Maggie's Wolves, Part Four: A BBW Shifter Romance (Red Mountain Pack Book 4) (2 page)

She fisted a hand in Declan’s hair, pulling his head back until he looked her in the eyes. She could see his wolf there, ascendant. She’d never seen that before—the wolf so clearly in charge of the man.

“Stop this.”

He actually growled at her.

She growled back.

“Even if you kill him, it won’t make you alpha. You can’t take control of this pack. It’s my pack. I get to choose who stays in it.”

For a moment, she thought Declan would shake off her hand. He was far stronger than she was. His powerful muscles were locked now, but she could feel them tremble. Feel the effort it took him to restrain himself, to keep from pulling her into the fight and hurting her too. He was
allowing
her to handle him now.

After a tense pause, Declan released Case. At first she felt nothing but relief, but then Declan pushed himself to his feet. He towered over her. Two hundred and something pounds of angry shifter. She took a step back. His eyes flared with triumph, and she realized her mistake.

Planting her feet, she set her hands on her hips. “Hurt any of them and I will never choose you.”

His mouth twisted. “You really think you have a choice?”

“I have a choice.”

He caught her chin and tipped her face up. “The wolf chooses, not you. If you think otherwise, you’re fooling yourself.”

“I control the wolf, not the other way around.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “Is that right?”

She nodded.

“Where on earth did you come from? What pack would teach such a ridiculous thing?”

She didn’t answer. She wasn’t sharing anything as personal as her past with him until he quit being such an asshole.

He leaned down, bringing his face close enough that she could feel the heat of his breath feather across her skin. Holding her gaze with his unnaturally pale eyes, he said, “I could always kill you. That would solve any number of problems.”

Case climbed to his feet. “But you won’t. If you hurt a hair on her head, you won’t leave this territory alive.”

Declan turned his head to look at Case. “That’s how it is?”

“That’s how it has to be. You know that. Don’t pretend otherwise,” Case said. Somehow he managed to keep his voice calm and steady. “No one is trying to push you out. If I’d wanted you out, I wouldn’t have tracked you down. If I’d wanted you out, I’d have killed you sooner.”

Declan went very still. His fingers tightened on her chin, and she jerked away. The motion seemed to surprise him. He glanced at her apologetically and then turned back to Case. “I don’t know why you expected me to see this as anything but a betrayal.”

Case made an exasperated sound. “Because I expected you to trust me, not jump to the worst interpretation of things. She was alone in a tiny cabin near the property Eli went to look at. She was already in heat and had no idea what it meant. This wasn’t something we negotiated behind your back. It just…happened, and we’re all dealing with it as best we can.”

Declan shook his head. “You keep dealing with it. I want no part.”

Case paled.

As Declan moved to leave the room, Eli caught his arm. In a low voice, he said, “Give it two days. You owe us that much. None of us wants you to leave.”

Dec smiled grimly and tilted his head toward Maggie. “Except her. She’s already made her decision.”

Case’s brows lifted. “Can you blame her with the way you reacted? We know the reason behind it, but all she sees is a shifter who attacked her mate. How else would you want her to respond?”

Declan looked at her, his eyes cool and assessing. It wasn’t a friendly expression, but he didn’t seem angry at her.

He gave a slight nod. “Two days.”

Chapter Two

Maggie left the two bloody men in the wreck of a great room with Eli acting as mediator. Not that she thought Eli would be much help keeping them apart if they decided to go after one another. For some crazy reason, Eli seemed happy about what had happened. He’d said it was about time. About time!

What the hell did that even mean?

Maggie paused in the doorway when she saw that Carson was in the kitchen. Her gaze swept the room. “Where’s Jack?”

Carson glanced over his shoulder, saw her, and looked down at the island with a frown. “Out. He’ll be back in a few minutes if you want to make use of his services.”

She flinched. Carson made what had happened between her and Jack sound so dirty. It wasn’t anything like that. It had been beautiful and right. She didn’t regret a thing.

“Fuck you.”

She walked to the refrigerator. Carson dropped a generous serving of whiskey into his glass and downed half of it with his first swallow. Cradling the glass in his elegant hand, he leaned against the granite countertop. “Come to gloat?”

“Why on earth would I gloat?”

She opened the freezer door to look for an ice pack or bags of peas. Maybe a nice steak. The freezer was fully stocked with neatly wrapped cuts of meat. They probably hunted the animals themselves. She wondered if they butchered their kills. At the bottom of the freezer in a big bin, she found a few ice packs and grabbed two.

After closing the door with her hip, she turned to find Carson staring at her. “You stole Jack from me.”

She shook her head. “Can’t steal a person. Jack is a big boy. I didn’t force him into anything. It seems to me that if he’d wanted to have a relationship with you, he’d already have done it.”

“We have a relationship. We’re pack. That’s a stronger bond than physical attraction. Stronger than sex or love.”

“Jack doesn’t love me. He hardly knows me.” She’d give Carson that, but it was all she was conceding. “And you
were
pack. He’s my pack now.”

