The cats slunk out of the theater. Sophie stared wide-eyed at Ty. He’d rarely used that voice, and never at his pride leader, that she knew of. According to Julia, he and Burke were friends. What would tonight mean for the pride? Would Ty be in trouble for showing Burke and Rachel the door? Would Julia be in trouble because of her mate’s actions? Speaking of which… She didn’t see Julia with him. What was he doing at the movies without his mate? The pair were inseparable unless Ty was on duty.
He winked at her and took Burke’s seat. Directly behind Rafe.
Her date gave Ty a dubious look but said nothing more.
Sophie sighed, pleased and irritated. Pleased because her romantic night with Rafe had been ruined, and irritated for the same reason. Would he want to come home with her after the movie, or would he seek retribution against the pride for tonight’s drama? Was it a big deal, or had she made more out of the altercation than it warranted?
She didn’t like conflict and never had. Working to hide her unease, she stilled her trembling hands and placed them on her lap.
Rafe reached for her hand and gripped it in his—not hard, but enough to get her attention. Then they watched the rest of the movie together with a tension that refused to abate.
After it ended and they left to walk her home, she tried to think of how to end the evening on a peaceful note.
“Did you like it? Not all that fuss before the picture, but the movie itself?” Rafe asked.
At the moment, she couldn’t remember much of anything she’d seen. Sophie had spent her time trying to figure out how to handle an annoyed alpha.
“Y-yeah. It was funny.”
He gave her an odd look, and she suddenly recalled the plot.
“I mean, sad that she died at the end.” Her cheeks felt hot. “Funny as in, funny how life throws you curveballs sometimes.”
“I get that.” Rafe walked her up the stairs of her porch and stood with her at her front door. Nosey neighbors would be able to see them from across the street, but the few trees and tall bushes around her house gave her a sense of privacy many in town lacked. “This isn’t how I envisioned ending tonight.” He stroked her cheek.
She turned in to the touch, her wolf needing comfort.
“You’re so beautiful. So soft.” Rafe moved closer. The light above them gave his face sinister shadows, but the desire in his eyes didn’t scare her. Not now. Her wolf forced her to angle up for his kiss, curious and hungry.
His lips met hers. Pleasant, warm, but not tingly. He didn’t make her breathless, the way just watching Monty move did. And he didn’t turn her wolf into a quivering mess of desire. She had no urge to submit. Only to please her alpha, so she kissed him back. The bulge between his legs intrigued her. Holy hell, but she’d made a man hard and hungry. Sophie Tanner finally had a chance to feel like a real woman.
He groaned and drew her closer to deepen the intimacy when his pocket vibrated.
He broke the kiss and swore under his breath. In a raspy voice, he apologized. “Shoot. Sorry, honey. I have to take this.” He stepped away and barked, “Yeah?”
After a few moments, during which Sophie caught the words fucking cats, jail and Axel, Rafe turned to her with murder in his eyes.
She instinctively shrank back.
He reached for her, then let his hand fall to his side. “I’m sorry. Apparently a few of my pack met with the pride and all hell broke loose downtown. Now I have to go bail Axel out of jail.” His eyes flashed. “Do me a favor. If you see Monty GrayClaw, tell him I want to talk to him.”
“M-Monty?” She forced herself not to flinch when he drew a finger down her cheek again. It took her wolf a few moments to settle down, but her animal spirit finally relaxed.
“Never mind. I had a good time tonight. Before all those cats interfered.” He snorted. “He’s a smart one, I’ll give him that.”
“Rafe?”
He had the sense to kiss her on the lips—not the forehead—and wished her a goodnight.
To her surprising relief, he made no mention of a second date.
Chapter Four
Sophie unlocked her door, stepped through, and closed and locked it behind her. Baffled by what should have been a night to end all nights, she touched her lips, bemused that her wolf felt nothing more than calm about that kiss.
“He liked me, though. I felt it.” His erection proved she held some sort of attraction for the opposite sex. Or had he sensed what Gabby had called her heat? Sophie didn’t feel aroused. She had liked the kiss, though. Touching his lips, feeling Rafe’s body pressed to hers, had made her feel not so alone, a part of something more.
As she hung up her jacket in the closet and toed off her shoes, she wondered.
Being a member of the Gray Wolf Order hadn’t given her the same sense of belonging. But in Rafe’s arms, she’d felt cared for, if only for a little bit. Still, she’d expected to get carried away with lust. The adult movies that so intrigued her always showed the woman crying out for more. Sophie had been fine with Rafe leaving.
Acting, she thought, wishing she knew what to expect from real life. She was too embarrassed to ask Julia or Gabby what their sex lives were like. She knew they loved their mates, but the physical aspect of mating captivated her. She wanted so badly to experience the same relief from her hungers that other women did. Hungers that grew stronger with each passing month. She almost wished she could go back to seeing men as nothing more than problems, oppressive jerks out to keep her from truly living.
Stomping up the stairs and into her bedroom, she muttered a few insults against Monty, Rafe and men in general.
The scent of rage and male and wolf hit her too late.
Before she could turn and run, something huge and furious picked her up and tossed her onto her bed.
She tried to shriek, but a large, familiar hand covered her mouth. She froze and garbled, “Monty?” against his palm. She licked his flesh, and the salty taste of him woke her wolf from the sensual slumber she’d been in since the last time she’d seen him.
“Rafe fucking Sheridan?” He sniffed her all over, centering on her neck and lips. “You let that asshole kiss you?”
Still shocked that Monty was here, in her bedroom, covering her like a blanket, Sophie blinked up at him, speechless.
“He’s not for you. I am.” Monty kissed her before she could question him. And between one breath and the next, she lost her ever-loving mind.
Monty couldn’t stop his wolf. Not this time. The scent of another male on Sophie drove him insane. Just as soon as he claimed her, he was going to kill that son of a bitch, alpha or no alpha.
But damn, Sophie knew how to kiss. She tasted like warm brown sugar, so sweet and rich. Her lips were tentative at first, but as he slaked his hunger with her mouth, she returned the gesture while her hot little hands touched his chest and arms.
“God, yeah. Oh fuck.” Monty nipped her lower lip and put his mouth over her pulse, licking and sucking her flesh to make a mark. Mine, his wolf snarled, but he teethed her with a gentleness at odds with his violent frustration as Monty continued to work his mate into a state of arousal.
Her breasts pressed against him, her belly rubbing his erection with each gyration of his hips. The woman smelled so fucking ripe.
He had to have her.
He pulled away and looked down into her aroused, confused gaze.
“Monty? Why did you stop?”
The growl poured out of him, an aggressive response he couldn’t help. “Time to get undressed, baby. Time to stop dancing around this. I’m going to fuck you, take that sweet pussy and ass, and own you.”