by Sam Hall
The confidence of a leader.
Mason seemed to sense the threat, shifting closer and closer until he was almost standing over me, as if even laying eyes on the man was too much.
“Mason,” I hissed. He shot me a quick look, but his focus went right back to Aidan. “Beta,” I said, quietly but firmly, dominance leaking into my voice, “step back.”
Mason wasn’t my mate, and I couldn’t be seen hiding behind his skirts, no matter what he wished. He was here to make sure things ran smoothly, not to push out those he didn’t like.
Aidan turned around at that, almost shyly surprised by my words, his face lighting up when he saw Mason obey my command. He paused, his smile faltering until I saw something much more honest rise. He looked at me with the kind of smothered longing I knew all too well, but seeing it on his face was completely alien. He’d never shown me the slightest bit of notice at school. Up until now, I would have been sure he had no idea I existed. So why the look? I fought the urge to frown and waved a hand.
“Continue, Aidan.”
He let out a little snort as he scraped his hand through his dark blond hair, ruffling it until it stood up in spikes.
“I had this whole speech, but it’s gone now.” He gestured to the air. “I…I think we’d be good together, Paige, if you just gimme a chance. You probably don’t remember me, but I remember you. I just want you to get to know me, see if we can…” His eyes darted out to the crowd, as if only just remembering they were there.
“Shit…this is embarrassing.” I watched his jaw flex, and then he shook his head. “Vote for me or don’t. I’ve got no say in that.” Those hazel eyes slid my way. “But I hope damn hard you do.”
A spell was broken when he turned away, jumping off the stage and walking back to his seat, hands shoved into his pockets.
“Paige?” Mason prompted.
I shook my head, looking down at the paper in my hand.
“Lorcan Roth?”
I was still trying to pull myself together when Ovulation Boy got to his feet, chin up, slouching slightly as he ambled up, a slight smile on his face. What I meant by that was studies had shown that when women were ovulating, they liked bad boys—strong angular faces, piercing eyes, deep voices. The guy who looked like he was gonna rearrange your guts. That was Lorcan. Sure, he was hot, as was each guy who’d put himself forward, but on him, it looked different.
Black hair that had been mussed, mossy green eyes that seemed to take everything in and find it all so amusing, if those full lips quirking were any indication. And tattoos. Where the hell was he getting a full sleeve tattoo in Lupindorf? I saw wolves and the moon and a woman in white all worked into the elaborate patterns before disappearing up his T-shirt sleeve. Black T-shirt, black jeans, and boots? Teenage me would have been creaming her knickers at the sight of him. Adult me was seriously considering it.
“So, is this where I spruik my worth to the town?” he asked, standing just below me, not bothering to get on the stage. He regarded the town hall with a sly smile. “I don’t have much to recommend myself. Pretty much everyone here knows that. Nice little system you’ve got, trying to civilise all of this, but it’s not gonna work.”
He looked up at me, eyes deep green, meeting mine without a flinch, even when I forced a little dominance.
“I just want what every unmated bloke has wanted since you came back to town.” His eyes slid insultingly slowly across my body. “A chance to see if all the dreams we’ve been having, of you naked beneath us, making kittenish little squeaks as we fuck your—”
“Lorcan!” Mason snarled.
“I’ll fight every damn one of them for just one taste,” he said, his smile widening. “And I’ve been fighting my whole life for what I want. Haven’t wanted anything as much as you before though…” His smile faltered, and suddenly, he looked so much younger, more vulnerable as a result, a muscle jumping in his cheek before he forced it back. “Your call, princess.”
He didn’t expect anything from this, I could see it in the mocking twist of his lips. He made this a joke because if he didn’t…
“I’m done for today,” I said, getting to my feet. I thought of giving excuses, justifying what I was going to do, as women often did, but then stopped myself. “Mason, bring Lorcan to the house if he’s amenable.”
“Wait, what?” came cries from the crowd, several of the contenders standing up in response to this.
“Paige, what’s going on?” Aidan asked.
