Where Wild Things Roam

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Jack    

It’s Darby’s voice, soft and quiet, reluctant to disturb.

I struggle out of the vestiges of sleep, glancing at the illuminated dial of the clock. 4AM.

Extracting myself, careful not to wake either Anna or Lili, I throw on some clothes and pad out into the darkened hallway, heading for the alpha addition to the packhouse. Darby’s waiting for me outside the door.

“Did he come to bed with you?” Of course he did. I can smell him on her—she smells strongly of s*x. “Nevermind. Of course he did. Did Tessa go to bed with you guys?”

With a nod, Darby opens the bedroom door, clicking softly. Tessa trots out into the hallway, sitting primly at Darby’s side.

 I look up at Darby. “You heard what she said?” When she nods, I rub her arm comfortingly. “I’ll find him and bring him home.”

Jogging out to the gate in the walled courtyard behind the alpha room’s, I strip and shift. It doesn’t take long to pick up Ian’s scent—he left in human form—and I follow it out of the packhouse grounds, winding south, just as Tessa said.

My guess is he’s gone to the homestead—that’s where he used to hide out when we were kids and he was whiny about something—but I’m not even to the plaza before I spot the light in his office window. It’s a keypad entrance now, more secure according to Sean, but certainly convenient since I’m buck naked with nowhere to put a key. Shifting, I enter my code and take the stairs in twos to the second floor.

When I round the corner to his office, Ian’s camped out on his sofa, long legs stretched towards his desk. A mostly empty bottle of Oban I had no idea he kept in his office sits on the floor in hand’s reach and he’s sipping the amber fluid from an ice filled tumbler the way he usually does. I flop down on the sofa next to him, grabbing the bottle by the neck and taking a swig directly from it, looking to provoke him.

“Took you long enough.”

Fuck, not even a rise. I hate when he’s in black funks like this. Sometimes he’s such a moody bastard. “Seriously, Ian? If you wanted me for something, there are about a hundred ways you could have arranged that, the easiest of which is unblocking the pack link.”

He tips his glass to his lips, draining it. “I need you to do something.”

Good, it’s going to be straightforward. At least I don’t have to drag it out of him. Now if he’d only grow past this four o’clock in the morning s**t. It’s unbecoming of a thirty year old were, and an alpha at that. “Okay.”

“Darby’s coming into heat again.”

“Oh great.”

“I need you to sleep with her.”

“Excuse me?” I expected a lot of things—he’s taking time off to hang in the valley with Darby again, maybe he’s marrying her, or he’s taking her somewhere on vacation. What he just said though, that wasn’t one of them. Frankly, I’d have been less surprised if he told me he was giving up Candlewood to the witches and vampires. Even given how often I think about s*x, I wouldn’t have come up with that on my own.

“I want children.”

You’ve got to be kidding. Am I dreaming this s**t? I can’t be dreaming—it’s too perverse, even for me. “So make some. By yourself. With your mate. I have two of my own.”

“Both of whom are pregnant,” Ian snarls, his deep blue eyes shot through with yellow and green from his wolf half.

“The f**k does that have to do with anything?”

He exhales a defeated sigh and pours himself another shot of whiskey. “I think it’s me, Jack.”

“So? Go to a fertility doctor. Get a surrogate—.”

“That’s what I’m doing. You’re my brother—.”

His face is earnest, his eyes pleading when he looks at me. I feel like a heel because I’ve always said there was nothing I wouldn’t do for him. But he’s managed to find the one thing I just can’t.

Even if there wasn’t Anna and Lili and our children. I can’t have s*x with his destined mate, the woman he’d give his own life for and that he waited agonizing years to find. I just can’t do it. “And I’m absolutely not the right person for this, Ian. No.” I shake my head and rise.

“Jack—.”

I stop at the office door. “No, Ian. And don’t you dare pull the alpha card on me either. This is between you and Darby. Leave it that way. And for pity’s sake, get home. Darby’s in tears worrying over you.”

**

Sean    

It’s only Jack’s voice I hear in the packhouse hallway, but there can only be one person he’s talking to if he’s asking about Tessa, and that’s Darby. It seems like every single thing in my room including my own body snaps and creaks and slithers loud enough to be heard at the plaza, but I rise anyway, creeping to the door to listen closer.

Her scent hits me first—and Ian’s on her. I’m used to that lancing pain by now and it passes quickly.

Then I hear Jack. “You heard what she said? I’ll find him and bring him home.”

I hear the French door open and close, catch the outdoor scents from the courtyard briefly, but the smell of superbloom remains unchanged, the minutes stretching out. She’s still there. But why? What is she waiting for?

Unable to contain my curiosity, I open my door.

“Darby?”

