Mated for Keeps Boxed Set: a BBW Werewolf Shifter Romance (The Lost River Pack) (10 page)

“Do it,” Alek said hoarsely.

“
God
,” Damien managed by way of answer, but Natalie didn’t get a chance to ask what they meant. He let go of her waist, grabbed her by the forearms and wrenched her arms behind her. It stole her balance, drove her body forward, but he held her hard, arms straight behind her, clamped against his sides as he thrust inside her. The angle changed. The new position stripped her of leverage, left her helpless in Damien’s grasp as his cock drove deeper than she’d ever felt, harder. No mercy.

No hesitation.

She opened her mouth as her voice rose on a high, helpless wail.

And then lost even that when Alek drove his cock inside, filled her mouth, rubbed deep into her throat. She swallowed reflexively, gagged but couldn’t pull herself away—didn’t even want to as Alek gripped the back of her head and pulled her mouth down on him so hard and fast and deep that her nose bumped the thatch of golden hair art the base of his cock.

Her mind went white.

Her body went wild.

Her voice, muffled against Alek’s flesh, fractured.

Pinned between both brothers, all she could do was hang in Damien’s grip, endure the sweet helplessness they forced on her, and ride the rising tide of her pleasure like a jagged wave.

Damien threw back his head, howling in a voice only partially human as he thrust into her wet flesh.

Alek watched him, watched her, held her as gently as he could even as she
felt
him shaking, felt his cock thicken in her throat. The muscles of his stomach clenched, sharpened to stark relief.

Her shoulders screamed from the pressure, and she knew Damien’s grip on her forearms would leave bruises for at least an hour, and she didn’t care.

She couldn’t.

Her wolf howled in echo of Damien’s triumph.

Her body pulsed in time with them both.

And then Alek stripped the last of her thoughts from her. “Give it to her,” he said, each word slurred. Thick. “Now, Dema. Let her take all of you.”

Yes.

Damien’s guttural acquiescence ended on a ragged sound as his rhythm faltered. His cock slammed inside her, his hips ground against her backside as he dragged every inch of himself against the rippling channels of her sex. The warm balm of his release flooded her. Nudged some spot inside her she hadn’t known existed and sent her flying over the edge.

Alek held out until the last second. Waited until her vision went black and her body gave out before sliding his cock from her mouth to let her scream.

But he wasn’t as giving as that. Wasn’t as patient. Natalie sucked in a breath, her body shaking so hard it was all she could do to remain on her knees. Damien let go of her arms, but wrapped both of his arms around her ribs, hauling her upright. He caught her chin in his hand, rasped something wordless in her ear and forced her mouth open in time for Alek to drive his cock between her trembling lips.

She was ready.

Willing.

Hungry
.

“Take him,” Damien ordered, guttural and deep.

She did. Alek lasted less than a second more in her mouth. His own release flooded her tongue, throttled back into a wild sound caught in his chest. His fingers, twisted and shaking, reached for her head.

Damien grabbed them instead. Pinned them to the side of his neck and held them there as Alek bucked against her, all but doubled over them both from the force of his own orgasm. Pain colored Damien’s grunt, but he held on. Held her pinned between them.

And she swallowed every drop Alek gave her.

It tasted different than Jackson’s. Similar in generalities, but sweeter. Thicker.

Just as satisfying.

Alek didn’t linger in her mouth. As if he hadn’t realized how tightly he’d gripped Damien’s shoulders, he stiffened, jerked himself back.

She let him remove himself from her mouth, but she didn’t let him retreat. She caught him by the waistband of his jeans, crumpled around his knees, and said thickly, “Don’t.”

Maybe they weren’t sure how she’d react. Maybe they were just shy.

Natalie couldn’t be sure, but she knew this much: they loved each other. Were loyal to a fault.

And hurt.

Just another facet of this would-be pack that she was starting to love.

Damien’s arms came around her again, but this time, he only cradled her as she sagged against him.

Alek searched her face, his expression caught somewhere between apology and concern. As warm satisfaction stole the strength from her muscles, all she could do was smile.

His sculpted features softened. “Rest,” he said, reaching down to cup her cheek.

Damien eased her down to the soft rug, his body a warm counterpoint to the cool air. “We’ve got you,” he murmured, and his voice was once more the identical match to his brother’s. No wolf. No fury.

Just something that made her think of wonder.

Alek’s eyes, as icy as they were, no longer made her think of winter. As she allowed herself to fall into sweet lassitude, she couldn’t help but think they carried a message just for her.

Thank you.

