Zander’s own release tore through him, rushed through his blood—a blinding pleasure that went on and on as her pussy milked him dry. He collapsed on top of her, burying his face in her neck. He felt spent. Sated. At peace.
As he rolled onto his back and draped a limp Gwen over him, his wolf took a cautious step toward her. And another. And another. Pausing, the beast greedily took in her scent and then settled down, resting his chin on his legs. Again, he watched her, still slightly wary.
Progress, Zander thought with a smile.
CHAPTER NINE
A few days later, Gwen stood at the reception desk, writing down all the cancellations she’d made—it seemed smart not to have innocent people around if the Moores were going to cause more shit. Concentrating on what she was doing would have been a lot easier if she hadn’t had a hard body curled around her from behind while Zander nuzzled her neck.
A hand snaked under her shirt and settled on her stomach, warm and possessive, and she sighed. “What are you doing?”
Zander traced a circle on her skin with his thumb. “Touching you.”
She jerked a little as he nipped her nape. “Well, you can’t.”
“Already did,” he rumbled. “Touched you. Tasted you. Fucked you. Multiple times. And I’m gonna do it again.”
“I meant, you can’t do it right here. Don’t growl at me, Devlin.” But she was chuckling. “The new guests should be arriving any minute now.” They would be their last guests until after the hearing. “I don’t look very professional with you caging me against the desk.”
“But it’s fun.”
She snorted, turning to face him as he stepped back. “Fun? You didn’t have a hard cock trying to jam itself between your ass cheeks.”
“It was one way to stop you ignoring me. Were my questions really bothering you?”
“Bothering me?” Gwen waved a hand. “No. I stopped listening a while ago.”
A throaty chuckle was followed by the appearance of Bracken, who strolled out of the kitchen and leaned against the desk. “I like that you don’t make things easy for him. He’s too used to having his own way.” Zander flipped him off, but Bracken just grinned and added, “On another subject, Gwen, have you heard anything from Andie?”
“Not yet. Hopefully we will soon.” She sighed. “I’ve decided to go with her and check out the shelter. Then, if she doesn’t like it, I can bring her back home. If she knows she has that option and has someone with her who she trusts, she’s more likely to be open to the idea of staying there.” As Zander clenched his jaw, Gwen cocked her head. “You don’t want me going to the shelter, do you?”
Zander hooked his finger in the belt loop of her shorts and tugged her to him. “I intended to stay here with you while Bracken took her.”
“Why? Do the people at the shelter have something against humans?”
“Anti-shifter humans, yes. People like you, no.”
“Then what’s the issue?” But she could guess. “You said your pack is closely allied with Makenna’s. If she sees the mark you left on my neck, she’ll tell your other pack mates, won’t she? You don’t want them to know about it.”
Bracken grinned at Zander. “Must be hard dealing with a female who can read you like a book.”
Zander ignored him. “No, I don’t want them to know about the bite. Not because you’re a dirty secret or something. It’s because my Alpha, Nick, might not like that I’m involved with someone I’m protecting.”
“He’ll worry that you’ll ignore his orders for me.” Gwen understood. “I’ll cover the bite with makeup . . . What’s with the growling? It’s a perfect solution.”
Still grinning, Bracken explained, “He wants you to wear his mark with pride, not hide it. It’s a shifter thing.”
It was a pride thing, in Gwen’s opinion.
Bracken’s head tipped to one side. “A car’s coming.” He stalked to the door and opened it wide, looking all intimidating as he filled the doorway. “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”
Gwen tensed despite the note of amusement in Bracken’s voice. “What? What is it?” But Bracken loped outside.
Zander crossed to the door. His jaw hardened as a familiar vehicle pulled up outside. “Whose name is the next reservation in?”
“Derren Hudson. Why?” He cursed, and Gwen added, “I take it you know him.”
“Oh yeah, we know him.” And there would be no way that Zander could hide his involvement with Gwen from the couple currently exiting their SUV. Not when Gwen’s mark was clear to see and her scent was all over him.
