Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Lion’s Arranged Marriage Chapter 13

Neil

That cursed alarm going off did more harm than good as I rushed Gwendolyn into the third-floor hallway. Hushed whispers and startled gasps cluttered my ears. With this much noise, I wouldn't be able to hear if anything dangerous was approaching, especially when I was still coming down from my recovery period.

Being injured as much as I had in a brief time frame was enough to dull my usual clarity.

Gwendolyn grabbed my v-neck sweater and forced me to stop. She tilted her head and closed her eyes, fingers clutching hard with concentration. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and nodded in the opposite direction. "We should take the service stairs." "Good girl."

She snatched my hand and yanked me in that direction, forcing me to trip over my semi-healed leg. What had once been broken bones were now mere fractures-but they'd get worse if I didn't take it easy.

A little nook broke off from the main hallway that spat us out at the top of a carpeted staircase. It wasn't like the lavish stairs leading into the foyer three floors down. Far simpler than those. But useful all the same.

I smiled. "How did you know they would be empty?"

"My ears are better than yours."

I scoffed as she tugged me along. "They are not."

"Are too." "Are not!"

She laughed hoarsely while grabbing the railings to ease her descent, pulling me along like I was some kind of a stubborn show pony. Yet the way she smiled at me with mirth in her eyes and the dreamy quality of her smile told me she was having too much fun bossing me around.

Well, she ought not to get used to this sort of thing. I was typically the one in charge.

What should have been a threat was anything but. Her leadership qualities came to fruition as she led the way to the basement, taking me through a hallway and a set of metal stairs that I had forgotten existed. It was the entryway to the security room that required an extra key code just beneath the main stairs leading to it.

Lucky for us, I knew it by heart.

After punching the number into the pad and reinforcing the door behind us, we stumbled into the security room from behind a set of boxes and found Blake with Milton and Jermaine.

I paused near one of the computer chairs and forced Gwendolyn into it, flailing slightly when she tried to throw an elbow playfully in my direction. "Where's Tanner?"

Blake pointed to the monitor. "He's trying to round up those dire wolves that got loose with Leah and Brandi."

Milton grumbled something under his breath. Alpha patted his shoulder gently, easing some of the crackling tension that had appeared on the back of his neck in the form of tiny flames. They winked right out of existence.

Dragons were finicky creatures with short tempers. Sending his mate out without him had probably put him on edge.

I grabbed Gwenny's hand. I couldn't imagine her fighting without me.

Maybe what she'd said earlier about the biting had some sound logic to it.

Jermaine bowed his head to Blake. "With all due respect, sir, I should be out there right now."

"I need you to round up our usual backup security team, alright?" Blake instructed. "You'll join Tanner in rounding up the mutts."

"Yes, sir."

As Jermaine headed for the stairs, he paused, squinting at Gwendolyn and me. He pursed his lips briefly while his nostrils flared. "Don't ruin my equipment, Neil."

"I wouldn't dream of it, buddy."

A grin broke out on his face, chasing some of the shadows away. "Good."

He trotted up the steps and disappeared. When I turned to Gwendolyn, she seemed a bit rattled by Jermaine's joke.

I shrugged. "We're rough with each other."

"Why?" she asked. "Is that a guy thing?"

Milton grinned slyly. "It's an us thing. Didn't Neil tell you how we met?"

"Not really."

She glanced up at me with those round eyes.

Blake cleared his throat, pointed at Milton, and then pointed at me. "You two will hold down the fort. Milton watches the skies. Neil watches the ground on the cameras. Understand?" I saluted my alpha. "Yes, sir."

"I'm going to find my mother," Blake said fiercely. "We'll handle whatever needs to be handled after we get everything-and everyone-back under control."

My heart hurt for my best friend. I couldn't imagine what he was feeling. If what Gwendolyn had mentioned had any ounce of truth, then he must have been going through some serious grief.

Losing his father was one thing. But finding out how precisely he lost his father with the threat of his mother's end approaching?

That kind of thing could drive any man insane.

I glanced down at Gwendolyn who gently traced the outline of my knuckles through the sleeves of my sweater. She was watching Milton now, intermittently glancing at the screens. What a great protector for the pack to have in addition to us. She was watchful, observant, caring, perceptive.

Owls were phenomenal hunters. She would probably have those wolves rounded up easily if she had the strength to match her stealth.

Milton sighed as he stood up and stripped off his blazer. "I just had this suit pressed this morning." Another sigh sent him to the stairs. "Be a champ and make sure this doesn't get torn to shreds, alright?" "You could do that outside," I growled.

Ignoring me was a typical Milton thing to do. He elegantly removed his clothes, folded them, and set them aside. I noticed Gwendolyn averting her gaze. That made my heart swell with pride.

She wasn't trying to check out my best friend. She was watching the monitors as tasked. Only a good mate would be so keen on respecting me.

My heart lurched in my chest. If she respects me like that, then I should respect her, too. By biting her.

Milton waved from the doorway and then trotted up the steps, leaving his magnificently expensive suit behind. It would be safe down here away from the action-whatever that action would end up being. Which would likely be a showdown.

Those dire wolves had been held by Blake for a bit. They'd given us plenty of information, but they weren't useful anymore. If he was worried about killing them, then he could easily send me into the cells to give them a proper farewell party. Keeping enemies too close would just kill us.

