Ariel (25 page)

Ariel hung her head and sighed. “Biting you back surprised me too. It’s not like I planned to do it. It just…happened.”

“Do you regret it?”

“No. But I feel a little guilty, even if my wolf doesn’t. She’s…I guess I have to admit that she’s just as possessive as you are.”

Matt laughed at her admission, mostly because he could sense her honest shock. “Would you rather go back to being boring and predictable? I can’t imagine someone as incredible as you ever being happy with that sort of life.”

Ariel laughed as Matt dragged them both into the bathroom to shower.

Chapter 20

Going public to the pack went a lot better than she thought it would. Turns out, it meant Matt’s family got to throw them a big all-day party with lots of food. Matt’s father looked nothing like him, even though they sure acted like twins. When Nanuka had caught her staring off into space, she had patted her arm and kissed her cheek. She’d thanked her for the robe and gotten a secretive laugh instead of an appreciative ‘you’re welcome’. She made a mental note to keep an eye on Matt’s stepmother.

Many times that day she’d wondered if the entire town had come out to look at the marks on their necks. Nobody thought twice about boldly pulling aside her or Matt’s clothes to gawk their fill. Before the day ended, she was very glad she’d taken Matt’s advice to wear the plainest white bra he’d bought her.

She’d also heard “congratulations” said a million times and had responded with “thank you” an equal amount.

Her nemesis had reluctantly come to see them. Matt had given Cheryl’s embarrassed family no choice except to supervise. The still angry woman looked at both their necks and nodded solemnly, but walked away without saying a single word to either of them. Matt’s gaze had burned a mad hole in Cheryl’s back as she left. It was like the female who tried to kill her had a death wish.

But totally surprising her, it was Brandi and Heidi who gave her the hardest time about her officially mating Matt. They and their guys had followed her home to Matt’s house, promptly dragging her outside in the yard for a private chat.

Heidi launched in before they had reached the edge of the yard. “Why did you do this, Ariel? I thought you said not to get too attached to the guys.”

“Yeah, I’d like to hear this too. I thought you said the sex was just to get us through the whole female werewolf transition thing,” Brandi declared, crossing her arms.

Ariel ran both hands through her rapidly growing hair. Accountability sucked. “Matt insisted we mate and I caved. Worse, I don’t even regret it. Life can’t be all about work…or problems. If anything happens to me tomorrow, I’ll at least have spent my best days living with and loving a decent man..”

“Don’t you mean a decent werewolf?” Brandi demanded. “Matt is not just a man.”

Ariel sighed. “Yes. Okay.
Werewolf.
Matt’s a werewolf. We’re all werewolves. What’s this inquisition really about? My werewolf marital status doesn’t change your lives any.”

Brandi kicked the dirt. “Of course it does. Gareth is getting more possessive. I have no intentions of staying with him. I have to leave. Or at least I want to leave. I want to go back to my job and find out who the hell was funding Feldspar Research.”

Ariel shrugged. “So? Go—leave. I think it’s a good idea. Just be careful and call now and again. I’ll worry if I don’t hear from you.”

Brandi kicked the ground a second time. “I know. I guess I was hoping you’d go with me. I know Heidi wants to stay and work with Eva. Maybe I assumed the wrong things.”

Ariel sighed. “Brandi, I’m sorry. I can’t go with you. I like the idea, but I need to stay, and not just for Matt. I need to stay for Reed too. He needs me. And if anything happens to him, I’m kind of next in line to run the Black Wolf pack. Matt knows this is the case. I…damn it. I can’t leave Alaska. I may never get to leave it again. Permanent responsibility is part of the whole alpha thing.”

Brandi huffed out a breath. “Fine. I get it. I’m used to being alone anyway. I just thought…well never mind what I thought.”

“No, don’t say that. You thought right. We’re friends…family…or whatever label you want to use for our connection. And if things weren’t the way they are, I’d go with you in a flat minute. I mean it. I need you to believe me.”

