by Mina Carter
She leaned down. Kellan flinched, aware Reena might look human and harmless at the moment, but she could shift and have her teeth in his throat within half a second. “Because you know something, Kellan. When I have a man in my bed, the last thing I want from him is talk.”
She put a finger on his forehead and pushed. He fell backward, sprawling over the polished wooden floor. Her lip curled back in disgust. “Just get out of my sight. Come back when you have something sensible to say that doesn’t involve your hissy fit about who I choose to screw.”
She turned away as Kellan scuttled backward, his cheeks flaming red. Not paying him any attention, her gaze instead sought Archer’s, and when they connected, he felt the shiver all the way to his soul.
Taking the steps in a measured tread, he approached her, bowing his head in deference to her rank. He didn’t want to bow and scrape like the rest. Instead he wanted to carry her off and kiss her senseless. But he’d promised to obey her out of the bedroom and he was a man who kept his word.
“Well, wasn’t he just a special little snowflake triple-dipped in spoilt brat and angst?” A deep voice broke in and Archer turned to find the man he’d noticed earlier stood next to them. Correction, wolf. With a bright amber ring in his eyes, he was wolf-born for sure, and the whisper of power over the exposed skin of Archer’s forearms suggested he was more powerful than most.
“Travis! When did you get back?” With a cry of delight, Reena wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug. Archer clenched his fists to stop himself from punching the guy as he hugged her, pleasure and emotion written all over his face.
“Travis Mayweather.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.
After surviving his conversion madness, he’d made it his business to know the major players in the city. He didn’t do politics, but he was ex-military, so he did do intel on knowing his enemy. Or rather, Reena’s enemy, so he had her back.
But Travis Mayweather wasn’t an enemy. He was a friend. More than a friend. According to rumor, he was Reena’s best friend from childhood, the friend she’d killed her own father for…and the man who’d shared her bed every midwinter choosing before this one.
Before Archer had taken his place.
Reena stepped back from Travis and cut a glance at Archer. Both men she knew, one better than herself, and the other intimately, although you could argue she knew both intimately but in entirely different ways.
Travis, she could see, practically brimmed with happiness, and she didn’t blame him. He’d finally found the love of his life, Jennison, and the fact the man loved him in return obviously still amazed her lifelong friend. She looked around and spied the hulking alpha at the back of the room, eyes on his mate and no one else. She recognized the look: heat mixed with possessiveness. It was the way Archer looked at her.
Well, when he wasn’t glaring at Travis as if he’d like to tear his spine out through his stomach. He was practically growling. She reached out a hand to the middle of his broad chest. Her touch and the electricity that always arched between them caught his attention and he looked at her.
“I am.” Travis eyed Archer levelly, his gaze direct. Reena smiled in approval. It had taken a long time for Travis to come out of his shell after the abuse he’d suffered at the hands of her father. A natural beta, he struggled with confrontation.
Usually.
Right now though, he squared up to Archer like a born alpha, even though the other guy had at least fifty more pounds and a hell of a lot more experience fighting. Probably. Yeah…make that definitely. Archer had been a soldier; his human combat experience would outweigh anything Travis…who had never fought even as a wolf…had to offer.
“You’re Archer Davis, former soldier, former human, and Reena’s paramour.”
Oh. For. Fuck’s. Sake.
Reena closed her eyes for a fraction of a second. Just like Travis to finally find an alpha streak and lay it all out like he’d slapped his dick on the counter for a pissing contest. Then she frowned, cutting a glance to Archer.
“Your name is Davis? Not Griffin?”
He gave the smallest of nods, his gaze still fixed on Travis. The kind of gaze that suggested should they ever meet in a dark alley, one of the guys wouldn’t fair so well.
“Hey,” she slapped his arm. “Eyes on me. Answer the question.”
He transferred his attention, and just for a moment, she thought she saw a glimmer of red in his eyes. Before she could say for sure, though, it disappeared as flecks of amber pushed through the human color.
