He pushed her back onto the bed and moved to her, giving no quarter as he loomed up and over her, taking a nipple into his mouth, his teeth grabbing it, pushing her into that place where pleasure and pain are only a breath apart.
Her clit throbbed in time with each pull of his mouth. His weight over her eased some of the anxiety she’d been feeling. His hands were stroking over every inch of her skin as he feasted on her nipples.
Pulling back, his lips were wet from her and his breath was heaving. “What is it? Why do you make me feel this way?”
She was beyond words and all she could do was shake her head and make a distressed sound. He kissed his way down her belly and her thighs were already trembling when he pushed them all the way open and took a long look at her pussy.
“God,” he whispered hoarsely and his mouth was there on her, against her, insistent and fervent. She’d already been so close to coming just at his first touch that when he pushed a finger into her and flicked the tip of his tongue over her clit her climax hit her so hard it jarred her teeth.
But he didn’t stop until he’d pushed her into a second climax that wrenched her gut and made her see stars.
And he was up and over her again, lips on hers. Her legs wrapped around his waist and she opened to him, tightening her grip to hold him to her.
“Please,” she said through the kiss.
“Please what?”
“Please fuck me. I’m going to die if you don’t.”
“I don’t want this to be over.” The yearning in his voice tore at her.
“It has to be. I can’t feel like this, it’s not right.” Tracy knew that this thing between her and Gabe was something other than the anchor bond. Knew that it was deeper than that and it scared her as much as it seduced her. She had a mate, he was in the other room and she was in love with him and committed to him and she could not let herself fall any further into this thing she shared with Gabe.
“I know. But damn me, I want it forever,” he gasped as he pushed his cock deep into her hot embrace.
“Oh, my…” she said faintly as he filled her and began to move. She closed her eyes to keep from staring deep into his. It was too much. He saw into her too deeply and she didn’t know what to do with all of it.
Each time he plunged back into her body she felt like he possessed a bit more of her. She pushed the panic down, worried that if she didn’t, Nick would feel it and burst into the room and then what?
The pleasure was mind-numbing and all-consuming and she tried to turn off her mind and heart and just feel.
Gabe was convinced he’d never felt anything as good as the way her pussy surrounded his cock as he fucked into her body. The silk of the skin on her inner thighs slid over his hips each time he thrust deep. He wanted her to open her eyes, to see into those mossy depths and know her. Her body welcomed him in a way he’d never felt before and even clenching his teeth and reciting his mnemonics from the bar exam for commercial paper did not help.
He had to come and right then. His cock didn’t care if he wasn’t ready for it to be over. Her body had pushed him past endurance and when it hit him square in the balls, it also hit him in his heart, in his gut and he threw his head back and gasped out her name as he came deep within her body in pulse after pulse of pleasure.
He stayed inside her as long as he could and finally rolled to the side, chest heaving, his arm over her waist, fingers entwined with hers.
After some minutes of silence, he moved to sit and leaned down to kiss her. His eyes were sad. It tore at her and she wanted to make him all right. Wanted to comfort him. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t her place.
“I’m going. I’ll see you tonight at the joining.” He paused a moment, tracing a fingertip over her bottom lip. “It’s just the anchor forming, Tracy. That’s all.”
She looked into those deep brown eyes and nodded. “Of course. Thank you.”
He laughed as he got up and pulled his clothes on. “Sweetness, thank you. I quite enjoyed myself. I’ll be happy to get to know you better as your anchor.” He went to the door and turned to her one last time. “It was just the bond.”
He said it twice but she wasn’t any more reassured. She just hoped that the bond lessened because she wanted him again, his hands on her. Right then. Pushing it away as hard as she could, she nodded. “Of course. I’ll see you later tonight, Gabe.”
He waved and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Gabe walked straight out of the apartment, knowing that he smelled of Tracy’s sex and her body and that if he’d gone to Nick right then it would have been hard on him. From what he understood, most of the time the anchor left for a while to let the mated couple reassert their bond anyway.
