Chapter 10
Chapter ten
Fin
Pulling off in a thicket at the edge of Lakeland, the smell of bears was strong.
This side of the lake was boggy, but hotter and less green than our side.
This resulted in them not drawing tourists.
But I had the feeling they liked the isolation.
Flags that didn’t overtly say they were racist bigots, but got the point across nonetheless, hung from poles on most of the mobile homes we passed.
The other reason they didn’t have camping or boating in Lakeland was that the MacTaryns owned most of the lakeside property. We couldn’t get close on our bikes without them noticing.
My main hope was that Janessa had been right, and the bears were getting wasted instead of patrolling or heaven forbid, hurting Channing. Plus, she wasn’t fully in heat yet, or she wouldn’t have driven to the clinic.
Ricky hopped off the back and helped me cover the shiny black and metal. It wasn’t a quiet bike, but it was better than if we’d taken Ricky’s Victory Highball with its loud Cobra pipe or fancy matte black and cream paint job. At least we’d be nearly silent when we shifted.
“Your bag have room for my stuff?” Ricky asked in a whisper. I couldn’t scent anyone else nearby, but I was glad he was being cautious. He started unbuttoning his shirt and I almost forgot what he was asking as his toned pecs and random tattoos were exposed.
“Uh, yeah, of course,” I replied, then felt my mouth dry up when he dropped his jeans. If I thought he looked sexy in the tight denim, it was nothing on the dark blue lace clinging to his thick thighs and bulge like a second skin. “Fuck.”
Ricky paused with his pants half-way down and turned to show me how his round ass looked framed in the delicate fabric, grinning over his shoulder. “Like what you see, Alpha?”
Swallowing hard, I watched as he kicked off the jeans and stood in nothing but a scrap of silk and lace. It was indecent, the way the outline of his cock was visible, and I could hear my wolf begging me to take action.
To take him.
“You…You invited me over earlier,” I stated, remembering his invitation at the shop before we got Merle’s call about Channing. Ricky hadn’t changed clothes in the hours since that call. He wore those sexy panties to my shop to talk to me. “Wearing that.”
“I did,” Ricky confirmed, one eyebrow raised as he grinned up at me with his finger tracing the hem of his lingerie. “And I was hoping you’d take these off of me.”
Licking my lips, I was tempted to do exactly that. To peel the underwear from his warm body and take his dick into my mouth. But we had a mission at hand. “We need to shift.”
Ricky dropped his grin and sighed. “We do. So turn around or you’ll get even more distracted.”
His commanding tone and assumption that I couldn’t control myself had me narrowing my eyes, but he wasn’t wrong.
I faced the woods and stripped out of my jumpsuit and boxers, tucking them in the half-empty bag with my shoes and phone before shifting and tossing the bag to Ricky with my mouth.
The backpack blocked my view of his crotch when he caught it, but I saw he had taken the lingerie off when he dropped the bag to shift.
Shifted, I was more focused on what we needed to do, but I also admired his wolf.
Where I was large and gray with a thick coat similar to a timber wolf, Ricky was smaller.
His head and back had dark gray to black markings, but his lower half was a creamy tan, and I realized he had his bike detailed to match.
Ricky picked the bag up with his teeth and carried it to hide beside the bike before trotting to stand in front of me. He rubbed his face into my neck in deference to my leadership, but my wolf loved his scent on me.
Focus, I chastised and moved from the tempting beta.
Running into bear territory, I heard and felt Ricky keeping pace with me.
We made it to the edge of the main property in a few minutes and I slowed.
Ricky crouched beside me and waited. I could smell the bear shifters, burning wood, spilled liquor, small animals, and the slightest hint of Channing King.
Ricky whined beside me and I knew he smelled her too.
Moving slowly through the low brush, we got close enough to hear raised voices. People were talking and a fire was roaring. We could see pretty well at night, but I didn’t want to get close enough to be seen by them.
“Pour one out for Alpha Jed,” a man’s voice reached us and we froze. “Because we’re finally in charge!” a second, similar voice yelled, and I knew it was the twins.
A few other male voices joined them in cheering, so I thought their pack might all be present. Good, they were all unshifted in the same place, though not all of them could shift.
Channing’s scent was too faint, so she wasn’t outside with them. We would have to wait.
Going back upwind, I circled us around the perimeter of the property until we made it to a swampy edge of Blue Lake. We were too far to hear them clearly, and if they didn’t smell us when we were closer, I wasn’t too worried. But we were close enough to hear if anyone yelled or was coming our way.
We couldn’t do more for now.
Shifting back, I sat bare-assed on a spot of clover as I gazed out at the moon-illuminated lake water lapping at the shore. “We’ll wait until they pass out drunk to try looking in the buildings.”
Ricky followed suit, shifting fluidly and sprawling beside me. “We don’t have our phones or supplies.”
“It’s a fifteen-minute run to get them,” I pointed out, though I didn’t want us to separate in enemy territory. It was a nice spring night, warmer on this side of the lake even as the almost-full moon rose above us. “But I’m not cold. You?”
“You tell me,” Ricky drawled, opening his legs to reveal his half-hard dick. I’d never really looked at it before, but he was uncut, darker at the tip with a prominent vein running up the bottom.
“How are you hard right now?” I asked with indignation, swallowing audibly and unable to take my eyes off his dick as it got harder and twitched against his hairy thigh.
“Running in my wolf form gives me a sort of endorphin rush,” Ricky explained “Plus, I like getting to see you like this.”
“Naked?” I replied with sarcasm. The younger man had made it clear he was attracted to me, no matter how hard that was for me to believe.
“Mmm,” Ricky hummed and stretched out. “I’ve seen you naked before, but usually only for a moment before or after shifting.”
Thinking back to Ricky’s blue panties and how he’d admitted wanting me to see them, I had to fight back my urge to reach for him. “And now?”
Ricky’s eyes heated as he let his gaze linger from my head to my toes and back up again. “Now I can look my fill, handsome.”
His attention gave me anxiety. Besides the guilt I felt around him being my son’s friend, I wasn’t used to it. Occasional hook-ups were quick and over with. They didn’t admire me. I needed to take control of the situation again.
“Show me,” I commanded in a low voice, my eyes on his as they widened. “Touch yourself.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Ricky did exactly what I asked. He took his dick in hand and stroked, a grin spreading across his face. “Yes, Alpha.”