Claiming Kristen

by Jenny Penn

  “Yeah, that’s because you ain’t looking at us at all, honey,” Kort ripped back. “You been staring over our shoulders, at our hands, noses, ears, everywhere but looking right at us. I wonder why that is?”

  “Because you’re butt-ass ugly,” Kristen spat back, feeling the heat flood her face.

  “Now that’s just a lie.” Kort paused before clarifying his position. “Well, I guess Jakob kind of is right now. No offense, man, but you may have to sit this round out. Your face is just a bloody, bruised mess. It almost kind of hurts to look at you.”

  “And yours can look the same,” Jakob threatened him. “Now stop being an ass before Kristen gets really pissed at us.”

  “She already is,” Kristen growled, irritated beyond belief by the Beavis and Butthead show her two mates were putting on.

  “You sure about that, honey?” Kort retorted, continuing on to prove how little decency he had. “Because there is only one thing making this room smell sweet, a wet pussy.”

  Kristen reeled back like he’d hit her, so shocked that Kort had dared to give testament to the very thing she’d been desperately trying to ignore. Ever since she’d made eye contact with the bastard her body had started to liquefy under the constant whispers of want pulsing out of her cunt.

  Apparently both of them knew it. That revelation horrified Kristen, but not as much as Kort did as he continued to humiliate her.

  “Come on, honey, we all know it’s true,” Kort whispered, daring to take a smooth step forward. “There isn’t any need to leave that poor, little pussy aching and unfilled when I got all the cock you’ll ever need hard and ready, right here.”

  Kristen didn’t know which was worse, the fact that Kort could be so crude or the way her body responded to his lewd suggestion. He’d been like that last night, whispering all kind of wicked promises in her ear, demanding all sorts of dirty things, and she’d melted at every single word.

  The things he’d said had driven her crazy, and giving in to them had blown her mind. She could remember how hot, how sweaty it’d been. She’d screamed and begged, clawing at them as they fucked her hard and furious, filling her with their strength and power even as they’d weakened her to the point of obeying their every command.

  “Come on, Kristen.” The husky warmth of Kort’s whisper brushed across her face a moment before a callused thumb traced their path. “You know you want it.”

  Kristen did, but there was something about that tight, tired line that broke the moment. Even as the musk thickened around her, trying to deprive her of her reason, Kristen clung to his last statement. He’d probably used it a million times on just about as many women.

  Why that hurt, Kristen didn’t care to understand. All that mattered was the pain worked like a charm against his musk, freeing her mind of the lusty fog consuming it and riling it into anger strong enough that she could touch Kort and not be tempted.

  “No!” Planting her hands against his chest, Kristen shoved him back and then kept on going, walking him right across the carpet as she lit into him. “Believe it or not, bozo, I’m not a victim of my lust. It’s not my problem if you’re such a pathetic loser that you can’t even function because of your raging hormones.”

  “I am not a pathetic loser,” Kort snapped back, but it lacked the heat of true anger. As he stumbled backward under the herding stretch of her hands, he still appeared too shocked by her outburst to rally against it.

  “No, you’re a poor, sad, little baby boy,” Kristen spat. “Can’t even function without getting screwed every hour because all your brains are in your nuts. Well how about this for revenge? How about I screw your brother without you? What if I make you wait weeks, months, whole fucking years before I let you back in my bed? What do you think of that, Mr. Blue Balls?”

  By the time she was done, she was screaming at him. All the anger she’d pent up that morning unleashed itself, and she shoved him hard right through the open door. This time when he landed on his ass, she knew she’d put him there. It felt good. Almost as good as slamming the door in his startled face.

  Turning, she breathed out a deep sigh of release and faced Jakob. He looked pained but patient. Kristen was struck again by the thought that Jakob must be used to having his brother complicate his life. Maybe if Kort hadn’t been in the picture…Kristen stopped that thought before it could finish.

  It didn’t matter how much shit Jakob ate because of Kort. She still didn’t want a mate. They wouldn’t accept that and simply go away. Kristen wouldn’t be proving it, either, by beating up on Kort. She needed to remember her plan. With a deep breath, that’s just what she did.

