Shared for Love (Kagan Wolves) (23 page)

His fingertips tingled, and a throb developed in his gums. His primal side rose to the surface. Images flashed before him. All involved Hannah. And Noah. And him.

Instinct seized him. So did an undeniable sense of premonition. He couldn’t let Hannah walk away from him tonight without joining them. The certainty rang true, but it didn’t eliminate the threat to them. He couldn’t mate her. Michael would find a way to use her against him.

The two drives warred within him, leaving him tensed and frustrated.

“Please, Ethan. Move. I need you to fuck me.”

Hannah’s plea echoed in his heart. His wolf, the silent animal he’d fought all his life, gave him a mental nudge. He opened himself to it. No words passed between them. No knowledge did either. Their animal counterparts couldn’t talk to them, but what it did offer him was a feeling of peace and…

Trust.

He had to trust himself, Hannah, and Noah. Hadn’t Ethan thought several times how perfect both of his lovers were and how they matched him as if made specifically for him? They were his gift, and only a fool let happiness slip through his fingers.

“Then that’s what you’ll get, Hannah.” He eased his length out, then slammed forward. “A good hard fuck, but first I want you to feel everything I can give you.”

A hand on her chin, he turned her face to the side. Hannah caught his gaze. Lust and love burned in her eyes. He cherished the sight for a brief heartbeat before focusing on bringing her to ecstasy. He rolled his hips, stroking her inner muscles, and kissed her, loving her mouth as deeply as he did her body. He wanted her to feel and forget where they were and who watched them.

For a long moment, they kissed and rocked into each other, but the ache in his dick grew along with the firm squeeze of her core on his length. With a hand planted on the ground to support him, he hooked his other over her upper chest, locking her to him.

He gave himself over to the moment, letting his instincts guide him, and loved her with every stroke and rough caress. In and out, he moved, not deeply. He teased the upper more sensitive part of her core. Her breathing shortened the longer he drove into her. His quickened with the building pressure in his balls.

Their pleasures mixed and fed off each other. The sensations whipping through him grew. Every driving thrust intensified them. He savored the silken slide of his length inside her, but the urge to move took over. He needed more than the reverent loving they shared.

He shifted over her, breaking their kiss. Too tall, he couldn’t command her body the way he wanted while their tongues dueled. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and fucked her, shaking her body with every hard drive.

The moment he stopped moving, she’d come and bring his release. His fangs slipped into place, and every fiber of his being burned with the knowledge of what he had to do. There was no fighting it. He brushed his lips back and forth over her shoulder, then opened his mouth and pressed his teeth against her delicate skin.

She sucked in a breath. “Ethan?”

He didn’t give either of them the chance to question what he was doing. He drove his cock deep once more and let go at the same time as he bit. Blood filled his mouth, and the instinct to mate took over. His soul opened to hers. He couldn’t describe it any other way. In one endless heartbeat, they were one. Her purity and light washed over him, exactly as he’d imagined it would, and she welcomed him inside.

He moved through her and left a piece of himself behind. So subtle. So easy. If he pulled back, she’d be joined with him in the one-way mate bond common among shifters. Often called a breeding bond, it allowed the male to impregnate his mate, but it didn’t bind their souls for all time. The danger of taking a piece of a female’s soul was real. Once he did, they’d be soul-bonded, joined in life and death.

A moment of hesitation settled over him. He knew what he had to do, but part of him roared in frustration. He wanted Noah linked to them too. Noah wasn’t with them, though, and Ethan had made Hannah a promise. He would not face another day without her.

He caressed her soul with mental fingers, then curled them, claiming a piece for himself. He greedily clutched it to him, letting her goodness and light seep into him, filling the hole in his soul left behind from when he’d given her a piece of his.

His wolf didn’t fight him. It stood by him as he soul-bonded to Hannah, but the second after their union became permanent, it growled. The reminder not to lick her shoulder, sealing his scent into her and closing the pathway between them, was one he hated getting. Necessary, though.

