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  No, cops wouldn’t be able to help her.

  Beck.

  She reported in to her supervisor that she had a family emergency and got someone to take over her route for her. Then she went outside and called him.

  When he answered, his strong, sweet voice sounding a mile-wide with his smile, she burst into tears.

  “Nami, baby, what’s wrong?”

  “He took her, Beck. You gotta help me. He took her.”

  “Took who? Honey, calm down. Where are you?”

  She finally sobbed the story out, Beck’s tone turning murderous. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes to get you. You stay there, and you stay near the building.”

  When he pulled up next to the transit center, she ran to his car, almost diving into the passenger seat. He hugged her, holding her. “Shh, we’ll get her back, baby. Let’s go. Dewi and the others are waiting for us at her house.”

  “We have to go find her!”

  “I know. We will. But we need Dewi and the others, and we need a plan first.”

  * * * *

  Everyone was waiting for them when they arrived at Dewi’s house.

  “Shouldn’t we call the cops?” Nami asked, panic threatening to take over.

  “Not yet,” Beck counseled as they headed inside. “We need to talk to Dewi and the others first.”

  Inside, Beck gave the quick version, then Dewi and Badger followed up with direct questions for Nami.

  “We have to help her,” Beck insisted.

  Dewi looked torn. “You know the rules,” she said to him.

  “Please, she’s my sister. Please, you have to help me! No telling what that bastard will do to her.”

  Dewi stared at Beck. “You have to tell her,” she said. “You know what has to happen.”

  Fear crept into Nami’s heart. “Tell me what? What has to happen?”

  Silence hung heavy over the room, the others all staring at Beck, until he finally turned to Nami and spoke. “I have a secret. We all do.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t lie to me about not being a criminal.”

  “No, I didn’t lie. It’s…more than that.”

  “Tell her, Beck,” Dewi said, her tone edging toward commanding, as if she struggled not to cross an invisible line Nami didn’t understand. “I can make her forget later if it goes bad, but you have to tell her now, before we go any farther. I can’t involve humans in pack business if they have no ties to the pack, and you know that. You have to show her.”

  Beck’s gaze held Nami’s as he started unbuttoning his shirt. “I have—we have—a pretty big secret. Dewi’s right. We can help you, but to do that, you have to know what’s going on. What we really are. Well, not Ken, but the other four of us.”

  He pulled his shirt off and dropped it to the floor, kicked off his shoes, and started working on his slacks.

  “What are you doing?” Her sister’s life was in danger and this guy was stripping in his friend’s living room?

  “I have to show you,” he quietly said. “There’s no other way. Otherwise, you’ll never believe me.”

  She couldn’t not look at his body as his pants and briefs joined the rest of his clothes on the floor. “Badger, Martin, please don’t let her faint.”

  “Faint? What are you—oh my god!”

  Before she could blink, there was now a large wolf with Beck’s blue eyes standing where he had just stood.

  She staggered back a step, feeling Badger and Martin grabbing her elbows to keep her upright.

  “Steady, lass,” Badger gently said. “It’s all right if ye need a minute. Ken here fainted when he saw Dewi shift fer the first time.”

  Ken laughed. “Gee, thanks for telling her.”

  “Well, ye did, man. No shame in it. Especially not considering what ye went through later.”

  Nami tuned them out. “Beck?” she whispered.

  The wolf nodded, letting out a soft chuff.

  “We’re wolves,” Dewi said. “Wolf shifters. And Beck has pinged on you as his mate. He’s been holding off claiming you because he wanted to make sure you loved him for who he was, not because of a mating bond. Admirable, but the dumb shit has run out of time.”

  Beck the wolf looked at Dewi and growled.

  “Oh, stuff a sock in it, Beck,” Dewi said. “The whole reason we’re at this point now is because you didn’t claim her the first day you caught back up with her. We would have warned the jackass off her family from the start, because she would have told you immediately when she found out her brother was in contact with the douche.”

  Nami turned on her. “Hey! You can’t talk to my…” Her voice faded, her outrage draining as she realized what she was going to say.

