by Teagan Wilde
“Turn around, Moon.”
I turn around, staring at the stone wall and awaiting his touch. Chills run up my spine, and I shiver as I feel him get closer and closer to me. His hands rub the top of my head, and I close my eyes and just bask in his touch.
Being touched by your mate is something that is so hard to explain. It’s like you have spent your whole life without a home. Then, with a single touch, everything changes and you belong to someone, someone who is meant wholly for you.
His fingers massage my scalp so gently, and my eyes sting with tears that are begging to be free. To be cherished in this way... He washes my hair like this is his most important task. Once he is finished, he turns me around and places me under the showerhead. I smile at him, so happy. He rubs his fingers through my hair to make sure he gets all the soap out. Then he grabs the conditioner, I spin around, and he repeats the motions.
“Now it’s my turn.” I grab the soap. I pour the soap into my hands and rub them together before dragging my hands across his body. He throws his head back, eyes closed, and I can see his breathing is labored. I could drool at the sight of his skin, wet and soapy like this. I rub my hand down his abs, stopping right above his dick. He opens his eyes, and I take my cue to wrap my hand around him. I am so nervous about touching him and clueless about what to do. I drag my hand down to the hilt, then back to the top, and he lets out a deep hiss. He places his hand on the tile above my head. I kiss his chest, continuing my movements. I move faster, tightening my grip. I kiss right above his nipple before licking the tip. He jolts and shoots his come in my hand and on my leg.
Holy fuck, I am so turned on my legs are shaking.
He opens his eyes, his beautiful eyes. “Moon,” he whispers and kisses me deeply. I may or may not feel like I am ten feet tall right now. “My turn,” he growls deeply. His chest vibrates under my hand.
Oh my.
I watch his every move as he grabs the soap, rubbing his hands together the way I did. He spins me around, and I close my eyes just waiting for the first touch. When he strokes my back, I jump—but I soon relax. His hand moves slowly on my back, up and down the backs of my arms, and around my neck. Then he bites my backside. I yelp and open my eyes to see him on his knees. My eyes widen, because he is very close to the most intimate part of me.
He continues washing my legs. He drags his hands up the inside of my thighs, and he doesn’t stop. He strokes my pussy; I am shaking at this point. “I am going to eat your pussy, but not in the shower.” He stands and turns off the water. He grabs a couple of towels and quickly dries us both off. Then he all but drags me to our bedroom. “On the bed, Moon.” I stare at him for a split second before doing as he asks. He is in pure alpha mode at the moment, and I can feel the need coming from him.
He climbs onto the bed, staring me down as he crawls closer to me. I am leaning back on my forearms. He stops at my legs. His lips touch them tenderly. I don’t even bother trying to hold myself up at this point. I fall back onto the bed, and Damon spreads my legs. He is driving me crazy with kisses everywhere.
I grab the sheets and stare down at him. He looks at me, winks, and finally goes to the place that is begging for his attention. It’s like I am burning from the inside out. My head falls back at the first lick; then he moves in closer and licks me harder. Is this really happening right now? I am shaking all over, and my legs are Jell-O. He chuckles and the extra vibrations bring me closer to the edge, driving me crazy.
“Damon,” I moan and bury my hand in his hair. He shakes his head side to side, sucking my clit into his mouth. My toes curl. Then a finger slowly enters me and I fall over the edge, my whole body shaking with pure bliss. He presses a kiss right above my pussy, gently closing my legs. Then he pulls me into his arms. I lay my head right below his, and his hand runs up and down my back.
“Wow,” I say in disbelief. Did that just happen?
He laughs softly. “Wow is right, my Moon. Take a nap. We have a full day of doing nothing.”
I close my eyes, warm, happy, and satisfied.
A Couple of Days Later
Farren
Damon has grown more protective of me. He trusts his packmates but, when it comes to me, he is cautious of everyone but my brother. I have also taken on the role of pack mom. I swear the whole pack knows the moment I put dinner on the table. I get a knock on the door and there they all are, on my porch with smiles on their faces.
I have become fast friends with Brantley. He was abused and kicked out of his old pack because he is gay, and he came to Damon in hopes of being taken in.
We have been informed that many younger males and females want to transfer to our pack. Their old packs will not have difficulty giving up the males, because there is too much competition for dominance—everyone wants to be the head honcho. But if the girls leave, the guys won’t have their maids, will they?
In a few short weeks, it will be time for the yearly gathering, and I am nervous about that. With the talk of others wanting to join us, I don’t think it will be an easy time. I know that most of the older guys will be there, along with a few of the younger ones, and Randall will be here to keep the grounds up.
I do hope that my brother meets his mate; I want him to be happy. Now that I’ve had a taste of that happiness, I want everyone to have it.
I set dinner on the table, and Damon comes around the corner and smacks me on the ass before sitting down. I laugh at his playfulness. He looks at the spread of food. “This looks absolutely amazing, my Moon.” I beam at him happily. That’s when I hear the knock at the door. Damon growls loudly, slamming his fists on the table.
I laugh. He doesn't want to share me at all, and that includes others eating my food. “You know you can hire a cook,” I suggest as I walk to the door.
