Right Wolf, Right Time (6 page)

Stay here, where Burke would no doubt continue to screw with Rafe and annoy him to the point of violence, or leave and be with Rafe all by herself? She had no doubt he intended to take things a step further with her. Should she? She wanted to, badly. But she still hadn’t made her mind up about him. Maybe a kiss or two would help her. Not here, but in the privacy of her own home.

“Rafe, I—”

Burke swore and leaned forward again. “You tell that wolf behind me that if he kicks my seat one more time, I’m going to tear him a new one, Sheridan.”

Rafe snarled and turned around. He stood and grabbed Burke by the front of his shirt. A bad mistake. Burke retaliated by putting his large hand around Rafe’s neck.

“That’s it.” Sheriff Roderick said something in a low voice to the wolf, who sunk in his chair. Then the sheriff vaulted a row and appeared next to Burke. He urged both men to back away. With the limited space in the theater, he didn’t have much to work with. But miraculously, Burke left in a snit, Rachel following with a worried expression. She bumped into him when he stopped suddenly and turned to gather her to him, much to the annoyance of a group of raptors, whose feet he stepped on and whose view he blocked.

“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to get out of control.” He rubbed her swollen belly, reminding one and all that pregnant females should never be in harm’s way.

“Hell,” Rafe muttered. In a louder voice, he apologized to Rachel. “Sorry, Rachel. Your mate is a pain in the ass, but I didn’t mean to get rough with you so close.”

“What the hell? Can we
please
see the movie?” A few golden eagles swore and one snapped, “Fucking cats.”

“Watch your mouth,” Rafe growled. “There are ladies present.”

The birds said something that sounded uncomplimentary, but they didn’t say anything else off-color.

“You know, if the bears were in charge, this wouldn’t be an issue,” a bear yelled from the front. “Quit catering to the cats, Roderick.”

“Run for sheriff come January, Marcus,” Ty yelled back. “Everyone else who wants to add their two cents, don’t. Shut up and watch the friggin’ movie.” To Burke and Rachel, he warned, “You’re banned from the movies for a month.”

“Rafe,” Rachel whined.

“Both of you. I heard what you said to Rafe, Rachel. No point denying it. You’re trying to stir trouble. And don’t even think that cute face or baby belly is going to save you.
Out
.”

The cats slunk out of the theater. Sophie stared wide-eyed at Ty. He’d rarely used that voice, and never at his pride leader, that she knew of. According to Julia, he and Burke were friends. What would tonight mean for the pride? Would Ty be in trouble for showing Burke and Rachel the door? Would Julia be in trouble because of her mate’s actions? Speaking of which… She didn’t see Julia with him. What was he doing at the movies without his mate? The pair were inseparable unless Ty was on duty.

He winked at her and took Burke’s seat. Directly behind Rafe.

Her date gave Ty a dubious look but said nothing more.

Sophie sighed, pleased and irritated. Pleased because her romantic night with Rafe had been ruined, and irritated for the same reason. Would he want to come home with her after the movie, or would he seek retribution against the pride for tonight’s drama? Was it a big deal, or had she made more out of the altercation than it warranted?

She didn’t like conflict and never had. Working to hide her unease, she stilled her trembling hands and placed them on her lap.

Rafe reached for her hand and gripped it in his—not hard, but enough to get her attention. Then they watched the rest of the movie together with a tension that refused to abate.

After it ended and they left to walk her home, she tried to think of how to end the evening on a peaceful note.

“Did you like it? Not all that fuss before the picture, but the movie itself?” Rafe asked.

At the moment, she couldn’t remember much of anything she’d seen. Sophie had spent her time trying to figure out how to handle an annoyed alpha.

“Y-yeah. It was funny.”

He gave her an odd look, and she suddenly recalled the plot.

“I mean, sad that she died at the end.” Her cheeks felt hot. “Funny as in, funny how life throws you curveballs sometimes.”

