Desired By The Pack: Part Three (2 page)

She didn’t know if he was talking about her or himself.
Didn’t matter. She couldn’t wait. His scent surrounded her and she’d been repressing her urges for hours. His touch seemed to break the dam that held her hormones at bay.

Tearing at the snap of her jeans, she said, “We need a condom.”

“They’re unnatural,” Anders muttered. As soon as her thighs were bare, he grabbed her hips and pulled her back to him. His erection was a hard rod against the seam of her bottom.

“Please.”

“Get one.” He pushed her away, tightly controlled fury underscoring the command.

She caught herself with her hands against the refrigerator. Trembling, she squeezed her eyes tight and exhaled roughly. “Forget the condom. Forget this. Just get out.”

She turned and stabbed her finger at the door. Her arm trembled. January contracted the muscles until they ached with the effort but that didn’t steady her stiff finger. Anders looked from her face to her shaking hand and jerked his head sharply.

“You are mad with Heat. Get the condom.” A snarl edged his words.

January broke out in goose bumps, her body recognizing danger before her mind did. Anders’ eyes flashed with wolfish awareness and his canines had lengthened to sharp points. She slowly lowered her hand. Folding her arm across her stomach, a futile attempt to smother the need raging through her, she shook her head.

Maybe she was mad with Heat but she hadn’t lost her mind yet. She knew a werewolf on the brink of change when she saw one, and Anders was rapidly losing control.

“You should go,” she whispered.

His bright, feral gaze raked down her body, pausing at the join of her thighs. His nostrils flared. “No.
Should teach you submission. Mine to claim.”

January snuck her hand down to grab the waist of her jeans and yanked them back into place. Flimsy armor was better than no armor.

Anders didn’t move toward her but he didn’t have to. He seemed to vibrate with power. Waves of aggression rolled off him and crashed over her, weakening her knees and resolve at the same time. Their harsh, quick breaths filled her ears, rapid, rasping, an urgent song of desire rising and falling over the liquid gurgle of the stew simmering on the stove.

Staring at him, she tried to reconcile this hungry, commanding creature with the earnest man who had eased her doubts during the night. The man she’d brought to trembling release with her tongue.

But nothing of that Anders remained.

He closed his eyes and breathed deep.
“Can smell your need.”

Her knees buckled, giving under the force of her body’s demand for relief.

The building designated as a clinic was an old single-wide trailer with a long narrow hall running from one end to the other. Beck rested his shoulders against the wood-paneled wall and ran his hands through his hair, watching Mira shuffle back and forth along the length of the narrow space. Her labor was progressing too
slow for his liking.

Mira drew abreast of him and slowed, catching his eye. Pain softened her angry glare but sharpened her tongue. “Don’t tell me you’re too tired to stand up without the help of that wall.”

“Just don’t want you thinking you have to keep up with me,” he said mildly.

Her lips twisted in a grimace that could have been discomfort or rage. Figuring she had a right to express both, he didn’t remark on it.

“Don’t know why you all won’t just leave me alone,” she muttered, looking away.

“Yes you do, Mira.” He waited until her gaze swung back to him. When it did, he locked on, staring her down until she whined softly and lowered her head, cowed and submissive once more.

That was his sole responsibility for as long as it took to see Mira’s pup into the world. Keep her submissive, keep her from shifting by sheer force of his alpha will. The timing was shit with January in Heat but he wouldn’t endanger the lives of mother or child by turning his focus to January. It was dangerous enough that he remained aware of her via his link to Anders, whose agitated arousal was pounding Beck’s skull at a volume that couldn’t be ignored.

January and Anders alone at this stage of her cycle made for a volatile situation. Anders still needed someone to mediate and act as a buffer. If Beck had any other choice, he would have made it, but Cross,
Mav and Jared were on patrols and Smoke had taken off after delivering Mira to the infirmary.

Mira stopped in front of the trailer’s front door. Beck shoved away from the wall and pushed his pack’s personal issues to the back of his mind.

“Don’t.” He edged closer to her.

She shot a dirty look over her shoulder. “Am I banned from looking out the window, Alpha?”

“Just keep your hands off that door knob.”

She smiled and stepped back from the door, which opened inward after she moved.

