Winter's Dawn (44 page)

Susie owned him the rest of the month, but the running belonged to Max and they had both known it for a while now. The danger of it loomed between them because Max wasn’t a nice wolf during the running.

He closed his eyes and bent down to rest his forehead against Susie’s. He took a shuddering breath as he wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her tightly against him as he let out another choked sob.

“I’ve spent the last three years looking at the full moon during the runnings,” Susie went on when he became too overcome to talk. “Watching her while she was full and ripe. I’ve tried to imagine what it must be like to give up the power to her mate for those three days. To completely surrender to that burning strength and be weak in his presence. I used to stay up until the sun started to rise, waiting for the moment when they both filled the sky. To see day and night connect for that one perfect space of time and you know what I discovered?”

Max took another shuddering breath. “What?”

“They’re beautiful together. They fill the entire world with color when they touch. Obedience isn’t hard to give up if that’s what I get for it.”

“You’re only eighteen. It’s not fair. You should have more time.”

She ran her fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his face. “But I don’t.”

Max knew everyone including Susie expected him to claim her and end the problem, but this moment was too sacred for them. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to handle it, but he didn’t just want to bite her and fuck her and dust her puppyhood off his hands like a broken memory.

He wanted to cherish it just a little bit longer.

“Let me hold you for a while. That’s all I want.” Max reached down and tugged at the tie to her robe. “Just us.”

Susie understood and sat up to pull off her robe. She tossed it aside while Max stood and undid the button to his pants. He pushed them past his hips with the simple thought of being naked in the snow with his mate like they had done all those months before. That was such a beautiful memory for him. He had hopes of reclaiming the innocence of it again. It wasn’t sexual, it was simply an honesty he needed, or it
was
until he heard the soft, feminine intake of breath.

He lifted his head to see Susie sitting there in the snow, her white braids hanging down over her bare shoulders. Her pale legs were folded to the side, and her palm rested comfortably in the snow despite the freezing temperatures. Her light eyes flashed back and forth between silver and blue as she let her gaze run over him.

“Sue—” he grunted, feeling his body respond because the hot look she was giving caused the purest form of lust to thump through his blood stream. She had never looked at him like before. He shook his head to deny the rush it gave him. “Don’t do that.”

Susie closed her eyes. For one instant he thought she had obeyed him. Instead she took a deep breath and let her head fall back, as if savoring the moment. She placed a hand against the place between her naked breasts, her fingers splaying out over her pale skin as if feeling her own heart beat.

“Oh, Maxwell,” she hummed in a husky voice that made a shiver of pleasure dance over his skin. “Is that you?”

“Likely.” Max nodded, though it was pointless. Susie’s eyes were still closed in a dark indulgence he couldn’t look away from no matter how much he wanted to. “I thought we were waiting.”

Susie finally opened her eyes, showing off sparkling silver orbs that were dangerously unflashing as they glowed in the moonlight. She stared at him once more, taking him in for a long moment before she eyed the pants he had grabbed in an attempt to cover up what she had seen a million times before.

“Take them off, Maxwell.”

Max let go of his pants and then pushed them past his hips. His breathing had grown shallow and ragged as he watched her study him. He knew without asking that he was observing the blinders being lifted from her vision, carving Max out as a powerful, sexual male who was built to love her.

It was one of the most sensual, erotic things he had ever seen in his life.

Max’s stomach muscles clenched in need. He hadn’t considered how addictive it would be to have Susie looking at him as something far more than just a platonic companion. His erection jerked and he actually felt his cheeks heat when he saw Susie notice. Her gaze fell to it and she took another deep breath as she quirked an eyebrow.

“Tell me what you do during the full moon,” she whispered.

Max kicked aside his pants and went to her instead of answering the question. He fell down in the snow and then wrapped an arm around Susie’s waist. He leaned down to bury his face in the curve of her neck, taking a deep breath and savoring her scent as she did his.

His heart still felt like it was cracking inside his chest, but he couldn’t deny how divine she smelled. It made every nerve ending he had jump alive. The wolf was wild and crazy under his skin, but somehow Max managed to hold him back as he tugged on one of her braids lightly. “Lay with me, Susie Bee.”

Susie curled up with him in the snow, with the smooth line of her bare back pressed tightly against his chest as she snuggled into him. He reached down and caressed the curve of her waist, feeling the healing silver wound. “Sleep, Susie Bee. You’re still recovering.”

“But—”

“It’s not the full moon yet,” he whispered, keeping it to himself that he wanted her as strong and healthy as possible. “We can wait.”

“My scent,” she said in concern. ”I heard Adam say—”

“I’m here,” he reminded her. “You think they’re going to challenge your king?”

“Not likely.” He could hear the smile in her voice, before she took another long, shuddering breath. “Gods, Maxwell, you really do smell divine.”

He snorted. “I know.”

“Puppy games,” she whispered longingly. “Kiss me.”

“Sue—”

“Just one,” her voice was whiny with puppy-like desperation and it lulled him into a false sense of security. “To help me sleep.”

She rolled over in his arms so they were face to face. The moonlight reflected off her silver gaze, which was anything but puppy like. She reached up, running her fingers through his hair, before she twisted the dark strands between her fingers as she studied him.

“How could I miss this? You are so beautiful. You don’t know how much it hurts to look at you right now.” The longing in her voice was vivid. She closed her eyes and pressed her face closer. “Do it, Maxwell.”

Despite knowing it was impossible to play puppy games with Susie when she smelled
very
grown up, Max kissed her like she demanded. It wasn’t the running yet. His will still bent to hers easily and she parted to him in invitation, which Max took by pushing his tongue into her mouth with a low groan. Her fingers tightened in his hair and she tilted her head to deepen the kiss. Her tongue brushed against his as a low, feminine gasp of desire reverberated through Max like an earthquake that started crumbling the walls of his defenses.

