Mick moved lower, until his lips brushed against the head of Jonas’s cock. He gripped the werewolf’s hips, holding him still while he looked up at Jonas. She wished she could see his eyes, his face. All she saw was his profile, both their profiles, all hard angles and skin drawn tight and flushed.
She held her breath, silently urging him on as he oh so slowly lowered his mouth. She almost came when the wide head disappeared into Mick’s mouth. He took Jonas deeper, working up and down on his length. Fast, then slow, then fast again. Just when she thought there was no way Jonas could last, Mick reared up, head thrown back. That’s when she noticed that Jonas’s hand was wrapped around Mick’s cock, and it was now shooting jets of cum.
*
Mick couldn’t believe he’d come so damned fast, but it was such a turn-on knowing Harper watched while hiding in the bushes. He could smell her. A sweet mix of woman and an invitation to sin. He and Jonas should have invited her over. Hell, they should have done it days ago. She was theirs, and Jonas’s antagonism, his reluctance, didn’t make much sense to Mick. He’d held off seducing her, claiming her, until his partner was on board. Maybe that time would come tonight.
Before he could bring it up, point her out, Jonas flipped him over and pulled him to his knees. Jonas stroked Mick’s cock, his belly, gathered the cum clinging to his skin, and then rimmed his asshole. He groaned and pushed back when first one finger, then two worked in, spread a bit before working back and forth. Then they were gone, the head of Jonas’s cock was pushing into the tight channel. One slow inch at a time. Jonas leaned over him, chest tight against his back, and nipped his ear. Mick reared back, forcing Jonas to shove the rest of his cock in his ass.
Jonas chuckled. “Enjoying our audience, are you?”
He withdrew almost the entire length of his shaft and then slammed back in. Mick gasped, pushed back for more.
“Should we invite her over?” Mick was almost panting, pain and pleasure mixed. It was so, so good.
“Not yet.” The pace of Jonas’s thrusts sped up. “Let her see what she’s getting into.”
Under other circumstances, Mick would have breathed a sigh of relief. He was tired of not claiming what was his, of not having her in their bed. Then having her every way they could think of.
Jonas fucked him in earnest now. Hard and fast. He bit Mick’s shoulder and let one hip free so he could fist Mick’s cock. He was already hard again, and Jonas pumped his cock in a rhythm that matched the fucking in his ass.
“Look at her,” he whispered against Mick’s neck. “Watch her while I fuck you.” He inhaled deeply. “Smell how much it turns her on.”
Mick turned his head and caught her gaze.
“She’s flushed,” he told Jonas. “Dazed.” His gaze slid down her face to her torso, and his eyes narrowed. She didn’t seem to notice. “And she’s touching herself.”
Jonas shuddered against him. Mick felt and shared his irritation. That was against the rules unless they gave her permission. What kind of punishment would be appropriate? She was fragile, emotionally and physically. It would have to be something light to begin with. Maybe with time, more would be possible. Of course, they hadn’t claimed her yet, so she didn’t know any better. Didn’t know what to expect from two werewolf mates, the demands they would make of her. The pleasure they’d give her.
He lifted his gaze to meet hers again, and this time she noticed. She startled and pulled her hand out of her shirt. Her nipples were hard points against the thin fabric, and he couldn’t wait to suck them into his mouth. Roll his tongue over them. Bite.
Just imagining it was enough to push his mind and body into another orgasm. Jonas’s hand tightened on him, probably trying to hold him back, to draw it out, but it was too late. When he shook with his release, his muscles clamped around Jonas’s cock. The pressure was too much to fight, and with one last slam, Mick felt the orgasm roll through his lover’s body too.
They collapsed to the ground and reluctantly rolled apart. Mick’s sides heaved with exertion, and his body felt heavy and satiated. A few minutes later he glanced back at the bushes. She was gone.
Next to him, Jonas sighed. “Let’s run a bit. Then we’ll go after her.”
That suited Mick fine. In a cruel twist of fate and genetics, Mick only had one night a month to run as a wolf. He was unable to change the rest of the time, unlike Jonas, who could shift whenever he liked.
