by Odessa Lynne
The strident screech of wood on stone raised Gerald’s head.
Eris had pushed his chair back and he reached out to catch Gerald by the back of the neck, pulling Gerald halfway across the round table. Gerald scrambled for a hold on the table’s edge, blood rushing, head spinning.
Eris pressed his mouth to Gerald’s forehead.
Gerald gasped softly at the contact. Those warm lips moved across Gerald’s forehead and to his cheek. He gripped the table so tight his knuckles ached.
Eris pulled back and caught Gerald’s gaze. “Your temperature’s higher than it should be.”
“That’s what you were doing?” Gerald choked out. “Are you kidding me? You scared me to death.”
“I don’t smell fear.” Eris thrust his nose in close to Gerald’s collarbone and drew in a deep sniff. “I smell… only the rich, bright scent of you.”
“I, uh, think this is not a good idea, you sniffing me like this.”
A sleepy voice came from the other side of the room. “He’s right. Let him be, Eris.”
Gerald swallowed and raised one hand to Eris’s shoulder. He clutched at the thick muscle under his hand. “I’m sure we could take this to the next level, big guy, but my head’s kind of busting right now and, uh, if you don’t mind, I’d like to pass on taking it up the ass over the table.”
“Eris!” Leif’s voice had an aggressive edge.
Eris dragged his thumb below Gerald’s cheekbone where Gerald’s beard was growing in. “The texture of your skin is fascinating.”
“Hairy, you mean.” And itchy as hell.
Teeth flashed in what could have passed for a smile. Eris’s golden eyes glimmered and his sharp nose flared. “You belong to my alpha or I would take you for myself.”
Something moved in Gerald’s peripheral vision. His chest felt tight but Eris hadn’t been wrong; Gerald wasn’t that scared. He should’ve been, but three days with these guys had made him complacent.
Also, he felt like shit. He just wasn’t sure he cared at the moment what happened.
He still wished Tanis was there, but if the last two days were anything to go by, Tanis wouldn’t return until time for the midday meal.
Just to fuck and eat, of course. Heat season would end soon, and maybe then Tanis wouldn’t come around at all. For all the talk of giving him everything, Tanis was giving him nothing.
Nothing at all.
The thought pissed him off.
He groped for a handful of Eris’s soft hair.
Eris’s eyes flared wide and his breath hitched. “I…” His narrow eyes, so bright and blue and beautiful, held Gerald’s gaze for far too long.
Gerald’s fingers tightened in that hair, and his every breath brought him the warm, fresh scent of wolf.
God. What if he just leaned forward and kissed Eris? Would Tanis hate him for it? Would he finally realize—
“Leisikei…” Raleigh’s voice came from Gerald’s right just beyond his line of sight, rough and pleading.
“Not Leisikei. Leif. Don’t forget again.”
But Raleigh had forgotten plenty of times, and one more reminder from Leif wasn’t likely to do anything to change that. When Raleigh’s heat cycles came on, Gerald had discovered quickly that Raleigh liked to antagonize Leif.
“Leif,” Raleigh repeated. “Don’t go. I want to mate.”
“Hush.” A few seconds later, Leif’s naked body came into view in the peripheral of Gerald’s vision.
“Release him, Eris. His wellbeing is our responsibility. Stress will make him weaker and he needs his strength if he’s sick.” Leif stopped behind Eris and wrapped his arm around Eris’s chest. “We’ll fuck if you need to mate.”
“But Leif!” Raleigh’s voice rang out. “You’re my heat mate, not his!”
Leif glanced toward Raleigh, narrow eyes fierce. “Would you rather we let his needs get so strong he can’t help himself but to try to take what belongs to Alpha?”
Raleigh sighed loud enough for Gerald to hear and then something landed with a whump very close to their feet.
Leif moved swiftly.
Eris released Gerald and Gerald slid off the edge of the table, hand pulling free of Eris’s hair, butt hitting the chair with jarring force.
“Shit,” he groaned out, then rested his warm cheek against the cool wood top as a slight shudder coursed through him.
Eris came around the table and dropped to his knees beside Gerald. “Did I hurt you?”
