16

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Let me see." Kate tried to remove Aaron's shirt as soon as they were in the bathroom with the door shut.

"You trying to get me naked Katie?" Aaron grinned.

"She'll hear you, be quiet." Kate hissed.

"Trying to get me naked so you can have your wicked way with me Katie, baby?"

"I swear, if I don't find any injuries when I get this shirt off, I'm going to give you a few."

"I told you I'm fine. Okay so a few scratches and bruises. Maybe a day of healing before I'm my normal perfect specimen of sexy manhood."

Aaron pulled Kate into his arms,

"I'm sorry you were worried, I should have kept you updated."

"I wasn't worried."

She pushed away from him.

"Shit, the stench of lies in this room is making me gag Kate. Just accept my apology and hold me. I've had a rough day."

Aaron now removed his shirt and his jeans.

"Okay so fill me in, what happened and where are we at?"

"We lost four humans, your bitch, she was the one I followed that night, and she had given another young girl to those bastards, unfortunately she had already been attacked by the time we got there. There were seventeen wolves in total across all three operations here, none of our side were lost, a few injured, but nothing serious."

"Jill?"

"Fuck Jill, yeah Jill was the bitch. The poor innocent that you guys rescued, she's going to be in hospital for months and the other pack is going to keep an eye on her, she wasn't changed."

"I would kill the bitch myself, if she wasn't already dead. What other pack?"

"Well when we had already had two altercations here, and Thorn and Luna had problems there, we called in more back up. The witch advised us another pack was already involved, and as they are a small but good pack, we decided to help them with a problem, meanwhile they're keen to help us in any way they can. You know about what happened with Luna, right?"

"Yeah, I've been getting updates from the girls, but I really want to get home."

"Me too. I'll shower and eat then we can get going, okay?"

"

As for Jill, is Emily going to be okay, the blood all over my jeans and top is from her, will she have a problem with me killing her?"

"Jill wasn't her mother, she was her foster mother. Though I wouldn't think either Em or anyone else in that house called her mum. Maybe Mother Dearest. Isn't it a bit too weird two foster homes are involved in this mess already? I think we may need to look into that at a top level. Also I am going to discuss with Thorn what we as a pack can do, and what the International Werewolf Council can do, about young wolves ending up in these places. There needs to be someone looking out for our lost Aaron."

"I hear that. I bet Tyrone and Jared would agree too. Maybe they will have some ideas, Luna and young Emily also. This could have been so much worse Kate. You saved her, you know that right?"

"I didn't do it alone." Kate gave him a quick kiss, "Have a shower and I'll get you some food sorted. Maybe you should sleep for a couple of hours too, heal a little?"

"I didn't think you'd want to wait that long."

"Emily and I can go and get her stuff from her place, and load the car while you rest."

"Fuck Kate, I am not letting you go off on your own. I thought I had made that clear."

"That was before you guys had dealt with everything."

"Dealt with everything? You are crazy. We haven't dealt with everything. We are interrogating the few survivors, the lower level wolves, who will probably then be destroyed as they are seriously sick fucks. Though there are a few newer changes that there is hope of rehabilitating for want of a better term. We hope that they may be able to at least let us know if we have cleaned out the worst of it. Okay, it is a pretty small hope, they either don't want to talk or don't know much at all. The witch and the team are working together so at least we will know which is true. This is so far from dealt with, I'm not even going to be able to relax till we are an hour out of town, minimum." He was getting louder as he spoke. Realising he was starting to almost shout and clearly at risk of ranting he stopped speaking.

"Calm down, okay so we'll go to get Em's stuff together and I'll drive for a bit and you can sleep?"

"Yeah sounds good. Sorry for getting a bit O.T.T there."

"Hey, of all the things that need apologising for between us, that one you can just forget completely. That one I have already forgotten. You had good reasons for not wanting us to go, you explained them, yeah you got a little loud, but you've had a shit day and are probably still a bit wolfed up."

'Wolfed up?"

"Oh you know, I can't see him in your eyes but with all the adrenalin and crazy he isn't exactly curled up having a nap either. Is he?"

