Monsters & Guardians

by Kay Elle Parker

Finn’s fingers tightened; Cabh’s wolf bristled. “Don’t move. Don’t speak.”

  “Dubh, please, I...”

  There was a wealth of emotion in the plea, and when she turned her head to the side, gray eyes dark and unseeing, it was reflected on her face before Quinn captured her in his hands and sealed his mouth over hers.

  Dubh licked and nipped across her shoulders as he shifted position, the crown of his cock replacing his fingers. He growled, canting his hips forward, and the room filled with whining breaths, softly pained mewls.

  Cabhan drooled, envious and frustrated.

  “That’s my girl,” Dubhlainn crooned proudly, running his hands up her sides. Every muscle in his body strained with impatience but he held onto his natural urge to fuck like an animal with astonishing willpower—Cabh knew he’d have lost the battle to go slowly the moment his cock touched that virgin orifice, hammering into her until she screamed, but Dubh...Dubh was the essence of control.

  Raine broke the kiss with Quinn, panting and moaning. Her nails scored raw lines into Quinn’s chest and arms as she clawed at him futilely, her teeth biting when and where she could. “Can’t...can’t...”

  “You can, sweetheart. You can take all of him.” Quinn nuzzled at her throat, mirroring the Alpha’s physical reassurances. “Doing beautifully, aren’t you? Such a good, brave girl, taking her Alpha’s cock this way. Making us so fucking proud of you.”

  Our mate. Our mate. Our mate. Cabh’s wolf chanted.

  “Relax and breathe, precious,” Dubhlainn murmured, sheathing another inch of his shaft inside her on a delighted groan. “Nearly taken all of me, Raine.”

  The Alpha was also an incredibly believable liar, Cabhan mused. His brother was barely inside the female despite the fact he could penetrate her fully now with one hard thrust if he so desired. Instead he seemed content to draw the process out with lazy pushes of his pelvis.

  “Hurts,” she moaned in response, trying to push away from Quinn; arms immediately came around her from both her lovers, cradling her between them in a blanket of comfort she soon nestled into.

  “Not for long, sweetheart.” Quinn reached beneath her, ran his fingers through her seam and chuckled softly as he toyed with her clit, causing her hips to jump. “Fuck, you’re so wet. You like it when Dubh’s in your ass, baby? Feels so naughty but fucking good, doesn’t it, letting your big bad wolf do wicked things to your body.”

  The sweet, tantalizing aroma of female arousal wiped out the scent of roses and violets as Raine responded to his words. Not the perfume of estrus, not the fragrance of heat, but all natural, all consensual arousal from a wet and needy pussy.

  Cabhan twitched, the wolf ready to throw itself on the bed, but Finn almost strangled him before he could take his next breath, evidently in tune with his brother’s intentions.

  We deserve better than this! The wolf howled in outrage.

  “Precious girl wants to come.” Dubh bit her shoulder lightly and made her cry out. His hands skimmed down her legs, spread them wider so Quinn’s shaft settled between the swollen lips of her pussy, his crown nudging her clit as she wriggled and writhed. “Come then, Raine. Come all over Quinn for me.”

  Her body went rigid, feet tapping the mattress with little spasms Cabhan had no doubt emulated the ripples of her empty cunt—and wasn’t that a goddamn shame?

  As she orgasmed, Dubhlainn surged forward mercilessly, bringing a scream to light and another climax tearing through her system. His hips slapped against her ass, every inch of his cock disappeared from view, and Raine’s cries were like music to Cabhan’s sadistic side.

  Nothing like a rousing dash of pain to add spice to an orgasm.

  It would be so easy for Quinn to raise the stakes, Cabhan thought with dark intent. A lift of his hips, the right angle, and he could be balls deep in Raine within a few moments, stretching the bitch out of reality into delirium. Filling her with two dominant cocks, showing the bitch who was in charge, who owned her—every fucking inch of her.

  But the pansy just stayed where he was, growling lightly under his breath as he stroked and stroked and stroked. Supporting her flailing body as Dubhlainn loosened his grip on his beast and battered into her tender body like a demon.

  Wet sounds accompanied the rapid slap of flesh on flesh and Raine’s escalating wails of pleasure. Her face was slack now, drool glistening on her lips as her limp form rocked back and forth on top of Quinn, her raw cries coming from somewhere inside her where conscious thought couldn’t reach.

