Chapter 33
CHAPTER 33
R onan
Red paints the air around me.
That's all I see.
Blood red.
My wolf is so close to the surface that hairs sprout on the skin of my arms. I’m certain my eyes glow with malice and pure hatred as I glare down at the bastards before me.
Beside me, Montgomery and Noah stand, just as pissed and primed to rip out the throats of these two who dared to insult our mate.
“Wh-Wh-Who’re you?” the woman asks. The man beside her keeps quiet like the coward he is, while just seconds ago he had the nerve to open his filthy mouth to my mate.
I take a step toward them until I’m in his face.
“Your worst nightmare,” I answer. “Why the hell are you disrespecting my mate?”
The woman gasps and looks back at Serafina, who also appears pissed, stunned, and hurt.
It’s the last one that has me wrapping my hands around the man’s throat.
“He–” The squeeze around his neck stops whatever he was about to say from coming out.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Montgomery growls at the woman who tries to flee, grabbing her arm.
“I … this is Nightwolf pack territory … You’re hurting him!” she shouts at me while I strangle the bastard I presume is her mate.
“Get your hands off of me,” I hear her shout, but I do not look up from strangling the man in front of me. All I recall is him talking to Serafina like he has a death wish. Well, wish granted.
My wolf wants in on the action, but I hold him back. This guy is not even worth pulling my wolf out. I will let my human hands lay waste to him.
“Ronan, please,” a voice shrieks, pulling me back from the edge. “No, not like this!”
“What the hell is going on?” a deeper, alpha voice yells.
It is Chael, but I keep my hands firm around the man’s neck.
“Ronan, stop it. Montgomery, let her go! Please.”
Serafina’s pleading clears my rage just enough that I bother to look up to see what is happening around me.
As soon as I do, Chael and Chance come barreling toward me, yanking me off of the guy.
“What the hell?” Chael demands. “You came to my fucking pack to attack one of my members?”
“He attacked my mate!” I yell in my cousin’s face. “I am going to rip his head off.” I lunge for the man still on the ground now coughing and holding his throat.
“No.” Serafina leaps in front of me. “Stop. Noah!” she calls.
I know my brother has attempted to take my place.
“They’re not … don’t do this.”
“Serafina, is this true? Did your parents attack you?” Chael asks.
“Parents?” Noah, Montgomery, and I say in unison.
“Bullshit!” Noah spits out. “No parent speaks to their child the way they just spoke to our mate.”
Chael looks from the three of us to Serafina. “What happened?”
She turns away from him, looking to the two peasants as the woman crouches down next to her mate.
“Nothing.”
“Hell no,” I growl. “They were yelling and telling her she never should have been born and they never …” I trail off and look at Serafina. “Never wanted you. Are these the people who raised you? The ones who …”
Years ago, Serafina told us about the woman she believed to be her mother until she was twelve. And her stepfather. She never told us their name or much information about them. All she said was they no longer wanted her.
My hands ball into fists.
“Stop.” Serafina jumps in front of me, wrapping her hands around my wrists, stopping me.
“It was just a misunderstanding,” she lies to Chael.
“No it was not,” I say firmly. “Is this how you allow the pups in your pack to be treated?” I throw to Chael.
“What did you just say?”
“He asked if this is the fucking behavior you tolerate,” Noah says. “That woman,” he points at the woman now cowering by her husband’s side, “threw our mate out of her home when she was just a child and you still let her be a part of your pack.”
“You don’t know what she did to him!” the woman yells, making everyone turn to her. “She almost killed Jean! Her wolf almost murdered my mate. You didn’t see the aftermath.”
I start to take a step toward both of them to shut them up once and for all. But Serafina’s gasp stops me.
“What is it?” Montgomery asks.
“I remember,” she says in a wobbly voice. Slowly she looks over at Renetta and Jean. “I remember what happened that night.”
A howl my wolf has never howled before erupts in my chest when the first tear slips from Serafina’s eye.
“He attacked me,” she says just above a whisper. “In my bed.”
That’s the moment all hell breaks loose.
Serafina
“I can’t believe I didn’t know this happened to you. Under my watch,” Alpha Chael says in a remorseful tone.
He sounds so defeated that the tears I’ve been fighting to hold back slip. I brush them away so he doesn’t see before he lifts his head.
“No.” I shake my head. “Don’t do that. You couldn’t have known. I didn’t even remember.” A piece of me wishes I still didn’t.
“You should have known.” Ronan comes up, moving in between me and Chael. All three of my mates get in between us.
