Owned By The Alphas novel Chapter 21

20. The Friend
The alphas sat down in three huge throne chairs made of stone, carved in
their respective symbols.
I twisted my hands in front of me, not sure where to go and feeling every
set of eyes on me. The entire hall was filled with wolves, and they were
being rowdy until I walked in with the alphas. Now it was deadly silent.
Kai pulled me onto his lap, and I looked at him instead of the faces I knew
were staring.
Derik kept standing as Braxton took a seat to the other side.
“Stay quiet, human. Stay still,” Kai said against my ear in such a quiet voice
I almost didn’t hear him.
I nodded once, and he kissed me before looking up at Derik.
“It’s been a while since we have gathered as largely as tonight,” Derik
started. “But we have reason to. We have a human in our midst,” he said,
looking to me.
I didn’t know what to do but resisted the urge to wave, staying quiet and
still like Kai had said.
“She will remain unharmed and untouched while she is with us, do you
understand?” Derik said in a deep voice that had the room vibrating with
pressure.
Some of the wolves bowed their heads, but a few daring wolves glared.
Especially the ones surrounding Taylor and Garrett.
“Who is she, and why should she have any kind of place with our alphas?”
One of the women stood up. She had a choppy cut of hair with a ragged
scar over her lip that dragged down her shoulder.
I wondered how she got it but turned my head away when Kai nuzzled into
my neck in warning.
“She’s the general’s daughter. Lorelai Valarian. She is what we have taken
as ours in retribution for what the human dared to pen to us.”
Derik was firm and strong in his words, daring anyone else to say
something. They looked like they wanted to but said nothing.
I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, passing me off as a retribution thing,
but they had said it would if I stayed quiet and did what they asked. So I
did.
Finally, one of the wolves voiced their opinion. Fucking Taylor.
“And what does that make her?”
“Ours,” Kai grumbled, from beneath me.
Derik gave him a scowl that warned Kai to let him deal with it, a scowl I
was learning very quickly.
“She’s our lover, our female,” he said, and that must’ve meant something
more than I realized because there were gasps and an even tighter silence
stretching over everyone.
A male stood up on the other side of the room, his eyes filled with fury as
he almost barked his words out. “And what of our females? Their heat will
be starting soon.
The powerful ones will need the alphas’ magic to sate them. You would put
this human before the pack’s needs?”
Another male spoke up, and I knew where this was going. They were
gaining confidence.
“Taking an official lover right before the heat? And a human?” the wolf
spat.
“Fucking bullshit.”
“Don’t forget winter born,” Garrett snarled, and that had the wolves roaring,
howling, slamming their drinks down on the multiple wooden tables filling
the room.
The lights flickered, and I clenched my eyes shut.
The shadows felt the threat too. The ones inside me felt different and safe,
like I could trust the alphas, but the fear of the wolves was making it harder
to ignore the ones that wanted in.
I clutched Kai’s hand tightly in mine, trying to keep them out, but the
louder the wolves got, the harsher my headache got.
“They’ll attack. You know they will. And then what will you do? There’re
only three alphas, against a city of werewolves. They will maul you as a
human,” the shadows whispered in my head, and I felt the coldness touch
my skin, the ice burning as my body grew heavy.
The wolves were still shouting, but they were getting distant.
And then there was warmth on me, Brax’s eyes staring into mine. He
tugged me from Kai’s grasp.
“I’ve gotta take her, Kai,” Brax warned in a hushed voice as Derik tried to
answer the questions that were coming from everywhere in the room.
Kai narrowed his eyes, holding me tighter before finally letting me go to
Brax, who immediately pushed his warmth through me.
I shivered and went with him easily, the shadows already drowning out, the
wolves’
voices coming back to me.
Braxton put me on his lap just as Derik got fed up.
“Enough!” Derik howled, and the entire room fell silent, every single head
bowing to his voice as it commanded them.
I swallowed, waiting for him to speak again as he glared over the wolves of
the city, making sure they were all listening.
I kept hold of Brax’s hand and he connected to me, making me gasp a little
as his shadows and mine held on, locking out the bad ones that I really
needed to figure out how to get rid of.
They had given me until the next full moon, and I had to be ready for them
by then.
“We will not forsake this pack. We have taken a lover, yes. She is human.
