Wraith #2
"You're very welcome," he says, rising from the water, turning toward shore.
I keep signing before I can talk myself out of it.
You're not bad, V-A-L-E-K.
Valek pauses, his eyes narrowing. "That sounds suspiciously like pity."
It isn’t.
He folds his arms over his wet chest. The movement pulls at the bruises I put there, dark marks on his ribs and throat.
More guilt twists through me.
I force my eyes back to his face.
You choose to be good, I sign. That matters more. Anyone can be good when it’s easy. You do it when it goes against your instincts.
Valek doesn’t move, or even blink.
The river runs cold around us, carrying pine needles and bits of ash downstream. His expression is completely empty, but his eyes drop to where my hands hover above the water.
I wait.
His jaw flexes once.
Then he shoves me again, hard.
I stumble backward with a startled growl, water surging around my waist.
"Don’t be a sap on me," he mutters.
I shove him back.
He grins.
“Boys?”
We both turn. Ivy’s head pokes through the tent flap. Her damp dark hair falls around her face, and one bare shoulder is visible when she leans farther out, her skin still glistening.
“I managed to text the pack,” she says. “They know we’re alive and Whiskey has been ordered not to steal a helicopter.”
Her eyes travel over both of us standing half naked in the river.
"You can join me in the tent if you're done brawling," she teases.
Valek looks at me, arching an eyebrow.
“Well?” he asks. “Are we?”
I’m already moving.
He laughs behind me.
The water fights every step, dragging at my pants until I reach the bank and climb out. Ivy disappears into the tent with a delighted little sound. I strip off my soaked pants outside, then duck through the flap, keeping my head down instinctively.
Ivy is already stretched across the blankets naked in the soft golden glow from the lantern, one arm behind her head, the other resting over her stomach.
Waiting for us.
My entire body goes rigid.
Valek ducks through behind me, leaving his pants behind, too, and immediately walks into my back.
"For fuck’s sake, Wraith."
I don’t move.
Valek pushes against my shoulder until I shift far enough for him to squeeze past. He wastes no time dropping to his knees beside Ivy and dragging one finger from her ankle to the inside of her thigh.
Her legs part and the scent of her slick hits me.
Fuck...
Ivy reaches for me, and I sink to my knees automatically, still trying to keep my head down, but it's hard to think about anything else other than the most beautiful sight that's ever existed stretched out in front of me.
“You okay?” she whispers, rolling over to me, slipping her arms around my neck.
I manage to nod.
Her hands slide across my shoulders and down my back. Valek settles behind her, his palms traveling along her sides before he lifts her enough to drag her higher against his chest, her hands catching in my hair and bringing me with her.
She fits perfectly between us.
Valek’s hands move lower, one slipping between her thighs, and Ivy gasps into my mouth when his fingers find her pussy.
“So wet,” he purrs as her scent floods the tent.
I growl and press closer, burying my face in her hair so neither of them can see me and so I can breathe in her scent glands on her neck, my cock dragging against her thigh. She reaches down, wraps both hands around me, and strokes.
Valek pushes two fingers into her.
Ivy cries out, her grip tightening almost painfully around my cock, and a growl scrapes out of me. I drop my forehead against her neck, panting through my nose.
“More,” she whispers.
Valek adds another finger. Ivy’s legs spread wider around my hips, her feet digging into the blankets and her hands jerking over my cock.
My hips thrust into her fists.
“That’s it,” she breathes. “Good boy.”
The growl tears out of me before I can stop it.
Valek chuckles.
The growl in my chest deepens into a low snarl.
“Focus,” he says calmly, curling his fingers inside her before withdrawing them, lifting them to his mouth. I watch in a daze as he licks her slick away slowly, silver eyes locked on mine.
Teasing me with her slick.
The growl kicks up a notch.
Ivy reaches for him without looking, catches his wrist, and pulls his hand toward my face instead.
"Share it," she says breathlessly, panting and grinning at us. "Don't start a fight in the tent over my fucking slick."
"You heard the lady," Valek purrs, his wet fingers hovering in front of my face.
I stare at them warily.
Ivy’s scent coats his skin, her slick gathered along the length of his fingers and across his knuckles.
Valek watches me without moving, holding his hand steady and waiting while Ivy keeps her fingers wrapped around his wrist.
"Don't bite," he warns me, smirking.
I narrow my eyes at him, leaning forward. My tongue slips between my teeth and touches the tip of Valek’s middle finger. Ivy takes a sharp breath beneath us, her chest rising against mine.
I drag my tongue down, slowly.
Her taste spreads across it. Sweet, musky, a little salty. Familiar enough to make my cock jerk against her thigh.
Ivy makes a broken sound. Her hands release us both. One presses against my shoulder while the other grips Valek’s thigh, nails digging into his pale skin.
She’s staring at my mouth.
My tongue, specifically.
Anxiety prickles at my skin again, but her pupils have swallowed almost all the blue-green in her eyes, and she doesn't look nervous. Not in a bad way. Her thighs shift restlessly against the blankets, trying to close around nothing.
My tongue winds around Valek's hand one last time, cleaning Ivy’s slick from the base of them to the tips like a wolf cleaning a bone, watching her carefully.
Ivy whimpers beneath us. "Wraith…" She reaches for my face, urging me closer to her slick pussy. "Do that to me. Please."
Fuck…
The memory hits before I can stop it.
Blood on my teeth.
Her blood.
The thin cuts my teeth left against her thighs in the tent the first time I tried. I came back into myself long enough to see red on her pale skin. My brain decided I’d mauled her even while she held me and promised I hadn’t.
My hands flatten against the blankets.