by Sam Hall
“Not sure,” I said, my mind racing. Clothes had been largely optional since I’d changed, so I had forgotten what I had buried at the bottom of my duffel bag.
“Mum, you’re overwhelming the poor woman,” Lisa said, nodding to me with a smile. “This is why Slade didn’t introduce you beforehand. She’s just gotten out of the shower.”
“Oh, yes! Well, let’s get you dressed—”
“Mum!”
“Let’s leave Julie in peace for a minute, and we’ll talk in the lounge room,” Lisa said, steering her mother by the shoulders. She winked over her shoulder at Slade. “Nice one, bro.”
“Hey, I’m sorry...” His voice trailed away when his hand landed on my bare arm. His brows knitted for second before he looked at me. “Are you OK? Why do you feel like this?”
I met his gaze square on, fighting the reassuring waves of love and excitement rolling off him. How could he not see it? I got that he’d achieved some major milestone in his community when I bit him, but I’d been given the bare amount of information about what that meant and no time to process it. God, I’d been begging him to stick his dick up my arse before I was ready for it just a few hours ago.
I’d like to say this was the point I said all of these things to the man who confessed he loved me. That I let him in, shared my thoughts and fears. Instead, I said, “I need to see Brandon.”
His face fell for a second. Of course, it did. His family was waiting in the lounge room—my new lounge room, apparently—ready to welcome me into the fold. It seemed some kind of makeover was involved, from his mum’s mention of pretty. Maybe mani-pedis were a universal way for women to bond the world over. I looked down at the gnawed stubs of nails on my fingers. This just wasn’t going to work.
“Give my apologies to your family. I just need to do something first. What time is this thing on?”
“Sundown, but—”
“I promise, I’ll be back before it starts. I’ll sit down with your family and get to know them. I just need this, please?”
His nod was stiff, but he handed me the keys to his car and said, “He’ll be down at the Stores warehouse.” Then he turned on his heel and walked away.
I got dressed quickly, not in something nice, just something functional that covered my skin, protecting it somehow from the outside world. I slipped out the back door, jumped the fence, and got into Slade’s car like a criminal, Buddy sitting beside me as we drove down to the Stores building.
Brandon was there, shirt off, a thin sheen of sweat over his body, smoking a cigarette when I arrived, like he was waiting for me. Buddy bounded over, curly tail wagging, and he gave the dog an absent-minded pat. “C’mon,” he said and got to his feet. I swallowed hard, not sure what was going to come of this, but fairly sure I wasn’t going to enjoy it.
“Stay here, Bud,” I told my dog, then followed him inside.
5
“Who you got there, Doc?” someone called out as I followed Brandon through a labyrinth of industrial shelving.
“Fuck off.”
This just prompted more catcalls as we walked, then a man appeared around the corner of one aisle as we approached. I recognised the height and dark hair. It was the guy Nerida had been playing with in the animal shed, Sonny.
“I thought getting it on the regular was supposed to...” he said, his voice trailing away when he saw it was me, then a long slow smile spread across his face. “You’re the new girl who’s still creating her pack.”
“Fuck off, Sonny,” Brandon said with a growl.
“Nah, bullshit, Doc. Until she’s worked out who’s in and who’s out, she’s fair game,” Sonny replied.
I’d met a lot of ‘Sonny’s’ in my years working in retail. Good-looking and knew it, cocky, pretty sure all it takes is a pushy attitude and a shit-eating grin to get you to throw your panties at them. Probably because enough people did. But now, I realised, was the first time I was facing down a guy like this since my change, and while I might not be bigger, I was definitely stronger. My Tirian’s power throbbing through me told me he was one of the wolves I’d gutted when I’d turned. My eyes strayed to that smooth, well-muscled abdomen peeking through his open shirt, then flicked up to meet his gaze.
