STORY EXCERPT

 Wiping the tears away, Jacqueline took a deep breath to gather her composure before heading back to the lab. She didn’t want any of her father’s mindless minions to see her upset. They wouldn’t hesitate to run and tattle to her father, and then she would have to explain herself. That was a conversation she wanted to avoid at all cost. There was no lying to her father, and there was no way she would be able to tell him she was crying because she felt some strange emotional pull to one of his prisoners. That would be an immediate death sentence for the man, and she couldn’t live with that.

“Did you give it to him?”

Jacqueline jumped when she heard her father’s voice as she entered the lab. He had caught her off guard, and that was a bad thing. She swallowed the lump in her throat before speaking. “Yes, Father. I did as you asked. He passed out as soon as I injected him.”

“Hmm,” her father said as he slowly strolled around the room.

Oh God. Does suspect something? She shoved her hand into her lab coat and gripped the syringe she’d just used on the prisoner. The slim plastic tube slid against her wet palm, reminding her of what she had just done. Had she just signed her own death warrant?

“And how did the prisoner react to this latest round of treatments?” her father asked as he fondled a few sheets of paper on her desk before perching himself on it.

Jacqueline took a moment to gather her thoughts before answering. “He’s strong. He is fighting the drugs, but this latest round knocked him out almost immediately. I think he is wearing down.” It was mostly the truth. Her father didn’t need to know that the reason the prisoner had passed out so quickly was because she’d given him a sedative instead of the drug.

Her father’s face lit up at her news. “Great.” He stood rubbing his palms together. “I want you working around the clock to turn him. Nothing else matters but making him mine. Those council bastards won’t know what hit them when they find out I have one of their precious enforcers in my back pocket.”

She let out a breath when he passed, only to have it turn into a muffled scream when he gripped her arm, squeezing hard as he leaned down and whispered in her ear.

“If you mess this up, Jacqueline, I swear I will kill you with my bare hands. That will be after I let my guards have you for a few days. By the time they’re through with you, you will be begging for my hands to wrap around your throat.”

With that last menacing statement, her father casually strolled out of the room with his hands in his pockets as though he hadn’t just threatened his own daughter with rape and murder just to keep her in line. Jacqueline walked over and slumped into her chair and laid her head on her desk. She balled her fists in her lap to keep them from shaking. Her father was a cruel, brutal man, and she knew she had to get away from him or she would eventually die. She had no doubts the man would follow through on his threats if he felt she was no longer useful to him. She was his daughter, but that meant nothing to Edmund Percival. To him, she was just another tool he had at his disposal in his never-ending quest for power.

There would be hell to pay when he found out what she had done, but Jacqueline was tired of mindlessly following her father’s orders. She wanted out, and she hoped her way was lying down the hallway in a healing sleep. Along with the sedative she had given him, Jacqueline had added in a few things she had created herself. If all went well, the new drugs she had introduced into his system would attack the rogue drug and force it out of him for the most part. When the man woke, hopefully, he would be back to normal. She had no idea if it would work, but he was her only hope. He was the first shifter that she had ever seen fight the rogue drug. In her book, that meant he was beyond strong. She had created the drug herself and knew it shouldn’t have been possible for him to withstand it. The fact he did it not once, but multiple times, told her everything she needed to know. If there was anyone strong enough to stand up against her father, it would be him.

Jacqueline just hoped the man didn’t kill her before she could explain herself and ask for his help. Either way she had already started the ball rolling, and there was no turning back. One way or another she was going to be free of her father. She just hoped she was still breathing in the end.

ADULT EXCERPT

Ben caught his little mate at the waist when her knees gave out and lifted her. He gently laid her back on the bed and stared down at her. Jacqi was beautiful, and it was taking all of his control to not rip her sweats off and plunge himself deep inside her. His rock-hard cock twitched at the thought and began to throb, but there was no way Ben would do it. His little mate had admitted that, not only was she a virgin, but that he was the only man to ever lay a hand on her. He had to admit it made him feel good to know he was the first and was definitely going to be the last.

He looked down at her small breasts tipped with rosy pink nipples and groaned. When he had taken off her shirt, the last thing he expected was for her to be bare underneath. He nearly came in his jeans at what he saw. Reaching out, Ben trailed his finger down the silky skin of her neck and across her collarbone. He ignored her gasps and whimpers as he circled her breast, moving closer and closer to her hard nipple with each loop. He was mesmerized at the trail of goose bumps he left in his wake. Leaning down, Ben followed the same path with his mouth. He placed tiny, open-mouthed kisses and nipped at the cords of her neck when she lifted her head to give him better access. The scent of her arousal growing and Jacqi’s moans spurred him on as he slowly made his way to her breast.

The feel of his little mate’s hands in his hair had Ben moaning as he continued his assault on her skin. When he got to her nipple, just begging for him to take it into his mouth, Ben resisted. Instead, he blew his hot breath on it and listened as his mate keened out loud and nearly shot off the bed. Ben chuckled and moved to the other side to repeat the same moves. By the time he reached her nipple on that side, Jacqi’s mutterings were incoherent, and she nearly ripped his hair out of his scalp. Deciding to put them both of them out of their misery and end their torture, Ben latched onto her nipple and sucked. He groaned and nearly came when her flavor exploded on his tongue. She tasted as sweet as she smelled, and he wanted to lick her from head to toe. Instead, Ben released her nipple with a slight pop and leaned over to take the other into his mouth.

He trailed his hand down her stomach, stopping to massage the tight muscles there before continuing down toward her sweats. Ben ran his fingers along her waistband a couple of times then slipped them inside. The feel of her soft curls against his fingers was enough to make him gasp as he lifted his head to stare at his mate. Not only had she not been wearing a bra, but she wasn’t wearing any panties either. The feel of her warm heat had him itching to go further, but Ben watched the emotions play out on Jacqi’s face first and waited to see if she would tell him to stop. Her eyes were barely open as she stared up at him with a look of confusion. He had a feeling that was due to the fact that he had stopped what he was doing. What Ben didn’t see was fear. That gave him the green light to continue.

Ben lifted up a little, grabbed her sweats in both hands, and slowly slid them down his little mate’s legs. She didn’t protest the move. Instead, she lifted her hips to help him. The scent of warm, spicy cinnamon filled the room, and Ben took a deep breath and growled. He loved the smell of his mate. He tossed the pants over his shoulder and looked down at his mate spread out on the bed before him. His eyes were drawn to her thighs, slick from her juices. Without thinking any further, Ben lay down on his stomach between her legs and began lapping at the liquid. He cleaned one thigh then the other before turning his attention to her pussy that was soaked with moisture. Using his fingers, he spread her lips apart and ran his tongue along the pink glistening flesh that he had exposed.

Jacqi cried out and lifted her hips off the bed, bringing them closer to his face, and Ben happily gave her what she wanted. He ran his tongue along her entrance before trailing it up to the red swollen bud begging for his touch. Holding her hips down, Ben clamped his lips around her clit and sucked. He shifted his hips against the bed, rubbing his throbbing cock through his jeans as he flicked the tip of his tongue against her sensitive bud. His mate’s whimpers spurred him on as he laid one arm across her belly to hold her still and used his other hand to gather her juices. Once he had enough, he circled her hole with one finger before slipping it in to the first knuckle. Her wet heat greeted him as her walls clenched around his finger, holding him tight.

Ben’s cock twitched and released a spurt of fluid at the thought of her tight pussy squeezing his cock the way it was doing to his finger as he slowly slid it inside her. He had a feeling he would come before he ever fully got inside her. As it was now, he couldn’t stop himself from humping the bed as he continued to lick Jacqi’s sweet pussy.