Page 18 of Rejected Sold Mate (Crystal Creek Wolves #4)

Having Rhie beneath me, her scent flooding my nose and her body soft and warm against mine, must have been the finest form of torture ever created. At the same time, it just felt right. She was my mate, and that was exactly where she was supposed to be.

Time slowed to a crawl as the wolf and man inside of me went to war against each other.

I’d told myself over and over again that I could give her space and keep things cordial like she wanted.

Even if her bond was screaming at me to claim her, my self-control had stood firm, and I’d kept her at arm’s length.

I’d silently made the promise to keep things casual between us, but the moment I had her in my arms again, that promise burned to the ground. I wanted her. I wanted her, and I didn’t know how much longer I could go on living without having her.

I said her name twice, and nothing else.

My head was empty outside of thoughts of Rhie and how well she fit against me, and how her breath caught in her throat when I shifted my leg to better angle us together.

I was hard as stone, and there was no way she hadn’t noticed.

Hell, I’d been spending way too much of my time hard for Rhie as of late, and having the physical proof that she wanted me, too, wasn’t going to make things any easier.

My hand slid from her waist to her hip, and I buried my face into the crook of her neck, her soft hair brushing against my cheek.

She was wearing leggings that left barely anything between us, and I swore I could feel the heat of her core when I shifted again.

Rhie hummed her approval at the extra contact, and I was thrown back to the night we’d spent together.

I knew what she sounded like when she was close, how her face looked when she fell over the edge into ecstasy, and I was hungry to experience it all over again.

I’d been dreaming of her every night, waking up in my own sweat, or so hard that I had to finish myself off before I could get any more rest. In my fantasies, I’d had her on top of or against every surface of my home, but it wasn’t enough. I needed it to be real.

I inhaled deeply, lips brushing the column of her neck as I filled my lungs with her scent.

I flexed my fingers to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming again.

But Rhie was really there, body wrapped around mine, and it would take almost nothing to tug her leggings down, shift my hips, and bury myself into her slick heat.

My mate. My Omega. She wanted me, and I wanted her. Why in the fuck was I holding back?

Carefully, I removed my hand from the back of her head and braced it on the floor beside her. When I lifted my head to look at her, she didn’t move, but her lips parted slightly, and when her pink tongue darted out to wet her bottom lip, I almost came undone.

I was going to kiss her. I knew it as certainly as I knew that the sun would rise in the morning. I was powerless with her against me, and when I tilted my head to do just that, to cover my mouth with hers, I swore she breathed my name.

Then, the fucking alarm went off.

I’d left my phone on the bathroom counter while I’d showered, and if it had been a phone call, I’d have happily ignored it. But the sound was unmistakable—someone had tripped the alarms around my house, and my security app was screaming its alert.

I’d have ignored almost anything for her, but Rhie’s safety was the single thing that could shake me out of the haze of lust I had fallen into.

Reluctantly, so damn reluctantly, I pulled away from her, cursing under my breath. Rhie’s hands moved to my bare chest, like she wanted to hold me there, but they fell away as I rose to my feet.

It might have been the hardest thing I’d ever done.

Rhie looked dazed as she sat up, watching me tug my clothes on. “What’s happening?”

“Property alarm,” I told her simply, “I have to check it out. Don’t leave the house until I’ve made sure it’s safe.”

I was halfway out of the bedroom before she gathered herself enough to ask, “Jayce! Can I…um…use your bathtub?”

It was such an odd question, so out of place, that I almost laughed. “Yes, mate. You can use the bathtub. But lock the door behind me first.”

***

The alarm had come from my northern perimeter, but by the time I made it there, any signs of an intruder were long gone.

I couldn’t even pick any scents that were out of place, and while it could have been a glitch in the system, the existence of the rogue wolves made it so I had to stay on high alert.

We’d known relative peace since joining the alliance, and I was comfortable enough to rely on electronic security, but Rhie and the rogues changed everything. It had been a long time since I’d set up patrols, but I was taking no chances.

I made the calls while walking back to the house, commanding a twenty-four-hour patrol of the pack boundaries, as well as around my home. My Beta agreed to set up the territory security, and I waited for the two wolves who would be keeping an eye on my home, my nerves on edge.

