by Sadie Moss
I could relate to that, although I hated to think about what might happen if, or when, Marcus and Walker did do something.
West stood, helping me to my feet, and Jackson and Sariah settled into place behind us. We waved goodbye then crawled out the window they had entered through, stealing quietly across the shadowy base to our barracks.
As we headed inside, we ran into Rhys and Noah leaving for an early hunt. We gave them a brief report—basically, that there was nothing to report—before they headed off toward the south edge of the base.
We’d all been keeping strange hours as we juggled our surveillance of the two shifters with our other responsibilities in the pack. I was on laundry duty again today, and I’d be covering for Sariah too. But fortunately, I didn’t have to be anywhere for a while yet.
At that thought, a yawn escaped my lips. I felt bad for passing out during our watch, but honestly, I was still tired. I could use another few hours of sleep. And poor West had to be exhausted.
He pushed open the door to our quarters, ushering me inside before following behind. I kicked off my shoes and crawled onto the hard-packed mattress, not even caring about the lumps. Right now, it felt like heaven.
West pulled his boots off, and I saw him hesitate for a second before he tugged his shirt over his head. I tried not to watch as he crawled over the mattress, but it was impossible to take my eyes off the sculpted muscles of his chest and abs.
He was so beautiful. Effortlessly powerful, but with such grace and softness in his strength.
When he stretched out on his back beside me, the sides of our bodies almost touched, and I swore I could feel an electric current buzzing in the space between us. I stayed motionless though, staring up at the ceiling until West reached over, gently pulling me onto my side so my top arm and leg draped over him.
Twin sighs of relief fell from our mouths as our bodies gave in to the primal need to touch—to get closer, always closer.
My hand rested on his chest, my head nestling into the crook of his shoulder. Exhaustion tugged at my eyelids, but I knew sleep wouldn’t come now. I was too aware of West, too conscious of his body under mine, of every place our skin met.
We stayed like that for a while, and finally, his heartbeat evened out beneath my palm and his breathing grew slow and deep. I thought he was asleep, but when I tipped my head up to look at his face, I found him watching me, his eyes twin pools of melted chocolate.
My breath caught in my throat, and I couldn’t look away. And for once, he didn’t look away either.
Possibility hung heavy in the air, tempting and terrifying.
Slowly, I rose up onto my elbow, leaning over West as my gaze fell to his lips. They were thick and full, and I could see just a tiny hint of the dimples in his cheeks that popped out when he smiled.
“West… Can I—?”
He swallowed, dipping his chin once in assent, gaze still locked on me. I lowered my head and kissed his bottom lip, then his top lip, before darting my tongue out to taste the skin. He opened his mouth, his tongue seeking mine in careful, exploratory strokes.
We kissed like that for several long minutes, deep and languid, as my hand roamed the skin of his shoulders, arms, and chest. I followed that same path with my lips, working my way down his jaw and neck with deliberate kisses. His skin was smooth, and the fresh, earthy scent of him filled my nostrils.
When I finally broke away, I glanced down at the bulge in his pants, finding the evidence of what our kiss had done to him. Fire sparked in my belly, and I met his eyes again.
“Can I…?”
He blinked, his chest rising and falling as his breath picked up. But he nodded.
I scooted down his body until I kneeled beside him, then I unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, working them down over his trim waist and firm ass. He lifted his hips, making it easier for me to pull them down as his cock sprang free. I tugged them all the way off and tossed them aside before returning my attention to West.
He was naked, completely bare to me, and I finally understood why Noah had just stood there and stared at me for so long the night he took my virginity.
It wasn’t just the pure, masculine perfection laid out before me. It was the way his body reacted to my gaze, tensing then relaxing. It was the love, the trust in his eyes.
The fact that I got to see him this way, and no one else did.
Crawling between his legs, I ran my hands up the powerfully muscled thighs on either side of me, over his delicious abs, and then down to where his cock bobbed against his stomach. When I ghosted my fingers over it, his whole body jerked, and he bit his lip to stifle a noise.
I dipped my head, trailing my tongue up the underside of his thick shaft before wrapping my lips around it. I bobbed my head a few times, listening to his reactions, trying to gauge his response. A sweet ache was building in my core, wetness slicking my folds, as I worked my mouth up and down his cock. Pulling back, I drew my shirt over my head and shimmied out of my own pants.
West’s gaze drank me in, but his hands stayed locked at his sides.
Like he was afraid to move.
Afraid to touch me.
No. No more.
I moved higher up his body, maneuvering awkwardly to straddle his hips. My core brushed against the base of his cock, sending licks of fire trailing through my body, but I ignored that for now. He had to know he could touch me wherever he liked. That I wasn’t afraid of him, and I never would be.
“Put your hands on me, West. Please.”
Reaching down, I grabbed his large hands and brought them up to cup my breasts. A groan fell from his lips as I pressed his palms to my taut nipples, and his fingers kneaded my flesh. Warmth flooded my entire body, and I arched up into his touch, moving against his cock as I did.
Nerves and anticipation made my stomach flip. This was all strange and unfamiliar territory.
I had never been the one in charge before.
