Feral Bachelorism (4 page)

Chapter Three

“I know that look. I saw it on my brother’s face when he watched his kitten get flattened by a speeding truck.”

Brad turned an icy glare on Victor McCormack, the Zante pack’s new head of security. Until a week ago, the post hadn’t even existed, though Victor had always acted as a vigilante of sorts. When J.C. made it official, no one complained. Especially not after J.C.’s vicious encounter with Daniel Kraus, the Alpha of the rival Kölen pack.

“This is worse,” Brad said.

Victor chuckled. “Worse?”

“Yeah. It’s more like your brother having to witness the kitten’s autopsy and being made to listen to the medical examiner describe every cut even as he watches it being done.”

Victor grimaced. “That bad, huh?”

Brad shrugged and turned away. He couldn’t take the pity in the man’s eyes. It was bad enough every member of the Zante pack had to attend J.C.’s mating ceremony and welcome their new queen into their midst. Brad didn’t have to share his pain with every werewolf in a ten mile radius while he was at it.

The ceremony had been scheduled for twilight, in the clearing where J.C. and Eve had defeated Daniel two weeks earlier. Brad licked his suddenly dry lips. Had it only been fourteen days? Sometimes it felt like a lifetime had passed since he’d last spent a night in J.C.’s arms. And other times… other times he could still feel J.C,’s cock nudging his ass, as demanding and relentless as ever.

As the hour of the soul binding rite neared, the glade swarmed with werewolves. Some had elected to conform to traditional expectations and appeared before the elders in wolf form, kneeling to receive the blessing before the ceremony began.

Others, like Brad, preferred to attend as humans. Some claimed they did it as a show of respect to their new queen -- their
human
queen -- but Brad wasn’t one of them. He didn’t feel the need to pay homage to J.C.’s blushing bride.

No, he’d elected not to shift for one reason only: he wanted J.C. to see him as he’d been every Friday night for the past three years.

Human, in every way.

“I really wish they’d let us wear clothes,” Victor growled, his deep voice resonating above the excited buzz of the crowd, his eyes carefully scrutinizing everyone who stepped beyond the edges of the forest. “How am I supposed to protect anyone with my cock flapping all over the place?”

Despite the anxiety welling in Brad’s stomach, he smiled. “Wait until the ceremony starts. In a few minutes, your dick will be stiff like everyone else’s.”

Victor grunted. “I’ve attended mating ceremonies before. They’re over much too soon, and you never get to see anything.”

“Not royal rites. They’re different. They’re…” Brad sucked in a breath between clenched teeth and held it.

“Incredible,” Victor said, his voice filled with admiration as the bride stepped out into full view.

Brad sighed. “Yeah. Incredible.”

A moment later, he was alone. Victor had moved on to get a better look at the procession, and Brad fell back, blending in with the lengthening shadows. He didn’t care if he didn’t see a thing. In fact, he’d prefer it that way, he told himself stubbornly. He knew what would happen. He’d thought about this night countless times since he’d learned J.C. had chosen Eve Benning as his mate.

Hundreds of candles had been lit around the perimeter of the meadow, but the light wasn’t needed. Everyone in attendance possessed feral night sight, yet as the golden flicker licked Eve’s creamy skin, a collective gasp echoed from the audience.

She wore a pale yellow sheath made of delicate, sheer chiffon. The transparent fabric clung to her curves, drawing Brad’s gaze to her long legs, her firm, round ass, her slender waist. Her nipples puckered, tightly drawn beneath the fine constraints of the garment.

She walked with her head held high and the crowd parted to let her through. A smile tilted her lips as she gazed upon those assembled.

Already a queen
, Brad thought grudgingly. He hadn’t wanted to like Eve, but he’d had no choice. From the moment she’d fallen at their feet dressed in her short little red dress, Brad had known his guys’ night out would never be the same.

If only I hadn’t suggested that stupid bet
…

Yet would it really have mattered? He’d bet J.C. that Eve wasn’t the type of woman who’d enjoy a threesome. J.C. had reluctantly taken the bet, knowing that if he won, they’d both get to indulge in her luscious, inviting body.

If he’d lost, Brad would have been entitled to his claim: J.C.’s ass. In all their time together, J.C. had always been the dominant one. Brad wanted to turn the tables, just once.

