Chapter 6
1948 Words
6
SHELBY
“Who said anything about sleep?” I lifted my head and grinned at Ben, who handed me a glass of water.
His eyes crinkled.
I’d had s*x before with a few shifters after full moon runs or during mating games, just to let off steam. It felt good and wasn’t weird because we knew the score. Unlike humans who bonded to partners emotionally instead of through their pheromones, friends with benefits worked flawlessly with shifters.
But nothing—nothing—compared to what I’d just experienced. It wasn’t just the dual male action, and that was something I’d never even considered before. It was definitely because they were my mates. I swore, it was like my body sang the entire time they touched me. Vibrated at a different frequency. Exploded into smithereens and then came back in a totally new form during orgasm. It was insane. Intense. Powerful. Yet… simple.
Shifters were used to being naked. Used to others seeing them that way. After shifting back after a run, everyone was bare. That was why it wasn’t hard for me to strip. I was used to taking my clothes off in front of others.
Being bare physically was one thing, but I had a feeling these two would see things I wasn’t ready to show. Or feel. Or share.
The fact that they’d run with my little schoolgirl outfit and spanked me had me feeling raw and tender. I liked it way too much. The fact that they kept calling me a good girl made me loose-jointed and swoony. Utterly submissive.
In the span of two hours, I was changed. A completely different person. My life had veered off course from one deep inhale to the next. Because of this, I feared I was very solidly in the camp of allowing my mates to claim me, come what would.
Even now, as my very human reasoning returned, I couldn’t feel anything but the strongest affection for these two gorgeous shifters, and I knew nothing about them but their d**k size. It was like the human concept of love didn’t even apply. Our bodies just produced the feeling when near our mates. And I liked it.
“Oh, we’ll be happy to keep you up all night,” Gibson rumbled, burying his fingers in my hair again. It felt good. Soothing. “But Ben’s right. We definitely need to learn some things about you, so we know how to keep you happy.”
I studied him. His dark hair with hints of silver, the matching beard. The strong physique. He was completely dressed except for his pants open and his half-hard d**k laying against his belly. He looked sated. Relaxed. As if his wolf wasn’t driving him in the moment, unlike earlier at the club.
“You first,” I said. “Profession?”
“I’m CEO of the West Springs Distillery. It has been run for generations and provides work for many members of my pack.”
“And you really are their alpha?” I’d felt the alpha power in his command earlier but didn’t know if he was just from an alpha line or had already inherited the position.
He nodded.
A younger alpha, like Rob Wolf, our pack’s leader. It probably meant Gibson had already experienced loss through a parent’s death. That explained why his eyes looked far more ancient than his face. That and the responsibility he faced every day for his pack members’ well-being and safety. Yet he was relaxed and calm with me. I’d made him this way. Sure, a blow job would short circuit any guy’s fuse, but I felt powerful in my own way, knowing I’d given him this peace.
I looked to Ben. His dark hair was rumpled, his gaze steady and even. They were both calm and commanding, but Ben seemed more intense. “You’re on the shifter council?” I asked him although I was taking in his bare chest, the thickly-muscled physique.
He shook his head. “I’m an enforcer. Of course, that’s a secret you can’t share with anyone. Your alpha and his brothers know because we met last fall.”
I drew in a breath, sobered. Pack enforcers had the dangerous and soul-crushing job of carrying out the council’s justice, which often meant they served as executioners. “Thank you for your service,” I murmured, knowing he put his life on the line every day, so the rest of us could stay safe.
Ben’s face softened into an affectionate smile. “You may like to play the bad girl, but you are as sweet as they come, aren’t you, kitten?”
I shook my head. “I’m not that sweet.” Except he was right. Being a bad girl was only a role I played. I wasn’t even that tough or strong. I held a prime female support role in the pack. I was the one who helped with cookouts and potlucks. Picked up the groceries and came early to set up. Stayed late to clean up. Ensured everyone was taken care of. Fed, nurtured. Satiated. It felt good to make others feel good.
“Don’t lie to your mates.” Ben brushed my cheek with his knuckles, breaking me from my thoughts. “Or you’re going to get spanked again.”
My n*****s puckered, and both males noticed, their nostrils flaring. I was wet still, my body eager for more, and with one inhale, they picked up on it.
Those secrets I wanted to keep? They’d literally sniff them out.
“I see lots of spankings in her future, Ben,” Gibson observed, amusement playing on his face. It was a small turn of his lips, but like Rob, Wolf Ranch’s alpha, I had a feeling he didn’t smile all that much.
My face grew warm, and I shifted my ass on the futon, twitching my thighs together to alleviate the renewed throb between them. I’d just come. Twice. It wasn’t enough.
“Speaking of spankings, you still haven’t told us why you were stripping,” Ben added. “Does your alpha know?”
I glanced away and wrapped my arms around my torso. “I told you—I like it.”
“Stripping for horny strangers?” Gibson asked.
