Moments In Time: A Collection of Short Fiction (14 page)

Shayanne gave herself a mental pat on the back as Grey’s jaw dropped in shock. No one spoke to an alpha with anything less than respect. Not even his own mother. Especially not his mate.

“It wasn’t just the sex,” he gritted out. “I wanted pups. A family. I wanted a son to pass my title to.”

Oh, boo-freaking-hoo.

“Maybe you should have picked a more willing participant then!” she shot back. “Not a little girl who had been dreaming about the day she could leave pack life.”

“You were eighteen,” he said defensively. “And you pretended to submit. It wasn’t my fault.”

“Look,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s how things are done in pack life, I get that. But I’m not pack, not anymore. I like my life, I like the people in it. I don’t want to be with a wolf or have pups. I want nothing to do with wolves ever again.”

Shayanne took one look at Grey and shut her mouth. He was so close to shifting. The scent of his wolf had filled the entire restaurant to a stifling degree. If this kept up, the restaurant would be torn to shreds within seconds. So she tried a different tactic.

“Grey,” she said softly. “I’m sorry. But I can’t go with you. You know we won’t be happy together. I won’t submit to you, I won’t listen to you, and all you’ve ever wanted was a bitch who’ll submit, right? Bear you pups until her womb collapses? That isn’t me. You already know that.”

His lips pressed into a thin line and he said nothing. She blew out a breath of relief.

“Good-bye,” she said, standing up from her seat, praying her shaking legs wouldn’t give out. “I’m going to go back to my life now.”

• • •

Grey followed her out of the restaurant, internally groaning as he watched her walk down the street, headed back toward work. She was so fucking hot. So different from the girl he’d mated. All curves and sensuality and an in-depth knowledge of herself. She was comfortable in her own skin in a time when not many females were, wolf or human. She was strong and brave, and did he mention hot? He’d smelled her fear. Hell, she was so terrified of him, he could smell her fear, but she never showed it. If he weren’t a wolf, he wouldn’t have had a clue.

“It’s her, right?” Dase asked, walking up next to him.

“Yeah.”

“So why isn’t she tied up in the backseat right now with you going balls-deep?”

He grimaced. He really needed to fuck her, but it would have to wait. What was another few weeks after going eight long years?

“Change of plans,” he growled, watching the male he’d seen her with earlier leave the building Shayanne had just entered. The male he’d smelled all over her. The male she’d used to satisfy her mating heat. The male he was going to tear to pieces.

“What?” Dase asked, following his gaze. “Is that lunch?”

With narrowed eyes, Grey watched the human male continue on down the sidewalk, studying him, the fluid way he moved—too fluid. Letting his eyes go wolf, expanding his senses, he took a large inhale of air. Arrogance.

The human was so full of himself, so self-assured, that his ego had seeped into his very aura, permeating the air all around him. This was what Shayanne wanted? This .
 . . this . . . human? Jealousy, a bitter and unfamiliar feeling, flooded him. Suddenly, the need to kill the male was overpowering, suffocating even. But Grey managed to battle back the baser urges of his wolf. This wasn’t his world; this was the human world, Shayanne’s world, and if it was Shayanne he meant to obtain, he would have to play by her rules. At least for the time being.

“I can’t kill him,” Grey said to Dase. “She would never forgive me and I need her. I can’t go another eight years without a female.”

His beta snorted. “You should probably stick to the original plan. You know, the fucking and the killing. No way is that bitch going to willingly be your female. Besides, why the hell would anyone want a mate who won’t submit to them?”

“Because she’s my mate,” Grey growled. “And I can’t kill her. I knew that the second I saw her.”

It had been instantaneous—the need to not only bed her and fill her with his seed, but to care for her, to protect her, and to maybe even . . . love her? He had heard about mated pairs becoming instantly devoted to each other, seen it even, but he’d never been able to fathom it. Not until he’d planned on killing Shayanne. Then he took one look into her big brown eyes that should have been blue, and he knew he’d never be able to touch her with the intent of hurting her.

