Page 32 of In the Mouth of the Wolf (Of Wolves and Kings #1)

32

MARLOWE

I barely had my shoes off before Cam ran into the room, picking me up into his arms and burying his face into my neck. “Mm, I missed you so much, babe.”

My heart craved the attention, but I was still upset. “I know someone who missed you, too,” I sighed. “Her name’s Rachel. Ring a bell?”

Cam stilled, slowly setting me back down on my feet. He shot a look at Archer, who walked by, patting him on the shoulder for luck before heading upstairs and leaving him to face me on his own. Nolan looked up from where he was working at the kitchen island. He closed his computer and smiled, bringing his hands up behind his head, ready to enjoy the show.

Cam panicked, and I secretly enjoyed watching him squirm. “She means nothing, I swear it. I haven’t even thought about her since I met you.”

I crossed my arms, tapping my foot. “Yeah, that’s entirely the problem! You didn’t think to shoot the poor female a text and let her know it was over? So she wouldn’t have to find out by meeting your omega while she was at work?”

Nolan whistled in amusement, and Cam shot him a dirty look before turning back to me. “I would have told her eventually, I just…”

“Has she tried to text or call you since last weekend?”

“Uh…”

The guilty look on his face enraged me. “You stood her up and then ignored her? That’s a horrible way to treat people, and you know it.”

He hung his head. “Yeah…”

“You’re going to call her,” I demanded, pointing a finger in his chest. “ Call her, not text, and properly apologize. You’re not going to try to justify yourself. If she gets mad, you’re not going to get defensive. You’re going to acknowledge her feelings and admit you were wrong. Got it?”

His shoulders slumped and he looked down to the floor. “Got it.”

“Good.” I gave him a pat on the cheek. “And finally, you’re going to buy me a giant box of chocolates to apologize for the awkward situation you put me in.”

He nodded and then slinked off down the hall into his office, closing the door behind him.

“Damn, sugar!” Nolan said. “You almost killed my cousin for standing next to me, but after meeting Cam’s ex you sympathized with her? Does that mean you like me more?”

“Ha ha,” I replied, getting a can of sparkling water out of the fridge. “Maybe I’ve just evolved. Did you ever think about that?”

Nolan stared at me for a moment and then grinned. “Archer barked at you, didn’t he?”

My stomach clenched and I choked on my sip. “Shut up!”

“Ooh, does our little omega like being ordered around?”

The slick dripping into my underwear answered his question, and he patted his knee. “ Sit .”

My legs propelled me forward all on their own, and Nolan pulled me up onto his lap. “This is very good to know,” he purred into my ear. “I think we can have a lot of fun later.”

I felt his cock harden beneath me and I nodded wordlessly, my breathing becoming shallow. “I don’t like anal.”

Nolan burst out a laugh. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Anal. I’ve tried it, and I don’t like it. Just letting you know what my boundaries are.”

He stopped laughing and wrapped his arms around my stomach tightly. “Thank you for telling me. I’d never make you do something you didn’t want to.” He opened his laptop back up and clicked on a tab in his internet browser. “I found this recipe online. I was thinking of making it tonight. Does it sound good?”

I gave it a quick look. “Lasagna? Yeah, sure.”

“Not you, too.” He grunted in frustration, scrolling down to the ingredients list. “Look, it’s lasagna al forno. It’s more authentic. It uses bechamel sauce instead of ricotta cheese.”

“Si, certo, sembra deliziosa.”

Nolan spun me around in his lap. “You speak Italian?”

I shrugged. “Maybe I spent my junior year studying abroad in Milan.”

“Mmm, say something else.”

“Ti voglio bene,” I whispered in his ear.

“Oooh, donde está la biblioteca?” he responded, running his hand up my leg.

“Damn, nothing impresses a girl like high school-level Spanish.”

His nose ran along the outer shell of my ear. “Obviously. So, do you want to go shopping with me?”

