by E A Price
Grudgingly, he did admit that Acksel would make a good mate, but he doubted it would be with Carly. After Carly’s parents had left the pack, abandoning their daughter, Carly lived with their family. While Carly had a crush on Acksel, Acksel came to love her like one of his sisters. Although, she was much less irritating than any of their three sisters, at least in Hans’ opinion.
Hans tried to tell Melanie that, but she was adamant they’d be great together. She was particularly keen since Carly’s most recent boyfriend, Bryce, had cheated on her with a human called Carrie, and then dumped her. Bryce was an obnoxious asshat.
They were at the pack Alpha’s wedding reception. Hans had eschewed wearing a suit and instead wore slacks and a black shirt. Melanie was wearing a tight, black, sheath dress. It was modestly cut at the front with a high neckline and reached down to just over her knees, but the back was breathtaking. It was almost completely backless, with just a couple of strings holding the dress together. It showed off an expense of her beautiful caramel skin, as well as the tattoo she had gotten for Hans. Hans had numerous tattoos, stretching over one arm and part of his chest. When Melanie realized she wanted to be with Hans, she got a tattoo on her lower back of a wolf with his name blazoned underneath. He loved it, as much as he did the bonding mark he had given her. As soon as he could, he had Melanie’s name tattooed over his heart.
Melanie had now enlisted Hans, to get Acksel, to ask Carly to dance. Hans hadn’t wanted to, but Melanie had promised him it would be worth his while. With that, she had sashayed to the bathroom, an extra wriggle in her gorgeous, round ass.
His wolf howled at him. No way he wanted to miss what she had planned.
Excusing himself from his table, where Don and Kayleigh, in a rare moment between dances, were talking to Carly, he sought Acksel.
Acksel was acting as a groomsman; unlike Hans, Acksel was a good friend of the Alpha. It was natural for wolf shifters to instinctively obey their Alpha. That wasn’t the case for Hans. When the Alpha issued him an order, his wolf impulsively told him to disobey. Hans didn’t feel the same pull of authority that other wolves did, making him almost rogue.
If it hadn’t been for first his mother, and then Melanie’s influence, he probably already would be a rogue. He kept himself in check for their sakes, and avoided the Alpha as much as possible.
Acksel raised his beer to his brother.
Hans raked his hands through his short hair. “You need to ask Carly to dance.”
Acksel shrugged. “Sure. I’m guessing this is Mel’s idea?”
Hans didn’t say anything.
“She knows I’m not interested in Carly, right?”
Hans groaned. “I’ve told her but she won’t listen. She’s stubborn.”
Acksel chuckled. “She’d need to be to put up with you.”
Acksel slapped his brother on the back and went in search of Carly; Hans glowered after him. Hans’ body hummed, and a second later, Melanie snaked her arms around his waist, leaning her cheek against his back.
“Well done, see, that wasn’t hard, was it?”
Hans watched as Acksel danced with a smiling Carly. He grunted.
He put his hands over hers and frowned as he felt her clutching something. Carefully, he pried her hand open, and his wolf yipped ecstatically to find she was holding her lacy, black thong. He’d been thinking about it ever since she slid it on earlier that day.
“Fuck, sugar…”
“Let’s have a little fun.”
Melanie slipped away and sauntered to the exit with Hans chasing, panting madly. He caught her outside in the parking lot next to their truck. He slid his hands round her and licked her neck.
“Sugar, I don’t think I’ll last until we get home…”
“Home? Who says we’re going home? Come on, it’s freezing out here.”
Melanie fished the truck keys out of Hans’ pocket, and they scrambled inside. She knelt on the seat, unzipping his pants and releasing his hard cock. She fisted the base, and leaning down she engulfed his length in her mouth as far as she could.
Hans groaned at the glorious warmth of his mate’s mouth. She began bobbing her head up and down, swirling her tongue. She directed her other hand to her sex and began rubbing her clit, making moaning vibrations around his manhood.
Her ass wiggled as she became even more excited, and Hans reflected that anyone walking past the truck could see it waving at them. No, he couldn’t have that.