Rhie and I were still the only ones who knew about the rogue wolves, so I had no intention of telling my men about them, but I was starting to doubt the intelligence of that call. How could they properly do their jobs if they didn’t know what they were looking out for?

If the rogues had tripped the security alarm, they weren’t in my territory any longer. It made me think they were testing my boundaries and trying to see what they could get away with without anyone noticing. The idea of them creeping around made my blood run cold.

Two of my best warriors, Cole and Arlen, arrived not long after.

“Alpha. What’s the situation?” Cole asked.

“Not sure yet, but stay sharp. Let’s do a walk of the property line.”

We eventually found where something had tripped the nearly invisible trip wire, but there were no tracks or scents that we could follow. The forest was thick around my home, and visibility wasn’t great. I felt worse about the situation with each passing moment.

“Could have been a deer,” Arlen offered.

“Yeah. Maybe.” I wasn’t convinced, but there was nothing there to tell me otherwise besides a gut feeling.

I was well aware that my senses might have been compromised after what had just happened between Rhie and me, but I couldn’t shake the uneasiness.

The evening felt too still, too quiet. There was no birdsong, and no sound of squirrels running from tree to tree.

If the rogue were testing us, I wasn’t going to just lay down and let them slip past our defenses. Just the thought of them near Rhie again had my jaw clenched and red creeping into the corners of my vision.

“Double security, especially at female wolves' homes and here. Reset all the traps and keep a close eye on the northern border. Until I say otherwise, I want a full territory border sweep each night right before sunrise. Understood?”

Cole nodded. “Understood, Alpha. We’ll pass the word along.”

***

Even after the patrols had been assigned and the traps reset, I couldn’t settle.

I was restless as hell, circling the house, sure I’d worn a trail in the dirt.

Knowing that Rhie was inside and safe helped some, but I was fixated on the thought that as soon as I joined her, the rogues would be at the door, trying to break it down.

She made me crazy with need, but also more paranoid and on edge than I was comfortable with. I needed to keep my head clear to be an effective Alpha, and I couldn’t tell if it was lust or worry making me the most unsteady.

Eventually, the paranoia subsided, and all that was left behind was how badly I wanted to hold my mate again.

The more I thought about her body pinned beneath mine, the darker the thoughts became.

It started out with wanting her in my arms, but by the time I made it to the front door, I was nearly feral with the idea of fucking her.

I wanted to hear Rhie scream my name again. She’d been so willing, ready to kiss me, the scent of her desire almost choking me before the alarm had gone off.

I was ready to finish what I started there on the bathroom floor. Our bond pulled at me, and I knew if I followed it, it would take me right to her.

When I entered the house, my blood was running hot, but the stillness of it all made me hesitate. I didn’t hear her in the bath, or the kitchen, or even her room. I followed the tug of our mating bond, only to find her bathed in the glow of the television, curled up on the couch.

She was fast asleep, her hands folded under her cheek. The lust that had been driving me like the beat of a drum faded away, and was replaced by a tenderness so fierce that I hardly knew what to do with it.

My wolf went quiet, satisfied that if we weren’t going to claim our mate, then at least she was at peace. Safe under my roof. I was still full of need, but it was softer, content to let me simply brush her hair from her cheek.

My sweet Omega. She trusted me enough to sleep right there in the middle of the house. She might have even been waiting on me. My heart lurched in my chest, and I wanted to soak in the sight of her so I would never forget it.

When I’d looked my fill, I carefully slid my arms under her and lifted. Rhie stirred faintly, but settled quickly, her cheek resting against my chest. I breathed her in as I carried her, pausing at my bedroom door, but deciding not to press my luck and moved to hers instead.

In the guest room, I laid her gently on the bed, pulling the blanket over her before pressing a kiss to her forehead. Besides our interlude on the bathroom floor, it was the most intimacy I’d shown her since she’d moved in, and it almost pained me to pull away.

“Sleep well, mate,” I murmured, flipping the light off. “You’re safe. I promise.”

Then, I closed the door softly behind me before I gave in and climbed into bed beside her, simply to hold her through the rest of the night.