CHAPTER NINE
Ella
Ella woke to the heavy, solid heat of Roman’s body curled around hers and the deep, satisfied ache between her legs that said last night had not been a dream.
She lay still for a long moment. His arm was locked across her waist, palm splayed over her stomach.
Her first reaction was to move it. She didn’t like to be touched there.
But then she stopped, curling her fingers around his hand instead.
That reaction was pointless now. He had touched every inch of her last night.
Several times.
And it felt as if he wanted to do it again.
One of his thighs was shoved between hers, his cock hard and ready. His breath stirred the hair at the back of her neck. Every place they touched felt branded.
She was sore in the best possible way. Thoroughly used.
Thoroughly wanted. The memory of his mouth, his hands, the thick stretch of him pushing inside her while he growled against her throat made heat flash through her all over again.
He had not bitten her. He had not knotted her.
He had held the claiming back by what looked like sheer bloody-minded will, and the restraint had made every thrust feel like a vow.
Mate, her mind supplied, and for once the word didn’t scare her.
She shifted carefully. Roman’s arm tightened.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His voice was sleep-rough and dark.
“Bathroom. Then coffee. Then possibly another round if you’re up for it.”
“Doesn’t it feel like I’m up for it?”
She giggled.
He pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the nape of her neck and reluctantly let her go. “Five minutes. Then I’m coming to find you.”
She smiled into the pillow, slid out of bed, and padded to the bathroom wearing nothing but the marks he’d left on her skin.
The water hit her shoulders scalding hot, exactly the way she liked it, and Ella stood under the spray for a long moment. Every sore muscle had a good reason behind it now. She pressed a palm flat against the tile and let herself grin like an idiot when she heard the shower door open behind her.
Five minutes, he’d said before he’d come find her.
He lasted only four.
Cooler air brushed her back for half a second before his hands settled on her hips from behind.
“Couldn’t stay away, huh?”
“Never.” His voice was rough at her ear. “Turn around.”
She did, and his mouth found hers before she’d finished turning, one hand sliding into her wet hair to hold her exactly where he wanted her while the other gripped her hip and pulled her flush against him.
He was already hard against her stomach, and she rocked into him without meaning to, chasing an ache that hadn’t fully faded from the night before.
“Greedy,” he murmured against her mouth, sounding pleased about it.
“You started it.”
“I did.” He walked her back until her shoulders met cool tile, a shock against overheated skin, then eased back just enough to look at her. Water ran down between her breasts. His gaze followed it.
“You sore, baby?” The question came low, almost gentle, even as his cock stayed heavy against her. “Tell me the truth.”
A little heat climbed her cheeks. “A little. In the best way.”
“Good.” That made her laugh. Him being proud that he had taken her so thoroughly. He dropped to his knees in front of her, his big hands sliding down the backs of her thighs to widen her stance. “Then I’ll be careful. At first.”
Her fingers dug into his scalp. “Who said I wanted careful with my big, bad wolf?”
That made him laugh. A wickedly seductive laugh.
He hitched one of her legs over his shoulder before she could brace, and then his mouth was on her.
No rush. Just the slow, long drag of his tongue through her folds, licking up every bit of her arousal.
He groaned against her like he’d been starving for her, even after what they had shared last night.
When he sealed his mouth over her clit and sucked, her head fell back against the tile as she gave herself over to his touch.
“Roman—”
“I know.” The words vibrated against her. He slid two fingers inside her, gentle because she’d said she was sore, curling them exactly where she needed while his tongue kept working that swollen little bud. “Let me take care of you. Come on my tongue, baby. Nice and easy.”
She was close. Right there. Her whole body drawn tight as a bowstring—
Roman went still beneath her hands.
Not slow-still. Wrong-still, every muscle in his shoulders locking a full second before she heard it herself—the first gunshot, cracking across the clearing.
He rose in one fluid motion, cupping her face with wet hands. “Get dressed and stay in the bedroom. Don’t come out unless it’s me or my brothers.”
She barely managed to nod before he was out of the shower. She could hear him getting dressed and turned off the water so she could do the same. As she hurried into her clothes from yesterday, she heard a second shot. Then a third, closer. Shouting—male, angry, not Roman or his brothers.
Ella finished dressing with shaking hands, found her sneakers, and tried to make herself as small as possible as she watched out the window.
Four trucks came up the road leading to Roman’s house.
More than the day she’d stumbled into all this.
Naturally, there were more men. The older one they’d called Pruitt was easy to spot even at a distance.
Same gray hair. Same gray stubble. Same cold calculation.
Two of his people carried tranquilizer rifles loaded for something a lot bigger than deer. The rest carried the real kind.
She knew they had come for the wolf. And for the woman who could identify them.
A black shape exploded out of the trees to the left of the lead truck.
Roman in wolf form. He was massive and wasted no time defending what was his.
Cage came from the opposite side in human form, shotgun up, dropping two of the men before they could raise their weapons.
A third got a shot off and Cage went down hard behind the truck bed and didn’t immediately get back up.
Ella’s stomach dropped straight through the floor. Before she could do something stupid and leave the safety of the house, Declan appeared. Also, in human form. Also carrying a rifle.
Pruitt’s forces started dropping like flies.
