The Mating(76)

Kane sniffed her again. “I don’t know. Your own scent is muted and there’s this floral smell. It’s sort of familiar, but I can’t place it.”

Okay. This was her chance. Gathering her courage, she began her explanation. “It’s that new perfume Marla gave me. You see, she had this silly idea that—”

A hot mouth suddenly cut her off. Kane’s tongue invaded her mouth, gently stroking then retreating, teasing her lips and driving all thought from her mind. He slowly pulled away and moved to nibbling at her ear. “Oh yeah. I remember that now. It was nice of her, but I like your own scent better. Don’t wear this stuff too often, okay?”

Elise nodded and tried to refocus on the topic of Bryan but Kane was now biting and sucking on the cords of her neck causing shivers of delight to course through her. Involuntarily her hips moved against him. All right. Maybe this wasn’t the time. But later on tonight, she’d definitely let him know.

She ran her hands across his shoulders and down his back, luxuriating in the feel of his smooth skin and solid muscle. A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Hey! I think you forgot something when you shifted.”

“Hmm? What?” Kane was now biting at her breast through the material of her shirt and Elise had difficulty concentrating.

“Your clothes, silly. You forgot to think ‘clothes’ when you phased back.” Elise giggled. Only an inexperienced young Lycan would forget to magick back their clothes when changing forms.

“No I didn’t. I purposely left them off. The sight of you on all fours with your rear end pointed up to the ceiling was what had me changing into my wolf in the first place. I have great plans for us.” His hands began to work their way under her top and she grabbed his wrists to stop him.

“Appealing as that might sound, it’s almost dinner time.”

A rumble worked its way up from deep in Kane’s throat. “They can eat without us. I’m in no condition to leave this room without mating you first.”

His words had her dropping her gaze to his lower anatomy where a certain part of him was validating his statement. A rush of excitement flowed through her and she felt her body readying itself faster than she’d ever thought possible. Yep, her heat was definitely coming on. As she frantically began helping Kane peel off her clothes, she decided that this next week might prove to be the most exciting one of her life.





Chapter 22





When they finally made it downstairs, dinner was over and everyone had gathered in the game room. Elise apologized to Helen for their absence at the table, but the older woman just smiled knowingly. “Don’t worry about it, Elise. There’s some leftover pasta in the fridge, despite the best efforts of those two,” she nodded towards the group who were circling the pool table. “Thankfully Daniel and Franz didn’t eat us out of house and home this time.”

The two young men in question grinned and Franz called out, “We’re growing boys. We need our food.”

Giselle, who was also there, simply rolled her eyes, and resignedly shook her head.

“Are you sure you want to be bonded to this one, Giselle?” Kane asked from his position leaning against the doorframe.

“I ask myself that question every day.” She responded dryly. Franz affected a wounded pose before turning back to his game.

Rose was standing in the corner observing the others and being her characteristically quiet self. When the girl glanced her way, Elise gave her a friendly, encouraging smile. Just because Rose was near the bottom of the hierarchy, there was no reason not to acknowledge her. In fact, Elise was sometimes uncomfortable with the whole ranking system. It went against the Western culture they lived in, yet it was an instinctive wolf habit to develop a pecking order.

With some surprise, Elise realized that rather than smiling back, Rose was looking at her rather oddly. As their eyes met, Rose looked her up and down and then, seeming to find her worthy of contempt, the usually shy girl pointedly turned her back. Elise felt a brief flare of anger combined with shocked disbelief at the girl’s actions, and it took her a moment to push down the desire to march over there and demand an explanation. So much for her ideals of equality! Glancing around, she saw that no one else had witnessed the exchange. Had it actually happened? She quickly replayed the event. No, she hadn’t imagined it.

Elise’s mind raced trying to find an explanation. Was Rose attempting to assert herself and move up in the pack? If she was, picking on the Alpha’s mate was certainly not the place to start! Maybe it was her own fault, Elise speculated for a moment. She wasn’t the most aggressive individual and her rank had usually been guaranteed by association— first , due to her father and now because of Kane— rather than her own strong personality. Possibly, she should be asserting herself more and letting others know where she stood, though with the exception of Marla that first morning, no one had really challenged her; they just instinctively accepted her position.