Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Maddox
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“She’s not happy!” Eli practically wails.
I take another deep breath. This is a disaster. What the fuck were they thinking?
“She doesn’t have the slightest precautions, online or in person, for her safety,” Jules adds.
My wolf is immediately pissed at her lack of personal safety and wants to bring her home. But the rational side of me wrestles him to the ground as I breathe deeply.
“She’s what, thirty-six? She’s made it this far without us. Without being claimed. We have to wait. To trust that she’ll return to us. If we run in, like a pack of idiots, that will only push her away.”
”But…” Gael says softly, “what if she never returns?”
I shake my head firmly. “We can’t think like that.” My wolf growls. “Let’s give it three months. If we haven’t heard from her by then, well…”
”Keep the trackers,” Corbin says from where he leans against the door frame. I don’t know how long he’s been standing there, listening.
My wolf sneezes in agreement.
”Kill ‘em,” I direct flatly. “Like we need to face her wrath if she found out. She’s her own person. We can’t… stalk her!” I blurt, frustrated with my pack even though my wolf likes their plans. Human world. Public relations professional, I lecture my wolf.
Eli chuckles dryly. “I’ll take it if it gets her where she belongs, here in her nest.”
“All of you,” I snarl, “stay away from her. That’s an order.”
I spin on my heel, not even sure I know where I’m headed, but needing some space.
Tugging off my tee shirt, I head for the gym. I tap a few buttons on my phone and some punk metal emerges from the mounted speakers. Just as I put a hand on the leg press to shift some weights, the door opens.
Elias.
He has his baseball cap on, backwards, blonde curls poking out and that boyish grin on his face. His tats are more extensive than anyone else in the pack, a few even on his neck. I had rolled my eyes at that, and he had teased me about being too ‘corporate’ for my own good.
“Come sweat off some energy with me, Daddy,” he purrs, dropping his sweats without further ado.
I hadn’t intended to have sex but the sight of his thick, ready cock, knot throbbing, and his sassy tone? Yeah, he’s in for it.
“Fuck, you’re such a brat, Eli,” I mutter as I turn. “Of course a slut like you isn’t wearing underwear,” I chuckle.
I cross the room to him in four wide strides, pulling his body to mine.
He’s a few inches shorter than me, but still tall by human standards.
Some werewolves can trace their bloodlines to one of the three original werewolf demons.
Some can’t. It doesn’t really matter, but some try to pretend it does.
My parents’ pack, and Gael’s, can trace back to an original.
Me, to Fenrir, him to Faoladh; but the rest of our pack are all ‘merely’ shifters.
Of course, witches being found as omegas will only muddy the waters further. To those like me, that’s all the better. To the purists, that’s further proof of how far we’ve fallen.
Matters not to me, personally. I love who I love; I’m matched to whom I’m matched.
I grab him around the waist as I kiss him. His mouth opens, allowing me in, as deep as I need. Eli might pretend to be the silly, carefree alpha, but he is more in touch than most of the rest of the pack. He just uses his humor, and easy trust, and body, to set us all at ease.
He kneels onto the machine, bare ass up. “Come fuck me, alpha.”
I turn and open the cabinet, grabbing the bottle containing lube and quickly return. I slap his ass cheek hard.
“Daddy wants your ass,” I growl as I pour the lube down his crack.
“Take it,” he says, shaking his ass at me playfully.
I stroke the lube over my cock and line up. “It’s gonna be hard and fast, Eli.”
“Fuck, I hope so,” he breathes, head dropping to the padded machine.
I shove into him and he gasps. I didn’t warm him up at all, so I bury myself, knot too, with a final hard push, and then hold still, waiting for him.
My cock jumps and twitches inside him as I enjoy the hot, intense grip of his body.
I hold his hips firmly, our balls touching.
When he finally squirms, rocking back, I know he’s ready.
I pull all the way out, watching where our bodies are joined, and his hole, before I thrust back in. I leave my knot outside of him though. I want to fuck him too roughly for that. I start a punishing pace, the slap of my hips to his ass loud and fast.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he chants, knees forced to stay together because of the narrowness of the machine.
My balls pull up and while I need that release, I manage to pull out of his incredible body.
“Up, love,” I mutter, pressing him off the machine. I sit on the bench, thighs spread. “Come bounce on it.”
He smirks and spins, bending forward as his legs brace against mine. “Yes, Daddy,” he purrs, hands landing on my knees for support. I line my cock back up to his wet hole.
He slides down, and I moan in pleasure, moving my hand to hold my knot.
Eli starts to bounce. I’m back on the edge so I hurry to reach around him with my other hand. I grab his cock, my hand forming a loose sheath around him. His riding my cock means that my hand milks him without much effort from me. He whines, high-pitched. He’s obviously close too.
“Yeah,” I breathe, “Me too. Cum for Daddy.”
His body slaps down against my clenched fist as my knot throbs. I lose control, and I feel myself cum inside his tight hole.
He whines, feeling it too, and I don’t need to open my eyes to feel the shift in his hips as he rocks forward into my hand over his cock more.
“Needy boy,” I grunt through the last of my orgasm.
I feel his seed shoot, a wet splatter and the dribble of wetness in my hand. I let go of my knot to quickly take his, squeezing and working it as he cums.
Eli’s body relaxes, and I ease him up, off my cock, but then tug him back down in my lap to sit comfortably as we finish recovering.
As I pull his back to my chest, I start to purr. “Thanks, Eli. I needed that.”
“I know,” he groans, obviously sore and exhausted. He takes a deep breath and I can feel the shift in topic coming. “You tell Fenn?”
“Yeah,” I sigh.
“How did he take it?”
I shrug, still holding Eli. “Strangely well. Got kind of weird and quiet about it. Said we can claim her if she wants it, that it is no issue, and we’ll deal with any fallout if—really when—word starts to get around.”
“Huh,” Eli responds.
I ease us both to our feet, hands on his biceps until I’m sure he’s steady. He gives me his little crooked grin, blue eyes full of mischief.
“So… when are we going to get her?”
I groan. “We’re not! She has to choose this, Eli!”
He crosses his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow as he turns to face me directly. “Really? Then do you wanna explain why I found a bunch of cute compression socks, arthritis cream, and special knee-ice wraps?”
I open my mouth, find I have nothing to say, and close it, to Eli’s amused giggle.