Page 178 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

CLAY

“Hey, have you seen my--”

The sentence cut short as I nudged the bedroom door open to find her asleep. I smirked, stepping into the room quietly and easing the door closed behind me.

Layla and Viv must have the kids. They often took them out for hikes on the weekends so Allie could rest and this Sunday was no different. I licked my lips, wondering how long it would be until they returned.

I’d just come back from patrol, and Jared was filling a large order at the quarry. It was so rare to have a minute with her alone. I’d learned the hard way that three-year-olds had absolutely no respect for privacy or personal space. I wouldn’t change it, but fuck if I didn’t miss her.

I dragged a hand over the stubble on my jaw, inching closer to the woman strewn across the king size bed. Her tan legs tangled in the white sheets. Her hair a wild mane of silvery blonde. The curve of her naked hip and swell of her breasts.

I’d caught her evaluating her new body in the mirror more times than I’d like since she had the twins.

More often than not with a frown. But I saw something different.

A woman who nearly died to protect the new life inside of her.

Who would’ve without question if fate had deemed it a necessary payment for their birth.

I saw beauty. The kind that can’t be manufactured or enhanced with fucking injections and shit.

Hers was the raw kind. The perfect kind.

She muttered something unintelligible in her sleep and I lowered myself to lay next to her, breathing in her scent. The same scent I’d fallen in love with almost eight years ago. So many things had changed, but I hoped that never did.

“Clay…” Allie murmured, tucking herself into me with a sigh.

I brushed my fingers through her hair, biting down hard on my lip when her ass brushed against my cock. “Shhh,” I demanded. “Go back to sleep.”

“Not…tired…” she lied, the words broken up by a yawn.

“Bullshit.”

The twins had kept her up most nights this week and because she was more stubborn than an ox she rarely let us get up with them. Especially since Jared started running night patrols and I took over security for the evening shifts at Grove’s End after the twins started sleeping through the night.

They only recently started to think that 3:00am was a perfectly reasonable time to wake up for the day.

Allie tugged on the sheets, removing the only thing separating us and groaned as her tailbone pressed against my cock.

I grunted, gripping her hip to hold her steady.

“How long do we have?” she murmured, twisting to face me while she continued teasing my erection with her bare ass. Her fingers skated down the length of my jaw, coaxing my face closer to hers.

My lips pulled up at the softness of her stare, still glazed with sleep and downturned at the edges.

“Not long enough,” I told her, stealing the breath from her lips with a hard kiss that made her back arch and a gasp hitch in her throat.

It was never long enough.

Would never be long enough.

Her lips parted for me to sweep in and I lifted her by the hips, seating her on my cock and making her shudder as the length slid over her slick core.

“Hurry,” she pleaded, eyeing the clock on the nightstand. “They’ll be back soon.”

She didn’t have to fucking tell me twice.

I pushed inside, groaning as she clenched around me, a short cry of release on her lips that made her turn away to twist her fingers into the sheets.

I eased out, thrusting back in gently even though every fibre of my being wanted me to take her hard and fast. To leave her blissfully undone in a puddle of sated desire. To fuck her until she couldn’t feel her legs.

Christ, it had been too long since I’d had her alone.

Sharing her with Jared had gotten easier, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I missed this. Craved this.

“Harder,” she urged, and I obliged, gritting my teeth as I increased the pace, thrusting into her as deep as I could go, whispered curses falling from my lips as I felt the beginning of my release.

Not yet.

Allie’s hand snaked low and I felt her fingers brush the base of my cock with each thrust as she touched herself, breathing heavily. Making me even more fucking turned on.

I moaned into her hair, fingers digging into her hips to keep myself from falling from the edge. “Come on, baby,” I whispered harshly, the words fanning over her neck. “I need you to cum.”

She clenched, her pussy tightening and body writhing as she found her release in a long, broken exhale. I tugged her waist, flipping her from her side onto her belly to get deeper, lengthening her climax and spurring my own to a head.

Her shout of ecstasy was muffled by the pillows as I thrust my last, pouring into her with a held breath, teeth grinding.

I pressed a kiss to her back and she shivered, flipping around to wrap her arms tightly around my neck and lock me against her.

“Good morning,” she said in a cheeky voice, biting at my ear.

I snorted. “You mean afternoon?”

She shrugged, sagging, her arms relaxing around me.

