Heart Of The Wolf (25 page)

Then, the
memory of her first change hit her. It had happened so suddenly,
hadn't it? She bolted upright in bed, enticing noises of complaint
from both her mates. “Oi, I wasn't finished.”

She glanced
down at her hands and feet; her knees, her stomach … all smudged
with dirt and mud. Their naked forms were the same. “It happened.
It really happened – I shifted.”

Taylor smiled
and caught her lips with his own. “You were beautiful to watch. You
were magnificent.”

“I don't
really remember anything after I changed.”

“You will,”
Ryan had replaced her nipple with her earlobe – he was now tugging
at that. “It'll come back to you and every shift will be easier
from now on.”

“It's like you
become one with the woods here, and everything around you when you
shift.” Taylor ran his hand up her inner leg, which automatically
fell open for him, and then he grazed his fingers along her
entrance, upwards, until he was lazily circling her clit.

She sighed in
pleasure.

He continued.
“That's exactly what happened to you. You became your wolf, and
then you ran, unable to keep the ecstasy of your first change from
dominating you.” He slid his fingers into her.

She rocked
once against him, threw her head back and moaned.

Ryan went for
her neck, placed a hand under her breasts and pushed her back down.
“We ran with you.”

“You did?” she
asked, although her ability to think was fast becoming
thwarted.

“Couldn't let
you go on your own – not your first time.”

She frowned,
despite her increasing pleasure. “Wait … I just took off? After the
mess last night and everything that happened?”
How fucking
selfish.

“No … don't
feel bad. That's the call of the wild – you can't ignore it. The
first time you meet your wolf, on your first full moon together -
it's magic, and whatever happens, happens. It's impossible to
control.”

Yes, Lawrence
had said something similar.

Lawrence…

“He's dying to
see you.”

For god's
sake, was she speaking telepathically without even realising
it?

“He took care
of everything last night.”

Taylor
increased his pace as Ryan spoke, reaching that spot deep inside
her he was so good at finding.

“He got
Hendrickson and Amelia to look after Pete. Beth, Sarah's friend,
wouldn't leave his side, which Lawrence wasn't happy about, but
that shrew of a woman gave him an earful about animal rights or
something – I wasn't clear on exactly what took place there.
Anyway, turns out she hit it off with Hendrickson and Amelia. They
told her everything about us. After seeing you change and killing
the Trident, well … we couldn't exactly tell her nothing.
Apparently, she was intrigued; not overly fearful – it's not the
way most people react.”

“Oh, god,
Taylor!” She was listening – she was – but why did they have to do
this
to her, now, while recounting last night's events?

“Sorry,
sweetheart, it's hard for us to keep our hands off you since you
shifted – the sense of completion; the way you smell – it's all too
much.”

She supposed
she should find it odd – sex and formal conversation at the same
time – but maybe she'd gotten used to werewolf life. The need to
mate and, ultimately, breed was always at the forefront –
survival
was at the forefront. Whereas the human in her
might wonder why sex had to come into everything, the wolf in her
understood that you could
learn
through sex, the same way
you could pick up on events through scenting another wolf's saliva.
In a strange sort of way, their physical connection cemented their
recounting of last night and this morning. She hadn't been present
for it all, but she now felt like she had been, and she all at once
understood the importance of such a nexus for a pack. Those condoms
she'd bought suddenly seemed like a ridiculous purchase.

And yeah – she
could feel that completion Ryan mentioned. Before, she had felt
bonded to each of her mates. Now, she felt bonded to all four of
them
at the same time
. As if they were all one entity,
feeding off each other, unable to work on their own any longer. It
should have scared her –
would
have scared her just a few
days ago – but instead of feeling suffocated by it, the ruling
sense was one of freedom. And strength. There was nothing they
couldn't do together.

She wished
Lawrence was here.

“You'll see
him soon,” Taylor affirmed, and then he lowered his head and put
that super-talented tongue of his on her soon-to-burst
clitoris.

