by Helen Scott
"You keep staring at me like that and we're never making it out of here," he said with a low chuckle.
"I'm fine with that."
"I'd rather get you the protection of the pack as soon as possible." He looked up at me from tying his shoes, a sadness in his eyes that hurt my heart to see. He was right of course, and it was the simple fact that he wanted me to be protected more than he wanted to claim me that had me on my feet and walking out of the door with him. It was why I was doing everything, I could not to freak out now that we were actually on our way to see his pack.
It took longer than I expected to get there. Most people I knew either lived on pack land or lived close enough that it would be easy for them to run there should they need to. It made me wonder why Roman lived so far away. A question I had to save for another time though.
When we got there we had to hustle to get inside before the meeting started. We sat at the back, something which I got the feeling was not normal for Roman. There were some general announcements, someone's birthday party, a retirement, a sickness, a reminder to be careful of the humans that were coming closer to their territory, that kind of thing, and it all made my jaw drop to the floor.
This was not how packs operated in my experience. The alpha was judge, jury, and executioner in my old pack. No one said anything about birthdays or matings or anything like that. It either came directly from the alpha or it was never said at a pack meeting. Everything in Roman's pack was so peaceful, no one had been beaten or made an example of, or, like my parents, outright murdered by the alpha, and we'd been sitting there for over half an hour.
"Any concerns that need to be raised?" the alpha asked as he leaned forward in his seat. The man was older, salt and pepper in his hair, but was clearly still in good physical shape and his eyes were bright and had landed on me more than once, curiosity no doubt drawing them back.
Roman stood as did a few others but the alpha chose my mate first. "I would like to raise my concerns about the Dawn Pack, headed by Jaxon Granger. There has been a wave of destruction and violence along with illicit activities ever since their presence grew within the city. From my understanding Jaxon is a young alpha which makes his pack all the more dangerous as if we don't put an end to this soon it could last for years. They seem to think they can take whatever, whoever, they want without repercussion or opposition. That needs to be stopped. Quickly. Or we risk other packs thinking this is how we operate in this city now, and the violence will only escalate which could lead us to exposure to humans."
"We've been watching the new pack for several months now, and we agree with your concerns. Trust that we are handling it the best way we think possible," the alpha said. He paused and scrutinized Roman for a long moment before he added, "You seem especially irritated with their actions this evening. Has something happened?"
Roman looked down at me and whispered, "Do you mind if I tell them what happened?"
I shook my head. May as well get it out there. Besides, if it helped give them a reason to move against Jax then I wasn't going to stand in the way of that for my pride. I'd given up that sin a long time ago, when I was homeless and penniless on the streets with no family or pack to turn to.
"I was going to announce this later, but as it is important to what I am about to say I may as well tell you now, this lovely woman by my side is my mate, Nina."
Gasps went up all around the room and excited mutters followed until the alpha cleared his throat loudly.
"Nina was kidnapped by Jaxon. She was beaten, threatened, stalked, and they even tried to force the mating bond between her and Jaxon. If we did not consider this pack a threat to our way of life, we should now. Any female shifter could be threatened or kidnapped by them. Your daughters are not safe as long as this pack is operating the way they currently are."
There were noises of outrage and fear from the crowd as Roman spoke, and as much as I wanted to watch all of them and see their reactions to this news, I kept my eyes on Roman. When he was fired up he was glorious.
"We should leave the city," one wolf called out.
"Let's not get hasty, Steve, this is our home," the alpha said in the direction that the voice came from. When he looked back at Roman he added, "Congratulations on finding your mate, and thank you for your input."
Roman nodded and sat down, taking my hand and pulling it into his lap once he was seated.
"Something the elders and I have spoken about is forming a coalition with other packs in the area to help protect one another. After what Roman just shared I will be setting up a parlay with the other alphas as soon as possible. Keep your eyes open and your wits about you if you venture outside of our territory."
Murmurs of agreement sounded through the crowd.
For the first time I could remember I felt good about being part of a pack. If the alpha wasn’t ruling alone and was actually taking advice from the elder members of the pack, that had to make him more reasonable, right? These people clearly cared for one another, cared about what happened to the individual as well as the whole. In short, they were nothing like the pack I was raised in and what I could only imagine was like under Jax's rule.
When the meeting concluded, the alpha congratulated Roman again and everyone seemed to take that as their opportunity to rush over and congratulate my mate in person. A few of them congratulated me as well, but only women, the men carefully avoided looking at me.
"I'm so glad you finally found your mate, bud," one man said as he slapped Roman on the shoulder. "We'll have to grab a beer sometime and you can tell me how it happened."
Roman nodded and continued shaking hands.
"You are a very lucky lady," one woman said. She glanced over at Roman who was talking to another friend before leaning in and whispering conspiratorially, "So many women have wanted to take that wolf for a ride in hopes of triggering the mate bond that it's almost embarrassing. He's a white knight, that one. He won't let you down, in life or in the bedroom from what I understand."
