The two alphas turned to the crowd and clasped hands, raising them high above their heads. They paused, looking out over the waiting clan members, then shouted, “We endure!”
The crowd went wild, cheering, shouting, laughing, hugging and slapping each other on the back. There were probably some less-than-enthusiastic clan members out there, but everyone in Nikki’s general vicinity seemed overjoyed. She stood up and hugged Luke and Mason and then her brothers.
“And do we have a name?” someone shouted out as the noise waned.
It was Grey that answered. “That is the one major thing we have yet to decide. We’ve had so many differing opinions but have yet to find one that suits both former clans.”
“With such a big change, we don’t want to hand down a decision,” Zion added. We will put it to a vote at the next clan gathering, which will take place seven days from now. Until then, feel free to refer to yourselves as Ravens or Lycans, provided that you remember these names mean one in the same now.”
“A vote hardly seems fair,” another voice called out. “There are far more Ravens than there are Lycans.”
Grey turned a hard stare on the clan member who’d spoken up. “Ravens and Lycans are no more, but we believe most clan members will be pleased with the choices. Those who aren’t will learn to live with it.”
Mason leaned closer, speaking in a hushed tone. “Grey didn’t want the vote. He said clan members are more comfortable following than making decisions. Zion insisted.”
Nikki nodded. “He’s always preferred to let the clan vote, for the major changes. He says not having a say leads to discontent.”
Zion was speaking again. “The alpha Ulric, as you know, is planning to launch a war with the Bertaldo Clan of vampires. He’s taken up recruiting across the country, using force whenever his slick tongue hasn’t won him supporters. Those who won’t join him must fight him and his growing mob. Any clan or pack that isn’t strong enough is absorbed or dies. This is troubling, but united, we are stronger than before. Ulric may come to River’s Bend, but he won’t destroy our clan as part of his plan.”
“What does he want anyway?” Robyn called out.
“Yes, why is he doing this?” a man standing next to her asked. “Doesn’t he realize how dangerous the vampires are?”
“We can only speculate at what’s on Ulric’s mind. Rumor has it he believes he can win if he gets enough wolf shifters to fight with him.”
“What is the plan? How will we defend against him?” the man asked.
“That, we can’t share, at least not yet,” Grey answered. “But rest assured that your alphas will protect River’s Bend.”
Zion nodded. “Today, we will meet with warriors from each of the former clans to begin planning for the battles that could eventually come close to River’s Bend. We hope to avoid war, but if it comes to that, we will call on each of you to take your part in defending our clan and supporting those on the front lines. One of our main objectives is to keep battle with Ulric and the vampires from touching River’s Bend soil.”
“Yes, but tonight…” Grey said. “Tonight, we celebrate!”
Chapter 8
“My favorite’s the red dress. I love the way it clings to your hips.” Mason smoothed his hands over the fabric to illustrate his point.
“But, it’s too hard to take off,” Luke said. “The black dress, the first one she tried on, is better because of the buttons down the back. Easy access.” He waggled his eyebrows in a way that made Nikki laugh even as it sent a thrill racing up and down her spine.
“Well…” Mason said, appearing to give the matter deep thought, “we could just rip it off her if we were in a hurry.”
Nikki laughed. “You wouldn’t dare. These dresses are expensive.” Her father had sent an assortment of dresses for her to try on for the party. She was to pick the dress she wanted and send the others back. She’d been trying them on for the better part of an hour, and her men had been helping by offering opinions of each one she tried on. Really, though, they’d been much more interested in helping themselves to her, and she’d spent much of the time trying to keep them on task.
“Is that a challenge, Mrs. Andres?” Luke asked, pulling her close and burying his head in her cleavage. He took a deep whiff before raising his head to look at her, hope in his eyes.
“No, no, it’s not a challenge,” Nikki said breathlessly. That look caused her heartbeat to quicken and her resolve to weaken, but she did need to choose a dress. Life had pretty much returned to normal after the meeting to join the clans, at least as far as she knew since she and her mates spent so much time in bed. That night, however, Nikki and her fated would attend a huge celebration in their honor. It would mark the end of the hydan and the beginning of their real lives together. She wanted to look nice for them.
