[Black River Pack 01.0 - 03.0] Crying Wolf, Shoot for the Moon, Thrown to the Wolves

by Rochelle Paige

“Only Parker.” Spencer’s answer provided me with some relief. “We don’t like to keep secrets between us, so we shared the information with him, but you have to know he fully supported Hunter’s decision too.”

  I thought about their youngest brother and wasn’t surprised to hear that he’d accepted me even though he knew about my past. As much as he was a jokester, Parker had a bit of a “white knight” streak in him. He was quick to defend those who were weaker than he was, especially women. As wounded as I felt inside by the knowledge that my former pack had given me the ultimate insult by shunning me, the love and acceptance Spencer and his family gave me helped heal some of the pain.

  “It hurts so much,” I murmured, tears streaming down my cheeks.

  “That’s why I didn’t want you to know,” he whispered as he gently rubbed my back. “Even knowing it could mean you would accept my mark sooner rather than later, I wanted to spare you this pain. But I realized tonight that you are strong enough to handle anything, and I didn’t want any secrets between us anymore.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, my breath hitching as I cried.

  “For what, dream girl?”

  “For believing in me when you didn’t really know me. For fighting for me before you knew I was your mate. And for not being able to resist me even when you thought we didn’t belong together,” I answered, more tears gathering in my eyes. “The last year and a half weren’t easy, but I wouldn’t give up a moment of my time spent with you for anything in the world.”

  “Neither would I,” he replied.

  All the feelings I’d kept bottled inside boiled up, and I found myself sobbing into his chest. I hadn’t allowed myself to truly grieve for all I’d lost when I’d left my pack because there hadn’t been anyone to catch me when I’d fallen, but now, I had Spencer. As difficult as my past might have been, fate had blessed me with the perfect mate. With his warmth surrounding me, I thought about something my mom used to say when I was little.

  “You’ve given me the moon,” I whispered as my eyes drifted closed.

  “What do you mean, dream girl?”

  “Don’t have to settle for just the stars with you,” I tried to explain.

  “The stars sound pretty good to me.”

  “Not when you’re shooting for the moon,” I replied just before I fell into a deep, dreamless, and much-needed sleep.

  Nine

  Spencer

  The only upside to the timing of my marking Eliza was I didn’t have to wait long to be able to claim her and finalize the mating process. Which was a damn good thing because I was driven by the need to lock our bond in place forever. After the shit that happened with Layla a couple of days ago and having to tell my mate that she’d been shunned, I was beyond fucking ready to move on with the rest of our lives. Ready to spend the rest of my days making sure Eliza’s were filled with all the happiness she deserved.

  As she walked towards me in the flowing, white dress that was customary for the claiming, I was struck again by how incredibly lucky I was. Eliza had been through so much in her life, and I couldn’t have really blamed her if she had refused to accept me as her mate after the shit I’d put her through when we’d met. Out of sheer blindness, I’d made the situation worse. Even though she had made it clear to me that she didn’t blame me for my actions, I knew it would take me years to make up for the damage I’d done. She should have spent the last couple of years glowing with the same happiness that surrounded her today.

  “You ready to do this thing?” she teased as she joined me in the circle made by our pack. Then she began stretching like she was getting ready for a marathon or something and flashed me a silly grin as excitement shone from her eyes.

  “I was born ready,” I confirmed.

  As I linked my hand with hers, we turned to face Hunter. As our alpha, he would perform the ceremony that preceded the chase. My heart was already beating wildly at the thought of running after my mate and catching her. We’d run together in both human and wolf forms before, so I knew she could make it a challenge for me. It was one I planned to overcome quickly because I wanted to use our head start to my full advantage. Although I understood the traditions surrounding the claiming, I refused to even consider the possibility of any of our fellow wolves seeing me claim my mate. She was mine and mine alone, and I would never allow anyone to see her naked and vulnerable beneath me.

