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“Hi, Trayis!”
“Tell her hi back. Now go spend time with your mate and sons. I’ll be by at breakfast.”
“We’ll see you at eight sharp.”
Trayis ended the call and sighed. He stood and paced the narrow space between the couch and two chairs. Shay’s words echoed in his head about why she’d chosen him. If she’d expected kindness or some great first sexual experience, he’d let her down.
“Fuck.”
He showered and left the trailer naked, shifted, and then sniffed the ground. It didn’t take long to pick up Shay’s scent. He growled when he realized she’d stuck to the woods and avoided any of the trails that ran through the area. He lost her scent a few times but found it anywhere she’d brushed up against bushes and trees, since she’d had to make her own path through the vegetation. As he continued to track her, most of the pack cabins were left behind…until he finally came to a lone cabin sitting far from the others.
He raised his head, studying it. Lights glowed behind closed curtains.
It wasn’t a big place, probably no more than six hundred square feet, if that. He softly padded onto the porch and sniffed at the swing. Shay’s scent covered it. He’d found her home. He went to the door and cocked his head, picking up the sound of a television.
He hesitated, debating on shifting back to skin or returning to the trailer. She’d made it home safely. He’d worried about her passing out from blood loss.
He sank down and curled up on her porch, resting part of his body against the door. It creaked slightly, and the television muted. He could hear her breathing, though, and her steps when she came closer to the door.
Trayis got up and shifted. It would be better for her to find him naked in skin than to see his animal form. It tended to freak out his brother’s Lycan pack when he ran with them.
“Go away,” Shay muttered. “Today was more than enough. Don’t make me call Marcia.”
He cleared his throat. “I thought you said you weren’t going to tell anyone what happened between us.”
A lock clicked and Shay jerked open the door—then gaped.
He took in his fill of her, too. She had damp hair from a shower and wore a cute two-piece pajama set with short sleeves and pants that fell to her calves. He grinned, unable to help it.
“I take it you like cats. Does your pack know?”
She glanced down her body to stare at the print of various kittens, but her gaze froze when she realized he stood there without anything on. She gasped and jerked her chin up. “I thought you were the Bitch Trio. What do you want, Trayis? Why are you here?”
Studying her as she spoke, he noticed subtle things…like how her eyes were red and a bit puffy. How her voice sounded a little huskier than normal. It twisted him up inside. She’d been crying. He felt like a bastard. “I came to apologize.”
“Minus your clothes?”
“I had to track where you lived. I do that better in fur.”
She spun away but left the door open. “Come in before you’re seen.” She yanked a blanket off the back of her couch and held it out, keeping her gaze averted from his body.
“By who? You live pretty far away from the others.”
“Sentries patrol every hour because I’m out here.”
He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The place was as tiny as he thought. The living room barely contained the couch, a slim coffee table, and a television over the fireplace mantel. The kitchen was an eight-foot-long strip containing a small counter with an oven, stovetop, and fridge that had all seen far better days. She didn’t even have a dining table. The compact bathroom sat at the back under a loft section. A ladder rested next to that door, and he glanced up at the open loft. It couldn’t have been more than six feet deep and seven feet across.
“You sleep up there?”
She shook the blanket. “Put this on. I refuse to talk to you otherwise.”
He moved closer, invading her space. She looked so tiny compared to him. Her scent filled his nose. Vanilla and coconut shampoo, some mixed-fruit body wash, and Shay’s. His dick began to harden.
He backed off, taking the blanket. It was soft and fuzzy. He snorted a laugh as he wrapped it around his waist.
“Covered.”
She turned and backed away to put more space between them. “Apology accepted. I don’t hold grudges.”
Her mouth said one thing but he could see the hurt in her eyes. She didn’t seem pissed but he’d obviously caused her to cry. There was no denying that. “Will you sit with me? Give me a chance to make this right? Please?”
