by DD Prince
I see that the chocolate brown wolf is standing there, looking almost submissive with his head down in front of Tyson.
Tyson backs away from him, but not in a way that I take as a retreat because he gets directly in front of me and it’s obvious he’s protecting me.
I stand frozen and in shock. Standing in front of me, he’s almost as tall as me on all fours. I’ve never seen a wolf this large in my life. Obviously, werewolves are bigger than ordinary wolves.
He growls at the other wolf and then lunges threateningly without leaving the space in front of me. I gasp in shock. The other animal runs the other way, stops thirty or forty feet away and then turns and barks at Tyson for about five seconds before walking away calmly rising to two feet as he shifts back, into the woods that surround this place, leaving his clothes and shoes there in a pile on the ground.
I hard-blink at the back of the naked man.
12
Tyson
I shift to man form, many emotions surging through me at once. Relief he’s gone, comforted that I seem to have regained control over my form and ability to shift at will. But I also war with the urge to shift back to wolf, chase him down, and then rip his throat out so he cannot come back.
My head is swimming right now with his words, with my urges, and with Ivy’s scent. It needs to stop as I have to be mindful of Ivy. She comes first.
I was ready to go for his throat when she stepped outside, and I saw his eyes touch her. I don’t know what stopped me. Perhaps his words. His words just before she came out must have stopped me.
I shoot a look of disapproval at her and heft her over my shoulder before heading back inside and slamming and locking the door, filled with anger and other emotions I’m not sure how to decipher.
He hadn’t acted as if he had anything but respect for my bond with her, but I was taking no chances. Uncle Cornelius told me of their deceptive nature. This was why we weren’t part of that pack. Their nature was what made him flee with me when I was an infant.
They’d killed my father, their top alpha, and then raped and killed my mother before devouring her flesh. They’d planned to kill me, to take me, to devour me so I wouldn’t rise to alpha when I grew and so that they could absorb all my unformed abilities. My uncle took me away so I’d be safe. He frequently ranted about how they lived, how the pack had too many alphas, and this meant extreme abuse for betas and omegas. How they lived, thieving from the humans, stealing their women and siring children on them before tearing into their flesh as wolves and devouring them as a pack. Devouring the children who couldn’t shift. Enslaving the halfling ones who could. Chasing down lone wolves and mainstreamers to force them into servitude.
The stories I’d heard chilled me as a child, ensuring that when I was young I never got close to their village, then angered me, making me want to destroy them. I knew I’d never want to be part of a pack. And that once, after Uncle died, when I was ready to take vengeance, when I nearly went in and destroyed them, but couldn’t because one scent stopped me in my tracks.
And now one of them has approached me here, showing me they know where I am, and he said things that don’t fit.
Lies. Deception.
As if I would fall for words from my realized nightmare. I don’t want to let a word from his mouth infiltrate my brain, but I can’t help but think on it, wonder why he went out of his way to speak to me. His words evidently got to me somewhat because I didn’t rip his throat apart.
“Tyson Savage? You know you are Tyson Savage, right?”
I stared. On alert.
“I’m Riley Savage,” he informed. “I’m here peacefully. May I speak with you?”
I stood there ready. Teeth bared. Ready to shift and defend myself. Ready for lies. Ready to kill. By the subtle twitch of his nose I knew he smelled my mate. I also sensed he was unafraid of me. I was ready to fight.
“I’m your cousin, Tyson. Our fathers were brothers. Cornelius stole you when you were an infant. You’re supposed to be our council’s top Alpha. We thought you were dead. You’ve mated, haven’t you? We’ve known you’re alive for a few years, since we saw you at our town hall, but now that you’re back, we felt we could try to make our approach. We would like to talk.”
“Leave,” I grunted, baring my teeth, not liking that he smelled her. “Or you die.”
“Just a couple questions, if that’s all right. Cornelius. Is he alive somewhere else? We haven’t caught his scent in years.”
“Why?”
