IceSurrender

by Marisa Chenery

  Let’s go one more round before we call it quits, Ketah said, bringing Wren out of her thoughts.

  She gave a nod of her lupine head as she watched him circle her. Even though she wasn’t a full dire wolf, Wren was stronger than the other females. She was a mixture of her old timber wolf and the new dire wolf she’d been turned into. It wasn’t because she was a mixed breed that she had an advantage over the other women. It was sheer determination to be stronger and faster. She didn’t work so hard to be able to protect herself. It was all for Ryder. Until he had his full powers, she would do everything to keep him safe. His being mortal had her worrying about what would happen to him if he ever had a run-in with a dark wolf. Yes, he had magic at his call, but he could still be killed if he couldn’t defend himself.

  This time around, Wren went on the attack before Ketah did. She managed to take him by surprise and ram the side of her body into him, causing him to stumble. She used that to her advantage and was able to nip him at the back of his neck before he recovered to gain the upper hand once again.

  Haven, who was Ketah’s mate, came up to them already shifted to her human form. She looked at Ketah. “I’m done for today. How about you?”

  Ketah’s body shimmered and blurred as he shifted as well. “We’re finished. Wren seems to get better with each training session.”

  Haven looked at Wren. “At least one of us girls has the chance to show up the boys.”

  Wren took on her human form. “I can only try. I think I’ll go see where Ryder went with Wyatt.”

  The couple smiled as Wren turned and walked away. She left the others outside and went into the house. She followed the sound of the TV to the living room and found Ryder asleep, sitting up on the couch with Wyatt securely tucked in his arms, napping.

  She walked quietly into the room and came to stand in front of Ryder. It was the first time she’d seen him sleeping. He usually did that behind his locked bedroom door. It showed how tired he must be to have fallen asleep there.

  Wren ran her gaze over his face, soaking up his native good looks. She loved his long black hair and itched to sink her fingers into it. From the few times Ryder let her touch it, she knew it was silky soft. And his slim, muscular body made her want to run her fingertips over every inch of him.

  Ryder’s brows furrowed and he let out a pained-sounding groan. His body stiffened as well, as if he were having a bad dream. Wren sat on the couch beside him and placed her hand on his arm, thinking to wake him.

  The simple touch had a vision forming in Wren’s mind. It took her a few seconds to realize it wasn’t one of her normal ones where she could see the future. It was as if she were seeing Ryder’s dream, was in it with him. What tipped her off was the scenery that wasn’t true to life. In some places it was distorted, the trees loomed bigger and menacing.

  It didn’t take her long to find Ryder surrounded by four dark wolves. He was frantically murmuring spells that didn’t appear to have any effect over the ones who closed in on him.

  Having no idea if she would be able to do anything since this was Ryder’s dream, Wren shifted to her mixed dire wolf form within the scene. All her training came to the forefront of her mind as she went on the attack. The first dark wolf she totally took by surprise. Using that advantage, she knocked him to the ground and grabbed the back of his neck in her strong jaws. A jerk of her head and she snapped it. In real life that would have only put the dark wolf out of commission for a few seconds. But in this dream world, he disappeared.

  Wren didn’t waste any time in dealing with the others who threatened Ryder. She ended up with a few bite and claw marks in the end, which healed in seconds, but she sent each of the dark wolves away. Out of breath, she looked up at Ryder to see him watching her with a look of disbelief on his face.

  “Wren?”

  The sound of her name had the dream landscape melting away and then Wren found herself back in her body. She focused on Ryder and saw he was awake, staring at her intently.

  “How did you do that?” Ryder asked. “How did you share my dream?”

  Wren shrugged. “I don’t know. All I did was touch you. You looked as if you were having a bad dream so I only thought to wake you.”

  “You fought the dark wolves and defeated them,” Ryder said, sounding as if he still couldn’t believe what she’d done.

  “I wasn’t sure if I could at first. I figured if I was there I might as well do something about them. You make it sound as if you’ve had this dream before.”

