Harem of Wolves

by Emma Dawn

  The trees seemed to be lit from within with little specks of starlight sitting on the branches that moved with a gentle gust of wind.

  Colt smiled down at me. “A fairy ring is a great place to get your strength back.”

  “A fairy ring.” I tried not to laugh because that was rude, and I didn’t want to be rude with this Alpha who’d given me the chance for an unexpected respite. Then again, had I not just a few hours prior reminded myself that fairies may indeed be real?

  He rubbed my back with one hand. “I know it seems crazy to you, but I grew up with this magic in my life. My parents were lone wolves in the forest and they learned to work with other magical beings. Like fairies, for one.”

  I swallowed hard and let him lead me a little farther into the circle. The trees bent low, the branches entwining as I watched them make a dome. A dome lit from within by more of those fairy lights.

  “Are they . . . alive?” I bent and ducked under the edge of the dome. My question was answered immediately as a small fairy flew right up to my eye level. She was a blinding flash of white and silver, glowing as if she were part firefly. Her wings flickered like a hummingbird, so fast that I couldn’t see them except in blurs of movement.

  “Of course, we are alive. Are you alive?” Her voice was squeaky and danced through my ears with more than a dose of sarcasm. She tipped her head to one side, as if inspecting me.

  I couldn’t help the grin on my face. “Sorry, I’m new to this. I meant no offense.”

  She spun, her lacy skirts flowing out around needle-thin legs. “None taken. We’ve got food ready for you, and a bed made of the softest materials known to us.”

  I glanced at Colt who grinned and gave me a wink as he stepped under the dome with me. “A bed for sleeping, or whatever you’d like should you find yourself with more energy.”

  The dome was warm, no doubt from the fire that burned in the middle, heat bouncing off the flames and reflecting off the branches. “Fire proof?” I touched the wood, expecting it to be heating up.

  The wood was warm, but not exceptionally so.

  “Magic, Cassie, can do a lot of crazy things.” Colt crouched by the fire and tossed a couple more logs onto it. Then he stripped off his coat and boots so he wore nothing but a pair of low-slung jeans and a white tank top. Barefoot, he circled around the fire to the “bed.”

  It looked like the ground had been dug out, and then layered into the hole were the makings of the bed. I kicked off my boots and coat and walked over. I sat next to him, sinking into the material, and sighed. The bed was one of those I could dive into and sleep for days without moving. The little fairy was right, this had to be the softest material around.

  Then again, all of that could be my overall exhaustion coming through. I suspected a slab of cement would look good right then as long as someone called it a bed.

  Colt snapped his fingers and the fairies flew around us in a rapid miniature tornado, pulling my hair around into the whirlwind.

  I blinked and the tornado of fairies was gone. In their place was a spread of food that had my saliva glands kicking into overdrive as the smells shot up my nose.

  I didn’t hesitate, but dug into the meat first. Something roasted with spices and a sticky-sweet sauce, and my inner wolf gave a woof of approval. I swallowed the bites as though I hadn’t eaten in weeks. The sauces, spices, roasted meat and vegetables were like nothing I’d ever tasted. Then came the desserts that were piled high behind the meats.

  Distantly, I knew I was eating like a maniac, that Colt was not even trying to keep up. What was wrong with me?

  I swallowed a huge mouthful and made myself stop. I swallowed a second time as I fought to find my voice. “What is wrong with me?”

  “Fairy food has a strong pull to it. And it will fill and fuel you like nothing else. Your body and wolf knows what it is, even if you don’t, and the cravings can be hard to control the first few times you smell and taste it.” He tore a piece of meat off a leg of something. I had to keep my fingers clenched tightly to keep from yanking it out of his hands.

  I licked my lips. “You seem to be doing okay.”

  “Years of practice riding this dragon.” He grinned and winked at me again. With a great deal of willpower, I slowed my intake. I still wanted it all, but I made myself taste each bite, made myself chew it and savor the flavors.