Or so he told himself as he tried to put as much distance between himself and Tracy as possible before he let his wolf take over and challenge Nick Lawrence for his mate.
* * * * *
Her thoughts racing and unease gripping her guts, Tracy threw herself into changing the sheets on the bed and opening the windows. She wanted to try and get rid of the scent for Nick’s sake. And for her own.
Giving herself a bunch of tasks was better than thinking about what had happened. She showered and tried to erase Gabe’s scent from her skin, but she couldn’t erase the memory of his touch, the way his lips had felt on her own. He had burned himself into her, just like he said he wanted to. Guilt beat at her.
She loved Nick. Period. She loved Nick Lawrence and she was his mate. She was just unaccustomed to the whole anchor bond thing. Still, she’d talk to Nina about it when she saw her at the Pacific Pack house later that night.
An hour later, scrubbed and calmer, the bedroom airing out, Tracy sought Nick out.
Standing in the doorway, she watched him work. Took in the expanse of his back, of the way the muscles moved as he typed. His hands were really beautiful for a man who’d probably broken a finger or two at least half a dozen times. He was wearing headphones and listening to his mp3 player but she could tell he was distracted. She tossed a paperclip at his head and he jumped and turned in her direction.
When he saw it was her though, he relaxed and took the ear buds out and smiled. “Hey. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. How about you?”
He stood and walked to her, relieved that there was only a slight scent of sex on her. He’d heard when Gabe left the apartment and had given her time. The washing machine was on in the distance and he smelled fresh air and he had to give a rueful smile that she had to air out a bedroom in much the same way he had.
“You feel more centered than you did before. I shut down the link as much as I could earlier. No offense but I really didn’t want to feel you being with someone else. But I did feel you having a good time. Three times actually.”
Tracy blushed furiously. “Okay, that’s enough of that topic.”
He laughed.
“Are you all right?” she asked him softly, reaching up fingertips to feather through his ebony hair.
Exhaling, he nodded. “I am. I am because it’s the last thing to help us start our life together. You’re safe and I’m relieved.” He took her hand and they went into the living room.
“I spoke to my realtor, he’s one of the higher-ranking members of Pacific. I’ve got him scouting out homes for us with nice views of the city and close in—my needs—and big yards suitable for dogs—your need. He’s going to get us some listings together and we can start looking tomorrow. Is that all right?”
She warmed as her heart filled near to bursting with her love for him. “Thank you, Nick. I know you’ll love Milton. He couldn’t stay here though, he loves to run. So I’m going to ask Nina to babysit him until we can get a bigger place. At some point I need to get back up to Seattle to figure out what to do with my house and my store.”
He looked at her, feeling the sadness at the mention of selling her business. “Baby, have you considered keeping it and hiring some other staff to run it for you?”
&nb
sp; “I don’t know. I can trust Charity, she’s full-time anyway and I know she’d welcome the extra money. And there are a few of my staff that I could hire on full-time. I’d have to run the numbers to see what my profit margin would be. But what would I do here?”
“We just lost our accountant not too long ago. Didn’t you say you did the accounts for Cascadia?”
“Yes, and I can help until you hire someone else on, but I’m not an office job kind of woman, Nick. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m the facial piercing type. My hair is frequently odd colors and I like to come and go as I please. You can’t do that unless you own a funky business like a record store or you help with the books when your brother is the Alpha.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, your brother-in-law is the Alpha. Like Ben is going to care if your hair is what—blue? Pink? And that damned brow ring is growing on me. It’s sexy. But you could open up a record store down here if you wanted. A second Spin the Black Circle. That could be good.”
“I’ve thought about it. I need to do some research to see what’s down here already. There aren’t a whole lot of independent record stores anymore so if there are two or three in a city this size, that’s already filling that niche.”
“Take your time. Hell, be a woman of leisure if you want.”
