Just once.
Then she would leave. Leave this pack in safety. If she didn’t play her role in luring the males away, she would effectively fuck up Bray’s plans.
There was happiness to be found in that.
She just didn’t feel very happy about the execution.
Jenni plans to leave a note, detailing what happened and how she removed herself from the equation.
Jenni could be selfless. A scalding tear runs down her face. Lost potential, friends, and belonging. That’s the price she has to pay.
The cost is steep.
Quill
Quill knows something’s going down.
He hasn’t lasted this long in a decimated pack to blow off his instincts.
Maybe Jenni’s fooled the others, but Quill is sure something happened out there. Between the time that he left his place and came to the sanctuary to meet Adi’s mate, Jenni was thoroughly terrified by more than a fucking cat.
Yes, she’s a new Were female. But a cougar wouldn’t leave that acrid smell of fear over her flesh. The females, Susan and Adi, would have scented something, but not with the finesse of a male.
However, a born Alpha male is meant to protect females. The instinct is present in their very DNA. Only a truly messed up Were, or a mongrel, would harm a female.
That is why Quill knows the turned Were who nearly got the females is a true problem.
He’s not following the instincts of Quill’s kind. His genetics are diluted by turning.
Quill’s not a fan of turned males. For starter’s, they don’t seem to come out the other side mentally true. No one is sure why, but if a female survives a turn, which is rare, she’s always of sound mind. And Alpha.
Like Jenni.
And Quill wants her.
That does nothing for him. Wanting Jenni. She’s a distraction. He can step down for Slash. The male is an Alpha Red, for fuck’s sake. And he’s mated. That’s a great bonus for the pack. After all, the hallmark of a decent Alpha is the healthy advancement of the pack. Quill would do a lot to get this pack kicked into shape.
Dare and Sebastian won’t fight him for a chance at Jenni.
But he can’t push. She’s vulnerable and remains so human in her thought processes, he can practically see the wheels turning.
Unfortunately, she makes his cock hard. His beast has already chosen, hitting the surface of him like a ton of bricks when he first gazed at Jenni from across the asphalt of Forest Beach.
She was standing there in loose jeans and a faded T-shirt. Her exhaustion, hunger, and fear drug at Quill like emotional quicksand. And like some pussy, he was hit between the eyes when his beast roared to the surface.
A perfectly mated pair is legend among his kind.
Lycan were becoming extinct—that was a fact they all understood.
No male can afford to wait around for his soulmate to trip into his arms.
Then Jenni did—into Quill’s.
Quill’s exhale is raw.
She is that missing part to his life, so he can’t fuck it up; because he wants to mate her so badly, his hands tremble with the need to touch her.
“Your desire burns my nostrils.”
Quill’s head whips up, sighting in on Adi’s mate. Standing, he rolls his shoulders back. Ready for anything. So aware that the female he’s lusting after is just through that door. Maybe naked. Maybe sleeping.
Maybe thinking about him.
“Apologies, Red.”
Slash’s smirk makes the scar across his face ripple strangely, an integral part of his expression.
“Don’t apologize.” His brow wrinkles. “But it does less than nothing for me.”
The tension in Quill’s shoulders release, and he chuckles. “That obvious, huh?”
Slash claps him on the back. “I resisted Adi for as long as she’d let me.” His black eyebrows pop.
Quill gives a belly laugh. “She is a pig-headed female.”
Slash gives a rueful shake of his head. “There was no denying her. Adrianna is a force of nature.”
Quill grins, remembering her as a whelp. “She gave back as good as she got. Believe me.”
Slash dips his chin, waiting.
Quill sighs, sitting back down and knotting his hands between his powerful thighs. “It’s too soon.”
Slash shakes his head. “Now that I have mated with Adrianna, I wish I had staked my claim sooner. I always loved her. My beast had chosen her—hell...” He scrubs a hand over his shorn, dark hair. “Maybe when she was a whelp. It just sat curled inside my body, waiting until she came of age.”
