An Alpha's Commitment : an MMM Wolf-Shifter Romance (Leongatha Pack Tales, Book 2)

Chapter 01

“Where’s Isca?”

Irian was whisking something in a metal bowl on the kitchen bench. His beautiful brown eyes deserted the bowl in favor of meeting mine. It sent a rush through me, a thrill that resulted in a pooling of warmth in my groin. My little omega, my cherished mate, was approaching his next heat. The golden flecks scattered like stars through the brown of his irises was an early warning signal.

Get ready. Eat well. Rest up. Keep him close. Protect.

A shifter’s instincts towards their mate were always close to the surface, but never more so than when they were about to enter heat. The urge to lock him up, keep him safe, was a snaking coil of unease in my gut. I ignored it, of course. I was not the sort of alpha to control my mate that way, and Irian was not the kind of omega to tolerate it in any case.

I shook my head and huffed to myself. I might be the alpha but I was pretty sure I knew who was in control in this relationship. Irian, my mate, who knew how to smile sweetly and take everything from me that he wanted… in the nicest possible way, of course. And gladly given.

It was only mildly concerning that Isca, my other mate, was almost certainly learning all the tricks from Irian. The two of them were practically inseparable, usually to be found in the kitchen baking together or often in bed playing, which made it all the more surprising that Isca was currently nowhere to be seen. It fitted with my purpose today, however.

“He’s gone into town to do the shopping,” Irian’s sparkling smile lit up his face. He and Isca were the most beautiful omegas on the planet (I hadn’t met them all but it was obvious to me that they were). Irian had been the most wonderful, unexpected Christmas present from the Goddess (or maybe Santa Wolf, I still wasn’t sure) years ago, and Isca had joined us in a triad after his bonded mate brutalized him and left him for dead in the forest a couple of months ago. Irian and I had loved him for some time before that, but would never have made a move on him if not for the attack. That had changed everything.

“That’s okay now, right? Agelius went with him.” A faint wrinkle of worry creased that sweet face and I realized I hadn’t followed up my original question. Hmm, Irian’s heat must be closer than I thought, if I was having this much trouble keeping my thoughts together around him. This was another reason to find out where Isca was.

“Yes, of course. It’s been nearly two months since Isca regained consciousness and there’s been no sign of his pack, so I think they’ve well and truly moved on. And it”s good that he”s feeling secure enough to leave the farm.” I sighed and added, “It was a blessing that he didn’t have the mind-bond with Zarbius.”

Irian grimaced when I said the name of Isca’s old mate. Isca had shared tales with us of what used to happen to him in his previous pack, and it wasn’t pretty. I was so proud of him, the way he’d learned to trust us – especially me, an alpha, when in the past those, who should have been the ones to protect him, had been the ones to hurt him. It had taken a while for him to get beyond the shame of what had happened to him, and to realize that none of that affected how we felt about him.

“I’m so glad about that too,” commented Irian. “Imagine if he had that in his head…. Euch... he’d never escape him.”

“No, he couldn’t. And I’m almost certain he would have been able to track him down. I know I could with you.”

“You just want the hot sex,” Irian batted his long lashes, a fake wide-eyed innocence plastered on his face.

“Naturally,” I replied, playing it cool. “But I happen to like having you around as well. By the way, your heat’s almost here.” It had to be, with the way Irian was so blatantly thinking about sex.

“I know,” he smirked. “Ready?”

“Always,” I assured him. “You know I’ll always do everything to please my omegas, even at great expense to myself.”

Irian snorted. Even that looked sexy on him. Sigh. I was so far gone.

“As if it’s a hardship,” he snickered.

“No hardship,” I agreed with a smug smile. “B-u-t that’s not why I’m here. I want to talk about something and I wanted to do it while Isca’s not here. Can you make time now?”

I peered into the bowl, sniffing the sweet smell of cinnamon and apple. “I don’t want to mess things up here.”

Irian shook his head, the strands of hair he was growing out flopping around weirdly.

“You won’t,” he said, wiping his hands on his apron and coming out to the lounge to sit with me. “What are you planning?”

He was smart, my Irian.

I leant across the distance between us, and with my index finger pushed the neck of his t-shirt out of the way to reveal the mating mark on his neck. The silvery scar consisted of two raised marks – barely noticeable to human eyes, but which delivered a clear message to a shifter.

Our eyes met, brown to blue. Irian’s eyebrows raised.

“I want your opinion,” I started cautiously, feeling my way. I was pretty sure I knew the answers, but I didn’t want to hurt Irian. “You know how we have our bond?”

The slow bobbing of his head told me Irian was listening.

“And I think you know I’d like to be able to share that with Isca too,” I chose my words particularly carefully. I wanted us to be a full triad, nothing less would do.

