4

John

The plastic beanbag chair stuck to my bare skin as I sat bowlegged and sore, surveying the room where I’d spent most of the week holed up. She’d painted the walls a midnight black with spatters of silver specks resembling stars. Floating shelves held candles around the ceilings, giving the illusion of a decorative cornice with ghostly light when it was night and we lit the wicks.

In the morning, the nest looked less haunted and more like an antique painting. Sun filtered in through the gauzy curtains on the window and the breeze fluttered the matching floor-to-ceiling length fabric she’d hung at the front doors. Purple silk sheets wrapped around the mattress pad. It was surprisingly comfortable for being so thin. But purple wasn’t the right name for the color. It was a deeper violet mixed with red, burgundy is what I think they called it.

I wasn’t sure.

I’d bet money Fallon knew.

She seemed the artist type–edgy, sexy, and so far out of my league it wasn’t funny.

And she was softer than she pretended to be.

During her heat, she’d let me in physically, in more ways than one. Demanded I service her–as was her right–but there was a vulnerability she showed in awkward moments that let me know I could seriously fuck this up if I wasn’t careful.

Now that the heat was waning and she lay wrapped in the furry blanket, sleeping off the last of the hormones, I could catch my breath as I stared at her. Long raven hair fanned out around her porcelain face. Porcelain wasn’t the right word. Her face wasn’t breakable. But it wasn’t stone either.

It was delicately feminine and harshly beautiful. All her curves and angles were. Luscious softness with strong muscles underneath. She was dangerous. The kind of beauty that caused wars.

And she was mine.

We’ll give her what she needs. My beast sighed, content. Keep her safe.

I scratched my beard, thinking. Amber mated that Colton fellow from Maine, and Danielle’s wolf chose Tucker from New York. I’d checked on them at the beginning of the season to make sure those boys were treating them right. Their mama, my step-sister Bethany, would be happy knowing they’d be so close. It’d make visiting a whole lot easier.

Fallon had to come with me all the way to Michigan. I wasn’t sure if she’d be homesick so far away from the big city and her pack.

Old pack, that is.

She was bonded to me now.

The rightness of that settled comfortably in my chest. It felt meant to be. Soul deep. I wasn’t sure how fated mates worked, but I was thinking this was pretty damn close if not the real deal.

This is as real as it gets, my beast said. We got lucky.

Coming to the show was a blessing in disguise. I’d gotten Alpha Williams’ son from Detroit to swear off any dealings in the Upper Peninsula. No more mafia bullshit. No more dumped bodies in my territory. Amber and Danielle were mated right and proper. To top it all off, I’d scored myself a beautiful Luna.

“What are you thinking about?” Fallon whispered as her eyes fluttered open.

I didn’t bother to hide that I was staring. “You.”

She turned and stretched her arms. The cool breeze pebbled her skin, tightening her nipples as she arched her back, and the metal bars gleamed in the morning light.

I grew hard again despite still being sore.

“I’m surprised,” she said, drawing my attention back to her bow-shaped lips, all red and raw from kissing me.

“Surprised about what?”

“Vanilla sex.” She yawned. “It was better than I thought it would be.”

My wolf cocked his head to the side. Was that an insult or a compliment?

“I didn’t hear you complaining,” I said.

Fallon rolled her beautiful eyes. “I’m not. It’s just an observation.”

She was quiet for a moment as the morning rays of sun danced between us, filtering in through the window and open door.

“It’s strange to hear my brother talk without the Alpha connection.” Her frown made my beast whine.

“What’s he saying?”

“Nothing much.” The hint of a smile teased Fallon’s lips and my heart soared again. “Unless you want to go with him to shake up the show producers. He and Aspen are headed to raise some hell.”

“Not particularly.” I’d had a few hurried conversations with Ranger over the past few days as we ran back and forth getting food and supplies. His lawyers were swooping in on the network and building a case. There was some legal loophole about Aspen not being harmed. She was the only one on this show with a provision added into a contract that could be taken to court.

But I was tired of this circus and anxious to get back to where I belonged. These fancy lawyers and TV ratings and media attention were not for me.

“Are you ready to go?” I looked around the nest, deciding what needed to be packed first.

“I will be.” Fallon pushed herself off the bed and grabbed her shirt. The softness from her waking face was gone, replaced with a steel determination. It gave me whiplash. There was still so much I needed to figure out about her.

My Luna.

My mate.

“Did you get everything you came here for?” She shimmied those tight black pants up her waist and buttoned them, blocking the view of her perfectly shaped ass. My beast gave a growl of disapproval and I smiled at his antics.

“I got everything I came for and more.”