The Change (Fated Series: book1)

“Oh, no, you didn’t!” Marcus pushed the door open before she had the chance to lock it.

Nessa screamed at him in frustration as he rammed his way in the little hall adjoining her bedroom. True, it wasn’t his most chivalrous moment, but she was acting irrational. She was his world, yet her frantic eyes told him she didn’t see it as a good thing. Leaving her alone was out of the question. Not now, when she needed help processing the news. Marcus could not afford another week of radio silence. Marcus wished to help her make sense of bond between them. Fate worked in mysterious ways and while some could distinguish the Choice mating from a Fated mating, Marcus disagreed. If it was their fate to have a second choice mate, then doesn’t that mean that their choice mating was fated?

Regardless of the semantics, Nessa was his. Neither the man nor the beast wanted their mate angry at them. Accepting the inevitable wasn’t always easy.

Nessa grabbed the first thing she could use as a weapon. . The passion, which Marcus had experienced and had grown to love, was now directed at inflicting bodily harm to his person in her desperate attempt to chase him away from her room and her life. Marcus had little time to react and defend himself against her attack. The Winsor Umbrella flew into his general direction, punishing him for his distraction and all the half-truths.

Had it been anyone but his Nessa, Marcus could have easily handled the attacker. He could have knocked some sense into their thick head no matter the gender. But this, this was different. She was his mate and he would rather experience the repeated sting of the umbrella than risk causing her. His shoulder, chest and leg protested against the assault. Marcus saw an opening and firmly held onto the middle of the umbrella with one hand, pushing it to the side. He used his free hand and his body to restrain her against the wall before she poked someone’s eyes out with the spike on top of the umbrella.

Nessa was passionate even when she was a hot mess. Marcus found himself drawn to such passion. She was breathing heavily, outmaneuvered for the time being but still not giving up. The moment he tried to bring her hands together, she elbowed his side in an attempt to put more distance between them.

Marcus would have no such thing. He brought her hands to her chest and pulled her weapon of choice out of her fist. He threw the hatred object on the floor then took a look at her surprised face. She quickly recovered as she stomped on his foot catching him off guard. He groaned but didn’t let go, instead he lifted her up off the ground to prevent her from inflicting any more damage to his injured foot.

His little mate could put up a decent fight! The fact made him smile. She was feisty, a true barrel of gun-powder. He enjoyed every single time her temperament flared. She was resourceful and passionate. The more he got to know her he was convinced she was exactly what he had always wanted in a mate.

He caught her grin just before she used her new acquired height to kick him in his inner thigh.

Damn!

Few inches higher and the little minx could have inflicted major damage. His hands wrapped securely around her.

“That’s enough!” Marcus firmly told her.

“No. It’s not,” Nessa fussed against his hold.

“Keep wiggling and I guarantee you, you’ll end up butt naked in front of me,” Marcus pointed out her state of undress and she immediately stilled in his arms. “Now, I will let you go. I expect you to be reasonable or …” he let his sentence hang.

Interrogation and scare tactics weren’t his first choice, but his patience was being challenged and he doubted he could resist Nessa much longer. There was no doubt that Nessa was struggling to accept her own attraction to him. Her scent changed with her arousal and it made his body stiff. She was going to be the death of him.

The moment he let go of her, she made a bee-line to the sofa, positioning the ottoman between them as a barrier of some sort. Not that it would help against him. Nessa subconsciously hosted up her towel, which had gotten significantly looser in their struggle, revealing the top part of her breasts, much to Marcus’ delight.

“Eyes up here,” she snapped her fingers at him.

He smiled at her. Now that he was caught eyeing her, there was no point of hiding his appreciation of her forms.

“The view is exquisite,” Marcus flirted.

“Marcus, focus.”

She was right. He had to. But it was hard. Especially when she was undressed. He sat in the middle of the couch never taking his eyes off hers.

“It would help my concentration immensely if you would put on some clothes on,” Marcus honestly admitted. The more time they spent in the same room together, the awareness of Nessa being naked underneath the bathroom towel in front of him resulted in constriction in his pants.

Nessa stomped off to her luggage, picked up some clothes then threw his shirt at him and slammed the bathroom door shut. He lazily grinned at the display of her temperament. She was surely his match.

When she emerged from the bathroom a couple of minutes later, he quickly let his smile fade. She had a unique predisposition to defy him especially when she caught an amusement on his face. And right now, he needed her cooperation and understanding. The loose T-shirt and jeans she wore were covering too much of her skin. Asking her to put some clothes on wasn’t such a good idea after all. Now Marcus had to fight himself from mentally stripping her clothes off whenever he laid eyes on them.

She was still furious. His timing might not been the best. But what could he do? He couldn’t focus on anything knowing she was still ignoring him. Clearly this was going to be the only way he could show her that nothing indeed happened with Danielle. Besides, he couldn’t risk her projecting any other steamy images to him when he was talking with Pack Law. Hell, he had to be sharp and ready for their interrogation.

If she wanted to sit down on the couch, she had to sit beside him. He was patiently waiting for her to choose left or right. She must have realized the same thing as she procrastinated, before smiling and sitting on the arm of the couch, putting her feet on the cushion, thus creating distance between them.

