by Kristina Lee
Selena screamed as the first orgasm crashed through her, an alien sensation after ages of dry spells. Her body buckled against Zane’s, held up by his hands while he continued to devour her sensitized breasts. Only when the last wave of pleasure subsided did either man slow their devotions.
“So maybe I want both of you after all,” she sighed.
Zane growled against her throat, flicking his tongue in a sinfully erotic move over her throbbing pulse point. Just when she thought she’d combust a second time with a few more seconds of their duo of pleasurable tactics, Cory pulled his hands away and stepped back. She scrambled forward to pull him back but failed.
“Right now you should be with just one of us. As your mate, Zane’s the obvious choice.”
It didn’t matter that she’d only held the attention of these two men for mere hours, as Cory stepped further away from where she needed him to be her heart trembled over the sudden loss. Zane’s heat enveloped her as he pulled her tight to his chest, easing the shocking change of momentum.
“Cory.” Every muscle she brushed against strained with his single word. But regardless of the anger coating his deep voice, she thought he struggled with the same sense of loss she did.
She shook her head, fearing she’d lose her mind if she dwindled on that thought. Looking back to Cory, his light eyes were rimmed with familiar emotions. Ones she had spent a lifetime battling herself. Doubt. Fear. Rejection.
Certainly he couldn’t be worried she’d turn him down after all but orgasming twice from his finger’s alone? “But I just said—”
He shook his head when she stepped once more toward him, raking one hand through his wavy hair. His sigh echoed deep inside her, squeezing her heart.
“I know what you said but I can’t do this.”
Confused over the sudden shift in his personality—one that seemed strikingly familiar to her own mantra of never putting herself out there emotionally—Selena was grateful for Zane’s solid presence beside her and eagerly accepted the comfort of his firm embrace.
“Cory this isn’t the same.”
Zane stroked his hands through her hair and down her back, curving to her body as if she were an extension of his own skin. She shivered from the possessive petting, her mind struggling to clear away the dense fog of uncertainty and mend whatever fear Cory let dictate him.
So what wasn’t the same?
“Sorry, Zane. I’m not willing to take that chance.”
She turned, startled by the raw misery in his raspy voice, her healing nature needing to comfort his obvious pain. However the moment their eyes locked he turned from them, striding from the room with brisk, clipped steps.
* * * *
“Damn.”
Zane fought through his rising anger as he pulled Selena tighter to his body, breathing in her refreshing aura. They had talked about claiming Zane’s mate together—at length—and not once had he thought his lover would acquiesce. Cory pushed him harder than he’d ever allowed anyone to push him into seeking out his mate. His temperamental lover had another thing coming if he believed for one second that a little spat would change Zane’s mind on the matter.
He intended to have them both, greedy bastard he was.
“Do you need to go after him?” Her warm breath tickled his bare chest, reigniting the fire in his belly.
“If only it were that simple.”
Cory’s past—their past—would never be a topic open to discussion. At least not a productive one. In the ten years since Cory’s mate’s death, he could count on one hand the number of times they’d ever mentioned that fateful week.
It was clear Cory still believed their love for each other played a part in Linnea’s untimely death. And that continuing to love each other now would possibly impact Selena in a similar fashion.
“Will he be okay?” Selena smoothed her soft hands over the rough ridges of his spine, working her way up to his shoulder blades and pressing closer. Her genuine concern melted his heart, her soothing touch just the right blend of comforting with a hint of need. “Will you?” she whispered between kisses across his chest.
Distracted by her quickening caresses and the sizzle of the mating pull, he nodded when she lifted her startling eyes to his, his cock tightening right along with his throat. Now, even more so than before, he needed Selena’s touch, craved the opportunity to lose himself in the ecstasy that waited between her legs.
Swallowing hard he broke the heated contact, walking them to his bed and settling down on the firm mattress. When she sat beside him, her legs brushing his and her fingers idly toying with the healing claw marks on his chest, he sighed. He never believed there was a woman capable of being his perfect match—just Cory.
But here she sat and he couldn’t bear to lose either one of them. “You must understand something about wolves, Selena. We never share.”
* * * *
Selena ignored the sizable tremor snaking down her spine. Possessive didn’t even begin to cover either of these men. If she wasn’t careful, they’d brand her before she knew it. “So Cory believes anything outside of just me and you is doomed from the start.”
When the blissful visions of four hands, two mouths and—she swallowed—two cocks loving her subsided, she could easily follow his train of thought. But then why find her in the first place when it was clear the love these two men shared flowed deeper than any she’d seen?
“Cory believes that I should let him walk away.”
Snapping her gaze to Zane’s, she smoothed one hand up over his wide shoulder cringing with each bitter word. She shook her head. There was no chance in hell she would be the cause of their love’s demise. “All because I’m your mate? I mean that’s a lot of pressure on someone you just met.”
She’d never paid much attention to the women in the hospital who dated the shifters and she didn’t know truth from fiction when it came to mating, laws or their social skills. But when Zane rolled the back of one hand over her heated cheek, pausing to slide his thumb across her parted lips, she knew she belonged right here.
