Maggie's Wolves, Part One: A BBW Shifter Romance (Red Mountain Pack Book 1) (2 page)

Because she didn’t have a pack. She understood that part, but the rest of what he’d said… She couldn’t have understood him correctly. “When you say mate, you mean she has sex with the whole pack?”

“The alpha female has sex with all of the male members of her pack. Any child born to her is born to the whole pack, not to an individual male. We’re pack and that means we share our bodies and our skills, all of our resources and all of our gain.”

“And all packs work like that?”

“It used to be that adolescent males would be kicked out of the pack of their birth so they could go in search of a mate. In recent years, male shifters have started to form packs of their own. They’re not true packs, but they serve some of the same purpose. It’s hard living on your own in the human world.”

That,
she understood. Probably better than he did. “How many people are in your pack?”

“Five men. No women. We never expected to find a mate. Female shifters have been going human for generations now. There aren’t many male shifters left and females are even rarer.”

She looked at the fire as she considered that. Going human. It must have been what Aunt Tildy’s ancestress had decided to do. That explained the mystery of why Tildy’s branch of the family was human while hers was furry.

“My parents didn’t belong to a pack.”

“Your parents
were
a pack,” he said. “A very small one.”

And then there was her. She wasn’t a pack. She was just alone.

She looked up as she remembered something he’d said earlier. “You said I could make a decision after I heard what you had to say. What exactly did you mean by that?”

“I’m here.” He leaned forward, the chair creaking beneath his weight. “Which means you still have a choice. You don’t have to go human if you don’t want to.”

Oh, shit.
She went very still as his meaning sunk in. Her wolf rose to the surface with a triumphant howl, and it took every ounce of willpower Maggie had not to leap to her feet and lunge at the man who’d just offered up his body to her. Moisture gathered between her legs and it felt like she could actually feel the blood pulsing through her clit. Trembling, she fisted her hands in the blankets to keep herself from reaching for him. She had to be sure she understood him correctly. She had to
think
. She licked her lips and shivered when his gaze dropped to her mouth. “This mate thing is for life?”

He nodded.

“And you would really be willing to take me as your mate?”

The stranger looked calm, but that wasn’t what his scent told her. His scent said aroused male. And his wolf was very near the surface. There was a golden gleam to his eye that had nothing to do with the firelight.

“Technically, you would be taking me as a mate,” he said. “But I want you. On many levels, I want you. Tonight you make a choice—embrace the wolf and become the alpha female you were born to be or let her go to live as a normal human woman. I don’t have that choice. I’ll always be a shifter no matter what I do. I never thought to be given the choice on whether to claim a mate, but if you’re asking, I want to claim you.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I know you’re one of us, and that you’re alone without a pack. I know that I might never get the chance to mate again.”

She breathed a laugh. “So it’s a last shifter on earth thing?”

“Maybe,” he admitted, and she flinched at his honesty. He waited until she met his gaze again. “But I couldn’t have imagined a more desirable mate than the one fate provided.”

She blushed. “You don’t have to flatter me.”

“Is that what you think I’m doing? It’s not flattery. It’s just the plain truth. I want to bury my face between those gorgeous breasts of yours and between your thighs. I want to lick the cream I smell on you and see if you taste as good as I think. I want to fuck you, claim you, mark your skin with my teeth, my scent and my come, and then bring you back to my pack brothers so they can do the same. I want to plant my seed in your womb and watch you grow with my child. Whatever decision you make, that’s where I stand.”

Fuck. It took her a few moments to remember how to breathe.
Focus on the problem, Maggie.
She wanted everything he’d just offered, but this was forever they were talking about. And children… She’d never thought she would have children of her own.

“Couldn’t we just use a condom?” She might have one hopeful condom stashed away in her backpack. Or a man who looked as virile as this one probably bought them in bulk. He likely had women throwing themselves at him all the time, even if they were human and couldn’t join his pack.

“We could, and while it might ease your discomfort, it won’t bind us together as mates. And the effect on you would be the same as if you hadn’t had sex. You would still go sterile and your wolf would go dormant.”

The more she thought about that idea, the less she liked it. As much of a pain in the ass as her wolfy self had been over the years, she’d never once truly wished for it to be gone. She wanted acceptance, not to permanently cut off the part of herself that made her unique. She didn’t want to lose her only connection to the parents who had loved her so deeply and unconditionally. The instinct to mate was fierce and pressing, but she needed to think this through. It was an enormous decision to be forced to make without warning. Give up the wolf and become human forever or mate with this stranger and become part of his pack. Every instinct drove her to mate. Every rational thought urged caution.

