Just Like That

I was glaring over my shoulder at Huntley. Bobbing in the water, I considered him.

Once he saw that I intended to stay, he went to the shore and caught a bit of soapweed from the bank next to me. Holding it up in a fist to show me. “I won’t touch you any more than to wash you.”

There was a promise in his voice. Some assurance that my suffering for today had come to an end.

Lips tight, I finally gave a single nod. My body was stiff as he approached. I turned slowly to give him my back, trusting him in this small instance.

Huntley began a low, methodical scrub with his hands. He washed my back and shoulders and down my arms. Even my hands. As he followed the line of my waist though, he started to moan and choked it off. Sure, that the sound would alarm me.

Sensing his strain, I peered over my shoulder at him and saw his gaze lingering on the defined lines of my narrow back.

He pointed downward. “Down low.”

I looked over my shoulder at him, my eyes narrowing warningly. I felt them yellowing as I prepared to bite him if he tried to be forceful.

All three of them, I couldn’t overpower. But one…~I could certainly teach a lesson.~

“You’re right, I’m getting hungry again.” Huntley growled into the side of my neck. “You’re scent…It’s driving me wild.”

I yelped and lurched forward, but his forearm kept me from moving any further away. “Huntley!”

I felt the hint of fangs pushing my lip aside as I gave him a warning snarl.

“Mmm.” He was moaning near my shoulder. He pulled me back against him, washing my belly in a methodically sensual way.

I could tell he wanted more but somehow he was managing to contain himself.

I snarled, but it only seemed to excite him more. His grip on me tightened.

“Come the Mating Moon, we’re all going to stuff you full.” He moaned again and pressed his teeth to my shoulder.

It didn’t hurt.

~And it’s not a mark.~

But it was enough to hold me fast. His hand wandered down the front of me, stroking over my pelvis as he washed me. Despite myself, my head lolled back against his shoulder as my body started to enjoy his touch.

My wolf twisted inside me, turning my eyes yellow.

For a time, I forgot the other pairs of eyes watching me intently. Unaware I’d begun jutting my pelvis against his hand. I tipped my breasts as my back arched. My lower half was submerged in the water with him.

His other hand was massaging one of my breasts, working the flesh in his palm.

“It’s getting dark,” Victor reminded him. He stood with his arms crossed as he unabashedly watched. “We should get her back before we have rivals for her affections.”

“Affections is it?” My head snapped up as I asked.

He gave a lopsided smile. “We shall see, won’t we?”

They held my dress and directed me to step into it. Victor pulled the laces to tighten it up.

Shame washed over me as we headed back. I was irritated that I’d liked what they did to me.

~I liked what Victor had done to me too.~

They were turning me into a wanton.

~Their foolish little plaything.~

If they kept at me, I feared I’d one day be like Katy and Alana.

~Their willing little pack bitch.~

~I won’t.~ I vowed to myself.

My hut came into view. I realized how ominous the prospect of staying there the night of the Mating Moon was.

These three men were nearly feral. Determined rogues that had decided what they wanted. What they hoped to sway me toward.

~I should look for somewhere else to stay.~

My mind worked frantically as I tried to determine a suitable sanctuary. ~Not enough time! I don’t have enough time to come up with something.~

Panic tore through me.

As we reached the hut, a hand on my shoulder spun me around.

I gasped, staring at the tall form of Victor.

He exuded wrath and intensity as easily as he breathed. His green eyes were fierce.

My lips parted in question, but before I could ask, he slammed his mouth on mine, but I managed to twist my head away.

“Are you scared, Rabbit? Afraid you might like it?” He glared at me hotly.

~Yes.~ I gave him a venomous look. But I’d never admit that to him.

Victor’s tongue intruded in my mouth, licking along my cheek and the top of my mouth and trailing along my tongue. I somehow knew that his violent kiss mimicked how he yearned to enter me.

~Raging with need and passion.~ I was wide-eyed. My body instinctively responded. My insides dampened and flexed with a need I didn’t understand. My skin swelled and began to ripple as the spirit of my wolf yearned to push through to meet Victor's aggression for animal aggression.

