Wolves at the Door

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “Oh damn…” His fingers laced with mine, pressing on my palms, and he kissed me wherever his lips happened to fall—hair, cheek, neck…lips. I opened my mouth and nipped at his lip, keeping him there a moment longer. “Oh damn,” he repeated.

  “Mmm…” We were incoherent. He was so strong I wondered how long he could go. I wondered how long I would last. Every stroke of his cock put stars in my eyes, and some tears in my eyes too, because the sensation was so achingly sweet and intense. I didn’t feel like I was anywhere near coming, though. I could already tell that when the orgasm came it was going to blow my mind, and it wouldn’t come too soon. It would build slowly until I was weeping for it.

  Oh, maybe I already was.

  “Graham…Graham…shit…you’re so strong…”

  “Worth the wait?”

  “Oh fuck…” I tossed my head and twisted a little under his touch, like I needed to get away, but also would rather die than succeed.

  “God yes,” he said. He pulled the ponytail holder from my hair and then tugged down the zipper of my dress, skillfully peeling the dress up my curves, slowing down his rhythm but hardly stopping as he slid his hands worshipfully down my waist and hips.

  “You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “And pretty strong yourself.”

  The phone rang.

  The old phone sitting on the table. He glared at it. Definitely a bit of a groove-interrupter, but then, when you had a groove this deep…

  He pushed my dress up over my breasts and bent down to give each nipple an affectionate nibble. I was getting wetter and wetter. I wondered if it was possible to not have an orgasm at all, but just to be at the mercy of the slow build. I was definitely pumping him up with power. I should be annoyed about it but it was hard to be upset about the way I felt like shooting stars of pleasure were coursing through my fingers and toes.

  The answering machine beeped. “Graham, I know you rented this Airbnb! Please, pick up, honest to god, I’m going to call the cops if you don’t pick up—”

  Graham floofed my dress over my head so I couldn’t see him and pinned my hands down with one of his hands, and he picked up the damn phone, slowing down but not stopping his relentless fucking. “Hey, Sandra. I’m sorry about that. My cell phone has terrible reception out here. All right, well, I didn’t see your messages because my service is shit. Calm down, calm down. I’ll be back tomorrow morning. I know. A tornado? Really? No, I didn’t see that. Was anyone hurt? Okay, that’s a relief then.”

  “Ohh…” I should have freed myself from my stuffy fabric prison and yelled at him, but at this point I just needed release. I was starting to feel like I didn’t even have a body. Or maybe I was nothing but a body and I didn’t have a brain. Then he must have tucked the receiver between his ear and shoulder because suddenly his hand was toying with my nipples and I didn’t even see it coming.

  “Ohhhh…” My voice was breathy. I didn’t want ‘Sandra’ to hear screaming in the background but Graham had me muffled in my fabric cocoon. I bit the fabric of my dress.

  “I will absolutely get that email back to you in the next fifteen minutes,” he said. “Let me go and handle it right now and I’ll call you back.”

  He slammed the phone down and then he released my hands, pulled the dress back down so he could see my face, and grabbed my hips instead. He started coming inside me so hard that I couldn’t have said anything if I tried. My body exploded into the most toe curling orgasm and I was just screaming.

  He put his arms around me and held me as I panted, reeling from the aftershocks.

  “That was amazing, Helena,” he said. “I’m sorry. I really have to answer this email and then I’ll get right back to you.”

  “Ohh…”

  “I don’t want Sandra to call the cops.” He grabbed a laptop from a briefcase on the floor and opened it right next to my naked thigh.

  I was so exhausted I didn’t even move for a few minutes but in between bouts of very fast typing, he would give my leg a slow stroke almost all the way up to my pussy.

  Damnit, I was actually starting to get turned on again before I’d even recovered from round one.

  “I didn’t know I had it in me,” I finally breathed. “That was…hot.”

  “It was. Maybe I’ll win that election after all.”

  “Damn. I don’t want that.”

