The Alpha's Daughter (27 page)

It was a bad idea. The damn grizzly bear was
faster than he looked. She got no more than twenty feet before he
pulled her up short by the back of her shirt that was flying free
behind her. The plastic buttons hadn't survived the change.

Neither had the rayon shirt. It disintegrated
in his hands and the sudden release sent Jazz sprawling. She
scrabbled to her feet and lunged ahead. He grabbed for her leg, but
all he got for his efforts was a handful of shredded capris. Jazz
laughed at this small victory. Griz stumbled behind her and she
sprinted forward.

Her laughter became a yelp as he tackled her
from behind. He grabbed her about the waist, turned and rolled with
her and thus took the impact of the fall. Jazz took advantage of
his breathy 'oomph' and threw her body forward. When her knee hit
the ground, she pushed off with her other foot, ready to run
again.

She should have known that a little 'oomph'
wouldn't slow Griz down. He slung his arm around her again, this
time where legs met torso, and lifted. Jazz was folded over his arm
like a waiter's towel, her feet and hands hanging uselessly. She
relaxed her body, hoping the dead weight would be enough for him to
lower her the few inches she needed to touch the ground. She should
have known better about that, too.

Griz hoisted her up and patted her bottom.
She tensed. He laughed. She'd never noticed before how evil his
laugh sounded.

"I like these," he said of her red and white
striped panties. "Liked them the first time I saw them. Look kind
of like candy." He ran his hand over her cheeks. "Real silk, huh?"
He tapped her left cheek and laughed again when she jumped.

"Uh-huh," she squeaked, "Guess so." They were
still in one piece, thank God. "Can we get this over with
please?"

She was thinking about how much she hated the
big bear and how good his hand felt on her ass. Damn! What was the
matter with her? He really had driven her crazy.

His hand switched to her other cheek. "What's
that, little bunny? Getting uncomfortable?"

"Yes!" Jazz squirmed under his kneading
fingers. "Look, just do what you're going to do and put me
down."

Griz's thumb slid between her legs to the
damp spot that was forming. "You're enjoying this," he laughed.

"I am not!" It was no lie. She wasn't, but
her body was and her damn wolf was almost howling with pleasure.
"Put me down!"

"Okay."

He spun her like a dancer at the ballet; up
in the air, twirling around and, with his hands at her waist, down
through his legs. She landed gently on her back with Griz on his
knees astride her thighs and her hands locked firmly over her
head.

"You drive me crazy," he said before her head
stopped spinning and she could breathe again. "From the moment I
met you, it's been bar fights and neighbor fights and what you did
back there could have gotten you killed."

"The pigs?" she asked in a tiny voice,
because she knew, just that once, he really had saved her from a
mauling.

"No, the other pigs. Your father's. How the
hell was I supposed to concentrate when you're throwing yourself at
fighters twice your size?" He put his forehead to hers and closed
his eyes. "You could have gotten us both killed."

"I knew what I was doing," Jazz said quietly.
But she didn't know what she was doing now. Her heart was pounding.
Her body was heating and her wolf was looking for a place to chase
her tail and do flips in the air.

"Glad to hear it, because I haven't known
what I was doing since I rescued you in the parking lot."

"You didn't rescue me. I was doing…"

Griz groaned.

"Okay, maybe you helped a little, but…"

Griz groaned again.

"Griz? Big Bear? What's wrong?"

His eyes were still half closed and his face
was the picture of a man fighting for control. Was he trying to
hide some injury?

"What's satin made from?" he asked.

"Satin?" Damn! Had he lost his mind, too? "I
don't know," she said now thoroughly confused. "Silk. It's made
from silk."

"Ah," he said, nodding. "You should maybe ask
for your money back." He shifted his hold of her wrists from his
two hands to one and used the free hand to trace along the edge of
her bra. "Although I kind of like it this way."

Jazz lifted her head as much as her position
allowed and looked down at the moving finger. The satin cups of her
favorite and only bra had been reduced to a spider web of
thread.

