by Rae Foxx
“Well, my inner wolf,” I said, exaggerating her wording, “seems quite happy. It’s the other wolf in my head that keeps growling like he owns me or some shit.” I grumbled, shifting in Finn’s lap.
“The other wolf in your head?” Finn asked.
“Yeah, for one dipshit moment I thought it was you. But I’ve seen his wolf. He helped me shift the first time and we’ve had like conversations and shit.”
“You’ve seen him?” Finn seemed territorial now, so much for sharing like some happy hippies.
“Well, I’ve seen his wolf. I don’t know who it is. It could be that nerdy, stinky, kid who always sits behind me in Caruthers.” I shivered. “He was white, white with a bit of grey on his ears and back.”
I looked to Scarlet, fully expecting some big reveal and a curtain to be pulled back, but she shook her head.
“I’m a fox remember? Unless you can detail his paws, his belly or his junk I’m no help. I hope you can’t detail his junk because then--” she stopped mid-sentence, her eyes and jaw opening into wide o’s. She kind of looked like a blow-up doll. I wasn’t going to tell her that.
“You okay, Scarlet?” I asked, half wondering if she had been frozen in place, but Finn looked just as concerned.
“Wait a damned minute!” Scarlet finally exclaimed, the outburst rattling the air and I jumped. “Oh, you’re in some shit for sure.”
My turn to roll my eyes. “I’ve been in it for years. What is it this time?”
“Shifter mates speak in each other’s minds, Ivy. You’re not hearing some random wolf. You are hearing your shifter mate.”
“Shifter mate?” I was nearly screeching, luckily Finn let me off his lap that time.
“Yep! Congratulations, Ivy, you’ve got a Fae mate, a vamp mate and now a shifter mate? Let me tell you that one of those, namely the last one, isn’t going to be so nice about sharing. And that’s only one of your problems, considering that none of this is allowed! You are swimming in the deep shit, darlin’.”
“Holy shit.” I sunk back into the bed, this time next to Finn, who instantly put his arm around me.
“Sounds like a fun time,” he whispered in my ear. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“You both are missing the big problem here,” Scarlet scathed. “We aren’t supposed to mate outside of our race. Let alone have more than one race. This shouldn’t be possible. How in the fuck is this happening?”
I opened my mouth twice and then snapped it shut.
“We will figure it out,” Finn whispered, pulling me into him. “We will face it together; I am sure all of your other mates will agree. I am sure they too feel the sheer power in your veins, Ivy, it is a force to be reckoned with. We will protect that power, and you. In the culture of the Fae, a powerful female is granted a harem of protection, I am proud to be part of yours.”
Harem.
Harem.
I was up before I could suck in a breath, running across the room to the locked drawer of my desk that I had hidden the porn book in.
“Ancient Mating Habits of the Supernatural Harems.”
“Excuse me?” Scarlet snickered from where she was now lounging on her bed. “That doesn’t sound like something on the required reading list.”
“It’s not. It’s a book the vampire gave me after…” I let that one hang in the air. “It’s all about the… ummm… ancient practice.”
Yep, I was sounding totally legit right now.
I scuttled back to where they were sitting and put the book on the floor, letting it fall open to one of the pages I had dog-eared. Unfortunately, I forgot it also had a picture about how to suck two dicks at once.
“What the hell?” Scarlet blubbered, her blush returning as quickly as Finn’s wide grin did. Great.
“It’s not all about sex. It’s about how multiple men caring, supporting, and protecting a woman can help lift her up to greater successes.”
“...And greater power.” Finn tacked on, as though he had heard all about this before.
“Yeah…”
“May I see the book, honeybee? Maybe it has something we can use.”
“Sure. Just don’t get caught with it. That thing’s one position away from being porn.”
He chuckled and took it from my hands.
“It seems to be there already.” His smile stretched as he turned the page to what was a daisy chain.
“Oh, lord!” I didn’t think it was possible for Scarlet to go redder. The level of tomato she was right now was quite impressive.