Gwen stayed behind the desk as Bracken entered with a dark-haired couple behind him. More shifters, she sensed as they exchanged greetings with Zander, who then turned to her.
“Gwen, this is Ally and Derren. They’re the Betas of my pack.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you, Gwen.” Ally moved to the desk, emerald eyes gleaming. “So, is your B&B haunted?”
Zander sighed. “Of course it’s not.” Even if the place was sometimes chilly and eerie, and even if sometimes things happened that he couldn’t explain.
Gwen blinked at him. “You don’t think it is? Huh.”
His brow furrowed. “What do you mean, huh?”
She shrugged. “I just didn’t think you were the kind of guy who blinded himself to the obvious. It’s okay. Lots of people only see what they want to see.”
Zander’s frown deepened. “I don’t blind myself to anything.”
“So nothing at all has happened here that’s spooked you?” He didn’t answer, and Gwen smiled. “Thought as much.” She turned back to the Beta pair only to realize that they were both staring at the mark on her neck. Busted. Before they could comment on it, she checked them in and slid their key across the desk.
“What floor are they on?” Zander asked.
“Same floor as you.”
“I’ll show them the way.”
Gwen was totally fine with that. “Okay.” She cast the Betas another smile. “There’s a Welcome Hamper and leaflets with all you need to know in your room—Zander will fill you in. Hope you enjoy your stay.”
Ally’s mouth curled. “Thanks.”
Derren looked at Gwen, eyes narrowed, jaw hard. But at Ally’s urging, he followed Zander and Bracken up the stairs.
Blowing out a breath, Gwen turned back to the desk.
As the four of them gathered in Ally and Derren’s room, Zander folded his arms. “So, why are you here?” He sincerely doubted that Nick sent them as backup, given things had so far been uneventful.
“A couple of reasons,” said Derren. “Someone made an anonymous call to the police to say that Harley sells drugs at the club to humans. Even though it’s a club exclusive to shifters and all shifter territory is beyond their jurisdiction, the police turned up anyway. Nothing came of it, but it was a pain in the ass. Our guess is that the anonymous caller was Rory.”
His brother was such a fucking asshole. “You could have told me this on the phone. What’s your other reason for coming here?”
“Nick wanted us to check on you.”
Zander slid a brief look at Ally, who was sitting on the bed, looking awkward. “You mean he wanted Ally to get a read on Gwen.”
Derren’s brow arched. “I’d be surprised by how much that seems to piss you off if her scent wasn’t all over you, and I hadn’t seen that brand on her neck. At what point were you going to mention that you’re involved with the human?”
At no point, really. “There’s no need. It’s my personal business. It doesn’t affect the pack.”
Derren sighed. “Look, I appreciate what the human is doing for the cougar. I respect it. And, yeah, where you choose to dip your dick is your own business. But there are things you don’t know.”
It wasn’t just Derren’s words that made his hackles rise. There was something in the Beta’s tone that told Zander he really wasn’t going to like this. “What does that mean?”
“I asked Donovan to do some chec
king on Gwen. If you and Bracken were going to spend time out of your lives protecting her, I wanted to be sure she was on the level. Has she ever spoken to you about her parents?”
“I know her stepfather is a drunk who abused her mother.”
“Fucker,” muttered Bracken, who was leaning against the wall.
“He is a fucker,” agreed Derren. “And apparently the woman’s a glutton for punishment because they’re still together, and he still beats her ass. She’s a stripper. The strip bar is owned by Kenny Cogman, a seedy bastard who’s a drug dealer and a big sponsor of the extremists.”
Yeah, Zander had heard of him.
“Cogman likes to sample his employees. Zander, he’s Gwen’s fucking father.”
Everything in Zander stilled. “You’re sure of that?”
“His name’s not on her birth certificate—the father’s name came up blank. But it’s pretty much common knowledge down there that he’s her father. He has the same big Prussian-blue eyes that your human down there has.”
