The Mating Project (16 page)

Instead,
her brothers said something to him that made him look straight toward her, and
the world stood still at the depth of emotion she read in his amber eyes.

Ignoring
her growling brothers he stalked toward the car, yanked the door open, and before
she could do anything at all, Malachi had slung her over his shoulder and
strode away toward the block of flats.

"Don't
worry, this one is mine, and I’ll make sure she stays out of trouble."

****

Malachi
grinned to himself and tightened his hold on his precious bundle, as Maria
kicked and pummeled his back with her fists. He had no doubt that had they not
been in public she'd have shifted and torn his back to shreds.

As
it was her screech hurt his ears, as he took the stairs to Silas's flat three
at a time.

"Put
me down, you damn mutt. You can't do this. Put me down!"

He
swatted her ass twice, and his wolf hummed his enjoyment when her scent
increased and she moaned into his back.

"Damn
you."

"Damned,
I am. This is true no doubt, but I suggest you stop struggling, princess,
before the first thing I do when I get you inside is spank that delicious ass
of yours, until you won't be able to sit down."

He
bit back his own groan when the wetness between her legs increased. His wolf
whined, and Malachi was surprised his dick hadn’t punched through the zipper of
his jeans. Fuck it, he wanted her, and he'd damn well have her. This whole
stupidity ended tonight. He might not be able to allow his wolf to mark her,
but he could and would fuck her.

"You
wouldn't dare." Her breathless attempt at a threat made his smile deepen,
because even as she said it, she grew wetter. He knew her underwear would be
soaked, and she froze when he ran a hand up her exposed leg and skimmed her
cloth covered and soaking wet crotch.

"You
know I would, princess. Damn, I do like dresses.
Such easy
access."

She
didn't counter his words, but all the struggle went out of her and her cat's
purrs vibrated through him.

He
didn't bother with the lights once he managed to unlock the front door, just
bundled her straight up the hall way, kicked his bedroom door open and
 
threw her onto his bed. He leapt on top of
her before she'd even stopped bouncing and grasping her arms yanked them up
above her head. Her eyes went wide when he snapped the leather handcuffs on her
and then pulled her down the bed and did the same with ankle cuffs.

She
yanked on her restraints and glared at him, but it wasn't fear she projected at
him, but arousal so intense his wolf foamed at the mouth to get his claws into
her.

Malachi
ignored his animal and perched himself on the bed instead.

"Cut
me loose, damn you." Her cat hissed and snarled, but she didn't shift, and
Malachi grinned. She could get out of those restraints in seconds if she wanted
to. The fact that she didn't even try, told him all he needed to know. Besides,
he had a pretty good insight into what his little princess liked, from his
talks with Silas. And hadn’t that led to the best sex the two of them had had
in a long time.

Malachi
scrubbed his hand over his face. Thinking of Silas, where was he? It didn't
take that long to walk to the corner shop for more beers.
Unless
he'd witnessed Maria's arrival and had decided to give them some time alone.
That would be just like him.

He
focused his attention back onto the squirming woman on his bed and let his wolf
show through his eyes. Maria blanched when he extended the claw on his index
finger and used it to run circles around her nipples. The already hard nubs
firmed even more and strained through the thin fabric of her summer dress, and
Maria bit her lip.

"I've
got you right where I want you, princess, and I'm not letting you go until
we've sorted this. You've been a very naughty girl, ignoring Silas's phone
calls. He's been worried sick about you, and I don't like to see him
worried." He put that clawed finger on her lips when she looked as though
she was going to say something to that, and she clamped her mouth shut.

"Not
a word, princess. This time ‘round I
talk,
and you
listen."

Her
eyes widened even more and her breaths grew erratic, but she nodded her assent,
and Malachi resumed the slow exploration of her tits. His mouth went dry at the
thought of feasting on that bounty, but he had to say his piece first.

"I
know you won't believe me, but I didn't come for you back then, because I
wanted to protect you." He grinned at her snort of disgust and took one a
nipple between thumb and forefinger and pinched. Her back arched off the bed as
far as the restraints would let her, and she glared at him, even as her sweet
musk filled the air around them.

"Hmm,
like that I see, princess."

He
repeated the action to the other nipple and then bent down and bit first one
and then the other through the fabric of her dress, and then suckled the sting
away. By the time he pulled away, the wet fabric clung to her tits, and the
outline of her pebbly areolas was clearly visible through the lacey bra she
wore under her dress. They both groaned under their breath, and she licked her
lips when he had to adjust his throbbing dick.

"Like
I said, I needed to protect you. My father was one of those originals that
thought he could do whatever he damn well pleased. After my mother passed away,
he lost the plot completely. I didn't want anything to do with his antics. The
day we came across each other in the forest, he was running one of his monthly
hunts. A barbaric practice that meant anyone was fair game.
Animal,
human, or shifter, alike."

Maria
gasped, and Malachi held his breath at the condemnation he was sure to see in
her eyes, but when he forced himself to look at her, all he could see was the
shimmer of tears—for him.

"I'm
sorry. I can tell you loved your mother very much."

Her
whispered words surprised him. He hadn't even been aware of projecting his
feelings so strongly, and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Yes,
I did, but she died a long time ago. I would have left the pack then, but she
made me promise that I would try and stop my father from destroying himself.
Guess I didn't succeed with that very well. The old man never listened to me. I
ran with them once when I was just a teen, and I was so disgusted by what went
on that I never did it again. He couldn’t reconcile that. Apparently not
wanting to kill innocent bystanders made me into a pussy and not worthy of his
attention."

