Wolf’s Bane

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One

Kat

July in Texas, and the air conditioning broke. At the
Silver Star, the girls were all sweating—the ones up
on stage, dancing under the lights, and the ones on
the floor serving, like me.

It didn’t matter that we didn’t wear many

clothes  to  work  at  the  Silver  Star.  I  was  wearing  a
black  strapless  bustier  and  a  tiny  black  skirt  with
strappy  heels,  but  I  could  feel  the  sweat  sliding
down my neck and between my breasts. The men at
the tables didn’t fare any better, though by the look
of their eyes on my slick skin, they obviously liked
the view. One cupped my ass as I dropped off their
drinks—a hazard of the job, as I already knew after
only  one  week  of  working  here.  Instructions  from
Cash, the bar’s manager, were strict and very clear:
Whatever the customers do, grit your teeth and put
up  with  it  or  you’re  fired.  So  far  the  ass-cupping
had been the worst thing, and the tips were good. I
needed the money, so I followed the rules.

A song ended and Jenny, who was onstage

wearing only a purple wig and a few sparkles stuck

to her skin, collected her last dollar bills and left. I
returned  a  tray  of  empty  drinks  to  the  bar  and
offloaded  them  while  the  DJ  blathered,  telling  the
sweat-soaked men that the girls were taking a ten-
minute  break.  Jade,  the  bartender,  gave  me  a
grateful look.

“You think it’s hot out there, try working the

dishwasher,” she said. She had dyed black hair and
a nose ring and liked to wear black leather. The
men came on to her all night long, and her answer
was always Look at the stage, honey.

I nodded. “At least I don’t have to dance.” I

was  a  server,  not  a  dancer.  My  job  was  to  dress
skimpy, look hot, serve drinks, flirt, and get my ass
fondled. If I did all of that right, I got tips. It wasn’t
the most glamorous job, but at least I didn’t have to
get  naked  onstage  to  get  a  paycheck.  A  lot  of  the
girls  who  did  it  loved  it,  but  there  was  no  way  I
could be one of them.

“I keep telling you, honey, you should try it,”

Jade said. “With your body, you’d be a sensation.”

I shook my head. “No way.” My mother had

had  me  at  seventeen,  and  I  never  knew  who  my
father  was.  There  was  only  a  succession  of
boyfriends. She’s the one I got my body from, and
though I didn’t judge, I didn’t want to live her life. I
saw the men who came in here and came on to the
dancers—most  of  them  were  married,  though  they
took their wedding rings off and wouldn’t admit it. I

didn’t  need  a  Prince  Charming,  but  I  at  least
needed  someone  who  would  be  faithful.  Being  a
stripper  seemed  to  be  a  way  to  attract  the  worst
kind of man.

Though to tell the truth, I wasn’t much different

from the dancers. I still wore these skimpy clothes,
and  honestly  I  kind  of  liked  it.  The  bustier  pushed
my  breasts  up  and  together  into  creamy  mounds,
and  the  skirt  molded  to  my  ass.  Mom  would  be
proud  if  she  could  see  me.  She’d  finally  gotten
married and moved to Florida, and I never saw her
anymore. I didn’t know anyone else in town, and I
was kind of lonely. I wouldn’t mind meeting a man,
if  he  was  good-looking  and  nice  and  had  a  good
job.  I  was  twenty-four,  and  it  was  time  to  settle
down.

Except, I reminded myself, that would never

happen. Because there were good reasons no man
like that would ever have me.

I bent and put the last of the glasses away,

blinking back tears. When I stood again, I had
control of myself. I had to think positively. I had to
remember that things usually worked out for the
best. I’d find not just any man, but the right man—
one who loved and cherished me just as I was. I just
had to be patient.

I had more orders to fill, and as Jade served

customers at the end of the bar I pulled my own
beers from the tap. I turned to find Jade coming

quickly back toward me, a worried frown on her
face. “We have trouble coming,” she said.

“What?” I asked.
She shook her head. “You hear that?”
I paused and listened. With the loud pulse of

the dancers’ music temporarily off, I could hear the
men talking and laughing, glasses clinking, and—a
low, loud rumble.

I’d never heard that before. “What is it?” I

asked Jade.

“It’s a big goddamn problem is what it is,” Jade

said. She seemed concerned and even a little bit
scared, her tough persona cracking for a second.
“They never come here. I thought they’d moved on
to Barrower County. It’s the Nocturne MC.”

It took me a second to figure out what she was

saying. “Those are motorcycles?”

The roar was louder, as if whatever it was was

pulling  into  the  parking  lot  outside.  A  vibration  I
could  practically  hear  through  the  floor.  Some  of
the men looked alarmed, and others’ faces had gone
hard. I saw Tina, one of the waitresses, slip into the
corridor  to  go  backstage,  presumably  to  warn  the
dancers.

“I don’t get it,” I said to Jade as Vin, the man

who worked the DJ booth, quickly swigged his beer
and hustled back to the booth, his break
prematurely over. “There’s a motorcycle club
coming to the bar. What’s the big deal?”

“You don’t know the Nocturne, do you?” Jade

said.

I’d lived in Prairie all my life. I knew there

were some motorcycle clubs who prowled the back
roads  and  sometimes  the  main  freeways.  I  knew
some  of  them  were  based  down  on  the  coast,  and
others  were  here  in  central  Texas.  My  mother  had
never dated bikers, and she’d told me to stay away
from them. I’d never seen an MC up close. I shook
my head.

“Honey, they aren’t just an MC,” Jade said.

“They’re werewolves.”

I stared at her in shock. Fear crawled up my

spine. “Oh my God,” I said under my breath as Vin
shouted over the loudspeaker, “Break’s over, boys!
Here come the girls!”

Music pumped over the speakers, filling the

room. Purple lights flashed over the stage. Two girls
came out—Jenna and Tami. Jenna was in a
schoolgirl’s outfit, Tami in a cowboy hat and tied-
up plaid shirt. They started dancing on either end of
the stage, both of them moving to the music.

This wasn’t the usual show. They’d pushed the

girls onstage because the werewolves were coming.
Actual werewolves, and they were—

The rumbling outside had stopped. At the

doorway, the bouncer stepped aside and the
werewolves came in.

I had to put my beer down and step back. My

hands were shaking, my skin cold. Werewolves! The
rarest and most dangerous creatures on earth. They
had been hunted almost to extinction, because they
were killers—killers of humans. There were only a
few hundred left in the country, and they kept to
themselves in isolated packs. Most of those packs
were motorcycle clubs.

I had never in my life seen a real live werewolf.

They  didn’t  show  their  faces  in  cities,  and  most
counties  moved  them  on  as  fast  as  they  could  as
soon  as  they  showed  up.  Everyone  knew  that
werewolves  were  violent,  depraved,  and  willing  to
kill.  And  they  could  turn  into  beasts  that  hunted
and weren’t human at all.

And there was a pack of them coming through

the doorway.

They were big. Bigger than human men, though

they looked human. They all wore road-worn jeans
and  leather  jackets  that  had  the  words  Nocturne
MC  on  the  backs.  Most  of  them  had  beards  and
shaggy hair. Their arms were big; their hands were
big. Their eyes were hard. They came into the club
like  an  army  on  a  mission,  streaming  through  the
door and fanning out through the room. They didn’t
talk, not to the people here and not to each other. I
stepped  further  back  behind  the  bar  and  counted
them swiftly. There were twelve.

Onstage, Jenna and Tami were taking off their

clothes, swirling around the poles. Jenna had lost

her schoolgirl top and her breasts were bouncing.
She twitched her skirt off and did and open-legged
squat, running her fingers over the panties covering
her pussy, arching her back. The men at the tables
in front of her were watching the werewolves, who
pulled out chairs at the surrounding tables and sat
down as if watching the show.

“Jesus,” I heard a voice say at my shoulder, and

I turned to find Cash, the manager, standing next to
me, staring out at the werewolf MC. He was about
thirty,  pasty  and  scrawny,  his  dark  hair  combed
carefully  back.  He  was  one  of  the  married  ones
who  liked  coming  on  to  the  dancers;  I  heard  that
Jenna  had  sucked  his  cock  and  got  a  raise.  But
Cash,  true  to  his  name,  liked  money  even  more
than  sex.  He  was  all  about  keeping  the  customers
happy,  no  matter  what.  It  was  why  we  had  VIP
rooms in the back where anything went—as long as
management got a cut.

I’d never been to a VIP room. I’d only been

here a week, and no one had asked. I had no idea
what I would do if I got asked—I just prayed it
wouldn’t happen.

“What am I supposed to do?” Cash said. His

voice  was  panicked.  “I  can’t  have  fucking
werewolves  in  my  bar,  and  I  can’t  kick  them  out
without bloodshed. They’re going to terrify the girls
and  chase  away  the  customers.  What  the  hell  do  I
do?”

I stared out at the tables. One of the

werewolves,  bigger  than  the  others,  turned  in  his
seat  and  looked  at  me.  Unruly  black  hair  pushed
back  from  his  forehead,  black  eyes.  Black  beard
framing  a  hard  mouth.  He  looked  at  me  for  a  long
second,  his  expression  unreadable,  and  then  he
turned back to the stage.

I stood frozen. I felt like a mouse feels when a

predator has just spotted it in the grass.

“Jesus, they’re big fuckers, aren’t they?” This

was Cash. “I didn’t think they hung around these
parts. I thought they just passed through.”

“Maybe we should call the cops,” Jade said.
“Those things kill cops.” This was a new voice,

and  I  turned  to  see  that  JC,  one  of  our  bouncers,
had joined the group behind the bar. “They can rip
off a  Kevlar vest  if  they get  close,  and it  takes  six
or  seven  bullets  to  get  one  of  them  even  on  the
floor. Besides, the MC own the cops in Prairie. The
cops won’t come unless they’re stirring trouble.”

“Did they say anything to you when they came

in?” Cash asked.

JC shrugged. “Just that they wanted to see

some titty. That’s all.”

The song ended onstage, and a few of the

wolves  put  bills  in  the  girls’  G-strings.  The  wolves
still  weren’t  talking,  to  each  other  or  anyone  else.
They were just sitting and watching. Sometimes one
or  another  would  look  over  at  the  big,  dark  wolf

who had looked back at me, as if something about
him made them uneasy.

One of the other wolves—this one dark blond,

with a trim beard—turned in his chair and looked at
me.  Then  he  glanced  at  the  bigger  werewolf,  who
was  staring  at  the  stage.  The  big,  dark  werewolf
looked back at him, a scowl on his face. The blond
werewolf  said  something  I  couldn’t  hear,  and  the
big, dark werewolf turned back to face the stage.

I couldn’t stand it anymore. I felt like I was

about to get pounced on and eaten, and the only
thing I could do was cower behind the bar and let it
happen.

I picked up my tray. “Well, it looks like

werewolves spend the same money everyone else
does,” I said. “I’m going to go serve them some
drinks.”

Two

Kat

The music started up again, and Rona, who was tall
and black and gorgeous, came out wearing a pair of
skintight cutoff shorts and a lacy bra. She started a
slow dance in her strappy heels, her gaze sweeping
the audience from time to time, checking for
danger. She looked like she was doing a striptease,
but in fact she was ready to run.

I approached one of the werewolves—this one

was younger, in his early twenties, swoonily
handsome with dark curls. I figured he was the least
intimidating of the bunch. “Get you a drink?” I
asked him.

He looked up at me and gave me a smile that

would probably slay women if he wasn’t a
coldhearted killer. He had the word Jackson on the
breast of his leather jacket. “Just get me
something,” he said. “Anything.”

I frowned at him. “You don’t know what you

want?”

“I’m not picky.” He pulled out a twenty and put

it on my tray. “I’ll drink anything.”

The second wolf—older, closer to forty, with

salt-and-pepper  hair  and  beard—said  the  same
thing,  and  so  did  the  third.  They  were  polite,  but
they didn’t chat or flirt, and not one of them put his
hand  on  my  ass.  They  didn’t  react  rudely  to  the
women onstage, either. They watched politely, and
when two of them walked up to put bills in the girls’
G-strings, I saw that they were fifties. Jesus. Maybe
werewolves weren’t so bad.

The only rude one was the big one with the

dark  hair.  He  barely  glanced  at  me  and  barely
spoke.  He  tossed  a  twenty  on  my  tray,  like  the
others  had,  and  grunted  “Just  get  a  drink.”  I  stood
there  with  my  cheeks  heating  and  the  sudden  urge
to  take  his  money  and  throw  it  in  his  face.  He
wasn’t  the  handsomest  werewolf,  or  the  youngest,
but there was something about him. He was the one
the  others  were  watching,  as  if  he  was  the  leader.
For  some  reason  I  wanted  him  to  look  at  me,  to
smile.  I’d  even  be  okay  if  he  grabbed  my  ass.  Just
some  reaction  besides  treating  me  like  a  piece  of
furniture.

I had no idea why it would matter. Why was I

so mad?

I stood glaring at the big werewolf for a minute,

but  he  still  didn’t  acknowledge  me.  The  patch  on
the  breast  of  his  leather  jacket  said  BANE,  and
beneath  it  was  a  grinning  wolf  skull.  None  of  the
others had the skull insignia, and I wondered what

it  meant.  Beneath  the  jacket  he  wore  a  black  tee
that  stretched  over  his  muscled  chest.  It  was  sexy,
even though he was a jerk. He had big arms in the
sleeves of his jacket, and big hands rested lightly on
the  table,  adorned  with  heavy  silver  rings.  I  half
expected he would have fur or claws, but he didn’t.

I looked at his face again. His dark hair was

longish,  though  not  long  enough  to  put  in  a
ponytail,  pushed  back  from  his  forehead  and
tousled. He had a beard on his jaw that was bushy
and coal-black. His eyes looked dark and hard and
had  crow’s  feet  in  the  corners.  He  kept  staring  at
the  stage,  not  acknowledging  me,  though  for  a
second  his  nostrils  flared  as  if  he  was  catching  a
scent. I wondered what he could smell.

Fear, maybe.
Then I remembered that I was standing next to

a half-human killer, and I moved on to the next
werewolf without another word.

Last was with the wolf with dark blond hair. He

was good-looking in a totally different way, his hair
cropped  shorter  at  the  sides  and  longer  on  top.  He
had a beard, too, though it was neatly trimmed. He
looked  at  me  and  said,  “I  apologize  for  my
crewmates,  especially  Bane.  We  don’t  mean  to  be
rude.”

I was so surprised at hearing a full sentence—

two of them!—come out of his mouth that I paused
in shock for a second. “It’s, um, okay,” I said.

The werewolf kept his gaze on me, and it

wasn’t as scary as the others’. He, too, had a patch
on his breast, though his said Tiberius. Instead of
the wolf skull there was a human handprint with
claw marks on the fingertips. Again, I had a second
of curiosity before I remembered myself.

“Get our round of drinks to satisfy your boss,”

the wolf said. “We can smell his fear from here.
When you’re finished, come back and speak to
me.”

I nodded and walked back to the bar. I dumped

out the money, had Jade pour twelve drinks—I had
no idea what—and went back to the werewolves
one by one, dropping them off.

Something was going on. The men seemed tense

now, and even the polite ones barely looked at me,
keeping their gazes away as if I was suddenly awful
to look at. A couple grunted thanks. The big one,
Bane, didn’t speak at all.

The last wolf, Tiberius, downed his whisky as

soon as I put it on the table. He put down his empty
glass. “Sweetheart,” he said, his voice gruff, “I
have bad news for you.”

I felt cold sweat mix with the hot sweat that

was already running down my back and between
my breasts. “What is it?”

“We came here to watch these titties on the

stage,” Tiberius said, “but something’s happened,
and it turns out we have business. Business

involving you.”

I gaped at him. “Me?”
“Yes. Do you know what an alpha is?”
No, but I could make a good guess. “He’s the

leader of your pack.”

“That’s right. We’re a brotherhood, but what he

says goes. We’d kill for him and we’d die for him.
He’s more important than all the rest of us put
together. Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” I said, wondering what this had to do

with me. Something bad.

Tiberius nodded, then looked back at the stage,

his expression thoughtful. “This is a good thing for
you,” he said. “It won’t look like it at first, but take
my advice and keep your mind open. You’ll see
that it can be a very good thing indeed. You have to
understand that being chosen by the alpha makes
you special. Being special isn’t always easy, but the
benefits can be beyond your imagination.”

“Wh-what?” He was well-spoken for a biker

werewolf, and he was scaring the hell out of me.
“What are you talking about?”

He turned and looked me in the eye, and I

noticed that his eyes were green. They had
kindness in them, but as I watched he shut it down
and his eyes went hard.

“Go to the VIP Room,” he said. “I’m sending in

Bane.”

Three

Kat

The VIP Room was small and dark. Velvet-covered
sofas  lined  two  of  the  walls.  There  was  a  stereo
system  along  another  wall  with  a  small  lighting
board. I had to assume it was so a dancer could do
a  private,  intimate  dance  for  a  customer  complete
with music and lights. The problem was, I wasn’t a
dancer and I didn’t know how to use any of it.

I’d argued with Cash, both of us whispering

angrily under our breath so the wolves wouldn’t
hear. Though I was starting to think they could hear
anyway. We can smell his fear from here. Maybe
they could smell mine; I was afraid.

Go to the VIP Room. I’m sending in Bane.
The big, black-haired werewolf. He had seventy

pounds on me and his hands could snap my neck in
a second. Oh, and he was a half-human killer. And I
was supposed to go alone into the VIP Room with
him to… what?

To fuck him?
“I’m not doing it,” I panic-whispered to Cash.

“I can’t. I won’t. I work here to serve drinks, not…

sell myself. That isn’t what I do.”

“Kat, what the hell kind of place do you think

this  is?”  Cash  argued  back.  “We’re  not  a  library.
The werewolf wants you in the VIP Room. They’ve
got  lots  of  money  and  they  can  kill  us  all.  Get  the
hell  back  there,  make  him  happy,  and  take  his
money so they can all get out of here.”

“I don’t know what to do to make him happy,”

I said. “The other girls will know better. Send one
of them. They can have the money—I don’t care.”

“He didn’t ask for another girl, Kat. He asked

for  you.  And  I’m  not  saying  no  to  that  big  fucker.
He  and  his  men  can  kill  me  and  all  my  bouncers
and  they  won’t  even  think  about  it.  They’ll  just
wipe  the  blood  off  and  take  you  anyway.  Is  that
what you want?”

“Oh, my God,” I said, trying to breathe.
Cash’s face was grim. “Get in there. Give him

whatever he wants—I don’t care what it is. If he
wants to spank you or fuck you up the ass or make
you call him Daddy, you just say ‘Yes, sir.’ You do
what it takes to get these monsters out of here. Do
you understand?”

I did understand. For some reason I’d been

chosen, and there was no help coming. No one was
going to get me out of this. So I went to the VIP
room and sat on the velvet sofa, trying not to panic.

The door opened, and Bane walked in. Jesus, he

was so big. Solid and packed with muscle. He was

tall, too, his thighs hard under his worn jeans, his
shoulders wide. He scowled at me impassively from
his dark eyes as he closed the door behind him.
Then he stood there, looking at me.

“Stand up,” he said, his voice rough.
I did. I was still wearing my bustier, skirt, and

heels—I didn’t have any other outfit, and even if I
did,  I  had  no  idea  what  he  wanted.  It  was  hot  and
stuffy  in  here,  and  I  felt  a  bead  of  sweat  trickle
down my neck. I pushed my blonde hair back over
my  shoulders  and  tried  to  stand  straight  instead  of
cowering. Even in heels, my nose only came to his
collarbone.

Bane took off his jacket and set it on the sofa,

showing  the  black  tee  I’d  glimpsed  before.  It  fit
over  his  muscles  like  a  second  skin.  Dark  ink
wound  its  way  down  both  his  biceps  in  patterns  I
couldn’t  make  out.  His  hands  were  huge  and
capable,  and  he  wore  silver  rings  on  some  of  his
fingers—big, blunt rings of silver, including one on
his thumb. His stomach was flat, and he wore a belt
on  his  jeans  with  a  silver  wolf’s  head  belt  buckle.
He’s  half  wolf,  I  thought.  He  can  turn  into  an
animal.  Literally  transform  his  body  into  a  wolf.
I’d  never  seen  it,  had  no  idea  what  it  would  look
like.  Maybe  he  wanted  me  back  here  so  his  wolf
could rip my throat out and have a snack.

“You’re afraid,” Bane said, and the sound of his

voice made me lift my gaze to his face. He was

watching me carefully, his face unreadable. “I can
smell your fear. I’m not going to kill you.”

Unable to speak, I nodded.
He scowled at me. “What is your name?”
“Kat.”
“Cat?” he asked, obviously thinking of the

animal.

“Katherine,” I explained. “Everyone calls me

Kat.”

Something flickered across his dark eyes, but I

didn’t know what it was. “Kat,” he said, as if he
was learning a word.

My nerves broke. “Do you, um, want me to do

something?” I nearly stuttered. “I can turn on the
music. I’m not much of a dancer, but if there’s
something you want me to do, I can maybe—”

Bane reached up and touched his fingertips to

my jaw, placing his thumb on my lower lip. I gasped
and  stopped  talking.  His  gaze  dropped  to  my
mouth,  and  as  I  stood  frozen  he  ran  his  big  thumb
over  my  bottom  lip,  slow  and  hard,  as  if  he  was
memorizing  it.  Some  of  my  gloss  came  off  on  his
thumb, but he didn’t seem to notice.

He moved his thumb to my upper lip, tracing it

gently. Then he pulled my lower lip down and slid
the tip of his thumb inside my mouth.

I inhaled in surprise. His thumb was big and

warm, an intrusion into my wet mouth. He didn’t
shove it in, just pressed it lightly, exploring. I could

taste the salt and motor oil on his skin.

He stepped closer. “Hold still,” he said his voice

a low rasp. “I have to be sure.”

Sure of what? I had no idea, and I couldn’t

think. He took his thumb from my mouth, then used
both his hands to lift my hair from my neck. He slid
his hands underneath and placed them on the back
of my neck, then rubbed them down over my
shoulders.

His touch was big and hard and hot, his hands

molding  over  my  bare  shoulders,  and  suddenly  my
fear  was  spiked  with  arousal.  My  panties  were
getting wet; I was getting hot. It was the size of him
and  the  smell  of  him—he  was  close  enough  that  I
could  catch  his  scent,  and  he  smelled  good,  like
sweat and leather and man. He ran his hands down
my  arms,  then  put  them  on  my  bare  waist  as  he
dropped his mouth to the side of my neck.

I gave a startled whimper. It certainly seemed

like he wanted to fuck me, and I wasn’t sure what I
would do. My pussy was getting wet, my heart
speeding up. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, and
yet…

I wasn’t a virgin. I’d had sex before—with

guys.  Human  guys,  with  human-sized  cocks.  This
man  was  a  beast.  I  hadn’t  had  a  ton  of  sex,  and  I
sure  as  hell  had  never  been  with  anyone  as  big  as
Bane. I thought… I thought maybe it would hurt.

And part of me wondered if I would like it.

But he didn’t push me down and he didn’t push

my skirt up. Instead he stood with his hands on me
and his mouth against my neck, and I realized he
was… inhaling. Smelling me. Tasting me. His beard
tickled my skin and his breath was warm.

Do something, Kat, instead of standing there

like an idiot. I put my hands on his upper arms,
feeling the flex of his biceps under my palms. His
skin was smooth, the muscles hard. Despite myself,
I rubbed over his biceps a little. Now I was feeling
him up—and getting wetter.

He exhaled when he felt my hands on him, and

his  muscles  went  harder,  as  if  he  was  restraining
himself.  He  ran  his  hands  down  my  lower  back,
which  was  bare  above  the  waist  of  my  skirt,  and
rested  them  on  the  top  of  my  ass.  He  drew  his
mouth  down  my  skin,  over  my  collarbone,  still
scenting me.

“Where are you from, Kat?” he rumbled against

me.

I curled my hands around his triceps, indulging

myself. “Here in Prairie,” I replied. “I live on
Lowood Road.”

Bane made a hmmm sound that was distinctly

wolfish.  “The  club  doesn’t  usually  come  here,  and
I’ve  never  been  to  Lowood  Road.  That’s  why  I
haven’t  smelled  you  before.  Then  again,  it  hasn’t
been the right time.”

I blinked, first at the fact that he’d just said the

most words I’d heard him say in a row, and then at
what he said. “The right time for what?”

“Mating,” Bane replied. His beard was trailing

down toward the cleavage between my breasts
now, my sweat wetting his lips. “You don’t have a
man. I don’t smell one.”

Mating. Oh, my God. “No,” I said, my voice

faint. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Good. Then I don’t have to kill him.”
From any other man it might have been a joke,

but I got the idea Bane didn’t joke very often. Or at
all. “Please don’t kill anyone,” I said. “What
exactly is mating?”

“What it sounds like.” Bane was moving lower,

lower. He was down on one knee, still scenting me.
It  was  strange  and  sexy  and  almost…  possessive.
But  that  couldn’t  be  right,  because  we’d  just  met.
His  hands  moved  to  my  hips  and  he  turned  me  so
he was looking at my ass. He put both his hands on
it, and I felt him nuzzle one cheek. “Here,” he said,
his  voice  low  and  dangerous  as  he  cupped  my
cheek hard. “I can smell someone here.”

I was frozen in surprise. He was scenting my

ass? Then I remembered. “One of the customers
grabbed me earlier while I was serving him a
drink.”

Bane inhaled again. “I’ll know him if I smell

him. He’s losing a hand.”