He wasn’t going to tolerate that.

“It wouldn’t kill you if you sit next to me like a normal person would,” Marcus pointedly told her then pulled her legs towards him and her butt flopped on the couch. He started massaging her feet as they were now on his lap. She tried to pull them off, but his growl stopped her. He really liked this position. Besides the skin contact with her would calm her down faster than any explanation would. Marcus felt bad about using the mating bond against her. But it was for the greater good. The faster she came to terms with it, the quicker they would go towards the more intimate and passionate part of being mates. Goddess, he simply couldn’t wait to undress her and make her his again.

“Say what you wanted to say and then get out of my room, Alpha!” Nessa hissed.

Marcus arched an eyebrow. Referring to him as the Alpha was a very polite way to put distance between them and politely nip his enthusiasm. Mates never used titles. After all she has been through with her Fated, would she actually reject Marcus? That couldn’t be it, could it? He must have let his bemused expression slip, because her expression darkened. Before she could say something they were both going to regret, Marcus continued.

“We were both mateless. It seems our wolves picked up on that and the chemistry we have going sooner than us. They started bonding.”

She arched an eyebrow at him and as he didn’t continue, she spoke.

“Mushroom and grass overexposure can make you forget that the wolf part doesn’t dictate Choice Mates! Now, we both said our peace, so go!” Nessa said and shifted her head towards the door.

“Denying it won’t make it less real!” he continued calmly. “Because I can tell you right now, that I can feel you in the back of my head.”

“Yeah, right. And unicorns are just slim hippos!” Nessa sarcastically replied.

“Then how would I know what you were doing in that bathtub?”

“It’s self-explanatory – I was taking a bath. Now, if you don’t have any more brilliant observations, could you please leave? I have a party to prepare for.”

“You just didn’t dismiss it as it was just a bath. Next time you feel like taking a bath, let me know so you can have the REAL thing.”

She kicked him in his thigh exclaiming, “You put a camera in my bathtub?”

“No. Nessa… where do you think the mindblowing comment came from? I know you heard me,” Marcus said her cheeks colored in a blush. What he didn’t expect was for her to fume over it even more.

“Fine, so I projected my thoughts or whatever to my Alpha. So what? I have a vivid imagination.”

“I would like to experience that imagination,” Marcus winked at her.

“Keep dreaming.”

“Teaser!” Marcus said and arched his hand over her knee.

“Go ask blondie,” Nessa voice came calm and steady but Marcus could feel the anxiety through the bond.

“Goddess, what makes you so obsessed with Danielle. I told you…”

“Nothing happened,” Nessa finished for him adding air quotations to emphasize her point. That made him grin. She might not realize it, but she was already coming to terms with them being mates and he had to thank the goddess she was not fretting about how long he knew about it and didn’t tell her. He had enough of that Drama with his Alpha title. As silence settled in and he didn’t reply, she continued her little speech. “And of course, I have to believe you because you have such an impeccable record of telling me the truth? Oh, please. I thought Alphas are not naive.”

“I love how jealous and possessive you are even if you think that this mate business doesn’t apply to you!” Marcus told her. Her expression changed to frustration.She then shook her head in order to dismiss him. He didn’t mind if she dismissed the whole subject all together, so that he could make her breathless again. Something was telling him things wouldn’t be that easy and he wouldn’t like it any other way.

“Any normal person would not appreciate being courted by someone who is dating someone else on the side!”

“Oh, is that what we are doing? Courting? ” Asked Marcus and this time she kicked him harder. “That hurt!”

“Good! You deserved it!” Nessa explained. “Courting or whatever you want to call this!”

“It’s called being mates,” Deciding to be a smart ass about it was certainly pushing her buttons. “If you must know I had too many drinks with Lee and I fell asleep in my office. I woke up when Danielle started kissing me, so I made her leave. She’s pretty pissed off at me about it since she has it in her mind that she is to-be-my Choice Luna.”

“Aha! So she did kiss you! You see something DID happen,” Nessa said and Marcus grinned.

“You almost sound happy that she kissed me.”

“You are finally admitting the truth,” Nessa countered.

“I am explaining everything so you’ll see that nothing happened. I didn’t sleep with her.”

“Leaving aside that you think that a kiss is nothing, are you implying that you did sleep with her on another occasion?” Nessa quickly made the distinction.

“For a person who doesn’t believe we are mates, you are surely asking too many questions about my past flings,” Marcus was becoming defensive. How was he supposed to know that he’d meet his Choice Mate? He was a man and he had needs. She could surely understand that. Besides, why would she be bothered if it was way before he met her?

“For a person who says nothing happened, you’re admitting far too many ‘some things’.”

“Deny us being mates all you want, but you are jealous.”

“I’m not jealous. I just don’t like the notion of what you did.”

“That’s called being jealous,” he summarized for her. She didn’t say anything for a while and then applied:

“Fine, so what if I am? It only proves that you are hot and I feel insecure about myself. That doesn’t make us mates!” She concluded and looked at him. He took a deep breath. This conversation was going nowhere.

