Daryl stared at the carpet, embarrassed. "I don't want to cause trouble."
"That is nonsense," Frannie said, standing. "You basically just told us your evil boss' entire plan. What will your pack do to you if you go back? If someone finds out you told us?"
Daryl drew himself up, his chest puffing out slightly. "I can handle myself."
Frannie shook her head. "I'm not saying you can't. But it isn't safe for you there now, is it? Not now that you've helped us. I'm not proposing you stay forever. Just until we work this all out and I know you won't be beaten to death and dumped in a ditch."
Finn felt a chill when neither Luke's dad or Luke denied that as being a possible outcome. "Of course you can stay," he said. "My sister's home is your home."
"You wouldn't have an issue living here?" Luke asked a little too roughly. "With me? And my mate?" He was being hostile and at first Finn didn't know why, then he thought back to what little he knew of Luke's father, about how and why he had kicked Luke out of the pack so many years ago.
Finn thought he saw a layer of moisture in the older man's eyes. "People make mistakes, son. That was one of my biggest." He turned to Frannie, "But I don't have a lot to offer money wise. I mean, I would be added security and would pull my weight around the house, but, Lucian kept most of our wages. I have a part time gig at a mechanic shop."
Frannie grabbed his elbow and brought him from the kitchen to the living room, taking a seat on the couch and indicating he should do the same. There was a spiral notebook and a pen on the coffee table. She picked it up and turned to a fresh page. "Don't worry about that. Why don't you just tell me how you and Luke's mother met? Was it terribly romantic?"
Finn smiled. To Frannie, stories were currency and as long as Luke's dad kept them coming, she wouldn't care a single bit that he stayed.
"But what about the rooms? There isn't an extra," Finn said, immediately feeling selfish.
Frannie didn't even look up at him, she was too busy scribbling whatever Luke's dad had said so far. "Just move in with Luke, or have him move in your room if that makes you feel more comfortable."
Considering all they'd done, the idea of staying in the same room as Luke made Finn feel as nervous and giddy as a teenager. He found Luke's face.
Luke smiled at Finn with a smile that was truly wolfish. "Hey, roomie."
Chapter Twelve
Luke stepped into the bathroom. His foot, newly covered in a sock still warm from the dryer fell on a wet towel that someone had haphazardly thrown on the bathroom floor. Luke cursed under his breath. "Finn!" he hollered.
"What?" Finn yelled back, probably from the living room.
Luke heard the TV blasting a kick boxing work out DVD, "Give me four more and three and two and one and hold!"
"Luke, what?" Finn yelled again, out of breath.
He grabbed the wet towel from the floor and carried it down the hallway. As he suspected, Finn and Frannie had pushed the couches back and were both sweating profusely as a too tanned guy on the TV ordered them to squat low.
"Dude, that's not mine. I haven't showered yet," Finn said, squatting. Luke liked what the position did to the shape of his ass. He'd enjoy it more if he wasn't just a little bit worried. In the week and a half that Daryl had been staying with them, Finn had become a bit of a workout junkie. They all limited their time outside and never went anywhere alone, hence the workout DVD. Frannie had ordered them online when it became clear that Finn could not calm down. She did them with him sometimes, but just last night Luke had woken up to no mate in his bed only to find him doing push-ups in the dining room.
Luke hated that there was a problem in his mate's life that he couldn't simply fix either through skill or force. That wasn't exactly true. He could challenge Lucian this very moment, but had already sworn to every other person in this house that he wouldn't. He could break a promise to his father and to Frannie, though it would pain him to break a promise to the latter. But to Finn? Never. So he was stuck, watching his mate's abs become more defined. There was one thing Luke could do that sometimes helped ease Finn's body and mind.
He passed them, continuing on to the laundry room. "It might not be yours now, but it was yesterday. I'm tired of getting my socks wet!" he barked like an asshole. His Finn took the bait.
