by J. L. Wilder
“Oh yeah. I think there’s going to be plenty for everyone.”
“You’re amazing, you know,” he said, leaning over to kiss her, careful not to jostle any of the babies. “You’re superhuman.”
“I’m a wolf.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“I never would have been happy with the Coywolves,” she said. “Eventually, I would have been miserable. I was fooling myself there, letting myself believe I had something good.”
“I’m just lucky I found you when I did,” he said. “I was fooling myself too. The idea of a pack of men traveling around alone, never mating, never having someone to love...”
“You love your brothers.”
“That isn’t the same. What’s between us...I didn’t know that existed, Hazel. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
She leaned into him. “I hope the others find love,” she said. “They deserve it.”
“They will. Now that we have a permanent place to stay, they’ll be able to see the same woman more than once without uprooting her whole life right away. That’ll make it easier.”
“Why haven’t they started dating yet?”
“Don’t be too sure they haven’t. I’ve definitely seen Dart disappearing after dinner more often lately. Something’s taking up his time.” Emmett suspected Dart had met a girl at the biker bar in town and had been spending his spare time with her. He’d ask Dart about it, he thought, but not right away. Let the kid have his secret romance for a little while. Emmett knew firsthand just how exciting that could be.
Hazel leaned back slowly against her pillows and handed her babies off to Emmett, who helped her get two more situated to feed. One was the boy Emmett had suspected would be the alpha of the group, and he wasn’t at all surprised to see that boy latch on right away. Hazel laughed. “Someone’s hungry.”
“Well, he’s got a busy schedule,” Emmett said. “He has to eat quickly so he can get started on sleeping.”
“I hope you’re right,” Hazel groaned. “Have you thought about how hard it’s going to be to get any sleep with twelve of them? Someone’s always going to be awake.”
“Good thing there are six of us,” Emmett said. “We’ll need you for mealtimes, but otherwise, the rest of us can take shifts. Twelve is a lot of babies, but most families don’t have such a big parenting team.”
“That’s true.” Hazel said. “Oof, I’m already exhausted, and we’re only halfway done here.”
“Need to take a break?”
“No,” she said firmly. “I’ll keep going as long as they’re hungry.”
He shook his head in admiration. “You’re an amazing woman. You really are. What can I get you? Are you hungry?”
“I’m starving.”
“Xander’s making oatmeal.”
“Oatmeal?”
“Yeah, I think he read in one of his books that women should eat oatmeal after they give birth.”
Hazel laughed. “Oatmeal would be great.”
He kissed her on the forehead and went to fix a bowl.
ALL TWELVE BABIES WERE healthy and happy, and as the weeks went by the Hell’s Wolves grew accustomed to the little newcomers in their midst.
Emmett had never imagined this future for his pack. They were nomadic, trackers, fighters. Now, without giving up any of those qualities, they had become something else. Something altogether more fulfilling.
He watched Pax walk around the dining room with a baby in his arms, tossing and catching her as she squealed with joy. Pax had always had a zest for life, but his smiles had never been this youthful. It was a side of his packmate he’d never seen before.
Dart, usually so defiant and cynical, had also shown a softer side. He liked to dip his finger in the sauces he prepared for each meal and allow one of the babies to taste the food. “How else will they develop their palates?” he asked when the others laughed. “We don’t want to raise kids who will only eat plain pasta, right?”
“As long as they eat the food we bring back from hunting trips,” Xander agreed. He was packing his duffel bag, rustling around in the dryer for clean clothes to stuff in. He and Judah were planning to leave in the morning and ride for Oregon, looking for work on the way. It would be the first time any of the Hell’s Wolves had left home since the birth of the babies.
“Pack your phone,” Emmett said.
“I thought you didn’t like the phones,” Xander said, grinning.
“I don’t like you going off by yourself either. Pack it. It’s an order.”
“It’s already in my bag,” Xander laughed. “You worry too much.”
“I worry the exact right amount. Have you already forgotten what happened the last time we took a job?”
