“No, actually it's about just … wanting it to happen naturally, I guess.” Tidus looked back at me and bit his lower lip. “It's not that I don't want to, Zara. It's just … I don't want to force a mating.” He took a deep breath and then steepled his hands. “You're not upset, right? Because I think you're seriously fucking hot.”
I laughed, but I wasn't upset.
“It's your choice,” I told him, looking up and meeting his eyes, remembering the warm feel of his hands on my breasts this morning. Even if we did wait, like he was asking, I didn't think it would take long. “You should do what's right for you.”
“You're a crazy motherfucker,” Che said, pointing at Tidus. “I don't care if this mark sucks the life out of me and turns me into an empty corn husk. I want my alpha female.”
“Same,” Silas said, tossing a look my way.
“I want the mark,” Jax said, but it sounded more like he was saying I want you instead.
I was okay with that.
Montgomery and Nic already had the mark, and I'd already slept with them both so … it was just Anubis. I flicked my eyes his direction and found that he was looking right at me.
“I don't mind … speeding things up for scholarly pursuits,” he said in a low, flirty voice. My heart stammered in my chest as we locked gazes. “When did you want to set up our experiment?”
“Now?” I asked and I saw his brows go up, his breath exhaling in a rush. “Or I mean, I would have said now if you hadn't gotten through my panty drawer twice.” I narrowed my eyes as Anubis gaped and clapped a palm over his chest. “Speaking of lacy undergarments … what did you do with the ones you picked up at the university? If I find my panties stashed in your pocket, I'm gonna kick your ass.”
“Aw, you think so little of me,” Anubis said as he made a pitiful moue and I laughed, pushing red hair over one shoulder and keeping our gazes locked. “But could you please look away while I stash these stolen panties elsewhere?”
I lunged at him and he sat back back on the bed, propped up on both elbows with me between his legs, one palm on either side of his waist. I used my left hand to tug out the lining of the pocket on his jeans and then did the same thing on the other side. I didn't actually expect to find my panties in his fucking pocket.
“What the hell is this?” I asked with a small burst of surprised laughter. “Holy shit, are you fucking serious? I thought all these panty jokes were just … you know, jokes.”
Anubis looked as surprised as I was.
“I didn't put those in there,” he said with a small shriek. “I didn't.”
I threw the panties at his face and sat back on my heels. Anubis followed me forward as Che's laughter echoed out from behind me, grabbing my arm and pulling me forward. Our lips met in a heated crash, one that didn't much feel like an experiment at all.
No, it felt goddamn good.
“It was Che that did it,” Anubis whispered, breaking our kiss for just the briefest moment, his eyes half-lidded and heavy with sex. “I think.”
“No, actually that was me,” Silas said from behind us, sweeping my hair back from my neck. The feel of his hot fingertips trailing across my skin made me shiver. “He dropped 'em on the ground when we got back and I thought it'd be hilarious if you thought he really was a panty thief.” Silas pushed his body up close behind me, the hardness in his sweats pressing against my ass. “I think the joke turned out pretty damn well,” he whispered as Anubis plucked the lacy panties off his chest and gave them a long, lingering look.
I snatched them from his hand, twisting around just enough to yank them over Silas' head.
The back of my mind was swimming with horrors—memories of Diya rising from the dead, Faith's living room walls spattered with Notch and Mila's blood, the mutilated corpse of Kit Cole lying in the U of O parking lot. But I kept it at bay by letting the warmth of my alpha males flow over me.
“Now get out of here and give us some privacy,” I said, giving him a faux elbow to the gut.
“We have to leave?” Silas asked, talking through the lace of the underwear and not even bothering to take them off. “I thought we all had an invitation to this party.”
“You do,” I said as Silas slid his inked arms around my waist, “but give Anubis some room to breathe or I'll have to kick you out.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Silas said, his voice slightly muffled by the panties. I shook my head slightly and turned back to Anubis, sitting there in his rumpled tie and black button-up. As I watched, he carefully reached up and loosed the tie, pulling it over his head and tossing it aside. “The real panty thief promises to behave himself.”
