CHAPTER SIX – Nicolette
When I spoke to my family, I didn’t mention anything about how Ezekiel triggered my heat. None of them needed to know those details at the moment. I didn’t even know what I would say about it. Yes, he was sweet and gorgeous, and even just thinking about him made me squirm with growing desire, but I’d been meant for Kodiak.
I still hadn’t heard Kodiak come back inside. And the other Alpha, the bastard Silas, had left. Good riddance to him.
Yet what if my presence here and Ezekiel’s compatibility with me caused a rift between the Alphas? I gnawed at my lower lip as I fidgeted with my phone. I didn’t want to be the reason three men who were like brothers fought one another.
I’d sent off a message to my friends, but none of them were available at the moment. I wondered if Callista had felt the same way when she first met her Alphas. Though her men turned out to be very good at sharing, and she was living her best life with three hot mates. No such peace was present in this household.
Never in my life had I ever had to deal with such a mess. Sure, Kienna was pretty good at getting us in trouble at times, but she was also amazing at getting us out of it. My home life had been pretty boring, and the most antagonism I’d ever had to deal with was with a girl who appointed herself my rival in ballet years ago. The way I dealt with her was to ignore her and work harder so I was always chosen as the prima ballerina.
That’s what I needed to do now. I had to ignore Silas’ cruelty and work harder to make myself welcome here. I wasn’t sure how to make peace with Kodiak, but my mother always said a well-fed Alpha was a happy Alpha. A good meal was something I could provide.
With that plan in mind, I stood and left the room with my chin up. Atka greeted me in the hall, but I was ready for him this time. I braced myself and gave him some loving before walking into the living room.
Ezekiel rose up from the couch and smiled at me with a light in his eyes. His white thermal shirt clung to his muscled chest and his gray sweatpants left nothing to the imagination. I could see every delicious inch of him. “Hi. Did you get a hold of your family?”
Did he get more good-looking since I was out here? I squeezed my thighs together as an echoing ache declared that he definitely did.
“Yeah, everything’s good.” Everything was hot. I made myself keep walking to the kitchen rather than right to him as my body yanked me to go. “It’s a bit late for me to make lunch for everyone, but I thought I’d make dinner for us all tonight.”
“That’s very sweet of you.” His smile widened as he came over to the kitchen. “We picked up some moose steaks. I can cook them outside on the grill.” In the snow? No doubt he saw my surprise and chuckled. “We have the grill under a shelter where we store the firewood off to the side where we park our trucks. There’s a shed there too, with snow machines and four wheelers. We have a sauna tucked in near there as well.”
I hadn’t seen any of those buildings, but then again, I’d been too stunned by the beautiful cabin when I’d pulled up with Shae yesterday. “I’ve never had moose before. I have no idea how to properly season it, but I’m sure I could look it up.”
“You’re in for a treat then. I can take care of the meat.” Ezekiel leaned on the island counter watching me, eyes glued to me as if he was on the hunt. My pussy twinged, eager for his touch. Oh fuck, I would love to take care of his meat.
Focus on food.I needed them to be impressed. “You’ll have to teach me how to season moose, and I’ll look up some recipes for different ways to prepare it for later on. So what else do you have in here? Potatoes? Vegetables? I also want to make a salad, dessert, and homemade rolls.”
“Whoa, you don’t have to go through all that trouble for us. Relax. Let me cater to you.” The way his smile turned mischievous with those words had me wetter yet. “You’re our guest.”
I shook my head. “Not your guest. I live here now too. I’ll do my share, and since I enjoy cooking, it’s something I’m happy to do. Plus, if you guys are out in the woods working all day, I need to keep myself occupied. Does much happen in town? Concerts, shows, theater?”
Ezekiel laughed. “In Petersburg? Nothing happens here. We have a few bars, but that’s it. The town gets busy in the summer with tourists, and the hardcore fishermen come year round if the weather is right, but no one is here really to see Petersburg. It’s the wild they come for.”
“Nothing?” I knew the town was small, but that tiny? If I couldn’t have my tropical beaches, I’d hoped for music and dance. “Nothing at all?”
“Well, I guess there’s shows put on by the schools. We only have maybe three hundred and fifty, at most, four hundred kids in town though.” He shrugged. “Now and then the Tlingit, the indigenous folks, have stuff going on, and the Norwegian Heritage Society has a festival once a year.”
I clutched my hands together in front of me as my heart pounded and my throat tightened. The island was isolated, I’d known that, but this isolated from the arts? I couldn’t do it. Even if I was compatible with Ezekiel, I couldn’t stay in a place this void of the things I loved most. I needed clubs, a studio, a theater! Fish, trees, and mountains were not for me.
“Hey now,” Ezekiel soothed, coming around the island and pulling me to him. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
My body immediately melted against his. Lean and solid, I could literally feel his tight abs through his shirt pressed to me. Calm and peace filled me at the same time as every nerve came alive with a burning need to jump him and ride him on the kitchen counter. He smelled so good, like cedar and sex. And speaking of wood, oh God, I could feel his hardness long and throbbing in his sweatpants.
Ezekiel made a noise and it vibrated to my very core. It wasn’t really a growl, but a purr?
If this was what being in heat was like… No. I wasn’t even really in heat... Was I? We’d only met like an hour ago. One hour. There was no way I could be this turned upside-down by just a hug after an hour.
“Nicolette,” he whispered my name, a rough edge to it. He rubbed my back and arms, and I found myself snuggling further against him.
