Chapter Forty-six
Parker
Genie's eyes roll shut when Cross pushes his knot inside her and she nips my bottom lip hard enough that I taste a little blood. I want it. I want her to sink her teeth into me. I need that claiming. The fact that I've been hiding a bizarre fluke of an alpha presentation my whole life doesn't matter. I'm no alpha. I might have a knot, but it is solely for her. Genie. My Luna.
Submit.
My wolf's tranquil command fills my mind as Genie fills my senses. My head drops back without thought, my neck arching, naked and vulnerable to her. Cross's low, satisfied growl is warm in the background of the feel of Genie's tongue licking a wide path up from my shoulder and across my throat.
“Please.”
One word. That's all I've got for her in the intensity of this overwhelming need for her to claim me as her own.
Her bite is sharp, deep, and sudden. A bond I never knew could exist falls seamlessly into place between us, and in the echo of it I find Cross. We all twist together in a tangle of everything we ever needed or will ever want inside her and it's perfect. It's the most perfect thing I've ever felt in my life.
She collapses into my waiting arms, giving me her weight as she tends the deep bite just to the side of my throat. Cross comes with her but he holds his weight above us like a shield of protective warmth. His eyes are wide when I meet them. We just stare at each other for long breaths until Genie gives me one last lick and lays her head on my chest. She's asleep within a minute, leaving Cross and I still looking at each other, bewildered and fascinated and lost in a shared deep satisfaction.
“You belong to her now.” Cross's words are soft and quiet.
“We both do. I think we always have. I...” I stop, not wanting to sound stupid, but I have to say it. “I've had this dream since I was a kid. I...”
“Running through the forest,” he interrupts. “Running with a wolf you can't see.”
“Yeah.”
A small smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “It was her.”
“Do you think she had the same dream?”
His smile grows. “Probably.”
***
Genie's heat ends as suddenly as it came on and we are faced with the immediate stress of an impending attack on the pack that hasn't even fully integrated. There couldn't have been a worse time for her to go into heat, other than during the fight... or right as it started, but we have no regrets. I can feel my bond with her singing inside me as I walk beside her back to the main pack house where her family has always lived; and the bond with Cross is singing just as loudly. I can actually feel him inside me now though my connection with her. It's a shared bond. Perfect for us in a way I never thought possible.
My cloud of giddy perfection crumbles around me when we approach the house to find Alpha Reeves sitting on the front porch sipping a cup of coffee.
He grins at us and raises his mug. “Welcome back to reality, kids.”
“Alpha Reeves,” Cross greets respectfully, but stops abruptly and puts Genie behind him. “I'm not sure if I should be happy to see you.”
The older alpha lets out a full-bellied laugh. “You should be, Drew Cross. I am waiting for my daughter and the misguided youths she has collected in her wake.”
Cross glances from Alpha Reeves to me and back again. “Does she know you are here?”
“Nope.” Alpha Reeves takes a long sip. “It's going to be a surprise.”
“Are you alone?” I ask, stepping up beside Cross to further block Genie.
He shakes his head. “I have four enforcers from my pack and five from Pack Steele, but they're just for show. I'm fully capable of retrieving our high-handed pups without an army behind me, but it's always good to have back-up.”
“It is.” Cross nods. “What do you need from us?”
Alpha Reeves stands and finishes his coffee. “Just stay out of the line of fire when they get here. I have spoiled Bella, I know that; but I never thought she'd go to this length to take something that wasn't hers.”
“I don't know why she thinks joining these lands to yours would be easy,” Cross says. “The distance alone...”
“It isn't the lands,” Genie says sharply from behind us, but she doesn't move to become more visible to Alpha Reeves. “It's Drew.”
