“Of course,” she murmured. He wanted to tell her that it was her, but she was obviously shy and spooked. He didn’t want to freak her out and send her running.
“So why do you think that some human females don’t want to do the Forever Mate thing?” she asked.
“Well, it’s a pretty political position, it’s very public, it’s actually a lot of work. Not everyone wants that responsibility. Or the woman may technically not be claimed, but she may be interested in someone back home, or she may not even want to be a member of a pack. Plenty of human women don’t. Which is fine, of course. Humans need us, we need humans. It’s all good.”
“Of course. That all makes sense.” She had to raise her voice to be heard above the din of conversation and the music blaring from the speakers. Her eyes were wide and she was scanning the crowd, looking almost fearful. His protective side swelled up.
“You want to get out of here?” he asked. “I’d like to invite you to meet my brother Clayton, and come back to our cabin for a drink.” Yep, he was that sure she was The One. All the stories were true – when you saw the right one you just knew, right away.
“Oh! Well, I…”
“There he is! Stay right here. Don’t move. Seriously. I’ll be right back.” He dashed through the crowd. Clayton was standing outside the bar, with his arm around the waist of the blonde woman who’d accosted Holt earlier. She was already half drunk.
“There you are! Now we can all have a really good time. I can’t wait to show you two some new tricks.” She winked at Holt.
“Wait a minute. Not the both of us.” Clayton disentangled himself from her and backed away. “I already told you, I’m just looking for a good time, and I’m going to be meeting up with a lot of women this week. I could not have made that more clear, Lianne. If you want more, you’ll have to look elsewhere.”
Lianne pouted. “But you already said you wanted me! You can’t just walk away and leave!” She threw her arms around Clayton’s waist and began kissing his neck. He grimaced, and tried to shrug her off of him.
“Holt?” Amelia’s questioning voice sent him spinning around, alarm jolting through him.
She glanced over at Clayton, whose eyes widened with surprise. Holt grinned to himself. He was in tune enough with his twin to know that Clayton was feeling the exact same thing that he did. It had hit him like a thunderbolt.
Clayton pulled the girl’s arms off him, none too gently, and stepped away from her. “I said no, Lianne. Goodbye,” he said roughly, and then quickly turned back to Amelia and pasted on his most charming smile.
“Hello,” he said, in that rough, sexy voice that always knocked girls over like bowling pins. “I’m Clayton. So glad to meet you.”
Apparently, Amelia was not your typical bowling pin. She was not going to be knocked over.
She took a step back. “I really need to get going, but it was great to meet both of you,” she said, and then she turned and ran into the crowd.
Holt turned to Clayton. “Well, well. Looks like Hell finally froze over. A hot little number knocked you down a peg or two. Now we need to go get her and convince her to come back, because she is the one, and I swear to God if another wolf gets his paws on her-”
Clayton’s eyes widened in alarm at that, he let out a growl of anger, and he quickly began pushing his way through the crowd in the direction that she’d gone, with Holt following right on his heels.
Chapter Five
As Amelia ran, she bit back a stream of curses. Those two wolves were the sexiest thing she’d ever seen, and she absolutely hated having to leave. She’d never had a threesome before, never thought of herself as particularly adventurous, but oh dear God, for those two she’d make an exception – if she were back in her world.
But it would be completely wrong for her to be involved with these two here – wouldn’t it? Then again, Holt and Mackenzie had both talked about women who came to the festival just looking for fun. She could be one of those women – couldn’t she?
No! she chastised herself firmly. She was here to observe and report back. She was here to write a research paper.
Then again, she’d sure learn about the werewolf way of life if she were to spend a night with those two in their cabin…
“Hey! What’s the hurry?” Mackenzie waved at her. She was standing by a vendor’s booth with a big, burly man with a crew cut, who had his arm slung around her waist. They were both holding drinks.
“Hey, Mackenzie.” She walked over to them.
