Taking His Mate Read online

  They were making their way along the edge of a small drop-off. The unstable ground began to give way and Maddie lost her footing. Before she could become injured, Griffin had moved swiftly to ensure her safety. He growled low in his throat and was gladdened to see her body shiver in response.

  “Wow! You have really fast reflexes. I could have been hurt.”

  Griffin smiled. “I will always see that you are safe, Maddie.”

  Maddie stopped and looked at him. “It’s funny. I barely know you, but I believe you.”

  “That’s a good place to start. But you’ll need to learn to do as you’re told. Even when you aren’t inclined to go along.”

  “Ah, the vaunted dominant male hierarchy. And there would be the reason I would never want to become a shifter.”

  “Would it be so bad? And didn’t Oliver respect your decision to remain human? It would have been easier and safer for him if he’d turned you and brought you into his pack.”

  Maddie shook her head. “I just can’t imagine ever submitting to my partner. I mean, I write about it in my books.”

  “So, you are aware of that belief system and see the value in it,” he said, grinning.

  “No. I write what sells and right now… it sells.”

  “But you have to have done enough research to know that it works. Look around you. Do these women look intimidated or abused?”

  “I have to admit, they don’t. Darby may well be one of the strongest individuals I’ve ever met and yet she seems gloriously happy with Jean-Michel. And I don’t know of any man more deeply in love with his partner.”

  “Keep in mind,” Griffin said, striding in front of her and then turning around and walking backwards, “that she wanted no part of being mated to Jean-Michel.”

  “The fated mate thing, right?”

  “I sense you do not believe in such things?”

  “Let’s just say,” she said with a smile, “that I’m a pragmatic romantic. I love the idea of love at first sight or fated mates, but I have yet to see it.”

  “And you must see it to believe it?” he challenged her softly.

  “To a certain extent.”

  “Is your sight the only sense you feel you can rely on?”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Sometimes you feel something so strongly that you know. You can’t see it. You can’t wrap your fingers around it, but you know.”

  “Don’t you think that feeling has to have some kind of sensory backup?”

  “Yes, but often the person involved doesn’t recognize it for what it is.”

  “Or,” said Maddie with a laugh, “does, but chooses not to.”

  Griffin chuckled. “Yes, I understand Darby, like my former sister-in-law, chose to ignore what she knew was the call of her true fated mate. Because of the way our society is governed, both women were coerced into relationships they wanted to deny. Both are very happy and both are with a mate who will love and honor them above all others. Is that such a bad thing?”

  Maddie laughed. “Not if you’re the one getting to do all the spanking and not the one being spanked. Although Darby did share with me that one of the things I have right in my novels is that when it’s the right man, the whole thing is highly arousing, and that Jean-Michel is one seductive son-of-a bitch.”

  “Which in our society is more literal than in yours,” Griffin chuckled.

  Maddie laughed with him. Griffin took hold of her hand before continuing along on their walk.

  Chapter Nine

  They continued their somewhat aimless wandering for several hours. Maddie found being with Griffin was easy. He made her feel safe and that he valued her opinion and welcomed her questions. But as much as she felt comfortable with him, there was a part of him that was unsettling, but unsettling in a good way. She felt a powerful draw to the lone wolf alpha from Wales, but reminded herself that it could never go anywhere.

  If Griffin was indeed going to start a new pack, he would need a shifter for a mate. Obviously, he didn’t care if she was shifter-born or shifter-turned, but she would need to be a shifter.

  “Can I ask you something else or are you beginning to feel like I’m interrogating you?”

  He grinned at her. “You, cwningen bach, are welcome to ask me anything you please.”

  “What’s with the whole alpha mark? Darby’s looks like it was quite painful when inflicted and yet she touched it with what I could only describe as a certain reverence.”

  “Do you know that’s the only thing I worry about when seeing Skylar is that my brother’s mark will be gone.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  He chuckled. “Oh, but I do. An alpha would never allow the mark of another to remain on his mate. All male wolves feel the need or drive to mark their mates as a warning to others that she is mated and to be left alone. Alphas are compelled and their mark is deeper and leaves a more pronounced scar. It’s fairly ritualized.”

  “How so?”

  Griffin shook his head. “How the hell did I get myself into this conversation?”

  Maddie look at him quizzically. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because the bite is almost always inflicted during sex. And, if the male knows what he’s doing, at the height of his mate’s pleasure.”

  Maddie laughed. “Doesn’t that put a damper on the woman’s embracing the experience if she knows he’s going to bite her?”

  Griffin pulled her close. “Nay, cwningen bach, by that point she welcomes his mark and wishes to be marked as his.”

  “Then why do you think it might bother you that your former sister-in-law no longer bears your brother’s mark?”

  “It’s selfish and foolish, I know,” he said quietly. “It was the last part of Micah that remained on this plane of existence. I understand Grainger’s need to mark her and especially considering how she had defied the Ruling Council, he needed to reinforce his claim. But there’s knowing what needed to be and knowing that I may not like it at all.”

  “Would your brother have wanted her to find another mate?”