Oh Jesus. The last I saw, the man who’d

grabbed  me  was  still  out  there,  sitting  at  his  table
and  watching  the  show.  I  remembered  Cash’s
instructions. “Please—please don’t hurt anyone,” I
said,  the  words  coming  out  on  a  stutter.  “I’ll  do
anything  you  say.  Anything  you  want.  Just  please
don’t hurt us.”

Bane went very still. He let go of my ass and

stood, his chest to my back. Then he turned me to
face him again.

His face had gone hard as stone—harder even

than  before.  But  his  eyes  were  blazing,  their  dark
depths  fire.  He  looked  angry  and  something  else  I
couldn’t  identify.  Hurt,  maybe.  But  that  couldn’t
be, could it?

“You think I’m here to kill you?” he said softly.
I’d said something wrong. “I don’t know,” I

said, my voice a whisper. I just wanted that look on
his face to go away, whatever it was. It looked too
much like pain. “I don’t know what you want.”

He took a step forward and I took a step back,

trying not to trip in my heels. He took another, and
I took another. Then I was against the wall and he
used his big, inked arms to box me in, one hand on
either side of my shoulder, his gaze still on me.

“You’re an alpha’s mate,” he said. “My mate. I

smelled  you  the  minute  I  walked  in.  Your  body,
your tight little cunt reeling me in. We’re supposed
to  be  headed  for  the  coast,  but  instead  Jackson
wanted  to  stop  here  at  this  pathetic  titty  bar.  And

now the whole crew is stuck here. Because I’m the
alpha, and once I scented you, there’s nowhere else
I can fucking go.”

I stared at him, my mouth open in shock.
“I thought I was fucking nuts,” Bane went on,

his  big  body  blocking  my  view  of  everything  but
him. “I had to get you alone, and this was the only
way to do it. I had to smell you to be sure. Twenty
years  of  pussy  and  I’ve  never  smelled  one  like
yours.  I’ve  got  you  alone  in  this  shitty  little  room,
I’ve  got  my  hands  on  you,  and  your  pussy  is  juicy
for  me.  It’s  fucking  slick,  wanting  me.  And  you’re
asking me not to kill you?”

I could barely breathe. My heart was

hammering in my chest, and—he was right—there
was an answering pulse between my legs, beating
harder with every word. “Bane—”

“You asked me what I want,” he said. “I want

you to smell like me.  Your  mouth,  your  cunt,  your
ass,  between  your  tits.  I  want  you  so  full  of  your
alpha’s  cum  that  there  can  be  no  mistaking  you’re
mine. I want my cock buried inside you, spreading
you  open  day  and  night  until  you  don’t  remember
anything  before  me,  anything  else  but  me.”  He
lowered  one  side  of  my  bustier,  releasing  a  nipple,
which he pinched lightly between his big fingers.

I moaned at the sensation. He rubbed my

nipple, so hard it was almost painful, and he
watched me. He watched me moan, get wetter.

“Like that,” he said, his voice still angry. “Now get
on your knees and put my cock in your mouth.”

I gasped for air and looked up at him, meeting

his gaze. “No,” I said.

He let go of my nipple and his eyes blazed

again. The anger, the hurt. “No,” he repeated back,
as if it wasn’t a question.

“No,” I said again. I couldn’t quite believe I

was saying it, but I was. “I get that I’m just a
waitress in a strip club, but I’m not for hire. I
thought I could do it, or at least try, but I can’t.”

A muscle in Bane’s jaw twitched. “You think

I’m trying to hire you.”

“Aren’t you? I’ve never met you in my life, and

you bring me to the VIP Room, where the
customers get blow jobs—or whatever—for money.
And you want me to get on my knees and suck you
off, and I should probably do it so you don’t kill
anyone, but I don’t think I can.”

“Kat,” Bane said.
“I’ve never been that girl,” I said. “I don’t suck

off guys for money. I only do it for guys I like, and
even  then,  not  very  often.”  Bane’s  eyes  were
blazing again, because I’d said something wrong, so
I  kept  talking.  “It  isn’t  you.  I  actually  kind  of  like
you,  though  I  probably  shouldn’t.  And  I’ve  never
met  a  werewolf  before,  but  I  think  you’re  really
sexy, which you already know, because apparently
you can smell it. Which is embarrassing.”

“Kat,” Bane said again, “I’m not going to pay

you. You’re not some hooker. I’m an alpha. You’re
my mate, and I need to come inside you or I’m
going to be a very fucking angry wolf. Now get on
your knees.”

I opened my mouth—to say what, I had no

idea. But the lights flickered, the fire alarm started
blaring, and the sprinkler in the ceiling started to
spray.

I jumped, startled. Water—cold water—sprayed

down  over  us,  trickling  over  my  sweaty  skin.  I
looked  at  Bane  and  saw  that  his  unruly  black  hair
was  wet,  dripping  down  over  his  forehead,  and
there were drops of water in his beard.

He also looked very, very pissed off.
“Shit,” he said. “We have to go. It looks like my

crew has started a fight.”

Four

Kat

The entire club was chaos. The music had stopped,
and  the  girls  on  stage  had  vanished.  On  the  floor,
the  human  men  and  the  werewolves  were  in  the
middle  of  a  fight—tables  were  flying,  chairs  were
being swung, and in the corner by the DJ booth the
velvet  curtains  were  on  fire.  Smoke  was  filling  the
room along with water sprayed from the sprinklers.
Bane  stood  in  front  of  me,  blocking  me  from
danger,  but  in  the  smoke  and  darkness  I  ducked
away from him, crouching and running for the bar.

I ducked behind it just as a chair smashed on

the bar top, wood splintering. Jade was already
crouched beneath the taps, the knife used for
cutting limes in her hands.

“I thought we kept a gun back here,” I said to

her as I crouched next to her.

“We did,” she shouted back over the ruckus.

“Cash took it.”

“Where did he go?”
She shrugged. “He probably ran.”
In front of the bar something crunched and

someone screamed. I scrambled for my purse and
phone, which I kept behind the bar. “I’m getting
out of here,” I told Jade.

“Front’s no good,” she said. She was soaked

through with water, just like I was. “Let’s go the
back way.”

We had to crouch military-style, but we got

through  the  dark  to  the  back  door  without  anyone
finding  us.  Now  we  were  in  the  corridor  where
Cash  had  a  management  office,  around  the  corner
from  the  VIP  rooms.  It  seemed  to  be  abandoned
back here, and it was quieter, though the sprinklers
were  still  going.  We  stood  up  and  hurried  toward
the back door.

“What happened?” I asked Jade.
“Someone was dumb enough to pick a fight

with a werewolf,” she replied. “The blond one. The
next thing I knew, he picked the guy up and threw
him across the room. It seems werewolves have
short tempers.”

I shivered, thinking of Bane. He’d vanished into

the fight, and I hadn’t been able to see him in the
darkness. “Yeah, I think they’re on edge,” I said.

She looked at me. “You don’t look like you’ve

been fucked raw by that giant beast you were with.
What happened?”

“Um.” That wasn’t an easy question. “We just

talked.”

“You talked?”

“That’s all that happened, yes.”
Jade sighed and shook her head. “Kat, honey,

you have a hot body, but you need to learn more
about pleasing men. You really do.”

“I know how to please a man,” I argued.
“If you did, you’d have swallowed his cum by

now and he’d be in a mellow mood instead of
probably killing half our customers.”

“He didn’t start the fight. The humans did. You

just said so.”

“Maybe he didn’t start it, but he could finish

it.”

That was probably true. Where was Bane now?

Was he hurt? I was stupid to be thinking about him,
when  it  was  probably  him  who  was  hurting  all  the
others  instead  of  the  other  way  around.  But  he
thought  he  was  my  mate,  and  he  seemed  so  sure
about  it.  I  felt  a  little  bad  for  abandoning  him
without even a goodbye.

We were at the back door of the club now. The

sign  on  the  door  said  EMERGENCY  EXIT  –
ALARM  WILL  SOUND,  but  I  didn’t  think  that
mattered  anymore.  “Okay,”  I  said  to  Jade.
“We’ll—”

“You’ll come with me.”
We turned. Cash was standing in the hallway

behind us. The door to the office was open—he
must have come from there. He had taken the gun
from behind the bar, as Jade said. He was holding it

now, a handgun, and he was pointing it at us.

We were both so surprised that we didn’t say

anything for a second. “Excuse me?” Jade said.

“Into the office,” Cash said, still pointing the

gun and not wavering. “Both of you. Now.”

“Cash, for God’s sake—”
“Do it.” He stepped forward, the gun still up,

coming closer. He turned and pointed the gun
directly at Jade’s chest. “Kat, get into the office
right now or I’ll shoot her.”

“What the hell do you want?” Jade said, her

voice tight with fear.

“A little fun,” Cash said to her. “You’re hot, but

I know you’ll fight me. I saw Kat with that
werewolf. She’ll just do as I say.”

“Are you kidding me?” I was terrified, sure, but

I also couldn’t believe him. “Cash, your bar is on
fire. The cops and the firefighters will be here any
minute.”

“Then I’ll be fast,” he said. “I like danger. It

makes me come. As you’re going to see, Kat, as
soon as you get in the office and give me the same
thing you just gave that animal in the VIP Room.”

“Don’t do it, Kat,” Jade said.
Cash cocked the hammer on the gun. “Do it,

Kat, or I shoot her,” he said. “Three, two, one.”

Behind Cash, the door from the bar smashed

open. Smoke poured through the doorway. Bane
came down the hall, smudged with soot and soaking

wet,  his  shirt  stuck  to  him  beneath  his  jacket  and
his  tangled  hair  dripping  water.  In  three  strides  he
walked  up  to  a  startled  Cash.  He  grabbed  Cash’s
head  and  twisted  it,  snapping  his  neck.  Then  he
dropped the body and looked at me.

“We’re going,” he said.
“Jesus,” Jade said. She turned and ran out the

emergency door, and she was gone.

I blinked at Cash’s lifeless body. “Bane—”
“Move,” he said, “or the cops will come, and

we’ll kill them, too.”

I stared at him, and then I turned and headed

for the door. Water was still sprinkling everywhere,
and I pushed my wet hair from my face, felt rivers
trickling down my bustier between my breasts. I
was still wearing my heels and I tried not to slip on
the wet floor as I pushed open the emergency exit.

I could hear sirens outside. I looked around in

the darkness, feeling the hot breeze on my wet skin,
smelling the tang of smoke.

From the other side of the building came the

roar of a motorcycle engine coming to life. Then
another, then another. The Nocturne MC was
finished with their night at the Silver Star and they
were heading out.

Bane took my hand and led me around the

building, gently for such a big man. “Do you have a
car?” he asked roughly.

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “It’s

parked over there.”

He glanced at me, his eyes blazing in the dark.

“You walk through this parking lot in the middle of
the night?”

“I don’t have much choice if I want to go

home. This is the employee parking.”

“Have you ever ridden a motorcycle before?”
“No.”
He drew me around the corner. The other bikes

were gone now, the last one’s taillights turning onto
the highway and disappearing. “Your crew is
leaving without you,” I said to Bane.

“My instructions.” He pulled me up to the last

bike in the lot and handed me a helmet. “They
know what to do,” he said. “Get on.”

I really had no choice. The sirens were getting

closer. I had no desire to be here when the cops
started asking questions about Cash’s body in the
back hallway. Besides, the fire was blazing high.

I put the helmet on. Bane got on the bike,

swinging one long leg over the seat. “Wait,” I said.
“I’m wearing your helmet. There’s only one.”

“I’m hard to kill,” Bane said. “Get on.”
I did the best I could in a tight miniskirt and

heels. I had to hike the skirt most of the way up—I
hoped I wasn’t going to give a show to anyone else
on the road. But I managed it, pulling forward so I
was snug around Bane’s back and thighs. I put my
arms around his waist and latched my hands

together.

“Hold tight,” he said, and started the bike.
I’d never done this before. It was a strange

feeling, gliding through the hot night with just the
wind on my skin. My knees clenched and I gripped
Bane tight, trying not to fall off. My arms were
squeezing his stomach, but he didn’t comment. He
just drove.

And after a few minutes I relaxed. It was crazy,

but  I  knew  that  nothing  would  happen  to  me.  Not
with  Bane  here.  He  was  deadly  and  I  didn’t  know
him  very  well,  but  I  knew  he  wouldn’t  hurt  me.
He’d  been  upset,  hurt  even,  when  I’d  suggested  it
back in the VIP room. He wanted to protect me. He
didn’t want me hurt.

And… he felt good. His body was so big and

warm, even through the leather jacket. The insides
of  my  bare  legs  were  against  the  outsides  of  his
thighs,  and  I  could  feel  his  warmth  and  muscle  as
well as the rough rub of his worn jeans. I could feel
his hard stomach under my hands. I could smell the
scent  I’d  smelled  before,  leather  and  sweat  and
man.  I  snuggled  tighter,  pressing  my  pussy  against
him  and  my  breasts  against  his  back,  and  I  felt  his
body tense as he drove. He could feel me, too.

I realized I had no idea where we were going.
I closed my eyes, because I didn’t care.

Five

Bane

My body was raging, my mind seeing red. Inside
me, my wolf was howling, baying to get out. It was
all I could do to keep him locked down.

I had my mate on my bike with me. She was

pressed  against  me,  her  scent  overwhelming  even
though  we  were  riding  in  the  wind.  When  she  was
this  close,  there  was  nothing  else  in  my  senses.
Nothing  but  the  urge  to  protect  and  to  mate.  To
have her as mine.

Her fear of me had gone, at least for the

moment. To stand in that VIP room, which smelled
of  a  hundred  strangers  fucking,  and  hear  my  mate
beg  me  not  to  kill  her  had  sliced  me  open.  No
wolf’s mate should ever be afraid of him. Not ever.
When  a  wolf’s  mate  feels  fear,  it’s  him  she  should
turn to. If she doesn’t, then he’s no wolf at all.

But this hadn’t happened the right way. We’d

been riding south toward the coast on a routine run
—bringing back contraband and getting paid for it
—when Jackson had had the idea to stop at a strip
club for a drink. Jackson was the youngest of us

and his ideas were usually stupid, but the crew had
been riding for days and we’d done good work—
profitable work. They were restless and not ready
to sleep. A good alpha knows how to keep his pack
happy, so I’d given in.

I’d caught her scent the second I was inside.

Wet and sweet, like honey. Impossible to ignore. A
wolf can fuck as much as he wants to, but once he
scents his mate, he knows. There was no time for
discussion or a strategy of what to do, how to talk
to her. How to make her see.

I was thirty-six years old and I’d never been hit

with  mating  fever.  I’d  had  hundreds  of  women,
most  of  them  women  who  came  to  our  clubhouse
outside  of  town  looking  for  werewolf  cock.  My
crew  and  I  were  always  happy  to  give  it,  but  this
was  something  I’d  never  thought  possible.  When
Kat was near me, when I saw her and smelled her,
my mind shut off like I’d been given a hit of a drug.
And  when  I  actually  touched  her—Jesus.  She  had
only to blink those wide brown long-lashed eyes at
me  and  I  was  her  fucking  slave.  She  had  no  idea
what she could make me do.

Killing, for one. I’d snapped that worm’s neck

without  thinking  when  I’d  heard  him  threaten  her.
Get  in  the  office  and  give  me  the  same  thing  you
just gave that animal in the VIP Room. She hadn’t
touched me, I hadn’t come in her like I needed to,
and  that  still  wasn’t  going  to  fucking  happen.  Not

ever.

I’d killed him in front of her, and I hadn’t

thought.  Maybe  it  was  a  mistake.  Maybe  it  would
frighten  her  again.  But  maybe  it  was  for  the  best
that  she  saw  now,  from  the  first,  what  I  would  do
for her. To protect her.

Because I would do anything.
It made my head spin. I rode alone; I slept

alone. I could put my cock in a woman, but then we
were  done.  No  woman  got  on  my  bike  or  slept  in
my  bed.  I  could  watch  a  woman  swallow  my  cum
and  still  not  tell  her  my  last  name.  Those  were
things for a mate, and I was old enough to believe
now  that  I  would  never  have  one.  That  I’d  ride
alone  forever.  That  was  fine  with  me.  I  had  my
crew and I had mindless pussy when I wanted it. A
lot of our kind had less.

We were society’s outcasts, we werewolves.

Born  monsters.  Only  males  were  born  wolves,  so
we  only  ever  had  human  women.  This  meant  we
were always at war with human men, who thought
we were freaks. Killers. The kind of man you didn’t
want women anywhere near. And we were freaks in
human society. We had no problem with killing, but
we had problems with human rules. We ended up in
prison—where we eventually died, because no wolf
can be in captivity—or shot dead by police. It took
a  dozen  bullets  to  kill  a  werewolf,  but  it  could  be
done.

So to live free, ride free, and fuck weren’t the

worst things that could happen to me. When I
needed to, I changed into my wolf and went
hunting without the constraints of being human. I’d
thought it was enough. Until I’d scented Kat.

It would never be enough again.
I knew that much. Without Kat, I’d be

miserable. I wouldn’t eat or sleep. I sure as hell
wouldn’t touch another woman. I’d be weak, which
would mean I couldn’t lead my crew. If Kat turned
me down forever, if she left me, I was finished. I
had to convince her. I had to.

My crew knew this just as well as I did. That

was why they were headed toward Houston and the
club house we kept in that part of the state while I
was headed toward our nearest one, nearly an hour
away.  The  central  club  house  would  be  empty,
which  meant  I  had  it  alone  with  Kat.  To  take  my
shot  at  having  her  and  keeping  her.  My  club  was
giving me space.

Kat was shifting behind me, her grip loosening,

and  we  were  still  half  an  hour  away.  She  wasn’t
used to riding and she was probably uncomfortable.
I pulled off the two-lane blacktop and rode a short
way  down  a  side  service  road  until  I  coasted  to  a
stop.  When  I  turned  the  bike  off  the  silence  was
complete  except  for  a  few  katydids  and  the  sound
of the wind. We were in darkness under a stand of
trees, grass beneath our feet. I got off the bike and

helped her off.

Kat pulled off the helmet, her blonde hair

spilling over her shoulders. “Why did we stop?” she
asked, looking around. “Where are we going?”

Her pale skin was luminous in the dark, her

neck and her shoulders flawless. I hated it that she
was wearing so few clothes. She was sexy as fuck,
with  pretty  tits  pushed  up  and  a  small  waist,
rounded hips and a heart-shaped ass. I liked looking
at  her,  but  she  didn’t  look  comfortable  in  that
outfit, those heels. A wolf never makes his mate do
something  uncomfortable  just  to  please  him.  That
includes  starving  herself  to  be  extra  skinny  or  any
of that shit. She isn’t there to serve him, which was
why it was so painful to hear her say she thought I
was going to pay her. It’s the other way around. A
wolf  makes  his  mate  comfortable  at  any  cost.
Forever.

But she’d asked a question, so I remembered to

stop staring at her and say something. “We’re going
to the clubhouse,” I told her. “You can rest there.”
She looked uncertain, so I said, “The crew went
somewhere else. There’s food and drink, a bath.”

“I have an apartment,” Kat said.
“You’re not going to it.” She looked startled,

and I closed my eyes briefly. I didn’t talk to women
except  for  the  bare  basics  and  dirty  talk.  I  had  to
remember  that  I  was  talking  to  my  mate.  “Just
come  with  me  for  the  night,”  I  said.  “You’ll  be

safe.”

She seemed to think that over, but she didn’t

scream or say no, so I counted it a win. “This isn’t
it, though,” she said, looking around.

“You seemed uncomfortable. I thought you

needed a rest.”

She ran a hand through her damp hair. I wanted

that hair wrapped around my fist, and for a second
I wanted it so badly everything went a little out of
focus. “I do need a rest. Thank you, Bane.”

I stared at her in shock for a second. “You

shouldn’t thank me. I haven’t done anything for
you yet.”

“Besides save my life and get me out of the

Silver  Star?”  She  smiled  at  me,  and  I  didn’t  know
what  to  do.  I  honestly  didn’t  know.  She’d  been
nearly killed, her workplace had just burned down,
her  boss  was  dead,  and  she  was  alone  in  the  dark
with me, smiling.

“Are you all right?” I asked her. “Did that

shithead hurt you?”

“I’m fine. My feet hurt, I need a bath, and I’d

kill for a drink. But I’m not hurt.”

There should be no waiting then. “I’ll get you a

drink, a bath. Let’s go.”

“Wait,” she said as I turned to go back to my

bike. “I want to ask you something.”

I paused, waited.
“What you said to me back in the VIP Room,”

Kat said. I felt heat from her, embarrassment and
some arousal as she said the words. “About… me
being your mate. Is that true?”

“Yes,” I said, my voice rough. “You’re my

mate.”

She was silent for a second, as if this still

surprised her. “How… how many mates do you
have?”

Jesus. Was that what she thought? “None,” I

said. “You’re the only one.”

“Oh. And how many have you had before me?”
“None,” I said again. “And none after, either.

That’s how it works.”

She hugged herself, cupping her elbows. “I see.

But you—you’ve had sex before.”

“Fucking is different,” I said. “It isn’t the same

as with a mate.”

She was silent for another minute, the wind

tousling her hair in the dark. “So it wasn’t just a
paid fuck you wanted,” she said finally. “What you
want is something important.”

I said nothing. It was the most important thing.

So important that my wolf was howling in my mind,
driving me insane. But I couldn’t explain it to
myself, let alone to her.

She took my silence as an answer. “Bane,” she

said softly, “if I’m your mate, then perhaps you
could try kissing me first.”

Even though I wanted her more than anything, I

paused in shock. She’d been afraid of me not long
ago. “You want me to do that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”
I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know

how women talked, really talked. She’d asked me
about kissing her, then said I don’t know. Did that
mean do it or not do it? I would never force her to
do anything she didn’t want.

I focused on her scent. There was no fear still.

There was some excitement and anticipation—and
I could smell her pussy, so wet it made me ache.
She had no idea how well I could smell it. How well
I would be able to smell it forever.

“Kat,” I said, “you need to be clear.”
“Okay, then,” she said in the dark. “I think… I

think I’d like to try it.”

I closed my eyes again. Kiss her? I didn’t know

how to do that, not really. I never kissed the women
I fucked. Again, that was mate treatment.

But Kat was my mate. And she wanted a kiss.

So it was now or never.

I stepped toward her, touched her face. She was

so damn soft under my fingertips. Her lips were like
a dream, soft and sweet. I thought filthy, filthy
things when I saw her lips. My cock was already
hard in my jeans.

I stroked her face again. “I don’t want to hurt

you,” I said.

She leaned in to my touch. “You’ve done okay

so far,” she said almost in a whisper. “Try it.”

I leaned down and touched my tongue lightly to

her lower lip, tasting her. Her flavor shot through
me and I nearly gasped. Beneath my touch, Kat
inhaled softly, as if she felt it too.

I touched my tongue to her again, trying to be

gentle, and then I put my mouth to hers. I parted
her lips and swept my tongue inside, taking care to
go slow.

Kat moaned. She leaned up into me and opened

wider,  sucking  on  my  tongue,  taking  me  in,  and  I
pressed into her, kissing her harder, deeper. I tasted
her everywhere, letting my tongue stroke hers. And
she  let  me  do  it,  every  filthy  thing  my  tongue
wanted to do, while she moaned and sucked on me,
wanting  more.  I  could  smell  her  arousal,  how  wet
and slick she was, and I knew that if I ever got my
cock  in  her  cunt,  she’d  be  insatiable.  She’d  never
get enough.

We kissed for a few long minutes, me tasting

every part of her mouth, until she pulled away. She
was breathing hard, her lips reddened and raw
where I’d licked all of her gloss off. Her pupils
were dilated. I wanted to bury my face in her pussy.
I never wanted to leave.

“Was that good?” I asked her.
She licked her red lips. “Bane,” she whispered,

so low that the night wind nearly caught her words,
though I heard them perfectly. “We have unfinished

business.” She slid her hand down over the front of
my jeans, rubbing my hard cock.

I sucked in a breath and went still.
She rubbed me down and then up again, then

down. Her heel brushed my cockhead through the
denim and I nearly came. I knew I was big, and she
licked her lips again, exploring me.

“You said no,” I reminded her.
“I thought you were paying me,” she

whispered. “You’re not paying me now.” She
tugged on my belt buckle, beginning to undo it. “I
think we should pick up where we left off. With me
getting on my knees.”

Six

Kat

I  didn’t  know  what  came  over  me.  No,  actually  I
did—it was Bane. He was big and hot and so tightly
leashed,  standing  there  watching  me,  kissing  me.  I
knew  if  I  did  this  I  would  make  him  happy.  And
suddenly I wanted to please him.

I wanted to please him however I could, in

whatever way he wanted. From the first time I’d
seen him, I’d felt the urge to please him. And I
knew he wanted this.

I unbuckled his belt, then worked on the

buttons of his jeans. He watched me and he didn’t
stop me. He just looked at my face, looked into my
eyes. Then he wound his hands in my hair as I
lowered myself to the grass.

I tugged his boxer briefs down and freed his

cock. It was huge, thick and long, nested in dark
hair, his balls big and gorgeous. I wrapped my hand
around his cock and pumped it up and down, slow
and hard, getting used to it.

Both his huge hands were wound in my hair,

tugging it, cupping my skull. “Jesus,” he said as I

stroked him. “Yes.”

“You like it?” I asked. God, I loved his cock

already. I was wet for it. I wanted to squirm on my
knees in my tight skirt, get some relief.

“Yes,” Bane said, his voice tight. Then his

hands gripped me tighter. “Put me in your mouth,
Kat,” he said in a growl. “Put me in your fucking
mouth.”

