Lupine

by Hanleigh Bradley

  “It’s only the guys,” he says as he makes his way out of the room.

  I’m left feeling a little confused. I can hear them on the doorstep, grumbling between themselves in hushed voices but I can’t work out why I don’t need to get dressed. Surely, them visiting is a perfect reason for me to put some clothes on.

  I do as he asks though, tying the robe around my waist and following him down the stairs. He reaches the door before I’m even half way down. As soon as the door is open wide enough, Kalen lunges for Camden, punching him in the nose.

  I definitely smell blood and as much as I should probably be worried about the state of Camden’s face, I’m more concerned about my carpet. It’s fair to say, these guys probably get themselves into all sorts of fights, but this carpet has survived hundreds of orphans and four wolf shifters are not about to destroy it.

  “How could you?” Kalen growls with a deadly calm.

  It’s a side of Kalen I haven’t seen before, then again I barely know these guys. I step forward but Wren’s hand goes to my wrist, holding me back. My temper flares. This is my house and they’re causing a scene and he has the nerve to wrap his hand around my wrist… Like some sort of… Misogynist.

  “Get your hand off mine,” I say, as I look up from that hand on my wrist to his face.

  I gasp in shock as I’m hit with yet another wave of lust. This isn’t supposed to be happening. I’m supposed to find myself a nice shifter guy and then settle down and have a couple of shifter pups. I’m absolutely not supposed to have two mates…

  But I can’t deny that look in his eyes or the way it makes me feel.

  This is a disaster. I close my eyes, refusing to look at him... What’s more, I absolutely cannot look at the others because I can only imagine how many mates I could end up with at this rate.

  Ripping my wrist out of his grasp, I turn on the spot and dart up the stairs full pelt, not stopping until I’m safely locked inside my bedroom.

  What the hell is going on?

  I am not about to become Wren or Camden’s little woman. That isn’t going to happen. With them so close, it would be all too easy to forget exactly what the shifters downstairs are…

  Criminals…

  Thugs…

  Maybe even killers…

  Holy shit! What am I doing right now? Hiding in my bedroom while the mafia fight it out in my hallway… Hurriedly, I pull on my clothes. I need to get them the hell out of the orphanage.

  The noises coming from downstairs are not good. Something is guaranteed to get broken if they carry on for much longer. What if they came with guns? The last thing I need is for someone to die in the orphanage…

  No Way to Protect Myself

  “ENOUGH!” I shout down from the top of the stairs, glowering down at them from where I tower over them, my hands gripping the railing. “Get the hell out, the lot of you!”

  Two wolves are currently scrapping it out on my hallway floor, claws and teeth swiping at each other. This is so far from okay. They stop at the sound of my voice, no one saying anything but equally not moving even though I’ve made it really clear that I want them to leave.

  “Lupine,” Wren starts, trying to reason with me but nothing about this situation is reasonable.

  “Out,” I growl lowly, so low in fact that they wouldn’t hear me at all if they weren’t all wolves.

  There is a high-pitched whine but I’m not sure which wolf it comes from.

  “We need to talk,” Wren tries again, stepping towards the stairs. “Please?”

  There is no amount of talking that can make this okay and I’m definitely not about to make eye contact with Kalen or Rehan… Because I’m pretty sure I can make a guess as to what would happen. I feel compelled to look at them and that is definitely not a good sign…

  He might be right that we need to talk but I’m one hundred percent sure that I don’t want to. I want to run away with my tail between my legs and hide, getting them all the hell out of here before Jacqueline comes back.

  But I can feel myself giving in… The look in his eyes causing me to hesitate. It’s hard to even think about denying him anything.

  “Not here,” I tell him seriously and he backs down, nodding his head.

  “If that’s what you want,” he says. “You’re welcome to come over to ours.”

  I want to say no but I really can’t do that. I can’t leave things in such a mess. Who knew I’d have four criminal shifters fighting over me today? My mind goes back to the book that’s sitting on my bedside table. I need to be careful what I wish for, next time I read a book.

