Homecoming (5 page)

He bit his lower lip and reached out as if to grab her, but pulled his hand back. “Lemme make you lunch.”

“Orders?”

“Tony said you weren't to go hungry on our account.” He shrugged. Sula admired his honesty at least.

“Sure then. Sandwiches or something would be good. I'll go clean up.”

He almost reached out again but stopped. Apparently he was the touchy–feely type and it was hard for him to turn that off. “No, hey, come on. You smell good.”

“I smell like sweat and woods and coffee.”

He nodded happily, as if that made any sense. “Yeah.”

She shrugged and went back into the kitchen. She sat on one of the bar stools while he figured things out. He did not ask for help and she did not offer any, so it took longer than it should have but since she was not doing the work she did not care. It was, if nothing else, a good opportunity to find out about this strange pack who was threatening her whole world.

“You all from back East?”

He shook his head. “Tony's east–coast Canadian, but Daniel's Alaskan. Me, I'm from Pennsylvania.”

“So where is your territory, then?” She was sure of the answer but wanted confirmation.

He glanced at her uneasily. “Don't really have one. Yet. We stay on the move.”

Rogues. Just what she had suspected and what they did not need. Her expression must have given her opinion away, because Cal shook the knife full of mustard at her. “Not like that. We aren't killers, or trouble makers. Just our own kind don't have much use for us, and Tony's an Alpha anyway and who's gonna follow a queer Alpha, right? It's not as if there isn't a whole puppy–pile of them in San Francisco already.”

She nodded, but it still sat uneasily with her. If there was one thing Lisbeth had stressed over the years, it was the dangers of a rogue pack. It only meant that Lisbeth really had some kind of fast bond with Tony, though, because otherwise they were exactly the kind of pack she would have avoided. Before. Sula tuned back in to find Cal stabbing at the sandwiches with mayonnaise.

“I can smell you, you know. I can smell how much you don't like us.” He slammed the fridge door shut as he put up the mayo. “Just like always. Find a good bit of land, free and clear, and we get named trouble before we can set down roots. But damn it, Tony wants his own place, and some puppies, and—damnit. Here.” He shoved the sandwich at her, grabbed his with a paper towel and stomped out of the room. Clearly, it was a sore subject. Sula filed that away as a very useful bit of knowledge. She ate her sandwich slowly, admiring the fact that he matched the smoked turkey with the fresh spinach leaves. It was true that shifters made the best cooks. She cleaned up and went to go look for him, to make sure he was not scrounging about in their bedrooms or scratching the walls or whatever wolves did when annoyed. He was on the porch, still chewing, so she took a moment to study him. He was strong and wiry as well as handsome— she imagined him from a family of miners, maybe, or factory workers. Hard people, hard lives, and not much by way accepting homosexuality, much less shifters. Assuming that his own family were not wolves, which they probably were. He noticed she was staring and shrugged as if saying that she could look all she wanted. A knot twisted in her stomach. She did not want to like him, much less have him humping her leg. Even if they did stay, he belonged to Tony, was a part of his pack, and she had no business being interested in other's property. She had no business thinking of herself as anything but a loner, and she used Bracelet to calm her fears and needs and wants, letting the dark energy quell her mood.

She turned to leave him, going up to her room and shutting the door firmly. By careful evasive maneuvers she managed to avoid everyone after they got back, mostly by staying in her room reading and surfing the Web. Lisbeth picked up on the message, as she and the pack started on dinner without asking Sula about it. Later, with the television blaring an old 90s action movie from the living room, Lisbeth finally knocked on her door.

“Going to stay in here forever?”

“Are they leaving any time soon?”

Lisbeth came in and sat down on the edge of the bed. Sula put her book aside and folded her arms.

“I don't think so…at least not for a while. I would
like
them to stay, Sula.” Lisbeth looked uncomfortable. That pleased Sula in a petty way, because she did not want this to be easy.

“This is
our
house. It's one thing for them to hang around for a few days but I don't want them moving in.”

Lisbeth nodded, disappointed but not surprised. “I thought so. Tony called McBride, up the mountain, for an out of season hunting cabin.”

“Then why ask if they could stay?”

“I didn't. I just said I wanted them too.”