That left him only one option. He had to make his mate like him. Make her want to come home with him. And if that didn’t work, he’d wait until the next full moon, snatch her while she was in heat, and fuck her senseless all the way home, where he’d promptly tie her up and keep her forever.

Either way, he had a plan.

• • •

Shayanne didn’t see either Grey or his cronies for almost an entire month, but she wasn’t dumb enough to think he’d just up and left. He was planning something; he had to be. Only she couldn’t be sure what exactly. It consumed her thoughts, made it hard to focus on anything other than the impending doom she sensed was coming.

Her only reprieve from constantly thinking of Grey came with the first stirrings of moon heat. She couldn’t very well do what she’d been doing to satisfy her wolf’s sexual needs, not with the threat of Grey and his pack looming over her. Any human she took to bed would be killed if found with her. And by now, every wolf in the country would have been informed of her existence and whereabouts. Any male wolf who wished to keep his life would run from her, not wishing to be killed for being with the mate of an alpha.

Realizing there was nothing she could do, she decided to wait it out instead. Using several days of her accrued vacation time, she holed herself up in her apartment, armed with liquor, ready to spend her mating heat in pain, miserable and alone.

The night before the full moon, the fervor in her belly ever present and rising, she’d just settled on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a cheesy movie in hopes of distracting herself when the doorbell rang.

Shuffling toward the door, she pressed the intercom. “Who is it?”

“Grey,” was the gruff reply.

When she recovered from her mini heart attack, she cleared her throat. “How can I help you?”

“You can let me in.”

“Sorry. I’m busy.”

“Female,” he growled. “I will tear this fucking door off its hinges and then I will break the neck of anyone who tries to stop me from getting to you.”

She swallowed hard. She knew he was capable of it and if he was crazy enough, he probably would.

She slapped her hand down over the buzzer and unwillingly let him in. When the elevator dinged, signaling his arrival on her floor, she was such a sweaty, shaking mess of flesh that her hand slid off the doorknob when she tried to turn it.

Wiping her hands off on her pajama shorts, she tried again. This time it turned, but not by her hand. Grey pushed the door open, closed it behind him, and turned the lock. The audible click sounded ten times louder than it should have. Like a jail cell door closing . . . or the blade of a guillotine dropping.

Pushing her out of his way, he walked into her apartment like he owned the place.

Pausing in his survey, he gave her a once-over and grimaced. “The Smurfs?” He was referring to her matching pajama tank and boxers with the faces of the popular television cartoon characters all over them.

“Sorry they don’t have dog bones all over them,” she snapped.

Was that a smile she saw? It was hard to tell. A snarl, maybe?

“What do you want, Grey?”

His eyes went wolf and the muscles under his shirt bunched. He looked as if he were waging an internal battle. To snatch the girl or not to snatch the girl. Or worse, to kill the girl or not kill the girl. She desperately hoped it was the latter. Or better yet, that he was simply here to borrow a cup of sugar.

“What is that doctor to you?” he ground out. “Your boyfriend?”

The question took her by surprise and she laughed. Probably a bad idea, but Nic . . . her boyfriend? She’d barely known him when she’d taken him home with her and had a weekend of uninhibited, crazy monkey sex. Now, she was embarrassed by him and did her best to avoid him at all costs.

“No,” she said, trying to smother her laugh with a cough. “I used him for mating heat, that’s all.”

“Why are you able to do that?” he ground out.

She watched him, wincing slightly. If he didn’t unclench his teeth soon, he might break one.

Shrugging, Shayanne tried to appear nonchalant when she felt anything but. “My human side, I guess. You’re all wolf, a wolf who can appear human, whereas I’m both. I can feel my wolf inside me, but she doesn’t rule me.”

Her answer seemed to placate Grey, but only momentarily.

“Does . . . she want me?” Yellow eyes dared her to answer.

