“What the fuck?”Luke looked sheepish.“You marked me? I’m not your mate! What the fuck were you thinking?”“Effie, I… let me explain.”“This had better be good, Luke.”“I panicked, Effie. I don’t want to lose you.”My head was in my hands. How the fuck did this go so wrong.“You wouldn’t have lost me. But now, you’ve bound me to you without even mentioning it first, so now you’re going to lose me.”“Effie, I…”“Get out of my house, Lucas.”“Effie, please…”“Lucas. Leave.” The power behind those two little words gave him no choice.Once the door shut behind him, I sat on the floor in the hallway and cried. I couldn’t believe he’d marked me. My wolf couldn’t believe he’d done it. She was absolutely furious.Really, my kicking Luke out was probably the least-worst outcome.If my wolf had been left to deal with it, his mark wouldn’t have mattered anymore. He might not be my mate, but he is my oldest friend and confidant. I don’t want to hurt him, of course I don’t.But with this new span
I promised Caroline I’d stop in and see her on the way to work, which usually wouldn’t have been until about 5pm. By the time 4pm rolled around, I just wanted to get this done. I don’t know what I was going to do, but I needed to try to do something.I sat in the car for a while just staring at the steering wheel, my fingertips tracing the matt black Maserati badge. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to say to her.My wolf was surprisingly quiet too. She was usually so opinionated, but now, she had no idea either. We both felt bad that Caroline had ended up in this position, but that doesn’t help either of us at all.I couldn’t keep doing this. We needed to talk to Caroline.She was waiting for us, apparently she’d seen that we were sitting outside trying to work out what to do. “Come in, Effie. Make yourself comfortable. Did you want a coffee?”“Please, Caroline. That’d be lovely, I’ve not exactly had much sleep.”She gave a small smile. “You do look rather tired, Effie. Get
Nathaniel answered almost immediately. “I was waiting for your call, Ophelia.” What?“Why?”“I knew you’d need me. Are you at the club?”“Yes.”“I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”He hung up before I even had a chance to respond. Whatever was going on, everyone else seemed to know more than I did.Before I even had a chance to breathe, there was a knock on my door. “Come in!”“Ma’am, Nathaniel is here, claiming he has a meeting with you?”“He does, Lucas. Send him up.”“Ma’am, I… I wanted to…”“I don’t want to hear it right now, Lucas. Please send Nathaniel up.”He nodded, his expression defeated, turning to head out the door.By the time Nathaniel appeared in front of me, my head was in my hands.“Alpha, good to see you again,” he said, voice strong.“I’m not your alpha, Nathaniel.”“Oh but you are, Ophelia.”“I can’t be? Your father is alpha?”“It’s not that simple anymore. When you protected us all from Maximillian, you weakened my father’s connection to the pack. Who did you inte
“Excuse me?”He nodded. “Someone murdered our luna, my mother.”“Fuck. I’m sorry, Nathaniel.”“Me too. I’m trying to work out who I would stand to gain from this, and I’m not liking the answer so far.”Oh no. I could see where this was going.“I have reason to believe it was my father.”Well that was justification for me to take over right there. No one can murder the luna and expect to get away with it in times of peace. Even in the case of a challenge against the alpha, their mate, whether male or female, can not be touched until the challenge had been settled.“I wouldn’t have hurt her, Nathaniel, I hope you know that. I would have had to take her title, but I would never have hurt her.”“I know,” he replied, his voice low.“What evidence have you got that this could have been your father?”“Maximillian has been talking about knowing someone who could help consolidate my father’s power. He mentioned a few times that in a lot of cases where the alpha is struggling to maintain power,
I was going to need all hands on deck to keep this tidy and limit the amount of civilian casualties. As much as I trusted my own team, I don’t trust Maximillian and Edward, or anyone they might be controlling.Using the radios we’d all started carrying full time, I reached out to the rest of the team. “Beta One, Charlie One, Delta One. Meet us at HQ as soon as possible. Teams need to be on alert, but they don’t need to join us yet. One problem at a time.”The three of them were already there when Nathaniel and I arrived.Luke’s face still was covered in betrayal and anguish. This was really too soon for him to be this close to me, but we didn’t have a choice. We needed to move, and quickly.I sighed. “I don’t know how fast news travels, but things have headed south very suddenly with the pack, to the point that I need to intervene, with the intention to take over the pack to serve as alpha. Nathaniel will become my beta. Before we continue, does anyone here have a problem with this?”