Brandi snorted. “Hell. Okay, sure. You don’t expect me to hug you now, do you?”

Ariel laughed at the appalled look on Brandi’s face. “You can skip the hug, but I expect you to be careful, call frequently, and come back alive. Those people you’re going after are not worth dying for.”

“Okay. Sorry I bitched at you. I’m sure you and Matt won’t kill each other the first time you argue. And don’t turn your back on Cheryl. She’s evil. You should have let Matt kill her when he offered.”

Ariel rubbed her nose. The action reminded her of Reed and she instantly missed him. She needed to borrow Matt’s phone and call. “I’ll deal with Cheryl. When are you leaving?”

Brandi shrugged. “Whenever. I need a ride to the airport in Anchorage and some cash until I get back to civilization again. Once I call in, I’ll have to pretend I don’t know you all for a while since you and Heidi want to remain deceased in the eyes of the world.”

“Now you’re scaring me. Can you stay a few more days until I get settled in?” She instantly relaxed when Brandi nodded.

“Yeah. Sure. I’ve waited this long. What’s a few more days?”

Ariel turned to Heidi. “I already know what your major problem with this is. Ryan wants to mate you, doesn’t he?”

Heidi crossed her arms and nodded.

“And how do you feel about Ryan?”

Heidi shrugged. “Confused. Resistant. But I don’t want to end things either. I like him. He’s amazing. I just want more time to find myself…I suppose. Since he found out about you and Matt, he has done nothing but talk about making things permanent between us. It makes my stomach hurt when I think about it.”

“Sorry I set a bad example. What do you want me to do?” Ariel asked.

Heidi looked away and sighed. “Can you just forbid me to mate him?”

“I can. However, any control I have over your love life is nothing more than a mental illusion you’re fostering for your own benefit. No one can tell your heart what to feel, not even the most bad-ass alpha.”

“Just order me, Ariel. My willpower is not going to be enough. I need a good, solid reason to hold him off,” Heidi declared.

“Fine—you cannot mate Ryan, or any male, until you are a hundred percent sure he’s the right werewolf for you. When you’re sure, you have my permission to mate whoever the hell you want. I expect you to take at least a few months to become sure.” Ariel snorted when Heidi breathed out a ragged sigh of relief. “All better now?

“Much. I’ll tell Ryan what you said tonight.”

Hearing the back door open, Ariel turned to look toward the house just as Matt, Gareth, and Ryan came outside looking for them. She laughed when she heard Brandi grunt in irritation.

“Relax. They’re not keeping tabs—not really. They’re just checking to make sure we’re okay. I don’t like all the hovering either, but you’ll make yourself insane if you let it annoy you.”

“Gareth specializes in annoying me. It’s his idea of foreplay,” Brandi said stiffly.

“You just need to train him better. Guys will do most anything for you if they know there’s sex in it for them at the end. Ask Gareth for a foot rub or a massage,” Heidi suggested.

Ariel saw Brandi’s indignant look pass from Heidi to her and back to Heidi. She couldn’t imagine Brandi asking Gareth for a hug or kiss, much less a foot rub. Their coupling hadn’t left much of an impression on the former agent.

Firmly pushing aside her escalating concern, she told herself that fixing Brandi’s love life wasn’t her problem to solve. Neither was putting a hiatus on Heidi’s.

“Ladies, I have no answers, but I will be here if you need me. Right now I plan to enjoy my conjugal rights. I suggest you make the most of your situations while you can. You never know what kind of change tomorrow is going to bring.”

Heidi’s friendly, caring hug surprised her, but Ariel hugged back because it felt right to do so. She smiled as the most carefree female she’d ever met happily trotted off to the unsuspecting, and soon to be disappointed, Ryan.

Head down, Brandi stepped close to her which had Ariel raising an eyebrow. “Did you change your mind. You want a hug now after all?”

“Yes. I want a hug. Bite me,” Brandi said, cringing at her enormous relief when Ariel laughed and pulled her into her arms. “I hate this. When did I start needing hugs? It’s all Gareth’s damn fault that I’m getting mushy.”

