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  "We are." He pulls a blanket off the back of the sofa and wraps it around his waist.

  I avert my eyes. "All of you?"

  "All twenty-four of us, yes."

  "Is it just wolves? Like if I find a squirrel on the property, is that a Rule, too?" My mind is in overdrive. Are all the animals I’ve ever come in contact with shifters? What about flies? Or spiders? I cover my mouth in horror. How many people have I squashed underneath the heel of my shoe?

  The corner of his mouth lifts. "No squirrels. Not as far as I know of. The only shifters that exist are those that are, uh, well, wolves, big cats, bears." He pauses and scratches the back of his head.

  "Predators?" I make an educated guess.

  "And humans are the biggest predators of us all." He reaches over and swipes a finger across my chin.

  I shiver. Yes, humans are filled with some of the worst ideas and instincts. If I were a shifter, I wouldn’t be afraid of Cody. I’d turn into a giant wolf and claw his heart out. Wouldn’t that be a sick surprise? He’d be like Red Riding Hood and I’d be the Big Bad Wolf who ate his heart. "Can anyone be a shifter?" I ask.

  "No. Not that I know of. It’s hereditary."

  "Besides the whole shifting thing, do you get anything else? Like do you live forever? Are you tied to the moon?" My eyes shoot to my hairline as a thought occurs to me. "Was that you out there in the woods howling?"

  A slight pink tinge at the top of his cheeks are a dead giveaway, but he answers in a cool tone. "I am stronger than a human, but no, we do not live longer. Our life span is generally the same. We can heal some wounds by shifting, but not all." He points to his eyes. "In the fire that killed my parents, my eyes were singed by the smoke and never recovered." He turns slightly and I see a web of scars on his back. "I received these from fights with my packmates."

  I clap a hand against my mouth and gasp. "Holy shit. Those look painful."

  "Scars are marks of a victory. You got hurt but you survived." He looks pointedly at my chin.

  A victory? I’d never seen it that way. I’ve always felt like I’d been a sucker—falling for Cody, letting him use me, and then reducing me to a penniless beggar who had to agree to a marriage with a stranger. I reach toward him. "May I?" I ask, gesturing toward his back.

  He lowers himself onto the sofa and sits quietly while I trace a finger over a set of three claw marks on his lower back. His muscles bunch under his skin and goosebumps dot the surface. I can hear his breath catch and then release in a harsh rush. I curl my fingers into my palm, full of amazement.

  Cody could barely suffer my hand on his arm. He told me once I was too fat and ugly for him to be turned on, but Edon is aroused by the slightest touch.

  The encounter with Ronnie was random, the decision to accept a marriage proposal with a stranger was a risk, but sitting here in the middle of the night with the big man at my side seems completely right.

  "What now?" I ask softly.

  "Now I’ll go and kill Cody and you can return to your regular life."

  I grab his wrist. "I don’t want you to kill Cody! You’ll go to prison."

  Edon gives me a look that says I shouldn’t say such nonsensical things. As a wolf, he’d be able to disguise the killing. Still, I don’t want Edon to take someone’s life on my behalf or put himself in danger.

  I am comforted by the fact that every one of Edon’s people would be able to fight Cody with ease—even the women like Aunt Steph and Ronnie. But…can wolves stop bullets?

  "Cody would have a gun," I add.

  "He wouldn’t be able to hit us. We would be too fast for him. His throat would be open before he could chamber a bullet," Edon says bluntly.

  "That’s good." And it is.

  "Let me take care of Cody. I don’t like that you’re here with me because I was the only option you have in life."

  I wince. "When you put it like that, it sounds terrible."

  "But isn’t it the truth? You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the threat on your life."

  "Yes, but marriage can be between two people who respect each other. There doesn’t need to be love. Love complicates things. And frankly, business contracts last longer than most marriages. What’s wrong with a marriage deal like this? You agreed to it." A concern pops into my head. "But I’m not a shifter. Is that a problem? Aren’t we biologically different? How can we—" I gesture between us. "How can a human and a shifter be a couple?"

