Mark of the Wolf (12 page)

“
Because you’re
mine.
” And then he kissed her again, his
mouth harsh and controlling. She felt a stab of pain as his sharp
canines grazed her lips, and he moaned, licking the blood them She
took him in, kissing him back, heart pounding like a drum. She
could taste his mouth, his saliva, a heady rush of fire moving
through her body straight to her dripping cunt. Everywhere he
touched began to burn with pleasure.

And he
was
touching her – her arms, her neck, her sides and stomach.
One hand went behind her back and suddenly her bra was loose,
sliding off her body and flung somewhere out of sight. He didn’t
hesitate – his rough tongue lapped over her nipples, teasing them
into painful peaks, drawing upon them, causing shivers of pleasure
to wrack her body. She panted and groaned, and he chuckled low in
his throat, a sound that sent chills across her skin.

“
Oh my god,” she groaned as another
wave of pleasure took her. He moved to lift her up slightly,
adjusting her so she was sitting in his lap, his one hand holding
her face as he kissed her, the other working at her pants. Then
they were gone, and her panties were the only thing between him and
her naked body. They were pink and striped, already soaking wet.
She looked up dazedly at his face and saw the hunger there, saw him
looking at her body in an intimate way that no man ever had before.
She pushed her face against his shoulder, suddenly shy, wanting
only to hide. She had always been self-conscious, but his gaze saw
too much.

Then his fingers pushed under the band of her
panties, and she gasped, one of them sliding down her wet little
slit. It played around her lips and then hovered over her clit,
rubbing the swollen little nub gently, just enough to make her gasp
and cry out, her body going tense.

“
Shh baby,” he murmured, kissing her
lips as she moaned. “You like that?” and he did it again, trailing
his finger over her, making her shiver with pleasure. Her hole was
hot and aching. She wanted to beg him to touch her, to do things to
her that she had only ever heard talked about. She didn’t know what
to expect, didn’t know if it would be painful or good or what, but
she trusted him. Somehow, it was the natural thing to
do.

Then his finger found her hole, and he
slipped it forward and upward, her body penetrated for the first
time. She tensed, uncertain; she was tight, so tight his finger
could barely fit, it was bordering on pain. Then he kissed her
again, moving his finger gently inside, stroking against nerves she
hadn’t thought existed. She sighed against him and began to
relax.

“
That’s right baby, open for me,” he
said quietly, and she moaned again. His head dropped down to take
one small hard nipple into his mouth. He sucked on it gently,
making her groan, distracting her. He withdrew his first finger and
then inserted two, slowly working his way into her, pushing her
open. It was painful, invasive, but oh-so-good... Maddy hesitantly
moved her hips against him, reacting naturally.

He responded by sliding his hand back and
forth, pushing his fingers deep into her. His thumb flicked over
her clit, rubbing in slow circles. She began to pant, crying out
with each thrust of his hand. His fingers were long and he curled
them upward, reaching an unknown place inside of her, and she
almost screamed.

Then she felt it, a wave of tension growing
in her body, making her weak and helpless. She threw her arms
around his shoulder and pressed her face into him, sighing and
groaning, writhing against his hand. She couldn't control herself,
couldn't stop moving. Her teeth bit into his shoulder. His arms
tightened on her, lifting her so he could rub her at a steeper
angle, his tongue sliding down her neck.

“
Gareth,” she moaned quietly.
“Oh!”

“
Almost there,” he whispered to her.
“Come on, relax baby, give it to me….”

He rubbed her clit for another moment, and
then she screamed, shocked by a wave of pleasure that crashed over
her body. Her muscles clenched around his hand and she felt herself
gush, her hips convulsing, her hole squeezing down on him. She
panted, crying out, digging her teeth and nails into his
shoulder.

He continued to move with her until the
orgasm passed, leaving her weak and shivering, a pile of nerves and
sweat only held up by his arms. She was shaking, unable to control
her body and its reaction. His lips grazed her forehead in a gentle
kiss, then he kissed the wound on her temple, holding her
close.

“
You okay, baby?” he asked after a
minute had passed, still holding her shivering body.

She nodded, unable to get her vocal chords to
work. He was smiling that sexy half-smile, looking at her, his eyes
impossible to read. Then he lifted her up.

She expected to be carried across the room,
but instead he lifted her and used the bottom of his shirt to wipe
at her crotch — she blushed and tried to stop him, but he pushed
her hand away. He was up close and personal with her cunt, wiping
the excess juice away, cleaning her damp thighs.

“
What are you doing?” she asked, her
voice small. Her body was still vibrating with pleasure, with the
release. She wanted to purr at the touch of his hands; wanted him
to touch her again.

“
Washing you off,” he said, glancing
at her face. “You bled.”

“
I-I did?” she asked, flushing in
embarrassment.

He grinned and held up his fingers. She could
see the a light stain of blood on them. At least it wasn't as bad
as her period. He didn't seem bothered by it — in fact, quite the
opposite.

She looked away from his eyes, then looked
back. Told herself that it was stupid to be embarrassed; he had
probably been with tons of women. He was obviously very...
skilled.

The pleasure was still swirling around her
tired body, but she couldn’t help but feel a strand of guilt. She
had always prided herself on not being “easy” with boys… but here
she was with a man she’d only known a day, and he had already made
her orgasm. Why couldn’t she get her body to act normally around
him?

He finished with the shirt and tore it off
over his head, then headed for the bedroom, setting her down on the
mattress. He then pulled a large t-shirt out of the dresser and
tossed it in her direction. She recognized it for what it was; a
sleeping shirt, meant for her to wear.

She pulled it on, her stomach fluttering as
his scent surrounded her. Then he turned out the lights and lay
down on the bed next to her, crawling up the sheets until they were
lying inches apart. She moved so she could rest against him,
feeling that it was stupid now to keep space, especially after what
he had just done to her.

