“No, she just started her last year of high school, and she’s a lot of fun, but I’ve been worried about her lately…”
“Why?”
“I know she’s happy about being a senior, but all she does is go to mountain parties, and sometimes she even goes to human parties with our cousin. It’s okay to be interested in the humans—that’s only natural considering how sheltered most of us are from them. I want to believe she’s just having fun, but lately, I’ve been worried she’s doing more than that.”
“Drugs?” It was a technically a question, but delivered in a knowing tone, like he could already state for a fact that this was what Tu was into.
A cold chill went up Janelle’s spine at the thought of Tu heading down that road. Alaska was incredibly beautiful, but at the end of the day, there just wasn’t enough for young people, human or wolf, to do—especially in the more remote towns like Wolf Lake. And Tu had shown little to no interest in throwing herself into planning kingdom events as Janelle had.
“I hope not. But sometimes she comes home from her time out in the human world a little… I don’t know, wired. Too energized, even for Tu.”
Then she felt silly. A guy from Bad Wolf wouldn’t necessarily consider a she-wolf who occasionally dabbled in drugs to be in trouble. From what she’d heard, Bad Wolf threw regular keggers to celebrate their hunts. Mag probably thought she was being crazy and over protective.
“If you want, I can send my brother up to your kingdom town. He’ll scare her straight.”
The thought of his brother, a scrapper from Bad Wolf, descending on their sleepy postcard town where nothing untoward ever happened on non-full moon nights made her laugh. “No, I think I’ll just keep on giving her stern looks whenever she comes home too hyped up.”
“That oughta work. But let me know if you need my brother for back-up. His intimidation game is tight, yeah?”
She laughed even harder and said, “I’ll let you know, thanks.”
“And Janelle…” His voice suddenly grew serious.
“Yes?” She gripped the phone tighter, feeling if not exactly knowing for sure that his next words would be significant.
“If you need anything. Anything at all. Let me know. You’ve got my number now. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said, her voice much lighter than how she felt at the moment. Her wolf was tugging at her now, urging her to make him the same offer, even though it knew she couldn’t possibly ever keep up her end of the bargain.
“And Janelle?”
“Yes?” she said again, ignoring the warning bells which were screaming loud as banshees in the back of her mind.
“I know this ain’t a great idea, especially in the middle of my last college football season, but…” She heard him take a deep breath on the other side of the phone. “I want to see you again. Soon. Can I see you again?”
No, she answered in her mind as any sane person, as any sane princess in her position, should have. But out loud she said, “I’m flying to Chicago in two weeks for a wedding. I was supposed to be there all weekend, but maybe I could leave early and come see you in Colorado?”
He was now smiling on the other side of the phone. She didn’t have to see him to know it. He was definitely smiling. Smiling big.
6
MAG prided himself on being a pretty patient guy. You didn’t go from Bad Wolf to Denver University without learning the merits of biding your time. But the next two weeks took for fucking ever.
Calling Janelle every night before he went to bed wasn’t enough. He could barely concentrate at practice, much less get any work done. Any other time he could have fobbed his academic work off on one of the human groupies, but in this case, he was shit out of luck. He had a paper for his Native Wolves Seminar due the Monday after Janelle’s visit, so the work couldn’t be passed on to a human.
Janelle had gotten all alarmed when he told her about the essay on one of their calls. “Maybe we should postpone my visit,” she’d offered.
“No, we ain’t postponing nothing,” he’d answered. “I’d rather work my ass off for the rest of the semester to pull the C I need to pass.” He had no intention of missing his only opportunity to see Janelle for the Great Sky God knew how long. He had no idea if or when he could convince her to come down again.