  “Shit. Shit, Dubh, I gotta come, I can’t hold on much longer,” Quinn said desperately, his head tipping back so the cords in his neck stood out.

  “Inside her,” Dubh growled, sweat dripping, muscles gleaming.

  “I can’t...she can’t...”

  “Do as you’re fucking told, Quinn. You come inside her.” Dubh bared his teeth and glanced over at Finn. “You too, lad. Get over here and take her mouth. Gently,” he emphasized firmly, obviously struggling to keep his own release in check. “When you come, you bite her. Mark her.”

  That black gaze locked on Cabhan’s, and he knew what Dubhlainn intended. Knew he was officially locked out of the pack. By intruding into the bedroom without permission, Cabhan had sealed his own fate and the Alpha was punishing him by allowing him to watch them take their mate, mark their mate in front of him, while he came to terms with the knowledge he would never be given the opportunity to do so.

  He’d fucking blown it.

  Finn’s grip on his neck loosened reluctantly and Cabhan nearly laughed when his baby brother approached the bed with a mixture of eagerness and trepidation. Probably waiting for the bitch to leap up and bite his cock off.

  What are we hanging around for? They don’t want us here and yet here we are, kneeling in supplication while the fucking Alpha rubs our noses in what we can’t have? We should rip his throat out, all their throats out, and bathe in their blood!

  The ferocity of the wolf’s hatred shocked Cabhan. Never had it been so outspoken, so viciously disloyal to the pack. It was a black fury building inside him like a tornado, all gnashing teeth and destructive power, waiting to strike.

  He gnawed on his lip, bloodying the flesh, when the female’s eyes flashed wide with shock and his erection swelled with jealous arousal, imagining the feel of her tight cunt stretching around him as Dubhlainn destroyed her from the rear.

  But it wasn’t him animating her previously limp form, it was Quinn. Quinn, the fucker, who wore a twisted look of rapture and disquiet as the bitch yelped and struggled. Of course, the three males surrounding her immediately set to comforting her, murmuring and cajoling.

  Subdue her! Cabh’s wolf snarled.

  Why the hell was he on his feet? Dread filled his belly as he took a shaky step forward, body torn between obeying Cabh and relinquishing control to the wolf. The motherfucking wolf sneakily escaping from its confines.

  Black eyes pinned him, Dubhlainn’s unadulterated rage detonating like a nuclear bomb, and Cabhan understood his wolf had just signed their death warrant in blood. He needed to leave now before the Alpha finished his rut. The moment Raine was filled with Dubh’s seed, the pack leader would be on Cabhan like green on grass.

  We do not surrender.

  Shut up, you psychotic beast, before you cost us everything. We need to run before it’s too late, now go! Cabhan tried to apologize to his eldest brother with his eyes, but the Alpha was beyond negotiating.

  “No knots!” the female cried in a slurred voice, pulling Dubh’s attention back to her and her frantic evasions. “God’s sake, no knots.”

  Go now.

  Cabhan’s last image of his pack was the Alpha pulling his mate upright, pushing her down firmly onto Quinn’s cock so she rode both brothers at once before he set his mouth on her shoulder. Quinn reared up, face contorted with orgasm and mirrored Dubh on the other side.

  Finn stepped up, muffling the bitch’s gasping whines with his cock, thrusting shallowly into her mouth a
s he lifted her wrist to his lips and waited. When she came, body seizing with the intensity of her orgasm, her wolves followed with hard grunts and guttural groans, sinking their teeth into her flesh while pleasure flooded her system.

  Cabhan ran then, shifting on his way down the stairs so he hit the ground floor running, barreling through the house and smashing the front door in his haste. He doubted Dubhlainn would follow him for long, if at all, what with the female being ridiculously vulnerable, but running was his only method of survival.

  What the hell was he supposed to do now?

  *

  Finn

  Under other circumstances, he’d be mortified at the speed of his ejaculation. Under sixty seconds had to be a record, but fuck if he could hold on once her soft, lush mouth surrounded him with warm, wet heat and suckled. Those eyes, so like his own, clouded with lust and just a touch of fear as Quinn and Dubhlainn shoved her limits into the stratosphere hadn’t helped his stamina stand up to the visual, aural and physical stimulation.

