by Kat Keppeler
Although Skye hadn’t even twitched at being stuffed into the car, and dropped onto the seat, she cringed when she caught Finn’s scent and his scowl. Rory could see Skye struggle and for a moment, he thought she might try and cram herself into his footwell like it was a small den to hide in. The struggle was palpable as Skye fought to find her human shape again. They were wired to shift in times of stress; their other form was far better equipped to deal with both fighting and fleeing. Unfortunately, life was far more complicated than their beast’s simple instincts and drives.
Rory had never seen Skye shift so slowly before as she let the wolf go. Normally Skye’s shifts were breathtakingly quick but this time the magic lingered as if she had to pull on her courage to take on human form once again. When she did, she flung herself into Rory’s lap and buried her face against his skin, her eyes tightly closed. Her skin was ice cold as she’d been in his truck for a while and running before that.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Skye whispered against his skin.
“What the hell? Why? Honey, what are you sorry about?” Rory said, his hands stroking her hair. “Jesus, you’re freezing! How long were you sitting in the truck before I got here?”
The way she acted only heightened Rory’s concern, and so he put the car into reverse and began backing it up to drive her home. Chafing her arm gently, Rory let her lay in his lap as they drove all the way home and began to worry something had happened to someone in the pack. She’d cowered when Finn had gotten out of her little car, which was unlike both Skye and her wolf and Rory couldn’t help his concern as he tried to put the pieces together. His voice was a low rumble as his wolf rose close to the surface - drawn by the stress of his mate, “Someone hurt you?”
“No, no,” Skye said softly. She’d unwound from him with great reluctance and pulled his coat on. She was shivering now, knees drawn up so she could hug them to her chest. Her blonde hair tangled down her back and shoulders with the hint of curl it took on when she didn’t take the time to blow it dry. “Nothing like that. Everyone at the house is fine.”
Her gaze went to the road, still shocky and withdrawn. Her cheeks were too pale, and her eyes too wide. Distress and guilt and worry rolled off of her like waves.
“I tried to… I don’t know where to start,” Skye said, biting her lip hard enough to turn the pink flesh white. She shook her head slowly, side to side, “I should have said something to you sooner but I was hoping it would just go away and now its so much worse.”
Skye’s gaze cut away, towards the frosty road and she said softly, “I’ve been feeling… things. Like how I feel drawn to you and Lee, and Chance. But with Finn. To Finn…”
She stopped, her words trailing off and she twisted her hands tightly together, the conflict so clear on her pretty features. Skye turned towards him, as soon as the confession was out with absolute reassurance. Her defense of their relationship was adamant, “I am so happy with what we have, Rory, you have to know that. You do, don’t you? I don’t want to change anything.”
Rory snorted, he’d known about a week into Finn being there that Skye felt attracted to the big alpha. His mate was raised human and although her sense of smell was as keen as any of theirs, she often forgot just how clearly her emotions were broadcast. They all caught Skye’s arousal and the way it spiked around Finn. “You know that we can smell it on you when he’s in the room, right? We’ve all known that you had a thing for Finn.”
Skye’s expression twisted and tightened, the scrunch of her nose clear disapproval that such things were so clearly broadcast among the pack. Rory sighed, because he thought he knew what was coming next at least.
“And, let me guess, you… Told Finn? He didn’t take it well or something?” Rory frowned, and then shook his head. “Nothing has to change, Skye, okay? Finn is a… particular guy. He probably just need’s a little bit of time before he comes around. If that’s what he’s going to do. You might want to just talk to him and ask him his feelings?”
Rory giving relationship advice to his girlfriend, it was a little weird but… The winds of change were upon them. Rory wasn’t going to deny Skye what she desired, or what she needed. He’d said as much a time or two before but she was still adjusting to their ways, and to her own needs.
