I’d seen the various animals G had carved, clutched in sticky novus fists by just about every young member of the pack. Dare told me G was born outside the walls, in Nowere territory. There were still small families of Weres and werewolves who preferred to live as nomads. And G had been one of them, one of the lasts descendants of the Greatwolf pack. His parents died from a Nowere attack when he was still a novus. He’d manage to survive on his own until he’d shown up at the gates of the Silver Tip pack. Dare said G was the most independent Were he’d ever met. My respect for G had grown so much since the first time he appeared in the doorway of our cell, when I’d been convinced he was there to kill me.
Resting my chin on my hands, I eyed Dare, who stood with his arms crossed beside me. The breeze ruffled my hair, the sun warmed my skin. And goddamn, I was so happy. And with that came the ever-present guilt, which gnawed at my stomach like a hunger pain. Although I planned to escape, the thought of leaving Dare made me physically ill. Of course I didn’t want him in pain, but I also didn’t want to leave him.
I held my hand out as a cow lumbered up to the fence. My fingers brushed her soft nose and whiskers, the velvet skin smooth on my palms.
A sound from Jude’s direction drew my attention, and when I glanced at him, my body went rigid.
He gasped for breath, face red and quickly turning blue. He clawed at his face, eyes rolling, while G leapt to his feet and hauled him upright.
I shoved away from the fence and sprinted to my brother. In all the confusion of mating and a new pack, I’d completely forgotten how close Jude was to his muto.
G knew what was happening and murmured in a low voice, instructing Jude to breathe through it. When I reached them, I tore my brother out of G’s arms. His eyes were round and terrified, his mouth flapping open as his hands began to sprout fur.
I held them at his sides while his body began to spasm. “It’s your change, Jude,” I said in a loud, firm voice. “I know it hurts the first time, and you think you’re going to die. But you’re not. We talked about this.” I was furious at myself for losing track of the date, but there was nothing to do about it now.
Jude’s chest heaved. “Reese,” he hissed through a locked jaw.
I kept one arm wrapped around his waist and used the other to massage his neck. “Don’t fight it. This is good, Jude. Your first muto.” I smiled, wishing Selene was here to see this. “You’re going to be a beautiful wolf, Jude, okay?”
His lips twitched, and I knew he was trying to smile.
When his back bowed, I drew us to the ground, and the first sounds of his bones snapping sounded like the crackling of flames. He cried out, and G started, his face pained. I glanced at Dare, who stood nearby, his silent nod telling me I was doing the right thing.
“Only a little longer, Jude.” His face was changing, jaw elongating. Tears leaked out of his eyes as his tail grew, and his ears shifted from the side of his head to a set of furry ones on top. His shape changed in my arms, and with a heavy thud, a light gray wolf with a white spot on his throat slumped to the ground at my feet. I peeled off the tatters of his torn clothes.
His chest heaved and his paws twitched. I ran my fingers through his fur as he whimpered, tongue lolling out of his mouth.
I let him lay there for a moment as his tail flopped on the ground like a dead fish. “Okay, Jude. Time to get up. You gotta walk.”
He peered up at me, as if to say, fuck you.
I laughed. “I know you’re sore, buddy, but you have to get up and work out the kinks in your muscles, okay?”
“Stand up,” Dare barked, and I turned furious eyes on him. I could handle this; I didn’t need him yelling at my brother.
But when I glanced down at Jude, the command had worked, because he was slowly clambering to his feet, his paws flapping awkwardly in his new joints as he got used to them.
Finally, he stood on four wobbly legs, and took one halting step forward.
As he turned his head to me, eyes losing the haze of pain, I smiled, my chest swelling. “Proud of you.”
His tail wagged, and he took another step, then another, until he walked around me in circles, then trotted around Dare. By the time he made it to G, he was sprinting, his body low to the ground as he took a wide berth around the large Were.
