Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf)

by Adhara, Charlie

  Park licked him toward loose pliancy with a sort of reverent focus. Then he fucked him open with his lubed fingers until Cooper was keening softly, head hanging loose and heavy between his shoulders. His whole body ached with need and determination. It knew what it wanted on a cellular level.

  They adjusted positions together again, clumsy and fumbling. With what? Arousal? Exhaustion? Emotion? Just the usual weird in-between stages of sex? It didn’t feel awkward, though. Not with Park’s quivering, infectious happiness between his thighs. Not with that expression of pure bliss on his face when Cooper finally sank fully down on Oliver’s dick.

  “Cooper,” Park groaned, fingers gripping his hips.

  “Yeah? Good?”

  “Perfect. Always perfect. Can’t wait to go home with you. God, I wish we were there now.”

  “Is that what has you so excited?” Cooper guessed. “Living together?”

  Park inhaled sharply, eyes not straying from his face.

  Cooper grinned. “It is, isn’t it? Don’t tell me you’re hard for my real estate.” He ground down in a slow circle on Park’s dick.

  “Don’t be—” gasp “—ridiculous,” Park said, fingers tightening into his skin. “You don’t even—” gasp “—have an elevator.”

  “So it’s me you’re excited about?” Cooper rose up just a little and sank back down, testing the angle. “You want to wake up with me? You want to come home with me?”

  Park’s head tipped, exposing the long lines of his throat, and he groaned.

  “You get off on it, don’t you?” Cooper started to ride him in earnest now, hands splayed over Park’s chest for balance. “Us, together. Sharing a home. Sharing a...territory.” He tried the word out tentatively. He liked it more than he thought he would.

  “Yes,” Park hissed. “Please...”

  Cooper bounced on his cock, unable to contain little whimpers every time his body took Park all the way in. His thighs were starting to burn, but it was inconsequential compared to the nuclear heat radiating off his skin’s surface. He wondered if he was shimmering.

  “You want me to ride you like this in our bed?” Cooper said. “Want me to take you pressed against the door of our home when we can’t wait to get to our room?”

  “Yes!” Park cried out. “Anywhere. Anyhow.”

  Park’s face was all longing and eager-to-please eyes. His big body was splayed between Cooper’s thighs and his fingers gripped him bruise-deep as he assisted Cooper up and down his cock. Staring down at him like this, helpless with pleasure, Cooper felt like a goddamn king.

  “Do anything for you,” Park whispered. “Just want to be with you.”

  Cooper scratched down the center of Park’s chest and belly, avoiding the bandages and eliciting a hiss and buck of his hips. “Then come on and fuck me. Just how I like it,” Cooper challenged.

  Park rolled them over. Cooper’s back hit the mattress with a huff. Disoriented by the sudden switch in gravity and uncomfortable emptiness inside him, he could only blink up at the ceiling for a moment, panting, until Park dragged him to the edge of the bed, where he now stood, pushed his legs back and reentered him with a groan. He found Cooper’s perfect angle and set a brutal pace. The sound of their skin slapping together echoed through the room.

  Park gripped Cooper’s thighs, arms entwined with legs, supporting them. “Like this?”

  “Fuck yes,” Cooper gasped. “Don’t stop.” He couldn’t stop moving his hands. Over the wrinkled bedsheets, his own body, to grasp the headboard above him. And then all over again. He was sliding off the edge of the world with nothing to hold on to.

  “Just want to please you. Love to make you happy. Love to love you. Please don’t make me stop loving you.”

  “Never,” Cooper said, rash and brash and full of the omniscient confidence only a fast-approaching orgasm can provide.

  Park said his name like a curse over and over and gripped Cooper’s dick. He jerked him roughly. Cooper could feel the white-hot bliss swelling beneath his belly suddenly touched and tugged from both ends, inside and out, risking implosion. It was too much. He tripped and fell over the edge, coming between them, arching up and feeling lighter than moonlight, as if all he needed was the right gust of wind to catch him and carry him into the sky.

