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  “What is it, lass?”

  “Kiss me, Liulf.”

  As her mate, his first response would always be to give her what she needed without question, which was why he wasn’t thinking when he started to pull up with his stomach muscles. He winced and groaned when the still-sore muscles reminded him he was supposed to be recovering. That little bit of exertion and pain left him breathing hard. Rain kept her hand resting on his chest as if that would keep him from moving and doing further damage.

  “Looks like if there’s to be kissin’, ye will have to be the one doin’ it. For now.” The two words he added at the end were pointed and full of promise.

  Motivated by the feelings that rose from lying close to Liulf, Rain was feeling eager to explore more intimacy. After deciding the best approach might be sitting on her knees, she leaned over Liulf’s body, bracing herself with her hand on the other side of his broken arm and slowly lowered her face to his.

  She touched her lips lightly to his and pulled back. He grinned, which simply electrified her. Having spent hours gazing at the perfection of his body, she was well aware that her mate was a catch in every sense, but when he smiled, he was transformed into such a vision of male beauty that even Connuchur couldn’t compare.

  “Come now,” he said softly. “Ye’ve more to give me.”

  His gaze shot to her tongue as she licked her bottom lip before pressing her mouth to Liulf’s again softly, stroking her tongue lightly against his bottom lip. Liulf sucked at her bottom lip, coaxing her to deepen the kiss. Their breathing quickened when tongues began to tangle and she had the urge to rock her body against him. She pulled back, knowing it would be too easy to get carried away and hurt him.

  “Liulf,” she said his name almost reverently.

  “I knew ye had somethin’ precious for me, Rain. Now I have somethin’ to dream about while this body is completin’ the mend. Then I’ll be showin’ ye how much I’ve been wantin’ ye.”

  She kissed his chest. “You need to hurry and get well.”

  He laughed, which caused him to reflexively reach toward his sore midsection with his good hand. The sensation of laughter was so foreign to him that he had to take a second to get used to the uncommon vibration of it. He couldn’t recall if he had ever laughed out loud since his mother had died and that was hundreds of years in the past.

  “Ye made me laugh, Rain Falling.”

  “Yes.”

  “I ne’er laugh.” A touch of a smile lingered on his lips, as did the amused light in his eyes.

  “Please don’t say that. It makes me want to tickle you.”

  The idea of being tickled when he was trying to heal stomach wounds struck him as so funny he had to laugh more, even though it hurt.

  When he quieted, he pulled her closer with his good arm. “Ye’re cruel to me, Rain. When I’m strong again, I’ll be the one threatenin’ you with sweet torture.”

  She clearly heard the sexual implication and felt a shiver of anticipation.

  Every day Liulf rose and walked a little farther. The first few times he leaned on Rain for support, but gradually she felt his weight less and less. He asked endless questions about her life, her pack, her likes and dislikes, and seemed genuinely interested in anything she said or did.

  At night when she eased in beside him, he held his breath so that he wouldn’t miss the sigh that always followed. It was music to his ears, evidence that his young mate was happy to be matched with him. As Liulf’s strength improved, their nightly kisses became gradually more insistent and curious as eager hands began wandering and learning each other’s bodies.

  “I wish I had thought to ask Luna exactly when you would be ready for, um, mating.”

  “I’m ready now, Rain, but I plan to couple with ye when I have both my arms to put ‘round ye. Ye deserve to be embraced proper so ye’ll know I’m strong and will protect ye in the way ye deserve.”

  Rain gaped at Liulf for a couple of heartbeats and then burst out laughing.

  He scowled. “’Tis rude to laugh without sharin’ the joke.”

  “Liulf! If I close my eyes without reminding myself not to think about it, what I see is a grizzly bear as big as a lodge planning to feed me to her babies for supper. You saved me from that. In fact, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” She leaned over and ran a trail of kisses over the still red marks where the bear’s claws had cut deep into Liulf’s body. Watching her do so made him gasp and then hold his breath as his cock swelled to painfully ripe. She looked up. “I’m real clear on the fact that you’re strong and that you’ll protect me. If it was ever a question, it hasn’t been since that day.”

  Rain watched Liulf’s face as he processed her words and knew the moment when he decided that mating traditions could be dispensed with if both parties agreed wholeheartedly. His eyes darkened and became hooded right before he said, “Take off yer clothes.”

  She grinned and complied without further discussion.

  Liulf swept his gaze over her slowly and felt himself get impossibly harder. He’d just implied that he was giving them permission to complete the mating, ceremony or not. She climbed onto the bed, eyes gleaming with intent.

  “Now come over here and remove my kilt.”

  His good hand ran over her naked body while she fumbled with his belt buckle. In the time she’d been nursing Liulf, she’d become familiar with kilt fastening and unfastening, but hadn’t been aroused when she was doing it. When he finally felt the cool air on his privates, it added to his excitement.

  “Touch me.” A small line formed between his brows as he watched her straddle him. But rather than touching, she bent down and blew air along his cock from base to head, never taking her eyes away.

