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  “I agree. Go inside with your mates. I’ll explain to everyone else.”

  26

  So here I was, sitting in an armchair, waiting to interview my prospective fuck buddies. I rubbed at my still raw face. Every time I thought I was on top of things here…

  “You OK, Flick?” Peter asked.

  I looked up at him and felt that deep, warm ache inside me when he took my hand. I leaned over when he dropped down beside me, sitting on his heels, and I kissed him slowly so I could capture his every taste.

  “So you’re not doing too bad,” Aidan said with a wicked smile. “After this, we’ll have some food and then send everyone home.”

  “Put Kade to bed.”

  “And go to bed for the first time as a pack,” I said, my breath catching on the words.

  Aidan’s grin broadened. “Hold onto those thoughts, love. They’ll get you through this much easier.”

  As if summoned, the door opened and in they came, making me wonder about my choice of venue. They filled the room, and the house seemed so much smaller for having so many tall men crammed into one space.

  “It’s OK…” Peter whispered, running his finger across my palm.

  And it was. I sat up straighter in my chair, the movement followed by most of their eyes. I didn’t need any of them. If I spent the entirety of my heat, my life, with just these two men, that was two more worthwhile partners than I’d had before. There might be something else out there in this pool—my eyes strayed to Sen, who stood close to the front, his hand clenched tight around his token—or there might not. I had nothing to lose from exploring this.

  “This is much better,” Ophelia said as she and several matriarchs filed in. “We don’t usually have children at such events, and this allows us to protect them from the process.”

  My eyebrows shot up in alarm.

  “Some of them get a little feisty trying to prove their worth,” one of the women said. She had a long tumble of red brown hair and bright green eyes that sparkled with a devilish light. “I’m Rhoda. We met at the alpha’s house.”

  “Flick,” I said in return.

  “Oh, we know. Everyone knows,” she said, impishly nodding towards the men.

  “Yes, well, let's get things started, shall we?” Ophelia said. “Any who wish to petition for a position in Flick’s pack may speak now. One at a time.”

  A really tall guy with a shock of black hair and a shit-eating grin stepped forward and dropped to his knee.

  “Flick, daughter of Chloe…”

  How had they found out Mum’s name?

  “I ask that you accept this token as a symbol of my regard for you. I wish to start the petitioning process to join your pack. My deepest wish is that I will prove worthy and that I will take a place by your side. As part of my offer, I gift to you—”

  “Hang on,” I said, and the man looked up when I interrupted. “What’s your name?”

  “Sonny,” he said, brow creasing, bemused.

  “Sonny, can you take my hand?”

  He glanced at Ophelia, then at my outstretched palm, wrapping his hand around it.

  The effect was instantaneous—a sharp, painful feeling zapped through me. I jerked my hand back, something he tried to fight, but there was no way he was keeping a hold of me.

  “Damn…” he groaned, rolling his head as if to loosen the muscles.

  “No,” I said. “Definitely not.”

  Sonny’s ecstatic expression was quickly dropped and exactly what I’d feared happened. His brows jerked down, a snarl forming on his lips.

  “No,” I growled before he could. “And if you’re gonna give me attitude, get the hell out of my house.”

  The permission granting had a point to it, I could now see. This was my turf that I could defend, control, and no one was going to take that away from me. Instead, others would rise to defend it for me, as here, this was my right.

  “Fine,” he snapped out, then got to his feet and went to go.

  “Present yourself at my offices tomorrow morning,” Ophelia said to him as he stalked past, but she got no answer other than a slammed door. She turned to the group. “If there’s anyone else feeling like they want to push things, leave now.” The other matriarchs stepped forward, providing a united front. “Your appearance here is a privilege, not a right.”

  Things went more smoothly after that. Rather than offer tokens and speak the ceremonial words, I touched them to feel if I got a similar response as I had with Sen. Some were tickles, others slow, sensuous waves. One came from a gorgeous looking guy, Snowy they called him. His white blond hair stood out when he came forward, as did his pale blue eyes. His smile was mysterious, obviously feeling my eyes on him and liking it. He dropped to his knees, but there wasn’t a compliant bone in his body. His gaze, when he looked up, was pure mischief.

