Idler (Norseton Wolves Book 3)

by Trent, Holley

  She sighed and closed her eyes. Goddammit. He just had to go and have a sob story. Still, that doesn’t excuse bad behavior. She had a fucking sob story. Thanks to her ex-alpha’s mishandling of pack funds, her family had nearly been homeless more times than she cared to recount. They’d always had to dig themselves out. The odds were stacked against them, and she hadn’t let that stop her. She sighed. “You should want more.”

  “Okay, maybe I’m an asshole. I freely and under no duress—beyond the blue balls you inflicted me with—can admit that. But that doesn’t mean I’m lazy.”

  “I never said you were lazy.”

  “You were getting there, I’m sure. My nickname is Idler, by the way, because I don’t volunteer for extra. I don’t do the above and beyond thing.”

  “Because you don’t care?”

  He gave his head a slow shake and let out a bark of laughter. “I care plenty. I just don’t think this is going to last, so I’m enjoying it while I can.”

  “You don’t think what’s going to last?”

  He swept his arm at the room. “This—domesticity thing. We’re not used to it. We’re the castoff wolves that our old packs couldn’t trust to let stay, but that’s our culture, isn’t it? No one can get too comfortable. Little boys with any power at all get sent away before they grow into it. Girls answer mate calls hoping to find something better than the shit puddle they’re living in.”

  Lisa groaned and rubbed her eyes. She couldn’t really debate that. She’d done it, after all. Twice.

  “Alphas get overthrown,” Colt continued, “and there’s chaos. So much fucking chaos. There’s no stability.”

  “And you don’t think it’s possible here, is what you’re saying?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe it’s possible. Alpha sure hopes it is. He’s so damned optimistic that he’s already got our hosts partitioning off lots for newcomers. He wants to make us a legitimate pack, I guess. Not just a roving band of mercenary nomads.”

  “You think that’s a bad thing?”

  He pursed his lips and made a waffling hand gesture. “Nice thing if you can get it, but it’s just going to be more of the same. The pack will get too big, and have too many little boys, and we’ll start sending them away because we’re afraid of them.”

  “It doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways for people to lead without them being the alpha in charge. I’ve seen it in other groups. If you structure the pack the right way at the beginning, align people’s expectations, you can give people a chance to do it a new way. A democratic way.”

  “If I had a little flag, I’d wave it at you right now. Nice speech, princess.”

  “I told you not to call me princess.” She stalked across the room, slammed her hand between his thighs, and grabbed his nuts.

  The sound he made was as much moan as it was a hiss. His eyes rolled behind fluttering eyelids, and she pushed up an eyebrow, in awe.

  “You like that, don’t you?”

  He swallowed audibly and pushed up his heavy-looking eyelids. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You do. You’re prodding me, just like you do with your packmates. But from me, you’re not expecting a cranky retort. You want me to put you in your place, don’t you?”

  He dragged his tongue across his lips. “As if you could. No one can. Not even Alpha.”

  “That’s a lie.” She released his balls and drew out her hand. Giving him a little space to move, she hissed, “Stand up.”

  He did, but only after staring at her for a few seconds first.

  She put her hands on her hips and met his skeptical gaze. He couldn’t hold it and looked away, down at his crossed arms.

  No way.

  “Look at me.”

  His gaze flitted up briefly, then back down again.

  No freakin’ way.

  She knew men with attitudes like his who always played so nicely with her once they knew it was the best thing for them, but they weren’t wolves. Submissive alpha wolves didn’t exist.

  Or do they?

  There were a few ways to find out. “Listen, I need to get some work done. You’re possibly the most pessimistic wolf I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something, coming from a realist. I have to be optimistic. I came to this place to find somewhere better for my sisters, because they’re not doing so great back in that shit puddle—as you called it—where I came from. I’m going to make this a good place for them. I want to see them living on a couple of those unclaimed plots, do you understand me? Nod if you understand me.”

  He nodded and licked his lips again.

  “And you may not be particularly ambitious, but I am. I earn my way, and I like to have money in the bank to cover my ass. I’ve got work to do—clients to do taxes for. I need some room to do it. There’s a desk in your guest bedroom that needs to be assembled. You can have the couch and your game controller back when you’re done.”

  He waited a few seconds before moving, but he did move. Not a single retort passed his lips.

  Interesting.

  “Tools are already in there.”

  “Okay.”

  “Oh. And Colt?”

  He turned. “Yeah?”

  “Going above and beyond doesn’t have to be a fruitless endeavor. We’re not just talking about sowing seeds for the future. There’s something so—” Lisa slipped her hand inside her waistband and gave her clit a tender rub. “Mmm. So arousing about a hardworking man. Makes me want to corner him. To sit on his face and let him tongue me off. And if I’m still raring to go after that…” She strode to him, pulled her hand free, and tucked her fingers between his lips. “Well, you know.”

  “You’re killing me,” he said around them, and sucked them hard.

  “Not killing you. Motivating you. Ready to work?”

  He groaned and let her fingers fall from his lips. “Shit, I’m pretty sure there’s some rule about bribing one’s husband with sexual acts.”