Sula cringed inside, knowing that she had failed some kind of test. Still, on the whole, it was better to fail Lisbeth now than later. If the pack stayed with them, there would be arguments and maybe even blood. Sula was angry that Lisbeth wanted to pretend that was not true.

“Well you knew they couldn't. There would just be fights, and you know how that goes. I don't
want
to hurt them, any of them, I just don't like them. Up the mountain would be better, and McBride could use that bit of money in the meantime, what with his youngest girl sick all the time.”

“You aren't even trying to get to know them.” Lisbeth sighed.

“You're right about that. I don't do packs and this isn't my business. All I know is Tony is from Canada, wants a home range territory to call his own, and puppies. And that you're falling for him without much cause.”

“I like him. I know we just met but something about him is different. You'd like him too if—”

“Don't start. He's a wolf and he's looking for a mate, I don't fit in that picture in any way. Honestly, you would make the best mate an Alpha could want, you're a natural born leader and you're beautiful, ain't no mystery to me why he's interested. Keep in mind that he's not just fucking you, though, he's hardly hung up on you. He doesn't
need
you for anything but puppies. He gets all the love and sex he can handle from the others.”

Lisbeth frowned. “Ever the cynic. You make it sound cheap.”

“I figure with him it is.”

Lisbeth stood up. “You're not being fair to him, you don't know him or the others well enough to know any of that.”

“I know what I smell. Those three are tight wrapped up in each other. Where do you fit into that?”

“We don't know yet, that's the point of dating. We're just trying things out.” Lisbeth waved her arms around and paced the room. “God, just give it a rest, I know how to look out for myself.”

“Yeah, you do, but you're a romantic at heart and maybe you are too busy being swept off your feet to see this pack of rogues for what they really are.” Sula slammed backwards onto the bed, frustrated with Lisbeth's short–sightedness.

“You're so determined to hate them that you can't see a good thing when it lands on our couch.” Lisbeth rolled her shoulders and walked out.

Snarling, Sula paced her room for a few minutes but was too wound up to stay inside. Dark was not falling until well past eight, and she had time to kill before Lisbeth and the queer pack would be out changing and hunting and fucking in the woods—when Sula would have the house to herself, again, for a little while. She walked out and found all four of them huddled up on the over sized couch like a litter of puppies, sprawled over each other as they watched the movie. Lisbeth was sandwiched closely to Tony, but her legs were across Cal's lap. He was leaning back against Daniel, and Tony had an arm stretched out, stroking Daniel's neck with his long fingers. They all looked over at her as one. Daniel frowned but Tony motioned at her with his other hand, unwinding it from Lisbeth's waist.

“There's room next to Daniel.” He smiled just a little, trying to look inviting, and the whole scene did in fact look very inviting. They were all comfortable and they smelled happy and aroused, their scents mingling together like any pack's should. It was a glaring reminder of what Sula would never have, what she could not be allowed, and she growled at all of them.

“Go to hell.” She walked out the back door and went into the shed to beat up on the punching bag she kept out there. She warmed up with the jump rope but not for long, preferring to just hit something. She stayed at it until far past dusk, into the night, long after she heard the back door open and close, everyone shuffling into the woods to change and run. Her back was sore and her knuckles hurt, and Bracelet felt like it was throbbing on her arm. She stared at her wrist, the familiar welts and scars comforting her. The pain reminded her of the dangers she faced, the danger she posed to everyone around her, especially someone like Lisbeth who did not need her protection in this matter and certainly had no use for a bear in her wolf pack.

It was not very late at night when she heard the door open and people walk in. Two people, from the sounds of them traipsing through the kitchen. Sula imagined that Tony had sent Cal and Daniel in so he could play with Lisbeth by himself. She ground her teeth as silence settled over the house again. She gave up trying to distract herself and lay down. Thirty minutes later, she sighed at the futility of it and decided to go get one of the sleeping pills Lisbeth kept in the kitchen—far away from the bedrooms so they would not be too tempting. Sula opened her door, and the smell of sex floated to her nostrils. Bracelet flared and she shook her arm. Obviously the boys were downstairs enjoying themselves, but there was no way she could get to the kitchen without walking right by them. Listening, she heard the murmurs and shifting sounds of quiet sex downstairs, and rolled her eyes. It was her house, so damn them, she was getting a pill to sleep with. She walked down the stairs, stopping near the bottom to look into the living room.

