Claiming His Fate (10 page)

“I don’t have three days to do whatever it is we’d do during these Rites. I have to pick up my brother in a few hours.”

I blew out a deep breath and focused on her face, forcing my cock to stand down. “You have a brother?”

She nodded. “He stays with friends when I have to work late, but I’m going to need to pick him up soon.”

I flicked my thumb over her nipple and nibbled on her chin. “How soon?”

Her eyes locked on mine as I continued my subtle torment to her breast, twisting and massaging in equal measure. A little pleasure followed by a little pain, just enough to keep her on edge. 

She shivered on a particularly sharp twist. “I need to pick him up by nine.”

I glanced at the display showing the time on the alarm clock across the room. “It’s not even six yet; we have time.”

“But we haven’t slept.” Her words were breathy and weak, and she continued to writhe in my lap. She wanted this. I grinned and wrapped my arms tighter, abandoning my new favorite nipple and pulling her chest against mine. 

“If I only get three hours with you today, I sure as hell don’t want to spend them sleeping.”

I crushed my lips to hers, drawing a long, low moan from her as I stroked her tongue with mine. She wrapped her arms around my neck and shifted her legs to straddle me. Her body slid down mine in a slow, sensual drop. I knew she’d eventually press herself against my cock, but she took her time. A tease keeping me on edge. Finally, I yanked her down into my lap, thrusting my hips up to rub against her. The moment her heat met my cock, I growled.

“Yes, fuck.” She rotated her hips against mine, the pressure both sweet and raw.

“Wait.” I bent over her, laying her on her back in front of me. Her legs spread around my shoulders as I pulled them up. “Let’s get these jeans off before you hurt something very precious to both of us.”

She laughed and her cheeks flushed a soft shade of pink. My mate was so beautiful, so perfect. I had the sudden urge to climb on top of her and rut to my heart’s content, but she deserved better than that. She deserved romance and sweet words, presents and promises. Things I had no experience giving someone.

“Where’d you go?” She smiled up at me. I could barely look at her, the weight of my failure suddenly squeezing my chest and making it hard to breathe. 

“Rebel?”

I ran my fingers over the waistband of her jeans, no longer ready to remove them.

“You deserve better than this.” 

She cocked her head to the side, her question evident in her eyes. I waved my hand to indicate the shit hotel room I’d rented. It was good enough for me, but not my mate. She shouldn’t be slumming in some no-name roadside inn.

When she didn’t respond, I sighed.

“This. You deserve so much better than this.”

She glanced around as if it was her first time seeing the place. And maybe it was. Her entrance hadn’t exactly given me much time to offer a tour of the place. I followed her eyes as they took in everything about the room. The dirty walls and cheap bedding made me feel as if I’d somehow failed her again. The dark and dingy bathroom caused my stomach to burn as guilt flooded me. My first real duty as a mate was to take care of her, and I had yet to accomplish that goal. From the time I sent her off with Pup, I’d been making mistake after mistake where she was concerned. 

After taking a quick survey of the room, her gaze returned to me. Then she shrugged. “It’s not the Ritz-Carlton, but I’m not exactly a high-class kind of girl.”

I snorted a laugh. “Maybe not, but you’re way better than this dump.”

“This so-called dump has a fabulous dirty vibe to it—makes me want to be especially naughty.” She stood and yanked her pants down over her hips, bending to pull her feet through the legs. She wore no panties underneath, not even the scraps of lace she’d been wearing earlier in the evening. I took in the sight of her as she stood before me. Her curves, her softness, the way her hips flared, how the small T-shirt she wore accentuated the fullness of her breasts—all signs of her womanhood. And all things that spoke to both the man and the wolf inside of me. 

She didn’t try to hide a single inch of herself as she stepped toward me with a smile, her eyes locked on mine. 

“Be naughty with me, Abraham.”

Her whispered invitation made my cock twitch and my heart jump in my chest. I let my eyes travel to the juncture between her legs. Her pussy was bare and flushed pink; just seeing that flesh reminded me of her taste and the way she’d yelled my name while I’d loved her with my mouth. I wanted to do it again, hear it again. Hear it all morning long. 