A
strangled sound escaped Maria's throat, and Malachi smiled.

"Like
I said, water under a long gone bridge, but that night, I'd had enough. I left
the pack, and I was going to make a life away for myself away from them and the
council, who knew what my father was up to, yet turned a blind eye because he
was one the fucking originals. Like that gave him the right to treat everyone
else like dirt, his own flesh and blood included. I didn't realize back then
how far the corruption went."

He
got up and started pacing. This was the bit where she would tell him to fuck
off once and for all, he was sure.

"The
underground holding station you were held in? He
was
involved in that."

Maria's
cat
hissed,
and Malachi stopped his pacing and nodded
grimly.

"I
didn't know that at the time, I swear. It was only when De Souza tracked me
down and assumed I would take over my father's arm of that division that I put
two and two together."

Maria
went so pale that he thought she was going to faint, and he was next to her in
an instant. He went to untie her arms, but she shook her head at him and
something inside of him broke at the trust he saw in her eyes.

"No,
don't. It's the only way I can keep my beast from taking over and jumping your
bones right now."

She
ground the admission out through clenched teeth, and Malachi's burden felt
lighter.

"I
wouldn't blame your cat if she wanted to take my head off, after what I just
told you."

Maria
shook her head and glared at him.

"You're
not your father and can’t be held responsible for his actions. And you did
rescue me, after all.
But Anton, damn it.
I knew he
was a creep, but I had no idea he was that evil. What can he possibly gain from
this? And why kidnap me? I was as good as his back then. He didn't need to go
through all that."

Her
expressive eyes clouded over, and a shudder went through her as she appeared to
be caught up in her memories.

Malachi
resumed his slow exploration of her body, and gooseflesh broke out on her
exposed skin when he ran his claws slowly up the inside of her legs. He took
the
hem
of her dress with it, until he reached the
soft flesh of her inner thighs and he could see the dark stain on her purple
panties. A fresh wave of her feminine essence hit his nose, and he groaned.
That stain darkened further as he watched, and her cream trickled past the
elastic and coated the top of her thighs.

Malachi
had excellent night vision, and with the windows open and the full moon in a
cloudless sky, there wasn't a nuance of her body's reaction that he didn't see
as though a spotlight illuminated the room.

He
swiped the moisture touching his fingertips away and lifting the digits to his
mouth, licked them clean. His wolf strained to be set free, as all that was
Maria exploded on his taste buds, and her little mewl of need made his balls
drew tight.

He
had to hurry this along, before he fucking exploded, that's for sure.

"He
didn't know you'd been captured. The night I rescued you, he was there. I
thought it all went too smoothly. De Souza set me up and used me to get you out
of there. He couldn't risk you getting hurt and your father getting wind of his
illegal dealings with the black market. That asshole has been lining
his own
coffers all this time. As head of the Mating Project,
he's in the perfect position to sell off those females he thinks he can get
away with." Malachi smiled grimly at her sharp intake of breath.
"Anyway, that night, he got me when you ran away, and he gave me an
ultimatum. Stay and carry on my father's work, or leave and never return. What
I should have done is stayed and fought this, but who would have believed me,
back then? It was my word against his. And all the evidence pointed to my
involvement. Besides he threatened to kill you, before he'd let us be together,
and I couldn't take that chance. So I ran, and vowed to do all I could to stop
him from afar. I've been amassing evidence on the bastard ever since and
undermining his operations, but he always escapes. He's a clever motherfucker,
and, of course, the longer I stayed away, the more time he had to misalign my
name and my pack."

He
crunched his teeth together, and Maria clicked her tongue.

"I'm
sorry, I didn't know. Is that why he backed off then, do you think? I never
understood why he just let me go."

"Everything
was too up in the air, I think, for him to risk a mating with you, and from
what I can gather your father had a change of heart. He felt guilty for what
happened."

Maria
snorted in disgust.

"He
sure as fuck got over that now. I was ambushed at a so called family only meal
tonight, and De Souza made his intentions perfectly clear." A shudder went
through her, and her eyes filled with tears. "He knows I mated with Silas,
and he wants me to persuade him to sign on for his project. Malachi, I've been
such a fool. I never should have bitten Silas. I've put him in danger, and you,
too, and my entire family. Anton is insane, and he's got this fixation with me,
and I do believe he will stop at nothing to get what he wants."

Malachi
silently agreed with her assessment.

"Don't
worry about him. I'll take him down for sure this time. I've been studying the
ancient laws and ways for years. That's how I met Silas."

He
grinned at the thought, and Maria returned his smile.

"You
could say we bonded over dusty old books. And before you ask, hell, no, I'd
never been with a man before and neither had Silas. We both fought this insane
attraction for months, and in the end, when we finally allowed our preconceived
notions of what was right and wrong and acceptable or not to fall by the
wayside we ended up with what we have now."

"Mates?"
Maria asked.

Malachi
nodded.

"Though
I haven't claimed him and I won't claim you either, not until this is all
settled once and for all, and then, God willing, you both still want me to a
part of your relationship then, yes, I will."

"Jesus,
you do talk a lot of crap."

Silas's
voice drifted over them from the shadows, and there was the clink of glass when
he put the carrier bag containing the beer down on the floor by the door.

"Mind
you, I do approve of how you've arranged our girl. Now, I don't know about you,
but I think we need to stop all those worries our mate seems to be harboring,
not to mention the punishment she's earned herself for worrying us."