Leader of the Pack (16 page)

Aislinn wasn’t positive what he meant by ‘claim,’ but from the way he was talking she could tell that it was incredibly serious. Aislinn felt his cock pressing into her, and after what he’d just said, she needed more of it. She stepped so that her legs were spread farther apart and leaded forward until she had her hands braced on the wall of the shower under the shower head. She looked back over her should to see him eyeing her dangerously. Molten amber flooded his eyes, and he was breathing heavily. “What are your instincts telling you to do now?”

Cullen’s emotions were too close to the surface. Aislinn just seemed able to push his buttons exactly the right way without even trying. Before he could push the wolf back down, he grabbed her hips and plunged into her. A low growl issued from his throat. One arm wrapped around her waist to hold her still, and the other arm reached under her to grab and torture one of her breasts while he pounded into her roughly. Aislinn let out an appreciative moan that pulled Cullen’s wolf further to the surface, and his hands began to shift.

Aislinn felt claws rake her beast. The pain mingled deliciously with the pleasure, and she gasped. The water hit them as they moved together. Aislinn tried to adjust her hips to get more of him inside her, but she couldn’t manage the right angle. She let out a needy moan. “Harder, Cullen,” she begged.

When Aislinn’s words registered in his mind, Cullen felt his wolf slip just a little more and his body shifted farther. He felt fangs grow in his mouth, and his face shift barely into his lycan form. He was holding it all back by a thread. Aislinn’s moaning and begging was more than he could handle. His wolf wanted her too badly.

Aislinn felt her body yanked upright. Water hit her in the face, and she closed her eyes. His arm around her waist was like steel. She felt the claws on her breast leave, and then felt her head being pulled to one side. She let him move her how he wanted. She could still feel his massive cock thrusting into her. Her hands reached for something to hold onto, but only found the slippery walls of the shower. Then she felt the piercing pain. Cullen bit down on her neck just where it met with her shoulder. She drew in a sharp breath. It was a strange sensation. Something about it brought her over the edge. She felt heat pool in her lower belly. The pleasure rolled over her. Aislinn’s body trembled with the sensations, and she cried out as he forced himself into her repeatedly through her orgasm.

Cullen tasted her blood as it rushed into his mouth. She was sweet, and her cries were needy. The combination mingled in his lycan mind as pure pleasure. When Aislinn climaxed he held on and forced himself up into her over and over again. Her pulsing walls brought him over the edge. Cullen started to fall forward as he lost control of his muscles through the convulsing pleasure of their orgasm. He released the hand holding her head to the side and caught himself on the wall of the shower.

Aislinn was finally able to open her eyes as they moved toward the wall. She only barely registered how close they both came to falling over. She reached out and helped Cullen to catch their fall as he came back to reality. She could feel his hot breath on her shoulder as the pain and pressure from his bite began to sink in. Cullen heard her whimper and pulled his mouth from her. He had left a very definite bite on her shoulder. A strange combination of pleasure and guilt swept through him at the sight of the bloody bite mark.

Sarah’s voice jarred him out of the moment as she called into the bathroom. “If you both are finished,” she said angrily, “I have those clothes you asked for.”

“
Caoch,” Cullen swore and carefully put Aislinn down. His wolf completely retreated into the recesses of his mind.
At least he’s pleased with himself,
Cullen thought in annoyance. “We gotta get moving,” he said and flipped the water off.

Aislinn gave him a dreamy look over her shoulder as she joined him back in reality. “Yeah, sure,” she said with a smile.

He stared at her and considered the fact that she seemed pleased with what had happened. Cullen briefly wondered if she understood the significance of what he had done. It didn’t matter right then. He’d have to have a serious conversation with her about it later. For now they needed to get dressed and head downstairs.

He handed her a towel as she stepped out of the shower, and she wrapped it around herself. Aislinn stopped for a moment to look in the mirror before joining him in the bedroom. She winced at the painful looking bite mark on her shoulder. She could tell from where it was that she’d have trouble hiding it. She had a brief flashback to the first time she had a hickey in high school and wearing a turtle necks and scarves for a week so that no one would notice.