But Gerald wasn’t paying attention, because Leif had Raleigh by the back of the neck, dragging him toward Gerald and Eris.
Gerald raised his head, eyes wide.
“I submit,” Raleigh was saying, hands scrabbling for Leif’s arm. “I submit!”
“Apologize,” Leif demanded, tossing Raleigh toward Gerald’s chair.
Raleigh skidded on his knees to a stop right up against Gerald. He gripped Gerald’s thigh, his eyes blazing with some emotion Gerald couldn’t name, just before he looked over his shoulder at Leif.
Leif stood with a clenched jaw and stiff back and claws out.
Raleigh turned back to Gerald, head low. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have thrown the pillow. It’s not your fault you stink like a fesiniteisa—”
Leif gripped the back of Raleigh’s neck and Raleigh hissed. His claws extended, too quick for Gerald to jerk free.
The sharp points poked through Gerald’s jeans and straight into his flesh.
Chapter 22
Gerald yelped with the sudden flash of pain as claws dug into his thigh and grabbed the edge of the table. His chair screaked against the floor.
Leif yanked Raleigh away from Gerald, and Raleigh’s claws left Gerald’s flesh as quickly as they’d entered it. Leif threw Raleigh sideways, a deep growl rumbling up from his chest.
Raleigh lunged at Leif, teeth flashing.
Eris roared. “Raeshikid! Submit!”
Too late.
Raleigh took a swipe at Leif with his claws, but Leif flipped Raleigh and jammed his knee into Raleigh’s back. He grabbed a thick handful of hair and yanked Raleigh’s head up until Raleigh’s back bowed with the pressure. He raised his arm, growling with a harshness that made the hair on Gerald’s arms stand on end.
One swipe and he’d tear out Raleigh’s throat.
“Submit!”
Eyeteeth flashed and Raleigh bit into his bottom lip, closing his eyes, face a mask of fierce satisfaction. “I submit, Leisikei, I submit! Now please fuck me… please.”
Gerald’s stomach fluttered at the sound of Raleigh begging.
He tried not to be obvious about shifting on the chair in his effort to relieve the pressure against his traitorous dick, but then he gasped as his thigh muscle tightened around the puncture wounds left by Raleigh’s claws and all thoughts of his dick disappeared in an instant.
“I don’t believe your submission this time,” Leif was saying.
He let go of Raleigh’s hair and Gerald saw the way Leif’s hands shook before he flexed them. Sweat coated his skin, the shine impossible to miss.
“I submit!” Raleigh growled, hand curling on the floor at his side. “I submit!”
“He’s too willful,” Eris said. “He needs a stronger mate.”
Leif released Raleigh and lurched to his feet, his claws long and dark at the ends of his fingers and toes. “I’m strong enough. I won’t let you take him from me.”
A deep unease clenched Gerald’s stomach.
Eris glanced at Raleigh and switched to the wolves’ language. “He should’ve been allowed to breed.”
“What are you saying?” Leif asked Eris, the glassy look in his eyes waning.
“The Diviners aren’t infallible. They should have given his family permission for him to breed. His actions prove—”
“Nothing,” Leif said. “He’s spoiled and willful because his mother had enough status to keep him from joining another pack when the time came. You know how that damages the young ones.”
Or
maybe that wasn’t what Leif said at all. Gerald wasn’t sure, and then Raleigh flopped over on his back, taking several deep gulps of air and distracted Gerald.
Just like Leif, Raleigh was completely naked. He had a plump, heavy sac covered in a dusting of dark hair, and a long, stiff cock. He caught Leif’s leg with his and tried to pull Leif to him. “Leif, please. I need to fuck and you’re my heat mate. Don’t you want to fuck me?”
He wriggled against the floor, then pulled his legs up, opening himself to everyone’s view.
Gerald turned his head, his face flushing hotter than ever. “I, uh, maybe I should…” He planted his hands on the table and pushed to his feet.
The burn in his thigh was much more severe than he expected and he hissed, plopping down on the seat again.
“Leif,” Raleigh pleaded. “Please. I submit. I know you want to fuck.”
