by Anne Marsh
Uh, no. Just no. “We did not discuss that kind of kink.”
The door closes as Eli retreats. Wise man. Wolf. Whatever.
“You do not get to spank me,” I snap. Hello. We don’t have that kind of history, and we definitely haven’t had a conversation about our bedroom limits. Now isn’t the time either, because I’m… damn it. I don’t know what I feel, except that it’s a really unpleasant mix of turned on, guilty, and sad. None of those emotions are conducive to kinky sex or whatever Cruz is calling his spankin’.
Cruz growls again, and I’m so over his caveman approach.
“Let. Go,” I grit out and shove his shoulders again. Biology isn’t working to my advantage here, because he’s about as moveable as a wall. Hell, I’d have better luck with the wall because I could blow it up and vent my frustrations.
“Luc may not have marked up your pretty ass, but I aim to turn it pink.”
Holy. Shit. I don’t think he’s kidding.
Before I can figure out how I feel about his promise, he flips me over. My face plants in the pillows and a big hand smoothes over my butt. When I try to shove upright, the heavy weight on the small of my back keeps me in place.
Cruz’s mouth brushes my ear. “We’ve already established I’m in charge in our bed.”
We had? “I must have missed that memo.”
“Don’ push me,” he warns roughly. I open my mouth to tell him what I think about that—because his anger-management issues are not my fault—but he pulls me down the bed. My feet hit the floor even as my thighs bump against the edge of the mattress. My shorts and panties fly down my legs before I can even squeak out a protest.
Except… my brain’s all mixed up and my body’s yelling yes. There might even be a please and a whimper mixed up in there, but it doesn’t matter because Cruz isn’t asking. He’s telling, and it’s so sexy I’m creaming already. Plus my new position has the edge of the mattress digging into my clit and that feels so shamelessly good that I groan.
“Grip the edge of the bed,” he orders.
Do I?
“We’re gonna get a few things clear here.” He brushes a finger down my butt, and my breathing hitches. My brain shuts off when he thrusts a finger deep inside my pussy. He doesn’t bother with preliminaries, just pushes farther inside me. He feels every bit as good as I remember too, as he works himself deeper.
“You listenin’?” He finds some spot inside me that makes me want to mewl, and I hope to God that’s a rhetorical question because I’m this close to coming.
He pulls free of my body, the wet, slick sound way too loud for my peace of mind.
“Cruz.” I moan his name, but he just grabs my fingers and curls them around the edge of the bed. I’m on fire, needing more. Needing something.
“You better not let go either.” He kicks my legs wider. Is he really going to—
“This isn’t a good idea,” I grit out, my pussy on fire. Hell, my face is on fire, and I suspect my butt is about to be too. I don’t do this kind of thing, but around Cruz I always forget about the don’ts.
“Shhh. We’re playin’ by my rules, boo.”
He smacks my butt. Heat radiates from the place he slaps, and I suck in a breath. Oh. God. I nearly have a heart attack. The sting burns, and only in a good way.
“Cruz.” I tighten my fingers on the edge of the bed because I get the feeling that letting go right now might be misinterpreted.
“Nuh-uh. You talk too much.” He taps the other side of my butt. The little smack sounds way too loud, but that’s okay. My moan about drowns it out. I’m on fire.
“You got the sweetest, prettiest pink mark.” He cups my butt with one big hand, squeezing.
He peppers my backside with short, sharp slaps. Each small blow drives me forward, jolts me against the mattress digging into my clit. There’s nothing restrained or civilized about my wolf now. He works my butt, hand rising and falling, and I swear I feel each tap between my legs.
“Shhh,” he whispers roughly when I shriek. “You’re goin’ to like this next part.”
He likes it too. He presses against me, letting me feel each hard inch of his cock, and the pleasure just grows bigger, sweeping over me like a current. I’m out of control, hurtling toward an orgasm I can’t stop, and it’s so impossibly good. For a moment, I panic, pulling at his hands, because if I’m out of control, then he’s not, and I can’t…
“Yes,” he snarls, finding me with his fingers, pressing me deeper. “You can.”
