by J. L. Wilder
“You’re wrong,” Ozzy said quietly.
Randy’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell do you mean, I’m wrong?”
Gage leaned over to Chuck. “Do you think he’s angrier that we’re trying to take power or that his little brother is talking back to him?” he asked under his breath.
Chuck shrugged. There was no playbook for any of this. It was completely unprecedented.
“There is a way we can take power,” Ozzy said. “And nobody has to fight anybody.”
“Like hell,” Randy said.
“The pack gets to decide who leads them,” Ozzy said. “Alphas like to pretend that they have the final say. But at the end of the day, if you don’t have the loyalty and the devotion of the rest of the pack, it doesn’t matter whether you’re willing to cede power to us or not. It comes down to who they submit to.”
“We already know that this pack recognizes me as its leader,” Randy said. “What do you think you’re going to prove?”
“Things have changed,” Gage said. “Maybe they did recognize you as leader. But now we have the omega.”
“All we have is your claim that the three of you have imprinted on her,” Randy scoffed. “Anyone could say the same. More likely you just found her and decided to fuck her and say that made her yours.”
Gage lunged forward. Chuck caught him and held him back, but the truth was that he wanted to hit Randy too.
Only Ozzy remained calm. He completely ignored Randy’s accusation. “The fact that we’ve imprinted on the omega gives us the best claim to leadership of the pack,” he said quietly.
“My claim is the strongest,” Randy countered. “I’m the next in the bloodline. That’s how the claim is passed down, and you know it. And what’s more, as alpha, I should get to claim the omega.”
Natalie came over to stand beside them. Chuck wanted to tell her to go inside, but he saw the fire in her eyes and held his tongue.
“You can’t claim me,” she told Randy heatedly. “Nobody can.”
“Really?” Randy said, leering. “Because from what these three are telling me, it sounds like they’ve all taken their turn on you.”
“You don’t understand anything about love,” Natalie said. “That’s why you’re a terrible leader. Chuck and Gage and Ozzy love me, and they love this pack. You only love power.”
“You don’t know anything,” Randy said. “You’re practically a human. You don’t know anything about what it is to belong to a pack, to follow an alpha, to be a part of a community like this. Nobody here is going to let you tell us who our leader should be.”
“I think you will,” Natalie said.
“What makes you think so?”
“Because I know what the role of the omega is,” Natalie said.
“Everyone knows what an omega’s role is,” Randy said. “You’re supposed to serve the alpha, to be loyal to him, to be faithful and loving and bear him his children.”
“Not how I would have put it,” Gage said mildly. “We’re supposed to serve her.”
“The point is,” Natalie said, “the role of the omega is to strengthen the pack, and to strengthen the alpha, by providing for the future and the continuation of the alpha’s genes.”
“So?” Randy snapped.
She looked him in the eye. “You can’t claim me,” she said, “because I’m pregnant.”
A collective gasp went up. Chuck heard several people around him muttering. He was too stunned to think.
She’s pregnant?
“You’re lying,” Randy said.
“Give me a test, then,” Natalie said evenly.
“You can count on it,” Randy said.
Natalie turned away from him and faced the rest of the pack. “I’m pregnant,” she said, her voice carrying across the yard. “Ozzy, Gage, and Chuck are my mates. I’m pregnant by all of them, and when I give birth to their children, their lines will be strengthened. They will have heirs in the new generation. This pack’s next alpha will come from among their sons.”
Chuck reached out and took Natalie’s hand. On her other side, Gage had done the same thing. Ozzy’s hands came to rest on her shoulders.
“Name them your alphas and give them your allegiance,” Natalie said. “Because the power of this pack is centered on the four of us now.”
For a long time, nobody said anything.
Then, slowly, all around the yard, heads began to bow.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
NATALIE
In the nine months that followed the Rocky Mountain Pack’s attack on the Pacific Northwest Pack’s territory and the ousting of Randy as the pack’s alpha, there were days when change seemed impossibly slow to come.
Though she had faith in her alphas and in their ability to lead the pack, it was hard for Natalie to see them struggle. And at first, struggling was most of what they did. They all agreed, for example, that Hank should not be killed, but the decision of what to do with him was harder.
It was Gage who finally had the idea. “Make him go north,” he said. “Run him to the Canadian border, and if he ever comes this way again, we will kill him.”
The rest of the pack had agreed—no one really wanted a fight, not anymore—and Hank had been quickly dispensed with. The rest of the Rocky Mountain Wolves had been invited to stay and submit to Pacific Northwest authority, if they could—but if they couldn’t, they too were forced to leave.
Now, almost a year later, Natalie sat in the rocking chair Ozzy had made for her beside the window in the nursery, her hand resting on her swollen belly. It was difficult to get up these days, difficult to move around, and yet she loved being pregnant. It was just like the first time she’d shifted—she was growing to understand her body and its usefulness in entirely new ways.