  I knew how he’d feel before he even touched me, but I let it happen anyway. Sure enough, a great lick of pleasure slid over my body as his palm grazed mine, deepening with his touch. A moan escaped my lips against my will, making him grin, right up until it fluttered and the same feeling washed through him.

  “Yes?” Aidan asked finally, breaking through the haze.

  “I’m…not sure,” I gasped. I watched that smile falter for a moment. “I…”

  “Tell him you want more time to explore things, if that’s what you want,” Peter said.

  “Can I get permission to call on you?” Snowy asked.

  “Sure…” I said, my mouth reluctantly making the sound. “But not when Kade’s here. Inside school hours only.”

  He nodded and then got to his feet, swooping in to brush his lips against my knuckles before going back outside.

  I was in a bit of a daze after that. While they were all gorgeous looking, I got only lukewarm responses or nothing at all from the rest. Except for Sen.

  He’d hung back, watched the guys file in, and then again when they left, as if storing the information away for later. Then came his turn. When Ophelia called upon him, he strode forward, then dropped down to one knee.

  “You know how we respond to each other,” he said, “so can I say the words?”

  He needn’t. I’d already decided to give him a try, so this was just a foregone conclusion. But he needed to, I could see that as clear as the eyes on his face. Eyes that burned into me, waiting.

  “Say the words, Sen,” I said, leaning forward and taking his hand. His other placed the tiny wolf onto my palm.

  “Flick, daughter of Chloe, I ask that you accept this token as a symbol of my regard for you. I wish to start the petitioning process to join your pack. My deepest wish is that I will prove worthy and that I will take a place by your side. As part of my offer, I gift to you this carving, completed by my grandfather when he petitioned my grandmother’s pack.” He closed my fingers around it gently.

  “Yes, Sen, I accept.” I looked at the tiny sculpture, the lines of the wolf showing it ready to hunt. “But this is precious—”

  “All the better,” he said. He turned to the guys. “Peter, son of Lois, Aidan, son of Renee, do you approve my request to pursue your mate, to petition to be a part of your pack?”

  “I do,” Peter said, holding out a hand to him and hauling him up to his feet. The two did that blokey back slapping thing.

  “I do. It’d be good to have another set of hands around here,” Aidan said. “I’ve got a cool idea for a patio around the back—”

  “Aidan!” I said. “You sure you want in on this, Sen?”

  He moved closer until I was forced to look up to meet his eyes, his hand going to my jaw, tipping it up further. There was a question in his eyes as his thumb stroked my cheek, one I found myself nodding in answer to.

  Fuck… was all my mind managed as he his head dropped down and then he kissed me.

  I’d had plenty of great kisses before. Those kisses you have at some crazy hour of the night, the air chilled, the streetlights blurring behind our heads as we had one of those open mouth
ed, messy kisses tasting of beer and cigarettes, and you don’t even care. Or slow, just waking up after a awesome night of sex, sensual kisses that celebrated and honoured the magic we’d been able to create, even if it was just for one night. But none of my kisses before had been like this.

  Sen’s mouth had a direct line to my clit, the plush of his lips, pressing against mine, then opening to suck my bottom lip in, it felt like it was doing double duty between my legs. I whimpered down in my throat, then clawed him back when he tried to pull away.

  “No…no…” he moaned, finally jerking himself free. He stared at me and I stared at him, looking like we’d just survived a bomb blast or something. “Fuck, no,” he said when I moved closer, holding a hand out to stop me. I liked the way his eyes rolled back when I closed my fingers around it. “You’re gonna have me coming in my pants if you keep doing that.”

