Free Protective Mate by Toni Griffin

low sultry purr and Simon felt his dick get hard immediately. "Now, where is my proper good morning kiss from my mate? I'm not leaving until I get one."
    "That doesn't really entice me to kiss you good morning, babe. I would be quite happy to stay right here with you all day, naked and hard." Simon punctuated his words with a thrusting of his hips.
    "As much as I would love to, we have a little girl who would like some food." Simon knew this, so he gave in and kissed his mate good morning. The kiss was slow and unhurried, a gentle melding of tongues and lips. When they finally broke apart, Simon stared Zack in the eyes, as happy as he had ever been in his life.
    " Good morning, babe."
    Zack's smile lit up his whole face. "Good morning to you too. Now let's get dressed."
    * * * *
    Zack was walking on cloud nine as he made his way through Simon's house looking for Hayley. He knew he had a big goofy grin on his face but didn't care. Reaching up, he gently ran his fingers over the mark Simon had left on him last night. Zack shivered as the touch sent electric currents racing through his body.
    Walking into the kitchen, Zack stopped as everyone seated around the table turned and looked at him. Zack realised he was still lightly fingering his bite mark and lowered his hand, his face heating at being caught. Strong arms wrapped around his waist from behind and he was pulled back against a hard chest.
    Zack's body turned to mush and he moaned at being held in Simon's arms. Simon nuzzled into his neck and kissed his mating mark. Zack's knees gave out and, if it wasn't for Simon's arms around him, he would have ended up an embarrassing puddle on the floor.
    " You okay there, babe?"
    "Uh huh." Simon chuckled then kissed him again before making sure he was steady on his feet and stepping away.
    "Come on, time to get something to eat. Would you like some coffee?"
    "Huh?" Zack was still having difficulty getting his brain to recognise any sort of higher communication as tingles still raced through his muscles.
    "Coffee?" Simon asked again and laughed. "Why don't you sit down, babe?"
    Sitting? Now that he could do. Zack made his way to the table and sat next to Hayley who was currently on what looked to be her second piece of toast with vegemite. The crusts were scattered over the plate and table and Zack was sure she had more vegemite on her face than in her mouth.
    Looking at his daughter, Zack finally got control of his body. "Look at you. You're a mess again. Last night a tomato sauce monster and this morning a vegemite monster!" Simon placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of him and Zack took it with thanks.
    "Okay guys, breakfast is ready. Can someone help me with all this?" Brian called out from the kitchen
    Zack looked at Simon, wanting to know what was going on.
    "Brian does most of the cooking around here as we're all pretty much hopeless at anything like that. We usually have a cooked breakfast on the weekends since we all have a little more time than we do during the week. Plus we generally get to go running and burn of all the calories."
    Zack smiled wistfully at the thought of going running. He hadn't been able to let his wolf out and go for a run in at least six months if not longer. Ever since Sarah had died and her parents had started their vendetta against him, Zack hadn't trusted anyone else to look after his daughter. So he had put his needs and, those of his wolf, to the side and concentrated on raising his little girl.
    "Everything okay?" Zack couldn't believe how attuned to him Simon seemed to be already.
    "Yeah, just would love to be able to go running as a wolf. It's been a while."
    "How long's a while, Zack?"
    " U mm. Over six months."
    "Jesus, really?" Everyone in the room turned to look at Simon at his sudden outburst. Zack just nodded his head, too embarrassed to answer. When everyone realised nothing else was going to be forthcoming, they all turned back to what they were doing.
    "Don't worry, we'll sort