  Right now, as he slipped his cock from her mouth and wiped a drop of cum from her bottom lip with his thumb, Raine was somewhere on Cloud Sixty-Nine, well past thought or comprehension. Dubhlainn kissed and nuzzled her neck, easing her forward as Quinn fell back onto the bed, nearly taking Finn out.

  Finn jumped off the bed, abandoning his precarious position, and hovered impatiently, waiting for his brothers to disengage. His wolf was sated but Finn himself needed to make sure Raine was unharmed.

  “Calm down, Finn,” Dubh advised with a lazy chuckle. “The lass is just fine. By the way her muscles are working on my cock, she’s still orgasming.”

  Quinn smiled in satisfaction. “Gonna have to agree with that.”

  Finn eyed the bite marks on her shoulders, her wrist, and sighed. The circle was complete; Raine was mated, she was marked, she was theirs. Only death could severe the bond now. “So what do we do? Cabh’s gone, Malachi’s gone...”

  Dubhlainn pinned him with a look. “Finn, relax. They’re gone, yes, and good riddance. The pack won’t carry deadweight, we have enough to do without lugging those two around. Right now, we’re going to spend a couple hours doing what we should have done from the start and treat Raine like a fucking princess. So take a deep breath, get your head into a better space, and let me worry about Cabh and Mal.”

  Their princess was so blissed out, she could barely lift her head to smile at Quinn when he murmured something in her ear. Her lips, swollen and beautifully pink, curved dreamily while her eyes drifted without focusing on any one thing...until she saw Finn’s face. Soft emotion, what he would like to say was love, echoed the flutter of emotion on her peaceful features.

  “She’s ours now?” he asked reverently.

  Dubh’s smile was that of an Alpha firmly in love with his mate, secure in the knowledge that, yes, she was his as much as she was theirs. “Raine is the be all and end all of us, Finn. Whatever we do from here is with her in mind, every step of the way. She is ours, just as we are hers.”

  Okay, maybe he could relax for a couple hours. That sounded nice, actually. For days, his brain, his wolf and his body had gone to war with his conscience and his hormones. Soaring with exhilaration, plummeting with guilt. Suffering through Raine’s torment with her, despising himself for being one of her torturers.

  “Should we clean her up before she falls asleep?” Finn murmured, aware her eyes were watching him as he spoke. “She might feel better when she wakes up if she’s not caked in dry cum.”

  Her nose wrinkled; Finn’s lips twitched.

  Quinn cupped her face, turned it so she looked at him with those heavy eyes. “Sweetheart, would you like a shower before we take a nap? Or a bath?” He glanced up at Finn, then Dubh. “I think we wore her out, boys. Either no one’s home or she ain’t answering the door.”

  With an uncomfortable grunt, Dubh pulled free of the slight female pressed firmly between the two wolves, then bent and kissed both rounded curves of her ass cheeks as she mewled quietly. “Finn, go run a bath. If she goes to sleep in there, we don’t have to try keep her on her feet. Take her off Quinn when it’s full enough to get her in and keep her warm until it fills. Quinn, you’re in charge of feeding her.”

  Finn rolled his eyes. “Dubh, Quinn tries to boil an egg, he turns it into a rock. Take pity on the girl. I can do the food while Quinn—”

  “No. We all need to pull our shit together. No one person does one thing. All of us need to learn new skills and teach what we know. Being well-rounded in...domestic activities takes the pressure off us as individuals.” Dubh stroked his hand down Raine’s back, smirking when she arched into his touch. He left the bed, stretched. “Quinn, food. Finn, bath. Understood?”

  They both nodded, and Finn could see where his brother was coming from. It wouldn’t harm any of them to expand their talents, and should anything happen, they had all bases covered. But the thought of teaching his culinary-inept older brother how to cook—cook edible food—didn’t bring him feelings of joy and excitement.

  On the contrary, he might end up stabbing Quinn with a fork.

  “Where are you going?” Quinn demanded.

  Granite slammed into Dubhlainn’s face, turning it into a stone-cold mask of fury. “I’m going to secure the house, the area outside. Malachi was thrown out but he might be lurking, unless he’s chased after Killian like the sad, lost puppy he is. Cabhan ran, I don’t know how far or where to, but I want to make sure he’s not a threat. Don’t worry, I’ll be back by the time you’ve bathed and fed our mate.”

