Reclaiming Angelica

Chapter Two

Raul put up a ferocious fight, but strong emotion fueled the beast. His wolf found it ridiculously easy to blast through the rigid barriers Raul maintained to keep Angel from sensing its presence. Even his fear-tinged desperation was no match for the animal’s strength, the man being sabotaged as it was by his own anger.

Raul retained just enough control not to shift, but it was the animal that was clearly in charge. The wolf—its senses sharper, keener—knew something the man didn’t. Their mate wanted him, the animal. She was daring him to hunt her, mate her, claim her. The honeyed scent of her arousal lingered in the air—a siren call he was impatient to answer. For far too long he’d allowed the man to hold him away from their mate, and make no mistake, she was theirs.

He dropped to all fours—still in his man form—and bounded up the stairs in leaps, catching his prey as she cleared the landing. One pounce and he was on her, brought her down like a wounded antelope. As they fell, Raul wrestled control from his beast, twisted so he landed on bottom, taking the brunt of the impact.

Angel lashed out with her feet, struggling to gain leverage and get away.

“Baby, don’t fight me,” he desperately gritted out of a throat gone wolf.

This close to a full moon, his beast was strong, leaving him fighting on two fronts. All of Angel’s wriggling and squirming was bringing out the wolf in him whose sole purpose at that moment was to subdue and fuck. His human mate couldn’t handle its savage need of her, so Raul fought to control his animal and his mate—a battle he was rapidly losing.

Back off, he ordered his wolf.

Mate wants me, it argued, still trying to surge to the forefront.

She can’t handle you. You’ll hurt her, Raul said.

“Let go!” she demanded, slamming down an elbow. Only his heightened reflexes kept it from nailing him in the face.

Mate, no hurt, his wolf denied savagely.

“Quit. Fighting. Me.” A growl commanded, aimed at the wolf and his mate. Neither party listened.

Angel continued to twist and turn, worming in his embrace as he struggled not to hurt her by gripping her too tight. It was like wrestling an octopus. She was suddenly all arms, legs, and lush, womanly curves. His cock went from semihard to rock-hard so fast he saw spots.

“Omph!” Her knee found ground in his stomach, and taking advantage of his slack grip, she pushed off, launching herself forward so that her crotch landed in his face. Raul got a lungful of her enticing arousal before she vaulted forward another foot, scrambling on her hands and knees to flee.

His brain shifted into gear, coming out of the fog it had been in since he’d discovered her gone. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but Angel wanted him as much as she always had. Now that he was thinking straight, he realized that though she struggled, she hadn’t really put up that much of a fight. His woman knew some lethal moves and had she really wanted free of him, he’d be bloody and bruised right now.

Weeks of abstinence reared up to kick him in the balls. It had been too long since he’d had his mate beneath him. The moment of mental clarity allowed him to gain control of his emotions. As the desire of man and wolf combined, the wolf faltered in its struggle, allowing Raul to temporarily subdue it and focus entirely on his mate.

Raul rolled over, lunged out, and caught Angel by the left foot, then reeled her in steadily until he could hook an arm around her waist. He shoved his pelvis into intimate contact with her still-wriggling ass, letting her feel his erection and understand what was coming.

A mini-shudder worked its way through her body, and the autumn-spice scent of her arousal magnified.

“You’re mine,” he told her, voice guttural. “This is mine.” Raul cupped her swollen sex through the damp satiny material of her panties, visible under the black miniskirt hiked high around her thighs.

“Raul!” Not a protest, but a demand for more.

He plunged two thick digits into her passage. Wet, but not wet enough. When aroused, even in human form, he was massive and didn’t want to hurt her. It had been almost three weeks since they’d last made love. Two weeks due to him being on the road and the week before because of the full moon when he hadn’t dared touch her lest his wolf take control.

But for now he, the man, was dominating. It was a tenuous restraint at best. He could feel his wolf, lurking under his skin, watching and waiting for any hint of distraction or weakness on the man’s part. It didn’t understand why Raul wouldn’t share with it the woman who was their life.

He stroked in and out—once, twice, three times. Angel mewled like a sexy kitten and rocked, forcing his fingers deeper. After the third thrust, Raul withdrew his hand and licked his fingers, ignoring Angel’s groaning protest. He ripped her panties off, startling a soft shriek out of her and then lifting her by the hips, buried his face between her legs. Using his teeth, tongue, and lips, he pleasured her into a screaming orgasm.