  "In human form, there is no problem having sex, if that’s what you’re asking."

  Now I’m the one blushing. "I was asking," I admit. From what I saw by the light of the fire before Edon covered himself with a blanket, his body is completely human. Even his thick penis looked the same—albeit longer and larger than I’d ever encountered either in real life or in pictures. "So you and I could sleep together and it would be the same as with any other person?"

  He hesitates, clearly weighing his words. "No," he says finally. "When a shifter finds his true mate, there’s a…mechanism that locks them together. It’s to help the mate bond solidify and impregnate the female."

  I have so many questions. Mechanism? True mate? Mate bond? I ask the most important one. "Does any of this hurt?"

  "When your parents passed, did you feel pain? When you discovered you were betrayed by this other man, did you hurt?"

  "Yes." I press a hand against my heart, remembering the way it ached when I was twenty and lost both my parents, just like Edon. "But I was angrier when I learned what Cody did. I guess I didn’t love him." I blink at Edon in surprise at this revelation. Losing a loved one is agonizing. Cody’s actions filled me with turmoil, but of a different kind—a certain self-loathing that I could be taken in like I was.

  "It’s like that for us, too. If we lose a true mate, the pain is often too great to overcome. My mother chose to die with my father rather than live apart. I would make the same choice." He looks me in the eye, his silver-gray eyes serious and grave. "I won’t have a marriage without love."

  A lump forms in my stomach. "You’re saying I should leave."

  "You don’t believe in love,” is his simple reply.

  His unemotional response irks me. Doesn’t he want me to stay? Doesn’t he care? It’s suddenly vitally important that he cares.

  "I didn’t believe in shapeshifters a half an hour ago either. Give a girl time to adjust," I retort angrily.

  He cocks his head, trying to read me. “How long will you need?”

  “I don’t know. A week?” A few days? I feel like I’m halfway there already. This special place has caught hold of me. I like Edon’s people. I like Edon’s home. Most of all, I like Edon.

  “Let’s sleep on it and we’ll discuss the matter in the morning.”

  I swallow a lump of disappointment. It’s not the unequivocal "yes, you should stay" I was hoping for, but neither is it, "here’s the suitcase, don’t let the door hit your ass on your way out."

  After a quiet "goodnight," he leaves for his bedroom. I remain seated, the dying firelight flickering before my eyes. Edon’s clothes are in a pile before the hearth. My head reels with everything I’ve learned. Shifters exist. This gorgeous man believes in true love. Cody won’t be a problem anymore, which means I can leave if I want. Sure, I won’t be able to go back into the financial field, but I can still make a living.

  Like Edon said, my options aren’t limited to running away to a commune in upstate New York. I should be jubilant, but instead, I feel sort of hollow. It’s becoming increasingly important that Edon doesn’t let me leave. Not for safety reasons, but because…I can’t imagine not being with him. He’s the burst of light in my dark corner. I feel like if I lost him, I’d be wandering around in the dark for the rest of my life.

  6

  Edon

  The minute the door to my bedroom is closed, I take my cock in hand.

  Her arousal lingers in the air. She’s been wet for me since the airport. I bet if I checked her panties would be soaked through. I wish I w
ould’ve ripped them off so I could wrap them around my aching shaft right now.

  If I had lifted my hand and reached over, I could’ve slid my fingers between her lips and into her juicy cunt. But if I had felt her liquid heat on my fingers, I would’ve wanted to spread her legs and drank direct from the well.

  And if I’d tasted her, nothing would’ve stopped me from stripping her completely bare and making her mine which would’ve been a mistake. She doesn’t believe in mates or true love. It’s wild that she can believe in shifters but not that her heart could fully belong to another.

  My wolf wants to mark her anyway. She’ll come around, he says. My body doesn’t care. Wouldn’t her slick cunt feel the same even if she didn’t love me? I loosen the leash on my control and let my mind wander.

  What color would her cunt be? Dusky rose like her tits? What would it taste like? She smells like fall—baked apples and pine needles. She’d taste better than the wine I drank for dinner. I know for sure that she’d be soft.

