Winterstoke Wolves Collection : An MM Mpreg Shifter Romance Bundle

by Sasha Silsbury

  “Why are you telling me all this?”

  “I don’t know. Because you’re the sheriff.”

  Dan bursts into laughter. “I’ve had no real power here for years. You of all people know that.”

  “You know enough to stop some things. And to pass them on. Besides, you’re a good man. You understand that sometimes something that looks like a choice isn’t really one at all. I couldn’t do it, Dan. I just couldn’t. I don’t have it in me.”

  Otto looks so distraught that Dan wants to just reach over the interview table and give him a hug. He’s not sure how that’ll be received.

  It’s also an odd feeling to feel the need to comfort someone because they’re feeling bad about not being a murderer.

  “When were you supposed to kill Gray?” Dan asks, trying to find a practical solution. “Does Ronmin know you haven’t done it?”

  “It was a couple of hours ago. I told him I got there too late. I think he believed me but I don’t know. Maybe not,” Otto bites his bottom lip. When he looks up again and meets Dan’s gaze, his eyes are bloodshot and there’s a shimmer to them that Dan wasn’t expecting.

  God, he is just a man, Dan thinks, conscience and all. A man in a shit situation.

  “We’ll work it out,” Dan says firmly, even as he has no idea how. Maybe if he does come clean, the Winterstokes will let it go.

  The problem is that the Winterstokes aren’t political. None of the Aylewood packs are. They won’t play at Ronmin’s games. They won’t want to and they wouldn’t have the skills anyway. They’re not going to want to play spies and double-crossing. They’ll sit at that damn bar of theirs in the packhouse and discuss how to deal with him and Otto in a perfectly civil way, and whatever answer they come up with will just be a stop-gap defense.

  They’ll let Ronmin keep running wild until he finally gets one over on them. They’re good men but not one of them has that brutal edge that they need to get rid of the threat for good.

  “I need to get back,” Otto says as he gets to his feet. He looks broken.

  Damn it. Dan follows his instincts. He reaches over and envelopes Otto in a hug.

  Otto freezes in surprise, his body stiffening but then it loosens and he leans into it, reaching up and clasping Dan to him.

  His nose settles into the dip in Dan’s neck, the bit that would be filled with scent if Dan were an omega.

  Dan feels soft lips against his skin as Otto presses a kiss in.

  A shiver skates up Dan’s spine. He reaches up and cups Otto’s jaw, tipping the big man’s face towards him before leaning in to kiss him properly.

  Otto meets him eagerly, his mouth hot and desperate, sparking fireworks in Dan’s brain.

  Finally, Dan breaks the kiss leaning back just enough to scrutinize the look in Otto’s eyes. There’s nothing there but hope and pleasure.

  “I better go,” Otto says again, but there’s no fear to it, just a soft statement of fact.

  Dan kisses him again before he leaves.

  One week later, when Gray comes into the police station bewildered and unsure what to do, Dan takes his chance and sends the wild wolf away out of Aylewood to save his life.

  OTTO

  mistakes and chases in the woods

  This is no way for a wild creature to die, Otto thinks three months later as he veers left and cuts off the ash-scented wolf’s escape route.

  Ronmin is close on his tail, too close for Otto to let the poor fellow escape ‘by mistake’.

  He’s managed it a couple of times over the last few days but he’s not sure how much longer he can keep it up.

  The ash-scented wolf skids to a stop and then races right away from Otto, panicked bright blue eyes staring straight into Otto’s own.

  I’m on your side, Otto thinks, but he has no way to make the wolf understand and how could he?

  Every time Otto sees the fear in that expression, it makes his stomach twist and makes him wonder why he’s still in Aylewood and why he hasn’t just taken his small savings and run with it.

  Because Dan is still here.

  Otto’s mind shies away from the thought. He hasn’t kissed Dan again since the police station. Ronmin has kept him tight by his side for months, but he’s thought about it. A lot.

  He’s thought of little else, in fact. He’s not like that. He’s never been soft. He’s never had wrong thoughts about other alphas. It’s just Dan for some reason. Tall, lanky Dan with the soft lips and habit of getting prickly at every order Otto gives him.