I lifted up on my knees and crawled forward, my hands wrapping around her hips as she pulled her shirt over her head. When her hair had once again settled along her creamy flesh, I reached and unhooked her bra, never breaking eye contact. She pulled the white lace down her arms and tossed it to the side. 

“You are so beautiful.” I rested my chin against her stomach and looked into her face. 

She smiled and ran her fingers through my hair, pulling the locks as they slid between her knuckles. The action soothed me. I growled with pleasure, a quiet, sustained sound that vibrated through my chest. 

“You sound like you’re purring.”

I mock-glared at her. “Bite your tongue, kitten. Wolves don’t purr.”

She pushed me back onto my heels and lowered herself so she could once again straddle my lap. I pulled her closer, nestling my cock in her folds and sighing as the wet heat enveloped me. Home; in her arms with nothing between us was my new home. 

Movements slow and careful, she kissed me, all soft lips and light flicks of tongue. I followed her lead, letting the kiss meander from teasing to passionate and back, rolling my hips into hers and running my hands along her back. This was something I’d never experienced, the sensation of warmth and intimacy created by the simple act of kissing. And while I wanted to keep kissing her forever, I also wanted to get my cock deep inside her to relieve the ache her nearness caused.

“Kitten.” I groaned as she shifted her hips, the proof of her arousal making her slick against me. She chuckled and pulled back to look me in the eye.

“Do you have a condom?”

I held her gaze as I reached behind me, finding my discarded jeans and pulling out my wallet. I handed it to her without reservation. She looked from the black leather square to me and back again.

“I have no secrets. You’ll find a condom in the pocket behind my license.”

She opened the wallet, her movements slow and shaky. I knew the moment she saw the license by the way her lips curled up in a smile.

“You were born January fourteenth, nineteen sixty-six?” Her eyes traveled over my face, taking in every detail. “You don’t look that old.”

“I was born January fourteenth, seventeen sixty-six. I was turned into a shifter in the summer of seventeen ninety-four during a skirmish over unfair taxation.” I pulled the wallet from her hands and retrieved the condom before tossing the leather behind me once more. “And while we shifters have the means to update our identification regularly so we can avoid sticky situations, I’ve chosen not to yet. I like that my real birthdate and my fake birthdate are so similar.”

She blinked twice. “You’re over two hundred years old.”

“I am.”

She bit her lip and watched me, obviously thinking. 

“And how long will you live?”

“As long as I don’t get shot in the head or lose the vast majority of my blood in one go, there’s no real end date. I’ve met shifters over six hundred years old, and I’ve seen others die after a mere two hundred years. I’m not entirely sure why, but the unmated wolves tend to die younger than mated ones. And from natural causes. Though Gates creates a huge hole in that theory.”

“The pretty one?”

I growled and raised an eyebrow. “You think my club brother is pretty?”

“I can understand why some women would find him attractive.” She took the condom from my hand and shifted back along my thighs. Her touch was soft yet firm as she rolled the latex down my shaft. 

She leaned forward, hand still on my dick, and nibbled on my earlobe. “Not me, though. He’s nowhere near as handsome as you. You had me dripping the second you walked in that private room.”

Charlotte smiled wickedly, knowing exactly what she was doing to me with her naughty words.

I groaned and lay back. Her teeth on my body made my own gnash together. The urge to bite her, to mark her as my mate, had my entire body shaking with restraint. She needed to know more about me, about wolf shifters, before I could tie her to me that way. But fuck, did I want to. 

“And why does Gates screw with your theory?” Charlotte settled herself against me once more, gripping my cock with one hand and slowly sliding the head over her clit. My eyes stayed locked on hers even as I fought the urge to let them roll into the back of my head. The hot, the wet, the slide of her skin along mine.

“Jesus, kitten. Just put me in you.” I groaned as she giggled and continued with her torture. She’d slide me right to her entrance then pull me away again. Slip the tip inside, then back away. A perfect goddamned tease. 

“C’mon, wolfman. Why does Gates screw up your theory?” 

She finally, finally, placed my cock at her entrance and began a slow slide down. Her pussy felt so hot, so soft. It was too much. Too much good and tight and fuck.

