Claimed by the Alphas: Part Four (3 page)

Shortly after leaving the meeting with River and Fern, Asch found himself standing outside of Mila’s room. He hadn’t expected her to be there. Now that she was becoming more comfortable around the pack, she spent most of her days in the central cavern, rather than holed up in her bedroom.

He walked over to the bed, picking up the black pelt that rested on top of the blankets. He brought it up to his nose, i
nhaling his mate’s potent scent before throwing it over his shoulder and heading back into the passageway.

Unable to focus,
all of the things he should have been thinking about, namely Blackthorn, had taken a backseat to thoughts of Mila and the impending thrall.

When they had been juveniles, Caim had asked Asch to describe the mating thrall.
Despite being fourteen, Caim had been far from sexually inexperienced, and yet Asch had struggled to explain the all-consuming lust he’d nearly succumbed to.

“It starts off like a nagging feeling in the back of your head,” Asch had told him. They had been sitting in the bed of his truck, a half day’s drive out from town
. Caim had insisted the distance and the mountain air would help Asch clear his mind, and he’d been right. “It feels like you’re forgetting something, but every time you try and remember, your dick gets hard.”

Looking unimpressed by the explanation, Caim had responded, “I believe it is just your lack of control.”

“Believe me, my dick is the one thing I can control. This was, I don’t know, it was just different. My body was reacting to her and I tried to ignore it, and then fight it, and then it just…It was like something inside of me had just snapped and all I could think was that she was mine. It wasn’t even about sex. All I wanted was to get her pregnant, like some sort of fucking animal marking its territory. If you hadn’t been there…I would have ruined that poor girl.”

It had been a while since Asch had thought about
that low point in his life. As he entered the central cavern, he was reminded why.

Mila.

She sat next to Gem and Brae on the dais. Rose was behind her, fixing her glossy brown hair into a large braid. In her skin-tight jeans and her generous scoop-neck top, Mila looked delectable. With the added lure of her heat, Asch found himself fighting for control of his body.

As he made his way to the dais, he noted that the other males had already cleared out of the den. Undoubtedly they could smell her impending heat as well, but were unlikely to be as affected as their alphas. They had imprinted on Mila, making it impossible to ignore the call of her body.