I opened my mouth and slid over his cockhead,

sucking  off  the  precum.  Bane  moaned,  the  sound
winding away in the dark. I opened wider and took
more of him, running my tongue over him. He was
uncircumcised.  I’d  never  seen  an  uncut  cock
before, never tasted one, and I liked it. It was blunt
and  thick  in  my  mouth.  I  took  him  as  deep  as  I
could,  relaxing  my  throat,  letting  his  hands  on  my
head guide me down, control me.

“That’s it,” he said, moaning again. “Oh, fuck,

that’s it. Take me deep. Just like that.”

He moved me, and I let him. I slid off his cock,

licking the head, and then I took it deep again,
letting it touch my throat. Over and over. He was
getting thicker, harder, more drops of cum dripping
from the tip. I sucked each one of them and rolled
them over my tongue, swallowing them down.

“Good,” he was saying softly to me. “Very

good. That’s good, baby.” His hands on my head
were everything, his cock in my mouth everything.
I wanted to please him so much. I reached up and

cupped his balls, stroking them, rolling them in my
palm, taking in the shape of them with my fingers
as I sucked him.

“God, yes,” he said when I did that. His hands

tightened in my hair, pulling it a little, and I moaned
over his cock.

I’d never done it like this. I’d never been this

girl. A week ago I’d been a nice girl applying for a
cocktail  waitress  job,  a  girl  who’d  never  seen  a
werewolf  in  her  life.  Now  I  was  on  my  knees
outdoors with a werewolf’s cock in my mouth, and
I  was  loving  it.  I  wanted  him  pulling  my  hair  and
pushing  my  head  down.  I  wanted  to  swallow  his
cum.

I sucked him deep as tears rolled down my

cheeks.  I  stroked  his  balls  and  felt  them  draw  up
and  tighten.  With  one  stroke  of  my  pussy  I  could
have  come,  but  I  didn’t  touch  myself.  This  was
about Bane, about him coming in my mouth, and I
wanted it more than anything. I wanted to taste his
cum and swallow it. I wanted to hear the sound he
made.  I  wanted  to  feel  the  way  his  cock  jerked.  It
was the only thing I wanted.

He was saying soft things, praising me as I

bobbed on his cock. I slid my finger back from his
balls and rubbed his ass, and he sucked in a breath.
“Ah, Kat,” he said, “that’s so dirty. That’s so
good.”

I kept circling as I sucked him, and I could feel

how much he liked it. It was the dirtiest thing I had
ever done, and it was making him crazy. His
muscles trembled and his hands wound in my hair.
His breathing was hard. His cock shifted in my
mouth.

“Now,” he said in a growl. “Swallow it. Right

now, baby. Right now.”

His hands stilled my head, and I relaxed my

throat as I felt his cock spurt cum into me, hot jets
that filled my mouth. I swallowed and swallowed as
he held me still, a growl in his throat that was
almost a roar. He came and came, and I swallowed
it all, greedy.

Finally he let me go and I leaned back on my

heels, licking my lips and looking up at him. His
cock was still half hard, hanging from his jeans, and
the expression on his face was hazy with pleasure.

I had done that. To a big, bad werewolf. The

alpha werewolf. Me.

I ran my hands up his thighs, then traced my

tongue over his cockhead, catching the last drops of
cum. “Now what?” I asked him, my voice hoarse.

He looked at me and his eyes blazed. “Now we

go back to the clubhouse,” he said. “Get on the
bike.”

Seven

Kat

I held  on  tight  to  Bane  as  we  rode  the  rest  of  the
way  to  the  clubhouse.  I  was  still  raw  between  my
legs,  wet  and  throbbing.  I  still  had  tears  on  my
cheeks.  I  could  still  taste  him,  his  thick  cock,  his
cum.  A  few  hours  ago,  I  had  never  met  this  man.
When I first saw him, I thought he was a jerk. Now
I  was  riding  off  into  the  night  with  him,  trusting
him, wondering what he would do to me and if he’d
want me again.

He was silent as we rode. I hoped he wasn’t

unhappy  with  me.  He’d  looked  pleased,  but  he
hadn’t spoken to me since he told me to get on his
bike.  Beneath  his  leather  jacket,  his  muscles
seemed  tense.  There  wasn’t  much  opportunity  to
talk while we were riding anyway, so I just held on.

We pulled off the road and rode down an access

road that was narrow and rough. Bane turned again
and  now  we  were  on  a  long  driveway  of  gravel,
winding  into  the  pitch-dark  trees.  He  throttled  the
bike  down  slow  and  I  blinked  into  the  darkness,
trying to see if there was a building ahead.

Finally I saw a low, dark shape, and Bane

parked  the  bike.  I  swung  off  and  pulled  off  the
helmet,  nearly  stumbling.  I  was  still  wearing  my
high  heels,  miniskirt,  and  bustier  from  the  strip
club, and my legs were shaking, my knees weak.

A big hand took my upper arm, holding me

upright. It was so dark that I couldn’t even see the
outline of him. I could only feel him where he
touched my bare skin. “Come with me,” he said
roughly.

His hand still on my arm, he led me through the

darkness. There was a step, and when I nearly
tripped on it his hands came around my waist. Then
he dropped them again and I heard the beeps of
buttons on a keypad, a door opening.

He stepped ahead of me and flipped on a light. I

could see a large open space, filled with chairs and
sofas.  A  bar  along  one  wall,  with  shelves  of  liquor
behind  it.  It  was  clean,  uncluttered,  though  it
smelled musty. There was an open doorway leading
to  a  kitchen,  and  corridors  leading  off  of  the  main
room—one  opening  ahead,  another  to  the  right.
There was no sign that anyone was here.

Bane put his hand on my arm again as I stepped

inside.  He  closed  the  door  behind  us  and  led  me
across  the  main  room  to  the  right-hand  corridor.  I
could see doors opening off—bedrooms, I assumed,
for  the  club  members,  even  though  they  weren’t
here.  He  pushed  open  one  of  the  doors  and  we

entered a large bathroom with a big bathtub.

Bane still wore his boots, his jeans, his leather

jacket. He leaned down over the tub and jerked the
water on. “Take your clothes off,” he told me.

I stood for a second, unsure. His expression was

hard,  his  face  impossible  to  read.  Was  there
something  wrong?  Or  maybe  he  was  just  finished
with me? He’d said back at the club that he needed
to  come  inside  me,  and  now  he  had.  Maybe  that
was all that he needed before he moved on.

When I didn’t move, he took my shoulders and

turned me around. He unzipped my bustier as if he
did this every day, as if seeing me naked was no big
deal. He let it drop to the floor and I instinctively
crossed my hands over my breasts, even though my
back was to him.

Behind me, he paused, and then I felt a

fingertip travel along my back. “There are red
marks,” he said in his rough voice.

Red marks? Oh, right. “There are underwires,”

I said. “They dig into my skin.”

He grunted and unzipped my tight black

miniskirt, tugging it down my hips. Then he hooked
his  fingers  in  my  black  lace  thong  and  tugged  that
too.  I  jumped  and  a  small  yelp  escaped  my  throat,
though I tried to swallow it down. I was now bare-
assed  in  front  of  him,  my  heels  on  and  my  clothes
at my feet.

He paused when he heard me. “You don’t want

me touching you?” he asked.

I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. I

liked it—sort of. I wasn’t afraid of him. At the
same time, he seemed irritated with me, maybe
even angry. It made me want to cover myself up.

When I didn’t speak, Bane bent and put a big

hand on my ankle. I lifted my foot and he slid my
high heel off, then did the same with the other. He
tossed the shoes away. “Get in the bath,” he
commanded.

I tiptoed over to the bath, my arms still over my

breasts.  I  was  tingling  between  my  legs,  and  it
suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  he  would  have  been
able  to  see  how  wet  I  was  when  he  saw  my
underwear.  It  seemed  to  have  no  effect  on  him,
because he made no move.

I stepped in and lowered myself into the water.

It was the perfect warm temperature, and I bit back
a moan. It had been a long night, and a sweaty one,
starting  with  the  broken  air  conditioning  at  the
Silver  Star.  The  smoke  from  the  fire  and  the  dust
from  the  long  drive—as  well  as  the  dirt  that  was
probably  ground  into  my  knees—didn’t  make  me
any  cleaner.  My  skin  sang  hallelujah,  and  my  feet
were  howling  opera.  The  bath  was  huge  and
marble,  made  for  a  man  the  size  of  a  werewolf,
with  deep  ledges  along  the  sides,  and  in  that
moment I never wanted to leave it again.

I looked up at Bane. He was looking down at

me, at my body in the water, his expression
unreadable. The corners of his mouth turned down
and he turned away. “I’ll find you some soap.”

Oh, okay. Great. Maybe I looked dirty, or

maybe I smelled bad. Maybe both. Half an hour
ago, he’d been praising me as I sucked his cock into
my mouth and made him come. I drew my knees up
in the water and hugged them.

He rummaged through the bathroom cupboard,

then found a bar of soap and some generic
drugstore shampoo. He set them on the edge of the
bath and said, “Give me your address and the keys
to your place. I’ll get you some things.”

I stared at him. “What things?”
“Something to wear.” He gestured to the scraps

of my clothes on the floor. “You can’t wear that.”

“You’re… you’re riding all the way back to

Prairie?” It was an hour away, and it was at least
midnight, maybe later.

“Yes.” Without waiting for my permission,

Bane picked up the purse I’d managed to snatch
from beneath the bar at the Silver Star. He opened
it and poked through it as I watched with my jaw
dropped, too shocked to speak.

“Is this still right?” He held up my driver’s

license with my address on it.

“Yes. Um, Bane—”
“Are these the keys?” He held up my key ring.
I felt myself blush hot—not because of the

keys, but because inside my open purse I could see
the tampons I kept in there just in case. It wasn’t
my time of month, but I had irregular periods and I
was never without them. Bane didn’t seem to
notice, or care. “Yes,” I said faintly.

“Stay here,” he said, pocketing the keys. As if I

could  go  anywhere,  naked  and  stranded  in  the
middle  of  nowhere.  “There’s  food  in  the  kitchen.
Liquor  behind  the  bar.  Help  yourself.  The
bedrooms should be clean. Pick whichever one you
want. Get some sleep.”

He strode for the door, his long powerful legs in

their battered jeans, his heavy boots clomping.
“Bane!” I said.

He turned.
Now that he was looking at me, those intense

eyes glaring and his mouth pressed into a firm line,
I had no idea what I was going to say. I settled for,
“Are you coming back?”

That seemed to make him even angrier, if such

a thing was possible. He glowered so hard I was
surprised the bathwater didn’t start boiling. “Of
course I’m coming back,” he said, and then he was
gone.

Shit, I thought as I heard the front door close

and Bane’s motorcycle roar to life. Oh, shit. What
did I do?

Maybe I gave in too early. Maybe I should have

said no. Some guys liked the chase and got bored

when  a  woman  gave  in—my  mother  had  dated  a
few men like that. And honestly, I’d just met Bane.
I’d  acted  like  a  slut  tonight,  offering  to  get  on  my
knees  for  him  and  doing  all  those  dirty  things.
Maybe  he  just  thought  I  was  an  easy  piece  of  ass
and not that interesting anymore. Maybe it had just
been a challenge to see if I’d fuck him. And I had.

Maybe he’d get me dressed and send me home,

then laugh about it with his fellow werewolves. She
got on her knees and sucked me right off! Man,
you should have seen it!

I swallowed back tears and picked up the bottle

of shampoo. Now I knew how my mother had felt,
getting  dumped  all  those  times  before  she  finally
met  the  man  she  married.  I’d  dated  guys  before,
had  breakups,  but  none  of  them  had  felt  quite  like
this.  Bane  had  been  so….  intense.  It  had  felt
different.

But it wasn’t.
I sunk down into the bathtub and wondered

what the rest of the night would bring.

Eight

Kat

I woke to the purring sound of a motorcycle engine.
I rolled over in bed, unsure for a second of where I
was. Then it all came back to me.

I was in the Nocturne MC club house. I was in

a strange bed. I’d taken a bath and washed my hair,
eaten food from the kitchen, tried to watch TV. But
I was too tired, and I’d gone to bed instead. I’d
found a man’s T-shirt in a dresser drawer in one of
the bedrooms, and it was the only thing I had on.

And Bane was back.
At least, I thought it was Bane. I hoped so. The

idea that the rest of the club was here while I was
mostly naked in bed was a little alarming.

But when the front door opened and closed, I

heard  only  one  set  of  footsteps  come  through  the
main  room.  They  were  heavy  footsteps,  definitely
motorcycle  boots.  They  headed  straight  down  the
corridor to my bedroom, as if he knew where I was,
even  though  he’d  told  me  to  pick  whichever
bedroom I wanted.

A wolf’s sense of smell, maybe.

I pulled the covers up as the bedroom door

opened  and  a  huge  figure  filled  the  door  frame  in
the  dark.  He  strode  into  the  room,  snapped  on  a
bedside lamp, and there he was: Bane, all dark hair
and  dark  beard  and  huge  werewolf  body,  staring
down at me.

As I watched, his eyes traveled my face, my

hair, then down my body, even though I had the T-
shirt on and the single blanket pulled up to my
shoulders. He took all of it in without comment.
“Did I wake you?” he finally said.

I was starting to get annoyed. Was he always so

rude? “Yes.”

He lifted his hand and I saw there was a duffel

bag in it. It was a bag I used to go to the gym—
even though I almost never went to the gym. Bane
dropped the bag at the foot of the bed. “I picked up
things from your apartment. Clothes, toiletries,
underwear.”

“Underwear?”
“Yes, underwear, unless you’d rather go

without.”

I pressed my lips together. So he did think I was

a slut.

“I found a pair of sandals, a hairbrush,” Bane

said. “I wasn’t sure what else you needed, so I
guessed.”

“I don’t need much, since I’m going home

tomorrow.” I looked at the bedside clock. It was

three o’clock in the morning. “Today, actually.”

That made him scowl harder. “What does that

mean?”

“I’m getting kicked out, right?” I meant to

sound confident and cool, but my voice was hurt.
“You’re done with me, so I should get dressed and
go. I don’t need much in that case.”

“Kat,” Bane growled, “I have no fucking idea

what you’re talking about. You’re not going home.”
His gaze traveled down me again. “And that shirt
belongs to Tiberius, and it makes you smell like
him. Take it off.”

I yanked the blanket up higher, angry now. “I

am not taking off my shirt!”

He leaned down, closer to me. I could smell

sweat and leather and motor oil and man. And…
wolf. A smell that was sexy and a little coppery,
like blood. “Yes,” he said. “You are.”

I glared back at him. “No fucking way,” I said.

“You just dump me here and you think that you
can—”

“Dump you here?”
“Yes!” I was in full fury now. “You just use me,

then  toss  me  in  the  bathtub  and  leave.  You’ve
barely  looked  at  me  and  you’ve  barely  said  two
words  since  what  happened  in  the  woods.  Just
‘suck  my  cock  and  shut  up,’  is  it?  Don’t  talk  and
don’t ask questions.”

“Kat—”

“I wanted to do that,” I said, poking my finger

into his huge chest. “I thought you were nice. You
gave  me  the  big  speech  about  mates  and  wanting
me  and  whatever,  and  as  soon  as  I  gave  in,  you
were  too  disgusted  to  look  at  me  anymore.  Well,
I’m  not  apologizing—I  don’t  care  if  you  think  I’m
just some whore. I’ll get dressed and go home, and
we can both forget it ever happened.”

Bane’s cheekbones were red, and beneath his

beard I could see his jaw twitching. For a second he
was choked into silence, as if he didn’t know what
to  say.  “First  of  all,”  he  growled,  “you  are  not  a
whore.  You  are  a  mate—my  mate.  An  alpha’s
fucking  mate.  If  you  ever  call  yourself  a  whore
again, I will turn you over and spank you until you
can’t sit for days.”

I stared at him in shock.
Bane shrugged his leather jacket off and

dropped  it  on  the  floor.  Then  he  pulled  his  T-shirt
off  over  his  head,  leaving  me  to  gape  at  the  huge
expanse of muscle on his chest, the thick pectorals,
the  dark  swirling  hair.  There  was  black  ink  on  his
left  pec,  over  his  heart,  in  the  same  wolf’s  skull
insignia  he  had  on  the  left  breast  of  his  jacket.  He
looked deadly, brutish. His gaze was fixed on me.

“Second,” he said in that growl that vibrated

straight through me, “I am not disgusted. I am
trying very hard not to fuck you. I wanted to get in
that bathtub with you and put my cock in your

mouth again. Then I wanted to put it in your cunt,
and then your ass. It didn’t seem like the right time.
You’d just had a shitty night. I was trying to be, as
you put it, nice.”

I bit my lips together. He was trying to be nice?
“Then,” Bane said, kneeling on the bed and

lowering  his  hands  to  his  belt,  “I  got  back  on  my
bike  and  rode  for  hours  instead  of  fucking  you.  I
rode  all  the  way  back  to  your  place  to  find  you
things  that  would  make  you  comfortable.  I  was
supposed to be in fucking Houston by morning, and
instead I’ve spent my night in a strip club and riding
around  in  the  dark,  alone,  with  my  dick  hard  and
your nightgown in my bag. For you.” He opened his
pants  and  pushed  them  partway  down  his  hips.
Then  he  grabbed  the  blanket  and  yanked  it  out  of
my  grip  as  easily  as  if  I  were  a  baby.  “Now,”  he
said, “I would like my reward.”

I was exposed to him from the hips down,

because the T-shirt had ridden up. I lifted one bare
foot and put it on his chest before he could lean in
between my legs. “You got a reward, remember?” I
said. “You got a blow job. A really good one, by the
way—one I’ve never done before. And your
appreciation was exactly zero.”

“My appreciation?” He ran a hand through his

thick, unruly hair. “Fuck, Kat, I’d say my
appreciation went straight down your throat, and
you swallowed it. Now take that fucking shirt off.”

“I’m not getting naked for you,” I said.
“And I am not putting up with having you smell

like my second in command,” Bane growled back.
“You are my mate, and mine alone. Get him off
your fucking skin.”

I stared at him. He meant it. He wasn’t just

trying  to  get  me  naked—the  shirt  really  bothered
him.  I  realized  I  was  missing  a  lot  of  information
about what made a werewolf tick. I already knew I
didn’t  need  Bane  riled  up  any  further  than  he
already was. And what did it matter, anyway? He’d
already seen me naked. I pulled the shirt up and off
over my head, tossing it away.

I was lying naked on the bed now, and he was

kneeling between my knees. He looked me up and
down slowly in the lamplight, taking in everything:
my blonde hair, my C-cup breasts, my waxed pussy.
“Fuck, Kat,” he groaned.

His eyes were going unfocused again, like they

had when I had my mouth on his cock. He really
did want me. I felt my breath go short. I brushed
my fingers over the small strip of hair on my pussy,
the only hair I kept there when I got it waxed. The
hair was already wet, slick with my juices. “Do you
like it?” I asked him.

“Jesus Christ.” He leaned down, braced himself

on one huge arm, and sucked a nipple into his
mouth. My back arched off the bed and I screamed.

He sucked me hard, then swirled his tongue

over my nipple and let it go. “Scream all you want,
Kat,”  he  said.  “No  one  can  hear  you.”  He  sucked
my  other  nipple  into  his  mouth,  and  I  screamed
again.  Sensation  shot  from  my  nipple  in  a  straight
line  down  to  my  cunt,  making  it  pulse,  making  it
wetter as my hips tried to rise off the bed.

Then his hand was there, his fingers pushing

into  my  cunt,  his  big  blunt  fingertips  slicking  into
me. He lowered his mouth to my nipple again and I
writhed,  caught  on  his  mouth  and  his  fingers.
Nothing  I’d  ever  done  had  ever  felt  this  good
—nothing.

Bane lifted his mouth again as he worked his

fingers into me. “I’m dirty, Kat,” he said in his low
growl.  “You  shouldn’t  let  me  touch  your  pretty
cunt. You shouldn’t be on your knees for me by the
side  of  the  road,  sucking  me  off.  But  you  did  it.
And  you’ll  do  it  again.”  His  fingers  were  hard,
callused, almost painful inside me. He curled them
so  he  was  rubbing  the  inside  of  my  cunt  with  his
knuckles,  stretching  me.  It  almost  hurt,  and  I  was
pushing  my  hips  onto  him  because  I  wanted  more,
more.

“Bane,” I said, begging. “Oh, fuck, Bane. Oh,

I’m going to—”

“You’re going to come,” he said, rubbing me

harder, harsher with his big knuckles. “Because I’m
done waiting. Done waiting and looking and
smelling you. You are mine, fucking mine, and I am

going to make you come.”

He did. I came hard, pulsing over his knuckles,

howling, my hips pushing and pushing. He kept his
fingers inside me, and then he pulled them out and
pulled his cock from his jeans. He put his fist
around it and started to stroke it.

I watched it as my orgasm spun through my

brain.  I  watched  his  big  hand  on  his  big,  thick,
rough  cock,  stroking  it  hard,  making  the  foreskin
flex over and over. His cock was dark with arousal,
his  balls  tight.  I  remembered  what  it  tasted  like,
what  it  felt  like  when  he  fucked  my  mouth,  and
immediately  I  was  wet  again.  So  wet,  and  wanting
him  so  much.  I  couldn’t  take  my  eyes  off  of  him
making himself come.

“Fuck, Kat,” he said, grunting a little as he

worked his cock. “Look at you. You are so fucking
hot, so fucking ready for me. I can see your pink
cunt. I’m going to fuck you, but you smell like him.
I can’t. I can’t.”

Bane, I thought, or maybe I whispered it, I had

no idea. I just bent my knees and spread my legs
wider so he could see.

He groaned. He leaned forward and touched the

tip  of  his  cock  to  my  belly,  right  below  my  belly
button. With a final stroke he grunted and came, his
cum  spurting  onto  my  skin,  up  my  belly  and  onto
my chest, my breasts, in long streams. It came and
came,  hot  and  thick  on  my  skin,  until  he  was

empty.

He was breathing hard. He took his hand from

his cock and smeared it into the cum on my breast,
smoothing  it  over  my  chest.  Then  he  lifted  his
coated  fingers  and  pressed  them  to  my  lips.  I
opened  my  mouth  and  sucked  the  cum  from  him,
tasting  the  flavor  I  remembered,  plus  the  salt  and
motor  oil  on  his  big,  harsh  fingers.  I  swirled  my
tongue over his calluses, sucking harder.

Bane watched, his eyes dark. He pulled his

fingers from my mouth, scooped more cum from
my breast, and fed me again. I sucked greedily.

“Very good,” he said. He was calmer now, more

relaxed, less frantic. I realized it was because he’d
replaced  the  scent  from  the  T-shirt  with  his  own.
But he wasn’t finished with me, I realized. Not by a
long  shot.  He  picked  up  my  hand  and  placed  it  on
his  cock,  which  was  hot  and  half-hard,  getting
harder. “Do you feel that?” he said, and I nodded.
“That was just a warmup. I’m already getting hard
for you again. I’m going to put my cock in you, my
cum.  All  night,  and  tomorrow,  and  the  day  after
that. My cock is hard for you all the time, Kat.”

“Yes,” I breathed.
He nodded, then pulled my hand from him. He

got off the bed and kicked off his boots, pushed his
jeans and boxers off so he was fully naked. Then he
stood and picked his T-shirt off the floor.

“Mine, not his,” he said, as if it was important.

“Clean yourself with this.”

I did as I was told, running the shirt over my

skin, mopping up the mess. I was still a little sticky,
and I probably needed another bath. But Bane liked
the way I smelled right now—like him—and I
wanted to please him again.

He got back on the bed again and pushed my

knees apart, wide all the way so I was completely
open to him. He could see everything, and he took
a long, dark look. Then he took his cock in hand
again and pressed his hips forward, rubbing the tip
against my entrance. I groaned.

“I’m going to fuck you bare,” he said.

“Werewolves can’t catch diseases, do you
understand?” I nodded. “If I get you pregnant, so
be it. But I’m fucking you bare.”

A small shiver of ice went down the back of my

neck, a tiny slice of reality. “I won’t get pregnant,”
I said.

“So you’re on the pill.” He pressed the head of

his cock inside my entrance, just half an inch, and
both of us moaned at the pleasure. “I don’t care. I
just need to be inside your sweet cunt. I’ve been
smelling it for hours. I need you to take me now. All
of me.”

Oh, I wanted that. A lot. “Yes, Bane,” I

breathed.

He pushed further into me, and we both made a

sound. He withdrew and pushed further, then

withdrew and pushed further again. His eyes were
half closed. “God, you’re fucking tight,” he
moaned. “You’re squeezing my cock.”

Was it uncomfortable? “I’m sorry.”
“Do not fucking apologize. Just tell me if it

hurts.” He pushed harder and I cried out. It felt like
he was splitting me open, but at the same time it
felt so good. I pulled my knees up, spreading wider,
and I felt a rush of pleasure when he moaned, “Yes.
That’s good. Spread for me, Kat.”

“It won’t fit,” I cried out as more and more of

him pushed into me. God, it was endless!

“You’re made for me,” he replied, his muscled

hips  flexing.  His  eyes  were  dark  with  pleasure,
fixed  on  my  pussy  where  his  cock  was  pushing  in.
Where  I  was  stretching  around  him.  “You’re
squeezing me like a goddamned vise. Open for me,
Kat. Open wide and take me deep.”

