He smiled happily, even thinking about her, despite the fact the two of them would have to make trips to the families of the wolves who’d lost their lives. His mate would be dropped head first into her role and under unpleasant circumstances. Yet he had no doubt she’d be up to the task.
The thought of Tahl courting the little redhead crossed his mind. Would it have been better to have courted River? With an inner snort, he discarded the idea. No way would he have gotten her to cooperate, considering how resistant and flighty she behaved. The blitzkrieg had been the best choice, even if he had reacted on instinct alone.
Disarming the system, he kicked off his boots and strode to the small bathroom on the main floor. He wanted to clean up before he saw River. Desiree would be looking for information about Tahl, and he wished he’d given that a little more thought.
He dunked his face into a sink full of cool water and then scrubbed his hands, the residual moisture leaking into his collar. Using a hand towel, he dried off, compressing one eye at the blood stains he left behind before tossing it under the sink.
“Jett?” He’d scented and heard her long before she spoke but had a little tussle with his wolf so as not to jump her.
She stood hesitantly in the doorway and for a second he wondered how the rest of the pack would view her because she presented as so unprepossessing. There was no outward sign of her strong will or of the young girl who’d raised up a much younger sister. A sister who clearly adored River. Jericho knew her worth, but the male was privy to all the members of his pack. Their history, their education, and their current employment. He imagined it had pinched his sire to lose someone with such financial acumen, so Jericho had thought long and hard before suggesting her.
He liked her hints of sarcasm and feistiness—when she wasn’t challenging what was tried and true pack law—and sensed the nurturing heart behind the fear and anxiety. Something he was going to deal with in the very near future.
But as all of that passed through his head, he was on the move to pull her close. She melted into him. Part of it was the mating heat but not all. His little mate had indeed been worried about him and craving his presence. He doubted it was only because she saw him as being her protector in a strange place—or so he hoped.
“Hey, sweetheart.” He noted the scent of her, apple shampoo and River. If pressed to describe it, he’d have to say, rich, warm and earthy with a touch of cinnamon. Her small body fit against him like a missing puzzle piece and his wolf purred throatily while his cock filled. Fresh arousal perfumed the air and he ruthlessly tamped down his response.
“Is it all over?” she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt.
“For now. We scattered them. At a cost, but it had to be done.”
She leaned back and peered up at him. “What kind of cost?”
“Several of our males are down. Five to be exact, and possibly another.”
Dark brown eyes filled with moisture and a solitary tear escaped. He brushed it away with his thumb and let himself feel the loss of his pack members keenly. River winced in concert and pressed closer, in tune despite the short term of their connection. “I’m so sorry.”
“We’ll have to go tomorrow and see their families.”
“All right.”
Setting her a little distance away, he said, “The rogues held seventeen females.”
She shivered. “Are they… What shape are they in?”
“Not great. Physically we can expect them to heal. Emotionally… Well, things like that take time.” Forever. “I’m going to ask you to work out a plan for them, as my mate.”
“I don’t know, Jett. I—”
“I’ll help you,” Desiree spoke quietly, but he heard the judgment in her voice. And so did River by the way she tugged away and turned to face his sister.
“I’ll do my best, Desiree. But it … that kind of thing … I don’t want to make it worse.”
“Assure them they’re safe and we’ll get them home, or let them stay in our pack as valued members,” he suggested. “That’s a start.”
“Right.” She nodded but kept her gaze on his sister. Desiree stared back before looking at him.
“Who were killed?”
He shared the names, including the male who was under medical care, and Desi looked relieved, and then ashamed. She cast another glance at River before asking, “Do you want me to come with you in the morning?”
“No. River and I will handle it. You and Mom can help her figure out the details for family support later. River’s an accountant so she’ll be an asset in that regard too. I do want you here tomorrow afternoon.”
“Oh?”
“After lunch.”
Desi’s eyebrows drew together, but she didn’t question him further. “River and I are getting to know one another, Jett.” Her tone suggested she wasn’t necessarily enamored with his mate, and he gave her a warning look.
River’s shoulders slumped, and she visibly retreated from Desiree. His sister gave a casual wave and turned on her heel to saunter away. Jett called for Max to escort his sister to her car, before focusing again on his mate.
“River? What happened between you and Desi?” If there was an issue between her and his family, it was going to draw some lines in the sand.
“She’s disappointed in me. You saw it.” She turned to face him, pretty face set in a rueful frown.
“I don’t understand your reticence either,” he admitted. “But as your mate, we’re going to talk about it and I’m not going to flounce out the door like a little princess.” He wished he’d said something to Desiree to correct that attitude, but he had to find out what was operating with his mate first.
“I’m sorry for those females.” Her lips compressed and she blinked furiously but couldn’t hold the tears back.
“Sweetheart.” He wrapped her up, escorting her out of the bathroom.
Through her sobs, she stuttered, “I … I am sorry. You don’t know how sorry. It’s awful.”
“And they need input and support. Who better than the Alpha’s mate?”
“I couldn’t help my mother.” If bitterness was a weapon, she’d have battered him with it.
