Chapter 6

SIX

Asha

I’m rudely awakened by a long, slobbery tongue swiping across my cheek. “Trouble! Down! Heel!” It’s Braxton, a few seconds too late.

The mutt relents as I sit up and clear the dog spit from my face. “A gentle poke would have done it,” I say groggily. Blinking against the sun, I assess my surroundings. We’ve stopped. That’s the first realization that dawns on me. The car no longer rumbles beneath me. My door’s open, and the three men I rode with stand in a semicircle staring in at me. Trouble jumps down from my lap and sits at Braxton’s foot.

The air is dry, laced with dust. Light radiates from every surface. My sight takes forever to adjust. “Where are we?” I ask. “The sun?”

“It’s bright in the desert,” Braxton says with an edge of snark.

Max shoots him a glance. "A stop for the night."

"Isn't it amazing how fast a landscape changes when you travel through mountains?" Orson says, studying the landscape like an explorer.

I feel my pupils constrict as I follow his gaze and finally the world appears out of the white light, expansive, desolate, empty. Except for the diner behind the boys, the landscape is a russet plane with distant rocky formations and a slate-gray streak of road cutting through it. Utah, western Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona — it doesn’t matter. We’re a roving band of hunters and the landscape will change again tomorrow. Am I always this melancholy after a nap? Maybe when I’m rudely awakened by an overfamiliar mutt.

Squinting, I peer between the twin brothers at the silver can of a restaurant behind them. It looks like a classic American greasy spoon and I think to myself that a fatty sandwich and some soggy fries sound pretty good right about now. “We grabbing a bite?”

Max, squinting like the Man With No Name, nods down the road. “There’s a motel a short distance from here where we’ll bed down. Figured we could all use a little nourishment before settling down for the night.”

“Night? They get those around here? Doesn’t even look like they allow shadows.”

Orson laughs, but neither of the Blackwells’ facial muscles budge an inch.

I hop out of the truck and start a series of stretches to reawaken my limbs. Man, how long was I asleep? I've been a pretty light sleeper for a long time. When sound means a Blood Mage is coming to cut your veins open and attach their test tubes, you learn to be alert. It's strange that my instincts failed me in a car with three men. Scary even. The kind of thing that could lead to me being hurt again.

Or did my instincts tell me I could trust them? It's a notion that instantly makes me alert.

“Let’s grab a table,” Max says.

"We can keep an eye out for rattlesnakes. This is their natural habitat.," Orson says, drumming his hand on his laptop case absentmindedly.

"You talk to people a lot, don't you?" I ask, the words leaping from my mouth before I can stop them.

He grins in response. "Only a couple people who have adjusted to my weirdness."

"Ah, so we're in the adjustment period," I say, like that explains everything.

He laughs.

Max steps between us, frowning. "Food time."

Orson falls in line behind him as he heads for the restaurant and I make to follow, but Braxton places his hand on my shoulder. I halt and glance up at him. “Hang back for a sec.”

Max pauses and throws a curious look back at us. A wordless message transmits between the twins. Give me a minute with her , I imagine Braxton thinking. Max and Orson continue into the diner while Braxton and I remain by the car.

The look in his eyes makes me afraid to ask what’s up. He reaches into the truck and for a split second, I think he’s grabbing a silencer or something, and this is the end of the line for me. It’s an absurd thought, but I can’t shake the feeling that the Enforcers eventually plan to direct the Blackwells to kill me, and it gives rise to all sorts of daymare scenarios.

I sigh furtively with relief when he retrieves a yellow tennis ball from the floor of the backseat. Braxton eyes me and smirks knowingly, but doesn’t say anything yet. He turns to his dog, who is presently relieving himself against a rock until a considerable moat encircles the stone. Good lord, Trouble .

Braxton hurls the ball and I lean against the side of the truck while the dog bolts after his toy. As he recedes, his tan coat blurs into the backdrop, disappearing into the hazy sizzle of the horizon. “Good throw,” I say.