  Dewi arched an eyebrow at her. “Yes? Your what?”

  Beck changed back into his two-legged self and walked over. Nami’s breath caught in her throat as he gently brought her hands up to his mouth and kissed her palms.

  The man apparently had no problem running around stark-naked in front of his friends. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” he said. “I couldn’t, for obvious reasons. This is a secret you cannot tell anyone. Not your family, not your friends.”

  “What are you?” She felt faint, like any moment her brain might unhinge from her body and take off into oblivion.

  “Wolf shifters,” Dewi repeated. “Not like werewolves. We can control when we shift. No full moon bullshit like in the movies. Before we can save your sister, however, you have to be mated to him.”

  “Dewi, stay out of this,” Beck, his tone sounding growly.

  With speed Nami couldn’t even imagine, Dewi was in Beck’s face. “Unfortunately, I can’t stay out of this, because you got us into it in the first place. Either claim her now, or I have to use Prime on her to change her memory, and Badger will take her back to her car. Then she can call the cops and hope that the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office can track down that son of a bitch and her sister before her he kills her. And if I have to do that, I will edict you to abandon all contact with her.”

  “I can’t let you do that, Dewi,” Beck threatened, his voice dropping into an even lower, growly rumble. “She’s my mate. I get to decide when and how I claim her.”

  “Not when the pack is endangered because of it.”

  Something about the sparring tone between the two snapped something free inside Nami. She stepped between them and jabbed a finger in Dewi’s face. “You better back yourself up right now from my man, honey, before I slap you into the middle of next week.”

  “Oh, you think so, do you?”

  Beck let out a roar of rage and tried to duck around Nami to get at Dewi. One second, Nami was standing between the two, and the next moment, the old Scottish dude had grabbed Nami’s arm and pulled her halfway across the room.

  And she had no clue how it had happened.

  He’s damn strong!

  “Settle down, both of ye pups! Hands off!” he roared, freezing the two as if he’d given them some sort of magic command.

  They turned to look at him.

  “Don’t be forgettin’ there’s more than one Prime in this room,” Badger said. “And I’m way older than either of ye put together. That bein’ said, lad, Dewi’s right. Make yer choice now. What’ll it be? Claim, or release?”

  “Here we go,” Ken snarked. “At least you’ll get to claim her someplace better than a stall in a ladies’ room.”

  Martin looked at him. “Seriously?”

  Ken nodded. “Yeah. Seriously. Wish I was making that up. Although, no complaints on the back side of it.”

  “Shut yer feckin’ gobs!” Badger yelled at them.

  Both men shut up.

  “Isn’t there any other way?” Beck asked Badger, his voice sounding forlorn, pleading.

  “No, lad. And ye know the answer to that as well as I do. Now, make yer choice. Yer outta time.”

  The pain in Beck’s expression ripped at Nami’s soul. “It’s not my choice to make,” Beck said. �
�She has to make it.”

  “How can I make a choice,” Nami said, “when I don’t even know what it is I’m supposed to be choosing?”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The room went silent for a moment as everyone stared at Nami.

  “Dammit, Beck,” Dewi growled. “If you’d just fucking claimed her from the start, this wouldn’t be an issue right now.”

  “I told you, I won’t force someone to be with me, no matter what Nature might say about the matter!”

  “Hold on!” Nami yelled, silencing both of the wolves. She turned to him. “What is the choice? And what do they mean by claiming me?”

  “Wolves claim their mates,” Beck said. “We mate for life.”

  That didn’t make sense. “But, I thought you and Dewi had—”

  “We fooled around,” Dewi said. “Before I met and claimed Ken.”

  Ken held up a hand. “Yeah, I can testify it was simultaneously the weirdest and best evening of my life. And life has only gotten better since that night.”

  Nami still couldn’t believe what she’d just seen, that Beck had turned into a wolf. “Am I going crazy?” She looked at the others. “Can you all do that…that…stuff, too?”

