by Lori King
He gave a throaty sigh and his heart rate increased. “Yes, it is. I love having you in my arms, mate of mine, and I’ve been dreaming about taking you outside under the sun since the moment I saw that sexy as sin body of yours.”
Her blood grew thick in her veins and her nipples ached. His words were a fiery aphrodisiac to her inner nympho. She couldn’t help but grind her wet pussy down over the thick ridge of his erection. Pinned as he was beneath her, he was at her mercy, and she found she liked the control.
Darting her tongue out, she teased his reddish-brown nipple as she rotated her hips. He hissed out a breath and then gripped her ass cheeks, trying to hold her still. “Easy, amor. If you do too much of that, this show will be over way too quick.”
“I don’t believe that. You would never leave me hanging,” she said, turning her attentions to the other nipple.
The growl from his throat did nothing to deter her. Instead it just made her that much hotter, and she increased her movements on his cock. The hammock began to sway side to side, rocking them roughly. It was deliciously erotic knowing that they were exposed to anyone who happened to be running in the woods around her house. Even considering werewolves weren’t exactly modest, this was stretching the boundaries of comfort to some degree.
“Stop playing with me, and take me inside of you, mate. I need to feel you gripping me,” Mateo snarled slightly, and she looked up to meet his dark eyes. The need that she saw there would have driven her to her knees if she wasn’t already on them, and her body reacted swiftly.
When she went to lift up, the hammock swung more violently and fear of being tipped over made her freeze. Mateo took advantage of her momentary lapse and reached between them to quickly line his hard cock up with her hot slit. Before she could argue or beg, his hands were back on her hips and he was shoving her down over him.
The sudden invasion made her cry out, and she fell forward again. With one hand on each of his massive shoulders, and her breasts pressed against his ribs, she began to move as she tried to ease the fire in her womb. The hammock swung, creating a breeze, and an oddly off-balance feeling that only added to the naughtiness of being out in the open. Her climax rose quickly, and Mateo dug his nails into the skin of her ass as she undulated on top of him, his own release brought on by hers. When his teeth sunk into her shoulder, she exploded again, gasping for breath and fighting to maintain her balance as her body pulsed with orgasm. White-hot heat filled her belly as his semen shot deep inside of her.
It was a binding of souls as much as a binding of bodies, and when she was finally able to lift her head, she stared deep into his eyes, trying to convey all of the emotions rocketing through her. His lips curved up in a smile and he winked playfully. “I told you we would fit.”
Their laughter echoed off of the trees, scattering a few birds that had lingered to watch their lovemaking. In silence they stayed there, locked together for countless minutes, holding each other. When her knees began to cramp from being in one position for too long, she gave a gusty sigh. “I need to get up, but before I do, I want to tell you something.”
His whole body went tense underneath her, and she jerked her eyes up to his. The fear in their dark-cocoa depths was almost tangible. “No! It’s nothing bad! I’m sorry, I’m screwing this up. I just wanted to tell you that I love you, too.”
Almost as though a physical weight lifted off of his chest, he relaxed in one big groan. “Dios mio, mi amor. You scared the hell out of me. I love you, mi reina, and I look forward to making you wear that satisfied smile as often as possible for the rest of our lives.”
She returned his smile and he kissed her forehead before helping her to her feet. Once she was up, she stretched, arching her back to extend muscles that were way too tight. A low growl had her turning to face him as he watched her from the hammock.
“You look good enough to eat, little girl.”
“Little girl? What are you, the big bad wolf now?” she asked, planting her hand on her hip and striking a seductive pose that had his thick cock stretching again.
“Only if it means I get to eat you,” he countered with a wink. But as he tried to get up, the hammock resisted, and his big frame seemed to sink deeper into the sling. She fought back a giggle at his predicament, but when he made a second attempt and flung himself out of the net and onto the grass below, she laughed so hard her sides hurt.
“Ha. Ha. Very funny. You realize you could have been helpful instead of watching me make a fool of myself.”
