Ian's Choice (Wolves' Heat) Read online

  “Let’s go.”

  The wolf’s glowing eyes didn’t leave Ian as he turned and tugged, as if he expected resistance, but Ian didn’t struggle against his hold, didn’t put up any kind of fight, just in case the wolf’s rational self was an illusion.

  With one hand on Ian’s upper arm, he yanked Ian after him through the woods, headed who knew where. Ian just hoped the wolf didn’t lose whatever control he seemed to have over his aggression and decide to take him here, on the forest floor. The growled “mine” earlier had made it clear the wolf liked what he’d caught, the sniffing an added emphasis that he found Ian’s scent hard to resist.

  Ian’s own heavy breathing and that unrelenting grip on his arm gave Ian something to focus on and keep the panic at bay for the rough hike. His captor watched the surrounding area, stopping at intervals to scope out noises Ian’s human hearing couldn’t even pick up and then sniff hard at Ian’s throat and hair, his chest and even his armpits.

  Once, he pushed Ian down on the ground and Ian clamped his mouth shut around what could have been a whimper while the wolf pressed his face right into the soft bulge of Ian’s crotch. Then the wolf had shaken off the haze holding him hostage, stood, and jerked Ian back to his feet in one swift pull.

  “We have to hurry,” he said.

  After about an hour, they came to an old house sitting in a wide clearing deep in the woods. A cloud drifted away and a streak of moonlight cut through the fog. The glow reflected off the gleaming solar panels that probably should have been covered with filth but weren’t, meaning the wolf had probably been using this place as his den for quite a while, definitely from before the heat season started.

  Ian staggered along toward the front of the home in silence.

  Chapter 2

  The front door creaked open, light spilled out of the entryway, and then a wolf was standing right there in the way. Ian let out a gasp and twisted, yanking loose of the hold on his arm and ducking and rolling quickly in case there was about to be another fight. But no one howled, and he heard a short huff and then hands grabbed him again and pulled him up by the back of his shirt.

  He didn’t resist the tug to his feet.

  “You found another one,” he heard someone say in the wolves’ language.

  “Three were on his tail.”

  “It’s going to get worse. They just destroyed our largest supply of repression drugs in that last stupid attack. They’re fools and they’re going to bring about their own demise when Traesikeille gets tired of feeling guilty and stops letting them get away with murdering our people. They’re responsible for the actions of those renegades whether they want to claim it’s so or not.”

  The wolf with his hand fisted in the back of Ian’s shirt rumbled. It was a sound unique to the wolves, a vibration that started in their chests and it never failed to give Ian goose bumps and make his hair stand on end.

  The wolf dragged Ian inside over the threshold and the light made him grimace as his eyes watered from the brightness after the dark outside. He stumbled over the toes of his captor’s boot and almost fell. The hand in his shirt tightened and yanked him upright and in place by the wolf’s side in front of that second wolf and a third who shuffled back to make room for them in the entryway of the home. Ian accepted the manhandling with nothing but a huff of breath and a short grunt of effort to regain his balance.

  Submit, he reminded himself, even when he wanted to pull free and run. He knew he was perspiring heavily in the warm night air and sweat had already wet the fabric under his arms and at the back collar of his t-shirt. His underwear felt like it was sticking to him, the inside seam digging into his groin because of the friction caused by damp fabric. He didn’t want to be sweating around a bunch of wolves in the heat season. His body was just asking for trouble for itself.

  “We’ll have a problem soon anyway,” the third wolf said, staring at Ian. “We’re out of our own supply of drugs. I gave the last dose a few hours ago. Thought those nearest the humans should have what was left.”

  The silence that followed that statement echoed far too ominously.

  Ian darted his gaze around the entryway, noting the room beyond and the stairs and doors leading to other rooms and hallways. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but from their conversation, his guess said these guys weren’t yet at the mercy of their heat cycles and that somewhere here in this house, they’d collected more humans.

  The wolf still holding tight to him didn’t look pleased. “Then pick one of the humans to mate with before you lose control. I don’t want you fighting over them later. No one here tonight is going to die in a heat fight, us or them.”

