An Everlasting Bite (2 page)

Still, she hadn’t had the chance to go and see him yet, since she was too unstable as a werewolf. The danger for him was too great if she shifted before his eyes. She wouldn’t risk his life. But it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. She missed him with an ache in her heart that left her empty.

Luckily, someone had made it his job to fill that ache. Her mate Briggs, who nuzzled his damp nose into her side.

It’s a strange thing to meet your soul-mate and instantly fall in love, but that’s exactly what happened. Briggs couldn’t have said it better in the conversation with Nexi and Kyden—
your destined mate overrules everything else. Trust is born in the very
moment you accept it.

Not only is he sweet, but also sexy as hell. She couldn’t have chosen a better mate for herself. Letting fate take the wheel wasn’t a hard thing to do.

He brushed up against her again. The contact with his nose on her side was an instant connection to force the change within her. Her breath caught as the pure rush hit, sending her elongated vision to become foggy. The sharp scents around her returned to normal levels, and her hearing hushed as she found her human form.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t anything painful about the transformation. Just more of a shift in senses—everything weakened as a human. Within seconds of the blast of magic, the change occurred. No bones breaking or muscles tightening, it was over before Rynn even knew it began. As an added bonus, after the shift, her clothes appeared back on her body. How that worked, Rynn still hadn’t figured out, but she was glad for it. Walking around in her birthday suit didn’t hold much appeal.

When her eyes opened, she found Briggs’ smile. His yellow eyes were tight with joy, his sharp angled face was cocked to the side with his brown hair spiked messily, and his lips were soft and inviting with a perfect curve.

He made everything all right—everything less scary. She felt right where she belonged. No matter what happened, she would always have him to make life good.

Sometimes hearing how quickly love can be taken away, as she’d seen with Kyden and Nexi, made her appreciate just how lucky she is.

“Getting easier to shift isn’t it, darlin’?” Briggs asked.

Rynn gave a half-hearted shrug. “A little, but I think it’s because of your touch. I doubt I could do that without it.”

“My contact is just helping filter the magic through our bond, stabilizing you. Don’t worry, it will come. Just give it time.”

Time.
That was the thing. They’d spent days working on controlling her wolf and getting to know each other, considering they were together for a lifetime.

A long lifetime at that. That’s just another surprise she had to swallow. Werewolves were immortal, which meant, she was too. Having Briggs around made the acceptance easier. A thousand life times with him wasn’t hard to take.

He said that he’d be everything she needed or wanted, and he sure lived up to it. His focus was for her alone and it’d been a long time since she had someone to depend on.

After a sigh of settlement, she glanced out to the beauty around her. Valor’s log ranch style house was her home now, located in Cache Valley, Utah, set deep in a valley surrounded by evergreens and uninhabited land.

She couldn’t argue it was a big step up, and one she’d become quite used to. After Pops got sick, which was close to her eighteenth birthday, she ended up living on her own. Needless to say, it is far from glamorous.

The money Pops had gathered through his life was scarce and only provided for a year of his care. With the few hundred left over, she moved into a one-room suite at
Hotel Shit Hole
with lovely neighbors such as drug addicts, strippers and runaways.

As friendly as the runaways were, she couldn’t connect with them. She would have given anything to have a family that loved her. And even more, ones who remembered her.

So that was her life. Working at a coffee shop, restaurant and a bar to keep the bills paid at the nursing home, keep her fed, a roof over her head and clothes on her back.

Mindless work, but she needed the money and slapped a smile on her face every day. No matter how sad she felt inside.

Now, experiencing all this, going back to the slums didn’t appeal to her and there wasn’t a single thing she missed about Plymouth, Minnesota.

Briggs sighed deeply, drawing Rynn’s gaze. He focused on their joined hands. As of late, this uneasiness in him grew. If she hadn’t been able to sense it through their mate bond—which was just an added bonus, saved the unknowns in the relationship—she’d see it written hard on his face. “What’s wrong?”

