Shannon nodded and took a deep breath. She forced her body to listen when she demanded her hold on him ease. She slid on his slippery body to her feet but instantly took his suggestion. She moved behind him while he wrapped the towel around his waist. She pressed against his back as soon as he had it secured snug around his h*ps and peered around him at the tall werewolf female.

Eve growled low at her. Anton growled back louder. “Enough, Mom. I just got her down. Look at me.”

Eve jerked her glare away from Shannon to give him the full measure of her anger. “I won’t have it. You get rid of her or I will.”

“You don’t give me orders in my own home.”

“I’m the alpha bitch and your mother.”

“I respect you for both but I go with her if you want her gone from the territory.”

“Unacceptable. You’re my son. I raised you better.” Eve moved closer. “You will kill her or I will. That will end the rumors immediately. We’ll say you were just using her to get information about those nasty rodent chasers. I can still spin this nightmare to save face.”

Anton crossed his arms over his chest, watching his mother with narrowed eyes. “Not happening. No one is going to hurt Shannon and I don’t give a damn what the pack thinks. I understand you’re unhappy but that’s not my problem. You can leave now.”

Eve paled. “I’m giving you an order. Kill the cat or I’ll do it.”

“No.” His arms dropped and he reached back to nudge Shannon a little farther behind him. “Don’t make me pick you up and carry you out, Mom. How would that look to the pack? You aren’t welcome here while Shannon is with me. If you ever threaten her again you won’t enjoy the reaction you get.”

“Anton,” the woman snarled, “I won’t permit this embarrassment to continue. You will not do this to me.”

“I’m not doing anything to you.” He stepped closer, his body tense, and his voice deepened. “You’re the one who invaded my home to threaten the woman I marked.”

Dark eyes widened with horror and Eve stumbled back. “What?”

“Marked. Made mine.” He advanced another step. “As in ‘I sank my teeth into her, shared my scent, my bed, my home’. I couldn’t care less if your bitch friends snicker over it. I don’t give a f**k if the males make jokes.” He kept advancing, forcing his mother to retreat into the living room. “Shannon means more to me than that. Now leave!” He yelled the last words.

Eve fled but not before she shot a lethal glare toward Shannon where she stood at the bathroom door, watching the scene unfold. Anton’s mother slammed his door when she stormed out. He stared at it until Shannon walked up behind him to place a trembling hand on the middle of his back.

“I’m so sorry.”

He twisted to stare down at her. “For what?”

“You just argued with your mother over me.”

He took a deep breath, his temper cooling. “She came here to start trouble. It’s what she does best. You’re not to blame. I should have locked the door.”

“I’m still sorry.”

His voice softened. “Don’t be. I’m not. It’s about time I stood up to her.”

“What can I do?”

A black eyebrow arched. “Get naked? That would improve my mood.”

“You’re hurt.” She’d seen the marks on his chest, one on his back, and on the side of his thigh when he’d stood na**d in front of her. “You’re still limping. Do you have a first-aid kit?”

“Strip for me. That will make everything better.”

“But¯”

“It’s starting.” He growled the words, then his tone softened. “Between the stress I’ve been under, the fighting, and now my mother pissing me off, it’s sped up the process. The mating heat is affecting me. I need you.”

She noticed that his towel tented. She gazed at the rigid length of his c**k pressed against the wet, thick material. “Oh.”

“It’s going to get bad.” A hand lifted to his hair, shook some of the wet strands, and he bit his lower lip. “I’m almost afraid I’m going to hurt you. I don’t want that.” Frustration crossed his handsome features.

Shannon reached for her shirt. “You won’t.”

“Do you understand how much I’m going to need you? I’ve always been with other werewolves during this time. They are affected by it too. I don’t want to frighten you but sex is all I’m going to think about and want when it’s gripping me.”

She tore the shirt over her head. “Okay.”

His gaze lowered to her bared chest and he tore at his towel. “We have to use condoms.”

“I know. You explained. Get them.” She started to remove the rest of her clothes.

He nearly lunged for the drawer of the dresser. Her breath caught when he grabbed two boxes. She didn’t say anything, instead headed for the pullout bed, which was still out, and climbed onto the middle of the mattress to stretch out on her back.

The hunger on Anton’s face turned her on while he admired every inch of her body. His c**k swelled to an impressive size. She lifted her hand, crooked a finger at him and smiled while she bent her legs up. She spread them wide apart.

That was all it took. Anton threw the boxes on the bed next to where she waited and came after her. He didn’t climb over her but instead stretched out on his belly between her spread legs and just buried his face there. The shock of his mouth on her pu**y only lasted a second. He frantically nuzzled her, his tongue seeking and finding her clit, while his hands pushed her thighs wider to make room for him.

Shannon threw her head back in pleasure from the strong, quick flicks of his tongue lashing her sensitive bud. He growled. The sound made her hotter and she knew she wouldn’t last long. Her belly quivered, her ni**les puckered, and Anton grew bolder by pressing his mouth firmer against her folds. His soft growls turned into snarls as if he were losing control. She understood since her own need skyrocketed. She blindly grabbed for the condoms, tore at the box, and used her teeth to rip open one of the foil packets.