  “I accept.”

  “What?” Jakob looked startled by that statement, as if confused by it.

  “I accept the terms of your offer,” Kristen explained, forcing her voice to relax enough to not sound like snarls as she continued. “We’ll put the past behind us and start on a new foot in the morning. You can court me, and I’ll be receptive, but we both know I’m going to get my revenge.”

  “Um, I kind of liked the revenge you just mentioned to Kort.”

  Chapter 12Kristen chased Jakob out of her room, unable to tolerate any more of his and Kort’s insanity. Crass, lewd, indecent, she really had every reason to dislike them. It only annoyed her even more that she didn’t.

  The words Kort used, the way they made her feel, Kristen growled, beating back the unwanted surge of heat as she recalled their conversation. She would not give in to those base level urges, no matter the fact that they wouldn’t leave her alone.

  A run would help. It would give her wolf a chance to exhaust all the restless energy making her a pain in Kristen’s ass right then. Even as she considered the woods across the way from the McBane den, Kristen dismissed the idea.

  As much as she’d like to free the beast so it could wear itself out, in that form she’d have no control over her wolf’s responses to her mates. She’d be completely vulnerable and didn’t doubt that her two horny mates would take advantage of the situation. Just the idea of what they’d do had her jerking as she tried even harder to throw off those unwanted thoughts.

  She needed a distraction, something that didn’t have to do with wolves, mates, or sex. Always an escape from her personal problems, her work called to Kristen. Thankfully Claire had had the foresight to snatch her purse and computer case from her car before they’d taken off with Samantha. There was even a space to work in the massive bedroom.

  Tucked under a bank of windows sat a very large desk Kristen easily managed to spread all her papers out on. Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy to get her mind to focus on any of them. After wasting thirty minutes rereading the same paragraph and still having no idea what it said, Kristen gave in to the obsession tugging at her concentration.

  Kort and Jakob had the advantage. She was on their territory, surrounded by their pack mates. Males always hung together. Even their own Alpha had obviously intended on handing her right over to Jakob and Kort, despite knowing what they’d done and how many laws they’d broken.

  If it hadn’t been for Samantha, Kristen probably would be tied to a bed right then. She had to remind herself of why that would be a horrible fate. Remembering that they intended to keep her that way breathed fresh fear into her concerns. Kort and Jakob had an entire support system of relatives and friends in their favor.

  All Kristen had was one very pregnant woman, who was required to lie in bed for more than half the day. Hell, she couldn’t even count on herself, not with the lure of her mates almost too strong for Kristen’s wolf to resist. It wouldn’t be long before she lost control of the beast.

  That only left her with Lilly as an ally, which proved how screwed Kristen was. Scowling as she considered the bargain Lilly had offered her, Kristen reached for her phone. She didn’t know whether she could actually sell out Richard Payne for her own benefit, but Kristen did know she’d take the case. Maybe she’d get lucky and the man actually would be guilty. If not, then Kristen wo
uld get the pleasure of sticking it to Lilly by assuring Mr. Payne got off.

  Finding out the details of Mr. Payne’s arrest didn’t take her long. Nor did it take her more than a half hour to run into a dead end. The state had already assigned Mr. Payne a public defender who happened to be in court all day. Kristen left him a message, but didn’t expect he’d get back to her before the morning when Mr. Payne came up before the court for bail.

  Kristen would be there. Until then she had to find something else to occupy her time. At least the boys had stopped making noise in the next room. The silence allowed her to pretend that she wasn’t being held captive in The Covenanters’ den.

  Finally she could lose herself in her work. That’s just what she did, blocking out the room around her and the rest of the world with it.

  * * * * Kort hesitated in the doorway separating his room from Kristen’s. Hunched over her desk and fully absorbed in her work, she didn’t notice him. It gave him the moment to study her, to remember how she’d looked all flushed and sweaty, her pink lips swollen and eyes glazed, little breathless begs falling from her mouth as her pussy creamed in sweet demand for more.