“What an amazing fucking idea! We’ll have the new hall built, and I will put a huge table in there for meals.”
I open the door. It’s Brantley with my brother at his side, along with some other packmates. “We couldn’t help but smell the roasted chicken you made…” my brother starts and, one by one, the other huge, hulking men nod in agreement.
“Come on. I made enough for everyone.” I slaved over the stove all day long because I knew they would be over for dinner. They move past me into the house and, while some of them go into the dining room, others head to the kitchen to get something to drink.
I sit down at the table; the guys have left my spot, next to Damon, open for me. “What do you think about us hiring a cook for you guys?” Damon says.
I glare at him for suggesting something like that in front of the guys, as they start to fill their plates.
Brantley puts his fork down. “We didn’t mean to bother you, Alpha.”
I shake my head. “You guys are welcome in our home anytime.” I give Damon the stink eye. “Isn’t that right?”
He laughs at my anger and nods. “You guys are always welcome here.”
I eye him. “He is just a bit stingy—with me, that is.”
Damon just smiles. He is not ashamed one bit of his possessiveness. I love it myself. I fill my plate, and Damon doesn’t start eating until I do. He’s always thinking of me before anything else. I keep an eye on everyone in the room as they enjoy their food. As the days go on, I am noticing—little by little—that I am meant to be an alpha’s mate. Like the way I have a huge urge to take care of everyone in the pack.
Damon and I haven’t gone beyond messing around, but I think we will do the final deed soon. Our scents are already mixing; he smells like me and I smell like him. Once we finally have sex, the scent will never leave. It’s another way everyone can know that he belongs to me and I to him.
Our door is thrown open. “Coyotes are attacking the gates!” Jody yells into the house. Did they get in? I stand up, and most of the guys are already out the door.
Damon walks over to my side. “I would ask you to stay inside, but I don’t think that will happen.”
“You’re correct.”
Both of us turn toward the howls of the coyotes; then he laughs.
“Hyenas,” I whisper and Damon growls.
Hyenas are like the cousins of coyotes, but they are worse; they’re mean and just horrible. They are easier to fight, but they don’t fight fair—which is the only way they survive. But that is not the worst thing. They steal pups from other packs and sell them, on the black market, to the few humans who know and want to brag about having a shifter baby.
“I will run to Olive’s,” I tell Damon before shifting into my wolf form and running out the open door.
This violence is something that we have all become accustomed to. We don't want to talk about the hyenas, but we all hate them. We don’t see them very often, but I guess they got wind of the fact that we have pups. They will never know what hit them.
I run next door to Olive’s house and sit on her porch. Randall is circling the house.
That is when I see them.
Damon is running toward us, and Randall is heading straight for the herd of hyenas, ready to take them on by himself. My heart pounds hard in anticipation of what’s to come, and I jump off the porch itching to join the fray. I am going to stay close by in case someone tries to sneak into the house, which is happening right now. One of the hyenas is running away from Damon, heading straight for the front door.
Maverick bounds up the porch, takes a leap, and grabs the hyena by the neck, breaking it instantly.
The door is cracked open slightly, and Olive is standing there, completely frightened. I tell her to get back in her house. She closes the door, and I can hear footsteps and doors slamming as she runs to hide.
Something jumps onto the porch. A coyote is running toward me. I growl loudly. Damon jumps in front of me and grabs a hold of the coyote before he can react. Overprotective much?
I sit down on my haunches in front of Olive’s door. I doubt that I will get to fight today. I watch the battle, and I am thoroughly impressed at how good they are at fighting. Every single one of them. Once again I am in awe of Damon; he is just a powerful wolf. He takes down one right after another, and my brother is right beside him. Randall is running around the house, daring someone to get close to him. In his bear form, he is huge.
That’s when I hear it. The sound of glass breaking.
Someone got in.
I hurry into my human form, open the door to the house, and shut it behind me. Then I change back into my shifter form, and I raise my nose, breathing in deeply. I catch the scent of a hyena just before it comes around the corner. I charge and tackle it, pushing it onto its side. Another hyena attacks me, and they both try to bite me. I use my paws to press their faces into the hardwood floor.
I can hear the pups upstairs, screaming. Anger floods me. I am furious that they know someone broke into their house and is trying to get to them.
The two hyenas break loose. I snap my jaws around their back legs, shattering them. That weird laugh springs from one of the hyenas. I hate that sound so much. The hyena turns around, trying to bite my throat. I let its foot go as I grab it by the neck, clamping down hard. I can feel small bones breaking in my mouth.
I hate taking a life, but I would do anything to protect our women and pups. I carry the body to the broken window and throw it outside.
“FARREN!” Damon yells at the top of his lungs. My skin tingles—I’m on edge because of the worry and pain in his voice. I change back into human form, walk to the front door, and throw it open. I step onto the front porch, and I see him instantly, in the middle of the field.
“Damon.”
He runs to me and picks me up in his arms, holding me close. “Once the fighting ended, I couldn’t find you. Scared the fuck out of me, Moon,” he whispers. His body is shaking.
“A hyena broke a window and jumped inside their house,” I tell him.
