“Not so bad, is it?” he said.
Her nose wrinkled. “It’s oozing into places mud has no business being.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll clean every inch of you when we’re through.”
Her fingers dug into his chest, pulling his hair. “I’ll hold you to that,” she whispered. “But I’m really close, Jack. Please.”
That’s all it took for him to loosen the leash on his inner beast. He could feel the strengthening ripples gripping his cock. Felt the way her belly jerked and quivered against his. “Aila…”
He swooped down and kissed her, biting her lower lip as he pulled away. Then he stuck his hands into the mud on either side of her shoulders and drove deeper, grinding in slow circles at the end of every thrust to rasp his short hairs against her clit.
As he powered into her, her head thrashed, mouth opening around strong, gusting gasps. When her legs wrapped around his waist, he hammered between her thighs, water sloshing at their limbs, mud sucking at their flesh.
Neither of them cared. She clutched him close—with her arms and legs, her pussy tightening around his shaft. Her breaths gusted in sexy little grunts that further fed his excitement. When he neared the peak, he lunged into her, tunneling deep, slamming to increase the friction and the violence.
Her head tilted back, a long, keening howl ripping from her throat, and he gave a shout of triumph, following her over the edge, not slowing until his thighs trembled, and he fell over her, still lodged inside her.
He rolled to the side, bringing her with him.
Short, ragged breaths moved her nipples against his chest. He cupped her ass and smoothed a hand over her thigh, squeezing to keep her close and his cock deep where he wanted to stay for a long, long time.
He leaned toward her and trailed his lips over her cheek, nuzzled his nose beneath her jaw and sucked at the tender skin of her neck, leaving a mark. Then he went back to her mouth and pulled at her lower lip, teething it gently. “I can’t get enough, sugar.”
A short burst of laughter shook her against him. “I think I have a leaf stuck between my cheeks. Itches.”
He groaned and rubbed his face against hers. “Don’t wanna move.” Gliding a hand over her ass, he trailed his fingers down the crevice dividing her lush ass, finding the leaf and sliding in mud. “Who’d have thought mud would be this damn sexy.”
“Oh, yeah?” She cupped his face with a palm and rubbed it, the slimy, gritty feel of that caress telling him she’d rubbed his face with dirt.
“Like playing with fire?” he growled.
“Guess it’s not so bright to play when you’ve got me locked against you.”
“We’re not locked. Not yet, sweetheart.”
Her eyes rounded, and he felt the sensual thrill his words had elicited in the rippling inner caress that massaged his length.
“Don’t think I didn’t want to,” he rumbled, “but we both know if I give you my barb, neither of us will be movin’ for a while. I want a bed under your ass first.”
Her features tightened, her expression sliding toward that neutral, hard-edged one she wore so well. However, he wasn’t having it. He and his brother only had the weekend to break through her barriers, to win her submission.
If Kynan had been there, he’d have fussed over her, petted her, trying to soften her with tenderness. But Jack didn’t have the patience with wooing.
Pasting on his own hard mask, he pushed her thigh from his hip, slid slowly from her body, and rose. Then he gripped her forearm and pulled her into the water.
“You don’t have to manhandle me!” she gasped, her feet sliding on the slime at the bottom of the stream.
Cupping water in his palm, Jack washed her down, never letting her shake free from his grip. When he slid water up her legs, she closed them to prevent him from moving higher.
Using his foot, he pushed her foot, forcing her to move it or fall, then splashed water at her pussy and cleansed the muddy crease between her buttocks.
She tugged and pulled, and made a lot of angry noise. “Ugh! Has anyone ever told you you’re a bully?”
Hiding a smile at her snarling, he gripped her head and forced it down, pushing her to her knees and shoving her head under the water. Kneeling, he loosed his grip on her arm and scrubbed her scalp.
When he let her up, she swung an arm, aiming at his chin, but he ducked under it and let the momentum take her all the way around. She slipped and landed on her butt in the middle of the stream.
Jack crossed his arms and braced apart his legs, staring down his nose.
