Pack and Coven

by Jody Wallace

  Now she had…Harry.

  “Are you suggesting she wants something else from you?” she asked sharply.

  “I don’t know. I don’t care.” He reached over and unplugged the phone base. “No more phone calls.”

  No more women, she almost retorted but instead stared at his hairy chest. “What if there’s an emergency? You don’t have to unplug it.”

  He captured her hand and twined their fingers together. “We’ve had enough emergencies for the day.”

  “I agree.” But not enough of…other things. His forearm brushed her nipples. “I can’t wait until this is over and things get back to normal.”

  Harry drew their clasped hands down until he reached their hips. He began rubbing his knuckles, and hers, on her skin, brushing her stomach, the crinkly hair at the apex of her thighs. “There’s no normal for us, June. If Bianca instates Gavin, I’ll have to relocate. My guess is she has to pick someone as soon as tonight or her pack bond will dissolve.”

  “I know.” She didn’t know—didn’t want to know. Her stomach knotted like their hands.

  “Your whole coven may want to relocate.” Harry gave a soft laugh. “Do you think they’d want a wolf for a mascot?”

  “Harry.” She cupped his face with her free hand. “I don’t want to talk about tomorrow.”

  “Me neither,” he said. “Right, then. Where are your condoms?”

  Despite the fact they were naked, their hands clasped, their lips inches apart, she had trouble comprehending his abrupt change of topic. “What?”

  He nipped her shoulder. “I’m not finished with you.”

  Her breathing quickened. “You don’t have to finish me.” Although, if he really wanted to, the bed was a lot more comfortable than the kitchen table.

  “How about I finish us both?” He took a nipple in his mouth, licking gently. He switched to the other side. Then back. His tongue sampled her skin as if testing wine, swilling it in his mouth, waiting for the full flavor to hit.

  June rubbed her feet against the sheets. She wished he’d be a little rougher. The sweet lick of his tongue was delicious. Hypnotic. But she wanted more. She arched her back, encouraging him.

  Harry blew across her moist nipples. He barely touched one with the tip of his tongue. She threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled. So he sucked harder, and harder, until she reached a nearly unbearable pleasure/pain threshold and wrenched his head away.

  He released her with a sly smile, his penis hard against her thigh. “Where are they?”

  “I’ll get them.” Her condoms were in the closet, packed away with other things she rarely used. Like her bikini. And her gym membership card. She kicked a plastic tub into place to use as a stepstool and yanked down a purple hatbox.

  Sheets and pillowcases cascaded around her. She fumbled with the lid; the box slipped to the floor and spilled. Bathing suit, cards, sunglasses, gloves, Mardi Gras beads and condoms tumbled across the carpet.

  “In a hurry?” Harry lounged on the bed and watched her.

  “Hush.” She spotted the condoms under her dust ruffle. “I hope these aren’t too old.” She tossed him the small, silver packages. “You read the date. I can’t bear to look.”

  He shook out a packet and peered at it. “We’ve got two more months.”

  She hopped onto the bed and lay down. “Aren’t you going to put it on?”

  “It’s not time yet.” Harry traced a finger down to her mons. “I have plans for this body.”

  “I have plans too.” Her fingers curled into the sheets like claws. And when he loomed over her and lifted her chin for his kiss, the fierceness inside her, her wolf, said Not this time.

  With a strength she hadn’t even known she possessed, June surged up, flipping Harry over. He tumbled onto his back with a look of shock on his handsome face.

  It turned quickly to anticipation.

  June’s wolf sizzled through her, and she knew it for what it was. She climbed onto him. Pressed his shoulders to the bed. “You’re awfully bossy.”

  “So are you.” He reached between her legs, finding her heat. “And you’re wet.”

  She considered the man spread on the bed beneath her. His hair dampened the sheet, and his brown eyes regarded her with curiosity and passion. What would he do if she wanted to take control, really take control, in the bedroom? Visions of bound arms and hot wax danced in her head. Her mouth on him. Her body over him.

  Taunting him. Teasing him. Ruling him.

