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5

CODY

“I won’t run again.” Riley looked up at me with wide eyes.

I kept my gaze focused on my task–tying her to the headboard. Holy fuck. She was mine. There was zero question now. Not with how she’d run and my wolf sensing it as her leaving but also as a more primal need to be chased and claimed. To be bitten and fucked. The fact that she’d done it without a bra, her perky tits bouncing beneath the thin t-shirt as she went, made it even more potent. Running and teasing my wolf to go after her .

I carried her into the house–tossed over my shoulder with one arm over her thighs–and grabbed a length of rope from the mud room on the way back to the bedroom.

Dropping her onto the bed–where my wolf practically howled with satisfaction–she bounced once before I began to secure her one wrist. There was plenty of slack; she could move around, even stand beside the bed, but she wasn’t running off again.

She was right where I wanted her.

“I know,” I said, once I calmed my wolf.

“Then don’t tie me up.”

I heard the tinge of fear in her voice, and I stilled my hands as I finished the knot. Met her dark gaze. In the past, I knew her as a friend of Tyler’s. Saw her at school events, around town with a gang of friends. Never this close. I’d never once thought the color of her eyes was like the finest whiskey. Or that her pulse was thrumming in her neck where I wanted to lick. That her tits were a perfect handful and begging to be played with.

She was young. I don’t do young. She had a life ahead of her I’d already done. Dreams solidified. If I made her mine, I’d be taking all that away from her. Locking her into a life with a fucking forty-year-old .

“I did this wrong,” I admitted, my fingers stilling on the rope.

“You think?” she snapped, dark eyes filled with fire.

“Tyler told me about your time by the river,” I explained.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“Heard about the kiss.”

Her cheeks turned bright red, and she glanced away.

“That you both found it… lacking. Yes?”

Smart girl that she was, she only nodded.

“But you were drawn to him.”

She nodded again.

“That’s because he’s my son, and you are my mate.” I rushed on because there was no doubt she had a million questions.

Her gaze whipped to mine, and her brows shot up. “Excuse me?”

I climbed up beside her on the bed. I wanted to straddle her waist, hold her down, and explain myself with a long, claiming kiss, but I’d already fucked this one up pretty good. If I wanted to make her understand, I needed to stop scaring the poor girl. One way to do that was untie her, but that wasn’t happening.

So I’d continue to unintentionally scare her and try to explain at the same time.

“Every shifter has one true mate,” I began. “The female who nature deemed perfect for you. Some believe it’s fate, not nature. It’s true that it’s more than a biological match–it’s a true connection. Since there’s only one, and your mate could be anywhere in the world, most of us don’t even hope to find ours.” I stabbed my fingers through my hair. “Like me. Especially when you’ve stayed in the same small town you grew up in and had a kid.”

Riley’s gaze was riveted to my face but remained quiet.

Did she wear mascara or were her lashes naturally that long and dark? Fuck–I was losing focus. I’d better not look at that mouth of hers, or it would all be over.

I cleared my throat. “My, uh, ex-wife found her mate. It wasn’t me, obviously.”

I couldn’t help but watch when Riley licked her lips, her little pink tongue flicking out. My dick twitched. Balls ached. “So…”

“So, I showed up at your house to take you to Missoula to have the memory of you seeing Tyler shift to a wolf and fight the mountain lion wiped from your head, but the moment I caught your scent back at your place, I realized you belong to me.”

“Am I supposed to call you Daddy or something? Is this a kink of yours? ”

I frowned at what she was suggesting. “What? Hell, no, you’re not calling me Daddy. That’s not a kink of mine. You are my kink.”

Riley started shaking her head slowly. “Uh uh. No. I don’t belong to you.”

Now I did shift positions, straddling my reluctant mate. She was so much smaller than me. Fragile, yet so bold and daring. I had to wonder if she even knew how wild she was.

“Yes. You’re my mate,” I repeated. “The one female who is perfect for me.”

She whimpered, but it sounded more wanton than afraid. It sounded like a pickup line, something a woman longed to hear, but it wasn’t. Although I did have her in bed. Tied to it. Heated and pumping out her sweet scent that called to me.

“I’m gonna kiss you, Riley Abbott,” I warned her, unable to control it a second longer. “And you’re gonna tell me if it feels wrong, like when you kissed Tyler. Or if it feels like you just found the one male who makes your body come alive.”

I lowered my head slowly, giving her time to protest. I might’ve talked a big game, but I wasn’t going to force her into anything she wasn’t ready for. Even if it killed me .

She didn’t stop me. Yes! Those juicy lips of hers parted, and she lifted her face to mine.

I tried to go slowly. Tried to force down the aggression of my wolf, who was howling to claim her. I stroked my lips across hers, taking my time with a few sensual glides before my tongue slid into her mouth.

The feel of her. Her taste. Her scent. FUCK.

The moment she started kissing me back, though, I forgot to go slow. My dick surged against my zipper, pressing into the notch between her legs. I rocked my hips as I fucked her with my tongue, sucked her lips, claimed her mouth like someone was trying to steal it from me.

When I broke the kiss, we were both breathless. I was sure my eyes were glowing amber. Her skin was flushed a lovely shade of pink. Her scent was thicker than ever.

“Well?” I demanded. I stroked my thumb across her silky cheek. Her body trembled beneath mine.

“Untie me,” she whispered as she looked up at me with those chocolate eyes. They were cloudy with desire. She wasn’t unaffected, thank fuck.

