by Emma Dawn
“Touch me.” The request was low and sultry, and I barely recognized my own voice. “I want you to make me come.”
His hands slid over my ass cheeks, hot like fire, as the water pounded over my face blocking out the rest of the world. I wanted his hands everywhere and he seemed to know just where to touch me.
One of his hands slid between my legs and I spread for him. He sent his fingers through my folds and right to my clit while the other hand slipped up to my breast. He caught a nipple hard between his fingers, harder than anything he’d done before.
I kept my eyes shut, relishing every touch, every sensation he pulled through my body. I kept my legs wide and my body still as he ran his fingers over my clit, sliding them around it with the ease of my own wetness and the soap trickling down my sides. My breath came in little pants as he worked his magic into my skin and aching body.
Moaning, I leaned back into him, pressing myself against him.
His clothes were going to get soaked. He wrapped his hand around my hip and up the front of my pussy, three fingers swirling deep over the folds while his other hand wreaked havoc on my nipples, drawing tiny whimpers out of me over and over.
A whiff of musky vanilla curled up my nose and my eyes popped open. I was on the edge of orgasm and . . .I froze where I was. “Wilder?” Holy shit, Wilder’s hands sliding between my legs, Wilder’s mouth against the back of my neck. A part of me knew I should pull away and put an end to this.
The other part that had wanted him from the first time I’d seen him ignored the smart side of my brain.
Wilder growled and bit the side of my neck, hard enough to keep me there. I bucked against his hand, not to get away, but to get him going again. I’d told him I wanted this, he was doing as a good beta should—obeying his Alpha. “Faster,” I said through the pounding water of the shower.
He was serving his Alpha. His hand picked up speed, the sound of wet skin slapping against my pussy, over and over, like music to my ears. My breath caught in my throat as the climax shattered me, but he caught the scream in his mouth, turning my head to capture my lips with his own.
The low growl in his chest rumbled against my back as my limbs turned to liquid. He stepped away from me, his front soaked and his cock straining against his pants. “I need to change. I’ll meet you outside on the stairs.”
Those dark eyes were wild with desire as he spun away from me, as he left me there in the shower wanting more of him.
Wanting a man I wasn’t supposed to have.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” I leaned my head against the shower once more and flicked the water to cold. The hot water transitioned to icy cold and I made myself stand in it, made myself let it cool the heat of Wilder’s touch, and Kennan’s embrace.
Fuck me sideways, I was in trouble if I kept this up. As I dried off, teeth chattering, I knew that no matter what, I had to stay away from the other men in the pack. I couldn’t be throwing myself at just anyone. This was insane.
But part of me tried to point out that the only addition was Wilder. I hadn’t tried to fling myself at Ralph.
I’d felt nothing for the healer other than amusement and a mild like, as if he were a friend. Maybe he could help me?
The idea was strong enough in my brain that I hurried to dress, hoping I could beat Wilder to the stairs. I didn’t need to face him right then when I was still thinking about finishing things off with him.
I raced down through the castle, still pulling my coat on and hopping to get my boots on my feet. With a sloppy loop, I tied off the laces to each boot and bolted out of the main castle and through the courtyard.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Wilder was not on the stairs. I drew in a bigger breath and broke into a jog, heading toward Ralph’s hut. It was still early; most likely he was playing with his “little” friend. That made me laugh and I shook my head. I was far from being able to judge, seeing as I’d fucked two men in as many days and just commanded a third to bring me to orgasm in the shower, which he did quite handily.
I wove my way through the forest. It wasn’t long before Ralph’s hut came into view. Smoke curled out of the chimney and there was movement through the window, so he was at least up and awake.
I stopped in front of his door and lifted my hand to knock. There was a soft murmur that was not Ralph’s, but a most obvious female sigh.
I banged on the door. “Ralph, you better have her permission to play with your little friend!”
The door whipped open and I stared at a dressed, but obviously just woken up, Janna. She blushed. “He had permission.”
I nodded. “Well, good then.”
Now what? Janna kissed Ralph on the cheek. “Same time tomorrow?”
He swatted her on the ass as she left. “You got it, sweet cheeks.”
I rolled my eyes and Janna continued up the path. I shouted after her. “If you see Wilder, tell him I’m here.”
She gave me a salute and kept on going.
“Why are you here?” Ralph asked.
“Because I think I might have just screwed up.” I shut the door behind me and Ralph motioned for me to sit at his table.
“Let me guess, you and Wilder?” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
I opened my mouth and then shut it again. “Kind of. How did you know?”
“Well, either you did or you didn’t,” Ralph said. “You sound like a teenager. He put it in a little, Mom, not the whole way, so I’m still a virgin.”
I snorted a laugh. “I came, he didn’t. How’s that?”
“More accurate,” he sighed. “Wilder should be one of the Alphas here, but he refuses to take that place. His father was an Alpha before him, and he is one of those born to this life. It’s all he knows. And he saw how bad a very bad Alpha can be. He’d rather play at being a beta for his entire life than risk letting the power go to his head.” Ralph sat beside me and poured me a cup of tea.
