“Don’t worry, baby, it’s normal. It’s your first change. It’s to be expected.”

Sara still broke into a grin. “My first change? You mean I’ve popped my change-cherry?”

Zach looked at her and started laughing, “Yeah, I guess you could say that. If you’re tacky enough to say that.”

He picked Sara up in his arms and held her close, making sure the blanket was tight around her.

“Clothes! You people need clothes!” Sara peeked over Zach’s shoulder to see a naked Conall standing behind them and in front of a clearly disturbed Miki. Considering she’d just taken out a 500-pound animal with one shot, Sara thought to herself, you’d think she’d handle the naked thing a little better.

“Go on,” Conall said to Zach. “We’ll take care of cleaning this up. You take care of her.”

Zach nodded and walked into the house, Sara’s head resting against his shoulder.

***

Within minutes, Zach had Sara in a hot bath. He washed the blood off her face and out of her hair. He cleaned her wounds and gently licked the one’s on her neck, face, and shoulder. He dried her off with a big towel and carried her into the bed. He lay down next to her and pulled her to him, resting her head on his chest, his arms tightly wrapping around her long body. He nuzzled his nose against her wet hair and kissed her forehead. Sara sighed once and in a few seconds she was asleep.

It was morning when she woke him. Her naked body was stretched out on top of him. Her lips moving along his neck. Her hands moving down his waist.

Zach took her head in his hands and turned her to look at him. To be blunt, she was all fucked up from the previous night’s fight: her left eye black and blue, a deep wound on her neck, a vicious cut across the bridge of her nose. She is so hot, he thought. And she was glowing. Clearly she took after her mother more than any of them realized. She was all about the hunt.

“Okay, what? What are you staring at?”

He wanted to tell her. Tell her that he loved her. Tell her that she was his mate and that together they would rule the Magnus Pack. He really wanted to tell her.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Nothing bad,” he added hurriedly. “I don’t think.”

She pushed herself off of him and sat at the other end of the bed, “Well?”

He cleared his throat. “Um… see, after yesterday… You know, you’ve kind of… well, you’ve kind of established yourself as the dominant female… which kind of means… that… uh…” She just stared at him. Okay. So she wasn’t going to make this easy. “You see, it’s just that… for the Pack it’s all about…um …and for me… you know…” Why was this so hard? Maybe it wasthe way she was just watching him, her arms crossed in front of her breasts. “Uh…”

Then her phone went off, “Hold that thought.”

She easily swung herself off the bed and grabbed the phone from the top of the TV. “Hello? Hey, Mik. Whasup? You doin’ okay? How’s your face today?” Sara flopped stomach-down across the bed. Zach stared at that delectable ass and became completely lost, forgetting what he was talking about. Who she was talking to. He forgot his name. He forgot all of it. “Good. Me? I’m doin’ just fine. Just waiting for Zach to quit dancin’ around the bush and tell me he loves me.” Zach was startled but just couldn’t tear his eyes away from her ass, “It’s taking him an hour and a day.” Sara’s legs were lazily moving front to back, her breasts barely touching the sheets, her chin tucked into the palm of one hand while the other held the phone to her ear. “That’s a good idea. Hold on.” She looked at Zach, “Would it help if I told you I loved you first?”

Zach didn’t know what to say. Hell, he was still staring at her ass, so he just sort of nodded. Sort of.

Sara went back to the phone. “You’re right. Apparently that would help. You’re so smart.” Sara was silent for a moment, listening to Miki on the other end. “Yeah. You got it.” Sara snapped her phone closed and tossed it on the night stand beside the bed. But she tossed way too hard and the phone hit the wall and flew back, disappearing under the bed. “Well, shit.”

Zach watched her lean down to search under the bed. She slid half her body to the floor trying to reach the phone, but all Zach could see was her ass bent over the bed, one leg sliding across his thigh. He growled.

***

Sara had just gotten her hands on her phone when she felt Zach’s tongue slide over her. She was so startled she flipped right off the bed.

Cell phone still gripped in one hand, she pulled herself up to rest on her knees. Zach was laying on the edge of the bed, smirking at her. “Could you warn me before you do something like that?”

“You shake your ass at me like that, you get no warning.”

She tried to stop herself from smiling, but just couldn’t. “I’ll keep that in mind for the future.”

“You mean the future of five seconds from now?” He grabbed her arm and yanked her onto the bed.

“Hey!” Sara’s already bruised and damaged face, slammed into a pillow. She lifted her head so that she could brush her hair out of her eyes. “You know, you’ve been tossing me around a lot.”

“Uh-huh.” Zach was behind her. “And that bothers you because…” He grabbed her legs and pulled them apart, then dragged her down until her ass was on his lap.