  “I have. Several times, in fact. I can’t defeat them. My magic never works.”

  Before Wren could reply to that, Cassidy came into the room. “There you are,” she said as she took Wyatt from Ryder and kissed the baby’s cheek. “Was he good for you?”

  Ryder nodded. “Yes, except for making a stinky present for me in his diaper.”

  Cassidy grimaced. “Do I have to make sure there will be no leakages?”

  “You can if you want, but I think I got it right this time.”

  “Then you’re getting better.”

  Cassidy walked out of the room with the baby cuddled close. Wren sighed inside. She wanted what her alpha’s mate had. She wanted Ryder as hers, and his child in her arms. She’d been alone for too long. Being half mortal, she’d never grown up in a werewolf pack. Her father was a lone wolf who preferred to be on his own. She hadn’t seen much of him when she’d been growing up. Since her mother had died from cancer a few years before, she’d had no one to call family until the sentinels had taken her into their pack.

  Ryder stood and headed for the entrance to the living room. Wren stood as well. If she didn’t say something he’d do his best to avoid her. It was time to put an end to that.

  “Ryder, wait,” Wren said as she closed the distance between them.

  “What?” He turned to face her.

  “Are the bad dreams what are keeping you up at night?”

  “Partly.” He sighed. “Okay, mostly.”

  “So they’re to blame for making you miss out on the sleep you need. Maybe that’s what’s holding you back from gaining your full powers. The lack of rest is messing with your mind.”

  Ryder sighed again, looking impatient. “Where are you going with this, Wren?”

  “Let me sleep in your bed with you. I can make the bad dreams go away, defeat the dark wolves that plague your rest.”

  “We don’t know if you can do it again. It could have just been some kind of fluke.”

  “And we won’t know for sure until we try. Maybe my being psychic is what makes the connection. Plus, we don’t know if I could have done this all along. I’ve never been anywhere near you while you slept until now.”

  “I don’t know if that would be such a good idea.”

  “One night. We’ll try it for one night. If I can’t help with the bad dreams, then I’ll go back to sleeping on the couch. And if it does work, you’ll be better rested.”

  Wren met Ryder’s gaze as he stared at her. She could tell he was wavering. She honestly wanted to help him and wasn’t going to deny the fact she’d jump at any chance to get into his bed.

  “Okay, you win,” he finally said. “Only because the lack of sleep is getting to me, and you may be right that it could be hindering me from gaining my full powers. We’ll try it tonight, and as you said, if it doesn’t work, you’re back to sleeping on the couch.”

  Wren forced herself not to jump up and down while she pumped her fist into the air. This was the most she’d gotten out of Ryder since she’d made her intentions clear to him.

  Instead of doing what she really wanted to, she nodded. “Deal. And if it does work, I’ll sleep with you from now on.” She thought she saw a flash of heat in Ryder’s eyes before he blinked and it was gone. Maybe she was getting to him after all.

  Ryder cleared his throat, but his voice had a gruffness to it when he spoke. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. And to make it clear, it would be only sleeping going on, nothing else. And y
ou’ll stick to your own side of the bed.”

  “Fine, only sleeping, but that last part won’t work. I didn’t get into your dream until I touched you. I’ll have to have some contact with you.”

  “I guess if that’s what it will take, you can touch me.”

  Ryder said the words as if he were in pain. Wren couldn’t tell if it was because he disliked the idea of her touching him or whether he liked it. She figured she’d find out tonight.

  She smiled. “Who knows, maybe you’ll enjoy it.”

  Ryder quickly changed the subject. “I’m hungry. I think I’ll go look for something to snack on.”

  Wren shook her head as he turned and walked down the hallway toward the kitchen. Once he disappeared from sight, she did her silent little dance and fist pumping. Score one for her. She’d take all the victories she could get. She also prayed like hell she’d be able to get into Ryder’s dreams tonight. She needed to be able to sleep next to him in the same bed. It would help to bring them closer. He might have said no sex would be involved, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t work on driving him a little crazy and see where that led.

