Night Surrender

by Godiva Glenn

  Typically, mating between two lupine was an act that left both a bit bloodied. He couldn’t go that far, yet he didn’t want to hold back so much that Nancy felt unsatisfied. She liked it rough, and to be fair, she wanted rougher than he’d been up to this point.

  “Do you remember what we’ve spoken of before?” he asked.

  “Of course. If it’s too much, or if it doesn’t feel right, to say something.”

  “Immediately.”

  “Immediately,” she agreed, peering back at him.

  Satisfied, he released the increasingly tense hold on his wolf and welcomed his lupine form to take over. His shadow stretched along the ground as he grew. Bare flesh became soft fur and his senses heightened further.

  Nancy’s racing pulse and uneven breathing tickled his ears. He squatted down and crawled to her, scenting the air, which blossomed with her sexual fragrance. His long tongue lapped between her legs and she jumped at the contact.

  “Oh my,” she murmured, settling herself.

  He licked her again, pleased by her clean and needy flavor. Another night he could devote hours to tasting her in this form, but tonight he didn’t have the patience. It wasn’t mere hormones rushing him on. Taking her was more than sex. He couldn’t stand to wait any longer to officially mark her as his mate.

  Positioning himself between her legs, he was once more reminded of how small she was. Small but tough and stubborn. Really, she would have made a perfect lupine. He could curl his entire body over hers, and did, surrounding her with what he hoped conveyed comfort.

  She sighed as he nuzzled her neck. The tip of his cock dipped into her flooded slit. She radiated heat and urged him forward. Her pussy was a wet vice, and it stopped him short. His hips curled forward and shoved, gaining him another inch. It felt so damn good he almost would have been happy to stay there, but that wasn’t the plan.

  Curling an arm around her stomach to hold her still, he pushed in and out, coating himself with her juices and calming her tense walls. She swore in whispers to the night between breaths that held high, keening notes of pleasure.

  “Yes,” she hissed as he forced himself in further. “More.”

  He shuffled in the dirt, moving closer to her. His thick length ached in the tight luxury of her, and his blood grew frenzied with the desire to plunge harder and deeper. He gave in to the pressure, just a bit, and yanked her toward him as he pistoned forward.

  Now he was almost fully buried, and his strokes became impatient. She bounced against him until finally his thighs pressed against hers and his sack rested against her wet folds. He licked her neck and pushed his nose against her ear, checking on her.

  “Holy…” she murmured, descending into a string of syllables that made no sense.

  He pulled himself halfway out and wiggled before slamming back in and taking her breath away. She yelped, and on his end the sensation was dizzying. His eyes rolled back, and his body took over, plunging in and out, shaking her on her hands and knees.

  The forest around them echoed with her eager cries, music feeding the frenzy in his blood. His body tightened and tension built in his hips. He straightened for a moment and let the moon shine on his face as a wave of hunger passed through him.

  Nancy trembled beneath him, pushed to the brink of ecstasy from being filled and fucked with such desperation. He drank in the sights and sounds and noted it. One. How many before the night ended, he had no idea, but this would be far from the last.

  His cock, buried deep within her clenching walls, pulsated, and his strokes became shorter. His knot formed, filling her to her limit and locking him to her. Tracing a single claw down her spine, he proposed a question.

  “Where?” he asked, voice thick and rough through his sharp teeth.

  “Inside,” she gasped.

  He chuckled. Of course he would spill inside her, but that’s not what he was asking. “No, gorgeous. We never settled on a spot.”

  “Hmmm…”

  Locked in place, he could barely pull out, but he could shove in. He pounded against her. It took very little for her to scream and moan, and though it was a matter of importance, her thrashing was quite entertaining. The restlessness of his wolf had passed, and calmness filled him as if he had all the time in the world.

  “No… fair…” she whined between breaths.

  He slowed his thrusts. “Your hips? Thighs? Carefully on your breasts?”

  She contemplated—or rather, he assumed she did. As marvelous as it felt for him to be trapped in her perfect pussy, she probably experienced the same. It would be like his dirty little girl to bide her time and enjoy his knot.

