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Which is how we ended up back at Finn’s place.

“Sorry, it's a bit of a mess. Haven’t really been here much to give it a clean,” he said as we walked in the door. He busied himself opening windows and curtains, then getting everyone drinks.

“Finn...” I said, moving towards him.

“It’s OK. I’ll be OK.”

The fact he had to say that, that his eyes remained on the drinks he was carrying and didn’t meet mine, all said otherwise.

When he had distributed the waters and was seated at the table as we were, he looked up, the same friendly, open expression I’d thought was an integral part of him on his face.

“So, Sylvan was it?” The other man nodded from where he slouched in his chair, watching us with a smirk. “How can you get me past the gate before they close it?”

“Us,” I said. I watched Finn grab my hand and squeeze, but he didn’t reply to what I’d said.

“You don’t actually need me. You have everything you need within you.”

“Is this one of those Gandalf moments, where you’re all obscure, and we have to find our own way towards the goal and discover we’re more powerful than we think? Because I’d prefer some more explicit instruction,” I said.

“Jules...” Finn said.

“I mean it quite literally. You connected with the Great Wolves during your little ‘moment’ before,” Sylvan said.

“Great Wolves?” Finn said. “You make it sound like there’s more than one.”

“Because there is.”

“So there’s more than just the goddess?” he replied, looking confused.

“Is she a goddess? That I don’t know. They are extremely powerful beings, that I do.

I was always brought up to believe in the male, the Black Wolf you saw in your vision.

I didn’t discover the female—your goddess—until I came into my power.

The clerics that trained me, they tried to discredit her existence, resorting to demonising her as some kind of diabolical force.

Both of our peoples have chosen one of them to follow, ignoring the other. ”

“And that’s somehow important, right?” I said.

He shrugged. “I can tell you what I’ve seen, but that’s a guaranteed way for the end result to not take place.”

“So is that normal?” I said to Finn. “The light, what... happened with all of us.”

“The mated are often close-mouthed, but no one’s ever said anything about something like.

.. that happening.” The professional mask slipped for a moment.

Finn’s smile faltered, and he stared at me for a second, eyes wide.

Finally, he shook his head. “What happened was... I don’t know if I’ve got words for it.

The best I can come up with is magical.”

“Magical, that’s right,” Sylvan said, leaning forward. “Your pack is magical.”

“I think he meant more in ‘the earth moved for me’ kinda way than what you’re thinking,” I said. “What are you suggesting? Group orgy by the fence to unlock the gate? Be like a sexual Voltron, combine together using the strength of my vagina power?”

Sylvan shook his head. “You have the oddest turns of phrase. No, what I’m saying is you can tap into the power of the Great Wolf.”

“And risk the big black one coming to eat us all up?” I said with a frown. “Is this one of those ‘if you die in your dreams, you die in real life’ things?”

“If the Black Wolf catches you, you may as well be dead,” Sylvan said grimly.

“So, let me get this straight, rather than steal a key card that will get us?—”

“Me. There’s no ‘us’ in this, Jules.”

“Us through the gate to rescue the dads, we have sex, tap into the mystical power of some overpowered mutt. Oh, and watch out for her Freddy Kruger counterpart, if he gets his paws on you, you're dead? That’s no fucking plan.”

“I dunno, the group sex part didn’t sound too bad.”

My head jerked up to see Slade had wandered in, Aaron, Hawk, and Brandon behind him. Just as Aaron was about to shut the door, Jack slunk in, looking super pleased to be there. The guys all took seats around the table—all except for Jack, who leaned against the couch, arms crossed.

“You go through that gate, you know I’m with you,” Slade said.

“And me,” Aaron said, “and my boys. No one’s happy about the way the matriarchs are dealing with this. A chance to do something covert and strike back at those pricks? We’re in.”

“I appreciate the support. Really, I do,” Finn said. “But it can’t go down like that. I need you guys here, looking after Jules. She’s our mate?—”

“Not mine,” Jack mumbled.

“And I can’t do this without knowing she’s safe.” Finn’s eyes met mine, and he reached over and squeezed my hand. “I know you want to be a part of this, that you’re more than strong enough to be an asset, but I can’t take the risk. That you’ll get hurt, that you’ll be trapped in the other realm.”

“And it’s OK if you do?”

“Before we get too far into the ‘I don’t want you getting hurt. No, I don’t want you getting hurt’ back and forth, is anyone gonna address the fact we’ve basically been bonded?

” Jack said. When I turned to look at him, Hawk got to his feet to put his arm around the man, but he brushed him away.

“Like metaphysical shared sex, huge wolf dream, acid tripping bonded. No biting, no talking, no actually seeking permission, just bonded by some kind of mythical dog.” When he looked at me, his expression got the hackles of my Tirian up pretty quick.

Those green eyes gave no quarter and showed no respect, just burned with a terrible intensity.

You have scared that one. He feels backed into a corner. Proceed carefully, she said to me.

“That was the most intense experience of my life,” Aaron said.

“My parents, my aunties and uncles, they tried to tell me what bonding was, but fuck....” My head jerked around at the waver in the big man’s voice.

