A Mate's Submission: (Hot Paranormal Shifter Romance) (Ozark Mountain Shifters Book 4) (2 page)

She grunted. “What are you… doing here?”

“I’m on vacation. Disneyland’s too crowded this time of year so I thought I’d check out your part of the forest.”

She made a sound that reminded him of snorting, but then ended in a wince. “You can’t be here.”

“But I am.”

Her crusted eyelids shifted and he realized she was trying to blink. “No. You can’t… need to go. I’m…
vulnerable
.” She said the word like it was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe. “You need to leave.”

“No doubt, no doubt… but I’m a guard and it looks like you’re a little low on those right now.”

There was a minute shake of her head. “Ozarka has plenty of guards.”

“But not guards you trust. Am I right?”

She was quiet. And for so long, he wondered if she’d passed out again until her hand reached for the water at her bedside. Jittery and weak, there was no way she’d make it from the table to her mouth.

“Let me,” he offered.

She hesitated, but her desire for water must have been greater than her pride.

Lexar brought the straw to her mouth, but she could barely muster the strength to pull the liquid up.

“Here.” He dipped his finger in water, holding it to her lips. “Open.”

She stared at him through slitted eyes. This was crossing the line she’d drawn between them, but he couldn’t give a fuck. She needed water.

“Open. Your. Mouth.” His command contained too much dominance. He’d pay for it later.

Avan obeyed, parting her lips just enough to take his finger inside. The tiny amount of water helped enough to make her want more. She sucked the drops off before twirling her tongue around the tip.
Twice
. As she might do to a… lollipop. Then she bit the tip lightly. A fair and careful warning.

Fucking Hell. He was already growing hard.

Shame was his best friend in that moment. Here she was, beat to all hell, yet the feel of her tongue left him shaking for more. The miracle of his arousal was definitely overshadowed by his moral compass. Damn thing was set to north at all the wrong times.

Quickly, he dunked his finger into the glass for more water. This time, he didn’t give her a chance to play games. He repeated the process again and again until she’d gotten enough.

“Try the straw now?”

“No. I’m good.”

Lexar set the glass back on the table.

“What makes you think I trust you?” Her voice wasn’t as rough as when she’d first awakened.

He looked at her quizzically, not following the sudden change of subject.

“How are you different from any of my other guards?”

Oh. She was trying to lump him in with the rest of them. Understandable since she’d known him for less time. But it was also bullshit. She knew he was on the up.

“Well, first off, I’m here.” He stared into her pale eyes. “Where are they?”

“They—” she coughed, “weren’t allowed into my room.”

Lexar grinned. “And I was. What’s that tell you, princess?”

Her eyes drifted closed. “Call me that again,” her words slurred, “and I’ll make sure… it’s your jewels I wear as my crown.”

Lexar’s face spread in a grin. Trying to bite his head off
while
falling asleep. She was cute when she was multitasking. He wondered if she realized she’d just threatened to wear his balls on her head. He could think of worse punishments than having his balls near her face.

The rhythmic bump of her heart was the only thing she could hear. Everything still hurt, but this time, she could feel her way out of the fog.

Damn, healing sucked.

For a split second, she mourned the fact that she’d never have a way around this pain. And the next time she was hurt, and every time after, it would be the same. There was no mated healing to be had. Not unless she wanted to give away her pride to achieve it.

No fucking thank you.

Avan peeled her eyelids open to find Lexar parked in the chair next to her bed. His arms were crossed over his chest, causing the muscles to expand more than his tight t-shirt wanted to allow. He’d stretched out with his legs crossed at the ankles, chin touching his chest. Asleep.

He was a beautiful man already, but resting, he looked like a god. His dark skin was flawless and perfectly rippled where his muscles bulged. His jaw was sharp and strong, leading to high cheek bones that she’d love to trace with her fingertips. Long, sweeping lashes rested there, shielding the dust brown of his eyes.

His eyes. They were the first thing she’d noticed when they met. They were a frozen tundra that she’d wanted to set fire to. Except they weren’t as chill as she’d assumed. No, Lexar was hot. Maybe even molten. He was hard, like her. They’d be like two rocks rubbing together to make sparks.

No good would come of a fire like that.

Avan tried to sit up, but that proved more difficult than she’d hoped. All she achieved was making the bed squeak.

Lexar’s eyes opened, looking alert.

“Some guard you are,” she muttered.

He didn’t seem fazed by her ribbing. “I know right. I’m so devoted I’ve slept in a chair for two days.”

She froze. “Two days?”

He nodded. “Your mama needed sleep, and your sister…” He frowned. “I don’t think she likes being cooped up for long.”

He was right about that.

“Damn.”

“Yeah. How do you feel?”

She measured him before answering. He seemed genuinely curious. “Fine.”

His brows fell across his eyes as he swept them over her body. “Fine as in ‘good’, or fine as in ‘I want to make you think I’m good?’”

Avan took a deep breath as she attempted to sit up again. “The second one.”

Lexar stood, reaching out to give her a hand. As she rose, the sheet slipped from her body revealing her breasts.

“Uh…” He ducked his gaze.

“What’s wrong? Never seen a tit before?”

His eyebrows shot upward. “Plenty. Just never seen
your
tits before.”

“There’s nothing special about mine. A tit is a tit is a tit.”

He muttered something under his breath.

“What’s that?”

“Shit, I was trying to protect your modesty.” He looked deeply disturbed.

“It’s okay,” she said, to let him off the hook. “I don’t really have any modesty.”

“I’ll just… do you have a robe or something?”

Avan snorted and it made her head feel like it would pop. “Of course not. What do I look like, Martha Stewart.”

“What does she have to do with bathrobes?”