  When I was finally done, the platters in front of us looked like they’d been hardly touched, though I was sure that my belly would never fit into those skinny jeans of mine back home ever again.

  The fairies flew in holding a steaming bucket of water that smelled like rosemary and sage. I breathed it in, already knowing what was coming.

  Colt leaned over, those gray eyes serious, but still with flickers of amusement dancing through them. “I’m going to take your clothes off, if you’re okay with that. The hot water and essential oils will help ease your muscles.”

  The feeling of euphoria from all that ridiculously good food had me languorous and obedient. I lifted my arms and let him peel me out of my shirt, and then out of my jeans, which left me in absolutely nothing. Somewhere along the line, I’d given up on underwear. It seemed pointless, at least for this week.

  A yawn escaped me before I could catch it. “Colt, I feel bad. I feel like you aren’t getting your chance.” Funny how only a few days before I’d been all hot and bothered to be fucked till I couldn’t see straight, and now I could barely keep my eyes open.

  He shrugged as he scooped up a cloth and dunked it in the water. “On your knees in front of me. Even the strongest female werewolf wouldn’t have lasted this long.”

  I did as he asked. He slid the nearly scalding cloth over my shoulders, back and arms. He was right, the heat wrapped through me like nothing else. More magic, probably. That made me smile. He washed my body with a tenderness I would have reserved for one of the other men. Colt had seemed too much of the hot-head, too ready to fight to be this soft with me.

  Not that I was complaining. He finally answered my concern.

  “The point of this week is to find the Alpha who meets your needs, and those are going to change day to day. If we are smart, we’ll adjust with that.” He drew a thick soft towel over me and scrubbed me down, drying my skin off with a vigorous rubbing that had my skin tingling and my senses perking up.

  “You need to sleep.” He tucked me under his arm and pulled me back into the bed. While the bedding shifted under us, we only sank a little. He pulled blankets over us and curled me tightly into his arms, adding his heat to that from the water.

  “Sleep, Cassie. And I’ll be here no matter what comes this way.” He kissed the side of my head and I wanted so badly to stay awake, to talk to him.

  I fell asleep feeling his smile against my skin, and his arms wrapped around me.

  There were no dreams to my sleep, just unmitigated bliss of my body resting fully for the first time in days. Colt held to his word, his touch never lingering anywhere that might arouse me.

  I woke to the call of a night bird cutting through the air and the dome around us.

  My eyes popped open. Through the dome, the growing light of a coming dawn peered in. Excitement raced through my very awake, fully rested body. The night wasn’t over yet, and Colt had given me a gift I had not expected. A wicked grin whipped across my lips. Time to return the favor.

  He didn’t move as I shimmied down his body and opened the top button of his jeans, then pulled the zipper down. I glanced up at his face, expecting him to be awake and grinning. Nope, he was still sound asleep. Then again, he’d said that the fairies’ meal would do that, it would knock us out and revive us fully.

  Well, revived I was, and ready to rumble with this Alpha who had given me what I didn’t even fully realize I needed until it was offered.

  His cock seemed to peer out at me from his open fly, already erect. “Good dreams, Colt?” I asked him softly as I pulled his jeans a little farther down his hips. He grumbled something in his sleep
and I knew he was out cold.

  But not for long.

  If I’d learned anything in my life, it’s that men love to be woken with a blow job. Hand job. Boobs in their face. Anything sexy was the way to wake a man and have him smiling at the start of the day.

  I kissed his lower belly, and let my lips linger there before working my way south. Colt’s soft intake of breath drew my eyes. But his were still shut, although a little frown had worked down between his brows. Like he didn’t know what was going on. Dream or reality?

  I smiled and kept up the kisses.

  The tip of his cock bounced against the underside of my chin. I tipped my head and gave it a lick which drew a long groan out of the man beneath me. Once more, I looked up and this time he looked back.

  “You mind?” I whispered. He shook his head, and I took his cock into my mouth in a single long pull.

