Undying: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Crystal Lake Pack Book 2)

by Candace Wondrak

  “I never would have, if you wouldn’t have acted like a stubborn pup,” Forest scolded her, though the harshness of his words lost a little kick, since he was injured and not even looking at her.

  Back to being a pup, was she?

  The next slash she started to clean and disinfect, she might’ve pushed on a bit harder. It was enough for Forest to notice, and he turned his head, glaring at her over his shoulder. Yep. There was the alpha look, the glare she was beginning to know all too well.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I know I’m stubborn, takes one to know one, right? But I hate it when you call me a pup.”

  “A particular reason why?”

  Addie bit her lip as she cleaned his wounds, which thankfully, had mostly stopped bleeding. “It makes me feel…like a kid, and I’m not…” How could she say it without sounding stupid, without sounding like a whining child? She finished, “That’s not how I want anyone to look at me.”

  Forest sighed. “I didn’t call you a pup. I said you acted like one.”

  She didn’t really see the differentiation. “Apparently, I’m the only pup around here with any sense.”

  Under her hands, he growled. “We are not having this conversation, Addie.”

  “And why not?” she replied, finishing up the last gouge. “I’m the only one facing reality here. Sacrifice one for the good of all—”

  He turned to face her, angling his head down, dark brows coming together. He was…not happy, which was the understatement of the year. The expression he wore when he turned on her the first time they’d come across the barrier held no torch against this one. The look he wore now was furious, totally enraged. The blue in his eyes flashed brighter, more metallic, his wolf peeking through.

  “We do not sacrifice anyone here,” he said, tone strong and unflinching. “I will not let you sacrifice yourself for whatever stupid reason you think. We’ll fight him and—”

  It was her turn to interrupt. Holding the bloodied towel against her chest, she cut in, “And you’ll all die. You’ll all die for me, and I don’t know what kind of person you think I am, Forest, but I’m not the kind who could live with a sacrifice like that, especially because it’s so pointless. He wants me.”

  The expression Forest wore was murderous. He took a step toward her, practically suffocating her with his nearness. “Just because he wants you doesn’t mean he can have you.” His chest rose and fell with a heavy breath, heat coming off his body in waves.

  Her inner wolf bucked, whining, but Addie barely paid attention to the feeling of submissiveness deep within the confines of her soul. He was the alpha, but it didn’t make her instantly bow to his every opinion. She would not stand down, not about this. This was more important than anything she’d ever done in her entire life.

  A bit dramatic? Yes, but it was true all the same.

  Just as she opened her mouth to retort, to argue with him further, she realized his words could have more than one meaning.

  Great. Now was most definitely not the time to overthink Forest’s words, not while they stood less than a foot apart, the only thing separating them her arm and the bloodied rag. Not while he was shirtless and so close, showing her muscles she didn’t even know existed.

  No. Her inner wolf might’ve been horny, but it didn’t mean everything had a sexual undertone. Addie had to snap out of it.

  It became very hard to snap out of it when Forest whispered, “I will not let him have you, Addie.” Even harder when his gaze fell and he added quietly, “I can’t.”

  “You—” God, her voice sounded light and airy, like she was in the middle of doing some very physical things. Granted, they were things she could not seem to get off her mind, but still. Forest was off limits in so many different ways. Swallowing, Addie said, “You don’t get to make that decision.”

  Forest’s blue gaze snapped upwards, locking on her, eyes narrowing. Involuntarily, she took a step back, and he matched it. Her butt hit the doorframe, and before she could move again, he had her cornered, even though she really did this to herself.

  One arm rested on the frame above her, blocking her from darting into the hall, the other grabbing the wrist that held the rag, his grip hard but not hard enough to cause pain. The rag slipped through her fingers, mostly due to the shock of his sudden, fast movements. Inside her chest, her heart beat rapidly, so loud he could probably hear it.

