When a Pack Dies

by Gwen Campbell

  She trembled once. She couldn’t help it. Then she made herself stop, took a breath and turned on the bed so that her back was to Nathaniel. Moving slow because she figured it was seductive, Fina bent forward. When her palms touched the mattress, she looked back over her shoulder, mimicking a come-here-big-boy look she’d seen in a movie.

  Nath must have liked what he was seeing because he snarled with approval and gripped his cock harder. She spread her knees a little, then a little more and dropped her chest to the bed.

  “Yeah. Perfect. Just like that,” he growled, his voice dark and aroused.

  Warm puffs of air moved over her exposed cleft as Nath breathed her in. He inhaled, snorted, rustling the hairs on her mound, then inhaled again—slow, deep and for so long Fina glanced back at him worriedly.

  He held onto her hips, straightened and let his head fall to the side. He looked drugged, sated, glutted yet ravenous all at the same time. Nath’s lips pulled back from his teeth and he grinned ferally as his head lolled and his fingers dug into her soft flesh. Thick waves of damp, dark brown hair brushed his shoulders to hang down his back. His cock got longer, thicker and began to rise until the heavy, purplish head curled back into his belly and twitched.

  Fina’s mouth formed a perfect “O” as she watched.

  His body was breathtaking. Muscles in his shoulders and forearms strained as he gripped her hips. Bulging with strength, his neck moved slowly from side to side. His belly was hard, undulating and his hips moved to some enticing rhythm only he could hear.

  When he finally lifted his head, his eyes were glazed and he licked his lips. Bending forward again, Nath passed his nose over her backside. It tickled the soft curls framing her slit. Sharp huffs of air made her anus clench, the mouth of her sheath grow wet and the hood covering her clit slip back and forth as her inner muscles flexed.

  “Your pussy wants me.” Nath’s growl was confident and aroused. “Your muscles are twitching...seducing.” He inhaled again and exhaled deliberately, letting his breath stir her hair and blow across her wetness. “There. Such a pretty dance,” he murmured.

  Fina wasn’t sure he was aware of what he was saying. The roughness in his voice and the pull of the muscles in his face told her he was more wolf than man at that moment.

  “Your body’s a tease.” His words washed over her, making her tremble. “It’s showing me how you’d grip me, how you’d milk me.” His tongue traced the curve of her nether lips, first one side then the other. Sweat broke out on Fina’s back. “How it’d fist me, tight, wet, hot and so, so delicious.” His tongue snaked over her again. This time she gasped and her back arched.

  “Hmm. That’s it, pretty little bitch. Let your body show me how much you want me. How you’d lift yourself to me, offer yourself, find ecstasy impaled on my prick.”

  She bucked when his tongue circled her clit, trailed through her cream then moved back to her button...a button that he sure was good at pushing. Gasping, arching her back, Fina groaned when Nath nuzzled her pussy and began to tongue her. Her position exposed her clit fully and it felt swollen, prominent. Up and down, seducing slowly, he licked until she trembled. Then side to side, a quick flick but a gentle one, the tip of his tongue grazing her. His grip tightened and he pulled her hips back into him, spreading her even more. Nath seemed to be experimenting. Fina didn’t mind. Up, down, back and forth. Hard. Gentle. Slow and long.

  His thumbs rubbed her outer lips then hooked gently, pulling back the soft folds...her body’s final defense. With a gasp, Fina felt her slit open. Cool air touched her wetness then more seeped out of her. When he lapped it up, Nath growled contentedly.

  After that he returned to her clit, rubbed the rough surface of his tongue over the exposed nub, flicked it after each upstroke. Squirming, Fina ground her breasts into the bed, fisted the linens, panted. After a time she closed her eyes, arched back into his mouth and let the pleasure build.

  Nath was tireless, practically ruthless as he aroused her. Now and then he’d drift back, lap up her juices and swallow them with audible satisfaction. Then he’d return to her clit and lick it even faster.

  Her heart beating wildly, Fina felt the first tightening in her womb. Her sheath clenched, making her button twitch, adding to the building sensations. Behind her, Nath growled and flicked his tongue hard against her. His fingers gripped her with punishing strength as his thumbs tugged her delicate tissues.

