Page 18 of The Alpha's Mates

My day to day focus was always protecting and providing for my pack of females. But the longing was there, every day. The longing for mates, for children of my own. My father had done his best to squash that dream as early as possible, but it was still there somewhere deep inside me. They lived that dream here. It was possible.

“How do you feed so many?” I asked, trying to get their attention off me. Their stares were boring into the sides of my face and it was making me squirm. I wasn’t used to this much attention from males. At least not once they figured out what I was.

“The forest provides plenty of game to hunt,” Soren said as he dropped his hand from my neck.

We started walking again. As soon as they focused on something other than me I was relieved. Vera waved and I lifted my hand and repeated the gesture.

“We store the food we’ll need during the winter time, though there is still usually some game around. We keep the population under control, we hold competitions to see who gets to hunt, but we share the spoils of the hunt with everyone.” Atlas continued. He pointed to a building surrounded on all sides by homes. “Would you like to see the cold storage area?”

“Sure.” This was fascinating. Maybe I could learn a few things from these wolves. I’d been planning on heading back to the plains for the winter. The weather there was much more mild and we’d be able to find more food.

I looked down in surprise when the door to the cold storage opened. There were stairs, descending down into the dark. “How deep does it go?”

“About fifteen feet,” Atlas said from directly behind me. His hand landed on my back, gently nudging me forward.

Grabbing the rail, I felt around with my foot until I found the next step. There were no windows in here and it was pitchblack. All the cracks and crevices must have been sealed off with mud and moss. A cracking sound came from behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder as Soren lit a torch. He handed it forward to Atlas.

“Keep going.”

I gave Atlas a dubious look, but moved down the stairs now that the torch lit up the area. Once I made it to the bottom, I made room for the others.

There were wooden shelves lined up against the wall and almost all were full. Even with as big of a pack as they had, they weren’t going to starve this winter.

“We hold our competitions in the spring to select the hunters, then we send them out each day, starting near the end of summer.” Soren said from directly behind me. “The competition keeps our alphas content and allows us to assess everyone’s skills from year to year.”

Crossing my arms over my chest to help keep my body heat in, I studied their stores and pointed at the vegetables. “You have gardens?”

“Down by the lake.”

My heart skipped a beat as Soren’s warm breath hit the back of my neck. He was standing even closer now. My body tingled and I had to fight the urge to step backward and press myself against him. It was cool down here, but I was sure that wasn’t the reason my nipples were once again hard. Every nerve ending pricked and I pressed my thighs together to help relieve the sudden ache between them.

“What’s wrong, Little One?”

I swallowed hard at the husky tone of his voice. “N-nothing.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” I squeaked. I had no idea why my body was going haywire.Liar, you’re in a confined space with the hottest guys you’ve ever met.It hadn’t been smart for me to come down herewith them. Their scents combined and with every shaky breath, I was dragging more of their pheromones into my lungs.

When large hands gripped my hips, I didn’t need to turn to know it was Soren. I was at the back of the storage room and he had me pinned there. Turning, I looked past him and found his cadre mates watching with half lidded eyes. All three of them were staring at me like they wanted to eat me. And I wanted to let them.

Soren moved a step closer, making his chest brush against the aching tips of my breasts. My hands shot up and landed on him. He dropped his own arms down to his sides, though his fingers curled into fists as though it was painful to let me go. The heat from his body nearly burned me through his shirt. I wasn’t pushing him away, but it did keep him from feeling how rigid my nipples had become.

I didn’t want him knowing the effect he was having on me. What if he changed his mind about letting me go?

Calder sniffed the air, looking so much like his wolf counterpart I wondered if he was about to shift. My wolf was paying close attention and she’d steal any opportunity to wrest control away from me. I was sure their wolves were doing the same.

“Fuck you smell so good, Reese,” Calder groaned.

Atlas licked his lips, his eyes glued to me.

Frowning, I gave a subtle sniff, but I smelled like I always did. It wasn’t like I could smell much over their scents anyway. Pine, leather, smoke, and other woodsy scents kept battering at me, wearing down the walls I tried to erect around myself.

“So fucking wet,” Soren growled. It was a low, vibrating sound, again making me wonder how close they were to losing control.

“Wet?” I asked, confused. Then my eyes widened. I didn’t have much experience. That one, drunken affair had been it andthe male hadn’t exactly been thorough. I hadn’t even gotten wet for him, which he fixed by spitting on his dick.

That wasn’t the case now. Rubbing my thighs together experimentally, I realized my pussy was dripping wet. How had that happened? Seriously, only Soren had touched me and only on my hips.

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