  “I am your alpha, Addie,” he reminded her, moving closer to her, his chest touching her hands. Since she couldn’t move the one he held onto, she dropped the other one, figuring it was probably best not to grope him, even if he was practically asking for it.

  This was…not a good position to be in. Not for her sanity, not for her horny wolf, and probably not for him, since her mother was right downstairs, as were her three future mates. This was bad. She should probably struggle, try to break free.

  But she couldn’t.

  “You cannot question every decision I make,” Forest continued, towering over her in a way that was both uncomfortable and familiar. “You are a part of this pack now, and I cannot have the new addition constantly at my throat.”

  At his throat? As if. Right now, Addie stared squarely at his chest. To get at his throat, she’d have to look up, and that certainly was not going to happen, because other things might follow.

  “You will listen to me, Addie. You will follow my orders like the rest of the pack. You will fall in line.” He kept saying her name—why? To make her squirm? To make her start to like the sound of her own name? It was hard to hate anything that came out of his mouth. His voice was so deep, so manly.

  And her body was full of feelings she shouldn’t be having.

  “Sounds like you want a dictatorship,” Addie muttered, barely able to speak. How could she?

  “No. A good alpha listens to his pack and quashes dissent. You, on the other hand—” Forest moved the wrist he held, holding it beside her so he could fully hold himself against her. “—I would have you listen to me because you’re too self-sacrificing, too stubborn to see the picture in front of you. You will listen to me, because if you don’t, you’ll run headfirst into danger, and sooner or later, no one will be able to reach you in time. Your magic will fail. You can only be so lucky before things start to catch up to you.”

  The hand gripping the door frame above her slid down, moving to her chin, which he grabbed and forced up. It was a movement she could not fight, so she kept her eyes averted. She would not lose herself in the oceans of his eyes.

  “I will not let you go, Addie,” Forest whispered.

  She could barely breathe with him so close, and she couldn’t feel anything at all, except the strong hand holding her wrist aside and the fingers attached to her chin. If only she had a jacket on—she hadn’t had time when she changed to find another. Only a shirt and a pair of shorts separated them, and it was not enough material to block out his heat, his strength, his…everything.

  “Noted,” she managed to say, her stare fixated on the hallway wall to her left.

  “I won’t lose you,” he murmured, sighing against her seconds before breathing her in. “I won’t.”

  And then, of course, Addie made a mistake. The worst mistake of all. Her eyes shifted, meeting his, and her breath caught in the back of her throat. When had he gotten so close? Why was he so close? Was this how he normally talked to his pack, or was she the only special one? And why, why did he stare down at her like she was…

  Like she was his.

  He’d wore a similar look at the clearing, when they’d dug up Hannah’s body. Heavy eyelids, slightly creased brows. A look that shook her to her very core, rattling each and every bone. A look that made her heartbeat skyrocket and her face flush. It was a look that made her forget everything, even common sense.

  Forest leaned down, his nose grazing her cheek as he moved his face into her hair, which was still pretty wet from her dip in the lake. The hand on her chin fell to her side, holding her firmly, with resolution. She
couldn’t squirm out of his grasp, even if she wanted to.

  “I can’t lose you. Please…” His voice, barely a whisper, sent shivers down her spine, and before she knew what she was doing, she pressed herself against him harder, his belt buckle digging into her stomach. “…don’t make me.”

  Don’t make me lose you.

  Well, when he said it like this, how the hell was she supposed to deny him?

  She didn’t want to.

  Just as she was attempting to mentally formulate a response, the hand on her side slid up, beneath her shirt, touching her hip. The tiny, agonizingly slow touch sent butterflies fluttering about in her stomach. The hand snaked around to her back, an iron grip as he held her as tight and as close to him as he could.

  He was…a man in every sense of the word. Tall and strong, his voice alone enough to make her lose herself, every part of him hard and unyielding, with an emphasis on the hard. He was everything Addie shouldn’t want, because she had three mates downstairs who she liked, who needed her.

