On the Prowl by Kate Rudolph

37

Em endedup passing out shortly after Vi left her and Andre alone. And it was a miracle that she slept through the night. The next morning, she woke up, and for a second she thought it was all a dream. A very weird, terrible, and sometimes wonderful dream. Andre wasn't beside her. She couldn't hear him or smell him.

And then she heard something clank in the kitchen, and the knot in her chest loosened. Andre was out there. It had all happened. It was real.

She was a werewolf.

And maybe a witch.

And the shadow beast was gone.

Em sank back into the sheets and tried to breathe easy. Everything was going to be okay. It had to be.

Before she could get up, the door was opening, and Andre had a tray full of food that smelled delicious. The man was a gift from heaven.

He set it on the bed beside her. "I thought you would be hungry," he said, leaning down to kiss her good morning.

"I could get used to this." It came out without thinking. But would she have time to?

She reached up and ran her fingers over the scar that had formed over their mating bite. It was a reminder of everything she and Andre could be together. But she belonged on the tour. And he had a life back in New York.

What was a brand new relationship compared to all that, even if fate had a hand in creating it?

She couldn't leave the tour. She couldn't leave her life. And she couldn't expect him to do the same.

Andre settled onto the bed beside her. "What's got that look on your face?" he asked gently.

Em reached for a piece of toast and nibbled on it to keep from saying anything. But that only stalled her for a moment. She considered eating something else, but it would become pretty obvious what she was doing. She was hungry, but not ravenous. "What happens now?"

Andre sucked in a ragged breath. "I don't know," he admitted with the kind of heartfelt honesty she wished he didn't have for the moment. She could have used a comforting lie.

Andre leaned in close, cupped her cheek, and kissed her gently. "It's going to take some figuring out. But I'm not about to leave you alone." He stayed close as he spoke, sitting on the bed next to her, careful to avoid the breakfast tray.

And the last of the tension left her. "What about your job?"

"We'll figure something out." He kissed her again. "Just because I was made into a werewolf with the rest of the pack doesn't mean that I need to be working for the company forever, too. We’re still a pack. And you're part of that now. Maybe I'll cut back my hours. Maybe I'll take jobs when you're not on tour. Maybe the two of us will figure something else out. But I'm not letting this go. I'm not letting you go."

"I love you." It was fast. Faster than Em had ever fallen before. But this whole thing was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Andre was it for her. She had the bite mark to prove it.

And now it was his turn to grin. "You would kill me if I said I know right now, wouldn't you?" he asked, his grin getting even broader.

"Try it," but she was laughing.

"I love you," and then he covered her lips with his own.

Em shifted, slinging her leg on top of him to get into a better position, and that almost had the food spilling all over the sheets. She froze, half perched on Andre's lap as she considered her next move.

He made the decision easy when he reached around her and shifted the tray so it was balanced on the bedside table. It wouldn't take much to knock it to the floor, but Em found she didn't care. Not if it meant she got to keep kissing her mate.

She wasn't wearing much. She'd managed to throw on a ratty t-shirt before collapsing into bed the night before, but that was it. Andre, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten ready for the day for some strange reason.

She was going to fix that. She pulled at the fabric of his shirt until it was up and over his head and pitched to the other side of the room, exposing his naked chest. Much, much better.

"No more clothes for you," she said, raining kisses down on his collarbone and running her fingers over his naked skin.

A laugh rumbled out of him. "Is that rule for both of us?" he asked as he took the choice away from her and stripped her shirt off, leaving her naked.

With another person, she might have felt exposed, but never with Andre. His eyes on her were a blessing, one she never wanted to let go of. But she couldn't resist teasing him. "I make the rules here, buddy. You're my bodyguard, you have to do what I say."

She wasn't sure how he'd react to that, and she didn't expect him to flip their positions so she ended up flat on her back with Andre over her. It startled a yelp out of her, and she couldn't stop smiling. This was what happiness and relief were.

She was never letting him go.

He stripped off the rest of his clothes, and Em found she didn't mind her new position at all.

This man was her mate. What had seemed impossible at first now settled over her with the kind of certainty she'd never thought she'd have. Her career was too chaotic for relationships, she'd once told herself. Adding in magic and werewolves and all of that should have made it even worse.

But Andre was standing by her through it all. And she couldn't ask for more.

Andre's eyes seemed to waver between human blue and wolfish yellow as his wolf rose to the surface. Her own wolf seemed satisfied in her skin, happy to sit back and let Em take control. She crooked a finger, summoning her mate forward.

He was naked and hard, and as her eyes raked over him, her body lit up with the thought that he was all hers.

He loomed over her and they kissed again. She loved kissing him. He took control in a way that made her feel cherished, but the control was never too much. He seemed to understand her body in a way no one ever had before, and she didn't know if that came from their bond or if it was some special talent that was simply Andre.

At this point, she didn't care so long as he kept kissing her.

But she wanted more than kisses. She wanted everything. His lips. His cock. His heart.

A whole lifetime together.

And she was starting to believe it might be hers for the taking.

She shifted her weight and sent him rolling to the side, shocked a bit at the burst of power she hadn't expected. "Sorry," she muttered against his lips, kissing him again. "Unexpected werewolf powers."

Andre just smiled against her lips and kissed her harder as she lay on top of him.

She could feel his cock teasing her, and from this position she was the one in control. Not that she exactly felt in control of her body when lust was driving her like this. It was like she was possessed by the need for pleasure and unable to break free from its grip.

But why would she want to?

She positioned herself and felt the blunt head of his cock tease her entrance, and as she lowered herself over him, their eyes locked. And as she began to move, her heart sped up, and she was sure her own eyes bled to whatever their wolfish color was as something wild in her took over.

Andre reached out and laced their fingers together, another point of undeniable connection that anchored her heart and her body to his. He was impossibly hard within her, and still she wanted more. She sped up and her mate moved with her, their bodies joined in something timeless as pleasure arced between them.

And soon it was too much and Em broke, pleasure cresting through her as she came, shuddering around her mate. A moment later, he joined her, calling out her name with a final thrust as he came.

Sated and spent, she collapsed beside him and cuddled close. The soft words had already been said, and her body was too satisfied to do much else.

And then her stomach growled.

The triggered a laugh in both of them.

"Maybe it's time for breakfast," she admitted, reaching for the tray that had somehow managed to stay balanced on the table.