Page 16

Jackson

Okay, so I might need to acknowledge that I want Emily.

I don’t know who the hell I’ve been trying to fool.

Ryan and Luca already see it. Sofia practically sings it every time she looks in my direction.

But none of that changes the truth; Emily doesn’t need some guy hitting on her right now.

She just escaped a pack where she was beaten, broken, and treated like a possession.

The last thing she needs is me acting like every other male in her life, especially not when she flinches at the lightest touch.

There’s zero chance that she is ready to get close to someone.

Which was why I had left her out of the training exercise.

I figured she’d watch, observe, maybe learn something without getting overwhelmed.

But then she had to ask me to touch her. Fuck.

My wolf howled in approval, and I could barely concentrate on what I was doing as soon as she was in my arms. And, fuck, having her body pressed up against me was absolute torture.

Even though I stand a full foot taller than her, she was still pushing her ass against my cock when she moved her hips, and it took every ounce of my strength to stop myself from growing hard against her.

She doesn’t need to feel that when she’s clearly terrified if her pounding heart was anything to go by.

She doesn’t need to think I’m just another guy who wants something from her.

So why the fuck did I offer her private lessons?

Something I’ve never offered anyone before.

Fuck. My brain is scrambled.

I follow Emily towards the pack house after a few minutes. I tell myself I’m here to see how she acts after offering her private lessons. Like this could be the moment she drops her guard, and her ulterior motive becomes clear. Seriously, who am I trying to kid?

She slows as she gets closer to the house, glancing around warily. Her shoulders slump a little when a group of unmated males pause their conversation to stare at her. She hurries inside .

What’s that about? She rushes off toward her room and I want to follow, but that’s when I hear them.

“What I wouldn’t do to her,” Aaron, one of the younger warriors, says, his voice wistful and wanting. My eyes narrow to slits.

“Fuck yeah, bet under that nice girl act she'd let you fuck her whatever way you wanted.

It's always the quiet ones. Plus those scars, bet she loves it rough,” his unranked buddy replies.

They all burst into laughter, and I see fucking red.

Rage ignites inside me like a match dropped on gasoline. I'm going to fucking kill him.

I’m in front of this piece of shit in a matter of seconds, slamming him back against the hallway wall so hard the drywall cracks behind him. “You want to say that again?” I growl, my voice low and borderline feral.

“We’re just talking shit—” he starts, but he doesn't get to finish. I grip his neck and lift him off his feet so he’s eye level with me.

He glances at his buddies, hoping for backup that won’t come.

He claws at my hand, but I ignore the sharp sting as his claws slice into me and the blood drips down, dripping off my elbow onto the floor.

I squeeze his throat tighter, and he starts to turn purple.

He should know to submit quicker. I outrank him.

“You think it’s okay to talk shit about an omega who has spent days in the pack hospital recovering from her extensive injuries and imply that she got them because she likes it fucking rough?” I punctuate my words by slamming him against the wall repeatedly.

He can’t respond; he can’t even breathe right now, so I turn to his friend. “What do you think, Aaron? Is it okay to objectify omegas?”

“N… no, Delta,” he stammers.

“And is it acceptable to talk shit about females in general?”

“No, Delta.”

I drop the unranked wolf when I feel him go limp.

He crumples to the floor, gasping and wheezing as he regains consciousness.

My wolf pushes me to tear into this piece of shit.

He thrashes against the boundary that separates us.

Thick brown hair erupts on my arms and my canines extend as he tries to force a shift.

I know when I speak that my words will be laced with a growl as I struggle to hold on to my control.

“She is under my protection,” I growl, my voice laced with Alpha-like authority despite my rank. “Trust me when I tell you; you will be sorry if I ever fucking catch any of you talking like that again. ”

“Yes, Delta,” they all respond except the one still in a heap on the ground. He's somewhat conscious again but he just nods and bares his neck in submission. The acrid smell of his fear soothes my wolf ever so slightly.

“And stay the fuck away from her. Any of you touch her and I’ll fucking kill you.”

“Yes, Delta,” they chorus.

I glare at them all one last time before storming out of the pack house.

I had wanted to keep squeezing that little shit’s throat.

Far past the point of losing consciousness.