In my encounters with my other mates, I’d been a willing and enthusiastic participant, but I’d been happy to let them take the lead. Taking control like this was slightly terrifying—even more so because I knew I held West’s heart in my hands, and one wrong move could shatter it.
But something about it was thrilling too. I might not know exactly what I was doing, but I knew what felt good. And I knew I wanted to make West feel everything I did.
I rocked against him again, my heart slamming so hard in my chest I was certain my ribs visibly shook from the impact.
Leaving his hands on my body, I leaned forward to claim another deep kiss. I could feel the tension inside him, his need battling with fear, and I did everything I could to stoke one fire and extinguish the other.
Oh God. This is really happening.
I’d dreamt about this—craved it—since the first time I’d kissed him back in Washington.
I had an impulse to grab him as hard as I could, to cling to him so he could never get away, to devour his mouth with the need burning inside me. But instead, I forced myself to slow down and savor this moment. I’d promised him I wouldn’t push, and I had to accept every touch from him as the gift it was.
“Scrubs…” he groaned into my mouth, his hands still wrapped around my breasts. I had a feeling they wouldn’t move until I moved them.
My slickness had coated his cock, and the feel of him moving between my legs was sweet torture. I sat back, breathing heavily. “West… can I—?”
“Yes.” His voice was a rough whisper. “Please.”
Rising up on my knees, I held onto his cock with one hand, positioning it at my entrance before slowly sinking down, accepting all of him as my inner walls stretched around his thickness.
West’s dark gaze fixed on the place we were connected, and the look on his face nearly made me come on the spot. His nostrils flared and his eyes were hooded. He looked almost high, completely done in by the sight of himself rooted completely inside me.
I rose up a few inches before sinking back down, and
he moaned low in his throat. I repeated the action, riding him, my strokes becoming smoother as I got the hang of the rhythm.
Finally, his hands did leave my breasts of their own accord, sliding down to grip my hips. I draped my body over his, kissing him as deeply as I fucked him, our tongues working against each other as he slid in and out of me with slow, steady thrusts.
I could feel an orgasm building low inside me, warm pulses of energy radiating from my core, but I didn’t chase it. I didn’t need it. All I wanted was to keep doing this, to stay connected to West this way forever.
Pulling back slightly, I braced my hands on his chest as I worked my hips up and down, gazing into his eyes. I could feel my soul sinking into their deep brown depths, and the sensation made butterflies explode in my stomach as if I’d just jumped from a great height.
And in a way, I had.
I hadn’t known until this moment how deeply I was falling in love with this man. And the deeper I fell, the more I realized there was no bottom to this well, no end to the love I could feel.
“West,” I murmured, speaking his name like a benediction. “You… I… Oh, God.”
A wet tear fell on his chest, and when I blinked, another landed beside it. His hands came up to frame my face as I continued to ride him, his fingertips tracing the lines of my cheeks, my lips, my jaw.
When I finally came, it was like a slow roll of thunder, building quietly and going on and on, flooding my body with warmth. I dropped my head to his shoulder, sobbing softly as deep, consuming pleasure washed away every other thought in my head.
West wrapped his arms around me, sealing our bodies together as he pushed up into me one more time then stilled.
His cock pulsed inside me, his muscles shuddering as he finally let go, and I squeezed my inner walls around him, milking every last drop of his release before we both went boneless.
“Thank you.”
His words were just a whisper. A breath. A sigh.
But I heard them.
I felt them down to my bones, and I held him tighter as we lay there.
He wasn’t fixed. His guilt, shame, and self-doubt wouldn’t be magically washed away by this one moment. I knew that.
Strand had hurt all of us; they’d left scars on our bodies and minds.
But I wouldn’t let them win. I would kiss West’s scars every day, pour compassion and tenderness into the old wounds, until he finally understood that I didn’t love him in spite of his damaged parts.
I loved him because of them.
Chapter Sixteen
Clear, cool water rippled around my arms as I scrubbed handfuls of fabric together under its surface.
A lot of the blankets and sheets we’d used to put out the fires were unsalvageable, nothing more than charred, filthy rags anymore. But Val had assigned several pack members to sort through them and pull out the ones that were worth salvaging.
These ones weren’t in great shape either, but at least they weren’t totally destroyed. Quite a lot of scrubbing was needed to get them anywhere near clean though—ash and soot had worked their way deep into the fibers.
I caught sight of my shimmering reflection in the water as I worked, and my hands slowed for a heartbeat.
My eyes narrowed, and I leaned closer to the stream’s surface.
It was probably a trick of the light, probably my overtired eyes—West and I hadn’t slept much last night, after all—but I swore I could almost see a wolf’s features where mine should be. I tugged a hand out of the water, running a finger over my cheekbone and the line of my nose.
They felt like they always did, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different.
My wolf felt closer to the surface than she ever had before, but not in the same way she had in Vegas, where she’d threatened to burst out of me and go on the attack at any moment. This didn’t feel out of control like that had, and I couldn’t feel her scratching at my rib cage to get out.
Because she doesn’t need out.
She’s already here.