She lifted almost all the way off then slid down again, settling me deeper inside. I groaned and bent my head to suckle her breast, bringing her nipple between my teeth even as I flicked it with my tongue. I pulled back with an obscene popping sound and slowly rolled my hips into hers.

She stopped me with a strong hold on my arms and the tightening of her thighs over my hips. “Tell me.”

I moaned and growled, my mind hardly able to focus on her words. “Because the man is over four hundred years old and mateless, yet he lives. No other shifter has lived that long without a mate.”

“Hhhmmmm.” Her head fell back, her hair tickling my thighs as she worked herself all the way down my cock. “So all the rest of the guys you ride with are either younger or mated?”

So deep. So fucking deep. And she still wanted to talk?

“No.” I gasped as she clenched her inner muscles. “Fuck, do that again.”

She did. I pulled her tight and shivered against her as the pleasure tingled up my spine. 

“Ahhh, ffuuucccckkkkkkk.”

“So if Gates—”

I growled and flipped her onto her back, angling her hips off the floor. “Enough talking. My brain can’t work right when my cock’s inside you.”

She giggled. “We could always stop.”

I dropped my forehead to hers and whined. “Oh please. Please don’t make me stop. I mean, I will. But please, kitten.” I ground against her once, gently, willing my body to pull out of her warmth if she said the words. And praying to every deity known to man and beast that she wouldn’t.

She tilted her head back and brought her mouth to mine, placing the sweetest, gentlest kiss in the history of kissing against my lips.

And then she whispered, “Don’t stop.”

I crushed my lips to hers as my hips began a pounding rhythm. In, pause, rotate, out—deeper and deeper I slid. I pulled her legs up and over my shoulders to change the angle, wanting to add a little pressure to her clit as I ground against her. She groaned on my first grind, her body quaking under me. She mimicked every thrust, every slide of my flesh against hers. Matching me on every in stroke, edging forward when I pulled out. We fucked that way until our bodies were covered with sweat and our breaths were nothing more than pants against the other’s lips. 

“I want to come so bad.” She placed her feet against my shoulders and used them for leverage, fucking me as I met her thrusts. 

“What do you need?” My words were rushed, my own orgasm building in the pit of my stomach. I had to make her come first, had to feel that slick vise squeezing me from within.

I licked my thumb and pressed it against her clit, circling in time with our thrusts. She keened and squealed, moving faster, pumping harder. 

“C’mon, kitten. What can I do to make that pretty pussy come? What do you need from me? Because I want you to come. I want you to come so bad.”

She tossed her head from side to side. “I don’t…I don’t know.”

Remembering how much she liked it when I growled, I pulled one of her legs off my shoulder and guided it down and across my body. With a small tug, I had her on her side and facing away from me. Sliding into position from behind, I continued driving my cock inside, relentlessly rubbing her clit with my thumb. I rolled slowly until my back met the floor and she rested almost on my chest, still pumping my hips as hard as I could. And then I growled. Long, deep, and as loud as I dared in the hotel room, I let loose a growl that made the lamps vibrate. Charlotte froze for about two seconds before practically screaming my name as she came. Her muscles clenched around me, pulling me into the bliss with her as my own orgasm spread from my toes to my ears. Every inch of me felt it, every sliver of skin set on fire as the nerve endings screamed their pleasure.

I stayed prone underneath her long after the final wave receded. I liked holding her, feeling her weight on me. Loved the sensation of her skin against mine. And she seemed to enjoy my touch as well. The mating bond felt stronger, the pull toward her increasing. I had to figure out a way to make this work. To keep my club life and her. Because I wasn’t ready to give up either just yet. 

“I think I need a doctor,” she groaned. My heart stopped then raced with abandon. 

“What’d I do?” I slid her to the side and angled over her, looking my mate over for any sign of what was wrong. 

She giggled. “Relax. I didn’t mean literally. But my God, am I sore.”

“Jeez, next time try not to give me a heart attack.” I shook my head and laughed even as my heart still pounded inside of me. Not wanting her to be uncomfortable a moment longer, I picked her up and placed her gently on the bed. Her blond hair looked like silk against the rough cotton sheets, but there was nothing I could do to make them softer. Once she was settled with a smile on her face, I slid in behind her. She wiggled back against me as I wrapped my arms around her.