  Third’s gaze hadn’t strayed from Ian. It was a disturbing look, the kind that made Ian sure Third had caught his scent and liked it, and Ian barely stopped himself from staring back.

  He wasn’t sure why a single lingering stare made him want to show his own teeth, metaphorically speaking, even if that meant trouble, but he didn’t like the way Third watched him. His captor must have noticed his reaction toward Third because fingers tightened in Ian’s shirt, claws pricked through the fabric at his back between his shoulder blades. He shied away from the twinge of pain with a slight bow of his spine and quickly lowered his gaze.

  Third addressed Ian’s captor by name, but since names didn’t translate well, Ian changed it to the closest sounding human name he could think of: Craig.

  “The one you have?” Third asked of the wolf Ian had just named Craig.

  Craig’s hand fisted tighter in Ian’s shirt and he jerked Ian so close that Ian stumbled backward, his weight landing against Craig’s chest. “Mine.”

  A hot tongue swept across the bump of Ian’s spine at the base of his neck and a disturbingly pleasant shiver raced through his entire body. He fought the urge to tighten his shoulders and arch away from the sensation.

  Submit.

  “Your last dose is wearing off already?”

  “You question that it wouldn’t?” The challenge in Craig’s voice was impossible to miss, despite the accent that made Ian slow to translate.

  “Forgive me,” the one Ian thought of as Second said without inflection. “Of course you would overcome the effects first, Alpha.”

  As Second made his statement, both of the other wolves tipped their heads forward in a short, quick show of…something. Agreement, respect, or, yes, Ian realized as soon as the thought solidified, submission. Craig was Alpha. They were beta.

  Craig lowered his hand to clutch Ian’s hip and raised the other to curl around the front of Ian’s neck. Ian’s first reaction was to stiffen and resist, but he made himself relax and flow into the move. The warmth of the wolf’s body against his back wasn’t as different from a human man as Ian would have expected, if he’d been expecting anything. He hadn’t actually thought about much beyond getting an alien dick shoved up his ass or claws in his back.

  “I’m going to call you Craig,” Ian said, his head angled to the side so he could see Craig’s face. “That okay?”

  Craig snapped at Ian with his teeth, and Ian jerked forward against the inhuman strength in the hand holding him by the throat. Maybe he’d sounded too challenging. He hadn’t meant to, but his mouth had a tendency to get away from him sometimes. Craig stopped short of actually biting him and he smiled at Ian with those teeth, the points of what passed for eyeteeth sharper and longer than those in a human mouth. Not by much, but enough to make Ian think about pain and blood and how he needed to shut up.

  “Craig is close enough,” the wolf said unexpectedly, but then he snapped again, and this time he nicked Ian’s ear.

  Ian gasped.

  The bite stung. Ian tried to reach up and rub his ear but Craig caught his arm with the hand that had been at his hip, and he gave up the effort as Craig turned him around. He kept his gaze on Craig’s chest.

  The wolves had taken to wearing human clothing, so the shirt was a typical black t-shirt. This one had flecks of brown and green leaves stuck t
o the shoulder and down the side, along with a tear down the sleeve and a set of four small holes at the collar. Something darker too and wet. Blood, Ian was sure. None of his, thank God. Only wolf blood, a dark, deep red that had a more metallic smell than human blood, but still so close that Ian didn’t have any trouble recognizing the scent and the leftover tang on the back of his tongue.

  Ian took a chance and spoke, the risk of drawing unwanted attention to himself offset by his need to understand. “Why did you bring me here? You took the other wolves out, why not let me go?”

  Craig looked at Ian, his alien blue eyes intense and direct. His eyebrows rose, their dark color matching the short cropped hair on his head. Ian still found it hard to believe aliens looked so similar to humans—fit and strikingly attractive when they weren’t showing their teeth.

  With eyes half closed, Craig leaned in, sniffing again at Ian, right up on the skin of Ian’s cheek, mouth breathing in as much scent as his nose. With a swift move Ian didn’t expect, Craig turned him again and his hand moved to Ian’s crotch where he lightly covered the soft bulge Ian’s cock and balls made beneath the fly of his snug-fitting blue jeans.

