by JL Madore
I hate to feel the panic and uncertainty swirling inside him. I edge back to the end of the bed and look down to adjust the towel instead of looking at him.
I can’t meet his gaze.
There’s just too much of me at stake here.
“Kotah, I want you to be my mate. Not simply one of four because you were chosen, but mine. One-on-one. It’s not because of the mating bond or even because you’re fucking delicious in a towel. I want you to be my mate because I love you and would be honored to share my life with you.”
I pick a piece of lint off my thigh and shake my head. “Then why am I last to be picked? If you love me so damned much, why do I feel like the shit on the bottom of your shoe?”
I wait for his big explanation.
When nothing comes, I—Oh, shit.
He’s staring at me, tears staining his cheeks. “Is that really how I make you feel? You think you’re shit on my shoe?”
I want to take it back, but… “At times, yes.”
“Fuck me.” He releases my hand and steps off, giving me his back. With a rough hand, he wipes over his face and pulls a deep breath. “You see, this is why I was so afraid to love you. I’m toxic. I knew I’d ruin the pure joy inside you and it’s already happening.”
The omega in me can’t stand to see his grief, especially knowing I caused it. My nature is meant to calm others not torment them. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
He waves that away and shakes his head. “Of course you should. I needed to hear it. For a minute, I almost had myself convinced it would be alright. I was right the first time. You need to steer clear of me.”
“No, wait. Don’t take it back.” I reach forward and try to send him a rush of calm.
He throws his arms up and backs away like me touching him would burn him. “You’re so much better not getting sucked into my bullshit. This whole mess. The attempts on your life… it’s my father’s poison. I thought I was clear of it, but I’m not. I’ll taint you as he tainted me.”
When he straightens and heads to the door, it’s me who moves fast to block him this time. “No way do you say you love me and then walk out this door. Fuck your father. Fuck protecting me from who you are. You asked to mate me, now give me my fucking ring and mate me.”
Hawk
I pull the ring box out of Kotah’s reach and lock my elbow to keep him at a distance. “Didn’t we just confirm that I’m terrible for you?”
“No. We confirmed that we love each other enough to be shitty to one another and hurt each other deeply. The lesson here isn’t to quit loving each other, it’s to be more careful.”
“Kotah,” I say, backing away. “I’m serious. I don’t think you understand who I am. I destroy people for a living.”
“You can, but you don’t always. You have another side to you too. A side that I admire and respect.” He reaches to where his towel is knotted at his hip.
I curse and lunge forward gripping the tuck of his towel before he can do what I know he’s about to do. “I’m a bad idea. You need to listen to your wolf. Keep your guard up and keep your distance.”
“Too late.” He grips my shredded arm and when I scream, he pries the ring box from my fingers.
I struggle with him and somewhere in the scramble of arms and grabby hands, his towel ends up on the floor. Shit. That’s not going to help my resolve.
I step back. “Kotah, give me the ring back.”
“No.” He rushes to the door and plants his back against the wooden panels. He has the box open in the next moment and slides the platinum band onto his finger. When it settles against the knuckle of his ring finger he flashes me a triumphant smile. “My answer is yes.”
“No. There’s no question.”
“You’re right. No question at all. Glad we agree.” While holding up his left hand, admiring his ring, he drops his right hand for a casual stroke down his six-pack. “Now to seal the deal. Where do you want me?”
I roll my eyes and check the windows. Aside from pulling another swinging lamp line drive, there’s no getting out of here except through the wolf and the door at his back.
The little shit tugs his cock and lets off a groan. “If only I had a tall, dark, male to help me with this.” He turns his back to me, presses his left hand flat on the panel of the door, and keeps his right hand in front, working his erection. “Here I am, alpha. I dare you to claim what you know is yours. No. I double dare you.”
He groans again and I swallow, fighting my nature to ignore the taunt. Everyone knows not to dare an alpha. Yeah, he’s wily and too smart for his own good.
I take in the ass he’s offering up and curse.
