Desired By The Pack: Part Three (4 page)

Anders stood guard, sitting on his haunches in front of the closed door. At Beck’s approach, he stood and moved aside.

Beck gripped the knob but didn’t twist it. “I’m taking Maverick and meeting up with Cross to track down the new wolf. That was a hunter they brought back. I want you, Jared and Smoke here as a precaution.”

You think they were followed?

“Anything’s possible. I don’t want to leave January or that new cub unprotected.” Mira’s fierce maternal instincts had yet to surface, according to Cleo, and Beck didn’t trust her.

The knob rattled and turned from the other side of the door. January pulled it open. She looked between Anders and Beck, dark brows raised. “Are you coming in?”

Only a few hours had passed since he watched her drive off but a few became too damn many the second Cross alerted him of trouble. He looked her over from head to foot, lingering at her breasts, hips and the vulnerable tips of her bare toes.

Her scent was off, tainted by fear and faded adrenaline. That had to change.

Anders moved restlessly. Beck lifted his gaze back to her face. She watched him intently, the tip of her tongue tracking across her lower lip.

His woman.
Finally where he wanted her.

With a low growl, he crossed the threshold. Her eyes widened and she took a step back.

He stalked her halfway across the front room before he spoke. “Are you running from me or leading me somewhere good?”

Her flush deepened. She stopped retreating. “I’m not sure. You look like you want to eat me.”

He could practically taste her honey on his tongue but shook his head. “I do, but no time for that.”

“What is there time for?” She fingered the hem of her shirt, drawing his gaze to the slice of tawny skin visible there.

Behind him, the door banged shut. January glanced past him to Anders. Beck couldn’t read her mind but he had a good idea what she wanted to know.

And he could filter Anders’ thoughts just fine, this close and so centered on the woman they both wanted.

“He wants to learn from you. We have time for a short lesson. Come here.”

She lowered her gaze and closed the gap between them. Satisfaction rolled through him, hardening his body and sharpening his hunger. His winter-wolf was learning her place--with him--and her resistance weakened every minute she gave herself to the pack.

Rounding behind her, he drew her against him. She softened instantly, warm and fluid in his arms. He’d waited a long time for the chance to pull her this close. Letting her go that morning went against his every instinct to lock her down and hold on.

He was pleased with the returns on his gamble. When January needed him, she acknowledged that need instead of running from it. Skimming his lips down the side of her neck, he went to work strengthening that link.

Drawing her scent deep, he gathered her breasts in his hands. The bra she wore shaped her curves gently, bringing her beaded nipples right into his palms. He rolled and squeezed the stiff buds until her ass squirmed against him, her body asking for more.

Anders watched, highly focused on January’s responses. His ears perked at the sounds she made, gasps and whimpers that kept Beck’s cock hard enough to drive nails. He allowed himself the pleasure of her soft ass but nothing more. What he wanted from her would take hours he couldn’t afford to spare. He was already giving too much to his desire as a man, neglecting his duty as an alpha.

He could give her this, at least. “Get your jeans down. We want to see your pussy.”

“I don’t think I can handle both of you. Not after the last few days.” She popped the button anyway. As she lowered the zipper, Anders changed.

January’s hands stilled, her attention on the display of wolf becoming man. Beck drew his tongue along her hairline, gathering her taste. Envy, awe, arousal.

She wanted her own wolf so bad.

He would find a way to give it to her, some bargain he could make, some piece of his soul he could sell.

For now, this.
He took over, lowering her zipper and pushing denim and lace off her hips.

“You’ll be able to handle this, baby.” He communicated with Anders through visuals and a moment later, Anders knelt at her feet.

Despite her half-hearted objection, she was wet. His fingers glided easily along her slit. She dropped her head back on his shoulder, eyes closed, lips parted as he played with her.

The compulsion to seat himself in her hot, silky grip shook him. He bared his teeth at her neck, starving for the taste of her blood on his tongue as it sealed their bond.

“She is so pink here.” Anders’ hand brushed Beck’s as he explored her body.

January raised her head and looked down at Anders. Beck turned his face away, getting his mating drive under control.

That rich flavor would be his soon enough.

“What is this called?” Anders touched something that made January buck.

“That’s my…oh, Moon, don’t touch it like that.” She writhed in Beck’s arms, her husky voice gone sharp and high.

“I thought it gave you pleasure.”

“Yeah, but you can’t just push the hood back and rough it up like that.” She was breathing hard, a tremor in the words.

“Well, you could,” Beck drawled, rubbing her bare abdomen with small circles. “She’ll still come but she might break your nose fighting to get away.”

Anders growled. “Then I will do it with my mouth.”

“Please yes,” she gasped. “Do that.”

Beck slid his hand lower and spread her pussy open with two fingers. “No teeth,” he warned.

January stiffened but Anders closed in before she could voice her alarm.

Whatever she’d opened her mouth to say got swallowed by her throaty cry. She reached back to link her fingers behind Beck’s head. He took advantage of the opportunity to get his hands under her shirt. Her stomach hollowed and filled as she undulated, seeking more and more.

Pushing her bra up over her breasts, he licked the shell of her ear.

“You’re mine,” he whispered. “Ours. No denying us. No fucking new job in Denver. Say it.”

Her nipples were tight little peaks. They grew harder with his words. Beck tormented them, rasping the blunt edges of his fingernails back and forth across the tips.

“I’m going to come,” she moaned, arching her back.

He pinched her nipple hard and held the pressure. “Not until you say it. Anders, stop licking that pussy until she says she’s ours.”

