Claiming Kristen Read online

  Kristen blinked, her eyes widening over the red pimples covering the girl’s palm. “A rash?”

  “Yeah.” The girl began to poke at the little bumps. “It feels lumpy. I wonder if it will spread.”

  Glancing down into her basket at the toothbrush and frozen dinner she’d crammed into it, Kristen had to wonder the same thing. “Never mind about the groceries.”

  “What?” The girl blinked then glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, hey, Kort. Did you find the beer you wanted? Jakob was telling me you were going to steam some oysters in the beer. I got to tell you, I love oysters. Have you ever…”

  Kort and Jakob, those were their names, and it didn’t matter for a damn. Kristen could feel the heat, smell the scent of male, and knew that if she didn’t get the hell away now it would be too late.

  “Hey, where you going?”

  Kristen ignored the cashier’s call as she fled for the door. She didn’t even care if she was making an ass of herself or amusing the Covenanters. It didn’t matter what it cost, she had to escape.

  “What about your groceries?”

  Chapter 2The moment the woman bolted, the beast growled and whipped free of Jakob’s control. It gave him the speed and agility to shove around Kort and hop over the adjacent cashier’s station, but still he couldn’t catch his mate in time. The same heat that drove his determination fed her fear.

  Jakob could taste it in the air, along with the intoxicating scent of a creaming pussy. The combined mixture had him nearly morphing in the parking lot when her car darted forward and snapped the driver’s door closed. In a screeching whine of tires and high-pitched shrill of a racing engine, the little compact flew around the empty lot and crashed over the curb to take off down the road.

  The wolf would have been right on her heels if Jakob hadn’t latched down on his control and reined the beast back. It took all his strength and concentration to keep the wild animal leashed. He needed to be calm and rational, traits the wolf wasn’t known for. Instead, it tended to think in more simplistic terms like

  mine and have now. Two messages it growled through him with rage sharpening each syllable. “Way to go, Jakob. You scared the little lady off.” Kort’s amused comment drew Jakob’s narrowed gaze to where his twin dumped the twelve-pack into the bed of the truck.

  “I don’t think it was me,” Jakob finally retorted when he managed to force his fangs back far enough to allow him to form words.

  * * * *

  “Are you suggesting it was me?” Kort paused by the truck to give Jakob a curious look. “You’re not going to go all furry now, are you?”

  “Yeah and no.” Jakob nodded before wrenching the driver’s side door with enough force to nearly bend the hinges. “I’m saying it was you.”

  “And I’m saying, maybe you ought to let me drive,” Kort retorted, snatching the keys out of Jakob’s hand the instant he pulled them from his pocket.

  “I’m fine.” No, he wasn’t, but he could do with a fight right then to relieve some energy. “Give me the damn keys.”

  “I don’t think so,” Kort shot back. “If anybody is going to wreck my truck, it’s going to be me. Now get out my way.”

  Growling over his brother’s attitude, Jakob nevertheless stepped back and headed around the bed of the truck to the passenger’s side. Beating the crap out of Kort might have helped him vent some of the tension binding his muscles, but it could get bloody, and he’d rather get sweaty and dirty and wet while bathing every inch of his erection in his mate’s heated pussy.

  “And for the record,” Kort corrected, “I didn’t chase after her like a dog in heat.”

  “No,” Jakob agreed. “You just stared down at her like a rabid one drooling over its next meal.”

  Wrenching open his door, Jakob slid into his seat before Kort could respond. Not that his brother let him get in the last word.

  “Hey, I’m the one that made her come,” Kort defended himself as he piled in behind the wheel.

  “Exactly my point.”

  He didn’t bother to elaborate, but let Kort mull his response over as they both settled onto the bench seat. It took his twin all the way to the exit of the parking lot to cave and admit his obvious guilt.

  “You’d think the woman would be thankful for the pleasure.”

  “You’d think,” Jakob agreed, but Kort ignored the way he stressed that first word.

  “Hell, it was a selfless act given I didn’t get anything out of it.”

  “Women,” Jakob commiserated in all obnoxiousness.