She is winter born. But she will stay in the manor. Her presence will not
affect the wolves of this pack, female or not.
“We understand the needs of our females, however, and will discuss the
heat at the council meeting tomorrow. Until then, do not doubt that we will
put the pack first.
We honor our own, we protect our own, and we lead our own.
“Our oath is still strong within our magic, and we are bound by it. Do not
question it, and if you think you need to, then stand up now, challenge us.
We’d be more than happy to put you in your place,” Derik said in the most
passive-aggressive political statement I had ever heard.
Not a single wolf rose to the challenge, keeping their heads bowed.
Derik nodded. “Good. Now we feast,” he said, and then food was being
brought through double doors at the end of the hall by younger wolves.
I had read about those earlier. The initiate wolves, the ones that wanted to
be part of the main pack and had to go through rigorous hazing-type things
for years before they got the chance to be one of the wolves at the table.
I watched as they served the alphas first. Steaming hot plates of roasts and
veggies were brought out, ale and wine were served, and then the wolves
descended into chaos. But a good chaos.
They were loud and laughing as they chatted among themselves, roaring
and fighting every now and then, but Brax reassured me that it was normal.
Three fights a night at least was considered the expectation.
The wolves were so much like humans, it threw me for a loop. They could
blend in, be human, and the feast was like some kind of family dinner that
was almost comfortable. Well, now it was.
“You okay now?” Brax asked, before picking a bean from his plate and
eating it.
I nodded. The shadows were gone, and he released mine. I let out a breath,
then stared at the plates hungrily. Derik turned to me, feeding me a fork of
meat. I ate it as he licked his lips.
“Well, that went as well as expected,” Derik breathed, sipping some wine
from a goblet that had the Forest Territory carvings in it.
“What’s the heat, and why is it bad for the females?” I asked quietly.
Brax tensed under me, and I frowned at the reaction. Derik took another
drink as Kai leaned over to talk.
“The heat is when the females need to ‘mate,’ but really it means they get
super horny. It’s painful for them if they don’t give in to it, and it’s when
their wolf is looking for a mate.”
“And that’s bad? Or affects you?” I asked, trying to understand the wolves
and their rules that seemed to be affected by me being there.
Kai leaned back and waited for Derik to answer, who let out an exasperated
sigh.
“It’s why we knew they would have an issue. There’s an unwritten rule that
gives the females of the pack a chance to mate with an alpha. We are meant
to sleep with the powerful ones. There’s a whole event that happens, the
females fight and the top three get the alphas. Usually.”
“Oh. But this time, I’m here.”
I realized why they were mad. Why Taylor had been so threatened. She was
probably first in line or knew she was the strongest. She looked strong.
I shuddered remembering her hands on my throat, then nodded, picking up
a cup of water and sipping it.
“But we’ll figure it out,” Braxton said from beneath me, but I wasn’t so
sure. The heat sounded like a serious thing for the wolves.
“When is the heat?” I asked.
Derik shrugged. “We just had the blood moon, so it could start anytime.
Once it hits one female, it hits them all.”
I raised a brow and looked at my alphas. That was something they really
should have mentioned.
“And you didn’t think you should have told me that before bringing me
here as your lover?” I snapped.
Derik narrowed his eyes at my tone, but I didn’t care. He never mentioned
sharing them with a whole bunch of potential mates.
“We are bound by a lot of rules. Navigating them is…tricky,” Derik
muttered, and I wondered if that was his way of saying he actually wasn’t
allowed to tell a human of the laws.
But he had sidestepped that by letting me be at dinner and listen to the
questions and answers earlier. And the library.
“Which is why you let me go to the library. So I could read what I needed
to,” I realized, and he smirked, putting his finger to his lips.
I smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. He cupped the back of my neck the
way he always did and brought the fire to my core like he always did with a
simple flick of his tongue against my lips.
He kissed me fiercely, and I forgot where we were, leaving Brax’s lap to
climb on Derik’s. He held the sides of my face, kissing me, teasing me, his
dick hard and waiting as I grinded down on him.
Everything else fell away. Every doubt and worry about the wolves’
traditions and what that would mean for me didn’t exist.
I danced my tongue with his, my breasts heavy, my pussy throbbing as my
nipples tightened against my dress. It was bunched up between us, draping
over his legs, and I wouldn’t have cared if he had fucked me right there in
front of every wolf.
