An hour later we were both lying on the bed, fully clothed, and barely speaking, both of us lost in thoughts. Rig lay on his back, one arm curled under his head, the other down between us. I was on my side with my head resting on his shoulder, while Purrkins curled between my stomach and Rig’s waist, Rig’s fingers thoughtlessly trailing up and down Purrkins’ back.
My cat was purring so loudly it vibrated against my ribs.
We hadn’t talked a lot, but that was okay, which was a strange place to be. Just being there with him, laying near him, my body felt relaxed in a way I’d never really experienced before.
It had to be this bond he was talking about. I’d woken feeling restless and energized—but tense with it. Now… no
~ RIG ~My heart pounded mercilessly against my ribs. The human who suspects what we are is here, looking for me.I could feel the tension of my brothers as their wolves leaped to the defensive. If they were in their animal forms they would pace back and forth, their heads low and eyes locked on the threat.‘Stay back. Give her space,’ I mutter through the link as I fly down the stairs right on Cara’s heels. ‘Cara’s coming.’I reach the living room a hairsbreadth behind her, every instinct in me screaming alert, the hair on the back of my neck standing tall. If I were in my wolf, my hackles would rise across my shoulders and down my back making my body appear even larg
~ RIG ~I wanted to howl, but forced myself to just stand up and follow her to the fridge, leaning over the door which she’d opened and was bending down behind.Meg wouldn’t be able to hear us speak.“Are you okay?” I asked, doing my best to keep my voice from sounding husky, but my groin was still twitching after that touch.“If you don’t stop staring at me like you want to eat me, I’m going to embarrass myself and freak Meg out by climbing you like a tree,” she muttered.“I wouldn’t be embarrassed,” I grinned. She was bent over as if she was getting something out of the fridge, but she’d turned her face up and stared at me out from under her lashes.
~ RIG ~I was the first to recover from the shock and hurry up the stairs, but Mack was right on my heels, and Natalie directly behind him.When I walked in, I found Cara with my eyes, searching her head to toe, inhaling her scent, making utterly certain that nothing had happened, that she was unhurt.Not that I thought Meg would truly hurt her, but if she’d found something out about wolves and come here trying to be sneaky…I swallowed back the chill of fear and walked quickly to Cara’s side. “What’s up, babe?”She gave me an amused look, but I smelled the flash of desire that shot through her when I called her that and made a mental note to keep using it.I had
~ CARA ~“I call shotgun!” Tessa called, laughing as we all piled into the taxi.It felt like I was the only one not laughing as our breaths made clouds in the freezing night air, which was making my breasts tight, and my nipples stand out like pointers under the deep emerald colored, satin halter-neck that Natalie had thrown at me and insisted that I wear.It had seemed like a great idea when we were all in Rig’s bathroom together, but now I felt like I needed to keep my arms crossed over my chest.The back of it was open so I couldn’t wear a bra, and the fabric was so clingy… in the winter air, even with the little cream leather jacket Natalie had pressed into my hands with rolled eyes when I protested that I might spill something on it.
~ CARA ~When Natalie suggested going to a club, I assumed she meant one of the student bars that had a dance floor. One of the places that played EDM or that thumping bass and had neon lights over the bar.I did not expect this.When we got into the city proper, Natalie leaned forward to direct the driver because apparently we weren’t heading for the normal entrance to this place.Our car rolled down a city block lined with people on one side, all of them dressed to the nines and huddling against their friends who’d been smart enough to wear coats.The building was completely non-descript. I didn’t even see a sign. But there was a large door with two even larger men standing in front of it. And whenever
~ RIG ~Fucking Natalie and thinking it’s fucking funny to have the bouncers hold us back. They’d let Charlie in the second he stepped up, but put an arm across and asked me, Mack, and Jack to leave.By the time we made it up to the lounge bar, the girls were already standing around a booth talking excitedly, Charlie hovering, expressionless, behind Meg with a beer in his hand. Natalie winked the second I stormed into the bar, Mack at my side and Jack on our heels.‘Cool your jets, Rig. We have witnesses,’ Natalie laughed into the link. ‘Everybody remember their partners for the night.’Mack growled at my shoulder, but caught my elbow and slowed me down as we crossed t
~ CARA ~I had three of those lovely drinks before I had to visit the bathroom. And even though it was my bladder that finally drove me away from that railing, the truth was I needed to catch my breath.Rig was outright staring. My breath was coming shallow and too fast. The longer I’d stood there watching his shoulders roll, his body thrust, the more my stomach churned with desire.And it seemed like he knew it. He’d barely looked away.Other than the brass railing, there was only plexi-glass between me and the view of the dancefloor, so my skin tingled every time his eyes raked down my form.The tug in my chest became a compulsion.Every few minutes one of our
~ RIG ~Holy motherfucking shit in a sandwich.My wolf was going fucking nuts.When Cara ducked down, hands on her knees, then started drawing her ass back up my legs, rippling like some kind of goddamn water goddess, a strangled groan broke in my throat.My mouth was open, my breath panting as she slid back up until her hips were in my hands and I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t. I gripped her, grinding against her, my lips in her hair.“Fuck, Cara…”She leaned her head back, eyes closed and lifted her hands up to lace her fingers behind my neck and then she rolled her hips again and my wolf ignited, snarling, snapping,
~ RIG ~ I let my upper lip curl up and bare my teeth. Let him see that he was dealing with a helluva lot more than a spoiled rich kid. His instincts were dulled by humanity and alcohol, but even his dimwitted senses caught the flash of my teeth. He stiffened. I smiled. “My wife wants to share her wedding with her Mom—we eloped, but we’ve just watched some friends getting married and it’s making her think about what we missed, so we’re going to do it properly. Make another memory. And Cara wants to share that with her mom. So, we’re going to renew our vows in front of everyone we care about. Which, sadly, includes you.” He smiled and I wanted to bite his face off. “You are invited,” I growled. “But you
SOUNDTRACK: “Your Daughter” by Chase McDaniel. ***** ~ RIG (Three weeks later) ~ Getting out of my jeep in the driveway of the house that was the site of Cara’s torture turned my stomach. My Alpha power—still difficult to contain at times, making me itchy and prone to aggression—surged as I took in the cracked cement with weeds and grass growing up, the overgrown flower beds now little jungles of three foot weeds, and the grass that was thin and patchy, and mostly dead. This was the place that her fucking father had made her believe no one could love her. This was the place she’d been hurt. This was the place I wanted to burn to the fucking ground. But for today, at least, that wasn’t the assig
SOUNDTRACK: “Unbearable” by Nathan Wagner. ***** ~ CHARLIE ~ Watching Mack salivate over Natalie as she walked up the aisle was a very specific kind of torment. Because even though I was supposed to be watching our friends publicly vow themselves, my eyes kept drifting back to Meg who, alongside Cara and Tessa, was standing with Natalie today. She looked… stunning. Natalie, always with the impeccable taste that I didn’t understand, but could fully appreciate, had draped all the girls in floor-length, light-green, figure-hugging-but-not-clinging dresses that revealed flesh without being suggestive. It was fucking torture.
