Summer stopped Rik before he could dash off, holding onto his arm gently, but forcefully. “You think I have nothing invested in this? I met Leevi practically five minutes ago, and he’s already made love to me, with you there too.” She shook her head, as if she couldn’t quite believe she had actually done that. “I have just as much at stake here as you, trying to figure out what this all means. I may have more experience than you about being a werewolf, but you know more about the culture, the practices—”
“No,” Rik firmly said, interrupting her. “Leevi’s the one you should talk to about this, not me. I know so little myself.”
“Then we better hurry up and catch him, eh, partner?” As she nudged him with her elbow, her tone was filled with levity and tenderness, and Rik had never felt as close to her as right now. They were on the same wavelength, and it was a good sign for the success of their mating bond and their relationship. Taking hold of her hand, he took off, leading the way.
****
Back at Leevi’s house fifteen minutes later, cursing the fact that Leevi lived on the other side of town, Rik stormed right in, knowing from experience that Leevi kept the key stashed in a tiny cubbyhole above the door frame. He sniffed the air, smelling the trail of his lover leading up to the second floor, and sprinted up the stairs, leaving Summer to follow in his wake. He found Leevi in the master bedroom packing his sturdy, but shabby, suitcase with his meager belongings.
The ways of the shifter community still confused Rik, who couldn’t understand how a person could be forced to leave their own home forever. It was the wolf way, unforgiving and unyielding, an animal instinct to turn on those who had once been close. But that still didn’t explain why and how Leevi thought he could part with him, with them.
Rik practically had steam coming out of his ears. This was exactly what he had feared. “You’re just going to tuck your tail between your legs and run, is that it? Jesus, I thought that was my way of solving problems.” Rik heard how his own tone rose with every word until he was all but shouting, but Leevi just continued to pack as though he wasn’t even listening, as though there was no one else in the room. Rik grabbed his arm and yanked the man around until they were facing each other. And he wasn’t mindful of Leevi’s wounds either, ignoring the slight wince on his face as his body tensed. “You selfish bastard. Don’t you think I have a say in this? Or Summer? How dare you do this to us? You’re not alone in this.”
Leevi pushed Rik hard on the chest, shoving him back a few steps. His eyes that Rik adored, the color of summer sky, burned like blue flames, and his face was dark, like an impending gale, about to erupt. For a single heartbeat Rik thought Leevi might actually hit him.
But suddenly Leevi let out a long sigh, deflated like a limp party balloon, and the light went out in his eyes. Leevi had dressed in raggedy, torn jeans and a long-sleeved light-blue shirt, and since they didn’t taint or grow wet with blood, Rik surmised that his wounds had closed and were beginning to heal already. Still, to Rik he looked worn and weary, and his heart melted.
“Go away, Rik,” Leevi muttered, clearly dejected as he turned around and resuming his packing. “I don’t want you here.”
“Well, tough,” Rik growled, angrier than he’d ever been. A part of the blame for this mess they found themselves in was his fault, and feeling the weight of responsibility and guilt made him lash out with the truth in his heart. “You may not want me here, but whether you admit it or not you need me here. You. Need. Me. I’m your mate, for fuck’s sake.”
Leevi spun around about to respond, his expression hard again, when Summer’s anxious voice cut through all the emotional interference. “Guys, in English, please. You lost me.” Embarrassed, Rik hadn’t even realized he had gone back to Finnish with Leevi, and he was even more ashamed of the fact that for a moment he had forgotten her entirely. Fuck.
“Sorry, Summer,” Rik murmured apologetically, looking away briefly, unwilling to face her even though he was certain there would be no recriminations in her expression.
Taking a steadying breath, Leevi closed his eyes for a second. “Look, I appreciate you both coming to see me off, but—”
“Jesus, you think that’s why we’re here?” Rik was nearly beside himself. He was worried about Leevi’s injuries, he was scared of losing the man again, and he was angry that Leevi thought so little of their chances together that he was willing to run to the ends of the earth to get away. He clenched his fists at his sides to prevent himself from launching at his irritating man. “You fucking asshole. I’m here ’cause I love you. We’re both here because we love you. How can you just stand there and claim anything else when you know the truth—?”