We disguised our scents. Uncle taught me it was necessary from a young age. I’d stopped when he died. Unafraid of them, maybe even daring them to approach.
“Cornelius has crimes to answer for. And Tyson, he is deranged. If he told you who you are and where you came from, he must have lied. He’d have lied or else you’d have killed him and come home. He did heinous things. We’d like you to come see us. To talk. Your mother wants to see you. Let’s sit and talk about the truth.”
My body went rigid. “My mother is dead.”
“She’s not.”
“Your pack raped and devoured her,” I bit off.
His expression was of mortification. “No. Fuck no. She’s my aunt. And the lead healer for our pack. I assure you, she’s very much alive and wants to see you. You were taken from her, from all of us. Come. I’ll show you. You’ll know as soon as you catch her scent that she’s your mother. He took you young, but that bond was already formed.”
My eyes narrowed. Lies. Had to be.
“Where’s my father?” I bit off.
“Gone,” Riley’s head dropped with sadness. “At the hands of Cornelius. They found him dead and you gone. You’re our true top alpha. I’m getting ahead of myself. Please. Consider coming. We know you know how to get to us.”
Uncle told me they might try to approach if they saw me or caught my scent; might tell their lies to get me there so they can kill me, eliminate me as a threat.
I folded my arms across my chest.
“Leave,” I ordered.
“I just wanted to –”
“Leave! Or die.”
He bared his teeth at me. “We’re your family,” he snapped angrily. “You don’t have to be alone. It’s not right and could harm you. In here.” He pointed to his temple. “ And here.” He thumped his chest with his fist. “Our pack is non-traditional and that’s for a reason. Our lines are so strong, we have six alphas, but we’re meant to have seven. You’re meant to be at the top of the pack.”
I bared my teeth at his insolence.
He went on. “We’re incomplete without you. We’ve mourned you for thirty-three years, Tyson. We live a good life and we’re a strong family, but we mourn you. You’re supposed to be part of us.”
I stared, still baring teeth.
“You don’t have to live alone,” he repeated.
“I choose to live alone,” I snapped.
“Because you want that or because it’s all you know? Because it’s what you need and chose for yourself or what he told you was better?”
I frowned. His words felt like they punched me in the gut.
That was when I caught Ivy’s scent becoming stronger and felt a spike of immediate worry. I shifted, ready to go for his throat.
He immediately shifted as well, his wolf eye-level with mine. Uncle was much smaller as man and as wolf and the size of Riley Savage’s brown wolf didn’t scare me, but it gave me pause. I bared my teeth and he partly submitted, though kept his teeth partly bared, defiantly. This stubborn asshole was determined to make me hear what he had to say. He’s alpha to his bones; I instinctively know it. I’m not sure if he’s a match for me or not, but he feels very strongly about telling me his tale. And maybe that was why I didn’t kill him. Because I had always had doubts about Cornelius and because I wanted to know if there was any truth coming from him at all.
I also realized right then that my Uncle Cornelius was not alpha. Having grown up around only one of my kind, I had no way of knowing.
That thought had never before occurred to me. He talked of pack hierarchies when I was a child. I never asked him where he fit in all of that. Why hadn’t I? I’d always been of few words and Uncle Cornelius didn’t like questions. We would go for long stretches of time where we barely spoke and then he’d occasionally begin spewing facts at me rapid-fire out of nowhere and then just as suddenly, silence would fall again.
He was all I had. He was all I knew. And when words came from him, it was often simple directions, which I followed. When it was more, it was usually spewed at me with the scent of whisky and made little to no sense.
When Riley Savage showed that partial submission, she was there, suddenly, standing on the porch wearing my shirt, her beautiful legs bare, golden and purple hair everywhere, her eyes wild with fear, and my scent all over her. My little Ivy stirred emotion in my gut, standing there and holding the fireplace poker in her hand and pointing it at Riley Savage’s wolf form.
To protect me?
I warned her and this made her halt. I got between them, letting him know with my stance that I would not hesitate to rip his throat out if he made a move in her direction.