  Ian tensed, but Craig didn’t make any other move on Ian’s genitals, claws hidden under the dark fingernail like material covering the tips of his fingers, his hand resting with careful unconcern until Ian’s nerves settled.

  By turning Ian to face the others, it was like Craig wanted them to witness his domination of Ian. Ian didn’t know why or what it signified, but he fought his instinct to struggle against being put on display and simply breathed and stared down at the hand gently cupping one of the most vulnerable parts of his body.

  “I’m Alpha and I caught your scent in my territory,” Craig answered, “so you deserved my protection, but I have no intention of putting you back out there for someone else to find and fuck. Your scent would lure others into the area. More fighting. You could get caught by another pack.”

  Pack wasn’t the right word, but like “mate” and “mine,” “alpha” and “beta,” a direct translation wasn’t really possible and the meaning of pack came close enough for a basic human understanding of their word. Unfortunately, the basic understanding left a lot of questions unanswered about what a pack of these wolves really signified.

  Hand still unmoving on Ian’s crotch, Craig continued in a low voice at Ian’s ear, ignoring the shuffling of Second and Third. “I intend to mate you myself. Your scent—” Craig sniffed again, this time along the ridges of Ian’s spine. “It fascinates me, even with the drugs in my system. I can’t bear the thought of giving you to one of the others for a heat mate. But if you challenge me or refuse to submit, I’ll probably end up killing you when the drugs finally wear off completely because I’ll want to fight for the right to mate with you.”

  “No.” Ian swallowed carefully and kept his anxiety in check by force of will. He flexed his fingers, thought again about submitting, about why he had been in the woods, about getting through this and how he would at least be able to go back with new direct knowledge of the wolves’ heat season. “I won’t challenge you. I won’t fight.”

  A shudder went through Craig, a shiver through Ian. He would have liked to have been able to blame his response entirely on fear, but there was that part of him that knew any such thing would be at least partially a lie.

  Was there even really such a thing as a partial lie? Something was either the truth or it wasn’t, and if he claimed he felt nothing but fear at the thought of what was to come, then he was most certainly telling himself a lie.

  “Mine,” Craig said. “Now. You’ve been claimed to mate.” He raised his head, his hot breath edging over the shell of Ian’s ear. “Heat’s coming on. If you’re going to get scared and change your mind, tell me now so I can tie you to my bed.”

  The comment made the breath stutter in Ian’s lungs.

  Craig dragged his cheek across Ian’s face again, then scraped his tongue across the stubble on the underside of Ian’s jaw. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you when the lust craze hits. You aren’t one of us. It would be too easy to kill you unintentionally.”

  “I can submit,” Ian said quickly. Breathlessly. He tilted his head back. “I don’t want to be tied up.”

  “It would be for your own good.” Craig put his hands on Ian’s hips and thrust against Ian’s ass with his dick, full and hard already, and Ian tried not to suck in his breath too sharply at the sensation that spread through his body.

  That was going to be in his ass. Very soon. Unless he chose to fight after all.

  But of course, he’d been taught what the combination of the human scent and the wolves’ heat could drive them to do. The lust craze intensified the wolves’ natural desire to make challengers submit. He could do this; it was just sex. Maybe a lot of sex, rough and hard or whatever, but he’d been taught that if he submitted, then he probably wouldn’t be hurt.

  Usually. Like humans, not every wolf was full of goodness and light. Ian knew some real human assholes, and he imagined there were just as many asshole wolves out there. He just hoped none of them were here. His gaze flickered up toward Third and then quickly away.

  The hand on his throat slid down over the front of his shirt, and then slipped under the bottom edge, the contact a warm pressure against the skin beneath. Ian’s muscles jumped at the first touch, and he had to concentrate on slowing his breathing.

  Craig dragged the fabric up until he had exposed Ian’s chest. Ian had to look, his concern and curiosity making it impossible not to. The wolves he’d dubbed Second and Third watched with intent gazes. They didn’t seem surprised but they had made no move toward or away from where they’d been standing. The entryway felt like it was closing in on Ian, the space between them not nearly enough.

