Winterstoke Wolves Collection : An MM Mpreg Shifter Romance Bundle
Page 31
Except he wouldn’t have his brother and if he killed Jax’s, he thinks Jax would hate him. It might solve his current problems, but it’d create a load more.
“I’m not going to challenge Adam Winterstoke.”
The man laughs in a way that sounds exactly the same as his disdainful bark as a wolf. The man snaps at Gray with white human teeth. His meaning is clear.
As long as you stay, so will I.
JAX
old cigarette smoke and the grand hotel
It’s quite clear what happened. The window is wide open, and the combined scents of fear and anger still cling to the bottom of the shower.
“I told him to stay,” Adam growls. He’s leaning heavily on the cane at his side and his eyes are tight with pain. The effort of pretending there was nothing wrong came at a price.
Knowing that doesn’t stop fury rising in Jax’s chest. He meets his brother’s eyes. “So? He’s not a dog.”
The scent of Gray’s panic is stabbing at his stomach. The chemical bonding between them might not be fully set, but it doesn’t mean it’s not effective.
It doesn’t help that Jax is hot. The prickles of heat are turning into a flood. The blockers aren’t working. He’s about to lose it completely. Holding it back for so long is going to make this one a lot worse.
“We need to get him back. You need to go get him back,” Jax says, as another wave of warmth flushes over him.
Adam shakes his head, “If he’s gone, he’s gone. He can come back if he likes but this—”
This makes things easier. Jax knows exactly how Adam was going to finish his sentence but his older brother’s gaze has moved from the bottom of the shower, and now he’s staring at Jax, his nostrils flared. The expression on his face is a mix of horror and embarrassment.
“They’re not working,” Jax says before Adam says anything. “I’ve been popping way more than are good for me but—”
“But you’re bonding whether you like it or not,” Adam finishes for him. “Crap.”
He lets out a heavy sigh and gives Jax a look that Jax doesn’t quite know how to interpret.
“Well, you smell like wild wolf anyway. There’s no benefit to us pretending there’s nothing going on here, but you can’t stay in the packhouse. Not smelling like that.” Adam runs a hand through his short hair, eyes narrowing as he thinks. “You can’t go up to the cabin. Not with the run going on.”
Jax wants to answer, but a shudder racks his body. It’s coming in fast.
“Do you want this?” Adam asks suddenly.
For a second, Jax thinks he means the heat, but then he realizes it can’t be. No one would want it. Not now. Adam means Gray. Does Jax want Gray?
Yes, the omega part of Jax screams.
No, the sensible part of his brain answers. That’s the part that made it through medical school through the power of pure willpower and stubbornness. It’s the part that’s enraged at the idea that he’s going to risk giving up everything.
“I don’t know,” Jax says out loud. “I want Gray. I don’t know if I want everything that goes with it.” Another wave of heat crashes over him, and he shudders again. It’s not ecstasy. It’s not arousal. It just hurts. He’s been putting it off so long, it’s painful. “Just go get him. Please.”
Adam gives him a slow nod. “I’ll send Gregor out. Stay here.”
Jax has no intention of disobeying. He’s not going anywhere, and he’s certainly not going anywhere the city alphas can smell him. They’ve been lucky. Even ten minutes earlier and it might have been a lot worse.
He sits in the bottom of the shower, his nose up against the cool tiles breathing in Gray’s scent. His whole body itches. He wants Gray’s hands on him, running over his skin and smoothing out the heat crawling underneath.
The thought of Gray’s strong hands on him makes him shiver uncontrollably, dick painfully rigid between his legs.
The door bangs open and the room fills with the scent of alpha, but it’s wrong. The scent is completely wrong. It’s not the alpha he needs. This one is just plain wrong. The tiny part of Jax’s brain that is still capable of rational thought recognizes it. Adam.
Irritation prickles along with the heat. He wants an alpha, yes. He absolutely does not want Adam.
