Redemption: Moon Fever Book Three (Redfern Shifters 3) Read online

  Stella shuddered, remembering with burning shame the way Jasper had pushed her away in front of everyone. Her mate. Fated to love her, to honor her, to cherish her.

  “Since he’s guaranteed to like me, why does it matter what I wear? We can’t afford new clothes. Let me use the money to buy something useful.”

  There were no guarantees, Stella thought. She ran her finger over the rim of her mug.

  She’d been just like the woman in the booth next to her—so sure, comfortable in her jeans and sweatshirt, of the happiness that was just around the corner. In her worst nightmares, she’d never imagined the rejection, flight for her life, and months of exile in a cold, crowded city.

  But then it had been beautiful, she reminded herself. Jasper loved her now.

  Except the moon was calling him again.

  Another horrible thought struck her.

  What if this hopeful, idealistic woman in the booth next to her was the new mate the Fates had chosen for Jasper?

  Hands shaking, she pushed the plates away, left a cash tip on the table, and got unsteadily to her feet, careful to avoid eye contact with the trio in the booth. Too many emotions were surging through her. As if in proof, an excessively sharp tooth scraped the inside of her upper lip, and her shoes fit poorly around the sudden appearance of her clawed toes.

  Her body was responding with aggression to the idea of Jasper mating with the dark-haired woman in the booth.

  Kill, her wolf said.

  Stella walked out of the diner with an unsteady gait. The shifters would be able to identify her clumsiness as a partial shift, but she couldn’t hide it. They were distracted with their own problems anyway.

  The sun was still bright in the sky, although it was late afternoon. Summer was just getting started. The moon was almost full, only two days until Fever Night.

  Two days. Could she wait that long to learn if he could remain true to her?

  But now she’d realized another obstacle to their happiness. If the Fates matched another woman to Jasper, that poor creature would forever feel a craving to be with him and could never be happy with another. And other potential mates would sense her unavailability, as had happened to Stella in Seattle when she’d tried to flirt with a guy at a party. He’d been able to tell she’d been mated with another shifter already and wanted nothing to do with her. That girl in the restaurant, so optimistic now, might spend the rest of her life in solitary agony.

  Stella just couldn’t hurt another woman the way she’d been hurt. It wasn’t in her nature. Her guiding light had been to do no harm. To help wherever she could. To be better than the brutality and meanness around her.

  She had to do better than that.

  Out on the street, she paused as a wave of nausea rolled over her. It had to be the curse. All her dreams hinged on breaking it. But how could she do that?

  Jasper suddenly came walking around the corner, his face breaking into a blazing smile when he saw her.

  Mate, her wolf said, just as her human heart squeezed.

  The more she let herself love him, the more it would hurt to lose him.

  Chapter

  Six

  Jasper was so happy to see Stella outside the diner that he didn’t notice at first how ill she looked. Pale and serious, she stood without moving, just staring at him as he approached.

  “Hey, are you okay?” he asked, touching her arm.

  She looked away. “Yeah,” she said, frowning. “I’m fine.”

  It didn’t take a psychic to see she was lying. Even a nearsighted stranger would wonder what terrible thing had just happened. “Hey.” Stepping closer, he gathered her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. The contact between his lips and her warm, soft skin made the moon fever inside him rise a few degrees. “Was it something you ate in the diner? Their chili will strip the hair off a wolf shifter. And I’m something of an expert on that subject.”

  She finally looked into his eyes. “You told me not to worry about you being moon called, but I’m worrying about it.”

  Now that a plan was shaping up on dealing with the Harts, he felt optimistic about all obstacles in his path. “Don’t worry about it.” He lowered his head and dropped kisses along her cheek until he got to her mouth, where she tasted like bread and tea. Just being with her for thirty seconds had already loosened the tension in his muscles. “I want you. No matter what the Fates try to do to us, that will never change.”

  “It’s not only about us.”