“She’s young,” Quill concedes.
Slash’s eyes are ebony razors as they narrow at him. “And now she carries my whelp.”
He gives the older Were a sharp look, reading an edge of shame at the admission. Quill frowns. “Don’t worry about it. We can’t help who we want. And believe me, if Adi didn’t want you, your ass would be at the curb.”
Slash snorts. “That’s not precisely news, Quill.”
They sit in silence, the two of them occupying the kitchen table that has fed so many generations of Were that there were divots were elbows have rested for centuries.
“Has your beast chosen this Jenni?” Slash asks quietly, probably already suspecting the truth.
Quill just nods. There’s no other answer but the truth. Slash is old enough, and Red to boot, that he’s scenting everything anyway.
“It’s too soon,” Quill repeats.
“I wouldn’t wait. The female does not choose her mate as we Alphas do. Jenni has no idea she might be your ideal. Unless... you want to give her time so another male can stumble upon her and vie for position.”
Quill stands so fast, his hand catches the back of the chair as it tips over from the force of his motion. “Unacceptable.” His voice is a base growl.
Slash’s dark brow rises slowly. “That’s what I thought.”
Frustrated, Quill turns and stomps out of the sanctuary, putting much-needed distance between him and the female he must mate.
Or go slowly insane with want.
Slash
“So what’s going on, Stud?” Adrianna asks him the instant he slides between the crisp sheets of their bed.
Taking her by the hips, he rolls Adrianna onto his naked body, letting the hardness of himself split her softness.
She moans. A much better development than talking.
“Uh-uh, Big Guy—I wanna know the deets. What did Quill say?”
Slash cups her smooth ass cheeks, squeezing gently.
“Oooh, that feels wonderful.”
He smiles in the dark.
“Not getting off task, Slash.”
Damn.
With a disappointed sigh, he rolls his mate off and tucks her against his body.
Slowly, Slash traces her bottom lip with a finger. “It’s as you thought, though I didn’t need my nosey bride to tell me the male wants Jenni.”
He smirks, and Adrianna nips his finger.
“He reeks?” Adrianna asks, ignoring his remark about her being nosey.
Slash nods. The male’s lust is a brushfire in his nose.
“I don’t want Jenni hurt. That’s why I sent you on the mining-for-gold expedition.”
His smile broadens. Adrianna has a way of putting things that lightens Slash.
“Certainly a female Alpha Were is a heady presence in close proximity to an unmated Alpha male—or any male Were,” Slash admits.
“But?”
A pie-shaped wedge of moonlight drives through a crack in the curtain, lighting a sliver of Adrianna’s eye, causing it to glitter like spun glass.
“He wants more than a roll in the proverbial hay.”
Adrianna rolls her eyes. “You’re killing me—what’d he say?”
“His beast has chosen for him.”
“Oh shit,” Adrianna whispers, her tone slightly horrified.
“Indeed.” Slash’s smile fades. “The female is newly made.
.. and not versed in our culture. She’ll never understand what the claim means for her.”
“I don’t think Jenni’s ready to be mated to Quill for life.”
“No,” Slash agrees softly.
“What are we gonna do?”
Slash leans over the top of her, softly brushing her lips with his. Adrianna has almost made him forget the deformity that makes him ugly. When she looks at him, Slash never thinks he is. Somehow, he is starting to only see what Adrianna does.
He answers her with the most difficult of replies. “Nothing.”
Adrianna’s exhale sounds defeated. “That’s what I thought you’d say.”
Sometimes, it is all one can do.
Adrianna would say it sucks. And in that, they are in perfect agreement.
Because it does.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Bray
Bray slaps the back of Earl’s head. “Fucknuts!” Bray considers that divine intervention. His.
“Hey!” Earl shrieks.
Bray rolls his eyes skyward in the open field where they stand. “Don’t be”—Damn—“taking shits and that... close to the den? You leave our werewolf scat around, and one of their fucking soldiers is going to run back and tattle our whereabouts. Think.”