Daniel was on his knees, facing the couch, his hands on Cal's hips, shoving his cock deep into the other man. Cal was on his knees as well, face mashed into the couch pillows, his arms up and braced against the back of the couch with his thighs spread wide. He groaned as Daniel pulled out, Daniel whispering something in reply as he slowly shoved back in.

Sula stared because she really thought it would be the other way around, but then there was no figuring some people. Just as she was set to move again, Cal's eyes flew open and he saw her. She saw him tense up, then Daniel stopped in mid stroke and followed Cal's gaze to her. They were naked and sweaty, slick with pleasure and heat, and could even tell that they were full. At some point outside they had killed and eaten, she could smell it on them once she was close. Their looks were composed, Cal wary, Daniel closed up, but they did not move or break apart and they were beautiful. They set an erotic tableau better than any fantasy, and they all knew it. Cal groaned again, smiling as he turned to rub his face against the fabric of the cushion and pushing his hips backwards, impaling himself fully on Daniel's cock. Daniel's eyes rolled up and he gulped, flexing his fingers into Cal's skin before rocking forward. She could sense their satisfaction in this, the hope that maybe they had seduced some part of her, and the sour taste of competition filled her mouth. No, they could not win at this, not in her own den.

She sat down on the stairs, still watching them as they rolled their hips slowly, Cal rubbing his cock against the couch for friction. She carefully took off Bracelet, waiting until the last moment to remove her fingers from it as she placed it on the stairs, watching to see if they could feel the shift when she did. Her fingers— her skin, her nature, her soul— drifted free and Bracelet sat alone, reeking and sorry, as she moved her liberated hand to the V of her legs.

They sensed it, their heads snapping up the second she was free. Daniel was still seated inside Cal, but looked less sure about it as they stared at her. He wrapped one arm around Cal's chest and Cal lowered his head, sniffing like a dog. She knew they got it, they understood that her nature and her power was flowing, unconstrained. She tipped her head back and smiled, feeling the air around her waver with the weight of her musky scent, completely overpowering their wolfish stink. She rubbed her fingers against herself through her sweatpants, feeling her juices run free, adding to the odor of arousal that was now more than sweat or skin or fur, but sweet with her own smell.

Their nostrils flared. They locked eyes on her, even as Daniel started snapping his hips and Cal flinched under him. Slowly, the raw edge of fear curled up from them, mixing into the odors filling the room.

She was not shifting, but her power was there nonetheless, forming her sounds and pushing her blood. She was not taking her time, uninterested in the pleasure of the act but more in the goal of it and the effect it would have on them. She pushed harder and faster, her hand rubbing between her legs until she was gasping.

“Go on. Do it!” She snapped at them, and instinctively both men fell forward and began fucking hard. Cal bowed up, clawing at the couch as Daniel pounded into him, but their eyes never left her. She sensed her nature around her and in her, charging the air with the power Bracelet fought so hard every day to tame. Distantly she was aware of bracing one foot against a banister support and breaking it as she ground her hips into her hand, finally feeling the swell of orgasm searing up her spine. The men were whining, near completion, but she did not wait for them and fell into it, growling and gasping, her skin damp with sweat and flavored with lust.

She looked up to find them crumpled up together against the couch, smelling of semen and spent desire, but staring at her in confused terror. The passion of the moment was gone and she was just a werebear on the stairs, dangerous and wild. She thought bitterly that maybe now they would understand that much and relate the information to Tony. It had to be the most pleasant way of teaching this lesson she had encountered yet, but the victory tasted sour anyway. She hummed, leaning against the wall with her hand still pressing between her legs against her now–damp sweats. The sound of her humming seemed to calm them, and they moved as if to get comfortable, so she growled instead. They froze, dead still and quiet and radiating tension, as she reached over to Bracelet. The moment it was against her skin, her power dropped. They would feel it that way, although to her it was the usual 'gust of wind' sensation as her nature was sucked back into the dark beads. If nothing else, she did not need a sleeping pill since she was one minute from falling asleep where she was. She thought of telling them to join her upstairs, as a joke, just to see them squirm in fear, but instead she stood up on shaky legs.