  “Oh, shut up,” Kort shot back. “It’s not like you would have done anything differently, or do you think the way she took off without even shutting her door was a sign that she liked being chased out of the building?”

  Jakob couldn’t deny it or the fact that Kort had a point. Neither of them could be blamed for what had happened. It was just part of living with a wolf that sometimes got a little rowdy. And there was nothing that provoked the beast like running into its mate.

  Mates were rare and hard to find for most Covenanters. That might make them a precious commodity, more so to the wolf. Denied the pleasure of sex no matter how much the human side might get off on the enjoyment of any random and willing woman, the beast only joined in the fun with its mate.

  That meant that despite Jakob’s fifteen years of gluttonous sexual excesses, the wolf was basically a virgin and pretty damn tired of that condition. Mine. Have now. That’s all it cared about. The beast wouldn’t be settling down or shutting up until Jakob appeased those two demands.

  “So,” Kort glanced pointedly in the direction their mate’s compact had taken off in, “time to chase?”

  That sounded like the best idea the wolf had ever heard, but Jakob managed to suppress its urges for the more reasonable course of action. “Time to plan.”

  “Plan?” Kort repeated, making the word sound almost like an obscenity. “What’s to plan? Trust me, I know what to do once we get her naked, or are you already fretting over how to tell the little one she’s going to be howling at the next full moon?”

  “Actually, I’m fretting over how to tell her brother that she’s going to be howling with us,” Jakob corrected. “Or didn’t you recognize the woman you were trying to enslave with musk?”

  “No,” Kort shot back defensively. “But the fact that you do is confusing the hell out of me. Don’t tell me you’ve met our mate before and failed to tell me about it.”

  “That would be impossible.” And Kort knew it.

  Once the beast found its mate, it became insatiable in its need for its woman. Not only would it refuse to allow the human body to respond to any other, but it could easily become violent when denied, just like Jakob’s was itching to do. Unfortunately, the condition would only be getting worse.

  “I recognized her from pictures I’ve seen. She’s Derek Jacob’s sister.”

  “Derek Jacob?” Kort’s jaw almost hit the floor. It still didn’t take him but a second to stutter out his incredulous question. “As in Alpha of the Narin pack?”

  “Actually, if my memory serves me right, she would be his twin sister.”

  “You’re sure? Derek’s twin? Do you know what that means?”

  Depressingly, Jakob did, and there wasn’t much to be said about that. “We wasted twelve years in the marines traveling all over the world to find what was right next door the whole time?”

  “It means that our mate is in Narin territory, blood to their damn Alpha,” Kort corrected, apparently needing to have all the complications laid bare so they could really see how screwed they were. “If Derek doesn’t have our asses for trespassing, he’ll certainly try to chew them off for touching his sister.”

  “She’s our mate,” Jakob countered, reminding both Kort and the wolf of some positive facts. “He can’t keep her from us forever.”

  “One night is too damn long,” Kort muttered back as he brought the truck to a stop in their driveway. His brother’s head dipped slightly, scan
ning the end of the road and the house buried in the shadow. “Damn, JD and Caleb must be asleep.”

  “Somehow I doubt that.” Jakob snorted as he kicked open his door. Their Alphas did tend to go to bed early these days, but Jakob suspected that had more to do with their very pregnant mate being confined to bed rest. The whole damn pack would be happy once Samantha gave birth and their Alphas went back to being rational. “Then maybe we should—”

  “JD and Caleb won’t back us until she bears the mating mark.” Jakob slammed the door on Kort’s overly optimistic suggestion. Now he knew why his brother had caved and headed home. He’d been going for reinforcements. “Until then she’s a Narin and under Derek’s protection.”

  “So you’re suggesting we…what?” Kort gestured to the night sky. “Pray that he lets us near his sister? Because you know how The Narin feels about our kind messing with his women.”

  “No.” Jakob shot Kort a dirty look for that obnoxious tone and yanked the beer out of the truck bed before heading up the path toward the front steps. “We need a plan.”