He pulled her mouth off him and maneuvered her, so she was sat over him, with her back to his chest. He hiked her dress up to her waist and pulled her down on his engorged penis. She cried out in pleasure, as he filled her to the brink.
Melanie braced herself with one hand against the window, as Hans began bouncing her up and down his swollen shaft. Her orgasm quickly began to pick up speed, the white hot heat readying to explode. She massaged her clit and contracted her inner muscles around him, making him grunt at the unbelievable tightness.
Finally, he couldn’t hold on, and he dragged her hips firmly down and burst inside, triggering her screaming release. Hans bellowed her name as his wolf howled. He wrapped his arms round her and held her as her body jerked and shuddered around him. They reveled in their shared feelings of love and satisfaction.
Hans kissed her neck. “Let’s go home.”
Melanie hesitated between giving in to what she wanted, and being polite. If they were to disappear, it would be a bit rude. “But the pack…”
He rubbed his chin over the bonding mark sending tingles straight to her womb. “I’ll text Acksel; I’ll tell him we had to leave suddenly because you got sick. I’ll tell him I needed to get some medicine in you.”
His softening cock stirred inside her. “Oh, is that what we’re calling it now? Medicine?” she purred.
Hans chuckled. “Is that a yes?”
“Did you really think it wouldn’t be a yes?”
“Nah.” His wolf roared in happiness. Mine.
*
24th December
“Come on wake up!”
Melanie slapped Hans’ bare butt.
Last night after their car adventure they’d returned home, driving pretty erratically since Melanie hadn’t been able to keep her hands to herself, and Hans had trouble concentrating. At home, they moved from room to room, until they’d finally fallen asleep in bed naked, slightly tangled in the sheets.
“Ughhhh, don’t want to,” groused Hans laying face down on the bed; he pulled a pillow over his head.
Hans yelped as Melanie pinched his butt cheek. “Next time I’ll use my teeth.”
Hans rolled over, watching as she moved around the room in a pair of panties and almost sheer vest. He could see the outline of her dark nipples. He growled gutturally.
“Hey! No, none of that,” she warned, clucking her tongue. “We need to get round to your mom’s house. It’s already gone noon.”
Hans huffed, and lay back on the bed. “I still don’t see why we can’t just stay here.”
Melanie threw some underwear into a suitcase. “Because, your mom wants all her children round her for Christmas.”
“It’s not like we live far away; we could just drive there tomorrow. Hell, we could just walk there!”
Melanie threw a towel at him. “It’s not the same. She wants us all there to wake up together on Christmas Day. I think it’s nice, I can’t wait to meet your sister Noa.”
Hans’ younger sister Noa was 18 and had recently gone to college in Florida to train to be a vet. His other sisters, Britt and Gwen, were 16-year-old twins and drove him bananas.
“Just imagine an older, taller version of the twins and you’re there. In fact, I do a great impersonation.” He cleared his throat. “Boys, lip-gloss, boys, miniskirts, boys, New Girl, boys, boys.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I’m impressed that you actually know what New Girl is, but is that how you think I am too?”
“Not you sugar, you’re more, ‘Hans is a sex god, Hans
is the world’s greatest lover, Hans has ruined me for other men.'”
Melanie looked at him sourly. “Wow! That was uncanny. Now go shower sex god.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Ugh! It’s gonna be awful! Five days trapped with my sisters is enough to test a fucking saint!”
Melanie folded a shirt into the case. “I don’t know; I’m kind of looking forward to it. I haven’t celebrated Christmas in years, not since my mom died. It’s not much fun to celebrate when you’re alone.”
A sharp twinge of guilt shot straight to his heart. He was selfish. He’d never needed anybody until he met Melanie, and he wanted her all to himself. He never even considered that, after years of aching loneliness, what she needed was a family.
Wordlessly he got up and walked over to her. He kissed her nose. “I’m sorry, sugar.”
He walked to the shower and stopped in his tracks when he heard one word from her. “Sucker.”