When she got into the bedroom, Cullen was already pulling his pants on. Sarah had left the clothes for Aislinn on his bed and disappeared. Cullen looked over at the clock and swore again. He was already 10 minutes late. He knew that Sarah would tell Keith what she walked in on, and Cullen would have to go through another round of tormenting as a result. Then he looked over at Aislinn and saw her smiling at him. Her eyes were on fire. He wished that the two of them could run off for a month or so, alone. He wanted time to really know her, talk to her, and spend time understanding her. He wanted to be with her forever. There was too much happening to afford that kind of luxury right now. It had been decades since he’d had the kind of motivation he was feeling right now to resolve an issue facing the pack.

Cullen growled under his breath as he finished dressing and watched her put her clothes on. It was just underclothes, a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt. Sarah apparently didn’t bother to track down the bag that Rissa appeared to have packed. “I don’t have any shoes,” Aislinn said as she looked around the room.

“You don’t really need them,” Cullen said with a shrug. “We’re not leaving the building. You’ll find any number of people downstairs missing more than just shoes. I’ll get you some when we have a little more time.”

Aislinn heard the rush in his voice and nodded. She figured that shoes were the least of her worries right now.

Chapter 8

A kind word never broke anyone's mouth.

-Irish Proverb

The elevator doors opened onto the 13
^th
floor, and Lord General Cullen Arnauk stepped out into a room full of people. As he looked around, he guessed that the whole of the pack, including those who weren’t residing in the Madadh-Allaidh Saobhaidh were gathered. Most everyone was staring at him expectantly. Those who weren’t staring at him were staring directly behind him at Aislinn.

Aislinn watched Cullen’s face turn from passionate heat to emotionless stone as the elevator descended from the penthouse. He had been completely silent from the moment they stepped into the elevator. Now as they walked into the room she could see the reason why.
I’ve never heard of a pack of wolves this large,
she thought, looking around at the room full of people.

Cullen didn’t say a word to her. He simply passed through the crowd, and she followed along behind. Aislinn hoped that he would give her some direction when it was needed. The people in his way stepped aside to let him pass. Aislinn noted that every person Cullen looked directly at lowered his eyes and slightly bowed his head, some more obviously than others. The differences were subtle, but it didn’t take much to see that the larger the person the smaller the head nod. Aislinn quickly started taking mental pictures of who seemed to be higher in rank than others. She also watched the ones who seemed to dislike the show of submission, and the ones who appeared to do it with due respect. She felt like she had just joined an intricate chess game in the middle, and no one had told her who was playing which pieces.

Everyone in the room, with few exceptions, had a similar look to them. A person who had never met them before may have thought that any two of them were related. They all had the same dark hair and eyes that Cullen did. There were a few women and men who were lighter in shade or darker, but for the most part they all matched. Aislinn felt as though she stood out like a sore thumb, and not just because she was following along behind Cullen like a stray pup.

As Cullen walked into the great room there were slightly fewer people in there, and they were all arguing. One graying man was talking exceptionally loud. “How the hell could the woman vanish in full view of the entire pack and no one would say a word about it? No search party? No-“ The man cut himself off in mid sentence when Cullen entered the room. Everyone turned and looked at him, Keith with a grateful, relieved look. The man who had been yelling gave the smallest nod of everyone that Aislinn had seen so far. He was as tall as Cullen but slighter built, and his eyes were an angry, resentful brown. He looked considerably older than Cullen, but he was certainly still in good enough shape to be trouble. “So our Lord finally makes his appearance,” the man said, in a voice dripping with sarcasm. “And this little one behind him must be the curious cause of his late arrival.”

Aislinn met the man’s glare straight on, without blinking or flinching as he stared at her. He grinned back at her with a seemingly impressed and amused gaze when she didn’t lower her eyes or cow to his stare.