  I stroke myself in hard, quick motions making sure when I reach the head that I give it a rough squeeze. My blood surges, hardening my cock until it feels like a club in my fist.

  She’d be so soft and welcoming. Her thighs would fall open. She’d lean back on her elbows and arch herself like an offering. I’d rub her tits first. They fit perfectly in my palms. I’d squeeze and mold them and hold them to my mouth. When I worked each nipple erect, I’d move downward, a trail of kisses over her tender belly until I reached her mound. I’d pay attention to the tops of her thighs, the crease below her hip bone before delving into her cunt.

  I’d spend time there, sucking the outer edges, licking her delicate skin. I’d turn to her clit. I’d pinch it, bite it, suck it. Then and only then I’d fuck her pussy with my tongue until she drenched me with her come.

  My balls tighten. I reach down with my other hand and tug on my balls, rolling the two rocks in their sac while my fist works faster and harder. I can sense the knot under my skin and imagine, just for a second, for the hottest second, what it feel to be locked together with my mate.

  The image burns through me, like fire on a prairie. My blood turns molten and the orgasm bursts through my cock, jetting out in long, milky streams.

  My mate.

  "You should seduce her," Ronnie tells me over pancakes and steak the next morning.

  "Agreed. Throw her down on your bed and have your way with her. She wants you. We all know it."

  This is an uncomfortable truth. She does want my body. Last night, I could smell her arousal through four layers of sheetrock. And my enhanced hearing picked up on stifled moans. She’d masturbated like I had.

  I had to get up and take two cold showers before my erection died down. I can’t have her around for much longer or my control will snap. "I’m saving myself for my mate," I inform my pack.

  "This is your mate," Kristian says, flipping a bloody hunk of meat onto my plate.

  "She doesn’t want to be."

  "That’s why you should seduce her." Ronnie stabs her steak with real force. The tone of her voice suggests she is fast running out of patience.

  I ignore her suggestion and ask, "When will Britt be done with the Miami job?"

  "In four days, why?" Ronnie asks.

  "He wants to offer the plane to Cassie. That way he can subtly plant a seed in her head about how rich he is and how great of a life she is leaving behind," Kristian says.

  I ignore his jibes and turn to Ronnie. "We brought Cassie here under false pretenses. It’s only right that we make sure that she has a fresh start, which means we take her wherever she wants to go. I read the file you put together on her last night. Why wasn’t anything about her ex mentioned?"

  Ronnie swats the air in disgust. "That human? What is he to you? A puny cop smelling of gun oil and fear."

  "He stuck a knife to her throat and marked her."

  Ronnie’s eyes widen. "What? I didn’t know that. Why didn’t she report it to the police? There wasn’t any mention of it in her medical records."

  "She didn’t go to the police for the same reason she didn’t go to the hospital for treatment. This man is the police. He lied and hurt her. And for some reason, despite you believing that Cassie is my mate, you allowed her tormentor to live." I don’t need to raise my voice because the words are enough to convey my disappointment.

  Ronnie’s chin falls to her chest. She slides off the stool and kneels by my chair. "Alpha, I’m sorry. I’ve wronged you."

  Over by the stove, Kristian’s wolf whines in dismay and sympathy for his mate. Once Ronnie believed that Cassie was my mate, she was honor-bound to protect Cassie. Failing to exterminate a roach like Cody was a huge breach of the pack-bond. I am within my rights to kill Ronnie, for a true mate should be protected above all else.

  "You will cook dinner for the lodge for the next week and you will help set up our books so that Cassie can run the accounting and payroll remotely."

  Ronnie climbs back onto her stool with a disgruntled look on her face. "I thought we’d fight."

  "I thought you felt like you should be punished."

  "This is a fair punishment," Kristian declares before his mate can protest. He’s pleased because he doesn’t have to see Ronnie get beat up in the ring. Ronnie’s a wily fighter, and the best way to get the upper hand is quick and brutal force. I don’t take it easy on her because she’s a female shifter. After all, she’s only my second because she was able to beat everyone beneath her.