  The scent of ash drifts in from the west again where Garrett has blocked his route out and sent him spiraling back towards Otto again.

  Garrett isn’t doing badly, Otto thinks. He’s definitely not completely on board. The younger wolf has the horrified expression that Otto is trying to keep off of his own, but at least he’s trying.

  Otto starts running trying to keep pace with where he thinks the ash-scented wolf is going to break through the trees.

  Ronmin falls behind, possibly with some other plan in mind, and Otto slows his pace just slightly.

  The ash-scented wolf’s luck comes to an end in clearing part way up the mountain just outside the small cabin that the Winterstokes used for their omegas’ heats.

  For some reason known only to himself, Jax Winterstoke decided now was a good time to have a discussion with the uncle of the cubs growing in his belly and turned up at the wrong time, cutting off the ash-scented wolf’s escape route.

  The showdown that results is over quicker than Otto expects.

  They also lose which he definitely didn’t.

  It seems that that love is stronger than fear or pride or whatever it was that was keeping Gray away, because the Winterstokes produce him seemingly out of nowhere like an ace they’ve been keeping in their pockets for just the right time.

  Ronmin backs down the way he always does when faced with a bigger physical threat than he is.

  Otto and Garrett follow him back down the mountain, Otto’s stomach still twisting from the damage that they did to the ash-scented wolf before the Winterstokes and Gray intervened.

  He’d held back as much as he could. He’d growled and snarled like an insane thing but bitten down as soft as he could. He can still taste the guy’s blood on his tongue anyway.

  He’ll live, Otto thinks. Probably. Ronmin hadn’t been as kind. They hadn’t done damage to any of his organs although he’d lost a lot of blood.

  Otto’s aware of the stiffness of Ronmin’s movements as they make their way down between the trees. The Fort Gosford pack leader isn’t hurt physically – Otto would have noticed – but his pride has taken a beating, and that means it’s going to be passed on in spades.

  Their car has been left in the parking lot just above the town center. Otto waits for Ronmin to shift first before he follows suit. Garrett doesn’t.

  The younger wolf just shifts the moment they leave the cover of the trees.

  Ronmin’s eyes narrow and a combination of relief and shame washes over Otto.

  It’s not going to be me.

  Ronmin won’t kill the younger wolf. He’s too practical to waste muscle like that but Garrett is about to find his life getting a lot harder.

  “Go check on your assets,” Ronmin orders. “Make sure they understand who still in charge here. No getting lax.”

  “Yes, sir,” Otto replies. Take it out on them, he interprets.

  Garrett and Ronmin get into the car. Otto watches them leave with a sense of worry.

  He’ll be fine, Otto tells himself. Besides, you can’t protect every stray wolf who ends up in the Fort Gosford pack. That kind of niceness was the preserve of the Winterstokes and their allies, and just like the Winterstokes, it’d only get him killed in the end.

  It’s only when their taillights have completely disappeared into the distance that Otto realizes that he’d left his clothes in the back seat.

  He sighs and shifts back into wolf form. It’s not good manners to wander town as a wolf, but
the Winterstokes won’t be paying attention. Not now, when they’ve got yet another wild wolf to be dealing with.

  As long he goes around the back of the Grand Hotel, no one will even notice he’s there.

  He moves carefully through the forest, keeping his distance from hikers and making sure that the wind is in front of him and not carrying his scent anywhere he doesn’t want it to go.

  It takes him far longer than it should to get into the town and round the back of the hotel to the manager’s quarters.

  He shifts at the door, standing naked on the doorstep then knocks. No one answers so he tries the door.

  It’s unlocked. Otto raises an eyebrow. You’d think a cop would know better but he’s not going to complain.

  He’s rummaging through Dan’s closet when he hears a voice behind him.

  “And now?”

  Otto turns around, fully aware that he is completely in the buff. “Trying to find something to fit. That asshole drove off with all my clothes. Your stuff is too small for me.” Otto digs further back into the closet. “Don’t you have anything stretchy? Sweatpants, maybe?”