“I could have,” she agreed, “but that wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining.”
He frowned at her, but his eyes were still lit with humor. “I’ll have to spank you later for that, mi reina.”
“Promises. Promises.” She grabbed his hand and led him back into the cabin. “Are you hungry? I’m starving.”
“I could eat,” he agreed, and he turned his back to grab the bread out of the cabinet.
Pulling out sliced meat and cheese, she began to prepare a plateful of sandwiches to tide them over. “What are your scars from?” she asked, looking at the pale white stripes that crisscrossed his back.
He tensed and turned to face her. “I was whipped when I was younger. I interrupted Reyes raping a friend of mine, and beat the hell out of him instead of going to get help. It was my word against his which of us was the villain, and I was punished for the crime.”
“They whipped you?” She was stunned. Never in her life had she met anyone who was whipped for a crime. Whipping was a punishment from centuries ago, right?
Mateo nodded solemnly. “Yes, that was a favorite punishment of Barton’s. He thought himself particularly skilled with a whip. He taught Rolando, and Rolando taught Reyes. The Asis men are dangerous. Keep your distance from them.”
“I will. Why do you have an accent and speak Spanish so often when Cadence doesn’t?”
Mateo looked surprised, but his face relaxed into an easy smile. “We were both taught to speak both Spanish and English as children. His mother and mine were good friends as well as sisters-in-law. Our fathers’ parents moved here from Spain along with the few members of their pack in the early sixties. They joined up with another small pack just outside of Chicago. When the other pack’s Alpha died with no children, my grandfather stepped into his role as Alpha. Erock was the oldest son, but Barton was the strongest of the two of them, so when Grandfather died, he took over from there. It wasn’t good for our pack, but that’s how it happened.”
“Was the other pack Spanish as well?” she asked, an image of Silas and Martin flashing through her brain.
Mateo shook his head. “No, actually they were a blended pack, but most of them were Irish and Scottish from what I understand. Why do you ask?”
She paused in what she was doing and faced him. “If they are going to be my new pack, then I want to know everything I possibly can before I meet them. I don’t speak Spanish, so I was worried that I wouldn’t fit in, and you didn’t tell me why you kept your bilingual skills while Cadence didn’t.”
“Oh, he did. He speaks both languages fluently, but his father sent us to the Eastern Pack School, and they very nearly beat the language out of him. The head of the school at the time didn’t feel it was proper for an Alpha in America to speak a language other than English.”
Anger flared up in Whitney’s chest and she screeched, “Oh my God! That’s the most prejudiced—”
Mateo reached for her, pulling her into his arms. “I know, mi reina, but that is how many people felt at the time. So Cadence rarely uses Spanish, while I tend to slip into it regularly.”
“You two are so different from each other,” she surmised, burying her face in his neck and kissing his skin.
“Different and yet the same in many ways, too, flower.” Cadence’s voice startled her, but Mateo didn’t even flinch.
“You knew he was there?” She gave him an accusatory glare, but he just nodded and gestured her to Cadence.
“I missed you,
flower. Did you have a good time with Mateo?” Cadence asked. Before she could respond he captured her mouth with his and kissed her breathless. When they parted, he was smiling down at her and she was panting.
“We made use of the hammock,” she murmured blankly, and both of his eyebrows rose.
“I’m sorry I missed that. Now are we having lunch or talking about my past?” he asked, stealing a slice of cheese off of the sandwich she had left half-prepared.
Whitney narrowed her eyes at him. “I am fixing lunch because if I left it up to you two I would spend all day naked and atop a cock. I am starving to death.”
Now both men gave her a hard glare. She continued to prepare the sandwich as though she was ignorant to their ire. “Mayonnaise or mustard, wolf-man?”
Cadence let out a small growl. “You deserve a spanking for that.”
She let her eyes widen and tried to look innocent. “See what I mean? All about sex. I’m not sure I’ll ever get any rest.” Sighing forlornly, she fixed the sandwich sans instructions and passed him his plate. “Let’s eat.”
