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Grey

When I got into the kitchen, my mate spun around to face me. Her eyes were glassy. She smelled like rum and fruit.

“You’re back!” She looked excited. “Is it okay that I’m making a snack?”

“That’s a question you don’t have to ask,” I told her. “Not ever. This is your home, Blossom.”

“Oh. Right,” she said, looking embarrassed but flashing a shy little smile with that cute dimple of hers. “But this is a big snack.”

“And?”

“And…” she pondered it a second, and shrugged, “Having this much food, enough to feed half a village? It’s…” She shook her head, left that hanging, and gestured to the platter filled with slices of cheese, a fan of crackers, some grapes and berries, a handful of nuts, and some pretzels, but my eyes quickly moved from the food to traverse the length of her, from her bare feet, up her slim, long legs and her torso, up to her face. Her hair was over one shoulder, hanging in soft waves over her breast. She held a jar of pickles in her hand.

“Put the pickles down, sweetheart,” I said, voice coming out gruff.

This was when I heard Jase tell my sister he’d drive her home at the same moment as I caught the scent of Stacy’s arousal, so the second my mate set the jar of pickles on the counter I lunged, bending to put my shoulder to her belly so I could haul her up in the air, balancing over my shoulder.

She squeaked in surprise as I made my way for the stairs. The scent in my nostrils made my mouth water; the scent of her wanting me.

***

I belatedly hear my sister come in as I shut the bedroom door. If my sister weren’t drunk, she’d catch the scent in the air and fuck off.

“What about Bailey?” Stacy asks.

“She’ll get the message,” I reply, letting her drop on the bed.

She bounces and lets out a giggle.

It’s music to my ears. It’s a sound I want more of. It’s a sound I want a lifetime of.

She swallows down a gulp as I climb her body from the bottom of the bed. When I’m hovering over her, I ask, “A little drunk, wife?”

“Um…” She looks thoughtful as she considers my question, adorably so, “Yu-huh. Never been drunk before so dunno if this is a little or a lot but it’s definitely one or the other.” She loops her arms around my neck and adds, “I’m glad you’re back. I like it when you’re close.”

“Oh yeah?” I inquire. “How close?”

“I like it when you are… very close,” she replies and fists the front of my shirt, pulling me even closer.

I run my nose up her throat and kiss her mate mark. “Good. Because close to you is where I plan to be.”

Her nose runs along the crook of my neck too. “I like when you put your mouth on the mate mark,” she advises huskily. “It tingles in a very nice way.”

“Mm,” I react, running my hand up her torso to cup her breast.

“It makes my nipples tingle. And it makes me tingle between my legs, too. I wanted to bite you back when you bit me.” Her voice is husky, filled with arousal. And it shunts through my dick.

“Why didn’t you?” I ask, tonguing her mark and pulling a full body shiver from her as my hand tightens.

“I… I dunno what I’m doing with sex. I’m sorry I’m so boring at it. But… I, uh…” She stiffens. “I like your sister. She’s really n-nice.”

I lean back and make eye contact, not hiding that I notice how she’s trying to deflect. She looks a little distraught at her admission and she’s trying to hide it. She’s trying to paint on a fake smile now.

“Nothing about sex with you is boring, Stace. Not remotely.”

Her expression falls. Yeah, major confidence issues. I’m gonna fix that.

“But… I just lie here and let you do it all,” she reasons. “It’s because…oh wait, I’m not gonna say why because you’re gonna get upset if I talk about that stuff and ruin this moment so… oops, forget I just said that. I just wish I knew what I was doing.”

I cup her jaw, pushing away the irritation at the idea of her sex life before me. I need to change the course she’s on.

“We’ve only been at it a couple days and babe, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Best sex of my life. You feel really fuckin’ good. I love fucking you; it’s my new favorite hobby. Feel free to lie there. You can feel free to participate, too. I’m happy to take the lead; it’s how I like it. You want… I can give you some direction so you learn what I like and build confidence.”

Her eyes light up. “Yeah, that. Teach me. Teach me what you like. I’ll be the best student ever.”

She’s so animated. It’s very fuckin’ cute.

“Happily,” I tell her. “But don’t feel self-conscious about our sex life. So far it’s awesome. You’ve got nothing to feel bad about.”

“Being drunk seems to make me chatty.”

“I can see that. I like it. Hope you get to where you’re comfortable getting chatty with me every day. Not needing alcohol to fuel bravery. How about we strike while the iron’s hot?”

She gives me a look loaded with sensuality, like she’s about to jump my bones, but a tremor of panic hits my chest from the inside as her facial expression changes.

