by Karin Tabke
She shrugged.
“Mondragon is a powerful pack. Lucien is a strong leader. They both need you.”
“Lucien needs a kick in the ass.”
“That, too. But—” Talia’s violet eyes implored her. “For the sake of Mondragon, it is imperative you stand united with Lucien. If you don’t, the pack will lose their confidence in him as alpha, and that cannot happen under any circumstance.”
“Where is your loyalty to Rafael?”
“My loyalty is to the Lycan nation first, Lucien and Rafael second.”
“If I leave here, Lucien cannot force me to stay away from Rafa.”
“You are wrong, because until he releases you completely, you belong to him. He will never release you if he thinks you will return to Rafa.”
“Then I am still a prisoner, am I not?”
“Choose to stay and your prison will be a happier place.” She opened the door and said over her shoulder, “Dinner is about to be served. Come down as soon as you’re dressed.”
“I need to wash Lucien off me first,” Falon yelled at the closed door.
Grabbing the clothes she wanted to wear, Falon yanked open the bathroom door and strode in. She stopped half a step in. Lucien stood with his back to her under one of the two showerheads in the walk-in shower stall. No door for privacy. Not that she minded the sight. He was something to behold.
The muscles in his back rippled beneath the red-and-black tattoo. It was unusual in that it was a hybrid of a wolf and a dragon. The main body of a wolf wrapped around his torso with a howling dragon-head up his shoulder and the fire-breathing snout halfway around his neck. Lucien raised his arms above his shoulders and rubbed shampoo into his thick black hair. When wet, his hair reached just past his wide shoulders. Falon swallowed as her gaze swept down the corded muscles of his back to his tight ass. His legs were long, straight, and muscled. As her gaze rose, he turned. She gasped. He was erect, and she swallowed again. The tail of the wolf had a dragon spear-tip tail. The wolf head wrapped around his neck but the dragon tail wrapped around his narrow waist to his belly and straight down to his—She’d never seen a tattoo on a man’s private parts or a cock piercing. Heat rose in her cheeks. When he was inside of her, that metal ball on the underside of his shaft that protruded just to the edge of his cock head had stimulated her to crazy. Maybe that was why she had come so hard and so fast…
Her gaze traveled up from his arrogant erection to his taut belly to his wide, defined chest. Soapy suds slid lazily down the hard, defined planes to his belly, sluicing around his erection in slow, foamy waves. His hand slid down his chest to the root of his penis. Lucien grabbed himself and slowly stroked his erection until it turned angry and red.
Look at me, he commanded.
Falon’s chest rose and fell in quick harsh puffs. She shook her head, afraid he would mesmerize her with his eyes and make her do something her heart did not want her to do.
Chicken.
Refusing to be sucked in by him, Falon set her clothing on the long slate vanity, then stripped his clothes from her body. She turned toward Lucien, who stood unmoving in the middle of the large stall, watching her. She would prove to them both that she could resist his carnal call.
Chin high, she stepped into the shower. She heard his hiss of breath as she stepped past him, her thigh brushing against his. Falon steeled herself. The contact was like an electrical shock. Turning her back on him, she stood beneath the other showerhead and drenched herself. She reached past Lucien, who had not moved, and grabbed the shampoo from the slate inset. Her left breast brushed against his chest.
“Play with fire, Falon, and you will go up in flames,” he warned.
She smiled, liking the control she had over him. She pushed the envelope more. Turning around, she faced him, catching and holding his hot gaze. Lifting her hands, she squeezed the shampoo onto her head. Back arched she closed her eyes, dug her fingers into her scalp, and scrubbed.
Furnace-grade heat radiated off Lucien. She felt his desire, his want, his battle not to press her against the shower wall and take her. Then visualized him doing just that. She tried to think of Rafael, but she could not quite conjure his image. Not with his brother so close.
Lucien snarled beside her. Her eyes flew open.
