by Odessa Lynne
“Lessy?” Tanis asked, his hand moving to cup the back of Gerald’s head.
When Gerald didn’t answer right away, Tanis tangled his fingers in Gerald’s hair and forced the issue.
Gerald exhaled and waved his arm in the vague direction of the den complex. “That beta of yours, you know, the one who’s supposed to be my mate.”
“I’m your mate now. It’s done. It cannot be undone.” Tanis’s lips drew back in a fierce show of sharp eyeteeth. “I won’t allow it to be undone even if it’s not what I wanted. Leisikei will submit to my claim. And if he wishes to challenge me…”
Gerald didn’t even know his supposed-to-be-mate, but the one thing he did know was that if it had been him, he’d be fucking livid at having something as important as a mate taken from him by the person who was supposed to be helping him out of a tough spot.
He started to open his mouth and comment on that, but Alan spoke up before he could.
“His name’s Leif.”
Gerald tried to turn his head, but Tanis still had a handful of his hair and didn’t let him. Still, he let out a soft huff of a laugh and said, “Leaf? Really?”
“Leif, with an I,” Alan said. “I hear he would’ve made you a strong, patient mate.”
“I am stronger,” Tanis said, his head angled toward Gerald, the reflection of the sunlight making his eyes appear an unsettling red. “I am not patient. Do not forget that.”
Gerald licked his bottom lip, caught in that stare.
“Alpha Tanis, please, Craig and Kem are waiting for you. You should really let me take care of Gerald’s injury. He could already be fighting an infection.”
“It’s my obligation to care for him, so I’ll see to his injury. Then I’ll meet with Craeigoer and Wentarki. Tell them.”
With that imperious command, Tanis turned Gerald, put one hand on Gerald’s lower back and pushed.
Gerald staggered forward.
Tanis gestured toward the main den complex. “Walk, human.”
Gerald gritted his teeth and started walking through the woods wearing nothing but his boots and trousers, with Tanis—still bare-assed naked—at his back.
When he glanced behind him, it was to see Alan standing there watching them go, Gerald’s ruined t-shirt hanging from his hand. Alan waved once, then turned and walked off to the northeast.
Gerald knew the rules. Some wolf was probably waiting out of sight to escort Alan back to Craig or Kem or both.
It took a while for Gerald and Tanis to get back to the den. By the time they reached the first of the outer buildings, Gerald was so tired he thought seriously about flopping down on the ground and demanding Tanis carry him the rest of the way.
Tanis could do it with those wide shoulders and that strong back of his, Gerald had no doubt.
But Tanis’s very real impatience seemed to have increased as they walked, with him pushing Gerald harder, faster, every step of the way, and Gerald couldn’t bring himself to say anything that might draw attention.
He’d been fucked, and fucked hard, and he needed a bathroom with more urgency than he wanted to think about. Fucking without condoms was great—until it wasn’t.
They passed several of those outer buildings before Tanis put his hand on Gerald again and veered them toward the carved door of a two-story structure with an upper floor that had more solar glass for the roof than actual roof.
He’d never seen anything like it, really, even though he’d visited the den complex many times since the wolves had constructed it and given him the one small Devon-built device he was allowed to carry with him past the perimeter when he left—a small tracker that allowed the wolves to find him and bring him to the den when he needed to pass a message.
Gerald might be standing in the middle of the wolves’ most massive den complex inside the American Protectorate, but he had no idea where the hell he was and the wolves had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep it that way.
Satellite images of the American Protectorate were forbidden by the treaty, and the wolves had technology that enforced that ban—something James had come right out and confirmed in one particular debriefing.
The small tracker Devon had given him was the reason why every in-person meeting between Gerald and James had occurred within two miles of Gerald’s sister’s house—the same house Lane would have occupied, if Lane had existed—just in case his movements outside the protectorate were being tracked by that same device.
Devon was clever enough to do just that, and Gerald had made sure James knew it.
The lock released the moment Tanis stepped up to the doorway, and he opened the door wide, then directed Gerald inside.
