the biggest threat in the Kimball pack? There had to be a plan beyond that travesty of a battle the other night, because that wasn’t planned at all! It’s fucking tempting just to bite you and make you talk once we’re mated and you can’t hold out anymore.”
He leaned down again, and all at once, sheer terror took over. He was going to do it. The only semi-decent alpha I’d met in years was really going to mate me against my will, bend me to his, take me and keep me and never let me go.
I fought like the wildcat I was, clawing and tearing and thrashing all my limbs, screaming something incoherent even to me. I went for his eyes, and he cursed, dodging just in time to save his sight and wrestling me down to the bed.
It was the worst thing I could have done, but I couldn’t help it. I’d hit my breaking point with being backed into a corner, and I just — couldn’t. It didn’t do any good, of course. He had me pinned within a few seconds, my arms over my head with one of his hands holding them down and his body flat on top of me.
I bucked, trying to head-butt him, and his other hand landed on my throat.
We stared at each other, our chests rising and falling too fast against each other. He was hard, his cock jabbing between my legs like it was straining to get inside me through all our layers of clothing.
The door opened, and Ian burst in.
“We have a prob— the fuck, Matt?”
I couldn’t turn my head to look at him, and Matthew didn’t bother.
“Get out,” Matthew said thickly. “Get the fuck out, Ian.”
“Nothing I’d like better,” Ian said, sounding horrified. “But you need to get off of him and snap out of it. Just got a call from some alpha from Nevada. He claims he’s this bastard’s mate, and he’ll be here in an hour.”
Matthew’s eyes widened and his hand twitched around my throat. And just like that, my chance to be honest on my own terms was gone. It shocked me how much I regretted it.
Chapter 6
Two Mates too Many
Being in the same room with Matthew, Ian, Nate, and two members of the pack council wasn’t my idea of a good time. The fact that I was sitting on Matthew’s lap made it so much worse.
My hands were clammy, and I had a twitch in the muscle next to my nose. Matthew was warm and solid. I wanted to hate it.
None of that compared to knowing that Parker had found me, was coming for me, and would be here to take me within the next fifty minutes or so. If I had my manacles off, I’d kill him.
As it was, I had to depend on the Armitage pack to protect me, and that was a losing proposition in more ways than I could count.
We were arranged around the pack house’s large battered dining-room table, in mismatched chairs that looked like thrift store rejects. Matthew’s chair, at the head of the table, was the largest — which meant it only creaked a little under our combined weight. Ian sat at our right, with Nate beside him, and the two members of the council took the other side. They were both older, and if one hadn’t been female and the other male, they could’ve passed for identical twins, what with their matching short salt-and-pepper hair, heavily muscled bodies, and uncompromising scowls. I had no idea what their names were, because no one had bothered to introduce me.
“What did he say, exactly?” Matthew demanded.
He sounded completely in control, which surprised me more than a little. I’d expected a meltdown when Ian delivered his news, but Matthew had paused, closed his eyes for a moment, and then climbed off me and started rapping out orders: to send six of the pack’s best fighters to the territory border near the road, to alert the council, and to have Nate ready to provide magical support. Ian didn’t argue, which surprised me even more; he’d been so adamant about Matthew being out of the driver’s seat.
That left me to awkwardly crawl off the bed after him, until Matthew grabbed me by the arm and hauled me downstairs, clamping an arm around my waist and yanking me onto his lap as I tried to sit next to him at the table.
Ian frowned and ran his hands through his hair. “He said he’s the