by Moira Rogers
But they'd never had her.
Ashley slid her hand from Connor's stomach. Lower, until she could wrap her fingers around his cock and revel in his tortured groan. He was wet from grinding against her, slick with her arousal, and she pumped her hand once before guiding him exactly where she wanted him.
The broad, blunt head of his cock nestled against her, so close to being inside her, but when she tried to move her hips, Mac held her back.
"Sadistic bastard," Connor ground out, forcing his eyes open. His gaze caught hers, and he held it as he pushed up, sinking the first inch of his dick into her. Pleasure slackened his features, and he thrust up again, harder, working into her. "Fuck, you're so damn tight. Help her take me, Mac."
"Help her?" he asked innocently, but his hands were already moving. One held her still, and the other dipped between her thighs. He circled her clit with a light, glancing touch, and his fingers bit into her hip as he pushed her into Connor's next thrust.
Ashley cried out as everything clenched tight. They'd kept her on edge for so long, and now the sweet friction sent her hurtling headlong into a quick, deep orgasm, so sudden and hard that it almost hurt.
They held her through it. Steadied her. Stroked her. And when the first rush of pleasure ebbed, she had only a moment to brace her hands on Connor's chest before Mac wrenched her head back and claimed her mouth, his tongue driving deep as he drank in her moans.
Connor cupped her breasts, pressing them together as his thumbs flicked over her nipples. "How does she like it, Mac? Soft or mean?"
"Both," he rasped.
That was all the prompting he needed. Connor leaned up and closed his lips around one tight bud. His tongue swirled in a slow circle, hot and wet and indulgent, lulling her with gentle warmth.
Then his fingertips closed on her other nipple, pinching hard enough to sting, even through the hazy afterglow. It was good, damn good, and the licking was even better. Together, the dual sensations left her whimpering. He wasn't moving, so she rocked her hips, desperately trying to fuck herself with his cock.
He pulled back with a groan. "Fucking hell, so much wiggling. And Mac's not even working your ass yet."
Oh, God.
The stubble on Mac's jaw scraped her skin as he licked her spine. "Maybe next time..."
"Jackass." Connor dragged Ashley lower, until her breasts pressed to his chest and her face was close to his. "He's teasing us," he whispered, sliding a hand down her back. His fingers met Mac's mouth, and for a dizzy moment they were touching her together, rough fingertips and a hot mouth, both of them so in tune with each other...
And utterly, completely focused on her.
She couldn't breathe, and she couldn't stay still. Her body moved of its own volition, every tiny shift in position crashing a fresh wave of need over her. Her nipples rubbed against Connor's hard chest, raising goose bumps on her flesh as she wiggled.
She wanted it all, and she wanted it now. Nothing else mattered.
"Fuck me," she whispered. "I want you both."
Mac panted against her back, but she could feel his hesitation. "You're not ready."
"Yes, I am." She'd been ready for months, years, ever since her first hints of sexual awakening had turned into this primal fever. "Please."
Connor twisted her hair around one fist and urged her head up. He studied her face in silence, thoughtful in spite of the frustrated tension vibrating in every line of his body. "You could give her the plug," he said finally, cupping her cheek with his free hand. His thumb swept out to trace her lower lip. "If she can take that and still want more, give her everything."
She bit him.
He hissed--but didn't waver. "This is how we protect them," he chided, low and hoarse. "Patience. He would never get over hurting us, even if we did."
His warning finally penetrated the haze in her brain. It wasn't about convincing Mac she was ready. It was about making sure that was true. Ashley took a deep, shaky breath and nodded. "Patience."
"Good girl." He rubbed his wet thumb over her lip and tugged her down into a slow, hot kiss.
"You're corrupting her already," Mac murmured. He touched her ass again, his fingers slip-sliding between her cheeks. He eased one fingertip past the tight ring of muscle, then another.
She jerked, but Connor held her immobile with one steely arm across her back and one hand in her hair. "Relax," he murmured against her lips, then licked past them to tease at her tongue.
