Wolf and Punishment (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 1) (26 page)

And just like that, Janelle’s feelings flipped. Instead of hating Sofia with a rage-fueled passion, she found herself nodding along with the human’s sage advice. “Mag, she was right. Tell me. You have to. Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than what I’ve been thinking.”

He gave her a sad look. “I don’t know about that. My brother, Kang—you got a good look at his face, yeah?”

Janelle thought of his brother who had several tattooed lines on his face—ones she doubted he gotten for whale hunting. “Yes, I saw him. But I’d never judge you based on what your brother’s done…”

“My father had even more lines than Kang. So many, they covered his neck and then the whole upper half of his body.”

Again, she didn’t see what this had to do with Mag. “So your father also killed? I wouldn’t judge you for that, either. I know Freedom Town doesn’t operate by the same rules as the rest of the Alaska state pack. That’s why my father was so insistent about bringing you guy’s under Lupine Council law.”

“Janelle, my brother got his tats for killing wolves who challenged him or wolves that broke our laws. Only a few of my dad’s lines came from that. Most of them he got killing wolves he thought were attracted to my mother or wolves she was attracted to. Their marriage—it was fucked up. They hated each other, they loved each other. You never knew what you were going to get from night to night. They both drank and a lot of times it got out of hand. Most of the wolves in our village knew better than to even look at my mother when they were walking by her. They kept their eyes down. But sometimes when my mom got drunk, she’d go out to the place where everybody gathered to drink at night. She’d look at a dude, and her arousal scent would go off. She’d do it on purpose, just to watch my dad go nuclear on the guy. And he handled it the same way every time, by killing. Sometimes he’d beat him, sometimes he’d stab him, sometimes he’d just pull out a gun and shoot him—didn’t matter how he did it, dude would be dead by the time my dad was done with him. Then he’d take my ma back to our RV and put his mating scent on her again. I guessed they loved each other, but they were fucking toxic.”

Janelle couldn’t help but agree, but she kept her thoughts to herself and let him continue.

“You probably already guessed their story don’t have a pretty ending. After I went away to college, my mom went off the rails. She’d been against me going in the first place. Said I needed to stay, follow my uncle’s example, and serve as Kang’s beta. But I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in an RV, following the game around Alaska, drinking ‘til I passed out every night, stirring up drama cuz I’m cold and bored and drunk. I wanted better, but my ma never forgave me for leaving. She started drinking even more after I left, sun up to sun down, made it so I could barely stand to visit them. But I came back every summer to help with the hunts. Figured it was the least I could do.”

Mag’s eyes became haunted. “Summer before my junior year, I’m back in Alaska. Sitting outside the RV with them, enjoying the weather, you know and drinking. My Uncle Po comes over, asking me to get him some more Natty Lite out the fridge. My brother’s there, too, but I’m the youngest so I go inside the trailer to get ‘em. I can hear my uncle outside. He’s joking around with my dad and ma, teasing my dad about me fumbling a pass in my last game of the football season. Nobody else could talk to my dad like that, but they’re brothers, you know. Blood. My uncle could say whatever he wanted and my dad would just laugh. But then my ma’s arousal scent went off.”

Janelle’s heart dropped.

“It was bad. I’m not going to lie to you, it was real fucking bad. At first I thought, oh fuck, me and Kang are going to have pull Dad off my uncle. I come running out the trailer, but they’re not fighting. My dad’s got his gun out, pointed straight at Uncle Po. He’s crying. He’s so fucking drunk, Janelle, and Kang’s all like, “Dad, no. He’s your brother. Ma tell him your nose opened for him. Not for Uncle Po. Tell him…”

Mag shook his head. “My ma just laughed. Everything was a joke to her. I want to say cuz she was wasted, but Sofia says maybe she had a narcissistic personality disorder. Might even have been a borderline sociopath. Anyways, she never could take anything seriously. And Dad’s crying so hard. I’d never seen him cry before that. He was always tough, you know. Pack king. Number one hunter. But he was straight up bawling like a baby. I couldn’t believe it. And for a few seconds I relaxed, like ‘Naw, he ain’t going to do it,’ but then he just…” Mag had to rock back and forth a couple of times, and give his head a hard shake, like he was jostling the words free, “…he pulled the trigger. Put a silver bullet in his brother, like he was just another dude from the village.”