Gut clenching, Zander silently cursed. Should he feel betrayed that she’d kept it from him? Probably not. He wasn’t an open book either, and it wasn’t likely to be something she was proud to share—especially with a shifter. Still, that sense of betrayal beat at him.
Bracken spoke. “It’s not a point against Gwen, Derren. She doesn’t use his name. She clearly doesn’t think like him or she wouldn’t be helping the cougar.”
The Beta shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Are she and Cogman in contact with one another?” Bracken asked.
“From what Donovan gathered, no,” replied Derren. “But she’s in contact with Cogman’s other daughter. If you’ve heard of him, you’ll have heard of Geena.”
Zander had heard of her. Heard that she was stone fucking cold and even more ruthless than her father.
“Geena plays a major role in the family business,” Derren added, upper lip curling.
“That doesn’t mean Gwen plays any part in it,” said Zander.
Derren sighed, impatient. “Zander, Geena Cogman is not someone who’d give a shit about a half sister and be sure to stay in contact with her for any warm, fuzzy reasons. If they’re in contact, it’s for business reasons only.”
Face hard, Bracken asked, “How often are they in contact?”
“On a monthly basis.” Derren turned back to Zander. “Nick sent us here to get a feel for her. He’s worried that your feelings about what happened to Shelby are coloring your reading of Gwen. Given that you’ve marked her, he was obviously right that something’s coloring it.”
Bristling at that, Zander took a step toward Derren. In a flash, Ally was between them.
“Now hang on a minute.” Planting a hand on Derren’s chest, she said, “I picked up no disgust or prejudice from Gwen. She was a little nervous, but that’s it. I didn’t get any bad vibes from her, and my wolf didn’t pick up anything either. As such, I think we can safely say she’s not anti-shifter.” Ally turned to Zander. “I realize that Derren’s coming across as an asshole right now. Admittedly, he does that a lot. The point he’s trying to make is that you don’t know Gwen, so we should be careful here.”
By his own admission, Zander was a jaded bastard with serious trust issues. Although he couldn’t deny that he didn’t know her well, everything he did know about Gwen Miller told him that she was nothing like her father or half sister. Of course, that distrustful part of him wondered if he was wrong, wondered if the reason his wolf was wary of her was that he’d sensed a prejudice that Zander himself had failed to see. But his gut instantly dismissed that theory.
“I’m not saying she’s anti-shifter,” said Derren. “I’m saying that there’s a very strong possibility that she’s into illegal shit, and I have a lot of reservations about you getting involved with her. When it comes to my pack, I don’t take chances. Hearing you’re involved with the daughter of Kenny Cogman . . . I don’t like it.”
“With all due respect, Derren, you don’t have to like it.”
Derren arched a brow. “So that’s the way it is? Now, see, that’s what I was afraid of.”
Zander’s jaw clenched. “Not going to argue with you about this, Derren. Leave it alone. When I want your approval about who I have in my bed, I’ll let you know.”
The Beta snorted. “Don’t be an ass, Zander. I had a point. I made it. You want to ignore it? That’s your call—you’re a grown fucking man. But it’s not like you to give people the benefit of the doubt, which makes me think that either you’re in deep with this human or you have a blind spot here because you’re mixing Shelby’s situation with this one. Whatever it is, be careful . . . because both those scenarios could bite you on the ass.”
Gwen hadn’t heard him coming. Even as she sat on the wooden swing hanging from the tree, surrounded by only the evening quiet of the marsh, she hadn’t heard him stride down the boardwalk. It was truly eerie.
Still, she sensed she wasn’t alone and opened her eyes to see him standing beside the swing. His face was in shadow, but she somehow got the feeling that he was frowning.
She hadn’t seen him since she’d checked his pack mates into their room earlier that day. From what she could tell, he’d spent the entire day with them—exploring the marsh, showing them the borders of the land, going on a pack run.
