Chapter 5
Days later, Willow was on the porch kissing Silas goodbye when she heard June’s engine coming up the driveway, and he pulled back from the kiss with a grin. “Sounds like you’re about to get some gossip.”
Silas went off to the right to their personal parking spaces, and Willow walked to the left, toward the pack’s parking area to greet June, who climbed down from her late-model Bronco with two enormous to-go coffees and a paper sack.
“I figured you’d be up by now. Got time for some coffee and gossip? ”
Willow smiled. “Always.”
“Good. Sit with me.” June handed her one of the coffees and turned toward the back of the house. “It’s a nice morning. You good with the back porch? Or is it too chilly? I’m afraid I don’t actually know a lot about hawks.”
Willow nodded. “Hawks run even warmer than wolves. The porch is fine, I’ll just grab a jacket from inside.” And some shoes, or maybe boots. It was a gorgeous morning, but she’d stepped out barefoot in her dress, expecting only a goodbye kiss and probably a few nipple squeezes.
They walked together, and Willow took a testing sip of the coffee. It was hot, strong, just sweet enough, with plenty of milk. She wondered which of her men had told June how she likes her coffee.
She made a quick trip inside to put leggings and boots on along with a lightweight jacket, and then the two women settled around the Alpha table. The one with the most comfortable chairs.
June pulled paper-wrapped triangles from the sack. “Apple fritters. Figured we could use something a little sinful.”
Willow’s whole face lit up. “You are my favorite person this morning.”
June took a sip of her coffee and leaned back, gaze on the forest. “You handled those two pups real well, you know. At breakfast.”
Willow blinked. “I was annoyed. It’d been so peaceful, so magical, and they…” She shook her head.
“Exactly. We all felt it, but you’re the one who brought it into the light and shut it down.
No threats, no unnecessary shaming.” She took a bite of her fritter and chased it with coffee.
“You defused the tension and reminded them what matters. Kenny told me you asked them if you’d done the right thing.
You wouldn’t have done that if you were trying to be some alpha bitch. ”
Willow smiled. “Miranda sent me daisies. Said thanks for helping her soulmate and her brother start trying to accept each other.” She laughed a little. “I mean, it’s a start.”
“It was pack leadership, plain and simple. Confident and measured. Most mates don’t step into that role unless they’ve been blood bound, so there’s a little confusion, you understand.
” Her head tilted. “Everyone’s accepted you as a possibility, but they won’t fully accept you into the social structure until you’ve accepted the relationship binding, which I’m going to assume Kenny will initiate between the four of you. ”
Willow frowned. “Blood bound? What does that mean?”
June studied her over the rim of her cup, sipped, and lowered it slowly. “That’s for Kenny to explain.”
“Oh no,” Willow said. “You can’t just drop this huge bomb and not explain.”
June was silent a few seconds before saying, “Speaking of things your men probably haven’t explained, let me tell you about the bonfire.”
Did she push her back to the blood-bond thing? Or get whatever information she could manage? Willow decided on the latter. “I’m all ears.”
June grinned. “The bonfire’s a tradition, goes back to before Randall took over, even before this property.
Every Christmas, second Saturday in December, the pack decorates the big fir tree out front.
Lights, massive ornaments — looks like something out of a Hallmark movie, but with a wolfpack in human form.
The outside of the house gets done too. Then the bonfire, and we all go out front after dark to watch Kenny light it all at once. ”
She took another long drink of her coffee.
“The fire is huge, and we have every kind of animal for people to stick on a skewer and cook. Smells amazing.”
Willow nodded and opened another apple fritter.
“We go inside at 10:30 to decorate the kitchen tree, and by eleven, it’s over. Some stay longer to hang out, but the official pack stuff ends when the tree’s done.”
Willow smiled, imagining it. “Sounds lovely, and you’re right. My men haven’t told me any of this, except for the fact there’s a bonfire and we decorate.”
June gave her a gentle smile. “You’re bringing something this pack hasn’t had in a long time, sweetheart.”
Willow raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
June’s voice softened. “Feminine energy at the top of the pack’s structure.
Grounded strength. You’ve got fire, but you listen, and you step in and lead when it’s needed.
The top three are steadier with you here.
The pack sees it and appreciates it. We’ve been in-between since we lost Randall. We thought we’d have Cora, but then…”
She shrugged. “Kenny stepped in and managed everything efficiently enough, but he was interim Alpha at first. We couldn’t settle.
That’s why the three went out of town, I think, to try to form a cohesive management team.
The Alpha leads absolutely, but one man can’t do everything.
He needs people he can categorically trust, and since you returned with them, everything’s changed for the better. ”
Willow blinked fast. “Thank you.”
“You’re doing good.” June drained the rest of her coffee, stood, and stretched. “And you’re only gonna get stronger.”
Willow watched her walk around the house, heart warm and throat tight.
She had a home. A pack. A future.
Now she just had to figure out what the fuck a blood bond meant for wolves, and whether she was ready to take that step.
* * * *
A few hours later, Willow contemplated how to bring the blood bond up to Kenny over lunch.
Thankfully, he’d ordered her to pack enough food for both of them, meaning they’d have time to talk. If he’d only ordered her to pack enough for him, she’d have texted to respectfully ask for a conversation.
She had questions, and the longer she waited, the more her nerves would twist up and make it harder.
She set the food on his desk when he motioned her close, and then remained in place until he finished his phone call. He rarely wanted to fuck her before eating, but sometimes he did.
“Get the food out and then bring the chair over,” he said when he ended the conversation.