  Tracing slow swirls over her pale skin, he waited.

  Traditionally, lupine mating marks were in a certain area. The male would bite down onto the female’s shoulder, trapping her. His claws would grip her hips and dig in, completing the inescapable embrace. The marks wouldn’t heal, only scar—magic from the ancestors accepting their bond.

  For the male, he would be scratched afterward. When the female was sated, her wolf would take over and claw him wherever she could. Chest, back, arms. Sometimes, though rarely, the face. And like hers, they wouldn’t heal.

  It was a dominating act, and yet there was no reaching this point without the female wanting it. A male didn’t get at a female’s back unless he was definitely allowed.

  Of course, for he and Nancy, there would be no biting and she would not claw him back. A bite would be far too dangerous, and she had no way mark him properly unless they introduced weapons into sex—which wasn’t appealing to either of them.

  They had agreed, in lieu of traditional markings, that he would deliberately scratch her once. And the degree of that scratch depended on her mood and pain tolerance level within the moment.

  “Hips,” she said finally. “I want it to feel official.”

  “It is official,” he insisted.

  “You know what I mean.”

  He pressed his chest to her back and stretched over her body. His claws tapped her eager hips, which rocked back against him. Licking her neck, the steady calm fell away. He pushed into her slick depths, limited in motion but driven.

  She held her breath, and he dug into flesh, not yet breaking the skin but close enough that her legs quivered. The sharp scent of fear teased him, releasing the hunger he’d for so long caged.

  He erupted within her, throbbing and spilling his seed. The air around them stilled as his howl cut through the sweet summer night. She moaned and fisted the soft earth, stirring the scent of nature. He emptied into her, filling her to the brim, and as her walls quaked around him, he sliced cleanly along her skin.

  “Fuck,” she yelped.

  Four slashes filled with red on each of her thighs, and he pounded his thick length into her to distract her from the pain. He’d come, but that didn’t mean he was done. His knot contracted, its purpose exhausted, and his hot cum dripped from her flooded entrance, trailing down his sac and her thighs.

  “So good,” she whimpered, her upper body collapsing against the ground.

  Two. He pulled free of her and cradled her swaying form. Careful not to brush her fresh wounds, he flipped her onto her back.

  She gazed up at him with sparkling eyes and a wicked smile. “I’m yours,” she whispered. “I love you.”

  He moved above her and entered her again, watching her mouth drop open with bliss. Reaching out, he pulled his crumpled jeans towards them and shook out the pocket. A small black velvet pouch fell free, which he retrieved with his large transformed paw and dropped onto her stomach.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  Remaining silent, he moved in and out of her as she bit her lip and pulled the strings open. She turned the pouch over and dumped a ring onto her palm.

  “Wyatt?” She stared at the ring, a simple opal solitaire in a vintage gold setting.

  He slipped an arm underneath the curve of her lower back, angling himself deeper inside her warmth.

  “Wy
att,” she whined. Her fingers closed around the ring and her eyes clenched tight.

  He hummed as his cock stroked her inner walls with perfect precision, and she came with a confused and flustered expression on her face. Three.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked.

  Her walls quivered around him and soon her entire body shook as she laughed. “Fuck. You asshole. Yes!”

  TWENTY

  Nancy slept in, which didn’t surprise Wyatt in the least. He busied himself in the kitchen, stacking up crispy bacon and sunny-side-up eggs on a plate. Waffles came next, for good measure. Their kitchen was small, but the waffle iron had a designated spot, just for her.

  He could never have slept through the sizzling sounds and delicious scents, but she was a heavy sleeper. He balanced breakfast on a tray and scurried up the stairs to the loft where she gently snored.

  Her eyes opened the moment he poked her shoulder. “Coffee?”

  He spun the tray so that her mug was closer to her. “Of course.”

  She sat up, blinking and moaning. “I’m sore,” she whispered sheepishly. “I like it.”

