Of Savage and Sin (Wolves of Ossary #2)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

–Naya–

THE LAST THING I expected to experience after the intense way Bain made me feel when he’d gotten me off yet again with nothing more than a few talented fingers was arousal at the mention of Niall and Tadc being aware I’d gone into heat. It wasn’t the good sort of arousal either, but a slimy, traitorous feeling that made me nauseous.

That is until Bain pulled me against him despite his sister standing in the doorway, cupped my cheek and ass, and forced me to look into his reddish gold eyes, reminding me he had my back and would keep me safe. Not just that, but when he pushed his rock-hard cock against me and all the ways he intended to pleasure me played in my mind like a movie, any unwanted arousal faded, and a much-welcome lust for Bain came screaming back.

How could it not when he’d already proven not once but twice how good he could make me feel? And I had a feeling, no, I knew it would be phenomenal when he was inside me because he was rough and controlling with just the right amount of caring. Otherwise, he would have already been deep inside me rather than prepping me for a cock I could willingly admit would be the largest I’d ever taken.

But I was more than ready, and the fresh, spearing ache between my thighs that was all for him made that clear. Unfortunately, I would suffer through a near-painful arousal for now because not only Niall but his ancestor maker, Tadc, were coming for me, given I’d gone into heat and become a beacon for all male wolves in the vicinity.

“We will be heading to Callum’s castle, where the pack will rally around you,”

Bain’s sister said, eyeing me again with enough approval I knew we’d get along. Not because she was polyamorous and found me attractive but because she put family first, just like me. I didn’t need to see it in how she looked at Bain, either. I felt it inside her. He was every inch her brother, and she would die for him. But she’d fight like hell first and made that clear when she unsheathed a blade and gestured we follow with a heavy frown.

“You mean to go to Callum's as well, despite you two not getting along?”

Bain asked Mave, surprised as he grabbed several blades off the wall and sheathed them. “I would think Callum and I could manage—”

“You and Callum will manage nothing alone,”

Mave said. “’Twill be all of us protecting you and Naya now. The entire Wolves of Ossary pack.”

When Bain slowed sheathing yet another blade and his brow lowered, I knew something was off. “You mean all of us? The entire pack is leaving two castles undefended and rallying at Callum’s?”

He was about to go on before he seemed to catch something else, and his eyebrows whipped up. “Tréan is allowing Niall and his men to meet Tadc in the woodland alone? Letting them come together, when ‘tis the last thing that should happen?”

“He but lives up to his end of the bargain, does he not?”

another woman said, appearing beside Mave. Mave was beautiful with cedar-tinted sable hair and gorgeous sage green eyes, but this female, who had to be around Uncle Conner’s age, was stunning in a harder way. As if she’d lived life but aged well. Tall with a slim, fit build, silvery blonde hair pulled back into numerous braids, and multiple Celtic designs tattooed here and there, not to mention several weapons on her person, she struck me as pretty badass.

Bain scowled. “Things must be bad if you are here, Gráinne.”

He sighed and grunted in her direction. “Gráinne, meet Naya. Naya, meet the closest thing the Wolves of Ossary have to a matriarch now that ours is gone. An aunt ‘twould be the best way to describe her.”

What was up with this? Bad blood, maybe? An old feud?

It turned out neither. Just a lighthearted side of Bain I hadn’t seen until now.

“Your aunt is the only way to describe me.”

Gráinne scowled in Bain’s direction before they grinned at each other, closed the distance in two long strides, and embraced tightly before Bain held her at arm’s length, looked her over, and kept grinning.

“’Tis good to see you, friend.”

His grin turned into a broad smile, making his already handsome face even hotter. Like sinfully drool-worthy, and both my inner beast and human half took notice because I wanted him even more than I had moments before. I wanted to shove him back on the fur-covered bed I knew he’d had countless others on, and ride him for all he was worth, be damned who was in the room.

Ride him until he knew I owned him.

“And you will soon enough if you mean to keep your new pack safe,”

Gráinne said, clearly following my thoughts when her smile faded, and her hard gaze turned my way, as serious as any gangster making a deal worth millions. “You do that for me, Naya, you keep my boys safe, and I will keep your uncle and Storm safe.”

“Excuse me?”

I responded, but it was too late. Gráinne had already left with a determined look on her face, clearly set to kick ass somewhere.

“Do not mind her, my new sister.”

Mave shrugged and looked after Gráinne with affection. “She does not function well around people and prefers her own space lest she is called upon to protect the pack. When that happens, she is always here.”

