Reflections of the Wolf (21 page)

Suddenly he lifted off of her and adjusted the angle of his hips to drive deeper into her. Slamming against her cervix with his balls slapping her ass, he grunted with his own exertion. He kept plunging hard in and out of her body until he drove her to the brink of consciousness. She screamed as her orgasm blew up inside of her, and her vision went hazy. Her whole body trembled and throbbed as he shot his own release deep into her womb with a husky growl that vibrated through her body triggering a series of intense aftershocks of pleasure.

They both lay there, panting and trembling against each other for several moments before he realized that she was crying. His curse was followed by him quickly lifting away from her.

“Oh my God, Tina, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?” He rambled away as he ran his hands up and down her body looking for injuries. His eyes froze on the bite wound that now graced her shoulder right next to the column of her throat.

“I’m fine, Liam. Really. Don’t be sorry, I wanted you to. I’ve never come so hard in my life, and I guess it made me emotional.” She paused when she realized that he wasn’t responding. Looking up at him, she followed his gaze to her shoulder where she could see a smear of blood trickling down her collarbone. “I didn’t really notice. Hey, it’s okay. I’ll get a Band-Aid and clean it up. Hey? Liam?”

* * * *

Liam’s blood went ice cold, but he could feel his wolf inside doing a victory dance. He had just claimed Tina. Without her permission and completely against her wishes, he had mated her. He hadn’t wanted a mate, but now they were stuck. The confusion and concern on her face brought his protective instincts to the surface, and his wolf was howling in his head. He needed to calm himself and think rationally so that he could explain it to her. She had made it clear to him that she didn’t want him, and now…well now she was his mate, and nothing could change that.

“Liam?” she said again as she reached out to pull the sheet up over her nudity.

“I’m sorry, Sweet Tina. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I lost control,” he said, filled with regret for the angry situation he now faced.

“What are you talking about? I like it when you lose control. Couldn’t you tell that I enjoyed myself, too? Are you worried about the tears? Trust me, it doesn’t hurt. It tingles a little bit, but I’ve never been bit by a wolf before…” Tina’s smile faded, and he watched as shock and understanding filled her eyes. “Oh no. No, no, no…tell me you didn’t just do that wolfy claiming thing.”

He dropped his gaze to her belly and took a deep breath. “I promise you I didn’t do it intentionally,” he whispered.

“Fuck that!” she screamed, and she pushed him away from her almost pushing him completely off of the bed. “Listen to me, you bastard. I do
not
want to be your mate. I will
not
be forced into anything. This isn’t happening. Do you hear me? This is
not
happening! Get out of my house, and leave me alone!”

She turned and ran for her bathroom, but not before Liam caught the angry betrayal that flushed her cheeks and the tears that filled her eyes. His heart broke. It was already done, and he couldn’t change it. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to change it. She was his rightful mate, and the bond that was creating when her blood filled his mouth confirmed that. Now he just had to figure out how to explain what he had done. He had basically just forced her into a marriage that she didn’t want. Or at least didn’t understand that she wanted.

A noise startled him from his thoughts, and he realized that he remained frozen in the spot where he had just claimed his mate. He heard the shower start and then the sounds of the shower curtain opening and closing. Clenching his eyes shut, he tried not to think about Tina’s naked, wet body in the shower. Ice encased his heart at the sound of her first sob. The second sob had him running. She was crying, and it wasn’t the angry tears from before. This was pure pain. Heartbreak.

Using his wolf skills he slammed through the locked bathroom door without pause. He found her sitting in the bottom of the bathtub curled in a tight little ball, sobbing into her knees. Water streamed down over her, and steam filled the air, but he couldn’t shake the cold shock that his loss of control could hurt her so badly. Even drenched in the smells of her shower, he could smell the pain and confusion rolling off of her body. He shut the water off and snatched a towel off the hook on the wall. Wrapping her in it he scooped her up and held tightly against his chest.

“Shhh….Tina, please don’t cry. I’m so sorry that I hurt you. I never ever wanted to hurt you.” His own eyes filled with moisture and his chest was tight. This was his mate, his other half. If she was hurting it meant that he was hurting.

“Please don’t touch me, Liam. Just leave. I need to be alone.” She sobbed into his shoulder. Her whole body was trembling, but she didn’t pull away from him. Despite her words, he got the sense that he should stay put.

“Not now you don’t. I won’t leave you like this. I know you weren’t ready to be claimed, and I really did want to wait and give you time to decide for yourself. I lost control, damn it. I shouldn’t have, but I did. Now the mating bond is already started. Your wolf won’t be able to be happy without mine, and now that I’ve bitten you, you will start the change.” He was trying to speak calmly in hopes of a rational conversation, but she stiffened in his arms and jerked her head back to look at him.

“What? You’re telling me that I’m already a wolf? Just because you gave me a quick nip while you screwed me I’m suddenly going to start sprouting fur?” Her face registered her stunned anger.

“It’s not a bad thing, really. You will only shift during the full moon in the beginning. When you start to learn how to handle it you will be able to shift whenever you want to. It’s actually very freeing to shift and run as a wolf. I will be there to help you through it all. You’re my mate. I won’t ever leave you now,” he replied.

“Oh, Lord have mercy. I can’t do this. Get out,” she said with a quiet pain in her voice that broke his heart. She moved off of his lap where he had been holding her and walked away from him. Standing a few feet away, wrapped in a bath towel, she was completely silent.

“Sweetheart, we have to talk about this…”

“No, we don’t. You should have talked more instead of biting me. I don’t appreciate you using me as your personal chew toy, Liam. This changes nothing. I don’t want a serious relationship. Now I want to get dressed and go to bed, but first I want you to get out of my house. Don’t come back, don’t call me, and don’t ever try to talk to me again.” She refused to look at him as she spoke in that soft angry tone.