“So what makes you think that we are not mates?”

“It’s too convenient. We sleep together and next thing I know, we are mates. It’s never this simple or easy.”

“You realize you’re right now complaining that finding your Choice Mate was easy?”“You don’t understand,” Said Nessa and then as he focused his eyes on her face, she took a deep breath and explained, “I can’t feel you.”

“You feel nothing for me?”

“I have plenty of feelings from you that range from wanting to murder you to actually being content to be around you. But that’s just me. I only met you a couple of weeks ago and I can barely say we know each other. Yeah, we slept together, but that doesn’t automatically make us mates. And my wolf… well… she’s withdrawn, so I can’t feel the mating pull towards you. I’m relying on my own feelings and half the time I want to pummel you for being so frustrating, deceiving and annoyingly handsome. You swooping in and telling me we are mates sounds too convenient.”

“Too good to be true?” Asked Marcus and at her nod, he chuckled. “So you want to be mine.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“So I am good enough for a rumble in the sheets but not for you to be bonded to?” Asked Marcus and she only scowled at him. A smile plastered on his face. “You are just scared to go out on a limb without your wolf’s approval.”

“Sorry” Nessa said and eyed him suspiciously.

“No need. You’re not rejecting me after all, are you?” Marcus asked and as her face changed into a scowl, he continued, “We’ll be fine. I’ll just have to be an intrusive, meticulous, stubborn, insufferable Alpha to get you out of your shell, so your wolf signs off on our mating. Challenge accepted!”

“You know even if we say that hypothetically you miraculously made me believe we are mates, you’d be held even more severely accountable for that kiss!” Nessa explained and then asked, “Do you still think we are mates?”

“Yes. And despite the fact that it wasn’t my fault that she kissed me and manhandled me, I would brave any punishment from you. I have not been able to focus on anything except you for the last week. That’s punishment enough for me, but go ahead and admit it, you simply want to spank me!” Marcus wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Punishments are not meant to be enjoyable,” Ness countered.

“Fine, so hypothetically if you do decide to finally believe me, you’d notice that you are in tune with my emotions and can easily guess my mood or predict my actions. It’s the bonding that is getting stronger. Your wolf will become restless as the full moon approaches.”

“Damn, the Heat!” Nessa announced and looked at him with a murderous expression.

“I’ll take care of you!”

“Don’t make it sound like you’d be doing me a favor,” Nessa hissed.

“It’s not my fault that you are getting this gorgeous, powerful Alpha as a mate!” Marcus smiled and immediately regretting it.

“Self-centered, sour and revengeful oaf” countered Nessa.

“Tz, tz. If you insist on naming different species, I would appreciate it if you went back to tigers. I prefer them over Oafs.”

“Did I say self-absorbed?” Asked Nessa and he smiled. “Maybe I should call the pack doctor to examine you. Something might have hit you on the head, while you were goofing with your mushrooms and pod. You know that stuff get to you!”

“If that’s what you truly wish… But then I’ll assume you accept me on provisional bases.” Marcus pressed. She laughed at his persistence. “I want to woo you in with all the romance, candles and courting you could possibly withstand, but as soon as my enemies find out about it, you’d be their target.”

“And you managed to piss off a lot of folk…” Nessa added. Marcus nodded. “So either sneak around or go out on a limb for you?”

“Official or not, you are my Luna and ideally I want my claim on you. It won’t make you any bigger target than you already are, but it will serve as protection…” Marcus offered. To be absolutely honest, he wanted to claim her just so that everyone knew to keep their dirty paws off her. Giving her protection was secondary on the list. Everyone who feared Alpha Ned would know better than to pouch the girl he spends time with – claim or not. As her answer never came, he smiled and continued “Or we could agree on just my scent on you?” She arched her eyebrows at him. “My scent is already intermixed with the individual one for all of my pack members. I just want you to see me more often than once a day so my scent is stronger on you.”

“Possessive much?”

Marcus laughed and pulled her closer to his body and bent to kiss her. In the last moment she turned and his lips landed on her cheek. He was going to say something while she said:

“I still haven’t given you enough grief over that kiss.”

No, she didn’t just deny him. He growled at her, which surprisingly made her giggle in his arms and then pressed his body against hers and roughly captured her lips in a punishing kiss. That would not serve her well to deny him. By her glazed eyes, he could tell that his assertiveness was welcomed. She could fight it all she wanted but the fact remained the same: she was his and nobody would stand in his way.

“Do you still want me to leave?” He nibbled her lower lip and left her breathless. Part of him wanted to hear her breathlessly beg him to stay. What he didn’t expect was the grin on her face or her answer.

“Yes. I don’t want to explain why the Alpha is in my room or why is he all over me. Nicole should be coming in soon.”

“Your inconvenience shall depart your room shortly as he has to attend a meeting,” Marcus replied and just as her snippy remark was going to pass her lips, he continued, “and I’m not seeing blondie rather than that – Vince. He’d probably want to make an official request for his mate to join our pack”.

“Poor Cam!” Nessa exclaimed and Marcus chuckled.

Yes, his Beta would definitely not appreciate the paperwork that went with a mating with a wolf of a different pack.