“You want me to get to know you, to give you a chance? Well, I’m starting with him. My beta will be present the entire time, so you can be reassured nothing untoward will happen. I just want to ask him a few questions.”
Because out of all of them, he couldn’t or wouldn’t play the game. He’d said more than anyone else in this town, and I needed that bald honesty right now.
“Mason?”
“Of course,” he replied finally. “Lorcan, you can ride with the enforcers in the other car.”
“Oh, I look forward to it,” he said, then sauntered out.
Chapter 19
“In the alpha’s office with the beta looking on?” Lorcan asked as he walked into the room. “Kinky, but I do like a girl who’s adventurous.”
“Sit down. Shut up,” I said, sitting in Dad’s chair, Mason’s mouth snapping shut when he’d gone to say the exact same thing. So Lorcan did, putting his feet up on the desk, hands behind his head.
“So what can I do for you?”
“Drop the shitty eighties bad boy thing for one. Like, Judd Nelson called and wants his…everything back. I need some answers, and you seem to be really, really blunt with them, which could work in your favour.”
“And what do I get for helping you? Please tell me a celebratory blow job, please.”
“Does this work with like, anyone?” I shook my head. “I get you’re a dick and all, but either dial this shit back or fuck off.”
Lorcan’s mouth snapped shut for a few whole minutes, then he smiled and nodded.
“All right, princess, whaddya wanna know?”
“Tell me about what you hinted at, what happened when I got to town. Not the dreams specifically, but…”
“You want to know how we’ve been affected. You didn’t know?” His smile grew sly. “This is why they have you mated by the time you’re eighteen.”
“What?” I said the word, but my brain jumped to the same conclusion. My eyes roamed the room, saw both of the men struggle to hold onto that thought, because heat began to flare hard in their eyes. They were in a closed room, there was just the three of us and—
“Whatever you’re thinking, you don’t want to do that.”
My voice was a sharp whip crack and sufficient to clear their heads. Lorcan settled back in his chair, feet on the floor now, fingers forming a steeple.
“Oh, but I do.” For a second, that brittle veneer slipped, his voice becoming raw. He tossed his hair out of his eyes, the smile gone now, his eyes shining silver as he stared at me. I could see the predator in him, looking at me, sure he’d like just one bite.
“Pretty sure all of us knew the minute you got into town. I was sleeping off a bender, hungover as fuck, and then all I knew was I woke up fucking rigid. Like ‘come on my sheets like a fucking kid’ hard. And I ached. My chest ached, my dick ached. I wasn’t sure if I was horny or having a heart attack. I stroked one off—”
“Is this relevant?” Mason asked.
“And blew my load with a most embarrassing swiftness, but then I was fucking hard again. I took my time with that, then again, then again. Lady, if you ever want to branch out into pharmaceuticals…”
“Keep to the story, Lorcan.”
“I am, aren’t I? You coulda asked any one of those blokes on the slips of paper that would’ve given you answers in nice decorous little bites, but you asked me.” His fingers worried the seam of his jeans. “I kept jerking off, one, two, three times. Over and over, but my dick just kept rising. It felt so goo
d when I came, like better than anything I’ve ever felt, and I’ve been to some sex clubs in the city—” I circled a finger in the air, letting him know he could move on from here. “But it hurt too. Like, coming so hard, it felt like everything in your balls was emptied, only to go again, but that wasn’t the worst of it.”
Dark green eyes slid up to meet mine.
“Somehow, I knew it’d be so much better if you were there. That this fucking awful emptiness wouldn’t rise once I was done. That my room wouldn’t suddenly feel completely barren. That if I held your hand, twisted it to reveal your wrist, kissed the skin where your veins throbbed under the skin—”
He rose from his chair, hypnotic as a snake, while the skin of my wrist itched for just that, feeling the ghost of his lips, so full and soft, and he started to move closer.
“Siddown!” Mason snarled, moving over and forcing the other man to obey.
Lorcan’s eyes fell shut for just a moment, as if in defeat, surrender, and when they opened again, they were heavily lidded.