"Sweetheart, I'm naked in a bathroom with my mate, running on adrenalin and fear, and you smell fantastic, and this morning was amazing, and I have no idea when we'll get a chance to be alone again ... he is definitely not curled up having a nap." Aaron pulled Kate into a very thorough kiss. He let her start to lean into him clearly wanting more and then he moved his hand up under her shirt to feel her skin.

"Fuck Kate, I need to taste you, feel you, fuck, I need to be with you."

"Okay."

Kate began to remove her pants. Kate was definitely up for some action, and so was her wolf. Neither of them had ever lacked confidence in any area, but with their mate they needed his touch and reassurance. Kate knew part of it was due to his initial rejection but there was a much bigger element to her fear. Could she ever measure up? Be what he needed, fuck wanted?

"No, shit I'm sorry, I don't want you to just give it up because I say I need it."

Aaron ran a hand through his hair, "Sorry Kate, go, I'll get in the shower."

"You think I would just say yes to keep my mate happy if I didn't want him?" Kate whispered. "You think I'm the sort of woman that would just let you fuck me while I thought about packing, food, what was on television?" She continued to remove her clothes. "Take a big breath moron, under the smell of how angry I am right now, do you smell any lies in the air? Or do you smell my need for you? You want to connect with me because of what you saw and what you went through today. You want to connect with your mate, because no matter how brief a moment it was, you thought you may lose me today. I know because I feel the same way. I watched you go down today Aaron. I saw fighting for the first time in my life that wasn't just a training exercise. I saw death. Then I saw you coming through the door covered in blood and looking broken, mentally at the very least. I need you Aaron. I need you as much as you need me. So why can't you see that? Why can't you feel that? Do you not see me at all?"

"But..."

"We are newly mated for fuck sake, we would be needing each other if we were at home playing tiddlywinks, add in this mess and I'm amazed your wolf and mine haven't gone at it and left us both in the backseat."

"Kate I don't..."

"Shut up before you fuck up even more than you already have. Make love to me Aaron or tell me to leave and I'll go." Kate knew there was no doubt at all between them right then. Her walls were completely down and they were now mated. There was no way he could misunderstand. If he told her to go, she and Emily would be leaving and he could forget she existed.

***

He never spoke, he didn't want to risk her getting the wrong idea. He felt her fear that he was about to reject her again. He saw clearly that she gnawed on her bottom lip waiting for him to ask her to leave. He saw her remembering the images his own wolf had shown her the night before. He saw the tears she was fighting to hold back. He never spoke. He went in guns blazing. He would fight for his mate. He would show her how much he needed her. Fuck he would show her how much he loved her. He had no choice he had to let her see.

"I want you Kate. I need you. You are mine and I will never let you leave me."

He was holding her close, kissing her deeply. He ran his hands over her back and growled into her mouth as he sent the first images. He sent the image of her standing there with her red braids, glue dripping over her head and glitter all over, and her picking up the scissors and cutting her hair,

"I thought you were so damn annoying because you were stealing Alex from me, but I cried that night because you cut off your beautiful hair."

As she gasped in his arms and he felt her disbelief he continued. He remembered the day at the dress shop, he watched her yell at him and look so amazing in the emerald green dress.

"You looked like a Celtic goddess, your red hair in that tangled pile on top of your head just needed a tiara. Your curves teasing me from that sweetheart neckline and your skin flushed from your anger."

"You hurt Lexi."

"I know, but I hadn't been as horrible as you and she both thought. I just didn't want to go to the dance, and she was practically screaming that she didn't want to go either. I was trying to convince Alex to talk to you."

"You went after her though. You made everything better for her. You got Alpha Owen to talk to her aunt about taking in her and Glen. Their lives changed because of you."

Kate did however wonder why he was thinking about that day. He had been so horrible the whole day. Arguing and being difficult. Every time Lexi went back into the changing room he had complained and even though Kate had tried hard to distract her friend and tune him out herself she had heard. Lexi had been devastated to know he couldn't even stand the thought of being her date as a friend. It wasn't like she was expecting him to date her, just attend the damn dance with her.

