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

expecting me to turn a blind eye? Because I can tell you right now I won’t stand for it.” She surged to her feet and paced across the room. Whirling, she glared at me. “If you think I’m going to sit around while you go fuck other women, you’re damned wrong. You’re not the only one who can find other people to screw you know.”
    I was standing in front of her before I could even process a thought. “No way in hell!” I snarled. When she flinched, I backed off. I hadn’t meant to lose my temper, but the idea of her with another male made me want to do some damage. Now I understood why she was so pissed off after seeing me with two women in the space of a week. If her feelings were even half as strong as mine, it had to be extremely upsetting.
    I lifted my hands and backed away a little. “Look, I haven’t explained this part very well, so let me tell you exactly how mating works. When werewolves mate, it’s always monogamous. Always. Shifters don’t have affairs or fool around with anyone other than their mates. Once we’re mated, we literally don’t want anyone else. Mating is until death.”
    She no longer looked as angry or frightened, though she didn’t exactly seem happy. “Until death?”
    “When one mate dies, the other usually pines away. The pack will usually step in and try to care for the mate, but sometimes there’s nothing they can do.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Without their mate, some wolves will eventually wither away to the point of death.”
    Ricki stared at me, her eyes no longer cold, but her expression was unreadable. “So you’re saying that we’re mated until one of us is dead?”
    I nodded. “I’m yours until my last breath, darlin’.”
    I should have known by now that Ricki wouldn’t react as I anticipated.
    “So you’re telling me that, assuming I believe this crazy story, you tied us together for life without even bothering to ask me if I was okay with that?” she yelled, pacing from one side of the room to the other.
    Yeah, that’s not what I expected. I grabbed one of her arms as she marched by. “Ricki, I told you I didn’t intend to do that. The instinct was strong, too strong to resist.”
    “I don’t care! You don’t do something like that without permission!”
    The spark that I admired in her was back. She was no longer angry or withdrawn. Instead she was in my face, yelling at me.
    “Don’t smirk at me like that,” she hissed, sounding a lot like her cat. “This isn’t funny.”
    She was adorable with her face flushed and her wild hair practically crackling with electricity.
    What else could I do but kiss her?

Chapter Seven
    Ricki

    W hen Calder’s mouth touched mine, I felt as though I were drowning in heat. The knowledge that he wanted me, only me, had broken down my resistance. I buried my hands in his thick golden brown hair and let myself go under. His lips tugged at mine until I opened my mouth beneath his.
    I was vaguely aware of Calder moving backward, tugging me along. He sat on the couch and I straddled his lap. His hips surged between my legs, the hard length of his cock pressed tight to my center. All the muscles in my abdomen tightened as he moved his hand to my lower back and rocked my body against his, creating a friction that made my head fall back and a moan rise in my throat. Somehow, he knew exactly how to touch me to bring me to the edge.
    Nipping my neck, Calder used his other hand to shove the hoodie off my shoulders. I struggled to pull my arms free as he lifted my t-shirt. Within seconds he stripped me down to my bra. He lowered his mouth to my chest, tracing the top edge of the bra with the tip of his tongue. The caress was so light it should have tickled but the contact felt electric. I tugged on his hair and he growled against my skin.
    When his hands went to the clasp at my back, I hesitated. We were rapidly approaching the point of no return. If I didn’t want to do this, I needed to stop him