A knock at the door broke through the aroused silence, the booming sound ending as a slip of paper was slid under the door, sliding gracefully to where we all sat around the book.
“It’s from the pack,” Scarlet whispered, tapping the pawprint seal before she tugged the thing open and swore so loud we all jumped again.
“War games.”
“War games?” I asked, looking to Finn who didn’t have the answers either.
“The Pack Challenge is a little over a week away, tonight they are holding mandatory sparring matches.” She looked up at me like I should understand what she was saying. I shook my head. “They use it so everyone can size each other up. Figure out who they want to challenge.”
“So, you mean we have to fight?”
“Well, I won’t, but I have a feeling you will.” She was looking right at me, her pupils shaking in fear. “I doubt anyone you will be paired with will be weaker than Selene. My money is on you fighting Howl.”
Finn's hand tightened around mine, “Do not worry my love, I will hold your battered body as my magic helps you to heal. No matter the outcome I know you will be victorious.”
“Battered body?” I could only stare straight forward. “Shit stain on the pope's head. I’m screwed.”
Chapter 16
Scarlet took a turn on the dark winding road she was speeding down, throwing me against my seat and slamming my head against the window.
“Ow, it’s not a race. We’ll get there when we get there, wild woman.”
“Sorry. I’m nervous. All the shifter chest pumping shit makes me crazy. Not that you seem to be affected in the same way.” She gave me an angry-looking side-eye and took another of the winding corners at full speed.
“What does that mean?”
“You look constipated, Ivy. Seriously. Unclench your jaw before you pop a blood vessel.” Scarlet compressed the gas as she guided the car around another turn, headlights cutting through the dark as she joined the few other cars that were speeding toward the Alpha’s house.
I guess more than just us were planning on not being able to run back.
My jaw clenched more, which wasn’t helping the whole constipation face I was making.
“I think she is stunning, no matter what face she makes,” Finn whispered from the backseat, his fingers tracing over the pulling muscles in my neck. The heat that blazed through me from the gentle contact was not enough to calm the weird combination of fear, exhilaration and I guess constipation that was taking over me.
Scarlet eyed him in the rearview mirror while she drove. “You would. You want to have a supernatural orgy with her.”
“When you put it so callously it loses the deeper meaning, Miss Scarlet,” Finn retorted, fingers still running over my neck. “Perhaps I can find you a few Fae of your own so you may understand.”
Scarlet nearly drove the car into the forest with how much she jerked to the side.
Finn chuckled darkly from the shadows of the back seat, “I will take that as a yes.”
“Don’t you dare, I want no part of this steaming pile of shit you guys are stepping in,” Scarlet said, turning the car and bit rougher than before, jerking the car forward, and Finn back into his seat. “Aren’t you supposed to be off tracking down the Vampire that fingered your mate? Get the herring, together or whatever you are calling it?”
“Harem,” Finn corrected, sitting forward and replacing his fingers. “And yes, once I know that my honeybe
e has made it safely into the clutches of brutality you shifters favor.”
“Wait. Am I walking into a gladiator fight to the death?” They both fell silent. Well shit.
“You are strong, Ivy. You’ll be fine.” Scarlet said, hands clenching around the wheel as we turned the last corner and faced the massive house, the hulking thing looking like a glittering jewel through the trees.
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be fine, as long as it’s my wolf that’s doing the fighting,” I grinned brightly at them, but again, neither smiled. “Tough audience.”
“Please take care of her, Scarlet,” Finn said after a moment, his fingers moved to trace down my arms. “I will attempt to find this mysterious vampire while you two are kicking ass. See if you can track down your wolf friend and we will reconvene in your room after you have shown this shifter scum how amazing you are.”
“Hey!” Scarlet complained, turning the car into a parking spot and shifting around to glare at my Fae mate, but the guy gave her a smirk.
“Sorry, force of habit.”
“Yeah, well, you are mated to one of those shifter scum, so watch it.” I moved to playfully slug him in the shoulder, but the guy didn’t move away like I had planned, leaving my fist to slam against him.