“Yeah. My mom married into the Griffin pack when I was a kid. We both started as plain ol’ human.”
There was nothing plain about Archer, but she kept that to herself. How had she not known he wasn’t a Griffin? She, who prided herself on knowing everything about all those around her, had somehow let something about the guy in her bed pass her by. But then, they didn’t tend to do much talking once past the bedroom doors. Archer was a demanding lover and now he had the stamina of a wolf…Dayum. Heat hit her broadside at the memory, and she quickly transferred attention to Travis. Who watched her with a smirk.
“Travis.” She poked him in the chest, which earned a growl from Archer and his arm slid around her waist. “Stop teasing him. You…” she turned to Archer, “stop letting him wind you up. He does that. Travis is like my brother. He’s also mated, very, very mated.”
“That, he is. Extremely mated.” Jennison chose that moment to introduce himself, stepping behind Travis and wrapping his arms around the smaller man’s waist. He was a tall, muscled brute of a man. Reena suspected he had some werebear in him, but she wouldn’t be as impolite as to mention it. All she cared about was the guy made her best friend happy.
“Hey,” he reached around Travis and held out a hand to Archer. “I’m Jenn. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Something flickered in Archer’s eyes, but then he smiled and took the offered hand, shaking it firmly. “Likewise.”
Reena breathed a sigh of relief as the tension drained from Archer’s body. A relief that lasted all of a second before Travis opened his mouth again.
“I might be mated, but we’ve been friends since we were both pups,” he said, his expression hard as he looked at Archer. His eyes were full amber, his wolf just under the skin. “And if you ever hurt her, then watch your back. I’ll be coming for you.”
Reena closed her eyes again. Moon save her from idiot men.
2
“Archer! We have a ball to go to,” Reena gasped when, barely through the bedroom door, Archer backed her up. Pinning her luscious body between his and the wall, he buried his nose against her shoulder to take a deep breath.
“Don’t care.” His words emerged mumbled and low, the inhuman entity within him roaring to life as his cock pulsed savagely. He’d been hard since they’d left the court chambers, her scent teasing him and the need to make her his again almost consuming all else.
He trembled with need, forcing himself to hold still, hands either side of her shoulders. The only part of himself he allowed to move were his lips. Back and forth, he brushed them over the delicate skin at the side of her neck like a prayer. A reminder to himself to be gentle. Not to hurt her. Yeah, sure, she might be the big, bad she-wolf, but instinct told him that whatever raged inside him was nothing so benign as a mere wolf. Something else lurked there, something far darker and more dangerous. A creature he couldn’t let out.
A creature he had to control, placate with sex…keep it happy and sated.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
Leaving that question unanswered, he reached the sweet spot behind her ear. Moaning, she arched toward him. The scent of her need perfumed the air around them and he growled.
“Ball… we have to get ready,” she protested weakly, trying to persuade him to see sense.
“Later.” He wasn’t in a mood to be persuaded. Perhaps later, when her lips were wrapped around his dick. He nipped at the soft lobe of her ear, dra
wing another gasp from her. “You need to get ready first.”
“Ready. Yes…right.” She turned her head, seeking his lips, but he pulled away to look down at her. Her eyes were wide and darkened with desire, her hands on his shoulders, branding him through his shirt. He wanted them on him, skin to skin.
“Undress me,” he ordered, voice rasping in the semi-darkness of the room. There were never many lights on at court. No need when wolves had excellent night sight. But it was still too bright for him. Like whatever his beast was, it craved darkness. Darkness and fire. He couldn’t walk past one of the open fireplaces in the building without feeling a pull toward the flames.
“You are bossy tonight.” She started on his buttons, her fingers brushing him occasionally as they dipped beneath the fabric. He felt each touch like a whisper over his cock. Before she’d managed to undo the second button, he lost patience. Reaching up, he hooked his fingers in the open neck of the shirt and tore it open. Buttons scattered, pinging on the polished floor.
