Her Pack
Page 10
Because…actually, there were no words to describe how perfect they were.
All the muscles. The bulging veins. The heated looks they each gave her—because they were as excited for this run as she was, and it was starting to show in certain lower places on their bodies. Not that Maia would complain, because they were as nice under the hoods as their upper bodies would suggest. Especially Grimm. That man was large in every respect.
Maia thought about averting her gaze, not ogling them so much, but why should she bother? If they were going to be her future pack, maybe, then she was going to have to get used to seeing every inch of them. Not a bad thing to get used to. Her wolf loved it. So she stared at them all, a grin forming as she said, “Now turn. Let’s see those inner wolves come to life.”
“Bossy, bossy,” Farkas muttered. “I think I like Alarick better. He doesn’t boss me around so much.” He faked injury when Alarick elbowed him.
The air around the men changed as they shifted, their human bodies bending over, morphing at the exact same time. They turned in unison, a true pack through and through. Their wolves mostly stood at the same height—four feet tall, though Grimm was larger all around, as he was in human form. They each were the color of their natural hair: Alarick was a blonde, yellow wolf, Farkas a dirty brown, and Grimm a pure, pitch-black.
Farkas plopped his ass on the ground, patiently waiting for Maia to turn. Alarick stepped closer to her, lifting his head, his eyes a more vibrant blue than they were when he was human. Grimm hung back, though his dark gaze lingered on her, so heavy and intense. His fur, out of all of them, was the longest. The perfect length for her to run her hands through and get lost in.
But, really, they were all beautiful and strong wolves.
When Maia turned, she would not be as tall as them, nor would she be as wide. What her wolf lacked in size, she made up for in speed. Maia was fast, and she was beyond curious to know if any of them would be able to keep up with her. To catch her.
“Now, the game is,” Maia said, reaching down to unzip her ankle-high boots, “catch me if you can.” Her bare feet stepped onto the dry grass below as she heard a whine come from the pack. Grimm wasn’t the type to whine, neither was Alarick, so she knew it must’ve come from Farkas. He probably wanted to know what they’d get if they caught her.
She refused to say, because Maia knew they wouldn’t.
Maia thought about turning as she reached behind her for the zipper of her dress, but as they were all wolves, she figured she was safe enough. Her dress fell to the ground the moment it was undone, her bare chest meeting the cool air, nipples hardening at the fast change of temperature. She had to shift. Now.
Aware of the three pairs of eyes on her, uncaring whether or not Roy was peering through the blinds in his house, Maia pulled down her panties, leaping out of the pile of her clothes. Her muscles twitched, her body ached. Her inner wolf broke free, claws forming on her hands and feet, a snout growing from her face. Before she landed, she was fully shifted.
Her fur was more maroon in the moonlight than it was red. Maia shook her body out, pawing the ground. It had only been a day since she’d changed, but it still felt like a relief. All the tension in her human body, gone. Just like that. It was an amazing feeling, being so free, made even better by the three wolves that stared at her, waiting for her to make the first move.
Maia’s grey eyes moved to Alarick. The alpha was watching her intently, breathing calmly through his nostrils. His golden tail flicked back and forth. He was ready to run.
And so was she.
Without a warning, without letting her body language give it away, Maia sprinted off, her legs speeding into a steady run immediately. She would not allow herself to look back, because her ears gathered all the information she needed: they’d followed her instantly, though they were clearly not as accustomed to jumping right into things like she was. Grimm’s heavy footsteps especially.
Maia should’ve guessed that, out of the three of them, Grimm would be the slowest. Farkas had mentioned that he hadn’t been on a run in a while, that he never let his wolf out. He would be rusty at first, but he’d regain the hang of things. Some things were instinctual, and running for wolves was as easy as breathing.
Her feet drew her over the nearest hill, farther away from the road and deeper into the plains. There was hardly a tree in sight, nor any bushes, but luckily Roy’s house was the only house for miles, and he owned nearly fifty acres. It was enough to make multiple paths, enough to outrun the pack that thought they’d be able to catch her.
Maia’s legs pumped, her lower jaw falling a bit as she started to breathe through her mouth, grunting every so often. She bounded through the overgrown grass, the feeling of freedom pumping through her veins.
There was nothing in the world better than this.
The fools behind her would never catch her.
Chapter Eighteen – Alarick
What had Alarick been expecting? Certainly not such a fast one, and not such an enticing one. She was even more appealing in her wolf form than she was in her human one. Such a unique color to her wolf; he couldn’t say if he’d ever seen a red wolf before, but here she was, red and wild and free.
And so very fast.
Maia thought they wouldn’t catch her, and she would be right, if they simply trailed her through Roy’s property. But the thing was, they were a pack, and there was a way to catch any sort of prey. Not that Maia was their prey…only their target. It was far too difficult for Alarick to admit that she was not their mate, not even a packmate yet.
After tonight…at least she’d be the latter, provided she didn’t change her mind. No way in hell could she, though, because once a bond formed, it was not so easily severed. Their wolves were connected; Alarick felt it, knew it, deep down. It would hurt them all if she left now, whether she was their mate or not.
