by Jenny Penn
“The time between calls is shortening,” Kort commented with an absentmindedness Jakob couldn’t believe he felt.
“Which means JD’s getting more pissed by the moment.”
Jakob could only imagine the words coming out of their Alpha’s mouth right then. Of the two brothers that ruled over the pack, JD was the one who could, and would, express his displeasure vocally, physically, endlessly. It was the endless part that worried Jakob. However fast JD got over his upset was however long it took to get their Alpha working to get their mate brought home to her new pack.
“Time to answer,” Jakob stated the next time his phone started ringing. Shoving out of the bed, he abandoned Kristen to Kort’s torment. As he fumbled around the chaotic spread of clothes splattered across the floor, his phone went dead. By the time he’d found his jeans in the mess, it had started to ring anew.
“Stop whatever you are doing to Kristen, Jakob,” JD barked before Jakob could even offer a greeting. “Get your asses out of The Narin’s territory and in my office. Now!”
The line went dead before Jakob could say a word, not that he’d really expected any different.
“Looks like fun time is over,” he sighed, dropping the phone back into his pocket. Jakob leaned over to start pulling on his jeans as he prodded his brother in the same direction. “Come on, man. JD’s pissed enough.”
“Look at that.” Kort didn’t budge from the bed, but called Jakob’s eyes up to get lost in the beauty of Kort’s handiwork.
Somehow his brother had prodded Kristen in keeping her bottom leg straight down while her other stayed tucked up in her chest, leaving the pink, creamy flesh of her pussy on display and wide open for invasion. He’d tweaked his masterpiece by getting her to lower her arm. Still encircling her knee, the slender limb had dropped lower, plumping up her breasts and putting her lush curves on display.
“Now tell me that’s not worth being a little late.”
Kristen looked like a woman waiting to be fucked. Given that Kort lay stretched out beside her, his cock straining to try and bump into her lush ass, Jakob had little doubt what Kort intended to do next. He’d have a perfect view to watch his brother screw that delectable cunt in intimate detail. Just the idea had him hard, and he knew there would be no controlling himself once Kort got through with her.
Of course by then, JD would probably have flipped his entire lid, or worse, The Narin could show up. Word traveled fast, and they hadn’t been worried last night about keeping things quiet. Kristen’s neighbors had probably already figured out she’d gotten royally fucked all night long.
There was no telling how long it would take that news to hit big brother’s ears, but Jakob sure knew what his response would be and how much worse it would get if he actually caught Kort and Jakob in the act. Somebody would end up dead, and Jakob really didn’t think killing her brother to save their sorry asses would go over well with their mate. They were going to have enough difficulties with Kristen. No point in adding on.
“No, man.” Jakob jerked up his jeans, thinking it was best to put the boner away before he gave in to temptation and put it to work. “We really got to go.”
Kort growled at that, glancing between Kristen and Jakob before he gave in with a snarl. Rolling out of bed, he snatched his own jeans off the floor and began arming himself. Neither of them dared to look over at the display Kort had made Kristen out of as they quickly dressed. It wasn’t until he had everything packed back into his bag and was just about ready to leave that Jakob dared one quick look back at her.
She really was perfect, and last night had been something beyond any pleasure he’d drowned himself in. They’d get to do it again. Once they got over this rocky start, they’d have it for the rest of their lives, every night. After the decadence of last night, how could Kristen not want to get to that future, too?
“Hell.” Jakob shrugged and shot his brother a wishful grin. “Maybe she will wake up and actually be grateful she got matched so well.”
“If she has any sense,” Kort agreed as they finally started down the hall. “And as many orgasms as we gave her last night, how could she not wake up happy?”Kristen bolted awake with the kind of awareness that something was horribly wrong but not a clue as to what. Sitting there taking stock of her wrecked bed, she could feel her brain screaming with alarm, but couldn’t catch the message. Then it hit her.
