Okay, he’d
totally
lost her. Something in his expression made her wary. “I don’t understand. What do you want from me?”
“I want you. All of you.”
The flash of determination in his eyes made her suck in a breath. No, he couldn’t possibly mean what she thought he might. “What does that mean?”
“I’m here to claim you.” The last thing he’d expected was for her to hurl a teaspoon at his forehead. Shit, that actually hurt.
“Claim me? Now there’s a fucking joke. I’d rather French kiss a goddamn barracuda than mate with you!”
Nick cursed in surprise as Shaya lifted one of the wooden breakfast stools and launched it at him. He barely ducked in time to dodge it. When he stood tall again, it was to see another stool coming at him. He caught that one, using it as a shield against the next stool. Then she was racing out of the room.
Before she could escape from the house, Nick dashed after her. But she didn’t open the front door. She reached behind the rack of coats in the hallway, pulled out a baseball bat, turned sharply, and swung it at his head.
Motherfucker.
He jumped backward, barely avoiding it. “Dammit, Shay!”
Where had his sweet mate gone? Having a bad temper was one thing, but the female in front of him was a merciless psycho. Proving that, she swung the bat again—this time at his abdomen. Although he jerked away, he only managed to dull the impact of her swing. It still connected hard with his abdomen, making him instinctively bend over as the breath whooshed out of him. That was when the bat came flying at his head again.
Pissed-fucking-off, Nick caught the bat and yanked it toward him. He’d expected Shaya to try to keep hold of it, expected that his move would have tugged her to him. It didn’t. She let go of the bat and made a dash for the living room—God knew what weapon she was hiding in there. Not wanting to find out, he flung the bat aside and dove at her.
When a hard body folded around Shaya and tackled her to the carpet, she growled a string of profanities. Unsheathing her claws, she twisted her body slightly and took a swipe at Nick’s face. The prick was fast—he dodged the move and then clamped his hand around her wrist, pinning it above her head. Most likely suspecting she would try the same move with her free hand—he would be right—he shackled her other wrist. Then he locked his teeth around her shoulder in a very dominant move. Not biting, not breaking skin or marking…just cautioning her, snatching her full attention. It worked; both she and her wolf froze.
Putting his mouth to her ear, Nick spoke quietly. “I know you’re pissed at me, and I don’t blame you, but we need to talk. I’m going to sit you on the sofa, and we’ll discuss this like adults. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Choose.” When she sank her teeth into his arm, he got his answer. Of course he could throw his dominant vibes at her and suppress her, but he would
never
do that to his mate. Not seeing any other option to calm her down, he used his free hand to put pressure on her baroreceptor in the carotid artery at the base of her neck where it met her shoulder. Pretty soon, she was limp beneath him.
As Shaya woke to find herself slumped across the sofa, she frowned in confusion. That frown deepened when she saw that Nick had moved her armchair so that he was now directly opposite her and watching her with shrewd eyes. It took only a split second to recall what had happened—he’d sent her into the land of the fairies when she wouldn’t talk with him. She was actually kind of surprised he hadn’t simply used his dominant vibes to suppress her. Huh.
Abruptly she sat upright. And that was when she realized something else. Her wrists were secured together in front of her with black fur-lined cuffs. She gaped at him. “Oh, you sick bastard.”
He winced. “I was hoping I wouldn’t need to use them…but I can’t say I don’t like the look of them on you. Notice that I didn’t pin them behind your back. I don’t want you uncomfortable. I just want us to be able to talk without you grabbing a bat and swinging it at my head.”
“Thanks for the small mercy,” she spat with heavy sarcasm.
Wearing a forlorn, hopeless expression that plucked at Nick’s heart, she dropped her head and her shoulders sagged. Then she was sniffling.
Shit
. Guilt prickled his skin. He did the only thing he could do. He rose from his seat and went to her. Shocking the shit out of him, she suddenly sprang to life; she stomped hard on his foot, used her wrists tied in front of her to deliver a mean blow to his jaw, and then kicked his kneecap hard, making him stagger backward. Before Nick could reach for her, she was up and heading for the kitchen.
Nick should have been pissed—not only had she played him by acting the sad, stoic victim accepting of her fate, she had run from him. Instead, he found himself smiling at her deviousness. He could respect deviousness.
