Chasing His Bunny (17 page)

As long as he kept looking at her like
that, who cared that she'd never have a buffet of men?  All
she needed was a buffet of this man.  Heck, she'd seen plenty
of sexy naked males today, and none of them had gotten her hot and
horny like Steele did.  Maybe that was the difference between
sex with a man and sex with a mate.

Actually, that brought up a question
that had been hovering in the back of her mind for a while
now.

"Do you think I'd still be your mate
if I was still human?"

Dark eyes blinked in
astonishment.  "
Now
?  You want to talk about
this
now
?"

She shrugged, sliding her
hands down her body while he watched, and then onto his, bringing
them to rest on his chest.  "I didn't want to forget to ask
again."

With an irate growl, Mr.
Don't-Question-Me flipped her over onto her back, pinning her hands
by the side of her head and looming over her like the irate, alpha
male that he was.  Bethany could sense his astonishment that
she would even question him over this, as well as his impatience
with and affection for her.

"Woman, you are going to
drive me insane," he snapped out.  "
Yes
, you would be my true, fated
mate, period.  That's how it works. The only way we wouldn’t
be is if we'd met after I'd mated someone else, that bond would
have already been broken and we would have never known."

Now it was Bethany's turn
to growl at the idea of Steele mated to someone else.  He
grinned down at her, pleased at her show of jealousy. 
Asshole.

"So you're saying you're stuck with
me, even though you wouldn't have chosen me."  

The expression on his face was
priceless.  Totally worth it.  She didn't really think
that way - he'd been pretty obvious about making their relationship
more than just a biological urge.  Plus, she could feel his
emotions towards her, and they were far more than just tolerant or
resigned acceptance.  In fact, right now, she was pissing him
off and turning him on, simultaneously.  Yay
multi-tasking!

He narrowed his eyes at her and rocked
his body, pressing her wetness against his hard cock and making her
gasp.  Bethany was very suddenly aware of just how big and
heavy he was atop her, and how helpless she was with his big hands
pressing her wrists into the mattress and her legs spread over his
hips.  She licked her lips as arousal shot through her. 
Steele rocked again and she shuddered as the pleasure shot through
her.  

"I would have chased you down and made
you mine even without the mate bond," he said, rocking his hips
again for emphasis.  Bethany whimpered and writhed, her pussy
pulsing as he pulled his hips back and slid just the head of his
cock into her pussy, teasing her with it.  "You're tough,
you're funny, you're protective, bossy, independent, and you're a
survivor.  You're everything I ever wanted in a
mate."

Lowering his lips to her ear, he
paused for just a moment.  

"You never had a chance, sweetheart,"
he whispered, and thrust his whole cock into her slick sheath to
punctuate his claim.  Bethany cried out as he stretched her
with his thick length, lifting her hips to take all of him, her
body greedy to have him inside of her.  

She wanted to reach up and touch him,
but Mr. On-Top-and-In-Charge had completely taken over. 
Between the teasing and then her questions, he needed to
reestablish his dominance, and he'd obviously decided to do so by
fulfilling the promise that he'd made her.  Even though she
wanted to touch him, she found herself loving this display of
alpha-male aggressiveness.  That could also be because it felt
really, really good.

This was one area she was totally okay
with him being Mr. Bossy-Without-Pants.  It didn't tick her
off, in fact it totally turned her on.

"Harder!" she demanded, pushing up off
the bed to meet each of his thrusts.  

Growling, Steele pulled out
instead and she squealed her protest as he flipped her over,
gasping when he pushed back inside of her the second he got her on
all fours.  Holy crap... he felt even bigger in this
position... and she suddenly realized that it was a very
submissive
 position.  Which, she was totally okay with.
 

As his cock pressed into her, it
rubbed right over her g-spot, making her shudder as the sensation
rolled through her.  His body pressed against her ass, one
hand pushing down the middle of her back, the other wrapped around
her hip to hold her in place.  And it felt
a-fucking-mazing.  Both her human and animal sides were
totally in sync on this position and loving every second of
it.