Her moans
turned into whimpers of need.

Ryan's voice
was noticeably tighter with lust. “Lawrence has spoken to Sarah and
explained everything – she's still here I think. She and her
friends are heading back in a couple of hours.

“Richard's a
mess, but we're gonna look after him, and we'll see if we can find
a way to get Selena back. My old pack are working on it.”

A great
sadness passed over her at remembering what had happened to Selena
and her father's reaction, not that she had much time to wallow in
it with Taylor licking and sucking at the very core of her
desire.

She was
curious about Ryan's old pack – they'd been the ones dressed in
white, hadn't they? But she pushed that question aside for now.

“Lawrence held
the meeting at dawn. Everyone was there except yourself and
Pete.”

“Oh, no … I
wanted to be there.”

“Time's not
our greatest ally of late, but there'll be other meetings – you
were missed. Lawrence would've liked you to be there, but wouldn't
risk the fulfilment of your change, or the rest you needed after
it. It's important to him that you're happy as a wolf, Lydia.

“The meeting
went better than any of us had hoped. The Wiltshire pack were also
present – they'll be here to stay for a bit, and I think the
greater numbers calmed everyone down a notch. Lawrence called for
total unity in creating a force against the Tridents. The pack
knows about Lawrence now; about what happened to him. He told them
he was done hiding; apologised for his absence—”

“
Ooooh…
”

“Are you
close, sweetheart?”

“Are you
kidding me?”

Ryan crouched
over her and held her arms down using his shins, then he reached
forward and set to work on her breasts; stroking, teasing…

Taylor brought
her legs up and delved in deeper.

Ryan muttered
something unintelligible before continuing… “They were all shocked
at first, although Hendrickson suspected, I think. Richard cheered
the return of the king, with both jubilation and the promise of war
on the Trident. Even in his aggrieved state, he publicly welcomed
Lawrence back, and offered him his allegiance.”

“That's good,
I'm …
aaahh
… glad – oh, shit, I'm coming!”

Ryan let out a
growl and tightened his old of her.

Another growl
sounded from Taylor, reverberating between her legs as her body
bucked against him, and the three of them rode out her climax to
its blissful end.

Dazed, sated
and completely fulfilled, she looked up at Ryan.

He was staring
at Taylor, who had risen from his position. Some look passed
between them which she wasn't entirely sure of – which
they
didn't seem entirely sure of either, suffice to say that desire
permeated everything around them.

A slight
vulnerability flitted across Taylor's eyes, his breathing sped up a
notch, and then he said, “Do you want to taste her?”

There was a
deafening pause, and then the bed wobbled as Ryan dove for Taylor.
Their lips smacked together the same time their chests did, and if
Lydia had had an ounce of need left in her, she would have come all
over again at the indescribably
hot
sight of her two males
colliding.

Her mouth
dropped open, as her very naughty fantasy played out in front of
her.
This
sure as hell didn't seem like scenting, despite
Taylor's mention of Ryan 'tasting' her. This was like they'd been
swept away in a tidal wave and had decided to stop swimming against
the surge.

Lydia rose to
her knees, the need to see their pleasure manifest, too great to
ignore. Reaching between them, she took each of them into her
hands, revelling in their groans at her touch.

I love
you…
It no longer felt strange to think it; to feel it; to have
that four letter word so entwined in her system she couldn't
separate her love for them with anything she felt for herself. And
nor should she. They were hers, and she was theirs, and more than
that…

They were
family.

~*~

Sarah blinked
back tears of hurt and anger as Amelia drove her, Holly and Beth to
the car they had left parked up outside the locked gates last
night.

“
You did …
what?”

“
You had
seen things you weren't supposed to see, but more than that … there
was no saving Taylor. That was something you couldn't handle – it
broke you. It sent you into a shocked stupor and there were no
signs you were going to come out of it.