Instead, there was an interrupting cough from behind us.
I broke away, breathing heavily as Derik composed his face with that stoic
alpha mask and looked over my shoulder.
I turned to look and found one of the wolves in front of the alphas’ table. He
had a mohawk of all things, a black one that went with the eyebrow, lip, and
nose piercings on his strong-featured face.
A forest tattoo peeked up from his collar, and the roots of a tree spread out
over his hand. Then there were the eyes of dark, deep brown that were
almost moving. I looked back at Derik so I didn’t stare.
“Say what’s on your mind, Cain,” Derik sighed, and Cain looked between
me and the alpha.
“Just want to make sure you know what you’re doing,” he said, and Derik
nodded once.
“Thanks. We do.”
“A winter born though? I couldn’t care less about the heat or the females,
they’ll find someone to fuck, but the shadows? At a time like this? Risky
move, friend,”
Cain said, and the way he talked to Derik made me think they had more
respect for each other than the others.
Something in the way the interaction felt was warm, like there was genuine
concern for each other.
“A time like this is when we need risky moves, but thanks for your
concern.”
I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was going to find out as
soon as Cain left.
He looked at me and bowed respectfully.
“Welcome to our city, Lorelai,” he said. “I’m Cain Emerson. The alphas’
adviser, which is a completely useless position with three stubborn
werewolves, so I am more commonly known as the best friend.”
He smiled, and I gave him one in return. He offered his hand, and I went to
take it, but Derik snatched mine back.
“Back off, Cain,” he warned, and I frowned.
“Is not shaking hands with humans another archaic rule?” I asked, and he
shook his head as Cain laughed.
“It was a test, and Derik knew that. I wanted to read your aura.”
He shrugged, and I raised a brow.
“Are you magic too?”
I wondered if he had the shadows like Brax and me, but if he did, I couldn’t
feel them.
“We’re shape-shifters; all of us have magic in us. Some of us just have
more than others. I happen to be a hybrid though, leaving me with a few
extra goodies from my mother’s witch ancestry.”
He smiled and rolled a purple ball of magic between his fingers before
squashing it in his fist.
“Speaking of my mother, she wants you to bring your lover to meet her. She
loves the idea of seeing a true winter born. You know how she gets,” Cain
said, and Derik rolled his eyes.
“Your mother should be at the pack meeting,” he said, but there was a hint
of a smile in his voice.
“My mother would slap you if she were here, so let’s let her do it in private,
yeah?
See you tomorrow night at her hut for dinner. Don’t be late, or she’ll put
eyeballs in your stew again. That goes for all four of you,” Cain warned,
then walked away, whistling a fun tune before whispering in one of the
females’ ears and walking out of the hall with her under his arm.
I turned to Derik, so many questions in my head. I had no idea which one to
ask first. “What did he mean—”
Derik covered my mouth with his again, silencing my questions. “Not
here,” he said, then stood up and took my hand.
“Can you two handle things for the rest of dinner, or do I need to end it
before they all start fucking on the tables and have them wanting to
challenge us more than they already do tonight?” Derik asked, and Brax
chuckled.
Kai’s eyes raked over me before he nodded once and turned back to the
dinner, emptying ale from his cup before tapping it for a refill.
Brax rolled his eyes and nodded to the waiter so Kai couldn’t see. I
frowned, then hid my chuckle as the waiter gave him a top up of water.
Derik pulled me into a room through a door behind the hall we had been
feasting in. It was a small room, intimate, with another fireplace that
warmed the air.
There were leather couches and a hide rug with wooden side tables. There
was a pitcher of ale and a vase of wine, but he didn’t go for them. Instead,
he sat down in front of the fire and pulled me down to him.
I straddled his lap and kissed him. He kissed me back with the same passion
as before, but this time we were in private, and it wasn’t long before I was
yanking at his clothes and he was shredding yet another beautiful dress.
He laid me bare in front of the fireplace, kissing everywhere on my body,
taking his time with me as I fought the pleasure inside me, the fire within
raging higher than the one next to me.
I moaned as his mouth closed over my nipple, the other one tugged at by his
fingers, shooting my core with pleasure. I arched into him as his rough
tongue kept me writhing beneath him.