  Exiting the orphanage, the four wolves following behind me, I find myself wondering if Jacqueline was right and the book is cursed.

  Wren lets us all in and I notice the way the guys all look a little despondent, as if they’re convinced they’re about to get a good rollicking, not completely dissimilar to the way the children look when they’ve been caught doing something they shouldn’t.

  “Can I get you a drink?” Wren offers, his tone completely contrasting the looks his lackies are wearing.

  “Er… Sure,” I agree even though I know I shouldn’t. I should just say what needs to be said and then leave, except that I have no idea what I should say. I can hardly deny the mating bond that’s been forged between Camden, Wren and me.

  Or the two bonds just burning to be forged with Rehan and Kalen.

  I can feel it, a deep, desperate need to meet their eyes, to accept them as my own and I’m not completely sure why I’m bothering to try to fight it. I’m already too far gone after what I’ve done with Camden.

  There’s no way to avoid what they are now. No way to protect myself from their darkness.

  Looking around, I notice how expensive everything looks. The house is structurally very similar to the orphanage but what they’ve done with it is completely different. There are sleek surfaces everywhere, dark and heavy furniture throughout.

  A perfect gangster pad, I guess.

  “Where’s Stefano? Vaughan?” I ask. I’m really not comfortable having my sex life discussed with an audience.

  “At the gym.” Camden is the one to answer, pulling out a seat at their dinner table for me. “We’ve got the place all to ourselves.”

  I shiver at the way he says that but I’m not the only one who reacts. Rehan snarls. Accepting the seat, I wait for them to sit down too but they don’t and I’m not sure what they’re waiting for.

  “Are you going to sit?” I ask eventually and one by one, they do as I say.

  They seem to be waiting for me to guide the conversation but I’m at a complete lost. I mean, seriously… How did this even happen?

  “Why did you come to Silver Springs?” I’m not sure why I ask, except that it feels important. If they’re going to be my mates, I think I deserve to know the truth.

  They don’t answer immediately so I meet Wren’s eyes and ask the question again. He might be their alpha but he isn’t mine.

  “You.” He doesn’t blink, doesn’t pause to consider his answer. He just says that one word like it’s the complete truth.

  How can that be? They know nothing about me. Hell, I know nothing about myself either.

  “Bullshit,” I breathe out, struggling to believe him.

  “I’m serious Lupine,” he tells me, his eyes wide and sincere. “We’ve been looking for you all our lives.”

  I bark out a harsh laugh. I’ve never said no to watching a cheesy romcom on the telly but this has to be a joke. I’m not in a movie or a smutty novel about a princess and her harem of men… I’m just me. I’m just Lupine, Silver Springs’ resident orphan.

  And one thing this orphan doesn’t like is meaningless clichés.

  “He’s not joking,” Kalen whispers, forcing me to look his way.

  The world feels like it moves, shifts just a little to the left before righting itself again and I feel a connection begin to form, a hypnotic need to take what is mine…

  Shaking it off,
I tell myself that it will have to wait. I can’t exactly fuck Kalen right now in front of the others, even if I do want to scale the table between us and pounce on him. My body is so finely tuned, hyper aware of him and Wren, a need to claim them completely singing in my ear in time with my pulse.

  I don’t know how much longer I can control myself.

  “We’re yours,” Kalen says.

  “Mine?” I ask even though I can hear the rightness in his words. I can hear the truth in his tone.

  “Yours to own… to love… to lead.”

  He had me up until that last word. My brow furrows as I try to understand.

  “We’ve not been looking for you because you’re our mate,” Wren explains. “That’s just a happy coincidence…”

  “Huh?” Then why would they possibly be looking for me?

  “You were born to lead our family,” Rehan says passionately, pulling my attention his way. His eyes meet mine and whatever self-control I have been maintaining snaps. I’m drawn to him as if by an invisible string; flipping the table over, I prowl towards him.