Cullen didn’t falter a single step. “Terrick, this is Aislinn,” he replied. And that was all he said about it. “Now do you mind if we move this conversation into private quarters?” Cullen called out a list of names, and each of those people moved out of the room and down a hall. Then he turned to Aislinn with concern. “The mood in here is harder than I thought it might be.” He pulled his elevator key card out of his pocket. “Don’t lose this,” he said, as if he was talking to a child. That earned him a glare from Aislinn which more than one person watching started whispering about. “If you need out of here go up to my room. I don’t have any idea how long this is going to take. But don’t leave the building.”

Aislinn nodded to him. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine,” she smiled at him. “I’m not so sure about you though, from the looks on the faces of those people you sent wherever.”

He let a smile toy with the corner of his mouth in return to her quiet comment. “I’ve seen worse.” Then the fleeting bit of emotion was gone, and he headed down the hall that the others had gone down, leaving Aislinn to figure out what to do with herself in the mean time.

She let out a heavy breath. This was going to be interesting. Everyone was here for an explanation, and they were all going to wait around until they got one. That much was certain. While they waited, Aislinn was a tempting target. They didn’t know how much she knew or didn’t know about the mating ceremony. But in and of herself she was certainly a curiosity that they wanted to know about. It was just a matter of time before the questions started. She briefly considered going up to the penthouse to hide, but decided that if she was going to figure out what she was in for, the only way to do it would be to stick around and see what happened.

Aislinn looked around the room at all the people staring at her. It wasn’t tough to pick out the ones who were merely curious about her and the ones who were pissed off. She counted three women who looked angry and six who looked amused. Those were probably the friends of the angry ones, who had to be some of the women that Cullen had mentioned. Aislinn was in the process of trying to come up with something to say to anyone when Rissa seemed to appear out of nowhere. Her eyes were sparkling with interest, and she was being followed by several other women who had the same amused inquisitive look as well.

Aislinn knew that she was about to be bombarded with questions, but she figured that anything Rissa wanted to ask had to be better than standing in the middle of the room like some kind of circus freak show. “Come on,” Rissa said, “Let’s go sit down. They’ll probably be forever back there. When Lord Arnauk gets that tone we all know we’re in for it.” Then her smile got impossibly wide as she added, “Although he certainly seemed to change his demeanor when he was talking to you.” The lilt in her voice said with no uncertainty that she was fishing for some kind of confirmation to the statement. Much to her disappointment Aislinn merely smiled back and shrugged. Aislinn was just relieved that she had found someone she knew and was relatively certain was friendly.

Aislinn gratefully followed Rissa out of the room and down a different hall. The room they ended up in looked like a library. Sitting areas with couches and armchairs were arranged together in confidential little nooks and surrounded by bookshelves. Several people were already in the room. They looked up and watched as the small group of women entered and headed for chairs. Aislinn wondered if there was a single room on this floor that wasn’t full of people.

“How many are in this pack anyway,” Aislinn asked with a bit more emphasis than she intended.

Rissa ushered Aislinn to one of the big couches, and they all sat down. “I don’t know exact numbers. It started out a lot smaller. Most packs are a lot smaller. But Lord Arnauk is, well, good at leading. There aren’t many other packs this large, mostly because there aren’t many alphas that can control this many people. Lord Arnauk seems to come by it naturally. Not to mention most of us just want somewhere safe to live, and he’s got one of the best set ups.” With that she introduced Aislinn to the other women who were with her. Then the questions started coming.

By the time Aislinn had finished avoiding directly answering any and all questions pertaining to what went on upstairs all afternoon, she was exhausted. Rissa was scowling. “And here I thought we were friends,” she said with a pout.

“Oh don’t you dare do that,” Aislinn scolded. “We are friends. But you’re getting awfully personal.”

“Personal is all relative. Humans have way too strict a sense of what’s personal. Besides, if any woman from this pack had ever managed to get up to Lord Arnauk’s rooms, the first thing she’d do when she came back down is tell everyone. Then she’d rub his scent in their faces. You’re acting like it’s something to be ashamed of, for goodness sake. You have in your lap access to the best bragging rights in the whole of the pack, and you’re keeping it to yourself!”