"Not what we should be focusing on, and also not true, their lives changed because Lexi and Glen deserved better and fought hard to get it. Dad of course helped as much as he could."

Seeing that she hadn't put two and two together he pictured the version of the picture of her that day in the dress shop, then frame by frame showed close ups until she would see the image his wolf had shared already.

"I didn't look like that, I've never looked like that."

"You do. To me you look exactly like that. Except every year you got more beautiful."

He bombarded her with the images and the stories that went with them. Including her jeans and pink top, and her flying high on the swing, smiling up at him as he totally looked down her top. So she couldn't run he pulled her close again and devoured her mouth.

"Aaron?" She broke the kiss looking up at him, clearly wondering what the fuck was going on.

"I love you Katie, I've loved you for so long."

"But you slept with all..."

"You didn't like me. You've never liked me. You hated me." Aaron pulled her closer still, their bodies pressing into each other, "But I'm sorry baby, I'm so sorry. I should have been stronger. I should have known the way I felt about you was more than just a teenage crush, I should have realised..."

"Aaron. Aaron. Stop. No. Stop."

"I knew once I told you, you wouldn't be able to forgive me. My wolf showed you those images and we fought. He wanted me to tell you how long I've loved you. But I know. I know I've blown it. I fucked up so big Katie, so big." Aaron stepped back and didn't meet her eyes. "You're going to break the bond. I know that. But I just didn't want you to ever think while finally in your arms, surrounded by you, fuck, buried deep inside you, that I could ever be thinking of another woman."

"You know nothing. You are a complete moron Aaron Donald and I, fuck, I, shit I have no words, there are no fucking words."

Aaron went to step into the shower having still not looked at her since he spoke. She flew at him. Her hands although human clawed at him in her need. Her mouth went straight for his mating mark and she sucked it into her mouth as she begged him to hear her.

"You know nothing Aaron. I never hated you, I told you again and again. I could never work out why you picked on me so much when I was little but your mum kept trying to tell me you were just scared you were losing Alex, but I wanted to be your friend too, and you never gave me a chance. Then when you were older you seemed determined to make everyone think you were a big, mean, anti-social bully. Well to everyone who wasn't a blood relative, and to those you were the protector, friend and guard and even the sweet funny guy, but heaven help anyone who caught you at it. If any of us mentioned you doing anything nice, or laughing or fuck, being you, you were meaner, nastier, just to prove us all wrong. When it all stopped and you decided to be my friend Aaron, I was so pleased to get to know you, I was relieved for myself, and for Alex too. Because I hated the tug-o-war he was in the middle of, and so did he. But I was scared too, scared I would grow to care so much about you, like the rest of your family and then you would change your mind again. So I kept my guard up. Then I went to school and I never saw you. I never heard from you. All I heard was how many women you were seeing. How happy you were and how much you loved to party and go out."

She now dropped to her knees taking him in her mouth as she had been working his nipple ring, lips and throat the whole time she had been communicating with him.

"I missed you Aaron. It hurt that you could just go and party, and dance, and even came into the city to do so, and never once came to see me, or asked me to go clubbing with you."

She let him slip to the back of her mouth, stroking his underside with her softened tongue. She then pulled back to his tip and with her tongue flicked into the slit at his head

. "So did you know that Aaron? Did you know I had tried not to value your friendship, need your friendship, but you got in anyway, got in and left a hole when you let me go?"

"Fuck, Kate. I never let you go. Don't you see? It killed me to know, know you loved someone else. I loved you and you loved..."

"Nobody. I've never loved anybody Aaron. I swear, I have never been in a relationship. I have never been in love, or had an unrequited love, or even puppy love. As far as I knew nobody had ever loved me. I was waiting for my mate. I've been in temporary lust a few times, I mean I'm no angel, I've played with men and women, I'm bisexual, you knew that though, right?"

"I knew."

"So why would telling me you had feelings for me make me want to break the bond? What is this great wisdom, what do you know?"

"I loved you Katie, and every single women I fucked, played with, toyed with, I was thinking of you, wishing I had you. Kate I was cheating on you."