Sashaying past the two of them, she headed for the sofa. She could feel their eyes on her ass as she went through the doorway, so she stopped to wink over her shoulder. “By the way, if I’m going to be naked ninety percent of the time, we’re going to have to talk about setting the thermostat higher. It’s a little chilly in here.”
Mateo looked at Cadence, and in her brain she heard them as she disappeared out of sight.
Should we warm her up?
Warm her ass up you mean?
Definitely.
Prepare yourself, flower.
Laughing all the way, they carted her off to the bedroom, sandwiches and stomachs forgotten in favor of other hungers.
Chapter 10
Dinner was a smaller affair this time, although Whitney still felt like the forty to fifty people seated on the Alpha’s lawn was a rather large group to be called a dinner party. Instead of feeling awkward and off-balance, tonight she felt marvelous and relaxed. Her knowledge of the Diego wolves was growing, and so was her comfort with her two men.
Cadence and Mateo didn’t hover over her exactly, but they were almost always within arm’s reach, and more than once she would turn to look for them, only to find them watching her already. It was a heady feeling to know that she had that kind of effect on them, but a small voice nagged at her in her brain that she might also be a distraction during tomorrow’s challenge.
Stop worrying so much, mi reina, we will be just fine.
I can’t help it.
I love you, amor. Focus on your friends and your family tonight. That’s all that matters.
Whitney shot Mateo a grateful look before turning her attention back to Chance, who was regaling them with the story of how he managed to bring down a whole bridge by himself.
“You took down a bridge as in a big old concrete bridge?” someone asked skeptically, and Chance shook his head.
“No, it’s a footbridge that was there for years and years over the narrow part of the river. Not in the best of shape, but it worked for my purposes. All I planned was to go fishing, and I was going to sit on the bridge and fish over the side. Simple, right?” When everyone nodded, the young man continued. “I put my corn next to me on the ground, and I kid you not, a squirrel came running up and stole some of it.”
“Wait, why were you using corn for bait?” Henley Gray asked with a confused look.
Chance looked flabbergasted. “Are you kidding, man? The fish eat the corn right up and come back for more. You have to try it sometime. Anyways, this squirrel must have had a big old set of gonads, because he came flying across the bridge to steal a paw-full of corn and then he took off to his tree. Five minutes later, he was back again. The first couple of times I thought it was hilarious, but after a little bit I realized that he was stealing all of my bait. So I tried to snatch him the next time he ran over, but the damn thing got out of my hands and landed on my head. I started grabbing for it, and lost my balance slipping off the side of the foot bridge. I managed to catch myself on the edge of the bridge, and I was holding myself up. At that point I should have just let go and gotten wet, but my dumb ass decided to try and fling myself up onto the bridge. I’m a wolf, I should have super human strength, right? Well I found out the hard way that I don’t. I flung myself up and all of my weight landed on that flimsy bridge with a whack. Next thing I knew I was under the water with boards falling down around my head. Took a big one to the back of my head.”
“No chance of damaging that,” Mateo said loudly, and everyone laughed.
“What happened to the squirrel?” Tina asked.
“Stupid little thing was sitting on the bank watching me flail in the water. I swear it was laughing at me,” Chance said grudgingly.
Chance’s friend August smacked him on the shoulder. “What I want to know is why the hell you didn’t just put the corn in your pocket like a normal person would have?”
Everyone exploded into laughter when Chance’s face turned red. The young man smacked his friend back but accepted the ribbing with good nature. For a moment Whitney wondered what it would be like to be a part of their pack, with all of these men in her family. She didn’t want to see them killed tomorrow. She wanted them to travel home with her and her men, and to know that they would always have her back. Turning, she watched her men as they chatted with their friends, and her family. A group of people that meant the world to her. It was too heartbreaking to consider giving up any of them.
“Picklenose!” Liam called out. She shot him a glare, that earned her a round of laughter, and she realized that he must be sharing the reason behind the odd nickname with her mates. He had spent her whole life calling her picklenose because she had a bad habit of wrinkling her nose when she was irritated with him. Mateo gave her a wink, but Cadence laughed hard enough he had to wipe tears from his eyes.