She turned her
head away from the others and looked out the window of the van. She
didn't need anyone to see her cry. She hadn't told Beth what that
Lawrence guy had said to her, and Holly was in no state to hear
it.

“
You took
my memories?”

“
The ones
of Taylor, yes.”

Fuck.

“
You can
see him if you like.”

“
Taylor?”

“
Yes.”

“
No.”

If she had
really lost the plot – gone into a stupor like he'd said, over the
attack on Taylor and herself and his inevitable demise – she must
have loved him very much. As much as a part of her wallowed in fury
at having her memories of him taken, she wasn't sure she wanted any
inkling of how much she loved him, especially not after what
else
she'd been told.

“
There's
something you need to know, about the man you've been
seeing.”

No.

She pushed the
conversation out of her mind. She would deal with it when she got
home, to her sanctuary, after Beth had left and a very quiet Holly
was back on a plane to her normal life.

Holly had come
out of her own stupor. Since she'd shown stability, Lawrence had
been reluctant to rip
he
r mind apart, and Sarah had point
blank told him if he tried, he'd regret it.

If he was
fazed by her anger, he hadn't shown it. He hadn't shown much of
anything, actually – maybe he was a robot. A robot werewolf. With
no fucking feelings. How could you
do
that to another human
being?

But they
weren't human, were they? They were animals, and Amil was…

She blinked
harder, damn it. Suppression of emotions wasn't working.

Three signed
contracts later (they read more like gag orders) to ensure their
silence over everything they'd seen, they had been free to
leave.

“Here we go.”
Amelia brought the van to a stop.

All four of
them jumped out, and Beth took Amelia in a big hug.

Sarah looked
away, not feeling the love. She wanted to – it would be nice to,
and Amelia was pleasant enough, but … how did you come back from
this? How did you come back from…

Don't think
about it!

“Thank you for
everything,” said Beth, still caught up in the embrace.

Amelia
laughed. “It's good that you're all right with … the way things
are.”

“You know when
something happens, and everything clicks into place, and the first
thought you have is, 'I knew it!'?”

Holly turned
to Sarah and raised her eyebrows.

Sarah
shrugged.

“And … er …
Pete?” asked Beth. “He's going to be—”

“He's already
healed – mostly. The underbelly's a horrible place to take a wound,
but he's going to be just fine.”

“And you're
sure it's okay to—”

Amelia laughed
again, and Sarah rolled her eyes, because Beth had already asked
this a hundred times. “Yes, it's fine to come back and see him. In
fact,” Amelia leaned in and dropped her voice. “I think it might be
good for him.”

Beth grinned,
and finally, Sarah let a small smile pass her lips. Beth's
enthusiasm and optimism were positively contagious, and she hoped
to god this wouldn't be one of those things, where she gave her all
to a man and he fled to the hills. Pete didn't seem like the
running away type, though. Typical. Trust Beth to find her guy in a
werewolf.

And Sarah had
found hers in a…

No, don't
think about it!

Her stomach
lurched.

“Beth?” Holly
thrust her keys at her. She still looked pale from the events of
last night. “Are you okay to drive?”

“Yep!” Beth
took the keys, they all waved goodbye to Amelia as she pulled away
in the van, and then they piled into Holly's car. Beth let out a
whistle as she turned on the ignition. “
What
a night!”

A night for
you, a nightmare for me.

Sarah cursed
her gloominess. She didn't want to bring Beth down, but it was hard
when…

Don't think
about it!

But she
couldn't not think about it. Not any more.

She put on her
seatbelt, and then folded her arms across her abdomen, trying not
to see in her mind the way that monster – no, that
Trident
–
had sniffed at her; had looked at her…

“
Amil's a
Trident, Sarah.”

This time the
blinking couldn't stop a tear from escaping.

She watched
the trees go by as they turned out of the path and onto a tarmacked
road.

“
He's a
Trident.”