The Mating Project Read online

  Mindless of her surroundings, the screams and pursuing footfalls, she ran until her lungs were fit to burst. It was only when two male cougars bounded in her way that she stopped and let the tears flow.

  Jake and Carter shifted and scooped her up between them, and she clung to her brothers as all the horrors of the preceding few days crashed on top of her.

  From far away she heard the howl of a lone wolf, and she cried harder. She knew she would never see Malachi again.

  Chapter Three

  Present Time

  God, nothing made you feel old as fast as being surrounded by the young and beautiful on the very campus you used to attend. Maria flicked her hair back off her face and frowned.

  Had it really been ten years since her first day of her freshman year? She had been dragged here by her brothers, who had not taken no for an answer. After the dreadful events that had led to the complete eradication of that underground cell in the forest, Maria had only wanted to hide. She hadn't thought it possible to cry as many tears as she had done back then, but, of course, her dumbass brothers wouldn't just let her wallow. They had dragged her to one party after the other in an effort to cheer her up.

  "Live a little, sis. You're free of De Souza, and you need to enjoy life. It's not often Dad relents on a promise made, so for goodness’ sakes, stop moping after that damn wolf, and live."

  They had been referring to Malachi, of course. Most of his pack had been killed in the forest, and the males that weren't had been executed by the council. True to her word, Maria had pleaded with her father for the safety of the women and children, and after much lengthy discussion they had been granted amnesty.

  Of Malachi himself there had been no trace, and he, too, was presumed dead. Maria had hung onto the thought that he must be alive, and that he would come to find her, but as months had turned into a year, she had to concede that he either was dead, or he didn't care enough about their bond to come and claim her. Concern had turned to anger, and in a fit of the devil may care she had lost her virginity to a young lion shifter. Her sexuality thus awakened she had spent her free time at Uni screwing shifters and humans alike. The sex had been good, but the whole one night stand thing was beginning to get old. Never more so since her brothers had mated and had become fathers to adorable triplets. Even her work colleague Emmi had returned from a trip to Bear Country mated to a bear shifter no less, and she was expecting a cub. The human was finding the whole existence of shifters somewhat hard to get her head around, and her relationship with her bear was complicated to say the least, but Maria knew they would sort it out.

  Which just left her with her biological clock ticking away. Not that she was over the hill at age twenty-eight, but the whole being surrounded by mated couples thing, did make her feel lonely.

  "There you are. Sorry I'm late." Natasha, a young Siberian tiger and assistant to the very man she was here to see, bounded up to her with a big grin.

  Maria forced a smile on her lips. Natasha was a pretty, young geeky thing, who spent her entire free time doing research for the council. Cole Jackson's side of the council, that was. The bear shifter was of the firm belief that the solution to the falling fertility rates lay in the old ways and the mysterious mating bond.

  Maria had to concede that he might have a point. Bears had the lowest fertility rate of them all, yet he had managed to father a cub with his very human mate. It had caused somewhat of an uproar in council chambers. De Souza had been the most vocal, followed by her own father, and if Maria never had to endure another lecture about the sanctity of blood lines and her solemn duty to mate with a true blood herself, it wouldn't be a moment too soon.

  The pressure was on to find her own mate and to produce cubs of her own, and Maria didn't think it was a coincidence that Anton de Souza had been a frequent visitor at her father's dinner parties again. Her father might have agreed to give her time to find her own mate, after she had been kidnapped, but that had been ten years ago.

  Anton De Souza was a pure blood cougar like her, and an original, and whilst his first wife had died in mysterious circumstances, no blame had ever been attached to him. Even her mum had once again started up her campaign of you could do a lot worse than Anton. Mum seemed to find the fact that Anton hadn’t taken another mate as a sign of his romantic side. Maria had other ideas, and her cougar still shrank away from him every time she was in the man's presence. If she had learnt one thing from past events then it was to trust in her animal's instincts. Her beast didn't like Anton, and therefore neither did Maria.

