“I love you so much. But I wasn’t changed by my attacker. Templeton changed me at the hospital. I thought you knew but I guess you haven’t been conscious very long.” He stood and finished up.

As he dried her off, she pushed him against the wall. Her wolf pressed against his, wanton and hot.

“I need you, Ben. Right this second. If you don’t f**k me I’m going to scream.”

Reaching down she grabbed his cock, pumping her fist over it a few times as she dragged her ni**les over his chest.

He panted as he sought control. “Wait. Fuck, don’t do that! Tegan, you nearly died.

Stop it.”

She climbed up his body and when he caught her to keep her from falling, she reached around and angled him, pressing down on him.

“Christ! Tegan, f**k, f**k, f**k.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m trying to do.” Her voice, still whiskey rough, was low and the magic of her wolf tinged it. His wolf was close as well, she felt him, saw the flicker in his eyes. “I can’t wait to change with you. I’m so sorry you had to be without me when you took form the first time. God you feel good. So damned good. I’d scream but I’m hoarse and I can see you’re embarrassed. They all know what we’re doing so let’s get to it. I don’t want foreplay, I don’t want finesse. I want you to f**k me hard. Top me, please, Ben. I need it.”

An anguished sound broke from him as he spun and pressed her back against the wall. Thrusting hard and fast into her body, he dropped kisses, hot and wet, openmouthed, across her collarbone. Every few kisses he nipped just the right side of painful.

One hand fisted in her hair, the other arm banded around her waist to hold her up.

“You’re so beautiful I could die from it. Looking at you makes me ache. Feeling the way your pu**y holds me, welcomes me, you’re more than I ever imagined wanting, more than I ever imagined having. You’re alive and you’re mine,” he murmured, voice thick with emotion.

“Always. I’m yours. And you’re mine.” And he was. Unbelievably, wonderfully, he was. She tipped her head to the side and he moved quicker than she’d ever seen him move and bit down where neck met shoulder.

Orgasm rocked her foundations as she clamped her lips together to keep from crying out. He muffled a deep groan, his teeth still holding her still as he came.

After they’d gotten their breath back and kissed, long and slow for several more minutes, he helped her into pajamas Layla had brought and she put her hair back.

“You’re not going out there without a shirt, Ben.” Tegan grabbed him before he moved to the door. He looked hard and hot, his hair tousled and wet from the shower, skin tawny and stretched tight over muscle. The change had made him even sexier. She was going to have to beat the females off with a stick even harder now.

“The shirt I brought in is tight. I wanted to get a new one.” He winked, knowing just why she’d stopped him.

She handed him the shirt and he put it on. “Guh. Just guh. You look so sexy right now I want to take a bite. Or five.” Reaching up, she touched the mark on her neck and shivered.

“Sorry about that.” He winced.

“It’s so not anything to be sorry about. It’s considered very special when a mate marks the other like this. A badge of adoration. Thank you.”

“Oh. What about other marks?” His voice dropped an octave and her thighs tingled with the sense memory of the last time he’d flogged her—right before he’d left for Boston.

“Mmm, well those will be just between us. Come on. I smell food and I’m starving.”

“Oh shit. Come on.” He picked her up and took her into the next room where the food had just been delivered. Ben tucked her into bed and put a lap table on for her before giving her a plate. He brought his own and snuggled in beside her.

“Nice love bite.” Nina snickered.

“I thought so. So Maxwell has told you about the homeless victims of Pellini’s experiments, right? I will be very cross with you if you haven’t,” Tegan said around her first mouthful of steak.

“Yes. I told everyone.”

“I’m sorry about Gina. She fought hard, and with honor.”

Ben squeezed her hand briefly and she told them what Pellini had said, every horrible detail about how they’d used the silver in her brain.

The room got very still. Her breathing was uneven as she tried to hold her emotions back. Ben folded her to him and rocked her for a while, whispering into her hair until the horror passed enough to go on. The others let her work through it, quietly speaking amongst themselves for some minutes.

When Tegan sat back up again and took a sip of her milk, Maxwell heaved a pained sigh. “I’m sorry, so sorry you had to bear the telling of that tale. Thank you for doing it. It just means Pellini has another strike against him. He dies either way. You did us a great honor by stepping in to aid her in Boston. And your man did the same today when we hunted for you both. I’ve offered him our compound and the safety of the Pack for as long as the two of you desire.”

Lex growled but kept his mouth shut and Tegan realized that now that Ben was a wolf, he’d be a much lower position in Cascadia than his strength and power would warrant. He was a cop, he’d hate the diplomacy of Third, even if he wanted to challenge Melissa. Eric was strong but if Ben could change three times in his first day as a wolf, he was no match for Ben at all.

“Would someone like to tell me why the hell every time Maxwell offers us a place to stay while Tegan gets better Lex growls and his hackles rise?” Ben demanded, not missing a beat with the steak he demolished.