[Pack 01.0] Defying Pack Law

by Eve Langlais

  “God, Dana. I wanted to take things slow, but you’re making me lose control.”

  “Good. I don’t want to wait any longer. Make love to me, John.” She didn’t think she’d survive if he didn’t sink into her and do something about the fire that raged in her body. Her wolf was also an impatient presence in her mind, pacing and whining, the urge to bite him, mark him, growing stronger by the second.

  He drew her forward for a kiss, a deep and passionate one that she returned just as fiercely. His hands clasped her about the waist, and he pulled her forward until she straddled his lap, his cock sitting hotly under her cleft.

  She rubbed herself against his length, covering him in her cream. He caught her hint. The head of his prick probed the entrance to her sex. Natural instinct guided her. She tilted her hips to ease his angle of entry. He slid in slowly, drawing out the pleasure, but Dana was impatient. She thrust down onto him, seating him fully inside.

  She threw her head back and let out a gasp at the sensation. He filled her snugly, his cock buried to the hilt and butting deliciously up inside her. His fingers dug into her hips as her pussy squeezed around him, sending a quivering sensation through her.

  “Oh,” she exclaimed at the bliss that shot through her. She rocked against him, and again her channel quivered.

  “Jesus, Dana,” he groaned. With his hands gripping her tight, he bounced her on his cock, sheathing and retreating his hard length in a way that made Dana’s breathing come faster and faster. Her nails dug into his shoulders as the pleasure coiled inside her.

  A scream built in her throat as he held her on the edge of glory. She opened her eyes and beheld perfection. The cords in John’s neck stood out, and his eyes blazed with passion as he claimed her body carnally. But she wanted more than just sex from him. I want him, body, wolf, and soul. She leaned forward and kissed the taut skin of his pecs, just above his heart. His heart beat in a mad cadence that resonated inside her. She opened her mouth wide on the wet spot she’d created, and her wolf bounded forward eagerly in her mind. Her incisors lengthened, and she bit him.

  John roared and bucked, his hips bolting straight up as his hands on her hips pushed down. Dana didn’t let go of him until she’d tasted and swallowed a mouthful of his coppery blood. In the distance, she heard howling, but she blocked her mind to it. Tonight was for the man who’d given her what she needed.

  She’d no sooner loosened her latch than he laid her back in one fluid motion so that he rested between her thighs, his body thrusting into her furiously.

  “Mine,” he growled. Then he reciprocated and sank his own teeth into the soft flesh of her breast.

  Dana screamed as the bond between them came full circle. Blood to blood. Soul to soul. The euphoria of it triggered an orgasm so intense that she screamed again, bucking wildly under John, who, with a bellow of his own, shot his seed deep inside her.

  They clung to each other tightly with ragged breaths as the bliss wrung them dry. When their heart rates began to slow and their bodies relaxed from their blissful tension, John kissed her gently.

  “I love you, Dana. From this day forth and forever more, no matter our paths, no matter our destiny, I am by your side. You no longer walk alone.”

  Dana opened eyes brimming with tears. The beauty of his words and, even more astonishing, the sincerity stole her voice. She hugged him to her tightly and hoped he understood how much she appreciated his gift.

  Then in case he didn’t understand the mental vibes she threw his way, she showed him in a carnal way that left no doubt as to what she thought.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dana slept spooned with John—my mate—after making love a second time. Held in his protective embrace, the hum of their bond almost visible, she discovered inner peace. Even better, she’d lost her anger and hurt over Nathan’s actions of the past. After talking with John, she could more clearly understand why Nathan had done it, and she regretted her jealous reaction of the previous day.

  Now here’s to hoping he’s not too pissed about me marking John first. Even if he was, she’d practice patience. They’d both hurt each other, and the time had arrived for it to stop. She loved Nathan, and he loved her. The past needed to be pushed aside in favor of the future, a bright future with her back in the heart of a pack and surrounded by love—both the mental and physical kind.

  Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t realize John had woken until a firm poke against her backside announced his ready state. She wiggled against it.