I nodded. I didn’t want to admit my money problems to them. Pride was one reason. But something else held me back. I didn’t want to become reliant on these guys for money. Not after what I saw my mom go through. Turning my money worries over to them would make me completely vulnerable to future devastation. If they abandoned me like my dad did, then I’d have nothing. No skills, no job.
“Liked it, past tense,” Gibson growled, a touch of alpha in his voice, which made me go weak.
It also made my p***y clench. I didn’t have this reaction to Rob when he issued alpha orders. Nope. He and all the other guys in the pack were like brothers to me. My reaction was specific to this particular alpha. The one who I seemed to enjoy being the boss of me. My new mate. One of two.
Ben slid his hand up my thigh to cup my bare mons. “She gushes nectar every time you do that,” he observed to Gibson.
Gibson growled, pleased. “Don’t worry, kitten, we’ll give you another reward soon.” He squeezed one of my breasts and pinched my n****e. “After we learn all your secrets.”
“But—”
“Was that your only job?” Ben asked, cutting me off.
I shook my head. “I’m a ski instructor in the winter and raft guide in the summer. And I have a juice stand I run at the local farmer’s markets and events.”
Gibson smiled. “You like being outdoors. I can’t f*****g wait to run with you.” He meant as wolves, of course. “What color?”
“Tan.” I held up a lock of my honey-colored hair to show him what my wolf looked like. “Similar to this.”
“Show me.”
I didn’t even know if he put command in the words, but my body literally transformed before the thought made it to my brain. One minute I was naked between them in human form, the next my she-wolf was on her back, showing her belly to her new alpha.
“Oh f**k, she’s gorgeous,” Ben rumbled, rubbing my belly as Gibson stroked my ears and face.
“The most beautiful wolf I’ve ever seen,” Gibson agreed. “Shift, baby.”
In seconds, I was back, Gibson’s body on top of mine, his lips crashing down. He kissed me with the ferocity of a claiming male until I was breathless, until his canines descended, and he had to throw himself off me to keep from biting.
“Yeah,” I panted, dizzy with lust. “Marking my face would definitely be a mating foul.”
Ben chuckled. “Kitten, you don’t understand how hard it is to hold back.”
I put my hand between my legs to alleviate the ache there and felt how wet and swollen I was. “When is my reward?” I heard the pout in my words.
“A few more questions,” Ben pressed. “When can we meet your family?”
That one took me by surprise although I guessed I should have expected it. They weren’t from around here and wanted to claim me. We’d essentially be merging families.
“It’s just me and my mom,” I admitted.
Gibson came close again, his wolf under control. He ran the backs of his knuckles down my arm. “Your dad’s dead?”
“My dad left,” I snapped, a little of my teenage bitterness leaking through in the words.
Both males drew back slightly. It was unusual for a male to abandon his mate and pup, which had made it all the more humiliating for my mom and me. We hadn’t been shunned, but it had been embarrassing, nonetheless. It still was.
“That’s why you won’t let us claim you yet,” Ben said softly, stroking a finger over my bare leg.
Something flip-flopped in my chest like a pancake. Was it because of my dad leaving and not because they were practically strangers? If my dad hadn’t been an abandoning d**k, would I already be halfway to Wyoming with them by now?
Maybe so.
“You don’t trust us to take care of you,” Gibson added.
I looked up at him. “Why should I? We just met.”
He settled back beside me. “Because we’re your mates. We know it. You know it. Your she-wolf knows it. It’s that simple.”
“But not for you,” Ben added.
I didn’t expect the rush of emotion that came with their words. I was a strong woman. I’d basically taken care of my mom since I was sixteen. I didn’t see myself as a victim or mope around—I stayed cheerful and positive. But suddenly, tears filled my eyes. All the tears I’d kept in when my dad abandoned us.
“I don’t need you to take care of me.”
Gibson stroked his fingers through his beard. “You’re a brave girl. Need? Maybe not. Want? Definitely. You just need to let go, and we’ll help you carry all your burdens. Your mates will take care of everything.”
Males handed over burdens. They didn’t take them away. Here were Gibson and Ben telling me the opposite. “Yeah, just like my dad? As if.” I pressed my lips together, realizing what I’d said aloud. “Oh, fate,” I choked, pressing the heels of my hands to my eyes to hide the tears.
Gibson peeled them away as Ben molded his body against mine, his arm circling my waist where we sat propped against the wall behind my futon. “Don’t ever hide your tears from us, Shelby,” Gibson said. “Your pain is ours.”
I’d heard a she-wolf’s tears sobered her mate. It was one of nature’s ways of balancing the power differential. It prevented or reduced domestic abuse in partnerships that lasted a lifetime. Ben and Gibson crowded close, enfolded me between their bodies. Sheltered me. Protected me.
Gibson licked one of my tears then leaned his forehead against my temple. Ben massaged the back of my neck.
“We’re not your father. We won’t ever leave you,” Ben promised.
“Never,” Gibson swore.
Shivers of recognition ran through me. I felt certain they spoke the truth.
Why, then, was it still so hard to trust?
- Writer