Or cause a massive disaster.

Gwendolyn pulled my hand to her shoulder. "There they are."

A few dire wolves appeared on the screen near the security checkpoint at the front entrance. Were they really just trying to walk out in broad daylight?

I frowned while leaning forward. "What are they playing at?"

"Something sinister, Neil. I think they're up to something. This doesn't feel right."

"I don't like it either, snow."

She whimpered so softly that I would have missed it if I hadn't been so close to her. "You haven't called me that in a while."

"Just a few short hours," I replied. But it had felt like ages. I ran my fingers through her hair, inspiring her to tilt her chin. "I'm sorry, snow."

I kissed her fiercely. It was magnetic the way her mouth drew me in. I fused with her in seconds, my heart sputtering like it was about to go out. There was the heart disease Dr. Windsor had warned me about. If I kept doing things with Gwendolyn, then I would surely fall prey to cardiac arrest. That was just what my girl did to me.

Tension melted while I stole her lips. Every soft sigh she released imbued me with a passion not felt in previous years. As her fingers rose to curl up with mine, I found myself swiveling the chair so I could angle her toward me. Nothing could stop my domination of her lips, not even the chaos happening beyond these walls.

Though I was undoubtedly committed to my alpha and his command, I was also held by a tight thread to this snow owl. Her delicate fingers and silky curls demanded my attention, each other part of her hidden away by a tunic and jeans, parts of her I desperately wanted to get my hands back on before I lost my mind.

Everything about her drove me mad and put me at ease. It was such a curse and a simultaneous blessing, one of those things that couldn't be explained by any science or philosophy. What she inspired in me was merely meant to be felt. No explanation needed. Just the thought of her touching me was enough to heal my wounds.

To resist such a thing was to accept death as the answer to all my problems.

But not anymore.

Gwenny had a point earlier. The best way to protect her was to bite her. And after my alpha reminded me of his command, I found myself short of excuses. There was nothing left to pass off my resistance other than sheer stubbornness, that of a lion who couldn't seem to put his ego aside for his mate.

Because Gwendolyn was my mate. She would always be my mate. There wouldn't be a time in my life when she wasn't. Even well before we met, she had been my mate. I could sense that as strongly as I sensed her heartbeat fluttering with mine. She stood from her chair and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, urging me to lift her. Denial didn't even come to mind. With her in my embrace, I could face just about anything, even the worst kind of criminals and evil scientists. If Dr. Myrtle were to materialize in front of us now, I would be able to strike him down. All from this kiss. All because of the adoration she conveyed with her soft lips.

She drifted back, struggling to breathe, panting so hard that it created heat between our mouths. "Do it, please."

"Give me your neck."

Obediently, she arched her back, exposing her throat and the main artery bulging in her neck. A hot rhythm had taken me over, prompting my movements without any prior thought, inspiring my surrender to what my inner lion demanded. Which was her.

As my canine teeth descended, her heartbeat increased, jolting through her like electric bolts as did mine. My rhythm became hers-and hers, mine. We became one just as the tips of my teeth pierced her flesh.

Heat flooded my mouth as she slung her leg over my thigh. The room tilted and blurred into the background. A song invaded my ears, a low vibrational hum that reminded me of the way she moaned. And maybe it was her moaning. Or maybe it was something else. I couldn't tell.

I couldn't care.

A rush of emotions came with the bite as I leaned back, feeling the way her blood decorated my lips. I lapped the twin wounds and watched them knit themselves back up, appearing as distinct marks on her neck in the form of a hickey. Her head snapped up and she grabbed my shoulders. "Your turn."

She yanked me into her. I scooped her up and planted her firmly on the desk as she burrowed into my neck, mewling as she pecked my main artery with a partially shifted beak. Her warm tongue came next-and something I had never felt in my life.

Merciful gods, I was weak in the knees with her penetrating kiss. It barely took a few seconds to mark me, yet it felt like ages were speeding right past me, a medley of memories that weren't mine suddenly settling into place like they had been mine for years. But they weren't. They were Gwendolyn's.

Her worries, fears, hopes, and dreams smashed right through the reality of my world, encompassing me, engulfing me with a love that I knew she felt. Deep in her heart, what she held sacred, was now at the forefront of my mind.

And that was a desire to mate properly with me. By ritual. In front of our entire pack.

I looked into her eyes while procuring a handkerchief from my pocket. I dabbed her lips and then mine, smiling when I noticed the scar tissue that invited my touch. It would always do that, wouldn't it? I didn't think I'd ever be able to resist tracing that mark. From now well into eternity.

"How do you feel?" I asked. "Stronger?"

She blinked rapidly while tracing my jaw. "I feel loved."

A million reasons locked into place from those words alone. Gwendolyn had spent half her life getting ignored by everyone, including her parents. With only her brother in tow, she had spent most of her years locked away in her room reading books, watching documentaries, and listening to NPR.

She'd taken her brother under her wing. She'd given him guidance that her parents couldn't-or that her parents simply wouldn't. It was hard to say. Though I knew how she felt exactly with the whole situation. Because I felt it, too.

I knew her from the inside out.

Just as I prepared to speak, she rested her finger over my lips. "Don't say it yet. Just feel it. I love the way it feels."

I closed my eyes. I listened to my heart.

She was right. It felt like bliss.

And I adored the way it felt.