She’s huddled in the hallway in a long, silky robe, one delicate hand over her face, the other hugging herself around the middle, her fine shoulders shaking with the soft hiccupping sobs coming from her. Lifting those gorgeous golden-green eyes to me, she chokes in stuttering breaths, “He’s never left me.”

The hall suddenly seems narrow, constricted. I’m closer than I should be and nowhere near where I want to be, and both places are the same distance apart. But I can’t bear her tears.

I only want to comfort her. I swear on my life that’s all I mean to do when I close the gap between us and rest a gentle hand on her upper arm. Only reassure her that Ian couldn’t consider leaving her—he can’t live without her anymroe than I could.

So when she collapses against my chest, delicate hands pressed flat against me, and everything from her head to her thighs touching, I’m entirely at sea to know what to do.

My wolf knows though.

I wrap one arm around her tiny waist. Cupping the back of her dainty neck, my fingers tangled in the perfumed skein of her dark hair, I press a tender kiss on the top of her head then rest my cheek there. “He’ll be back, Darby. He loves you.”

As do I, but these aren’t words I can say to her.

I don’t know how many minutes we stand like this, with her hand over my heart and cold tears streaking down my chest to soak into the waistband of my sleep pants. I’m grateful for every second of every one, and yet empty at the same time. Her quiet sobs continue unabated, and even though Darby doesn’t refuse my comfort, it’s not lost on me that she’s not soothed by it either.

For the life of me, I don’t understand. I know she’s my mate—she’s the only woman I’ve ever caught a scent from. And the gods know I’m attracted to her—those tip-tilted, fae-wide eyes, her delicate, slender-curvy build, the baby-softness of, well, everything about her. I love that she’s ageless and wise and unique, even if it means retrofitting my entire world to remove or buffer harmful metals—from furniture to clothes, even a hospital entrance and room—all of which I’ve done on the sly, patiently waiting for a thaw in Darby’s demeanor toward me. Even though the work has at least brought us to this point, where she accepts my presence and even my touch, she’s still inconsolable without Ian.

Hell, I don’t know. Maybe that’s what it means to have two mates.

It’s sometime later through the French door, I see Jack return to the courtyard gate, Ian tagging along behind him. It takes several seconds for them to reach the house, then Jack strides in, making directly for us. Stooping, he kisses Darby’s temple. “I brought him home.” It’s all he says before tossing a glare Ian’s direction then heading for his room and his mates.

Closing the French door quietly behind him, Ian waits sheepishly while she turns. I can smell the whiskey on him, though he’s not drunk—a perk and a curse of were metabolism—and the odors earth and vegetation, as if he was rolling around in a field somewhere. He looked miserable in the first place, but seeing her face takes it to new depths.

“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry.”

Darby bolts into his arms and Ian folds around her. He gives me a little nod, once, and I return the same reply, then, aching and consumed, go back to my empty bed.

Darby    

“Ian.”

Without bothering to answer, he passes me the wine we’ve been drinking directly out of the bottle and rests his arms along the side of the claw-footed copper tub in our finished addition in the packhouse. Sometime after Anna’s family left, returning to their home, he unbunched enough that I’m hoping to address what happened the night he disappeared without telling me, blocking my link.

I giggle, “Not that.” I wiggle my shoulders against his chest to get his attention, my skin gliding over his where I lounge against him, sending ripples over the surface of the warm water covering us.

“Mmmm,” he growls, raising his head. His large hands leave the slipper tub’s sides, disappearing smoothly below the water like tentacles with barely a splash.

I jump at their coolness when they find my water-warmed body, earning me another rumbling growl, this one at my ear. “Ahhh!” I giggle again. “Not that either!”

“Give me three minutes. I’ll change your mind,” he murmurs, lips against my neck, one hand gliding over the flat of my belly seeking the heat between my legs. His other hand cups my breast teasing my stiffening n****e, and since I’m not tall enough to set the wine over the side of the tub without rising, I can’t stop him. He nuzzles my neck, nipping at the tender flesh and I tuck my ear against my shoulder, only routing him to the other side of me, his lips brushing the tingling nape of my neck. The movement shifts my body, rubbing it against his under the water, and I feel his rapidly hardening shaft slip upward between us.

“Ian, wait!” I plead.

“You said after a bath. That was half hour ago.” Gliding between my nether lips, his thick fingers probe gently at my entrance, his body and arms tightening to restrain me. “Mmmm, you’re like a smooth, silvery fish,” he purrs.

“But we’re still in the bath!” I pant uncontrollably, struggling to curl my legs up and finding no traction on the tub’s hammered bottom. His fingers slip inside me, stretching me around them and stimulating my walls with slow, grazing caresses.

“You didn’t specify where. The tub works for me.”

“I wanted to ask a question!”

His hands and fingers still, and my traitorous body shudders in objection. Ian draws a sharp breath, poised, teetering on the edge of his control, but he waits several long seconds. “Did you change your mind?”