“Only because you asked nicely.” She waved to her couch. “And your kind doesn’t say please often.”
“My kind?”
“You’re a dominant with alpha blood. I guessed you would be, since you and Arlis are half-brothers. You share a mother, and she was an alpha female. Most guys like you are too arrogant to think they ever did anything wrong. An apology implies you’re admitting it.”
Arlis was right. Shay had backbone to speak to him that way. He sat, and she planted her little ass on the coffee table instead of next to him. Her gaze kept flicking to his chest. She might be upset, but she was still attracted to him.
He leaned forward, invading her space again. She sat up straighter, and Trayis hid his smile. Those few inches she’d just given herself wouldn’t help her.
“I’ve never taken a virgin to bed before. It unsettled me.”
“I said I accepted your apology.” She began to avoid his gaze again, looking at the cushion next to him, the arm of the couch, and even the old hardwood floor between them.
“Shay?”
“Yes?”
“It’s polite to look at someone while they’re talking to you.”
Her gaze snapped to his, and he saw a flash of anger there. “I’m looking. Happy?”
“Would you like to slap me?” He cocked his cheek her way. “It might make you feel better.”
She clasped her hands together and shoved them between her slightly parted thighs. “No. I don’t want to hit you. That’s not my way.”
“You’re part Lycan. They enjoy a little violence.”
“But I’m mostly not.” Her gaze dropped again. “Do you want to know what I inherited from my dad? My hearing is good. I heal fast for a human but not as well as a Werewolf.” She sighed. “I can pick up vibes if someone’s throwing them out. My senses are keener, I can feel it most of the time when someone is close to me. That’s it. Oh—and I can eat without gaining a bunch of weight. I didn’t realize that until I got into watching a lot of human shows. They always complain about how eating a sliver of pie or whatever adds five pounds to their ass. I’ve eaten plenty of pies without having to buy larger pants.
“I’m not old enough yet to know if my aging will slow. I’ll find out in a few years, I guess. I don’t even look like my dad. My foster mom says I’m almost an exact replica of my mother, right down to my short stature and small bones. I got her dark blonde hair, light brown eyes, and her features. Plus a ton of human weaknesses.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being so human.”
Her head snapped up and she glared at him. “Are you kidding?”
“No.”
“Now you’re being too kind. Great.” She lowered her chin. “I forgive you. You wigged out because I didn’t tell you I’d never slept with a guy before. I get it. You think I had ulterior motives. I didn’t. But it’s all good. I’m not even going to tell my best friend what happened, okay? And Arlis will never find out.”
“Why do you think I’m being kind when I tell you there’s nothing wrong with you?”
She stood, avoided touching him, and put the coffee table between them. She paced the small space. “You don’t know what it’s like growing up in a pack when you’re the weakest member.” She stopped, sighed—and began to pace again.
“Tell me.”
“Sylvia had to homeschool me. The other kids and parents didn’t wa
nt me at Diego’s house. He’s the teacher for the pack. All Lycan kids go there. Just not me. He had to send my homework home, and my foster mom helped me learn everything.”
“Why?”
She sighed. “The parents believed I would hold their kids back if they had to ‘adjust to my flaws.’ Being physically weaker translated to them believing I’d have problems learning how to read and stuff. It was all stupid. But the other instructors agreed. On day one of outdoor pup training, I couldn’t keep up when they had us running together. I was four, and everyone just left me behind. I wasn’t fast, my reflexes were crap. I even got lost—my sense of direction sucks. There wasn’t a day two. I was banned from returning. The others got to learn our territory, run and play together as they were taught to fight to defend themselves…but me?” She turned and flashed him a bitter look. “In our teens, Marcia taught me how to fight well enough to be able to defend myself against a human. That’s the only training I’ve received. And she and Rod were, and still are, my only friends.” She snorted slightly. “Let’s just say I have a real love of books. Not that reading’s a bad thing. It isn’t. But books are my life. My adventures.”
