Page 48 of Tempting Jupiter
“Still, their numbers were small. Never was any pack given more than a single female. It’s in our nature to bond with a mate. But our other needs complicated things.”
“Needs?”
His fingers stroked idly over her arm as he talked. “Yes. The need to share with our brothers and our instinct to protect the female.”
“So, you found a solution.”
“The females solved the problem. They would bond with one male, but they would share sex with all males in the pack. They knew any male that was a sex partner would feel protective and sharing themselves freely would prevent tension among the males.”
She resisted the urge to lift her head and meet his eyes. She wanted to know what he thought about that solution. “Did it work?”
“For the most part.”
“Your pack had a female.” Unexpected tension zipped along her nerves. She’d never thought to ask if he had a mate or children, but Seneca had said their brother had a mate, not Jupiter.
“Her name is Hera. We all swore an oath to protect her.” There was no emotion in his voice to give her any hint of his feelings, but what he’d said made it clear all the males in his pack had sex with her.
She couldn’t stand it any longer. She looked up desperately needing to read his face, after all. “You think Seneca considers you being with me as a betrayal of her?”
He wrapped a hand around her jaw and met her eyes. “No. The bond we share with our brother’s mate is not that sort of bond. If she were my mate, I wouldn’t have wanted your touch. Something changes inside us when a mate bond has formed. Nothing about you is betrayal. You are only good.”
Guilt roared to life. Good was so not the word to describe her. She wanted to help Jupiter and Seneca, but she feared she’d end up hurting them. If sex with Jupiter turned that fear to fact, she would just have to find a way to keep her distance.
“I can see you are blaming yourself, Fee. And you’re wrong.” He bent down to capture her mouth.
He pressed forward with a deep, no-holding-back kiss she couldn’t find the will to resist. When he broke the kiss, his features were lighter. The damn Dog was pleased with his effect on her.
He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I’m concerned because Seneca didn’t feel welcome in my bed.”
“Technically, it’s my bed. Don’t you think that might be part of the problem?”
“No.” He shifted his hand to wrap loosely around the back of her neck. “I was here, so it was my bed as much as yours and he should have known it was also his. Whether you accept him as a lover is your choice to make, but that fact and his presence would not stop me from fucking you.”
That pronouncement should have raised her anger, but instead it fueled a need to have him inside her again. “Jupiter…”
He chuckled. “There will be plenty of time for us to learn each other.”
Damn, she needed to rebuild some of her defenses. The man was dangerous. And she wasn’t the only one to think so. She thought of all the times she’d seen Seneca watching Jupiter with longing in his lavender eyes. “Jupiter, you and Seneca have such a strong bond. Is it possible that he might be… hurt, by our being together this way? Maybe sharing isn’t what he wants.”
He shook his head and frowned. “Our bond is strong, but there is no reason he would be hurt by this.”
“Are you certain? I mean, has there ever been anything physical between you?” Jupiter’s scowl deepened and she instantly regretted her words. Maybe it wasn’t her place. “I shouldn’t have—”
Jupiter shook his head. “No. It’s alright. It’s just that I could never ask Sen for anything like that. I could never risk hurting him that way.”
“Hurting him?”
“I fear he bears deep scars from his time in the pleasure house. He spent years there before he came to us. He isn’t the same Dog now, but he carries the weight of the past.”
“Of course, he does.” She cleared the anger and sympathy from her throat. “Tell me about Seneca. I can’t believe gladiators are sent to the pleasure houses all that often. Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
Jupiter scooted further onto the bed to put his back against the wall, taking her with him. He gave her room between his thighs and she settled her back against his chest.
“You’re right. In the arena and the kennel, they chain us to walls and drug us when they let the female patrons use us. But the Dogs that work in the brothels are not chained. The females were engineered to be docile. But the males that go there aren’t. They go there as pups, too small to be dangerous. He was just a child when they took him.”
A fist of outrage slammed into her abdomen. Using slaves for sex was reprehensible, but using children that way… The tight feeling in her throat magnified, allowing her no air to speak. She didn’t think she could get a word passed the constriction. Jupiter’s arms slipped under hers and wrapped around her middle as if he could sense her disquiet.
“Seneca was created two birthings after mine, but his group shared the same juvenile facility. He was always smaller than the other Dogs in his group. And… beautiful. Even humans thought so.”
