by C Y Jones
“You be careful out there, there’s a lot of wolves in these parts,” he says and I wave him off, letting him know I’ll be fine.
I wonder what would he do if he knew one of those wolves were riding in his car? When he leaves, I wait five minutes after he drives off to undress and shift. Once in wolf form, I grab my bag with my teeth and trot silently through the leaves and foliage around me. It’s absolutely beautiful here, and I can tell by the glee coming from my wolf that he misses it here and was glad to be back. Soon the snow will blanket everything around us and my wolf’s white coat will blend in, making us practically invisible. I remember running around with my brother being joyful pups, sometimes with Aspen in tow when she wasn’t being rotten. Leave it to her, she thought she was always horrible, but there were many times when she was sweet and ours. When she let all the stress go and pretended her problems didn’t exist. When she did that she was a joy to be around. A free spirit that held my brother’s and my heart in the palm of her hand. Alone in these woods we were everything together, even though we didn’t exactly understand what it meant. We just knew we had each other.
Once my wolf starts to pick up sounds from the patrolling guards, I shift back into my human form. Changing quickly, I take the burner phone and smash it under my foot. Once caught, they’re going to take it from me anyways, so I might as well get rid of it for safe measure. I don’t want anything tracking me back to the hotel. As I wanted, the noise draws someone’s attention and I can just make out the sound of crunching leaves rapidly headed in my direction. Taking off on heavy feet, I run, making sure I make enough noise for whoever it is chasing me to follow. I make it all the way to the edge of the pack lands when a huge grey wolf jumps out in front of me cutting me off. Behind me I hear a chuckle, and to the left the sound of crunching feet rapidly approaching.
“Well what do we have here? If it isn’t one of Gabe’s sons. You’ve grown since the last time I’ve seen you, boy.”
“I bet he’s here to try to save the Alpha’s bitch of a daughter. Remember how he and his brother use to follow behind her sniffing her ass like a lost pup,” Alex, one of my old childhood buddies mocks.
“Where’s your brother? I know you would never come here alone,” Vincent asks. Besides him kindly mentioning my father, I remember he used to hate him because my father was being groomed to be one of the Alpha’s Betas.
“He was hurt badly in that attack you assholes were a part of against my pack,” I growl out, sticking to the truth. Wolves can smell lies if they concentrate hard enough.
“Bullshit, you would never come here without your brother,” Alex spits out.
“The boy may be telling the truth. I was there. His brother did take a nasty hit. Knox had his insides spilling out all over the grass. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s dead,” Gabe says gleefully and I growl at him.
“Shut the fuck up,” I say menacingly.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you coming here alone was pointless, and just plain dumb. You can’t save that rotten bitch. Soon the whole pack will get a piece of her sweet ass. It must be something if it brought you here all this way alone,” Alex taunts.
“Touch her and I’ll kill you,” I threatened.
“You’re not going to do shit. In fact, we’re going to show you what we do to traitors who are stupid enough to come here alone,” Alex replies as he advances on me.
Without his clothes, I can clearly see he’s no bigger than me in height, but he’s way skinner and has less muscle mass. Alone I could easily take him, but it’s the others I need to worry about. While talking, four more guards have come out the forest with a bloodthirsty look in their eyes, and they all come at me at once. I’m tough, but in no way can I take on seven men at once, but thanks to my size I get a lot of good hits in. Channeling my anger on Alex, I grab his small dick and squeeze until I rip the appendage clean off and he falls to the forest ground groaning in pain.
“Let’s see you touch Aspen now asshole,” I growl which is cut short when I get hit with a jab to my ribs by Vincent. Another guard takes advantage of the opening and punches me in the eye the same time Vincent’s elbow comes down hard on me in the middle of my back, bringing me down to the ground next to a withering Alex. Once on the ground, I curl up in a ball trying my best to protect myself as much as I can while the guards rain down kicks and punches all over my body. Right when I feel like I’m about to pass out, Vincent yells, “enough,” and everyone stops. “The Alpha will want him alive. Carl, take Alex to the healer and see what she can do about his little problem,” he orders glancing between Alex and his dick laying on the ground.
Growling, Carl grabs ahold of Alex and his dick and carries him away while Vincent and another guard haul me up.
“You should have stayed at Greywolf boy, but soon you’ll see the error of your ways,” Vincent says close to my ear before hauling me away towards the Alpha’s house.
With each agonizing step, I could feel my connection to Aspen growing. My love for her basically was the only thing holding me up right now. Everything hurt, and I could hardly breath. I’m pretty sure a couple of my ribs are broken and my right eye was already sealing shut. When we get to the Alpha’s ostentatious house, I start to struggle harder. I need to make this look good, like I was stupid enough to come here and still stupid enough to think I can get away. Tightening their grip on me, both Vincent and the other guard haul me through the front door, down the long hall, and throws me down on the carpet in the Alpha’s office.
I have never been in here. When we used to play in the house with Aspen as kids, this room was always off limits. It was the only rule Aspen was too scared to defy.
