Once the door closed behind them, Marcus nuzzled her. “Feel better?” He skimmed his hands over her, needing to touch her, to assure himself that she was alive.
Nodding, she cupped her throat. “It’s not hurting anymore. And the wooziness has gone.”
“Good.” Then he spanked her ass hard.
Jerking, she gasped. “Hey!”
“Don’t you ever, ever, do that again,” he growled. “Risking your life is not acceptable to me.”
A little startled by the fear emanating from him, she blinked. “I was protecting Shaya.”
He cupped her chin firmly, unable to keep his touch gentle while his emotions were so chaotic. “You almost died, Roni. I felt it happening, felt you slipping away. Do you have any idea how terrified I was?”
“I couldn’t let them have her.”
“And if I’d risked my life to save Taryn?”
She would have been furious and tempted to torture him, despite that she would have understood. “Point taken.”
“I understand that being an enforcer means doing what you have to do to protect your Alphas and your pack. I get that. But you’re mated now, which means they have to come second. That’s how it works.”
The hurt in his voice made her frown. “I wasn’t putting you second. But Shaya . . . It wasn’t about protecting my Alpha female, it was about protecting my pregnant sister-in-law and my niece or nephew. Shaya’s one of the very few people I care about. Besides, I knew you’d come. I was one hundred percent confident in you.”
Feeling her sincerity through the bond, he relaxed ever so slightly. His wolf curled back his upper lip, nowhere near placated. “Never again.” His hand slipped down to collar her neck. “I need you, sweetheart. Do you understand me? There’s no point in anything if I don’t have you.”
She rubbed her nose against his, the way he often did to her. “Never again.” His relief ran down the mating link. “Our bond’s fully formed now. When did that happen?”
“When I was resuscitating you.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I didn’t realize I was holding back. It wasn’t intentional.”
“I know.”
“I was scared of needing anyone, scared of having anyone need me.”
“I get it.”
“No, you don’t. You have no concept of how much I need you. It scares me.”
“Same here.” Needing someone went against every instinct she had developed, but Marcus was essential to her.
“Then don’t ever endanger your life like that again. You keep this ass safe for me.” He palmed it and gave it a light squeeze. “Okay?”
“Okay.” His mouth came down on hers, licking, nipping, and biting. Pulling back, he gave her one of those sensual smiles that did very interesting things to her body.
“I love you, Roni Axton.”
“And I love you, Marcus Fuller.” Watching as a familiar pained expression suddenly formed on his face, she said, “Seriously? Despite almost dying, you’re hungry?”
“I don’t know how to answer that question without irritating you.” His mate just rolled her eyes, making him smile again.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ONE MONTH LATER
Why do you hate me?” griped Marcus.
Roni barely resisted the urge to whack her mate over the head. “I just want a little taste.”
“So get your own.”
“You took the last slice.”
“There are other cakes.”
“But I don’t like them. I like chocolate cake.” When he just stared at her wearing a sulky expression, she sighed. “Let me put this another way. Do you enjoy sex?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’ll share with me, and you’ll like it.” She stabbed her spoon into the sponge cake and scooped out a piece.
If she’d been anyone else, he’d have gone for her throat. Hearing laughter, Marcus looked up as the newly mated Caleb and Kent dragged Gabe and Hope onto the makeshift dance floor where many were already dancing. Actually, Marcus wasn’t sure that what Rhett was doing could be described as dancing—he looked like he needed medical attention, which was most likely why all the enforcers stood to the side, watching in a kind of horrified fascination.
“I hadn’t expected Caleb and Kent to imprint.” Tonight was the couple’s mating ceremony, and all the Phoenix wolves had come to join the celebration, since Caleb was a childhood friend of Taryn’s.
Following his gaze, Roni nodded. “They look happy.” They were also trying to drag Ryan onto the dance floor. He stared at them until they stopped, which had all the other enforcers laughing. She had to admit that his stare was unsettling, but she happened to like the broody male and found him easy to be around. He spoke when he had something to say, which meant there was no small talk. He was very action-orientated and unafraid to get his hands dirty, which she could relate to.