Michael could not learn that they were soul-bonded. All he’d have to do in order to eliminate Ethan was kill Hannah. The only way to keep the secret was to allow her bite to close on its own…

Without his scent. Without his claim announcing to the world she was his mate.

He tore his mouth from her shoulder and scrambled back, knocking the chair on its side. He had to put distance between them. The sight of the blood on her shoulder squeezed his chest. He wanted to lick the mark, sealing his scent into her skin so all who were close to her would know she was
his
mate.

Instead, I’m shaming her. Announcing to the world she isn’t good enough, isn’t worthy enough for me to mate, even though I did mate her.

He was an asshole. A goddamn bastard.

He had no choice. Nobody besides him, Noah and Hannah could know the truth. Not yet.

She whipped her head to the side. Confusion tightened her features. Whatever she saw on his face drained the color from hers. She clamped a hand over his mate mark. “What have you done?”

The sound of twigs snapping stopped him from answering. He glanced from her eyes brimming with tears to the stocky male Ethan wanted to kill. Michael approached, brows pinched.

“I’d like to know the same.” Michael motioned toward Hannah. The blood seeping between her fingers proved Ethan hadn’t licked the wound to heal it and lock his scent inside, the last step in a mating. The one that closed their pathway, allowing them to mentally communicate with each other. “I thought you were going to mate little Hannah.”

Anger burned in Ethan’s gut. His mate hated being called little, and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

“I tried. My wolf refused her.”

A smile tugged at Michael’s lips. “Too weak. Is that what you’re saying?”

Bile rose, and the sick feeling in his stomach grew, but he forced himself to nod. “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. My wolf would rather never breed than dilute our strength with her.”

“I feared as much. After our chat the other day, I realized you’d never settle for less than a strong mate. I almost intervened when I saw you zero in on Hannah, but figured it was none of my business.” Michael swept his gaze over her. “Was she a good fuck, at least?”

Ethan pushed to his feet. He locked his knees to stop himself from going to her, then glanced at her, looking down at where she huddled on the ground, one hand on her shoulder, the other covering her breasts. A lump formed in his throat. He swallowed past it.

She owns a piece of my soul. I own a piece of hers, and she knows I love her. She’ll understand once she has a chance to think.
He hoped, at least.

He motioned toward the night sky. Only seconds remained of the full moon’s magical hour. He’d lost his chance to defeat his enemy. He’d have to wait another month. “The moon’s influence has passed, and I’d rather not admit how much it had swayed me when I scented her arousal.”

Moisture collected on her lashes, and her lip quivered. Real or faked, he couldn’t tell, even with the piece of her soul within him. Her emotions were all over the place. Then again, so were his. They were a damn mess, both of them.

She blinked rapidly. A single tear rolled down her cheek. He watched it drip off her chin and wanted to scream at the heavens for the twist of fate their path had taken. He reached inside himself and wrapped his love around the piece of her soul he held, hoping she understood what he couldn’t say. He didn’t know if he succeeded. Their connection was too new. It wasn’t as if he could talk to her telepathically either since he hadn’t completed their connection.

They were connected, yet alone. Incomplete.

Michael went to her and tugged her up. He scrubbed the back of his hand over her cheek. “Don’t cry, Miss Kagan. It’s unbecoming of a dominant.” He chuckled. “But I guess this proves you’re not one. Your father should’ve let you die, not tried so hard to make a puny thing like you into a worthy shifter.”

Rage twisted Ethan. He took a step forward. He couldn’t let Michael verbally abuse her. It didn’t fit with the image Ethan had built of himself, the one who reached out to people in need.

“Just because I couldn’t mate her doesn’t mean Hannah isn’t worthy.”

“You’re right, and I’m sure her pack will be happy to know they’re getting Nicholas Kagan’s precious little daughter back because”—Michael released Hannah—“you won’t be welcome here. If Noah still wants you as his wife after tonight, you’ll have to live there. I want you nowhere near my people.”

