by K. de Long
He jerked her into his arms, and his lips crashed over hers. His beast howled triumphantly as she bit his lip and parted hers for him, the proud huntress even in his arms.
It was easier to succumb to Marrock’s kiss. He didn’t gently brush, tease, encourage—he consumed. With her wolf baying for blood, she’d have drawn his if he tried any different.
Lord help her, Marrock’s lips felt right against hers. It was probably just the combination of herbs in the wine they’d drunk. Ordinarily, hunting while intoxicated would be pointless, counterproductive, and a waste of good wine. But it was tradition. Perhaps the reason so many couples were anxious about bringing enough game home was because the wine encouraged them to seek other…distractions…in the woods.
But that wouldn’t be them. She wouldn’t let it. They were so close. She’d heard the bear shambling around before Marrock kissed her, and wasn’t about to let it get away. They wouldn’t return to his pack to raucous laughter and jibes about what they really did together. She would meet his kin’s eyes with a level gaze, not blushes and avoidance.
She brought the hand holding her bow up between them, using the clammy wood to force him back. He released her, but there was a fight in his eyes; he had a dominant streak a mile wide. She’d have to keep him focused before she found all of his stubbornness and strength devoted to fucking her against a tree.
The universe was on her side. There was another soft snap as a branch broke, and his hooded eyes whipped away from hers as he sought the noise’s source.
That they’d found the bear’s traces so easily was a good thing; game was abundant in his terrain. It would have certainly taken them the better part of a day to find the tracks, if they were hunting in her family’s territory. No wonder his people weren’t going hungry, as some of hers were.
They both spotted the bear a distance ahead of them in the trees. But then they pinpointed what had really made the noise: four scrawny wolves, still bigger than they should be to simply be dumb beasts. They had the bear circled, and were tearing into its haunches in an effort to get it to stop protecting its throat.
She squinted hard at their fur, but in the underbrush, it was impossible to make out markings. She raised an eyebrow as she turned toward Marrock and flattened herself against a tree. He shook his head, his meaning clear—they weren’t his hunters, either. And the only other pack close enough?
Elias.
Marrock crouched down and made his way toward her. When he was kneeling next to her, he beckoned her to lower her head a little. “Poachers. Elias. Stay low.”
Bringing down the bear would have been a strong start to their partnership…but publicly defending his home together would be a better one. “We can take them,” Tessa whispered back, glaring at him. Did he think she was too weak, or too soft to hold up her part?
The chance was simply too good to be true. She’d wanted a way to prove her strength, prove that being reduced to Marrock’s bedmate meant nothing about her ability to wield power and fight. This was perfect.
Her hold on the bowgrip tightened. Marrock’s eyes widened, and he shook his head, reaching up to drag her face down to his again. “Not like this. If we do this, we’re doing it right. We’re no good to either of our packs if we get killed.”
“There’s only four,” she said. “It’s child’s play. No one’s getting killed but them. We can do this.”
The bear howled in agony as one of the poachers got a lucky bite in, one that tore deep into its shoulder and neck. Blood spurted—it wouldn’t be long now. Once the bear was down, they’d no longer be distracted.
“We can winnow them down. Get them when they’re out of their companion’s eyesight. Take away their advantage—” Marrock seemed to have an idea in mind, but while his tactics were sound, that kind of fight could take them all day. It was a coward’s ploy, a tact to keep her out of harm’s way. If she were a fellow Nefari, instead of his purchased mate, he’d never think of babying her like that.
Tessa would never be content to be that deadweight. Never.
She raised her bow, sighted in the closest of the poachers, and fired.
Liam cursed at Tessa as her arrow buried itself in her mark’s skull. It was a clean kill, and a terrific shot, but this wasn’t how the fight should be going down. If the Maltvati transformed, got to their own weapons…or worse yet, if they ran, to report back to Elias that the Kumori and the Nefari were allied against him…
No. They had needed to take them all out at once. Quietly. Before tipping them off about the nature of the danger that faced them. If Elias’s hunters knew there were only the two of them, he’d have another hunting party on their heels before Liam and Tessa could make it back to Nefari camp.