The bet had backfired. Brad had lost, but having sex with Eve had been better than he’d expected. Despite his misgivings, he’d loved every minute of the passionate encounter.

His hand drifted to his already hard cock, palming the thick length. He could remember the way it felt to bury his dick between her ass cheeks, to force his way past the rigid barrier of her anus until she held him fully inside her tight, hot depths.

At that moment, Eve looked up. Their gazes met. Locked. A blush stole up her cheeks, but her smile didn’t dim. Inclining her head in acknowledgement of what they’d shared, she swept past him to take her place in the center of the glade.

The seven pack elders sat in a semi-circle around the bride, all in wolf-form. Brad watched as she stopped before them in turn, her fingertips grazing each one’s fur as she murmured soft words meant for their ears alone.

Whatever she said clearly wasn’t what they’d expected. Brad watched as the elders gaped in open-mouthed wonder. Silence descended over the glade. Every wolf in attendance held its breath in anticipation.

“My Queen wishes for our traditions to blend.” J.C.’s deep voice echoed through the glade, startling the Zanteans out of their reverie. “As such, I’ve agreed to recite time-honored human vows.”

Brad’s stomach clenched at the familiar sound, recalling the many times he’d heard J.C.’s deep, satisfied groans of desire and wishing desperately he
didn’t
remember.

As J.C. strode confidently toward his mate despite the murmurs of disapproval echoing through the glade, Brad’s thoughts churned. Memories flashed across his mind. He and J.C. had grown up together. They’d been best friends since childhood, practically inseparable. The Three Musketeers, Brad’s mother had called J.C., Brad and Ali, J.C.’s half-sister.

Ali
.

An image of the strikingly beautiful woman Alison Hill had grown into flashed across Brad’s field of vision. For a moment, he saw her clearly, one eyebrow arched in invitation as a crooked, playful grin lit up her face. As always, her dark eyes sparkled with mischief. She’d gotten them into more trouble than he cared to remember.

She was also the only woman Brad had ever cared about. And until his encounter with J.C. and Eve, she’d been the only woman he’d ever fucked.

He blinked, his gaze scanning the glade for another glimpse of her, but he saw only the same faces he’d grown accustomed to. Standing out among them, Eve and J.C. held hands, beaming with more happiness than Brad could take.

He shook his head, silently cursing himself for his foolishness. He hadn’t seen Ali in nine years, not since the night she’d left his bed and abandoned the pack without as much as a word of parting, or even a feeble explanation.

Brad released a deep breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding, and forced himself to focus on Eve’s words.

“I, Eve, take you, J.C., to be my husband. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.”

Brad gazed past their clasped hands, his eyes focusing on J.C.’s hard shaft spearing the air before him. J.C. repeated the vows without smiling, with such passion in his voice that no one, not even Brad, could deny the simple truth: J.C. and Eve were meant to be together.

The realization should have hurt, Brad knew, but it didn’t. Instead, a feeling akin to relief settled low in his gut, as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he was finally free to breathe. He sucked in a lungful of night air, relishing the honeysuckle aroma as it tickled his nostrils.

As the final words of J.C.’s vows drifted through the glade, Brad thought of Sean. He remembered the man’s genuine smile, the way his eyes glistened with barely restrained desire while Brad teased him mercilessly before finally taking him to his bed.

He swallowed hard, his cock pulsing as a rush of heat swept over his body. In the center of the glade, J.C. was lifting Eve’s garment over her head, baring her body to the silvery moonlight and the golden glow of candlelight that shimmered in the now inky darkness.

The shifting colors danced over her skin, hugging her curves. Tonight, the moon wasn’t full, so it posed no danger of thrusting J.C. into shape shifting chaos when he least expected it.

Infinitely gentle, J.C. traced the flickering shadows caressing her body with his fingertips before he bent his head and claimed her mouth, again and again. One soft, incredibly tender kiss merged into the next, but when J.C. cupped Eve’s ass and pulled her to him, the gesture left no doubt as to the passion that roiled just beneath the surface of his calm demeanor.

She responded in kind, wrapping her arms around him, pressing her breasts against his chest. Shifting in his grip, she rubbed her mound against his thigh. When J.C. pulled back, a moan escaped her lips, ringing clearly through the meadow.

