I think it makes him look even more powerful. So powerful he doesn’t have to sit there like a loaded weapon—he just is one.
“I can make shit happen,” he says. “But all of this tracking and analysis crap? Understanding what’s happening and watching different patterns develop? That’s all Maddox. If I’m successful, it’s because Maddox not only has the education but the willingness to take on roles outside her fated place in this pack. That’s no small thing. It means we’re able to respond quickly and creatively when shit goes wrong. And shit always goes wrong.”
One of the old men shakes his head. “I hear you, son,” he says, which is already patronizing. I’m sure ancient Alfric knows that Ty is in no way his son and won’t like the implication that he could be, so that has to be the point of it. “But I worry about your legacy.”
Ty nods as if that’s not the same boring old-school crap they always say when they’reconcerned. “We’ve all heard of females bearing young into their hundred and fiftieth year,” he reminds them all. “Maddox is twenty-five.”
There’s a lot of movement in those chairs now, and I decide it’s a virtue after all to keep my eyes respectfully lowered while a roomful of males discuss my fertility.
It occurs to me it’s probably not the first time it’s come up.
“In the meantime, my legacy is that my people eat well,” Ty is saying. “This pack is one of the three big powers in this valley. We stand on equal ground with the vampire king and a full-blood sorcerer from one of the old families.” I can see him out of the corner of my eye, looking around the table. “We all know that’s not typical for werewolves. There’s nothing typical about this pack, and there doesn’t have to be anything typical about the rest of our packs, either. There’s nothing we’re doing that you all can’t do.”
More muttering from the men, so he sits forward. “I’m not a hundred-year king by accident,” he says then, grinning. “I’m not going anywhere, and I got the rest of my legacy covered, Alfric. Believe me.”
Everyone laughs again, and even McCaffrey looks slightly less apoplectic than before. The effort to keep my mouth closed is intense. So intense I bite my own tongue, but no one here has to know that.
The men get up and start to file out. They’re slapping each other on the back, crashing their shoulders together, and putting on various displays of friendship, brotherhood, and dominance as they go.
The most powerful males in my world and they still behave like cubs.
Ty moves toward the door. He gives me a lift of his chin while he and his loyal VP, the always kind and friendly Connor, pass by me. Then he’s gone.
It’s Liam who stays behind. I assume it’s to make sure that I leave church without looking too closely at anything in here or—worse—defiling it with my femaleness, sacred as this place is to the holy male wolf penis.
I dutifully turn around and head for the door, but he stops me with that same grave look in his eyes. I brace myself, waiting for thetakedown. The list of things I did wrong. The ways I’ve dishonored myself and my family and worst of all, this pack and its leader.
Instead, Liam nods. The corner of his mouth curves.
“Nice job, little sister,” he says. “You did good.”
I follow him out and down the tunnel, back into the crowded grand cavern with a smile I’m trying to hide on my own face.
Then I let myself begin to wonder if maybe—just maybe—we might be okay after all.
11.
Wolf Moon, waxing crescent
I’m still high on what happened in church when I wake up the next morning. Still so pleased that they listened to me. That they engaged with me. That they didn’t dismiss me out of hand as Ty’s problematic fated mate.
I snuggle a little deeper beneath the covers in Ty’s bed and, for once, don’t find myself wishing for windows.
Instead I find myself wondering how many times Ty has defended me like that to them before—or to anyone else in the pack, even—no matter how many times he’s gotten in my face in private.
I wake Ty then the way he loves best, even though he threw himself into bed with me only a few hours ago. I crawl down his body and take him in my mouth while he’s still soft, getting to experience the rush of blood that fills his cock as I taste him. The way he groans as he wakes and realizes what’s happening. The way he wraps his fist in my hair, slowly exerting more control the more awake he gets.
Until he’s slamming into me, pumping himself into my mouth, and then emptying himself with a scalding rush down my throat.
He stretches as I crawl back up the bed and flop beside him. He smiles over at me, looking lazy and satisfied, and I feel everything in me shudder—and not just with our typical heat.
It’s like my heart doesn’t know how to beat anymore unless it’s for him.
“Come on,” he says after a moment that seems to stretch out too long, his voice rough. And not, I think, from whatever carrying-on he did last night. “Let’s run.”
We shift and pad out of the den, taking one of the secret entryways that only the top leaders of the pack are meant to know. Once outside, he breaks into a lope. I follow.
We run and run, letting our legs stretch and our breath get hot.
