Snippet Saturday!
Aug
29
2009

(Sorry this is only showing up now! My auto post was for tomorrow cause I’m sooo smart, LOL)

Today’s theme is Humor – I thought I’d choose a scene from Cascadia Wolves: Enforcer right after Lex and Nina have had sex for the first time. A big part of their connection is the chemistry they’ve got. He’s all big bad and she does respect it, but she doesn’t simply let him push her around. She uses humor a lot to ward him off or keep him in line.

Cascadia Wolves: Enforcer by Lauren Dane
Copyright 2006, Lauren Dane
All rights reserved, Jasmine Jade

She said this as she fell back to the mattress and gut-wrenching shudders broke over her. Her teeth began to chatter.

He sat up, concerned, and leaned over her. “Nina? Baby, are you all right?”

“Does it look like I’m all right to you?” she demanded through teeth clenched to keep them from chattering. “What is going on?”

“I uh, I think it’s the claiming,” he said as he got up and went into the adjoining bathroom, coming back quickly with a wet washcloth that he put on her face, mopping up the sweat that had gathered there. “It shouldn’t be like this. Only, well, I’ve only known wolves who did it to other wolves. But I know there are humans who mate with wolves and they seem fine…”

Before he could continue to babble she whacked him upside the head with the pillow to shut him up. “What the fuck are you talking about? Claiming? Mates?”

“I’ve told you before, you’re my mate! I’m your mate! I just completed the claiming. It’s my seed inside of you that does it. If you were just some random woman, it wouldn’t be a big deal but because you’re my mate, the woman who is my biological match, my DNA is now twining with yours in a sense.”

Despite his fear for her, he smiled softly and his voice gentled. “I can feel it too. Only it doesn’t hurt, really. I just feel incredibly connected to you. And wow, you’re not happy with me at all are you?”

“You’re altering my DNA?” Despite her shivering, which was lessening, she sat up. “Oh my god! Without asking me? You’ve done something to alter my fucking humanity without asking me?”

He put out a hand and touched that luxuriant brown hair and despite herself she leaned into his hand. She didn’t just want that touch, she realized with a start—she needed it.

“No way! Nina, I told you up front about the bond, about you being my woman. I asked if you gave yourself willingly to me and you said yes.”

“You didn’t say you were changing my DNA! I thought you were trying to get into my pants.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “If all I wanted was a quick fuck, I’d have had it weeks ago. This is more than that and you know it. This is forever. You and me, Nina. We belong together. I didn’t trick you into this. I told you up front and you agreed. Furthermore, you know I’m telling you the truth.” He was not going to allow her to get him mad. No, he felt great, damn it, she was his woman and she was bound to him and he to her.

Grrr! She hated it when he was right. He had asked her, but how could she have known his semen was some kind of wonder-jelly-magic-DNA-changing stuff? She was silent as she thought it through. She examined her feelings, and beneath her anger she realized she felt connected to him in a really deep way. She felt a part of something, of someone, in a way she’d never allowed herself to imagine. Did she want to have some mystical hoodoo with this man? Ack! With this werewolf? “Well, it’s too late now. What’s happening? What does this mean?”

“Nina, baby, look at me,” he said and gently tipped her chin so that she was looking up into his face where she couldn’t ignore the truth of the situation.

He saw the panic in her eyes and his heart ached. “Do you really think I’d do anything to hurt you?”

She shook her head, afraid if she tried to speak she’d cry. Now that the shaking was over she was drowning in emotion. She’d never felt anything like what she was feeling at that moment. It was as if the warmth of him was seeping into every pore. She felt his presence, his confidence and courage, his strength, his desire, his lust and his fear. His love. God, he loved her. How in the hell could he love her? Worse, she felt the same. Oh god, she was doomed, she was in love with the giant tool. She actually liked this feeling of connection. Gah!

“What is this?” she managed to croak out. “What’s happening?”

“I feel it too. It’s the bond forming. We don’t have detailed explanations for it. All we know is that when a male releases his seed into his mate, the bond forms. An emotional and physical connection is made.”

He leaned down and kissed her gently and his own fear ebbed when she responded.

“Great. Magical cum, lucky me.” She sighed and quirked up a smile at him. “So am I a werewolf now?”

He chuckled. “No. You’d have to have the virus put into your bloodstream through a bite. We can talk about that later but we have a lot to deal with right now just figuring out who killed Tommie and Rey. I want to focus on keeping you alive through this ridiculous plan of yours. Then we can talk about whether or not you want to be a wolf.”

“We should start planning. How are you going to arrange this meet-up?” She sat up and he pushed her back to the mattress.

“We are not talking about any of this until tomorrow. Tonight you are going to rest. We’ll get dinner and I’ll get you moved into our room while you take a long hot bath. Cade will call the family together to accept you into the Pack as my mate, and my mother will be thrilled of course. She’s always on me to give her grandchildren. Heh, Cade is next! The pressure is off me now…”

She put her hands over his mouth. “God, you seemed so stoic before you got your super semen into me. Let’s back up, shall we? First of all, moving in together?”

“Nina, where else would you be?”

“Shouldn’t we date for a while or something?”

He sighed and rolled on top of her. His weight anchored her as she smoothed her hands up the muscles of his back.

“Beautiful, you are my mate. Where else would you be but with me? Human mates live together, why wouldn’t we?”

“Well, people date and then they sometimes live together and then they get married. They don’t set up house after having sex once.”

