Redefining Home

by Megan Linden

  “As if you need prompting for that.”

  Touché. Every day could be a give-a-morning-blowjob day, as far as Adrian was concerned. “Are you complaining?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “Still, breakfast—”

  He stopped when Adrian slid his hand under the covers to palm Bill’s cock.

  “What about it?” Adrian asked, keeping his grip light, not nearly enough of what Bill needed. It served him right after the previous night, though. He’d kept Adrian on the edge for almost an hour and tortured him with a sight of him fucking Roy into oblivion without letting him come.

  Fuck. Adrian was getting hard at the memory alone.

  “If you make me come before Roy’s out of the shower, maybe we can talk him into switching with you,” Bill said as his cock hardened.

  Adrian tossed the covers off them and situated himself between Bill’s spread legs. There were few things he loved more than giving head to this man, and he could do that while barely awake. He’d had a lot of practice in the recent months. Besides, his body was waking up.

  He licked around the head and swallowed it right as Bill put his hand in his hair and tugged at the ends, making Adrian moan. A part of him wanted to rut on the sheets, get himself off shamelessly with Bill watching, his cock still in Adrian’s mouth.

  But that wasn’t Adrian’s present objective. With the shower running for a few minutes already, he knew he didn’t have much time. He hollowed his cheeks and took Bill in deeper.

  “Fuck, that’s good,” Bill told him in a low voice that made Adrian move his hand to his own cock. He stopped himself before he got there, though.

  No. Not yet.

  Bill rubbed his thumb against Adrian’s cheek. Fuck. He’s sort of rubbing his own dick. Adrian moaned at that and swallowed around the head of Bill’s cock, then moved up and licked the underside as he went. He soon fell into a well-known rhythm, and before long, Bill was coming down his throat with half-lidded eyes and a gaze that promised all kinds of things to Adrian, and among all the filth that made Adrian’s cock twitch, there was a lot that his heart responded to, as well.

  They were still looking at each other when the bathroom door opened, and a second later, there was a sharp intake of breath coming from behind Adrian.

  “You two are a sight,” Roy told them, stepping closer and dropping the towel from around his waist just as Adrian slipped Bill’s cock out of his mouth and turned to see his other mate.

  Fuck, what a sight he was.

  “It’s a shame you just showered.” Bill’s amusement was clear in his tone. “Shouldn’t get dirty again right away.”

  Roy moved closer to the bed. “I could always take another shower.”

  “Or we could clean you up afterward,” Bill said, tightening his grip in Adrian’s hair again and making him swallow another moan.

  His mates loved how vocal he was, which was fortunate since Adrian often couldn’t help himself and made all kinds of noises. He moaned, begged, keened and sometimes even screamed. Both Bill and Roy could drive him crazy with little-to-no problem, and they both marveled at that. And with their werewolf stamina…

  Adrian was glad that they often let him sleep in and recover after they’d worn him out.

  Not today, though. They’d told him a few days ago that it was Taylor’s birthday, and as such, there was a special occasion where they all needed to make an appearance. In Adrian’s opinion, special occasions that happened every other month—werewolves found a lot of reasons to celebrate, it seemed—weren’t all that special, but he’d never said anything to Roy or Bill. It was important to them, so it was important to him—simple as that.

  But right now, he was hard, lying in between Bill’s spread legs, and Roy’s cock was hardening right before his eyes.

  “How about we just skip breakfast this one time?” he asked, tilting his head up to glance at Bill.

  Exposing his neck was accidental, of course.

  Both his mates growled and in less than a second later, he was being manhandled to move up the bed and between their bodies, and he needed to bite his lower lip to stop his laughter from escaping.

  Completely accidental.

  * * * *

  Adrian put on his sunglasses right as he left the car then grabbed the six-pack from the backseat as Roy and Bill were pulling the rest of the food out of the trunk.