He left. But not before giving me notice with his eyes that told me we weren’t done.
The sensations I felt were so foreign then. Strangeness at how I could feel a sort of connection to him, how I could know the meaning of his expression.
How I knew he was alpha, and the knowledge, that his strength was formidable. Not just from his size. From more.
And there were a lot of other sensations, vibrations coming at me from him, too that I didn’t know how to decipher.
***
I take her back to bed and set her down.
Her eyes rove over me and I see confusion. Her cheeks are pink as those eyes sweep over my body.
Emotion squeezes my chest like a massive fist. I need her again.
My beautiful little mate, trying to defend me against a massive wolf with nothing but a little stick in her dainty hands. I pounce, pulling my shirt off her body by hauling it over her head, slamming my hips forward, my cock seeking her. She’s still wet and swollen from our last fucking, but behind a barrier. She’s put panties on. I hook the crotch aside with my finger and push my way inside her.
“Mine. You’re mine,” I tell her, cradling her jaw in my hand. “No one will take you from me. I protect you; I keep my Ivy safe. You understand?” My thumb strokes her lips. “Don’t put yourself in danger like that again. You should’ve waited in my bed where I left you. I’d never let anyone hurt you.”
I would do anything to keep her safe from them. Anything. That pack that steals women. That hurts them. That lies. Telling me that I’m their alpha so they can lure me there and take her from me, kill me, hurt her. Devour her beautiful body. No. Fuck no. Seven alphas? This means there are six threats to me. Riley Savage and five more. I want to kill them all. I won’t let them near her.
I fuck her hard, I bury myself in her beautiful body, feasting on her lips, sucking her tongue, digging my fingers into her sweet ass and feeling my body fill with rage at the idea that someone might even try to touch her. I see them in my head, laughing around a fire, palming spent cocks. Pulling beautiful golden and lavender hair from their teeth.
No!
I let out a roar as my cock expands near the base and she cries out an orgasm as my knot pulses against that ethereal inside place that makes her quiver and whimper. I spill with force into her, staring into her eyes, feeling my eyes heat with a glow. I barely manage to beat back the red haze, stopping it from coming through because she’s safe, she’s here, under me, filled with me.
She looks frightened and I feel immediate remorse.
“No. I won’t ever, ever harm you. You need never fear me, beautiful Ivy Savage. I’ve never felt this way about anybody before you, Ivy. My only.”
“Only what?” she whispers.
“Only one. You’re the only one for me. We’re meant to be together.”
Her eyes soften as I growl into her mouth and feel yet another stream of essence leave me.
I bury my face in her hair and go limp on top of her, inside of her. Spent with emotion. I roll and take her to lying on me, so I don’t crush her under my body.
I scrub my eyes with my palms.
She’s trembling on top of me.
I look at her and her eyes are soft, but she shivers. I can see she’s overcome with emotion, too, but hers is threaded with confusion where my emotions are sure.
I wrap my arms around her, and my body temperature rises to get her warm. I’ll make her sure.
“Talk to me?” she pleads in a soft voice. “We have a lot to talk about. But… I… Fuzz… I don’t even know where to start. What happened out there? You’re so angry.”
I let out a sigh and pull her tighter to me. She feels good. She feels right. She feels like the thing I was missing that I didn’t know I was missing until I caught her scent.
She looks up at me with those lavender eyes, her bottom lip in a pout as if she’s about to cry.
She wants to talk. She wants my words. I’m not good with words.
I caress my mark on her with my thumb and briefly touch my lips to her little nose. “I’ve never spoken to another like me except for my uncle, who died.”
“You’ve been alone a long time?” she asks.
I nod. “He, that Riley, he’s Riley Savage, of my blood and he said words that felt like a fist thrust into my gut. I had no time to decide what to do about that. I didn’t want him near you. I feared he would hurt you or try to attack me so he could take you.” I push my anger back at the notion of that. “I don’t care what happens to me, but nothing can ever happen to you, Ivy. Nothing. My purpose in life is to shelter and provide for my family. You are my family.”
