Chapter 23
23
JOHNNY
Holy hell. I’d been missing so much in life before Lyssa. Before she told me she loved me. Now, I felt… fulfilled. My wolf was happy. Except my wolf and I were barely hanging on to control. What happened with that asshole at Cody’s was proof. I wanted to bite her. Mark her. Make her mine.
After we got back to the bunkhouse, I hadn’t even helped Lyssa away from the truck before I got inside her. I’d clicked off her seatbelt, pulled her out, spun her around, flipped up her skirt and fucked her.
Rough. Hard. Deep.
I made Lyssa forget that guy ever existed. Made her know she was mine. I was temporarily soothed when– and only when–I pulled out, spurted my cum over her perfect peach of an ass, then smeared it into her skin. I didn’t let her shower or clean it off. I could smell me on her.
It soothed my wolf, who was desperate to mark her.
This morning, we’d slept in, and then I’d taken her on a spectacular hike to a mountain lake where we’d had a picnic lunch. We’d returned and had a nice long shower together and planned to crawl back in bed for a nap, since I’d kept her up too late last night screaming my name.
Lyssa’s phone rang. I surreptitiously glanced at the screen to see if it was Chapman, but the screen read Stan .
My wolf growled at the sight of a man’s name there. Fuck, the full moon had me possessive as hell.
“It’s my old boss.” She looked at me as if I could advise her on something. As if she were torn.
“What does he want?”
“I think he wants me back.” She swallowed and swiped right to answer. At the same time, a knock sounded on the bunkhouse door.
Shit. He wants her back?
I opened it and found Rob.
I’d known this was coming. Had been waiting for it, and the longer the day went without hearing from him, the more I’d started to dread it.
“Got time to talk?” Rob’s thumbs were tucked into the front pockets of his jeans, and while he seemed all casual, he wasn’t. Plus, his question wasn’t a question at all.
He wanted to talk, and the time was now.
I glanced behind me, saw Lyssa on the phone.
“Sure,” I said. “Lemme grab a shirt.”
I was only in my jeans after our shower. Hadn’t even buttoned them.
Once dressed, I stepped out and pulled the door shut behind me.
We walked for a few minutes toward the barn, away from any chance of Lyssa overhearing.
“I’m sorry about last night, Alpha. I know I was out of control.” I stopped in the middle of the clearing. Rob stopped, too, and turned.
“You sure as hell were. You could’ve killed that guy with your first punch.”
“I know.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t snap his neck.” There was alpha command in his voice which hit me square in the chest, practically immobilizing my body. It was so much worse than a shout.
I scrubbed my hand over my face, shame flooding through me. Fuck. What if Rob decided I was a liability to the pack? What if I got kicked out of the Wolf Ranch pack, like I did back home ?
A sense of dread crept over me like icy tendrils. “I know, Alpha. I’m sorry.”
Miraculously, Rob relented. Maybe he saw the panic in my expression because he dropped a hand on my shoulder, and his tone changed. “It’s all right, kid. The moon was nearly full, and he was touching your unmarked mate. Your wolf got protective.”
Thank fuck. He wasn’t kicking me out.
“It could’ve happened to any of us.”
I hung my head, relief pouring through me. “Fuck. Thank you for sayin’ that. I only want to be an asset to this pack. I–”
“You are.” He squeezed my shoulder and released it. “How are things going with Lyssa–other than last night’s brawl?”
“Great. She didn’t run after last night. As crazy as it sounds, I think it actually brought us closer.”
“Good. Then mark her.”
I shook my head. “Not yet. She’s not ready. It hasn’t even been two days,” I reminded.
He nodded, considering. “I heard back from our hacker in Arizona. Lyssa checks out. Got the report on my desk. Age, background, photo all match. There’s nothing there.”
I knew she was the real deal, but I was still relieved. Maybe because it would get Rob to get his head out of his ass about her being a possible threat. I wasn’t saying that out loud though.
He eyed me closely. “What have you found out from her about Chapman?”
I blew out my breath. “Nothing new. Which means nothing.”
“Did she call him?”
“Yes, yesterday. No answer.”
At the time, I’d been relieved. But now? Fuck. While he’d given me two days, I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. Chapman wasn’t getting any less guilty because I found my mate. Me taking time off wasn’t helping get him caught and the trafficking to stop.
The pressure of being with my mate balanced with this new job was a lot. So was being pushed to mark a human who, while she’d said she loved me, was… skittish. How could I tell her about shifters, marking, and being mine forever when she might leave?
“You need to get that info out of her.”
“What do you want me to ask her? She hasn’t seen him in weeks. Doesn’t know where he is.”
“Have her call him again.”
“We talked about this. I admit, I distracted her.”
“Leave a message that there’s a bad garbage disposal or the ice maker leaked and ruined the wood floors. Something. I don’t give a shit. Get him on the horn and have her ask about where he is and when he’s returning to his ranch.”
I didn’t want Lyssa in the middle of anything having to do with Chapman. Just knowing she’s an employee of his, had been living alone in his place, made me want to lose my shit. I started to pace. Then tugged on my hair.
