Page 6 of In the Mouth of the Wolf (Of Wolves and Kings #1)

6

CAMDEN

I smelled them as soon as I walked in the door.

Archer was my pack mate; I could pick up his scent a mile away. I knew it almost as well as my own. But Marlowe’s pistachio and honey perfume was even stronger than it had been that morning, and her arousal was like a punch to the gut. I wanted Archer to win her over, and with his pretty face and calm personality, I knew he was our best shot. But it wasn’t me bringing out that response in her, and the feeling was more upsetting than I realize it would be.

The pack and I had never dated the same female before – betas weren’t made for that, and despite our best efforts to preserve our shifter ways, the disappearance of omegas and our dwindling numbers inevitably meant human culture was going to creep in. We were raised on the virtues of monogamy, and I had long resigned myself to the idea that I’d be settling down with a beta someday.

Not that betas were bad. I had dated a lot of beta females, and some of them I might have even considered marrying.

But thank the Moon I had never pulled that trigger, because now that this sweet omega had walked into my life, I’d never be able to settle for anything less than her. And that meant learning to share.

The look Archer gave me was positively murderous.

Good . He’d had enough alone time with her tonight.

I’d asked Elias to look up as much information on her as he could after she left his office. She’d gotten a master’s degree from Stanford, so she must be smart. Maybe that was why she seemed to get along with Elias and Archer so well.

But brains didn’t always mean paychecks. I might have looked like the scruffiest out of our pack, but I was actually the wealthiest. Wolfcrest Construction had been started by her dad and mine, and I had been the one in charge of the whole thing for the past few years.

Archer could run a lab, Elias could run a courtroom, and Nolan could run a city council meeting, but me? I ran a multi-million-dollar company. Maybe I couldn’t debate politics or literature, but I certainly wasn’t dumb.

I needed to start over with her, show her I wasn’t a mindless grunt. That I could provide for her, build her a big house with a custom-designed nest, whatever she wanted. Whatever she needed. I’d be her willing slave if she’d let me.

But the look she gave me when she finally found the target of Archer’s glare told me I had a lot of work to do.

“Marlowe, Professor! Fancy seeing you here!”

I sat down next to Marlowe and hid the disappointment on my face when she scooted as far away from me as she could. However, the way she was trying to subtly sniff the air, and the wave of her perfume that followed meant she liked the scent I was giving.

Good .

“Camden,” Archer said through gritted teeth. “I thought we agreed that you needed to give Marlowe some space.”

I ignored him and called to the waitress for a menu. While she made her way over, I looked at the table. “Frozen margaritas? Damn, sounds good.”

I ordered three more, along with a carne asada plate and some nachos.

“So,” I started. “How much of the lesson have I missed, Professor?”

He let out a low growl and I puffed out my chest in amusement. Riling him up was too easy.

“Why do you call him ‘professor’?” Marlowe asked.

She had addressed me, and her tone wasn’t dripping with acid. I took a deep breath. This could go well; I just needed to cool it.

“Because he is one. Archer works at UW Eau Claire.”

Her eyes lit up, and she turned back to Archer. I quelled the beast inside me that wanted to wrestle for her attention. Sharing is caring.

“You are? That’s so cool. Which department?”

Archer gave me a smug smile and then looked back at our omega. “Biology,” he answered.

She laughed, and the sound sent a wave of pleasure down my spine. Damn, I wanted to make her laugh like that for me.

“I should have guessed with the way you were talking about shifters. It was a very biological approach. You know, if they were actually real.”

Archer cocked an eyebrow and leaned forward. “We are very much real, Marlowe.” His voice was so deep and sultry it was almost turning me on. “Have you noticed since you arrived this morning how much stronger your sense of smell has become? How you’ve picked up on scents that seem to attract and entice you from certain males? How you’ve been eliciting strange reactions from the males around you?”

Marlowe glanced between the two of us nervously, taking a sip of her drink. Her sweet perfume coated the air and Archer and I both shuddered.

“Baby,” I whispered. “We can tell how turned on you are, and it’s killing us.”