Mason reacted immediately to her growing arousal, walking over to stand behind her and press himself against her like a giant wall of sexual heat, heat that immediately coursed through her body and centered between her legs. Nikki squirmed at the sensation, which only encouraged Luke to grind his pelvis against her, ensuring that she’d feel his arousal, too.
Groaning, she shook her head. “Seriously, guys, you have to let me try these dresses on. You don’t want me looking like crap tonight, do you?”
Luke feigned a look of shock. “What? Look like crap? That’s impossible!”
“Luke’s right. That could never happen, but you won’t look your best in any of these, anyway.” Mason kissed her neck as he talked, making her nipples harden and her mind fight to remember what she needed to do.
Mason didn’t like any of the dresses? “Well, I’ll search through my things and see if I can find something better. I doubt it, though.”
She did have many nice clothes, more than were required for someone who lived out in the boonies, but Zion had gone all out for these. She didn’t think there was anything in her closet to top the dresses hanging on the portable rack in their suite. Nikki glanced over at them. She had several more to try on, but Luke’s hand was creeping between her legs, and she couldn’t quite bring herself to push him away.
“It’s not that we don’t like the dresses,” Mason said. “It’s more that we like the way you look out of them better.”
Luke’s hand had worked its way up between her thighs to rub her lightly through her panties. “Exactly what I was thinking, Mason.” He inched the red dress up around her hips with his other hand. “All the dresses are nice, except that purple monstrosity. What was your father thinking?” He punctuated his words with little kisses and nibbles to her neck. “Anyway, why cover up perfection?”
Nikki opened her mouth to speak, but lost her ability to for a moment when Luke’s finger slid under her panties and caressed her slit. She wondered, not for the first time, if they would always have this effect on her. She went from zero to sixty far too quickly in their hands.
“Agreed. I say we take this off and spend the rest of the day in bed, where we belong.” Mason worked his large hand into the V-neck of the dress to palm her breast as he talked. Catching her ear lobe between his teeth, he nipped it as he squeezed first one breast and then the other. “What do you say, Nik?” His voice was husky in her ear, reminding her of how he sounded during sex.
“Yes…No! What am I saying? We are going to this party. We have to. Besides, I want to go.” She moaned then, closing her eyes as Luke rubbed his finger in the wetness at her entrance and then pushed it inside. She rocked her hips forward, almost losing herself in the sensations as he began to finger-fuck her. When Mason reached his other hand inside her dress and began to tweak her nipples, the white-hot desire that shot through her arched her back, pressing her forward into his hands.
Nikki had to get a handle on things or she’d end up on her back for sure. She just wasn’t certain she had the will to resist them. She gave it one last effort, which felt like pushing her way up a mountain against a strong wind. “Don’t you want to go?”
&n
bsp; “Sure, we’ll go. It’s just that we don’t want to go—” Mason began.
“—nearly as much as we want you,” Luke finished.
All Nikki could do was moan at that point, as Luke had worked a second finger inside her. She was already panting, but when Mason pulled the bodice of the dress down over her shoulders, all she could do was gasp in anticipation.
“Let’s show our mate her best look, little brother.” That was a cryptic remark from Luke, but Mason seemed to understand him perfectly. He stepped aside, giving her a parting kiss on the back of the neck, and Luke slowly withdrew his fingers, drawing a whimpered protest from Nikki.
“Hey…” He couldn’t get her all worked up and then leave her hanging. She almost wanted to stomp her foot and scream, “No fair!”
“Shhh, love,” Mason said. “Turn around and look.”
Nikki didn’t move, so Luke turned her to face the mirror. She should have been embarrassed. Maybe she would have been if she wasn’t so damned horny, but what she saw in the mirror was a woman in the throes of desire. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, her lips slightly parted, and her breasts fully exposed with nipples standing at full salute. She had an all-over flush that was clear to see, what with the way the dress was bunched up all around her waist. Her panties, a pale satin, were soaking wet and she could see the outline of her pussy lips in the mirror. She was speechless to see her physical appearance so closely matching the desire she felt inside. Well, she was nearly speechless. She did manage a few words. “Maybe just a short break.”
