by Treva Harte
“Mmmm. I love that too.” He tapped her shoulder. “Sit down, sweetheart. I’m going to do something you’ll like.”
“You don’t know what I l—” He slipped a hand under the top of pants and she arched toward him.
Maybe he did know. Maybe he knew her body better than she did. After all, she hadn’t let herself listen to what her body wanted in so long. She found herself sitting down on a chair, her legs spread apart and her pants at her ankles.
“No underwear? Mmmm. I like that. I never would have guessed.”
She heard the rasp in his tone and was glad she hadn’t had time to fully dress this morning.
Arlin knelt between her legs.
Her sucked-in breath made him look up. Although he was kneeling, he didn’t look subservient. He looked exactly like what he was…a hunter who had found what he wanted served up right in front of him.
“Do you want this, Ruth? Say yes, Ruth. Please say yes.”
She tried to speak.
“Yes, Ruth.” He whispered the words against her thigh. His hair fell forward as he bent over her. Some of it tickled the inside of her legs. She twitched.
“Say yes.” He paused.
“Yes.” Her breath caught on a sob.
“Shhh.” His murmur might have soothed her if he hadn’t mouthed it against her pussy. Instead, the vibrations made her jerk against his mouth. His hand held her hips, keeping her in place. His hair brushed against her thighs again, longer now, a prickle of sensation that teased her, matching the rest of the sensations he was creating. And his tongue—his tongue was rougher and longer than a human’s. It was everywhere.
“Ar…lin.” Her voice was shaky.
“Mmmm?” He hummed the sound against her and made her cry out.
Hot, wet suction. That clever wolfish tongue against her clit, sucking, tasting, driving her to clench and unclench tight muscles, to buck against his mouth.
As his tongue pushed up inside her, she touched her clit, somehow gone so far beyond her usual clawing fear that she was willing to move recklessly into the evermore gripping heat that Arlin was stoking. She couldn’t help it. Lust tightened inside her chest as she panted. Heat burned her pussy and radiated out everywhere. She needed relief. She needed more than his mouth.
“Please oh please oh fuck oh…!” The heat blazed through her and threw her forward. And she untwisted, unraveled, fell apart under his hands and his mouth.
* * * *
What had she done?
When she finally gathered the courage to open her eyes, Arlin was standing, rather than kneeling, in front of her. He stared down, seeming to weigh all the fears that had returned, all the shame that had multiplied over her thoughtless actions.
His hand lifted toward her and she flinched. The hand stopped.
“The storm’s ended.” He sounded as if nothing had happened.
She glanced at his crotch and saw he was as hard as he’d been before they started.
“We need to go now, Ruth.”
Ruth took one deep breath and held it. Subterfuge wasn’t her strong point, but she could pretend nothing had happened as well as he could. Of course she could. Especially since she had no idea how else to deal with what she’d done.
Lady. Be. A. Lady. Her adoptive mother had said that to her often enough. She could do that. She’d been acting like one almost all her life. Bad things happened when she forgot. Horrible things.
She forced herself to stop thinking. She’d be crying or screaming in another moment if she let herself remember the bad things. They’d been hovering at the edge of her consciousness all night, waiting to pounce.
But nothing bad had happened this time. Ruth clung to that realization. No one was shocked. No one demanded anything of her. The only result of her wildness was a satisfied body, slowly recovering from little pleasured aftershocks. A body that whispered for more. A man in front of her who had given her all that and could give her more.
But she wasn’t going to ask for more.
She scooped up hair from her face and tucked it away. Then she pretended as convincingly as she could. “All right. I’m ready.”
Because there was no more to have. Not now. Probably not ever. She didn’t know what Arlin wanted from her but she was sure she wasn’t the person who could provide it.
* * * *
“He’s coming back soon.” Tala straddled her new husband and sighed. “Mmmm. That feels so good. No one else makes me feel as good.”
“No one else better try.”
Her hips moved slowly as she lowered herself onto his cock. Hunt nipped at her hand before he twisted, flipping her on her back while they were still joined.
She wiggled underneath him. “Another power play, Hunt?”
“Another power play that I won.” Hunt buried his head between her breasts. She shivered at the scrape of stubble against her skin.
“Another one I let you win. Because you on top does feel good. And I’m lazy. You can do the work this time if you want.” She shut her eyes and smiled. “Thank you, lord and master.”
They knew she was toying with him and that it didn’t matter. He pinned her shoulders down with his own weight and slid his cock achingly slowly in and then out of her body. Then he leaned down and bit her, hard, on the shoulder. They both shuddered and he moved faster.
“I wish we had Changed. That you were part of me and were.” Tala stared into his eyes.
“Doesn’t matter. Mine.” Hunt growled. The growl of the mindspoken words rang in her head. “Changed or not.”
“Ease up. Of course I am. And you’re mine.” She reached, stretching, to cup his balls. Gripped them hard for a moment before she cupped them, rotating them gently in her hand.
She let them go and arched herself up. Closer, tighter. Her heels braced on the mattress, she began to force the pace faster with her hips.