His was the only thing she wanted to be.
“Does it feel like we just met?” He continued his sensual journey, tickling the sensitive skin by her ear before moving to cup the base of her neck. He inched her closer.
“But we hardly know each other!”
Her words lacked any real argument, her body too distracted by the promise of another kiss to muster up a solid complaint. Such a wanton lush. His warm exhale tortured her senses and she leaned forward all too ready to get to know him—intimately.
“Perhaps, but my wolf accepts who you are—an integral part of my soul.” Her heart pounded frantically in her chest. His words were so touching she nearly choked on her own tongue. She’d let him wax poetic all day long.
“Can you understand that?” he asked with his mouth brushing hers, his tongue toying with her as if worried she’d need more convincing than his heartfelt words alone.
Her skin tingled with new energy as his hands pushed beneath her shirt to caress the quivering muscles of her thighs and stomach. “So you mean forever, just like that?”
Saying the word out loud, did nothing to dampen her hope, nothing to jar her back to reality. She spent a lifetime believing forever with a man was unattainable, that this ultimate commitment would never be hers. Hadn’t seeing her parents walk out on her as a child taught her that?
“Forever.”
Zane’s words caressed her fears, soothed the aching doubt even as his hands skimmed higher, bunching the shirt until her breasts were exposed to his view. At the moment she wasn’t sure which made her the bigger fool—believing the tenderness in his voice that he would treasure her always or not believing and walking away from something with the potential to be supremely satisfying.
“Just.” He pushed the t-shirt over her head and leaned into her until she fell backward onto the rumpled sheets.
“Like.” He dropped his head to her stomach, grazing her belly with
his lips and teeth, searing a path of liquid heat everywhere he went.
“That.” Zane lifted his hands to her heavy breasts, massaging the still taut peaks between rough fingers.
Selena trembled beneath his touch, need coursing through every vein and filling every pore. She bucked when Zane nipped at the tender flesh of her waist, moaned as his tongue teased lower toward the light patch of curls, and cried out when he pinched the tender tips of her breasts. “More!”
Shifting his hands down her sides, he laughed against her sex as he pushed her legs apart which only made her squirm more frantically. He blew against her moist opening and she fisted the sheets, panting in anticipation. Never had she desired a man like this, never ached to with such intensity. The heat burning inside her made her sweat—hopefully something along the lines of pheromones.
And still he had yet to touch her with his tongue.
“Zane?” she pleaded on a whimper as his breath teased the hot swollen nub of her clit.
She jerked against him when he finally slipped his tongue inside her, his hands restraining her from lifting off the mattress while he drank her in. She lifted her hands to run through his thick hair, pushing him closer, aching for something thicker, heavier inside her.
His finger caught her off guard and she cried out as he pumped it inside her alongside his tongue, never slowing his frenzied pace. Need coiled tight in her belly, spiraling her higher and higher until she thought her body would snap at the waist from the building pressure. When he nipped at her clit she shattered, unable to breathe or move as fireworks danced across her nerves, flashing behind closed eyelids and shooting her over the edge into bliss.
“I could lay here and lick you all day long.”
Too satisfied to blush, or maybe too hot for anymore color to fill her cheeks, she sucked air into her lungs, carefully unclenching her fingers from his hair. Within in seconds he was flush against her, his pulsing shaft throbbing against her still quaking clit. When he dipped his head to hers, she licked his lips, tasting her juices and seeing the fire flash in his dark eyes.
She counted her blessings she religiously took her birth control because she didn’t have the heart to ask if he had a condom, knowing the answer was probably no seeing as how he made love regularly to a man and somehow figured with his promise of forever, he wouldn’t see the point.
On a nod her body silently screaming yes, more, now, he slid his cock inside her, sinking until they were hip to hip. Complete.
Zane growled and something primitive inside her responded to the seductive, low noise. Gripping the hard curves of his ass, she raked her nails along his bare flesh moving higher as he began a fast dance with their bodies.
“God you fit me perfectly.”
She bit the skin just above his nipple—the highest point she could reach—trying not to laugh at how unfitting his description was. Zane pounded into her faster, driving her need higher and higher at an unprecedented speed. She could feel his firm muscles work and vibrate against hers, his skin nearly too hot to brush against.
When he lifted above her, undulating his hips in furious, rough scrapes against hers, Selena scratched his chest surprised by the wild impulses he drew from deep within her. Zane growled again, his voice deep, gravelly and on the next thrust she crashed over the edge, this orgasm mingling with the aftershocks of the first two.
“My. God. Zane.”
Reduced to a shivering, quaking, sated form, she felt Zane stiffen inside her, enjoyed the hard scrape of his fingers and nails as he pulsed one last time and spilled his seed before lowering himself to cradle her in his arms.
The intimacy brought tears to her eyes and she fought to swallow the sudden lump in her throat.
He lifted his head, his eyes confused, puzzled and kissed the moisture dotting the corners of her eyes. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head, the fear in his voice only adding to the sense of rightness she found in this stranger’s arms. How could one hour in his company leave her this tied in knots, this certain she could love him forever like he promised to do her?