“Rik!” Leevi took a fierce hold of Rik’s shoulders and shook him to stop his outburst. His eyes were pleading, his voice begging. “Please, Rik. Please, just leave me. I’m no good anymore. I’m not the Prime anymore. I don’t have anything to offer either of you now—no home, no job, no money, no pack, no stability or future of any kind. I’m not good enough to be your mate—”
“Don’t you think that’s up to us?” Summer interjected, walking closer to both men. “Or did you forget that you have already mated with both Rik and me? My father didn’t tell me much about matings, but I do know they are partnerships of equals. Democracy, you know. You may have been a Prime, but that is not why either of us had sex with you, and you should be ashamed for thinking so little of us. Yeah, you could believe that about me, since we don’t know each other real well, but Rik? He adores you. We’re not here out of charity. We’re here to support and care for you because we’re your mates.”
Summer’s voice was quiet, but firm. She put into words all those things Rik was too angry to say properly, and again he felt a surge of pride, possessiveness, and companionship for their beautiful, intelligent woman who seemed one step ahead of them, at least in the peacemaker department. And what she said was true. A mating was a bonding of equal partners.
“That’s right, babe,” Rik affirmed quickly. “You don’t get to unilaterally decide what happens to us. Me and Summer, we get a vote too.” Lifting his chin in defiance, Rik shivered with trepidation of losing everything yet again. “And I vote we stick together. So you’re not the Prime anymore. Who cares? So we can’t live here in your place. That doesn’t mean there’s nowhere we can go, just like Annukka said. Besides, your parents are still in Portugal if we need somewhere to go. So we’re dirt poor, and shit has really hit the fan. We can do anything as long as we stay true to ourselves and to each other.” He gripped hold of Leevi’s waist, his fingers clenched in his shirt only just avoiding the desire to prod him in the chest as he spoke each sentence.
“What he said.” Summer asserted as she closed the gap between them until she stood next to the two men, unconsciously completing the triangle. “I vote we stay together too. Leevi, I don’t know you very well yet. But even though I was born a wolf, my mother died before she could impart any of her wisdom to me. I need your help. Before I met you and Rik I thought I was the last werewolf on earth. I don’t want to be alone anymore.” Her voice cracked a little at the end.
Rik saw that it had the desired effect as he witnessed Leevi’s features softening, his resistance waning, his shoulders squaring. The tempest of depression had crested and was moving off, like the inevitable low tide, and Rik’s heart finally began to ease, and he relaxed his hold to gently stroke Leevi’s flank.
“Besides,” she added tenderly, with a quirky smile. “You’re hurt, and Rik is right. You do need us.” Her hand landed gently on Leevi’s arm, while his hands were still clutching Rik’s shoulders, and she squeezed sympathetically. “You’ve taken care of everyone for so long. We’re your mates. Let us take care of you for once, okay?”
Blinking, Leevi looked uncertain, but then he glanced at Rik, and in his eyes were lit the fires of love. Leevi was his and Summer’s. Grinning, Rik bowed his head slightly to indicate his submission to both his lovers, and his heart leaped as Leevi suddenly
wrapped an arm around his shoulders in a tight hug before doing the same to Summer.
The initial fears confronted and dealt with, Summer then pulled back and inquired as she clearly recalled the events of the evening, “How are you?” He could hear the concern in her voice as she inspected Leevi’s visible wounds with a frown. The cuts showed only on his cheek and neck as the rest was covered behind the loose fabric of his shirt.
Shaking his head dismissively, Leevi replied, “Primes are the strongest shifters. Our ability to heal is legendary. I will be fine in a few hours. See.” He carefully lifted the hem of his long-sleeved shirt, and true enough the deep gashes were barely worse than cuts or abrasions. Covering himself again, he added, “The ceremony is not about pain so much as degradation and humiliation, learning to accept the punishment of society for one’s transgressions. The pain is a bonus, but the wounds heal. Other shifters aren’t so lucky, as you might’ve observed with Jaakko’s men. It’ll take them days, or weeks, to heal. By tomorrow I’ll be as good as new.”