“Nothing prepared me for that. But if you think I’m gonna sit here and listen to you bad mouth?—”

“Aaron.” I meant a lot of things when I said his name. Acknowledgement, love, need, but also for him to shut the fuck up. I looked at Jack, his frown only deeper now. This was different for him, and Aaron couldn’t see it.

“You’re not taking him,” Jack said, stepping forward, his body thrumming with energy.

I could feel it a little, that power some of the women in his family wielded in his voice.

He used whatever alpha juice was within him to try and push his will on me.

“Hawk’s not going through any fucking gate to rescue some fucking malcontents, because you?—”

Jack’s voice began to rise, the power whipping within it, but Sylvan’s cut straight through it.

“All this academic arguing about what’s best to do.

” Scorn dripped from his words. “Casting the Great Wolf’s gift back into her teeth.

Splitting up and how to best do that. Mitigating risk.

I wish for one bloody second I could be in any of your positions, that I wasn’t plagued with the visions and sensations of what goes on.

They brutalise. The men, the women, the children that they bear, all of them.

You have been given something sacred. You wonder if anyone else feels the same things when they bond?

Allow me to assure you that they don’t. You are strongest together, stronger than any pack has a right to be.

You were able to conjure up the Great Wolves themselves just by fucking.

Imagine what you could do if you were able to put aside your petty bullshit for just one second. ”

Sylvan jerked himself to his feet and stormed out of the room, slamming the front door behind him.

He’d killed the conversation pretty dead, embarrassed silence filling the room in his absence.

Finally, we all got to our feet and jumped in cars, heading back to the alpha residence.

We were quiet when we filed into our wing.

A quick meal was eaten, Sylvan conspicuously absent, and then we went to bed.

My guys went to the main room, stripping off and getting under the covers, while I stood in the doorway, watching Jack and Hawk.

He was coming to me, Hawk, but Jack reached for him, pulling him back and pushing him against the wall when he didn’t respond positively.

Jack’s hands went to his hair, his mouth to Hawk’s neck.

I heard the mumbles of terse words, but not the specifics.

Hawk tried pushing him away, but Jack was on the other man like a limpet, sucking and biting at the other man’s skin until the steel went out of his limbs.

Hawk’s fingers tangled in Jack’s hair as the man dropped lower, running kisses along his collarbone and chest, the light beginning the glow there, revealed as the other man swiftly unbuttoned his shirt.

“Jack...” I heard the groan more clearly now, Hawk no longer trying to modify his voice. “Jack, stop.”

Their eyes turned to me, a shadowy figure in the hallway, watching the events of the car park outside the honeymoon cottage reverse themselves.

Hawk watched me, his hands on Jack’s head as the other man freed his cock, brushing his lips across the crown.

The light spilled across the two of them from the open room, picking out the terrible pleasure he experienced as the other man sucked him down.

He didn’t want him to stop now, thrusting into the other man’s mouth with less care than he had mine, the casual brutality somehow making the whole thing more compelling.

Hawk had called Jack and I beautiful savages, but we were no more than him.

Perhaps it was Jack that was the important part of the equation, tearing those he loved and wanted apart and then teasing them on to higher and higher heights of ecstasy.

Hawk’s fingers were brutal, clawing at Jack’s hair, forcing his skull up and down on the end of his cock until he stilled then thrust forward, Jack’s throat convulsing as his lover emptied his load down it.

Then, Hawk zipped himself up, not bothering to rebutton the shirt, and his tattoos glowed dully as he ambled down the hall to me.

“You OK if I join you?” he said, nodding to the bed.

“Of course. We’re only sleeping, though. I think everyone’s had about all they can take.”

“Good. Me too.” He leant in and kissed me sweetly on the side of my cheek. “Goodnight, Jules.”

I waited for Jack as he got to his feet slowly, his jaw flexing. That chin went up when he turned to me and walked closer.

“You’re not taking him,” he said when I put up an arm to block his entrance into the room.

“Not trying to.”

“He’s mine. I love him. He’s my mate.”

“He is. Not trying to, and you should formalise that. You know it, I know it, but he needs to as well. He deserves that.”

“I need to sleep with him. Can’t if I’m not lying next to him.”

“And you will. No one wants to get between the two of you, Jack. You’re doing a good enough job on your own.

” His eyes dropped, but I could see the burning mixture of anger, frustration, and shame there.

I touched him then, because he looked like he would rather have laid down with jackals than us.

Because he obviously felt he couldn’t say so and risk his relationship with Hawk.

Because he regretted what he’d done perhaps and felt miserable as a result.

I cupped his chin and lifted his head until we were as level as we were going to be.

Those green eyes of his stared into mine through narrowed slits that widened when I went up on my tip-toes and placed a careful kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“Come to bed, Jack,” I said. “Lay down with Hawk and sleep. We’re all tired and wrung out and can do no more today. Sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

His arms went around my waist, pulling me to him almost by instinct, the surprise still writ large across his face.

His breath smelled like apples and mint and Hawk when he dropped his mouth down to hover over mine.

He waited for a moment, for me to protest or push him away, I didn’t know which, before kissing me slowly and sweetly.

“C’mon,” he said, pulling away and leading me to the bed, only to strip me off and lay me between him and Hawk. Two sets of arms curled around my waist, two sets of legs wove through mine, and I rested my head on Jack’s chest, listening to his heart until we fell asleep.