“I begged her to choose me,” Carrick continued. “Assured her I could give her a happy life. Care for her. Provide for her. But she wouldn’t budge. Your mom told me she regretted meeting me and that I should leave and never come back again. That she was happy with the mate she’d chosen and she would never be willing to leave him for me.”
“You did as she’d asked,” I whispered.
“Exactly as she’d asked,” he agreed. “I never came back. I didn’t call. Didn’t write. Hell, I even avoided any news from your hometown like the plague because I didn’t want any reminders of what I’d lost.”
“That’s when word spread that you didn’t get along well with the wolves,” Parker added.
“It was hard to stop thinking about her, so I did what I had to survive and build a good life for my sons,” he admitted. “Their mom wasn’t my mate, but at least she told me about them.”
“Yeah, she abandoned us and sucked as a mom, but it sounds like we were lucky compared to you,” my brother in the green shirt said. “At least we had each other and a dad who loved us.”
“But now, she has us too, Braden,” Alasdair said.
“And a mate,” Parker growled when my brothers moved closer.
“We just wanted to introduce ourselves,” Camden complained.
“I think I’ve figured it out already,” I said in an attempt to ease the tension between my mate and my brothers. “Alasdair, Braden, and Camden.” I pointed at each one based on the color of their shirt as I said their name.
“Boys, this is Annora and her mate, Parker.”
As we all sat there looking at each other in amazement, Hunter came rushing into the waiting room with a huge grin spread across his face.
“It’s a boy!” he screamed. “Grace gave birth to my son, Foster Michael.”
With that news, I realized my day had started as the worst one I’d ever had but ended as one of the best. ’d a father, three brothers, and a baby nephew.
Chapter 9
Parker
Annora blossomed in the weeks following the attack and leading up to our claiming ceremony. She spent almost as much time with her father and brothers as she did me. She was building a connection with them, happy to have found a family who wanted her as much as she wanted them.
Splitting her time between us was easier when I relented and went back to working most nights. I spent my days with her, just the two of us, and then she spent her evenings with Carrick and her new brothers. Once Hunter was willing to let them out of the house, Grace would sometimes stop by with Foster. Eliza and her father were also frequent visitors. Annora had more family than she probably knew what to do with.
When the morning of the next full moon finally came around, Eliza and Grace stole her away from our home before I realized what they were doing. I’d thought she was just going downstairs to have coffee with them until I’d heard Spencer’s truck start. Once I’d run to the window, I’d seen it leaving. Then my phone dinged, letting me know I had a message.
Grace: I want my sister to have the perfect claiming day. Promise to spoil her and make sure she’s ready in time. See you at the house later. And yes…this is your alpha’s mate talking, so you better not interfere!
It was the first time since she’d been with Hunter that she’d ever pulled the rank card on me. As much as I had wanted to spend the day with my mate, I knew she would enjoy the pampering Grace had planned for her, so I wouldn’t mess that up for her. Besides, it would give me time to set up my surprise for her here. Annora was denied so many things growing up. I wanted to start making up for some of that by showering her with gifts tonight.
****
I was so busy working on her surprise and getting ready that I didn’t make it to Hunter’s house until right before the claiming was to begin. When I asked her where Annora was, Grace directed me to one of the upstairs bedrooms. When I neared the room, I could hear voices through the closed door.
“You don’t have to go through with this,” Carrick said.
I wanted to kick it down and attack him for trying to talk my mate out of the claiming, but I knew she wouldn’t forgive me if I followed my instinct. So I waited and listened while part of me was scared to death that she would agree to leave with him because I had taken her as my mate when she’d been vulnerable and afraid. Even knowing that it was the right decision, I still felt guilty about the timing of our mating.
“Daddy,” she said in a chastising tone. I swore she used every opportunity to call him that since she’d learned he was her real father.
He’d given her something I couldn’t until we had children—a blood connection with someone who loved her unconditionally. But I felt no jealousy for their relationship because it was what she had longed for over the years—a father who cherished her almost as much as I did.
“Then I guess we should put your mate out of his misery before he busts the door down to get to you,” Carrick said, letting me know he had been aware of me standing there this whole time. “He better understand we’re not just doing a wolf claiming today though. Hunter can do his part of their traditional ceremony, but I’m going to connect the two of you as part of my clan as well.”
“I’d love that,” Annora answered, and my heart lifted at the idea of tying her to me in an extra way. Kind of like what Hunter had done when he’d married Grace.
Once I’d opened the door, the first thing my eyes landed on was my mate, who was standing in front of the mirror in a white dress that hugged her curves and swirled around her legs.
“So fucking beautiful,” I breathed.
“Guess I don’t have to worry about Parker giving a damn about my addition to the ceremony with the way he’s looking at you right now,” Carrick joked.
“I’ll tie her to me every way possible,” I promised. “Any way that makes her happy.”
“Damn good to hear, son.” Carrick slapped me on the back. “Because if you make my baby girl unhappy, you’ll answer to me.”
