My eyebrows went up in surprise. I had no idea if it was good or bad, but at least I could say no, right?
“The male who claims you will have to woo you with his strength, his skill, and his touch. No words are allowed. Here, drink this.”
Alana held up a small cup, which I took from her with my bound hands.
“What is it?” I asked, sniffing it. It smelled like tea.
“An herbal concoction that the healers make.”
I put it to my lips, took a sip, then another. It was sweet, like sugared tea.
“It will guarantee that no child will result from the evening’s activities.”
Oh. My. God. Through all this insanity, I never considered a baby. I wasn’t on the pill or any other kind of birth control. I took a big swig, ensuring the liquid would work. Good. While I wanted kids, I didn’t want to make one tonight. With a stranger. No, even with Kade, I didn’t want to make a baby tonight. I needed to know him first. Not just my wolf, but me.
“You’ll spend the next few hours blindfolded and seduced by one of the hot hunks milling around.”
No big deal at all, right? Blindfolded, bound, mostly naked and then fucked. Yeah. No big deal.
I should have been terrified, but all I could do was wish Kade would hurry.
“Trust me, they can scent your heat, your arousal and they want you.” She glanced around the clearing, her calm assessment of the men present strangely reassuring. She knew these men, had grown up with them. “Kade will come for you, Lily. And he’ll treat you right. If any of these guys didn’t, they’d get taken down by the Accalia.”
“The Accalia?”
Alana smiled and there was mischief in her eyes. “Yes. Every pack has an alpha male that’s in charge. He is responsible for the pack’s protection and for keeping the males in line. But the Accalia is the matriarch. She’s part pack mother, part Supreme Court judge. Her word is law in all internal pack business, family business. She gives a banishment or execution order, and no one blinks.”
Holy shit. Who was my Grandad’s Accalia?
My mother. I knew it with a certainty that made me proud and suddenly years of odd looks and awkward glances at the grocery store made a whole lot more sense. And since my mother’s death? I had no idea. “Shouldn’t the matriarch be the alpha’s mate?”
Alana laughed at that. “Not necessarily. Sometimes the alpha’s mate is too nice. I mean, seriously. Can you imagine yourself giving a kill order? Or banishing someone you’ve known all your life?”
No, I couldn’t. I tended to mend fences and put up with more bullshit than was strictly good for me. Hence a dating history with Robbie that had gone on a lot longer than it should have. “Who’s your Accalia?”
Alana smiled. “My sister, Sonia. She’s only a few years older than me, but she’s mean as hell and doesn’t take any bullshit. I want to be like her when I grow up.” She winked at me and I smiled back. “Don’t worry. She’ll interview you tomorrow, when this is all done, just to make sure you’re okay and to welcome you into the pack. Choose Kade or someone else. It’s up to you. Whoever you choose will treat you right. Trust me, these guys want you. You smell like their favorite treat right now.”
I blushed at that. For wolves, scenting each other was hot. For me, not so much. At least it never had been, but I could still almost taste the scent of Kade’s skin on my tongue. I wanted to taste him for real.
“But how do I know if I really want them? Him. The One.” I licked my lips. “I mean, my ex is stalking me and I was drawn to him. My mate-meter is a little out of whack.”
“Don’t worry,” she soothed. “You’ll know. Your wolf knows.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but there wasn’t anything to be done.
“Yeah, but tied up?” I held my bound wrists up. “Blindfolded? This seems a little much, don’t you think?”
“A wolf mating is intense. You will submit, mind, body and soul to your new mate. Knowing your wrists are bound, that you can’t see, will remind your wolf of this submission. And she won’t surrender to just anyone. Trust me. She’s going to go wild. You’re going to need those.”
Submit to my new mate? Old fashioned, much?
The male murmurs stopped and the clearing became quiet. Alana lifted her chin, took on a serious bearing as she stepped behind me and placed a cool hand on my shoulder. "Kneel, Lily Windbourn, and choose a mate."
Choose a mate?
