Page 55 of Mated By the Pack
“You could have run screaming into The Tangle,” he answers. “That’s what they would have done if you hadn’t made them go back inside, I’m sure.”
“Yes, because we can run away from five hungry wolves,” I laugh, shaking my head.
“Only two,” he replies. “The rest of us wouldn’t have bothered. And they would have only been chasing you. Vance might have tried to follow them, with good intentions, but he wouldn’t wander too far without the rest of the pack. The Tangle would have gotten them. It wouldn’t have been pretty.”
“What a visual,” I mutter, taking a few steps ahead.
“By the way, little girl. It won’t be long,” he growls. “You smell incredible.”
I freeze, swallow hard, then hurry ahead to my friends.
He has my scent.
And I don’t think he’s going to be very gentle with me, either.
CHAPTER 16
Caleb
I’m all alone. In my head. In this pack.
Because Knox finally has her scent.
The only brother I care to speak to, and he’s gone feral, too. Not truly feral. Not like our brothers and sisters who could no longer control the call of the wild. This is something different.
It’s been quiet most of the day. I’m ahead of the pack, ahead of thepuppies, as Knox calls them. Ahead of our mate. I’ve come to accept that it will happen. That I’ll lose control. That I’ll fight it until I can’t. So far, she might as well be invisible. Just another set of tits and a firm-looking ass that isn’t interesting enough to make my dick twitch.
I’ve heard all the theories. Even the ones our brothers who are no longer here had. I used to enjoy talking to all of them. I couldtolerateVance’s obsession with The Tangle, even if I still think he’s a little weird. Now, I just prefer the silence.
Instinct is the most popular theory. Our parents were fused with wolf DNA. It was passed down to us. Animals have an instinct to mate. They usually know which ones to mate with. Cats didn’t mate with dogs, until scientists started engineering hybrids. I mean, there was a golden retriever that hung around the military base, before the Great War. He’d fuck anything. But there were no cat-puppies from his humping sprees.
It doesn’t explain why we can shift into wolves, but it explains Calla’s scent. Why we could never feel any real pleasure with women after we felt the call of the wild. They weren’t viable mates—not after most of our humanity was gone.
Fate is Vance’s theory. Some fairytale he read while going through research the others left behind. He was going over it again last night, while Gideon and Jace had their way with Calla. Knox and I thought it would be over by the time we got back to the den, but we underestimated the hunger in our brothers. Probably underestimated how hungry we will be, too.
But I don’t believe it’s fate. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but it isn’t a destiny. If she’s the prize at the end of the rainbow, then it’s been a shitty rainbow.
I scout and leave a trail until it is time to stop for lunch. I find a clearing in a good spot, right next to a stream. I wait there on my haunches, until I see the rest of them crest the hill. I run ahead, circle behind Knox, and shift.
“Hold still, let me grab my fucking pants,” I growl, opening the backpack he’s wearing.
“I thought you weren’t going to talk to me after I got her scent,” he chuckles, stopping in his tracks.
“You’re not as crazy as they were when they got it,” I mutter, yanking my pants out of the backpack and putting them on. “Or you’re just better at hiding it.”
“It feels great,” Knox says. “Like the world is more alive.”
“It’s already alive enough,” I grumble, gesturing around us. “It’s ThefuckingTangle.”
“Makes me remember how good it was, back when we could walk into a bar, walk out with a girl, and just… fuck her.” Knox smiles. “Fuck her hard. Break the damn bed. Maybe her hip.”
I roll my eyes, but Knox can’t see it. I remember those days, too. Some of our best, even if we didn’t realize it at the time. They were just small doses of freedom when the scientists weren’t trying to breed us in a lab. They probably hoped we’d knock up a girl during our reprieve and save them a lot of trouble, but it never happened.
“We’re not going into Haven North, right?” I ask, changing the subject. “We’ll take them there, and show them how to get past the wall, but that’s as far as we go.”
“Yeah, I confirmed that with Gideon this morning,” Knox says. “Have you noticed her ass? I mean, just look at it. Fucking perfect… I can smell her tight little pussy, too. Every time she has a flutter in one of those muscles that got stretched out good last night. Mm.”
“Then fuck her and get this out of your system,” I growl. “Gideon and Jace seem relatively normal this morning. Hopefully you will be too after you feed the beast.”