  “Yeah?” Kort pounded up the wooden planks right on Jakob’s heels. “I got a plan. Let’s go find her, mark her, and then she’ll belong to us. Problem solved.”

  “Then what?” Jakob paused with his hand on the doorknob. “You think she’s going to wake up tomorrow and be happy that you all but molested her in a grocery store, then hunted her down and mated her without so much as asking her for permission?”

  “If she was human—”

  Jakob groaned and shoved the door in. “She’s not human. She’s Derek Jacob’s sister.”

  “Kristen?”

  “What?” Jakob blinked at Tex’s sudden intrusion in his and Kort’s argument. He’d appeared damn near out of nowhere. Making a beeline straight for the beer, he barely even spared Jakob a glance before snatching up the twelve-pack.

  “You get my Mr. Goodbar?”

  Jakob pulled the candy bar from his pocket but held it away from Tex while he waited for an answer. “Who the hell is Kristen?”

  “Kristen Jacob,” Tex elaborated, snatching up the chocolate bar out of Jakob’s fingers. “Derek Jacob’s sister.”

  “You know her?” Kort crowded in beside Tex with enough predatory intent to have the other werewolf backing up cautiously as he answered.

  “No, but Samantha’s close with Claire, Derek’s mate,” Tex explained slowly, as if testing which part would get him hit. “Sam has talked about her before. Why?”

  “You haven’t slept with her?” Kort stalked Tex back through the entrance to the dining room, drawing Cal’s notice up from where he’d been straightening his chips. He sent Jakob a questioning glance, but he ignored the other McBane twin, just as intent on Tex’s answer as his brother.

  “No. I swear, man. I haven’t even been in the same room with the woman. Now, you want to tell me why you’re growling at me?”

  “And he’s musking,” Cal commented before his gaze went wide. “Oh, my God.”

  “What?” Tex shot his brother a confused look as Kort turned his feral gaze onto Cal.

  “You have a problem?” Kort demanded.

  “No, but apparently you do.” Cal smirked.

  “What?”

  “Think about it, Tex,” Cal purred. “Kort’s about to rip your head off simply because he thinks you might have touched Kristen Jacob. Now take a good smell and tell me what those boys stink of?”

  “Oh.” Tex turned to study first Kort and then Jakob before a grin started to tug on his lips. “You two are so screwed.”

  “It’s not that bad,” Jakob began, trying to reassure the wolf panicking as it fed off the emotions swirling around him.

  “Your mate is Kristen Jacob, and you,” Tex nodded at Jakob, “are screwed.”

  “He’s right,” Kort snarled. “If she’s a Narin then she understands what just happened and is probably on the way to find her brother right now, and we’ll never get a chance to get near her again.”

  “Did you already mate her?” Tex sniffed the air loudly. “I don’t smell sex, just heat.”

  “No,” Jakob snapped. “Kort just…embarrassed her a little in the grocery store.”

  “Hmm,” Cal murmured. “Kind of makes you wonder what The Narin’s sister was doing in our territory this late at night.”

  That question hadn’t occurred to Jakob until just then. The implications of the answers that raced to his mind had his own fangs aching to grow. “You think she was with somebody else?”

  “Not like you have any right to say ‘boo’ about it.” Cal shrugged. “After all, she might be your mate, but she isn’t mated to you.”

  “That kind of makes her available, doesn’t it?” Tex chirped in. He’d dug a beer out of the pack and popped the can as he settled back into his seat. “Hey, wait a minute, Kristen’s a Narin.”

  “So?” Kort snarled.

  “So she don’t have to mate your ass,” Tex shot back. “They can breed with anybody, mate anybody.”

  “Don’t worry them,” Cal chided with too much amusement in his tone to be sincere. “I’m sure all the other males will fully respect Kort and Jakob’s claim even if they aren’t men enough to enforce it themselves.”

  “I can kill you both where you’re sitting,” Jakob warned them, barely controlling the wolf as it went ballistic over their comments.

  They weren’t wrong. Once word spread that The Narin was protecting their mate from them, that they’d allowed her to escape, all the other Covenanter males would see it as a challenge. While none would dare to touch a mated female, an unclaimed mate would be a great prize for many of the young bucks who wanted to prove their prowess.