She ran her gaze down the big body seated across from her. Everything about him was desirable. From the breadth of his shoulders to the smooth expanse of his abdomen. His cock was hard. It pressed against the front of his jeans in a thick, bold line. Her mouth went dry at the sight.  

“You think I will conceive? Now. Tonight?”

“Or during the next several days before your heat is finished. It’s likely, not guaranteed.”

“Tell me about the others.”

“There are five of us.” His voice, which had grown deeper as they spoke, now had a rough edge that was nearly a growl. The ache in her womb responded to the sound as a caress. “We run a wilderness adventure company. Case is the CEO. He’s also the oldest and can be a pain in the ass. I’m his second.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I do all of the work.” But there was a note of amusement in his tone that said he didn’t really mind. “Carson and Jack are the youngest, twenty-two and twenty-three. Carson’s the newest member of the pack. He’s only been with us a few months. Jack is a pilot. Declan is…Dec is something of a loner. His parents were survivalists and he’s the most comfortable of us all with living off the land. He’s closest to his wolf, but still human enough to need a pack.”

A pack. That’s what she needed too. What she’d always dreamed about having. People like her, who understood what it was like to be a shifter living in a human world. For the first time in a very long time, hope unfurled in her chest, along with a reckless surge of excitement. Aunt Tildy would severely disapprove, but then, Aunt Tildy had disapproved of a lot of things. “And you?”

“What else do you want to know about me?”

“A name would be nice.”

He laughed. “Eli Campbell. It’s a pleasure to meet you…”

“Maggie. Maggie Lewis.” She swallowed hard. “I think I want you to stay, Eli. If you’re sure you don’t mind.”

Chapter Three

Eli crossed the room faster than she could blink, erasing any doubts she had about whether he was sincere in his desire to mate with her.
Mate.
God, she could hardly believe this was really happening. His big body loomed over her as he took both her hands and pulled her to her feet. His jaw was set hard, and his eyes burned so yellow with his wolf that they seemed to glow. He cupped her face with both hands and then pressed his lips to her forehead so gently it felt like a benediction. When he pulled back, the expression on his face was both tender and fiercely triumphant.

“I claim you, Maggie Lewis, as my mate. Man to woman and wolf to wolf, you are mine as I am yours. My body I give to your protection and pleasure. My life to your service. My seed to our future. We are pack.”

Unexpectedly, tears came to her eyes, and she blinked them back. There was nothing about love in his promise, but she wouldn’t have believed vows of love from him right now anyway. Not when she’d met him less than an hour ago. For now, his vow was enough. More than enough.

“I don’t know the words…”

His gaze softened and he stroked his thumbs over the crest of her cheeks. “Just say you claim me.”

“I do. I claim you.”

His mouth descended on hers, hungry and possessive. When his tongue pushed between her lips to lick inside her mouth, she nearly came right then. Her fingers dug into his hard shoulders, and she pressed closer, lifting onto her toes to bring her hips into alignment with his. She was a tall woman, but he was taller by nearly a foot. His hands drifted down her back to close on the swell of her hips. His fingers flexed, squeezing her flesh in a rhythm that pulled a growl form her throat.

After a moment, he broke off their kiss. “If you want to save your clothes, you need to take them off.”

“Save them?” She asked, dazed.

“Take them off or I tear them off.”

Her hands shook as she obeyed, pulling her shirt over her head without any thought of seduction. As soon as he stopped touching her, the restless, needy sensation that had plagued her all day returned sharper than ever. She needed his hands on her body. Her nipples tightened to hard points as soon as the cold air hit her skin. She dropped the shirt and rubbed her nipples with her fingers, trying to soothe the ache.

“Let me,” Eli said, his voice rough. He cupped her breasts in his big hands and lifted them. He licked at one nipple and then pulled it into his mouth, caught the aching tip between his teeth and circled it with his tongue. When she slid her fingers into his hair, he moved to her other breast. She’d never thought her breasts were particularly sensitive, but Eli was proving her wrong. It was only his mouth, his tongue licking at her, his teeth pressing into her flesh, and it was so overwhelming she couldn’t imagine how she would survive actually having him inside her.

He lifted his head to look her in the eyes. “Your pants, too. All of it. I want to taste every last inch of your body.”

Right. Pants. She shoved them down her trembling legs along with her panties, and then pulled off her socks off too. When she was done, completely nude as she hadn’t been before anyone since she was a child, Eli sat down on the edge of the bed to look at her. His heated gaze swept down her body. She shifted, uncomfortable with his scrutiny and the loss of contact. Her hands rose to cover herself, but he leaned forward. Fast and sure as a wolf snatching up a rabbit, he caught her wrists and forced them down.