“Effie, please. I just need to know if you’re going to choose me or him.”“You could have both, they’d agree,” my wolf whispered. Erm, what?“What do you mean I could have both?” I asked my wolf.“They both want you, they both want us.”“Effie, please don’t ignore me,” Luke’s voice cut through my conversation.“I told you Luke, this is not something we are discussing right now.”“But…”“Luke, do not push me on this, you will not like how it goes.”He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, alpha.” His hand ran through his hair, stress evident on his face. “I always imagined that if you ever took over the pack, I’d be your beta. Why did you choose him?”“Because he was supposed to be alpha. I need to strengthen my platform, not fill it with cracks before I’ve even taken over. However, I would be honoured if you would take the position of my enforcer.”He looked up, eyes bright. “I’d be honoured, alpha.”“Good, we can worry about swearing you in later. Can you please call and check in with Nathanie
I was pacing. Constantly. I felt like all I did was pace. Of course the moon goddess would pick this moment to start making me very aware of the mate bond between Nathaniel and I, which is simply spiffing. The last thing I needed whilst trying to organise a hostile takeover was my body and my wolf to be distracted.I had hardly come to terms with the fact Nathaniel and I were fated mates, let alone worked out what I was going to do, especially with Luke. My wolf was absolutely adamant that I could have both of them, but I was just not convinced by that.It was less than an hour between my speaking to Lyla and when everyone got here. I felt my body relax, my blood pressure and heart rate settle when I saw Nathaniel come back through the door. The tense look on his face when he met my eyes said he felt the same way. His wolf was close, he was trying to work out what was going on too. The look in his eyes though, the swirling dark that was nearly black told me that his wolf wanted us, r
“What do we do, Nathaniel?” I asked, voice quiet, my hands running up his chest, coming to settle on the back of his neck. I looked up, my eyes meeting his; I could see his wolf staring back at me, and I’m sure he could see mine staring back at him. “I don’t know what to do.”“We don’t have to do anything yet, Effie. Nothing permanent, anyway.” His hands slid around my waist, meeting behind my back. “We can just let this develop, see what happens, and revisit once the situation with my father is over.”I was conflicted. Really conflicted. I wanted him, goddess knows I did. But was it fair? I didn’t want to lead him on if we then decided actually not to go ahead with whatever this was. The bond would keep getting stronger if we spent time together, but it wouldn’t be permanent until we marked each other. If we marked each other. We could still reject the bond. It would hurt both of us, but we could reject it.“Effie. Do you want me?”My eyes closed and my head fell forwards, leaning on
We all lay in a pile of sated limbs, letting our bodies calm and breathing return to normal.Of course the joy of being in heat meant that I’d be incredibly horny and in pain again within an hour, but hey. What can you do?That’s why newly mated couples typically end up locking themselves away for a few days when she goes into heat for the first time after mating. It’s intense, really intense. And I mated with two wolves in quick succession. One of which is an alpha and the other probably could be.“How are you feeling, my Queen?” Luke asked, voice low.“Where has this whole my Queen thing come from, you two?”They both shrugged. “After the most recent power boost, it just felt right,” Luke replied, like it was the most natural thing in the world.“Do you agree, Nathaniel?”“Indeed I do, Effie.”Before I could think about it any more, a jolt of pain ran through me, pulsing through my core, leaving me soaked and ready to go again.As soon as they heard me whimper in pain, Luke and Nath
I couldn’t stop my core clenching around Luke at the thought of both of them taking me at the same time.Luke smirked. “I assume you’re on board then, my Queen?” I nodded, unable to stop squirming. I heard Nathaniel’s steps behind me, but they stopped again before he reached us.I could feel the question in the air before he even asked it. “Top drawer,” I whispered. That drawer was full of toys and lube. What more could a girl need?Luke set me back down on my feet, taking my hand and leading me towards the bed. He bent down, his mouth crashing into mine. I moaned into the kiss, feeling myself getting somehow even wetter.I suddenly could taste blood; apparently I needed to feed. I must have caught Luke’s lip with my teeth.He pulled back, staring at my eyes. “Have you fed?” he whispered. I shook my head. “Effie… you need to, especially now you’re in heat with two of us as your mates,” he continued, voice frustrated. I closed my eyes, letting my head fall back. I knew Luke was right.
