Chapter 12 - Rowan #3
We found a rhythm together, our bonds wide open, pleasure flowing between us like lightning through a storm.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” she whispered, pressing kisses to his collarbone and his throat.
“Goddess, yes,” Zak whimpered.
Every one of my thrusts drove Zak deeper into Freya, who cried out both our names. Through our connections, I experienced it all — the tight grip of Zak’s body around me, the way Freya’s inner walls fluttered with each movement, the building pressure that threatened to consume us all.
I didn’t want to dominate him. The realization came to me like lightning in a clear field, making me realize I didn’t want to bite him on the nape or on the traditional spot opposite of Freya’s bite. But I would claim him.
Even though he was a beta, I didn’t have to worry about going too far or crossing his boundaries, I realized now.
Freya could always lend her Odinswolf power to him the way she had to me, breaking my hold over him if need be.
And besides, the bonds between us would show me the way.
I submersed myself in them, trying to sense every drop of Zak’s desire and emotions.
I felt his wonder at being truly wanted by so many mates. I understood completely, and yet the vulnerability in that emotion made my wolf howl with protective fury. No one would ever make him feel unwanted again.
“You’re ours now,” I growled against Zak’s ear, my hand coming up to grip his throat possessively — not threatening, but claiming. “Our mate.”
Through the Bonded link, I sensed his spike of pleasure at my possessive words and the hand around his throat. Experimenting, I squeezed gently, and he shuddered, getting closer to coming than ever.
Freya reached up to stroke the rune along Zak’s cheekbone first, then mine.
“Claim him,” she whispered to me. “Make it real.”
“Yes,” he gasped, his voice breaking with emotion. “I want to be both of yours. Always.”
The words triggered my wolf’s primal nature.
I pushed Zak down onto Freya so I could grab his shoulder — the one without the half-moon tattoo.
My teeth found the deliciously round muscle of his upper arm, sinking in with claiming force.
The taste of his blood, the way his body jerked between us, the cry of pleasure-pain that tore from his throat all combined to send me over the edge with him.
I let go and roared my pleasure. With our Bonded link wide open, we shared it all.
His release filled Freya as mine filled him, the feedback loop of our shared pleasure almost too much to bear.
Our bonds blazed with connection and completion, the three of us locked together in ecstasy as Freya came with us.
Drums crescendoed as the Moonblessed dance rose to its frenzy while we found our climax here, in this private bubble away from it all. Power flared, and a blazing purple rune appeared on Zak’s other cheek, opposite from Freya’s mark on him, but exactly the same, like a bent letter F.
As we came down from our high, Zak’s hand came up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing over something that brought tears to his eyes.
“You’re mine,” he whispered.
“He is,” Freya said. “But we’re hybrids, and only your witch side has bonded with him. Your wolf still needs to bite him.”
She was right; the mate bond felt incomplete. Zak hadn’t bitten me back yet, and the one-sided nature of it left him feeling vulnerable.
I pulled out of him carefully, then guided him onto his back so I could see his face. His eyes were glazed with satisfaction, but I caught the uncertainty still lurking there — the fear that maybe he wasn’t worthy of claiming me in return.
“I said I wanted your mark,” I growled. “And I didn’t just mean your witch’s mark.”
Through our newly formed bond, Zak’s uncertainty gave way to joy.
“I’ll give you anything you want, wolf man,” Zak promised, his chest still heaving from our shared climax.
My gaze dropped to his glistening cock. “Those piercings… Let me taste her on them.”
Never in my life had I imagined taking a man’s cock between my lips, but I’d wanted Zak from the beginning. From the moment my wolf first caught his scent on the coat he’d tossed at us to hold while he showed off that half-moon tattoo.
Heath had been with men all along. It wasn’t anything to be ashamed of. Besides, all my packmates desired Zak as much as I did, and he, them.
I dragged my tongue from his balls upward, and Zak’s slightly softening cock valiantly stiffened once more. As my tongue dragged upward once, twice more, he revived to throbbing hardness. Seeing his crown straining upward with those crossed barbells made my mouth water.
