STORY EXCERPT:

“Blah, blah, blah, blah-dee da,” the Elders rambled on. I internally groaned and wondered if they realized they sounded like the mom in Charlie Brown. The things I did to avoid the blind dates my parents set up for me. I swear! How many people traveled all the way to Scotland for a boring UPAC conference to ditch a setup? Yeah, but that was how badly the dates normally went, so this was worth it really.

Even if I was at the last one. But, on the bright side, I was attending my one per decade and wouldn’t have to worry about next conference. I’d try sitting my parents down again and explaining I was gay if I thought it would do any good. Each time they looked further down their noses at me and doubled their efforts to get me married off. I wondered if they offered anyone a goat for me?

I heard several gasps around me. Shit! Maybe I should be paying attention?

“Now, children, good luck. We expect to see each of you in twenty-four hours. May your hunt be successful.” The Elder had a little smirk on his face as they all turned and left the stage.

Hunt? Damn my ADD tendencies!

“You’ll do, sweetheart,” a voice growled over my shoulder and wrapped an arm around my waist. “I like a woman with some junk in her trunk.”

“Hey!” I yelled and went to turn around to blast him. I wasn’t sure if I was more upset he thought I was a woman, which actually happened way too often, or that he basically said I had a fat ass!

He grabbed a handful of my long black hair and roughly pulled my head to the side. Before I could yell, fight, or do anything as I was plastered to the mammoth chest behind me…the fucker sank his canines in my neck. I cried out and came in my jeans as fast as someone snapping their fingers. Oh goodie, this just kept getting better and better!

“Baby, I’m going to take you places you never dreamed existed,” the massive man purred as he licked his bite closed. “You’re a lucky woman.”

“Charming,” I mumbled and elbowed him in the gut as I stomped on his foot.

“Oh, I like feisty,” he chuckled. The asshole actually laughed like I was prey! Okay, so I was a prey animal, but that was beside the point.

“Un-fucking-real,” a guy in front of us laughed, his face bright red as he grabbed his side.

“What’s your issue, Jensen?” my douche-bag suitor snarled.

“Mr. Homophobe claimed a man,” his friend said and then burst into peals of laughter.

“What!” my attacker bellowed and spun me around. “You’re not a girl. You looked like a girl. Hell, you smell like a girl. You have long girly hair and a ghetto booty. You’re not a girl. How can you not be a girl? How the fuck are you not a girl? I can’t mate a fag!”

“Charming,” I hissed, shaking with anger, rage…and hurt. I didn’t care if he was six-five, ripped, dark, and handsome, I was out of there. Quicker than he could follow I pulled the dagger my grandfather gave me long ago out of my boot and cut his arm. He let me go, and I ran.

“Well you better go get him,” Jensen said firmly. “You’ve already bitten him. You won’t get another mate now that you started the claiming process on one. Alpha—”

I tuned out then. Great, he was an Alpha, and if I had to guess from all the growling, I’d have said wolf. Yeah, mating him would be the death of me, literally. Prey birdies weren’t known to last long with predators.

It took forever to get out of the ballroom. I was dodging and weaving every asshole and bitch on the planet whose motto was take what you want before someone can say no. Kind of like the guy who bit me. Finally I changed direction and moved over along the far wall. I slipped the dagger into the small sheath I had strapped to my back and shifted. I hid my clothes behind some gaudy curtain and glanced around.

There! On the floor someone had spilled a drink. That would work. I dove onto the puddle, and it propelled me against the nicely waxed ballroom floor.

“Is that a bunny?” some guy asked as I slid between his legs. “And was that a fucking penguin? What did they put in those drinks?”

Drinks? Right, the toast they gave out. I drank it. Was that what this was all about? Fucking Elders!

“Alpha! The bird by the door has that dagger,” Jensen called out.

“Bird?” my suitor groaned. “Just keeps getting better and better.”

“Go fuck yourself,” I yelled over my shoulder. Though it came out in a series of squawks, the cool thing about being a bird was any paranormal could understand us when we weren’t in human form, and there were no language barriers. I finally hit the door and jumped to my feet. I waddled faster than I ever thought possible.