  I eat the rest of my breakfast while Ronnie grumbles under her breath and Kristian tries to cover for her by rambling about our looming deadlines. Once I’m done, I plate up another set of pancakes and steak and go to find my—find Cassie.

  She’s not my mate, I remind myself for the umpteenth time. It’s becoming a futile task. My wolf’s already decided she’s the one, and, if I’m honest, I have, too. But I want Cassie to stay by my side because she wants to, not because she has no other choice.

  I find her sitting on the deck of the cottage, dressed in a long sleep-shirt, sipping on a cup of coffee and looking more beautiful than the dawn. She tugs on the bottom of her shirt, drawing the fabric tight across her tits.

  I swallow and try to find my voice. "I’ve got pancakes and steak. Kristian made them this morning. They live in the cottage down that way." I jerk my chin toward the east.

  "I made some eggs and toast already." She leans forward and sniffs. "But I wish I’d waited. It’s gorgeous out here."

  "A little cold for you, though." Her cute nose is pink on the end.

  "A little," she agrees with a small smile.

  I don’t want her to leave. My wolf yowls unhappily and starts pacing. Whatever ease that we earned after the hard run last night has been erased by the knowledge that I’ve found the one person I would happily die for, but that she won’t love me in return.

  Give a girl time to adjust, she’d said last night.

  7

  Cassie

  I’m not sure what he’s thinking about, but it’s deep.

  Seduce him, Anne had instructed on the phone. I’d called her after a restless night.

  I’d heard low groans from his room last night. Worried that he was having a nightmare, I’d gone to wake him up. Instead of finding him tossing and turning, I saw him bending over the bed, one arm straight out supporting his body and the other one clasped around his giant cock.

  His hands were huge and yet even he wasn’t fully able to close his fist around that monster. Incredibly, my stupid body wasn’t scared at all. I got so hot and turned on that I had to go back to my bedroom and rub an orgasm out myself. It wasn’t satisfying at all.

  I have a terrible suspicion that I won’t be satisfied until that huge cock is between my legs. I’m getting wet just imagining it.

  His expression grows grimmer, as if he can’t wait to be rid of me.

  Seduce him.

  Anne’s right. I should be proactive. If I want to stay, then I need to convince Ed
on I belong here, and since my words aren’t doing the job, my body will have to.

  "The zipper on my suitcase is stuck. Will you come in and help?"

  "You’re wanting to leave already?" He glowers.

  Inwardly, I cheer. He wouldn’t be mad about the idea of me leaving if at least a little part of him wanted me to stay. Maybe this whole seduction thing won’t be so hard.

  "I just need help," I say mysteriously. Without waiting for his response, I carry the plate to the kitchen and stick it into the refrigerator. He follows me into the reading room. My suitcase is nowhere to be seen, but the sofa bed is still out. I hadn’t bothered to make the bed. I guess subconsciously, I’d agreed with Anne’s unconventional plan.

  I reach for my hem and start to pull it up. Before I realize it, Edon’s got his hand on mine, tugging the shirt down.

  "What are you doing?" he asks in a guttural tone. His eyes glitter with emotion that I’m guessing is excitement mixed with frustration. He wants me but is trying to resist.

  I release my shirt and reach for his. "I’m exercising the term of the contract that says that I get to decide when we have sex. You backing out?"

  Boldly, I drag my hand down the front of his shirt until I reach the waistband of his loose-fitting cargo pants. With one jerk of my hand, the button is free.

  He sucks in a harsh breath. "Do you know what you’re asking for?"

  "You backing out?" I taunt.

  His response is to fold my fingers around his zipper. His enormous cock spills out, slapping against his firm stomach and then jutting out proudly.

  “No point in underwear as a shifter,” he says, as if I’d be annoyed by the fact he goes commando. It’s not annoying, but it is distracting. All day long, I’ll be thinking about him swinging free inside his cargo pants.

  I fold my fingers around the thick girth. A twinge of anxiety strikes as I take his measurement. It’s one thing to fantasize about being dicked to death and another thing to experience it. How much will this hurt? Can my body accommodate this beast? My pussy trembles in anticipation while my head says we should pause.