  “I’ve put so much into this,” he said. “So many people I would let down if I didn’t give it my all. I’ve already failed them just by being here. You wouldn’t really want to be with someone who fails people.”

  “You’re right…”

  He went silent, the glow of the laptop bringing out the definitive line of his nose and the disgruntled furrow of his brow, and I found myself dreaming of his demon form. It would be weirdly sexy to watch a demon typing on a laptop.

  Then he slammed it shut. “Sometimes I think I should never have gone back to my grandfather’s house. Then I look at you…”

  He scooped me into his arms and climbed the spiral staircase. Finally, a bed.

  Not that much sleep happened that night.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jake

  So far the score was Incubi: 2, Wolves: 0.

  But you know what? I wasn’t worried. Excuse me for not being a sex demon, but just a normal guy. If you put a succubus in front of me I can’t say I could resist so Hel could have her fun now, but before long we’d all be working together, spending hours in close proximity, showing her how much we knew our stuff and also how we looked good with our shirts off.

  The thing I really couldn’t stop thinking about was the idea of destroying Etherium.

  That was pretty insane. But why not? What good did Etherium do anyway? Those wizards hated us, and the Ethereals? Well, if they were like angels, they also seemed too lofty to bother with our world. I didn’t feel any need to protect them either. I was tired of being treated like a lesser being by high and mighty warlocks like Piers Nicolescu, that was for sure.

  We got right to work removing the bathroom fixtures. Billie went out and grabbed some burgers and fries for our dinner from the nearest fast food joint and we ate fast so we could get back to work.

  Why don’t we just let the incubi have Hel and go for Billie? The thought crossed my mind, but it was clear right away that Billie wasn’t Helena. She was tough on the outside, but it was a front. She worked hard, but she didn’t do the dirty work the same way Helena did. There was something about a princess who would spend hours refinishing floors and pulling down old plaster and shoveling trash into a bin that just made me want to fuck her all night. And then bring her home to our parents and brag about her for the rest of our lives.

  I think Billie could read that she wasn’t our type, but I could tell she’d had enough suitors in her day that she didn’t take it too personally.

  “So, you guys are cool with Helena going off with Graham?” she asked, still poking at us a little while she finished the last of her fries that evening.

  “What about your plans?” I asked. “You could wed a faery or two when we sell this place. It’s going to need a human bride to anchor it.”

  “The thought did cross my mind. I wouldn’t mind settling down. I could tinker with this house forever. There’s just one big problem.”

  “You don’t trust faeries?” Jasper asked. Which was a common and reasonable position. Faeries being ‘neutral’ and all also meant that no one could trust them.

  “No. I just don’t like kids. I have an IUD and I’m not going to start popping out babies for a faery lord. But that’s kind of an important part of a marriage like that.”

  “Well, that’s fair,” Jasper said. “Our cousin Amelia doesn’t want kids either, and she took some flak in the family for it, but I think we wolves have some evolving to do too, you know. Modern times. Especially since we often have two or three kids at a time.”

  “I wonder what Hel would say about that,” I said, worrying over it briefly. I wanted kids, and it was hard t
o imagine Hel wanting triplets.

  “If you have four dads she might be a little more open to it, at least,” Billie said. “Perks of male bond-mates. Usually dads just don’t pull as much weight as moms with the kids, even when they think they do, so having four of them makes a lot of sense.”

  “The men in our family are pretty involved,” I said. “We spent tons of time with our dad. We’ll take care of our own.”

  “Okay, well…good for you.” Billie shrugged. “I have a friend who would love to marry faery lords. If they’re looking for someone, I’ll call her. She’s super pretty and fun. I don’t need a man myself, not right now.”

  “Sure, you’re a successful businesswoman,” Jasper said graciously. “It’s hard to make time for a social life.”

  “That’s right.”

  While Jasper’s attempt at feminism was great and all, and Bilie clearly was a successful businesswoman since she nabbed this house from us, I thought she also seemed like she was lying.