G was smiling as he watched his charge bound around the field. The cows were not happy, sensing a predator in their midst. Their alarmist moos were amusing, and seemed to rile up Jude more as he ran up and down the length of the fence, yapping at the confused animals.
“Hey, leave them alone.” I laughed, and Jude ran up to me, sitting down about a foot away.
“You want to shift back?” I asked.
He licked his wolf lips.
“Okay, all you gotta do is think of your human form. Might take a couple of tries. Don’t panic. Just give it a shot.”
His wolf eyes flickered. A minute went by, but he stayed calm, until finally, he began to shift back.
First his paws morphed into hands, then his human limbs took shape. When he fell to the ground in a heap of nakedness, the fur was slowly receding from his skin.
He panted on his side, skin slick with sweat.
I knelt down and gathered him in my arms. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Scared the shit of me,” he gasped. “One minute I was drawing, the next my skin felt like it was being flayed from my bones.”
“That gets better.”
“I sure as hell hope so. Fucking wolf body,” he muttered.
I patted his back. “You did good.”
“I can’t move,” he said quietly. “My entire body is sore. My teeth are sore. My eyeballs are sore.”
G gathered Jude’s sketch pad and supplies, tucking them safely into a felt bag he’d given Jude. After crossing the strap over his chest, he bent down and carefully drew Jude into his arms. My brother went willingly, snuggling up against his guard’s broad chest.
The man stood up without even a grunt. “He needs to rest. I’ll take care of him.”
I nodded. “I know you will.”
G’s gaze flickered, then he was off, striding toward the Hive to take Jude to their room.
I stood up, brushing the grass off my clothes. Dare watched me carefully, his green eyes intense. Fuck, that look made me hard. I knew the minute he smelled my arousal, because his nostrils flared, and his eyes flickered black.
He licked his lips and stalked toward me. I backed up, allowing him to push me against the stone wall of the Hive. The Farm was between shifts, so we were alone.
He braced a hand over my head as the other gripped my hip, thumb digging into the skin.
“What got into you?” I asked.
“I like watching you take care of people,” he said. “You’re good at it.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
He licked a wet stripe up the side of my neck. “I like seeing my pack prosper. Your brother successfully shifting makes me want to celebrate.”
I arched my back, rubbing my hard dick against his, wishing we were naked. “Oh yeah? How do you like to celebrate, Dare?”
“By taking my mate.” He shed his shirt in one fluid motion, and then mine was next, along with my pants. He rucked down his pants, hard cock now visible. With a strong grip on my neck, he turned me around and pressed me up against the wall. I leaned my cheek against the hard stone, closing my eyes as he sniffed and rooted around my neck.
I waited to feel his hardness at my hole and curled my fingers into the crumbling rock, but instead, his heat left my back. I was about to turn around to see what he was doing, when something wet and soft probed me.
“Oh God,” I muttered, my knees going weak. “Oh fuck, Dare.”
I peered over my shoulder to see my mate, my alpha, on his knees, face buried in my ass as he speared my hole with his long, expert tongue.
I whimpered as his teeth scraped the sensitive skin. I was leaking slick and my cock was dripping with pre-come. The wall was the only
thing keeping me upright as Dare ate my ass like he needed it to survive. He was growling, the vibrations entering me and driving me further into bliss. His big hands massaged the cheeks of my ass, occasionally slapping the flesh with hard smacks of his palm.
I was crying, whining, needing to come but not able to let go of the wall for fear my body would completely fail me.
Finally, Dare pulled away with a growl, and in the next instant, I was impaled on his cock.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t even speak. I was my mate’s to fuck right now, and that was perfectly fine with me. His dick speared my prostate, sending my body into the stratosphere with all-consuming flames of pleasure.
A fist closed around my neglected cock, and it took a couple of tugs until I was painting the wall with my come. When Dare came a minute later, he did so with a bite to my shoulder, which had me emptying whatever was left in my balls.