“What the hell is going on in your pack that those monsters were allowed?—”
“Noah, stop it! He had no idea.” I move in front of them, facing down my three, still angry mates.
Even though Renetta and Jean have been … disposed of. That’s the best way I can put what happened to them, after I recalled the way Jean snuck into my bedroom and tried to … hurt me all of those years ago.
My mind must’ve somehow repressed it. But I remember it all now. The night when Jean came into my bedroom when he thought I was still asleep. The feel of his hand on my bare leg. And the way he tried to crawl on top of me.
Before he could complete his sick intentions, though, my wolf came out. She clawed and bit and even burned him. The recollection is hazy but it’s there. My wolf fought him off until we passed out.
I woke up the next morning tied up to a chair by a silver chain. The silver did nothing to me, though. But I pretended like it hurt because that’s what Renetta expected. She railed against me, calling me a threat to anything I touched and blamed me for the near loss of her poor mate.
By that time my memory of the night before was gone. I believed her. Believed that it was all my fault, my wolf was dangerous and a threat. When the entire time, she knew her mate was a sick fuck who attacked a child.
“They’re gone now,” I say of Renetta and Jean.
Once I told the truth about what happened, Noah, Montgomery, and Ronan lost it. Jean didn’t stand a chance. Neither did Renetta, though she was disposed of by three of the women of the Nightwolf pack.
“It’s over,” I remind them.
“It should’ve never happened,” Chael says.
I turn to face him.
“I’m so sorry. I should’ve paid closer attention. When you came to live here with Wilma, I should’ve asked more questions.”
I shake my head. “You were busy running an entire pack. Aunt Wilma took great care of me.” My heart constricts because just the mention of my Aunt Wilma causes me to miss her.
She never knew what made Renetta kick me out the way she did, because I couldn’t remember. But Aunt Wilma loved me like I was her own. Even when I tried to push her away, she loved me deeply.
I miss her still, and hate that an accident took her away from me too soon.
Chael feels bad enough and the last thing I want is to add to his grief. What’s done is done.
“You had every right to protect your mate,” Chael says to the three men behind me. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better alpha to her when she was under my pack’s protection.”
I take Chael’s hand. “Don’t blame yourself, please.” Chael was young, himself, when he took over the role as alpha after his parents’ untimely death. The Nightwolf pack is considerably larger than most wolf packs.
“You have a lot to manage. And now, you have a son of your own to raise and protect. Don’t let this situation steal the joy of being a new father. Reese and Echo need you,” I remind him.
He nods as I release his hand. As soon as I do, Ronan wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. I can still feel the anger coursing through his body. He wants more blood. I run my hands over his, to comfort him, to ease his anger.
Now that the ugly memory from my past has come back and I’ve confronted the two people who hurt me as a child, something inside of me has stopped aching. I’m not entirely free of pain or questions, but it feels like a weight I’d been carrying is lifted.
I begin to think maybe my wolf isn’t all bad. The one time she came out was to protect me when no one else would.
Thank you, I silently tell her.
She makes a whining sound, but I can’t quite interpret it. Was it a thank you for acknowledging her? An ‘I told you so’? Or something else?
“I have to get back to the clinic to check on Reese.”
“Yes, go,” I tell Chael. “We’ll be fine.”
I watch as he and Beta Chance start in the direction of the clinic. Chance gives me another remorseful look before he follows his brother. My heart aches as I turn to my three mates, standing in front of the home I came to live in when I was twelve years old.
“You need to eat,” Montgomery says before I can say anything. He takes me by the hand, leading me into the house that hasn’t felt like mine in a long time.
The delicious scent of baked chicken, roasted vegetables, and sweet potatoes makes my stomach growl.
“Ms. Elsie brought leftovers earlier,” Montgomery says. “While you were at the hospital with Reese. The vegetables might be a little burnt since I put them in earlier before … everything,” he continues.
I run a hand over his cheek before lifting on my tiptoes. He leans down, kissing me. Both my human and my wolf sigh in satisfaction.
His touch is the first normal thing I’ve felt in hours.
“Thank you,” I whisper against his lips.
“I’ll fix your plate.”
I want to tell him that he doesn’t need to do that, but this is how he burns off the excess tension that I can feel coursing through him.
“I’ll set the table,” I say, grabbing a stack of paper napkins from the counter. As soon as I turn, Noah’s right there.
Without a word, he takes me by the hips, pulls me into him, and kisses me. I’m always amazed at how soft and caressing his kisses are. He pours all of that passion into the kiss, though.
It’s not hard or rough but it is full of unspoken emotion, stealing my breath.
When he pulls back, his eyes are glowing.