  * * * * *

  Ryder still couldn’t believe he’d actually agreed to Wren sleeping in his bedroom, in his bed, with him. It was going to be pure, unadulterated torture. He lusted after her now, but having her beside him all night would make it worse. He should have outright told her no. The only thing that had stopped him from doing that was what had happened in his dream.

  He hadn’t meant to fall asleep on the couch. While he was watching the baby sleep in his arms, his eyes had started to droop. It had been all he could do to keep them open. Ryder had known the lack of sleep was catching up to him. He couldn’t remember the last night he’d settled his mind enough to actually fall asleep or slept without being awoken at least twice with bad dreams.

  It hadn’t taken long for the dream about the dark wolves surrounding him, and his powers not working to defeat them, to surface. Usually he woke up just as they all lunged at the same time toward him, their jaws wide open as their sharp teeth headed for his throat.

  Wren appearing in his dream had surprised him. Ryder had been even more surprised when she had shifted to her wolf form and taken out the enemy one by one taken out the enemy. He’d said her name, which brought him instantly awake to find her actually sitting beside him on the couch with her hand on his arm. She’d had a faraway look on her face before she’d appeared to come back to herself.

  Ryder had to wonder if her ability to get into his head like that did come from the fact she was gifted in her own way. Her mortal mother had been psychic and had passed her talent on to her daughter. There was Wren’s werewolf side, which added a small spark of magic to it. Then there was the fact she’d been turned by one of the wolf brothers, giving her the ability to communicate telepathically while in wolf form. Right now she was the only one of her kind—a turned werewolf, a mixture of the first of werewolf kind and their descendants.

  After getting something to eat, Ryder had escaped to his room to think over what had happened between him and Wren. He could admit he was hiding from her. Thoughts of her spending the night with him led to thoughts of what she’d look like naked. He’d had to beat a hasty retreat, using the need for a snack as an excuse, once she’d talked about sleeping with him all the time. His damn cock had instantly gotten hard, which happened more frequently now when he was around Wren.

  He looked at his bedside clock and saw it was almost time for dinner. He had to go downstairs. They always ate that meal together as a pack, even having Carson, Laci, Durlach and Meadow joining them at least three times a week. If he didn’t go downstairs someone was bound to come up looking for him. And that someone would inevitably end up being Wren.

  Ryder went downstairs and headed to the living room, the packs’ favorite gathering place. Sure enough, everyone was there. He was the last one to show up. He stepped into the room and saw Durlach and Meadow had arrived. The wolf brother’s mate sat beside him on the couch, looking sad. Even her eyes were a bit red from crying. Obviously, Taylor had left in the end. Ryder soon heard he was correct in his assumption.

  “I still don’t know why he couldn’t tell us where he was going or why he wouldn’t be coming back,” Meadow said. “I think of Taylor as a brother. I feel as if I’ve lost a family member.”

  Durlach put his arm around Meadow’s shoulders and kissed her temple. “He must have had a very good reason. I’m sure he still thinks of you in the same way. If he didn’t he would have up and left with no word to you. He even let you try for two hours to get him to change his mind before he said he couldn’t wait any longer to leave.”

  Meadow sniffed and wiped her eyes. “I know, but that doesn’t make me hurt any less. He’s always been there when I needed him. I’m going to miss not having him around.”

  “He knows you’ll always have me to protect you. I doubt he would have left you alone if that wasn’t the case.”

  “It’s too bad he didn’t want to become a member of our pack. Then Edensaw, as his alpha, could have ordered Taylor to stay.”

  Edensaw chuckled from where he sat in the armchair with his son in his arms. Cassidy was perched on the armrest. “Taylor is a cougar shifter. I don’t think he would have felt very comfortable with a bunch of wolves as his family. Besides, from what he taught us about his kind, they don’t have packs. They only stay together as family groups.”

