Embracing my mate had been a huge mistake… I had barely been able to keep my hands off her while we were meeting with our friends. Once they were gone, the moment she was close with her warmth and her rich scent, and her lips brushing my neck, I was shuddering for very different reasons.
I hadn’t intended to start anything, but now that she was in my arms, nothing else made sense.
I took her face in my hands and kissed her deeply—deeper, harder than she’d been expecting. She gave a little hum, but reached up to wrap her arms around my neck, letting me hold her more tightly, curling her backwards so I could grab her ass—though she hissed a little if I bent her too far. Her back was beginning to ache by the end of the day.
“J
~ CASIMIR ~I stood in the cell of Jesse’s father, nose wrinkled against the stench of a man who had given up on caring for himself, and shook my head.I wanted to shake him.He lay in the cot, dirty sheets, dirty blankets, dirty clothes, dirty man, and stared at the wall. I would almost have had compassion for him. But then he opened his mouth.“Never saw it…” he murmured. “Let myself get distracted by the fucking boys. She was the prize all along, and now…”He began to weep quietly and I snorted the air from my nose.
~ CASIMIR ~“We have identified our primary targets, and you are here because you are trusted. We will not leave this room until everyone understands their role, and is confident of what they’re there to do. This is not a time to be hesitant to speak. If you do not understand something as I explain it or if your personal role seems unclear in any way, you raise it and ask as many questions as you need until you are certain. Are we clear?”Every wolf in the room nodded. Some of the gathered women looked a little pale, others tense with anticipation. The guards were stern.“Very well, then. Let’s get started. If you are in
~ JESSE ~I was naked, sweating, and on my knees on the bed.Cazz had stalked through the day, abrupt and tense. I’d thought it was just because we were getting to the final details, and he was facing the fact that we were intentionally putting wolves within the grasp of powerful humans.But the moment the room had finally gone quiet after dinner and everyone looked at each other, no one asking any questions, he’d turned snappish—almost rude.Until he’d ushered me back to his room and begun stripping my clothes almost before the door was closed behind us.He groaned now, sliding hands down my spine to grasp my hip
~ JESSE ~“Settle, Jesse,” he laughed. “I only asked what might be best for late in pregnancy. I know everything is different with the belly. I don’t want to crush you, but I want to watch you… I need to watch you,” he said, his tone dropping at the end into a hint of self-consciousness. Vulnerability.I bit my lip and reached up to stroke his stomach as he thrust slowly into me again, then let my eyes close and nodded. “Well… good choice,” I breathed.He gave that low growl again, and my skin pebbled.“Jesse, look at me.”When I opened my eyes again, he lifted his hands and extended his palms. “Take my hands.”
~ CASIMIR ~The morning those we were taking to the City left the catacombs was an exercise in sheer will that I had not experienced in years.We were surrounded and shadowed by dozens of wolves. And still, I had to fight not to grasp Jesse and roar at her to go back, not to gather the guards around the two of us and to hell with the rest, not to hold her belly and weep into her beautiful breasts at the fear of what might be on the horizon.But giving in to fear was not how an Alpha led.My father had been an evil fucker, but he hadn’t been wrong about that.So, I allowed myself the indulgence of gripping my mate’s hand at all times on the journey—at times,
~ CASIMIR ~Every instinct in my body screamed about enclosed spaces and unknown enemies as we were ushered through the huge hotel, awash with unrecognized scents, then through the halls to a second elevator that opened directly into a massive suite—larger than my chambers under the mountain—with tall, floor-to-ceiling windows and multiple rooms off a main, central living area.I had kept several guards with us on the trip, and let some peel off along the route between this place and the rooms we would keep for the night to make certain that we weren’t being set up for an ambush. I’d had to bark at Ryan to slow down so his sister could keep up, which he did reluctantly—but she seemed more irritated than tired when we finally reached the huge suite. Still, I caught her eyes darting and she licked her lips more than once. She was more nervous
~ JESSE ~I felt sick. We stood in the long hallway of a wing they’d given us just for the wolves. There were guards stationed where the elevator bays opened and the wing joined the main hallway of the hotel on this floor. And a few more scattered along the hallway, just watching over the females. But we stood in the middle of the bustle of all these women finding rooms, finding bags, and putting on a very plausible show of women who were nervous and trying to settle in after long travel.Probably because it didn’t need to be much of an act.The women would look at me and Cazz, then their eyes would dart nervously to Garret—the Police Chief who had been my father’s boss and comrade
~ JESSE ~I didn’t even think.I slapped Garrett’s hand away with a growl of my own at the same time I screamed at Cazz through the bond, “NO!”I wasn’t sure if I accidentally unleashed power, or what happened, but there was a jolt inside me and the word resonated, freezing Cazz in his tracks for a split second, just in time for me to put a finger under Garrett’s nose.“I am the King’s slave, not yours,” I hissed at him, at the same time I babbled at the panting and rippling Cazz through the link.‘You can’t touch him, yo