by Sam Hall
“We ready to go?” I heard Jack say.
“Love, are you OK?”
Hawk’s hand went to my arm, and then he hissed at what he felt down the bond. He surrounded me, narrowed my whole world down to him as he held me close. His body was against mine, his scent filling my nose.
“Hawk, I need you.”
“I know, love. I’m here.”
My fangs snapped down, my mouth was fire as the venom began to pool. I pushed my face into his hair, searching for his neck blindly like a pup for its mother’s teat. I felt his heart begin to race under my hand, a tumble of elation, joy, and love, always love, so much fucking love. It was a fiery torrent, and it burned everything—caution, awareness, sense, all of it away until there was only love.
My hands scrabbled at his collar, jerking it to one side, the venom sweet as honey as the brown flesh was revealed. I hung there for a moment, like a predator about to strike. “Yes, Jules…” he said, pulling my hips closer.
“What the hell are you doing?”
I was hauled back, a godawful growl rumbling in my chest. I twisted in Aaron’s grip, turning around and breaking his hold on my shirt. He looked at me wild-eyed, dropping his hand and taking a step backwards.
“Jules, what’s going on?”
“She was about to mark me!” Hawk shouted. “She was going to make me her fucking mate!”
Jack rocked on his heels, his eyes darting from me then Hawk.
“And doesn’t that seem awfully sudden?” Brandon said. “Why now? I came up to see if she was OK, and she wanted me to mark her. Doesn’t that seem odd?”
“Jules making Hawk her mate is odd?” Jack’s tone was indignant as he rushed to his mate’s defence, but that wasn’t it entirely. There was a slight waver there, which I needed to fix. I took a step towards him, needing to mark him as well.
“What the fuck is going on?” Finn said, grabbing my shoulder and stopping me from moving closer.
“I need to mark all of you. You are my pack, we need to take that final step. I need your marks, you need mine. It’s only then we’ll be complete.”
“We’re already complete, Jules,” he said gently. “Marking, making people mates, it's just another step, a step you take when you’re ready.”
“How do you know she’s not ready?” Hawk said, shouldering forward. “You already have her mark. Were you ready? Was she when she did it?”
He blanched at that, remembering the fevered moment that had happened against the photocopier.
“And you deserve it too, all of you.” Finn’s eyes scanned the group. “If Jules chooses you, and it appears she has, you deserve it. But if this is what we’re going to do, if we’re going to create mated bonds between everyone, if we’re going to flout Sanctuary laws and mark Jules, let’s create a safe space for it. It’s fucking beautiful when it happens. It’s gonna deepen things in ways with her that you don’t yet understand. Both of you have known each other forever. You’ve really only just met Jules. Let's get back to camp, salvage what’s there, and create a space to talk this out, yes?”
“Hey,” Slade said, running up to the group. “We’ve got a—” He looked around and then sighed. “There’s drama, isn’t there? Fuck, I was only gone for ten minutes! Look, we’ve got potential hostiles wanting an audience. Any chance we can put a pin in this for a second and deal with it?”
“Jules?” Finn said.
I wanted to scream ‘No!’ I didn’t care about anything else but the need that throbbed within me, but love’s not selfish. I could see the tension in their bodies, their eyes straying to the space beyond the cars, searching for possible threats. They just wanted to keep us safe. Finn’s compromise sat OK with me, so I nodded.
“How do you want to do this, Aaron?” Finn said.
“You guys stay here, look after Jules. I need someone I can trust if shit goes pear-shaped. Who are the hostiles?”
“Those pale blokes from the stampede,” Slade said.
“Fuck. They look like they want retribution or something?”
He shook his head. “Said they wanted to talk to you. Said they had an offer.”
“So potentially talking shit. Alright, keep your guns on you. There’s more ammo in the tray,” he said, patting the car.
Aaron swept in close to me, brushing a kiss across my lips, while I forced myself not to grab at his shirt and haul him closer like I wanted.
