Chapter 10 Fenris
Fenris
We were officially mated under the new moon a month later, with Lyra at my side and Mill and Caleum next to her. Kodiak announced us to the pack, and we partied well into the early hours of the morning. Then, I carried my mate back to her our cabin and fucked her until my knot ached.
I’d never been so deliriously happy, and I told her every chance I could.
In the morning, before she went to the infirmary, with my knees on the shower floor and one of her legs draped over my shoulder, my tongue in her delicious cunt.
At her lunch breaks, when I brought her food and watched her eat every last bite.
When she got home from a hard day and wanted to turn her mind off by focusing on draining my balls until I couldn’t fucking stand it and had to bury myself inside her.
That first heat didn’t take, but I didn’t care. Neither did she. We had the rest of our lives to try again. And we did. Over and over and over.
But at night, after she’d fallen asleep next to me, I thought back to the man I’d been at the start of all this — scared and desperate to make sure everyone around me was safe.
I’d buried myself in meaningless encounters to make up for how lonely I’d felt, and it wasn’t until Wyn needed my help that I’d let myself come to grips with that.
We still hadn’t been able to figure out what was going on with Lyra, but she hadn’t had another seizure, so I counted that as a good sign.
She and Caelum were taking a break, so perhaps the distance would do it.
Maybe my sister’s inner feline needed space to heal.
As long as she was healthy, I’d do whatever I could to help her.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Wyn had said one night in the bath after a long day of studying and researching. “First Mill. Now Caelum. It’s almost genetic…hereditary. I wish our parents were here so I could ask them.”
“Hmm.” I had kissed the side of her head and pulled her back against me, wrapping my arms around her midsection. “You’ll get to the bottom of it. You always do.”
Life wasn’t always sunshine and roses. We fought, and we made up, and she challenged me to loosen my grip on her, to trust that she would be safe when I couldn’t be around. But Gods, I didn’t know what I’d do if I ever lost her, and I prayed I never had to find out.
“Well, well, well,” Lycan said, coming to stand next to me while the others filed into the club’s meeting room for church. “I went away for three months and came home to find our healer mated to the pack’s second-best playboy.”
He was the MC’s road captain, and up until recently, he’d been on security duty in Paris.
Maeve’s twin sister, Ava, had business in France, and he’d been sent along to protect her.
When things got dicey, Kodiak had sent Poe to bring them home.
Lycan and Poe had a history, and not that it was any of my business, but I heard they’d broken up because Lycan wouldn’t settle down the way Poe wanted.
“Second-best?” I scoffed and shook my head. “Coming from someone who would fuck anything that moves, I suppose I should take that as a compliment.”
Objectively speaking, Lycan was beautiful.
He was tall, with platinum-blond hair and eyes the color of storm clouds.
He worked out meticulously, on top of his ranch duties, so he outweighed me by fifty pounds of muscle.
Not that it mattered. As road captain, he’d earned a spot at the top of the pack’s hierarchy with dominance and grit, just like any of the other council members.
“Aw, don’t be jealous,” Lycan said with a wink. “I would have fucked you, too, if you’d only given me a chance.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Stay classy, Lycan.”
The last time I’d seen him, he’d sulked off after Orion’s wedding with his tail tucked between his legs and a haunted glower in his eyes.
He’d taken the breakup with Poe hard, but this version of him reminded me more of the person he’d been before, the one who laughed easily and flirted with anyone who’d give him a second of attention. What exactly had happened in Paris?
“You look good, brother,” Lycan said, focus narrowing on the bite on my shoulder. “Being mated suits you.”
I let my gaze roam over him and squinted at the twin marks on either side of his throat.
Two sets of crescent-shaped scars lined his neck, and his scent…
it was more than just him, and more than just one other person.
It was roses and vanilla, a darkly feminine scent that spoke of a familiar female I couldn’t name.
But it was also leather and pine and something distinctly male.
Poe.
Both were warnings. Both told me to stay the fuck away from their mate.
I hadn’t heard he’d gotten mated. To who? And when?
And I’d never thought a shifter could be mated to two people. How was that possible?
I opened my mouth to ask, but Orion cut me off.
“All right, everyone,” our veep said, bringing my attention back to the present. “We’ve got a situation in the north. The Scorpions have regrouped. They’ve elected a new leader, and she’s more vicious than Marx. Let’s talk it through.”
Church went on around me, and I counted myself blessed to be able to stand next to these beastly fuckers and protect what was ours.
We didn’t have much money or wealth. But what we did have, we fought and bled and killed for.
It was the way of the Royal Bastards MC.
It was the way of shifters. It was pack.
And I’d gladly do whatever I could to keep it that way.
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The End