"What the hell is your problem?" he shouted, rising from the squat and stomping after Luke. He crossed the threshold into the laundry room and Luke slid the door shut, locking it. "I already told you, that towel isn't—"
Luke grabbed his mate possessively at the back of his neck, his other hand went to his lower back so that his arm could absorb most of the force when Luke shoved him back against the washer, his lips already covering Finn's, silencing anything else he had to say.
Finn responded immediately, gripping Luke's biceps tightly. He pushed up on the tips of his toes giving as good as he got.
Luke wasn't in the mood for a power play though and lately Finn responded best to being used. Luke broke the kiss, both of them breathing hard in the small room. He spun Finn around so that his hands were plastered against the washing machine. In one smooth motion, Luke yanked Finn's shorts and briefs down over his hips. They lingered just below his knees but Luke knew Finn liked it that way, not all the way undressed, as if they couldn't wait long enough for him to step out. Which Luke found he couldn't.
He pushed Finn's face down so that his cheek rested against the cool metal of the washing machine lid. He reached in his pocket for the lube Luke now kept on him at all times.
"Noooo," Finn wailed, "Use your cock, please baby, I want to feel it again."
Luke set his lips in a hard line, gathered a dollop of lube and applied it between Finn's sweet cheeks. "You know I can't, Finn. We don't know what it will do, what it could do to your body."
"I want it," Finn moaned and the sound of it went straight to Luke's cock. The wolf inside of him scratched against the cage Luke had placed him in. The wolf cared for Finn, but was willing to take the chance when it came to fucking. Luke was not. He would not do anything to harm Finn, ever.
"I'll give it to you, baby, but safely. Until we know more." He paused long enough to roll a condom down his length and then brought the head of his cock against his mate's tight, welcoming hole. "Relax, love. I've got what you need." He pushed forward, but his crazy mate bucked back. Luke passed through his tight outer ring and was fully seated in his ass. It felt tight and warm and beautiful. Finn made whimpering noises, quieter than he would have made if they were alone. Luke grimaced. He liked his mate wild. He pulled out and thrust back in, setting a frantic, savage pace. Finn met him, thrust for thrust, arching his back, curving his body allowing Luke perfect access.
Soon, he felt his own climax coming, it never took long with Finn. He bent over, gripping Finn's chin so he could turn his face and kiss his lips. Finn licked at his lips and brought his hand up to the back of Luke's head, grabbing hold of his hair and tugging with each thrust. He found Finn's hardened cock with his other hand and stroked it with a firm grasp. He swallowed his moan of pleasure as Finn exploded over his hand just as Luke found his own release. He groaned as he spilled himself inside the latex.
He slipped out of Finn and help him down, holding him against his body. Finn snuggled against him so sweetly, his head fitting perfectly in that space between his shoulder and neck. He was breathing quickly still but it was slowing into soft, sated moans.
"Will we ever be able to have sex without a barrier again?" he asked softly.
Luke heard the want in his mate's voice. "Of course, but we have to be careful, baby."
"I miss the way you swelled inside me that first time. I swear, I came like fifty times I was so filled by you."
It was true, when he used a condom, his cock never swelled, never knotted his mated. It knew there was no point. "I don't fill you up enough without it?" he asked with a rumble.
Finn giggled very softly. "Of course you do." He sat up, stretching his arms.
Luke tri
ed to hide his scowl. Before, a fuck would keep him calm for the rest of the day, then a few hours, now he'd been able to rest for a whole five minutes. He allowed his wolf to scent his mate, something it had needed to do more and more often lately. Not that Luke's feelings had changed or that the scent had changed, just that the wolf had needed more frequent reassurances that Finn was still his Finn, that no one had swooped in and tried to steal him. He still didn't trust Daryl absolutely and was suspicious that this whole thing had been an act, a way to carry out the initial plan he'd warned them of. But, if that was going to happen, it hadn't yet. Finn was still completely and only his.
But for how long?
They couldn't stay stuck in the house forever. Sooner or later one of them would need to leave alone. Finn was restless but Frannie had a job to do, one that required her to at least leave the house for supplies, paper, ink cartridges, coffee, liquor.
