“I am.”
“I’m… I’m not a small woman. Surely you want someone taller? Not so big? I can’t compete with Genevieve and Willow. You should want them. They look like models and… you’re… gorgeous.” There, I said it, and his dark eyes turned to pools of near black as if I’d pleased him. “You could literally get any woman on this planet to fall at your feet. You should be with a model or an actress or something. Someone beautiful.”
“I do not desire those females,” he countered, then frowned. “You are very beautiful. You disagree? Are you saying I’m supposed to want human females who are angles and bones, like Woocy… I mean Lucy?”
I had to bite back a laugh at the name. Score one for Tanner. But this was serious. Men like him did not go for women like me. I was not even close to the feminine ideal. I’d been fat shamed since middle school. This could not be happening to me, not when he’d had two dozen of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen all over him for the last three weeks.
“I think you made a mistake,” I repeated.
He shook his head slowly as his heated gaze continued to rove over me. “You are soft. Everywhere.”
I nodded. Now he was catching on. No amount of cardio was going to fix what I had going on. Not that anyone could tempt me onto a treadmill. I’d rather eat nails than volunteer for that kind of torture. I liked to breathe real air and not be in pain. If I wanted to eat a cookie, I was going to eat the damn cookie.
“They are too small.” He held up his hands so I could see the size of them. “Brittle. I would break them.”
I laughed at that, thinking of him in his beast mode trying to fuck Willow. Okay, that wasn’t a good idea because I was jealous. Bad thoughts!
“Your thighs are thick, and I gripped all that soft flesh as I licked your pussy. I held you up with my hands on your wide ass, cupping it in my palms as I pressed you against the wall and pounded into you. I haven’t yet, but I am eager to bury my face in your lush breasts and get lost.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered to myself as I stepped away from him but bumped into the closed door. I was wet and horny all over again. He was like a romance book on tape. I could listen to him talk about having sex with me for hours.
“I… well, okay. More sex sounds amazing and all, but… I’m not wearing your cuffs.”
He took a step closer, and I tipped my chin back to meet his gaze.
“You’re my mate.”
Slowly I shook my head. “Impossible.”
He stilled. “You do not believe me.”
I wasn’t going to shake my head again, so I stayed silent, pressed my palms against the door.
“I am not here because of the Bachelor Beast. There are no cameras. No Chet Bosworth.”
I huffed a laugh at that. I could only imagine the commentary that megalomaniac would say if he were here, like a sports announcer doing a play-by-play as he peeked out of my closet.
“I shall show you.”
He lowered his head to mine. Slowly, eyes opened. I watched his movement and knew the kiss was coming. This time, the beast wasn’t in control; it was Wulf who was doing the kissing. He was able to speak in full sentences, able to control his breathing. Everything.
I didn’t deny him because my body screamed yes!
We could figure out the whole mate thing after. Sex now, talk later.
His lips met mine at the same moment his hand curled around the back of my neck. His touch was gentle, his skin warm against mine.
And his lips… gentle, too. Almost coaxing.
I whimpered at the contrast to how he’d kissed me earlier.
“The kids…” I whispered against his lips.
He didn’t say anything, only moved his hand to the door handle, turned the lock. It wouldn’t keep someone like Wulf out, but it could deter two little kids long enough for me to throw some clothes on.
He kissed me again, his tongue flicking against my closed lips, and I parted for him.
I had no idea how long we stood there and kissed like teenagers, but I was lost to it. When he peppered the kisses down my jaw to my ear, I angled my head to give him better access.
“No mating. Just sex,” I said, then let all thoughts disappear.
8
Wulf
She did not believe me. Even as I nuzzled her soft skin and fought my beast with every ounce of will, my mate refused to surrender to me, refused to see her own worth, her beauty. Refused to believe I would not survive without her.
I kissed her softly, gently, because if I let go, the beast would consume me. Her. Both of us. We’d fucked with the beast in control the first time. I couldn’t savor, couldn’t learn what made her hot or gasp or moan. Now I could. I wanted to take my time with every lush curve. To explore the softness of her breasts and generous hips. I wanted to feel her body melt beneath mine as I took her.
So I fought with myself, with my beast, even as I tried to woo her. Go slowly. Warden Egara’s warning was clear in my mind. This was new for my female. Not sex, but the depth of our newfound bond. She had not been looking for a mate. She did not volunteer.
According to Earth laws, she was not mine, which made a rumble escape my chest.
When she tilted her head to the side and gave me access to her vulnerable neck, I nearly growled in both victory and hunger. She was mine. She was submitting to me. She would give herself to me, if I could control the beast.
“Wait.”
That one word made my entire body freeze, my lips poised along the length of her jaw, my hands cupping her soft, round ass. I wanted to shove her against the door and make her cry out as she had earlier. But I held perfectly still.
“The kids,” she said again. “We need to put them in bed. If they wake up in the living room alone, they’ll be scared.”
Her small hands pushed against my chest, and I stepped back, pleased that she cared so deeply for the children. She would be an excellent mother, and my beast calmed for the first time since her arrival. Content, as he had not been in years.
The feeling shocked me, but I did not attempt to rile him. We were protecting our own, ensuring their safety and well-being.
I simply followed my mate to the living room and lifted Tanner into my arms, careful not to wake him, as she carried little Emma to a small bedroom across the hall from hers.
Olivia’s smile was soft and intimate in the dark room. The task of putting little ones to bed was a new experience for me, one I would crave in the future. This was the opposite of battle, of death and killing rage and blood-soaked horror. This was innocence and light, the reason warriors fought and died. This was life, not death, and I wanted more. Wanted her. Wanted a child from her.
Forever.
I laid Tanner on a small bed and pulled a blanket covered with various animal designs of rabbits, puppies and kittens—soft, furry creatures that humans routinely kept as pets—over him. On the opposite wall stood an even smaller bed, the mattress barely reaching midcalf. Olivia placed Emma’s head on the pillow, and the little girl snuggled into a fluffy blanket decorated with an odd assortment of drawn characters: a round bear wearing a red shirt, a very thin striped tiger who appeared to be able to speak, a grumpy looking rabbit and some kind of dark gray horselike creature whose ears drooped in a very pathetic fashion. Not even opening her eyes, Emma reached for a small toy animal, a copy of the red-shirted bear.