Finn didn’t seem like the type to be part of what they had; the four of his mates. At least he’d never heard any whispers of it before but Finn was so very private. What he did know was Finn as a solitary wolf, even in the large pack he had always kept more to himself.
Skye flushed although some of the tension in her shoulders left as Rory pointed out they could tell when something caught her attention. It was an embarrassing part of pack life.
“No, well, sort of,” Skye said softly. “I didn’t confess my affection, I just wanted to know he felt the pull too and what it was. He walked away, so I asked Lee and Lee told me about Finn’s wife.”
Even after the confusing mess of her feelings for the big wolf now, she still felt sorrow on his behalf for that loss. Her gaze cut away, to watch the ice and snow go past the window.
“It wasn’t until I was talking to Finn about the basement plans that we had a… thing.” Disagreement wasn’t the right word.
“He wants to leave, take some of the pack and live on his own, which I said would be fine but I didn’t want him to feel he needed to run from me. That we weren’t like that. That our pack wasn’t like that. We’d never force him to take part in anything that he didn’t want.” Skye explained softly.
“Finn was angry and he…” She trailed off, a flush rising on her cheeks and that mixed scent of arousal and embarrassment filled the cab. They hadn’t been together, Rory would have known that immediately, but something had happened in the library. “...he doesn’t think you’ll let him stay with the pack, that you’d let another alpha move in on your mate. He said I’d have to choose.”
Skye turned back to Rory then, distress palpable, “I won’t do that. I can’t! I can control my wolf and I don’t want anyone fighting. I don’t want to be a source of tension in the pack but I feel like I may already be causing problems and I don’t know how to fix it.”
Rory made a face, his frown thin lipped. There was a sigh of annoyance, a feeling of dissonance in his gut.
“I was a child when my father assumed the alpha spot, but my mother and her cubs… We lived together with a few other females. My father was the one to make everyone leave their homes and start traveling.” Rory sighed. Having the pack together was the only thing Aiden had done right in Rory’s opinion. “I don’t mind if the pack needs space of their own but I absolutely do not want them scattering to the winds again.”
“You don’t have to choose who you want, Skye. If Finn is going to make you have that decision then maybe he isn’t a good match for you.” Rory would have never made her choose, he simply couldn’t ask that of her. “
“But if the stronger connection is to Finn and that’s the choice you decide to make…” He couldn’t finish the sentence, he didn’t want to think what would happen if he… No, if they lost her.
“In the past it is not customary for an alpha to share his mate with another alpha. No one in my pack has ever done so and I haven’t heard of it in the centuries I have been alive. The only precedent we know of are the old world packs, like the one you were born to, but they’re almost entirely gone now,” He frowned at Skye. “Finn is right.”
“Rory, no,” Skye said softly. She uncurled to crawl as close to him as she could on the truck bench. If he hadn’t been driving, she’d have been in his lap. Her cold arms wrapped around him, uncaring that the jacket fell to the bench. “Of course, I choose you. There’s no other option. I want to grow old with you - even if that takes a few hundred years or more - I want to have your children, if we can have children. If we can’t, we’ll just find a few foundlings that need care and attention. You’re my mate, my husband, even if we haven’t said the words yet. I can’t help how Finn draws me to him but th
ere’s nothing weaker about the bond we share at all and it gets stronger every day. I ran to you. I’ll always run to you.”
“If Finn can’t see what it could be, then that’s sad for him,” Skye pressed a kiss to his shoulder, the tension finally starting to leave her frame.
“I think he just has a lot of damage over your father, over what power did to him. You’re not like that,” Skye said that with the same utter confidence she’d had about knowing that Rory would come for her when she was captured. She pressed another gentle kiss to his shoulder. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
Rory smiled, a smile that couldn’t have been faked by any means. His emotions were plain, the surge of joy and relief mixed with possessive pride. They might be figuring things out as they went, but it was so much better this way. Skye was his, not because he’d taken her, as his father’s pack did, but because she’d chosen to be his.