I smiled at Silas' muttering and leaned in close to Anubis, breathing in the floral scent of Pack Crimson Dusk. Technically, my father was a member of Crimson Dusk, but in our world, that didn't matter. My mother was Pack Ebon Red; she was alpha. It was her coloring, her smell, her pack heritage that my siblings and I inherited. I'd never given it much thought before but simple genetics should dictate that at least some wolves of mixed heritage would show mottled or mixed coloring however it was only ever the dominant wolf in the pair whose heritage showed up in their offspring.
Maybe we'd been surrounded by more magic than we'd even realized? All these years lamenting its loss when it was right there in front of us.
“You're sure you want to risk having the mark?” I asked but Anubis was still looking at me with half-lidded eyes and a sultry smile. He slid his fingers into my hair and brought our faces close, his breath feathering against my mouth.
“I'm sure,” he said, flicking his tongue against my lower lip, teasing his way along the edge of my smile before closing the distance between us. Our mouths pressed together, tongues tangling as his fingers held firm on the back of my head, my palms settling against the mattress on either side of his waist.
As we kissed, Anubis slowly lowered himself to the bed and I went with him, letting my weight settle over his body. He was warm and hard in all the right places, and I liked the way his right hand slid around me, fisting in my t-shirt. I wasn't wearing any underwear under the baggy sleepwear, the black cotton riding up as he played with it and flashing the pale curve of my ass to the rest of the boys in the room.
There were definitely some sounds of appreciation back there, but nobody touched me for the time being, giving Anubis and me a moment to just … explore one another as mates. According to pack law, his body belonged to me and I wanted to touch every inch of him, see what made him tick, what made him moan, all the things that turned his skin to gooseflesh.
“This is the most interesting fucking research I've done in a long, long time,” he murmured as I sat up and readjusted my legs so that I was straddling his waist, the hardness inside his jeans teasing the bare heat between my thighs.
“It gets even better,” I promised, holding his eyes as I worked my way down the buttons, nice and slow, pausing every now and then to tease the bare skin of his chest with my fingernails. Anubis was patient, eyes shimmering as he put his hands on my hips and watched me with rapturous attention, like I truly was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen in his life.
After I finished with the last button, I pushed his shirt apart and slid my palms down his chest and over his abs, enjoying the way the muscles contracted beneath my touch. Anubis' hips were moving, too, rising and falling from sheer instinct, grinding against my opening. It was an exquisite form of torture, one that I relished as I ground my hips right back, pushing him into the bed and making him moan.
Leaning down, I tossed my long, red hair over one shoulder and let it tease across his skin, over the hard points of nipples, and down to the waistband of his jeans …
“Fuck,” Anubis gasped, lifting his head and propping himself with his elbows again, watching with rapturous intent as I opened the button on his dark blue denim, dragged the zipper down nice and slow. Like most werewolves, he didn't wear underwear. I'd been wearing a lot more of it lately—nice pairs, too, which was unusual. But then,
I had seven new mates to I liked to tease. “Alpha,” he breathed as I curled my fingers under the waistband of his jeans and dragged them down the muscular lengths of his legs.
Anubis was built of lean muscles and beautiful bronze skin, a pleasure to look at in the nude—especially with the magnificent length of his cock standing at attention between us. As he watched, I slowly lifted the t-shirt over my head and tossed it aside, glancing behind me to see … that all of the other boys had left. I'd been so into what I was doing that I hadn't noticed.
They didn't have to leave, but I thought it was nice that they were giving Anubis and me a moment. It was actually pretty cute. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like if I were with one of them while he was with another woman. That sort of thing just didn't work with my nature; I wouldn't have put up with it.
My seven mates … they deserved serious fucking kudos for dealing with the situation as beautifully as they were. Not that we weren't having problems or squabbles or disagreements, but … I would've already chased off any rival females. That, or crushed them into the dirt at the arena.