She laughed. “Well, thank you, but no. I like working, I just need it to be what I like. And eventually we’ll have children and a flexible schedule will be a must.” She froze at the look on his face. “You do want children, don’t you?”
His eyes filled up with unshed tears. “Yes. Yes I do, and I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. But the thought of a little girl with your eyes and those freckles just makes me happy, baby.”
She released the breath she’d been holding. “Oh good. I want them too. In a few years.”
“We’ve got time. So now what we’ve tap-danced around it, what are you going to do about the joining?”
“What does she say?”
“What do you mean?”
Tracy looked at him, annoyed. “Nick, do I look slow to you? Of course you called her and told her what happened. What did she say?”
“Am I that transparent? I just wanted to talk to her, to let her know you were upset. It was nothing more than that.”
“Oh yes, we mustn’t let sweet Sarah get her fee-fees hurt. God knows how fragile she is. You know, she is an Alpha female, Nick. She can hang with the big dogs. She can certainly talk shit like one.”
“Tracy, she really isn’t like that. She was caught off-guard and she’s really upset that you overheard her saying all of that about you. She doesn’t want you to get the wrong idea and she desperately wants you to like her. It’s important to her. Family is important to her.”
“Uh-huh. So back to my question. What did she say about the joining?”
“She would be horrified if you didn’t join the Pack because of what you overheard her say in what she termed today, a moment of jealous lunacy. She wants you to be a part of Pacific. You’re my mate, that in and of itself is important to her. She’s the Alpha female. But she’s also my sister-in-law and she wants you to feel welcome. Lastly, she really wants to get to know you. She knows you’re coming to a new city and will need new friends and a family to fill in for yours since you’ll be a few hours away. She asked me to see if you’d give her another chance.”
Now that she’d experienced the intensity of the anchor bond she understood Sarah’s behavior a lot better. It still bothered her that Sarah had said the things she did, but what else could she do? There was no place for Nick in Cascadia. Lex wasn’t just an Enforcer but the Enforcer. He was the bar that other Enforcers strove toward. And Nick was born to be Second in Pacific. Tracy was the youngest of six, she had the freedom to do what she wanted. And she wanted to be with Nick.
“I still don’t like her. But I’ll go tonight to see what she says to my face. I want this to work, Nick, I really do. Because I love you.”
He smiled and she felt his relief.
“Now, I have a problem. You smell like another wolf, which makes me want to fuck that right out of you. In addition, you smell like my mate, which also makes me want to fuck you. You are deliciously sexy and each breath you take pushes those sweet nipples against your shirt, showing me those rings. Refer back to my previous proposed action.”
“Why, Nick, would you care to retire to the bedroom to have wanton hot monkey love?”
He threw back his head and laughed. “No, baby. I want you to get those jeans off and bend over the arm of this couch right now. I feel the need to christen this room.”
“Oh, my,” she said faintly as she rose to obey.
Chapter Four
Some hours later, Tracy and Nick drove up the pretty driveway of the Pacific Pack house. Tracy felt languid and satisfied. Nick had made love to her all afternoon long in every room and on every piece of furniture that would hold them up. She felt thoroughly taken care of and desired.
She snuck a look over at him and smiled. He had a bite mark on his neck that he hadn’t bothered to try and hide. In fact, she suspected that he’d forgone a shirt with a collar to show it off. At one point her wolf had surfaced and she’d bitten him, hard, right as she came. Because the bite was from another wolf, it would be there for a while instead of healing within hours.
Happiness stole over her when she saw her parents’ BMW and Cade’s Mercedes along with the SUV they’d driven down in the day before. Her family was there! She suddenly felt the need to hug her mother.
Nick parked and turned to her. “Wow, look at you. You’re brimming with joy. It’s seeing your family here?”
She nodded. “That and the bite on your neck that you’re showing off like a teenaged boy.”
He laughed and kissed her quick but hard. “Baby, this mark is hot. You’re hot. I’ve never had a bite before. Of course I want to show it off. Now come on, let’s go inside.”
