I kept walking until I found what I was looking for. Clothes. Three piles of them. Two were sitting next to each other, and one was a ways off. The lonesome pile was perched atop a pair of well-worn cowboy boots. I picked up Craig’s things, and walked back toward the house.
Sure it was a little mean, but I had to solidify where we stood with this whole mate bite thing. I was going to be vulnerable in this conversation, and thanks to a few stolen clothes, so was he.
I stood against the van with my hands wrapped in the clothes for quite a while. I slipped my feet in his cowboy boots before I walked back across the driveway gravel. Most of the stones had rounded edges but I still got a poke every once in a while. Besides, I liked the feel of slipping into his signature piece of clothing.
I heard the arguing before I even saw them. I couldn’t understand the words, but there was a lot of growling and some laughter that I was sure was coming from Amber. There was a twinge of jealousy at the thought of my best friend seeing my man naked, but it was fair turnabout since I had ogled her dad’s butt.
Amber and Jake came stumbling from the woods grinning. They weren’t looking at me, though, only at each other. They always looked so calm, so serene, when they returned from a shift. Would I look like that too?
I think wherever we ended up as a Clan there would have to be a significant amount of land involved. This made them happy. I told Amber when we first left that I had seen babies in her future. I meant it too. With the love they had for each other, the vision I had of a small bald baby in her arms wouldn’t be far off. I wanted what they had. With my new found strength as a witch, and a member of the Clan, I didn’t feel as vulnerable as I used to.
Deep down, I suppose I knew turning furry was in my future. But with Craig marking me, even if I now understood why, I wasn’t so sure he was the type of guy I would turn hairy for. Craig had always left me breathless, even when I thought he was human. But now as Amber and Jake called to him and told him they found his clothes, I had doubts. Wolves and vampires have to learn to act differently to fit in with the human world. Did he change more than his speed and strength? I had to find out how much I really knew about this guy. I needed some truth. I felt like I finally had mine. Now I wanted his.
One thing was for sure. He was still just as sexy when he was pissed off.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Craig
I really hated it when someone got the drop on me. Having it be a sexy little human didn’t make it any easier. Mary stood there holding my jeans and tee against her chest. She covered her cleavage with the fabric as if I didn’t have every curve memorized.
Her breathing changed as I got closer. Maybe she thought taking my clothes would leave me unnerved. Didn’t she know anything about wolf culture yet? So instead of walking up and taking my clothes, I waited until Amber and Jake disappeared inside.
I’d stopped a few feet from Mary, spread my legs and crossed my arms over my chest. Her eyes wandered over my body and her mouth fell open. Yup. Every part of me felt like this was a good idea.
Damn, she looked sexy in my cowboy boots. I’d have to get her a pair of her own. Something in a light brown, or maybe she could just wear mine for now. If I couldn’t get her jeans off easily over them, I would rip the damn things off. I felt my cock jump at the thought of Mary naked against the van with the sun on our backs wearing my cowboy boots.
“That’s not why I took your clothes.”
I heard her heart begin to pound, and her scent ripened.
“We all have to pay for the consequences of our actions.” I wanted to help her settle her debt.
The glare she flashed me told me she was still angry with me.
I plead my case. “Mary, I should have asked, or let you know more about what was happening. But sometimes instinct takes over. You talked about wanting to change when we were coming here, remember? I thought, now that you’ve chosen me, it was a given. But the ball is in your court.”
She let out a breath. “You’re the one with the balls, and it makes it really hard to have a serious conversation when I can see them.”
I loved being naked in the sunshine, and if using that to influence this conversation makes me immature, then so be it. But her talking about my body and things being hard, let’s just say I could concentrate, but not on what she was saying. “You took my clothes.”
“I wanted your attention.” Her words were slow and her eyes dipped down again.
“Part of me is definitely standing at attention.” The more she looked at me, the more I wanted to settle this issue horizontally.
“I can see that. Oh.”
Her breathy sigh shot down my body and straight to my cock. The little “o” her mouth formed surrounded by those plump lips and soft body did it. She could have been talking about Pythagorean theorems, but flashes of her body shaking with orgasm wouldn’t leave my vision.
“Why does my neck itch?” she asked while her hand scratched at her skin.
“Huh?”
She smiled. “We aren’t going to have a real conversation right now, are we?”
“Not unless it involves the words ‘harder’ ‘faster’ or various other demands I can fulfill.” I said this while trying to figure out where to rip the clothing from her body first. Her scent was eroding what little leash I had on my wolf.
She threw me my clothes and scratched her neck. I didn’t catch them…well, not exactly. I managed to catch my shirt, but not with my hands. I stood there like a towel rack for a moment, because my brain couldn’t grasp why she was turning to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Her neck was itching? She had to be reacting to what would become her matemark after transition. How could she just walk away? Was this a human thing that allowed her control with all the mating pheromones dancing around us?
“I am not having sex right now.”
“I can have it for the both of us if you just stay here.” I growled as I pulled the shirt off my dick. The rubbing nearly had me attacking my mate.
“As tempting and romantic as that is…we need to talk first. Kari’s being bled out. I saw it. I want you, or at least my body does, but my head’s not there yet.”
Head, Mary, giving head.
“Ugh. I’ll see you inside.”
“Hey!” I called after her, but she didn’t turn around. I threw my pants on and bent at the waist to tuck in what would be a heavy set of blue balls. I would have finished dressing, but I was burning up, and felt no need to put on the shirt.
Mary called back to me. “By the way, I like your boots. I think I need a pair.” She was up on the porch now, but her arousal still smacked into me.