But I didn’t stay beneath him. I pulled in his knee and rolled us, pulling his
face to mine so I could kiss him hard.
I loved his kisses, his mouth with mine. It sent so much desire and want
pooling between my thighs I was already ready for him when he placed his
thick length at my entrance.
“We’ll have more time to play next round, beautiful,” he breathed, and I
nodded, sinking onto him, gasping as he filled me so well.
My pussy sucked him in, throbbing and leaking as he buried himself to the
hilt. It was so intense I could barely catch my breath.
My nails dug into his biceps as I started moving, his hips thrusting inside
me so hard that it hurt, but it was a pain I wanted.
I wrapped my arms around his neck as his went around my waist, slamming
me down on him over and over again. Our panting breaths mixed as we
kissed, my tongue slid along his, and I sucked it before biting down on his
bottom lip.
He groaned and fucked me faster. His strokes were so deep, his cock so
hard I thought I was going to break something, but then it was there. The
edge he had been pushing me to.
I cried out as the pleasure of him overwhelmed me, bouncing on his lap, my
body tensing with the storm that crashed through it.
Heat engulfed every nerve, burned every thought, and I exploded in a wave
that had me breathing hard, sweat dampening my skin.
My thighs burned as I rode him through my orgasm, sending him into his.
He bucked into me with two rough thrusts of his hips before stilling and
groaning, his eyes closing as he hung his head back, then slowly lay down
on the floor with me still on him.
His cock throbbed inside my pulsing pussy and I sighed, looking down at
him.
The shadows from the dark room and fireplace danced over Derik as he put
his hand behind his head. His abs were sucking in and out with his fast
breathing, the same as my breasts.
It was so primal and raw what had passed between us that I couldn’t help
but feel something toward him. I wasn’t sure what, but it was an affection
of some kind.
I leaned down and laid my head on his chest.
“I like the way you look after sex. So peaceful. Like you’re not in alpha
mode,” I whispered, and he chuckled, rubbing my bare back, dragging his
fingertips back and forth.
“Alpha mode?” he teased, and I grinned.
“Yeah. The mask you put on tonight, it was your alpha mode. Well, that’s
what I call it anyway. I like that you don’t wear it when it’s just us.”
He sighed, and I didn’t think he was going to answer, but eventually he did.
“That’s because I don’t have to be your alpha, beautiful. I can just be Derik,
a werewolf fucking his girl, human or not. Nothing else matters.”
He sighed again, and I smiled, leaning up to kiss him.
“If I ask you my questions, will you go into alpha mode?”
He shook his head, his eyes closed as he relaxed. I smiled and rolled off
him, snuggling into his side, pulling the throw from the couch with me.
I covered us from the waist down then leaned on his chest, tracing his abs
with my fingers.
“What did Cain mean when he said ‘a time like this’?” I asked, and Derik
tensed, as I had known he would.
“I’m not meant to tell anyone outside the council,” he murmured.
I didn’t care, which he knew, so I waited for him to answer. He gave
another long pause, then sighed again.
“Now I know why Cain gets mad at us for being stubborn.” He laughed
halfheartedly, then kissed the top of my head.
“A couple of humans from my village went missing. Just after that, there
was a border breach. Then we had a string of vampire sightings along the
border.
“It’s been years since we had issues with them. It’s like they’re testing our
defenses, trying to learn from us or something. It’s got the pack on edge.
Bringing in a winter born at a time when there has been vampire stuff
happening is probably not the best timing, Cain is right about that.”
I blinked a couple of times, not sure what to say to that.
“Why the hell would you bring me here then? Me being here has caused
issues with the female thing, the shadows thing, and the vampire thing, so
why am I here then, Derik?
“If I’m putting you in danger or making it harder for the pack, then
shouldn’t I just go back?” I asked, hating that they were keeping me when I
was obviously such a burden, but he pulled my lips to his and my anger
turned to a simmer.
“Do you want to be here?”
“Am I a total idiot if I say yes?”
Derik nodded, and I laughed despite the gravity of the situation.
“Seriously, Derik. Why? You could have just stripped my father of his title
and been done with the whole retribution thing, so why go to this much
trouble?” I asked, not wanting that to happen, of course, and definitely
against the idea of being sent away, but the pack looked murderous and I
hated that it made things so tense and stressful.
I was already hated in the village for being winter born, I didn’t want it to
be that way here.