Only when his face was shiny with her juices did he relent, lowering her body until her knees once more touched the floor. His gaze flowed from the shiny pink folds of her sex, followed the elegant curve of her spine to her slender nape, and focused on the flushed features of her profile.

His cock throbbed in tune with the blood pounding through his veins. Raul wrestled with his belt and zipper, loosening both so he could shove his jeans down his thighs enough for his penis to spring free. How he wanted her. Both wolf and man wanted to mount Angel, cover her body with his as he hammered into her long and deep and sank his canines into the muscle between her shoulder and neck.

While he considered Angel his, he’d never fully mated with her in the shifter way by locking his teeth in her flesh and feeling her blood gush in his mouth. Instead he’d pacified his wolf by covering her with his scent and scraping his canines along the tender sweet spot where her shoulder met her neck. Next month on Angel’s birthday he planned to replace the engagement ring on her finger with a wedding ring—a tangible mark for humans to see exactly to whom she belonged.

The temptation to complete the bond by fully mating with her was so strong, once again Raul felt himself fighting with his beast. For whatever reason, she’d actually left them. A reckoning was coming, but not now. Allowing the wolf out would be detrimental to what he was trying to accomplish at the moment—reclaiming his mate. To avoid that particular temptation, he gently rolled her onto her back.

Angel lay arms spread, eyes closed, breathing hard. Raul lifted her left foot, brought it to his mouth and kissed the arch, then satisfied the urging of his wolf by biting down with his teeth, smiling when she gasped. He pressed his lips to her anklebone, and while scooting forward on his knees, worked his mouth down her calf in nibbling bites.

Moving slow to give her muscles plenty of time to stretch, he straddled her left leg while pressing back on her right until her legs formed an L.

She rose up on her elbows. “Raul, you have me pinned. I can’t move.”

“I don’t want you to. Let me love you, baby,” he cajoled.

“B-but…”

Raul stopped her complaining by stroking her clit with the pad of his thumb. Her eyes glazed, and her toes curled. He did it again, and she moaned. By the fourth stroke, she’d surrendered and once more lay flat on the carpet, fingers digging into the fibers.

In this position, neither one of them had a wide range of movement. Angel couldn’t use any of her Cosmo tricks to incite his lust, and he couldn’t rut on her the way his beast demanded. More importantly, with him on his knees with his thighs spread wide and Angel flat on her back, Raul couldn’t get at her throat, not without causing one or both of them serious discomfort.

He strummed her sensitive bundle of nerves, his gaze fixed on her passion-reddened face. Black eyes heavy-lidded, rosy mouth slightly gaped, she panted soft little breaths of air. He loved seeing her like this.

“Raul…”

“Yes?”

“Come to me,” she pleaded. She ran the tip of her tongue around her lips—those full, moist lips he wanted to feel wrapped around his cock. “Come into me. It’s been so long. I feel so empty.”

This time it was he who shuddered. “God, yes,” he agreed, his voice reverent.

He angled his cock toward her opening. When the head of his penis was lodged between her dewy nether lips, he slowly penetrated her sheath, inch by delectable inch until he was fully embedded.

“Ooooh, you feel so goooood,” she groaned.

Raul paused and took a deep, calming breath. Slow, he had to go slow, he reminded himself. Then he made the mistake of glancing down to where Angel surrounded him. His balls tightened dangerously, warning him this all might be over before it had a chance to fully begin.

He threw back his head and gritted his teeth, calling on every ounce of his flagging control. Angel’s cunt tightened around him, and his hips jerked. “Shit!”

“You like?” she asked in an angelic voice, but the expression on her face was pure demon—of the succubus variety. She did it again.

Why had he deluded himself into thinking he held the reins? His Angel was wild, untamable. One of the many things he loved about her. She was his match in every way.

Giving in to instinct, Raul punched his hips in short, sharp jabs, slicing through honeyed muscles with savage intent. This deep and close, he felt every ripple, every flutter, as she clenched and released around him.

“You keep that up and I’m not going to last long,” he warned.

She gave a siren’s smile. “You wouldn’t leave me hanging,” she countered and brought her hands up to play with her nipples, plucking, squeezing, and stroking the large brown nubs until he thought he’d go insane.

“Madre de Dios!” he bit out.

Laughing softly, she told him, “There’s nothing virginal about me.”

Their gazes locked in sensuous battle, Raul retaliated by slowly trailing his hand down the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. When he traced the delicate crease between her leg and mons, her breath hitched. Smiling, he upped the ante, using his knuckles to brush across her clit, then dance lightly away. Her hips jerked, and she cried out.

