Big Bad Bite Read online

  Mama was spitting mad. “Jenna June, you’ve lost your fecking mind if you think we’re just going tae let you flounce around in the woods after you almost died three days ago.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes to the sky and started praying for divine deliverance, but unfortunately, there were no grand displays of angry lightening to help her out. Go figure. Maybe if she prayed for her Mama to magically acquire a ‘Mute’ button that might work out better. As her Uncle Rick joined in the, let’s-lecture-Jenna-and-pretend-she’s-not-a-grown-ass-woman party, she dropped her eyes back to the human wall in front of her and started scanning her Mama from head to toe for that new magical button that should have appeared. Her extremely intuitive mother caught on to the fact that Jenna wasn’t even bothering to pay attention to her lecture and narrowed her eyes, so she snapped out, “Are you listening tae a thing we say, you daft girl?”

  Damn! Mute button idea hadn’t worked either!

  She looked over her Mama’s shoulder to the woods and imagined Adam out there. Sure he wasn’t some scared lost little boy waiting for mommy or daddy to come save him, but he was confused and hurting. She remembered the gaping hole of nothingness that had spread over her consciousness when she’d seen him lying on that pavement covered in blood, flesh sizzling from their impact with the silver bullets. The visible proof his body was already rapidly being poisoned by silver that could stop his heart, and wither it to the size of a grape. And she’d instantly known that if she’d lost him, there would be nothing but a bleak and empty future to look towards. Hence why her sanity had temporarily snapped like an over stretched rubber band and she’d crushed the bitch that had hurt him with her own car.

  Jenna wasn’t even suffering from a wolf’s obsession, so what she’d felt and had gone through in that moment was only a small iota of what Adam must have felt when he’d seen her flat lined on that hospital bed. With his wolf so much more prominent than other Shifters had to endure, who knew if his humanity was intact? All she knew was that if there was even the smallest chance that she could go out there, find him, and convince him to come back to her, she had to try. What life would be worth living if she couldn’t have the one who could fulfill all of her dreams?

  No life was worth living without dreams.

  She’d realized that now. Adam had dragged Jenna from a bleak existence of hiding and loneliness into his arms. He’d offered her an extended family in himself and his Pack. He’d offered her companionship so she wouldn’t have to feel alone anymore. He’d offered her a future of hope. She was going to fight for that future if it killed her. This apparently was the thing that her immediate family was scared of. They were afraid that she would go out in those woods, find an Adam who was unreachable and dangerous, and he would kill her in his disoriented rage. Now she just had to make them see that it was a possibility she was willing to risk.

  Inhaling a deep breath, she held it in her chest for several prolonged seconds to help center herself, and then slowly blew it back out. With a sense of renewed patience, she walked over to her Uncle Rick the Police Chief first. Raising herself on her tippy toes she grasped his shoulders to keep her steady, leaned up to his considerable height, and kissed his cheek. When she was done, she set back on her heels and looked him straight in the eye. “During all of my on and off the job training you taught me to never give up on a mission if it was for a good cause.” Her Uncle gave her a short nod in agreement. “He’s the best cause I’ll ever fight for.”

  Uncle Rick rocked back on his heels a little in surprise. Studying her face for a few minutes with his sharp, critical assessment, he must have seen whatever it was he needed to see to believe her because he used his strong hand to grab the back of her head and bring her closer so that he could drop a light kiss on her forehead. “Okay honey, but you be careful, you understand?”

  She nodded and then moved past her Mama to her brother. Standing in front of him, she looked him square in the eye and said the one thing she hoped would make him understand how she felt. Referring back to their conversation in the hotel their first night in Germany she said, “He’s the right one, Logan.”

  Logan was nodding his head by the time she’d said the fourth word in her sentence. Her brother had already known that Adam was her mate. Knew that she had to do whatever she could to save him. So instead of words, he gave her a bear hug that damn near cracked her ribs, and then set her away from him in front of their Uncle Owen. The imposing Pack Master watched her with a blank expression.

