Free Love Bites (Bitten Book 4) by C.C. Wood Page A

woman I remembered from the first night we met, Ricki was noticeably warmer toward me. I insisted on washing the dishes alone and she carried her beer into the living room.
    When I finished cleaning up and went into the living room, I found Ricki curled up on my couch, her little black cat cradled in her arms as she stared out the front windows. She hadn’t bothered to turn on the lamps. The night was cloudless and the moon bright, casting the entire compound and surrounding woods in milky white light.
    She looked up suddenly. “Damn, you scared me. You seriously need to consider a bell or something before I drop dead from a heart attack.”
    The cat yowled at me, her ears laid back.
    I held up my hands. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you sound really apologetic.”
    Moving to the coffee table, I tentatively sat on the edge, my knees on each side of hers. The cat growled at me before jumping off the couch and stalking away. I would have to figure out a way to get the little furball to like me. “I think it’s time we talked.
    Ricki crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay.”
    Obviously, I was supposed to go first. I rolled the beer bottle between my hands, choosing my words carefully. I decided to start from the beginning. Or at least our beginning.
    “The first time I caught your scent, I knew you were mine.”
    Ricki eyed me warily but didn’t speak.
    “Then I saw you at Donna and Conner’s house and I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to be with you. I didn’t plan to mark you that night, but I’m glad it happened.” I took a sip of my beer because my mouth felt as though it were full of dust.
    “You never told me what that mark really means to you. Just that it meant we’re supposed to be like husband and wife.” She looked tense as she spoke, as though she didn’t truly want to know what it meant.
    Last week she didn’t seem to know much about werewolves, except what little Donna had told her. Since Donna was new to the supe community, I imagined that she didn’t exactly have a clear picture. I decided to be completely transparent. No white lies or exaggerations, just the truth. It would be the only way to get this beautiful, skittish woman to even begin to trust me.
    “When shifters find their mates, they recognize them by scent first. There’s something about the body chemistry that draws mates together. Then, comes the instinct to mark. It’s usually strongest during sex, but the possessiveness that accompanies it grows even before mates bite each other. The urge to be close to each other becomes stronger after the marking, to the point that mates often can’t be separated from one another for more than a day or they begin to pine.”
    Ricki interrupted me then. “So the woman needs to bite the man before the mating is complete?” she asked. “I didn’t…”
    Her voice trailed off when I opened the top two buttons of my shirt and pulled it to the side to reveal the bite marks she’d left on my pectoral. A bite like that should have healed within an hour, but instead it had turned into a puckered scar. The same trick of chemistry that made mates smell right to one another made it possible for them to leave scars on each other if the bite went deep enough, an outward sign of their acceptance of their mate. Even though Ricki was human, she’d managed to break my skin and leave a scar.
    “I forgot about that,” she whispered, her eyes huge.
    “Once you marked me and I marked you, that urge to be close to you kicked in. I had to see you. That’s why I followed you to the store and looked for you at Donna’s party. It’s why I had to bring you here with me. It’s been killing me to stay away from you.”
    Ricki stared at me, her beautiful eyes growing cold. “What about other women? From what I understand, shifters are a horny bunch. I’ve personally seen you with two other women. Will you constantly be screwing other people and