Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
I stare at him, dumbfounded. I’ve never had anyone take such care with me. It makes me want to weep. When I don’t answer, he sweeps me up into his arms, picks up my clothes from the ground where I left them, and carries me inside.
The Denver pack alpha dropped us off this evening, opening the door with a code Mark had given him. He told us to make ourselves at home, but I didn’t feel comfortable putting the kids in a bed until Mark was here to tell us where to go.
My pups are both asleep on couches in the living room, but Jayden, my nine-year-old, stirs at the sound of us coming in, and I stiffen.
Mark immediately lowers me to my feet, obviously understanding that I wouldn’t want Jayden to see us that way.
The delirium of our stolen moment is gone, and the more familiar sense of urgency and fear creeps back in. I quickly yank on my clothes.
Mark picks up Angie, my six-year-old. She whimpers in her sleep, but her head falls heavy onto his shoulder. “I’ll carry her upstairs,” he tells me.
But there’s no way Jayden would allow himself to be carried. His life has been as hard as mine has. I gently wake him. “Time to go to bed, buddy,” I say quietly. “Come on.”
He rolls swiftly to his feet, blinking and alert. My little warrior, always trying to protect me or his little sister.
On the way up the stairs, I catch sight of my reflection in a framed mirror and stop to stare. I look younger than I did yesterday—by at least five years. More my actual age. My skin, which had grown sallow and pale from the stress, glows in the lamplight. I touch the place in my mouth where I’m missing two teeth. Dirk knocked them out the day I left him, and they haven’t grown back. My natural shifter healing abilities became suppressed as a result of the mental and emotional trauma he kept me in.
My gums ache now, and I feel the sharp edge of new teeth coming through.
I let out my breath in a puff of surprise. One orgasm was all it took.
One orgasm on the tongue of my mate, and I began to heal.
It seems too good to be true, but that’s because it is.
I can’t let Mark Ruhl claim me, no matter how he makes my body sing.
I would never endanger his life that way.
Mark
I don’t ever want the taste of Colleen to leave my tongue. Satisfying my mate is my new mission in life. I don’t know where that daddy thing came from—the kinky words just slipped from my lips as I was licking into her, but it felt right. As an alpha wolf, I’ve always been the dominant, but this is the first time I want to shelter and care for a woman. To spoil her and make sure she knows how cherished she is.
That she’s mine. All mine.
But she’s not ready for that... yet. Right now she’s in survival mode, so I need to make her feel safe and protected.
I lead them upstairs and push open the door to the guest room. I don’t turn on the light, so I don’t disturb the sleeping pup. “The three of you can stay in this room, unless—”
“This will be fine,” she says quickly, scooting past me to pull down the covers to the bed. I lay the little girl down in the middle, and she sighs and rolls over. The boy crawls in beside his sister and closes his eyes.
I’m not sure how I’ll make it through the night with her unclaimed and under my roof, but I have to. She needs to feel safe.
I will clean out my office and turn it into a room for the kids right away, so they don’t feel like guests in my house. I want them to know that this is their home now. To a human, it might seem nuts that I’m willing to rearrange my life for three people I just met, but for a wolf, there’s no question. I’ve gone forty years thinking it unlikely I’d ever find my fated mate. I went to shifter games when I was in my twenties, as was expected, but when my alpha asked me to serve as a council enforcer, I stopped looking.
I go to the linen closet and pull out a stack of towels which I bring to Colleen. “The bathroom’s right there. I think I have a few unopened toothbrushes in the top right drawer.”
“Thank you.” She doesn’t look at me as she tucks the children into the bed.
She needs quiet and privacy, but I can’t make myself leave the doorway. I want to pull her into my arms and soothe away the pinched worry that’s returned to her face.