“And if I tell you to toddle on back to whatever you were doing like a good little boy, then what?” He tried to hold my gaze, I saw the muscles in his face and his neck twitch with the effort, but he ended up looking away. “If there’s anything I want from you, I’ll let you know, remember?” He stared at the floor, his jaw flexing for a moment, before he nodded stiffly and walked off.
“Now what does a woman—who can redirect a man like Sonny with ease—need from me?”
Brandon’s grey eyes were hooded, his fingers twitching slightly around the cigarette he held by his side.
“If it was just a matter of bossing people about, I’d be fine,” I replied.
“Isn’t it?” His brow arched as he took a drag.
“I dunno, what do you think? You had all of us jumping to your orders this morning.”
He stared back, his eyes burning into mine as I felt a shiver go up my spine, an echo of the pleasure he’d inspired.
“Not when it counts, it seems.” He dropped the smoke, crushing it with his boot before shoving it off to one side with the toe.
“Yeah, I know what you were trying to warn me about. The house... this party... Slade’s mum...”
He snorted at this, and I felt a wave of relief to see that smile, despite it being a mere ghost of what it normally was. “Cheryl’s a lovely lady, but a bit of a perfumed steamroller. Has she tried to dress you up yet?”
“I wasn’t even dressed, just out of the shower.”
He shook his head. “Her heart’s in the right place. Aesthetics are her thing, she loves things to look beautiful. She’s going to be in your ear about decorating your house now that Slade’s got a permanent home. But you’re not here to talk about how to keep good feng shui in your lounge room, are you?” I shook my head. “Come through here. We should have a bit of privacy, for a while anyway.”
He used his key to open a small storeroom filled with big bags of flour and other dry goods. It smelled pleasant in a sweet, dusty, grassy kind of way. He grabbed his shirt from where it hung from the back of his waistband and laid it over the bag on top of a low pile, gesturing with his head that I should take a seat.
“I’m sorry,” I said, then wondered why I’d said that. I frowned. Did I regret what I’d done? As soon as I thought of Slade, I felt that same ‘breath caught in your chest’ ache, my fingers itching to tangle themselves in his hair, my hand going to my lips feeling the ghost of his kisses.
“No, you’re not,” Brandon said, not as an accusation, just a statement of fact.
“No, I’m not. I just would have liked to go into this whole mate process knowing what I was getting myself in for. What have I gotten myself into?”
“Ophelia talked to you?” I nodded. “She would, she loves to try and keep everyone ticking along. She’ll be your best source of information. The plan was we would hold back, let you adjust. You’ve just come through the heat, the change, the black wolf... We felt it was all a bit much at once. So, we would avoid making any overtures, just enjoy things as they were, until you were ready to work with the matriarchs and learn all the stuff you would have as a young girl if you grew up here.”
“And Slade ruined that.”
He shrugged. “Slade is Slade. He says what he thinks and feels. That’s what you love about him, isn’t it?”
I stared at Brandon, saw his eyes burn bright in his face as he appeared to hold back a million emotions. His chin tilted up, unable to look away as he braced himself for my answer.
How did it come to this? How did admitting that I cared about one of them feel like I was about to administer a knife blow to the heart of another?
“I always know where I stand with him.”
He blinked at that, fingers worrying the seams of the bag
he was leaning against.
“You know where you are with all of us, Jules, deep down. You know how we feel about you. We were just waiting for you to catch up, to see it.”
“And now you’re pissed that Slade ignored all that. That he rushed it.”
“Do you feel rushed?”
I never felt like I could lie to Brandon. It was as if his cool gaze took in my every foible. “Yeah, a bit. It’s all happening so fast. In my world, telling someone you love them means sex and a cuddle, a nice dinner or something. It’s just you and the other person. It’s like I spent the morning having sex with you two, and now, I’m getting ready for a wedding. We spend months, even years planning this kind of thing at home.”
“You don’t need to worry, there’s matriarchs whose whole life is spent organising things. You only have to turn up.” He grinned when he saw my face. “That’s going to be hard, isn’t it?”
