Page 15
fifteen
ASPEN
Hands were moving roughly over my body when I woke up. A mouth grazed my breast. Teeth followed it, making my body arch in pleasure.
The scent around me was so thickly Enzo , and all I felt was need.
“I can’t take it anymore,” he gritted out. When I met his gaze, I found more than the mindless lust I expected.
Desperation.
Guilt.
Need.
My body was much hotter than it had been the night before, but his attention seemed to have taken the usual edge off of my heat. I needed him to screw me—but I didn’t have to beg.
He shoved my thighs, and I opened them for him.
“I’m sorry, Princess.” He dragged his thumb over my clit. His jeans were gone, and the head of his cock was against my entrance.
“Don’t apologize. I need you too.” I slid a hand around his back, pulling him closer.
He drove into me powerfully, and I sucked in a breath as he bottomed out inside me once, and again.
His cock throbbed as he fucked me roughly.
Wildly.
The look in his eyes was nearly feral, and it made me even hotter.
I could already feel his knot thickening, and my own body responding with more wetness. More need. More pleasure.
He threw his head back and roared as he slammed in harder. Deeper. Rougher. I screamed and dug my fingers into his skin as I came around him, the pleasure coming faster and more intense than ever before.
His knot swelled inside me, so massive I could barely breathe. It hurt a little, but the pain was good.
His groan was tortured.
Blissful.
Shocked.
“What in the ever-loving hell is this, Princess?” he managed, his eyes glazed and unfocused as his pleasure was dragged out by whatever hormones, science, or magic, caused it.
“Heat,” I breathed.
It had never felt like that before.
Like… emotions.
It had always been sex, of course, and I’d gotten off. But I’d never felt safe. I’d never felt like me.
I did with Enzo.
“It’s fucking unreal.” He drove into me a little further, burying himself deeper inside me.
I wanted more.
I needed more.
“I know.” I lifted my fingers to his hair. There was blood beneath my nails, but he wouldn’t care about the wounds. Not during heat. “It’ll get better, too. Just let yourself feel it.”
He groaned, rocking me with him as he filled me again, another wave of pleasure taking him.
We were both sweaty and panting when his knot finally softened. He rolled to his back, taking me with him even though he pulled out of me to give me time to recover. He was too lost to heat to think about my ankle, but it really was fine.
“Holy shit.” He stared up at the ceiling, dazed. “That’s something else, Princess.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled into his shoulder.
“I can already feel it coming on again.”
“It’ll take hold of you more strongly, this time.” My hand was moving over his abdomen as I spoke. I wanted to touch more of him. Needed to touch more of him.
My hand wrapped around his cock, and he jerked for me. “Touch me like that, and I’ll give you anything you want, Princess.”
“You are.”
He growled as I twisted my hand a little. I’d never touched anyone that way, but I liked it. It made me feel powerful. And the way he moved told me I was doing it right. Or the rut was making him feel like I was, at least.
It didn’t last long before heat overtook me again, and I moaned. “I need you.”
“I’m already yours.”
Some part of me wished that was true, but it was lost to the pheromones of heat, and the pleasure of his body.
Heat subsided before lunch time.
We were both sticky everywhere. Sweaty everywhere, too. I couldn’t move, though. Didn’t want to move.
Neither of us had said anything since heat’s insistence faded.
Enzo’s hand was moving slowly over my back, so I didn’t think he’d gone quiet out of disappointment.
“So that’s knotting,” he finally said.
A quiet laugh bubbled up, escaping before I could stop it. “Yeah.”
“Have to say I’m a fan.”
“I noticed. This poor couch is probably against it, though. Your release is everywhere.”
He chuckled. “I can feel it leaking out of you. You’ll be dripping for hours.”
“Maybe days.”
“Damn, I like that idea.” He squeezed my ass lightly, and I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling. “So what do we do now?”
“Shower thoroughly and go back to the pack.” Pretend like nothing’s happened, I added silently.
That’s what had happened in the past, at least.
But usually there was no cuddling at the end. That was a nice change.
Enzo grunted. “Five more minutes.”
I bit my lip harder as he held me tighter.
“I bought too much food. We’ll have to pack it before we can go,” he said.
“Okay.”
“Need to check my phone, too. Make sure the pack’s doing alright.”
“Okay,” I repeated.
“We’ll have to stop for something to eat on the way home.”