  “Minx,” he growled in her ear, tugging the lobe with his teeth.

  “Admit it, you love it.”

  John chuckled. “Yes, I do, and I love you. But much as I’d like to pleasure my new mate this morning, I think that might be pushing it a bit far, given the unresolved situation waiting for us.”

  Dana sighed. “He’s going to be hurt. I know.”

  “What are you planning to do?”

  “Talk to him first and apologize for freaking out. Then, if we can put our differences behind us, I was thinking of marking him next. Are you all right with that?” she asked, craning to peer back at John.

  His gentle brown eyes met hers. “I’m not jealous or afraid if that’s what you’re asking. Mark Nathan and Kody when you feel the time is right. I won’t put up a fuss. I was always taught to share well with others.”

  Dana gasped at his comment and jabbed him with an elbow. “Now you sound like Kody,” she chided.

  John chuckled. “No, Kody would have said I can’t wait until I share you with the others—naked.”

  “Mmm. Sounds like a plan,” she purred.

  “W-what?” John stuttered. “Are you screwing with me?”

  “Not yet, but I plan to later, and maybe we won’t be alone.”

  Dana wiggled out of his grasp and dashed to the bathroom, laughter bubbling forth at John’s pained, “Dana!”

  When she returned after peeing and brushing her teeth, she found him, unfortunately, dressed.

  His eyes glowed as he took in her naked body, and he hugged her to him. She clung to him, wishing they could stay hidden for a while longer, basking in their bond. But she refused to take the easy way out.

  “I guess it’s time to face the music,” she said, nervous at the prospect of facing the others, most especially Nathan.

  “You know what? Let me go scope the situation with Nathan out first and make sure he has removed his foot from his mouth.”

  Dana knew it was cowardly of her to let John den the possibly rabid wolf, but she didn’t want to shatter the fragile happiness she’d found. I’ve got a mate now to help me shoulder things. I no longer have to face everything alone.

  “Everything will work out,” John said before kissing her softly and leaving.

  I wish I shared his optimism. Dana wouldn’t hold her breath, though. What she’d done, fantastic as it had been, would hurt Nathan. And while she loved him, and intended to mark him in due course, what had happened couldn’t be changed, nor did she regret it.

  Dana had no toiletries or clothing in John’s room, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t face the day clean. She returned to the bathroom. She turned the shower on hot and stepped under its soothing spray. Given her frantic lovemaking with John the previous night, she’d expected to be sore, but instead energy imbued her and made her smile. She even sang as she bathed.

  Her skin scrubbed pink and clean, she stepped from the steamy cubicle and grabbed a towel. She wiped her body down and then wrapped it around herself before stepping back out into the bedroom. And stopped dead.

  Nathan lounged on John’s bed, his hands laced under his head. She could smell the stench of alcohol from where she stood. She also couldn’t miss the menacing glow in his eyes. Nathan’s wolf sat very close to the surface, and with the alcohol lowering the barrier between man and beast, she should tread carefully.

  “Morning, Nathan,” she said cautiously.

  “Maybe for you,” he replied with a glare. “Tell me, was he a go
od fuck?” Nathan’s words slurred together, and a shiver of trepidation went down her spine.

  “I’m not answering that.”

  “Why not?” he taunted. “I mean it can’t be because you’re afraid of hurting my feelings.”

  “You’re drunk.”

  “Gee, I wonder why. Could it be because the woman I loved was fucking and marking another man?”

  Dana winced. Said so baldly, she sounded like a vile bitch. But she refused to let him beat her down with words and to dirty something so beautiful. “It wasn’t like that.”

  Nathan jumped up off the bed and strode to her, bristling with tension. “Oh, how was it then?” He encroached upon her space, his looming form sending a shiver through her. “I know you enjoyed it. I heard you,” he snarled through gritted teeth. “I felt it when you marked him. Were you laughing at me when you did it?”

  Tears rolled down her cheeks as his pain washed over her. “Nathan, don’t do this. I still love you. I want to make you one of my mates.”