Cage was back on his feet. The three brothers worked in unison. Roman took down man after man, swiftly and without mercy in wolf form, while the other two dealt with the rest. It was brutal and efficient.
The last of Pruitt’s men went down under Declan’s hands.
Pruitt himself broke for the tree line the second the numbers turned against him, and Roman shifted mid-stride—black wolf to naked, blood-smeared man—and caught him by the throat, slamming him back against the nearest truck hard enough to leave a dent.
Ella was out of the house before she thought better of it.
The clearing smelled of gunpowder, blood, and wet earth.
Cage was sitting against a tire, blood running down his arm from his wound, already needling Declan about his aim.
Roman didn’t look away from the man he held, but she felt his attention snap to her the second her sneakers hit the dirt, but he didn’t say anything, his attention held by the man he was currently holding on his tiptoes.
The man’s eyes flicked between them, still calculating, still sure he could talk his way into another day. “You can’t just kill me. There are laws—”
“I can do whatever I want with you, Pruitt.”
The man’s face froze. “You know who I am.”
“Yes. I know everything about you. But the most important thing is you tried to kill my mate.”
The man shook his head vigorously—or as vigorously as he could considering Roman’s hand was around his throat. “No, I didn’t. I just wanted to scare her away. The same way I came here today. Just to scare off the black wolf we saw. I didn’t know it was you. That it—you—were a shifter.”
Declan stood just beyond Roman’s side, his rifle pointed to the ground. “You came for her with enough sedative to drop a grizzly.”
“Your real mistake was coming back for my mate,” Roman said. “And shifter law means I can do anything I want to you.”
He pressed his hand tighter against the man’s throat. Ella’s eyes widened when she saw a claw appear and push into the man’s neck. She moved forward, placing a hand on his arm the same way she had that first night when his brothers had come into his house. “Don’t, Roman. He’s not worth it.”
Her touch, like then, seemed to calm him down instantly. “He deserves to die.”
Ella looked at the man who had smiled while he planned her death, who had come to kill her and capture Roman. Capture her mate.
She’d like nothing more than for Roman to end this so there would be no more worry of the man ever appearing again on the mountain. She’d been hunted like an animal. Watching the hunter become the hunted was clarifying in a way nothing else had ever been.
“I know, but you don’t deserve to have to live with that memory. I want him to have to say out loud what he did. I want every name. Every buyer. Every hunt before this one, and whoever he answers to.”
Roman’s mouth curved, sharp and approving. He slammed the man’s head into the truck once more—hard enough to drop him unconscious but still breathing—and let him fall.
Cage, still sitting against the tire, called over, “For the record, I fully support the killing-him option. Just putting that out there.”
“Duly noted,” Declan said, already dragging bodies and weapons into a tidy, damning pile.
Roman walked straight to Ella, cupped her face in blood-streaked hands, and kissed her like they weren’t standing in the middle of a crime scene. “I told you to stay inside,” he growled against her mouth.
“Yes, you did.”
“And you disobeyed me.”
One of Ella’s dark brows rose. “Excuse me?”
“You deliberately disobeyed me.”
Cage called over with a laugh. “Tell her how wolves punish disobedient mates, Roman. That’ll earn you some extra points.”
Ella’s eyes widened just a little. “You punish your mates?”
“Yes,” Roman said, voice low. “When they do something dangerous.”
Instead of being scared, Ella looked intrigued. “Exactly what does that entail?”
“Spank your bare ass until it’s red.” He leaned down, whispering. “And then I fuck you there until you remember who you belong to… and you give me complete obedience.”
Ella pulled back just enough to look at him, a slow, wicked little smile curving her mouth. “And that’s supposed to make me obey you? Sounds like more incentive to disobey.”
“Ella—”
“I was safe enough. You three were terrifying, and Cage got shot, and I have never been more scared in my life, and I am still not sorry I came out here.” She rested her forehead against his, hands fisted in his shirt, letting the last of the fear move through her now that it was over. “Is it over?”
“The ones who matter are about to sing for the authorities. The rest will scatter. Word will move through their circles by nightfall that Stone Creek is closed for business.” His thumbs stroked her cheeks. “You’re safe. Really safe.”
She exhaled and felt the last of the fear drain out of her. In its place was something warmer. Heavier. Right.
Cage jogged over, phone in his good hand. “Sheriff’s on the way. Also, congratulations on the sex, you two. The whole ridge smelled like it this morning.”
Roman growled. Cage only grinned, wincing when it pulled at his arm, and went back to work, helping Declan secure everyone. Then they were gone, and it was just Roman and Ella in the middle of the clearing.
Roman’s hands settled on her hips. “You’re taking this better than I expected.”
“I’m a nurse. I’ve seen worse.” She glanced at the unconscious Pruitt and felt nothing but cold satisfaction.
His gaze searched hers. “Any regrets? About last night. About staying. About any of it.”
“One,” she said.
Roman went still.
She rose on her toes and brushed her lips against his. “You still haven’t bitten me. And after watching what you did to protect me, I think I’m done waiting.”
The gold flared bright and possessive in his eyes. “Then we finish this. Tonight.”
Ella smiled against his mouth, and for the first time in a very long time, she felt exactly where she was supposed to be.
Home.