Mac worked her with his fingers, spreading her open with gentle pressure that never quite crossed the line into pain. All the while, he muttered softly, nonsense words in an equally gentle tone.
Slowly, the tension seeped from her muscles, leaving behind only the swiftly mounting urgency of passion. Every caress sparked a little bit of bliss, and it built and built until the only thing she could think of was to give it right back to them.
She bit Connor again, this time sinking her teeth into his lip before licking it. He hissed and arched up, pushing his cock deeper. It would have driven her back hard against Mac's fingers, except that he pulled them free at the last moment.
When she moaned at the loss, Mac drew in a sharp, unsteady breath. "Almost there, Ashley."
The metal tip of the plug kissed her skin again. It had cooled again, and she shivered as Mac pushed it into her ass, then choked on a cry as he pulled it free again. He did it over and over, fucking her until the metal grew hot, and she couldn't control her trembling or the need racing through her.
Connor caught her wrist, dragged her hand to his mouth, and licked her fingers without releasing her gaze. "Touch your clit," he rasped. "Show him how hard you get off when you're this full. That's what he wants to see."
She opened her mouth--to argue, to ask him why, to say yes--but all her potential words died on her tongue when she heard the clicking of a belt buckle behind her. Then all she could do was nod slowly and slip her hand down between their bodies.
She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the sight of Connor's riveted gaze, but sparks painted the backs of her eyelids anyway the moment she touched herself. She had become that banked flame, ready to ignite at the slightest breath.
"Just like that," Connor encouraged her, steadying her body when the sensation threatened to overwhelm her. "Fuck, you're squeezing me so tight. Let me feel it again. Let me feel you come all over my cock."
Nothing could have stopped her. She came with a shriek, ecstasy and hunger tumbling end over end, until she wasn't sure where one stopped and the other began. Connor bucked up, and Mac slapped her ass with a groan. Instead of distracting her, they became part of that frozen, neverending moment as she shook apart.
When the peak subsided and she drifted down a little, she became aware of Connor's hand slicking over the small of her back. At first, she thought he'd touched the lube Mac had massaged into her flesh, but then she realized it was sweat dampening her skin.
Her voice was husky, rough. "Oh, my God."
"I know." Tension trembled through Connor's hoarse words as his hand swept lower. He squeezed her ass and crushed her hips to his. "If you pray to him, maybe Mac will have mercy on us."
No, she knew what to do now, and prayer had nothing to do with it. She reached back, her fingers brushing Connor's as she gripped her cheeks and spread them wide. Offering herself.
Mac growled and slipped the plug from her ass. "You want it, honey? You want me to pound you onto his dick?"
The words alone made her head spin, but it was Connor who groaned. Connor who begged. "C'mon, Mac. Please."
"The magic word." His cock nudged her ass. It was slippery, and ravenous hunger gripped her as she imagined him smoothing his slick hand over the shaft, thumbing the head. Getting ready to fuck her.
The nudge turned into pressure, and the shock of it had her arching away. He was bigger than the plug, so much bigger that she dropped her head to Connor's chest with a short sob.
"Shh." He petted her hair before gripping her waist. He lifted
her, just a little, holding her in place as Mac pushed against her again. "You can do this," Connor whispered.
"I know," she gasped. She didn't know how to explain, except to stumble on. "Don't let him stop, Connor--don't let him--"
"Mac doesn't stop." The words weren't just sure, they were a promise. "When he decides he wants something, he takes it."
"Damn straight." The flared head of Mac's cock shoved past the tight ring of muscle, and he kept going, driving into her ass with a groan. "Jesus Christ, I almost forgot how good you feel."
Ashley fought to breathe, but it seemed like there was no room left in her. She was full, so full that the slightest shiver left her writhing, desperate for more because there was no going back. Not now.
Connor dragged her head up, forcing her to meet his wild eyes. "Goddamn, you love it fast and hard, don't you? You want it all."
Even his rough grip on her hair twisted the need tighter. "I was made for this."
