Night Born

by Godiva Glenn

He bit her lower lip and sucked on it briefly. “Yes, I’m lying. You’ll be a terrible mess. But it’s either that or abstinence.”

  The mere thought of trying to stave her lust for a few days, much less weeks, was enough to sway her. She was reminded of their night together, of rolling around in the mud while they claimed each other body and soul.

  “Are you even capable of being quiet, though?” she teased.

  He growled and rolled on top of her, pressing himself between her legs and grinding his body against hers. “I guess we’ll see.”

  Running his fingers through her dark hair he yanked back, exposing her neck so he could tease it with his teeth. He licked down her collarbone, his hunger making her squirm. He didn’t rest his weight on his arms but instead let himself sink agaist her so that she even had to gasp to breathe. She was trapped beneath him and it was a game she loved—her wolf loved it too.

  Kyra wasn’t weak but she loved being conquered by Mikos. She loved bringing out the predator in him, a change so immersed within him that even his scent adjusted to be more intimidating. What surprised her was that they came to this point without discussion, but it was another sign that they were meant to be.

  “You’re going to hate me,” she whispered.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m about to kill the mood.”

  He groaned and stopped squirming against her. “Fine. Do it.”

  “I need to know that you won’t take over my life,” she said carefully. “I guess it finally occurred to me why I judge Peter and Laurel. It’s because I’ve worried that it would happen to me.”

  Mikos’s brow furrowed. “Nothing happened to Laurel. She has what she wants. But she’s not you. You two are nothing alike in that department.”

  “If I had shifted on my eighteenth birthday, we would have mated, and you would have controlled my every action.”

  “But that’s not what happened.”

  “You love being in charge,” Kyra pointed out.

  “And? Do you think I would have gone out of my way to mate with the most obstinate female in the pack if I had control issues?”

  “Maybe,” she said glibly. “We can’t pretend that it hasn’t happened with others. Lupine love a challenge.”

  His head dipped down, and he sighed against her shoulder. “Kyra. We aren’t others. I don’t need to conquer you until you bob your head and agree with me all the time, and in fact, doesn’t this moment pretty much say that I don’t always get what I want? Because I would never choose this discussion over fucking.”

  “Are we equals?”

  “As equal as we can be. I’m alpha, there’s no changing that. But in our relationship, of course, we’re equals.”

  “And you’re okay with that?”

  He growled and pressed his forehead to hers. “Yes. Obviously. What’s gotten into you?” He took a deep breath. “Ah. Okay, I think I see.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re not my silent trophy. You’re my mate. Alpha or not, what we have and what we are to each other is ours. In fact, if I thought you’d be happier with it, I’d give you the pack.”

  “You… wait, what?” She was certain she’d misheard.

  “Going by bloodline, even if we’re tossing that requirement out the window, you’re just as qualified to lead as me. The Brada’s had more alphas than the Fekete’s if memory serves me.”

  “But I can’t lead. I don’t even know everyone,” she sputtered.

  “You also don’t want to lead. A few days ago, you were ready to be without any pack, so I’m guessing the power hunger of your ancestors skipped you.”

  She thought it over. “You’re right. I don’t want to be responsible for everyone. But I no longer want to be alone.”

  “Which is why you’re perfect at my side. I watched you today. You care about everyone, even if you don’t know them. If you wanted to lead, you’d be great at it. I don’t want to control you,” he promised. “Except right now. I really want to hold you down and...”

  “I guess I didn’t kill the mood,” she muttered.

  “Eh. You pressed pause but I’m damn good at revving up again.”

  He licked her lips and kissed her, silencing her until he pulled back and breathed deep. Apparently, she was good at starting up again as well, because she easily slid back into the hazy fog of lust.

  “I wish you could shift,” she moaned. “I don’t think I’ve had enough of that yet.”

  His body trembled but he didn’t reply at first. Then his shaky, deep voice coated her. “Hush... I’m trying hard not to tear your clothes off right now. Be good.”

