Page 120 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

By the time Willow stepped foot in the house, she was exhausted. If she was going to get Ilariy to school on time, she had to be up an hour earlier than usual, which meant going to bed sooner. The minute she stepped inside the house, her mother enveloped her in a hug then walked with her up to her room.

“You did good,” Danielle said. “I know you have long days ahead of you, so get some rest.”

She nodded. “Love you. Night.”

As she pulled the covers up over her after changing into her pajamas and getting into bed, she replayed everything she’d done the last few days. The saying, hindsight was always twenty-twenty made so much sense to her now. If she ever stepped into the same situation again, she’d call her father and her uncle right away. Disappointing both of them once was more than enough.

She’d learned a valuable lesson, for sure.

Chapter

Four

Johnathan stared at Luka as Nico loaded Mr. and Mrs. Novikov and Ilariy into his enforcer to take them to their new duplex. The end of his investigation seemed a little anticlimactic, but he’d be remiss if he didn’t admit he was glad everything worked out. He’d gone to everyone but the kids. He chuckled to himself. Had he started with them, they could have solved the case sooner and saved all of them some heartache. Now, he felt a bit sheepish not talking to the pack children and orphans.

“I can’t say thank you enough,” Luka murmured, his stoic gaze set on the retreating taillights of the enforcer. “Those children protected my brother from us.”

Johnathan rubbed the back of his neck and gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, they’re like that. Protecting pack is engrained on all of them, especially the Raferty kids. Dryers are the same way. You had a good group of kids watching over Ilariy.”

“Da,” Luka agreed. “As much as I’ve been around the desert, I never found that clubhouse.”

“Yeah,” he replied, “Nico did that on purpose. Unless you know the location, which you do now, you’d have never seen it.”

“Interesting.” Luka took a step toward him. “The moon is almost full.”

Johnathan stared at said moon and exhaled a shaky breath. Next week, those ruled by the phases of the moon would dominate the town. The scents and sounds would overwhelm and make physical demands he wasn’t sure he could refrain from claiming his mate. Though his rut was controlled by his mate, the biological instinct to join a mating, even if he didn’t belong, drove him to the brink more times than he liked to consider or think about.

“It is.” His mouth tingled as he recalled the feel of Luka’s lips coaxing him to open. “We have a small-town festival, more for Halloween than anything. The kids seem to like it.” The words spilled from him as he rambled.

“As you’ve said.” Luka closed the distance between them, wrapping his arm around Johnathan’s waist and pressing his large hand to the small of Johnathan’s back. “Do I make you nervous?”

He stared up at the dhole. Excitement and a coyness Johnathan found intriguing, swirled within his amber eyes. “No.”

Luka chuckled. “Not even a little?” He quirked a brow.

“You make me lose my inhibitions whenever I’m around you,” Johnathan said. “So, no. I’m not nervous.”

“Interesting.” He threaded their fingers together and tugged, guiding Johnathan into the darkness a few feet from the Sheriff’s Department, along with the buildings making up the middle of town. “We’re alone. Again.”

“We are,” he agreed, curious about where Luka was going.

“You are my mate,” Luka said. “I tasted you the second we kissed. Your smell drives me wild. My dick aches for release.”

Every single word he spoke turned Johnathan into a pile of goo. His cock strained against the fly of his jeans. The metalteeth of his zipper leaving an impression he swore he’d wear for days. “Yeah.” He closed his eyes, kicking himself for sounding so awkward. “I feel the same way.” Earlier, when they’d kissed, he’d been ready to strip at once. Mount Luka. Maybe experiment and allow Luka to fuck him. Yet, when he tried to say that exact thing, the only thing his brain could come up with was, “yeah.” Johnathan’s mouth watered. His heart pounded. “I can’t stop thinking about fucking you.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t any better. He sounded crass. Like those jackasses who treated women like objects and not mates or partners. The idea made him sick.

“I’m glad you said it,” Luka groaned before crushing Johnathan’s mouth with his.

The whip of tension and arousal swirled around them, creating a vortex of pleasure and need. His eyes rolled up, and a moan filled his chest as he clawed at Luka’s shoulders. Damn, the man could kiss. He ran his fingers through Johnathan’s hair and tugged, tilting his face.

His world spun out of control while his skin flushed from hot to cold. His stomach wobbled as a knot of yearning built in his gut, demanding he give over to the pleasure expanding within him. “I want to see you naked.”

“Take me to your home,” Luka muttered across Johnathan’s mouth.

He didn’t say another word.

Johnathan pulled Luka toward the motorcycle sitting in front of the Sheriff’s Department. He didn’t have a helmet for Luka, so he gave the dhole his. His hands trembled as he put the key into the ignition and turned the switch. The headlight illuminated the road heading out of town. He licked his bottom lip as he snapped the pegs into place for his backpack. He couldn’t look at Luka. If he did, he’d probably do something stupid, like take him to the warm asphalt and fuck him in the middle of town.

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