Let the Wild Out (4 page)

The silver light in her eyes caught his attention, saying
more than words ever could. He jerked her near. There was no more hesitation. The
primal beasts inside them took over. She dug her nails into his shoulders and
neck. He grabbed hold of her hips, lifting her off the floor. Standing in the
middle of the room, he held her against him. Her legs wrapped his waist. He
could have taken her there, like that, but he wanted leverage.

William backed her against the wall, pressing her into the
thick, wood logs. The smell of her flesh drove him wild. Nails scratched almost
painfully into his arms. He felt his gums tighten as his teeth extended down.
He wanted to bite her, devour her, sink his body into hers. The need was too
great, too carnal and out of control. He positioned his shaft along her sex,
drawn forward by the moisture guarding her pussy.

Mindlessly, he thrust, crying out as her tight flesh
enveloped him completely. For the first time in a long time he felt free. No
eyes were on him, watching the new chief. She didn’t know who he was. She was
with him because she desired him, no other reason. Their bodies strained. He
leaned over, taking a ripe breast into his mouth. Sucking the erect nipple, he
moaned. His hips flexed, beginning the natural rhythm of pleasure—out, in, out,
in, release, contract, push, pull.

He could easily hear the sounds of the forest, but all of
his attention focused on his erection and the sweet, wet glide of entering her
tight pussy. She made a weak noise and hit his arm. William realized his mouth
had slipped to her shoulder and he’d bitten down a little too hard in his
excitement. Three tiny dots and a single trail of blood marred her tanned
flesh. Without even thinking about it, he licked the wound.

The wolf howled inside of him. Had this woman been human, he
would have never been able to let the animal out to play. He didn’t need a
mirror to know his eyes were filled with silver, his teeth were elongated
fangs, and his fingernails had sharpened into deadly weapons.

Silver filled her eyes, showing the only hint of her true
nature. Brunette hair fell around her face in disarray. Her full lips parted
and he stared at them. She came hard. Her upper back pressed into the wall as
she arched into him. Her body trembled, calling to his. He thrust hard, finding
release in her sweet depths.

Douglas breathed deeply, torn between hard, blood-pumping arousal
and deep jealousy. His woman, the one he’d found, his little fish, his
soon-to-be last lover before he married, was being taken against the wall of
the isolated sanctuary home. He had followed William’s scent to the cabin, not
that it had been hard with all the shifter signs leading the way. Some of the
markings were old, but he could still smell them.

Douglas never expected this—William taking the woman he
wanted. Even jealousy could not stop the arousal he felt as he watched the two
of them, kind of the same arousal he felt when watching porn or live sex shows.
Like most high-level males, William was in great shape. His ass flexed, showing
the force with which he pumped into her. Douglas wished he’d move to the side
so he could see more than the woman’s legs bouncing up and down behind the
man’s back.

Douglas knew he wasn’t supposed to be jealous of the other
chief. They would be sharing a bride, after all, but he couldn’t help it. He’d
been fantasizing about his brunette beauty since the coffee shop the week
before. He had even searched for her, but she never showed herself, and the
coffee shop and bookstore owners didn’t know who she was. The most they said was
that she kept to herself and paid cash.

William lowered her to the ground and she swayed. Douglas ducked
from his place by the window. He’d seen more than enough. Glancing down, he
realized his hand was down the front of his charcoal slacks and he gripped his
erection. He hurried from the porch as stealthily as he could move, not wanting
to get caught with his hand down his pants.

Once behind the generator building, he made quick work of
his jealous desires. He drew his arousal out of the fly of his slacks without
taking them down and pumped his fist over the length. The image of William
fucking the woman was burned into his mind. He wanted to be the one pressing
her into the wall. He wanted to be the one stretching her pussy to fit his
shaft. He wanted to be the one inside the cabin. Cursed wolf! He was the one
who’d found her. If not for him, William wouldn’t have known of her existence.