“The blood moon changed everything, Lorelai. We’d heard that a winter
born offering would be powerful, but we didn’t expect it. We had no control
of our will with you that night. We shouldn’t have kissed you, let things go
to the extent they went, especially Kai, but he’s a glutton.
“But it was the magic you gave in your offering. It was so pure and strong,
it made us strong. Our magic was powerful in our veins, our pack was high
on this power we were feeding them, and the rush was intense. The barrier
that keeps us protected from the vampires was radiating power, glowing
with it, and we knew we had to keep you,” he explained, but it wasn’t what
I wanted to hear.
“So you keep me because of the power I feed your magic? Because I’m
winter born?” I asked, and Derik shook his head.
“Not quite. Brax, the way he is, he gets these feelings, senses when we’re
on the right path for the pack, and sending you away the next morning made
him so sick.
He was pale and shaky. He knew we had to come get you. As soon as we
had decided, he started improving.
“I don’t know why and I don’t know what fate has put in our path, but I
know—we all know—that you are meant to be here, meant to be a part of it.
And the pack will too, eventually,” he said, and I felt marginally better.
“And that is why you are here, beautiful. Because you belong here.”
He kissed me again, and I climbed back over him to succumb to the fire, but
in the back of my mind, I couldn’t get rid of a nagging question.
“Wait,” I breathed against his lips, then sat up.
“I need to know about the heat thing. Will you really sleep with the
females? I know I’m yours and I want to be, but I want you all to be mine
too. I don’t want to share,”
I murmured, not sure why I was embarrassed to admit it.
He grinned and sat up, kissing my breasts. “Greedy little winter born, aren’t
you?”
he said against the flesh, before stroking my nipples with his tongue.
His kisses fell over me before he pulled me down and slipped his fingers
between my thighs.
It wasn’t until much later, when I had been fucked four times and almost
fallen into an exhaustion coma, that I realized he had never answered my
question.21. The Game
“We’re going to play a game, beautiful,” Derik purred, running his finger
down my cheek.
I was standing in an empty ballroom with my three alphas, and each one
looked as devilishly sexy as the other. And they wanted to play? Yes, please.
I smirked up at him. “What kind of game?”
“Not that kind of game, Spitfire.” Braxton chuckled, and I gave him a
dramatic pout.
And then Kai was behind me, wrapping his arms around me. “We could
play that kind of game; it’d be much more fun.”
He kissed over my neck, and I rolled my head to the side to give him better
access. I sighed as my body warmed beneath his touch. My eyes met
Derik’s, who was watching with heavy lust in his eyes.
I grabbed his hand and brought it to my lips. “Are you sure we can’t play
my game instead?” I asked, and he hesitated, considering my offer before
closing his lips over mine.
It was a tender kiss that had me excited for what he might be agreeing to,
but he stepped back.
“Our game first, then yours,” he promised.
I nodded, grinning at him before looking behind him to where Brax was
placing a wooden chair in the middle of the room, then another one facing
it.
I left Kai’s grasp and went over to the chairs, running my fingers along the
back.
“What game is this?”
“We’re going to play with your shadows.” Brax smirked, and I raised a
brow.
“The good ones?”
“Only ever the good ones, Spitfire.”
“How are we going to play with them?” I asked as Derik and Kai came
over.
“We’re going to see exactly what you can do and how strong they are when
you actively try to use them,” Derik explained.
It was a good idea, but it had my stomach twisting a little. I hadn’t even
known I had them until the blood moon, and I had never tried to use them
before, so I had no idea what I was meant to do.
“Okay, how?”
“Sit down,” Brax said, and I sank into one of the chairs, waiting for my next
instructions. Brax sat in the chair opposite me.
“We’re going to play hide-and-seek.” Kai grinned. “But you’re going to
find us using your shadows.”
“I thought I wasn’t allowed around the estate?” I asked, exposing the flaw
in their plan. I was starting to prefer my game idea much more than theirs.
“First of all, that was only until the wolves knew about you, now they do.
And secondly, you won’t be leaving this room. You’re going to let your
shadows find us and tell you where we are.”
Derik smirked, and I blew out a tight breath. That was a lot to ask
considering I’d never used them before, but I wanted the same answers they
did.