“Ugh, that’s it!” He turned and threw her over his shoulder. He carried her to the bathroom and placed her in the shower, turning the water on full pelt.
She shrieked and playfully slapped at him as he dragged her into a soul-searing kiss. “I love you sugar, you know that right?”
“Yep, that’s why I know you’re going to come with me to your mom’s house for Christmas. And, that’s why you’re going to enjoy yourself, whether you like it or not.”
Hans slid his fingers through her wet underwear. “Anything you want, sugar.”
*
A couple of hours later they finally made it to his mom’s house. Ilse Lucas was human. When her true mate died, Noa was just a baby. A while after, Ilse remarried another wolf, a friend of her late mate’s who also lost his true mate. Soon after, she gave birth to the twins. They ran the pizza parlor together until he died too.
After she had been widowed, in spite of the old Alpha’s displeasure, she remained as a member of the pack. The old Alpha had never whole-heartedly approved of wolves marrying other species, pumas he could just about tolerate, but not humans. He believed humans weakened the gene pool, so it was through sheer force of will that any wolf in the pack took a human as a mate, and through steely determination that Ilse had remained with the pack after both her husbands’ deaths. Ilse often said Hans got his stubborn nature from her.
All of Ilse’s five children had turned out to be wolf shifters. She met her true mate when she came to America on a student exchange program; after she met him, she never went back to Sweden.
When Hans and Melanie arrived, it was to find Noa had already come home. Noa was quite average for a wolf shifter. She was five foot eight and willowy, but still toned and athletic. Noa, like her siblings, had reddish-blonde hair, and she wore hers long and in a braid. Her soft green eyes sparkled; Melanie didn’t think it was possible, but she was even lovelier than her mother and twin sisters.
Melanie had a flash of high school history; one of her teachers obsessed over mythology, and had droned on for hours about the Norwegian myths. In particular the Valkyries. Okay, so she wasn’t actually Norwegian, but Noa definitely fit the bill as a Valkyrie.
Noa pulled Melanie into a warm hug. “I’m so pleased to meet you; I’m so glad that Hans found you. I’ve heard that he’s like a whole new person.”
Hans grunted in annoyance as he dropped their case to the ground.
Melanie held up her hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let’s not go nuts. If I had to make a guess, I’d say he was like five percent less of an asshat since we got together.”
Noa’s eyebrows shot up her head. She looked at Hans and saw him grinning. Damn her brother had it bad. Usually he’d go ballistic if someone called him an asshat. Instead, he just looped an arm around Melanie’s waist and kissed her temple. Wonders will never cease…
Melanie reached out and squeezed Ilse’s hand. “Thank you so much for inviting us for Christmas.”
“Oh my dear, you don’t have to thank me, we’re family, I expect you to come to my house every Christmas.”
“Great,” muttered Hans. Melanie elbowed him. “Yeah great, of course, Mom.”
Ilse teared up and kissed Hans on the cheek.
Her other four children rolled their eyes. Why did their mother have such a soft spot for her worst kid? They were all so well behaved!
Ilse dried her eyes and clapped her hands together. “Okay, so Hans if you can get dinner started, I’m just going to make a quick phone call, and the rest of you can relax.”
The Lucas,’ like numerous other pack families, celebrated with a meal on Christmas Eve and then opened presents before bed. On Christmas Day, they shifted and went out hunting and running, or at least the wolves did, Ilse usually went for a walk. She was pleased now to have Melanie for company.
The twins and Acksel went to watch TV, while Noa went to her room to unpack.
“I can help with the cooking too,” offered Melanie. “I’m an okay cook, not as good as Hans, but I’m pretty handy when it comes to peeling carrots.”
Ilse waved her hand. “Nonsense my dear, you should just relax and let us take care of you.” Ilse bustled off to the phone.
Melanie slipped her arms through Hans.' “Well, maybe I’ll just watch you cook then.”
Hans raised an eyebrow. “You want just to sit and watch?”
