Monsters & Guardians

by Kay Elle Parker

  “Fuck me, she’s so wet.” He delved deeper still, making her hips jerk. “Dubh, I don’t how much longer the wolf will wait. I need...please, Alpha. I’m trying to...”

  “It’s okay, brother, you’ve done well. I’m proud of you. Take her,” Dubhlainn told him, then continued to growl. His hands were hot and strong around hers, anchoring her to him. “Raine, look at me. Tip your head back and look at me while my brother fills you.”

  Trapped in the sounds rumbling from both men, she obeyed blindly. The ache inside her grew until she thought her belly might burst with it. Her eyes were on his when Quinn’s first savage thrust consumed her. She cried out, hands fisting on Dubh’s, but he didn’t look away. Didn’t glance down to watch his kin fuck his mate like an animal gone mad. Just kept her attention on him and him alone as her body worked with Quinn’s in union.

  Beautiful eyes, so blue and alive. They burned into her, and once again she thought she saw love in them. But how could one so brash and cruel have such a different side to him? Was this just because of the estrus, her heat, his desire to breed her? Or was there genuine devotion?

  Her breath came in short, hard gasps, each one knocked out of her with Quinn’s fearful lunges. Pleasure stirred somewhere, tiny embers fluttering into life an instant before a pain she remembered well speared into her womb and Quinn roared.

  “Quinn, you fucking asshole!”

  Dubhlainn swung, breaking his gaze from hers, and clocked his brother across the jaw. There was murder on his face now, a steel mask of undiluted rage, and Raine was trapped in the middle of whatever shitstorm was upon them. Literally. She moaned and came as Quinn’s knot hooked inside her and swelled massively, piling pressure onto that wonderful spot that made her head spin and orgasms flow.

  Predatory black eyes glared at Dubhlainn. “Don’t interfere.”

  Dubh’s silence was glacier-cold as he reached over her head and grabbed Quinn—or Quinn’s wolf—by the throat. Fingers digging into his windpipe, Dubh snarled so viciously, the next wave of climax receded enough for her to experience the real pain of being tied. And fuck, fuck, it was excruciating.

  Quinn’s eyes widened as his brother’s hand tightened further, almost completely closing off his air supply. His big body jerked helplessly, still coming and struggling to survive the assault, mercifully pushing the pain away and blessing her with release.

  “I am your Alpha, boy, and you will show me respect.” Dubhlainn’s wrath was off the chain, his massive form shaking with the force of his rage. “How dare you fucking knot my mate? I should snap your neck and cut your cock off, arrogant little pissant.”

  Squished between two fearsome beasts, Raine should have been petrified. The logical, rational part of her brain was indeed screaming, but her vocal cries of ecstasy drowned them out. That two beasts were going to war over her seemed a little overboard. She wasn’t special, she was just the pussy they’d chosen to breed.

  Another ripple of pleasure wiped that thought, all thoughts, from her mind.

  *

  Finn

  World War Three erupted upstairs. While the thick walls and insulation they’d tried to add to the floor for warmth and a little soundproofing worked well enough to give them privacy for their ruts with Raine, whatever had kicked off was epic.

  Either Raine was on a rampage to end all O’Callaghan brothers, or Dubhlainn and Quinn had gone head to head over the little female. Considering Dubh had been up there for hours with her, Finn assumed it was safe to say his eldest brother had done the deed.

  So what the hell was the problem now?

  As one, Malachi and Cabhan joined him as he rushed up the stairs and into complete and utter carnage. They hit a wall of heat that stopped them in their tracks, their wolfs salivating within seconds for the mortal female writhing in unabashed pleasure beneath Quinn, her head and shoulders supported by an almost unrecognizable Dubhlainn.

  Dubh sent them a warning stare that had Finn’s wolf cowering; it was the furious glare of a wronged Alpha, and Finn summed up the situation quickly. It was going to make life interesting, he mused, nearly brought to his knees by the ferocity of Dubhlainn’s snarl.

  One little female knotted by the Alpha and essentially his right-hand man.

  Of course, Quinn would have to survive the beating Dubhlainn no doubt had planned for him once he regained his senses and freed Raine from his knot. By the way Quinn’s ass still clenched and released, and Raine’s soft dazed cries of climax, that might be some time.