  “You complaining?”

  “You’d probably say that’s all I do.” He continued to the bedroom, and Lisa stood, watching him walk away.

  So fucking weird.

  Her natural assumption had been that he wouldn’t want to be told what to do, because no strong wolf really did. But letting someone else do the steering wasn’t always a sign of weakness. Sometimes, it was the smartest thing a person could do, if the person doing the steering was trustworthy enough.

  Lisa liked to think she was, but she hadn’t earned his trust yet. She’d arrived at Norseton expecting its wolfpack to be like so many others—expecting its wolves to be like all the others. She thought she was taking one for the team—paving the way for her sisters. She’d given more thought to how she’d work the system than she did to figuring out a way to connect with her mate. She’d assumed he wouldn’t be worth her energy.

  Maybe he wasn’t. But if he was, then the trip to Norseton might turn out to be even more life changing than she’d hoped. She owed it to herself to at least try to see the man as a partner, and not just a mate.

  Perhaps she owed it to him, too.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Colt carried the toolbox out of the guest bedroom and set it down in the hallway. Then he changed his mind and carried it to the garage. Lisa would probably have his ass if she found it there and tripped on it. Wolves tended to be a bit more spatially aware than plain-old humans, but he didn’t think the experiment was worth the risk. Besides, it was just a few more steps and carrying it wasn’t big deal.

  Shit.

  She’d been there for barely three days, and already had him jumping through hoops. Not even two days ago, he’d been cracking jokes at Loner about the same kind of shit, and there Colt was, letting a woman lead him around by the dick.

  He rolled his eyes and groaned. “Can’t think of a better part to be led around by.”

  He found Lisa tucked into the left corner of the sofa with her laptop propped between her legs and a tablet computer right next to her. Her
brow furrowed as she typed away, looking from one screen to the other without acknowledging him. She had a wolf’s hearing now, so she had to have heard him approach.

  Maybe she’s holding up another hoop for me.

  He cleared his throat and rocked back on his heels.

  “I heard you. Give me a minute, okay?” Again, she didn’t even look up.

  Won’t even look at me. He scoffed and tapped his foot impatiently.

  His inner wolf thought he was being too sensitive. The part of him that was just man wanted the wolf to shut the fuck up. He hated feeling like his two halves were at odds. It was an unfamiliar situation for him, and he wasn’t sure how to navigate it.

  Pour some beer on it.

  He started for the kitchen. A quick glance at the microwave clock told him he still had a chance of getting eight hours of sleep before his six A.M. shift. Most adult wolves did just fine on four or five hours, but their reflexes were sharper and acuity more reliable when their brains got enough time to unpack and reorder all the crap from the previous day. He imagined his brain was going to have a roaring good time making sense of why he was allowing some slip of a woman to boss him around. The only person he’d ever let talk to him like that was Alpha, and Alpha had earned the right.

  Lisa, though…

  He put his hand on the refrigerator handle and pulled.

  “I’m ready for you,” she called.

  He froze. Get the beer, or hop to attention? Fuck, he wanted that beer, but he did need to be on security duty at dawn. Sobriety was a safe bet. He settled on pouring himself a glass of water, and drinking it while she waited.

  Why the fuck am I being so ornery?

  He rolled his eyes.

  Duh. Reflex. He’d been on autopilot so damned long, he didn’t know how to shut it off.

  “Colt?”

  “Yeah, I’m coming.”

  He poured another glass, returned the pitcher to its fridge shelf, and headed down the hall toward her voice. He found her on her knees, under the desk where she seemed to be assessing the craftsmanship. “Does it meet your requirements, milady?”

  He groaned inwardly. He’d done it again—his mouth was running on autopilot. She’d probably want to muzzle him soon, and he probably deserved it.

  Her gaze tracked from his face down to the hand clutching the water glass.

  “Want some?” he asked.

  “Nah, thanks. The desk is fine. Thank you for assembling it. Does this cable jack work? I’d like to move the Internet connectivity stuff into here so a heap of cords isn’t the first thing you see when you open the front door.”

  “I’m honestly not sure if it works. I’ve never plugged anything into it.”

  She pushed up one of her perfectly arched eyebrows.

  Fail. Fail. You fail, dude. “I mean, I can find out.” He thought longingly about that beer again.

  “I don’t need you to find out. I can figure out whether or not it works by plugging a television into it, but if you already knew, it would have saved me a little time.”

  “I hadn’t tried. Mrs. Carbone was the one who got in contact with the satellite dish company and got everything activated. I know every outlet in the front half of the house is hot—living room and kitchen—as is my bedroom.”

  “Our bedroom.”

  “Right, right, our bedroom.” How quickly he’d forgotten, seeing as how he’d been camping out in Sofatown for the last few nights. There’d been no wedding night roll in the hay for them, or even some night-after-the-wedding-night coitus. The ice princess had frozen him out of his own bedroom.

  Well, actually, that wasn’t true. He’d chosen not to pursue her. She’d never explicitly barred him entry. He’d just assumed she’d kick him out.