  Forest was her alpha. He was her mother’s intended mate. He was too old for her, closer to her mother’s age than hers. This was wrong in so many ways, but the way he touched her, the sensations rising in her body, the way her form melded against his—it felt, strangely enough, right.

  “Forest,” Addie said, finally finding her voice. “I’m sorry.” The hand holding her wrist released her, only to weave its way through her hair. Such large hands, rough and firm. Who in their right mind could deny a shifter like this?

  “No,” he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers, shaking his head just a bit.

  “It’s the only way.” Her hands seemed to move of their own accord, moving up his chest, along his defined pectorals. His touch was not the only one with power here, for everywhere her hands went, she felt his skin tingle and harden, as if he did not want her to know what she could do to him. “I won’t let this entire pack die for me. Not Maze, not Dylan, not even Landon.” Watching his reaction, she added, “And definitely not you.”

  Forest exhaled. “It’s my job to protect you.” A rumble came from his chest, and she felt it reverberate beneath her fingers, the sound and the motion making her feel even hotter. Her wolf liked the dominance, like the growling. It was kind of disturbing, but at the same time, natural. “And you make it difficult.”

  It was his job to protect the whole pack. Every single member, shifter or not. Human mate or not. The children, the elders—even her asshat of a grandfather—Forest protected them all. Which wouldn’t have mattered so much, she wouldn’t have felt so different, had they not had this conversation while pressed up against each other. Because of it, everything was just too sensual. Addie had to break free, somehow, to untangle herself from him and walk away.

  His hips ground into her, and she let out a sound that was halfway between a squeak of surprise and a moan of pleasure. It wasn’t a sound she was proud of, but it came out all the same, and once it was out, she couldn’t take it back.

  As long as she focused on the feeling of the belt against her stomach and not…other things pressed on her, she would be fine. She could walk away from this encounter with her dignity intact.

  Oh, who the hell was she trying to kid? Her dignity was long gone, out the door, and it didn’t even wave goodbye as it went.

  “Addie,” he whispered her name, saying it in a way only he could, husky and ragged.

  What could she say? That’s my name, don’t wear it out? Yeah, that saying had been gone for a long time, and if she was honest, her brain was also not part of this equation. It was only her body and his, and her blasted, traitorous heart.

  He moved against her confidently, not at all like a man with a grievous injury to his back. “Tell me,” Forest spoke to her neck, nuzzling her, making her squirm against him as his hips kept up their pressure, “tell me to stop.” He almost begged her, as if he hardly had any control over what he was doing, as if she had to be the one to end this, whatever this was. He begged her to tell him, and if she didn’t, he wouldn’t stop. This would keep going until…until what? Until they did something they most certainly shouldn’t?

  Addie had to stop this. She knew she had to.

  His lips connected with the tender skin on her neck, causing all thoughts to disappear. She melted in his arms, losing whatever tiny flecks of willpower she had left the moment he kissed her there.

  Forest moved his lips up her neck, her skin burning up, a fire in her belly, a deep ache somewhere lower. “Tell me,” he spoke, his voice cracking on the final word, “you’re not mine.”

  She wasn’t his.

  Other than the fact she was a twenty-first century kind of gal, she belonged to the three shifters downstairs and not the alpha whose arms held her, whose body grinded against hers, whose lips were both torturous and entrancing.

  He begged her to stop him, but what if she couldn’t? What if she didn’t want to stop him?

  Was she the hussy of all hussies?

  The hand on her back traveled up, his fingertips brushing against the fabric of her bra. The hand in her hair loosened its hold, going to her other side, sending waves of a feeling Addie was trying hard to fight shooting up her body the second he touched her stomach. His words and his actions were at complete odds, and she had to be the tiebreaker.

  Her own hands began to move, running up past his neck, wrapping around him, holding herself to him as if he didn’t have a good enough grip on her—which he most definitely did. He held onto her, possessive and assertive.

  Addie let out a soft moan, and telling herself to focus on the belt buckle wasn’t helping, because there were other things down there calling her attention. Specifically one thing, and it was a hard reminder this could not continue. This had to stop…somehow.

