by Paige Taylor
“Sounds perfect, babe. See you soon,” I say before jumping out of the car and walking up to the glass doors of the Dojo.
Walking into the Dojo is like coming home. There is a huge, open space, filled with specialised mats that are hard enough for stability, yet have enough give to let you land without too much injury. The place has an odour of stale sweat and perpetually has that, ‘needs a good clean’ look; but it has been a refuge to me for the last ten months, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Yes! There are no young kids running around that I could see, which meant I am early enough to grab a shower before getting dressed in my kit. I would feel kind of creepy walking around children still smelling like sex with Dylan. I walk around the mats to the trainer’s back room, where I find my locker, grab my shower pack and spare kit. I run out the back and have the quickest shower known to woman kind, get dressed, and tie up my hair. By the time I am ready, I can hear the children all yelling from the main room. Walking through to the front, I see fifteen children all running around in different stages of excitement, all geared up and ready to go.
“Alright you lot, line up on the edge of the mat,” I say loudly to get all their attention. I line up with them, facing the Dojo’s framed Mantra, I place my hands together and bow. Out of the corner of my eye I see all the kids bow at the same time, and then rush onto the mat.
I run the session like normal, I get them to all chase me around the big gym floor ten times, followed by pairing up all the kids and running through some defensive techniques. I begin to feel someone watching me again; that weird feeling like someone can see you, but you can’t see them. I look around the room, trying to see what is making both my Wolf and my senses go on high alert. But, there is nothing and no one I haven’t seen before. I try to shake off that sensation, but it just won’t go away, no matter how much I try to focus on the kids.
By the time I have progressed onto practising their offensive movements, I spot Dylan walk into the room. He walks past the mats to stand against the wall, watching me. The moms of my students elbow each other and stare at my mate, which neither my wolf nor I appreciate. I have to temper down the desire to physically remove them from my Mate’s personal space bubble. By the time the session has ended, the only urge I have is to walk over to Dylan and climb him like a tree, but it’s a public place, and there are children around. Bad, Ava. Bad. Not while there are kids around.
“Thank you, Miss Ava!” the class yells out before bowing and running off the mats.
“Miss Ava, I have a question. . .” A young boy’s voice grabs my attention from beside me.
“Yes, Patrick, how can I help you?” I ask the cute, eleven-year-old, blond boy in front of me.
“Well, I was wondering, would you mind if I came on Saturdays now, too? I’m starting an extra delivery run on the weekends, so I can pay, but if you don’t have room, that’s okay too. I just thought I’d ask. Cause, you know? it would be rude to just turn up and there be no room for me and everything,” he says sheepishly, while looking down at the ground, wringing his hands in front of him.
Patrick’s family isn’t the most well-off of families, in fact most weeks they can’t even pay for him to come here, but I’ve asked them not to worry about that. When they can pay, they pay, if they can’t, don’t worry about it, I’ll cover the cost. Patrick’s family are some of the nicest humans I’ve ever met. They are good honest people, with four kids who just need a hand some days. My only problem with Patrick coming on a Saturday, is that he was going to start working at eleven years old to pay for this extra class. My heart hurts at the thought of this little boy not having the chance to be a little boy just because of my class. Nope, not going to happen.
“Patrick, you are always welcome to come to my classes. Except my condition for you coming, is that you do not start a paper route just to pay for it. If you want that paper route to pay for pocket money, go ahead. But, you are not to pay for the Saturday class. Do you understand me?” I ask, bending down to look him right in the eye.
“Yes, Miss Ava. I understand,” he says before quickly throwing his arms around my neck to give me a hug, and then, he quickly steps away, brushing at his eyes and running out the door towards his mom.
I stand back up and feel hands come around my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest. Dylan’s scent of sandalwood and tea invade my senses, completely calming me.
“That was a very nice thing you did there, Beautiful. It almost made me cry,” he says, while leaning his head into mine, my hand coming up to slide against his other cheek.