He jerked his mouth away. “I need you.” He didn’t sound human anymore.

One look at his face should have terrified her. Anton’s fangs had slid out and his eyes had darkened. She shoved the condom at him. He lifted his hands, showed his fingernails had grown into sharp claws, and she sat up. She had never put a condom on a man before. How hard could it be?

She gripped him with one hand at the base of his shaft, tried to steady the center of the condom over the thick crown, and started to roll it down. Anton growled at her. She hoped that didn’t mean she had done it wrong. She released him, threw her body back, and reached for him.

“I’m ready.” She knew she was soaked with need. She could feel the dampness against her thighs. She ached to come.

Anton dropped over her, careful not to get her with his nails, and his c**k bumped against her ass. She wrapped her legs around the back of his thighs, adjusted her hips, and he pressed against her pu**y. He slid along the seam of her sex and frustration twisted his features. She reached between them when he lifted up a little, guided him to the entrance of her pu**y, and he pushed inside her.

She cried out and grabbed his hips. She marveled at the wondrous sensation as he stretched her with his rigid length, filled her, and met her need. “Yes.”

He braced above her with his arms to keep his chest from crushing hers and then started to move in deep, strong thrusts. Shannon cried out his name over and over, her h*ps matching his frantic ones, and used her hold on him to meet his pace. Sweat beaded their bodies, helped them move together, their skin rubbing, sliding where it touched. The ecstasy built inside Shannon, her vaginal walls clamped around him, and she screamed his name when pure ecstasy shot through her.

Anton threw his head back and moaned loudly as he started to come. She could feel his c**k throb inside her body as his h*ps slowed and he pressed deeply into her. He shook from the intensity of his release. When the strongest spasms started to ease, he collapsed on top of her. Both of them panted.

He was heavy but she had no urge to complain. Shannon grinned. Sex with Anton just seemed to get better and better. She didn’t protest until she needed more air. She released his h*ps to push on his chest. He lifted up just a little.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.” Shannon met his worried gaze, still smiling. “That was amazing.”

The worry faded from his eyes. “Good, because this is just the beginning.” He wiggled his h*ps and withdrew from her body to toss the spent condom away.

She hated when they separated. She’d felt connected to him, as if they’d been one.

“Hand me another condom and roll over.”

“Again? Now?” She didn’t hide her astonishment as she handed him the condom.

He rose to his knees between her parted thighs, tore open the condom with his now-normal hands, and looked down toward his waist. She followed where he stared. His c**k hadn’t softened.

“Mating heat. Get used to this sight because this is how I’m going to be for the duration.” He met her gaze. “I have about a minute recovery time.”

“Okay. I hope I can walk when this is over.”

He chuckled. “I’m strong enough to carry you around if you can’t.”

She laughed, pushed up with her arms, and backed up on the bed as he rolled on the condom. She rolled over, going to her hands and knees, and spread her thighs. She looked over her shoulder to back up until her ass flashed in front of him and her legs brushed the outside of his.

“Is this how you want me?”

“You have no idea how much.”

She winked at him. “So what are you waiting for? Need an invitation?”

His hand curved around her hip, slid over her belly, and his fingers found her cl*t to tease. “Are you sure you aren’t sore? I was rough.”

“No. I want you, Anton. I’ve never wanted anyone more. You don’t need to worry about me, okay? When you touch me, do that growl thing. You have no idea what it does to me.”

He gripped his cock, inched forward to nudge her pu**y, and slowly entered her a few inches but then stopped. Shannon bit back a moan and resisted closing her eyes to just enjoy the sensation of him inside her again. She didn’t want to look away from him.

“What does it do?”

“Makes me ache. My ni**les tighten so much it hurts. My stomach does funny things and I feel hot all over. It’s almost as if you set me on fire.”

His free hand caressed the curve of her ass. “Are you sure you’re not going into your own heat?”

She contemplated that. “I don’t know.”

He continued to play with her cl*t and gently rocked his h*ps to enter her a little deeper and then withdrew. Shannon closed her eyes, clawed the covers, and let her head drop lower. Her elbows bent to brace against the bed and she just let the sensations overtake her. She started to make a sound that should have startled her but what Anton did to her felt too good for her to care or want to contemplate it.

He started to move faster, his h*ps slapping against her ass, and made his own soft, animalistic sounds that turned her on more.

Passion gripped Anton so fiercely, it hurt. His c**k and balls had never been so tight or needy. Shannon was vibrating around his cock, her scent of arousal stronger than anything he’d ever experienced with any woman, and the smell drove him crazy. He wanted to f**k her until he couldn’t move.

“You’re purring for me, kitten,” he rasped. “That’s such a turn-on. Don’t stop.”

Her pu**y seemed to squeeze around him or maybe he’d never had that much blood rush into his dick before. Either way, her sleek heat tightened around him until he had to fight to move inside her and not come at the same time. His finger pressed tighter against her clit, strummed it frantically, knowing he couldn’t last much longer.