46 Meg
Meg
“Like this?” Katrina asked as she tightened the drag on the fishing line, having traded her skirts and aprons for a pair of waders as she stood in the frigid stream that cut through our pack land.
I still hadn’t found a new honey-hole yet, but this place was beautiful with the reeds and sandy shore.
“You got it.” I smiled. “Not bad for a city girl.”
“It’s not too bad,” she agreed, looking over to the bank where Charles played in the sand.
The boy had changed a bit over the past weeks.
He’d gotten more color in his cheeks from being outside all the time.
His clothes had changed to the softer textiles spun from natural fibers the rest of us wore out here, courtesy of being spoiled by Trish whenever she visited to help Katrina learn how to cope with the boy’s magic—which mostly showed itself in tantrums now.
But it wasn’t too destructive. They reckoned he’d have some sort of earth-based magic, since it’d grown stronger after leaving the city walls.
Sarah had proved herself powerful with healing. And there were others, so many others, that either stayed here in our pack of refugees or moved on as we snuck them across the borders to Amarock pack with their temples of witches.
Things had been strange lately between the packs as different gods descended among them. We were all still trying to figure out the new rules and adjust, but—thank fate and knock on wood—we’d been left mostly alone as we built up our own pack and defenses.
“Did you read the one about the grizzly mountain men and the woman who came home for Christmas that I left in your library cart?” Katrina asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Not yet,” I admitted.
That was the worst part about being Alpha.
I had so little time to read.
“You should.” Katrina tugged the line a bit. “It was… beary good.”
“Excuse me, did you just make a bear shifter joke?” My smile widened.
“Maybe.” She shrugged, reeling in the line to cast it out again.
I might not have had much time to read, but that was okay. Things were chaotic. The future unsure. But I was still living my own romance novel, complete with great new friends.
Speaking of romance…
The sounds of vehicles approaching and entering my territory had my Alpha senses on alert.
“I’ll be back.” I ruffled Charles’s curly hair on my way up the hill. At the top, I surveyed my pack lands.
As of last week, we were up to forty-three members, but we’d grown with every trip back to the city. Our shelters were mostly canvas, made of supplies donated from other packs. But Lutten and Stone were working on cutting down new lumber for our first permanent plans that my dad had helped draw up.
A small thrum of magic seemed to jump from tent to tent as I looked over my people.
I’d ridden along on many trips to the city, but Roman was now learning to suss-out the hint of magic in others too.
It didn’t take much convincing to get them out here.
It helped that they were already in hiding, many of them in the lower districts, and they’d have ended up in the Fringes anyway, or worse.
Mom and Aunt Coral and Kera—despite their knowledge of the humans and having grown up in the city—had been spared from how bad it could truly get in the hidden sections of the lower working class.
The stories Roman and Katrina told me of how people were treated as less than human, subservient, had my wolf wanting to tear the whole human city apart.
But we needed to play it safe and small to avoid the eyes of the gods for now.
One day… She gave a soft growl.
My pack was a good pack, though. I’d thought that being a leader meant I took it all on my shoulders—and maybe that was the case for other packs—but my pack was eager to work together and make this place their own.
They were teaching me how to step back and allow things to happen naturally, without me stressing and trying to hold onto control of everything.
Still a work in progress, but we were getting there.
I stood in the center of “town,” waiting for the vehicle that had entered our territory—the namesake of Miller Pack.
The smile that he gave through the windshield made my wolf howl and my heart sing.
We didn’t have a white picket fence. Half the lower level of the territory was barbed-wire. And we might not have the typical happily-ever-after, but my mate had come home again.
That was enough reason to smile for another day.
“You brought more gifts I see,” I teased as Roman climbed out of the truck. My nostrils flared when I caught the scent of wolf in the back.
“Marcus will get them settled in.” Roman swept me off my feet, carrying me bridal style with a human growl. “I’m taking you for a few minutes before the next round of problems starts.”
I was still grinning as he carried me to our tent. Life was like this. Stolen moments between fires that needed putting out. But I’d choose it all again a million times if it meant that I got him.
Our lips crashed together as soon as the tent flaps closed, fingers fumbling at clothes we were careful not to tear and—
“Wait.” I broke our kiss, ignoring the frustrated grumble of my beast. “What happened to your uniform?”
Roman groaned as he set me on the edge of our bed of furs. A hint of nervousness drifted through our mating bond, but it faded quickly as he smiled.
“Don’t tell me you were only in it for the uniform.”
