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—”
SOUNDTRACK: “I Guess I’m in Love” by Clinton Kane.*****~ MACK ~It took us hours to get back to the cabin, circling and testing, making certain we weren’t followed. A part of me had been pissed that Rig would even think he needed to warn us, but then I realized I would have done the same thing.This whole situation was fucked.Natalie was next to me in the car, her hands tight in her lap, her face pale.She was blaming herself.We’d opened a door with this rogue pack, and now she felt like it was her fault that it wasn’t going down the way we wanted it to.“I really
~ NATALIE ~I hated myself, hated myself, for the fickleness of my heart. For all the ways I feared and doubted, and dragged other wolves down with me.I knew it about myself and if there was anything I could change, that would be it.It was a fierce irony to me that everyone liked to talk about how strong I was, when I knew the truth was that I wasn’t strong at all. I was stubborn as fuck, and prideful—some might say narcissistic, but I didn’t think that was it.The truth was, I was so scared most of the time, I was ready to fight even when I shouldn’t. I created conflict because I was terrified of being surprised by it. And other wolves saw that as strength.