Ariel grinned as she turned loose. “You still sleeping with him?”

Brandi nodded and sighed. “He doesn’t give me any choice in the matter. If I sneak off to the spare bedroom after sex, Gareth just comes and gets me. No matter where I fall asleep, I always wake up in his bed. He’s gotten good at ignoring my complaints about it.”

Ariel smiled. “Gareth’s practically tapping his foot with his impatience to take you home. I see him doing that all the time. I think it means he likes you.”

Brandi huffed. “I better go. It’s only for a couple more days. I can deal.”

“Instead of ‘dealing’, try enjoying the attention. I’ll see or talk with you tomorrow,” Ariel called to Brandi’s waving hand as she disappeared into the dark with Gareth.

Sighing with relief when she heard Gareth’s vehicle starting, she turned to Matt. “Apparently I pissed off my pack when I mated you. Since when does an alpha need her pack’s permission to do anything? I thought it was supposed to work the other way.”

Matt chuckled. “They must have gotten over their mad pretty quickly. Both hugged you goodbye.”

Ariel laughed and leaned against his arm. “We’re an all-female pack. Hugging is what we do. It’s sort of a biological imperative for us.”

“I’m sorry, but I feel I must correct your assumptions, Dr Jones. You’re not an all female pack any more,” Matt said, pulling down the collar of his shirt. “See this? The pack alpha marked me as hers. I’m part of her pack now.”

Ariel leaned forward and kissed her mark on him. It caused butterflies to flutter in her stomach every time she touched it. “That works for me. My pack could use a few good males.”

Matt smiled. “I think you’re going to get at least two more.”

“That’s what you think. Brandi’s leaving in two days and Heidi made me forbid her to mate Ryan.”

Matt’s eyebrows shot up in shock, but when they lowered, he laughed. “I stand by what I said. I know both of those men.”

“I personally wouldn’t put a bet on them,” Ariel declared.

Matt grinned. “Well, I would.”

Ariel looked him up and down. “Okay. What kind of bet?”

“I want a child for each couple that mates for life.”

Ariel barked out a laugh. “Ha! What will I get if they
don’t
mate?”

Matt chuckled. “You will still get a child for each couple. There is no chance of me losing. I have great instincts about relationships.”

Ariel laughed at Matt’s bragging. “All I heard was blah, blah, blah and ‘here honey—here’s ten times more responsibility for you’. No bet, buster. We’re using condoms when I come into heat, which thankfully will be several months from now.”

“It will be two months and nine days—give or take a day. You should probably note it on the calendar in the kitchen if you want me to buy condoms,” Matt said, taking her hand as he pulled her inside. They walked up the stairs to his bedroom—their bedroom—and he smiled the whole time thinking about how lucky he was.

“How can you know when I’ll go into heat?” Her eyes widened when Matt pointed at his nose. “You can smell hormonal changes in me? I don’t believe you.”

“Fine. Run all the scientific tests you want. It won’t change the outcome.”

Ariel threw up her hands, far beyond embarrassed. Matt could smell her hormone shifts? That had to be impossible. “So how does this work? Am I supposed to come to you when I want to know the date of the next one?”

Matt grinned at her indignation and backed her up until her legs hit the bed. “Instead of using protection, many couples simply abstain during the female’s heat cycle. I think we should practice all we can while it’s still our safe time.”

“
Safe time?
Did you make up all that stuff just so you could seduce me tonight?”

His answer was a husky laugh and a searing kiss as their bodies tumbled to the mattress. “I don’t have to lie to get my way, Ariel. I’m an alpha. I can just take what I want. Remember?”

After all his teasing, his sensual dare was more than she had the power to resist.

“Big talk, Alpha. I’ve had your entire pack looking at my breasts all day. After that, I
dare you
to shock me,” Ariel challenged, quivering in anticipation.

“Challenge accepted,” Matt smiled, his teeth extending in anticipation.