  “Seinen Gefährten zu finden ist ein Geschenk. Ich bin glücklich die Verbindung meines Bruders heute segnen zu dürfen,” Hunter spoke, but as much as I tried to focus on what he was saying, I couldn’t pull my attention away from my beautiful mate.

  She was looking up at me with such trust and love that it almost brought me to my knees. I forced myself to glance around the circle as our pack members repeated Hunter’s final words and blessed our claiming. When my gaze finally landed on my brother, he nodded in understanding. He knew how I felt about my mate and would do all he could to delay the following so I’d get my chance to make this a more private moment between the two of us.

  Eliza’s hands tightened on mine before she pulled away from my grip. “Catch me if you can!” she yelled as she sprinted away while laughing.

  Growling lowly, I locked my gaze with each male in the circle in warning before taking off after Eliza. Racing through the forest, I heard her as she moved ahead of me as fast as she could. When we’d run together in the past, I’d always held back on my speed because I hadn’t wanted to lose sight of her. My mate was in for a surprise if she thought I’d have any difficulty catching her today, because I ran faster than I ever had in my life as I chased after her.

  Narrowing all my senses in on her, I quickly locked on to Eliza and realized there was a shortcut through the trees that intersected with the path she’d chosen. I knew I’d probably get scratched up a bit from branches, but the time I’d save was well worth a little of my blood. I pushed myself harder, knowing how close I was to my goal. Then, bursting through the trees, I leapt in front of her just as she turned to see how far ahead she was.

  “Gotcha!” I growled, tossing her over my shoulder and barely pausing my stride.

  “Spencer!” she gasped in surprise. “How the hell did you catch me so quickly?”

  “Need you,” I grunted as I placed her on the softer ground with long grass covering it. “No time to waste.”

  Her eyes melted as she tilted her head to listen more closely. “Nobody’s near yet.”

  “Mine,” I rasped, more beast than man at this point in the chase. My mate was underneath me, and I could smell her excitement. My wolf urged me to take her now and make her ours. To make sure nobody would come between him and the she-wolf he’d been waiting for me to claim for years.

  “Yours,” she whispered back, lifting the dress to remove it from her body.

  “Leave it,” I ordered, bunching the material in my hand to only lift the hem.

  Eliza moaned in agreement. Then her eyes flashed yellow in the night, her wolf close to the surface as well. “Take me now.”

  “Roll over,” I ordered, and Eliza moved to her hands and knees. Slipping my hands up her thighs, I slid her dress up and over her back, staring as her ass was revealed to my sight. Then I trailed kisses on her smooth skin, moving up her body until I was crouched over her.

  “Please,” she sighed, arching her back so she could rub against me.

  “Widen your legs,” I commanded. “Let me in.”

  “Yes,” she hissed as I sank my cock into her drenched pussy.

  “Mine. Mine. Mine,” I chanted as I pounded into her willing body.

  “Yours,” she kept repeating.

  My thrusts were deep and rough, my balls slapping against her clit each time I thrust inside. It didn’t take long before her walls were clenching against me, which let me know she was close to her orgasm.

  “Come for me,” I demanded, moving my hand so I could circle her clit and send her over the edge.

  “Yes!” she cried out as her pussy locked do
wn on my cock, her spasms bringing me closer to my own climax.

  It wasn’t enough though. I wanted to own every part of my mate. After gathering some of her moisture with my fingers, I moved to her ass and teased her rim. When she didn’t protest and her pussy fluttered against my cock, I worked one finger into her small hole.

  “Spencer,” she growled in a way that told me that her wolf was close to the surface. Then she arched her back to ease my entry, and I knew she had the same need driving her as I did right now. I wanted to possess all parts of my mate right now, and she needed to be dominated. Owned.

  Once I could slide one finger inside more easily, I added a second and twisted my wrist, making sure she was as slippery as I could get her before pulling my cock from her pussy and pausing before entering her ass.

  “Breathe in,” I ordered as I breached her. I slowly plunged inside, moving inch by inch until I slid all the way in. Wrapping her hair around one fist, I held on to her hip with the other, and felt the brush of fur over my skin as a howl was torn from my lips. “All fucking mine.”