******

His mate's rounded ass rippled with
the force of his thrusts as he pounded into her, the whimpering
noises she was making driving him harder and faster.  Having
her completely at his mercy, taking his cock with every evidence of
enthusiasm, and lifting her hips to take him deeper, had his own
control sliding away.

When she screamed his name, it
completely undid it.

His wolf howled as he threw his head
back, unloading all his stress and fear
and adrenaline from the fight into her willing body, her
pussy clenching around him and milking his cock.  Leaning
forward, pressing his hands onto the bed next to hers, he covered
her body completely as his orgasm left him feeling utterly,
satisfactorily, drained.

Beneath him, Bethany slumped, her
bottom still tilted up, but he could feel her going lax. 
Wrapping one arm around her waist, he fell onto his side, pulling
her with him to keep them intimately connected.  Nuzzling the
back of her neck, he slid his other arm under her head to pillow
her.  

"Mmmm..." The absolute content in her
voice had him grinning with smugness.  It was probably a good
thing they were spooning so that she couldn't see his
face. 

Still, he couldn't help but feel that
there was a trap somewhere in here for him.

"So, you definitely accept that you're
my mate?"

Her body shook against his as she
giggled.  "Didn't we already go over this?"

"Just making sure."  His fingers
tickled her stomach, making her squirm and giggle even more.
 "After all, you didn't reassure me that you want me as your
mate for all the right reasons."

"It's because you have a huge
cock."

Steele growled and she
giggled again, then shrieked as he tickled her harder, thrashing
and trying to get away from him.  Squirming around, she met
his gaze, mischief in her bright blue eyes.  He scowled at
her.  "I demand a recounting of
all
my best attributes to sum up why
you've accepted me as your mate.  My huge cock only counts as
one."

Laughing, she poked his stomach and
shook her head ruefully.  "Not ticklish at all."

"Nope."  Huge lie, but he wasn't
going to tell her about the backs of his knees.  That
information was going to be kept from her for as long as
possible.  Which meant that he needed to keep her away from
his sisters for as long as possible too.

She sighed.
 "Fine.  You're hot, you have a huge cock, you're a
really fantastic lover-"  He growled at her again and she
rolled her eyes.  "You're kind of a woman with how much
reassurance you need - eek!  Wait!  Stop!"  She
burrowed into him as a defense, and he stopped tickling her because
he really liked the way she felt all pressed up against his
chest.  With her face buried underneath his head, her voice
became a little softer, a little more vulnerable - as if it was
hard for her to actually say the words.  "You're protective
and bossy, but I truly believe that you care, and you make me feel
safe - which I didn't think would ever happen - and you make me
feel comfortable.  Even though everything is new here, I feel
like I'm home."

The admission made Steele cough a
little.  That escalated quickly.  They were both a little
emotionally raw now.  Holding her tight, he knew his voice was
a little gruff but that couldn't be helped.  "Well as long as
you know and acknowledge how awesome I am - ow!"

She'd bit him!

******

When they woke up a few
hours later, Steele wasn't surprised to smell that the first floor
of his house had pretty much been taken over by his pack. 
Everyone wanted to know what was going on, of course.  Plus,
check out to make sure the alpha couple was okay. They’d been
remarkably patient, considering that no one had come upstairs to
wake him and Bethany from their nap.

He could tell that Bethany
was a little surprised and uncomfortable with the large crowd of
people, but she held her own.  It helped that everyone
enthusiastically went out of their way to make her feel
welcome.  They were all thrilled that Steele’s mate had
finally accepted the position - and that she was such a strong
asset.  Everyone had been curious about her animal too, and
seeing Bethany's surprise, consternation, and then awe as everyone
accepted her completely made him grin.  