Gerald took one look at the empty walls and floor, turned, and found himself staggering backward as Tanis stepped inside without waiting for Gerald to move out of his way.
“The bathroom is that way,” Tanis said, pointing. His gaze raked over Gerald while he took an obvious sniff of the air. “Do not shower.”
“Sure, sure. No shower, got it.”
Five minutes later, Gerald flipped the lever for the hot water. Three seconds after that, the bathroom door opened abruptly, and Tanis walked in, fully dressed down to a pair of thick-soled boots that didn’t look much different from the boots Gerald had on.
“Hey!”
“I told you not to—”
“I was just going to wash my hair, dammit.”
Tanis pulled Gerald away from the steaming water and shut it off. “Cleaning yourself doesn’t stop your human scent from following you everywhere you go.”
“So what? You smeared cum in my hair and I want it out.”
“It’ll brush out.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Tanis’s tight look answered for him.
“Oh my God,” Gerald muttered.
Tanis grabbed Gerald by the chin. “Submit!”
“Fine! Fine. I won’t wash up. I’ll leave your stink all over me. I’ll walk around with dried cum stuck in my ass hair too. What a relief to know I can bend over and let some wolf sniff my ass and know who owns me!”
Tanis’s jaw set in a firm, hard line. “I warned you, I have no patience for mates.”
“You should seriously consider just letting your beta have me. I’m sure we’d get along.”
“You are mine,” Tanis growled out, his claws extending, their sharp points pricking at Gerald’s jaw.
Gerald glared at the pulse that beat at Tanis’s throat, not quite brave enough to get into a staring contest with his new alpha mate.
A moment passed where the only sound Gerald could hear was the sound of his and Tanis’s harsh breathing.
“If you’re finished here, I’d like to check your injury.” Tanis’s voice sounded low and calm this time, and Gerald finally raised his eyes.
Tanis’s expression had softened and his mouth was no longer a tight, hard line. Even his grip on Gerald’s chin seemed to have loosened.
“Sure,” Gerald said, his voice sounding thick to his own ears.
He didn’t fight as Tanis used his grip to tilt Gerald’s head to the side. Gerald let his eyes close when Tanis leaned in, and he felt a soft puff of breath ghost across his neck, then fingers carefully drew across the sensitive flesh at Gerald’s throat.
He shivered.
“Your body temperature is rising.”
“I’m nervous.”
“No. You need medication.”
“Maybe an ice pack too,” Gerald admitted. “It throbs.”
“I am truly sorry for hurting you.”
“I believe you.”
Gerald did understand that the human scent trigger was real, and dangerous, and just about the worst possible discovery they could have made about each other when things had been going so well all those years ago. First contact had been the stuff of best case scenarios and remarkable discoveries. Too bad it hadn’t lasted. Gerald had been eighteen at first contact. He’d been suspicious at first, then ecstatic, if a bit nervous
about it all, and then that first heat… he’d been lucky. His neighbor Grant hadn’t been.
He took a slow breath in through his nose and shook off those memories. Tanis was rubbing his thumb gently along Gerald’s jaw line.
“Why the fuck did you think mating me for your beta was a good idea?”
“Sit,” Tanis said.
He should’ve known Tanis would ignore the question.
He opened his eyes and followed Tanis’s directions and sat on the sliding lid of the toilet. His trousers gaped the moment he spread his thighs and he let out a huff at the sight of his pale blue underwear and the bulge that wasn’t going to stay hidden.
Tanis pushed at one of the drawers in the long cabinet opposite the toilet and it slid open with a quiet sigh. He gathered up a few supplies, placed them on the counter, then turned and took Gerald’s chin in hand again.
He tilted Gerald’s head back and to the side.
The quiet felt nice after the long morning and afternoon. Gerald hadn’t been sleeping well, and his body had been producing so much adrenaline that he could feel himself crashing, his energy levels so low he would be happy to pass up food in exchange for a long nap on a comfortable bed.