He rolled to his knees and embraced the change, let the wildness of his wolf side take over. His bones popped and muscles contorted until he stood on four paws. He threw his head back and howled his joy to the moon peeking through the clouds. Then he ran.
Jonas stayed close on his heels, never letting him get far ahead. Sometimes he bumped into him. Sometimes he just leaped at Mick’s back so they rolled through the dirt and brush in a mock fight.
Mick was fast. Tough and agile. But when it came down to it, he was no match for Jonas in a real fight. There were only three people in the pack strong enough to beat Jonas — Caleb, Zach, and Liza — the alpha, beta, and paladin. Liza was the problem, Mick thought, although Jonas didn’t seem as hung up on her in the last year, especially since Harper’s arrival.
Liza’d been the main cause of dissension between them in their long on-again, off-again relationship. Jonas loved her, but she wasn’t his mate. She wasn’t Mick’s mate. Mick had pushed to leave the pack, at least for a little while, and see if they could find their true mate. Jonas, bitter and angry and heartsick, always refused. Mick had suffered knowing he would never be enough, but he also knew Jonas would never be enough for him either. He had always known that they were supposed to be three.
And here she was. Harper. Another witch. Yet Jonas hesitated. It was slowly driving Mick insane, this delay in claiming what was his. He looked at Jonas as they slid to a stop in his backyard and shifted. Jonas went straight for his jeans while Mick drank him in. He wanted to officially claim all that was his.
“Are you going to move back in? Or are you still torturing yourself?”
Mick sighed. This was another point of contention. They hadn’t lived together for months. He never knew where Jonas’s mercurial moods would take them, so it was easier to have his own place to retreat to. Not a good way to have a healthy relationship, but Mick had learned the value of self-preservation.
“Not yet,” he answered softly.
Jonas’s cell phone rang before Mick could continue, and as he watched the color rise on Jonas’s face, Mick knew they wouldn’t be coming back to it anytime soon. After a few seconds he answered with a curt “on my way” and snapped the phone shut. “Grab some jeans from inside. Harper has a visitor at the gate.”
He didn’t need any more invitation. Jonas had made it a point to not find out why Harper had come to them. Mick was not so reserved. He hurried inside, found a pair of jeans he’d left behind, and then had to race to catch up with Jonas.
Harper’s people had come for her, and there was no way in hell Mick was letting her go.
Chapter Five
Damn it. Jonas hated not knowing what he was walking into, and that was his own fucking fault. When Harper had showed up looking for sanctuary, he’d taken one look at her and just known she’d be trouble. Trouble with a capital T. He’d done just enough digging to verify she was who she claimed to be — Liza’s cousin and the only daughter of Benjamin Alexander, the chairman of the Magical Council. Jonas hadn’t bothered to find out more. Those people had nothing to do with him or the pack after all, and okay, fine, he’d been reluctant to get to know her on a personal level. That reticence was coming back to bite him in the ass. Now they had a wizard at the gate demanding access to his daughter.
A grown woman no less. Couldn’t she handle her own damned family? He shook his head as he jogged. He knew the answer to that. He should have done a thorough background check on her, but he’d been pretty sure what he’d find if anyone broke the wall of silence surrounding the magical community. She’d been so scar
ed, so cowed when she’d shown up. A woman didn’t get that way all on her own. There were men in her life who were more abusive than protective. It made his hackles rise. You didn’t treat the people you loved like that.
Okay, okay, he sometimes didn’t treat Mick as well as he should. But Mick could handle him, teeth and snarls and all. Harper? Harper couldn’t handle a spider. It was starting to make Mick a little crazy not claiming her, but Jonas didn’t trust himself. Didn’t trust himself with such a delicate woman. She would be too easy to hurt, and as much he wanted her, he wouldn’t endanger her. Not for his own satisfaction, not even for Mick’s, and he’d do damned near anything to make Mick happy.