  Cabhan was the one to move forward, testing Dubh’s power as Alpha. Not the smartest move, but his brother’s eyes were already black, overpowered by the wolf. He ignored Dubh’s threatening growl, dismissed the vicious snarl, and climbed onto the bed.

  A moment later, Cabhan landed on his ass on the floor, blood spurting from his nose. “She is our mate! You cannot keep her from us, Alpha. If Quinn can claim her after you, then so should we all.”

  Dubhlainn showed his teeth. The move gave his face a fierce, warrior-like expression. Yet his hands were gentle, keeping hold of Raine’s head as she thrashed. “Quinn will pay dearly for this. Do you really want to pay the same toll to stake your claim on a piece of her, Cabhan? One mate, just her, for the rest of her life or yours?”

  Cabhan’s wolf licked its lips, Cabhan himself locked inside the greedy beast. But Finn doubted his brother would deny the opportunity to bind Raine to him with knot and seed. Hell, when Dubh was forced to make the same offer to him and Malachi, Finn knew any physical assault was more than worth having only a small piece of her soul tied to his.

  One Alpha, four brothers, linked to one female.

  Practically unheard of in the pack grapevine. Finn knew of the occasional ménage—more often two females to one oversexed male—existing peacefully here and there, but to have a bachelor pack of five stake ownership on just one female? A mortal one, no less? There would be a lot of hackles rising in disapproval.

  Raine would be protected for the rest of her life, he reminded himself. Her life might alter drastically, become a whirlwind of sex and pleasing her men balanced by rest and intricate tending while she carried their pups, but she would be adored until the day she died.

  “I’ll pay the price,” Cabhan declared boldly, moving from his sprawled position to kneeling, bowing his head in respect. “Whatever it is.”

  Dubhlainn sighed heavily, his attention returning to Raine as she jittered through another orgasm. His shoulders sagged when she went limp a few moments later, her body unable to cope with the demands pressed upon it any longer. Blue eyes burned with fire when they lifted to meet Mal’s eyes, Finn’s. “And you? Both of you would challenge me for my mate?”

  “I’m with Cabh,” Mal panted, the words almost a whine of excitement. “Whatever I need to do, I’ll do.”

  “Finn?” the Alpha asked wearily.

  “Not challenge,” Finn replied honestly, pausing to slap his wolf back so he could think and phrase what he had to say correctly. But the heat scent was driving his beast up the wall with the need to rut; she was catnip to a goddamn tiger. “The knot she bore first was yours, Alpha. This doesn’t change anything. I don’t wish to challenge you for her, but I will petition you to permit me to share her, along with the responsibilities the tie brings. She became part of us the moment you knotted her, Dubh; seal the solidarity of the pack and give her this, give her all of us. Trust us with her.”

  He snorted derisively and cast disgusted eyes over them all. “Trust you with her? I stepped back from taking her as was my right, because I was unfit to be her first. So sayeth you all. Yet Quinn ripped her almost in two and the rest of you were no better.” He shot Quinn a savage look as the knotted wolf lifted its head, and the last of the black bled from the brown. “I gave him a second chance. An opportunity to mate with Raine if he learned patience, and he betrayed his brother, his fucking Alpha by knotting my mate beneath my fucking nose.”

  “Did you expect otherwise? The animal is an enti
ty of its own during rut,” Finn pointed out quietly, managing not to flinch when Dubh zeroed in on him. “Talk to Quinn before you nail him to the wall, let him explain. We both know he wouldn’t disrespect his Alpha anymore than he’d insult his brother.”

  Dubh sneered. “Yet I find myself in the position of watching my mate writhe beneath him while his seed fills her belly and his fucking knot seals her to him. What is the definition of disrespect, of insult, if not this?”

  Finn yanked his beast back again as it tried to charge forward. Teeth gritted with the effort, he hoped the struggle didn’t show on his face. “You know him, Dubhlainn. Angry or not, you know us all as well as you know yourself. Will you make the man suffer for what the beast in him sees as natural?”

  Quinn caught his breath finally, wincing as the tie tugged painfully. “I’m sorry, brother. I’m so sorry.” His head dropped, and a long, awed groan escaped him. “Fuck me, how can she feel this good? She just...I didn’t mean to knot her, there was just this moment where the wolf thrust and she opened, and then...fuck me,” he said again breathlessly. “Fuck me, it was too late, the knot was in and this pussy sucked me deeper and...” A full-body shudder ripped through him, tightening muscles already painfully taut. “Christ, she’s divine.”