  He didn’t even blink at the amount of food anymore. It had been one of about five hundred items on the list of things he’d gotten used to, and it was a pretty easy one, all things considered, especially since he didn’t have to haul all this stuff himself.

  He followed Roy and Bill as they headed to the tables set up behind the Alpha’s house, and he noted a lot of people were already here. One doesn’t miss the party in the Alpha Son’s honor, Adrian thought. He liked Taylor just fine, just as he liked the rest of the Harrington family, with Kevin being his favorite. But Adrian still wished he could’ve stayed home today with Roy and Bill and not left the bed at all. They’d spent the entire morning like that and, after an early wake-up call and two orgasms, all he’d wanted was a power nap before another few rounds.

  No such luck.

  At least the awkwardness is pretty much over, he thought to himself as he answered every nod and every greeting. For the longest time, the three of them had been the talk of the town, and he’d been deemed either the devil or the slut, depending on who was asked—or not asked—for their opinion. Roy and Bill had been getting flack, too, with some of their long-time clients dropping off, but they’d refused to talk about it with him, shrugging it off like being shunned by their pack mates didn’t hurt them at all.

  Finally, when Adrian had been about ready to go to war with half the Harrington Hills population, the Alpha had stepped in. Once she’d learned about their mating, she’d organized a party similar to this one and had invited all three of them to the main table when they’d arrived. She’d toasted their new union, then proceeded to spend most of the party with them and made sure to include Adrian in the conversation.

  Heavy-handed as it perhaps was, it had done the trick. Most of the pack had fallen in line after that, and even Roy and Bill’s old clients had come back and hadn’t batted an eye when they’d learned that the firm they’d known as Cocker and Soreno, had become Cocker, Soreno and Marlow, in the meantime.

  It had been decent ever since, and Adrian had started to relax more and more, which was good. Never, not even once, had he regretted staying and jumping right into the relationship with the guys, and he considered that the most important part.

  Speaking of his guys…

  “You having fun yet?” Roy asked him with a dry smile, handing him a beer as he stood close enough to bump their shoulders together while Bill circled his arms around Adrian’s waist from behind and pulled him flush against his front, just like he knew Adrian liked.

  “I’m starting to right now,” he said, leaning into the embrace and clinking his bottle with Roy’s.

  “Good,” Bill muttered right above his ear and Adrian tried to suppress the shiver. He hadn’t grown immune to that voice at all, but he suspected he never would.

  “Oh, I’m planning to be good,” he said almost inaudibly to his own ears. That had been one thing he’d picked up fast. If he didn’t want to be overheard, he had to barely make any sound at all. “I want a reward later.”

  Bill tightened his arms around Adrian for a second before relaxing them into a loose grip again. “You have yourself a deal.”

  Adrian grinned into his bottle as he brought it against his lips. Suddenly mandatory party attendance didn’t bother him at all anymore. This life of his? It was pretty much perfect right now.

  Also available from Pride Publishing:

  Harrington Hills: Coming Back Home

  Megan Linden

  Excerpt

  Chapter One

  Jack had loved the nights of Full Moon Run ever since he’d be
en a kid. There was something special about the pack gathering to run together under the night sky, surrounded only by the sounds of the forest and each other. It was a symbol of both belonging and freedom. It gave them a chance to come together as one and to run without worry, knowing that there was always someone close by, ready to come when called upon.

  The participation wasn’t mandatory and most members of the pack missed a run from time to time, but not Jack. He had attended all of them except one—and that had been because he’d been eight at the time, he’d been sick, and his mothers had insisted he stay in bed. He had tried to sneak out, even then, but Mom B had caught him before he’d gotten down the stairs.

  Jack had run with either Julia, his twin sister, or Terry, his best friend, among others, but with both of them away for college, these days he usually stayed with the main group, unless he needed some time alone.

  Tonight, he’d started out with the big group, but then he’d grown restless and had ultimately taken off on his own, following his instincts. He hadn’t realized where he was going at first, but when he got to the outskirts of the forest and saw an old house through the trees, he knew—and he wasn’t all that happy about it.

