Page 147

Something vibrated deep inside me at this, a single note plucked that only I could hear. The burn of his venom, the pain of his bite, it was all subsumed by this. I laid Slade down beside Hawk, both looking so tired now. I reached over to place a kiss on each of their foreheads.

“Love you,” Slade mumbled, then his eyes closed.

“Love you,” I replied, meaning him, meaning all of them.

I patted his shoulder and then rolled to my feet.

“Jules,” Finn said, and I turned, following his gaze to watch the moment Brandon marked Aaron.

They were almost sobbing at this point, Aaron’s cock jerking in time with Brandon’s strokes, Brandon about to fuck the cum out of him again, something he was well aware of.

His fingers clawed at Aaron’s shoulders, his mouth a perfect O of pleasure as his strokes grew increasingly erratic, his cries rising in intensity, but his attention remained on the other man’s pleasure.

His hand reached around, grabbing the other man’s dick right at the moment his fangs buried themselves in Aaron’s neck.

Brandon looked like a feeding lion, blood trickling from his mouth and mixing with his venom, the results dripping down Aaron’s chest, and then they came.

Brandon’s mouth was forced free as his fingers clamped down on Aaron’s hip and cock, both men going rigid as it hit them.

Aaron’s roar filled the room as jet after jet of cum shot over the bed, Brandon’s joining his as he twitched and shook as it rolled through them.

They collapsed on the bed like they’d run a marathon, mouths going to each other’s as they gasped for breath before flopping back in each other’s arms.

“One more,” Finn said, his eyes heavily lidded. I think he’d been waiting, watching, making sure everyone was OK, despite the exhaustion weighing on him. I moved over and kissed him, his lips soft before we both looked up.

Jack sat in his chair, a cigarette burning unheeded between his fingers.

He was a king on his throne, and from the faint smile on his face, the proceedings pleased him.

Or did they? The guys had all been careful to give each other space during this, but was Jack letting Hawk do his thing unimpeded, or was there something else going on there?

I got to my feet, padding over to him, and his eyes followed my every jiggle.

I refused to be concerned about that. I was wreathed in venom and blood and other men’s cum, but when he slid open his zipper and pulled out his cock, it was rigid.

He held out his hand and I took it as he surveyed every inch of me while he slowly stroked his dick.

“Look at you,” he said. “Every inch the queen now.”

With Jack, it was always hard to tell if he was serious or joking.

Those glittering eyes, that twist of a smile, but as I leant in closer, feeling the subtle signs of anticipation in him, I knew it was probably both.

My brittle Jack couldn’t just let this happen, couldn’t just surrender to me.

He had to fight it at every inch, despite craving it with all he had.

“Come to claim me as your courtier now?” His eyebrow lifted in question.

“If that’s what you want.”

That wasn’t the right response. I wanted to give him a choice, not box him into a corner, but as I watched him stiffen, his eyes darting, I knew that wasn’t what he wanted.

“Get those jeans off. Don’t want them any higher than your ankles.”

I channeled Brandon in my command, and Jack seemed surprised when he moved to obey.

But that golden flesh was soon revealed, his cock slapping hard against his lean stomach when he settled back.

The casual arrangement of his limbs, the impudent expression all said he was going to resist this, stir shit up like always, but that wasn’t happening.

“You want me to bite you, take you as my mate and then you want to return the favour.”

I distracted him from the statement by placing my knee up on the arm of the chair, not far away from his elbow.

As expected, his eyes dropped down to the damp flesh I revealed.

His smile faltered, his gaze hungry as he took in my wet cunt.

I liked that even though I’d racked up a whole lot of frequent flyer miles with the hairy credit card today, they still wanted more.

“Yes,” he hissed. To my statement? To my body?

It wasn’t clear, but it didn’t matter. I pushed his chin up and took his lips in a kiss, feeling his fangs grate against mine.

The cigarette was abandoned, both hands going to my waist as the kiss deepened.

His mouth was ravenous, his tongue thrusting in my mouth as he dragged me onto his lap.

I kissed my way down his jaw until my nose was pushed into the soft fall of his hair.