“Never going to give in, are you?” Hunt panted as he pushed them both even more, pressing the two of them closer to the edge. This time Tala resisted, trying to slow them, but they both knew it was too late. Not when they were both gasping; they were close to the surface.
“No, I…won’t give in.” Tala shuddered, unable to stop the tremors. Her climax rolled over her, rich and satisfying. “Oh God, Hunt. I love you!”
He groaned and emptied himself in her before he laid his head between her breasts. He gave one a slow lick before squeezing her ribs.
“Someday you’ll do as I say.”
“Don’t lay any big bets on that, Hunt. Sweetie.” She leaned up on her elbows. “I’ll miss this bed when we leave the casino.”
“We can take it with us.”
“I’d rather find a new one to match our new life.” Tala stretched her neck back, arched her body in a slow, sensuous glide. “I like not knowing what happens next for us. It adds a little spice to our marriage.”
“Bored already?”
“Do I seem bored?” Tala pinched his butt.
“No,” he said. But she heard his voice grumble inside her head. “But you want Arlin back.”
“I always want my cuz around.” She answered him out loud.
“He’s not your cousin. And you don’t always think of him that way.”
“True that. But since we’ve all been…close…I thought you’d accepted what we share.”
Hunt shook his head, letting his face brush against her skin while he did. She sighed.
Not even Dunne had been part of their lovemaking for the last few days. Their foursome seemed to be history. Of course Hunt was fine all on his own. Hunt was more than fine. But she wished she knew what was going on in his head.
Maybe when Arlin came back.
“Arlin yet again? Are you asking for a spanking, love?”
Tala looked at her husband and licked her lips. “Maybe.”
He settled her against his lap and stroked her ass cheeks. She squirmed against him.
“You sent Arlin after her deliberately, didn’t you? Not Dunne. No one el
se would do except Arlin.”
He ran his hand up to touch her hair, not saying anything.
“I liked her, you know. I’d like anyone who is willing to save our pack, of course, but I liked her just for herself from what I got to see of her.” Tala nipped his thigh. “She’s very different from me, of course.”
“There’s no one like you, love.”
“But I think you’re wrong. I don’t see Arlin and Ruth together. Not even for a moment.” She turned to look at his face but, of course, Hunt’s expression gave nothing away but sated pleasure.
“Oh, I can think of ways to make them interested for more than a moment. Trust me.”
Trust him?
She wished she was more sure of him and what he wanted. She was used to being sure. Damn it, he was becoming too important to her even while he stayed mysterious and aloof. Why hadn’t she foreseen that could happen?
Whack.
She jumped under his hand and barely managed not to yipe in surprise. The small heat his hand generated against her butt was already radiating out to the rest of her body. Especially her pussy. She clenched her legs tight against each other, trying to control the aftershock his blow had created. “More.” Her voice was husky.
She’d never thought she’d be interested in a spanking, but Hunt had shown her differently.
He kept her off balance all the time. That’s why she couldn’t predict what he’d do. Why she wasn’t even sure she wanted to.
Chapter Three
“I don’t think I should be here.” Ruth stopped dead at the door of the casino.
“Why not?” Arlin kept his hand on her elbow. “You’re making things a hell of a lot harder when you question everything. You agreed to—”
“Meeting several packs of werewolves was never in the agreement.”
Arlin stared down at her. She’d turned back into the prissy veterinarian who wanted to be in charge. This was not the time. If she wasn’t careful, if he wasn’t careful, someone in the room would show her just how not in charge she was.
“Weres. It’s weres. Or shifters, if you have to pick a different name. None of us are that fancy about it, though.”
“Fine. That’s not my point.” The two of them glared at each other.
RUTH WAS TEMPTED to tell him to leave her. She could live with the fear he’d introduced in her life. She wasn’t sure how long she could live with the half-itchy, half-angry sensation she had around him.
“My point is to keep you safe.”
“Understood. So why are you bringing me to your den?”
He buzzed and the door opened.
“Please. Not a den. Some weres get sensitive about words like that. Plus Hunt’s conference room is much nicer than that.”
“Fine. To your lair then.”
“It’s not my… Enough. I’m doing this to keep you safe, remember? Having you meet the family is a side benefit. They’ve been waiting ever since the wedding to decide what to do about you and this situation.” His arm tightened and he swept her through the doorway before she could protest.
They were big. She wasn’t petite but she felt dwarfed next to the looming bulk of men in the room. No, not men. Weres. That probably was what added to the almost visible hum of tension in the room. They were all of them, men and women, so imposing.
She saw one of the larger hulks in the room suddenly drop his eyes when one of the smaller women walked past him. Fascinating. In wolf hierarchy, that meant the woman was of higher rank than he was. Ruth was careful not to stare, not to look too curious, the way she had out in the field when she watched packs and made notes for her work.
One sandy-haired giant scurried behind the others, keeping to the walls as he pulled up chairs and offered cups of coffee. If he had a tail, he’d have had it between his legs. That was omega wolf behavior.
Fascinating. She wished she could take notes.
SHE BELONGED. Non-weres usually were nervous around too many weres, even if they didn’t understand who they were near. Perversely, Ruth was relaxed against him, relaxed in a way Arlin hadn’t seen her act before.
