Brendan's Fate (Wolves' Heat)

by Odessa Lynne

  “The security in this den isn’t worth shit.”

  “I told him not to do it,” came from the other side of the room.

  Brendan turned his head to see Ian walk through the doorway.

  Ian continued, “Kem isn’t going to be far behind, and you’re going to get us both in trouble.”

  “Fuck,” Brendan muttered and he scrubbed his hands over his face, trying to get rid of foggy feeling of still being asleep.

  “Fuck is right,” Ian said. “Everyone’s taking this upcoming heat very seriously. New repression drugs to test and more attacks to fend off. Apparently this heat season is going to start any day.”

  “Well, they can kiss my big fat dick,” Devon muttered. “I’ll be a prisoner in my own home the day I die and not a goddamn day before.”

  Ian actually patted Devon on the shoulder.

  Brendan raised his eyebrows, thought seriously about falling back on the bed and going back to sleep so he could finish his dream in which he was finding out firsthand what it felt like to be a heat mate. A part of him was nervous about the whole thing, but he trusted Trey so another part of him was looking forward to his first experience of Trey in heat—and by God, he missed Trey, but Trey had been insanely busy all month as heat season approached, so Brendan’s dreams were about all he had at the moment.

  Two years ago, they’d relocated off the ships and into a massive den complex that had the kind of technological fortifications that would’ve made a dictator weep. Not to protect him and his wolves, Trey had said, but to protect the growing number of humans who had mated with wolves.

  Delicate, breakable, frail humans.

  Except—that wasn’t quite as true these days.

  “I’m not doing it,” Ian said.

  “And I keep telling him he’s being a goddamn idiot. If I could—” Devon didn’t finish. He didn’t have to. They all knew the risk for him was too great; the wolves’ treatments required medication he could no longer tolerate after having been cured of the disease that would’ve eventually killed him.

  The biotechnology that allowed the wolves to heal so quickly, that gave their bodies extra strength and remarkable stamina, had been slowly working its way through the wolves’ rigorous testing and was now being offered to the humans who had mated wolves and a select few other humans with strong ties to Trey’s most important packs.

  “Trey says it’s safe,” Brendan said, pushing himself off the bed and reaching across to a pair of loose pants slung over the back of a chair. He got one leg in and then stumbled back onto the bed when his foot got stuck. The bed creaked.

  “Brendan’s done it. It didn’t kill him. He’s fine—although it sure didn’t fix the asshole in him.”

  “Hey!” Brendan said, yanking his pants up the rest of the way.

  “He was dying and he didn’t have to choose,” Ian said, ignoring Brendan’s objection to Devon’s insult entirely.

  “You just don’t like change,” Brendan said to Ian, and then thought about that for a second and laughed. “Oh my God. I can’t believe I’m trying to convince you that this shit isn’t going to hurt you.”

  Ian scowled at him. “I’m not worried about any of them trying to hurt me and you know it.”

  “Ah. Then you’re just being a sentimental sap—”

  “Goddammit,” Devon said. “I know what it is.”

  Devon looked at Ian with that look he had that said he was about to say something for the sole purpose of pissing off Ian.

  Brendan groaned and covered his face, still lying back on the bed, legs stretched out over the edge and toes curling in the soft rug beneath his feet.

  “You like being the pussy in that relationship, don’t you? If you let them put those things inside you, Craig won’t treat you so much like a goddamn girl.”

  “No!”

  Brendan kept his mouth shut. Although he and Ian seemed to have settled comfortably back into their friendship over the last three years, Brendan was never going to forget the look on Ian’s face when Brendan had accused him of just about the same thing. And he never wanted to remind Ian of what he’d said afterward in an outburst of hurt and anger.

  Brendan wasn’t about to step in that shit again. Ever.

  Maybe he had changed three years ago and he just hadn’t been able to see the difference in himself at the time because he’d been focused on the wrong things: why he’d done what he’d done, not how.

  “Brendan’s old friend Matthew had it done. It took but he was lucky he didn’t die.” Ian’s tone carried a sulk, which was unusual enough that Brendan sat up and stared hard at him.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, and when Ian just shook his head, Brendan turned to Devon. “What?”

  “He says Craig really wants him to do it.”

