Chapter 4 #2
“He’s a young shifter who’d never met a female ware before,” I answered. “I didn’t think he was going to be here tonight. He won’t come back until we get things sorted out.”
Millie’s head whipped up. “He’s your friend?”
“I’m his mentor,” I explained. “He’s from Cascia House, the group home I grew up in back in Alaska.”
Snorting, Millie said, “What the hell is his problem? Why did he try to, try to,” she thought about her word choice carefully before she said, “murder me?”
“He wasn’t trying to hurt you, Millie. It’s your scent he was drawn to,” I attempted to explain. “You’re close to your first heat. It must have bloomed even stronger than when I had last seen you. What happened right before he came into the bathroom?”
Pulling free of my arms, Millie’s face immediately turned red and blotchy. “What does that matter? Is there any reason why a man should attack a woman while she’s showering?”
Confused by her angry reaction, I hurriedly explained, “Of course not. I was just trying to figure out his extreme reaction, is all. Gavin’s young.
It must have been your scent that overwhelmed him and sent him into rut, a sort of sexual frenzy for male wares.
He doesn’t even remember what happened.”
Crossing her arms protectively along her midsection, Millie fired back, “So you’re saying this is all my fault?
That Gavin and Garrett were merely responding to my “scent” and couldn’t help themselves?
That men just can’t help how they act around a girl that’s clearly asking for it? Typical!” She spit out in a rage.
“That’s not what I’m saying at all,” I denied, frustrated that I was fucking this conversation up so badly.
“I’m trying to explain what happens when a female shifter is in heat, Millie.
What Garrett did was wrong. You’d already left the club.
He could have left it alone. Instead, he stalked you out onto the street.
He cornered you in that filthy alleyway.
He shifted into his wolf form, unnecessarily escalating an already dangerous situation.
One that wouldn’t have served any purpose other than hurting you.
I agree, that was unforgivable, predatory behavior on his part. ”
“But Gavin is forgivable because I dared to be vulnerable around him by being undressed and bathing behind closed doors? Did I get that right, Ethan?” She hissed like a scalded cat.
I was at a loss about how to respond. The truth was that shifters weren’t humans.
We lived by very different rules. We had different stimuli and triggers.
When in rut, it was difficult, though not impossible, to stop pursuing the female whose scent you’d latched on to.
That’s why omegas were so protected by a pack and were rarely left unmatted for long.
Gavin was not Garrett. Garrett had chased Millie down.
He’d turned on purpose and was about to maul her like a fucking predator would.
That was a straight up assault. Gavin’s primitive brain hadn’t known what he was following when he’d walked down the hallway.
He’d been blindsided by years of evolution.
Instinct had taken over and free will had taken a back seat.
In spite of the facts, which made perfect sense to a shifter, how could I explain to someone raised as a human female how all of this worked without sounding like a grade-A asshole? I wasn’t sure I could.
“Millie, shifters aren’t human. Everything I’ve told you tonight sounds strange, but it’ll all make sense after you experience your first change,” I relayed, trying to remain neutral and scientific on the subject.
It would seem my approach had been lacking again, because the usually amiable Millie nearly exploded at my words.
“I’m not a damn shifter!” She shouted, her voice echoing off the tile walls all around her.
I couldn’t understand why she was fighting this so badly.
Did she think less of shifters? To be fair, she hadn’t exactly seen our best side since finding out we exist. Still, was she ever going to give us, or me, a chance to prove to her we were just as worthy as humans?
Doubtful, by the way she was bristling right now.
“I’m going to get you some clothes so you can get dressed. You’ll feel better then,” I reasoned logically, “and I’ll answer all the questions you have so that there’s no more confusion between us.”
“After I get dressed,” Millie countered, her blue eyes flashing fire, “I’ll be going straight home to my apartment. I’m not staying here after what happened. I don’t feel safe with Gavin here.”
While I couldn’t blame her for not wanting to stay at the cabin after what she’d been through tonight, her words still stung. “I sent Gavin away, Millie. He won’t come back until I tell him to.”
