Shadow Wars (The Stoneridge Pack Book 2)

by CJ Cooke

  River didn’t stop dragging me through the house until we reached the kitchen. The first thing he did was fill the kettle and turn it on—this one was definitely a keeper.

  “What do you fancy to eat?” he asked, pulling open the fridge and looking inside with a frown. “We’ve got leftover pizza.”

  I cringed at the thought. I loved pizza as much as the next person, but these guys needed to introduce some vegetables into their diet. We’d been eating terribly for days, and I was just craving something fresh for a change.

  “Have we got any salad stuff?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

  River pulled out a soggy looking lettuce with a cringe, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face.

  “We might need to go shopping for groceries,” he grinned.

  “Yeah, you might be right,” I laughed, pulling the pizza box out of the fridge and putting some slices on a plate to microwave—soggy pizza for dinner it was.

  River and I worked together, reheating the food and loading up a tray with snacks and drinks. Once the pizza was ready, River led the way to his room, and we sat down in the middle of his bed to eat.

  “We should look over the renovation plans tomorrow at some point,” River said in between mouthfuls.

  “What renovation plans?” I asked, feeling a bit out of the loop but there was so much going on at the minute it wasn’t really a surprise.

  “We’re thinking about starting the renovation for the top floor so we can put a suite up there for all of us. You need your own room after all.”

  “Really?” I didn’t know why I was surprised they’d thought of it. Yes, I did need my own room, but I didn’t think they would have thought about it or had the time to decide anything in respect of it. These were the same guys who didn’t have a spare set of towels after all.

  “Of course. Calli, I know it’s all kind of … well, gone a bit wrong today. But you’re always going to be our top priority. We’re not going to forget about you, and we want you to think of this place as home.”

  I nodded, but I didn’t have the words for how I was feeling right now.

  “Grey …” River started, but I immediately cut him off.

  “It’s not your job to fix Grey’s messes for him. We’re both adults, and we need to start acting like it. I’ll speak with him tomorrow when he’s had a chance to calm down.”

  River nodded reluctantly. I could see there was more he wanted to say, and I was grateful when he didn’t. I wasn’t really sure how I was feeling right now. I needed time to think through my emotions, and time to calm down was a good idea. Grey and I both needed it.

  Once we’d demolished the food, I went to check on the kids, River following behind me. I wasn’t surprised when we found them all curled up in Jacob’s bed. These three really were inseparable but while the pack was facing a threat like we were, having them all in one place was probably for the best.

  “Shall I carry them back to their own beds?” River asked.

  “No, let them sleep.”

  There was something so calming about seeing children sleep. They looked so peaceful and innocent. Completely unaware of the problems the world brought us, just like they should be. All three of them had been through so much. They deserved to just be kids for a while.

  “We need to spend some time with Coby tomorrow,” I whispered to River. “We need to see just how present his wolf is. When I healed him, he felt so strong as I was pulled back.”

  River nodded as he quietly closed the bedroom door and physically turned me away from it.

  “Everything can wait. For now, you need to get some sleep, Calli.”

  I didn’t argue because I could feel that itchy sensation in my eyes telling me that it was time to rest. Even my wolf felt distant, worn out by the long run we’d been on.

  River led me back to his room, closed the door and then turned around to face me. The air in the room seemed to heat from the look in his eyes, and I realised this was one of the few times River and I had been alone.

  “Nothing has to happen, Cal,” River told me as he closed the distance between us. “Let’s just get you into bed. You need to sleep.”

  The tension in the room was better than any energy drink ever invented, and sleep was the last thing on my mind now.

  Reaching out, I gripped River’s shirt and pulled him the final step towards me. “It would just be wrong to climb into bed without showering off the day first, don’t you think?”

  River’s hands came to my hips as his thumbs slipped under my shirt, caressing against my skin. “I think that sounds like a very sensible idea,” he grinned. “But, you look so tired. Maybe I should join you. You know, just to make sure you don’t hurt yourself,” he murmured as he closed the final gap between us and placed his lips against mine.

  That one kiss was all it took for the dam to burst, and we moved towards River’s bathroom in a flurry of motion as clothes hit the ground and our hands roamed over every inch of skin we revealed.

  We separated for the briefest of moments as River opened the shower door and turned on the water to heat up. It was enough time for me to appreciate that he had to be the first man I’d ever known who could keep a bathroom tidy.

  River took my hand and gently pulled me into the shower, beneath the hot water. As he backed up under the spray, I watched the way it flowed down over his chest, across his abs and down to his hard cock. He was such a beautiful man; it was almost criminal how good he looked without his clothes on.

  Pushing his now wet hair back from his face, I fell against him as I devoured his lips. River stooped forward, grabbed my thighs and picked me up, bringing my legs around his waist.

  Turning us around, he pressed my back against the tiled wall, and I gasped at the shock of the cold. Chuckling against my lips at my reaction, River let one of my legs drop so my foot was on the ground. Pulling back from our kiss, he grinned and dropped to his knees at my feet, hooking my leg over his shoulder.