  “You understand the risks of going after him?”

  “I do.”

  “And you understand that if you do this you have to go alone? If anyone tried to follow to help you, it could make the situation worse. He could perceive any others as a threat against you and go on a killing rampage.”

  Without hesitation, or a bat of an eyelash, she answered, “I understand.”

  Uncrossing his arms, Owen placed one of his giant paws of a hand on the side of her face. “Your father would be so proud of you if he could be here today to see the incredible woman you’ve become, Jenna. Since he isn’t, know that I’m just as proud to call you my niece.”

  She held back the tears that watered her eyes, threatening to escape. Ignored the burn it caused in her tear ducts, and along her nose, and took one of the best compliments she’d received in her life as the strong warrior her Uncle needed her to be right now. After giving him a quick peck on his cheek, she moved to stand in front of her Mama who was unabashedly crying. Her mother could care less if there was a crowd to see her wail over her daughter like a bad actress in a Lifetime movie. Of course, before Jenna could get a word out the woman had grabbed her into a hug and held on as if her very life depended on it. I guess since she was worried about her only daughter doing something that could get her killed, perhaps Jenna’s life did depend on if her mother relinquished her hold or not. She couldn’t let that stop her though. Because it would be an empty life without Adam, even if she was safe and alive.

  Mama’s soft sobs filled her ears, so Jenna placed her lips close to her mother’s own ear and whispered, “I love him.” Her mother’s arms tightened around her. Grasped her as if she would never let go, and Jenna started to worry she was about to have to fight her own mother to go save the man she needed like air, but just as she started to strategize possible escapes, her mother’s arms loosened, then pushed her an arm’s length away.

  She had that scolding parental face on. The one she’d used over the years telling her to clean her room, or no she couldn’t have a flamethrower for Christmas. Except this time she said, “You better come back in one piece, Jenna June O’Conner, and when you do you better bring your mate home with you! I’ll be expecting tae see you and my new son for breakfast. Do I make myself clear, young lady?”

  Jenna couldn’t help but smile, “Yes ma’am.”

  Her Mama nodded, gave her one last stern look, and then another bone crushing hug preceding the giant shove towards the forests’ tree line. Jenna took one last quick look at the group assembled behind her. Her family, the small group of Adam’s most trusted Pack members, and his sister who looked at her with teary eyes and all the hope in the world. Giving them a half smile, she turned and started trekking into the woods so that she could find a private place to strip down and shift. Traveling in her wolf’s form would be faster and easier on her body. Time was of the essence, and she was in a hurry to find her potentially insane mate.

  They’d been on the hunt for hours. She wasn’t even sure if they were still on the Pack’s actual lands, but that didn’t matter when her instincts told her to keep going. It was dark now. The sun had set an hour ago, and right about now Jenna was thankful as shit that her Shifter senses gave her such excellent night vision. Because stumbling around in the dark sucked whether it was on two legs or four paws. Her wolf was acting like her own personal trainer in the back of her head. Encouraging her to go just a little farther. Telling her that they were getting closer and closer to finding their
mate. She’d started to doubt the wolf’s instincts, but that was before the scent trail she’d picked up close to half an hour ago or so.

  So with her nose occasionally to the ground like some God forsaken hound dog, she kept tracking that scent because it was the lifeline she’d been searching for. The longer she followed it the more excited she started to become until she found herself running through the forest, jumping over downed logs and swerving in and out of trees, chasing that trail just as fast as she could. Jenna was so wrapped up in excitement that she was caught entirely unawares by the humongous body that tackled her from the side, causing her to yelp loudly.

  She was pinned on her back with her front two paws pressed against Adam’s half shifted chest above her. He was in that rare state pure bred wolf shifters could hold between human and beast where things like facial features and claws were out, along with hair covering their bodies, but the human’s physique was left behind. It produced something that left spectators feeling one half awed, and one half scared shitless. At this exact second, she wasn’t sure which half she was feeling.