  “You don’t need to tell me that.” If he weren’t alpha, responsible for his family, the pack, and the entire town, he would grab her and run. He didn’t know for sure the moon calling would be weaker away from Redfern, but odds were good it would be. He’d been at Stanford when it had struck him last fall, and it had compelled him to come home, where it had only gotten stronger. Maybe flying somewhere far away—Iceland maybe, or Cape Town or Sydney—would have the opposite effect. If it weren’t for his duty in Redfern, he’d be booking a flight with Stella to find out.

  She put her arms around his neck and sighed. “I know. Of course. You’re under all the alpha pressure.”

  He was just happy to have her in his arms again. “I don’t think you should discount the possibility the food in there has injured you somehow. I can’t wait to tell Chef you hated her cooking so much that you ate at the Redfern Diner.”

  “Don’t you dare.”

  He ran his hand through her hair, enjoying the feel of the soft strands catching on his fingers. “Did you have anything from the deep fryer? We used to wonder how old the oil was. I bet they’ve never changed it. Just add new stuff.” Glad to hear her laugh, he tightened his hold around her and lifted her off the ground a moment. If only he could just take her away with him somewhere safe and private for a few weeks. Months. A tropical paradise. Had she ever been to Hawaii? Probably not. “When this is all over, we’re going to Maui,” he said.

  “Mm,” she said, relaxing in his arms. “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  She stiffened again and pulled away. “There’s a girl in there with her parents, talking about being moon called.” She began walking down the sidewalk, pausing to wait for him.

  He didn’t tell her that he could feel the presence of other moon-called shifters, male or female, and had noticed more than one inside the diner. His father had mentioned having the sensitivity, part of his alpha’s powers, and now Jasper struggled to separate what he sensed in others and what he felt in himself. “It’s the summer solstice. There will be more than usual.”

  She glanced at him. The town market was on the corner across the street, and shoppers were looking over at them. Some were smiling, as if they’d seen the alpha and his mate kissing a minute earlier.

  “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she said.

  He put an arm around her. “Other than the Harts, me neither.” He slipped his hand down to her waist, pushed his fingers under her shirt until it felt warm flesh, tempted to give the approving residents of Redfern another show. “Oh, and the cat mercenaries. I want to hurt them too.”

  She gave him a frustrated smile. “Come on. I’m serious.”

  “Me too.” He let his fingertips sharpen with a few millimeters of extended claws that he tickled across her skin. “Very serious.”

  “What if—” she began.

  “What if I give you a complete tour of my humble family abode? You’ve only seen part of it, and that’s not right. It’s your home now.”

  She looked pained. “Not if the Fates give you to another—”

  He put a finger—no claws—over her lips. “We can’t worry about what the Fates might do. We have to live with right now. And right now the Fates have given me you.” He couldn’t let himself even think about losing her. Conveniently, having her in his arms made it easy to push aside thoughts of anything but how perfectly her body fit against his, how sweet she smelled, the rich warmth in her eyes. “You’re mine, Stella, and I’m yours. The more
we act that way, the more true it is.”

  She reached up and caught his wrist, then wove her fingers through his. After a deep sigh, she smiled. “You make a strong case, Alpha.”

  “One of my professors thought I should go to law school.”

  She laughed. “Just what the world needs. Another wolf shifter lawyer.”

  “I know, right?” He squeezed her hand and began walking again toward home, strategizing now on where they could be together alone. The bedroom was compromised—both Ruby and Rafe had interrupted them there—but there were other places. Lots of them. The Cross family had always appreciated luxury and had had the funds to provide it.

  They walked in companionable silence the half mile across Redfern to the Cross estate, then passed through the new gate, acknowledging the security detail as they strode up the drive. Instead of going into the main house, Jasper led her past it to the smaller, chalet-styled building behind the tennis courts, tucked under the redwoods. The spa.

  Stella hesitated on the steps of the building, looking back at the main house. “Aren’t Rafe and Dee going to wonder where you are?”