“Amazing,” Summer spoke slowly, gasping in wonder, her hand inching closer to him almost instinctively, but then retreating again. She looked up, studying him. “Listen, when you and I, you know, back at the fort, the impulse to mate, are you okay with it? With me, I mean?”
Leevi’s eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed dangerously. “Of course I am okay with it. Before we met, your scent, the sense of you, all of it called out to me, alluring and potent. And even before that when Rik spoke of you as catnip I felt a connection to you, that you were a woman strong enough for a Prime, and—”
“Wait,” Summer cut in, waving her hand between them. “Back up. What do you mean ‘Rik called me catnip’?”
Blushing, Rik glanced at Leevi who smiled back. With a chuckle, Leevi explained, “He meant no offense. It’s just that when the two of you met at the airport, what happened was beyond his control because of, among other things, your scent. You’re a very beautiful wolf, Summer, and your scent is, ah, so delicious.” To emphasize his point Leevi inhaled her smell, clearly relishing it with every cell in his body. This, Rik knew, because his reaction was identical.
Now it was Summer’s turn to blush and look coy. “Well, boys, I’m glad you like my, um, scent and all, but that’s not the only reason you two have for being with me, is it?” Both Rik and Leevi sputtered, and in unison they began to stammer out objections to her assumption, getting louder and less understandable with every word. Summer had to silence the both of them with equally vociferous shushing. “Okay, okay, you two. Jeez.” When both men quieted down, she let out a breath. “I just mean that you two have known each other for years, and you have barely spent any time with me.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Rik countered, glancing at Leevi from under his brow. “What Leevi and I had before, that was four years ago, but back then we only lived together for four months. Then I packed up and left. So, even though we stayed in contact, intermittent and sporadic as it was, Leevi and I have as much to learn about each other as we have about you.”
Leevi nodded silently, hope shining in his eyes. “That’s true. For what’s it worth, Rik, I’m glad you’re willing to give me a second chance—”
“You’re more than worth it,” Rik interjected softly, smiling reassuringly, and turning to face Summer. “And so are you. I thought you should know that I told Leevi only general stuff about you when we came looking for you—”
“Thanks for the rescue, by the way,” she cut in once more, with a bashful grin.
“—So there’s probably a lot of questions the two of you must have about each other,” Rik continued as though there had been no interruptions. “However,” Rik’s chest lifted in a deep sigh, and he decided it was time to put things back on the right track, “we’ve established that we’re all good, and we can talk about serious stuff later, yeah? We may have to vacate these premises pretty soon, but tonight this place is still ours. So why don’t we make good use of it?” With a less than subtle chin-lift toward the bed, he made his meaning crystal clear, resisting the urge to grin and not quite making it.
Summer suddenly laughed, looking at Leevi. “He’s such a pushy boy. Is he always so tactful?”
Leevi chuckled in response. “Yeah. He’s a pushy bottom too.”
“Am not,” Rik sputtered, but there was no vehemence in his tone, as he relished the sight of his loves getting along so well. Then he joined in their good humor.
Suddenly the air was thick with all the things yet left unsaid and things left unfinished. Rik’s brown eyes widened when he saw Leevi’s hackles thicken and rise and his canines drop. Soon his eyes changed to almond-shaped wolf eyes, clear blue all over, startling and haunting. Rik felt his own nape hairs stand up, and he was starting to crouch, ready to pounce on the man.
Just as quickly both men stilled. Rik was left wondering, “What the fuck?” The instinctive shift had happened so abruptly it had startled both of them.