  “Is Ash dead?”

  The question stops Otto in his tracks. “No. Gray came back. I think there might be a sibling reunion on the cards. The boss was pretty pissed.”

  Dan moves up beside him, close enough that Otto’s almost touching him. He reaches past into the depths of the closet. “Here. These should fit.”

  Otto takes the offered clothes. “Thank you.”

  Dan sits down heavily on the bed, averting his eyes while Otto gets dressed, which Otto is unrealistically disappointed by.

  “Now what?” Dan asks.

  Otto shrugs as he pulls up the pants. “Not sure. There’ll be another plan.”

  “Maybe he’ll just give up. What does he even want Aylewood for anyway? We’re no one.”

  Otto pulls the shirt over his head. It’s a little tight but it fits, and it’s better than nothing. “I’m not sure,” he admits, “but he’s got a real boner for it. And this’ll just make it worse. Ronmin’s not a man who likes being bested.”

  Dan harrumphs. “I’ve met very few pack leaders who do.”

  Otto sits down next to him on the bed. “I have to show you who’s in charge by the way.”

  “What?” There’s a startled look in Dan’s eyes as if he’d taken Otto’s meaning completely differently.

  Otto cocks his head, suddenly curious at the look on Dan’s face. “Ronmin,” he explains. “He wanted me to take it out on you and Elyse. Keep discipline until he can play out whatever his next step is going to be.”

  “Oh,” Dan says.

  “What did you think I meant?” Otto asks, although he thinks he knows. The tension in the small bedroom has suddenly racked up a couple of notches, and Otto hears the hitch in Dan’s breathing when he answers.

  “Nothing.”

  Dan is so close. Otto can feel the warmth of his body alongside Otto’s own. Their thighs sitting side by side on the bed. It would take less than a second for Otto to move his hand from his own thigh to Dan’s.

  “You want me to?” Otto asks in a low voice.

  “What? Take charge?” Dan asks, and there’s an unexpected hint of annoyance in his voice. “I’m not an omega.”

  “I know,” Otto says. Shit. He got this wrong. Dan had kissed him in the police station. He thought it meant something. Maybe Dan kisses all his handlers. For all he knows, Dan might kiss everyone. Hell, maybe he kissed Hamish. Oh fuck. Did Dan kiss Hamish?

  No, of course not. That’s stupid.

  Dan gets up off of the bed. Otto’s heart sinks. That’s it. He’s blown it.

  But Dan just closes the door to the bedroom and turns the key in the lock. The click sounds a lot louder than it should.

  “I’m really not an omega,” Dan says. “If you want to do this, you need to understand that.” His voice sounds firm and like he knows what he’s doing, but Otto can see the way his hands are shaking. “You know the risk too.”

  Death. Probably. If we get caught.

  Otto nods. He knows.

  “Elyse is in Button Oak,” Dan says, and this time there is a tremor to his voice.

  Otto feels the words hit him like a punch to the stomach as he fills in the meaning: Elyse is in Button Oak and Ronmin is on his way back to Fort Gosford. There’s no one around to see what we’re going to do. No one to catch us. No one to tell on us.

  He’s sitting on Dan’s bed in Dan’s bedroom in Dan’s clothes while Dan stands there, his hands shaking and breath coming harder while he waits for Otto to reply.

  While he waits for Otto to say yes.

  The sight of him makes Otto’s chest ache. Otto swallows hard. “Yes.”

  Something darkens in Dan’s gray-green eyes and there’s a hunger there that Otto hasn’t seen before. It twists something deep inside of him and he feels his heart start racing, the beats coming faster and faster as Dan steps forward.

  Dan sits next to him on the bed, the mattress dipping under his weight, then Dan’s body is dipping forward and pressing against his.

  Otto closes his eyes and leans into the kiss. He knows what it’s like to kiss Dan now, to have his lips against his own and the warm sliver of Dan’s tongue in his mouth.

  It’s as good as he remembers and he can’t help letting out a soft little sigh and just leaning in further.

  But then Dan’s hands are on his waist, pulling up the too-tight t-shirt that he just put on. The shirt comes up and over his head and Otto is left feeling unexpectedly exposed considering he was butt-naked only a few minutes earlier.