“You like it.” He didn’t have much in the way of words, as plain speaking as they came, but he knew she liked him dominant. Liked to yield control to him sexually just as much as he liked to have her screaming with pleasure beneath him.
“Yeah. I do.”
She reached for him, smoothing those tiny hands of hers over his chest and he groaned. Her touch felt good. So good it calmed his rage for a few seconds, eased the fires within. If she wanted, this tiny woman could bring him to his knees and utterly destroy him.
She ran her nails lightly over his skin, then rubbed the pads of her fingers over his nipples. They beaded, hardening into small nubs and a jolt of sensation arrowed to his dick. It jerked and pulsed against his pants, as though pissed at its fabric confinement and the fact she was paying attention to other parts of his body. His claws made an appearance and plaster cracked behind her head. He didn’t move his hands, keeping them where they were.
“Touch me,” he ordered on a rasp.
She flicked him a glance and the small curve of her lips nearly broke the restraints on his control. Wench was teasing him. He growled, baring his teeth but that didn’t quell her smile. Instead, she closed the gap between them, pressing her lush breasts against his chest as she smoothed her hand down his stomach.
“My, my, you are growly today.” Her kiss whispered over the side of his throat, butterfly touches that almost drove him crazy. “I like growly, it’s sexy.”
She reached his belt, nimble fingers making short work of the buckle and hummed with pleasure as she slid her hand within. The feel of her fingers closing around his hard shaft drew a gasp from the depths of his chest. A gasp that quickly turned into a rumbling growl when she reached up on tiptoe to kiss and nibble along the line of his jaw. The scrape of her blunt human teeth and the softness of her lips against the stubbled skin was a pleasure that made his eyes close so he could savor it.
She stroked his cock and he barked out a curse.
“Fuck!” he groaned as she did it again. Root to tip, over and over, then a pause as she swept her thumb over the broad tip. Smeared his own pre-cum over the mushroom head. He dropped his head, giving into her silent demand and claimed her lips.
The kiss was not exploratory or gentle. The beast of lust riding him wouldn’t allow that. Instead it was hard and ferocious, a claiming as he pried her lips open and plundered the silken recesses of her soft mouth. He sought her taste like he would hunt down his prey, letting them explode on his tongue while she worked his cock.
Then it wasn’t enough. He needed to touch her. Feel her slick heat.
Not breaking the kiss, he pressed her against the wall. Body angled to allow her to stroke him, he grabbed her dress and hauled it around her waist. She jumped and moaned as he stroked his fingers, following the line of her thong between her ass cheeks, but the sound was lost in his mouth.
He slid a finger under the thong, lifting it clear of her skin, then tore it away with a quick jerk. Her hand closed around his cock in surprise, her stroke harder, quicker. He groaned and tore his lips away.
“Again, like that. Hard,” he ordered, hand returning to cup her ass. She was so tiny, he felt like he enveloped her, wrapped around her, protecting her from the world. Keeping her for himself.
She pulled again, her breath rasping against the side of his neck and his eyes almost crossed. Felt so fucking good.
“Faster.”
He wasn’t all about giving orders though. Nudging her legs apart with a knee, he pulled one up against his hip, holding it there and leaning her back to open her to his exploration. Careful not to disturb her grip on him, he slid a finger down her collarbone to her cleavage, teasing against the generous globes before skipping over the bunched fabric. He found the clipped curls at the apex of her thighs and followed the trail in, parting her pussy lips with gentle fingers. They were slick, wet with her arousal.
Collecting her juices, he smeared them around her clit, assaulting the small bundle of nerves with a barrage of strokes and rubs. She whimpered, the sound lost in his mouth, her hand on his cock speeding up, then slowing as he pleasured her. Unable to help himself, he moved lower. Found the entrance to her pussy and slid a finger into her heated depths. She closed around him, and the groan that rose felt like it emanated from his very soul. Pulling back, he added a second finger. Fuck, her cunt was so tight…he could already imagine it gripping his cock. Tight around him as he fucked her hard and fast.