  “I just don’t see why he won’t accept my feelings on this! He’s always been so—so—ugh.” Ian raked his hands through his hair. “Considerate, I guess, and I told him I didn’t want to, and he still won’t shut up about it.”

  “He loves you,” Devon said. “He worries you’ll get hurt in an attack and then it’ll be too late.”

  “I know. I know. But what if—”

  “Ian.”

  Devon and Ian both looked at Brendan.

  “It’s your decision. Trey’s already told me he’s made it clear the decision is up to the humans. Craig won’t defy him. He’s not going to demand you submit to it.”

  “But what if he does?”

  “He won’t.” Brendan stood up and grabbed at his t-shirt. The air was chill. Although heat season approached, it was a little later in the year every time since technically the every-three-Earth-years was more like every three years and a couple of months, and this heat season was coming on the tail end of fall. “You know he won’t, so quit worrying yourself sick over it.”

  “I might change my mind, someday. I told him that.”

  “Just stand your ground and keep saying it. Devon’s right. He loves you. He’ll eventually understand your reasons.”

  “Well I sure as hell don’t,” Devon said, sighing at the end. Then he grinned. “God Almighty, can you imagine the fights we could have if I—” He cut himself off, and Brendan heard the actual self-pity in Devon’s voice. He meant every word of what he’d said. He’d take the treatments in an instant if he could.

  Brendan walked over to the sofa Trey had brought in just for him and flopped down. “Maybe they’ll figure out a way to give them to you someday.”

  Devon dropped down next to him and kicked Brendan’s leg over so he could stretch out his own. They scuffled for a moment, but then Brendan gave up and just rested his head against the back of the sofa and folded his hands together over his belly.

  “I miss Trey.”

  “I miss Kem.”

  “Kem’s probably on his way here right now, dumbass. You aren’t going to have time to miss him.”

  “Call me dumbass again and I’m going to break your goddamn nose.”

  Ian snorted. “By God, you’d think you two were still sleeping together.”

  Brendan jerked upright. “What? Shut the hell up. Do you know what Trey would do if he thought I wanted—”

  “I’ve showed my dick to enough wolves. And as for you, I’m not letting you touch it again. You had your chance and you blew it.”

  Ian’s face turned red.

  “Goddammit, I didn’t mean it like that you asshole!”

  Ian laughed.

  “What are you, twelve?”

  Ian laughed harder.

  Brendan sighed and stared up at the ceiling and thought about something his mother had said about fate just last week when he’d visited her to get a look at her new home, well outside the protectorate.

  Words don’t trap fate inside them. Fate bends their meaning to its will.

  Her pronouncements still came with scattered regularity and she had explained to him why she’d told him fate was a lie over four years ago now. She’d seen him make mistakes time an
d again and decided in the end that as long as he believed, he was going to see a sign in everything. It had been time to let him meet his fate without expectation.

  He’d left with a greater understanding of why she’d lied to him, but he still didn’t know why she’d waited so long to share her reasons for why she’d done it. Maybe she’d just thought he’d understand better when he was older. She’d probably been right. Three years ago, he probably would have been too confrontational about the whole thing. Now he was just happy to know she hadn’t done it on a whim, or under the orders of his father.

  Brendan didn’t know what was in store for them with the new heat season coming, but he had done his best to convince as many of the guys who had followed him as possible that there was a bigger danger in trying to destabilize the wolves’ society—that humans would only end up hurting themselves, because the wolves were working diligently to try to find a way to stop the way they reacted to humans during heat.

  Some had listened; some hadn’t.

  “You hear that?” Devon’s voice cut through his wandering thoughts. “Ian’s going to make us both look like nuns if he keeps it up.”

  Brendan glanced up at Ian, who was standing over Brendan and Devon both.

  “What?”

  “He’s been letting—”

  “You asshole! You said you wouldn’t tell anyone.”

  “God Almighty, Ian. Quit being such a whiner. It’s just Brendan. You know he’ll find out eventually. Craig’s pack is full of the gossipingest bunch of people I’ve ever met.”

  “What?” Brendan said again, eyebrows going up as he stared at Ian’s fiery red face.

