“I came to get you. I was stupid to let you go.” He held her tight to him and kissed her again. Heat rose between her legs and her nipples pebbled against her lace bra. Her full breasts crushed to his hard chest and he reached down to pull her leg up around him.
Makayla pushed away, taking a half step back. She wiped the side of her lips, knowing her lipstick had smeared all over her mouth. She straightened her hair and cleared her throat. Her mind was still in a fog of desire and confusion.
Not five minutes ago, she’d left a message on her ex’s voice mail. Now, Ronan stood before her, looking so delicious she could die. His eyes gleamed with desire and she could see the erection that had just pressed hard against her stomach.
If she hadn’t felt like a deer in headlights, she would have fallen straight back into his arms. “What do you mean you came to get me?”
“You are my mate. I’m here to claim you.”
The words ran through Makayla’s brain. What did he mean? What could he mean? “Maybe we should go somewhere to talk,” she said, trying to get control of the situation. Her body demanded she pull up her skirt and let him take her on the desk, but her mind knew that she had to play this more maturely than that.
If she messed with Ronan, if she hurt him, she’d never forgive herself. They just couldn’t work. She knew that. No matter how much she wanted to let him “claim her.”
“Come on,” she said, picking up her purse and phone. “Let’s go get a drink.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ronan followed Makayla through the offices of her magazine and into the elevator. He watched her hips as they swayed in the tight skirt she wore. His dick wouldn’t stay down. Just the sight of her moving made him hard as a rock.
He knew what he wanted. He’d made up his mind. Nothing was going to hold him back now. He’d faced his demons. It was time for him to claim the woman who was rightfully his mate.
In the elevator, he pulled her back into a kiss. Makayla’s curvy figure melted into his body, and he felt the hunger to sink himself inside her luxurious flesh. He had the impulse to take her right then and there in the elevator, but he could sense she was holding back.
He would have to bide his time and get her back to her place before he could give her the mating bite. Then she would be his forever and always.
When the elevator door opened at the bottom floor, they walked out through the lobby holding hands. Out on the street, Makayla led him to a small cafe and they took a seat in the back near the window facing the street.
A waitress came to help them and Makayla ordered them two beers. “This brew is excellent. I think you’ll like it.”
“I haven’t had a beer in years,” he said, his eyes lingering on her lips and traveling down to the neck of her shirt. He could see the slight curve of her cleavage and the rise of her breasts. His dick stiffened, and he took her hands, holding them on the cafe table.
“What did you mean about claiming me?” she asked after the waitress had delivered them two dark bottles of beer and chilled glasses. Ronan drank his straight from the bottle while Makayla poured hers into the glass. She took a sip and waited for him to reply.
“I will mark you. Make you mine forever,” he said, confidently. He wanted her to know how sure he felt.
“What does that mean, Ronan?”
“We will be mated.” He puffed out his chest.
“Will I…” She lowered her voice and hunched over. “Will I become a shapeshifter?”
Ronan heaved a long sigh and looked her directly in the face. “Yes,” he finally said. “But life as a shifter is better than you could imagine. There are so many benefits, Makayla.”
“Ronan, you know I care about you, but this is a lot to take in. I don’t know if I’m even ready to commit to a serious relationship right now. There’s so much going on at work. And I can’t even imagine… shifting.”
“You are my mate, Makayla. I never should have let you go.”
She pulled her hands away from his and leaned back in her chair. She took a sip of beer and stared at him. His heart sank with the look in her eyes. He could tell she was reluctant, scared. Maybe even scared of him. He turned away and looked out the window at the city street.
“Why don’t we go back to your apartment and talk this over?” he said, taking her hands in his again. All he could think was to mate her, to claim her. He just needed to get her alone and he knew he could change her mind.
“Ronan. I can’t do this right now.”
“What do you mean? I know you felt what I felt. If I didn’t know it, I wouldn’t be here.”
“But I do,” she said, gripping his hands in hers. She looked at him so earnestly, Ronan had to sit back in his chair. She was about to let him down. He could feel it coming.
“But?” he asked.
“I can’t leave right now. I can’t become a shapeshifter. That’s just crazy. There’s so much work to do. And you would never be happy in the city. This just isn’t going to work.”
“It will work.”
“I wish it could, Ronan. I truly do. In fact, I’d give anything if it could. I’ve missed you. I can’t stop thinking about you. Something happened to me in that cabin. Something changed me. But I can’t go. I can’t leave my life and everything I’ve built here.”
“There must be a way, Makayla, darling. I know there must be a way. You are mine and I am yours. Shifters know their mates as if they were fated to come together.”
“But you believed the wolf was your mate. Didn’t you?”
Ronan looked away. He took a deep breath and tried to form the words she needed to hear. Nelly had not been his mate, not truly. It had been a youthful infatuation, not like this full blown hunger that needed to be satiated as if his life depended on it.
“It was childhood fancy,” he said. “This is very different.”
“Ronan. I just can’t. I can’t. Please forgive me. Please know, you are one of the best things that has ever happened to me. You are. I simply can’t do this. It’s crazy. I can’t do crazy.”
