Drew rubbed the spot right between his eyes as he shook his head. “Which would be why you painted the whole place in those colors. I get it.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “I figured since you had abandoned ship, I didn’t have to consider your tastes anymore.”

  “You didn’t.” He pulled her to him. “And I get why you thought I abandoned ship.”

  She shuddered against his chest. “Drew. Make it fast. Make it hard. Don’t make we wait for it.”

  He tilted her head up to look at him. His face had aged more than it should have in ten years. They lived longer than humans; aging tended to be slow and easy. What kind of stress had he been under? What had his life been like?

  He ran his pointer finger down the slope of her nose. Drew had always done that, like he wanted to trace her face. “I wish I had killed him a decade ago. I wish I hadn’t been such a coward then.”

  “I wish you had, too.” She couldn’t find it within her to relieve him of that guilt. He’d left to save her family? Who had asked him to do that? They were supposed to be a team. Drew’s decision to, literally, go lone wolf on her had caused everyone more pain than good. “But for tonight, just kiss me. I want heat, Drew, not heart.”

  “You get both, B, whether you want them or not.”

  He kissed her, hard on the mouth. She tuned out his words. This couldn’t be about him loving her, mating her, or a combination of either. This had to be about pure, hot fucking, or she couldn’t deal with it at all.

  He plunged his tongue in her mouth and she met it with her own. Betty’s mouth would be sore when they were done. She wouldn’t complain.

  B bit down on his lip, drawing blood. Drew yelped before letting out a growl that moved through her like hot lava surging through her pussy.

  “Drawing blood, she-wolf?” He picked her up and carried her across the house to her bedroom. Hundreds of memories of him doing just this she’d forced away flooded through her mind. She would have been floored by them if Drew hadn’t thrown her down on the bed and come to lay across her like an actual shield from the pain threatening to overwhelm her fragile barriers.

  “B?” Apparently, he could smell the sudden onslaught of emotion on her just as she’d be able to scent it on him.

  “Shut up and don’t worry about it.” She raised her head to kiss him again, and he pulled back.

  He raised a dark eyebrow. “You think you can talk to me like that?”

  Her pussy clenched, and she tried to swallow through her dry throat Oh, yes. She knew this side of Drew. And now that he’d become Alpha, maybe it would even increase.

  Knowing she’d only fuel the fire within him, she answered his question. “I’ll talk to you however I like. You can’t stop me.”

  “Oh? Can’t I?” He grabbed her hips and, with a quick jerk of his hands, flipped her over until she lay flat on the bed in front of him. “If you’re going to be a bad wolf, B, I’m going to have to do something about it.”

  “You won’t.” She challenged him even though she knew he would. In fact, she might beg him to follow through on his unspoken promise. Please, Drew, please don’t leave me hanging here.

  Drew tugged down her pants followed immediately by her undies. If she’d known the day would end like this, she would have foregone wearing any to make access easier. “I’ve got your pretty ass in front of me, woman. Are you sure you don’t want to take it back?”

  She shook her head. Let him do it. Please, let him spank her. She needed the release she would get from that as much as she needed to come.

  Drew struck her behind, and her womb wept. She didn’t usually come without penetration, but today might be an exception.

  “I can smell how much you need this, B. So, I’m going to make your ass pink, and when I’m done, you aren’t going to think you can control this anymore. You don’t get to tell me what I will and won’t say.”

  She nodded. If he’d just spank her again, she’d do whatever he wanted.

  Whack. She shuddered.

  “You’ve been handling things since I left. I get it. But, I’m back.” Smack.

  Her voice shook when she spoke. “You went away, and there was no one but me.”

  “I made a mistake, and eventually you’re going to forgive me.”

  She couldn’t answer. It wasn’t on the game plan. Not for then, anyway. Bare-assed, facedown on the bed, she wanted release not apologies. He slapped her rear end again. “When I roll you over, you’re going to do what I say. Do you understand?” He smoothed his hand over her butt. It stung, but the gentle movement touched her, softened the shaking in her stomach until she thought she might cry.

