by J. L. Wilder
“Don’t talk about my bike.” She stepped in close, her face twisted in anger. Owen had to admit, he was surprised. He had fully expected her to back down a bit when he finally snapped at her, but here she was getting in his face instead. “I built that bike myself. But I suppose you think women can’t do that either.”
“Don’t paint me as a misogynist just because you’ve got a man’s job.”
“It’s not a man’s job. It’s my job. And if you’re going to come down there and tell my packmates they’re wrong for listening to me just because I’m a woman, then maybe I don’t want your help after all.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
They stared at each other for a long moment. Owen could feel the weight of Fiona’s gaze, as if she was trying to extract something from him, some knowledge, or maybe elicit some behavior. Was this how it felt to be presided over by an alpha?
Back off, he thought, though he couldn’t quite say it to her. Back away.
He had the sense she was thinking the very same thing.
And yet, neither of them backed down.
If anything, Owen thought, they were getting closer to each other...
He wasn’t aware of the moment when he reached out and pulled her body against his. He only knew that she was there, her hands skating up the sides of his body and onto his chest as he embraced her and inhaled the scent of her. It should have repulsed him. He could smell wolf all over her. He should have been pushing her away.
But there was something in that scent he’d never noticed before. Something exotic. Something that made him want to explore further, to go deeper. He slid his hands down her back to the firm curve of her ass and squeezed, lifting as he did so, bringing her up and off the ground.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and captured his mouth with her own. The others are downstairs, Owen thought helplessly. They know I came up here to show her to her room. They know we’re alone together. If I don’t come back—
But no. There was no way. There was no way any of the Wild Grizzlies would ever guess at what was happening in this room right now. If Owen hadn’t been holding Fiona in his arms, if his tongue hadn’t been tangled with hers, he would never have believed it himself.
They shed their clothes in record time. It felt to Owen as though their bodies never separated, although he knew they must have. As soon as she was naked, she jumped at him, knocking him back onto the bed so that he lay flat on his back. He got his elbows underneath him and managed to sit upright as she straddled him and took him inside her with one quick, effortless motion.
Neither of them, it seemed, were prepared for the feeling of being joined. She knelt astride him and leaned forward, forehead resting on his shoulder, panting. Owen ran his hand along the line of her thigh, the curve of her hip, amazed at her beauty and power and at how natural this felt. She’s a wolf, he tried once more to tell himself. This is wrong.
But his body didn’t care. He wanted her like he’d never wanted anyone before in his life.
She began to move, slowly, gently, rocking her hips back and forth, grinding against him. He wanted to touch her everywhere, to feel the breasts that moved against him with every breath she took, to thread his fingers through her soft hair as it fell against his cheek, but he settled for palming her ass and pulling her closer with one hand. He allowed his other hand to work its way along her thigh, climbing higher as she rode him.
I’m going to make her come, he decided. She thinks she’s in charge here, but she isn’t. I’m going to get her so close she’s begging for it, and then she’ll understand what an alpha really is.
He would have used his tongue if he could, but there was absolutely no chance he was going to be able to stop fucking her. He would die if he tried. He worked his hand between their bodies instead, bringing his thumb to rest where he knew she was most sensitive.
He applied no pressure. He didn’t move an inch. He simply touched her, let her know he was there, and waited.
Sure enough, she groaned and tried to press into him, to relieve her need.
He pulled his hand back. “No,” he said quietly. “You get what I give you.”
“Oh my God. I hate you.”
He brought his thumb back and gave her a little swipe. “Do you?”
“So much.”
“I can stop.”
“I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Then you should be nicer to me. Don’t you think?”
“Just do it.”
He touched her once more, lightly at first, then more firmly, tracing circles with his thumb. She let out a sob, and he felt a thrill of satisfaction. He pulled away again. “Say please,” he said.
“Please! Damn you!”
“Say it nicer than that.”
“Please,” she begged. “Please, please, Owen, you’re driving me insane.”
He smiled up at her. “All you had to do was ask.”
She was helpless, then, as he worked her, guiding the roll of her hips with one hand as he stroked her with the other. She convulsed around him as she came, and Owen bit down on the hand she clapped over his mouth to keep him from alerting the whole house to their activities with his own roar of satisfaction.
She rolled off the bed, gathered her clothes, and began to get dressed. “You can’t tell anybody that that happened,” she said sternly.
“Why would I want to?” he grumbled, finding his own feet. Now that the intensity of the moment had passed, he couldn’t believe he had allowed himself to succumb to the allure of this woman. She was attractive, yes—she was beautiful. And there was something about her power and authority that did seem to call to him. But she was a wolf. It was disgusting.
At least, he knew he should feel that way.
But there was no real conviction behind the thought. There had been nothing disgusting about what had just happened between them, that was for sure. Ill advised, yes. Disgusting? Definitely not.
If it wasn’t so fucking stupid, he thought, he might even be convinced to do it again.