I took a sip, the honey and lemon sliding down my throat and warming me from the inside out. “You can’t make him take his place?”
Ralph shook his head. “Seven Alphas is a hard balance, but Havoc manages it quite well. Add an eighth and you’d have problems. Especially because Raider hates Wilder, and that is a mutual feeling. If Wilder was an Alpha, he would be above Raider in rank and strength.”
“Raider would try and hurt him?”
Ralph twisted his lips, thinking. “Perhaps, but not outright. There have been deaths here, of those who crossed Raider. But he’s very good at covering his tracks and that makes him extremely dangerous. We can’t get rid of him without proof.”
The door swung open and Wilder stood there looking very much like his name. “Who are we getting rid of?” The voice that slid from him was anything but beta. This was the real Wilder.
And I wanted him in my bed as one of my Alphas.
The question was, how would I convince him that was the place he needed to be?
Chapter 11
Ralph and I spoke in unison to answer Wilder’s question about who we were planning on getting rid of.
“Raider.”
Wilder’s shoulders eased as though he’d been holding onto a heavy tension. “Ah. Well, that isn’t happening any time soon. You know that, Ralph.”
I took another sip of tea, and tried to keep my hormones in check. If Wilder didn’t want to be an Alpha, I couldn’t make him, much as I wanted to. But it was going to test my ability to keep myself in check, and to keep my hands to myself.
I sat on the hand that wasn’t wrapped around the teacup. “Where are you taking me today?”
Ralph grunted. “Besides back up to the bedroom to bang you until you beg for mercy?”
I blushed, and even Wilder’s ears went red around the rim. “That was a . . . mistake. She thought I was Keenan.”
Which was true and it wasn’t true. Because when I’d smelled him, I knew exactly who he was, and I had no desire to stop what was going on between us. I tipped my chin up. “We
are adults, we can control ourselves.”
Ralph laughed so hard tea spurted out his nose. I scooted out of the range of the spray. “That isn’t funny, Ralph.”
“Oh, but it is. You think you can stop something Mother Nature set into motion thousands of years ago? Your wolves want at each other and you think you can deny it? Ha! This is going to be a fun week. I’m going to have to put some money on this. I bet Havoc would take the bet.”
I set my teacup down. “Thanks for the info, Ralph, and for the tea.”
I strode toward the door and brushed past Wilder, the shot of heat flying between us anything but subtle. I took two strides out of the door and there was Lyric, walking toward me. I saw him and couldn’t help the smile that spread over my face. He grinned back, and as he approached there was a soft lullaby that sung on the air between us. But not the crazy orchestra that had crashed through our bodies and left my ears ringing.
He took my hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed the back of it. “The music is even more beautiful now, but it is not so loud as before. I can be around the others, Cassandra. I can be with my pack and not feel like I have to run away.” His eyes were serious as he spoke, and I thought there might be a glimmer of tears.
“That has nothing to do with me.” I reached up and cupped his cheek. “I heard the music too.”
“I think your touch helped me ease through it, though; something about being with you made the music soften and ease on my mind.” He tugged me forward and kissed me gently. “You are a miracle.”
I wouldn’t go that far, but I was glad he was happy. I breathed him in, let him hold me a moment and then pulled back. “I have to go. Havoc said I’m not to spend my days with any of you.”
“He’s a killjoy,” Lyric grumbled, but there was no bite to his words. I kissed him again, realizing that I may not get another chance to do so. I never got to say goodbye to him, and now I was realizing that my night with him . . . what if he was not the one? What if Keenan was not the one? My belly tightened at the thought of not being with either of them again. Of not seeing their smiles or feeling their touch. I closed my eyes and stepped back. “I have to go.” I stumbled away from him, distantly aware that Wilder ghosted behind me.
I crashed through the forest, chased by my confusion and emotions I couldn’t bring into check, and ended up back at the pond where I’d split up the fight between the women.
Where I’d been bitten, even though I didn’t need the bite to become one of the pack.
Only three days had passed and yet so much had changed. I found my way to the water’s edge and crouched. A thin layer of ice had formed over the water and I put my hands against it, cooling my skin, then pressing my hands to my face.
Wilder came up beside me. “I’m sorry about the shower. I really am. I should not have—”
“I’m not,” I said softly, as I turned to look at him. He seemed genuinely upset. “Ralph told me you should be an Alpha, but refuse it. I will try my best to respect that, much as I want you in my bed.”
He shot a look at me. “Why would you do that? Everyone else wants to push me into that role. Everyone wants me to be something I don’t want.”
I shrugged. “I understand what it is to not want to follow in a parent’s footsteps. My mother was weak, and let my father beat her black and blue, and she stayed with him until her death. I refuse to be her. I understand why you wouldn’t want to be your father. That makes sense to me.”
He crouched beside me and broke through the ice with one hand. “I wanted to take you to the hot springs, but perhaps that would be best left for one of the others to do. Something more romantic.”
I wanted to reach out and touch him but I knew it was a bad idea. His scent curled through me and I had no doubt mine was doing the same to him. “You can show me the springs, and maybe fill me in on the dynamics of the pack a bit more? Tell me who is causing problems, who besides Raider I might have to look out for.”
