Page 9 of Tolerated By the Sigma (Mate Hunt 7)

The wolf snarled at me, and this time, it wasn’t half-hearted. There was some emotion behind it, but I couldn’t translate it well enough to know exactly what that emotion was. It had been a long time since I really spent time with a werewolf in his or her wolf form, not including my adorable little nephew.

I collapsed to the bed, my energy gone completely, and closed my eyes.

A moment later, there were paws on my chest, and then teeth in my throat.

I shrieked in surprise—not pain—and my limbs dropped to the bed.

The first crack of my bones told me exactly what was going on:

I was shifting.

Oscar Hughes reallywasmy mate

I still wasn’t sure whether I should be glad or pissed or terrified about either of those things.

But I was definitely,definitelypissed about the way his wolf had just bitten me in the fucking throat without so much as a warning.

The shift wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t short, either. And the cracking bones were really awful to hear when I knew that they were my own.

My eyes remained closed through the shift, and my wolf’s did too, until finally, the cracking ended and I was no longer in control of my own body.

When the wolf opened her eyes, she found the sexy, inked-up man from the gas station staring at her with an unreadable expression on his damned gorgeous face.

His eyes were sky blue, his muscles even bigger than I remembered. And shit, the man had a hell of a lot of hair. It fell to his shoulders, thick and dark blond and sexier than it had any right to be.

He also had a thick beard that didn’t look as if it had been trimmed in the past month, and a mustache connected to the damn thing. If I were in charge, the mustache would go and the beard would get trimmed back neatly, but obviously, I wasn’t in charge.

At least his wolf hadn’t gone insane, and had been right about us being mates.

And now, we’d already made it past where he and Lisa had gotten in more than a year—and with a damned throat scar to prove it.

Ryder didn’t say anything to my wolf; he just stared at her.

And she stared back.

When she got bored of staring, she let out a massive yawn, and then wormed her way under the blankets on his bed. Ryder lifted them for her, making it easier for her to burrow in.

And when she was comfortable on the mattress and beneath the blankets, he turned off the lights and tucked himself in beside her, not bothering to grab clothing.

She rested her chin on his bare chest. One of his gigantic arms slowly draped over her back, and he held her loosely to his chest as they both fell asleep, dragging me into the world of dreams with them.

FOUR

The first thingI felt when I woke up was pain. Brutal, excruciating pain. Bones were cracking and things were breaking as I shifted back to my human form, my wolf having retreated and abandoned me to the shittery that was shifting.

A set of warm, strong arms were around me as I panted and cried out through the pain. A quiet, rough voice murmured words I couldn’t make out properly, until I collapsed on the man’s chest in a heap of sweat, exhaustion, and tears.

Ryder had stopped speaking, but his hands still moved slowly on my back.

Mybareback, I might add.

Those fuckers were big, warm, and slightly rough. Honestly, the feeling of them on my skin was kind of orgasmic.

My breathing slowed over the next few minutes, my body relaxing at first. But after it relaxed, the relaxation sort of… changed.

It changed into a slow-burning desire, longing, and need.

Ryder’s erection was pinned down against my hip, but it was definitely there.

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