Chapter 10
ten
JADE
We spent the rest of the day on the couch, bingeing a TV show.
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to go hiking with Stella and Graham. I had my first real conversation with him, and found him surprisingly laid-back.
After his reaction to the girls’ night during their final stage of the mating process, I’d thought he was kind of a jackass.
I actually liked him after talking to him, though. Platonically, of course. He was chill, and he and Stella really did seem happy together.
Two-thirds of the way through the hiking loop, the wolf in my chest shoved her way forward.
I stopped abruptly, grabbing Wyatt’s arm as I tried to stabilize myself. Stella and Graham were ahead of us, so they didn’t notice that something was going on right away.
“What’s wrong?” His voice was low, but calm.
“The wolf,” I said in a strangled voice.
“She wants to shift?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“Don’t fight her. Ease back and let her take control,” he instructed.
“I’m kind of a control freak,” I gritted out.
“I know. It’s cute, but it’s going to fucking hurt if you can’t let go.”
I let out a strangled huff. “I’ll try.”
Stella and Graham jogged over.
“What happened?” Stella asked.
“Her wolf wants out.”
Understanding dawned in both of their eyes.
“We’ll see you at dinner tonight,” Graham said.
“Good luck! Don’t fight the wolf,” Stella told me, as they quickly left us alone.
“So I keep hearing,” I muttered.
Wyatt chuckled. “It’s fine if it hurts. Just breathe through it, and it’ll be over before you know it.”
“That’s easy for you to say, since shifting only takes you two—ahh, fuck,” I hissed out a curse as some part of me made a loud, brutal snapping noise.
Wyatt tried to comfort me through the shift, touching me and talking me through it as well as he could. I didn’t know if it helped, but I appreciated it anyway.
Eventually, my wolf had full control.
Being trapped inside her was still insanely surreal.
She snuggled up against Wyatt, enjoying his touch, until she finally shook his hands away.
He looked somewhere between worried and curious.
Given his last relationship, the worry was to be expected.
My wolf barked at him as if she was giving him an order, before she took off into the trees.
She heard his wolf crashing through the forest after her immediately, snapping branches and bushes as he ran. He was being loud on purpose. If I could put that together, she must’ve too.
It wasn’t long before he collided with her.
The wolves rolled across a patch of dirt and over a small bush or three as they playfully snapped their teeth and wrestled.
Their bites were gentle enough not to draw blood, and by the time they stopped, they were both panting as they curled up together near a trickling stream.
Our wolves stayed in the forest until the sun rose the next day, when they finally wandered back to Wyatt’s place.
Our place, I guess.
We shifted back, and Wyatt dragged my exhausted, starved, sweat-dripping body into the kitchen and sat me on a barstool.
I watched him cook eggs, my knees tucked up against my chest.
“I know I’m supposed to be hungrier, but is it normal to be this hungry? My wolf ate a whole fucking squirrel last night.” I mumbled.
“It’s normal.” Wyatt ruffled my hair as he dropped a gigantic plate of scrambled eggs in front of me. When I tried to swat his hand away, he captured mine and laced my finger through it. “Eat, Hoover.”
I reluctantly started stuffing my face with food.
I was a bottomless pit.
Bottomless.
Pit.
After the eggs, I cleaned out a whole pack of bacon, followed by half a loaf of bread in toast form.
When I’d drained a half gallon of milk too, I finally felt more human.
Err, more alive.
I leaned back in my chair with a sigh. “Thank you.”
“Any time.” Wyatt finally sat down with his own plate. He had a hearty serving of everything I’d eaten, but it was nowhere near the mass quantity I’d consumed.
“You look happy,” I remarked, watching him eat.
“Who’s not happy when they’re eating bacon?”
“Vegetarians.”
He snorted. “That joke’s bad, Hoover.”
“I know. I don’t think it’s politically acceptable.” I sighed dramatically. “I should probably apologize to someone. Or everyone.”
“To all vegetarians, I would say.”
“Alright. To all vegetarians in the room, I apologize.” I looked around our empty kitchen. “I think they’re okay.”
“Might need some therapy, but they’ll pull through.”
I couldn’t stop myself from grinning.
“You look happy too.” He poked my nose with the butt of his fork, and I wrinkled it at him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I despise werewolfhood.”