  “On the other hand,” I said, a little more delicately, “if you want a partner to share your life, there’s no shame in it.”

  She looked a little freaked out by this. “I didn’t realize you were actually the sensitive one, Jake. I thought you were the bro.”

  “We actually sort of trade off,” Jasper said. “It just takes Jake longer to show it.”

  “Well…the truth is…” Billie’s eyes suddenly turned a little tearful and she swallowed. I was getting freaked out the longer she paused. No one meant to initiate a confession. “Look, if this goes wrong, I am taking the fall with the council. Completely. Ever since I heard about the existence of Pandora’s Box I thought it was my destiny to open it and probably to be executed, but at least I would end the reign of terror. I realize that sounds heavy and kind of crazy, and I don’t want to scare you off, so let me just say again that I want to open the box all by myself and if the council asks me about you I’ll just say I lied to you and that sort of thing.”

  I looked at Jasper. Shit.

  “That’s…heavy, yeah,” Jasper said. “You think this is a sacrificial mission?”

  “Maybe,” she said stiffly. “For me. But it’s cool. I’ve made my peace with it.”

  “Did Deveraux warn you about this or something?”

  “As if I need someone else to warn me that the wizard council are dangerous!” She wadded up her burger wrapper and tucked it inside the fry box, and then got up. “Can I have the fancy toilet and turn it into a planter? I’m not usually a fan of the toilet planter, but that one barely looks like a toilet.”

  “Uh…sure,” I said. Weird transition.

  How dangerous was this going to get?

  If I was going to choose Helena as a mate, I needed to protect her from danger, and I knew Jasper would think the same thing.

  Jasper stared back at me as she left the room. “Are we just going to let her…?”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Helena

  That morning, Graham flew back to Pennsylvania and it was time to dig in. I was actually starting to feel nervous about his election. I couldn’t help hoping he lost, but on the other hand, he probably would be a great congressman. If the council cared about people as much as Graham did, we wouldn’t be in our current mess. And I knew a loss would have to hurt. I knew what it was like to work hard on something and fail. He would probably blame himself for spending time with me; maybe deep down he’d even blame me too. I hadn’t actually discouraged him from abandoning his duties.

  Shit. Relationships are so complicated. I’m not used to all this worrying about other people…

  It felt so right to have someone to miss. I couldn’t help liking it a little bit even though it was messing with my concentration.

  Before long, Jake and Jasper and I were back in our work groove gutting rooms over the next few days while Billie got started on the walls…and then quickly found herself something else to do instead. She got it in her head that she was going to turn the old detached kitchen into an artist’s cottage, fancying up the old wooden cabinets with new paint and who knew what else. It was a lot easier for her to work on that because it didn’t involve dealing with layers upon layers of old paint. I could tell Billie wasn’t used to doing the unglamorous stuff.

  Fine by me, really. I liked working alone with the guys. But we were really short of hands, especially with Jasper still recovering. And I was itching to look for Deveraux’s diaries. There seemed to be no time for anything.

  I would have to make Bevan work. Unfortunately. I knew he was going to be deeply annoyed at getting roped into any part of this. He was such a rule-abiding familiar that I might have shipped him back to my family if I didn’t also know he would die for me without hesitation. Familiars earned their right to be extremely annoying by being loyal.

  “This isn’t what familiars are supposed to be doing!” he grumbled as I told him to search the library and the attic and all the bedrooms and look for loose floorboards.

  “Familiars are supposed to be doing whatever their witch tells them to do!” I yelled back.

  “You really are a baroness, aren’t you?” Jasper was slowly pushing along a dresser that was strapped to a dolly, determined to pull his weight despite the limp. He was working up a sweat, the flannel shirt abandoned somewhere, and I leaned in the doorway to watch him wipe his forehead with the corner of an old band tee.

  “I just talk to him like that because he’s so cheeky.”

