Without Regret

She couldn’t believe how good that felt. Never in a million years would she have believed her body could respond to a man like this or even feel this good. Her previous attempts at sex had left her uncomfortable, bored, and feeling inept. Right now she couldn’t even think about anything but the way Chris felt against her, warm, solid and so damn good that it had her licking her lips and thrusting her h*ps up to take his fingers deeper into her body.

For the first time in her life she wanted a man. She wanted sex, hard, hot and fast and most importantly now. Even though Chris’ fingers felt so damn good she needed something else from him. She fisted his short hair, reveling in the feel of silk and brought his mouth to hers. He let out a loud groan of approval as he devoured her mouth on contact.

His fingers left her and before she could mourn their loss he’d replaced them with something harder and much bigger. Panting hard against his mouth, she spread her legs wider for him, praying he’d put her out of his misery soon and”Izzy, wake up,” a deep semi-familiar voice said, drawing her away from the most intense pleasure she’d ever experienced.

“Go ‘way. I’m busy,” she mumbled, rolling over, or at least trying to roll over, but soft cushions prevented her escape so she just gave up where she was and tried to drift off again, but the jerk who woke her up wasn’t having that.

“I’m sorry, Izzy, but dad and my brother who won’t stop glaring at you asked me to look you over and I can’t do that with you asleep,” he said, sounding amused which was really a buzz kill for her moment of sexual bliss.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled against the cushion as she tried to move tightly against it and away from the man sighing heavily behind her and trying to turn her on her back.

“Izzy,” the man said patiently, “you have to get up so I can look you over.”

“Sleeping,” she mumbled pathetically when he finally managed to turn her on her back. She tried to slap away his hands, but he only laughed.

“Geez, Chris, I thought you were kidding,” the man said, chuckling softly as he gently caught her hands and placed them by her sides.

“Just do your job, Josh,” she heard Chris say tightly, making her wish he’d use that deep chocolate voice to say naughty things to her again. She really liked the naughty things he said and did to her, she thought with a content little sigh as she felt herself start to drift off again.

“Such a killjoy,” Josh mused softly somewhere near her, but since she refused to open her eyes she had no idea where he was or what he was doing and at the moment she simply didn’t care.

“Wake. Up,” Chris bit out coldly, sounding really pissed off, which pissed her off since she was pretty sure she was the only one in the room who had any right to be pissed, but she wasn’t exactly sure why she should be pissed at the moment, only that she had every right to be.

“Go. Away,” she snapped back, snuggling back against what she was assuming was a very comfortable couch and effectively dismissing him.

“You may not want to do your job, sweetheart, but you’re not going to f**k with mine. Wake. Up,” he said, sounding closer and reminding her just why she was so angry with the man.

Her eyes snapped open as molten hot anger surged through her veins. She ignored Joshua’s handsome concerned face and focused all of her anger on the jerk standing over her with his arms crossed over his chest while she pushed herself up into a sitting position, noting that her broken fingers hurt considerably less now. It was more like a dull pain, but that didn’t matter right now.

Right now what mattered was giving the bastard before her what he deserved. She stood up, never taking her eyes away from Chris as he glared down at her like she’d done something so monumentally stupid like take unarmed person to a freakin’ werewolf party.

“You and I are going to have ourselves a little talk, Munchkin,” Chris bit out.

Isabella opened her mouth to tell him exactly where he could go when everything suddenly hit her. Before she’d embarrassingly passed out and effectively ruined her spur of the moment escape plan she’d understood on some level of what she was seeing and what it all meant, but now that it was over and she was away from the situation in what appeared to be a rather homey sitting room it all hit her with frightening clarity.

All of it.

Her stomach rolled violently as she remembered the moment her world changed, remembered men turning into beasts, the stale hot breath that fanned her face, teeth running down her neck, Ephraim’s red eyes and fangs, the bloody stump and being told that she wasn’t human.

She clamped her hands over her mouth and prayed that this was just another dream.

Chapter 15

Chris opened his mouth ready to get this shit over with and get her out of their home and lives when she got to her feet, wobbled and lost all the color in her face.

Joshua cursed softly as he reached out to steady Izzy only to have the damn woman stumble back away from them as she stared at them through impossibly wide eyes.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Joshua said soothingly as he moved closer to Izzy only to have the damn woman shake her head stubbornly and stumble back as her skin took on a distinctly green tint.

He really didn’t need this shit, Chris thought as he stepped past his brother who was trying to calm his little mate down and scooped her up. He headed for the door, ignoring the fact that she’d tensed right up at his touch. As much as he’d love to leave his unwanted little mate with his brother, whose charm and easy going smile would probably keep her calm until it was time for her to leave, he couldn’t.

Thanks to her he had too much shit to do and very little patience at this point. It was bad enough that she was defective and she’d pretty much screwed him over, but now thanks to her he had too much bullshit to deal with and he was all out of patience.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Madison suddenly demanded, coming down the stairs with Jill hot on her heels.

Chris looked past the women and wondered where the hell his father was and why he wasn’t keeping his hormonal wife occupied like he promised. Would this night never end? he wondered as Madison stormed right up to him. Thankfully her eyes were still a beautiful caramel and not the fiery red that would probably frighten the hell out of his mate. It also meant that she was still in control of hormones, temper or whatever the hell was responsible for her little mood swings.

“What the hell is wrong with you bringing her out there without any training or at the very least telling her what the hell was going on?” she demanded, folding her arms over her chest.

His adjusted his mate in his arms, not that she was heavy, she was far from heavy, but he felt the bizarre need to cradle her closer and he was too damn exhausted at the moment to fight it. The sharp pain running up his arm from her weight against his stitches barely distracted from the pleasure of having her in his arms.

He looked past Madison towards his sister, hoping for a little backup only to find her leaning against the wall, throwing him an angry glare that told him he could look forward to a lecture from his little sister on top of all the other bullshit he had to deal with tonight. No doubt his grandmother would have one for him tomorrow when she found out about everything.

Just f**king peachy.

He sighed heavily as he faced his very pissed off best friend. “You need to calm down, Madison. It’s not good for the babies,” he said softly, hoping he could calm her down enough to leave him alone for the night and let him do his damn job.