by Liza Street
When he was far enough away that Lena couldn’t hear his footfalls anymore, Carter ran his hand along her bare arm.
“Come back inside with me?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I’m glad he woke us up,” Carter said, crowding her against the wall inside the doorway, then closing the door behind them.
“Really?” Lena asked. “Why?”
But she could feel why, because his cock was hard. He hadn’t put on any clothes when he’d come to the door, which had been rude, but understandable; he’d been staking a claim. Now he lifted her arms over her head and pinned them to the wall with one hand while he ran his other hand down the center of her body.
“My shirt looks good on you,” he said. He lifted the hem. “Aw, why’d you have to put your panties back on?”
His fingers were already stroking over the fabric.
“They’re hardly permanent,” Lena said between gasps.
“Don’t move.”
Lena nodded and kept her hands in their position on the wall. He went to the bed and came back a moment later, rolling on a condom. He eyed her hands, making sure she’d left them where he said.
“Good,” he said, then held her wrists again.
Leaving her underwear on, he slid the bottom to the side, exposing her pussy. His cock slid into her, filling her anew, and she gasped.
“That’s it, my beautiful Lena,” he whispered, then took her mouth in a kiss so hot, she thought she was melting from the inside. “I’m going to show you what it means to be mine.”
14
“We should have asked whether Mathers and Barnum were coming to this breakfast,” Lena said the next morning.
Carter looked around the dump area of the Junkyard. A fight with Mathers and the like would put a damper on his morning, that was for sure. But he had better things on his mind.
Waking up with Lena had been like waking up in paradise. She’d rolled against him, her ass pressed against his cock, and he’d shown her, a third time, just how great they could be together.
She still hadn’t admitted that she belonged to him, although he’d hinted at it more than once. He knew he was hers—it was, without question, a new core of his personality.
Kyle? No longer his problem. He didn’t care about that asshole anymore. Yeah, he hated him, but it would be from a distance, now. He no longer had to do anything about it. Carter was with Lena, and Lena wanted him to leave Kyle alone, so he would.
The scents of breakfast sausage reached his nose. He and Lena had put together a fruit salad with apples, oranges, and bananas from his ice chest. It wasn’t much, but he hadn’t been blessed with breakfast sausage this time around. Maybe in the next shipment of coolers.
He and Lena rounded the giant wheel well of an ancient tractor and found a few people milling around a low bonfire. Marcus was one of them. He raised a jealous, gray gaze toward Lena and Carter, but nodded in greeting.
Lena smiled and waved back at him. Carter wondered if Lena knew that Marcus was interested in her.
Too late, buddy, Carter thought as he gave Marcus a sarcastically friendly wave. She’s mine.
Stetson Krom sat off to the side, looking at a book and ignoring everybody else. Carter wondered, not for the first time, what that jaguar shifter was doing in this place to begin with. Nobody had been around when he was dumped inside, so no one heard his sentence.
Jase came over and pointed Carter and Lena to the table set up with sausage, fruit, and muffins. It was a whole feast, and Carter couldn’t mask his surprise. “Where did all the food come from?”
“The last shipment. Everyone’s pitching in.” Jase nodded at the fruit salad Lena held. “Thanks for coming.”
“My pleasure,” Lena said with a grin, her blue eyes sparkling.
She couldn’t know how unusual it was to have something like this here. The other night’s dinner with all the Junkyard shifters had been the first ever attempt at a gathering. And now there was this one.
“So, you two,” Jase said, looking between them, his lips parted in a big smile.
“Yep,” Carter said.
Jase nodded. “I thought so.”
Lena laughed. “What are you, some kind of matchmaker?”
“I don’t think you two needed my help,” he responded, “so no. Go get some food.”
Lena grabbed a plate and loaded it up. Carter watched her as he got his own food. She moved with a languid ease, her muscles loose and flexible. He’d enjoyed that flexibility last night.
Once she had her food, she went to sit next to Marcus. Carter followed, trying not to pout. Marcus was her friend, her ally. Just like Kyle.
