Page 10 of The Artsy Girl’s Guide to Mating with a Werewolf (Mate Hunted #2)

nine

STELLA

We spent the next few days sleeping, with food breaks in between. While we cooked and ate, we talked. About his childhood, and mine. More about our jobs. About how he’d ended up joining the feral pack, and about everything else that came up.

I woke up with the sun on the day I finally started to feel like I’d recovered, and found Graham studying my face as he held me close. Warm beams of light shone through the curtains we’d left open, bathing everything in soft sunlight.

His lips curved when he saw me looking. “Hi.”

“Hey, Teddy Graham.” I leaned in, and he kissed me.

His hands cupped my face, and he tilted my head back to deepen the kiss for a few moments before we both pulled back.

We hadn’t screwed again since that first time.

I think we were on the same page about needing to figure things out before we got any more physical. Graham’s wolf was probably going to trigger the climax in the near future anyway, so it wasn’t like we’d be lacking in the sex department when that struck.

There were other kinds of intimacy we needed to focus on.

The emotional kind, mainly.

We were getting there. Progress was what mattered.

“Any plans for today?” Graham asked, running his fingers lightly through my hair as I settled on his chest. He was a lot more comfortable to snuggle up with than he looked, with all those tight muscles.

“As long as I don’t crash halfway through, I’m going to call Jade this afternoon,” I said. “And the university, too. I should get back to real life. Starting with figuring out where you left our phones.”

“Should you?” He tugged my hair playfully.

“Yes. As long as you’re okay with meeting up with her with me, since your wolf doesn’t want me out of your sight.”

“I think I can handle that.”

“Thanks.” I kissed him again, lightly.

He deepened the kiss once more, before finally rolling me onto my back—and promptly getting off the bed.

When I made a noise of complaint, he flashed me a grin from where he stood. “Come on, Stell. I’ll make you a cup of coffee and we can watch the sunrise together. It’ll be fun.”

Graham held his hand out toward me, and I placed my palm in his before he pulled me to my feet. His front brushed mine as we turned toward the kitchen.

An idea struck me when he started the coffee, and I slipped into one of the spare rooms for a moment while he turned away.

His wolf’s growl from the kitchen made me bite back a grin as I quickly grabbed the supplies I’d need.

“Stella?” he called.

“One second.” I finished gathering everything. His organization was amazing. I seriously owed him for that, because all of my stuff had been a wreck since I moved into my last apartment.

He reached the doorway just as I headed toward it. His gaze dipped to my armload, and his forehead creased.

“Sorry, I thought I’d be fast,” I apologized.

“No worries.” He took the easel I’d tucked awkwardly under my arm, and the canvas too.

I knew he’d been wanting to see me paint. He’d brought it up to Furball a crazy number of times.

I grabbed a few tubes of paint and some other supplies. When both of our arms were loaded, Graham followed me out to the porch.

I put everything down on the outdoor table while he set up the easel and stepped back inside long enough to grab two coffee cups.

“What are you going to paint?” he asked, curiosity in his voice as I took a sip of the coffee.

It was perfect. The man may as well have been a professional.

“You. Go ahead and take your clothes off,” I said, gesturing to his pajama pants without cracking a smile.

He grinned and took a seat on the couch. We’d spent enough time together for the man to recognize when I was teasing him now.

“I was going to paint the view. Someone mentioned wanting to hang it above the couch. I’m not sure why you’d want to look at a painting when the actual view is right there, but I have no complaints about it.”

Graham had brought up wanting me to paint that a handful of times while my wolf was in control.

“Who wouldn’t want a double dose of this view?” He gestured toward the lake. The sun was rising over it, and honestly, it was stunning. Peaceful and idyllic in a way that made me understand his desire for a painting of it a little more than I suggested.

“That’s valid.” I sipped my coffee and got my supplies ready while Graham looked out at the lake. He looked so peaceful, I kind of did want to paint him.

Landscapes were my thing, though, so I’d start with that.

“What do you think the future will look like for us?” Graham asked me, after I started.

“A few weeks from now, or a few years?”

“Both.”

I considered it for a minute while I worked.

“I think in the next few weeks and months, our mornings will look a lot like this. Coffee on the porch while the sun rises. Paint too, when I feel like it. When you leave for work, I’ll package and ship orders, other than the one day a week I’ll be at the university.