I stood and took a few steps back from him, giving us both space and breathing room. He stood more slowly and adjusted his pants. I had to bite back a smile.
“We can do that,” he said.
I could hear it in both our voices. Neither of us wanted to just talk and walk. We wanted to fuck each other into the ground, ice or no ice.
I bit my lower lip to keep the sudden whimper in me silent. My wolf perked her head up and let out a soft howl inside me, mournful and sad. I swallowed hard. “Wilder.”
He looked at me and I didn’t know what to say. My wolf wants you, Wilder? No, that wouldn’t do. He didn’t want to be an Alpha, and I didn’t want to force him. That wasn’t fair or right.
“What is it?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Let’s go.”
Wilder didn’t move, though; he just kept staring at me, his breath coming in hitches. Each breath seemed to bring me a step closer to him, until I was tucked in under his chin. Neither of us had lifted our hands, neither of us had touched the other.
I tipped my head up and breathed his name, and the wolf inside me all but cheered me on, yipping and dancing, her tail wagging like mad. Oh yeah, she wanted Wilder.
And so did I.
I flicked my tongue out along the edge of my lips, wanting it to be his tongue.
“Well, well. What is going on here?”
The voice that broke the spell was one that grated across my nerve endings and made my wolf inside snarl. I spun and faced the red-haired Raider, weakest of the Alphas. His strange orange-colored eyes flicked over me and he let out a laugh. “Going to let the bitch do your fighting for you, Wilder? Not a surprise. She’s probably got bigger balls than you anyway.”
Wilder trembled behind me and I knew the Alpha in him had to be fighting every inch of this. Every last inch. But he didn’t want to be an Alpha.
“Fuck off, Raider,” I said. “It’s not your turn.” And if I had my way, it would never be his turn.
Raider stalked toward us, but I did not back down. “Not my turn? I don’t believe I was there while you were making your decision of who came first, who came last.”
That was a total lie, but I knew men like him. Men who could tell you that you’d said blue, when you knew you’d said red. Men who would make you think you were crazy if you let them.
“I always come first,” I parried. He laughed, his eyes dilating with desire. But there was no response of lust in me. There was no craving for his touch or desperate need to see him over me as we climaxed together. I didn’t want him anywhere near me.
I didn’t want him, end of story.
“Well, we will have to change that when you’re in my bed,” Raider said, his eyes narrowing. Wilder let out a snarl and stepped around me, putting himself between me and Raider.
Not that I minded taking Raider on my own, but a rather feminine side of me liked Wilder protecting me. Shit, I could take care of myself. But it was nice knowing someone else would do it for me, too.
The tension in the air rose and then it was like a storm unleashed all at once.
The two men launched at each other before I realized what was happening.
“Shit!” I dodged out of the way as they tangled up, fists and teeth snapping, and then they shifted, their bodies sliding from human to wolf so fast, I barely saw it happen. Just one moment they were on two legs and the next their clothes were shredded and they were on four.
Raider was a massive red wolf with a hunch in his back and a short tail that looked like it had been chopped off at some point. Wilder was a solid black wolf that made the night sky look pale, and he was easily as big as Raider.
Their snarls ripped through the air and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop this. I knew if I stepped in, Raider could easily kill me, and then blame it on Wilder. Which meant I needed to get help to stop this fight.
I tore off through the woods, screaming for Lyric. He had been close, surely he could hear me. But there was no answer from Lyric.
I raced toward Ralph’s hu
t. If nothing else, I could get the healer ready; Wilder could be hurt badly. I didn’t give two figs about Raider’s health and well-being.
A hand dropped on my arm, spinning me around so fast I slammed into a broad strong chest.
Colt and Tarack were there, out of breath, their eyes searching around us for the danger.
“Wilder and Raider!” I gasped the names, and then the three of us were off and running toward the sounds of the ongoing fight.
We reached the small clearing as the two big wolves scrabbled for each other’s throats. Tarack and Colt leapt into the fray, Colt grabbing Raider around the neck and Tarack grabbing Wilder.
“Come on, you two, knock it the fuck off,” Tarack yelled.
Colt did nothing of the sort. He tossed—and I mean literally threw—Raider into the depths of the pond. “That’ll cool you off, you knot head.”
Colt turned and looked at me, and I suspect he didn’t like what he saw. He moved to my side and slung an arm around me. “You okay, lovely? You’re a bit pale.”
I tried to find the words, but they escaped me. I thought Wilder was going to die. I thought Raider would kill him, and it cut into something inside me I didn’t want to look at too hard because I couldn’t have him. He wasn’t for me. Lyric and Keenan and Wilder had barely touched my life, and I was not—I repeat not—in love with them.
But the wolf part of me disagreed and tried to point out that love was different here. Love didn’t mean years of getting to know someone. Here, someone was either right or wrong, as was the case with Raider. He was wrong.
The other three were so very right, and my heart and soul knew that truth even though I tried to deny it. I leaned into Colt. He smelled of the earth and fresh-cut grass. I breathed him in and let him ground me, let him hold me while my heart slowed its fear-filled gallop.