“I get that.” Rafe walked her up the stairs of her porch and stood with her at her front door. Nosey neighbors would be able to see them from across the street, but the few trees and tall bushes around her house gave her a sense of privacy many in town lacked. “This isn’t how I envisioned ending tonight.” He stroked her cheek.

She turned in to the touch, her wolf needing comfort.

“You’re so beautiful. So soft.” Rafe moved closer. The light above them gave his face sinister shadows, but the desire in his eyes didn’t scare her. Not now. Her wolf forced her to angle up for his kiss, curious and hungry.

His lips met hers. Pleasant, warm, but not tingly. He didn’t make her breathless, the way just watching Monty move did. And he didn’t turn her wolf into a quivering mess of desire. She had no urge to submit. Only to please her alpha, so she kissed him back. The bulge between his legs intrigued her. Holy hell, but she’d made a man hard and hungry. Sophie Tanner finally had a chance to feel like a real woman.

He groaned and drew her closer to deepen the intimacy when his pocket vibrated.

He broke the kiss and swore under his breath. In a raspy voice, he apologized. “Shoot. Sorry, honey. I have to take this.” He stepped away and barked, “Yeah?”

After a few moments, during which Sophie caught the words
fucking cats
,
jail
and
Axel
, Rafe turned to her with murder in his eyes.

She instinctively shrank back.

He reached for her, then let his hand fall to his side. “I’m sorry. Apparently a few of my pack met with the pride and all hell broke loose downtown. Now I have to go bail Axel out of jail.” His eyes flashed. “Do me a favor. If you see Monty GrayClaw, tell him I want to talk to him.”

“M-Monty?” She forced herself not to flinch when he drew a finger down her cheek again. It took her wolf a few moments to settle down, but her animal spirit finally relaxed.

“Never mind. I had a good time tonight. Before all those cats interfered.” He snorted. “He’s a smart one, I’ll give him that.”

“Rafe?”

He had the sense to kiss her on the lips—not the forehead—and wished her a goodnight.

To her surprising relief, he made no mention of a second date.

Chapter Four

Sophie unlocked her door, stepped through, and closed and locked it behind her. Baffled by what should have been a night to end all nights, she touched her lips, bemused that her wolf felt nothing more than calm about that kiss.

“He liked me, though. I
felt
it.” His erection proved she held some sort of attraction for the opposite sex. Or had he sensed what Gabby had called her heat? Sophie didn’t feel aroused. She had liked the kiss, though. Touching his lips, feeling Rafe’s body pressed to hers, had made her feel not so alone, a part of something more.

As she hung up her jacket in the closet and toed off her shoes, she wondered.

Being a member of the Gray Wolf Order hadn’t given her the same sense of belonging. But in Rafe’s arms, she’d felt cared for, if only for a little bit. Still, she’d expected to get carried away with lust. The adult movies that so intrigued her always showed the woman crying out for more. Sophie had been fine with Rafe leaving.

Acting, she thought, wishing she knew what to expect from real life. She was too embarrassed to ask Julia or Gabby what their sex lives were like. She knew they loved their mates, but the physical aspect of mating captivated her. She wanted so badly to experience the same relief from her hungers that other women did. Hungers that grew stronger with each passing month. She almost wished she could go back to seeing men as nothing more than problems, oppressive jerks out to keep her from truly living.

Stomping up the stairs and into her bedroom, she muttered a few insults against Monty, Rafe and men in general.

The scent of rage and male and wolf hit her too late.

Before she could turn and run, something huge and furious picked her up and tossed her onto her bed.

She tried to shriek, but a large, familiar hand covered her mouth. She froze and garbled, “Monty?” against his palm. She licked his flesh, and the salty taste of him woke her wolf from the sensual slumber she’d been in since the last time she’d seen him.

“Rafe
fucking
Sheridan?” He sniffed her all over, centering on her neck and lips. “You let that asshole kiss you?”

Still shocked that Monty was here, in her bedroom, covering her like a blanket, Sophie blinked up at him, speechless.

