by R K Knightly
And it would cover up the scent and sight of blood that was wafting over from behind the Packhouse.
"Elle, babe?"
Her head shot over to Liam and she gave him a wan smile. He was standing at the top of the stairs looking down at her.
"Come sit with me for a bit," she requested of him softly.
He complied and walked down the old stairs, hopping over the creaky one that was next to last at the bottom.
He curled up next to her on the couch and gently pulled her into his body as she held on, with both hands, to her drink. She didn't need a scalding hot beverage to burn the Alpha's babymakers.
"Mint?" he asked, sniffing the air.
"It soothes my stomach," she told him. He stiffened.
"Are you-?"
"Quit thinking with your dick," she told him lightly. "I've only been feeling nauseous since seeing the head of one of my family members lopped off. I'm sure this will pass."
He pressed a kiss to her temple and curled his arm around her waist.
"I'll keep my dick in check for the night then," Liam told her softly. "I can't make any promises about tomorrow, though."
He was serious, though Elle laughed at him. She felt him smile against the skin of her forehead.
"That was…it was horrible," she said when her laughter petered out. She was thinking of the execution again, much to Liam's displeasure. "Have you...have you ever had to do that before?"
"No," he said lowly. "And if I ever have to do it again, it'll be way too soon."
"And if Jeremiah-"
"Oh, I will gladly take him down if the opportunity arises," Liam said quickly. "He is nearly as awful as your cousin, angel. And he wants what's mine." He held onto her tightly, as if Jeremiah were a ghostly apparition outside their window, threatening to spirit Elle away.
"A close second," she agreed.
"Do you have any other relatives or acquaintances I should be aware of that are evil incarnate? A mate likes to know these things in order to keep his family safe."
"None that I'm aware of."
"No witchy blood or vampires in the deepest corners of your closet?"
"Ew. No," she said, crinkling her nose. Vamps were not always the good-looking creatures you saw with fangs and killer abs on True Blood. And they were repulsive to the many shifter species in general.
"Good," he said and stopped for a moment. "You aunt and her other kids...where are they?"
Elle shrugged and shook her head. "No clue," she said to him. "They've obviously split ways with Jackson. I'm sure he would have mentioned any other family besides his mate to me. He didn't seem to be very close to any of them even when he was younger, to be honest."
"I feel bad for his family," he said. "To...to have to deal with that rogue all their lives, knowing what he was like. And your aunt, praying that none of her other children followed in his footsteps after his father died."
"My other cousins were always good to me," she told him. "I remember playing and having little Aaron tagging along everywhere his sister and I went. I still can't remember her name, though it's on the tip of my tongue."
"She was a few years older than you?" Liam asked.
"Yes. But both she and Aaron would have been too young to have a mate at the time I knew them. I wonder if they are living nearby."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence and listened as the heat kicked on. They had a fireplace, true, but it was so cold they needed central heating this far north.
"I think Trace may have found his mate," Liam said, offhandedly.
"What? How?" Elle sat up straighter.
"Don't know," Liam said. "He was talking to one of the younger females after the execution tonight. He had...a look in his eyes. He was either extremely horny after a bloody head-lopping or she was something special to him."
"It's Trace," Elle said, relaxing. "He'd fuck anything with a hole if it stood still long enough." There was a pause. "Well, not a man, I suppose."
"Oh, but it would be rich if he was mated to another male," Liam chortled. "I have nothing against gay partnership, especially if the two are true mates, but it would be completely ironic for him to be drowning in pussy and then have to take a male to mate."
"Would he reject him if he was mated to a male?" Elle asked.
"Never," Liam told her. "This pack is traditional in that sense. Rejection of a mate is akin to blasphemy. Trace could be made rogue and exiled if he rejected his match without damned good reason."
"Well, we can always hope he'll finally settle down," Elle said, though she had her doubts. From what she had witnessed, Trace could get aroused simply by someone saying the word "wood". It was semi-entertaining to behold at times.