  She knew at this point her father would be happy to accept anyone, as long as they were Maria's true mate. Cole and her brothers' mating success had seen to that. The only problem was Maria's one true mate was a wolf called Malachi.

  It was too infuriating, and at this point, should the damn shifter turn up back in her life, Maria might kill him herself. He had ruined her for anyone else. She didn't want to simply settle. She wanted her mate, damn it. She wanted it all, and she might as well just wish for the stars.

  "Say, are you all right, Maria?"

  Natasha's concerned question shook Maria out of her maudlin thoughts.

  "As right as rain, sweet thing. Just got a lot on my mind. Tell me what do you think my chances are of convincing Silas Deacon to sign up with Cole's trial?"

  "Slim to none, I reckon," Natasha said. "I've tried to approach the subject myself several times, but he's shut me down every time. For a human he isn't half stubborn, and he seems to have a completely unreasonable dislike of the council."

  Natasha brushed her silvery blonde hair out of her eyes, and Maria paused to admire the way the sun caught the highlights. The girl would be stunning, if she didn’t hide her body under baggy clothes and lost the thick rimmed glasses. Not that her appearance mattered one bit. She was a genius in her own right, and there was nothing and no one Natasha Dubrowski couldn't find out or track down, given enough time and the right resources. In her final year in criminology she was research assistant to Professor Silas Deacon.

  Another genius, the staunch supporter of animal rights, Deacon was the recognized authority on animal behavior and fertility. Maria had been granted exclusive access to the man due to her position on the Zoological Society of London's big cat mating project. They could do with his expertise, as could the council. However, that part of her mission only Natasha knew about. It was rumored that Silas Deacon had a weakness for busty blondes, and as Maria fitted that criteria, and his picture showed him to be quite a cute geek, she'd been only too glad to accept the assignment. Anything to keep her mind off cubs playing in the sun.

  "Well, lead on, Macbeth." Maria adopted her most superior voice, and pulled the hemline of her clingy top lower to show off her impressive cleavage to its best advantage. She had teamed the sheer top with a pencil skirt that ended just above her knee. The slit at the back gave tantalizing glimpses of her stockinged thighs. Add to that her pair of killer heels, and Maria was out to get her man.

  Natasha giggled and clasped the bundle of files she carried tighter to her jumper clad bosom.

  "Well, if you can't convince him, looking like that, then he's either gay, or dead from the waist down.”

  Maria winked at her partner in crime and followed her into the university offices.

  ****

  Silas Deacon was so engrossed in his notes that he didn't hear the knock at the door until it turned into pounding.

  What the hell?

  He pushed his glasses up his nose and stretched, rolling his shoulders to get rid of the crick in his neck.

  "Stop trying to break the damn door down. What's the emergency?"

  "Your three o’ clock appointment is here, Professor. I did remind you this morning."

  Natasha's melodic and slightly accented voice called through the solid oak door, and Silas rolled his eyes. Oh yes, the big cat expert from the zoo. He'd wished they just all left him alone, but Ms. Anderson had been most insistent. Having checked her out, he could
n't deny that she seemed to know what she was talking about, so he had reluctantly agreed to see her.

  A glance at the clock showed the time to be just gone three. Well, that was one point in her favor. She was punctual.

  "You best come in then. The door is open."

  Natasha entered followed by a tall blonde who froze on the door stop when she spotted him. Her deep blue eyes seemed to pull him into her gaze, and, his work forgotten, Silas leaned forward in an unconscious gesture to get closer to her. The window was open creating a draft, and it pulled her scent into the room. Sultry, rich, decadent, it called to him on an instinctive level, and Silas was glad for the cover of his desk, which hid his instant boner.

  "Professor, this is Maria Anderson. Maria, Silas Deacon."

  Natasha made the introductions, and when neither one of them moved, shuffled on her feet and cleared her throat.

  "Erm, well, I'll leave you to it then."

  Natasha gave the blonde a shove so that she entered his office, and shut the door on her way out, which left them alone in the room.