And if I could manage something like that? I’d be able to find them
whenever I wanted. That sounded fun.
I smiled at the idea, and Kai laughed a booming laugh.
“Told you she’d like the idea.” He winked at me, and I blushed a little at
how well he had guessed my thoughts.
“So, how do we do this?”
Brax grabbed my hands and turned me to face him.
“Go hide, boys, I need our little winter born to concentrate on something
other than our dicks for a bit,” he teased, and I poked my tongue out at him.
Childish, I know, but it made him grin before kissing me, tugging at that
tongue of mine with a suck that made me melt into him. I wrapped my arms
around him, kissing him back, leaving my seat to climb on his lap.
“Yeah, that’s how to make her concentrate,” Derik said in a sarcastic tone,
and I knew he was rolling his eyes.
Brax chuckled and pulled back, lifting me off him and putting me back on
my chair.
Kai put his hands on my shoulders and tugged at my ear with his teeth.
“Stay, human. Be patient,” he said, then kissed me and strode from the
room.
Derik did the same, and I turned to Brax. “You really think I can use my
shadows to find them even though I’ve never seen the estate in full and I’ve
never used my shadows intentionally before?”
“But you have channeled before.”
“I thought you said no more channeling?”
“During sex,” he corrected, and I had known that, I was just procrastinating
because I was scared to start using a power within me that I didn’t
understand.
I had no idea what was going to happen when I started to, and the story
about Elias, the other winter born, had been kind of off-putting to the whole
magic side of things.
But I had to trust the alphas. They said as long as I kept my shadows pure
and didn’t let the others in, I would be fine. But my brother had said not to
trust the wolves.
I had no idea what to think or do.
“Stop overthinking. You’ll stress out if you do that, and it’ll make it harder
to channel,” Brax said, and I shook out my limbs, trying to loosen up.
“I don’t know if I want to use the shadows yet.”
“Look, the shadows within you are nothing to be afraid of. They actually
help you, probably more than you realize. You have loyals, which are like
guardian angels in human terms.
“When you get a sense of an emotion someone else is feeling or an instinct
that something isn’t right, they’ll ‘whisper’ to you”—he raised his hands in
quotation marks—“but it just means they are the ones telling you those
things, letting your human mind and body feel what it needs to.
“For example, you’ll feel when someone is lying to you, you’ll feel when
their intentions are bad, and if you’re powerful enough, you should be able
to use them to channel at a distance, which is what we’re going to try
today,” he said.
I nodded, hoping I could do what he was saying.
I kind of liked the idea of just leaving them alone inside me and keeping
things the way they were, but I only had until the next full moon to come up
with some way to tell the bad shadows to fuck off so they didn’t take it out
on my brother.
“How do I do it then?”
“I’ve never taught anyone to do this before, definitely not a human. I’m not
sure how anything works in you.
“Since I have magic to help mine but you don’t have anything but shadows
in you, this is going to be me learning as I go too,” he explained, and it gave
me no confidence whatsoever.
But then again, I sucked at learning anything. My lessons in the village had
not gone well. I had an easier time just doing the thing I needed to learn
rather than getting told about it, so I gave a hefty sigh and looked at Brax.
“So I just channel? Then I should find them?” I asked impatiently, and he
smirked with a little nod.
“That’s where I was going to start, since you already managed that.”
“Cool,” I said, then closed my eyes and thought of the other times I had
channeled.
I hadn’t exactly tried, but I remembered thinking of the connection, so I did
the same thing.
I felt Brax straight away. His shadows were there, reaching out, inviting me
in. I clutched his hands tighter and sucked in a breath, my stomach
tightening as his shadows met mine.
I felt when his touched mine, like a whisper dancing across my skin. It was
so intimate and warm, the way my eyes were closed, we were barely
touching and yet I could feel him so damn strongly.
His scent of rain filled my nostrils, the taste of him on my tongue. I
remembered his touch, his kiss on my lips, his body filling mine. It was all
right there, taking over my mind the further I explored him with my
shadows.
“Wow,” he breathed, and I smiled.
“I feel it too,” I whispered back.
“I didn’t know it could be so…intense,” he admitted, and I fidgeted in my
seat as the heat pooled in my abdomen, making my breaths harsh and my
throat tight.
“I can feel you touching me. I can smell you, taste you,” I explained, and
his shadows spread over more of me, filling my body with a hot weight that
had me desperate.