  “Good God, not at all.” He arched his back, thrusting his hips up as I sucked my way up and down his length, working at his jeans with my hands. The light was growing.

  We didn’t have a lot of time.

  A quickie it was going to be or nothing.

  Colt reached for me and I let him tug me up to his side, rolling us so we were spooning.

  He knew as I did that there would be very little time for foreplay, for anything more than a frantic tumble. I flipped my leg back over his hip, opening my pussy up for him. In a single long stroke, he slid into me, as he kept my back tight against his chest.

  “God, Cassie, you feel so incredible. Like coming home.” He kissed at the back of my neck, making his way to my ear and taking the lobe into his mouth. I reached back to hold him tightly to me, but I was at a disadvantage. I was open to him and had little access to touch him.

  He made up for that.

  One of his hands slid between my folds, finding my clit aching for his touch. The other swept up over my breasts, fondling them and rolling the nipples one at a time.

  The restrained strength in his hands, the way he rocked his hips and slid his cock into me had me gasping in a matter of seconds as a climax curled up through me. “Colt, I’m coming!”

  He let out a long growl and increased his thrusts, the flick of his fingers on my nipples and the pressure on my clit. I didn’t know what to do with my body, I didn’t know where I wanted his touch more, so I lay still and let myself sink into the sensations. The smell of the man swelled over me, earth and grass and the distant singing of fairies, and I couldn’t untangle my thoughts from seeing him next to me at the end of all of this.

  I cried out as the orgasm exploded through me like a glitter bomb going off and scattering my mind in all directions, a tingling sensation spreading outward in waves of pleasure.

  With a growl, he was right behind me—literally—and his teeth clamped onto my shoulder, his bite sending another wave of a climax through me. I screamed as the second one spilled upward at a wicked pace that I rode, wanting more of it, forever. I wanted this man forever.

  I wanted them all forever.

  Breathing hard, I struggled to regain all my senses besides touch and smell. Colt behind me, his hands on my flushed and damp skin, the aching throb of my clit as it trembled under his fingers that were still pressed tightly against it, holding it.

  “Not bad for a quickie.” He breathed out the words and I found myself laughing.

  “If you call that not bad, I can’t wait to have more time.” I twisted in his arms so I could see him. I wanted to kiss him, to taste his lips. He bent his head and caught my mouth with his in a kiss that melted what was left of my senses.

  If we hadn’t been interrupted, I’m not sure I ever would have left his arms.

  There was a knock on the woven wood of the dome.

  “Avon calling.”

  Chapter 17

  Colt laughed at the voice outside of the dome. “Give us a minute, Wilder.”

  I was not in such a laughing mood at the sound of my bodyguard’s voice. Not because I didn’t like him, not because I didn’t want him in my bed, but because of those two reasons. He wouldn’t take his position as an Alpha to save his pack, and I didn’t understand that. Not for one second.

  I grabbed my clothes and slid them on quickly, my mood squashed. As soon as the clothing was on, the dome opened, the trees bending back to where they’d begun.

  There was no sign of the fairies anywhere, as if they had never been. Colt gave me a wink when he saw me looking. “They’re shy around most. I was surprised to see them even talk to you.”

  I stood and didn’t look at Wilder other than to see him from the corner of my eye. “Thank you, Colt. That was exactly what I needed. Every part of it.” I held my hands out to him and he took them. He’d only managed to get his jeans on, leaving his chest bare along with the scars that trailed over his skin. I traced them with one finger. “Next time you can tell me how you got these.”

  “A deal then.” He bent and kissed me gently, then moved his mouth to my ear. “The fairy food and drink will last you, Cassie. You should get to the end of the week now with no more exhaustion.”

  I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face against his skin. Earth and grass smells wrapped around me. This man was as good as all the others I’d been with.

  I was in deep. Shit, I was no fool, but even I knew love when I felt it. Each of the men I’d been with so far had stolen a part of my heart that I knew I would never get back, even if I was forced to choose only one.

