Page 22 of Claiming the Wolf Daddy

I’d have to talk with Marley about this later. But for now, I needed to be smart about this whole thing. If I looked weak, it wouldn’t just be me who would be in danger of people stomping all over me. I had to think of my three human companions, too.

To keep their best interests in mind, I’d need to potentially cross a line. But I needed to trust that Marley would talk things out with me. She wasn’t Olivia, and I wasn’t human. It was possible that we’d be dealing with these little pushes and prods, these subtle challenges, for the rest of our lives.

More and more, it was seeming like a good idea to claim Marley properly. Was I ready to offer that to her, though?

I was still ruminating on it as I shifted and jumped into the water. It was surprisingly warm despite the autumn chill in the air.

I swam slowly, my mind on Olivia. I’d been such a territorial guy, so young and full of fire back when we first started dating. Practically chomping at the bit to claim her. She’d seemed interested in the idea until I told her what it involved, and then she’d laughed in my face and called me a deviant.

I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now that Marley was engaging curiously with claiming and throwing her theories around about what it might involve, I was getting a little nervous to tell her what it entailed. With Olivia, it had stung to have her laugh in my face and refuse me. With Marley...honestly, it scared me. I was doing a good job of playing claiming off as a bit of cheeky humor, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was worried about scaring her away.

But would protecting myself and her from the stranger parts of shifter life help in the long run? Not having claimed her was proving to be more and more of a problem. And so far, that was only on my side of the equation. It made me sick to think about what would happen if I let the wrong person protect her, the wrong person get close to her, only for him to take what I’d been too frightened to offer to her.

I swam over to the lapping shore, finding a place to think yet soak in the warm, crystalline waters. The sky was darkening, and the stars were starting to twinkle around the crescent moon.

Yeah, I would have to have this talk with her—and soon.

Then again, as I watched the other shifters play and chase each other in the water, my mind drifted back to Marley and her second theory about claiming. Her sheepish suggestion that it involved a chase, a hunt. Maybe she wouldn’t be so put off by the truth of it. My heart warmed as I thought about her little descent into degeneracy with me. What was it she’d said? That she would have been happy to get off with a quick missionary session and go on her way?

I loved how sweet she was. How sensual she wanted to be. I wanted to give her free rein to explore every aspect of that sexuality. Try anything, see what she liked, what she didn’t care for.

If she was interested in being hunted, maybe I would hunt her.

It wasn’t long before the water started to get too cold, and with the way my thoughts had drifted, I was feeling more and more inclined to be near my mate. I wanted to feel her body in my hands, to hear her whisper my name on a moan. I wanted Old Sharp Eyes to hear Marley’s pleasured screaming so she’d know how happy I was to fuck my mate and how little I needed a side dish. I was fully fucking fed.

After drying off and getting dressed, I ran so quickly and eagerly that I left the rest of the group behind me. There was nothing like the woman you loved to inspire you to hurry the fuck back to her.

Though the run out to the waterfall had taken nearly half an hour, the run back seemed to take only minutes. I just sprinted toward the smell of that burning bonfire. As soon as I broke through the tree line, I shifted back into my human form and looked around for my lady love. The one who inspired all of my joy, and at least half of my protective rage.

I found her sitting near the fire, sharing a beer with Jack.

“Oh, your hair is still wet,” she said, beaming at me as she stood and took off her flannel, reaching up to dry my hair with it.

The cloth obscured my gaze for a few moments. When Marley was done, her smile was filled with care and affection. “Don’t want you to catch a cold,” she said.

I smiled back before taking her face in my hands. She gave me a startled look before I closed the distance between us and claimed her mouth in a deep, hungry kiss.

She stiffened with surprise, clearly not expecting the sudden and very public display of affection. I shifted the angle of the kiss, crossing the threshold of her lips with my tongue, tasting the pleasant tang of beer. After a minute, I parted from her and rested my forehead against hers.

She was poised up on her tippy toes, her eyes glazed with comforted arousal. “What was that for?” she asked dreamily.

“Just because I love you, baby,” I said. “And because I want to get you back home as soon as possible.”

She smiled. Behind her, I heard her brother say, “Ew.”

“Okay,” she said. “Want to go home now?”

“Absolutely.”

She turned back to Jack. “You coming with us?”

“I think the fuck not,” he said, making a disgusted face. “I’ll let you guys get it out of your system before I share a wall with you.”

Marley giggled, and I hefted her into my arms in a bridal carry. She gave a tiny shriek and grabbed onto me.

“What has gotten into you?” she asked, smoothing a hand down my cheek.

“Running in the forest is amazing,” I said, sparing her brother any details he didn’t want to know. “And when I looked at the night sky, I thought of you and how much I appreciate you.”

---