by RJ Blain
I made easy prey for the twins. My mate went straight for my throat, and the instant her teeth hit my skin, a jolt went through me and I went limp. Lisa latched onto my shoulder and growled.
It took them less than half a minute to recognize they had subdued me. They lunged for each other, snapping their teeth and clawing in their effort to establish dominance. My mate drove her knee into my ribs and forced the air out of my lungs while she struggled to dislodge her sister, who had managed to plant one foot on my chest as a sign of conquest.
“My Alpha. Go get your own. I’m sure Daddy will take your scrawny ass.”
My mouth had already gotten me into enough trouble, so instead of pointing out only more dominate Fenerec, Alphas, or mates could bite me in the way Nicolina had, I remained silent. Maybe Nicolina didn’t remember the promises I had made to her, but I’d keep them until the bitter end—or when she openly declared her status as my mate.
It took every bit of my will to close my eyes and wait through Nicolina’s infuriated spluttering, although I savored the fury in her scent.
“Greedy cow. You have your own. Go stake your claim on your inferior male. This one is mine.”
Nicolina’s knee jammed into my ribs deeper, and my mate’s twin yipped before their weight tumbled over me. Groaning my relief, I regained enough control of my twitching body to roll over. A hand on the back of my neck froze me in place.
“Easy does it, pup,” Desmond murmured. “They didn’t break any of your ribs, did they?”
“Good question.” I couldn’t tell; my chest and stomach had both taken a beating from the twins, my shoulder throbbed, and my neck tingled. A faint hint of my blood in the air warned me one of them had made me bleed, although I couldn’t tell which one.
“You okay, Richard?” My brother crouched beside me.
“Your bitch bit me, Alex.”
“I noticed. You’re bleeding from your neck and your shoulder.”
“How nice. They both made me bleed.” I hung my head and concentrated on evening my breaths. Despite my efforts, sharp pain stabbed through my right side. “And I think they maybe did break a rib or two.”
“Think you can discipline the bitches?” Desmond hauled me to my feet.
My mate and her twin rolled on the living room floor, snarling and biting at each other. I sighed, shaking my head to clear it. “All right. Alex, when I have them separated, try to contain your bitch.”
“You’re going to get mauled, Richard.”
Why couldn’t I get mauled during a more pleasant pursuit? I sighed, rolled my shoulders, and waded into the fight. Identifying which sister was my mate proved easier than I anticipated; Lisa fought with systematic determination while Nicolina clawed and bit her way towards victory with a complete lack of finesse.
I was grateful they were so infuriated they forgot they had guns and knew how to use them.
While Lisa matched well with my brother and was dominant enough, she wasn’t a match for me, not in the way my mate was. Narrowing my eyes, I considered the two rolling at my feet, drew in a breath, and growled, drawing on the pack bonds to isolate Lisa’s anger-heated presence.
Lisa squeaked as I directed the full force of my influence at her, which bought my mate enough time to latch onto her twin’s throat.
Reaching down, I seized the nape of Nicolina’s neck.
“That’s enough.” It took several tugs and a squeeze before my mate released her sister, growling her displeasure at being thwarted. Unlike with me, she hadn’t broken Lisa’s skin. Alex stepped in, dragged his mate out of her twin’s reach, and worked his way between Desmond’s daughters.
“I’ll claw her face off,” my mate howled. “Let me get just one more bite in. Stupid bitch!”
Careful to keep a firm grip on her neck, thus preventing the next World War from breaking loose in Desmond’s living room, I crouched behind Nicolina and worked my other arm around her waist. Lifting her up, I carried her across the room while she kicked her feet and yowled like a demented cat. “You’re a vicious little thing today, aren’t you?”
My mate twisted around and snapped her teeth at my neck, but I lowered my chin and scrunched my shoulders to keep from having a second bloody bite mark to go with the first. When she growled at me, I growled back, keeping my grip around her slender waist firm although easing my hold on her neck.
A sane man would’ve kept the advantage, but I savored the flash of her eyes, the heat in her scent, and her challenging snarls.