"Shit," she said, dropping her head back to
the ground.

"I could call this a lot of things," he
chuckled softly and pressed his finger against a nipple already
hardening with his play, "But shit wouldn't be on the list."

"You're such a charmer." She closed her eyes
to enjoy the sensations his tracery was causing.

"I know," he laughed, "Get used to it."

"Get used to it? You don't want me,
remember?" She shivered when his finger trailed along the center
line of her body to her navel.

"I never said I didn't want you. I said I
didn't want to want you. I never wanted what's happening between us
or the shit that's happening around us, but I never said I didn't
want you."

He puckered his lips and sent a cool stream
of air over her breast to blow away the last of her former bra
cup.

Her back arched and she closed her eyes. She
wanted to lay there and enjoy her body's reactions, but he was
talking and she had questions that needed answering.

"Why did you bite my ear?"

Griz circled the areola of her breast with
his tongue, then touched the hardened nipple with the tip. He blew
on it again and smiled at the response.

"You didn't listen when I told you to go.
Besides, it was just a playful little nip."

"It was not," she protested, "It hurt."

He kissed her nipple, looked up at her with
eyebrows raised and then transferred his gaze to the bloodstain on
his shoulder.

Jazz felt an embarrassed flush rise to her
cheeks. "Do you remember everything everyone says?" she huffed.

"Not everyone," he said, turning his
attentions to the other breast. "Only the important ones."

That didn't bode well for future arguments,
but Jazz was pleased he considered her important.

Griz did his blowy thing and smiled when
Jazz's back arched again.

"I went up there to howl at the moon, to
understand what I was meant to do. I felt like I was being pushed
and pulled in directions I didn't want to go and I needed to settle
my mind. And there you were, unsettling it again. I was angry at
being disturbed." He put his nose up to hers. "And then you bit
me." He bit her nose lightly with his teeth.

"Are you unsettled now?" she asked.

He kissed the worry lines from her forehead.
"Yes," he said.

"About me?"

"Yes." He transferred his kisses to her eyes
and cheeks and chin, using them to punctuate each sentence. "You're
impulsive. You're foul mouthed. I turn my back for a minute and
you're in trouble. You wear clothes that are too sexy, way too much
makeup and you have blue hair for God's sake. You interrupt my
work. You destroy my concentration. You've blown my peaceful life
all to hell." He lightly kissed her mouth.

"My clothes aren't sexy," she whispered
against his lips. She thought of all the things she'd left behind
and the things packed in the Victory.

"On you they are."

Jazz smiled at the compliment. "If I'm so
unsettling, then why are we here, like this?"

"Because my wolf likes you and reaches for
you in the night. Because every time you walk by me in one of my
damned shirts, I get hard to the point of pain. Because when I saw
you with those pigs…" He buried his face in the crook of her
neck.

"My father's?" She rubbed her cheek against
his hair.

"No, the others." He raised his head and
looked into her eyes. "I'm not ready to mate, Jazz. I'm not sure
I'll ever be, but for now, I know I want to be with you."

Her wolf was chuffing and snorting and
dancing inside as if she thought this was a fine joke.

"That's okay," the human Jazz said, "I'm not
looking for a mate."

The wolf inside laughed harder. Can't look
for what's already found.

There was one more question Jazz wanted to
ask. "Griz?"

He was back nuzzling and licking her breasts.
He groaned. "No more, Hellcat. I'm dying here." He sucked her
nipple into his mouth and she felt the pull of it between her
legs.

"It's about this morning," she said when her
own groan of pleasure had passed.

Griz let go of her hands and brought both of
his to either side of her face. His thumbs skimmed over her cheeks.
"I promise it won't happen again. It had been so long since… I lost
control… I hurt you and I'm sorry. I'll be careful. I promise."

Jazz's hands mimicked his. She held his face
and looked into his eyes so he could see she meant what she said.
"You didn't hurt me," she told him and ignored the other, more
painful injury of what he'd said. "I liked it."

