by West, Tara
“Where?”
“I don’t know.” Skoll wiped sweat off his brow. “I lost her after we passed the lake. She’s a fast wolf, and I’m not in good shape anymore.”
Geri stood, yawning and stretching and looking none too concerned. “I’ll track her,” he said. “She never goes far.”
“Get Luc to help you,” Amara said, worrying her fathers were too drunk to find Katarina. She swore when she remembered Luc wore that stupid amethyst bracelet.
Amara’s fathers grumbled as they followed Geri downstairs.
“Fuck,” Tatiana said. “This is all my fault.”
“No,” Amara whispered. “This is her fault. She runs off all the time in Romania.”
Tatiana jumped up, clenching her hands. “Bunica, can we talk?”
Clutching Hrod to her breast, Amara followed Tatiana into the kitchen.
“Of course dear.” Bunica slid two pans of nut bread into the oven.
Tatiana wrung her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?” she asked, patting Tatiana’s cheeks with floured hands.
“Katarina was being hateful to Amara, and I told her off,” she said in a rush, cheeks reddening. “I couldn’t hold it in.”
Bunica laughed. “It’s about time that câtea was put in her place.”
Tatiana bit her lip. “But there’s more.”
“What is it, pui de lup?”
“She tried to hit me, I blocked her and then punched her in the nose.”
Mihaela dropped a plate in the sink and Rone chuckled.
“Good one, little sis!” He held up his hand for a high five, then frowned when she ignored him.
Mihaela jabbed him with her elbow. “Don’t encourage her.”
Bunica rubbed her hands together in glee. “Did you break it?”
“I’m not sure.” Tatiana shrugged. “She was bleeding pretty bad.”
“Great Ancients,” Mihaela breathed.
Bunica slapped her thigh and let out a yelp. “Oh, how I wish I’d been there to see that!”
“B-But I think that’s why she ran off,” Tatiana said.
Bunica waved away Tatiana’s concern. “She won’t go far. She’s always running off in Romania. She does it for attention.”
Amara nudged Tatiana. “Told you. Don’t worry about it.”
“I hope you’re right.” Tatiana dropped on a barstool and hung her head.
“She’ll be back by nightfall.” Bunica chuckled. “She wouldn’t want to miss out on the chance to use her injury to coax sympathy from her mates.”
“And to give the rest of us nasty looks,” Amara added. She thought again about what the goddess had said regarding Katarina’s fate not ending well, and a chill swept up her spine. She had a premonition Katarina wouldn’t be coming back.
Chapter Nineteen
Drasko followed Katarina’s scent while Amara’s fathers hung back, either too drunk to keep up or else they just didn’t care. Drasko suspected it was a mixture of both. They followed her trail for hours, stopping to quench their thirst in a creek before crossing a farm and then heading back into the woods. Drasko wished Luc didn’t have to wear that damned amethyst bracelet. He would’ve found the bitch already. Katarina had led them in circles, and now they were heading straight for the edge of the reservation.
Drasko heard the choppers before he saw them. He howled a warning to the others and slunk into the shadows of the tall pines. The fur on the back of his neck stood on end as a Blackhawk flew past. Just beyond the trees was the border of the reservation. His superior hearing picked up movement—several trucks and boots on the ground. Richter had set up a perimeter and was patrolling it. No way was a group of wolves getting past them. Had Katarina gone toward the soldiers? Drasko sniffed the air. He wasn’t certain, but he thought the trail led in the direction of their camp.
He backed up, then shifted into human form and crouched in front of the others. “There’s soldiers beyond the trees.”
Amara’s fathers shifted, squinting at something over Drasko’s shoulders.
“How many?” Boris asked.
Drasko sniffed the air again. “Dozens, and from the sounds of it, they brought heavy artillery.”
“What the hell is your government planning?” Boris hissed.
Drasko shook his head. “I don’t know.” But after speaking to Luc, Drasko suspected Richter would not rest until every last Amaroki was annihilated.
Geri pointed his nose in the air, then let out a low whimper. “Katarina is heading right toward them.”
