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  When I hesitated by the chair at the table, he chuckled again and pulled me into his lap. I ignored his teasing and forked up my first bite, the sugary syrup melting on my tongue, followed by the buttery, rich flavor of light, fluffy pancake. I couldn’t hold back the moan of appreciation. Pancakes were my absolute favorite meal at breakfast so I hadn’t been lying to Lachlan when I said I was always in the mood for them.

  I ate a few more bites, savoring each one, before I shifted on his lap to look at him. “These are amazing, Lach.” My tongue darted out to sweep up a drop of syrup on the corner of my mouth.

  His eyes focused on the movement and I realized they were hot and a little wild. Then I felt the hard length of his cock against my ass.

  Without a word, he shoved our dishes to the side and lifted me up so that I sat on the table in front of him, his chest between my thighs. Based on his expression, I expected him to fuck me then and there.

  Instead he reached out and grabbed my fork, cutting off another chunk of pancakes. Then he lifted it to my lips. I opened my mouth and took the bite, my eyes never leaving his as I chewed.

  He fed me, one bite at a time, until the food was nearly gone. Then, as he lifted the fork again, a small stream of syrup dripped onto my skin, running down my chest and following the slope of my breast. Hot blue eyes followed the path of the sweet liquid as it clung to my nipple.

  The fork in his hand crashed to the floor as he dropped it and I cried out as his mouth latched onto my nipple, sucking me deep. Then the flat of his tongue followed the trail up my chest until it reached my collarbone.

  With one hand he jerked down his shorts and the other dipped into the puddle of syrup in my nearly empty plate. I leaned back, bracing my weight on my hands as his fingers circled the tip of my breast. Then he gathered up more syrup and repeated the process with the other.

  My head fell back as he devoured the sticky sweetness from my breasts, his groan vibrating against my sensitive flesh. Then his fingers pressed against my lips, urging me to open my mouth. I laved them with my tongue as I sucked every bit of the sugary liquid.

  When his fingers were clean, he pulled them from my mouth and sat back down in his chair, shoving my legs open then yanking my ass to the edge of the table. I lifted my heels, resting them against the tabletop next to my ass to support my legs and gasped when the tip of his tongue ran down my inner thigh.

  My clit throbbed as he repeated the caress on my other leg, stopping just short of my pussy. Using his thumbs, he opened me up to his gaze. Then his mouth was on me, devouring me with uncontrollable urgency. My hips jerked on the table, my legs clenching around his face. He put his palms to my inner thighs and shoved them back apart as his lips and tongue consumed me.

  My upper body fell back, my head dangling over the edge of the table on the other side, and I gave myself up to the sensations. My hands clutched at his skull as his lips closed around my clit, sucking hard as the tip of his tongue flicked. I cried out and arched against the intensity of the pleasure. He took my hands, hooking them behind my knees, urging me to hold my legs up.

  When I did, his left hand moved up my body to pluck at my nipples before pinching one and tugging hard as he plunged two fingers of his right hand inside me. The table shuddered and groaned beneath me as I writhed on top of it, unable to keep still beneath his mouth. Then he pressed the tips of his fingers against a spot deep inside me that made me see stars.

  As he rubbed that spot firmly, his tongue moved rapidly over my clit, and my entire body jerked. Seconds later, I screamed as I came, my back arching so hard that only my ass and head touched the table beneath me. Black spots danced in front of my eyes as his mouth continued to work me, drawing out the spasms until I was begging him to stop.

  I heard his chair crash to the floor as he stood, sweeping me off the table and carrying me to the bed. As soon as my back hit the mattress, he was on top of me, the rigid length of his cock already sliding inside my body.

  “I was right,” he growled. “Your pussy tastes even better than your mouth.”

  His arms shoved beneath my back, his hands clasping the nape of my neck to hold me still as he pounded inside me. Incredibly, the friction brought my orgasm to life again and I wrapped my legs around his hips, crying out from the wild trembling that wracked my body. My nails dragged down his back, breaking the skin.

