Daring Fate: Silver Tip Pack series

by Megan Erickson

  Dare

  * * *

  As Reese bounded around my room in his wolf form, I knew I was going to have to take him out soon. He couldn’t be stuck here forever. I sucked on a piece of sugar candy as he barked at a fly on the wall. He was a pretty wolf, not that I expected him not to be. He still had those bright blue eyes, and his gray coat was much glossier now than when he’d first arrived a couple of days ago. The white patch at his throat was vivid, and made his neck look thick and his shoulders broad.

  I’d already shifted to wolf and back to human to work out some kinks, but I was letting Reese play a little longer in his wolf form. When he finally shifted back, he rose to his feet and stretched his arms in the air. “Fuck, that felt good.” He scratched his stomach and cocked his head at me. “Hey, what’s that?”

  “The novuses all call them pops. They are balls of hard sugar on a stick.”

  I held it out to him as he walked over. He lowered his head, lapping at the red candy. “Holy shit, that’s delicious.”

  He snatched it out of my hand and plopped on the bed.

  “Hey, thief.”

  “I’m skinny, remember? Gotta fatten up.”

  I crawled over him, so he was forced to lay on his back as he sucked on the candy. I ran a finger over his red-stained lips. I’d never thought about my previous partners’ pasts, mainly because I hadn’t cared. I cared about Reese’s, though, wondering who else had gotten a taste of those plump lips. “How many wolves have you kissed?”

  He pulled the candy out of his mouth with a pop and blinked up at me. “Kissed?”

  “Yeah.”

  He squinted an eye. “One?”

  One? “Wait…”

  “Never been kissed before—is that what you want to know? My parents kissed all the time, but I rarely saw that in the Bluefoot pack. Wasn’t something we did.”

  I pressed on the corner of his mouth. “What do you think about it?”

  “What do I think about kissing?”

  “Yeah.”

  He grinned. “I was missing out. Although I can honestly look back and say every person I fucked, I had zero desire to kiss.”

  Reese said he’d joined the pack at ten. I shuddered a little to think about his experiences. “Were you ever forced?”

  He huffed out a laugh. “Sure, the first time.”

  The anger rose swift and sudden, surprising even me. Reese’s mouth dropped open and he stuck the candy in my mouth. “Hold on there, Alpha Angry. It’s not what you think.”

  I handed the candy back to him. “Then tell me.”

  He blew out a breath, and something churned behind his eyes. “I hate talking about this.” After a shudder, he kept talking. “Okay, so when I was sixteen, a female from some other pack was in the labor force with me… I can’t remember which pack now… She went into heat. Xan made me get her through it. And it was fucking awful. I was terrified of hurting her, and she was just plain terrified of me. She cried. I did what I had to do to get through it. She got pregnant and died six weeks later during complications from her miscarriage. The end.”

  He said it all in a monotone, which I sensed was a way of detaching himself from the emotions of it. But if I’d learned anything about Reese by now, it was that he felt emotions very deeply. The slight tremble in his lips and the tick in his jaw told me he was holding himself back.

  I slipped my hand up his neck to cup his cheek, unsure how to comfort him. I pressed a kiss to his forehead. He peered up at me, his blue eyes a little glassy, and offered me a wobbly smile. “Thanks.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged as he swiped under his eyes. “Yeah, me too. Anyway, after that, it was a couple of partners just to get off every once in a while. Now I’m here, and I’m obsessed with your dick, and that’s my sexual history.”

  He grinned as I laughed softly. “I see.”

  “I’m assuming your experiences have been a little less traumatic.”

  I nodded as I sat up beside him. “Yes, but they were also about getting off. Nothing like this craving I have for you.”

  He waggled his eyebrows at me as he popped the candy back in his mouth. Watching him lay on my bed naked, half-hard cock laying against his thigh while he hollowed his cheeks to suck on the candy, was turning me on.

  He glanced at me, and sat with his hand held out to me, his humor gone. “As much as my dick wants to stay here and let you ravage me again, I really want to go see my brother.” He nibbled his lip. “Please.”

