by Sam Hall
“Not this again,” Nerida said through gritted teeth. She snatched up the two-way radio on her belt with her free hand and said, “Finn? You there? We have a major issue with Jules, and we need you near the Stores building, stat! Finn?” She shook her head, then glanced at the guys who were slowly edging forward. There seemed to be some jockeying, each one eyeing the bloke next to them. Muscles popped, eyes narrowed. I bit back a moan at all this lovely testosterone on display.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Nerida grabbed me by the waistband of my pants and hauled me back. “Trust me, you think a willing mind and a gallon bottle of lube is enough, but seriously, it isn’t. I was douching with arnica and only able to sit down on an inflatable donut for weeks. We’re gonna have to make a run for it.”
“Run?” Men’s heads whipped up, and their attention was ripped away from each other.
“Oh fuck,” she yelped, and then she did just that, jerking me behind her.
I could hear the rough rasp of her breath as we went careening across the carpark, but when I looked over my shoulder, I saw the group of guys were following hot on our heels. Some fanned out, aiming to cut us off, others shimmied up and onto the roofs of cars or nearby buildings, looking for an opportunity to leap.
“Finn! We fucking need you now! Anyone who can get their arse down here better do so right this minute if they don’t want to see a girl raped by the Stores team.”
But it wasn’t just the Stores team. Guys came strolling out of the mess hall or out of the garage to see what the fuss was about until they scented the air. Then just as it had been at Stores, they transformed.
Perhaps another tack, a masculine voice said inside my head.
The muzzy fog of lust dissipated abruptly, my eyes suddenly able to take in all the details with clinical efficiency. The world fairly sparkled with crystalline clarity. The height and musculature of the men was all assessed and weighed. I noted which tongues licked lips, which hands went to groins as something cold and hard surfaced from the depths inside me. Utterly alien, it laughed at the look of hunger on their faces, the savage manner with which they pushed others aside to get to me. They were paying court to me with each blow they struck against their fellows, telling me in the most brutal way possible how much they wanted me.
And I wanted them. I was dimly aware there was a part of me buried deep that was shrieking in fear at this, that wondered what the hell was happening as my mental state rocketed from one personality to the next. She, that simple human part, did not want this, didn’t want so many hands clawing at my body, dicks struggling to shove themselves inside me, each man fighting to be the one to claim me. I shook Nerida’s hand off my arm, which sent the weaker girl flying.
“No, Jules, this isn’t right. Something’s not right,” she babbled. I looked down on her from a great height. She was a puny hybrid, unable to shift, the Tirian spirit in her small and crippled by her contaminated bloodline. She sought to get in the way of me and my fated mates, tried to take from me the power she could only hope to have. I took a step towards the men.
“What the fuck is going on?”
My head whipped around to see the office building door had slammed open, and the delicious scent of a strong male wafted over. Finn stood within the doorway, glaring out at the host of contenders, fairly bristling. I noted his stiff-legged stance and the claws forming on his hands with glee. I glanced back at the men and saw the same. There was going to be a dominance fight.
“What the hell are you all doing?”
His voice held the whip of an alpha, rocketing around the whole complex and bouncing off the hard unnatural surfaces. Mmm, I liked that.
Sonny stepped forward. My eyes dropped down, tracing a single drop of perspiration as it slid down his rigid chest, following the beautiful lines of his body. He is also a contender; I thought. Strong, dominant, I could almost imagine myself under him as he ploughed deep within me.
“She wants it. She reeks of it. I get you’ve got a claim but—”
Finn held up a hand and silenced the other man. Those grey eyes of his bled green when he looked at me. “Is this true? Are they what you want?”
Not quite, I knew that, sure as a stone. I glanced from the host of men to him and smiled. I wanted blood and tearing and biting and fighting, and then I wanted to fuck the winner on top of the limp bodies of those who’d proved not worthy. But one did not tell the males that. They liked to think they were important.
“Jules?”
His hand landed on my arm, and something incredible happened. I felt like I was reset, the human consciousness that had been rudely shouldered aside came back online and looked around in horror.
