The Corruption

LORELAI

It had been an entirely inhumane amount of time for my body and soul to go without sating from my alphas.

I was eating and drinking as much as I could stomach, but it wasn’t enough for them to be happy I had held up my end of the deal, so I was left restless and wanting all night.

It didn’t seem fair, but then again, it was for the best. Apparently.

Mom had stayed for four days, stretching out her excuses through letters for Vaughn the pack had delivered to the widows’ village, but today, she had to leave.

The anxiety was killing me. My stomach was in such ribbons that not even my potion was appealing.

I leaned back from the table as the alphas and my mother ate in silence. My arms crossed over my bump, and I winced at the ache there.

Baby had been getting stronger. The more food I ate, the stronger my body got, the stronger the baby got. It made sense, but it was also painful.

It had power in its kicks now, and it was winding me a little. I rubbed the bruise that had appeared on my stomach overnight and sipped some water, my eyes catching Derik’s, who frowned at my plate.

“Eat, Lorelai,” he ordered, and I grimaced.

“I’m not feeling well this morning,” I said.

He looked like he was about to argue when Mom spoke.

“I’ll be back, sweetie. I promise. I will be here for the birth. Galen has promised me he can come get me if there is no other way for me to get out, and I would risk your father’s wrath to be there, Lorelai.”

“You and Galen seem close.”

I smirked, and the same blush I always got crept up her cheeks. She dabbed her mouth with her napkin and took a sip of tea.

“He is helping my daughter survive. I owe him more than I can ever say for that,” she said, sipping her tea again to hide the deepening blush.

“Uh-huh. Sure,” I said, and she eyed me knowingly.

“I think these wolves might have corrupted that brain of yours.”

“I was corrupted long before they came along, Mom. And maybe a little corruption is exactly what the doctor ordered.”

I grinned at her, and she almost spat her tea out, a chuckle falling from her lips before she shook her head.

“Werewolf aside, I’m married to your father. My vows mean something until the day I announce they don’t. Now, I should get going. I would like today to be that day, but in case he has other nefarious things in mind, I should irritate him as little as possible,” Mom said.

My stomach turned again. Baby kicked, and I winced, knowing it was a response to what I was feeling but not able to help it.

I stood slowly as Mom did, Brax next to me, helping me up before looping my arm through his.

“We’ll escort her to the gate,” Brax said, and I nodded, hating that we had to escort her anywhere.

“We’ll see you back here later, beautiful. Kai and I have some pack things to deal with,” Derik said, kissing my cheek as I passed.

I felt the brush of a lie against my skin and frowned at him. His eyes flickered to my mom, and I bit my tongue so I didn’t snap at the lie he had told.

“Okay,” I said, and he walked away as Kai kissed me and left too.

I walked in silence, with Brax on one arm and my mom on the other, out of the mansion and to the gates. There were already three wolves and Vaughn waiting there for her.

Vaughn grinned, and she smiled, heading over to him. I went to step toward them, but Brax kept me within the boundary, a distinct distance apart.

“Are you sure you can’t stay?” I asked, my voice wavering, but she shook her head.

“No, sweetie. I have to go make sure the ladies of the village are okay. You are safe with your alphas, they are not.”

“And what about you? How can I let you go knowing you won’t be safe?”

She walked forward then, wrapping her arms around me until tears rolled from my eyes, terrified it was the last time I was going to see her or that the next time I did, she wouldn’t be the same.

I shivered against her, not wanting to let go, but eventually, she pulled back and cupped my cheek with a soft hand and a soft smile.

“The same way I did when you asked me to give you to three alpha werewolves,” she said.

I knew it was true, that I had to trust that she knew what she was doing, but it was so hard. She was my mom, the only human I had left to care about.

I suppose I could put Vaughn and Ryleigh in there too, but it wasn’t the same.

“Check in with me, send letters,” I said, and she nodded, stepping back to Vaughn, her own eyes watery.

“Of course, sweetie. As often as I can. We’ll see each other again soon,” she said, and then Vaughn was pulling her away, tugging her down the path toward a hay cart that he had brought with him.

He helped her up, she tugged her villager cloak on, and then they were riding away.

“Go with them. Stay out of sight. Make sure they get back safely,” Brax said to two of the wolves at the gate.

They both hesitated as I wiped my eyes of tears and held on to Brax, waiting for them to be gone.

“They’ve got scouts everywhere, Brax. We can maybe get to the edge of the Grasslands boundary before we would be risking too much,” the wolf said.

“Go to where it is safe, and then come back,” Brax said, and the wolves nodded once and took off, shifting as they chased after the cart.