“Let me do it,” he said finally.
“What?”
“You don’t know what’s going on. You’re pumping me for answers because you figured I’d give it to you straight, and I will. Any time you want, babe.” He’d been all earnest, but slipping into cheesy lines seemed as natural to him as breathing. “Let me kiss the inside of your wrist like I dreamed, all Regency romance like. At worst, it’ll be a little press of the flesh. At best, it’ll tell us something.”
“Tell us what?” I asked, cradling my arm to my chest, something that made Lorcan snort.
“I’ve got a theory I wanna test. So?”
“Paige, you don’t need to do this,” Mason said. “You don’t need to do anything with him.”
“I know that.” The words were harsh but I said them softly, then met Lorcan’s challenging gaze. “Don’t fuck this up. I’m fairly sure Mason’s just looking for an opportunity to tear your head off and shit down your neck. Touch your lips to the inside of my wrist. Nothing else, are we clear?”
He nodded, all smug smiles, as he got to his feet and walking over, laughing when I held my arm out like one would to a doctor when they were checking your blood pressure. Mason followed hot on his heels, seeming to loom over the both of us. Lorcan milked this for all it was worth, first placing gentle fingers around my arm, holding me still, then shooting me a sidelong look, holding my eyes as his lips dropped down.
You would have gotten less of a reaction from me if he’d slapped me across the face, my body tensing as sensation exploded out. A small rational outpost in my brain just detected the faint press of his mouth to my skin, but the rest? It went into overdrive as something entirely alien rose inside me, hot and hungry. My spare hand snapped out, digging into that soft mess of hair, grabbing a handful and holding him where he was, a low groan escaping his throat.
“Paige?” Lorcan asked.
I stared into those bright silver eyes and saw it, all of it. Sweeping me up in a hot tide, a girl ran through the forest, her white gown flapping in the wind as she went. My nipples pulled so tight, they ached, and I just wanted more of that hurt. Slick gushed between my legs, making Lorcan’s pupils dilate, his fangs drop down. I heard the long drawn-out howls as if far in the distance, muffled somewhat by her pants, saw her desperate glances over her shoulder.
I was their paws, striking the ground, swinging their bodies forward. I was the scent of pine needles, the whip of the wind. I was her stumbling steps. I was their answering hunger as they noted the moment their prey began to falter, the bloodlust in them flaring in me. I was the memory of the taste of blood, bursting hot and coppery in your mouth, your fangs. I was the trail of slick seeping from her thighs, the burn in the muscles to keep moving
And most of all, I was the moon, hanging high, a silent witness to her daughter’s demise, burning with a cold light.
Burn. That’s what I felt when I came slamming back to the office, my grip in Lorcan’s hair loosening, my fingers rubbing the soft strands between the pads, then caressing the side of that severely angular face. He grinned then, a predator’s smile full of long white teeth, and with the cold white light coming in through the window behind me, he looked startlingly beautiful.
“Well, aren’t you pretty?” I said, my voice not my voice.
“Pretty fucking hard is what I am.” His words were ground out between clenched teeth, but he made no attempt to move away. “I knot for you. I didn’t want to say, didn’t want to… You’ll find almost all of the contenders do, if my theory is right. Check if you like.”
This was tossed off cheekily, but the mood evaporated as I caressed his face, him leaning into it.
“I’m not looking at your dick, Lorcan.”
When his eyes opened, they were green again, and something heartbroken flared there for a moment before being quickly smothered. He pulled back away from me in more ways than one, but all that need went with it.
“You feel it now, don’t you? That if you slipped your hands down those tight little jeans, just a couple of flicks of your clit…”
This should have been where Mason reprimanded him, pulled him back, forced him back to his seat or out of the room for the disrespect. But he didn’t. The two men stood there, Mason’s eyes gleaming silver, watching me.
“I wonder how many times you could come? Girls are always so much better at recovery than we are. Maybe you wouldn’t be able to stop. Maybe that’s what this is? Your body is lit by the same fire as ours is, without the same limitations. You could take the lot of us, one after the other after the other. Just one long stream of pleasure as we—”
“Stop.”
