Like a Cat in Heat by Lilith T. Bell Page B

have me worried
was exactly how badly I wanted him. Even in heat, I had some control
over myself. The old man I had rented the cabin from hadn't tempted
me. The trouble was that even if it was a wolf standing in front of
me, all that mattered to my body was that he was the most gorgeous
shifter I'd ever seen.
    “ I wasn't leaving my scent
there to pick up a fuck buddy. I was getting groceries.”
    The wolf took another step forward and I tried to continue backing
up, but I'd moved all the way to the opposite wall. His teeth flashed
in a predator's grin as he closed the distance between us. The feel
of his body pressed to mine, pinning me to the wall, sent a shudder
of hunger through me and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from
moaning. I could feel the heat of him against my hip and desperately
wanted to feel him inside of me instead.
    He ducked down, his lips brushing against my throat. When he spoke,
there was the vibrato of a growl to it. “So consider me a
bonus.”
    I closed my eyes, hissing inward when I felt his teeth at my throat.
He'd begun to nibble with skilled little scrapes of his teeth, hard
enough to hurt for just a moment without leaving my skin stinging. My
hands automatically went to his shoulders to grip him through his
jacket, my hips shifting and rolling to press against him. He needed
no cologne or aftershave. Just the basic male essence of his scent
was enough to nearly shut down my brain.
    Nearly.
    “ I don't fuck dogs,” I
spat at him, using my grip on his shoulders to shove him away.
    As far as I knew, there had never been any breeding between cat and
wolf shifters. What little contact there had been before the wolves
became so rare was usually hostile. Predators didn't typically enjoy
sharing range.
    The mouse and ratkin bred together freely, but they were different
from the cats or wolves. They were closer to humans and had an easier
time breeding. There had been a few matings between feline and rodent
shifters, though. The offspring had ended up being equally split
between which parent they took after. Most attempted breedings
between the feline shifters and humans didn't take, or the
pregnancies ended so early they weren't noticed. Of the ones that
lasted, half ended in miscarriage. If the mother was human, those
miscarriages would often be fatal. The half that did make it to term
would always take after the mother. No exceptions.
    In theory, I could get pregnant by a werewolf. I was assuming that it
would be like any other cross-shifter breeding and the offspring
would have a fifty/fifty chance of taking after either one of us.
That was what I was afraid of.
    He stumbled back from me from the shove and cocked his head to the
side with a look of canine confusion. “You want me,” he
pointed out as he came closer again. My lips pulled back and I bared
my teeth at him, but that didn't dissuade him. He stopped just before
our bodies touched, close enough for the heat of him to radiate onto
my skin. “I can smell it.”
    “ I'm in heat. I'd get wet over
a loaf of French bread,” I snapped. “I might want you,
but I don't want your pups.”
    “ I've never met a female
shifter who wasn't my mother or sister,” he commented, as if he
hadn't heard me at all. He reached out to let his fingers slide under
my shirt, brushing my stomach. His fingertips still had a faint chill
to them from being outside and it made my body clench in pained
hunger. “In the old days, there'd be complex courtship between
a male and female leading up to her heat, so they'd already be bonded
by the time they mated. Then they'd start their pack from there.”
    My eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open as he stroked my belly
with feather-soft touches. “Cats don't court. We don't usually
keep mates, either.”
    “ You just breed and abandon
one another?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
    “ Usually. We only really bond
with our mothers and, occasionally, our siblings. I didn't.”
    His fingers were moving