by Tanya Chris
I growled to tell him how right he was. One time. That was all I’d allowed myself. White hair and silver eyes, be damned. He didn’t own me.
“A run then,” he said, baring those teeth again. “Let’s burn some energy, then we’ll go be social. You’ll like Shade and Lars, I promise.”
I let him lead me to the edge of town where the forest came up to meet it. The leaves were starting to turn already, a panoply of yellow and red we didn’t get back home. A stretch of birches rose in perfectly straight columns for as far as I could see, their tops like flaming matches, brilliant in orange, and their trunks as snowy white as Tarek’s fur.
He made a magnificent wolf, so soft and white with eyes big enough they seemed to speak. I’d been in the process of stripping my jeans off, but I paused when he shifted, captivated by the sight. He was pure animal now—those waves of dominance he’d suppressed in the square radiating from him at full force. He looked like he could eat me, and I’d let him do it. If I died beneath those jaws, I’d die happy.
He gave me a commanding bark, telling me to shift already, and I let my bones flow into their alternate arrangement, felt the sprouting of hair, the sharpening of my sense of smell, the dimming of color. Tarek was still as white, but the forest wasn’t as red and orange.
He barked again, playfully this time, and took off, tearing down the center of the grove like he was being chased by a bear. I tore after him. I’d traveled from human territory to North Leland in wolf form, but I’d been alone and not in a big hurry. I’d run but I hadn’t run. In fact, I hadn’t run like this since longer than my wolf could remember. It howled, happy and free, and Tarek howled back. He’d gotten a good jump on me, but I was gaining on him, and all the anger and submission, the arousal and confusion, that my human body felt melded into a single sense of challenge.
I jumped him as soon as I caught him, taking him easily onto his back because I’d surprised him. He was quick to fight, silent but serious as he worked himself free of my clutches and regained his feet. We circled each other, wary, waiting to see who’d strike first. It was play, but it wasn’t. Carmen’s taunts, last night’s cuddle, the prospect of going back to Rio Verde empty handed—all of it roiled in my stomach, telling me I wasn’t alpha enough. I’d show Tarek just how alpha I could be.
I sprang, throwing all my weight into the motion. I moved first, but he moved faster. We met mid-air, our bodies colliding as our teeth grappled at each other’s necks. We hit the ground together, on our feet but off-balance until I got my fangs in his throat and used them to take him down. It’d been years since I’d had anything like a real fight with another wolf. My usual adversaries were small woodland creatures, easily subdued. Tarek was neither small nor easily subdued. For all the points of claws and teeth I drilled into him, he continued to snarl and snap and twist as we rolled. Him over me, then me over him, then him over me again.
Our cocks were smaller and more heavily sheathed in wolf form, but they rose all the same, reacting to the heat and the adrenalin and the way our bodies slid across each other’s. His fur was so soft. His teeth were so sharp. And I was so wild. I’d started angry, but the darker emotions drained from me as we continued to come together and break apart, to gnash and collide and snap and roll. This was fun. A contest, but not a fight.
I got him under me, belly-down with my fangs in the scruff of his neck and my claws holding him fast. I growled through my teeth, tugging hard enough to tear until the warmth of his blood filled my mouth. Startled, I pulled way. Tarek wriggled onto his back and offered me his stomach. When I nuzzled at it, he shifted, so that I was suddenly rubbing myself against warm, smooth human skin. I gave the hard column of his cock a long lick that made him laugh then shifted myself.
“That was so much fun,” he said as soon as he knew I had human ears to hear him with. “I haven’t sparred in a while. I should stay in better shape.”
“Expecting a fight?” I regretfully moved off him in an effort to ignore our dueling erections.
“Exciting times ahead for the Northern Pack. We have succession issues.”
“I was wondering about that.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t come to outright civil war. But maybe we should avoid that topic of conversation, seeing as we’d probably end up on opposite sides of said war.”