My mouth is watering and my cock is trapped behind the fly of my ruined Tom Ford slacks. With his palm braced against the door, he shifts his feet and widens his stance.
Fuck, he has a perfect ass.
The kid is smooth, tanned skin over carved muscle over a strong, young frame. His ass cheeks dimple as he shifts his weight and there’s nothing I want more than to follow the muscled vee that leads from his hips to his groin.
He flips back around and I get a full-frontal view. His tip is glistening and swollen and his hand is gripped tight enough that when his stroke reaches his crown, cum oozes free.
“Yes,” he says, his voice laced with a growl. “Yes to whatever you’re thinking. Yes to your mouth. Yes to your cock. Yes to trussing me up and fucking me blind. Whatever you want from me, my answer is yes.”
As he spouts off the possibilities, erotic images flash into my mind. I want every one of them but…
“What if this is a mistake?”
“Are you saying you don’t love me?”
“No. I do.” Standing there, staring at him in all his male glory, how could I not? He’s the whole fucking package. “You are the ache in my chest, the fire burning in my balls, the tightness in my lungs. You’re smart, refined, compassionate. You are the balm on my battered heart.”
“Then come love me. I promise you won’t ruin me. My wolf and I are strong enough to survive even you. And honestly, once you give in, I bet you won’t find loving me nearly as intimidating. I’m just me, Hawk. Your wolf.”
“Fuck. Why do you have to say perfect shit like that?”
He pushes off the door, striding forward, the predatory nature of his wolf in fine form. The whole time he’s closing the distance between us, he tugs on that iron rod in his grip.
“Like what you see?” He stops a foot in front of me and takes my hand. “It’s yours for the taking.”
When he puts his cock into my hand, my eyes roll closed. I used to think I was a strong male who could withstand any temptation. With Kotah like this, naked and determined, I realize I’m not. I’m needy. I need him and want everything he says we can have.
“Tell me again that you love me now that you’re holding the sacred wand of truth.”
I chuckle. “I love you, Wolf.”
“I love you too, Hawk. Now, let’s get you naked and smooth things out. That’s what you said right? You want to smooth things out with me?”
Kotah unfastens my pants and they slide down my thighs to the floor. I toe off my shoes but refuse to release his cock and go for my socks. Gripping the two sides of my dress shirt, Kotah rips them apart and buttons bounce around us like a shower of confetti.
His grin is too funny. “I’ve always wanted to do that. I thought I’d give you a first too.”
I bark a laugh. “By shredding a four-hundred dollar tailored shirt?”
He bites his bottom lip. “Put it on my tab. I have a feeling I’ll be ripping more clothes off you soon.”
I chuckle. “Have we unleashed something wild and carefree in you, Wolf?”
“Definitely, yes.”
I love the sound of that. Shrugging what’s left of my shirt off my shoulders, I stand before him and let him have his look. My tattoos flow front and back, from my neck down to my waist and down each arm to my elbows. They are an extensive d
epiction of fae history and though he’s seen them, he’s never had the chance to study them as he’s doing now.
I straighten and stand very still as he trails the pads of his fingers gently over my inked flesh. He stops at the ring through my nipple and smiles. “I think I’m obsessed with nipples. I can’t wait to play with this little ring with my mouth.”
“Everyone has their thing. I look forward to it.” I point to the bed and send him up onto the comforter. After ridding myself of socks, I open the bedside table and see what they stocked up on in my absence last night.
Just the bare-bone basics.
Huh, I’ll have to work on supplying our homes better.
Tossing a bottle of lube and some condoms beside the pillow, I stretch out beside Kotah on the soft coverlet.
Lying on my side, I run a gentle caress from his shoulder, along the smooth line of his ribcage and over the rise of his hip. His skin is soft and perfect. It honors me to be welcome to touch him like this.