I was panting and squirming, uncomfortable and

moaning with pleasure. I couldn’t believe I had this
big,  dark,  bearded  werewolf  shoving  his  big  cock
into  me.  I  couldn’t  believe  I  liked  it.  Loved  it.  I’d
only ever had human guys with regular-sized dicks,
and  not  too  many  of  those.  I’d  never  had  one  this
big,  one  that  made  me  stretch  and  moan  like  it
would never be over. I was slick with my juices and
I  wanted  to  come  again.  I  wanted  him  to  split  me
open and I never wanted him to stop.

“More?” he said in a low growl. “All the way?”

“Yes, Bane,” I said. “Yes.”
“Fucking hell.” He braced a big, dark hand on

my lower belly and thrust, his muscled hips
working, going balls deep into me.

It hurt, and at the same time pleasure exploded

through me. “Oh God!” I shouted.

Bane’s expression had gone black. I couldn’t

tell  if  he  could  see  or  hear  me.  He  braced  himself
on  the  mattress  and  withdrew  his  cock,  then
slammed  into  me  again,  a  moan  of  bliss  in  his
throat. Then he did it again, and again.

He found a rhythm, and now he was fucking

me, his cock pulling out of me and slamming into
me, splitting me open over and over. I felt my body
being rammed into the mattress, my tits bouncing as
he fucked me. Mated with me. I gripped the sheets
and held on for dear life.

“Fuck, Kat,” he growled in my ear as he fucked

into me again and again. “I can’t stop. I don’t want
to hurt you. But I have to—Fuck, I have to—”

“Please, Bane,” I begged him, taking him deep,

spreading my knees as wide as they would go with
his big body between them. “Please.”

He ran his teeth over the side of my neck,

making the skin sting as he bit me. “I have to come
inside you,” he growled. “I fucking have to. I have
to fill your cunt. I can’t stop.”

I didn’t care. “More,” I begged him. “More.

Please. Please.”

He bit me again. “Come on my cock, Kat,” he

commanded. “Milk me.”

I didn’t think it was possible. It hurt too much.

But  I  felt  the  orgasm  come  over  me,  making  my
pussy clench and squeeze as I nearly sobbed. I dug
my  nails  into  his  back  and  held  on  as  hard  as  I
could as my hips bucked beneath his heavy weight,
my cunt sucking him in and getting slicker, wetter,
hotter.  Bane  made  a  grunt  of  pleasure  and  fucked
me even harder. He was slamming into me now, his
big  balls  hitting  my  flesh,  his  cock  driving  into  me
over and over without mercy. He lifted a hand and
shoved a thumb roughly into my mouth. “Beg me,”
he commanded.

“Please!” I cried around his big, rough thumb. I

was still coming, still coating his cock with my
juices as he moved in me. “Please come inside me,
Bane! Please!”

He grunted and stilled, his muscles going hard

as stone. His body arched over me, his cock inside
my  pussy,  his  thumb  inside  my  mouth.  He
possessed me completely. And he flexed and came.
I could feel his cock inside me, jerking as it spurted
cum  deep  in  my  cunt.  I  tilted  my  hips  and  pushed
my  knees  apart  and  took  it,  accepted  all  of  it,
whimpering “Yes, yes” against his thumb.

He came for a long moment, filling me. Then he

slowly relaxed. He took his thumb from my mouth
and leaned down, putting his mouth on mine

possessively.  I  felt  the  scratch  of  his  beard  as  he
opened my mouth and took it. I was soft and pliant
beneath  him  and  I  let  him  do  it,  let  him  inside  my
mouth  when  he  was  already  inside  my  cunt.  I
wanted him everywhere.

He pulled back and reared up, still between my

legs. I moaned softly as his cock left me. He put his
hands on the backs of my knees and pulled them
apart, looking down between my legs where I could
feel his warm cum trickling from me. His gaze was
still dark.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked roughly.
“No, Bane,” I panted.
He glanced at me, then lowered a hand between

my  legs.  He  rubbed  his  fingers  over  me,  smearing
his  cum  on  my  pussy,  up  over  my  clit,  then  down
again,  over  my  slit  and  up  against  my  ass.  I
squirmed  a  little  and  he  held  me  still,  rubbing  his
cum against my tight hole with his fingertips.

“This is mine,” he declared. “All of it is mine.”
I made a little sound, because his fingers were

big  and  hard,  and  no  man  had  ever  touched  me
there. It was dirty, but it was making me hot again.
Again! I was sore and practically turned inside out,
and  I’d  never  had  a  man  in  my  ass,  and  yet  when
Bane  rubbed  me  in  his  dirty,  commanding  way,  I
thought  about  it.  How  would  he  fit?  There  was  no
way, was there? Would he want to try?

I looked up and saw he was smiling a little, his

Nine

Bane

She had  no  idea  what  she  did  to  me.  None.  Lying
on the bed like that, her hair spread over the pillow,
her  eyes  dark,  her  lips  rubbed  raw  by  my  thumb
and  my  mouth,  her  pussy  wet  and  milky  with  my
cum,  squirming  against  my  fingers  because  she
wanted it again. In the ass this time. God, she was
perfect. Incredible.

I’d never felt a cunt like that in my life. They

said it was different with your mate, but they didn’t
say  why.  They  didn’t  say  that  being  inside  your
mate  made  your  blood  sing,  set  your  whole  body
afire  with  pleasure,  made  you  lose  your  fucking
mind. They didn’t say that once you’d been inside
it, just the thought of your mate’s cunt would make
you walk a thousand miles or kill a thousand men.
That  nothing  would  stop  you  from  claiming  and
protecting it.

I’d gone crazy, I knew. Unable to stop. And

she’d liked it. She’d come, and she wanted more.
Because she was made for me, just like I suspected.

I wanted to do it again. I wanted to fuck her

over and over, but it was the witching hour of night,
and she’d had an exhausting day. One that would
change her life if I was lucky.

She was already drifting, her body relaxing into

the bed with pleasure. With trust. She wouldn’t be
this calm with me if she didn’t trust me—that she
did was a miracle. I didn’t want to see that wary
look in her eyes again.

I left the place between her legs and stretched

out next to her on the bed. “Sleep,” I told her.

“I’m not tired,” she said, but her voice was soft,

her eyes already drifting closed. She shifted on the
bed, pressing her knees together because she was
still aroused. She rolled to her side toward me and
touched my chest. “Are you leaving again?”

“No,” I told her. Though I wouldn’t sleep.

Werewolves required very little sleep, and we were
nocturnal.

But I lay there as Kat closed her eyes, and I

waited until her breathing was deep and even. Then
I got out of bed silently and left the bedroom.

I walked naked into the main room and picked

up my phone. I texted Tiberius, my second-in-
command. I’d known him since we were ten years
old and we were as close as brothers. Where are
you? I texted him.

His reply was immediate. Reached Houston

half an hour ago. All under control here. Martinez
has our money.

Martinez was a man the Nocturne had done a

job for, transporting illegal weapons over the border
from Mexico. Good, I wrote. Collect it as soon as
you can.

You want me to meet with Franco? Ty asked.
Franco was another business contact. The

reason we’d been heading to Houston was to meet
with him for a potential job. However, we’d been
derailed—I had been derailed. Now the club was in
Houston for the meeting, but they had no alpha
with them.

It was possible that would make us look weak

—since  humans  didn’t  have  our  mating  instinct,
Franco  wouldn’t  understand  the  diversion.  But
there  was  nothing  to  be  done.  It  wasn’t  the  best
solution,  but  I  trusted  Ty  to  handle  it.  Meet  with
Franco  and  bring  the  whole  crew,  I  told  him.
Without  the  alpha,  the  Nocturne  would  have  to
make  a  different  show  of  strength.  Get  the  deal
done and report back when you can.

Fine. Are things in place there?
He meant Kat. As in, had she run screaming

yet? Still tentative, I wrote. Working on it.

Work fast, Ty wrote. We’ll be back in two days.

We’ll have to do the Claiming.

I ran a hand through my hair as my stomach

sank. Fuck. The Claiming. I wasn’t ready for that
yet, and neither was Kat. She’d only just met me a
few hours ago. Only just fucked me for the first

time. I needed time before I told her about that.

I dropped the phone on the table and walked

naked to the back door of the club house. It was a
glass sliding door, bulletproof, sealed with an alarm
while the club was away. I keyed in the alarm code
and  opened  the  doors,  letting  in  the  dark,  sultry
Texas  heat.  Outside  was  nothing  but  darkness  and
the  sound  of  the  wind  in  the  trees,  with  night
creatures  calling.  I  stepped  out  into  the  trees,  my
senses rising, my wolf coming to the surface.

I needed to run. To hunt.
She’ll never do the Claiming. She’ll think

you’re crazy. She’ll say no. And then she’ll leave.

She couldn’t leave. Everything ended for me if

she  left.  I’d  be  a  weak  alpha,  and  a  weak  alpha
invited  attack.  Either  from  a  rival  pack  or  from
within.  If  I  was  weak,  a  stronger  wolf  would  take
over. It was inevitable.

And in order to supplant me, that wolf—

whoever he was—would have to kill me.

I believed my crew was solid. We were brothers

—there wasn’t a member who was looking to take
the alpha spot. But if I was weak, and I couldn’t
lead, the club wouldn’t stand for it for long. They’d
find another leader in order to survive. It was either
that or be taken over by a rival club.

There were three other werewolf clubs in this

part of the country: the Dark Fang, the Savage
Saints, and the Blood Price, who ran a crew

through  SoCal.  All  three  were  as  powerful  as  the
Nocturne, if not more. The fact that the Nocturne’s
alpha was taking a mate would make it to the other
clubs like wildfire, because the mating process was
risky.  If  my  mate  accepted  me,  I  would  have  a
weakness  going  forward:  her.  And  if  she  left  me,  I
would be permanently weak.

But an alpha with a mate—a strong, successful

mate—was stronger than he was alone. And once
his mate had his children, he would be stronger still.

Jesus. I’d only barely come inside her, and

already the situation was moving to the Claiming.
And children. And possible war.

She was a sweet, normal woman. Someone

good. She hadn’t chosen this life—she didn’t even
know what it was yet. And once she learned, she
wouldn’t want it.

She’s going to run and never look back.
I sprinted into the darkness of the trees as my

wolf broke the skin. I leapt, and when I landed on
the ground again I was a wolf, big and savage. My
wolf’s  senses  changed  everything:  I  could  see  and
hear  things  I  couldn’t  as  a  man.  I  scented  every
creature  in  the  woods,  every  bird  overhead.  My
wolf wanted to hunt.

I ran into the trees, the tangles of thought in my

human brain vanishing as I caught the scent of
prey.

I hunted until the sky turned gray, then pink.

Until the dew rose on the grass. My stomach was
full—I’d caught two rabbits—and I’d run my wolf
nearly to exhaustion. There were three things I
needed for existence: to ride my bike, to run as my
wolf, and to fuck my mate. To lose any one of those
things would make me weak or drive me mad.

When I had those three things, nearly nothing

could kill me.

A mile from the club house, I caught her scent.

Kat. She had a sweet smell, impossible to ignore,
one that my wolf could sense tenfold. It came to me
on the wind, so I knew she wasn’t where I left her
in bed. She was outside.

I ran swiftly, my paws sure on the ground. And

when I came to the club house, there she was.
Standing in the clearing, outside the sliding doors.
Dressed and beautiful.

And looking at me—with terror.

Ten

Kat

I woke up sore, satisfied—and alone. The bed was
rumpled and smelled like sex. It was damp and
sticky between my legs. And Bane was gone.

“Bane?” I called. No answer.
I rolled out of bed, groaning. Walked to the

bathroom.  Turned  on  the  shower,  hot,  and  cleaned
myself.  I  ached  in  places  I’d  never  known  existed
before. I had pulled muscles in my thighs, my hips.
My  pussy  was  sore  and  the  skin  of  my  neck  was
scraped raw from Bane’s beard. My nipples felt like
someone  had  rubbed  sandpaper  on  them.
Everything stung.

It felt fantastic.
I stretched in the shower like a satisfied she-cat.

When I was finished, I dried myself off. I still heard
nothing  from  the  club  house  outside.  I’d  asked
Bane  if  he  was  going  to  leave,  and  he’d  said  no.
Was  he  lying?  I  didn’t  think  so,  but  I  didn’t  really
know, did I? I didn’t really know him. I’d given him
everything,  and  I  didn’t  really  know  him  all  that
well.

I went back to the bedroom and found the bag

he’d  packed  for  me.  He’d  ridden  all  the  way  back
to my apartment in the middle of the night to bring
me my things—had I let him do that? Let him just
walk  into  my  apartment?  I  was  possessed  with
some  kind  of  insanity.  And  yet  I  still  felt  like  it
wasn’t the wrong thing to do.

He’d done pretty well, actually, packing my

bag.  Toothbrush,  toothpaste,  hairbrush.  No  styling
products,  because  I  couldn’t  imagine  a  werewolf
using  those.  He’d  remembered  deodorant  and  one
bra: my sexiest one, made of sheer lace. Of course
he  hadn’t  packed  my  boring,  stretched-out,
everyday  bra.  He  hadn’t  packed  my  everyday
panties,  but  he’d  packed  the  tiny  lace  ones  that
matched the bra.

For clothes, he’d picked out two of my

flowered sundresses, one pair of leggings, and a T-
shirt.  Not  bad.  I  put  on  the  panties,  the  leggings,
and the tee, leaving off the bra for now. I was alone
except  for  Bane—wherever  he  was—and  he’d
already  seen  everything.  If  he  couldn’t  handle  a
little jiggling, he’d have to deal.

I walked into the main room, which was dark

and  silent.  The  sky  was  turning  pink  outside,  the
whole place silent with the hush of dawn. How long
had  I  slept?  Two  hours,  maybe?  Three?  I  felt
refreshed,  like  I’d  had  a  full  night’s  sleep.  Maybe
sleep  after  two  orgasms  and  a  deep  fucking  was

better than normal sleep. I wouldn’t know, because
I’d never had sex like that in my life.

But the bringer of that good sex, Bane, was

nowhere to be seen. Maybe he had an errand to run
at six o’clock in the morning. Maybe he was gone. I
tried  not  to  think  that  way  as  I  wandered  the  club
house,  which  I  hadn’t  really  looked  at  before.  It
was surprisingly nice and comfortable—a big, open
room with a bar, a flat screen TV, and soft couches
and  chairs.  It  didn’t  look  like  a  bunch  of  biker
wolves lived here. But then again it didn’t look like
anyone  lived  here  at  all.  Maybe  the  Nocturne  MC
hadn’t  been  here  in  a  while.  The  place  had
definitely  been  cleaned  from  top  to  bottom—by
professionals,  I  assumed,  since  I  couldn’t  picture
the men from the bar last night doing it.

One door off the main room led into a meeting

room  with  a  round  table  in  it.  I  supposed  that  was
where  they  did  their  club/werewolf  business,
whatever  it  was.  Another  door  off  the  kitchen  led
to a garage, which had two broken-down bikes in it
and  a  dusty  pickup  truck.  I  wondered  where  the
keys  to  the  truck  were—my  car  was  still  at  the
Silver Star, but I had no idea how to go get it, or if it
was  even  still  there.  Maybe  it  had  burned,  or
someone  had  hotwired  it  and  driven  it  off.  Last
night was so strange, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I closed the garage door and raided the kitchen.

I ate a handful of almonds and made a slice of

toast. I needed coffee, and I was trying to figure out
how to make some when I noticed the doors.

There were glass doors at the back of the club

house, and they were open an inch. As if someone
had opened them and closed them again, carelessly.
As if someone had gone out that way.

I walked to the door and pushed it open,

stepping outside. It was hot already, even with the
sun not up yet. The air was close and still, the heat
still rising but getting heavy. It was going to be
another sweltering day.

Behind the club house there was only forest—

trees stretching away from the clearing, thick and
shadowy. It was peaceful and a little creepy at the
same time, like this was a place you could relax—
or it was a place where you could go for a walk and
never be seen again.

Bane was out here somewhere. That was why

the door was open. Right?

Or was there another reason?
I couldn’t see any sign of him. I took another

step outside and looked around. He was nowhere to
be seen, so I was about to go back in the club house
when a shadow emerged from the trees.

It was a big shadow. Very fucking big. I froze,

any idea of sound leaving my throat. The… thing…
I had never seen anything like it before.

It was a wolf. But it was big—its back much

higher than my waist, its head bigger than mine. It

was also pure black, with yellow eyes that stared at
me unblinkingly. Even in the dark, I could see the
white of its teeth where its lip was raised.

My blood went cold and I felt my eyes widen,

my lips part. I should probably run back into the
house, but I wasn’t sure I could make it. Wasn’t
sure I could get my feet to move. And as the wolf
came toward me, walking slowly on its huge paws,
I realized it was watching me like it knew me.

I forced myself to say it. “Bane?”
The wolf paused, his ears moving, and then he

came forward again.

This… this was Bane? I knew werewolves

existed, but it was hard to see this creature and the
man I knew as the same being. Hard to imagine that
one could turn into the other and back again. Hard
to believe that this wolf might have Bane’s thoughts
going through his head, his memories. Or did he?

It seemed like the wolf recognized me. Was

Bane in there? Behind those eyes?

The wolf came closer, and I stayed still. His

yellow eyes were still fixed on me. He came close
enough to sniff me, and then he touched my hip
with his snout, pressing it.

“I hope you’re Bane,” I said as I tentatively put

a hand on his massive head. “I really do. Otherwise
you’re going to rip my arm off.”

The wolf nuzzled me again, pressing into me.
I ran my hand over his head, his ears. It seemed

like  it  should  be  like  petting  a  dog,  except  it  was
nothing like petting a dog. The wolf’s fur was harsh
and  a  little  wiry.  I  could  feel  ripples  of  muscles  in
his  back  and  shoulders.  He  smelled  like  dirt  and
water and blood.

But I touched him until he pulled away. He

crossed the clearing, crouched on his haunches, and
sprinted. He jumped into the air, and when he
landed he was Bane. Human, bearded, fully naked
Bane.

He turned and faced me. I knew I was gaping at

him, but I’d never seen anything like that in my life.
It had been so fast, and it had been scary and
beautiful at the same time.

“Hi,” I managed.
Bane stared at me for a minute. I held his eyes,

though I really wanted to drop my gaze and take in
the rest of him. I’d seen most of it, but I’d never
seen him completely naked in daylight.

“Kat,” he said.
“You were a wolf,” I breathed.
He nodded.
“How… how do you do that?”
He came toward me, and I let my gaze drop.

Oh, he looked good. Broad chest, muscled hips. He
had  the  tattoo  of  the  wolf  skull  over  his  left  pec,
dark  hair  on  his  chest  and  trailing  down  his
stomach,  dark  hair  between  his  legs.  His  big
uncircumcised  cock  was  half-hard.  Even  his  balls

looked sexy, hairy and swinging between his legs. I
licked my lips as I felt my pussy get wet.

“I’ve always been able to do it,” Bane said,

coming toward me without any hesitation. “For as
long as I remember.”

“Does it hurt?”
“No.” He reached me and picked me up as if I

weighed  nothing.  I  wrapped  my  legs  around  his
waist  and  held  on.  I  could  feel  his  cock  thick  and
hard  between  us,  pressing  on  the  fabric  of  my
leggings.

“What do you do when you’re a wolf?” I asked,

gripping his shoulders as he started to walk.

“Run. Hunt. Eat.” He took us through the glass

doors and slid them shut behind us, holding me one-
armed as he tapped in the security code to lock the
doors. “This morning I found rabbits.”

“You ate a rabbit?” I stared at him. That

explained the smell of blood. “The whole thing?”

“Two of them. The whole thing.” He looked at

me, and for the first time I read a little uncertainty
in his eyes. He thought I might be disgusted. “What
I do as a wolf is different from what I do as a
human,” he said gruffly. “It just is.”

“But when you’re a wolf, you’re… you,” I said,

trying to figure it out. “You have thoughts and
everything. You know who you are?”

“When the wolf is dominant, the man isn’t as

strong,” Bane said. He turned from the door and

carried me across the main room toward the
hallway where the bedrooms were. “He is still in
there, but he doesn’t make the decisions. The wolf
does.”

“But the wolf knew me,” I said, still wrapped

around his waist, holding his shoulders. My weight
didn’t seem to bother him at all.

“Both of us knew you,” Bane corrected me.

“Both of us would know you anywhere.”

That was scary. And maybe a little sweet. And

it was definitely turning me on. “So are you
hungry,” I asked him, “or did the rabbits fill you
up?”

“You have a lot of questions.” He walked us

into our bedroom and dropped me on my back on
the bed.

“It’s kind of an unusual situation,” I said, my

voice breathless as he stood over me. God, he was
big. And his cock… I wanted to squirm on the bed,
but he’d see. He could probably smell how wet I
was. “I’ve never dated a werewolf before.”

He leaned over me and hooked his big fingers

into the waistband of my leggings. “We’re not
dating,” he declared, peeling them off me.

He dropped the leggings and slid my panties off

next. “We’re not?” I breathed, watching him,
feeling the cool air hit my overheated pussy.

“Take off the shirt,” Bane said, and instead of

arguing with him I did it. I wanted to feel the air on

my nipples, which were hard as stone. I tossed the
shirt away and looked up at him.

He was taking me in, his dark eyes moving up

and down my body. His face looked stormy, but
then again he always looked stormy. Bane didn’t
seem to have a mellow expression.

He reached a hand down—he had dirt ground

into his fingertips and under his blunt nails—and
stroked my breast. I arched up into him, sucking in
a breath.

“You’re beautiful,” he said, which was a

compliment. Then he added, “Running as my wolf
always makes me want to fuck.”

I glanced down. No kidding—his cock was hard

as iron, jutting out from between his legs. “Who do
you normally fuck after you go running?” I asked.

“No one,” Bane replied, rubbing his thumb over

my nipple and nearly making me moan. “I jerk
myself off.” His dark eyes lit up for a brief second.
“I don’t have to do that this time. This time, I get to
fuck you.”

I couldn’t really deny it, considering I was

naked, spread-legged and panting for him. Still, I
managed to say, “You didn’t ask.”

“No?” he said. He put his hands on my hips and

jerked me forward so my butt was at the edge of
the bed. Then he got on his knees between my
spread legs.

“No,” I said. “And you didn’t answer the

question  about  whether  we’re  dating,  and—Oh,
God,  Bane!”  I  arched  off  the  bed  as  he  put  his
mouth on my pussy, rubbing his tongue into my slit.
His  tongue  was  big  and  hot  and  his  beard  rasped
against  my  bare,  waxed  skin.  He  moved  his  open
mouth  over  my  clit  and  sucked  on  it  as  I  writhed
under his mouth and tried not to scream. I failed.

He moved his mouth down again, his hands

keeping my thighs spread wide, and slid his tongue
into  my  hole,  rubbing.  It  felt  so  good.  So  good.  I
ground  my  cunt  into  his  mouth,  his  beard,  aching
for more, and he gave it to me. He licked his tongue
out  of  me  and  replaced  it  with  three  of  his  big
fingers,  rubbing  harshly  into  me,  stretching  me.  I
cried  out  and  he  put  his  mouth  on  my  clit  again,
sucking it hotly and softly.

I could do nothing but lie there pinned as my

body climbed quick and hard toward orgasm. When
I was close—and he knew it—Bane lifted his head,
though he kept his fingers inside me. His eyes were
black. I could see my juices on his beard. “This is
mine,” he growled, rubbing. “This hot little cunt is
mine, Kat.”

Nothing had ever felt this good. Nothing, ever,

had felt like Bane did between my legs. “Yes,
Bane,” I panted. “Yes.”

“It belongs to me and only me,” he said, still

rubbing. “You’re my mate, Kat. I’m going to want
your cunt all the time. Get used to it. Your mouth

and your ass, too. All of it is mine. But I promise,
when I take you I’ll make you come every time.
Now tell me what you want.”

I closed my eyes. I was so close. I couldn’t

stand it. “Make me come,” I panted. “And fuck
me. Please, Bane. Fuck me.”

He didn’t say anything more. I felt his mouth

come  down  on  my  clit  again,  his  tongue  rubbing  it
without  mercy,  and  I  came,  screaming  into  the
silence,  my  juices  running  down  his  fingers  as  I
convulsed on them over and over. I writhed on him,
and then he pulled his fingers out of me and I heard
him  stand  up.  In  one  motion  he  flipped  me  over
onto my stomach, lifted my hips, and rammed into
me from behind.

I cried out. He’d come into me slowly last night,

but not today. Today he fucked his big cock hard
into me with no mercy, and I felt that same feeling
of being split open, torn apart. I gripped the sheets
and bit the pillow and held on.

He fucked me hard, his hips slamming into me,

his cock punishing me. His fingers dug into my hips
and his balls slapped my skin. I felt myself opening
to  him,  wider  and  wider,  my  body  taking  him
deeper. It hurt, and yet it didn’t. It was like his cock
was  pushing  an  ache  I  had  deep  inside  me,
something  I  didn’t  know  I  could  feel.  Bane’s  cock
was  hitting  it,  giving  me  relief  at  last,  and  even
though it hurt I didn’t want him to stop.

“Fuck, Kat,” he panted, “you feel so fucking

good. So fucking good.”

I arched my back and pressed my ass up into

him, taking him deeper, my breasts bouncing
against the bed, my hands twisted in the sheets as I
tried to stay in place. I couldn’t speak. I just wanted
him there. Right there…

Bane gave a low roar and came, his fingers

digging deep enough into my hips to bruise me. He
was flexed deep into me, his cum jetting inside me,
for a long minute. Then he slowly let me go, his
breath coming in harsh pants.