“Sure, nothing sexier than a man who can cook. You should hear Kayleigh go on and on about Don cooking. He cooks all their meals.”
Hans snorted as he led her into the kitchen. “He has to, unless he wants food poisoning.”
Melanie pouted. He was referring to an unfortunate dinner a week ago, when Kayleigh had tried to make chicken chasseur. “Oh, come on, I’m sure Kayleigh wasn’t trying to poison us intentionally…”
“The chicken had blood oozing out of it!”
“Hey, she felt bad about that.”
“Hopefully bad enough never to step foot in the kitchen again,” murmured Hans.
There was a banging at the door, followed by the thunderous sound of Noa running downstairs. “I’ll get it; that’s for me.”
Noa had opened and closed the door before anyone could react. Melanie peeked through the kitchen curtain, to see her sister-in-law chatting to a young pack member called Hunter Donaldson. She didn’t look overly pleased to see him.
Hans leaned over Melanie’s shoulder. “Who is she… for fuck’s sake!”
Hans started to move to the door, but Melanie clasped his shirt. “Don’t interfere.”
Hans stared at her in wide-eyed disbelief. “I’m sorry? You’re telling me not to interfere?!”
Melanie watched the two young wolves with interest. “I mean, don’t so something stupid like punch him, I doubt Noa would thank you for it.”
Hans balled up his fists. “That boy’s an asshole! They used to date. One minute they’re all happy, and next she’s crying her eyes out.”
“If Noa looks like she needs help, by all means go out there, but otherwise leave her be.”
“I just don’t like seeing men sniffing round my sisters.”
Melanie chuckled at her overprotective mate. “Well, get used to it. Your sister’s beautiful, I’m not surprised boys are interested.”
Hans clucked his tongue at her. “You’re far more beautiful than she is, and men aren’t sniffing round you.”
“You’re wrong, and I wasn’t looking for a compliment. And even if men were interested in me, they’d be too terrified of you to show it.”
Hans rubbed his thumb over her shoulder. “Sugar, you don’t have to look for a compliment; you’re the most beautiful woman in the world. I’ll never stop saying that, and I’m glad men don’t realize it. I don’t want to have to beat up loads of men for looking at you… I mean, I will, but I don’t want to… alright, I sort of want to.”
“Ummmmm…” she moaned as his fingers danced over her bonding mark.
Melanie jumped as Ilse came into the kitchen. Hans scowled at his mother.
“Alright you two,
this meal’s never going to get made if you start that… unless you’re trying to make me a grandchild, then by all means, have at it.”
Ilse hadn’t exactly been subtle about dropping hints. She wanted grandchildren, and she wanted them soon.
Melanie turned beet red. “Nope, cooking it is.”
*
“I can’t believe this!” snarled Hans.
Melanie smirked. “It’s kind of cute…”
After dinner, Hans and Melanie decided to unpack in their room. They’d discovered they were sharing Hans and Acksel’s old room. And were sharing bunk beds.
Ilse of course had her room, the twins shared a room, Noa still had her room, and Acksel was sleeping on the couch. Which left one room for Hans and Melanie.
“We should kick Noa out of her room,” grumbled Hans.
“We can’t, it’s hers. Technically she still lives here, and we’re the guests. It’s only for four nights.”
Hans folded his arms. “But how are we supposed to have sex in that thing?”
“Yeah, I’m not sure we should have sex in your family’s house.”
Hans’ wolf yowled furiously. “What?!”
Melanie stood up and folded her arms too. “Your whole family will be able to hear us. I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Hans spluttered. “But… but…”
Melanie ignored him and walked round the room, fingering the books and posters. “Is this your poster of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”
Hans tapped his foot. “You know it isn’t, Acksel used to have a thing for that girl in it.”
“Sarah Michelle Gellar? You know, you kind of remind me of Angel the vampire…”
Hans harrumphed. “Whatever, I didn’t watch it… and, if anything, I’m more like Spike.”
“Didn’t watch it my ass! Look, stop pouting, it’s not for long. Maybe if we’re quiet we can do it in the shower.”