In one bold, perverted image after another, the whole night played out in an ever-increasingly mortifying memory. The sheer magnitude of just how many times and how many ways they’d screwed her left her sitting there in a stunned state of shock. They were
animals. Fucking, sick, twisted, depraved animals! They’d proved every rumor she’d ever heard about the Covenanter true. They were uncivilized savages, more beast than man, and she could still feel every rough caress burning across her skin, every sultry lick tingling over her breast, and God help her, her pussy still ached with the feel of their possession. Not to mention her ass was on fire and her neck throbbed.
Kristen paused, stopping on that item as she inventoried all her aches and pains. This one shouldn’t be on the list. Unless, of course, they’d done the unthinkable. Whipping out of her bed, Kristen rushed for the bathroom only to come to a stumbling stop as she crossed the threshold and got a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
There they were, two identical bites on either side of her neck, a brand of ownership she’d wear for the rest of her life. They’d mated her, claimed all rights to her body. As her eyes scanned down the rest of the image reflected in the mirror, Kristen swallowed at the glimpse of what her future would hold.
They’d left their marks all over her. Hickeys were strewn in every which direction from her stomach all the way down to her ankles. Deeper maroon patches showed tiny little scrapes and had already started to darken with tiny bluish marks feathering down the center in a whisper of the path their teeth had taken. The marks matched the deeper bruises that had started to form rings around her wrists.
The sight warmed through her as memories of the ropes they’d used to tie her up with surfaced through the chaos of her mind. Unwillingly, her eyes lifted toward the tub, taking in the shower rod that curved around half the tub. Mounted to the ceiling, Kristen now knew it could hold her weight while she thrashed about, seeking freedom from the men who showed absolutely no mercy, but a definite penchant for keeping her vulnerable.
They would be back. That thought echoed through Kristen along with the realization that there would be nobody to stop them. Not even her brother could save her from the reality of those bite marks. Kristen certainly couldn’t rely on herself, not when the Covenanters got too close with that musk of theirs.
They’d mated her, and in most packs that made her theirs to use as they wished. Unless, of course, she found a way to undo the mating. Kristen had never heard of such a thing being done. In point of fact, the mating bond was considered impossible to break, but if there was a way, she knew exactly who would know it.
* * * * “You did what? Why I ought to clock you two boneheads together and make some firewood. How completely dumb can two men be?”
Jakob caught Kort’s look and shared a smirk. Stupid it might have been, but he couldn’t bring himself to honestly regret anything about the evening. Nothing but maybe Tex having to be there. He shot that cocky son of a bitch a glare for looking like he was enjoying this a little too much.
“I’m talking to you three jerks, and you’ll do me the honor of looking at me when I’m speaking!” Samantha McBane yelled, her rounded stomach heaving with the kind of outrage only pregnant women could project.
“Samantha,” JD growled, thrusting to his feet and sending his chair whipping back. “What are you doing out of bed?”
“Don’t try to change the conversation on me, JD,” Samantha warned him, waggling a finger at her mate as JD stalked up on the little woman filling the study’s doorway. “I want to know how you are going to punish these three jackasses, and don’
t be smiling like that, Tex.” She shouted right over JD’s shoulder. “I know all about you and Cal’s little obsession. Best you wipe that smug smile off your face and get out of my sight before I say something I might regret.”
“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Tex denied even as he stood up. “Still, I think I’ll take my ass out of here while it’s got enough padding to keep the seats from hurting. Good luck, guys.”
“Sit down, Tex,” JD snapped before turning on his mate. “And you don’t order my men around.”
Jakob tried to ignore the argument that broke out between JD and Samantha, embarrassed for his Alpha because it didn’t appear like he was winning. Not that he looked at JD with less respect, because that was just the way it was. Male Covenanters tended to be a bit strong in personality, which explained why their wolves always chose women of equal strength.
Of course, Kristen hadn’t exactly seemed like the type to rip through her men with a sharp tongue the way Samantha was doing right then. Jakob closed his eyes, remembering just how soft and sweet his mate’s tongue really was. There had been nothing hard or prickly about Kristen.