“Make sure you come back,” I said, hating how small my voice sounded, but he smiled in response, pausing for a second, as if enjoying the fact that I was worried for him.
“Of course, love. Always.”
I closed my eyes, feeling that casually delivered promise deep inside, even as I knew I was investing way too much into it.
“So, what’s going on now?” Slade said, pulling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket.
“Jules is feeling a bit…odd. She wants to mark the rest of the boys and for us to mark her,” Finn said, keeping his voice carefully neutral.
“Not wants,” Brandon said. “Jules, I’m going to touch you for a second, OK?”
Hawk jerked away from the car and took a step towards us, hands balled, but then stopped moving any farther, something that was noted by Brandon’s keen eyes. I nodded, and he placed a hand on my forearm.
His eyes flicked up instantly, widening at what he felt down our bond. “You need to do this?”
Of course I did, and it hurt me that they didn’t know that, even though a small, saner part of myself wondered how the hell they would. Then I looked at Slade. He lit a cigarette with practised motions, seemingly glad for the opportunity to do something else than look at me. Fuck, I thought, that ache in my chest twisting tighter, I’ve left him out of the loop again. I moved to go to him, but Finn’s hand whipped out, placing a gentle, but firm grip on my shoulder.
“What's going on?” Slade said, frowning.
“You’re stopping her from going to her other mates,” Hawk growled, getting in Finn’s face. “What kind of bullshit is this?”
“Love…” Jack said, grabbing his arm.
“Everyone just needs to stay calm,” Brandon said through gritted teeth, sounding anything but.
“What are you fucking doing?” Slade snapped, moving between Hawk and Jack, reaching out to pull Hawk’s hand away, and that’s when our link was formed.
If I thought the feeling was burning hot within me, I had whole continents of emotion to discover yet. We were connected through love, intended violence, and just glancing caresses, but the bond didn’t care. Whatever had been aching in me all this time settled, then bloomed.
That was a funny way to put it, but how else could I describe it? The power seemed to bubble effortlessly from within us, rocketing through our connections, and out it all came. Emotions—from the profound to the prosaic—spiralled inside me, moving too close for me to pay too much attention to, and then they moved up. My head fell back, and I stared blind eyed at the sky, the grey clouds, then witnessed a bolt of white light slice through them. We were a circuit, generating the power and unleashing it on the world, and the crystals, in our pockets, in the backs of the utes, were singing now, the sound getting louder and louder.
And with it came peace. No need, no wants, just…satisfaction-recognition-comfort-pleasure-closeness. There was no real word for it, as it was so foreign to a human mind.
When you are united, you reach for me.
The voice was not my Tirian’s, but it was familiar. I saw a brief flash of green eyes and white fur, and then she was gone.
The shouts were what finally roused us from our collective brain snap. All of us came to at once and pulled apart, the crystals instantly going dark, the note falling away.
I felt a wrench as I realised at least one of the voices was Aaron as I walked over to the ute tray, and strained to look over the back of the car.
“That sounds like Aaron,” Brandon said, appearing by my side.
“Unity…” I breathed, and I moved forwar
d, out of the cocoon of my recovering men, the ring of the crystals still echoing in my ears as I wove my way around the car and to the other side. Aaron looked devastated when he saw me appear, his hand straying to his rifle, but the albino LOTR rejects straightened when I appeared.
“It is you that makes the stones sing,” one said by way of introduction.
“Yes.”
They slipped from their vaguely horse-looking mounts, and dropped down to one knee.
“My queen,” the spokesperson said. “You must accompany us to our village. We wish to invite you to celebrate a successful hunt.”
Do not want, I thought, my eyes darting over to Aaron. He nodded, but his gaze went to the bows currently strapped on their backs.
“We have…collected your entourage’s equipment and supplies, and have them safe, waiting for you.”