"Oh baby, you really are adorable when you are being ridiculous."

Kate stood and Aaron reached for her quickly, scared she was about to leave.

"I'm not going anywhere baby, now how about you show me what your mate, the woman you love, will be getting from now on?"

"What the only woman, my only woman, will be getting from now on?"

"Yes Aaron, my mate, my heart, please make love to me."

"Katie, baby, I love you so much."

Aaron picked her up and before she had even finished wrapping her legs around him he was already sliding into her wet heat.

"I can't show you what I'll be giving you every day right now, just a taster, a tease, because there is a teenager out there probably trying not to listen, your man is a little beaten up and baby you get a little loud..."

"I can be quiet. Promise. Love me Aaron, fuck, love me."

"I like you loud. But tonight let's see if you really can be quiet. Not a sound baby. Not a sound as I make you cream all over my cock. Not a sound as I finger your clit and fuck you hard till you find your second release. And definitely not a sound as I fill you Katie. Can you do that?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes."

"Too easy? How about if I let my wolf out and he takes you and marks you all over again, now that you know how much you are loved?"

"Fuck, no, shit Aaron I want to be able to beg and scream and mark my man again when that happens. We will do that at home. The next time you mark me and I mark you will be to symbolise between you and I that we are in total agreement and will never be apart. It will seal our mating forever."

"Oh Katie, you're silly, sexy, but so silly, I'm never letting you go, you are mine."

"Silly? Grown men don't say silly."

"I will not call the woman I love and am making love to stupid." He growled quietly.

Forty-seven minutes and a few orgasms later Kate and Aaron came out of the bathroom to find the television still on but Emily asleep on the couch. "I'll let her sleep till after you've eaten. There's pizza, Em also made sandwiches, if you can help yourself I can start packing?"

"You do know I work in a restaurant?"

"Really? I just thought you went there to pick up pretty waitresses and customers."

"Go pack." Aaron then added as she was leaving, "If I train to be a nurse will you play with me doctor?"

"I have a very strict no fraternization policy. Besides my mate is the jealous sort and very protective of his family."

"If you think he was jealous and protective of his family, you just wait to see what he would do to anyone that hurt or touched his mate."

"Baby, I'm all yours and I'll never see that jealous streak because I would never let anyone come between us."

"Damn, I was hoping to hear you'd get jealous and protective about me."

Aaron pouted.

"Oh honey, you don't know much about women at all do you? I would take out any bitch that came near you, in a manor so above your male comprehension and understanding, that you would probably not even be aware it had happened. I would remove any slut that tried to take my man so fast, she wouldn't even be in your orbit, before you even noticed she was after you.

As far as protection, baby you need to feel all manly and self-sufficient and shit, I understand that, I'll protect you with such stealth and in such a quiet way, you'll never know a thing. And if I ever have to go all kick-ass when you are near I'll make sure I get all hot and naked after to make it up to you, okay?"

"Fuck Kate, I'm not sure whether to be intimidated or turned on."

Kate laughed quietly as she walked towards the bed and the bag she had half packed that sat on it.

As Kate began to pack she couldn't help the confused smile that adorned her face. He could not have had a crush on her all those years. How could he have never acted on it? If he had really wanted her all that time why hadn't he done anything? How could she have not known? Shit, did his family all know, all these years?

CHAPTER TWELVE

Emily woke as Aaron finished cleaning up the last of his meal, "Great sandwiches squirt, thanks."

"Are you okay?" She moved to sit near him at the small table.

"Yeah, um Emily I need to tell you something, I want you to hear it from me."

"People were badly hurt, died today, more died tonight too didn't they?"

"Hun, listen, it isn't always like this. I promise there is so much good in this world, so many great things about being wolf, give us a chance and you'll see that. I swear, the pack will become the family you always dreamed of and Kate and I will look out for you. But, you need to know I killed Jill tonight. I know she was sort of your family and you may never forgive me, but she wasn't a good person Kate. She was trading the girls from your foster home one by one to those bastards, Sophie wasn't the last."