No. She didn’t need thanks. They’d done more for her than any of Victor’s men had ever managed, and made her feel amazing while doing it. Natalie didn’t know what pack had kicked Damien out, but they were idiots.

As she drifted into a warm doze, Alek settled on the floor beside her.

“Sasha?” Damien’s voice rumbled against her ear, a soft murmur echoed in his chest.

“Mm?”

“Can we keep her?”

Natalie held her breath.

“Maybe,” Alek murmured. “If she stays.”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. Cradled between both brothers, her eyes opened to stare into the shadows of the room. Dawn crept in around the curtains, drawing pale lines over the floorboards.

Jackson, Ben, Alek and Damien. The only wolf here she hadn’t tested yet was Nico, but what were the odds he’d be the one for her?

If she stayed and couldn’t mate any of them, she’d put them all in danger.

Damien’s breath stirred the hair over her cheek. At her back, Alek draped an arm loosely around her waist and held her against his chest.

Somewhere out there, Jackson, Ben and Nico were all working to build this cabin into a home.

What right did she have to ruin it for them?

T
earing
himself from the study took everything Jackson had. It wasn’t just the fact that Damien danced on a knife’s edge of control. It wasn’t even the fact he’d been ordered.

It was that he didn’t
want
to leave her. Didn’t want to let the others touch her.

Natalie was under his skin in a big way, and Nico knew it.

A problem. Six shades of a problem.

Which was why Ben took one look at Jackson’s face as they strode into the big country kitchen and wordlessly passed him the cup of black coffee he’d just poured for himself.

Jackson took it with a grunt. The bitter taste didn’t do much for his attitude, but at least the fragrance flooded his nose, battered at the lingering scent of sex and Natalie and male wolf.

“Grab your brew,” Nico said, bypassing them both and propping open the kitchen door. “We’ll do this outside.”

Ben’s dark eyebrows lifted, but he didn’t argue. He didn’t have to. Like Jackson, there was no way he’d miss the sounds, the damn
smell
, that filtered through the cabin. It was enough to put Jackson on edge.

Probably enough to fray the fringes of Ben’s legendary calm, too, though he didn’t show it.

Jackson took his cup and forged out into the cool air, taking a deep breath. The ground was dusted with frost, brittle beneath his boots. Winter would roll in hard, laying down feet of snow in just a few months. The woods stretched out as far as he could see, shadowed in the growing dawn light and peppered with birdsong and animal paths.

It was good hunting.

But as much as his wolf prickled at the thought, he couldn’t help the fact that his senses kept straining in the other direction. If he had wolf ears on his head right now, they’d be backwards, eager to hear Natalie’s voice. Her sounds of pleasure, her throaty moans.

Ben stepped out onto the cold ground beside him. “Funny,” he said over the rim of his steaming mug. “Never took you for a masochist.”

Jackson’s lip curled. “Fuck you.”

“Still pretty sure it’s not me you’re hoping to fuck.”

Same words he’d thrown at Jackson in the ride up, but this time, there was an undercurrent to it that said the second-in-command wouldn’t put up with Jackson’s shit for long. Ben didn’t have to resort to growling to get his point across.

Jackson wasn’t stupid. Just…

What? Horny? Hungry?

Rattled?

He dropped his gaze to the mug he held and scowled into the dark liquid. “Yeah.”

“We get it,” Nico said, shutting the door behind him. Unlike the others, he didn’t bother with shoes. If the cold bothered him, he never showed it. The frost melted under his bare feet as he joined Ben and Jackson at the fringes of the clearing. His pale eyes studied the horizon, where trees jutted up against the pink streaks flooding the sky. “You don’t need us to tell you what needs doing.”

“I know.”

“And because you do,” Nico continued mildly, “you know that you need to give her space.”

“I
know
,” Jackson said, rough and impatient. He wrapped both hands around the sturdy ceramic mug, rolling his shoulders in a vain attempt to ease the strain from them. It didn’t help. The breeze carrying with it the sharp smell of winter didn’t help.

He was itchy. Restless.

Not quite looking for a fight, but he wouldn’t turn one down.

He hated to admit it, but Nico was right to yank him out.

“Trust the twins,” Ben said, dark eyes flicking to him.

“I do.”

“More,” he added dryly, again repeating the conversation they’d already had.

Jackson grunted.

“I wouldn’t have pulled you if I didn’t think they could take care of her,” Nico said, easing into a crouch. Unlike Ben, he kept his gaze on the woods. The breeze stirred at the wavy tendrils that escaped the knot he’d pulled his hair into. He scraped a few from his forehead with an absent finger. “While they’re busy, we have bigger problems I wanted to talk to you about before we worry the girl.”