Tossing the jeans onto the floor, I crawled back up Anubis' body and kissed his mouth with all the fervor and possessiveness I was feeling. I felt like a fucking alpha in that moment, lording over her domain. There was a part of me that felt some guilt at that—the boys were supposed to be my equals, not my subordinates or my property—but the wolf was taking over and I let her.
Apparently, Anubis had the same idea, letting out a little growl against my mouth that made my skin ripple with excitement. Pulling away from him, I saw that flirtatious side of his taking over, a slightly cocky smile on his face, eyes shrouded with sex.
He watched me move back down his body, putting my palms on either one of his hips, fingers teasing the V-shaped muscles that framed his pelvis.
As soon as the tip of my tongue made contact with the tip of his cock, Anubis dropped his head to the mattress, curling fingers crowned with claws into the blankets. Spontaneous, partial shifting. I liked that. It meant I was doing this right.
Curling my own fingers around the base of his shaft, I licked the underside from the top of my fist all the way to the head of Anubis' dick. His hips rose appreciatively as I kissed and sucked my way over the warm, velvety skin, tasting the saltiness of pre-cum on the tip when I wrapped my lips around it.
“Holy shit,” he whispered as I slid my mouth down to meet my fist … and then pulled it away, going deeper, further, taking him all the way in. Where Jax fought me during his blow job, Anubis relaxed into the bed, his claws reforming back into shiny, human nails. His breathing evened out, his lids closing as he gave into the hot pleasure of my mouth.
Using my hands, I teased his balls in my hand, caressing the surprisingly soft flesh with my fingers, exploring the new realm of sexuality with vigor. Anubis was a whole different breed than the other men. Okay, to be fair, they all had their own flavor. Anubis' wasn't a beast like Che, a caretaker like Nic, or even a natural born leader like Montgomery. He was the man in this group who was most comfortable with who he was and what he'd been given. He'd been trained from birth to be an alpha, and he knew his shit. He wasn't reliant on his wolf like Jax or desperate for human connection like Silas, wasn't craving a place to belong like Tidus.
Anubis was … werewolf. And he was comfortable being werewolf. The natural duality inside of me loved that, craved that sort of balance.
I took that craving and channelled it into the movement of my mouth and hands, listening to the rhythm of Anubis' body, the speed of his breathing, the gentle pressure of his hand as it curled in my hair, to bring him to orgasm. I kept my lips wrapped around his body as he finished, tightening his hold on my hair and lifting his hips to my face. The hot, sweet taste of his seed hit my tongue, tasting like a Crimson Dusk male should, floral and masculine and salty all at the same time.
Lifting my head up, I swallowed and wiped my lips, sliding my now sweaty naked body over his. Anubis didn't hesitate to roll us over so that he was on top, pausing only to check his wrist. No mark. Either I was wrong about the way it was passed … or else the Forest Spirit's magic had a very narrow view of what exactly sex entailed.
“I have a theory,” Anubis whispered, turning his crimson eyes to mine, looking down at me with a very possessive, very male look about him that made me raise my eyebrows. Putting a palm on either of his cheeks, I pulled his face to mine and kissed him, the taste of his climax swirling between our tongues. “Do you mind if I try it out, Alpha?”
“Please do,” I whispered back, loving the look of satisfaction on his face as he kissed his way down the side of my throat—an extremely intimate move for a pair of werewolves. Not only was the neck a sensitive and vulnerable place, the spot every wolf strove to clamp between violent jaws during a hunt, but it was also a mark of dominance to put your lips on another were's neck.
My body tensed up briefly, but only for a moment. The pleasure of Anubis' tongue flicking against the pulse point in my throat was too much. It felt too damn good to fight. Besides, this was my mate. And if I couldn't trust my mates, I'd never be able to prevent this war.
Anubis continued to kiss his way down my body, pausing briefly to cup my breasts in his hands, kneading the flesh with reverent sincerity, low groans slipping from his throat. He dropped his hot mouth first to one peaked, pink nipple and then the other, leaving them cool and wet and aching when he continued down the flat, muscular expanse of my belly.
