Page 61 of Anna's Bounty
Anna
* * *
I
wake slowly with my body cocooned in warmth and surrounded by the clean laundry smell that I attribute to Rovos.
My lips twitch before spreading into a smile as the previous night comes back to me. There is a delicious ache between my legs, and also between my neck and shoulder.
I have to blink my eyes open twice before my vision clears. We’re wrapped around each other and tangled in the bedding, with my head pillowed against this shoulder.
“Good morning,” he rasps. I tilt my head back, and he gives me a sleepy kiss.
“Mmmm, morning.” I frown when I realize the light in the room is all wrong. It was still daylight when we returned from the humans’ compound. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Nearly two rotations.” Rovos looks disheveled with his eyes heavy-lidded and sleepy, and his hair sticking up in strange directions. “It’s common to sleep for many hours after a mate-bite.”
Mate-bite?I lift my hand to the side of my neck and wince. It feels bruised, and there is a scab over where his teeth punctured my skin. I smile when the night before comes back to me: the feel of Rovos deep inside me when he bit me and the subsequent orgasms that came after.
“Do you regret it?” he asks me as he brushes his fingertips over the bite mark. “I should have talked to you about it first. But in the heat of the moment…”
A pleasurable shiver ripples through me, and I shake my head. “No. I don’t regret it. Even if we had discussed it, I know my answer would be the same. What does it do?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’m not going to turn into some kind of alien were-cat now, am I?”
The look Rovos gives me is nothing short of comical, and I quickly explain werewolves to him so he doesn’t think I’m crazy. Well, so he doesn't think I'mcrazier.
“Your people have strange imaginations,” he mutters before he dips his head and captures my lips in another kiss. And another, and another, until he has me on my back with his knee rubbing between my legs and his fingers rolling one of my stiff nipples into a taut peak.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Rovos! We’ve been trying to comm you for the last hour!” Igid shouts through the door.
I have to stifle my laugh when Rovos snarls at the interruption.
“Have they been at the compound this whole time?” I ask, “What happened after we left?”
“They went back to theShadeto give us time to rest,” he grumbles, rolling away from me and gathering my clothes from around the room. “Why don’t you use the cleanser while I handle them?” he suggests, handing me the bundle.
“Wait!” With my arms filled with clothes, I turn just as Rovos is pulling his shirt on. Since he scattered all the buttons across the room, he lets it hang open, distracting me with his chiseled chest for a moment. “Are Deja and the humans safe?”
“Yes. Everyone is safe.”
I let out a relieved sigh before darting into the cleanser as Rovos gets the door.
Once I’m clean and dressed, I exit the bathroom to find Rovos standing by the window, Igid lying on her stomach across the made-up bed, and Treto and Sone sitting at the table. The second I step out of the doorway, all four pairs of eyes land on me, and I swallow nervously.
Igid’s mouth spreads into a wide grin, and she jumps up from the bed. “Welcome to the crew!” she exclaims before pulling me into a bone-bending hug.
“Really?” I look over her shoulder at Rovos. “I’m one of the crew now?”
“Of course you are! You are Rovos’ mate. That makes you one of us. So—” she claps her hands, “—part of the crew.”
Igid drops back onto the bed, and I cross the room to stand beside Rovos, who pulls me against his chest and wraps me in his arms.
“I can’t wait to teach her everything about bounty hunter-ing,” Igid proclaims, followed by a chorus of groans from Rovos, Sone, and even Treto.