Noah removes the napkins from my hands and steps aside, making room for Ronan. He growls wickedly before his lips crash down over mine. His insistence pulls a moan from me.
Ronan pours everything into the kiss, making my insides tremble.
I move to wrap my arms around his neck, but he clasps his hands around my wrists. Despite the want and open display of desire I see in his eyes, he pulls back.
“You need to eat.”
I wrinkle my forehead in confusion. Ordinarily, I’d expect a line like that coming from Montgomery. Maybe even Noah, but not Ronan. Correction: not Ronan before he’s fulfilled the desire in his eyes by making me come at least twice.
While I’m too busy wondering what’s gotten into him, he leads me to the small table in the dining area.
Noah’s done a beautiful job of setting up the table. Montgomery’s only a few steps behind, loading the table with plates of food stacked a mile high.
“If I thought one day we’d eat at this table here, I would have bought a bigger one,” I joke as I look at the three of them.
“There’s plenty of room,” Noah says, as he pulls me into his lap and slides a second plate in front of us. “There.” He sounds satisfied.
The three of them are almost elbow to elbow as they take their seats to eat.
“Maybe I should …” I wiggle a little in Noah’s lap, indicating that I could sit in my own chair. “There’s a space on the couch where I can eat.”
He gives me a sideways glare. “Don’t,” he warns, and I comply easily.
Though Renetta and her disgusting mate have been disposed of, a part of me still feels vulnerable.
As if I crave the protection I needed but didn’t get all of those years ago.
I look around the table at Noah, Montgomery, and lastly, Ronan.
He pushes his food around the plate with the fork, taking small bits, barely eating.
All three of my mates have ravenous appetites. One of the things I enjoy the most during mealtime is watching them eat. I get an odd sort of satisfaction seeing them indulging in their food.
But today, tonight, it’s different.
There’s a strange air in the room that’s taken the pleasure out of eating for them. And I think I know what it is.
“I’m sorry,” I say, looking across the table at Ronan.
His eyes are the first thing that rise, followed by his head. His gaze sharpens as he looks at me, assessingly.
“I’m sorry for, um, bringing you into this.” I look between all three of them. “All of you. First, it’s the threat I pose to your pack. Now, you’ve had to deal with my past. I shouldn’t—” I jump in Noah’s lap when Ronan’s fork loudly crashes against his plate.
He’s shaking his head with his eyes closed. “You …” He rubs his hand over the back of his neck. His telltale sign that he’s trying to calm himself down. “You are not apologizing, are you?”
I open my mouth to respond but he doesn’t give me a chance.
“Because there is no way, in Mother Moon’s world, you are actually apologizing for what that sun of a dog did to you. Right? That is not what you are doing, Serafina, is it?”
I swallow before pushing out a breath.
“It’s just…” I stop myself when Ronan abruptly stands from the table.
“No, Serafina,” he says, pacing. “Hell fucking no.” He suddenly rounds the table, lifting me by my arms from Noah’s lap. “You do not apologize for what happened to you. Not to me. Not to us. Not to Chael or anyone else. Do you understand that?”
“I’m not apologizing for what happened,” I tell him. “I’m just–”
“Just nothing. You do not apologize for any of it. Not for that witch that allowed that dog to do what he tried to do to you. Not to Chael for not noticing when something was wrong with you. And not, especially not to me. I should have been here sooner. We should have been here sooner.”
He releases my arms and rubs his neck again, his face reddening.
“If I had not been so afraid of what my grandfather said…” He trails off.
“He just wanted to protect his pack,” I reply. “Your grandfather just wanted–”
“No,” Ronan cuts me off. “My fear was not for the pack,” he tells me while looking me in the eye. The fierceness in his voice is beyond anything I’ve heard before. “Right or wrong, concern for our pack was the last thing on our mind when we… rejected…you.” His voice chokes on the word as if it sickens him to say.
Noah rises to his feet.
“He’s right.”
I look between both of them.
“He threatened your life,” Ronan answers. “Our grandfather.”
“What the hell?” Montgomery demands, standing as well.
Noah and Ronan look shamefully at their brother before their eyes return to me. “He said you posed a threat but we didn’t care. We always knew you belonged with us,” Ronan tells me.
“Why would he believe something like that?” I ask.
Ronan tightens his lips. “He went to a seer. After our father died, he went to find out the fate of the Blackclaw pack after his death. He was told that we would be the alphas to take over but, that our mate…” Ronan pauses and looks at Noah and then Montgomery.
“He was told our mate has the power to either save or kill our entire pack.”