He was going to catch her. Shaya knew it. That didn’t mean she was just going to lie back and take this shit. That wasn’t who she was. Still, it was no more than five seconds later when a hard body folded itself around her from behind and she was tackled to the hardwood floor, pinned onto her stomach with her arms squashed beneath her. This was familiar. “Get off me, you son of a bitch!”
“You’re fast, I’ll give you that.” Nick grunted as she jammed her elbow into his rib cage. He placed more of his body weight down on her, but if anything, that only intensified her struggles. “There’s no point in doing this, baby. Stop.”
She snickered, forcing herself to ignore the authority in his voice. “Fuck you!” She reared her head back, smirking as it connected hard with his forehead, and he cursed again. When wooziness momentarily came over her, she realized that that might not have been wise.
“Christ, woman, will you stop!” That move had hurt like a
bitch
. Ignoring the trickle of blood he could feel spilling from the top of his forehead, Nick trapped her cuffed wrists above her head. “I swear if you don’t stop struggling, Shay, I’ll spank your ass.” She didn’t stop. Of course she didn’t stop. So he slid his free hand down to rest on her ass. Well, “rest on” wasn’t quite accurate. More like he’d cupped her ass. He could say with all honestly that it was the hottest ass he’d had the pleasure of touching.
“What the fuck?” Shaya wished she felt as outraged as she sounded.
“Stop trying to fight me or I
will
spank you. Don’t test me.” He was hoping she did. “I never make a threat that I don’t intend to follow through.” Did she stop? No. She tried to head-butt him again. Nick
tsk
ed and sharply brought his hand down on her ass, smiling when she gasped and froze. “I told you not to test me. Or maybe you wanted me to do it.” He placed his mouth to her ear and spoke in a teasing tone. “Maybe you like that. It’ll be no hardship for me to spank you again, so if you don’t like it, quit fighting me.”
As much as she hated to acknowledge it, there was no way that Shaya could get out from under him. She was just so tired, and he was so strong, the asshole. Her wolf lowered her head and tail, acknowledging his dominance. Shaya couldn’t bring herself to openly admit defeat to him, so rather than speaking she simply went lax beneath him.
“Very good.” Nick’s voice was thick with the lust he felt at watching her submit. “Now, we’re going to slowly stand up.” He should have known that she’d try to run again. He should have expected it merely because the female could clearly be counted on to do the exact opposite of what he told her. Being much faster than she was, he caught her easily enough, looping an arm around her and pulling her back against him. “Now that wasn’t very good behavior, was it?” The crazy bitch bit into his arm, kicking him wildly. Grunting, he slung her over his shoulder and landed a harsh slap on her ass as he stalked back to the living room.
Shaya’s outraged gasp turned into a lengthy growl. “Put me down, you asshole!” She clawed at the skin of his lower back.
“Just so you know, I like it rough. But I should point out something. You’ve used your claws and teeth a few times on me. If you do it again even once—whether it’s out of anger or not—my wolf is finally going to rise to that and push me to mark you right back. With the mating urges beating at me and your scent wrapped around me and your skin under my hands, I know for a fact that I won’t be able to resist biting you any longer. If you don’t want that, stop.”
The warning had been delivered in such a soft, sensual, velvety voice that a tremor rippled through Shaya. She hated knowing he’d feel her need for him.
Returning her to the sofa, Nick looked down into Shaya’s snarling face and sighed inwardly. She was beyond pissed, which was the last thing he wanted. Conscious of the blood trickling down his forehead, he snatched a tissue from the box on the coffee table and used it to stanch the flow.
Realizing she was scowling at him, Shaya lowered her eyes—a submissive wolf wouldn’t be able to hold an angry dominant’s powerful gaze for very long. However, she wasn’t an average submissive. There were things about her that many people didn’t know. But as she had no wish to tell him, she forced herself to look away. “You’ll regret this, Beavis.”
“I’ll remember to watch my back,” he said with a smile.
“Oh no. When I come at you, I’ll come at you from the front.”
