by Aubrey Rose
He’d asked her to wait while he verified the perimeter was secure. Later, he’d returned to her, but she’d been gone.
“So?” He glanced up to see his mother frowning at him and his brothers. “Did any of you even bother to meet the girls we arranged for you?”
A chorus of “No” dropped a frown on their mother’s face.
“This really isn’t helping your cause,” she said. “How in the world do you plan to have mates by the fall if you don’t help me out here, boys?”
“Mom,” Jake answered. “I hate to break this to you, but we never said we wanted mates by fall.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you didn’t. If it were up to you four, I’d never see a grandchild.”
Ellie walked in at that moment. She glanced back and forth between the table and her parents. She made a move to leave the kitchen, but Aric needed her.
“Ellie, come have something to eat.” He pulled out the chair next to him.
She glared at him. Hell, his sister had done him a favor and he repaid her by putting her on the spot with their parents. She strolled to the table and took a seat across from him.
“Ellie, honey, did you have fun last night?” His mother asked with enthusiasm. Apparently he and his brothers were not the only people she was trying to hook up.
“I did. Seeing Kelly and Marco so in tune to each other and their wolves make such a match was...great. And knowing that she got marked made the entire event a success.”
Nice. She brought it back to the main event. Their cousin Kelly and Marco. This reminded Aric of Marco’s younger—much dumber—brother Ricardo. The stupid teen had been ready to pounce on Jordan when Aric had arrived. Though he didn’t scent fear from her at being growled at by the brown wolf, it had still pissed him off to see any other male near his woman. Especially during a scenting ceremony. She was his.
“Yes, honey, but did you find any males there interesting?”
“No.” Ellie placed a sandwich on a plate and proceeded to ignore it. His sister’s blonde strands and delicate features matched those of his mother to perfection, while he and his brothers took after their father with the dark hair and harsher looks.
“Do you have any news on Caleb and what is happening with his pack?” His father asked, taking a seat at the large table next to his sons. He took a bite of a sandwich and pointed to Nathan. “I understand he’s having some trouble over on the south.”
Ellie’s gaze jerked up to stare at him. There were a number of questions in her eyes. Many of which Aric couldn’t answer. He had no idea what Caleb was thinking, nobody did. Things were strained over at the Rahound Pack. Though he and his brothers didn’t speak of it, they knew Ellie and Caleb had something going on, something deep. Even his parents knew. They didn’t bring it up, but they knew.
“Caleb is getting ready to fight for the pack leader position.”
“Damn.” Jake shook his head. “Things must be really bad for it to have gone there.”
They all knew Caleb would never remove anyone from power unless they abused it. He was the Alpha’s son. When his father passed, Caleb had been out of the country, leaving his uncle Rocco to take control.
“Do we need to go help him?” Nathan asked, pushing food around his plate.
He watched Nathan swivel his glass to make the soda funnel inside.
“He knows to ask for help if it becomes necessary,” Aric answered. “But I know he wants to try to handle it himself.”
His father nodded. “He does. If he is to be Alpha, he needs to push Rocco out of the way and face the pack on his own.”
“What made him choose to fight?” Ellie asked.
Aric heard the tremor in her voice. She cared for his friend, but he didn’t know how much. Ellie was private. Even when he’d made it known to his sister that he wanted Jordan, she’d refused to let him near her friend. She was so protective of Jordan he often wondered why. She said Jordan wasn’t someone he could just use for one season of mating heat and let go. He’d been forced to admit to her that he wanted more than that before she agreed to even discuss her friend with him.
“Some of the enforcers turned violent against the women,” Nathan answered.
Ellie gasped.
Aric nodded. “They wanted them to be forced to mate with them. Caleb brought it up to Rocco. What surprised him most was that the old man agreed with the enforcers.”
Ellie stood. Her pale features had turned even ashier. She headed for the outdoors. Their house was surrounded by a large dense forest and Aric knew where she was going. He stood and followed behind his sister.
