His to Play With (The Alpha Shifter Collection)

“I’m not on the pill,” she said.

“We both know the pill doesn’t work on female wolves. The only person who can get you pregnant is your true mate. Stand up.”

Finding your true mate wasn’t easy. Couples could be together for years and never have children as they weren’t a true mated couple. There were times she wished it was as easy as they claimed it was in the books. You saw your one true mate and it was a match made in heaven. It was never so easy and it sucked.

Pregnancy, the meeting of wolves, or the joining of minds. They were the three ways of finding one’s mate. Two of the three were required in wolf form. The ability to join minds was to hear each other’s thoughts in wolf form.

Her parents found each other using that. Then, of course, their wolves had been attracted to one another, and then they’d gotten pregnant with her.

True mates were a thing of joy.

She wished she could experience it once. She couldn’t communicate with any of the wolves within her pack, nor was there an attraction. It all sucked.

“Time for you to go get cleaned up. I’ve got work to do,” Damon said.

Maybe she did hate him a little bit.

****

“Which question do you want answered?” Damon asked, running the tips of his fingers up Holly’s naked back.

He’d worked all afternoon and throughout dinner. Holly had sat at the table, watching him as he clicked away on his computer.

“Isn’t it time for you to ask me a question?” Holly asked. “And that doesn’t count as a question.”

He chuckled. “Fine. Have you ever found your mate?”

“No.”

“That was fast.”

“We both know what needs to happen to find a mate. I’ve never been that lucky.” She shrugged. “Maybe one day I will be, but for now, I’m not. Move on. What did they do to you?”

Damon was pissed off. “I’ve got two questions. I didn’t ask you one from just now.” After finishing his work, he’d been so hungry for her body. He’d taken her in the shower, fucking her hard against the tiled wall.

Most of today, he’d been insatiable, and it was only due to his control that he’d kept himself in check. Otherwise, he’d have taken her multiple times today. More than what he already had.

She’d been a virgin, and he wanted her to recover. Making her sore wouldn’t work for him. “Fine. Ask away.”

“Tell me about the night with the hunters,” he said.

Holly tensed up. “I … do I have to?”

“I’ll talk about my experience with the packs.”

She blew out a breath and rolled over, grabbing the blanket as she sat up. She placed it over her tits and beneath her arms. “Okay, fine.” She tucked some hair behind her ear. “We … we used to live in a small community. Like a town. It had the basic essentials if normal human couples came to town. We could all blend in and were able to scent them the moment they arrived.”

He saw the hint of a smile on her lips.

“I loved this town. It had a supermarket, but nearly every other store was artisanal, you know? Natural herbs and remedies. We lived near a forest and mostly foraged for what we needed there. We were an earthy bunch.” She giggled. “We tended to have patrols, though. People within the pack would stay up to keep an eye in case anyone arrived late at night. We were also aware of hunters, but we’d never met any of them.”

Her hands shook, and he reached out, taking one within his own.

“Daniel, he was a recent father of a little girl. He took this shift.” She pressed her lips together. “He didn’t make it, but he was able to sound the alarm to alert us to intruders. It was so dark. The alarm was just a standard one. I think it has a similar sound to tsunami alarms or something. My dad thought it would be good. We’d know the sound and others would assume we were having some kind of drill. That noise scared the crap out of me. I only ever heard it before when there was a drill.” She looked down at their hands. “We didn’t have a whole lot of time before we heard someone in our house.”

“I’ve got you,” Damon said.

“I heard the screams. Men, women, and even kids. Gunshots. I think what freaked me out so much was the sound of laughter. They were happy to be killing our kind. My dad killed the man who broke into our house. Slit his throat, and it was the first time I saw real death like that. We made it out onto the street, and I saw them all. There had to be at least twenty if not thirty hunters. All dressed in black. They had guns and knives. I couldn’t believe it was happening. Kids were running away. Their parents killed. I ran to get them. It’s where I saw Daniel. They had gutted him from his stomach up to his neck, but he wasn’t … he wasn’t dead. He held this locket around his neck that his wife had given him. I remember him showing it off as it had a picture of his wife and newborn little girl. He told me to take it. To take care of his family and that he was sorry for not saving all of us. He died holding my hand.”