by A. J. Downey
I came first, sometime later. I felt it boiling up inside me until I couldn’t hold it back anymore and I pressed her down against me, holding myself fully inside her as I pulsed and twitched within the tight grip of her pussy. She moaned quietly, her muscles contracting around me as she joined me and her nails dug hard into my arms where she held onto me.
We sat for a time, not separating from each other in the pool until I was forced to shake myself hard to avoid falling asleep, drowsy with afterglow.
I tilted my head forward and kissed her neck, gently nipping at her skin with my teeth until she shifted against me causing us both to moan slightly.
“As good as it feels to just stay here inside you, Sugar,” I said. “We need to get back to the house.” She nodded, sleepily, and pulled away from me. Climbing out of the pool, we shifted quietly back to our wolves and started the journey back home.
If I could have smiled a human smile I would have. As the thought occurred to me I realized that it just felt right. Our home. It had been just my space, my house, for so long and now it was indelibly marked in my head as Chloe’s home as well, as ours, and as we trotted off into the night there was no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, that it would be a better home for having her in it.
Chapter 24
Chloe
“This is seriously becoming my favorite way to wake up,” William said, voice deep with sleep, but still bright with a smile. I laughed and let him slip from my mouth.
“Seriously, I could live with this every morning, don’t stop,” he said and I grinned up at him, stalking up the length of his body giggling.
We made love for a good portion of the morning, both of us pointedly ignoring what needed to be done under the light of the moon later that night. I didn’t want to bring in our reign with punishments and by handing down sentences. It seemed wrong, tyrannical, and I shuddered inwardly at how much it felt like Rom and what he would do.
Every time I had the thought that I really didn’t want to be the Alpha Bitch of our Pack, I got this pervading sense of disgust from my wolf and she was right. The situation was far from ideal, but I could and would do this. William needed me by his side and it was either me, or to have let Lucinda remain and there was no way I could have let the Pack continue to suffer under that special little cuntcake’s crazy.
What Sharon did needed to be punished according to the Pack, but according to me, I felt like she was about to be punished for doing them all a favor. I tipped my head back under the shower spray to rinse my hair when the thought occurred to me and I bit my lower lip.
Was I sure that wasn’t what Sharon had in mind when she’d done it? I mean it was pretty obvious that Remus had a bunch of ulterior motives that were a freaking mystery to the lot of us, but still, ulterior motives none the less. How could I be sure that Sharon hadn’t had the same? I suppose I could just ask her and hand down punishment accordingly.
I sighed, and washed again, even though I didn’t really need to. I just was enjoying the hot water too much.
“Chloe!” William called from out in the kitchen and I smiled; I couldn’t help it.
“Yeah!”
“Come and eat! Markus is here so put on some clothes!” I laughed. I knew the man was here, I’d heard him. I rinsed and shut off the tap and spent several minutes more luxuriating in the feel of the plush bath towel against my skin. I slipped on the dress that had been in the bottom of my bag. It was almost too light for the cooling weather here but I was running painfully low on clothes, let alone clean ones.
It was a baby doll hi-lo dress, a white affair, reminiscent of a tank top at the top with elastic below the breasts. The dress fell to my knees in front and my ankles in the back and was cute as hell. The sheer white fabric edged in delicate lace. I dried my hair, gritting my teeth at the whine of the hairdryer and looked at myself in the mirror.
I looked like me, except I was different. More sure of myself in my stance. My hair a touch longer than it’d been; where before it’d barely brushed the tops of my shoulders, now it was about two inches past.
“Chloe?” William appeared in the mirror behind me and my heart gave a sharp ache at just how beautiful he really was to me. “You okay?” he asked.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown, Boy. Bad enough she’s been wolf-kind all of a couple of weeks, throw in being Alpha Bitch on top of that, I’m kind of amazed y’all are holding it together.” Markus grumbled from behind William, just out of my sight.
William’s generous brown eyes roved me from head to foot, a gentle, appreciative smile curving his lips which made me smile in return, a deep bloom of pleasure opening inside me at the thought of being pleasing to him. God I was so stupidly giddy in love with William Reese it was mind boggling.
Markus chuckled and appeared over William’s shoulder, “Look at you two all moony eyed,” he stated and let out a gusty, mocking breath.
“I’m fuckin’ starving, get your asses out here,” he gruffed, and William bowed his head, laughing. I took Williams hand and we followed the Arbiter down to the kitchen.
“You boys have been busy,” I said gratefully. A platter of turkey sandwiches and a bowl of fruit sat on the counter, along with three different freshly opened bags of potato chips in three different flavors.
“Oh! My favorite!” I declared going for the sea salt and vinegar. William’s eyes sparkled when I sneezed at the sharp vinegar tang.
“You knew that didn’t you?” I asked popping a chip into my mouth and smiling at the pucker it caused. I always had to giggle at that feeling.
“Yep,” he said and went for the sour cream and cheddar, my second favorite.
“Tell you something you didn’t know,” I spoke around a mouthful of crunchy chip.
“Now this I gotta hear, I put that dossier together myself.” Markus slid into a seat and leaned back.