Then Leevi smiled at him. He apparently knew exactly what caused the change, and suddenly so did Rik. In a flash they both turned to face Summer who had taken a step back, her beautiful blonde wolf features emerging, her tail wagging and lifting periodically to reveal her bare rump—for she had undressed in the instant while they had been focused on each other. The scent of a woman aroused and a female wolf in heat mixed in a delicious aroma wafting their way, and Rik crouched down further, shucking off the shirt he had borrowed from the clan after his own got torn in the fight and unbuttoning his jeans at the same time.
Next to him, Leevi was hunkering down too, leaning forward against the floor on braced arms, and he was growling at Summer. Concerned how she would take this, Rik was relieved to see her, like a mischievous imp of a fairy, laughing and taunting both men at once, sidestepping to shut the bedroom door. She remained out of reach of both men, but this was the mating dance of a seductress who wanted to be caught.
Rik grinned in anticipation. His body tingled with the sparks of the strengthening mating bond between them, as the fires of passion began to roar within him. He needed his mates more than air itself.
Then Leevi confirmed that it was a game. “Rik, circle around to the right and get behind her. I’ll cover the front.” Rik chuckled because Leevi had spoken in Finnish, and their unfolding plan would remain hidden from Summer for the time being, until they wanted her to be the wiser, that is.
Summer’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, and she huffed indignantly. “No fair. You guys suck.”
Leevi laughed. That was a sound Rik had missed all these years. “That won’t be all we’re going to do to you, beautiful,” Leevi taunted with a low, dangerous tone.
Her eyes widened when she saw the two men drift apart and begin to surround her. Her breath quickened, and she stepped back a pace. Tiny fangs sprouted through her gums, and little claws sprang up from her fingers as her wolf emerged warily. She hadn’t fully transformed, but she did have the loveliest tail Rik had ever seen. It was then that he realized with a pang just how much they had all restrained themselves with lovers who weren’t their kind. Rik was determined never to let that happen again. All three of them were in this for the long haul. It was a moment of profound clarity.
But he didn’t have time to consider it further when all of a sudden Summer jumped, trying to dash across the open space between the two men.
With a low chuckle mixed with a growl, Leevi leaped, caught her midair, and casually tossed her on the bed, all in a single move with no deference to his previous wounds.
Rik barely had the chance to tug the open suitcase from the bedspread onto the floor, where it landed with a thud, before Summer bounced on the bed, partly screaming in frustration and partly giggling at Leevi’s show of superior force, all of her wolf features having vanished once more in response to the sudden action taken by the men.
“Bully,” she threw at him, followed closely by a pillow.
“Bitch,” Leevi retorted with a grin, catching the pillow wit
h ease and tossing it right back at her.
Summer laughed again, her sweet voice cascading over Rik like cool fragrant waters. “Maybe, but I’m not your bitch yet, lover,” she needled again, slowly insinuating her naked body into the middle of the bed, tauntingly parting her legs to reveal her glistening pussy as she moved. She wasn’t trying to escape. In fact, she teasingly waited for the men to make their move.
Leevi gave Rik a look under his brow, and a conspiratorial wink, and took off his shirt, casting it aside, and popping open the top buttons on his jeans. The growing bulge of his crotch was like an aphrodisiac to Rik. “You will be.”
Without waiting for the banter to go on, Rik sprang into action, discarding his jeans and hopping onto the bed next to Summer in record time, grinning wolfishly, pleased that she lay back, almost submissively, her arms around her head pushing her firm breasts out to entice him. “Leevi’s right, you know, Summer. Once he makes up his mind about getting something, he pretty much gets it.”
The beautiful woman lying beside him pursed her lips. “Is that so?” Her eyes darted toward Leevi, who had taken off his clothes as well and was standing at the foot of the bed, bare and exposed, his lean, fit body covered in light fur. His wolf features had always seemed filled with mystique to Rik, and he stared at his lover in awe. The longing to be with him again took over his senses, and he scrambled to the foot of the bed, caught the man’s arm, and dragged him laughingly on the bed with him.
As they lay next to each other, with Summer in the middle, Rik felt a wave of deep contentment wash over him. He had found his mates, and they would be together. He was home.
The Last Werewolf (The Weres of Europe) Page 15