To his credit, he winced, although his smile didn’t falter.
“Knew you’d do great.” He leaned around the seat, his hand wrapping around mine as he pulled me to him, his lips pressing hungrily against mine. God, he tasted good, better than that box wine I had stolen at the gas station when I was fifteen. I shifted closer, my teeth pulling at his bottom lip.
“Not again,” Scarlet growled from her seat, she wasn’t the only one.
A growl, low, deep, and possessive rippled against my spine, the deep voice of the wolf following right behind, ‘What are you doing, little wolf?
I pulled back, even though my wolf had no interest in ending the kiss with Finn.
“His voice, I can hear him,” I whispered, looking around the car as if I would see the massive white wolf standing right outside the window, grey eyes staring at us.
Scarlet jerked upright, doing the same.
“Well,” Finn coaxed, leaning in again. “Let’s see if we can get him to talk again and reveal himself.”
Before I could stop him, Finn was squeezing himself between the two front seats, his hands against my hips and neck and back and everywhere as he tried to pull me closer. The growl was like white noise, painfully loud as everything became smothered by a fog of need.
“Or she can talk back and ask him who he is. We don’t have to have a porn demonstration,” Scarlet sighed, and I froze.
“Wait.” I tried to wiggle my way out from under Finn, but the guy was not about to give up. “I can talk to him outside of my wolf form? I mean, I tried… but it never worked.”
Finn pulled away from the spot on my shoulder he had been plastering with kisses to stare at me.
“Isn’t it as simple as thinking?” He asked, one eyebrow pulled up. “It is not a skill my kind possesses, but everything I have studied suggests it’s that easy.”
“Well if it is, it’s never worked for me. Or he doesn’t answer.” It was weird how much saying that out loud hurt, even my wolf recoiled like she had been bitch slapped.
I was a baby shifter with more knowledge of how to roll a joint than of the history of my pack, but even I knew that didn’t add up.
“Why don’t you give it a shot? I’ll rile up the beast and you coax him into talking.” Finn was back to kissing and pulling at my neck. I was getting hot, bothered and far too damp. Something that I was not a fan of with how Scarlet was looking at me, how the beast in my heart was growling.
“Get it over with, Ivy,” Scarlet said, trying her best not to look at us.
“Ummm okay…” I tried to clear my throat, difficult seeing as Finn was now in the front seat with me. Pressing against me. I swallowed. “Yo, wolf… mate… dude. What’s up?”
Finn froze, sitting up to stare at me while scarlet chuckled.
“Yo, wolf mate dude?” she said between laughs.
“It’s all I could think of!” I shrieked, trying to wiggle out from under Finn, nearly impossible considering we were both occupying a space made for one. “You are distracting.”
“To be fair,” Finn soothed, his voice dripping more liquid heat into my belly, “that was the point.”
“Okay, well, stop being pointy…”
“I can show you something pointy,” he teased, leaning down for another kiss.
“Oh my god!” Scarlet shrieked as I dodged Finn and the hard point he was pressing against my abdomen.
“Later. Scarlet might explode if you pull out anything pointy.” I twisted to the side, plastering my ass against the glass window as I shoved him toward the back seat.
He practically soared back there when someone knocked against the tinted window of Scarlet’s car, rattling the window my ass was pressed against.
“Shit,” I hissed as I collapsed in my seat and turned to the window that Scarlet was slowly rolling down revealing a very angry Howl like he was the prize on a game show.
Well, the angriest gameshow in existence.
“Why if it isn’t the kinky, little wolf,” he said with a low growl, the corner of his mouth pulling up. “Should have guessed with how your ass was painting the window. Going for some girl on girl action?”
“Go jerk yourself off, Howl.” Scarlet snapped from behind me. The guy didn’t even flinch.
“Later, Vixen.” That time he winked and Scarlet went into full-on growl. Well, as much as a fox growled, which wasn’t much.
