Ju DiMello - Jaguar, Be Mine

“And they sent you as their messenger?”

He caught her scowl and tore his thoughts away from the all-too-familiar path. “No.”

“As mundane as this question might seem, bear with me.” A frustrated sigh sounded from her lips. “Why are you here in the dead of night?”

No sense in prolonging the inevitable. If he didn’t spill, she’d know the announcement soon enough. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m the one they’ve chosen as your mate.”

She flinched at his statement, but quickly masked her emotion with a tight smile. “Ah. I see.”

Did she really? He shrugged and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I’m sorry not to have better news.”

“You’re here to gloat about their decision.”

He didn’t answer. Her fingers stopped their tapping, and she worried her lower lip and sighed again.

What was she thinking? Though she’d clearly made him an ogre, he couldn’t help being concerned on her behalf. “Can I come inside?”

Her eyes flared, but she pressed her mouth into a thin line and unlatched the chain. “I’m not dressed for visitors, but what the heck,” she muttered before pulling the door open for him.

Jaguar shifters, under the threat of extinction, had long ago decided to live in packs. For solitary creatures, living in groups had been hard, but they’d learned to adjust, if barely, in order to save their kind. At times like now, in face of her fierce independence, he couldn’t help the mixed feelings coursing through him. Anticipation for the upcoming battle of wills and the ensuing lust had his palms sweating.

He stepped in, her fresh, flowery scent adding to his already tight coil of need. Her sashaying hips caused the tail end of her silky nightshirt to shift as she walked ahead of him. Continuous peeks at those tight, little ass cheeks didn’t help one iota in calming his raging desire. Her scent drugged his blood. His arousal bordered on painful within the confines of his jeans. He didn’t dare remove his hands from his pockets, fearing if he did, he might as well chuck his good intentions away.

She turned to face him, lips pinched as if in disapproval. “You’re too young.”

Xander sensed the censure in her tone. She’d rejected his advances once and whatever hurt he’d endured paled in comparison to now.

A year had passed since her mate lost his life protecting their territory and she, as the Alpha female, hadn’t picked anyone else. And no one had been more surprised than him when the elders had picked him for her. The sole remaining Alpha, five years younger than her thirty-two, bound to mate with her or risk their lives.

The elders had issued their ultimatum. Their unsaid “ Or else” meant elimination from the pack or worse, death, for both of them. He mentally huffed. Their ultimatum had irked him, but it wasn’t the threat that made him seek her out.

“I’m not a kid anymore, Karintha.”

As a teen, he’d been infatuated with her, trailing behind wherever she went. She’d first played with him, and then humored him, never crossing the line of propriety. When she’d married, he’d turned to others to satiate his young lust. But none of them had never held his attention.

And never will , he conceded with a frown, taking in her disheveled appearance. From her sleep-tousled hair to the silk nightshirt, she exuded an air of thick sensuality, arousing him like no other.

Her gaze wandered over him, as if trying to see past her earlier convictions. Was she checking him out? His manhood swelled to the level of bursting as he imagined her stroking him with the same thoroughness.

“Maybe,” she said. “I’m not in the market for a mate.”

She crossed her arms, hugging her slender, yet curvy frame, as if she’d passed her verdict and wasn’t up for further discussion. Too bad he agreed with her, though his libido protested otherwise.

Her firm breasts jutted out, dark areolas topped with darker nipples peeking through the flimsy material. His mouth dried and his mind blanked. A pair of jeans had never felt tighter. He yanked his hands out of his pockets, biting back a curse.

He shouldn’t stare, but her soft abdomen drew his gaze, and the hidden V below. God!

He almost groaned aloud. The dark curls, hiding her feminine secrets from view, matched her chocolate-brown hair and his grip tightened on the nearest thing—the sprawling sofa. His claws sank in to the material and he battled the urge to imprint himself on her, in her.

A low growl escaped him as he moved toward her. She took a step backward, eyes wide and nostrils flaring. Great.

Now he was either frightening her or inviting her to fight. Not good in his current state, when he might throw caution to the wind with the need to mount her. Make her his.

They’d fall in a tangle of limbs—his body atop hers, or hers riding him. First time would be fast and furious. Next time though…

Thoughts careened inside him, each more erotic than the last as he took a much needed lungful of air.

Space. He needed space from her alluring scent or he’d forget what he intended to say and what he’d come here for. He let out a shaky breath, reining in his overloaded senses. The sensual magic she wove over him seemed more potent than usual.

“I wanted to discuss something important with you,” he admitted before he could lose his coherence.

“That couldn’t wait until morning?”

“No.”

She pursed her lips, but not before he saw the surprised flicker in her eyes. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say.”

“Too bad, sugar,” he drawled. “I believe you’re more than ready for a mate.”

She opened her mouth to protest and he held himself back from capturing her tempting lips with his to shut her up.

“But,” he continued, cutting her off before she could slice him with words, “I agree with you.”

She shuttered her emotions into a polite mask and watched him, obviously wary. He forced himself to meet her eyes instead of ogling the mile-long exposed legs and imagining himself on his knees, between her thighs.

“Do you think I wish you to be forced into a mating you don’t want?”

She lifted a perfect eyebrow at his reasonable question. “Don’t you?” Her drawl rose more than his hackles. He would’ve attributed the low flush spreading over her pale skin to anger, if not for the fact that her lips parted for a shaky breath. The scent of her arousal, sharp and all-consuming, hit the air.

Fuck! She was in heat. How had he missed that?

She wouldn’t, oh, couldn’t resist him. How on earth was he to prove he couldn’t resist her either? Not because of her heat or because of the elders’ ultimatum, but because of her . He wasn’t planning on being around much longer anyway.

No . He wasn’t going there even if he died of blue balls.

He met her stare. “You should know me better than that, Karin.”

“I have no idea, Xander.” Her eyes narrowed. “Who can confirm you didn’t ask me out at the elders’ urging? You’re the next in line for Alpha and I’m the only one in the path of your destiny. I was, and still am, your only hurdle.”

Damn it all to hell. His jaw ached from gritting his teeth. “I am attracted to you. But believe me or not, I tried my best to convince them otherwise.”

Her gaze trailed below, to the visible tent in his jeans. “Yeah, sure.”

He should walk away now and never turn back. How did it matter what she thought?

When, and not if , he abandoned his pack, he’d leave her choice intact, proving himself and allowing his actions to speak on behalf of his intent. Then why was he trying to convince her of his honorable intentions, when his thoughts were anything but?