“Thank you,” I whispered, and Brax curled me into him, his shadows moving through our connection to comfort me, soothe the ache in my chest.

It worked enough for the tears to stop threatening, and I closed my eyes against him for a moment before he led us back through the city to the mansion.

Once we were inside, I felt the other two with me.

“Where are they?” I asked, looking around, but Brax kept pulling me toward my room.

I frowned and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

“They’re just busy, Spitfire. They’ll be here soon,” he said, and I felt the omission beneath my skin, coiling in my shadows.

~“Where are you?”~ I asked through our mind link.

~“We’ll be with you soon,”~ Derik answered.

~“Pack stuff, Little Human. Stop worrying,”~ Kai put in, and I narrowed my eyes at Brax.

“You came with me because I would feel them through the mating bond. I know they are tense and hiding something from me. Why?” I demanded, folding my arms across my chest as I stood on the bottom stair, refusing to go up them without an explanation.

“Spitfire, now is not the time to get your rebel side out. We’ll explain, but not right now,” he said.

The urge to argue hung on my tongue, but I felt the desperation in his words. He needed me to trust him, and I did. So, I spun on my heel and stormed up the stairs.

I was so sick of them hiding stuff and deciding what I knew and when. If it was unimportant or didn’t involve me, then they wouldn’t need to hide it, which made me think I should know whatever it was that much more.

I moved into my room, but before I could confront Brax, his mouth found mine, kissing me hard as I shivered against him, my arms pulling him against me.

His mouth instantly brought out the need in me, the one that suffocated everything else. He pushed us back on the bed, his lips pressing into my skin, making me hot in all the right places.

I didn’t want to let him distract me, but he felt so good against me. I decided my questions would still be there afterward and pulled his mouth to mine, moaning as his tongue found mine.

I yanked his tie from his hair, shoving my fingers through the blond strands, loving the way they spilled over my hands. Brax slid his shadows along mine, the electricity between both of them making me desperate for more.

“More,” I whimpered, and he chuckled, kissing me harder, his fingers tracing down my body, slipping beneath my dress, finding my wet center, and pushing two fingers in.

I arched my back, crying out as pleasure found every nerve within me. His fingers caressed my walls, pumping in and out of me with harsh strokes that had me clutching him closer, rocking my hips against his hand.

I moaned and gasped as he kept going until I was on the edge.

He pulled his fingers out and kissed down my body, and I watched as he disappeared between my legs, his mouth falling on my clit.

I dropped back to the mattress, my leg hanging on his shoulder as the storm grew inside me, a hurricane building, the pleasure threatening to overwhelm me with every expert stroke of his tongue against my entrance.

He pushed his tongue inside me, then teased my clit with pressured, precise licks, his fingers pushing back inside me, pulsing until I combusted around him.

My pussy clamped down on his fingers, my skin pebbling as I shook, pushing his head against my folds, the way he devoured my pussy destroying me.

“Brax!” I screamed as his shadows glowed against mine, the power tingling within my veins, the border magic joining it in an intense orgasm that had me crashing and burning.

He pulled away from my pussy as I tried to catch my breath, my body fluid and heavy with sated pleasure, but Brax barely gave me a chance to breathe before he was lifting my thighs to either side and filling me in a single smooth stroke.

His cock buried itself so deep inside me, his hilt against my clit, his thick tip against my G-spot and my body tight around him, my nails digging into his biceps.

“Fuck, you feel so good, Spitfire. You hold me so tight,” he breathed by my ear, his lips lightly following my jaw before he slammed inside me again. And again.

He didn’t stop, moving hard and fast against me, our shadows glowing and shimmering around us as our bodies and souls connected.

Maybe we weren’t mated, maybe we weren’t going to be able to be because of what he was or what I was, but this right here, with my pussy tight around his cock, made me think we had it just as good.

We didn’t need a brand on our wrists because ours was written in shadow; it was the dark we connected in, and right now, with him against me, I couldn’t handle how good that felt.

He reared over me, kneeling, holding my thighs open so he could sink even deeper inside me, and I couldn’t help the desperate moans and pleas that left my lips.

I met his thrusts as they grew deeper and more savage, my body absorbing each one and replacing it with a fierce pleasure that radiated throughout me.

“Oh god, Brax!” I screamed as my body seized, ecstasy tightening deliciously in my core before exploding through me.

My head fell back as pleasure eradicated every other feeling within my body, and I clutched the sheets beside me, riding out the wave that consumed me.

Brax growled as I orgasmed around him, his own release following as he jarred against my hips, his cock swelling before he groaned and emptied himself inside me, his eyes meeting mine as he gave in to the pleasure with me.