Maybe—
“Ow!” He tried to raise his head, but Tanis held him tight. He moved his hand to his neck, but Tanis pushed his arm away.
“I’m sorry this hurts you,” Tanis said, “but it’ll promote your good health. Several of the puncture wounds are too deep to heal quickly.”
“That burns, you pri—”
Tanis growled, his fingers pinching Gerald’s cheeks together so firmly that Gerald couldn’t speak. He probably looked like a fish.
He let out his own soft growl, but stopped trying to talk.
“Insulting me while I’m trying to help you is foolish.”
Gerald breathed out through his nose, then sucked in his breath as another bright hot pain stabbed through him. He couldn’t see what Tanis was doing to him, but holy mother of God did it burn like a son of a bitch.
He gritted his teeth and tried to channel his older brother Royce. That asshole could take anything anyone dealt out and give it back tenfold.
The burning finally stopped and a pleasant tingle spread outward from the area where Tanis had bit him. He made a sound low in his throat and tried again to turn his head.
This time Tanis let him.
“You done?” Gerald asked, his voice catching halfway through. He cleared his throat.
The tingle slowly faded until Gerald couldn’t feel anything at all at the side of his neck. He started to reach for it, to try to feel whatever Tanis had done, but Tanis again pushed his hand away.
“I’ll put a bandage over the injury.”
“Oh, okay.”
Gerald turned his head and raised his chin again, offering his throat to Tanis.
When nothing happened, he looked sideways at Tanis, only to see Tanis staring at his throat in a way that made his heart start thumping hard and fast.
And then, just when Gerald was about to straighten on the toilet and possibly even get to his feet, Tanis’s eyes flickered and he reached out with a palm-sized sheet of clear tape and smoothed it carefully over Gerald’s neck.
Gerald swallowed and didn’t say a word.
Tanis put away his supplies, the clatter loud in the silent room, before offering Gerald his hand. “I’ll bring the medication you need and food for us to eat as soon as I take care of a matter that needs my attention. Do not try to leave this home.”
Gerald grasped Tanis’s hand and let Tanis haul him to his feet. Gooseflesh had risen on his chest and arms, and he had started to really feel his exhaustion.
“Aren’t you too tired to go out?”
Tanis gave Gerald a sharp look. “My obligations are more important than rest.”
Gerald knew something about the wolves’ belief that a mate’s care after mating was one of their most important obligations. And he was hungry, dammit. “What’s more important than taking care of me right now?”
“Our unexpected mating has caused me a great deal of trouble. I have mating arrangements to cancel. I intended to sire more children this heat.”
“More?”
“I’ve already impregnated two of Craeigoer’s pack, two of Wentarki’s, one for Paetarikeille, and two in—”
“Holy mother of—Whoa!” Gerald rubbed his chin, eyes wide on Tanis. “That’s a lot of impregnating.”
“There are reasons. You’ll discover them soon enough now that we are mated.”
Gerald lowered his hand. “Try being a little more cryptic, why don’t you?”
Tanis’s dark eyebrows drew together.
“Sarcasm, my friend.”
Tanis’s eyes narrowed on Gerald. “We are not friends, human. We are mates.”
“It’s an expression. And my name is—”
Tanis gripped the sides of Gerald’s face and stared into his eyes.
A bead of sweat trailed down Gerald’s ribcage from under his arm.
“It’s best you don’t get used to me calling you by your given name.”
Gerald moistened his dry lips. “Why?”
“Because it will be difficult for you in the future. That’s why. Just know that you’re my mate and I will honor your submission. I’ll take care of you and protect you. Now go nap until I return to resume your care. Your weak human body needs rest before we mate again.”
“Yeah. Sure,” Gerald said, a kernel of unease lodged firmly in his gut. “Sure. I’ll just do that.”
Chapter 9
Gerald woke to the feel of something soft on his belly, rubbing his skin and making a soft humming sound.
He groaned and rolled to his side, blinking gritty eyes, only to come up short when someone growled and forced him flat to his back on the mattress under him.