“Okay,” I said yet again.
His lips brushed my forehead lightly, and my throat swelled.
Though it hadn’t been five minutes, he eased out from beneath me and padded into the kitchen.
Back to reality we went.
Enzo grumbled about it, but I didn’t put my boot back on. I could put weight on it without any pain for the most part, so it was close enough to being fully healed.
We stopped for lunch before we reached the highway, and when we made it back, it was dinner time. My wolf had been out cold since heat ended, and I knew she would be for a while longer.
Enzo had to talk to his brothers, so as soon as he dropped our duffel bag in our apartment, he told me to eat in the cafeteria.
And left.
I blinked, staring after him as the door shut behind him.
That was different from his hovering.
Very different.
It wasn’t different from the way things went between me and Silas when heat was over, which threw me off balance. The experience as a whole had been much, much better, but that similarity still made me uncertain.
Enzo was giving me whiplash.
My stomach growled, so I decided not to give myself time to overthink it, and headed straight to the food.
I only made it three steps down the hall before a familiar face stopped me in my tracks.
My eyes widened.
My lips parted.
“Fletcher?”
He gave me a grudging smile. “I told you I found a new pack.”
“No way.” I rushed across the hallway and threw my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “What happened?”
Fletcher grunted. “Your king tracked me down and convinced me to be your bodyguard again. Something about you not falling down the stairs when I was protecting you. He offered to pay me for it.”
“Tell me you didn’t turn down money for something you’d do anyway.”
“Of course I didn’t. I’m not stupid.”
A laugh burst from me. “ Enzo convinced you? Are you sure it wasn’t one of his brothers?”
“I’m sure. On top of the dominance, he kept calling you his. It was obnoxious. I’m your twin brother. If anyone has a claim to you, it’s me.” He eyed me. “Not in a gross way.”
“I know. It’s the weirdly codependent thing. It’s fine.”
“No way around it at this point.”
I agreed. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“He asked me to keep it quiet until after heat, so you didn’t worry about me adjusting. Considering he’s paying me to guard you, I figured it didn’t hurt to play along.”
“Of course he did.”
“I’ve got a few friends here who have been showing me the ropes. It’s hard not to like this place after you get a good look around.”
“I know, it’s weird here. Everyone’s so happy .”
Fletcher chuckled, and we headed to the dining hall. It seemed like he knew how to find it better than I did.
He probably did.
“You know I don’t want details, but was heat…” he trailed off.
“Better?” My face warmed with the reminder. “Yeah. It was better with Enzo.”
The warmth faded when I remembered the way he had just walked away when we got back.
And how he just wanted us to be friends who screwed when heat came around.
It was ideal. Really, it was.
I just hadn’t ever pictured myself in a situation like that. Maybe I just needed time to wrap my head around it.
“I guess I’m glad,” Fletcher said.
I changed the subject. “Your bruises seem healed.”
“Most of them.”
“Have you seen Silas yet?”
It was a terrible question, and I knew that. As much as the feelings between me and Silas were unpleasant, they were so much worse between him and Fletcher. Their wolves still hated each other, and saw each other as enemies.
But there would always be a connection between them. Nothing could change the past.
“No. Thought that could make everything worse,” Fletcher said. “Why?”
He was right.
It could.
“He told me he was healing fine, but Enzo said he’s in bad shape. I guess the king delivered a gift basket in apology after he realized there was never anything romantic between me and Silas.”
Fletcher snorted. “A gift basket ? I bet it was the same shit he dropped off for me with his thank you for keeping my future mate safe card.”
“Yeah. Look at this.”
I opened up the picture of Silas’s card and handed my phone to Fletcher as we walked through the cafeteria doors.
“Sorry about the injuries. Thanks for protecting her for me. I owe you one. But if you ever touch her again, I’ll feed you your own intestines before I rip out your heart.” He laughed, loudly. “Fuck, that’s good.”
People were staring at us. Everyone was.
My face was warm, but Fletcher didn’t slow down. He was used to it. People had always gawked at him because of what he was. Alphas as strong as him were rare, even if there were a bunch of them near his power level in Enzo’s pack. He was used to being the biggest, the toughest, and the scariest.
“He delivered it himself?” Fletcher asked.
“Apparently.”