  Craig’s touch shifted and then he held Ian with his arms under Ian’s, keeping Ian’s shirt tucked up out of the way, Ian’s chest bared and on display. “You human males have some very interesting sensitivities. Like your nipples here.”

  With that, Craig’s fingertips scraped across Ian’s pink nipples, not rough, but Ian reacted all the same, sucking in air as his nipples peaked hard.

  Craig fondled the tips, rubbing until Ian could no longer control his breathing or his body, and he arched his back, feet shuffling on the floor, cock finally taking interest, and Craig huffed a breath out across his collar.

  “Show me your submission,” Craig said.

  But who was he talking to? Because, by God, Ian had submitted.

  Ian got the answer to his unasked question when the still unnamed wolves he’d silently been calling Second and Third moved forward, too close. Ian pushed back against Craig’s chest, his body not caring that his brain said he was wasting his time and probably doing entirely the wrong thing.

  However, Craig did nothing but jostle him and tighten his hold on Ian, his forearms braced against the front of Ian’s shoulders.

  “Lick them,” Craig said, staring at Second and Third. “He’ll like that.” Then he tucked his head into the curve of Ian’s neck and said into his ear, “Won’t you?”

  He nodded but Craig put more pressure into his hold, so Ian swallowed the saliva flooding his mouth and answered. “Yeah.”

  “Good.” Which sounded like barely more than a puff of air on his ear and sent a tingle crawling down his spine and up over his scalp.

  They were too close and Ian had to close his eyes to keep claustrophobia at bay. He jerked when he felt the first swipe of hot tongue across his flesh, and then both peaked tips were being bathed with the flick and stroke of wet tongues.

  His cock gave up resisting and Ian felt himself going hard, the throb and pulse of blood making him want to writhe against the hold on him. He found himself rocking up on his toes, flexing his hips, not able to handle so much attention on his nipples.

  Craig released one of Ian’s shoulders, reached around Third, and threaded his fingers in Third’s hair.

  “Open his pants,” Craig said.


  Third stopped swirling his tongue over Ian’s nipple and his hands went to the worn belt buckle Ian had worn since he was fifteen, both the belt and the old metal buckle given to him by his grandfather the year before he’d died. The metal tongue clinked and rattled, and Ian found himself holding his breath as Third tugged and pulled, the leather tightening snug around his waist just before the pressure eased and his belt fell open and loose.

  Craig pushed at Third’s head, and Third dropped down to his knees without further direction. Ian wasn’t sure what was coming, but Second hadn’t stopped licking Ian’s other nipple and he chose that moment to flick his thumb over the one Third had abandoned at Craig’s demand, still wet from Third’s tongue, as if it were his job to take over for Third now that Third’s attention had been redirected. Ian reacted without conscious intent, grunting in surprise, and then squeezing his eyes shut when his shoulders rolled back against Craig’s chest.

  “Take his dick out,” Craig said. “Touch him. Make him feel good.”

  Ian quickly opened his eyes and looked down.

  Third’s hands went for his pants while Craig said a word Ian didn’t understand, obviously addressing Second, and then said, “Finger his anus.”

  Ian could hardly breathe at the thought of what seemed to be happening here. He wondered how he could find Craig’s orders to Second and Third both deeply terrifying and darkly exciting.

  The thought made him uncomfortable and before he could think better of it, he said, “Don’t tell me you’re going to fuck me right here where everyone can see.”

  Craig’s arms tightened and Ian’s back arched under the pressure on his shoulders. “If I chose to fuck you here for my betas to watch, I would expect you not to complain about it.”

  Then he scraped the edges of his sharp teeth over the curve of Ian’s shoulder. Ian’s breath hitched and his lips parted. He exhaled quickly.

  “Okay,” Ian said, “Okay, understood. No complaints.”

  Ian tried not to think too hard about what Craig’s plans might be for him. He couldn’t, if he wanted to keep himself away from the unsettling spark of panic sitting in the back of his head that just waited for the chance to slip free and take over his rational mind.