He was doing the same thing he’d done in the restaurant last night—trying to pretend we didn’t have major, irreconcilable differences. Considering the temporary nature of our relationship, maybe that made sense, but I wanted to understand why that hulking alpha in a royal cape didn’t have the title yet.
“I met Prince Devin today,” I told him.
“Did you?” He sat up, assuming a cross-legged position in front of me. “What did you think?”
“He’s a big dude.”
“Noticed that, did you?” Was that jealousy I heard in Tarek’s voice. I didn’t mind having that power over him.
“I’m just saying he’s an impressive specimen.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not surprised you liked him. He’d be your choice for head alpha, I suppose.”
“I don’t understand why he’s not head alpha. Marta’s too old to hold the title, surely, and her politics—”
“That’s exactly why she does hold it,” Tarek snapped. “Some of us happen to like her politics. She’s got two sons, you know. Angel has been helping her make the changes you see here. Very few of us want Devin stepping in to return things to how they were.”
Down in Southern Pack territory, we heard less about Prince Angel than about his brother, partly because Prince Devin was the one next in line for the throne but also because Prince Angel had disappeared for a time.
“Angel lived in human territory, didn’t he?”
“For a few years. There was an incident here, something that shook us up. And it had everything to do with Devin and the way he treats omegas—like they’re things he can use and discard. It really drove the issue of omega rights home for a lot of us, including Head Alpha Marta. She asked the Senior Council to change the laws of succession, to make Angel the crown prince instead of Devin, and when they refused, he left.”
I snorted. “Baby ran off because he didn’t get his way. That’s who you want leading your pack?”
Tarek looked angrier than I’d ever seen him. He had a thing for Prince Angel, didn’t he? A little case of hero worship, or maybe Angel was another alpha he’d taken to bed. For a moment, I thought Tarek might jump me, but then he huffed out a breath of resignation.
“He’d probably tell you himself he should’ve stuck around to help his mother. She had an uphill battle for a few years before the tide started to turn. But he did come back, and he and his husband have worked hard since then.”
Husband was a human term. “He’s married to a…?”
“Angel’s got an omega.” Oh. Of course. “Leo’s just not a very traditional omega. Come on, let’s head over to Lars and Shade’s house. I don’t know about you, but I worked up a hell of an appetite.”
I glanced at my cock, then at his. They were both still hard even though all we were doing was sitting there looking at each other. We’d worked up an appetite, all right.
Chapter 10
Tarek and I circled around the perimeter of the town until we reached the north end where the forest grew most densely. Our clothes had been left back where we shifted into wolf form, but Tarek walked with the complete lack of modesty that a wolf who rarely visited human territory had through the residential streets until we arrived at a bungalow similar to his own.
My nose told me there were alphas behind the door, and sure enough, an alpha opened it. Lars was Northern Pack, with light hair clipped short to highlight an impressive pair of cheekbones. He was just as naked as Tarek and I were and sculpted like a model from one of those human bodybuilder magazines which, on occasion, I’d been known to peruse.
I swallowed my tongue and reminded myself to keep my eyes above chest level. Lars ushered us inside w
here an equally delectable treat waited. I’d been expecting another alpha based on the smell, and I wasn’t disappointed. Shade was Southern Pack, like me, but his reddish brown hair hung past his shoulders in a thick set of curls. He was a stunning example of how good looking Southern Pack wolves could be, which I didn’t need to be reminded of, thank you very much.
“I know, right?” That was Tarek, standing behind me with his chin on my shoulder and his mouth against my ear. I shook him off. I might find Lars and Shade attractive—and maybe Tarek did too. He found me attractive, after all. Or so I could only surmise—but that didn’t make for proper conversation, not in the company of two alphas who were likely to take exception to being ogled. I had a lifetime’s worth of practice hiding my attraction. It seemed Tarek needed lessons.
Shade was the only one of us wearing anything—a apron of heavy blue cloth tied around his waist that hid his cock but framed his ass. He stood at the stove with a spatula in his hand and a scowl on his face.