“Why is that? I never used to be like this.”
And with that, my cool-eyed lover transformed. He settled back against the sacks, crossing his arms as his smile twisted into a knowing smirk. “Because you’re powerful now.” His voice came out in a sing-song. “Because deep down, you like being powerful, and relinquishing some of that power to allow others into your territory is just a little bit difficult.”
My Tirian rose within me. She wanted to wipe that smug smile right off his face. His eyes widened as I took a step towards him, then another. With my animal enhanced senses, I noted the rapid increase in his breath, the tension in his muscles, the jerk of his hands when mine went around his wrists. I jerked them backwards, holding both in place with one hand while my other slid down the front of his jeans.
He was rigid, his brows knitting, and a gasp burst from him as I closed my fingers around him.
“You didn’t come.”
He shook his head, a quick abrupt thing.
“I couldn’t. I was...hurt, devastated. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
He rasped the words as I flicked open the button to his jeans, his frown deepening—as if getting the sounds out hurt him—then I closed my hand around his length and twisted my wrist. His head fell back, his legs widening to stop him from slipping down, his hips thrusting along with my hand.
“You can’t always control these things, Brandon,” I said, a hint of cruelty in my voice. While I felt for the guy, my Tirian loomed over my shoulder, mouth open, teeth bared, laughing at the prey before us. “You can’t control us.”
“Yeah, got that. This is gonna be embarrassingly short if you keep doing that.”
So, I stopped. I didn’t remove my hand, I just stayed still, feeling the throb in the vein running along his dick.
“What do you want?” I said, the weight of an incoming thunderstorm in my voice. It wasn’t mine, it was the sound of my Tirian commanding a packmate.
“I want to get off. My balls feel like they’re boiling.”
“What do you want?”
His eyes flicked open, studying mine, looking past my brown ones to the beast beyond. His cock flexed in my hand, his throat working.
“What. Do. You. Want?”
My voice was a rumbling growl, and I felt the saliva drip on my chin.
“I want you, Jules,” he said, and he pulled free of my hands, his going to my face. “I’ve always wanted you. You think I didn’t want to be the one making the declarations? I didn’t because I was worried about you. I wanted you to have time to adjust, to make these bonds knowing what that meant. But if you think it doesn’t kill me that it’s him and not me as man of the hour tonight, you don’t know shit. I’ll always want you. Always.”
I knew then what it’d be like, bending him over the stack of bags, my hand on his cock as my teeth dug into his neck. For a second, I could taste it, the coppery burst of blood in my mouth, the denseness of his flesh parting beneath my fangs.
He knew it, that need that rode me, and closed his eyes. “Don’t take being first from him,” he whispered. “It’ll break his heart to have to share this moment.”
I swallowed, my venom burning as it began to pool. I dropped to my knees, dug my hands into his glutes, and tugged him to me, his length going down my throat and filling my mouth instead. His hands were usually gentle when I sucked him off, hesitant prayers for pleasure, but this time they dug cruelly in my hair, his dick thrusting farther than it’d ever been before. I was lucky I had my new abilities, or I’d have been gagging uncontrollably.
Instead, my saliva soaked venom created a burn in my mouth—and around his cock, if his whimpers were anything to go by. He was right, it didn’t take much, his cries growing louder, harsher, more desperate as I swirled my poisoned tongue. He didn’t get a chance to warn me, the swelling of his shaft was my only clue before his cum pulsed down my throat.
He pulled me to my feet, his kisses stealing my much-needed breath as his tongue went some of the way his cock did. “Get on the stack. I’m gonna pull down your jeans and stick my —”
Brandon didn’t get to finish that damn fine suggestion, as a heavy thump came from the door. “Unless you just mated him, Brandon doesn’t qualify for conjugal visits. You’ve had the last six weeks off. Time to get back to work.”
“Later?” he asked ruefully.
