Come Moonrise by Lucy Monroe Page B

sometimes."
    "Sacred mates, yes." She turned to her
husband. "She could be pregnant with your grandchild right now. You
will not hurt her."
    King glared at Frankie. "Carolyn believes
you love Ty."
    "I do."
    "I won't kill my own son for breaking pack
law if you walk away and he can't stand the loneliness. I'll kill
you first."
    The words were meant to frighten, but they
didn't scare her at all. "I'm not the one who's been running from a
relationship between the two of us for the last decade."
    King said nothing. He simply turned and
walked away.
    Carolyn smiled at Frankie. "Welcome to the
family. Rose and I will so enjoy planning the wedding and don't
worry about King. He'll soften up when the grandbabies come
along."
    Frankie didn't know what else to say, so she
said, "Uh...thank you."
    Then Carolyn was gone too.
    She turned to Duke. "Do you want to kill me
too?"
    He shook his wolf's head, said something to
his brother she thought by the way Ty's body clenched and then
disappeared through the window.
    She shivered and without
her realizing how he got there, Ty was nudging at her back, pushing
her toward the bed. " You need to get back
under the covers. You still need to sleep. "
    "I don't think I can after the adrenalin
rush I just got. Your family certainly has an interesting way of
welcoming a person into it."
    Ty made that wolf sound
that emulated humor again and climbed up onto the bed with her, so
he could cuddle her like before. " You're
safe now. You may not have realized it, but my dad actually put his
seal of approval on the mating ."
    "Is that what that was?" she asked, tongue
in cheek, her heart rate finally slowing down a bit.
    " Yes. And Duke never intended to hurt you. He was here to
fight by my side if I needed it ."
    "He would have fought your father with
you?"
    " Yes ."
    "But he doesn't like me anymore than King
does now."
    " He likes you well enough ."
    She snorted.
    He nuzzled her.
" No more talking. Sleep, sweetheart, you're going to need it come
moonset. "
    Remembering what he wanted to do when he
returned to his human form, she thought he might be right and did
her very best.
    ***
    Ty lay beside his sleeping mate, savoring
the feel of her warm body against his fur, her scent and the sound
she made when she breathed. She was fully human and yet she
intrigued his wolf's senses like no femwolf ever had.
    She also challenged him in a way few females
of his species had the courage to do. She'd called him both
obstinate and stupid and he had to wonder if she wasn't right. He
had refused to acknowledge his feelings before because of his
determination not to mate with a human, but there didn’t seem to be
much use in hiding from the truth any longer.
    He loved Frankie.
    He always had and God help him, he always
would. She was more than his sacred mate, though that was
miraculous enough. She was the mate of his heart and he never could
have gone through with mating with Olivia in the fur because of
it.
    He could only hope that Frankie’s ability to
stick it out for the long haul was greater with him than it had
been with her ex-fiancé.
    He waited until just before the change to
wake her up.
    She came alert instantly and sat up to watch
with the attention she’d always given her studies.
    He felt the change overtake him and he knew
what she was seeing. Nothing. One minute he would be a wolf and the
next a man. The change could take longer, he could even stop
partway through now that he had control of it, now that he was
mated. But right now was not a time to play with his new control
over his dual nature.
    She gasped as he took his human form and
then screeched in shock when he reached and grabbed her to him.
    He’d been aching to touch her like this all
night.
    "How do you feel?" he asked, barely in
control of his primal urges.
    She smiled, her eyes filled with a warmth
that melted the icy places inside him. "Like I want you."
    He was careful to arouse her before taking
her. So careful that she was begging