by Odessa Lynne
“The drugs are working well at the moment. You need to stop being afraid.”
“Yeah. Fuck that. I’m not going to stop being afraid.”
“The scent of your fear is so strong it makes me want to ignore my submission to Beintaegoer’s claim and take you for myself.”
“Call him Wolf so I know who the fuck you’re talking about.” There was so much more Salvadore could’ve chosen to address from Egan’s words but … he couldn’t. If he thought too hard about what Egan was saying, he would never get his fear under control.
“If we aren’t friends, how else would you have me describe my feelings for you? We aren’t mates.”
“I annoy you,” Salvadore said. “You said it yourself.”
Egan’s voice deepened when he spoke, turning husky and soft in a way that startled Salvadore, “Would you have preferred for me to fight for you? It would have been dangerous for all of us.”
“No, I wouldn’t have preferred you fight. But you sure the fuck did give up easy.”
Egan’s eyebrows drew tight over his brilliant eyes. Salvadore immediately regretted opening his mouth. He’d sounded bitter and he didn’t like it. And it wasn’t because Egan didn’t want him. If Egan had stopped Wolf from claiming Salvadore, then maybe Salvadore would’ve got out of this without having to mate anyone at all.
But that thought skittered to an abrupt halt as reality asserted itself.
Of course he wouldn’t have gotten out of this without mating anyone at all, because Egan would undoubtedly have demanded the same kind of submission Wolf had asked for, and … well, Wolf still scared him, but not in the same way as before, and Salvadore couldn’t bring himself to regret the bargain he’d made now that he’d made it.
Egan had attacked him. It was Wolf who had protected Salvadore. He’d protected Salvadore from everyone—including Egan himself.
No, Salvadore didn’t regret his bargain. But he did question his luck that he’d ended up making that bargain with the one wolf that had scared him more than any wolf since he’d found himself huddling in a cabinet, terrified that one of the wolves would find him.
He felt compelled to say something, anything, to change the subject. What came out was a gruff, “Are you sure the drugs are working?”
“You would know if the drugs had failed. I wouldn’t be able to resist your scent, not standing so close to you.”
Salvadore took another step back but he was too close to the tree and his back came up against the trunk. “Shit.”
Egan took a step back. “Do you feel better now?”
“Not really.” Salvadore waved his hand. “How about a few more?”
Egan showed his teeth but he did as Salvadore asked.
Salvadore rolled his shoulders and straightened. “Thanks.”
“See, we are friends.”
Salvadore gave Egan a narrow-eyed glare. “Just because—”
“And soon we’ll be pack.”
“Huh?”
“Pack,” Egan repeated. “Your mate submitted to Alpha.”
“So?”
“So you’ll have status in the pack because of your mate. Watchers are valued pack members.”
“I thought—No, wait. This—this thing. It’s temporary, right? ’Cause that doesn’t sound temporary.”
Egan opened his mouth as if to say something but hesitated, and Salvadore had the strongest feeling he’d ever had that he was about to be lied to.
And then Egan’s eyes flickered over Salvadore’s face, his own actions that of someone startled by something unexpected. “Fascinating,” Egan said softly.
“What?”
But Egan didn’t elaborate, saying instead, “Of course you’ll have to submit to Alpha first, but I’m sure he’ll accept you.” With that Egan turned and started to leave.
Salvadore lunged forward, grabbing Egan’s arm. “Wait, what did you mean by—”
A short, soft growl came out of Egan’s throat, but otherwise Egan didn’t move.
Salvadore jerked his hand back, away from the tightly corded muscle. “I’m sorry.”
Egan didn’t look at Salvadore, just kept his gaze aimed in the direction of the others. “I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to touch me, but this isn’t the time for unexpected movements like that.”
“Yeah, no.” Salvadore was shaking his head and he had to make himself stop. He couldn’t believe he’d just reached out for Egan like that, without even thinking. “I understand.”
“I need to return to the others. Ask your questions of Beintae—” Egan did turn then, catching Salvadore’s gaze and there was warmth there, Salvadore was sure of it. “Wolf. Ask your questions of Wolf. He’ll have more answers for you.”
