A woman on the left muttered something about how from the sounds of it, I’d been treating him very well so far, and they all burst into snickers. I couldn’t help my own grin from spreading in satisfaction. Joel might not have been ready for me to mark him yet, but I could still claim my territory in other ways. There would be no mistaking my scent all over his body now, and I was glad they all knew he was mine.
Joel was lucky to have found a pack who loved and accepted him as he was. It was more than some shifters had.
When I crawled back into bed with the ice cream, Joel was still right where I’d left him. He turned his head to watch me and stuck his bottom lip out in a pout. “Why’d you take so long?”
“Just chatting with Kedi for a minute.” I dropped the towel and crawled into bed, drawing the blanket up over us both and passing him a spoon. “Your ice cream, sir.”
“Thank you… mate,” he replied shyly.
We would both have to return to the real world tomorrow, but for now, I just wanted to enjoy being with himlike this. We finished off the ice cream and then I curled around him in the dark, the perfect big spoon to his little. He fell asleep in my arms mid-sentence, telling me about this stuffed bunny he had when he was a kid.
I still couldn’t believe that he was here, that he was mine. He was sweeter than I deserved, smarter, kinder, but I would spend every day for the rest of my life showing him what he meant to me.
I watched him sleep until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.
WakingupwithJoelwas absolute bliss, his warmth and fresh scent surrounding me. But it took me a second to realize that something didn’t feel quite right. When I opened my eyes, my vision was not the dull spectrum of human vision in pre-dawn light, but the sharply hued tones of my jaguar. I stared down at the large black paw holding my mate down.
No!I shouted in my head.Get off him!
Instead of listening, in protest, my beast crawled even further over Joel, pinning him to the mattress with ourhefty 200-pound bulk, and continued licking his chest. Joel’s eyes were heavy-lidded, not fully awake, but I was sure any second he would realize the danger he was in. His eyes would fly open in fear, and then the screaming would start.
My jaguar worked his way across Joel’s chest to his other pec, his smooth skin turning pink with abrasion, then moved up the column of his throat, pausing to drag his teeth slowly over his thundering pulse point. Oh gods, my beast was going to mark him! He was going to claim him before he was ready!
I tried to force the shift, to take my skin, but my jaguar fought back, refusing to back away.Mine, he rumbled in our mind.
Stop! You’re scaring him!I yelled.
But then Joel giggled as my beast shifted to nuzzle into his armpit, preening at the fair hair and sensitive skin. “That tickles!” Joel shoved playfully at my jaguar’s face, unbothered by our teeth nipping at his fingers.
They were both treating this as some kind of game. I watched in awe as they play wrestled in the bed, bonding in a way I hadn’t realized we needed. Finally, after my beast allowed Joel to win, rolling over to expose his belly, my mate glanced mournfully at the clock, which showed that it was almost 6.
He groaned. “Sorry, baby, but I need to get ready for work.” He flopped himself across my cat’s belly and bit playfully at the scruff of his neck, then reluctantly rolled out of bed. “You should probably let North come back too, because he probably needs to shower.”
My jaguar let out a long yawn, and then he allowed the shift to take over at last. “Finally!” I huffed when I found myself lying naked in bed. I yanked Joel over. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
He just laughed. “Of course not. He would never,” he said, repeating my own words back to me, before he gave me a good-morning kiss that had the rest of me waking up too. Before my wandering hands could meander past his hip, though, Joel wiggled free of my hold. “Ah-ah, no time for hanky-panky. I have to go to work today, and so do you. But if we hurry, we’ll probably have time to soap each other up in the shower.”
I followed him to the bathroom like a dog on a leash—or like a shifter with his fated mate, same difference.
Closing the door, he paused when he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror, his hair still stuck up in all directions from my jaguar’s ministrations. “I’m thinking about getting a haircut. Maybe short like yours.”
I came up behind him, pressing my body flush with his. “Please don’t. If you did, I couldn’t dothis.” I wrapped myfist in his curls, forcing his head back so I could expose his neck, letting my teeth drag across his pulse point much as my jaguar had done.
He whimpered, going liquid in my hold, and the musky scent of his slick filled the small space. “Okay…”
I lingered long enough for the water to heat up and steam to rise. I would never get enough of this man. Before pulling away, I kissed the tattoo I inked into his skin.Right here… I will leave my mark right here.
We didn’t spend anywhere near enough time in the shower, before I had to let him cover that delectable body with clothing, but I knew Joel’s jobs were important to him. His independence was just one thing I loved about him, even though it took him away from me.
I waited for the bus with him, then kissed him goodbye as passionately as I could, imprinting every sweep of my tongue with my love and devotion. It was nearly impossible to let go of him, but it helped a little to see him dazed with need for me when I pulled back. If I had a car, I could drive him around. Even better, I could lock him inside my apartment and never let him leave.
When Joel got on the bus, he headed straight down the aisle so he could wave to me out the back window, and I stayed there on the sidewalk, watching the bus until it had driven out of view.
Sigh. I was a lovesick mess, and we weren’t even fully bonded yet. How much worse would it get when he was pregnant with my kittens? The thought made my jaguar almost feral.
The last 24 hours had been amazing—perfect, even—but it still wasn’t anywhere near enough. Not for me, not for Joel, anddefinitelynot for my beast. If I didn’t make some concessions, there was no guarantee that my jaguar wouldn’t simply bite Joel next time, giving in to our basest need to claim what was ours.
No, I’d made the mistake of trying to woo our mate like a human would. But I wasn’t a human, and he understood that. So now I was going to try things the shifter way.
