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  “Hi…” she managed, and thought she deserved a pat on the back for it.

  He grinned. “I introduced myself last night—Owen Slade. I understand you are looking for me.”

  “I…I…how did you…?”

  He touched his ears. “Exceptional hearing.”

  A whiff of him wafted into her senses and her lashes fluttered. His scent was masculine. It was spicy. It was wolf shifter—yes, but it was something else as well.

  “You…you aren’t just…” Zoie fluttered.

  “A shifter,” he finished her sentence. “No. Not just a shifter. I am a hybrid. Wolf shifter-vampire at your service, and Zoie, of all the females I have ever known, I want to give you…” He was cut off.

  “I want to thank you for what you did,” she rushed in. His green eyes were smoldering and his gaze felt hot on her taut nipples. Yes, yes, he was looking at her nipples. Should she stop him? Hell no, she frigging liked it. It was as though he was stroking first one and then the other with those sexy eyes. She felt her wetness pool in her panties as she finished, “For…last night.”

  He inclined his head. “You needn’t thank me.”

  “How did you know? I mean…how did you know they had followed me?”

  “I happened to be nearby and picked up on your scent and theirs.”

  He wasn’t giving anything away. His answers were short and to the point. What was he hiding? What was Aric hiding? What the hell was going on?

  “All the same, you were…I mean, thank you again.” She couldn’t stop herself as she asked, “Are you coming to the pre-Scenting Ceremony dinner party?” Her voice sounded breathless to her own ears.

  “No,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t invited.”

  She couldn’t hide her surprise and said, “Well, as I understand, you travel a lot, and no one knows where to find you. But, hey, my parents would want you there…especially after what you did for me. So, do come. My mom and Barbara Wolfe put out quite a spread and there will be music, and I’ll give you that intro to my father.”

  He said nothing and Zoie chewed her bottom lip as she wondered what he was contemplating.

  He said, “Regrettably, I won’t be there for the dinner party.”

  “I suppose then you won’t be at the Scenting Ceremony either?” Did she just ask that? She felt her cheeks inflame.

  “Will you be?”

  Her lashes fluttered and she had to swallow before she answered. “My parents want me to attend. They say it is time I took a mate, but I’m not ready.”

  “Oh, but, Zoie,” he said, and his voice fluttered through her brain and made her lady bits tingle. “You are so ready. You just need the right one to show you.”

  Once again, those feral green eyes were sweeping over her face, down her neck, over her breasts, and it was as though she could feel him lapping at her nipples. Her entire body clenched, and she was sure he could smell desire on her.

  Apparently, the lust she was experiencing wasn’t reciprocated because he reached for the door handle.

  She so did not want him to leave, but other than grab and straddle him, there wasn’t much she could do. Should she grab and straddle him?

  Yes, oh yes, but even if she could get her limbs to work, she was too late. He had the door opened and had already put out his long well-shaped leg.

  Deflated, she watched, when all at once he turned back to her, took her neck in his strong hands, and covered her lips with his own.

  Explosions in her head. Rockets bursting in her blood. Need swept through her veins and came to part her thighs. Without thinking, she had gone spread eagle for him—willing and ready.

  Her eyes were closed tight, but she could see stars bleeping out a signal, hot baby, hot.

  It was true. It was all true. Everything she had heard about what you could feel when you were properly kissed—all here and now with this wild, big bad boy.

  His tongue was fierce and bold as it stroked and played with hers and when he released her and stepped away, his voice was full with hunger.

  “Later, Zoie Bracken, later.”

  And then in that proverbial blink—he was gone.

  Chapter Four

  ZOIE RUSHED OUTSIDE and grabbed Carmen as her unsuspecting BFF got out of her Lexus.

  “Hey, what the hell?” Carmen said on a laugh. “What’s happening, woman?”

  “We need to talk…I need to talk. Didn’t want to do it on the phone yesterday and couldn’t get free to come and visit you, but, Carmen…Carmen…” Zoie said as she dragged her hurriedly past the kitchen where her mother was chatting with Barbara Wolfe.