Earl scratches his head. “I can’t help when I gotta go. And I was wolfing out, Bray.”
Jee-suuus. “I’m not asking you to hold your crap—”
“He’s saying to take a dump that’s not on their front doorstep.”
Bray lowers his brows, razing Billy with a glare. “You’re no better, ya dick.”
Billy jerks his jaw back, affronted. “I don’t know what you’re talkinʼ about.”
Bray can tell he damn well knows by the way his eyes shift away. “You’re sniffinʼ the bitches.”
Billy's expression turns surly.
“They do smell awesome,” Earl admits in a dreamy voice, rubbing the sore spot Bray gave him on his thick skull.
Sometimes Bray wonders why he bothers. Is there really strength in numbers when the numbers are idiots?
“So you”—he stabs a finger in Billy’s direction—“need to stop trying to scent wolf twat.”
Earl chortles, and Bray fixes him with a death glare. “And you need to clean up your toilet habits.”
“I thought you said you wanted us to keep an eye on Jenni. That she’ll get the males out of the way.”
Bray slowly nods. “She will. I thought she smelled off at McDonald’s, but she was such a fresh turn.” He shrugs.
Luck just isn’t on Bray’s side.
“You were pretty fucked up, Bray,” Billy says, reminding Bray of how high he was when that cunt kicked their asses. If he’d been sober, he’d have figured her shit out. Right out.
“And I’d like to be again.”
Earl’s eyes widen at that.
“But I can’t load up, because I gotta get my brat and fix that loser Devin. And they’re all surrounded by the fucking pack.”
Bray remembers how great it was to do her parents and take off with some cash. He smiles.
Billy shakes his head, a dull sort of cunning brimming inside eyes like muddy grass. “Nope. Small pack.”
“Lots of Alphas.”
Billy gives Earl a full look of disdain. “There’s two, ass wipe.”
Earl shrugs. “Two is enough for me.”
“Because you’ve sprouted a uterus,” Billy says coyly, raising his blondish-white eyebrows.
Bray reluctantly shakes off his great case of the feels, saying, “Shut the blue fuck up and let me think.”
Earl and Billy shut up.
After a few seconds, Bray says, “We kill a couple of scouts before we close in.”
Earl shakes his head, looking like his crotch just started to sweat. “Too dangerous. It’s like warning them. All of ʼem.”
Bray can barely contain himself. “We just get stupid Jenni, isolate her ass, and the two numbnut scouts come running because she’s a female.”, Taking note the wind has kicked up, he scowls. Wind is never good. If it’s blowing the right direction, it’ll telegraph their location.
He begins to pace back and forth then abruptly stops. “Forget isolation. We hurt the bitch and let her fuss and whine. Make her bleed. They’ll really come running for that.”
Billy’s smile is slow but genuine. “I like it.”
“What?” Earl says.
Bray sighs in frustration. “You come along for the ride, got it?”
Earl gets it, his mouth snapping shut, lips thinning into a flat line. What Earl should really get is he’s about ready to be useful.
Now they have to just lure the bitch out to where they can do their artwork.
The males who patrol the territory will come a-runninʼ. But the Alphas won’t. They’ll be too worried about protecting the females who remain.
Especially that fucker from Denny’s. His scent is all over the place. Him and his bitch.
The thought causes him to seethe with embarrassment. He would love some payback.
Bray loosens his fingers, not realizing until just then that he’d cut his own palms. The crescent marks stop bleeding, begin to close, and fill in with flesh.
Damn, sometimes it’s good to be a werewolf.
Except for all the howling and painful changing, it’ll be the best thing that ever happened to him.
Jenni
It’s been almost a week, and Jenni’s not fitting in as well as she thought she would. She can’t blame the others, though.
Dare and Sebastian, though a little rough around the edges, have been nothing but courteous, and Susan’s a new favorite. Jenni hates to admit that her aggressive appetite has escalated the woman to food-goddess status. She supposes that’s part of her new lifestyle. Eating.