With a hand on the base to steady him, I took him between my lips. The rounded tips of the barbell heads teased my lips as I moved up and down his shaft. Gazing down his abs at me, Zak groaned. Through the mate bond, I could feel all his desire roaring back to life, echoed in the Bonded link.
It was so easy to read him. Not just scent and touch and the slow unfolding of trust, but every flicker of emotion transmitted through the Bonded link. It made everything faster, deeper, and far simpler than when I’d first danced around my desire for Freya, wrestling with my fears and my past.
“That’s so hot,” Freya said as she laid back on the pillows.
“You’re next,” I warned her.
She laughed and spread her legs, letting me see our combined release sliding from between her delicious pink folds. It was my turn to groan. I wanted to feast from her, but I needed a bite from Zak first. So I crawled up Zak’s body, ready to be inside him again.
“My hybrid mates,” I groaned as I notched my cock at Zak’s hole again.
This time was different — slower, more intimate, the sharp edges of our need for each other worn down from our earlier orgasms. I could see every expression that crossed his face, every flutter of his eyelashes, every parting of his lips as pleasure built between us again.
When I leaned down to kiss him, it was with all the tenderness I hadn’t been able to show before, not with my wolf’s impatience riding me.
When I pulled back, I reached over and pulled Freya closer, devouring her lips next.
Freya’s hands slid up my arm, tracing the circle of the half-moon tattoo. “Light and dark,” she murmured. “Wolf and witch.”
She leaned in and kissed Zak next.
“You’re both perfect,” I murmured. “And mine.”
Freya pulled back, breaking their kiss, then ran a hand down Zak’s chest to gently circle his cock in her small hands. His tight muscles instantly gripped me, and I gasped with the pleasure of it.
Freya laughed, then told Zak, “Better hurry up and bite him.”
She released him, and Zak whimpered with need. He gazed up at me longingly. I’d never expected to see that look in anyone’s eyes when they looked at me, and now I’d seen it on both their faces. The moment made my chest squeeze with sudden emotion.
“Mark me,” I whispered without an alpha bark. “Make it equal.”
My hips moved in slow, deep strokes that had him gasping beneath me. His eyes searched mine for a long moment, then his hands came up to cup my face with reverent touches.
Pushing his legs open wider, I nuzzled his throat where his scent was strong. His breath over the juncture between my neck and shoulder made me wild, and I drove deep within him.
When his teeth finally found my shoulder opposite Freya’s mark, the sensation was electric. The mate bond snapped into place between us, and I came with a roar that shook the tent canvas.
Zak followed me over the edge, his release painting both our chests as his body clamped down around me. Through our mate bond, I felt his overwhelming joy and something even deeper than joy. Something I hadn’t expected to feel so soon, but I recognized it instantly, because I felt the same thing.
I sat back on my heels, disentangling from him as I processed my surprise and awe that such a thing had blossomed between us. Freya moved immediately, her tongue lapping up Zak’s release from him first, then me.
We arranged ourselves carefully — Freya in the middle, Zak and me flanking her like protective bookends.
“The perfect Christmas present,” she murmured. “Seeing my sexy mates together at last.”
“My two witches…” I answered with a kiss across her bare skin. “You’re the only gifts I need.”
But even as I said the words, I felt the wrongness in them. Freya smiled at me knowingly, and Zak glanced from me to her.
“Torsten, right?” Zak asked.
Freya ran her hands across Zak’s skin, a question rising through the bonds before she gave voice to it. “Will it bother you if we claim him so soon?”
Zak snorted. “You would wait? You’d let me decide when you get to claim your sixth mate, chosen for you by the stars themselves?” His tone carried incredulity. He glanced over at me. “And you’d let me decide when you could claim your third mate?”
I leaned over Freya, grabbed him, kissed him, and then let him go. “And your third.”
Zak grinned. “As far as I’m concerned, we all became mates the day we joined the Bonded link.”
I let my fingers tease along Freya’s bite, challenging him with my gaze until he shook his head in exasperation.