“I do.” Noah stepped from the shadows. “I love Hannah. Nothing that happened tonight will change that.”

Michael raised a brow. “Even watching your friend fuck your true mate?”

Noah sent Ethan a scathing look. “Ethan’s no longer a friend. I’d told him how grateful I was to have found my true mate.”

Ethan shrugged. “If the connection is so important to you, you should’ve waited for her and not mated Mindy.”

A growl rumbled Noah’s chest. “You don’t know what you’re—”

“Enough. Take your wife and get off my pack’s lands. Neither of you are worth anything to me or my pack.” Michael turned his back on both Hannah and Noah, a dismissal and a slap in their faces, then caught Ethan’s gaze. “Don’t give up hope on finding a worthy female. There’s always next month.”

Noah held his hand out to Hannah. She shook her head, sending her black hair whipping around her in a wild mess. “No. Don’t touch me.”

“Hannah, it’s okay. I—”

She shifted into her wolf form, then took off, running full out toward her pack’s lands. Noah followed. Within seconds, he was gone too.

Ethan stared at the spot where his lovers had disappeared. Regret choked him for the hurt he’d caused them. His only comfort came from knowing Noah would know how to save them all. His trip through depression and loneliness had taught him to listen to his instincts when it came to love. He hadn’t given up on Ethan, nor would he let Hannah go.

“Yes.” Ethan faced Michael. “I’m very much looking forward to next month’s activities.”

“Good.” Michael nodded. “I’ll see if I can’t get some other females to join us for our run. There’s got to be some woman out there your wolf will want.”

I’ve already found her, and I’ll spend my life making up for the humiliation I caused her. Eternity if I have to. Because I learned one very important lesson tonight.

Only a fool would give up on happiness. Or love.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The best part of remaining in her wolf form, Hannah decided, was that she couldn’t cry. The pain behind her heartache hadn’t dimmed over the hour she’d spent running from the Tanner pack lands or her mate. Neither did the confusion.

Why did Ethan give her a piece of his soul, take a piece of hers, then refuse to mark her as his mate?

Biologically and spiritually, she was his. She’d never be able to form a mate bond with another shifter. Nor did she want to. Part of her wanted to turn around and run back into his arms, begging him to lick the wound, even if it meant facing humiliation again.

I’m the biggest damn fool alive.

The safety of her home came into view, thankfully pulling her out of her thoughts. She couldn’t make sense of them. Or what Ethan had done to her. His emotions flowed through her, a rush of contradicting feelings she couldn’t separate. Added to hers, she was doubly confused.

A glance at her familial home showed it empty, no lights on or cars parked in the driveway. She breathed a sigh of relief. She’d taken the long way back to her property, slinking along the main highway cutting through their territory to avoid her pack mates, but she hadn’t escaped their protectors’ notice.

Chris had made his presence known. A growl from her had stopped him from coming near her. She didn’t want anyone to see the bloody wound on her shoulder or know the shame she’d experienced at the hands of her true mate—the male who claimed to love her.

No. He loves me. I saw the truth in his eyes. I feel it in my soul.

Of course, she also felt his regret. The guilt countered the devotion and left her teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown.

She slowed her steps and finally came to a stop in the backyard, feet away from her back door. His words and actions had hurt. There was no denying it. Had he meant them to? Or was there another explanation, one she couldn’t see from behind the veil of despair that gripped her?

“I’m going to catch you near the border and make sure you’re safe from Michael until I can kill him.”
Ethan’s words skipped through her mind. Realization struck. He had made sure she was safe. He’d kept Greg away from her and turned Michael’s game against him. Michael would’ve used her bond to Ethan as a means to keep him in line, much as Michael did to many of his pack mates.
And now Michael thinks I’m nothing to Ethan when in fact, I’m his life.

