Chapter Five Sam

A fter dropping Calum off with Andy and Josh, I headed back to the hotel, mumbling under my breath. I was still irritated that Calum had tried to make a move on me. It was subtle of course, but his intentions were perfectly clear. He wanted to use me to cheat on his mate and I honestly wasn’t sure if I could think of anything more deplorable. Here I was, spending my life alone and wishing I had a mate more than anything in the world. Then this guy comes along with a drop-dead gorgeous man on his arm and the first thing he wants to do is cheat? Fuck him. I’d read enough romance novels to know that he wasn’t the sort of person I wanted to get involved with.

A part of me wanted to tell Erick when I got back to the hotel. However, I forced that inclination away. Both of them had just been uprooted from their homes and had their lives turned upside down. I didn’t know the circumstances or the reasons, but it didn’t matter. All they had was each other, and I didn’t want to drive a wedge into their relationship. All that would do was make me the bad guy and cause them more pain. And that was the opposite of how I wanted my hotel to run. I wanted them to find peace and get back on their feet, not drag them down further.

So, with one last grumble, I resolved to keep it to myself.

Holding my coat tight around my neck, I trudged my way back to the hotel through the snow. In the past couple of days we’d gotten nearly eight inches and a bunch of wind, so the drifts in places were past my knees. I scoffed to myself, wishing I was getting eight inches, but that didn’t look to be happening anytime soon. It was tragic too, because I was an insatiable bottom once I got started. A guy could have a lot of fun with me if one of them would just give me a damn chance.

Oh, and not be in a fucking relationship already.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was in a bad mood. I was really trying not to be, but after everything with Calum and my own crushing loneliness, I was having a hard time being anything but grumpy. Of course, the moment I stepped in, I was met with the smiling, handsome face of Calum’s mate, Erick.

“You’re back just in time!” he said, beaming up at me from my spot behind the desk. “I just finished defragging your computer and getting it all updated. It should run a lot faster now. I also fixed all your internet settings and got you hooked up to an ethernet cable so you’re not running on the guest wifi anymore.”

I furrowed my brows. “I was on the guest wifi?”

“Yep. It’s pretty slow too.”

“You’re telling me.” I shook my head, feeling terribly stupid. “I don’t even know how that happened.”

“Eh. I’ve seen worse,” he shrugged. “Also, I did a bit of searching for local ISPs in your area and it looks like you’re being overcharged for what you have. You could get fiber for about the same price and it’s like a billion times faster.”

“Fiber?”

“Fiber optic internet, yeah.”

“I thought fiber optics were the little plastic whisker things that changed color. The ones you can get at gift shops and stuff.”

Erick did everything he could to bite back a laugh. “Uh-huh. Same concept, but instead of making pretty colors, they send information.”

“They can do that?!”

He pressed his lips into a thin line, nodding as he desperately tried not to laugh.

“It feels like only yesterday we were using dial-up.”

“That was over two decades ago.”

I glared at him, cracking a smile despite myself. “Thank you for making me feel ancient.”

“If it’s any consolation,” Erick grinned back. “You don’t look a day over twenty-eight.”

That made me blush. “That’s nice of you to say. Although you’re nearly ten years short.”

“What?! No way!” He stood up from his chair, coming around the desk. He walked a small circle around me, looking me up and down. “You look incredible!”

“I’m old as shit.”

“Well, age certainly agrees with you then.”

He stopped in front of me, his body so close to mine that I could feel the heat rolling off him in waves. Not to mention, his earthy scent nearly overwhelmed me, my heart pounding a mile a minute as my body reacted to his proximity.

“I’m sure the guys never leave you alone, do they?”

“Y-You’d be surprised,” I stammered, taking a step back.

Erick stepped forward, even closer than he was before. “Oh? Nobody has laid claim to you yet?”

“Nope. Just me and my books.”

It was hard to breathe with him so close. I mean, I liked my personal space and all, but I wasn’t usually so shy with men. But something about Erick, his scent, and intensity of his gaze made me shiver. And it was a good kind of shiver. The kind that went straight to my cock and made me think of doing nothing else but getting down on all fours for him and letting him have his way with me.

“Do you ever indulge?” he asked, his hand reaching up and brushing a long strand of hair out of my face. “With your guests I mean?”

“Uh… I try not to. Most people who come here are at their lowest low and I don’t want to take advantage of that.”

I stared into those rich brown eyes of his, this conversation feeling extremely familiar. Hadn’t it been just twenty minutes ago when I was dressing down Calum, Erick’s mate, for making this exact same insinuation?

“And what if those guests were pretty happy?” His hand was on my shoulder now, squeezing the muscle there. “Would you bend your rules then?”

A soft sound escaped my lips as he squeezed, the pressure lighting up all the pleasure centers in my body. I wanted to lean into him, to let him have me. Between his scent and the electric touch of his fingers, there was very little resistance left in my body. However, just as he moved closer, my vision crystalized and I realized what I was doing. Reaching up, I yanked his hand off my shoulder and took a step back.

“Are you and Calum in an open relationship or something?” I asked, my arms crossed as I stared at Erick.

“N-No. We haven’t talked–”

“Then why are you hitting on me?” I snapped. “You and your mate just lost everything and now you want to risk him too by cheating on him?”

He seemed horrified by my insinuation, but it wasn’t because I said it. I recognized that look on his face. He was finally realizing what he was doing.

“Of course not! I would never–”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked, cutting him off. “Because from where I’m standing, you sure looked like you were willing.” I pointed a threatening finger at him. “Also, don’t fucking touch me without my permission.”

He froze up for a moment, trying to sort through his emotions. “I… I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but I’m not interested, okay? I already told you, I don’t sleep with the guests or date them or whatever. You two are welcome to stay here and I want to help you, but if you need someone to fuck, find another wolf because I’m not gonna be used up and tossed away once you two leave.”

Erick just stared, his jaw working but no words leaving his lips.

“Thank you for fixing my computer,” I continued, my heart pounding and my neck muscles twitching as I tried to stay calm. “Now please leave me alone for a bit. I need to get some work done.”

He stared at me for a few seconds more, an apology in his eyes but not on his tongue. Eventually he just nodded and walked back toward the elevator. As soon as the door was closed, I collapsed into my chair at the front desk, annoyed that everything still smelled like Erick.

It had been a long time since I’d gotten so much attention from a man. But it wasn’t the attention that bothered me. It was the fact that Calum and Erick seemed so ready to cheat on one another when both of them admitted to not having a predetermined agreement between them.

The way they came onto me and the way they were so willing to forget their mates… it reminded me far too much of the early days after I got kicked out of my pack. I went through a lot of guys back then and all of them were the same. They wanted nothing more than a quick romp. They’d tell me how beautiful I was, touch me without asking, and say anything they needed to so they could get what they wanted. Then, at the end of it all, I was left lying in a cold bed while they went back to their wife and kids in the suburbs.

That wasn’t the kind of life I wanted to live ever again. Calum and Erick were more tempting than anything I’d come up against in the past few years, but that didn’t mean I’d let them use me. As far as I was concerned, they were off limits, and I wanted nothing to do with them. Besides, they were obviously made for one another. A perfect pair of cheaters to keep each other company.

I let out a long sigh and grabbed my book out of habit. But as soon as I lifted it open and saw the next chapter was all about sex, I tossed it aside. As much as I despised those two and what they were willing to do, I couldn’t deny that I was still rock hard from their advances. And that wasn’t the kind of behavior I wanted to reinforce.

So, instead of reading my saucy books, I decided to do some actual work instead as punishment. Yay.