My cheeks flamed as the older woman elbowed me in the ribs and winked at me before wandering away. I tapped Roman on the shoulder and whispered that I was going to find the bathroom I'd seen when we walked in. At first he looked torn but then he said, "You're safe with my pack, Nina. I'll be right here when you're done."
I wasn't nervous as I walked away from Roman to the bathroom. The trust I'd developed for him in such a short amount of time was astounding. I never thought I'd feel the way I did now about anyone. Trust was something I'd had a hard time with ever since my old alpha murdered my parents.
After taking care of my personal business I opened the door and walked out and straight into someone who was coming the other direction. Their phone fell from their hands and cracked against the hardwood floor.
I bent to pick it up. "I'm so sorry! I didn't see you. Are you okay? Is your phone?" I asked as I handed it back to the man in front of me.
As soon as I made eye contact with him, I knew I was fucked.
26
I WAS FROZEN IN PLACE, and the other wolf seemed to be as well. I'd just been announced to his pack as Roman's mate, and now there I was with a second mate bond tying me to the man in front of me. We were so utterly and completely fucked.
There were rare cases where women imprinted on two men, but it certainly wasn't the rule, more like the exception to it. The worst part was in all the history books and lore that ran through the packs, at least that I was aware of, a woman imprinting on multiple mates was not seen as a good thing. In fact, it was normally considered a bad omen.
Roman and I had only just found each other and I'd literally been introduced to his pack moments earlier, now I was a bad omen. How much more fucked up could my life get? Don't answer that.
The guy I had been staring at like an idiot grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me into the bathroom I'd just left. When he flicked the lock my nerves almost got the better of me, but when he turned around and I was actually able to see his face, I saw the terror
written all over it.
"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck, gods damn my luck," he muttered to himself as he shoved his hands into his hair, or tried to. His head was shaved on the sides, but long on top to the point that he had it pulled up in what amounted to a top knot.
"Damn your luck,” I scoffed. "I only just got here! What kind of impression is this going to make on the rest of the pack?"
He looked up at me sharply, his bright blue eyes almost painful to look at as they narrowed when he said, "No one is going to find out about this."
"What do you mean no one is going to find out about this? It's kind of fucking hard to hide, dumbass."
He growled and took a step toward me. I shifted a foot back, subtly moving into a fighting stance. If he wanted to throw down I was ready.
The movement didn't go unnoticed though and he backed off. "You're right, you are new, so you don't get it. Roman is a pack elder, he could probably be alpha if he wanted. He could kill me for this and be well within his rights to do so. You think I want to throw my life away like that?"
"So what, we're just going to avoid each other for the rest of our lives? Make sure we're never in the same room together? What about when we feel something through the mate bond? Hum? What about when the desire for each other becomes too much?"
"We'll deal with it. We just can't tell anyone else."
"You've got a screw loose if you think Roman won't notice." I huffed and put my hands on my hips, irritation flaring hot and bright within me.
"He won't notice if you hide it," the guy growled.
"He'll figure it out. The mate bond is more than you expect," I said, wishing he'd at least try and think about this logically.
"Do you want me to die is that it? You don't even know me! You don't have the right to decide whether I live or die! And I know if Roman finds out he'll kill me. Hell, he might even kill you too."
"He wouldn't, he's not that kind of person." I was angry. How dare he tell me my mate would kill me because of this? Like I chose for this to happen? I wasn't a fucking human, wolves mated for life, especially when a mate bond was in play. Roman would never hurt me intentionally.
"'Cause you know so much about him, hm?"
"What's your name?" I demanded, rage making me step closer to him so I could stab my finger against his chest.
"Micah"
"Well, Micah, I know him on a completely different level than you do, so don't ever presume to tell me what my mate will do to me again," I seethed.
His mouth was on mine before I even knew what was happening. As soon as we connected, all my anger and frustration was transformed into lust, and mine was feeding off his, and vice versa, until we were a frantic jumble of lips, teeth, tongue, and hands. There was nothing nice or sweet about the way we were attacking each other. It was driven by lust and the mate bond demanding to be consummated. Even though I knew it was a bad idea, I couldn't stop what was happening any more than I could stop the world from spinning.
Micah's arm slipped around my ass and pulled me close, so my body was lined up with his, before he pushed me against the wall. My legs rose and wrapped themselves around his hips instinctively. Even though we were fully dressed he was thrusting against me like we were naked.
Once his hips had me pinned, his hands grabbed at my breasts, squeezing them almost painfully through my shirt and bra. The action only drove me into a frenzy of need, and small groans started escaping my mouth between kisses.
He dropped me to the ground like a hot potato and swiveled me so my back was to his front before he started kissing a line down my neck and squeezing my breasts from behind. Somehow he maneuvered me over to the sink. His hand went to the button and fly of my pants pulling them open.
"Watch me make you come," he growled in my ear as his hand slipped under the thin fabric of my panties, and he slid a finger between my folds. He worked his way down to my opening, gathering some of my slickness on his finger before bringing it back up and circling my clit.
My legs began to tremble almost immediately. He pinched one of my painfully hard nipples with his free hand and within a few moments had me spilling over the edge into my pleasure. I'd never come so quickly before, not even when I was alone. There was something about the wild, reckless behavior of Micah that heightened everything.
