* * *
She was back. Her sexy scent drifted out the open window and burrowed into Riel’s heart, making him want to howl. After five long years waiting for her to return, she was finally back. Samira. His mate.
“Yo, Ry. You still on this planet with us?” Troy’s voice broke though his thoughts.
Riel turned back to Troy, who sat around the pool with the rest of their friends, enforcers for the Black Meadows pack.
“Ry? You OK?” Kane puckered his brow. He glanced up at the window Riel had been watching, then sniffed and widened his eyes. “Is that Samira Suarez? I haven’t seen her since she was here that summer after she came home from college.”
Riel wanted to run over to her house and take her. She was his. She didn’t know it when she left, but she belonged to him. It didn’t matter that she was human. His wolf wanted her and had been waiting patiently for her return. No longer. He nodded and fisted his hands. “Yes.”
Kane studied him, lifting his brows with curiosity. “What are you going to do about her? She’s always been very shy of shifters. I’d swear she’s afraid of our kind.”
Riel knew it probably had to do with her mother. Samira’s family was one of the few that knew about them, because Sam’s mother had been friendly with wolf shifters before she’d died. “I’ll have to give her time to get to know me.” How the hell he was going to do that, he had no clue.
Kane laughed. “I remember the first time you tried to talk to her. She took off before you got to say a word.”
“She was young and shy,” Riel grumbled.
Kane continued to laugh.
Troy strode up to them. “Are we talking about Sexy Sam Suarez?”
Riel growled at Troy for the “Sexy Sam” remark. He’d had to endure their teasing since they’d realized he was infatuated with her. More like puppy love in the first degree. At least neither of them had tried to date her, or he would’ve had to kill them. Sam was his.
Kane sipped his beer. “Uh-huh. Remember the second time he tried to talk to her?”
“Do I? She had just come home from college. Riel, that time you got two words in before she took off like a bat out of hell, didn’t you?” Troy joked.
Riel sighed. They were having fun at his expense, and he didn’t like it one bit. “It was a busy time in her life. She was going off to volunteer in Somalia.”
Troy slapped Riel on the shoulder. “I know. The funniest part was how you tried to puff your chest out like a Big Bad Wolf, but that didn’t help you at all. It seems to me you’re going to have to tie the woman down if you ever hope to get a full sentence in around her.”
Riel groaned when Sam’s scent filled his lungs. His cock hardened with just a whiff of her. He wanted her. No, he needed her. He marched back to the loungers and dropped on one of them. It was late afternoon, and he wished his usual gathering with his friends was already over. He needed time to think, to decide on how to approach Sam without scaring her into leaving again.
Kane grinned. He sat on another lounger, leaned back, and folded his arms behind his head. “Hey, maybe tying her up isn’t such a bad idea. Some women are into that. Shit, some women beg me to tie them up.”
Troy smirked. He sat on one of the stools by the outdoor bar, stretching his legs and leaning back on the counter. A bucket with ice and cold beers sat on the surface. He shoved his hand into the ice and pulled out a wet beer bottle. “Yeah most of them are also in heat, dumbass. You know when the heat strikes they get so horny they’d hump a cactus in desperation. This is a human female. Although, I have to say she’s got a fantastic body, all lush. Those curves that make men drool, and she smells great.” He sniffed. “Almost like one of ours when in heat.”
Riel growled and jerked up in his seat. His animal hadn’t liked another male talking about his woman. Claws pushed out of his fingers, and his canines lengthened. He eyed Troy as if he were a new threat.
“Relax, Ry.” Troy lifted his hands in surrender. “I am only commenting on her scent because humans don’t normally smell so…hot.”
Riel blinked through the red haze of anger covering his vision. Rage pounded in his blood, jerking the wolf under the skin to break out. He clenched his jaw hard and spoke through gritted teeth. “She’s been in the jungle and through hell for a year. I don’t want to hear another word on how hot you think she smells.”
Troy opened his mouth to speak. “Ry—”
“Fucking A! I haven’t even seen her yet, and I’m losing my mind.” He groaned, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck.