Page 31 of Taken By The Wolves (Blackwood Forest #2)

NIXON

For every wolf, the knowledge that there will be a mate in their future is a part of life.

One of my earliest memories is of my father telling us about the deep, abiding connection between him and my mother.

That connection seemed holy for a long time, until I was older and could see the tiny flaws in their relationship.

They never considered parting. That isn’t how the mate bond works, but there was always a lingering sense of resentment at my mother’s lack of choice.

I wanted real love, and to be a choice for my mate, rather than a fated inevitability.

Now, here we are, walking Scarlet into our bedroom, and I’m still not sure how she feels. She’s attracted to us, sure. No woman comes as hard as she does if her mind isn’t connected to the men she’s with. Attraction is important, but it isn’t enough.

She sits on the edge of the bed, skin still dewy from the shower, hair tumbling in damp waves over her shoulders. She’s the picture of raw beauty, bared and vulnerable, yet holding herself like a warrior who doesn’t quite trust the battlefield.

Her knuckles are white against the mattress.

I crouch before her, bringing my face close to hers. I lift my hand and cup her cheek. She closes her eyes at the contact, leaning into it like she needs it more than air.

“We don’t want to force you,” I say, trying to leash the wild edge clawing its way into my throat. “But we can’t leave you unclaimed, not with the danger that’s coming. If you want to stay… this is the only way.”

She trembles. Her eyes open, and she looks at each of us like we might hold the answer she can’t find inside herself.

“What do you think, Scarlet?” Reed asks. “About everything we’ve told you. About us… this life… what we’re asking of you?”

“I…” Her voice cracks. Tears well in her eyes, and my heart lurches in my chest. Goddess, I can’t claim her like this.

Reed kneels in front of her, brushing his fingers along her thigh. She doesn’t pull away. We flank her, surrounding her, but not boxing her in.

“We’re not here to take,” Reed says. “This isn’t about marking territory or sealing fate. It’s about choosing you because you’ve already changed us. You’ve crawled under our skin, Scarlet. You’ve settled into the empty spaces we didn’t even know we had.”

“You’re what we want,” I add, my hand still on her face. “What we need. But you have to want us, too. All of us.”

She swallows hard. Her fingers tremble as she reaches for Reed’s. “I don’t know how it happened,” she murmurs, “but I feel you all. Here.” She touches her chest. “And here.” Her temple.

I lean closer. “Do you want us to claim you?”

Her frustration sparks like a match. “How am I supposed to know? Your world isn’t mine.”

“It can be,” Finn says quietly. “Our world exists within yours. The claim isn’t an ending. It’s a beginning. A new skin you grow into.”

“And danger,” she says, eyes flashing.

“Danger exists everywhere,” I say. “But at least with us, you’ll never face it alone.”

“You’re asking me to commit to you… like marriage?”

“More than marriage,” I say proudly. “This is a lifelong bond. You will never want to leave us... never have reason to be dissatisfied. We will give you everything you need. You will become part of us as we will become a part of you.”

My wolf paces inside me. The moment is close. Scarlet’s scent is thick with uncertainty… but it’s laced with want, too.

Finn steps closer. “We wanted to wait for you to come to us. To ask. But we can’t wait any longer. Our wolves are tearing us apart. Every second we don’t claim you is another where we’re craving what we can’t survive without.”

Her legs shake a little, and not from the cold.

I lift her chin, so she looks up at me. “If you say no, we’ll take you back to your car. We’ll let you drive away. But if you want us, then lie back. Give yourself to us, and we will take you… completely.”

My wolf growls at the mental image of her leaving, fury making my fingertips ache as my claws strain.

There’s silence. Her hands relax and she looks at each of us like she’s searching for proof that we mean what we say.

Then slowly she lets go of the bed and leans back first onto her elbows, pausing for a second, her body trembling, and then she reclines fully. I exhale in a rush. With her hair spread around her and her pale white skin reflecting the full moon, she looks like an altar sacrifice.

That’s all it takes.

I move first. Climbing behind her, I pull her into my lap, into my chest, into my heart. I kiss her like I’ve waited lifetimes. Finn groans like a starving man. Reed brushes his lips over her throat.

I find the place.

The spot where wolf meets mate. Where the bite will take.

“This is how it starts,” I murmur. “This is how we claim you.”

She shivers in my arms.

“Will it hurt?”

Reed’s voice is low and sure. “Only for a second. Then… only pleasure.”

She pants softly, her body vibrating with anticipation. Reed’s hand finds hers, and he squeezes it gently, grounding her in the moment, tethering her to us.

My hands roam her body, palming her breasts until she arches, letting her legs fall open.

The scent of her intensifies as I run two rough fingers between her pussy lips, grazing her clit with enough pressure to make her gasp.

My cock finds her entrance almost instinctively and her gasp turns into a scream when I thrust into her, hard and deeply, over and over.

She’s so tight around me, already rippling with barely restrained pleasure. I push deeper, until my knot nudges her opening, my wolf shuddering with excitement.

I lick her nape before my fangs bud, marking her with my scent, soothing the place I will wound her.

Shivers run down my spine and coil around my knot.

Then I bite, and my head spins. Images of her flash through my mind; the first time I saw her alone and wounded, in our kitchen, proudly presenting muffins, cradling and singing to Ahya, coming apart beneath me in this very bed.

She cries out again, a sharp, gasping moan that lances through me like lightning.

Her whole body arches, caught between pain and the essence of the soul-bond that already slides through her veins.

I wrap my arms tighter, my growl becoming lower and more possessive as my saliva seals the bite and ancient magic rushes into her bloodstream like wildfire.

Her fingers grip mine, nails digging into my skin. But when she lifts her face, she’s glowing.

“You’re ours now,” I whisper against her skin, my voice dark and reverent.

Scarlet moans, her back bowing as I drive into her again and again, the slap of skin and the desperate sounds of our bodies colliding filling the room. My knees nearly buckle with the force of it. I fuck her harder, driven by the primal pulse in my blood, by the need to make her feel everything.

She’s sobbing now, caught in it, breaking open around my body.

“Nixon…” Her voice shakes. “I’m going to—” She tightens, and my knot pulses.

I lean forward, covering her back with my chest, my thrusts growing erratic.

“Scarlet,” Reed warns, brushing her temple. “His knot’s coming. You’ll feel it swell. It’ll lock him inside you. Don’t fight it. Breathe through it.”

“What?” she gasps, but it’s too late to explain further.

I snarl, driving deep one last time. My knot inflates, and she cries out, hips grinding, locked to me, her climax ripping through her like a storm.

I release like a cannon firing, filling her with pulse upon pulse of my seed, marking her as ours as deeply as I can.

Her skin is flushed and sweat slick when Reed presses his lips to the hollow of her neck, but the moment his tongue grazes that sensitive spot beneath her ear, her breath catches.

His wolf claws at the surface, ready to bite, to mark.

When he bites, I know it’s the most primal sensual moment of his life as his mate’s skin breaks against his fangs, and she moans as her body begins to change for us.

Finn is last, claiming the other side of her throat, his eyes closed in rapture.

Scarlet doesn’t even know it yet, but her body is responding like a wolf’s would. Her thighs tense, scent spiking sweet and sharp, and I groan because she’s changing. She smells like us now, heat and musk and the wisp of our magic.

I hold her steady, whispering words of praise and encouragement against her shoulder. Finn’s hand slides slowly up her thigh, teasing her with more pleasure. Reed flattens his hand over her belly, feeling the tremble of her nerves, and the shape of my cock buried deep inside her.

She’s still human in so many ways, but the bond? The bond is crawling under her skin like wildfire.

The claim is complete.

And goddess, she’s never looked more beautiful.

Scarlet is still panting softly when Reed presses a kiss to her temple. I’m still locked inside her, our bodies fused, moving in synch like two chords of the same song finally played together.

Reed crouches beside her, brushing damp hair from her brow, scanning the dazed shimmer in her half-lidded eyes. “How do you feel?” he asks, voice low. “Tell us, Scarlet.”

She blinks slowly, like it takes effort to return to herself. She lifts her head. “Like I’ve been struck by lightning,” she says hoarsely. “But instead of breaking me… it lit something up that I didn’t know was dark.”

My grip tightens at her waist. Finn slides his fingers gently along the inside of her thigh. But I stay there, grounded inside her, absorbing the moment of rightness.

She lets out a long breath. “I feel… like I’ve been rewritten. Like something inside me snapped into place after a lifetime of sitting crooked.”

She’s ours.

And I don’t let go.

Not when her body softens around me, still trembling from the aftershocks. Not when she cries out as I finally slip free, our mingled release seeping onto the sheets. Not when her soul curls around mine with the surety of a vine finding its tree.

I hold her tight for as long as it takes for her to find herself again, truly content for the first time in my life.