Eyes blazing furiously, he moved within inches of her. Falon stepped back, he stepped forward until her back hit the wall.
Whatever it was between them was strong. Because despite her love for Rafael, and her powers, powers she would not hesitate to use, she felt every bit the submissive female to Lucien’s dominant male.
“You cannot will me to want you,” she said, pressing her palms against the slate wall behind her.
Lucien put his hands on either side of her head and leaned into her until she felt the throb of his body heat. “I don’t have to.”
“You swore you would not touch me—”
“I swear a lot of things.” He stepped back from her, then rinsed off. He strode from the shower and grabbed a towel from the rack and said over his shoulder, “I’m hungry; hurry up so we can eat.”
The dining area just off the common room was comprised of two long, heavy, wooden, granite-topped tables. The aromas wafting from the covered dishes lining the middle of both were mouthwatering. Lucien led her to the larger of the two tables where there were two large chairs seated next to each other at the head of the table. He pulled out one of the chairs and sat her, then took his place beside her.
As soon as Lucien sat, two women heaped their plates with rare roast beef, roasted chicken, and savory lamb chops. Bowls of stir-fried vegetables and mounds of steaming pastas were set down around their laden plates.
She looked to Lucien, who cut his meat. “This is too much food, Lucien.”
“Eat all that you can, Falon, you’re too thin.”
That she could not argue with. She had not had a period for almost two years, and knew it was because her body fat was nonexistent. She had just started to put a little weight on with regular meals when all hell broke lose. With sudden realization, Falon realized she was famished. She dug in. Halfway through her plate, Falon looked up to find the eyes of the entire pack on her. Not one of them ate. In fact, not one of them had food on their plate.
She set her fork down and looked at Lucien. “Why don’t they eat?”
“It is customary they wait until the alpha has had his fill.”
Flabbergasted, Falon laughed. “Are you serious?”
Lucien scowled. “It is our way.”
She shook her head and sat back. “That’s ridiculous. A pack is a family, as a family, the pack should eat together.” She did not say that Vulkasin did not adhere to such archaic rules.
Do not undermine my authority, Falon.
Authority has nothing to do with this. Families eat to-ge-ther.
She pushed her plate away and said, “I eat when Mondragon eats.”
Lucien set his fork down and stared at her. Do you purposely look for ways to thwart me?
Falon smiled and shook her head. I live to thwart you, but on this I feel strongly. How can you not? By eating first, you do not show them the respect they are due.
My eating first is symbolic of who I am.
No one here questions your leadership, Lucien. Don’t rub it in their faces. By all means, be served first but share the meal with them.
He shook his head and stood. “Mondragon, while I am your alpha, we are a family first. From this meal forward we all eat at the same time and we will also share so that all the way down to the omegas, no one leaves the table hungry.”
Almost eighty pairs of eyes turned on Falon. In some she saw uncertainty, in some of the females open hostility, but in most—even the big sergeant at arms, Joachim—she saw quiet gratitude.
“Eat, Mondragon!” Lucien bellowed. “You will need your strength for the pairings!”
With a gusto she had never witnessed, the pack dug in. Their bawdy talk and laughter punctuated with the noises of
happy eating.
Lucien pushed his plate away from him and sat back in his chair. He set his right arm on the back of Falon’s chair and watched the beer and wine flow and his pack grow louder and bawdier by the minute.
One of the men Lucien fought earlier reached across the table to a young woman and pulled her toward him. She screamed, pretending to fight him. He tore her shirt off and captured a nipple in his mouth. Moaning, she arched into him. His actions set off a chain reaction.
Falon was not unaffected by the pheromones swirling around her. Lucien’s body tightened beside her. Hers answered with its own tension. She dared to look up to find his golden eyes blazing brightly.
Falon swallowed and turned away just as Joachim bent one of the girls across the table next to her, flung her skirt up, and then thrust into her. The woman howled as she pushed back against him. The air warmed exponentially. The thick musk of sex rose around them, hanging like a storm cloud above them. Lucien had not moved. Falon dared not to.