Then again, she’d been pretty well fucked. Climaxed women tended to be more agreeable in Jakob’s opinion. Since they hadn’t given her one of those in the past few hours, he felt pretty sure Samantha’s ire failed in comparison to whatever Kristen was thinking about them right then.
“And don’t even growl at me like that, JD, or I’ll show you a growl.” Samantha now had her mate backing up slightly as she poked him the chest. Poor JD couldn’t do a damn thing because she was carrying his kids.
“I got that right. I know exactly what all you brilliant male minds are going to come up with.” Samantha cast a disgusted glance over the entire group of them. “I know. You’re going to snatch that poor girl up. It’s not bad enough what those two did last night, you’re going to help them commit an even greater crime and steal her away from her life.”
Samantha’s gaze snapped back to her mates, that chin going up in clear challenge. “You think you control everything. Well, I got news for you, JD. If you don’t do what’s right here and now, I’m going to put you on suspension.”
“On what?” JD roared, clearly shocked beyond comprehension.
“Suspension,” Samantha repeated, appearing completely intimidated by the large Covenanter growing only bigger with his obvious rage. “Until this wrong has been righted, you can sleep in your own bed.”
With that dangerous proclamation, Samantha turned and stormed off, leaving JD growling in her dust. Jakob half expected for his Alpha to go crashing after her, putting this whole meeting off for another couple of hours. It suited him just fine when instead JD muttered a bunch of obscenities and vented his rage by slamming the door hard enough to make the wall shake.
Samantha might have riled up their Alpha, leaving Jakob and Kort at his mercy, but that was still better than waiting to see when they could go pick up their mate. No matter how guilty they might be of every crime laid at their feet, Kristen was still theirs. Nobody could break that bond or deny it.
“What’s that?” Kort leaned in to Tex to ask, drawing Jakob’s gaze up to them before checking out what they were both staring at.
“That’s her punishment list,” Tex answered, explaining the notebook JD was scribbling in. “JD’s been keeping a detailed list of every single punishment she’s earned through her pregnancy.”
“And she’s going to suffer with each one,” JD snarled as he snapped the notebook closed. “All eighty-three of them.”
“Now see,” Tex grinned, “that’s the kind of diligence a mated man has to have. It’s going to be months before Sam will be able to put up with that kind of sexual activity, but JD’s not going to forget. Are you?”
“No.” JD leaned across his desk. “Let me tell you this, for as annoyed as I am with my mate, she has a point. You two really screwed this up. Why didn’t you come to me first?”
“Because we knew you wouldn’t get involved until she was mated,” Kort answered promptly with their predetermined response. It was a lie, but it sounded reasonable.
“And so the best you could come up with on your own is breaking into the girl’s house and drugging her into submission?” JD shot back as if they all didn’t know that he’d had Samantha bent over the hood of his patrol car within five minutes of meeting her.
“It’s not like we can control the musk,” Jakob retorted. Not about to bring up any rumors that might have JD removing his head from his shoulders, he tried to nudge his Alpha with a more general prod. “Come on, JD, it’s not like you’ve never been through that first heat. It’s kind of overpowering.”
To say the least, not that JD looked like he was remembering what it was like to be consumed by lust. In fact his Alpha’s scowl only furrowed deeper at Jakob’s comment. “Yeah, but I knew she wasn’t the sister to The Narin, who happens to be the chief of police.”
“And she didn’t even know your name,” Tex shot back gaily. “Samantha told me about—”
“Shut up, Tex.”
Jakob caught Kort’s gaze as JD lit into his cousin. It seemed to him that they must have told Kristen theirs, but as he slowly played the night over in his mind, Jakob couldn’t remember when. Apparently, neither could Kort, who stared back at him with a blank look.
