Loribelle Hunt - Once Bitten

Ignore the promise. For now. She focused on Zach. He hadn't moved. He still lay on his side facing her, giving her a lazy, amused smile. He tensed for a moment when Caleb, having walked around the bed, moved into position behind him.

“It's just me,” he said softly, running a hand down Zach's side to his flank. She scowled and Zach answered her question before she could formulate it.

“Male lupines really, really don't like being approached from the back.”

“I know that.” Did he think she was an idiot? “This isn't just any male.” Zach grinned. “No. But that animal instinct doesn't ever go away.” Then he was sucking in a breath, holding it, and she knew Caleb had touched him more intimately than before. Caleb moved, pushing Zach onto his stomach, and rising between his legs behind him. He'd gripped one hip and growled, before she noticed he had two fingers buried in Zach's ass. “Up.”

With an answering growl, Zach rose to his knees. She watched mesmerized as those fingers slowly withdrew. When the head of Caleb's cock, shiny with lube, nudged his asshole, Zach met her gaze. “You sure you want to watch this?” Oh, hell yeah. She wasn't going anywhere. She replied with mock seriousness. “Well, as paladin, I feel it's my duty to witness. To make sure no one gets hurt, you understand.” Caleb laughed. “That would just turn you on more.”

She couldn't deny it. “Yeah.” She nodded. “Probably.” He didn't say another word, just slammed into Zach, and the expression on his face, on both their faces, was almost enough to make her come. In a word, wow.

Caleb worked him with long slow thrusts. Zack straightened so his back was pressed against Caleb's chest. Zach crooked a finger at her, and she realized her own rising desire would be easy for them to see and smell.

“C'mere, kitten.”

On her knees, she walked to him and stopped just an inch before his chest. He wrapped a hand around her nape, pulled her close for a kiss. Then he took her hand, wrapped it around his cock, and pumped it a few times before he left her to do it on her own. The kiss intensified as she concentrated on even strokes of his cock.

Each of Caleb's thrusts pushed Zach a little closer to her and his grunts filled her mouth.

She knew he was close to coming. He broke the kiss.

“Still thinking,” he murmured, then inserted two fingers into her, stroked in and out, before withdrawing and pushing on her shoulder. “On your back.” How could she argue? When he lowered himself over her, Caleb moved with him and her arousal grew. Was he going to fuck her as Caleb fucked him? Why did she find that such a damned turn-on?

He braced himself on one elbow and with the other hand guided his cock to her entrance.

She had her hands on his hips and felt his muscles tighten as Caleb withdrew, and then she was incapable of thought. When Caleb rammed back into Zach, he drove into her. In seconds the strokes were fast, hard. Almost punishing.

She never thought beyond the perfect union among the three of them. Beyond the trinity.

Strong, stable, and theirs alone. It was much later that she worried it was only a physical response, that maybe one leg was stronger than the other two.

Chapter Ten

Liza woke alone. Ears straining for sounds of Caleb and Zach, she rolled out of bed, coming to rest lightly on the balls of her feet with a scowl. They were gone. The nightstand clock glowed five a.m., and she raised the blinds as she walked by the window. The sky was just beginning to lighten.

She hurried through the shower trying to ignore their absence, trying to ignore the niggling worry they might be up to no good this early in the morning. There was no time for those concerns. She'd been gone nearly a week; there was no telling how much work was piled up on her desk.

And she had a challenge to deal with.

Back in her bedroom, she pulled on loose pants and a tight, thin long-sleeved shirt over a tank top. Thank God she was back in the Deep South. She'd thought she would freeze to death in Maine. Last, she pulled on socks and boots. She delayed in the kitchen only long enough to pour a cup of coffee. There would be food at the alpha's house, where her office was.

Hopefully, she would find Caleb and Zach there too. She told herself it was because she was worried about them not following the pack laws of challenge, but knew it was a lie. She just wanted to see them. Might have a thing or two to say about them sneaking out of her bed before dawn too.

She was frowning when she entered the house and followed the murmur of voices to the kitchen at the end of the long center hall.

“Ah, there she is.” Her mother hugged her tightly, briefly, before stepping back and looking her over with narrow eyes. She pushed her to a chair. “Sit. Did they forget to feed you?” More like she'd spent most of the last few days too wound up to eat, but she wasn't about to tell her mother that.

Liza pulled a chair out and sat, gaze taking in the crowded room. Measuring. Zach, standing near the back door with her father, met her eyes with a nod, his face expressionless as he focused on whatever Henry was saying. Caleb was at the stove, flipping bacon and arguing good-naturedly with Ethan, one of her soldiers. As if he felt her watching, he turned and winked at her.

Her mother had moved to one of the wall ovens and was pulling out a sheet of homemade biscuits. Liza drew the familiar smell into her lungs. It was good to be home. When she stood to help, her mom tried to wave her back to her seat, but she ignored her and helped set up the sideboard. Platters of biscuits, eggs and bacon, and a bowl of fruit were set out. Unsurprisingly, she found herself seated between Caleb and Zach.

She was rinsing her plate when Gabby came in. The other woman gave Ethan a dark look and approached her. “Thank gods, you're back,” she muttered.

Liza cocked an eyebrow. Gabby was one of her few good friends, another soldier, and perennially cheerful. “Problems?”

“Nothing I can't handle,” she answered darkly.

Ooo-kay. There was definitely a problem, but she'd wait to push Gabby about it when they were alone in her office. She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “Are you eating?” Gabby shook her head. “Already did.”

Caleb and Zach had already left, so she went to her office, Gabby and Ethan tagging along.

Inside, Gabby kept several feet between them and avoided looking at him while he watched her with heavy-hooded eyes. Liza sighed. If she had to guess, her money was on a recent horizontal tango between the two of them. The problem was werewolves tended to go possessive under those circumstances. Gabby would have ended the affair the minute that started to happen.

“Is this going to be a problem?” Liza asked them sharply.

Ethan grinned, and Liza bit her lip at Gabby's sharp intake of breath. Not as unaffected as she'd like to pretend. “Nothing I can't handle,” Ethan said.

She rolled her eyes. The man was delusional if he thought he could handle Gabby pissed off at him. Professionally? Sure. As an angry lover? Not so easy.

“I really don't have time to referee right now, Ethan.”

He immediately sobered and nodded. “Understood. The challenge is scheduled for one this afternoon at the circle.” With a considering look for Gabby that made it clear he wasn't backing down, he went on. “I'm going to head over there and make sure everything is set up.”

“Okay. Go ahead.”

Liza waved him out, and Gabby shut the door behind him with a little more force than necessary. Her desk was piled with reports and message slips, but she ignored them and, leaning back against the front edge, crossed her arms over her chest.

“Spill,” she ordered her friend and lieutenant.