I let Cara get up to go get the door—reluctantly—but found myself glaring at the trees.
I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly so tense. After all, Cara and I had had hours at times over the past few days when we weren’t having sex. But something had curled tight in my gut, and it wouldn’t release.
I let her go to answer the door, but stayed there waiting, simmering, trying to figure out what was bothering me.
I heard the door creak and Cara shriek and laugh with Natalie, heard the girls babble and snigger, and imagined the scene of them standing there in the door with Mack watching…
I was out of my
~ NATALIE ~The guys covered ground quickly, both of them very obviously ready to get this done and get away from each other. It made me nervous how tense they were—how untrusting of each other. I knew it was just instincts, their wolves reacting to the new bonds and wanting to keep their mates to themselves.But we didn’t have time for this shit.Luckily, either Cara’s instincts didn’t lean that way, or she had more control, because she kept smiling at me, and she’d hugged me really enthusiastically when we walked in. I had glimmers of feeling uneasy when Mack got close to her, or stared at her too long. But he was so close, not letting go of my hand, still talking to me through the link, it was little more than a niggle.So, in the end, it
~ RIG ~I didn’t want to believe it, but Natalie was right.It felt like pulling teeth, but I made myself agree to let her contact the Rogues and try to arrange a meeting.“You make sure they’re going to invite me,” I said, warning her. She nodded quickly.Cara was confused, but Natalie explained to her that as an Alpha of another pack, it was tradition that I had to be invited onto their territory to speak with their leader. More importantly, if they invited me, I walked into their territory from a position of strength.I wasn’t going to get myself killed on the off chance that this circle of Rogues might b
~ CARA ~I wasn’t sure what Rig had in mind for the night, but I put all the effort in—showering and blow-drying my hair, wearing some makeup, though I couldn’t make myself look the way Natalie had. I did have a figure-hugging black dress she’d insisted on putting in my bags, though. Even though it looked a lot more like her style than mine, I decided to wear it. I was sure Rig would like it since the neckline plunged between my modest breasts, and dipped at the back all the way to the hollow of my spine.Besides, I doubted I’d have it on for long.It took me almost two hours to get ready, and I was surprised how shaky I felt at the end of it, after not seeing Rig for that long. We were supposed to be doing this to make the most of our time together, and I was suddenly a little panicked abou
~ CARA ~“Where are we going?” I asked breathlessly a few seconds later.The trees were thick on this side of the driveway, but rather than answer, Rig only turned his head to meet my eyes, smiled, and suddenly took a step off the gravel driveway and towards those looming shadows along the road.A few feet later my eyes adjusted and I could make out straight lines in the dark shadows under the tall pines, and soon a strange little building was revealed.At first it just looked like a weird out-building. An octagonal room with a low, cone-shaped roof, hidden from the view of the house by thick trees and bushes.I looked up at Rig.“You know, when I was youn
~ RIG ~I shook with need, my hands trembling worse than a middle-schooler getting his first kiss. Cara, so fucking stunning in that dress, was even more incredible to look at naked in the water, her skin glowing under lights in the blue water, her nipples high and hard, darker that the rest of her. I’d rested her neck back on the padded edge of the pool, and it arched her back, her throat bare, her lower back hollowed, knees wide because I was pressed between her thighs.We kissed. Oh, how we kissed.Had I known before her that a kiss could carry so much, be so sacred, I would never have given my lips to another soul before her.I kissed her, she kissed me. And it was as if our souls reached through the damp, breathless heat to twine again.
SOUNDTRACK: “Meaning” by Nathan Wagner*****~ RIG ~Being inside Cara was overwhelming. All those flames in my blood rushed out to my skin and I prickled all over, just like I had when we got into the water. I gripped her hips and broke the kiss because if I didn’t, I was going to come. I pulled almost all the way out, then plunged back into her again, my heart pounding when she made a cry of pleasure.When I let go of her chin, Cara dropped her head until her hair dangled in the water, her hands white-knuckled on the side of the pool. I straightened to try and give myself some kind of reprieve, but couldn’t stop stroking her back, her breasts, her waist… her skin.We moved together slowly, wringing every ounce of
~ CARA ~My body was still thrumming, I was still trying to catch my breath, still wallowing in Rig—still held in his arms and that hot water and…But the look on his face, the sudden stress—followed immediately by the tension in his jaw and hardening of his expression. I could feel him become resolute.“Rig, you don’t have to—”“Yes, I do. I really do, Cara. He knows now. If I don’t challenge him, it will be as if I’m scared of him and it’ll weaken my power against my father.”“How? If they don’t even know?”“It’s not that. A wolf’s power is… I don’t kn
~ RIG ~“Done?” she whispered.“An Alpha can end a fight for dominance by submitting. But few will. Because what kind of Alpha are you if you’re willing to just… give up?”“Rig,” her eyes went wide. “If he’s going to beat you, you have to submit. Don’t force him to kill you!”“There’s no forcing, Cara, it’s what he’ll be trying to do from the second we face off.”“But—”“Cara, you said don’t sugar coat this, so I’m not. If that rogue is as strong as Natalie believed—and the way he’s responded to this makes me think he might be even stronger—then there’s no other way through this.”“No, you can’t—”