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)
“If your future hadn’t been sold at age eighteen, what would you have done with it?”
Her lips tremble, and she rolls them inward to hide it. “I don’t know. I planned to go to college, but I hadn’t figured out what I wanted to study. I wanted to get out of our small town, maybe live in the human world. Earn a decent living.”
“What did you like in school?”
She shrugs. “I was good at math and science. I liked to draw. I thought maybe I could go into architecture or engineering. But that ship has sailed.”
The gate opens, and people pour off the ride. She pulls away from me to open her arms for Angie, who barrels into them.
“Right. Ride over. Okay. What’s next, kids?” I ask, letting them lead.
I didn’t think I’d have pups or a mate. At age forty, I’d long since discarded any hope of a family, but here I’d found my mate, and she came with two precious pups. I’d thought my calling was law enforcement, but that all changed yesterday.
Now I’m sure of my life’s purpose. It’s these three shifters right here. I just have to get them to let me care for them.
At the next ride, I excuse myself to make a call.
“Jenson, it’s Mark Ruhl.” Jenson is on the shifter council. He’s an old bear shifter from Wyoming and is the councilmember who I report to.
“What’s up?”
“There’s a she-wolf and two pups under my protection. They ran away from an abusive male—the alpha of a pack outside of Lexington, Kentucky.”
“The council doesn’t get involved in domestic quarrels.”
“I’m not asking the council to get involved. I’m putting the council on notice. I will not hesitate to put that alpha down if he comes near her again.”
Jenson is silent for a long moment, then he blows out his breath. “Noted.”
“That’s it,” I say and end the call.
Due process doesn’t exist in the shifter world. Generally problems are solved by physical aggression. But seventy years ago, when the human population began to grow and spread and bleed into shifter territories, the council was formed. It’s less about governing our own than it is about keeping shifters out of trouble with humans. I’m the guy who puts down shifters who go feral. Or who murder or take advantage of humans. I might not have owed the council an explanation for defending my mate, but putting them on notice in advance may help with any fallout.
Still, I hope it doesn’t come to that. I don’t want Jayden and Angie to have to live with the male who killed their father. That doesn’t sit well with me.
But neither does having that man looming over Colleen and the pups as a constant fear. The sooner this gets solved, the better.
Colleen
The pups are exhausted by the time I get them to bed. The amusement park and a steak dinner at Outback wore them out.
Mark caught me before I followed them up the stairs to the guest room. He wrapped a fist in my hair and tugged my head backward. “I’m going to need you in my bed tonight, babygirl—don’t even think of refusing me,” he growled, turning my insides to molten lava. Then he trailed his tongue over my pulse. “After the pups are asleep. In my room. Understand?” He slid his fingers between my legs and pushed the seam of my jeans against my clit.
“Y-yes,” I answered.
Now, as I push the door to his bedroom open without knocking, my heart pounds against my chest.
Mark’s demand sounded lustful, not angry. His brand of dominance never scares me. Never offends me. It just makes my nipples hard and my panties damp.
So even though I know walking into his bedroom at night is a bad idea considering every time I get near him I risk being marked—I do it anyway.
“Clothes off.” Mark speaks from the doorway to the bathroom. He’s taken another shower. Either he has obsessive compulsive tendencies toward cleanliness, or he really is using cold showers to tamp down his lust. I prefer to believe it’s the latter although I don’t mind the clean part. The scent of soap that mingles with his deliciously male aroma.
I unbutton the new skinny jeans he bought me and shimmy out of them. I’m wearing a pair of red satin panties and a matching bra—also his purchase—and when he sees me in them, his eyes turn silver.
“What color is your wolf?” I ask.
“Black. Yours?”
“Tan.”
He stalks closer. “I haven’t seen your wolf eyes yet.”
No. I still don’t know if I can shift. I haven’t shifted in years. Another byproduct of being mated to Dirk. It’s the reason my healing fled. But maybe now… maybe my true fated mate has already healed me.
I stand in my new bra and panties, my knees trembling for him.
He shakes his head and spins me to face the bed, pushing my torso down. “I didn’t say you could leave the panties on tonight.” His hand crashes down on my ass, sharp and punitive.