“Of course,” I said, wrapping my arms around him and laying my head on his chest. He stroked my hair with one hand, leaving a kiss on my crown. “And thank you. I needed this.”
“Well, take some advice from the ‘doc’ and treat Slade the way he treats you. Don’t be rude or blunt, but tell him how you’re feeling. He needs that.”
When I walked out of the room, a man-lined corridor had been formed. Back before I’d come to Sanctuary, I’d have been turned-on, intimidated, and wondering how I’d gotten backstage at a male strip show if I’d seen something like this. Now I just sauntered out, Buddy yipping when he found me, watching the men’s nostrils flare as I passed.
6
“Hey,” I said to Slade.
The preparations were in full swing. There were people bustling about everywhere, setting up, cooking, prepping, and decorating. If I thought about it too hard, I’d have a meltdown or start ripping off faces, so I pretended this was someone else’s house, and I was here to help set up their party.
“Hey,” he replied.
I hated the shuttered look on his face. All that wide-eyed joy had been packed up tight behind that very nice manly facade again, and I wondered if it was ever going to come out again. I had fully intended to follow Brandon’s advice. He might not be the ‘doctor’, but he did have a good handle on the group dynamic. But instead, I felt that same aching-chest feeling I’d felt when Brandon was quizzing me, so I reached out and touched his arm.
Watching his face transform as he felt what I did down the link of our bond was like watching the sunrise. It was gradual, beautiful, and heart-stopping. “Hey,” he said again, and he pulled me close, burying his head in my hair and breathing me in. For a moment, it was just us, reconnecting. “How’d it go with Brandon?”
“We talked, it helped me process what happened. I’m sorry, Slade. I’m trying to catch up, really. I haven’t spent my whole life building towards this. I didn’t even know what I was doing.”
“But you don’t regret it, right?”
The fact he could say that, while sending a stab of fear down our bond, said a lot about what was simmering below the surface with Slade. I was realising there was more to him than I’d imagined.
You are pack, my Tirian said, implacable as stone.
He nodded, looking away abruptly, his eyes suspiciously shiny before he grabbed his beer and took a long swig.
“I nearly added Brandon, as well. My beast is a bit out of control.”
He stopped mid swallow, eyeing me over the bottom of the bottle.
“He said no, that this was your day.”
“Fucking Doc,” he replied, shaking his head. “He’s got everyone’s numbers. You’re going to have problem
s with him. He tops from bottom.”
“What?”
“He’s all nice and reading you romance novels and stroking your hair, but all the while, that brain of his is ticking away, manoeuvring you into the right position.”
“You mean like us talking about him on the eve of your big party?”
Slade shook his head. “The little fucker. C’mon, let’s get you some food and somewhere to relax. These things are often long, drawn-out affairs. There’s speeches and ceremonies...”
“Ceremonies?!”
“It’ll be fine, princess. I won’t let it be anything else.”
So there I was, standing in the backyard of a house I’d barely even looked at but could now apparently call home, dressed in a pretty purple frock Slade’s mum had produced, watching what looked like every bloody person in Sanctuary come out through the door.
“Hi, I’m Jaz and this is Sheila,” a woman with a close crop head of hair said, holding out a square hand. Her other was linked to Sheila’s hand. “That’s Nick, Mel, and Joe. We’re down on Jakers Street, up the end.”
“Hi, guys,” I said with a lame wave. I felt hopelessly awkward, and doing this over and over tonight hadn’t seemed to alleviate that. It didn’t matter, Jaz turned to Slade with a broad grin.
“Slade, you fucker! I never in a million years thought anyone would willingly choose to put up with your shit, and on a permanent basis?” She looked over her shoulder at me. “You know what you’re getting yourself in for?”
“Pretty sure,” I replied.
“Ah well, too late now, I guess.”
“Hey, if Sheila’s prepared to put up with your crap—” Slade spluttered, but the woman yanked him into a hug, slapping her hands on his back, and he returned the gesture with gusto. “Thanks, mate.”