  “Fuck,” he growled, his thrusts losing their rhythm before he rammed into me one last time and came.

  He lowered his head, his cheek brushing mine. We were both breathing hard, our chests pressed so tightly together that I could feel the hard thump of his heart against mine. My arms were loosely wrapped around him and my ankles were hooked at the base of his spine.

  As our bodies calmed, I ran my hand over the back of his head, enjoying the prickliness of his short hair and pressing a kiss to the skin beneath his ear. He shuddered against me, which created an echoing shiver in me when his cock twitched.

  He chuckled against my shoulder. “I think I’m going to make you pancakes every morning,” he said, flicking my earlobe with the tip of his nose. “Though I’d probably be too exhausted to do anything else the rest of the day.”

  “Hmmm,” I mumbled, my mind too hazy to form a reply.

  “Is that a yes or no?” he asked, lifting his head to look down at me.

  “That’s an it’s fine with me,” I replied, my voice hoarse. “Now quit talking. I need a recovery nap.”

  “Nope,” he teased. “You have to go disinfect the kitchen and the table.”

  I closed my eyes. “Meh. Who cares? We’re shifters. We can’t catch diseases.”

  He laughed, rolling to the side without releasing his hold on me. After a few moments of fidgeting and my accidental elbow to his gut, Lachlan lay on his back with my body tucked against his side, my head on his shoulder.

  Convinced I was now boneless, I lay against Lachlan, drowsy and satisfied. I stroked his chest with my hand, enjoying the feel of hard muscle covered in hot, smooth skin and a light dusting of hair.

  His fingers moved over my scalp, sifting through the strands of my hair.

  When he spoke, I could feel the vibration against my cheek. “Why did you leave without saying good-bye, Chloe?” he asked.

  My hand stilled and I closed my eyes. Shit, why did he have to ask me that right now? There was no easy answer. No believable lie that I could give him.

  “Chloe?” he asked when I didn’t answer at first.

  I focused on the slow, steady beat of his heart against my palm for a moment. I could give him the truth. Just not the whole truth. I wasn’t ready for that conversation and neither was he.

  “I didn’t want to say good-bye to you,” I murmured. “Because I knew if I did, I wouldn’t want to leave.”

  It was his turn to still, his fingers tangled in my hair. “Why?”

  Grateful I wasn’t looking into his eyes, I answered, “I care about you, Ian. A lot more than I realized. But I needed to come here. I just didn’t expect to feel guilty about it.”

  He moved then, turning us so that I lay on my back and his face hovered above me. “Why did you feel guilty?”

  Fighting to keep my expression neutral, I replied, “I felt like I was abandoning you. You were still so deep in your grief.”

  He stared down at me, his face unreadable. “Do you pity me, Chloe?”

  “Absolutely not,” I declared. “But I know what losing a mate does to a wolf. I saw what happened to Gram when my grandfather died.” I lifted a hand and cupped his face, my thumb tracing the bottom curve of his lip. “I knew I could help you through it.”

  He stared down at me, his blue eyes taking in my face. “I didn’t realize how much I liked having you around until you were gone,” he admitted softly. “I never thought I would want another female again in my life, but when I found you here, it was as if I was seeing you for the first time. I don’t know what will happen when this is all over, but I want you to promise me you won’t leave again wi
thout saying good-bye.”

  A crack formed in my heart at his words. From that tiny opening, a seedling of hope sprouted. His words weren’t an admission that he recognized me as his mate, but maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t completely blind to it after all.

  “I promise, Ian,” I whispered.

  He made a noise, something between a chuckle and grunt. “I always hated my name,” he mused, his hand tangling in my hair. “Until you said it.”

  As his mouth covered mine, the small seedling of hope in my heart bloomed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Lachlan

  Two days later, I woke before Chloe yet again. As I had the past couple of mornings, I put a great deal of effort into rousing her. It wasn’t until I saw her smirk that I realized she was faking sleep.

  I smacked her ass sharply in retaliation, which led to a wrestling match that we both won.