He pulled out of me and ran a hand through his

dark hair. “Damn it, Kat, did I hurt you? If I did,
I’m fucking sorry.”

I lowered myself to the bed and rolled onto my

back. I looked up at him, big and harsh and
tormented. “Come here,” I said.

He looked at me, confused. “Where?”
“Here.” I patted the bed next to me. I shifted

myself up so I wasn’t on the edge anymore. “Lie
down here.”

He hesitated for the briefest second, as if he

thought I had some ulterior motive. Then he slowly
lowered himself to the bed. “Kat—”

“Ssh. Be quiet,” I said. I rolled over on top of

him and kissed his mouth.

He froze at first. Then he kissed me back, his

hand moving to the back of my head. Our mouths

Eleven

Bane

Kat kissed my mouth, and when she was done she
kissed her way down my neck, through my beard,
along my collarbones. Then she kissed down my
chest.

I felt myself stiffen under her touch. I wasn’t

used  to  affection.  When  I  took  a  woman,  it  was
always  a  transaction:  she  sucked  me  or  fucked  me
until I came, I fingered her or tongued her until she
came,  and  we  both  moved  on.  Kissing  was  never
part of the transaction.

But Kat was kissing me. She was trailing her

pretty blond hair over my chest, kissing my nipple,
then  up  my  pec  and  along  my  shoulder.  Her
delicate  hands  were  resting  on  my  chest,  running
down  the  muscles  of  my  stomach  and  then  up
again. Her gorgeous sweet tits were pressing against
my  stomach,  her  taut  ass  in  the  air,  and  already  I
was hard for her again.

I like kissing you, she’d said. No woman had

ever said that to me before.

I liked it. Kiss me again.

I wound my hand into her hair, my dirty fingers

against  her  pretty  blond  strands,  and  pulled  her
head up. She obeyed, and I brought her down to my
mouth  again.  Our  tongues  tangled  and  I  felt  my
beard  scraping  her  skin.  She  moaned  and  opened
her mouth further, letting me inside to do whatever
I wanted.

I licked the inside of her mouth and then let her

go. Her pupils were dilated, her mouth reddened
from where I’d scraped it. “Again,” she whispered.

I ran my thumb along her bottom lip, my skin

dark against her perfect clean whiteness. “The
kiss?”

Her hand slid down between us, rubbing me.

“Your cock.”

Jesus. Jesus Christ. “I hurt you,” I protested.

“You must be sore.”

She shook her head, moving against my thumb.

“I’m okay. Just… be gentle this time.”

I stared at her helplessly. I had no idea what to

fucking do. No idea how to treat this woman, how
to be gentle with her, how to treat her the way she
deserved. My wolf was howling beneath the
surface. I’d told the truth when I said that running
as my wolf made me want to fuck, but my wolf
made me want to do it rough. Be gentle was not in
my vocabulary. It never had been.

But I’d been too rough with her just now. Kat

had taken it because she was a sweet girl, but if I

wanted a long-term mate, I’d have to come up with
something different. A way to be gentle for once.

“Tell me what to do,” I told her.
Kat gave a little smile, one that made my chest

go  weak.  She  was  so  fucking  beautiful,  with  her
sex-tousled  blond  hair  and  her  brown  eyes.  Her
white  skin  and  rosy  nipples  and  sweet  cunt,  bare
except for a tiny strip. If I never saw her again, I’d
be picturing all of it until the day I died. She leaned
in and kissed my mouth again, sucking my tongue,
and she moved to straddle my leg. I felt something
warm  and  wet  on  my  thigh:  cum.  My  own  cum.
This  woman  hadn’t  even  washed  my  cum  out  of
her,  and  she  already  wanted  more.  I  could  smell
her. She was ready for it.

I rolled her onto her back, kissing her some

more.  I  leaned  down  and  sucked  a  nipple  into  my
mouth as she moaned. She tasted like strawberries.
She was an angel, my Kat. A perfect white-skinned
angel,  and  I  was  a  devil,  a  monster.  I’d  broken  a
man’s neck in front of her and I’d shed blood in the
woods  as  an  animal.  I  had  an  uncut  cock  and  dirt
ground into my skin, and still she let me defile her.
She  opened  her  legs  and  moaned  for  me.  My
perfect angel who wanted to be fucked.

I pressed my cock into her and she hissed in a

breath, as if it stung. “Baby,” I said into her ear—
another first, because I’d never called another
woman that before. Never thought about it. “We

don’t have to do this if it hurts.”

“It hurts a little,” she admitted, squirming

beneath me, “but I like it.” She ran her fingers over
my jaw, my beard, my cheekbones. “Bane, I like it
so much.”

I bottomed out, my balls pressing against her

pussy,  and  then  I  withdrew  again,  slowly.  She  was
tight as a fist, but she was also wet as an oil slick,
because  she  still  had  my  cum  in  her.  She’d  taken
my  cum  once  already  and  she  wanted  it  again.  I
flexed my hips and fucked my cock into her again,
all the way.

“Oh,” she said, and she was wincing and

pressing her hips up into me at the same time. “It’s
good. It’s so good. Just go slow this time.”

I slid out of her, then in again, out then in. She

panted and I pressed my fingertips to her wet little
clit, finding it slick with my cum like the rest of her.
I circled it over and over as I fucked her slowly,
pressing the head of my cock deep inside her every
time, bottoming out as far as I could go.

Kat’s eyes were closed, her lips parted, her

head tilted back. Her nipples were hard against my
chest,  dark  red  with  how  hot  she  was.  Her  waxed
cunt  was  open  to  me,  the  flesh  hot  and  wet  and
swollen as I moved my bare cock in and out of her.
My  cock  was  slick  with  her  juices  and  my  own
cum.

“Come on my cock,” I coaxed her, still rubbing

her tight little clit, pressing my fingertips over the
tight nub. I licked her bottom lip. “Come on it, my
dirty little mate. Come with your alpha’s cock
inside you.”

“Oh,” she said, and she came, her body

shaking, her cunt squeezing me. This was heaven. It
was fucking heaven, the greatest thing that had
ever happened to me, and I didn’t deserve the least
of it. I deserved to be left to die a loner, not fucked
by the sweetest angel on earth for the second time.
I would kill for her. I would die for her. She had no
idea, but she owned me so completely that I would
do anything for her. Anything at all.

I felt my balls draw up and I pressed deep

inside her, my own orgasm overtaking me. I pulsed
cum  into  her  over  and  over,  just  like  I’d  done
before.  “Kat,”  I  said  in  her  ear  as  I  came.  “Kat.”
She tangled her hands in my hair and kissed me, her
mouth  open  for  me  as  I  pulsed  into  her.  “Kat,”  I
said against her mouth as it finally eased off.

She sighed and ran her hands over my jawline

again, my cheekbones. Looking at me. As if she
actually liked me.

No woman had ever actually liked me.
Kat did. I didn’t deserve it, but she kissed me

and touched me like she liked me. Like she wanted
me near.

She was my woman. My Kat. And she came

first. Before anything. Before everything.

Twelve

Kat

“The Silver Star is ashes,” Jade said. “There’s
barely anything left.”

I sipped the smoothie I’d made and walked to

the front window of the club house, looking out.
“Really?” I said into the phone.

“Yes, really. And apparently Cash isn’t the only

dead person they found inside. There were two
others.”

I lowered my cup. It was daytime again, and

Bane  was  out  front,  fixing  something  on  his
motorcycle.  I  could  see  him  from  the  window.  He
was  wearing  jeans  and  a  black  tee,  his  motorcycle
boots  on  his  feet,  a  wrench  in  his  hand.  He  was
bent  over  the  front  wheel  of  the  bike,  and  in  the
pose  I  could  see  the  perfect  line  of  his  big,  wide
shoulders.  Shoulders  I’d  dug  my  fingers  into  while
he fucked me.

Three dead people? “I don’t, um, I don’t think

Bane killed all of those people,” I said, though of
course I wasn’t sure. I had no idea at all.

“Who knows?” Jade said. “The official reports

aren’t  in,  but  there’s  a  cop  who  used  to  come  into
the club  all the  time.  He says  one  of the  men  died
of  smoke  inhalation,  and  the  other  had  a  knife
wound in the back of his neck.”

I licked my lip, my gaze still on Bane. He was

looking  at  the  motorcycle,  not  at  me.  He  changed
the angle as he stared down at it, and I saw his dark
hair  falling  over  his  forehead,  the  thick  growth  of
his  beard.  The  nice  mouth  framed  by  dark  hair.
He’d  had  that  mouth  between  my  legs  yesterday,
and  I’d  screamed  when  I  came.  “That  can’t  be
Bane,” I said, because I really wanted it to be true.
“Werewolves  don’t  use  knives.  And  smoke
inhalation isn’t murder at all.”

“Unless he was knocked out and left to die,”

Jade pointed out. “And what do you know about
werewolf weapons?”

Nothing. I knew nothing. Except I’d seen Bane

snap Cash’s neck with his bare hands, so I saw no
reason he’d use a knife.

Which reminded me that the man I’d fucked

like crazy had snapped a man’s neck with his bare
hands.

Maybe being here wasn’t my smartest decision.

I had no idea what else Bane had done—probably a
lot. But I couldn’t help it—I felt safe. Even when
he had his hands on me. Especially when he had his
hands on me.

I’m going to put my cock in you, my cum. All

night, and tomorrow, and the day after that. My
cock is hard for you all the time, Kat.

Come on my cock, my dirty little mate. Come

with your alpha’s cock inside you.

After that round, I really was sore. We’d slept

for  hours,  and  when  I  woke  up  it  was  morning,
Bane  had  left  the  bed,  and  there  were  fresh
groceries on the counter, including fruit and yogurt.
Once  again  it  all  seemed  like  a  dream,  except  the
man  who  made  me  so  sore  was  outside  fixing  his
motorcycle right now. He turned to grab a tool and
I got a look at his ass in his low-slung jeans, and I
nearly drooled into my smoothie glass. Good, holy,
sweet God.

“Anyway,” Jade said, “I called to let you know

you can still have a job. The owners are moving a
lot of employees to their other location, the Gold
Star.”

“The Gold Star?” This surprised me. The Gold

Star  was  the  nicest,  swankiest  strip  club  in  the
county,  much  better  than  the  Silver  Star.  Only  the
very  best  employees  and  the  very  hottest  girls  got
moved up to the Gold Star.

“Well, you have to apply,” Jade said, “and you

have to interview in person. But they said they
have openings. And they already said they’d take
me.”

That made sense, because Jade was a great

bartender. I was another story. “They won’t take

me. I’d only been at the Silver Star a week.”

“But you’re hot, girl. You know that. At least

apply. The pay is better at the Gold Star, and I hear
that with the rich guys who go there, the tips are
better too.”

I bit my lip and looked at Bane again. He

dropped  the  wrench  in  an  easy  motion  and  ran  a
hand through his hair. He wouldn’t like me working
at the Gold Star—I knew that already. He wouldn’t
like me dressing skimpy and flirting with men, and
he  wouldn’t  like  me  getting  my  ass  grabbed.  I
remembered him in the VIP room at the Silver Star,
scenting  where  a  customer  had  grabbed  me  and
saying He’s going to lose a hand.

Still, Bane was a stranger to me. I’d spent all of

two nights with him. Two fantastic nights, but still.
Was I going to let him dictate what I could and
couldn’t do?

And the fact was, I was out of a job. I needed a

paycheck. I couldn’t just live on werewolf charity
and sex for the rest of my life.

Though part of me sort of wished I could. At

least the sex part.

“Okay, I’ll think about it,” I said to Jade.
“Good. What happened with that crazy

werewolf, by the way?” Jade said. “I ran after he
did what he did to Cash. I’m sorry I just left you
there, but it was pretty intense.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “It turned out okay. He

didn’t hurt me. Actually he got me out of there.”

“Well, that’s good. He seemed pretty into you,

even though you didn’t fuck him. Just be careful
with werewolves, okay?”

“Why? What does that mean?”
She paused. “The fact that you’re asking that

means that you’re seeing him. Or thinking about it.”

I flinched, watching Bane through the window.

I hated lying, but what he and I had was so new and
so strange, I didn’t feel like explaining it. I didn’t
even think I could. “I’m thinking about it,” I said.

“Well, werewolves are known to have a temper.

Which you saw when he got angry at Cash. I mean,
they have a serious temper.”

“Yeah, I got that.”
“And they don’t really date. They tend to just

fuck and forget you. They’re not romantics, Kat.”

I felt my eyebrows go up. “You think I want a

romantic?”

“Honey, please. You’re pretty much the sweet

princess  in  a  fairy  tale.  It  feels  weird  to  think  of
some  werewolf  using  you  and  dumping  you  like  a
filled-up  condom.  You’ll  get  your  heart  broken,  I
promise.”

Jade obviously didn’t know about the mating

stuff that Bane had told me about. But I still
wanted her advice—I had no one else to ask. “I
don’t know. You said yourself he seemed really into
me.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen that before. Usually

women  are  like  used  Kleenexes  to  them.  And  he
was  pretty  hot.  If  he  really  wants  to  call  you,  and
you  really  want  to  see  him,  give  it  a  shot.  Just  be
careful, okay?”

I agreed and hung up, feeling like a heel. For

not telling Jade what was really going on—that I
was at the Nocturne club house right now, after two
nights of crazy sex with Bane. And I felt like a heel
for talking about Bane behind his back. Even
though every girl did that with every guy she dated.

Werewolves are known to have a temper.
Just be careful, okay?
He said he wanted me to be his mate. But what

the hell did that even mean?

I downed my smoothie and walked back to the

kitchen. I was rinsing the glass when the door
opened and Bane walked in, the hot Texas air
swirling in behind him.

He paused and looked me up and down. I was

wearing  one  of  the  sundresses  he’d  packed  for  me
from  my  apartment—a  blue-and-white  flowered
pattern.  The  dress  had  spaghetti  straps  and  fell  to
my  knees.  It  was  a  nice  dress,  the  kind  you  could
wear  to  a  church  picnic  if  you  put  a  light  sweater
over your shoulders. I was clean and showered, my
hair  falling  softly  to  my  shoulders,  only  a  little
makeup  on  from  the  stuff  I  kept  in  my  purse,
sandals on my feet. I looked like any normal, sweet

girl,  but  when  Bane  looked  at  me  I  felt  naked  and
deliciously  dirty.  Maybe  because  underneath  the
dress  I  was  wearing  the  tiny,  lacy  underwear  he’d
brought me.

Come on my cock, my dirty little mate. Come

with your alpha’s cock inside you.

As if he could read my thoughts, Bane’s eyes

went dark. He cleared his throat. “Is everything
okay?” he asked me, his voice rough.

I nodded. The memory of sex seemed to swirl

heavily in the air between us. Women are like used
Kleenexes to them, Jade had said. I didn’t think
anyone had looked at a used Kleenex the way Bane
was looking at me.

Then again, maybe he wasn’t done using me

yet. I didn’t really know, did I? We hadn’t done a
lot of talking.

“The truck in the garage,” I said to him. “I’m

wondering if it runs. If I can borrow it.”

Bane’s eyebrows went down. “For what?”
“To go to the Silver Star and find my own car. If

it isn’t there, then to go to my apartment.”

He blinked once. “You’re leaving?”
“Well, I have to.” It seemed obvious to me. I

looked around. “I don’t live here. I can’t stay here
forever.”

“The crew comes back today,” Bane said. “All

of them.”

I felt my eyes go wide. “Oh. I really should go,

then.”

He scowled harder. “No, you shouldn’t.”
I thought of all the big, terrifying werewolves

who’d  come  into  the  Silver  Star  the  night  of  the
fire.  Bane  was  the  biggest  of  them,  but  none  of
them  were  much  smaller  than  him.  They  were  all
Banes  with  maybe  an  inch  less  height,  and  there
were  a  dozen  of  them.  Just  the  idea  of  being  the
only  woman  alone  in  a  room  with  them  was
intimidating.  “Don’t  you  have  club  business  to
discuss with them?” I asked. “Wolf pack business?”

Bane took a step closer to me. “Yes. Some of

that business is you.”

“You’re going to discuss me?”
“How many times do I have to explain it?

You’re my mate. You’re the most important
business the pack has seen in years. You need to be
here to meet them.”

That made me mad. “Apparently you have to

explain it a few more times,” I said. “I didn’t
realize when you took me from the Silver Star that
you expected me to drop my life and move in with
you.”

“I didn’t say that,” Bane said. “Though it’s

probably best if you move into the club house, it’s
true.”

I gaped at him. I couldn’t believe he was

suggesting it. “Don’t you think that’s maybe a little
fast, Bane?”

“No, because you’re my mate. As I’m

explaining yet again.”

“Bane,” I said, “I like you.” My cheeks went

hot. “A lot. I like you a lot, okay? But we’re not
married.”

“Werewolves don’t get married,” he said.
I threw my hands up. “Whatever. What I’m

saying is that we should date for a while and—”

“I told you, we’re not dating.”
“Then what are we doing?” I practically

shouted. “I don’t even know your last name!”

He ran a hand through his hair, then scrubbed it

over his face. And damn it, I noticed that the
motion made the muscles in his chest flex. “It’s
Cross,” he said finally. “My last name is Cross.”

He looked almost pained, telling me that. Like

he didn’t say his last name very often. “Okay,” I
said.

“Now will you stay?” he growled.
Honestly, he was going to make me insane.

“No,” I said, and when he flinched I lowered my
voice. “I just need to go home for a while,” I said.
“What if I come back tonight?”

“The crew will be back by tonight.” He still

sounded pained, and I realized that even though he
was  being  a  stubborn  ass,  this  seemed  to  really
matter  to  him.  “If  they  come  back  and  find  me
alone,  without  my  mate,  it  means  I’ve  failed  to
keep you. It means I’ve failed as an alpha.”

I crossed my arms. “Well, that’s silly. Your mate

can’t go pick up her car? Aren’t you the alpha no
matter what?”

“Usually, yes. But the worst thing an alpha can

do is show weakness.” His gaze darted away. “A
mate is a weakness.”

“So now I’m a weakness?” Great. “You know, I

was warned that werewolves aren’t romantic. I
guess that’s true.”

Bane looked frustrated. “I don’t know what

that means.”

It was like talking to an alien from another

planet.  He  really  wasn’t  entirely  human,  I
remembered.  I  stepped  forward  and  put  a  hand  on
his  wrist,  feeling  the  pulse  under  his  warm  skin.
“Okay, let’s try something else.”

Bane took a breath, and I saw his shoulders

relax  a  little,  his  muscles  loosen.  Because  I  was
touching  him.  My  hand  on  him  was  soothing  him,
even  though  he  was  so  much  bigger  than  me,  his
arm like solid rock.

I could do that to him, just by putting a hand on

his wrist.

“Come with me,” I said to him. “We’ll both go

get my car and go to my apartment. We’ll come
back together. That way you don’t look weak.
What do you think?”

Bane hesitated. I could see him calculating the

angles, the possible objections. Bane was rough, but

he was far from stupid; he just thought like a wolf,
and calculated things according to the way wolves
did things. He was looking at angles I couldn’t see.
And he was still uneasy. “Now I’m forcing you,” he
said. “I don’t want to force you to do something
you don’t want.”

“You’re not forcing me,” I said. I slid my palm

halfway up his forearm, feeling the tendons and
muscles under his skin. It made a spark of energy
ignite in me, but I pushed it down. “I’d like you to
come with me. I just assumed you wouldn’t want to
go.”

He could feel the same spark I felt—I could

tell. His eyes went dark as he looked at me, but he
was breathing evenly, the tension in his body under
control. “We’ll go on my bike,” he said.

“No,” I told him, keeping my hand on him. “I

don’t  have  the  right  clothes  for  a  motorcycle.  The
gravel…”  I  glanced  down.  I  had  scrapes  on  my
shins  and  calves  from  riding  behind  him  the  other
night,  wearing  my  short  skirt.  There  was  a  reason
bikers always wore jeans or leather pants.

Bane’s gaze followed mine and his expression

changed again. He looked stricken. “I didn’t notice
that,” he said. “Your legs are torn up and I didn’t
even see. Fuck, Kat.”

“They’re not torn up,” I said. “They barely

sting. I’m fine. But I need to go in the truck. I can
pick up jeans at my place.”

He was still fixated on my legs. “I didn’t even

think about it. I should have thought of that. I
should have noticed.”

“Bane.” This time I stepped close to him, letting

my body brush his, my stomach and my breasts. He
was going to tear himself to pieces if I didn’t stop
him. I looked up into his face, and after a second he
looked down at me, his gaze clearing.

“Let’s go in the truck,” I said. “And by the way,

my last name is Washington.”

Thirteen

Bane

Kat  was  right.  I  had  no  idea  what  I  was  doing,  no
idea  how  to  take  care  of  a  human  mate.  No  idea
what to do with a pretty woman like her. I’d fucked
her  like  she  belonged  to  me,  and  I’d  never  asked
her full name.

I took her in the truck. It wasn’t a very nice

truck—it  was  old,  and  the  shocks  were  mostly
gone, so Kat jolted in the passenger seat every time
we  rode  over  a  pothole.  I  could  smell  her  fresh
smell,  could  still  feel  her  hand  on  my  arm,  and  I
wanted  her  again.  I  kept  thinking  of  her  mouth  on
my  cock  that  first  night,  the  way  she’d  sucked  me
so  greedily.  I  was  supposed  to  be  doing  things  like
asking her last name, making conversation, making
her feel like she wanted to stay with me. Instead I
kept thinking of my cock in her throat.

She had lip gloss on, like she had that first night.

Kat liked lip gloss. It would coat my cock when she
sucked me.

Be civilized, Bane.
Kat Washington. It was a nice name. Classy,

like she was. “Where are your parents?” I asked
her.

She looked at me, surprised, and then she said,

“I don’t know who my father is. My mother is in
Florida.”

“You don’t know who your father is?”
“No.” She gave a secretive smile. “My mother

used to be a bit of a slut, you could say. The apple
doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Had someone insulted her? “You are not a slut,”

I growled.

“No?” She laughed, the sound genuinely

amused. “I’m a slut with you, or haven’t you
noticed?”

The way she was with me was hot as fuck, and

I didn’t want her to change it. If I ever got to have
her again. “You are not a slut,” I said again.

“Sure,” she said, still smiling. She looked out

the window. “It doesn’t matter. My mother married
a nice guy a few years ago and moved to Florida
with him. So she isn’t a slut anymore.”

“You get along with her?” I asked.
“Sure I do. My mother is actually nice. She’s

friendly and fun. I talk to her at least once a week.”
She looked at me. “What about your parents?”

“Dead,” I said. “My mother was hit by a drunk

driver  when  I  was  ten.  My  father  was  a  werewolf,
the  alpha  of  a  club  called  the  Bone  Brothers.  The
club  was  destroyed  in  the  last  pack  war,  and  my

father was killed.”

The smile had left Kat’s face. She stared at me.

“Pack war?”

“It happens from time to time,” I said. “If any

pack gets too big, or too ambitious, the others come
together to eliminate it.”

“Eliminate?”
“Kill every member. It’s the only way to make

sure a club goes down and stays down.” I glanced
at her, saw her expression. “What? Don’t worry.
We don’t have a pack war right now. The last one,
the one that killed my father, was a major war. No
one wants that again.” I pointed ahead. “That’s the
Silver Star.”

I pulled into the parking lot. The fire trucks and

ambulances had long gone, and all that was left was
an empty, burnt-out shell. I opened the driver’s
door, and Kat put her hand on the passenger
handle. “Wait,” I told her.

I got out of the truck, circled it, and opened her

door for her. The truck was high from the ground. I
put my hands on her waist and helped her out. My
palms burned through the thin fabric of her dress.
Be civilized, Bane.

She paused when I set her down, looking at the

building. There were black scars of ashes framing
the doors and windows, and the sign that said Silver
Star in lights was blasted with smoke. Kat, with her
pretty dress and her pretty blond hair, looked like

she didn’t belong here, in this shitty, burned-out
place. It was hard for me to remember that I’d
found her here, wearing a tiny black top and a tiny
black skirt, getting groped by every man who liked
her ass.

It still made me angry. No man was ever

groping her again.

She sighed. “So much for that job,” she said.
“You didn’t like it.” My voice came out in a

growl; I couldn’t help it.

“It wasn’t so bad,” Kat said. “It was better tips

than my last job, which was hostess at Olive
Garden.”

“Did they send you to work the VIP Room at

Olive Garden?”

She turned and looked at me over her shoulder.

“You’re blaming them for that? It was your
request.”

“They should never have sent you in there

alone with me.”

She looked at me for a moment. “I don’t really

understand how you think, Bane. But all right.” She
turned back and started walking across the parking
lot.

I followed her. I couldn’t help it—I watched

how her ass moved beneath the soft fabric of her
skirt. It was fucking gorgeous, that ass. I’d first
seen it in a tight black skirt, and it didn’t look any
less fucking gorgeous now. I wanted to get inside it,

make it mine. No man would have that ass except
me.

She was making a beeline across the lot to the

only other car here, a small black hatchback. “Is
that your car?” I asked her, peeling my gaze from
her ass.

“Yes. Oh, shit.” She got closer. “It’s got fire

damage.” She pulled her keys from her purse and
beeped the doors. “I’m not sure it will even run.”

“You don’t need it.” The truck wasn’t the only

vehicle the club owned—far from it. We knew a lot
of the local garages and we were passed cheap
vehicles pretty often. “I can get you a car.”