“Really?” The tone surprised him, as if he had been holding his breath in and finally could let it out in a sigh of relief. He pulled over for a second, throwing the truck into park so he could pull a very nude Skye into his lap. “I know I claimed you, but you haven’t said yet that this is what you wanted. Are you sure?”
She laughed, slipping her arms around his shoulders and nuzzling into his strong arms. “Yes, of course. I love you. I’ll always love you. You’re my mate, Rory.”
Rory kissed her, sliding his mouth over hers to claim it entirely. He was jubilant. Joyful. He might have claimed her and marked her in the heat of passion but the last few months had only made it clear to him just how right that choice had been.
“You’re all I am ever going to need, Skye.” Kissing her lips again, Rory let her cuddle into place beside him before he put the truck back in drive and began their trek back to his house.
When they arrived, Rory got out and walked around to the passenger side to grab up Skye and toss her over his shoulder. She let out a peal of laughter as he did, but after a moment he pulled her into a bridal carry, lifting her slender frame easily in his arms. “That means I get to carry you over the threshold?”
“Anytime you want to,” Skye said as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave him that sweet smile that he loved so much. She kissed the corner of his mouth, relaxing with utter trust in his embrace although she looked down at her naked body with a quirked brow, “I sort of expected to be wearing a big fancy dress but I suppose this is expedient. Now you don’t have to undress me once you get to the bedroom.”
Chapter Six
Rory carried Skye over the threshold of the house with a smile on his face and his eyes on hers. He stopped just after, holding Skye in his arms before he kissed her just as a newly wedded groom would kiss their bride. Their stop was extremely brief, he carried her quickly to their shared bedroom and tossed her onto the bed. Skye laughed as she bounced against the mattress.
Rory was struggling out of his coat and boots, leaving Skye on the bed to watch him undress. He got as far as unbuttoning his shirt before she was curling one finger to beckon him. Really it was just a gentle sign of hurry but it brought her mate into the bed still half clothed. He climbed over her, settling himself between her thighs, and stared into her face. Bracing himself on his forearms, Rory smoothed her blonde hair back to examine her features. From the bright blue of her eyes and the cascade of blonde hair, he soaked in every detail of her features.
“I love you… so fucking much.” He said suddenly.
Skye smiled brightly and before she could reciprocate the endearment Rory’s head dropped to steal a tender kiss from her lips. His soft kisses grew more passionate before he was claiming her hotly with his mouth. She made a sigh of pleasure in the back of her throat that turned into a moan when he thrust his groin against the growing wetness of her core.
Rory broke their kiss and began trailing kisses from her chin to her throat, and then to each pert breast. He rolled her nipples in his thick fingers, raising them to taunt peaks before he cupped her breasts and covered one erect peak with his mouth. His tongue scraped against the tight surface, flicking against it while she began to writhe beneath him with aching need.
A small noise of frustration left Skye which made Rory tip his head up to smile devilishly at her. “No ma’am. I am going to take my time today and you’re going to like it…”
“Don’t tell me what to do, Rory Abbott!” Skye peered back at him with flushed cheeks and her brows knit with desire. “I hate it when you tease me!”
“I know.” Rory replied back, that slow sexy smile curving his mouth, before he dipped his head and kissed the smooth flesh right below her ribcage. As she squirmed Rory left a trail of kisses that dipped lower and lower. He pulled her closer to the edge of the mattress as he slipped off it to kneel in front of her. One kiss pressed against the top of her mound, he could feel the heat that radiated off her wet sex. He slowly spread her thighs wide, opening the pink flesh for him.
“Close your eyes,” He asked her.
“What?” Skye replied, sitting up just a little bit to stare at him.
“Lay back, and close your eyes.”
He waited until she did, frowning even as she obeyed him. “I want to play a game with you Skye. I want to see how long you last. You’re not allowed to touch the top of my head, move your hips, or tell me what to do.”
