Once fully seated, allowing myself a moment to adjust to him, I started to move. Ansel’s hands shook, his large body trembling. His grip was so tight it was punishing. He was just shy of cracking one of my ribs. A tiny growl rumbled my chest, gurgling in my throat. I liked it rough. My hips worked faster, until I could feel him quickening along with me. I could feel it like his building orgasm was mine, trickling its way up my spine. I moved faster, harder, until it hurt. I couldn’t get enough of him, wanted more. This was about to be the fastest fuck I’d ever had. He mumbled my name, choking it out as his body stiffened, his dick jerked, and he came. Riding him through his orgasm and into my own, his cock still hard as he came and came and, well, didn’t show any sign of letting up, I locked us together as his dick began to thicken, grinding my hips into him as his body locked into mine.
“Emmy.” That was about all he could manage at the moment, my name, over and over and over, with a strange sort of reverence, chanting it like a prayer. His lips found mine and he took them fiercely, possessively.
There was a strange niggle in the back of my subconscious, like a secondary presence. Instead of feeling alarmed, an odd sense of peace washed over me, like I’d just been welcomed home. Warmth suffused me, but I felt like I was feeling it secondhand. I shivered as it warred with the chill of the water. Eating at my mouth, Ansel’s hands automatically began smoothing up and down my back. My hands smoothed over the back of his head, down his neck. I held him close to me, my breasts pressed up against his chest, our bodies tightly locked, joined intimately. I wanted to mash him to me possessively until we felt like one, then never let him go.
“Better?” I asked, once he’d seemed to have recovered on both fronts.
“Mine,” he muttered against my lips, kissing and nipping, bussing his lips with mine in the tenderest of tiny kisses.
His skin was smoother than a baby’s bottom beneath my fingertips. He’d lost his partial shift at some point during our interlude. I smiled against his mouth.
“I think you tore my suit bottoms. My momma paid an arm and a leg for these things. She’s going to kill me.”
“It’s getting pretty dark. She won’t notice if you go back to your daddy’s car and change ‘em. I’ll buy you new ones to replace them. Promise.” With another lingering kiss, he mumbled against my mouth, “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Pulling back, until my arms were outstretched, hands locked behind his head to stare at him pointedly, my brows arched. “Someone’s been busy today, and on the lam for far longer than they’re letting on. Tell me, Ans-hole, just how long have you been watching me, you knew we took Daddy’s car?”
Looking a tad sheepish, a sense of slight embarrassment washing over him, and me in the process like I could feel that internal cringe, he shrugged his wide shoulders and glanced away. “Long enough...”
“Oh?” Color me intrigued.
“Long enough to know I’m gonna kill Rowdy if he even thinks of mentionin’ you in this suit,” he muttered, his thumbs brushing the material as he clutched me to him, making me laugh.
“Well, you’ve seen it, and me in it, and you are well aware Rowdy is just a mouthy ass, don’t let him spoil your evening.”
“Spoil his eyes,” he began to grumble, but I slapped my hand over that thick lipped mouth and gave him a stern look. Pulling my wolf in on it, my eyes flashing deeply with my wolf, a brilliant, glowing green, I glowered down at him, forcing the words out, “None of that. No eye gouging or murderous rampagin’. You hear me?” Taking his hand, I placed it on my chest, right between my breasts. “You feel that? It’s yours. Your stupid ass won it fair and square, but there are stipulations, Asshole. You feel me?”
“I’m listening,” he murmured, though he had a scowl dark enough to make the devil himself sit up and take notice.
“You have to get the hell outta here before you get caught.”
He growled at that one but I kept going.
“No killin’, maimin’, or otherwise permanently damaging idiots, Fynn included, for bein’ dumbasses. What’s done is done, nothing to be done about it now but get over it and move on. Life is too fucking short to dwell on all the bullshit. I won’t come between you two,” I warned. “I won’t.” I already had but that had to end now. It would kill me if they remained estranged. Despite their constant squabbling, they were brothers and loved each other deeply. Like fuck was that just going to be left be.
“And lastly?” he said on a snarl. My male was not happy with me right this moment, but that was okay.