It looked like I was destined to walk into this house with an unused erection. But at least my mate was talking to me.
Jake, Amber and Mary were gathered around what I was ready to dub the war room. Kari’s dining room table was burned, stabbed, and dirty, and we owed the woman some serious furniture. And rent. A couple of the witches had taken a cab into town for supplies. The rest were having some kind of wild herb harvest in the forest.
And as much as my dick didn’t want to admit it, we owed Kari our time to save her freaking life. Mary was telling us about her vision. My body was cold with how real the draining had been for her. The thought of her on that table was more than I could handle. Changing her into a wolf became more important than ever. She needed to be less breakable.
“We all know we need to head back to Indiana,” I said. “We know my mother is there, and she has been made into some kind of slave for the Matheo. Jake, we may have to kill both of our parents, are you ready for that?” I was trying to separate myself from the woman who gave birth to me, but this wouldn’t be easy.
“Y’all are no Brady Bunch.” Even sodas couldn’t keep Amber’s mouth occupied. “I guess it would be more like the Addams Family.” She hummed the theme song and snapped her fingers twice.
“Amber…” Jake groaned.
“I know this is serious, but damn, we need to crack some jokes in here. If I can’t snark I’m not really living.”
“Aren’t you technically dead?” She flipped me off and I had to smile. I cleared my throat before broaching the next subject. “There is one more thing we need to talk about. Mary’s transition.”
Mary sputtered and choked on her diet cola.
Amber cut in. “You can’t make her do something she isn’t ready for.” I knew she was just doing this to play good cop. Amber wanted Mary turned as much as I did.
Jake chimed in “Craig, this might not be the time to have this discussion.”
Guess I was the only bad cop. “Jake, I accept you and Amber as my Alphas, but she is mine and unless you are getting into bed with us, back off. I am her mate. I am the male and I will make the decisions that need to be made here.”
Amber rose with righteous indignation and supreme bitch attitude, but Jake shook his head. Amber backed down. I held my tongue, because there was a lot of angry female across the table from me.
It took Jake repeating what I just said to let her know it was true. “They are mated. Like it or not, they need to work this out on their own. Let us hope he uses different phrasing next time, but it is a good idea to do it here before we jump back into the frying pan.”
I turned to my mate and watched her fidget with a patch of the old lace cloth we hadn’t ruined yet. None of us moved. We were all waiting for her. Eventually Mary looked from Amber to Jake and finally to me.
“So you are all saying I should just be a good little woman, do as I’m told?”
This was not going the way I planned. I pulled my shirt back on as cold reality hit me. What would I do if she didn’t agree?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mary
Craig was stronger than me, but I’d already seen he wouldn’t force himself on me. Despite every nerve in my body demanding I hump the man into oblivion, I had walked away and he let me. I knew from Amber there would never be another woman for Craig as long as he lived, and werewolves lived a long time. A couple of centuries without nookie was a powerful motivator. So I did have a little pull, and that was just the sex part. There was also the fact that I could make his head pop.
Craig had started planning how I would turn into a werewolf. I had other ideas and it was about damn time he listened.
“Stop making plans for me. I call the shots with this or I walk.”
Craig dropped his head on the table with a heavy thwack. “You have to turn. You are not ending up on a table like in your dream. You won’t get bled out for vampire snacks if we change you. That’s all I’m saying. I fucking love you and don’t want you to die,” he mumbled against the lace.
“I can still die as a werewolf.” I softened my voice a bit. When a guy says he loves you, it’s a bit easier to forgive him for being an overbearing ass.
“I know, but the son of a bitch who tried would have to work a lot harder at it. I’d be surprised if there isn’t some wolf in you. I have never seen a human who felt her matemark before she was turned.” He raised his head. “You have a bit of wolf stubbornness in you too.”
That was an interesting thought. I didn’t know my parents, so who knows for sure, but…“I thought hybrids were rare.”
“Vampire and werewolf hybrids are. Both sects are steeped in tradition and secrecy. But humans have been getting the big bang from werewolves for ages. We are very compatible sexually. The vast majority of the time a pregnancy wouldn’t develop, but every once in a while a little furbaby would sneak in there.” He raised his head to let that little nugget dance out at me.
It would have been nice to have that information before we were dancing naked by the fire.
“You are so wearing a condom next time.” If those even worked on wolves.
“Wouldn’t matter. Something in our semen usually breaks through the thin condom material anyway.” Even Amber looked like the super-sperm thing was news to her.
“Well, someone could make a killing if they designed a condom that would work for wolves, but before we get really off topic. I agree I should be turned before we head back to Indiana.” Resolve settled over me. Even though I was nervous, I was ready to move forward. “The trip should give me enough time to adjust before we get back. Right?”
Craig’s golden eyes started to glow. When he spoke again, it wasn’t light-hearted banter anymore. “You mean to tell me you have been wanting to be turned this whole time?” he growled. “Why have you been making me crazy with this?”
“Because you don’t get to make decisions for me. Neither does anybody else for that matter. Mate or not, I am a person, not a possession. If I let someone drain my blood and make life or death decisions for me, that wouldn’t make getting turned much better than getting harvested, now would it?” I was very proud of myself for taking a stand. Too bad I wasn’t the only one standing.
I watched him struggle with his control. Then he shook his head and stood. His thick hand wrapped around my upper arm. There wasn’t enough pressure to leave a bruise, but I was not getting out of his grip. We moved through the kitchen and went straight out the door down to the van where I’d stood waiting for Craig to come out of the woods. There were people all over the place, but the van blocked us from view of the house.