by Viola Rivard
Still reeling from what had just happened, Mila was torn between wanting to intervene on Talon’s behalf and wanting to see her mate beat the snot out of him.
“Answer me,” Asch growled. Mila could see his hand tightening.
Talon’s voice was a rasp. “I’m sorry.” His eyes flickered to Mila. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Mila saw the raw anguish in his eyes and couldn’t help but feel compassion for him. After what he had done, she knew that they could never be friends again, but she decided that she didn’t want to see him harmed.
She took a step forward, intending to intervene, but a large hand clamped down on her shoulder. Mila didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Caim.
If she had thought her anxiety was high before, it skyrocketed as Caim stepped past her and approached the two alphas. While she may have been able to reason with Asch, she knew there was nothing she could say that would make Caim back down from a fight.
“Let him go,” Caim said, his voice deathly calm.
Reluctantly, Asch complied. Talon slumped down, an angry, red ring around his neck. Mila watched with bated breath as Caim stared down at Talon, his face stoic.
Folding his arms across his chest, Caim said to Talon, “River and the others will be leaving for the western territory tomorrow night. I want you out of my den until then. You can wait for them on the far side of the lake.”
Talon looked up at the older male, shock registering on his face.
Caim narrowed his eyes. “Go.”
Not about to press his luck, Talon pulled himself up and slunk away. He gave Mila a final, apologetic look before exiting the room.
Before Mila could try to piece together what had just happened, Asch and Caim were at her side. Caim hooked his index finger beneath her chin, his amber eyes scrutinizing the cut on her lip.
“He kissed me,” she blurted, not sure why she felt the need to defend herself.
Some of the anger drained from Asch’s face and his expression softened. “I know, Mila. I could smell your fear. I wanted to rip his throat out.”
She was surprised that, in spite of everything that had just happened, she found Asch’s possessiveness to be a bit of a turn-on.
Brushing her crazy hormones aside, she said, “Thanks for not ripping his throat out.” Her eyes flicked to Caim. “Thank you, too.”
Caim nodded but his eyes seemed distant. She was relieved that Caim hadn’t harmed Talon, but a small, selfish part of her felt a little put out that he hadn’t even seemed angry. She tried not to let it get to her.
Looking to Asch, Caim said, “I’ll be back shortly.”
As enigmatic as ever, Caim turned and walked away.
Her brow furrowed, even as Asch put an arm around her waist. “Where’s he going?” she asked.
“Probably to make sure Talon leaves the den and to explain the situation to the others. They’ll be able to smell you on Talon.”
Mila blushed. “I’m sorry about all this.”
Asch frowned at her. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I know that I didn’t come on to him or anything. But you and Caim, you both warned me to stay away from him and I didn’t listen. I … I thought we were friends.” She licked at the blood on her lip. “I don’t understand how this happened.”
Asch squeezed her hip. “I’m still pissed off. I don’t want to make any excuses for Talon, but any alpha would have trouble resisting you with the way you smell right now, especially one his age.”
“Oh,” was all she could say.
When she’d come to see Talon, she hadn’t thought at all about her scent or how it might affect him. He had seemed fine earlier that evening, but they’d been outside. In the confines of his small room, her scent must have been much harder for him to ignore.
“Come on,” Asch said and nudged her toward the door. “Why don’t you lie down for an hour? I’ll have Fern take a look at your lip.”
Mila gripped at his pant leg and made him stop. “Wait. I want to talk to you about what you said earlier.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I understand that you don’t want—”
“I want to have a baby with you,” she blurted. “I want it so badly, maybe even as bad as you do, but I want it for all the wrong reasons.”
Seeing that she had his full attention, Mila took a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t want another baby because I think I’m ready to be a mom again. I want another baby because I feel like I never had one in the first place.”
He gave a slight shake of his head. “What about Dawn?”
“I love her so much, and it hurts, because I don’t feel like I’m raising a daughter. I feel like I’m raising a pet.”
They had all told her, time and again, that her children would be “pups,” but for Mila, it had just seemed like one of those silly synonyms the wolves used, like how they “coupled” instead of “had sex.”
Mila realized they had been subtly preparing her for what was to come: a baby girl with fur, claws, and teeth, who enjoyed eating butterflies and chasing squirrels. Mila hadn’t been prepared—not in the slightest—and a big part of her still mourned the little baby that Dawn used to be.
“Mila …” Asch murmured and enveloped her in a warm embrace. “It’s okay. We can wait as long as you need to.”
She leaned into his hold, relieved that he hadn’t turned away from her and that he understood. Now more than ever, she was grateful to have Asch as her mate.
10
Mila was just getting comfortable when Caim entered their bedroom. Asch had just laid her down on their fur pallet and was gently massaging her back. She turned her head toward Caim, giving him a questioning look.
“Where’s Dawn?” she asked.
On their way back to their room, Asch and Mila had stopped by Dawn’s room, only to find it empty.
“She is upstairs with the females,” Caim said.
He came to crouch beside her, and Asch stopped his ministrations, allowing Caim to pull Mila up into a sitting position. Caim examined her lip again, this time, brushing his thumb over the cut.