He glanced out to the paddock of horses that rested alongside Valor’s home. Then, he looked back to meet her gaze. “I have a duty that I need to return to.”

“You have to go back to work?” Rynn asked with hesitation. She understood that he worked for Valor. Briggs was his Beta—what that all entailed she still wasn’t sure.

His nodded softly. “Valor has been kind to let me have a few days off so I can be with you and tend to your needs, but it is necessary that I return in my duties to him.”

Fear tingled through her and tension filled her body. She couldn’t be without him.

This crazy situation was only okay with him beside her. He couldn’t leave her alone—

ever.

Without warning, a familiar sense of power sucked her breath back into her body.

Her stomach clenched, her entire body shivered as a loud moan escaped her mouth. Her senses sharpened.

Shoot!

Briggs’ smile was kind as he looked down to her now fluffy form. “Now don’t go doing that.”

This was a perfect display of why seeing Pops was out of the question. When her emotions ran high, she’d shift. A big no-no in the werewolf world. They never shifted in front of humans. Their existence a secret for obvious reasons, since humans are curious creatures, and who knows what they’d do to werewolves if they captured one.

Briggs caressed her furry head slowly, giving her a chastising look. “You’ll come with me wherever I go.”

Rynn leaned into his hand. Instantly, it calmed and settled her nerves. His touch felt wonderful. But it was only good, if he moved slowly. If he rushed it, it was game over.

She was still shaken by her attack and touches still scared her.

Had she dealt with it? No.

Did she want to? No.

Was she going to have to? Yes.

But not right now.

Briggs’ voice was low and soft. “Come back to me now.”

Rynn closed her eyes and let the magic release. Calmness washed over her as she focused back on her human form—remembered her features, the senses a human holds—

the weakness of it. Briggs’ touch helped. His contact seemed to steady the magic. Force it out. It took a few minutes, but she eventually shimmied back to herself.

“I get to come with you?” she whispered, glancing down.

He placed a finger under her chin, lifted her gaze to meet his. “You think I’d leave ya behind?”

The look on his face told her how ridiculous that notion that was, but how could she think otherwise. “I did.”

His fingers left her chin, softly caressed the edge of her jaw. “I know you haven’t had anyone to count on in some time, and those that you should have been able to count on have failed you.” Fierceness flashed through his eyes. “I will not be one of them. You can trust in that.”

She sighed, from the pain of truth those words held, but also from the knowledge that she could always depend on Briggs. It was nice to have that to rely on.

A growl rose from deep in his throat. “It disgusts me to hear of your upbringing.” He shook his head in revulsion and dropped his hand from her face. “Those parents of yours.”

“It’s not really their fault, you know,” she replied in earnest. “They can’t help it.

Drug addiction is a disease. I don’t hold anything against them for it.”

Briggs’ jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed. “You are very kind to offer them forgiveness for mistreating you. No matter how you look at it, that is exactly what they’ve done and in the eyes of some that can never be forgiven.”

His eyes flashed angrily. “Especially by me.”

Briggs waited patiently for Rynn to return from her bath. He sat in a recliner in the bedroom Valor allowed them to use, clad only in his jeans.

He was tired of sleeping in the chair next to the bed, but it was the right thing to do.

He knew to keep a safe distance from Rynn.

She wasn’t ready for
that
kind of contact. Not after what she’d been through. The fear of physical contact sat deep in her eyes. No matter how much he craved to take her, claim her, his needs would have to wait. His only concern was to heal her battered soul, and he could fight the desire he felt for her while she was healing. Since meeting her, he always slept in the chair beside the bed. Close enough without scaring her.

His mind swirled with the implications of what might come when he returned to his duties. Not only the danger Rynn would be in, but because she was still unclaimed by him. Yes, they were bonded, but they had yet to seal their bond physically. It was not the ideal situation to be introducing her to the other wolves, especially the non-mated ones.