  One more rub and he flipped her back over. She could fight him, had, in the past when this had all been about being playful. This wasn’t like then. She didn’t want to fight him; she wanted to do what he told her to do. At least in bed.

  Beneath him but facing him, she finally had access to him again. “Drew, take off your shirt. Please.”

  He smiled. “Please, I like.” With a swift movement, he discarded the item and threw it across the room.

  She stared up at him, her mouth watering. “You were always fit, but you’ve really muscled up.” Betty ran her hands across his hard abdomen. “Spending lots of time in gym?”

  “Working outside. Building. Lifting. Crafting. Never stayed anywhere long enough to join a gym. You haunted me everywhere. Your voice, your smell, your look. If I didn’t keep moving, I couldn’t stay away.”

  He pulled at her shirt, yanking it over her head. Drew had always undressed her, and she didn’t mind falling back into their routine. His gaze feasted over her. and goose bumps broke out all over her body.

  “You’re so beautiful. I hadn’t forgotten the depth of it. This is how I remembered you. Just like this.”

  She shivered. “Please, Drew.” At this point, she wasn’t even entirely sure what she asked him for. Please kiss me? Please touch me? Please stick your big cock inside of me?

  “We’ll get there.”

  Betty nodded, waiting for him to undress her fully. Drew removed all of her clothing until she lay in front of him completely bare. Of course, his pants remained on, and much as she wanted to submit to him right then, she couldn’t let the unfairness of it go unremarked.

  “You’re still half dressed. And while I appreciate the view of your remarkable chest, I’m wondering why you get to keep you clothes on and I have to be completely viewable.”

  He grinned, and some of the severity of his features eased. “Because I like looking at you naked. I haven’t gotten to in ten years, and I don’t care much about seeing myself that way.”

  “Well, I want to see you nude.” She didn’t add please. In this case, her wants needed to happen. It had been a long time since he had seen her, and it had been equally as lengthy since she had gotten to gaze upon his hard erection.

  “I think I can make your desire happen.” He yanked his pants off and then quickly followed by removing his briefs. Her mouth watered. He’d always been a big man, his cock heavily veined when it stood at attention. Was it possible he had gotten bigger? Did that happen? He’d gained muscle. Could his cock have grown, or had she simply forgotten what a large man her mate happened to be?

  She reached between them and wrapped her hand around him. He sucked his breath, a growl in his throat. “Not too much of that, or this will be over before it has begun.”

  “Lost control, Alpha?” she teased. All he would have to do was touch her, and she’d fall off an edge. How could she not have realized how much sexual tension she carried around on a daily basis?

  “Just want you badly, B.” He leaned over, and she lost her grip on his cock. Instead, he positioned himself lower where he could taste her between her legs. Anticipation made her wetter, hotter.

  He sucked in a deep breath. “I missed this.”

  “Me, too.” Her voice shook with anticipation for what would be coming next.

  Drew blew on her clit, and every nerve ending in her body went on high alert. She cried out. He hadn’t even stroked her yet.

  “Always so responsive. I love it.” With a sideways smile planted on his face, Drew placed his finger on the bundle of nerves he’d just blown on.

  She closed her eyes as warmth paraded up her spine. He’d always known how to touch her, how to bring her to the peak of pleasure, even when they’d been young and groping at each other, excited by how forbidden it was for them to be indulging before mating.

  But, they were grown-ups, and even with the complexities placing a distance the size of a gulf between them, Drew knew how to work her body like clockwork. She would never complain.

  Betty wasn’t entirely certain what he did with his fingers. Sometimes he swirled them over her clit, other times he messaged it. The rapid spiral of pleasure brought colors to her vision, even with her eyes closed. Random shapes filled with blue, purple, and green danced beneath her lids.

  She opened them to stare up at Drew, who smiled down at her, the look of a man knowing he was pleasuring a woman plastered on his face.