Aila growled, coughed to clear the water from her throat, then combed her hair from her face before aiming a deadly glare his way.
He took careful note that not once during their scuffling did she ever try to shake out her fur. “Are you clean?”
“Shouldn’t you wash up?”
“Sugar, all your splashing took care of the grit.”
“I don’t like you very much,” she said, her mouth pouting.
“I don’t need you to like me, sweetheart. I just need that sweet cunt of yours.”
He knew he’d pushed a little too far when her expression closed again—which by now he knew meant he’d hurt her. And that was okay. If she felt bruised and unsure, she was vulnerable.
With the mud and grit gone, he bent and gripped her under her arms to raise her until she stood. Then he thrust his shoulder into her belly, forcing her over it.
Her body stiffened, but she no longer fought him.
He climbed up the bank and strode down the path toward the cabin.
Kynan kept apace in wolf form, crashing through the brush beside the path. Jack wondered whether he’d watched them, and if so, why he’d been content to let Jack handle her all by himself. Maybe he knew Jack’s way was making inroads.
Every time Jack forced her to his will, he cracked away a little more of her brittle façade. All in all, everything was going according to plan.
Aila gripped Jack’s sides as he stomped into the cabin. He didn’t pause even to close the door behind him, but she didn’t guess he needed to because Kynan leapt onto the porch in wolfskin. A sharp turn and she swayed on his shoulder while he made a beeline for the bedroom.
She thought she ought to be fighting a little harder, for pride’s sake, but again his firm handling of her, despite his nearly drowning her, had made her hot as hell. She wished her head bobbed over the opposite view of his anatomy because she’d like to know for certain that she wasn’t the only one feeling the solid ground beneath them shift.
So many years of self-control and denial were being shed as though they were nothing. When the men left her a second to think, she second-guessed every life decision she’d made in the past eight years.
Maybe Joseph had been the exception rather than the rule to what living with a pack mate was like.
She’d resisted Jack, but he hadn’t really hurt her. He hadn’t retaliated with violence or restriction. Even when he’d been ruled by the power of the moon, and began to revert to a more primal being, he kept control of his actions.
Inside the bedroom, he strode straight for the bed, dumping her in the center and coming down on top of her, his knees crowding her legs apart, his body pinning hers. “This time, Aila, we go all the way,” he gritted out.
She whimpered, at last giving him token resistance, wriggling under him, because he hadn’t given her time to erect the barriers she needed to protect herself.
His weight sank over hers until their torsos were flush. His cock nudged against her portal and then drove straight up, filling her so completely she mewled again. He possessed her, overwhelmed her with his body, his scent, the heat in his eyes…
When he began to pump his hips, stroking his cock inside her, stoking her own arousal to a fever pitch, she gave up the lie. Slowly, she encircled him with her arms and lifted her legs to wrap them tightly around his hips to lock them together.
His eyes closed, and he groaned, his body sliding ag
ainst hers in the sweat that lubricated their skin. His movements, rhythmic, deep, both soothed and excited her, making it impossible for her to think.
She could only feel, could only ride the wave of ecstasy as she waited, anticipation cramping her womb—until, at last, she felt the tip of his cock swell inside her, and her own tissues crowd around him in acceptance. They were locked, his barb buried deep to deliver his seed directly to her womb in slow, ebbing spurts.
She felt a moment’s disappointment that she was on the Pill. How sweet would it be to feel her body quicken with cubs? Strong, dark cubs filled with his confidence, his strength. She shook her head, trying to deny the image, because it caused a bittersweet ache inside her chest.
Jack came up on his elbows and bracketed her face with his large palms. He bent to kiss her, the caress so tender she could have wept. Don’t be nice. Don’t change now, you bastard. Don’t make me wish…
His eyes opened slowly, his focus narrowing while his body grew still. “We have time now,” he whispered. “And we want answers.”
Sleepily, she blinked, trying to clear the arousal that clouded her mind. Her body was limp, her womb melting. Her mind was mush, and he wanted to talk? About what?