  What would it feel like to be begged for release…instead of begging for it?

  “What are you thinking?” he asked. “Are you thinking how I’m going to lick your—”

  She shushed him. “No talking. Put your fingers inside me,” she ordered. “Two of them.”

  Harry wasn’t pack, but he was alpha. She’d always known that—and always known it wasn’t his defining characteristic. She felt him balk before a slow, easy smile crossed his face. “Yes, ma’am.”

  He slipped his fingers deep into her until their base pressed her privates. She tightened herself, testing her power. When he adjusted his hand, it jolted her with gratifying pleasure.

  “That the right spot?” he asked.

  “I said no talking. Take them almost all the way out.”

  He did, drawing her cream across her until she was slick. One fingertip remained inside. She clutched his shoulders, their gazes locked.

  “Now put them…”

  He thrust his fingers into her, bumping against her swollen nub. She spread her legs wider, sinking, until she could feel the brush of his penis between the cheeks of her bottom. Without permission he grasped her hip with his other hand.

  June bent and kissed his neck and chest, avoiding his mouth. She licked his nipple, circling her tongue around the point. He tasted slightly of soap, slightly of male. Rising, she tried to ignore the fact he’d started wiggling his fingers.

  But she couldn’t. It made her hot.

  “I want…” She paused, thinking. “Hold your hand still.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Don’t question me,” she ordered. But then their gazes met again and she could tell he was trying not to smile, which made her almost smile.

  So she bent her head and concentrated on his body. She raised her hips, and as she’d asked—commanded—his hand remained stationary. His fingers slipped out, and she sank onto them, squeezing tight. Small sounds and a salty-sweet smell accompanied her movements. She rode his hand, and his penis bobbed against her.

  This was good. Dominant. He would do as she wished. Releasing his shoulders, she straightened, and his gaze lit on her breasts.

  She cupped them, watching him. Rubbed her own nipples. It wasn’t as seductive as his touch, but she liked his reaction. His penis twitched against her backside.

  Harry licked his lips. She rubbed his muscular chest. “Now I want…” But she couldn’t decide.

  He smirked and began to move his hand, her juices oiling her flesh. His palm worked her, his fingers inside. Delicious sensations began to tweak her center. She reached behind her and captured his penis.

  Slowly she rose, and his penis slid until the head was nestled near her entrance. She pressed it against her. He continued to massage her and something inside her pulsed. Needed.

  “Take your hand out of me and touch yourself.”

  He did, and his dripping fingers stroked himself all the way to the end. He hmm’d deep in his chest. She supposed that didn’t count as talking. He maneuvered the tip through her folds and began to ply her with it even though she hadn’t told him to. His other hand parted her rear, squeezing and releasing. Jiggling the flesh. He worked his fingers into…

  She needed. Needed more.

  The silver condom packet lay by his head. She ripped it open and smoothed it over him, her hands trembling. She poised above him, her insides aching to be joined.

  She meant to be slow about it and savor every second, but as soon as the tip slid inside her, h
e yanked her down. Her inner flesh stretched and burned.

  “Harry,” she chided, yet secretly thrilled. “I didn’t tell you to.”

  He caressed her legs as she seated herself. “I slipped. Won’t happen again.”

  She wriggled, adjusting. She’d liked being on top. Harry as the man beneath her only made it better. His organ was sizeable but not painful; his body hairy but not coarse. His long fingers stroked her skin.

  Her hands on the mattress, she began to slide up and down, rolling her pelvis. He glided in and out. Up and down. His fingers dug into her, snaking around to her bottom. His eyelids half-closed as his gaze shifted from her face to their intimate joining.

  She changed position slightly so she could touch herself. Harry’s eyebrows arched. So much moisture drenched her folds that her fingers grew slippery. She plucked herself and watched his face.

  His organ swelled. He smoothed his hands to her breasts, pinching the tips.

  She allowed it for a moment before she grabbed his wrists. “I didn’t tell you to.” She let her newly discovered alpha side flare. “Put your hands behind your head.”

