Page 72 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

CYRUS

Audrey screamed her release, and I squeezed the handle of the cold cupboard and gritted my teeth, my cock still painfully hard. I was going to have to take care of myself before I did something stupid like run into the bedroom when she started begging for round two — something my wolf really wanted to do.

A moment later, Bishop groaned his own release, and I’d never in my life been more jealous of my younger brother.

If Knox and I— Hell, who was I kidding? If I took care of everything else — since Knox wouldn’t talk to the townspeople to get supplies and needed to stay as far away from Audrey as possible — Bishop would be able to focus entirely on Audrey, and she wouldn’t need my help to survive a heat that had reached a fevered level.

And really, it was better that I kept my distance.

I didn’t have her consent, and even if I did, having sex with her would muddy the line between us. The line I’d been working hard to make absolutely clear.

She couldn’t be my mate and given how she’d been about sex before the fever hit, I knew sex meant something important to her. She wouldn’t have sex just to have sex and that meant having sex with her could give her the wrong impression about my intentions.

I heaved my attention back to the cold cupboard, taking stock of the handful of fruits and vegetables, the block of cheese, and the pitcher of dark green juice inside. It wasn’t much, barely enough for the evening meal the villagers thought we’d need when we were supposed to return later today.

They were probably going to bring something over around dinner time like they had at breakfast the other day.

I should have looked for Rafe the second I’d left the bathroom like I’d told Bishop I would, but I hadn’t been able to get very far before my worry about her condition forced me back. I needed to know she and Bishop were going to be all right first. Then I could look for the magistrate and his wife so I could beg for more of their kindness to let us stay the few days it was going to take for Audrey to get through a heat that shouldn’t have been so bad.

Although maybe it had been inevitable.

Audrey wasn’t from this realm and she’d already gone into her heat touch-starved —seriously touch-starved for someone from this realm. The fact that she’d said heats in her realm were almost non-events and how her body had already been on the verge of a normal heat before we’d even left Stonehaven should have been a clue that our realm was changing her.

I should have known even though she was an almost powerless shifter that she’d have the mother of all heats. And for all I knew, her incomplete mating bond with Knox could be making it worse.

Bishop stepped out of the bedroom with a set of long dark pink scratches trailing over his biceps. She must have drawn blood for them to be that dark. If she hadn’t, his natural healing would have healed the marks before he’d even left the bedroom. He carried one of the towels I’d set on the bed, dropped it in a heap by the bathroom door then sagged onto one of the sturdy wooden chairs at the worn kitchen table.

“She asleep?” I asked, unable to keep my wolf’s growl from my voice. I kept my back to Bishop, fighting to get my cock to calm the fuck down, and pulled an apple and a hank of grapes from the cold cupboard.

“And her fever is down a bit,” he said. “I also managed to get her lucid enough to explain what was going on.”

“Good.” I sucked in a slow breath, determined to get myself under control, but that only filled my nose with a mixture of her fresh sweet scent and thick heady arousal.

Fuck it.

I was a guy and Audrey had been giving off pheromones like crazy since her fever hit. It’d be a miracle if I wasn’t hard right now.

There was no way I was going to get through one day with the cabin smelling like her and sex, let alone three or four days without a hard-on. I was just going to have to accept that and move on — preferably to the bathroom where I could jerk off and relieve the pressure.

I turned to face Bishop and set the fruit on the table. His gaze dipped to the massive tent in my pants, and he cocked an eyebrow but thankfully didn’t comment. Then he turned his attention to the food.

“We’re going to need more than fruit,” he said.

“I was just taking stock before finding Rafe and telling him what’s going on,” I replied as I filled a glass with water and slid it to him. “I’ll go hunting after that. Hopefully, I’ll catch something big enough to last the duration since you and Audrey are going to need meat to keep your strength up.”

“I left a mess in the bathroom,” Bishop said, downing the glass of water and standing. He was at half-mast again, Audrey’s pheromones affecting him just as much as they were affecting me.

Except he can do something about it.

You can, too, my wolf told me. You should. She needs you.

I shoved that thought aside. Bishop was going to be her mate. I was just going to be her brother-in-law. I shouldn’t help her. Not the way I wanted to.

I turned to the cupboards and pulled out a large blue ceramic bowl so Bishop could bring some of the fruit into the bedroom and wouldn’t have to make a trip back into the kitchen.

“I’ll clean up the bathroom. You go rest. We’ve been up for over a day and we have no idea how aggressive her fever is going to get.” I put the rest of the grapes, two more apples, and a couple handfuls of blueberries in it and handed it to him. They still needed an actual meal with meat, but it was a start. “Next time she wakes, get her to eat something.”

Bishop nodded, his expression tight with concern, and returned to the bedroom.

I sucked in another breath filled with the scent of Audrey and sex and went to clean up the bathroom. Depending on how her heat went, she might need more time in the bath or want to clean up in the shower.

Bishop had left his wet clothes and a puddle on the floor and hadn’t drained the tub.

The memory of Audrey in my arms, clinging to me and breathing in my scent, her nose nuzzling my neck, her hot body pressed against mine as I carried her shot a burst of white-hot need straight to my cock.

She’d been in distress, her beautiful eyes squeezed tight, and strands of dark blond hair stuck to her sweaty forehead, and my wolf was going crazy, every protective instinct I had howling inside me.

She needed someone to fuck her.

And that someone was Bishop. Only Bishop.

But even though I knew that, I couldn’t convince my wolf — or myself for that matter — that helping Audrey through her heat wasn’t my job.

She’s perfect, my wolf said. A protector. A mother. Ours. She’ll feel so good.

The thought of pushing into her tight warmth made my balls ache.

We’d make her feel good, give her what she needs. A heat fever this strong is dangerous. We need to protect her. We need to mate with her.

I forced myself to my knees before my wolf could walk us into the bedroom and claim Audrey and shoved my pants down.

My cock sprang free, red and angry, precum leaking from my tip. I squeezed the base, fighting to get myself under control, but the only control I could muster was not going to her.

Fuck me. Why did she have to have the fever? I should have told her and Bishop to fuck every night since she’d started to fall apart on the second day of this stupid journey. All of this could have been avoided.

But she’d been a virgin and shy, and I’d thought if we dealt with her being touch-starved, everything would be fine. She wasn’t a strong shifter. Her heat should have never reached a fevered level.

I roughly jerked my hand up and down my length, my grasp so tight it edged on painful.

Now we were stuck here for the next three or four days when we really needed to get back to Stonehaven. The longer we stayed, the greater the chance Knox would succumb to the lure of their mating bond and seal it, destroying any hope of Bishop’s slim-to-none plan B.

That, and I couldn’t put off my pack responsibilities for much longer. We still had an increase in beast activity in the area along with the strange rip to Audrey’s realm in Anakar that could be dangerous.

And while I knew Nova and Deacon could handle most of the day-to-day operations of the pack, I also needed to get home to put some distance between me and Audrey.

My hips jerked forward, fucking into my hand with fast, aggressive thrusts as my wolf thought about how Audrey would pant and moan and then scream her release like she had for Bishop.

My balls tightened and tingles shot up my spine. I came hard, thick ropes of cum spurting into the water on the floor and a strangled cry caught in my throat.

Fuck me. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to wait until we got to Stonehaven to put distance between us.