  Peering up at me from the ground, my heart flipped at the sight of River kneeling in front of me.

  “You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, Calli,” he murmured almost in worship. “Never doubt how much we love you, how exceptional you are.”

  I didn’t have time to answer before he ran his tongue along my pussy, painstakingly slow. River’s tongue circled my clit and he slipped his fingers inside me. My head tipped back against the tiles as I soaked in all the sensations River played through my body. His moves were slow and almost reverent as he built me to the edge of orgasm.

  “River,” I gasped, “I want you inside me when I come.”

  “Anything,” he told me as he stood, hitching my leg back around this hip.

  With one fluid motion, he thrust inside me, filling me completely.

  “Your pussy feels like heaven,” River groaned against my neck, his teeth grazing lightly across his mating mark there.

  As frantically as we’d started, this had changed into something else. River’s movements were powerful and slow as he took his time, sliding his length out of me before snapping his hips forward to plunge inside again.

  It was the most delicious form of torture. The slow, steady build made it feel like the end was going to be even more explosive.

  River ground his hips on the end of every thrust, brushing against my clit, and I felt it down to my toes.

  “Come for me, Calli,” River ordered. “Fill this room with your sweet moans so Tanner can hear you next door,” he whispered against the side of my neck.

  A shiver ran through me at the thought of Tanner listening to us. Just the thought of him next door, knowing what we were doing, was so fucking hot. My mind filled with images of Tanner standing outside the shower, touching himself while he watched us. The orgasm slammed into me at the same time as I imagined Tanner coming while he watched through the glass. My moans echoing around the bathroom almost sounded like they’d come from someone else.

  River gr
oaned, and I felt his cock swell as his hips snapped suddenly, and he came deep inside me.

  Both of us were panting, clinging to each other as the water cascaded around us.

  “Hmmm, you liked that, didn’t you,” River said, leaning back with a grin. “You like the thought of Tanner watching me fuck you,” he purred as he leant back in to whisper in my ear.

  The wanton moan that slipped out of me at his suggestion was more telling than any confession I could have whispered.

  “Perhaps, that’s something we should arrange for you, my beautiful mate,” he whispered again. My pussy tightened at his words, and he groaned at the sensation. “Mmm, yes, that’s definitely something we’ll need to do.”

  River spent the next half an hour washing my hair and cleaning every inch of my body before he helped me out of the shower and wrapped me in a towel. He sat on the edge of the bed and dried my hair before brushing it out.

  “Calli, we need to talk about Grey,” he started before I cut him off.

  “No, we don’t, River,” I told him. “Grey is a big boy, and whatever is going on with him is something we need to discuss together. He’s not, well, he seems different. But I’ll talk it through with him, and we’ll deal with it.”

  “This could be something that affects the pack,” River pointed out.

  “You’re right,” I agreed. “But first, Grey and I need to get into a good place and then whatever problems we have, we’ll deal with them together.”

  30

  Grey

  I’d spent the night pacing around the packhouse. Tanner had all but slapped some sense into me, and now I was beating myself up. l needed to apologise to Calli. The others had unpacked what was left of the library, and there was nothing left to do in there. We needed to order more furniture, but I wanted Calli to pick out what she wanted.

  Sleep evaded me and I ended up so frustrated with myself, I needed something to do. That was how I found myself on the top floor of the house with the renovation plans in my hand.

  Initially, we’d designed this area to be almost a mirror image of the floor below, but I had a different idea now. If this floor was going to be for Calli and all her mates—even if that thought did grate on me—then it needed to work for all of us. We wouldn’t all want to sleep together, and Calli needed her own space just as much as the rest of us. But I was big enough to admit there were times when she wasn’t going to be alone, and I could already see a situation where more than one of us would be present, even if that was another thought I wasn’t ready to look at as well.

  I laid the old plans out on the floor and pinned the roll down with the measuring tape and a couple of other nearby tools. Pinning a blank sheet over the top, I got to work tracing out the new design I had over the top of the old one. It didn’t need to be exact for now, and it would probably change once we all had input, but I wanted to have something ready for Calli when she woke up in the morning. It was a peace offering. I knew I’d need an apology to go with it, and I was hoping I could find the right words so she’d forgive me.

  The increase in my alpha power was messing with my head. But that wasn’t a good enough excuse for the way I’d acted. Calli deserved better from me; the whole pack did. I’d already sent a message to Sean, and he was coming back to the packhouse this morning. I was praying he’d be able to give me some answers about what was happening to me and how I could control it, because I wasn’t prepared to risk losing Calli. If I kept turning into some hormonal asshole, that was exactly what was going to happen.

  Rather than feeling sorry for myself, I threw myself into the plans for the top floor. This was going to be something that made our pack stronger. I could concentrate on that—giving my pack a home where they were safe and happy. I just needed to sort myself out before I destroyed everything we were trying to build here.