“I bite back,” I murmured, and careful to avoid hurting her, I shoved my mate onto the couch. She sprawled, and I stalked after her, baring my teeth in the silent promise of a nip. “Don’t kill your sister. My brother likes her for some reason.”
“Hey,” the mated pair complained somewhere behind me.
I twisted around to glare at my brother and his mate. “The instigators should be quiet.”
One day I would learn from my mistakes. Nicolina slammed into me, wrapped her legs around my waist, and sank her teeth into my neck hard enough to hurt, although she didn’t bite down enough to drop me to the floor. I stood still and watched my mate. The golden yellow of her wolf shone bright in her eyes, and she growled with her every breath.
I sighed. I’d seen out-of-control Fenerec often enough to recognize my mate’s wolf had all but totally taken over. Several sniffs reassured me she wasn’t on the verge of running wild. While I could have let Amber calm Nicolina, I wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her pinned to me. “The other bitch is over there with her mate. See? Not a threat to you.”
There were several ways to deal with an infuriated bitch. The easiest way was to give them what they wanted. In the case of a dispute over a male, the conflict wouldn’t end until one of the bitches surrendered or the male interfered. Interfering males, like me, ended up with a lot of bites, bruises, and broken bones to show for their efforts. While I could have flattened both of them using the pack bonds, it was a fast way to breed resentment.
In my mate’s case, soothing reassurance would win me a lot more than a quicker, more violent resolution.
If push came to shove, I’d have to rely on Amber—or worse, Desmond—to bring my mate back into line, something I didn’t want, and neither did my wolf.
Nicolina kept growling, but her grip on my throat loosened.
“If you want to take her out back and school her, you can both shift to wolves—after dinner—and settle your differences after you’ve both had some time to cool off. Your father’s been starving me, Nicolina. I’m hungry.” Whining would earn me some ribbing from Frank later, but I added in a sniff for good measure. “It’s all his fault.”
My mate’s attention snapped to her father. She released me and bared her teeth at him.
“Why are you sacrificing me to the cranky bitch? I didn’t do anything.”
Wendy laughed. “I’m pretty sure you locked him in a silver cage and neglected to feed him for a day or two, Charles. You deserve a few bites at the very least.”
When Nicolina squirmed against me, her hands flexing before gripping my shoulders, I tightened my hold on her. “I’ll give you your sister for a week as penance for antagonizing you.”
“Hey, that’s not fair,” Lisa complained.
“She who stirs the bees’ nest deals with the stings,” I informed her, smirking as I used one of Wendy’s favorite phrases on my brother’s mate.
While Nicolina kept growling, she rested her chin on my shoulder. “Mine,” she hissed.
I gave her a squeeze. “You’d regret mauling your sister later. She’s not edging in on your territory. My brother’s just a terrible influence on her. She gets feisty. Often.”
Alex sighed. “You’re such an asshole sometimes, Richard.”
“Can I put you down without you trying to kill your sister this time?”
My mate hesitated, but she nodded.
“If you want to attack someone, attack your father. It’s his fault.”
My mat
e needed no further encouragement, and with a satisfied smile, I watched the chaos reignite, safely out of range of the fireworks.
I kept a close and careful eye on Desmond, ready to intervene if I or my wolf believed he would lash out at my mate or pack. It hadn’t taken long for Frank, Alex, Amber, and Lisa to be drawn into the brawl, and I found it amusing the five of them weren’t a match for the Inquisition’s top enforcer.
My wolf and I remembered dominating our mate’s father, which was enough to give me the confidence my pack could take him if he stepped out of line.
I didn’t have much to worry about. The six of them ran in circuits around the lower floor of the house with several forays upstairs, somehow managing to avoid breaking anything during the elaborate game of chase. I had determined they had rules of engagement, but in my drug-fogged state, I couldn’t deduce what they were.
“You’re terrible,” my mate’s mother murmured, perching on the arm of the couch near my head. “When Charles said you were the only one who could delay dinner, I don’t think he meant by sending his daughters out to hunt him down.”