“Trouble needs the workout,” Braxton says. Then he turns to me, and I’m not ready to fall under that intense gaze. “Who was that Blood Mage?”

I feel naked in his eyes, and not in the fun way I’d enjoy right now. There’s nowhere to hide the truth. Panic sets in, its symptoms of brow sweat and flushing conveniently excused by the unforgiving climate. Just lie .

“He was no one. Just another pack member.” I become indignant, adding, “None of them are Blood Mages , by the way. Those are the bastards that did this to our Blood Pack , who destroyed us. You might see us all as the same, but remember the distinction when you’re talking to me.”

He only squints back at me. I feel my wolf growling nervously, licking her lips and hanging her head. Trouble returns the ball, dropping it at Braxton’s feet, then sitting patiently before him. “Why don’t you give it a throw?” he suggests.

I glance down at the tennis ball, strands of dog saliva matting its yellow fibers. Using one foot, I roll it atop the other, then kick the toy in a long arch that passes through the low sun. “Nice kick, ma’am,” says Braxton.

“Played a little soccer on the compound.” I turn and look up at him. “Don’t call me ‘ma’am.’ You’ve been inside me, Braxton. We’re long past ma’am.”

“Are we? It’s what I use for women I don’t know.”

Now I’m starting to get angry. “Fuck you, and fuck the games, Braxton.”

He strides closer to me, reminding me of his immense stature. “That last member of your pack was exceptionally dangerous. You let him go. Why?”

I fall silent in his shadow. He knows, there’s no use hiding the fact. Tears prick my eyes as I struggle to bite back my emotions. “Tell me something, Braxton. Imagine for a moment your brother Max gets taken from you, tortured in ways that twists and corrupts his soul. When he escapes his captors, he’s still your brother, but now he’s also something monstrous. You glimpse Max in there, underneath the scar tissue. What would you do to save him?”

Without hesitation, Braxton answers, “Anything.”

I search his eyes and find a bud of empathy. “That’s what I thought.”

Our faces are inches from one another, a small pocket of air buzzing with tension. I don’t back down. I hold my own, returning his unblinking stare with one of my own.

“One of those people hurt Max. Killed a lot of other people. Decorated a town with their innards like they were Christmas garlands.” Disgust crosses his face. “He’s going to hurt people again.”

“I’ll be there to stop it.”

He lowers his face, his eyes filling mine. Fury and fear perform a wild dance in their blue pools. He draws a sharp breath in through flared nostrils. “You’d better be. Every person your brother kills from now on will be on you. I hope you realize that. It’s not an easy weight to bear.”

I spy a flicker of guilt. My anger softens, replaced by curiosity. I’m fairly certain he knows from experience. I want to ask, but now isn’t the time. “Does Max know what I did?”

“I think you’d know if he did.”

“What’s that mean?”

“That if Max knew you let the most powerful member of your deranged pack we’ve come across escape, you wouldn’t still be on this mission.”

I believe him. Max is a man of duty. He doesn’t take his responsibilities as an Enforcer lightly. Even when there are emotional entanglements complicating said responsibilities.

“Max doesn’t let his guard down too often. And while he might seem as gruff as ever, you’ve gotten under his skin.” Trouble returns with the ball, but we’re both too busy with this staring contest of ours to pay him any attention. I get the sense it’s not only Max whose skin I’ve crawled underneath. Of course, the feeling is mutual. “Don’t fuck my brother over, Asha,” he threatens. And it’s genuine. His voice is threaded with warning.

“I’ll try not to.”

“Do more than try .” His lip curls. “And that includes staying away from the nerd.”

I tense, my heart racing. “We’re just working together.”

“That better be all it is,” he says, and the possessiveness in his voice does strange things to my body.

He closes the space between us, and his lips find mine. It’s incredible how hard his lips are. How they seem to dominate me with so little effort. And how much I enjoy everything about them.