Ronan’s heart sank. He’d expected to come to Portland and take her straight back to her apartment for a hard screw while he claimed her as his own. Her rejection came as a devastating shock. He put his hand to his heart and drew away. Her face fell and she reached out to him. He avoided her touch as if it might scald him.
“We can still, you know, date or something,” she said in a conciliatory tone.
“Makayla, I intended to make you my lifelong mate. If you cannot accept that offer, there is no point in dating.” He rose from the table and looked down at her. His chest felt tight with pain, as if he couldn’t breathe.
“Ronan, please.” She reached out to him again, but he stepped backwards.
“It was a mistake to come here.” He began to walk toward the door as darkness crowded the corners of his eyes.
“Wait! Ronan. Please. It doesn’t have to end like this. Just…give me time.”
He didn’t look back to see her face but he could hear the desperation in her voice. It didn’t matter now. None of it mattered. She didn’t want what he had to give. Everything that had happened when he was a teenager came flooding back, and he felt like the biggest fool who’d ever walked the face of the planet.
He never should have left his cabin. Coming to the city was against everything he stood for. But the idea of going back now didn’t seem right for him anymore.
Ronan tore out the front door of the cafe and down the street to where Ashton’s car was parked. He pulled open the driver’s side door and sank into the seat before jamming the key into the ignition and tearing down the street.
Just before he turned the corner, he looked out the rear view mirror and saw Makayla stepping out of the front door of the cafe, putting her hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun. His heart clenched in his chest, and he felt as if he were having a heart attack. But it was just his heart breaking, severing in two, for the second time in his life.
 
; CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Makayla stood on the street corner staring at the space where Ronan’s car had just been. She was in shock. Emptiness gripped her chest and she couldn’t breathe. What had she just done? It had been the right thing, hadn’t it? She couldn’t just take off and become a shapeshifter, running around naked in the woods, killing wild animals. That wasn’t her. How could it be?
But the sinking feeling didn’t lie. She knew deep down that she’d made a mistake. She should have said it differently, found a way to still be together without committing completely. But she couldn’t change it now.
Makayla turned away and walked slowly back to her office. She went through the rest of the day in a daze, examining the next month’s proofs as if she didn’t really know what the hell she was looking at. Elliot commented on her lack of interest, but she had no explanation to give him.
As Makayla was finishing up her work for the evening and the sun set behind her in the window, it cast a red and gold glow over her office. Her cell phone rang and she looked at the caller ID. Mark. She answered the phone, her voice sounding tired.
“Makayla, I got your message. I knew you would come around,” he said in an animated voice.
“Sure,” was all she said, almost at a whisper.
“Why don’t I meet you at your place in a few hours?”
“Okay. I’ll see you then.” She hung up the phone and went about finishing her work as if in some kind of alternate reality. Nothing made any sense anymore. Part of her knew she was deeply in love with Ronan, but her life and her career in Portland meant too much to her to let go. Even aside from that, she was terrified of what it meant to be mated to a shifter.
She drove her car home and took the elevator up to her condo in a high rise in downtown Portland. The view from the thirtieth floor was breathtaking as the lights of the city skyline lit up. How could anyone give up this kind of life? She had it all. Everything she’d ever worked for, everything she’d ever dreamed of, except him.
There was a buzz on her intercom and she pressed the button to let Mark up. A moment later, he knocked on her door. She opened the door to find him holding a bottle of champagne with his elbow leaning high on the door frame.
He was handsome in a fitted black suit and a red tie. He pursed his lips and brushed past her and into the room. He swirled around and gave her a thousand megawatt smile, holding his arms wide.
“Let’s open this, shall we?” he said.
Makayla walked to the kitchen to get two champagne flutes and brought them back to her ebony dining room table where Mark was slowly inching the cork from the bottle. She set the glasses down just as he popped the cork, not spilling an ounce. Mark poured their glasses and handed one to Makayla.
“A toast to old friends,” he said as he clinked her glass. Makayla sipped the champagne with a blank feeling in her chest. She was numb and didn’t care what happened tonight. Mark could do whatever he wanted to her, and she probably wouldn’t feel a thing. At least it might help her get over Ronan.
Mark drank his champagne quickly and set the flute on the table. He smacked his lips and moved toward Makayla, taking her in his arms. His hands crept down her sides and squeezed her ass over her tight skirt. She could feel him hard against her stomach.
She pressed her eyes shut, willing herself not to remember the feeling of Ronan’s body against hers just a few hours before. There was no going back now. Mark would make her forget. She set down her glass as his hands moved over her body, touching her in all the ways he knew would arouse her.
Makayla tried to let go. Mark was a good lover in his own way. He knew her body well and could find her hiding places with ease. He unbuttoned her shirt and slid his hand inside her bra, gripping her nipple between his fingers. His lips met hers and he pressed his tongue inside her mouth.
She gasped, letting herself be taken. His other hand unzipped her skirt and it slid down her hips and pooled at her feet on the ground. Mark pulled off her shirt and she stood in her garter belt and black lace bra and pantie set, her black stockings and Louboutin pumps making her curvy body sexier than ever.
Mark stood back and took her in. “Fuck, Makayla your body rocks my cock.”
