Page 259 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

Her face brightened. “Tell me everything! I want to know as much as I can about how you and Night grew up.” She glanced at me and stood on her tiptoes to whisper loudly, “Especially the embarrassing stuff.”

I laughed and reached for Bryn’s hand. She let me take it and pull her back to the couch. “I’m really not looking forward to you knowing that much about my past,” I joked.

Dom smirked. “No, you shouldn’t be. Bryn, I haveplentyof stories that would make Night squirm. It’s tempting to go into them while he’s here.” The smirk fell, and his face softened. “But I don’t think I should do that right now. I need to process all of this and decompress, you know?”

“Of course.” She nodded. “We have all the time in the world to go down memory lane, and I want you in tip-top shape so you can tell me everything.”

He grinned.

“If you want, you can have the next few days off,” I said.

“Why? So you can pawn my work onto some other poor wolf?” He chuckled. “No, I think I’ll keep working.”

I’d known he’d say that. Dom was the kind of man who processed things best while staying busy. He could be a real workhorse sometimes, but he always handled his tasks without getting overwhelmed or burnt out by them.

“The offer’s still on the table if you change your mind,” I told him. “You can take time off whenever you want.”

He smiled, then looked back at Bryn. “So after everything you’ve been through, you’re okay, Bryn?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. After the ritual ended, I was shaking so badly, I thought it’d never stop. But then it did, and it’s over, and I’m fine. The ritual didn’t answer all my questions about who my mother was, but I’m glad everyone knows about our father, so I can at least find out more about him.”

“Well, of course everyone knows him.” His eyes brightened. “My dad was more than just a fighter for the Wargs; he was a warrior. I mean, he was the stuff of legends.”

Dom’s excitement touched me, too. “His reputation went far outside our territory. I’m sure every wolf in the state heard of him,” I said.

“We all expected him to take over as alpha one day, but that didn’t end up happening,” Dom said. “I guess he had other priorities than taking on Pete.”

Hearing him say that made me question whether that was an example of the Fates intervening in our lives, crafting things so they happened just as they were supposed to…or if it was another coincidence. I didn’t want to think too deeply about that because if I started worrying about it, I’d question whether any of us had an active role in our lives. That was a little too heavy for me.

To distract myself, I told Bryn a story about a fishing trip Lucian, Dom, and I went on and the massive catfish Lucian caught and cooked for us. We stayed for another hour or so, talking and laughing about our past. Dom had said he wasn’t sure he could handle talking about our past, but once we got going, he couldn’t seem to stop. Being Wargs, we’d had plenty of dark momentsin our lives, but it was so nice to remember the happy, precious moments, too.

97

BRYN

Night and I left Dom to his thoughts. He needed to decompress, and now that I’d told him he was my brother, I realized I needed to process everything as well. I needed Night.

I tugged his arm, and he leaned down so I could whisper in his ear.

“Let’s go home.”

The moment he met my gaze, he instantly knew what I wanted from him, and he wasted no time in getting me home. Once there, he pulled me against him so our chests were flush. His hardness pressed into my lower stomach, and his deep, masculine scent assaulted my senses. It reminded me of rainfall and freshly chopped cedar, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

As we walked upstairs, he trailed his fingers down the side of my body until he reached my ass. He smoothed his hand over my skin and lifted my leg to his hip.

Night kissed me as he entered me. I sighed, nuzzling his chest as he made slow, sleepy love to me. My eyes drifted closed as I traced the tattoos on his shoulder.

“You make me feel so good,” I whispered. “I can’t believe I get to wake up to this every morning.”

His answering chuckle rumbled through his chest. “Imagine how lucky I feel,” he said, turning and covering me partially with his body as he caught my mouth with his. His kisses were deep and tender, just like his even strokes.

I ran my hands down his back, his hard muscles shifting under my palms. I moved my leg a bit more, and he shifted, rolling fully on top of me. I reveled in the weight of him pushing me into the mattress. His thrusts grew less lazy and more intentional. Each one brought me closer and closer to release, dispersing electric bliss from my core and throughout my body.

I gripped his waist, gasping with each deep stroke of his cock. My orgasm swept through me, and I shuddered at the delicious tingling. I licked the spot where his shoulder met his neck and nipped at his flesh. He groaned as he came, filling me with his hot seed.

After, Night and I lay next to each other, enjoying being in each other’s presence in the quiet of the bedroom. I turned my head to look at him and found him looking back at me. His eyes were a pair of bright chartreuse gems in the late-morning light, and he turned to me, brushing the back of his hand across my cheek.

My body was wonderfully spent, and if not for my racing thoughts, I would have fallen asleep again.