“I’m so scared that Wyatt’ll ruin everything. I don’t want him to ruin everything. He always ruins every th-thing.” She bursts into tears. “I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want anyone to take you away from me. For you to decide to send me away. I want to be in this moment with you, in all these beautiful moments with you, but he’s out there.” She points. “He’s out there making his plans. His ugly, horrible plans. And maybe doling out revenge on me for not coming through, though of course it won’t be me that feels it yet. And here I am with all this wonderfulness around me and, and the people back home are suffering, and your water is so clean and clean water isn’t something anyone should even have to notice…” She sobs and buries her face.

“Look at me, babe. Look.”

She moves her hands and stares into my eyes.

“Nobody’s gonna come between us, Stace,” I tell her, looking deep. “You’re mine, I’m yours. Forever. Let me worry about Wyatt. I promise I’ll do my best to make it work out for everyone.”

I spin around to pull her on top of me, gathering her close. She clutches my shirt and cries into my chest, so I rub her back and purr for her.

She’s immediately sinking in, relaxing.

My phone sounds off with a text. I ignore it.

“Booze made me giggly and gooey and now it’s making me weepy and sleepy.”

“That’s okay. We’ve got tomorrow.” I press my lips to her hair and pull her scent deeper into my lungs. “We’ve also got forever.”

“I really want forever with you, Greyson,” she says.

“That’s exactly what you get, sweetheart.”

She burrows deeper into me, squeezing me tight while I continue purring until she’s cried herself to sleep.

Feeling her breaths even out, feeling her body meld into me, I allow my mind to wander through the day’s events.

They didn’t bear much fruit. The Silver Hills pack has stayed pretty well under radar.

We’re taking action with the help of Jared Stone, a lone alpha we’ve known a while who works with Linc sometimes on cases and he’s agreed to head down there and do some investigative work for us while Joel continues doing his internet research.

Silver Hills is a good few hours drive from here and Jared is scentless so nobody there will know an outsider is sniffing around.

Jared knew who the late John Meadows was, confirmed that he used to run fights with his betas against dogs. Jared said no one he knows who has dealt with Meadows thinks much of him. He said he heard John used to put his son Wyatt into the ring until Wyatt got beaten pretty badly by another shifter who was also on the dog fight circuit. And I wonder if that was Ty.

When I pulled Stacy’s suitcase from my sister’s car Jase and I checked it out. I, too, caught the scents of three shifters beyond Stacy and one of them strikes me as alpha. It’s faint, the case’s scent is tainted by the catnip clippings, but I suspect by the nuances in the scent that it belongs to her brother. It dawns I should get Jared to take in the scents before he heads to Silver Hills, so I shift my mate to the side just enough to lift my phone from my pocket.

I message Jared.

Hey buddy. Wanna pop by my house before you head to Silver Hills? Give my mate’s suitcase contents a whiff so you’ll recognize some of those scents?

While waiting for him to reply, I check the message that came in a few minutes ago.

Jase: Your drunk off her ass sister fuckin ralphed all over me. You’re alone for 30 mins while I run home to shower.

My body shakes with silent laughter.

As my mate burrows deeper into me, my phone sounds off.

Jared: Have it brought over? I leave at 5:am.

He and Linc met in Linc’s bounty hunting travels a few years back and was living on the other side of Drowsy Hollow. Linc came to us not long ago, asking if we’d give Jared some space on the edge of our land.

Linc told us Jared’s scent issues are a birth defect, that he’s got some issues that mean he wants to live the lone wolf life and while we were uncertain about this based on our inability to comprehend life like that, after working with him on a few projects we all agreed to try it out.

I know he’s tight with Linc and leveled with him about the reasons why he feels the need to live alone so since Linc asked us to trust his judgement on the issue, we’ve done that without pressing.

Even still, whenever we do deal with the guy it gets me curious. He’s an alpha, though refers to himself as being sigma male. Strong fucker. He’s smart. Skilled. He’d fit into our pack, brings solid skills to the table, but he insists on living alone on the fringe of the village in his RV, though appreciates living in close proximity to us – told Linc it helps him and his wolf with some of his issues. He won’t go for runs with us and I’ve never even seen his wolf. But Linc vouching for him is good enough for me.

We’ve been called to intervene in situations where an alpha malfunctions because he’s trying to live as a lone wolf. We all know how much an alpha needs his pack. Not just alphas, most just have an innate need for a pack. There are times when a shifter will choose to be a lone wolf and we intervene because he presents a danger to his pack or the general public. But some rare shifters function well enough on their own with minimal dealings with other packs and seem to get by just fine.

I send Jared a thumbs up and message the council group chat to ask if anyone has time to swing by, grab the suitcase, run it to Jared’s and then bring it back later.

Linc offers almost immediately.