She held up a hand as he automatically began to defend his mother. “The issue is, Megan is a werewolf. She’s a Warden. You may not get this because you haven’t known her very long but she’s a powerful werewolf and she won’t leave what she is behind to be a human doctor’s wife in the suburbs outside Las Vegas. It would kill her.”

  The food arrived and he shoved it down automatically, knowing he needed the calories but also wanting to avoid speaking as he gathered his thoughts.

  “I have a life. I don’t know why everyone assumes I should be the one to give it all up for her because she has a job. Well I have a job too. I’ve got a nice practice in Vegas.

  Friends.”

  “Friends? A life? I’m going to tell you this because I love you and you’re someone special to me. You have a nice house and you have human women you fuck. You have people you go to nightclubs with but they don’t know you. You don’t share your life with them above that. Those aren’t friends and that’s not a life. And she doesn’t have a job, Shane. She’s got a calling. What she is isn’t she can just re-license somewhere else.

  You’re asking her to be what you are. To pretend to be she’s not. She is Pack. She’s a wolf. She needs to be around other wolves.”

  “I love you too, Lay, but this isn’t your business.” He shrugged hoping he looked nonchalant. “This is between me and Megan. I’m not some beta wolf who’ll come running when she snaps her fingers.”

  Layla looked up at him, anger sparking in her gaze. “Don’t. Don’t even try it. Not with

  me, buster. In the first place, don’t you minimize what Megan is to you. In the second place, don’t minimize what you’ve done. You’ve done. You sealed the bond. You did it knowing what would happen. Suck. It. Up. Be a damned man, do you hear me? Do not mess with my sister’s head. If I’m being harsh you had better prepare yourself. You screwed yourself right into the mother lode of Pack law. Megan has risked her life multiple times for the wolves who lead your people. Your people, Shane. You are a werewolf.” She wiped her mouth and stood. “You can pay with your pennies. I’m going to go help get Megan packed. If I know her, she skipped dinner and is up in her room givingHiro orders on how to protect Nina. Don’t be adumbass . I love you. She’ll come to love you. You have to love yourself and believe that what you are, what you were born, is not wrong or bad.”

  She bent to kiss his cheek and stalked away.

  ***

  Megan had waved goodbye to her family and climbed up the stairs to the private plane Cade had waiting for them at the airport. The flight to Las Vegas was a quick one and like a tourist, she watched out the window as they circled to land, mouth agape at the gorgeous lights on the Strip. On the way to his house, Megan sat, nestled into Shane’s side as he drove his sporty little car. He’d not stopped touching her since he’d shown up at her room door, a to-go bag in his hand and a smile on his face. She’d wondered why Layla had shown up early but she was happy to spend time with her sister before they left.

  He didn’t live too far away from town and the air was reasonably clean albeit still very warm even at midnight. She had known him twelve hours and her life was totally different than where it had been when she’d tumbled out of bed that morning hoping to buy shoes and shoot guns.

  “A gated community, huh?” she murmured as the large iron gates swung open silently. A

  guard tipped his hat as they drove past.

  “It’s a nice, safe place to live. You’ll like it here.”

  Nice wasn’t really how she’d have described his house. Palatial would be more accurate.

  He pulled into the garage where a motorcycle sat and a boat was parked, covered up.

  “We’re home. Come on, let me show you around.”

  “Lex has a Harley too. You two can go riding. Nina hates it and Dave lives in Boston now so he doesn’t have as many friends to ride with.”

  He smiled absently as he keyed in a code and opened the door leading into the house. The place was huge inside. Marble and gleaming hardwoods and tiles. Abstract art hanging on the walls. No pictures of people or wolves. No books. Several plasma screens in the rooms she passed. No throws on the backs of the couches.

  “Do you like it?” He flipped on the lights and she saw through the glass he had a pool.

  Those lights went on as well. It was in its own way.

  “It’s.” She nodded. Nothing she’d ever want and it didn’t seem to really express much about him either. But what did she know? She’d known him half a day.

  “You’re probably tired. Let’s get your suitcase up to the bedroom. Well, to our bedroom.

  Do you want some tea? Are you hungry?”

  He led her up an open staircase and into his room. She couldn’t really feel like it was hers. The room was stark white with a big bed in the center. Everything in the room was white. Just not she’d have chosen. But she made herself stop reacting to it and just try and get to know him.

  “I need a shower I think.”

  He put her suitcase down and pushed open double doors to her left. “Bathroom’s right there. Towels are in the cabinet. I’m going to check my messages and make some arrangements to have extra time off. I’ll be back up in a bit.” He kissed her and left her to

  her own devices as he headed out.

  Somewhere in the back of her senses, another woman’s scent lived. She’d been here, that other woman, but not for a while. There were no female touches in the bathroom and as she pulled her toiletries out, she noted with some satisfaction that not a single tampon or other female emergency product was in evidence in the drawers. Not that she peeked.

  Much.

