Of Savage and Sin (Wolves of Ossary #2)

CHAPTER SIX

Medieval Ireland

–Bain–

WHILE I THOUGHT it had been impactful when I first saw Naya at the Colonial, approaching her as my human rather than my beast on Wolves of Ossary territory was even more intense. The moment our eyes connected, I knew she felt it, too.

Knew all those dreams over the years hadn’t been my imagination.

She had dreamt of me, as well, and had been there with me despite how disjointed most of them had been. Yet I wondered…had she been fully present in the dream that mattered most? Did she know I’d been there for her after she lost her parents?

Although curious on a deeply primal level that meant more than expected, I was also acutely aware of the attraction simmering between us now. The scent of her arousal despite tearing her gaze from me moments after our eyes connected. She wanted me but, at the same time, feared for my safety. Feared what Niall might do to me.

Not just that, but whether she realized it or not, her inner beast suffered the effects of being Niall’s mate. Of her inner Renegade being drawn to him until another could tear her away…assuming that could even happen. The truth was, Tréan and Adlin could only speculate. Hope. Pray Naya and I were truly fated mates because that’s all that could possibly free her from Niall. As to me losing my life as a result?

I intended to keep that from her.

Knowing my death was a possibility would only work against freeing Naya from Niall and protecting my pack, which mattered above all else. So here we were, closing the distance on Tréan’s castle. Then, once our plan was in motion, it would take finesse, trickery, and a team effort to move Naya closer to my castle and into my den beneath my homeland's rolling hills and forests. Something Kaia had alluded to but not told Naya lest Niall caught on.

If it worked, that is.

Frustratingly enough, she might already be lost to me and bound to Niall in irreversible ways. Worse yet, our pack war might be lost because of it, and I would have no one to blame but myself for not seeking her out sooner. For not closing the distance between us when I frequented the twenty-first century and making sure she was far away from Niall’s lecherous clutches.

“Best to focus less on the past and more on right now because she’s finally here, brother,”

my sister, Mave, said, catching my thoughts again now that I was back on our territory. “I am certain ‘tis a good start, and I will help you and your mate however I can, but ‘twill have to be once you head back toward your castle.”

I didn’t need to ask why. Our blood brother, Callum, could very well be at Tréan’s castle, and she was avoiding him until they had a chance to work out their differences.

“And what are their differences?”

Naya wondered telepathically, surprising me because she had caught my inner dialogue with my sister when nobody outside of Tréan and Kaia should have been able to.

The sound of her internal voice made it hard to put one foot in front of the other and keep walking without looking her way when all I wanted to do was drink up the sight of her and yank her into my arms. Feel every bit of her against me. Sample her lips beyond a dream. Would they taste as good as I imagined? Would she melt against me? Spread her thighs? Welcome me deep inside her?

Despite her inner voice sounding faded as she learned how to direct her wolven thoughts, I pulled her as telepathically close as I dared, with Niall hovering nearby. Then, I replied, wondering if my internal voice would affect her as much as hers did me or if she was already too drawn to her maker to experience the same impact.

“Although you will know soon enough the more you connect with your alpha and his queen,”

I said, “our sister, Mave, was supposed to watch over Callum’s mate in his absence because she was depressed and felt she couldn’t contribute to our pack after an injury left her disabled, yet somehow, she snuck away.”

“Right,”

Naya replied, her voice clearer now, if not husky-sounding, telling me she was just as affected by our mental connection. “I know this story. I felt it through my connection with Storm because Kaia was too far away. A thousand years in my past.”

I heard the disdain in her internal voice. “Tadc took Callum's mate, Ceara, in and then brutalized her. Had pups with her by force, but now they’re safely with the Wolves of Ossary thanks to Kaia, your new queen, even though she hasn’t technically married Tréan yet.”

Before I could respond, she went on.

“Now your pack is harboring three pups born of your enemy, who are also related to Niall,”

she said, “which makes them, via bite, related to me, Kaia, and Storm, too, so they’re pretty valuable.”

“Ta,”

I responded in my language. Although it seemed like she clarified things she already knew because she did—that’s how her mind worked through everything—I felt the nervousness beneath her chatter as her thoughts kept going, almost like she was talking to herself.

She had done the same thing in our dreams. I knew she feared darkness and quiet. That’s why she stayed in the city, away from the woodland and the serenity it could offer.

And now she was in a woodland even quieter than the forests of our future.

