Page 19

Chapter nineteen

Wren

Ryann is lying on my chest. I don’t know if she’s asleep or not, but I keep up my steady movements, running my fingers tips down over her spine.

Raider is asleep on my right, and Kit and Callan are curled up together on my left. It’s the middle of the night. The house is quiet, and my brain won’t shut up and let me sleep.

It’s been easy to feel like I don’t fit into my life. My mother had me and met her pack. Though they’ve never made me feel unwelcome, it was hard not to look at the differences growing up. I don’t resemble my mother at all. My five younger sisters look nothing like me. My new dads were clearly not mine.

I am like a fish out of water.

But not here, not with this pack. I fit with the quiet of Callan and Kit. I can shoulder the weight of this pack. Raider is the fire, and I respond to it like I’ve been dying for it. Ryann, though, has brought all of that to the front and made me want to chase it, want to commit to it. We need her. I don’t know if the others realise it or not.

I need her to stay with us.

But she has so many secrets. I’ve never met anyone with as much of an air of mystery as this beta.

Not that I don’t have a few of my own. I think we’re all keeping stuff back from each other. Raider with his family, me with mine. Kit with his bully, and Callan’s all-encompassing guilt.

I’m going to retire this year when Raider does. That’s one of the secrets I’ve been keeping. I love hockey, but I love being here more. Hockey was a means to an end, but it was never my goal. I just want a place that’s mine, with people who are mine. With a frown, I realise I don’t want to be apart from them. Hell, I don’t even want to travel anymore. I’m sick of training and not eating what I want.

My body is feeling all the years of hockey. I swear my knees ache now in the cold. Yeah, we aren’t going to make it to those late years like we could, but I feel like exiting now while we’re on top and still healthy would be our best options.

Kids? I don’t know if I want kids. But I want something new.

Kit’s past haunts me, and I lay there thinking about what he went through. If I were teaching kids, maybe I could protect a kid like Kit from getting hurt. I could teach hockey.

Maybe. It’s an idea.

If I can wrangle five younger sisters, I can deal with a team of teenage boys.

Raider hasn’t said anything yet, but I saw the brochures in his room that he’s looking at. He wants to stay in the hockey area. Assisting the coaches or helping with commentating, and I could see him doing that.

He would be happy doing that.

But what about me?

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

Ryann lifts her head and tilts it so she can see my face.

“I’m thinking I’d like to teach kids how to play hockey.” I say the words and am surprised by how vulnerable they make me feel.

Ryann stills, and I hold my breath, wondering what she’s going to say.

“I think that’s amazing, Wren. You would be great at it.”

I don’t know why I feel such relief, but it has me melting under her.

Her soft body wriggles against me, and I feel myself getting hard.

“You don’t want to work with the adult team?”

I shake my head. “No, I’m done with it.”

She turns her head and kisses my chest.

I have a sudden image in my head of her teeth biting through skin and leaving a bond on my chest, and the thought of her inside me, that feeling of her deep inside, has me aching.

“What were your parents like?”

She’s silent for so long, I don’t think she’s going to answer me. She doesn’t like to talk about her past.

“My dad was a man who liked to laugh. He liked practical jokes, but he was the first to cry while he was watching TV. My mother was the rock. She would organise us and take care of us. She used to sing this song. I can’t even remember it, I just remember she used to sing it whenever it rained. She loved having people over. My parents loved their neighbours and friends. ”

“And you aren’t like that?”

“All those people said goodbye to my parents at the funeral and wished me well but essentially couldn’t help me. I learned that day that people won’t help you even when they say they will. I guess it’s not fair to be bitter, but I felt like I didn’t just lose my family when my parents died. I lost my community.”

“So, you’ve sworn off people?”

Ryann grunts and shifts so she’s straddling me. “No, I’m being more selective with my circle.”

She sits up and stares down at me. Her tits are a handful, but they bounce when she moves. I love looking at them. She leans over me, her hands on the pillow on either side of my head.

“Why are we talking about the past?”

She’s trying to get us to stop talking about it again, trying to avoid it. I let her.

“I want to know what you were thinking about to get this little problem?” she says and slides her sopping pussy over my dick.

“It’s not little, and I wasn’t thinking anything. I could feel all that sexy, naked flesh, and I wanted back in.” I murmur and slide my hand over the curve of her hip.

“Haven’t you had enough of me?”

“No. My little offender, I have not.”

“Will you two shut up,” Raider growls. He gets to his knees and shuffles behind her. He shoves his hand between us and grips my aching cock.

I moan. “Raider,” I choke out in protest.

Raider grabs Ryann’s hair and pulls her head back. “Lift and sit on his dick.”

“Make me!”

Raider growls and forces her up, he shifts my cock so it's pointed straight up and then lowers her, feeding my dick into her hot channel.

She moans, but Raider isn’t done. He puts a hand flat between her shoulder blades and pushes. I grab a nipple and suck hard enough to have her cry out. I flick my tongue over the hard nub. I’m not moving, buried deep in her, trying to ignore the way she tenses around me.

We’re waiting for something. I watch him as he leans towards the bedside table and then comes back with a tube of lube. Raider squirts it on his hands. I can’t see what he’s doing, but Ryann is losing her shit over it, moaning and trying to move. I grip her hips, holding her still.

Raider moves my hands and pulls her up. I drag my teeth over her nipple and then let go with a strangled gasp .

Raider’s cock pushes up into her with mine. The tightness borders on painful, but it feels so damn good.

“FUCK!” I choke and strain hard, my toes curling.

He grabs her shoulder and holds her in place while he thrusts in and out in tiny movements.

“How does it feel?”

“So good,” Ryann moans in a gasp of sound.

“Died!” I gasp out. “Am dead.”

