AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
His eyes were like piercing blue daggers, and they drew me in instantly, so fast that I had almost forgotten how to speak. Even now, a flutter of excitement stirred in my belly as I thought of the hunky shifter who had appeared at the circulation desk that morning. I had all but melted on the spot when his eyes raked over my body. It had taken every ounce of my self-control not to lead him directly to the lady’s bathroom when he licked his lips and asked about my plans for this evening. Any existing plans wouldn’t have mattered; I would have cleared my entire week for him if he wanted me to.
I took the stairs two at a time, hoping to avoid seeing Ella on my way out the door, but I had no such luck. My sister was curled up on the sofa, reading and sipping a cup of coffee.
Probably decaf, I thought. Caffeinated beverages after lunch were a little too wild and crazy for her.
“So, you’re going outagaintonight,” she said, looking up from her page and emphasizing the word ‘again’ in a sarcastic way. I tried to ignore her tone, but her disapproval stung.
“Yes. I met someone at work, and he’s taking me out todinner.”
She rolled her eyes. “Does Lance know about this new friend? Or Patrick?”
I frowned. “I’m not exclusive with Lance or Patrick. They know I see other people. Hell, they’re probably both on a date right now.” Honestly, I had no idea what they were doing tonight. Not because I didn’t care, but because whatever they did with someone else really wasn’t any of my business.
My answer did little to satisfy Ella, and she narrowed her eyes at me. She was never shy about sharing her views on my love life. Like most other shifters, she believed that werewolves should remain celibate until finding their true mate or at least until they were locked into a regular mating bond, but I didn't see it that way. My sister, fifteen years my senior, was living proof of how archaic that belief was. At thirty-six, she was still waiting for him to materialize. And while she waited and hoped each day that her perfect match would find her, I spent my time praying to never be found.
There was nothing more to say; neither of us was going to be convinced by the other, so I said good night to her and walked to my car alone. Outside, the house was quiet. The only noise came from the wind moving through the leaves high in the trees.
She isn’t wrong. We should wait for our mate, too. My wolf was just as huffy as my sister. The difference was that once we had a horny male shifter in front of us, her feelings changed considerably. I sent a mental picture to her, a memory of our last tryst. The image was enough to stifle her objections.
I shivered, in part because of the cold, but also fromthinking about how good it had felt to writhe underneath the strong male. He wasn’t my first conquest, either. Patrick had been the first and I would always be grateful for that.
He had been nervous when we first decided to have sex as teenagers, worried that by taking my virginity, he was robbing me of something special. Something sacred. But that was utter nonsense, and I had told him as much. Even if I had a true mate somewhere, he didn’t own my body.At least not yet, I corrected myself.
With a bond in place, I would never be allowed to be with another man again. Male werewolves were notorious for being possessive of their mates, often forbidding them from even engaging in friendships with the opposite sex. The fact that I had male friends and that I had slept with some of them over the past three years was likely more than any true mate would be willing to deal with. Add that to all the other ways females were expected to be submissive to their men, and it became clear why I had no desire to ever go down that route.
So, while my sister and every other female I knew dreamt of the day she would meet her true mate, I wanted to avoid it for as long as possible. My friendships and my freedom meant more than experiencing a strong connection with some random control freak.
I cranked the engine of my old truck, thankful that it didn’t put up a fuss as I backed out of the drive. I would have to replace it with a new car at some point but getting rid of Dad’s truck felt wrong. He had been so excited to bring it home and had taken excellent care of it for years until Mom died. Once she was gone, things like caring for the family had fallen squarely on Ella’s shoulders.
I blinked away the tears, instantly annoyed. Who thinks about their dead parents on the way to a night of deviant sex? Maybe I was just nervous. I might not be a virgin, but this was the first time I was going out on a date to meet a stranger. Patrick, Lance, and the handful of other men I had been with were all trusted friends.
We should go home, my wolf whined. We had both been distracted by the handsome stranger, but now that he wasn’t looking at her with those enticing blue eyes, she was having second thoughts. I chewed on my lip and toyed with the idea of calling Patrick. But wouldn’t that cross some kind of boundary? To ask him what I should do about going on a date with another man?
No, I decided finally. Patrick was a good friend. He would tell me if going on the date was dumb. I quickly dialed his number, happy when he answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Mariam,” he said, breathing hard into his phone. “What’s up?”
My cheeks flamed. His voice had a sexy hitch to it. “Um…I have a question for you, but if you’re…busy… I can talk to you another time.”
He chuckled, instantly knowing what my hesitation was implying. “I just finished a workout at the gym. What do you need?”
“Oh, okay,” I answered, hating the relief I felt that he wasn’t with another girl.What happened to no strings attached?I chided myself. “I have a date tonight with a guy I met at the library. He seems…experienced, and I just wanted to know if I was being stupid about meeting him, you know? He isn’t from our pack. I don’t really know anything about him.”
There was a long pause on the other end. I thought that maybe the call was dropped until Patrick gave a long sigh. “Is this about sex, Mare? You know I can take care of you if you just want to meet him because you’re horny.”
My heart pounded harder in my chest. “It’s not just that. I think I might like him. Is that so wrong?” The question hung in the air, echoing in the silence.
We had agreed to have an open arrangement before sleeping together. That way, we could both retain our freedom, and even if our sexual relationship ended, we could keep our friendship.
Patrick knew that I took advantage of that freedom with some other males, but that knowledge came with some strain on his end. Even without being his mate, the territorial pull for male werewolves was hard to overcome.
If only the sex hadn’t been so good, we might have stopped after just the one time and spared him the emotional flare-ups. But countless orgasms later, we both still wanted more.
“Of course not,” Patrick ground out, his teeth clenched. “I don’t own you, Mariam. I just don’t want you to get hurt by someone who might be using you.”
Everything he said was true, but the edge in his voice told me that he was also trying to control his own possessiveness. Calling him about this had been a mistake.