He’d then gone to a local restaurant with them for dinner—something she’d discovered from Marlon, since Zander hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye. Marlon was unhappy with Zander for not inviting her to join them. As she’d already planned to go with Yvonne to Julie’s house, Gwen would have declined anyway. Still, Marlon felt his behavior was rude. For Gwen, ducking her was rude.
She refused to acknowledge that she’d actually missed him a little—apparently, she’d gotten too used to him being around her all the time. Gwen raised a brow. “So . . . are you done pettily avoiding me for a reason you haven’t cared to share with the class?”
Zander’s jaw hardened. Had he been avoiding her? Yeah. He’d needed time to think shit through and to work it all out in his head. So many things made no sense, and the only person who could really make him understand was Gwen. “You ever seen your birth certificate?”
Stilling the swing with her foot, Gwen blinked. He could be so damn random at times, and she didn’t see where he was going with this. “Of course. I have a copy.”
“So, you know that your father’s name isn’t on it.” A muscle in his cheek ticked. “But you know who he is, don’t you?”
It wasn’t so much a question as it was a dare for Gwen to deny it, to lie to him. And if he thought she’d have reason to lie about it, he obviously knew the truth . . . which meant he’d done a thorough background check on her. She figured she should have expected that. There was no reason for him or his pack mates to trust her. Still, it stung. What hurt worse was his stiff behavior and curt voice. “Now you think that I, what, work with Kenny Cogman?” She’d tried to keep her tone even but failed by a mile.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was your father?”
The note of betrayal in his tone made her spine lock. “Oh, I’m sorry, have you told me everything about you?”
“I spoke to you about my family,” Zander pointed out. “I told you more than I’ve told most people.”
Okay, well, that sort of caught her off guard. “Kenny isn’t my family. I don’t even consider Hanna my family. I haven’t seen her since the social worker took me away when I was eight.” And Gwen had absolutely no issue with that. “Kenny’s sperm had fun with Hanna’s eggs—that’s the extent of his role in my life.”
Yeah, thought Zander, but Kenny wasn’t completely out of her life if she was linked to him through her half sister. “Do you consider Geena family?”
Gwen stiffened. She wasn’t touching that one. The subject of Geena was off-limits.
“We know you’re in contact with her.”
Then they’d certainly run an extensive search. “If by that you mean you
had someone check my phone records, you and your pack are creepy motherfuckers because that is going way too far.”
“Given how different you are from Geena, given that you actually have a fucking conscience, I fail to understand why you’re in contact with her.”
Well, given he and his pack had invaded her privacy in such a way, Gwen failed to understand why he thought she’d tell him shit. “Look, if I wanted your opinion on everything, I’d have married you, okay.” She held up her hand when he went to speak. “Climb back out of my ass, Zander. My business is exactly that—mine.”
His fists clenched. “She’s as bad as Kenny. Worse in some ways. Why would you have anything to do with someone like that? Make me understand, Gwen, because I don’t fucking get it.”
“I don’t need you to get it.” Gwen rose from the swing. “And I don’t have to explain or justify myself to you—and definitely not to your nosy-ass pack. I’ve got an idea. If you have such a problem with me and what I do with my life, get the fuck out of it and go back to California.”
“Is that what you want?” he clipped. “For me to leave?”
No, she didn’t. Nonetheless . . . “Tell me something, Zander. If I did a background search on you that totally invaded every inch of your life and then I expected you to explain your choices, would you actually care to do that?”
He sighed. “Gwen—”
“Would you want me around, knowing I have so little respect for your privacy?”
“I wasn’t the one who ordered the background search, Gwen. No one did it to hurt you—my pack’s intention was to be sure that Bracken and I knew everything we needed to know. They did it out of concern for our safety.”
“But you didn’t need to know all of that, Zander. And I sure as hell don’t need to defend any of it. You don’t like that? Go Yahoo, Who gives a rat’s ass? I can promise you won’t find my name.” She turned to march down the boardwalk, but a hand pulled her up short.
“We’re not fucking done,” he growled.