As they ran, Alarick shot Farkas a look. An unspoken conversation happened in the blink of an eye; his beta knew what Alarick’s plan was. Farkas broke away, veering to the left as fast as his legs would take him. None of them were as quick as Maia, but they had something she did not. Numbers.
Grimm was behind Alarick, but the large wolf needed no instruction, having seen enough just by watching Farkas break away from the group. Grimm steered to the right, disappearing over the flowing hills that made up Roy’s acreage.
Sooner or later, Maia would make a turn, would stop going straight, or at the very least she’d run into the fence that separated Roy’s property with his neighbor’s. She didn’t think this whole thing through. They’d get her eventually, somehow.
Alarick trailed her, though he was losing her. He knew he couldn’t keep up with her; her legs seemed to blur, her speed near unmatchable. His body was thicker than hers, his legs sturdier. Though she was fast, he wondered how long she could keep it up. Even the fastest animal in the world could only sprint at its top speed for a short time, so there was no possible way Maia could keep this up for long. This wasn’t a sprint; this was a marathon.
Maia threw a look behind her. Her first mistake was checking how far back Alarick was—twenty feet, which didn’t really matter. Her second mistake, however, was turning slightly to the right, running through a valley between two hills. She knew Alarick was alone; she didn’t need to look at him to confirm it. Their hearing as wolves was far better than it was when they in their human form, as was their sense of smell. She knew the rest of the pack had broken off…maybe she figured she could dodge Grimm and outrun him.
Which, admittedly, she probably could. Grimm was the slowest out of all of them, but in that split-second it would take for her to decide what to do, which direction to run, Alarick would get her.
It was the plan, anyway, because if one of them was going to catch her, it was going to be him. Not Grimm, not Farkas. Only Alarick. He was the alpha. If Maia wanted to join them as a packmate, she’d have to submit to him. But only if he proved himself and his pack by catching her, first.
It was like Maia was already part of their pack.
Alarick would be lying if he said he would be happy to just have Maia as a packmate. Of course he wanted her as a mate, to claim her and make her his, his pack’s. He would be foolish, idiotic, downright stupid to not want her like that, but as hard as it was, he would accept it, would force the others to accept it, should it be all she wanted.
By her smell, he knew it wasn’t what she wanted, what her inner wolf wanted. The pheromones were thick in the air, but somehow Maia was fighting it. That, or she didn’t want to admit it. Alarick would not take her simply because his wolf needed her, because of the delicious way she smelled.
But God, did she smell good. The best he’d ever smelled. The females in his old pack, from what little he could remember of them, had smelled nowhere near as enticing and alluring, nor did they look like her. So beautiful, drop-dead gorgeous. Model-like, but with more curves and the attitude to match. Oh, yes. Alarick would be the world’s worst liar if he said he didn’t want to have her as his mate.
Any wolf would.
She had to have come from a pack. It didn’t seem probable, since she had no scent of another, since she was unclaimed, but there was no possible way that she’d been on her own this long. A lone wolf did not fit so perfectly into a pack, especially so quickly. Had her old pack treated her badly? Had she never connected with them because of it? She was a nice enough woman, albeit a bit rough around the edges, as all wolves were, so what could possibly make her try to live her life on her own?
Alarick was dying to know. Also dying because he wanted to help her, to protect her and swear that whatever had happened to her would never happen again.
His legs continued to pump as he chased after her, his breathing ragged. His wide chest worked to keep his body moving, but despite it all, Alarick knew he was beginning to slow. He was slowing, and Maia looked like she still had some left in her. Lungs straining, he refused to lose sight of her, would not let her win this.
He had to catch her. He had to.
And so Alarick worked to steady his rapidly-beating heart, putting his entire body into the sprint. He gained some speed, but not enough. Maia’s red form still ran ahead of him, though she sharply turned to the right, darting over the hill beside them. His legs did not make the change in direction as effortlessly as hers did, but he managed. The moment he ran over the hill, he saw the plan had worked.
Grimm was in front of her, panting heavily, his snout hanging low, nearly on the ground. His black tail swished back and forth, though his ears perked up the moment he saw Alarick’s approach.
To her credit, Maia skidded to a halt fifteen feet before him, about to turn and run when her grey stare spotted Alarick behind her. Her chest let out a low growl, nothing too aggressive, only annoyed, and she was seconds from darting to the left when the final wolf of their pack showed up, panting even worse than Grimm.
Alarick and his pack evenly spread out around her, circling her so there would be no quick and safe route to escape. Alarick kept to her front, watching as she studied the other wolves around her, coming to the same conclusion: there was no way out of this. They had her.
They caught her.
Maia forced a loud breath from her nostrils, her stare becoming a glare as she looked to Alarick. Annoyed didn’t even cover it, but Alarick was too thrilled to have gotten to her that he didn’t care. If his wolfish lips could smile, they would have.
Her ears fell, her tail lowering. Her padded feet drew her closer to Alarick, and before his mind could register it, she was sitting before him, rubbing her snout and her head against the underside of his neck. It was as much submission as she would show tonight, he knew. Maia stayed there for a while, tucked under him.