“Shade’s cooking,” Lars said as he led the way into the single room that formed the majority of their house. “So fair warning that it’s going to be bad.”
“Fuck you,” Shade retorted. “If you want something fancy, you can cook it yourself.”
“I’m not picky.” I’d had deer steak last night. That would hold me for a while. But it sure felt weird to have an alpha cooking for me.
Neither of them were mated, apparently, despite how ridiculously desirable they both were. There was something wrong with the omegas in North Leland if these two hadn’t been snapped up. Tarek too, for that matter. Three hunks like this, and omegas were out there mating with betas?
I shook my head as I lowered myself onto the divan Lars indicated, which was better suited for lounging than sitting. Tarek got onto it with me and immediately sprawled across it, which left me hanging awkwardly over one edge.
“Make yourself at home,” Lars said as he watched me adjust my position to try to avoid contact with Tarek. “No one’s going to mind if you two cuddle.”
Had Lars really invited me to cuddle with Tarek, right there in his living room? Of course wolves were very physical with each other, casual with their touches. They often huddled together for warmth or comfort or just the smell of pack. I eased myself into a reclining position. The moment I stretched out, Tarek grabbed me around the waist and yanked me back against him into a tight spoon. His head rested against mine and his breath washed across my cheek. His scent filled my nose, smelling exactly like pack.
From the kitchen, Shade gave a long, low whistle that had me going rigid.
“Oh, ignore him.” Lars went over and smacked that perfectly framed ass.
“I can’t look? They’re right there.”
“Relaxing. Not putting on a show. No one invited you to play voyeur.”
Shade waggled his eyebrows at us. “Just say the word.”
Lars smacked his ass again, and Shade turned his suggestive eyebrows in Lars’s direction, and then—right in front of me—the two of them kissed.
Tarek’s hand was warm against my stomach, his voice hot in my ear. “Our turn to play voyeur.”
What was I seeing? I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Two alphas. Kissing. In a brightly lit kitchen with people watching, Shade’s spatula pointing to the ceiling just like Lars’s cock. I reminded myself to breathe and was immediately sorry when I did, because the air I sucked in carried too much of the scent of alpha arousal. Shade’s arousal. Lars’s arousal. Tarek’s arousal. Mine. My fangs descended and my claws popped free as my body churned through a series of confused emotions that warned me to run.
“It’s okay,” Tarek whispered against my ear, his voice my only touchstone. “Everything’s okay. It’s safe to be who you are here. Relax and enjoy the evening. Just for tonight.”
Just for tonight. That was what I’d told myself last night and here, only twenty-four hours later, was a chance to live…
I couldn’t call it a dream, because I’d never dared to dream it. And even though I was in the middle of it—Shade and Lars nuzzling into each other, Tarek wrapped around me—I had a hard time believing any of this was possible.
Did one of these two wolves take the other’s knot? Lars was so beautifully sculpted, but Shade was bigger and wolfier—lascivious, with pointed incisors and a dirty grin. I imagined Lars on all fours with Shade plowing into him from behind. Or Shade on his back, apron bunched up around his waist, taking Lars’s knot as Lars scolded him for not being a better cook.
Fuck, that would be hot. Hotter than human porn, hotter than anything except Tarek doing the same thing to me. I shuddered when his cock ground hard against my ass, threatening to make all my imaginings real right that moment.
“Are you thinking what we’re thinking?” Shade asked with another wag of those eyebrows.
Tarek rolled his head from side to side on my shoulder. “Dinner. A chance for Donovan to see some alpha-on-alpha affection. That’s all. I don’t want to overwhelm him.” He kissed my neck and I turned my nose to whine gratefully into him. An orgy would be too much. It was already too much. I curled my fingers around the hand Tarek pressed into my stomach, letting my claws score him lightly.
“I don’t really want to share you anyway,” he said into my ear. “Shade though…”
“Shade will fuck anything,” Lars said as he stepped away from him. “You have to be clear with your noes around him.”
“Like you ever tell me no.”