  He came to a halt. No, you’re not doing this, he told himself, but his wolf whined under his breath. The pull was strong and, after a short struggle, Jack finally let himself move closer. Some things never changed. Tomorrow there would be time to berate himself, but tonight he wanted… He needed to be right where he was.

  He hadn’t seen Connor since that day over two weeks ago when they’d literally crashed into each other, almost precisely eighteen months after Jack had watched him leave Harrington Hills behind.

  Jake had been on the way to help his friend David pick up new tiles for the bathroom when the car coming from up ahead had swerved on the road and had headed straight at them. David had managed to avoid a head-on collision, but they’d hit a tree instead, and the other car had bumped into their side. After checking on David, Jack had jumped from the truck and run to the other car to make sure everyone was fine. Then he’d frozen a few steps from the driver’s door.

  Connor Warsen. Connor Warsen, who hadn’t even noticed him, had stumbled out of the car in a hurry to check something in the backseat. And before Jack had been able to back away—hell, before he’d been able to take another breath—Connor had been standing there, barely a few feet away, holding a baby who’d smelled like fear and misery and had wailed painfully loud.

  Then Connor had looked up, and, when he’d seen Jack, his eyes had opened wide. He’d stopped rocking from side to side and making shushing noises, which had made the baby cry louder.

  The baby. The baby who’d smelled like Connor.

  Jack had taken a step back—and another. Then he’d turned, walked to the other side of David’s truck and leaned against it, facing the forest. In the back of his mind, he’d registered David making a call then saying help was on the way. Jack hadn’t known if David had been talking to him or to Connor—with the baby—but he’d nodded. He hadn’t been able to even open his mouth to speak.

  And now, two weeks later, Jack was standing on the outskirts of the forest behind Connor’s family house and he was reaching out with his senses before he could talk himself out of it. He knew he shouldn’t be doing this. There were rules about privacy and boundaries in the pack, but he just— He just had to. He was powerless to do anything else, to be anywhere else.

  He’d been at this house numerous times years ago, but it smelled different now. The bitterness, while sharper than before, was mixed with a fresh, sweeter scent. Jack lifted his head and inhaled deeply again, focusing further. The sweetness was likely due to the baby in the house, but he wondered about the other part. Was it Connor’s father? He’d always been bitter and cold but had he become more so, living on his own? Or was it Connor? Could he regret coming home this much already?

  Jack’s sense of smell had always been better than his hearing, so it took him a while before he finally heard the murmur of conversation. After another minute, he could recognize the voices and the words.

  “I meant what I said. Don’t think I didn’t.” Leonard Warsen’s voice was biting and hard. “If you think I’ll change my mind, that I’ll take pity on you again and—”

  “I don’t need your pity,” Connor cut in and something sour twisted in Jack’s stomach.

  “You did need it as recently as two weeks ago, as I recall. I told you then you could stay three weeks and the clock’s running out. You better believe me or you’ll be very surprised come Thursday morning.”

  “This house is half mine.”

  Connor’s father snorted. “Are you gonna fight me for it? Take me to court? Or, better yet, go running to the Harringtons?” Jack tensed at the venom in the man’s voice. “That I’d like to see. The Alpha could enforce the law, but she won’t, will she? Not after you broke her precious little son’s heart.”

  “Watch it.” Connor’s voice sounded like he was grinding his teeth and Jack tensed even more. He had only seen Connor angry twice, and both those times had been because of his father. It hadn’t been a pretty sight.

  “You’re the one who needs to watch it.” There was a sound of a glass against glass and a chair being shoved. “Come Thursday morning, you and the kid better be gone—or I will make sure you leave.”

  A moment later the door shut loudly. The silence that followed was full of anger and bitterness and an underlying note of loneliness.