“Sounds familiar,”

I replied, thinking of Uncle Conner and his off-the-grid ways, yet he was always there when we needed him. “And I don’t mind her in the least.”

I glanced at Bain, unable to keep from flirting a little despite the rising tension I’d felt since Mave’s arrival. “Especially if she makes you smile like that.”

“Agreed.”

Mave eyed me over yet again because she couldn’t help herself. “I like you.”

“You should.”

I returned the wink she’d tossed me earlier, licked my lips, and shot Bain a hungry look. “I’m hellishly good in bed and intend to show Bain just how good if you’d get us where we need to go already, Mave.”

“I really like you,”

Mave said with a throaty little growl of approval, her gaze sweeping over me one last time in appreciation.

“But not as much as you like your girlfriend and two boyfriends,”

I reminded, connecting with her quickly via Bain. I tore my gaze from him before I started flirting again because now wasn’t the time. Now was the time to get me off Niall and Tadc’s radar if what I was picking up from them was right. So I stopped flirting despite how much I enjoyed it and gave Mave a warning look.

“Tadc has intercepted Niall and his men and is hearing them out.”

A shiver of disgust and, again, desire rippled through me. “Tadc isn’t killing them. Not yet.”

Shaking off my various rounds of ill-timed, unwanted lust, I frowned at Mave and Bain. “And while that’s alarming enough, why is Gráinne heading to my era to protect my family? I thought Adlin had that covered?”

“Using Kaia’s terminology, ‘tis for backup in case Adlin needs her.”

Mave gestured that we follow her. “Come. We need to go.”

In complete agreement, Bain urged me to fall in behind Mave, and he fell in behind me as we again made our way down the earthen tunnel. I wanted to return almost the moment I stepped out of Bain’s den. Not because I was a coward unwilling to face what was coming for me but because I wanted to be in the place he’d so clearly made for me.

A memory he held onto no matter how difficult.

I didn’t care how many women he’d had in there because I had enjoyed my fair share of men. All I wanted was to be back in his space—our space—because it had felt like that—like a dream amid nightmares, a safe place among all the turmoil in my life.

“Because ‘twas,”

he said into my mind, his internal voice coming through gruffly to match his heightened emotions. “Now your beast has shown my wolf what it could not see before, ‘twas always a safe place for you...and for me...us. A means to find our way back to each other.”

So it seemed, but would it be enough? Every step I took felt one step closer to Niall. To Tadc, a dangerous wolf and perfect stranger, who called to my inner beast just the same.

“Yet you are increasingly surrounded by your own with every step you take,”

Bain assured. “Surrounded by the most powerful wolf pack ever to exist. Loyal to the alpha above all alphas.”

“Why are things going down like this?”

I asked aloud, fully aware Mave followed our internal dialogue anyway. “I get that Niall’s proving more powerful than expected, made worse by me going into heat, but why not take him and his men hostage? Or whatever you do in this era. Why let him sync up with Tadc and risk him getting what he wants? The damn expansion of the Irish wolf mob in both directions? Tadc’s pack in both directions? Sounds pretty catastrophic, in my opinion.”

“Because the true power is not in rogue packs making bargains and expanding across time,”

Mave replied, “but in fated mates coming together and protecting the future of the Wolves of Ossary. Do that, and we own the future and the past, and everyone stays safe.”

Say what? I frowned at Bain over my shoulder, then looked at Mave again. “What does that mean exactly? Because it almost sounds like the Wolves of Ossary are looking to expand.”

“It means the only way to control now is to control both packs in both eras,”

Kaia said into my mind, right there with us. “That’s the primary reason Gráinne is heading to our era. From what I hear, she’s tough and distant but a damn good leader when she needs to be, so she’ll team with Uncle Conner and intercept things from that end.”

I almost laughed out loud. “She’s also a medieval Irishwoman who knows nothing about our era or the crime rings she’s about to deal with.”

“Yeah, but she’s also got a serious vintage Gemma Teller from Sons of Anarchy vibe going on, so let’s see what she can do,”

Kaia replied. “Plus, I hear she’s kept an eye on things in our century, so she’ll be okay. She’s—”

When Kaia cut out, I frowned over my shoulder at Bain again. “What just happened? Why did we lose her?”

“Because the enemy draws too close.”

Bain met my frown and urged me to keep moving. “’Tis something our pack does if danger is near.”

“You mean something Tréan does,”

Mave corrected, blade still drawn as she picked up her pace. “We need to get to my den and take cover. ‘Tis close enough to Callum’s territory to remain undetected until we are with the pups.”