  Before I even heard her footsteps coming up the stairs, her scent flowed towards me. The smell of lilacs and twilight jasmine wrapped around me, and I felt my wolf sigh in happiness as our mate drew closer. I may be shitting myself at how she’d feel about me this morning, but stuff like that didn’t even register to him. Sometimes I wondered if life would be easier if we just stayed in our wolf forms and gave up the illusion of being human.

  “So this is where you’re hiding.”

  I shuffled uneasily on the spot as I saw her appear at the top of the stairs and slowly made her way over to me. She looked around at the open space that was the top floor of the house. There were no internal walls up here yet. It’d been servant quarters when the house was originally built, and was the part of the house that was in the worst condition when we bought it. We ended up ripping it out, back to the external walls and then never got back up here, having more than enough space on the three levels below.

  “I was just …” I started awkwardly but then drifted off. She was right. I was hiding; I just didn’t want to admit it.

  “Hiding,” she laughed. “This space is incredible,” she said, looking around and graciously changing the subject. It was kind of her to do it, but we both knew I owed her an apology and now was as good a time as any.

  “Calli, about yesterday …” My words fled me again as she turned back to look at me, and the flash of pain that crossed her face before she schooled her features was like a punch to the gut. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart, I … I don’t know why I acted the way I did.”

  My head hung in shame. I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t understand why she’d forgive me. Our bond was so new, and I’d treated it like it didn’t matter. I’d treated her like she didn’t matter. And then when I realised I’d done something wrong, all I did was snap and growl, talking to her like she’d made a mistake with her magic.

  I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t want to see the upset and anger on her face. I didn’t want to see the rejection.

  Calli stepped closer, and I felt her snuggle against my tense, unyielding frame.

  “We’ll figure it out together,” was all she said, but it was like a balm to my nerves.

  My arms came up and grabbed onto her like the lifeline she was. Holding her against me gave me a strength I’d never realised I’d been missing.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked after a few moments.

  The reality was no, I didn’t. I didn’t want to explain my failings, the uncontrollable rage I’d felt. But I owed her an explanation, even if it was going to make me uncomfortable.

  “It was like everything felt so much more than normal. Everything was louder, stronger, and I was angrier, out of control. It was fucking scary. I’ve never felt like that before. In my head, I knew I was overreacting, but it was like I didn’t have control over myself. Like I got pulled along in a sea of anger and frustration, and I didn’t have anything to anchor myself down with.”

  The more I thought about it, the more I could feel myself starting to panic. I couldn’t afford to spiral out of control like I’d felt myself doing yesterday, especially when my alpha power seemed to be increasing and I had no idea what was causing it. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I was pretty sure it was the bond I had with Calli. I just wasn’t sure what it was doing to me.

  “We’ll figure it out. What’s one more thing to add to the list?” She looked up at me with a soft smile on her face, and I felt like I could conquer the world as long as she was by my side.

  “I asked Sean to come over this morning. I thought he might be able to help or at least have some idea of what’s happening.”

  Calli nodded thoughtfully. “He’s a very strong alpha. If anyone can tell you how to cope with it, it'll be him. I… I’m sorry this is happening to you, Grey. I can’t help but feel responsible.”

  I clung to her fiercely as she whispered her confession to me.

  “Don’t. Don’t ever apologise for coming into my life, Calli.”

  “I’m not. It’s just, maybe we should have looked at the bond more before we just jumped into it. Everything is changing. I’m changing you and your wolf. W
hat if that’s not a good thing? What if there’s something we could have done to prevent it?”

  “Do you regret it?” I asked her, the sudden uneasy feeling of dread clutching at my chest.

  “The bond?”

  I nodded in response because there was no way words were coming out of me right now.

  “Of course not. Our bond is everything to me, Grey. All of you mean more to me than I could ever say. When Jacob and I came here, all I could think about was how I’d make it through the day. Jacob was my only priority. I don’t think I ever saw myself as having a life of my own because I was so smothered by my grief. A little part of me maybe didn’t want there to be. I was empty. But then I met River at the school, then you and Tanner, and even though it was crazy and weird and so very, very confusing, you guys were all I could think about. You made me happy, and I didn’t even know why. It was like every time I saw you or spoke with you, a little bit of that empty feeling went away.”

  She looked up at me as she spoke and pure love radiated from her eyes. They flashed with the silver of her wolf, and I felt the surge of my own wolf responding to her. I knew exactly what she was talking about. Life before Calli had been like I was just going through the motions. I had a mission. I had the pack to care for and provide a home to. But I never really lived. I never had anything for myself. I got up, I did what needed to be done, and then I went to bed. Now, I had something to wake up for. I could appreciate the small moments when I got to see our pups happy and playing, and when I held my mate in my arms. I was happy, and I’d never realised I hadn’t been before. Before Calli, we just existed, but now we had her, we finally had a chance to live.

  “I love you,” I murmured as my head dipped down and I claimed her lips.

  She melted against me with a hum of pleasure, and one thought filled my mind. How could it not with her sweet curves pressing up against me? I couldn’t stop myself as my hands slipped down and cupped her ass. Christ, she had the most delicious ass I’d ever had the privilege to lay eyes on.