  “So why didn’t you mark me first then? You were supposed to be mine,” he roared.

  She realized there would be no getting through to him while the alcohol held him prisoner. “I think you need to calm down,” she said, backing away from him.

  “No, I’m done waiting for you to make up your goddamn mind. I just want what you gave him. Fuck this taking my time shit and giving you space.” His eyes glowered fiercely, and she saw the tip of his incisors, which had dropped in his mouth.

  Oh shit. Dana whirled to run, but Nathan caught her, his iron grip inescapable.

  He lifted her and brought her up to eye level, and tears brimmed in her eyes. “Please, Nathan, don’t do it. Not like this. Please.”

  “You forced me to it. You’re mine, Dana. I might have to share you, but damn it, you will belong to me.”

  She pummeled his chest as he drew her in close, but there was no stopping him. He didn’t soften his action. He didn’t even attempt to seduce her. He just bit her—hard. Pain shot through her without the endorphins to soften it.

  Dana screamed shrilly. Nathan loosened one hand to muffle her cry, and she bit him, unthinkingly. At the metallic taste of his blood in her mouth, lightning struck without the beauty of the night before and completed the circle of shared blood.

  A moment later, she found herself torn from Nathan’s grasp, and she sobbed against Kody’s chest, the pain in her shoulder throbbing as it oozed.

  “What the fuck?” she heard John yell.

  “She’s mine,” growled Nathan.

  “And she was intending to mark you when you stopped acting like a fucking Neanderthal.”

  “So what’s the big fucking deal? I just did what she intended to do,” Nathan replied in a thick voice, his belligerent tone not the least contrite. “Now, why don’t you and the puppy leave so I can fuck my new mate?”

  Dana heard the sound of flesh striking flesh. She turned in Kody’s arms to see John methodically beating Nathan, who, drunk off his ass, responded too slowly to defend himself.

  “Stop,” she whispered then louder, “Stop!”

  John delivered one last blow that made Nathan drop to his knees and keel over. John glared down at his unconscious alpha before he strode over to her.

  Kody handed her over and shook his head. “I can’t fucking believe he did that. I knew he was upset, but I never expected him to attack her like that.”

  “He lost control, and he’ll be lucky if the council doesn’t execute him for it.”

  Dana blanched. Unclaimed females could be mated by force under archaic laws, but Dana wasn’t unmated, not since the previous night. What Nathan had done was tantamount to rape, the esoteric kind. “You can’t tell.”

  John’s brows shot up. “Are you kidding me? He forced you to mate with him.”

  “He only did what I should have done in the first place. If there’s any fault, it’s mine for not marking him first. I knew how much it meant to him.”

  John gritted his teeth. “Fine.”

  Dana rested her head against John’s shoulders and shook. This is all my fault.

  “What do I do with him?” Kody asked.

  “I don’t give a fuck,” John growled.

  “Put him to bed.” Dana knew she should hate Nathan for what he’d done, but instead, guilt ate her as she took responsibility for his actions. She’d pushed him to this by not choosing him first, by allowing her own hurt over the past to cloud her judgment.

  Dana let John lead her to the bed to sit down as Kody hefted Nathan, with some difficulty, in a fireman hold and staggered out with him.

  “I’m sorry, Dana,” John apologized. “I went looking for him and couldn’t find him. Kody said he’d last seen him going for a run in the woods. I never expected he’d do this.”

  “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I should have marked him first.” At the sight of John’s lips tightening, she hastened to say, “I don’t regret what happened last night. I loved every minute of it, and I’m glad you’re one of my mates. But”—she sighed, and her shoulders slouched, causing her weeping wound to ache—“I should have done things differently.”

  “Different how?” John asked as he stood. He went over to his closet and pulled out a bag. He rummaged around and pulled some antiseptic from his bag and proceeded to wipe the gouges in her shoulder.

  “Well, maybe if I’d taken you all at the same time, no one would have felt left out.” At John’s shocked looked, she smiled. “Shut up. I know I am the last person you expected to hear that from, but honestly, short of a tag-team session, I don’t see how anyone wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

  “So does this mean you’re going to mark Kody sooner than later?” John asked carefully.