  Neither one of them spoke for the longest time, and just when the silence got uncomfortable, Maria smiled.

  "Nice to meet you at last, Professor Deacon."

  Her voice, too, wrapped itself around his senses and added to the spell she seemed to weave over him. Jesus, what was wrong with him? Okay, it had been a while since he’d gotten laid, and this blonde was sex-on-legs hot, but since when did abstinence rob him off his ability to speak?

  Belatedly he stuck out his hand and rose slightly to shake hers. The minute their fingers touched heat travelled up his arm, and she gasped and let go of his hand. To mask his own reaction he ran that hand through his hair and then gestured for her to sit down.

  "Please, forgive me. I'm not normally so ill mannered. Please, sit down, Ms. Anderson."

  She smiled and sat down on the edge of the seat. The action made her skirt ride up, and when she crossed her legs Silas could have sworn he saw the top of her stockings. He cleared his throat again and dropped his hands to shuffle the paper on his desk. Anything to stop himself from reaching under the desk and adjusting his throbbing cock. She would notice that, for sure.

  Her intelligent blue eyes crinkled up at the corners when she smiled again.

  "Call me Maria. After all, we'll be spending some time together."

  The breathy quality of her voice did not help with the predicament in his trousers, not one little fucking bit, and he suppressed a groan.

  He had turned into a fumbling teenager for fuck's sake. What must she think of him?

  "Time, yes … well, that's debatable. I have no intention to set foot in your zoo, Maria."

  She smiled and crossed and uncrossed her legs, and leant back in her chair. From his position behind his desk he had a perfect view up her skirt. He caught a glimpse of purple, lacy underwear, and her delicious female scent intensified. Cold sweat trickled down between his shoulder blades, and he hastily took his glasses off to resist temptation.

  There, that was marginally better, but his cock still strained toward Maria like some sort of heat seeking missile. The rational, barely functioning side of his brain knew this was a set up. She couldn't possibly be as interested in him physically as she appeared to be. Even without his glasses he was acutely aware of every move. Her increased breathing. The subtle way in which she shifted in her seat. The way she licked her lips, and the way her gaze kept darting to his mouth. The intensity of that gaze was almost like a physical caress and brought out his inner caveman, the one who wanted to simply grab her, bend her over his desk, and fuck her silly.

  He groaned under his breath at the erotic images invading his brain, and his balls drew tight. Fuck it all, he had to stop these thoughts, or he'd come in his pants like a fucking teenage boy.

  "Why?" Her breathy question sounded almost like a moan, and he swallowed hard when she got up from her chair and parked her delicious ass right next to him on his desk. She brought one leg up, and ran the tip of her fire red engine shoes up his left leg.

  He shot back on his chair, and she placed her foot right between his splayed legs on the edge of his chair. If she moved even a millimeter she'd stroke his balls, and that thought made all his leftover blood shoot straight to his cock.

  Silas grabbed the edges of his chair in a white knuckled grip to stop himself from reaching out to her and acting on the images that bombarded his brain.

  Maria, however, had no such qualms. She picked up his glasses and slid them back onto his nose, all the while giving him the perfect view down her cleavage. Fuck, she had the most amazing tits. The sort a man could feast on all night long, bury his cock between, and never want to come up for air.

  And she smelled so damn good.

  "Why … what?" He finally managed to ground the words out through clenched teeth, and forced his gaze upwards to her face.

  She was smiling at him. Rather than the calculated pout he was expecting this was an open, friendly smile that lit up her face, and all the tension in his body seeped away. She was fucking beautiful when she smiled like that.

  "It's crazy, isn't it?" She leant forward and inhaled deeply, and Silas stopped breathing. "I know you feel it, too. This insane attraction between us, so maybe we should just fuck and get it over with. That way we might both be able to concentrate on the work we have to do."

  She winked at him and shut his open mouth with one manicured fingernail. Instead of removing her hand however, she traced a path along his jaw, over his Adam's apple and along his collarbone into the opening of his shirt.

