The Winter Queen seemed to consider my offer for a moment and then she cackled with laughter.
“I will give even more. I swear not to attempt to influence your wolves unduly, either, for that matter,” she said.
“Why would you add that?”
“Because when your wolves see what is being done to other packs, you will all join me willingly.”
“I don’t know about that. But I agree to your terms,” I said.
The Winter Queen laughed in a way that made me deeply uncomfortable, but at that point, I wasn’t willing to risk my wolves against her if I could get Dean back simply by joining with her.
“Done,” she said. “Your Wolf will be returned to you within an hour.”
With another crack of lightning, she was gone.
Chapter 9
I was waiting inside the bar was everyone else, but sitting entirely alone at my round booth, having dispatched Liam and Owen to keep the pack away from me while I waited.
I tried to look calm and cool, but I was afraid I just looked frozen. I was terrified I had done the wrong thing. That I had put my pack at risk later—maybe even more risk than they would’ve been just going to get Dean now.
But we were not ready for any kind of battle. Not yet. We needed a chance to get to know each other, to work together.
No. This has to have been the right choice.
It still terrified me.
When Dean strode through the door an hour later, my heart leapt in relief. I pushed through the crowd—or would have if they had gotten in my way. But they parted in front of me, and I was able to throw my arms around Dean before anyone else got close to him.
I had James complete the ceremony for us right then and there.
“I should probably change clothes,” Dean protested.
“Absolutely not. I am not letting you out of my sight until this is done,” I said.
This ceremony had a slightly different ending from the others.
As it ended, James said, “Wolves, come give your oaths.”
Every wolf in the room stood in line to bow down before the four of us and pledge their loyalty to the pack, and to my three pack-alpha mates.
But when we got upstairs, my hands were still shaking.
Everything about Dean—from the way he spoke, to the way his teeth flashed white when he spoke, to the banked heat I saw in his eyes—made the thought of sex with this man even more appealing. But I didn’t want to push him if he’d been traumatized.
Still, from the expression he wore, I suspected he felt exactly the same way—like he didn’t want to wait. We had been eyeing one another since we walked into the room. Now, with no reason to hold back, Dean and I were free to tear into each other.
Sex with a werewolf—it was something I’d never even thought about.
I should have.
God, it was hot.
His lips burned a path down my neck, his tongue flicking against the hollow at the base of my throat. I tilted my head back against the wall to give him even more access.
When he moved back up toward my mouth, I moaned at the loss of his heat on my neck. He captured my lips with his, swallowing the sound. His tongue swirled in my mouth, filling it with the steam of our kiss.
When he pulled away enough to gaze at me for a moment, his irises flashed yellow, his wolf dancing behind them, carefully restrained to keep from hurting me, even as he pressed every part of his body against me.
The hard length of him smoldered against my abdomen.
Holding his gaze with mine, I pushed him back gently, giving myself enough room to pull up my dress and shrug it off.
His eyes glowed as he took in my lingerie-clad form.
“You are beautiful,” he said, his voice thick with passion.
“As are you.” His muscled height made me want to climb him, to pull the thick length of his cock into me.
With one hand, I reached out and touched his chest. It should have scorched my hand from the heat rolling off him, but it simply tingled, sending chills racing up through my arm and down into that core of me—the part of me that I’d shared so far with only my other two wolves.
But I knew, instinctively, that Dean’s touch would not burn away the others’ connections to me. Those bonds could not be destroyed.
I had a space for each of them.
Dean ripped my lingerie away from me, leaving it shredded on the floor. Then he stopped. Almost reverently, he reached out to touch my bare breasts, his hands setting the passion smoldering within me ablaze.
“Please,” I whimpered, begging him to singe me with his mouth, pushing my chest up toward him even as I stood on tiptoe, lifted one leg, and wrapped it around his waist.
Dean understood what I needed from him. Sliding one glowing hand under my ass, he lifted me up and allowed me to wrap my other leg around him, too, even as he bent to take a nipple into his mouth.
I jerked at the contact, the movement brushing my clit against the top of his cock, and pure lust spun through me. As Dean rolled the hard peak of my nipple around in his mouth, his second hand joined the first to support me over him.
The wall behind me was cool and slightly rough against my bare back, a contrast to the burning demon before me.
“Now,” I whispered.
Dean gave my nipple a final lick, and then tightened his grip, situating me over him. “When you are ready.”
Everything behind his eyes burned