This time, Asch wouldn’t have to hold back.

~~~

Mila may not have gotten the confrontation she’d wanted, but she had gotten the dais, so at least that was something.

After the fight had broken up, Sable had left the den, leaving Mila with two abject friends to attend to. Despite her best efforts, Brae still looked miserable, but Rosie
’s mood had brightened as soon as Mila had offered up her nails for painting. She decided it must have been a pride thing. Rosie was used to being picked on and degraded, but Brae was in a much higher position in the pack. Not as high as Sable’s, apparently.

Rosie painted Mila’s
nails, and then moved behind Mila to braid her hair. Mila tried to distract herself by focusing on Rosie and Gem’s conversation, but for once in her life, she couldn’t bring herself to be interested in a discussion on different types of nail polish. She tried engaging Brae in conversation, but she was impossibly gloomy and there was just no helping it.

Mila noticed him before the other women
did, a fact that made her both proud and a little scared. It was as if she had a sixth sense that existed solely to feel her alphas when they were near. Every nerve in her body tingled with an acute awareness and her eyes would immediately seek them out.

As comfortable as she was becoming with the pack’s nudity, seeing Asch naked always affected her.
He was a large man with bronze skin and the most beautifully sculpted chest she had ever seen in her life. Unlike Caim, Asch spent most of his time in his human form, taunting Mila with his gorgeous abs and perfect bone structure. She wanted him every time she saw him, and tonight was no exception.

Their eyes locked, and Asch held her gaze as he cleared the room in purposeful strides.
As he neared the dais, the other women took notice of him. Rosie shifted uncomfortably behind Mila, while Brae and Gem perked up.

“Good night, Asch,” Brae said by way of greeting. Typically Mila could overlook Brae’s thinly-veiled affection for Asch, but for some
reason when she looked at Brae, she couldn’t keep her lip from curling. When she realized that Asch was still staring at her, Mila had the grace to look embarrassed.

He glanced between the females, grinning. “Ladies, if I may.”

Brae and Gem stood in unison, excusing themselves. Rosie quickly finished with the braid she was working on and patted Mila on the shoulder, before joining the others. It never ceased to amaze her how obedient the pack members were towards their alphas.

“Very smooth,” she said, watching her friends vacate the dais. Asch squatted down in front of her, picking up one of her feet.

“You painted your toenails,” he remarked, examining her foot. She smiled, wiggling her toes.

“Rosie did it.”

Asch sat, pulling her foot into his lap. With both hands, he began massaging her, applying deep, hard pressure with his thumbs. Mila leaned back, bracing herself
on her arms. With her legs parted before him, the position was very intimate, but she took solace in the fact that they were in public. Even if Asch didn’t have reservations about feeling her up in front of the pack, she certainly did.

He massaged her thoroughly, starting on her heel and working his way up, digging his thumbs into the arch of her foot and massaging the mounds below her toes.
Rather than relaxing her, the intimate gesture made her pulse quicken. 

As he began to work his way up her calf, Mila
raked her teeth along her bottom lip. Despite all of his attractive body parts, she had a major thing for Asch’s hands. They were big, but not brawny; calloused, but still nimble, and they were wicked as sin. His long fingers were multi-talented—they always knew when and where to brush, caress, and apply the right amount of force to make her body throb.

Mila shifted, trying to covertly press her thighs together. When she saw Asch’
s nostrils flare she inwardly winced, knowing that he could smell her arousal.

“Who taught you how to give such a good massage?”
she asked, not sure if she was trying to distract him, or herself.

“
I’m very attentive,” he told her. His eyes ran the length of her body before settling on her face. “While I’m touching you, I pay close attention to your breathing, the pace of your heartbeat, your scent…”

He trailed off as his hand slipped between her inner thighs,
the ball of his thumb rolling over her sensitive patch. Mila let out a quivering breath, her inner muscles clenching with need. His hands moved to her hips and he leaned over, pressing his forehead against hers.

His scent—masculine and woodsy—filled her nose, making her body tingle. Powerless to stop herself, Mila wet her lips in anticipation.
Before she could pull her tongue back, Asch caught it between his teeth, sucking it into his mouth.

With a growl, he pushed her back onto the hard floor, his hungry mouth moving acro
ss hers at a feverish pace. The noises of the cavern faded away, being replaced with the loud thrumming of her heartbeat and the sound of Asch’s heavy breathing as he took possession of her mouth.

Her mind was scattered, thoughts rolling away from her like spilled marbles. It should have bothered her that they were in plain view of the pack, but the only things that mattered were hips lips, his tongue, and his hands—hands that were pulling her hips against his, grinding his
stiff length against her.

As her flesh heated, t