  Smiling broadly at his comment, she closed her eyes and tried to stay calm as he slid down her body. He bit her nipple through her shirt on his way down, then nudged the fabric up to lick her stomach, his hot tongue bathing her flesh in long teasing strokes.

  He squeezed her legs together and up in front of him to maneuver her baggy pants and underwear off, then parted them and pushed them wide with his hands on the inside of her knees.

  Heat coursed through her, settling on her cheeks but primarily gathering further down. He didn’t have to touch her to bring her arousal forward. The scent of him and the knowledge that he wanted her, that was enough to slick her thighs and make her inner walls quiver with need.

  “I’ve wondered this forever,” he said strangely, as if in a trance. “The times I watched you rub yourself wet and slick. I wanted to sneak forward and have a taste. You looked so sweet and ripe.”

  His words were icing on a cake, a river spilling into an ocean, adding to a desire that was already ready and waiting.

  “If you’d tried you would’ve succeeded,” she murmured.

  “I’ll have my fill now.” He descended on her, his lips brushing her desperate flesh.

  He parted her and dipped his tongue into her gathering wetness. Sensitive and flinching, she tried to close her legs and gain some level of control over his actions, but he held her down and explored her while satisfied moans slipped from his throat.

  She wouldn’t last, not at the rate he hungrily sated his curiosity for her taste. His lips encircled her clit and made her swallow a scream. She wasn’t sure what was more shocking—his eagerness and skill or her own desperate release called so quickly to the front-lines.

  Shoving a handful of sleeping bag to her mouth, she stifled her whimpers. Her hips rocked gently beneath his precise attack, his tongue stroking and building a fire at her core. Her lids fluttered, and she held her breath, ready to dive headfirst into what she knew would be an epic orgasm, but just as she felt the crest his warmth was gone.

  He tossed his shirt aside and bent over as he quickly shimmied free of his pants. Another second and he was free then pistoned forward, sinking his hard-length into her soaked entrance with one quick motion that took her breath away.

  He remained still, and they savored the moment of being together. She wanted to hold him there forever, as the sensation of being stretched tight around him and on the edge of anticipation was like a drug.

  He thrust into her again and again as she fell quickly into a blissful fog. The head of his cock caressed the sensitive spot within her, toyed with it and assaulted it as he drove his wide shaft in and out of her heat.

  Her fingers raked down his strong arms and she bucked. The pressure that had gathered while he’d gone down on her now exploded in sizzling waves. Her muscles relaxed and became energized at once as each nerve ending burst with pleasure.

  He bent over her, fixing their bodies together as he continued to plunge into her quaking form. Licking her neck, he drew her attention to her mating mark, silently reminding her that she was his and he was hers, forever.

  Time would change them, but this wouldn’t change—or at least shouldn’t. She wanted to always feel this safe and consumed by his love, and she responded to his reminder by scraping her nails down his back, over the raised marks she’d given him before.

  His pace quickened, his str
okes became deeper and frenzied. He held her still when her body began to slip and slide against the tent floor, and she wrapped her legs around his waist to keep him close and tight. Slowing down, he arched his hips forward until he was buried enough to make her ache.

  She loved how his size made him touch every inch of her walls and make them his. They were as close as they could possibly be. He curled over her, panting, eager, but far from spent. Wherever they touched there was power. Safety. His wolf subtly heating her, and from somewhere deep inside she heard her own wolf howl.

  As if he heard it too, Mikos thrust again, beginning another onslaught of hedonism. Flesh slapped flesh and the air in the tent thinned. She felt drunk off his scent and the sensations, so far drifting in lust that her next climax surprised her. It had bubbled up and exploded in starbursts behind her eyes.

  She barely stopped the scream that followed, when his steel plunging became too much to bear against her sensitive flesh. But she didn’t want him to stop, even if he jostled the lusty cloud she floated on.

  Mikos shuddered and she could feel him spill within her, another act of claiming. The first time they’d mated she’d been overwhelmed with too many conflicting emotions—anger, frustration, lust, confusion, and so many more. Tonight, her mind was clearer, and their bond felt more profound.