He found her sitting on the two-person swing a few hundred feet away.
“Are you okay?” He sat next to her.
She turned to face him. He was taken aback by the agony he saw in her eyes. “Do you know if he’s okay?”
He pulled her into his side and held her. “I do. He’s fine.”
He knew she could hear the words he didn’t say. For now. Caleb was going up against a large number of people. The fight could spill into their territory, but until it did, they needed to stay out of it. Caleb needed to prove he was the Alpha his pack needed.
“How did it go last night?” Ellie asked after a few minutes.
“It was good. We didn’t find any human intruders.”
She turned. Sad lines deepened on the sides of her mouth. “That’s not what I meant.”
Their deal. That’s what she’d been referring to. In order for her help, he’d offered to let her know how things went with Jordan.
“I marked her.”
Her blue eyes went wide. She flung her arms around his neck. “I’m so happy for you, Aric.” She sighed into his neck. “Jordan is perfect.”
He cleared his throat. “I already know that.”
Ellie pulled back, her smile dimmed as she stared at him. “What went wrong?”
“She left me.”
“I don’t understand. You said you marked her. She’s yours.”
“I still needed to do a perimeter check after and asked her to wait for me, but she left before I returned.”
Ellie bit her lip. “Have you called her?”
He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Hell yes! I’ve called her. I went by her house. Hell, I even went by the school.”
She grinned. “Aric?”
“What?”
“It’s Saturday.” She smiled at him as if he were an idiot.
“So?”
“We don’t have school on Saturdays.”
“I know that, but I had to check. I needed to know where she went.”
She hugged him again. And he let her. His baby sister was giving him some of the comfort he needed. For a future Alpha, he felt mighty insecure when it came to his mate. Jordan could run him around in so many circles he didn’t know if he was coming or going.
“Don’t worry big brother. You’ll have your mate soon.” She winked. “I have a plan.”
Thank God for his sister. He had no idea what else to do. He’d been attracted to Jordan the moment he saw her. The first whiff of her scent and his wolf had been in agreement. She was theirs. But Jordan had been young, too young. And he knew she wasn’t from his world. She didn’t know what it was to be mated to his kind. There was no divorce. There was no other person. There was just the two of them. Working through everything, together. So he’d been waiting and hoping that with time she’d want to be with him.
“I’m sorry about Caleb, Ellie.”
She shook her head. “It’s alright. I’m sure all will be fine.”
She lied to him. Or maybe she lied to herself. Aric didn’t have the heart to tell her that things were a lot more complicated than they seemed. He and his brother and father had their enforcers on alert. The fight in Caleb’s pack was going to be dirty. And it was only a matter of time before it touched their grounds.
“Aric?”
“Yes, little pup?”
She smiled at his pet name for her.
“You need to understand that you’re going to have to work on getting Jordan to open her heart and let you in now. She is a little rough around the edges since we were in high school. Kids tended to be awful to her back then.”
Rage bubbled in his veins. “What do you mean? How were they awful?”
Ellie shrugged. “You know boys. She’s curvy. They called her names. But she always fought back. Not necessarily with her fists, but she could cut a person down with a few words. It was her defense mechanism.”
“This happened for long?” He wanted to hurt those boys.
She shook her head. “Not that I am aware of, but it’s possible. When we became friends, she’d already stopped the majority of the attacks and had grown a thick wall around her heart. In time, people stopped looking at her body and focused on her personality and her sassiness. Guys started to like her, and you’d think that was the end of it.”
“But?” This was getting more complicated by the second.
“She never forgot. I know she’s still a little insecure over her size. She won’t say it. Hell, she’d probably dare me to a duel with guns and all if I say it, but I know.” She pressed her lips together and sighed. “You need to get to know her. She’s not going to fall for the whole mate line. You’ll need to get her to want a relationship with you. Then you can bring up the mate mark.”