“N-no,” I gasp, trying to calm my rapidly pounding heart. I tip my head back against his shoulder. “Tell me why you’ve been so grumpy. Tell me why the other night…”

“Just—stuff at work,” he sighs.

I know by the way he said it, he’s lying. “Today’s Saturday. You weren’t at work.” I look up at him over my shoulder. “It’s more and more frequently. Tell me what’s bothering you.” I wait, patiently as the moody silence grows between us. He’ll come around, I reassure myself. He can’t want to carry whatever is bothering him alone…. but when no words come, I ask again, “Please, Ian. It’s worrying me.”

With a frustrated sigh, he eases his hands on my body, lets his head fall back on the tub edge to stare at the ceiling, reflected light from the water undulating in bright ribbons over it. “Jack. Lili. Anna.”

Both women are starting their last month of pregnancy, their swelling bellies now visible. Ellie’s planning a lavish joint baby shower and she and Lili are decorating a shared nursery off their master bedroom. Though it seems little progress has been made towards finding the witch responsible for Ivan’s hex, there also hasn’t been a single vampire attempt against the few wards I’d put up over Candlewood or the reinforcing ones over the packhouse in the previous eight weeks. I can’t fathom what might be bothering Ian about any of that. “I don’t understand.”

“f**k,” he breathes. “There’s no way to say this without sounding petty.” He sighs again. “It’s the babies, Darby. Jack had both mates pregnant in a matter of weeks, but it’s been six months for us.”

Stunned, I sit forward, turning with my legs in a tight pretzel, then climb up over his hips, straddling him so I can look down into his face. “Why didn’t you tell me you wanted children?”

He chuckles morosely, caressing along my jaw with one hand. “You couldn’t tell? I’ve been f*****g the brains out of that pretty head of yours every minute I can since the day I met you.”

I frown at his insensitivity, then feel immediately contrite. Perhaps that’s how my question sounded to him. “I don’t read your mind, Ian. How was to I know that’s what you were doing? We’ve only recently found each other and you’re a were—your drives are powerful—.”

“Even with two mates, Jack isn’t having as much s*x as we are, baby, but I understand.” He lifts his head, sliding his hands around my waist. “I didn’t tell you. I assumed it would happen like it does for other were couples, and when it didn’t, I started stressing it.”

“How about you don’t do that?” I ask gently. “How about we—,” I look up, uncertain what we actually needed to do, “—well, I guess we go see Dr. Myers.”

Ian nods, looking sheepish and I peer at him.

“You already went.”

“I figured it must be me.” He shrugs. “It’s not. It’s actually your fae blood. At least as far as anyone knows.”

“You found that out how?”

Ian grins at the implication. “I haven’t slept with anyone else, baby. Dr. Myers tested me and Sean found a resource. A book from a pack in Ireland.” Ian’s deep blue eyes study my face, reading my reactions. “Baby, please don’t be upset. I wanted to do my homework first. There’s no one alive who has a faery mate besides me. This is all new territory.”

I put my hands on the sides of the tub, but as I attempt to rise, Ian restrains me. “We’re supposed to be partners, Ian. How many people did you plan to go to before me?”

“Wait.” Ian’s hands grip tighter, pulling me back onto his lap. “Wait! I didn’t handle this well, and I’m sorry for that. Try to understand why I did it, please. You’re fae, baby. The most I’d learned before I met you was fae existed—no one even knew if you were still in existence. I didn’t know if what I smell is false heat. Or if you only bear young with a mate after the bond is a few months or years old. Or if I need to make love to you under the light of a supermoon on the equinox in a lake full of floating flowers in a certain position. I didn’t know anything, so I turned to my usual resources.”

While I’m still not happy about that, there’s a logic behind what he’d done. “So what did you find, besides it’s because I’m fae. We can’t be the only ones this has happened to.” I pause, gauging the truth of my words from his expression.” “What did you find?”

Ian lifts a wet hand, rubbing his eyes with it, then sliding it down his face and over his perpetually scruff-roughened square jaw, but he still doesn’t answer.

“Ian?”

“We’d have to disable the fae half of you.” He looks more distressed than I’ve ever seen him saying it.

“What does that mean?”

“Bind you with iron.” Shaking his head, Ian continues quickly, “I would never do it. Not ever. It’s not an option.”

“But—.”

He lifts himself out of the water, crushing me against his chest and burying his face in the crook of my neck. “No! I’m not going to do that to you. Never.” His vehemence fades and in a pleading, weak voice, he whispers, “Please. Don’t ask me to.”

I thread my fingers into the inky waves of his damp hair. “When was the book written?”

“It was the one with the picture of the fae. The one with the birthmark you recognized.”

Tugging gently, I pull him back so I can see his face. “Finn Thu?” When he nods, I look beyond him, biting the tip of one thumb, my mind whirling. “So old.”

