As the first tremors of her orgasm rippled through her cunt, he began to thrust deeper. Fighting the urge to plunge deeply into her, he settled for slow, deep digs into her and when it broke over her the spasms and slickness of her climax yanked him in with her and he thought his insides would shoot out the head of his cock, he came so hard.

Panting, he moved to the side so he wouldn’t collapse on her and hurt her. Heart thundering in his chest, he pulled her to him, kissed the top of her head and murmured that he loved her.

Chapter Seven

As dawn broke, Nina’s internal alarm clock woke her for the first time since she’d moved into werewolf mansion. She got out of bed and jumped into the shower quietly. She had to get back to work. She’d managed to get out of Lex that they’d at least called the shop and arranged for her manager to take over while she was gone, but enough was enough. It had been a week and that was too damned long.

She did enjoy the fact that the master closet was off the bathroom and got dressed, dabbed on a bit of makeup and twisted her hair up. She decided to forego the glasses and the prim clothes. They’d burned anyway. What was the point now that she not only had a man but a big bad werewolf who carried a .357 Magnum?

She left Lex sleeping and headed down and thankfully smelled coffee and saw Dave and Megan there in the kitchen, reading the paper.

The truth was, she understood better than Lex thought she would. She understood the importance of sticking to rules to be safe. Understood the cost of taking care of a larger goal—sometimes at the expense of the weakest person.

At the same time, she wasn’t sure how she felt about the rest of the wolves who stood there and watched while she was nearly killed. Her logical mind understood it—certainly understood the compulsion of Pack now that it coursed through her veins. It was like an odd sort of hive-mind, or was that Pack-mind? connection. Still, the feelings of betrayal were still there like a bitter taste on her tongue and weighed heavy on her heart.

But she lived there and now she was one of them in more than just marriage. And she couldn’t avoid them all forever.

Sighing, she walked into the kitchen and headed for the cabinet to grab a mug.

Dave jumped up and opened the door, pulling a cup out and handing it to her. “Here, let me help you with that.”

Nina took it from him. “Thanks.” She turned and got milk from the fridge and made her cup of coffee.

She popped a bagel in the toaster, rustled through the refrigerator and pulled out a tomato and some cheese and set to slicing them.

“Nina, I’m sorry. I know you probably can’t understand why no one helped you and I…I’m so terribly sorry,” Megan said softly.

Nina turned and looked into her sister-in-law’s eyes and she felt the pain there. Felt the conflict between her loyalty to the Pack, to her Alpha and to doing the right thing and protecting Nina.

But as Nina stood there, remembering that night she had a flash of something. The guards all carried weapons, yes. But they also carried them strapped in thigh holsters, at the small of their backs or underarm holsters. Nina looked down and saw that Megan’s gun was not on her thigh.

“Megan, where do you carry?”

Her sister-in-law moved her jacket back and showed Nina the underarm rig. “Here. Sometimes on the thigh but not most of the time.”

“Not most of the time.” Nina said this quietly and Megan made a barely perceptible nod. Nina closed her eyes for a moment. Certainly not that night at the Pack house. Nina remembered Megan adjusting herself as they got out of the cars before they’d walked into the house.

Megan had handed her that gun. Had used that moment of confusion when Nina had been thrown into her to get that gun into her hand.

Nina reached up and touched Megan’s face gently. “Thank you.” Understanding passed between them.

“I wish you’d gotten my gun. I was carrying silver ammo and you would have killed that bastard, Carter.” Dave’s voice was vehement.

Nina turned to Dave with a shrug. Dave looked miserable, guilty and red-faced.

“I’m sorry, too. I’m glad you shot his ass. I hope it hurt like a motherfucker to get those slugs out of him. I hope Doc Molinari dug in extra hard to get them all. Can you forgive us all?”

“I’m working on it. It’ll be a while before I’ll be ready to deal with the Pack as a whole again.”

Her bagel popped up and she turned, piled it with tomato slices and cheese and took it to the table.

“You’re going to need some more protein to go with it,” Cade said as he came into the room and went to the fridge. He pulled out some roast beef, put it on the table in front of her and went to get himself some coffee.

Suddenly Megan and Dave found that they had things to do in the other room as Cade sat at the table across from Nina.

She said nothing as she put meat on the bagel but she could feel his anguish. And his irritation and confusion at wanting her approval and forgiveness. She softened a bit, but not much. She’d wager that he’d never actually had to work for anyone’s approval before as he’d been groomed to be Alpha from the womb and all.

“So. Am I still Mr. Warden?” Cade asked, watching her as she sipped her coffee.

“I don’t know. Are you?”

“What kind of woman answer is that?”

“What kind of stupid-assed question is that?”

“Did you just call me stupid?”

“No, I called your question stupid. But upon reflection, I should have included you, too. But, as you’re the supreme poobah, you can be the most stupid.”