“No need to get into a pissing contest,” Annora said as she rolled her eyes at both of us. “I love you both. Now, did one of you want to walk me downstairs so we can get this ceremony started?”
“I do,” I answered swiftly and grabbed her hand before Carrick could get to her because I didn’t doubt for a minute he wouldn’t like the privilege just as much as I would.
“Boy moves fast,” he grumbled as he followed behind us.
As we walked hand in hand, I led her downstairs and out to the backyard. My pack was standing in a circle with Hunter in the middle. I noticed that Carrick’s sons had joined them as well. The circle opened to allow us through, and Carrick joined us in the center, stopping to stand next to my brother.
As we stood in front of Hunter and Carrick, my heart went into overdrive at the thought of running after my mate and catching her. With her father and brothers present, I wanted to be as swift as possible. I had no desire to share the sight of my mate’s curvy body with anyone else—and certainly not her new, male family members.
Hunter looked at Carrick before he spoke the phrase our pack had used for generations during claiming ceremonies for all members, the words that would cement the bond between Annora and me forever by linking my wolf to her bear.
“Seinen Gefährten zu finden ist ein Geschenk. Ich bin glücklich die Verbindung meines Bruders heute segnen zu dürfen,” he said.
Carrick took a slight step forward when it was done. Then he reached for our joined hands and wrapped his own around them. He smiled at his daughter, love shining in his eyes before he looked up at the sky.
“Bless mé an aontas!” he bellowed.
Apparently, that was it, because he dropped our hands and stepped back.
“Do you have any idea what he said?” I asked Annora.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what either of them said.”
“I bless this union,” Carrick said, answering my question about the meaning of the words before I could even ask it.<
br />
“To find his mate is a gift. I am happy to be able to bless the connection of my brother today,” Hunter interjected.
“Well, there you go,” Annora giggled. “I guess they told us, huh?”
“Yes, they did,” I agreed as I gently squeezed her hand before letting it go.
“Now I run?” she asked.
“Now you run,” I confirmed.
She whirled away from me and sprinted towards the trees. Before I leapt to give chase, I saw her father and brothers move to the tree line. I thought they were going to block me, but they moved to the side and then formed a line between me and my pack members—a brick wall protecting my chase from anyone who cared to follow.
“This is close enough,” Carrick growled.
Both of my brothers laugh in response as I darted after my mate. Racing to catch up with her, I heard the rustle of leaves and the snapping of twigs not too far ahead of me. Since I was so much taller than Annora, I had a definite advantage when it came to the speed at which I could run. So I slowed my pace slightly, wanting a little more distance between everyone else and Annora when I finally caught up to her and claimed her as my own.
Once she had made it far enough, I sped after her again and caught her gaze as she turned to see how far behind I was. Instead of taking off again, she stopped and faced me.
“You’re supposed to make me chase you,” I said when I reached her.
“Seems silly since I want you to catch me,” she argued before jumping into my arms and wrapping her legs around my waist. “Why run when I can speed up the inevitable and get to the good part?”
“I’m all for getting to the good part,” I agreed as I carried her until her back was resting against a tall oak tree.
“So much more fun than running,” she breathed into my ear. “Which I don’t really enjoy.”
“I should have caught you faster. Forgive me?”
“Depends,” she groaned as I nipped my mark on her shoulder. “Think you can get me to orgasm before anyone finds us?”
“Damn straight I can,” I promised before hiking up her dress until I was pressed against her bare pussy. Even though I knew her father and brothers had us covered and the odds were that nobody was following us, I still wanted to make this quick so I could get her back to the privacy of our cabin. “Mine,” I rasped, my wolf pushing me to claim my mate here with nature surrounding us.
“Yours,” she agreed, her hands shoving my shorts down my hips until my cock was out. Then she circled her fingers around my hardened length. “And this is mine.”
“I need you,” I growled, my hips driving upwards as her hand slid up and down my cock.
In a move bolder than anything she’d done in the weeks we’d been together, Annora moved my hard-on until it was poised at her entrance. “Then take me.”
I thrust into her drenched pussy, bottoming out with one powerful surge of my hips. “Hold on tight,” I ordered.
Annora wrapped her arms around my shoulders and tightened her legs around my hips. Then her nails dug into my back.
“I want to mark you as mine too.”
“Anything you want, baby,” I reminded her. “You know that.”
Her pussy got wetter and she circled her hips to grind against me before her teeth lengthened. I braced myself for the pain as she moved towards my chest, but I only felt a slight sting and then the pleasure overwhelmed me as she marked me as her own. It pushed me over the edge, and I started to pound into her body, wrapping my arms around her back so it wouldn’t hit the rough bark of the tree.
“Mine,” she growled, repeating back what I usually reminded her of when we were fucking.
“Yours,” I reassured her.
My thrusts were deep and powerful, my balls slapping against her ass each time I bottomed out. Her eyes were glazed over with lust, and it seemed like her bear was closer to the surface than usual. She was still learning about the beast that lived inside her because it was so new to her. But at times like this, my wolf wanted nothing more than to brand her bear, so I sank my fangs into her shoulder over my mark. As they slid into her flesh, her walls started to clench against me and I knew she was close to her orgasm.