“Your mother was abused?”
“You can say it, Jett. Rape. Raped. Just because she wasn’t taken by rogues and used, it doesn’t change the facts.”
“But your father—”
“Perpetrated it!” With a strength he would have doubted she possessed, she tore free and rushed ahead into the kitchen, him hard on her heels.
He headed her off and cornered her against the end cabinet. “Breathe,” he commanded, as he ran his hands up and down her arms.
She took a few shuddering breaths but wouldn’t look at him. He leaned in and rested his forehead against hers. When her breathing mirrored his, he slipped an arm around her shoulders and guided her to a stool at the counter. She sat and folded her hands on the edge, weaving her slender fingers together. He went and rifled through the pantry, finding a box of tea bags he knew his sister enjoyed. With honey.
River sat silently while he microwaved a cup of water and dipped a bag in, letting it steep until it was a golden color. He added a dollop of sweetness and stirred the mixture after discarding the bag. The process gave him time to collect his thoughts and suppress the urge to head straight back to Jericho’s territory to kill her father and confront his sire on the rot within his pack.
“Here you go.”
Working her fingers loose, she set both hands around the cup as if seeking comfort. She lifted it carefully and took a sip, then another. “Thank you.”
Max hovered in the doorway, a worried frown on his face. He mouthed, “She okay?”
Jett put a hand up, out of River’s field of vision, and the big male eased out of sight. A short while later, a beep sounded and the front door closed. Ever careful, Max had locked them in and armed the system. He knew he could trust the man to keep quiet about whatever he overheard, and from the look Max gave him, he was c
oncerned for River. He intuited the man liked her as well. It was too bad about Desi.
“Talk to me, sweetheart. Let me in.”
“What’s there to say? Wolves share. Mated wolves share their females. It’s accepted and touted as normal. Except there are females who don’t want to be shared.”
“Right.” He obviously wasn’t getting it. He tried to reframe it. “Wolves have sex in a variety of configurations, right up to a mating claim. We aren’t a judgmental species, River, for sure. But it’s consensual, because if it isn’t, the perpetrators are dealt with severely.”
She shook her head. “I know that.” She blushed, and he nearly had to sit on his hands not to run a finger down one soft cheek and distract her, now she was opening up. “I don’t care what others choose to do once they come of age to uh, consort with others.”
Consort? He supposed it was as good a word as any, though his consorting had been more like fucking his way through a swath of interested females. Sometimes he and Tahl double teamed a willing bedmate, and while it was an experience, it wasn’t something he required. “I don’t follow, River. Are you saying your dad raped your mother and was still allowed to claim her?”
“No. Lord, I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to think about it—it makes me remember.”
“It’s getting between us,” he said patiently. “And impacting your role as my mate. You obviously remember, so talking it out might help. Desiree was out of line because she made a snap judgment. She’s under some … stress, but we need to straighten things out between you and her.”
“She’s your family. I know.”
“You’re my family too, and you come first.”
Wide-eyed, she compressed her lips before saying, “I don’t want to come between you and your mother and sisters. I don’t.”
“Then enlighten me. It’s killing me River, that you won’t open up and let me help you. Let me in, sweetheart.”
She took a huge breath. The cup of tea shook between her hands and he laid a hand on her arm, taking it as a good sign that she didn’t rebuff him. Another deep breath lifted her breasts and he resolutely didn’t stare. “My father invited single males over on a regular basis. To be with my mother. Cass and I were always in bed, but I heard them. I think she slept through it. I hope she did.”
“And your mother didn’t wish it?” Single males like Kris would happily share River, but only if necessary and she consented. And thus far it didn’t appear necessary. It was a tried and true method to assuage an out-of-control heat, rather than involving their doctors and utilizing medication with severe side effects. Not that he’d choose Kris for her.
“She begged and pleaded with my father and … whoever came over. I never met them though I recognized some voices.”
“Did you hear her refuse? Call for help? Did you see injuries, River?”
“Just the noises. Her crying out, but I guess I didn’t hear any specific words. And she looked okay in the morning, though tired. She seemed tired all the time.”
“How did she die?”
“A blood disease. Rare for lupines and incurable. I looked it up when I got older because I wondered if it was genetic. It’s not.” She sounded much calmer and paused to take a sip of tea. “I couldn’t understand why she didn’t do something, like complain to our Alpha. Or even leave. Except then I realized my dad had all the power, and she was bound by her heat.”
He chose his words carefully because a lot rested on how she received the information. He resisted the urge to rub his chest where a cold ache had set in. If he wasn’t enough for River, no matter if she came to understand that what took place in some instances was necessary, he doubted she would get past her entrenched beliefs. At least not right away, and he couldn’t imagine the impact it would have on their connection, not to mention if her heat spiraled out of control.
“Are you aware if a female’s heat can’t be totally assuaged by their mates, inviting other males to, uh, assist, is common? Necessary. Far better than hormone-suppressing drugs that can cause mood disorders, infertility, or miscarriage.”