“No, Maggie,” he said softly. “Don’t hide from me. Please.” She looked up to see the wolflight in his eyes and something within her settled. “I just want to see you. You’re beautiful.”

“I’m—”

“Beautiful,” he repeated, drawing her closer. Turning his head, he lay his cheek to her belly. “Soft and perfect. Everything I ever dreamed of in a mate.”

She threaded her fingers through the soft strands of his dark hair. “This doesn’t seem fair. You’re still fully dressed.”

He laughed, his hot breath a caress against her skin. “If I take my clothes off, I’ll be inside you before my pants hit the floor.”

“I want to see you, too.”

He lifted his head. “Oh, you will.” He curled his big hands around the backs of her thighs and urged her forward until she was straddling his lap. “First, tell me what you like.”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” His brow furrowed. “You’re not… Have you done this before?”

She bit her lip, trying to ignore the feel of his hard thighs beneath her and the warmth of his hands on her hips. She shifted restlessly, trying to force his hands closer to where she really wanted them. He tightened his grip, his calloused fingertips pressing into her flesh to hold her steady.

“In a minute, sweetheart. I’ll take you there. This is important.”

“It’s not. There’s only one thing that I want right now, and you know what it is.”

He leaned forward and nipped at the top of her breast. When she yelped, he smiled at her. “We talk first. Have you ever had sex with a man?”

“No.” She was a twenty-year-old virgin. Eli was only the second man she’d ever kissed, and her first kiss had been five years ago while she was still in high school. It wasn’t easy getting close to people when you had secrets like hers. “I was always afraid I’d lose control of the wolf.”

“You don’t have to be afraid of what you are, not with me. You won’t shift during sex, if that’s what you were worried about, but that doesn’t mean you won’t feel the wolf under your skin. Let her join us. My wolf will be there too. There’s no reason to try to shut them out.” He smiled, and it was like the sun breaking out from behind the clouds. “I don’t think we could keep them out of this if we tried.”

He spread his legs, forcing her thighs wider and opening her to his touch. A shiver ran over her skin and she moaned softly. Good God, he felt amazing. Everything about him. It was like he’d been made especially for her.

His hands were big, strong and capable. His thick fingers should have felt rough against her sensitive flesh, but he was so very gentle, parting her folds and teasing the moisture from her body to ease his way.

He rested his head on her chest, his hair a soft tickle against her skin. He looked down at her body as he stroked her, gently circling her clit but never putting any pressure on it. She tried to push against his hand, but her position didn’t give her much leverage.

“You’re so wet,” he said in a rough voice. “Your clit all ripe and swollen. You were hurting, here in this cabin all alone, weren’t you?”

“Still. Hurting.”

He eased a single finger inside of her. She clenched around him, and he hissed. “You’re so damn tight.”

“Sorry.”

He laughed, though there was a note of desperation to the sound. “Don’t be sorry, sweetheart. I don’t want you sorry about anything, but definitely not about this. I’ll get you ready for me. Does this feel good?”

“So good.”

He withdrew slightly and then pressed deeper. It soothed the ache inside of her, but it wasn’t nearly enough. She needed more. When she began to move against him, he slid a second finger inside her.

She squirmed, and he kissed the side of her breast. “You’re doing fine sweetheart. God, you’re so beautiful like this. Your smell is driving me crazy, did you know that? I can’t wait to taste you right here.”

He circled her clit with his thumb and she groaned, rocking her hips to take more of him. He curled his fingers, stretching her, dragging his fingertips along the inner wall of her pussy. When he tried to add a third finger, her body tightened, resisting the intrusion.

“Let me in, Maggie.”

Two of his big fingers filled her completely. A third wasn’t going to work.

“It’s too much.”

“It’s not. I know how big my cock is, sweetheart. You can take it. I know you can.”

Turning his head, he caught her nipple between his teeth and pulled it into his mouth. Her hips jerked, sinking down to press against him. He slipped the third finger inside of her in a sweet sliding burn, and she stilled. He withdrew slightly, and when he pushed back inside, she decided that three fingers were just fine. Perfect. Well, almost perfect anyway. Now that he’d mentioned his cock, she wanted to see for herself if it was really as big as he said it was. If it would fill her up the same way as his fingers.

“That’s it.” He lifted his head from her breast. “Put your hands on my shoulders. Ride my hand. I’ll take care of you.”