  But Wren distracts me causing a roar to rise up in my chest.

  “Lupine, please… We need to explain first.”

  The wolf in me wants to refuse, wants to claim my mates and roar with triumph but it’s not what they want… or at least it’s not what they want yet.

  And I’ve always been a curious wolf.

  Their Princess

  “You might not believe it, but you’re sort of royalty,” Wren says.

  Yep. He’s right. I don’t believe it. He might as well be speaking gobbly gook for all the sense he’s making.

  “We’ve been looking the whole world over for you,” Rehan adds seriously. “Going from town to town searching.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s destiny and duty…” Camden tells me, coming to my side so he can take my hand. I’m tempted to brush it off, but the wolf in me won’t hurt her mate.

  “Duty?”

  “Remember when you asked if I’d killed anyone?”

  “Camden,” Wren cuts in, his tone angry. He doesn’t want me to know everything and I can’t help but wonder why. Is he trying to protect me or himself?

  “She needs to know.”

  Wren shakes his head, righting the table so he can sit back down.

  “Fine.” His tone is resigned, but it’s pretty clear from the look on his face and the tick in his temple he’s not happy.

  “Have you ever wondered where you came from?” Camden asks, surprising me with the sudden change in direction.

  “Sure. What orphan doesn’t?”

  “Your dad he died,” he tells me and I should probably feel something except I don’t. Not really. I don’t know the man he’s talking about. “He was our family’s leader… We call ourselves a family. I guess you could call us a mafia, if you like, or a gang, a pack… but we think of ourselves as a family.”

  “We stick together,” Rehan tells me sternly. “Protect our own. Just like blood family.”

  “But you’re criminals?” I can’t help but ask.

  “Sometimes we break the law to protect our own,” Rehan answers. “We live by a different rule book. Different laws. We govern ourselves… If that makes us lawless… If that makes us criminals, then so fucking be it.”

  “When your dad died…” Camden continues.

  “You mean when he was murdered,” Kalen whispers.

  “Who? Who killed him?” I’m blinking back tears for a man I don’t know.

  “A rival family,” Camden tells me cautiously. He’s worried this might upset me. And he’s right, it is upsetting. I’m upset for them, but not for myself. “The Rossi family, they sent someone.”

  Wren is impatient. He’s tapping his foot. I guess if he were the one telling the story, I’d know the gist already, and we’d be upstairs fucking. When our eyes meet, I spot a twinkle there and I know that I’m right.

  His mind isn’t on the story but what he’s going to do with me after I’ve heard it.

  “When your dad died, you were left as his heir, but you were a baby… days old. Too young.”

  “So, my mum abandoned me…” I know this part.

  “No. She left you somewhere safe and had a powerful witch put a cloaking spell on you and watch over you.”

  “Your mum took your place as a temporary leader for the best part of twenty years,” Wren says. “She fought hard to make this world safe for you.”

  “And let me guess she was killed…” I say almost sarcastically.

  “The thing is Lupine,” Kalen tells me, “the Rossi family didn’t like it that our families had an agreement.”

  “Agreement?”

  “A mating pack… Me and you.”

  He at least has the decency to look sorry. This whole thing is completely insane.

  “We’d be combining the two biggest families,” he explains. “They didn’t like that and so when it was confirmed that you were indeed a girl… they came after you.”

  “That’s why they killed them? Because of me?”

  “No… Because of selfishness. Because not all people are good. They died protecting you from a world that is far darker than you realize.”

  “How did you find me? And if you found me… can they find me?”

  My mind goes immediately to the children, panicking that they too might be in danger because of me.

  “We found you because we were destined to find you,” Kalen says. “You’re safe here.”

  His arms wrap around me, and momentarily I believe him completely. But I notice the way Wren looks slightly uneasy, and I find myself wondering which part of Kalen’s words are wrong.