  “Fuck, me too…” Aidan leaned in, rubbing his face against the side of mine. “Love, you smell so—”

  “Everyone out who isn’t pack or an accepted petitioner,” Ophelia snapped, her voice like the slap of a wet cloth across my face. I blinked, struggling to keep my eyes open as the sensations that came from Aidan, then Peter as he tugged me against him, washed over me like waves, dragging me down below into their velvety depths where I’d happily drown.

  “Keep Sen from her and get Snowy in here. And Renee,” she ordered.

  “She’s going into heat? It's not the full moon. She hasn’t shifted.”

  “Who’s to know what her body is doing? It’s always a new discovery with each outsider that comes here. Now get them here immediately.”

  Lips trailed over my flesh, sending burning trails over my skin and squashing down the monkey brain part of myself that was screaming questions about what was going on. She was shouldered roughly to one side, seduced by the great swell of sensation to just stay quiet for this once. I felt my Tirian shift inside me, and it felt like she had much more room to do so. Her mouth fell open in a wolfish smile, her eyes flashing bright at what was coming. All she was had been held back, boxed in, kept at bay by my ‘monkey brain,’ but that was offline right now. She was taking control.

  “Not yet.”

  The alpha’s command beat down on both of us, holding us still, keeping back what had to happen, if only for a moment.

  “Think of Kade,” she said when I pushed back, lifting my head to stare into her endlessly grey eyes. “We will take him to Renee’s, he can have an extended sleepover with the boys.”

  I nodded. The cub, he always came first. We could see just how scared he would be if he was escorted away from the house without an explanation. “Bring him, now. I can’t wait for much longer.”

  “You’ll shift tonight?” she asked. “I need to prepare…”

  Her words fell away as she saw my toothy grin, the echo of my wolf twin’s.

  “That’s for the moon to decide.”

  “We’ll need to study her afterwards. If this is something other outsiders will do, it changes how we do things,” one of the matriarchs said as they exited the door.

  “Something for later, don’t you think?”

  “What’s happening, Mum?”

  Kade studied the lot of us, eyes skipping from one to the other in rapid succession.

  I dropped down to his level and threw my arms around him, hugging him tight.

  Cub…cub…cub… my heart went.

  “Darling, you’re going to have a sleepover at Nana Renee’s, with Jared and Rexy and—”

  “Really! Tonight?” I nodded my head, watching his little face light up. “Cool! I’m gonna take my LEGO Star Wars dune walker and—”

  “Kade, we actually have a whole lot of new toys for you to play with at our house,” Renee said gently. “Rex has a massive stash of LEGO sets. Space, dragons, monster fighters…”

  “Really? Will he let me play with them?”

  “He’d love for you to. Now, you’re going to stay with us for about a week, so we’ll need to get you some clothes.”

  “A whole week!” I heard his cry with trepidation, but when he turned to me, Kade was all excitement. “Can I, Mum?”

  “You sure can, champ,” I said, stroking his face, feeling the tears wanting to form and holding them back. “I’ll ring you every day, OK?”

  “But what will you do, Mum? Is this that baby making thing?”

  “Um…what?” I spluttered.

  “The kids at school, they said they have to do sleepovers sometimes for a week and then they got baby brothers or sisters.”

  “Not that, love. I just have to do some stuff with the guys, and it’d be better if you were over at Renee’s. That OK?”

  He flung his arms around my neck and hugged me tight, then bounced away.

  “Sure, Mum.”

  27

  “Just…don’t come too close,” I said, standing in Kade’s room, forcing myself to pack him a bag when Aidan and Peter came in. Somehow, my gentle mates were gone, and instead, they were the big bad wolves, stalking in, eyeing their prey, and getting ready to eat me all up. I wanted to let them, as there was very little stopping me from throwing myself down on my son’s bed and pulling them on top of me.

  And those others too, my Tirian said with a hungry smile.

  Even Snowy? I replied with a frown. I have no idea who he is. Maybe he kicks puppies for fun.

  I would not let anyone like that touch us.

  But still.

