Unconditional (6 page)

She shook her head, hard. “Uh-uh. That would be a monumentally bad idea.” She bet shifter males were a big ol’ unruly handful, and she had limited time and energy. Hell, she’d probably end up getting steamrolled into stuff every time he smiled at her.

“Oh, I disagree. I think it’d be a fabulous idea. You want me, Michelle. As much as I want you. I promise to get you nice and tired so you can sleep.”

“You come with all sorts of complications, Josh. I can’t right now.”

“You still angry with me?”

She sighed. “No. I get it.” And really she didn’t blame him. It had hurt, but she’d moved on and he did have a better life here. She cared about him enough to be pleased for that. And he’d been nothing but helpful in the search for Allie.

“But?”

“But you’re an alpha male and I have too much stuff on my plate to take you on right now. I want to check in to a hotel, take a long shower and then go to sleep.” After masturbating most likely because he got her all stirred up.

The check came, and she didn’t fail to notice the way the waitress tried to flirt with him. But he didn’t engage, all his attention was on her and it flustered her.

“Come on. We’ll get you back to my apartment where your car is so you can get your bag. There’s a hotel about three blocks from me. Secure. We put people up there when they come in from out of town. Leave your car at my place.”

“Why?”

He put an arm around her as he steered her to his car. “If they know you’re looking for them, they’re going to be on the lookout for your car. If it’s in the garage at my building, they won’t know you’re staying at the hotel down the street.”

Which is something she should have thought of.

She grabbed her small overnight bag from her car and he drove her to the hotel where they knew him, and of course everything female seemed to fall over herself to be of any assistance.

“I’m walking you up so don’t argue.” He spoke, his lips against her temple, and she shivered.

Her scent dug into him with sharp claws. She was turned on, wet for him, her skin heated from a perpetual blush. He couldn’t help but stay close enough to breathe it in over and over, dragging her over his tongue, swallowing her in big gulps.

“Fine. Whatever. I just want to sleep so whatever it takes to make you go.”

He grinned as he took the keycard from her fingers and opened up, heading in to check the space out and also leave his scent all over as he touched doorknobs, brushed against doorways.

A suspicion had begun to build in his belly over the last hours, and each time he felt the need to do something like mark her space, it got stronger.

“I’ll collect you first thing. All right? We’ll grab breakfast and head out. We’ll go back to the gas station and track on foot from there.” He knew Damon and GiGi would have already, but she knew Allie’s magick better than anyone else and it added another layer to the search.

And it was all they had right then.

She nodded and he moved to her, intending to hug her, but she looked up at him and there was nothing else to be done but kiss her. He tried to keep it soft and slow but she made a sound, a quiet, needy sound, and he swallowed it down, his tongue sliding between her lips, her taste, God her taste, it rocketed through him, filling him up and crowding everything else out but her.

His wolf pushed at him, wanted to lay her out and feast on her until he was sated. Until they’d eased the stress from her features. The fierce need to protect her made sense, the need to scent her space and draw her close.

She nipped his bottom lip, and he pulled her even closer, the jut of his cock against the softness of her belly. Her nipples were hard, pressing against him, begging to be touched. Licked, bitten.

He wanted to bury his face between her thighs, licking her pussy until she screamed out. Wanted her to ride his cock until he came deep inside her.

Which would be a whole different issue. He didn’t have any condoms with him, and the man slapped him back enough to realize he needed to talk with her about what all this meant.

She was tired and worried and scared. Now wasn’t the time. No matter how much he wanted it.

Sweet Jesus he tasted good
.

Michelle’s fingers slid up the wall of his chest and into his hair, pulling him closer as he kissed the sense out of her.

His hands at her hips were hot, firmly holding her in place as she fought not to writhe. His cock was hard at her belly, and she didn’t resist sliding against it until he gasped against her mouth.

She was on fire for him. Wanted to be fucked in a way she couldn’t remember ever feeling before. He stoked that fire she supposed had always been in her belly for him until it consumed her.

She couldn’t think straight, and that’s what finally gave her the strength to take a step back.

Chest heaving, he examined her, licking his lips, his eyes had gone that otherworldly green. “I should go.”

She nodded. “I can’t right now. It’s too much. I’m really tired and I just… I’m not thinking straight.”

He hugged her one more time but stepped back without trying to kiss her again. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Please lock the door behind me. I should tell you one of my men will be on the hotel, keeping watch. You can see us, right?”

“You mean your energy?”

He nodded.

“Yes.”

“If you see anyone hanging around without that energy, you call me.” He picked her phone up from where she’d put it to charge and added his number. “Mine is here, as is Damon’s. You call, do you understand?”

“Yes, of course. I appreciate it. But I’m all right. I’m a cop, I can handle myself.”

“I don’t doubt that in normal circumstances. But these guys aren’t your run-of-the-mill baddie.” He slid the pad of his thumb over her cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Michelle. But you need to know this thing between us isn’t over.”

She knew that. And she knew from the look on his face that he had every intention of ending up naked and horizontal with her, and she really couldn’t find it in her to be annoyed by that. He respected her wishes and that’s what counted.

She walked him to the door and locked up in his wake, using the deadbolt and the slide lock too. A quick run through the room and she’d also made sure the lock on the window was set, as well as the one on the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony.

It was a fourth-floor room on the corner so she was reasonably sure she was as safe as she could be, at least for that night, before she headed into the bathroom with a change of clothes and her weapon.

She stood under the scalding hot water, scrubbing and scrubbing, but it seemed as if she’d never be rid of the stench of that body in the convenience store. Or of the way Allie’s face kept superimposing itself over Bobby’s.

