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Harper

I didn’t want him to die saving us. I didn’t want Daria getting hurt, or worse.

I just wanted everyone I cared about to be OK.

That’s why I leaned forward, pressing a tremulous kiss to his lips.

One kiss bled into the other because that’s the way it was with us.

We circled each other warily, like angry dogs, but the moment we collided? It was electric.

I found myself clawing at him, tugging at the neck of his shirt to get to more of him.

He responded instantly, tearing his shirt up and over his head as my hands fanned over his chest. Tiny little scars, that’s what I noticed close up, faded almost to the point of being invisible, but my sensitive fingertips registered each one.

Then my hands slid down to try to match them to the big slash on his side.

His eyes met mine and I couldn’t look away as I saw the obvious pain there.

Mack was too tired to maintain the mask, it shattered into smaller and smaller pieces by the second.

The pain he’d been forced to endure, then, now, it was right there.

It informed his every decision, kept his eyes open, even as the lids grew heavier and heavier, determined to protect us from it.

And now I wanted to return the favour.

I leaned in, feeling his stubble graze my cheek as I thrust my nose into his hair. I breathed in that woody scent, trying to memorise it, before kissing my way down his throat. My blunt, human teeth were bared, and when I nipped at his skin, his grip tightened.

“Careful.” The wolf was riding him hard. “I’m so fucking close, Harper.”

“Close to what?” I asked, right before I bit down.

I was dislodged in seconds, thrown on my back on the couch with him looming over me.

“The wolf wants to mark you,” he growled. “Claim you.”

“Maybe that’s exactly what I want.”

He pulled back, eyes almost silver as he stared at me.

“Harper, you can’t mean?—”

“Can’t I?” My thighs wrapped around his waist, and he didn’t resist when I pulled him closer. “Aren’t you the one destined to love me, to care for me, to protect me?”

“Yeah, but?—”

“Out of all the men in the world, the three of you are the only ones perfect for me.” I flipped us back, so he was sitting on the couch and I was straddling him.

I wasn’t strong enough to pin him, but when I pushed his arms wide, holding them against the couch, he let me.

“Tor gave me a bit of advice last night.”

“Great.” He shook his head. “Please hit me with his pearls of wisdom.”

“He told me that nothing’s certain.” My fingers trailed along the inside of his arms. “That waiting around for the perfect moment is futile, because it will never come. That sometimes you have to move forward because…” My eyes closed for just a second before I sucked in a breath and forged on, “At some point, the pain of staying where you are is worse than the potential pain of changing. That at some point, you just have to make the jump and hope it pans out.”

“Harper…” Mack had a whole lot more to say, but I yanked my shirt up and over my head. When I reached behind to unclasp my bra, he was there, taking over. “This is a really bad idea.”

“It was all a bad idea, Fur Face,” I said, leaning forward. My breasts bobbed just short of his face and he watched their every movement. “So, are you going to jump with me or what?”

I wanted that low groan, then him lunging forward, his hands sliding up my back as his lips landed on one breast. I wanted the greedy way he sucked on one nipple, pulling almost painful thrills of pleasure from me.

I loved the way that rock hard lump felt in his pants as I ground down on him, but I liked it better when I pulled away, staring into his eyes, daring him to stop me, as I pulled his cock out.

I wanted him, wanted this, had been teased beyond all reason by all of those damn dreams, but…

“Harper…” he gasped as I started to swivel my hand up and down his entire length.

“Worried you’re going to come too soon?” I asked with a grin, smearing my thumb through the precum pooling over the swollen head. “Me too.”

“Harper!”

I wanted the terrible stretch that came from shifting on his lap, then easing him in. Physically, I wasn’t quite ready, and yet emotionally I was completely. I needed this to hurt just a little, because I had a plan.

“Harper… fuck…” His hands went around my waist, and for a moment I feared he’d pluck me off his lap, but instead he pulled me down harder. “You want this, beautiful? You want every inch of me?”

“Fuck…” I hissed as he thrust deeper. “Yes, more!”

“You got it.”

I was on top, supposed to be fucking him, but that was never going to work. He topped from beneath me, thrusting up and into me over and over. The strokes were punishing and perfect, brutal and exactly what I needed. My hands went around his neck, moving in closer to whisper in his ear.

“I need your knot.”

“No…” That was the sound of a man’s soul coming to pieces, but I’d put it back together, I was sure of it.