“This is my car, though.” She sounded

crestfallen. She opened the driver’s door, bent and
peered inside. “This is the first car I ever bought for
myself  with  my  own  money.  I  worked  at  Olive
Garden for years to save up for it.” She put the key
in  the  ignition  and  turned  it,  and  when  nothing
happened,  she  sighed.  “I  can  put  in  an  insurance
claim, I guess. But I’m so bummed.”

Jesus. I’d never been with a woman who said

I’m so bummed. It should have been ridiculous, but
it just made me want to fuck her more. Also, if this
was her first car, I had another question. “Kat, how
old are you?”

She pulled out of the car and closed the door,

turning to me. “I’m twenty-four,” she said with a
smile. “Right, I guess we don’t know that about

each other. How old are you?”

I stared at her, and for a second I couldn’t say

it. “Older than you.”

She crossed her arms over her breasts. “How

much older?”

“A lot.”
“Nope,” she said, and she tapped one finger on

my chest. “You don’t get to dodge it. Tell me.”

My stomach dropped. This was impossible. She

was never going to want me, to want to come back
to  the  club  house  and  be  part  of  the  life.  She  was
never  going  to  want  a  dirty  werewolf  who  was  so
fucking much older than her. I didn’t even have any
fucking manners. She was going to walk away, and
I  was  going  to  be  finished  as  alpha.  Still,  I  made
myself say it. Because she told me to.

“I’m thirty-six,” I said.
Kat looked me up and down, taking in every

inch of me. “Hmm,” she said. She reached out and
lightly  squeezed  my  bicep,  sending  a  jolt  of  lust
straight  down  to  my  cock.  “You’re  pretty  fit  for
thirty-six,  Bane,”  she  said.  “Let’s  go  to  my
apartment.”

Fourteen

Kat

It bothered him, the age difference. Twelve years. It
didn’t bother me. I thought it was hot that Bane
was thirty-six. Then again, I thought everything
about him was hot.

His thoughts were tearing him up, I could tell.

He was still worried about the pack, about his
position as alpha. He needed me for that. Well, I’d
thought about it, and if he wanted my help, he
could have it. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to
go or anything better to do.

We’d just have to negotiate a few things.
Besides, this was Bane. And we hadn’t had sex

in over twelve whole hours. He had no idea, but he
could probably make me do anything.

I brought him to my apartment. He’d been here

before,  when  he  came  to  get  me  my  clothes  and
toiletries. Still, he looked out of place here, his big
body taking up my tiny space. A big, dark, bearded
werewolf  in  my  girly  apartment.  He  shadowed  me
in  silence  as  I  bustled  around,  collecting  more
clothes and things to bring with me back to the club

house, taking out the garbage in the kitchen, pulling
out the clothes that I’d left in the dryer days ago.
He followed me like all of that was the most
interesting thing he’d ever seen.

“What?” I asked him as I zipped up a bag.

“What is it?”

“I don’t smell a man in this place,” Bane said.
“Well, I hope not,” I said. “That would mean

someone broke in. I’ve never had a man here.”

“But you’ve had men,” he said, the words

choking in his throat.

I put my hands on my hips and looked at him.

“I wasn’t a virgin, as you well know. But I’ve never
had a man here.”

“Good,” he said, glancing down at the bed

between us, where I had set the bag I was packing.
“Because I’d have to kill him.”

Honestly. Werewolves and their promises to kill

people.

“That seems fair,” I said. “I’ll just kill every

woman you’ve had. Seems to me I’ll have to kill
half the population of Texas.”

He scowled at me. “That isn’t the same thing.”
“Isn’t it?” I looked him in the eye.
“No,” Bane said, very confident in this. “That

was just fucking. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Right. Throwing women away like used

Kleenex.”

“What?”

“Just an expression. My point is, I’ve had men,

and it’s none of your business. Maybe it was just
fucking, as you say.”

His eyes blazed. We were standing on either

side of the bed, facing each other, and for a second
I thought he’d leap over it and grab me. “Who?” he
said. “Give me a list of names.”

“I don’t think so. Maybe the list would be as

long as your arm. Who knows?”

It wouldn’t be as long as his arm—not nearly. It

would have exactly four names on it, in fact: my
high school boyfriend, the guy I met at the pool the
summer after my boyfriend dumped me, my last
boyfriend Tad, and Bane. But I was trying to make
a point.

Bane leaned forward, put his hands on the bed.

“Damn it, Kat. You’re my mate.”

“So you keep saying. But if it’s true, that also

means you’re my mate. So maybe I should get a list
of names.”

I didn’t want a list of names. I really, really

didn’t. Already I hated the idea of Bane doing with
some other woman the things he did with me. But
he was thirty-six and definitely not a virgin. I just
didn’t want to think about that.

“Names?” Bane said. “I can’t do that even if I

wanted to. I don’t know most of their names.”

“Well, I guess I should count myself lucky that

at least you knew my first name before you fucked

me.”

He was fast. Werewolf-fast. He put a knee on

the bed, leaned across, and one big arm hooked
around my waist. In a split second I was on my
back on the bed and he was braced over me on his
big arms.

“Say that again,” he said.
I blinked up at him. He looked… big, braced

above me like that. “You knew my name before
you fucked me?” I said.

Bane leaned down and brushed his mouth along

the side of my neck, his beard scratching me. “I
knew a lot more than that when I fucked you,” he
growled. “I knew you were my mate. And I knew
you were wet for me. Just like you are now.”

The breath left my throat. I was wet for him—

there was no hiding it, especially from a werewolf.
“Well, you’re very big,” I explained. “And you
have a lot of muscles, and you smell good. And I’ve
seen you naked, and I keep picturing it in my head.
And I’ve had a lot of orgasms in the past few days,
because you have a very nice—”

He stopped me by putting his mouth on mine,

claiming it. He swept his tongue into my mouth as I
moaned. My knees were open, and I didn’t even
remember opening them. It was like they opened
automatically whenever Bane was near.

“Bane,” I said when he broke away, “if we’re

not dating, then what are we doing?”

“I’m going to make you understand,” he said as

he pushed my panties aside and pushed two fingers
into my wet pussy. “I swear to God I’m going to
make you understand.”

I arched my back beneath him. “I can’t—oh—I

can’t introduce you to my mother or my friends.
You’re not—oh, God, Bane—you’re not going to
take me to dinner.”

“I’m never going to take you to dinner,” he

said, pumping his fingers slowly in and out of me,
making a slick sound in my wetness. “I’ve never
taken any woman to dinner, and that includes you.”

“Why—why not?” I panted.
“Because there are better things to do.” He

pulled  his  fingers  out  of  me,  reared  back,  and
unbuckled  his  heavy  belt  as  he  knelt  between  my
spread  legs.  He  unbuttoned  his  jeans  and  yanked
them down just enough to free his big cock, which
was hard and ready. He gave it a stroke.

He leaned forward and cupped the back of my

head with his other hand. Still holding me, he
walked up on his knees until he was straddling me,
his hand on his cock. “Come here, Kat,” he said.
“Put my cock in your pretty mouth.”

My jaw relaxed and my lips fell open, watching

him. I licked my lips as he leaned forward and fed
his cockhead into my mouth, feeding it into me inch
by inch. I moaned around him, tasting him. He
tasted as good as I remembered when I’d gone

down on my knees for him that first night.

“That’s it,” he said, pressing in and out of me,

still holding the back of my head. “Suck me nice
and deep. Rub your sweet pussy while you do it.”

I sucked him, hollowing my cheeks. I ran my

tongue over him as he thrust into my mouth, tracing
his veins, the line of his foreskin as it pushed back
with  every  thrust.  I  sucked  his  cockhead  as  he
pulled  it  out  past  my  lips,  then  sucked  the  rest  of
him  when  he  pushed  it  inside.  I  lowered  my  hand
inside  my  panties  and  stroked  my  bare  pussy,
finding my clit and rubbing it.

“You like that,” he said. I did. I sucked him and

sucked him, my fingers rubbing, and when he
pulled out of my mouth I used my free hand to take
his cock and pump it. I looked up at him and licked
my lips.

Bane’s eyes flared. He changed position as I

opened  my  mouth  wider,  moving  forward.  He
positioned  himself  so  his  balls  were  above  my
mouth,  and  then  he  lowered  himself.  I  sucked  his
balls  into  my  mouth,  big  and  heavy  and  hot,
running my tongue over them.

His head fell back in pleasure when I did that,

his  back  bowing.  “Oh,  good  Christ,”  he  said.  “Oh
fuck,  that’s  so  fucking  good.”  I  kept  my  jaw
relaxed,  using  my  lips  and  my  tongue,  tracing  the
outline  of  his  balls,  tasting  them.  My  hand  kept
between my legs as the pleasure built and built. My

hips  bucked  and  I  sucked  on  him,  using  a  little
pressure  and  then  a  little  more,  not  too  much.  It
drove him crazy—I could feel his thighs tensing, his
big body flexing above me. I’d never done anything
like  this  before.  It  was  dirty  and  filthy,  and  I  had
Bane’s balls deep in my mouth, and I never wanted
to stop because I was going to come. I was going to
come hard.

“Fuck,” he shouted at the ceiling. “You’re

going to make me come, Kat.” I could feel his balls
tightening,  pulling  up.  I  whimpered  and  sucked
them  down,  and  he  made  a  strangled  sound.  Then
he  moved  his  body,  pulling  them  out  of  my  mouth
and looking down at me with his dark eyes.

“You like that, don’t you?” he said hoarsely.

“You’d do that every day, dirty girl.”

I nodded, my hand still working between my

legs.

He slid his cock into my mouth once more, and

I sucked it greedily. Then he moved back down my
body, pulled my hand away, ripped off my panties,
and put his mouth to my clit.

I came, the orgasm ripping over me and through

me, my body thrashing on the bed. Bane held me
down, and then he lifted his head and knelt again,
stroking his cock. “Show me your tits, Kat.”

I pulled the straps of my sundress down and

pushed it to my waist, baring my breasts, arching
my back. Bane stroked his cock hard, almost

punishingly, and then he groaned and came, the
warm liquid coating my breasts, my nipples, my
chest. When he was finished we were both panting
as if we’d run an Olympic race.

I felt filthy and wonderful, but like always with

Bane, I moved my hips restlessly, licking my lips as
I looked at him. I ran my hands under his tee, up his
stomach and his chest, then down again, taking his
cock in my hand. “Can you go again?” I asked him.
“I want you inside me.”

He let out a harsh breath. “You’re going to kill

me.” But his cock was already going hard again in
my hands, stiffening as I pumped it with my fist. He
groaned. “My cock can’t say no to you, Kat.”

“I don’t want it to,” I breathed, and I stroked it,

coaxing it harder and harder. Werewolves, I was
learning, had extra stamina that humans didn’t
have. Bane let me do it, his hips leaning into me, his
cock going hot under my touch. I changed position
on the bed, opening my legs.

“God, look at you,” he said, taking me in.

“You’re still coated in my cum.”

“Fuck me,” I begged him.
“Good God, Kat.” He braced himself on his

arms, positioning himself between my legs. I put my
feet on the hard muscles of his shoulders and he
thrust into me, taking me deep. I cried out.

“So fucking good,” he moaned, and he started a

rhythm, pounding me into the mattress. I took him

as  deep  as  I  could,  feeling  him  hit  that  spot  that
only  Bane  could  hit,  his  cock  pressing  it  over  and
over again. I was slick all the way inside, squeezing
him,  and  he  fucked  me  harder  and  harder,  the  bed
creaking  and  the  headboard  banging  against  the
wall.

This time, when I came, I barely made a sound

except for a gasp. I clenched his cock, my dress
twisted down and ruined, his cum covering my bare
tits, his balls slapping my ass, the taste of his cock
and his balls still in my mouth. I came and came
and came, like it would never stop.

It wasn’t until later that I realized there really

was a reason Bane would never take me to dinner.

There would always be something better to do.

Fifteen

Bane

When we got back to the club house, it was hot as
fuck and nearly dark. I took my time coming back
with  Kat.  We’d  showered  first,  me  washing  her
gently  and  thoroughly,  then  her  washing  me.  Then
she’d  ordered  takeout,  me  taking  in  a  few  bites
while  she  ate  it  ravenously.  Sex,  it  seemed,  made
my  mate  hungry—especially  wicked,  hot,  filthy
sex.

I planned to keep her hungry for a long time.
I didn’t eat much because werewolves don’t

require  much  sustenance.  We  get  most  of  it  when
we  hunt  and  kill,  and  then  we  aren’t  hungry  for  a
while  again.  But  feeding  Kat  was  part  of  my  duty
now, making sure she always had what she wanted.

When she had finished eating, she picked

another outfit from her closet—the dress I’d fucked
her in was pretty much wrecked, sticky with cum—
and got ready. She sat in a chair in front of a mirror
in her little apartment and put makeup on, carefully
outlining her eyes and glossing her lips. Then she
brushed out her blonde hair and tied it up off her

neck. I lay on the bed, dressed in my jeans and T-
shirt, and watched her.

“You don’t need to put makeup on for the

club,” I told her. She looked beautiful without it. Or
with it. I didn’t give a fuck, and neither would my
brothers.

“I want to impress them,” Kat said, tilting her

head in the mirror this way and that.

It was ridiculous. She was fucking gorgeous.

Already my wolf wanted to fuck her again, but the
man was in control and I behaved. I’d wait until
later, when I had her in bed at the club house
tonight. By then she’d be ready for me again.

“Do you think they’ll like me?” she asked as we

drove back to the club house in the truck, Kat
bouncing every time we went over a bump. I’d
have to find a more comfortable ride for her; I was
too used to living rough.

“They’ve already met you,” I said. “You served

them drinks at the strip club.”

“None of them seemed very impressed with me,

though. Especially you.”

I grunted. I’d been trying to keep control that

night, because I was feeling the mating call and I’d
never felt it before. My wolf had nearly jumped out
of my skin. “You’re their alpha’s mate. They’ll like
you.”

I’d said something wrong. Her lips pressed into

a line. Even when she was annoyed she was still

sexy, and I tried not to picture those lips wrapped
around my cock, my balls. “That doesn’t count,”
she said. “I don’t want them to like me just because
they’re supposed to. What if they don’t like me for
me?”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Does anyone not

like you for you?”

She thought this over. “My fifth grade teacher,

maybe? I always thought she hated me. But no
one’s ever said. And everyone I’ve known so far is
human. I’ve never tried to impress a werewolf.”

“You impressed me,” I said.
I thought it was the right thing to say for once,

but Kat frowned. “I gave you a blow job the first
night I met you.”

“That isn’t what impressed me.” Shit, wrong

again. “I mean, it was impressive. It was.”

She still looked uncertain. “Well, I’m not giving

your whole club a blow job. So I guess they’ll just
have to like me.”

When we pulled up to the club house in the

near-dark, I could see the unmistakable shape of a
line  of  bikes  parked  outside,  lined  up  like  soldiers.
It  was  a  sight  that  always  soothed  my  wolf.  This
was  my  pack;  these  were  my  brothers.  Not  by
blood, but by oath. There were so few werewolves
left  in  the  world,  and  we  were  so  hated  and
persecuted,  that  we  had  no  choice  but  to  band
together.  We  had  each  other’s  backs.  We  shed

blood  together,  shared  living  quarters,  pooled  the
money we earned, and—I hadn’t mentioned this to
Kat,  and  I  didn’t  intend  to—we  shared  women.
There  were  always  human  women  who  were
curious  about  werewolf  cock  and  wanted  it
regularly.  Since  none  of  us  had  a  mate,  we  were
happy to give them what they wanted.

I had a mate now. I wouldn’t be fucking random

women  ever  again,  which  was  fine  with  me.  My
crew  would  still  do  it,  because  I  was  the  only  one
who had a mate. Twelve of us in the club, all of us
full-grown werewolves, and I was the only one who
had  a  mate—at  age  thirty-six.  There  was  a  reason
there were so few werewolves left in the world.

There was also a reason we didn’t want a pack

war and hadn’t had one in a generation. The last
war had reduced our numbers. The focus now was
to increase them again.

When Kat and I had children, our sons would

be wolves. We would start the next generation. But
it was too soon to think about that—not for me, but
for her.

But Jesus, she was only twenty-four. We had

time to have lots of kids if she wanted them.

Normally, after coming back from a job, tonight

would  be  party  night  for  the  club.  We’d  been
staying in other club houses around the state for the
past  months  as  we  worked  jobs  and  rode  free,
leaving  this  club  house  empty  to  be  cleaned.

Usually we’d break in a club house we hadn’t been
to in a while.

But I already knew I’d find no partying

happening. Tonight was far too important—the club
meeting  the  alpha’s  official  mate.  Kat  wasn’t  the
only  one  who  would  try  to  make  an  impression
tonight. The club in full party mode was so raunchy
most normal women would run. I had to keep Kat,
which  meant  we  had  to  keep  Kat.  To  scare  her
away would mean the end of the club.

I parked the truck, happy to get out of the cage,

and helped Kat out. She was wearing a pretty knee-
length  burgundy  dress  in  some  fabric  that  swung
from  her  hips.  Short  sleeves  and  heels  with  straps.
Makeup and her hair pulled up. She looked like she
was going on a special date, not being introduced to
a  murderous  gang  of  dirty,  dangerous  half-human
beasts.  I  was  wearing  my  jeans  and  tee—rumpled
from  the  fucking  I’d  given  her  at  her  place—and
motorcycle  boots,  my  hair  and  beard  probably  in
need of a trim. To an everyday human I looked like
a criminal, a thug. Well, if anyone ever tried to hurt
Kat, they’d find out just what kind of thug I could
be.

We stepped through the door to find all of the

club in the main room. Some of them were on the
sofa, watching TV. A few were shooting pool at the
pool table. Others were hanging around the bar,
swigging beer and talking. There was music on, but

it wasn’t blasting, and there were no women. As I’d
predicted, the boys were behaving tonight.

They all turned when we walked in. Someone

turned off the TV, and someone else turned down
the music. The guys on the sofa stood up.

The first one to approach was Tiberius, my

veep.  His  dark  blond  hair  was  brushed  back  from
his  forehead  and  his  T-shirt  was  relatively  clean.
This  was  formal  dress  for  a  Nocturne  brother.  He
was  holding  a  cold  beer,  and  he  smiled  at  Kat
before  he  turned  and  barked  over  his  shoulder:
“Boys!”

“Everyone,” I said loudly, getting it over with,

“this is Kat. My mate.” I touched my hand to the
back of her neck, feeling how tense she was with
nerves, and then I added, “Kat, this is my crew.”

She met them all one by one. Ty first; she gave

him a smile and said, “I remember you.” I made a
mental  note  to  ask  him  later  what  the  hell  that
meant—he  was  the  one  who  had  told  her  to  go
back to the VIP room the first night I met her. What
else had he said? Ty was a good-looking fucker and
probably had the best manners of all of us. He gave
her his handsome smile and kissed the back of her
hand.  If  I  hadn’t  known  him  since  we  were  ten—
and  if  I  didn’t  know  his  personal  mating  situation,
which  was  complicated—I  probably  would  have
ripped his lips off.

The others followed. Ice, my sergeant-at-arms.

Jonny,  our  business  master.  Kriss,  our  oldest
member at forty-two, who shook her small hand in
his  huge,  tattooed  one.  Jackson,  our  youngest
member  at  twenty-two,  with  his  movie-star  looks
and  dark  eyes.  He  looked  smitten,  and  I  didn’t
blame  him:  Kat  was  his  age  and  fucking  gorgeous.
Kat blushed with pleasure when he smiled at her.

They were all smitten with her, but they

wouldn’t  touch  her  or  make  a  move.  All  of  them
could  smell  me.  On  her.  Everywhere.  It  was  clear
by  scent  that  I’d  fucked  her,  that  I’d  touched  her,
that I’d come in her. It was clear that we’d done it
more than once, and only an hour ago. I could smell
it,  and  so  could  the  others.  She  was  clearly  mine,
and  no  werewolf  in  existence  would  touch  a
woman who belonged to another wolf.

So I backed off as my brothers took over, taking

her  over  to  the  bar  and  getting  her  a  seat,  getting
her a drink, getting her something to eat. They were
trying to make her comfortable. Kat’s cheeks were
a  little  flushed  and  her  eyes  sparkled.  She  laughed
at  one  of  Ty’s  jokes,  and  when  Jackson  said
something  she  nodded.  The  TV  went  back  on  and
the  crew  went  back  to  what  they  had  been  doing,
putting her at ease. She sipped her beer and smiled
at something else someone said, and she glanced at
me. I nodded at her and walked to the kitchen.

I needed a fucking beer.

* * *

“She’s beautiful,” Tiberius said quietly in my ear as
I twisted off a beer cap. He had moved over to me,
though he was still watching Kat sitting at the bar,
talking to the others.

I tilted the bottle back and downed half of it in

a few swigs. “I know.”

“Nicely done.”
He meant the fact that I’d claimed her instead

of losing her before the others returned. “It isn’t
entirely finished,” I said. “She still isn’t sure. She
wants to live in her own place.”

Ty ran a hand through his hair and shrugged.

“We’re twelve hairy, dirty, farting werewolves,” he
pointed out. “If I was her I wouldn’t want to live
with us either.”

I ground my teeth. He was right, but it put me in

a  difficult  position.  Having  my  mate  stay
somewhere else at night would make my wolf howl
in misery. If I stayed at Kat’s place, I left my club
vulnerable  to  attack  by  being  away  from  them.
“This  mate  thing  is  fucking  complicated,”  I
grumbled.

“I agree. Though the boys are happy,” Ty said.

He reached past me, opened the fridge, and got his
own beer. “She’s the most quality piece of ass

we’ve ever seen in here. Me included. I knew it the
second I saw her at the Silver Star.”

“She served you a drink,” I gritted out.
“In that tiny top and that tiny skirt,” he said.

“That  body.  Her  tits  alone  are  like  a  wet  dream.
Add in that mouth, and Jesus. And to top it all off,
she  has  an  innocent  sweetness  about  her.  She’s
really  something.  Jackson  is  practically  coming  in
his jeans.”

“The last I heard, you weren’t available,” I

said. “Or did that change?”

Ty knew who his mate was. The problem was,

she  hated  his  guts,  and  if  he  ever  went  near  her,
he’d  get  killed,  the  club  annihilated.  It  was
complicated.  Talking  about  his  fucked-up  situation
usually  pissed  Ty  off,  but  this  time  he  only
shrugged. “There’s no rule against looking.”

I grabbed another beer and drank half of it. It

took a lot of liquor to make a werewolf drunk, and I
had  a  long  way  to  go.  Ty  was  pushing  me  for  a
reason. He was trying to keep my head on straight.
Also,  he  was  better  with  women  than  me.  Hell,  a
moss-covered  rock  was  better  with  women  than
me. “Fuck off,” I said.

“Does she know about the Claiming?” he

asked.

I downed the other half of my beer. “She’ll

run,” I said, my voice short. “I guarantee it.”

He looked thoughtful. “And yet you can’t not

tell her. Not forever.”

Yes, forever. I wanted to forget about the

Claiming forever. Just have Kat and the sweet way
she looked at me, the sweet way she took me. Just
that. But nothing was ever that simple. Which, of
course, Ty was pointing out. “It’s only been a few
days,” I said. “It’s a lot for her to take in. I’m lucky
she’s even giving me the time of day at this point.”

“Don’t be so sure. She seems to like you.”
“Fuck if I know why.”
“It’s your charm, maybe.”
I grabbed yet another beer. I’d told Kat tonight

that I’d never take her out to dinner. Then I’d
straddled her and put my balls in her mouth. And
then I’d come all over her tits.

Yeah, I was charming.
But fuck, that was the hottest thing I’d ever

done.

All those club whores over the years, and

nothing I’d done had turned me on the way Kat did.
Already  I  wanted  her  again.  She  was  laughing  at
something  Jonny  said,  and  I  wanted  to  kick  his
bearded,  tattooed  ass  and  haul  her  off  to  the
bedroom.  Find  something  else  dirty  to  do  to  her.
Find lots of things.

And she was dirtier than she looked, my Kat.

She’d  swallowed  my  cock  that  first  night  by  the
side  of  the  road,  and  she’d  rubbed  my  ass,  and
she’d  almost  come  she’d  liked  it  so  much.  I  knew

without asking her that she wasn’t like that with
any other man. (I still wanted that fucking list.) She
was only like that with me. It wasn’t much of an
achievement on my part, but it was something.

“Okay, we’ll start small,” Ty said as he sipped

his beer. “We’ll start with a party tomorrow night.”

He meant a club party—a real one, not the

subdued one we were having right now. A party
where the boys drank how they wanted and invited
the women to come.

“She won’t like it,” I said.
“Prepare her,” Ty advised. “This is the life. She

has to learn about it sooner or later. Once she’s
used to what it’s like here, we can ease her into the
idea of the Claiming. But we can’t leave it too long.
It’s going well so far, but until she’s initiated the
Nocturne has a weakness.”

“I fucking know,” I grumbled. I was taking it

out on him, but Ty was used to it. He’d been my
veep for a long time. “You got Martinez’s money?”
I asked him, changing the subject. Martinez was the
man the crew was supposed to collect from in
Houston.

“In the safe,” Ty said.
“And Franco? What happened?” This was the

contact we were supposed to meet in Houston for a
potential job. The brothers had gone to the meeting
without me.

“Franco wants to hire us,” Ty said. “He has a

shipment of coke coming in from a Colombian
cartel, and he needs security at the docks. Full
force. The fee is a hundred thousand.”

I nodded. It was good money for a night’s work

—we’d earn it because we’d all be risking our lives.
“When?”

“Three weeks.” Ty put down his beer. “He was

thinking of talking to the Dark Fang.”