  “Please, Spencer,” she moaned, writhing beneath me. “I need you to take me.”

  “Fuck,” I hissed as I began a punishing pace. I couldn’t take my eyes off the view of my dick plunging into her ass. The sight of me possessing her so completely had my spine tingling with the need to come, but I needed her to come with me. Once I’d released her hair, I sank three fingers into her pussy and timed my thrusts so I was filling both of her holes at the same time. She was incredibly tight against me. And when I heard her gasping for air as she began to tremble, I knew she was close.

  “Oh, God. So goddamn tight,” I groaned as I continued to thrust.

  “Spencer!” she cried out in ecstasy just as I heard leaves rustling not too far away.

  “Now!” I demanded as I stiffened inside her, my hot come filling her ass. Stars burst across my vision as my climax rolled over me. My cock jerked inside her ass as I slowly continued to thrust in and out.

  Aware that our pack members were drawing closer, I eased myself out of her body and slid her dress down to cover her naked skin before pulling her into my embrace. As I focused on Eliza, I realized I could feel her heartbeat as if it were my own. Her pleasure had been mine as I had taken her ass, and it was what had sent me over the edge. Our mating bond was locked into place now, so it was as though we lived and breathed inside each other. As though we were two halves of the same soul. I owned every inch of her now. Body, heart, and soul. She was mine and I had no intention of sharing her with anyone else in any way.

  “Except our children,” she said.

  “What?” I asked, startled by her words.

  “No, I can’t really read your mind, but it’s pretty clear what you’re thinking,” she replied. “And you don’t have to share me with anyone else except our children when we have them. I want them to know they have two parents who love them and accept them no matter what.”

  As happy as her words made me, I was also panicked at the thought of being a parent. I wanted time alone with my mate first. Time to enjoy the closeness we’d earned together. Some of what I was feeling must have shown clearly on my face, because Eliza giggled.

  “Later,” I growled.

  “Yes,” she agreed. “Much later.”

  I leaned over to capture her lips with mine before helping her to her feet. As we headed back to Hunter’s house to celebrate our claiming, I was surprised to see that none of the males were anywhere near us. Several of the she-wolves were close, sitting in a line with their backs turned towards us as though they were guarding the path. Giving us the space I’d needed to make this moment private for the both of us.

  “You do realize you’re ridiculously possessive, right?” Eliza asked as she gestured at them.

  “I didn’t even know they were going to do that,” I protested.

  “I know,” she admitted. “I spoke to Hunter and asked if he would make sure nobody intruded too closely. We both know how much of a caveman you can be around me, and I didn’t want anything to ruin today for you.”

  “I love you, my dream girl,” I whispered in her ear, incredibly touched at the effort she’d put forth on my behalf. I’d told her that I loved her before, but there was new depth behind those words after our claiming.

  “And I love you,” she replied.

  Epilogue

  Eliza

  Six months later

  The visions had been quiet since my claiming ceremony with Spencer. These days, my dreams were filled with all the naughty things I imagined doing with my mate. Knowing he dominated my dreams brought Spencer so much happiness. It made him feel like he was able to protect me from the pain they sometimes caused me.

  If my mom hadn’t shared stories about my grandmother’s visions from when she’d been a little girl, I might even have thought they were gone because I was fully mated. I knew better than to think the dreams were gone for good. Odds were it would be even stronger than it’d been before because Spencer’s love strengthened me. Now that I was surrounded by a pack that accepted me and my abilities, I was learning to embrace it as the gift it truly was because my dreams could help the people I loved. This acceptance was a good thing, because when the dreams returned, they came back with a vengeance.

  At first, I thought I was just remembering happier days from when my parents had been alive. I hadn’t dreamed of my dad in years, and I was comforted by his presence even if it was only in a dream. I wasn’t surprised to see him helping a young woman who looked like she had been beaten. I didn’t recognize her, but my dad had always been the type of man to offer assistance whenever and wherever it was needed.