Left with no other choice, Liam lined up his blade, brought his hand back, and whipped it forward. He released the hilt, sending the serrated steel tumbling end over end on its way to bury itself in another wolf’s throat. An arrow whistled by his ear and embedded itself in the tree close to Tessa’s shoulder. They both flung themselves to the side, seeking other cover. Together like that, they were simply too easy a target.
What the fuck was she thinking? This could have been easy. Painless. Close to risk-free. But she had to go charging in. He’d trusted her to listen to him. He’d trusted her to have half a brain between those elegantly curved ears. He’d trusted that he wasn’t simply saddled with a pretty face with no survival skills.
Worse, though. She had survival skills, but not enough patience to listen to them.
Liam prowled through the underbrush as one of the remaining wolves charged toward him. He leapt, knocking the wolf backwards in midair and transforming on their way to the ground. He landed on top of his opponent, his teeth buried in the creature’s windpipe. Without mercy, and with more than a little intentionally misplaced frustration, he bit deep and jerked his chin, ripping its neck open.
Liam looked up. Tessa was on the other side of the dying bear, grappling with a man. He had an arrow protruding from his bare shoulder, but hardly seemed aware of the injury. The man was fresh-transformed, naked, same as Liam. Just the sight of another man’s bare skin so close to his mate’s sent Liam’s inner beast into a rampaging fury.
He charged them, heedless of the gray spots in his vision. She was his. And she, of all people, should know that. She should have listened. If she had, she wouldn’t have a strange man all but rubbing his pencildick against her thigh as they wrestled.
His weight knocked the two of them over. He landed on top of Tessa, his whole being consumed with showing her the error of her ways. His teeth found her neck, biting hard enough to draw blood. She gasped, her pulse pushing against his lips, just as tantalizing as he knew it would be.
“He’s—” she gasped.
He didn’t want to hear about another man. Another man’s scent didn’t belong on her. His name didn’t belong on her lips. Liam would kill him. He would—
He looked around. The man was gone. He’d gotten away while Liam had been preoccupied with Tessa. Damnit. Now Elias would know of the alliance. How dare she disobey him?
The ritual wasn’t finished yet. If they returned to town now, he could tell his advisers that the omens hadn’t been favorable. He could send her home to her family in disgrace, since it was her fault the alliance would fail.
But if he did, both of their clans would reap the horrors of war when Elias attacked them, expecting them to be working together against him. No. He had no choice but to take the disloyal bitch as his partner, and keep her on a very short leash to prevent her from causing this kind of harm again.
“Shit,” she gasped, looking at the tracks where the man had transformed and loped away. “Think we can catch him?”
“It’s not Nefari territory that way. It’s too dangerous. He’s gone. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Oh, come off it. If you hadn’t decided it was more important to piss on my leg—”
“I should send you home. Tell your father I have n
o need for an undisciplined—”
She interrupted him with a cutting laugh. “And I should go home, and tell him he has no need for an alliance with a jealous, controlling man who hamstrings his packmates so that he can be the best.”
The blood roared in his ears. He would bend her over his knee. He would—
The idiot didn’t seem to know when to stop. “You’re just mad that I held my own. That I was doing better than you, until you got distracted. I wasn’t afraid to take action, but you were. And it would have worked, if you weren’t more preoccupied dreaming of my cunt! You just can’t bear that I’m as tough as you—maybe even tougher.”
She wasn’t entirely wrong, but she was so very far from right, it was almost laughable. “I wasn’t afraid to take them out,” he snapped. “I wanted it done right. The only thing you’re more of than me is foolish. You’ve brought the war to our doorstep. Because now, in his eyes, every hunting party might be a joint ambush. This is gonna singlehandedly cause an escalation. All because you’re a stupid little girl who had to start a pissing contest. The next battle’s gonna be ten times as bloody, because you had to act like a goddamn pup! And guess what? It’s not gonna be your pack meeting the majority of his raiding parties. You think you saw bloodshed before? Well brace up, buttercup. You’re gonna see a helluva lot more of it now. And then we’ll see who’s gone crying back home to daddy.”
