Gerald's Lot Read online

  Gerald managed to roll onto his side, pulling his legs up. He kept rolling until he had his knees under him and he could push himself upright.

  A growl sounded too close and he raised his head.

  Too late. He didn’t see whoever it was that stepped on his back but his cheek smacked the gritty floor hard enough to make his teeth ache.

  “Shit,” he wheezed out. The tang of blood filled his mouth and the inside of his lip started to throb.

  “Stay out of the way,” a harsh voice growled at him.

  Gerald recognized that voice. It was the third wolf from the woods, the only one he hadn’t ever seen before tonight.

  “Submit!”

  The demand hadn’t come from above.

  Every muscle in Gerald’s body went tight and stiff. The wolf standing over him stilled, and Gerald twisted his head to see Tanis bent backward over a container, his rival’s arm high in the air over him, her claws fully extended and blood trailing down the back of her hand.

  What the hell was going on here? Tanis couldn’t have lost that battle. No way.

  But Gerald couldn’t deny what he saw.

  “I submit,” Tanis snarled.

  Her upper lip pulled back, showing the edges of sharp teeth. “Do you? I feel no submission from you. Have you spent so much time with our enemies that you’ve forgotten your place?”

  Tanis’s nostrils flared, and Gerald shook with the uncertainty of what he was witnessing. Softer, quieter, Tanis said, “I submit, Alpha.”

  She lunged at Tanis.

  Gerald couldn’t stop his startled yell as her teeth fastened on Tanis’s throat. Gerald struggled to rise to his knees, but the wolf standing over him grabbed him by the neck and pressed his face to the floor.

  Gerald cringed and squeezed his eyes shut, sure he was about to feel claws biting into his flesh.

  That didn’t happen.

  A hot breath tickled his ear. “Hush, human.”

  Gerald forced his eyes open. His gaze immediately went to Tanis.

  Tanis wasn’t dead. He also wasn’t struggling. He’d stretched his head back, allowing his rival easy access to his throat and she was pulling her mouth away.

  Blood glistened along the lean lines of Tanis’s strong throat, but not more than a few drops, and the panic making Gerald’s stomach churn abated.

  She jerked her head toward Gerald. “Submission has its rewards. Keep him, for now. Fight for him if you want. But if you kill any of our people over him, I’ll personally tear out his throat and toss his body at your feet.”

  Tanis let out one short growl.

  “Submit!” she demanded harshly.

  Tanis breathed in, eyeing his rival with a wariness that set off alarms in Gerald’s head. “I understand. Thank you, Alpha. I appreciate your generosity.”

  Gerald had thought he’d started to make inroads in his understanding of the wolves’ social and political hierarchies after three years of information gathering, but he had been wrong.

  He had no idea what the hell was going on. He had no idea who was in charge. He had no idea what the hell his role in all this was supposed to be.

  The female stepped back, hauling Tanis forward with her. Her hand landed on the center of his chest, her claws out, her palm covering an obvious rip in the fabric of his t-shirt. Until that moment, he hadn’t noticed the dark blood matted in her hair, or the blood-soaked tear across the back of her dark green shirt. Neither looked as fresh as the wounds at Tanis’s throat.

  Her next word got lost in her deep accent and Gerald suspected it was a name he’d never heard before. “…has decided you’ll have permission to breed this cycle. She specifically suggested I breed with you if you returned.” She looked to the side toward Gerald. “You coming back with a human mate won’t interfere with your submission to Alpha’s request, will it?”

  Gerald did not allow himself to react to the wolf’s bold statement. He wasn’t even sure he had his translation right.

  Tanis’s nostrils flared and the red and gold of his eyes seemed to glow even under the lights. “It will not. My mate submits to my rule.”

  She nodded and stepped back, letting her hand slide down Tanis’s chest to tease momentarily at the waistband of his trousers. “We’ll see how well he submits when the time comes. Keep him away from me during my heat cycles.”

  She turned to the wolf holding Gerald to the floor, then glanced at Tanis.

  Tanis seemed to know what she wanted, because he gestured to his beta.

  The wolf twisted his hand into the back of Gerald t-shirt and hauled him to his knees. Wet denim clung uncomfortably to his groin and the smell of his own urine hit the back of his throat.