Raider laughs and then pushes in harder. I feel it when he bottoms out, but now we’re so far in her that it’s almost impossibly tight. She’s a vise of constricted muscles that won’t let go.

“Please!” Ryann whines.

Raider pulls out, and the feel of him rubbing against me short-circuits my brain.

Ryann moans. I grip her hips and thrust up at the same time Raider does.

It gets easier as she gets wetter. Her pussy juices drip onto my balls, she’s so fucking wet.

Oh, hell, I’m not going to be able to manage to keep this going for long. I can feel myself already starting to unravel. The urge to fill her and make her mine.

My fingers bite into her hips while we thrust. Our grunts and her whines are the only thing breaking the silence.

“I’m coming!” she hisses.

We move faster, shoving her towards that cliff. She moans, and I watch as her mouth falls open, her back bowing, tightening.

She’s perfect.

The flood of liquid is something I wasn’t expecting. Raider lets out a savage growl and goes insane. I hold on, remaining buried deep, biting my cheek while she milks our cocks, sobbing in my arms, because it feels so damn good.

I pant and fight and almost come when I feel Raider explode inside her. The hot heat of him is there and gone, but I can feel it. I didn’t know I would. The fact I can feel his cum in her has me losing my own mind.

Raider pulls out and leans back, but he hisses an urgent protest, but it’s too late, I’ve pushed up into her.

My knot sinks in deep and holds us together.

I lose the ability to think.

I knotted her! Oh, fuck! Oh, shit!

All I can do is rut into my beta, filling her with my cum, giving her my everything and the one thing I thought she’d never take.

Kit, Callan, Raider, and I are having a meeting. She’s passed out. We’re just outside the bedroom, where we can all see her and hear if she calls, but we’re having a private conversation that we need her not to hear.

I’m still stunned. I’ve never knotted anyone before.

“You knotted our beta,” Callan says. “Is she all right?”

“I mean, she seems fine. In fact, she seems happy,” Raider says. “She was smiling when she fell asleep.”

“But she took your knot, right? I didn’t imagine that?” Kit says, looking between Raider and I.

“Yes, I didn’t mean to. I mean, my knot appears sometimes but very rarely. I don’t think it’s ever appeared with a sexual partner, and I’ve never been near a beta.”

“So your body and mind have decided she’s your partner, and it just did that randomness,” Callan mutters and looks at Kit as if to ask him.

Kit shrugs. “I guess. I mean, if she’s the one, then she’s the one.”

“And you.”

Kit looks up, startled. “What?”

“And you,” I say clearly. “All of you. You are my pack. It feels right, it feels amazing.” I’m so fucking nervous saying it. When was the last time I expressed myself? Before Tiffany?

Kit takes a step towards me. “Are you saying you want bonds? Are we making this official?”

“Well, it’s already official. But, yes, I want the bonds, I want it all. I’m going to retire with you, Raider, and I’m going to ship my belongings down here this week.”

I should have done that ages ago, but moving my belongings out of my home meant that I was all in.

Kit is the one who breaks ranks, throwing himself at me. I hold him tight while Callan watches the window with a reserved expression.

Doubt spreads, and I find myself anxiously watching the alpha. He’s not happy. Why? Callan moves closer to the window and stares intently out of it.

A surge of anger pulses through me at the way he’s ignoring my confession.

“Do you not want me here?” The words come out aggressive, defensive.

I thought we had something special. Callan and I have been the one solid bridge that I’ve found here. A friend I never knew I needed. I hold my breath, watching his back muscles ripple as he moves closer to the window again .

“Callan!” I snap without meaning to.

“I do. I’m not thinking about that.”

“What are you thinking about?” I ask a little defensively.

“I’m wondering why there is a man on the street staring up at our house.”

I break out into goosebumps and lunge for the window.

Sure enough, standing on the footpath across the road is a silhouette of a man who is clearly watching our house. I can’t see his facial features. I can’t tell how tall he is or his size. Just that he’s male and there.

My mouth goes dry. He lifts a hand and waves.

“This motherfucker!” I snarl.

I whirl around and sprint down the stairs. In ten seconds, I’m charging out of the house, Raider a heartbeat behind me, but when we get out here, there is no one there.

He’s gone.

Did we imagine it? No, I know we didn’t.

“What is going on?” Raider whispers aggressively.

I shake my head and go to the spot where he was standing. There is absolutely no sign of anyone having been here. He’s simply vanished as if he were a ghost.

Raider pulls me back to the house, and we go inside. I pace the kitchen.

“We don’t tell Ryann. She’s jumpy already.”

I glance back at Callan. “She’s an adult. We should tell her.”

“Who has had a lot of changes lately. We keep forgetting who she is, what she’s been through. She’s so strong, but she’s been travelling alone for a long time. I don’t want to see her leave us and resume that journey.”

Callan’s argument is logical and heartfelt. I can see his point, but I’m not sure he’s right.

“We should go back to bed. You two have your last practice before the away game tomorrow.”

I turn back and, on impulse, grab Callan’s hand.

“What?”

“Come with us?”

“What?” Callan looks at Kit, who hesitates.

“Seriously. Bring Ryann and come with us. Just this once. You can hide in the hotel room. I don’t care. I just don’t want to be across the country from you.”

Callan stares up at me. “What’s wrong?”

I shrug. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve finally accepted that I want them or that I don’t want to be without them. But it’s probably more seeing that guy freaked me out.

I don’t want to leave them here in trouble and be too far away .

“So, come with us?” Raider asks me and then nods. “Sure, why not? We could swing it. It wouldn’t be hard.”

Kit shrugs. “I’m in.”

“Me, too,” Callan says, his eyes holding mine. “All right, we’ll all travel to your game with you.”

I let out a breath filled with relief, but it doesn’t get rid of the uneasy tension that’s building.