“Don’t get me wrong, my wolf feels more content having the reassurance of your bites on me, visible proof that your wolves chose me as much as I chose you,” he admitted. “But I know all our bonds will deepen over time. Who bites whom next or when…” He shrugged, then winked at me. “Go wild.”
“I will, beta,” I growled. “I will.”
Then I hooked Freya’s legs over my shoulders and devoured her like I’d been dreaming of. She let out a shriek that quickly turned into a moan.
Tasting my release mixed with Zak’s and Freya’s own arousal made me hope he was right. That this was only the beginnings of so much more. That, in spite of our circling enemies, we would find time in the future to make all our dreams come true.
Dreams I hadn’t even known I wanted until now.
When I came up for air, I growled, “Anyone who tries to tear the seven of us apart will find themselves torn apart by my fangs.”
Zak ran a calming hand down my back. “I have a feeling you’ll taste plenty of blood soon, wolf man. For now… Fancy giving our queen a throne?”
I paused, taking a deep breath. He was right.
I needed to stay in the moment. So, I laid back on the bed, and Freya straddled my head.
They both grinned down at me, and it was a sight I committed to memory, both of my mates gazing at me with mischievous joy as Freya slowly lowered herself onto my face.
Zak grabbed her breasts, toying with her nipples.
“Our alpha would do anything to please you,” he whispered in her ear.
Her pussy instantly clamped down on my tongue, and I moaned in satisfaction. Freya looped an arm around Zak’s neck, pulling him in for a kiss above me. He devoured the moans I provoked, and seeing them kissing while I pleasured my mate pleased my wolf.
Zak’s hand drifted down Freya’s backside. Tracing along the crease between her thigh and her body, his fingers drew perilously close to my tongue. So I lapped at her clit instead, curious to see what would happen when his fingers found her entrance.
As he worked his fingers into her while my tongue teased her clit, her entire body shuddered. Zak wrapped his other arm around her to steady her as his fingers drove insistently in and out of her.
“I’m going to come,” Freya moaned.
“Get Rowan’s face wet,” Zak encouraged, his heated gaze meeting mine as I worked her clit.
As I felt her pleasure rising, I locked my lips over her hood and sucked.
Just then, Zak’s fingers found the sweet spot inside of her and a cry tore from her throat as she came on my face and I drank her in.
Her whole body went stiff, then it was like someone had cut the doll’s strings.
Zak bodily pulled her off of me, rearranging her between us on the bed.
We both ran our hands over her soft skin, letting her slowly come back down to earth.
At last, she smiled up at us both. “I love you both,” she said.
“And we love you,” we both replied in the same moment. Zak laughed and snuggled in to kiss her forehead.
I stared over at him, too afraid to say the same thing to him. I’d felt it, but the moment had passed, and I was still too surprised. Why I’d thought that my wolf could claim him without human feelings involved, I wasn’t sure.
The exhaustion of the past few days finally caught up with us, our bodies demanding rest after the emotional intensity of reunion and claiming.
Outside, in the distance, we could hear the drums of Moonblessed. Closer, a few wolves — was that Thatcher? — drunkenly tried to sing “Oh Christmas Tree,” but the carol quickly devolved into laughter when they couldn’t remember the words.
“Should we join the festivities?” Zak whispered.
“Tomorrow,” Freya sighed as her eyes fell closed.
In the past, Christmas had meant nothing to me, more of a human tradition that had no place in my life. But from now on, I would forever remember it as the day Freya, Zak, and I shared together… The day the three of us strengthened the bonds between us. The day Zak and I claimed each other at last.
Their breathing evened out as peace settled over us. Through our bonds, contentment flowed like warm honey, the satisfaction of being complete, of being home.
Only one thing prevented me from being perfectly at peace. The pack bond — the one type of connection I was lacking after we severed it for the mission.
Would Gage welcome me back after I’d disobeyed his orders repeatedly? After I’d put the mission above pack loyalty?
I was still outside the pack bond, still technically exiled. And until Gage decided otherwise, I would remain that way.