Dishes crashed to the floor, chairs were knocked over, the tabletop vibrated as the wild wantonness of the rutting pack jostled for position. The females moved from one male to another, some returning to the first one. From what Falon could see, there was no ejaculation, just wild, crazy fucking.
“Why do the women take more than one man?”
“There are more males than females, but only two can pair.”
“How will they choose?”
“They will see which one fits best.”
Heat stung Falon’s cheeks. “That sounds so barbaric.”
Lucien shrugged. “It happens in most civilized human societies. In Lycan land it’s just concentrated and accelerated. But unlike the human world, once the marks are exchanged, the bond cannot be broken. Not by man, by beast, nor by any act of Congress.”
Not wanting to mention Rafael but wanting to know why the same did not apply to her and Rafael, Falon asked, “Then how do you expect me to act as if my bond to your brother does not exist?”
Instead of anger, Lucien looked at her with laconic eyes. The pheromones excited him on one level but drew his anger, for the moment, from him. “There are several factors involved Falon. One, Rafael is alpha as are you and as am I. But more defining is the Blood Law.” Lucien’s jaw tightened when he said, “You will always feel what you feel for my brother. That will not change even when he chooses another mate. He will always feel your bond to him, but survival trumps pheromones and love. The packs must reproduce or die. Love is a weakness we can ill afford. Rafael knows that. So do I.”
“Is that why you allowed me to leave today?”
He inhaled sharply, then exhaled. “I gave you the choice to leave today to show the pack you were either in or out. I cannot ask for their trust and confidence if they think my chosen one does not trust me. It will weaken the pack. A weak pack is a dead pack.”
“So, you would have let me go and then what?”
He exhaled in a long breath. “Then I would have done what I should have done a decade ago, chosen a mate and got on with pack business.”
“So any female will do?”
“No, Falon, not any female would do!” he hissed, looking hotly at her. “I have waited sixteen years for you!”
“You do not live by your credo, Lucien.”
“I always act with my pack’s best interests first.”
“Then you would have forgiven Rafael, and moved on.”
“You have yet to understand that strength and respect rules a pack. Though we walk the earth most of the time as humans, we are wolves first. In the wild, an alpha strives for peace in his pack. He does this by being just, confident, and strong. He does not hesitate to fight for his pack or clean house within his pack if there are those who would challenge him on even the simplest level. If I had publicly or privately said, ‘Hey, Rafe, even though I know you thought my chosen one was a Slayer even though she wasn’t, and killed her, I’ll forgive you.’ Do you know how that would have been perceived? Weak. Just a hint of blood and the sharks would circle before they would have torn me apart. There can be no show of indecision, weakness, or hesitation.”
Lucien’s golden eyes blazed. “Pack first, Falon. A strong pack led by a strong alpha is life. A weak alpha is a pack’s death warrant. There is no in between.”
Falon nodded, trying to understand more of what survival for the Lycan nation entailed. It wasn’t as easy as just staying alive, it was about dominance. And to dominate, one had to be strong, cunning, focused, and when the situation warranted: ruthless.
A naked body slid across the tabletop in front of Falon and Lucien. Perky pink nipples glistened from a suitor’s kiss. Joachim claimed the owner of those breasts. Right beneath Falon’s and Lucien’s noses, Joachim’s big tan hands grasped the woman’s thighs and pulled her onto his glistening erection.
Falon’s cheeks flamed with heat. She stood so fast she knocked the wooden chair she was sitting in over, afraid if she stayed another minute, she would turn to Lucien for succor.
She was beyond hot and bothered. She needed air. Abruptly she hurried to the front of the building. Yanking the heavy metal door open, Falon stepped out into the cool night air.
She knew Lucien followed. His warmth wrapped protectively around her. She shivered because it was him, the big bad wolf she needed protection from.
“Afraid I’m going to skulk out while you’re not looking?” she asked him.
