STORY EXCERPT

Balke could see that the young woman was struggling, but though there were men working at the dump, they didn’t seem inclined to offer aid.

He sighed. He lived and worked among humans, even counted some as friends, but he would never understand them as long as he lived.

“May I help?” he asked and the young woman blinked slowly. Behind her glasses, her lashes were impossibly long and dark over her tilted brown eyes, creating a striking resemblance to a startled doe.

His wolf took notice.

“Uh, thanks. I seem to be stuck.”

He smiled at the statement. That was the entire reason that he had offered his help. She had the determination, it was clear, but not the brute strength required to shift that behemoth of a chair wedged into her tiny car.

“If I move out of here, maybe you could get in and give the chair a shove?” she asked. “All I need is to get it started and then I’ll be fine.”

Balke shook his head.

“That will not be necessary.”

He reached into the car and grasped the chair firmly. With a great heave, he freed it from its confinement and pulled it out. He stepped back and tossed it over onto the side of a large pile of broken and similarly ugly old furniture.

It was perhaps too far for a human male to have thrown the heavy chair, but Balke’s wolf had decided to impress the pretty female. He tried to hold back but his wolf was determined.

That had never happened to him before. His wolf was normally very well-behaved.

The young woman scrambled out of the car and stood beside him, strands of hair blowing in the light wind.

“Wow,” she said.

Balke inhaled to speak but his smile froze in place as his cock hardened with a speed that shocked him, and his fangs dropped to full extension. His wolf lunged against his control, wanting to get closer to her.

That had never happened to him before, either.

He had seen beautiful women and felt the usual attraction, even arousal, but to have his body and his wolf lurch out of control at the same moment, and over a woman who looked almost too young to vote? He couldn’t credit it.

The young woman looked over to where he had thrown the chair.

Her slight movement brought her scent to him again and he took it in slowly, tasting every aspect. He looked her over from head to toe, taking in the slender, tempting curves, the glossy brown hair, and fine-grained ivory skin.

The gifts of his grandmother’s blood whispered in his soul in a powerful echo of what he already sensed. His instinct had awakened with a vengeance. It was unexpected, but there could be no mistake.

He was looking at his mate.

With wide eyes, she looked up at him and pointed over to the chair, seeming too startled to say a word.

He followed her aim.

When the chair had smashed onto the ground, the ugly upholstery on the seat had burst open. There was a large square bundle lying half on the ground, and another behind that. What Balke sensed from the packages outside of the woman’s layered sweetness made him grimace in disgust.

“Drugs,” he said flatly. The unpleasant scent set his wolf pacing, prowling to get out.

Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment. When she opened them, she sighed.

“Damn. No wonder it was so uncomfortable,” she said.

Her heartbeat picked up speed and her eyelashes fluttered as the realization of the trouble she could be in seemed to strike her.

Those soft doe eyes turned to him again with a hint of fear.

“Drugs? What am I going to do? There were drugs in my chair. I’ll be arrested for sure. Nobody in their right mind would believe I didn’t know about the drugs. Why else would I try to get rid of it?”

Balke thought it was much more likely that if she had known about the drugs, she would have been involved in selling them, but he stepped up and took her flailing hands in his.

“Have you touched this package?”

“No, I didn’t even know—how could I know—I’ve never touched it at all, unless you count sitting on it for a couple of weeks. And I didn’t even do much sitting because it’s so ugly I just wanted it gone. I’ve only had that apartment for two weeks and the chair was there when I got there. They didn’t take it when they moved out. Why didn’t they take it?” Her voice got faster and higher until she ended on a squeak.

Paradoxically, as she grew more panicked, Balke felt the tension leave him. He had seen the damage drugs could do and he would have been deeply disappointed if his fated mate had been involved with drugs in any way.

Her obvious anxiety made it clear that she had no previous knowledge of the drugs.

“I have not touched the package, either. So, the answer is simple. We call the police.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Iselle pressed another kiss to his carnal mouth.

“Don’t you dare stop on me now,” she said fiercely. “I haven’t felt like this in”—she paused to try to think, but he had scattered her thoughts with his incredible combination of strength and gentleness—“ever.”

She grabbed two handfuls of his hair and pulled him back to where she wanted him. His mouth was a dark dream she wasn’t ready to give up, and the kiss he gave her then was scorching.

Her hips rocked against his, and she felt the unmistakable ridge that gave evidence his body at least was ready. Her pussy softened in a rush of moisture and she moaned softly. She wanted something she couldn’t name, and she wanted it from him alone.

“Don’t stop.”

Balke drew back to look into her eyes.

“Iselle, we just met. I know how I feel, but I never want to you look back and regret—”

“Please,” she interrupted. “I need you right now. I need you—” She was going to say forever, but she had only met him a few hours ago, and she didn’t want to frighten him away. “I need you,” she repeated.

He dived for her mouth and swept her into his arms.

Iselle’s world turned upside down and then he set her down on the old carved oak bed and stretched out full length on top of her. One powerful leg slid in between hers and she gasped at the fire of her body’s response, so much better in the new position.

His mouth moved to her throat and he licked over her pulse.

“I need you.”

“What’s your hurry?” he asked and she curled into him in silent demand.

He surrounded her. She breathed him in with every inhale and his scent was delicious.

With quick swipes of his hands, he got rid of her shirt and bra then her jeans and panties.

He pulled away for a moment and came back naked. He took hold of her wrists and slowly pulled her hands over her head until she moaned and rubbed her breasts unashamedly against his hard chest.

One muscled leg insinuated itself between hers and massaged in circles. The rough hair over the hard muscle of his leg teased her every bit as much as his hot mouth sucking at her nipple.

She whimpered and twisted slowly in the fire of his touch.

Iselle’s thighs fell open around his hips, exposing the tender entrance to her body. He had her pinned beneath his rock hard heat until all she could do was to curve up to him and ask for more. And he delivered more than she had ever thought possible.

With one quick twist of his narrow hips, he penetrated her body and held there, halfway inside. She panted, but she couldn’t drag in enough air. He felt huge, and he wasn’t even inside her all the way.

He gripped her hips and pushed firmly into her abundant wetness. Her helpless cry at his invasion was muffled against the thick muscle of his shoulder. He was too big and her body arched involuntarily, trying to adjust. The movement pulled him deeper, and suddenly they fit.

She breathed out a sigh that was his name.

As he began to move, his thickness stretched her pussy a little at a time and sent heat glittering up through her belly.

She had always thought of green as a cool color, but now her body burned in the brilliant light of his eyes.

Eyes locked, Balke rocked into her softness over and over in shallow thrusts that drove her mad until she was rising to meet his body with every solid entry. The slick glide of his flesh into hers made her skin tingle in reaction.

He leaned in close and nibbled on her earlobe with careful teeth. Heat flooded through her from her nipples to her pussy and she gasped. Who knew that ears could be so sensitive?

She arched and begged, demanding more and more. She tried to speed him up, but he held to his leisurely pace no matter what she did to entice him. Beyond thought, she cried out and bounced under his busy hands and hot clever mouth.

Her world spun in slow circles to the rhythm he commanded.

She grabbed the hair at the back of his head to have something concrete to hold onto and pulled his mouth back to that spot on her throat where he had tormented her just moments ago. He groaned harshly in her ear then his mouth fastened on the tender spot with electrifying pressure.

Iselle anchored one hand in his hair and held him to her throat as sensation swamped her and she moaned long and high.

Looking for purchase, her other hand slid on his sweat-slick shoulders and down. With a rising moan, she gripped his thrusting hips, riding the momentum of his powerful body as he lunged slow and hard, over and over.