  She took him in her fist, squeezed and stroked when he hissed, then moved her body upward so that his lips could latch on to one of her breasts. She moaned when he alternately sucked her nipple and ran his tongue around it, and the sound of pleasing her was the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. Pulling away, she lowered herself so that they were once again face to face, and centered her passion on the prospect of kissing him senseless. He growled his encouragement as he ran his good hand up the smooth skin of her thigh until he found her apex.

  Between the sensation of her mate’s touch at her core and the beastly noises he was making, she tore away from the kiss and threw her head back in pleasure. As she rose, towering over him, he was sure he’d never seen anything so breathtaking. Not until she held his throbbing cock so that it stood straight up and began to ease herself down. As excited as she was, Rain never lost sight of the fact that she needed to give them both pleasure without hurting her mate. She rode him rhythmically, but not hard enough to put undue strain on the newly healed wounds.

  “Tell me you love me, Liulf. I want to hear the words.”

  “I love ye, Rain.”

  The next morning when Rain woke, she would have stretched and purred like a contented cat, except for the fact that Liulf had left the bed. She sat up and looked around the cabin. “Liulf?”

  “Out here.”

  He was sitting on a bench just outside the door. “I need to go now.”

  “Go?”

  “Aye. I can no’ stay away longer.”

  “You’re not ready. Luna said that, when you were well enough to walk home, you could go. She doesn’t want you riding in a wagon because she’s afraid it will be too much strain.”

  “Aye. I plan to walk.”

  “No.” She shook her head as if she actually had a say in the matter, which Liulf found both cute and charming. “You’re not ready.”

  With a ghost of a smile, he said, “Come here,” holding out his left hand.

  She went without question and allowed him to carefully seat her on his lap for the first time. He was so tall that being on his lap put them face to face. She reached up to play with his silky hair while his good left arm went around her waist and held her securely to him.

  “I like this,” she smiled.
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br />   “Aye. As do I.” He nuzzled and nibbled her neck, which caused her thighs to clench together. “But do no’ be thinkin’ you will distract me from the subject at hand.” He pulled back to look in her eyes so that she would see his resolve. “’Tis time to go.”

  “But why, Liulf? What’s the urgency? It’s good here.”

  “’Tis good here, Rain. ‘Twill always be good when ye’re with me, where’re that be. But yer mate is alpha to a pack even larger than your mother’s. Ye have to know what that means.”

  “But your brothers are looking after things for you.”

  “Aye. And I trust them with my life, but my people will become restless if I’m away any longer. I need to go.”

  “You haven’t walked further than to the stream and back.”

  His hand drifted down to her hip and squeezed. “Are ye worried about leavin’ yer home?” He looked into her eyes to judge her reaction and thought he saw a flicker of worry. “Tell me the truth. I shall ne’er be angry with ye for sayin’ what’s in yer heart and mind.”

  “I… don’t know. Maybe. But my biggest concern is you.”

  “I do no’ doubt that. But do no’ worry about your place in New Scotia. The Highlander wolves will love ye as I do.”

  “You can’t know that, Liulf.”

  “I can and I do. But in any case. ‘Tis no’ as if ye are leavin’ forever. Ye can see your family and friends whene’er ye want.”

  Reluctantly, Rain arranged for a bison and cart to carry the things she most wanted to take with her to New Scotia. Liulf told Silver Ruff that, when he was fully himself again, he would resume his weekly visits except that, instead of hoping to get a glimpse of Rain Falling, he’d be bringing her with him. The New Gaul alpha was pleased enough with that promise and with the match her daughter had made.

  Silver Ruff insisted on sending a brace of her hunters with the couple, saying she’d heard there were bears in the woods. The journey, that normally took Liulf two hours in wolf form, took three days because he was slow and exhausted before he reached ten miles a day.

  The second day it rained on them and soaked the sheepskin wool between Liulf’s right arm and the splint Luna had fashioned from hide and twine. Once the wool was wet, he complained incessantly.

  Rain laughed at him. “You didn’t complain about a broken arm or having your stomach sliced open or any of the awful things that went with it like vomit and fever, but you gripe like a bluejay and whine like a baby about a little wet wool.”

  He gave Rain a wry look. “As my mate, ‘tis yer job to give me sympathy.”

  She stepped in front of him, stopping his forward progress, and circled her arms around his waist. Touching his lips lightly with hers, she smirked. “I’ll give you plenty of ‘sympathy’ as soon as we stop for the night.”

  “Ye’ve decided yer no’ longer bashful?” He nodded toward the two wolves functioning as their escort.

  “I plan to ask them to camp near enough, but give us some newlymated time.”

  He arched a brow. “Oh look. Is that the sun settin’ now?”

  She laughed and patted his finely shaped rear end.

  It stopped raining, but since the bison had a harder time pulling wooden wheels over wet ground than dry, their progress was slowed further and they soon decided they might as well stop. She first hobbled the bison so that he could graze, but not go too far and not be hard to catch in the morning. Then she unharnessed him. She’d found a place to stop next to a waist-high rock. After feeding her mate elk jerky, corn meal flats, and a small round pinkish fruit that Liulf had never seen before, she removed the tarp that had protected her things from the rain and began unpacking the cart, setting her things on top of where she spread the tarp on the ground.