I heard them coming. I ran as quickly as my little webbed feet would carry me and was almost to the door of the bird shifters’ wing when the footsteps pounded closer to me.

“You will learn who’s the boss, bird,” the Alpha snarled as he snagged my wing and swooped me up into his arms.

“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear? Fuck. You.” I shifted back, and he almost dropped me to adjust to the weight difference. I took the advantage and decked him…and cried out in pain. Holy fuck, his jaw was like hitting brick.

Trying option B, I changed back into a penguin and slid through his hands.

“He’s a wily little guy,” Jensen chuckled.

“I had a whole other adjective ready to say,” the Alpha replied and scooped me right back up.

ADULT EXCERPT

His hair was wet and streaming down his back and chest, leaving trails of water I wanted to lick off his body. And his cock was very obvious in the tiny shorts, the head of it up over the band of them. I didn’t answer. I stalked him like prey until I was close enough to reach him. He yelped as I moved my hands under his ass and lifted him to my body. Lys wrapped his legs around me and threw his arms around my neck.

I licked, nipped, and sucked on his lips until he was a moaning pile of goo. I walked us down into the deeper end of the pool and pressed him back against the tiles so only our shoulders and heads were above water.

“Fuck me, Rip. I’ve never been fucked in a pool before, and I’ve always wanted to do it in one. Now I want to do it with only you.” My mate begged as I nipped at his ear and down his neck. He didn’t have to tell me twice!

I pulled out the waterproof lube I grabbed from our shower before coming down. He let his legs slip off my hips so I could get his shorts off and then wrapped them back around me. I lowered my trunks down and slicked up my cock. He was still stretched from the sex we had a whole half an hour ago. Yeah, I wasn’t addicted to my mate or anything.

“How do you want it, my little birdie?” I asked as I pushed the head of my cock inside of him.

“Make me scream,” he purred and dug his short nails into my back. “I told you I was a slut when I drank wine. Treat me like one. Pull my hair and fuck me as if you paid to use my ass.”

“A hooker fantasy? Very nice,” I moaned and slammed into him. “Are you a dirty whore, Lys?”

“Baby, I’m whatever you want me to be,” he purred. I made sure his shoulders were against the tiles so I wouldn’t drop him or hurt him after I moved us to shallower water. I braced his ass with only one hand and then moved my other one to twine in his hair. I yanked on it as I thrust into him hard again. “Hey, any rough stuff will cost you extra.”

“Put it on my tab,” I growled and did it again. Lys loved it! He cried out in pleasure each time I pulled his hair and pushed into him. I kept it slow but very, very hard. He arched his back and moved his arms onto the lip of the pool to brace himself. “I’m going to make you come two times before I finish inside of you.”

“You can do that?” He moaned, and I felt his inner muscles squeeze my cock with excitement.

“After how many times we’ve done it today? Yeah, I can draw it out for a while when I’m not dying to take the edge off.”

“How about three?” Lys teased me as he purred.

“Done,” I growled again and fucked him. He made the sexiest noises as I set a punishing pace while I took his sweet ass.

“Harder! Fuck your whore harder!” he screamed. I hoped no one from the pack heard him. That might raise another slew of issues if someone talked. Then his muscles tightened around me as he came, and I forgot to breathe almost, much less think. But it worked. I didn’t orgasm and was able to draw his out.

Before he could even recover or speak, I moved us into even shallower water and laid him on the side of the pool. I spread his legs wide over my forearms and started pounding into him.

“Fuck me!” he cried out and threw his head back in abandon. “Get your money’s worth.”

“That’s right, whore,” I grunted as I slammed into him harder. “I’m going to get every dollar I paid out of your tight fucking ass and then leave you full of my seed so no one else will want you. You’ll beg me to become your sole client.”

“Yes,” he hissed as his cock started to perk back up. “No one else. I’ll only be your dirty whore, Rip. Yours to do with whatever you please.”

“You like my fat cock, whore?”

“You know I love it,” he moaned. “Give me your meat, Rip. Shove a finger in there with your cock. Make me scream again.”

Fuck,” I groaned and tried to keep from coming at his dirty words. I reached down, dropping one of his legs and pushed my thumb into his ass.