“Let go of my hands, hold the connection,” he breathed, like he was just as
tense with desire.
It was suffocating. The longer the connection went, the more intense it
became. I pulled my hands back from his, but it didn’t change a thing. I still
wanted to find him and fuck him just as much as before.
My shadows twined with his, caressing everything inside me as they danced
like they were their own entity. It was the strangest thing; I couldn’t see
them together, and yet I felt them joined in every part of me.
And then it got stronger.
The power from his body trickled from his shadows, where mine found it
and I took it. I couldn’t help it; it was like a shining light within me that I
had to have.
My body soaked up the leaking magic from him until he ripped the
connection away. My eyes flung open and I stared at him, my heart racing,
my body buzzing.
He was leaning over his chair, breathing hard. “End of game,” he snarled,
gripping his head as he clenched his eyes shut.
I frowned, the hostility biting into my armor, hurting more than I wanted it
to.
“What was that?”
“You went from channeling to siphoning. Don’t,” he huffed, then sat
straighter in his chair, his face pale as he swallowed, then blew out a breath.
“I didn’t know. Sorry,” I said, not exactly sure what he meant but sorry for
whatever it was.
He narrowed his eyes on me. “You sure you didn’t mean to?” he
challenged, and I frowned at the accusation in his voice.
“I’m sure. You have shadows, check if I’m lying,” I snapped back, annoyed
that he thought I had done it on purpose. Especially after the intensity of the
connection.
I had thought it had been something, but obviously not if he was
questioning me.
He tilted his head to the side and his eyes went pale before he nodded once.
I felt him dig for the lie, but he wouldn’t find one.
“You don’t trust me?” I realized, and he hesitated.
“I just have to be sure,” he said quietly, but there was something in me that
tugged.
He wasn’t lying, it didn’t give me that impression, but he was holding back,
and I frowned at him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He eyed me, then shook his head. “You’ll feel me stronger for a bit.”
“And you don’t like that?” I stated.
“I don’t care that you will feel what I feel or my intentions, I care that your
shadows are stronger than I’ve ever felt and it makes me nervous.”
“You’re still holding back.” I crossed my arms across my chest and hung
one leg over the other.
“You know everything you need to know at the moment, Spitfire,” he
breathed, then smirked, trying to break the new tension between us, but I
knew it was just a distraction.
“Your shadows disagree. Mine are still telling me otherwise,” I explained,
and he clenched his jaw.
He looked away, then pulled his chair closer so he was right in front of me.
“Your power, harnessed, could be exactly what we need to fight the war
that’s coming. But it could also be the end of the Werewolf Territory if you
don’t learn what you’re doing.
“Some of the wolves on the council believe keeping you could be our
downfall. They believe you knew what you were doing on the night of the
blood moon, that you planned to get called back and are working from the
inside to take us down. Feeling what I just felt, I know you could do it,” he
explained, speaking every truthful word with an ominous tone.
But I didn’t care what the council thought. I had no idea what the hell I was
doing, and I had no ulterior motive. They’d figure that out when I helped
them beat whatever was coming.
I did care what my alphas thought though, and it almost seemed like
Braxton had questioned me too in that moment.
“And what do you believe?” I asked, tensing for the answer.
That’s when his signature grin spread across his face. “I believe that we
have a secret weapon in and out of bed, and we’d be stupid not to use it to
help us win.”
I smiled at that, his body pushing a familiar warmth through me. He was
showing me it was the truth, that he trusted me, and I needed it.
I soaked it up, then licked my lips, about to get off my chair when he placed
his hands on my thigh.
“I don’t want to play the game anymore. I had something better in mind,” I
said, holding the sides of his face, my fingers moving up to the topknot on
his head.
We both knew that if I pulled his hair out, we were fucking. The feel of his
hair through my fingers, the strands brushing my shoulder as he thrust
inside me… It was irresistible not to when those memories stole my focus.
He chuckled and grabbed my hand, holding it in his on my lap. “You have
two alphas to find, Spitfire.” He winked, then sat back and nodded to me.
I sighed and closed my eyes. I knew I had to find them. The quicker I did,
the quicker I got what I wanted, so I didn’t hold back. I went hunting, my
shadows reading my intentions and racing to find my alphas.