  “I’ll kill them all.” That didn’t sound very rational, but it felt right. It felt good. It felt like he was finally free.

  “Yeah,” Cal ragged the word out with a nod. “Or maybe you should just go claim the girl before you have to kill anybody.” That sounded like a plan. Kristen settled down into the bubbles and tried to let the sweet scent carry her tension away. Normally, a hot soak worked wonders, but not tonight. Tonight, not even the wine helped ease the painful cramps making her muscles ache. Her whole body remained tight, still caught in the endorphin rush that had added speed to her great escape earlier.

  It had been a close thing, but somehow Kristen had managed to evade the Covenanters. Unfortunately, she couldn’t outrun the arousal still flooding her mind with one erotic fantasy after another. Taking deep breaths and letting them out slow and easy, Kristen tried to block the images the wolf kept dreaming up, but it wouldn’t release her from the agony.

  Tormented by the denial of its own needs, the beast inside appeared intent on tearing through her defenses until Kristen caved and fulfilled its demands. The same demands that had echoed out of her mate’s intent stare earlier. It felt like he was still there, waiting for the perfect second to take her down. God, but did she ache for him to force her to her knees, to pin her there and cover her with his heat and hardness. He would be hard, thick, and forceful as he rode her, screaming, into oblivion.

  No, Kristen shook those images from her head. That would not be happening because she would not allow it. The last thing she wanted in her bed was a Covenanter, and she certainly wouldn’t tolerate taking two of them as mates. Not that they’d probably allow themselves to be caught.

  Kristen didn’t delude herself into thinking that what she felt was real. The mind-numbing sensation was merely a leftover aftereffect of their intoxicating musk. Derek had explained all about the dangers of the Covenanter musk, having seen the males use it on willing females. And only on willing females.

  By their own Alphas’ decree, the males were forbidden to use the arousing scent on any woman who wasn’t already interested. Well that bastard in the grocery store had gotten around that technicality by not saying a damn word and giving her any kind of opening to deny him. That still didn’t give him the right to gas her with an aphrodisiac that made her fucking come without
even being touched.

  God, what would happen if he did touch her? The very idea sent an electric wave of aroused fear coursing through her veins and made her twitch as she tried to throw off the sensation. This was too much. Kristen knew about pleasure, but this heightened sensation was so intense it bordered on pain.

  It felt like everything she’d ever heard whispered about Covenanter mating. An orgy of sexual delights and excess, that about summed up all the tales Kristen had ever heard. The males went wild because Covenanters could only impregnate their true mate. That made them somewhat desperate when it came to the issue and determined when they found their woman.

  That was all the proof Kristen needed to know the two males she’d run into tonight had only been messing with her. If she’d been their true mate, then she’d never have escaped. Even if she had made it to her car, they’d have hunted her down and would have already had her spread out for their feast. The very fact that she didn’t have a thick cock pounding out the ache in her pussy assured Kristen that she’d been nothing more than a passing amusement.

  They were probably having a good laugh at her expense right now. Kristen just wished she was actually their mate. Then she could deny them, because Narins didn’t need their soul mates to breed. True, some of their pack found that one special person, like her brother Derek had with his mate.

  Given it could take a lifetime of searching and a wolf could still come up empty, most of their pack just settled down and married somebody more convenient. They raised their families and lived long, happy lives. That’s the path Kristen always planned on taking, and lying there enduring the throbbing coming from her cunt as it clenched and spasmed in violent demand, she didn’t change her mind.

  With that stupid musk still confusing her body with so much lust, Kristen didn’t hold any hope that her hand or a toy would satisfy her pussy’s hunger. Of course she could call Peter, but even the thought of him failed to appease her wanton cunt. It wanted to feel the real thing, to be filled by the thick hardness of a Covenanter.

  Only the real thing was probably already buried in some other cunt. While the Covenanters might have trouble finding their special woman, they never lacked for women. The musk helped, but being lick-worthy delicious probably accounted for a lot of their success.