She was so close—so close—
“Claire!” Tate snarled, cupping her chin in his hand so gently even as he thrust into her so hard they both slid across the bed. Seeming to swell inside her even more as his hard length suddenly spasmed again and again, Tate roared out something deep and guttural, his face displaying the ecstasy sweeping through him. He kept his eyes open and on hers despite the shudders wracking his body and the cries he didn't bother to rein in.
Just like that, Claire tipped hard over the edge as her own orgasm exploded within her, blasting out hot and sudden and deep. As her entire body lifted up, slamming back against Tate, her climax raced tremors over her entire body. A keening moan wrenched itself from her lips as her nails gripped his back, both holding him close and also holding on as her body bucked with the force of it. She screamed his name, followed by a senseless babble of noise as the entire world seemed to explode into brilliant shards of light and Tate's own glowing eyes capturing hers.
She stayed on the plateau as long as she could, hips quivering and jerking beneath him, feeling solidly filled and held like never before. Slowly, so slowly, the rush of ecstasy gently ebbed away. In its place, a powerful wave of relaxation spread out over her entire body.
Tate finally dropped his head to her shoulder and gently lowered himself onto her, though he stayed inside her. Only their heavy breathing surrounded them for long moments. Claire felt so blissfully relaxed, sated, and secure, she was still aware of nothing else in the world but the sensations gently leaving her body, and the gorgeous man settled on top of her who'd caused them.
Tate mumbled something by her ear, but it was so low she couldn't catch it. “Hmm?” she murmured back, trailing her fingertips along his spine.
Lifting his head a millimeter, he said, “You just about killed me there, darlin'. I'm gonna pass out on you. Sorry to be such a guy.” A small chuckle followed, though it was as as drowsy as his words. One hand managed to stroke the side of her face as he shifted so his weight was more evenly dispersed to the side of her.
Claire laughed softly and wrapped her arms more tightly around him. “Don't worry, me, too. I think,” she whispered, nuzzling his neck, “you just fried my brain. I need to recharge a bit.”
Tate moved his head again so he could look into her eyes. That playful grin teased at his lips. “Recharge so we can go at it again in awhile, I hope?”
“God, yes, please,” she said, smiling at him. Ignoring the tiny, doubtful voice that was beginning to awaken in her pleasure-drunk mind, she pressed her swollen lips against his for a long moment before pulling back to say, “Oh, yes. Very much so.”
***
Tate woke in increments. The intensely satisfied heaviness of his limbs made him smile.
Claire.
Images of her moving over him, under him, arching into his kiss, gasping at his touch, filled his mind. Rolling over, he stretched out an arm, reaching for her soft, supple warmth.
The sheet beside him was cool and empty. Snapping open his eyes, Tate sat bolt upright. Light snuck into the room in the cracks between the drapes and the window. It wasn't super bright, but neither was it the dim glow of dawn. His wolf padded to the forefront of his mind, suddenly alert and upset.
She was gone. Her bags were gone. He was alone in the hotel room.
“Dammit!” The angry curse jumped out of him in an unusual outburst. His wolf whined and paced, tail half lowered.
Tate scrambled out of the bed, almost falling when the top sheet tangled around his legs. Claire's scent was still strong in the room, but he could tell she'd been gone for at least an hour.
“Well, hell,” he muttered. He must have been zonked out hard.
Then again, they'd had a busy night. He couldn't help but smiling as the memory surfaced of the several times they'd woken up and hungrily reached for each other again. He'd never been with such a sensual, sexually assured woman before. She was utterly aware of her body and its needs, and also completely uninhibited in sharing those needs with him. Not to mention answering his own desires.
Maybe that's just what mates did, though.
His wolf turned agitated circles in his mind, searching for Claire. Wondering if he'd scared her off again, or if she'd simply come to her senses in the cold light of morning and realized that mere physical attraction wasn't enough to keep her around, Tate stumbled over to his clothes and reached down to pull on his jeans.
Claire's intoxicating scent wafted up to him from his pile of clothing so strongly it almost overpowered his senses. Grabbing his pants and swinging them up to his nose, he inhaled hard, letting his wolf sniff so he could really find all the nuances.