A ray of sunshine drifting in through the skylight at that moment caught the blonde highlights in Irian’s light brown hair and turned them into shimmering waves as he nodded in agreement.

“You know I’d like that too, especially if... imagine if it was a three-way bond!” he exclaimed, breathlessly.

Clearly he”d thought about this. Did he already know what I was going to say?

“But of course, I can’t claim him since he’s already been claimed by Zarbius.”

”Oh, I thought you were about to say it was possible after all.” He slumped like the air had been knocked out of him and the smile vanished at the reminder of our little impasse.

“Not in the usual way of things,” I added, hastily moving on. “But what if I could, what if we could achieve it some other way? How would you feel about that? Would you want me to pursue that, if it was an option?”

“YES!” Irian was out of his chair and on his knees in front of me in an instant, grasping my thighs with a grip as arousing as it was tight. “Is it possible? Can we do it?”

He must have known I wouldn’t bring this up if I didn’t have a plan.

I gently removed his hands from my thighs, cradling them tenderly in my larger ones. I looked into his earnest face and saw only eagerness and love. Love for Isca, love for me, love for this unconventional family we had formed.

“Firstly, I am your Alpha and you should treat me with respect!” Irian responded by giggling, showing all the respect. I smirked; he knew I was joking.

“Secondly, you should know better than to put your hands near my groin when you’re this close to heat. I am part wolf, I will remind you.” I couldn’t help the groan that slipped out. Irian’s smile was sweet and a bit shamefaced. He knew the effect he was having on me. He might even have been doing it on purpose.

“And lastly,” I sighed. “The truth is, I don’t know. I have a few ideas, but I wanted to check with you first. If you don’t want this, I won’t pursue it.”

Irian stretched up on his knees, his eyes bright with hope. “I would love it! I hate that Isca doesn’t have the same connection we do. It’s not right. And I know he wants it, he just doesn’t say anything to you because he doesn’t think it’s possible. He doesn’t want you to feel bad about it if there’s nothing you can do. But if there is…”

“I’m not sure yet and I don’t want to get his hopes up, so don’t say anything to him until we’re sure.” I hesitated as something occurred to me. “You can keep a secret from him, can’t you?”

“Yes, of course. I wouldn’t want him to get hurt… if it didn’t work out, he’d be devastated. He loves you so much!”

I stroked Irian’s chin with my thumb, “And he loves you just as much.”

“What are you planning?” Irian’s eyes were very golden, another telltale sign.

Before I got lost in those eyes, I told him, “I need to contact the Council, to see if there’s another way to do it. But I can’t do it officially. You know as well as I that not everyone on the Council is entirely trustworthy. If word of this spread, it wouldn’t be too hard for someone to work out which pack was asking, and lead a trail back to Isca.”

“Meaning Zarbius might find out.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Irian asserted. His breathing was ragged. Fast and shaky. His eyes were wide, his pupils blown with alarm. Or was that his heat? It was getting hard to tell the difference. My nostrils quivered, catching the first traces of his heat scent. It wouldn’t be long before we wouldn’t be having any more conversation for a while.

“We won’t,” I assured him. “Get up here on my lap.”

As Irian, face flushed, obeyed my request and settled himself straddling my thighs, the warmth emanating from his body burning up against my skin, I hurried to finish. “I have to ask someone I can trust.”

“We could ask my mother,” suggested Irian, wriggling his butt into my thighs.

I groaned. He clearly wasn”t thinking straight if he thought we could trust his mother with this. “Your mother already doesn’t like me,” I gasped. “This would be the last straw. She’d never forgive me if she knew I wanted to make our relationship into a threesome…”

“We already are,” murmured Irian, brows straightening in thought, “but you’re right. She’d probably find a way to interfere.”

“There”s one guy I know on the Council. I think he can be trusted. I’ll reach out quietly to him and see if he knows of a way around this. I’m hopeful there”ll be something. Someone must have tried it before. Maybe there”ll be some information in the archives.”

“O-kay,” gasped Irian, leaning up against me and throwing his arms around my neck, running the flattened muscle of his tongue along the soft shell of my ear.

“Shit! This is coming on fast. Text Isca,” I ordered, my voice tight with the effort of controlling myself. “Tell him to get back home ASAP and to come straight to the bedroom.”

Irian’s hands trembled as he keyed the message into the phone. The phone slipped out of his hands, slid off the edge of the couch and clattered to the floor.

“That’s it. We’re not waiting,” I growled. At this rate, Irian was going to be howling in pain before we got to the bedroom. I maneuvered him around until I could slip my arms under him and sprang to my feet, lifting him in a bridal carry and striding towards the bedroom.

“H-hurry!” Irian begged, perspiration trickling down the side of his flushed face.