~ MACK ~ When Natalie and Cara finally reached us on the stage, I knew that there was an exchange with the officiant. Cara and Rig said something, but I didn’t hear it. I just took Natalie’s hands and pulled her up to stand in front of me. I was aware of people speaking after that. The officiant—a wolf who’d been among the rebels, whose aunt was human, and had become ordained—spoke for a few minutes about marriage and what it meant, but all I could think about was the deep pools of her eyes, that hollow in her throat that she’d offered me the night before last, and how my entire blood hummed with love and desire and— There was a ripple of laughter. “Oh, what?” I asked. Someone had asked me something. Oh, right. “I do!”
SOUNDTRACK: “Don’t Give Up on Me” by Andy Grammar ***** ~ MACK ~ I had been shitting myself. Absolutely, one hundred percent, about-to-claw-my-own-hair-off, crapping my pants. When Cara told me about the human traditions around a wedding, and what she was planning to do with Rig for their vow renewal—which included not seeing or sleeping with each other the day before the ceremony, which sounded crazy—I’d joked with Natalie that we should do that too. I’d thought it would be cute and maybe increase anticipation for when we did come back together after the ceremony. I hadn’t banked on my mate getting cold feet about doing this in front of the packs, and how her nerves would kick my insecurities into gear—and that the whole damn thing would b
SOUNDTRACK: “Break Your Fall” by UNSECRET and Marc Scibilia. ***** ~ NATALIE ~ “This is stupid and… and indulgent and it doesn’t matter! I should never have agreed to this. It’s nothing but a dumb, human tradition and… it means nothing. I’m not doing it.” I stood in the bedroom that we’d made into a bridal suite—complete with three-way mirror—and folded my arms. I’d been staring at myself and all I could see were the imperfections. Tessa had done a beautiful job on my make up, but everything else just felt… sticky. My dress was a touch too tight around my breasts. There were too many people here and they were all going to be staring. I could feel Mack out there panting with nerves, but what if he didn’t like the dress? I should have shown it to him! Why had I let Cara talk me into all this traditional nonsense? “Natalie, you get your gorgeous ass out there and marry that man before he sweats through his Armani suit,” Cara growled. “Seriously, don’t make me turn it into an orde
~ RIG ~I started towards her, but was halted almost immediately as I watched in awe while my mate carved through lines of wolves as if they were butter.Claws, teeth, whirling body—despite her bulk, she moved like liquid, tail lashing and claws like wicked hooks designed to tear through fur and flesh.I shook and trembled because my father’s power was shifting to me and my veins were boiling with it—while the rest of me simmered in the rising rage and terror of the wolves around us.The transfer of Alpha should have been peaceful. There was an established hierarchy waiting, swelling with the newfound power. But my father was a liar and cheat, and he’d encouraged his wolves towards the same.The hierarchy, the elders, his advisors, every pack and family of power rolled towards us, howling in rage and fear.And my wolves, newly risen and brimming with the triumph of victory and the added confidence of success, tore right back to meet them.Mack, Charlie, Jack, and Natalie tore for me,
SOUNDTRACK: “Legendz” by AG and Devvon Terrell ***** ~ RIG ~ Everything slowed to a crawl, time seemed almost not to move at all as I watched my father go for my mate and I turned, twisting, pushing my body in ways I never had, panic screaming in my head, frantic to reach him before he got her. I couldn’t move fast enough. He was going to land at her feet before I did and his power would carry him right to her throat. She wasn’t equipped for this… It all washed through me in that second—the rage for what he’d done, the fury about his injustices, the anger that he would still cheat, even before the witnesses, and the shocking weight of grief because that was my mate. But then the second wave arrived that left me desperate, panicked, humiliated and hating myself. If she died right now it was my fault. My side screamed in pain as I launched myself after him, but my father seemed to hang in mid-air. I had time to see Cara bare her teeth and crouch. Everything moved so slowly I could
~ RIG ~My father saw the opening he’d been waiting for, gathered himself on his haunches and launched at me, the light of victory in his eyes.Instinctively, I didn’t even try to meet the attack, just leaped straight into the air in an attempt to deflect, dropping my chin, trying to hide my throat as my father snaked in—and to my horror, he would have taken me, except that was the moment Stephen howled in the link, then sent images to us both:Himself. Head bowed. Shoulders rolled forward. His human form submitted.To me.It was a boom of thunder right over my head. In any context, the submission of an Alpha brought al