“Right,”

I said slowly, sensing what was happening. “Keep me close but not too close until everyone has rallied around the pups.”

The pups, three total, were the offspring of Callum’s mate, Ceara, and her captor, Tadc, who took her in after she’d defected. By the sounds of it, they were born of rape, but either way, Kaia rescued them when she hooked up with Tréan and was told they were born of our bloodline. Now, because of that and who their parents were, they were safely tucked away on Callum’s territory.

“Our pack rallies around both you and the pups, Naya.”

The slight change in Bain’s tone told me he grew more worried and wasted no time saying why. “Your former mate and Tadc are combining forces to sniff you out, desperate to breed, so we will only bring you so close to the pups for now.”

“Ah,”

I murmured, understanding this maneuver because I had seen it enough in my youth dealing with the shady underbelly of organized crime. “Your pack is protecting the king with the queen or even the knight depending on your strategy.”

I explained the chess move when Mave’s eyebrows drew together in curiosity.

“It means protecting the most important thing at all costs,”

I said. “And we all know the pups of a Wolves of Ossary female and Tadc trump all, meaning I’m a distraction until I’m not.”

“Which will be soon if I have anything to say about it,”

Bain swore, his voice guttural in a way that told me he was getting a little too close to not seeing reason. I called him on it, too, when I frowned at him over my shoulder.

“Tréan’s right, and we both know it,”

I said. “Right now, the pups take priority even over us becoming fated mates. Over everything if they carry that kind of weight.”

When I looked ahead again, I felt his gaze bore into my back, arousing me all over again, so I made myself clear, not caring if Mave heard me because I already knew she was my kind of woman. “If you don’t think I’ll Fate you right into being my Mate so hard you’ll be begging for more every second of every day, then you don’t know the power I wield where it counts.”

“I really, really like you,”

Mave said under her breath, a smile evident in her voice.

I could almost sense Bain’s cock getting hard again, and what a glorious sight it would be if I ever got around to seeing it. Of that, there could be no doubt. He was packing in the best way possible, and I longed for it between my thighs almost as much as I did in my mouth. I wanted to taste every last drop and...

“Focus on the danger ahead until we are safe, mo chara is gaire,”

he said roughly, his voice so thickened by arousal, he barely managed his words by the sound of it. “If you do not, I will slam you to the ground, fill you with seed, and keep filling you until we are both slain by the enemy because stopping will be impossible.”

“While all the jibberish about seed is oddly arousing, we both know it won’t achieve what you hope.”

Even though I had long conquered any issues about my barren womb, surprisingly enough, it still stung to spell it out for Bain. To let him know I would never give him kids. Nevertheless, I pushed past the hurt and wondered at the obvious. “That said, why the big uproar about me being in heat? Can’t fellow wolves, including yours, sense I can’t bear offspring?”

“I think the better question is, does your wolf know, Naya?”

Mave wondered, slowing as we neared a root system at the end of the tunnel. Straightforward in a way I appreciated, she glanced over her shoulder at me again. “Why do you not think you can bear children? I sense much off you, but that is buried in darkness within your mind.”

Without a doubt, it was. Right down there in the murky waters of my past, buried deep. Literally, too, this time, because the day I’d lost my parents, the cold ocean had harmed me in more ways than one, and I said as much, sensitive to how Bain might take it given he had been there and tried to save me.

“I was rescued and survived, but not before I went into hypothermic shock and was pretty sick for a while.”

I kept my face hard and my voice harder, giving my heart no say. “I learned years later it damaged my reproductive abilities. Everything’s still intact, but dormant is the best way to put it.”

I bit back emotion, refusing to shed another tear over things that couldn’t be changed. “I’ve got the ovaries, but they don’t shoot off eggs.”

“Yet you are not all human anymore, are you?”

Mave stopped and looked at me curiously before eyeing the root system stemming up through the rock beside us. “You are now something in between and have what those from your era would call both a human menstrual cycle and a wolven estrus cycle.”

She shrugged. “Mayhap there is something to that?”

I wasn’t sure what to make of her insinuation other than it sounded like something out of a creepy science fiction movie, but then, I’d been turned into something out of that kind of movie, hadn’t I? As to Mave being on to something, I had no choice but to dismiss it because I was long past hoping. Done, gone and over. I was a realist now and made that clear when I looked at Bain and shook my head.

“No offspring from me, and you best know that going in, sweetie.”

I winked and kept things light, eyeing his groin with appreciation again. “Literally.”

Bain had no chance to respond before Mave put a finger to her lips, shook her head, and said softly that we best speak quietly before sharing the last thing we wanted to hear.