dance coming two months too late because of magic and who knows what else…
it’s late, but it’s here, and the only thing that can come between us now is one word.
No.
I could say it. Max could say it.
Neither of us do.
He tilts his forehead down, leaning it against mine, both of us suddenly trembling in a combination of anticipation and desire. “I’ll go slow,” he murmurs. “If you change your mind—”
“I won’t.” My voice is steady now. “I want you. Not gentle, not careful… I know who my mate is. I want everything you have to offer.”
For a heartbeat, everything stills. Then he kisses me, slowly at first, like he’s memorizing the shape of my ‘yes’, before the urgency takes over and he’s just about devouring me.
The bond hums beneath our skin, some higher power urging us to accept what Fate has given us.
Pulling away, he uses the tip of his claws to trail along the column of my throat.
His wolf is making an appearance, and that actually makes me feel better.
My opossum has been on Team Mate Max since the beginning; it was my human brain that got all mixed up.
I want Max and his wolf to choose me. It looks like he might.
He sucks in a soft breath. “I’ve never done this before.”
A nervous lump lodges in my throat. I swallow it roughly. “Does it make me sound like a jealous shrew if I tell you that I’m glad? Because the idea of another female getting to touch you like this… having you touch them… it makes me want to claw their imaginary eyes out.”
“I’d do worse to your previous lovers, Killer. So, do me a favor… don’t tell me about them?”
That’s easy. “That’s okay. I don’t have any. I’ve never done this before, either.”
He growls. “You’re a virgin?”
Yup. Roxy might’ve been teasing me, but it was true.
Not every shifter waits until they’ve found their fated mate to, you know, mate.
Especially spending so much time around humans, it’s actually more common for a shifter of my type to fool around and find out what she likes.
Wolves… they have this whole ‘mating for life’ thing hardwired into their brains.
I never wanted to assume that Max would be my first and only lover and I’d be his, but, oh, am I glad that he is.
I grin up at him. “And not just a Virginia opossum.”
I don’t know what it is I said. I was just trying to make light of the sexually charged moment and Max’s softly uttered admission, but it’s like I flipped a switch.
“Where? Here? Your bed? Because my wolf is begging me to get you under him, Honey. If you’ll let him… if you’ll let me… I’m taking you as my mate right now.”
That’s all I want.
I hook my leg around his hip, opening myself up to him.
My predator doesn’t hesitate. He goes in straight for the kill—or, in this case, he grabs his cock, positions it at my entrance, and starts to push.
Even in the haze of mate-induced lust, he remembers that it means something different for a female to be new to mating than it does a male, whether they’re prey or predator.
He said he would be careful. That he would take his time. That’s exactly what he does. Kissing me at the same time to distract me from any discomfort, he moves slowly yet possessively, feeding every inch of his cock into my waiting pussy.
I’m not afraid. Not of this. Mating is natural, and if he wasn’t meant for me in every way, Fate never would’ve given us to each other. Sure, he’s a pretty good size, and I feel like he’s stretching parts of me that could easily tear, but I trust Max.
There’s some resistance. I sense it. So does Max. He digs his fingers in my hair, prickling my scalp with his claws. At the same time, he nibbled on my bottom lips and shoves.
Okay. It hurts. Like, it burns so bad, I grunt into his mouth, but I’m a shifter. I heal pretty damn quickly. The pain is there and gone, and by the time Max is withdrawing from me, prepared to make a second thrust, all that I’m experiencing is pleasure.
It’s more than that. As Max claims my mouth with his, my body with his, rocking into me, pinning me to the wall so that I’m right where he wants me—under him—the bond I’ve worked so hard to ignore is blazing like a dark gold thread deep inside of me.
It ties me to his male, and though this is only the beginning of forever for us, I hold on tight and enjoy the ride.
After we got dirty in the shower, Max took his time and care in cleaning me up. His wolf growled under his breath when he saw the trickle of blood mingling with his seed as it streaking down my inner thigh.
Hey. I told him I was a virgin. He knew that, but as though it really hit him in the moment that he claimed me, he dropped reverentially to his knees and licked my thigh clean. Then, as an encore, he decided to find out what my pussy tasted like.
By the time he had me clawing at his shoulders, writhing on his face, I was almost kicking myself for not throwing myself at Max months ago.
I’m assuming by our enthusiastic mating, he’s at least tabled his hurt at my hiding from him for so long, but as he cared for me, wrapping me up in a towel, brushing my hair, and laying me out in my bed…
I promise myself that I’ll do whatever I have to to make it up to him.
Hey. He’s mine now. Once our bond is finalized, we’ll have forever.
Tonight’s a different story. It’s almost three a.m. And, thanks to the note on the door, I’m not opening the bakery tomorrow.
Of course not. The fact that the poison vial had a blow-back spell on it meant we definitely have a witch involved.
There’s a small twenty-witch coven in Moonburrow.
It’s another lead, and one that Max plans on us following in the morning once he checks in with Riordan.
Us, I notice, as if I couldn’t want this male more…
But since going to see the head of the coven at three o’clock in the morning is pushing it even for me, Max insists that we got to sleep.
It’s weird to have someone in my bed that isn’t a ten-pound opossum, but the moment Max spoons me, I have to wonder how I made it twenty-eight years without his body heat warming me up from the inside out.
I snuggle into him and, endorphins fading to dozy bliss, I close my eyes.