  Pleasure fisted her belly hard now. She felt wet, swollen, a wholly erotic being as she squirmed back at him, wanting more, needing more. Nath’s strength didn’t falter as he met her body’s demands. Now his whole head and neck moved, adding strength and range to his brutal caresses.

  Crying out, bowing her back and lifting her ass as high as it would go, Fina felt the trembling in her thighs a second before her orgasm tore through her. Waves of ecstasy radiated from her sex, tightening then spiraling. Overwhelmed, Fina cried out again, pleaded, spouted nonsense words for him to stop, to never stop. In a frenzy, his tongue rasped over her until the exquisite pulses faded and her battered clit became hyper-sensitive. She tried to squirm away but Nath held on tight. He gentled his touch, licking her slowly, tenderly now while she groaned.

  When her breathing evened out, Nath kissed her—a slow, wet, open-mouthed kiss that covered her clit and vulva—then straightened slowly. She squirmed again, this time when she felt the warm, spongy head of his cock slide through her cream. Needing him inside her, she shifted her hips every time he passed the mouth of her core.

  Nath wouldn’t be rushed. His mate’s cream was smeared over his chin. His nostrils were full of her scent. On her knees in front of him, she showed him her sex. Her tissues were gorged with blood following her release, sensitive, ruby red and glistening with moisture. Her hips swayed enticingly, balanced below that narrow, taut waist of hers. Only one thing was missing. High on Fina’s right shoulder was a mark. It was shiny, pink and formed the faint outline of two crescent bite marks. Leaning over her, sliding his hands up her body until his elbows were supporting his weight and he was gripping her arms, Nath scraped his teeth over her back, high up, above her left shoulder blade.

  “I claim you as my mate, Fina,” he growled and pressed his teeth into her skin, hard enough to sting but not tear, then paused, giving her the chance to refuse him.

  His heart thudding in his chest, Nath breathed in the scent of his woman and waited.

  “Claim me,” Fina breathed and screamed when Nath’s teeth tore into her back. Bucking, trembling, she surrendered to his far greater strength then howled with him when he drove his cock into her. He filled her, stretched her and buried himself deep and hard while the flesh on Fina’s shoulder burned and stung from the saliva dripping into her open wound.

  She shuddered when he pulled his teeth out of the punctures. Turning her head to the side, she watched him lick his lips, swallow, then look down at her with a humbling combination of lust, satisfaction and pride. She couldn’t see him after he dipped his head to lick her wounds so she rested her forehead on the bed and wondered what on earth she’d just done.

  In the span of a few days, she’d pledged herself, bonded her body to two men. She didn’t know if she loved them, didn’t know if she could love. Didn’t know if she’d stay. She was a cheat, a liar and a fraud. Bonded females stayed put. That was one of the cornerstones of their existence, a biological imperative. She had become an aberration and she hid her face in the bed linens.

  When he’d cleaned the wounds on Fina’s back, sealing the evidence of his mark inside her body, Nath straightened. His hips began to rock gently, fucking her in a slow, easy rhythm. One hand held her thigh and the other curled around her waist, slid over her belly and pressed between her legs. With a slow, circular motion of his index finger, he began rubbing her clit.

  She might be a cheat but she couldn’t help her response to Nath’s tender loving. Letting the pleasure overshadow her guilt, Fina rolled back into him. The pressure on her leg kept her mo
vements small, kept the pace gentle, let it build gradually. His light touch taught her that not rushing was far more exquisite than sprinting toward release.

  After a time, Nath pressed into her as deep as he could and held himself still. His finger still moved over her clit and he used his other hand to brush her long, auburn hair aside so he could look at her. The delicate muscles on Fina’s back trembled. Against her pale skin his raw mating mark stood out starkly even though it had already closed. There was nothing frail about his Fina yet there was a vulnerability in her smallness, the sway of her slender hips against his muscled loins. Smiling, Nath imagined them a few years from now, him taking her gently from behind like this, her body swollen and lush with his unborn cub. Cubs maybe. He liked kids, always had and hoped for a big litter someday. Heaven knew he’d enjoy making them with her.