I wanted to see the life drain out of him.

But that’s not an option. Ryan would have had to banish me from the pack if I killed a pack member unprovoked like that.

I couldn’t do that to my best friend, no matter how much I wanted to.

I need to run. I need to clear my head of the anger still bubbling inside me. When the rage subsides; I’m finally able to stop thinking about Emily long enough to remember I have patrol tonight. I need to get a couple of hours of sleep first.

I sigh and head back to my house and have a quick shower where I absolutely don’t jerk off to the mental image of bending Emily over and tearing off those tight little leggings she wears before sinking into her dripping wet pussy.

Nope, I categorically do not think about that at all, as I come harder than possibly ever before in my life. Fuck, I'm no better than those assholes at the pack house.

Luca joins me for patrol tonight. Something about needing to burn off energy. I don’t even need to ask what caused it. “Sofia getting under your skin again?” I ask after we check in at the first outpost. He nods, his jaw clenched tightly. "Did she do something?"

He huffs out a breath before responding. “She exists. That’s all it takes.”

“Have you ever considered dropping the overprotective big brother act? She’s not a kid anymore,” I prompt, remembering what Sofia said to me recently.

“I fucking know she’s not a kid,” he snarls at me, and I drop it.

We shift into our wolf forms and take off in silence around the perimeter of the pack lands.

As always, we do a full sweep first and then on our second lap we check in with the border patrol warriors on duty.

Halfway into lap two, Luca’s run has calmed his wolf enough to be able to communicate again via mindlink .

“Sorry, man,” he sighs. “That girl knows how to push every one of my buttons.”

I bark a laugh at him because he doesn’t need to tell me that; I’ve seen plenty of evidence over the years. “What did she do this time?”

“Ugh, I can’t even explain it. She won’t tell me shit.” His wolf huffs out a disgruntled breath, clearly as annoyed as Luca’s human form at being kept in the dark. “How’s it going with the new girl? Sofia seems to be a big fan if her protectiveness is anything to go by.”

“Yeah, she wants Ryan to invite her to stay with the pack. He asked me to tell him if I agree when he gets back from his pack visits.”

“And?”

“And I don’t know yet. She’s jumpy as hell. Clearly traumatized. But genuine too. I think. Maybe. I offered to train her one-on-one. See what she’s really about.”

“You? Offering private lessons? Damn.”

I ignore him.

We continue the rest of our check-ins with the border patrol, with nothing major to report from us or the warriors. Once finished, we shift back into our human forms and get dressed before making a last lap.

Our enhanced vision in wolf form sees more than our human eyes, but doing it this way has helped us pick up on things that our wolves don’t deem as important. Wolves make snap judgments about what deserves their attention, and they don’t always communicate everything to our human forms.

Sometimes I envy humans for not having to deal with the headache of having two minds. Two minds that often have conflicting views and ideas. It’s exhausting to fight with yourself.

As usual, there’s nothing happening, so Luca and I leave our instructions for the warriors on duty and head our separate ways.

As soon as I’m alone, my thoughts fill with a certain blonde she-wolf.

I’m eagerly anticipating our first private class tomorrow, even if it will be torture.

Beautiful, sexually frustrating torture.

I toss and turn for a while before realizing sleep will not be a possibility while I keep thinking of Emily or imagining her pressed against me. I could call someone. There are plenty of females in the pack that would be happy to spend the night in my bed. But I don’t want anyone else.

I curse myself at the realization that the thought of any other she-wolf does nothing for me anymore. Ever since Emily arrived here, she’s all I can see. My thoughts immediately return to the tiny broken omega whenever I even attempt to consider another female .

With a sigh of defeat, I lower my boxers and grasp my throbbing cock, gliding my hand up and down.

I spit on myself, adding some lubrication and imagining Emily’s tongue as I circle the head of my cock with my thumb.

Closing my eyes, I imagine her on her knees in front of me, her eyes darkening with desire as I work myself harder.

And as I’m about to come, I imagine ribbons of my cum landing across her perfect face before finding my release across my own stomach.

Fuck, even imagining her has me coming harder than I ever had with any other female. Even my supposed mate.

And that scares me more than anything. Tomorrow’s training session is going to kill me. And I can’t wait for it.