“I do not like that he marked you,” Caim said. His nose wrinkled almost comically. “I can still smell him on you. We will fix this.”
She didn’t have long to ponder his words, because Caim immediately set to removing her sweater. She let out a protest, but it quickly devolved into laughter as Asch ran the tip of his tongue up the curve of her neck. Then, when Caim tossed her sweater aside and latched his mouth onto one of her nipples, her laughter turned into something else entirely.
Her mates were never very gentle, but it had been a long time since they’d made love, and she could tell that they were both too zealous to go easy on her and the knowledge made her body thrum with excitement.
The incident with Talon no longer frightened her. If anything, it reminded her of how much she wanted her mates. She wanted them to kiss her, to mark her, and to cover her with their scents. It was clear that they wanted the same thing.
Asch tilted her head back and covered her mouth with his. She parted her lips. He needed no further encouragement to delve his tongue into her mouth. She relished Asch’s kiss, while Caim reveled in her breasts. He kneaded one in each hand as his tongue toyed with her nipple, swirling and flicking until he had teased it to an aching sensitivity, then he moved on to the next.
Her body throbbed, and while she loved being ravished by two incredible males, she wanted them inside of her. Impatiently, she bucked her hips. She thought she heard Caim chuckle, but then, he nicked her breast with his canines and the pleasure-pain made her lose focus.
To her relief, Asch’s hands came around to her front. His thumbs pushed under the waistband of her skirt, and she readily shifted to help him pull it down. Eager hands parted her thighs, and she let out a throaty moan as he slipped two fingers past her curls to rub circles over her clit.
Hands st
ill on her breasts, Caim trailed his tongue up her chest. Asch moved to nuzzle her neck, making room for Caim’s mouth to claim hers. Caim didn’t kiss her often, and even after all the time they’d been together, his kisses harbored none of the finesse of Asch’s. But there was something about the crude way that he thrust his tongue into her that always set her body on fire.
Caim’s hand knotted in her hair as he dragged his mouth over hers. She gripped his shoulders for purchase as Asch maneuvered her body, preparing to take her from behind.
When Caim realized what the other alpha was doing, he pulled back from her, irritation flashing over his brutal face. Sensing the friction between the males, she immediately sought to placate her more disagreeable mate.
Before Caim could put up a fight, she reached down and grasped his cock. Caim sucked in a breath, and she felt a jolt of satisfaction as she saw his eyes widen. She gave him a firm squeeze before lowering her head between his legs.
She pressed a kiss to his large crown, and then pushed him inside of her mouth. Caim was almost abnormally well-endowed, and she had only gone down on him a few times over the course of their relationship. Usually, he was the first to have her, and after he climaxed, he enjoyed watching Asch take her, rather than participating further.
His girth filled her mouth. As she lowered her mouth, she was unable to stop her teeth from grating against his rigid shaft. He never seemed to mind, though, and she thought he might even like the added friction.
Behind her, Asch had positioned her body right where he wanted it. Standing on his knees, he rubbed the head of his cock against her wet folds. She heard him groan, and then felt him move, burying himself to the hilt in one hard stroke.
Her eyes flew open then rolled back. The feeling of being filled by both of her mates was just too good. By the time she regained her equilibrium, Asch was already thrusting into her in a quick, urgent rhythm. Having already grown impatient with her pace, Caim had taken it upon himself to move her, pushing and pulling her head up and down on his cock.
She fondled his sac, gently tugging and cupping his large globes. She could already feel her climax building, and she knew that after weeks without sex, neither of her mates would be far behind her.
As soon as she had the thought, she felt Caim’s sac begin to tighten. His grip on her hair tightened to the point of pain. His need was palpable, and she felt her own body contract with her release as his hot liquid gushed down her throat.
She swallowed everything he had to give her, languidly sucking at him as her body rippled with the aftershocks of her climax.
Caim stroked her hair as Asch pulled out of her, spilling his seed onto the furs. Mila sat up then. She wiped the side of her mouth and gingerly licked at the cut on her lip, which was bleeding again.
His powerful body still shaking, Asch took her into his arms and laid her back onto the pallet. Caim came down to join them, and she soon, found herself sandwiched between the two naked alphas. Exhausted, both from the sex and the stress of the day, it didn’t take Mila long to fall asleep.
11
Mila woke alone but that was nothing unusual. After indulging in a few lazy moments, she sat up and glanced over at the candles. They’d hardly moved since she’d drifted off, which told her that she hadn’t been asleep long.
She got up, her legs trembling as she stood, and searched for her clothes. She dressed quickly, disappointed to find a new tear in her favorite sweater, which was no doubt the byproduct of a wayward claw.
As she was bending down to blow out the candles, Mila paused. She heard the patter of feet rapidly approaching from the passageway. Her heart swelled as Dawn skittered into the room.
“There you are!” she exclaimed and dashed to scoop up her daughter.
Dawn was over the moon with excitement. She licked Mila’s face in between joyous barks, her tail thrashing back and forth wildly. Mila laughed and squeezed her into a bear hug.