Another warning tingle. This one skittered down his spine to land in his balls. Raul’s smile faded as lust spiked. More blood rushed to his already engorged penis. He felt his eyes go wolf. Praying his mate wouldn’t notice, he increased the speed of his thrusts.

Angel garbled out something unintelligible. Reaching out, she grabbed him by the hips, nails digging into the flexing muscles. Her body tautened, her tempting neck straining toward him. In response, Raul shifted even closer so with each movement, his pubis bore down on hers.

When that wasn’t sufficient enough, he leaned forward and planted his palms on the floor, on either side of her torso. The move gave him the leverage he needed to thrust with the power his body demanded.

The change in angles caused Angel to cry out. “I need to… Let me…Raul!” She punched the thigh of his restraining leg. “Release me so I can…”

He was already lifting so that he no longer straddled her thigh. Angel wrapped both legs high around his waist.

“Oh baby, Angel,” he gritted out between clenched teeth as he hammered his hips into hers. A drop of sweat splashed into the valley between her breasts, and his black hair hung in a wavy curtain around his face.

Their gazes met, clung. As his orgasm approached, his nails sprouted into claws. He dug them into the plush carpet. Feeling his canines lengthen, he pressed his lips together and hung his head, breaking their gaze. Even now, he retained enough possession of his senses to hide what he was.

Angel’s nails scored his back, and the taint of iron scented the air, exciting his beast to epic proportions.

“Please, please… All of you. Give me all of you,” she begged right before her spine bowed and a scream ripped out of her mouth. Her cunt clamped down on his cock like a vise, then began to pulse.

Raul’s hair went flying as he jerked back his head to keep from marking her, an orgasm roaring through him. His muscles locked into place for one timeless moment, and then his hips began to shake as pulse after pulse of semen jetted from his cock. He poured into Angel everything he was—heart, mind, and soul.

Raul slumped on top of his mate, panting. When his breathing evened out, he nuzzled his nose in the responsive skin behind her ear and whispered, “I love you, baby. Whatever the problem is, we can work it out. Just don’t leave me again. I can’t take it.”

“This changes nothing,” Angel told him in an extremely even and controlled voice, but underneath, his wolf sensed hurt, anger, and…defeat?

Confused, he pushed to his elbows to see her face. “What…?”

She shoved at his shoulders, and when he refused to budge, said, “Please get off me.” Her voice was ultracontrolled and completely unemotional, but again Raul sensed an underlying pain.

“I think,” he answered slowly, “I’d better stay right where I am. What just happened here?”

Angel let her hands drop to the carpet and turned her face so he viewed her profile. “Sex. That’s what happened here.”

He nudged her chin so she faced him again. “Don’t, Angel. This was more than sex. I love you, and you love me. Don’t you?”

She didn’t answer. Simply stared at his nose like it had somehow become fascinating.

“Angel?” he questioned, but a hint of uncertainty crept in as his father’s warning about the consequences of loving humans rose again to torment him. Silently he cursed. If he’d marked her, she’d be bonded to him, and he’d know exactly what she was feeling. She had to love him. He refused to believe otherwise. He’d felt her love for him. That couldn’t have changed in the few short weeks he’d been gone. “Don’t you love me anymore, baby?”

Her sigh felt like it came up from her toes. Finally she met his gaze. “Yes, I love you.”

The relief he felt left him weak. “Then why did you leave me?”

Intimately connected as they were, Raul felt her stiffen. She seemed to search his eyes for something. Whatever it was she was hunting for, Angel didn’t find, because she turned away again.

“It doesn’t matter,” she stated softly. “I thought if I…” She sighed. “Never mind.”

“You thought what, baby?” he asked, determined to get to the bottom of this. He knew his woman and her varied, mercurial moods, but this was a strange one, even for her. She’d gone from passionate to despondent in a matter of minutes.

“I’d like to get up now,” she said, which wasn’t an answer, or at least, not the one he’d expected.

“And I’d like us to talk this thing through. If I move, you’ll leave, and nothing will get settled,” he countered.

Something, some unrecognizable emotion, flickered across her expression. In slow motion, Angel turned her head until her gaze once more met his. Her eyes held steely determination. “You want to talk?” she asked softly.

Raul felt a prickle of warning slither down his spine. “Yes, I do,” he answered, albeit a bit warily.

“Let’s talk about the secret you’re keeping from me,” she said, gaze drilling into him.