“I dunno. She seems like the kind of person who’d wear one.”

“Yeah, so does everyone else on the planet.”

“Do you?”

He frowned. “No.”

“But your guy friends, they do?”

“Doubt it.”

“So… you mean, every other woman on the planet.”

His jaw fell open to speak but nothing came out.

“Because we have boobs and pussies and those things should never be seen unless we’re in bed. Right?”

His head canted to one side.

Avan pushed the heel of her hand into her forehead. Damn. She wasn’t well enough to have a feminist outburst right now.

“You’re right,” Lexar murmured. “Stay naked. I like you better like that anyway.”

Aw, now. He was good. Very good. Playing on her instinct to cover up just because a man liked her to be naked. Oh, hell. This was exhausting.

She tried to stand… and the room swayed.

“What are doing?” Lexar lurched forward to help her, his arm wrapping firmly around her waist, skin against skin.

She ignored how the softness of his flesh sent shivers all over her body.

“I need to pee. You going to help?”

“I… I can. Would you rather I call your mama?”

“Don’t care. I just want to see a toilet in the next thirty seconds or less.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Avan tried to support most of her own weight but about halfway there, she started flagging. Whatever. If Lexar was half a gentleman he wouldn’t mention it.

After she was seated on the toilet, he turned his back to her and switched on the faucet. Geez. So unnecessary. And so… human. Wolves didn’t usually bother so much with modesty.

When she’d finished, she stood on her own, gripping the wall for support.

“Shit,” she breathed.

“What is it?” He turned back to her, but she was distracted.

There was blood in the toilet. A lot of it.

“Fuck,” he murmured.

She glanced at him.

“Kidneys.”

She nodded.

“Let’s get you back to bed.”

She leaned on him more than she should as they slowly made their way back. Easing down, she was shocked when his hands swept down her calves, lifting her legs into the bed. He pulled the sheet up to her chin.

She should say thanks.

“We need to call Cael,” he said carefully.

“No.”

“He can help you, Avan. He’d do it.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

She was exhausted. The trip to the bathroom was too much.

“You’re not healing fast enough. Your wounds are too bad.”

“My wolf just needs more time.”

He was silent. She wanted to find his eyes, gauge his thoughts. But instead, she ignored him.

“I would do it if I could,” he ground out.

Her gaze shot to him. The brutal set of his jaw told her he was angry.

“This is senseless. He could heal you in a matter of minutes. Instead, you’d rather deal with this pain. And no telling what will happen to your body in the meantime. Infection. Or worse. Your pride is that big, is it?”

Her throat clogged up at his disappointment. He thought she was being a spoiled brat. Well, he didn’t know shit. And the fact that his opinion bothered her so much was an epic warning sign.

“I don’t owe you any explanations.”

He laughed humorlessly. “Nah, princess. You don’t owe me nothing. It ain’t about that. It’s about making you well.”

“I don’t want him to touch me,” she said low. “
I
do the touching.
I’m
in control. No one else. Ever.”

Lexar slumped down on the edge of her bed. “You’re telling me you won’t let your mate—”

“He’s not my mate.” He
was
, but not in the ways that counted.

There was a long bit of silence, but Avan stared at the ceiling, avoiding Lexar’s gaze.

“Your intended, I mean. You won’t let your intended heal you because you don’t want him touching you?”

Avan pegged him with a glare. “You make it sound like I’m being absurd but how would you feel? If your intended mated another, would you want her hands on you?”

Some emotion flashed in his brown eyes and he looked away. Oh shit. Was he already mated? There was no mark. Maybe he’d been denied, like Trager. Or rather, like Trager should have been.

“Fuck,” Lexar muttered. “I don’t want him touching you either.”

A warm feeling pooled in her belly at his blunt words. Guess the feeling of attraction was mutual. And maybe that answered her question about a mate. Maybe. But she was living proof that intended matings didn’t always work out the way they were supposed to, so his interest wasn’t a sure yes or no.

He glanced her way, his eyes moving from her face to her covered breasts. “I don’t want anything touching you. Not even that sheet.”

Avan licked her cracked lips, recalling the way he’d given her water earlier.

“Nothing at all?” she whispered coyly, glancing at his hands. And her wolf came out of its secret hiding place to see what was up. Her animal recognized this wasn’t her mate, but couldn’t decide exactly what position Lexar filled.

His nostrils flared as he clenched his fists. She smelled it, his arousal. And he knew it too.

“I think you know what I want, princess.”

“Hmm. Lucky for me, you don’t own me, and neither does any other man. I’m in charge. Worked hard for that and now that I have it, I won’t give it away.”

He smirked. “Maybe you don’t know what I want after all.”

“What’s that mean?”

Slowly, Lexar leaned forward until he hovered just above her ear. “I don’t want to
own
you, Avan. I want to
have
you.” His whisper brushed every nerve ending from her scalp to the spot between her legs. “Again. And again. And again.”

Holy fuck. Did he even know what he was saying? He wanted to
have
her. As if he was a partaker in
her
world instead of the other way around. He couldn’t have chosen more perfect words if he’d tried.

Her heart pounded in her throat reminding her how hard her body was working to heal itself.

Lexar sat back, his eyes steady on hers. “But it’s not really about what we want, is it? Your pack, that’s what this is all about. If you don’t heal before another challenger comes… you might let them down. You’re a good alpha. I can see that. A good alpha thinks of the pack first.”

He wasn’t wrong. That was the shittiest part. In fact, he was so right he should be wearing gold wings and guarding Heaven’s gates. But that didn’t mean she was giving in. Not yet. She’d give her animal one more day.

Miracles could happen in a day. Or so she’d heard.