He came, but it was a bittersweet release. Leaning against
the shed, he scanned the surrounding forest. First, he would catch his breath
while waiting for the two lovebirds in the cabin to finish up. Then he would
act as if he hadn’t seen a damn thing.

“What are you thinking? You just arrived here in America.
This is the woman I told you about. I’ve been looking for her. I told you I
wanted her as a lover, and yet I come here to find you rutting like a dog in
heat.” Douglas glared in irritation, the fire of the shift in his eyes. He
wanted to punch the other chief, even as every logical reason why he shouldn’t
filtered through his brain. He balled his hand into a fist, making a physical
effort to hold himself back.

“To lay claim, the woman must be willing. She was willing with
me,” William answered calmly. Then, as if unable to help himself, he said, “And
I wasn’t the only rutting dog.”

Douglas’s frown deepened. He glanced to where the woman had
disappeared into the kitchen. Apparently Elvie had never bothered to explain
the list of sanctuary duties to her niece. Rachel didn’t even question their
claim to stay, though it became clear in all of two seconds that she didn’t
want either of them inside her home.

“She’s hardly a dog,” Douglas whispered.

“What then? You never did tell me.”

“She said fish,” Douglas answered. “Trout.”

William’s smile faded somewhat. Douglas nodded in
confirmation. He could understand the man’s disappointment. The council of
elders would never accept a water shifter as their queen.

“Then I claim her as my lover,” William said. “She has
already shown she favors me.”

“She might have slept with you,” Douglas said, “but she did not
declare her intent to be your lover only. She might decide otherwise. Besides,
I said I claimed her first. I have as much right as you do. I said the words
first. You claimed her body first. I think we’re both within our rights.”

“What are you saying?” William’s entire being stiffened, and
the threat of the shift entered his eyes. The man didn’t look like he wanted to
share. Well, that was too damned bad. Douglas had wanted the woman first, had
found her. It wasn’t like he wanted to share her with William.

Douglas frowned. Canine shifters were always so hot-blooded
and quick to argue. Felines were much more relaxed and calculating. He ignored
the fact that he’d been ready to pounce on the werewolf a few seconds before. The
fact was William had already been with the woman. There was no denying it or
taking it back. “We have to learn to share eventually.”

William took a deep breath. Douglas could see the idea did
not sit well with the wolf man. After some thought, William said, “That is
different. That will be our wife. We both know the reasons for such an
arrangement and it is our duty to agree. But this—”

“And you think those arguments will make it easier?” Douglas
countered. “You speak of the woman who will bear our children and unite our clans.
Can you not tell me that if the first child looks like you, and is living with
me as my son, you won’t feel the urge to fight? Or when our wife comes to my
bed, you will not want to storm my castle and retrieve her? If we pick someone we
can care about, we will have to deal with our urges to mark her as our sole
territory. If we pick someone we don’t care for, we’ll have to live with the
unsatisfying arrangement for the sake of duty. I don’t know about you, but I
would rather share a woman I cared for than live with an empty heart and cold
bed, begetting heirs in a loveless marriage.”

William considered that for a long moment and then slowly
nodded. “You are right, of course. We must learn to share that which we desire
most.”

“I do not like it either,” Douglas said. “But it is a
sacrifice we must make for the sake of the clans. Our wife will be the linchpin
that unites us all. If the shifter clans fight, we will be weakened to outside
forces. We will be exposed to humans. Vampires will make a power play.”

“The vampires visited my home before I left,” William said.
“They were testing me to see my resolve.”

“Those creatures always test their boundaries. They do not
think Southern and Western Europe is enough territory.” Douglas frowned. He
really disliked dealing with vampires. Something about their pale flesh and red
eyes left him unsettled. “We do not have to like the arrangement of our
marriage.”

“But we are agreed,” William stated. “We must learn to
share. So long as the woman is willing to be with you, we will not fight over
her.”

“We are agreed.” Douglas nodded. He heard Rachel coming towards
them.