She felt him raise his hand to touch her, but he lowered it. She wished he hadn’t.
“The door remains open, Falon.”
His words stung. Was it that cut and dry for him? She wanted to hurt him back. She turned around to do just that, but he was so close to her, her breasts scraped across his chest, radically changing the trajectory of her intentions. She swallowed back a moan. The thin leather of her vest not only offered her heavy breasts in a most seductive pose, but the satin lining rubbing against her nipples did not help her cause.
Lucien’s nostrils flared as he moved into her. “Did I tell you how fuckable you look in that leather?”
Heat speared straight to her womb. “No,” she breathed, backing up.
Lucien lowered his head to hers. “Did I tell you it took every goddamn shred of willpower I had not to touch you in the shower?”
“No,” she squeaked.
“Did I tell you I love your tits?”
She swallowed. “Don’t be crude.”
He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “Or how sweet your pussy is?”
Her pussy clenched as if his words had caressed it. Maybe they had. Lucien’s voice on a normal day was deep and rough, as if he had spent the night before drinking and smoking, but the primal tenor of it now stirred her up in ways she did not know she could be stirred up.
Falon licked her dry lips. “How s-sweet?” She squeezed her eyes shut. She did not just say that!
His warm breath caressed her neck. “It’s so sweet that if I only had one meal to eat before I met my maker, it would be eating that sweet pussy of yours.”
“Shut up,” she hissed, as tiny prickles of heat spread across her chest.
He trailed his nose along the length of her neck to where it met her shoulder. “Falon, you are so fucking hot, I melt every time I think about fucking you.” He withdrew just enough so that she knew if she opened her eyes she would be staring straight into his soul.
“Lucien,” she breathed, forcing herself to open her eyes and confront this crazy attraction between them. She caught her breath. His eyes burned with the brightness of a dozen torches. In their fiery depths his desire raged so hot, she felt the warmth of it against her own eyes. She blinked, sure it was just an illusion, but when she looked at him again the fire still raged.
He backed her up against the warehouse wall. And just as he did in the shower, he braced his hands on either side of her head. Her breasts heaved against his chest as she sucked in giant gulps of air. “Unbutton the vest,” he quietly commanded.
; “No—”
“I just want to see, Falon. I promise I won’t touch you.”
“Lucien…” She unbuttoned the top three buttons just before her nipples were exposed.
“That’s it.” His warm breath caressed her skin.
Falon caught another moan before it escaped. Her body was on fire and he had not touched her.
“One more button, Falon.”
“No,” she said, closing her eyes and resting her head against the wall.
“Please,” he begged.
She sucked in a breath and unbuttoned the rest of the vest. His long fingers pulled it away from her sultry skin. Air swept across her turgid nipples. Oh, God, a flood of warm moisture soaked her thighs. Her sex scent was so strong it left no doubt about what her body wanted.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, blowing his hot breath against her nipples.
Falon made a funny noise arching against him.
Lucien laughed and traced a finger along the buttons. The pressure against her skin was excruciatingly delicious. “You are so tempting right now. If I were less of a gentleman, I would have my way with you right here, Falon.”
“You are no gentleman.”
He moved into her and against her ear, he asked, “Are you giving me permission not to be?”
She closed her eyes and let her imagination run wild with the wicked things he could do to her—if she let him. “I’m just saying…”
He growled low, his beast surfacing. It thrilled her. “Falon,” he breathed along her nipples. “I want you like I have never wanted another woman.” He nipped at her chin, just barely missing. “Don’t make me beg.”
“Lucien…” she breathed. “Sex will complicate things between us.”
“We are already beyond complicated.”
She opened her eyes and smiled and felt no guilt about it. His eyes sparked brightly under the floodlights. “Complicated is an understatement.”
He returned her smile and she nearly swooned. His smile widened. The gesture changed everything about him. It was like a beautiful solar eclipse, the sun lighting up the night.