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Was that a joke? But any humor died on my lips when her hand prompted me to drop to my knees in the soft earth. I took a deep breath, glanced around one more time, looking for a suspiciously absent Kade in the clearing, before the black silk covered my eyes, blinding me to vanity. And everything else.
Alana whispered one last reassurance my ear, "He'll come for you. Don’t worry."
God, I hoped so. This wasn’t how I expected to lose my virginity, but if it had to be this way, in a forest clearing, I wanted it to be with Kade. But where was he?
I will die to protect you, kill to possess you. You’re mine and I’m yours.
His words gave me comfort, but what if he’d changed his mind?
I shuddered and tested the strength of the bonds around my hands. Not unbreakable, not for a werewolf like myself, but the submission they symbolized suddenly chafed. I didn't want any male but Kade touching me and I knew Robert was out there. I’d seen him milling about when I met with the alpha. He’d been like a shadow. Everywhere the women took me for preparation, he followed like a puppy.
But he was no cute, cuddly Labrador pup. He was big and hard and strong, and my wolf’s hackles raised at the thought of him touching me. I didn’t want him. I wanted Kade.
Alana said I had the power to reject any man who wanted to claim me. If someone besides Kade touched me, I could survive the night's seduction by rejecting whichever male was unlucky enough to try.
If they thought I was going to just roll over and spread my legs, they hadn’t met Lily Windbourn.
"Who would claim Lily Windbourn this night? Challengers, step forward." The command boomed through the small clearing and silence descended over the woods. Not even crickets chirped as the pack alpha, Warren, raised his voice to carry over the slight breeze.
Alana gave my shoulder one last squeeze and walked away, leaving me to face my fate and the males eager to tame me. There was movement and my heart pounded as I heard the preliminary sounds of fighting. The sound of fists striking flesh, bone. Grunts of pain, ragged breathing. I was glad I was on my knees, for I was suddenly scared. I couldn’t see, couldn’t defend myself. I cowered, trying to make myself as small as possible. My ears worked just fine as a group of males jostled, growled, and threatened each other. They were all fighting over me?
I wanted to roll my eyes, but the effect would've been completely lost behind the black silk. All I had to do was survive the night and choose Kade as my mate. Would I be allowed to tie him down and claim him? Would Kade allow me to be in control? I knew the Windbourn males were alpha through and through and I sensed it in him as well. But to dominate over a mate? I was eager to find out. If I could get through this ceremony.
The shuffling, growling and posturing noises died down and I held my breath. My heart pounded, my palms were damp.
"Three warriors would make a claim this night. So be it." The alpha's powerful voice quieted the forest again. "Let their names be written in the archive."
Archive? It was almost medieval, this process. So formal. Why didn’t someone just toss me over his shoulder and carry me away? But these weren’t cavemen, they were shifters and it seemed they followed a whole bunch of strange customs to ensure everyone knew who a mate belonged to. Kade promised that if he claimed me tonight, there would be no doubt as to my mate. That even my Grandad would not be able to reach me.
There would be no challenge to a mating. Mates were sacred. Protected by all pack laws. His alpha, Warren, had confirmed it. I just had to trust Kade to come for me
.
I heard the dutiful scratching of a pen, and then a pregnant silence that stressed my nerves to nearly breaking before the alpha spoke again. Three males were willing to fight each other for the right to touch me. Three! Goose bumps broke out over my flesh and I shivered in the cold night air. Anticipation, or dread? I wasn’t sure which.
One could be Kade, but how would I know him from the other two? How did I resist them when my skin ached to be touched, when my core throbbed with need and my entire body would melt in surrender at his first touch? My wolf was awake and prowling, hungry. So hungry, as if she’d been starved for decades and had a feast before her. She wanted to consume and be consumed.
"Wolves, you know the rules. Break them, and you will be executed. Foreign brothers, we will give no quarter to you should you step out of bounds."