“You’re a beautifully made male,” I whisper.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
I drape my top leg over his thigh and pull him in close. His skin is warm against the chill of the air and I absorb the sensation. “Do you mind if I don’t truss you up and fuck you like I do the others? For now, at least for a little while, can we make love like this, warm and connected?”
“Why?” His brow pinches and I know it’s because he thinks I don’t see him that way, but he’s wrong.
“It would be too easy for me to dominate you. That’s my fall back. It’s like connecting but it’s safe because it’s what I know and I’m in control. With you… I don’t want the shortcut. I want us like this. I want to look in your eyes and feel your heart under my palm. I want to connect with you four at a higher level and I think it’ll help me open my heart if we work on it together.”
I brush my thumb against the tension in his brow and he nods. “For now… but I want to know that side of you too. I won’t be put on a pedestal. I’ve been up on one my whole life and I despise it. I won’t be cherished like that.”
“I promise, no pedestal, but you’ll be cherished.” Taking his face in my hands, I claim his lips.
He comes to me so willingly it scares me. He’s too hopeful. Too eager. Too trusting. His kiss is hot and possessive. Our wolf may have been a virgin when this all started, but he’s been in Sex-Ed Bootcamp ever since.
I smile as he pushes me onto my back and climbs onto my chest. Straddling my hips, he slides his tongue into my mouth and starts grinding his cock against mine. Trapped between our abs, the friction of skin-on-skin amps things up.
So much for taking it slow.
It seems my wolf has other plans.
It’s fucking hot that he’s so hungry for me. He’s not the last pick. He’s saving the best until last. Shit, that’s not right either.
“Get out of your head, Hawk. We’re mating here.”
“Right. Sorry.”
I reach up beside the pillow, grab the lube, and squeeze out enough to slick things up. Reaching between us, I slide my hand past our two cocks and get Kotah prepped.
“There’s no rush,” I say, as he grips my cock and rises onto his knees. “We’ve got all—or fuck, yeah—you can just impale yourself on my cock.”
Kotah shudders as he forces his body to accept me in a rush. There’s no easing into this. He sits fully against my groin and smiles. “I want you inside me. I want your cum marking me. I want people to know I’m yours and you are mine. Now, I can fuck you or you can fuck me, but this is happening.”
I chuckle. “I did not think you’d be this bossy in bed.”
He flashes me a wicked smile and grips my nipple ring between his fingers. “Less chatter. More orgasms.”
Alllllrighty then. Leaning back into the cushion of the pillow, I grip his hips and start a steady rhythm of rise and fall. It takes a bit for the lube to spread and muscles to relax but then, we get a solid glide and slide going.
“You’re breathtaking,” I gasp, my gaze locked on him riding me. The clench and release of his muscles as he works my cock, the way his eyes roll back when I hit something delicious inside him, the way his chestnut mane flows loose around his shoulders and down his arms and sides, swaying with the rhythm of our joining.
“I love you,” I say, meaning it to the marrow of my bones. Funny. As tough as it was to say at first, now those three words seem to want to spill out of me.
Gripping the globes of his fine and dimpled ass, I buck him forward and flex my hips.
He falls forward onto this hands and claims my mouth. With aggression I admire, he breaks the seal of my lips with his tongue. I sense the challenge of his kiss and meet every marauding stroke of his tongue with my own.
Adding more pelvic thrust, I amp up and raise the stakes. He groans and chuckles into my mouth.
“I can see you becoming addictive, Wolf.”
“Then my evil plan is working.” He waggles his brows and flashes a victorious grin.
I pause inside him, my pulse pumping strong and steady. His scent is seared in my mind, but I can’t get enough of him this way. Pulling free of his depths, I flip him onto his knees.
Gripping his hips from behind, I readjust my knees, realign, and give it with everything I’ve got. Yes. I’ve got much more power in my thrust like this.
Kotah barks a grunt as I push back inside.
I know from time with Jaxx that a fast reentry burns. It’s a pleasureful pain for me. It strikes me too late to wonder if Kotah will enjoy it. He’s on all fours panting and the spice of his pleasure in my nostrils is my answer.
