Authors: Shelly Laurenston
Okay. Why couldn’t she breathe? He was so close. And he smelled so good. No. This wouldn’t do. She needed to go. Somewhere. Anywhere. Away from him. She needed time to think. To analyze. To plan.
“Last night you told me you loved me.” He did remember her saying that.
“I was asleep.”
“Not too asleep to fuck me.”
“Christ,
Conall
.” She wanted to push him away, but she knew she couldn’t touch his skin. If she touched him, she’d be lost.
“Tell me you don’t care about me, Miki.” He leaned in, his mouth so close. “Tell me and maybe I’ll believe you.”
“I don’t care about you.” That would have been much more convincing if she hadn’t whispered it while staring at his mouth.
His lips were inches from hers. “Liar.” Then he was kissing her. His lips on hers, his tongue sliding into her mouth. His hands tangling in her hair. And immediately her body responded. Her arms went around his neck. Her body pressed into his. And her desire to drop to her knees and take him into her mouth was almost overwhelming.
He pulled back slightly, but his hands were still in her hair and his upper body still had her trapped against the sink. “Stay with me, Miki.”
“I can’t think about this right now.” Panting. She really had to stop panting.
“Then don’t think at all.” His mouth captured hers again and she became wet for him. Nipples became hard. All the usual. She had no control around him. None. When he dropped to his knees, she almost exploded. Why was he doing this to her? She was trying to make it easy on him. Giving him a way out. Why was he torturing her?
Because, idiot, maybe he doesn’t want a way out
. Okay. Exactly when did that new voice make an entrance in her head?
Conall
pulled off her sweatpants and panties and tossed them aside. Then he pushed her legs apart and began to lap at her clit.
“Goddamn it,
Conall
!” He ignored her. What was it
Conridge
had said? If they don’t like what they hear, they just ignore it. And, clearly, that’s what her Viking was doing. But his tongue felt so good. And then he growled. A deep one from low in his chest. It reverberated up and through his tongue, hitting right across her clit and sending Miki spiraling out of control. Nothing, absolutely nothing, had ever felt that good before. She gripped his head in both her hands and held him in place. She loved the feel of his hair against the inside of her thighs. She loved the warmth of his body. She loved the way his hands gripped her ass as he ate her out. She loved all of it. All of him.
The growling, the licking, they all conspired to shove her over the edge. And shove they did. The guttural moan she let out as she climaxed sounded like it was coming from somewhere else. From someone else all together.
While her body was still shaking,
Conall
picked her up and placed her on the sink. Then he was inside her. It seemed she wasn’t the only one out of control. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on as he gripped her hips with his hands and claimed her body. Every time he took her it felt better than the time before.
Her head fell back and
Conall’s
mouth was sucking on her throat. She loved this man. She knew she did. But she was scared to death. She’d always assumed that she’d be alone forever. She’d simply hoped that no matter where Angie and Sara ended up, they’d always have a place for her at Thanksgiving dinner.
But the Viking… He’d marked and mated her without a backward glance. And she’d told him to. She thought that had just been an astounding dream. An astounding
wet
dream. Now she knew it had really happened. Half asleep or not, they’d connected on a level that she never thought existed. Now, according to Sara, she was “his.” And her fast-moving brain just wasn’t ready to handle that.
Of course, that didn’t stop her body from completely exploding as
Conall
slammed into her. She bit into his unwounded shoulder as his hot seed shot into her. That’s when she realized that he wasn’t wearing a condom and that he hadn’t been the night before. Apparently, they were so much a couple now that condoms were optional.
And as soon as her body stopped shaking from her climax, she was going to say something about this.
“Hey,
Conall
. You here?” A male voice. Probably
Dunwich
. He seemed the only one brave enough to deal with
Conall
when he was with her. “Van Holtz got your stuff back from the SUV and the school hallway. A few of the cops handling the case are Pack. So we should be cool.”
Miki tensed up and tried to pull away, but
Conall
wouldn’t let her go. He held her to him as he got his voice back. “Good. Thanks. We’ll be out in a few.”
“Uh… yeah. Sure. Okay.”
Miki rolled her eyes as she heard that amused sound in
Dunwich’s
voice.
Schmuck
.
***
Conall
kissed Miki’s forehead. No way was he letting her go. Now he understood why Zach couldn’t leave Sara alone. Because when you find that right one, you don’t want to let her go. Even when she was a pain in the ass. Of course,
Conall
was willing to overlook Miki’s ability to be a pain in the ass as long as she kept having those orgasms that almost snapped his cock in two.
“We’ll talk about this later, okay? Just don’t make any decisions now.”
“
Conall
…”
“Let’s just get back to the den, okay?”
She wanted to argue. She wanted to tell him this wasn’t right. He could see it on her face. But he wasn’t going to let her. Instead, he’d get her back to the house and then he’d fuck her into submission again and again until she finally got the message that she was his and he was hers. Forever.
Yeah. That worked as a plan.
He pulled out of her and was surprised that she didn’t say anything about his lack of condom. He knew it was no longer necessary, but she still didn’t. And he wasn’t going to say anything about the pregnancy until he convinced her they should be together. He didn’t need anything else freaking her out. He was coaxing a high-strung mare. Scare her off now and she’d high-tail that fine ass right back to Texas. If she were going to accept the fact that she was his, he’d have to play this cool. Well, as cool as he could when just her touch on his shoulder made his whole body throb.
***
He thought the Van Holtz Pack would toss them out as soon as he could walk. Man, had he been wrong. Instead Niles Van Holtz made them all breakfast. The most amazing waffles he’d ever tasted, eggs, bacon, coffee, orange juice, the works. The man was a genius of the kitchen.