On second thought, maybe she’d want some space. Carter didn’t need to follow her everywhere. He considered moving away from them. He’d eat his breakfast and clear out.
But then Lena bumped into him, a playful nudge.
He felt like a fuckin’ teenager. Every touch, every glance, was a sign to be analyzed.
To hell with it. He wanted her. They’d fucked more than once, he hoped to do it again soon, and he had nothing to gain by hiding it.
Marcus’s gray eyes gave Carter a slow evaluation. “Are you here to fight?”
“Nah, here to eat,” Carter said, biting into a sausage. “You?”
Marcus shook his head, looking disgusted. “I’m heading out. See you later, Lena.”
Plate in hand, Marcus left the bonfire area.
“Sorry,” Carter murmured to Lena. “I chased off your friend.”
“I’ll go talk to him in a little bit,” Lena said.
“You sure you didn’t know him before you came here?” Carter asked.
“Yeah,” she said with a laugh. “Why?”
“He acts like he has some kind of claim on you.”
She shrugged. “Well, we came in together, and I guess we were all pretty scared. The experience helped us bond.”
Carter looked up when the sounds of eating stopped. Mathers had arrived.
“Ugh, him again?” Lena whispered.
“What’s this?” Mathers said, his voice dripping with disgust. “Are you all going to break into ‘Kumbaya’ next? Jase, are you behind this bullshit?”
“Just trying to get us together,” Jase said.
“It’s not in our nature,” Mathers said, then kicked over the table of food.
Rage bubbled in Carter’s chest, but he kept his seat. “Back off, Mathers. You don’t have to like it, fine. Just stay away if that’s the case.”
Mathers sneered. “You’re here, too, Varrone? I thought you didn’t play well with others.” His gaze latched onto Lena. “Oh, I get it. The bitch tamed you.”
Carter’s empty plate clattered to the ground as he stood up. He didn’t want to spoil Jase’s breakfast with violence, but fuck if he’d let Mathers come in and spoil it with his nasty ass.
Lena stood up next to him. Not to restrain him, but to show support.
To his surprise, Marcus stepped out of the trees. “Get out of here, Mathers.”
Jase stood as well. “If you want some food, you’re welcome to stay if you can be civil. Of course, you’ll have to pick it up out of the dirt, first.”
Markowicz stood, and a couple of other guys.
“Fuck all of you,” Mathers said, clenching his fists.
Stetson Krom sighed and set down his book, then he stood up as well. Carter gaped at him in shock. He’d never seen Stetson join in any of the dominance battles.
Eight against one, and Mathers still wasn’t backing down.
Then another form stepped from the trees. “You’re grossly outnumbered,” Kyle said. “Might be best if you took off.”
Mathers shook his head in disgust. Carter looked from Kyle to Mathers. He couldn’t decide which man he hated more.
Then Kyle walked right up to Mathers. His face looked off, like it hadn’t healed all the way after Carter had beat him up, but he showed no fear whatsoever as he faced off against the other bear.
“Fuck you,” Mathers said. “I’m just passing by.”
He lumbered across the area, kicked dirt at the bonfire, and disappeared into the trees.
“Well,” Lena said brightly, “looks like we got through the meal without a fight.”
Carter wasn’t entirely sure about that. The rage he’d felt toward Mathers was now completely directed at Kyle. He wanted to tear him apart all over again. Kyle needed to admit what he did to Garth. He didn’t need to tell the world—Carter didn’t care about public justice. But he wanted some kind of atonement, some kind of acknowledgment. Garth deserved that much, at least.
He deserved honesty in his death, honesty from the man who’d killed him.
“Hey,” Lena said, poking Carter in the side.
He looked down. He’d been so intent on Kyle, he’d forgotten about her standing right next to him. “What?”
“I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you,” she said, “but Kyle’s not doing anything to you. He helped. So get over yourself.”
Carter closed his eyes. She wanted him to stand down. He could do that. “Yeah. You’re right.”
“I know.” She gave his hand a squeeze.
He looked at Kyle again, and Kyle was staring directly at him. Carter swallowed the bitter fullness in his throat and forced himself to nod at Kyle. It had taken balls for Kyle to walk right up to Mathers like that.