Frickin’ hell. His relationship with Jordan just got a lot more difficult.
“She’s my best friend, Aric. I love her and I don’t ever want to see her hurt. I know you’ve wanted her for a long time. But she’s a fighter that needs a protector—and it won’t be easy convincing her of that fact.”
He’d be Jordan’s protector now. Hell, he’d fight King Kong if needed to save her.
“Any suggestions on how I get her to accept a relationship with me?” He was clueless about the deeper side of Jordan.
He hadn’t purposely distanced himself from her through the years. Okay, maybe he had. Everyone assumed that since he was in line to lead he was some kind of super-sure-of-himself badass. And that may be true in most cases, but not with Jordan. He’d developed an instant need to seek her attention from the moment he met her, but she’d been a little girl. So he’d kept away from her, hoping that with time she’d grow to like him. What he hadn’t expected was for her to develop into such a sassy, sexy woman. His woman. One he wanted more than any other. A woman he didn’t know how to get close to.
Ellie smiled, her eyes twinkling. “I think you already have this figured out, Aric. Think about it.”
It took him a moment to realize where she was going. She’d given him a way to make Jordan listen to him. A key. And now she’d reminded him to use it. He laughed and hugged her to his side.
“You’re too smart for your own good, little pup.” His best friend Caleb was going to have his hands full with his little sister.
“I know.” She ruffled his hair.
* * *
Jordan lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. What in the world was she going to do now? She’d had sex with Aric. Oh, but it wasn’t just sex. It was the best fucking sex of her life and she wanted it again so bad she was ready to call and beg him for more.
“Argh!” She threw a pillow over her face.
She lay there, reliving every kiss, every thrust, every pant, and every moan. There had been a point she’d started to beg him to fuck her. Dear God, she was in deep shit. Her body had turned into one giant erogenous zone, and thinking of Aric, and his hands and lips made her nipples tighten and her pussy slick.
The sound of her doorbell made her lift her head from her bed. She was waiting on the other girls to drop off their flash drives. Now that she thought about it, why the hell had nobody called her yet? By now, they’d have had at least two conference calls to discuss what they’d seen. Not that she was complaining. She was happy she got to go without running into them. Aric had left her alone for a while. Well, enough time that she questioned her sanity in doing all those amazing things with him. Then she got the hell out of dodge. If they’d seen her with her torn up clothes, trying to hide all her girl bits unsuccessfully, they’d have made her the butt of their jokes for the next decade.
Thankfully, they’d all driven their own cars, so she didn’t have to feel bad about leaving the others behind. In fact, she didn’t even worry about her camera or the ceremony at that point. She had been too worked up over the multiple orgasms and having screamed out Aric’s name loud enough to be heard by a few of her friends.
She slipped on a robe and ran to brush her teeth.
“Hi, Ellie.” She let her friend inside and headed for the kitchen to make some coffee.
Ellie sniffed the air. Jordan wondered if she could smell Aric on her still. But that couldn’t be right. Too many hours had passed. She’d been so exhausted by the time she got home, she’d shrugged off the clothes and got into bed.
“Are you okay? You look really tired.” Ellie watched her intensely. Her blue eyes lit with curiosity. Jordan had the urge to fidget so instead she put the coffeemaker to brew.
“I’m fine. Just need some more sleep,” she mumbled.
“I brought the flash cards from the others. They dropped them at my car before they left, and I wanted to make sure you had them all.”
The way Ellie smiled made her a little worried.
“Oh. Great.” Jordan wanted to jump in the shower so bad now.
“So?”
Oh God. Ellie knew. She knew Jordan had sex with Aric. How could she face her friend after all the bad bad things that felt so so good that she and Aric had done? She needed to play it cool.
“So?” Jordan squeaked. Nice.
“What did you think of the scenting ceremony?” Ellie grinned. “You only harassed me half to death to let you witness it, and now, you won’t even tell me your thoughts.”
