Mating Rights Read online

  Approaching the porch, he could hear voices inside that quieted as he stepped on the hand hewn boards and rapped sharply on the door.

  A chair scraped inside.

  His senses, ever acute, detected furtive movement. Jaxon cocked his ear, listening to anxious moves, steps across weakened floorboards—the scrape of two more chairs. He felt the vibrations of a door being shut.

  Puzzled, Jaxon frowned and knocked again. Harder this time.

  Footsteps approached the door. Jaxon tensed, expecting the worst.

  “Who goes there?” a male voice asked on the other side.

  By the raspy quality, Jaxon suspected the man was older. “Open in the name of Clan Leader Nicodemus,” he said.

  A few moments passed.

  The doorknob squeaked as it rotated, and the door slowly opened. A cautious old man with black skin, a salt and pepper beard, and gray hair peered through the crack. Behind him, Jaxon could see what had to be the man’s wife, round and short with wide, fear-filled brown eyes.

  Why were they so scared? Enemies certainly wouldn’t take the time to knock before attacking.

  “Who are you? What you want?” he asked in a furious whisper.

  Jaxon cleared his throat, relaxing the fists he’d made of his hands without realizing it. He pasted a smile on his face. “Good morning, Sir, Madam. I’ve orders to round up all available women for the Moonlight Festival. I’ve heard word from town that you have a daughter.”

  “We ain’t got no daughter,” the man said, moving to shut the door.

  Jaxon put his foot on the stoop, blocking him. The man’s eyes widened then narrowed as he frowned. “Reliable sources tell me you do. Can I check for myself? I’ve come a long way.”

  Behind the old man, the wife tugged at his sleeve. He dipped his head to let her whisper in his ear. Finally, he nodded. “I reckon. But make it quick. We was eating breakfast.”

  The man opened the door, allowing Jaxon to walk inside. “It won’t take long,” Jaxon said, applying his politest voice and immediately spotting the loft above the kitchen and the table set for three. Jaxon stopped at the table. Beneath his foot, he felt the floorboards sag beneath a rug covering. Placing his hands on his hips, he stared at the table then glanced at the plump woman. “Any reason you have three plates? Were you expecting someone?”

  The wife hurried to the table. “That was just some extra I fixed for my husband. Sometimes he wants seconds in the morning.”

  Jaxon stooped and flipped the rug up, revealing a trap door. “What’s this?” he asked, glancing from one to the other.

  “It’s just the root cellar,” the old man said, crinkling his forehead and shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

  “You don’t mind if I check it too?”

  “Nothing down there but salted meat and preserves,” the old man said, walking stiffly into the room. His wife waited by the open door, wringing her hands.

  “Just the same…” Jaxon nodded, then pulled the rug and lifted the trapdoor.

  As soon as it was opened, a form lunged through the opening knocking Jaxon back on his ass. The wind left his lungs and the floorboards reverberated with the force of his landing. A girl leapt over his prone body, heading for the open door.

  Jaxon snatched at her ankle as she ran past. The girl stomped his fingers before continuing through the small house, bursting outside and leaving him behind as he recovered. Rolling on his belly with a roar, Jaxon launched himself to his feet. She was quick, he’d give her that.

  “Too old for this,” he growled, following seconds behind her.

  She rounded the building, moving away from his men waiting outside the front gate instead of heading straight for them.

  “You got this?” Ranger called when Jaxon came into view.

  He didn’t answer, focusing instead on catching the girl. Dust sifted into the air from her feet striking the bare ground. She ducked around the thick trunk of a pine, heading for deeper wood. Pine needles and leaves scattered in her wake.

  Jaxon surged behind her and felt his knee threaten to buckle beneath the strain. He realized her head start would keep her just out of reach if he didn’t do something drastic. He didn’t have time for this shit, and he damned sure wasn’t going back to his men empty handed and showing them he didn’t have an edge anymore. Without pause, Jaxon shifted seamlessly to the wolf, his loose clothing no impediment to the change. Years of practice, from the time he was a mere boy, allowed him to transform without pain or strain. Padded feet hit the ground, soft and lithe, carrying him with a speed his human form could never match. He charged through the underbrush, a dark blur as he pursued the girl. She glanced back, eyes wide as she saw him. She stumbled over a root, careening to the left to avoid hitting the trunk.