Their kisses were nothing like what he and Sean had shared. That had been fierce, primal, savage. At the time, every ounce of lust in Brad’s body had been straining to be released. He hadn’t felt that kind of intense need in years, and it frightened him more than he cared to admit.

For an entire week, Brad had stayed away. He hadn’t called, though he’d easily managed to get Sean’s number the next night from one of the man’s friends who was a regular at the park.

Since the royal ceremony had been all anyone talked about for the entire week, Brad had had more than enough to deal with. Besides, he wasn’t ready to analyze the reason his heart constricted with a tender ache every time he’d gazed into Sean’s eyes. There was too much innocence there, too much temptation. He yearned to teach Sean everything about loving another man, and the thought disturbed him.

He’d always fallen too fast, too hard, too soon. First Ali, then J.C. The wounds were still too raw. Worse yet, he realized as his thoughts continued to follow this uneasy path, he wasn’t sure he could resist Sean’s unique brand of temptation. That alone was reason enough to stay away.

J.C.’s mouth followed its own path down Eve’s neck. It lingered on the spot between her collarbones, then swept down her breasts and lower still, over her flat stomach, dipping into her navel, and pausing at the entrance to her glistening pussy.

J.C. knelt in front of his bride and parted her labia with his thumbs. As Brad watched, the throbbing heat flooding his groin made him think of only one thing: tasting Sean’s cock.

J.C.’s tongue swept over Eve’s flushed pussy lips. She tilted her head back and tangled her fingers in his hair, nudging his mouth closer to her cunt.

Brad sucked in a breath. His heart raced violently and he silently cursed himself for not taking the opportunity to sample Sean’s masculine flavor when he’d had the chance. He’d been so enthralled by being in control for once, he hadn’t given enough thought to Sean’s needs.

J.C.’s tongue worked faster, delving deep within Eve’s slit. Her juices coated his chin when he paused for a moment to flick her clit with his thumb. Eve gasped, her moans filling the glade.

Panting, shuddering breaths came from those assembled, and Brad didn’t have to look around him to know that many were indulging in much-needed self pleasuring. Soon, the scent of honeysuckle would be overwhelmed by the pungent aroma of sex.

Eve’s body trembled as she came, her orgasm ripping through her muscles and making her limbs quiver. She held on to J.C. with all her might even as he clamped his lips around her pussy and sucked every last trace of her cum into his mouth.

Then, as Brad watched, J.C. began to shift.

His fingers and toes lengthened, and hair sprouted from his knuckles, chest, arms. His shoulders broadened further. His hips tapered down. He straightened his spine and the lean lines of his back, allowing the full change to take him. A moment later, he stood before Eve in wolf-form, his pitch black fur glistening in the illumination cast by the flickering candles.

She reached out for him, her eyes glittering with love and devotion. The intense power and grace that had surrounded the entire ceremony now seemed centered around J.C., enveloping the Zante Alpha in the commanding glow of authority and dominance.

Brad’s heart pounded a relentless rhythm in his chest. He spun around and took off at full speed through the forest, shifting in mid-stride. His paws hit the ground with a dull thump, and then he was off again, heading in the direction of his cabin.

He was able to run much faster in full shift than he could possibly have done otherwise. A few minutes later, he stood by his bed once again in human form, the phone’s receiver cradled against his ear.

He held his breath while the long ring echoed through the line. Once. Twice.

“It’s Brad,” he said when Sean answered. “We met last week… at Hard Delights.” For the first time since he’d turned fourteen, his voice quivered slightly. Sweat dampened his palms. Uncertainty ran through him, the feeling unfamiliar and more than a little disturbing.

“I remember,” Sean said. He took a deep breath, and Brad could picture him running his fingers through his shoulder-length hair. “I didn’t expect to hear from you.”

“Yeah, I know.” Brad sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry about the way I acted that night. I wasn’t sure about what had just happened.”

Sean’s laugh held little humor. “If you need me to explain it to you, I guess you’re not as good at this man-on-man thing as I thought.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He clamped his fingers tighter around the receiver and slid his free hand between his legs to cup his balls. The strumming ache flooding his groin had only increased since hearing Sean’s voice, developing into a relentless, throbbing need.