“What do we have here?” Aspen’s dad asks, and I give him a look of death.
“Caught him on the border trying to sneak in,” Vincent answers.
“Was he alone?” Alpha Wolfhaven frowns.
“Yes, his twin was hurt badly in the fight back at Greywolf. He was the one your brother took down,” Vincent replies.
“This is a surprise, but you did just save me a trip of having to round you up myself, so thank you for that. With you here, things will be a lot easier,” he muses lost in thought.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I spit out. I’m confused as hell. He wanted me here.
“I’m sure you know that Aspen can be very,” he pauses as he searches for the right words, “challenging at times.” And I eye him skeptically wondering what he’s getting at. I don’t need him to tell me that Aspen is stubborn as fuck. “It’s my fault really for spoiling her so, but now with you here, I’m sure she’ll see that daddy knows best.”
“So you’re going to try to use me to control her, is that it?” I ask hatefully.
“Exactly. You are brighter than you look. Be good and I might find a place for you and your brother in my pack, if he heals that is. My brother can get a little over excited with his kills.”
“Fuck you, I’ll never work for you, or let you use me to hurt Aspen,” I spit out.
“But you have. By coming here you have given me every advantage. Now,” he says clapping his hands together. “Let’s see how much your life is worth to my daughter.”
6
Ethan
Waking, I hiss in agony. Everything fucking hurts, but thanks to my shifter healing, it’s not as bad as before. Already my ribs are healed, and my eye was no longer swollen shut. Besides a shit ton of tender spots, and the black and blue bruises all over my body, I was fine. Turning to the beauty beside me, my eyes trace her body looking for injury. In the moonlit room she looked fine, but I know better than anyone wounds can be mental too. Not being able to help myself I run my finger lightly down her cheek, and her golden green eyes fly open. I don’t know how much time passes as we stare gazing into each other's eyes, neither one willing to look away.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she whispers, and I lean down to kiss her gently on the lips.
“I will follow you
anywhere, even to hell,” I reply.
“I told you to save me, not get yourself caught,” she smiles, and it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.
“It was the only way to save you. Trust me, if we could come up with another plan that didn’t involve me getting the shit beaten out of me, we would have taken it.”
“You got caught on purpose,” she whisper yells, and I hold a finger to her lips, shushing her.
“Yes, April came up with this elaborate plan to save you.”
“Wait,” she says interrupting me, “April is here?” She shrieks.
“Yeah, long story,” I reply.
“What the hell Ethan? I suggest you start talking,” she practically growls.
“I tried to get her to stay behind, but you know your friend. She was gung-ho to help you. What could I do when she was threatening to turn people into cockroaches and frogs?” I try explaining. With that bit of info, she chuckles and I know I’m forgiven.
“April is very loyal. I guess I can’t be too mad at you. Tell me this elaborate plan of hers.”
“Truthfully, I only know the first phase of the plan which was getting caught. I don’t think she wanted to say anything else, just in case your father tried to torture information out of us.”
“Well, that’s disappointing. I’d like to know how and when we’re getting the hell out of here,” she murmurs.
“I know you hate not knowing, and so do I, but after one conversation with your batshit crazy dad, I believe she was right.”
“I know. It does seem like he has lost the plot. The most disturbing thing is the wolves here don’t even bat an eye, like his behavior is normal. I fear more is going on with him and we need to get out of here quickly.”
“Has he told you what he wants from you while you’ve been here?” I question.
“Yeah, he’s trying to mate me to some Alpha with another pack,” she answers and I growl as my wolf’s anger rises.
My wolf wants to hunt her dad down and let him know that Aspen is ours.
“Don’t go all caveman on me. Besides, you know no wolf in their right mind will want to be with me once they see me covered in mate marks. I think my father knows that and is looking for something else in this deal.”
“Like what?” I ask.
“I don’t know, and I, for one, don’t want to be around and find out.”
I don’t like the fear I hear in her voice. Pulling her to my chest, I hug her tightly and kiss the top of her head.
“It’ll be alright. I’m here now and won’t let anything happen to you,” I murmur against her skin.
Safe in my arms, it doesn’t take long for her breathing to even out and she falls back to sleep. I don’t know what her father is up to, but I’ll be damned if he takes her away from me again, or tries to mate her to some asshole.
Aspen
“Ready or not, here I come,” I hear Logan shout as I crouched down in my hiding spot.
We’re playing hide and go seek, and this time I found the perfect place to hide. The twins are incredibly good at this game, finding me every time. It helped that they're the only ones not scared of breaking things in the house to actually search for me. I’m confident Logan won’t find me here in dad’s office. They may be confident in searching for me everywhere else, but I know for a fact they’d never come in here. I’m halfway scared of being here myself. When I heard footsteps headed this way, I thought it’s Logan until I heard my dad’s voice and my heart raced. Making sure I don’t make a sound, I moved until my back hit the wall of the small closet I’m hiding in. Through the slits of the door, I saw my father enter with another man. A scary looking man with dark hair and a long scar from his eyebrow to his cheek.