And when she came walking into the baggage claim area, her wavy hair swinging, her gorgeous brown eyes searching until they lit up upon finding him already standing next to the luggage carousel, he knew he’d made the right call. And some kind of feeling overcame him then. He wasn’t much for romantic comedies. He was more of a Scarface or Die Hard guy—Friday if he was in the mood to laugh. But you’d think he’d been watching Love Actually non-stop the way he ran across that airport and swung her around in his arms before finally letting her slide down his body until her face was in line with his, her feet just a few inches off the floor.
She laughed, the sound like soft wind chimes under the airport’s fluorescent lights. “You should put me down now.”
“Give me a kiss first,” he answered.
She pecked him on the lips. Then glanced around at all the people looking at them.
“C’mon, you can do better than that. You don’t want me to carry you out of here, do you?”
He could tell she wasn’t one for public displays of affection, not like his parents, who would climb all over each other, any time, any place, especially if they’d had anything to drink. But to her credit, she laid a good one on him, her lips capturing his in a deep kiss, her tentativeness disappearing as her tongue snaked into his mouth.
When he set her down a few minutes later, he knew she could feel the proof of how much he’d liked that kiss hard and rigid against her stomach. He took the leather overnight bag hanging off her arm, and put it over his. “You expecting any other bags?” he asked.
“No, I left my bigger suitcase at O’Hare. The hotel I stayed at has a luggage desk there.”
“Cool.” He took her hand and started walking toward the parking structure. “I got us a free hotel room. Rafe hooked me up with one at the Wolf Springs Resort.”
Her face fell, “Oh, I already booked a hotel room at the Denver Grand.”
“Can you call and cancel? It’ll save you some money.”
“I don’t think so,” she answered carefully. “I mean the Wolf Springs Resort is so far from here, and I’d much rather stay in Denver. Really I don’t mind spending the money.”
Yeah, he bet she didn’t if it meant keeping him a secret, but he didn’t say anything until they got to his space in the parking garage.
She looked around when he stopped in front of his motorcycle. “Which one is yours?” she asked, looking hopefully at the two mid-sized sedans on either side of his bike.
“That one,” he answered, nodding toward the red Kawasaki Ninja 250. “It was a piece of shit when I bought it freshman year, but Rafe and Grady helped me fix it up, and it’s done a pretty good job getting me around all these years.” He lifted up the machine’s seat compartment, and undid the lock that held the helmet he’d brought for her. “Better than a cage anyway.”
“By a cage do you mean a car?”
He handed her the helmet. “Yeah, I mean a car.”
“Oh…” she looked down at the helmet.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, feeling peeved even though he’d been more than excited to see her again just minutes ago. But he guessed getting hidden away like a dirty little secret by some rich girl would do that you. “Afraid to mess up your hair?”
“No, your motorcycle is really cool, and I’m excited to try it out since I’ve never been on one before,” she answered. She turned worried eyes up to him. “But if I’m wearing your helmet, what’s going to protect you if we get in an accident?”
And just like that, all the peevish feelings disappeared. He liked that she worried about him. Liked it a lot.
“Don’t worry about me, baby. I never wear a helmet anyway—I’ve got a hard head.”
“But…”
He took the helmet from her. “Here, let me help you put this on.”
RIDING A MOTORCYCLE WAS EXHILARATING and Janelle could see why someone might call a car a cage after the experience of rushing down I-70 West, snuggled up against Mag’s back, the wind whipping through her hair, the Colorado sun shining down on them like a blessing of their relationship, one her parents would never give.
Mag laughed at her when she pulled off her helmet and she imagined her usually perfectly styled hair must look a fright after thirty minutes of getting thrashed about in the wind. But if he minded that she was no longer camera ready, she wouldn’t have known it. He shoved his hands into her messed up hair and started kissing her as soon as she got the hotel door open, and he didn’t stop until she was underneath him in the king-sized bed.
Her maxi-skirt and panties came off her body with one urgent yank, and then his lips were on her vagina, sucking and tugging on her until her entire body was jerking and she was crying out nonsensical words of pleasure and gratitude while she came. The orgasm pierced through her with an aching beauty she wouldn’t have known possible two weeks ago.