His eyes fixed on her, dark and hungry, gleaming yellow with wolflight. She knew that if she looked in the mirror now her eyes would be glowing too. A normal human virgin would probably be scared to be the focus of such openly carnal attention, but Maggie wasn’t scared at all. Seeing the wolf so plainly on his face unlocked a door inside her that she normally had to keep sealed shut. Eli was a wolf just like her, and she didn’t have to hold anything back.

She liked his eyes on her. She liked his too-big, too-hard body. And she liked the wild light in his eyes as he pumped his hand into her pussy. She liked the growl that rose in his throat when she took charge and began to ride him.

His wolf trembled beneath his skin, that slight blurring shiver that always accompanied a change. He’d said they wouldn’t shift during sex, that it was okay for her to let go, and she trusted him. More than that, her wolf trusted him, and her wolfy side had always had better instincts about people than her human half. Her wolf looked at Eli and said “mate.”

The motion of his hand became rougher and more insistent. Instinctively, she tried to squeeze her thighs together, but Eli didn’t allow that. He kept her spread wide. His fingers sliding smooth and deep. He seemed to know just how to touch her, reading the responses of her body and adjusting his pace and pressure to drive her closer and closer to the edge. His thumb slicked through her folds and moved over her clitoris with a light touch. Gentle and sure, the perfect amount of pressure at exactly the right time.

Her orgasm came upon her in a deep powerful rush. She dug her nails into Eli’s heavy shoulders and dropped her head back as her body clenched around Eli’s fingers buried inside her. He pressed his open mouth to her exposed throat and continued to pump his hand. She felt the scrape of his teeth, but he didn’t break the skin. A growl rumbled from his chest, low and satisfied. It passed from his body into hers and made her entire body tremble.

When it was over, she sagged against him, panting. Eli stroked her back and whispered soothing words to her—about how beautiful she was and how he couldn’t wait to come inside her. When she recovered enough to speak, she lifted her head. His eyes were still wolf bright and his face was flushed with desire. His body as taut as a predator ready to pounce. Holding her gaze, he lifted his hand to his mouth and licked her juices from his fingers. She shivered, surprised to find that her orgasm hadn’t even taken the edge off of her desire for him.

“I want your clothes off,” she said, her voice hoarse and rough. It wasn’t a voice she recognized and she thought she’d never been so close to her wolf while still fully in her human form.

He smiled at the demand and stood, lifting her into his arms and then depositing her on the bed. “As my mate commands.”

She propped herself on her elbows to watch Eli undress. He stripped quickly, the tension vibrating from his body a palpable thing. She drank in the sight of him. He reached over his shoulder and pulled his shirt over his head and then shucked off his jeans with careless haste. Her mouth went dry. Black hair dusted his chest and narrowed to a line running down the tightly rippled muscles of his abdomen. His biceps were thick, his thighs powerful and strong. His cock was… She swallowed hard. His cock was uncut, perfectly shaped and proportional to the rest of him. Big. More than three fingers big, was her guess. No wonder he’d wanted to prepare her to accept him. A shadow of fear must have shown on her face, because Eli reached for her gently, cupping her jaw and lifting her gaze back to his face.

“I won’t hurt you, sweetheart. We’ll take this as slow as you need it to be. Let your wolf come out to play again. She’ll help.”

Sometimes, when it had been a long time between runs, her wolf retreated to a small corner of her soul like a hibernating bear. Maggie could always feel her presence, even during the long years when Aunt Tildy had prevented her from taking her wolf form, moving them away from the countryside and locking her up every night so Maggie couldn’t slip away. Now, it felt as if there was no barrier between her two halves. The human and the wolf were in complete agreement as to what they wanted to happen here.

Maggie rose to her knees and reached for Eli. He slipped his hand beneath the weight of her hair and curled his fingers around her neck.

“We can do this any way you want,” he said, his voice nearly a growl. “But this time, for our first time, I want to take you as a mate does.”

As a mate. She didn’t need to ask him what he meant by that because her wolf wanted the same thing. His weight on her back. His teeth at her neck. The strength of his body surging inside her. She wanted to wear his mark and have his scent pounded into her skin until it couldn’t be washed away.

Turning, she dropped to her hands and knees on the soft mattress and looked over her shoulder at him, feeling exposed and more shy than she had when his fingers had been buried inside her. Eli’s attention was riveted on her pussy, and there was a hard, hungry expression on his face. His hand reached down to close around his cock. He stroked himself, squeezing the base of his shaft and pulling toward the tip, his foreskin sliding beneath his palm. A pearly drop of moisture gathered at the head, and she licked her lips, wondering at the taste of him.