  He pushed the door open and nudged her inside ahead of him. “Exactly. That’s why we’re here and not our bedroom.” He sniffed the air, confirmed the building was empty, and slammed the door behind them.

  Ah, finally. He finally had her alone again. She seemed to feel the same way and was already pushing his shirt up his chest and bending her head to lick—oh God—his nipple. He threw his head back and tried to remember which of the rooms had the massage table.

  She stopped sucking his nipple for a second. “Should we really be—you know—enjoying ourselves when the Harts are out there trying to destroy us?”

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway. He’d remembered the massage room was next to the sauna in the back. “I’ve thought a lot about this.” He kicked in the door at the end, smiled at the sight of the white sheets and soft blankets draped over the padded table, then pushed her in. “Yes,” he said.

  Chapter

  Seven

  Stella saw the narrow table, draped with layers of sparkling white sheets, and felt her heartbeat quicken. If the Fates didn’t want her to be with Jasper Cross, they wouldn’t have made him so impossible to resist.

  She walked into the room and ran her hand across the soft linen. There was an aromatherapy diffuser on a shelf, filling the room with a warm, earthy scent. Sandalwood, eucalyptus, pine.

  “Who gets the massage?” she asked, turning to him. “You or me?”

  Jasper leaned against the door, a lazy smile spreading across his face. “Oh, you do. Absolutely.” His gaze dropped over her body, each flicker of his eyelash making her blood heat. “But I get the tip.”

  An involuntary giggle rose in her chest. He made her feel both helpless and powerful at the same time. “Good. I’ve got some sore spots that could use a little rubbing.”

  He grinned. “Do you?”

  She nodded, another giggle threatening to break free.

  “Show me,” he said.

  Her amusement faded, replaced with pure, hot need. Lifting a hand to the curve between her neck and shoulder, she pushed the fabric aside and tilted her head away, a show of submission she thought might inflame his animal side.

  She was right. Growling low in his throat, he pulled her against him and dropped his mouth to the pulse at her throat. She felt his teeth sharpen and scrape her skin, followed by his soft tongue, firm and wet, licking from collarbone to earlobe.

  With a moan, she dug her fingers into his broad, muscled shoulders, leaned against the padded table, and invited him to follow.

  “Not yet,” he murmured. Holding her firmly, he slipped his hand down her belly and pushed her shirt up over her breasts. Then he dropped his dark head, bent over slightly, and sucked her nipple through the silky fabric of the enchanted bra.

  She didn’t want to go slow. Tunneling her fingers through his hair, she tried to pull him onto the sheets with her. He let her collapse onto her back but didn’t climb on top of her, instead straightening a little and running his hands over her body, still in her clothes, as if she were a piano.

  He was watching his own hands slide across her breast, abdomen, hips, thigh, then back again. “You’re so beautiful.” He bent down and put his mouth on the fabric covering the nipple he’d neglected before, sucking it into his mouth and nibbling hard while he stroked her over the fly of her jeans. Maddeningly slow and soft, chuckling when she bucked her hips into his hand to increase the pressure.

  She wanted to feel him, all of him, not just the parts he chose to attend to. The jeans were too thick, both his and hers.

  What had he shown her in the bathroom? Just that morning, he’d put his hand on his chest and his clothes had simply disappeared.

  She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate in spite of the pounding of her heart and the wild, splintered thoughts racing through her mind.

  When they shifted, the clothing disappeared until they needed them again. So if she—oh, he was sucking her nipple again, and surely he knew such a light touch between her legs was torture—pretended she was about to shift, then she might be able to make the clothes vanish and remain human.

  She imagined her wolf, invited the idea of a shift but nothing more. It was like opening a door but not walking over the threshold.

  Her wolf was close to the surface of her skin but waited from a slight distance.

  Stella imagined touching her own wolf’s fur, and then—

  “Hey!” Jasper jerked his hands away from her now-naked body. “No fun.”

