Page 29 of Hunted Mate (Stalked Mates #1)

G ray

“I didn’t turn into a wolf. Is that because we didn’t do full and proper sex? Or do you turn into something else if it’s anal? Like a small brown dog or something?”

The morning has come, we’ve had pancakes delivered via room service, and she’s amusing herself with impudent questions.

I’m pretending to ignore them.

We are still in the hotel room, and the moon is growing by the hour. I can feel it, even in the daytime when the sun holds sway. I am apprehensive. Something has changed inside my mate—something that will not change back any time soon.

Callie is in denial. She is treating this as a joke. But when the full moon rises, there will be no more capacity for jokes. She will lose her ability to speak, and her body will undergo a violent, brutal shift from which she will never entirely recover.

I am glad we have the privacy of this room. If I can confine her to it, the whole event might pass without chaos or further bloodshed.

She’s been trying to hold back. I’ve seen the effort. I’ve felt the wildness inside her begging to go free. She’s been all teeth and fury lately. And desire. I’ve avoided making love to her in the true sense, knowing what it could precipitate.

Truthfully, I blame myself for all Calista has become.

When I met her, she had never so much as thought of taking a life.

But within hours of my true identity being revealed, she was forced into killing.

It hasn’t really stopped, and though the lives she has taken have been arguably justified, I fear what she might do when her true animal self takes over.

Newly shifted adult females have been known to do terrible things if not properly contained.

That’s why the ritual is normally done in a pack environment.

When a female is first bred, the mating takes place in a small building or room with the pack close.

Not usually in the room, though I have heard of some packs where it is a public affair.

Not great if the female in question happens to be shy.

I also feel the moon’s sway, of course. It makes me more than a little on edge. It makes my animal side yearn to emerge. But I control and contain myself because I will need a human mind to navigate all that is going to happen.

“Am I going to turn into a wolf if we fuck?”

She’s bored and trying to provoke me.

“Maybe,” I say. “Mating is risky. Mating on the full moon makes it almost certain that if something is going to happen, it will happen.”

She looks into my eyes, and plays with my shirt nervously. She’s trying to be brave, but I’m glad to see that she does have some concern inside her. It reminds me she’s still human, not just a complete emotionless monster.

“I want to find out if something is going to happen,” she says “I’ve had all these feelings, weird body sensations, aches and stuff. It really hurts sometimes, but I know we can’t exactly get medical help.”

“Calista, I think you will shift when the moon is at her zenith, or close to it,” I tell her. “I’m sorry, but I think it’s inevitable. The way you’re acting, all you’ve been through, the fact that my father would not pay scientists to be ineffective, it all makes me think something will happen.”

“When’s the moon going to be full?”

“In two days, but though there’s a moment where geographically, the moon is at its most full, that doesn’t mean that’s when you’ll shift. It’s already getting full, and it will exert its influence on you until the phase is completely over.”

“You mean I could burst out of my skin at any time?”

“That’s why we are staying in,” I remind her. “This is why we’re not driving anywhere, not running anywhere, and not going out.”

“But it’s daytime. I won’t shift during the day, will I?”

“It’s not worth the risk,” I tell her. “Consider yourself grounded to this room until the full moon is over.”

“Oh, yes, Daddy,” she grins, teasing me.

I’m not quite old enough to be her father, but I am certainly older than she is by a good decade, and she needs to be daddied sometimes.

There’s an obvious lack of parental influence in her life, but I suppose that is what happens when your parents die when you’re barely a teenager and you are left alone in the world with an inordinate amount of money.

“You know if you so much as leave the room, I will take you over my knee and spank you until you cry,” I tell her.

She grins, and looks more pleased than she probably wants to. Callie responds well to discipline. I know her ass is sore as hell right now, but she is in a very good mood, all things considered.

“What are we going to do to entertain ourselves until then?” she asks with a coy smile. “We might get really bored.”

“I could never be bored with you,” I tell her, reaching for her and pulling her over to me. “Do you want to cuddle and watch a movie, or do you want me to whip your ass?”

She giggles.

I arch a brow.

Interesting. She’s not choosing the movie right away.

