Lord of the Grrr's (51 page)

***

It took Cam an hour to beat the address of Cecily’s dealer out of one of the users in the bar. It only took that long because he’d been attempting tact and friendliness at first. That had got him shit nowhere, so he reverted to his usual way of doing things. That had gotten him an address in about ten minutes. If the wolf wasn’t still half high from his last hit, the pain would have registered quicker and cut the ten minutes in half.

Cam pulled into the trailer park with a sour taste in his mouth. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but it sure didn’t look like anyone was getting rich dealing. He’d taken a few minutes to consider letting Rolf handle this officially, but officially meant Cam would have to administer his punishment according to the rules. Cam wasn’t feeling like he wanted to play by the rules just yet.

So this visit would be off the fucking record. For now.

He parked his bike a few trailers away from the address so his prey wouldn’t hear him coming. Let his wolf peek out of his eyes and in the curl of his lip. But no one here would mess with the Beta’s bike. Messing with the Beta was like messing with the Alpha- earned you nothing but a ticket to a shifter infirmary.

Cam didn’t bother to knock. In fact, he raised his booted foot and took great pleasure in kicking said foot through the excuse for a tinfoil door. The clatter it made was… prissy. Not even a proper bang. What a shitty excuse for a place to live if the door was anything to go by.

The Beta wasn’t certain he liked the idea of anyone in the pack living like this, but he supposed being pack didn’t mean getting a free ride. Everyone had to work, and their quality of life reflected their ethic. If a single person was too lazy or stupid to do better for himself… but still. He made a mental note to check if there were any single women and children living here and see what the pack could do to help them get on their feet.

He stepped inside, scanning the cramped kitchen/living/dining room combo. Not much there. Cam frowned. He didn’t know what he’d expected. Some filthy, rank, crack head hangout.

This place, though obviously well worn, was… clean. Scrubbed clean. The yellow cracked counter shined, peeling linoleum floors smelled like lemony house cleaner. Someone had taken the time to tuck a feminine blanket in various shades of blue over an old couch to make it more palatable to sit on. A two-seater table hosted a glass vase filled with pretty colored stones and sand, like a teenager's dollar store art project. Curtains were made out of sheets, but sewn neatly and hung in a pleasing manner. He started to think he’d gotten the wrong address. And felt guilty about the door.

Cam started to turn away and stopped. Underneath the lemon cleaner was a scent, a tantalizing scent. He inhaled, trying to determine the elusive quality that made it seem so familiar and yet… erotic. His wolf stood to attention, tensing. And… whined. What the fuck? Just then a woman walked out of a door at the end of a short hallway. Stopped. Squared her shoulders, chin raised. And his wolf howled.

CHAPTER

2

Hayley knew who he was. She had nursed a crush as long as she could remember, ever since the first time she’d heard his good-natured laugh and glimpsed his crooked smile. Most girls might have tipped their hats for the Alpha- but Rolf was too grim for her. Cam’s lighthearted seriousness felt warm and approachable. At least it did in her fantasies.

She’d only ever seen him at official pack gatherings where her attendance was mandatory even though she wasn’t required to do anything more than show up and stay in the very back. Her father always ignored her, and her sisters- well, they didn’t want the taint of her flaws to rub off on their families. And her one sister who was still unmated avoided Hayley like the plague, lest anyone think she was defective like the youngest. If they ever learned how she really made her living…

So because she’d never seen him where there weren’t dozens of people between them, she’d never actually seen the color of his eyes until now. Green, the kind of pure shade that spoke of generations of undiluted shifter DNA. Eyes that marked him as fit for his role of Beta, in case you didn’t see the way his chest and shoulders filled out the Dalig Hund leathers.

“What is your name?” he asked, breaking the single moment of strained silence.

“Hayley.” Why was he here? Someone must have ratted. Her heart sank. Her crush finally noticed her and it would only be to look at her with the same contempt and disapproval as her father.

He walked towards her, a slow sinuous stalk he somehow managed, in boots and on her creaky floor, to make silent.

“Hayley.” He drew out her name in a slow croon. “I’ve never seen you before, Hayley. Why haven’t I seen you before?”

Because she was nobody. Because she’d never had the courage to walk into the Alpha’s den, the Dalig Hund bar where the male wolves hung out and where single women of the pack made themselves available. Mate bait, they were called.

He stopped right in front of her, closed his eyes and inhaled. A deep breath as if he were trying to suck in her soul. Her heart started and sped up. He was acting… strange. If he was here to bust her for dealing… what the hell was he learning her scent for?

Hayley nearly jumped out of her skin when he lowered his head and sank teeth into the side of her neck. She squeaked, even as his hands rose and clamped around her arms, holding her still. His teeth didn’t break skin, but it was a near thing. He sucked the captured flesh and a spark of heat fired off in her pussy. She shivered, hands aching to bury themselves in his shaggy cut hair. Hayley couldn’t help herself. He was hot, dominant and… she’d never known that was a pleasure spot. Well, how could she? She’d never even been kissed before.

He raised his head. Glowing jade eyes looked through her.

“Mate.”

The growled word filled the room and jumped between the flimsy tin walls before shooting into her ears and rattling around in a brain frozen from shock. What had he said?

“Mine.”

He took her mouth in a kiss meant to claim. Her lips parted under the heat of him, helplessly accepting the invading tongue, overwhelmed by the sheer masculine power even as her body responded. His hands slid down her arms and around her back, cupping and grasping her ass, massaging the flesh in a clear prelude. He didn’t touch her like he meant to tease, or flirt. He touched her like he meant to fuck, and fuck now. Involuntarily, her back arched a little under his ministrations, her wolf- purring?- in anticipation.