  This time when Harry balked she didn’t think he was going to do it.

  She pushed. He caved. He locked his fingers behind his head and smiled up at her, daring her to try anything else. Promising that this was as far as he’d let her go.

  She wasn’t sure if she’d swayed him or if he’d just decided to cooperate, but either way, triumph spiraled through her like a small climax.

  She shoved herself down on him, rubbed her clit fast, and it was a small climax. She trembled, tight and eager, and couldn’t hide a sigh. He inhaled deeply, his eyes narrowing.

  “Having fun?”

  “No talking.” She placed the finger she’d used to give herself the orgasm over his lips. “You’re not in charge here.”

  He sucked her finger into his mouth. Without permission. Exactly as she’d hoped he would. Her insides clenched with desire, and she knew he felt it.

  “You’re forgetting something.” His eyes gleamed. “My alpha’s bigger than your alpha.”

  “This again?” June dragged herself off him and tugged her arm, but his grip was like a velvet band. Delicious excitement flickered through her. “Is that a threat?”

  “It’s a statement of fact. Like this one.” Harry stretched lazily, even though she could sense the wolf in him poised to strike. “In the next twenty minutes, I’m going to make you scream.”

  She yanked at her wrist, her heartbeat accelerating. “I’m not a screamer.”

  Without warning, he flipped her onto her stomach and himself onto her. His shaft prodded her rear. “You will be.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The shifters who broke down the back door were much more stealthy than the first ones. Harry didn’t notice them until it was almost too late.

  A shadow darkened the round window over the sink three seconds before the back door rattled in its frame. Harry grabbed June, who was eating scones at the kitchen table, and raced her bodily to the trapdoor.

  In the other room he heard the door smash open and Gavin’s voice barking orders.

  “Down.” Harry and June had propped open the floorboard earlier and stored their overnight bags on a shelf. June swung herself into the cellar, missed the second rung and fell the rest of the way. She cried out as she landed.

  No time to worry about that. Why was Gavin here? Were the shifters with him Millington wolves or Roanokers who’d do whatever Gavin wanted?

  Probably the latter. Roanoke’s press gang had a lot of practice digging out wolves who didn’t want to be found.

  Harry’s gaze locked with Gavin’s right before he leaped into the cellar, flipping the door as he jumped. A loud boom echoed through the basement, either from the trapdoor crashing or Gavin trying to catch it. Harry fumbled the latch in place. Wouldn’t hold long, but seconds counted.

  June limped into the safe room, seizing an orange box off the closest shelf. He grabbed the overnight bags and followed. The thick door had two deadbolts, which he slid home, as well.

  “Can they get in?” No way would Gavin miss the safe room when he knew his prey was in the cellar. He’d tear down the shelves, the walls, everything to find what he sought.

  Which had to be Harry. No shifter was crazy enough to display this much firepower over a woman. He’d bet anything Gavin was hoping to eliminate him to get his hands on Bianca’s pack.

  “We’ll be okay,” June said. “The concealment spell is reinforced in the safe room. A protection spell inside a protection spell. He’ll think we got away.”

  She hobbled to the center of the room. The fetid odor of muck emanated from the dirty rags in the corner.

  “Even if he finds the door?”

  She kicked aside a dirty rag and kneeled, grimacing when she twisted her ankle. Her blue sleep shirt hiked up her thighs. “Maybe he’ll assume we made it out of the house and split his forces.”

  It wouldn’t help. Half of the intruders would be more than enough to take them. In the cellar, wood splintered as the shifters burst through the trapdoor.

  “Down the chute?” Harry asked. Their talc spells were gone, so he would be easy to find. Maybe June too. She hadn’t thought they needed them inside the house, and she’d wanted to save her power for something stronger. Once outside the house, they’d be sitting ducks.

  If Gavin didn’t catch them, Bianca would. Right now he’d pick Bianca. He concentrated on the voices in the cellar.

  “I know that mongrel’s in here somewhere. I can sense him,” Gavin said, followed by crashes and rips.