Alarick watched as Farkas stepped closer, curiosity and jealousy written on his muzzle, or maybe that was just the connection they shared. Either way, Alarick got him to back off by baring his teeth a bit. This was not a moment for Farkas to butt in and ruin. This was the moment when Maia agreed to become part of their pack, and Alarick would not see it ended so soon because of impatience. At least Grimm knew enough to hang back. Actually, the large wolf sat on his haunches, probably too out of breath to come closer.
If Alarick had arms, if they were in their other forms right now, he’d hug her, hold her close and promise to her that she wouldn’t regret joining. But they weren’t, so all he could do was tilt his head down to her and rest his snout atop her head, calm her by merely being close to her.
Even if, deep down, his wolf side wanted to do more. Now wasn’t the time for that.
She pressed against him harder, leaning against his neck and chest as if he were her support. Alarick breathed her in, memorizing her scent, the way she breathed in and out evenly, already cooled from the run. Maia was nothing like he’d ever dreamed, more than he could’ve hoped for. Was it too much to hope for more? Was he selfish for wanting more, for lusting after her in the way nature demanded?
Probably, but he just couldn’t help it. He wanted her desperately, wanted to climb on top of her and take her as a wolf, and then he wanted to take her as a human. To fully claim her, he’d need to do both, although a wolf taken in human form was not technically claimed.
Before he let his mind get too carried away, Alarick stepped back, wordlessly telling her that it was done. His stare held hers and he gave her a short nod.
Maia stood, moving to Farkas, who continued to sit where he was when Alarick had bared his teeth. He looked downright abused, as if Alarick had snapped at him with his teeth and caused injury. What a child. When she drew closer to him, though, his ears perked up, his tail starting to hit the ground, like a damned dog.
Maia cocked her head at him, and in response, Farkas practically leapt to his feet, rubbing against her, his jowls drooping somewhat. He licked her cheek and her snout, which caused her to bare her own teeth. Unlike when Alarick did it, the gesture did not make him stop. He kept licking her. If he was a cat, he’d probably be purring right now. Maia snapped at his ear, snatching the tip of it between her front teeth.
That stopped him real quick.
Turning away from the sad Farkas, Maia padded her way to Grimm, who still sat, hunched over, breathing harder than he should’ve given that they’d stopped running a little while ago. Sometimes size was not a good thing.
His dark eyes were locked on her as she moved closer, his ears focusing on her. Grimm hardly moved a single muscle when Maia pressed her nose to his neck, nearly her entire snout getting lost in his longer fur. His chest made a rumbling sound, something that sounded like a content sigh, and as he made it, Maia’s grey eyes closed.
Though Alarick wanted her to come back to him, wanted her at his side, he did like seeing the others with her. If she could make them all happy, what more was there to it? He knew Farkas and Grimm each felt something for her, their wolves wanted her just as his did, and he also knew that Maia had to feel it, too. She knew they wanted her, and there had to be a part of her that desired them, too.
Why did she fight it? Why could she not just give in?
They spent the next few hours running in the fields, over the hills, moving as one. They played and they chased, howled to the moon a bit, and thoroughly wore themselves out. It was after midnight by the time they made it back to the truck, near one in the morning when they got back to the house. Maia had fallen asleep on Farkas’s shoulder during the ride back, her breathing slow and steady. Her face was splattered with a bit of dirt, but it did nothing to mar her looks.
When he pulled into the garage, Alarick told the others, “Go on in. I’ll bring her.” He
waited as the others shuffled out, wrapping his hands around her as he helped her out of the truck. She stirred a bit, her eyelids fluttering, but she said nothing, too exhausted to deny the help.
Alarick brought her through the house, moving to his bedroom. What he really wanted to do was set her on the bed and climb in with her, but he didn’t want to push it, push her, even if his wolf had never desired something so badly. He set her on the bed’s right side, moving the covers and gingerly pulling them over her. Maia immediately turned onto her side, giving him her back, snuggling into the pillow—his pillow—as she muttered something about cake.
Sounded like a good dream.
He watched her in the darkness for a bit, hearing Farkas and Grimm go into their room. She was so beautiful, even when she was sleeping. Her red hair splayed out around her, dirt smudged on her cheek. Crawling into bed with her was his first instinct, continuing to watch her was his second. His very last instinct told him to leave the room and sleep on the couch, but that’s precisely what he ended up doing.
Baby steps, right? If he took things slow, maybe Maia would see that being their mate would not be such a bad thing. Everyone could be happy, loved, and protected. They would be one.
Alarick fell asleep as he replayed the memory of running with Maia, of her submitting to him as alpha, agreeing to join the pack. And then, after sleep took him, he dreamed of her. Her soft, pale skin, the way she moaned when he ran his hands down them, the look in her stormy eyes when his fingers tangled in her hair and tugged.
When he would wake, for of course he would, he would wish to go back to sleep and return to the imagined embrace of the female shifter who had wiled her way into his head and his heart.
Chapter Nineteen – Maia