Lauren smiled, at the word court, he guessed. Being so much older than her, it was a word that made sense to him, but was probably lost on her. Well, maybe not lost, but foreign. Dating was a stupid word to him though. He didn’t want to fucking date her. He wanted to mate her. And courting was the only stage before that.
“I was practically crawling out of my skin the past couple months,” she confessed quietly, rubbing her cheek against his chest. “Work was the only thing that kept me sane. When the opportunity to come back here to steal the jewels was brought up by one of my cousins I jumped at the chance. Not…for my sister, but because I wanted to see you again. I don’t think I even admitted that to myself until just now.”
Max could scent the truth rolling off her so potent it was a punch to his senses. The thought of scent triggered something else in him. “When I first scented you, you seemed surprised that I could smell you.”
Lauren was silent for a long moment, her cheek resting against his upper body as she moved with the steady rise and fall of his chest. Finally she lifted her head. “I have some rare qualities and one of them is that I can cover my scent completely when I want. I have to concentrate harder than normal, but I can do it. There are only a few others like me and according to them, only their mates can scent them all the time. When I realized you could scent me, it freaked me out because you’re a wolf and I’m a jaguar. My cat seemed to recognize you on a primal level but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Of course you just won’t take no for an answer.” Her smile matched the teasing of her last statement.
“I won’t. My wolf has already accepted you and the past couple days have already proved correct what my inner animal already sensed; that you’re perfect for me.”
“You don’t care that I’m a jaguar? You realize that if—and this is a big hypothetical—we have cubs one day, we could have jaguars.”
Instinctively he reached between their bodies and placed a hand over her abdomen, his fingers slightly clenching against her bare skin. “As long as they’re healthy, I don’t care.”
Her smile grew then, transforming her entire face as she kissed him. It was a raw, primal dancing of tongues that told him they were in for a long night. The first of many. It didn’t matter that they had a lot to learn about each other, they had a hell of a long time to figure everything out and Max planned to start memorizing each and every nuance of her body starting right now.
Epilogue
Two months later
Lauren could feel Max’s gaze on her butt as she pulled another covered dish out of the oven. “You better be arranging those vegetables and not watching me,” she said without turning around.
He snorted and a second later as she was placing the dish on the counter, Max was right behind her, moving with the stealth of a wolf. He nipped her ear as he slid his hands down her sides and settled on her hips, pulling her backside tight against his hardness. “I bet we have time for a—”
“You better not say quickie.” Turning in his arms, she smacked him with one of her oven mitts. “This is important!”
Grinning in that wicked way she loved, he brushed his lips over hers sensually and she almost melted in his arms.
Almost.
But her parents, sisters—including her oldest sister’s new mate—and Lauren’s new alpha and his mate were coming for dinner. It was the holiday season, but Thanksgiving had passed a week ago. This was just about getting two alphas together—her father and her new one—and showing her new pack, which still felt weird to say since she was a jaguar, that there was no ill will between the Hayes pride and the Kincaid pack.
Ever since all that insanity with Naomi, Lauren had integrated well into the Kincaid pack. Of course Max had been the reason everything went smoothly. If anyone even thought about looking at her wrong, he growled at them in that deadly way of his. As of a week ago she’d finally got her newest day spa up and running in Gulf Shores. Most of her employees were pack members, though she had a few human hires too. Hiring packmates had been a big sign of how serious she was about staying here. Of course now that she and Max had officially mated—which was stronger than human marriages in so many ways—and his scent was embedded under her skin until one of them died, it was pretty damn clear she was staying anyway. If she even thought about the night they’d mated, with him taking her hard from behind, biting her as she came, her body turned into a quivering mess of desire.
“I know it’s important,” Max murmured, pulling her flush against his body as he leaned down and began nibbling on her ear. “I’ve just missed you all day and I can scent how much you want me.”