  As we had for the past two days, we ate breakfast after working up an appetite. Though I wanted pancakes again, Chloe nixed the idea, insisting that our exercise should come in the form of a run and sparring rather than breaking in the kitchen table.

  After breakfast, Chloe dressed in another pair of leggings and a tank top.

  “Let’s go to the clearing,” she suggested. “We’ve barely left the house in days and you need to get back into top shape.”

  For the next hour, we sparred. She won, again.

  “You should practice your tracking skills,” she suggested.

  I grabbed the towel I’d brought from the house and wiped the sweat from my face and chest. “You mean you want to practice your evasion skills.”

  She grinned. “That too.”

  A few moments later, she disappeared into the woods. I waited for a while before I followed. Immediately, I picked up her trail, both in scent and sight. My she-wolf could kick ass in a fight, but she sucked at covering her tracks.

  Shaking my head, I followed the trail, stopping every so often to listen for telltale sounds that would give her away. When I ascertained her location, I crept around behind her, careful to stay downwind, and pounced before she even knew I was there.

  “Dammit, I didn’t even hear you this time,” she complained. “And it took you less than ten minutes to find me.”

  “That’s because you don’t cover your tracks,” I explained.

  “But if you can follow my scent, why should I bother?”

  I stared at her. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you how to throw false trails? Sure, your scent will give you away, but if you do it right, it will take a good tracker a lot longer to figure out which way you went. By that time, you could be long gone or set up a defense. A mediocre tracker might never be able to figure out where you went.”

  Chloe tilted her head to the side. “Show me.”

  For the rest of the morning, I instructed her and, with her razor sharp mind, she picked it up quickly. The final time I found her, it took me thirty minutes and my stomach was growling loudly by the time I realized she’d climbed a tree.

  Standing at the base with my hands on my hips, I looked up at her grinning face. “Good call with the tree.”

  When my stomach rumbled again, she leapt down, landing lightly on her feet. “Hungry?”

  “Starving. You need to feed me.”

  She scoffed. “Me? You’re a big boy, feed yourself.”

  Slinging my arm around her shoulders as we walked back to the clearing, I said, “I made you breakfast. It’s your turn to make me lunch.”

  She laughed as we gathered our things and strolled through the woods toward the cabin, my arm still holding her close to my side.

  Just before we emerged from the tree line, I stopped her. “Someone’s at the cabin,” I whispered. We were upwind of the little house, which was why I hadn’t smelled them earlier, but I saw a vehicle parked in the driveway.

  “It’s Darrell’s SUV,” she explained.

  Something about the situation struck me the wrong way, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  Before we could discuss it further, the screen door to the cabin flung open and Darrell came outside, his head turned toward the trees where we were hidden.

  “Are you two coming in or what?” he hollered. “I brought lunch and the food is getting cold.”

  “Shit,” Chloe mumbled. “I don’t like this.”

  “Just stay alert and don’t hesitate if things go wrong.”

  “You too,” she directed.

  We stepped out of the cover of the trees, my eyes moving quickly around the perimeter as I looked for any men who might be with Darrell. He appeared to be alone, which surprised me.

  Since the note was left in the truck, Chloe and I had checked the area surrounding the cabin twice a day for any visitors who might be watching, but there was nothing.

  It made the skin between my shoulder blades itch. If Darrell really knew why we were here, the fact that he hadn’t sent someone to keep an eye on us seemed suspicious.

  Darrell grinned when he took in our rumpled state as we skirted his car in the drive. “Been out for a run?” he asked.

  Chloe nodded. “I’m glad you brought lunch. We’re both starving.”

  Internally, I applauded her intelligence. Her words sounded friendly but didn’t require her to lie, an action Darrell might smell. Lies had a distinct perfume and it had been my experience that the dishonest were the most adept at picking it up.

  “I also brought visitors,” Darrell explained, looking chagrined. “I know I should have called first, but they insisted it should be surprise.”

  As we followed him up the steps, I caught a scent that made my back snap straight. They couldn’t have come at a worse time.