  The female wolf did not come closer to Gerald, but her eyes fixed on him. “Submission and loyalty bring great rewards. Earn them, and your life will be pleasant. Disappoint your alpha, and it will not.”

  Gerald swallowed, giving her a jerky nod.

  She glanced to Tanis, her gaze full of some meaning Gerald didn’t know how to interpret, and then she turned and left the compartment.

  As soon as the door leading into the ship’s interior closed behind her and the lock hissed, Gerald sank back on his heels, his breath leaving him in a rush as he dug his fingers into his thighs.

  Still, he bit his tongue and kept his thoughts to himself. Anything he said or did could be monitored.

  He needed more information. His gaze flickered toward Tanis.

  Thirteen days was hardly enough time to learn to read someone’s mind, but Gerald had spent the majority of the hours in those days studying and recalling Tanis’s every expression in an effort to learn as much about him as possible. Something shone in his eyes, something Gerald couldn’t identify, but he thought—maybe—it was a silent caution.

  Tanis squatted in front of him, then drew the tip of one blood-smeared claw along the underside of Gerald’s chin. “Very good, human.”

  Gerald licked his bottom lip, then bit down on it to keep from asking questions Tanis had warned him not to ask. He’d spent a lot of time over the last three years cultivating a personality that spoke first and thought after, but that wasn’t who he needed to be now.

  Not here.

  Tanis glanced up at the wolf standing behind Gerald who still had his hand knotted in Gerald’s shirt. “How long until the last of the drugs fail you?”

  “We should have enough time. We did exactly as you said.”

  Questions begged to be asked, but Gerald resisted.

  The wolf continued, “Raeshikid will last longest. Leisikei the least.”

  Gerald turned his head. Leif. The wolf meant Leif. The other name meant nothing to Gerald, but Leif he’d understood.

  Tanis gripped Gerald’s chin firmly, bringing his head back around. “I’m a jealous alpha. Traeshikid doesn’t require your attention. I do.”

  “Okay, okay,” Gerald said, feeling the warm pinch of Tanis’s strong fingers on his jaw.

  “Fear makes your scent even more compelling. Don’t be afraid.”

  “I’m scared shitless. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “It’s your obligation to submit to the will of your alpha. My betas will show you submission—”

  Gerald made a strangled noise in the back of his throat and Tanis stopped speaking. His dark eyebrows rose. Gerald pressed his lips together, straight and firm.

  Tanis caressed the side of Gerald’s jaw, drawing the pad of his thumb gently toward the center of Gerald’s chin. “They will pleasure you so that once their heat cycles return they’ll recognize you as alpha.”

  Now? Gerald glanced around the compartment, but nothing had changed. Several large containers took up what little floor space there was in the rest of the space and the floor under his knees was as hard as it looked.

  But Tanis waited, so Gerald nodded against the gentle pressure of Tanis’s hand. Time to act like a good little beta; no time at all to give in to the unease churning through him.

  “So, u
h.” No questions. Not one, even though a thousand crowded his thoughts. “Sure.”

  Tanis moved his hand to the back of Gerald’s head, where his fingers slid into Gerald’s hair.

  “Submit,” Tanis said, then pulled Gerald closer and licked a long line up his throat. When he raised his head, he said only one word. “Traeshikid.”

  The wolf behind Gerald dropped to his knees. His chest warmed Gerald’s back as he slid his hands under the bottom hem of Gerald’s shirts.

  Tanis caressed Gerald’s cheek. “If their instincts are telling them to submit to you, it will be easier for them to fight the lust caused by your scent when the repression drugs wear off and we do not have access to more.”

  No repression drugs? Holy mother of God. What had Tanis gotten him into?

  Every breath felt more shallow than the last and nodding seemed like the only thing to do.

  Warm hands touched skin and Gerald’s stomach muscles pulled tight. Fingers trailed through the hair that disappeared beneath his waistband.

  “Where we’re going, we do not defer to human customs or expectations. You’ll have to adapt, but I have faith you can do it.”

  He nodded again, but inside a chaotic storm brewed.

  One of the wolf’s hands reached Gerald’s chest and pinched his nipple. He gasped, body jerking. His cock reacted.

  A sheen of sweat appeared at Tanis’s brow. “This will help, but it won’t save you if your scent triggers the lust craze in any of us. Only submission will do that.”