"So were we." He drove up, thrusting deeper, somehow stretching her even more with Mac inside her, too. She was trapped between them, floating in a frozen moment that broke with Connor's snarl. "Do it, Mac."
Instead of spurring him on, the words seemed to have the opposite effect. Mac slowed as he pulled back, withdrawing until only the tip of his cock was still inside her. "Remember your manners, Con," he grated. "The lady comes first."
Connor bared his teeth in a snarl. "How many times?"
"Until she's had enough." Then he plunged into her again.
It was too much. Ashley threw her head back, clawing blindly at Connor as she used every bit of her strength to buck between them, riding them both. Connor took it with a sharp noise of pleasure but shoved at her shoulders, bowing her back and lifting her breasts.
Mac's next thrust rocked her forward, and Connor's mouth closed around her nipple with brutal suction. Rough hands stroked her skin, but she couldn't tell whose were where--the curve of her hip, running up her side, curling around the back of her neck. They touched her all over, every inch they could reach as they drove her higher.
They didn't speak, but they knew exactly what to do. When Mac sank deep into her, forcing her forward, Connor was there, thrusting up with just the right amount of pressure. The whole world had drawn tight, just like her--taut, aching. Ready to explode.
Connor pressed his open mouth to her cheek, panting as they moved together. "Just let go. Mac is strong. He's got us."
I got you. The words swam in her brain. He's got us. They couldn't both be true--and yet, they were. The realization throbbed through her, and she opened her mouth to beg for more, but all that came out was a long, low moan. An animal sound of need, of desire.
Of longing.
Mac leaned forward and pressed his forehead to her back. It left her trapped between them, and their thrusts gave way to a rocking grind. Every sway of their bodies slid skin over skin, rough with hair or slick with sweat, until the last bits of human thought fled.
She was lightheaded, faint with pleasure, stripped of everything that held her back from abandoning herself to this moment. When Mac snarled against her skin, the sound vibrated straight into her core, shaking free the feral hunger consuming her.
Connor. She needed to make him come, needed to feel him in ways she couldn't describe with words. She needed to know.
So did he. He bit her chin with a hoarse groan and buried his face against her throat. "God, yes. Take what you want."
She clenched around him, squeezing him with her inner muscles until he panted her name. But it backfired hard when one more short, rough thrust sent pulses of blinding pleasure racing through her.
She came in a rush, quaking inside and out, and the only thing that kept her from shattering into a million pieces was being cradled between Mac and Connor.
"Fuck--" Connor's fingers bit into her back as he pounded her clenching pussy. "Fuck, Mac, I can't--"
"Give it to her," he growled.
With a muttered curse, Connor gripped her hair and dragged her head up. His eyes had melted into gold, and his expression was fierce as he crushed his mouth to hers. He fucked up into once, twice, then bit her lower lip and came with a snarl.
Moaning, Ashley welcomed the now-familiar feeling of peace that stole through her. She clung to it, clung to Connor as Mac ground against her with a tortured noise. His cock throbbed deep inside, so much a part of her that she could barely tell who was who, or where her pleasure ended and theirs picked up.
They stayed like that forever, the three of them tangled together as their racing hearts slowed. One of them stroked her hip, and the other smoothed her hair from her forehead. Connor murmured something unintelligible and kissed her forehead before tucking her face against his throat.
Finally, Mac straightened and gently pulled away. The loss of his heat at her back chilled Ashley, and she shivered until he draped a blanket around her. He tucked it in as he guided her down to the mattress, leaving her cocooned in warmth, nestled between him and Connor.
"Want us to stay?" Connor asked, his voice as sleepy as she felt.
The effort it took to speak almost made her smile. She was utterly drained, in the very best way imaginable. "Don't go."
Mac kissed her shoulder. "We'll be right here."
Chapter Nine
They crept out before dawn, leaving Ashley sated and exhausted in her giant bed. Connor didn't ask why and Mac didn't bother to state the obvious--they both understood that Blake would be home soon. A fight would distress Ashley, and it was a miracle there hadn't been one already.