In essence, she had traveled back to a time that was more of a nightmare than being enslaved by Niall because it gave her too much time to think. She could handle him, but not this—the stillness. It tore away the chatter of people, the streetlights, and busyness and left only silence.

Silence but for the sound of crickets and men walking over fallen leaves.

And silence allowed thoughts. Memories that took her back to the nightmares of her youth. Frustratingly enough, her mate, the man who had made her and should be aware of her growing anxiety, was oblivious to her distress.

Then again, Naya was good at hiding it from the naked eye, wasn’t she? I watched her discreetly and saw how calm she appeared despite the fear churning inside her. Saw the need to pull her mind from the quiet I felt caving in around her despite how much she tried to stave it off. Saw the thoughts and memories that tried to control her when she desperately needed to remain in control of them instead.

“Dawn comes soon,”

Tréan said to Niall. “So we will rest for the day, and then at dusk, I will seek out Tadc.”

“Why not go now?”

Niall eyed our surroundings with unease and with good reason. Though they kept to the darkened shadows, the strongest of our pack had fallen in around us, here to aid us should we be attacked.

“We are at our weakest during the day,”

Tréan said. “As I’m sure you gathered, Tadc is best approached when at our strongest.”

“Makes sense.”

Niall rested his hand on the hilt of the dagger sheathed at his waist, making it clear just how many of Naya's thoughts he’d caught about everything that had transpired before his arrival. “Where are his pups being kept? He’ll want to know and—”

“I agreed to arrange a meeting betwixt you two.”

Tréan shook his head. “Nothing more.”

Even though Niall remained silent after that, I knew he tried to glean as much information as he could by the way he eyed everything, from me and Tréan to the warriors who emerged from the shadows to escort us. He was looking for anything Tadc might find useful.

Something Tréan was fully aware of, only allowing Niall to see so much as his castle appeared ahead, nestled in the woodland on rolling green hills. Any special preparations to fortify the building weren’t visible, and the usual number of guardsmen stood watch. So, any information Niall carried with him would do little to assist Tadc if he was preparing for an attack.

Again, staying true to the woman she had become in life, it wasn't easy to gauge what Naya thought of the castle by looking at her face, but I felt her internal response. She expressed interest in seeing an authentic wooden medieval castle, and I wondered...What would she think of mine? Would my castle please her?

Though I should not have been, I was surprised and somewhat alarmed by how much it mattered. How much I wanted her to like it.

More so, I hoped she never wanted to leave.

As expected, Callum, Ceara, and the pups were nowhere to be found when we arrived in Tréan's courtyard to relatively quiet surroundings, as ordered, to keep Niall and his men at ease. Let them get comfortable and think they were safe.

Welcome as long as they eventually left Naya in peace.

Despite being surrounded by Niall and his men, I wasn’t shocked to see fellow wolves eyeing Naya with appreciation. Her pale, thickly lashed brown eyes and creamy, sun-kissed, near-luminescent skin tone were stunning. All of her was, for that matter. And somehow, she was even more beautiful, surrounded by my homeland, whether within these wooden walls or by the lush trees.

“We will feast on the morning hunt, and then I’ll show you where you can rest.”

Tréan gestured for Niall and his men to follow him not down into the Great Den, where Naya would have been taken had she arrived alone, but into the castle’s dining hall.

Although I wanted her seated beside me, I had no choice but to sit diagonally across from her at one of the many wooden trestle tables. Niall sat on one side of her, his man on her other side. Kaia and Tréan sat across from them, and Niall’s other men sat wherever they could find a spot.

When several of Tréan’s more beautiful and voluptuous pack members served food and drink within minutes, I understood what he was up to and played the part expected of me when one of them rested her hand on my shoulder and offered a flirtatious smile.

I had enjoyed her in my bed a few times, so it was easy enough to play along and return her flirtatious smile before inviting them to join us. It was a sizeable feast, and there was plenty for all.

Tréan nodded in agreement, and more pitchers of ale were brought out.

Meanwhile, seemingly aware his bodyguards couldn’t keep their lustful gazes off the females, Niall watched me and Tréan with narrowed eyes. Distrustful of our intentions, he halted his men from eating, drinking, or enjoying the women’s company, and his gaze rose to the female with one hand on my shoulder and the other caressing the side of my neck.

“I’ll let my men partake of your ample generosity, Tréan.”