I gasp and cover my mouth. “Th-those are the words you told me–”
“They’re bullshit,” Noah insists. “We told him as much, but that’s when he threatened your life,” Noah finishes.
I shake my head in disbelief.
“Grandfather was the one who put the pack above everything else. He claimed your potential to end our pack justified him in wanting to end you, and that he would tell as much to the Alliance.”
“He was telling the truth,” Noah adds. “The Alliance would’ve backed him because he had connections among the upper levels of the council.”
“We could not let that happen,” Ronan tells me. “But I screwed it all up. Instead of protecting you, I allowed you to feel hurt, alone and rejected and without a home. I screwed everything up,” he says, the remorse evident in his voice.
All of the questions about how much of a threat I am to their pack start to haunt me but Ronan pulls me into his chest.
His heart thunders beneath his skin.
Comfort him. Need him.
My wolf whimpers.
All of them. Mates.
Her words come stronger and her feelings override my human doubts and fears. My need to comfort my mates, to feel them, drown out the questions that were raging through my mind.
I cup Ronan’s face. “Thank you,” I tell him with a smile although there are tears in my eyes. “For protecting me. Even when I didn’t know that’s what you were doing.”
Knowing heals the hurt I felt when he and Noah told me those words that pushed me away. But knowing the truth, that they never forsook me, closes up that old wound.
Ronan cups my face. “Ours. Us,” he says, cryptically.
I shake my head, but he stops me.
“You have questioned for too long where you belong. It is with us, Serafina. It has always been right here.” He moves my hand to his chest, over his heart. “Always right here between the three of us is where you belong. No matter what.”
“This is your home. We are your home,” Noah adds.
“Right here,” comes from Montgomery.
The lump in my throat prevents me from speaking.
Home.
Even my wolf gets in on the action, it seems.
Home. With my three mates.
Is this what I’ve been searching for my whole life? I look into Ronan’s eyes, then Montgomery’s, followed by Noah’s.
After a few attempts I finally manage to say, “I don’t think I could think of a more perfect home.”
As soon as the words are out, Ronan pulls me in for a kiss that steals my breath, as usual. Ronan briefly breaks the kiss, to pick me up, wrapping my legs around him as he heads straight for the bedroom.
My back hits the bed less then a second before he’s on top of me, stripping me out of the jeans and the rest of my clothes. He moves down my body, spreading my legs.
At the first brush of his breath against my pussy lips my entire body coils with sexual tension. I reach down, putting my hand fingers in between his hair.
Ronan lifts his head and narrows his eyes on me before saying, “Noah take her hands.”
A second later, Noah has my wrists in one of his hands, lifting them over my head, preventing me from touching Ronan as he circles my clit with his tongue. My back bows off the bed and I let out a whine, struggling against Noah’s hold.
He chuckles. “Someone doesn’t like being held down, huh?”
Another moan finds its way past my lips when Ronan intensifies his perusal of my pussy with his mouth.
“Let’s put that pretty little mouth of yours to work,” Noah says.
My mouth waters as I watch him undo the button and zipper of his jeans with his free hand. As soon as his cock is free, I part my lips.
“Good girl,” he murmurs before easing the tip between my lips.
I lick it like it’s a lollipop. My favorite kind.
Noah pushes himself into my mouth until he almost hits the back of my throat. Thankfully, my gag reflex is nonexistent, as if I was made for these three men.
Between Ronan’s face between my legs and Noah’s dick in my mouth, I’m nearly complete. Almost.
That is until Montgomery moves onto the other side of the bed. He pinches one of my nipples, making me moan around Noah’s cock. My eyes meet his and of course, his eyes are glowing, hungrily.
Ronan inserts a finger inside of me, swirling it around before pulling out and moving it lower to my back hole.
“You’re taking all three of us tonight, Serafina,” Ronan tells me.
I can barely comprehend his words with Montgomery still pinching my nipples and Noah working my mouth.
Ronan moves back to my pussy, covering my clit with his lips and pulling an almost immediate orgasm from me. Noah pulls all of the way out of my mouth and I let out a scream as the orgasm takes over my entire body.
“That was only the warm-up,” Ronan promises as he turns me onto my side.
Though my body starts to feel spent already, I allow him to pull me up to sit.
“Undress me,” he orders.
I don’t hesitate. Each piece of clothing I remove from his well built body revives my energy. Everything aches with need for him–for all of them to be inside of me.
“Did I say it was okay to touch me?” Ronan asks, before locking a hand around my wrist, after I started stroking his cock.
“But I want to touch you.” I reach for Montgomery with my free hand. “All three of you.” Montgomery moans and begins removing his own clothing.