“I need you, Tina. Now that we are mated you will need me, too. A wolf that is separated from its claimed mate for too long will get depressed and a little crazy. It’s painful at best, and eventually it will drive the wolf completely insane, and it will have to be put down.” He let his own sorrow out with a deep, regretful sigh. “I will leave for now. I know you need some time to come to grips with the changes that will happen. I will call you tomorrow.”

He stood and started to walk back to the kitchen to find his shirt and he heard her mutter under her breath, “Don’t bother,” but he chose to ignore it for now. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to get into a pissing match over something they couldn’t change. She was obviously hurt and angry, but he also could smell the fear and confusion. His own wolf was chomping at the bit to comfort her with his body, but he forced himself to put on his clothing and leave the house. As he walked down the sidewalk to his truck, he heard the deadbolt click on the front door, and he growled in frustration. Jumping into his truck he slammed it into gear and shot off toward the den. He needed to run. He just hoped he didn’t run straight back into another woman’s rejection.

Chapter 17

After Liam left, Tina found herself standing in front of the bathroom mirror staring at the small wound on her shoulder. She was stunned that he had claimed her. He had taken away her choice, and now she was going to turn into a werewolf whether she liked it or not. She needed to talk to someone, but she couldn’t tell her mom and dad what happened, so she called Caroline.

When Caroline answered her cell phone, she was laughing, and Tina started to smile against her own will. “Hey, T! What’s up?” Caroline asked.

“Hello, Caroline, I need advice. Liam came home with me tonight, and things got out of hand.”

“What do you mean out of hand?”

“We had sex, wild, crazy sex, and I thought it was all great, but now I feel ashamed that I stopped paying attention and let it all happen.”

“What’s the big deal? You’re a grown woman, and it’s not wrong to have sex with your mate.”

“Well see, there’s the problem. I’m definitely his mate now.”

“Oh my God! He claimed you? That’s fantastic! I’m so happy for you guys!”

The line went quiet as Tina tried to figure out how to explain without crying.

“T? Why aren’t you happy? Isn’t this a good thing?”

“No! Yes! I don’t know! Things have been going so well, and he was starting to grow on me. I mean we connected somehow, and I really like being with him. The sex is amazing, I mean really,
really
hot…and he’s also thoughtful and sweet sometimes…”

“But?”

“Tonight in the middle of sex he bit me, nothing major, just a little love bite. It was bleeding, and I was laughing, because he got all serious. I thought he was overreacting. He said that biting me starts the change and that now I have no other option but to be his mate! I don’t like to have decisions made for me!”

There was a long pause on the line before Caroline responded, and Tina chewed her lip fighting her nerves.

“You know, I didn’t get a choice either.”

“What? Devin and Damon seem like they are always so careful to let you make your own choices?”

“Not always, sometimes they do things because they think they are doing the best thing for me. In our case they claimed me the first time we had sex, and it was amazing. They didn’t explain the significance until the next day. I was surprised, and a little hurt at first. I accepted it, but I still fought with myself. Women like you and I don’t exactly give up our independence easily, but I wasn’t unhappy to be their mate. I love them. Gorgeous head to sexy toe, and all of the obnoxious in between. I love them more than I can even say.”

“I don’t know if I love him yet.” Tina’s voice was almost a whisper as tears ran down her cheeks.

“Do you miss him when he’s not with you? Do you tingle when he is with you? Can you picture a future without him? If you can answer those questions, then you already know your answer, and you have to accept that what’s done is done and move on.”

“He had no right to claim me.”

“You’re right. I’m not arguing that, but for a wolf the urge to bite during sex is intense, and when it’s their mate it becomes unbearable. You will learn it soon because you will start to feel that urge. As the changes happen to you, you will find yourself having all sorts of crazy urges. The first time I ate a raw steak right from the fridge I thought I was losing my mind.”

“I’m a werewolf now, Lord have mercy. I’m going to grow fur and turn into a wolf.”

“Yep, and trust me after the first time, which is pretty scary, you learn to love it. It’s a freedom like I’ve never felt before. You know what this means?”

“What?”

“The maid of honor and the best man for my wedding will be the next bride and groom.” Caroline was laughing, but Tina’s heart stopped. Panic set in. She wasn’t ready to be engaged. The last time she got engaged, her fiancé died within twenty-four hours of putting the ring on her finger.

“No. No. No. No. No wedding.”

“Well, I know he hasn’t asked yet, but when you tell him you love him…”

“I’m not telling him anything of the sort, Caro. Right now I don’t even want to see him.”

“Tina, you will need someone with you while you’re adjusting to your wolf, at least for the first few weeks. You will have questions.”

“Then I will call you to ask them. I kicked him out of my house today because I won’t be with someone who can’t respect my ability to make my own choices. I would hate to lose my best friend for the same reason.”

“That’s low, T. Even for this situation. I’m going to chalk it up to the emotional night that you have had, and you being lovesick. God knows we do stupid things when we are in love, but I won’t let you put yourself or Liam at risk because of your pride. I have explained to you that, when a werewolf claims his mate, he
must
be with her regularly. If he is kept away from her, he will become depressed, and eventually die of heartbreak or go insane. It’s in our genetics. When one of the twins is even gone from me for the night I wake up the next day grumpy. I have to see them every single day just to reassure her that they are okay.”

“Reassure who?”

“My wolf. She can be a real bitch about seeing her mates. You will start to hear a voice in the back of your head that sounds a lot like you. And you will sense when she is upset or wants something. You will really feel her when you make love to Liam again or when she just gets horny.”