  The scent of her fear permeated the air, and he caught a whiff of fine sweat as she pushed herself ahead to recover her unsteady gait. Weaving through the trees, she swiveled through the sentinels in her wooden shoes and kicked them off to gain better traction in the soft, moist loam.

  The tactic wouldn’t save her.

  Jaxon shot forward, energy pulsing through his powerful muscles. Her panting rang in his ears, making his blood thunder with excitement as he closed in on her. Her lilac dress flapped like a sail in a breeze of her own making. He launched off the ground with his hind legs, snagging the coarse fabric with his muzzle. Ripping at the fabric like a wild, excited beast, he snatched her backward. She screamed, flipping backward to land on her backside. Halting her flight, Jaxon immediately shifted back to human form, landing on top of her. He pinned her back to the ground kicking and screaming, snapping her teeth at his arms and face and flailing her arms in a tornado of movement that nearly stunned him.

  “Hold…still,” Jaxon shouted, sitting on her stomach to keep her from bucking him off. Fear strengthened her, but she was still no match for his greater weight and experience.

  “Get off me,” she screamed, clawing at his face with talon-like fingers.

  Her struggles forced him to wrangle her arms to the ground above her head. It left him panting for breath above her, his face within inches of her gnashing teeth and glaring golden eyes.

  “Do you yield? Do you yield to me?” he asked again when she refused to answer, tightening his hands on her wrists for emphasis.

  Her eyes widened, terror-filled. “Never!” she said breathlessly through gritted teeth.

  Chapter Two

  Why was she so scared of him? If he didn’t know better, he would have thought she’d never had contact with the outside world.

  He raked his eyes over her form, snagging on her chest where her large, soft breasts jiggled with her heaving breath. She was no child, but a full grown woman. No parent could keep their child sheltered from the world forever, no matter how much they might want to. Her smooth, caramel colored skin flushed with a youthful glow and the exertion of her flight. High cheekbones and hollow cheeks gave her heart shaped face a look of high born breeding, and her brown flecked, gold eyes framed by thick, curly lashes were mesmerizing enough that Jaxon had to force himself to look away from them. He settled on her full, pouty mouth. He felt his belly contract, focusing on that orifice and imagining what it could do, and averted his eyes back to her angry gaze. He damned sure didn’t need to entertain any ideas about fucking her.

  “I mean you no harm!” he said, his voice rusty through his dry mouth and throat.

  “Liar!” she said, straining against him with her last reserves of energy.

  He felt her weakening from her exertion. What fight she had left remained only in her mind. Her body had given out. He narrowed his eyes, tightening his thighs around her waist to control her. The fact that he was naked gave him no pause, but her quick, fevered glance at his body revealed she had not missed the state of his dress. Tension seeped from her arms and legs. Her skin sheened with perspiration, tinged with the unmistakable scent of fear. Jaxon’s nostrils flared. His mouth tightened into a hard line.

 
“Let me go,” she demanded, quietly seething when he made no move to release her.

  “Will you stop fighting me?”

  All expression dropped from her face. She went stiff and still. “Yes,” she said, her tone carefully controlled.

  The long pause before she answered made his hackles rise.

  “I don’t know why, but I don’t believe you,” he said, his voice sarcastic and edged with distrust.

  She blinked rapidly, her thick black lashes making her golden eyes appear innocent.

  “Don’t even try that shit on me,” he said. “You could have outrun me if you’d shifted. Why didn’t you shift? You could have gotten away.”

  She swallowed convulsively, watching him warily. “I didn’t think about it.”

  He felt a vein throb in his temple. “Didn’t think about it.”

  “Yes, that’s right. I’m not used to being chased. Did you hurt my parents?”

  He frowned. “I’m not a monster. Alpha won’t allow his people to be hurt without cause.”