“And mate bonds.”
“Right. Arranged marriage? No thanks.”
He poked my nose again. “Maybe I am happy.”
“Maybe I am too.”
“Maybe I like having a mate. Having you,” he said.
“Maybe you love it.”
“Maybe I do.”
“I wouldn’t blame you. Fate can concur that I make a great-mail order bride.”
“All of the scarred cowboys would be desperate to make you theirs. You’re the full package,” Wyatt agreed.
Something told me Abby had convinced their book club to read a book about that. Western romances with mail-order brides were in the middle of her favorites list, a few notches below smutty werewolf books.
“Thanks for noticing. I totally am. I’m charming. Brilliant. Driven.”
“Humble, too,” Wyatt added with a grin.
“Extremely.”
“Any scarred cowboy would be lucky to have you.” He offered me a piece of his toast while he took a bite of another.
I reluctantly took it. Somehow, I wasn’t full anymore. It had been like two minutes. “You’d make a decent mail-order groom, too. Is that a thing?”
“I don’t think so.”
“We can make it a thing.” I held up my food, and bumped the crust of my bread against his. “We can even toast to it.”
He choked on the bread. Tears of laughter—and maybe fear that he’d choke to death—streamed down his face as I smacked his back as if that would actually help him get the food down the right pipe.
It didn’t.
I did it anyway.
When he’d recovered, he cleared his throat with a swallow of milk. I watched his throat bob, and maybe got slightly warm as I did. It was a nice throat.
“Being your mail-order groom is a fucking joy, Hoover,” Wyatt finally said. “I’m really damn glad you’re my mate.”
My wolf surged forward.
“Not again,” I moaned, clutching my chest.
“She wants to shift already?” Wyatt’s eyebrows lifted.
I was too busy bending in half as my body restarted the torturous process.
It was brutal.
Really fucking brutal.
But the pain was gone when she finished, so at least I had a break from it.
Wyatt and I were on the floor together, his food half-eaten and completely forgotten, when my wolf stood and nuzzled him.
He rubbed her fur, cuddling back as she buried her face against his chest.
I didn’t have time to notice what he was saying to her—because she quickly buried her teeth in his shoulder.
Wyatt’s entire body went rigid as my wolf pulled away, nuzzling his face again.
After a few moments of silence, he finally rubbed her head again. I saw shock written in every line of his face.
She shifted back yet again, and he talked her through it.
Maybe it was slightly faster than it had been. I wasn’t sure. I was definitely going to have to take his pack’s shifting classes, which was endlessly annoying. I’d probably want to punch Stella’s or Abby’s mates in the face if they tried to coach me through shifting.
When the change was finally finished, my entire body was draped over Wyatt’s. I was absolutely clinging to him, and I felt no shame for doing it.
“Your wolf bit me,” Wyatt said, clearly still in shock.
“Of course she did,” I mumbled against his neck. “She loves you as much as I do.”
His arms tightened around me. “We’re mated.”
“Abby said it’s permanent.”
“It is, Hoover. You’re mine.”
“Don’t be a caveman. You’re the one who’s mine, Jones.” His skin was crazy hot. Maybe mine was too. I was starting to ache between my thighs. “Do you feel that?”
“Yeah. It’s the climax.”
“How horny are we going to get?”
“Maximum.”
“Is that the proper way to measure horniness?” I asked against his throat.
“Yes. Minimum. Medium. Maximum.”
“So right now, we’re at medium horny?”
“Nah. This is minimum.”
I pressed my ass against his erection a little more, and earned a quiet growl for it. “That’s minimum?”
“Yes, Hoover. You know I’ve been hard around you since we’ve met.”
“Which I’ve tried to handle.”
“You’ve handled it very well.”
I snorted, and he flashed me a quick grin.
His eyes dipped to my lips.
Kissing was important to him. I enjoyed it, but I knew it meant more to him than it could ever mean to me.
To him, it was proof.
Proof that we had chemistry. That we were connected. That we wanted each other.
I pressed my lips to his, and he buried one of his hands in my hair as he pulled me against the length of his erection a little harder.
My body flushed more with every moment that passed.
The slickness at my center grew thicker, and wetter.