Mackenzie had a necklace around her neck that hadn’t been there before. It dangled on a gold chain, and there was a little bouquet of flowers dangling from it – but the bouquet changed into different kinds of flowers. A bunch of daisies, the roses, then tulips…
“Does it do that forever?” Amelia asked, fascinated.
“Nah, probably a few days, unless I go to a Mage’s station and get it recharged,” Mackenzie shrugged. “You’ve never seen one of these before?”
“No, but they’re lovely.”
Damn. Every time Amelia opened her mouth she risked giving herself away. Also, Clayton and Holt might find her, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to resist them a second time. She really should leave, should go hide out in the woods and observe from afar, but she found herself wanting to stay. Everyone was having so much fun, and she really liked Mackenzie, and the thought of leaving Clayton and Holt behind made her oddly anxious and upset.
Fortunately, Mackenzie was too tipsy to be suspicious. “Try this. It’s a Howl At The Moon. They are so tasty.” Mackenzie held out her drink, a multi-layered concoction that tasted deliciously sweet. It was some mixture of coffee and liqueur and cream.
“Oh, dear God.Liquid orgasm. Oops, excuse me,” she said to the crew-cut guy. “I don’t usually discuss my orgasms in front of total strangers. Too much alcohol. I’m a total lightweight.”
“Ajax,” he said, sticking his hand out to introduce himself. “Please, discuss away. I’m delighted to be surrounded by two beautiful ladies talking about their orgasms.”
“Was that a fat joke?” she laughed. “There’s two of us and you’re surrounded?” She took another sip of Mackenzie’s drink.
“Hey!” Mackenzie grabbed her drink back. “Leave some for me, drunken wench. Get your boyfriends to buy you one. Where are they?”
“Oh, I, ah…” she flushed.
Mackenzie fixed her with a narrow eyed stare. “You what?”
“I might have panicked and run away, a little bit.”
“Are you a crazy woman? Aside from Mr. Hot Stuff here, they’re the two hottest werewolves I ever laid eyes on.” Ajax let out a low growl, and Mackenzie smacked his arm. “I said, aside from you! Jeez, you big cry-baby.”
He smirked at her.
“I intend to make you eat those words. Among other things.” The two were staring at each other with pure lust in their eyes. Amelia could practically see sparks sizzling in the air between them.
“Dang, guys, get a room,” she said.
“That is, in fact, where we were headed.” Mackenzie tore her gaze from Ajax for a minute to grin at her. “Don’t worry if you don’t see me too much for the next few days.”
“I won’t. I’ll just assume you’re being eaten by a big bad wolf,” Amelia said, then clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh my GOD! Why did you let me drink so much?”
Then she looked longingly at Mackenzie’s drink. “Maybe I should just have one more sip, so I can remember what it tastes like.”
Mackenzie clutched the drink protectively to her ample chest.
“You’re cut off! Go back and find your hot boyfriends and make them buy you one!” she said.
“They’re not my boyfriends,” Amelia said gloomily. Wouldn’t it be heavenly if they were? What a wonderful thing to go home to every evening. And to wake up next to in the morning.
“Here, follow me.” Ajax led the two of them towards another outdoors bar with a sign that identified it as the Love
Connection. Subtle. “Never let it be said that I let a lovely lady go thirsty.”
He pushed his way through the crowd to the bar, never losing his grip on Mackenzie, and called out “One Howl At The Moon for my friend here!” He glanced a Mackenzie, who’d almost finished her drink. “And another one for this beautiful lady.”
“He’s got excellent taste,” Amelia observed.
Mackenzie nodded in agreement. “And good eyesight. And he’s about to get very, very lucky.”
The bartender began mixing their drinks, carefully pouring in the layers. Music blared from the speakers, men and women danced under a pavilion by the bar, and Amelia was starting to get used to the sight of wolves wandering casually through the crowd and then standing up to turn into stark naked men.
“Where did you guys meet?” Amelia asked. She had to raise her voice to be heard. “Here at the festival, or out in the real world?”
“Oh, we met here last year, but not until the last day, so we never got a chance to hang out,” Mackenzie said. “We don’t live close to each other. Actually, Ajax and Barron live so far away, they’re almost in another district, I’d never have met them outside the festival.”