I knew where he was heading, but it still made me gasp when he settled between my thighs and curled his hands under my ass. Anubis' breath fanned against the swollen wetness of my cunt for a moment before he turned his head and teased me mercilessly, kissing and sucking on the tender skin of my inner thighs.
He took his sweet time as I leaned my head back and stared out the window at the remaining half of the moon, shadowed and smiling down at me with silver beams of light. Feeling the cool spring wind sweep through the open window, kissing across my heated skin … it made the moment of Anubis' tongue flicking across my clit just that much sweeter.
Lifting my arms up, I curled my fingers in my own hair and exhaled, letting out the stress of the day in a single breath. Anubis was a careful and patient lover, encouraging my body to build up a reserve of pleasure before promising a climax. He kissed and caressed my folds with his tongue and lips, tracing his fingertip over the crease between my thigh and pelvis with a warm finger.
“I knew I'd like the taste,” he murmurs, his voice rumbling through me and reminding me that this is his first fucking time doing this. Holy shit, he's good. That natural balance inside of him lends to great patience and care in everything he does. No, Anubis Rothburg is not one to rush things—especially not something as important as this.
My lids flutter as Anubis squeezes my ass with the finger of his left hand, sneaking the right to my opening and inserting first one finger, then two, then three. He teased my sensitive insides with slow, lazy strokes, like he was searching for the perfect spot. He found it there, just inside my opening, pausing when I let out a sharp, sudden whimper of pleasure. I swear, I could feel Anubis smiling against my cunt just before he swirled his tongue in a circle around my clit, timing the move with the firm pressure of his fingers inside of me.
With a groan, I dropped my hands down to his hair and squeezed the navy blue spikes in tight fists, pushing his head into my pussy as my eyes rolled back in my head and an orgasm ripped straight through me, carrying with it the distinctly musky smell of magic.
Vines shot out of my wrist, curling down my arm as the power settled over us like a blanket, slipping across my sensitive, heated skin as I groaned. It was like watching the tide being sucked out before a tsunami, that ominous sight of the ocean retreating across the sand with supernatural speed. A glow took over both Anubis and me, the golden glow whispering over our bodies and retreating into our marks.
Yes.
Our marks.
Anubis sat up su
ddenly and lifted his wrist, watching as the strange glow slid between our bodies, distributing itself evenly into each of our marks. This time though, I didn't pass out, didn't feel drained. I felt empowered.
“My theory was right,” Anubis whispered, dropping his gaze to mine. I expected him to look surprised, but instead, his pupils were dilated, lids still heavy. He leaned over me and took my mouth again, the power still riding high between us. “Wait here,” he said against my lips, climbing off of the bed and flicking open the lid of the wooden box where all the silver was kept.
Anubis pulled out both belts and came back to the bed, a scholarly gleam in his eye. Without question, I lifted my hips and let him hook it around my waist. The pain was nothing compared to the aftershocks of pleasure rippling through my body.
“Another theory?” I whispered as he hooked his own belt and crawled between my legs again, taking over the rest of our sexual encounter as I basked in the glow of both my orgasm and the magic. No, the way I felt right now … there was nothing about this mark to be concerned about. It had that same neutral quality that all the earth's magic had, that same sense of balance. Anubis was the perfect fit for it, a man destined to wield something so unbiased, so ready to be molded to its user's careful design.
“Yes, Alpha,” he growled, biting my lower lip as I spread my legs for him. The hardness of his cock pressed against my opening for a moment, our eyes meeting, the silver burning our bare bellies. It was walking that fine line between pleasure and pain, but I didn't care. When Anubis thrust inside of me, his breath catching with a choking gasp, I forgot to care. No, I was too interested in the slick slide of his cock inside of me, a curtain of pleasure falling over his face as he felt the ridged wetness of a woman's body for the first time. “Goddess' fucking tits,” he snarled, putting his forehead to mine, the strong muscles in his back dotted with drips of sweat.
Pack Obsidian Gold Page 10