  That thought got a growl of approval from the beast inside him. Behaving in its normal restless and impatient manner, the wolf narrowed in on the focus of its desire. Sure enough, not a second later, Kort could scent his own musk tinting the air as the beast tried to lure its prey toward its clutches.

  Samantha might have mouthed off about not using it on their mate, but she knew as well as anybody that a man couldn’t control the musk. Of course women tended to be pigheaded about the issue, and Kort suspected Kristen would be no different. He’d get blamed no matter what. As if on cue, Kristen’s head snapped up as her chin turned in his direction.

  “It’s not my fault.” Kort defended himself before she could accuse him of anything. Not that he thought she’d agree, but he had to try.

  * * * *

  “So I was warned.” Kristen surprised him as she shoved back her seat. Her agreement gave him hope for a moment, but his mate didn’t look very agreeable. Actually she looked pissed, all stiff and storming toward her dresser.

  “Samantha explained it all to me, how the musk is almost like a reflex.”

  “Then you can’t be mad at me for it.” That statement came out sounding more like a question thanks to the uncertainty in his voice.

  “No,” Kristen agreed, sounding anything but agreeable. “I can’t be.”

  “What’s that?” Kort eyed the bottle Kristen snatched off the dresser. He’d heard a rumor that Samantha had managed to block her mates’ musk by applying a nearly noxious amount of perfume to her body. “You’re not going to drown yourself in that shit are you? Because I like the way you smell.”

  “Me, too.” Kristen smiled, coming to a stop right in front of him. “But not the way you do.”

  Before Kort could respond to that or defend himself from the sticky, stinky spray she doused him with, Kristen turned the bottle and shot him right in the chest with a hard blast from its nozzle. The little witch didn’t stop there, but held the red cap down as she coated him from head to toe.

  Stumbling back and putting up his hands to stop from getting hit in the face, Kort tried to escape the foul odor clinging to every one of his pores. No matter how far he retreated into his room, he couldn’t escape the stench of the cheap cologne Kristen terrorized him with. Kort didn’t take well to being abused.

  “What the hell, woman?”

  Kristen’s arrogant chin tilted in the direction of his roar, and the woman had the audacity to smile at him. “That’s better.”

  “Oh, God,” Jakob groaned. Kort had left him tying up his boots, but a glance now showed his twin wavering on his feet as he rubbed his eyes. “That shit stinks. I take it that’s a no on dinner.”

  “Dinner?” Kristen’s gaze cut to Jakob’s in clear confusion.

  “I didn’t get a chance to ask her before she assaulted me,” Kort snapped. “I think this should count as her revenge.”

  “You musked me,” Kristen shot back. “It was an act of selfdefense, not vengeance.”

  “Then why don’t you coat yourself in this shit and leave me out of it?”

  “Because it stinks,” Kristen retorted, suddenly very calm and cool.

  She could claim self-defense all she wanted. That smirk clearly expressed how much Kristen enjoyed getting some vengeance. Kort didn’t fool himself into thinking her appetite had been satiated either. No, the future looked worse, much worse to him because it had become quite clear she intended to nick and pick at them to death. That was true revenge.

  “Yeah?” Kort reached for the hem of his T-shirt. About ready to rip it over his head, he paused long enough to point out the obvious. “Well, you still have to smell it through dinner, honey.”

  “Not as bad as you,” Kristen responded, but without the amused smugness she’d had a moment ago. Now she sounded a little unnerved as Kort dropped his shirt and went to work on his belt. “What are you doing?”

  “Going to take a shower,” he explained the obvious. “Unless, of course, you really do want to smell me through dinner, and don’t bother giving me that look. I’m not showing you anything you haven’t seen, touched, and licked before!”

  That put color back in his mate’s cheeks and appeased a certain need in Kort to rattle the woman. It also put the stiffness back in her spine as she jerked around, clearly intending on storming out of the room. Jakob caught her, though, latching on to her arm and turning her to face him. Kort couldn’t help but notice that was not in his direction.