Aaron’s smile when it came was bitter, because we both knew how this was gonna go. All this queen talk might be one thing, but the fact that all our supplies were with these guys and we had no way to get replacements was going to be the deciding factor. But there was nothing wrong with going in as a queen.
I nodded my head regally. “We would be honoured to accompany you to your village for the feast.”
17
“It’ll be OK,” Finn said, rubbing a hand along my back as I climbed into the car.
“Don’t worry, we’ve got her,” Jack said, waiting for me to climb in beside Hawk.
“I know. I trust you’ll care for her as I would.”
As I settled down on the seat, the warmth of Hawk’s leg against mine a welcome one, there was a moment where the two of them just took each other’s measure, and then with a nod, Jack swung in next to me. Hawk and Jack’s hands were on me the moment our belts were clipped, and the need was still throbbing inside me. I looked out the window as we pulled away, watched the rest of my mates lead the way, Aaron driving with Brandon in the passenger seat. He waved as they took off, and we followed behind.
“And just like that, he goes back to being Prince Perfect,” Jack said in a low voice, but of course, Finn heard him. His eyes went to the rear vision mirror for a moment before directing them to the path in front of us.
“I love Finn,” I said.
Hawk’s hand tightened on my thigh as I turned to face Jack, those green eyes sparking audaciously. His smile was lazy, his move into my space slow.
“I know, and our mothers are going to worship the ground you walk on because we’re going to find a way to work together, but this pod person thing is weird.”
He kissed me, his hand sliding up my thigh along with Hawk’s. Which of course stopped me from thinking about Jack’s words and had my libido roaring back to life, sending me all sorts of ideas about the two of them working as one. Two sets of lips on mine, their tongues tangling with mine and each other’s. Two lots of kisses trailing down my neck until they travelled across my breasts and closed around my aching nipples. Hands sliding down, fingers fighting to slide inside me, flick my clit. Then two cocks positioned between my thighs about to—
Wait, what?
My eyes jerked open, searching for further signs of mystical meddling, but when I fished my crystal out, it was reassuringly dull. OK, since when was I considering DP? While I’d seen it a few times in porn, I’d never really considered making myself the filling in a double fuck sandwich.
“What the fuck are you thinking about?” Hawk said, leaning over and running his nose along my neck. “You smell so…”
“Wasn’t like this outside,” Jack said through gritted teeth. “I think whatever this ‘we must be all one’ thing is, it's a whole lot stronger inside a closed space. Your scent is fucking amazing.”
“We can’t do this,” I told myself as Jack drew nearer. “Safe space, remember?”
“I remember,” Hawk said, tilting my chin his way. “Ain’t nothing safer than this. Car’s got a five-star ANCAP rating.”
“Oh, well, that’s OK then.” I got the words out just as his lips descended on mine, the kiss was all the hungry, crawl into your mouth, things I was feeling.
Is there anything hotter than when a guy wants you as much as you want them? It’s like all that desire comes together and becomes a whole lot bigger than its parts.
“Hey, no bogarting the babe,” Jack growled. I barely got my eyes open before Jack had tilted my head his way. I heard the rapid intake of his breath through his nose as his lips landed on mine.
Fuuuuck. This was just kissing. I kissed friends, family, sometimes even acquaintances, but apparently, it took two seriously hot guys to transform my understanding of what the act could be. Each one kissed me stupid, all soft plush lips, sucking them into my mouth, scoring them with my fangs, flickering, searching tongues, and their taste—earthy, minty, bitter from nicotine. Then they turned me to the other one before I could rally, starting the process again. When the car swerved abruptly and then slammed on the brakes, it took me a good couple of seconds to muster the energy to wonder why.
Finn didn’t turn to face us, he just watched through the rear vision mirror as the guys turned their attention to the rest of my body, much to my delight and shame. It felt shitty, letting him watch me twitch and squirm, pinned to the seat by the belt and the boys, but I didn’t put a stop to it.
