Violet
Dammit. She hated him, and yet she felt better in his presence.
For seven years, a part of her had been missing. She had tried to ignore it. She’d tried to deny it. But it was true. He was right.
They were mates.
She cursed for several seconds. She had a mate. A mate she didn’t want. A mate that was the father of her child.
But that biological drive didn’t change anything. Acknowledging that she was just as susceptible to the pull of a mate as any other shifter didn’t miraculously change her past. It didn’t suddenly make her want to jump into a marriage and play house.
It didn’t make her want to give up her autonomy and let a male pull her strings. Or even worse, allow an Alpha who wasn’t even her mate call the shots in her life. No. No fucking way. She wasn’t going to do it.
She did feel bad about what she'd done, leaving him paralyzed in the woods. But now she had a bigger problem – Tristan's Alpha. When she threatened him, she never dreamed that he would tell anyone. But she should have. He was part of a pack and he was looking out for them, just like her small pack looked out for each other. But he had the Alpha’s ear. And they were a lot stronger than her small pack of fifteen people.
She had to do something about this. Just yelling at him wasn't going to work.
She hated that her body still wanted him so much.
She wanted her mind to be in control, not her body.
Maybe if she spent some time with him, she would be able to convince him she wasn't a threat. And then he could tell his pack that she was sorry.
She needed to tell him that she’d lied, and that the artifact couldn’t harm multiple shifters at once.
She needed somewhere they could be alone. "Look, can we talk? Somewhere private?"
His eyes widened. He was clearly interested, which was why mates sucked. She had just harmed him and yet he was willing to forgive her. Having that kind of hold over another person wasn't right. It wasn't fair. Biology should not be able to override a person's brain like that. She needed to be in control of her brain. She needed to be able to trust her decisions.
She never wanted to act like her own mother.
She could not allow that. She hated to cast too much judgment on her mother. Because her mother was no different from every other female shifter in the pack – willing to look the other way. Willing to subjugate herself. Willing to accept the rule of a male who wasn't always right. Hell, her father was hardly ever right, but that made no difference to her mother.
It made Violet sick to her stomach just thinking about it.
She had to convince him to leave her alone.
“Let’s go for a run. As wolves,” she said. She had to find a way to unwind. They transformed, and raced through the woods, then down the side of a low mountain. For a few moments, she even felt young again and playful. Near the ocean, they switched back to their human selves.
Neither of them bothered to get dressed. She let her eyes rove over his sculpted chest and the hard line of his muscular abs.
He was hard, but he wasn’t trying to do anything about it. He just lay there, chest heaving, relaxing as though he didn’t have a care in the world. That must be nice.
He stretched, and the sun highlighted his golden skin. Her own body reacted to his, and she felt a low thrum of arousal in her belly. She was getting wet. Dammit. She’d planned to kiss him, or swim with him, not seduce him. This wasn’t like her at all. But her body’s urges were getting stronger, and maybe they could get each other out of their system, mutually. Then they could both move on.
She might not like that her body was overriding her, but she was done fighting it. She would let him have her, and she’d have him, and then it would be done.
She rolled over on top of him.
He grabbed her around the hips and smiled, clearly caught off guard. Feeling forward, she leaned down and kissed him. She spread her legs over his lap, and he gasped.
She rubbed her wet pussy over his hard length.
“Violet. I don't have any protection.”
If only he knew that it hadn’t worked last time. “That’s okay,” she said. “Onyx stocks our bags with anything we might need.” But she wasn’t going to risk another pup.
“Besides,” she said. She kissed down his flat stomach. “I have something else in mind.”