She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip and her eyes rove my face.
I want to fuck her again. This soon. I want to spend my life inside her. Making her whimper. Feeling her body respond to me. My hand grazes the curve of her ass and I feel my cock harden again.
“I need you again,” I tell her.
“Tyson, wait. I’m sore.”
“What’s sore?” I bristle.
Is she hurt? Have I not noticed an injury?
“My…” Her face goes pink. “My princess parts. And my legs. And even my arms. I feel bruised all over.”
“What can I do?” I move the blanket away and begin to examine her body, searching for signs of injury.
“Just… don’t try to make love to me right now. My body just needs a break.”
I frown. I’ve worn her out with all my… lovemaking. I can’t help the grin that comes out, that spreads into a smile.
Smiling is new for me. I like how it feels.
“I’ve worn you out already? This is going to be a problem.”
She blinks in shock.
“Because I plan to love you often. You’ll have to toughen up, little mate.”
She frowns. And then she shakes her head. “Anyway, what made you talk about a wedding ring and calling me Ivy Savage?”
She’s not amused. My smile goes away.
“I’ve marked you as my mate. You’re now mine.”
She shakes her head. “Not where I come from. A wedding is part of all that and part of a wedding is me agreeing to it, which I can’t do within just hours of meeting somebody. Somebody that abducted me.”
“Did you not spread wide for me? Weren’t you the vixen who grabbed my head when I licked your little cunt, so that I couldn’t stop?”
“That’s not…” Her face goes a delicious red color. “That’s not the same as a wedding. Fucking isn’t marriage.”
I graze my mark on her with my fingertips. “No. Fucking isn’t marriage. But this mark is. I’ve fucked women before, but never have I known by their scent that they are mine. Never have I tracked them until I got to them and never have I marked or knotted one. Until you. You are my mate. My only one. This mark means I’ll marry no other.�
�
“Knotted? What is that?”
“Part of my cock grows larger inside you so that I can’t be dislodged, so that I can fill you with my seed. We’ll do that when you’re in heat so that you can give me children, but we do that otherwise, for both our pleasure. I’ve never knotted inside anyone but you. It’s never been this good, Ivy. Not even close to this good.”
13
Ivy
I won’t admit to him that it’s never been this good for me either. It’s going to be tricky enough to get away from him as it is.
It’s been about twelve hours and he’s fucked me numerous times. And I’ve let him! He’s fucked me raw. He thinks we’re married.
I’ve never been in such a dick daze in my life. If I weren’t so sore, I’d let him do me again. He’s good at it, better at it than any guy I’ve been with. There haven’t been many, but it also hasn’t been that few. I’ve done it enough to know there are men who are good at it and men who are not so good at it. But Tyson? He’s the best at it.
If this is real. If werewolves are real and this isn’t just one long, drawn-out multi-chapter fever dream.
This guy has smoldering good looks with his tanned and muscled skin, his sexy long hair, and his piercing green eyes. His large calloused hands won’t stay off me. Those full lips won’t stop dotting kisses across my skin. The mark he left on my neck is like having a second clitoris and he won’t stop touching it. He’s calling me by his last name and talking about getting me a wedding ring. Oh, and when he saw my breasts he talked about me nourishing our children. My head spins. Speaking of which, I need to take my birth control pill. I take it every morning and here we are hours since waking up. I haven’t a clue what time it is; the clocks in this place are dead and I’m not wearing a watch. My phone is… I don’t even know if I have my phone. I need my bag.
God, I hope when he dumped shit out of my bag in my car that he didn’t dump my pills and my phone.
I need away from his voodoo sex magic for a minute, so I can think. So I can clear my head and think. Figure out how to get out of here.
Okay, the plan: Take my pill, get outta here, get my car towed out of the valley and get it fixed, and then get to the store in time for its grand opening the day after tomorrow.