"He will," Liam guessed. "He's never been averse to having a mate. He's just having fun while he still can."
"Didn't you have fun when you were younger?" she asked.
"I found Cecilia when I was 21," he told Elle. "Would have found her sooner had she still been here at Plumbrook. Since she went with her father and brother over to Blackriver, it took us longer to connect. I had what you might call a little fun prior to that."
Liam was happy he could speak so openly with Elle about his past. He had never wanted to before, even with Blake. Blake, however, knew the amount of guilt Liam had suffered when his mate had died and didn't want to revisit old wounds. He thought they would somehow open up again and Liam – immediately after Cecilia's death – was not a nice man to be around.
"Do you think it will snow soon?" Elle asked, her gaze once again wandering to the window and moonlight beyond it.
"I'm surprised it hasn't already," Liam said. "The mild weather has been a rare treat, but it's finally started to get really brisk – especially at night."
Elle took another sip of her tea and thought. She hoped that whatever happened with Jeremiah would be over before the holidays. She wanted to visit her parents for Christmas at the very least. And Chase, her brother.
If she couldn't, well...she didn't like to think of a Christmas without all her family around her, or, at the very least, her parents.
"I hope Trace finds happiness with his she-wolf," Elle said absently. "If he doesn't treat her well I'll have his nuts as ornaments on our Christmas tree."
"Then we'll have to keep the tree outdoors," Liam told her definitively. "I can't stand the smell of sweaty balls even on a good day. Add blood onto that and I think I might go off the holidays altogether."
Elle smiled.
"Permission to castrate your Delta if he fucks it up with his mate?"
"Permission granted, sweetheart."
Chapter 38
"She's not a virgin," Trace grumped as he plunked his heavy ass in the chair across the desk from Liam. His Alpha only blinked.
"Come again? Who's not a virgin?" This was the weirdest start to a conversation he’d ever had, and he had lived with his father for over twenty years.
"Helene," Trace growled out. "My mate."
So. He had found her at last.
"Trace you do realize that you're not exactly Mother Bloody Teresa or the Virgin Mary," Liam said while raising a brow in disbelief.
"This...it's different," he harrumphed.
Completely. Idiotic.
"And why is this different?" Please let this be a double standard type situation, Liam silently pleaded. He really wanted to lay into him if it was.
"She's...well, she's a female for one," Trace blurted out. "Secondly, she's mine! No one else should have had her!"
Thank you Baby Jesus, Santa Claus, and the motherfucking Easter Bunny. Christmas has come early.
"And what does she say about your sexual status? Did you show her all the notches on your bedpost before you got angry with her for having a sexual partner or three before you?"
Trace looked away.
"She's well aware I'm...popular," he simply stated.
"Son, twerking was popular," Liam told him. "Those stupid-ass sneakers with toes were popular. If we're talking r
atios for popularity here, you're the fucking God of popularity."
"I-"
"Like to get around," Liam finished. "How many sexual partners has she had before you?"
"Two," Trace said, as if he had added a few zeroes after the lone number.
"Well, if you add both your exploits up, you'd get somewhere around 200 or so," Liam told him.
Trace's jaw twitched.
"You know if you fuck up with Helene, I gave Elle permission to extract your nuts through your tonsils," Liam told him.
"She wouldn't," Trace mumbled.
"You have met my mate, haven't you? The same one who gave a death sentence of Blood Eagle to her own cousin and wants to use your balls as Christmas decorations if you fuck it up with Helene?"
Trace glared at him and Liam sighed.
"What are you going to do?" he finally asked.
"I'm going to find those two guys she slept with and make their future mates very unhappy with me when I rip off their junk and-"
"And what? Do you realize how hypocritical you sound right now? Threatening to separate the two male's cocks so their future females won't have anything to bounce on? Listen to yourself, man. What about when the other men find their mates with some of the women you slept with? They'll want to flay you alive."