“Yes, Mack, please. I’m so full, but there’s something I need.”

They’d ruined me for human men. That ache that started up inside me, it’d never happened before I started messing with them, and it bit hard now.

If I was with Tor and Kieran, one of them would work their fingers inside me, stroking that spot until I saw stars, but that was only a poor substitute for this.

“I can’t, Harper.” He bared his fangs, his eyes perfectly silver now.

“I can’t, because if I do…” I ground down, feeling something hard and swollen at my entrance, demanding access.

His strokes faltered at the feeling of it.

I was both terrified and needy all at the same time.

“If I do, I will mark you and make you mine.”

My eyelids flicked open and I stared into his eyes.

“Do it, Mack.”

“But—”

“Do it.” My breath hitched as I felt him move, because we were so damn close. “Do it, please.” This was all part of the plan, and yet I hadn’t anticipated this. Needing everything he had to give me and more. Fuck, it he didn’t knot me right fucking now, I’d…

Oh my god.

As he shoved himself deeper, his hands pulled me down and for just a second, I questioned my life decisions.

Too much! my body shouted, right before I realised this was exactly what I needed.

The ache transmuted the moment his knot popped in, blossoming instead into a kind of pleasure I didn’t even know was possible.

“Fuck…” I hissed, testing the limits of our link before bearing back down. I was rocking my hips now, unable to stop from feeling his knot rub against me over and over.

“Harper, tell me you’re OK,” he snapped. “Harper!”

“I’m…” My voice was all breathy and my head was spinning a little, the whole world feeling too soft, except for him. “I feel amazing.”

His arms went around me, holding me tight.

“You are amazing.” His hips thrust harder, faster into me. “Too fucking good for me. More than I ever deserved. I’ll protect you, Harper. Make sure that bastard never lays a finger on you, but…”

As his fangs flashed, my head dropped to one side, baring my neck. What had started as a cunning plan became destiny. This was what I wanted, needed. Him lunging forward, his teeth nipping my skin, then sinking in.

You’ll always be mine . His voice reverberated through my head. Always mine.

And he was mine too. Mack wanted to protect me, but I felt the same about him, about Daria, about everyone I cared about.

Dax would make mincemeat out of as many people as he could to get to Mack, but I needed to make sure he got nowhere near him, using the strength of our very big, very expansive pack.

But right now, I needed to come hard, the sounds of his gasps and mine drowning out the TV as I milked his knot dry.

“Fuck…” Mack looked exhausted. Happy, but completely trashed as he laid us down on the couch. I tried to wriggle free, but his hands slapped down on my hips, holding me still. “Shouldn’t have done that.” His eyelids were already fluttering closed. “We’re stuck here now.”

“So maybe you should sleep.” My arms went around him, smoothing small circles across his shoulder blades.

“Can’t…” he mumbled, but his body had other ideas. As his breathing evened out, I started to think he was relaxing, but when I started to wiggle, his grip tightened. “Just… stay here, Harper.”

It was not a good sign that the moment we were mated, I was deceiving him.

I told myself it was for our own good, but it didn’t make me feel any better when Mack’s knot finally deflated, letting me slip free.

With a few very careful movements, I eased myself out from under Mack’s grip, then tiptoed up the stairs.

I’d watched him punch in the security code, because no one was leaving me locked down in the basement without a way out.

The door popped open and then I stepped out.

“Harper—!” Dax purred as I put through the call.

“Where,” I snapped, not willing to play his stupid game.

“Where what, my?—?”

“Where is Daria?” The words came out through gritted teeth. “Where do you want me to go?” I swallowed hard. “Where are you?”

“My brother knows,” came Dax’s sly reply.

“Well, I’m not with Mack right now.” The mating mark on my neck throbbed, forcing me to slap a hand down over it. “So why don’t you just cut the bullshit and tell me where you are?”

“Trouble in paradise?” he asked. “Or just you thinking you can save my brother from his fate?”

That cut way too close to how I actually felt. I rubbed at my forehead.

“Swap Daria for me, that’s what you said,” I growled. “I’ve slipped away from Mack and will come to you.”

“That betrayal will kill my brother.”

Dax didn’t exactly sound sad about it.

“And that should make you really happy, so, are we doing this or not?”

A whistle of breath, then he finally spilled the beans.