  Griffin laughed out loud. “Absolutely! Skylar is a powerful alpha in her own right and is more than capable of causing all kinds of trouble. She was always in need of a strong alpha who could take her in hand and direct her efforts and abilities in a way that was useful and productive.”

  “But who decides what is useful and productive?”

  He grinned and ran his finger down her nose ending with a light tap on the end of it. “That would be her mate.”

  “And when she doesn’t agree?”

  “Then as with my brother, she can expect her to find herself face down over Grainger’s knee. I suspect there will be an uptick in some of the misbehavior of the mates that came from the Bae Diogel pack.”

  Maddie nodded. “Geoff and Peter thought that as well. And Darby confirmed it. She has no intention of sitting idle on the sidelines while her mate goes off to war.”

  “Do not fool yourself, Jean-Michel is her mate. She will do as he says…”

  “Or so all of you big strong males think. But let’s not argue about it. It really won’t affect me unless your kind can’t contain whatever this is and it spills out onto my kind.”

  Griffin searched her face. Quietly, he asked, “Are you under the impression you will be leaving Rivière Du Loup before this is all over?”

  “I can’t stay out here for long. I will be missed. I have a life to lead and this has nothing to do with me.”

  Griffin drew her to one of the benches along the waterfront. He took her hands in his and rubbed the backs of them with her thumbs.

  “My dear Ms. Stone, do not kid yourself. You are the guest of Jean-Michel Gautier until he deems it safe for you to return to your life. Twice attempts have been made to take you against your will. Twice you have been spared that fate due to our intervention. You are a valuable target…”

  “Why? I’m not special.”

  Griffin laughed and then sobered w
hen he realized she meant it. “My dear Maddie, you are young, beautiful, and rich… while the latter might not occur to some alphas, to others it would be an added enticement to take and turn you and bring you into the fold.”

  Maddie barely heard anything he said. All she heard was him calling her beautiful. “You think I’m attractive?”

  “No, Ms. Stone, I think you are exquisite. I think any wolf who claimed you would be the envy of most other wolves.” He stood and helped her to her feet. “I would love to spend the afternoon with you, but Jean-Michel has requested my presence before dinner for a private meeting.”

  “You go on, I think I’ll just continue to walk on.”

  Griffin chuckled. “I think not. The riverfront is the most vulnerable spot at the Rivière Du Loup. Gautier would not appreciate me leaving his guest in such a place.”

  Maddie pulled back from him. “But I am his guest. Surely he wouldn’t want me forced to do something I didn’t want to.”

  Griffin shook his head. “You are his much-valued guest, but he would not allow you to disobey him, nor will I.”

  Once again, Maddie tried to disengage her hand from his and pull free. “Let go, Griffin.”

  Griffin didn’t pull or move at all. He simply refused to let her break loose. “No, Maddie. You will come back to the house with me.”

  Maddie dug her heels into the ground and pulled back in earnest.

  “Cwningen bach, I don’t wish to quarrel with you. Either you take my hand and we walk back up to the house together companionably as we have earlier this day. Or I will take you back up to the house with me.”

  “And how do you think you will accomplish that if I don’t choose to go?”

  Griffin laughed at her. Before Maddie knew what he was about, he had put his shoulder into the juncture of her legs with her torso and lifted up. Maddie found herself unceremoniously slung over Griffin’s shoulder as he walked back toward the house. Maddie kicked her legs as she cursed at him.

  “God damn it, Griffin, put me down. You can’t do this to me.”

  “Do not tell me I cannot do what I have already done.”

  Maddie shrieked in both annoyance and embarrassment as they approached the house and members of the pack became witnesses to her humiliation. She meant to make this powerful alpha wolf find out she was no weak little human. She would make him put her down.

  She began to pummel his back with her fists.

  Maddie yelped when his hand made hard contact with her upturned rump.

  “Enough, Madeline.”

  “You hit me,” she said, outraged.

  “I swatted your backside,” he countered. “If you don’t behave I’ll do more than that. If I put you down, will you take my hand and continue to the house?”

  “Put me down.”

  “Are you going to walk up to the house with me?”

  “No.”

  “Then,” said Griffin, trying hard not to chuckle, “we shall continue as we are.”

  Jean-Michel walked out onto the patio with his arm around Darby.

  “Jean-Michel… do something,” urged Darby.

  “Griffin, my friend. It seems you have your hands full. Let me get the door for you.” He went back to the house and opened one of the French doors.

  As she passed him, Maddie cried, “You bastard. Is this how you treat a guest? Make him put me down.”

  Jean-Michel laughed. “Griffin. The lady thinks you should put her down. What do you think?”

  Griffin turned around to face his host. “I think if the lady wanted me to put her down, she should have agreed to take my hand and walk up to the house when the offer was made. She wanted to stay down by the river. I found it to be too wide open to be safe for her.”

  “I would agree.”

  “Jean-Michel,” came a warning growl from Darby.

  “Ms. Stone will be fine, ma choue. Our friend Griffin is trying to ensure her safety.”

  “She is perfectly safe.”

