The Alpha's Mate (8 Sexy, Powerful Shifters and Their Fated Mates) Read online

  “And now here we are,” I said. His thickness against me, through our clothes, had me ready to fall over. “You’re about to make me your mate and then...” I shrugged.

  “After that,” Erik said, “who cares?”

  I nodded, smiling. “Who cares.”

  The next kiss tasted so sweet it was like honey on the rim of a teacup.

  -11-

  Erik’s hands on my back kneaded deep into my muscles. He bent in deep for another kiss, and the taste of his tongue, the aroma of his skin, shot through me, quicksilver through my veins.

  As soon as my knees started getting a little wobblier, he smiled and held me tighter, grinding our bodies together.

  I leaned my head back, relishing the pleasure and the anticipation that was burning inside me. The instant I closed my eyes, he ran his tongue along my jaw and sucked gently behind my ear. In the four and a half hours since the last time he’d done that, I almost forgot how good it felt.

  Almost.

  “You feel so good,” I moaned. “You have me right where you want me, huh, big guy?”

  “Look at me,” Erik said. “Open those eyes.”

  When I did, the last of my tears fell down my cheeks. One of them ran down my neck and soaked into my shirt, but he caught the other one with his lips. The heat of his tongue on my face amplified the tension between my legs that I felt every time he breathed and drove us together.

  “How do you do this to me?” I asked. “How do you make me feel so special? Like I’m the only thing in the world that matters to you when I know that can’t possibly be true?”

  Erik’s eyes were almost burning they were so intense. “How are you so sure it’s not true?”

  “I know it’s not. I mean you have all the town stuff and—”

  “Are any of them here?” he asked. “Right now, how many people do you see in this room? How many mates is it that I’ve got?”

  “Just the one, I hope,” I said with a grin. “I just... I can’t believe this is happening. It’s all real, right? You’re not going to vanish?”

  “You’d need a witch for a vanishing trick,” Erik said.

  The next second, he kissed my neck, sucking and biting just a little bit. I let out a little shudder and held onto his big, powerful neck to keep my footing.

  “You sleepy?” Erik said, laughing softly. “You keep acting like you’re falling over.”

  “Oh shut up, you big jackass,” I giggled. “If you don’t take me to bed right this second, I might just find another werewolf who will.”

  Hoisting me off my feet so quickly that I squealed, Erik kissed me all the way down the hall, to the left, and the instant my back hit the comforter and I sunk in, my whole body melted.

  He fell on top of me, kissed me once and propped himself up on his elbow.

  “Izzy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I just want to tell you something.”

  I waited, not sure what he could possibly say.

  “I,” he swallowed hard, like he’d been practicing this speech, but still wasn’t quite sure about it. “I am yours... forever.”

  Those four words made every fright, every tension and fear and regret I’d ever held, vanish in an instant.

  “So it is real, then?” I asked. I opened my eyes to study him, watching the waning sun bathe Erik in a warm orange tone. “This is all happening? I’m not going to wake up an hour from now and wonder if you were ever real?”

  Erik shook his head slowly, his hair cascading down and tickling the sides of my face. “If that happened, then I’d wake up alone too, and I’d be furious.”

  “I don’t want to see you furious,” I said with a grin, running my hand along the muscles of his shoulder and down his arm. “But I do want to see you naked.”

  “Oh you do, huh?” After every word, Erik paused to kiss me softly. “Remember, I’ll take this as slow as you need me to take it, okay? And I’m not just making this up to get some.”

  He looked at me very seriously. I laughed a little in-laugh. “I didn’t even think that until you said it, but now...”

  Erik stood up next to the bed. When I turned my head and looked at him, the sun came through his hair at just the perfect angle to see the vague hints of blue that ran through the inky-blackness of his shoulder-length locks. He was just... him. Perfect. Everything I imagined, right there in front of me.

  And being gentle?

  I squirmed a little on the mattress, pushing the thick comforter around with my feet and found myself in a stretch that popped my shoulders and my elbows, and then I let out a deep, content sigh. “I’ve got you,” I said. “I’ve really got you.”