  “I don’t understand.” June rifled through her carton of herbs and roots. “The spell worked. I felt the magic leave me. How can he detect you in here?”

  “No idea.” Harry had been wrong to put his trust in hoodoo. He’d heard Gavin’s threats, the violence in his words. He and June should have made a run for it, and now they were screwed.

  June babbled as she dumped the hatbox on the concrete. “We should have been safe. We covered our tracks. Why are they back? This could draw attention to all of us. How stupid is that guy?”

  “Very stupid. The packs won’t like covering this up either.” Maybe they’d finally see Gavin for the loose cannon he was. Harry inspected the door to the cellar. Metal—but the walls seemed less sturdy. The wolf inside him paced, longing to be free—so he could run, run, run. He was one fast motherfucker in his wolf form.

  “Do you think Bianca sent him?”

  “If Bianca thought I was here, she’d have come herself. She’s got to realize Gavin’s been chasing off candidates by now.”

  “You told that boy we were leaving town. Gavin has no reason to be here.” Crashes sounded from the cellar. Ripping. Tearing. Harry wasn’t sure how much June could hear, but there was mass destruction in the next room.

  “It doesn’t matter why. It just matters that we get away.” He opened the door to the tunnel, his nose curling. The caved-in area meant the skateboard things were useless.

  Gavin’s voice rose above the chaos.

  “Can you hear me, Smith? I don’t know why we didn’t recognize you last night, but we do now.” Wood splintered, and dust puffed around the safe room door. “You’ve been broadcasting signals this morning even a loser like you could pick up. Been banging your girlfriend? Way to get distracted, moron.”

  He had been having sex—crazy, powerful, alpha sex—but according to June they should have been protected.

  “That can’t be right.” She threw twigs and roots in every direction. “The spell worked. It worked! There’s no way they should be able to read you then or now.”

  But they could read him. June’s spell had been a dud.

  “I know you haven’t run yet, Smith. In fact, I think you’re right—” one last giant crash and the door between the safe room and the cellar jiggled, “—here. By God, there’s a door. Looks like the old bat from the tea room has some secrets.”

&n
bsp; “He has no idea.” June’s hands trembled as she chucked herbs into a white bowl. She pounded a gray rock on the floor, creating a powder, and added it. “I must have screwed up the spell. Sludge was all over me.”

  “But you have some secrets too, don’t you, Smith?” Gavin shouted between thumps. “Or should I call you John Lapin?”

  Harry’s blood ran cold. June paused to stare up at him. “What’s he talking about?”

  “Not now,” he growled, his teeth so sharp he nearly cut his lip. Gavin had Harry’s true scent…and the memories he had never wanted to revisit.

  “I can’t wait to tell Mom and Pop.” Gavin whaled on the wall between sentences. “Little John Lapin is notorious pack hater Harry Smith. Good trick, you useless bastard. I don’t suppose your mother’s still around? I’d love to fuck her again, once I finally kill her mongrel brat. She should never have tried to run, little Johnny. Now you’re going to pay.”

  June watched him with wide, frightened eyes. “Harry?”

  He had a sudden, blinding understanding of why wolves went feral.

  “Nah, I bet she’s dead,” Gavin continued, as if the conversation were sociable. “She’d never have survived severance. Which means the only thing I don’t know is how sweet, tasty June can still be a juvie. She smells good to me, Lapin. Real good.”

  Harry growled.

  Outside the door, Gavin paused to laugh. “You don’t like that, do ya? She must be a moron like you, too stupid to shift. Too stupid to run.”

  “Hurry up, Gav,” another voice urged. The door rattled again. “Bianca’s going to sense him too and send somebody over here.”

  “She can go screw herself. I’ll be alpha soon.” More voices, Gavin’s rising above them. “Love and war, baby.”

  “This can’t be happening. Dial the cops. Pete will get us help.” June fumbled a glass vial on the concrete and it shattered, exploding red powder all over the floor. “Criminy.”

  Harry indicated his clothing—underwear and nothing else. “My phone is on your bedside table.”