I can’t catch my breath, can’t do anything but feel as he marks me. Makes me his in every way. It’s as if he needs to touch me like this… so I’m not exactly powerless here, am I?
He spreads my folds, unerringly finding my clit and making me forget all about my inner monologue. With his other hand, he smacks my butt again. The shock makes me jump, which is also oh-my-God good because the move presses me against his fingers. He flicks my clit in rhythm that matches the swats peppering my butt.
My butt burns. I swing between domination and reluctant, sweet submission. He swings me up onto the bed.
“Tilt your butt up,” he orders.
I don’t hesitate, just do it. He took me there, that night we shared with Luc. He loves my hole.
He runs a hand over my back, my butt. “Boo, I’m gettin’ in there. I’m goin’ to take your ass until you can’t sit down for a week without thinkin’ of me, but not tonight.”
I buck in silent demand. Not that I know what I’m asking for, but I need something and he’d damned well better take care of it. His mouth moves over my butt, his tongue tracing each pink mark he’s left there.
“Mine,” he says harshly, and I can’t disagree with him. Not now, not when every inch of me aches for him.
He slams into me, pushing deep. Taking me with long, hard strokes that leave me moaning, my fingers twisting in the sheets. Each time he rams himself into me, he presses against my pinkened skin, making me exquisitely aware of the marks.
CRUZ
Gianna’s with me, giving every bit as good as she gets. She’s a fighter, but there’s a desperation to the way she touches me, the way her body surges back to meet mine. I reach beneath us, finding her clit, and coax her over the edge. She comes yelling, her body clenching around mine, and it’s fast and hard and so goddamned perfect.
I pull out of her, wrap my arms around her because I’m not done with her. Hell, I’m never gonna be done with her, and I think we both know that now. It’s not just the sex, even though what we’ve got here is the kind of sex that marks you inside and out. The best kind.
Forget about Luc.
Oui. I’d said that.
Funny how she’s the one who opens up, who shares what’s going on inside her head and then lets me into her body, but I’m the one who feels so fucking vulnerable. I’m Alpha. I’m a predator. I could fight any challenger to the death and win too, but I don’t want to hurt Gianna.
My body’s screaming for me to sink deep inside her again, to let my dick do any talking that’s necessary. I can make her feel so good that maybe she’ll forget about wanting Luc, at least for the next few minutes. And then the next few minutes after that.
The problem is that minutes don’t always add up to forever.
And of course that’s reason one million why I don’t want Luc here. Sharing a bed with him, there’s no way not to touch, not to let him witness that moment when I come undone, lost in the pleasure and gone over the edge. But he had that moment too. I hang on to that thought. If he saw me at my most vulnerable, I had a similar view of him. It’s not that there’s not enough of Gianna for the two of us to share—it’s that there’s not enough of me. I’m not enough.
“Okay,” I growl, because being nice isn’t happening.
“Okay, what?” She sighs, melting around me. She’s so slick and warm that I could howl from the pleasure of it.
And I can’t tell her, because fuck if I know. Okay. She can have Luc. Okay, we’ll work it out. Just t
ell me that we’re going to be okay, because I don’t want this life without her in it. As she drifts off to sleep, I know what I have to do.
CRUZ
I slip inside the house. Gianna was passed out when I left her an hour ago, but my errand didn’t take long. I’m still not entirely ready to look behind me, to look at whom I’ve brought with me. When I toe off my boots just inside the door, the contrast between my boots and her shoes makes me smile. My steel toes are big and banged up plenty. They look out of place next to the pair of pink Crocs. And the running shoes with the pink laces. A pair of casual flats. The wedge heels she tormented me with the day she arrived. Damn. The woman has an overabundance of girly shoes.
I inhale, letting my wolf breathe in the scents of home. My den and my heart. My woman. Somehow, I’ll figure out how to make this crazy relationship work and I’ll convince her to stay with me. Tucking my chilled hands beneath my arms, I head for the bedroom. I have fifteen steps to warm my fingers up some before I start touching her. Freezing her awake won’t be romantic.
