The tension went out of her then at his words and her arms wrapped around him.

“Are you ready for the transformation tomorrow?” he murmured into her ear.

“I have no idea, Lex. Truthfully, I’m scared to death.”

He led her back to the couch and sat down, pulling her into his lap. “Beautiful, there’s nothing to be scared of. Your wolf is already there, you can feel it. You’ll just sort of let her take over for a while. You won’t do anything you don’t want to do. It’s not like you’ll be a different person.”

“Lex, I’m going to be a werewolf. No offense, but that in and of itself is something I don’t want to do. And if turning into a f**king wolf from a human isn’t becoming a different person, I don’t know what is.”

He looked puzzled, then annoyed and finally resigned. “Okay, all of those things are accurate to a certain extent. But the fact is that you are already a werewolf and what I meant was that your values and your mind and heart won’t change when you’re in wolf form.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. And you’ll see tomorrow night.” He kissed the top of her head. “For now, I need to make some discreet calls. I think Jack Reed and Warren Pellini are the J. R. and W. P. noted in Carter’s files. Jack is the Alpha of the Rogues and Warren is the Second in the mob.”

She stood up, throwing her hands in the air. “This situation gets more jacked up every minute.” Nina left the room grumbling to herself about werewolf godfathers and Rogues.

Chapter Nine

Nina’s eyes fluttered open to focus on Lex’s face right above her own, looking intently down at her.

She smiled. “Hey.”

He leaned down and kissed her. It was slow at first, drawing her into his web. He wooed her lips with his own. He tasted her, sipped her with the barest of pressure. Her eyelids slowly closed as she let him take her wherever he was going.

Her hands slid up the warm, hard line of his torso, up the rippled muscle of his back. He was hers, she felt that particularly strongly at that moment. In fact, despite her extreme discomfort at moments over her predicament and her feelings about the way she was changed, she hadn’t doubted him or what they were to each other for some time. That surety was calming, comforting, it anchored her in much the way Cade did. Gave her security.

When the hot wet of his tongue scalded her lips she opened her mouth to his, opening herself to him, giving herself to him. His taste shot through her system, filling her senses, intoxicating her.

The sensual slide of flesh on flesh as she arched beneath him, as her tongue slid along his, of his hair through her fingers—delighted her.

The kiss deepened, the pressure of his lips became firmer, more insistent as the edge of his teeth caught her lip. She was swept away by the intensity of his passion and could do little more than cling to him as he devoured her.

Her skin tingled and her bones ached so that she arched hard with it, a surprised cry coming from deep within her stomach.

He pulled back from the kiss and looked down at her. Staring up into his eyes, she fell into his gaze. There she saw his wolf and knew that the feelings she’d just experienced was her own wolf clawing to the surface.

She sighed with that knowledge, with the feeling of her wolf rolling within her skin, reaching out to Lex’s. A low growl trickled from his lips and she blinked up into his face. There was no fear, only recognition of that more feral nature, of what was now the other half of her being, and it matched his—this man who loomed over her so strong and intense. Yet she felt no threat from him.

“Lex,” she murmured and blinked slowly as her body adjusted to the dual-natured feeling, of forest and loam, of city and sidewalk, of two legs and four, of flesh and fur. It was like looking through the bottom of a very thick glass and seeing things in multiples.

“Beautiful, can you feel it?” His teeth were white and sharp against the olive of his complexion. He was so incredibly handsome at that moment, so compelling to her, the lure of his sexuality, of his very being tugged at her. It almost felt as if it was happing to someone else and she was watching it on screen as she reached out and slid her palm around his neck, pulling him down to her.

“Yes, I can feel it. I can feel her inside of me.”

“Are you scared?” This was whispered, his lips the barest distance from hers.

“No. I want you, Lex. Make me yours.”

“You already are, Nina. Before you even laid eyes on me.” His words halted as his lips were on hers again and his hands were alive over her body. He touched her with wonder, with reverence and awe and she pressed into him, not able to get enough of him, wanting him so much she was sure she’d die of it.

His lips moved to the sensitive spot below her ear and she arched back, baring her neck to him, understanding the relevance of that act more now than ever. He bit the tendon there where neck meets shoulder and she shuddered as pleasure roiled through her body.

Her nails dug into the hard muscle at his shoulders as wordless sounds of pleasure slid from her mouth.

His tongue blazed a scalding trail down the hollow of her throat to find a nipple. He flicked it with the tip over and over until she was begging him for more, begging him to take her, to make love to her, to possess her as deeply as he could.

He responded, sucking the nipple deep into his mouth, teeth grazing it. One of his hands slid down her stomach and over the flesh of her mound and between her thighs. They both gasped when his fingertips found her pu**y, hot and wet and ready for him. Two fingers thrust into her and his thumb found her clit, swollen and hard, slippery and sensitive.