  “Yes. Griffin will see to that, won’t you, Griffin?”

  “Yes, Jean-Michel. I will see to your guest’s safety personally.”

  Maddie heard Darby take a sharp inhale of her breath and curse under her breath. As Griffin turned and continued through the foyer, she saw Darby look up at her mate, who grinned at her like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

  Griffin headed up the stairs without ever breaking stride. He strode down the hall, opened the door to Maddie’s room, and deposited her on the bed.

  Maddie came up off the bed. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

  Maddie could feel, more than hear, the low, grumbling growl that Griffin gave her. It felt as though an electrical current was skittering across her skin. Not painful in the least, but a definite sensation and one that made the arousal that had been banked all afternoon flare up. She was glad that she didn’t have on any kind of thin blouse or t-shirt that would have revealed that her nipples had become painfully hard and hoped that his wolfen sense of smell wasn’t more acute than a human’s—although her research told her that was a hope made in vain.

  Later she would remember that she could see the moment the scent of her arousal hit his nostrils; he breathed in a bit more deeply and smiled.

  “I think we both know who I am and more important, who we are to each other.”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” he said as he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I’m going to go meet with Jean-Michel. Why don’t you stay either up here in your room or in the house. Until we know more about what’s going on, I would prefer you not be outside without me or at the very least another wolf.” He recognized the fear in her eyes. Griffin stepped closer to her and kissed her gently. “It will be all right, cwningen bach, I promise.”

  “You should have a wolf as a mate. I… I don’t want to be turned,” she stammered.

  He stroked her cheek gently. “I will have you as my mate, turned or not. The decision to become a wolf is yours and yours alone. We would need to take precautions, but we can make it work.” Griffin smiled at her reassuringly and shook his head. “Do you know that the Welsh who made landfall in the Carolinas three hundred years before Columbus were wolves?”

  She shook her head.

  “The leaders of the expedition were the acknowledged but illegitimate sons of the Welsh king, Owen Gwynedd. Their mother was a shifter. The legend says that the younger brother was betrothed to a human, Cristen. She wasn’t keen on leaving Wales and thought to break their betrothal. Rhiryd kidnapped her from her father’s house the night before they were to sail. Once they landed in the Carolinas she became a wolf and they were very happy. When Rhiryd was killed in battle as an old man, they say she shifted into the first red wolf. The red wolf is indigenous to the coastal area of the Southeastern United States. She never resumed human form again. They found her on her husband’s grave when she died. Their grandchildren buried her with him.”

  “But she became a shifter… and given the time, probably not because she chose to be.”

  “Probably not. But given that you are my fated mate, do you honestly believe I would force you?”

  Maddie searched his face and saw he was speaking the truth. “I guess not,” she said quietly.

  He kissed the tip of her nose and said brightly, “But that doesn’t mean I won’t make you mind me… so keep that in mind before you decide to disobey me.”

  She giggled. “You don’t know that I was thinking about that.”

  “Don’t I?” he said, smiling.

  “I may have to take Darby’s advice and run like hell,” she teased.

  “Before you make that decision, best you ask Darby what happened to her when she tried it.” He was teasing her as well, but also giving her fair warning.

  Griffin drew her to him, desperate to properly taste her lips. When she came willingly and offered him her mouth, his thought to coax a response from her gently flew from his mind. His mouth captured hers and his tongue plundered the recess
es of her mouth.

  Maddie felt herself drawn in by the sheer power of his will and her own response. As in her dream, this was no hesitant first kiss, but the kiss of a man who knows the woman in his arms is his. There was no question on Griffin’s part and Maddie could quickly feel any and all denial she might have made departing.

  Maddie responded, wrapping her arms around his neck and molding her body to his. She returned his kiss with equal passion. Once again she heard a low rumble from his throat and her body responded instinctively. Maddie felt one of his arms tighten around her while the other hand roamed down to cup her derriere and pull her into closer contact with his groin. She could feel his cock now straining against her. Its length and girth were impressive.

  “Uhm, Maddie?” came Darby’s voice from the door. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but that isn’t the way you run like hell.”

  Maddie broke the kiss and tried to pull away from Griffin, who was not inclined to let her go at first. Maddie was mortified. She barely knew this man and her hostess had just found her practically dry-humping the guy.

  Griffin loosened his hold on her and turned to Darby, smiling. “You might share with her, mistress, what happens when naughty mates try to run away.”

  Maddie could see a strange expression cross Darby’s face. It looked as though she wanted to say something but thought better of it.

  Instead, she said, “My mate is expecting you for a private chat before dinner.”

  Griffin turned back to Maddie and kissed her lightly before saying, “I shan’t keep him waiting any longer.”

  Griffin left them and Darby closed the door behind him.

  Maddie laughed nervously. “What must you think of me? I’ve only barely met the man and here I am…”

  Darby giggled. “What I think is that you just got run over by the fated mate train. Entirely not your fault.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  Darby smiled. “Oh, but I do. Not being a wolf and not knowing all of our ways, it must be very disconcerting to hear his call.”

  “He didn’t call…”