“Everyone needs a bit of help every now and again, and kids need time to be kids. I won’t have a child waste his childhood working just to pay for my class.”
“I agree with you. Right now, though, I need to get you home, because seeing you go all momma bear was hot as fuck,” he says kissing up my neck and over my new Mate mark, before lightly biting down. The sensation sends shivers and tingles through my whole body, my pussy already wet from his little touches.
“Sounds like a good plan. Just let me grab my stuff,” I purr before running out the back and changing into my jeans and shirt as quickly as possible.
“Alrighty, I’m ready to go.” I run up and jump on his back, so that he has to piggyback me to the car. Our combined laughter echoes in the still air as he deposits me on the seat of his jeep and runs around to his own side and starts the car. I’m going to enjoy forcing the playful side of Dylan out.
“Time to get my misbehaving mate home then, maybe she needs some punishment,” he says with a giant smile across his face.
Oh yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to going home.
Chapter Eight
I stare deeply into the caramel-covered liquid in my mug, my senses completely and utterly zoned in on this beautiful creation, perfection in a cup, god’s gift to man, the liquid of life. I lift the cup up to my lips, about to take my first, glorious sip of the morning, when a hand lands on my shoulder. The cup flies from my fingertips, sailing across the room, and hitting the ground in one, almighty crash. Fuck. My. Life. I continue to stare at the unsalvageable mess spread across the floor, hoping my will power is enough to make the coffee and cup fix itself and fly back into my hands.
“Ava, Beautiful. Are you ok? I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ll make you a new one, now,” I hear the voice of my mate ask. Except I’m too disappointed to even speak. My coffee, it’s all gone. Why is the world this cruel?
“Ava, come on, use your words,” he stresses as his eyes flick over my face.
“You. Coffee. I Need. Why?” I try to get out. I’m so tired, he kept me up all night. Not that I’m complaining about that, but I’m having real trouble getting the words from my brain down to my mouth without this coffee.
Without another word, Dylan steps around the spilt coffee and begins making one in his fancy machine. It took me twenty minutes to make my fucking coffee because his fancy machine is stupidly hard to figure out? Why can’t he just have a press a button machine? Within the next five minutes, I have a very professional-looking coffee sitting in front of me, he even made a heart in the foam. I bring it up to my nose, inhaling that beautiful scent of caffeine, raise it to my lips, and take my first tentative taste. Oh God, this is so good! Why is it so good? I greedily drink down another few mouthfuls, completely aware of the man standing in front of me, watching my every move.
“Okay, I’m me again!” I say, before bouncing up out of my seat and tip toeing around the mess on the floor to give him a kiss.
Dylan’s lips move under mine slowly, his hands circling my hips and lifting me up off the ground. I wrap my legs around his waist, and feel him walk us backwards until a cold counter touches my arse. I jump a little at the contact, but not enough to pull me away from Dylan’s cock growing harder between my legs. His hands reach under my shirt and begin to lift, my back arching as I press my chest in closer to him, dragging my nose up his neck.
“Well, isn’t
this a nice sight to start the morning,” I hear a deep, husky voice say from behind me. My hands instantly slam down on my shirt, and my knees try to slam together, before I realise that Dylan is in between them.
“Morning, Chambers,” Dylan says with a head nod in Wade’s direction, his hands tightening on my hips before lifting me off the counter and setting me on the floor gently, and prodding me to turn around.
“Morning, Wade!” I lift my hand for a little shy wave, feeling the blush fan across my face. It’s not the action of getting caught that’s making me blush, being a shifter makes you relatively immune to catching people in the middle of sexual acts. It was more the fact that I have yet to discuss how my mates feel about sharing me in view of each other.