The need in my abdomen swelled fiercely, until it was a fire, burning through me wildly.
“I need you, Jones,” I breathed, as Wyatt’s lips made their way down the column of my throat. My hand found his erection, and he rumbled.
“I’m yours.”
My chest blazed.
I lined his erection up with my slit, and slowly slid over him.
He was massive, but my body was ready for the stretch.
We both breathed slowly as I took him inside me. When he was buried to the hilt, we both groaned.
“You okay?” he asked me, his chest rising and falling heavily.
“Perfect,” I panted.
“Good.” He rolled me over, and I let out a sound of surprise, arching a little as my back met the cold tile. Wyatt’s hands were on either side of me when we settled, his body covering mine entirely.
Between the feel of his body, the way he looked, and that incredible smell, I was completely and utterly lost in the man.
It was blissful.
He pulled out slowly before thrusting again, filling me a little faster. A little harder, too.
I moaned with the sheer pleasure of the motion.
“You feel fucking incredible,” he gritted out. “I’m not going to last long.”
“It’s fine. I’m pretty sure the climax is going to make us maximum horny again pretty soon after we’re done.”
“It will.” His hand cupped my face, his fingers tangling in my hair. “You’re everything, Jade.”
“And the kitchen sink,” I teased.
He grinned.
Words faded out of my mind as he filled me over and over, until we were coming together.
One of our phones rang at some point during the climax. I thought it was evening, but couldn’t be sure.
We were in bed together, with Wyatt’s face between my thighs, and our phones were stacked on the nightstand.
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
“I dare you,” he said, his gaze both hot and playful.
I answered it without looking at the name on the screen.
“Hello?” My voice was breathy, but whatever.
“Hey, Jade. I heard about your new research job from Stella and brought you a present to say congratulations. She told me your new place is the third house on this little loop in the forest, but when I knocked, a guy answered.” The voice paused.
I pushed on Wyatt’s head, stopping him temporarily, and pulled the phone away from my ear to read the name.
Emmy.
Shit.
I should’ve recognized her voice, but my mind was all screwy thanks to the hormones or whatever else caused the climax. I didn’t want to say magic, but hell, maybe it was magic.
“I think I went the wrong way,” Emmy said, “But the guy sort of… well, turned into a wolf?”
My body stilled. I sat up quickly. “Did he say anything before he shifted?”
“Yeah. Mate, I think.”
“Fuck.” I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Did you turn right or left at the fork?”
“I’m not sure?”
I guess it didn’t matter.
Whoever’s house was the third in the other direction was the person Emmy had just gotten herself mated to.
Fate really had a hard-on for our friend group at the moment. Unless fate was a woman. Maybe it was gender neutral. Who the hell knew?
“I’m in the middle of something, but I’ll send Abby over there right now. Just hang tight. The wolf won’t hurt you.”
“Okay.” Emmy let out a short breath. “I’m so sorry, but I definitely squished your present.”
A laugh escaped me. “That’s the last thing I’m worried about. Just stay right there.”
Putting her on hold, I called Abby.
“We’ve got a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Abby sounded excited. I guess that was just her personality.
“I’m in the middle of the climax, and Emmy just mated herself to one of the feral guys.”
“Who?” Abby demanded.
“I don’t know. Third house in the opposite direction from my place.”
She paused. “Holy fuck. That’s bad.”
“What’s bad?”
“That’s Finn’s house, Jade.”
My eyes widened. “Cheery, colorful Emmy is mated to Finn?”
“Maybe someone else was hanging out at his house?” Abby suggested.
“We can fucking hope.”
“I’ll go over there now and text you updates. Just enjoy the climax, okay? The drama will still be here in a few days.”
I let out a long breath. “Alright. Thanks.”
“No problem. Congrats!” She hung up.
I dropped my phone, and met Wyatt’s big, warm eyes again.
I should’ve been able to focus on my friend, and the insanity I’d just found out about…
But my body was on fire.
And my mate was the only person who could put it out.
“It’s a problem for tomorrow,” I said.
“Or the next day,” Wyatt agreed.
“Or the day after that.”
He nodded, lowering his face back between my thighs. With the first drag of his tongue, I was completely and utterly focused on us again.
We would figure out the pack stuff later.
For now, our bond was what mattered.