  His wide-eyed plea had me ready to cave in a nano-second. During the time we’d spent holed up in my room, we’d moved past the initial physical craving for each other and into the actual like stage. I loved the moments we’d shared, but outside the door was a whole other issue. I wasn’t the only alpha in the Silver Tip pack, and there were plenty ready to challenge me and take my place.

  I straddled Reese’s waist and slapped the mattress on either side of his head. He gulped and kept silent.

  “There are a couple of things we need to get straight before we leave this apartment. I’m the alpha of this pack. Xan runs a much different pack. But here? There’s no shortage of pack members eager to challenge me, watching for weakness every damn day, hoping for an Achilles heel they can exploit.” My sentence ended on a growl. “As the mate to an alpha, you’re tied to me. If my throat is ripped out by a challenger, the same thing would happen to you. My self-preservation is in your best interest.”

  Reese swallowed, eyes wide, and nodded.

  I took a moment to get myself under control before lifting a hand to caress his neck. “We came to a truce earlier, and I’d like to honor that. In here, you can challenge me within reason and question me. Out there?” I pressed slightly on his windpipe. “You must obey and show respect. Do you understand?”

  He answered quickly with sincerity. “I understand.”

  I smacked his cheek lightly, then stepped off the bed to dress. After my pants and my shirt were on and I’d slipped my feet into my boots, I turned around. He hadn’t moved from where he lay on his back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I didn’t deny that his life had drastically changed in the last couple of days. But that was the way it was on Earth since the plague that spawned the Noweres a century ago.

  Life was hard, then you died.

  Good planet motto, I’d say.

  I snapped my fingers. “You want to see your brother or not?”

  He jerked out of whatever thoughts he’d been in. “Yeah. Sorry.” He scrambled off the bed and was dressed in seconds. I gripped his chin and angled his head to check out my bite. It was healing well. “Let’s go then, my mate.”

  He ducked his head to follow me, but I caught the stain of a blush on his cheeks.

  Reese

  * * *

  I walked behind Dare with my head bowed. I didn’t want to look anyone in the eye or talk to them. Subservience wasn’t something that came naturally, but after faking it my whole life around Xan, it wasn’t hard to slip back into the role.

  At least I didn’t despise Dare.

  Fuck me, but I actually liked him. Although legitimately terrifying, he was a good Were. He was a good mate.

  It was going to suck if I ended up having to betray him.

  My parents had traveled miles and miles to Eury for a better life for their family. For their trouble, they’d been killed and their children enslaved under Xan’s rule. And just because Jude and I were safe, I couldn’t leave my sister behind.

  Fuck no. Fuck that.

  I had to get Selene back. It wasn’t an option to leave her with Xan. The reminder of my first time, and the fear in the female wolf’s eyes as we’d been forced together, would always haunt me. I couldn’t let that happen to my sister.

  As Dare led me down a hallway with doors on one side and the balcony on the other, my stomach churned with the thought of leaving him. As much as my body craved him and my wolf ached for him, I had to close off my heart while I plotted how to rescue Selene. As
alpha, his pack came first. And as a werewolf with murdered parents, my siblings came first.

  He led me down a hallway full of identical doors, numbers above the frame the only way to tell them apart. He stopped at number 555, and rapped on the door. I shifted on my feet, eager to see Jude.

  A deep voice inside grunted, “It’s open.”

  When Dare turned the knob, I held myself steady when all I wanted to do was rush past him. That would be disrespectful, and I couldn’t afford to let Dare be challenged. Not while Selene was still in Xan’s grasp. I sure as hell couldn’t rescue her if I were dead.

  Dare motioned for me to go in first, and I shot him a grin of gratitude. I’d make that shit up to him later.

  I rushed inside, immediately spotting Jude sitting cross-legged in the middle of a massive mattress, several plates of food around him. He gasped when he saw me. “Reese!”

  He knee-walked to the end of the bed, where I grabbed him in a hug. Fuck, he smelled good. When I squeezed him, he moaned in pain, and I immediately went on the alert, pulling back to study his face. “You okay? Anyone hurt you?”

