Claimed For Their Pleasure (Omega Prey #6) - L.V. Lane Page 0,1
across the stones harmlessly. The nearest wolf nimbly dodges it before returning his attention to me. The rightmost wolf howls again.
The cry is returned by another wolf in the distance.
They are calling their pack!
I’m about to throw another rock when a great snarling beast leaps from the trees for the leading wolf. They clash together in a twisting ball of fur and teeth. The two smaller wolves dance back, snarling, circling, and nipping at the newcomer.
The newcomer is far too large to be a natural wolf.
Shifter.
My heart pounds furiously as they engage in a deadly dance, growling and snapping their teeth.
A smaller wolf dives for the shifter. But he is taken savagely by the throat, shaken, and tossed aside.
Yipping with pain, the downed wolf struggles to its feet.
As the shifter moves to stand between the wolves and me, he throws his head back and howls. A chilling sound that sends a great shudder through my body.
The wolves turn and flee, darting back into the forest.
The shifter wolf throws a look over his shoulder at me. There is blood covering his snout and beautiful tawny coat.
The rock drops from my fingers. I recognize his coat, although I have never seen it bloody.
I swallow past the lump in my throat. Brandon. Oh, why does it have to be Brandon, the handsome lad from our village that can tie my tongue in knots simply by glancing my way!
He shifts.
Naked and covered in blood, his face remains stern with censure as he stalks toward me.
“It is not my fault!” I say before he can utter a word. Brow furrowed and jaw tight, he stalks closer.
My eyes lower. I don’t mean for them to lower, but they have a mind of their own. It is not polite to look at a naked shifter who has not had a chance to dress. Children are naturally curious. I admit I peeked on occasions when I was younger. As I matured, I understood the rudeness of it and have not looked in many years.
Goddess save me. I do not think I have seen Brandon’s cock before. It hangs fat and long between his legs, swinging with every step in the most arresting way.
“Eyes up!” Brandon snaps as he closes in on me.
I back up a step. My eyes lift to meet his narrowed ones briefly before they dart back down. How does it fit…
I yelp as he fists my arm.
“You are a fucking test,” he growls before tossing me over the nearby fallen tree and landing a firm spank to my bottom.
“It is not polite to look at an undressed shifter who is not your mate!”
Spank!
“I have scouted all over the territory looking for you!”
Spank!
“Your parents are beside themselves!”
Spank!
“You assuredly did not get all the way over here during your sleepwalk.”
Spank!
“Had you stayed put, I would have found you long ago.”
Spank! Spank! Spank!
“I am sorry!” I wail. My nightgown barely shields me from his palm. Papa has never disciplined me, for I am never naughty. I am shocked by how greatly this stings.
“I am still fucking furious!” he growls. “Gods, I cannot get the fear out of my mind from when I saw they had cornered you!”
The dam breaks inside me, and I fall to sobbing. I feel both his anger and fear as if it were my own. A small, deeply tucked place inside my chest blooms to awareness. My bottom throbs, but so does my head and my heart.
He stops. Heaving me from the tree, he takes a seat and puts me on his lap. “There, lass,” he says, pressing my cheek into his chest and making the sweet rumbly sound all shifters can make. “You are too old for this nonsense.”
“I thought I recognized where I was,” I mumble into his chest, shaking violently as the magnitude of what just happened comes crashing in.
“Aye,” Brandon says. “You know what thought did. He followed a muck cart and thought it was a wedding.”
I chuckle.
Brandon chuckles, too, a pleasant rumble under my ear.
“That is a terrible saying,” I say. The warmth from his big body is seeping into me, making me wish I could burrow under his skin.
“Aye, that it is,” Brandon says. “But things are going to change. From now on, I will be watching your house of a night. And rest assured, I will put you straight back inside should you try wandering in your sleep again.”
“Thank you,” I say. The little place tucked inside my chest blossoms further. I take comfort that he will