He patted his lap in silent invitation. I shook my head and took the chair. Safer. He frowned, and his obvious displeasure bothered me a lot more than I expected.
“Sit with me. I won’t attack you.”
The tone of command in his voice resonated as if triggering a hardwired response. I got back up and sat beside him. I kept a little space between us, but the fact that I’d obeyed him shook me. It showed in my face and my voice.
“So alpha isn’t just a title.”
“No. And you already knew that.”
I nodded. “You could make me choose you,” I said, putting one fear into words.
“That wouldn’t be much of a choice, would it?” Zach scowled at me and leaned over to cup the side of my face with one hand. “I could’ve persuaded you to let me take you on this couch, even though we both knew you weren’t ready, but coaxing you out of your pants wouldn’t make me your mate.”
I blinked, thinking I was missing something. Zach caught it and explained, “It’s a choice of your heart, not your hormones. The act of mating doesn’t make you mated. Not that it isn’t a nice start, but sex doesn’t determine your choice. You could sleep with all of us and choose none of us.”
I blinked again and gave him a look of open disbelief. “All of you? How much stamina do you think I have?”
A grin twisted his face. “I didn’t say you would, but you could.”
I cleared my throat. “Moving on. So sex doesn’t force my choice. If I can’t say no to you, or a few of you, it doesn’t mean I have to live with the results for the rest of my life.”
“Well, you’d have to live with the memories.” Zach’s fingers threaded into my hair and gave a playful tug. “I’d do my best to make sure you didn’t forget it.”
“Fine, okay, memories are results, and hopefully they’d be happy ones.” A thought hit me. “What about other consequences? I’m on the pill, but does that work for werewolves?”
Zach stilled. “It hasn’t come up in previous generations. And other shifters haven’t exactly shared information. I can tell you condoms are ineffective because of the way we’re built. Not usually a problem since we’re immune to human disease.”
No condoms. My face registered my reaction to that bit of news. Zach stroked his hand through my hair as he asked, “Is it really so awful to consider?”
I blew out a breath. “I stick to dating one guy at a time, and I don’t sleep around.”
Or at all, really. One less than satisfying experiment in college had cured me of the belief that I was missing out by saying no all through high school. I hadn’t been waiting for marriage, just something. Something with teeth, I speculated, looking at Zach.
“It isn’t cheating when you haven’t made a choice or a commitment, and it’s not like we won’t all know. You wouldn’t be doing anything behind anybody’s back.”
I groaned and buried my face in his shirt. “I’m not a performance artist. I hate the thought of you all watching while I’m doing intimate things with each of you.”
“Do you really?” His voice softened as his hands stroked along my spine in reassurance. “It doesn’t turn you on, even a little bit, to picture yourself as the center of attention? To imagine me kissing and touching you while David goes down on you?”
My whole body clutched and I think my heart stopped as I flashed on that scenario. Zach’s wicked mouth claiming mine while David staked an oral claim. Zach’s skillful tongue sliding between my lips in tandem with David’s sliding into the slick folds of my sex. I might’ve whimpered.
“Maybe a little bit.” My voice sounded ragged.
“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying what you need.” He spoke quietly, but the firm acceptance came through loud and clear. “And you will need us.”
I bit my lip. “Will I? Or will it just be about my body?”
Zach shifted us, moving until we lay facing each other on our sides. He put my back to the couch so that he closed me in with his body. It felt safe, secure, like he was protecting me and not trapping me.
“You aren’t separate from your body.” His brown eyes had a troubled light as they searched mine. “Either of your bodies. Are you planning to try to split your mind and emotions from what your body does? Because that’s not healthy. Sex isn’t supposed to be something traumatic you have to protect your inner self from.”
That surprised me. “You’re not just a pretty face.”
He touched my mouth with his, once, light and soft before repeating what was probably the pack motto. “Alpha isn’t just a title.”
I moved against him a little, inviting more pressure, more closeness. Zach slid his knee between mine, and I relaxed into the intimate press of his thigh parting mine. Maybe I could trust myself, trust my body. Both of my bodies, the one I knew and the one I was about to discover. “I get that.”
I snuggled into him and admitted to myself that I liked the way it felt to press our bodies together, and it wasn’t about sex. Well, maybe a little about sex. But mostly it was about warmth and closeness and safety and feeling good. Feeling as if I belonged. As if I’d come home. That took me by surprise, and Zach felt the change in my body.
“Problem?”
“No. Just surprised.” I slid my arms around his waist and hugged him, feeling like I was taking a daring step. “This feels right.”
“Good,” Zach said in a voice thick with masculine satisfaction.
“No, I mean really right.” I searched for the words to explain. “It never felt right before. Being close. It felt right with David, too.”
“We’re pack.” Zach nuzzled me. “It is right. You belong with us. Your senses recognize us, even if your human mind doesn’t understand the message.”
Pack, I mused. Another word for home?
“Trust yourself,” he whispered, kissing me just below my ear in a sensitive spot that made me shiver. “Trust yourself to know what’s right, to have good instincts. Go with your gut and do what makes you feel good. Your gut will never lie to you.”
“Next you’ll tell me to trust you,” I muttered.