Finn sat up abruptly. "Is there someone here?" he asked and then the doorbell rang.
Luke stood, disposing of the condom. Helped his mate get his pants up before yanking up his own. He could smell the newcomer now, but didn't miss that it was Finn who had sensed him first.
***
Finn held Luke's hand out of the laundry room to the front door. There, Frannie stood, standing behind Daryl who looked as near to a wolf with its hair rising down his spine as a human could. Finn noticed how Frannie kept one hand at her back, near the gun she kept there thinking Finn wouldn't notice.
He did notice though. That and so much more. Luke had warned him that his changes were far from over and he'd been right. He hadn't warned him about how restless and distracted he would feel. How could he concentrate on reading when he could hear the neighbor's conversation outside or smell what the lady across the street was making for the man who was not her husband?
Secrets. That word held more meaning to him now. His neighbors kept fewer secrets from him now that he could sense most everything they did. Like how the house across the street smelled like sex two hours after the man of the house left for work. Or how Frannie cried in her room sometimes at night and trembled every time she made herself touch that stupid gun.
Or the way Finn's body felt like it was burning from the inside out.
It had started slowly, a mild discomfort, that had blazed into a raging inferno of pain that he spent every moment trying to hide from Luke. The only time he didn't have to try was when they had sex. And lately even that hadn't offered as much of a reprieve as it had before.
Luke clenched his fingers, a silent signal to step closer to him. Finn obeyed. It was easier than setting him aside every single time to explain that he was not a fragile doll at constant risk of breaking.
Frannie cleared her throat--it was supposed to be her house after all. "Who is it?" she asked. Finn swelled with pride. Her voice was as clear as a bell and without a single worry. A stark contrast to the perspiration at her forehead.
The four of them waited with baited breath. This was what kept them inside, what forced them to leave the house as a group, not knowing what the pack master had planned. Would he send another messenger? Or would he send something that would put an end to them all and get rid of the problem?
"I-I don't even know who I am asking for," a young male voice called through the door. "Christian sent me, said I would be safe here."
Finn bit his lip. After that first text from Christian, he hadn't received anything else. He'd assumed Christian had been avoiding him. But there was no malice in the voice on the other side of the door. In fact, the tone clenched at Finn's gut. It was laced with worry and exhaustion. "Let him in," Finn said, though, none of the other three opposed him.
A slender boy entered, no more than twenty. He wore a tight fitting black t-shirt and jeans and a large bruise that colored nearly his entire face. A cut split his bottom lip, and threads of color spread out from it like the proof of the pain it gave him. "Is one of you Finn?" he asked with a quiet, weary voice.
"I am," Finn said, stepping to stand beside Luke.
The boy gave a look that was exactly halfway between a smile and a sigh. He bent down so that he was on his knees as if he was bowing before a king. Frannie was the first of them to recover and break out of their shocked circle. She knelt beside him, an arm around his shoulders while the other held him loosely around his wrist.
"You're okay now. You are where you are safe."
If this was a trap by Lucian they were all doomed. But every sense in Finn told him that boy was feeling honest emotions. On top of that, he trusted that Luke and Daryl's senses were at least more practiced than his and neither of them seemed on edge by the boy, just bewildered. It made sense--the older was used to the rough life of a pack while the younger had spent half of his life alone.
"Get up, now," Frannie ordered gently. "Let's all go into the kitchen."
The kitchen was the place for important conversations.
Seated and with a cup of chamomile tea, the boy, Sorell, told them about how he'd been a junior pack member in a shifter pack that had formed at his school. His parents had frowned upon the shifter lifestyle and expected Sorell to do the same. When it was clear he could not, they had kicked him out. According to him that had been the best thing to happen to him until his pack had experienced the corruption that comes from appointing the most power hungry of the pack as leader.
The new pack master had gotten the entire pack into the drug business, going as far as requiring each pack member to use so they would be hooked and bound to the business. Sorell had simply wanted out and it had almost cost him his life. When the story got to Christian's involvement Sorell clammed up.