Gianna’s in bed, warm and sleeping. She’s yanked the covers over her head, just the tip of her head poking out from all the white and down. I want to mess her up and make her come apart. Give her sweet and kinky. I take off my clothes, fold them up, and set them on the dresser. Then slip into bed and pull her sleep-warmed body against mine. Oui. This is home all right.
“Cruz?” The blankets muffle her sleepy voice. She sounds pretty certain though, and that has to count for something. I’ll be happy for her to greet me like that for the next thirty, forty years.
“That’s me,” I say gruffly, sliding onto the bed beside her.
Yours. I spoon her, my heart beating out that one-word, too-right response to her simple question.
“I’m not alone,” I warn her. I mean that in all sorts of ways. With Gianna, I’m not alone. We’re a family, we’re something special. And as much as she’s mine, I’m also hers. “I love you.”
“I love you.” She sighs, her head popping out above the covers.
She stills.
Oui. She’s spotted our company. Luc leans against the wall, arms folded over his chest. He’s wearing a pair of blue jeans, the worn denim hanging low on his hips. He’s barefoot, shirtless—but it’s the naked look in his eyes that I recognize. He didn’t argue when I asked him to come back with me, just fell in beside me. No questions asked. Maybe he’s been doing some thinking of his own. He nods to me now, then pushes off the wall and pads toward us. The bed dips as he lies down on the other side of Gianna.
It would be so much easier if we could just stay like this. The bedroom part isn’t actually so difficult to work out. But since, eventually, we have to get up, have to go about our regular lives and lead our packs—and kick ass in the courtroom, in Gianna’s case—we’re gonna have to spell out some things here. We’ve been dancing around each other ever since our night in the bayou, life, the packs, and our emotions all tangled up together.
“Should I be concerned?” She asks the question lightly, but her brow puckers up as she looks between the two of us. True, it didn’t go so well the last time Luc and I shared air space. Or the time before that either.
“We’re goin’ to make this work,” Luc rasps, and it’s my turn to nod.
Gianna looks unconvinced. “Your track record sucks—and I can’t be a timeshare.”
True enough. “You’re gonna have to trust us to work this out, boo.”
She makes a face, and I don’t have to ask to know what she’s thinking. She doesn’t do trust. She’s a strictly-the-facts kind of gal, and that’s why the law works so well for her.
“Honey, you don’ put two Alphas in the same room or the same parish,” I tell her. “Not without expectin’ some fireworks. But we’re all done explodin’ now.”
GIANNA
I want Cruz and Luc by my side. I can’t see Luc’s face, but Cruz looks at me, and there’s that damn honesty in his eyes again. He swore once he’d never lie to me, and at the time, I thought his promise was romantic. I loved his bluntness, his unrelenting truth-telling. Now I realize it sucks. I want him to promise me that everything is going to work out, that there isn’t some kind of werewolf war brewing in the bayou, and that the three of us can absolutely work out our differences.
I definitely want him to lie to me about that.
“So we’re together,” I say, because they need to say it too, give me the words out loud.
“Oui,” Luc mutters, his big hand stroking over my shoulder, finding his ring on its chain and tugging lightly. “The three of us.”
“So how does it work?” My brain has already skipped ahead to the logistics. Which house? And when?
“I can’ stay here, shug. Not yet.” Luc doesn’t even have the grace to look apologetic. “Cruz, he’s the Alpha of his pack. Me, I’m the Alpha of mine. But we’ll figure the logistics out.”
I look up at Cruz. He’s so close, his legs brushing mine. And yet… part of him’s not quite here. He’s watching Luc and me. He does that lots, and I wonder what, exactly, it is that he sees. I wouldn’t want to go up against him in a courtroom, that’s for sure. Not only does he see too much, but he knows how to fit the pieces together. The way the corners of his mouth tighten as he stares first at Luc and then at me tells me he understands exactly what Luc is saying. That there’s no way, no how two Alphas live together side by side, let alone share the same woman. That the three of us can make all the promises we want, but other people will want to unmake them for us.