Marius looked from Drasko to his brothers. “Should we follow?”
“No.” Boris frowned. “It’s too risky.”
“But your mate?” Drasko asked. He didn’t want to go after Katarina, but he also felt a suffocating sense of obligation. She was a she-wolf, and Amaroki men were supposed to protect their women.
Boris said, “She will have a better chance sneaking through than a pack of wolves.”
“B-But she shouldn’t leave the reservation,” Marius said, voice quavering.
“We may be too late.” Her scent was only a tickle in Drasko’s nostrils, like the faint trace of Amara’s perfume after she left the room. “Her scent is growing weaker. I think she already crossed.”
Jovan spat into the dirt, cheeks flushing crimson. “Stupid woman!”
“So we’re just going to leave her to her fate?” Geri asked, his tone accusatory as he glared at Boris.
“What other choice do we have?” Boris snorted in disgust. “I’m not risking our lives for an unfaithful bitch.”
Geri exhaled slow and heavy. “Then I will go after her.”
“No. Don’t you see?” Boris clutched Geri’s arm, searching his eyes. “This is what she wants. For us to risk our lives to save her from herself. If she cared about us, she wouldn’t put us in this position.”
“What if she dies out there, Boris?” Geri spat. “How will you live with yourself?”
Boris hung his head, a string of Romanian curse words sliding off his tongue. “I don’t think I can live much longer with her as my mate anyway.”
“SO YOU GUYS JUST LEFT her there?” Amara asked Drasko after she kissed her milk-drunk baby and handed him off to Rone.
When Rone left the room to give Hrod to Bunica, she felt as if he’d taken her heart with him. Tonight he’d sleep with Bunica as an experiment. Bunica said she had a plan for getting him to sleep through the night. Why did Amara think it had to do with letting him cry himself back to sleep?
“We didn’t have a choice,” Drasko said, his voice as brittle as dry summer grass.
She sat on the bed, taking Drasko’s hands in hers, fighting back tears. “I’m so glad you didn’t go after her. If anything had happened to you, I’d have gone out of my mind.”
Drasko hugged her warmly without saying a word. He didn’t have to. She knew he’d been thinking the same thing.
Luc sat on the her other side, squeezing her knee. “Which is exactly how I feel about you trying to leave the reservation tomorrow.”
“That’s different.” She released Drasko and rubbed noses with Luc, her nipples pebbling when he snaked a hand around her waist. “I’m risking my life to save the entire tribe.”
Luc released a long sigh. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
Hakon stripped off his jeans and sat on the edge of the bed. “Amara will have four protectors guarding her.”
“Against machine guns,” Luc added dryly.
“What would you have us do, Luc?” Hakon asked, frustrated.
“Nothing,” Luc grumbled, “but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Hey, guys,” Rone said as he entered the bedroom, shutting the door behind him, “since tonight is our last before we could all be killed, maybe we should make it a memorable one?”
She could tell by that gleam in his eyes and the bulge in his pants exactly what kind of memories he wanted to make. “What did you have in mind?” she asked, fe
igning innocence. “Yahtzee, Scrabble, poker?”
“I like poker.” Rone stripped off his clothes. “And then maybe lick-her and bite-her, too.”
“Hm.” Drasko knelt in front of her, parting her thighs, his mouth hitched up in a devilish grin. “I hear that’s a fun game.”
“It is,” Luc purred, nibbling her ear, “especially when I get to play from behind.”
She arched away from him. Something about Luc behind her didn’t turn her on at all. It only made her more self-conscious. Maybe if they turned off the lights. Then again, their wolf eyes could see very well in the dark. Maybe if they wore blindfolds.
Hakon stood in front of her, his underwear sticking up like a circus tent. “You don’t seem very enthused.”
Her mouth watered when she looked at his muscular, tanned chest. “I have a question for you.”
“What?” He crouched and took off her socks.
She summoned the nerve to breach a sensitive subject. “Do you think my butt is fat?”