  “Yeah? Because I got to do something last night that most lupine males only dream of. And hopefully, I’ll get to do it again and again?”

  She slurped her coffee and pretended to think about it. After a moment she shrugged. “I suppose I can let you ravage me with your giant lupine cock a few times a week.”

  “And how are your legs?”

  Glancing down her blanketed body, she lifted her knees. “Fine for now.”

  After their long night outside, he’d carried her in and dressed her wounds with the same oil that Reid had used when marking her hand, which had healed perfectly. There was concern since these cuts were larger and deeper, and he planned on keeping a watchful eye until she was recovered.

  “Do you think you’ll be up for a little walk? Or I could carry you…”

  Her brow arched and she pulled the plate to her lap, eyes scanning its contents as if making serious attack plans. “I’m not an invalid. Where do you want to go?”

  His fingers dodged her fork and stole a piece of bacon. “Reid’s. He said he would help to find you a place within the pack.”

  “You asked him? It wasn’t that big of a deal. I didn’t want to be a bother.” She pouted.

  “He’s our alpha. Guiding us is one of his primary tasks.” Wyatt munched on the bacon thoughtfully. “He’s like a father and mentor and leader rolled in one. You can go to him for anything, any time.”

  She picked up a waffle with her free hand and bit into it while she destroyed her eggs with the other.

  “You can take your time eating,” he said with a chuckle.

  She shook her head, swallowing a mouthful of food. “This is my future. I want to know where it goes.” She dipped the waffle corner into some egg yolks. “Besides, it’s the full moon tonight. You guys are usually alternating between zombie-like calm and hyperactivity. We’ll see what he has to say and get out of his hair so he can prepare how he wants.”

  “Fair enough.” Wyatt looked downstairs. “Eat up and I’ll clean everything I made dirty preparing the feast.”

  Nancy didn’t nod, simply dove back into her plate.

  He returned to the kitchen and started washing the skillet. When he’d woken this morning, he’d expected to feel different. Maybe it was too much to hope for. He looked at Nancy and there was no extra oomph to the love he felt for her. Nothing that hinted a mate bond was present.

  It shouldn’t have bothered him, as he always knew that lupine and human couples didn’t get blessed, but it did. Not so much for himself, but for Nancy.

  For all she’d given up to be here, she deserved the ancestors’ acknowledgment.

  “Oooh. Yeah, that’s a little tender,” Nancy said with a wince, limping down from the loft.

  He turned the water off and went to help her. “We can rub more ointment on, for the pain.”

  “I’ll live, but I might live on the floor down here for a while,” she joked.

  “I tried to be careful.” He’d guessed at how much pressure he’d need to cut her skin. “I must’ve gone too deep.”

  She placed a hand to his chest and stared into his eyes. “I am fine,” she said, emphasizing each word. “I don’t regret a minute of it, and I won’t have you second-guessing it, either.”

  “Fine.” He took her hand and kissed the knuckle. Her ring sparkled. “Do you like this? I know diamonds are more traditional.”

  “It’s perfect.” She pulled on his shirt so he’d bend down, and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “And maybe you meant it as a symbol but I’m holding you to it. I want to see you in a tux.”

  He pressed his forehead against hers. “I guessed you would. Not the tux, specifically, but the wedding. I look forward to it, oddly enough.”

  She stepped back, rubbing her stomach. “Let’s get dressed then. Today’s mission needs to start.”

  * * * *

  Reid was sitting outside when Wyatt and Nancy made it to the pack center. A thin wisp of smoke trickled up from the central firepit, which Reid seemed to be staring into. He looked up once they were close and rose from his log seat.

  “Earlier than I expected you,” he said.

  “Is that okay?” Nancy asked.

  Reid nodded, and a curious expression came over him. Then smiling, he pulled Nancy into a hug. “Congratulations.”

  “Eh?” She patted his back and glanced at Wyatt. “Oh. The ring?”

  Reid held her at arm’s length. “What ring?”

  Nancy lifted her hand and wiggled her finger.