  “Yes,” Dewi, Beck, Badger, and Martin said in unison.

  “No,” Ken said, the lone voice of dissent and sounding sympathetic. “I’m human. But they all can shift. No, human mates can’t shift. And yes, it’s a mind fuck. But it’s the truth. They’re pack Enforcers. And Dewi, Beck, and Badger are the pack council for the expanded pack here in Tampa. The main pack is—”

  “In Idaho,” Nami weakly finished. “That’s the family business, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  Malyah was out there, somewhere. And she knew that son of a bitch Jarome Drexler didn’t give a shit about her. He wanted Da’von for the gang, to boost his status or whatever. To undo all the years of hard work, the sweat, the tears, the scrimping and saving.

  She’d be damned if she’d let that worthless sack of shit ruin Da’von’s life, or Malyah’s.

  She turned to Beck. “Then do it. Claim me.”

  “You don’t understand. We mate for life, and I don’t want to force you—”

  “You’re not forcing me. Do you see him forcing me?” Nami asked the others.

  “Doesn’t look like it to me,” Dewi said. “If we’re going to save her sister, Beck, you’d best make it fast.”

  “Don’t you want me?” Nami asked Beck.

  He grabbed her shoulders. “Yes, I want you.” His voice sounded choked, hoarse. “I love you. You’re mine. But…it’s for life. We don’t get divorced. I know you were meant for me. But I have to know you feel it, too. I won’t force you to be with me.”

  “Beck, I think from that first damn kiss you laid on me I knew there was something about you. And you were already under my skin before you found me again. I’d still be dreaming about you if you hadn’t. So yes, I’m sure.”

  “We can’t tell anyone about the wolf stuff.”

  “Like they’d believe me if I did.”

  “Becoming part of the pack, it means—”

  “For fuck’s sake,” Dewi snarled. “Take her upstairs and claim her. You have fifteen minutes, then we need to roll.”

  Nami grabbed Beck’s hand and squeezed. “Please,” she pleaded. “I do love you, and I love my brother and sisters. This isn’t a hardship, trust me. Whatever we’ve got to do, please, let’s do it so we can go save Malyah.”

  He stared down into her eyes, those piercing blue eyes of his, seeming to see deep inside every nook and cranny in her soul. “Dewi, do you happen to have any…uh…”

  * * * *

  “For crying out loud!” Dewi yelled. “Are you shitting me? You been chasing her all this time and didn’t plan for—”

  “I got you covered,” Martin said, pulling his wallet out and stepping forward, handing Beck a condom. “Only one I got on me, so make it count, dude.”

  Relief filled Beck. “Thanks.” he laced his fingers through Nami’s and quickly led her upstairs. Once they were locked behind his bedroom door, he turned to her. “I’m sorry, baby. This isn’t how I wanted it to happen. I wanted us to be able to take our time, and be romantic, and—”

  She grabbed his head and kissed him, fiercely, tugging at the wolf inside him. “Beck,” she whispered, “I’m no virgin. Yeah, it’s been a while, but I get it. You can make it up to me after Malyah is safe.”

  He turned her around and edged her toward the bed. Reaching down, he unbuttoned her blouse and slipped it off her shoulders, kissing her neck, trailing kisses down her flesh to her shoulder and back again, repeating it on the other side. Her skin, a delicious, gorgeous contrast to his, like rich milk chocolate.

  She dropped her blouse onto the floor, then reached behind her and unhooked her bra, letting her ample breasts fall free. A soft moan escaped him as he cupped them, lifting them, bending his mouth to one and then the other, sucking on her nipples, wishing he could stay here all night and desperately trying to focus and remember they didn’t have time for this.

  Nami moaned, plunging her hands into his hair, holding on tight and letting him know in no uncertain terms that she wanted him to keep going.

  “I love you,” he thought to her.

  She moaned again, then her soft thought filtered into his brain.

  “I love you, too, sugar.”

  * * * *

  The boy was sin incarnate, and she never wanted him to let her go. Heat radiated off Beck’s body as he licked and sucked her nipples.