William lowered his voice. “Then I will not stand in your
way. According to custom, it is your turn to take her to bed. I would wish you
luck, but…” The wolf man shrugged.

“I do not need luck,” Douglas answered, feeling the
anticipation of seduction welling within him.

Rachel paused, trying to keep her hands from shaking as she
held the tray before her. As much as she tried to tell herself that the Duncanis
chief didn’t know what she and William had done, she knew it was a lie. Even
she could smell the sex lingering in the room the two men now sat in. That’s
what sucked about being around shifters. It was hard to keep such things a secret.

More mortifying than that, Rachel couldn’t believe what
she’d done. She’d had sex with a stranger like some sort of out-of-control
animal. Name introductions hadn’t even come until after, when Chief Douglas
stood in her doorway claiming sanctuary. Who was she to turn away a chief? She
wanted to keep a low profile in the shifter community. Incurring the wrath of a
chief wasn’t the way to do that. Maybe they’d only stay one night and then
leave. A girl could hope.

Sanctuary. Technically, she had inherited the land and the
home, but Rachel was now coming to realize that her aunt left out some key
elements in her will. She should have paid more attention to what Elvie was
doing instead of just assuming the revolving door was part of her aunt’s hippie
ways. Clearly Elvie’s life wasn’t all pot plants and orgies.

Her hands shook. The tray of drinks felt heavy, and she
gripped it tighter to keep from dropping it on the floor. Ice tinkled as she
stepped into the living room. The two men automatically stood from the couch as
she entered. She hesitated at the attention. “I’m afraid the house isn’t very
well stocked. I mean, there is food, but we’re—I’m out of meat. Alfred Jones
used to do all the hunting when my aunt was alive. He offered to continue, but
his terms of barter were—” Rachel clamped her mouth shut. When they both looked
expectantly at her, she finished weakly, “They were not acceptable.”

She set the tray down on a low table and lifted Douglas’s
scotch and water. Ice tinkled in his glass, sounding abnormally loud. “Here, my
chief.”

Douglas flashed a wicked smile, and she wondered if he knew
how dangerously attractive he looked when he did that. She swallowed nervously.
He took his time reaching for the drink, letting his finger slide along hers.

 
Rachel picked up a
cold beer still in the bottle. Quietly, she said, “William,” as she handed the
bottle to William. He smiled and she couldn’t meet his gaze for long. His
fingers also bumped hers.

Rachel’s nerves tingled and she absently rubbed her fingers
where the men had touched her. She became painfully aware of the silence
filling the room and the isolation beyond the cabin. Slowly, she sat, grabbing
her own drink—beer in a mug with a slice of lime.

“Mr. Jones wanted to trade services, did he?” Douglas asked
in his softly accented voice. The predatory smile still curved his lips, and
his dark eyes bore into hers. “I don’t blame him for trying.”

“Oh, ah.” Rachel quickly drank her beer. When she’d downed
half the glass, she said, “I’m sorry there isn’t much to do, but you’re welcome
to run the forest. This is protected land. We do get the rare trespasser now
and again, but usually it’s a lost hiker or college kids out looking for
adventure.” She was sorry she mentioned it. The idea of them shifting, all
powerful, and by all rights naked, caused her insides to quiver. Damn it! She’d
just had sex and suddenly she was feeling like she needed to do it again.

She looked at William. He was the natural choice. They’d
slept together once already and he wasn’t her chief. Plus, William was the
first shifter she had ever been with. His expression was guarded. What was he
thinking about?

Still… She glanced at Douglas. His shaded expression and
parted lips held massive appeal.

“Trying to get rid of us, lass?” Douglas asked, grinning.

“N-no,” she denied. “If you don’t want to roam the forest,
there’s a library through there,” she pointed towards the side of the
fireplace, “or if you’re tired, rooms are upstairs. They might be a bit dusty
from little use, but the linen is clean. I wasn’t expecting visitors.”