  “Time to carry on,” Wilder said, his voice firm. I let Colt go, and took a step back and then another before I turned from him and the place that I’d found the much-needed respite.

  Wilder didn’t walk with me, but behind me as we made our way through the forest and headed back to the Haven.

  “You aren’t going to try and convince me to be an Alpha?” he asked after nearly ten minutes of silence.

  “Nope, I don’t see the point.” I shook my head.

  “What changed your mind?” He seemed confused. But I wasn’t sure if it was the question that confused him, or the fact that he was even asking it.

  I stopped where I was, under a snow-laden tree. He moved up closer, but still a good arm’s length away. I stared at him. Ally’s advice sung through my mind.

  “Wilder, I can’t make you be something you don’t want to be, and I won’t give you a guilt trip. I will do what I have to do to make this right, to make this pack safe. I may have to break some rules. I may have to kick some ass, but that’s never gone wrong for me before.”

  I looked away from him. “I won’t try and tempt you or make you do anything you don’t want.”

  He said nothing. I assumed that meant that our conversation was over. I took a step and his hand landed on my forearm.

  “Cassie, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m not strong enough to carry you.”

  I frowned back at him, turning to fully look him in the face. “What do you mean?”

  His jaw worked back and forth several times, but he just shook his head. “I’m not strong enough. That has to be enough for you to understand.”

  I rolled my eyes, irritation flowing through me. “You know what, Wilder? I relieve you of your guard duties. Permanently. I don’t want you coming back to me unless you find your balls and put on your big boy panties, got it?”

  His eyes widened farther with each word until he looked like I’d just smacked him upside the back of the head. Which I would have if he were closer. I jerked my arm away from him, easy in his stunned state.

  “I mean it, Wilder. Go. Find yourself, find your balls, whatever it is that is missing. Figure it the fuck out, and then if you want, we can talk.” I turned my back on him once more and headed to the Haven. There were no footsteps behind me, no catch of breath to tell me to stop, which was good. I didn’t have time for his issues, not this week. This week I had to pick a mate, face down a ceremony, learn to shift, and save the pack. That was enough on my plate without dealing with an insecure, uncertain werewolf, no matter how del
icious he might be.

  My heart gave a little twinge as I strode through the castle to the dining room. I felt bad for being hard on Wilder, but I saw a lot of my own traits in him. And the best thing when I was feeling down and out was to get a good swift kick in the ass.

  I only hoped I wasn’t wrong about him.

  The food in the castle was nowhere near as good as the food that Colt and the fairies had served me. But it was fuel, and I needed to keep taking care of myself if I was going to ride this whole thing through.

  I made my way to what I thought of as the women’s courtyard. It was empty today; I stripped off my heavy coat and boots. I slowly made my way through the katas, finding my flow and balance in the repetitive movements.

  “Very nice. But I’m about to ruin your day.”

  The voice startled me, and I whipped around to see Raider standing there, leaning against the wall of the castle.

  I narrowed my eyes and a growl trickled out past my lips. Raider put his hands against his chest and made a mocking face at me. “Oh, is the uppity bitch angry with me?”

  He pushed off and started toward me, circling around as though he would come at me. “Your karate won’t save you.”

  I kept my eyes on him, even as I sent a thought out to the men I’d attached to. Havoc, Lyric, Brennan, Keenan, Colt and Wilder.

  Raider is in the castle. Women’s courtyard.

  I waited, expecting them to respond as they’d done the day before. But I got nothing back.

  Raider laughed at me. “I am able to block a sending like you just tried to do, queen of nothing.”

  We kept circling, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Attack him? Run away? Scream for help?

  “I’m going to take you away from here, and then you won’t be able to fuck all the Alphas, and then you will die,” Raider snarled and his body began to shift. I didn’t think, but let my instincts guide me. I spun on my bare heel and ran from him, toward the kitchens. There was a snarl behind me and I kept moving, didn’t dare look back. I might falter and I couldn’t afford that now.