He ached for her. It must have been so lonely. No pup should be ostracized that way.
“My foster siblings were great. Don’t get me wrong. Sylvia and Dean birthed three kids, then a big gap, before having their last two. The older ones began to mate by the time I was five. Marcia is my age, and Rod’s a year older. They kept me sane by playing with me and spending time with me, but they were also busy a lot of the time. Going to a school room I couldn’t attend. Outdoor pack training that I was banned from. My foster family loved me…they didn’t have to take me into their home, yet they did. It was my safe haven, but I was lonely. The other kids teased me; some of them were flat-out cruel. Most of the adults were, too.”
“Because you’re too human, or from what happened to your parents?”
She shrugged. “Both. It doesn’t matter.” She retook her seat on the coffee table and stared at her hands laced together. “I used to dream that my Were side would kick in when I hit puberty, like some other late bloomers, and I’d become some super badass. Make them all sorry for the way they’d treated me and finally be accepted.” A sad smile curved her lips but it disappeared fast. “That didn’t happen. I can’t shift at all. Not even a hint of claw. No fangs.”
He wanted to hold her. “Shay.”
She refused to look at him. “You want to know how I made it to my age a virgin?” Her shoulders slumped farther.
“You don’t have to tell me.” He had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer, judging by her defeated posture.
“No. You should know. My dad got my mom pregnant right off the bat. Two-week vacation and he came home with a pregnant mate. Everyone in the pack fears I’m just like her. That I’ll get pregnant if they fuck me even once, and they’ll be forced to mate me. Some even think I’ll overdose on pills the way she did, and take my mate out with me. And if that’s not enough to keep everyone away, they think I carry weak genes. My father was one of the strongest enforcers in the pack. But he bred with my mom…and got me.” She kept her chin tucked, eyes closed. “Nobody wants the kind of child I was.”
She was breaking his heart. “That’s bullshit. You’re half Lycan. If you mated and had a child with a full-blood, your child would shift.”
“They don’t care about statistics. I’m viewed as so weak and pathetic, they don’t see me as any part Werewolf.”
Unable to stop himself, Trayis reached out and grabbed her. She gasped as he lifted her and sat her across his lap. He wrapped both arms around her waist when she tried to get away.
“Hold still,” he ordered.
She stopped struggling and, after a pause, relaxed in his arms, resting her cheek against his chest. “And now you feel sorry for me.”
“No. I’m pissed that you live with a bunch of idiots who didn’t raise smarter pups, and that my brother didn’t rain hell on his pack every time they mistreated you until it stopped for good.”
She shook her head. “Thanks. Anyway…the only time guys approach is when they want blow jobs or anal sex. No worries over a condom breaking…not that they’d wear one. My vagina is about as appealing as the plague, to be blunt. Plus, there’s the being-treated-like-shit-my-entire-life thing. Not exactly a turn-on, you know? Even the ones who didn’t taunt or tease me, still kept quiet and allowed it to happen. The only boy who ever stood up for me was Rod. And he’s like a brother.”
He rested his chin on the top of her head. He was so mad he wanted to snarl, imagining what she’d endured. The urge to beat every male in her pack who had ever approached her as if she was something to use for their own selfish pleasure had Trayis wanting names, so he could track them down.
He’d noticed she hadn’t mentioned them wanting to perform oral sex on her. That explained how she’d reacted to his mouth on her pussy. That had to have been a first for her, too.
Now wasn’t the time though to seek vengeance. So he tried to lighten her mood. “You said ‘vagina.’”
She put her hand on his chest and lightly tapped him. “Don’t make me laugh. I’m trying to be serious. I picked you because you were nice to me, Trayis, and I’d had fantasies about you for years.”
His dick stirred. “What kind of fantasies?”