Craack. His head whipped to the side from the force of her blow. She turned away from him, kneeling by the dead bear to begin skinning it and cutting sections of meat away to carry back. Her meaning was plain: We’re done here. Silently, he agreed with her, but she would pay for her actions later.
Tessa Lacroix was a spoiled child. He had been an idiot to think that being her mate would be anything other than a series of unmitigated disasters.
Chapter 9
They trooped back to the Nefari grounds in silence. She could hardly look at the arrogant fucker. Her back ached from the weight of the meat they had taken, but she refused to ask him to slow down.
How dare he? If he hadn’t been more interested in marking her as his possession, it would have been a unilateral victory. She’d been an idiot to think he could ever care about her as anything other than a trophy. He’d never appreciate her strength, or the fact that she was trying to protect his people as she would her own. She could feel his eyes on her as they walked, but she knew if she looked, it would only confirm that his gaze was stuck to her jiggling ass.
It shouldn’t hurt as much as it did, that he blamed her. It shouldn’t be a festering wound inside her. It really was just the final nail in the coffin. The way his lips felt over hers, the way he looked at her, it was all meaningless. She was simply a toy to him, expected to stay on the shelf where he put her.
She was doomed to a loveless future. A friendless one, too—she’d seen enough pack dynamics in her time to know that none of his pack would want to befriend her when even he treated her with coldness and disdain.
As she’d promised her family she would, she’d do her best. But she knew better than to think that her best would actually be worth a damn to him.
Pigheaded motherfucker, she grumbled to herself, stomping hard with each syllable. Stupid asslicking dickslit.
He heaved a sigh behind her, and she turned to look on instinct. The look in his eyes said he was thinking the same.
Out of all the people Dad could have mated me off to, why did he have to pick the most cock-for-brained control freak of them all?
She tripped on a half-buried root, and once again, his hands found her elbows before her knees could hit the ground. She kicked at the offending root and swore again as the pain roared through her toe.
Marrock had a half-smile on his face that could only mean he was laughing at her. That his opinion of her had lowered still further. An image flashed on the back of her eyelids, of her kneeing him in the groin. Let him laugh at her then.
She jerked her elbow free of his hands and spun to keep walking. She could smell humanity downwind; they were almost there. Almost, well, she’d better start calling it “home” sometime…why not now? It was never gonna feel like home, so why pretend?
His footsteps weren’t behind her. He hadn’t moved. But she wasn’t about to face the leghumper again.
Ordinarily, a walk like this would have been pleasant, even in human form. But Marrock’s presence had sucked the joy clear out of it. She hated him for it. How many more of the good things in her life would he ruin?
Leaves crunched as he began hurrying to catch up with her. She let out her breath. Not that she’d been holding it out of worry that he might decide to stay behind, get gored by a boar or something. Oh no. She definitely hadn’t been wishing for an accident of the kind to befall him.
Fuck, how was she supposed to survive living like this? Did he even care how miserable he made her?
The thoughts were a swarm of bees, trying to disorient her and make her shut down. She didn’t dare focus on any one for too long, lest the whole thing be too bleak.
A sentry sent up a call, and she raised her hand. Hopefully with a human buffer, the asshole behind her would bother her less.
She hated to admit that a part of her wondered whether he was right, whether she was just a spoiled brat to be traded away.
Oh, no doubt about it. Tonight she’d cry hot, bitter tears. But she’d do it with the bathwater running, where there was no way the dumb fuck behind her could hear it.
“What the fuck?” Hagen asked. “You look like a moose shat you out.”
“Don’t ask.” Liam growled. Come tomorrow, he’d have to tell his war council that there was an extremely good chance that Elias knew of their secret weapon: the alliance. When that time came, he wouldn’t blame Tessa. He was in charge; he wouldn’t pin his failings on her. And failing to control her was a failing of his.