  Fina’s sheath was so wet and hot he didn’t mind how tight she was. He wouldn’t mind taking her hard and fast, once they were both worked up for it but wasn’t sure he should. Her hips and thighs weren’t the only things small on her. But he was confident that given time and a few more years to grow fully, Fina’s body would bring him nothing but pleasure. In return, he was eagerly prepared to pleasure her...starting now.

  “Can you lie on your back?” he asked quietly and rubbed his dark, rough hand over her spine. “How much does your shoulder hurt?”

  Fina shifted her arm experimentally. “Not too much.” She glanced back at him. “You bit me pretty high up.”

  With a soft growl, Nath slid his cock out of her, kissed the back of her neck then backed away, giving her room to roll over. His lust rising, he watched her body shift and turn. He stroked her calf, her thigh, trailed his fingers over her hip then threaded his fingers through her damp thatch. Fina lay back, putting more weight on her left side and stroked her breasts. Flashing her a naughty grin as he watched, he caressed her abdomen then lay on her carefully. When he took hold of his cock, teased the mouth of her channel with it then pressed into her, Fina let go of her breasts to grab his ass.

  Nath snarled his approval. Very few women had ever shown him any sexual aggression. Okay two and even that might be stretching it. He snarled again and smiled when Fina flexed her fingers, squeezed his ass hard then trailed her fingernails lightly over his skin. He shivered and his smile widened. If he counted up the hours he’d spent with other lovers, teaching them how he liked to be touched, what he wanted, how to love him he’d weep with frustration because practically none of them could bring themselves to follow through. He wasn’t intimidating like Cutler. He was the nice guy yet the women he’d had sex with had simply been unable to do anything but roll over and submit to him. The two that hadn’t, well, they’d left him with a bad taste in his mouth when he figured out they’d used him to make his brother jealous.

  He eased one of Fina’s legs up, straight over his shoulder and began thrusting slow and deep. Her hands on his butt felt good...really good. She pulled him into her, squeezed him just hard enough to make him need to take her faster. When her tongue swept his lips he kissed her hard and thoroughly.

  “Fina,” he gasped when he broke the kiss off to draw air into his burning lungs. “Damn but you make me crazy.” He brushed her wild curls off her forehead, framed her face in his hand and stared down at her. Sinking harder into her clinging heat, he heard her gasp, saw her lids get heavy and felt her hands slide over the sweat gathering on his body. Her sheath held him like the sweetest vice, every second inside her was paradise and he trembled when his balls bounced off her soft ass. She smelled so good and felt so warm and small beneath him. His cock got even harder when he breathed her in.

  Straightening, taking his weight on his elbows and lifting himself off the delightful, rubbing cushion of her breasts, Nath let his chest hover over her mouth.

  “Mark me, Fina,” he said in a voice that was as compelling as it was gentle.

  She shook her head then blushed like she hadn’t meant to do that. “It’s my choice,” she gasped. “Who I mate with. When...” Her voice trailed off and she moaned when Nath sped up his strokes, rotating his hips so he ground against her clit at the end of each one.

  “You made that choice in the shower, Fina,” he reminded her harshly. “You promised yourself to me. Don’t make me ask a second time for what’s mine.”

  Blinking, Fina raised her eyes to his. Her mouth thinned then it relaxed. This time she nodded, anchored her hands around his shoulders and pulled him down to her. “You are my mate then,” she whispered and her words stirred the fine whorls of hair on his chest, warmed the skin beneath. She nudged him with her nose and breathed on him again. “You’re my choice.”

  Nath took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for the pain then made a sound that was more bellow than howl when she bit him. Flinging his head wildly, he gnashed his teeth and howled again. It hurt, a lot but the pain quickly morphed into a deep, overwhelming, dark pleasure. He drove his cock into her hard and fast. His belly punched into hers, his thigh slid against her sweat-moistened one. Cream spilled out of her, wet her ass and his balls, making him snarl and howl again.

  Her saliva stung and he felt it deep inside him now. The pain made his teeth ache and he ground them together in a futile attempt to make it stop. Still his hips pumped in a furious, determined rhythm.