But he wouldn’t rush her. Not now. Not ever.

With his feet propped up on the bed, he leaned his head back and sighed. The house was quiet tonight. Now that Valor’s daughter Isla was gone—since being mated to the Texas Alpha, Thor, earlier this evening—loud voices went with her.

Isla, a natural beauty, was the closest thing he had to a sister. No one was perfect and Isla’s personality was anything but pretty. She had the tendency to be obnoxious, intrusive and pushy but always meant well. Having her gone, though, was a nice peaceful time for him. The only trouble was that he doubted she’d be gone long.

Dante, Valor’s son, was the other wolf who lived on the grounds and was always coming and going. Valor was away tonight handling wolf business. Not only did he lead the Utah pack, but being responsible for the Alphas kept him far from home. Briggs’

absence meant Valor would be wearing thin—hence the necessity for him to return to Valor’s side soon.

Normally, the house was full of Utah pack members needing some sort of assistance, workers that took care of the very large and busy home. Labeling it a hotel would be a better fit.

Tonight though, it was perfect. Briggs inhaled the peace with joy.

The bathroom door suddenly opened. When he lifted his gaze, he perused Rynn as she walked into the room, wearing some cute pajamas with wolves decorating the pants.

Isla and her sense of humor. He’d prefer to see Rynn in a black lace teddy, but doubted he’d be able to control himself if she did.

“I contacted Valor while you were bathing,” he told her as she strode across the room. “We’ll be joining him tomorrow at the gathering.”

“Where will we be going?” She climbed into bed, pulled the blankets around her and turned on her side to face him.

How beautiful she looked, her dark hair resting against the pillow, bright silver eyes twinkling with curiosity. “To a lodge near here, but I thought I would take you home in the morning before we go.”

Those pretty eyes lowered in confusion. “Isn’t this our home?”

He shook his head. “No. This is Valor’s home. He’s been generous to allow us to stay with him.” He leaned forward and ran his fingers slowly down her arm, needing nothing more than to just touch her. “He wanted us close to be sure you were well. It’s our choice now if we want to stay with him or go home.”

Rynn shuddered a little from his touch, watched his finger as it danced on her skin, then glanced back to him. “Well, where is home?”

“Not far from here, just a couple miles or so.” It pleased him to see flickers of arousal in her, even if she wasn’t quite ready to act on it. He liked knowing that he stirred her up a little.

“So, this home of yours…” she said, her tone expectant. “It’s only yours. No one else lives there?”

He nodded, quite taken by her sweet perplexed look—very curious as to what intrigued her so. “It’s ours.”

She shot up, yanked the blankets off and headed for the door.

“Going somewhere?” Briggs laughed, pulled his legs off the bed to stand.

At the door, she glanced over her shoulder, smiled brightly. “Sure am. We’re going home.”

Briggs didn’t hesitate. He followed behind her as she practically trotted out of the house. Once outside, she looked at him and waited until he nodded toward the garage.

Again, she hurried off, leaving Briggs to chuckle behind her as he quickly slipped his feet into his work boots sitting by the door.

The moment they entered the garage, Rynn froze. She glanced back at Briggs, wide-eyed. “Is that yours?” Her voice rolled with excitement as she looked back toward his sleek black racing motorcycle.

“It is.” Briggs made his way to the center of the garage where the bike rested. At the bike, he straddled it and glanced back at her.

Rynn stood, doe-eyed, the scent of lust wafting through the air. Well, well. His mate liked the sight of him half-naked on the bike. He’d have to remember that. He said nothing about it, not wanting to embarrass her and waved her over. “Hop on.”

“Right,” she responded, with a cute little shake of her head. She made her way to him, then sat in behind him.

He reached back, took her by the hips and pulled her in tight against his back. With her secure, he brought his hands back to the handlebars.

“Hold on tight, darlin.” The bike roared to life with a crash down of his foot.