I know what that means. So I give her what she wants.

I pull her over my lap as I’m lying on the bed and give her a light little spanking.

I don’t want to hurt her, but I do want to ensure that she knows I’ll give her what she needs, when she needs it.

She was wearing the hotel robe, so I snug it off her and let her lie bare over my lap, giving her a massage and a spanking, and very pleasant intimate attention for the both of us. Her thighs spread quite naturally and submissively for me, and I start to think this might all be settled after all.

Maybe the wildness she displayed when she escaped the laboratory was just in aid of escape and fear. Maybe now that she’s with me, she’s not going to be a problem at all. I like that idea. I like that I am settling her, and that she is letting me do it.

“Your butt is still red from last night,” I tell her. “You could be in trouble if you deserve another spanking any time soon. Better behave yourself, hmm?”

“I am trying,” she says, wriggling. “We’re in this super cool city—I love Louisiana. I’ve never been down here before, and I feel like I’ve been missing out my entire life. New York has a kind of magic to it too, you know? But it’s different. Another kind of energy.”

“I do know what you mean,” I say, tapping her butt lightly. “There’s power in these places. There’s power in all sorts of places in this world. If we take my plan, we can visit a number of them. You’ll feel the flow of energy differently in each of those places.”

“You’re really trying to get me to run,” she giggles.

“I can’t run. I am Calista Hart. People will always know where I am.

A lot of people. Of all kinds. Gossip people.

Business people. Other people. I probably don’t know everybody who knows where I am.

Oh, Molly and Mark. They don’t know. I think they’re just hanging out. ”

It was quite sweet of her to offer those two strays protection from the New York wolves.

Deep down, Calista understands the obligations that come with much of her wealth, and she shares it where and how she can.

When I worked for the paper, we often reported on the works being done by the many charities under her name.

She’s a good person. I want to make sure she has a very long and happy life with me.

Callie

I’m bored. The hotel room is so tiny. I’ve been roaming since I got kidnapped and put through god knows what.

It felt good to travel, to have the whole world at my wheels.

But Gray is just obsessed with me being here, and staying here.

I think he’s traumatized by all of this, more than I am even.

I know all the bad things happened to me, but sometimes it’s just as hard to be the person who tries to fix the bad thing as it is to be the person going through the bad thing.

I do get him to get me a phone, though, and he gets himself one too. We play a few rounds of sudoku, scroll some reels, and then I do what I actually wanted to do and spend a little money.

I’m not staying in this damn hotel room.

Gray is reading the news, scrolling through his phone with a faint scowl on his face. He’s so sexy when he’s serious. He’s sexy when he’s not serious too. He’s hot. And brutal. And kind of maybe evil, but not in a way that I have to worry about.

“Do you really want to do this here?”

“What?”

“The change-y shifty thing. I found a place on an app for people of means. There’s a very nice house in the middle of nowhere on fifty acres, surrounded by forest. Nobody will know what we’re doing out there.”

“We’re staying put,” he says firmly.

“What if I eat the bellboy?”

He pauses for a moment.

“We’re going to this house you found,” he says, sounding just as definitive about that as he sounded about staying just moments ago.

I clap my hands and squeal excitedly. “And we can go shopping before we go, because we will need clothes and food and things. It will be fun!”

“We are keeping a low profile, so I will go shopping and you will wait in the car…”

“You’re going to deny me the pleasures of the grocery store? Why?” I pout.

“Because I don’t trust you not to do something stupid. We have to keep a low profile. I do not want to be found by either my family, or anybody else. You are precious to me, and you are in danger, and I have already failed you once.”

“You didn’t fail me!” I exclaim. “You didn’t know he was going to do that—did you?”

“No. My father has never kidnapped a lover of mine and forced her through a risky experimental medical procedure designed to turn her into a werewolf through some means other than birth or bite.”

“So it can be transmitted by biting?”

“No. Yes. Maybe. Hard to say. They say it can be, but you were ripped half to shreds and you clearly never shifted. So it wasn’t true in your case. Truth is, nobody really understands the nature of our being. Werewolves aren’t well studied.”

“Like women,” I sigh.

“Hm?”