Without realizing how quickly he was getting over his head, Max rolled her over so that she was flat against the snow with all his weight on top of her. He thrust his hips impulsively, letting her feel the evidence of his desire against her thigh. She wrapped her legs around him in response and Max growled against her lips as his teeth grew long with the need to claim his mate.

He pushed a hand between their straining bodies and palmed one of her breasts. When Susie hummed with pleasure, he rubbed a thumb over her nipple, which was tight with need. Susie broke away from him, tossing her head back against the snow.

“Gods, it feels good.” She tilted the head to the side, her eyes closing heavily as Max watched. “I’m burning up. Lower the temperature.” She pushed her hips up, rubbing herself intimately against his stomach muscles as her feet hooked together in the small of his back. “I’m aching, Maxwell. It hurts. I need—”

“Don’t,” he growled before she could finish, because, if she demanded it, he would be forced to obey. “Just breathe, Susie Bee. You need to calm down a little.”

She panted, her chest rising and falling in sharp, hard gasps like that of trapped, feral animal. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter as she fought with her primal side and Max lowered the temperature to help cool her desperation. Then he made it snow as he lay over her, watching Susie writhe in need and reeling at how deeply it affected him. The surge of adrenaline and lust that pulsed through his blood stream was so overwhelming all he could do was stay still and silent as he listened to his heartbeat throb in his ears. It was the calm before the storm that was swirling into a wild, dangerous tempest of desire between them.

It made all the other encounters he had before this moment seem like nothing but puppy play. He never expected the yearning to be this all encompassing as it welled up between them, tearing down all his fears and reservations like a straw house in the face of a hurricane.

“Make me stop aching,” Susie demanded in a low voice as her head tossed on the snow. “Those pills aren’t helping. Make it stop. I know you know how.”

Max learned down and kissed her, hoping to distract her from something more sexual. Susie opened wide to the kiss as she wrapped her arms around him and arched her body invitingly against his.

The first time Max waged this battle against nature, he put up a valiant fight. He fought the call to roam for one full cycle and hadn’t surrendered until the wolf was literally ripping him to shreds from the inside out.

This time he caved from the soft, feminine growl of longing that slipped past Susie’s lips. All the fine hairs stood up on Max’s arms when he heard it and he reached up, fisting Susie’s hair in way he would’ve never done if they were really playing puppy games.

He pushed his tongue deeper into her mouth and Susie dug her nails into his shoulders in response, breaking the skin in a way a consort never would have dared. Then she dragged them down the length of his back, leaving a sear of pain in her wake. Max grunted from the white-hot flash of pleasure that hazed his vision. He pulled back, stunned from the force of it as he looked at her with wide eyes.

Susie growled when he broke the kiss, flashing her teeth, which had grown long. She buried her face in the curve of his neck as he lay over her, still stiff in shock. When she bit him, sinking her canine teeth into the soft spot at the curve of his neck, his entire body jerked. He never had a female bite him before, not like that, in sharp, hard ownership, and the effect was profound.

He dropped his head back as he let the pleasure and pain dance together over his skin. He fisted Susie’s hair again, holding her there when she would have pulled back for another kiss.

“Do it again,” he grunted in a low, desperate voice because he wanted to know if the pleasure of the first time was just the novelty of finally finding an equal as a mate, one who had no problem biting and scratching the head king of werewolves when others had never dared. When she did it a second time, he grunted because it was more than a novelty. “Gods help me, that feels really good, Sue.”

He used his hold on her hair to jerk her back from the tight hold her teeth had on his neck. He claimed her lips again, rash and violent. His blood was still on her lips and the taste of it threw him completely over the edge. He thrust against her insistently as he pushed his tongue into her mouth over and over in the same powerful, demanding manner he wanted to take her body.

Susie writhed under him, scratching him hard enough to draw blood before he could heal. She let out a low, keening sound of pleasure when he stopped kissing her to lean down and lick and nip at the curve of her neck.

“Help me, Max,” Her voice was low with the wolf in her. “I need—” Max leaned down to suck on one tight, pink nipple and Susie gasped. “Gods.”

He lifted his head and snarled, showing off his long teeth. Susie eyed them and then nodded breathlessly. Max groaned and slid his hands under her in the snow, forcing her to curve into him. The second time he took her nipple into his mouth, he bit down hard, tasting blood.

Susie shouted, her body stiffened under him and then quivered as a fresh wave of sexual longing bled off her potently enough that Max could taste the scent of it on his tongue.

“Do it again,” she demanded before he could release her. “Harder.” Max reeled back, looking at her with heavy eyes. She was still shifting under him, her fingers were in his hair, tugging and pulling in frustration. “You’re not doing it right.” She let out a low growl of irritation. “Help me!”

He realized he was holding back, even now when he was being harsher than he’d ever been with Serena or Katrina, it wasn’t enough for Susie. She wanted it wild and mean and fierce, but Max had trained himself a long time ago not to give into those desires. He wasn’t even sure he knew how to be the wolf she needed after all those years of conditioning with beta wolves.

“Now, Maxwell!” Susie let out a furious wolf growl. Her voice was dangerous and primal with the wolf in her. “Be my mate, not theirs.
You’re mine
. Do it right!”

Her words forced the click of nature before he had even realized she’d done it. He growled, his lip curling back in insult. He surged forward to sink his teeth into the curve of her neck, latching onto sensitive skin and tissue. He tugged roughly, refusing to let go as the addictive taste of Susie’s blood filled his mouth. He reached between their straining bodies, finding Susie unbelievably wet for him. He pushed two fingers into her harshly and then curved them up to find that soft place inside her that would always make a female lose the tight hold on her humanity.