“Kang’s yelling no, and Ma’s still laughing, like it’s a show on TV and some funny shit just went down. But then Dad points the gun at her, shoots her straight through the head. Then he puts the gun in his mouth—just like that, my parents and my uncle, all dead.”

Janelle couldn’t hold her words in any longer. She reached out to him. “Oh my God. Poor you. Poor Kang. Mag, I’m so sorry that happened.”

Mag’s hands were trembling now. “No, don’t try to comfort me. Let me finish. Let me finish now, because if I don’t, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to talk about this shit with you again.”

Janelle sat back, even though more than anything, she wanted to take him in her arms. Comfort him like he had comforted her just a few minutes ago.

“My main goal in life after my parents died was not to go out like that. I wanted an easy life with a cool girl, and when I met you I thought I hit the jackpot. You’re nice, even when you have no fucking reason to be. And it’s not all about you. You actually give a damn about people other than yourself. I thought you were perfect… but then it turned out you were already with somebody else. At least that’s how it would have looked to somebody sane, who didn’t come from Freedom Town. In my head, it was like you laid down a challenge. If I wanted you, I had to kill your wolf. And I took that challenge—I told myself it was all about revenge, but who trains for three years for revenge on some girl he was only with for three days? No, I think deep down I knew what I was doing. What I was really doing. I trained and I waited for that fiancé of yours to become king. Then I killed him and that bitch-ass Kenny.”

He finally looked at Janelle, his eyes miserable with the story he’d just told her. “You say I’m nothing like my father.
I’m just like him
. Kang got his lines for solid reasons, but these lines on my face are the same as my dad’s. And that’s why I hired Sofia, because after that pledge meeting, I didn’t know how to let you go, but I was too scared to be with you. Scared I’d become like my father. Scared I’d hurt you like he hurt my mother.”

Janelle took both of his hands in hers and brought them to her chest. “You wouldn’t. You never would. You could put a million lines on your face, and I’d still trust you not to do to me what your father did to your mother.”

Mag shook his head. “I threw you across a table. When I used to think about going into heat with you back in college, it wasn’t like that. Baths, music, I was even going to ask Chloe for some cooking lessons so I could make you something good to eat between sessions. I was going to put my scent on you right. I wanted to give you that. I was keeping my distance with you and working with Sofia so I could give you that. And then Rafe told me what your father had planned, and I went crazy again. Sofia told me not to go to Alaska. She said if I really wanted to break things off with you, I could do it over the phone. But I couldn’t stay away, knowing you were in that house with Rafe, and your parents would be pushing you at him. And when you went into heat, it was like a light switch flipped. I claimed you on the table with your whole family watching—”

His voice broke, and Janelle couldn’t stay in her seat any longer. She climbed into his lap without invitation and pulled his head to hers. “No, no. You do
not
blame yourself for that. We are wolves. We can give ourselves titles and build ourselves grandiose houses, but at the end of the day, we are wolves. And when a wolf’s mate goes into heat, he
claims
her. And when the claim is good, as it was between us, when it’s wanted by the she-wolf more than air itself, it doesn’t matter whose watching. They’re going to be together. And as for killing Jeffrey, you act like you did this heinous thing to be with me. But you didn’t, Mag. After what you thought I did, you could have moved on with your life, mated another she-wolf, and never given me a second thought. But instead you came back for me. And you saved me.”

Mag started shaking his head, but she wouldn’t let him this time. She grabbed his face in her hands and said, “No, listen to me.
You saved me
. I was dead inside after Jeffrey forced me to make that call. I didn’t know how I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. Maybe if I hadn’t met you, I would have been able to muscle through life mated to a prick who truly did see me as a living trophy our daddies gave him as an award for being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But after you… after you, I didn’t know how I could do it without making myself numb inside. And then one day, my dad called me into his study and he told me Jeffrey was dead. That you had killed him. And now it’s my turn to
tell you,
I have never been so relieved in my entire life. So just to make it clear, I’m not scared of you. I’m grateful.
You saved me.
”

And suddenly it wasn’t just her holding on to Mag, it was him holding on to her. “Baby, I love you. I love you so much. Please, don’t leave me. I promise you the guy you fell in love with is still here. I want to be your mate, baby. Please choose me again. I swear I’ll make you happy if you choose me again.”