“No!” She dug her nails into his scalp and yanked at his hair. “Goddess, don’t stop. I’m yours! I’m--ahhh!”

She jerked in his arms, locked up stiff as she shattered. Pleasure poured off her like a flooding rain, invading the edges of his mind the way pack emotion sometimes did.

The way Anders’ thick satisfaction did while January shuddered through the aftershocks of her climax.

She came down panting, limp against him. Anders stood. At Beck’s nod, Anders lowered his head and covered her lips, giving her the flavor of her passion. Moaning, she drew her fingers from Beck’s hair and slid her arms around Anders’ neck. The loss of her was a sharp, new pain. Beck embraced it as he watched Anders lift her and carry her into the bedroom.

That pain would always bring him back to her.

4

January stomped through the wet, sloppy slush marking the edge of the pack settlement, cursing every slide of her feet in the too-big hiking boots someone had donated along with the trailer. Two pairs of socks wouldn’t protect her feet from blisters and maybe that was a good thing. Maybe she needed a reminder of exactly what it meant to be Beck’s mate.

Sharing him with dozens.

Risking him to the never-ending wars in
Solaine.

Abandonment.

They shared an attraction, not an abiding love. She didn’t know if the connection was enough. Didn’t know what more she wanted. The human romantic definition of love seemed too little and too much at the same time.

She should leave. Just walk away before he returned.

Denver still existed for her, a fresh start, a place to lick her wounds and forget this little taste of what could have been with the Guardians.

A warm body brushed her thigh, righting her as she slipped in a mud slick. She gritted her teeth.

Denver still existed but so did Anders, who believed she had more waiting for her, more to her life if she would only embrace the Guardians and leave her solitude behind.

She dragged in a breath, gathering her questions on her tongue, but an enraged bellow boomed through the camp, chilling her blood.

Anders bristled, crowding against her legs. A snarl bared his canines.

“Do you need to go?” She touched his back, his top coat cool on her palm. He sidled toward the cabin and then stopped, returning to butt against her again.

Unwilling to leave her, she realized. He was protecting her.

The scream rang out again, wordless, blood-curdling. Goose bumps flashed across her body. “Go. I’ll head back.”

Anders didn’t move, stood staring at her and trembling with what was probably some muscle-deep instinct to respond to danger.

Well, they couldn’t just stand out in the open, together or not. She gave him one last look before doubling back the way they’d come.

The third scream they heard was different from the first two. Younger, maybe, and fear instead of pain.

Anders shoved his head behind her knee, knocking her forward. He loped a few paces before pausing and looking back to meet her gaze. He jerked his head, a wordless come-hither.

She broke into a run, following him, and he started running too, not slowing until they reached the trailer serving as the infirmary.

“The Hunter?”
Even as she gasped the question, she knew that made no sense.

The man she’d found in that tub was barely clinging to life.

Something banged against one of the trailer’s inner walls. January yanked the door open. Brushing past her, Anders leapt past the three metal steps and through the door.

She followed, calling, “Is anyone hurt?”

Nobody answered. Anders quickly padded down the hall and slunk into a room, out of sight within seconds.

Low, calm voices led January down the hall. She stopped at the threshold, taking in the situation.

Anders stood beside a narrow, uncomfortable-looking table. His ears flattened against his skull as he snarled at the bandaged, battered man strapped down by formidable-looking restraints. A woman stood in the far corner, speaking to a terrified teen male.

“Is he still alive?” January angled her head toward the hunter.

The other woman, flame-red hair a riot of curls around her sharp face, looked up from the kid. She gave January one of those head to toe visual inspections all the Peace River werewolves seemed to deliver as a matter of course.

Whatever the other woman saw had her sucking her bottom lip between her teeth, and had January wondering about the red-head’s relationship with members of the alpha pack.

One Mira was plenty.

“He’s stronger than I expected,” the other woman said. “I thought pain would keep him under, but it turns out I thought wrong.”

“Is he sedated now?” The hunter looked as still as a corpse.

“Heavily.
You’re Beck’s woman.”

Anders swiveled his head toward Red and growled. She raised a cinnamon eyebrow and shrugged. “Sorry. I’m not up to speed on the alpha’s love life. I’m Cleo. I hear you’re a nurse?”

Cleo held out a slim, freckled hand.

“LPN.
I’m working my way through my RN. Figure I’ll get there right before I retire,” January said wryly. She clasped Cleo’s fingers and started. A sizzle of something chased up her arm, shooting off from that contact.

Cleo cocked her head, not letting go. “You’ll probably never need the RN, you know. You’re a healer.”

“I’m not.” January withdrew her hand and hid it in her pocket. Her face flamed as she said, “I can’t shift.”

“I know,” Cleo said.

Taut silence followed until the kid broke it. “I didn’t mean to freak out. It won’t happen again.”

“We know,” Cleo said, but when she glanced at Anders, January realized she was really saying he knew.

January found herself liking Cleo very much.

She leaned against the door jamb and glanced at the hunter. “Are there plans for him?”

“Beck will question him when he gets back.” Cleo didn’t say what would happen after, but January had a good idea.

Sometimes she felt petty in her expectations and disappointments. Beck had to balance the needs of a lot more people than one hungry woman.

Cleo stretched, hands at the small of her back as she arched her spine.

Spotting something she could do for the Guardians, January said, “I can sit here a while if you need a break.”

“Better idea.” Cleo nodded at the kid, who was still pale and shaken. “Mark, go on. We’ve got it from here. Check on Mira and her baby, see if they need anything, and look in on the Vikings. As soon as I’m finished here, I’ll be over to change their dressings, but I want you to come get me if any of them wake up before I can get away.”