  “Alpha?”

  Did she know nothing of pack law and rule? He understood sheltering a child from the harshness of reality, but this was going a little too far. “Alpha Nicodemus, pack leader of the Black Wolf Clan.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Can I stand up now? You’re making it hard to breathe.”

  He watched her a long moment and finally decided it was safe to allow her some measure of freedom. Hiking his leg to the other side of her body, he stood, pulling her wrists as he rose until she stood with him.

  She twisted her arms, her fingers wiggling as if her hands hurt. “You don’t have to hold me so tight,” she hissed.

  He bared his teeth in a smile. “I wouldn’t want you to get away again. Why did you run?”

  She lowered her eyes. “I was scared.”

  He clenched his jaw, striving for patience. “Why were you hiding? Everyone knows all females of mating age must attend mating rights. What makes you think you’re exempt?”

  “My parents were scared. And very protective.”

  His voice dropped an octave as his irritation rose. “You’re chock full of information. I’d hardly call you a young girl.”

  “Are you trying to insult me now? You’re no spring chicken,” she said through a tight jaw.

  “Insults will get you nowhere with me,” he said.

  She made no reply.

  He ground his teeth and tugged her wrist, pulling her along behind him as he strode back through the forest to his waiting men. Her feet dragged in the dirt. “What’s your name? Or are you too scared to tell me that too?” His limp was noticeable with the activity.

  “Mali,” she said, quiet and meek as a mouse. She didn’t fool him one minute.

  “Well, Mali, I’m Jaxon. We’ll just forget that this ever happened. Your parents won’t be punished. You won’t be harmed, but you have to come with me. Pack law demands every unmated woman attend the Moonlight Festival for mating rights whether you want to go or not.”

  Glancing back at her over his shoulder, he saw her hang her head. Thick, black, curly hair fell over her forehead. Sticks and leaves clung to the clumpy curls from their struggle on the ground.

  “Most women are eager to find a mate,” he said. “They don’t hide from it.”

  “Do you have one?” she asked, looking up at him.

  “No. And I don’t want one. Women are too much damned trouble,” he grumbled, limping through the woods until he found his clothes. Jaxon bent and collected his clothing, eyed Mali, then decided he’d wait until he got back to Ranger and Torolf before redressing. He didn’t trust that she wouldn’t bolt back through the woods, this time as a wolf, while he had his pants down and his ass in the air. He’d never live down the humiliation of allowing a slip of a girl to get the best of him.

  Reaching the clearing where the cottage squatted, Jaxon felt annoyed to see Ranger and Torolf chatting on their horses.

  “Glad you made it back,” Torolf said. He ran his gaze over Jaxon’s naked body. “Had to shift to catch her, huh?”

  He glared at Torolf’s smirk then turned on Mali. “Don’t move,” he said, releasing her wrist to dress.

  “She a lot of trouble?” Ranger asked, looking relaxed and rested.

  Jaxon snarled at him, agitated. “Do I look like I wanted to just take a run through the woods?”

  “Good for the heart,” Ranger said, laughing.

  Mali rooted to the spot watching him slip his clothes back on. Behind them, standing on the porch, waited her mother and father. They remained silent but watchful. They knew they’d disobeyed pack law by hiding their daughter from him. He should report them for punishment, but they were old and might not survive what pack law handed down to them. Added to that, he didn’t feel up to the hassle of restraining them. He had enough shit on his plate right now. Jaxon didn’t feel up to having another confrontation right now, and he’d won anyway. Getting one more female, even if it hadn’t been easy, was the objective.

  Jaxon snatched his reins from Torolf. Turning to Mali, he grabbed her round the waist and lifted her on top of his mount before joining her.

  Mali’s back went rigid against his chest. He wrapped an arm around her small waist then turned his horse away from the cottage. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to suffer my touch for long,” he muttered, feeling a strange sense of guilt as he watched her wave good-bye to her parents. Her mother covered her face with her hands, visibly weeping, while her husband hugged her chubby shoulders tight to his body. For some reason Jaxon felt disturbed by the scene, but chose to ignore the voice of doubt niggling inside his head.