Ethan had made good on his promise. He’d said he never wanted to face another day without her. With the piece of her soul he’d claimed, he wouldn’t.

“Shift for me, Hannah. I need to hold you in my arms.”

She glanced in the direction of Noah’s voice. He stood near the tree line. Every fiber of her being reached out to him. He was ruggedly beautiful, strong, and confident, and he drew her as completely as Ethan did.

A single thought brought about her shift. She turned to face Noah but didn’t go to him. She pressed her hand over her shoulder. A thump had developed where Ethan had bitten her. She knew what it was—the physical response mated females felt in the presence of their mates. Hers was nowhere close, though.

“He mated me. Soul-bonded to me.”

“I told him to.”

“Why? He could’ve waited until next month.”

Noah closed the distance between them but didn’t pull her into his arms, even though he’d said he wanted to hold her.

“He could’ve, but”—he tipped up her chin with a single finger and stared deeply into her eyes—“only a fool would let the woman he loves walk away without her understanding she’s the reason he breathes.”

His face blurred. She blinked her tears away. “I love him.”

“So do I.”

She lifted her hand and stared at the blood on her palm. “Will he come back to us tonight? Finish it, so everyone knows I’m his mate?”

He cradled her hand and brought it to his lips. He licked away her blood. Each swipe of his tongue over her flesh intensified the thudding in the wound Ethan had left on her. “No. He can’t. You know that. It’s too dangerous.”

She did, but the idea of his mark healing felt wrong. She’d lose everything if it did.

“I need him.” She voiced the conviction that had settled in her heart. “And you. I need to belong to both of you, not just symbolically or through marriage. Do you understand?”

Because she wasn’t sure she did. She only knew she couldn’t let the night pass without tying Noah to her as irrevocably as Ethan had joined her to him. She just didn’t know how.

The corner of his mouth lifted on a half smile, but he didn’t speak. He held his hand out to her. She slid her palm against his. He curled his fingers around hers and drew her into his embrace. His warmth beckoned her closer. She didn’t fight the urge. She locked her arms around his chest and squeezed him tight.

Peace settled over, despite the emptiness Ethan’s absence brought. Eyes closed, she let the comfort Noah offered soothe her. Tension drained from her muscles, but the sense of calm didn’t last. The first stirrings of desire snaked through her. Her breathing deepened, and the thud in her shoulder reverberated in her veins.

She squirmed in his hold, and he groaned as her restless movements stimulated him as much as her. His penis thickened and lengthened. The sensation of his hard cock poking at her flipped a switch inside her. Her core quivered, and lust seized her. The quick change in her mood left her unsteady. She clutched at him, pulling him impossibly closer.

“Noah, I love you too. I don’t want you to walk away without knowing how much.”

He swept her into his arms. His beautiful green eyes filled her vision. Love showed in them. “I don’t plan on it. Not tonight, tomorrow, or the next day.”

He didn’t give her the chance to respond. He skimmed his hand over her hip and thigh as he kissed her, exploring her mouth as if what they shared was their very first kiss. She gloried in his attention, and the burn in her body intensified with each slow, controlled stroke of his tongue against her. On and on, he made love to her mouth. It was wonderful. She could’ve spent all night exactly as they were, but the lusts he’d stirred with his presence grew stronger the longer he kissed her.

She writhed in his arms, needing more than the reverence he offered, then linked her legs around his waist and her hands behind his neck. On a groan, she tightened her hold on him and thrust her tongue into his mouth, demanding he meet her needs.

He growled against her lips. The sound sent a shiver down her spine. She tore her mouth from his. “Noah, make love to me. Please.”

He mapped her face with his gaze. A sharp nod answered her, but he didn’t lower her to the ground. He carried her inside her house and took her to her bedroom. The moment he kicked the door shut, his mouth found hers. He walked forward, kissing her madly the whole time.