All four brothers simultaneously made spluttering noises.
“I think your butt is beautiful,” Hakon said.
“But is it fat?” she persisted.
Luc blinked. “It’s perfect.”
“Great Ancients!” She scooted to the center of the bed when Hakon reached for the zipper on her jeans. “Why won’t any of you answer me?”
Hakon stood, the bulge in his underwear still as big as before; that was a good sign. He rubbed his stubbled chin thoughtfully. “Yes, it’s grown since you had Hrod, but it’s even more beautiful than before.”
“I like something to hold on to when I’m ramming you from behind.” Drasko’s devil smile stretched so wide, she imagined horns about to sprout from his head.
She nervously twisted her fingers in her lap. “So you don’t mind it?”
“Mind it?” Rone chuckled, jumping on the bed and crawling up to her like a cat on the prowl. “We love it.”
“Why are you suddenly worried about your butt?” Luc asked.
Amara heaved a shaky breath. “Katarina said—”
“Screw that bitch.” Drasko’s low rumble sounded like an approaching freight train. “She’s jealous because you are ten times the woman she’ll ever be.”
“Bend over.” Rone nibbled her ear. “Let us show you how much we love that ass.”
Her skin flushed, then prickled with desire as her mates removed her clothes. She sighed when her raw, wet breasts were exposed to the cool air. When Luc pushed her onto her back, she arched into him, letting him suck one breast while Rone drank from the other, draining the last of her milk.
Drasko latched onto the globes of her ass, lifting her into the air. She spread her thighs and turned to putty when he stroked her with his tongue, licking from her raised button all the way back to her tight, puckered anus.
She groaned as he continued the tongue torture while Hakon leaned over her and gently swirled his thumb around her slit’s swollen nub.
She sank farther into the mattress, giving into sensory overload while each of her mates played her like an instrument, eliciting several gasps and moans. When Drasko drove a finger into her lubed anus, she thought she’d come undone. Then he lifted her higher, wrapping her thighs around his waist and anchoring himself to her by digging his fingers into her ass. When he probed her anus with the tip of his thick cock, she thought she’d expire from pleasure. He inserted himself slowly, stretching the shallow end of her hole before moving farther down. All the while, Luc and Rone continued to feast from her breasts and Hakon circled her slit.
Drasko went in deeper and set a gentle, yet agonizingly slow rhythm. She sucked in a hiss when he sheathed himself fully in her tight channel. Hakon slipped a thick finger into her pussy, probing her while keeping pressure on her tender bud with his thumb. Luc sucked and stretched an aching nipple while Rone did the same.
Amara could hardly breathe. Drasko rammed her harder, punching a bundle of nerves with his thick head that sent her world spinning. She reached that precipice, spiraling into sweet bliss, expecting to fall off the edge, but the fall never came. Her mates held her suspended in a place between pleasure and pain, prolonging her crest until she thought she’d die from ecstasy. She gave in and rode euphoria’s wave, surrendering to each delicious throb as her orgasm took her higher and higher until she finally crested, swept into love’s sweet release. Drasko came with her, bathing her tight anus in warm, wet juices.
When he pulled out, she turned to mush, gentle throbs pulsing through her, her nerve endings lit with tiny little torches. She’d no idea if that orgasm had come from her anus, her clit, her dripping pussy, or all three. All she knew was that she’d never felt more pleasure in all her life.
Hakon and Drasko switched places, and Hakon swirled his thick head around her anus, working it loose again. Her nipples peaked and Rone and Luc alternated between sucking and biting them. When Drasko circled her clit, she didn’t know how she could handle another round of explosive anal sex.
We’re going to fuck that sweet ass all night, Rone echoed in her head.
All night, Luc agreed.
Great Goddess, she’d expired and gone to heaven—or hell. Either way, she didn’t want this night to end.