Zach shook his head. “Words won’t help. This will.” He sat up and stripped off his shirt. Then he undressed me. I let him, my heart racing and my mouth dry, feeling his intent in every movement he made. When he started to tug my panties down, I panicked and grabbed at the fabric to keep them in place.
“I can make you come with them on,” Zach said, his hands on the thin material that was all that stood between me and total nudity.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I searched out his lips with mine, and then neither of us said anything for a while. He crushed me into the sofa cushions. His bare chest covered my breasts and the weight and heat of him thrilled me. He worked his leg between mine, then slid his hand into my panties. I gasped at that intimate contact. He swallowed the sound and searched out the tight bud of my clit. The sensation of his fingertip gliding over that point would have stolen my breath if his kiss weren’t already accomplishing that.
Zach’s tongue twined with mine. His body rocked into the cradle I made for him as his finger moved lower, parted me, found my flesh slick and welcoming as he pushed inside.
It was a clear prelude of what was to come. Tomorrow I’d have him on me again with no clothing between us. When his hand came between my legs, it would be guiding his cock. The knowledge made my breath come in pants. He pushed a second finger into me, then a third, and rubbed my clit with his thumb.
The pressure applied to that point combined with the sensation of his fingers filling me, working in and out of me, felt indescribable. My hips moved, urging him on. His chest rubbed against my breasts, stimulating my nipples as he moved over me.
I felt my spine bow as tension coiled and shot free. I peaked in a frenzied rush while his mouth devoured mine and his hand inside my panties proved how easily he could make me come with them on.
I didn’t resist when he stripped them off and moved down, pushing my thighs apart to l
ap at my bared sex with his tongue. He tasted me, suckled my clit until my hips bucked in a silent plea for more, then buried his tongue inside me, thrusting it in and out. My flesh felt sensitized rather than satisfied from orgasm, and the oral stimulation pushed me toward a second peak.
“Zach.” I dug my fingers into his hair and strained to spread wider for him. He cupped one hand over my breast and placed the other just above my mound so his thumb could press against my clit. He ravished my sex with his mouth and tongue, played my body with his hands, and didn’t stop until he’d wrung every last ounce of response from me I could give.
Afterward we rested on our sides, facing each other, legs tangled together. I entwined my fingers with his and focused on slowing my racing heart.
“I like that,” Zach murmured, tightening his hand on mine.
Me, too, I thought, bemused. Holding hands. Next I’d be drawing hearts next to his name.
“Zach.”
“Mmm.”
“I have questions.”
He rocked his body into mine. “I don’t suppose one of them has to do with how fast I can cover the distance from this couch to your bed.”
I resisted the urge to laugh. “No.”
He tugged our joined hands up and kissed my knuckles. I tried not to get giddy and weak-kneed over that, but it melted me. “Ask me anything.”
“How did you become alpha?” I held my breath, hoping I wasn’t opening a painful topic, but I had something of a personal stake in the answer. I wanted to know just how dangerous it was to be the wolf king.
“My dad didn’t think it was right to tie somebody half his age to him for life. He thought a new queen needed a new king. He held the pack together until I was old enough to take over. Then he formally stepped down and went to enjoy his retirement.”
So the role of wolf king didn’t necessarily come with a death sentence. Good to know. “I have friends and family outside the pack. How am I going to make that work?”
“For starters, don’t make plans with them around the full moon,” Zach said. “Avoid it; suggest alternate times; tell them you’re Wiccan and those are important religious days if you have to give an explanation.”
I thought about telling my adoptive parents I’d joined an all-male coven and decided to put that off as long as possible.
“So you think it can work?”
“Anything can work if you need it to.”
He sounded so sure, I almost believed him.
CHAPTER NINE
A FEW HOURS LATER, I STOOD LOOKING AT MYSELF IN THE FULL-LENGTH mirror mounted on the walk-in closet door. Cinderella was going to the ball, and the fairy godmother had delivered.
In this case “the fairy godmother” meant Internet shopping and delivery by messenger. Dinner was a formal occasion, my official welcome and introduction to the pack. Zach had told me to dress appropriately and handed me a gold card of my own before leaving to attend to other business.
I’d selected a forest green velvet sheath that left my arms and shoulders bare and hugged my body all the way down to the ankles, with a split in back up to the knees so I could walk.
Flats had struck me as the practical choice since you never know when you’ll need to move fast and heels throw me off-balance. Sheer flesh-toned hose and silk tap pants in the same green as the dress rounded things out. The dress was fitted tightly enough in the bodice to provide support, so I hadn’t tried to find a strapless bra that wouldn’t show underneath. “Formal” means not flashing tacky glimpses of undergarments.
I’d used the shower in the bathroom and found it stocked with an array of natural soaps, shampoos, and conditioners that wouldn’t irritate my nose. I left the conditioner in extra long to turn my dark red hair sleek and silky. Brushed smooth, it made a shining cap. The short hairstyle and sleeveless sheath seemed to emphasize the vulnerable hollows of my collarbone and the back of my neck. Or maybe I was just nervous about exposing my throat to a wolf pack.