  Damn, I’m a chickenshit.

  “I’ll check it tomorrow. This should do for the time being, though.” She crawled out from beneath the desk—head down to avoid bumping it, probably—and wiggled her hips so damn enticingly as she backed out.

  If she’d been any other woman, he might have dropped to his knees and pulled her back against him—ground his erection against her backside to show her the consequences of teasing him. Trying such a thing with his wife, however, would be a scenario likely ending with him getting mauled.

  She stood, clapping her hands clean on her jeans. She twisted her lips to one side and gave him an inscrutable look that made his spine straighten instinctively.

  It wasn’t a hostile look, by any means, but he hated not being able to figure her out. All the missteps were ramping up anxiety he’d never felt before. He wanted to please her, but didn’t really understand the compulsion to. She was his mate, but that had never meant much in their culture. And she was also his wife—legally. Those were just titles, though. They didn’t dictate how they were supposed to treat each other. They were on their own to figure that shit out.

  She shoved her hand down the front of his pants, unerringly finding his cock.

  His body pulled tight as a bow. His spine arched away from her, yet pushed his hips toward her at the same time.

  He waited for the pain, for punishment, but she merely worked her fist from the base of his shaft to the head and rolled her dark gaze up to him.

  Please don’t tease me.

  “Are you always hard, or do you just go rigid at the slightest touch?”

  He sucked in some air and let it out in a sputter. “You know, there is really no good answer to that.”

  She couldn’t walk into the same room with him and not get him hard. Some of that was hormonal werewolf bullshit. She was obviously nearing a fertile period, and as her mate, he would notice the shift in her biology better than anyone. Of course he wanted to bend her over and push his cock into her as far as it could go, and then not get off her until he’d filled her with his seed. But, his eyes were working just fine, too. She was a beautiful woman, and he was fucking lucky.

  “How many women have you been with, wolf?”

  Wolf. He grated his teeth. She had to stop calling him that. Coming from her, it was like a slur.

  “My name is Colt, and why do you ask?” If any question could have deflated a woody, that would have been it.

  She freed her hand from his pants and undid the button. “How many?”

  “I don’t know. Why?”

  “You don’t know because you’ve lost count? That seems typical with male wolves, doesn’t it? You’ll fuck anything in a skirt, and then move on to the next prey.”

  “If you know it’s typical, why bother getting mad at me about it?”

  She let down his zipper and pulled his boxers away from his cock. “I’m not mad. I just don’t condone it. In fact, there are a lot of things about wolf culture that can stand to be changed. It’s not fair, is it? All of the double standards and chauvinistic leadership. A woman can never get ahead.”

  “That’s the way it’s always been.”

  “And do you like that?” She clenched the base of his cock once more and pumped it to hardness again.

  Took all of three seconds.

  He put his head back and rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Gods, so pathetic.

  “Do you?”

  “Like what? Having you play with my cock? I think the answer to that is obvious.”

  “No, I don’t mean that, but I’m glad you like it. I tend to touch when I talk. Usually not of this nature, but, we’re mated, so why not?”

  Yes, why not? “For God’s sake, keep talking, then.” He thrust his hips forward a couple of inches, pushing himself farther through her fist.

  She smirked and gave him a playful tug that had him hissing.

  So good.

  “What I meant was, do you like the way it’s always been? Women having no say, and men getting away with everything under the sun, including murder on the rare occasion.”

  “I’ve never really had an opinion about it. I mean, I like to think my dad was an okay alpha, but I’m sure he was just as entrenched in the bullshit as anyone else.
I try not to think much about my old pack and what happened there. Easier to block that shit out.”

  “I see. Well, I can’t help but to think about mine, because my sisters are still there. I know my parents will do the best they can for them, but let’s face it—eventually, their alpha is going to insist that they take mates within the group—one of his disgusting sons or the sons of his lieutenants, probably. And then they’ll have no choice but to turn the girls over.”

  “They can say no.”

  Lisa dropped his cock and laughed. “You actually think that? If so, you really are naïve about your own culture.”

  He bristled at the accusation and opened his mouth to spew a retort, but with a great deal of self-restraint, he pressed his lips together. He knew fuck-all about what was happening in most packs nowadays, because Alpha chose to limit their interactions with them. Colt had no sisters and no close female friends growing up, so he couldn’t really understand the female wolf’s plight. Perhaps he’d even made himself purposely blind to it because it didn’t concern him. He’d only fucked human women in the past fifteen years, and none of them had ever had a problem saying no when they wanted to.

  “They’re sixteen and seventeen,” she said softly. “And men in the pack are eying them. They’re sweeter than I am. More docile. They’d make perfectly submissive mates.”

  “How is that possible if you were raised in the same household?” He couldn’t help himself. She’d left herself wide open for the observation.

  She sighed and crooked her index fingers into his belt loops. “Don’t get smart.”

  He wanted to see what would happen if he was, but for the moment, he could behave.

  She furrowed her brow and let out a long breath.

  She’s upset. Fix it, his inner wolf said. That’s your job.