"That is Christian's business to tell," he said with a bit of steel.
Finn figured he could've pushed the issue, but why put Sorell in another tight spot? Bruised and thin, he looked like life hadn't thrown him too many favors yet.
Frannie was clearly already on board with Finn's train of thought. She had him set up with a second mug of tea and a large slice of angel food cake. She always kept a container around saying it was okay because it was fat free.
Sorell looked like he didn't quite know what to think of Frannie. It made sense, Finn thought. Frannie probably wasn't anything like the shifter women from his pack. He made a mental note to ask Luke exactly what shifter women were like.
In the end, it was decided that Sorell would stay on the couch, until they could find a better place for him.
At first, it was a little awkward with Sorell around, but he and Daryl quickly learned they had more in common than anyone expected. Sorell was good with cars, any mechanical thing really. He fixed Frannie's juicer, much to Luke's chagrin who had told her the week before that it was junk.
Just when everyone was getting used to Sorell, the doorbell chimed again. Again, they circled around the door, only now with Sorell at Frannie's side as she called out a clear, "Yes? Who is it?"
That was how they met Pippen. He was another transplant from Sorell's old pack. He came with news that things had just gotten worse, that the pack was also getting into the sex trade market. Finn was more relieved than ever that Sorell and now Pippen had come to them. No one should have to lead that life who didn't want to.
Pippen was an odd one, not finding his spot quite as quickly as Sorell had. Finn understood that. If it weren't for Luke, he'd probably still not know where he was supposed to be. He was jumpy too. With his fair skin and hair but dark, dark brown eyes, he reminded Finn of a bird or like one of those fairytale creatures from some animated movie.
When Conner rang the bell, tanned and outdoorsy, saying he'd heard on the road that a new pack was forming that wouldn't expect its members to sell or do anything illegal to belong, they decided it was time for another kitchen meeting.
"This is bad news," Daryl said with his sandpaper voice. "Taking in one old stray wouldn't have mattered much, add another pup and you are mostly still fine. But now we have five shifters in this house. Lucian won't be able to ignore
that even if he wanted to. This is his territory. Five of us in this house is basically pissing on that. Add Finn to the mix and you're basically asking for a turf war."
"Leave Finn out of it," Luke growled.
Sorell stood. "We don't need to stay here for long," he said. "The three of us, we could move on."
"And go where?" Frannie asked.
"I don't know, maybe start our own pack," Sorell said.
"Without an alpha?" Daryl said disbelievingly. "Even with an alpha a pack can go to shit. Without one? You are asking for trouble."
"We could go lone," Pippen said, with his soft voice. "The three of us."
Conner sighed but his tone was patient. "That isn't lone then, if we are all together."
Finn wished he had some of Conner's patience. His skin felt prickly and over-sensitized. He paced along the kitchen wall, Luke standing in front of him, swaying slightly with his movements like a magnet.
"Why not just be a pack then?" he asked, a little belligerently. "We have an alpha. We even have a den mother," he tried to add that last bit to soften his gruff delivery.
Frannie scrunched up her nose and narrowed her eyes at him. "I am not a den mother. You obviously mean Daryl." That got the laugh that Finn's joke did not.
Finn wasn't offended. He hadn't been great in social situations before. Now that he had seemingly no control over his libido and his own body was attacking him from the inside out, he was even less equipped to charmingly handle social situations.
"Finn, I'm hardly qualified," Luke mumbled, but the other four shifters were already looking at him differently. Sorell, Conner and Pippen all looked like they were sizing him up while Daryl's gaze swelled with pride.
"Why aren't you? You are an alpha and you have a mate," Finn gestured to himself. "You've got that growly thing that makes people do what you say."
"There is so much more to it than that," Luke said, with as much of a raised voice as he ever had toward Finn.
Finn shrugged like he didn't care but really he felt like he was suffocating. With the extra guests, alone time had been harder to find so even his quick fixes were coming less often.
Wolf's Mate Mpreg Romance Box Set Page 10