“Finn...” I whimpered, looking at the rows of hungry men. What the fuck had I done? The guys, all half gone with lust in the bedroom at home, the blokes here, the married dude. What the fuck was going on? I heard the chuckle of the black wolf in the back of my mind. You’re the honeypot, sweetheart. Now be a good girl and lure in those bees.
The coldness rushed back in, not to be denied by a mere male’s touch. I looked down at Finn’s arm, ignoring the utter gall of a male taking me in hand, and said, “You want me, you’ve got to fight for me.”
His eyes glowed bright green, and I met his lambent gaze with equanimity. I knew I spoke to his Tirian, beast to beast. I watched the moment the man was pushed to one side and the animal came to the fore with glee. My eyes took in every damn detail of his body as he stripped down. This was a muscular, competent body, one that could give me strong children. I glanced over to the group where Sonny was doing the same. I took in his broader chest, heavier arms, the proud arc of his hard cock. Yes, but so could Sonny.
“You won’t touch her. None of you are going to touch her,” Finn said, his voice hoarse as he tried to hold on to his human form. It was pointless, but I admired the strength of will it took. “Whatever this is, it's not Jules. It’s not even her Tirian. I’ve seen her, felt her. Something else is happening here, and we need to find out what.”
“I don’t need to find shit but her dripping hole when I shove my cock into her. You might not like your little human hybrid broadcasting her availability to all of those around her, but this is our fucking chance. She breezes in and out, stinking of sex, making damn sure every bloke here knows she’s up for it, and you want to take that away from us? You can fight me, but you can’t fight all of us. This is happening, you just haven’t realised it yet.”
“You fucking idiots. None of you are strong enough to take her from me.”
Finn shifted into Tirian form with a well-practised twist of his body. It seemed a much more rapid way to shift than I had experienced. A gigantic white wolf stood in front of me, obscuring my view of the crowd.
“Slade, Brandon, anyone. You need to get down to the main office now,” Nerida babbled into the two-way. I let her. More contenders would only add to the experience. Seeing that magnificent body of Hawk’s as he fought for a position by my side would be delicious, as would the chance to put that mouthy little Jack in his place. Then the fighting began.
Finn took the advantage, launching himself at Sonny mid-shift, something the other man struggled to do as efficiently as him. Finn’s jaws were around Sonny’s throat in a second, and it was only his slower shift that stopped the man from taking him out entirely. Sonny rallied quickly, the sounds of his snarls music to my ears. I watched the white and grey beasts battle it out with a smile. When Sonny’s Tirian went sailing through the air, landing on the ground with an awful thud, I noted the bloody fur as my due and then turned to see who the next contender was.
“Fuck this,” the red-headed guy said. “You’ve been pushing your weight around on this since she got here, using her status as ‘your employee’ to make sure she hooks up with you and your crew. She should have had time with all of us. We didn’t even get a chance to petition!”
Finn regarded the other man in beast form silently.
“You’ve got this coming,” the guy said w
ith a shake of his head, then stripped down and shifted. His wolf was a dark charcoal grey, his eyes gleaming bright in comparison. They circled for a moment, then he launched himself at Finn.
Finn paused for a second, his body tightly coiled before he leapt and grabbed the other Tirian by the throat, the two of them thudding to the ground. The grey appeared to be winded, his mouth open as he gasped for breath before Finn was on him. He shook the grey fiercely in his jaws, then tossed him to one side. He looked up at the crowd, his green eyes meeting every single one of theirs, before he howled his challenge. The eerie song made the hairs on my arms lift, made my throat ache to join it.
“Fuck this shit. One on one’s not going to work,” said one guy. “Let’s rush him.”
I laughed and laughed as the men stripped, watched them as they took animal form one by one.
“That’s enough!”
All of our heads whipped around to see Kelly standing just outside the ring of men, arms crossed. My eyes narrowed. I couldn’t argue with her obvious power, she’d stopped every single person with two words and held them with the bright green glow of her eyes.
“What the hell do you think you’re all doing? Change immediately and pull some bloody clothes on!”
She’s a threat to us, I thought. She isn’t a little queen, she’s an actual one.