She had rolled in his clothing. In her wolf form. Scent-marking him as hers.
Waves of hot pleasure rushed through him again as he stood there, nose pressed into his own jeans, covering himself with her scent as well. Oh, Claire wanted him. No doubt about it at all. Not only that, leaving her scent so strongly was a clear message to him as well:
Catch me if you can.
“Bet on it, darlin,'” he murmured to the empty room, a smile breaking over his face as his mood lightened considerably. “I'm coming home to find you.”
For the third time during the long Guardian meeting, Tate found his thoughts drifting off to a gorgeous female wolf he was beginning to get half-desperate to find. In the two weeks since he'd met Claire in Denver, he'd taken what time he could back home between his Guardian duties and horse training sessions to search her out. But so far, every lead had been a dead end.
Starting back in Cortez where he'd first scented her, he tried and failed utterly to make any progress. She definitely didn't live there, which of course she wouldn't because he would have known about her existence. Cortez was close to the western boundary of Black Mesa territory. No Pack members lived there right now, and of course no wolves from any nearby packs would live there either. Wolf territories were highly regulated and enforced.
Just west and south of his pack's lands lay an enormous, sprawling tract of free territory, which meant no wolves had claimed it and any were free to come and go as they pleased. Since it was mostly empty, wild lands, some wolves on occasion hunted out there or simply used all the space for long, solitary runs, but none would call it home. Certain sections of it were, however, in what would become Luke Rawlins's new pack territory, which would strengthen security for Black Mesa wolves.
To the west northwest of Black Mesa lands lay the boundary with the small Abajo Pack, an affiliate pack to the Black Mesa Pack that had been started by the Alpha's sister's son. Tate knew Claire didn't belong to them, but he'd double checked with them anyway. Black Mesa lands extended northward right up to the Silver Mountain Pack, which was also not Claire's pack. Nor was she from the New Mexico pack that touched the southernmost boundary just above Santa Fe.
Then again, she'd clearly told him the first time he'd met her that she was from her own pack. He'd assumed she'd just been throwing him off her trail, but maybe she was serious. He hadn't brought it up in Denver because he picked up on her wariness about the general subject of packs. And, of course, they'd been too busy with a more single-minded pursuit.
Her existence was a fascinating and fast-becoming aggravating mystery. However, he knew the last name on her books, Anderson, was definitely not a shifter name. Unless she'd been raised by wild humans—his wolf chuffed at the play on words—Claire was hiding something.
He'd looked for her online, but all the information he could discover on her merely said she was an up and coming young fiction author, she lived in Colorado, and when he checked with her publisher they wouldn't release any more information on her than that. In the age of rampant social media and excessive navel-gazing, Tate was surprised he could find no traces of her. Of course, he barely went online himself except to update his website with new photos and videos of his clients' horses and where he might be giving a demonstration of his training skills. Quietly, he was pleased to think she might be just as private about her life as he was about his.
“So you'll cover this afternoon's shift with Lily and Kieran, correct, Tate?”
He jolted badly at his Alpha's bland voice. “Yes, sir,” he automatically said, despite not having the slightest clue what had just been discussed. He found a roomful of Guardian eyes on him, everyone seated in chairs in the Alpha's office. There were only nine pack Guardians, with him included in that count. At this particular moment, it felt like an army of a thousand staring at him.
His father raised an eyebrow at him. “And you'll be gathering what information before heading out with them?”
Damn. Well, nothing to do about it but confess he hadn't been remotely aware of the past five minutes of conversation.
“Sorry, sir. I wasn't paying attention.” His voice fell into the stark silence, although he was pretty sure he saw Lily covering a smile. Rafe, of course, frowned.
“Indeed,” his father and alpha said in a dry tone. “I am certain you'll be following my words quite closely this time, of course.”
“Yes, sir,” Tate said again in submissive tones. He focused his entire being on his leader as Black Mesa Pack Alpha Channing Bardou reiterated exactly what Tate was supposed to be doing the rest of the day.