  Once in her room, she turned and took hold of her friend’s slender arms and squealed. “He kissed me. Owen Slade kissed me.”

  “And from the looks of you, it must have been some kiss, but who is Owen Slade, and is that all he did to you because it looks like he did way more.”

  “A kiss. Only a kiss, but I would have laid right down in the middle of the sidewalk for him because of that kiss.”

  “Zoie, I have never seen you like this,” her friend said, plopping into a nearby chair. “So who is this guy?”

  “He is the one with the green eyes…the one who saved me…the one from the other night sitting with Aric.”

  “The dangerous one!” Carmen stood up. “I told you to stay away from him.”

  “How could I? Carmen, he saved me from those rogues. I went to Wolfe’s Den looking for him to thank him…because I suspected the big black wolf was….but anyway, he wasn’t around, and Aric couldn’t tell me where to find him. So I got into my car and the next thing I knew, he got in. I thanked him for saving me and he was about to leave when he turned back, reached in, and kissed me.” Zoie was breathless and aware that she sounded like a teenager, the kind of teenager she had never really been.

  “Oh Zoie, oh…babe.” Carmen hugged her. “Forget him. Forget the kiss. Tonight is the ceremony…you will have so many hot wolves to choose from.”

  “He is a hybrid,” Zoie told her on a whisper.

  “I know,” her friend said quietly.

  “You know? How do you know?”

  “I heard my brothers talking about him.”

  “What else? What else do you know?” Zoie demanded, hands on hips.

  “Nothing else. I didn’t pay any attention.” Carmen sighed.

  Zoie went quiet and moved to the window. She stood staring at nothing in particular and Carmen came to stand behind her. “Come on…forget him for now and show me what you are going to wear to the dinner.”

  For the first time in all their lives, Zoie thought her dearest, closest friend just didn’t get her. How could that be?

  * * * * *

  Carmen stood in front of the mirror in her dark blue cocktail dress and Zoie waved a hand over her friend’s body and said, “I truly hate you. I saw you eat four brownies. Four.”

  Carmen laughed and turned to exclaim, “Oh babe, you look hot in that red dress. You should wear dresses more often.”

  “Not me. I’m a jean and boots gal.” She looked at herself in the low cut, body hugging dress and sighed. “Do you think this is too much?” She waved over her breasts swelling out of the bodice.

  “I think those and your ass are going to make the wolves pant and sniff you like crazy.” Carmen laughed.

  “Eweee,” Zoie said. “The idea of someone I am not in love with sniffing around my ass and muff does not appeal to me.” Zoie grimaced at her friend.

  Carmen laughed and hugged her. “But, Zoie, your animal needs to…”

  “My animal and I are in agreement. We both want love before sniffing!”

  Carmen burst out laughing and shook her head. “Consider this, first comes attraction. Raw sexual attraction. All you have to do is meet that halfway and who knows where it will take you.”

  “Carmen, my Carmen, go on and get yourself sniffed, but I think I’d like to leave that sort of thing to the Fates.”

  “The Fates are fickle bitches, Zoie,”
Carmen said, and chuckled low and throaty.

  Zoie smiled. “Well, I promised my mother I would attend the dinner tonight, but I made no promises about the ceremony.”

  “What if Owen Slade was going to be there?”

  Zoie turned away. Carmen wagged a finger and gasped. “I knew it! You can’t let yourself think like that about him. He isn’t the sort that will commit. His type never does, and Zoie, you are all about commitment.”

  “Stop! Maybe I am ready for a little fun and maybe I think he is just the one to give me what I need, but that doesn’t mean anything more. And besides all that, you don’t really know him. Now just give it up.”

  “Okay, I’ll drop it.”

  Zoie ran her hand over her friend’s bare arm. “I’m glad you are staying the night, Carmen, because I think Brock, no, not think, I know he is going to be around the entire evening,” Zoie teased, and then was surprised to see her friend’s cheeks turn bright red. It was near impossible to make Carmen blush. Had she hit a nerve? She considered her friend and grinned. “You do want him. All those denials—lies!” Zoie laughed.