“Come for me,” I demanded, moving my hand so I could flick her clit.
“Parker!” she cried out as her pussy locked down on my cock, her spasms sending me over the edge with her.
“Love you,” I growled.
It was the first time either of us had said the words, but they felt right. Annora jerked in my arms, and I tried to step backwards so she wouldn’t knock her head against the tree. I forgot that my shorts were around my feet and ended up falling on my ass with her on top of me.
“If you wanted to go again, you could have just said so,” she said jokingly, in an awkward attempt to gloss over the moment.
I remained silent until she looked up at me. Locking my gaze with her, I willed her to understand how serious I was.
“I love you, Annora.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I thought maybe you’d just said it in the heat of the moment with the claiming and everything,” she said. “I was afraid to hope you really meant it.”
“With all my heart,” I promised while it fell into my stomach because she hadn’t repeated the words back to me. However, I didn’t want her to say it if she didn’t really mean it.
As the tears spilled from her eyes, she took a deep breath. She looked happier than I’d ever seen her and so incredibly beautiful. When she finally spoke, my heart almost stopped.
“I love you with all my heart, too, Parker.”
As I pulled her close against my chest, a howl sprang from my lips and my wolf celebrated our joy. I could feel her heartbeat as if it were my own, as though our hearts beat together. Our mating bond was locked into place, so it was as though we were two halves of the same soul who lived and breathed inside each other. Annora was my claimed mate and she loved me. Our future—one I hoped was full of the children we both yearned to have—shone brightly ahead.
Epilogue
Annora
3 months later
“I can’t believe we’re spending Christmas Eve with my dad and brothers,” I said as Parker and I neared my dad’s home. It had only taken us a couple of hours to get here, and I was excited to spend my first holiday with my family.
“Neither can I,” he grumbled. “How did your dad manage to talk me into this?”
“It was easy,” I answered. “He got me all excited about seeing his home so I’d do the asking for him.”
“Because he knows damn well I can’t say no to you.”
“Maybe if you didn’t keep telling me, ‘Anything for you,’ in front of him, then he wouldn’t know,” I suggested.
“I think that ship has sailed,” I argued. “Besides which, he’ll just give you whatever you want instead.”
“You make a good point,” I admitted, feeling secure in the knowledge that I was well loved by my mate and my father. Plus my brothers, Parker’s brothers, and their wives.
It didn’t matter what presents I got for Christmas this year because I’d already gotten the only thing I ever really wanted—a family that truly cared for me and showed it. And a mate who gave me anything I wanted—often before I even knew I did. I still hadn’t gotten over the shock of finding a new car in our driveway when we’d returned home from our claiming.
When we pulled into the driveway, I saw my brothers standing beside our dad, waiting for me with grins on their faces, and wearing the ugly Christmas sweaters I’d sent them a week ago. While I had been out shopping for presents, I’d found store that specialized in them and hadn’t been able to resist buying some for the guys in my life. Never in my wildest imagination had I thought they’d actually wear them though.
“Yeah, you’ve got us all wrapped around your pinkie finger,” Parker said as he glanced down at the sweater he was wearing before jerking his head in the direction of my family. “That’s the only explanation for why you didn
’t even have to ask us to wear these damn things. All it took was you buying it and we caved.”
I was giggling when my dad opened the passenger’s door to help me out of the SUV Parker had insisted we buy yesterday. He’d wanted something safer than the car he’d just bought me and had one little reason that pushed him to make sure we had it before the drive today. A reason that my father noticed as soon as he pulled me into his arms. There really was no way to hide something like this from other shifters—damn their sense of smell.
“You’re pregnant?” he gasped in wonder. Then he lifted me up into the air when I nodded my head to confirm what his nose had already told him. “I’m gonna be a grandpa!”
Alasdair, Braden, and Camden elbowed their way past our dad to give me hugs and congratulate me before Parker stole me away from them all and walked me towards the house.
“It’s too cold for Annora to be standing around outside,” he chided them, acting as ridiculously protective of me as he’d been since we’d discovered the pregnancy.
It was something I needed to grow accustomed to and soon because I found myself treated like delicate china during our entire visit. I was set up on the couch with my feet resting on a pillow. Nobody would let me help cook, set the table, or clean up after dinner. I wasn’t even allowed to hand out presents from under the tree. Instead, each of the men in my life brought me the gift they’d chosen for me and sat next to me as I opened mine before they would even look at their presents from me. My brothers took particular delight in the stockings I’d brought for them. It was the one happy memory I had from Christmases past and a tradition I wanted to carry on with my family going forward.
By the time Parker and I left, I was exhausted. Not because I’d done anything. All the coddling made me so damn tired. I had no idea how I was going to last the entire pregnancy this way, especially since my dad and brothers had made it clear that they were going to visit more often now that we had a baby on the way. My only hope was for my brothers to find their own mates, or else I was going to have to deal with an entourage of overprotective men until the baby came.
Thrown to the Wolves (Black River Pack Book 3) Page 8