“I know she needs the two of you right now. We all know we need to formalise our pack bonds, and she’s ready for it. Aren’t you, Jules?”
Hawk’s head jerked up at that, those brown eyes searching my face until a bright smile lit it. “Yeah?”
I took his hand and squeezed it. “Yeah.”
“But she’s my mate, too. I love her, but I’ve been a total dick, and I’ve been holding myself apart from her—”
“Never saw the reason for that,” Jack said, grabbing my leg and hooking it over his knee, then Hawk did the same. Jesus, the tension in my thighs made my clit perk up like a friendly animal, not above begging for a pat. As I squirmed to put them back down, the seam of my jeans cut in, providing at least some of the attention I was after.
“Hold still,” Jack whispered into my ear, the reverberations sending shivers down my spine. “He’s just as likely to nail himself on another cross. We want him half mad with wanting, so he puts that fucking hammer down and chooses you, for good.”
“Sexual manipulation? That’s how we’re going to resolve issues within the pack?”
“Sounds good to me,” Jack said with a grin.
“Says the troublemaker. You’ll end up balls deep on a near permanent basis.”
“Now you’re thinking.”
“—but my control is only so strong. This car is saturated in pheromones. My cock is so fucking hard.” Finn’s voice broke through the backseat haze, forcing us to pay attention.
“And it could have been in here the whole time,” Jack said, stroking his hand along my jeans covered mound. Finn’s eyes jerked up to meet mine when I bit back a moan. I got that this was some kind of variation on the dominance fuck Shaun and I had back in the honeymoon cottage, but fuck, it felt like I’d just finished a six-month vow of celibacy. “This hot, sweet little cunt that feels like wet satin. The way it almost sucks you in when you first get your cock into her, drawing you helplessly into her until you bottom out. And then it starts swelling around you as all that blood rushes to her groin, and the muscles feel like the softest, sweetest hand, tugging on you, squeezing you until you're forced to fight for self-control and not spurt like a god-damned cub.”
Finn’s answering growl was low, but no less menacing for it. It filled the cab with the sound of his threat, growing louder as the boys faced him down and started to caress me again.
I should have put a stop to it, called it quits as we had made our point. I saw Finn white knuckling the steering wheel as he watched, the muscles around his eyes twitching as he forced himself to keep staring, but I didn’t. My Tirian stretched within me, chuffing in amusement at this display of dominance. She never seemed as alive as when we demons
trated our strength.
Let him watch, let him ache, wanting to fish his cock out and stroke it a few times before spilling on the floor, all the while his throat is filled with the taste of our scent.
I was being a bitch, letting Jack flick open my jeans’ button and slide my zipper down, both boys' hands fighting to get inside my pants the fastest. My loving, supportive mate was back, he’d shown that when he was defusing things by the car, and I hoped he was back for good. I wanted to be nice, to reconnect and get more details on the thought process that made him think cutting off our bond was the solution.
But I was not all sweetness and light. A dark, powerful part of myself rose within me, a part that gloried in Hawk and Jack scrambling to bring me pleasure, that put an insolent arch into my spine as they made contact with my clit. Fuck! My display was momentarily disturbed as fingers worked their way inside me. They couldn’t go deep, instead the thrusts were too shallow, which somehow just made the whole thing hotter. Jack pulled his hand free, smiling like a kid with a lollipop when he showed me the glistening residue on his fingers before sticking out a tongue and licking one clean, and it was weirdly an echo of something Finn had done before. He didn’t get to enjoy it for long, as Hawk grabbed his wrist and sucked every drop off his lover’s hand before pushing his fingers in to get a taste of his own.
The game was played out now. I knew this was real when I heard the rasp of everyone’s breath, our eyes half gone with lust. The guys reached across to kiss each other, licking my taste off each other’s lips before descending on mine.
Jack pulled away finally, and Hawk surged forward to fill the gap, forcing his tongue down my throat as his hands undid the buttons of my shirt. The cool air felt like a caress on my breasts.