Salvadore nodded. Egan left him then, walking through the thinly wooded forest to the wolves he’d been talking to earlier.
For the next half hour or so Salvadore just watched Egan and the others and waited on Wolf’s return, doing his best to ignore the gnawing in his stomach.
Chapter 15
“I feel weird like this,” Salvadore said, staring at the top of Wolf’s head. He tried again to tug his foot out of Wolf’s hand.
Wolf’s eyes blazed when he looked up at Salvadore, who was sitting on a chair in the den’s large—very large—dining room. Salvadore stopped tugging and clenched his fingers beside him around the edges of the hard wood of the chair’s seat.
The table took up a great deal of space and there were enough chairs around it to seat sixteen people. No one else was in the dining room with them.
Salvadore hadn’t been able to believe how undisturbed the main house had looked when Wolf had shoved him inside. There’d been several smaller buildings nearby, but he hadn’t had enough time to do more than glance at them. He wasn’t even sure he’d seen them all.
But from the moment Wolf had returned for him and the others, he’d been running hot and hard. He’d sniffed Salvadore’s throat, and then dropped to his knees and practically rubbed Salvadore off with the side of his face against Salvadore’s groin while the others stayed back—far back, and Salvadore had tried to remember their bargain. Wolf’s heat had obviously started in earnest and Salvadore—Salvadore had had no idea how to handle him. So he’d kept his mouth shut and let Wolf tug him away from the tree and pull him along by his hand through the woods.
The forest had thinned even further the farther they traveled, and Salvadore had been able to see a clearing ahead. It wasn’t until then that Salvadore had realized Reed and the other wolf hadn’t returned with Wolf. They’d stayed behind and had been waiting for them near the edge of the clearing.
He hadn’t traveled that far, but Wolf had pushed him all the way and the grade had steepened. The other wolves had been behind them, even Egan—and downwind, Salvadore had realized as the breeze fluttered through the holes in his t-shirt and chilled his sweaty skin. By the time they’d broke through the tree line, Salvadore had been breathing hard and his thigh muscles had been burning and his boots had been pinching the blisters that he hadn’t been joking about.
But they had made it to the den, despite whatever it was that had worried Wolf and the others. He’d been able to see the tops of trees rising up from the other side of the rocky ridge. A solar roof had glinted in the distance. They’d approached from the back, which was the high side of the mountain they’d been traveling across all morning and then Wolf had dug something caked with dirt out of his pocket and pressed two fingers to it and the back door’s lock had released.
After Wolf had shoved him inside, Salvadore had wandered around a few rooms, smelling the stale, dry air and waiting on the wolves to decide what the hell they were doing, until finally Wolf had entered the home, along with Reed and one of the other wolves Salvadore didn’t know.
Salvadore assumed the other wolves were staking out the perimeter or something like that. The reality was, he had no idea what any of them were doing.
He was starting to get an idea of what he was about to be doing
though and it involved Wolf and—
“No!” Salvadore grabbed at Wolf’s hands, too late. His foot curled and he jerked.
If not for Wolf’s amazingly fast reflexes, the chair would have tipped and Salvadore would have ended up in the floor. The legs clopped against the wood floor and Salvadore’s heart thudded in tandem.
Wolf squeezed Salvadore’s arch and looked at Salvadore with eyes that glimmered glassy and bright in the light coming through the wide windows that took up nearly the entire far wall. The view outside was spectacular, looking out over a steep drop down the side of the mountain. It was enough to make Salvadore’s stomach clench every time he looked in that direction.
“I should have suspected your feet were sensitive,” Wolf said.
“Ticklish.”
“But your injuries need to be treated and it’s my duty to treat them.”
“I’d rather eat.” As if to emphasize his point, his stomach growled.
“I’d rather hear you laugh again.”
Wolf’s claws came out against the top of Salvadore’s foot.
Salvadore’s toes curled and he gasped, grabbing Wolf’s hand. Wolf’s skin burned hot under Salvadore’s palms and his gaze collided with Wolf’s. “You’re running a fever,” Salvadore said.