WITH HER LONG HAIR tucked under a cap, and wearing oversized clothes, Takaani slumped behind the wheel of the old pickup and drove a slow circle around her apartment complex. She’d waited until nightfall, hoping she’d have less chance of being seen. It was well past bedtime already, because Anchorage had only a short stretch of darkness in summer. This would hopefully give her a short window in which to slink through the shadows and get in and out of her apartment. She didn’t need light to break into her apartment. Her wolf-touched eyes could see well in the dark.
There were unmarked cars on every corner, as well as men patrolling her apartment, pretending to be focused on their phones but keeping their eyes trained on Takaani’s apartment door. She’d never seen this much activity at her complex at night.
Well, fuck.
Those agents really wanted her. Keeping her eyes on the road, she drove the hell out of there. She couldn’t return to the cabin, because that pencil-dick vet had probably called MacDonald, which meant she’d have to abandon the truck soon.
If Mako wasn’t in the hospital, she’d leave Anchorage for good, but she couldn’t go without him. She thought about her cousin Amara, up near Fairbanks. Takaani was running out of options. If she and Mako had any hope of escaping this mess, her instinct told her that her best chance rested with Amara. She turned another corner, heading for the road that would lead her out of town. That’s when she noticed one of the unmarked cars was following her.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
In the rearview mirror, her superior eyesight saw two men in suits behind the tinted glass. One was talking into a phone and the other was punching numbers on a screen. They were running her plates. When she pulled onto the highway, they followed.
Damn.
She couldn’t stop now. She’d have to drive as far as she could toward Amara’s house and then make a break for the woods as soon as their backup arrived. They knew she was in a stolen truck, and they probably realized she was the wolf-girl, too.
This wasn’t going to end well for any of them.
Chapter Twenty
Amara sat in the back of the truck with her hands under her ass, sending healing magic into her bruised and battered hole. Too bad the magic didn’t fix fatigue, because she and her mates had only gotten a few hours of sleep. Dawn’s morning light was just peeking over the trees when she kissed her bunica and sweet baby goodbye. She’d been so upset over leaving Hrod, she hadn’t had time to contemplate her aching ass, but her injury made itself known now. She leaned to one side, wincing at the sharp pain that shot through her bottom. Holy fuck, she’d never complain about her ass again. Or maybe she would, because the pleasure had definitely been worth it.
How do you feel? Rone asked in her head, settling a hand
on her knee.
It’s getting better. She leaned into him, relishing the feel of his warmth. Thanks for asking.
I should’ve brought you an ice pack.
It’s okay. He wound an arm around her. How she loved her sweet, caring Rone. The pain’s almost gone. It’s just taking a bit longer for the magic to soak through my jeans.
They turned the corner, and Army trucks came into view.
“Fucking Richter,” Hakon grumbled, squeezing the steering wheel with whitened knuckles.
Amara gawked at the construction workers and equipment and the row of barbed wire fence that stretched for at least a mile. Were they putting a fence around the reservation?
“Do they think a fucking fence will keep us in?” Drasko chuckled.
Luc pointed over Drasko’s shoulder to a giant spool of wire they were laying inside a trench. “They’re electrifying it.”
“Fuckers,” Drasko said vehemently.
“It’s not their fault,” Luc said, his gaze sweeping the rows of trucks. “They’re following orders.”
Amara’s heart pumped double time when Hakon slowed. Several guards wielding huge guns blocked the exit.
Hakon rolled down his window as he came to a complete stop.
Ready, Amara? he asked her.
She pulled her hands out from under her ass and hunched over, clutching her belly. I guess I have to be.
“You need to turn around,” the guard said, a slight tremor in his voice. He clutched his gun with shaking hands. “Nobody is to leave the reservation. Agent Richter’s orders.”
“But we have an emergency,” Hakon said, desperation in his voice. “My wife is sick. We believe she’s miscarrying.”
Amara cried out and rocked forward. She wasn’t miscarrying, but the guards didn’t need to know that.
“Richter said under no circumstances is anyone to leave.” The guard’s voice grew stronger.
Hakon banged the wheel with his fists. “This is a medical emergency!”
“I’m sorry.” The guard cast Amara an apologetic look. “I’m just following orders.”