  He was growling at her, canines exposed in all their glory as he lowered his muzzle closer to her own. His glowing amber eyes were bloodshot and crazed looking. Combine that with the saliva that was dripping from his fangs onto her, and well, she was leaning towards the scared shitless half. She whined in the hopes that it would convince him that she meant no harm, but instead that spurred his beast to snap his jaws viscously an inch from her nose since she was a weaker wolf.

  Worry started to set in. She’d thought he’d recognize her sent by now. Instead, he was acting as if she was a stranger who’d invaded his territory. This was not exactly how she’d envisioned their reunion to happen. He was supposed to shift back to human, embrace her with open arms while waxing poetic on his love for her. Torture, maiming, and possible death had not been involved in her happily ever after fantasy.

  One of his lethally claw tipped hands grabbed the scruff of her neck harshly before he shook her a few times. A pained whine slipped out. Her distressed wolf was lamenting on the fact that they seriously should have made more time for those Shifter lessons they sorely needed. Both woman and wolf were confused as to what he was trying to convey to her now. She couldn’t exactly speak in this form either. That meant one thing. She was going to have to shift to her human form and hope he didn’t slice her apart the second he was able to.

  Letting her muscles relax as much as possible given her current circumstances, she let the change start to lengthen and morph her body. Her black fur receded into her body while her long dog like muzzle shortened back into her human’s facial features. When she opened her eyes it was to see what she would guess was the closest thing to a stunned look on the half shifted wolf’s face. His hand was now holding the back of her neck, but he didn’t seem inclined to move it. Instead, he straddled her waist with his massive thighs and moved his other hand so that he could run the backs of his misshapen fingers over the cheekbone of her face. His molten eyes were leisurely going over her features. As if he were trying to memorize them one by one, afraid they’d disappear right in front of his eyes.

  Now was the time. She had to do something, say something, to make him realize that she was real, that she was alive. Licking her dry lips in nervousness, she watched his eyes follow the slow path her tongue had made as if it were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. Parting her lips slightly, she whispered his name. His eyes shot up to hers, and then her exceptionally beautiful beast went berserk.

  The hand that was holding the back of her neck squeezed so tight that she worried he’d accidentally snap her bones, breaking them. His other hand that had been caressing her face gently a moment before grabbed her shoulder, sinking his claws deep into her flesh, as he threw his head back to the sky and roared. Anger, madness, or desperation. She wasn’t quite sure which emotion he was feeling, but whatever it was, it seemed to predict her doom. One second he was emitting that awful sound and the next he slid the hand on the back of her neck to fist tightly in her hair, wrenching her head to the side at an excruciating angle. Then his teeth were biting into the base of her neck, and she knew the love of her life was going to kill her. The breath stopped in her throat. Pain radiated along the nerve endings in her body, but she refused to despair about it. To lament on the ‘what if’s’ or ‘might have been’s’. There was only one thing she wanted to do prior to her death.

  His teeth slid out of the muscles in her neck so that he could bite her again lower, harder, on that vulnerable spot where the neck and shoulder met. He shook his head from side to side in his fervor. Using all of the strength she could muster, she raised her left hand, crossed it over her body so that she could lay it on his cheek to get his attention, and looked sideways so that she could meet the dangerously beautiful amber eyes that now watched her intently. Without a hint of fear, with all of the emotions of her heart laid bare to see, she said the words that she should have given to him in Germany.

  “I love you, Adam McPhee.”

  The wolf’s eyes glowed brighter at her declaration, and she watched in fascination as something unreadable crossed over his face. He pulled his teeth free of her ravaged skin and shifted his legs down her body until he was lying cradled between her thighs, his eyes never leaving hers, seemingly trying to convey something in the stare. Was she breaking through to him? Please God, let this work.