So Franco hadn’t decided which club to hire,

then. If he heard that the Nocturne had a weakness
because of Kat, we’d lose the job.

We had so much to fucking lose if I lost Kat.
And she had so much to learn that would make

her potentially walk away.

Still, Ty was right. We’d start with something.

Then we’d work up to something else.

And the first something was a party.
“Okay,” I said to him. “The party is tomorrow

night. I’ll prepare her.”

Sixteen

Kat

I drifted  out  of  sleep  and  into  wakefulness  when  I
heard  the  bedroom  door  close  softly.  Bane’s
familiar shadow entered the dark room, bringing in
the smell of leather and sweat. I rolled over in bed
and  watched  him  take  off  his  cut,  then  sit  on  the
edge of the bed to unlace his boots.

“It’s late,” I whispered. The clock on my phone

said it was four o’clock in the morning.

“I was running,” Bane said. “Hunting.”
He had told me he was going. I caught a whiff

of pine needles and dirt as he kicked off his boots
and unbuckled his belt.

I lay in the dark and watched him. I liked

watching  Bane  take  his  clothes  off.  Every  inch  of
him  was  gorgeous,  even  the  dip  of  his  lower  back
and  the  dusting  of  dark  hair  on  his  thighs.  There
was no sound from outside the door or anywhere in
the club house. The brothers had all gone to bed—
or were still out running.

Bane pulled off his shirt, showing me an

expanse of muscled back. I’d never been with a

man even half his size. My last boyfriend had liked
to  go  to  the  gym,  which  was  laughable  next  to
Bane’s  powerful  body.  He’d  also  liked  to  pretend
he  was  witty  on  internet  forums,  something  I
couldn’t imagine Bane even comprehending, much
less doing.

He turned around to get into bed with me, and

there was his cock, huge and half-hard. If I liked all
of  Bane’s  body,  I  really,  really  loved  his  cock.  I
loved  its  shape  and  its  size  and  the  thick  veins
beneath  the  skin.  I  loved  its  cloaked,  almost
threatening  head.  I  loved  the  root,  where  the
sensitive  skin  connected  with  his  balls.  I  loved  his
balls,  too,  the  weight  and  heft  of  them.  I  stared  at
them without shame as he lifted the covers and got
in.

“You like what you see?” he growled.
“Yes,” I said honestly, too sleepy to come up

with something clever.

“Mm.” Another growl. He pulled me to him,

propping himself on one elbow and looking down at
me.  I  could  feel  the  wall  of  muscles  that  was  his
body  against  mine,  could  feel  his  wonderful  cock
resting against my thigh, but he didn’t make a move
to fuck me. Just looked into my face, taking me in
with  those  dark  eyes  as  his  hair  fell  over  his
forehead.

I looked back up at him, enjoying the sight of

his cheekbones and the line of his mouth. To think

that when I’d first met him I thought him surly and
mean. I’d had a hard time getting him to kiss me
that first night. I didn’t have such a hard time
getting him to kiss me now.

“Your crew seems nice,” I said.
That made him look darkly amused. “They are

not nice,” he said. “They like you, and you’re mine,
so they’ll always be nice to you. But they are not
nice.”

“Okay, well, no one hunted me and ate me for a

snack, so I’ll call it a win.”

“We never eat humans,” Bane said, as if I’d

asked him a serious question. “Never.”

“That’s good, I guess?” I said, blinking up at

him.

“I just thought you should know.”
I put my hand on his chest, feeling the light

layer of springy hair under my palm, his warm skin
beneath. Bane inhaled a breath and let it out more
slowly. I was reminded again that he was soothed
when I touched him.

“Tell me what the club does,” I said. “For

money. I know you’re not all living on rabbits.”

He frowned a little, but he decided to tell me.

“We take jobs. Protection. Transport.”

“Transport of illegal things,” I specified.
“Guns. Other weapons. Drugs. There’s a gang

that does back-door pharmaceuticals that uses us
every month to transport Oxy, fentanyl, whatever

else can be sold on the street for money.”

I kept my hand on his chest. “Do you hurt

people? Kill them?”

He looked grim. “We’ve delivered a few

beatings, yes. Messages. We haven’t done a paid hit
while I’m alpha, though we’ve done it in the history
of the club.”

“What about… women?” I bit my lip.
“Whores? No, we don’t trade in whores. We

have a controlling interest in a studio an hour
outside Dallas that makes movies for the internet.”

My eyes went wide. “Porn.”
“Yeah,” Bane said. “We make sure to keep the

operation clean. The girls are there by choice, none
of them are on drugs, and we pay them all right.
The guys, too. Even now it’s good money.”

I had to repeat this, for myself. “You run a porn

studio,” I said.

Bane frowned at me. “Not me personally. The

club. We have a financial interest. We don’t make
the movies ourselves.”

“Uh huh. But you’ve been to the studio.”
“Of course I’ve been to the studio. We have to

see how it’s running.”

I ran my hand down his chest. “Are the girls

pretty?”

Now he finally caught my meaning. He ran his

thumb along my lip, letting the pad of it drag
through my mouth, and then he bent down and

kissed  me,  pushing  my  mouth  open,  his  tongue
stroking  me,  his  beard  brushing  my  skin.  Then  he
pulled  away.  “They  aren’t  as  pretty  as  you,”  he
said.

They were simple words, but I felt a little thrill.

“But the other things you do are dangerous,” I said.

“Sometimes. Cops don’t like us, and no town

wants  us  to  settle  in.  That’s  why  the  club  house  is
on  a  property  in  the  middle  of  nowhere,  why  we
move  around  a  lot  between  club  houses.  We  have
other  properties  in  the  state,  but  none  of  them  are
in a town.”

I could see that. I had met the brothers, and I

wasn’t  stupid.  The  club  was  terrifying;  I’d  been
scared  out  of  my  wits  myself  when  they  first
walked  in  the  Silver  Star.  “Am  I  a  distraction  for
you?” I asked him.

“Kat,” he said.
“It’s important for me to know. I saw you

talking to Tiberius earlier, and you looked like—”

“Never mind Tiberius,” Bane said. “Pay no

attention to him at all.”

I punched his pec lightly, though it was like

punching brick. “I thought you wanted your crew
to be nice to me.”

“There’s nice and then there’s nice,” Bane said.
I smiled up at him. “Now who’s jealous? You

don’t have to worry, Bane. I know whose mate I
am, and your crew does too. Even I know that.” I

reached down between us and took his cock in my
hand, stroking it. “This keeps me very happy,” I
said.

His eyes were black in the darkness. I felt his

body go tense and relaxed at the same time, the
way it always did when I touched his cock. “Does
it?”

“Yes. This, and these.” I moved my hand down

to his balls and stroked them too. “And this.” I
raised my other hand and traced his mouth. I really
like this.”

“That’s all you like?” Bane asked.
What did that mean? Was he asking if I liked

him? I did, I really did. I liked him more every time
I was with him. But this was mating—he’d said so
himself,  many  times.  His  wolf  had  chosen  me  for
some kind of biological reason, that was all. It had
chosen me without seeing me or even knowing my
name. Mating wasn’t about romance or even about
liking.  Mating  was  about  Bane  satisfying  his  wolf,
which in turn made him a better leader. It was also
about  him  pleasing  me,  which  I  was  happy  to  let
him do.

But that was all it was. He’d made that clear.

Mating was mating, that was all.

“I’d rather know what you like,” I said, moving

beneath him and spreading my legs, arching my
back. I was naked, of course. Bane gave a low
moan. “Maybe there’s something you see.”

He looked down between us to where I’d

spread  my  legs,  my  pussy  showing  pink  and  wet
between my waxed lips. “Jesus, Kat,” he said, and
he  moved  down  my  body  quickly  for  such  a  big
man,  pressing  his  mouth  between  my  legs  without
further invitation.

I moaned and arched into him, rubbing on him,

getting friction from his beard. He tongued my clit,
not bothering to be gentle, and then he moved
down and slid his tongue into my cunt, licking and
tasting while his big, hard fingers rubbed my clit.

“Oh, fuck, Bane,” I panted. I wondered briefly

if any of the other members could hear me through
the bedroom walls. Maybe they could, but I
couldn’t help the sounds I made. Bane tongued my
cunt again, gently pinching my clit with his fingers,
and I gasped.

“Can they hear me?” I whispered, trying to

keep my voice down.

Bane lifted his mouth from my cunt long

enough to say, “Of course they can. They have
werewolf hearing.”

“Oh!”

How

embarrassing.

“Maybe

should—”

“Let them,” Bane growled. “Let them hear you.

Let them hear how your alpha pleasures you. How
he fucks you, how he makes you come. Let them
hear how their alpha’s mate begs for him.”

He bent his head again, and I gasped as his

tongue  swiped  me.  This  time  his  fingers  moved
back,  playing  with  my  cunt  and  my  ass  as  his
tongue licked my clit, and I arched my back off the
bed. “Oh, fuck, Bane, fuck,” I moaned, and he was
right.  Let  all  of  them  hear.  Let  all  of  them  wish  it
was  them  in  this  bed  instead  of  Bane.  Let  all  of
them hear what he did to me.

He bent to work fiercely, his beard fully in my

open,  glistening  pussy,  his  tongue  working  my  clit,
his  fingers  pumping  into  my  cunt,  then  back  into
my  ass—one  big  finger,  then  two.  It  ached  and  it
pushed  me  open,  and  I  pressed  into  it,  wanting
more.

He slid his tongue down to my hole again as his

fingers worked my ass. “This cunt,” he said, his
voice low. “This fucking cunt. It makes me insane. I
would kill men for this cunt.”

“Don’t kill anyone,” I panted. “Just fuck me

and make me come.”

“You want my cock, sweet girl?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“Here?” He pumped my ass again, vigorous, not

being gentle, making it sting.

“Yes,” I said, because I would do anything he

said. Anything.

“Not tonight,” he said, rolling me over onto my

stomach. “But tonight I’m going to prepare you.”
He slid his fingers into my ass again, rubbing,
pressing me open. “You’re going to be ready when

I put my cock in you. Your ass is going to be so
ready for me.”

I moaned as he stroked me and stroked me. I’d

never had a man in my ass before, never thought
about it. “Yes, Bane.”

He lifted my hips and pressed his cock into my

pussy,  keeping  his  fingers  in  me  at  the  same  time.
Both  his  cock  and  his  fingers  were  spreading  me,
splitting  me,  pushing  me  open  for  him.  “Fuck,  so
good,”  he  said.  “This  hot  little  cunt  on  me.  Taking
my  cock  so  tight  and  slow.  And  your  sweet,  tight,
virgin ass taking my dirty fingers. Take all of it, Kat.
Take it.”

I moaned into the pillow and took it. It took him

a minute to get his cock all the way into me, seated
deep,  his  balls  brushing  my  clit.  He  kept  my  legs
spread  and  my  body  angled  forward,  my  head  in
the pillows, so he had full access to my ass. “God,
you  are  so  fucking  ready  for  me,”  he  said,  and  he
started  to  pump  me,  to  fuck  me,  at  the  same  time
sliding a third finger into my ass.

I cried out into the pillows. It hurt, but Bane

didn’t  stop.  He  pounded  me  harder,  pushed  his
fingers into me further. I panted and moaned as he
took  me  both  places,  making  them  both  hurt,
making  tears  run  down  my  face  as  I  cried  out  his
name. I came so hard I bit the pillow, stuffed it into
my  mouth,  feeling  the  pleasure  and  the  pain  spiral
together,  my  cunt  contracting  over  his  huge  cock,

my ass contracting over his huge fingers, all of me
throbbing  and  trying  to  take  him  in  deeper  while  I
came  and  came.  Bane  angled  me  wide  open  and
thrust  his  cock  deep  into  me,  releasing  his  cum,
pulsing hot liquid deep inside me as his fingers still
massaged my ass.

“That’s going to be my cock,” he said. He was

out of breath. He slid his fingers out of me. “I’m
going to come in your ass, Kat. I’m going to be
your first.”

“Yes, Bane,” I said, melting into the bed as his

cock slid out of me.

Everyone had definitely heard that. No

question. And the idea not only didn’t bother me, it
made me feel good. Because Bane was right—the
pack alpha was pleasuring his mate. Everyone may
as well know. Maybe some of them had jerked off
to the sound of me coming. I liked that, too.

I was the alpha’s mate. They could jerk off to

me.

But that was all they could do.

Seventeen

Bane

The club had work to do the next day. The local
cops were planning to shut down a meth lab, and
they needed some backup.

Yes, the local cops. The cops in these parts

weren’t  picky  about  hiring  werewolf  muscle  when
they  needed  it.  It  didn’t  change  the  fact  that  at
other times we broke the law—and did our best to
avoid  them.  If  the  cops  offered  us  money  to  risk
our necks, we were happy to take it.

Besides, meth labs were bad for business. They

brought  in  too  much  suspicion,  too  many  feds  and
cops  of  all  levels.  Not  to  mention  the  actual  meth
heads  that  hung  around,  robbing  people  for  drug
money. If you wanted to cook meth, you could do it
somewhere  hundreds  of  miles  from  Nocturne
territory,  so  we  wouldn’t  have  to  deal  with  the
aftermath.

I left Kat at the club house—though I left her

the keys to the truck, because I was learning—and
the brothers rode out. For the entire hour-and-a-
half ride I pictured Kat in my head, the sexy jeans

she’d had on this morning, the way they cupped her
ass. The flowy white shirt she’d topped it with. Her
blonde  hair,  clean  and  gleaming  around  her
shoulders.  She  looked  sweet  and  hot,  and  her
cheeks  had  gone  a  little  pink  when  she  looked  at
me, because I knew she was remembering how I’d
had  three  fingers  inside  her  ass  last  night,  getting
her ready. Because her ass was going to be mine.

When we got to the cops’ meetup place, we got

down  to  business.  Some  guys  from  the  DEA  were
there,  plus  some  staties  and  other  cops  I  didn’t
really want to get to know. The club’s job was exit
patrol:  that  is,  once  the  cops  busted  the  lab,  we
catch anyone running out in any direction. This was
perfect  werewolf  business  because  of  our  sense  of
smell  and  hearing.  A  werewolf  can  track  someone
on  foot  for  miles—hundreds  of  miles,  if  need  be.
Once  you’re  on  the  run,  there’s  no  hiding  from  us
no matter where you go.

The lab was in the middle of nowhere,

surrounded  by  scrub  and  a  mile  of  trees,  so  we
would  have  to  cover  a  lot  of  ground.  We  split  up,
some of the wolves going left and some going right,
heading  into  the  trees,  pulling  their  shirts  off  over
their  head  as  they  got  ready  to  change  into  their
animals.  The  Nocturne  didn’t  exactly  pull  jobs  in
the  orthodox  way.  My  crew  would  change  into
wolves  to  patrol  the  perimeter,  using  their  speed,
enhanced  hearing,  and  enhanced  sense  of  smell  to

track any escapees.

“No killing,” I reminded them.
The cops gave us wary looks.
“What?” I said to them. “You guys are the ones

with guns.”

It was true. Though the club owned plenty of

firepower and we knew how to use it, we hadn’t
brought any with us today. A wolf isn’t exactly
capable of shooting. He has other weapons.

I stayed in human form, because I was the

alpha.  I  was  the  leader  that  the  cops  needed  to  be
able  to  see,  be  able  to  talk  to.  I  was  the  one  who
would  reassure  them  that  my  crew  was  following
directions.  If  I  changed  into  my  wolf,  the  cops
would feel like the situation was out of control, and
that would be bad for everyone.

So I sat in the back of a police van and watched

as the show went down.

It went like clockwork at first. The guys in the

lab  had  no  idea  what  was  coming,  and  when  the
cops broke in they were caught by surprise. A few
of  them  were  nailed  right  away,  the  cops  bringing
them  out  in  handcuffs.  A  few  others  bolted  out  a
back  door  and  into  the  woods  for  my  brothers  to
take care of. Then it was quiet and it looked like it
was done.

But at the last minute the cops found a trap

door, and a guy came out shooting. One of the cops
took a hit to his bulletproof vest—it knocked him to

the  floor  with  broken  ribs.  Then  the  guy  took  off,
and  when  Ice,  my  sergeant-at-arms—in  wolf  form
—bolted in to head him off, the guy took a shot and
got  lucky.  He  hit  Ice  in  the  shoulder  and  Ice  went
down, his wolf giving a strangled howl.

I flinched and felt a companion pain in my own

shoulder.  The  wound  wouldn’t  kill  Ice—
werewolves  were  very,  very  hard  to  kill.  But  it
would  hurt  like  a  motherfucker,  and  it  would  slow
Ice down for a few days. Something he’d hate. Plus
it would have to go into the cops’ final report of the
takedown.  The  bullet  was  a  headache  no  one
wanted, least of all Ice.

Another wolf shot out of the trees—Jackson—

and took the man down while the cops sprinted out
to make an arrest. I watched with concern, but I
had no reason to. Jackson remembered the rules.
He didn’t kill the guy. He didn’t even maim him.

With the secret compartment emptied, the

operation  really  was  over.  A  complete  success.  I
whistled and gave a signal, and a few minutes later
my brothers emerged from the trees in human form
again,  pulling  on  their  shirts  and  tying  their  boots.
We  headed  back  to  our  bikes.  The  paramedics
offered  to  take  Ice,  but  he  waved  them  off.  They
didn’t  insist.  The  paramedics,  like  everyone  else,
were fucking terrified of us.

“Okay,” I said to the leader, getting up and

heading for my own bike. “Our job is done. We’ll

leave you to it.”

The cop squinted at me but didn’t get any

closer. “Are you sure your guy doesn’t need
stitches or something?”

“He’ll be fine. Just take care of payment.”
“It’ll be ready next week.”
Cash. We always took cash. Where the cops got

it, I never asked—probably from the meth cooks.
Not my problem.

Someone tore a strip off his shirt and tied it

around Ice’s shoulder. He put his cut on over it and
we started our ride.

A good, successful, profitable day. Now it was

time to party.

* * *

It  was  dark  by  the  time  we  got  back  to  the  club
house.  The  boys  got  busy  on  their  phones,
messaging  the  club  girls  that  a  party  was  on.  Kriss
took one of the SUV’s for a booze and supply run.
Ice  washed  his  shoulder  and  re-bandaged  it.  Kat
was gone, along with the truck, so I took a shower
and then I texted her. Where are you?

Her reply was immediate. I was getting my hair

done. Also put in applications for a few jobs. She

added a smiley face. No one on my phone ever
used a smiley face. Ever.

Getting her hair done? Her hair was already

fucking gorgeous. Applying for jobs? What jobs?
She didn’t need to worry about money. I would
take care of that.

But I couldn’t say any of that over text, so

instead I wrote, Come to the club house. We are
throwing a big party tonight.

There was a pause. A werewolf biker party?
Did she think someone else would be attending?

Yes, I wrote.

Another pause. It sounds hardcore. Will I be

safe?

It was a fair question. We weren’t exactly tame.

I promise, I wrote.

Okay, Kat wrote. On my way.
It did something to me, seeing those words. I

didn’t  want  to  think  about  it  too  much.  I  wanted
Kat—I  wanted  to  smell  her,  hear  her  voice.  I
wanted  to  see  her  face.  I  wanted  to  listen  to
whatever she felt like talking about. Before Kat, at
this  point  I  would  be  headed  to  the  party  to  get
some  random  pussy  from  the  girls  who  would
inevitably show up. Tonight I wasn’t interested.

I dressed and walked out to the main room,

where the lights were dimmed and the music was
thumping. The TV was on mute. A few people were
at the pool table, and a few others were on the

sofas.  Some  of  the  first  girls  had  showed  up,  and
there  was  at  least  one  couple  making  out.  I  knew
my  brothers—they  were  in  a  mood  tonight.  The
more  women  who  came,  the  better.  Not  a  single
one  of  them  would  go  unfulfilled  after  the  day  we
had.

Kriss had returned with the supplies, and we

were stocked to the rafters with booze. Werewolves
are hard drinkers—we go all in, just like we do with
everything else, and we don’t get hangovers. Most
of the brothers were into the hard stuff already,
pouring shots.

I took a beer and talked with Tiberius, who as

usual  wasn’t  participating  as  hard  as  the  rest.  Due
to  his  mating  situation,  Ty  never  fucked  the  club
women.  Technically,  he  could  have:  he  was  pretty,
and the women came on to him nonstop. He could
have all the pussy he wanted. The problem was that
he didn’t want it. Ty couldn’t fuck random women
any  more  than  I  could  now  that  I  had  Kat.  But  he
couldn’t fuck his mate either.

It had been three years. I had no idea how my

veep was even sane.

We discussed today’s raid, the money, other

potential  jobs.  We  talked  about  rumors  Ty  had
heard about the other werewolf clubs—we all kept
tabs  on  each  other  like  nervous  neighbors.  But  at
the  moment  the  other  clubs  were  quiet  and  we
weren’t at war. No one was disturbing the peace.

The party got rowdier around us, the music

louder. More girls showed up, then more again. The
brothers were happy to see them. The room started
to  smell  of  sex—the  sex  that  was  going  to  happen
and  the  sex  that  was  already  happening.
Werewolves,  as  Kat  had  found  out,  have  a  lot  of
stamina.

Kat. Where was she?
There was a cheer from the main room, and one

of the club girls got up on a table, doing a dance
move. She lifted her top off, showing her bare tits.
The boys cheered again.

That was when the door opened and my mate

walked in.

Eighteen

Kat

I expected a werewolf biker party to be rowdy. But
what the hell was this?

The lights in the club house were dimmed, lit

mostly by the flash of the muted TV screen. Music
pulsed through the speakers. There were people
everywhere and the strong smell of smoke—maybe
cigarettes, maybe pot, maybe the whole house
burning down. It was hard to tell.

I blinked to adjust my eyes in the darkness, and

the  first  thing  I  saw  was  tits.  A  strange  woman’s
tits,  bare  and  jiggling  as  she  stood  on  one  of  the
tables,  dancing  and  laughing  as  the  guys  cheered
her on.

Tits didn’t shock me; I’d worked in a strip club.

But when I moved my gaze away from them I saw
Ice  on  one  of  the  sofas,  bare-chested  with  a
bandage wrapped around one shoulder. There was a
blonde  kneeling  between  his  legs,  her  head  bowed
over  the  open  fly  of  his  jeans,  blowing  him  as  he
watched and sipped his beer.

I blinked, startled. I stepped into the house,

trying to peel my gaze off of them. The girl on the
table  did  something—took  the  rest  of  her  clothes
off,  I  assumed—and  the  boys  cheered.  Casually,
Ice reached out and put a hand on the back of the
blonde’s  head,  pushing  her  further  down  on  his
cock.

Jesus. I managed to stop staring and look

around.  There  were  other  couples  in  the  shadows,
doing  God  knew  what.  There  were  shots  lined  up
on  the  bar,  dozens  of  them,  the  guys  helping
themselves and knocking them back as they walked
by. There was another cheer, and I turned and saw
that  the  girl  on  the  table,  fully  naked  now,  was
bending over. She beckoned to Jackson, who stood
up, stepped behind her, spread her ass cheeks, and
gave  her  a  long,  slow  lick  from  her  pussy  all  the
way up.

I had never thought I was an innocent, but—it

was right there. These were the men who had been
friendly, if a little rough, the first time I’d met them.
Courteous, in their way. And the women I didn’t
know at all. Jackson had told me jokes last night,
offered me drinks. Tonight he was licking ass right
in front of me.

I shifted my gaze, and there was Bane. Standing

across the room in the shadows, beer in hand.
Watching me.

Was this what his parties were usually like?

Were these the kinds of things he usually did before

I came along?

Were they the kinds of things he was still going

to do, even though he had me?

He had warned me that there would be a party

tonight. Was he warning me about what he was
going to be doing?

Jackson gave the girl another lick, then stepped

back  to  let  another  brother  step  in.  I  ducked  back
into  the  shadows  and  hurried  toward  the  bedroom
I’d  claimed  with  Bane.  Already  behind  one  of  the
other  doors  I  heard  a  headboard  banging  and  a
woman  crying  in  orgasmic  pleasure,  a  man
grunting.  Then  another  man’s  voice:  “Hurry  the
fuck up, I want my turn.”

I slipped into the bedroom and closed the door,

thinking about what Bane and I had done last night.
It had seemed hot and decadent then, but now I
wasn’t so sure. Maybe the club brothers thought I
was just like another of their club whores.

I didn’t blame the women, who were just here

to have a good time. No one was forcing them into
anything. But that didn’t mean I wanted to be one
of them.

I tossed my purse aside and pulled off my jeans

and  top,  changing  into  a  pair  of  slim  black  pants
and  a  sleeveless  black  shirt.  I  added  silver  hoop
earrings  and  twisted  my  hair  up  in  a  loose  bun,
letting tendrils fall down against my neck. Bane had
said this was a party, and I was the alpha’s mate. I

wasn’t going to turn tail and run at the sight of a
little ass-licking. I could at least have a drink.

There was a knock on the bedroom door.

“Kat,” Bane’s voice said.

“I’m coming out,” I said, but he ignored me and

came  into  the  room  anyway.  He  was  wearing  his
usual worn jeans and tee, his black leather cut over
it.  He  looked  clean  and  showered  and  sexy.  He
crossed  his  arms  over  his  chest,  which  did  fun
things to his biceps.

“You okay?” he said.
“Sure,” I said, glancing at him as I secured my

hair in a clip. “I’m fine.”

