by Alexis Wilde
The cold air on her backside, the loam beneath her knees, the press of his parted denim into the skin of her abdomen, none of it mattered to the throbbing ache inside her. Only this wolf—this stranger with eyes like a mossy pool in cool shadow, with indomitable strength.
And his body.
His lips peeled back from his teeth, a pale slash in the dark, and a raw sound trickled from between them as he half-rose on his knees to thrust hard into her. His thighs strained beneath her, another layer of taut heat cradling her.
Fast. Aggressive.
Perfect.
Just enough to give her what she needed—and as her second orgasm pooled in her belly, as her wolf shook and clawed at her senses, Natalie’s voice parted on a rapid, panting keen she didn’t hold back. Didn’t care. Her spine warmed. One of his hands left her waist to cup her breast through her shirt, one broad thumb dragging over her nipple.
“God,” he rasped. “Why are you so—”
Natalie slapped a hand over his mouth. “Harder,” she gasped. “Please!”
His eyes banked over her hand. His teeth sank into her palm, and the small pain drove nails through her shuddering consciousness, wrapped around the warmth surging in her veins.
But he didn’t argue. Didn’t fight her. To her relief, her amazement, the stray wolf did as she asked—he wrapped both arms around her back, pinned her in place there in the shadows of the forest and fucked her with awesome strength. In and out, his cock dragged against the walls of her body, stroked her over and over until even his breath started to unravel and the look in his eyes fractured.
He didn’t ask her permission.
She didn’t have it in her to grant it.
As her consciousness fragmented on a second shuddering, screaming orgasm, his forearms tightened at her back, crushed her breasts to his chest. With his own ragged groan, his cock jerked inside her, thickened in pulsing echo and spilled his hot seed into her body.
* * *
She had finally settled down by the camp fire he’d made for her, huddled into his jacket and nodding off when she thought he wasn’t looking.
Problem was, Jackson was constantly looking.
He hadn’t stopped since the moment she’d rolled out of that box. He didn’t want to stop anytime soon.
Natalie was worth looking at. Especially now that he knew what she looked like when he was balls-deep inside her, stroking himself in her body until her full lips parted and her hair tumbled around her face as she thrashed her head in helpless, wordless encouragement.
Just get it over with.
That moment, that single demand, had briefly painted his vision red.
A footstep crunched behind her. Alek’s scent settled his hackles—mostly. He didn’t turn, but pitched his voice to carry as quietly as possible. “Her name is Natalie. She’s fine, but it won’t last for long.”
The other wolf didn’t usually make a sound when he walked. He and his brother were two sides of the same coin—fast and stealthy, and reliable in a clusterfuck.
If what Jackson was thinking was true, this was going to be a serious clusterfuck.
It also explained why Alek made sure to signal his approach. As he came around the huge maple Jackson leaned against, the younger man dropped his pack and sank to his haunches. That put his head lower than Jackson’s. Too low, given the circumstances, but he recognized the wolf’s intentions.
“Fuck,” he growled, scraping one hand down his face. “Am I that bad?”
“Obvious, maybe.” Alek’s mouth kicked up at the corner, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep breath. “She’s still burning hot enough to send a flare.”
“She will until her cycle is over or she’s mated.”
Pale eyes flicked to the huddled female, sharpened when her head jerked up. Dark hair spilled over her shoulder, gleaming like obsidian in the firelight. Her eyes threw back the flame in hellish echo of what he could only imagine she was suffering inside, and they unerringly pinned on him.
On them.
The weight of it was like a fist to his gut.
Alek navigated this one carefully. “So….You didn’t—?”
“Mate?” Jackson’s laugh was hollow. “No. You know what she said to me?” The other man tipped his head. “‘Get it over with’.”
As expected, Alek’s features blackened. His hands, braced on the ground beneath him, curled into fists. “No.”
“Oh, yeah.” Jackson wanted to pound the tree behind him, but he didn’t dare. Across the camp site, Natalie looked back into the fire and shifted. Even from here, he could smell her.
Smell himself on her.
She wasn’t the first woman he’d ever fucked, but she was the first full-blooded female he’d ever been allowed to touch. To claim.
Only it wasn’t a claim. Not really.
And he couldn’t help but wonder if she knew how much choice she had?
Get it over with.
“Fuck that,” Alek growled, as under his breath as he could. The line of his shoulders vibrated with the same anger Jackson nursed.
“Throttle it back,” he warned, scraping cool command over the fury they shared. “It’s not her fault. Those bastards probably thought she’d give in long before she escaped. What’d Nico say?”
Alek braced his elbows on his thighs, balanced perfectly on the balls of his feet as he laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them. He was usually the quieter of the pair of brothers, but that didn’t make him any less dangerous. Or prone to the same kind of anger clawing through Jackson.
But Alek’s control had always been strong.
He cleared his throat. “First thing he wanted to know was if you’d fucked her.”
Wry humor slashed through his anger. “Next?”
“If she didn’t mate you here and now, we’re taking her to the Lost River cabin.”
Jackson straightened from the tree. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
That surprised the shit out of him. He paced away from the tree, and Alek’s measuring stare, turned and came back. “Does he realize what he’s asking?”