“Have you?” Judah asked. “We defeated the Savage Rangers, you fell in love, and now, you’re a father to twelve babies. It would be hard to imagine a better ending. Don’t worry, Emmett. Xander and I will be fine. When we stop for the night, we’ll call and let you know where we are.”
Emmett sighed. “I know you’ll be fine,” he said.
“Do you want to come with us? Is that it?”
Emmett hesitated. He couldn’t deny that the road called to him. It had been easier to ignore before, when everyone was focused on the impending arrival of the babies. But things were different now. Judah and Xander were going. When they got back, no doubt, Pax and Dart would want to go.
Hazel was watching him. “You should go with them,” she said. “I’ll be fine here. Pax and Dart are here. That’s plenty of us to take care of the kids for a couple of weeks. It’s been forever since you’ve been on a run. I know you want to.”
Emmett expected to feel relief at getting her blessing. Instead, there was only an increased sense of turmoil.
Why, though? He wanted to go. Didn’t he? Didn’t he want to be out on the road again, to feel the wind against his face and the sensation of speed? Didn’t he want to feel the power of his motorcycle swallowing up road, leaping forward, the engine growling beneath him?
Yes.
Yes, he wanted all of that.
But he didn’t want it enough.
Because even more than he wanted to give in to the call of the open road, he wanted to be here. With his family. He wanted to fall asleep every night and wake up every morning knowing that his children were safe, that they were within arm’s reach and that any threat to them would have to go through him first. He wanted to watch them learn to laugh and respond to their mother’s voice as she told them stories at night and sang them to sleep. He wanted to be the one to hold them when they cried.
He was a father now. The most fundamental thing about him had shifted. It was no longer simply a question of being wild or tame, animal or human. His life belonged to his family.
So, he shook his head. “I’ll stay here,” he said. “I want to be with you and the kids. Going away right now would drive me crazy.”
And he could see by the look on Hazel’s face that she was glad.
HE HAD BEEN RELUCTANT to ask Hazel to sleep with him since she’d given birth, not wanting to do her harm. But that night, she came to him.
The babies were all, miraculously, sleeping. Hazel crawled naked into bed beside him and wrapped her body around his. He turned toward her, welcoming her embrace. She was so much smaller than she’d been the last time he’d held her this way. Although he’d relished her pregnant body, he felt now that he was closer to her than he’d been in a long time. The bulk of the babies no longer sat between them.
He kissed her slowly, luxuriating in the taste of her lips and the feel of her hands sliding up and down his body. God, he’d missed this. He’d been so focused on everything else that was going on—all the work that the new babies required, the stress of his packmates going out on the road again—that he’d hardly had time to think about it. But now, he wondered how he could ever have thought about anything else. How could he have been in the same room as Hazel every day without hungering for her body? How could
he have become distracted from his insatiable attraction to her?
Right now, it just didn’t seem possible.
He crawled to the bottom of the bed and licked and kissed his way slowly up her body, stopping at every sensitive area he found. Hazel wrapped her fingers through his and held on, her body writhing beneath him, gasping with arousal. By the time he reached her head, pausing only to kiss her lips deeply before guiding himself inside her, she was shaking.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, angling her hips to deepen their connection. “I missed you so much,” she breathed.
Emmett ached to move, but he summoned his willpower and held himself still, enjoying the feeling of being joined with her. God, it had been too long. He was going to do this every night now. Probably twice a day, if she was up for it.
Unable to control himself anymore, he began to thrust.
He kept things slow at first. He massaged her breasts gently, careful not to cause her any pain. A bit of milk leaked out onto her chest and he bent to lap it up. She let out a soft sigh of pleasure and threaded her fingers through his hair. “You’re so hot,” she whispered. “You’re so fucking hot.”
“You’re mine.”
“I’m yours,” she agreed, her eyes sliding shut blissfully, hips rising to meet his. He felt her body shudder around him and joined his own orgasm to hers, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.