“Ugh,” his brother’s voice says nasally as if he’s holding his nose. “Come on, bro. Up you get. We’ve got to get going and I do not want to have to carry you.”
The words settle in Jax’s head and then vaporize as another shudder overcomes him. He can hardly smell Gray now. He squishes his face up against the tile again.
“Move.” Adam’s voice shoots through Jax’s brain. His brother has put the full force of his authority behind it and Jax is on his feet before he’s even realized he’s moving. “Out. Get out.”
Jax moves. He’s out of the bathroom and into the bedroom where the bed still smells of Gray which is a far better place to lie and breathe him in than a cold and empty shower.
Adam barks at him again so he moves.
A minute later and he’s in the passenger seat of Adam’s truck, his brother turning the key in the ignition.
Fifteen minutes after that, Adam is slipping a key card into the door of Heat Suite at the Grand Hotel and shoving the door open.
Even through the fog of pheromones, Jax recognizes it as a good choice.
He’s never been in it before. It hasn’t really appealed.
It always felt a little grimy, going through a heat in a place that hundreds of strangers have sweated through their own, but it is scent-blocked for the comfort of the other guests, and it’s the one place that is usually empty during a mating run. The type of people to book it are either on the run or staying away while horny alphas descend on the town.
Adam pushes Jax in gently and dumps a pair of bags beside him on the floor.
“Gregor’s gone to get your fellow,” he says. “We’re locking the door. No one in and no one out. You have everything you need in there.” He nods each of the bags in turn. “Food and…toys”
And then he’s gone, slamming the door behind him as if he’s in a hurry to get away.
The room is far nicer than Jax would have expected. The Grand Hotel is Aylewood’s oldest hotel, and the parts of it that he has seen are dated and still carry the whiff of long-ago cigarette smoke.
This room has definitely been updated, and it doesn’t smell like smoke, or like people have been having sex in it. It smells of little other than cleaning soap, the lilies from the flowers on the table, and mountain breeze from the open windows.
The part he zones in on is the bed. It’s enormous, covered in a soft white duvet and looks like the perfect place to hole up for a week and do nothing other than pay attention to getting to know every single contour and line of Gray’s body.
If Gregor finds him. If not, he’s going to have to hole up here and think about Gray’s body.
Jax grabs the toy bag from the floor, gets on the bed and loses himself in thoughts of Gray.
GRAY
yellow vests and desperate kisses
The wind brings the scent of Winterstoke alpha. Gray closes his eyes and sniffs. He’s found it easier to differentiate scents when he shuts out the other human senses.
Gregor.
There’s no trace of fear or anger in the scent, but there is urgency.
Gray opens his eyes. Ash is gone, disappeared with the wind that brought the human’s scent.
Gregor is still a distance away but the urgency in his scent makes Gray move. Something has happened. Perhaps something to do with the strange alphas he had to hide from. Perhaps something to do with Jax.
The pine needles under his feet stab into him with each step and once again, Gray curses the softness of human skin and the rigidity of the thing on his arm that stops him from turning wolf.
He’s supposed to be able to race though the forest on all four paws. Instead, he’s stuck walking on two slow legs that end in clumsy over-large feet.
It takes him far longer than it should to dodge the mating run alphas and stay out of their scent paths.
It’s an age before he meets up with Gregor in the lower part of the forest, and by then his calves are aching.
Jax’s brother is a huge wolf with pale fur the color of the moon. He’s wearing the ridiculous bright yellow vest that the Winterstoke alphas wear during the mating run. Gray’s father said it was so the strange alphas and omegas knew who was in charge of the run and knew who to obey.
He looks ridiculous. Wolves should not wear clothes. Gray is happy to admit he knows nothing about humans, but he does know about wolves, and he is never going to change his mind on that.
He knows what Gregor is here for too. He must have scented Ash’s presence in the forest.
“My brother—”
Gregor shifts in one easy movement, and then there’s a man wearing nothing but the bright yellow vest. It doesn’t look any better, Gray thinks.
