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  front of him, but it had been fun to see him being dragged out of his own club before he could kill one of them.

  The cherry on top of it all was making him think that she was going home with a very hot demon while he had to go home and reminisce about all the sex he would never have again. Ah, if only he hadn’t been such an asshole to her and so many others over the years she might feel bad for him.

  Might, but didn’t.

  Besides, she would never accept a mate or spread her legs simply because she felt bad for him. She’d always hoped for a mate that she could truly love. Something her parents never had, but something that she’d always wanted for herself. Oh well, it was no big deal. At least now she knew who her mate was so she could focus on her life and move on.

  The scent of that delicious casserole that she'd been thinking about all night hit her hard as she closed the front door behind her. It smelled so good. Wait, she sniffed again. It smelled warm. That was wrong since she’d placed the bowl in the fridge over seven hours ago.

  She unleashed her claws and fangs as she moved towards her small kitchen. Another sniff let her know that she was not alone. There was another shifter in her apartment. Before she could figure out anything else, the door to her small kitchen swung open and the biggest asshole that she’d ever had the misfortune of meeting sauntered into her living room carrying a plate of chicken and rice casserole in one hand and a Coke in the other.

  Without a word, he walked past her, sat down on her couch, placed the plate and drink on her small coffee table before turning the television to the sports channel. He pulled her small coffee table closer so that he could eat without making a mess. That was something, she had to admit. She’d hate to have to clean casserole and blood off her rug all in the same night.

  “What are-”

  He cut her off. “Just let me finish eating and then I’ll be right with you,” he said absently while his entire focus was on the game. She was so stunned that all she could do was stand there in shock for a few minutes while he devoured her food. Every few minutes he would curse under his breath when he heard a score that he didn’t like, making her roll her eyes, because males were just pathetic.

  “Ah, hello?” she finally said, deciding that enough was enough and they needed to end this game of his before she was forced to rip his throat out.

  “Hold on. I’m going to need my energy so let me finish eating.”

  “Energy for what?” she demanded as she finally came to her senses and stepped in front of the television. “And what the hell are you doing here?”

  He finished her dinner with an exaggerated sigh. “For the all night sex marathon that you and I are going to have,” he simply said, sounding a little irritated that she wasn’t on board with his plan yet.

  She blinked.

  Then she blinked again with the hopes that she’d misunderstood him, but then she realized that she hadn’t.

  Within seconds she was laughing her ass off until she was forced to lean against the wall for support or risk falling flat on her face. Finally after several minutes she was able to wipe the tears away from her eyes and focus her attention back on him.

  “Hey!” she snapped as he started eating her apple crisp with a large scoop of ice cream on top. When the hell had he gotten up? Damn it, she needed to start paying attention to the sneaky bastard. “That’s mine!”

  “You’ll be happy in a little while when I have the extra energy to take you all night,” he said absently with a shrug as though he was offering to do her a favor.

  The bastard.

  She pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Oh my God, you need to leave now before I hurt you.”

  “I’m not into rough sex, sorry.”

  “Wow…,” she said, because seriously, what else was there left to say?

  Another shrug.

  “No, seriously, wow. You really need to leave.”

  *-*-*-*

  Drew finished the last bite of apple crisp and prayed that she cooked him meals like this before and after every time he fucked her for the rest of their very long lives. That alone would make this little entrapment worth it. Well, almost. He was still going to miss the variety after all. He’d never slept with the same female twice. It was going to take some time getting used to not having his pick of women.

  He leaned back and studied her for a long moment. Oh yeah, she was getting ready to claw his eyes out. That was really too bad. They were trapped in this situation and if he was going to suffer then she was going to suffer right alongside of him.

  “Perhaps we should talk about a few things?” he suggested. Since he was feeling a bit calmer now that he knew that she hadn’t slept with that fucking demon, he could be generous and talk to her for a few minutes before he fucked her.

  “What do you want to discuss that we haven’t already talked about?”

  He shrugged casually. “Oh, not much. Just this and that.”

  “This and that?”

  Drew nodded.

  “For starters, the next time that any other wolf, especially from my own Pack, lays so much as a finger on you, I will rip his throat out,” he said with a calm that he definitely wasn’t feeling. He’d already handled the overeager pups that had touched her before he came here tonight, prepared to kill the demon that thought he was going to get his horns rubbed raw.

  She rolled her eyes. “Puhlease.”

  “Next, and this is the most important part so listen up,” he said, knowing that he was pissing her off with his tone. Good. He was well and truly pissed already so she might as well join him. “You will not, and I repeat, not have sex with anyone but me.”

  She fucking laughed!