  Inside him he felt Park shuddering out the end of his own release before collapsing to the bed and rolling them both. Cooper settled into the weight of his body. He’d rather be here, sweating and disgusting with Park, than floating around the stars any day.

  He pressed his cheek to Park’s chest, his whole body moving up and down as Park fought to catch his breath. Cooper’s hand touched the space over Park’s heart, feeling its joyful pulse. Then he touched lower, imagining where Park’s heart might fall in his fur.

  “Don’t lie to me again. Then I’d seriously have to leave your ass and I don’t think I can survive that.” Right then, in that moment, he didn’t want to survive it.

  Park covered Cooper’s hand with his own and pulled back so he could look him in the eye. “You’ve seen the worst of me. You are the best of me. I won’t ever risk losing that again.” His thumb started stroking the back of Cooper’s hand. They kissed, too exhausted for anything fancier than lips touching.

  “Ask me anything,” Park said seriously when they pulled back. “Anything at all, and I swear I’ll tell you all the truth.”

  Cooper knew he was expecting questions about being the Shepherd. About what he’d done exactly, if he’d ever really hurt anyone, why precisely wolves were afraid of him. He could feel Park bracing for it. And yeah, one day Cooper would need to know. But today had already been...hard. And trust wasn’t something to rush or abuse.

  “Most wolves’ fur is the same color as their hair, right?” Cooper said finally.

  Park’s eyebrows shot up. “Yeah?”

  “So how come yours had so much white in it?” Park’s thumb abruptly stopped moving and he looked curiously embarrassed. “Oliver?”

  Cooper tried to sit up and Park’s hand stilled him, though he continued to say nothing.

  “Look, you agreed we’ve also got to be able to talk about wolf stuff. Please. Believe me. Nothing about you being a werewolf makes me uncomfortable. I love every part of you.”

  “And that’s nice to hear, thank you. But it’s not that. It has nothing to do with being a wolf.” Park paused again.

  “You’re making me kind of nervous.”

  “Don’t be. It’s not a big deal.” He cleared his throat. “I just, uh, started noticing some gray a couple of years ago.” Park glanced at Cooper, who was just staring at him blankly, then looked away, face starting to flush. “Just a few hairs here and there. Then some more. I’ve been plucking them, but obviously the fur is different.”

  After a long, quiet moment, Cooper rolled away so that his back was flat on the bed and they were no longer touching. “Will the lies never end?” he howled at the ceiling.

  Park gasped and rolled on top of him, shushing him. They laughed and wrestled until officially exhausted, and then Cooper showed Park what he really thought the best part of him was.

  * * *

  “The bags are in the car,” Park said. “The brakes have been triple checked. The BSI has been informed to fuck off. I’m going to say my goodbyes to my family. You are going to collect the cat and put her in the car. You will then rendezvous with me in precisely twenty-three minutes so that you can say your goodbyes, which will last no longer than two minutes. Then you and I will get into the car and blow this popsicle stand.”

  “Damn,” Cooper said. “Is this what living with you is going to be like? You keep a tight schedule. Should we synchronize our watches?”

  Park ticked his answers off on his fingers. “One, yes, it is. Two, that’s not the only tight thing you have to look forward to. And three, I’m already synced up to you right here.�
� He patted his heart.

  Cooper’s face split into a grin. “That is so cheesy.” He leaned forward for a kiss.

  Park blocked his lips with his palm. “Did you hear me mention anything in the schedule about entertaining your insatiable libido? No. Chop-chop. Freedom is T-minus twenty-five minutes away.”

  Cooper sighed. “Fine. But next time there’s a schedule, I suggest you take this under advisement.” He patted Park’s ass and walked away with a little bounce in his step.

  “I did not schedule in time for sashaying, either,” Park called after him, and Cooper flipped him off. He made his way down the long and winding path to the barn for hopefully the last time.

  Now that it was morning, Cooper and Park were finally going to make their escape. Last night had been...awkward. Park had quietly taken his siblings and their partners aside to tell them about Daisy’s presence around town, to varying results. Camille, being the oldest with the clearest memory of the abandonment, had seemed genuinely furious, while the others were more curious and unsure. Cooper couldn’t imagine how confusing that would be for them. The sudden and unexpected reappearance of a mother you only really remembered for her absence.