Curling his fingers back, he sought her g-spot, brought his thumb into play against her clit and rubbed both. A dual assault. Darker thoughts filled his mind, but he pulled back from them, locked them away for another time. A time when he could get her stripped and bound, pleasure her until her throat was raw from screaming his name. A time when they didn’t have a ball in an hour.
Breaking away, he kissed along her neck and upped the pace of his hand. “You feel fucking fantastic. So slick. So hot. So wet.”
She panted, her breathing ragged as she strained toward release. Briefly he considered withholding, leaving her in a state of sexual frustration through the ball. But that wouldn’t be fair… She didn’t need to be distracted, not with Kellan and his backers playing silly fuckers earlier.
“Come for me, babe. I want to feel it all.”
She panted, head against the wall and his dick still in her hand. She managed a few un-coordinated pumps, but then her eyes unfocused. “No… you haven’t.”
He silenced her with a ruthless kiss. “Come. Now. All over my hand.”
And with a cry, she did.
She should have stayed in bed with Archer.
Two hours later Reena sat on her throne at one end of the ballroom and looked over the amassed wolves attending the ball. A sigh inflated her chest. Balls. Meetings. Fundraisers. Functions. All while tiptoeing the minefield that was lycan politics. And she was sick of it. Just once she wanted someone to mean what they said and not have to watch her back.
Sometimes she thought the vampires had it right. Living in gangs, the fangers inhabited the city’s underworld and if people thought lycan challenge matches were brutal, then vampire culture would blow their mind. No politics, no rules, their earls kept power through might alone. A heady thought when she had to smile pleasantly and avoid upsetting all the spoilt brat alphas who wouldn’t know real responsibility if it upped and bit them on the fucking ass.
Once, just once, she’d like to forget all the alliances and treaties and rip a few fucking throats out. Just to teach them all a damn lesson.
But…she smiled as she spotted Archer on the other side of the room. He lurked in the shadows by the gaping fireplace again. She’d noticed at gatherings he always sought the shadows. At first she’d assumed it was because he was new to lycan society, but as time went on, she realized he was more comfortable in the dark.
She had no idea what the fire thing was though. Most wolves hated fire, complaining if she ordered them lit when it started to drop cold, but she didn’t care. A
s soon as she’d worked out Archer liked them, she ordered them all lit. Fuckers could just deal with it.
A movement caught her eye and she refocused her attention. A small knot of people had formed in the middle of the dance floor, making their way toward her. People scurried to get out of their way, the crowd parting before them. Sitting up, she reached for her wolf, holding the beast under her skin.
The crowd parted to reveal half the council alphas with Kellan at their center. Their grim expressions and the power shrouding them like summer haze over asphalt said they weren’t here to congratulate her on her excellent function planning skills.
“My lord alphas,” she greeted them with a nod. “How can I help you?”
Polite. She had to remember to be polite, even if she suspected this evening would end with blood on the floor again, and possibly her own death. Calm descended over her like a cloak. She’d never been worried about dying, had always known she wasn’t destined to die of old age in her bed. As Mistress of the City, it was a given there would be a wolf younger and hungrier for power than she was.
She’d been waiting for it. The only thing she regretted was that her death would take her from Archer, when she’d only just found him.
Two figures moved in her peripheral vision and a quick breath told her Travis and Jennison had her back, their own wolves barely under control. Travis she expected. She didn’t like it, but she’d always known if she fell, her successor wouldn't allow him to live, not with his links to her. But Jennison backing her up was unlooked for and welcome. At least she could trust the big alpha to get Travis away should the worst happen.
Kellan stepped forward and cleared his throat. “My lady, we are here on the authority of the Council of Alphas.”
“Really?” Arching her brow, she looked pointedly along the line. “What the entire council? Because I count only five. There are nine packs.”
The wolves behind Kellan looked discomforted. None would meet her gaze. She transferred her attention back to Kellan, the spokesperson.