  Silas swallowed convulsively, and he could have sworn she purred, which was impossible, unless…

  He pushed her hand away and somehow got his voice to work.

  "What the fuck are you, and who sent you?"

  Chapter Four

  Silas's annoyed growl would have done any shifter proud, and Maria's cat sighed in submission, at the barely hidden anger in his gaze. His deep brown eyes flashed in flecks of yellow, and the intensity with which he studied her made Maria want to purr and curl up in his lap, so he could stroke her belly.

  A renewed gush of her arousal stained the crotch of her thong, and Silas's nostrils flared as though he could smell her need for him, and perhaps he could. He was human, but her cougar was emitting some pretty hefty pheromones, and this close even his limited human sense of smell would be able to pick up on it.

  "Answer me, dammit, woman."

  He took hold of her ankle to move her foot, and Maria gasped at the flare of heat that brief touch sent along her nerve endings.

  Silas groaned again and shot out of his chair and stood facing the window. Even with his back turned to her, she didn't miss the way he adjusted the front of his trousers. Her pussy clenched in answer. His cock had looked long and thick behind its cloth covering, and Maria wanted him between her legs something bad.

  Fate was having one God almighty laugh at her expense. First that damned mutt and now a human. She'd known Silas was her mate from the minute that door had opened and his woodsy, spicy scent had hit her square in the face. It was now laced with the trace of sweat and the bitter scent of his mistrust and anger.

  "I thought I'd made it perfectly clear that I want nothing to do with your damn council. I'll not be party to experimenting on your kind, and I sure as fuck am not going to help you lot to procreate."

  He turned around as abruptly as he'd taken up residence in front of the window, and he shoved his hands into his trouser pockets with so much force that the sound of tearing cloth filled the quiet room.

  Silas glared down on his ruined trousers and then fixed her with such a look of contempt, Maria's beast whined in distress.

  "And I'm not ruled by my cock, regardless of what this looks like, so you can march your luscious little ass right out of my office before I forget I'm a gentleman, and take what you're practically throwing at me."

  He narrowed his eyes and ran his gaze up and down her body. Maria's skin
heated under his disapproving glare, and her cougar strained to be let loose, to sink her teeth into its mate's neck and to force the bond between them. Oh, he felt it, too, this connection between them. One that was so much more intense than what a teenage Maria had felt for Malachi. She was a woman now, who knew what she wanted from a man sexually, and God, she wanted this man with every fiber of her being.

  The mere fact that he could resist her pull showed just how strong a mate he would be, and Maria squared her shoulders and nudged her chin up.

  "Fine, have it your way. But you're a deluded fool if you think you can simply walk away from us."

  Silas gave a harsh little laugh and shook his head.

  "Don't flatter yourself. There is no us."

  He blanched when she stepped right into his personal space, until her breasts touched his chest. Instantly her nipples firmed into tight little beacons of lustful need, and the cat in her couldn't resist rubbing herself against him.

  Silas grasped her by the shoulders, but instead of pushing her away, he merely held her. His fingers curled painfully into her flesh, and Maria knew she would have bruises tomorrow. Her stomach hollowed out, and she cupped his hard shaft through the fabric of his trousers.

  A shudder went through Silas's frame, and his cock jumped under her fingers.

  "If there is no us, then you won't mind me doing this, will you?" She leant in and brushed her lips against his. It was supposed to be a mere tease, but her taste buds exploded with his unique musk, and when he opened his lips on a rough exhale, she slipped inside.

  When their tongues met, passion, need, and pure animal lust flared between them as though a match had been lit, and Silas immediately took charge of that kiss. He slid his hands down to her ass, and massaging the globes pushed her closer into his erection.

  He marched her backward until her legs crashed into the desk, and he effortlessly lifted her on the top. Maria brought her legs up around his waist, and her cougar purred at the way Silas thrust his heavy erection into her pussy. It wasn't enough, though, not by a long shot.