“Our parties are a little wild.”
“I see that. Go out and have fun.”
He scowled at me. “What?”
“Have fun,” I repeated. “That’s the point of a

party, right?” As if to punctuate what I was saying,
there was a delighted shriek in the hallway outside
the door and a man’s low growl said, “Come here
baby. Suck my dick.”

Then both voices went quiet, and I sighed. “Are

they doing that right outside? It’s awkward. Should
I wait until they’re done, or what?”

“Kat,” Bane said.
“I worked at the Silver Dollar,” I said. “I get it,

Bane. I’m not a little girl.”

“This is the life,” he said. “This is what it’s

like.”

“Right. So go enjoy it, right?” He didn’t move,

so I walked toward the door. “Fine, I will.”

His hand landed on my arm, stopping me. I

looked in his face to find him scowling at me, as if
I’d done something wrong. “We’re not nice men,”
he said. “I warned you.”

“I know.” I pulled my arm away, and he let it go

from his big hand. “I’m going to have a drink.”

I pulled open the door and immediately put a

hand to the side of my eyes, shading me from what
was  going  on  in  the  hallway.  One  of  the  brothers
was  definitely  getting  his  dick  sucked,  and  by  the
sound  of  it  it  was  extremely  enthusiastic.  Since  I
didn’t  want  to  stick  around  and  hear  the  finish,  I
quickly walked back to the main room.

It wasn’t much better here. The girl on the table

had  gotten  off  and  was  now  bent  over  one  of  the
sofas,  with  one  brother  taking  her  and  two  more
waiting  in  line.  Ice  had  finished  his  blow  job  from
the  blonde  and  had  moved  on  to  a  brunette,  who
was  stroking  him  with  one  hand  while  licking  the
head  of  his  cock.  I  quickly  moved  to  the  kitchen,
picking up one of the shots as I passed the counter
and  downing  it  as  fast  as  I  could,  trying  not  to
cough and gag too much.

I walked to the fridge to get a beer and Tiberius

was there, standing at my shoulder. “He didn’t
warn you,” he said softly so only I could hear. “I
can tell by your face.”

I gave him a smile, the best one I could muster.

He wasn’t wearing his cut, and I could see patterns
of ink on his arms below the sleeves of his tee. He
was  smaller  than  Bane  but  he  had  a  cut  body,  a
hard  chest  and  a  flat  stomach,  his  biceps  quietly
bulging  beneath  the  fabric.  “It’s  fine,”  I  said,
focusing on his handsome face, his green eyes. “It’s
totally fine.”

His expression said he didn’t believe me, but he

didn’t  call  me  out.  “This  is  just  the  first  part,”  he
said.  “The  boys  like  coke  when  they  party.  It’ll
come  out  soon.  Then  things  sometimes  get  out  of
hand.”

And you? I wondered. What do you do? Do you

get out of hand? But my stomach hurt, and I didn’t
want to know the answer. I didn’t want to know if
Tiberius was going to snort coke and get a blow job
in the middle of the room. I didn’t want to know if
Bane was going to, either.

“He knows you’re upset,” Ty said, reading my

mind. “He doesn’t know what to do about it. So
he’s going to settle for glaring at you from across
the room.”

I turned to see that Bane was, in fact, doing just

that. He was standing by the wall, half in shadows,
his arms crossed over his chest, ignoring the wild
partying that was going on around him. His gaze
was fixed on me, and he didn’t look happy.

“He should just enjoy himself,” I said to Ty,

turning away from Bane and opening my beer.

“He doesn’t know how to anymore. Not with

you here.”

I shrugged, taking a drink. Anymore meant that

Bane knew how to enjoy himself before I came
along. “I’m sorry I’m a drag,” I said. “I didn’t ask
to be.”

“He really doesn’t know how to do this,”

Tiberius said. “Like, not at all.”

“How to have a mate?”
“Yes. The things that don’t involve the physical

part. He has no experience with it. With how to
actually be with a woman out of bed.”

I looked at him, because looking at him was

much easier than looking at what was going on
around me. “What about you? I guess you don’t
have a mate, either.”

He laughed softly, the sound bitter for some

reason. “I’m the last person to be giving out advice
for  dealing  with  mates,  it’s  true.  My  situation  is
very fucked up. But I learn faster than Bane does.”
He shrugged. He really was gorgeous, in a different
way  than  Bane  was.  I  had  no  idea  why  he  wasn’t
out  in  the  middle  of  the  party,  getting  laid  like  the
others.  “Frankly,  I’m  in  no  hurry,”  he  said.  “From
what I can tell, a mate turns your life upside down.
And that’s before the babies come.”

I was lifting my beer to my lips, but I froze.

“Babies?”

Ty nodded. “That’s the point of mating, isn’t it?

It’s  the  same  throughout  the  animal  world.
Reproduction.  Continuation  of  the  line.  There
aren’t  that  many  werewolves  left,  which  makes
having  babies  important.  Very  important.”  He  saw
my  expression.  “Don’t  worry,  there’s  no  rush.
You’re young and healthy. There’s plenty of time.”

I lowered my beer, my stomach suddenly sour

over the alcohol I had drunk. Babies. Of course. It
made sense, but I hadn’t thought about it as a
serious thing. Yet Ty was right: mating, for
werewolves, was about babies.

Bane’s babies. With me.
Oh, God. This was a problem.
I swallowed, my throat dry. “Do I have a

choice?” I asked Ty. “About the babies?”

He frowned, and then his gaze moved past my

shoulder. “Uh oh,” he said. “I think this might be
bad.”

I turned to see one of the club girls approaching

me, a fake smile on her face. She wore tight jeans, a
low-cut  top,  lots  of  expert  makeup,  and  lip  gloss.
Her  brown  hair  was  long  and  highlighted.  She
wasn’t  the  girl  currently  servicing  the  lineup  of
brothers,  and  she  wasn’t  one  of  the  girls  I’d  seen
with her head in Ice’s lap. She was tall and willowy
and  pretty,  and  she  took  my  arm  as  if  we  already
knew each other.

“So you’re Bane’s mate!” she said with cheer

that I didn’t believe for a second. “You want a
cigarette?”

“No,” I managed.
“Daphne,” Tiberius said, his tone a warning.
Daphne turned to him, looked him up and

down, and licked her lip. “I’ll deal with you later,
hot stuff,” she said with the kind of confidence I’d
seen in the strippers at the Silver Star. “Girlie and I
are gonna have a gossip.”

I leaned away from her. “I don’t—”
“Honey,” she broke in without letting me finish,

“you look green. Let me help you. Okay?”

And with that she took my arm again and led

me out a side door into the darkness.

Nineteen

Kat

“You  should  thank  me,”  Daphne  said  as  we  stood
in  the  hot  night  and  she  pulled  her  cigarettes  from
her  back  pocket.  “That  party  was  too  much  for
you, honey.”

“My name is Kat,” I said, because something

about the way she called me honey bothered me.

She just smiled and didn’t answer that. She put

a cigarette to her lips. “Want one?”

“No, thank you.”
That made her smile again. “A good girl, I see.”

She flicked her lighter and touched the end of the
cigarette. “I never thought Bane would end up with
a good girl.” She exhaled. “I never thought Bane
would end up with any girl. He’s not that type.”

“He’s a werewolf,” I said. “They claim mates.

That’s how it works.” Babies, I thought. For
babies.

“Oh, I know.” Daphne’s smile this time was

different from the last one—sort of knowing and
still unpleasant. “I know what mating is, honey. All
of us girls do. That’s why we hang around here.”

“What does that mean?” I didn’t want to ask

this woman anything, but the words were out
before I could stop them.

“It means that unmated werewolves are very

fucking  horny,”  she  answered  me  bluntly.  “They
like to fuck you until you can’t stand up, and they
don’t  want  anything  else.  When  a  girl  wants  to  be
sore  in  the  morning,  these  boys  are  the  best.”  She
took another drag of her cigarette. “When they get
mated  they  don’t  fuck  anymore.  At  least,  no  one
except their mate, or so I hear. Makes them no fun
to party with.”

I was getting an uneasy feeling. Why had she

brought me out here? I didn’t think it was to help
me, like she claimed. “Okay, well—”

“Of course, none of the Nocturne have ever

had a mate before,” Daphne said. “It’ll make things
interesting. Have you done the Claiming yet?” She
saw my blank expression and laughed. “Oh, honey.
They haven’t even told you about it. This is going
to be fun.”

My cheeks burned. I knew there were things I

didn’t  know  yet—but  until  tonight  I  had  no  idea
just  how  much  I  didn’t  know.  Orgies.  Babies.
Claiming. Bane hadn’t exactly been talkative when
he’d  told  me  about  the  Nocturne  MC.  “I  haven’t
been  in  the  club  long,”  I  said,  even  though  it
sounded pathetic even to my own ears.

I sounded naïve. Stupid. A good girl next to

Daphne, who wasn’t a good girl at all. And we both
knew which kind of girl the Nocturne brothers
preferred.

What kind of girl Bane preferred.
It wasn’t me. Of course it wasn’t. Bane would

never have chosen me on his own if his instincts
hadn’t forced him to. I already knew that, and this
woman knew it too. The look in her eyes confirmed
it.

“Does he fuck you properly, Good Girl?” she

asked. “At least tell me he holds his nose and does
that much. His wolf will insist on it, after all, so he
can continue the line.”

“That’s none of your business,” I snapped.
Daphne laughed and dropped her cigarette to

the ground, stamping it out. “That’s rich,” she said,
“telling me Bane’s sex life is none of my business.
Because honey, I’ve fucked him more than you
have.”

She was trying to hurt me; I knew that. She was

jealous—she  wanted  Bane  for  herself,  maybe,  or
she  didn’t  want  to  give  him  up.  At  least,  not  to  a
girl  like  me.  She  had  me  in  a  corner  and  she  was
closing in for the kill.

And still her words stabbed me in the ribcage,

sharp and right on target.

She didn’t let me answer, but kept talking. “All

those girls in there,” she said, motioning to the club
house behind her. “He’s fucked every one of them.

Janice,  the  blonde—she’s  sucked  his  dick  more
times  than  I’ve  had  birthdays.  Karen  and  Mia
double-teamed  him  a  few  weeks  ago,  one  on  his
face  and  one  on  his  cock.  And  me?”  She  took  a
step  closer,  tossing  her  hair.  “He  likes  to  fuck  me.
Sometimes my pussy, sometimes my ass. Sometimes
both. He has a nice cock, doesn’t he, Good Girl? I
have a weakness for uncut dicks. Especially ones as
big as Bane’s. His cum tastes good, too. Yeah, Bane
has  always  been  my  favorite  cock.  I’ll  take  it
anywhere he’s willing to put it, as often as he wants
it. And I have. Can you say the same?”

I just stared at her. I felt like throwing up. This

was awful, horrible. What was I doing here? In this
place where I didn’t belong, where Bane didn’t
even want me except for his instincts—for
something I couldn’t give him?

I didn’t want to be in an orgy, I didn’t want to

snort coke, and I didn’t want to watch Bane put his
cock in this girl’s ass. I didn’t want to go back in to
that party and pretend I didn’t care that every
woman there had fucked my mate. Done things
with him I’d never done.

Daphne was watching me. She could probably

read every emotion on my face. “Good Girl,” she
said, “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I really am
trying to help you. This isn’t the life for you. You
should get out while you can.”

With that, she turned and walked back into the

Twenty

Bane

I couldn’t find her.

I couldn’t fucking find Kat.
She wasn’t in the shadowy corners of the party.

She  wasn’t  in  the  kitchen.  She  wasn’t  in  our
bedroom, or—according to my sense of smell—any
of the others. She wasn’t in the bathrooms. She had
been  in  the  kitchen  talking  to  Ty,  and  then  one  of
the  brothers  had  talked  to  me,  and  when  I  turned
back around she was gone.

I found Ty sitting on one of the broken-down

old picnic benches behind the house, rolling a joint.
Ty never went for the harder drugs at our parties,
just like I didn’t. I stayed away from them because
I was the alpha, and the alpha could never be weak,
even for a few hours. Ty stayed away from them
because he hated to lose control.

Weed was as far as Ty went, and he licked his

rolling paper and looked at me. “Daphne came to
talk to her,” he said, reading my face instantly. “She
took her somewhere. Said they needed to have a
girl talk.”

A girl talk? What the fuck did that mean?

Daphne had nothing to say to Kat. Or she should
have nothing to say to her. Kat was my mate, which
put her head and shoulders above Daphne anyway.
Kate was already above Daphne—in looks,
personality, everything—but her status as my mate
only confirmed it.

Which Daphne might not like. At all.
I was starting to get a bad feeling in my gut.

“Where did they go?” I asked Ty.

He shrugged and lit his joint. “I have no idea.”
“You didn’t watch her?”
I meant Kat, of course. There was no reason to

watch Daphne. But Ty only looked at me, and for
the first time I noticed that his eyes were hard.
“No,” he said.

“What? What is it?”
“That party in there,” he said. “Kat had no

fucking idea what was about to happen. You didn’t
prepare her at all, did you?”

I felt myself scowling. “We were busy today, if

you forgot.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “A fucking phone

call. A conversation. Have you talked to her about
the  Claiming?”  When  I  didn’t  answer,  he  nodded.
“I  thought  so.  You  fucked  this  up,  Bane.  And
Daphne  walked  right  through  the  opening  you  left
and  fucked  it  up  for  you  further.  My  guess  is  that
whatever  Kat  didn’t  know  an  hour  ago,  she

probably knows now. And she didn’t hear it from
you.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Fuck.” Then it

occurred to me. “The truck. Is it still here?”

“That’s a good question,” Ty said calmly.

“Good luck with it.”

I left him and strode around the side of the club

house to the garage. It was a hot night, with barely
any breeze, the sky pitch dark. I could see clearly
with my wolf’s night vision, and I could hear and
smell prey in the woods. My wolf shifted restlessly,
wanting to run, and I silenced him. Not now.

I walked to the garage and flung open the door.

The truck was gone.

There was a piece of paper on the floor of the

garage, neatly folded. With my name on it. I picked
it up and read it.

Bane,
I’m sorry. This isn’t going to work. I know you

probably think I’m running away for stupid
reasons, but I promise you I’m not. My reasons are
real and once I tell you what they are, I think
you’ll agree I’ve done the right thing.

I don’t belong here. That’s one reason. I’m not

a  motorcycle  club  girl.  I  don’t  know  what  kind  of
girl I actually am, but this life is not for me. I can
see  from  tonight’s  party  that  the  pack  were  just
being polite to me before, and this is how they like
to  have  fun.  I’m  not  sure  I  can  handle  it.  I’m  just

being honest. I’m not a prude but I feel strange
and out of place.

I’m not ideal for you. That’s the second reason,

and  you  have  to  admit  it’s  true.  Be  honest  with
yourself,  Bane—if  you  could  choose  any  one
woman to be a mate with for the rest of your life, it
wouldn’t be me. It would be one of the girls in the
club house right now. How can a relationship work
when  the  only  reason  we’re  together  is  that  your
mating instinct wants it?

You didn’t pick me—your human didn’t, and

neither did your wolf. It’s just random chance that
your mating instinct reacted to me. That isn’t a
man choosing a woman. And I suppose I didn’t
choose you either, except that maybe if we had met
under different circumstances… I just don’t know.

But those aren’t the biggest reasons. This is too

hard  for  me  to  say  out  loud  to  your  face,  so  I’m
sorry  I  took  the  coward’s  way  out  and  wrote  a
letter  instead.  It’s  hard  to  even  write  it  down,
actually, but here goes.

I can’t have children. It’s a medical fact. If you

want to get technical, it’s because of a certain kind
of cyst that grew on both of my ovaries and
damaged them when I was a teenager. It isn’t
speculation, and it isn’t that I have a lower chance
of getting pregnant. It’s that I can’t get pregnant at
all. Ever. The doctors have all confirmed it.

It’s impossible for me to talk about it, because

I’m only twenty-four and I always thought I’d be a
mother. I want to be a mother. But I never will be.
And that means you will never be a father—that
your mate will never have the children needed to
carry on the line.

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But there is no point in

you taking me as your mate. It will never lead to
the result you want. It’s best you know now, so that
you can move on and hopefully find another mate
to have your children. I hope she’s pretty and that
she appreciates you. I’m sorry she won’t be me.

Just writing that hurts. Because I really am

sorry she won’t be me.

I have to go now, and I have to do it quick or

I’ll start crying again.

Don’t worry about me. Don’t look for me. I’m

not going back to my apartment, so don’t look for
me there. I have somewhere I can go where I’ll be
safe.  I’m  going  to  try  and  forget  you  for  a  little
while,  because  this  is  all  too  painful.  You  should
try  and  forget  about  me  too.  You  have  lots  of
opportunities.

Goodbye, Bane. I hope the next girl gets to see

how sweet you are underneath.

Kat

* * *

Gone. She was gone.

Kat. My mate.
My woman.
I read the letter again. She couldn’t have

children. That would be a problem—for the pack,
for the club, for the few werewolves left in the
world. For me.

She didn’t think she was a club girl. What did

that  mean?  Daphne  had  said  something  to  her,
made  her  feel  like  she  shouldn’t  be  here.  Like  she
didn’t  belong.  Why?  I  had  no  idea  what  Daphne
was after, but I intended to find out.

She didn’t think I had chosen her. I read that

and I felt the pain lance through my chest, under
the layers of muscle and bone and into the soft
tissue beneath.

If you could choose any one woman to be a

mate with for the rest of your life, it wouldn’t be
me.

It was true, my mating instinct had led me to

Kat in the first place. Had led me to the Silver Star
that  hot  night,  to  sit  at  a  table  not  seeing  the
strippers, only seeing Kat and her tiny top and tight
skirt.  The  way  her  hips  moved  when  she  walked.
The way her blonde hair brushed against her back,
the way she gave each wolf a smile that was wary
and  brave  at  the  same  time.  The  way  the  top

cupped the curves of her tits. The way she put her
shoulders back and served every one of us a drink
instead of cowering behind the bar with the rest of
them.

My mating instinct had led me there, to that

dark VIP room alone with her. But from there, I
had taken over.

If you could choose any one woman to be a

mate with for the rest of your life, it wouldn’t be
me.

I had taken her from the bar that night. I had

taken her to my home, shown her the inner sanctum
of  the  Nocturne  MC.  My  club,  my  brothers.  I  had
touched  her.  I  had  fucked  her.  I  had  kissed  her—
fuck,  I  never  kissed  anyone.  Did  she  even  know
that? Had I even told her?

I had come inside her. Her sweet mouth, her

throat working as she swallowed my cum. Her tight,
incredible cunt. I had come inside her over and
over, sometimes slow and sometimes hard and
brutal, feeling her body take me every time, feeling
her come around me and squeeze my cock, milking
me. Hearing her pant and scream my name, hearing
her beg me as her nails dug into my skin as I fucked
her and took her. As I made her mine.

Because she was mine.
Fuck having children. Fuck Daphne and

whatever she’d said. Fuck Kat not feeling like she
was a club girl—I’d fix that however I had to, do

what  it  took  to  make  her  feel  like  she  belonged.
Fuck continuing the lineage and the continuation of
the  race.  There  were  other  wolves  who  could  do
that.  It  wouldn’t  be  me.  The  only  reason  I’d
thought  about  children  was  because  it  was  so
obvious  Kat  should  be  a  mother.  But  if  she
couldn’t, then she couldn’t. She would still be mine.

She was mine.
It must cause her pain, to know she couldn’t be

a mother. I knew enough of Kat to know that much.
It would kill her confidence, make her wonder what
to  do  with  her  life.  That  was  why  I’d  found  her
working  in  a  strip  club  when  she  so  obviously
didn’t belong there. Why she even gave the time of
day  to  people  she  was  too  good  for—like  me.
Because  it  had  shaken  her  up  to  know  so  young
that she could never have a baby of her own. That
she could never marry a man who wanted his own
kids.  That  she  couldn’t  do  the  thing  that  would  let
her  sweet,  loving  heart  love  a  baby  as  much  as  it
wanted to.

And of all things to happen to her, she had been

claimed by a werewolf who needed a woman to
continue his fucking line. Who only needed her for
that—or so she thought.

She was wrong. I didn’t need her for that. I

needed her for something entirely different.

I needed her for me.
I’d spent thirty-six years alone. Thirty-six years

living a dirty, violent life with no goodness in it, no
softness. No hope.

I’d thought that was my fate. After thirty-six

years, I’d assumed I would die as I had lived—
worthless, dirty, and entirely alone.

Then I’d taken a mate, and all of that had

changed.

If she thought she wasn’t my mate anymore,

she was wrong.

If she thought I’d ever look at another woman,

she was wrong.

If she thought I’d let another man touch her

from now until the end of her life, she was very
fucking wrong.

I was an alpha wolf. I had killed for her once. I

would kill a thousand men if I had to. Ten thousand.
Because I only cared about one fucking thing from
now until the end of my existence: Her.

I had fucked this up. But I would fix it.
It was time to find her.

* * *

Kat and Bane’s story is continued in the next book,

Wolf ’s Mate!

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Wolf’s Mate

Kat

I wondered if Bane would look for me.

I wondered if he would even try.
Did I want him to?
I tried not to think about that question as I

stood in front of the mirror, getting ready for work.
I was fresh out of the shower, and I dropped the
towel I was wearing and picked up the clothes I
was going to wear.

I tried not to look at myself naked. At the skin

that was nice and white now, instead of scraped
from Bane’s beard and bruised from his kisses. At
the breasts and hips that he’d liked so much. Or so
it had seemed.

The truth was, I didn’t really know how a

werewolf  thought,  or  what  he  liked.  I’d  had  a
werewolf—a  werewolf  biker,  to  be  exact—walk
into my life one night and claim that I was his mate.
I was a waitress at a strip club. His name was Bane,
he was the alpha of the Nocturne MC, and he was
big  and  bearded  and  scary.  He’d  demanded  I  be
sent  to  the  VIP  Room  with  him—the  room  where

all the girls went to give special, paid performances.
And I’d gone.

I hadn’t given him a performance that night. His

club had started a fight and burned down the Silver
Star instead.

That was my first lesson in the danger of the

Nocturne MC.

The Nocturne, made up exclusively of

werewolves—a  race  that  were  rare  and  quickly
dying  out—was  pure  chaos.  Long,  hot  rides  and
shady business and parties. And sex—lots and lots
of sex. I was Bane’s mate, and he wanted me. And
to  be  honest,  as  soon  as  he  touched  me  I  wanted
him.

But that didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t a

chaos  girl.  I  was  just  an  average  twenty-four-year-
old  blonde,  whose  mother  lived  in  Florida  instead
of here in Texas, and who hadn’t been to college or
ever  really  found  herself.  I’d  worked  in  an  Olive
Garden  until  I  got  the  job  waiting  tables  at  the
Silver  Star.  I  liked  shopping  (when  I  had  money)
and  movies.  I’d  had  exactly  two  boyfriends  in  my
life and slept with exactly three men. Until Bane.

Bane wasn’t my boyfriend. He’d told me as

much. An alpha doesn’t take his mate on dates—he
simply  takes  her.  Which  Bane  had  done,  in  ways
I’d  never  dreamed  were  possible.  Or  at  least
wouldn’t  be  pleasurable  if  they  were.  In  fact,  they
were  so  pleasurable  I’d  screamed  his  name  over

and over.

That wasn’t love, though—it was mating.

Bane’s mating instinct took over with me. I wasn’t
his  type  of  woman,  and  until  I  met  him,  he  hadn’t
been my type of man. The fact that we had sex that
was  so  good  it  was  nearly  blinding  didn’t  change
that  fact.  We  were  incompatible,  and  Bane  hadn’t
chosen me. Not really. It was instinct, that was all.

I could have dealt with some of that, but the

killing blow had been final. How could I have been
so blind not to see? Mating was about reproduction.
About babies. Bane’s and mine. And what he
didn’t know was that I couldn’t have children. Not
now, not ever. It wasn’t medically possible. Even if
we worked through all of the other problems, I still
couldn’t be the mate he wanted and needed in life.
I could never be the mother of his children.

What kind of alpha wolf takes a mate who can’t

have  children?  I  wasn’t  a  werewolf,  but  I  already
knew  the  answer.  The  alpha  was  all-powerful,  the
top of his pack. He matters more than the rest of us
put  together,  his  VP,  Tiberius,  had  said  the  first
night we met. We  would  all  die  for  him.  The  pack
alpha  was  pure  strength,  a  leader,  the  most
powerful  wolf  of  all.  And  he  had  to  stay  strong  to
keep  his  power.  An  alpha  who  couldn’t  sire
children on his mate would be no leader at all. Bane
had  admitted  as  much:  that  if  he  ever  showed
weakness, some other wolf would decide he should

be leader instead. Which meant war.

I couldn’t have Bane’s children, which was bad

enough. But I could also cost him his position, his
pack, and maybe his life.

Staying wasn’t the right thing to do. So I wrote

Bane a letter, telling him the truth about why I
couldn’t be his mate. And then I left.

That was three weeks ago.
I couldn’t go back to my apartment, because I

knew it was the first place Bane would go. Instead
I’d  driven  to  the  apartment  of  the  only  person  I
could think of to help me: Jade, who had worked as
a  bartender  at  the  Silver  Star  before  it  burned
down.  She  had  been  kind  to  me,  sympathetic.  I
knew she would help me out for a while.

And she had. She’d put me up and helped me

ditch the truck I’d taken from the Nocturne club
house when I left. She’d helped me get my own car
repaired and returned to me.

And then she’d helped me get a job.
I picked up a black lace thong and stepped into

it, slipping it up over my hips. My heart was starting
to pound in my chest. Do I really want to do this?

Do I really have a choice?

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