Beck eyeballed the giant of a man ducking into the trailer. The yellow light from the overhead bulb gleamed off Smoke’s shaved scalp. Clear of the door frame, Smoke raised his head and the light’s reflection shifted to his eyes.

Beck knew a dozen brave men who would think twice about crossing this newest member of the alpha pack. Enormously pregnant, bow-backed Mira didn’t fall into that category. She stabbed her finger into Smoke’s gut without a second’s hesitation.

“Do you have any idea what you left me with?” She demanded.

“Yeah.
I left you with people who will deliver that baby.”

Smoke’s carefully neutral expression didn’t change as he looked down at Mira’s red, sweaty face. He spoke in the same low, even voice Beck had heard him use in every situation from disposing of a Ravager that chased wounded wolves through the portal to requesting the salt at community feasts.

But Beck had other things to worry about besides Smoke’s ability to single-handedly tear a Ravager limb from fiery limb.

Even though the alpha pack thought of January as belonging to Beck, they each had a connection with her. All except Smoke, who
had damn good reasons to fight his way free of a pack that shared one mated female among its ranks.

Reason Number One was trying to pick a fight between contractions.

“Enough.” Beck narrowed his eyes at Mira. “Head back to bed and let Cleo check you out.”

“She went out the back to check in with her Vikings.”

“Then go lie down and wait.”

Mira set her chin at a mutinous angle but Beck stared her down. As she turned away from Smoke, pain crossed her face. She closed her eyes, took one deep breath, and made her way back down the hall. When the door to her delivery room closed, Beck focused on Smoke.

“Is she going to be a problem?”

Smoke’s throat worked on a swallow. Beck braced for the worst but Smoke shook his head once. “No problem.”

“Be certain, friend. Your way out is clear now but won’t be for long.”

“I can handle your woman.”

“If all you can do is
handle
her--”

A curse exploded from Smoke’s lips. He turned his face away. “Right now, handling will have to be enough. You tell me now if it won’t be.”

“Handle with care,” Beck said quietly.

Smoke nodded but didn’t speak.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Beck blew out a long, weary breath. He waved at the door. “Start now. She’s in Heat, the Moon’s coming up high, and she’s alone with Anders.”

“Fuck.” Smoke shot out of the trailer.

2

As January sank to the floor, Anders crouched with her. His fingertips touched the floorboards, the muscles in his arms bunching as they took the weight of his upper body.

She should scream for help. The part of her not pulsing in time with her empty, clenching core still possessed an instinct for self-preservation, but that part didn’t connect with her vocal chords. When she opened her mouth, thinking to beg for mercy, all that came out was a pleading whimper.

Anders tilted his head and tensed, gaze penetrating her as surely as his thick cock would.

But watching was all he did. She tumbled over on all fours as a cramp tore through her abdomen, as a new gush of wetness flooded between her thighs, and still, Anders only watched.

A bead of
precome dripped from his cock and hit the floor soundlessly. She was moving even before the droplet fell, heedless of Anders’ growled, wordless warning. That was what her tormented body needed--that hot, salty fluid, as much of it as she could wring from him.

Behind Anders, the cabin door flew open. She jerked her head up in time to watch Smoke prowl across the threshold, huge and powerful and still, blessedly, fully entrenched in an illusion of humanity.

Smoke’s eyes narrowed as he took in the scene, looking from her to Anders and back again. He assessed the situation quickly, shocking January when he closed the door and sealed the three of them into the cabin.

“Do you understand what’s happening to him?” Smoke skipped greetings and cut straight to his point.

“He’s going to shift,” she whispered.

“Yeah, he wants to. Your body’s begging to fuck and he’s wolf-born. His instinct is to fuck like a wolf. You okay with that happening here?”

Her lips parted as she pictured it, snatches of sensation and glimpses of images in her mind, the human half of her rebelling while the wolf half shivered with approval.

Soft fur, silky against her hips, ass and thighs.
Warm, solid weight across her back. Possessive scrape of fangs at her nape.

Wolf plunging into her, speed strength power deep, deep, deep.

Her lungs burned.

Anders growled, dragging her from the dark kaleidoscope of possibility. The breath she was holding punched out of her lungs. She tore her gaze from Anders.

Trembling, she hung her head and shook it. “No.”