She sat with her daughter on the pallet and waited for the little one to calm down. It took about five minutes of hugs and kisses before Dawn wiggled underneath Mila’s sweater and curled into a tight ball within her cotton sanctuary.
Grinning, Mila tugged at her collar and peeked down to see Dawn’s big brown eyes staring up at her. Dawn had her eyes, the same eyes Mila shared with her own mother. Every time she looked into her daughter’s eyes, it was a reminder that, beneath all the fur and teeth, there really was a part of her inside of Dawn. Tonight, more than ever, the knowledge was comforting. She leaned back against the wall and stroked the bulky lump in her sweater until Dawn fell asleep.
A short while later, their privacy was disturbed by Caim, who looked unusually frazzled. His nostrils flared, and she saw his gaze lower to her stomach, where Dawn was napping inside of her sweater. She could see the relief as it crept over him.
“Did she sneak away from you?” Mila asked, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb Dawn.
Caim sauntered into the room, feigning nonchalance. “I knew she would be here.”
“Oh?” she said playfully.
She was about to point out how worried he had looked, but then Caim said, “There is only so long she can tolerate being away from you.”
Mila wasn’t sure why that came as such a surprise to her. The more she thought about it, she realized that Dawn always seemed really excited to see her.
“Why do you think that is?” she asked. “I always thought I was kind of boring to her. I can’t play the way that she likes to and I yell at her for eating bugs.”
Caim sat down beside her and casually threw his arm around her shoulder. She bit her lip to keep from grinning like an idiot and leaned into him.
“You are her mother,” he said.
She expected him to follow up with something deeper, but he didn’t, and she realized that he didn’t have to.
While she had spent the past nine months feeling like she was losing her daughter, Dawn had always seen Mila as her one and only mother. The more she thought about it, the more terrible she felt.
“Do you think I’m a good mother?”
She would never ask anyone but Caim that question. Caim would often withhold the truth, like how he still hadn’t told her about the mouse that she’d heard Dawn had eaten in front of him, but he never outright lied to her, even if it meant hurting her feelings.
“Do you think you are a good mother?” Caim countered.
Mila shook her head. “No, not at all. I think I’m seriously gonna screw her up, Caim.”
Caim rested his nose against the top of her head. “Bad mothers do not worry about being bad mothers. You are a very good mother, Mila.”
Mila closed her eyes and leaned against her mate. “I love you so much.”
“I know.”
She laughed and pinched his side. He twitched, but otherwise remained still.
Wanting a slightly lighter topic, she asked, “Is Talon okay?”
“He will be.”
“I’m still surprised you let him off so easily,” she said. “I mean, you don’t really like him and you’re usually, I dunno, sort of possessive sometimes.”
“I wanted to hold his head over the fire and—”
Mila jerked back. “Geez,” she hissed and gave him a warning look. She peeked down her collar to make sure Dawn was still sleep. She was.
Against her better judgment, she asked, “Why didn’t you? Hurt him, that is.”
“He lost control,” Caim explained. “I have done so in the past as well. I understood what he was experiencing.”
She hadn’t expected that answer. “I see. You would think Asch would have been more understanding too.”
On their way to the new den, which seemed like forever ago, Asch had told Mila how he had lost control when he was a teenager. She remembered that it had been Caim who’d stopped Asch before he could hurt a human girl.
“My offense was greater than his,” Caim said.
Her brows rose. “What do you mean?”
&nbs
p; “Before I met Asch, I had to leave the pack I grew up in.”
Sensing his hesitation, Mila put a comforting hand on his thigh. “What happened?”
“Once I reached the age where I was interested in females, there was no shortage of them for me to couple with,” he said. “But there was only one female that my instincts drove me to mate with.”
Caim didn’t elaborate, but it only took Mila a moment to ascertain the implication. Alpha males took human females as mates, and the only human who would have been in his pack was …
“Did you … hurt her?”
He quickly shook his head. “No. My father recognized the signs early enough that it did not quite come to that. Nevertheless, I could not stay in my pack.”
“How come you never told me?” she asked, rubbing his thigh.
“I have never told anyone outside of my family. Not Lotus, Sable, or Asch. It is not something I am proud of.”
A long time ago, Asch had told her that Caim had been fourteen when they had met. She couldn’t imagine how terrible it must have been to have to leave his home at that age.
“I’m so sorry, Caim. It’s awful that they would kick you out like that.”
“It was my choice to leave,” he said. “I cared very much for my father’s mate. It was easier to leave than to live in fear of harming her.”
Dawn sneezed inside of Mila’s sweater, reminding her that she and Caim weren’t sharing the intimate moment alone. She looked down her shirt collar to see that the pup was still napping.
“You are my family now,” Caim said, taking her by surprise. “You and Dawn. Asch as well.”
She smiled at him. “You’re my family, too.”
* * *
When Asch arrived back at his chamber, his family was sleeping. In his wolf form, Caim rested on the fur pallet. His body formed a protective curve around Mila and Dawn. Asch stared at them and a sense of longing welled up from deep within his bones.
As if sensing his presence, Mila lifted her head from Caim’s side. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and then turned to grace Asch with a smile.