“The abandoned quarry in the south,” he replied. “Follow the river and you’ll find me.”

“Then put Daria on the phone.”

“Having second thoughts?” His voice grew colder, harder by the second. “Don’t try to betray me, my mate. You won’t like the consequences.”

“And I just want to make sure my friend is still alive before I walk right into the wolves’ den.”

Dax didn’t say a thing, but the muffled sounds made clear he was on the move. Someone said something, then Dar came on the line.

“Harper?” I’d never heard that kind of terror in my friend’s voice and after this, I’d do whatever it took to make sure it never happened again.

“Dar, I am so, so sorry?—”

“Don’t come, Harp. I mean it.” Her shaky voice was killing me. “Don’t. He’s going to?—”

“Wait for his fated mate with open arms.” Dax’s slimy voice cut her off. “Tick tock, Harper. The boys are getting restless.”

“I’m on my way.”

I walked through the house, grabbing my boots, Mack’s keys, before going out into the garage, but as I did so, I put through a call.

“Harper?” All the fear, all the anxiety, I was feeling was evident in Kieran’s tone. “Are you alright? Where’s Mack?”

“Downstairs, asleep, in the basement safe room of doom where I left him,” I replied. “But don’t ask me about that. I’m on my way to Dax’s.”

“What? No, Harper?—!”

“Yes, and I need you and your dads and every damn bear shifter you can find to follow me. Tor and the tigers too. After I get off the phone, I’m calling the cops.

If they’ve been looking for Dax all this time, then maybe they can bring in the SWAT team or whatever they’ve got. He has Daria, Kieran.”

“Fuck…”

“You told me to jump last night, Kieran, and this is me jumping.” A moment of silence.

“I need you and everyone else you can drag into this fight to catch me. I’m going to his lair and I’m gonna need back up.

Back up that can turn this fuck and his stupid cronies into bloody smears on the ground before Mack even wakes up. ”

He was going to argue, tell me to wait for him, but I’d already taken too long.

Kieran would rue the day he encouraged me to jump into anything, because I may have been just a little reckless at times.

I threw myself behind the wheel and then started the engine, as I put through a call to Tor, then the police.

The police dispatch I spoke to was incredulous, then patched me through.

The detective I spoke to made clear this was a very bad plan, right as I replied this was the way it was going down and he and his team could be there to take down a notorious shifter underworld figure or be held responsible for my and Daria’s deaths.

I heard the far off wail of police sirens as I got out of the car, having bumped along the dirt road to get to the quarry.

The hideout was ingenious in a way, forged from an old mine shaft.

The rabbit’s warren of tunnels underneath the quarry made clear it would be near impossible for people to track Dax and his crew down.

Then he emerged from the darkness. A gasp escaped me as Daria was hauled forward.

That bruise on her face? Dax would fucking pay for that, but the moment he saw my thunderous expression, he smiled.

No one would ever mistake him for Mack. My grumpy mate had walls ten feet high to protect his heart. Dax’s cold, calculating crazy was out there for everyone to see. He flashed a fang, then moved closer, but I retreated back to the car.

“Let her go,” I said.

“You’re not in a position to bargain, my mate,” he sneered.

“Aren’t I?” I pulled my hair back, and sure enough, his expression turned volcanic when he saw the bite mark.

“Your brother claimed me as his. The police are on their way and know where your hideout is.” His associates started muttering at the sound of sirens getting louder.

“You can either use Daria as a hostage or me.”

The fuck shoved her forward, leaving her to stumble, then fall flat on her face since her hands were bound. I darted forward, my eyes on Dax the entire time as I undid her bindings. The keys were shoved into her hand and then I hauled her upright.

“Go,” I urged.

“No, Harp?—”

“Go, Dar.” I nodded slowly. “I’ve got this. Just go.”

“You think you have it all figured out, don’t you?” Dax asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked me up and down. That sly smile didn’t go anywhere, though. “No matter what you have planned, Mack will still come. Even if they take me away in a body bag, he’ll be in the one next to me.”

His hand snapped out, making me realise that there was a reason why I always was scared to just follow my heart. As his fingers buried themselves in my bicep, I was reminded of how many times that had gotten me in serious trouble.

“You along with me.”

C’mon, I thought furiously as I was spun around and held close to Dax’s chest. I’d gathered together a cavalry, and now I needed them to ride over those cliffs and save the day.

While there was still a me left to save.