  “He’s been letting Craig’s wolves show their submission on a fairly regular basis. Kem dropped the news on me in the middle of a goddamn blowjob. I almost choked on Kem’s dick.”

  Ian’s face had gone so red he looked like he was running a fever. “You asshole.” But it was said with fond exasperation.

  “Hey, if it gets you off, I’m not judging.”

  About that time, a short tone sounded through the house.

  Brendan looked at Devon. “They won’t come in without permission because this is the First Alpha’s home. You better go let them in.”

  “I’m not doing it,” Devon said.

  “You dragged me here,” Ian said, “I don’t know why I’m the one that has to take the heat on this.”

  “I’ll owe you one.”

  Ian headed for the door, but he hadn’t even left the room before the tone disappeared and Brendan heard the sound of footsteps.

  Multiple sounds of footsteps and he sat up abruptly.

  “Trey,” he said, just as Trey stopped at the doorway, Craig and Kem behind him.

  “You have company, I see,” Trey said. He looked at Devon, sprawled across the sofa and Ian standing in the middle of the room.

  Ian looked guilty.

  Devon looked like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Heat season’s near. We have rules to protect you from danger during this time, and you flaunt those rules.”

  “I apologize for my mate, Alpha,” Kem said from behind him.

  “As do I, Alpha,” Craig said.

  Trey’s gaze landed on Brendan. His eyebrow rose and a trace of humor glittered in his eyes. Brendan figured he was probably the only human in the room who’d recognize it for what it was. He was getting good at reading Trey’s expressions. It’d only took three years to get there.

  “Have you changed your mind about allowing my pack to prove their submission to you?” Trey asked Brendan.

  “Oh, hey!” Devon said, scrambling up off the sofa. “Wow, I didn’t realize how goddamn late it was getting.”

  Ian snorted and walked over to Craig.

  Trey eyed them both. “If you’re not here to suck Brendan’s very lovely dick, I suggest you leave then. I don’t have a lot of time to spend with my mate before my duties call me away again.”

  Devon and Ian, Kem and Craig left quickly enough to make it clear no one present wanted to suck Brendan’s dick.

  As if Brendan would let any of them anyway. He liked belonging to no one but Trey, and he liked knowing Trey was his alone.

  Brendan spread his legs and cupped himself through his pants. “You wouldn’t believe the dream they interrupted. Why don’t you come here and I’ll reenact a few of the best parts? At least one of them involves your hand and my ass and a couple of hard smacks.” Brendan paused, then smiled widely at Trey. “I feel a need to prove my submission to my Alpha.”

  Trey grinned at him, wicked and alien, and Brendan’s smile got bigger and his dick went hard.

  God, he loved that wolf so much it hurt sometimes.

  The Wolves’ Heat series will continue with Matthew’s Chance…

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  Author’s Note

  I hope you’ve enjoyed Brendan’s story. He came alive for me as I wrote this book and by the time I was done, I knew he was going to be one of my favorites for a long time to come.

  You’ll have noticed that the end of Brendan’s Fate puts it about three years later in this universe. Heat’s coming again, and there are plenty of other stories to be written if you want them.

  Please feel free to let me know if you’d like to see more stories or books set in this world or any of my others. I’m always open to revisiting a world or series!

  Also by Odessa Lynne

  HEND & YURT

  The King’s Guard

  The Queen’s Lover

  The King’s Gambit*

  NEW CANTON REPUBLIC

  Of Magic and Mating

  Of Mating and Monsters

  Of Humans and Mates

  WOLVES’ HEAT

  Ian’s Choice

  Devon’s Gamble

  Brendan’s Fate

  Matthew’s Chance*

  R’H’ANI CHRONICLES

  One for Himself

  His One and Only

  Everything He Wants

  All He Needs

  *Forthcoming

  About Odessa Lynne

  Odessa Lynne lives in the southeastern United States. After years of reading romance, fantasy, and science fiction novels, Odessa discovered she liked romance in her fantasy, sex in her science fiction, and love between her heroes best of all! So that’s exactly what she puts in all her own stories now, for readers who enjoy the same. Visit odessalynne.com to find more information about current and upcoming releases. Odessa loves to hear from readers. Contact her by email at odessalynne@gmail.com.