We’ll spend our afternoons together, and our evenings with the pack when we feel like it. ”

“Damn.” Graham’s voice was quiet.

Almost wistful.

“Is that a good damn, or a bad one?” I asked.

“Good. I haven’t let myself think about what it would be like to have a mate in years,” he admitted. “I want that future. Badly.”

“Well you know I’m all in. My wolf already bit you.”

“That means she’s all in, not you.”

“She’s harder to convince than I am. I probably would’ve screwed you by Thanksgiving.”

He chuckled. “I wouldn’t have protested.”

I smiled. “I don’t know what things are going to look like for us a few years down the road, but I hope they stay the same. Chill, morning coffee and lazy afternoons. Painting. Just taking life slow and enjoying it as much as possible. What do you think the future will look like for us?”

“Happy.” His response was easy, but the simplicity made my smile wider.

“That sounds pretty good to me.”

I painted my way through the cup of coffee while we talked lazily about our lives before we met. When our stomachs growled, I put my palette in a plastic storage bag to keep the paint from drying out, and we made breakfast together.

We sat side-by-side on the couch while we ate, enjoying the lingering peace. When we were done, I leaned back against the couch. Graham draped his arm over my shoulders, and I closed my eyes.

“I should call Jade,” I said. “And the university.”

“Tomorrow.”

My lips curved. “Your uncle is going to be pissed if I wait any longer.”

“He’ll survive.”

“I should at least call today.”

“Alright.” Graham’s eyes dragged over me.

I waited for him to say whatever was clearly on his mind.

“What?” I prodded, when he didn’t.

“We could go for a run or a hike first. You said you like hiking.”

“I do. And it has been a while…”

“Months,” he agreed.

“A few more hours won’t hurt,” I added.

“Nah.”

I gave a dramatic sigh. “Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll call after we hike.”

Graham stood up, sweeping me off my feet. When I laughed, his grin returned. Bigger than ever.

His eyes were bright, and his shoulders were back.

Whether it was me, the mate bond, or the sex, something had definitely cheered him up. I wasn’t going to complain about that. Somehow, a grinning Graham was even more charming than a calm, laid-back one.

I threw on some real clothes while Graham swapped his pajama pants for cargo shorts.

“Bare feet?” I checked, looking down at his toes while I tied my hiking boots on.

“Hiking boots?” he countered. “You’re a werewolf, Stell.”

“That’s fair.” I had yet to see him or any of the other feral guys with shoes on, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. “How many times did you end up with bloody feet in the process of getting used to going around barefoot?”

His grin returned, a little sheepish this time. “A few.”

“You’re insane.”

“A little.” He held up two fingers, slightly apart.

I stood up. “Insanity makes life interesting.”

Graham captured my hand, and I laced my fingers through his. “Mate bonds do too.”

“No kidding.” I bumped my shoulder against his, and he chuckled as he followed me through the front door. The pack’s wolves had created a whole system of trails around their land, and it didn’t take more than two minutes to reach the head of one.

He took in a deep breath of the forest air as we walked. “It doesn’t get better than this.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

We made it to the start of the trail before my wolf started nudging her way forward.

I stopped abruptly.

Graham stopped too, looking over at me. “You good?”

“I think my wolf wants out. I’m supposed to respect what she wants, right?” That was one of the main concepts of the feral pack’s training. Accepting and respecting that the wolf was their own being, and that his or her desires mattered just as much as a human’s.

“Yup.”

I sighed. “So much for hiking.”

“We’ve got plenty of time.” He squeezed my hand before releasing it. “My wolf will want to run with her anyway.”

He always did. They’d spent an insane amount of time together while she was hunting him. It was cute to see them together, even while I was trapped because of her hunt.

Graham dropped his shorts while I worked my shoes off, and I couldn’t help but eye his body.

The man was outrageously attractive. I didn’t think that could ever get old.

“Checking me out, Stell?” His voice was playful, his hand skimming my hip as I unbuttoned my pants.

“Always.”

His grin returned again. “The feeling is mutual.”

I could definitely get used to that. His happiness.

I stepped out of my clothes until we were both naked in the forest.

It was kind of intimate…

And kind of fun.

Graham’s eyes went red, and he shifted in an instant. His wolf moved closer, brushing up against my thighs. I scratched his head, bending down to look him in the eyes as he rubbed up against my side.

“Hey, Handsome,” I teased. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

The wolf rumbled in agreement.