That pulled the self-pity rug right out from under him. Jackson looked sharply at their leader. “Worry her?”

“I made contact with the Yellow Canyon Pack,” Ben answered. He tucked his free hand into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt, steadying his mug against his chest with the other. “They’ve outlined their position.”

Jackson’s guts clenched. “What are they claiming?”

“Breach of contract,” Ben replied, his deep voice as calm as if they discussed the colors streaking the sky and not potential war. “They called us on opening the package and making off with one of their own.”

“The hell—”

Nico cut him off. “She’s theirs, Jackson. She wasn’t kidnapped from somewhere else, she’s not a stray.”

His jaw twitched. “And you believe them?’

“You don’t?”

He opened his mouth to say he didn’t, but something in Nico’s expression stopped him. Something too sharp for the mild way he spoke. Too alert.

A test. How far would Jackson hoist himself on his own erection?

He fought back a surge of frustration.

Jackson really
wasn’t
stupid. He just really, really wanted the Yellow Canyon Pack to fuck off. He sighed. “Do they have any other reason except her to lie to us?”

Their leader’s eyes crinkled a bit with his smile. “The million dollar question.”

“We’ll have to ask her directly,” Ben added.

“
She
won’t lie to us.” Jackson believed it. Even as he realized how absurd he sounded, he believed in her.

Nico studied him thoughtfully. “You think?”

“I know,” he countered.

Ben shrugged slowly. “Maybe not. But even if the Yellow Canyon Pack is lying, we’re still in a shit position. They’re a full pack. We’re a bunch of strays. They have every right to try to dismantle us to get her.”

Damn.
Damn.
Jackson drained his mug because it was better than throwing it. Pack politics weren’t complicated. The strongest wolf lead, the strongest pack took the territory, and a wolf without a legitimate pack was anyone’s meat. Strays played it cool until they could form a pack, and new packs didn’t
start
by taking another pack’s women.

His fingers clamped on the mug. It didn’t crack—Ben had been smart, acquiring handmade mugs for them that were thick and heavy. Harder to break by accident, even with werewolf strength.

Breaking one might make him feel a
little
better, though. Maybe.

Jackson shook it out, instead. The dregs of his coffee splattered the frosted ground. “So they’re coming for us.”

“Probably,” Ben acknowledged. “But they won’t come swinging yet. Sources tell me their alpha’s a dick, but a cunning one. He won’t risk his pack members on unknown odds.”

“They’ll meet with us first?”

“I think so.” Ben raised an eyebrow at Nico. “But I wouldn’t accept anything at face value. They don’t owe us anything.”

Nico clasped his long fingers, balanced easily on the balls of his feet. He rested his chin on his hands, silent for a moment. Birds twittered in the shadow of the woods, welcoming the brightening sky. Off in the distance, a lone wolf howled. The Lost River Valley was home to at least one pack—a pack the werewolves kept from encroaching with their own strength, but otherwise protected.

Hunters didn’t come into the valley much. When they did, they didn’t usually leave again.

Nico had wanted a place to protect. A sanctuary for his mercenaries.

An eventual home.

They’d all signed on for the ride. Even so, Jackson wondered how many of them had expected events to lead to this. To
her.
Natalie Baker, full-blooded female. Curvy, sweet, fucking incredible.

And the so-called property of another pack.

God
, it infuriated him.

Nico reached out to bump his fist against Jackson’s leg. “We’ll get the facts, and then lay down a contingency. I need you to work with Ben and get this prepped.”

“What, exactly?” Jackson asked.

The cool gray of Nico’s animal eyes tipped up to meet Jackson’s. They gleamed. “If it’s war the Yellow Canyon Pack have their heart set on,” he said, his tenor pleasant, “then we’ll deliver.”

Ben sighed—a long, slow exhale. One part frustration. One part acknowledgement. There wasn’t much choice.

“And in the meantime,” Nico added, unfolding to his full height with fluid ease, “we hope Natalie finds among us the mate she needs.” He tipped his head, held Jackson’s gaze with his. They didn’t flare, didn’t fill with anything close to the power Jackson knew he could unleash.

Nico didn’t have to. Not here. Jackson understood.

All too clearly.

He lowered his gaze. “I’ll help Ben. Just…”

Ben’s fingers wrapped around his upper arm. “
Trust
.”

Yeah. Jackson set his jaw and forced himself to nod.

“Good.” Nico grinned, heading back to the kitchen door. “Maybe some of Ben’s charm will rub off.”

“Har har,” Jackson snarled to Nico’s back. The other man laughed.