Her sassy response made his smile widen. “That’s my girl.” Sitting on the armchair again, he watched as she struggled against the cuffs. Sighing, he dug out the key from his pocket and unlocked them. At her suspicious look, he shrugged. “I think at this point you’re as tired of all the running around as I am…although it was fun to chase and spank you.”
“Had you honestly expected me to be quiet and compliant like a good little girl? I might be submissive, but I’m not a pushover.”
“Oh, you’re definitely not a pushover,” he agreed. “I never, for even one minute, thought that you were.” She had the strength of will to match any dominant female, to match his.
“You can’t ignore me for months and then expect me to welcome you with open arms.”
“I didn’t ignore you—”
“You didn’t even
look
at me, let alone speak to me or—”
“Because I didn’t trust myself not to pick you up and carry you off.” He sighed. “You’re not dumb, Shay. You know that your being submissive is a problem. If the situation was reversed and claiming me would put me in danger, what would you have done?”
“Talked to you. I’d have talked to you and explained how I felt. If I hadn’t thought that there was a way I could be with you, I’d have given you the space to live your life, but you couldn’t even give me that.”
He arched a brow. “Are you going to tell me that you’re not feeling the same pull as I am? That your wolf isn’t hounding you? That the urge to mate isn’t close to controlling you? I can see you shaking with it, Shay. So don’t make out like staying away from you should be simple for me. It never was.” He inhaled deeply, wanting that scent he’d missed to be nestled deep in his lungs. God, she smelled like the ocean, fresh crisp air, and home. He had to fist his hands to keep from touching her. It was painful to resist.
He took a calming breath, inhaling deeply again. And that was when he smelled it—her arousal. It was the sweetest smell that seemed designed to torture both him and his wolf. He wanted to find out if her taste was just as alluring. His wolf was clawing at him, growling at his lack of action, at not claiming what was
theirs
.
“My name is Shay
a
. And yes, I do feel that same pull. Yes, the urges are a pain in the ass. And that’s exactly why you’re here—for the wrong reasons. Not because you truly want me, but because your wolf’s pushing you too hard and the urges are bugging you too much. Well that’s not good enough for me.”
“I stepped down from Alpha.”
She was so startled she couldn’t speak for a few seconds. “What?”
“My old Beta is now Alpha.”
She’d met his old Beta a few times, sensed his very dominant wolf, and she’d sensed something else too—extremely dominant or not, Jon was nowhere near as powerful as Nick. She wasn’t sure whether or not he was lying about having stepped down from Alpha, but she knew one thing: “Your wolf wouldn’t be able to take orders from someone less powerful than he is—he wouldn’t obey him. Plus, everyone in your pack would still see you as the person to go to and answer to because you’re more powerful than Jon.”
“I know. That’s why I left.”
She gawked. “What?”
He spread his arms wide before crossing them behind his head and leaning back in his seat. “I’m now a lone wolf.”
Her mouth bobbed open and closed a few times. What he’d done wasn’t by any means a small thing. Not that she believed Nick had ever or would ever actually
need
anyone, but to be without a pack or territory or the social contact provided by a pack would be hard as all shit for any shifter. If Shaya hadn’t been half human, she was pretty sure the lone-wolf lifestyle would have been too much for her to handle. As it was, she found it pretty difficult, but that wasn’t so much to do with her shifter side as it was to do with her issue with being alone. “But…why?”
“Because if being Alpha means I can’t have you, then I don’t want the position.
You’re
what I want.”
Struggling to think clearly, she got to her feet and began to pace. She honestly didn’t know what to say, what to do. Here he was, claiming to have made some
major
changes to his life just for her. Hell, he’d left his pack, his family, his territory, and his position behind! She would have been impressed, but it made no sense. If she had really been so important to him, he would have done this in the very beginning…which made her wonder if this was nothing more than a grand gesture. Even if he truly intended to never return to his pack, she very much doubted that it would work for him or his wolf. It would only be a matter of time before the urge to go back became too much.
He rose from the chair and went to her. “Come back to California with me. I don’t have to tell you how dangerous it is to be a lone shifter right now—the human extremists are making themselves a huge problem. So if you want to return to the Phoenix Pack, fine, I’ll go with you. I won’t lie—obeying Trey would be hard because I’m as powerful as he is, but as he’s not weaker than me, it could still work. Come with me.”