Her thoughts? Her thoughts were all on one super-sexy, tattooed badass with the body of a god and a cock that should be insured for millions.
“I think it was amazing.” Yeah. That would work. She would probably think it was amazing once she saw the video of it anyway.
“Oh really? What was your favorite part?” Ellie asked.
Crap.
“Well...uh. When the guy, Marco, right? Uh, he was...uh, sniffing Kelly.” She knew he had to have sniffed her. They were wolves for cripes’ sake.
Ellie’s eyes went saucer-wide. “You didn’t think it was a little odd for him to shove his muzzle there?”
Huh? What the hell did she miss? “Um, no. Nah. It looked pretty normal to me. I’m sure other men would think so too.”
“Human men would do that?” Ellie frowned. “I’ve never met one who has.”
“Oh well. It’s probably not a big deal. So, how is everything at your house?”
Ellie lifted her brow. “Everyone is fine. Mom and Dad are still playing match makers.” She sighed, slipping a lock of hair behind her ear. She cupped her face in the palm of her hand, resting her elbow on the table.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“They want grandbabies.” She shrugged, tapping her nails on the table. “The sooner the better.”
Well, damn.
“What do the sexy four want?” She cleared her throat and brought coffee to the table. It was a known fact Aric would need a mate, a shifter mate—soon. He was the oldest, and dammit he was also the hottest of the bunch, with the responsibility of being future Alpha. Though all the brothers had it in their blood, he was first born. They were strong, powerful, and no-nonsense. They were also soft on the eyes, or in Aric’s case, soft on all her body parts. Who was she kidding? He was so hot he made her panties shrivel into nothing. Thinking of him, remembering last night, shot her temperature up and out of orbit. Hello internal combustion.
Ellie filled a mug with coffee, sugar, and cream. Jordan watched her hand shake as she spooned sugar into her steaming cup. “They know they won’t settle for the women they feel are right for them.”
Jordan ig
nored her own coffee to watch her friend closely. “What’s wrong?” She studied Ellie’s face. Whoever upset her friend was going to get an earful. She may not be able to smell pain or fear, but all she had to do was look at Ellie to know something was bothering her. “Do I have to kick Caleb’s ass?”
Ellie glanced down at her cup. “No. I...I haven’t spoken to him in days. There’s not much to tell. He’s going through some stuff with his pack right now. I need to give him time and space to figure it out.” She sipped her coffee and pursed her lips. “Let’s go look at some of the memory cards. I don’t want to think of what’s happening with Caleb right now.”
They took their drinks to the living room. Jordan sat in her leather chair and Ellie set up the flat screen with Jordan’s laptop. Moments later, they were watching one of the videos they’d recorded.
“What happened with all those people we saw last night?” Jordan wondered about the brown wolf that’d tried to take a nibble out of her.
“Some of them came from pretty far way. They’re staying in the area for a bit with my father’s permission to explore and get to know some of our females.”
“What about Marco and Kelly? What happens with them now?” The screen changed to a shot of two wolves entering the clearing. She’d guess Kelly was the smaller of the two. With a light grey fur, she looked like a Husky instead of a wolf. Marco’s animal was brown and almost twice the size of the grey. The bigger wolf circled the grey. He shoved his muzzle into her butt. What the––?
“They mate now. He’s already marked her.”
She continued to watch the wolf sniff Kelly’s wolf all over. Then it was her turn. Jordan’s gaze was glued to the screen, watching the small wolf sniff at the larger one. She sat transfixed. The two wolves shifted into full humans. Naked humans. Even though she knew it would happen, it still felt like she was intruding on a private moment.
“He marked her?”
Passion flared in Kelly and Marco’s eyes as they watched each other. Kelly lifted a hand slowly and brought it to his face. He inhaled. His eyes glowed bright gold. He hauled her into him. Their bodies were pressed tight together like a couple making love, like she’d been with Aric just hours ago.