“
That was my… uh, first experience,”
she said quietly, shyly, not sure what made her say the
words.

“
I know,” he replied, and his arm
tightened around her, though that was his only response. She felt
his fingers travel over her back again, and she knew he was
thinking about her scars, about the wounds that must have caused
them. She remembered his anger, his threat to her stepfather, and
then frowned at the words that had followed them.
“Because you’re
mine.”
What
had he meant by that? Perhaps it was just a possessive feeling he
was experiencing, but it seemed to carry a meaning that went
deeper. She considered asking him, but she was tired of
embarrassing situations, and it seemed like an awkward thing to
ask. Maybe she was just over analyzing everything.

She settled down against him, enjoying the
feeling of her body against his, and the length of his erection
when he threw his big leg across hers. He didn't try to hide it. It
dug into the flesh of her thigh just a little, but he didn’t make
any move to do anything about it, and she slowly relaxed. She
didn’t know what to expect. At any moment he could start touching
her again, and she didn’t know how far she would let him go. She
didn’t even know if she had a choice anymore – she had been pretty
helpless on the couch only a few minutes before. If he touched her
now, she would be done for… and her body was still humming.

But he only drew her close, his breathing
steady, his heartbeat under her ear. She liked the warmth of him,
his smell, the way he made her feel. Like she was safe.

She fell asleep easily for the first time in
years.

Chapter 7

He had his sunglasses on again.

She was beginning to hate those sunglasses.
He was driving casually, one hand on the wheel, the other on her
leg, slouching back in the seat. She looked over at him, trying to
make eye contact or maybe spark a conversation, but he chose that
moment to take a left turn and looked in the opposite direction.
She sighed and turned back to the window. Awkward.

She had woken up with the sound of him in the
shower. He hadn’t been singing, which she was guilty of herself on
several shower occasions, but he did have the radio on and was
playing some kind of classic rock. She had buried her face in his
pillow and sniffed it for a long guilty minute, telling herself it
was just because she was still tired. Then she had dragged herself
to her feet and wobbled out to the living room, careful not to look
at the couch from last night. It still brought a blush to her
cheeks.

On the kitchen table was a box of donuts and
two giant coffees.

He stepped out of the shower after that, a
towel around his neck and his boxers on, but nothing else. His hair
was perfect; wet and tangly, falling around his face in wild
tendrils. She had watched him secretly as he had crossed the living
room. Then he had thrown the towel down, walked past her, and
plucked his own coffee from where it was sitting next to the sink.
So much tanned male flesh had made her extremely uncomfortable —
and deliciously tingly. She couldn’t help but stare at his large
hands as he took the lid off his coffee and started adding sugar.
He had black car grease under his nails, permanently pressed into
the pads of his fingers. She couldn’t get the memory of last night
out of her head.

Then he had gotten dressed, shooed her into
the car, and put on those sunglasses. And there had been silence
ever since.

She
sighed as they left the outskirts of Black River and merged onto
the highway. Just another three hours to get to Davenport.
Great.

* * * *

He was pissed, but he wasn’t about to say
anything about it. He kept having to grind his teeth together to
stop the snarl from appearing on his lips. He knew his silence was
bothering her, but he couldn’t help it; it was either be silent, or
berate her about not telling him sooner about her stepfather. And
it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t, dammit.

And then he had lost control afterwards.
Smooth move there. She'd been confiding in him for the first time,
and he had been so angry that the damn wolf had come out, and then
he just couldn’t stop himself. Her arousal had been driving him
insane for a long time now and he couldn’t control his response
anymore. So he had given her the release her body had been begging
for, even though he hadn’t allowed himself the same pleasure. He
had gained some sort of satisfaction at hearing her cries and
knowing he was the first to touch her. That was a good thing. He
wanted to take her on a ride.

But dammit, the scars on her back, the small
nicks and marks along her body – it was enough to make his blood
boil. And now there she was next to him, curled up in the car seat
like a scared puppy, sending him wary glances as though he might
bite. He sighed. Sometimes he didn’t know himself.

“
So your Beta friend is in Davenport?”
she asked casually, not looking at him.

“
Yeah,” he grunted, moving into the
fast lane and hitting the gas. Better to drive fast and get there
faster; otherwise he might pull the car over and finish what he had
started last night. His hand tightened ever so slightly on her
leg.

He could tell her reaction from the pulse at
her neck. Her breath quickened. Her responses were incredibly
genuine. It left him feeling mildly better.

“
What’s his name?”

The name was bitter on his tongue. “Isak.”
His old friend, they had been almost inseparable growing up. They
had been kept apart since his exile, no contact. It was pack law.
He still wasn’t sure if his friend would accept him back or not. Or
if he would even go along with the idea. Gareth sighed – what was
their idea again? That he challenge Kane? What had this girl done
to him? His body was singing with more hormones than a raunchy
sixteen-year-old.

They lapsed back into a tense silence. He
wished he could tell her that it wasn’t her fault that he was in a
bad mood; that he had a lot of stuff on his mind; that a pack
challenge was no small feat and if he lost, he would most likely be
ripped to shreds – though he knew he was stronger than Kane and
losing a second time was a slim chance. But it seemed like a lot of
excuses just to fill a stubborn silence. He wanted to make her
comfortable, he just didn’t know how.

They continued driving down the highway.

* * * *

It was mid-afternoon by the time they reached
Davenport. Maddy was on alert. Her father was very possibly hiding
out in this town… but Davenport was such a big place that it was
unlikely she would bump into him. Davenport was its own city,
sprawling over several business and residential districts,
including a casino and strip clubs downtown. It was a dirty,
run-down type of place, and she was relieved for Gareth’s company
as they exited the car.