Free Black Wolfe's Mate (Paranormal Shifter Romance) by Avelyn McCrae Page B

wanted more time with you. I wanted to hear your laugh again. I wanted you to kiss me again, Angelica. I wanted you to look at me like you did that day on the breaker, then, and for every day thereafter. So, I did the only thing I could. I Made you like me.”
    * * *
    H is eyes searched hers, desperately seeking an answer to the question he dared not ask. Did she hate him for it? For taking away her last chance of eternal peace and rest without asking her first, without giving her the option to choose?
    “And what exactly...are we?” she whispered softly, as if afraid to break the spell between them. Hope sprang in his chest. She had said “we”, not “you”, proving on some level, she had already accepted the fate he had forced upon her in his own selfish need.
    “You know what we are,” he answered, equally as soft. He gently eased away from her, stepped back from the bed, and shimmered into his wolf form. She gasped slightly, but it was not a shock, not really. Her logical mind was simply accepting what her body already knew.
    Derrick laid his massive head in her lap.
    She grabbed his head and nuzzled her face in his fur. “It was you,” she breathed. “That night on the beach. You stayed with me.” Her breath caught and her eyes started filling up with moisture again. He licked at her face, making her laugh, then stepped back once again and became human.
    “Yes,” he acknowledged.
    “Shifter? Or Were?” she ventured as he pulled on a black, silken robe, covering himself. He almost laughed at her look of disappointment. It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the blossoming scent of her arousal.
    He raised an eyebrow, surprised she had made a distinction between the two. “Do you know the difference?”
    “No,” she admitted. “Only that I’ve heard both terms. Paranormal is really big these days. You can’t pick up a book or hit a theater without encountering a creature of legend.”
    He sighed and gave her a martyred look. “Please do not tell me you were Team Edward.”
    Her eyes widened, then she laughed. It was a full, rich musical laugh that had him grinning as well before he turned serious again. “But to answer your question, it’s a bit of both, actually. We call ourselves Weres, but we are not fully under the control of the moon, at least not beyond adolescence. It calls to us, feeds us, but we have the ability to shift forms at will.”
    “It’s really true, then?” she said finally. “I am not having some fantastical dream about gorgeous men and magnificent beasts?”
    Derrick’s eyes gleamed dark and possessive. “You dream of gorgeous men and magnificent beasts ?”
    “Well, no,” she said, offering him an apologetic smile, even as he saw the erotic shudder work its way down her spine and her nipples harden. “One gorgeous man , and one magnificent beast .”
    The corner of his lips quirked. “Better,” he said, mollified. “Will you accept both of us, Angelica? The man and the beast?”
    A deep rumbling purr echoed throughout the room. Angelica’s eyes widened when she realized the sound had come from her. “Yes,” she said, raising her fingers to his face, tracing along his jaw. Her touch sent bolts of desire coursing through his veins, making him even harder. Images of him mounting her, thrusting into her as a beast filled his mind. It made him want to claim her as a man every bit as badly.
    “Will you mate with the man as you have the beast?” he asked, his lips suddenly kissing the underside of her jaw, licking and suckling the sensitive spot just below her ear. Her hands were on his shoulders, pushing away the silk that kept her from touching more of him. He had planned on waiting a while, but he found himself unable to do so. The needy call of his mate was impossible to resist.
    “Yesss...”
    A soft growl was the only warning she got before every scrap of material separating them was viciously shredded. Suddenly, he was above her, pressing his