Her men were nothing if not prompt in taking her up on that. Before she really knew what had happened, she was sitting on Luke’s lap backward, with her back pressed to his bare chest and her thighs spread over his. He lifted her chin so she had to look at herself in the mirror as he reached back between her legs and pulled against her panties until they came apart in his hand. Then he cupped her pussy, whispering, “You’ve never been more beautiful,” in her ear before flicking her clit with his index finger. Nikki bucked and closed her eyes, but Luke wasn’t having that. “Open your eyes and watch. Look…”
Each time Nikki got lost in the sensations his hand provoked, Luke stopped his caresses and reminded her to watch. Eventually, she just stared at the mirror in order to keep the sensations going. After a while, she found that she liked watching his fingers rub slow circles on and around her clit before fucking her pussy. What she liked even more was watching Luke and Mason watch her in the mirror. That kept her nipples hard and her breath coming in fast, and then faster, gasps. Soon she was bucking hard against Luke’s plunging fingers, moaning and riding them as if they were one of her men’s cocks. Luke fingered her harder and faster, one hand clutching her breast and the other working furiously.
“Oh, God. Oh God!” Nikki half-screamed, half-moaned as the pleasure built to an almost painful intensity. One more thrust, two, and the dam broke, hurling over the edge of an incredible orgasm as she looked on at herself, at her men in the mirror. It seemed to go on forever, even as she heard the rasp of Luke’s zipper freeing his cock and watched him push his jeans down just far enough to maneuver. Impaling her on his cock, he immediately began moving her up and down on his dick. It wasn’t a slow, gentle ride. Nikki could feel the intensity of his need in his hard thrusts and the clenching of his hands on her hips.
“Slow down, Luke. I want a taste.” Mason kicked off the boxer shorts he’d been lounging around in for most of the day and kneeled between her legs as Luke slowed his pace. He dipped his head lower and licked her slit up and down before parting her pussy lips with one hand and touching just the tip of his tongue to her clit.
Nikki cried out and rotated her hips, trying to grind her pussy against Mason’s face. She was rewarded by a deep groan from Luke and a full on clit-lick from Mason.
“Please don’t tease me. I don’t think I can take it,” Nikki told Mason, but he just chuckled against her pussy and went back to lightly flicking her clit as Luke pushed in and out of her with slow, deep strokes. The double assault felt amazing, and Nikki’s head lolled back on Luke’s shoulder, earning her a firm reminder to “watch.”
Her eyes fastened back on the scene in the mirror just as Mason’s mouth fastened on her clit and sucked deeply. Nikki let out a fierce cry as the waves of another orgasm crashed over her and she bucked against Mason’s face. Her pussy walls pulled and clenched at Luke’s cock as her orgasm shook her, and she heard him swear in her ear, suddenly going still.
Mason, still on his knees between her legs, brought his face up to hers and kissed her deeply. She could taste her pussy juices on his tongue and that sent delicious aftershocks of climax through her. Luke groaned again and seemed to give up the fight. Holding her hips tightly, he thrust long and hard, fucking her faster and faster.
A sensual grin played on Mason’s face as he moved away to watch. In the mirror, Nikki watched too as her breasts bounced and her mouth fell open in pleasure once more. So this was what they meant by her best look? They’d definitely made their point.
This time, it was Luke’s shout of release and the feel of his cum coating her inner walls that pushed her over the edge of another climax that left her trembling. She couldn’t get over how wonderful they made her feel, and she couldn’t help feeling sad that the hydan would soon come to an end. Would they still want her as fiercely? As often? But there would be time to worry about that later. Right then, she wanted to make sure Mason felt as good as she did. She pulled herself off Luke with a pop and kissed him soundly, then removed the sweat-soaked dress and tossed it aside.
