Wolf Queen

by Alexis Pierce

  “You’ll be hearing from me soon,” she says, keeping her eyes on me.

  I put my helmet on, the visor up. She opens the door to her car, and I toss a leg over my motorcycle. “You’ve got my number. Could be fun to do this over coffee sometime,” I say. Without me telling them to, my eyes flick down to her lips, then back up to her eyes. I hope she didn’t catch that look, but it’s clear by her stunned expression that she did.

  With that, I turn my motorcycle on and peel out of the parking garage.

  The roads whip by me, invisible to my inner turmoil. I’m a suspect. I’ve put the pack in danger. Perhaps Anderson was right, and we could’ve found another way.

  No. I did what I had to do.

  Over and over, these thoughts loop around.

  Before I know it, I’m pulling into the gravel drive that weaves through the trees of my father’s secret property. Only my mates and I know of it, and it will stay that way so long as I choose.

  Alone, I strip off my clothes and shift into my silky black wolf form. I want to scream, so I run. I want to cry, so I run. I run like something’s chasing me, like I can escape this prison of my own mind, the danger I’ve put myself and my family in.

  When I reach the waterfall at the center of the property, I sprint right into the shallow pool, lift my head, and howl. Nobody will hear me, but I need to let it out. I’m supposed to be strong. I’m supposed to be in charge. I don’t regret taking my pack back, but knowing that I have to take care of everyone is weighing so heavy that it feels like I’m going to snap in half from the pressure.

  I howl until my throat hurts, until my voice has nothing left. The sun sets, and the moon rises. It will be full soon, and then the whole pack will shed our human exteriors for the night.

  When my throat is hoarse, I exit the pool, lying on a rock with my head pillowed on my crossed front paws. I watch the moon rise higher and higher over this place, this home that isn’t a home.

  Not yet, anyway.

  When everything is falling apart like this, though, my father’s dream for this place—my dream, if I’m being honest—seems completely impossible.

  As the night grows long, I stand and shake off the leaves and pollen that have floated down to rest on my midnight fur. This trip solved nothing, and I still have work to do. I have people to take care of.

  Instead of running back to my bike, I weave through the property, searching for animal trails and exploring. I hate to admit it, but I might be too much of a coward to face my mates right now. The moment I get back, I’ll have to explain my run-in with the detective, the suspicion because of the ring I was wearing, the fact that I wasn’t careful enough.

  My paws squish into the cool earth, and my heart slows to a more calming pace. The stars are nearly invisible past the brightness of the moon, but I can feel their presence in the expansive night sky flickering through the leaves.

  I pick up a scent when I loop around closer to my bike, a scent that didn’t come with me.

  Anderson and Thompson are here, leaning on the hood of the Toyota they parked beside my bike. They’re staring directly at me despite the cover of the trees, and I huff out a breath before shifting back, the pine needles on the ground pricking at my bare feet. The hot air presses against my skin, and I take in a shuddering breath. I can do this. I just have to tell them.

  When I walk out of the woods, though, Thompson strides up, grabs my face between his hands, and kisses me like the world is ending.

  It kind of is, though, isn’t it?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thompson

  It’s a predictable pattern with Eve. Every time she comes out to the woods alone, she’s completely distraught yet too proud to admit it. When she emerges from the woods, she looks like a goddess out of a dream, too stunning to be real. She floats out like moonlight incarnate, and I rush over to kiss her just to be sure she’s real.

  I hadn’t even noticed her tension, but as soon as I’m kissing her, her body relaxes. Our lips mold together like we were made for each other, and her hands find their way to my waist, clenching the fabric of my button-up shirt.

  “It’ll be okay,” I whisper when she pulls away for a breath. My lips flutter over her face, and I give each of her eyelids the softest kiss before pulling her tight against me.

  “It’s so much,” she admits. Is she actually confiding in me? I press a kiss on top of her head. A moment later, Anderson comes over, placing himself behind her. Eve shivers when his hands move down her waist and to her hips, his fingers tucked between my body and hers. I take a deep breath. I’d merely come to comfort her, but he clearly has something else in mind.