“I don’t care. I’m still leaving. You can either drive me home or I’ll call an Uber,” she angrily argued. “But I am going home, Ethan. You can’t trap me here like a prisoner.”
My patience was running thin. Not just with Millie, but with all the shit that had hit the fan since tracking my young ward to the club earlier tonight. “You’re not leaving,” I rumbled, my muscles becoming tight. “You’re going to stay and we’re going to talk all of this through like adults.”
“The hell I am!” Millie challenged, trying to push past me then. “I’m a grown woman, Ethan. I’m not going to be told what to do by any man! Shifter or human!”
The alpha in me rose to the surface then.
This wasn’t about being in charge. This was about keeping her safe.
I wasn’t about to let Millie leave my house to prove an academic point.
Too much was at stake if another shifter crossed her path on her way home.
The cost of discovery was too high, and I wasn’t about to play fast and loose with my ward’s life.
“Millie, you’re not leaving this house!” I barked out in a deep, level tone.
“Try and stop me!” she heatedly returned, before attempting to shoulder past me through the bathroom door.
She didn’t make it five steps before I lifted her off her feet and tossed her over my shoulder.
“If you insist!” I quipped, carrying her back to my bedroom where I was about to teach this stubborn woman what being a shifter was all about.
Millie
“Let me go!” I squealed, shocked that this man was being so heavy handed with me when he’d only ever been sweet and gentle before.
But the shock wasn’t just about Ethan’s behavior; It was about my own.
Well, my body’s, at least. My skin pricked with an electricity that made me feel alive.
And then there was my treacherous pussy.
She was dripping wet and pulsing with a need to be filled.
Filled with Ethan’s enormous cock, as forbidden as that might be.
“I’m not letting you go until you listen to some reason,” Ethan returned, marching me back to his room like I weighed no more than the towel that was riding up my back and exposing my entire ass.
I’m not sure why I was pushing him so hard, but I couldn’t stop myself. It was like I was testing him, begging for him to break down the barrier between us and take out his frustration with me between my legs, like I’d wanted for far too long.
“I’m not the one being unreasonable,” I snarled back, kicking my legs in the air, despite my near nakedness.
In an effort to stop my childish protest, Ethan’s hand pressed heavily against the back of my thighs.
He was so close to touching my pussy, I could practically feel his rough touch.
Lost to my instincts, I kicked harder. Pushing him farther, though I knew I was playing a dangerous game that I couldn’t hope to win.
Before I knew it, Ethan’s calloused hand disappeared from my thighs.
I heard a loud whacking sound, then I felt it.
The burn. The sting. The imprint of his hand on my ass!
And the pleasure. That sharp pain, mingled with that unexpected pleasure, was a heady combination I knew I needed more of, despite how much I might outwardly deny it.
Instead of settling down, I doubled down on my thrashing. “You bastard! Put me down! You have no right to keep me here!”
Abandoning any attempt at reasoning, Ethan began to spank me harder. Each successive strike was more forceful than the last.
Kicking open his bedroom door, the big brute strode inside and sat down on the edge of his bed.
Dragging my struggling body over his warm lap, Ethan positioned me over one muscled thigh, placing his other leg over mine, pinning me in place and preventing me from kicking me legs.
With his left hand clamped around my waist and holding me tight against him, I was practically immobile.
Then he really let loose. Defiantly gazing over my shoulder, I witnessed each stroke of his powerful arm as it arced high into the air before descending down onto my exposed, vulnerable flesh.
My towel became untucked from all my fruitless struggles, then completely fell away altogether.
Now, not even a scrap of thin cloth lay between Ethan and myself.
My nudity didn’t seem to bother him or slow down his spankings.
In fact, it only seemed to add fuel to the already raging fire that blazed behind his savage eyes.
A low, grumbly noise began to emanate from his chest, and I shivered at the domineering power behind it.
Each time he growled, more fluid pumped out of my pussy, lubricating my eager entrance.
The bulge that grew hard and long against my belly only encouraged that slick secretion to flow even faster, practically begging for him to ream my innocent hole with that club between his legs.