“Is there a particular reason why you’re behind on your shipments?” The scary man asked.
“Working with the Fae hasn't been easy, plus my people are starting to grow suspicious of all the attacks. They’re doubting me as an Alpha to take care of them and keep them all safe. I need to slow down for a moment to placate them.”
“That sounds like a load of excuses to me. If you can’t get the job done, I could always find someone else, and then there will be the issue of repayment. You’re sure living awfully cozy now a days,” the man said as he waved his hand around dad’s office.
“There's no need for that. I can get the job done,” dad quickly replied. I never saw him so flustered. I wondered who this man is?
“And the girl,” the man prods.
“As agreed, she’ll be yours once she comes of age.”
“Good, I don’t need to tell you what would happen if you slip up again,” the man growled and I shivered in fear. This man is dangerous. I had no clue why my father would do business with him.
“It’s all set. She’s a True Alpha, so your match would be strong.”
Ignoring my father’s words, the man gets up. “Don’t make me have to come here again until you’re ready to hand the girl over,” the man said, and even I know his words are a threat. I waited for a good five minutes after they left to climb out of the closet and hightail it out dad’s office. Once inside the safety of my room, I crawled under my bed until a couple minutes later the twins find me and crawled under the bed with me.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked as he pulled me to him, and like a coward, I hid my face in his chest.
I don’t answer his question. Instead, I whimpered and Logan moved closer to my back, holding me from behind.
“It’ll be ok. We’ll always be here for you,” Logan said and I believed him.
I bolt up in bed while the memory still runs its way through my head. I can’t believe I didn’t remember that man until now. He was the only person my father has ever been truly terrified of. Hell, he scared me, and I never met him. I don’t know what they were talking about or what business my father has with him, but I’m certain the girl they were discussing was me.
“Aspen, are you ok?” Ethan asks, sitting up. “Love, you’re shaking. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I know what my father wants,” I answer so softly I didn’t think he heard me.
“And what’s that, sweetheart?”
“He sold me like property to this scary looking Alpha. I remembered something while I was sleeping. I don’t know why I didn’t put it together until now. Why my father has been acting so damn crazy. He’s scared of the man just as much as I was when I first saw him.”
Pulling me to him, Ethan murmurs, “tell me everything,” and I do. I explain what I overheard while playing hide and go seek with them years ago.
“We knew you were upset, but we never knew why,” he says as he rubs small circles on my back, comforting me.
“I can’t be near that man tomorrow. Even as a child, I knew he was dangerous. Why would my father do business with such a man? And why take his money? We’re a very profitable pack, and the man came off like some kind of loan shark and I was his repayment.”
“I don’t know, love. I wish I had answers for you,” Ethan replies, kissing the top of my head.
When he moves to kiss me again, I tilt my head so his lips land on mine. I missed this. I missed him. He’s my mate. He put himself in danger to be here with me, and now I’m safe in his arms. Opening the kiss, we both start to devour each others mouths. That pull I always feel when my mates are around drives my need and pushes me something fierce to complete our bond. I want nothing more than to forget about the danger we’re in and for Ethan to be inside of me, making me scream his name.
“Aspen,” he moans against my lips, and I pull him tighter to me until I’m laying on top of his body.
“I want you,” I tell him, lifting my lips long enough to speak the words. As I lay on top of him, I know he wants me too. I can feel his hardness, and his hands as they explore my body, caressing me like I’m the most precious thing in the world. In the back of my mind, I know Ethan doesn’t do gentle and this will be a wild ride, and I want that more than anything. Not one to dis
appoint, Ethan flips us in an impressive move until I’m under him and he grinds his hard cock against me. The restraint he was so carefully hanging onto is gone, and pure lust and want shines through his eyes.
“Are you sure?” He asks, and I kiss him in answer. I know he’s worried about crossing a line with me, plus Tyler commanding him not to touch me until we’re properly mated. As usual, he’s looking out for me, but this is my body, my decision, and I want him.
Satisfied with my answer, he partially shifts his hand until long claws appear, and he runs his clawed hand down my body, ripping my dress and underclothes to shreds, careful to not scratch my skin. Shifting his hands back to normal, he moves the fabric out of the way, uncovering the front of my body, and his eyes dilate as he takes my me in.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers before kissing a trail down my body starting with my neck. Slowly, he moves on a path downward, licking and sucking as he worships my body.
When he takes my breast in his mouth and swirls his tongue around my hardened nipple, I can’t help the moan that escapes my mouth. Using his hand, he kneads my other breast, plucking and pulling with experts fingers and I squeeze my thighs together as my wetness grows, which only encourages him to move lower, leaving a hot trail as he goes. Each rib he kisses tenderly, my belly button he devours, his crescent bite mark on my hip he bites and kisses possessively, like he’s reminding me that he was the one who left it there. When he gets to his planned destination, he lifts his head, stares me straight in the eyes, and gives me a wolfish grin. “Cheeky shite,” I murmur mostly to myself.