Cam lifted her off her feet. Hayley squeaked and wrapped her legs around his waist automatically, arms locked around his neck. A mistake. She felt the growing bulge in his pants press against that spot in her groin she’d never quite had the courage to… explore. Not with her tiny fingers. She just couldn’t imagine doing something like that to herself- not like she’d heard other girls talk about. Her own small, scrawny fingers held no pleasure for her. She got off more from them grasping a forkful of food.

Cam- the Beta- spun and took her to the couch, lowering her down onto the old cushions without releasing her, body weight settling over her. It shocked her back to reality.

“Hey! W-what are you- why are you- get off me!”

Hayley couldn’t help the stutter in her voice. And fantasy or no, entertaining that kind of attention in real life was maybe more than a girl like her could handle. She would be swept away on the tidal wave of him, battered helplessly in deep waters she didn’t have the knowledge or courage to tread.

But… the glowing eyes, the two growled words, the almost instant erection- she couldn’t ignore the tells. She’d heard about them all her life, eavesdropped when each of her mated sisters had described in minute detail every moment of their claimings. But… the
Beta?
Mated to
her?
The family and pack runt who was so low on the totem she had to sell drugs to survive and not even her father wanted her? So low that her supposed mate had never even heard of her before?

Hayley jerked her mind back into the present, realizing Cam was watching her with a peculiar, alert expression on his face.

“You don’t feel the bond,” he said, words slow as he studied her.

How could she when she couldn’t even smell-  had never been able to scent another wolf, much less her breakfast. She was completely nose blind and the mating depended on recognizing your mate's scent to activate the bond.

His hand crept under her blouse, cupped  a bare breast. She hissed from the skin on skin contact. She hadn’t bothered wearing a bra, since before Oscar had showed up she had planned on staying inside for the day. His large hand squeezed even as his eyes dilated, as his skillful fingers pinched and manipulated her nipple into a hard bud. A moan trembled on her lips.

“I’m nose blind,” she said, struggling to think coherently. To remember why letting him do this was a bad idea. “I can’t mate.”

He laughed. In her face. Hayley blinked.

“You can mate, little wolf. I’ll just have to put in a little more effort to seduce you.”  He smiled in satisfaction, watching her react to his touch. “Well, maybe not so much effort.”

A small shudder rippled through her body from the words, the husky sensuous tone he delivered them in. Promising all kinds of things she only ever thought about deep in the night huddled under her covers. Though she should probably be insulted at the idea of not requiring ‘much effort.’

“You’re blushing.” His eyes widened. “I didn’t know women still did that.”

“Get off me.” She pushed at him, embarrassed and oddly angry. He didn’t need to point out to her how she was different, not normal,
defective.

He sat up, but he pulled her with him, shifting so she settled into his lap. On his erection, chest to chest, her legs open and straddling him. Hayley didn’t move, feeling the rock hard bulge rubbing against her pussy. Feeling a yearning begin to develop between her legs, an instinctive need to feel him buried inside her. A need fast overcoming her common sense. She struggled to slow her breath, to stop her body from rocking against him.

“You don’t know me,” he said. “And you don’t have the mate scent to… jump start things. I understand that. But you are my mate. I recognize that, and that is all that matters. Do you understand?”

“You’re saying the Alpha won’t care if I say I don’t want you.”

Her statement was laughable. Not want him? Of course she wanted him. But she didn’t really believe she could have him and survive the experience with her heart intact. She couldn't see his face, but felt his lips brush the side of her neck.

“That’s right, sweetheart.”

“I don’t understand. How did you know I was your mate if you’ve never seen me before? Why are you here?”

***

Cam tensed. Damn. The reason he’d come had flown right out of his head. And the reason it had flown right out of his head was because the woman sitting on his cock was about to get fucked, and he knew he had to restrain himself. He could smell her apprehension trembling on the verge of fear, threaded with the beginnings of desire- but she wasn’t there yet. Her wolf might be attracted, but it didn’t recognize him as mate.

Cam wanted to howl in frustration. The urge to take her, to bury his cock in her sweet little pussy and fuck her hard was nearly overwhelming his sense. He didn’t want to take his time, he wanted her now, but knew he had to go slow. She was giving all the small tells of a woman with little experience, who might react poorly to a sudden rough fuck, even if it was within the lawful pack bounds of a claiming.

He’d heard of the scent blindness before, had even known a mated pair years ago where the woman had the same issue. She recognized her mate eventually, it just took the man longer to initiate the bond- and from what Cam could recall, it had taken plenty of sex to take the place of the instant pheromone connection.

“Pack business,” he said. No reason to get her mixed up in his sordid family issues.

She frowned at him. It was kinda cute. She was a small woman. Petite and slender, a sweet oval face and bow shaped mouth. Thickly lashed eyes that couldn’t make up their mind what color they were- sign of a mixed bloodline. But staring into those eyes, he found the flecks of gray and green and gold intriguing. He could spend hours mapping the designs and not grow bored.

“Pack business had you kicking down the door of my trailer?”

Cam tensed. Something in her tone, in the brief knowing look in limpid eyes alerted him.

“I was given a bad address,” he said, watching her reaction.

“A bad address.”

“There was… an incident with my sister. She overdosed.”

Hayley’s body tensed, a complete withdrawal. His wolf growled, disliking the sudden distance. She pulled away from him- or tried.

“What do you know about it?” he asked, expression hardening. He hadn’t spent twenty years as Rolf’s Beta because he was stupid, or couldn’t read body language.

“Who is your sister?”

“Cecily.”

His mate paled, the natural rosy flush of her skin whitening to a pasty gray he found alarming. His hackles rose.

“Hayley, do I have the wrong trailer?”