  Apparently calming, Dubhlainn dug his fingers into his temples, rubbing viciously hard. His temper abated somewhat when he closed his eyes and took a deep, cleansing breath. “Shirk your responsibilities, Quinn, and I’ll kick your ass from one side of the forest to the other.”

  Relief and remorse mashed into one expression on Quinn’s face, his dark eyes widening at his brother’s mercy. At the pardon offered by the Alpha. Not many Alphas would be so forgiving, Finn thought in surprise; what Quinn’s wolf had done was tantamount to treason and rightly punishable by death if Dubh wished it so.

  “As for you three.” Dubh heaved out a breath and shook his head so black strands of hair fell over his eyes. Flicking them away, he glowered at his brothers. “You will be granted the opportunity to mate her before this heat is finished if you can prove you have the patience to treat her like a woman, not your hand. Quinn passed the test...to a degree,” he muttered sourly. “You want to make this into a family unit, to unite five brothers with one female? We’ll be shunned from the Galway pack, have our inheritance stripped and no doubt be blacklisted from several packs we may need assistance from in the future. This is something you are all prepared for if we do this?”

  “Yes, Alpha!” A chorus of four lilting, accented voices answered as one.

  “From here on, you acknowledge that I’m the Alpha of this...whatever we are,” Dubh continued wearily. He played with Raine’s hair through his fingertips. “That our welfare, our survival, is my responsibility. Decisions are mine and are final unless otherwise appealed. Is this agreed?”

  No hesitation. “Yes, Alpha.”

  Finn watched the weight of control and command settle heavy on Dubhlainn’s broad shoulders and was inexplicably relieved to know that burden would never sit on his own. He was a healer, a gentle soul whose purpose was to heal and nurture, not lead and destroy. His shoulders were not made for his brother’s position.

  “Very well. Mal, Cabh, our female will require sustenance when she wakes. We’ve kept her too long without food and water; rectify that. If you can’t muster enough control to walk out of this room for thirty minutes,” Dubh said with a raise of his eyebrow, “you don’t have enough control to knot her.”

  “But the heat,” Mal whined.

  “The heat affects us all. I do not see Finn foaming at the mouth and drooling like a fucking dog over a bone, Mal. That’s why when Raine has been bathed and pampered, he will be the next to form the bond. He shows more restraint than the pair of you idiots have as one individual.”

  Shocked, Finn blinked. Him? As healer he had a low standing in the hierarchy of the bachelor pack; bottom of the furry heap. By letting him be the next to tie with Raine, Dubh had just catapulted Finn’s pack ranking securely into the middle. A promotion, a mate and the prospect of finally feeling Raine’s pussy clamp down on his knot made him profoundly happy.

  “Are you sure, Alpha?” he murmured, reluctant to ask and find out Dubh’s gesture of appreciation was a mistake and he was relegated back to the bottom of the totem pole.

  “She is the reason for everything we’ve done the last two years. Every heartbreak, every mistake, every mark on our souls led us to her. Tonight, she sacrificed too many parts of herself in too violent a manner. That falls to us, on us, and our shortcomings. You’ve proven you can keep yourself in check, Finn, even with her heat tainting every thought in your head. You’ve earned the right to claim your mate.”

  Pride flushed through his veins. Praise from an Alpha was a heady drug, almost as potent as the delicious aroma of the female ready to breed again. “Thank you, Alpha.”

  Dubhlainn nodded. “Of course, first we have to survive her once she wakes and finds herself tied to this one,” he said with a small smile, tilting his head at Quinn. “Raine is quite the hellcat when she’s locked to the knot.”

  Quinn’s head jerked up. “She’s what?”

  Now Dubh grinned and a lot of the tension building in the room seeped away. “She wakes, she fights, she comes, she passes out again. Three times while I was within her. A vicious little handful. She’ll make a wonderful mother to our pups.”

  Quinn stared down at Raine’s lax face as though expecting her to snap her eyes open and chomp down on his neck. Considering her previous violent behavior, Finn was convinced his brother had every right to be nervous about being trapped face to face with the little warrior. “Three times?”