  How long since she’d last been with a man?

  Too damn long. Not since the divorce.

  He finally worked his way to her trousers, unfastening her belt before hooking his thumbs in the waistband and easing them down her hips, catching her panties in the process and pushing them down her legs. He dropped to his knees, burying his face between her thighs as she held onto him for balance.

  When his tongue reached out and flicked her clit, she sobbed with pleasure.

  He wanted her. He wasn’t gaming her. She knew it with every ounce of her being, felt his love and desire flowing from him.

  No way would she ever let him go if she had a say in it.

  He eased her back onto the bed, pulling her pants and panties all the way off her, removing her shoes and socks and dropping them to the floor, too. Then he sent her a scorching look that nearly made her come right there, a wicked smile on his face before he shoved her thighs wide apart and dove in, tongue first.

  Holy…ohmygod!

  She didn’t realize she had fists of his hair tightly clenched in her hands until she heard his pleased growl just before her orgasm slammed into her. Yes, she pleasured herself from time to time, but never…

  Never had it felt this good.

  Ever…

  As she let out a moan, forgetting about the people downstairs, Beck let out an answering growl of pleasure, determination, redoubling his efforts until she lay sobbing and spent on the bed.

  He sat up, a pleased smile on his face as he wiped her juices from his chin with his hand, licking his fingers clean.

  “That’s what I wanted to hear, what I’ve been dying to hear, ever since I first kissed you.” He grabbed the condom pouch and it was only then she realized—

  Holy crap, thank you, Lord!

  The boy was hung. Not just average, but well hung.

  He rolled the condom onto his shaft and then fisted it in his hand. “Last chance to say no.” His voice sounded throaty, growly.

  Hungry.

  “I want you,” she whispered.

  He pounced, slowly working his cock into her pussy until he’d bottomed out. He pulled her legs around him before covering her, braced on his elbows, his mouth over hers.

  “I’m going to claim you, baby,” he rumbled, from deep within his chest. “And for the rest of your life, this is the only cock you get. And you’ll get it plenty, as much as you want it. You good with th
at?”

  She nodded, voice now gone, heart racing.

  That sexy smile again. “Be prepared for when I get you alone again after this.” He nibbled on her lower lip, his hips starting a slow, sexy grind against hers. “I’m going to fuck you silly, mate. My mate. My gorgeous, sweet, beautiful mate. You belong to me, and no other man touches what’s mine.”

  He kissed her, this time hard, bruising, sucking the air from her lungs. A small orgasm rippled through her, making him move a little faster, a little harder. Then he tipped her neck to the left, kissing his way all the way down the right side of her neck, to the fleshy part at the top of her shoulder.

  “Tell me you’re mine,” he whispered.

  “I’m yours,” she gasped.

  “Tell me who you belong to.”

  “I belong to you—ahh!”

  His teeth sank into the top of her shoulder, his growl drowning out the sounds of her cries of pleasure and pain as a climax nearly as powerful as the one he’d given her by going down on her ripped through her body. Now he was fucking her hard and fast, biting harder, sucking, growling, until a muffled roar washed through his body and into hers, his mind’s beat pounding and pulsing.

  “Mine. My mate. Mine. My mate.”

  The mental beat turned into a long, loud, triumphant howl, even as his mouth remained clamped onto her shoulder, his body growing rigid as he climaxed.

  Finally, he let go of her shoulder, licking and kissing her flesh, his hands seeking hers, lacing fingers with her. Then he rolled onto his side, taking her with him, kissing her.

  Her shoulder ached where he’d bit her, but something felt…different.

  And not just because she’d had the best damned orgasms of her life in the space of less than ten minutes.

  He wrapped his arms around her, kissing her, nuzzling her nose with his. “Mine,” he whispered.

  She clung to him, tears easily escaping her eyes. “Yours,” she whispered, knowing it was true.

  Had been true since she’d met him.

  She didn’t know, didn’t care why. He was hers, she was his, and that was how it was supposed to be.