  Her hips roll against me, and I have to breathe in through my clenched teeth. “Eve,” I say, but she shakes her head.

  “This is what I need,” she says. “I need…”

  Anderson and I wait with bated breath while she comes up with the words that we both so desperately want to hear.

  “I need both of you,” she says. “At the same time.”

  My cock hardens painfully. If I weren’t braced against Eve, I might have been knocked to my knees by her admission. Even though we share Eve by both being her mates, I’d never considered that physically sharing her was an option until this moment.

  “Are you sure?” Anderson asks, his voice low and lust-filled. My senses are overloaded with everything going on right now, but Eve somehow manages to nod. With one swift motion, Anderson lifts her into his arms, her nude body pulling away from me. Thank god one of us is able to take control of this situation, because I don’t know which way is up at this point. “Car,” he orders, walking away with Eve.

  I stumble after them, unsure of what Anderson is planning but more excited than I can express.

  He sets her on the hood, opening her legs to reveal her perfect pussy already swollen and wet for us. When I get closer, he grabs my hand and moves it to her, helping me rub her sex. She sits up on her elbows, watching us with dark eyes.

  When Anderson is satisfied that I know what to do, he says, “Keep watching her.” His voice shakes, and he unbuttons my pants, unzips them, and runs his hand over the length of my cock. I glance over to him, but he grits his teeth. “Watch. Her.”

  Fuck. I had no idea he could be so authoritative. I put all my focus into pleasing Eve, circling her clit with my thumb before slipping two fingers inside her. Her eyes keep moving from me to Anderson, so I lean over her and take one of her nipples into my mouth, not giving a second thought to being gentle. Instead, I suck and nip while my hand speeds up, and Anderson finds just the right speed to stroke me. I groan at the sensations bombarding me.

  When he pulls my pants down, I pull away from Eve.

  “What are you—“ I say, but I’m interrupted by the opening of a condom wrapper.

  Eve

  Watching Anderson jack Thompson off is so fucking hot. When Anderson rolls the condom over Thompson’s cock, though, my breathing goes shallow.

  “I want you to fuck her,” Anderson says, and my clit throbs at his words alone. Usually, I’m the dominant one in bed, but right now, I’m reveling in the feeling of being treated like an object for their pleasure. Thompson uses his fingers to open me, pressing the head of his cock against my opening while Anderson begins to stroke his own cock.

  “Please,” I gasp, thrusting against Thompson even though he refuses to enter me. My sex grows painful, and I let out a high-pitched whine and lie flat on the hot hood of the car. Just as I’m losing hope that it’s going to happen, Thompson slams into me, stealing my breath away with a cry.

  He pulls out of me slowly, keeping his eyes on mine. The hand that had prepared me moves to my clit, and the other grips my thigh.

  Anderson watches, rubbing his thumb over the head of his cock. I can’t just look at one of them. Something inside me grows, huge and unnamable. This is fucking incredible, but it’s not enough.

  I open my mouth to say what I want, but Thompson slams into me again, pinching my clit a
t the same time. Anderson moves to stand beside him, grabbing my thigh roughly to open me even further.

  Fuck. Is he going to—

  Another slam ruins my train of thought, but I spot a condom in Anderson’s hand. Suddenly, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea. It’s what I want, but how will my body handle this?

  “Do you want this?” he asks like he’s reading my mind.

  I open my mouth, ready to say no. Instead, the smallest “Yes” of my life comes out. Despite it being quiet, it’s filled with confidence.

  My legs are stretched as far to the sides as they’ll be, and the angle is awkward, but Anderson doesn’t hesitate as his cockhead presses right against the opening that Thompson is already filling.

  “Fuck,” I gasp as Thompson slides two fingers back inside me, stretching me further than I thought possible around his cock and fingers.

  Anderson presses two more fingers inside, the sensation almost painful. A low moan pulls out of me, and I have to lie still, eyes closed as I wait for them to make the next move.