She could feel his mouth smiling against her mound, and their eyes connected as she came down from the climax he’d given her. Then he started licking and sucking and tugging at her some more.
Her hands found the back of his neck and she tried to pull him upwards. “I want you inside of me.”
“Two times. That’s the SOP,” he said, pulling her hands off his neck.
She had no idea what SOP stood for, and she didn’t care. Her body was on fire with yearning, buzzing at her like a tornado siren, and it made her feel panicky as if the fate of her entire world depended on him entering her as soon as possible.
“Mag, I want you inside me. Right now. Please.”
He looked up at her. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t, I promise you won’t. You said whatever I needed.”
That reference back to their first conversation seemed to bring out his wolf. His silvery eyes darkened and the next thing she knew, he was on top of her. Fully on top of her, the hood of his penis lodged at her opening.
He was so big, his body so heavy, like she’d just invited a brick wall to lie down on top of her. Yet he was gentle, pushing into her slowly, giving her time to adjust to his size as he inched his way into her tunnel.
Then he was moving, his arms under her shoulders, his hands cupping the back of her head, his face in her neck, so it felt like she was cocooned inside of him, even as his manhood was cocooned inside of her.
“Oh, God, yes!” she cried. “Please keep fucking me. Just like that. Yes! Yes!”
She was completely out of her mind. Cursing and begging… and fucking—basically doing everything she’d been taught not to do in one fell swoop. But she took solace in the fact that Mag seemed to be out of his mind, too. He powered into her, his strokes not nearly as purposeful and smooth as they’d been the last two times. There was something almost desperate about the way he held on to her, like she was the only thing keeping him tethered.
“Don’t… don’t… don’t…” he said in her ear.
But he wasn’t talking to her. She knew this on instinct. He was talking to himself. Chastising himself. About what, though?
She exploded before she had the chance to ask, shattering into a thousand pieces, before reassembling again. He came a few strokes later, yelling loud, his arms and body constricting around and inside of her as his release emptied out of him.
“Oh, fuck…” he said with a guttural noise. He lifted his face from her neck. “Christ—are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she answered, breathing hard.
His eyes searched her face. “I couldn’t… I lost control for a little while there, but I didn’t hurt you, right? You’re okay?”
She cupped his dear face in her hands. “Believe me, Mag, I’m better than okay. Thank you.” And she meant it. She’d been told she was beautiful all her life, had even been voted Miss Teen Wolf when she was eighteen, but she’d never felt as beautiful as she did right now, naked and sweaty, her hair a complete mess.
However, her happy answer made his expression go from worried to sad. “One night,” he said, the words a regretful lament. “It’s not going to be enough, is it?”
Her voice was just as regretful, when she answered, “It has to be.”
THEY SPENT THE MAJORITY of that first day in the hotel room, but eventually Janelle convinced Mag to go see a movie. The Alaska kingdom town didn’t have a movie theater, so Janelle tried to see at least one film whenever she was in a city. Mag surprised her by letting her pick what they saw. Having grown up in a house with one television that everyone was always fighting over, Janelle had learned to compromise early and often. But Mag seemed content, happy even, to let her pick something for them to watch.
“Seriously?” she’d asked. “Even if it’s a rom-com?”
He shrugged. “Whatever you want, baby. Long as we get a big bucket of popcorn, I’m cool.”
Yes, he certainly was cool. And she sensed he wasn’t just being gracious for the sake of being gracious. He seemed to honestly enjoy spending time with her, even out of bed. After the movie, he insisted on taking her out to a nearby diner for hot chocolate and dessert, where they’d discussed the film she’d chosen, a dramedy about two superheroes going through a divorce, at length. Though they disagreed on the ending. Janelle had left the theater feeling a little sad that the couple hadn’t been able to work things out with each other, despite successfully vanquishing a super villain together at the end of the movie.