Now she did laugh slightly. “Well, I read a lot, remember? And I’m not confessing anything about you. But suffice to say, the only romance in my life is written by authors. I may have been a virgin, but I certainly know what my clit is. I’ve gotten myself off plenty. I just never dared to buy things. And…I wasn’t using you, Trayis. Not the way you accused me of. I just didn’t want to die a virgin, and it’s likely I would have, living here. I’ve always been attracted to you, and since you live in Alaska, you were a safe choice. Was that wrong?”
“No.”
“Werewolves are into casual sex. I truly didn’t think you’d get upset.”
He snuggled her closer, liking how she fit on his lap. He’d never been one to cuddle a woman, but it felt nice. “It just surprised me. Did you eat?”
“I had a frozen pizza.”
“That’s not real food.”
She laughed. “You sound like my foster mom.”
“She’s wise.” He ran his hand down her back. “Are you still experiencing any dizzy spells?”
“No.”
“Did I hurt you?”
“I’m a little tender but that’s to be expected. You’re not exactly small down there.”
She was, though. “You should show me. I don’t smell blood, but I’d feel better if I made sure you were healing.”
She tensed in his arms. “Are you a doctor?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t need to pretend you’re my gynecologist.”
He smiled. “What if I want to?”
She lifted her cheek off his chest to stare at him, looking more than a little confused. “Are you hitting on me?”
That confusion broke his heart all over again. She was a beautiful woman who apparently had no clue what she did to men. “I want to get you out of your kitten-covered pajamas and have you spread your thighs for me again. Remember the last time? I bet I can make you forget all about being sore. I have a magic tongue.” He winked.
She blushed. “Why? I already forgave you. You don’t need to make anything up to me.”
“You think that’s why I want to lick your pussy until you cry out my name?”
“Men don’t really like to do that.”
He reached up and slid his hand into her hair, getting a good hold. “You’ve never known any men, doll. Just a bunch of morons who are blind and too stupid to live.” His gaze left hers to glance up at the loft. “Tell me it’s bigger up there than it looks.”
She shook her head. “It fits a twin bed and a narrow dresser.”
“Why’d you pick such a tiny home?”
“To avoid running into pack al
l the time. It was the only cabin livable but still safe.”
He hated that answer but hid his feelings on the matter. “Do you have more condoms?”
She shook her head. “I gave you the only ones I had.”
“Let’s go back to my place, then. We have three left. Pack a bag. You’re sleeping with me tonight.”
Her lips parted, and he saw indecision in her eyes. More confusion, too.
“Shay?”
“What?”
“When a man wants to make things up to you, give him a break by saying yes. I promise this time things are going to be much better.” He smiled. “You’re not a virgin anymore. Nothing to freak out about this time.”
She nodded. “I’ll get an outfit for tomorrow.”
“How brave are you?”
“Very. I went after you, didn’t I?”
Damn, she was cute. “I don’t look like your pack while shifted into my other form. I’m a lot bigger, have less fur, and I’m shaped a bit different. It would be faster if you rode my back. Ever gotten a ride before?”
“No.”
“You’re about to. I’ll be waiting outside. Just climb on my back.” He lifted her off his lap and set her on her feet. The blanket fell to the floor, and he knew she noticed his stiff cock.
“This is how much I want you, Shay. Hurry up.”
He strode out of her cabin to the porch and grinned, before letting go of his skin and landing on all fours.
Chapter Four
Shay couldn’t say Trayis hadn’t warned her. It was just that she’d thought he might be joking about the ride. The beast on her porch was far larger than any Werewolf she’d ever seen. She dropped the small backpack and crouched next to him, taking in every detail.
His head was large with a shorter muzzle. He had pointed ears like a wolf but he didn’t really look like one otherwise. He was far scarier in appearance. Golden eyes regarded her as he lowered his head and twisted it a bit.
She reached up and lightly raked her fingernails between his ear. His fur felt soft but a lot thinner than that of anyone in her foster family. They were the only ones she’d touched before while shifted.