I heard his pants unzip and felt him shove mine down around my knees as he bent me over the sink.
"Spread your legs."
I obeyed, needing him to ease the ache inside me more than I needed my next breath. When he pushed into me I let out a guttural moan that normally I would have been embarrassed by, but in that moment I didn't give a shit.
He pounded into me so fiercely that all I could do was brace myself on the sink and take what he had to give. Even my breath didn't seem to want to move, and when he paused for a moment I sucked in a lungful of air.
When he started up again he slid a hand around to my front, playing with my clit while he filled me over and over again. He pulled one leg up and balanced my knee on the sink which was awkward because of my pants but neither of us cared.
The movement changed the angle and made me gasp all over again when he thrust into me with such force that our skin slapped together. It also opened up the space between my legs even more, and though he went back to playing with my clit he also dipped his hand down occasionally so his fingers slid over my stretched folds and enhanced the feeling of him entering me.
He kept up alternating between the two and I couldn't take it. A whimper of need escaped me.
"You need to come? Come on my cock because I'm not stopping," Micah whispered into my ear before biting it. His voice low and raspy and punctuated with the thrust of his hips. "Come on my cock, mate. Let me feel you."
His circles sped up, and I felt my body coil for release a moment before my pleasure exploded through my veins.
"Fuck yes, just like that," he growled in my ear as he kept rubbing my bud of pleasure, drawing out my orgasm until my body was bucking and twitching under his. Words were impossible and all I could focus on was staying upright and breathing as Micah began to seek his own pleasure. "Watch me come, watch me fill you, mate," he growled and his pace became frantic. The hand that had been playing with my nipples went to my hair and yanked my head up, so I had no choice but to stare at us in the mirror.
I wanted to scream, to moan so loud that the walls would shake from it as he continued to fuck me, his pace becoming ragged and uncoordinated a moment before he let loose a snarled growl and thrust his hips so hard into me that it shove me forward, pressing me against the mirror as I felt him twitch and pulse within me, his cock seeming to swell as he released himself into me.
We stayed like that for a moment, both panting, out of breath and lost to our post orgasmic bliss. He seemed to collect himself first and pulled out of my aching pussy.
"Fuck you're sexy," he growled as he pulled his pants up from around his ankles.
I slid my knee off the sink and pulled my own pants up and straightened my top. After a moment's silence I said, "We should go and talk to Roman."
Micah's face paled like he'd forgotten all about my other mate. "Fuck. We shouldn't have done that. Now he's going to beat me before he kills me. Fuck. I'm sorry."
He turned and ran from the room. My heart hammered in my chest. Great. Now I was left to deal with the fallout of what we just did. I just prayed to the gods that I was the one that was right about Roman, not Micah.
27
WHEN I LEFT the bathroom and walked back to the main room to find Roman, I could barely focus on where I was going. Could Roman sense what had happened through the mate bond? Would he be pissed? I'd washed as much as I could so that Micah's scent wasn't as obvious, but I had no idea how successful I was.
I chewed on my lower lip as I walked into the room, and when I saw him still talking to a few other pack members I took a seat in the corner of the room. He looked like a human politician almost, shaking hands and smiling as he chatted with ever
yone. The man must have had infinite patience to not only deal with me, but then come to this meeting and be besieged by all the other pack members wanting to congratulate him and who knew what else.
Pride filled my chest as I watched Roman interact with everyone. He was a good person, and clearly a favored member of the pack. I wasn't sure what the fates were thinking matching me up with someone like him, let alone adding a second mate on top of that. Gods, what was going on with my life?
I'd been running for so long not just from the pack but from the idea of having a mate that this almost felt like some kind of punishment from them. Ha! You thought you didn't want a mate, well here's two! Have fun explaining that! Ugh. Why was I such a freak when it came to pack stuff?
"You okay over there, shug?" a woman's voice called out from off to one side.
My eyes tracked to the source of the sound and found she was talking to me. I plastered a smile on my face, still feeling unsure about interacting with pack members, and said, "Yes, ma'am. Just a bit tired is all."
"I bet you are, dear. I remember what having a mate was like at first. Insatiable. Both of us. I'm surprised you even made it to the meeting to be honest," she said as she walked over. Her smile was honest and happy, the kind that someone has when they talk about the love of their life. I wanted that, as much as part of me hated to admit it, and I hoped that Roman, Micah, and I could figure this shit out so we all got to wear a smile like that one day.
She stretched her hand to me and I was so scared that she'd scent Micah on me I almost didn't shake her hand. I had no control over who my mates were though, that much was clear, so I wasn't going to be held accountable for the fates' decisions. With that in mind I clasped my hand around hers and smiled as she said, "I'm Wilma. Wilma Dupree. Nice to meet you."
Her hair was a light sandy brown that hid the gray that was threaded through the short curls. She wore glasses with bright blue frames, which were not what I was expecting on a woman of her age, but they seemed to go well with the bright, chunky necklace she was wearing. All of which only made her look happier and brighter than she would have otherwise.