Which was a problem in the making. Mick didn’t have the same hang-ups. They didn’t have to worry about hurting each other, and Mick knew he’d never hurt his mate. So far he’d followed Jonas’s lead, but though Jonas was stronger, Mick was definitely not a submissive male. Eventually he would claim Harper, and when he did Jonas wouldn’t be able to keep fighting his instincts to do the same. Borrowed time. He was on borrowed time, and it made him cranky. He hated not being in control.
He arrived at the gate to see a small crowd gathered. Mick was right behind him. Harper stood, more like cowered really, between Liza and Liza’s mother, Elspeth. An older, distinguished-looking gentleman stood just outside the gate. A few other wizards surrounded him. Jonas paused in his sweep of the crowd. One looked very much like Harper. A younger brother maybe? His anger seemed focused on Alexander.
“I want my daughter back.”
Liza shrugged. “You can’t have her. She came to us for sanctuary. Those are rules that cannot be broken, even between our races.”
“She came in a fit of pique.”
He took an aggressive step forward but stopped just shy of crossing onto their land. Given his position in the wizard pecking order, Jonas bet he’d never been denied anything. How had Harper found the backbone to take off? More importantly, what had made her do it? Her father’s gaze seemed to make Harper shrink even more into herself. That just pissed Jonas off, and he had to put a restraining hand on Mick’s arm. His questions would have to wait for later. Right now he just wanted this asshole gone, preferably to some dark, inescapable dungeon where he could never hurt Harper again.
“Whatever her reason,” Jonas said, stepping forward, “she’s here now, and here she will stay.”
Her father barely bothered to grace Jonas with a contemptuous glance. He held his hand out to Harper. “Come now, child. Enough pouting. Your wedding date draws near.”
She jerked as if slapped, but still didn’t utter a word, and Jonas felt his rage rising even higher still. Liza stepped back as Jonas moved to take her place, closing his hand around Harper’s elbow.
“That is impossible. She already has a mate.”
Her father’s eyes held nothing but disdain. “A werewolf? I will never allow that.”
Jonas handed her behind him to Mick and focused on the threat before him. He let his wolf rise to the surface. He knew his grin was feral, and he didn’t care.
“She’s a grown woman and a woman claimed. You know you can’t interfere with that.” But he could see from the other man’s face he wanted to. Jonas spread his arms. “Try to take her from me, Wizard. You won’t survive the night.”
The wizard’s eyes narrowed, and Jonas felt power rising, sharp and fast, in the air. But Redhawke had their own witches. Liza and Elspeth stepped forward, and in a move that stunned him, so did Harper, linking her hands with theirs. Maybe she had more strength than he’d realized. More than she’d realized. Then in the real stunner of the night, the young man who looked so much like her stepped forward and joined his power with the three women’s.
“I believe you’re not welcome here, Father,” the young man said, satisfaction oozing from his voice.
“No, you aren’t,” Harper echoed.
He gave both of them a look full of malice and hate before spinning on his heel and returning to the black SUV he’d arrived in. Harper held herself ramrod stiff until her father and his retinue disappeared down the road; then all the fight seemed to rush out of her. Instead of turning to him or Mick, she rushed to her brother, whose arms wrapped around her so tightly Jonas wondered if he’d need a crowbar to get her free. It was the second unexpected moment of jealousy he’d experienced in the last few days, and he struggled against the urge to snatch her away from a moment she obviously needed with her sibling.
The other werewolves drifted away until it was only him, Mick, Caleb, and Zach left. Even Liza left after a low, heated conversation with her mates, Zach and Caleb. Elspeth went with her. Mick fidgeted, shifting from foot to foot, his aggression level rising until Jonas sighed. He would have to interfere. But before he’d fully decided to, Harper stepped away from her brother.
She looked over her shoulder and was clearly surprised to find four men behind her and no sign of her cousin. Unease and fear crossed her face, two emotions he was growing accustomed to seeing from her, and that irritated the hell out of Jonas. She should know by now he’d never touch her, much less hurt her.