he clothes that had been so comfortable a few moments earlier now seemed tight and restrictive. They scratched against her sensitive skin, and all she wanted was to rip them off and be naked beneath her mate. Her hands fumbled with the button on her jeans. If she could just get them off, Asch could be inside of her, giving her everything that she needed so badly.

Mila let out a wretched noise of protest as Asch pulled back suddenly. Cool air brushed against her sweat-dampened skin, bringing her mind back to reality
, a reality in which she’d wanted to have sex with Asch in the middle of the central cavern—and still did. She sat up, running a plaintive hand across his hard chest, but his attention was diverted. Frowning, she turned her head to the side to see an irritated-looking Caim.

She blinked, and then blinked again, trying to gather her runaway thoughts as the two males glared at one another. Her first impulse was to ask Caim if he wanted to join them, but as her eyes darted around the room, taking in the numerous onlookers, Mila bowed her head, her face heating.

What had come over her? Asch had gone from zero to sixty in an instant, and she had been right there with him.

Sounding disgruntled, Caim said, “It is time for us to leave.”

Mila glanced back up. “Leave?”

“We’re going to head out to the den,” Asch told her, his posture relaxing somewhat. He seemed to have cooled off a little, though his fingers were still tightly gripping her hips.

“What den? We’re already in the den.”

“No,” Asch said. He brought a hand up to smooth out her hair. “We’re going to go somewhere where we can continue this in private.”

Near the edge of the valley, where the land met the mountain range, thick trees sprung from the ground and gathered in obstructive clusters. No path had been worn into the
carpet of moldering leaves, but Caim’s brisk pace never faltered as he deftly navigated the night forest.

The scenery blew by at a dizzying speed, and after a little while Mila closed her eyes and leaned back into Asch. He kept his arms firmly banded around her, though his hands could not stay still. Restlessly, they squeezed her hips and kneaded on her thighs
. Combined with his hot breath on the nape of her neck and his relentless erection pressed against her backside, Mila found herself struggling to maintain the sobriety she desperately needed.

The ride to the den wouldn’t last forever, and it was very unlikely that either alpha was going to be feeling conversational when they stopped. It would be up to her to
act as the voice of reason. There were important things they needed to discuss.

Realistically, she didn’t think she was going to be able to convince either of them to wait until she was ready to be a mom. She was still going to try, and if that didn’t work, they could at
least lay down some ground rules.

For one, she was not going to be cattle. She knew from the sparse details in
Wolves of the Cordilleras
that the first mating thrall was the strongest, and that in the future the males would have at least some level of control over their biological urges. She was going to make sure they were all in agreement about how many children she was going to have, which was two. She’d have the first one, and in a few years she’d have another with whichever alpha didn’t father the first one.

For two,
they needed to explain to her what exactly they planned to do about her giving birth. If they thought she was going to have a baby in a cave without doctors or drugs, they were out of their freaking minds.

And for three, Caim was done with his ‘favorites.’ This one troubled her the most, because it seemed selfish of her to expect him to stay faithful to her when she was also sharing her bed with Asch. They were the ones that brought her into this situation though, and if Caim expected her to have his child
then the least he could do was not screw Lotus and Sable.

All she could hope was that she’d be able to keep her hormones in check long enough to get through the discussion.

The den was much smaller than Mila had anticipated. Three large oaks stood sentry in front of the entrance, which was carved into the mountainside. It was much smaller than she’d anticipated. Neither man would be able to get in without ducking, and they definitely wouldn’t be able to enter in their wolf forms.

Asch dismounted, pulling Mila down with him. Holding onto her hips, he turned her so that they were face to face.

Nodding towards the den, he said, “This is where we’ll be staying for the next few days.”

Her eyes bulged.
“Days?”

“I am tired. You should scout the perimeter before we retire.” Caim had shifted behind them. He
draped an arm over Mila’s shoulders. “I will get her settled in.”

Asch’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Haven’t you taken care of it already?” He sniffed at the air. “Your scent is all over the area.”

Caim pulled Mila against his chest. She felt him shrug before he said, “I must have passed through while hunting.”

“Fine,” Asch said, his upper lip curling with displeasure.

Despite his disgruntlement, he leaned down to press a kiss to Mila’s cheek. His mouth brushed against the corner of her lips, sending an unexpected bolt of desire down her spine.

Eyes lingering on her lips, he said, “I’ll be back soon.”

Backing away, he shifted into a tall, coppery wolf and set out into the woods. Mila watched after him, but his large form quickly disappeared behind the trees.

Caim entered
