The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate (Five Packs #1)(45)

And we’re not gonna piss her off anymore than we already have. If possible.

I scrub my face. What the hell is going on?

She’s not my mate. I would know. I’m sure as hell not in love. I never have been. I fight. I lead. I don’t sniff after females like Tye.

If I were to fall in love, she’d be an alpha. A badass with big ol’ titties.

Una’s no badass. I mean, she’s all right. Even though she kind of went nuts there for a minute, she’s got good sense. For years, she’s kept the drama to a minimum and the other lone females off the radar. And I’m grateful for it.

Three things keep me up at night—Moon Lake moving to usurp our territory, Last Pack deciding to join the shifter circuit, and the lone female cabin.

If Moon Lake makes a move, we’re gonna lose males, and we’re not guaranteed a win. They stockpile human weapons, and they see nothing wrong with using them.

If the Last Pack starts fighting, we’re gonna have to find a new livelihood. Rumor says they can all flip-shift. Not any day at any time like me, but as a hat trick. Three times in a match would be all it takes to beat every single one of our males.

And if some drunk night when I’m away, Lochlan or one of his buddies decides to rally the unmated males, head up to the lone female cabin, and take what they want? What Eamon and a lot of the other elders have been telling them for years is their due?

Well, I put ‘em all in one place, didn’t I? Like fish in a barrel.

That’s why if I’m away, Tye or Ivo is here. And at the end of the day, they’re safer together with Una to keep an eye on them. She’s a good packmate. Keeps her head down. Does her work. She’s solid.

But she’s not my mate.

Yet, for some reason, all of a sudden, I want to fuck her so bad I can taste it. The mate bond is deeper than that, though. Right?

The bond is a flower, rooted in two souls, blossoming with the first onset of a female’s heat. Or some such shit. I don’t pay a lot of attention during worship.

I need answers. Which means I gotta go see the crone. Not my favorite thing. She speaks in riddles, and she always wants me to drink tea.

I clear my throat, and Gael trots over from where he’s been hanging out in the trees behind the outbuilding across the way. I’ve smelled him there for the past hour or so.

“Tye send you?” I ask him in a low voice. I don’t want to wake the females.

“I volunteered.”

I nod at his face. “You look like you got run over by a Mack truck.” His nose isn’t gonna be the same. Looks better now. It’s got character.

“Worth it,” he says.

“Yeah?”

“Now I get served first at meals, don’t I?” He grins. A few teeth haven’t grown back yet. “My drumstick and leg days are over. It’s only breasts and thighs from here on out.”

I see he’s gotten chattier since his elevation in rank. That’s gonna be annoying.

I stand, catching the shawl before it falls. “I’ve got shit to do. Watch the cabin.”

“Okay.” He goes to make himself comfortable on the porch. My wolf growls.

This is our territory now.

“From over there.” I point back to the woods he was skulking in.

“Seriously?”

My wolf rumbles. I don’t bother answering. Gael bends his neck and scrambles back to where he came from, holding up his jeans. I don’t see how pants can be so skinny in the leg and droopy at the waist. Kid needs a belt.

And I gotta take a piss. My wolf is fine with spraying all over the flowerbed, but I’m not an animal. I relieve myself in the bushes beside the cabin before I head home for a change of clothes.

After coffee, I rub one out in the shower. It feels wrong to think about Una, disrespectful somehow, but I can’t help it. She’s in my head. Her soft lips. Quiet whimpers. How hard she mashed her tits against my chest and how tight she wrapped her arms around my neck. She wanted it. She needed it from me.

I come hard, jizz splattering on the tile. I gotta splash a few times to rinse it all down the drain.

Fates, a few minutes necking with Una Hayes was the most intense sexual experience of my life. Given, I’ve never actually fucked a female, but I’ve gotten my dick sucked plenty, and I’ve been getting hand jobs from alpha groupies since junior high. And it’s fine. It takes the edge off. But it’s never been like this.

I’ve never wanted to be inside so bad before. And I wanted. Hell, I needed. And then I opened my dumb mouth.

But she’s not my mate.

Though I’m less certain of that each time I think it.

I’ve got good reasons for not getting my dick wet. It’d fuck with pack rank. Sucking cock is one thing—not much in the way of bragging rights there—but if I favor a female with my seed? She’s not gonna shut up about that. Cheryl would feel the need to put her back in her place. It’d be a whole thing.

And our relations with the other packs aren’t so chill that I can be rutting their females without certain expectations arising.

And also, I’ve never felt the need. Until now.

I want to take Una Hayes to my bedroom, watch her build a nest on my bed, fuss and straighten and toss sheets around. And then I want her to present. Call to me over her shoulder. Press her round tits with the saucer nipples to the mattress and hike that thick ass in the air.