He dropped my thighs and leaned over me, his hands holding him up above me as he caught his breath, his hair curtaining us.

I pushed it back, panting as I came down from my high, my body still hot and tingling with the power and pleasure.

“What are you hiding from me, Brax?” I whispered, my mind clearing of the lust fog and letting my thoughts back in.

He hung his head, kissing down my neck and over my lips.

“Derik’s parents are here; they turned up unexpectedly. He is trying to convince them to leave you alone, but by the way the meeting is going, I would say it is not going well, Spitfire,” he revealed, and my breath caught in my throat.

“Oh.” I let out the breath.

Derik’s parents. The elders. The traditional ones.

~“Wow, your lips are sealed, huh?”~ Kai teased in our link, and I grinned.

~“It’s not his fault. I am very persuasive,”~ I teased back, and Kai laughed.

~“My parents are not something to joke about. They are pissed about the mating thing. I don’t know how they are going to react. Especially since I don’t have a definitive answer on the whole heir situation,”~ Derik murmured, and his voice was strained even in my head.

Brax rolled off me then and did his pants back up. I moved into him and laid my head on his chest, leaving my dress bunched around my thighs.

I hooked my leg over his and snuggled in, my eyes closing.

~“It’ll be okay, Derik. You’re the alpha. Not them,”~ I said, and I felt the warm smile that he gave me.

~“I know, beautiful, and I wish that meant something to them.”~

~“Kai is on his way back to you. I have to entertain my parents for a bit longer, but I’ll see you at dinner. We’re having my parents as guests with the whole pack in the grand hall,”~ he said, and nerves ate away at me.

“Meeting the parents! Big step, Spitfire, you ready?” Brax teased.

I laughed. “As opposed to getting knocked up and mated?”

He grinned and kissed the top of my head just as Kai came into the room. He hauled his shirt off, revealing his huge frame and stacked muscles, a smirk tugging at his lips.

“Bite time, Little Human. You need to look and be as strong as possible at dinner tonight. Show D’s parents that he didn’t just mate with a human, he mated with a fucking winter born, and she’s a true luna.”

Kai winked before stalking over, and I grinned, my stomach warming at the words before he stopped at the side of the bed and dragged me to the edge of it.

His eyes were hungry, the beast in him making his stance over me so much more addictive.

Brax was up then, smirking as he licked his lips, his own bulging body shiny with sweat from taking me before, but that didn’t matter.

Wolves had the stamina of gods, and I loved every damn second of it.

***

Hours later, it was time to get ready for dinner, and my limbs were jelly. Kai was snoring next to me, and Brax was licking over my bite.

There was a howl that ripped through the silence, and I tensed, sitting up as Brax growled, his shadows bristling as they moved against mine.

Kai was on his feet in a second, pushing out the doors and onto the balcony.

“What happened?” he demanded, looking over the banister to whoever was down below.

“The wolves that were sent with the humans. Halu and Finch. They’re dead,” a woman’s voice responded, and I tensed as Brax did.

Kai’s fists clenched against the balcony railing.

“Pack dinner. Now,” he growled, and she let out a howl that tore through the air, the sound full of pain and promise: a promise of revenge.

I shivered, getting up from the bed, tears in my eyes as anger boiled in my stomach, rage in my heart along with a heavy ache that if the wolves that had escorted my mother hadn’t made it, what were the chances that she had?

~“Your mother is alive. Her and Vaughn made it back to the village. There was an ambush waiting for the wolves to head back,”~ Derik said in the link.

I was relieved that my mother and Vaughn were okay, but to know that the wolves were being watched, that they were vulnerable to whatever tactics the humans had when they weren’t with the pack was terrifying.

“Are we going to retaliate?” I asked timidly, already knowing the answer.

Kai looked at me over his shoulder, his face full of rage and hard lines.

“Yes we are, Little Human. Brax, bathe our luna. It’s dinnertime, and the subject of tonight’s discussions just shifted from mating and heirs to revenge.

“I’ll be dead before I let those humans take any more wolves from us,” he said darkly before turning back out to the moon resting high in the sky and howling.

A chorus of howls followed, and the sound vibrated within me until I felt every ounce of the pain and hatred they did.

Maybe I was human, but tonight, I was going to be a luna. If that meant being a part of the power that tore apart the humans for revenge, then that was what I was going to do.

I just hoped the wolves, the elders, and Derik’s parents specifically, weren’t opposed to me playing favorites because I was not letting my mother, or Ryleigh and Vaughn for that matter, get caught in the crosshairs of this war.