  Using the thumb of the hand she still had caressing his face, she swept it over his cheekbone in slow strokes. Small soothing movements to hopefully tame her riled mate. He still watched her as if he was afraid she’d disappear. Was he torturing himself with the thought that she wasn’t real? Had he convinced himself that she was an apparition of some sort? She’d just have to convince him that she was indeed real, and here in this moment with him.

  “Do you understand me, mate? I love you, and I’m very much alive. Come back to me, my sweet Adam. I need you to come back to me.”

  Tears spilled over his lashes onto his cheeks. With a groan, he dropped his head down to his bite marks on her neck and shoulder, lapping at the skin in tender strokes. A different energy started to fill the air around them. The anger had slipped away, and in its place need was there instead. His need to reassure himself that she was alive; and her need to give the man she wanted above all others the proof of her feelings with a completed mating, whatever that entailed.

  Jenna could feel his cock lengthening where it was trapped between their two bodies. The feel of the hard, heated velvet against her, combined with the slick slide of his tongue sweeping her skin with his ministrations for her sent her arousal soaring. She rocked against his hips.

  “Please Adam, please come back to me. I need you so much. Shift back so that I can show you how much I need you inside of me.”

  She felt his groan against her skin as much as she heard it. It sounded as if he was struggling, and she ached with wanting to help him, but she didn’t know what to do. Keeping his nose in contact with her skin, he moved slowly down her body rubbing his face in the valley of her breasts, and then pausing to lick her nipples. Moving slowly south again, he traced her ribs with the tips of his claws, lightly causing shivers to rack her and goose bumps to spread all over. He moved to lie on the ground between her spread thighs, hovering with his head over her mound while blowing puffs of warm over her folds; he opened his mouth, looking like he was struggling with his words. All that came out was a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a growl.

  Jenna didn’t get a chance to ask what it meant because suddenly his tongue was stroking between her weeping folds. The roughness of his beast’s tongue was entirely different from the one Adam had used on her in their hotel room several days ago. She cried out at the startling feeling as his tongue slid up, down, and swirled inside of her until her back was arching off the ground, and her pleas filled the air. Begging him to shift and take her. Fill her so that she felt nothing but him.

  Her fingers dug into th
e earth beneath her when his licks stopped. She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until she had to pry them open, and when she did she almost sobbed with joy. Adam was holding himself above her, on his hands and knees caging her in, his head thrown back as he completed the change back into his human form. His muscles were still convulsing, settling, when he grabbed her by the hips and flipped her over to her stomach beneath him. Pulling her up so that she was now resting on her hands and knees while his entire body covered her own. The ache of wanting him was so strong that she wiggled her butt back against the hot wedge of his cock that rested against her.

  In a flash, she found her upper body pinned to the forest’s floor with one hand holding her down by a shoulder as his other hand palmed the cheek of her ass. The tip of him prodded her entrance and she was panting in anticipation.

  “Say it,” The voice was slightly garbled as if the beast was still lingering close to the surface.

  What? She couldn’t think straight. What had he said? “Please Adam, fill me. Take me. Make me yours, mate.”

  “Say it,” He snarled.

  She tried to push back and engulf him, but he held her body immobile. Crying out in frustration, “What do you want me to say?”

  “You said it minutes ago with my teeth buried in your neck. Say. It. Again.”

  What had she said? Her mind was hazy with the overwhelming need to feel him moving inside of her. It was hard to think. She replayed the scene in her head. All that she could remember saying was… oh.

  That’s what he wanted to hear again. A smile spread across her face as she spoke almost in a whisper, “I love you, Adam.”

  He plunged inside of her. She screamed in pleasure. Holding himself still, he bent down to wrap his arms above and below her breasts and pull her back up with him until they were both on their knees, her back to his chest, still connected by his pulsing length buried in her. His hips bucked against her ass as he used the hand below her breasts to cup them, pinching the nipples while never faltering in his steady movements behind her.