She smirked at him and hit his chest in admonishment for being crass. She stepped out of the skirt and led him down the hallway to her bedroom, her heels clicking on the hardwood floors. She turned on a dim lamp and sat on the bed. Mark crossed the room and sat beside her.
His lips went to her neck and his hand slid over her stomach and inside her panties. Heat rose from her core and moisture spilled as his fingers sought her swollen bud. His fingertip sank between her folds and caressed her arousal. She let out a deep-throated moan just before she stood up, pulling away from Mark.
“I can’t do this,” she said breathlessly.
“Makayla. I’m sorry about Tiffany. I can’t apologize enough.”
“This isn’t about her. It’s about someone else.” In that moment, she realized she couldn’t do this with anyone but Ronan for as long as she lived. He was the one. The one and only. If he marked her or not, she belonged to him already. The realization flooded through her body and mind with such clarity, she felt like she’d been sleep walking for most of her life.
“If you really feel that way,” he said, standing.
“No hard feelings, Mark. I’m sorry. I just realized, just now, that I’m in love with someone else.”
Mark stepped toward her and kissed her head and patted her back. “That mountain man really got to you, didn’t he?”
“He did.”
“Good luck, Mak. Can’t say I’m not disappointed, but I want you to be happy.” He gave her peck on the cheek, picked up his coat, and left.
Makayla stood in her bedroom in her lingerie for several minutes before she burst into action. She threw things into a bag, put her clothes back on, grabbed her coat, and was out the door in a matter of minutes.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ronan drove west through the coastal mountains, his raging emotions cycling between anger and sadness. The cars on the highway seemed like massive animals who refused to get out of his way. He was tempted to ram into them as he sped down the road.
He gritted his teeth, his mind reeling with all the dark thoughts that spun around him. If she was gone from his life forever, even after he’d traveled all the way into the city and left his secluded home, there was no use anymore.
Bitterness rose in his mouth, and blackness consumed his brain. He’d opened himself, his heart, and this is what he was given in return. He would never love again. He would never let another woman close to him for as long as he lived.
Thoughts of plundering every woman in Mystic Harbor and leaving them high and dry afterward filled him with a twisted glee. By the time he reached Ashton’s house, he had a plan. He’d stopped at the liquor store and had bought a gallon of rum. He took a swig of the sharp liquid before he even had his car door open and then charged up the stairs to barge through the front door.
Ashton jumped from the couch, his shirt off, showing his many tattoos. A half-naked woman sat beside him. Ronan growled and slammed the door shut.
“What are you doing here?” Ashton demanded.
“This is my house too. I’ll do what I want here.” Ronan took another swig of rum and wiped the splattered drops off his chin with the back of his hand. The pretty woman on the couch pulled her shirt on and slipped her feet into her shoes.
“See you around, Ashton,” she said as she skirted around Ronan and hurried out the door.
“Wait,” Ashton said as she closed the door, but it was too late. “Now see what you’ve done. That girl’s only going to be here until tomorrow. Damn it. My only chance.”
“I’m sure you’ll find another,” Ronan growled as he stomped into the living room and plopped down on the couch where Ashton and his girl had just been. He took a deep swig of rum and let out a breath as the burning liquor ran down his throat.
“Ronan. You hav
en’t lived in town for fifteen years and suddenly you’re coming in here and busting up my date! What the hell?!”
“Shut up, Ashton,” Ronan grunted.
“Seriously, Ronan. This isn’t cool.” Ashton stood over his brother, crossing his arms and looking down at his older brother with darkly hooded yes.
“She turned me down, okay. Happy?”
“Shit, man. I’m sorry.” Ashton said, sitting down on the couch next to Ronan. He grabbed the bottle and took a swig before handing it back to Ronan. “That’s rough. Really.”
“Fuck all women,” he said, his words beginning to slur. “I’m going to fuck every woman in Mystic Harbor. Just watch me.”
Ashton took the bottle and took another swig. “I don’t think you want to do every single one. Like the grannies and married women.”
Ronan grabbed the bottle back and gave Ashton the stink eye. “Whatever. As many as I can. So help me. I’ll start with Nelly. I’ll get her and have her and leave her. That’s what I’ll do.”
“Nelly’s a single mom now, Ronan. She doesn’t deserve that.”
Ronan looked at him with evil in his eyes. “Whatever,” he said again and took a deep draw from the bottle.
“Obviously, you are too busy getting your drink on to listen to reason. Do whatever you need to do, Ronan. Just don’t puke on the leather couch. That’s all I ask.”
Ashton stood up and left the room while Ronan sucked down another shot of rum.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Do you know where Ashton Harding lives?” Makayla asked the girl at the gas station mini mart.
“The Harding’s old house is on First Street around the corner from the high school.” The girl went on to explain how to get to the big Victorian house from the filling station while Makayla stood fidgeting in the fluorescent lights.
She walked out into the cool darkness and got back into her BMW. She closed the door and put her hands on the wheel, taking a deep breath. She’d made the decision to come all the way here. It was well after midnight, and she had no idea if Ronan would still be here or if Ashton would know where he had gone.