One of the babies rolled slowly inside her, and she felt one of the others move in response. She smiled. “Settle down,” she murmured, rubbing slow circles on the skin of her stomach. “Nobody move too much, okay? You don’t have a lot of room in there. I promise, you can squirm all you want once you’re out. Just a little bit longer.”
“Talking to your stomach again?”
She looked up and saw Chuck in the doorway, and felt a grin spread across her face. “Hey,” she said. “Your kids are practicing for the circus.”
“Let me feel.” He came over to her, knelt before her, and laid his hands on her stomach. “Oh, yeah, they’re really having a ball in there.”
“They’ve been like this all day,” Natalie said.
He frowned, concern evident on his face. “Maybe you should lie down,” he said. “You know we don’t like it when you’re out of bed for too long.”
They’d begun doing that—using the third person plural, even when only one of them was around. Natalie was completely charmed by it. It felt as if Chuck had consulted with Gage and Ozzy and was there to speak for all of them. It made her feel surrounded by their love and care, even when they couldn’t all be with her.
But they were a little too overprotective for her liking. “I’m fine,” she said, rolling her eyes and smiling. “There’s nothing to worry about. They’re just getting a little cramped in there. Of course they’re going to be more active now that my delivery is getting so close.”
He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “For me?” he said. “You know I’ll be more comfortable if you’re resting.”
Natalie laughed. “You never let me get out of bed,” she said.
“You’ll be on your feet plenty once the babies are born,” he said. “You’ll be up with them all the time, and then when they get a little older, we’ll all be running around with them. You should take advantage of this chance to rest while you can. Make the most of it.”
“Okay, okay.” She held out her hands and let him help her to her feet. “I might as well move while you’re here. It’s too hard to get up on my own these days.”
He eased her over to the bed and helped her to lie down on her side. Then he lay down next to her. His arms were
so long that even now, when she was so heavily pregnant, he could wrap an arm around her waist. She snuggled back into the curve of his body and closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of having him close.
He moved her hair out of the way and kissed the back of her neck. “I brought you something,” he said.
“Hmm?”
“A review of your book,” he said.
Natalie’s eyes snapped open.
Sometimes she forgot that she had had another life before she’d come to live with the Pacific Northwest Wolves. Though it hadn’t been all that long ago, it was easy to let herself focus so intently on the here and now that the past slipped away.
It had astounded her, a few months ago, to learn that she had won the Lister Prize after all. She had caused a scandal, of course, by disappearing before she could accept her award, and had been the talk of the literary world for a few weeks. But everyone had moved on quickly. Ozzy had followed the story in the news, and less than a month after it had broken, he had told them that everyone had moved on from wondering what had happened to the lost Lister Prize winner.
I guess I’m destined to be lost to one world no matter which life I choose.
“Why is anyone reviewing the book now?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at Chuck. “It should be old news. Why are they even talking about it?”
“I don’t know,” Chuck said. “I guess some reporter dug up your story and wanted to revisit it. That’s probably something we can expect from time to time. The literary world isn’t going to forget about you entirely. You made your mark.”
“Maybe so,” Natalie said. “But that’s not my life anymore.” She took Chuck’s hand, lacing her fingers between his. “That was my human life. My past. It’s not part of who I am now.”
“You don’t even want to read the review?”
Natalie shook her head. “I don’t need to read it,” she said. “Whatever it says, it’s part of a different life.”
“I’m impressed,” Chuck said. “If it were me, I think I would want to know.”
She grinned at him. “Maybe you’re a little too obsessed with your human side.”
“Oh, hush.” He swatted her arm gently, then bent to kiss the spot. “It was a good review. They only had nice things to say.”
“There’s nothing any reviewer could say that could make me as happy as you do,” Natalie said. “Or as happy as these babies do.”
“Mmm.” Chuck’s fingers slipped beneath the belt of her robe and pulled it loose. The robe fell open, leaving her naked and exposed. “You make me happy too.”
She laughed. “I knew you didn’t just come in here to show me a book review.”
“No,” he agreed. “The hell with the book review.” He began to kiss his way slowly down the side of her arm, pausing to kiss each finger before moving to the swell of her hip.
Her body was so sensitive in this last month of her pregnancy that it took very little to arouse her, and she could already feel her pulse accelerating. When Chuck maneuvered her carefully onto her back, she went willingly. She could already feel a hot throb of want between her legs, craving his attention in whatever form she could get it.
He kissed along her inner thigh, then paused and lifted his head to smile at her over the curve of her stomach.
“Play with your nipples,” he instructed.
He didn’t need to tell her twice. They were aching to be touched, and she obliged him, cradling her breasts in her hands and tracing her thumbs slowly, with exquisite pleasure, across her enlarged nipples. She had always been very sensitive here, but now, on the verge of giving birth, every touch felt like a shock to her core. She had never imagined that it was possible to be this aroused.
“Chuck,” she moaned. He was resting on his elbows, watching her and grinning as she squirmed with pleasure. “I need—”
“What do you need?” he prompted.