"I'm a Delta. They wouldn't dare," Trace said confidently. "The only two females with higher rank are Colleen and Elle, and I've never fucked either one of-"
"Watch what you say, Trace," Liam growled, his eyes flashing amber for a flickering millisecond. "Though I know the chance of you and Elle fucking is nil, I don't want to beat you to within an inch of your life because you said something as stupid as what you're about to spout off."
"My apologies, Alpha," Trace said meekly, chastised.
"Now get the fuck out of my sight, take your mate to bed, and fuck her 'til she forgets those two other men's names," Liam told him. "You'll feel better for it, trust me."
Trace got up, but knew better than to stomp or slam a door in the Packhouse when Liam was working.
Besides, he had a mate to get to. Just thinking about the other two males possibly being around her was utterly distracting.
And, he had to admit, the Alpha was right. Not that he was about to say that to the man's face.
∞∞∞
"Lucy! I'm home!" Liam called out as he pulled off his winter jacket and tossed it onto the coat rack.
"Ricky! Where have you been?" Elle called, playing into his act.
"I was at de club playing de bongos," he told her and pulled her into a kiss as she walked toward him from the kitchen.
"Is that some kind of euphemism? Playing the bongos?"
He let his hands slide to her ass where he slapped her cheeks a few times in an indistinct rhythm.
"How did you guess?" he asked as he picked her up by her thighs and let her wrap her legs around him, cinching at his waist tightly.
"I'm fluent in the secret language of euphemisms."
He carried her into the kitchen where he dropped her on the counter next to the sink before giving her a proper kiss now that she was closer to his height.
"Hey, baby," he said before sinking his lips into hers and immediately darting a warm tongue into her mouth.
"Hey," she breathed out when they parted.
"You're cooking?" he asked, surprised. "It's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'd figure you'd be tired of cooking by now."
"I'm not actually cooking right now," she corrected. "I'm baking. Pumpkin and apple pies."
"Two pies only?" he asked. They were having Colleen, Blake, Trace, Helene, and Caleb over for Thanksgiving dinner as well. Blake and Liam could clean up two entire pies on their own.
"Colleen is making a strawberry rhubarb and blueberry pie to bring over as well," she told him before sliding off the counter and bending to check her masterpieces in the making.
Liam smacked her on the ass when she bent over and Elle yelped from her position before knifing back up.
"No pie for you!" she scolded, as if she were the Seinfeld soup Nazi.
"How 'bout if I give you a little sugar later on tonight? Does that grant me pie tomorrow?"
"Depends how many times you can make me come," she told him, unashamed.
"What's the minimum?"
"I'm not telling, underachiever," she told him.
"I always shoot for the stars, baby," he told her. "Right before I shoot inside of you."
"You are disgusting," she told him, scoffing.
"You swallow my come," he told her.
"And you swallow mine," she threw back as she went in search of the Christmas oven mitts she had Colleen purchase for her at Target. It was a little early, but she was already in a holiday mood.
"And if these pies taste as good as you, I'll die a happy, tryptophan-sleep-induced wolf."
"I'm slipping arsenic in your slices of pie," she threatened.
"I'd be sick for a while, but I think I'd live through it," he said honestly. Sometimes it paid to have an Alpha's heightened cell-regeneration ability.
In all honesty, Liam and Elle didn't mean a bit of their nastier banter. Unless it was sexual. Elle realized he liked when she got a bit feisty with him, so she upped her sass on occasion to placate his unwavering need.
"So, if you're busy baking pie, what's for dinner?" Liam asked, having had enough of their back and forth for now. "Should I pick up some takeout?"
"No need," she told him. "We have sandwich fixings if you don't mind slumming it for a night."
He didn't. Not when Elle was preparing a feast for them tomorrow. Colleen was sure to come early with Blake to help her, so he wouldn't be lonely without Elle.