“We take this on my time. I’m sorry you didn’t get to go about things like maybe you would have, could have, and I’m sorry I wasn’t the kind of wolf to take note sooner or pay attention to the signs I’m just beginning to see now, call it what you will, but I-”
“No. None of that. Not another fucking word or I’ll put you over my knee and paddle that pretty little ass, you hear me?”
Wanting to argue, squirming, the first half of my rant still stood. He waited until I gave a slight nod to continue.
“We’ll go as slow as can be managed,” he bargained. “Been waitin’ a long time for this. I’m patient, or I’d like to think I am when it comes to you, but not that fucking patient, Roly.”
“We’ll work on it...?” I finagled.
“I’ll work on you,” he swore.
“Asshole,” I huffed, “that’s not what I meant and you-” Ansel shut me up with a toe curling kiss that would have resulted in round two, our bodies slowly unlocking, if the pack Alpha’s voice didn’t join the others.
Ansel pulled back, glanced somewhere off behind us and grimaced.
“I think that’s your cue to head off and mine to sneak back to the car,” I murmured, though I really didn’t want him to leave.
Sighing heavily, he nodded, offering me one last kiss and a meaningful look before ducking below the water. His hands slid down my hips as he went, stopping briefly to grab my legs, parting them, nipping my inner thigh, to place a quick, playful kiss to the top of my mound, and then he was gone.
“Tease,” I muttered on a shocked gasp, my face heating so hotly my cheeks burned. Spotting a plethora of bubbles along the surface a short ways away, I shook my head. “Asshole.” Slipping out of my inner tube, pushing it up along the bank, I pulled my thick frame from the water. Tying my bathing suit bottoms back on the best I could, I disappeared into the brush.
I had to apologize to the person whose towel I stole so I wasn’t holding the slashes down the back of my bathing suit bottom’s butt shut, doing a dash of shame to Dad’s car, but I was totally going to find out whose it was to drop the towel off at their place or mail it back to them, whatever it took. I totally was.
∞∞∞
Dressed, I’d guiltily decided dumping the towel in an obvious spot was probably the smarter idea, then retrieved my inner tube, hefting it over my head to cart it back towards the car, and made it back towards the picnic area just in time for the barbecue coming together.
“There you are. We all thought you’d snuck off!” Fynn waved me over, holding out a plate. Judith, Fred, my parents, Eldritch, Rowdy, a thankfully sweatpants covered Byron, and Mari and Rina, Byron’s younger sisters, the twins, as the blondes were known, stood gathered around in a loose circle, shooting the shit.
Eldritch glanced up at my approach, offering a short nod of greeting I didn’t return. The pack Alpha rarely acknowledged me, and I liked it that way just fine. Something in his dark eyes as they met mine briefly gave me pause, but I shoved the thought aside. He had small, wide set eyes, set in a thin, long, angular face, and even thinner lips, putting to mind an angry snake. A pinch of anger hit me that he’d put Ansel in the hole in the first place, though I understood it had been necessary at the time. Or had it been, I kept countering, with a quirk of my lips, replaying what Ansel and I’d just been up to back at the river, the ease he was at with himself afterward. I was glad I’d thought to douse myself with the can of spray on sunblock I
’d spotted in the car when I’d gone back to change. That crap stunk, effectively covering up the lingering smells of just what I’d been up to, and more importantly, whom I’d been up to it with. It wouldn’t help, come tomorrow, when his scent and mine would be strongest, our mingled essences, ahem, lingering. I’d have to scrub doubly in the shower tonight. And yet, the idea of washing off any and all traces of him sent my heart racing.
“Where’d you go off to, little lady?” Rowdy raised an eyebrow at me.
“Far away from Priscilla, queen of the river, her blonde companion, and a mad maxi wielding, oiled up minion,” I quipped, making Rowdy scowl as I ignored his impertinent question, and Byron laughed.
“Allergic to dimethicone,” Byron slapped his arm, “sensitive skin. I may get greasy with the sun block I finally found that doesn’t contain that dreaded ingredient, but does this skin look sun burned to you, hm? No? I think not.”