“My parents met outside the festival,” Ajax mused. “It happens sometimes. My mom was in an aisle at the grocery store, one of my dads saw her, and after that, it was all over. She moved in with them two weeks later.”
“So anyway, enough about us. Really, why did you run away from those two hotties?” Mackenzie asked. “You don’t like them?”
“Oh, God, did I like them. They were so freaking gorgeous,” Amelia said. “It’s just…” She tried to come up with a reason that wasn’t a total lie. “I’d never given any thought to being with a couple of Alphas, and all the things that go with it.”
The bartender set the drinks in front of her and Mackenzie, and Ajax reached for his wallet.
“I’ll get that,” Clayton said, sliding up next to Amelia. Holt was following close behind him.
Clayton slammed a few bills down on the bar, then slung his big, muscular arm around her. He smelled musky and sexy, and she loved how it felt to lean against him.
“Thanks,” Ajax said, raising his own drink in a toast to Clayton and Holt.
“We’re going to leave you three to realize that you’re all adorable together,” Mackenzie yelled out over the music. “Also a certain wolf has been threatening to make me eat my words, and I’m really dying to know how he’s going to make me do that.” She let Ajax lead her by the hand out of the bar.
Amelia took a big sip of her drink, and tried to calm her thrumming nerves. Mackenzie had just left her with the two hottest men she’d ever seen, and they both were looking at her as if they wanted to devour her…in the best way possible.
Chapter Six
“Can we go outside?” Clayton shouted, gesturing up at the blaring speakers. She nodded, and followed him and Holt out of the crowded bar, draining half her drink in one gulp.
I should leave. I should leave.
“I bought this for you,” Holt said. She realized he was holding a crown of roses – and the roses were changing color, rippling through all the colors of the rainbow. He set the crown on her head, and mock bowed to her.
“Milady,” he said.
She stifled a giggle.
“Thank you, your royal highness,” she said.
She wasn’t going anywhere.
“I didn’t make the best first impression, and I apologize,” Clayton said. “Could you find it in your heart to forgive me, and we can start over?”
“If you can forgive me for freaking out and running off like a crazy person,” she said.
“I like crazy. Crazy keeps life interesting.” He had the most charming, sexy smile, and he stared into her eyes as if she were the only woman on Earth. “Come walk with us. We were headed over to the feast tables. Hungry?”
Now that she thought of it, she was actually famished. Feast tables sounded much more delicious than the granola bars she’d stuffed into her bag.
“Okay,” she said, and let them lead the way.
After walking for a few minutes down winding paths, they came to a big cleared area with dozens of long banquet tables. There was an area with picnic tables and chairs near it, and there were also men and women sitting together on picnic blankets on the grass.
Holt walked towards a banquet table which had meat pies and platters of cold cuts and cheese and thick slabs of bread. There were stacks of plate and containers of silver ware on each end of the table.
Oddly, the air around the tables had what looked like steam rising from it. A man who she suspected was probably a Mage stood at the head of each table. When she reached out to fill up a plate, she realized that the air around the table was as frosty cold.
The Mages were using their power to keep the food on the tables cold, she realized.
They loaded up their plates and sat down cross legged on the grass under a spreading oak tree. Amelia dove into her food with gusto. Normally, she felt self conscious eating in front of guys, but somehow she felt completely comfortable with Clayton and Holt. She felt as if they’d never judge her for anything.
“Have a bite of mine,” Clayton said, holding his fork out to her. He cupped her face in his hand as she leaned forward to swallow a bite of the shepherd’s pie he was feeding her. The feeling of his hand heated her blood and sent a rush of arousal through her body. She felt her nipples swelling into hard buds against her shirt, and she bit her lip and stifled a low moan.
“I want you to know that we both really like you. A lot,” Clayton said.
“You just met me,” she protested. She tried to look away, but his golden-brown gaze held hers. “I might be a terrible person. Or, uh, boring. Or stupid. Or bad in bed.” Then she blushed; they hadn’t asked her to have sex with her, so why was she bringing this up?