Sliding his arm around her waist, Marcus pulled Roni close. “This makes me think of our mating ceremony. How beautiful you looked.” He couldn’t help frowning when she ate another spoonful of his cake. “And how you tortured me the next morning.”
“You deserved it.” Still, she pressed a kiss to his throat—right by a scar he’d gotten from the fight with the jackals. The day after the attack, the Phoenix and Mercury enforcers had driven to the kill site and destroyed everything—cameras, videos, photographs, and motor homes. One particular area of the site was piled with bodies, most of which had been set alight.
They found the laptop computer, which the enforcers brought to Rhett. He then downloaded the membership list and all the e-mails exchanged between Lyle and the council member who had occasionally hired him. Only then had he crashed the website.
After that, they had given both the laptop and Eliza’s body to the rest of the council members, leaving them to deal with the issue—but first making sure they had copies of everything, letting the council know they would deal with the ugly matter themselves if they decided to “overlook” it.
As for the matter of Nolan Richards, the bastard responsible for uploading the vid of Roni’s attack . . . she had done her best to track him down, only to find that he was already dead. Suspecting Marcus, Nick, or Eli had something to do with that, she had confronted them. They had all answered her questions with “No comment”—which meant all three of them had to be responsible.
She’d been pissed that they had robbed her of her revenge by dealing with the matter themselves, but she couldn’t really expect different behavior from three extremely dominant, overprotective male shifters. They would be offended and enraged on her behalf, and would have seen such a move as taking care of her.
“Ro!”
Peering down, Roni found Kye chewing on his thumb. “Hey there, little man. Melted anymore hearts today?”
He held up his arms, clenching and unclenching his little fists. “Up!”
Roni picked him up and perched him on her hip. He pointed at Marcus’s cake and began smacking his lips together. “Want some?” Scooping a little chocolate sauce on her spoon, she fed it to him—ignoring Marcus’s grumbling. Adding to her mate’s torture, she then fed herself a little more of the cake.
With Dante at her side, Jaime came over, cradling a baby girl in her arms—Roni’s niece. “Wow, you’re getting Marcus to share. It really must be love.”
Marcus looked at Dante, who grinned at him and mouthed “whipped.” Asshole.
“Why are you talking so quietly?” Roni asked Jaime.
“I’m hiding from your mother. I promised I’d hand Willow back to her . . . but I don’t want to.”
Kathy and Nick literally fought over Willow Mika Axton all the time, both equally possessive and protective. Shaya seemed to be enjoying the reprieve from being on the receiving end of such overprotectiveness. The Alpha female had been an absolute trooper throughout labor, while Nick had been white as a sheet and had nearly lost consciousness.
Stroking a hand over the baby’s small tuft of blonde hair, Roni said to Ky
e, “What do you think? Isn’t she beautiful?”
Kye’s little face scrunched up. “No.”
Jaime laughed quietly. “I think she’s gorgeous, like her mom. I want to keep her.”
At that moment, Taryn and Trey joined them. “Oh, Kye, you can’t eat Uncle Marcus’s cake,” Taryn gently admonished. “He’ll sulk for, like, ever.”
When his father held out his arms, Kye practically jumped into them. Trey’s gaze danced from Roni to Marcus. “Have you decided which one of you is switching packs?”
Sighing, Marcus exchanged a look with Roni before replying, “We can’t choose.”
Taryn pursed her lips. “Well, we have a suggestion.”
Unable to guess where this was going, since he’d considered every possible option, Marcus frowned. “What’s that?”
“Instead of switching packs, you could belong to both.”
“That won’t work,” said Roni. “Our wolves would feel confused and unsettled.”
“It’ll work if Trey and Nick blood. That would join the packs. Not unite them into one, but connect the pack links on a psychic level through the Alphas.”
“That would be awesome.” Jaime’s eyes went wide with excitement. “Please say you will!” Kathy suddenly appeared, scowling, and Jaime laughed a little awkwardly. “Oh, there you are.”
