by J. L. Wilder
“A while.” He kissed her neck again. “Didn’t want to disturb you. You’ve been through a lot lately.”
“Well, you’re turning me on.”
“Am I?” She could feel his lips curving up into a smile. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“No,” he agreed. “Unless you want me to stop?”
“God, you know I don’t.” She sighed. “When have I ever been able to say no to you?”
“You’re not alone there,” He told her. “I’ve never been able to say no to you either.”
His hand stroked down her arm again, but this time when he came to her wrist, he moved to palm the swell of her stomach instead. Gently, he pulled her back against him, and she felt how hard he was already.
“I wanted to fuck you so badly last night,” he murmured in her ear, rolling his hips. “I’ve never wanted anything as badly as I wanted you.”
“You could have had me,” she said.
“I wanted you to feel taken care of, though.”
“Mmm...I did.”
His hand slid slowly up to her breast. It was heavier than normal, fuller already in preparation for the arrival of her children. She wondered if Wes could feel the difference in her body.
He stroked her nipple with his thumb and she arched into his hand, her whole body lighting up with desire. Was it possible that she had been asleep only minutes ago? Every inch of her felt acutely awake now.
“I hoped you might still want me this morning,” he said. “I hoped I’d have a chance to finish what we started.”
“God,” she breathed. “Do you even have to ask?”
“I want you to say it.”
“Wes...”
“I want to hear you say it,” he said. “Say the words, Lauren.”
Her whole body grew hot with embarrassment, with desire. “I want you,” she said.
“You want me what?”
“I want you to fuck me. Please.”
He didn’t make her ask twice. Thank God. A moment later, he was curving around her just so, and then he was pressing into her, filling her perfectly. She groaned and rocked her hips back to meet him.
His hand tightened on her breast. It was just short of painful. It was exquisite. “You’re so beautiful,” he said. “I can’t stand it. You’re so beautiful.”
She felt beautiful. She felt utterly at his mercy, soft and fragile. He could take her apart if he wanted to.
It was exhilarating to give herself to someone so powerful. It was thrilling to put her body in his hands, in his control, like this.
He thrust into her slowly, establishing a rhythm. “I could do this all day,” he said, his voice a little lower than it usually was. “We could stay here all day like this.”
Lauren was beyond words. She moaned, the tension inside her ratcheting up a notch. She was dizzy with her own arousal.
“You need to come, baby?”
She managed a nod. A tremor wracked her body.
He found her hand with his. “Show me what you want.”
She squeezed his hand.
“Show me,” he insisted.
She was too desperate to be shy. She dragged his hand down and pressed his palm between her legs. She placed her fingers on top of his and began to rub, teaching him the way she touched herself. After a moment, she took her hand away and he kept going without her.
Fuck, he’s a fast learner.
It felt as if he had been designed perfectly to give her pleasure. He knew exactly how she wanted to be touched. He knew exactly how she wanted to be fucked. He knew—
Her orgasm came out of nowhere, rolling over her like a wave. She screamed, her thighs clamping down around his hand. Wes groaned and thrust into her hard. She felt him come, and fuck, it was the hottest thing she’d ever experienced in her life.
He stayed wrapped around her for a moment, clinging to her. Then he slowly rolled away.
Lauren turned onto her back and stared at the ceiling, recovering her breath.
Wes kept finding new ways to surprise her.
She was very glad she’d stayed the night.
Chapter Thirty-Two
LAUREN
“Breakfast,” Wes announced.
He got off the bed and went over to the trailer’s little kitchen area. “What do you want?” he called over his shoulder.
“I don’t know,” Lauren said with some trepidation. “What do you eat out here in the woods?”
Wes laughed. “My fridge isn’t full of raw meat if that’s what you mean. I have some normal human stuff.”
“You do?”
“Dry goods, mostly, but yeah.” He opened a cabinet and pulled down a box of cereal. “How’s this look to you?”
“Very human.” She grinned.
He tossed it to her. “You want a bowl or something? I usually eat it out of the box.”
“This is fine.” She popped it open and grabbed a handful. “This is what you usually eat when you’re off the grid like this? Dry cereal?”
“Well, no,” he said. “Usually, I hunt. But I got the feeling you might not be up for that.”
“I’m guessing you don’t mean hunting with a rifle.”
“Would you have been up for hunting with a rifle?”
“Definitely not.” She shuddered. “In bear form...maybe?”
“Yeah? You’d eat raw?”
“I mean, I’m not in love with the idea,” she said. “I’m used to restaurants.”
“Yeah, that box of cereal is already pretty rough living for you, isn’t it?” he asked with a smirk.
“Oh, knock it off, Wes,” she said. “It’s not like I was some princess in the city, you know. I worked hard. Managing a restaurant is a tough job.”
“I kind of wish I could have seen your restaurant,” Wes said.