“Aila,” he said, rubbing her bottom lip with a calloused thumb. “We have to talk.”
“Whatever it is,” she said, giving a moan and undulating beneath him, “can’t it wait?”
“I don’t think so, sugar. We’re not goin’ anywhere for a while. And Kynan and I have some things to tell you. You have some things you need to tell us.”
Something about the way he said it, his voice coaxing but firm, cleared her sex-clouded mind. Her pussy clamped harder around him, trying to eject him, but she knew it was useless. Not until the barb receded would they be able to move apart. He had her well and truly trapped.
She got her hands between them and shoved at his chest. “Can’t breathe.”
He gave a deep sigh, and turned on his side, taking her with him. Lying face-to-face, she glanced up and saw Kynan hovering over them. He walked around the end of the bed. The mattress dipped behind her.
Kynan slid close and placed his hand on her hip. “Before Silver-tongue here starts,” he said in an even tone, “remember, we mean you no harm. We want your happiness.”
Her heart thudded, strong and dull inside her chest. “My happiness is my own to find.”
His fingers dug into her skin. “Don’t be stubborn. Listen first.”
She wanted to keep staring at Jack’s chest, to avoid having to put on a mask to protect herself, but her body was tired, her thoughts jumbled with impressions, sensations so exquisite, so enticing that she knew clever Jack would see right through her.
Still, she wasn’t a coward. She dragged in a deep breath and slowly lifted her gaze to meet his.
His face was tense, his eyes glittering as he studied her. Again he cupped her cheek with a palm, and she couldn’t help herself…she nuzzled into it, seeking his warmth and comfort. She wasn’t going to like what they had to say. She felt it all the way to her toes. She didn’t want this moment spoiled. These men were different from the ones she’d sought in the past for anonymous release. Already they’d imprinted her with their scent, their touch. When she left Monday morning, she’d pine for this sense of connection she hadn’t felt in years. How could she have forgotten how good it felt to belong? “I’m not going to like this, am I?” she asked, her voice embarrassingly small and weak.
“It doesn’t have to be like that,” Kynan said, his hand sliding upward to cup her breasts.
Could he feel her heart thud beneath it? “Since I don’t know what it is, maybe you should just spit it out.”
“You’re ours,” Jack said, his stare unrelenting.
“Yeah, I know. You paid for the use of me.”
Jack’s dark brows drew together further shadowing his eyes. “Listen carefully. You aren’t returning to that life. You belong to us now.”
She shook her head, her body beginning to shiver. “I belong to you? You think I don’t have a say?”
“Your womb is fertile.”
Such a simple statement should have made her scoff, but she was a wolf, reared in a dwindling pack. She went cold, her skin growing clammy. She shoved his chest again, and this time with force. She kicked forward and back, but they had her trapped between their bodies. Their legs clamped around her ankles; their chests were solid, immoveable.
Aila wriggled and pushed until she was breathless.
“Stop,” Kynan said. “Stop, Aila. We don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then let me go,” she said, her voice broken. “I can’t be yours. I don’t want to be anyone’s. No one owns me but me.”
“When we discovered you were a breeder,” Kynan said, his voice still even, “a lottery was started. Men paired for the privilege of claiming you.”
A lottery! Her body shuddered. “You got the winning ticket? I almost feel sorry for you. I’m no prize.”
“You will want for nothing,” he continued calmly, his words sifting over her cheek. “Every need, every want will be fulfilled. We pledge that to you.”
Hadn’t she just wished that? To know what it would be like to mate with men like these? However, panic built in her chest as she remembered another ceremony, another promise. Once the bedroom door had closed her inside with Joseph, she’d been at his mercy.
“I can’t be yours,” she sobbed.
“Tell us why,” Jack said, no tenderness, no softness in his voice. He didn’t sound angry, only determined, which helped her keep from falling apart.
She shook her head, not wanting to admit the truth, but his hands tightened on her. His cock stirred inside her, reminding her he was the one who possessed her at this moment.