“Mmm, when I was ten and won second place in that martial arts tournament, I didn’t quit after that, my dad wouldn’t hear of me in second place for anything ever. Honor student, you name it and I was in it. No, my dad got me a private instructor, the best of the best. Lucinda really didn’t stand a chance.” My tone was weighted with regret and both men stared at me silently for a full minute before Markus started to laugh.
“Sharon did us all a big damned favor,” he said, and I felt my shoulders drop.
“You have no idea,” I said quietly and I looked at Markus, “Do you think that was her intent?”
“No, Sugar,” William set his chips aside and pulled me into a firm embrace.
“Kid’s right, Sharon ain’t a schemer like Rem. I think she fully expected you to die.” Markus shook his head.
“Well I’m going to ask her anyway, in front of everyone.”
“Why?”
“Because, I want to know from her, I want to know why and I want to understand it before I start off passing judgement on something I know nothing about.”
Markus beamed at us. “This Pack may be headed for a rough road-a-ho in the near future, what with Rem exposing us like he did and with Chloe here being the daughter of The Hangman. It’s a good thing we’ve got leaders with a level head. We may just survive the trouble ahead with you two at the helm.”
I cuddled into William and he held me close as we traded a weighted look of concern. Markus smiled and nodded to himself.
“That look right there, that tells me without a doubt you two are the right ones for the job,” he said.
Something occurred to me, “Why do you call him that? My father?”
“What the Hangman?” Markus asked. William went very still at my back.
“Yeah.”
“It’s the weapon he uses, Sugar. He favors a silver coated length of piano wire, a garrote.” William’s voice was so somber, full of such sorrow that I instantly regretted asking. I opened my mouth to apologize for asking and stopped, all three of our heads jerked in the direction of the stairs as the door opened downstairs.
“Hello! It’s me
Nora!”
All of us visibly relaxed as the young – well, young looking girl came up the stairs. The heavy mood of the moment before evaporating when she smiled across the room at us. For a Goth girl she sure seemed happy.
“Alphas,” she greeted and grinned. I frowned. I doubted I would ever get used to that.
“Come on, let’s eat,” Markus grumbled. We all four sat down at the table.
“What brings you here?” I asked Nora.
“Well, Markus called and said you have some, ah, delicate questions about female wolf-kind anatomy.”
I blinked, “Thanks?” I said to Markus who was shaking with silent laughter.
“Don’t mention it!” he wheezed trying not to lose his shit completely. I smiled sweetly at him.
“Right, so birth control, apparently medicine isn’t an option so what is? Please don’t spare any details.” I gave Nora a sphinx like grin. That wiped the smile right off his face.
“Boy, grab some food, I’ll grab the beer and we best go outside and leave these women to it, you get me?” William grinned and tortured Markus a little.
“I don’t know Markus, I’m pretty comfortable,” he said and Markus gave him a baleful look.
“Go on you two. He’s right, I have questions and she’s here willing to provide answers…” didn’t have to tell them twice. They took half the small mountain of sandwiches, fruit and chips with them and trouped down the stairs and out into the afternoon’s failing light.
“IUD works best for us, multiples aren’t uncommon for our kind, but no, it’s not like we have a litter of puppies in wolf form or anything. In fact, you have to be strong enough to resist the shift or you risk losing the babe or babies before you can carry to term. We have a wolf-kind doctor; we call the Pack doctor a Galen after some Roman doctor guy from way back when,” Nora explained after we heard the door shut behind the boys. She picked up a sandwich and smiled. “That about cover it?” she asked.
“That about covers what I wanted to know for now, thank you.” We ate in silence for a few while I considered what she said.
“How do I get an appointment with the Galen?” I asked.
“Consider it done, I’ll make it happen,” she swallowed and I nodded.
“What does ‘marking’ someone mean?” I asked. She went really still and sighed.
“Let me guess, Sharon?” she asked. I nodded.
“Is that what you’re going to do? Mark and demote her?” I stared at my half eaten sandwich.
“I don’t know, I’m considering my options but in order to do that, I need to know exactly what they are…” I trailed off and fixed her with a look. She chewed silently, a war on her face.
“Please don’t make me order you,” I said gently and sat back in my chair. Nora blinked at me, surprised and twisted her lips back and forth in thought.
“It isn’t pretty, but it isn’t Omega either.” She said ‘Omega’ like it was a dirty word, I filed that away for later.
“So to mark one of us, is essentially to brand one of us, here,” she pointed to her shoulder, “The brand is done with an iron made out of silver. It hurts, and when it heals it scars because, well, silver… That and as far as I’ve heard it, the silver particles left behind during the branding process makes it so it heals human slow and makes it itch like a mother when it does finally heal over. The scar lasts for years and as long as it’s there, the wolf-kind in question can’t formally challenge for a fight of succession until the last vestiges of the scar fade away. If it ever does.”
“So we can heal wounds made with silver?” I asked.
“Human slow, and like I said, the scars can last forever. And if the wound is a mortal one made with a silver weapon? That’s it, we can and we do die. Topically we can wear silver, but after about a day the site welts up and itches like a mother and it takes days for that shit to go away.