  “Are you alright?” Thompson asks. I open my eyes to find his eyes staring right back into mine, open and vulnerable.

  I swallow and then nod. When they remove their fingers, I know exactly what’s coming next. I brace myself as Anderson puts his cock against Thompson’s, and they both hold me down as he moves in slowly. A slow whine pulls from deep inside me, and he hesitates.

  “Keep going,” I gasp through gritted teeth. Yes, it hurts, but in a way that makes me want more and more until I can’t stand it anymore. I breathe slowly, my body shuddering as I adjust to this completely new thing that I hadn’t known was possible until my mates decided to try it on me.

  I’m not totally sure how I’ll walk after this, but that’s a problem for future Eve. For now, I roll my hips, and Thompson resumes massaging my clit. Neither of them moves otherwise, instead choosing to let me take the lead on this. I use their cocks to pleasure myself.

  Anderson leans forward, pressing his lips to my collarbone. Their cocks inside me shift, and I’m not totally sure how this angle is even working. Is it pleasurable for them?

  “You are so fucking stunning,” Anderson mumbles, giving a slight jerk of his hips. His hand on my thigh tightens, and his body tenses as he sucks in a deep, grounding breath. “Darling, I will not last much longer like this.”

  Well, that answers that. I reach down and move Thompson’s hand out of the way so that I can get myself closer, and just feeling their two cocks against each other, stretching me open, my body falls into sudden convulsions, every muscle tensing as my nerves light up. If it was a physical thing, the light produced would be visible from the fucking International Space Station.

  Both the guys finish shortly after I’ve started, their grips hard to keep track of while my brain is exploding from pleasure.

  They pull out of me, Anderson moving back to give me a bit of space to adjust, my whole body sore from the acrobatics we just pulled.

  “Fuck,” I gasp, a grin covering my face. My legs shiver, and Thompson leans down to kiss my belly.

  I’m drunk on my mates, and the only thing that could have possibly made this better would be if Freya had been here, but orgies don’t really seem like her thing.

  “That was…” Thompson says, brushing the hair out of my face and cupping my cheek. Despite the fact that they double-teamed me raw, he’s extremely tender with me. I put my hand on his, leaning into his touch.

  “Amazing?” Thompson asks, rubbing a hand down my leg in slow back-and-forth motions.

  “Yeah,” I breathe.

  It’s a bit of an understatement, though. Something about both my men being inside me at the same time has changed me, shifted me emotionally.

  The emotion welling inside me doesn’t make sense, totally alien to me. I just want to draw them close and never let go.

  Love.

  The word pops in my head like a revelation. I’d initially taken them as my mates for personal gain, but somewhere along the way, I fell in love with them. This sends unease rolling through me, and I sit up.

  “We should go,” I say, wrapping my arms around myself.

  How did I fuck up so bad that I accidentally fell in love?

  Chapter Seventeen

  Freya

  Mom calls me first thing in the morning, telling me to come up to her apartment. I tell Anna to get dressed, and I pick out a cute pair of leggings and dress for Poppy that has a mermaid pattern all over.

  “There will be breakfast at my mom’s place,” I tell Anna. Poppy refuses to walk this morning, so I pick her up and cock my hip, holding her steady. My mom has always been the type to feed every child that comes within a hundred feet of her, and since she told me to bring the kids with, there will definitely be an entire feast prepared.

  Anna just nods. She hasn’t spoken much since she came to join the pack, and I don’t blame her. It will be a long while before she trusts me or anyone else here. At least it was easy to get temporary custody of her, as I was already granted custody of her sister. She wraps herself in one of the hoodies that I stole from Anderson months and months ago. It’s absolutely gargantuan on her, but she seems comfortable enough.

  “I was thinking we could take you clothes shopping,” I say. “Get you something that’s more you, you know?”

  She shrugs, but the tiniest smile touches her lips. She follows me up to my mom’s apartment, her current clothes far too big for her body. She stumbles over her borrowed pair of shoes as we climb up the stairs. Yes, clothes shopping is definitely a necessity today.