I lay on the bed for what felt like an eternity letting my body come back down from that orgasm. By the time my body had calmed enough to talk, Nathaniel was standing over me, rolling a condom on, ready and raring to go.I grabbed his hands, pulling him down on top of me before he could react. He ended up on top of me, his hands pinning mine above my head, his cock pressing into my entrance.I couldn’t help but rotate my hips, begging him to sink inside me. He smirked, his mouth going to my neck to lick over his mark, my body squirming beneath him.He pressed harder against me, but kept on making a point of not letting even the head of his cock enter. I cried out beneath him, tilting my hips up towards him. “Nathaniel, please,” I moaned and squirmed, trying to break his hold on my hands, trying to get him inside me, anything. Anything to break the tension.He smirked, leaning down to whisper in my ear, still just letting the head of his cock rub against me. “Please what, my Queen?”Q
Both Nathaniel and Luke’s faces were tense. They were biting their lips, desire in their eyes as they watched my every move. They were both on edge and ready to pounce, like they would have me bent over the desk before I could even open my mouth, regardless of whether people were still in the room.This couldn’t be happening.Fives had started stalking towards me, but he just about stopped himself, leaning on the desk. His knuckles were going white as he tried to force himself to breathe through it. Fives wasn’t mated, and unmated wolves were always going to struggle when someone went into heat, regardless of who it was. It just happened to be especially problematic with higher ranking wolves… and I was now their alpha.Even Chris felt it. His jaw was tight, his vampire bleeding into his eyes as he stared at me. His normally stoic expression was full of lust, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a tent in his trousers too.Having noticed their expressions, Luke and Nathanie
True to her word, Dr Bauer had got as many hands on deck as she could find by the time we got back, but I’m sure six naked wolves and a vampire carrying another six naked but unconscious wolves between them was a sight to behold.Once our five unconscious friends that needed to stay that way were in beds and handcuffed to stop them escaping, Dr Bauer went around setting up an IV for each of them giving them something to keep them under, whilst also hopefully staving off starvation. Ali was settled in a bed being checked over by three of Dr Bauer’s assistants, looking for any immediately noticeable problems, and setting him up with an IV to combat the wolfsbane in his system.Within no time at all, she had Nathaniel stitched up and Lyla dosed up with an oral antidote for wolfsbane poisoning. Once the two of them were done, Dr Bauer shooed us all out of her lab, with the promise that she’d give me a call when she had any updates on any of our unconscious people.We all trudged back up
Chris and I burst through the door at the same time as Nathaniel, Luke and Fives on the other side of the complex.I had one hand on the gun at the small of my back, the other hovering over the sheath at my thigh. I’d rather not shift unless I had to, I’d left in too much of a hurry to bring spare clothes.“Well, well, well, Ophelia,” Edward’s voice came from around the corner. “It’s good to see you.”“No it’s not, Edward. Now, you can either give me all of my people back, or, I can force your hand. Which is it?”“I’m afraid I can’t allow that, Ophelia,” Maximillian growled as he came around the corner.“Try to stop me.”“I’m not going to try to stop you, but there are a couple individuals that will, ones you might recognise.”Aaron and Scarlett, call signs sierra three and four. Edward and Maximillian had apparently got their filthy hands on the two of them.The two of them stepped out of the shadows, their eyes glassy. They were both covered in blood, their clothes torn. They must h
On the way to the garage, I rounded up Fives and Chris. Both were nearly ready to go, as they always were, Fives even had a bag in the garage with spare clothes. No birthday suit adventures for Fives.Credit where it’s due, Nathaniel and Luke were actually there ready to go when Fives, Chris and I reached the garage. The four of them nodded their greetings, jumping into the passenger seats whilst I settled in the driver’s side. There was a fight for the front passenger, because apparently both Luke and Nathaniel wanted it.“We don’t have time for this!” The power was crackling in the air again, Fives and Chris both winced against it. “Fives, you’re up front. The rest of you in the back.”I parked up a mile away from the packhouse. “We’re on foot from here. Nathaniel, Luke and Fives, go through the tunnel under the packhouse. Wait for my signal before coming through into the basement. Chris, you’re with me. We’re going in the front door.”“You can’t go in the front door, Effie.”“I ca
Hours passed and still no updates from Lyla. Whether that was good news or not depended on who you were talking to.I was sceptical; Lyla has always been very good at checking in, and I expected she would have done once reinforcements reached her. We’d heard from the reinforcements once they reached the forest, but that had been nearly two hours ago.Luke and Nathaniel, however, believed it was good. If they were in trouble, we’d know about it already, so they probably just wanted to get the job done and come home.Out loud, Luke may have been agreeing with Nathaniel, but I could feel through the mate bond that he didn’t believe that for a second. My usually stubborn, strong-willed and confident head of security was nervous, and it took a lot for him to be nervous. He’d worked with Lyla for years, so he agreed that normally, she would have checked in by now.I was going to have to try to reach her, that was all there is for it. “Sierra one, how are we doing?”Radio silence. Not even a
I sent Luke and Nathaniel straight down to the gym and shooting range when we hit HQ, before calling the rest of Sierra and Dr Bauer up to meet me. “Okay people. So, sierra one, two, three and alpha six are all staking out the centre of the territory. We’re trying to find out what the hell Edward and Maximillian are up to, and what we can do to fix it. Two members of the team are incapacitated and currently MIA. At the moment, we don’t know if they’ve been killed or are under Maximillian’s control, both are possible. All we know at the moment is Lyla has lost contact with two of her people. I need you all to head out there as backup for Lyla. Dr Bauer, can you please brief these guys on the samples you need?”I called Lyla back on the radio whilst Dr Bauer was briefing the team. “Sierra one, how are we doing?”“No change, alpha one.”“Roger that. Sierra four through six are currently being briefed and will be out of the door in a couple of minutes. Let me know if anything changes.” I