I have yet to see Wade in anything but jeans, but, my god, does he pull them off well. The tight, dark-blue jeans cling to his thick muscular thighs. A black long-sleeve Henley frames every inch of his huge arms and broad chest. Wade kind of looks like the Scandinavian version of Conan the Barbarian. I cannot believe how large this man is; his poor mother! I hope he played football in high school; he would have been fucking amazing. Speaking of, the prime beef real estate is walking right towards me. He stops inches from me, and my eyes travel up, and up, and up, until I finally see his eyes. Beautiful, crystal-coloured eyes stare right into mine, not even blinking. His large, calloused hands reach up to frame my face on either side, holding me in place, as he gently bends down and lightly brushes his lips over mine.
“We know we have to share you Ava, don’t hide from us. From time to time, we may end up sharing you at the same time, and we are okay with that. Seeing you like that, so wrapped up in pleasure, turns me on. Don’t hide it, yeah?” he says firmly.
“Understood, Conan,” I say, snickering a little bit at the nickname.
“What did you call me?” he asks, still not letting me move my head. His entire body looks like he’s flexing, the man is a goddamn tank. Oh yeah, Conan fits just fine.
“Conan, like Conan the Barbarian. Except you’re the Scandinavian version and with short, blond hair instead of long dark hair. It’s sexy as fuck,” I say, shrugging my shoulders a little.
“Oh, I’ll show you barbarian, Baby,” he warns.
Before I have time to even contemplate what that means, I’ve been swept over his shoulder, and he is walking towards the door. A sharp, girly cry breaks from my lips before I can catch it. My head flops with every step he takes, his hand wrapped around my waist, to make sure that I don’t fall. I look downwards and am greeted by two very large, firm arse cheeks. Well, if there was ever a time to shamelessly grope this man’s arse cheeks under the guise of an accident, now would be it.
“Wade! Put me down! I don’t have clothes or anything ready to go yet! I can’t do that upside down, you overgrown spastic!” I yell from my position.
“It’s all good, baby, I got Dylan’s Omega to pack me some of your stuff while you were getting busy in the house. The bag is in my car.”
“You can’t just do that! It’s an invasion of my goddamn privacy!” I argue, my arm trying to reach around and slap him upside the head, except my arms don’t seem to reach, and I end up just looking like I’ve got flailing limb syndrome.
“You’re my Mate, it was just clothes, you were busy, and I wanted to leave. Seemed pretty straight forward to me,” he explains without any apology in his voice. He may have a point, but still, it wasn’t his place to order that. It’s my belongings.
“Wait! I didn’t get to give Dylan a kiss goodbye,” I whine, staring directly down at Wade’s ass again.
“Hold on, Ava, I got you,” I hear Dylan say before his face appears underneath me. Kissing me hard and fast, his tongue slipping into my mouth for a second before he pulls away and give my ass a slap over Wade’s shoulder.
“See you later, Chambers, have fun with the little trouble maker,” Dylan says to Wade, waving us on.
“Oh, I plan to. See you, Andrews,” Wade replies, and without another word, sets off again out the front door.
Wade’s fancy Ford Explorer pulls up outside what looks like a little village in the middle of the forest. There are four or five lanes of brick houses, all gravel-lined, self-made streets that feed into the large, brick house that is engulfing the scenery. House, what a mediocre name for this piece of property, it’s a fucking monster of a brick colonial. Huge, wooden, double doors are situated behind two huge stone pillars. Three sets of white-paned windows on each side of the house on the first level, and the second level has a white-washed balcony on each side of house, with floor to roof French doors that match the window framing. This is so not what I expected from Mr. Taciturn, it’s so . . . gaudy.
“I didn’t build it, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he says before getting out of the car.
“Apparently, Wade can read minds, now,” I mutter to myself.
“Not read minds, your face is just very expressive,” he mentions as he appears beside my door.
“God-damn Conan, I’m going to put a fucking bell on you! You keep sneaking up on me!” I yell, my hand going to my chest. He almost gave me a heart attack!
“Where would be the fun in that? I’m thinking we throw your things in my room, get into your gym gear, and we spar for a little bit. How does that sound?” he asks, grabbing my hand and walking us towards the huge house that I’m assuming is the Pack house.
“That sounds perfect, Wade, lead the way,” I say, excited to see the interior of this house and get a good work out in.