  “You know you all sound crazy, right?” I say into Kalen’s chest, my eyes on Wren’s.

  “What will it take for you to believe us?” Wren asks.

  “What are you hiding?” I retort.

  “Nothing.”

  It’s a lie, and he knows I know it. He looks away, unable to maintain eye contact.

  “We could take you to meet the witch?” Rehan suggests.

  “Where is she? Here in Silver Springs?”

  “Just outside town…” Wren tells me. “She’s not the most sociable of witches. Nearly turned Rehan into a toad when we asked about you.”

  “We can take you to her,” Rehan says, significantly less eager to go than the others, who are all nodding keenly.

  “Sure…” I reply because I don’t really have a reason to refuse, but then I pause. “You’re not taking me out to the woods so you can kill me, right?”

  “Princess, if we wanted you dead,” Wren quips, “you’d be dead already.”

  “Like right now?” I ask.

  They all laugh at that. “We’re not going to kill you, Lupine,” Rehan tells me.

  “No! Are we going to see the witch now?”

  Wren steps forward, moving towards me with a predatory glint in his eyes.

  “Tomorrow,” he says in that authoritative tone of his, the one that makes me want to rebel. I’m highly tempted to tell him I’ll be too busy tomorrow and it wouldn’t be far from the truth. Tomorrow is the weekend and I’ll have my hands full with the kids.

  “Now what then?” I ask, but I already know.

  When he kisses me I see fireworks. It doesn’t help that he’s not the only one touching me. They’re all here, a hand on my breast, another unzipping my jeans. Rehan is standing behind me, his hands inching my top up so that he can uncover my skin.

  The way they touch me, I feel exactly like a princess… Either that or a goddess. I feel like they’re worshipping me with their hands, their mouths. Lips kiss, teeth bite, fingers stroke and nails scratch at me, a perfect combination of building pleasure and a hint of pain.

  My skin tingles at their touch, as Wren bites down on my bottom lip, drawing a whimper from me.

  “I’ve wanted you since the first moment I saw you,” Rehan tells me, his mouth at my ear as his hands rove over my breasts,
fingers tweaking my nipples.

  My breaths come out in heavy pants, but they pull away when Wren tells them too. They’re far too obedient for my liking. That is until I notice that twinkling in his eye that I spotted earlier, the one that tells me he’s thinking of all the wonderful things he plans to do to me.

  He pulls me towards him, lifting me off my feet in one swift motion and placing me down on the table in front of him.

  “You’re mine,” he says, his gaze holding mine. “I’ll share you but you’re fucking mine.”

  I’m surprised by the possessiveness I hear in his voice. I get the feeling he doesn’t like this. If he had his way, I’d be all his and the other three would be elsewhere right now.

  A Spider Under the Bed

  I feel like a teenage girl. Why the hell did I agree to let Kalen sneak into my bedroom last night? What had seemed like a great idea when I’d received his text message making the request, now feels like a really stupid mistake.

  It wouldn’t be so bad if the others hadn’t decided to follow him over the street.

  Now I’m surrounded by four gloriously sexy men and although that definitely isn’t something to complain about, the heat is insane. Between the heatstroke they’re giving me and the fact that I have no idea how I’ll get them out of here without anyone else noticing, I’m beginning to worry.

  Artemus will wake up any moment now and Lewis will be arriving shortly, if he’s not already downstairs. I can’t hear anything, but that doesn’t guarantee he’s not in the kitchen. He moves pretty stealthily for a human.

  I need to get out of bed but extracting myself might be a bit of a challenge. Flexing my muscles experimentally, I giggle when Wren’s arm tightens around my waist as Rehan’s body pushes up closer to mine. Yup… I’m not getting out of here anytime soon.

  “LUPINE!” Evangeline screams loud enough to wake up the entire house.

  Shit! I have seconds, literal seconds to get out of bed and down the hall before at least one child bursts in here demanding something.