“But you’re not any of those things,” Holt said.
“You’re so sure, are you?”
“Well, I do think we need to evaluate certain things on that list a little further.” He flashed her a roguish smile, and she had no doubt what he meant.
“I’m going to eat now,” she mumbled, diving into her plate and avoiding their eyes.
“Holt, will you go get the lovely lady some dessert?” Clayton said.
“With pleasure.” There was something about the way that he said the word “pleasure” that made her shiver.
She struggled to cling on to the last scraps of her willpower.
I’m a professional. An academic. I’m here to study. This is very unprofessional of me.
Dear God, they’re so ridiculously sexy they should come with a warning label.
Holt returned, and he held a plate piled high with little miniature cakes and cream puffs and strawberries.
“Oh, my, you are the devil.” She let out a little moan of pleasure and reached for it, and he yanked it out of her grasp.
“This can only be consumed in private. Back in our cabin.”
“Uh…really? Is that a festival tradition or something?”
Holt and Clayton exchanged glances with each other.
“Yes,” Holt said nodding vigorously.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “I question your veracity. Then again, I really want some of those cakes. Maybe all of them.”
“I’ll lead the way,” Holt said, and Clayton helped her to her feet.
Good lord, I’m really doing this, she thought as she followed them. The cabins were about ten minutes walk. They were rustic looking, the grass neatly mowed, with a wooden sign hanging in front of each cabin with a number on it.
“They’re not that far apart from each other,” she observed.
“But, soundproof,” Clayton grinned at her.
They walked in and shut the door behind them.
She glanced around them nervously.
The cabin was a one bedroom, with a small kitchen area and a living room. High on the wall there was a big screen TV. Acro
ss the room from it was a fireplace, with a bearskin rug in front of it.
She set her bag down by the door, and, crossing over into the living room, settled down on the leather sofa. There was a table that was cut from a giant slab of wood, which was balanced not on legs but on a big swirl of tree limbs. Holt set the dessert tray down on the table.
“Do you trust us?” Holt said, sitting down next to her.
“Well, I – oddly enough, yes.”
“I want to blindfold you. Indulge me on this.” Clayton pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and she let him tie it around her eyes.
“Now, we feed you.”
He picked up a piece of cake and slipped it between her lips.
The cake was moist and sweet on her tongue and she gave a contented sigh. Clayton’s fingers, warm and slightly rough, lingered on her lips for a moment and she felt a twist of arousal deep in her belly at the intimacy of the contact from this beautiful man – a stranger, yet one who somehow made her feel safe and protected. When his fingertips left her lips she darted out her tongue and he gave a low chuckle.
The blindfold meant she couldn’t see where the brothers were, but she felt the sofa dip and heard the leather creak as Holt settled beside her. She could feel the warmth of his thigh where it pressed against hers, even through two layers of cloth, and she realized her panties were damp, her pussy tingling. Her nipples were sensitive, straining against the fabric of her shirt.
Strong fingers pressed something cool and sweet against her lips and she let them part. Holt slid the slice of plump, ripe strawberry into her mouth and she bit down, hearing a stifled moan from him as the juice ran over her chin and down her throat in a sticky rivulet.
Then she felt warm lips against her throat and it was her turn to moan. Holt nipped gently at her throat, soothing the tender skin with his tongue, and energy crackled through her body, lighting up her nerve endings and filling her with an electric need that made her gasp and squirm restlessly in her seat. He pressed his teeth against her flesh and she gasped as they broke the skin. She thought she caught the faint coppery whiff of blood. Despite the sting, despite the fact that she knew there would be a mark there, what she felt wasn’t pain. As Holt pulled back to gentle the spot with tender kisses, the slight throb in the flesh of her throat set up an answering pulse in her clitoris, deep and insistent. It was a new kind of pleasure; one she hadn’t felt before.
Twin Alphas: Claimed (A BBW Werewolf Romance) Page 4