  Meadow sighed. “You’re right. Taylor wouldn’t have been able to adjust to it.”

  Durlach kissed his mate’s temple again. “Who knows, maybe in the future he’ll come back at least to say hello and show us he’s still all right.”

  Meadow looked at Wren. “Wren, what do you see? Is Taylor going to be okay?”

  Ryder watched Wren get the distant look in her eyes she got every time she saw into the future. So far that wasn’t one of his abilities, but it more than likely would be once he came into his full powers.

  Wren nodded. “Yes, Taylor will be fine. His going away was something where he had no choice in the matter. I can’t see what caused to it to happen, though. Only that he had to go.”

  “At least he’ll be all right,” Meadow said. “I’ll have to be happy with that.”

  Ryder leaned against the wall just inside the room. All the seats were taken, which just left the floor. He didn’t mind sitting there, had done so on many occasions, but that was where Wren was. Knowing her, it didn’t matter where he sat on the carpet, she’d only get up and sit closer to him.

  But that didn’t stop her from setting her gaze on him. A quick glance showed she had focused on him. Ryder looked at everyone else but her, though he still felt her watching him. Soon he found himself unable to completely ignore Wren. He gazed at her for a few brief seconds before he stared at something else.

  Dinner was soon served, cooked by Kajakti’s mate Jaren, a trained chef. The kitchen was her territory when it came to the evening meal. Since there were so many of them, and they couldn’t all fit around the kitchen table, they filled their plates, then sat in the living room to eat.

  Ryder managed to snag one of the only two armchairs. Wren came back into the room and plunked down onto the floor at his feet. She sat close enough to almost lean against the lower part of his leg. His cock twitched, telling him how much he liked it.

  Once everyone sat, eating, the conversation turned to the two dark wolves Brice, the leader of the local werewolf pack, had in his custody. Their location was being kept from the rest of Brice’s pack, mostly because they didn’t need the enemy going after them if they happened to get loose, and the fact they had been part of Brice’s pack before Tanner, the leader of the dark wolves, had turned them. Brice was afraid some of their family would try to set them free.

  The meal finished, they all helped clean up, then returned to the living room to talk some more. After Cassidy and Edensaw put Wyatt to bed, they put a movie in the Blu-ray player.

  Ryder hadn’t
been so lucky the second time to get one of the armchairs. He sat on the couch with Wren next to him. Since they tried to fit as many people as they could on it, she was plastered right up against him. He could smell the scent of the shampoo she used in her hair and the light fragrance of the perfume she liked to wear. He had to fight not to turn his head, lean in and take a good whiff of the long brown locks that were so temptingly close.

  Wren placed her hand on his thigh and squeezed. Ryder jerked, not because he disliked her touch, but because he liked it more than he should. His cock came instantly to life.

  “Relax,” Wren said quietly. “You’re too tense. Maybe I should give you a back massage. That’ll help.”

  Oh yeah, that would really help. The only thing that would do would be to make his dick harder. What Ryder wanted her massaging was his cock, and that wasn’t going to happen. No matter how much he wanted it. But if he did let Wren do it, it wouldn’t exactly be him breaking his ancestor’s edict about no sex, would it? Technically he wouldn’t be engaging in sexual intercourse. And it wasn’t as if he didn’t jerk himself off when he couldn’t take it anymore.

  Ryder gave himself a mental smack in the head. In no way could he allow Wren to get her hand on his cock. He would want to take it much further than that. He didn’t know if he would have the control to stop things at that.

  The movie ended and Durlach, Meadow, Carson and Laci said their goodbyes before they left for their own homes. After that, everyone else decided to go upstairs to watch TV in their rooms. Ryder knew some of the couples would be doing a lot more than that once they were alone.

  They all stood. Cassidy asked Wren, “Do you need me to get your blankets out of the dryer for you? I washed them earlier.”

  Wren shook her head. “I’ll get them tomorrow. Tonight I’m sleeping with Ryder. He finally agreed.”