  Inside the cabin, I saw Brian and Brayden Kirkpatrick sitting on the couch. Brian looked relaxed and pleasant, just as he had in Dallas. Brayden, however, scowled fiercely, his eyes trained on the bed.

  When Darrell opened the screen door, allowing Chloe and I to enter first, Brayden’s gaze snapped toward us. When his eyes met mine, I saw the barely restrained rage burning in them and the white-hot hatred. I half expected him to lunge at me then, but he clenched his fists tightly in his lap and held back.

  I forced myself to focus on the words coming from Darrell’s mouth.

  “I’m working on an alliance agreement with Brian and when I mentioned my niece, Chloe, was visiting, he realized it was you and wanted to say hello.”

  Darrell and Brian both grinned at Chloe and I marveled at how easily the two of them lied. A tendril of foreboding curled inside me. Though I smelled no duplicity on either of them, everything about this situation seemed wrong.

  I did pick up the dark, stinging scent of Brayden’s rage and hatred. It filled the small cabin.

  Once again, Chloe handled the situation perfectly. “How unexpected to see you, Brian,” she said, stepping forward to shake his hand. “How are you doing?” Her gaze shifted to Brayden. “Hello, Brayden.”

  Her words were the truth, since neither of us expected to see the Kirkpatrick’s, but she said them in such a friendly tone that they seemed warm rather than offensive.

  “I’m fine, Chloe,” Brian answered. “Though I have to say I was surprised to hear you mated.” His eyes drifted down to her shoulder and his brows lifted at the absence of my bite mark on her skin.

  She laughed. “Lachlan has a lot of work to do before I’ll take him as a mate, Brian.”

  I realized that was my cue to speak. Taking a page from Chloe’s playbook, I decided to keep my words as close to the truth as possible. “I didn’t want to take another mate,” I explained. “Then Chloe left and I realized how much she means to me.”

  Brian nodded, his expression grave. “That’s understandable, son. It’s a horrible thing to lose a mate.” Then he smiled a little. “But there are few who are so lucky as to be granted another by Fate. I’m glad you didn’t throw away your chance.”

  “That’s good advice,” I replied, earning a wider smile from the older wolf.

 
; Brayden shifted on the couch, as though he were having trouble restraining himself. Calder and I had been right to worry about the wolf. It was becoming clearer that he was unstable.

  I also didn’t like the way he was looking at Chloe. It was a combination of lust, fury, and jealousy. The wolf inside me took note of it and his hackles raised. No one coveted what belonged to us.

  When Darrell’s phone rang, he apologized and went outside, lifting it to his ear as he opened the door.

  Somehow, Chloe managed to make small talk with Brian, leaving me able to listen to Darrell’s conversation. Unfortunately, he was speaking too softly for me to hear everything, but I heard enough.

  A few moments later, Darrell returned. “Brian, Brayden, I’m very sorry, but we’re going to have to cut our visit short. There’s a problem back in town and they need me.” He looked at Chloe. “Darlin’, you and Lach enjoy the food we brought and we’ll all have lunch together some other time.”

  “Of course, Uncle Darrell,” she agreed.

  I wanted to lunge forward and rip his arms off when Darrell gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek, but I managed to suppress the urge. Brian and Brayden were smarter. They merely nodded at her, though I did see Brayden’s fingers twitch and lift as though he wanted to reach for Chloe.

  The most difficult part was enduring handshakes with Darrell, Brian, and Brayden. Darrell and Brian kept their clasp firm but brief. However, Brayden gripped my hand and squeezed as if he intended to grind my bones to dust.

  Biting back a growl, I stared into his eyes, openly challenging him, as I bore down hard. I felt the bones in his hand move, giving under the pressure, and felt the snap as one of them cracked.

  He made a noise between a snarl and a whimper, jerking his hand from mine. Brayden glared at me, his body vibrating as he dropped his hands to his sides. He wanted to tear my throat out. It was in every line of his body and leaked from his pores.

  Brian broke through when he placed his hand on Brayden’s shoulder. “Come on, son. Darrell needs to get back to town.”