She panted, unable to articulate her desire, her hips hitching desperately toward him.
“Tell me what you need,” he insisted.
She whined.
“If you tell me, you can have it,” he said.
“Touch me,” she begged. “Please. Please.”
He didn’t move. He just kept smiling at her.
“You promised,” she rasped.
His smile widened and he lowered his head.
At the first touch of his warm, rough tongue, her eyes rolled back in her head and she felt herself go weak with pleasure. After all this time, she still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that her alphas were capable of doing this to her—unhinging her so completely with utter pleasure.
He slid two fingers into her as he sucked at her, his hand and mouth working in tandem. Natalie felt herself begin to shake.
“Please,” she begged. “Please don’t stop.” She would die if he stopped.
She felt him smile against her. He kept his pace steady, working her in a slow, agonizing rhythm, so that her orgasm built slowly and steadily. He wouldn’t allow her to pick up the pace, to chase satisfaction. She would get it, she knew, on his terms or not at all.
And she trusted him. He would take care of her. None of her alphas would ever leave her without anything she needed.
She relaxed her mind and let her body respond to his touch. The heat built within her, bringing her closer and closer to the climax she craved, until suddenly and without warning, it broke over her, leaving her shuddering and gasping.
Chuck moved her onto her side, crawled up her body, positioned himself behind her, and thrust slowly into her.
She leaned her head back to rest on his shoulder as he fucked her, his hands roaming up and down her body. It didn’t take long before the heat rose in her again, and then they were coming together, reaching for each other’s hands, grasping and crying out as pleasure overwhelmed them both, uniting them in a moment of ecstasy.
He rolled onto his back for just a moment, catching his breath, and then returned to her, wrapping himself around her and holding her tightly.
“I hope we still make time for that after the babies come,” Natalie said as her breathing slowly began to return to normal.
“Oh, we will,” Chuck assured her. “There’s no way I’m letting that part of our lives get lost.”
“I never had it so good before I met you three, you know,” she said.
“Of course not.” Chuck’s tone was a little smug. “You were getting it from human men. They were never going to be able to satisfy you the way we can.”
She laughed. “I’d make fun of your ego, except that you’re right,” she said.
“How many babies do you think we’re having?” Chuck asked, resting a hand on her belly.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“You can’t feel how many it is?”
Natalie didn’t laugh. The truth was that she had often felt like she might be able to count them—but she couldn’t be sure she wasn’t counting some of them twice, or not at all, so she had no faith in her own reckoning. “Ozzy says five is average,” she said. “Maybe we’ll have around five.”
He stroked her belly. “It seems like more,” he said.
“It does,” she said. “But I don’t want to get my hopes too high.”
He nodded. “I can understand that,” he said. “But if five is average, it’s probably less than what we can expect from you. After all, you’ve been above average so far in every possible way.”
She felt herself blush and started to protest, but he turned her face toward his and silenced her with a kiss, and she allowed herself to get lost in the feel of his lips on hers.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
CHUCK
Gage burst into the beta house, his hair disheveled, his eyes wild with excitement and lack of sleep. “It’s time,” he said. “She’s delivering. Get up.”
Chuck was on his feet in an instant. He had been napping somewhat restlessly in the second house they had built to accommodate all the new pack members they’d folded in when the R
ocky Mountain Pack had dissolved. It was easier to sleep there than in the main house, because when he was close to Natalie, he couldn’t help wanting to go to her room, to sit up with her.
The three alphas had been strict with themselves through the last sixteen hours, from the moment Natalie’s labor had begun, about getting enough sleep. They had soon realized that none of them were able to sleep well when they were in the main house with her, so the second building had become the impromptu nap spot.
Chuck ran across the lawn. He could see Ozzy in the window—Gage would never have left Natalie by herself—but he didn’t want to miss a minute of this.
She was propped up on pillows, her face shiny with sweat, and she held out her hand for him as he came into the room. Chuck dropped to his knees beside her and took her hand, kissing her temple. “You’re doing well,” he reassured her. “How do you feel?”
“Nervous,” she said, and indeed, her heart was pounding so hard that he could feel her pulse in her wrist. “Are the babies okay?”
“Everything’s going great,” Chuck assured her. “We’re going to be parents in just a few minutes here.”
She closed her eyes. Her face twisted with pain, and Chuck felt as if his heart might burst. If he could have done this for her, he thought, he would have.
But at the same time, he was filled with admiration for her. She looked so beautiful right now, even though her hair was matted with sweat and her cheeks were red with exertion. She had been made for this, and she was going to achieve it.
“The first one’s coming now,” Ozzy reported, rubbing her thigh slowly. “Push, honey.”
She gritted her teeth and let out a cry, and as she did so, the sound intermingled with a brand-new cry—a baby making its very first noise in the world.
Chuck looked up at Gage, who was kneeling on Natalie’s other side. “We’re dads,” he whispered.
Gage nodded, his eyes welling up with tears. Chuck was stunned. He had never seen Gage show that kind of emotion before.