“Listen. You need to be careful with her tonight. You should probably come out with us on the full moon run to work off some steam. Otherwise, your wolf might try to mark her without you meaning to. With the way you acted last night, I’m not sure you can control yourself.”
I nodded respectfully, but there was no way I could leave Lyssa here by herself or even with the other women tonight. We only just met. She wasn’t going to stick around for my cowboy ass if I bailed on her. I sure as hell didn’t want her to head back to possible danger at Chapman’s ranch while I was off running with my pack mates.
Still, I muttered, “Yes, Alpha” to get him off my back.
Rob tipped his hat and walked off toward the barn. I turned on my heel and went back to the bunkhouse.
Lyssa was in the kitchen making a pot of coffee. I should have felt bad that she was tired enough for a cup this late in the day, but the memory of keeping her awake to fuck her over and over–the female who said she loved me–only made my dick hard again.
“Hey baby,” I murmured. “You don’t need coffee. We’re going to nap, remember? ”
She looked over her shoulder from where she was measuring the grounds. Her hair was long and tousled down her back.
I loved her.
“Oh, yeah. That sounds good.”
“How was the call?”
She tilted her head back and forth. “He offered me a new position he texted about yesterday.”
I tried to remain calm through this, but my wolf was not happy.
“So this was the job in Hollywood doing special effects? The one you quit a few months ago?”
She hesitated, just for a fraction of a second.
What didn’t she want to tell me?
“Yeah. It was… crazy.” Ditching the coffeemaker, she spun around to face me. After our shower, she’d gotten dressed, but barely. She had on one of my t-shirts and was definitely not wearing a bra. Or shorts.
I was distracted by her hard little nipples and over whether she had on panties.
I curled my finger, and like a good girl, she came to me. I wrapped my arms around her, set my hands on her ass.
Fuck yes, no panties.
“What was crazy, baby?” I asked, trying to stay focused. The scent of her plus her bare ass equaled one hard dick .
I scooped her up. With a squeal, she wrapped her arms around my neck. We settled on the couch to talk. She was in my lap sideways.
“Tell me about your boss. Why the job was crazy.”
She sighed. “I worked eighty-hour weeks, and whatever I produced was never good enough. I had no life outside of my job, which would’ve been fine, because I actually loved the work when I started, but I came to hate it.”
“Why?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Hollywood is nuts. It was a toxic work environment, for sure. Everything is done by committee, and there are too many fingers in the pie. There are producers, directors, managers, actors, designers, and you get completely different directions from each of them. They ask for something, but they don’t really know what they want, so they’re never happy with what you deliver. And my boss always made me feel like it was my fault.”
I tightened my hold around her. I wanted names. Anyone who made my mate feel bad needed a talking to. “Sounds like hell.”
She nodded. “Yeah. So I quit. I just walked off–which isn’t like me at all. And that’s how I ended up in Montana.”
“Working for Chapman. How’d you get that job?”
“Um… ”
Was she holding her breath?
“My sister actually hooked me up with it. God knows how she knew Chapman. She’s the type who meets people and makes connections everywhere she goes.”
I smiled. “She sounds fun.”
For some reason, Lyssa didn’t respond. Her scent went a little sour.
“Not nearly as fun as you, though,” I said, trying to fix whatever I’d done wrong.
She let out a wry laugh and glanced down. “I’m not the fun one.”
“What?” I picked her up by the waist and resettled her on my lap, so she was straddling and facing me.
She examined my collarbone.
“You think you’re not fun?”
She shrugged. “Not compared to my sister.”
I chuckled. “Believe me, Lyssa baby. You’re fun. I’ve had more fun with you in the last two days than I have in all of my life.”
That wrenched a smile out of her, and her dark gaze flicked up to mine. “Yeah, me too.”
“So, did you tell your boss to shove it? What did he have to say?”
“He’s been hired to do the effects on a new movie and wants me on board. I told him no. He said I should think about it and offered me three times what I was making before. ”
My heart stopped for a moment. Yeah, I was fucking proud of her to be wanted this much, but I wanted her more. My mate might leave the state.
“Wow. Are you considering it?” I tried to keep my voice neutral. I wanted to throw out, what about your job at the ranch , but I stopped myself. That job was already over. Chapman would most likely be dead, and she would be moving here.
Except now she had this great job offer…
Fuck. I didn’t want her to move back to L.A. But a good boyfriend would support her career choice. A good mate would kill or die to make sure she was happy. Which meant I might need to find a job in Hollywood. Maybe stunting, since I was nearly indestructible.
She only hesitated for a moment. “Not really. Good money doesn’t change a terrible work environment.”
I let out the breath I was holding. “Good. Because you’re gonna be pretty tied up here for the foreseeable future.” I nibbled on her neck. “Or handcuffed at least.”
“Mmm, am I?” Her voice had a sultry sound to it that went straight to my dick.
That was my cue. It was officially nap time. Or at least time for us to be horizontal and naked again.
I picked her back up and headed to the bedroom.