Jenni never thought she could honestly get sick of food. Yet, here she is, having to fill the hollow leg almost constantly.
There is another Were female. She’s somewhere between what they categorize as whelp and female, so, like Susan, she wasn’t included in the tally. Jennie guesses the girl’s maybe sixteen. Her name’s Nova, and she keeps to herself. Jenni can’t blame her.
Her orphan status is courtesy of Tony Laurent.
Jenni can’t help but feel extremely grateful that evil prick isn’t around anymore. He sounds like he was even more of a piece of work than Bray.
Speaking of... Jenni knows she can’t hold off leaving any longer. The sexual tension between her and Quillon is like a bomb about ready to explode. They’re like two taut strings pulled against each other to the breaking point. She’s got to get out of here.
Like yesterday.
Thankfully, Adi let her read all the volumes of Lycan history, and she’s been diligent in researching. She’s fascinated despite herself. Being a STEM girl her whole life has made it a necessity for Jenni to believe only in the tangible, the provable. The irony of her situation doesn’t escape her.
And werewolf history predates humans.
Jenni is also a big believer in evolution and believes the Were are simply an early branch from the tree of humanity she used to be a part of.
Then Adi told her about vampires, the Singers, and fey—actual faeries. She couldn’t suspend her disbelief.
But as it turns out, her skepticism wasn’t enough to withstand the moon when it became full the day after she arrived at the Northwestern den.
The moon shone down on her, and just like that, her body was torn inside out.
Like it would be again tonight.
As pseudo pack leader, Quillon was with Jenni for her first time, and she’s embarrassed even recalling it. Now that she’s been through the change, it’s frightening to contemplate what might have happened if she hadn’t fallen into the lap of Adi’s home pack in the nick of time.
Jenni might just believe in divine providence at this point.
Deep in her thoughts, she keeps walking the large loop in the woods that is patrolled by two Were males she’s only met briefly.
Jenni can’t turn her mind off—that’s why she went on a walk to begin with. Maybe the mindless trudge will clear her head. Unfortunately, all it gives her is the solitude necessary for memories of Quillon to crowd her head. As leader of the pack, he broke her first change tenderly. As tenderly as a person’s body being torn apart and remade can be.
Her body is still aching from how awful the shift was.
How wondrous.
When the moon’s pull came upon the Were, Quillon came to her in the middle of a grove of trees. Naked.
Jenni tried not to look. She really, really tried. In the end, she failed.
When her eyes finally got to his face, he laughed.
“I could never get away with that.” His flaming-red brow swept high.
Jenni blushed to the roots of her hair.
“I don’t—I’m not naked,” she said, running a palm down her panties-and-bra-clad figure.
“We’re saving your sensibilities. Because in about half an hour, you’re going to be more than naked.”
Jenni blinked at his blunt summary.
And they waited side by side, as a bubble began to push from deep within her toward the surface of her skin, causing Jenni to feel elastic, stretched.
Then the cloud covering the moon skated away, and the call struck her like a punch.
Jenni forgot about Quillon’s nakedness. With a cry of pain, she hit the ground hard, fingernails digging into the soft ground as she writhed in agony.
“It didn’t hurt to half-change,” Jenni panted, not knowing the terminology, trying to make sense of the insensible.
“Adrenaline masks many things.”
She looked up, and Quillon’s deep-green eyes were a spinning silver. “Changes to wolfen because of self-defense are almost always a brief burst of pain.”
Jenni looked into his eyes. “And this?”
His eyes were almost sad. “You get used to it. Eventually.”
Just then sharp pain roared through her, zinging her joints as they burst into an explosion of gelled and bloody soup.
She screamed, and Quillon was just there, hugging her to him.
Don’t, she thought for a nanosecond before the next wave of misery, you’ll get my nasty human sludge all over you!
Then his skin burst from his body, and Jenny was slapped with wet goo—her own and Quillon’s.
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