the den first, lowering his head as he entered the narrow passageway. Mila followed closely behind. Rather than going in a straight line, the passage dipped and curved, growing increasingly darker as she descended. She put her hand on Caim’s back, allowing him to guide her as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Mostly to make conversation, she remarked, “I don’t see why he has to go scouting the area when we’re still in the valley.”

Offhandedly, he replied, “He is making sure there are no cats.”

Mila laughed to herself, mentally picturing the giant wolf running around the forest, chasing house cats up
a tree. She knew that Caim had a sense of humor, but he didn’t usually joke with her.

“That’s just silly,” she said as they came to a stop. The walls around her had opened up, and she presumed they were in some sort of small cavern, but she still couldn’t see well enough to make any anything more than dark shapes.

She moved to feel her way around the room, but Caim’s hands shot out, grasping her hips. Before she could complete a thought, Mila found herself pressed up against the stone wall, trapped by Caim’s muscular body.

“What are you—
”

Caim’s mouth came down on hers, hard and demanding.
Responding without thinking, she immediately opened her mouth. He let out a grunt of pleasure and thrust his tongue deep inside her mouth.

She was only vaguely aware of the jagged wall biting into her back, or the
dull pain of Caim’s teeth as he handled her lips none too gently. Her physical perception expanded in the darkness, and she felt him in ways she never had before. The heat that radiated off of his body and into hers. The scratch of his facial hair as his mouth moved over hers. The sound of his powerful heart pounding against his ribcage.

Caim pushed her legs apart with his knee, settling his throbbing arousal between her legs. She let go of the pelt, her greedy hands seeking out the bulging muscles of his chest.
With his huge body, he made her feel small and delicate in a way that was both frightening and addicting.

Most nights, Caim lavished attention on her breasts
. He loved squeezing them in his hands, pinching and tugging at her nipples. He could take her nipple into his mouth, sucking and nipping until she was so tender that a single flick of his tongue could send her spiraling over the edge.

Tonight, he made no move for her breasts. Instead his hands went to the fly of her jeans. She let out a small sound of protest as she felt him pop the button open. He ignored her, unzipping her pants and then moving to tug them down past her hips.

Mila pushed at his chest, and when that didn’t work, brought her hands up to his neck. So far it was the only way she had learned to stop him when he became too overbearing.

Caim pulled back from her face, letting out a sharp breath through his nostrils. “What?” he seethed.

Still breathing heavily, she told him, “You’ve gotta slow down. There’s stuff we have to talk about.”

“I do not have the patience for you games.”

She clicked her tongue impatiently. “I’m not messing with you. Asch will be back soon, and then we can all sit down like three civilized adults that are about to commence in a life-long commitment to one another.”

Releasing her from his hold, Caim took a few steps back. She staggered forward, letting out a sigh of relief. Her respite didn’t last long. Grabbing her by the arm, Caim pulled her
farther into the room. She felt something soft between her toes before her pushed her back onto a bed of furs.

With his usual air of entitlement, Caim said, “I need to be inside of you. We will talk later.”

He came down on the bed, moving to straddle her. Mila kicked her feet up, bracing them against his chest. It was enough to give him pause.

“I said no.”

“You said we needed to talk. We will talk. Later.”

Stamping her foot against him for emphasis, she said, “I make the rules, and I say we talk first.”

“Talking will serve to do nothing but delay the inevitable.”

As always, he was right, but that didn’t mean she had to agree with him. She cursed and kicked at him as he removed her pants, seeming
ly oblivious to her struggle. Once her pants were off, he restrained her unruly legs with one heavily muscled thigh and then removed her top and bra.

Once she was naked, Caim blanketed her body with his, pinning her to the floor.
At the feel of his bare skin against hers, the lust that she’d tried to shake off came back in full-force. Liquid heat pooled between her thighs, and her body began to throb with anticipation.

No matter how much her mind rebelled, her body was hoping that he ignored her protests. She needed to feel him, thick and hard and moving inside of her. When his mouth covered hers, Mila realized that everything else could wait, because the only thing she did know for certain was that she couldn’t deny him.

Caim positioned himself between her legs, but made no move to enter her. On some level, she recognized that he was holding back, his control hanging by a thread. Maybe he was waiting for Asch to return or he was trying to be considerate of the fact that she had more or less told him to stop, she wasn’t sure.

S
he hooked her legs around his waist and reached between them to grasp his cock, guiding him to her entrance. A feral growl burst out of him, and without hesitation he surged forward, burying himself to the hilt inside of her.

She could feel the desperation in his hard thrust
s, and it spurred her on. Rational thoughts fled her mind as she capitulated to a lust that was more potent than any she had yet experienced.

Caim needed her. He needed
her
. None of the other females in the pack could satisfy his needs, could do for him what she could.