“Like any allergy, some wolf-kind are worse and some better. Alphas tend to be more resistant to the allergy. Some Alpha’s, I’ve heard, are barely slowed down. That’s rare though and those are only natural Alphas which are rarer still. Ingesting silver is no good. Like really dangerous. We vomit like the worst case of food poisoning ever and it can eat our insides. It’s a bad way to die.”
Nora chattered on and I did my best to listen. I had a lot to think about and I wasn’t really sure how on board I was with the potential to brand someone. I mean, my God!
“You okay Chloe? You look a little green,” Nora looked at me with some concern.
“I’m fine, this is all really new and some of it is just so damned…”
“Brutal? So archaic it makes your teeth hurt? I know,” she heaved a gusty sigh, “But, it’s just how things are, how things have always been done,” she shrugged like that made any of this okay.
“Thank you, Nora,” I murmured.
“Got any mind to who her replacement is going to be?” she asked.
“None. I don’t know the Pack, have no idea who would be a good candidate versus who wouldn’t.” I turned and looked out the window.
“Well, you could always let the Pack decide,” she said and I snorted.
“What? Like they picked Romulus for Alpha?” I asked and Nora grinned.
“Yeah, sometimes you need to go on more than just instinct.” I felt a whole hearted surge of agreement from deep down inside and had to chuckle.
“What about you?” I asked. “Any interest in the position?”
Nora gave me a tight lipped smile, “I’d be honored,” she said simply and the ‘but’ hung in the air between us so tangible it was almost a visible living thing.
“But?” I prompted.
“But, there are those that are stronger that would Challenge me for succession.”
“Got a better candidate you can name?” I asked.
“No,” she said honestly.
“If you’re named tonight, you have an entire month before you’d have to meet any challenges, correct?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said warily.
“Why do you think you would lose a challenge for succession?” I asked. Nora shifted uncomfortably.
“Me and Brent, we’re Blood Born like Rom and Rem, but we didn’t really get the mean streak. We were born and raised by two Moon Forged parents, they’re in the Albuquerque Pack down south. Anyways, our parents weren’t exactly fighters. They don’t really train the females to fight either. Wolf-kind can be sexist that way.
“There are a lot of Moon Forged females that have drifted into this Pack that were military before they were forged, they know how to fight, they’ve been trained for it. They wouldn’t make a good beta, not like me who was born into this, but Lucinda didn’t exactly bother to impress proper Pack etiquette, you know what I mean?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose between my eyes, “Just how big of a mess is this Pack?” I asked.
“Look, William’s dad was a good Alpha when it came to securing the pack from threats from the outside, but he was shit at dealing with the Pack internally and Lucinda may have been the biggest and baddest bitch on the block, but she was a shit Alpha Bitch and the last Alpha didn’t do anything to fix it. It’s pretty much all been Sharon and the Arbiter holding things down.”
Of course. I sighed and opened my mouth to speak but the front door opened downstairs and Markus called up, “Girls! It’s time to go, let’s get to it.”
“I’m nominating you, Nora, that is, if you trust me.”
“As my Alpha wills it,” she said dubiously, a glimmer of fear in her eyes.
“I do, I also will that you be here every day from today until the next full moon so I can train you, hopefully being wolf-kind will give you an inside edge on the learning curve.” I said and we both got up.
“Okay,” she said but she didn’t look sure. Damn it. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. I followed Nora downstairs and William smiled a little wanly at me.
Neither of us wanted to do this, yet here we were, just the same.
Chapter 25
William
I didn’t feel much like talking on the drive. It didn’t seem like there was a lot to talk about anymore. We’d been doing nothing but talking, when we weren’t fucking, for far too long already. Markus seemed to catch the vibe and drove silently. I sat shotgun with Chloe clutched in my lap, staring intently out the passenger window at the trees drifting by. Fuck the seatbelt laws. I wanted her close, and you went days and sometimes weeks without seeing a human cop or state patrol out here.
I really wasn’t positive what to do about Remus. And I really wasn’t looking forward to it.
“What’d you mean last night when you said ‘local Pack’?” Chloe asked suddenly and I turned my attention from the window to her.
“With a Pack as large as ours we can’t all remain in the same area for long. Hell, we’ve already lived in Washington longer than we have almost anywhere else. With how slowly we age, we have to Pack up and move every so often to keep people from getting suspicious. Most of the Pack lives scattered across the country, typically going about their human lives. The Moon Forged do at least. Like I said, they can do without the immediate support of the Pack better than Blood Born can.
“There’s usually two or three that stick together as a sort of small Pack unit for support and to help keep each other out of trouble and under the radar. We have several events throughout the year where the extended Pack members will fly or drive in for a week or two spending time with the Pack as a whole.”
“So local Pack would be just the ones that lived in Washington?”
“Just the ones that live on the Olympic Peninsula.”
“How many is that?”
“Fifty or sixty?” I said in a questioning tone to Markus who nodded without saying anything or taking his eyes from the road. “Fifty or sixty,” I said to Chloe with a touch more confidence in my tone. “And even that number fluctuates any given week.”