“Liar. You just wanted a leg up when you tackled someone out of their damned inner tube. Hard to keep a hold on ya, slippery as shit like that.” Rowdy snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Grub’s on! Line up!” Marsden, a Beta from the pack in Hampock called out, his deep voice booming above the din. “Ribs, burgers, chicken, over here, wieners, side fixins, this way, drinks up the middle row!” They had a long assembly line, forming a curving, snake looking pattern as it wove around the tables.
“What were you doing, I wonder?” a deep voice murmured from my right. Glancing over my shoulder sharply to find I had the undivided attention of the Alpha now, his sharp features shrewdly fixed on me, I scowled. I’d never joined the pack, so didn’t share the annoying, intrusive bond he did with joined pack wolves. I was a fringe wolf, I was part of the pack but separate. It wasn’t uncommon for other Alphas to bristle at the idea of bowing down to another. Forced submitting would never happen with me. I could pick and choose what I did, not feel that infernal obligation and Alpha’s push urging me to. Fuck that shit. If Ansel wanted it, could put up with it, good for him, but I was just fine sitting pretty by my lonesome, thank you very much.
There was something about Eldritch that had always kind of bugged me. I’d never felt the urge to follow him, as I’d heard others were wont to. I felt no sense of show him who’s boss, either, like I have with other Alphas, the urge to flash some of that inner Alpha bitch prowess his way and flex the power. I’d always assumed my odd reactions, feelings, or lack thereof in some cases, had to do with my need not to feel hemmed in, too often confused with my having some kind of antisocial behavior, when I really just didn’t want to feel trapped, strapped down by everyone else’s wants and needs above my own, demands gnawing at me, so sue me, I’d sort of black sheeped myself in the process.
And I wondered why my mate prospects were next to nil. Was I really that awful? Was a dominant shewolf such a hassle? Who wanted to be saddled with a difficult Alpha chick, though? A mouthy one...
Ansel did—does. My lips tipped up in a soft smile. A throat clearing as I loaded up the plate Fynn handed to me reminded me of Eldritch. He was waiting for an answer.
“Can’t a gal catch a moment to herself to float along the river in peace?” I asked gently.
“Amen, honey,” Judith called, overhearing me, making Fred and Mom laugh.
“Hurry up, Em,” Fynn turned to me, already munching on a dinner roll. “Soon as it’s dark the movie is rollin’.” Scowling at me decked out in my regular clothes, he huffed, “Where’s your suit? How am I gonna scare the piss out of you while the movie distracts you if your legs aren’t danglin’ in the water?”
“It’s a little chilly for that, isn’t it?” Mom asked, leaning around Judy ahead of us in line to ask. She mock-shivered and attacked the sweet potatoes, and then green bean casserole, scooping out a heaping helping of each onto hers and Dad’s plates. Yum. I loved barbecue.
“I got cold,” I told Fynn simply, ignoring his look of disappointment. His dismay only lasted moments.
“Always next year.” His shoulders lifted in a nonchalant shrug. “Watch me terrorize from land, then,” he joked.
While Judith started to lecture her youngest on the millions of ways pulling pranks like that could go wrong, I tried to ignore the sense I was being watched. This wasn’t like when Ansel was near. This was... different. Bristling, I worked my way through the line, well aware of the pack Alpha at my back. That watched feeling persisted. At the end of the line, I paused, my gaze lingering on a spot in the forest. A warmth filled my chest suddenly. My free hand lifted toward the space between my breasts at the foreign feeling, heart starting to pound, and I swallowed hard. At a peek of turquoise surrounded by black fur, a white tipped muzzle, barely visible in the dense brush, I ducked my head. That warm filling suffused me, until I was tingling with it and my heart felt like it was singing. Holy hells, what was with the Sound of Music thumping away in my chest? The hills were alive, alright.
Adding a couple of ribs and grilled chicken breast to my plate, I grabbed disposable silverware, stuffing the napkin wrapped packet of utensils into my jean pocket, and headed for the table Fynn and everyone was gathering at.
Still feeling a mite stalked, but not from my jailbreak mate, I turned suddenly to find Eldritch, his head cocked, eyes flushed with silver rimmed in white, studying me.