  “Your turn to give it up,” Carmen said, moving away. “Are you coming?”

  Zoie made a face at her and said, “Yup.”

  They made their way to the back door where Carmen stopped short and stood as though transfixed.

  Zoie looked from her friend to her oldest brother, Brock, and rolled her eyes before she whispered to her friend, “Oh, you two have it bad for each other.”

  Brock didn’t move. Carmen didn’t move. No one spoke. Her oldest brother was never speechless, but there he stood, with his mouth wide open and nothing coming out.

  Finally, Brock nodded and managed, “Carmen.”

  Carmen replied softly, “Brock.”

  Zoie said, “Oh, please, somebody shoot me.” Laughing, she squeezed her way past them and strolled towards the three tents full with shifters and humans. Their numbers were so great that they had spilled over onto the neatly maintained grounds.

  Zoie strolled through the gardens as she swayed to the beat of the music, put her half-finished plate of food down on a small bench, and scanned the landscape.

  Even though Owen had said he wasn’t attending, she still looked hopefully around for the Big Bad Wolf, but he was nowhere in sight.

  * * * * *

  Male and female shifters took on their animal forms and began pairing off. She noticed more than a couple of wolves gravitate toward some of her very human friends. She smiled to herself, thinking about the shock they were about to receive.

  Shifters begin the scenting in wolf form, only going human and naked if the attraction is mutual.

  Zoie watched from her vantage point, seated at a dark wrought iron love seat between her mother’s raised garden beds.

  She saw Carmen lead Brock slightly away from the tents, towards the woods, before Carmen went wolfen. Well, well, they had trouble speaking to one another, but from what she could see, they had no trouble with the sniffing party at all. Eweee. Her brother and best friend! Zoie turned away.

  There would be a great deal of sex going down, not all of which would result in the marking of a mate. The aroma of passionate desire was heavy in the air, but another scent altogether was what caught her full attention.

  Zoie turned sharply to look behind her.

  Owen Slade, in Big Black Wolf form, stood on all fours, staring at her with his bright green eyes.

  “Ah…hi,” she said lamely.

  He transformed and stood in his naked glory, his swollen, ready cock at attention and pointed at her. He didn’t seem embarrassed at all, she thought, but with a body like that, why would he be?

  Ridiculously, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his erection. She had never even imagined a cock could be that large.

  He moved in on her without a word, took her hands and pulled her to her feet. “Zoie,” he finally whispered as he pulled her in for a kiss.

  It wasn’t just a kiss—it was the dance of seduction as his body melded with hers, as he pressed and ever so gently gyrated her against himself.

  It was the fusion of primal desire with the promise of more pleasures to come. It was his mouth on hers—his tongue taking hers in a feral union, and she knew in that moment she wanted him beyond reason.

  His tongue was an emissary for what he meant to do to her, and she gave herself to the moment, returning his kisses with a fever she had never before known.

  He pulled back, but only to lower her to the ground so quickly that she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to resist had she wanted to, and she didn’t want to. In fact, her mind was turning into a slush pile she was shoving down an imaginary sink.

  She took hold of his neck, twining her fingers into his thick black hair as he rocked his hips against her.

  “Damn…you are good,” she whispered.

  “For you, Zoie, I mean to be great,” he answered against her lips as he continued to press his hard-on just at the right spot. She wanted him inside. Every nerve begged for him to slam into her, but he was taking it slow. It was lust, but he was making love to her.

  He lifted her dress, past her butt and over her head. Good thing it had spandex in it, she thought, or it would have been ripped to shreds.

  His hand cupped her sex as his tongue continued a tango with hers.

  A ripping sound met her ears. Damn, her sexy black thong—gone.

  “You are going to pay for that, hybrid,” she told him huskily.

  “Gladly and a dozen more,” he answered.

  Oh, he was good.