But that definitely wasn’t going to happen. Owen yanked on his jeans without looking at Fiona. She didn’t have anything to worry about. He definitely wasn’t going to tell his packmates anything about what had happened here. He could just imagine what they would have to say. Ridicule would be the best of it. Damon might use it as an excuse to say that Owen had lost control of himself and should be ousted as alpha.
“I’ll be downstairs,” he said gruffly. “You can help yourself to anything from the fridge, if you want. Otherwise I’ll see you in the morning.” He left the room before she could answer, closing the door behind him.
How had he allowed Fiona to get into his head like that? Owen knew he had the mental strength to stand up to difficult things. He shouldn’t have been taken in, no matter how beautiful and powerful she was.
And yet he had been.
This is a bad situation, he told himself. This spells trouble for the entire pack.
For a moment he genuinely considered calling off the plan, sending Fiona back to face the Feral Fangs alone.
But he couldn’t do it. She had come to him for help, which meant that she didn’t think her pack could defeat them. And as scary as he found this apparent attraction he felt to Fiona, the Feral Fangs were still the bigger threat.
I’ll just have to keep myself under control, he thought firmly. I can do that. I’m an alpha.
Everything’s going to be fine.
Chapter Eight
FIONA
The night went by unbearably slowly. Fiona couldn’t seem to get what had happened out of her head.
He’s a bear. He’s a bear, for God’s sake. And you slept with him. He’s the leader of a pack we’re barely even civil with.
These were the things her packmates would say, if they ever found out what had happened. She could imagine Percy looking at her with disgust in his eyes.
Even Wes, usually her staunchest ally, would have nothing good to say i
f he knew what had happened here. He might try to defend her. Why shouldn’t she use every tool in her arsenal? he might say, thinking he sounded reasonable, thinking he was helping. If she could get him on her side by using her sexuality, why shouldn’t she?
Because that wasn’t what had happened, that was why not. Owen had already agreed to work with her before he had shown her up to the bedroom. She had convinced him of the need for them to work together without taking her clothes off.
Not that anybody would believe that if they ever found out she’d had sex with him. Why else would a wolf have sex with a bear, if not to manipulate him? If not to manipulate the situation?
She doubted either Percy or Wes would understand if she tried to explain the real reason.
Why had she been so attracted to him? Why had she found him so impossible to resist?
Fiona thought she would never get to sleep, so distracted was she by the thoughts that chased each other around and around in her head, but before she knew it light was slanting in through the curtains, taking her by surprise.
Morning had come. At some point, she had indeed fallen asleep.
She made her way downstairs in the same clothes she had worn yesterday. She had taken the time last night to rinse her body in the Wild Grizzlies’ upstairs bathroom, and she didn’t think she reeked of sex, but she still took a nervous breath before stepping into the kitchen.
They all looked up. But no one looked shocked or suspicious. There was still dislike on a couple of faces, but that was to be expected. She was a wolf in a den full of bears. Of course they didn’t like her.
“I’d like to leave in an hour,” she said.
One of the bears raised his eyebrows. “You don’t give orders here,” he pointed out.
“Enough, Damon,” Owen spoke up from where he stood by the refrigerator. “We’ll be ready in an hour,” he told Fiona.
“You take orders from her?” the one called Damon asked.
“She didn’t give an order,” Owen said calmly. “She stated a preference. And we were going to be ready to go in an hour anyway. Finish your breakfast. That is an order.”
Damon looked very upset, but he turned his attention back to his plate.
Fiona was suddenly uncomfortable being in the room with all of them. “I’m going to go make sure my bike is ready for the journey,” she said.
Owen nodded. “There’s oil in the garage if you need it, and a few cans of gas as well,” he said. “Help yourself. You can feel free to use any tools you need, too. And if you need help with anything—”
“I don’t,” she said shortly, before he could get the sentence out. “Thanks,” she added, trying to soften her inadvertent rudeness.
Owen shrugged and nodded. He turned back to the fridge. Apparently he was going to keep his promise not to tell any of the Wild Grizzlies what had happened between them last night then—but Fiona was more worried about what would happen when they returned to the Hell’s Wolves. If the Grizzlies found out what she’d done, it would be embarrassing, but if the Wolves found out, it could be a disaster.
Everyone was ready to go on time. Fiona wondered, for a moment, how they would settle the question of who rode where in the line, but Owen handled it neatly enough by allowing her to go first on her own and then organizing his own pack behind her. She might have felt excluded, she supposed, but it was an elegant solution, and the truth was that it was nice to be on her own for a while. Riding surrounded by bears would have been stressful.
It was only a few hours’ drive back home. The pack must have heard them coming, because everyone was out in the yard when they pulled up, assembled and waiting to greet the newcomers.
Percy stared openly as Fiona swung herself off her bike. “They actually came,” he observed.
She felt a faint stab of pride. He hadn’t believed in her, but she had proven him wrong. “Yes,” she said. “This is Owen.” He had just disengaged his own engine beside her. “He’s their alpha. Owen, This is Percy, Wes, Leo, and Carla. My pack.”