  He shook his head immediately and gestured to the food behind him. “I overdid it.”

  One plate held the remnants of a whole chicken, another the tops of carrots, and yet another, the rind of a watermelon.

  “Jude,” I said with a laugh.

  He grinned, although he did look a little sick. “G says I can have whatever I want. I always order so much and—”

  “I get it, buddy. I had a steak the other day and ate it in thirty seconds.”

  His eyes went round. “They have steak?”

  I shook my head. “I’m pretty sure you’re in food timeout for a while.”

  A chair scraped the floor, and I looked up to see G shift his position in a chair near the bed. I hadn’t even seen him, I’d been so focused on Jude. G’s gaze was solidly on Jude, even with his alpha standing beside him with his arms crossed.

  “G,” Dare said.

  The man grunted, still not taking his eyes off Jude.

  Dare pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering, “So fucking literal.” He cleared his throat and spoke louder. “G, you can take your eyes off him for a minute and look at me.”

  G paused, then slowly turned his head and rose to his feet next to his alpha.

  I lifted an eyebrow at Jude. “Everything okay?”

  Jude nodded. “Sure. He doesn’t talk much, and he won’t take his eyes off me, but he’s been good to me.” He shrugged. “I feel safe.”

  His eyes were clear and his smile genuine, so I knew he was telling the truth.

  “Any trouble?” Dare was asking G.

  “None.”

  “Have you taken him out of the room yet?”

  G shook his head.

  “What’s the word?”

  G hesitated. “A little anxious. More curious than anything. Another day or two, I’d say.”

  I opened my mouth to ask what they were talking about, but Dare shot me a look, like he knew I was going to ask a question. I snapped my jaw shut, and he nodded in approval.

  Jude tugged me to sit next to him on the bed. His fingers grazed the healed area around my eye and my jaw, then traveled down my body to test my limbs. “You’re healed?”

  “Yeah, I shifted.”

  He leaned against me. “You smell different.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m a Were mate now.”

  Jude heaved a sigh. “Right,” he whispered.

  I cupped his neck. “Don’t worry about me, okay? Dare’s taking good care of me. And I’m not just saying that because he’s standing there listening to everything we’re saying.”

  A Were snort followed my words, and I grinned.

  Jude smiled at the sight of my grin. “Okay.”

  I had a lot of things to say to him, but none I could say in front of Dare, so instead I gestured toward his food. “Lot different from Xan’s, huh?”

  “They have chickens. And cattle and other animals,” he said with awe. “G said I can have eggs tomorrow morning. And bacon!”

  I whirled to Dare. “Bacon?”

  Dare rolled his eyes. “I’ll get you some tomorrow. Now it’s time to go.”

  Jude’s fingers tightened on my arm before releasing me. I wanted to protest, but again remembered the warning. “Okay.”

  I hugged my brother, who was now once again under the watchful eye of G. I decided I liked the big, silent guy. I’d misread his presence as threatening before, but now I realized he was on constant alert and observant. And best of all, he took the safety of my brother seriously.

  After leaving G’s apartment, I followed Dare down the hallway. I had my head down, thinking about Jude and how the hell we were going to get out of here, when I ran into Dare’s back. I peered around his tense shoulders to see a Were standing about five feet away.

  In his human form, this Were was the size of Dare, maybe a little older if the lines on his face could be believed. He wore leather pants, no shirt, and large boots that could crush my skull. His green eyes were right on me. “I heard you found your True Mate.”

  Dare’s back straightened, and his voice was slightly garbled when he answered. “I did.” The fur sprouting on his shoulders told me his canines were down, his Were near the surface. And holy shit, if these two went at it in this small hallway, I was as good as dead. Every instinct in me screamed to run, but I held my ground.

  “A wolf?” Condescension dripped from the other Were’s voice.

  Dare didn’t answer the obvious question.