Alek’s eyes creased, though his smile wasn’t all amusement. “Do you?”
“Shit.”
Jackson knew all right. He knew, and he couldn’t fault their unspoken alpha any more than he could fault the genetics that made them what they were. Nico intended to bring her back to the territory they’d acquired but had never moved into—because they weren’t a pack. They weren’t a family. Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
Except Natalie, gorgeous Natalie, might give them the opportunity to become one.
If she wanted them. Any one of them.
Problem was, that threw down a bloody gauntlet between the nonexistent Lost River pack and the Yellow Canyon pack they were supposed to deliver her to. Assuming that she was at all important to them—and he had his doubts about their definition of important.
Nico was risking a war.
By the fire, Natalie shifted again–the rustle of her clothes and the crackle of the logs he’d fed into the flame wasn’t enough to hide the husky sound of her breath.
Alex rose, a fluid line of lethal strength, and jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Nico’s rerouting Ben. He’ll have a rig that can fit the three of you.”
“Nice of him,” Jackson muttered, but it lacked any real sting. There was a purpose to that. The vehicle they’d used for the package was too small to hold any more than two in the cab, leaving the third in the bed of the truck. She’d need hands-on attention on the way.
“He’ll be here soon,” Alek added. “Will she be okay?”
“She’ll have to be.” Jackson shot him a raised eyebrow. “You want to meet her?”
The other man’s smile turned lopsided, and he took a step back, hands firmly in his pockets. “I’ll clean up the site, scatter our tracks.” But his eyes, as pale and bright as the moon, strayed to Natalie when she took deep breath, let it out on
another throaty sound that said her body hadn’t forgotten what it needed.
This was what taking her back entailed. This what Nico meant.
Natalie was in heat, and heat needed constant care. She hadn’t chosen Jackson, either because she didn’t trust him or she didn’t know it was a choice. Jackson was man enough to understand that, and strong enough to want her to find whichever man would please her in every way.
If she wanted to try them all, every member of the mercenary team Nico had pulled together from cast-offs and strays, then Jackson would make sure she could.
But Alek shook his head. “I’ll wait until she can meet Dema.”
Damien was the younger of the twins, a little more hot-headed, and as protective over his twin as Alek was for him. They were practically inseparable.
They didn’t talk about it, but Jackson had picked up enough to understand that when their home pack had grown too big, and they’d run the weakest out to fend for themselves, Damien had been among them.
Alek had not.
Even so, Alek had left a place of strength within his pack to follow his brother into the life of a stray. That kind of thing weighed like a boulder on Damien’s shoulder. Probably added to the already tight bonds between them.
Jackson got that. He might have been run out himself, with no one to follow him, but he understood devotion.
They’d banded under Nico for a reason.
Jackson let Alek fade back into the forest, saying nothing. The other wolf might have been dedicated to his brother’s feelings, but he wasn’t made of stone. The smell of her, lush and musky and sweet, hovered over the whole campsite. Hell, Jackson himself probably reeked of her.
One day, the twins would have to figure out their shit, but Jackson wouldn’t be the one to press the point.
Dragging his palms down his jeans, he made his way to the campfire—and the female who watched him with large, shimmering eyes. She clutched his jacket tight to her throat, but it did nothing to hide the shape of her thighs, the curve of her waist and her flared hips. She was gorgeous. Soft and tempting and exquisite, the kind of woman that appealed to every instinct Jackson possessed.
Perfect in every way.
And flushed from more than the fire.
When her lips curved into a shy smile, Jackson’s chest twisted. “I heard enough to get the idea,” she said quietly.
He knelt beside her, within reach but careful not to overwhelm her. Gently, he settled one hand at her nape. Eased his thumb over warm skin beneath her hair.
She shuddered.
“Is that okay?” he asked. “Will you come with us?’
She swallowed hard, an audible note of uncertainty—and raw arousal she couldn’t hide. “I’m afraid.” A whisper. Her gaze fell to the ground between them.
It took everything he had to stay still. To keep from closing that distance and taking her face in his hands, promising things he desperately wanted to promise but couldn’t guarantee.
Not until she was his.
But he could give her hope. His thumb edged into the tense muscles of her neck. “Listen to me.” Her shoulders shook under the command—another shudder. Her thighs pressed tightly together.
God, she smelled good.
Jackson firmed his grip on her neck, forced her face up until he could meet her gaze. Hold it. “I promise you, Natalie, we will take care of you. There is nothing to fear.”
Her cheeks flared red. But she didn’t look away.
Irrational pride flickered inside the twisted mess of his chest. “You’ll like the cabin. We’ve been adding to it bit by bit. It’s really comfortable, I hear.”
Natalie’s eyebrows came together, gentle lines of knotted brown. “You hear?”
“I haven’t been in months.”
“Why not?”
Jackson thought about it. “There was never anything there I wanted,” he said, and it came out lower, more gruff than he meant.
Her shoulders softened. The collar of his jack gaped—a small opening. A little fracture in the armor of his denim coat. She took a breath that shook. “While I’m…okay…? Tell me about the others.”