  “I disagree.” She reached around him and pulled him down on top of her. Rough denim and cotton pressed against her bare skin. “Your turn.”

  She waited for him to remove his own clothes, but he braced one arm on the table, caught her in the other, and rolled them over so she was on top of him.

  Only when she was straddling him, exquisitely aware of the bulge in his pants—only then did he close his eyes a second and make the clothes disappear.

  He opened his eyes and grinned at her, his cock erect between them.

  Turned on, Stella bent forward and leaned over to kiss him. As her hips rose into the air, he stroked her ass, gave it a small slap, then slid his fingers around to fondle her exposed pussy.

  Heat shot through her. “Jasper,” she choked out against his mouth.

  “That’s me.” He grabbed her hips and tried to pull her down as he bucked upward, but she had another idea.

  She flattened her hands on his chest and pushed herself up. Grinding her hips over his, she took a moment to enjoy the feel of his erection sliding between her folds, rubbing her clit while he caressed her breasts.

  She stroked his chest, teasing the dark hairs. “You brought us here, so you must want a massage.” She slid her hand down his abdomen and took his cock in her fist.

  He closed his eyes and moaned. “Stella.”

  She ran her thumb over the tip, stroking the drop of liquid there. “That’s me.”

  He moved his hands back down to her hips and tried to lift her again. “No, just let me get inside you.” He thrust his hips up. “That’s all I need.”

  She smiled and wriggled down his legs so she could taste him. She drew a finger along his long, thick erection, then licked the wet tip. “It’s not always about what you need,” she said softly. “It’s about what you want.”

  “Yeah,” he said shakily.

  She looked flirtatiously at him, flicking her tongue over his hard, velvety skin, thrilling at the way his entire body went rigid. “You want this?”

  “Oh yeah.” Gaze lock on her, he reached down and stroked her hair with trembling fingers.

  Excited by the power she had over him, she took his cock into her mouth.

  His fingers tightened in her hair. He let out a long moan.

  Settling between his legs, she moved her mouth up and down his shaft, sucking hard, drawing him in while squeezing in
parallel with her fingers. All the while she watched him.

  His eyes were fixed on her. “Stella…”

  She resumed her work, feeling hotter with each lick; his warm, musky taste; the power she had over him.

  He dug his heels into the bed and let out a low, guttural groan. “Stella…”

  His tone suggested he was warning her about something. She lifted her head and gave him the dumbest look she could manage while her fingers gently weighed and stroked his testicles. “Is there a problem?”

  He ran his hands through her hair, tugging at the strands. “You’re killing me.”

  “Sorry. I’ll stop.” She pushed back and sat on her knees, glancing at the door. “Should we go see what Ruby has for dinner?”

  He grabbed her arms and pulled her back on top of him, crushing his mouth to hers. Then, as if she weighed nothing, he lifted her up and rolled her under him again.

  His muscled body, slick with sweat, bore down on her, chest to thigh to shin. She spread her thighs wide to eliminate any space between them, ready to have him inside her. She felt empty, needy, desperate.

  Slanting his mouth over hers, he drove his tongue between her teeth while his hand caressed her body and demanded she take him.

  She did, frantically, panting into his mouth, caressing the muscled planes of his back, grabbing his ass to get closer, as close as possible.

  He squeezed her breast, twisting her nipple between his fingers, then raked his fingernails down her belly and over her mound. He slipped a finger into her soft, wet folds, his thumb finding her clit, sliding around the sides, responding to her movements, her sighs.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered. “Fuck me now.”

  He didn’t joke. They were done teasing. Arranging himself over her entrance, he held her hips and thrust into her, filling him with her cock, tight and huge. He paused, his arms trembling, then drew back and thrust again.

  She cried out, and then as he moved again inside her, her high-pitched sounds turned low and throaty. He pushed harder, groaning with her, cradling her head in his arms. She felt the heat of his breath, his lips capturing her soft earlobe, his tongue exploring the curves of her ear.