That woke him up right quick.
Claws pricked his skin and the bed jostled as the wolf—who was most definitely not Tanis—crawled up Gerald’s body.
“Uh,” Gerald said. He didn’t move a muscle as the male sniffed him from groin to breastbone, then sat back on his heels and sneered at Gerald. He looked younger than Gerald, but it was hard to tell a wolf’s age sometimes.
“Your scent is tempting, but not that tempting.” The wolf’s emphasis on “that” came through his accented words plain enough to sting Gerald’s ego. “He probably won’t keep you past the heat season.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
The wolf raised his clawed hand and Gerald jerked into motion, throwing his arms up over his face and curling onto his side, squeezing his eyes shut tight.
The slash didn’t come.
Another moment passed where the only sounds Gerald heard were his own harsh breathing and the rush of blood in his ears. He opened his eyes and peeked through the gap under his arm. A pillow that had been resting precariously next to him fell across his back.
The wolf was scratching the back of his head. He caught Gerald’s gaze and started laughing, stretching his lean torso.
“What the fuck?” Gerald yelled, flopping over on his back again, then struggling to sit upright in the midst of the pile of pillows he’d gone to bed with.
He’d been sleeping in that bed for four days, with Tanis coming and going, staying rarely longer than necessary to work off the urges of his heat cycle and make sure Gerald was settled. Occasionally, he would nap, dragging Gerald in tight to his chest until Gerald had no choice but to sleep, too, or go crazy stuck in his thoughts.
Whatever was going on outside the walls of Gerald’s new prison—and Tanis’s temporary home—had been keeping Tanis exceptionally busy.
Gerald was already sick of his own company. But the one time he’d risked venturing out, he’d found himself staring up at the sky, unable to move a single muscle in his body just before he’d lost the ability to even hold his eyes open.
Whatever weapon the wolves had used on him hadn’t stolen his consciousness, but he had lost th
e few privileges he’d had after two wolves had dragged him inside and dumped him in the floor. He’d heard their quiet words, and although he hadn’t understood them all, he’d gotten the gist of it.
They were hoping Alpha changed his mind and left his new mate behind for one of the other alphas to watch over. Gerald thought they’d said Craig’s name.
Now Gerald wasn’t even allowed to use the communications screens built into the sprawling house—a house clearly meant for more than one or two people with its numerous large, empty bedrooms. Not that he’d been able to use them to contact anyone outside the den anyway, but at least he’d been able to hassle Alan and Matthew a bit.
Devon still wouldn’t answer him, that asshole, and Gerald was finally starting to get angry about it. He’d gotten what Devon thought was coming to him, so by God, Devon shouldn’t have a right to hold a grudge forever.
At that moment, the door in the far wall opened, and Tanis stepped into the room. He took one look at the wolf on the bed with Gerald and crossed straight to them, his expression growing darker by the step.
He growled something in the wolves’ language, and the younger wolf turned and flopped back on the bed next to Gerald, bending his knees and rearing back, stretching out that long, lean torso and showing his throat.
Naked lean torso, Gerald couldn’t help but notice. Tight, dark nipples surrounded by enough dark hair to make Gerald’s fingers itch.
“Leave,” Tanis commanded. “I’ve asked Leisikei to do me the favor of fulfilling my obligation to your family. He’s agreed to mate you.”
The wolf rose up on his elbows, eyes a brilliant golden brown. “You were supposed to be my heat mate,” the wolf said. “I’ve waited for you. I don’t care if you share me with your mate, I still want you to mate me.”
Huh?
Gerald turned his gaze to Tanis. “He’s kidding, right?”
Tanis’s mouth had pulled tight, showing a hint of his sharp eyeteeth, and his eyes glittered in the bright morning light that shone through the wide windows taking up two walls of the corner room.
“He’s a foolish child,” Tanis said in the wolves’ language, his hard gaze on the younger wolf. “Obviously not ready for his first heat.”