“It’s still there,” Lauren said. “Maybe we can go sometime.” The thought of taking Wes into the suburbs was strange, but she had to admit it would be exciting to show him all her old haunts. The house she’d lived in, her favorite little boutiques...and the restaurant, of course. She would serve him a five-star dinner.
“I’ve been thinking,” Wes said, interrupting her daydream.
“About what?” Lauren fished out another handful of cereal.
“About the things you told me you’d heard last night,” he said. “Emmett and the others talking in the woods about attacking the city. Attacking Cole and the den.”
Lauren dropped her handful of cereal. In the excitement of last night and this morning, she had all but forgotten about that. How could she have forgotten? How could such a thing have escaped her mind even for a moment?
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Wes said. “Don’t freak out. I had an idea.”
“What kind of idea? If you’re thinking about getting involved—”
She wouldn’t be able to bear it. It wouldn’t matter which side of the conflict he was on. If Wes joined a war like that so soon after the two of them had realized their feelings for each other, it would wreck her.
“Don’t be upset,” he said. “I’m not going to get involved. Definitely not. I don’t want any part of some alpha squabble.”
Calling it a squabble, as if it was something petty and essentially harmless, did settle Lauren’s nerves a little. Maybe Wes was right. Maybe it wasn’t anything to get that worked up about. “What idea did you have, then?” she asked.
“I want you to stay here in the trailer with me,” he said.
She blinked. She hadn’t been expecting that. “What?”
“You’re right that the city isn’t the safest place to be,” he said. “And I can’t stop thinking about those babies you’re carrying. It’s my job to protect them and provide for them. I can’t send them back there, not knowing that there’s a den war brewing.”
He came over to the bed, sat down beside her, and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“I can’t send you back there either,” he said.
&nb
sp; She rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t want to be there,” she agreed. “I thought about going home to Palatine, actually.”
She felt him tense. “Oh?” he asked.
“I decided against it,” she said.
His body relaxed.
He was worried that I would leave him. Her heart ached with sympathy, but she also felt a thrill of pleasure. He hadn’t wanted her to go.
“I can’t raise the babies in the suburbs,” she explained. “It’s the reason I came home in the first place. Even though I’m worried about den violence now, that part hasn’t changed.”
He nodded. “The best place for you and the babies is here,” he said. “It’s wild territory, so they’ll be able to explore their animal natures as children without worrying about exposure to the human world.”
“But living in the woods?” Lauren bit her lip. “Even being back with the pack has been so hard after twenty years away. To come and live out here...I don’t know if I could do it.”
“You could,” Wes said. “You can. I’ll help you. We can make this work, Lauren. I know we can.”
She closed her eyes. “I wouldn’t do this with anybody else,” she said. “There’s no one in the world I trust enough to keep me alive in the middle of the woods. I hope you get that. You’re the only person I have that much faith in.”
“You’re saying you’ll do it?” She could hear the hope in his voice, and it touched her.
“I think you’re right,” she said. “I think it’s the best idea for our babies and for us.”
He leaned in and kissed her. “Lauren, that’s great. I’m so glad. I know it’s the right decision.”
“Only until the threat of den violence dies down,” she said. “One way or the other. I don’t want to live this wild life forever. When the fighting’s over, I’m going to want to go back to the city, and I’m going to take my children with me, whether you come or not.”
He nodded. “I understand.”
She hoped he did. She cared for Wes, and she wanted to be with him. But she didn’t want to live the way he did.
I hope he’ll come back to the city with me when the time comes.
Chapter Thirty-Three
LAUREN
“All right,” Wes said. “If you and I are both going to be living here, we do need a few more supplies than we have on hand at the moment.”
Lauren nodded. “If you want to stay out of the city, I know a decent shop in the eastern suburbs that isn’t too far from here,” she said. “We can get all the basics there.”
“Oh, shit, no,” Wes said. “I don’t mean shopping.”
“You don’t?” She felt a swell of nervous anxiety in the pit of her stomach.
“No, we hunt for supplies,” Wes said.
“But you were just showing off all your human stuff!” Lauren protested. “That’s what got me to agree to staying out here—seeing how prepared you were. All your dry goods—”
“Well, sure,” Wes said. “Those things are good on occasion. But we need fresh meat too. We can’t just keep eating dry cereal three meals a day. And we need stores of water—”
“You don’t have bottled water?”
He laughed. “Lauren, come on. I go into town every couple of months for supplies. I bring back what I can carry with me. Do you think I’m lugging crates of water back and forth?”
“I’m sorry,” Lauren said. “This is just...”
“No, hey, don’t apologize.” He moved to her side and wrapped an arm around her. “It was wrong of me to laugh about it. This is new to you. I get it.”
She nodded. “So you have to hunt?”
“Yeah. Just for our lunch and dinner, for now.”
“Should I...do you want me to come with you?” she asked, feeling some trepidation.
“Do you want to come with me?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“Don’t feel like you have to,” he said. “Why don’t you stay here and get acclimated to the trailer? You haven’t spent much time in here before.”