“Then why are you crying?” He wrapped her further into his arms, still remaining deep inside her. A protector to the core.
Selena took a deep breath, savoring every second of this blissful interlude, committing every minute detail to memory. She smiled when Zane nudged his nose against her cheek, prodding her for an answer.
“I’ve never been so complete, so happy in my life.”
His smile melted the rest of her that hadn’t combusted from making love to him. Genuine, devilish, it was a grin that promised more wicked hours to come. Long, pleasurable nights of passion.
“Then I better have a box of tissue handy because nothing will compete with the fulfillment of loving two wolves.”
Sliding out of her and moving to lie against her side, he slid his fingers across her shoulder and side, as if touching her anywhere relaxed him. The thought brought a smile to her lips, remembering the extreme sensations of both their hands on her body, teasing, taunting.
Yes, she wanted to taste them both.
“Do you really believe Cory will change his mind?”
Catching the swirl of uncertainty in Zane’s dark eyes before it dissipated, her spirits dampened by the obvious pain she’d witnessed when he walked away earlier. It filled her with questions about the pair, their lives together, and their relationship. But when Zane finally answered the only question that remained was how could she help fix a love she might be responsible for breaking.
“Seeing as how I have no plans to lose him, love, yes I think he will.”
Chapter Five
Not even the brisk wind swirling off the hillside dampened his lifting spirits as he watched Selena laugh with a group of female shifters out walking their young ones. The deep worry lines he feared would be etched permanently on their faces started to smooth. Selena’s presence here already soothed his people even if she didn’t know it.
As his mate she would become Pack healer. Her nursing background was a plus but her giving, gentle nature was her true virtue. His people needed balance, comfort. She was the perfect fit beside his commanding presence. Selena would smooth many rough edges, not just his.
His chest tightened as she rocked the newest addition to their Pack in her tiny arms. Madeline Roch just turned three months last week. She was old enough to know Selena wasn’t her mommy but the intimate way they snuggled as another gust of wind blew and the sparkle lighting Selena’s eyes would have fooled most anyone. And he knew if giving her children kept such immense joy on her face, he’d do so in a heartbeat.
“For a man who spent months searching for her, I’m surprised you haven’t marked her as your own yet.”
Zane tore his gaze from Selena, fighting through a drugged moment before turning his attention to Jesse. “It’s complicated,” he told one of his closest hunters and friends.
Jesse looked toward his wife and daughter standing beside Selena, then past them to the narrow street lined with modest homes. “He’s been in the gym all morning, working himself ragged but I think he’ll come around soon enough.”
Zane waited, thankful to know where and how Cory faired, knowing his fellow hunter hadn’t stopped by to ease his worry over that. “Go ahead and speak your mind, Jesse.”
The other hunter crossed his arms over his chest, still watching the interaction between his wife and Selena. “Just think you might be asking for more than Cory can give, is all.”
Zane breathed in the fresh, crisp air. While thankful his men trusted him with their thoughts—challenged him even—he wasn’t one to break under the scrutiny. The decisions he made as Alpha were respected. Without that, you had dissent. The beginnings of which were stirring in the pack youth. “Cory knew what I would demand in return for him searching Selena out.”
He watched the open curiosity on the faces of the Pack youth as they passed Selena. His scent would be on her, a protection and warning of sorts, but not enough
for them to understand she was his permanently. His wolf howled in his mind, aching to finish the bond.
“A three way bond. Is it even possible?”
Zane knew everyone had doubts but his research spoke of the possibility and he’d cling to that for all he was. Cory had been in his life for as long as he could remember. The richness of their history—sexual and otherwise—was so thickly intertwined there was no other way. He was a stubborn bastard who wasn’t letting anyone go.
He gave Jesse a long stare, the end of the conversation clear. His fellow hunter cleared his throat.
“In the meantime I thought you might like to know that Aden went missing last night.”
Sliding his hands deep in his jean pockets, Zane ignored the impulse to shred something with this latest piece of awful news. Aden wasn’t a Pack youth coming of age and unable to control the bloodlust. He’d been vocal about his displeasure with the Pack, a man they thought might actually be organizing the youth to try and stray.
“Want me to put Cory on it?”
He shook his head, knowing Cory was in no shape to track the possible rogue today. And if he was honest, he selfishly wanted to keep Cory close because he had no intention of mating Selena without his lover present too.
Something that needed to happen soon so she had the full protection of the Pack. Not to mention once she officially became his mate her soothing nature could further ease the undercurrent of tension the growing number of rogues were causing. Her very presence a catalyst to soothe.
“You and Jenkins go. Scope out his home and check the latest surveillance videos of the last known rogue hangout. Let me know what you find.”
The early winter wind swirled around them again, carrying Selena’s potent scent and awakening the beast within. The wolf wanted to claim his mate, demanded he mark her as his own. When she turned and smiled and began to walk toward them, he felt the electric charge surge through him, mesmerized by this unseemly pull her presence caused.