Lone Wolf Dawn

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

Hunter’s anger hovered over our hotel room like a lead weight. The puppies had been fed and washed and were now nestled down amid half a dozen pillows in the bathtub. We hadn’t heard a peep out of them for ten minutes, a sure sign that even Star was fast asleep at last.

Which meant my mate was finally free to release the pent-up frustration that had been building inside him during the entire drive home. “You were right there and you didn’t even bother talking to your mother?” he demanded. The uber-alpha’s amber eyes cut through my skin and made a beeline for my already aching heart.

Within my human body, my lupine half whimpered as the overwhelming aroma of frigid root beer splashed over us like an ocean wave tumbling a failed surfer toward shore. The effect was pure alpha compulsion, but my mate hadn’t put any intention behind it—only anger. Even so, I felt my shoulders bowing, my knees trembling, and the ground beckoning me to come closer.

The sensation pissed me off.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” I rebutted, opening my mouth with an effort. “But, no, I didn’t.”

I’d taken to letting my inner wolf hang out behind my eyes lately, but now I shushed her the same way I’d calmed the puppies moments earlier. And as my animal half disappeared from view, so did Hunter’s alpha compulsion. Abruptly, I was able to stand tall once more.

To stand tall and to march over to my companion, shoving both hands against his broad chest in a schoolyard show of aggression. “Playing top dog with your mate isn’t cool,” I ground out, expecting Hunter to apologize as he always had in the past when his wolf got the better of him and he slapped my weaker animal down.

Instead, the uber-alpha’s usually amber eyes glinted gold as he wrapped two huge hands under my armpits and lifted me up so we saw eye to eye. My feet kicked against nothing and I gulped. I liked to treat Hunter like my own personal lap dog, but the truth was that his overwhelming alpha dominance combined with his massive strength meant he could snap me like a twig if he felt like it. Maybe sass and backtalk wasn’t always such a smart move.

“Playing like you’re not my mate isn’t cool either,” Hunter rebutted after a long moment of tense silence.

Then his mouth smashed into mine and his hands slipped down to cradle my butt as I wrapped my legs around his waist. My mate’s proximity had flicked an internal switch from anger to arousal in an instant and I growled with pleasure as his tongue invaded my mouth, plundering and pillaging rather than easing into his usual gentle pleasuring.

Yep, my evasions of the L word earlier that day hadn’t been overlooked. Hunter was just as pissed as he was turned on.

Well, so was I. Time to see if angry s*x is as delicious as happy s*x.

My back slammed up against a wall as we twirled through the air. I should have felt dizzy from the abrupt motion. But my eyes were still wide open and latched onto Hunter’s, a lifeline in the turbulent sea of our churning emotions.

The funeral, the puppy mill, my misspent childhood all fled from my mind as I grabbed Hunter’s hair in one fist, pulling him closer even as I fumbled at the clothes that lay between us. For all that was holy, what had he been thinking this morning when he donned a belt?

Luckily, my mate only needed one hand to hold me up now that my spine was sandwiched between his broad chest and the room’s cheerfully painted drywall. So his other five fingers were free to flick and twist and yank.

In seconds, both of our flies were open, my panties pushed to one side and Hunter’s engorged c**k throbbing at my entrance. I was sopping wet with anticipation, shaking with desire, barely able to gasp around the passion that consumed us both.

But then Hunter paused and drew back, breaking the liplocked battle that I hesitated to call a kiss. Touching his forehead to mine, he closed his eyes and whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...”

Great. Of all the moments to squash his wolf....

So I took matters into my own hands, both literally and figuratively. “I’m not sorry and I did mean to,” I countered, wrenching myself down onto my mate’s member before he could stop me.

As always, Hunter filled me to bursting. But his sheer size wasn’t enough to still the aching neediness within. “Take me,” I growled to a bloodling who had regained his humanity at just the wrong moment.

For the first time since our first time, I thought Hunter might refuse my advances. My companion was in complete control as he held me aloft three feet above the ground, his broad hands and strong arms in charge of determining whether we ground together fast or slow or not at all.

As Hunter’s lips thinned into a hard line, I had a feeling he might be leaning toward not at all.

Confirming my hypothesis, my mate yanked me up off his c**k and I gasped at the sudden emptiness within. Uh uh, big guy, I thought. Putting every ounce of strength I had into the gesture, I writhed within his grip, wet folds skimming over iron hardness.

Now it was Hunter’s turn to growl. “We’re not done talking about this,” he muttered.

But I didn’t care. Because my mate had already surrendered to my need, ramming me back down around his hard length. The exquisite agony forced my eyes to squeeze shut as his manhood penetrated to the very core of my being.

Hunter was raw and rough and ruthless with desire. I was more animal than human as I responded in kind. We possessed each other in a frenzy, pounding, devouring, arching, erupting.

At last, sated, I sagged against his clad chest. Slipping fingers between the buttons of my mate’s shirt, I sought the bare skin above his galloping heart. Because despite the contentment of my body, a hard, melancholy knot remained in my throat that only skin-on-skin contact would ease.

Hunter was as present as ever by my side. But the tides were shifting, and I wasn’t sure even our mate bond would be sufficient to allow us to ride out the next wave together. Instead, I had a sinking suspicion that forces beyond our control would tear us asunder and shove us apart, leaving nothing to do but struggle to keep our heads above water as we stumbled toward opposite shores.

Sensing my changing mood, Hunter clenched me tighter in his arms. But despite the uber-alpha’s comforting proximity, I’d never felt quite so much alone.

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