“What is it you’re thinking? And if it has anything to do with iron, just stop.”

“It’s an old resource. Written long ago. The only option then was to weaken the fae half.” I meet his gaze again. “But that’s not the case anymore.”

His brows draw together. “You mean fertility treatments.”

“Yes. Instead of weakening my fae half, we make it more receptive. Or make you stronger. Do you see?”

It’s the first time I’ve seen a genuine smile split his face in months, and it’s beautiful. “I’m an idiot.”

“You know, I’m not going to be able to argue that right now,” I chuckle.

“Now you sound like my wolf.”

“I bet odds that’s not what he sounds like right now at all.” I smile around where I bite my bottom lip.

Ian’s face transforms from happily hopeful to dark with desire and the unmistakable stiffening of his c**k starts between us. “You’re right,” he rumbles, his voice low. “Now he says I’m an i***t if I don’t take you to bed immediately and f**k you mindless.”  

**

Ian    

I’m not certain who’s more enthusiastic when Darby makes the call on Monday morning before I have to leave for work.

Me.

Or Dr. Myers.

Though we’re prepared to wait a few days for an appointment, Dr. Myers rearranges her schedule and uses her lunch hour to see us that afternoon after explaining what she expects to do.

Having volunteered on and off at the hospital before she started moving the trees from her valley to Candlewood, Darby is familiar enough with the various labs that Dr. Myers wants to check— general labs for her overall health, some special fertility hormones, and a DNA panel Darby consents to for the sake of advancing medicine.

What she wasn’t familiar with is the pelvic exam, which will also include an ultrasound. After my own violation at Dr. Myers hands a few months ago, I don’t have the courage to enlighten her.

“Thank you, Dr. Myers. We’ll see you this afternoon.” Darby disconnects the call and hands me my phone. “There we are.”

While I’m showered and dressed, Darby, still relaxed and sleep-befuddled, is tucked among the rumpled bedclothes, her hair a rowdy tangle splayed across the pillow beneath her head. She’s absolutely the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

“Would you stop grinning at me like that?” she laughs. “You really do look like the wolf about to devour Red Riding Hood.”

Kneeling beside the bed, I kiss her luscious mouth, then let my lips wander to her ear. “The better to eat you with, my love,” I half-growl, half-whisper, nibbling the tender flesh behind it. I can’t stop myself when she shivers—I slip a hand beneath the covers to caress her naked breast.

It’s a mistake.

Since we talked and decided this course of action over the weekend, I’ve felt so much lighter and about a bijillion times more aroused than I think I’ve ever been. The instant my fingertips find her flesh, I’m rock hard and ready, even though I just took her—and climaxed—twice before my shower.

While one hand explores her, my other is undoing the button-fly of my slacks, freeing my rigid member from its confines. Darby’s cold-shocked squeal when I throw the blankets aside exposing her gorgeous body to my view, snaps the last of my already tenuous self-control. Grabbing her legs, I drag her to the edge of the bed.

Hooking her knees over my elbows, I angle the engorged tip of my s*x against hers, still slick from our earlier romp. When I press, her willing entrance yields and I slide all the way in greedily, occupying every inch of her tight p***y’s capacity.

Darby arches with the pleasure, her generous breasts presented like an offering by the posture. I can’t take my eyes off the taut cherry tips, and even though I’d love to suck each of them roughly, pulling more of those sounds I love so much from her, I forgo for the sake of satisfaction and content myself gazing ravenously as they jiggle with each ferocious thrust.

She bucks against my hips, an agonized moan escaping her, when my thumb brushes her c**t, dark pink and swollen with her arousal. Though she’s sopping wet already, I lick the taste of her from my thumb, wetting her instead with my saliva, massaging it over her delicate hooded bud in rapid circles.

Her velvety s*x tightens around my stiffness and that’s almost the end of my resolve. Focusing on her pleasure staves off my climax just long enough for me to apply the gently increasing pressure she can’t bear. Her orgasm rips through her, tearing a trembling scream from her gracile throat and her rippling spasms bring on my own. Icy-hot pleasure-pain washes over me as my c**k jerks inside her, filling her to overflowing with my thick seed.

Collapsing forward, I catch myself at arm’s length over her, languidly stroking the last of my stuttering jets of come into her.

Bending my arms, I kiss her mouth, plunging my tongue into its recesses before quickly withdrawing.

“Mmmmm. I could do that all morning.” Loving the way it looks buried inside her, I ease my c**k out of her gradually then release her knees.

“I believe you already have.”

I glance at the clock on the bedside table. “s**t. I’m so late.” I rush to tuck myself back in and restore my appearance.

“And whose fault would that be?”

“Yours. Naturally.” I flick my brows playfully, then bend for a last kiss before heading for the door. “I’ll see you at Dr. Myers’ office in a bit.”