But he wasn’t exactly wrong. Maybe Jackson was too rough around the edges for Natalie. Maybe Ben wasn’t rough enough.

Maybe the twins would win out where Jackson had failed.

Or Nico’s wolf.

Either way, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. Everything about him wanted to claim her, but Jackson understood what Nico wanted. What the pack needed.

Nico was absolutely right. If it came down to it, if Natalie didn’t choose one of them, there’d be blood. Maybe even hers. He didn’t know how the Yellow Canyon Pack operated, but given they’d shoved her into a box, he didn’t think she’d come out unscathed.

He’d do anything to keep her safe. Even if it meant watching her choose another man.

“Trust,” Jackson growled under his breath, following the second into the woods.

Ben probably heard him—werewolf senses were too sharp not to. But at least he had the courtesy to shut the fuck up.

W
armth permeated her skin
. Not the hungry, savage roll of her body in heat, but the soothing, radiating warmth of skin against skin—of breath on the back of Natalie’s neck and the soft touch of fur under her arm. She opened her eyes, sleep pulling back from her senses slowly, gently. Much softer than she was used to.

Her body thrummed, but not in pain. Not in hunger. Satisfaction filled her skin, made her lips pull into a smile as she stretched between the heavy weight of the man at her back and the wolf cuddled up against her front. Damien had reverted back to his animal form, and even wrapped in tawny fur, he was no small stuffed animal to be gathered against her chest. He was big enough, powerful enough to lay her flat if he wanted to.

The notion tucked a little thrill in her chest.

Only to be swallowed by the loud, aggressive rumble of her stomach.

A chuckle from the door had her pushing up on one elbow, awkwardly shoving the heavy mass of her hair away from her face. Blinking the vestiges of sleep from her eyes, it took her a moment to realize that Alex’s hand had locked over her naked hip. Damien’s hind paw braced against her bare thigh. She couldn’t tell if the former had woken up, but Damien’s ears flicked as she muffled a yawn. “Good morning,” she rasped, throaty from sleep.

She wasn’t sure it
was
morning, but the light pooling over the study floor looked right. Mid-morning, maybe.

Not that it mattered. “Morning,” Nico said softly, his grin wide and alert. His wolfish eyes slipped across the three of them, loosely tangled in the knot they’d made after soothing her body, and stopped on her face with searching affection. “I hate to interrupt your Twister session, but you’re probably hungry.”

Natalie took a long breath, only just realizing that the air tasted faintly of bacon. Coffee. Syrup.

And waffles
?

“I’m
starving.”
She eased out from under Alek’s grasp. He murmured something that sounded like a protest, but Damien huffed and hoisted himself to all four paws.

He shook his fur out, ears flicking back as Nico stepped aside for Natalie. “Breakfast is served,” he assured her. “Don’t be shy, you’ll need to replenish everything these guys worked out of you.”

Her cheeks heated. And yet, for all Natalie felt like she should be embarrassed, she didn’t give in. Not here. Not after what she’d done with the twins. The bruises she’d expected had all but vanished during her sleep, courtesy of the blood she carried. All that remained was the vaguest lingering ache between her legs, and a new kind of confidence—the kind that said she understood her role in this cabin. With these werewolves.

Understood, and if she didn’t let her self think about the consequences, liked it.

A lot.

Her mouth tipped up into a smile that had his eyes sharpening on her. He sucked in a breath, a shallow little sound she didn’t miss as she padded past him in bare feet and her rumpled T-shirt.

Following in her wake, Damien’s low growl nipped at her heels.

A sidelong glance up at Nico’s face confirmed what she suspected. His pale eyes had dilated to a narrow silver ring around enormous pupils. If she stopped, if she eased her hand under his loose shirt, slipped it under the waistband of his jeans, she’d find his cock already hard.

Part of her wanted nothing else. The wolf in her bristled, ears tipped high and teeth bared in soundless challenge, but the lure of food was too much to ignore. “I don’t,” she warned, “have a small appetite.”

She wasn’t talking
just
food. Entirely.

“Good,” Nico replied without missing a beat. “I didn’t make a small breakfast.” He crouched, but instead of reaching for her—instead of skimming his fingers down the back of her bare knee like she wanted him to, even expected him to—he eased a long-fingered hand into Damien’s ruff. The wolf’s tail flicked a few times before his ears settled.

A whiff of that thing Nico kept buried briefly underscored the mouth-watering aroma of bacon and waffles. That slow, unfurling tide of power that could whip as well as, she realized, soothe. She hesitated in the doorway, watching Nico’s strong hands glide over Damien’s shoulders, his back. Yet his exotic eyes remained fixed on her. Watching.