Her brother stepped forward and held his hand out. Jonas took it with a touch of hesitation. Not because the kid was a wizard, but because he was family who mattered to Harper, and Jonas had no way of knowing yet if he could be trusted, if his presence was part of a plan to steal Harper back. “I’m Dane. Harper’s brother.”
“Nice to meet you.” He gave the polite answer. Dane’s grip was firm, dry, and brief. He showed no signs of nervousness. Jonas didn’t scent any deceit, but he couldn’t let his guard down yet.
Dane grinned. “Under these circumstances? Not really.” He switched his grin and his handshake to Mick. “I can trust you to take care of her?” he asked softly, getting serious.
Jonas looked over to where she stood a few feet away. Head down, arms crossed over her stomach, she looked so dejected. It hurt his heart to see her that way. He’d gotten used to sparks of temper, to wary interest.
“You can,” he answered just as softly, mostly convinced by Dane’s voice and expression he meant his sister no harm.
Dane nodded. “Good.” Then he walked over to her and took her shoulders in his hands until she looked up with a shaky smile. “I have to go.”
“No!”
She looked at Caleb and Zach and then at Jonas when they didn’t say a word. Perhaps he should have interfered, but he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of her brother hanging around over the next few weeks. Later, when he and Mick and Harper were sure of each other, maybe.
Dane gave her a shake that made Mick step forward aggressively. “You belong here, Harper. I have a different destiny.”
He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket.
“Here. Father can’t track this phone. My number is programmed in.”
She put the slim phone in her back pocket. He kissed her forehead and hurried through the gate to the final vehicle left behind by the other wizards. Waving one last time, he was gone.
Harper turned and gave Jonas a look full of accusation, but she hurried off without saying a word. Caleb and Zach blocked him before he could follow her. His sigh was heavy with exasperation.
“What?”
“She’s important to Liza,” Caleb said.
“I know that.” He didn’t hide his irritation. Did they think he was a blind idiot?
Caleb shrugged. “We just don’t want to see her hurt.”
He turned narrowed, angry eyes on his alpha. “I don’t tell you how to take care of your mate.”
Caleb showed almost no reaction to his aggression. “She’s unclaimed. That’s a hurt of its own.”
Jonas fisted his hands. Like he didn’t fucking know that? Every day the separation was more painful. If he left the pack, it might become bearable, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave.
“I can take care of my own,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
After several long seconds, Zach nodded. “See t
hat you do.”
Then both alpha and beta turned and melted into the growing darkness. Mick’s gaze was just as hard and unforgiving when Jonas turned to face him.
“Come on,” Jonas said, resigned to the inevitable. “Let’s go deal with our mate.”
Chapter Six
Harper ran, cutting off the well-worn path to save time through the woods. Unfortunately, it was dark, and she missed the brambles until she was thigh high in them. They tore at her jeans as she pushed through, cutting into her skin. It stung, but finally she was free, and she saw her back-porch light.
She went straight through the house to her bathroom, where she shimmied out of her pants and looked at her legs, fighting back a sob. Bad enough to have faced her father, bad enough to have lost her brother again. For some reason the blood streaking her calves and thighs made her want to bawl. She blamed it on the delayed effects of adrenaline. Her hands were shaking, her heart racing. At least her body and mind had waited to freak out until after the confrontation with her father.
After several deep breaths and feeling a little more in control, she turned the shower on and stepped in, ignoring the knock on her front door. It was probably Jonas checking up on her, even though he hated the job. Or maybe Mick, who would look at her with desire and compassion but not make a move to comfort her.
Under the scalding water, she washed and conditioned her hair fast, then used the cloth and soap to gently clean her legs. She’d dab on some antibiotic cream when she got out. She’d seen some in the kitchen cabinet where Liza apparently kept all her first-aid supplies. Harper supposed it was the sensible place to store them if you were often giving aid to others. From what she’d seen, Liza wasn’t the one likely to need assistance after a fight or injury. Harper had never seen her fight, hoped she never would, but she’d heard the stories, and there was no denying the strength Liza radiated.
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