“Doesn’t sound like ‘no’ to me,” Smoke said.

Not to her, either, but she’d made her choice. “Not during Heat.”

Not while control was such a tenuous, transparent thing for her or Anders.

Her inner wolf howled. As if he heard, Anders’ deeper voice echoed the phantom sound.

Smoke grunted. “Then it looks like we have a situation.”

“No. There is no situation. You two need to go.” January pushed off her hands and knees and got to her feet.

January’s eyes were glossy with lust and her entire body shook. Anders tensed, ready to surge forward and catch her if her knees gave out again, but she put her hand on the refrigerator and steadied herself.

“Go,” she repeated.

“Not leaving.” Anders willed his claws back into his fingertips. They had left gouges in the planks of the cabin floor.

January shuddered. “You being here
makes it worse. Please.”

Without speaking, Smoke jerked his belt open.
Anders tensed, territorial instinct surging. A growl vibrated his vocal chords.

Smoke’s hands stilled. “Is this pack business or something else?”

“I’m not business,” January bit out. “And I’m not fucking a man who wants another woman.”

Smoke flinched. His expression smoothed out a moment later.

Anders stood. “I have control. Get your condoms.”

She had a hand between her legs, cupping and kneading her folds. That couldn’t have been giving her much relief but it did something to him. The imperative to get inside her had started as biological compulsion, her scent drawing all his blood to his cock. She’d challenged him and that tripped his instinct to dominate a subordinate wolf. But watching her rub against her fingers, lips parted, eyes glossy, a flush high on her cheeks, roused something less familiar.

Something he’d experienced hours earlier with her lips wrapping around his flesh.

Pleasure.

He wanted to take it from her and give it back tenfold.

But he didn’t know how to please her and this wasn’t the time to learn.

January didn’t respond so he cut his gaze to Smoke. “Condoms. In there somewhere.”

Smoke would know what to look for. Anders didn’t have a clue.

“A rubber’s going to defeat the damn point.” Smoke scrubbed his hand over his face and strode into the bedroom anyway.

Without the other male’s scent to confuse matters, January’s arousal hammered Anders’ senses. She hadn’t moved from the spot in front of the refrigerator so he went to her. Remembering the way
she responded to his mouth on her breasts, he backed her up against the cool white surface and palmed the ripe curves.

Her head fell back against the freezer door. Eyes half-closed, she arched her back. The hard peaks of her nipples stabbed at him through the soft fabric of her shirt. With a grunt, he tore the flannel down the middle. Buttons flew, hitting the floor like plastic scattershot.

Anders barely heard the bouncing disks. January’s gasp filled his ears, sweet music he wanted to hear again. Lowering his head, he rolled one of her stiff nipples into his mouth. She cried out, her short nails digging into his sides.

“I can’t…this is too much,” she said, breathless and squirming. Her belly brushed his cock. Groaning, she reached between them and encircled his shaft, squeezing the hard flesh with a strangling grip.

He bucked into her warm hands. His balls were painfully tight. Pleasure splintered through him.

“She’s too gone for foreplay.” Smoke’s voice came from the direction of the bedroom.

“Condom,” January pleaded. Her fingers slipped up and down his cock, lubricated by the fluid she squeezed from him with every stroke.

Anders turned his head to snarl at Smoke but January pulled on his engorged member and white light exploded inside his skull. The muscles in his thighs shook as he spilled into her palms, hot jets of semen that froze January stiff.

Her breath caught on a sob. “No, no, no.”

Smoke cursed. “Get her pants down. No, baby, don’t wipe your hands.”

Stunned by what had happened, Anders let Smoke brush him aside. January bit her lip, tears wetting her eyes as Smoke crouched in front of her and peeled her jeans down her legs.

“Give me your hands.” Smoke pushed her silky thighs wide, baring the soaked curls that shielded her sex.

Breathing hard, Anders braced his arm against the cabinet beside January’s head and watched Smoke guide her sticky fingers to her mound. Smoke nudged her folds open and circled his thumb around a swollen, erect little nub. The high, keening sound January made brought Anders’ cock back to life.

“Rub his come into your pussy,” Smoke instructed. “Yeah, like that, baby. That’s what you really need, isn’t it?”