  Jasper shrugged. “We don’t have magical slavery in the wolf shifter world.”

  I knew he was just messing with me, but I was pretty sensitive after my brother’s familiar actually did sacrifice herself to save him. “We’ve just always had that sort of relationship. But I would never put him in danger.”

  Jasper let the dolly thump against the ground as he paused for water. He glanced behind him like he was looking for his twin. “No…’course not.”

  We were knocking out the old bathroom and bedroom first. The Sullivans rented a truck and hauled Deveraux’s waterbed to the dump and we found a local antique dealer to take the old bathroom fixtures. I wanted to weep over the wooden framework around the tub. If only it was in better condition! It would have made a really cool bookshelf or coffee table or something, but it was just too rotted.

  “Look at her face,” Jake said as the van from “Trash or Treasures” had driven away. “Someday you will just let it all go without thinking twice.”

  “Never!” I cried. “I just love old things. I can’t help it.”

  “Can I entice you with an afternoon of picking out new fixtures?” Jasper asked, taking out the keys and jangling them in front of me like I was a kitten.

  “Ohhh fine. I saw there’s a salvage place just outside of town.”

  “Salvage? Come on, it’s the master suite,” Jake said. “Let’s do it up new and shiny. If I know one thing about faeries, they like nature. Jasper and I were talking and we’re thinking ‘rain shower retreat’. Dark gray, rock-like…big shower head. Wait—let me finish.”

  “Zen,” Jasper said. “Imagine a white soaking tub where the tin tub was. A shelf set into the wall above it with some succulents. Gray tile walls all around, with a natural look. The shower in the corner. We keep the rest of the house colorful, we keep the crazy chandeliers, but then at the end of the day, the homeowner can walk into this space that is so pure it just calms their mind. You need that pause, right?”

  “I mean…”

  “You love it,” Jake said.

  “I usually prefer more of a historical look.”

  “Yeah, but you love it.”

  “It’s an undeniably great idea,” Jasper said.

  “I really want to argue with your out of control egos,” I said, crossing my arms.

  Jasper opened the van door. “After you, Your Highness.”

  I climbed in the front, giving up. They were right. It sounded like a lovely bathroom. After a long day, surroundin
g myself with a neutral palette, candles and indoor plants…soaking in a hot tub. It would be a surprise for buyers after the rest of the house. Human buyers, anyway. I didn’t know what faeries would be surprised by.

  These guys really do know their stuff, I thought begrudgingly, since I was pretty sure they were also more successful than I was.

  We ended up staying out all day shopping for the house. I mostly let them do their thing with the upstairs bathroom but the downstairs bathroom was another matter. I wanted it to match the rest of the downstairs and do pale pink walls and a white vanity plus an antique mirror. They wanted minimalist.

  “I let you do the largest bathroom! I don’t mean an obnoxious pink. Just a blush color. Like this.” I tapped one of the paint swatches I picked up in the paint department.

  “I’d rather do blue,” Jasper said.

  “But I just did blue bathrooms at Lockwood House.”

  “Well, the same person isn’t going to buy both houses. No one will accuse you of getting stale.”

  “Pink bathrooms are a hot trend this year,” said an employee walking by behind us.

  “Thank you, Dana!” I said, noting her name tag. “And if any house should have a pink bathroom, it’s that one.”

  “Okay, okay,” Jake said. “Maybe we should call Billie and run it by her.”

  “Why do we need to call Billie? We don’t need to run anything by her. She abandoned the painting altogether.”

  “Sorry to break it to you, but it is her house.”

  Billie told him she was fine with the pink bathroom but then she told us to come home and not pick out anything else. I was struggling to control my grumpiness. I wasn’t used to having to discuss my decisions with so many other people. I also wasn’t used to working on such a massive house, with mysteries to solve on top of all the work. I didn’t want to seem like a prima donna, though. I knew I would get the jokes about being royalty heaped on my head even more. I ended up getting pretty quiet as we paid, loaded, and started home.