My chest squeezed. Foreign brothers? Males from another pack were here, surely he was talking to Robbie. Others, too? Males who were about to touch me...unless. I straightened my shoulders and pictured Kade’s broad chest, perfect jaw and piercing amber eyes. It was his hooded gaze I imagined boring into my soul as the alpha finally addressed me directly.
"Lily Windbourn of the East Springs pack, we honor you this night. Three fine wolves would claim you as mate. They have the right to know if your heart still beats in your chest, or if it travels with another." Truth in all things. That was the pack way. The men had the right to know if the woman they attempted to claim was in love with another man. Didn't mean it would stop them, but they would know what they were up against.
I thought of Kade. I didn’t love him, did I? I hardly knew him. But I ached for him, wanted him to be my mate, to claim me. Did I need him? Crave him? Demand him? Absolutely.
Was that what love was? Did the need to belong to Kade mean I’d given him my heart? I hadn’t even known it had happened, but yes. My heart belonged to him.
I licked my lips. "No heart beats in my chest, alpha. It has been given away."
A murmuring wove over those in attendance. "And is the wolf you would prefer as mate here this night?"
I hung my head, ashamed and embarrassed by the truth. I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t scent him. I couldn’t even feel Kade nearby. "I don’t know."
A low growl sounded from one of the three who stood just a few feet before me. Great. Somebody loved a challenge. Even those who weren’t actually pack alpha behaved like alpha males.
Warren proceeded with the ceremony and addressed the warriors present. "Knowing her heart belongs to another, do you still wish to claim her?"
Could it be that easy? Would they walk away? Leave me to rip off the blindfold, tug off the bindings and go find Kade?
The alpha's sigh dashed that small hope. "So be it. Even with your heart given to another, two warriors remain and they claim the Right of Initiation."
Surely Kade was one of them. He promised he’d be with me, that he would be the one to claim me. He had to be one of them.
“What is the Right of Initiation?” I asked.
More whispers filled the open space. I wasn’t sure if it was because I spoke or because I didn’t know what it was.
“The two males offer initiation to their touch with single a kiss,” the alpha replied.
I raised my head, hope filling me, making me dizzy. One kiss. If I didn't respond to something so trivial, they'd walk away. No suffering through hours of lust and agony, denying the male any true pleasure. One kiss each. I could do that. I had to know Kade from a kiss, right?
But no. He’d never kissed me. And why was that? We’d been alone, touching. He said he wanted me. But why hadn’t he kissed me? I had no idea what he would feel like, taste like…
"Proceed," the alpha instructed.
Chapter Six
Lily
The first male approached and knelt before me. I couldn’t see him, but I felt his presence, heard his breathing. I waited, lips tilted up expectantly. He didn't make me wait long before his hot hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me forward into the kiss. I gasped as his lips met mine. They were firm, hot, and skilled, but they did not make me feel anything, and I did not open my mouth to him. The smell of his skin was familiar, as was the feel of his hands.
Robbie.
The knowledge chilled me and I became stiff as iron in his hold.
Ha! Success. I was not drawn to him, felt no desire, therefore he would not claim me. But where was Kade? He’d promised no other would touch me.
"Enough!" The alpha's voice rang through the clearing and the lips left mine in defeat.
Yes, defeat, for I’d been thinking throughout the kiss. I wanted blind passion, a male that would strip my thoughts as well as my body.
A growl escaped the male above me, dark. Angry. But a different growl, deeper, menacing, followed directly after. I didn’t fear for my safety—there were enough witnesses to keep me safe—I only feared that the sun would rise and I’d be mated to the wrong wolf.
Where was Kade? When Alana put the blindfold on me, he’d been absent from the group of men around me. He’d told me he had to go talk to the alpha before the claiming ceremony, but the alpha was here. Where was Kade?
I wanted to say I was sorry for feeling nothing as I listened to Robbie coming to his feet, but I wasn’t. I didn’t want him kissing me. Especially when I was bound and at his mercy. I would submit, I ached to do so, but not to him. I felt disappointment roll off him in waves, but I didn’t care. He wasn’t the one. He wasn’t mine.
