Page 18 of The Wolf's Pregnant Rejected Mate

That was it. She was no longer a virgin. Tess lay panting, the chill of the air stealing over her. She missed Ryder’s warmth. Every inch of her body seemed to have turned to jelly. And it was such a feeling that she searched herself, waiting. She should feel something, right? Some overwhelming sense of change. She shouldn’t feel like the same person anymore; she should feel irrevocably changed.

And something was different. But it wasn’t some overwhelming sense that said she was a different person. Instead, there was a soft, gentle sense of satisfaction.

“Are you okay?” Ryder asked, rolling to his side. He smiled down at her.

“Yeah.”

Her stomach rumbled, and they both laughed. Ryder reached across from her and grabbed the makeshift basket that contained the food she’d gathered. Tess enjoyed the feeling of him being so close as they sorted out the food and started snacking.

“Thank you,” she said.

Ryder grinned and kissed her. “No, thankyou. That was amazing, Tess.”

Her heart fluttered, and her wolf preened with happiness. A new emotion swelled up in her, and she shoved it down. This was no-strings. It meant nothing except to have the experience. She was not going to let herself feel anything else. No matter how good it was to have Ryder smile at her like that.

Chapter 10 - Ryder

Ryder was just about ready for round two when the door to the cabin burst open. A growl ripped through him as he leaped to his feet, his claws already bursting forward. He crouched defensively over Tess as she let out a gasp. His snarl cut off abruptly when he recognized the three people who stumbled through the door.

Finn and Blayke were both covered in sweat and blood. And Elin, of all people, was crammed between them. She yelped at the sight of Ryder, her hands instantly moving to cover herself. She was dressed in scraps of cloth. The pattern of the damage indicated she’d taken her wolf form before undressing. Ryder relaxed his stance.

“Thought you were demons coming through the protections,” Ryder said easily.

Blayke, naked as the day he was born, shrugged. “Thought you might be demons waiting in here for us.”

Tess scrambled to her feet, wrapping the blanket around herself again. Her eyes bulged, and her cheeks were red as tomatoes. The scent of their sex lingered in the air. Finn’s nose twitched, and he moved to a window and opened the shutters. Elin was just as red as Tess, her head swiveling as though her neck had become unscrewed.

Ryder grabbed two pairs of jeans off the floor. He passed one set to Blayke. Finn, damn him, was fully clothed as he changed from wolf form to human. It was one of the perks of being half-demon. The only perk if Finn was to be believed. However, Ryder would dearly like to be able to see aura demons that possessed people. It would make it far easier to fight against them.

Using his jeans to cover himself, Ryder retrieved a t-shirt and gave it to Elin. She wore some sort of stretchy panty that had survived the shift. She was more petite than Tess, though her breasts were larger in relation to the rest of her. Ryder carefully kept his eyes averted as he pulled on his jeans.

“What are you all doing out here?” Tess asked. She retrieved the bundle of food and offered it, still blushing, to the newcomers.

Finn grabbed a handful of berries and popped them into his mouth. “Looking for Elin.”

“Mica was worried for you,” Elin said. The shirt fit over her shoulders but compressed her breasts oddly. It was long enough to fall almost to mid-thigh. She seemed more comfortable wearing clothes, too. “I went looking for you, thinking you and Ryder had gotten into another fight. A bunch of the possessed wolves attacked me.”

Tess shivered. “They attacked me, too. Ryder arrived just in time to drive them off. There was this big wolf with stripes down his back that had… what was it?” She glanced at Ryder.

“A Demon Seed. We figured they were trying to possess her,” he answered gruffly.

Finn frowned, leaning against the wall. “The same wolf was after Elin. I didn’t notice a Demon Seed, but they were clearly trying to herd her to a specific point.”

“We were doing a patrol, trying to catch your scent,” Blayke added. “We arrived just in time, it seems. Like a couple of dashing heroes saving the fair maid from ruination, eh?”

He winked at Elin, making her blush again.

“We’ve been running for hours,” Elin groaned. She sank to the floor and put her head in her hands. “I was afraid they were going to give me a heart attack.”

Finn glanced at her. “We’re safe now.”

“Radio’s busted,” Ryder said, joining Finn by the window. “When I tried to get Tess back to town, the demons were waiting to ambush us. I’d hoped that more of the team would find us.”

“Hey,” Blayke protested.

Finn laughed but sobered quickly. He ran a hand through his copper-colored hair, his blue eyes serious. “I counted thirteen distinct demons, plus however many are in the Demon Seed.”

“I saw fourteen,” Blayke said, joining them, grinning broadly. “If we assume some extras, we can count it as eighteen. Six each. We can take them on easily.”

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