If only Kyle could become man enough to admit what he’d done to Carter’s brother.
Kyle nodded back, his pale eyes never leaving Carter’s. It felt less like respect and more like a challenge, but Carter would take it.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Lena muttered. “You two are ridiculous.”
15
Lena came back to the trailer after breakfast and flopped down on one of the beds. It held the scents of all three of them. She couldn’t smell herself, obviously, but Kyle’s sweet grass scent and Marcus’s earthy, mossy scent both filled her nose. Neither scent was bad, but the commingling reminded her that this was a temporary set-up. They couldn’t all three of them share this trailer forever.
The wind had picked up after breakfast, and now it pummeled against the sides of the trailer. Lena stared at the ceiling and listened to the creaking of the trees. At some point, she would need to do something about Mathers, Barnum, and whoever else had attacked her the other night. Then again, since they’d failed, maybe they would let it go. Shaw had no real hold on them here.
Footsteps and a loud thump outside the trailer caused Lena to sit up. Had the wind knocked a tree branch into the trailer? She peered through the curtains that looked into the woods, but didn’t see anything. The footsteps seemed to be at the front of the trailer—the side that faced the boundary of the Junkyard. And it seemed they were fading away.
She slammed open the door in time to see a woman’s retreating form, going back to the little cabin on the outside of the boundary.
“Hey!” Lena called.
The woman turned and waved. “Hi! I didn’t know you were home. I left something for you.”
Lena looked down and saw a canvas sack on the ground. She sniffed, but couldn’t smell anything like food. Curious, she loosened the draw-string and found fabric. Rooting through it with her hands revealed clothes. A pair of jeans, a short-sleeved t-shirt, a hoodie, some socks, a couple pairs of underwear, and a bra. Tucked in with the clothes was a piece of paper.
Hi, Lena. I can only imagine how hard it is to do laundry over there. Use this bag to put your dirty clothes in and I’ll wash them at my place. Don’t tell any of the guys we’re doing this. —Caitlyn
So far, Lena had been scrubbing her spare change of clothes in the lake and drying them on a rock. It was hard work, and they hadn’t felt all the way clean. Plus, they took forever to dry.
Blinking back tears, Lena said, “Thank you. This is really, really nice of you. I won’t say anything to anyone.”
“Awesome,” Caitlyn said. “I don’t want sudden requests flooding me.”
Lena laughed. “Can you imagine? A whole Junkyard laundry service.”
Caitlyn wrinkled her nose. “And having to touch Mathers’s underwear.”
“I think I just threw up in my mouth,” Lena said.
“Right?”
They both laughed.
“Anyway,” Caitlyn said, “I need to get inside to work.”
“What do you do?” Lena asked.
“I’m an advice nurse for a medical site.”
“Sounds cool.” That reminded Lena. “Thank you for walking Carter through my stitches.”
“Everything healed up all right?” Caitlyn asked. The wind lifted her blond ponytail and whipped it around.
“Yeah, it did. Thank you again.” She held up the laundry bag. “And thank you for this as well.”
Caitlyn smiled. “You’re welcome. See you around, Lena.”
“See you.”
Caitlyn walked back to her cabin, and Lena went back inside the trailer with the clothes.
Even though she was touched by Caitlyn’s kind gesture, she felt sadder than she had before their interaction. The short chat had reminded her that there was a world beyond the boundaries of the Junkyard. It had reminded her what it was like to talk with another woman.
She held the bag of clean clothes to her chest and allowed herself to mope for a few minutes. Then she shed her dirty clothes and got dressed.
She let go of her dirty clothes with some regret—they carried Carter’s scent. Last night and this morning had been beyond amazing. She could still feel his hands gripping her hips as he thrust into her from the back. Or if she closed her eyes, she could see his head of dark hair between her thighs, and his deep blue eyes locking with hers as he licked her pussy.
Well, that was enough imagining. She’d just have to go find him and hopefully screw these filthy, delightful thoughts out of her system. Maybe the howling of the wind would drown out her own howling as she came.