I watched as the men did as she said, shamed faces replacing the masks of lust they’d worn before.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on, but none of this falls within the boundaries of reasonable behaviour.”
“She wanted it,” Sonny croaked, getting to his feet. Blood covered his throat and chest.
“She wanted it,” Kelly mimicked savagely. “Are we humans now? To play fast and loose with consent? If Julie indeed proved receptive to any of you, is this the way you go about pursuing her?” Heads dropped down at this. “What would your mothers say? Your grandmothers? Get out of here before you find out.” Satisfied when the men started to move away, she turned to us, Finn now standing beside me in human form and wiping blood from his chin.
My eyes slid over his body, taking in every detail. He looked like some kind of savage god, red claw and fang marks raked across his chest, but they seemed to only enhance his beauty. His nostrils flared, and his head jerked down, his eyes meeting mine as he grabbed my arm.
All of it, the cold, bloodthirsty mindset and the fuzzy lustful one, all dropped away. I was me again, and I was aghast at what I’d been a part of. My breath began to race as my eyes flicked around me, taking in the blood and scattered clothes, the retreating crowd. What the actual fuck? I felt like I’d backed away from a precipice that I’d nearly missed stepping off of. The black wolf’s laughter rang in my ears, as it had the whole damn time since I’d left the house. Fuck that guy, fuck him and his opaque shit.
You wanna play games? How about you stop pussying around and tell me what you want, because I’m pretty sure it’s not me getting road rash from having an impromptu gang bang outside of Stores.
You.
Right then, I thought, then looked back at Finn and saw his eyes still burned bright green.
“OK, Finn, you’ve done enough for today,” Kelly said. “Why don’t you get dressed and go inside and wait with Julie as I call Ophelia? Something’s not right. I got a call from—”
“No, mine!” he growled.
I felt the words reverberate through me from head to toe, his eyes burning into mine. They followed my hand when I placed it on his tight abdomen, still breathing hard from what had happened, and his other hand covered it.
“Now, Finn...”
Her voice was just background noise as he pulled me with him to the office building. I had to run to keep up with his long stride, but I wanted to. I felt like we were hurtling towards something inevitable.
“Finn!”
We stopped for a second, feeling the relentless crack of Kelly’s will in the words. It was hard to resist, but when he nodded, we moved together, walking up to the main office door.
“Finn, don’t do this...” It was mildly interesting, the change in Kelly’s tone, but I smiled when he opened the door for me, the courteous gesture made a lot more intriguing by his ragged appearance.
He shoved the first door inside the building open. Karen, the receptionist, jumped when he did so.
“Oh, hi, Finn. Oh!”
I growled when her eyes dropped down to his hard cock, putting my body between him and her gaze. It took her a bit to realise what was happening, the appearance of the claws at the end of my fingers helping her refocus, particularly when I brandished them in front of her face. She backed away from the photocopier, ignoring the print job she had been working on, and edged towards the door. I pinned her with my gaze, making damn sure she didn’t take another look at my mate.
My mate.
I shook my head, then glanced up at Finn and saw the goofy smile on his face, saw in that second, like Slade, he’d heard my thoughts.
“Yeah?” he said, the word holding all the hope and fear he couldn’t express.
I nodded. My eyes ached, my head ached, and I wondered which fucking version of me was behind the driving wheel right now. But in all versions of me, there was one truth. Finn would always fight for me and stop others from hurting me, even when I wanted them to. He herded me backwards, my back bumping against the photocopier when his hands went to my face.
“You and me forever,” I said, choking on the words. Because in this moment, I wanted nothing else. I knew I could do anything I needed with him at my side, that we would build something good and safe and worthwhile between us, that anyone else I chose to bring into the pack would have his strength to back them.
“Finn!” We heard a muffled cry from beyond the door, but he slammed the lock on.
His mouth came down on mine, my hands tangling in his hair as we fought to get even closer. When his hips thrust against me, wedging his hard length between my jean-clad thighs, I groaned. “Gotta get these clothes off.”
