Jennifer Ashley: Mate Claimed

Instead, he made himself stand still as she roved his face to his neck, breasts lifting as she inhaled.

“You had eggs for breakfast,” she said. “You’ve been riding around on your motorcycle, farther than just between here and Shiftertown, and you’ve been very close to at least one other Shifter. You were also extremely angry this morning.” Iona lifted her head, puzzlement in her eyes. “Angry about what?”

“Not angry,” Eric said. “Frustrated. What kind of Shifter?”

“How am I supposed to know that?”

“You’ll know. Come on. Give it your best shot.”

Iona leaned closer, her eyes closing as she drew in a long breath. Her hair brushed his cheek, and Eric’s body tightened.

“Felines,” Iona said, opening her eyes and drawing back. “And another kind, but I don’t recognize it. I’m only familiar with Felines.”

“Lupine,” Eric said. “The Felines were my sister and son at breakfast. I hugged them both before I left. The Lupine is Graham McNeil, the asshole who’s being shoved into my Shiftertown. Which is why we need the new houses.”

“Which you want constructed to your specifications.”

“Without mentioning it to anyone,” he said.

Iona drew back. “How am I supposed to have my crew build houses without them noticing what they’re building?”

“You’re having your sister’s house remodeled without telling her.”

“Only until she and her husband get back from their trip. I think she’ll notice the guys hammering and sawing and putting up walls then. It can’t be done.”

He liked the way she stood and glared at him, not bowing her head and meekly promising him whatever he wanted. She was strong, this lady. A survivor.

“Find a way,” he said. “I’ll keep my Shifters from you, and the humans from finding out about you, and you alter the plans to my specs without telling anyone. All right?”

“And if I refuse? You’ll expose me?”

“You think I’m threatening you?” Eric came out of his nonchalant, Eric-is-everyone’s-friend stance, and leaned over the desk to her again, not stopping the predator. Iona stood her ground, but her eyes widened, and her wild scent washed over him.

“I don’t need to make deals with you, Iona. You’re an unmated, unprotected female in my territory. I could make you mine right here in this office, carry you home, and sequester you, and you couldn’t do anything to stop me. Could you? You’d fight, but in the end I’d win.”

He leaned closer, the desk no barrier, and she stepped back, catching herself on the chair behind her. Her eyes flickered, and he smelled her fear, but she wouldn’t look away.

She wet her lips, which made them red and sultry. “Is this how you romance all the girls?”

The little bit of defiance kicked hot need through Eric’s body. Having her was going to be good, so good.

“Sweetheart, an unprotected female raises the capture instinct in all unmated males, and most aren’t strong enough to control it. McNeil’s Shifters are just this side of wild, and they’re not about to control anything. Females protected by a clan or family are safe, but someone like you…” Eric reached across the desk and touched her cheek. “When Shifters see you, alone and unmated, their beasts will come out. The wild things we once were just want.” His touch grew firmer. “And they take.”

She drew a quick breath. “But you control your beast?”

“Barely.” Eric brushed her skin with his fingertips, liking how her cheek flushed. “I can keep it together, but whenever I see you, it’s one hell of a struggle.”

“But you hold it in. Is that why you’re the alpha?”

“One of the reasons.”

Eric felt his eyes change to Shifter, and Iona’s flicked to Shifter in response. He smelled her desires, the wild frenzy in her fighting to take over. She tried to tamp it down, but Eric’s own frenzy was responding.

He could do it. He could pull her across the desk to him, strip her down, make her his in the most inescapable way. It wouldn’t take long.

Eric leaned closer and licked across her lips.

Iona jumped, but she didn’t back off. He felt her body shaking, sensed her rise in temperature, tasted the mustard from her sandwich that lingered at the corner of her mouth.

He licked her again, and this time, Iona’s tongue came out to meet his.

Eric slid his hand to the back of her neck and gripped her while he played, licked, and nipped, chasing her tongue, her hot breath tangling his. Iona licked the pad of his lip, then the tip of his tongue, their mouths meeting and parting, soft sounds in the quiet.

The thick, female scent of her made him growl. Need and frenzy, long buried, rushed to the surface. Iona would be his, and no other Shifter would touch her, ever. She was his.

Eric dragged her closer, the desk still between them. He felt her nipples tight behind her thin blouse and bra, heard the little noise she made in her throat. He remembered her naked up in the cave, firm breasts pale in the moonlight, dark tips beckoning his tongue. He wanted to rip open the blouse, sending buttons flying through the room, to bend her backward and fasten his mouth on her. He would do it, taste every inch of her, lick up every bit of goodness. She was made for tasting.

Iona seemed fascinated by the Collar. As they kissed, she glided her fingertips around it to the Celtic knot fused at his throat—the “eternal” knot, the Fae thinking to make Shifters slaves eternally. Fools. The eternal knot meant two hearts bound together forever, and that’s what would free the Shifters in the end. Their strength and love.

Eric would make Iona understand this, after he took her in every position known to humans and some they didn’t know.

Iona slid her fingers down to find the smooth line of his tatt. She swirled her touch around and around the tattoo, moving her tongue in his mouth in the same rhythm. She probably didn’t even know she was doing it, but Eric’s hard-on was about to dig through the desk.

He felt a sudden draft of air behind him, smelled the strong scent of human, then heard a gasp. “Iona?”

Iona jerked away, her face flushed, her eyes still her wildcat’s—blue, slit-pupilled, almost luminescent. She backed away from the desk, her arms coming up as though to hide herself.

“Mom,” she said breathlessly.

Iona tried to make her eyes return to human, to the unscary daughter she tried to be. Wasn’t working. Eric’s mouth, his touch, his scent, had her wild side wide awake.

She wanted him. She needed to feel his body heavy on top of hers, Eric holding her down.

No, no, no, no. Eric was hot, and what woman wouldn’t fantasize about him? But if Iona succumbed to her need, that would be the end of her.

Sex with Eric would be more than scratching an itch, and she knew it. Sex with Eric would have a deep meaning, some Shifter connection, a mating thing she didn’t understand.

Iona’s brain told her that, while her body shrieked at the interruption.

“Mom,” she said again. “This is—”

“I know who he is,” Penny Duncan said crisply. Iona’s mother had dark hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, a short but sturdy body, and dark blue eyes. Iona’s black hair and Celtic coloring came from her Shifter father, but she’d never known him. Penny and Howard, Iona’s stepfather, were the ones who’d taken care of her, kissed her skinned knees better, and protected her at night. “Eric Warden, Shiftertown leader,” Penny went on, her gaze on Eric, not Iona. “What is he doing here?”

Iona’s words felt heavy in her mouth. “He came to talk about the plans for the new houses in Shiftertown.”

“Is that why he was trying to put his tongue down your throat?”