  It appeared as though the woman was badly injured and could barely walk. My dad’s head was bent to her as he spoke. His voice was lowered, though, so I couldn’t hear what was being said. As he helped her to move, she winced, her beautiful face creasing with pain. There seemed to be an urgency in both of their actions, like they were trying to get away from someone or something.

  By the time my dad looked up and I could clearly see his face, my heart was pounding from fear for both of them. It wasn’t until I noticed the scar on his face that I realized I wasn’t dreaming about the past. This was a vision of the future—one that somehow included the father I’d thought had died years ago.

  From far away, I could hear Spencer calling to me, but I struggled to stay in the dream. To stay with my dad so I would understand the meaning behind it all. Then the vision changed to a series of pictures that quickly flashed before my eyes as Spencer became more insistent, yelling at me to wake up. When he began to shake me, I woke up gasping.

  “Are you okay?” Spencer asked me as he roughly pulled me into his arms. “Please fucking tell me you’re okay.”

  My body was still shaking, and I was drenched in sweat. With my chest heaving, I tried to catch my breath so I could provide Spencer with the reassurances he needed. I squeezed him tight as I rested my head on his chest until I could speak again.

  “Yes,” I finally whispered, my throat hurting.

  “You scared the fucking shit out of me, Eliza,” Spencer said. “I was sound asleep, and then, all of a sudden, you were screaming for your dad and shaking and I couldn’t wake you up. What the hell happened?”

  “It was my dad,” I rasped. “He was in my dream.”

  “Shit,” he murmured. “Was it bad? A vision of his death or something?”

  “No,” I answered, my voice cracking.

  “Hold on,” Spencer ordered before he jumped out of bed and left the room. He soon returned with a bottle of water, which he opened and practically shoved in my face.

  The ice-cold drink felt amazing on my parched throat. By the time I drained the bottle, I felt much better.

  “I don’t think he’s dead. I think he somehow survived and they kept us apart.”

  “Fuck!” Spencer hissed. “I never thought to ask about your parents. After I was told about the shunning, I was so damn
ed pissed I didn’t even think to ask about your family.”

  “It’s not your fault they lied to me,” I said, trying to calm him down. “You had no way of knowing they were hiding something like this. Maybe that’s even why I was shunned.”

  “If your alpha did this to make sure you wouldn’t be able to find your dad, I’m going to rip that fucking asshole’s head from his dead body,” he growled.

  “He blamed me for his son’s death. Maybe he wanted me to feel the same kind of pain?” I asked Spencer even though I knew there was no way he could know.

  “He kicked you out of the pack—the only home you had ever known—left you with no friends, and allowed you to think you had no family remaining? Losing your mom wasn’t enough for him? That’s beyond cruel and he doesn’t deserve to lead other wolves,” Spencer argued.

  “Let karma be the bitch who takes him down,” I said.

  “I’m not going to let this go. He can’t get away with hurting you like that,” he countered.

  “If he hadn’t kicked me out of the pack, I might never have found my way to you,” I pointed out. “Besides which, we’ve got bigger things to worry about than what an asshole did to me years ago.”

  “Bigger things?” he repeated.

  “I think my dad has been searching for me and finally found out where I am. I think he’s on his way here,” I explained. “He’s got Parker’s mate with him, and trouble isn’t far behind.”

  Thrown to the Wolves

  Annora Channing's entire world changes the moment she discovers she's a bear shifter. With mated wolves for parents, she should have been a wolf also. When the man she grew up thinking was her father realizes she isn't his daughter, he devises a plan to use her existence to his advantage in a way that will get her out from under his roof.

  When her situation goes from bad to worse, Annora escapes but is badly injured in the process. Luckily, Elias Reve comes to her rescue while on his way to Wolf's Point and the daughter he lost years ago. With nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to, Annora joins him on his journey and ends up running smack-dab into the arms of her mate.