“Give me back my granddaughter.” Kathy reached for the baby, but then Nick was there—an amused Shaya in tow.
“Why does everyone keep disappearing with Willow?” he grumbled, taking the baby into his arms. Shaya placed a soft kiss on the baby’s head.
Kathy placed her hands on her hips, complaining, “You’re always holding her.”
“Of course I am.” Nick stroked his finger over her cheek. “She’s my baby girl.”
“And she’s my grandchild. I suspect she’ll be my one and only grandchild, unless you and Shaya decide to have more.” Kathy cast Roni a meaningful glance.
Instead of being annoyed, Roni was amused. “Be as bitchy as you like, woman, I saw you crying when I nearly drowned.” Kathy just huffed.
Brushing his lips over her temple, Marcus said, “Don’t remind me of that day.” The fear and anxiety hadn’t quite left him yet. As if she sensed that, she fleetingly rubbed his lower back. His mate still wasn’t a touchy-feely person, and he knew she never would be. But she was slowly becoming more and more tactile with him.
“I was just telling Roni and Marcus our little alternative to them switching packs.” Taryn repeated her proposal to Nick and Shaya.
“You would be willing to do that?” Shaya asked Trey.
The Phoenix Alpha male shrugged carelessly. “I don’t want to lose Marcus to another pack. He’s my friend as well as one of my best enforcers. Besides, Roni would make a valuable addition. That makes this a logical move.” And Trey was all about logic. When Kye struggled to get down, Trey placed him on the ground before turning to Nick. “What about you?”
Nick looked like he wanted to stamp his foot. “I don’t even like being blooded to my pack members.”
Marcus gave Nick a look of mock sympathy. “Need a hug? Bro?” He received a glower.
Stifling a smile, Shaya laid a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “I think it’s a good idea. We don’t want to lose Roni. And if you connect with Trey, Marcus would be ours as much as theirs.”
“But which Alpha would they answer to?” asked Dante, sliding his arm around Jaime. “It can’t be both.”
Trey snorted. “When has Marcus ever answered to anyone for anything?”
Nick sighed. “Yeah, Roni’s just the same. You won’t get obedience from her.”
“No,” agreed Taryn, “but we’ll get someone who can handle Greta. That makes your sister worth her weight in gold.” Jaime nodded in agreement. “Packs have done it before, including my father’s. As you know, Lance collects alliances, and it worked out well for him.”
Feeling someone fiddle with the back of her top, Roni twisted to see Dominic reading the label inside her collar. “What are you doing?”
He just nodded. “Made in Heaven. I knew it.” Jaime laughed, Marcus growled, and everyone else groaned. “I tell ya, I didn’t know angels could fly so low.” He chuckled when Marcus took a swing at him.
When Roni went to retaliate with a cheesy line of her own, Marcus clapped his hand over her mouth. “No.”
Eli, Tao, and the Phoenix and Mercury enforcers appeared, took in an irritated Marcus covering Roni’s mouth while Dominic laughed hysterically, and instantly summed up the situation. Ryan obligingly cuffed Dominic over the head.
“Ry! Ry! Ry!” To everyone’s amusement, Kye proceeded to climb the enforcer like he was a fence post. Poor Ryan couldn’t have looked more awkward.
Coming to Roni’s side carrying Lilah, Greta lightly kissed Roni on the cheek and gave her a winning, affectionate smile. “Hello, sweetheart, how are you feeling?”
“I’m good. You?”
“Oh, I’m fine. Now that one of my boys has found a worthy female, I couldn’t be happier.”
Taryn leaned toward Roni, her voice quiet. “Roni, I have to know how you do it.”
Greta sneered at the Alpha female. “It’s rude to whisper.”
“And yet, I just don’t care.”
“So,” began Trey, obviously looking to halt the argument, “what do you think, Nick? You willing to blood or not?” As he elaborated on the matter for Greta and the enforcers, Nick thought about it for a moment.