She’d grown up in a house without a lot of control. Her mother had been all about appearances so she’d chosen Michelle’s clothes, what her hair looked like, her classes even. Michelle had been a cheerleader because her mother had been. Her father had been mainly out of the picture, and her mother had gone through men like cars. Trading in for a new one every four or five years.

Michelle had excelled because she was supposed to.

But when she decided to apply to become a cop, things had changed. She’d rejected all that lack of control and had taken the reins in her own life. Being a cop had given her something. Many things. But chief was the strength to take care of herself and others. Physical and mental. She had learned to face her fears and overcome them. People depended on her and that was all right.

And there she stood in a shower stall and her best friend was heaven knew where, in trouble, maybe dead, most likely scared and helpless, and she couldn’t do anything and it filled her with misery.

“I’m looking for you, Allie,” she whispered as she dried off, going over everything she knew in her head. Tomorrow they’d be on the ground, looking.

She turned out the lights and crawled into bed, the exhaustion sucking her into sleep faster than the panic could stop.

Chapter Five

He knocked on the ornate front doors, smiling as he heard the sound of giggles and a deeper voice and more laughter.

Tracy Warden, his Alpha, his friend and the mate to the two men he saw in the living room wrestling with their daughters, Rose who was two and Lianne who was five.

She grinned. “Look, girls, it’s Uncle Josh!”

The girls looked up and squealed, rushing toward him. Josh stepped into the house and scooped them up, one in each arm as they covered his face in sloppy kisses that smelled like vanilla cookies.

“Did you save me any cookies? I’ve had a long day and I could really use one.”

Big green eyes widened as they both nodded enthusiastically.

“Have you eaten?” Tracy asked him as they headed into the living room where Nick and Gabe sat on the couch, feet up. A rush of affection filled Josh for all of them. He loved Tracy, Gabe and Nick. Not just as his Alphas but as friends. As family.

“Yeah, just about an hour ago. I’m still stuffed.” He set the girls on their feet.

“I’ll put them to bed.” She held her hands out and the girls grabbed them. “Looks like Uncle Josh needs to talk to your daddies.”

They broke free to give him hugs and kisses and to rush over and give love to their dads too, before heading upstairs with Tracy.

“How goes the situation with the missing witch?” Gabe, one of Pacific’s two male Alphas, asked as Josh settled on one of the nearby chairs.

“The cop? Michelle, the one I had a high school thing with?”

They both nodded.

“She’s my mate.” Once he said it out loud, it was real, he allowed himself to believe it.

Nick snorted a laugh. “No shit?”

“I kept thinking it was that we had something back then, you know? That old spark is certainly still there and we’re adults now and she’s gorgeous and of course I wanted to fuck her. But I’ve been feeling more and more protective of her. Getting agitated when anyone looks at her, especially her breasts or her ass. And then I kissed her.” He ran his hands through his hair several times, the rush of that kiss still zinged through his system. “Once I got a taste, my wolf wasn’t going to let me pretend anymore.”

Nick, who’d been his friend for many, many years, raised a brow. “Does she know?”

Josh shook his head. “She’s drowning right now. Scared for her friend. And things don’t look good, so it’s not like she’s feeling that way for no reason. She’s overwhelmed, and she had no real idea about this world, the Others I mean. So she’s trying to manage all that too. I just…if I spring on her that she’s my mate, with all the stuff that comes with it, I’m afraid she’ll freak out.”

Gabe nodded. “Fair enough. But you know this thing you feel is only going to be more and more intense as you’re around her. Trust me on that.”

Originally it had been Tracy and Nick who’d been mates, and they’d sealed the bond. But mate pairs need a third, an anchor bond, another male who is part of that bond. If one of the mates dies, having that third anchor bond keeps the remaining mate from losing it. But the bond included sex to seal it, much like the original mate bond.

And when that happened, Gabe found himself feeling far more than an anchor to Tracy. And she him. It turned out the three of them were something pretty unique to wolves, a Tri Mate Bond, which meant the three of them shared a bond usually made for two. But for a bit, Gabe was left out, thinking he was in love with a woman he was destined to watch with another male for the rest of their lives, until they figured things out.

God, at some point, he’d have to deal with that himself. Another male having sex with his mate. He knew it logically. It was part of who and what they were, and in the end, it kept her safe. But right at that moment, the reality of it was a little hard to get around.

“Is this what you want? Is
she
what you want? You know if you don’t seal the bond, there will be another woman at some point.”

“I want her so much I can’t think straight. You should see her. Christ. She’s so badass. She ran after this guy today and took him out with a leaping tackle. She’s fierce and beautiful, and she’s my match on so many levels.”

Nick grinned. “Yeah? We can always use more badass females in Pacific.”

“One step at a time. I have to take it slow. She’s not a wolf. Hell, she’s a witch but I know more about witches than she does. I want her to see how much more of the world,
her world,
there is.”

“And there’s the matter of you dumping her.”

“Yeah, because I’d forgotten that. Thanks, Nick.”

His friend smirked. “Just saying. Did you explain it to her?”

“I did and we talked more about it today. I think she understands. There’s chemistry between us, no doubt. She didn’t deny it after the kiss. I just have to be smart and take my time. I can do this.” And he’d have to use a condom until she was ready to seal the bond, because once he came inside her, that was it. The bond would be formed. They’d end up in bed very soon. There was far too much attraction between them to deny for too long.

Gabe leaned out to grab a handful of popcorn. “I understand why you want to take it slow, but the longer you wait to tell her, the harder it’s going to be for her to understand.”