  “About dinner?” Ever earnest and determined, Jakob sounded hopeful. “You’re going, right?”

  “Going?” Kristen arched a brow at that. “Are you implying that I would leave this house to attend a meal with the two of you?”

  Kort snickered at her choice of words and the way they seemed to fluster Jakob for a moment. His brother’s answer came out short and unpoetic. “Yeah.”

  “Like a date?”

  More at ease with that question, Jakob managed a smile. “Exactly.”

  “That’s what you sent bonehead—”

  “Hey!” Kort instantly objected to the nod she sent his way, but a glance down did show he had a hell of a boner with quite an impressive head. “Okay.”

  He conceded the point, not that Kristen paid him any attention. She hadn’t even paused when he’d interrupted.

  “—into my room for? To ask me out on a date?” Offering up a fake laugh, Kristen shook her head at Jakob. “What, so you two could musk me on the ride and then molest me? Do I look stupid enough to be alone with either one of you?”

  “We weren’t planning on musking you,” Jakob growled, showing a little spirit finally. Not that Kort expected that argument to win Kristen over. It certainly hadn’t worked out well for him. Of course nothing appeared to be going his way tonight. Even his damn brother had it out for him. “Kort, put your pants back on.”

  “What?” He couldn’t gasp out much more than that one indignant word as the lunacy of Jakob’s order overwhelmed him. “Why?”

  “As a show of good faith.” Jakob turned that solemn, intent look on Kort and he knew there would be no arguing the matter. Kort still would have if the prize hadn’t been Kristen, but she was too much to risk. Not that Kort was all into self-sacrificing.

  “Fine, show good faith,” he snapped back. “But why do I have to be the stink bomb at the table tonight? Why don’t you be a noble asshole and volunteer for the role.”

  He never should tempt his twin with that kind of challenge, but Jakob wouldn’t back down. Taking the bottle from Kristen, the fool doused himself in the wretched cologne. Even Kristen backed away, and it didn’t seem to Kort wearing something that repelled their mate made any kind of sense.

  “There. We’ll both stink. Happy now?”

  “You smell bad enough for the both of us. I think I’m going to take a shower.” That’s just where Kort was h
eaded when Kristen finally had her say.

  “You might as well join him, Jakob, because I think I’d rather take my chances with the McBanes.”

  That brought an instant laugh out of Kort as he paused to shoot a grin at Jakob’s scowl. “So much for your martyring yourself. The woman’s not impressed.”

  “Go take your fucking shower, Kort,” Jakob snapped over Kristen’s head. “And I’ll handle our mate.”

  “Oh, you’ll handle her?” Unconcerned with his nudity and kind of enjoying the way Kristen pointedly refused to look at him no matter what he said, Kort couldn’t resist aggravating the situation. “You and what tools? We didn’t bring over the whips and chains. You sure you can handle her without some assistance?”

  “Damnit, Kort. Shut up.”

  “’Course we could use the pillowcases.” Kort cast a speculative glance at the bedding. “They’d make decent binds, if limited in position. Then again, it’s not like you need all the creativity to fuck a mate into submission. Let me get that shower, and then we’ll get her in hand.”

  He’d been joking, sort of. Given her response earlier that day to his teasing, Kort expected her to go all ninja woman on him again and start shoving him around. To do that, she’d have to touch him.

  The anticipation of feeling her bare hands against his chest had Kort tensing as he waited. Except Kristen didn’t go boom. At least not in a way that he liked. Finally turning to face him, she impressed him with her ability to both blush and threaten at the same time.

  “You listen to me, you crass bastard. You’re going to wear that cologne, or I’m going to get my own chains.” Leaning in close enough to tempt him into breaking house rules, Kristen didn’t give any thought to her danger as she growled at him. “Then I’m going to leash you down tight and make you watch as I fuck your brother for hours. And I’m not going to dinner with you.”

  She tacked on that last statement loud, clear, and firm as she shifted back. Head held high, she gave him a passing glance before smirking. It took every bit of self-control Kort had to stand there and watch her carry that smug smile out of the room. The woman really knew how to push his buttons.