With a taut anger about him, he stepped away when the other male present growled another warning, one who acted like he was already my mate, like he had rights.
The sound, the vibrations of his growl reverberated through me. Sent goosebumps down my arms.
Bodies moved, shifted and I felt the second male’s presence before me. I braced myself for the second kiss, the key to my freedom. If his mouth was upon mine, I would know immediately it was not to be. But it didn't come. One minute stretched into an agony of two, and then three as he knelt before me but did nothing. I would swear I could actually feel his gaze traveling over my skin. And he'd be able to see it all through the teasing robe. My hard nipples, the trimmed dark hair at the apex of my thighs. The garment left nothing to the imagination. Allowed them to be tempted, yet blatantly aware of a female’s offerings. It seemed they always knew exactly what they were trying to claim.
I could hide nothing, not even my heart.
Tension built in the air between us like an electrical storm of lust that bit into my sensitive skin. The male's mating heat soaked into my muscles, tempted me to be soft, to melt into his touch. This male wanted me badly. I'd never felt this heat, but the claimed women I’d met before the ceremony spoke of it fondly. The tingling warmth and the sex. Steaming hot, incredible, blow-your-mind sex.
My nipples refused to listen to my mind and hardened to tight peaks as his heat wrapped around me and invaded all the way to my core.
“Are you going to kiss me?” I asked.
He said nothing.
“Well?” I whimpered, needing to know. What was this I was feeling? Where was it coming from? The male before me or from somewhere—or someone—else?
“Silence!” the Alpha boomed, startling me. I wobbled on my knees and a hand settled on my shoulder, letting me regain my balance. The heat from it searing.
I shrugged off his touch, afraid of it. If it wasn’t Kade, I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to feel anything toward him. Especially the spark that came from his quick assistance.
No. I didn't want this man. “I want you to kiss me,” I whispered, my voice tempered so low I had to hope only the male before me could hear. I didn’t really want the kiss, but I wanted to know. I had to know and the answer was in the kiss.
I ached. Whimpered, disappointment cutting through me. Why wouldn’t he kiss me?
Warm, firm hands slid along my jaw on both sides of my face and I gasped, surprised by the touch, surprised by the heat of it. Cradling my head as ge
ntly as if he held fine china, he held me still for…finally, his kiss.
Where the first man had been firm and skilled, this kiss was a slow tasting that started at the corner of my mouth. Instead of pulling me forward as the first male had done, he held me in place, kept me away from the lure of his heated body. Somehow, knowing it was there, just out of reach made me ache to rub against him, to lift my bound hands and touch, to cling. To never let go.
I whimpered.
The male didn’t care if it was because I was pleased or repulsed. He tilted my head to the side and ran his tongue over my lips, tasting me. Continuing with his onslaught. With a moan, I opened my mouth to him, unable to fight the urge to taste his strength, his desire for me, just a little bit.
Yes, it was the heat taking over, confusing me. I wanted his touch, his lips on me. His heated hands. I wanted more. But was he Kade? How could I not know?
With a growl, he pulled me forward and invaded my mouth with his tongue. All pretense of seduction was gone, the kiss turned into an aggressive assault that demanded submission. And I wanted to give it. I softened then, like wax in the sun.
My body responded by becoming a living flame and I arched against him, burning up inside. And it was just a kiss! My pussy lips throbbed with need to the point of pain and the cold night air wafted over my now wet core with a chilling breeze, alerting me to my utter failure.
I wasn't cold. I wasn't indifferent to this male. One kiss and this stranger had defeated me, owned me, made me long for his touch in a way Kade never had. But then, Kade had never had the chance. There hadn’t been enough time for him to do so.
"Enough." The Alpha's command straightened my spine and I pulled away from the kiss, disgusted with my lack of control. I turned my head away from him as the Alpha continued, "The Right of Initiation has decided the matter. Write this male's name in the Archive, and let us move on to the next claiming."
Wild Wolf Claiming: A Howl's Romance Page 4