  Jack swallowed a whine that wanted out and he dropped down to rest on his stomach. He wasn’t any kind of a guard but he could just…be there. Then maybe Connor wouldn’t feel so alone.

  He had no idea how long he had been lying there, staring through the trees at the Warsen house, when he heard something to his right. Someone was coming. Jack got up and faced the direction of the sounds of crushed leaves and snapping branches.

  He caught her scent right before he saw her. Of course. Mom B appeared between the trees and paused when her gaze fell on him. She looked from Jack to the Warsen house, then back at him. She shook her head. Under different circumstances, Jack usually found it funny how similar she acted as a wolf and a human. Right now, he just felt ashamed.

  He hung his head low, putting his ears flat against his skull. He could hear her coming closer, so he just stood there, waiting.

  She bumped her head under his chin then rubbed the arch of her snout over his neck. She breathed out warm air right into his ear and he almost yapped in a laugh. It had been her way of tickling him ever since he’d been a little boy, but she hadn’t done it in years. Jack nuzzled her, too, inhaling the scent of home and family. He hooked his head around her neck and closed his eyes, trying to empty his mind and wishing he could forget what he’d just witnessed.

  Finally, she drew back a bit and tilted her head in the direction they’d both come from. Jack nodded and followed her through the forest, forcing himself not to look back. There was nothing there for him, anyway.

  * * * *

  The next morning, Jack wasn’t even a bit surprised when he went down for breakfast and found both his mothers waiting for him in the kitchen.

  “Hi.” He took a glass out from the cabinet and poured himself orange juice after he sat down at the table. “Have Taylor and Kevin eaten yet?” It was likely, since Jack’s brother and his mate tended to get up early, but Jack still hoped there was a chance they’d offer a diversion.

  “Yes. They’ve already left.” Mom A looked up at him from above her coffee cup. “Did you sleep well?”

  Jack bit the inside of his cheek but decided to play along. “Yes, but now I’m starving.” He reached for the tower of pancakes in the middle of the table and loaded three onto his plate.

  As both his mothers watched him eat, he counted the seconds until one of them would break. He got up to sixty-four.

  “Your mom told me where she found you last night.” Mom A, predictably, was the one who spoke first.

  “Mm-h
mm,” Jack hummed, his mouth full. He would gladly stuff himself with pancakes until the end of days if it would take him out of this conversation, but he knew he had zero chance of that happening. And he had something he needed to say, too, so he swallowed the rest of the food and nodded.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Jack,” Mom A said, shaking her head. “You can’t just…”

  Mom B leaned on her elbows on the table. “I know you cared about Connor very much, but we were hoping you’d left it behind you.”

  Jack had no answer for that. ‘So was I’ would sound like a lie, because he knew better. He was far from leaving it behind. He wasn’t going to admit it to his mothers, though.

  “I get that him coming back to Harrington Hills, especially with a child, has to be difficult for you.” Mom B glanced at Mom A. “But going there in the middle of the night—”

  “I wasn’t planning to go any closer,” Jack defended himself.

  “But how long would you have stayed up there if I hadn’t found you?”

  Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. Why did you come after me, anyway?” They were always allowed to go wherever they wanted on these runs and no one supervised them once they’d turned seventeen.

  Mom B shrugged. “I sensed you needed me, kiddo.”

  He frowned, but before he could ask anything else, Mom A spoke up again. “Even if you wouldn’t go farther, you still shouldn’t have done what you did. You know that, right?”

  Jack looked down at his plate. “I know.”

  Mom A sighed. “You reached out, didn’t you?”

  There was no point in lying to them. “Yes.”

  Both his mothers started to talk at the same time.

  “There are rules in place for a reason—”

  “You can’t just do something like this—”

  “I know!” Jack cut in, and they fell silent. “I know, okay? I know about the rules and I know I shouldn’t have done it. I get it. It’s not like I planned the whole thing.” He folded his hands over his stomach. “This was the first time I did it and I’m not going to do that again. But I’ve heard something I need to tell you about.”