“Hss,” I hiss when Ronan flips me over and smacks my ass. “You’ll do as you are told unless you want more of where that came from.”
I can’t help it, with my ass still in the air, I wiggle it in his face, silently offering it up for more of where that came from.
Noah chuckles. “Little Hellraiser.”
“Montgomery, you’re here,” Ronan tells his brother.
Montgomery settles at my side as Ronan positions me onto my side. My back presses against Montgomery’s front. I turn my head over my shoulder, and Montgomery dips his head, kissing me. He moves his hand over my waist and hip, down to my ass.
I break away from the kiss to moan when I feel his fingers move to my back hole.
“Do you want me here, Serafina?” he asks against my lips.
I nod, unable to speak because he works his fingers to stretch me out.
“Tell me.”
“Take me, please,” I beg.
“Take you where?” he demands to know.
“My ass. Please fuck my ass, Montgomery.” I don’t care how wanton I sound. I need him right now or I might explode.
“Fuck,” he curses against my mouth a second before he removes his fingers and lines his cock up with my ass.
Ronan positions himself in front of me, and lifts my top leg while Montgomery pushes inside of me from behind.
“So good,” Montgomery moans behind me. “So fucking good.”
My breath catches in my throat, preventing me from speaking.
“Am I hurting you?” he asks.
I shake my head, but he stops.
“No,” I manage to blurt out. “No pain … pl-please don’t st-stop.”
He continues pushing inside of me, filling me up. But then he doesn’t move, allowing me to adjust to his girth.
“You’re going to take both of us, Serafina,” Ronan tells me as he rims my clit with the tip of his cock.
“Shiiit,” I curse and grunt when he begins pushing inside of my pussy. With Montgomery in my ass, it feels impossibly tight.
“You can take it,” Ronan tells me.
My head starts spinning from how incredibly full I feel with both of them inside of me like this. I let out a sigh when Ronan pushes himself all of the way inside.
Montgomery is the first to move, slowly retreating almost to the tip and pushing back in again.
“Breathe, Serafina,” he coaxes.
I needed the reminder while both of them find a rhythm that begins to drive me insane.
Though completely engaged with the two men inside of me, taking their turns to drive me crazy, I still search for Noah.
He’s fully naked, standing at the side of the bed with his cock in his hand, and he’s stroking it.
“C-Come here,” I tell him just above a whisper.
He moves closer to the bed and positions himself so that he’s near my face. I part my lips, and he doesn’t waste time filling my mouth with his cock.
My eyelids float closed in satisfaction.
This is what I was waiting for. All three of them inside of me at once. There’s nothing that exists outside of this moment. Just me and my three mates telling me with first their words and then with their bodies that I belong to them. Have always belonged to them.
My wolf rolls around in my chest, yipping in giddy excitement. My entire body heats with what’s now become a familiar burning, scorching me from the inside out.
Ronan lowers his head until his mouth wraps around my breast. He scrapes his teeth across my nipple, sending another heated ripple down my spine.
Montgomery buries his face into the crook of my neck. He bites into the skin there. A heated jolt crashes through me. It’s not painful but it is powerful. I can feel his incisors have elongated. He sucks the bite, and the drops of blood that have emerged.
I cry out as overwhelming bliss flows through me from knowing what he just did. A beat later, Noah pulls almost completely out of my mouth. He strokes his cock a few times before demanding, “Open.”
I do and catch his cum in my mouth, swallowing it all. As soon as he’s spent, Noah leans down, kissing the hell out of me before biting my shoulder. The same sensations as when Montgomery bit me ripple through me.
My wolf howls as if she’s being renewed by this claiming.
Just when I feel like I can’t take it, Noah releases me, moving away. Montgomery soon orgasms before pulling out of me and releasing his semen all over my ass.
Ronan then rolls me onto my back, lifts my legs over his shoulders, and pushes in and out of me at a wildly feral pace. He leans over me and bites the opposite side of my neck that Montgomery bit.
I squeeze my eyes shut but an almost blinding, white hot heat crashes through me. Before I know what’s happening, an array of colors appears, moving around me. But I’m not alone. All four of us: Montgomery, Ronan, and Noah are there, sustained in the light of the moon that hangs over us.
In the distance, I sense all of our wolves. My mates’ wolves are lapping at my wolf, reveling being in her company as she does being in theirs.
Though the colors and light pass around us, within me there’s nothing but total and complete peace. The moment I realize this, my eyes spring open, a powerful orgasm crashing through me.
I scream all three of their names before everything goes black.