  Erik’s answer was to turn around, away from me, and unbutton his shirt. Even un-tucked, the tailored blue and white striped dress shirt hugged his exaggerated frame. From the top of his huge neck, sculpted shoulders, all the way down to the delicate lines in the small of his back, I knew his body. I knew his shape.

  Now, it struck me, I was going to know his soul.

  When he finally got the neck of his shirt undone and began to shrug out of it, the lines and movement of his incredible muscles almost took my breath away. He dropped his shirt into a heap and turned back to me.

  Involuntarily, his chest flexed, making the leaves on that huge tattooed tree appear to shake in some unseen and unfelt wind.

  Outside the window, a car went by and someone shouted something.

  “Your turn,” Erik said.

  “But you’re not all the way naked yet,” I playfully protested. “There’s still pants!”

  His eyes were half open, satisfied, but still hungry. “Show me how much you want this to happen,” he said. That gravelly voice could have talked me into a job digging ditches.

  “What does it mean?” I asked him as I rolled over and slowly stood up. “To be your mate, I mean. Are there any... responsibilities?”

  “Lots,” he said, and then fell silent.

  “Such as?”

  He smiled. “You’ll be fine.”

  I realized that I’d somehow hypnotized him with the slow movements I was making, the exaggerated sway of my hips, the why I ran my hands down either side of my body and then back up.

  “I wish I had a gown or something. Taking off khakis and a sensible polo isn’t exactly the sexiest thing in the world.”

  “But you are,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.”

  A slow, creeping heat worked its way from my center out. He could melt ice with the gaze he gave me. Hell, an iceberg wouldn’t be much of a stretch. Erik stuck his hand out and tugged the neck of my shirt down a little bit, grinning with a mischievous look to go along with his smoldering eyes.

  “What’s taking so long?” he asked. “I thought you were all excited.”

  Erik was grinning, sure, but behind the toothy smile was a flame in his eyes that told me he wasn’t interested in this taking any longer than it needed to take. It was all so strange, having him want me like that, even though he always had. I guess it was just starting to sink in that maybe, just maybe, I really was as special as he kept saying over and over.

  “And here I thought you wanted me to go slow,” I said. “Are you sure I’m the excited one?”

  Grabbing my hand, Erik pulled me against his muscled body and planted a kiss deep. His tongue swirled and explored every fold of my lips, warming me all the way through. Erik hooked it behind my bottom lip, pulled me close again, and then sucked as we parted.

  “I wish there was some way we could live and never have to not be together like that,” I breathed softly. “But it might get a little tricky trying to eat.”

  Holding my face in his hands, Erik got a very serious look on his face. “When I’m with you, you are my food. You’re my air, my water, you’re everything to me.”

  “You’re sure know how to get a girl to let her guard down,” I said.

  His soulful eyes just held me enthralled though, refusing to let go of me. Every breath I took, e
very word I thought, they just became side-notes to the eyes piercing my reality. I didn’t even feel the last button on my polo shirt’s collar come undone until Erik leaned and warmed me with a slow circle of his tongue.

  In one smooth motion, Erik pulled my shirt up, and off, then tossed it to the floor on top of his. “What am I going to do with you, Izzy? How am I going to ever work anymore?”

  “Well,” I said. I gasped when he ran his tongue down one of my breasts and circled my nipple, warming me through the satin. “It isn’t like you haven’t had me for a while now, you big beast.”

  “Beast, huh? You like it when I act like a beast?” A grin crept across Erik’s perfect face. “Good, because... I’m not... doing very well controlling... myself.”

  My knees went absolutely buckled when I felt the first scratch of his claw against the soft skin on the small of my back. Hard, wiry, silvery-black hair sprouted from his chest and scratched against my aching nipples as he held me close.

  “No one’s ever done this to me,” he growled. The sound was low and rumbling, and thrilled me almost as much as his clawed fingertips curling against my skin.