“No, my heat is on me.”
The blood in Salvadore’s veins suddenly felt heavy and thick. “Oh.”
“I need to take care of your needs before I give in again.”
Salvadore should have been paying more attention to Wolf’s hands though, because Wolf chose that moment to drag the tip of one of his claws along the sole of Salvadore’s foot.
“No!” But it was too late. His toes curled again, and Salvadore couldn’t stop his laugh as he slid down in the seat, twisting, trying to get away, but Wolf held tight to Salvadore’s foot and continued to draw his claw across the sensitive underside. Salvadore’s laugh became a gasp for breath as he almost slid right off the front of the chair and onto Wolf’s thighs.
He grabbed at the seat behind him.
Wolf abruptly stopped tickling Salvadore’s foot. Salvadore was breathing so hard he had trouble making the muscles in his arms work as he tried to slide back into place in the chair.
Then Wolf raised Salvadore’s foot and took a deep whiff.
“What the hell are you doing that for?” Salvadore asked, the breathless sound of his voice undermining his outrage. “My feet have been stuck in a pair of boots for days.”
“Your scent’s strong here…” Wolf’s eyes fluttered closed.
“Strong is probably the right word for it.” Salvadore sucked in a few more ragged breaths and rubbed at his ribs where the muscles still ached just a little from his bout of laughter, even though the feeling was fading fast. “Rank might be another.”
“Rank?” Wolf shook his head, opening his eyes as if by force. “Thrilling. Exotic. Intoxicating. Those are the words that describe your scent.” Wolf rose up on his knees, dragging Salvadore’s foot along with him.
“Whoa.” Salvadore clutched at the sides of the chair and tried not to slide off.
Wolf reached for the roll of thin, clear tape he’d dropped to the table when he’d told Salvadore to sit. Without speaking, he used the bandages on Salvadore’s feet. The transparent material had a flexibility to it that the human equivalent didn’t and it stuck to Salvadore’s flesh like a second skin. Once in place on his toes and heels, Salvadore couldn’t even tell it was there.
Frankly, the blisters weren’t hurting him anymore anyway, not even a twinge when he flexed his feet, and hadn’t been since he’d removed his boots at Wolf’s request. He probably didn’t need the tape but he wasn’t feeling up to an argument about it so he hadn’t tried to stop Wolf from putting it on.
“Food now?” Salvadore asked, and he didn’t even try to hide how hopeful he sounded.
“As much as you want,” Wolf said. He lowered Salvadore’s foot, gently releasing it to rest on the cool floor.
Salvadore flexed his toes and tried not to think about what was going to come after the food. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Wolf to fuck him again, because he’d actually had a few thoughts about that as the day had gone on, remembering at the weirdest times the feel of Wolf’s hands on his waist, the heat of Wolf’s mouth on his dick and Wolf’s thick cock in his ass, but … this was different. It wasn’t a heat of the moment thing, a rash decision he’d been prepared to live with only because no other good options had presented themselves.
This time he would know what he was getting.
And there was definitely a part of him that didn’t mind that thought at all. Namely his cock.
Although…
Salvadore refused to let himself start thinking this was anything but what it was—a bargain to get him through this so he could get back to Chen and El. He’d had enough of the living in a fantasy. It was time he became a realist. “Where are the others?” he asked to distract himself.
“Most of us are outside, guarding the den.”
“I saw Reed come in—”
“He’s preparing the food.”
“And that other one?”
“He’s working on a way to communicate our location to Alpha.”
“Will it work?”
“He believes it will.”
“Well… do you believe him?”
“If I didn’t, he would be guarding the den instead.” Wolf’s words had an edge to them, something that went beyond mere confidence.
Before Salvadore could follow up, a sudden lightheadedness overtook him and he quickly flattened his hand on the table beside him to stop the room spinning around him. “Whoa,” he muttered. “That can’t be good.”