As soon as the interminable meeting was over, Tate slipped into the long hallway outside his father's office and waited for Lily and Kieran. His smart leader of a sister was destined to be a powerful alpha female who one day would lead the Black Mesa Pack with Kieran. For now, though, she was happily a Pack Guardian alongside the others. When his fiery red-headed sister and her equally spirited mate joined him, Kieran shook his head at Tate, although he was grinning.
“Can't be off your game like that today, Tate. Because if you are, I'm going to lose a bet I have with your lovely sister. And since the stakes of this bet are very interesting, I definitely don't want to lose.” Kieran sent a very suggestive look toward Lily, who managed to blush while at the same time awarding her mate a come-hither look.
Tate threw up his hands and took a step back. “I have no interest in knowing the stakes of this wager.” Shifters were very sexual and they were accustomed to that most awesome fact of life. Even so, he didn't want to know or see details about his sister's private time with her mate. He gestured at Lily and said, “Sister here. Way too much information.” He gave a pretend shudder while Lily lightly smacked him. “But I do want to know why you have a bet going on about me?”
Lily laughed, then grabbed Tate's arm and dragged him farther down the hallway, away from the small clump of wolves still in the office talking to Alpha. Kieran followed.
“Because,” Lily said when they were father away, lowering her voice a little, “I am your all-knowing big sister and I have magical powers of perception.”
“Except right now she doesn't really,” Kieran said, “and I decided to call her on it with this bet. Which is part of why I requested you come with us today on patrol.” His tone was mildly triumphant.
“Okay,” Tate said, dragging out the word in bewilderment as he looked from one to the other.
Lily leaned in a little toward him. “Ever since you came back from Denver, you've been distracted, gone a lot, and asking about wolves in other packs. I know exactly what's going on.”
“No,” Kieran broke in, dark eyes sparkling as he slipped a hand around his mate's waist and tugged her close to him, “she's got it all wrong.”
Tate threw his hands up in the air again, this time in surrender, laughing despite his confusion. “I still don't know what either one of you is talking about. You make it sound like I'm involved in espionage or something.”
Lily tucked a red-gold lock behind her ear and gave Tate an earnest look. “It's a woman,” she said at the exact same time Kieran said, “It's a horse.”
All three wolves burst out laughing, drawing quizzical looks from the ones farther down the hall.
In a heartbeat, Tate decided to come clean. Not being able to find Claire was driving him nuts. After two weeks, he was climbing the walls with impatience and frustration. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Claire's face, head thrown back in ecstasy beneath him.
Mine,
his wolf growled, so clearly both Lily and Kieran fell silent and gave him searching looks.
Yes, indeed. His. But he needed help finding the darned enticing woman, and he knew it. Taking a breath to calm his wolf, he nodded at them.
“You both got me. There's a woman. And there's a horse.” He winked at his sister's first excited, then slightly crestfallen expression. “Bunch of horses, of course. New clients are keeping me busy.”
“Aha. So we both win the bet.” Kieran leaned down to nip at Lily's nose before settling a quick kiss on her lips, which turned into something deeper and longer when Lily drew him in closer.
Tate sighed and looked away.
Lily giggled. “Sorry,” she directed at Tate. “I don't like to miss any kisses from this guy. However, I'm very interested in the fact that I was at least partially right! Tell us all. I knew there was a special woman. You're not usually this distracted. In fact,” she went on, narrowing her eyes at her brother, “you're never this much out to lunch.”
Tate snorted good-naturedly. “Since you're both super-sleuths, I'll tell you about it when we go on patrol. And frankly, I'm hoping to hell at this point you can both help me.”
He hadn't yet mentioned Claire to any of the Black Mesa wolves. For some reason, he hadn't been ready to share the knowledge of her existence. Her agile mind and earthy sense of humor; that rich, lingering laugh; the lustrous white-gold hair he couldn't wait to have brushing over his naked skin again; her incredibly clear green eyes; and those lush, fascinating lips were all things he'd been holding close to himself. But if he didn't find her soon, he was half afraid he'd either explode or melt into a puddle of senseless idiocy. That, or his Alpha would really teach him a lesson in paying attention.