This man makes me want dirty things.

I cling to him tighter, tilting my head to give him better access. The second I part my lips, his tongue is there, and my body is aching for him. I want to forget the restaurant, forget the men waiting for us, and forget this life. I just want to lose myself in him.

And, apparently, he wants the same. He breaks our kiss, casts a look at the restaurant, and then takes my hand, dragging me to the shadows of the building. Away from the parking lot and the people. A quiet hidden spot where he helps me shed my pants, and yanks his own down.

He pulls my legs up around his back as his lips find my throat, and he sucks his way down my neck. It takes him no effort at all to start rubbing his hard length in my folds, making me wetter and wetter with each thrust. I’m barely aware when he yanks my top down, but my focus shifts to his mouth when his lips wrap around my nipple, and he starts to suck.

“Braxton,” I gasp, wrapping my hand in his hair. Guiding him and yet giving him the control to lavish with me with his tongue as he moves from one breast to another.

I’m climbing out of my skin. Wishing he’d removed his shirt so I could let my hands and eyes run over his muscular body, but only having a moment to do so when his tip presses into me. It’s a slow agony when he squeezes inside of me. He seems to be aware of how tight I am, how unaccustomed I am to a man of his size because he doesn’t just slam into me. He takes care of my body even as I burn hotter, and my impatience grows.

I wiggle on top of him, tearing a groan from his lips, and he bites my nipple gently in response. Something that sends a hot shiver rolling down my spine.

When he comes to his hilt, he stops sucking my breasts and moves his way back up my throat before returning to my mouth. His kiss is deep and sensual as he thrusts into me, over and over again. I barely manage to stop myself from whimpering. From begging him for more.

Movement makes me freeze, and Braxton turns at the sound, a growl rolling off his lips.

Maxwell steps closer from the shadows, allowing us to see him, and I lay sandwiched between Braxton and the wall, unsure what to do. Things between us still feel so fragile. Is he angry? Jealous at not being included?

He doesn’t say a word, but he undoes his jacket as he moves toward us. Then, his lips are on mine, and I struggle to drag in a breath. Both their scents surround me. Both their bodies surround me. And my wolf is practically purring with delight, content in a way that’s surprising.

I let my hands slide down Max’s body, undo his pants, and slip inside. Braxton has slowed his thrusts inside of me, teasing and torturing, so I keep the same rhythm as I pump Max’s cock, loving the feeling of his hard length, loving the way his pre-cum coats my hand.

At last, he growls, and then I’m pulled away from the wall. I feel Max slide behind me, and then his tip presses into me from behind. My muscles clench and flutter as he slips into my juices, so close to his brother that the visual in my mind nearly sends me crashing over the edge, and then he’s back at my ass, pressing in. Slowly. Carefully. My body wrapping him so tightly that pleasure and pain ride together, until he comes fully inside me.

Then, the twins start to move together. Rocking inside me. Then, thrusting inside me. My nails dig into Braxton’s shoulders, and I’m panting. Sounds slip from my lips, a mixture of whimpers and their names. Arousal builds inside of me until I can’t take another breath. Until my muscles tense so hard around them that I hear a string of curses exploding from their lips.

And then, I’m coming. My orgasm hits me so hard that my vision goes black and the alley fades away. I ride those big hard cocks inside of me, feeling wave after wave move through me, sending my nerves screaming with pleasure.

But I only come back when I feel them explode inside of me. I love the thought of their cum coating my channels, knowing that I’ll smell like my mates. That any other shifter will know they own me.

My men are breathing hard.

“Asha, shit,” Max groans.

“She has a magical pussy,” Braxton whispers into my ear, then bites my neck lightly.

I cling to them, knowing that soon this perfect moment will end, and that we need to enjoy times like these whenever we can.

I just wish the real world was this wonderful instead of a dark wave just waiting to pull me under again.