Resolved to getting some D, Lena left the trailer and yelped when she ran right into Marcus.
“Shit,” she said, hand to her chest. “You scared me.”
“Sorry,” he said.
Kyle was right behind him, wind ruffling his blond hair. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.” Lena stepped the rest of the way outside and faced the guys. “What’s up?”
“We’re concerned,” Marcus said.
Lena could guess where this was going. She didn’t want to look at either of them during this conversation. Their concerns were valid—Carter had attacked Kyle, bloodied him. And then he’d turned around and Lena had practically thrown herself at him. When she looked at it like this, it didn’t make sense.
But when she went by feelings—how he made her feel, how her heart thumped in excitement whenever he was near, how she’d felt happy for the first time in months—it made plenty of sense.
“Lena, wait,” Kyle said.
She hadn’t even realized she was walking away from them. Halting, she turned around. “What?”
“Is he your mate?” Kyle asked.
“I’m not interested in being mated to anyone,” she said, frowning. That wasn’t what Kyle had asked her, exactly, but it held true. She didn’t want that, and if she didn’t want it, she could resist it.
Both men looked at her.
Whatever. She didn’t need their scrutiny or their meddling.
“Guys,” she said, “I’m a big girl, I can handle myself. Carter and I have had some fun, and that doesn’t need to be anybody’s business but ours.”
“It’s ours if he hurts you.” Marcus said, the wind snapping away his words. His gray eyes were dark with threat.
“He doesn’t hurt me,” she said. Then she remembered the pleasant sting of his hand on her backside, and she felt herself blush. She wished another gust of wind would pick up and cool her face.
“For fuck’s sake,” Kyle said. “He’s got some kind
of hold on you.”
“Yes, and I like it.” Lena resisted the urge to stamp her foot. She wasn’t a child, and she wouldn’t let them make her feel or act like one. “Look, I get it. You guys are concerned. Thank you. If I ever need help, I know I can go to either of you.”
She gave them each a hard look, waiting to see if they’d argue with her, but neither did. Kyle even lowered his gaze.
“Kyle,” Lena said, “why does he seem to hate you so much, anyway?”
Marcus balanced on the balls of his feet, leaning forward. He looked just as keen for Kyle’s answer as Lena was. “Yeah, he does seem to hate you especially.”
Kyle shook his head. His gaze went distant. “Do you hear that?”
“Don’t change the subject,” Marcus said.
“No, I hear it, too,” Lena said. The noise was half-drowned by the wind’s gusts. “A car is coming.”
It wasn’t Grant’s or Caitlyn’s cars—those were both in the drive. Besides, the sound was coming from the other side of the Junkyard, where the food delivery had been made the other day.
“Let’s go check it out,” Kyle said.
Lena gave him the side-eye. He didn’t want to talk about Carter. So there was a story there.
As they hurried to the dump, wind tugged at her clothes like grasping hands. Lena reflected that both Marcus and Kyle had alpha tendencies, but they were here in the Junkyard with no one to lead. It made sense, in a twisted sort of way, that they were getting protective of her. She was their pack.
And that meant she needed to set some boundaries of her own. Comparing Marcus’s and Kyle’s concern to Shaw’s tyranny was out of the question, but she was hesitant to allow anyone to control her again.
“Jase said the food only comes once a week,” Marcus said as they jogged.
“I bet it’s more shifters,” Kyle said.
New people? Lena wrinkled her nose. Newcomers could shake up the very tentative “normal” she’d been hoping to find here. It would mean more fighting, for sure. And she had a pretty good guess which bear shifter would be most pleased with that.
They reached the dump just as a large white van parked in the dirt lot on the other side of the gravel boundary. Two men got out of the front and immediately walked around to the rear door. They paid no attention to the few people gathering inside the boundary. Lena saw Mathers leaning against the old bus, and Markowicz and Jase at the other side of the dump. They appeared bored, but she could sense everyone’s interest. This must have been what it was like when she, Marcus, Kyle, Barnum, and Mollin had arrived.