“Sugar, the rope’s for your protection. You ran from my wolf,” I explained. “You can’t do that unless you want me to fuck you good and hard. ”

“You’re saying you tied me to the bed, so you won’t fuck me?” The way she took in every inch of me, I wasn’t sure if she was asking because she didn’t want me to or because she did.

“Not without your consent.” That wasn’t a no. It was a no for right now.

“This makes no sense. Tying me to a bed screams that you want to fuck me good and hard.” The sass in her voice only made me want to dominate her more. Spank that sass out of her and then fuck it right back. Again and again. Blood rushed to my dick, and it was possible I could come just from her saying fuck in her breathy, soft voice. My hips flexed, pressing into her. She lifted into it and moaned. I growled.

“Oh, I want to do that,” I said. Yes, she was so much younger. Sweet. Innocent. Clueless to the hardships of life, ones I wanted to shoulder for her. But she ran. She ran . In a pack, that meant chase me, I want to be held down, taken, used.

Riley wasn’t a shifter. But she was mine. That meant she wanted me to do all of those things, even if only subconsciously. For right now. Soon, when I claimed her, she’d be begging for it. She’d know she liked for me to be in charge, to give her what she needed, no matter how filthy it was.

She sniffed. “Well, I don’t. ”

I arched a brow, scanned her gorgeous body, saw the way her nipples pebbled against her t-shirt. “Liar.” I pointed at her tits then circled my finger.

She looked down, and her cheeks flushed a pretty shade of pink as she covered the evidence with her forearm. “I’m not lying.”

I took a deep breath. “Sugar, besides those nipples showing off for me, I can scent your arousal. You’re dripping for it.”

Her mouth fell open as she squirmed because she knew exactly what I meant. “I… I– no way.”

I shrugged. “Fine. You’re not wet for me. Then prove it.”

She cocked her head. “Prove it?”

Nodding, I sat back on my heels and crossed my arms over my chest. “Let’s see how wet you are.”

She held up a hand. “You are not touching my pussy.”

I lifted my chin. “You do it then.”

“I’m tied to the headboard,” she reminded with more of that sass, holding up her wrist with the rope dangling from it.

“With only one arm, and there’s plenty of reach. Use either hand. Slide those fingers inside that sweet cunt and show me. If you’re not hot for me, for this, then– ”

“Then you set me free,” she cut in. “And I go home.”

This was a bargain she wasn’t going to win. I knew she was wet. I could smell her arousal, tangy and sweet in the air. It made my mouth water for a taste.

I leaned down, set my hands on the headboard on either side of her head, so our faces were close. So I hovered over her. So all she could see was me. A few inches more, and we’d kiss again. “If your honey’s dripping and covering your fingers, then I get to lick it up. All of it. From the source.”

Three things happened at once. She swallowed hard, and I imagined her taking my dick deep down her throat. She got wetter, her scent almost heady now. She also moaned, and I had to wonder if she’d ever had a guy go down on her.

Holy shit. I gripped a log of the headboard. If it wasn’t so thick, I’d have snapped the wood.

Was she a–

Was she smelling so sweet because she had her cherry? That she was untouched and all fucking mine?

I growled, and my dick spurted pre-cum.

“You a virgin, Riley?” I asked, the words raw and deep, clawing out of me, so eager to hear the answer.

She blushed and looked away .

Fuck, she was. “Oh, sugar.”

“I know I shouldn’t be one, but I’m not good at it, okay?” she said, her head to the side.

I frowned, confused. She looked ashamed. Why the fuck would she feel that way for not fucking some horny high schooler when she knew–deep down–that she’d been waiting for me?

“How can you be good at something you’ve never done?” I asked, reaching out and tucking her hair behind her ear. It felt like silk between my fingers.

“They said so,” she whispered.

I froze and my wolf went on alert. “ They? ” My voice was dark and deadly, but she didn’t notice. Who the fuck are they?

“Guys I dated. Made out with,” she explained. “Said I was… fat. Cold. Dull. Not worth… That–”

“Stop talking,” I snapped. I remembered what Tyler said about the kiss. He hadn’t mentioned that he thought she was fat. Or cold. But the kiss had been bad. Had her feelings been validated earlier by my own son? And dull? She shined so fucking bright those boys had been blinded. They no doubt felt lacking in her presence and pushed their problems onto her. Well, I was fixing that shit right fucking now.

Her gaze whipped to meet mine at my tone. “See? One kiss, and you agree with– ”

I cut off her words as if my wolf slashed his paw through the air. “I’m angry because you believed them.”

And that those boys had touched what was mine, even though it sounded like youthful fooling around and nothing more.

“I–”

“It was them who weren’t worth your time. Even Tyler.”

Reaching down, I pressed my palm into my dick through my jeans. “See this?” I asked, and her gaze dropped. Grew as she figured out exactly how big I was. “It’s all for you, sugar. You make me so fucking hard. You’re not cold. Or fat, which is the dumbest thing I ever heard. One kiss, and I never want to let you up from this bed. Now show your mate how wet you are,” I ordered. When she continued to stare at me wide eyed, I added, “Do it.”

As if moving in slow motion, Riley slid her hand beneath her leggings and–fuck, was that a sight. I knew when she slipped a finger inside because her back arched. When she finally held her hand up, I gently grasped her wrist and kept it aloft between us. It was glistening. Practically dripping.

It was the prettiest sight in the whole fucking world. My mate was soaked .

“This… fuck. This sticky honey shows you’re not cold. You’re running hot. For me. The guys from high school were boys. Idiots. What you need is a man. A real man. Me. Your body knows it.”

And then I put those fingers in my mouth. And sucked.