Owen frowned. “This is all of them?”
“I did tell you we needed help,” Fiona said. “Did you think I came to you for the fun of it?”
He didn’t answer, but he flashed her a meaningful look, and in that moment she could have killed him.
“What are they doing here?” Percy asked.
“They’re here to help us fight off the Feral Fangs,” Fiona said. “You knew I was going to ask them for help.”
“But I didn’t know you were going to bring them back with you, Fi.” He sounded exasperated. “Where are we supposed to put seven bears? The house isn’t big enough for all of us?”
“They can sleep outside,” Carla suggested.
A snarl ripped out from somewhere behind Fiona. “Maybe you can sleep outside,” one of the bears suggested. “We’re here as guests doing you a favor, remember?”
“No one is sleeping outside,” Fiona said. “We’re shifters, not animals. And the bears are right, Carla. They are our guests. They’re here at my invitation. They can have my bedroom and the living room to split up between them as they see fit.” She glanced over her shoulder at Owen. “Will that be all right?” she asked. Much as she hated to show deference in this moment, it was preferable to letting a fight break out.
“That’ll be just fine,” Owen said. “We’ll figure it out. Thank you.”
“And where are you going to sleep?” Percy asked Fiona. Not as if he cared for her well-being. It was a challenge.
“I’ll move into your room,” she said.
“There are already four of us in there,” Wes pointed out. “There aren’t any extra beds.”
“So I’ll sleep on the floor.” Fiona was frustrated. Were they going to be difficult about every little thing. “We need the Wild Grizzlies here,” she told her pack. “We need their help. We’re not going to make their time here unpleasant, any more than we can help it.”
Nobody said anything. Fiona thought she heard one of the bears scoff, as if to say there was no avoiding unpleasantness while the twelve of them were crammed into one house. She ignored it, and so did Owen, but Fiona secretly thought whichever bear had voiced dissent probably had a point.
“Wes,” she said, “can you show the Wild Grizzlies to my bedroom and then to the living room please? And get them something to eat or drink, if they’d like it. Then leave them alone to settle in.” She turned to Owen. “I’m afraid there’s no door to the living room, but we have a sheet of particle board in the garage that we can put up in the doorway. Leo will bring it inside for you.”
“Thank you,” Owen said.
The bears followed Wes into the house. Carla hesitated, then went in after them. Fiona had expected that. She wouldn’t want Wes to be on his own with a pack of bears. Leo turned and headed for the garage. Fiona thought he would probably take his time about the chore he’d been given, wanting to avoid their guests as long as he possibly could.
A moment later, Fiona and Percy were alone in the yard.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked him.
He sighed. “Well, I think you’re insane.”
“But you already thought that.”
“No I didn’t,” he said, surprise crossing his face. “I never thought that. Not until you brought a bunch of bears home to stay with us. I thought you were, you know...”
“Incapable of leadership?”
“No, Fi, please don’t put words in my mouth, okay?” He sighed. “I thought you were too caught up in proving you could lead. I thought that when the time came to make the hard choices, you might do something stupid because you wanted to prove yourself.”
“And now?”
“Well, I just...never imagined stupidity on this scale.”
“Percy. You knew I was going to the Wild Grizzlies. If you had such a problem with it, you could have said something before I left.”
“I did say something,” he said. “You know I did. Don’t try to rewrite history now. And I
had no idea you were bringing them here with you. You held that back intentionally, didn’t you? You didn’t tell us, because you knew someone would object.”
“Don’t talk to me that way,” she said sharply. “I’m still your alpha, even if you don’t approve of my decisions.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and said nothing. It was technically obedience, but it was a far cry from compliance.
“You need to get on board,” she told him. “This is happening.”
“You said you were riding up there to talk to them,” he said. “You said you were going to see if they’d be willing to help. Not to ask them to move in with us.”
“They’re on our side, Percy.”
“They’re bears, Fiona!” he exploded. “Bears kill wolves.”
“Wolves kill bears,” she pointed out.
“Wolves kill bears when they’re in the majority. Wolves kill bears when it’s a big pack against a single bear, or a cub, or something like that. They’ve got numbers on us. Did you notice that? There are seven of them, and five of us. And you invited them into our house like it was nothing.”
“I brought them here to fight wolves,” she said. “The fact that they’re good at it is a plus for us.”
“And what makes you think they’ll distinguish between the Feral Fangs and us?” Percy asked. “What makes you think they’ll even be able to, when we’ve all shifted and we’re in the middle of a fight? What if one of them kills one of us by mistake?”
“Are you afraid of them?”
He shook his head slowly. “They’re bears,” he said again. “I have a sensible, rational fear. And the fact that you don’t seem to have it scares me a lot more than any bear pack ever could.”
“They’re not going to hurt us,” she said.
“You don’t know that. There’s no way you can know that. You don’t know what’ll happen in the heat of battle. Hell, you don’t know what’ll happen over breakfast tomorrow.”
“I trust them,” she said. “I trust the alpha, anyway. I got to know him a little.”