Truthfully, she felt relief. “I have a mate,” she whispered. “Or at least I went through the ceremony. I escaped before he had me, before we…consummated the union. That’s why you can’t claim me.”
Jack’s jaw rippled with tension. “If he didn’t fuck you, it’s not a done deal. The bastard couldn’t hold you, so he doesn’t deserve you.”
He made is sound so simple—so black-and-white. But her pack hadn’t seen it that way. They hunted her to this day. “He won’t rest until he finds me. I can’t stay with you. I can’t stay anywhere for very long.”
“Have you been running from him?” Jack asked, his expression unrelentingly hard.
She nodded.
“For how long?”
Forever. “Eight years,” she admitted, her voice breaking.
Hands soothed her breasts. “Are you even sure he’s still looking?” Kynan said softly.
“I know him. He won’t ever give up.”
Kynan kissed the top of her shoulder. “Let us fight your battle, Aila. You don’t have to run anymore. You will have us and our entire pack to keep you safe.”
“And if your wolves have a pact with his, will you shred your agreement over a woman?” She snorted. “Really? Because I’ve never seen males give up a damn thing for the sake of a piece of pussy.”
Kynan’s fingers dug into her skin and gently shook her. “Stop, Aila. I promise you, we won’t ever hand you over. We’ll fight for you. We’ll protect you with our lives.”
His words sounded good, but she’d been hurt before and was wary of promises, of being vulnerable to a man.
Kynan kissed her cheek. “Think about it. We still have some time alone to get to know each other. We don’t really expect you to trust us on our say-so.”
Jack’s grunt said otherwise.
She almost smiled. “Do you think that just because you fuck like gods I’ll be putty in your hands to mold however you want?”
Jack grunted again, one side of his mouth quirking up. “Sweetheart, we know you’re going to try to slip your collar. But we also know you’ll want us to catch you.”
She jutted her chin. “You know me so well?”
“While you’ve been lying to yourself, your b
ody tells a different story. You’re so wet now it’s seeping to the blankets.”
Her jaw sagged. “I think that’s the most disgusting thing you’ve said to me.”
His grin was broad and brash. “I can do worse. But I was waitin’ until we knew each other better.”
“In the meantime…” Kynan drawled. “Can I make a suggestion about for how we spend the next half-hour?”
“I’m a little busy here,” she muttered.
“Just one hole’s taken.”
She sputtered and knew her cheeks had to be glowing with embarrassment.
Jack chuckled and cupped the back of her head. He leaned in to kiss her, and she forgot that she shouldn’t cooperate. Her lips molded with his.
Kynan moved away, leaving her back cooling in the air.
Jack cupped her ass to keep her close and shifted to his back. She automatically snuggled her knees close to his hips.
Hands gripped the tops of her shoulders and gave her a quick massage before pushing her down. Then those same wicked hands went to work on her behind. Kynan’s fingers gently but firmly massaged her backside, reawakening her arousal. With Jack’s male barb still lodged deep, her inner channel rippling up and down the thick shaft, she wished she could move or that she had room to flick a fingernail over her clit.
She’d come hard as primed as she was, maybe then she could think clearly about her situation. Maybe the fact she hadn’t orgasmed was what made her so compliant, so willing to fold beneath their demands.
A single digit traced the crease bisecting her buttocks.
“Dammit, stop teasing,” she hissed.
Both men chuckled. She must not have given a very convincing scowl, and admittedly, it was hard to hold Jack’s gaze when she knew every secret yearning she felt was there for him to see.
His hands slid over her sides then soothed up and down her back.
“Don’t do that,” she muttered.
“Do what?”
“Be nice.”
His eyebrows shot up. “How do you want me to be?”
“Be Jack the Jerk. The guy who felt me up inside five minutes of me being here.”
A smile tugged his mouth, and his gaze dropped to her lips. “Got yourself an appetite for jerks?”
Long Howl Good Night (Night Fall Book 11) Page 4