  “That’s it, B. Come for me. Just the first of many times tonight.”

  Even when he hadn’t been her Alpha, she responded to his orders. This time would be no different. Her womb spasmed, moisture dripping onto her thighs, covering his hand with her juices. She came over and over again.

  Drew bent over, taking some of it in his mouth. He moaned, and she knew he liked the flavor. He’d always told her he did.

  Finally, with the world spinning, she came back down to reality. That was the first orgasm she hadn’t given herself in a decade. Her own fingers couldn’t do for her what his did. A vibrator, it turned out, was a lost cause on their kind. She needed her mate’s presence or it basically wasn’t worth the effort.

  She smiled up at him when he pulled back to look at her. “Happy?”

  He nodded. “But I plan on getting a lot happier.”

  Drew positioned himself to enter her and, with a hard plunge, went balls-deep inside of her. She cried out, loving the feeling of being stretched so completely by his penis. In some ways, it felt like coming home, like a part of herself, which had been missing had been reattached to her soul.

  “You okay?” He smoothed the hair off her forehead. “I could have been gentler.”

  She could see the strain on his face as he held back, the clenching of the muscles in his neck. Betty messaged the back of his neck. “You don’t need to apologize to me. I like how it feels when you do that. I always have. Quit stalling and give me what I want.”

  He nodded, his gaze serious. “B, I….”

  She reached out and stroked the side of his face. “Not the time for talking.”

  With a nod, he pulled out and abruptly pushed back inside of her. She raised her hips to meet him thrust for thrust. Soon, they were moving in a rhythm she hadn’t created and was pretty sure Drew hadn’t either. It was the dance of their lovemaking—no, she amended, of their fucking—and had always been.

  Every movement of his body brought her closer to shattering into a thousand pieces. She gasped, holding her breath after she did. Her mind warred with her body. The former cautioned against letting it all end too quickly—who knew when she’d ever have him above her again? The latter wanted release, right then, without another moment delayed.

  Drew let out a loud growl and flipped her over. She had a moment to grasp onto the headboard before he was behind her and thrusting into her again. “Like this. I’ll have you this way.”

  Whatever he wanted. She’d do it upside down and dangling from her feet if only he would give her release. She threw her head back, leaning on his shoulder while she tilted her head toward the ceiling. There was something inherently right about him taking her from behind. They were part wolves. She did want her mate to dominate her, even if she would never tell him outside the bedroom.

  The sounds of sex slapped between them, and she grew even hotter. If this continued, she’d explode from the sheer temperature alone. The friction between them drove her farther toward the edge. “Yes, Drew, please. More. Give me more.”

  “Always, baby, always.” His words were said right in her ear. “Come for me, B. I want to feel you explode around me.”

  She shouldn’t need his permission to reach orgasm, but that night she did. She shattered around his hard cock, her womb clenching and unclenching while she shouted his name, over and over. Or maybe she only thought she did. Coherent thought had become a thing of the past.

  Drew gave one more hard thrust before he came, long and hard, inside of her. There was no chance of either pregnancy or disease. She could only get pregnant under very specific moon cycles, and they weren’t in them. Their kind didn’t carry sexual diseases like the humans they sometimes resembled. She reveled in the feel of her mate’s explosion. It had been so long.

  She closed her eyes and let herself just feel. He didn’t fall on top of her but instead lifted her close against his chest while he rolled both of them over onto his chest. It would be so easy to curl into him, to bask in the post-climax glow of being this close to Drew.

  Betty lifted her lids and stared out into the room. How many nights like this had they shared together? Hundreds of them. And then he’d decided to just take matters into his own hands and leave? Screw his intentions, that wasn’t okay.

  She bit down on her lip, trying to keep her anger down, before she realized the effort fruitless. Another woman might be able to get over this without another thought. But, she’d never been that girl. Drew had hurt her. Not even extraordinary sex would fix it for her.

  “B….”

