Psy & Changelings 06 - Branded by Fire

ceiling of her cabin. She was sore as heck, marked up with bites, scratches, and bruises, and she felt like purring. Not that she’d tell him— ever —but Riley knew what he was doing in bed. Or on the forest floor.
    The wolf had not only ridden her into damn near unconsciousness, he’d given her the best orgasms of her life. And that was plain embarrassing. Her best sex had been with a wolf. Pa the tic. Except her body was telling her to shut up and wallow. ’Cause this felt gooooood. Good enough that she might even want to repeat it.
    “No,” she told herself the instant the thought reared its head. “Once—and most of the night definitely counts as once—you can write off as a mistake. But you do this again and he’s going to start thinking he has rights over you.” She knew predatory changeling men. They liked control. They particularly liked their women to submit. And Riley was one big giant hunk of testosterone-fueled Neanderthal wolf—he probably thought her submission was his right. She snorted. “Not in this lifetime.”
    Groaning as her muscles protested, she turned. She’d had a shower last night, but a hot bath was unquestionably in order. And a massage. One of her packmates would be happy to give her the latter out of simple friendship, but if they did, they’d see the marks on her body.
    She could imagine their reaction when they found out she’d been getting down and dirty with a wolf. The SnowDancers were their allies, but leopard and wolf didn’t easily mix. True friendship would take one heck of a long time. And, though she’d had great sex with Riley—okay, hot, monkey, freakin’ wonderful sex—he wasn’t her friend, either.
    Most of the time, he irritated the hell out of her just by breathing.
    She jumped as the comm panel beeped. It was an effort to stretch out a hand from the warm cocoon of her bed and pick up the portable handset. “Yeah?”
    “Turn on the visual, Mercy.”
    All laziness fled. “Gran?”
    “Of course it’s me. Now, the visual. Hurry up, girl. Your grandfather’s waiting so we can squeeze in some horizontal tango time before a meeting.”
    Mercy blushed. “I so didn’t need that image in my head. And no visual—I’m naked.” What she was, was worried that her eagle-eyed grandmother would spot the bite mark Riley had left on her neck.
    “You haven’t got anything I haven’t,” her grandmother said.
    “Gran.” She smiled despite herself. “I’m not one of your pack, so don’t act the alpha with me.” Her maternal grandmother led the AzureSun pack down in Brazil. Isabella’s sentinels had stood by her as she aged, because it wasn’t always about strength with changelings—age and experience counted just as much. Not that her grandmother wasn’t also in phenomenally good shape.
    “I don’t act the alpha, Mercy girl. I am alpha.” It was said with the calm confidence of a woman who knew exactly who she was and didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought. “And this alpha has a present for you.”
    Every single cell in Mercy’s body went on high alert. “Gran? What did you do?”
    “Don’t sound so worried, darling. I know you said you couldn’t leave your pack to come see if one of my sentinels might work as a mate, but we’re pretty calm down here so I’m sending Eduardo and Joaquin up to you.”
    Oh. Dear. God. “Gran, you don’t need to play matchmaker. I already found someone.” To have wild sex with, but she didn’t think her grandmother needed to hear that part.
    “Really?” A sharp sound. “Less dominant?”
    Say my name, kitty.
    Her claws sliced out, threatening to destroy the sheets. “No.”
    “Is he your mate?”
    The leopard snarled at the idea. “We’ve only just—”
    “Then there’s no harm in having a wider field to choose from.”
    Mercy was all but strangling the handset. “Gran, I seriously don’t need any help. Don’t send your sentinels up here.” Dodging two undoubtedly determined males was not her idea of a good time. Especially not when the only man her body seemed to crave was a wolf she’d threatened to kill more than once.
    “Too late,” Isabella said. “I cleared it with Lucas days ago—my men are probably already in your territory. And if they don’t work out, I have several other unmated sentinels who all think you’d make an excellent mate.”
    Mercy thumped her forehead with a fist. “I’m sending them straight back. I don’t need the complication.”
    “Of course