"No," he denied her words, "I lost
control."

"I know," she nodded, her eyes wide and
laughing, "That's what made it so damn hot."

He laughed and his head slumped to hers,
forehead to forehead. He shook it in that way he had. "What am I
going to do with you, Hellcat?"

Jazz laughed aloud. "You can start with that
licky-blowy thing you were doing."

"You liked that, did you?" he asked. His
voice was deep and man proud. "What else do you like?"

That was a tough one. There were things she
didn't do and things she didn't allow, but in such a short time,
she trusted her Grizzly more than any man she'd ever known.

"Whatever you care to offer," she told
him.

"What every man wants to hear," he laughed,
but then he sobered. "But that's not how it works, Hellcat. This is
a two way street. I'm happy to hear when I'm going the right way,
but you need to tell me when I'm heading in the wrong direction.
Same goes for me."

He was already unhooking the clasp of her bra
and sliding the one remaining strap down her arm. He sat back on
his heels and pulled her forward, brushing leaves and twigs from
her back.

"Stand up for me, sweetheart," he said,
pulling her to her feet. "Let's get these rags off your legs."

Kneeling before her, he stripped her down to
her red and white panties and then kissed her silk covered mound.
He continued his kisses as he hooked his fingers in the cloth at
her hips and slowly slid the panties down her long legs.

He rolled back and unfolded his legs only to
refold them again in a cross-legged position. He sat her on his
ankles and wrapped her legs around him.

"We'll start with something I know you like
and then see if I can find something else to make you smile."

He kissed her then and it was warm and soft
and gentle and while she'd loved the first two times of urgent,
desperate need, she found that she liked this, too. With his warm
hands on her body and his tongue gently investigating her mouth,
she felt like this was more than sex. Griz was making love to her
and for the first time ever, she felt cherished.

Griz wasn't looking for another notch in his
belt. He wasn't making a play for the Alpha's daughter or looking
for bragging rights for his buddies in the bar. He was making love
to Jazz Phillips, woman and wolf.

By the time his fingers slowly danced their
way south to the apex of her legs, she was ready and wanting. Her
hand went to the button of his jeans, but he stopped her with his
hand on hers.

"This morning I took," he told her, "Now it's
my turn to give."

Jazz had never heard anything like those
words before. In her father's pack and at Benny's Bar, her
reputation was a series of one night stands far greater in number
than actually occurred, but the few men she chose to sleep with had
never been concerned with her needs and wants, only theirs.

His fingers found their mark and he rubbed
and circled and flicked until he found those spots that made her
catch her breath in pleasure. Only then did his fingers enter her,
curling and thrusting until they, too found that perfect spot. She
threw back her head and gasped.

Griz chuckled deep in his chest. "There it
is, sweetheart. That's the spot that will make you sing."

And sing she did, if a series of moans and
gasps and whimpers could be called singing. Griz seemed to enjoy
it. He urged her on in a voice that became deeper and more raspy
with an emotion she didn't understand.

Her hips began to move faster and deeper
against his hand. She clutched his shoulders in an effort to keep
herself together, but Griz wouldn't let her.

"Let yourself go, sweetheart. Can you do that
for me? Let me see it? Let me feel it? Let me share it. I want it
all, Hellcat. Tell me this is right. Let yourself go."

It was his voice as much as his hand that
sent the burst of electric tingle rippling through her body. For
the first time in her life, she didn't stiffen against it, but did
as she was told and let it go. Her whole being trembled with it and
once it began she couldn't have stopped it if she tried. Her body
fell back and Griz was there to catch her with strong, warm hands
to keep her safe.

She felt his lips move against her breast and
for one tiny moment she felt fear creep up along her spine and then
she heard him. The whispered words seemed spoken from far away.
They echoed in her head.

"
So soft. So beautiful. Mine
."

And for the first time ever, her wolf sighed
silently and was content.

Gilead looked deserted when they finally
reached the road. It was well past dawn and the pack had long since
come home. Griz assured her that everyone was sleeping in.