  Yeah, he’d be able to smell the shift in her scent. He’d know she felt less than happy at that moment.

  “I want you to go.”

  Drew sighed loudly. “Listen—”

  “No, you listen.” She sat up. “I get that I may have just given you the impression this was going to change something. I rolled over. I practically begged you to spank me. Thanks, really. It was great.” Drew had accused her of going for the throat earlier. Yes, that’s exactly what she did. Years with Magnum had taught her nothing else. And screw Drew. Everyone else might be willing to fall their knees over his return, but not her. He’d hurt her. Not them. Abandoned. “Get out.”

  “You know what? This hasn’t exactly been a picnic for me either. I got banished. I got shot.” She winced. He limped. But, still it didn’t change what he had done even if she didn’t like the thought of his pain. “I did that for you. Do you think ten years ago I would have done that for anyone else? Just you. You, my mate, who I would die for. I took ten years of utter and total loneliness and isolation. You could at least speak to your family. You had people you care about around you. I’ll go, but maybe if you could get your head out of your ass long enough to see something other than your own pain, there might be a chance for us. Think about whether or not you want to be alone another fucking decade.”

  It took him a few seconds to get up, grab his clothes, and get out of the room. She refused to look at him. His words thundered in her chest. She scrunched up in a ball under the sheets, which still smelled like him.

  Tears she hadn’t shed in ten years flew freely down her face. How was it possible to be so sad and so angry at the same time?

  Chapter Five

  Drew slammed his hammer onto the nail so hard his elbow ached from the vibration. He’d been up since dawn, having slept on the floor of his mother’s -dilapidated home. Maybe slept was the wrong word. Stared at the ceiling in abject horror might be a better description.

  Was this his life with B now? Would they fight all the time? Would she hate him for making what he’d thought was the best decision at the time for the rest of her life? If the joining they’d had the night before couldn’t begin to repair things, nothing would.

  With the afternoon sun in the sky, he stepped back to see how his repairs were going. Most of what was left of the pack worked on the barn. It had always been a meeting place until Magnum had usurped it as his hangout with his cronies. Drew hadn’t told anyone what to repair, but it seemed the consensus had been to start with that first.

  He had chosen, by contrast, to work on what had been, at one time, a convenience store. Who knew what it would be if anyone ever came back to resettle and work the place? But he couldn’t ask members of the pack to return home and not have anywhere for them to make a livelihood. The ones who had been gone had been living in the human world. They’d want more amenities and having such things around appealed to him as well. If they were going to rebuild the place, they needed to make it a modern Los Lobos.

  The whole place had become a disaster. When he’d left, the town had been small but it had a diner, Gee’s bar, a small department store where basic clothing necessities could be met, and boutique shops for people with more eclectic tastes to feed their needs in addition to the convenience store he pounded on. Now? There was Gee’s bar, which smelled like it served food, and that was about it.

  Wood panels were strewn about the street. and windows had been smashed in, leaving glass everywhere. A good layer of dust told him none of this had been a new development. How soon after he left had Magnum destroyed everything? It might be better to simply knock it all down and start over. But that thought made Drew want to growl. This had been his home. He needed to put it back together for all of them.

  Having a little time to himself also appealed to him. He needed to think. How would he survive here without B? In all the time he’d been away, it had never occurred to him if the truth came out, she wouldn’t understand. Would she have preferred to have her sister molested by his father? Other than killing Magnum then, a task he had not been ready to take on, had there been a third option he’d missed? Should he have risked his father’s threat and contacted her? He’d been trying to keep them all safe.

  Damn it, he could play the what-ifs until forever. It would never fix any of this.

  He smelled Ryker’s approach only seconds before he saw the man. Truth was, the Enforcer could make himself vanish from detection if he wanted to. That ability, coupled with his absolute relentless belief in rule following, made him a hell of an intimidating wolf. At least, he helped Drew not Magnum. Drew would always consider himself fortunate.

 

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