I stretched and yawned, snuggling into the blanket that smelled like my mate. “Payback’s a bitch.”
“Two of them, apparently. How are you feeling?”
“Like I could sleep for a week,” I confessed.
“You could probably use the rest. I apologize for Charles. He gets overenthusiastic, and after he clued in you had stolen both of our daughters, he became rather insufferable.” Wendy gave my shoulder a pat. “I made stew and spaghetti. Why don’t you come eat some while the puppies play? It’ll probably be a while before Charles manages to tire Nicolina out. If I’m not mistaken, her wolf’s pretty restless and rather energetic.”
“It’ll also give her a taste of working with the pack before I bring her into it formally.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“I’m not going to push her. At her pace, and not a moment sooner.”
“You’ve always been careful with her—perhaps too careful. She’s a tough girl. She can handle everything you toss at her. Then again, I give it a week before her wolf has had enough waiting and you get nipped.”
I groaned and covered my head with the blanket. “I’m not going to push her, Wen—”
The thump against the back of the couch warned me of trouble. Desmond cleared the coffee table. My mate slammed over the side and crashed on top of me. I yipped at her weight on my chest and stomach.
While being a Fenerec helped broken ribs heal fast, I was pretty certain I heard at least one bone creak from the impact.
Wendy growled, reached over, and flicked her finger against Nicolina’s throat. With a yip of her own, my mate recoiled, clapping her hand to her neck. She ended up sitting on my legs, gaping at her mother with wide eyes.
“That’s enough. All of you, behave. Now. I will send you all upstairs without dinner, where you can drool pathetically while I feed Richard.”
“You’re spoiling that rotten thief,” Desmond complained.
“Then you shouldn’t have starved him in our basement.” Wendy hopped to her feet and headed for the kitchen. “You got to torment him for almost a week. I could tell our daughters, in detail, how you’ve been tormenting him. Of course, if I have to tell our daughters, Frank and Alex get to know, too—and if they know, they might actually beat you within an inch of your life, and you’d deserve it. Being your loving mate, I’d nurse you back to health—in the silver cage you conveniently put downstairs for my use.”
“Consider this a lesson. Submissive does not mean weak,” Frank announced, circling the couch to crouch next to me. “How’re you feeling, Richard?”
“I’m fine.” I lurched upright, careful to avoid dislodging my mate from my legs. Rolling my shoulders, I grimaced at the crack and pop of my sore, stiff joints. I prodded where my mate had bitten me, wincing at the tender skin. “Am I still bleeding?”
“Doesn’t look like it. You girls are vicious. One of you biting him is bad enough. Did you both have to at the same time?”
Lisa flushed and refused to look at me. My mate’s blush reddened her cheeks, and her gaze locked on my throat.
“If you want to bite him again, Nicolina, you have to wait until after dinner.” Wendy returned from the kitchen, grabbed hold of my ear, and gave a twist. Yelping, I leaned towards her to escape the pain. “The dining room is that way, young lady.”
“What did I do?” I demanded, aware if I so much as lifted a finger against Wendy, Desmond would be on me before I even managed to touch her.
“You’re encouraging her. March, Richard. There will be no half-starved Alpha males in my house.”
“That’s terrible, Mom. First, you’re letting Dad dictate a match for Richard? Come on, they’ll try to kill each other. I don’t want them to die. She’s my sister. He’s a good Alpha, unlike Dad.”
“Be nice, Lisa,” Desmond muttered.
“No. You kidnapped Richard and drugged him. I should be shooting you right now. Richard, let me shoot him just a little.”
“You bite me, then you ask for permission to shoot your father?” I sighed. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I could shoot you instead. My sister is on your lap.”
“Tough shit. You had your chance to get on his lap.” Nicolina stuck her tongue out at her twin. “You have Alex. He’s a decent alternative.”
“Hey, that’s not nice,” I complained in a mutter, tilting my head towards Wendy to relieve the pressure on my ear. “He is my brother.”