  “Sure,” Gerald said, breathless and high.

  Tanis’s gaze flickered past Gerald. “Remove his shirts.”

  The wolf at Gerald’s back pulled both Gerald’s shirts over his head.

  Something clanked and hissed at the end of the compartment. When the shirts came off, Gerald looked up to see Tanis rising to his feet.

  Leif stood just inside one of the ship’s doors, the younger wolf right behind him.

  Cool air swirled through the compartment, and the sudden chill made Gerald’s nipples tighten.

  “It’s done,” Leif said as the door closed.

  “Then come.” The command in Tanis’s dark voice was impossible to ignore. “Submit.”

  Leif lowered his head in a quick, formal nod and the younger wolf did the same, both already moving toward their alpha and Gerald.

  Tanis’s glittering gaze met Gerald’s, so full of fire Gerald forgot to exhale. “Your alpha wants you to stay safe, human. My betas will submit. And so will you. You will always submit. That is the will of your mate and your alpha.”

  Chapter 15

  Gerald had just enough sensitivity to the sound of “mate” in the wolves’ language to pick up on the fact that Tanis had not said mate the way Gerald had gotten used to hearing it from him over the last thirteen days.

  But then Leif approached, the other wolf behind him, and Gerald had a moment where every thought in his head gave way to the flash of pure adrenaline flooding into his veins.

  There’d only been that one time he’d done anything like this—with Reed and Jan, but they’d just taken turns watching each other fuck, which wasn’t really the same as—

  The wolf behind him leaned around Gerald and his hot, wet mouth covered Gerald’s nipple. Gerald sucked in his breath, bowing his back as goose bumps raced across his skin.

  Okay, one question. Just one question. “Names. I don’t know their names. What do I call them?”

  Tanis squatted in front of Gerald again, resting his hand on the back of the wolf’s head, claws disappearing into the wolf’s soft, thick hair. His other arm rested on his right knee. Dark toenails hid the retracted claws at the ends of his jointed toes.

  He looked just as comfortable in this position as he did standing. Graceful, competent, strong. Powerful.

  “He is Eris.” Tanis gestured toward the youngest wolf. “Raleigh.”

  “Definitely remember him,” Gerald said.

  Stepping up, Leif said, unnecessarily, “Leif.”

  Gerald couldn’t help that every time he looked at Leif he remembered watching Leif watch him and Tanis fuck. All that rage—where had it gone? Were the wolves really so different that something like that didn’t stick in his craw and eat at him every time he looked at his alpha and thought about the fact that Tanis had taken what was supposed to be his?

  But Leif’s eyes were clear as he looked at Tanis and it was as if Leif understood exactly what Gerald was thinking, because he reached out and snagged Raleigh by the back of his neck.

  Raleigh turned into the rough grip, his mouth parting on a sigh, his face flushing.

  “My heat mate,” Leif said. “Don’t assume I’m unhappy with what Alpha and the universe have provided.”

  Gerald’s own face flushed. It crossed his mind that Leif might have accepted Tanis’s claim so easily because he too believed Tanis wouldn’t live until the next heat season. But the future wasn’t set; there was no way Tanis could be sure he was going to die.

  Of course he couldn’t.

  Only this new development gave too much weight to the possibility that Tanis might know something Gerald didn’t. Maybe Tanis could predict the future after all, a future based entirely on the risks of whatever life he lived.

  Leif gently pushed Raleigh toward Gerald.

  Raleigh shucked his shirt without the first direction to do it, and his lean torso came into view, dark hair swirling around tight, dark nipples, a tight line of hair leading right down into his trousers. The memory of Raleigh showing Tanis his asshole tightened Gerald’s groin.

  Raleigh knelt beside Tanis. “Alpha,” he said. “I submit. Tell me how I can give you pleasure.”

  Tanis released Eris and moved his hand to Raleigh’s face. “You’re learning a lot from Leisikei, aren’t you?”

  Raleigh glanced over his shoulder at the looming Leif. “He’s a strong mate.”

  “He’s my first beta.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” Raleigh’s gaze flickered toward Gerald. “Can I—”

  “Touch him. Lick his nipples. Suck his dick. You deserve your reward for submission and he deserves his. Just as Leisikei—” He paused, giving Gerald a speculative glance before continuing. “Just as Leif and Eris deserve theirs.”