  “Open your eyes,” he said. “Look at me. Open those pretty eyes. For a year and a half you’ve made me the happiest man in the world and I want to show you exactly what you do to me.”

  When I did as he said, I couldn’t believe what I saw. Erik’s gorgeous face was still his face, but it was lupine, wild and fierce. The tattoo crawling up his chest and neck ran along his wolf jaw. The final leaf at the tip of the tree’s extended branch ended just below his bottom lip.

  “How did... when?”

  “You do this to me, Izzy,” he said in a low growl. “You make me free from... well, having to bother with keeping all this under control. You make me feel like... myself.”

  “Good,” I said, leaning forward and kissing his nose, then his neck. “You make me feel like everything in the whole world is perfect.”

  He breathed slowly in, slowly out, two times, and then ran a hot hand down my back. The tips of his fingernails just barely brushed my skin, dragging a tingling sweetness along the lines he painted up, then down. Slowly circling, his fingers made me hungry, made me ache for what he was going to give me.

  “Haven’t I waited long enough?” I asked, curling my fingers against his huge shoulders and laying down into his chest. “Take me now, Erik, make me yours forever, I...”

  “What is it? Are you sure you’re okay?”

  I nodded, biting my trembling lip. I reached down and slid my hand along the curve of his shirtless, muscled abs and moved it down underneath his jeans. As soon as I touched him, curling my hand around his thick heat, Erik groaned and began to swell in the palm of my hand. It wasn't just his cock, either – his legs started growing, swelling and getting more and more hairy as the seconds ticked by.

  “Hold me,” he said. “Squeeze all the way from the bottom to the top.”

  As he spoke in his hitching, uneven tone, Erik unhooked his belt, undid his buttons, and slid his tight jeans down his bulging thighs. “Just like that,” he whispered. “Your soft little hand makes me look so big, sweet Izzy, doesn’t it? Look at that.”

  I nodded and squeezed, running my hand from the bottom of him to the tip, pulsing my fingers in a slow rhythm. An instant later, he was so big that I felt a little twinge of concern as I stroked. The harder he got, the more I wanted him until finally he was rock solid and almost burning my palm his soft, silky skin.

  “Lay back,” he said, taking my hand. His voice was almost shaking with as he spoke, but he held me anyway, easing me back onto the pillow of his mattress.

  His weight resting on my chest was a tight, wonderful revelation, his naked body glistening silver and black in the early afternoon sun. Erik stroked the side of my face, kissed my neck and then reached down, nestling himself between my legs and stroking himself against my sex.

  Long, slow, smooth strokes had my desire burning hot by the time he finally undid my khakis. “There isn’t a day that’s gone by since we met that I didn’t want you, but...” Eric trailed off, inhaling the scent by tween my legs and pulling my pants down to my ankles before licking all the way from my knee to my hottest, wettest place.

  “But wh... what?” I asked, stopping to gasp when he licked up and down my slit and focused a little energy on my aching clit. His attention sent a hot shock all the way up my belly.

  “It’s so big,” I said as I felt his cock move against my leg. “How is it ever going to... to fit? How are you going to mark me if it won’t fit? I—”

  “Hush,” Erik said, kissing one side of me, then the other. “Just relax. Do you trust me?”

  “Yes, but—”

  He reached up to my lips and placed his finger across them, shushing me as he massaged me through my panties. The aching wet that ran out of me yearned for him, yearned to have him push inside me.

  I reached down and tried to grab his huge girth, but he pulled away. “Just relax,” he repeated. “Let me do this for you, let me give you everything you need for once without you having to do a single thing at all.”

  I arched my back at the next of his long, slow licks, and a trilling sound came out of my pleasured lips. “More,” I groaned. “Yes, yes, that’s so good, so...”

  “You have to sweetest voice in the world, Izzy,” Erik said, kissing me again. “You make all my dreams come true, you always have. Now I’m going to do the same thing for you.”

  “Hey, where are you going?” I asked.

  The mattress squeaked, and Erik pushed off me, as I lifted my hips, hoping to catch another lick. “Be back in one second,” he said turning toward me as he ran to the bathroom. “Don’t leave, all right?”