  I don’t even knock before entering my mom’s apartment, and the smell of food assaults me from all sides. She must have been up cooking for hours before letting me know the jewelry was done.

  “Shoes off,” she calls, less a reminder to me and more to let Anna know. I roll my eyes and kick off my sneakers, and Anna imitates my actions. Mom rounds the corner, her face flushed and her hair in a wild updo as she carries a spatula in her hand. “Ah, I was right. You are far too skinny,” she says, gesturing at Anna, who looks at me for support.

  “Mom, she just got here. Maybe ease up on all that.”

  Mom just waves her spatula at me. “Yeah, yeah. This is why I should have raised you back home.”

  “Here we go,” I mumble, setting Poppy in a booster seat that Mom must have pulled out of storage from my childhood. She has a plate in front of her already with far too much food. Mom sometimes mentions that she wishes she’d taken me back to Estonia, but I like it here. “Anna, you can sit and start eating if you’re hungry.”

  Despite telling my mom to leave her alone, I am concerned about Anna’s weight. She was half-starved when Eve brought her to the compound, and she doesn’t look much better a week later. A bit of her color is returning, but her bones still stick out too far, and her eyes and cheeks are sunken in.

  She sits beside her sister, using tongs in the various meats, slices of bread, fruits, and eggs to pile her plate high.

  “Thank you for this, Mama,” I say when I walk into the kitchen, giving my mom a kiss on the cheek. She gives me a slight pat on the shoulder, but she’s currently stirring something.

  “Of course,” she replies. “Children need to eat, especially those ones.”

  After putting the pot on a simmer, she sets a lid on and takes my hand, leading me to what used to be my bedroom but is now her craft room.

  “I hope it wasn’t too much work,” I say. “I know it was a lot of jewelry.”

  She waves off my concerns, just as she’s always done. She always puts too much work on herself, and I’m starting to see a bit of that in myself.

  In the center of her plastic folding table is a plain wooden jewelry box, which she opens to find a huge array of sparkling gems. I recognize the green diamond that Eve wore, except it’s been split into several pieces and turned into two pairs of earrings, one a plain pair of studs and the other a pair of gaudy earrings with little diamonds from the edges. How my mo
ther got all this work done in a day is beyond me. There are also necklaces, diamond rings, and bracelets. All of the biggest gems have been transformed, either carved down into smaller shapes or split into different parts for different pieces. The necklace is completely unrecognizable, and when I pick up a gold-banded engagement ring, I recognize the stamp of a famous nineteenth-century German jeweler inside.

  “Will they know it’s a fake?” I ask, peering at it. Mom hands me a jeweler’s loop, and I use it to look even closer. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but whoever buys it might be able to detect something I can’t.

  “I’ve been making jewelry longer than anyone else in this business,” she says. “It makes me sad that you have so little faith in your Mama.”

  I roll my eyes with a smile. “I’m just nervous, is all,” I tell her. “There’s a lot riding on this.”

  She shakes her head. “We’ve gone through worse. It will all work itself out.”

  I really hope she’s right about this.

  After breakfast, I buckle the kids into the Cadillac. It’s far safer than my car, and Eve has told me that I can take it whenever I want.

  As we were leaving Mom’s apartment, Anna mumbled a tiny, “Thanks for breakfast,” which made my heart swell to a million times its normal size.

  The Galleria Mall is crowded for being a Monday, but I manage to find a parking spot near the front. What do twelve-year-olds wear, anyway?

  I guess I can just let Anna take the lead, if she’s willing. After all, I want her to dress how she wants.

  “We just need to go one place before we start shopping,” I say. The velvet box in my pocket holds a pair of green diamond earrings, the ones that are made from smaller chunks of the ring my mom tore apart. Mom told me that I am not to take less than two thousand dollars for the pair.

  I pay a few dollars to rent a toddler stroller that’s shaped like a sports car, and Poppy climbs in excitedly. Anna pushes her without any prompting, and I lead them to a family-owned jewelry store, one I haven’t been to in years.