Connor wondered if Jud and Blake and Mac were even aware of the careful dance they'd been engaged in since Ashley's arrival. So many potentially violent situations had been defused by calculated acts of deference. Blake might be leading the dance, but Jud and Mac were playing along.
For now.
Connor wasn't a part of it, not really. But he followed Mac down the hall anyway, because something inside him felt uneasy, and the safety of Mac's room tended to smooth the sharpest edges of Connor's disquiet.
Except it didn't this time, not even when he was settled in his usual corner of Mac's couch with a beer in his hand and the hypnotic crackle of the fire as background noise.
"You're quiet," Mac observed. "Even quieter than usual."
Connor rubbed a hand over his chest, but the ache wasn't something he could scrub away. It went deeper, just as it always had. "I was different tonight, wasn't I?"
"Yes. But you were bound to be," he pointed out. "She's a wolf, Con. Not human."
Humans were all he'd ever known, and even that had been terrifying at times. Sex was primal. No matter how steely his control, fucking stripped it away, leaving instinct and feral hunger driving his body while thought and reason slipped through his fingers.
Mac made it safe. His wolf obeyed Mac without question. The human women they fucked together liked his wild edge and his porn star growls, and Mac always kept him from going too far or revealing too much.
But Connor's memories of those encounters were always blurred. Vague, like a dream, even though they satisfied his physical needs.
"I was there," he said finally, staring at the fire. "The first time she touched me, I felt my wolf surge. Like my control was slipping and he was coming out. And he did, I think--I wasn't holding him back. But I remember everything."
Mac smiled faintly. "You mean she kept you both there, man and wolf."
Both parts of him. Together, if not quite fitting cleanly. "Was it different for you?"
"It was..." He trailed off. "I don't know, man. It's good in a way I didn't know existed. I finally understand what Lucas has been talking about. But I'm not looking for a mate."
Mac kept his voice steady, composed, but Connor knew him. The pain was there, bubbling just beneath the surface, a wound that would never fucking heal. Because Ashley wasn't the first female wolf they'd found.
Just the first they'd found sane.
"She's strong, Mac. That's n
ot going to happen again."
Grimacing, Mac stared into the fire. "Ashley's not Serena. I know that."
No, she wasn't. Serena had been shattered even worse than Connor, driven mad by instincts that had twisted inside her. She had tried to hurt herself when she wasn't restrained. She had tried to kill herself.
In the end, she'd begged for mercy, and Mac had been the one to give it to her.
"I'm not Serena, either." Connor kicked Mac's leg lightly. "You saved me. If a confused wolf needs a mate, who could be better than you?"
That made him laugh, a full, delighted laugh that rolled from deep in his chest. "I'm not a dumbass. If you can't think of anyone better, I'm not gonna clue you in."
Connor huffed and finished his beer. "Yeah, sure seems to be leaning that way, huh? Doesn't mean it's better. Blake doesn't know the first goddamn thing about how humans interact. You think he's explaining shit to her?"
"I don't think he has to." Mac had drained his glass, and he refilled it before continuing. "Overthinking shit doesn't really get us anywhere, does it?"
No, never, but Connor couldn't stop it. It was as if the instincts he'd been born with were locked up inside him. Sometimes they spilled free. The rest of the time, connecting with them was like playing one of those cheap, stupid games they sold at gas stations and in dollar stores. He was a little metal ball rolling through a plastic maze, slamming into dead ends because nothing came naturally to him the way it did to the rest of them.
Except tonight.
Connor returned his gaze to the fire, as if he could find his answers in the dancing flames. Of course, there were no answers. But, unlike Mac, he couldn't stop thinking. "Do you figure she'll pick him?"
"It doesn't matter what I think." Mac stared at him, searching, a hint of a frown creasing his brow. "You don't want her, do you?"
Connor tried to think of the right answer, but he just rolled into another dead end. "I don't know," he grumbled, more frustrated than he wanted to admit. For a few hours, things had seemed clear. But even though every fucking touch was branded in his memory, the clarity Ashley had brought him had already dissolved. "It felt good. But she didn't feel..."