“You know I can’t resist you, babe.” Lars blew a noisy kiss in his direction. “But somehow other people manage.”
“Weird.” Shade turned back to the stove. The pan he’d been poking at was smoking.
Lars came over to us. “Can I offer you guys a drink? If you’re going to eat Shade’s cooking, you’ll need one.”
“You live together?” I asked. Obviously they did, but I didn’t mean as roommates or friends. They lived together. Shared cooking and a bed.
“How long has it been?” Lars called over to Shade.
“Three years? Since I moved here. What town are you from?” Shade asked me.
“Four Forks.” It felt wrong to mention it, lying the way I was with Tarek. I wanted to shut Four Forks out of my consciousness.
“I’m more from Vendura way.” That was the whole other side of Southern Pack territory, which meant we weren’t likely to know the same people, thankfully.
“What brought you to North Leland?” I asked him.
“Freedom. Things are too tight in Vendura. Restrictive. I’m a wolf. I’m meant to be free.” He gave Lars a saucy shake of his ass, which made Lars growl with mock aggression. “What brings you here?”
Tarek made a low murmuring sound of warning in my ear.
“I’m just visiting,” I said, understanding that he didn’t want me to tell his friends why I was there. Tarek was ashamed of me. Not because I’d taken his knot, but because I wanted to bring Carmen back to Rio Verde where she’d be safe. And restricted.
We shifters prided ourselves on being closer to our true nature than humans. We didn’t enforce dress codes or get worked up about the fact that everyone got horny. We could tear into raw meat or splash around in cold water or run for hours just to feel the wind in our fur. But there were other rules. Rules that had made my life a tenuous and lonely one.
“I’m only here for another few days,” I told Lars.
“That’s a shame. The way Tarek was talking about you, I thought he’d found his mate.”
His mate? For all the groping and snuffling Lars and Shade had done with each other, no one had used the word mate to describe their relationship. Such a thing wasn’t even legal, at least not where I was from. I curled my head around, trying to see Tarek behind me, but he ducked into my shoulder, suddenly the one who was shy.
“I never said mate,” he protested.
“What did you say?”
“That we were compatible, that’s all. You like what I have to offer. It’s a good st
art.”
“Never underestimate sexual compatibility,” Lars said. “But maybe think about culinary skills too.”
“I heard that,” Shade said. “And just so you know—you’ll be paying for it.”
So it must be Shade who fucked Lars. Shade would give it to Lars good, as good as Tarek had given it to me, and Lars with all his firm definition would allow himself to be taken. Fucking hot.
Tarek’s hand ghosted over my cock, petting it lightly as I held back a whimper of longing. How quickly could we get through this meal? I didn’t even care if it was good. I just wanted it done. Because I’d decided that my one night was going to be two nights. Maybe three. As long as I was stuck in North Leland, I might as well enjoy it.
“Donovan met Prince Devin today,” Tarek told the room.
Lars had given up on fetching us drinks, since Tarek and I were too tangled up in each other to facilitate drinking. He dropped onto the next divan over with a grimace. “What a waste of good genes. All that bulk. And those fangs.”
“He smells like a dream,” Shade put in.
“It’s not just his genetics either,” Lars went on. “He’s had the benefit of a lifetime of disciplined training. With all that going for him, he ought to be alpha of us all.”
“But he is.”
Lars laughed. “Nah. Dude’s a bully and a coward. Is that what you think an alpha is?”
What did I think an alpha was? A set of rules I had to adhere to? Muscles and a certain smell? I hadn’t ever bothered to define it before. “I don’t see how someone can be both a bully and a coward,” I pointed out. “Sounds like you just don’t like him.”
“A bully picks on people weaker than they are. A coward runs from people who are stronger. Believe me, Devin finds that space between. If he weren’t such a coward, he’d have challenged his mother for the throne by now. If he’s so sure she’s running the pack the wrong way, he could step up and prove it.”
“In the Southern Pack, he wouldn’t have to fight her. It would just be ceremonial.”