Venom trailed along the skin, a herald of what was to come.

He thrust up against me as he felt the burn while I worked my body against his, spreading my slick down his hard length.

“Wait…” he gasped as I caught the skin of his neck between my teeth. “Jules…!”

His fingers grabbed at me, clawing at my skin, fighting to hold me off, but this felt as inevitable as the sun rising. We needed to mate, become a pack, formalise the bonds. The same aching chest feeling as outside the ruins was beating down hard on me now.

“Jules!”

The whip crack of my name had me shaking my head, and it took some time to clear before I looked down to see Jack holding me back, his eyes wide with anger, fear, and lust.

“Fuck,” I said, pulling away. “Jack, I’m sorry. I got really carried away.”

“I could see that. Fuck, you’re strong.”

I settled down on the arm of the chair. I saw him stiffen and draw back, eyes kept resolutely down, but I reached out anyway.

I just stroked his hair, focussing only on the slip of it between my fingers, the slow hiss of the men’s breathing as they rested.

Then his head tilted up, his eyes shining with suspicion.

“How do I know you won’t get carried away again?”

“You don’t,” I replied badly, but kept stroking his hair until he snatched my fingers away, but he just held them against his chest. “You don’t know that with either of us. But you said something, and I stopped, so that’s not what’s worrying you.”

“Not worried,” he mumbled in the way that men do that indicates that’s exactly what was happening.

“Can I sit on your lap? This chair is digging into my butt.”

“Not sure if this will be any more comfortable,” he said with a leer, eyes flicking to his dick.

“I’m willing to chance it.”

His arms went around me as I settled, and when I looked up, the surly expression had given way to a spooked one. He watched me with something like awe when I leant back against his arm.

“Mark me,” I said.

“What?”

“Something about this is worrying you. Either tell me what it is, or mark me.”

His eyes instantly flicked to my neck, telling me what he had chosen, even if he was still processing what I was saying.

“Bite me, Jack, if that’s what you want. Make me your mate, bind me to you and to Hawk.”

He shifted in his chair, so that the two of us faced each other. One of my legs was now curled up against the back of the seat, the other splayed wide and trailing down to the floor, and his eyes were drawn down again. His fingers edged towards where his eyes dwelled, sliding up my thigh.

I let my sigh out really slowly, so as not to spook him again, and finally he looked up.

“What if this doesn’t work?”

What? The bite? Us? Him and the guys? I had a lot of questions, but couldn’t ask them.

He might sit there, for all intents and purposes looking like a guy very into what was happening between us, but hitting him with a deluge of qualifiers was just as likely to send him running.

I looked at his eyes and realised all of the above applied, and a whole lot more.

He might rampage through life acting like a prick, but Jack was no stranger to anxiety.

I took a breath, remembering the peace and quiet of the bower, and then all those beautiful, horrible, little scraps of a love that had been torn to pieces, but endured in that rusty old box.

“Jack,” I said, knowing what needed to be said now. “The pack is a bower.”

I could count the times I surprised Jack into this kind of open, vulnerable expression on one hand, but I treasured each of them. Those sharp green eyes that saw everything searched mine, a terrible kind of hope growing there, side by side with his customary wariness.

Let me be able to live up to this , I prayed fervently, to who, I didn’t know. Don’t let me be the one to take this hope away.

“It’ll be a bower we build together, a bower that no one but us can break. It’ll live, shine within each and every one of us, and all of us will be able to protect it. You won’t have to fight on your own.”

Jack’s eyes stared into mine for god knows how long, shifting from the already grass green to the luminous of his Tirian. His beast looked out at me, and I stared back.

I was strong, but I was untrained. I was organised, but I’d never had to lead anyone other myself and my dog through anything.

I was walking with the guys into certain danger with not enough planning, strategies, weapons or any other predictor of success.

I was—the pack was—on paper hopeless, and yet I could meet Jack’s gaze squarely and know we’d all do our fucking damnedest to make sure we all made it out alive.

And Jack had to make the call, to choose this or walk away. I couldn’t do anything else.