Gerald pinched his nose and leaned on his elbow while the slow throb at his thigh intensified.
The next thing he heard was a shuffle and he shook off his sudden lethargy to look up.
Eris had hunkered down in front of him. He cupped Gerald’s face in his hands. “One of us will have to summon Alpha if he doesn’t return soon. He’ll want to know you’re sick. But I’ll treat your injuries first.”
Gerald nodded.
Eris helped him to his feet, and although he could see the glisten of sweat on Eris’s face, he let him. He heard someone growl—probably Leif—and then a grunt, followed by a series of harsh gasping sounds and he deliberately turned his gaze away from Raleigh and Leif fucking on the floor.
He walked beside Eris into the inner room, wincing with every step he took.
Those claws must have dug deep.
Eris led him into the bathroom. Gerald still hadn’t figured out how to use the shower, but he’d heard water running several times as the wolves used it. He’d glared jealously at the door every time he’d heard it.
Once, uncomfortably enough, right as Tanis buried his cock in Gerald’s ass.
He hadn’t even noticed Eris entering the room, but he sure had noticed him leaving.
He’d come really fast that time.
And then Tanis had curled up behind him and held him too tight, and Gerald had found it impossible to keep his eyes open despite the sound of another one of the wolves walking through to the bathroom just a few minutes later.
When Gerald had woken up, Tanis had been gone. He hadn’t returned until Leif had started feeding Raleigh several thick slices of meat soaked in a gravy that smelled so good Gerald’s stomach had growled so loud everyone heard it.
“Alpha won’t let you go hungry,” Eris had told him just before shoving the last slice of meat from the platter into his mouth right in front of Gerald.
After that, Leif and Raleigh had started fucking right there in the corner of the room on the pillows the wolves shared, leaving Gerald with a hard dick and a desperate desire to hide out in the corner of the bedroom that none of them could see from the outer room.
Tanis had appeared in the doorway while the noises coming from the main room were still loud enough to make mental pictures inside Gerald’s head, took one sniff of the air, and stalked across the room, already pulling off his shirt.
Food had come after, but at the time, Gerald hadn’t minded so much. The gravy soaked meat had been much better than the dried meat of two days before.
Eris pushed Gerald down onto a bench that stretched along the wall where the nearly invisible sink was, cutting short Gerald’s memories of the last few days.
“Where’d that come from? It wasn’t here the last time I was in here.”
“I called it from the wall.”
Gerald frowned, not sure what Eris meant, but then cleared his throat, and then had to sniff again, because his nose had started to run.
“Fuck,” he said, rubbing his nose. “I really do think I’ve caught a cold. Someone in the den must’ve given it to me.” He side-eyed Eris. “You wouldn’t happen to know if Lamar is sick, would you?”
“He isn’t. But several of the humans have taken ill in the last two days. It’s a concern. It has also delayed Alpha’s plans. We were hoping you hadn’t been exposed.”
Curiosity sparked. “Just how many humans are there here?”
“Enough.”
Gerald sat up straighter, then grunted as he helped Eris get his jeans off him. “Can I meet any of them?”
“No. Stop asking questions.”
“Come on—ah!” Gerald hissed at the unexpected stab of pain. Eris had touched one of the five bleeding gouges in his thigh muscle.
“That really hurts,” Gerald added through gritted teeth.
“You’re weak and they’re already infected. You’ll need medication.”
“That fast?”
“Some of us carry more bacteria under our claws than others. It’s virulent and seems to like human hosts.”
“Ah.”
In the next instant, Eris used his claws to tear right through the crotch of Gerald’s underwear.
Gerald sucked in his stomach, fast.
Eris finished tearing through the snug fabric and peeled it back from thigh to hip, exposing half Gerald’s scrotum and a good bit of pubic hair.
Gerald put his hand over his penis. “Was that really necessary?”
“Your underwear was blocking my access to your wounds.”
“It was also keeping my damn dick from waving in your face.”
“I don’t mind.”
“It’s the principal of the thing. Some privacy around here would be nice.”
