Page 22 of Virgo Queen
That’s just the way wolf shifters think and talk.
About… mates.
They’re both staring at me, both these guys, all broody and intense. So I clear my throat and answer vaguely. “Uh, yeah, this is a first-time thing for me.”
I’m not touching that word—mates—with a ten-foot pole. Jae clearly never meant for me to take it literally.
“Helvitis.A virgin. I knew it.” Draco unwraps one brawny arm from my thigh, leaving my ankles crossed behind his head, and rubs his face roughly like he’s trying to think. “Shit. We don’t wanna hurt you, Mallory.”
A rush of gratitude makes my eyes prickle and blur with a fresh flood of tears. I mean, how many guys at this late stage of the game would even hesitate?
“You won’t,” I rush to assure both of them, because I definitely don’t want them to stop. That possibility distresses me a lot more than any first-time jitters. “I rode ponies in 4-H all through grade school, so I think my hymen is history. And I’m not some fragile flower. I honestly think I’ll be okay.”
“Nothing to do with being fragile. You fucking needprotection.” Draco scowls ferociously down at both of us. “In all the ways. And we ain’t packing condoms on us. Jae and me, we weren’t exactly planning for this shit to go down, you feel me?”
Silently I fill in the blanks around that sentence.
I’ve been watching these two on the sly for a really long time. I haven’t seen either one of them with anyone else. I think what they have is special. Even if they’re keeping it quiet, they’re exclusive. Yet, for some reason, they’re willing to letmeinto their special thing.
I mean, just for tonight.
Obviously.
I have no idea why I’m even on their radar, but I’m definitely not about to let this once-in-a-lifetime chance escape me.
“I won’t get pregnant. I have my own protection,” I blurt out, because it’s true. I like to be prepared for all situations. I’ve been on the Pill for months, due to a combination of convenience (to regulate my wildly irregular periods) and incredibly wishful thinking on my part.
I mean, I don’t want to stay the last remaining virgin at the Icarus Academy forever. If the opportunity ever arises, I don’t want the lack of birth control to be what stops me.
Like it’s about to do now.
“Anyway,” I add, because they’re both still hesitating, “I can’t catch mortal diseases.”
Then I almost choke on my own tongue. Geez Louise,whereis my brain tonight?
“I mean, um, assuming the two of you are clean,” I finish awkwardly. “Because I am.”
“For fuck’s sake. We’re fucking clean.” Draco gives my flustered face a suspicious look. “It’s just been the two of us for… a while.”
Looks like I was right about their relationship.
They’re committed.
Even if, for whatever reason, they don’t want anyone else to know.
My kind truly isn’t vulnerable to mortal pathogens, but I obviously can’t go into that. I take in the confusion furrowing Draco’s brow, the mounting suspicion icing his arctic eyes, and know I need to act fast if I want to keep these two with me tonight.
Hastily I unwrap my legs from around Draco’s neck, scramble forward onto my hands and knees, shake my mane of flyaway curls down my back to get them out of the way, and peer over my shoulder at Jae’s lean lurking presence.
“Is this how you do it?” I swallow hard to moisten my dry throat. “Doggie style?”
Heck, I have to be crazy.
I’m deliberately teasing Jean-Emilien Labête, the guy everyone says is the only purebred Cajunloup-garoueast of the Atlantic Ocean, on the night before the full moon.
The wolf in question drops right to his hands and knees behind me and bares his fangs in a snarl.
“Hel.” Draco’s hard hands close over mine to pin me in place (which seems like a promising sign, even if it’s totally at odds with his words). “Mallory. You don’t know what you’re playing with here.”