And if Carson and Declan couldn’t handle that then there was no way in hell she was claiming either one of them. She was done bending over backwards trying to make everyone happy. She’d be damned if she would stand by watching her pack mates bleed because Declan and Carson saw her as a weak link. She wasn’t going to let herself be manipulated so that they could hurt the people she loved.

Damn it.
Not love. Case, Eli and Jack were her pack. They were bound to each other with ties that were stronger than love. But it wasn’t love. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if she got confused about that now.

“Don’t get drunk,” she said to Carson. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Carson lifted his glass in salute and downed the rest of his whiskey in a long swallow. Shaking her head, she walked back into the living room.

Declan still sat on the sofa where she’d left him. Case was on the floor with his back to the wall. She called Declan’s name and tossed him one of the ice packs. He caught it easily and grunted something that she chose to interpret as an expression of gratitude.

Kneeling beside Case, she gently pressed the ice pack to his swollen cheek. He started to smile and then winced.

“You didn’t need to bother with that. We just needed a minute to discuss a few things and then we’ll shift. The change will take care of the worst of it.”

“What do you need to discuss?”

His eyes cooled as he glanced at Declan. “A few ground rules. It’s sorted.”

“If it’s about me, I’d like to know what the ground rules are.” She looked from one man to the other.

“I can’t touch you until you ask for it,” Declan said.

Until she asked… She snorted. “That’s not going to happen.”

He grinned. “We’ll see.”

Chapter Three

Case and Declan left the house together, seeming to have forgotten that only minutes ago they’d been at each others’ throats. Maggie watched out the window as they darted for the tree line, fleet, dark shadows against the blinding white snow. Case’s wolf was brown. Declan’s was slightly larger and nearly black. Case ran a step ahead of Declan, but both wolves moved in perfect pace.

She felt Eli come up behind her a moment before his hand settled on her nape. “They’re close,” she said.

“They were the first two members of the pack. Like brothers even then.”

“They fight like enemies.”

Eli laughed softly. “Declan knows exactly how to get under Case’s skin. You’re shaking.”

She’d been running from Case, the heat rushing sweet and fast in her veins. Her desire hadn’t exactly crashed during the fight. It had become…strange. More hectic and less focused. Her skin felt too tight.

She touched the window, the glass cold under her fingertips. “I wish I could run now.”

Eli kissed the top of her head. “Soon.”

He turned her around. His hands cupped her face to kiss her tenderly and then slid down her throat to her bare shoulders.

Startled, she laughed.

When Eli pulled back, she said, “I’d forgotten that I wasn’t wearing a shirt. How could I forget something like that?”

“I don’t mind. I’m sure no one else will complain.”

“Carson might.”

“Carson likes the female form as well as the rest of us. His relationship with Jack is complicated, but he won’t object to the sight of your bare breasts.”

“How complicated?”

“Complicated enough that you can’t fix it for them. You’re going to have to let them sort it out on their own.”

“What if they don’t?”

His smile faded. “Then they don’t. We won’t hold someone who wants to leave.”

She leaned back, settling her shoulders against the thick pane of glass. Goosebumps rose on her skin, but she ignored them. “Is it even possible to bind someone to a pack they don’t want to be a part of?”

“The mating ties, once placed, are unbreakable. Close your eyes. You can feel the bond if you focus on it.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she did as he asked. He placed his hand on her chest between her breasts, over her heart. The warm weight was both soothing and arousing. It made her aware of the thud of heart. Still a bit too fast. The fight had her riled. She could feel Eli’s heartbeat too, slow and steady. Her heart slowed to match his. She was aware of more than his heartbeat. She felt the breath rushing in and out of his body. The heat and scent of his skin. His growing arousal and, deeper, the essence of the person he was. The man who’d found a lost wolf in the wild and taken her into his pack, even knowing that it might destroy them. Strong enough to take the risk. Generous and hopeful enough in his love to believe that she would be accepted. She could feel his… his fondness for her.

Her eyes fluttered open to meet his. He stared back, his eyes dark, shadowy blue, fixed and solemn.

“You like me,” she said, hearing the wonder in her own voice.

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Surely you don’t need the bond to feel that.”

She swallowed hard, feeling tears burn behind her eyes. Eli’s image blurred and loomed closer. He kissed her, his lips brushing her mouth, the crest of her cheek, her temple.

“Shh,” he said softly. “I told you it will be all right. It will. It wasn’t reckless to bring you here. I know the men of my pack. There might be some rough spots as everyone adjusts, but it will all come out okay in the end. Carson and Declan…what happened today isn’t a rejection of you.”

“I know.”

His thumb stroked across her lower lip. “Do you?”

She didn’t answer, but he didn’t press her. Instead, he lowered his head for a kiss. She opened for him easily, eagerly, all of her hectic energy finding sudden focus. His tongue slipped between her parted lips to rub against hers. He stroked her slowly, enjoying the moment, inviting her to linger in it with him. She tasted coffee, a faint hint of mint from the toothpaste he’d used that morning. Eli. She tasted her mate, the first man who’d ever kissed her like this. The one who’d thrown open the doors to this strange world and welcomed her inside. The man who’d always be there for her when she needed him.

Like right now.

