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“Speaking of assholes,” I say and stop before stepping into the meadow where the Clan McMar wolves pace this side of the clearing with fur bristling the length of their spines, their tails tucked low, ears folded. Most of them are baring their teeth, ready to pounce.
Lycans from the Ott clan line the forest’s edge, circling the trees, most in their wolf form. A few are in their lycan form, half male, half wolf.
I search for the Alpha male, but when no one catches my eye, I look up at Lenox, who stands next to me, a low growl building in his chest.
“Which one is their Alpha?” I ask. The moment I speak, a male strides out of the forest and across the meadow as if he owns it. He’s as tall and as wide in the shoulders as Lenox. He wears a black kilt, and, like the rest of the lycans, his chest is bare. Tattoos cover his arms and neck, and his platinum-blond hair matches his piercing white eyes that glow with the magic of his wolf.
“That’s him, isn’t it?” I ask, even though I know the answer. That’s the Alpha male of the Ott clan. It’s obvious from the way he marches toward Lenox, which speaks of confidence and comfort with the threat of the hundreds of snarling wolves pacing behind us.
“He needs to stop advancing,” Rohan says, while Lenox is flexing his claws.
“Motherfucker,” Lenox says under his breath.
I surrender milady’s dress, and shoulder the small red backpack Rohan gives me. My heart’s beating faster than ever before as I start to walk toward the male, my knees shaking.
It’s a particularly cold span, and thunder strikes in the distance, heralding rain. As I walk toward him, his features become clearer. Hard jaw, sharp cheekbones, and disproportionally large lycan eyes that are becoming brighter as we close the distance.
“Marybell,” milady calls from the terrace.
I should turn. I would turn, but I can’t, because this alpha male holds my gaze, his magic practically crackling around his body the way Lenox’s magic dances over his skin just before he turns into a wolf.
I wish for this male to become a wolf now. It’s so much easier to deal with the wolf than it is to deal with a lycan alpha in his bipedal male form.
He steps closer, the distance between our bodies shorter than appropriate. Yet, I don’t step back. Not only do I want milady to know I’m perfectly fine with Lenox arranging a…whatever this is for me, but also because the male leans in and sniffs.
Lycans sniff around me a lot, so I’m used to it.
His nostrils flare as he steps even closer and brings a lock of my hair to his nose. Snorting, he leans in and breathes near the back of my ear, and lower yet, the cold tip of his nose tracing the skin of my neck. At the place where my neck meets my shoulder, he pauses and nips.
A small bite.
A nibble, really.
But it sparks a fire at the bottom of my belly and makes me fist my hands at my sides. If it were another wolf, I might’ve stepped back and even slapped him, but milady is watching, so I pretend he’s my male.
He smiles, showing me his killer lycan teeth. “You’re even prettier up close.”
Has he watched me from afar? Lycans often stalk their prey.
“Marybell?” Milady shouts from the terrace. “What is going on?”
“Thank you.”
With his cropped hair, cold pale eyes, and large frame, he’s severe looking, and I’m a little afraid of him, so I close my eyes before I step closer and wrap my arms around his waist. I press my cheek to his chest, and I’m shocked at what I hear. His heart is beating as if he’s excited. I expected him to be calm. “Milady will cry after me if she thinks I’m unwilling. I’m hugging you as if I know you so that she’ll think you’re my secret lover.”
The male throws one arm around my shoulders and the other at the back of my head. He pats my head, sniffing the top of it before hauling me up by the backs of my thighs. With a growl, he spins and starts running toward the forest, changing into his werewolf form as we go. Hair bursts out of his back, his ears grow, as does his body. I clamp my arms around his neck and my legs around his torso, but my gaze searches for milady, who’s not on the terrace anymore.
“Marybell!” she screams as she bursts out of the den, her white silk nightgown fluttering about her feet. Lenox scoops her up the way this male scooped me up and throws her over his shoulder while she’s screaming for me.
All I can do is give her a thumbs-up before we disappear into the forest.
4
SEITH
The McMar female smells good. Real good. Good enough to eat out and enjoy the taste of her in the back of my throat. She smells strange though. It’s some sort of calming flowery scent that must come from the oils she uses in her hair. Whatever it is, it’s unfamiliar and new, and I welcome it as I know several of my males will also welcome it.
At the McMar den, I hung back in the forest while my wolves made an appearance on McMar territory. It is not customary for an alpha male of an enemy clan to walk into another Alpha’s territory, even to fetch a bartered female, but since Lenox kept stalling on giving me what I’m owed, he forced my hand. I came to get the breeder myself.
