Gage stared at the information in front of him. “They just let her go?” he asked, looking over to Logan.
The other man glanced up from the pages he was reading. “Apparently.”
Gage shook his head. “Something’s wrong here. They didn’t even try to keep track of her.”
Logan placed the papers he had in his hands on the sofa next to him. “This is not telling us anything. It leads to more questions than answers. You need to talk to this girl again.”
Gage nodded as he looked past Logan to the window in his office. Thoughts of Marissa Boyd had kept him up last night. The full moon was only six nights away, and every wolf got distracted as it came closer, but he was more than just distracted by this woman. If the hard-on he was sporting was any indication, he needed to do more with her than just talk. It’d been years since he’d felt this hot for any woman.
“Alpha?”
Snapping his head up, he didn’t miss the amusement all over Logan’s face. “I’ll go talk to her.”
“Elizabeth should still be teaching, so you should have all morning alone…so you can talk privately.”
Gage barely contained his groan. Not only had he been hard since first seeing this woman, but it seemed his Beta was determined to get him together with her.
“I’m just going over to talk to her,” Gage stood, stretching his back from sitting too long at his desk.
“Of course, Alpha,” Logan agreed, not bothering to hide his huge grin as he left Gage’s office.
If he didn’t satisfy himself with Marissa, maybe he would come back to the house and take Logan down a few notches. That wouldn’t take care of the most pressing problem but it might make him feel better.
He had a feeling that any amount of time spent with Marissa was going to test his control.
Marissa stood on her sister’s back porch, looking out at the woods that surrounded the house. It was so beautiful here.
She remembered a time when she hated having to be around crowds. In the time since she’d left her Pack, she had gotten used to people and the noise. What she had once hated now served the purpose of keeping her from having to admit that she’d never have what her sister did.
They used to stay up late talking in the room they shared about the perfect place to make a home. This territory was everything they’d wanted growing up and Elizabeth had finally found it.
Back then, Marissa still had hope that one day the Pack would accept her. She no longer carried that hope. It had been replaced by the bitterness that she didn’t belong anywhere. Even as the wind called for the wolf to run, she couldn’t.
The thick green grass cushioned her bare feet as she stepped onto it. The wolf inside moved restlessly to be let out. Her skin prickled and she shivered. The wolf needed to be released. Normally she would do this with sex, but this was not the place. It was going to be a painful and agonising week.
Moving farther away from the porch towards the edge of the trees, Marissa felt her wolf jump inside her skin. God, how she wished she could shift. Could let the wolf completely free like it wanted, like it needed.
But that wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t shift and no one had figured out how or why this happened to some. Her DNA was not like her sister’s or a mortal human’s. She was caught somewhere in the middle.
Resigned and unhappy, she turned back towards the house and stopped short when she noticed the man who stood on porch watching her. Her wolf growled its approval, demanding she take this available male.
Gage watched as Marissa’s eyes widened. She licked her lips, and his cock jumped in his jeans. He’d been surprised to find her staring into woods like she was ready to go running. He didn’t know much about non-shifters. They were not common. Only a handful of them existed. But the intensity of her stare was like that before a shift.
He quickly covered the distance between them. Marissa didn’t move away from him when he reached her. Her green eyes had started to glow.
“The wild calls to you?”
She nodded and licked her lips again.
“How does it make you feel? Not being able to shift?” He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to reach the woman, and the wolf, under the skin.
She looked so sad he wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her everything would be okay.
She cleared her throat twice before speaking. “Trapped.”
She had started shaking and he reached for her. “Does it hurt?” He couldn’t imagine how it would feel for his wolf to be trapped.
When she only shrugged a shoulder, he continued, “What can I do?”
Her gaze met his before dropping to his lips. When she sucked her bottom lip, he felt the last thread of his resolve slipping. Yanking her to him, he took control of her mouth. She didn’t fight him, but opened immediately. He plunged his tongue inside, dominating the kiss. Her low moan only drove him on farther, harder. With one hand wrapped in her hair, holding her head still, he used the other to bring their bodies closer.
Her lips moved against his. Her hands clawed at the shirt on his back. Knowing she was as out of control as he was amazing.
It seemed there was much more to this woman than he had thought. With one kiss he was afraid he had become addicted. She tasted like heaven.
She yanked at the soft black shirt he wore.
He moved his mouth to her neck where he nibbled the sensitive flesh.
“Yes,” she encouraged. “Yes.” Kneading the muscles on his back. Dragging her nails down painfully.
Gage hissed before lifting her so she could wrap her arms and legs around him, letting her rub against the steel rod hidden by jeans.
“Please.” She rubbed herself harder against him. “Please.”
Gage knew he should stop the mating before it went too far, but he didn’t. It wasn’t his wolf in control, but the man. And the man wanted this woman under him naked, bucking, begging, and the wolf was urging him on.
“Oh God. I’m burning for you. Please.” Marissa’s mouth was everywhere on him. He could swear he felt her canines lengthen as she licked and sucked his neck.
Hitching her higher around his waist, he walked deeper into the trees. They would give him plenty of cover as he took this woman.
Chapter Three
Marissa felt her back meet the grass as Gage laid her down. His weight quickly covered her, sending electric currents through her body.
His eyes met hers briefly before he reclaimed her mouth. This kiss wasn’t as forceful as the last, but more coaxing. As if he was trying to get her body to trust his. Her body didn’t care about trust—it just wanted him hard and fast.
When his mouth started to trail down, she took the opportunity to pull off his torn shirt. She yanked the remaining material from his body. He sat up between her legs and she felt his gaze burn into her as he slowly lifted the T-shirt she had dressed in earlier. He had more control, more patience than she did, and when Marissa raised her hand to help, he slapped it away.
“Mine,” he growled at her.
Marissa tried to close her legs in hope of relieving the ache between them, but he only spread his knees wider moving her legs with him. If she had been naked, she would have been spread out wide for him. The way she wanted to be.
“Gage. Now. Please now.”
He bent his head and smiled at her. “Giving the Alpha orders, little one?” He ran his tongue over the silky cup of her bra. “You shall be punished for that.”
When he licked one hard nipple through the silk, Marissa’s body jerked. “Oh please.”
Running his teeth over the opening clasp of her bra, he chuckled. “You will beg, little one. Before I am finished, you will beg.” He used his teeth to tear open her bra.