Janelle believed him. Oh God, did she believe him, and suddenly a new smell erupted between them. Fresh and tangy, like a brand new day.

Mag looked at her in wonder. It was something neither of them had ever smelled before, the scent of her arousal, compelled not by heat or his tongue, but by the fact that she wanted him. Plain and simple. She wanted him now.

“Oh fuck, baby, yes… do it. Your choice. Do whatever you want. I’m yours now. All yours.”

They were pledged to each other for life, yet Janelle felt they didn’t even have time to take their clothes off. The only things she removed were her tights. Everything else would have to be navigated around. Her choice… her choice…

Janelle kneeled and sat back on his lap, her feet curled up beneath her, nestled against the outside of his thighs. She took him out of his pants, and there was no need to stroke his manhood to life. He was already ready, like a rod of flesh covered steel in her hands. She was ready, too, her wolf throbbing inside of her, compelling her to pull aside her own panties, and—oh yes, that was it.

The head of his cock pushed inside her slick folds, spreading her apart as she guided him all the way in, and filling her up so all she could feel below was him. They both groaned when she started moving on top of him, her hips undulating at a speed that matched the urgency of her desire.

And though Mag had claimed it was now her choice, he couldn’t seem to help himself. He pushed up her cashmere sweater and undid the front clasp of her bra like a wolf on a mission, his mouth claiming her breasts like a victory prize, one he savored as she rode him, her hands at his sides.

Janelle lost it sooner than she wanted to, flying apart and releasing even more arousal scent into the air as the electric pleasure of their joining coursed through her.

As soon as she came, though, Mag completely took over. He fused her lips to his, one hand hooking around her shoulder while his other arm wrapped around her waist. He slammed her up and down on his erection, pumping into her with such strength and urgency, it was clear his wolf was running the show. She realized then how restrained he had been with her three years ago, how much he must have held himself back.

The way he was with her now, rough, wild, out of control—this was the real Mag Lonewolf, holding his mate tight as he pounded into her like a runaway train. Her wolf loved it. Her human loved it. Everything inside Janelle loved what he was doing to her, and she let him know, coming once again just as he erupted, hot spurts surging into her, filling her up, making their bodies even slicker as he pumped away, his hips refusing to stop until he was emptied out.

“Baby,” he whispered in her ear, like he was coming down from a miracle. He hugged her so tight against him. “God, I love you so much. Please choose me again, and I’ll make sure you never regret it, baby.”

“I choose you. Only you. Always you,” she whispered back. “And I love you, too.”

They sat in the chair like that, their sexes still joined as they reveled in their newly reestablished love. But eventually Janelle put a reluctant end to the reverent silence. She had no desire to ruin the mood, but there was something she had to do. Now, before she lost her nerve.

“Mag, baby… I need you to come downstairs with me.”

26

A
S Janelle suspected, Kang was still in the front room. Standing in front of the picture of the royal Alaska family, which Janelle had put on the mantel, but not touching it. Like a six-foot-plus art patron with face tattoos.

However, Janelle sensed he was only pretending to be interested in the picture. Really, he was there for his brother, if needed, but not making it too obvious. He was a good brother, and would make a fine beta, she thought to herself as she and Mag made their way down the stairs, hand and hand.

“Hey, is this the sister that ran away?” he asked, pointing to Alisha’s image in the picture. “Please tell me this ain’t the sister who ran away, cuz if you put her in a pair of fake glasses and gave her some extensions, she’d look just like this girl from my favorite p—”

Whatever he was about to say got cut off by Mag. “Yeah, that’s the one who ran away, Kang. So the rest of that sentence don’t need to come out of your mouth.”

Kang grinned and flicked his own moon-colored eyes back up to the picture. “The other one’s cute, too. I like Afros. She pledged yet—?”