“What do you want, Howl?” I tried to snarl his name. It didn’t work too well.
“We are getting started. My father sent me out here to get the stragglers. You know, those too scared to face the pits. That wouldn’t be you, would it?”
God, I kind of wanted to punch him. He had seemed almost human at the library. Now we were back to douche central.
“Okay, yeah, we will be there in a second,” Scarlet mumbled, leaning forward so we both met him head-on.
“Fuck off, Howl,” I added. Scarlet needed to grow a backbone with the guy.
“Later,” he winked and hit the top of the car as he stood. “Get rid of your shiny friend and get your asses to the pits. We are waiting.”
He walked away from the car and into the dark where the other cars were parked, no sign of any other stragglers. Guess we were the last.
“Well so much for summoning the wolf,” I grumbled, throwing my door open.
“He will come,” Finn said, following me out of the car, “Until then, fight well. I have a vampire to find and you have a wolf to defeat. If I might be so bold, I suggest that one.” He nodded once to Howl’s retreating back. “He could use a bite or two.”
I rolled my eyes. “I have a feeling it would go the other way.”
“I would not be so sure of that.” He brushed his hand against the side of my neck, pressing his lips against my cheek.
“Yeah, yeah, see you later.”
“Be safe, honeybee. Scarlet.” They nodded to each other and then he was gone, doing that vanishing act of his and leaving Scarlet and I alone, surrounded by dark cars and the sounds of hollers and screams in the backyard.
Howl gave us one more look before he ducked into the house.
“Let the shit show begin,” Scarlet mumbled as we weaved through the cars, kicking up dust in the dirt path as we made our way to the back of the house.
“Is it going to be that bad?” With every step, I was getting more and more nervous, even if my wolf doing the conga with excitement, the emotion was not strong enough to consume the butterflies that seemed to be everywhere now that Finn’s touch had left.
“Just… I dunno… don’t make a scene. No matter what Finn says; do not fight Howl, or challenge his dad. Just for tonight, let’s not cause a scene okay?”
I could only nod. At least I foregone the red bra, not t
hat it mattered. The second we walked into the backyard was like walking into the Lord of the Flies if it took place on a nude beach that had been contaminated by a baby oil spill.
“What the fuck?” I hissed, stopping in my tracks. Everyone was naked, cheering on those who had already started to fight. A few were already nursing injuries and a pair of greased up guys in the corner were fucking with how they were moaning and grinding.
Battle orgy. I had walked into a battle orgy.
“Scarlet! Ivy!” We turned at the tandem voice shouting out names, Evan and Owen making their way toward us, fully nude, fully greased. Muscles gleaming, junk swinging.
Yeah, I was never going to get used to it, even if I wasn’t staring anymore.
“I’m so glad you are here!” Owen boomed, arms wrapping around Scarlet who was already half-naked, her breasts came away with a fresh layer of oil.
I was so not ready for this.
“You ready for your first matches?” Evan asked, trying to wrap me in an identical greasy hug to his brothers’. I dodged.
“No. And I think I’m keeping my clothes on, thank you.”
“Yeah, good luck with that,” Owen chuckled, still clinging to Scarlet. Great, now he looked like he was trying to rub the oil off on her.
Battle Orgy.
“My family!” The alpha’s voice boomed over the noise in the clearing, all of the matches behind us falling to silence as everyone turned to the powerful, and equally nude, greased man who stood on the deck behind us. “Welcome to our first trials. As you know these are in preparation for the pack battles that will occur next week. Tonight is meant as practice, although no one will fault you for sizing up the competition.” He winked then, everyone laughing as the door behind him opened and Howl walked on to the deck stripped from the waist up and as greased as everyone else.
He wasn’t swinging free like the rest of them, thank god. I wasn’t prepared to see that. As it was, I was grateful for the heads of the shifters between me and the Alpha covering his junk.
“Today, we spar to display our fighting skills and also we spar to display the strengths of our pack.” He stared me right in the eye and I almost snarled. “And the weaknesses.”