What was I doing? I forced myself to step back. Not jerking out of his embrace—I didn’t want to make him think I didn’t like it—but stepping back slowly and offering him a smile which I hoped looked reassuring and not besotted. “I’m fine. I’m sure there will be plenty of things for me to do here. Right now though,” I motioned to the cupboards and fridge. “How about you show me where everything is? Tell me if any of you have allergies, how you do things here, what the schedule is usually like. I want to know it all.”
His hands lingered on me as if he didn’t want to let go, but over the next few hours, we settled into something that felt like we’d known each other for years. Ezekiel was easy to talk to, eager to learn when I taught him to make apple pie, and hilarious. If I was going to be stuck up in Alaska away from all the things and people I loved, at least there was someone who could make me laugh. And who was incredibly sexy, especially when he licked his fingers after putting the apples into the pan.
I wanted to take each finger, suck on it and flick my tongue over the tips, watching as his big cock grew harder. My pussy clenched, dripping a little slick, as I thought it. Thankfully Ezekiel had turned to wash the bowls we’d used and didn’t see the wanton flush in my cheeks that I certainly felt.
It was at that moment when the front door opened and Kodiak stomped the snow off his boots before walking in. I bit my lower lip as I stared at the hulking mountain of an Alpha. The cold had reddened his skin and bits of frost shone in his beard. He was so muscular he looked ready to burst out of his coat.
Kodiak’s dark gaze remained on me as he kicked off his boots and removed his coat. Was he still angry? Would he tell me to leave?
Ezekiel glanced over his shoulder and grinned. “Hey, man. I was just about to go out and warm up the grill for the steaks. I have a little seasoning for it, but next time, I think we should marinate in a good stout first. Nicolette took care of the rest of the meal for us. She taught me how to make your favorite, apple pie.”
So it was Kodiak’s favorite? Hopefully this would score me bonus points, because I didn’t see him smiling yet.
He took his time brushing off the snow and setting his boots on the mat. Only then did he walk in and clear his throat. “Sounds good. How about you go get that grill going then, Eze? I need to have a few words with Nicolette.”
Oh oh. Kodiak wanted to talk to me, and he sounded like a boss getting ready to fire one of his employees. All authority and stern expression.
“Sure.” Ezekiel either didn’t feel that tension or he didn’t care. He grabbed a lighter from a drawer and winked at me. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
Part of me wanted to grab him, to tell him not to leave me alone with Kodiak. It was silly. I wasn’t a girl anymore, frightened of big intimidating Alphas. When I had first met my oldest sister’s mate, I hid from him in my closet the entire afternoon while he was visiting. It was only when he had helped me build the biggest sandcastle ever that he won me over. Kodiak did not strike me as the type to build me a snow castle.
Once Ezekiel left, Kodiak was still silent. His gaze bore into me.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling, I offered a smile. “Did you want something to drink to warm up? Tea or coffee, or maybe a hot chocolate?”
His hands flexed and fisted before he flattened them on the counter. Some of the hardness slid from his expression as he shook his head. “I wanted to… Earlier, when you first came out here, that wasn’t how I wanted it to go when we first met. I wasn’t… the friendliest.”
I bit my tongue to keep from gaping. Was he apologizing?
“And before that, when I opened the bedroom door, I didn’t mean to…” He clenched his jaw and let out a low grunt.
He was apologizing. I didn’t hear an ‘I’m sorry,’ but I bet those words didn’t come easy for an Alpha like him. I’d been a little embarrassed. Okay, I’d been momentarily mortified when he saw me naked, but it seemed he was feeling guilty. Maybe this wasn’t going to be bad at all.
My smile turned genuine. “Don’t worry about it. Things happen when people share the same house. I have bikinis that cover as much as those few drops of water did.”
Kodiak’s eyes went wide for a few seconds as his pupils dilated. He gripped the sides of the counter and nodded slowly a few times. His breathing grew heavier as his gaze darted down my body. Maybe I could have said something different, because it seemed like he was imagining me in a teeny bikini.
Since he appeared to be without words, I came around the island and held out my hand. “Let’s start again, shall we? Hi. I’m Nicolette Lancaster. It’s nice to finally meet you. You have a gorgeous home, and I thank you for giving up your room for me.”
Staring for another moment, Kodiak finally took a few steps toward me. He was a good foot taller and took up nearly the entire width between the island and the counter section against the wall. Every inch of him looked solid as rock too.
A smile curled up his lips and warmth made him even more gorgeous than before. “It’s good to meet you too, Nicolette. I’m Kodiak Volkov.”
The second his massive hand enfolded mine, the world as I knew it exploded.
Like I was hit by a lightning bolt, my whole body shuddered. Slick wet my thighs and my heartbeat thumped hard in my ears. Even though my heat had been triggered by Ezekiel already, Kodiak’s touch was just as powerful. What I had felt for Ezekiel was animal lust accompanied by a deep down feeling that we were mates. With Kodiak, the sensation was even more primal. We were mates in the way a giant mountain was meant to protect its luscious valley. A force of nature.
It had been a small chance that I would have been compatible with any of the Alphas here, but with two of them? I couldn’t even wrap my mind around it.
But fuck, I wanted to wrap my legs around this big hunk of a lumberjack.
A growl roared up his throat and suddenly I was in his arms. His mouth was on mine, hot and demanding. No cute and tentative first kiss for us. This was earthshaking.
And I could do nothing other than throw my whole self into it.