“We’ll deal with him,” Gregor says, rolling his shoulders as if he’s shrugging back into his skin.
Anger rises. Ash is not for the Winterstokes to deal with. He’s not some prey animal to be run down and slaughtered.
“Jax is in heat.”
The anger dissipates fast as a flowing river. Happiness fills him up from the bottom of the silly human feet to his over-thinking head. It’s warm and makes him feel dizzy. Jax in heat. It’s a dizzying image.
“Adam is getting him somewhere safe, but Jax wants you.”
“He does?” The warmth turns to sudden heat. The happiness that filled him earlier overflows, and Gray finds himself grinning. “Really? Are you sure?”
Gregor gives him appraising look, followed by a small smile. “Look at you. And here I thought I was going to have to give you a warning about treating my brother right.”
“Of course, I will.” Gray says, bewildered. Jax is his mate. How else would he treat him? Humans make no sense.
“Get a move on, then. He was bad when I left. He’ll be in full throes now.”
Gregor shifts back to the pale wolf, and Gray wishes he could copy him. Instead, he picks his way through the trees following Gregor who pads slowly enough for Gray to keep up, until they reach the packhouse and the vehicles that the brothers keep in front of it.
The smaller vehicle is better than the bus, especially now that Gray knows where he is going, or rather who is waiting at the end of it.
They drive down into the town in silence, and park in front of the largest building in the town. It smells bad inside. There have been a lot of humans through here. More even than the packhouse.
“Don’t worry. The heat suite is scent-blocked. You’ll be fine,” Gregor says when he sees Gray wrinkle his nose.
None of that makes any sense to Gray. Neither does the fact that he can’t smell Jax. At all.
An omega in heat should be radiating scent, but there’s nothing.
Gray is just starting to worry when they stop in front of a door. Gregor raises a single rectangular object to something stuck on the side of it, then stops.
“I know I said I didn’t have to warn you, but by God, if you—”
“I’ll treat him right. He’s my mate.”
Gregor gives Gray an odd look. “Perhaps he is.” He nods then pushes the door open and hurriedly shoves Gray inside.
The scent hits like a windstorm.
Jax. Pure Jax. It’s the most intoxicating scent Gray has ever encountered.
The visual is even better.
Jax is lying on the bed, completely naked, both hands between his legs and working hard.
Jax’s eyes are half-lidded and he’s breathing hard, teeth biting down on his bottom lip in frustration.
Gray stands watching, stuck to the spot. He’s never seen anything so utterly decadent in his life. Nothing has prepared him for this. Nothing at all.
All of a sudden, terror hits as he realizes that he has no idea what to do. He’s never done this before.
Jax will know. He’ll have done it before. Humans always do, and even if he hasn’t, humans talk about these things. They talk about everything.
All Gray knows is how much he doesn’t want to get it wrong. His dick is hard, pressing against the human pants he is wearing. He doesn’t want to hurt Jax. The space between Jax’s legs – that part that he just can’t keep his eyes off – looks so vulnerable.
At the same time, all he wants to do is race over there, push Jax’s thighs apart and sink into him in one easy movement.
Gray lets out an involuntary whine.
“Gray. Please.” Jax is looking up at him, pupils blown wide, his face flushed. “Please.”
Gray is at the bed in two big strides, but he still can’t do it. Jax has told him no over and over again. He’s not sure if this counts as a yes.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Jax bursts out. He sits up and grabs Gray’s shirt pulling the wild wolf down on top of him. Gray falls awkwardly, only just managing to put his weight on his good arm as he does.
Jax’s hand cups the back of Gray’s head and Jax’s mouth rises up to meet his.
Gray’s worries disintegrate. Gray might not know what he’s doing but Jax clearly knows what he wants and Gray is more than happy to let him to do it.
Kissing is interesting, his human thoughts can’t help noting. It should be weird, but it’s not.
Jax’s mouth is warm, wet and desperate, and Gray finds himself kissing back just as hard and just as desperate.