  “Talking about me?”

  Dana’s head shot up as Kody strolled back into the room. She still sat there in the buff, her towel lost in the action, but she didn’t have the energy for embarrassment. “Yes, I want to mark you if you still want me after all the crap that’s happened.”

  “Take your time,” Kody replied, dropping to a knee before her, his green eyes looking up at hers with a serious intensity. “Unlike my alpha, I can handle waiting for my turn, and I’m good at sharing.”

  Dana leaned forward and kissed Kody lightly. “I can’t wait to experience that. But for now, I think I need some clothes and food.”

  However, she couldn’t stop the stir of excitement Kody’s words had engendered. If one wolf loving her was explosive, how would two feel? Or, even more decadent, if things ever got resolved with Nathan, three?

  Nathan groaned as he rolled in his bed, his head throbbing painfully from a hangover to end all hangovers, but even more strange, his jaw and face ached as well. What the fuck happened?

  Fragments came back to him: the fight with Dana—another fuck-up in his courtship of her. He’d owe her an apology for acting like such an ass, something he should have done the night before instead of sending John straight into her arms while he turned to drinking beer. Lots of it. He recalled deciding to get sloshed once he realized John and Dana were making love and then mated.

  A pang of hurt, tinged with some jealousy, hit him. He’d truly wanted to be first, but instead, he’d allowed his stubborn nature to send another man to her when she was vulnerable.

  The rest of the evening was a blur as he’d drowned his pain in alcohol.

  But it didn’t explain his sore face. He rolled out of his bed, a bed he didn’t remember staggering to, and stumbled over to a mirror. He let out a low whistle at what he saw. Bruises covered his visage, as if he’d taken a beating.

  More hazy memories bombarded him, including one of Dana regarding him with fear and pleading. Realization hit him like a ton of bricks, and he sank to his knees, moaning.

  “No. Oh no. What have I done?” he whispered, clutching his head.

  “I see you’ve remembered.”

  Lost in his misery, Nathan hadn’t noticed John entering, but he didn’t miss the
cold anger in his tone. “Please tell me it’s a nightmare. Tell me I didn’t force my mark on her,” Nathan pleaded.

  “I’m not into lying.”

  Nathan swayed in horror. He pounded the floor, anger rising in him—at himself. “How could I do that to her?”

  “You tell me,” John said. “I understand you wanted to be first, but if there’s one thing Dana told you over and over, it was that she wanted to choose the when and where.”

  “And she chose you,” Nathan replied. His previous jealousy over that fact vanished in the face of his greater travesty.

  “But she wanted it to be you. I want you to know I went to her and pled your case. She made the choice to mark me first. I’m sorry I didn’t have the strength or will to turn her down. I hope you’ll accept my apology and responsibility for what happened.”

  Nathan’s head shot up—a little quickly—and his stomach lurched. “Don’t you fucking dare. I’m not some coward to hide from my actions. Had I not let my own pride and determination blind me, I would have gone up to talk to her instead of you. If I had, then things might well have been different. Instead, I chose to wallow in self-pity and alcohol. I lost control, and no matter the reason, there is no excuse. I’ll pack my things and be gone within the hour.”

  John inhaled sharply. “What the fuck are you talking about? Who said anything about you leaving?”

  “I can’t stay here. Seeing her, seeing her fear of me. Knowing I can never have her.”

  “God, you are such an idiot,” John exclaimed, his exasperation clear. “Yes, she was scared when you forced the mark on her, but who do you think stopped me from killing you? Dana doesn’t want you to go. She still loves you and blames herself for what happened.”

  Nathan snorted. He didn’t believe that.

  “He’s telling the truth.”

  Nathan whipped his head around at the soft sound of Dana’s voice. A wave of dizziness caught up to him, and he almost fell over. “Dana . . .” he whispered.

  “It’s all right, Nathan. I shouldn’t have hurt you like I did.”