The Space Between

Nathan 1-2

I knew she was pissed when she opened the door to my knock at eight. Her eyes were flashing at me. Like, they were literally glowing. I didn’t mind. It was kind of hot actually. She was wearing a black cocktail dress. It was cut in a deep V shape, I could see the top curve of each breast, and it was off the shoulder, but the sleeves came down to her wrists. It was tight until just under her breasts and then flared out, ending just above her knee. If we went dancing and I twirled her, it would float around her body. Just like her hair would, hanging in loose waves down her back. She paired the dress with some red high heels. Her makeup was light and natural, except she’d decided on the same color red for her lips as her heels. That, paired with how much of her neck I could see, made me stand at attention.

I’d taken care with my own appearance as well; I didn’t want my mate to be embarrassed to be seen with me. I’d brought my favorite gray suit with me, it was form fitting and tailored to me, and paired it with a blue button up shirt. The tailor I bought the suit from said the color of this shirt complimented my skin, which was dark. My family was what the humans called a Native American. I was washed, pressed, combed and ready for my mate.

“You look amazing,” I told her. “I mean, you’re already gorgeous, but this,” my eyes went up and down her body again. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but…” My sentence was cut off because she reached out her hand, grabbed my shirt, and pulled me into the room, slamming the door and locking it.

Then she kissed me. And I lost it. Literally lost it. I had her back against that door and my hands on her ass, lifting her up so she could hook her legs around my waist. She was wearing a thong and I squeezed each cheek as my lips were on hers, our tongues dancing together. I ground myself against her and she moaned as my lips started down her neck. I licked the spot I wanted to bite, and I felt her shudder again. Maybe she had wolf blood in her after all.

“It’s ok if you don’t want to go out,” I said. “I can just eat you.”

I heard her shoes thump to the floor.

I won’t bore you with the details, but that was the best s*x of my f*****g life. It was like we knew what each other liked, when to go hard, or when to be soft. She tasted like fine wine and smelled like jasmine. I made her come so many times just because I liked hearing it so much. I scraped her neck with my incisors and goosebumps formed on her skin.

Finally, at about three in the morning, we lay in each other’s arms, and I just enjoyed her being next to me. I was lightly rubbing my fingers on her shoulder. “What are you doing tomorrow?” she asked me.

“Hopefully you, about six more times.”

“No, Nathan, really, what are you doing tomorrow.”

I sighed. “My alpha and I are here for meetings with a few other packs. They are asking for permission to use our land for hunting and crossing.”

“Why didn’t they take care of their own land?”

“I asked the same question. The other pack here is small, like mine, and I get the impression they are mainly here for show. I did some research on them and their people seem to be doing fine. It’s mostly the alpha of the larger packs mismanagement that’s led to the situation they’re in.”

“Sounds like a lot of politics.”

“Yes, and I hate politics. My degree is in ecology, land management and natural resource conservation. I don’t like playing these games.”

“Ooohh,” she said, running her hand over my chest, “an educated shapeshifter.”

“Wolf.”

“Wolf?”

“I’m a wolf, Brittany.”

“Ok, Mr. Wolf, what time is your meeting at?”

“The meeting is supposed to start at nine in the morning and I hope they have food since I missed dinner.”

“Would you have rather gone out?”

“Nope,” I said as I pulled her closer. “How about you? What do you do?”

“Right now, I still live in New York with my brother. He owns a club in the city, and I help run it, as much as he lets me. I just finished my business degree, but he still acts like I can’t add two plus two. I’m surprised he doesn’t try to have me sign documents in crayon.”

“What brought you to Colorado?”

“This is my friend’s birthday trip.”

“Oops, sorry to interfere.”

“It’s ok,” Brittany told me. “She already said to go ahead and jump on it, she doesn’t care.”

“She said what?”

“Don’t be such a prude. Where’s a phone?” I watched her, in all her naked glory, root around through our clothes until she found someone’s phone. It happened to be mine. “Text me so we have each other’s number. Then, when you’re done with your meeting tomorrow, we can spend the day together. The pool looks divine. Did you bring your trunks?”

“I did,” I said, putting her number in my phone as she rattled it off to me. We heard hers beep, turns out it was in her purse on the other side of the room. She snuggled back next to me, throwing her leg over mine as she pulled the blanket over us.

“You better set an alarm for yourself,” she yawned. “Don’t want to miss your meeting.” I thought that was a pretty good idea and set an alarm before setting my phone on the bedside table and pulling her even closer.

My mate.

The damn alarm went off at seven in the morning, just like I’d set it to do. I groaned as I sat up and Brittany pulled the blanket over her head. “No sympathy at all?”

I heard her snort from under the blanket.

I found all my clothes and dressed, throwing my suit coat on the end of the bed before I crouched down next to her. She pulled the blanket off her face. “You looked good enough to eat last night, too.”

“I’m glad you thought so.” I ran my finger down her cheek before leaning over and placing a kiss on her forehead. Of course, my mate would have none of that and pulled me in for another kiss. A hot, long, open-mouthed, erection inducing kiss that almost made me not leave the room.

But I had to. I made it to my room two floors down without running into a single person. I showered and changed, applying extra deodorant and spraying cologne, hoping to cover her smell on my body. Probably wouldn’t work, at least for my alpha, he knew what I smelled like on a normal basis. Which sounds gross but that’s how animals work, and that’s what we were at our core. It would stick to me because it wasn’t just s*x, it was s*x with my mate.

Alpha Andrew was standing at the door to the meeting room when I showed up. I watched his nostrils flare and looked him in the eye while I waited for what he had to say. Finding our mate was something every shapeshifter dreamed about, I felt no shame that he smelled her on me.

“Did you mark her?”

“Not yet, Alpha.”

“What if her body rejects your mark?” It had happened before when a mate was human, their body couldn’t handle the mark and they became violently ill.

“She isn’t human. And, I have reason to believe there is wolf, somewhere in her bloodline.”

“If that’s true, you realize how vulnerable you’ve left her right now, don’t you? Smelling of wolf but without a mark.”

“Yes, Alpha, I understand that. I plan to mark her as mine.”

“The sooner the better, Nathan.”