Afterward, they laid together in bed, staring up at the ceiling and listening for the cries of their children. None came. So far, the babies remained asleep.
“Someday,” she said, “I want you to go on the road again, Emmett.”
“I don’t know.”
“I want to go with you.”
He raised himself up on one elbow and looked at her.
“The days we spent on your bike together were some of the most exciting of my life,” she said. “I want you to take me places. I want to meet new people and see new things. Maybe I even want to try working a job.”
“But the babies—”
“In a few years, when they’re a little older, they’ll be able to get by without me for a while,” she said. “The others will take care of them. You and I can go out together the way Xander and Judah are now.”
“You’d really want that?”
“More than anything,” she said. “It’s like you said. I’m a human, and I have my human life, living here in this house and raising our children. But I’m a wolf too. I can’t let go of that side of myself, not now that I’ve found it. I want to know my wild side. I want to know what it’s like to be on the road when you’re not on the run. And someday, when they’re old enough, I want that for the kids too.”
Emmett couldn’t believe his ears. “I was ready to give that up,” he said. “I chose you. This life.”
“And I chose you,” she said, pulling herself in close to him. “Never forget that, Emmett. You may have chosen my life, but I also chose yours. We should have both.”
Emmett’s heart swelled with happiness, and he bent to kiss her again.
More Books by J.L. Wilder
Hell’s Wolves MC-The Omega Games
An omega held against her will.
To protect her, he must win the omega games—or watch her be bred by another.
Wyatt
All my life I’d been a lone wolf.
Drinking, hiding my inner beast.
Then I became second to the Alpha of the Hell’s Wolves MC.
That’s when she came into my life—the omega.
Now my sole purpose is to protect this sexy little wolf.
Even if it violates my alpha’s orders.
Izzy
Those bastards think they can treat me like a breeding bag.
When the wolf moon comes and I’m in heat,
They’ll hold the omega games—with me as the prize.
What they don’t know is I’ll decide who gets my body, and my heart.
For me, there is only one.
And I need him so bad it hurts.
Hell’s Bears MC Series
Omega’s Bears
I’m an omega. I’m all alone. And the wolves are coming for me.
All my life, I’ve felt I should be stronger. All my life, I’ve felt I should be powerful. But all my life, I’ve been nothing. The only thing I had was my clan. But the wolves took them from me. Every single one of my family is gone.
The wolves want me for crossbreeding, and I have to run. The only bears who might protect me are dangerous, lawless, and wild. But still I ride on. Straight into the den of the Hell's Bears MC....
The White Omega
I've never left my home. I'm a prisoner in my own pack. All because I'm an omega...
All my life I've been told I need to stay inside, stay protected. As an omega polar bear, i'm an object of lust to shifter men, and the outside world is not safe. When my pack's alpha claims he has imprinted on me, I know it’s a lie. I know the outside world is the only one I can trust.
Even if I get kidnapped, and delivered to the doorstep of the infamous Hell's Bears MC. I am to be their new omega, their breeder. What terrifies me most, is which Hell's Bear will imprint on me, and claim me for life....
The Hidden Omega
There's something wrong with me. Sometimes I'm not even sure I'm human.
I was raised by humans, and all my life I thought I was a monster.
Turns out I'm something more valuable—an omega bear shifter.
After being kidnapped for a prostitution ring, I'm rescued by the Hell's Bears MC.
There is Clay who imprints on me, Mike who comforts me, and Bruno the alpha.
Sometimes it seems like Bruno wants nothing to do with me...
Do they really want me to be a member of their pack,
or do they just want to use me for breeding?
About The Author
J.L. Wilder likes wild things. Wild men. Wild bears. Wild wolves.
She lives in a remote area of Northern California and enjoys gardening, and backpacking in the wilderness. She has a thing for tall men with beards.
Her best-selling shifter tales explore the wildness of sex, love, and shapeshifters.
You can grab a free shifter romance and join her email here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/mvci9dryz6