  You want to cut everything up with the knives of your mind, be able to predict every eventuality. He may be just heat fever. A body to lose yourself in. There’s no shame in that.

  But I only just got myself back, I replied.

  “Should we pack his pillow?” Aidan asked.

  I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

  “What about his books or his backpack?” Peter asked.

  Nodding again.

  “His—”

  “Mum has all of this,” Aidan said, throwing the pile he’d collected on the bed. “She’s gonna give him chocolate chip pancakes for every meal, let him sit up until midnight watching Disney+ and have a right royal time. This is just stalling.”

  He was right, of course. Most of this stuff had been supplied by the town. They’d have little trouble coming up with a second set, but I zipped up the bag with a defiant jerk and went to pick it up.

  “Let me,” Peter said, sending a shiver up my spine when his fingers grazed mine. I looked up at him, saw those molten chocolate eyes and all the desire raging there, only held back by his will. But I didn’t want him to. I wanted him to unleash it upon me, drive me to the ground, and then spread my legs and shove that great big—

  “Flick?”

  My head jerked up at Aidan’s voice. God, I felt fucking boneless, my body like jelly, barely able to support my own weight with the heat rushing through me.

  “It’s OK, baby,” he said, coming in close and wrapping his arms around me. “We’ll see to this soon enough, make you feel so good.”

  “Yes…” I hissed.

  “I’ll be right back,” Peter said.

  “No,” I said as I shook my head, the world spinning when I did so. “I need to say goodbye to my son.”

  I knelt down in front of an excited little boy who was listening to all the instructions with barely concealed impatience.

  “So, you’ll be OK?” I asked finally.

  “Yep. The kids at school reckon it's the best, like going on holidays. Everyone’s grandparents spoil them rotten and let them get away with murder.”

  “Do they indeed?” I said, definitely hearing someone else’s words in my son’s mouth.

  “No need to tell Mum all our secrets, Kade,” Cooper said. “It’ll be OK, Flick. Renee’s been preparing for weeks for this.”

  “Well, I didn’t want to jinx anything, but just in case…” She smiled brightly, giving Aidan a quick kiss on the cheek. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this in hand. Kade’s already told us the friends he wants to
catch up with. We’ll keep him busy.”

  They would, I could see that. They had this healthy, happy family, and I was bloody lucky to be a part of it, but seeing them walk out that door clawed at my heart. And of course, my mates realised that, as they came closer and stroked my arm.

  “Now, Flick, before we leave you in peace, some negotiations need to be hammered out,” Ophelia said. “You have your mates. For some women, that’s who they wish to exhaust their first heat with. It’s a vulnerable, overwhelming time. You’ve also voiced an interest in exploring things with Sen and Snowy.”

  My eyes were drawn to the other men as if tugged that way, Ophelia’s words fading out as I inspected them, one pale, one bronzed. Snowy fidgeted under my gaze, but Sen met it head on, as if he longed for its touch and more.

  “Flick?”

  Everyone kept saying my damn name.

  “Sen stays, Snowy…” My lips pulled away from my teeth. “You’re something I’d like to taste.” The pale eyes flicked up at that, and there was something almost prey-like in his reaction. But then he smirked. “But not yet. There’s an unused room in the house. You can stay there, in case I want you or—”

  “Done,” he said. “I’ll have my bunk mates send over a bag and leave it in the driveway. That OK?”

  I nodded, eyes narrowing as I felt the urge to replace that smile with something else altogether.

  “You’re not to approach Flick unless she says it’s OK. The fridge and cupboards are well stocked. You’ll not need anything,” Ophelia told him sternly, which had him dropping his head and nodding.

  “Sen, your place here is provisional on Flick’s approval. If she decides you’re out, you’re out.”

  “Got that loud and clear,” he replied, but he didn’t look at the alpha. His eyes were only for me, and he looked like he was dying to cross the floor and strip me naked. And I wanted him to, my mind wondering how that intense touch of his would feel so much lower.

  “Well, there’s only this to give you.”