She looked at Archer with shock on her face, waiting for him to disagree or tell me off but instead he nodded. “Has your appetite increased? Do you feel flushed? Aroused?”

Marlowe’s jaw dropped open and she quickly crossed her legs. What I wouldn’t give to feel the way they wrapped around my head...

“Do you take any special pills, Marlowe?” he asked quietly.

“Just birth control,” she whimpered. “But I forgot them at home.”

Archer and I looked at each other and both swore. “She could go into heat by the morning. We need to get her out of here,” he said.

“On it.” I took out my phone and headed towards the hall near the bathrooms, where it was a little more private. I flagged down the waitress on the way and told her I wanted my order to go while the phone rang.

“Hey Cam, what’s up?”

“We’re headed to my cabin. Meet us there.”

“Are you kidding me? In this weather? Dude, I finally finished coordinating all the snowplows and road closures. I’m in my sweats, I’m ready to call it a night, and I don’t really feel like risking my life just so you can get plastered and snowed in.”

I took a deep breath, trying to keep my volume low and out of earshot from any opportunistic alphas who could hear me from the bar. “Linden’s daughter is here and she’s about to go into heat. She needs a safe place and safe alphas.”

“Heat? Wait, she’s…”

“Yeah.”

He paused, letting the news sink in. “Holy shit, are you sure?”

“Yes!” I said louder. “But she’s not ready. This isn’t… this isn’t that kind of heat, and she doesn’t need that kind of help.”

I heard a rustling of fabric as he got dressed, switching to speaker phone. “Look, I’m not going to be mad just because I can’t get my knot wet, but what do you mean she isn’t ready? How old is she? Because if she’s like eighteen, I don’t really feel comfortable…”

“Gross, she’s twenty-six, you pervert.”

I heard him scoff, his voice muffled as he responded, “Wait, how does that make me the pervert?”

“Anyway,” I continued, “it’s a long story. We can tell you when we get up there.”

Yeah, I was a little disappointed I couldn’t get my knot wet either, but I was mostly worried. Marlowe didn’t even know what she was, and she’d likely been on hormone suppressants her whole life. Or at least since puberty. She had no idea what was coming for her, and honestly, I was afraid of how we would all react, too. It had been hard enough keeping my hands off her this morning when she hated my guts, but in the middle of her first heat, when she was begging for someone to fuck her? I didn’t think even Archer was prim enough to withstand that.

But we had to try. And even if we failed, at least it was us and us alone. If any other pack got a sniff of her here, it could be a bloodbath.

“Alright, I’m leaving now. I don’t know how long it’s going to take though. I sincerely doubt anyone’s cleared the backroads.”

“Just get there when you can. Archer thinks we still have til morning, at the earliest.”

His front door slammed shut and I heard his car beep. “In that case I’ll swing by the store. It should still be open. We’re going to need supplies, right?”

Shit, we would, wouldn’t we? I had some non-perishables up there, but I didn’t think Marlowe would appreciate eating canned beans for a week straight.

“Cookies,” I mumbled.

“What?”

Elias had told me about their conversation over breakfast. “She… she likes sweet stuff, get lots of cookies and crap.”

Nolan chuckled. “Damn, spoken like a real alpha taking care of his omega. She’s already got you wrapped around her finger, doesn’t she?”

I huffed. “You’re not going to sound so high and mighty once you meet her. Elias nearly killed me this morning.”

I would’ve done the same thing if I’d been in his shoes, but I’d never seen that kind of aggression in Elias’s eyes before. Even in high school, when we played football and were nothing but raging bags of hormones, he’d always been Mr. Cool Guy. Seeing him go off the rails and get so messed up over a female was all the proof I needed of the power omegas held over us.

“What the hell, you’ve all met her already? Why am I the last to even know?” he asked.

“She only arrived this morning, and she’s been in Eau Claire this whole time. So like I said, it’s a long story and we need to get going ourselves.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll see you up there with a whole bakery’s worth of sugar.”

I grinned. I was worried, but I also looked forward to the smile on Marlowe’s face when she saw how much we wanted to spoil her.