Before they'd come downstairs, she'd
asked him if her animal bothered him and he'd been shocked that she
was even worried.  That was one big, badass bunny she had
inside of her and Steele was thrilled that his mate could take care
of herself - and wanted to.  Although, if she jumped in front
of a bullet again, he still reserved the right to spank her,
protective turtle shell or no.

In the kitchen, Kasim and Dr. Phil's
wife, a koala shifter named Aubri, were showing Bailey how to make
meat stew - Steele could also smell a roast already in the oven,
and there was a veritable buffet already laid out on his kitchen
table.  Dr. Phil and Doc were in close conversation near the
television, which made them hard to overheard, so he guessed they
were probably talking about the Bunsons.  Jacqueline, Jordan,
and Raoul were all crowded onto the couch with their squads ranged
around the room, watching the college basketball game on the
television.  The group near the food, which mostly consisted
of older females, were the ones currently fussing over
Bethany.

Lacy King, Vivian March,
and Edith Bryant, the three matriarchs of the pack, were all in
full on mothering mode.  He had a feeling they were miffed at
being denied their chance to mother Bailey and be involved in the
cooking lessons, so now that Bethany was available to them, they
were taking full advantage.  Especially since she was the new
alpha female. The talk centered around having a mating
ceremony, just to make things completely official and to give the
pack an excuse to celebrate. Bethany seemed to take their
enthusiastic planning with good humor.

He could feel his mate's
wonderment as she soaked up the attention; nervous but pleased to
be fussed over.  That kind of surprised him since she seemed
to consider his fussing to be overprotective and bossy, but he
wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  The ladies
would be able to help Bethany with everything she needed to know
about everyone and everything in the pack, and they'd be thrilled
to do it.  Besides which, he had no doubt the Bunson sisters
could use a little benevolent mothering.

Leaning back against the wall, he
looked over his little kingdom, feeling that everything was just as
it should be. 

Epilogue

Bethany couldn't believe how quickly
she'd been assimilated into town life after just a couple of
days.  She'd thought it would be difficult, considering how
long she and her siblings had been kept in a laboratory, but
everyone seemed to want to help.  Even Steele's ex-lovers had
been incredibly sweet and helpful... which she thought she would
find weird, but ended up just making sense.  None of them had
expected to mate him and so they were happy for him that he'd found
the perfect mate. 

While she obviously wouldn't be so
cavalier about him if she was his ex, she could understand why none
of them were bitter about not being his mate.  They wanted
their own mates, not someone else's.  

Going by what Edith said (and Bethany
was quickly learning that when it came to gossip, Edith's word was
gold), none of them had expected to be his mate either and they'd
only ever had the most superficial of relationships.  Plus, it
helped that Bethany had been perfectly nice to them when she'd met
them.  Of course, she hadn't known they were Steele's exes at
the time, but she'd decided it was probably better that way. 
They were just part of the huge group of people living here and she
preferred that they blend into the crowd. 

Besides, she had no energy
to be jealous.  There was too much to see and learn.  Not
only were she and Bailey catching up on the news and culture that
they'd missed while they were being held captive (so many movies to
watch!), but there was plenty to learn about the town as
well.  Vivian, Edith and Lacy, three older ladies who were
best friends and had been kind of holding the position of alpha
female collectively, had taken both Bethany and Bailey under their
wing. Now that Bethany was no longer resisting the idea of being
Steele’s mate, and was willing to talk about holding a ceremony,
she had no problem spending time with them them. And they were a
lot of fun.

There had been feminine
pampering in the form of haircuts, manicures, pedicures, and some
painful waxing at Vivian's salon (their hair done by Vivian
herself, which Edith informed them was a rare treat, since Vivian
rarely cut hair herself anymore), shopping, endless introductions
to the residents, training with Steele's squads, runs with Bailey
to get her used to her shifted form, and learning how to do all
sorts of things they needed for day-to-day life.  Poor Bailey
was even more behind than Bethany; she'd never had the chance to
learn how to cook or do the laundry or all sorts of day to day
activities.  Bethany wasn't much help since she barely
remembered how to do a lot of that either.