Soft sheets met her back as he laid her down. He settled between her legs, and his hard length slipped through her wetness. On a single thrust, he filled her. She shuddered with the sensation of his body joined with hers. Every inch of his cock teased her, stimulating her in ways no other lover had. Except for Ethan, that was. Both of her lovers fit her as if made for her. And they were. They were her gifts, and she’d treasure them for every day they had together.

Noah rocked into her, loving her from the inside out. Their passion built and the sweet loving turned into a race to reach ecstasy. He slipped a hand under her body, locking her to him, and fucked her. Each stroke came quicker than the last, and her inner muscles tightened over his driving cock, trying to hold him deep. They fell into the age-old dance of lovers, moving in sync and fulfilling each other’s wants.

Except for one.

He had to claim her as his mate too.

As if he sensed her frustration, he broke their kiss and flipped her to her stomach. She scrambled to her hands and knees, exactly the position Noah needed her.

“Bite me, Noah. I want your fangs buried in my shoulder, your cock inside me, and your…” The answer to their unusual bond became clear, and the shame Ethan had caused her by not sealing the wound he’d left on her was the way she’d join Noah to them. “Your soul embracing mine.”

She looked over her shoulder. “Do you understand? Ethan left the pathway to my soul open. You can touch it. Take a piece of my soul to fill the hole in yours. I have enough love for both of you. I can be the center of us.”

He grinned and settled behind her, positioning his erection at her opening. “You already are.”

“Then make it official, my mate.” She wiggled her bottom, enticing him to fill her. “Finish this.”

“With pleasure.”

He drove his cock deep, pushing her body forward. She grabbed the sheets and braced herself for his pounding strokes. Already highly aroused, she was ready to combust. Her core tingled. Every nerve came alive. She wanted to savor the moment. Noah’s focused loving didn’t allow for it. He built her pleasure, bringing heaven down to her a second time tonight.

She pushed up on her elbows, changing the depth of Noah’s thrusts, and countered him. They moved as one, anticipating and meeting each other’s needs, exactly as Ethan had not long ago. Both of her mates complemented her, giving her what she desired to reach the highest peak.

Noah’s breathing grew shallower, and the cock lodged deep within her thickened. He banded his arm around her stomach and yanked her against him.

He buried his face against her shoulder. “Going to make you mine.”

“Yes, do—”

He bit before she could get the words out. A sharp pain whipped through her, and the grinding of his teeth in her shoulder tore a groan from her. The pain faded with the light shining down upon her. It was Noah’s soul brightening hers, exactly as Ethan’s had, but a shadow dimmed part of it. The hole in his soul from when he’d mated Mindy and given her a piece of it cast a dark spotlight on her.

She wanted to fill it. Complete him. Complete them.

His love wrapped around her, along with his mental caress, and he eased back with a piece of her soul. For a brief moment, she could’ve sworn she felt Ethan with them, sharing in their passion. She didn’t know if it was real or not, but she opened herself to both males, exactly as she had when Ethan had walked through her soul, hoping that somehow he’d experience what Noah was doing to her.

Warmth spread through her limbs. Their love surrounded her, seeped into her and became the glue that would link them always.

Noah released her shoulder, and the first lick of his tongue to the wound sent energy zinging through her body.

“Yes, Noah. More.” She clutched his head and held him in place while he healed the wound and completed
their
mating. Not just hers and Ethan’s, but the three of them.

“My mate. My Hannah. I love you.” Noah groaned the words against her shoulder, then came in short quick jerks that filled her with his seed.

She arched into him on a gasp. Her orgasm rolled over her, one strong wave after another. Finally, their joint release ended, and Ethan’s presence faded. She tried to hold on to him but couldn’t. Within one heartbeat and the next, he was gone.

Noah flopped to the side, panting heavily. She turned toward him. He gathered her close and laid his cheek over the top of her head. “A month, Hannah. That’s all we’ll have to wait. Then we’ll be able to hold our mate in our arms.”

She couldn’t wait. “And once we do, we’re never letting him go.”