  Then just as suddenly she sobered up. “Oh, you were serious.” Her face scrunched up adorably before she added, “That’s just sad.”

  “What is?” he asked warily.

  “Well, for starters we both know that if you could still get that up,” she said with a bored sigh, gesturing absently towards his crotch, “that you would be at this very moment between the legs of some bar skank.”

  He smiled. He really couldn’t help himself. “Been watching me?”

  “No!” she said quickly, a little too quickly.

  His smile widened. “You know my usual preference.”

  She crossed her arms over that rather generous chest that was making him drool. He’d already been horny before he came to the club tonight and now he was getting close to desperate. He didn’t know how much longer he could last, but he prayed that they could get this over with quickly so that they could get to the sex part of their relationship.

  Soon.

  “It’s not really all that difficult to figure out when I see a long line of women standing in line for a chance to get in your bed,” she said with a little innocent shrug and a sigh. He grinned smugly at that announcement. Really, what man wouldn’t smile when hearing something like that?

  “Only to see those same women the next morning standing outside in the line at the free clinic laughing and doing this,” she continued as she held up those two damn fingers again and he would swear it was less than a half an inch this time!

  His smug smile instantly disappeared. “Hey! I’m clean!” he snapped even though they both knew that shifters couldn’t carry human diseases.

  Wait, he’d left something out…something important. Oh yeah. “And my dick’s not small! So, stop doing that!”

  She yawned. “Yeah, whatever you say. Listen there, cupcake, you’re going to have to leave. I have to get to bed soon. I have work tomorrow,” Kara mumbled, looking bored as she gestured with a flip of her hand for him to leave.

  He shook his head. They needed to come to terms quickly or he was pretty sure that he was going to die from blue balls, a rather terrifying medical condition for men like him, who were never meant to go more than a day without sex.

  “No, we need to set up some kind of arrangement that will work for both of us,” he explained, hoping like hell that
she couldn’t hear the desperation in his voice.

  She chuckled without humor. “Come on, Drew. We both know that if the tables were turned you’d be laughing at me all while you were humping everything that moved.”

  Well, that was true, but still…

  “No, we’re both in this situation. I'm not going to remain fucking neutered for the rest of my life and you're going to want babies. Plus, you're going to need me soon when you go into heat,” he pointed out triumphantly, trying not to lick his lips as he stood there fantasizing about that moment when she would get on her hands and knees and beg him to put her out of her fucking misery by fucking her to end what was supposedly one of the worst things a female shifter could go through.

  First mating heat.

  *-*-*-*

  Kara held up a hand to stop him before he could piss her off any further.

  Damn it!

  She hadn't thought about that other little problem that this damn mating brand on her wrist created. In an hour, a few days, or weeks she would go into heat early. Unlike her regular fertile heat, which was six months away and required her to isolate herself for nine days, this was a mating heat, the first mating heat.

  From what she'd heard and seen it was intense. Where a normal heat could make a female desperate, a mating heat could turn a prude into a nympho. Her usual game plan of taking time off from work to lock herself away in her apartment with a vibrator and a box full of batteries wasn’t going to work this time. Using a human male like she had when she was younger wouldn't work either since she'd just end up killing him from exhaustion or end up more frustrated.

  She could use a demon, but they tended to get clingy if you had sex with them more than once. Having sex with an unmated male werewolf was her only choice. Unfortunately, since she didn't want to be responsible for some poor bastard's death, because she was in heat and stuck with the asshole, that was no longer an option.

  Well, it seemed that her only choice was to take some time off from work when it hit. Hopefully, her boss wouldn't fire her ass. She would have to rent a cabin somewhere isolated like so many other females did and hope that the first real heat wasn't as bad as everyone claimed it was. There was no way that she was going to stay in the city where she was vulnerable when it hit.

  Her gaze ran over the arrogant manwhore again and she inwardly snorted. She really didn't see herself getting so desperate that she'd willingly spread for him. Besides, she didn’t have any plans of being anywhere near him when she finally went into her first mating heat.

  A female in heat usually had the ability to turn the men around her into slobbering idiots. A mated female in heat had the ability to send her mate into a lust filled rage. He'd do anything to have her. If they hadn't mated by the first heat it was supposed to be intense, too intense. It was also when a very small number of mates marked each other, fully accepted each other as their chosen mates.

  Not that she would ever have to worry about that with Drew if she ever became desperate enough to warm his bed. Only mated pairs who happily accepted fate's choice would do that. It meant love, fidelity and devotion and since there weren't a lot of mated pairs out there who were happy with fate's decision, there weren't many branded pairs.

  *-*-*-*