Randall transforms back into human form and grabs a pair of pants off the side of the porch. I guess that’s where he shifted.
“Randall, one got inside the house, but I took care of it. Olive and the kids are upstairs, locked inside a room.”
He shakes his head angrily, fists clenched. “Thank you, Farren.” He touches my shoulder and runs into the house.
“I wonder how they found out about the kids being here?” I ask Damon, who hasn’t let me go yet.
I never want him to.
Ever.
“I don’t know but I will find out.” His voice is deep and dark with anger.
I look at the guys in the pack. Someone must have betrayed us, because the hyenas knew exactly what side of the property to breach and which house to invade.
Something just is not right.
They all seem normal, cleaning up and looking after their wounds. Everyone seems okay. Brantley walks up to us. “You okay, girl?”
I smile at my best friend. “I am good, Brantley. Going to be doing some singing for us?”
He laughs. It’s an ongoing joke because he shares the name of a country singer, though he looks nothing like him. I heard some stories of what happened at his old pack. They were just horrible to him, and he had to fight for his life all the time. No one should have to live like that just because they are different from others or because of who they love. Love is love; that is what matters the most.
“Come on, baby, let’s go home. Too many fucking eyes here, and I can feel them looking at you.” Damon holds me as close to him as he can. We walk to our house. “Let’s shower and get this shit off of us, the only thing I want on me right now is your smell.”
Damon
I will never forget the panic I felt when she wasn’t in the spot where I’d last seen her. My mind raced, imagining so many things that could have happened, and none of them were good. I thought she might have been hurt, kidnapped or, worse, dead. It was pure fucking fear. I would know if something happened to her, but when that fear kicks in you don't think clearly. She makes me lose my head.
She has completely taken every single bit of me, and I never want her to give it back.
She is mine, my Moon.
When we walk into the house, I hurry up the stairs with her. I want to get rid of the hyena smell. The only fucking smell that needs to be on her is mine.
I turn on the shower, lead her inside, and grab the soap. She throws her head back, laughing, as I scrub her body, and tears start to roll down her face. I stop, my hand poised over her pussy. “Laughing at me, baby?”
Farren
I stop laughing when I see the dark look on his face, and his hand is right above my pussy. “Just a little bit.” I bite my lip, pretending to look innocent.
He rolls his eyes and goes back to watching me. I grab his soap and start scrubbing him. He closes his eyes as I massage his huge back, loosening him up after the fight. There were so many of them. I never expected them to get past the gate.
“Damon, what happened to the armed gate? How did they even know it was the pups’ house?” I ask him, my mind going a million miles an hour. I really think we have a traitor in our midst. There is just no other way all of this could have happened. This pack’s security system is one of the best.
Damon’s face changes as my words sink in. “FUCK!” he roars. He climbs out of the shower and walks straight into our bedroom without bothering to dry off. I can almost taste the anger coming off of him; I can feel it right to my core. I turn off the shower and hurry to follow him.
He bolts out the door. He doesn't have on a shirt, only a pair of jeans. I am going to be there to have his back. I put on a pair of leggings and a shirt and run out the door, my clothing sticking to me as I am still wet. The front door is wide open, and I see Damon right in the middle of the field. I feel the power rolling off him in waves. I clutch my heart.
My brother runs out of his house, straight toward Damon, but he stops a few feet away from him. Maybe he is holding back because of the expression on Damon’s face.
One by one, the other guys come out of their houses. Damon looks at me as I a
pproach him. He takes my hand and pulls me close to him; then he stands in front of me. I take his cue and let go of his hand. I press my hand to his back. It is my way of giving him my support but letting him take the lead, as the alpha.
Damon waits until the very last person is in front of us. Maverick stands beside me, behind Damon. I can tell Maverick is confused at what is happening.
Damon takes a deep breath; it’s like he grows in size. I shiver right down to my bones. He is the most powerful alpha I have been around.
He is intense.
Damon looks every person directly in the eye until they all drop their gaze. I am still touching Damon, and I can feel him shaking. He is pissed, but I don't think that is a strong enough word for it. “One of you among us has betrayed us. You turned off the fence and led the hyenas straight to Olive and Randall’s house.”
I hear growls, most of them coming from Randall. This is one of the worst offenses you can commit. Betrayal is usually punished by death or something worse. If you are cast out of your pack, you can’t be accepted by anyone else. Starving to death is painful, slow, and just pure torture. You can’t survive without a pack unless you go rogue. You lose your mind, and you are dangerous to yourself and others. Being cast out by an alpha breaks you right down to your soul, and you can never come back from that.
But I don’t think anyone will be cast out today. I doubt Randall will allow the traitor to leave this property. I am not sure I can control my own anger.
“Who did this?” Damon roars. I swear I can feel the ground shake. My legs buckle, but I stand upright. The others are lying on the ground, cowering. “NOW!” Damon demands, and this time the power coming off of him is crippling. Damon touches my arm and I relax as the power is lifted off of me; then he does the same thing for Maverick.
“I did it,” someone squeaks out.
The others let out a deep breath. We all look at Johnathan, one of the newer members, who has always kept to himself. He is lying on the ground, overcome by Damon’s power.