  The tent echoed their racing heartbeats. Not ready to let him go, she squeezed her thighs against his muscled sides and kept him still and within her. He twitched and emptied, and his weight fell heavy against her.

  “I love you, Mikos Fekete,” she whispered to him, rubbing her cheek against his arm.

  “I love you more, Kyra Fekete,” he responded.

  She grinned at the drop of her family name. Wolves didn’t need names. Lupine carried them with tradition. But claiming her as Fekete was a human claim. One that was okay with her.

  NINETEEN

  A week into travel, the group now moved like a well-oiled machine. They moved as family, as friends, as pack. Kyra held a branch up and allowed Carter and his pregnant mate, Jessa, to pass under. She patted Jessa’s shoulder and gave her a smile. It was drizzling, but there wasn’t much complaint throughout the quiet hikers. They were survivors.

  Kyra glanced back over her shoulder, looking for Laurel. She waved and Laurel padded forward, falling in beside Kyra, and walking in a tight formation so that their elbows nearly brushed with each stride.

  It had taken time for Kyra to get used to moving among everyone with ease. At first, even though it was her aim to get to know everyone, she stood at a distance and was careful not to touch anyone. That habit had died and now she—and she suspected, her wolf—were accustomed to the necessary comfort of physical closeness.

  “Every time I try to talk, I get a mouth of wet needles,” Laurel muttered.

  Kyra snickered. The rain was light but steady enough to be encouraging the trees to shed heavily on them. A few pine cones had landed square on her crown in the last few hours. “We’ll break for lunch soon and pull out the tarps.”

  Ahead of them, chatter rose, and a figure parted the group, moving back and halting them. Kyra hurried forward to see who it was, finding Harley, one of Mikos’s younger cousins.

  “Someone is out there,” she said nervously. She pointed a long finger to the East of where they were. “The scent is strong.”

  “Human?”

  “No. I thought... well I thought pack, at first, somehow.”

  Laurel narrowed her eyes in that direction. “I’ll alert Mikos.”

  She dashed off and Kyra took Harley with her while making her way to the front of the pack.

  “What were you doing out there?” Kyra asked her.

  Harley’s face scrunched, and she glanced to one side. “There are lots of mushrooms around. Edible ones. I thought I could gather them for dinner tonight. Something fresh, you know?”

  Kyra couldn’t help but smile. She wasn’t the best at identifying things in nature but knew that Mikos’s family studied hard. They had Thea, after all.

  “It’s great that you want to help out, but you shouldn’t wander.”

  “I didn’t stray too far, only enough to grab the ones that weren’t being trampled.”

  “Right, but what if everyone had that thought? What if everyone left the path, just a little? Then our entire group would fall apart.”

  Harley’s shoulders bobbed. “I get it.”

  “When we stop for lunch you can search for more, but take someone with you, okay?” Kyra compromised.

  “Okay.”

  They reached the front of the pack. Everyone had stopped and now huddled against the trees or squatted in the mud. Harley slouched beside Kyra and radiated nervousness. Kyra didn’t understand why, but it surprised her how unsteady her disposition. It would make the rest of the pack alarmed if she didn’t calm down.

  “Go sit with Thea,” Kyra said, nudging Harley.

  Heading back through the resting pack, Kyra met with Mikos. “There shouldn’t be other packs between us?”

  “No. I imagine it’s a runner, but we should be certain before we move along.”

  “Did you want Ross?”

  Mikos wiped the rain from his brow and shook his head. His dark curls were plastered to his ears, but he didn’t seem bothered, only concerned with their mystery wolf. “If it is a runner there’s no need for an elder to be present. If it’s anyone else, still better to only have a small, strong group.”

  Kyra nodded and scanned those nearby. “I guess Peter?”

  “Yes. And you.”

  She frowned slightly. “Me? I’m not helpful as a show of force.”

  “I don’t sense danger out there. Get used to being at my side,” he said and handed his bag to a nearby listener.

  Laurel took Kyra’s backpack. “I guess that settles what type of alpha mate you are,” she joked in a whisper for Kyra’s benefit.

