He shook his head. “You tell me. As shifters we’re good, but…”
“I’m a cat. I can’t get pregnant right now.” His eyes rolled back as she stroked him, playing with the amount of pressure, the speed.
Mark caught her wrist. “Stop.”
Wow. “How do you talk through your teeth like that?”
He grinned and leaned in to kiss her until she tingled all over. He rolled over her, nudging her thighs apart with his knees.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Tessa stared into his eyes as his cock slipped between her folds. Heat and pressure and something else slid into her, a sensory overload of pleasure. Of belonging.
His.
Together.
Mark buried himself all the way. Tessa lifted her legs around his waist and moaned in delight.
“This. This is only part of it.” Mark pulled his hips back so slowly, his cock teasing as it rubbed the perfect places inside. He rocked forward and her breath gasped out, forced by the depths of his possession.
The entire time he took her, he watched. His gaze drifted over her face, her torso. Hungrily memorizing her? Whatever it was, Tessa was on fire. It had never been like this before. Something deeper than physical connection wrapped around her. Drew them together.
Mark kissed her without missing a stroke. Harder drives now, his breath fanning past her cheek. His cock a hard point of pleasure taking her again, and again. Tessa arched up to add to the motion, squeezing her thighs, digging her heels into his ass until the sound of their bodies echoed through the room. Panting breaths, frantic motions.
A blinding rush of desire in her core burst out, pulsing around him and wringing his climax from him. Mark brought his teeth to her neck and bit down and…
There were no fireworks, no twirling lights. It was like being thrown from a massive height yet knowing there was a safety net to catch her. Mark was that net. Mark would always be there to catch her. Free fall, a rush of excitement that made her cat thrill and her human clutch his shoulders and rock.
“That was totally wicked…”
She’d meant to say it out loud, but her ears never heard the words.
Mark stiffened, though, as if she had spoken. His every muscle had gone tight, his teeth buried in her neck like his cock was buried in her sex. He jerked, the final pulses of his release escaping as he groaned.
“Tessa, oh damn, I can’t believe it.”
She was too bonelessly satisfied to bounce with excitement. “Whoa…I can hear you in my head.”
Mark licked her. Pressed his lips to the spot that radiated waves indicating something…other…had just happened. “Mate bond. This is it. You’re mine.”
Tessa nuzzled the side of his head until he twisted far enough their lips could meet. It seemed like the appropriate moment for a kiss. “I think this means you’re mine. After all, you are the one that’s labeled and all.”
Mark chuckled against her lips. “Semantics.”
She shook her head seriously. “No way. To a cat? Ownership is everything. You’re mine.” Tessa rocked her hips, pleased to discover that another one of the stories she’d heard about wolves and mates wasn’t a fable. “Hmm, you’re hard again.”
“I noticed.” Mark sighed wearily. “Guess we’ll just have to start all over and try harder.”
Tessa laughed before she caught his head in her hands. “I’m thrilled to be yours. And I’m going to love you more as time goes by. If you’re okay with that.”
His grin alone would have been enough of an answer—she was a quick study, she had figured out listening to what actions said was important.
Still, she couldn’t deny that the words he whispered through their mate bond gave her a thrill.
“As you wish…”
Chapter Ten
***December
Mark nodded at another pack mate, pointing directions. “Take the dish to the kitchen, and the tree is in the gathering area on the third floor.”
He stuck his head out the front door for a moment. The north wind howling over the piled-high snow made him even more grateful for the warmth of the house behind him. He raced up the stairs, bursting into the body-filled area of the main entertainment area. Everywhere the incredible sound of happy conversation and laughter competed with Christmas carols and the crackle of the fire.
Tessa bounded across the room to his side. She planted a huge kiss on his cheek, her arms circling him so naturally he sighed with contentment.
“Is that everyone you invited?” He glanced around the room. “Looks as if the entire pack is here.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Your high exalted ones had other commitments and couldn’t make it, but yeah, I think just about everyone else said yes. Nice turnout for our first soirée.”
“You’ve done an incredible job. Thank you for making my pack welcome.”
She beamed at him. “They’re my pack now too, you know.”
And they were. Somehow, she’d managed to bewitch the lot of them. Whether it had something to do with the fact he and Tessa were most definitely mates, or the way she refused to back down from trouble, things had worked out fine. There’d been a few displays of power in the pack house, but through them all Tessa had never lost her sense of humour.
Wolves liked that.
Tessa bumped him again. “Thanks for inviting my brother to come spend Christmas with us—I think he’s having a blast.”
She pointed to a corner where the massive blond cougar was draped over a chair, partially hidden from sight by the lady wolves fawning over him. Even more incredibly, there were a half dozen of the pack’s single male wolves all gathered around as well, none of whom were threatening to rip Tony apart for poaching.
Mark shook his head in disbelief. “How can he get away with that? I’m surprised no one has offered to find a deep crevasse and drop him into it.”
Tessa shrugged. “He’s got charm all right.”
Mark held on to his mate and gazed around contentedly, amazed how much difference a few months could make.
They’d turned the paddle wheeler into not only a B&B ready state, but a home. They’d done it together. The long table Tessa had told him she wanted graced the window-filled area, lights on the balcony sparkling against the darkness of the December night sky. To the right around the fire, Gramps rocked lazily, ruling supreme over the covey of his cronies.
The kitchen hadn’t changed much, except now it was filled with wolves all fussing with food and drinks—the kind of laughter and noise he’d often experienced at the pack house but less often here at home.
At least until Tessa had come along. He squeezed her tighter to his side, loving that she was there. Where she belonged. Together.
“I need your advice on something.” She tugged him toward the kitchen, smiling at random wolves and accepting their teasing good-naturedly. “Come on, Fido, out of my way.”
She hip-checked Keri. Gently, though, out of consideration for her best friend’s swelling belly. Keri shook her head and shifted her widening girth to the side. “My mate hears you’ve been manhandling me again, he’s going to give you hell.”
Tessa pulled out a tray of cookies and offered Keri one. “That’s an idle threat, and you know it. Your mate loves me. All the Granite Lake wolfies love their kitty mascot.”
Keri picked up a cookie and eyed it suspiciously. “Umm, yeah. Fine, you’re right. You’ve managed to brainwash everyone else into believing you’re the greatest thing since—”
“Flea collars?”
Mark stifled his amusement, at least until Keri lifted a cookie his direction, her one brow raised high. “Did you see what your mate baked for Christmas?”