“Sit,” she ordered Mason, who hastily complied. Kneeling between his legs, she rubbed her face against his cock, enjoying its smooth hardness and the way his pre-cum wet her cheek. Mason wrapped his hands in her hair, holding on as she rubbed her lips over the tip of his cock and down his shaft without actually taking him in her mouth. She bent lower to press her lips to his balls and then put her tongue out to lick them.
“Nikki. Oh, baby. Just like that.” Mason sounded every bit as tortured as she felt when he teased her.
She rewarded him by licking up the length of his shaft and then pulling back to blow on the tip before licking her way back to the base of his cock.
“Damn, baby, please.”
This time, she licked up to the tip and tongued all over the head before pulling back again to blow on it again. Mason gave a strangled groan then, and she looked up to meet his eyes, the desire in them hot enough to burn her.
“Please what?” she asked, smiling innocently as she squeezed his cock and kissed a drop of pre-cum off the tip.
“Wrap those sexy lips around me,” he said with a growl. “Suck my cock.”
Nikki was happy to oblige. She wouldn’t deny him anything. Opening her mouth as wide as she could, she took as much of him as fit into her mouth and then pulled back to the tip. Then she pushed forward again before pulling back once more. As she bobbed up and down, she reached a hand up to lightly knead his balls, earning another throaty growl from her mate.
“Oh shit, Nikki. Yes,” he groaned, beginning to fuck her face the way she had fucked his.
When his movements slowed, Nikki grabbed hold of his shaft and hand-fucked him a few times while licking just the tip of his dick. His breathing grew more ragged, and she looked up to see him watching her intently. She immediately stopped her movements. “Look in the mirror, Mason. Keep watching.” Watching had enhanced her pleasure, and she wanted that for him, too.
He did as he was told, so she resumed her movements, picking up the pace. He didn’t last long. Soon he was moving up off the chair and holding her head tightly as she mouthed his cock. When he tried to pull out of her mouth, she knew he was close, but she wouldn’t let him spill his seed on the carpet. She wanted it all. Holding him tightly, she sucked harder and faster until she felt his cum spurt into her mouth and heard his voice clearly in her head. Love. My love.
Nikki tried her best to swallow every last drop, and what she
missed got smeared all over them when Mason crushed her to his chest and passionately kissed her.
Luke had been watching from the bed and picked that moment to rejoin them, pointing to the rack of dresses with a wicked glint in his eyes. “The red one was pretty good. How about we try the black one on next?”
“Out! No, don’t even try to give me the puppy dog eyes. Get dressed, and get out. Go get something to eat or…I have no idea. Just leave.” She laughed at their dejected expressions as she waited for them to find clothes and put them on. They took their sweet time, obviously hoping she’d change her mind. They were out of luck, though. After that amazing session of lovemaking, Nikki knew the only way to get through trying on the dresses was to do it alone.
* * * *
Zion looked up from his large mahogany desk. As usual, he looked imposing and dangerous, despite the graying hair and the deepening lines around his eyes and mouth. There was also a deep furrow between his brows. Whatever was on that paper he’d been reading, it hadn’t made him happy.
“Trouble?” Luke asked. For a second, he entertained the idea of waiting to talk to him after the party, but what he had to say couldn’t wait.
“Always. That’s nothing new,” Zion answered on a deep sigh.
That’s exactly why I don’t want the alpha role. It was something Luke had thought a thousand times, but this wasn’t the time to express it out loud. Since Nikki had kicked him out of the room while she tried on dresses, he had some free time to have a very important conversation with her father. “What is it this time?” He’d rather cut right to the chase, but felt obligated to ask.
“Another pack has fallen to Ulric.”
This was bad news. Each new recruit Ulric obtained put him closer to attacking the vampires. And stirring up trouble with them could launch wolf shifters across the country into war. His clan had enjoyed a long period of peace with the vampires, and he, for one, wanted it to stay that way. War meant deaths and destruction, no matter who won.
Nikki's Fated [Wolves of River's Bend 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 13