  Dan grins, showing a sliver of white teeth. His hands slide up Otto’s torso, firm fingertips running over Otto’s skin and making him shiver.

  He’s more confident than Otto would have expected, although if someone were to ask him, he wouldn’t have been able to say what he did expect.

  Not Dan’s fingers inching slower down his chest, pulling back the waist of his, or rather Dan’s, sweatpants and gripping Otto’s dick like he owns it.

  Or the twin musky scents of alpha arousal thickening the air with no sweet omega scent to accompany it.

  Otto’s no blushing virgin. He’s had his share of lovers but not like this. And his go-to moves – nibbling at the scent spots at the corner of the neck, knowing exactly how to move his fingers to hit an omega’s sweet spot – well, none of those are the least bit helpful here.

  Scratch that, Otto thinks. I am a virgin. An alpha virgin. Oh crap.

  Dan stills, intuitively picking up that something has gone wrong. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” Otto says, watching Dan through lidded eyes. The other alpha is flushed with arousal, his cheeks pink and there is a very visible tent in his jeans. “This is just...kinda new to me, actually,” he adds honestly.

  Dan gives him a searching look, scrutinizing Otto’s face as if looking for the meaning behind the words. He’s still holding Otto’s bare cock in his hand, just tight enough that it’s making Otto want to buck up into it and beg for just that little bit more tightness.

  “Tell you what,” Dan says. “How about I take charge for this one? Just lie back and relax. Just shout if you’re uncomfortable. You can do me the next round if you’re feeling it.”

  “Um yeah,” Otto says. Dan’s eyes are intent on his own as if he’s trying to see into Otto’s soul. Otto feels a rising sense of embarrassment rising up through his torso. No, it’s definitely not like this with omegas.

  Dan chuckles, a low dirty sound that makes Otto’s dick buck just a little into Dan’s hand. “You’re blushing.”

  “No, I’m not,” Otto lies even as he can feel the heat radiating off his face, but then Dan moves his hand just a little, but it’s enough that Otto feels his eyes rolling back in his head.

  “Yeah, you are,” Dan says. He lays the flat of his hand gently at Otto’s chest with this other hand, pushing the alpha down onto the bed.

  Then Dan’s fingertips brush
against Otto’s waist as he pulls the stretch pants back down, pooling them at Otto’s ankles and Otto forgets about everything except the incredible feeling of Dan’s hot mouth closing around his dick.

  SPRING

  The Railroad

  DAN

  the hood of the car and glove compartment tissues

  There aren’t too many places two alphas can find to be alone, not when one lives with someone who reports on his every movement and the other is henchman to one of the worst pack leaders in five hundred miles, but Dan thinks they’ve managed admirably well.

  They’ve only done it in Dan’s bed twice, and only when they’ve been one hundred percent sure that Elyse is miles away. Then there’s the supply closet at the police station, also not a great spot but good for late nights when Dan can lock the front door and they know they’re not going to be disturbed.

  But mostly it’s this: Dan bent over the hood of the police car in the middle of nowhere while Otto drives into him from behind, Dan’s fingers splayed flat against the metal of the hood as his eyes cross over with the pleasure of Otto’s dick deep in his ass.

  It’s taken a little while to get to this point: explanations of how lube works and the need to go slow at the beginning of the fucking so as not to do any damage but Otto has taken to it like a champ.

  They’ve not yet reached the point where Otto is willing to take Dan, but Dan doesn’t care. This is enough.

  It doesn’t take long before Dan is coming hard, spilling against the metal under his dick, shaking and shuddering and clenching around Otto as the bigger man fucks into him.

  And as usual, that triggers Otto’s own orgasm and the big man’s breathing hitches then he grunts and thrusts for a last time, sending his dick into Dan’s ass up to the hilt. A sudden heat floods into him that makes his dick twitch even through the aftershocks.

  Otto’s fingers loosen their grip on the sides of Dan’s ass as his breathing slows, and he rubs soothing circles into the bruises that are almost certainly now forming.