There was a brief pang in my stomach when I thought of my mate. She'd been everything good in life, but our actions had gotten her killed. It'd been a stupid thing, a senseless thing, what we'd been doing to those sheep. Even knowing that death awaited at that ranch, it was hard not to go back and do it all over again.
A wolf doesn't really understand weapons. They understand pain and they understand hunting. A deer has antlers that can stab you, perhaps even break off under your skin and lead to infection. This is the way a human considers an interaction with a deer.
Not a wolf. To me, in my fur, a deer was simply a pointy steak. There was a chance that the deer might hurt me, but it was a chance I was willing to take. Yet, when it came to the sheep? Sure, some of them had horns. There were breeds that specialized in creating perfect specimens, big rams with huge curling horns that made them look stout and terrifying.
Yet, when we wolves approached, it hardly mattered. They ran along with the rest, screaming for their farmer to do something, anything, that would save them from the fury of our claws, our teeth. And there was little that those soft humans could do against our power, either.
I'd never taken the life of a human, finding myself to be a little too human still to do that. After all, the tears I'd shed for my mate were not something that a wolf was capable of.
"I'll see you at the house?" Leo asked, his voice apprehensive.
He'd stacked everything back in the cart. I grabbed the handle and nodded at him without another word. Something that was impossible to put a name to passed between us, a deeper sort of reassurance, and I headed back out toward my car.
Alphas seem to have an interpersonal bond that is very nearly telepathy. Maybe it's subtle body language, a way of communicating that we don't understand as humans but our wolves do, regardless of not being in control. I don't know and I'm hard put to explain it better than that. The thing is, we know.
Leo knew that I was upset, that something major had gone down. He probably assumed it was a threat. I tossed the groceries in the back of my car, smacked the trunk down, and returned the cart. It didn't hurt to be polite.
I assumed that Leo also knew I was worried. That would be enough to worry him, too. When the lead wolf of a pack is nervous, so is every other wolf around them.
Had I seen an officer on the way home, I have no doubt I would have been locked up for the evening. Though, occasionally, people of my status were overlooked, few cops were going to ignore 160 in a 45, regardless of my wealth or my power. It took me less time to get back to the house than it had getting there, but it was still a little over half an hour.
When I walked in, I saw not a scrap of the rest of my pack. No Gabe, no Xavion, no Sa-
No Tommy.
Yet, the door hadn't been smashed open. There was no unfamiliar pack scent hanging in the air, no brimstone and sulfur of the dragon shifters endemic to our region. I frowned and lifted my head toward the stairs, catching something that smelled of peaches and cream, of caramel and vanilla. It was sweet, savory, and landed on my tongue as much as it caught my nose by surprise. Feminine, gentle, but familiar.
But not. Different, but comforting. Again, familiar, but new. I gave my head a shake, trying to narrow it down. Confused, I followed it and the heady aroma of my packmates. It wasn't until I got to the second floor landing the arousal, almost the exact scent of Old Spice, touched the rest of it.
I scowled. I'd told them to take care of her, not fuck her. God damn it. I stalked toward the nearest door and shoved it open, yet no one was there. The entire floor was thick with the smell of sex, a bitch nearly in heat and ready to present to every mutt who would knot with her. I'd been an idiot, not ordering them to leave her alone. Gabe and Xavion were notorious when it came to the ladies and, sometimes, the beta males, too.
I opened another door and found nothing but an empty bed. It was the third room that I was lucky with. There, wrapped in the sheets and squirming back against Xavion's groin, was Sadie. Her face was flushed, her tongue falling from her gasping mouth. My packmates worked their way over her naked body, though they remained clothed themselves. Along her neck were tiny, pink marks from their teeth.
Though, I noted, that no one had actually put a claim on her. An alpha's bite would mark an omega forever, bonding the two of them as if they were one. It would work with multiple alphas, were they joined in a pack as we were, but usually the lead wolf went first.
And that meant she was mine.
It was a beautiful scene, watching her undulate pinned between my pack brothers. Gabe drew her nipple into his mouth and she wrapped her fingers in his hair. Xavion lifted her from the bed, slid beneath her, and licked his lips as he readied himself to slurp her creamy center down to the last.
That was when I cleared my throat and the room