But Mag said, “I’m glad they got divorced. There ain’t nothing worse than two people who stay together after their marriage goes to shit.”
She peeked at him over the rim of her hot chocolate. She had the feeling he was speaking from personal experience. “Do you... um… wish your parents had gotten a divorced before they died?”
His eyes went to a shadowy place. “You know that wouldn’t have happened. We wolves mate for life.”
“But it’s no longer illegal to divorce. The Lupine Courts even hear custody cases these days. I mean, it doesn’t happen all that often, but it happens a lot more than it used to.”
He shook his head. “Not in Freedom Town. They’re not even trying to hear about divorce there. You got dudes still fighting to the death over the right to claim a unheated girl. And once they’re mated… well, let’s just put it like this: we don’t consider ‘til death do us a part’ an alternative. The only way either of you is getting out of your marriage is if one of you dies.”
“Wow,” she said. “That’s ironic, because you call it Freedom Town, but it doesn’t sound like you’re all that free once you get married.”
He turned his eyes to his plate. “Yeah, when I finally lay down my pledge, believe me, it’s going to be for life.”
Whoever he mated would be a very lucky girl, she thought. Jealousy sparked through her veins at the thought of some other girl in his bed, receiving his kisses, carrying his pup inside her belly.
“That will probably be a hard lifestyle adjustment for you after all the girls you’ve…” What did Kenny say? “…hooked up with.”
He grinned at her. “You jealous?”
“No,” she answered. Too quickly to be believed, she knew.
And his grin grew even wider. “That’s too bad,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind you being jealous. I wouldn’t mind that at all, yeah?”
He made her want to kick him under the table. He also made her want to kiss that smug look off his face, right here in public. The fact was, Mag Lonewolf made her want to do a lot of things a princess shouldn’t do, including take a hold of his hand as they walked back to the hotel room.
Which was a mistake. A huge mistake.
As they passed the movie theater, a voice called out to the right of them, “Hey, Lonewolf! What’re you doing over on this side of town?”
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Then before she could stop him, Mag stopped and turned toward the voice, putting her in complete view of Kenny, the Wyoming prince’s soon-to-be beta.
7
MAG would have said Janelle dropped his hand like a dead fish, but he was from a pack that had true respect for the meal a dead fish could provide. No, he’d say she dropped his hand like a dead rat. Like he was a dead rat she’d been caught doing things that you shouldn’t be doing with a dead rat.
The she-wolf he’d been making love to all day disappeared, and the morning show hostess came back with a one hundred megawatt smile.
“Oh, hi, Kenny! How’s it going?” There was nothing in her voice to say that them running into someone they both knew was anything less than a pleasant coincidence. “Are you going in to see a movie?”
“Yeah, I’m here to see a movie. What are you up to?” Kenny looked from her to Mag then back to her again. There was a small human by his side, a blonde wearing a zip-up CCD hoodie over a pink dress, which explained why Kenny was at a movie theater in downtown Denver. The Community College of Denver’s campus was just up the street. The human’s presence also meant Kenny wouldn’t be able to talk openly about certain stuff—like him, Janelle, and Mag all being werewolves.
A fact Janelle took full advantage of. “Oh, I was in town again and decided to go see a movie, and wouldn’t you know it, I ran into Mag here as I was going into the movie theater! I guess he came over here because the movie he wanted to see wasn’t showing near campus.”
“Oh yeah, which movie is that?” Kenny asked Mag, his voice tight.
Kenny, Mag knew, was from a rich Wyoming family, and had already been handpicked by the Wyoming prince to be the guy’s beta when he graduated. From what Mag could tell, all those rich wolves seemed to know each other before they got to Denver University, so he wasn’t surprised Kenny knew Janelle. And by the way he was looking at Mag right now, he could tell the brown-haired wolf didn’t think his poor ass had any business sharing any kind of company with her.
Wolf and Punishment (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 1) Page 5