Page 16 of Scapegoat

“You shoulda said, Kai. I would’ve told you every day, shown you in every way I know how. You belong to me, beautiful, in every fucking way a man and a woman can belong to each other. I’ll never want—”

Her lips silenced mine and that was just fine. Our bodies spoke much more eloquently than we ever could. Kisses, searing kisses that felt like they burned a brand on my soul. I took one, two, too many to count, and then they were deepening. The moment her lips parted, I groaned: the music, the dance forgotten. There was just Kaia, just her taste, the feel of her tongue and— I forced myself to pull away before I lost control altogether. The wolf was close, too close, and I couldn’t let him out for the first time here.

“C’mon,” I said, reaching out and taking her hands, not able to take a breath until she squeezed back. Kai looked happier, her whole face lighting up brighter than the damn fairy lights strung up everywhere. I stared at the long flow of her dark hair, her eyes so big and fading back from silver as they gazed back at me, watched her full lips twitch, right before they broke into a grin. “Let’s get you something to drink.”

She didn’t know it, not as I held her hand, not as I drew her through the crowds of people, as we weaved our way towards the bar. I’d do fucking anything for her. Walk over hot coals, slay a fire-breathing dragon or just wring the neck of that fucking mother of hers, because that woman was the biggest threat to Kaia. Instead the only quest I had was to dig into the ice in the eskies, pulling out a soft drink for me and a beer for her, before scooping her up and setting her down on a hay bale. I handed her the beer, but she took it without even looking at the brand, still staring up at me.

“Is this the way it’s always going to be?” she asked me in a little voice, like she only just dared to say the words aloud. “Tell me it is—lie to me if you have to—just like this: no worries, no bullshit…”

I cracked my can of Coke and tapped it against her beer bottle in a silent toast.

“Always.” I stepped closer, standing while she was sitting, looking down at her which made me feel she was so much smaller, more fragile, than I ever would be. The need to look after her, protect her, had been growing and growing with every year, but now it was an ache so damn sharp it almost took my breath away. “Always and forever. You’re my princess and I’m just the fucking idiot that serves you.”

“You’re not an idiot.”

She reached up then and I bent down to let her wrap her arms around my neck and there was nothing better than letting her press my forehead to hers, right before I dipped my head sideways and then took her mouth.

We didn’t have that much of an audience here. Plenty of people were kissing their own partners and, because we weren’t on the dance floor, less people were watching. So this wasn’t a soft thing, just a press of the lips. It started out that way, but that changed all too soon. Because as soon as I felt Kai’s lips, I was gone.

Lost in the taste of mint toothpaste and her, then the feel of those too soft lips giving beneath mine. Every other kiss before tonight had been a quick thing, grabbed before the others, before our parents, could find out. But there was no one else here, no one but Kai. I teased her lips open, slowly but surely, needing more, more, that was what pulsed hot and heavy in my blood. I was dimly aware that she lost hold of the beer, that it spilled fizzing out onto the dry summer grass, but I didn’t care.

I just wanted this.

Her little hitch of a breath, her lips parting, her tongue flicking out cautiously, testing mine, right before I set down my Coke on the hay bale and tugged her closer. I needed to feel her against me, under me, a strange kind of hunger building that would not be satisfied until she was mine. It was the hunger of my knot, that only ever swelled when I was around her, that ached so fucking much for her. But when I scooped her up, her hands keeping hold around my neck, her legs wrapping around my waist, I smelled the moment her floral scent deepened as I rocked against her.

“Atlas…” Her voice was part whimper, part plea, and I was helpless to do anything other than answer it. I sank my fingers into her lush arse, then ground her harder against me.

“Something you need, my mate?”

She pulled her lips away from mine and, for a moment, I figured I’d fucked up, killed the mood. But she just stared at me with a look of wonder.

“Mate…?”

She couldn’t seem to say more, to ask all the questions I could see swirling inside her head, so I answered them as best as I could. I nodded slowly, holding her gaze, trying to communicate every damn thing I was feeling.

“You’re all I’ll ever want, Kai. All I’ll ever need. The world begins and ends with you. How could you think I’d want anyone else?”

She burrowed her face in my chest then, tightening her grip on my shoulders to close even the smallest gap between us again. I held her close, crooned stupid, nonsense words to her as I just held her.

“Good one, numbnuts.” I jerked my head up and growled at my brother when Jayden appeared at one shoulder, Xavier at the other one. Jay looked the two of us up and down, then shook his head. “Now neither of us can kiss Kai. She has to look like she’s your girl for the humans.”

“Or…” Xavier said. He looked at each one of us in turn as he waited to finish his sentence. “We don’t give a shit what the humans have to say. Not them, not the other kids from school, not our parents or our town, anyone.” Mr Do-things-by-the-book was breaking all the rules when he held out a hand for my girl, our girl, and I think only I saw how much it cost him. Kaia flushed bright red, staring at his palm, even as her own fingers twitched. “Take my hand and come dancing with me, Kai. Take Jay’s and he’ll feed you until your stomach groans. Anything you want tonight, that’s the way this works. Anything and everything you want.”

He was saying what we’d agreed to last night. When our parents talked us out of storming over to Kai’s place there and then, and got on the phone to the alphas, we’d had some time to think out how this would go. We’d had so many ideas, until we’d settled on this.

Telling Kai what she wanted would be no good, us taking over the role of bossing her around instead of her mother. We might be alphas, deep down in our hearts, but we needed to let her lead.

“Anything?” There was always something so damn sweet about her voice, like she was scared to be happy and, when she was, she never took it for granted.

“Anything,” we promised her.

“Well, all right then.” She put her hand in Xavier’s and I think we all sighed then, not sure she’d say yes until she did. He twirled her around like they did on those fancy dancing shows, making me wonder where the hell he learned that, because when she stopped, she let out a giddy peal of laughter.

“Dancing? Food? A beer you can actually drink, not use to water the grass?” Xavier asked.

“All of it,” she replied. “I want all of it.”

Chapter 11

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