“Do we have to get up?” she asked hopefully, nuzzling against my chest. “Can’t we just stay like this?”

“We can’t,” I said. “But you can.”

I slid off and drew the sheet up to cover her. “I’ll go make lunch for when they get back.”

“No,” she argued, reaching for me as I deftly slid out of her reach and off the bed. “Stay.”

I dug around in my dresser for a pair of jeans and cursed, snatching some up off the floor instead when I found none. “I’ll take care of the laundry, too.”

I grabbed the long black t-shirt I’d been wearing yesterday from the chair by the bed but Allie snatched it from my hand before I could put it on, drawing it over her head pulling the collar to her nose to breathe deeply of my scent.

I didn’t like the look of those dark circles under her eyes, but I was glad they weren’t there for worse a reason. It’d been years since we had an incident worth losing sleep over, but even now I could see Allie was just waiting for the hammer to drop.

Some nonsense about having to pay for everything good in her life…

“You should--”

“Nope,” I interrupted. “Go back to sleep.”

Fire raced up my neck as I swiveled to face the window, wincing at a hard tug in my chest.

Allie sat bolt upright, and my nostrils flared, glancing between her and the window.

“Did you feel--”

Charity’s shrill cry sounded like a siren in the distance, the aching soundwaves burrowing deep into my bones.

I’d never moved so fast in my whole damned life.

Liam’s voice rose to meet his sister’s in a howl of pain and as the front door burst from its hinges I realized I could hear Layla and Viv shouting, too.

Allie transformed, launching over my head as though I was the most pitiful hurdle she’d ever had to jump. A spear of black and silver fur locked on target.

I was right behind her, my wolf taking over before I fully gave over to him.

We nearly barreled into several pack members as we wove through camp towards the treeline, skidding to a stop as a small head of silvery blonde hair flashed in the afternoon sun.

Charity thrashed in Vivian’s arms, blood dripping from her chin. Her cutting grey stare fixed on her brother.

“Liam!” Layla snapped, snatching him by the arm to stop him trying to charge at his sister.

His right eye was swollen and he swung his little fists in the air as though he could somehow hit her even though they were several paces apart.

I shifted, kicking off the remains of my favorite jeans. “What’s going on?” I growled and Charity broke out of Layla’s grip, running straight for me.

“Daddy,” she whined, her little arms lifted.

I scooped her up into my arms, wiping at the blood beneath her nose. She immediately stuck her damp face into my shoulder and hid as I rubbed circles into her back.

“Hey, shhh, it’s okay. Want to tell Daddy what happened?”

She shook her head against my shoulder and Allie sent me a deadpan look that conveyed everything she didn’t say. She thought I coddled her too much. When Charity wanted something, she didn’t go to Allie, not even to Jared, she came to me first.

How the hell was I supposed to say no?

She had me wrapped tightly around her little finger--we all knew it.

I was working on it.

My jaw ticked as I turned my attention to Liam, who dropped his eyes with shame the moment mine connected with his.

Allie shifted, going to Liam.

“I don’t know what happened,” Layla said, looking to Vivian for support. “One second they were hunting for huckleberries, the next they were--”

“Like this,” Vivian interrupted, gesturing vaguely at the pair of them.

Liam no longer tried to pull away from Layla, but just stood there with his arms crossed, a pout on his lips and a knot between his brows.

Allie knelt down next to him, placing a comforting hand on his arm. “What’s this all about?”

“Dominance,” came a willowy voice and I spun, readjusting Charity in my arms.

Hazel came around a cabin with Piper on her heels. “It’s time, I think.”

“Time?” Allie asked, looking to me for clarification.

Hazel swatted my arm as she passed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Do you not remember? You and Jared were the same. Always scrapping when the time came. I mended many a broken nose and bruised knuckles when you two came of age.”

“You mean…?” Allie trailed off, paling as she drew little Liam into her arms. “But I thought that wouldn’t be for another year or two.”

“They’re like their mom, I suspect,” Hazel said, bending down to her knees in the grass. “Come here little ones.”

My jaw tightened, but I let little Charity down, giving her a little push to her great grandmother.

Allie didn’t let go of Liam at first, holding him tighter instead.

I gave her an encouraging look even though my heart was pounding, making my face heat and a muscle twitch in my temple.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “They should do it now if they’re ready. The longer they hold it back the worse it will be. Hazel can help them.”