She shook her head. “Not with my clothes on.”
“My clothes, you mean.”
It was true. She didn’t have any clothes. That was something they were going to have to remedy at some point. She couldn’t keep walking around in his boxers and t-shirts forever. “Your clothes, then.”
He laughed. “That’s the spirit. Don’t feel obligated to wear those clothes if you don’t want to, by the way. No one ever comes out this way.”
“I’ve come out this way twice!”
“You’re the exception.” He grinned. “Just do me a favor and don’t shift inside the trailer.”
“I know better than to do that.”
“All right,” he said. “Take care. Lock the door behind me if you want to. I’ll holler at you from outside when I need to be let back in. But you’ll be able to see me from the windows, anyway.”
“How long are you going to be gone?” she asked, nervous about being left alone out here for the first time.
“Shouldn’t take too long,” he said. “I’m a good hunter, and there’s a lot of small game in this area. That’s why I park the trailer here. You won’t even have time to miss me.”
He pulled her to his feet, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her passionately. It left her gasping.
He pulled away, winked, and hurried out the door, pulling it closed behind him.
Lauren ran to the window in time to see Wes strip off his clothes and toss them over his shoulder toward the trailer. He took off toward the trees at a run, his body surging forward into the shape of a bear. It was beautiful to watch.
She went outside, gathered up the clothes he’d left on the ground, and brought them inside. Just because they were living wild didn’t mean they needed to be complete savages. He would come back to clothes full of dust and possibly even insects if they just lay on the ground out there.
She shook out his pants and shirt, spread them out on the bed, and then looked around the trailer for what to do next.
How was she going to fill her time?
There was plenty to do when Wes was here, of course. Just the pleasures of his body could keep her occupied for hours of every day. But alone like this, she couldn’t think how she was going to pass the time. At home, she would have picked up a book or turned on the TV, but Wes didn’t have any of those things. What did he do for fun?
How does he live out in the wild like this without completely losing his mind?
With a sigh, she began opening and closing cupboards, looking for something—anything—to occupy her.
She stopped when she found a few bottles of cleaning product. They were old and looked as if they hadn’t been used in a long time, but they were something. She pulled out a spray bottle. A little more exploration unearthed a tattered old rag.
She sprayed down the countertop and scrubbed it.
Quickly, it became apparent that Wes hadn’t cleaned his counters in a very long time. As she worked, her efforts revealed a brighter, shinier shade of wood. It had gotten so dirty that it had been hidden from view.
I wonder if Wes even remembers what this is supposed to look like.
Well, she had found her project. She stoppered the sink, poured in a bit of dish soap, and put every dish she could find—which only amounted to a very few—in to soak. She stripped the sheets off his bed—she would take them to the stream to wash. Then she got down on her hands and knees with the spray bottle and began to polish the kitchen floor.
She had never been wild about cleaning. But until she was ready to go out and help Wes with the hunting—and she had no idea when that time might come—this was how she could contribute. This was how she could best help her family get by out here in the wild.
Chapter Thirty-Four
WES
“Do you want to light it?” Wes asked.
“I don’t know how.” Lauren stared down at the structure of tinder he’d helped her build. She looked co
mpletely spooked, and Wes was torn between feeling amused at the fact that she was so overwhelmed by a simple fire and wanting to go and help her.
“You should learn,” he said. “It’s a skill you’re going to need, living out here.” He handed her the lighter. “You know how to use that, I assume.”
She gave him a withering look. “I’m not an imbecile, Wes. They have lighters in the suburbs. Humans use lighters.”
“Humans start fires!” Wes said. “They do it on campouts and stuff.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t go on a lot of campouts.”
“Light it right there.” He pointed. “Those dry leaves and grass. That stuff will catch easily, but it’s going to burn really fast, so make sure you get it under the pyramid of sticks so that they can catch too.”
He watched her as she leaned over and carefully lit the tinder. Once it caught, she pushed it into position and watched the sticks begin to burn.
“All right,” he said. “That’s good. Now we just keep adding bigger pieces of wood. Slowly. Gradually.” He picked up a slightly larger stick and put it on the flames. “Don’t collapse that structure. That’ll smother it.”
She nodded and added a small stick. “Is it okay that I cleaned the trailer while you were gone?”
“Hell yeah, it’s okay!” He grinned. “Do you know how long it’s been since anyone cleaned that place?”
“I have some idea,” she said wryly.
“Just don’t feel like you have to do that or anything,” he said. “It’s not like I expected it of you. And just because you did it today, that doesn’t mean you need to do it again. That’s not your job.”
“But it won’t bother you if I do?”
“As long as it’s not bothering you.” He shrugged. “I’m into it.”
“I got bored, that’s all,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said. “I was afraid you might. Next time I’ll bring you hunting with me.”
“Do you think I’m ready for that?”
“Sure. We won’t be hunting elk or anything. We’ll get fish or rabbits.”
She nodded and stared pensively into the fire.