His hands smoothed down her back, squeezing her flesh at the dip in her waist and then pushing her pants—the stupid ugly borrowed sweatpants—down around her knees. She wriggled out of them and kicked them to the side as Eli unclasped his belt and jeans. Bending, he curved his hands around her thighs and lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his hips and leaning against her. Her shoulders hit the cold glass. She made a small sound of distress and Eli lifted his head to look down at her.

“Someone will see.”

He smiled. “Only Case and Declan. Consider it their punishment. They could be in here with us. Instead, they left you all keyed up and hungry. I say we make them regret it.”

“How?”

“Like this.” Pinning her to the glass with his hips, he moved one of his hands to her throat and forced her head back.

His big hand spanned her entire jaw. To a wolf, baring your neck was the ultimate form of submission. Another wolf could rip out your throat in an instant. Even in this form, Eli could kill her just by squeezing his hand. He could sink his too-sharp-to-be-human teeth into her jugular and tear the delicate pulsing veins. He could control her completely. Hurt her badly. But Maggie knew that he never would. Not in a million years.

He was asking for her trust, and she gave it willingly.

The fabric of his shirt scraped against her nipples, lightly abrasive. The edge of his zipper pinched her thigh as he shifted his hips. His hand left her. He shoved aside the fabric to position his cock and then he entered her, filling her slowly, thick inch by devastating inch.

The way he held her, pinned between his body and the glass, prevented her retreat. When he was planted as deep as he could go, he held himself there. Dropping his mouth to her ear, he said, “They’re out there right now, watching you. Watching me fuck you.”

His fingers cupped her ass, spreading her, and he somehow pushed himself even deeper. Eli was so big. She would never be able to take him at the same time as any of the others. She felt her cheeks warm. Three days. It had taken her three days to go from being untouched to contemplating orgies.

Eli flexed his hips, lifting her body slightly and then letting gravity drive her down onto his waiting cock. Slow and smooth, he fucked her while Declan and Case watched them through the big glass window.

Eli’s teeth closed around her earlobe, and he sucked it into his mouth. The tickle of his breath caused her to squirm, and he laughed softly, gripping her hips to hold her steady. Moving lower, his lips found a sensitive spot at the edge of her jaw. He touched his tongue to her fluttering pulse and she turned her head to allow him better access. The warm rasp of his tongue caused a shiver to chase over her skin.

“You’re delicious,” he said before kissing her collarbone. “I want to taste every inch of you. Learn what touches make you blush and which ones make you moan.”

He sipped her skin into his mouth and pinched it with his teeth, making her entire body jerk. A sharp, bright pain. Her muscles clenched around his cock. He groaned and did it again. The muscles in his back bunched as he moved inside her. She dug her fingers into his shoulders to hold on.

She couldn’t really hurt him. A few scratches. If he wished, he could shift as soon as they were done and erase the marks from his body. Deep wounds left scars, along with the ones that healed on the human body. She would always bear the mating marks. She couldn’t shift until the heat was over, and by then they’d be a permanent part of her.

She didn’t mind. Eli didn’t seem to mind her marking him either. He seemed to take it as encouragement. Maybe it was the angle but his cock seemed bigger, harder. His thrusts more forceful.

She bit his neck, taking his skin between her teeth and licking him to taste the sweat on his skin. He used his shoulders and the glass behind her to support her weight. The hands wrapped around her thighs held her open and spread, completely vulnerable as he rammed into her again and again.

Her breath came in short, gasping pants. With every thrust, his cock nudged deeper. His abdomen struck her clit with a pounding beat. Higher and higher, he pushed her, making her lose control with him.

She didn’t want to lose control. Declan was wrong. Her wolf wasn’t in charge. She was in charge and…

Oh, fuck.

She cried out Eli’s name as she came. Her nails pierced his skin. He sank his tongue into her mouth. His hands pushed at her hips, sealing her body around his cock. His cock pulsed with the force of his orgasm. She could feel the spreading heat of his come as he filled her.

She clung to him, sated and trembling, whispering his name. Eventually, his hands eased on her hips. Her feet fell to the floor, and Eli steadied her until her legs supported her weight. When he pulled back to straighten his clothing, she saw Carson standing in the doorway. His shoulder against the jamb, he held the glass tumbler of whiskey in his hand. It looked as though he’d been there for some time. Wolflight glowed in the dark depths of his eyes, but his face was expressionless.

Without a word, he straightened and turned away. She let out an unsteady breath, and Eli bent to kiss her forehead. “Feel better?”

She nodded and pushed her tangled hair away from her face. She did feel better. The heat had faded anyway. She glanced out the window. Declan and Case were gone, but there were tracks in the snow just outside the window. She didn’t know how long they would run. She’d have to face Declan again when they came back. She’d have to get around to talking to Carson, too. But she wasn’t ready yet. She felt rubbed raw, tender and vulnerable.

“Is there someplace I can go to relax for a while? I think I need a little bit of privacy.”

Eli didn’t even question her need to be alone. He simply took her hand and led her toward the stairs. “Are you tired? Do you want to lie down?”

“No. A bedroom would be fine though.”

She just needed to be alone for a few minutes. Some time to think things through.

Eli smiled. “I have a better idea.”