  The bathroom was so neat, so tidy she felt odd even taking her clothes off. Boy were they opposites. It would take some work to feel comfortable with each other she knew. She guessed it would be good to start by folding up her discarded clothes and putting them neatly on the counter instead of tossing them to the side like she would at home.

  It was well after midnight but he left voicemails with his staff and service and got another doctor to cover his patients for an extra two days, giving them until Wednesday before he had to deal with the reality of work again.

  Cynthia would be awake still, despite the late hour, her shift would only have ended about an hour before. He heard the water begin to run and dialed her cell.

  “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you,” she answered without preamble. “Bored in LA already?”

  Cynthia, the woman he’d been seeing for the last several months.

  Mostly exclusively but not in a serious way, only that he just didn’t have much time to pursue anyone else. She was young, twenty-four, and worked as a cocktail waitress at a casino.

  “I’m home actually.”

  “Oh is this a booty call?” She laughed.

  “Ahh, no. Cynthia, I’m just calling to let you know I met someone.” He hadn’t been with her in over a week due to his work schedule. But he didn’t want to take a risk and have her show up and be a nasty surprise for Megan. He didn’t want to be an ass and lead

  Cynthia on either.

  “That was unexpected. But okay. Do I know her?”

  “No. She’s not from Vegas. Anyway, I just let you know. You’re a nice woman and I didn’t want you to think I was double-dealing or anything.”

  “Good luck and give me a call if things don’t work out.”

  He hung up. That was easier than he thought it’d be but he was relieved as hell. He’d have to tell Megan at some point just so there’d be nothing she didn’t know.

  Smiling, he headed back upstairs. His woman probably needed some help scrubbing her back.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning he woke slowly, rising to consciousness but aware Megan lay within his arms. Her hair spread over his arm and shoulder, the scent of her sliding into his system with each breath he took.

  She was warm and loose, one breast pressed against his naked torso, one arm over his chest, her skin pale over his more olive tones. He simply took her in, watching the rise and fall of her body.

  Before too long, her nipple, the one pressed to his body, tightened and he scented the heated response of her desire. She had awakened wanting him as much as he wanted her, apparently.

  “Morning,” he murmured. He brought her hand to his mouth for a kiss and that one brief touch of his tongue against the skin of her knuckle sent need sizzling through him.

  “Mmm,” she hummed and stretched, turning into his body, sliding a silky thigh up his and over his aching cock.

  Writhing, warm and willing woman and all his. Suddenly he was awake, wide awake and ready to take every bit she give him and then coax some more. He rolled over so she was

  on her back beneath him and he nearly cried out for joy when she spread her legs and made room for him. Like he was made to be there.

  “Fuck me,” she said in a low voice. Velvet and seductive much like every damned inch of her skin.

  “Let me build up to it.” Even as he said it, he couldn’t stop himself from dragging the head of his cock through her pussy, the heat of her making him crazy.

  “I don’t want that. I want you in me. You can be finessed while we shower. For now, I want you and I don’t want you to hold back. I want everything from you.”

  His heart stuttered even as he angled himself, hitched her thigh up over his hip and thrust into her pussy.

  Over and over he filled her and retreated, her body welcoming him, her gaze locked with his, those sleepy, sexy green eyes seeing right to the heart of him. Connected this way, through their intense sexual chemistry, he felt truly himself with her.

  He didn’t know if he could give her everything of himself. But he could share this way.

  He could love her with every part of his body and show her the gift he thought she was.

  Clearly they had a great sexual connection, maybe that would get them through, take them to another level. But right then, all he do was drown in her body, revel in her beauty and empty himself deep inside her before they stumbled into the shower and he showed her the novelty of just exactly how all those extra shower heads could aid him when he was on his knees, licking her clit screamed his name.

  This could be enough. For now it could be enough.

  He watched as she pulled her hair back into a sleek pony tail and laughed with the guy behind the counter. He’d never actually been to a shooting range before so it was an entirely new experience when she’d told him that morning they were off to American Shooter Supply just a few miles off the Strip.

  All the men behind the counter were as enamored of her as Shane was. She moved easily

  in her skin, her hands graceful and yet very sure as she signed the forms and took her driver’s license back.

  “You sure you don’t want to shoot with me?” She turned to him, holding a plastic container with a black matte handgun inside. She’d surprised him when she’d pulled that out of her suitcase.

  “Um, not this time. I’ll just watch.” He indicated the tables set up in front of the clear glass separating the shooting area from the counter space.

  She shrugged and went through the first set of doors, put on sound deadening headphones and then through the second set. Confidently she moved to the space directly in front of where he sat and placed her things down.

  Was he wrong to find the eye protection she wore hot? They weren’t just utilitarian but had a streamlined, sexy style to them. No one else looked so good. Her ass looked really tasty, high and tight in the jeans she wore. Her legs just went on and on as she moved to stand with her feet braced, slightly apart the muscles in her upper arms bunched when she aimed and began to fire.

