Inside her head, her wolf spun, making demands that Francine wasn’t ready for yet. Ordering her to claim this man. It revived her enough to say in a breathless voice, “No marking.” Even if all she wanted to do was bite him all over and show the world he belonged to her.
“Not tonight. But you will be mine,” he growled, pistoning her faster. Gripping her ass cheeks, he thrust even harder into her, the rough friction making her squeeze tight as her pleasure coiled tighter and tighter.
Something, a sound that didn’t involve fucking, a smell out of place, made her open her eyes, eyes blurred with passion. Framed in her doorway stood Mitchell and he watched their frantic coupling with feverish eyes. He caught her staring at him, but instead of leaving or interrupting, he cupped himself, squeezing his hard bulge.
It proved too much. Her head went back and she screamed as her orgasm swept her over the edge. And still Alejandro pumped her, his slick prick slamming home, again and again, triggering a second orgasm that made her body arch in a taut bow, so intensely did it race through her. Her channel spasmed tight around him and he yelled as he came, his cream spurting into her hotly.
Spent, she could only lie in his arms limply, their harsh breathing mixing. When he shifted to improve his grip and carry her upstairs, she peered at her front door and saw it closed. Mitchell gone.
The awe and affection in his voice humbled her. But not as much as the fact his semi-hard cock still buried inside her began to thicken again. A man with stamina. How perfect because Francine was far from done with her big cat.
Mitchell panted, his head bowed over the steering column of his car. Inside his pants, his cock throbbed, aching and ready to forget his misgivings and take what Francine had offered him for so long. What he’d now lost in his stubborn refusal to recognize the prize before his very eyes. The woman who made no bones that she wanted him, and when rejected, turned to another.
He’d not meant to walk in on their lovemaking. Although, a part of him knew what he’d see when he approached her partially ajar front door, the soft sounds of her moans and the fleshy slap of bodies fucking too blatant for him to not decipher. It didn’t stop him from entering. Coming across her, pinned against the wall, her legs wrapped around Alejandro’s flanks, his taut buttocks pumping while she clung to him, her fingers digging into his skin, should have sent him into a rage. Embarrassed him at the very least. Instead, it made him rock hard. Unable to tear himself away, he’d watched as the cat gave the woman he couldn’t erase anymore from his mind what he didn’t dare. Alejandro made love to her, fucked her with sensual intensity, and she enjoyed every hard thrust of it.
When she opened her eyes and saw him, her lids heavy with passion, he expected her to yell at him to get out or to tell Alejandro. She did neither. Instead, she held his gaze, the invitation to join them so damned clear.
He almost did. His hand even reached down to cup himself, stroke his turgid member through his pants. As if the sight of his excitement were too much, she’d come with a long scream that made his balls tighten and almost shoot their load.
In those seconds, he almost forgot his aversion to the cat, his trepidation over being with his sister’s best friend, and even the fear of the commitment she offered. For more than a fleeting moment, he wanted, with an intensity that shocked him, to belong to her, whether as part of a threesome or not. He could even so easily imagine taking turns with the seducer, pleasuring her lusty body, muffling her cries with his cock as Alejandro took her from behind. Erotic images that stunned him and sent him fleeing.
Not ready. Frightened.
His emotions swirled inside him, a cacophony of sensations that made him sit in his car, unable to move while he fought to regain control. It didn’t help that his wolf nipped at the edges of his mind, demanding to know why they didn’t go back to mark the female, to stake their claim.
But mating with Francine had taken on a whole new dimension. Claiming her also meant accepting the cat. It meant sharing a woman, a home, possibly even a bed. Could he handle that? Probably not given each time he saw the bastard, he wanted to wipe the smug look off his face with his fist.
He needed advice, but who could he turn to? His mother, who clawed the face of the last female bitch who thought to grab her mate’s ass? His brothers, whose solution would probably rhyme with beat the crap out of? He did know one person, make that two actually, who would possibly understand what he went through. Who could maybe explain how they managed to share without turning his sister’s house into a war zone. But given the late hour, it would have to wait until morning.
Amped up on emotion, and hornier than a fucking bunny in heat, Mitchell made it home, but sat in his car instead of going inside. Indoors, he’d just wander restlessly or toss and turn. If he woke his mother, she’d pry the uncomfortable truth from him, or cuff him upside the head. Neither scenario appealed.
The serenity of the forest called him along with the mindless peace he knew he’d find in letting his beast free for a run. Stripping, he placed his clothes on the passenger seat of his car and got out. Naked, he stretched, enjoying the cool night air on his body. Then clenching his teeth, he shifted, letting the animal mind that resided within him bound forth and take control.
As his wolf emerged, which involved a painful cracking and re-shaping of limbs, his senses grew even sharper. The myriad scents of the outside filtered themselves into identifiable things like grass, rubber, a wandering coon… and a female bear?
Cocking his head, he sniffed, sucking in a deep lungful, trying to figure out why the scent appeared so odd. He could tell right off that the scent didn’t belong to a shapeshifter, the human overtone that melded with a shifter’s animal odor a distinctive marker. And yet, he knew for a fact no bears roamed these parts. No large predators did given they’d claimed the forested tract behind the strip of houses as shapeshifter land. Natural creatures smartly stayed away, or had in the past, which made the odd-smelling bear’s presence beyond strange.
Putting his nose to the ground, Mitchell followed the trail, growing more baffled as it led to the base of a tree across from his sister’s house. Sure, bears climbed them, but not big sows, and not without leaving marks. The bark didn’t show any of the deep gouges from claws he’d expect to see. A glimpse up showed him nothing but shadows.
Circling the base of the large oak, sniffing to see if he’d tracked wrong, he froze as he heard a whisper of sound from above him. Peering up, he dove sideways as he caught a glint of metal.
The shot grazed past his shoulder, taking hair and a sliver of skin with it, the gouge burning like hell. Fuck. Not a bear, but something worse. A hunter.
Snarling, and unable to shift because the human might see, Mitchell began to howl in warning, knowing either his brother’s or Naomi’s mates would come running. Lights flicked on and as doors opened. A second shot went whizzing past, burying itself in the dirt in front of his paw. Mitchell darted sideways, barking to draw help to him, not stupid enough to think he was a match for a gun shot at close range by an asshole in a tree. A third shot buried itself in his side, and he yipped at the fiery pain, almost missing the sound of feet hitting the ground. Agony or not, he whipped around with a snarl in time to see a shadow running away. He limped after the hunter, but the pain proved excruciating, and inexplicable. He’d suffered worse before.
As he slumped to the ground, he heard the sound of animals baying and running footsteps. Then, the more disturbing sound of an engine starting and tires spinning.
But he found it hard to care that his prey escaped as he passed out.
Chapter Eight
A feathery touch tickled down Francine’s spine, and she squirmed to make it stop. It lightly stroked her again, and she grunted as she rolled onto her back to stop it. A warm hand landed on her bare breast, cupping it, and she froze, her next breath halted.