  Kyra and Peter fell into step behind Mikos, who had already started to beeline away from the trail. The scent Harley had identified was hidden in the sweetness of the rain but had a strange familiarity. A blue spot in the distance became their goal, and as they moved closer it showed to be a canvas draped between two trees.

  A large shape stirred beneath it, not much more than a dark outline at first. Then the covering was pulled back and he stepped out. Kyra hadn’t known what to expect but seeing Kalle Lowe duck from the rain covering made her breath seize.

  Before everything with Sierra, she’d never thought twice about Kalle. Truthfully, he was quiet and seemingly unremarkable. The females had shown interest in him when he’d first joined the pack, but it had faded.

  Not that he was unattractive, far from that. He was gorgeous, just like his bitch of a sister. Kyra furrowed her brow, realizing that he was a bit like Viktor, perhaps, but more likable. Viktor would never have sacrificed himself for Mikos.

  Kyra stepped forward, her mind racing and tumbling with things to say. Mikos stopped her, holding her back with a hand to her midsection.

  “Wha—” She snipped off her protest a split-second after she’d begun. He was alpha. As much as her curiosity demanded satisfaction, she wouldn’t argue. At least, not in front of Peter.

  Mikos took several steps to place himself in the front, his hands held open-faced at his sides.

  “Kalle?” he asked with an air of disbelief.

  A scoff cut through the distance between them. “Fekete. Fucking figures.”

  “What are you doing out here?”

  “Not your concern,” Kalle replied stubbornly. His eyes swept over Kyra. “Looks like I missed a miracle, though.”

  She wanted to ask Kalle about leaving the pack, being on his own. She wanted to demand proof for her theory—that he had only covered for Sierra. Certainly, he looked at Kyra with no interest now, not the look of hate he’d give if he truly had wanted his sister to kill her.

  “The Eclipse pack is seeking home,” Mikos said simply.

  Kalle appeared to digest the statement fo
r a moment. “Eclipse. Not Fekete?”

  “I know who I am. I don’t need to parade it.”

  “Viktor?”

  Mikos shook his head.

  “Didn’t expect that.” Kalle shoved his hands into his pockets and tilted his head back and forth, stretching his neck and oblivious to the rain.

  Kyra bit her lip, struggling to hold back the questions that she wanted Mikos to ask.

  “We’re moving by. We needed to check out who else was around,” Mikos said.

  Kalle nodded.

  The conversation seemed over, and Kyra stood dumbfounded when Mikos turned to leave. She followed him for a moment than tugged his arm.

  “What was that?” she hissed.

  Peter arched a brow but looked off into the distance.

  Mikos ran a hand through his wet hair. “I don’t know. What am I supposed to say? Sorry you got banished from your pack right before it split? If the timing was different, he’d probably still have a home.”

  “But everything that happened with Sierra...”

  “I know you have questions, but the answers don’t change anything, do they? It’s too late for a different outcome. Besides, it was his choice. His consequences.”

  Kyra stared hard into Mikos’s eyes until he glared back, but he didn’t look genuinely angered by her.

  He crossed his arms. “If you want to talk to him alone, fine. But we’re going to be right here, just in case. I’m not about to risk your safety.” Nodding to Peter he said, “I thought I’d have at least a few more days of being unchallenged.”

  Kyra smirked. “You picked the wrong mate.”

  “Go before I change my mind. We can’t be gone long.”

  She jogged back down to Kalle and called to him where he sat in his shelter. “Kalle?”

  He grumbled and lifted the tarp.

  “I know what you did. For Sierra.”

  He stared at her, not saying a word. The steady patter of raindrops filled the silence.

  “I’m sorry you lost your family,” she offered. Still, no reply. “Do you hate me?”

  His mouth twitched and he seemed to be having a tough time repressing his reply.

  “I understand if you do. I can’t say I understand everything that’s happened, but one thing I am certain of is that you don’t mean me any harm.” She looked him over, noting his relaxed shoulders and even breath. Even his scent was calm. “You don’t seem upset... only a bit... wet.”