  ***

  Mali resisted her impulse to ram her elbow into the stranger’s jaw, bolt off the horse, and take off back into the woods. He’d caught her, but it didn’t mean she’d given up the fight. She’d chosen to submit until a more opportune time arose when she could escape. Eluding three men on horseback was a little much for her, even if she did know these woods like the back of her hand. Their advantage in shifting was naturally stronger than hers. She’d never be able to outrun three wolves.

  “Loosen up or this is going to be a rough ride,” he said behind her.

  Mali remained stiff, unwilling to relax against the hard muscles of his chest and belly. From the look of his face, which had three ragged scars sliced across his cheek and interrupting the left eyebrow, he was some kind of warrior. He was considerably older than the other two males behind him, but that just meant he had experience where they probably did not. It made sense given his rugged looks, broad chest and shoulders, and the touch of silver threading through his long, dark brown hair. His once aquiline nose had a crook in the bridge, as if it’d been broken in a fight. Whatever he was, he wasn’t very good at healing. Either that or he’d lived a hard life fighting for the clan. She didn’t want to imagine what circumstances had led to the state of his body, only that she needed to be aware of the fact that he was experienced.

  “Get this mop out of my face,” he said, his voice dripping with irritation as he swatted her hair.

  Mali flicked her hair back in his eyes, smirking inside when he sputtered and spit her hair out of his mouth.

  “I’ll chop it off,” he warned with a low growl.

  “I lost my ribbon when you tackled me to the ground,” she said through clenched teeth. “I don’t have another one. I don’t have anything with me but the clothes on my back. I lost my shoes…”

  “You shouldn’t have run.”

  “You shouldn’t have chased me. You have no right—”

  “We’ve already established I have every right.”

  Mali gripped the pommel of his saddle, fuming inside at his arrogance. “How am I or my family supposed to know that? You broke into our house—”

  He cut her off again. “Your father let me in. But I would have come in regardless, it’s true. You must be precious to them for them to hide you away like that.”

  She sniffed, feeling emotion swell in her chest
. Tears sparkled in her eyes, and she blinked them away. “I’ll probably never see them again.”

  “Why would you say that? It isn’t as if you’re facing an execution.”

  She knew he had no idea what she would face when the clan discovered she was a freak of nature that could only partially shift into a wolf. Somewhere in her ancestry, human tainted her blood. The knowledge was enough to sentence her to death, or something worse. Her mother and father both carried the recessive trait. She’d just been the unfortunate one to suffer. It was why they’d hidden her away from the others, and why she could never attend this or any other mating festival. For what clan member would want a woman who couldn’t run as a wolf with them and would put their children at risk of being tainted as well.

  “How would you know anything? I’ve never been away from home.”

  “I can tell,” he said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Take it how you want.” He remained silent a long moment before finally speaking again. “You can call me Jaxon, you know.”

  “Beast sounds like a better name for you. Not that I care.” She wanted him to be quiet so she could think of some way to get out of this and back home. They weren’t that far away, not yet.

  His arm tightened around her middle. The edge of his palm skirted the underside of her breasts, making her keenly aware of their differences. The foreign heat of a man’s touch permeated the thin dress covering her skin. She didn’t like it. Mali wiggled against him, uncomfortable at his grip on her waist.

  “You got ants in your pants? Hold still,” he grumbled.

  Her wiggling had done something to his lap. A blunt object poked the dip in her back, giving her an idea that just might lead to her freedom.

  “I’ll sleep with you if you’ll let me go,” she said, feeling her face heat with embarrassment at her suggestion.

  “I’m not tired right now. It’s still morning,” he said, feigning stupidity.

  Mali sensed his tension and played on it. She cleared her throat, feeling her heartbeat quicken for some odd reason. She relegated it to her bold move. She just hoped the others were far enough back they couldn’t hear her. She could handle sleeping with one, just not three. “I…I mean…I’ll have sex with you. If you let me go, that is.”