He sat next to Miki as she and
Conridge
talked about how the university management had already begun to successfully cover up the hyena attacks by dismissing them as a pack of wild dogs that found their way onto campus and then proceeded to wreck havoc. And the fire Miki started disappeared so fast that it barely got a mention. And no one had any idea what happened to Professor
Leucrotta
.
Conall
forced himself not to react when he heard about the man’s knees, although his Pack seemed to be quietly disturbed.
It seemed that she had done serious damage. To protect him. To protect his Pack. He just kept thinking, “She didn’t walk away. She didn’t walk away.” And she could have. She so easily could have.
He looked at his Pack. They all feared her. Even the Van Holtz Pack. And now that they knew she was pregnant, they were waiting to see what she would do if she realized. Even Niles Van Holtz kept looking at him as if to say, “Welcome to my world, buddy.”
As if on cue,
Conridge’s
kids stormed into the room. The boys were typical wolf pups. Loud, boisterous, with sharp teeth. The girl was different. She didn’t seem more than twelve or thirteen, but she moved slowly. Paced herself. She wasn’t dog-like at all, but she smelled like wolf. She would be Pack leader one day. And she already knew it.
She walked serenely after her brothers and headed toward the kitchen door leading to the hallway. But suddenly she stopped and looked straight at Miki.
“You weren’t pregnant last night, were you?”
The entire room of people froze. If
Conall
didn’t know better, he would have sworn that the entire universe had frozen. That, like them, the universe wanted to see what Miki would do.
Miki slowly looked up and turned to the girl. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You. You smell pregnant. Papa taught me what that was when I smelled that same scent on my aunt. You didn’t smell like that last night. But you do now.” The girl shrugged. “I guess you had a busy night.” Then, after destroying his entire world, the little bitch left.
Miki turned around, but kept her head down, her hands flat on the stainless steel kitchen table. She began to tap both her forefingers against the metal and
Conall
watched all the wolves jump.
Dunwich
waved at him, trying to catch his attention. Then he mouthed something to him.
“What?” He mouthed back.
Dunwich
held up his hand. Forefinger out. Thumb up. The other fingers bent into the palm. His hand looked just like a gun.
Oh, shit.
Conall
glanced over at Miki and that’s when he saw the gun in a holster and attached to her waistband. He didn’t even notice her putting it on as they got dressed.
Conridge
must have let her keep one for the ride back.
And when Miki suddenly hit the table with her hands, every wolf but him and Van Holtz hit the floor.
Miki pushed her chair back. She looked at
Conall
. “I’m going to the bathroom. Then we are leaving.”
“Miki, I…”
“No. There’s nothing to say right now. And I mean
nothing
.” Miki looked at
Conridge
. “Thank you for everything, Dr.
Conridge
.”
“Anytime. Of course, when we take on a clan of hyenas together, I’m pretty sure you can start calling me Irene.”
“Thank you Irene. I’ll call you tomorrow about your job offer.”
“That’s fine.”
She looked at Van Holtz. “Thank you for everything. I truly appreciate your hospitality.” Simply from the expression on the man’s face,
Conall
got the feeling Van Holtz would be retelling this story until the end of time. “You are more than welcome.”
Miki looked around the table and realized that all the wolves had disappeared. She leaned down and looked under the table. Twelve wolves laid out on the floor for no apparent reason…that didn’t seem to distract her one bit. “I just wanted to thank all of you for helping us.”
“You’re welcome,” one of the Van Holtz wolves was brave enough to say. With that, Miki stood up and walked out of the room.
Conall
closed his eyes. Like his fever from the night before, he was pretty sure this would have to get worse before it would get better.
Conridge
leaned across the table and touched
Conall’s
arm. “I wouldn’t worry.” She motioned toward her husband. “I stabbed him in the leg and set his Mercedes on fire before I agreed to marry him. So she just needs time.”
Conall
frowned. “Uh… thank you?”
***
Miki said nothing during the whole thirteen-hour trip that
Conall
and the Pack turned into a ten-hour trip by doing some seriously illegal speeding and keeping the bathroom and food breaks to a minimum. But really, what the fuck was she supposed to say?
The borrowed SUVs the Van Holtz Pack lent them, pulled up in front of Sara and Zach’s place. The Alpha pair already outside, since one of the Pack called ahead.
Miki got out of the vehicle. She was barefoot because she couldn’t bring herself to wear Doc Marten boots with sweatpants. She wasn’t a fashion maven, but that was too tacky for words. She limped slowly toward Sara, her calf tender but already healing. Her friend’s eyes locked with hers as she pulled away from Zach. Sara knew something was wrong. The friends always knew when something was seriously wrong with one of them without any of them having to say a single word.
As she reached Sara,
Conall
walked past her. He didn’t speak, just went into the house. Zach followed after him.
“Your leg?”
“It’ll be fine.”
Sara stared at her. “What the hell’s going on?” Miki glanced back at the Pack members behind her. Sara motioned toward the house with her head. “Go.” And they did. Once they were gone, Sara turned back to her. “Okay, dude. What’s up?” Miki looked at her oldest and dearest friend and burst into tears.
***
Conall
had just punched a hole in the wall when Zach walked in. He closed the door and stood behind him. Leaning his head against the wall,
Conall
closed his eyes. “She’s pregnant.”
“I know. I could smell it a mile away.”
“She won’t stay here.”
“She has to. Pregnant with a Pack baby? She’ll have every Pride member in North America gunning for her ass. And who the fuck knows what’s going on with that Clan. Besides, you marked her. She’s yours.”