I held up pinched fingers. “Like this much.”
The flash of a challenge that roared through our bond gave my beast a thrill.
“Really?” he asked, taking off his shirt. “And here I thought you liked me best when I wore nothing at all.”
I forgot how to breathe for a second.
My gaze traced over his muscled abdomen and the human scars he’d never recovered from. An appendix removal when he was eight. A burn from the stove at nine. The training accident when he’d first joined the military that had left a scar up his ribs.
I’d rushed to map every inch of his body in the times we’d had together, but there was still so much more I had to learn about my mate.
His fist wrapped around the dog tags and chain that hung from his neck against his bare chest.
My eyes met his, searching.
“I turned my uniform in,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
I knew what it meant to him. The pride he carried for his career and all he’d done to get where he was. He didn’t have to throw it all away. We could—
“Your mind is racing again.” Roman pressed his lips against my forehead, silencing my thoughts. “I wanted a clean break to put the past behind me. My future is here with you.”
How could I not smile at that?
I’m smiling too.
“Come here.” I scooted back on the bed, giving him room. My body was already aching and aware of his nearness. It’d only been two days since I last saw him, but every time we had to separate, it felt this intense to see him again.
Maybe that was the mating bond. Or maybe it was just us. Either way, I wasn’t complaining.
“So you’re done, done?” I tried to focus on what we were talking about as Roman crawled over me.
“I made a bargain to keep getting those who need it out.” He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, eyes lingering on my lips. “But I don’t owe them anything anymore.”
“You didn’t run into any gods, did you?” I asked, still thinking about Ares and his plan to make Roman his champion in the coming war.
He shook his head. “Not sure how much longer our luck will hold—”
I pressed my finger against his lips, trying not to jinx us.
There was still so much to worry about outside this tent.
Last I’d heard, Alec was on her way to Fenrir pack to see our family there because we hadn’t heard from our cousin Alpha Aiden.
The underworld gods still haunted Cerberus Territory.
We were making moves in secret, trying to keep off the radar, but who knew what the future would hold?
“Breathe,” Roman whispered against my ear as he maneuvered his hips between my legs, thrusting forward.
I moaned against him.
He lowered himself until our hearts pressed together, until I felt his pulse steady with mine, and gathered me into his arms.
“Do you want me to tell you a story?” he asked. “We can just lie here and cuddle.”
Is he insane?
I laughed as I tilted my face up toward his. “No. I want you to kiss me.”
An Alpha command given with no bark.
His response was instant and his lips were tender as they parted mine. His masculine taste delicious on my tongue.
Roman’s touches were firm as he kneaded the knots in my shoulders, in my back, and he kept kissing me like he couldn’t get enough. As usual, he turned me to putty in his hands.
I wrapped my leg over his, drawing him as close as he could get until I felt his cock pulse under his pants against my core.
I moaned again, breaking our kiss and arched my body to get more friction.
“Speaking of uniforms,” he whispered against my lips. “You’re wearing entirely too many clothes.”
Giggles followed as he proceeded to remedy that situation, and then his darkened gaze assessed me, laying my soul bare before his eyes.
“How did I get so lucky?” His lips pressed against my neck, teasing kisses before using his teeth, biting his way down to my shoulder as I shivered under the contact.
He’d leave marks. I loved when he did, and wished they didn’t fade so quickly. One day, when we had more time, I was getting them tattooed on my skin by magic ink.
“I’m the lucky one,” I breathed the words as he nudged my legs apart again, drawing one long and teasing finger through my sex.
Roman kissed and bit his way back up the other side of my neck, and then our lips met again.
I reached between us, gripping his thick shaft and putting it where I wanted, unable to take his slow and languid torture anymore.
“Is this what you need?” He smiled against my lips.
“Forever.” I cried out as he thrust inside me.
The burn and stretch subsided as he moved slow, continuing that teasing pace. As if we had all the time in the world. Like he was carving it out purposefully, making sure I felt every inch of him and stayed in the moment.
This moment—right here—as the chaos of the outside world fell away and our breathing grew labored, our moves more frantic as we clung to each other, learning each other through touch and sensation alone.
If I’d ever thought the bond between a human and a wolf would somehow be less, I’d have been wrong.
Everything with Roman was so much more than I thought possible.
Not a book. Or a dream. My reality. Nothing could live up to the feeling of being wrapped in the arms of my mate and feeling him force his way into my soul.
“Come for me, beautiful,” he whispered in my ear.
And despite being his Alpha, I obeyed.