Keeping her eyes closed she contemplated exactly what he was planning and as if to coax an answer out of her she felt Rory suddenly lap at her wetness causing her to arch her back. “You can’t say please either. If you say please you lose.”
“Okay...” She managed, the pulse of her heartbeat throbbed between her legs making her slit ache with her desire.
Rory smiled again when she accepted the terms of his little game and once more kissed the top of her mound before he slipped his tongue once more against the silken folds. He lapped at her, his tongue exploring the trembling lips of her sex as her muscles began to clench. Rory put one large hand on her trembling thigh, his broad shoulder brushing the other. Teasingly Rory let his tongue travel over all that wet pink flesh until he found the pulsing hardness of her clit. He pressed his tongue upon it and caused her to arch up again.
“I love hearing you…” Rory said, looking up from between her legs and watching her breath catch in her throat. “I knew the moment that I first met you that I wanted to make you mine forever. I want to hear you again and again…”
She opened her mouth to speak and he quickly placed his mouth back over her wet pussy, his tongue finding the erect clit again and flicking against it hard and fast. Skye’s legs began to shake and her hands balled the sheets into fists as he played with the hard nub, suckling it into his mouth gently and releasing it. As she tried not to move against him he brought two thick fingers into that wet flesh. From the inside he stroked against her in search of the matching nub of flesh while his mouth worked against the outside.
They found purchase deep inside her, stroking against the flesh until he felt it swell and Skye began making quick moans. His hand grew wetter as he lapped at her flesh until the orgasm hit her so strong she was arching up with the force of it.
“Please… Oh, please…” Skye begged against him, her body so hot and ready. She broke the little rules of his game and that made Rory smile up at her.
“You lose,” Rory purred, and withdrew his fingers from her aching flesh. Skye let out another growl of annoyance as Rory unbuckled his belt and pushed his uniform pants down toned thighs. He pulled her from the bed into his lap, her wet cunt sliding onto him. He held her still despite her movements that sought that quick cadence he was always so eager to give her. Rory held her fast and slowly began to pump his hips into hers.
Her hands gripped his shoulders and he could feel just how deep he was getting with every hard thrust up, he could feel her fingernails dig into his flesh.
“My beautiful mate… My wife… My deepest love…” Rory said, kissing her chin as he struggled with his own growing desire.
S
kye decided she was done with his little games and despite his strength holding her fast she sought to bring him with her to this fever of passion. She rode him, her hips seeking purchase suddenly seeking to quench the aching throb he had brought her to with his mouth. He laid back against the carpet, his hands on her hips rocking her harder and faster against him. He took in the sight of her above him. Her back arched, her breasts brought to aching peaks, the way she twisted back to place her hands on his thighs. She rode him and he helped her along until she was throwing her head back and crying out. The tight muscles clamping down against his hard cock, she rode him faster as she came.
Rory rolled her over, her knees nearly to her chest as he slammed his hips against her harder and harder, bringing one orgasm after another screaming from her lips until he joined her. His cock pulsed inside her, he kissed her mouth as it overtook him and he filled her. He stayed that way within her until he felt his flesh softening. He lay there on the floor with Skye in his arms and felt so completely whole.
Chapter Seven
It hadn’t taken Finn more than twenty or thirty minutes with the shifters from the mobile home park ironically name ‘Serenity Pines’. It was anything but serene. The two in the holding cell were coyotes, they kept braying loudly at each other and at Dave, throwing themselves against the bars. Finn had gone in, growled at them in such a way that made them cower and then administered a drug to bring them crashing back to reality. They would have to talk about the drug soon, whatever those two had been on was something awful and addictive. For now Finn let it go, his mind was other places.
The drive back to the ranch was a long one. He’d stopped a few places in town, grabbing groceries and essentials asked for by various pack members. By the time he drove back it had been several hours and the back of the car was full up. Belcrest was an interesting little town, the grocery still operated on a tab system.