Before she could give the three of them a piece of her mind, Devin’s voice echoed across the yard as he called Caroline and Shandi from the table to the house. Everyone seemed to freeze in place on the edge of their seats. No one spoke as they waited to hear news of their friends and family. Too many people were still at risk in Wyoming and the seriousness of his tone smacked their laughter away. They watched as Devin spoke softly to Caroline and Shandi, and Whitney felt her heart lurch at the simultaneous looks on their faces.
Tina jumped to her feet and ran to their side, Liam hot on her heels, but Devin held up one hand to stop their questions. He seemed to notice the group watching from beyond, and his shoulders sagged slightly as he sighed. Taking Caroline and Shandi’s hands, he led them back over to the group.
“I have news from Quiver Creek. They were attacked by the Kaplan wolves.”
Gasps and moans filled the air, as well as the sticky sweet smell of fury. Around her, Whitney felt wolves reacting. Anger and fear flooded everyone’s senses as they waited to hear the outcome.
“There were casualties. Four of the Quiver Creek wolves were killed, and Thomas was gravely injured protecting one of the pack’s children.”
“Oh my God, Tommy!” Tina trembled, and her knees buckled. Liam caught her up to his chest before she could hit the ground, looking a little pale himself at the news. Hearing that her brother was injured, had turned the normally prickly woman into a pile of unstoppable tears and sniffles. Whitney could relate as fear washed over her for her own brothers. At least she had three brothers, Tina only had Thomas, and the two of them were thick as thieves. If he died the effect would be catastrophic on his sister’s psyche.
Devin moved quickly to Tina’s side where he took her hands in his. “He’s okay, but it was touch and go. Cash is the one who saved his life. I don’t know all of the details, but I know that he is full wolf now and he survived, as did the rest of our wolves. They are leaving tomorrow and should be home sometime in the night or first thing the following morning. I know it’s faster than we planned, but it’s unavoidable. Even with imme
diate surgery, Tasha might not survive.”
Cadence rose from the chair he was sitting in next to Whitney and spoke. “What can we do to help you, Devin?”
A sad smile curled Devin’s lips. “Unfortunately, right now there isn’t anything we can do but wait. I appreciate the support from your pack considering the stress you already have on your shoulders regarding tomorrow’s challenge.”
Whitney felt like someone punched her in the gut. The challenge. Less than twelve hours until they faced life and death. It seemed so close, and yet so far away. She reached for Mateo’s hand, seeking his comfort, and he automatically gave her his thumb to hold. She smiled inwardly at the sweet gesture. How well he knew her already.
“I have something to say regarding the challenge tomorrow.” Silas rose to his feet, his second Martin at his back. Everyone turned to face the two men, and Whitney could see his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallowed hard. A giddy feeling welled up in her throat at the worry lines in his forehead. The only reason he would feel so anxious was if he was pulling out of the battle. “I’m withdrawing from the challenge. I’ve discussed it with Martin, and we both feel that it would be inappropriate to go up against Cadence and Mateo. The more I’ve seen of you, Diego, the more I know that you are meant to be our Alpha, and now that you have a mate”—Silas dropped his eyes to Whitney and gave her a small smile—“who is more than worthy of the Alpha-bitch position, I see no need to sacrifice my life for a cause I don’t believe in. I wish to swear my loyalty to you as my Alpha.”
Silence settled over the group for only a moment before Rolando surged to his feet and glared at Silas. “Have you no pride? You would submit to a boy when you could have been the leader?”
“Rolando, it’s his right to withdraw,” Alastair said. He watched Silas and Martin for a few moments, assessing them before he continued. “I accept your withdrawal, however, I have to suggest you refrain from swearing loyalty. If Diego doesn’t succeed tomorrow in obtaining the Alpha position, you would be fair game to whichever of his opponents did. The others would be fully within their rights to have you killed.”