At least, not too much.
Elle and Liam had met Trace's little mate, a spitfire of a blond who was only a couple of inches taller than Elle's small stature, but miles ahead in curves. Trace had always gravitated toward the females with a bit of roundness to them, not that there was much he would say no to. If he had gravitated towards celebrities, J. Lo or Kim K. would have been right up his alley, so to speak.
Still, after Liam had had his chat with Trace, he noticed that his Delta bore a mark that was similar to his own, though smaller.
Liam was happy to see Elle filling out as well. Whereas she had been bone-thin when she had first come on Plumbrook territory, she was now a healthy size six to eight, depending on the brand of clothing.
Her breasts had grown as well and filled Liam's hands fully when they were intimate. She had complained of their sensitivity as of late because of the thinner skin after being stretched a bit, but they were so fucking soft and tasted sweeter than honey dipped in sugar.
Fuck. He had gotten hard just thinking about Elle's firm tits. He wondered how much more time they had before the pies were ready. Maybe he could convince her to have a quickie on the couch if she set the timer on the pies.
He moved closer to Elle and ground his quickly hardening cock against her.
"Liam! I have to watch the pies," she scolded, though her legs wrapped around him to keep him close.
"We can be quick," he told her and pulled her away from the counter toward the living room. "Besides, my father's not here to walk in on us like last time."
"Is the door locked?"
He made a detour as he double checked the locks on the front door. He always kept the back door deadbolted.
"This is gonna be short but sweet, angel," he told her as he tugged his tight jeans down past his knees. "I still have a mission to impregnate you before my father and mother get fed up with us and come here to supervisor our mating. They'll walk in on us in our bedroom just to make sure we're doing it right. My mother's a master at picking locks too. God knows where she learned that talent."
Elle giggled and pulled down her panties. Liam had pulled her pants off before he had sat back on the couch with his jeans around his ankles and looking utterly ridiculous.
And Elle had no doubt Conley would do it. And give tips. The man had zero
filter, and even though it embarrassed her sometimes, there was a part of her that sort of liked it.
Elle's giggles were cut short as she was slowly impaled on the Alpha's thick length as it slid home inside of her.
"Liam," Elle moaned out as his hips thrust up into her and he growled. He loved when she moaned his name. Her hips drew up and off him before sitting back down, his own meeting with hers on her slow downward stroke. She gripped his shoulders as her fingernails dug into his skin making crescent-shaped marks.
Liam's fingers found the hem of her shirt and whipped it over her head before taking a hard nipple into his mouth. He traced his tongue around it lightly and then sucked it between his teeth, letting the friction grate against her sensitive skin.
She moaned out as he stroked her with the flat of his tongue and nipped gently at the hardened tips.
Elle clenched around him as he stroked in and out of her, hitting that sweet spot inside her with the perfect angle of his pelvis against hers.
"Shit, angel. So soon?" he asked. She was so responsive to him, particularly as of late. He didn't know if it was the weight gain or something else, but he wanted her to respond to him this way forever, even if it meant having a curvy mate. He would still love every rotund inch of her.
"Yes! Right there!" she called out as he all but assaulted her sensitive g-spot with punishing thrusts of his hips.
"Fuck!" she cried out as she shattered around him in a wave of pulsating squeezes that had him all but spilling inside her as she milked him dry.
"Oh fuck, baby," he growled out and willed himself to last a little longer inside her. When she was this easy to get coming for him, it always had him erupting inside her all the quicker.
"Liam...please," she begged, a quivering mass of soft flesh and bone atop him. "Come in me."
He bit her neck hard as his nuts tightened and drew up, ready to burst. He felt her lips brush against his mark, and with a few more thrusts, he found himself emptying into her with an elongated groan of pleasure.
"Fuck, angel," He breathed against the skin of her neck. "I think I emptied my balls out on that one. If you don't get pregnant with that, I think I'm giving up on trying."