  The Were took a step forward, his head tilted. “You better hope you keep your pack—and your wolf—in line. Would hate to see his pretty little throat ripped out along with yours.”

  In seconds, Dare’s jaw elongated, forming a snout with flared nostrils. His opened his massive jaws, razor-sharp teeth dripping with saliva, and roared.

  The thunderous sound shook the walls, the floors, my fucking bones. The only way I stayed on my feet was to grab onto the wall and crouch for balance, covering my head with my other arm.

  When the boom subsided, followed by the snapping of murderous teeth, I peeked out from under my arm. The other Were was on his knees, head bowed submissively.

  Dare stood over him, his face shifting back to human form. When he spoke, his voice was low and deadly, a reminder that I was in fucking Were territory. “I let your jabs slide, Gage. But make no mistake, you threaten me and my mate, and your throat will be the one I rip out. Final warning.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” The Were’s voice was strong despite his posture.

  Dare turned to me and beckoned with his fingers. I stood on shaky legs and followed him, keeping my gaze straight ahead. But I felt Gage’s eyes on me as I walked past.

  I was sure that wasn’t the last I’d see of that Were. No matter how much I hoped it was.

  Chapter Six

  Dare

  * * *

  When Gage got under my skin, I usually shifted and went for a run. Now? I wanted my mate.

  I forced myself to calm down. The last time I’d fucked Reese, I hadn’t been able to control myself, and I refused to do that to him again. In the short time we’d been away from my room, he’d respected me, stood his ground in the face of Gage’s wrath, and made me proud. Despite the power and energy it’d taken to half-shift and force Gage to submit, I was wired and hungry for my mate.

  As soon as we were behind my locked door, I turned around. Reese stood with his back to my door, shoulders straight, his nostrils flared. He smelled my lust, just as I could smell his.

  I advanced on him, and again, my wolf pleased me by lifting his chin rather than shrinking away. I took that as a sign he trusted me not to hurt him, and that made my chest swell.

  I gripped his neck, rubbing the spot where I’d bitten him. “When we entered G’s room, you didn’t rush ahead, but waited for my cue.” He swallowed and his tongue swirled across his bottom lip. “You didn’t question me or defy me. And when
Gage approached us, you held your ground.” His eyes flickered as I pressed closer. “I know the mate call is fate, and we don’t get to choose, but your behavior today made me proud. There are many Weres here who wouldn’t have the strength you showed today.” I tilted his chin up. “Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

  “I didn’t—”

  “You did. I could feel how badly you wanted to run when Gage stopped us. And when I shifted, you stayed put. Your instincts are good.”

  Reese’s lips parted, and he spoke haltingly. “My instincts are to follow my mate and alpha. And that’s you.” He raised a hand and pressed it over mine around his neck. “I’m glad I made you proud.”

  I kissed his forehead and then shoved him away from me gently. “Now get your clothes off and get on the bed.”

  He stumbled away from me, removing his clothes with trembling hands while I shed my own. He climbed up on the bed on all fours, but I flipped him onto his back, where he landed with an oomph. His cock was already hard, and the smell of his slick was intoxicating.

  I bent down until our lips were barely touching. “I’ll take you on a tour, meet the pack, but your scent is driving me crazy. We might be here for a while.” I licked the seam of his mouth. “Maybe a couple more days.”

  He arched his neck, trying to get closer to my lips as I pulled back. He made a frustrated growl. “Not going to protest that.”

  Reaching down between his legs, I circled his rim with a finger. His lids fluttered, then went wide as he suddenly jerked out of my grasp and slithered up the bed, a hand out. “Hold on.”

  “Reese…” I warned.

  “No!” He hollered and pointed at the mattress. “See those giant puncture holes in the mattress? See those?” He now pointed at my hands. “They were caused by you. Your claws. So, imagine those in my ass and tell me why I shouldn’t be afraid of you sticking your fingers there. Tell me, Dare!”

  He stood up at the head of the bed, bouncing back and forth on his feet, face tight with fury.

  I sat back on my haunches as he blew out puffs of air through wide nostrils. “Reese.”