Niall’s gaze skirted over the woman’s sizeable breasts with appreciation before he slid his plate and ale across the table toward me. “But first, I’d like Bain’s lovely wench to sample my food and drink.”

He gestured at the other females. “And they can sample my men’s.”

Then, knowing exactly what he was doing, his dangerous gaze flickered to the woman behind me. “Then I’d like you to keep your whore on your lap, Bain, and make her time there worthwhile.”

Naturally, the women would sample the food to make sure it wasn’t drugged or poisoned, but that last request? It could only be one thing. A test to see how I reacted to the woman behind me and, more importantly, how Naya responded to me being affectionate with her.

Either way, Naya’s life and my pack were worth more than making Naya jealous, so I thought nothing of pulling the female onto my lap and gesturing at the food and drink Niall slid over, knowing it was safe. “With pleasure.”

I inhaled the scent of her neck, knowing that pleased her, and murmured against her warm flesh to be a good pup. I’d make it worth her while. Then, doing my best to ignore Naya’s presence, I closed my mouth over hers and gave her the sort of hot, hungry kiss she’d always enjoyed. As to be expected lately, my cock didn’t stir in the least. Bored when this female had once greatly aroused me, I counted down the seconds before I pulled my lips free and gestured at the food and drink again. “Feast, beautiful.”

Even though I made a point of not glancing Naya’s way for fear of Niall catching any sort of look passing between us, I was more alarmed than I’d been since first laying eyes on her when I felt nothing stirring inside her. Why did she have a more visceral reaction to seeing me in the forest than she was having now? Did this mean her draw to Niall had grown that quickly in so little time?

Was it already too late?

Though tempted to throw Naya over my shoulder and get her away from Niall, I knew better because it could kill her. I could lose her and endanger our pack.

I told myself to take comfort in her being alive as the woman on my lap took a sip of Niall’s ale and a bite of the meat on his plate—something we never would have let her do if it were poisoned.

“There you have it,”

Tréan said as he slid Niall’s food and drink back to him. His gaze swept over everyone, and he dug into his food. “Eat, drink, and enjoy.”

Though Niall was convinced the food was fine after the women sampled it, he still advised his men to stay wary and alert. Then, keeping his word, Niall got Naya’s permission to pull her onto his lap, without a doubt, to incite me into crossing a line. Then he made a big show of caressing every supple inch of her before placing bit after juicy bit of meat into her succulent mouth, then licking the juices off as they slowly trailed down her lips. I did my best to keep my eyes off them as I ate, drank, and pretended to enjoy the woman on my lap, but every moment was a struggle.

Every last second.

Especially when Niall steered Naya’s lips to his and kissed her with enough possessive passion to let me know he did it often. He claimed her lips because they belonged to him. She belonged to him.

And it incited a quiet yet deadly rage I had never felt before.

I wanted to tear Naya away and drive my axe into Niall until the last of his blood drained into the cracks of the floor beneath him. Then, I wanted to bend her over this very table, tear away her clothes, and drive deep inside her. Make her scream with so much pleasure that she would dig her nails into the wood. After that, I’d twist my hand in her luxurious dark brown mane and angle her lips until our breath mingled, moving slowly, so slowly, teasing her swollen, sensitive flesh. Make her beg for more until…

“Ahh,”

the female on my lap purred in my ear, rolling her full backside over what had become my very hard cock. “I wondered if I might ever see him again.”

“And so you have,”

I managed, needing to be inside Naya so badly it hurt. So blindly, despite knowing I couldn’t have her, I was willing to pretend it was her, so I scooped up the female on my lap and strode out of the room.

Despite feeling my alpha’s frustration at my actions because I took the charade too far, I couldn’t stop chasing the fantasy. Could not stop imagining it was Naya in my arms when I set her down in a nearby hallway. Couldn’t stop fantasizing it was her as I yanked up the female’s dress, freed myself, and hoisted her against the wall, only to go soft before I could take her.

Before I could finally feel the woman who had long haunted my dreams.

“Yet I am not her,”

she murmured against my temple, trembling in my arms with just as much need. “And your wolf knows it.”

I sighed in frustration and rested my forehead against hers, Naya’s face still in my mind, but it seemed my body knew better.

My inner beast knew better.

Yet my rash actions would cost me because Niall took advantage of it.

Moreover, when it came to Renegade mates, the powers that be took advantage of it in a way that could harm not just me and my pack but a woman I wanted far more than I realized. To the point it might already be too late to care about anything but her, whether she wanted me or not.