  Raleigh’s eyelashes lowered. “I don’t deserve these rewards after what I did. I disappointed my alpha. I shamed myself and embarrassed him.” He sounded torn by some inner conflict.

  Gerald couldn’t look away, fascinated by a dynamic he’d never gotten to see before. God. James would love this kind of—

  “Ah!” He grunted, his stomach pulling tight.

  Raleigh and Tanis had distracted him, and Gerald hadn’t paid much attention to what Leif was doing. What Leif was doing was licking his way into Gerald’s belly button with his hot, wet tongue.

  Gerald made a grab for Leif’s hair, but Eris had also moved and he clasped hold of Gerald’s wrists above the cuffs and stood, pulling Gerald’s arms together high over his head. Eris pushed his knee between Gerald’s shoulders, forcing Gerald’s chest forward and his hips up.

  Leif unfastened Gerald’s jeans and dragged them to mid-thigh.

  Gerald’s blood raced as he looked down his body to the sight of his dick jutting into the air above the curling brown hair at his groin. His gaze collided with Tanis’s.

  Red and gold burned in that gaze and the sight of it sent Gerald’s heart thudding painfully hard.

  Tanis touched Leif’s arm. Leif moved to the side, his mouth immediately going to Gerald’s chest.

  Gerald panted, a white hot spark of desire shooting through him. His chest rose and fell with every ragged breath.

  Tanis nudged Raleigh forward. “Lick his balls.”

  Raleigh didn’t hesitate. He put his mouth right onto Gerald’s scrotum and licked, his tongue swiping hot and wet over Gerald’s balls all the way to the root of his cock.

  Gerald shouted, his thighs quivering and his back pressing hard into Eris’s knee for support.


  Leif thrust his nose into the damp hair at Gerald’s underarm while Raleigh thrust his nose into the crease of Gerald’s thigh and balls and slid his tongue nearly to Gerald’s asshole.

  Tanis drew his fingertips through Gerald’s pubic hair, his knuckles grazing the shaft of Gerald’s cock.

  Gerald shook. He desperately wanted Tanis to touch him. He wanted it so badly that he whimpered when Tanis finally took a firm grip of his flesh and started working him with careful strokes.

  “He needs moisture here,” Tanis said.

  Raleigh quickly moved his mouth from Gerald’s balls to his cock. He took Gerald into his mouth with a low growl rising in his throat and Gerald felt it all the way into the soles of his feet. He groaned, wanting to close his eyes and throw his head back and just feel that hot mouth on his dick. But he couldn’t take his eyes off Raleigh’s mouth and Tanis’s hand.

  Tanis released him.

  Gerald gasped. “No! Please…”

  But Tanis was merely offering his hand to Raleigh who immediately switched his focus and started licking Tanis’s palm with the same enthusiasm he’d shown for Gerald’s cock.

  Then Tanis gripped Gerald’s cock again, his hand warm and slick. Gerald tried to thrust into that grip, but his jeans were like a vice around his thighs and he couldn’t get the leverage he needed.

  Tanis tangled his fingers into the hair at the back of Raleigh’s head and directed him toward Gerald’s balls again. Raleigh worked his face into the gap between Gerald’s balls and the taut opening of his jeans, his tongue lapping at whatever flesh he could reach.

  “Take them off, please.” Gerald sounded hoarse, desperate. He tried again to open his thighs for Raleigh’s tongue, so close to the rim of his asshole he could feel Raleigh’s spit sliding into his crack, but the seam was too strong to tear. “Please.”

  “No,” Tanis said. “The floor won’t be kind to your knees.” He released Gerald’s dick. “Eris. Leif.”

  They flipped him over. Gerald had one second to imagine how that floor was going to feel on his face before he found himself face down on top of Leif instead. He blinked down into Leif’s brilliant sky blue eyes.

  Leif captured the back of Gerald’s head and pressed his mouth to Gerald’s. Gerald sucked in a breath through his nose, eyes wide, unable—not ready—to pull away. The sharp point of one of Leif’s eyeteeth grazed Gerald’s bottom lip, and then Leif thrust his tongue inside Gerald’s mouth at just the same moment that someone—he couldn’t see behind him—spread his ass.