  Between nuzzling her neck and showering it with kisses and gentle bites, Forest murmured, “Tell me you don’t want to be mine. Addie, stop me, because I can’t…” Again, begging her to be the bigger person, the better person.

  Talk about irony.

  “I…” It was all Addie could get out before someone coughed in the hall. She froze, her heart practically bursting out of her chest, and not in a good way. She knew the cough too well, had heard it multiple times throughout her life. She couldn’t even say it, for her voice eluded her like a rare beast, but she thought it.

  Mom.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sarah stood at the top of the stairs, her arms crossed, a wild look in her eyes. More like a glare, really. A death glare that could kill any creature, man or shifter, dead with a single look. Her thin shoulders rose and fell with fuming, angry breaths, her teeth grinding as she watched them.

  How long was she standing there? What had she seen? What did she hear?

  And how the hell were Addie and Forest so wrapped up in each other neither of them had heard her approach?

  To say Addie was mortified would be the worst understatement of the year. If she could pop into a puddle and seep through the cracks in the floor and stay there for a while, that would be great. A good escape, the only escape she had from her mother’s wrath.

  Forest’s head currently blocked out most of her view, but a little was more than enough for her to get the gist. She was in so much trouble, and the fact that neither she nor Forest had moved an inch surely wasn’t helping anything. Her mother was going to kill her.

  “Get off of my daughter,” Sarah spoke, her voice like ice, sharp and jagged. “Disentangle yourselves, now!” She rose her voice, loud enough so the entire household could hear. Just as well, Addie supposed. Not only would she die of embarrassment, but she also had a lot of explaining to do to the guys.

  They deserved better than her, really.

  Forest’s hands dropped to her sides, no longer beneath her shirt. She felt cold where his hands had been, missing their warmth. Stupid Addie, she told herself. Bad Addie. His head was sluggish in drawing away from her neck, his dark blue eyes resting on her, not Sarah.

 
Maybe he was thankful her mother had stepped in, because apparently her willpower was shit when it came to the alpha. If Sarah hadn’t stopped him…

  He took a step back, and while Addie could breathe without feeling claustrophobic, she felt his loss, too. She felt cold, empty almost, like she wanted to curl back up against him and block out the world and all her worries. Her inner wolf, on the other hand, wanted to do a lot of other things, things which she could not think of while in the presence of her mother.

  Addie didn’t want to go, but she knew she should. Plus, no one could take her mother’s wrath, not even her, and she’d had nearly twenty years to deal with it. She kept her eyes averted, refusing to call any more attention to what Forest had going on beneath his belt buckle. If her mother saw the imprint against his pants, she might just have an aneurysm.

  She walked in the hall, heading towards the stairwell, where her mother stood, arms still crossed and still very much furious. She met her mother’s stare, but Sarah was too busy glaring at Forest, who stood half in the bathroom, half out, having not moved an inch. Which meant, Addie realized in horror, her mother had to see it. His erection.

  Oh, God. Everything was suddenly ten times worse, now.

  Addie turned and hurried down the stairs, hoping she could somehow get away from it all, but her mother easily caught up to her, taking her by the arm and dragging her outside through the front door. She was so mad, so upset, she didn’t even glance in the direction of the flaming skeleton watching them from the road. Sarah only had eyes for her daughter.

  Not good for Addie’s sake.

  “Forgive my language, but what the hell were you doing?” Sarah swore, stunning Addie. The night, prior to her mother’s outburst, was silent. No more, though. “Answer me, Addie. Now is not the time to spend ten minutes thinking of an answer.”

  “I don’t know” was all Addie could come up with, which immediately she realized was the wrong thing to say.

  “You don’t know?” Sarah shook her head, her blonde hair held back only by the bandana, otherwise it’d be flying all over the place. “What the hell do you mean, you don’t know? That was wildly inappropriate. That was…I never thought you’d do something like that—”