“He’s not for you.
I
am.” Monty kissed her before she could question him. And between one breath and the next, she lost her ever-loving mind.

Monty couldn’t stop his wolf. Not this time. The scent of another male on Sophie drove him insane. Just as soon as he claimed her, he was going to kill that son of a bitch, alpha or no alpha.

But damn, Sophie knew how to kiss. She tasted like warm brown sugar, so sweet and rich. Her lips were tentative at first, but as he slaked his hunger with her mouth, she returned the gesture while her hot little hands touched his chest and arms.

“God, yeah. Oh fuck.” Monty nipped her lower lip and put his mouth over her pulse, licking and sucking her flesh to make a mark.
Mine
, his wolf snarled, but he teethed her with a gentleness at odds with his violent frustration as Monty continued to work his mate into a state of arousal.

Her breasts pressed against him, her belly rubbing his erection with each gyration of his hips. The woman smelled so fucking ripe.

He had to have her.

He pulled away and looked down into her aroused, confused gaze.

“Monty? Why did you stop?”

The growl poured out of him, an aggressive response he couldn’t help. “Time to get undressed, baby. Time to stop dancing around this. I’m going to fuck you, take that sweet pussy and ass, and own you.”

“Sw-sweet pussy? Ass?” she squeaked, her eyes round. “But I’m— Can I— Will it hurt?”

His eyes narrowed. She didn’t look upset or afraid, and she hadn’t protested. She looked excited. And new. Grady had told him earlier about the conversation he’d overheard, but Monty thought Grady had misunderstood. Oh Christ, she couldn’t be saying… “You ever had sex, Sophie?”

The blush on her cheeks turned him on like nothing else. A fucking virgin, in this day and age. His to possess. Only his.

He sucked in a breath and let it out in a shaky sigh. “Then we do this a different way.”

“We do?” She kept looking at his mouth, and he wondered if she had the same fantasies he did when he looked at her. Monty envisioned her lips wrapped around his cock. Did she ever wonder about him eating her out?

“Yeah, we do.” His voice sounded hoarse, but he didn’t care. He literally hurt from wanting to take his mate. With shaking hands, he took off her blouse, socks and pants. She wore a lacy red thong and bra—one transparent enough to show her hard nipples.

Monty didn’t hesitate. He sucked one through the sheer fabric, gratified when she cried out his name and clutched his head to her chest. She tightened her hands on his hair when he sucked hard, but she didn’t push him away. Instead, her scent intensified.

“Oh my God. That feels so
good
.” She moaned when he shifted to her other nipple and gave it the same treatment. “I’m so wet.”

Now he groaned. Like he needed to hear it. He could smell it, was drowning in her perfume, that sultry scent that beckoned him to end this and fuck her until neither of them could move.

He continued to kiss and tease her while he fiddled with her bra. When he finally released it, he leaned back and stared at the roundest, most perfect breasts he’d ever seen. He wanted to fuck them, to suck them—hell, anything and everything. But her pussy beckoned. When he moved from her to hurry out of his clothes, he noted the darkened, damp fabric between her slender thighs.

“You’re so big,” she said, her voice husky.

He stared down at himself and wondered if he scared her. The quiet she-wolf he’d been hard for during the last two years was a virgin, and she had to handle him. Not a tender lover, but a ravaging beast with a blemished body, worn down from an enemy that never stopped coming. A lover who’d just had his woman kissed by
another man
.

Infuriated all over again, he snarled and ripped her panties from her. After tossing the sodden garment over his shoulder, he shoved her legs apart and pushed his face into her pussy.

“Monty.”

He licked and shuddered, lightheaded with her taste. Damn, but she was better than anything he’d ever had. Her hands stroked over his shoulders and up his neck to his head. She clenched his hair tight, the bite of her grip more than satisfying while she keened and moaned.

He delved into her honey, lapping up her arousal like a thirsting man. He sucked and tongued her clit, then slowly put his finger at her entrance.

“Oh yes,
please
. Oh yes,” she moaned and thrust against his face.