  Meanwhile, Stuart’s removal cast a heavy aura on the house. Cooper half expected Lorelei to say something about the “bad energy,” but she was unusually quiet and serious, her whole airy persona gone.

  Tim, on the other hand, just kept saying, “I knew it. We all should have seen it. Joe should never have welcomed him back,” until Lorelei abruptly told him to shut up already. Marcus was even more deferential to the others than usual, to an almost uncomfortably pathetic degree, and Bethany had drank so much during dinner she didn’t even bother coming down the next morning.

  Stuart’s daughter, Delia, was the worst of all, though. She looked absolutely shocked. Listless and grief-torn, her hair unwashed, brutal bags under her eyes and tears welling up at random moments. None of the others quite seemed to know what to say to her. Cooper was starting to see what Park had tried to tell him, why Stuart had sounded so broken. It wasn’t just being kicked out—it was like he had died.

  Only Helena remained aloof. Walled off and emotionless. No one looked her in the eye and in turn she spoke to no one.

  Cooper had mostly stayed hidden in his room upstairs, simultaneously wanting to give the family some privacy and just wanting to avoid the whole mess of emotions. Especially when he was having a hard time hiding how happy he was. Happy to finally go home.

  Home. Cooper grinned. Home with Park. That sounded nice. Everything else seemed more feasible now. So what if he was facing a major career change? Big whoop. He was about to share a sock drawer! Now that was astonishing. He, Cooper Dayton, an anxious, grumpy, unsociable mess was cohabitating with—late surprise here, folks—someone almost as much a mess as he was.

  Well, that sounded just fine to him. As it turned out, he was just as hard and prickly as he needed to be to shelter the sweet, vulnerable, deceptively soft man he’d fallen in love with.

  When Cooper finally walked into the barn at T-minus fifteen minutes, he was so caught up picturing their underwear intermingling in the top drawer that he didn’t immediately realize he wasn’t alone.

  “Oh, Christ!” He clutched his gut with one hand, the other going to his absent weapon, before forcing himself to relax.

  Helena was sitting on the couch, wearing an oversized black button-down and leggings, and watching him with cool, contemplative eyes. In her lap Boogie was curled up and purring so loudly the sound practically echoed through the barn. Helena couldn’t have looked more like an evil mastermind if she tried. He comforted himself by imagining how much less intimidating she’d seem when she stood up covered in cat hair.

  “I’m sorry to have startled you,” she said. “I was just hoping to catch you for a moment alone.”

  “Okay,” Cooper said slowly, moving to lean against the center table. He hoped this wasn’t going to turn into another speech on duty and sacrifice for the good of the species. He’d spent far too many moments this weekend obsessing over Helena’s words as it was and he was still deeply uncomfortable with what he’d witnessed between her and Stuart yesterday.

  “Oliver told me your news. Congratulations,” she said, stroking Boogie. Impossibly, the manic purring intensified, dropping an octave.

  “Thank you,” Cooper said.

  Boogie maneuvered herself over so that her spine lined up between Helena’s legs and her fat white belly was decadently on display. Absolute Jezebel.

  “It’s a very big deal for us, you know, sharing a living space.”

  “I, uh, got that impression, yeah.”

  “And I hear you’re newly unemployed. What will you do now?”

  Ouch. “I’m not totally without options...”

  He trailed off. He really didn’t have a backup plan. Leaving the BSI meant leaving the FBI as well, something he’d known since first joining. It was one of the reasons he’d been too afraid to quit before. Most of his life had been preparing for or working in federal investigation, and he’d never really done anything else, besides TAing a few criminology courses and working the projection booth at a small movie theatre. As tired as he was of the BSI, could he really turn his back on that life completely?

  He had to figure it out quickly. His savings were limited, and now with Park moving in, he didn’t want it to look like he was dependent on him financially.

  Why yes, I did quit my job with no backup plan and just happened to invite my super rich boyfriend to live with me within the hour. Why do you ask?

