Choices (9 page)

“They aren’t mates yet,” said Glenn. “But they will be soon.”

Taylor made a mental note to ask him what exactly constituted being a mate.

“I see,” Tulip said. “Will Alder be leaving, or will Hale take over the pack?”

The question was innocent enough, but Taylor felt compelled to change the subject.

“How are you enjoying Halcyon so far?” she asked, making no effort at a smooth transition.

Tulip’s finger twisted one of her blonde curls. “It’s not what I expected so far, but it’s good to know I’ll have food and I’ll be close to Hale again.”

Taylor felt the blood drain from her face as she stared at the young woman. Jealousy felt like a living thing, squirming in the pit of her stomach.

Lark immediately picked up on Taylor’s abrupt shift in mood and she tried to distract them all.

“Oh, look, they’re back,” she said, motioning towards the forest.

A few seconds later, the wolves began to emerge, their kills clenched in their teeth. Neither Alder nor Hale had any game and both were in their human forms, dressed in their usual attire and engaged in conversation. When she saw them, a big smile broke over Tulip’s face and she practically skipped up to them with her arms open.

“Hale,” she said, going in for a hug.

Alder laughed and planted a hand on her head, turning it to redirect her. “That’s Hale.”

Tulip giggled, and in Taylor’s mind it might as well have been the maniacal laughter of an arch nemesis.

“Sorry, you two look so much alike,” she said, wrapping her arms around Hale.

Taylor looked away and urged herself to get a grip. She didn’t have any real claim on Hale. He had been very up front with her about his feelings on monogamy. Besides, she had Alder.

As if sensing her need, Alder was suddenly there at her side. He wore only jeans, a sheen of sweat covering his muscled chest. Tinged with the musk of his perspiration, his scent was richer than usual. There was something different about him today that she couldn’t put her finger on, but whatever it was, it made her breasts feel heavy and her skin prickle with the need to be touched.

Alder cradled the back of her neck with a hand and as she parted her lips to greet him, he pulled her in for a kiss. It was no soft peck or gentle brush of lips. It was the possessive kiss of a male marking his territory. His teeth seized her bottom lip, tugging hard enough that she had the crazy thought that maybe he wasn’t Alder at all and it was one of Hale’s tricks. But then, as his tongue slid into her mouth and began to dance with hers, she recognized the sweet rhythm that was unique to Alder.

She moaned, completely forgetting where she was and who was watching. Then, when she remembered who was watching, she put her hands on Alder’s shoulders and pulled herself up to deepen the kiss. He readily obliged.

When Alder finally broke the kiss, Taylor felt hot all over. She wished she could see Hale’s face and may have had the nerve to steal a glance, but she knew that if he looked like he didn’t care, it would backfire on her.

Alder caressed her cheek, giving Taylor a knowing look. She felt guilty, until she saw the corners of his mouth lift. He winked at her, before saying, “I love you.”

The statement should have rendered her speechless, but Taylor didn’t miss a beat. “I love you, too.”

“Walk with me?”

Alder was already guiding her away from the onlookers. She put Hale and Tulip out of her mind, telling herself that Alder was all the man she needed.

Alder paused in the doorway of Taylor’s cabin as she shuffled around, desperately trying to make it look more presentable. When he’d been in there yesterday, the cabin had been bare, save for her backpack and the pelts that Hale had brought.

Since then, the fireplace had been cleaned and pots and pans hung from the hooks on the mantle. She’d put curtains up over the four windows, each one a different shade of blue. The pelts had been laid out over a makeshift mattress of blankets, creating a large sleeping pallet near the fireplace.

Her scent was everywhere in the room and it struck him that somehow this felt more like a home to him than his own den. He could easily envision the winter they would share together, Taylor resting in his arms as they lay beside the crackling fire, away from all of the noise and chaos of the pack.

“Sorry, I swear this is all from Lark,” Taylor said, gathering up bits of knotted twine from the floor. “She was trying to make something for the quail coop.”

Alder stepped inside and closed the door. “Don’t worry. It looks great in here.”

“You think so?”

She seemed nervous and Alder didn’t like it. Taking her by the hand, he pulled her over to the furs, bringing her down to sit in his lap.

He asked, “What’s the matter?”

She pressed her lips together before saying, “I didn’t say I love you because Hale was there.”

Her bottom lip was still swollen from his kiss and Alder couldn’t resist running his thumb over its smooth surface.

“I did.”

Her lips parted. “You wanted to make him jealous?”

“Yes.”

She hesitated and then asked, “Did it work?”

Alder thought back, grinning at the memory of his brother’s face. He’d never seen it quite that shade of red before.

“Yes.”

Her lips slanted in an effort to hide her smile. Alder was about to kiss her, but her mood shifted and she seemed nervous again.

“Now that you’re less angry, can we talk about what’s going on here? Between the three of us, I mean.”

He’d almost forgotten about their conversation the night before. The memory of it had been cast aside in favor of the hours that they shared his bed. While he deliberated engaging her in a discussion or distracting her with his tongue, he noticed that she was squinting in an attempt to read his expression.

Realizing it was almost dark in the cabin, he pressed a quick kiss to her head and stood, spying the lamp and matches on the mantle. As he lit the lamp and adjusted the flame, he did his best to explain the circumstances that had led up to their arrangement.

“Hale and I have been very different since we were young. In spite of that, we’ve always been close. There was a time when we knew one another better than we knew ourselves.”

He rejoined Taylor on the furs and pulled her into his lap again, so that her back was against his chest. “Over the past few years, things have changed between us. As we’ve gotten older, it’s become clear that we both want different things and I think it’s been slowly driving a wedge between us.”

“You wanted a family?”