  “What are ye doin’ now, Rain?”

  “You’ll see.”

  After a quarter hour, the cart was almost empty. She pulled it around and positioned the traces on the rock so that the cart was level and stable.

  “Come see,” she said as she moved to the rear.

  By that time it was dark. The clouds were gone, leaving a clear starry night with a waxing moon shedding enough light for Liulf to see that she’d left her prize possession in the bed of the cart – her feather mattress. She pulled the boots from her feet and lifted her hemp shift over her head, exposing skin that looked like the surface of a pearl in the incandescent moonlight.

  “Here,” she said as she reached for Liulf’s kilt, “let me help you with this.”

  They had found that the idea of Liulf wearing a shirt wasn’t practical with a broken arm, which was fine with Rain because she loved watching the rippling movement of his upper body. She had often lost her train of thought in conversation because she’d gotten caught up in following the movements of hills and valleys. She unfastened his belt and his kilt and laid both over the side of the cart. Then she turned and crawled into the wagon, giving him a very fine view of her from the rear.

  He was already hard, but the sight of his mate presenting almost made him come on the spot.

  She turned on the mattress so that she was facing him and spread her legs, leaning back on her hands. “Will you need some help getting up here?” The hint of a smile was replaced with heat as her eyes drifted down his body and locked on the erect appendage that clearly shared her eagerness.

  Using his good arm, Liulf pulled himself up in a single motion. She squealed in surprise.

  “Liulf Cu Ahlee! If you hurt yourself, I’ll…”

  Rain was unable to finish that thought. He sank slowly to his knees and, bracing himself with his good left hand, lowered himself so that they were skin to skin. Of their own accord, her legs wrapped around him. He growled at the first hint of friction between their bodies and she moaned in response. He rewarded her sexy eagerness with a newlymates’ kiss that seemed to go on forever, exactly the way Rain always dreamed a lover’s kiss would be.

  With one arm immobile and the other employed to keep his massive weight from crushing Rain, Liulf had to let his body, rather than his hands, speak for him. He licked and sucked, nudged and nipped, while she made little murmurs of encouragement and approval, arching her back toward him. When she began rocking her pelvis upward in invitation, he repositioned himself and penetrated her body excruciatingly slowly, a little in, a little out, a little more in until they were as connected as two-legged creatures could be in that position.

  “Liulf,” she said with such dreaminess in her voice it made him believe himself to be the luckiest wolf to ever claim a mate. Gradually he increased the pace of the joining until he felt a reaction from his midsection and then backed off slightly. If things went according to plan, there would be centuries to explore hard and fast. There would be plenty of time to say all the things in his heart, things he hadn’t yet tried to say because emotion threatened to choke off his speech.

  Within a week after returning to New Scotia, Liulf’s arm was freed from the splint, which meant he could finally make love to his mate with the full use of both arms and both hands. And that is the story of how the New Scotia Pack Dynasty began. Liulf had promised his mate that he would smile for her again and true to his word, for the rest of their lives, whenever Rain Falling looked at Liulf with love in her eyes, he smiled.

  More Mahdrah Ahlee COMING in 2015

  Connuchur, New Scotia Pack, 2

  Cenead, New Scotia Pack, 3

  Victoria Danann

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  HIGHLAND WOLF PACT

  By Selena Kitt

  Chapter One

  Scotland

  Middle March

  Year of our Lord 1502

  Sibyl Blackthorne wasn’t afraid of anything.

  That’s what her father had told everyone, from the time she was a toddler. It was probably because she was an only child, and a girl, that Robert Blackthorne, her dear, sweet father had encouraged her to do more masculine things than feminine ones. Who could blame the man for wanting a son? If she’d been a boy, she could have carried on the family name, assumed the family title, and run the family estate.

  But Sibyl was a girl, and all she was good for was marrying. After all the sword fighting, archery and riding lessons, Sibyl’s only real contribution to her family was her pretty face and ability to catch a husband. She found the whole process ridiculous and told her mother so, several times, while her mother instructed the servants to lace her corset tighter, pinch her cheeks for color, and powder the tops of her breasts as if they were dinner rolls and they were dusting them with flour.

  Her protests, however, did her no good whatsoever. Her father wasn’t even around to protect her anymore—a fact that made her tear up every time she thought about it, so she tried not to—and in the end, her uncle got his way. Godfrey Blackthorne was a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer, whether it was from the Archbishop of Canterbury or even the king himself. He wasn’t going to let a little slip of a girl like Sibyl thwart him. So Sibyl had been effectively sold—that’s how she saw it, even if it was a perfectly legal marriage pact, drawn up between her uncle and her betrothed and signed by King Henry VII—to a man she not only didn’t love, but a man she didn’t even know.

  She had thought the worst part would be adjusting to living in Scotland, but she was wrong. The worst part, at least so far, had been her betrothed himself. The man she had anticipated meeting during the entire month-long trek across the English countryside, through the Scottish lowlands, to a dank, dark structure the Scots actually called a “castle,” had turned out to be far worse than the uncle she had left behind.