After that, I was done for, my body slumping to the ground. Dare caught me, neatly settling me in his lap while he sat on the grass, back braced against the wall.
I buried my nose in his neck, breathing him in, needing as much of my skin touching his as I could. I opened my mouth on his shoulder, craving the taste of him too. He ran his hands over my back soothingly, occasionally massaging my scalp as I came down from my high.
When he pulled my head back and quirked an eyebrow, I nodded. “I can speak now.”
He smiled, caressing my chin with his thumb. “You okay?”
“Why is it always this intense?” I asked. “Is that the mate thing?”
He was quiet for a moment. “I thought at first, yes. But now I’m not so sure. Because…that would have faded by now, I think.”
“So that’s just…us?”
His lips brushed mine, so tender in contrast to the brutal way he’d just fucked me. Not that I complained. “I care for you very much, little wolf.”
I slid my hand up his chest and brushed it along the stubble on his jaw. “I care for you too, Alpha.”
“You make me more determined to control and maintain a healthy pack.”
“I do?”
“You do.” He smiled. “My mother used to tell me that I was a good leader, but I’d be a great one if I was ever lucky enough to find my True Mate.”
“I never thought I’d have a True Mate. If it wasn’t for my parents, I would have thought it was a myth.”
His expression hardened. “Mine were not True Mates. They hated each other. They only married because they had me after she went into heat.”
“Didn’t she choose your father?”
Dare laughed bitterly. “No. She chose no one. My father found her in heat and raped her.”
My stomach flopped and my skin prickled. “Oh shit. I’m so sorry.”
“She went into heat another time, and she used my father so they could have Bay.” He shrugged. “Six years later, she killed my father.”
For a peaceful pack now, they’d sure had a violent inception. But maybe that was what it took. “I wish you hadn’t had to go through that.”
“It’s why stability in this pack is so important to me. My father was alpha and he took what he wanted, challenged enemies on a whim. I’m determined to be an alpha that my pack trusts.”
“They do,” I said. “It’s clear when you walk into the Forum—they look at you with respect, they come to you for advice. They love you, Dare. As they should.”
He pressed me tighter to his chest and tucked my head under his chin. “Enough pack talk. I want to enjoy the sun with my naked mate.”
I huffed a laugh against his skin and stuck out my tongue to tease his nipple, then wriggled my ass against his now-hard cock. “Round two is always less intense. We can do that. In the sun. Naked.”
He spread his legs wide and let his arms fall from around my body. “Go on, mate.” His mouth turned up on one side in a filthy smirk. “Start round two with your mouth.”
Yesssss. I slipped to my knees between his legs and wasted no time sucking one of his balls in my mouth. Dare moaned and leaned his head back against the wall.
Round two commenced.
Chapter Ten
Dare
* * *
I walked down the hallway to our underground storage facility, Mav skipping beside me, while Cati and Reese walked behind us.
“So is he okay?” Cati was asking about Jude.
“Yeah, we just checked on him,” Reese said. “Tired and a little bit sore, but he’s eating a lot.”
In a span of a day, Jude had filled out, looking less like a wiry novus and more like a full-grown wolf. “He might even eat more than you,” I said over my shoulder, smiling at Reese.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t start.”
“Reese, I told you that we didn’t have any more pigs left, and you actually believed me. And then you cried.”
“I did not cry!”
“Your lip trembled.”
“Bacon is delicious, and you’re being a jerk.”
We reached the door, and I grabbed the back of Reese’s neck, tugging him to my chest. He remained stiff. “I’m just kidding. Feeding you is one of the greatest joys of my day.” He relaxed beneath my palm, then tilted his head back, his lips slowly stretching into a grin. “Does this mean I get more bacon?”
I rolled my eyes and shoved him away. He laughed, and I shook my head, hiding a smile as I spun numbers on the lock to the correct combination. Once the door was unlocked, I ushered them inside.