“I think we are having some basic problems with definition here. You are my mate. I am your mate. In human terms then—you are my wife. In werewolf culture, once a mate is claimed that’s a declaration, a marriage. You carry my scent, Nina. A wolf will be able to tell that you’re my mate by scent. I carry yours as well. There’s no courtship, although you’ve certainly been a pain in my ass over the last weeks as I watched you, that’s probably close to a courtship for a prickly woman like you.” He said this last with that naughty grin.

“Married?” she asked faintly as she thought it over, giving his ear a halfhearted twist for the prickly comment. “Well, I’ll agree to the moving in to the same room part, after all we’re sleeping together and I don’t have a house anymore, so my being in here is silly. But it’s going to take me some time to deal with the marriage idea. Plus, uh, this mate thingy is fine for you in your culture and all, but humans don’t recognize it, do they?”

He frowned. She was so contrary. “I don’t care what others recognize. It is. You are mine, period.”

“Yeah, okay, He-Man. So now you want me to meet your mother? ‘Cause you see, I’m not exceptionally good with mothers. They never seem to be very excited when they meet me.”

“Well of course! Nina, do you need to go to the doctor? Are you having hearing problems? You. Are. My. Mate. My mother and father and sisters are all going to want to meet you. And they’ll love you. In fact, they have to meet you before anyone else in the Pack does or my mother will never let me hear the end of it.” He rolled off her and reached for the phone and she grabbed his arm with a squeak.

“You’re calling them now?”

He laughed. “No, Cade, as the Alpha, will call them. I have to call one of the Pack who is a jeweler, have him design rings for us.”

She groaned, fell back to the mattress and pulled the sheet up over her face. “You know, Rushy McRushter, you don’t have to go all wild right now. We can, oh I don’t know, take things slowly!”
He leaned over and pulled the sheet back and peeked into her face. “Rushy McRushter?”

She gave a wave. “It was off the cuff, I’m better if I have time and I’m not being pushed into marriage by a fuck-drunk werewolf.”

He laughed. “Fuck-drunk? Good one. But there’s no point in not moving forward. It’s a done deal.” He shrugged. He dialed the numbers and she groaned and rolled out of bed in search of her panties. With a growl he pulled her back to the bed with an arm around her waist. “I have plans for you, don’t rush off.”

He held her there while he spoke to the jeweler and had him start on some design ideas for rings but swore the man to absolute secrecy under pain of death. He sounded so serious about the last part that Nina shivered. He was so big and bad and scary but she didn’t feel threatened in any way by him. That was really sexy.

When he hung up he turned back to her and his lips moved toward hers. She gave a soft sigh until she heard Cade bellow up the stairs that dinner was ready.

Lex cursed under his breath and sighed.

“Let’s ignore him,” Nina murmured and pulled him back toward her.

He extricated himself from her. “As much as I’d like that, he’ll never quit. He’s an alpha, used to being obeyed. It’s damned annoying sometimes but that’s the way things go. He’s mellow, but when he’s spent hours cooking he’ll be pouty if we don’t go down there and ooh and aah over everything.”

“God, you two are girls,” she mumbled and got up. Failing to find her panties she put her jeans back on without them.

“You’re awfully mouthy for such a beautiful woman,” he said, catching her at the door and pulling her into an embrace.

“Yeah? Too late to complain, you bought the cow, even though I’d have let you milk me at least five more times.”

He laughed and swatted her bottom as they walked out into the hallway. “You’re going to keep my life interesting, I think.”

Visit Today’s Other Snippeters!

Jody Wallace
Lauren Dane
McKenna Jeffries
Moira Rogers
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Victoria Janssen
Vivian Arend
Leah Braemel
TJ Michaels
Shelli Stevens
Mark Henry
Shelley Munro
Kelly Maher
Juliana Stone
Elisabeth Naughton
Michelle Rowen
Ashley Ladd

10 comments to “Snippet Saturday!”

  1. Valerie Tibbs
    August 29th, 2009 at 2:43 pm · Link

    *sigh* I love this book. I think it’s time for a re-read…

    😀



  2. Lori
    August 29th, 2009 at 3:56 pm · Link

    You do know I only read your wolves, right? This is a perfect example of why.



  3. Dana
    August 29th, 2009 at 5:15 pm · Link

    Ditto…time for a re-read.



  4. Mary G
    August 29th, 2009 at 10:13 pm · Link

    Oh wow. Another genre for me to try. No fair, I haven’t finished all your contemps yet!!!



  5. Edie
    August 29th, 2009 at 10:21 pm · Link

    Definitely time for a re-read!

    And I am very jealous of Mary G getting to discover you anew!



  6. Charlene
    August 30th, 2009 at 3:34 am · Link

    Love, love, love the Cascadia wolves. All of ’em.



  7. Mary G
    August 30th, 2009 at 5:14 am · Link

    LOL Edie. I discovered Lauren with a Jaci Burton anthology. Read Taking Care of Business & just finished the 4 Chase Brothers books (so good). I won Laid Bare! I have to pace myself though because before you know it I’ll be in withdrawal too 😀



  8. Nancy
    August 30th, 2009 at 8:16 am · Link

    😆 That was awesome!



  9. Edie
    August 30th, 2009 at 5:40 pm · Link

    Wise move Mary! Still soo jealous.
    I found LD when she started at Samhain, so it seems I am always in withdrawal and waiting. LOL



  10. laurendane
    August 31st, 2009 at 10:58 am · Link

    Valerie – aww, thanks!

    Lori – thank you! That’s a lovely compliment

    Dana and Edie- Hope you like it as much the second time around.

    Mary – LOL, I try to mix it up now and again.

    Charli – thank you, ma’am!

    Nancy – thank you!