Alder inclined his head. “I knew that I’d want to take a mate and that my days with Hale were numbered.”

“So, then, you’re sharing me so that you don’t have to leave your brother?” she surmised.

His head went to the curve of her neck. There were two innocuous blemishes at the juncture of her shoulder, bite marks left by his overzealous brother. His tongue flicked over them, causing her to shiver.

“Partly.”

He placed his own canines over the tiny grooves, pressing down until he heard her give a sharp intake of breath.

“Partly?” she asked.

Replacing his teeth with his lips, gave her neck a soothing kiss. “When I look at you, I see the woman I’m in love with, the future mother of my pups.” His hand slipped beneath her dress to palm her breast. “I could never bring myself to be rough with you.” He trailed kisses up her neck, his mouth stopping by her ear. “But there’s a part of me that enjoys watching.”

There was a vulnerability to her, Alder knew, and he felt as though he’d only scratched the surface of it. He wanted to protect her from everything. He wanted to be the male who shielded her from hurt and danger, the male she turned to when she was afraid.

But the wolf within him wanted to see his mate on her knees. He wanted to take her harder than any male ever would. He wanted to bite and bruise her, mark her in any way that he could so that she and every male that laid eyes on her would know his claim.

At the river, Alder had seen the way Hale’s nails had dug into the delicate flesh of her hips. He had watched his brother thrust into her with a wild abandon. Alder had growled—a sound that his brother had believed to be a warning. In actuality, it had been the beast within him, growling in satisfaction.

The sight of his brother’s marks on her body didn’t enrage Alder. They aroused him. He enjoyed imagining that they were his marks.

Alder still didn’t fully understand it. All he knew was that in order to be the man his mate needed, Alder needed Hale to be the wolf that he was repressing.

Even with his ears tuned in to the sound of Taylor’s breathing, he became aware of an approaching presence. He suspected that he knew who it was, but his arms tightened around Taylor all the same, primed to protect her from any intruder.

***

Hale shifted just before stepping onto the porch. His hair, much like his mind, was in disarray and he raked his fingers through it twice before impatience had him banging on the door. After two knocks, he pulled open the door and let himself in.

How fucking cozy
, he thought bitterly.

The warm glow of the lamp illuminated the fur pallet where his brother sat with Taylor in his lap. His gaze zeroed in on Alder’s hand, which was covering her breast.

Taylor cleared her throat and pushed Alder’s hand away. Some of his irritation waned as he saw her trying to fix her clothes, her cheeks reddened. He would think that after everything they’d done together, she’d have lost at least a modicum of her propriety.

“Most people wait until someone says ‘come in’ before they barge into someone’s home,” she said under her breath.

Hale briefly considered reminding her that it was his territory and he could go where he pleased, but decided that it may make her less agreeable to all the things he wanted to do to her.

Crouching at the edge of the furs, Hale grabbed her hips, giving them a firm jerk. She yelped in surprise as her head fell into Alder’s lap.

“I’m not going to apologize to Silas,” Hale said, leaning over her. “And if we go to war with Whiteriver, so be it. So if you want to leave, you better say so now, because if you”—his eyes flickered up to his brother—“if either of you ever pull that shit on me again…”

Hale had been rehearsing the speech for a while and realized, as he looked back down at Taylor’s big, brown eyes, that he couldn’t even threaten to kill her, let alone follow through with it.

“You’re not allowed to leave,” Hale finally said, hoping to burn the words into her with his glare.

He braced himself for her anger, but instead her eyes misted over with tears.

Hale would much rather be yelled at.

To his immense relief, she blinked them away. Her small arms looped around his neck and she pulled him down for a kiss.

Again, not the reaction he’d anticipated.

Hale still needed something—a vow, a promise, a reassurance—anything to let him know that the two of them wouldn’t fucking disappear on him. But as soon as his lips touched hers, his cock flared to life and it refused to be ignored in favor of his brain.

Not giving a damn that she was still on Alder’s lap, Hale plunged his tongue into her mouth, needing to taste his female. As her tongue curled around his, she let out a soft, needy whimper. It was the most erotic sound Hale had ever heard.

He pulled back to stare at her, taking in everything from her flushed cheeks to her swollen lips and trying to make sense of the way she was affecting him. It made no sense to Hale, and soon the smell of her arousal was drawing him farther down her body. Alder quickly claimed the position Hale had vacated, bending down to capture her mouth in a kiss.

Hale had never been partial to tasting his females before he fucked them, but this female was quickly becoming the exception. His thick tongue sought out the juices that had pooled at her entrance, eagerly lapping them up. When he had licked up everything he could find, Hale turned his attention to her clit, taking it between his teeth. As he nipped and sucked at the stiff, little bud, her hips began to writhe and he had to hold her down to stop her from inadvertently cutting herself on his canines.

Alder had abandoned her mouth in favor of her breasts, allowing her to utter cries of ecstasy. Hale wanted to turn her over and take her right then, but his ego stopped him. He could still see Alder, craning her head back and kissing her, sticking his tongue in her mouth, and making her moan by the riverside in plain view of the pack.

In that moment, Hale had seen red. He’d felt a type of simmering anger that he only later recognized.

Jealousy.

He wanted to be the one kissing her. He wanted to be the one making her moan. He wanted to be the one marking his claim in front of the pack.

Tomorrow
, he thought, through his haze of arousal. Tomorrow he was going to make sure the entire pack knew that she was just as much his as she was Alder’s. Tomorrow, he would kiss her in front of everyone, make her moan far louder than his brother had.

Just as he had the thought, Hale heard her let out a shuddering cry. He felt her soft folds spasm beneath his lips, but felt no triumph at making her climax. There would be no pleasure for him until he was inside of her, no relief until he was coming.