She brought it over, stood beside it until he said, “Sit.”
He always waited that extra five to ten seconds, making the point to both of them that she’d wait until given permission.
Today was leftover spaghetti from the night before with garlic knots she’d baked fresh before leaving.
“June came to visit me this morning, Sir. She brought coffee and apple fritters.”
Kenny sat back in his chair slowly, as if preparing himself. “Did she?”
“She told me what I did with the two guys at breakfast was the kind of leadership they expect from the mate of an Alpha, Sir.”
He smiled. “Feel good to have confirmation?”
She nodded. “Yes, Sir, but then…” She took a breath. “She told me the pack won’t fully accept me until I agree to the relationship bond. Some kind of blood bond? Apparently, that’s how they’ll know I’m here to stay?”
Kenny’s gaze sharpened, but she met it with determination. She wasn’t leaving without an explanation. Submission doesn’t mean being kept in the dark on stuff like this.
“She said you’d have to explain it, Sir.”
He sat forward again. “For two wolves, it binds them as a mated pair. It keeps them honest in every sense. They know if someone cheats, or even seriously thinks about cheating. It makes sex more intense, the emotional connections deeper. For a wolf and a human it’s basically the same, but with a little less of a connection since humans don’t carry their own magic. ”
Willow swallowed. “And for a hawk and three wolves?”
He huffed a quiet breath. “That’s the part we won’t know until we try. The magic has a mind of its own even for a couple, and different shifters have different magics, especially birds and mammals.”
He met her gaze. “And any kind of blood ceremony with an Alpha carries extra weight.”
“What does that change, Sir?”
“It’s not just me. I carry the magic and energy of every wolf oathed to me. My top two have access to that power when needed, and if you bond with me—” He shook his head. “You might get some of it. I don’t know what or how much.”
She leaned forward. “Will it give me telepathy with you?”
“The bond should give you pathways to all three of us. If not, there’s another ritual, a smaller one, each of us can do with you separately to give you that connection.”
“But the relationship bond would do all three, Sir?”
“In theory, but again, there’s a chance the magic does something unexpected.” He watched her carefully. “You’re asking a lot of questions. Does that mean you’re thinking about it?”
She nodded slowly. “I want to understand. It feels soon, and yet…” She looked down, then back at him. “I think I might be interested, Sir. I’d like to at least have the conversations, if it’s something you and the others are ready for.”
* * * *
Kenny eased back in his chair, once again floored by his hawk.
He hadn’t brought the blood bond possibility up because he didn’t want to scare her away by explaining it too soon.
He’d figured sometime in the spring, maybe, but she was sitting across from him now, asking smart questions and sounding like she might actually be on board, and to at least learn enough to make an informed decision.
Something deep inside him shifted. Settled. Like the last missing puzzle piece just before it fits perfectly into place.
“If you’re ready to talk about it, I’ll speak to the other two this afternoon,” he said. “I didn’t bring it up because I didn’t want to scare you off. This is permanent, or as close as anything gets. It’ll make the four of us a unit. Stronger. Safer. It isn’t something I take lightly.”
She nodded again, slower this time. “Thank you for waiting until I was ready, Sir. We’ll need more conversations, preferably with all of us, but I’d like to explore this. Learn more.”
He took the last bite of his spaghetti, cleaned the bowl with what was left of his fourth garlic knot, and set his bowl closer to hers.
She understood the unspoken order, stood, removed her dress and draped it over her chair, walked to the other side of his desk and bent over it, her face and tits on the glass, her arms at the small of her back grasping her elbows, her back arched, aiming her ass and cunt into the air.
If he’d wanted her on her knees, he’d have told her.
She knew a silent order meant over the desk.
He took a few moments to admire her beauty. The graceful lines.
And then he pushed back and stood.
He didn’t say a word, just walked around the desk, unzipped his pants, slicked some lube onto his cock from the bottle at hand, and watched her breathe. Watched her pussy clench even though the lube told her it would be ignored.
This was a damned luxury every workday, lunch with her either beside him or pleasuring him, then draining his balls into what belonged to him.
Some days, she was a commodity, a servant, a fucking sex slave from the instant she walked in the door to the moment she left — blowing him while he ate, then bending over to be fucked.
Other days, like this one, casual conversation before the fucking. She’d be an object from here on out, and he enjoyed the dichotomy. The moment she changed from person to possession.
Two rituals. His rituals. His toy. She didn’t choose, she merely accommodated his desires.
He removed the plug and pressed in without pause.
One long steady thrust, until every inch of her stretched around him.
Her hole resisted, muscles clenching hard, milking his cock in a fruitless effort to push him out.
He pulled halfway out and thrust harder before he paused to enjoy the feel of her — tight, hot, and twitching around his cock like a fist.
He held there, buried to the root, and breathed out a sigh of satisfaction. Fuck, this never got old.
He pounded her hard, watched her fight to accept him, to remain in place.
Watched her hands squeeze her elbows. He grasped her forearms and fucked her harder.
Faster. Shoved with his thighs, pounded her until his balls let him know it was time, and then sank in and held, emptying himself into a hole the men purposely kept sore so it would be hot and tight around their cocks.
Five seconds to catch his breath, and he grabbed the plug before pulling out so he could insert it before she fully closed.
Then he sat and checked incoming texts and emails, saw he needed to return a call to a subcontractor, and did so. He completely ignored her while she put their lunch debris back in the bag, cleaned the imprints of her tits and face from the glass, put her dress back on, and left.
When he finished the phone call, he texted Silas and Kenny, Be in my office at four.