Moments In Time: A Collection of Short Fiction (11 page)

“On your belly, female,” he growled. He would mark her now, brand her with his pack emblem, the most painful part of the mating ritual.

The first swipe of his claws brought tears to her eyes, the second stole all the air in her lungs. By the third, the fourth, and fifth, she’d bitten through her bottom lip and nearly swallowed her own tongue. But never did she scream, not wanting to come across as weak, as most half-breeds were thought to be.

When he was done, her blood dripping warm and wet down her ravaged body, Grey began to lick her wounds, and she prayed for the strength not to scream. When the pain finally receded, she knew all that remained of her wounds were pink, puckered scars that would soon be white.

Still holding her down, he moved to kneel between her legs, lifting her hips high as he positioned himself to enter her from behind.

She suddenly wished she’d taken her senior prom date up on his offer to take her virginity. Grey was not going to go easy on her. A claiming was every bit as primitive as it sounded.

He pushed into her and she winced.

“Who am I?” he rumbled.

“My alpha,” she whispered tearfully.

He pushed harder. “Who are you?”

“Your mate.”

His claws dug into her hip bones and he thrust forward. It took every ounce of strength she had to remain perfectly still and silent as her body painfully stretched to accommodate the size of him and the force of his mating. Tears poured down her cheeks as silent sobs escaped her, no one but her knowing that this wasn’t what she wanted.

When she felt his teeth graze her shoulder, she readied for more pain and he didn’t disappoint. His canines cut through her flesh, dug deep down into her muscle and clenched. It didn’t take long after that, a few minutes maybe, until he stiffened inside her, jerking through his finish.

Grey slid out of her and rolled onto his back, pulling her with him. Settling her into the crook of his arm, he nuzzled against her neck, licking and sniffing.

“You were a virgin,” he rumbled, sounding satisfied. His lips met hers, his tongue slid between them, and he stroked her slowly through their first kiss.

“You’re beautiful,” he growled. “Even more so than Careen described.”

She would never have described herself as beautiful. Cute, maybe. She was an average five foot five inches tall, an average size six, with average curves. She had basic brown hair that hung long and wavy down her back, boring blue eyes, fair skin that was lightly freckled, a heart-shaped face, lips that were neither full nor thin, and a distinctively average nose. But the way Grey was staring at her, his wolf eyes glowing with hunger, one would have thought she was a supermodel.

“Thank you,” she whispered, wanting nothing more than to shift and run as fast as she could away from him. Soon he would be dragging her away from her father, her pack, the future she’d always dreamed of, and forcing her to mate with him over and over again, bear his pups, do whatever he wanted her to do.

Her life was over. She wanted to scream and sob, rage at him, beat him, but she did nothing, afraid to betray her secret, afraid of the repercussions of disobeying both her alpha and mate. If anyone ever found out her secret, she didn’t know what her fate would be. Would she be cast out? Or worse, killed?

Growling, kissing her harder as his hands explored her body, he shifted his body over top of hers. His part of the mating was over with. Under the belief that she was forever bound to him, he was now taking his time.

“Your turn,” he whispered.

Trembling, she turned away. What if the final act actually sealed her into a mated pair? Having never known another half-breed personally, she wasn’t sure what her human limits were. What if she turned into what she’d always feared? A mindless bitch who went belly-up every time a male said to do so.

“Shayanne,” he demanded, using his command packed with alpha power. “Take me as your mate. Now.”

Swallowing hard, she struck, sinking her teeth deep into his thick shoulder. As his blood trickled into her mouth, he moved his hips between her thighs and slid back inside her.

They mated twice more while alone in the woods, each time easier and less painful then the last, before Grey deemed it time to return to the others and take part in the obligatory ceremony. Hand in hand, they walked back to their packs, where the wolves formed a circle around them. In their animal form, they howled and yipped at the moon as Grey took her roughly on her knees, his teeth sank into her back, in front of them all.

When the humiliation was finally over, he grabbed her hand and thrust their joined hands into the air. “My mate!” he roared, and both packs growled and cheered in response.

• • •

Grey glanced across the cab of his pickup at his mate. After two hours of driving in silence, he couldn’t take much more. She hadn’t said one word to him, hadn’t asked a single question about where they were headed, about her new pack, or what her responsibilities would be. It was going to be one hell of a long ride back to New York if the female refused to speak, let alone look his way.

He’d known she was opposed to the mating the minute she’d laid eyes on him, had seen the shock and horror she’d failed to hide at the sight of his face. Shayanne’s reaction had been a human one; there wasn’t a bitch out there who would have noticed his scars over the power of the alpha coursing through his body. Alphas were sought after, not run away from, and if she hadn’t immediately submitted, he would have worried that she’d been more human than bitch.

Thankfully that wasn’t the case and he couldn’t be more pleased. She was beautiful; taking her would never be a chore, quite the opposite. She was young and full of energy, something she would need as female alpha. And she was fertile, he could smell it and thought proudly how he would be keeping her belly full of his seed. He’d been an only pup and had always wanted a large family to carry on the Nash line. The thought of Shayanne, her young body heavy with his pups, her breasts swollen with milk, had him growing hard yet again. Eager to get started on his family, he pulled the truck off the road and put it in park. Shayanne, who’d been staring out the window since they’d left her pack lands, didn’t seem to notice they’d stopped.

“Mate,” he growled.

Jumping, she turned toward him and began blinking rapidly.

“Come here,” he said roughly, already unbuttoning his jeans. Her eyes shot to his lap and she swallowed audibly.

“But .
 . . we’re on the side of the road,” she said timidly.

Shocked and confused, he paused to stare at her. He’d just issued her a direct order and she hadn’t budged.