“Who delivered what?” Jake checked, as I took the empty chair between him and some guy I didn’t know. Fletcher pulled up a chair from the other side of the table, and Jake scooted over.
“Oh, nothing,” Fletcher said, his gaze sweeping the table like he was checking for threats.
He probably was. It was technically his job, now.
He handed back my phone. Everyone was curious, but Fletch would never tell any of my stories without permission.
Silas’s whole pack knew what had happened with him and the king, so it wasn’t a secret. Word would spread eventually, if it hadn’t already.
And if I told my brother’s friends what had happened, it could help me become friends with them too. Then, I might have a few more allies in the pack. I needed that.
Especially if Enzo was going to revert to the pre-broken-ankle version of himself and leave a shit ton of distance between us. I was tired of being alone all the time and always hiding from everyone.
“The Alpha,” I explained, passing my phone to Jake. “He personally delivered this card to my old… boyfriend.”
It wasn’t the right label for Silas. He would probably be disgusted by the idea. At the very least, he would be extremely opposed to it. But how else was I supposed to explain our connection?
The guys passed my phone around the table, laughing and talking animatedly about how vicious the Alpha was.
They were proud of him.
I wasn’t sure whether to be amused or disturbed by that. Maybe some of both. Crimson Pack culture was so much different than any other I’d belonged to. It didn’t revolve around groupies and relationships; it revolved around pack structure and responsibilities.
That didn’t seem like a bad thing to me.
But then again, I was biased. Spending the night before climaxing on their Alpha’s face and the morning with his gigantic cock buried inside me ensured that.
I needed to get my head back in the game.
Off of Enzo, more specifically.
Mainly, I just needed to figure out a way to neutralize everything I was feeling.
It was all a lot.
But what we had was only sex. Just the first good sex of my life.
And I knew it had been good for him too. He’d made that clear.
But he left right after we got back.
So… yeah.
It was fine.
I’d figure it out.
Probably.
“What’s the Alpha’s cabin like?” Jake asked. “No one knows exactly where it is. Even his brothers don’t go there.”
“He only took me because it’s dangerous when I go through heat,” I explained quickly, worried they would think Enzo and I were closer than we were.
Fletcher didn’t look thrilled by my admission, but I didn’t see why it needed to be a secret. Everyone knew what I was. If scientists were ever allowed to use my blood, they might be able to make a lot more female werewolves.
Even if they didn’t, Enzo would eventually find out what my real gift was, and force me to turn a bunch of women for him. My life and the supposed freedom I was going to have were all ticking time bombs. None of it would truly last.
“Heat?” one of them asked.
I ended up explaining the process quickly, without any of the gritty details like knotting or how long it took. I also made up some BS about it only working on Enzo after we were mated, because Fletcher looked more like he was going to shit another brick with every piece of information I added.
Guess he wanted to keep it secret.
“Damn. So you didn’t even get a good look at the place because you were too busy screwing?” Jake checked. None of them asked too many questions about heat. They could probably see that Fletcher was pissed I was talking about it.
Fletcher growled a warning, and Jake lifted his hands, though his grin was wide and obvious. “Sorry, man.”
“I had time to look around. It’s a beautiful cabin,” I said with a shrug.
They all leaned closer.
They wanted the details.
“There are three bedrooms,” I said, “But I only saw one. It was big. The bed was massive. There was a gigantic shower, and a big soaker tub. No dead bodies or severed limbs used as decorations, surprisingly.”
A few of the guys exchanged grins.
Enzo was both an asshole and an enigma, so I didn’t blame them for wanting to know about his secret sanctuary.
I would’ve been curious too. Hell, I was curious too. Even if I was trying to pretend otherwise.
“There were a surprising number of books,” I said, not sharing the genres. His love of spies was private. That detail was mine. “A massive kitchen, too. I’m sure you guys know that he likes to cook.”
Nods went around the table.
I itched to ask if they knew why he rarely ate in the cafeteria, but I was supposed to be his mate. I shouldn’t have to ask them why he preferred to cook his own meals so often.
Even if everyone knew he had basically abducted me.
“That’s really all there is to it. It’s just a nice cabin.”
Fletcher changed the topic to something about a training session they’d all been through, and they all welcomed me into the conversation like I belonged. Like I wasn’t just the wolf chick the Alpha had claimed with his claws. Like I was one of them.
Part of the pack.
It made me ache, in the best way.