  “Three. She likes to bite.” Dubh lifted his arm and showed off the numerous—Finn counted seven—human-sized bite marks gouged into the muscle. She’d bitten hard enough to draw blood, he saw, and yet Dubhlainn looked unphased by the wounds. “She’s not an after-sex cuddler—at least, not yet. She needs to be taught how to relax into us, to embrace the intimacy between lovers.”

  There were snickers as it dawned on Quinn just how much trouble he was in. They may have decided as a pack to claim Raine as their joint mate but she had yet to accept her role in their lives, and them in hers. They all knew how well she responded to...surprises she didn’t like.

  “How long were you tied for?” Quinn asked in a tight voice.

  “Must have been close to two hours,” Dubh said cheerfully. “Seems like forever with that wet pussy constantly twitching around your cock, doesn’t it, and that tight hole cinching the knot.”

  Quinn groaned and rested his forehead against Raine’s. “Two fucking hours?”

  “Making babies and forming mating bonds takes time, brother. I imagine most couples spend the time kissing or talking, spending quality time strengthening the connection, but we...we spend it trying to stop our mate from gouging our eyes out.”

  Finn smirked when Quinn groaned again.

  Raine’s feet gave a little kick, her legs moving restlessly. Low, pained whines cut off the brothers’ conversation immediately, and Finn heard Dubh mutter, “Hold on tight, brother.”

  Quinn tensed and leaned back as Raine opened her eyes. From where he stood, Finn had the perfect view to watch her sated eyes widen with fear, then narrow into furious slits of storm-cloud gray. Before his brother could speak, she rammed her head forward into his nose.

  There was a sick crunch and Quinn yowled, grabbing for his face to staunch the flow of blood. Distracted, he left himself open for her attack on his shoulder, cursing like a drunk sailor from back home when her teeth sank deep and gripped like a terrier.

  Finn moved forward to help, stopped. Glanced at Dubh for permission. While it was agreed Raine would become mate to them all, right now she belonged to Dubhlainn and Quinn. One misstep Dubh mistook as a threat, and Finn would be drinking his meals through a straw.

  The Alpha inclined his head in agreement and Finn hurried forward, stopped short again by Quinn’s terr
itorial snarl. Holding his hands up, Finn gestured to Raine. “I want to help you get this under control, Quinn. Before she eats you alive, literally,” he added when Raine released his brother only to bite again, into his neck this time. “I’m not a threat. It’s not my time. Let me help.”

  Quinn bared his teeth and nodded, reaching for his savage mate’s throat to push her away. Between the three of them, they managed to pin her shoulders back to the bed and hold her hands down while her bloodied teeth snapped and clacked at whatever parts of them she could reach.

  Now she looked the part of a feral animal. Splattered with drips and sprays of blood, eyes alive with the madness of a mental breakdown, Raine could be the posterchild for a horror film.

  “Raine, can you look at me?” Finn murmured.

  Fury turned her eyes the color of molten steel, dark and capable of searing a man from the inside out. They flitted to his before searching the room, homing in on Dubhlainn looming over her before they began to burn with apoplectic hatred. She strained again, unable to shift Quinn’s weight from atop her, but succeeding in wriggling one hand free of his grasp. She dug her nails into the raw wound on Quinn’s shoulder, mercilessly mutilating his flesh to make him move.

  “Fucking hell!” Quinn bellowed. Self-preservation took over and he scrambled back, making them both howl when the tie brought them to heel again. He grabbed her wrist, slamming it to the bed and muttered curse after curse when blood trickled down his shoulder and chest. “Finn, do something. I’ll end up bleeding out all over her if she keeps this up.”

  “Raine.” Dubhlainn called out, command ringing in his tone. “Enough.”

  “Fuck yourself, Alpha,” she spat, voice hoarse. “Knot me, will you? Knot me, feed me shit about being yours, being loved and blah, blah, fucking blah, and then share me with your asshat brother. Is he gonna give me the same bullshit, Dubhlainn? Love, protection, lies, lies, lies?”

  “This wasn’t intentional on the Alpha’s part,” Finn tried to soothe her, to draw her attention to him so he could calm the tempest building faster and harder inside the little female. But her hatred was focused solely on Dubh. “Sharing a mate is not common practice, Raine. The knot is often seen as a sign of long-term commitment.”