As I said the word, it felt like someone had put a cool face cloth to my forehead or something. I was still simmering, just as he said, but I was clear-eyed for the moment.
“You’ve been very helpful, Lorcan. Thank you.”
He knew he was being dismissed so he straightened up, stepping backwards.
“Sure I can’t help you out?” He held two fingers in a V shape and then put them to his lips, flickering his tongue between them. “Girls don’t like to be seen with me, but they do seem to like what I do to them.”
A part of me that had never seen the light of day considered that, pushing him beneath the desk, making him eat my cunt as Mason watched me come apart. The idea had so many facets to it—the decadence of using my position to do something like that, the viciousness of the strike against Mason for holding out on me. But I wasn’t like that.
Was I?
“No one’s doing anything today,” I said, proud of the even, reasonable tone I used. “Good luck with your nomination. If you’re successful, I’ll see you in the ring.”
He snorted, then shook his head at that. “My family is dirt in this town, so that’s not gonna happen.” He turned to go, eyes burning bright, before looking back at me. “But you picked me out of all of those fellas, figured I could be useful to you. I can be. I’ll never bullshit you, love, and something tells me you’ve got a whole lotta questions. Maybe need to put some things to the test.” He nodded to himself, the smirk back. “Mason knows where to find me if you need me, for anything. Absolutely anything.”
And then he wandered out, proud as a cat, and I was left with my fingers digging into the arms of the office chair, anything to stop me from reaching out for one or both of them.
“Is it true?” I asked Mason, scanning that hard face.
“That I knot for you? It came when you were eighteen. Like Lorcan said, I woke up the morning of your birthday, dreaming of you on and around me. I could smell your scent in my nose as my eyes opened, so close, I could’ve sworn you just walked out of the room. My knot had swelled, and I knew it was for you.” He looked away for a moment. “Went to see your father, see what he wanted me to do, leave town or…” He shook his head. “That would’ve been easier than what he asked. But I owed him my life.”
“You haven’t had anyone else,” I said, the r
ealisation just coming to me. “There’s only been—”
“You. Only you, Paige.”
Oh, how I would’ve wanted those eyes on me five years ago, burning now with an unearthly fire that just built up the one inside me. This was what I’d deserved, someone whose entire being was focussed on me. Looking like he’d crawl over broken glass to get to me, he took a slow step forward.
Which is why I ran.
I was up and out of my seat, out the door to the sound of my shouted name, running up the stairs with him hot on my heels. I nearly made it too, my hand on the doorknob to my bedroom when his wrapped around my wrist, jerking me to him. Then I was shoved up against my wall, just like last time, my ankles kicked open, and in he came. When he settled against my body, I felt like I was coming home. My hand went to the nape of his neck, digging my fingers in, needing to feel him, Mason, more than my next breath. This wouldn’t last, something else would come between us, I knew that, so I was greedy for the sensation of him under my fingertips. He moved in closer, holding himself back by a string, waiting for my permission.
“I kissed your brother this morning. I fucked him in my shower, felt his knot pressing hard against my cunt, wanting in.”
His pants turned hoarse, his brows creasing. I was hurting him this time, just as he had hurt me, but he couldn’t go into this all swept away by heat and then hate me for it when it faded.
“My wolf sees him as her mate, sees multiple people as that. I don’t know why. No other wolf shifter I’ve met has ever admitted to that.”
“And me?”
I saw the man I’d fallen in love with at eighteen brace himself for my answer, but he didn’t pull away.
“She’s waiting to see who proves himself.”
“I can work with that.”
And then his mouth came down. Just as gentle, just as sweet as it had been five years ago, a brief brush that quickly became all too hungry. He groaned into me, pushed into me, his body, his lips, his tongue, clawing to get more. And I gave as good as I got, meeting him for every kiss, sucking his bottom lip, tangling my tongue with his. I hissed against his lips when I slid shaking fingers up under his shirt, unable to move for a second, because this was Mason.