Jax’s back arches, pushing his dick hard against Gray’s stomach. Gray’s vision goes white as lust courses through him.
Every thought disappears. There’s nothing but the scent of Jax’s horniness, sweet as honey and the feel of Jax’s body under his, and Jax’s mouth on his.
Then the tips of Jax’s fingers brush the skin at his waist as he pulls at Gray’s pants, pushing them to his ankles.
Hot fingers grasp Gray’s bare dick. He gasps but then Jax’s hips shift and his length is being squeezed by hot wet heat.
Pure pleasure swallows him up and he can’t do anything but ride the wave, surrounded by the scent and feel of his mate, as Jax’s hips buck and thrust beneath him.
Jax is breathing faster now, letting out sounds that come somewhere between a whine and a cry, even as he bucks his hips faster, squeezing at Gray with every thrust until he cries out, and shoves hard onto Gray, his body contracting around Gray’s dick even as his arms tighten around Gray’s neck, pulling their bodies tightly together.
The pleasure that has been building at the base of Gray’s spine suddenly lets go and his vision darkens, dotted with stars. Pleasure so deep it hurts flushes through his body and empties itself into Jax’s own.
JAX
soft towels and hard bites
It’s been three days. Three days of non-stop sex and orgasms. Jax lies on his back on the bed: sore, exhausted and very, very happy.
Gray is out and snoring gently, warm hip pressed against Jax’s own. His face is slack and relaxed in sleep, and Jax wonders how long it’ll be before he finds the snoring irritating instead of cute. It has to happen. These things don’t last. They can’t. No one can spend their life obsessed with another person this badly.
Sooner or later, it’ll wear off and then he’ll find himself stuck with a collection of pups, a sagging belly and no career because he spent it all pregnant, changing diapers and wiping up spit.
Some part of him wants that too. He likes the idea of creating little Grays. They’d be cute as hell.
He rolls off the bed, careful not to wake the wild wolf. The man’s worked hard in the last few days. He needs his rest.
Jax tiptoes into the bathroom and shuts the door gently, then turns on the shower.
He stinks of slick and sweat, of Gray and of the bed. And he really, really needs to brush h
is teeth. He does it while he waits for the water in the ancient hotel systems to heat up to a decent temperature, then steps into the spray.
He washes carefully, running soap over sore muscles. He flinches when he reaches his ass. Omegas might be designed for hard use during heats, but that doesn’t mean he’s not sensitive, or that it’s not going to be harder before it gets easier.
The heat’s not over yet. This is nothing but a brief island of lucidity before pure horniness wipes his mind of nothing but the need to rut like an animal.
He’s not sorry. Everything is going to get messy once the heat is done and he has to work out what to do next, but he definitely doesn’t regret it.
If you spend your life packing down your desires and doing the boring responsible thing, then you’ll end up with a boring responsible life in which you don’t get anything you desire.
On the other hand, give in to your desires without a framework and you get nowhere at all. It’s an endless balancing act.
He sighs and turns off the water, wrapping himself in one of the hotel’s fluffy white towels. It’s building up again. He can feel it and not just because his dick is currently making a tent in the towel.
It’s because Gray smells like pure sex and desire, despite the fact that he just collapsed exhausted after their last session and should smell like he needs a good shower to any neutral observer. Jax is not even close to neutral.
He wants to crawl onto the bed and bury his nose in Gray’s chest. He’s a beautiful man. Years of wild living have sculpted his body. He’s not over muscular but there is strength coiled underneath his skin that reveals itself in his stamina and the way he manages to balance his body perfectly as they fuck, despite the broken arm.
Jax shivers, even as heat rolls through his veins and makes his skin tingle.
Damn. He’s going to have to wake Gray up in a minute.
Jax sits on the edge of the bed and leans over, gently trying not to wake him until he has to.
The doctor in him prescribed bed rest for Gray, and while they’ve got the bed part of it down perfectly, there has been very little resting.