Furball nudged me again.

Before I could force myself to give in to what she wanted and shift forms, Graham’s wolf licked my shoulder.

And bit me.

“Fuck,” I breathed, as the momentary pain quickly vanished. Instead of forcing me to shift the way it would’ve in a typical hunt, it sent heat rolling through my body.

My cheeks flushed as Graham shifted back.

His eyes were so hot, the rest of me heated too.

“Do you feel that?” he asked.

“It would be hard not to.” I dragged my hand lightly over his erection, making his chest rumble again. “We should go inside.”

“Should we?”

“Are you feeling a little wicked, Teddy Graham?”

“Hell yeah.” He pulled me onto his lap, kissing me lightly at first. When I buried my fingers in his hair and deepened the kiss, he gripped my ass with one hand and one of my tits in the other. Our mouths and tongues were rough as we moved together.

The head of his cock was pressing against my slick entrance when the sound of tires on the dirt road had both of us freezing.

My head jerked toward the road, trying to gauge how far we were.

Not far.

Definitely in plain sight.

Crap.

Graham was on his feet and hauling me behind a big bush before I had time to panic.

“It’s probably just Wyatt. He works in town a couple days a week,” Graham said in a low voice. “His house is past ours.”

The sound of crunching dirt stopped abruptly.

The vehicle definitely hadn’t gone beyond our place.

Graham grunted. “Or not.”

“That better not be one of my friends here to rescue me,” I whispered. “I already got us tangled up in this mate bond doing that. Which I’m actually glad about, but still.”

He made a noise of agreement.

The vehicle’s door opened, and I listened closely to figure out if there were one or two people getting out.

The vehicle’s engine shut off, and I heard one pair of feet on the dirt. Then another. There was another similar sound, but it was much softer. I figured I’d imagined it.

“This is Graham’s place,” a male voice said. I recognized Finn’s typically grumpy and sarcastic voice immediately. “And Stella’s, I guess. She bit him a few days ago, so unless his wolf rejects her, they’ll be together permanently.

Relief rolled through me.

It wasn’t one of my friends.

But… who was Finn with? And why was he showing them our house?

When I looked at Graham, I found his forehead creased.

He was probably wondering the same things.

“I knew she wasn’t sick,” Jade grumbled.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

I knew I should’ve called her the day I woke up.

Finn knocked on our front door.

Graham set me down on my feet. “I’ll grab our clothes so we can see what’s going on.”

I nodded.

We were both still flushed from the climax’s effect on us, but we were just going to have to ignore the need for now.

Something important was clearly happening. Finn wouldn’t have gone in search of my friend, or brought her to our house, without a good reason.

Graham disappeared from behind the bush for a moment, his steps so quiet I couldn’t hear them. He reappeared as quickly as he’d vanished, his hand brushing my ass lightly after he handed over my clothes.

Our friends knocked on the door again. Louder.

We started pulling them on quickly. Graham was done getting dressed a lot faster than I was, considering how many less clothing articles he required.

My shoes were just going to have to stay on the trail, because I definitely didn’t have time to put them on.

“I don’t think they’re here,” Finn said.

He sounded a little uncomfortable.

“Where else could they be? There are two vehicles in the driveway. That truck is Stella’s,” Jade pointed out.

I buttoned my pants quickly, still lacking a shirt.

Graham pulled my top over my head while I worked the zipper up.

“I shouldn’t be putting more clothes on you during the climax,” he murmured into my ear.

“You should be fucking me,” I agreed, as he helped me maneuver my arms into their proper place. The assistance was unnecessary, but I appreciated it anyway.

“No kidding.” His lips brushed my throat.

His teeth followed, lightly.

It took everything I had not to turn around and grab his face to reignite the kiss that had been so rudely interrupted.

“I don’t know. They could’ve shifted and gone for a run. Or they could be in the middle of something,” Finn said.

“You said she was here,” Jade argued.

“I said she’s been living with Graham,” Finn growled back.

I sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

Graham’s arm went over my shoulders. Mine wrapped automatically around his waist, trying to pull him closer.

He was as close as he could get. But considering the climax’s hormones or magic or whatever was trying to force us to jump each other’s bones, it wasn’t close enough.

His lips brushed my forehead, and we stepped back onto the trail.

But when we saw the three figures on our porch, we stopped again.

Jade, Finn, and… a wolf.