“This can work,” I argue, because I’ve made a career out of arguing and doing it well.
Luc calls to me, to a mean, feral, primal side I thought I’d buried in the trailer park. The part that lives no matter what the cost. It’s also the part that runs and fights and feels. But the sex with him actually scares me sometimes—I’m out of control in his arms, feeling too much. He’s wild and he makes me want to be the same, but it’s not as if I can just disappear into the Louisiana bayou with him and spend the next fifty years making love. His brothers don’t much like me either, although Cruz’s family has its issues too. I’m virtually powerless in their world, and it’s stupid not to admit that truth.
“She don’ understand,” Cruz says roughly, but he’s looking at Luc and not at me, which is irritating as hell.
“She’s not a wolf,” Luc agrees.
“She’s right here.” I’m not the little woman and we’re discussing our future. There has to be a loophole. A way to change things. I’ve spent a lifetime arguing the impossible, so I’m not about to quit now.
“Your dad’s not dead,” I point out. “You said that the packs are all about dominance, the younger wolves challenging the older ones until there’s a fight between the Alpha and the strongest challenger. The winner gets to lead. So how come you didn’t kill your dad when you took over here, Cruz?”
He shakes his head. “We’re blood too. We chose to do things differently.”
“So you can choose us.” I don’t want to let go of this.
“I already have.” He brushes his thumb over my mouth. “You just don’ believe me. Not yet.”
He looks over at Luc and mutters something. And then he sits up, leaning over me and cupping the other wolf’s face in his big, rough hands. Luc stiffens, but doesn’t move. Not even when Cruz kisses the hell out of him.
CRUZ
Luc freezes when I kiss him. I don’t blame him. We’ve never discussed this, never suggested that there could be attraction or touching or anything other than Gianna between us. And honestly, I’m not sure what I want when it comes to Luc, but I’m willing to ask the questions and look for the answers. I’m willing to try.
Together.
So I brush my mouth over his, trying this thing out. He doesn’t feel wrong. He just feels like… Luc. His lips are rough and hard, but he exhales harshly and then he opens up a fraction of an inch.
I must make some kind of noise, or he does. It’s enough to be a m
aybe even if it’s not a yes. I kiss him deeper, eyes open, watching his face. His mouth softens and he lets me in. It’s his choice. He could keep me out, could shove me away or get off this bed. But we’ve got Gianna between us, in more ways than one, and this is one way forward.
Luc’s hand comes up and covers mine, his fingers braceleting my wrist. And then he kisses me back, fiercely, deeply. His tongue tangles with mine, and we’re both breathing harder when we tear our mouths apart. There’s nothing gentle about our kiss, and I’ve got no idea if it’s a fucking first or last kiss, but I know one thing.
Our kiss is a start.
“I can have feelings for both of you,” I say roughly to Luc and Gianna. “You don’ have to choose between us, sweetheart.” That’s my bottom line right there. “I love you. Luc here, he loves you.”
The werewolf Alpha makes a rough noise, dips his head, and presses his mouth against Gianna’s ear. His gaze never leaves mine, but there’s something there. Something… warmer. Better. He looks good when he’s been kissed.
“We’re gonna love you,” I promise her. “Luc and I, we’ve got you.”
BOUND BY THE VIKING!
Want more werewolves? Check out the Warriors Unleashed series! Viking berserkers who shapeshift into bears meet their match in the local werewolf pack…
Freya’s tits, but the wolf den was no Four Seasons. Even after I killed my snowmobile and strode inside the cave, the cold beat at me like Thor’s hammer. The bitter scent of smoke and kerosene heaters didn’t add to the ambiance, plus the mangy scent of werewolf was overwhelming. How the shifters managed to stink like wet fur and eau de old dog when it was ten degrees below zero out was a mystery, but that was winter in Greenland for you and reason number one why we Vikings had gone a-sailing all those centuries ago.
I slid a glance up at the ceiling. The caves were none too scenic, either. The decorating style consisted of dirt, rocks, and a shitload of ice and snow. If I’d been a werewolf, my vote would have been for tropical relocation ASAP.