Well, damn. That wouldn’t improve Kristen’s mood, but it wasn’t all bad news. JD’s screwup hadn’t stopped Samantha from settling down with her mates. It might require some groveling, but they could fix that mistake.
“—and I didn’t break into Samantha’s house and molest her.” JD didn’t even breathe as he swung that same barking snap at Jakob and Kort. “And what do you two brilliant, fucking minds think Kristen’s chief-of-police brother is going to do when he learns what you did to his sister?”
JD paused, and Jakob knew not to fill it. Kort, though, always had to have an answer. “Congratulate us?”
“Try charge you with rape,” JD shot back.
“We didn’t rape her,” Kort argued instantly. “We mated her, and Derek Jacob might hate like hell that we did, but it can’t be undone, and that Narin bastard knows it.”
“Well, I guess that depends on how she tells the story,” JD growled back.
“No, it doesn’t.” Kort jerked his head toward the only man grinning in the room. “Why do you think we brought along Tex as a witness?”
At JD’s annoyed glare, Tex’s hand shot up. “I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the—”
“Shut up, Tex!” JD snapped.
“We asked her,” Kort stressed, bringing their Alpha’s enraged glare back in their direction. “And she said yes. Go on and tell him, Tex.”
“It’s true.” Tex’s head bobbed with his agreement. “They asked her if she accepted them as their mate. The lady said yes, and then Jakob dropped her down on Kort’s cock and—”
“Shut up, Tex.” That one came from Kort, who was growling now about as bad as their Alpha.
“Hey, it’s what you brought me there for.” Tex’s hands went up in an open sign of surrender. “I’m just doing my duty.”
“You might as well have fucking videotaped the damn thing,” JD muttered in all too obvious disgust.
“They thought about it, but the camera—”
“Shut up, Tex.” This time Kort hit him hard on the arm, making Tex grip the blow but not stopping that all too knowing smirk.
JD’s sigh sounded heavy as everybody did just that. His gaze lifted slowly to settle on Jakob, who knew his silence hadn’t gone unnoticed. They studied each other for a moment before JD finally nodded.
“Okay, big brain, let’s hear why it is I chose you and your dipshit of a twin as my first commanders?”
“You didn’t choose,” Jakob corrected. “We won the battle. It’s our right.”
JD didn’t argue that, though his scowl returned along with the tension that had him leaning into his desk. “You don’t have a plan.”
<
br /> “I know Derek will be pissed and want to do all sorts of things, but anything he does will be construed as war. Nobody blocks a Covenanter from his mate.” Jakob felt the need to repeat that fact even though he knew it could be construed as a challenge by his Alpha.
“Yeah, and Derek is The Narin. That gives him the right to declare war if he wants,” JD repeated as if Jakob had failed to recall that most basic fact. “We have treaties on mating with his pack, and you violated every one. That gives him the moral right, and Kristen being his sister gives him every reason to feel just fine with going to war.”
“Maybe he will, but I’m betting Kristen won’t.”
That simple statement threw JD for a moment. Cocking his head, he appeared to consider what Jakob really intended to do before he settled back in his seat, looking a good deal more relaxed. “You’re going to blackmail her.”
“I figure on offering Derek a fight to the death to settle the matter. I’ll tell Kristen the only way to stop it is if she agrees to come with us.” Jakob didn’t like the term blackmail, but couldn’t deny that it might work.
“You’re relying on the fact that she’ll think her brother’s life is at stake, but what if she has more confidence in her Alpha?” JD argued. “What if she doesn’t mind the idea of the two of you lying a few feet in the ground?”
“She’s our mate, JD. No matter how much she might want to deny that, Kristen won’t be able to resist the bonds that unite us.”
“I need your help.” Chapter 8Kristen had never thought to utter those words to Lilly Masterson, but talking to her sister-in-law had been a total bust. If Claire knew of anything helpful, she’d kept it to herself. Kristen wouldn’t be surprised if she had. It had made her about sick the way Claire had gone on about the joys of being mated.