  Like the pain and pleasure warring and morphing inside him, the man and the wolf each reveled and fucked. Nath and his wolf had never shared full consciousness before, never equally shared physical sensation. One always ceded control to the other. For the first time, they were wholly one. The being driving into its mate was instinctual and sentient. All his senses were heightened beyond human ranges but despite the exquisite sensory overload, Nath retained the presence of mind to slide his forearm under Fina’s neck and lift just enough to keep her fresh bite mark from rubbing against the linens.

  He also kept her teeth imbedded in his skin. Snarling, panting with pain he wept at the glorious pleasure of it. His mate, his perfect Fina was his. And he was hers. Her leg pressed back into her breast, making it flatten and swell. The other rocked against his ribs, soft, hot and enticing. Her hands were still on his arms, holding him tight, keeping him close. Blood smeared her lips and the wolf inside her growled in warning and triumph as it tasted him.

  Nath wanted to rub her clit, drive her to the same climax that was making the base of his spine, the base of his balls tingle. He didn’t need to. Her tight, wet channel rippled along his length, making him tremble all over. His next stroke came hard and fast and she rippled around him again. Lifting his eyes, clenching his teeth against the pain tearing into his pectoral, Nath roared, tipped his hips so the head of his shaft rubbed the front wall of her pussy and watched her cheeks, throat and chest bloom with color. Beneath him, Fina twisted, bit hard enough to freshen the tears in his eyes then screamed savagely. Ripping her teeth out of his flesh, she started to shake. Her sheath bore down on him so tight it hurt. Grip. Release.

  Moaning, trembling, weak with pain yet shored by his wolf’s stores of animal energy, Nath drove into her one last time, held himself taut, strained for the mouth of her womb and let his seed surge up from his balls and pump into her convulsing body. With each surge, his hips rocked forward and he humped her with short, digging strokes. Finally his ecstasy began to fade and the sensations were too much. Exhausted and hurting, he slid his cock out of her wetness, managed to hold his weight up on his shaking arms a second longer then dropped down on his back beside her.

  He was still panting when a breast nudged his ribs. Pain made his wolf snarl a warning. Fina moved closer to him despite that. Sliding up and over him gingerly, she flicked her hair to the side and gently licked the four long tears at the very top of his pectoral muscle. She lapped up the last drops of blood that oozed out of his wounds as they were sealed by the healing properties of her saliva. When the pain faded, Nath took a deep breath and willed his body to relax. He stroked her hair, her face, her back—carefully avoiding the fr
esh bite on her shoulder.

  When he was clean, when all traces of blood on his skin and around her mouth were gone, she lay her head on the right side of his chest and pressed her lips to him.

  “That was...brutal.” Fina shuddered, obviously troubled by how violently she’d torn into him. Maybe even appalled. “I shouldn’t have let myself lose control like that.”

  The pressure of his finger on her chin tipped her head up to his. “I was on top, remember? I held you down, made you keep biting. Maybe not one of my more intelligent choices but my wolf sure loved it to hell and back.” He eased an arm around her and kissed her forehead. “So did I. There’ll never be any doubt in my mind who I belong to, Fina Whitesage. Or who belongs to me.”

  Chapter Eight

  Cutler’s last call of the day was a brawl at the high school just beyond his pack’s land although still inside his county. The kids might be human but they backed down pretty fast when he waded in, growling and snarling warnings about what would happened to them if they didn’t stop. Now.

  After he confiscated a few cell phones and watched how the fight started—he sure didn’t miss the old days when he had to interview everybody and try to figure out who was the biggest liar—he hauled four skinny, fifteen-year-olds down to the station. He wasn’t going to charge them, he was planning on having a chat with their parents. Cutler made it clear he expected to see fireworks when they came in to claim their kids. No fireworks and he would press charges. None of the parents let him down.

  When he pulled his marked SUV in front of the house, he spotted Nath’s hybrid in the drive. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. He’d known Nath would be coming back from a five-day trek today. He’d known Fina had planned on dropping Ryan off for a sleepover at Trudy’s. He’d been confident he could handle sharing his mate with his brother, choosing to let his love for Nath override his wolf’s instinctive need for control.