  His finger entered her pussy and played with her nub with an expertise that made her thrust towards the invasion with a sign that shouted, Come on in.

  He growled as his mouth came away from hers and his lips blazed a route to her breasts. “Aw fuck, Zoie…your tits are beautiful.”

  He took hold of both her breasts, and began licking one and then the other, settling on one where he suckled as his fingers pulled on her other sensitive taut nipple.

  His free hand now cupped her mound again and his finger did a dance around her clit. He vibrated her sex with his palm, and she thought she would melt into a bubbling soup of pleasure.

  “Yes, do that…oh yes…” she screamed as she felt herself climb to the pinnacle. She was just at the edge when he growled her name. That was all it took to send her over, and she exploded with a climax that tore through her body, tensing it, making her arch and before her shudders had even begun to slow, he had her in place with her thighs apart.

  “I want to taste your fucking honey, Zoie. I have wanted to taste you from the first moment I saw you and got your delicious scent.”

  He was a hybrid, a voice niggled at her. No future with him. Carmen had said he would break her heart. Yeah, but first, she would have some great sex, she answered herself.

  It was sex, nothing more. No marking—no mating, just blissful sex.

  Will your heart still be intact, that same annoying voice badgered.

  Yes, yes, yes. She had to have him. She had to have this moment. That was all she knew.

  “I want you inside,” she cried as another finger joined the first, and his tongue teased her pink walls.

  “Oh, that is where I am going because you are so hot and wet, so damn ready for me. But first, Zoie, I am going to please you and eat you and make you explode again.” He growled as he positioned himself and pressed his nose to her canal.

  Zoie tensed.

  “Relax…just relax and let me take you there,” he coaxed.

  His breath inside her canal made her wild. “Hybrid!” she cried out with pleasure as his tongue lapped at her channel and his shadow beard brushed against her nub.

  “Guilty as charged, and at your service,” he murmured.

  He lifted her butt with one hand and his tongue went deeper than before as he licked, nibbled, and moaned with pleasure.

  Zoie went into hyper-drive as she pumped into his movements. Once again, he brought he
r to that all-consuming passion where all she needed was release.

  “You are so fucking tasty,” he murmured as he suckled at her clit.

  There it was, release, shattering her body with pain and pleasure as she gave herself over to the moment. She was hurtled into space and as she came down, she was filled with satisfaction so blissful, all she could do was lie there for him in idyllic contentment. Her body continued to convulse with sharp jerks as sweet sensations still had control.

  “What do you want, Zoie? Tell me. Do you want me to fuck you, really fuck you, now?” he whispered in her ear.

  “Yes—fuck me hard…now.”

  “No sooner said,” he answered as he took his dick and rubbed it inside her wet channel. “Like this, Zoie?”

  “Yes, now, now…inside.”

  He rammed his cock with precision and filled her as he slammed into her, calling out, “Zoie, you are so fucking good. This pussy, your pussy, is so tight and meant for me!”

  He rocked her then, fast and hard, groaned suddenly, and slowed his movements.

  “No, don’t stop…harder…don’t stop,” Zoie said as she was at that pinnacle again and needed release.

  He smiled and rolled over onto his back, caging her in his arms, as he took her with him and positioned her on top of him. He held her waist with his large hands and said, “Fuck me, baby. I want to see those big tits bounce while you fuck me.”

  She licked her hand and slid it around his cock. “I will, but first…” She began slowly before making the motion faster, rougher. “Like that, hybrid?”

  “Damn, baby…bend down and taste us, lick it.” His voice came from his gut.

  She bent and lapped her tongue over his cock’s length, then its tip before sucking it deep into her mouth.

  The sounds of pleasure he made incited her to suck harder, but, all at once, he took her arms and said, “Zoie…climb on. I want inside you. I want you to come with me. Fuck me, baby, fuck me now.”

  She took hold of his dick and positioned it before she slammed down, which elicited moans from both of them.

  Zoie rocked his erection deep inside. Her muscles clenched his dick, making him cry out her name, and she pumped harder and faster.