  Something whispered bad idea in Finn’s brain, sending little warning lights flashing. He shook his head, grabbing the Alpha’s arm as Dubh went to walk past. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. If they’re waiting in an ambush, you’ll walk straight into it. If they take you out, neither me nor Quinn are equipped to lead. We’ll end up sucked back into the Galway pack or dead if they kill you, and personally death is the most preferable of those two options. If things needs securing, I should go. You and Quinn stand in better stead to protect Raine if anything happens.”

  Dubh’s eyebrow lifted. “Expecting a skirmish, Finn?”

  Not expecting it, no, but his gut was far from settled. “Might not be today, Dubhlainn, or tomorrow, but there’s going to be conflict over this. Three of us mating one mortal female, Malachi being banished and Cabhan fleeing, not to mention Killian. There’s a shitstorm coming, and we should use our heads to guard what resources we have, set protocols in place. You heading out there alone is just stupid.”

  As if considering, Dubh nodded slowly. “I see. So I should send you to your death instead, should there be an ambush planned. How does this help us, Finn? Knowing I sent my baby brother to his death when I’m aware of how little fighting skills you possess would do nothing but pile guilt on top of grief.”

  Finn shrugged. “I’d rather die and leave Raine in your protection, Dubh, than surrender her to Fergus and the pack. You know he’d torture her just to make a point before he killed her. I think it’s irresponsible for you as the Alpha to put yourself at risk when Raine depends on you more than Quinn or I.”

  “Is that so?”

  He swallowed hard at the deadly quiet question. Pushing Dubh’s buttons wasn’t wise, but it was necessary. “I can secure the area as well as you can. I think it’s in Raine’s best interests for you to stay here.”

  “And if I deem it in her best interests for you to bond with her further, for her dependency on you and Quinn to strengthen?” Dubh lowered his voice when the woman in question stirred on top of Quinn, mumbling incoherently. “Fergus won’t make a move so soon, Finn. He’ll have to stew and plot and rage, you know what he’s like. There’s always the possibility Mal and Cabhan will come back but I’m guessing they’re off licking their wounds. To be honest, I can’t see Cabhan seeking revenge.”

  “And Killian?”

  Dubh smiled and fuck, it made him look sinister. Dark shadows and a savage gleam in his eyes
completed his transformation into formidable Alpha. Not to mention the slight baring of his teeth. “Killian has more to worry about today than coming back here, trust me. Nursing his wounds will be his priority.” He clapped both hands down on Finn’s shoulders. “Do as I say, brother. Twenty, thirty minutes tops, and I’ll be back.”

  “If you’re not?”

  “You always did worry more than the rest of us put together. If I’m not, you take Raine and you get her to one of the shifter packs. They should accept you as a trio. If they decide to be stubborn bastards, there’s the werewolf pack in North Dakota; Romulus and his mate will take you in. They know you, they’ll protect you until you decide what to do. If I’m not dead, I’ll find you there.”

  Rolling his eyes, Finn snorted a laugh. “Reassuring, big brother.”

  Dubh squeezed Finn’s shoulders and grinned. “Everything will be fine. Let me get this out of the way and then we can finally spend some quality bonding time with Raine that doesn’t involve fucking her brains out.” He released him, stepped away, and with a last look at the exhausted redhead on the bed, slipped out of the room.

  “Grew some balls, didn’t you?” Quinn rumbled quietly. “Didn’t think I’d ever see you challenge an Alpha, even if it is Dubhlainn.”

  Finn shrugged and padded toward the bathroom. “We’re more than individuals now and more than just a pack. It had to be said, regardless of whether he killed me for insubordination or not.”

  “I think you’ll find he’ll be proud of you for standing up to him,” Quinn said, stroking a hand down Raine’s back. “For that matter, so am I. It can’t be easy being different from the rest of us, Finn. Making fun of you is one thing but understanding you and how you work...you’re the best of us, lad. The biggest heart, the smartest goddamn brain. You make me proud to call you brother.”

  With a flush rising up his chest, Finn ducked his head and vanished into the bathroom. He plugged the bath, set the hot water running with a clunk of pipes, and tried to sort through the myriad of emotions Quinn’s praise gave him—he wasn’t used to being acknowledged, to have his qualities spotlighted instead of his flaws. He watched the water rising in the tub, grabbed a bottle off the side and poured a healthy dollop or six of thick purple gel into the churning stream so lavender scented bubbles began to fill the bath as quickly as the water.