~It’s her that wants to mate.~ I knew, frustrated at the betrayal of my own body.

Victor pulled away. Catching my chin, he stared at my lips. He caught the bottom one with his thumb and rolled it down. “This mouth…”

“Victor?” I whispered, stuck somewhere between fear and deep curiosity.

“Mmm. Say my name tomorrow night, when I’m sinking deep in you. Say it just. Like. That.”

I bit my lip. Not realizing when I’d cut too deeply and a red drop of blood had seeped from it.

“Dammit, Valerie,” he said huskily, brushing it away with his thumb. “I’m trying to go easy on you but everything you do… It’s like you were especially designed to lure us.”

~All female wolves are.~ I knew. ~It’s how we’re made.~

Old Martha often told of how the pheromones of she-wolves could drive the males to madness.

Victor’s thumb brushed along my strumming pulse on the outer edge of my neck.

A primal little whimper escaped my throat. I drew a ragged breath. My head fell back to offer him my throat, unwilling to let the strange pleasure winding through me, go.

“Whoa…” Chase said from behind me. I realized what I’d just done.

~I offered him my throat. ~

“Part of you wants it,” Victor whispered. “You don’t even know the desires of your wolf yet. But I will tell you this, Rabbit. Tomorrow night, I’m going to spill seed deep in you. Over… And over.”

His hands dropped to my hips so he could bring me tighter against him.

~They love having their hands all over me. ~A thrill ran through me as I acknowledged it.

The human part of me resented it. The wolf part of me exhilarated in it.

Victor’s fingers bit into my hips, revealing how much more he wanted.

A responding heat flooded to the crux of my thighs, dampening him with my escaping slickness.

I groaned self-deprecatingly. Demanding my wolf slink back to her depths and let me think.

Victor’s head lifted and his eyes turned accusing.

I realized in that moment what all this torture was. ~They’re not tormenting my human body. ~

~They’re summoning my wolf. They want to draw her out for the Mating Moon.~

~So, they can possess her.~

Victor growled in his throat. Then he released me as though touching me disgusted him.

~What did I do?~ I turned stunned eyes on him.

~A moment ago, he’d acted like he couldn’t get enough of me.~

The question must’ve been on my face and the parting of my lips as I resisted asking.

“Come the Mating Moon,” Victor promised. “Then I won’t have to stop short of leaving my mark on you. Right here…”

“None of us will…” Huntley echoed. They all stared at me expectantly.

Whether they expected a denial or acquiescence, I didn’t know.

~No. I have to find a way out of the territory by then.~ Or I knew they’d make good on his word.

Each of them would stuff me full. Straining every part of my body to feed their insatiable pleasure if I didn’t come up with an escape by then.

I was terrified of what they’d do to me. ~They may kill me as they war to sate their lust.~

But the story came back to me, of how years before a male had murdered a female when he strove to mate her beneath a pink Mating Moon. He lost control and bit her too deeply.

It could happen to any of us if we let it.

The Mating Moon would consume the Borders males. Some had even died from exhaustion or hunger under the Mating Moon.

With three males, especially these three, there was a good possibility they’d kill ~me~ under the pink moon. I winced at the thought.

~I don’t want to die.~

And even if I didn’t, I was certain I’d be broken.

“We’re going to feed on your flesh,” Huntley murmured.

~Did he mean they’d literally eat me, or they’d gorge themselves on the pleasures of my flesh?~ I eyed him. I was scared to death he was right.

~How can I survive all three?~

Victor leaned forward to stroke a hand almost lovingly along my chin. “At morning light, you’ll be naked on the floor of your hut. Waiting for us.”

Hearing Victor ordering me to be naked on the floor, the other two excited. Their noise drew me from my reverie and back to this humiliating moment.

Chase whooped and Huntley shouted. “I like the sound of that.”

“You can take the edge off our violence,” Chase said, as if they were offering me a gift.

But we all knew that I didn’t really have a choice.