Scowling, I grunted, eyes flashing, flushing warningly. I put feeling behind it, glowering until he glanced back down at his plate, a scowl starting to beetle his furrowing brow. When he turned, spinning on his heel, and stalked in the direction opposite me, I shrugged the whole odd moment off and happily continued on my merry way.
As I sat, pretending to be a part of the group and the conversation around me, feeling anything but, my eyes kept going back to the woods, searching, wandering.
Ansel, I’m gonna murder you, you foolish blockhead, I thought. A prickle of humor plucked at me, clean out of the blue. With a start, I jerked. What the hell? That wasn’t from me. Was it...? My eyes widened as I rubbed at the spot on my chest. The nip at the mixer, the sex in the river. A blood exchange, and our unprotected escapades—we really were bonded now.
“You alright there, Miss Emmy?” Jessop, the wolf sitting between Lonnie and Byron, asked.
Glancing up sharply at the natural redhead, a relation of Cherry Lee, I believed, blinking at the black and white leopard print pattern he was sporting on his practically bald, buzzed head, I shook my head. He was so red from the sun he looked like cooked lobster, a pale white line from his sunglasses leaving raccoon rings around his eyes. “Heart burn,” I said suddenly, clearing my throat, reaching for my drink, forcing my hand to quit rubbing the spot that kept pricking at me.
“I think she’s missin’ somebody. Oooh,” Rowdy chimed in, cooing the words in a familiar childhood crush teasing, taunting singsong.
“What is this, third grade?” Fynn snorted on a laugh.
Lonnie shot a look at him at the hint of defensiveness in his tone. I’d heard it too. Pretending interest in my food, I was cringing, wincing internally. I was missing Ansel, though, Rowdy’d gotten it right on the nose.
“One hour, she’ll be ready,” Max called, walking out with several other wolves following behind, tiki torches in their arms. Getting to work setting them about as people finished eating and lounged around, watching the sun set and the sky grow darker, I couldn’t help but think about how much more fun this might’ve been with a certain someone here to heckle and piss me off. Then, ah, maybe kiss and make up with later...
Jesus. When did I become obsessed with Ansel Gurgen? No. I’d been obsessive over him before. Obsessed with avoiding him. And why was that? He made me nervous, always had. No one had that effect on me, not like he did. And I’d made it my mission in life to avoid him like the plague instead of exploring exactly why he set me on edge. And it had morphed into this instant dislike that lingered for years.
“That bad?” someone asked, drawing me from my thoughts.
Blinking, I glanced up at the containe
r of chalky discs someone was trying to hand me. Realizing I was grimacing, grabbing at my chest, I blushed. “Oh, ah, thanks.” I’d heard it was hard to be away from your mate for extended periods of time, and the first few months could be excruciatingly uncomfortable for mates to be parted for even short stints. How Ansel had managed all of this, and at such a young age, thinking I was his all these years and just sitting on his hands with it, my mind boggled trying to put what I was feeling now to what he must’ve been going through then. And to know full well what he’d done and did it anyway, then, what? He’d hid it, or tried to, and then just sort of abandoned us being mates, so I could find my way and, ultimately, if he was lucky, come back to him. The man loved to fish, I knew, but his catch and release technique when it came to mating, the male deserved sainthood.
Why, I kept asking myself, did he want my ass? I was difficult, stubborn, hard headed, opinionated, snarky, smart mouthed, downright mean sometimes, blunt... Fuck, I’m a female version of him. Laughing at the idea, I shook my head. Two peas in a damned wolfish pod.
“Come on, Em!” Fynn called.
Realizing I’d been sitting here for a while now, left to my thoughts as people scattered, I jerked, the smell of the lit torches surrounding us reaching my nose. “Huh?”
“Sleepin’ with your eyes open or what?” Fynn called. “It’s almost time. Popcorn for land watchers only. Better get you some, and save some for me for when I crawl back to dry land!”
In a way I had been snoozing as I stared off into space. Hardcore day dreamin’. Glancing at my phone, I gaped. Over an hour had easily passed.
“I’m goin’. Hold your long necks, little foot.” Standing, I slid off of the bench, heading toward the smell of popcorn and butter, dumping my empty food plate in the trash on my way. Mmmm. Popcorn.
Until I Make You MINE (Wolves of Amrok Hollow) Page 9