  A second later, Erik reappeared with a steaming towel that carried the scent of lilac.

  He closed the distance quickly, laid the towel on my stomach and peeled off my sex-slicked panties. The smirk never left his face. “What’s all this?” I asked.

  “It’s what you deserve for being you,” he said. “For being perfect.”

  Heat caressed my stomach, my sex, and the top of my legs one after the other. With slow, patient strokes, Erik lightly massaged away my worries, carried my concerns away on a lilac cloud.

  With my skin prickling, and my desire welling up so hot and wet inside me that I could hardly stand it, I spread my legs slightly and curled a tendril of Erik’s hair around my finger. “Can you... more?” I asked. “I can’t take this anymore, I can’t handle not having you.”

  Slowly he ran a finger down from my chin to my navel, kissed me, and slid it lower. As soon as he parted my lips and moved his finger inside me, I felt my muscles tense up as though I’d been waiting for him forever. He curled the finger, teasing my most sensitive place, and cupped his palm against me, grinding it against my clit.

  I arched my back and smiled, sucking air through my nose and trying to keep myself from squealing.

  “It just feels so good, how can anything be better?” I asked. “A hot towel massage and now this? I feel like I’m in heaven.”

  Erik didn’t speak, but sucked my neck and gripped my breast with his free hand, pulling my bra down and running his thumb around my stiffened nipple.

  “Will you do another one? Please? Just... oh it’s so good Erik, I just want more, more, more, I... unnn... God that’s good,” I moaned as he slid the second finger in beside the first, rotating slowly.

  “Now relax,” he said. “Breath with me.”

  Slowly, patiently, we took a deep breath and let it out. In and out, in and out. He turned his hand and dragged his fingers down my inside wall one final time. As we breathed, matching each other’s rhythm, his lupine features faded and he slowly became fully human. The pressure inside me faded.

  “No, don’t stop,” I begged, but he hushed me with another kiss.

  “Breathe,” he said again. “It’ll help you ease into this.”

  His fingers slid out with a soft sound that thrille
d me, and he traced another circle lower down. Instantly, I seized up, clenching myself together and grabbing his hand. “No,” I whispered, “you’re too big, it...”

  “Just be patient, love,” he said. “I won’t hurt you. If you trust me, this is going to be magical. All right?”

  I was still shaking, but I let go of his hand. His fingertip circled my puckered ring again, and he tested me with just the vaguest notion of the tip of his finger. “Is that okay?” he asked.

  I bit my lip, trembling a little, but I nodded. “Warm,” I said. “It makes me feel warm all over.”

  “This?” he smiled as he asked. “Is this okay?”

  Half the tip of his finger disappeared into my tightest place and instantly, hot shocks crept up my stomach to my neck and pulled at my scalp.

  Inch by inch, moment by moment, I felt my body open up for him, invite him deeper, and somehow accept more of his finger, and then, to my surprise, the tip of the second one.

  As soon as he tested me with the second fingertip, I opened my eyes, surprised that he was just watching my face, and nothing else. I smiled, warm and safe and... at home.

  “Still okay?” he asked.

  “No,” I said. “It’s be... better than that,” as he went deeper, I groaned softly and then cooed and pushed my hips, driving his finger just a little deeper. “It’s better than good, it’s incredible, it’s...”

  “Take off your bra,” he said. “Let me see that beautiful body.”

  I did, and as the cloth fell off the side of the bed, Erik got that glazed over, content look that I’d gotten so used to seeing. But it was a little different that time. Looking at his face, studying the lines around his lips and the cut of his cheekbones.

  His two fingers went deeper, pulling a little grunt out of me that made him freeze again.

  “Too much?”

  I shook my head. “Never. It just feels so good it...” he turned his hand, pulling another moan out of my mouth and making me bend my legs, pull myself down the bed toward him, hoping I could get him deeper somehow.

  “Don’t make me wait,” I whispered. “I need... I need this, need you, need it all right now, please, please, please.”