Viktor considered her flushed cheeks and tart little pout for a moment before he shrugged. “Fine.”
“Fine? Really?” She blinked up at him, clearly taken aback by his easy acceptance. Was that disappointment in her narrowed eyes? Viktor bit the inside of his cheek, stifling a smile.
“Sure. You don’t want to get dirty, then you won’t get dirty.”
Heknewhe didn’t imagine the flash of disappointment in her eyes that time. “Oh, that’s—”
Of course, he didn’t let her finish. Stooping, he swiftly tucked his shoulder into her stomach and hoisted her up with a cheerful grunt. Camille squealed with surprise and clawed at his back as he marched them through the underbrush, toward the cool lake just beyond their campsite.
“What are youdoing?!Put me down! The campsite is back that way, Vik!”
Giving her pert ass a proprietary squeeze, he glibly replied, “I know, sweetheart. We’re not going that way.”
“Why?”
“Because you said you didn’t want to get dirty. I do so aim to please my sweet mate, so we’re gonna fuck where it’s clean.”
Jabbing him between his ribs with one irate finger, she growled, “And where could thatpossiblybe? Unless it’s the tent, you’re a damn liar.”
They broke through the treeline and out onto the rocky shore of Lake Adley — from which their pack got their new name. It didn’t have much of a beach to speak of, but neither did Lake Merced. Instead of their old territory’s scrubby, swampy drop into brackish water, Adley was all stones and cattails.
All in all, he actually enjoyed Lake Adley more, since it wasn’t occasionally fed into by the frigid, salty waters of the Pacific. The water was cool and crisp and clean. Exactly what his mate needed after a hot day of hiking.
She didn’t seem to agree. At the sight of the rocky shore, she squawked, “Don’t you fuckingdare,mutt!”
He only hummed and gave her pert ass a possessive squeeze. “What my mate wants, she gets.”
Camille squirmed over his shoulder, protesting at the top of her lungs. When he walked straight into the water, heedless of his boots or the fact that he was still fully clothed, she squeaked, “Donot!Do not do this, Viktor! I will smother you in your sleep, so help me go—”
Grinning wide enough to make his cheeks hurt, he tossed her into the water.
She came up sputtering, soaked to the bone, and mad as hell. Her lip lifted in a snarl even as she watched him strip off his shirt and toss it ashore with a familiar, greedy gaze.
Though the urgency had dimmed over the months since she took his bite, Viktor knew the fever would never completely leave him. He would always hunger for her. He would always feel that lick of flame up his spine, that instant, mind-wiping arousal for his mate.
Looking at her, hissing mad and soaked, made that ever-present lust a roar in his blood. The coyote loved to play with her, and the man thought it was the hottest fucking thing in the world when she used her claws on him.
He was working on the zipper of his cargo pants when she sat up on her knees to swipe her soaked hair out of her eyes. “I am going tobiteyou, Viktor.”
“Aw, sweetheart, we both know I’ll bite you back.” Palming his cock and giving it a teasing stroke, he told her, “Now it’s your choice: standing up or on your knees in the water.”
Camille licked her lips. Despite the cool kiss of water, her cheeks were still flushed a dark purple. She rose slowly from the water and, with an expression that was an erotic mix of annoyance and arousal, she peeled off her soaked tank top and threw it right at his face.
“Standing,” she tartly informed him, “andthenon my knees. If you’re going to make me do this, you’re going to put in thework,Alpha Hamilton.”
Gods,he thought, tossing her shirt onto the shore to join his.I fucking love this woman.
He couldn’t wait to lick all the clean, living water from her pretty purple skin. Biting her would be damn good, too.
Viktor wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck and dragged her in for a drugging kiss. Breathing into her mouth, he commanded, “Shorts off, sweetheart.”
“Bossy alpha,” she muttered.
He trailed his lips down her throat to deliver a series of firm bites as she slipped her thumbs under the waistband of her shorts and pushed them down.
She could complain all she wanted, but Viktor felt the way she melted when his teeth clamped on her throat. Even over the smell of trees and water, he could scent the sweetness between her thighs. His mate was as insatiable for him as he was for her.
When he felt her free her boots from her shorts, Viktor changed his hold on her neck to grasp her throat. Spinning her around, he dropped one hand to pinch a dark, straining nipple and then lower, skimming her damp stomach.