I looked as good as I was going to look. I admitted to myself I was stalling as I smoothed the velvet over my hips. Be brave. It’s just dinner.
Right. I squared my shoulders and left my suite, retracing my steps to the stairs and down to the main level. Except once down there I realized I didn’t know where the dining room was. I couldn’t remember if I’d passed it on the way to the kitchen coming in from the solarium, so I decided to follow my nose and ears.
A murmur of voices ahead told me I was heading in the right direction. I found the open doorway and looked in before I entered the room. And then I wanted to just stand there and take in the picture they made.
The guys cleaned up well. I’d never seen so many tuxedoes outside of a prom or a wedding party. They all looked good in black suits, crisp white shirts, and black bow ties. Even David. Maybe especially David, who looked the least civilized despite the formal tux he wore as correctly as if he were in uniform.
All of them looked a little uncivilized, in fact, despite their outer polish. There was something in the air that made me wonder if they were planning a skirmish instead of seating arrangements.
Zach looked as good in formal wear as I’d expected him to, the James Bond of werewolves, urbane and sophisticated. He seemed as comfortable in his suit as he had in the Harley T-shirt and jeans I’d first seen him in. He’d probably be equally comfortable in his skin.
I realized I was imagining him naked just when he looked up and caught me watching him. I felt my face burn as if he could read my mind. Of course, with the way I blushed, he wouldn’t need to.
He crossed the room to offer me his arm. I raised a brow at him as I took it. The last time I’d seen him, he’d gotten me naked and gone down on me. Now he wanted to be all proper?
He murmured for my ears alone, “Nice dress.”
“Thank you.” I made my tone sedate.
At a more public volume, Zach said, “Thank you for joining us, Chandra.”
I smiled around and said something inane like “happy to be here.” Zach walked me around the room and made formal introductions, beginning with David. David took my hand and kissed it with grave propriety. His gray eyes fixed on mine with an expression that told me he wanted to do something very different.
I swallowed hard as we stood there for what felt like eternity with his lips barely touching the back of my hand, and wondered how in hell a simple look and a polite public gesture could be so infused with carnal intent. He released me and stepped back before I started breathing hard.
I’m toast, I thought, and kept smiling while Zach made his way through pack hierarchy. Redheaded Jack and blond Matt I already knew. They each gave me a devilish smile and turned my hand over to kiss my palm and the pulse point at my wrist.
The brush of lips there felt surprisingly intimate and I blinked at the unexpected zing it sent along my nerve endings. Jack grinned and winked at me over my hand, and I grinned back because it was impossible not to. The parade continued, greetings and welcomes and names I tried to fit to the right faces while they all subtly seduced me with their best manners.
Last was Will, the youngest, and I wondered if he was the omega wolf. If so, he didn’t seem picked on. In fact, I thought the others were a little protective of him, and Zach gave him an approving look when he kissed my hand with practiced flair.
He straightened and smiled at me. A lock of brown hair fell over his forehead in a disarming contrast to the masculine intent in his chocolate eyes. That look made me wonder what part of me Will was planning to kiss next. The wayward thought sent a rush of heat to color my cheeks. Will’s smile widened when he saw it, but he let me go and stepped back.
Zach led me to the table and I did my best not to stumble over my own feet. My heart was stumbling enough, erratic and beating too hard. The room almost hummed with electric expectation, or maybe that was the feel of a pack gathered close together. I felt an answering hum inside myself, and knew the wolf was looking forward to coming out to play.
Zach seated me
at one end of the table and took his place at the head. The others filled in the space between us. David claimed my right. I didn’t think the significance of our seating arrangements was lost on anybody. I wondered how I’d make it through the first course without losing my composure if our eyes met too often. Make a note. Keep your eyes to yourself.
Male voices flowed around me in a continuation of various conversations. They were all comfortable with one another, with themselves, and with me being here, I thought. Posture and tone of voice, the unguarded eyes and easy smiles, all said so.
I felt intensely aware of David beside me. My lips tingled with the memory of the last kiss he’d given me, devastating my mouth while Zach watched, ending it only to place me in Zach’s lap.
Then there were the rest of them. I let my eyes wander over the table and replayed the formal introductions and how I hadn’t hesitated to touch any of them. Hadn’t wanted to hold my hand back, hadn’t tensed as each of them took it to kiss.
Maybe it was just because I’d never been around my kind before and now I’d gone from famine to feast, but I liked them. I responded positively to them, all of them.
Yes, and maybe you’re just going into heat and looking to rationalize it.
I stopped toying with my water glass and picked up the wineglass. Since Zach no doubt bought the good stuff, I tipped the glass a bit to one side. Sure enough, the red had legs. The bouquet burst in my nose, a delicious prelude, and when I tasted the wine I almost closed my eyes and sighed with pleasure.
“Like it?” Nathan, the wolf to my left, asked the question.
“I’m having dinner with eleven gorgeous guys. What’s not to like?”
“You think we’re gorgeous?” He grinned at me, a teasing light in his eyes.
“Yes. You guys raise the bar pretty high. I had to spend half my new salary on this dress so I could blend in.” I waved my hand to encompass the group of them in stunning formal attire.
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