“COME HERE!” he barked and her eyes grew wide. Scrambling into action, she immediately unbuckled her seat belt and practically leaped into his lap. He glared at her while she awkwardly attempted to situate herself above him, but when she made no move to take him inside her, he grew outright angry. Cursing, he lifted her dress and positioned himself at her entrance, and to his utter shock found she wasn’t ready for him, not at all.

This was impossible. He’d mated her only hours ago; it should have forced her into her breeding cycle despite her young age. Bitches came into heat at twenty-one years of age unless mated; any female who had already hit puberty and was mated would begin heat.

Not Shayanne. Her human half was stronger than he’d thought. Stronger than Careen had led him to believe. Worry settled heavy in the pit of his stomach.

Cupping her neck, he licked her mating mark and rubbed himself between her legs. Nothing. Not even a whimper.

“What’s going on?” he demanded.

She bit her lip and looked away
from him
. He’d issued a question, demanded an answer, and she’d looked away from him. An alpha. Her mate.

“You feel nothing,” he whispered, shocked. “No compulsion to obey me.”

Tears formed in her eyes and Grey watched in horror as she slowly shook her head. As he continued to stare at her, his hands fell limply to his sides.

Shayanne immediately moved off his lap and scrambled to the far corner of the truck, her back pressed hard against the door as she watched him carefully, barely breathing.

She was terrified of him.

She didn’t want him.

Not at all.

Which meant what had happened in the woods had been .
 . .

She’d been pretending submission and he’d .
 . .

Grey suddenly felt sick.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHING?” he roared. He was furious with her, but more furious with himself for not realizing her submission had been merely an act. An alpha was only an alpha because he had not only the strength, but also the insight and knowledge that lesser wolves didn’t. What this development said about him, he couldn’t think about, not yet, not without losing his mind in a fit of rage.

“My father,” she whispered frantically. “He told me to always obey, to follow his lead. That if I didn’t, I would have been kicked out of the pack or worse, put down.”

Fucking hell. They weren’t even mated. She was more human than bitch, and wolves couldn’t bond with humans the way they bonded with each other. Bringing her home to his pack would do nothing but embarrass him. If he couldn’t control his own mate . . . He shuddered to think what his pack would think of him.

“Go,” he said, leaning over her to grasp the handle and push the door open. “Go home.”

Shayanne’s eyes widened in surprise but she didn’t hesitate. She shifted as much as she could and disappeared into the night.

Grey slumped back in his seat. Careen would be punished for this, as would the female’s father. He had a reputation to uphold and now, goddamn it, a new mate to find.

• • •

Eight years later

“Honey, you do realize it’s after five and Friday night, don’t you?”

Shayanne glanced up from her computer at her boss and good friend, Brianna. A redheaded bombshell in her early thirties, Brianna was all legs and breasts and full, pouty lips. She loved to party and was always on Shayanne’s case about joining in.

“A few of us are headed over to Hardware tonight. You should join us.”

She sighed. She had other plans tonight. Ones she absolutely couldn’t ignore, only because the wolf inside her wouldn’t let her. It was the start of a full moon, the beginning of her heat. She would need to find a man to spend the next three days with or she’d be dealing with the pain that always came with unsatisfied heat. A bar was the perfect place to find a ready and willing man to take home and Hardware, a trendy restaurant and club, was infinitely better than the dives she usually frequented to find the cure to what ailed her.

But did she really want her coworkers to see her leave with a stranger? Life Planning was a small health-care provider for inner city residents without health insurance, specializing in teen-pregnancy prevention and counseling. She was one of two counselors in a staff that totaled ten. If she took a stranger home, everyone would know.

“Oh, come on, Lillian. You’re almost twenty-seven years old. You’ve had no boyfriend to speak of. You barely go out. I’m worried about you!”

“Maybe,” she hedged.

“Nic is coming,” Brianna said, dangling that little piece of info like a worm on a hook, knowing how attractive Shayanne found the new doctor. Born in Russia but raised in New York City, he looked like a Russian mob boss, yet held a PhD. Go figure. Regardless, he was hot. Ever since he’d started there, the local girls had been coming in twice as often, asking for condoms just to get a look at him.

Shayanne thought it was good business. Who cared why they were coming in, as long as they were coming. The next time these girls found themselves getting down to business, they would have more than enough condoms on hand to prevent diseases and unwanted pregnancy.

But knowing she was going into heat and spending the evening with a man she was not only attracted to but worked with .
 . .

“Fine,” she said, scowling. “But only for an hour.”

Grinning, Brianna skipped away.

Rolling her eyes, Shayanne reached down and grabbed a pair of black pumps from her desk drawer and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.

After washing her face and reapplying her makeup, she brushed out her white-blonde pixie-styled hair, slapped on some deodorant, and sprayed a touch of perfume.

Off came her leggings and flip-flops.

On went the pumps.

Turning sideways, she checked out her figure in the mirror, smoothing the slight wrinkles in her minidress. She looked so different now, nothing like the terrified eighteen-year-old half-breed she’d been. It hadn’t been easy getting where she was today, but it had definitely been worth it. Human life agreed with her more than pack life ever had. True, she was still hiding, but having a false identity was a lot less stressful than worrying about whether you would be put out on the street or killed for being a lesser wolf.

After Grey had freed her, she’d gone home and explained to her father what had happened. Afraid of what Careen would do to her, he’d given her his entire savings, which was a substantial amount of money, and told her to run.

While counting out her money later inside a cheap motel, she’d found a small slip of paper with a Wyoming address on it. Lorelei and Walter Hunter. With nowhere else to go, she decided to chance fate and head to her grandparents’ ranch. The elderly couple took one look at her, the spitting image of her mother, and broke down in tears. After listening to her incredible story, about wolf shifters and half-breeds and forced matings, they’d invited her to stay with open arms.