I wanted to do something else with him more, but shopping also sounded fun. I slid off his lap and headed back to the door. “I’m not going to run into any of your jilted lovers, am I?”

“No,” he replied, closing his laptop. “I properly dispose of my lovers when I’m done with them, like a gentleman.”

I slipped my shoes back on. “Nice to know chivalry isn’t dead.”

I was not prepared for how well everyone knew Nolan.

He was the mayor, and I should have anticipated that. But he was stopped by half the people we walked by, and looked so happy introducing me as his omega.

I smiled through my introverted pain and put up with the small talk and weird stares. It was clear people had a lot of questions, but thankfully kept them to themselves.

He whistled while pushing the cart down the aisle, asking me to hold his shopping list. “What do we need next?” he asked.

“Um... one pound of ground beef and one of ground pork.”

We made our way to the butcher’s counter, grabbing our ticket from the take-a-number dispenser. There were seven people ahead of us, and the woman whose turn it was couldn’t seem to make up her mind. Nolan gave me a knowing look as the waiting crowd shuffled in mild annoyance.

“Hey, Signorina, do you think you could head to the liquor store next door and pick up some bottles of wine?” He handed me his card. “This might take a while.”

“Sure thing. So, like, a nice Riesling, then?”

He looked at me dumbfounded. “I… what…”

“Oh my god, I’m kidding! Don’t worry, I’ll pick the most expensive reds they have.” I gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked away, ignoring his continued sputtering.

Most of the wine in the attached store was from California, and I recognized one of the brands from a weekend Mike and I had spent in Napa.

Well, not picking that one, then .

I tried to push him out of my mind while I looked for a Chianti or something similar.

I chuckled to myself as I skipped over the Pinot Grigio, happy that Nolan had passed my little wine test. A sweet, white, German wine with lasagna? Inconceivable.

The bell over the door rang as it opened and I heard a couple of females enter, laughing with each other. A light, clean scent preceded them.

Betas , I surmised. Archer had helped me learn how to distinguish between different shifter designations through smell. Alphas, and omegas, apparently, had the strongest scents, while betas tended to be more subtle.

They came down the aisle I was in and their voices dropped to whispers.

“ That’s her .”

My face heated, and I put the four of the closest bottles of Merlot I could find in my basket and walked past them to the register. I just wanted to leave.

“Omegawhore,” one of them spat.

I whirled around. “Excuse me, what did you say?” I might have been shy, but I could still stick up for myself. At least a little.

“You heard us. One alpha isn’t enough for you, you need a whole pack?”

My heart stuck in my chest. I’d been warned just a few hours ago that some of the females in town might be a bit jealous, but I hadn’t thought they’d be mean enough to say it to my face.

I also couldn’t help but be surprised. The guys had made it seem like one omega with a whole pack was normal. Expected, even.

“But that’s how it’s done…”

One of them stepped closer, leaning down into my face. “You know, we betas were doing just fine when omegas went extinct. Alphas stopped treating us like consolation prizes. Now your kind is back, and you’ve gone and bonded to the four hottest alphas in Maiingan Hollow? Greedy slut.”

My bottom lip trembled, and I ran to the register, willing the tears at bay.

“Omega, eh?” the cashier asked, taking a deep breath. “Damn, you smell divine.”

I couldn’t take it any longer. I left the wine on the counter and ran back to the grocery store, finding Nolan talking to some man while he was still waiting. He smiled as I approached but scrunched his eyebrows when he noticed my empty hands. “Don’t tell me there wasn’t anything decent in there…”

I shook my head and held out my palm. “Can you give me your keys? I just want to wait in the car.”

His eyes ran up and down my body and he grabbed my shoulders. “What’s wrong, did someone try to touch you?”

“No, I just… I don’t want to talk about it here.”

The growl that rumbled in Nolan’s chest was so loud, the whole butcher section cowered, backing away from us. “Marlowe, tell me.”

