Page 36 of An Unending Claim

Nathan caught my hand and laughed. I was stunned for a moment, lost in the rare glimpse of his easy humor. He was fucking gorgeous when he smiled and his silver eyes went bright. I saw it more than most, but it still knocked me for a loop sometimes. I didn’t have any more time to ponder because Nathan rolled me onto my back and locked both of my wrists above my head with one big hand.

“You want a reminder of how you crawled and begged your Alpha to let you come?”

I narrowed my eyes and tugged my wrists a bit, checking to see how tight his hold was. “Don’t be an asshole, Nathan.”

“I seem to recall you calling me an asshole that night, too.”

My cheeks heated with a mixture of anger and desire, and my panther pushed to the surface long enough to give him a glimpse of my wildcat.

“I think another demonstration is in order,” he said gruffly as he ground his hips into mine.

I hated how breathless my voice was when I snarled, “Dream on, dog.”

Some time later, Nathan sported some deep slashes, a few bites, and a dislocated shoulder that had popped right back in and was mostly healed already.

Fighting him for control would always be my first response. It was just natural as an Alpha female. But the strength and power that he exuded was hot as hell. When I’d kicked his shoulder out of place, he’d barely noticed. He’d trapped me with his legs around mine and his uninjured arm banded across my chest, holding my arms immobile. Then he’d done a quick roll, smacking the shoulder against the floor to shove it back into place.

For that little infraction, my ass would be smarting for a couple of days. However, the two orgasms he’d given me were completely worth it.

It was late morning, but neither of us were in a hurry to rise and go to work, partially from lazy contentment, and partially because we’d just end up fucking in his office, my office, the bathroom… or wherever we were when the need overwhelmed us.

Instead, we were cuddling in Nathan’s bed, recovering from the last couple rounds. I was lying on my side with Nathan wrapped around me. One of his arms was my pillow, but the other rested on my hip with the hand splayed possessively over the protruding curve of my stomach.

His lips brushed over my birthmark and I shivered. “I wonder what they’ll look like when we move to the next stage. I’ve never seen them change before that, other than maybe a little of the coloring.”

The next stage… I couldn’t stop thinking of Thanksgiving at his parents’ house. Our daughter would love spending the holidays with his family and pack. They’d been so open and warm to me, I had no doubt that she would always feel loved and accepted.

“Despite all the shit around and between us,” I said, breaking the silence, “I’m happy that you are her father and that she will be a part of a pack who will accept her despite her mixed breed.”

Nathan pushed up on his elbow, and I could almost feel the heat of his stare on my face. “She’s as much a part of Silver Lake as I am. Even if she didn’t share my blood, the pack would never mistreat or ostracize her.”

“I know,” I responded, still gazing at the window on the wall across from me. “Especially after meeting Kellan’s and Celine’s animals. It’s made me realize that I’ve been judging every pack by the one from my childhood. It was just so hard to believe that there were packs out there that wouldn’t ostracize shifters who were different. Although our baby is more wolf than panther, so—”

Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Think before you speak, idiot!

“More wolf…?” Nathan trailed off, his tone puzzled.

Purposely avoiding his gaze, I stumbled through an explanation as I slipped out of his hold. “You’re really powerful and I’m sure your gene pool is really strong, so…”

When I was on my feet, I chanced a peek and mentally cringed at his expression, which was rapidly changing from confused to suspicious. His silver eyes narrowed and pierced right through me, kickstarting my fight-or-flight instincts.

The giant, strong Alpha was able to overpower me, but he couldn’t outrun me or climb trees, so flight won. I mumbled an excuse about seeing Savannah and ran to the back door. I flipped the lock and jerked it open, uncaring that I set off the blaring alarm. A second later, my panther was streaking through the woods as if her ass was on fire. She hadn’t been happy to leave Nathan, and she didn’t understand what we were running from, but my emotions had put her in protective mode.

I’d promised not to lie to Nathan, so I guided my girl to Savannah’s cabin, although what I really wanted to do was run to the city and hide out with Sam and Linette. Based on our last conversation, though, Sam would probably drive me back here himself—something about Nathan being good for me and blah, blah, blah.

Also, I’d come to my senses quite some time ago, and I knew there was no safer place for me right now. I winced when the realization hit me that I’d taken off alone again. I was almost positive I had an enforcer on my tail, but… yeah, Nathan wasn’t going to just let this go.

However, if it distracted him from my word vomit, I’d drop to my knees without being forced and I wouldn’t try to bite his dick even once.

My cat and I only slowed our pace when we were a couple of yards from Savannah’s door. Once there, we slapped our paw on it, then scratched and whined. Thankfully, she answered a minute later, immediately looking down since the noises coming from outside had clearly been from an animal.

“Peyton?” Her eyes darted around and when they returned to me, she raised an eyebrow. “Did you seriously run off without your bodyguards?”

My panther didn’t like her tone and she sniffed haughtily, throwing her head in a dismissive gesture.

“Girl, you are in sooooooo much trouble,” Savannah muttered with a shake of her head.

Before the urge to flee got the best of me again, I shifted. “I accidentally told Nathan our baby was more wolf than panther,” I confessed. My head dropped back to stare at the bright blue sky and I mentally cringed, so beyond pissed at myself.

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