Cati, who was in charge of providing clothes for the pack, needed supplies, and everything worth anything to the overall health of the pack was kept under lock and key. She was the boss to a group of Weres who were experts at sewing and, in a pack where clothes were often ripped during shifts, Cati was kept busy.
Most of our clothes were made from leather—provided by our cattle—but we had fabrics we traded with a nearby wolf pack who grew cotton. They gave us fabric, and we provided them with lumber we scoured from Nowere territory.
Mav, who usually remained attached to me or Cati at all times, was glued to Reese’s side, clutching Reese’s much larger hand. He’d taken an immediate liking to Reese. My mate had tried to explain it away. It’s only because I’m new.
I didn’t argue with Reese, but I knew that wasn’t the reason. He was likable and treated Mav less like a novus and more like a little brother.
“Wow,” Reese said, his head swiveling as he took in the ceiling-high racks of supplies. “This place is incredible.”
Cati knew where we kept the fabric, which the Striped Tail pack made for us. Ever since she’d been placed in charge of clothing a couple of years ago, our pack had been given a makeover. Cati made beads from stones and used them to embellish leather pants, shirts and vests. She studded belts and had begun designing jewelry too. For many decades, we’d been all about survival, but the tide was turning, and we were focusing more on living. Cati’s influence had improved the overall confidence in the pack in a way I never would have anticipated.
Today she wore a short leather skirt and a vest, her hair braided with a blue-dyed leather wrap. Her slender fingers touched each roll of fabric, and her brow furrowed as she studied the thickness. Striped Tail gave us different thread-counts of fabric, which we used for different products, like bed sheets and towels.
Reese and Mav had wandered down a different aisle, and from the sounds of it, they were where we kept emergency stashes of our seeds. I could hear Reese reading off the names on the labels.
“How are you?” Cati asked, tugging down a bolt of fabric with a grunt and leaning it up against the shelf.
I used to wish Cati wanted a mate, because I gladly would have made her mine, back when we’d had Mav. But she’d made it clear she didn’t want a mate, at least not anytime soon. She was happy with her son and her friends and her job. So I respected that. “We’re good. But it’s been an adjustment.”
“From what I’ve seen, you’re not the mate I thought you’d be.”
> “Oh? How so?”
She chewed her lip. “You’re going to take this the wrong way.”
“No, I’m not.”
Her eyebrows lifted, then she laughed softly. “Okay, well I thought you’d be uncompromising. Cold. When you interact with your guard, it’s all business. Even with Mav and Bay, sometimes I think you keep them at a distance.”
The comment cut a little deep. “I don’t—”
“It’s okay,” she cut me off. “I’m not saying it’s a flaw in your character. It’s just how you are. Yet I see you with Reese and…” She lifted a shoulder. “I’m surprised. In a good way.”
I wasn’t sure if she was being vague on purpose or because she couldn’t define what she was feeling. “What do you mean?”
“I thought you’d keep your responsibilities as Alpha very separate from your mate. And from what I see, that’s not the case. Reese is your equal. You include him and consult him. Rua said he’s come to guard meetings.”
“I don’t really have a plan for this. I’m going off what feels right.”
“That’s not even what’s most surprising.” She ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “You’re…affectionate.”
I blinked at her. “You didn’t think I’d be affectionate?”
“You joke and smile and laugh with him. And touch him. It’s all a new side to you, Dare.”
I’d never really thought about how the pack viewed me, including Cati. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure what kind of mate I’d be either, Cati.”
“I mean…” She shrugged. “If I’d known this was the kind of mate you’d be, maybe I would have agreed when you asked.”
I snorted. “Now you tell me.”
She laughed. “I’m kidding. I think it’s not about being mates, but it’s about the fact that you actually like him.”
“Of course I like him, he’s my mate.”
“Uh-huh,” she sassed. “Sure. It’s not noticeable at all that you two are clearly into each other beyond the mate hormones.”
Daring Fate: Silver Tip Pack series Page 11