She took a deep breath. He had planned this, that much was clear. It was exactly twenty-four hours before her mating heat would begin, and if she could already feel the need stirring inside her, then as her mate, so could Grey.

She could lie, but honestly, looking at him now, all big and bad and utterly alpha, standing in her apartment, purposely making himself vulnerable to her answer . . . she couldn’t. She’d never admit it out loud, but she did want him—or rather, her wolf wanted him. Her mating heat left her vulnerable to any male, especially a male wolf, and if that wolf just so happened to be an alpha she was doubly screwed. Pun intended.

“Yes,” she said softly, wishing it weren’t true. “You’re not only a wolf but an alpha. All bitches want an alpha once they begin their mating cycle.”

He took a very deliberate step toward her and she quickly took a step backward.

“Is this what you came here for, Grey? To fuck me?” Her anxiety was no match for her false bravado, and the quiver in her voice was as clear as day.

Showing fear to a wolf equaled submission, and Grey took her response as such. His fangs dropped and a low, rumbling growl erupted from deep within his chest, a sound she felt all the way to the core of her, a sound she instinctively knew her mate would only ever make for her. Glancing around the room, she sought out places to hide, even knowing no simple piece of furniture would stop a male wolf from taking his female.

As if he could sense she was readying to run, he took several deep breaths before answering, in an attempt to stop his shift.

“No, I didn’t,” he bit out. “But it’s been eight years, Shayanne, and ninety-six fucking unbearable mating cycles. Being this close to you and not taking you is
hard
.”

She winced, feeling guilty. It was one thing to be unable to have sex for eight years, but to feel your mate’s heat for three days every month, the need to be with her greater than the need to breathe, and not be able to do anything about it? That really did suck.

“But . . . I . . . didn’t . . . come here . . . for mating,” he growled, the throaty words garbled, barely audible.

“Then why?” she whispered, trembling. “If you didn’t .
 . .”

She trailed off as he began advancing on her again, shifting as he walked. Thick black fur sprouted up and down his arms and over his cheeks. His eyes, ears, and teeth had all gone wolf. He looked a lot like she did when fully shifted, like a werewolf, only bigger than she would ever be and scarier and much more hairy. Backing away, she held her hands out in front of her, but still he continued coming toward her until she’d run out of room and backed right into a wall.

His muscles rippled as he shook violently, trying to fight the change. “Because,” he rasped. “I . . . am . . . yours.”

Shayanne sucked in a sharp breath. That was the last thing she’d expected him to say and hearing it, her wolf went belly down, ass up, silently begging her alpha to take her.

“Okay,” she whispered breathlessly, her mind spinning to find a happy solution for the both of them, which would hopefully result in Grey leaving as soon as possible.

“Okay,” she repeated after taking a calming breath. “We can do this, you can come to me during mating heat. We’ll fuck and then you’ll leave, go back to your pack, and I’ll still have my life here. I think that’s fair, right?”

His nostrils began flaring rapidly, his chest rising and falling with heavy, angry breaths. He wasn’t happy, but unless he wanted to tie her up and drag her back to his pack lands kicking and screaming—and she
would
kick and scream—he didn’t have another option.

“I can’t,” he growled hoarsely. “I can’t .
 . . I’ll hurt you . . . you have to . . .”

His honesty was humbling and her heart went out to him. Mustering up the courage, she stepped forward and tentatively reached for his jeans. The moment she touched his denim-covered erection, he jerked and snarled, and she jumped back. She shouldn’t have offered; Grey Nash hadn’t been with a female in almost a decade and was damn near feral because of it.

“I’m just trying to help,” she whispered.

His fists clenched. “Then fucking help,” he bit out. She knew he hated this, her having any sort of power over him. For an alpha male, this was a very serious blow to his ego.

Taking a deep breath, she dropped to her knees, quickly opened his belt, and unzipped his jeans. Pulling down both his jeans and boxers, she freed him. Glancing up, she found Grey staring down at her, still trembling.