“What?” There was enough incredulity packed into one short word that he flinched in the face of it.
“Truth, River.”
She stared in shock, unblinking, and every vestige of color drained from her face. A harsh swallow wracked her slender throat and she choked on it. “So it wasn’t to satisfy my father’s kink?” A small hand pressed against her lips as if to contain any further words. A tiny moan escaped before she spoke again. “But she had to put up with it, even if she didn’t want it? To conceive the sons he wanted?”
“I can’t begin to guess, but she might have wanted them—the sons—too.”
“Right. Male children.” Antipathy and scorn dripped from the words, and Jett momentarily wished he was the opposite gender. In his mind, despite the specifics of gender roles, males and females were as important as the other. But River had grown up with terrible childhood memories and her grasp of mating was twisted because of it. How was it that she lacked that key component?
“We’re not so bad,” he tried.
There was no softness in her face when she looked at him. “What if you can’t sate my heat? Because it’s coming back worse than before. I can feel it. I can’t let you bring someone else in. I won’t.”
“You’re over-reacting,” he soothed. “We can’t know how things will go.” His belly clenched to the point of pain when he even considering sharing her and his wolf howled so loudly his ears popped.
Her elbow caught the mug and sent it crashing to the floor as River threw herself off the stool and raced away. Leaving the mess, he ran after her. She flew up the stairs and only a final burst of speed caught the bedroom door before she slammed it shut.
“Running won’t address the issue.”
“I guess not,” she bit out. “I can’t run far enough, thanks to you.”
He reached for control, but his wolf had responded to the chase. Despite the emotional blows, his mate’s heat was escalating. “Show some respect, River.”
New color leached from her face. “I’m sorry. You had an awful two days and I’m adding to it. But it was too much to take in. I can’t think it through. I’m scared.”
Wolf roiling right at the surface, he stared her down. “Come here. Do not make me come to you. After you. My wolf isn’t discriminating between your heat and your angst.”
She pattered over and looked up at him. With a gentle finger she touched his healing cut and it nearly undid him. But he wove his fingers through her wealth of hair, knowing not to let her distract him. She liked the dominant touch whether she’d admit it or not, or at least her wolf did, to judge by the immediate increase in her arousal. When she sagged a little, he tightened his grip and pulled, watching her eyes dilate. “You’re not to retreat into your head. Do you understand? You stay with me and go all in. We’re going to get through this. Together. Just you and me.”
Her pink, pointed tongue whipped over her biteable bottom lip and he speculated how it would feel on the head of his cock. The touch of her fingers over the ridge of his erection managed to redirect his thoughts. He shoved his hips into her hands and nearly came in his jeans when she stroked him while fumbling for the zipper. She hopefully wouldn’t catch something important in the jagged teeth.
Delving behind the waistband, she closed a hand around him and he groaned. “Careful, sweetheart. I’ve done without since yesterday.”
Locking her gaze on his, she stroked from root to head, feathering a nail over the sensitive corona before dipping lower to cradle his balls and squeeze them gently. He wouldn’t let himself wonder where she’d learned that, but instead gave over to the sensation until he had to stop her. “I want to be inside of you.”
He swore his cock shivered at the loss of her touch—for damn sure it wept—and he yanked at her clothes, his jeans slipping to fall around his ankles. Tugging her bra down to plump those sweet mounds into perfect position for
his mouth, he took advantage, alternately suckling the beaded nubs hard and fast. River whimpered and arched against him, her own jeans loosened and working over her hips.
Somehow, he got her turned and bent over the side of the bed, the stricture of clothing impeding his movements, but he couldn’t spare another second. River was hobbled at the knees, and he worked a hand between her thighs to test her readiness. Drenched. He drove between her thighs and glided into her folds to find her opening. Impossibly tight in this position, she still opened to him and he inched inside. “Fuck, you feel so good. Made for my cock.”
Relishing the snug, velvet grip of her, he nuzzled up her spine. Gooseflesh bloomed in his wake until he reached the juncture of her graceful neck and slender shoulder. He placed his mouth over his claiming mark and sucked as his hips bucked and retreated against the curve of her ass. Wet, slapping sounds proclaimed their joining and he tried to make it last. River came hard around him, squeezing with a long, liquid draw. His cum burst forth and he bit down at the intensity of it. This little woman fucking well did it for him and he’d frazzle the skin off his cock and pump himself dry and aching before another male touched her.
Furiously jealous, his wolf howling in wild agreement, he pulled her in tight, his teeth releasing her tender flesh. “No more running. No more avoidance. You’re mine, River. Accept it and lose those fears.”
Chapter Seven
Pinned beneath her mate’s bulk, his cock still pulsing inside of her and his renewed bite tingling, River tried to open her mind and take his words to heart. It was difficult to process through the residual sensations of another body-clenching orgasm, but she registered the depth of feeling in his proclamation. She badly wanted to believe him, believe he could circumvent nature and that she wouldn’t be one of those females who had needs too great for her mate to meet—without help.
Bound by Destiny (Blue Star Shifters Book 1) Page 9