  That wasn’t a good look on anyone.

  Helena was watching him shrewdly. “I’d like to make you an offer, Mr. Dayton.”

  Cooper held up his hands. “Wait, please, if this is you bribing me to leave Oliver, the answer is still no. I wouldn’t do that to him. Or to myself. I couldn’t.”

  “Bribe you?” She laughed softly. “Goodness, you do have a villainous opinion of me. No, I’m asking you to consider joining my pack.”

  Cooper blinked at her. “Join them for...”

  “Join them for nothing. For everything. Become a member. Of course, I’ll be asking Oliver as well, but he’d never agree unless you were on board.”

  He was gaping at her, totally at a loss for words. “But... I’m not...”

  “Yes, I had noticed.” Helena smiled briefly. “But as my son insists on reminding me, times are changing and we must change with them. After this weekend, I’ve begun to see his point.”

  “Stuart?”

  Helena’s irises expanded slightly and shimmered. The only sign that the name hurt. “No. He is no longer my son.”

  Cooper flinched at that. “Listen, this is going to sound ridiculous, I know it is, but Oliver seems to think part of the reason you kicked Stuart out is because of me, and if that’s even a little bit true, I just want to say I think you should reconsider.”

  “You pity him. Why?”

  “Because the BSI can’t find any indication he knew about the shootings and I truly believe he had good intentions in developing the land.” Land Cooper didn’t think should all belong to one family anyway, whether it was used to help people like Eli or donated to the public as a true conservation. “At worst he was an unknowing accomplice to everything else.”

  Helena scratched Boogie under the chin and studied Cooper. “I know about your ex-partner and those slaughter videos. I watched one.”

  Cooper’s heart stopped. “You watched...” His voice sounded very far away. “I thought those were supposed to be gone. How did—?”

  “Even I know nothing is ever truly gone from the internet. Marcus found them. He’s very good with computers.”

  “Marcus knows?” Cooper asked, shocked. That seemed like a pretty big secret for Mr. I-cannot-tell-a-lie to have been sitting on...

  “He showed us. Stuar
t thought you were a danger to the pack. He hated you. He showed Geoffrey, hoping he would attack you. Do you still pity him?”

  Cooper was quiet for a moment, remembering that final howl ringing through the house. “Yes, I do.”

  Helena’s eyebrow twitched just a tad in surprise.

  “If you know about the videos, why do you still want me in your pack?”

  “Because, as you say, you were an unknowing accomplice. And more importantly, you have qualities we value.”

  “Qualities like the fact that where I go Oliver goes?”

  Helena smiled. “I won’t lie and say I don’t want Oliver back in the pack where he belongs. I am an old woman, Mr. Dayton. The pack is stable for now, but I need to choose a new successor now that...things have changed.” She wet her lips. “But you must also realize your remarkable AQ has its own appeals.”

  “Sorry, my what?” The term was vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t remember from where.

  Helena tilted her head slightly. “Surely you and Oliver have discussed—” She broke off and looked at the door with a frown. Voice suddenly low and urgent, she said, “Mr. Dayton, do you—”

  Too late. The door slammed open and Charles Girard stepped inside holding a gun.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Get up. Against the wall. Go on, move!” Girard gestured with the barrel of his gun. Not the tranquilizer, either. This was the kind that shot real and immediately deadly bullets.

  Helena stood, gently dropping an alert and watchful Boogie to the floor, and followed the orders with a blank expression on her face.

  “You, too. And keep your hands up.”

  “Okay, easy,” Cooper said soothingly. Girard looked like he needed soothing. Looked like he was about five horrific experiences past needing soothing, actually. His hair and beard were matted with dirt and debris, and his skin and clothes were stained with dried blood. There was madness in his eyes. Desperate, hate-fueled, terrorized madness. He stunk like sweat and filth and couldn’t stop shaking, at least partially from cold, though there was fear there, too. Cooper guessed he’d been sleeping outside—if he’d been sleeping at all—for the last two days. “You’re not in danger, Charles. Just put down the gun, okay?”