He’s so responsive.
I bet I could do anything to him—no with him.
The power and hunger that builds in me as I slam home are incredible. They zing through my cells as sensation tingles in my groin. At this rate, it won’t take long for the mating bond to respond.
Then he’ll be mine.
I close my eyes and hammer forward, my breath catching in my lungs. His shoulder muscles bulge and flex as he braces against my strength and takes me into his depths.
“You feel good, Wolf. If you need me to dial it back, you have to tell me.”
Kotah glances back, his cheeks flushed. “No. Don’t dial anything back. Please.”
The apprehension I felt about claiming him dissolves and maybe I’m selfish, but I don’t have the strength to disengage. It’s too late for me to see anything beyond what I want.
Nakotah Northwood.
I want the warmth of him, the calm, the compassion. I want his body, his heart, and his beautiful soul.
With the next forward thrust of my hips, the mating energy ignites between us. I groan, the decadence of push and pull compounding as our mating bond takes hold. The power of the bonding magic courses between us, swirling from my system to his and back again.
We both cry out as the fire of our phoenix ignites inside us and we glow with the golden aura of our bonding.
It’s done. Kotah and I are mated evermore.
The quint bonding is complete.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Calli
“Yay team!” I smile at Jaxx and Brant lying sated and sexed as the final mating bond locks into place upstairs. “We did it. We should celebrate.”
Jaxx chuckles. “Celebrate that the five of us are insatiable sex fiends? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing the past hour and a half?”
I run a possessive hand down Jaxx’s glorious sixpack. “That was celebrating that we made it out of the FCO with all our mates intact. Now, I suggest we celebrate the completion of our mission to unite as a fully-bonded quint. Two different things.”
“And here’s somethin’ to celebrate,” Jaxx adds. “Has anyone noticed my shoulder?”
I look at it and shake my head. “What about it?”
He chuckles. “I was shot. The bullet grazed the muscle here and tore up my arm.”
“How is it better?”
Jaxx’s grin is wide and white. “I think more than your tears have magical healin’ properties. I think you have healin’ juices too.”
“Then why have we been wasting time having her cry?” Brant asks.
“Right?” Jaxx says, chuckling. “Because, given the choice, I know which way I’d cure what ails me.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Brant rolls onto his knees on the living room rug and walks naked over to the cluster of bottles on the kitchen counter.
We’ve got a mini liquor store over there.
“Mama washed the blender and the glasses,” Jaxx says.
“Then, I guess, I’m good to dive right in and play naked bartender.”
“Looking good from here,” I say. “And I’ve got Jaxx’s apron in my duffle if you want to wear it.”
Brant grabs some juice and cans of sodas from the fridge and starts concocting. “The first renovation this house needs is a full bar.”
I wave that off and roll onto my belly and watch Brant’s ass while he’s mixing drinks. “The first renovation this house needs is soundproofing. Either that or Jaxx’s parents and Keyla and Doc need to move further down the block.”
Jaxx nips the fleshy round of my butt and then kisses the sting. “You need to worry less about what the people around us witness. Trust us when we say, in the wildling world, sex is part of our lives. I can’t tell you how many times Laney and I walked through the house while my parents were bumpin’ boots. They’re almost as bad as the five of us.”
I cover my ears when the blender starts up. Not because of the motor of the mixer, but to block out Jaxx’s comment. No use. No matter how much I don’t want to picture Jaxx’s parents… urgh, too late.
Jaxx rolls to sit, leaning his back against the couch when Brant brings our drinks back. “Thanks, man.”
I accept mine and drink it down. “Thank you, Bear. I appreciate you boys compromising your manly drinking tastes for my benefit. This is yummy.”
Brant chuckles and pours me a refill. “Males won’t admit it in the presence of other card-carrying males, but we like fruity drinks too. Most beer tastes like ass for the first can or two. The deeper you dive in the better it gets. These drinks are tasty from the get-go.”