I tilted my head from side to side, still sliding my fingertips over my skin. I’d always felt like my wolf lived inside my chest cavity, buried there, waiting to emerge. But now, I couldn’t pinpoint where she was inside me. She was everywhere. My ears pricked when she listened, I blinked when she blinked, I saw the world through her eyes even in human form.
Is this because West and I finally sealed our bond?
Was this what Noah had meant when he said the mate bond would strengthen the wolf? And that maybe I had chosen four mates because I needed that much strength?
Whatever it was, something had finally clicked into place. The difficulty I’d had containing my wolf, keeping her from going wild, even something as simple as trying not to let her force the shift on me in mid-run—I had a feeling those days were finally behind me.
I felt calmer. Clearer. Like the two halves of my being had joined together to create a seamless whole.
With a huffed laugh, I shook my head at the distorted image of myself in the water. I should probably tell the guys, but I didn’t know how to articulate it without sounding like some kind of new-age hippie. Then again, they were the ones who had helped me through my transition after my wolf was called. If anyone would understand this weirdness, it was my mates.
I went back to work, scrubbing fistfuls of the blanket together under the water. I was just stepping out to drape the fabric over a nearby rock when heavy footsteps reached my ears.
Someone was running toward me, and they weren’t trying to be subtle about it.
Wadding up the sheet, I sloshed toward the bank, ready to shift and fight if I had to—but Jackson’s sandalwood scent hit my nose a second before he appeared through the trees, his long legs carrying him toward me fast.
I relaxed for a second before a new worry made my heart pound.
Something’s wrong.
Abandoning the sheets, I darted forward to meet him. “What? What’s going on?”
Late afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees picked up the reddish highlights in his brown hair as he skidded to a stop in front of me. “Marcus and Walker are on the move! Heading out of camp. They must’ve been keeping track of the patrol’s movements, because they slipped by unnoticed. If Sariah and I hadn’t been watching them, no one would even know they were gone.”
“Fuck.”
A rock of fear settled in my stomach. We’d expected something like this might happen; it was why we’d been watching them. But I’d prayed my suspicions were wrong.
“Yeah. We gotta go. Now. Rhys made Sariah stay back at the base. He told her we need somebody to keep a lookout there, and to explain to Val and Alpha Elijah what happened if we don’t come back. Poor kid’s mad as hell about it, but she’s staying put.”
I nodded, already peeling my shirt over my head and sliding off my pants. We’d move faster in wolf form, and we were behind already. I tossed them near my boots—I’d come back and collect all this shit later, there was no time to deal with it now.
My skin shivered and my muscles rippled as I shifted, slipping into my wolf form as easily as slipping into a comfy old sweater. The flash of pain was still there, but the shift was so fast that by the time I blinked, I was staring out at the world through lupine eyes. Jackson stripped and shifted too, dropping down onto all fours as fur sprouted. Then he swung his head to the right, and we took off in that direction, running as fast and as quietly as we could.
I wasn’t sure if Marcus and Walker were in human or wolf forms. I hoped human, since that would make it more difficult for them to pick up the tail following them. But even if they’d shifted already, we should be able to catch up with them. My wolf was strong and so massive that in this form, I could actually outrun my mates.
But we didn’t just want to run the two men down. We wanted to track them.
What the fuck are you two up to? Where did you really come from?
Was anything they’d told us true? Maybe instead
of following them in secret, we should’ve just tied them up in one of the small storage rooms at the base and beaten answers out of them.
My stomach dipped, and I almost lost my stride as I followed Jackson through the woods.
No. Fuck, no.
Torturing people was what Strand did. Not what wolves did to each other. If the corporation turned us against each other, there was no way any of us would survive. We needed to stick together.
And if Marcus and Walker had betrayed us, at least we hadn’t betrayed ourselves. I was willing to do a lot to fight back against Strand, but I wasn’t willing to lose my humanity for it.
We ran at a steady, even pace until Jackson finally slowed. By my best guess, we were a few miles away from the base. We walked for several minutes until I caught sight of West, Rhys, and Noah up ahead of us, picking their way through the underbrush.
My mocha-skinned mate was in wolf form, while the other two were still human. West sniffed the ground, probably following the two shifters’ scents just like Jackson had followed his pack mates’ to get us here. Rhys had a gun in his hand, and dark metal glinted from the back of Noah’s waistband.
Good.
We needed every advantage we could get. As far as we knew, it was the five of us against two, but what if they had friends working with them? Maybe other shifters from the Wyoming complex?
West’s head lifted, and his ears pricked. He glanced over his shoulder at us, whuffing softly, and my other two mates tracked his gaze. Relief slackened their features when they caught sight of us, and Rhys gestured us forward to join them.
“They’re moving slow,” he whispered. “Taking an indirect route. They definitely don’t want to be tracked.”
We followed West’s lead, picking our way through the underbrush. I wondered if the two shifter men ahead of us had any idea they were being tracked. Had they picked up on our observation of them? We’d done everything we could to be subtle, but maybe it hadn’t been enough.
I wanted to ask Rhys what he thought, but it didn’t seem worth shifting back to human form for.
Damn it, I wish our wolves could talk somehow.