She’d stared at him as though she might strip the flesh from his bones with a tongue-lashing—and not the pleasurable kind. Deluded. She had no right to be angry with him. Her behavior back there had been reprehensible. And yet, he’d kind of wished she would go off on him. At least then, he’d have had some entertainment on the long walk back.
The bear meat was well-received and already on its way to be roasted. Tradition was unclear on what came next; often, the new mates were too ecstatic to want to leave the celebrations and sat around as the meat cooked. But there was no directive that that must happen, and so Tessa had ducked away as soon as his house was within view, mumbling “bath” under her breath.
Hagen might have teased Liam, said he’d plucked a right delicate flower for himself, if he hadn’t caught Liam’s dark look. Liam knew the truth: Tessa would rather chew off her own limb than spend another minute with him. And the feeling was mutual. The best thing about that woman was the way her breasts shifted when she moved, the way her nipples beaded to delicate peaks in the chilly breeze. He wouldn’t mind fucking her, but that was about it.
No. He wouldn’t miss Tessa, wouldn’t think of her hiding in the bath rather than facing him. He’d been aggressive, yes, but he hadn’t said anything she shouldn’t have expected. She’d acted out, and that meant consequences.
He’d have to watch her closely. He might not be able to send her away, but she was too reckless. He refused to let being mated to a loose cannon compromise his pack’s safety and peace.
“She’s pretty,” Hagen said. He had to have seen the look on Liam’s face. He had to know that now was the last time he should comment on the fact that, yes, Liam’s mate was a fucking heartstopper. And yet he’d said it anyways.
It took everything he had for Liam to keep his mouth shut. In time, the conversation turned to the others around him, and he managed to fade into the background.
When the roar went up indicating that the food was done, Tessa slid through his front door and rejoined them. He had no clue how he managed to keep the glare off his face. Somehow, he plastered on a gracious smile as the people between them made ro
om for her to sit next at his side. For appearances’ sake, he reached for her hand.
In exchange, she dug her nails into the webbing between his fingers, hard. A startled snort escaped him. He refused to be bested, however. Her hand stayed in his, even when he felt a little blood trickle down his finger.
Tessa’s father looked between the two of them, surely gauging how bad the situation was. It wouldn’t have been so humiliating if the old fucker hadn’t stifled a laugh. Apparently Liam had been the last to learn of Tessa Lacroix’s ill temper and stubbornness.
This fucking alliance was more trouble than it was worth.
Ryker looked at him, and he knew it was time. Time to take the vows that would bind him to Tessa, for better or worse.
Worse. Definitely worse.
Much, much worse. He just didn’t know how bad yet.
He stood and swallowed one more gulp of wine. Tessa stood at his side, her whole body tense where it touched his. “We left this morning as two. Now, we’ve returned as one. As we have provided for each other, we’ll provide for the pack. As the pack provides for us, we’ll provide for each other. Now and forever, Tessa Lecroix, I am your mate. I am your rock. I am the hunter bringing you food and protecting you from harm. I am your armor, and your sword.”
Her eyes were flat, hard, and stone. But beneath all of that, he saw something worse—hurt, and disbelief.
He’d show her. He was a man of his word. He might not like her, but he’d be the mate she deserved. Perhaps better than she deserved, considering her earlier behavior.
Applause rose around them and then quieted. Tessa didn’t seem to recognize the hint for her to recite her vows. He squeezed her fingers and raised an eyebrow. And then the thought occurred to him. Was she about to back out? Had he torn into her deeply enough to draw blood, deep enough to override her good intentions in agreeing to the partnership?
And then she took a deep breath. “We left this morning as two. Now we’ve returned one. We’ve provided for the pack, as we will provide for each other. Now and forever, Marrock, I am your mate. I will track your quarry and bring you your enemies’ flesh. I am your shield, and your arrow.” Her voice cracked, and her throat tightened as she swallowed. He hated seeing her tension, her frustration, and knowing that he was the cause of it.