  “Ah. Well, double that congratulations, then,” Reid said. He grinned at Wyatt. “Do keep on top of the salve.”

  Nancy returned to Wyatt’s side, clearly confused. He dipped down and whispered into her ear, being quiet for her sake, even though Reid would hear every word. “He can smell. Blood. Me. He knows we’re mated now.”

  Her lips widened into an O.

  “Now that I’ve successfully made things awkward, I suppose we should discuss a role for you, dear.” Reid motioned to sit.

  They placed themselves around the dying fire and Reid cleared his throat.

  “Thank you, by the way,” Nancy added.

  Reid scratched his cheek and nodded, his expression returning to his usual neutral one. “You know, most of the pack doesn’t know what it takes to live such as we do.”

  “What do you mean?” Wyatt frowned.

  “We didn’t simply move into the woods and let that be that,” Reid said. “Or I suppose centuries ago we did, but now things are infinitely more complicated.”

  “I’d wondered.” Nancy glanced between the two men. “All land is owned by someone, after all. And you need money for everything… and then, well I can’t imagine how you managed to get the electric company out here.”

  Reid chuckled. “Exactly. But how we manage this isn’t common knowledge for a reason. It’s not necessary except to those being groomed to be alpha’s themselves. We don’t worry about the details until we have to.”

  “But there’s a system,” Nancy said.

  “This is new to me,” Wyatt admitted.

  “The earliest packs made agreements with the then government for land. But that didn’t last long. Politics grew and living apart from it all, we couldn’t strike a fair deal—”

  “Wait… the government knows about you all? And keeps it secret?” Nancy blurted out.

  Reid shrugged. “Once, yes. Now… not quite. You see, when the country was small it was easier to trust a handful of humans. As society developed and expanded, so grew the need for secrecy.”

  “Witches,” Wyatt mused. He’d long known they were allies of some sort and had even met a few in his missions between packs.

  “Witches are real?” Nancy practically bounced in her seat. “Okay, sorry, sorry. I’ll stop interrupting.”

  Reid stirred the ashes of the fire with a long stick and eyed her. “Witch
es and lupine, we work together enough to keep ourselves in the shadows. Exposure of one could bring downfall to all. Vampires assist as well, though as minimally as possible.”

  “But what does this have to do with Nancy?”

  “I’m getting there,” Reid said with a tsk. “There are many steps to founding a pack, less to maintaining, but it’s still work. The witches are our liaisons and guides in the matter, but not every task involves magic. Case in point, pack finances.” He looked squarely at Nancy. “I’ve heard that you’ve experience in such matters.”

  Nancy straightened. “Oh, well, yes. Though managing the tiny bit I’ve done is a far cry from this. A small business versus a secret community?”

  “Nancy hated her job,” Wyatt added. He didn’t want her pulled into something that left her unhappy.

  “Is this true?” Reid asked.

  “Yes,” she admitted. She squeezed Wyatt’s knee. “But in this case… if I can help, I want to.”

  “Are you sure?” Wyatt brushed a stray hair from her face. “We can find something else, something that won’t be tedious.”

  She shook her head and looked at Reid. “You gave me insight that even Wyatt didn’t know. You want me to help with the books, but there’s a reason you told me so much, isn’t there?”

  “Your role would be as large or small as is best for you. Currently, Jones is in charge of tracking things, but he is also the one who meets with the coven to discuss the accounts we hold within the human world.” A touch of weariness crossed Reid’s brow. “The one task I would place on your shoulders, in addition to whatever direct assistance you offer Jones, is to meet with them in his stead.”

  Wyatt snorted and Nancy looked at him sharply.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Jones is Greybeard. You know, the ornery old bastard who likes to literally shake a medicine stick at us. Also, Mija’s boyfriend, I guess, but my point is he’s crazy. I can’t imagine him meeting with witches and it going well.”

  Reid sighed. “Yes, it’s been a trying decade, to say the least. But I believe the coven will love Nancy, and it helps to keep a positive point in our favor. The witches are human, after all.”