Wolf leaned over him and cupped his hand at Salvadore’s jaw. “You need to eat. I forget sometimes how fragile you humans are. You should have reminded me to feed you this morning.”
Salvadore raised his eyebrows and did his best to ignore the heat of Wolf’s hand on his face. “I did, or don’t you remember telling me I shouldn’t gripe about it?”
Wolf traced his thumb across Salvadore’s upper lip. Salvadore breathed so shallow he could hardly feel the air enter his lungs as he stared up at Wolf.
“I’m sorry I’ve treated you so roughly,” Wolf said.
Salvadore swallowed and nodded. “It hasn’t been so bad. Definitely could have been worse. I—” Thought it would be, he finished silently. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words.
“Now that I have you in a much safer place, I’ll care for you better.” Wolf released Salvadore’s face, and strangely enough, Salvadore missed the pressure of Wolf’s hand on his skin.
“Just feed me. I feel like I’m dying here.” A clatter echoed through the wall and a vent hummed. Salvadore turned his head toward the kitchen door and sniffed the air. “Do I smell steak?” He looked back at Wolf. “Where the hell did you guys get steak?”
“Venison,” Wolf said and the look he gave Salvadore made him remember the smudge of blood on Reed’s cheek when they’d met up in the woods earlier.
“You guys went hunting?” He’d assumed he’d be eating some kind of packaged food, something easily stored. His quick walk-through earlier had shown him that the wolves had kept this place ready for re-habitation, for whatever reason. The only thing missing had been people.
“Food’s as necessary for us as it is for you, and your deer are delicious.” Wolf’s grin showed too many teeth. “Don’t move. I’ll be back with food. We’ll eat, and then we’ll mate again.”
“Yeah. Sounds great.” The strange thing was, Salvadore actually thought it did sound like a pretty good idea.
Less than ten minutes later, Salvadore was sitting there watching Wolf with a confused frown on his face.
“When I said feed me, I didn’t mean for you to literally feed me.” Salvadore reached for the plate in front of Wolf, but Wolf slid the plate out of Salvadore’s reach in one smooth move, never lowering his other hand which held a bite of the v
enison steak.
“I did,” Wolf said.
Wolf moved to press the steak to Salvadore’s lips. Salvadore continued to frown but he reacted without thought and opened his mouth. Wolf’s fingers lingered against Salvadore’s tongue until Salvadore had closed his mouth around them and taken the food. Only then had Wolf withdrawn and then only to pick up another piece of the meat.
Salvadore chewed slowly and watched Wolf, not sure what to make of what had just happened. After Salvadore swallowed, he put his hand up and blocked the next bite coming for his mouth. “Why are you doing this?”
“It’s our way with mates during our heat season.”
“Really? All of you?”
“Yes.”
“You take turns feeding each other?”
Wolf pushed aside Salvadore’s hand and pressed the meat to Salvadore’s lips. Salvadore gave in and accepted the food.
“It’s a sign of our respect for our mates’ submission,” Wolf said. “I don’t expect you to feed me.” Wolf’s lips curved, showing the points of his eyeteeth. “Although you’re welcome to feed me if you’d like to.”
“Maybe I will.” Salvadore reached for the plate again.
Wolf’s hand curled around Salvadore’s wrist. “Only after I’ve taken care of you. That’s the proper way to do things.”
“Proper?” Salvadore laughed, probably louder than necessary. “I never would’ve thought of you as a stickler for what’s proper. You know what’s proper for us? Eating steak with a knife and fork.”
Wolf had clawed the meat into bite-sized pieces almost effortlessly. Salvadore had watched wide-eyed.
“Eat,” Wolf said, lowering Salvadore’s hand and offering a bite of meat with his other.
Salvadore frowned again but ate. He’d felt the fine tremors in Wolf’s hand, and he thought he knew what that meant. He eyed Wolf, taking in the sheen of sweat at Wolf’s throat and forehead, at the damp hair at Wolf’s temples and ears.
Wolf was either sick or…
Yeah. Salvadore thought about how he might react if Wolf actually lost control of himself and he didn’t like what he imagined.
Salvadore ate faster.