He looked around Hunt’s huge conference room. It seemed too small for all the towering egos there. No normal non-were should feel comfortable among the packs.
As if she could hear his thoughts, Ruth was already tensing up, letting her damned second thoughts ruin things.
“The white-haired Alpha. He’s looking at me. More like looking right through me.”
“That’s my grandfather, Deklin Kinkaid.”
He could almost see her brain analyzing and weighing. Whatever she’d come up with wasn’t good. The way she was gripping his arm now seemed close to a little girl grabbing a hand for safety.
He looked again at the familiar faces, trying to see them with Ruth’s eyes. Probably the patterns he saw were invisible to her. There was his mother, talking to his aunt-by-marriage. The beta, Oscar, was hanging close to his mate. The only new face he saw was an omega who was anxiously waiting for a signal from anyone in the crowd. Arlin wasn’t sure who had acquired that new pack member while he was gone but he’d find out soon enough.
The intricate relationships that tied these packs together weren’t the usual were style. Usually were children ran away and stayed away as soon as they were old enough. There was too much danger of bloodshed otherwise.
But the Kinkaid extended family had beaten the odds. They maintained pack loyalty and still kept kin ties. It mostly kept them from attack by those weres who had no close allies to call on.
Arlin glanced at his non-were grandmother. Perhaps Leila had managed to instill human notions of family in them. He’d never heard of three wolf packs being in the same room together before this for anything other than murder.
“Why do I feel like I’m being introduced to The Godfather and his family?” Ruth whispered to him.
Arlin choked. “Don’t say that.”
“Sorry I mentioned it. I was kidding. Mostly.” She smiled but he could feel her fingers tighten their clutch against his hand.
“We’re exactly like that except for the accents and the fur.” Arlin paused. “Oh, and mostly our businesses are legit. At least they are in my family. We decided we don’t need investigation into what we do from outsiders.”
It was odd trying to explain what was obvious to him. He’d grown up with the clash and balance of power as the grandson of one Alpha couple, the son of another. Betas and omegas deferred to him, even though he wasn’t technically Alpha of anything. But he knew this world inside and out, the advantages and disadvantages of his position.
Ruth snorted and let go of his arm. Arlin almost grabbed her hand back but saw she was safely focused elsewhere.
“Mrs. Kinkaid?” Ruth sailed right toward his grandmother, as if she hadn’t balked at meeting the family not five minutes ago. “I feel as if I truly know you, we’ve e-mailed so much to each other. I’m so glad I can thank you in person for all the medical information you’ve given me over the past few years.”
“My dear, I could say the very same thing of you.” There was still a rich Southern accent in his grandmother’s voice. Leila smiled and held out her hands before she turned her cheek up to be ceremoniously kissed. She was used to being courted after all these years as an Alpha bitch. Even though he hadn’t said it out loud, Arlin mentally corrected himself. Alpha grande dame. Leila preferred that term. What the Alpha grande dame preferred was what people did. “I’ve looked forward to meeting you, Ruth.”
Arlin relaxed, suddenly realizing he had been getting as tense as his companion. He’d forgotten that Ruth had her own contacts, distant though they were, with his pack. It was her connection with Leila that had brought her to them, had let them know she could be trusted with Dunne and their secrets. His grandmother had said she was someone to turn to when Dunne was dying from blood loss after the Hollin attack. Ruth was open-minded and smart enough to handle the idea of weres and, more importantly, able to help in a medical emergency.
They’d been wary, but Ruth had immediately started work when she saw an injured wolf before her. She didn’t even blink when she was told he was a very special wolf. As always, Grandmother Leila had been right. Thank God. The alternative could have been ugly.
Arlin looked over at Ruth, standing gravely and deferentially in front of his grandmother, and wondered what it would have been like if she’d proven untrustworthy.
He shut his eyes. Thank God he didn’t have to play “what if.” The “what now” was bad enough. She was acting exactly the way a deferential young were should to an Alpha grande dame. As if she knew just what to do to be part of the pack.
Part of the pack. Oh shit. He would have done better to wish she’d stayed nervous.
He saw the first speculative glances start among the weres nearest Ruth. Damn it, she was acting a little too were. And a were female was a prize for any pack. Any minute now some of those damn weres would start circling, all but ready to sniff her butt to check her out. Well, too bad. All he could smell when he caught her scent was that she smelled ready to mate, just the way she’d smelled when his face been buried inside her pussy. It was damned distracting, but it wasn’t necessarily were scent.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to feel once he really got inside her—and he damned well knew he was going to get inside her—but he also knew that no one else was going to get there first. He’d almost died from frustration earlier when he didn’t finish what had been so hotly started but he knew she wasn’t ready then.
In the meantime he needed to stay alert because this pack was already looking at Ruth.
He stiffened, ready to be guard dog for her, fighting the growl in the back of his throat. Protectiveness and lust mixed together was hell, especially when you didn’t know how to show it without frightening the object of those emotions—or how to hide that crazy mix from your interested family.
“Arlin! I missed you!” A warm female body pressed against him from behind. Surprisingly strong arms gripped him tight.