While he spoke, he continued to massage her glistening flesh. January’s fingers slid around Smoke’s, her skin golden pale against his mahogany, and nothing but flushed, wet pink between their tangling hands.

With every circle of Smoke’s thumb, January’s hips bucked. A strangled cry caught in her throat, drawing Anders’ gaze to her face. Her parted lips moved with silent words--or cries--and she rolled her head from side to side. He wanted to see her eyes but she held them screwed shut.

“That’s it,” Smoke crooned.

Anders looked back down in time to see the other man wrap his lips around January’s stiff bud. Smoke’s cheeks hollowed and January shrieked, flinging out her hand. Her short nails raked across Anders’ stomach. He grabbed her hand and pinned her palm
to his chest as another small scream rocked her.Smoke lifted his head and January’s legs gave out. She dropped into his waiting arms, shaking violently.

He crouched down there, January draped across his hard thighs. Her breathing slowed and the tremors lessened but she didn’t lift her head off Smoke’s chest.

Several minutes passed before Anders broke the silence. “What did you do to her?”

“Gave her an orgasm.”
Smoke eyed Anders. “You’ve never fucked in this form?”

Anders’ jaw worked. He shook his head.

“Didn’t think so. Turn off that burner and follow me.” He nodded at the stove, where January’s stew continued to bubble.

While Smoke gathered January’s limp form securely in his arms and stood, Anders took care of the stove. He trailed Smoke into the bedroom.

“She might sleep for a while now.”

“Does that happen a lot with human-born females?”

Smoke deposited January on the bed and pulled the edges of her shirt around her. He straightened and stared down at her sleeping face a minute before turning away with a shrug.

“Some women.
I think she was just too far gone with Heat.” He shot Anders a narrow-eyed look. “She wakes up needing again, you take care of her right then. You have to stay in control since she can’t.”

Smoke glanced at January one last time and left without another word.

Alone with her, shame swept over Anders. He should have known how to take over. Should have been able to control himself.

He wouldn’t fail her
again.January rolled onto her side and pulled her knees toward her chest. He watched her another few minutes. When her breathing deepened again, Anders crouched and allowed the wolf to banish the man. After a long stretch in the form he preferred, he bounded up onto the bed and curled around his sleeping woman, nose tucked in the bend of her neck.

January was halfway through a second bowl of stew when Beck returned to the cabin. He filled a dish for himself and joined her and Anders at the cabin’s picnic-style table.

“Anders said you had to help Mira deliver, since she couldn’t get into Luminesce on time.”

“I kept her from shifting but couldn’t control the baby. Cleo had to cut her open.”

“A c-section? Here?” The thought horrified her. No way their makeshift infirmary was equipped for that.

“More or less.
She held off until the Moon was high to give Mira her best chance at healing quickly, but it wasn’t an ideal situation.”

“I guess I’ll be holding onto my condoms.” She’d harbored a spark of hope that Beck had found a way around her Earth-bound state.

Anders snarled. “No.”

January put her spoon down and looked between the two of them. “It’s my body.”

“These bodies don’t belong to us. They belong to the Goddess. You’ve been with humans too long.” Anders’ fingers balled into a fist on the table.

January exhaled slowly. “I didn’t think I had a place anywhere else.”

Anders was conspicuously silent but Beck filled in the quiet. “We believe your place is here, with us. I want to bind you.”

“To the two of you or the pack?
Because the pack doesn’t want me, no matter what you believe.” At their confused expressions, she sighed. “Smoke.”

Beck narrowed his eyes. “Did he say something to you?”

She shook her head. “He didn’t have to. I know he’s wrapped up in Mira.”

The two men exchanged glances.

“Yeah, see,” January said. “You know it’s a problem too. What exactly happens when the others find their mates? And how do we function until they do? My Heat cycle only lasts a few days each month. Do I have six lovers for seventy-two hours every four weeks? Or am I supposed to be open and reaching out to all of you at the same time? All the time?”

“I don’t know the answers,” Beck said.

“These are things we need to figure out.”

“They’re human things,” Anders said.

She pushed her bowl away. Her appetite was gone. “No matter what you believe, I’m more human than anything else. I can’t shift. My wolf is practically a ghost, and not the communicative type. So what do you want me to do, besides wonder about the human things?”