He helped me, tearing my shirt off and flicking the clasp of my bra as I tugged down on my pants. A feeling of complete rightness settled over me as his skin touched mine, that same thrumming sense of another connected to you that I’d gotten with Slade, but this was a whole other thing. Finn was hotter, harder than Slade, something he kept carefully hidden in his day to day life. It was almost like touching a live wire, but I craved the bite.
I was lifted up and deposited on the still warm platen of the photocopier, but that barely registered. Finn’s face was in mine, his fingers digging painfully into my arms, his torso between my legs. I moaned into his shoulder as I was forced to part my thighs for him, the stretch there a lovely precursor of what was to come.
“I can’t make this good. God, Jules, if I don’t get in you in the next few seconds...”
“No foreplay,” I agreed, nodding my head. “I need you. Now.”
I was pulled from the glass, spun around so I leaned on the buttons, sending the machine wild. I knew exactly how it felt. His fingers slid between my thighs, gliding over the slick skin with no resistance and finding the same when they speared inside me. I yelped, the sudden intrusion forcing me up on my tippy toes, but it didn’t take long for me to spread my legs wide and start pushing back against them. It wasn’t enough. My head twisted on my neck, the friction good, but not as good as I knew the real thing would be.
I muttered meaningless imprecations as his hand grasped my nipple and tugged. Fuck, it was like he was pulling a string between it and my groin, my clit throbbing with each twist. When I felt Finn rub the head of his cock against me, I nodded. Yes, this was it, the thing that would stop the ache inside me.
“My love.”
Finn’s voice came out more animal than human but I didn’t care. I clawed at the madly printing office equipment as I felt the first stretch. I was getting it exactly how I’d asked, but I wasn’t 100% sure I had it right. He was so big, pushing inexorably in with slow, rocking strokes. M
y back curved, his hands going to my hair and pulling. I was caught, pinned to the machine, able to do little but submit to his onslaught. Then he was inside me, the two of us joined together perfectly, like the last piece of a puzzle.
His hand stroked down my spine as he began to move, and I thrust back against him. It was slow at first, a gentle rolling motion that grew faster, for a time, keeping pace with the click-clacking of the machine, but he soon outstripped it. I felt the burn of my venom in my mouth as my claws scraped across the glass. I turned, forcing him to disengage for a second before locking my legs around his hips as I leaned against the office equipment, my hands going to his cheek.
“Mate?” I asked one last time.
The look on his face was the perfect answer. I saw the tremble as he pushed himself back inside me, leaning over me and sheltering me with the wall of his body, just as he had in the car park.
“It’s what we are, aren’t we?”
As I nodded, the room, the clicking photocopier, us, it all faded away until I regarded Finn, sitting across from me in wolf form. His glowing eyes were now the same as mine, two points of light in the comforting gloom around us. I bowed my head, acknowledging his beast’s form. He glowed bright, one of the few pure white Tirians I’d seen in Sanctuary. I moved toward him on four paws, feeling the weight of what I was about to do. Venom dripped from my mouth, leaving burning spots on the bare earth and sizzling when I pushed my nose into his ruff. He held himself so still, I could feel the low vibration within his wolf body, the only indication of his response.
He turned his muzzle away, doing the thing any predator would find agonising to do—bare his throat. I stopped, saw the complete vulnerability of the man I loved in that moment, Hawk’s words from before springing to mind. He was offering himself up, everything he was, is, and would be, and he waited for me to take it or reject it. I honoured the peculiar agony of that, dropping my muzzle as I shifted closer, so my paws bumped with his. My nose searched within his fur, soaking in that warm, earthy scent that encapsulated all that was Finn and just breathing him in for a second. Tiny fragments flickered through my mind, of his gestures, his words, his careful negotiation of all of the relationships between me and the guys, not overtly taking control like Brandon but more performing a million acts of service in the background to keep us all working together. My tongue ran across my teeth, the venom there making my gums burn. I felt him jolt as I took a chunk of his neck into my mouth, dimly aware somewhere, somehow, my human brain had a whole lot of thoughts about this. In this form, that was all the endless chatter my other self seemed to need to engage in. Monkey brains and wolf brains didn’t mesh well, but for a moment, they cooperated.
