Page 75 of Mated
My gut turns. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t,” I tell her. And am surprised that I mean every word.
No matter what it takes.
She closes her eyes and curls into my side, her body drawing up like she can shield herself from the truth. Or maybe what she is no doubt already feeling.
I heard stories from some of the pack women as a teen. Stories that left me cold at the damage they endured to sate the ache. And with Nisha still not changing shape, she has to endure all of it as a human. My only hope is to keep her body eased with my tongue and my hands.
Considering how fucking good she tastes, it won’t be a problem. But the weight between my legs tells me that keeping other parts away from her slick heat will be harder.
Condoms are useless for shifters. We break them with our strength alone. And though I need to ask if she is on birth control, her soft breathing keeps me from doing so.
I carry no diseases, and the night she was bitten, the shifter virus killed anything in her system. She won’t be able to catch a cold now let alone an STD. Pregnancy is my only worry.
I close my eyes.
Nisha does not need to worry about an unplanned pregnancy right now. And I don’t either.
As her breathing deepens and then evens out completely, I slip carefully from beside her and walk into the bathroom.
My eyes still glow silver in the mirror, but I can’t do any fucking thing about them. I grab a towel and sling it around my hips before leaving her cabin.
My truck is back in the gravel turnaround and Caine sits on the steps of my porch. He looks up, his crimson eyes glittering.
“That’s a nice look for you. Very rugged.”
I flip him off. “Where are the others?”
He runs a hand through his dark hair. “I sent Gage and Horan to help Ruin.”
“And you deigned to stay here and watch my back?”
He motions vaguely. “Back. Front. Whichever.”
I scowl and ease past him. Stepping inside my cabin, I shuck the towel and slip on a pair of jeans.
When I turn around, Caine is leaning in the doorway, his lips curved.
“Any reason why you’re watching me dress?” I snap.
“You know you can’t handle her alone.”
I glare at him. “I can. And I will.”
His smile only grows, like my reaction amuses the hell out of him. “You could always ask Callus to—”
I have him by the throat before he can blink. “Caine, I’m fucking warning you.”
He doesn’t try to force me away. Indeed, he merely watches me, his crimson eyes roiling softly with hellfire. “I heard you both,” he tells me, his voice rough from my hold. “You’re going to have to take her again and again. That’s why it takes a pack.”
My fingers tighten at his words. “No one touches her but me.”
“Sure, Tanner,” he sneers. “Then you get her pregnant and we have a miniature version of you running around.”
My gut turns to stone. I drop him and step back, ice rolling through my veins. “She won’t get pregnant. Not by me.”
He appraises me in silence for a moment, his dark head cocking. “You sound awful sure about that, Tanner.”
“I won’t get her pregnant. Not now. Not ever.”