When the Mercury Alpha male finally spoke, it was to Roni and Marcus. “Is it what you guys want?”
Marcus looked at his mate, who was worrying her bottom lip. He could sense through their bond that she was seriously considering it, but something held her back. “What is it?”
“I like the idea of not having to choose between packs, but we’d still have to choose where to live, so I don’t see how belonging to both packs would make much difference.”
“We could just do what we do now: spend a few days a week here, and spend a few days a week at Phoenix territory.” It would mean that Roni had a break from Kathy when she needed it—as Eli predicted, the woman still did her best to taunt Roni and interfere in her life. Nick had eased up a little, but it was still irritating.
“That could work.” The arrangement would allow her to break away from her family’s hold without actually leaving them.
Nick nodded, handing Willow over to Shaya. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
“You sure?” Roni didn’t want him to do it if he were truly against it.
“I don’t want to lose you to another pack, and I don’t want Fuller here twenty-four/seven. This works for me.”
Marcus chuckled, seeing the humor in Nick’s eyes.
Turning to face each other, the two Alphas sliced their palms and then slapped them together. Roni felt it as the links combined. It wasn’t like the two were one, but like each was an extension of the other. Everyone on the dance floor immediately sensed it and crowded around them. To Roni’s relief, they all seemed happy with the decision. In actuality, though, the only opinion that truly mattered was that of her mate.
Long after the celebrations were over, as she was fixing him a late-night snack in her lodge—their lodge—she asked without looking at him, “Are you sure you’re okay with being a member of both packs? I mean, you don’t feel like you’ve betrayed Trey?” It would be stupid, but she could understand it.
From his seat at the kitchen table, Marcus replied, “Hmm.” He had no idea what she’d asked. Come on, did she really expect him to understand a word she said when she was strolling around in nothing but a tank top and a pair of boy shorts? It was one of the hottest things ever and gave him little peeks of that ass he loved. It didn’t matter that he’d been inside her only twenty minutes ago. He could never get enough of her.
Confused by his response, she looked over her shoulder . . . and rolled her eyes. “Could you stop ogling my ass for just one second?”
“Hmm.”
r /> Placing his sandwich on the table, she repeated her questions. And he looked at her with pity.
“Of course I’m okay with it.” All he’d wanted was a solution that made her happy. She was happy. Problem solved.
Feeling his sincerity through the bond, she relaxed. “Just checking.” By the time she’d cleared the countertop, he was done eating. As she went to take his plate, he lifted her and placed her on his lap, straddling him.
He bit her bottom lip. “I’m still hungry.” But this was another kind of hunger. “Feed me.” The second her mouth opened for him, he thrust his tongue inside. He took what he wanted, gave her what she needed. Fisting a hand in her hair, he yanked her head aside and latched onto her pulse—sucking, nibbling, and marking. Claws pricked into his arms warningly, reminding him he was dealing with a dominant female who would let him lead but wouldn’t let him push. So he bit her hard, reminding her she was dealing with a dominant male who couldn’t be handled.
She hissed out a breath. “I should claw you for that.”
“So vicious.” Bunching up her tank top, he peeled it off and flung it aside. “It’s one of the things my wolf loves most about you.” He growled in approval when she leaned back and draped her arms over the edge of the table, arching her body so that her breasts thrusted upward.
“That’s because your wolf is bloodthirsty.” The words came out kind of breathy, since he was now suckling her nipple while his skilled hands lightly but possessively skated over her. There was nothing hurried about his movements. This seduction was languorous, almost lazy.
“I love that you’re vicious, but I also love that you’re softhearted with those who matter to you.”
Offended, she scowled. “I’m not soft.” She lost her scowl when he moved onto her neglected nipple. At the same time, one hand gripped her hip and began grinding her against him. She could feel him, hard and hot, through her shorts.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” He punctuated that by biting the peak of her breast. He cupped them both in his hands, marveling at how perfectly they fit there. How perfectly she fit against him. “Mine.” He licked his claiming mark. “My Roni.”