“Please,” I begged. “We can talk about it at home.”

His eyes were still on me, darkening by the second. “Stu, do you mind watching my cart for a minute?”

The man he’d been talking to swallowed nervously. “Yeah, no problem, bud.”

Nolan took my hand, pulling me outside forcefully and back into the liquor store. “Nolan, please, don’t…”

He scanned the aisles until he found the two betas in the back, the only other customers. He growled again, and they both stood at attention. The guilty looks on their faces when they noticed us spoke volumes. “What did you do to her?” he snarled.

They shrank into their shoulders and averted their eyes but remained silent. “ Speak ,” he commanded.

“Nolan!” I yelled before they could respond. “I don’t want to do this.”

His growl sent another wave of dominance through the small store, shaking the bottles. “They hurt you, Marlowe. I can’t allow that to happen.”

“ This is hurting me,” I whimpered. “You’re making this worse.”

He released a deep breath, but pointed at the two females. “If either of you so much as look at my omega again, I will…”

“Nolan!”

He roared in frustration and pulled me back outside. “You have to let me protect you!”

Nolan was enraged, his reaction more than I could handle. “This isn’t protecting me ,” I replied. “You’re just protecting your ego!”

The look in his eyes was murderous, and for the first time, one of my alphas was actually scaring me. My heart raced, and I backed up slowly, a sad, submissive whine escaping my throat.

The sound brought him back to his senses and he shook his head in disbelief, the rage in his face melting into regret. “Sugar, I’m so sorry if I scared you… Please don’t look at me like that.”

Oh god, what had I gotten myself into? I’d just signed myself up for a lifetime with four males I barely knew. I felt protected when they killed those alphas who’d kidnapped me, but would they really kill two females just for being catty? Catty but, also, probably , justified?

“Can I please just wait in the car while you finish shopping?” I cried.

He stepped forward, wrapping his arms around me. “I would never hurt you. You’re my everything.”

“Please…”

Nolan placed his forehead against mine and put his hands on my cheeks. “Tell me you know I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“I know,” I lied. Because how could I? I worked in women’s advocacy; I’d helped dozens of domestic violence survivors escape their abusers. I knew the warning signs, the patterns, the progression. Alphas were walking bags of aggression and testosterone – violence was in their nature. Could being their bonded omega really spare or protect me? And what about the other females in this town?

Nolan sighed, finally giving me his keys. “I’ll be done soon.” With a kiss on the cheek, he walked back into the store and I found his car in the parking lot, letting myself into the passenger seat.

I curled up into a ball and finally released the sobs that had been building inside me. I was now 0-2 on having a normal interaction in this town. Could I really make a life here? With this pack? In a weird, horny, traumatized state, I’d bound myself to near strangers. Strangers who could kill grown males with their bare hands.

Strangers who’d made it clear they weren’t ever letting me go.

A knock at the window brought me out of my misery, and I screamed.

“Marlowe, it’s just me. Are you okay?”

I wiped the fog off the glass and saw Elias, near desperate with worry. “I felt your pain through the bond. What happened?”

I wiped my cheeks and opened the door. “First of all, you need to stop sneaking up on me when I’m in a parked car. Second, it’s nothing. We can talk about it later. How did you get here?”

“Drove. And it’s not nothing, Nolan seems upset, too. Did you guys fight about something? I know he can be a pedantic asshole sometimes.”

I closed my eyes, replaying our argument in my head. “Kind of.”

He growled, breathing deeply through his nose. “Well, the pack will deal with him later. You’re coming with me. You don’t need to be here anymore.”

“But what about—”

“I’ll text him, don’t worry. Come on.”

I left the keys in the cup holder and followed Elias to his car. “I don’t want to say it’s perfect timing, but I actually finished making something for you that might make you feel better.”

“What is it?” I sniffed.

He patted my knee. “You’ll see.”