Page 23 of An Unexpected Claim

“Nate! To what do I owe the pleasure,moy malysh?”

I smiled at the sound of her voice, filled with warm affection and a very slight Russian accent. Thousands of years old and she still referred to me as her baby boy—she was the only woman in the world who could get away with shit like that. “Hello,Mamen’ka,” I said as I opened the refrigerator and took out the items I would need to cook breakfast. “I need a favor.”

“Of course,” she responded immediately.

“I found a woman collapsed by the stream in my backyard yesterday,” I told her as I chopped vegetables and put them in a large bowl. “She’s in trouble and will be staying until we can figure out how to solve the problem.”

“Oh, dear. How can I help?”

“She was in her shifter form, so she didn’t have any clothes with her. Would you look into finding her a few things to wear until we have a chance to buy her some new clothes?”

“Absolutely. Tell me about her size, so I know who to ask.”

As I cracked some eggs into another bowl and whisked them together, I filled her in on Peyton’s features and vaguely answered a few more of her questions. My mother assured me she’d be by soon and said goodbye.

Peyton padded into the living room just as I was taking our omelets off of the stove. I smelled her first, the shower having made her honey and clove scent stronger. Surprisingly, though the idea of her carrying another man’s cub filled me with rage, the scent of her pregnancy was also arousing. But when I looked over my shoulder at her, the desire simmering in a dark corner burst free.

She’d piled her wet hair on her head and a few tendrils hung enticingly around her slender neck. Her skin was pink from being scrubbed, and she was wrapped in a navy-blue bath sheet. I’d seen plenty of women in clothing that covered a whole lot less than that towel. And yet her outfit was hot as fuck and all I could think about was untwisting the knot holding it together between her breasts and peeling the thick terrycloth away from her beautiful body. It didn’t help that I knew exactly what was hiding underneath that scrap of fabric.

Electricity crackled between us, the air suddenly thick with tension.

Peyton’s emerald orbs were glued to my back and they did a sweep from top to bottom. She licked her red lips, leaving them glistening, just begging to be kissed.

I attempted to recall the reasons why I was holding back and couldn’t come up with a single one. With a quick twist of a knob, I shut off the stove and stalked around the bar. Peyton’s eyes widened as I prowled toward her and her breath caught in her throat. I knew she was seeing more beast than man. When it came to her, my need felt raw and animalistic. It was what had driven me to bite her when we’d slept together before. At the reminder, my eyes dropped to her shoulder and the smooth, unmarked skin set off something even more primal inside me. I hated that my mark was no longer there.

Peyton backed up a few steps until she bumped into the wall. However, there was no trace of fear in her gaze. There were hints of wariness, but mostly, her eyes were cloudy with passion. My hands clamped around her waist, holding her in place while I lowered my head and captured her lips.

A groan rumbled up my chest as the sparks between us erupted. My tongue pushed into her mouth and tangled with hers as we deeply tasted each other. She was so petite compared to me that my body encompassed hers and when I crowded her back against the wall, she had no means of escape. My cock was thick and hard as steel as I pressed it against her stomach. But that wasn’t enough. I glided my palms around to her ass and cupped her firm cheeks, boosting her up so our centers fit together perfectly, and her legs locked around my hips. The towel split open and the only barrier between us was the thin fabric of my pajama pants. Heat radiated from her sex and enveloped my cock, urging all of the blood in my body to settle in my groin. Her fingernails dug into my flesh where she gripped my biceps, but it only made me hotter.

“Fuck,” I grunted against her lips when I pulled back mere centimeters to catch my breath. “I thought I remembered how good it was between us. But nothing compares to the real thing.”

I rocked into her and she moaned, her head thumping against the wall when she tried to drop it back. My eyes strayed to the spot just between her shoulder and her neck and my mouth found its way there with a mind of its own. I kissed the creamy skin and dragged my teeth lightly over it.

Suddenly, Peyton went rigid in my arms, as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over her. “Don’t even think about it,” she growled.

My first instinct was to growl right back and tell her it was my fucking right to claim her, but it was as crazy as it was untrue. I blamed my wolf again and instead of marking her, I stepped back and allowed her legs to fall so she could stand on her feet.

But before I let her go completely, I brought our noses close together and stared into her eyes. “Biting aside, this chemistry between us is only getting stronger. Fighting it is an exercise in futility.”

“Maybe for you. I have more control over myself,” she quipped. I raised a sardonic eyebrow at her attempt to play it off when her erratic heart rate and choppy breaths said otherwise.

“Is that a challenge, baby?” I asked with an arrogant smirk.

Peyton narrowed her eyes, but when they melted into gold for a moment, my smirk spread into a full-blown grin. Her panther stared at me with hunger, begging me to take her, but challenging me to dominate and overpower her, therefore proving my worth as a potential mate. While I had no intention of mating, I had no qualms about showing Peyton who the alpha was between us and demonstrating the power I wielded to her kitty cat.

“Fact, not challenge,” she argued.

With one hand holding her waist, I slipped my index finger of the other into the valley between her breasts and tugged on the knot holding up her towel. It pooled on the ground at her feet, and I inspected her from head to toe. Her thighs glistened with her arousal; her stomach quivered when I drew the tips of my fingers up from her belly button to her full, perfectly shaped globes. I brushed the pad of my thumb over one hard, berry-colored nipple and my lips tipped up in satisfaction when a shudder racked her body. “We’ll see.”

I released her and walked back to the kitchen in slow measured steps, trying not to wince at the pain from my very stiff cock. Our breakfast had cooled some, but not enough that it needed to be reheated, so I plated them and brought them to the island. I’d also cut up some fruit and set a bowl of it beside each dish. “Come here, Peyton. You need to eat.”

Peyton sighed as she wrapped the towel around her once more, then threw me an exasperated scowl. But she didn’t argue and took a seat across from me at the bar. She ate every bite of her meal and I made her a second omelet without a word, knowing she wouldn’t ask but was still hungry. She took the food with a pleased smile and polished off her seconds.

Like the night before, I asked her leading questions about her background, trying to learn more about her, all while contemplating how to drag her story out of her. I decided to let her get away with avoiding the personal questions for now. But she wasn’t going to get out of telling me about what had sent her running this time.

After clearing the dishes, I sat on one of the tall chairs next to her and met her gaze with steely determination. “Tell me what happened to you.”

Peyton sighed and leaned her elbows on the granite. She folded her hands together and stared at the cabinets across the kitchen, instead of at me. “It’s not your problem, Nathan. I’ll handle it.” She finally twisted her head in my direction and studied me before adding, “I don’t want to bring my trouble to your pack’s door.”

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