Milton came tearing around the house to greet her, goofy grin and all, and she squealed in delight. “Hi, Milton! Oh, I missed you!” She got to her knees and hugged him. She turned and caught Nick’s look of horror. “Nick, this is Milton. Milton, this is Nick.” She smooched Milton’s nose and went on seriously, “Nick’s uptight but quite okay once you get to know him. I fear he is freaked out by your lack of a leg.”
Nick smiled despite himself. How could he deny her a thing that clearly made her happy? Even if it was a three-legged dog. He bowed low. “I am pleased to meet you, Milton. Any dog of Tracy’s is welcome in my Pack.”
Milton looked him up and down and nodded, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. He leaned forward and licked Nick’s hand. Nick tried to pretend that it didn’t touch him and Tracy tried not to fall over dead at the utter cuteness of her two bestest guys.
Nina came around the house with Haley and Chris, Sarah and Ben’s children. “Hi, Stinky! I see your mom is here with your new dad. I’d make him buy me a pony if I were you.”
The kids looked up at Nina, decided she was hilarious and laughed loudly as they spilled over to where Tracy and Nick were standing with Milton.
“Uncle Nick! You didn’t tell us that Tracy had a dog!”
“I’m sorry, guys. A terrible oversight on my part that I will not repeat.”
“Have you been playing with Milton?” Tracy asked Haley.
“Oh yeah, he’s the funnest dog ever. Well, the only dog I’ve ever played with really. And he’s great. He runs and gets the ball and it doesn’t even bug him that he only has three legs and he gets the ball all gooey with his slobber and then Chris tries to gross me out with it but he’s just a lame boy ‘cause that doesn’t gross me out at all.” Haley had to stop to take a breath after that run-on sentence but the smile never left her face.
“Tell you what. When Nick and I move into our new house and Milton comes down to live with us, you can come and play with him any time your mom and dad say it’s okay.”
Nick reached out and squeezed her
hand.
“Really? Cool!” The kids jumped around and Milton followed suit, barking.
“He’s safe to leave out here? He won’t hurt the children?” Nick asked as the kids ran into the side yard with Milton.
“He’s a gentle soul. He would kill or die to protect them but he’d never hurt them.”
He kissed her temple. “Thank you for making the kids feel welcome at our home.”
She looked sideways at him, surprised. “You think you’re the only person family is important to? Of course I wanted them to feel welcome. They’re my niece and nephew now too and they seem like great kids.”
Sarah was standing on the porch and Tracy looked up at her. Nina reached out to grab her arm.
“Can I talk to you a second?”
“Sure.” Tracy turned to Nick. “I’ll be up in a minute.”
He caressed her cheek. “All right. I’ll be waiting. I see that Gabe is here too, surrounded by females.” He laughed and Tracy felt a stab of jealousy.
She and Nina walked down the yard a bit, out of hearing of the wolves on the porch. “What’s up?”
“You tell me. I thought we’d hear from you today but nothing. I know you’ve been fucking like crazy, but what gives? I thought you were my Best Friend Forever?”
Tracy laughed and hugged Nina. “Just like Lucy and Ethel. You are my BFF, goofus. And we have been fucking like crazy. It is so totally like sexual crack! But we had a bit of trouble last night and then the tri-bond. It was so…intense. I didn’t expect it to be so… I didn’t expect to feel so deeply for Gabe. It scared me.”
“Well, I know you’re not blind so you must see that I’m just a bit in love with Cade. Not anywhere near what I feel for Lex, but a part of me yearns for Cade and I’m guessing it always will. Lex knows. Of course, he also knows that Cade and I would never do anything to hurt or betray him. It’ll get easier to process over time, Stinky’s mom. And you want to elaborate on the trouble from last night?”
Tracy told her about the overheard phone call and Nina looked back over her shoulder at Sarah, who winced slightly. “That blonde bitch had the nerve to talk shit about you to Nick? Oh uh-uh! You’re coming back home with us right now!”