“That’s the only reason I didn’t shoot him for running off with my sister.”
I narrowed my eyes, wondering how much my mate remembered about her scheme to help my brother and her sister run away together to conceal the fact we had mated and married. “You didn’t shoot him because I let you drive my Porsche.”
“Your Porsche?”
“I’m pretty sure it was my Porsche.”
“That was not the agreement!”
I crossed my arms over my chest, my wolf demanding I play her game and test just how far I could draw her out. “You left a rattlesnake in my shoes, and when that didn’t kill me, you tried a silver dagger. Then you tried to suffocate me with my own cologne and your perfume.”
“You bastard,” she hissed.
“I might remember how to bake cookies if you’re nice to me. But you’ll have to be really nice to me.”
I couldn’t actually remember the last time I had baked a batch of cookies, but it had been when Nicolina had still been around, determined to try to kill me in creative fashions for the sake of appearances.
“Great. They’re going to be fighting all night now,” Alex grumbled. “We’re never going to get a chance to eat dinner because they’ll be bickering. And here I thought they had gotten along so well in Vegas.”
Amber laughed. “For several hours, sure. I was certain there would be a body when she ordered him into my car, and he was dumb enough to go.”
“I was a little worried she’d dump his body in the ocean,” my mate’s sister confessed.
“If it hadn’t been for you insufferable busybodies, I would’ve taken his body to the nearest damned hotel!”
Wendy let go of my ear so she could cover her mouth. “Oops,” she whispered. “Now she’s done it.”
I hung my head and smacked my palm to my forehead. How had we managed to hide our marriage for so long? My Nicolina was so open and honest. With a weak, strained laugh, I considered my options. I discarded running; my mate’s outburst solved so many problems.
Lisa spluttered. “Nicolina!”
“Good job, Nicolina. The first thing you tell them is how you want me for my body?” I poked my mate in her ribs. “Couldn’t you have said something nice about me first?”
Desmond laughed. “Well, she is a Fenerec.”
My mate sucked in a breath. “Shit!”
“Richard, you hate when people do that. Why aren’t you mad?” My bro
ther frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “You usually start growling the instant a woman hits on you.”
Since there was no point in hiding anything, I freed my legs from beneath my mate, rose to my feet, and headed for the kitchen. “Yes, I’m going to growl when a woman who isn’t my wife starts hitting on me, Alex. It’s not my fault you didn’t figure out the most beautiful woman on this Earth is my wife. You should have figured it out when I gave you to Lisa. As if I’d let you lay a single finger on my mate.”
I made it all the way to the table before my brother and my mate’s sister comprehended what I had said and the screaming started.
With the sole exception of Wendy, everyone took turns scolding me, and my wolf and I basked in the glow of their attentions. The more stew I shoveled into me, the happier I made my mate’s mother, which in turn drove everyone else to a whole new level of displeasure.
Even my mate snapped her teeth at me, and I savored every single curse she threw my way.
Frank laughed, leaned across the table, and jabbed me with his spoon. “Vivian and Kelly are going to be absolutely thrilled. Sophie is going to go through the roof, and I absolutely cannot wait to tell Al and Jessica. How on Earth did you two pull it off? And how the hell did you convince her to marry you when she was sixteen? I was convinced if anyone could kill you, it’d be Desmond’s feisty little daughter. I really should have known from the start.”
I snorted. “Why do you think I convinced her? Why am I the perpetrator here? I was resigned to spending the rest of my life chasing down an unobtainable goddess. When an unobtainable goddess demands you marry her, you obey. Wendy, fortunately, has more common sense than the rest of you combined, so she was quite happy to provide the signatures required for us to get married.”
“I can’t believe I opened my stupid mouth,” my mate wailed. “What was I thinking?”
I leaned over, wrapped my arm around Nicolina’s waist, and pulled her closer to me. “I am rather fond of the results. I’ll bake you some cookies later to make up for it.”
Nicolina’s eyes widened. “Chocolate chip?”