“We’re your pack now. You have nothing to hide from us.”
“Well that’s bullshit. I’ve got plenty to hide.”
Eyes locked on Gerald, Eris reached between Gerald’s legs and unsealed a drawer beneath the bench. “Such as?”
“Such as shit I’m not telling you. That’s the point.” Gerald spread his legs wider so Eris could find what he was looking for. Turned out to be a washcloth.
Gerald watched as Eris turned and wet the cloth.
“We’re pack,” Eris said. “We have no need to keep secrets from each other.”
Gerald tucked his hand under the hem of his t-shirt and scratched his belly. “Sure. You keep thinking that way and I’ll keep thinking my way. Everybody’s hiding something from somebody.” Gerald held out his hand for the washcloth. “How about you let me do that?”
“It’s my responsibility to care for you in Alpha’s absence. I’ll do it.”
“Come on. I won’t tell if you won’t.”
Eris’s irises seemed larger under the light. “I won’t lie to Alpha.”
“I’m not asking you to lie if he asks. Just don’t tell him.”
“A lie of omission is still a lie.”
Gerald let out a huff of breath. “He won’t know there’s anything to know if you don’t ever bring it up.”
“I’ll know.” Eris held the washcloth over Gerald’s thigh, unmoving. He raised his head. “And the watchers will know.”
“Watchers. I’ve heard of them. What do they do?” Cory was a watcher. Gerald knew that. Cory had never explained what it really meant. No one had. But he’d asked. Again and again and again, and the answer had always been the same: watchers watch.
Gerald had decided that meant something more than the translation implied. He just hadn’t figured out what yet.
“It’s enough for you to know that they watch and then share what they see and hear with each other and Alpha.”
“So you really don’t have any privacy. Do they report on your activities?”
“We have as much privacy as we need.”
“Tell me about Tanis.” He wasn’t even sure why he changed the subject when he was finally making progress learning something that had eluded him for years. And yet the desire to know more about Tanis had become overwhelming, and Gerald couldn’t resist the opportunity to push Eris’s forthright talk as far as it would go.
Eris pres
sed the wet cloth to Gerald’s thigh.
“Whoa. Colder than I expected.” He clenched his teeth as Eris carefully cleaned the wounds. After a moment, he added, “That’s not going to get the bacteria out.”
“It won’t matter,” Eris said. “You’ll still need medication or the infection will spread.”
“So why bother wiping it down? Just give me the medication.”
“Alpha will have to acquire the medication.”
“Ah—” His voice hitched and he pressed his hand against the unyielding bench beside his thigh. “Shit.”
“I’m sorry this hurts.”
“Tell me about Tanis.”
“He’s Alpha. You belong to him.”
“I think everybody’s made that pretty clear. Tell me about him.”
“You should ask him what you want to know.”
“I’m asking—fuck—” The pressure at his thigh eased as Eris lifted the wet cloth, and Gerald managed to finish with a breathless “—you.”
Eris rinsed the cloth, then tossed it into a nearly invisible opening in the wall. Gerald watched and wondered. So many ordinary things in common with humans, and yet so many things that made it impossible for humans to understand them and their ways.
What did love feel like for the wolves? For Eris and Leif and Raleigh.
For Tanis.
It was a question he couldn’t ask, not without making implications he didn’t want to make, not without worrying if he’d let himself go down the one path he couldn’t go down.
Eris rose to his feet and Gerald made a grab for Eris’s hand. He wasn’t ready for their conversation to end and he wasn’t thinking when he did it.
Eris jerked away, growling, claws coming out.
Gerald jerked his own hand back, pressing it to his chest. His heart thudded so hard he could feel it under his palm. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
Eris breathed through his nose, eyes too bright. “You belong to Alpha. You are alpha. I apologize for reacting so strongly.”
“No, it was my—” Wait. What? Gerald frowned.
Eris pressed his finger over Gerald’s lips. Gerald stopped talking.
“I apologize,” Eris said. “Please accept my submission.”
Gerald’s eyes widened.
The sheen of sweat on Eris’s forehead glistened under the glow of the ceiling. “I’m not offering sex.”