Jackson settled to the fire-warmed ground, easing a little bit closer. Instinct told him she craved touch more than sex right now, but the fragrance rich in his nose said that wouldn’t hold. So his thumb drew circles over and over on the back of her neck, smoothing across her soft skin, tangling gently in her hair, as he considered the request.
Maybe she didn’t know she had choices. Maybe she didn’t understand that there was more to mating than just sex.
If he ever met the members of her previous pack, he’d tear them apart on principle.
Either way, it was time she start thinking about what she wanted.
Jackson intended to give her exactly that.
So he didn’t hold anything back. “There’s eight of us. Three of us are off on missions at any given time.”
Her eyes widened. “Missions?”
“Later,” he murmured, waiving the details. “You’ll meet Ben first. He’s our wheelman, and for all intents and purposes, the second in command. He’s usually quiet, but when he speaks, he’s got a voice that’ll make any woman wet.” He watched her face, gaze skimming over the shape of her cheekbones, her lips. Her eyes as her lashes flickered. “You’ll probably need some help on the way home, and I guarantee you that as long as Ben’s giving the orders, you’ll be climaxing in seconds flat.”
She ducked her head. “Why?”
“Because he’s going to tell me how to touch you, sweetheart. How to touch me.” Jackson’s cock hardened just thinking about it. Talking about it sent an answering ache deep in his bones. He didn’t get off on Ben’s voice dominant kink, but goddamn, imagining the way she would was like a hand around his already throbbing dick.
And the way the air thickened between them, the way her fragrance intensified, said she was thinking about it.
Good.
“After Ben gets you off, you’ll probably meet Nico.” Jackson’s fingers edged into her hair. The heat radiating from her scalp saturated his skin in a fine sweat.
He wanted to taste her. God, he wanted to bury his tongue inside her.
He had to rein it in. Jackson had fucked her first. The others needed a fair shake, or else the fragile balance between them all would crumble.
Locking himself down, throttling his wolf back, he continued hoarsely, “Nico’s the strongest of us, and if we ever cement into a family, he’ll be our alpha. Your wolf will love him,” he added with a strained chuckle. When she tipped her head, he explained simply, “He’s strong in body and wolf. He speaks to the most savage part of us, the feral instinct to mate and survive. Your wolf will obey.”
Her eyes closed. “That’s frightening.”
“No,” he corrected gently. “That’s power. But we trust him, Natalie. You will, too.”
She didn’t respond, but he didn’t push. She’d see. Slowly, she’d trust. The way Jackson did. “What about…” She hesitated. “The one you were talking to?”
“Aleksandr,” he replied. “Alek.”
“He didn’t…” Another pause. Another long moment. Natalie’s gaze dipped. “He didn’t want me.”
Instinct had Jackson fisting his hand in her hair, tugging firmly enough that she gasped. “Alek has a brother, Damien. They’re the type of twins that share one soul, bonded in ways that go deeper than pack. He didn’t walk away because he didn’t want you.” His laugh rasped. “Fuck, if you’d been standing next to him, you’d have smelled just how much he wanted you. He’s probably back in the truck beating off to his fantasies of you right now.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered.
“Oh, yes,” he replied, twining his fist into her hair with care. Deliberate. Slow. “But Alek doesn’t leave his brother behind. You’ll meet them both soon enough, and when you do, I promise you that they’ll want you. Together. Alek will lose himself in your magnificent tits while Damien thrusts his tongue in
your pussy, and you may or may not get a say in which one fucks you first.”
Natalie’s body betrayed what her downcast gaze wouldn’t. She was already wet, that much was clear, but as his jacket gaped wider, he could see the shape of her nipples beaded tight against her bra.
As he suspected. She wanted it. Wanted to try them all.
Jackson tugged her over by the hair, until she had to brace a hand on the ground between them. His lips brushed against her ear as he growled, “Nothing is off-limits, Natalie. Whatever you need, whatever you want to try, we’ll give it to you. You’ll learn to trust all of us, because we—” There wasn’t a word strong enough.
They would all want her. All want to take her, taste her, fuck her.
But they’d want more, too. To comfort her. Protect her.
Make her happy.
It was an instinct as old as the blood itself.
“You want to mate with me,” she said, but it shook.
Fresh rage scraped across his senses.
Jackson very carefully gentled his grip in her hair. Forced himself to scrape his nails lightly over her scalp, until she eased out another breath. “Yes, we want to mate you, Natalie, but it doesn’t matter which of us does.” Or it shouldn’t. He’d make damn sure it wouldn’t. “You’ll be pack. Family. If you choose one of us, we will all cherish you.” Firmly, he set his teeth into her earlobe—bit down until she moaned. “Until then, all you have to do is tell us what you want.”
Her fingers dug into the dirt, white with the strain. Of his words, maybe. Of the heat eating at her from the inside.
Either way, he relished it.
“Can I…” Natalie tipped her head to the side, peeked at him from under her lashes. “Can I start with Ben?”
Jackson forced the words out around the knot that strangled them. “Oh, yes. You can definitely start with Ben.”
And because he wanted her, because he wanted her to trust him, Jackson would do everything in his power to make sure she got exactly what she wanted.