“Welcome home, Ava,” he whispers in my ear, whilst reaching around me to unlock the door and push it open.
I take his hand and wander inside. Holy shit on a brick. This place is huge! And, utterly beautiful. I am lost for words at the old-time beauty of Wade’s home. The floors are the most beautiful, hardwood floors, so perfectly polished without a scuff to be seen. There is a beautifully-crafted grand staircase off to the right of the entry way, and what looks like a dining room situated at the front of the house lining two of the windows you could see from the front. Light shines through the house from all the windows, reflecting off the white and grey accents throughout. Walking further into the house, it opens into a huge kitchen and open-plan living room. The largest leather couch I have ever seen in my life faces a huge TV hanging above a fire place. Behind the lounge is a beautiful, white-marble kitchen with stainless steel appliances. Damn, did he get a decorator in here? It’s so fucking beautiful, I’m almost scared to touch something in case I break it and have to fork out thousands of dollars to fix it.
Without a word, Wade drags me back to the entryway and up the staircase, the stunning furnishings continuing upstairs. There is a central lounge area at the top of the stairs and off it branches two hallways, four rooms on the left and two rooms on the right hallway. Wade makes a beeline for the doors to the right, my eyes popping in disbelief at the room Wade reveals. The room is wall to wall windows on the sides that face the forest, the view overlooking the tops of the pines and across to the mountains. It is breathtaking. Against the right wall is a large, fluffy, white king bed that is screaming at me to just dive bomb on it.
“The bathroom is over here, Ava,” Wade says, opening the singular door that was on the left wall.
“Wade, this house, it’s just. Wow,” I say looking around the room in awe.
“Thank you. Now, get a move on, I want a chance to see these so-called skills,” he says pointing me into the bathroom.
“Yeah, yeah . . . holy fucking shit. I think I’m in bathroom heaven, I’m going to live in this giant, perfect room.” The bathroom is perfection. White-marble counters, shower, and a gorgeous Jacuzzi bath. Just leave me here, I’m home.
“What’s mine is yours, baby,” Wade chuckles before shutting the door firmly.
Chapter Nine
Wade has to drag me through this house, I love it that much. But apparently, we have somewhere we need to be. We pass the kitchen, and go through a door that I assume leads ou
t the back of the house. Except we’re not outside when we go through the door. My nose is the first thing that makes the connection I’m not outside. I’m assaulted by the scent of old and new blood, and an overwhelming smell of sweat. When Wade moves out of my field of view, all I can see is a huge, in-door gym. Weights over to the far left, sparring mats right in front of me, and treadmills against the mirrors to the right. The gym is far from empty though, there are probably about twenty shifters in front of me, all who have stopped their sparring and workouts to stare at me. I love these awkward introductions, doesn’t make you feel like a lab rat at all.
“Everyone, this is my Mate, Ava. She is also Mate to Dylan and Marco of the Crescent Pack which both Dylan and I will address with all pack members soon. Ava is strong in her own right, but she will be treated as part of the Alpha Pair, and I will defend my Mate’s right to lead this pack with me,” he says to the room with a voice so deep and intimidating that it sends quivers through my body.
“That being said, I want her to feel like part of our family. Our pack has some of the bravest, kindest, funniest people I’ve ever known, and I want her to be a part of that,” he says emphatically. Well, that’s my cue. God, I hope this doesn’t sound stupid.
“Hi, I just want to say that I really do want to be a part of these packs. I want to be a part of these families, and I will do anything to be with Wade and my other Mates. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you properly.” I finish with a little wave to everyone. Yeah that did sound a little rehearsed, but hey, at least, I didn’t stumble over my words. I watch as a young man with angular features, black hair, and the body of a wrestler approaches.
“Hi, Ava, I’m Steven, the Beta of the pack. It’s going to be nice to finally see the behemoth, over here, settle down. Maybe my Mate and I can come over to the Pack house and meet you properly tonight?” the young guy asks.