  She was beautiful in her strength. In her agility and the way she wore her violence so casually. Not as a threat. He didn’t see that she scared anyone, or that she used her ability and feral nature to bully. But it was clearly part of her in a way she considered just as normal as the color of her hair or the set of her eyes.

  Every moment he spent with her, every new thing they did other than sex—although the sex was amazing—drew him into her more. Two days after they’d arrived in Las Vegas and had bonded, and he found himself really liking Megan. Not just as a woman he was chemically bonded to, but as the person he could begin to see spending his life with.

  She had this way of scrunching up her face when she was describing to him that made him want to kiss her. He found himself waking up early to watch her work out. He wasn’t

  even annoyed with the way she tossed her stuff around the house, filling everything with her presence.

  Which scared him. Even as he was mesmerized by the way she calmly shot the target in the heart and in between the eyes over and over with deadly accuracy, he felt as though he was drowning in her.

  He didn’t know if it was her, the bond, how he really felt or what. He felt it, that was true, but the human part of him approached the bond warily. Yes, he’d Claimed her without a second thought. Believed in the bond as he sat there and watched this woman who’d weaved herself into his world in so short a time. At the same time, resentment lingered.

  Was it real? This other person was suddenly everything to him in a way he’d never experienced, not even with Layla.

  It was as if his wolf had surfaced and wouldn’t cede any space to the human part of him when it came to this woman, when it came to this part of his life. Never had any woman, anyone for that matter, been so all important to him.

  The sharp scent of cordite had kept Megan centered on the task. Squeeze. Bam. Squeeze.

  Bam. Over and over. Each physical action on her part created a bigger hole in the target.

  She liked it. The result before her eyes. She could control it, knowing the outcome each time because she’d practiced over and over until she mastered it.

  It wasn’t the same with him. She didn’t try to control her world with hyper-organized living space like he did. But both control freaks just the same. Shane was someone who set her totally off balance and she did not like to be unsure and uneasy. She had a life where things mattered. Where what she did made a difference. That was her control. Here she felt as if she were spinning her wheels, just waiting for him to make a decision.

  Tension hung in the air. Expectancy, hesitation. It was ridiculous. She knew had to move, be dealt with. Something. How long she’d wait wasn’t a decision she’d come to yet.

  The next day, as they ate lunch on the terrace of a fashionable restaurant in an area of the

  city away from the Strip, she felt his hesitation like a physical thing.

  He didn’t hold back in bed. He loved every inch of her body with no reservation at all.

  But away from bed it was a different story. Despite his telling her she should feel at home in the house, it was his house still. He didn’t want to speak of the future, only asking that they take it day by day.

  At first, it was she did albeit with reservations but now it felt different. She felt with him at times in a way she hadn’t felt with anyone in her life. This was her mate! Another wolf who was meant to make her feel whole and cherished and instead, a sense of anxiety set in and hadn’t left.

  As they sat, pretending nothing was wrong, a group of people approached the table.

  “Shane! How are you?”

  A tall bottle-blonde leaned down and kissed him square on the mouth.

  Calmly, Megan took the woman’s arm and yanked her back. “He’s fine but his mouth is off limits to you for anything but speaking.”

  Shane laughed but discomfort threaded the sound. It was all so fake, his world and Megan hated it.

  “This is Cynthia, an old friend. Cynthia, this is Megan, the woman I told you about.”

  The blonde looked Megan over. Megan knew what friend meant in that context but it didn’t matter then. What she found interesting was his comment about him telling Cynthia about her. When had that happened?

  “Oh, well then. Shane you know everyone.” She indicated the people with her with a lazy wave. Cynthia didn’t bother introducing them to Megan and apparently it wasn’t important to Shane either.

  There was some talking about things Megan wasn’t clued in on. She didn’t get the feeling he was ashamed or being rude but that he didn’t know how to bring her into his world.

  Her phone rang. “I’m sorry, I need to take this.” She stood up and moved into a far corner, not wanting to disturb anyone’s meal to takeLex’s call. They might not have manners but she did.

  “I’m just checking in on you. How are things?”

  She smiled at of her brother’s voice. “It’s warm. Sunny. I’m eating some pretty on a pretty plate with pretty utensils. Did everyone get back on the road safely?”

  “They’ll be home tomorrow. The wedding went well apparently. And you’re not telling me anything. I didn’t ask about the weather.”

  Lex got her in a way the others didn’t. She took a deep breath as she searched for the words and realized even if she had them, she couldn’t say them without wanting to cry. “I can’t right now. I’m coming home day after tomorrow. We’ll talk then.”

  “Okay. Do you need me to do anything to get your house ready for him? Will he move up with a truck or? A service? Will all his stuff fit into that house?” Lex knew even as he asked, damn him.

  “I said I can’t right now. I’ll see you Wednesday. My love to everyone.” She hung up and swallowed back tears.

  The others had left by the time she came back. Shane eyed her but said nothing as she sat back down across from him. “I’m sorry. It was Lex.”

  “Ah.” He must have felt she was upset but said nothing about it.