honest, I wouldn’t like your chances in wolf form, and you have less than none as a human.”
“Thanks,” I say dryly. “I needed further insult to add to the bounty I have acquired over the past day.”
He chuckles.
“How come you didn’t shift to heal it?”
Fen rarely lets a matter drop until he has gotten all the details. He is talking about my black eye, which aches like a bastard.
Better I get this over with.
“Her pa told me a man should never discipline a lass while angry,” I say.
Fen whistles. “He has a point,” he agrees.
“He also said a man should never discipline a lass because he is jealous of another man.”
Fen grimaces.
Yeah, that one stung as well. “Then he said if I put my hands on Jessa again, he would nail me to the barn wall by my balls and leave me there until I learned a lick of sense.”
Fen chuckles.
“Then he thumped me. The bastard has been a carpenter his whole life and has big fucking hands.”
Fen’s chuckle turns into a deep guffaw. “How the fuck does that work?” he asks.
“How does what work?” I say, scowling. I want to forget the whole fucking thing. I do not want to talk about it.
“Nailing a man to a wall by his balls?” Fen elaborates. “Surely you would just drop off the wall?”
I cut him a scowl. Every time I think about that threat, I swear my cock shrivels, and my balls try to crawl up my ass. “I don’t fucking know,” I say. “I believe it was said to inspire fear rather than something he would actually do. It is working. I will not touch the lass.”
“But you do want to?” Fen presses because he is too dense to know when to let a matter go.
I do want to. But I also understand when want is without hope. Her pa will not let me near the lass. She is of age now, although her father has yet to announce it officially. If I am honest with myself, I do not feel worthy after spanking her as I did. I resolve to put Jessa out of my mind. Better for all involved if I do for nothing could ever come of it. She deserves a better man who does not succumb to jealousy because another man’s scent is all over her.
I swallow, thinking about her arousal as she stood between the two of us.
Some lasses need more than one mate, just as some men need more than one lass. It is the way of the clans that we do not judge. I think Jessa, for all she is still innocent, will need more than one mate. I have caught the occasional hints of arousal on her, more often of late. But nothing like the heady saturation that every shifter and Alpha in the fucking square must have scented when Jessa was between Gage and me.
He sensed it. And he wants her too.
My wolf is not inclined toward sharing, and definitely not with the son of the Lyon clan king.
Better for everyone that I back the fuck away.
“No,” I say. “I do not want her.”
“Good,” Fen says decisively and in a way that piques my concerns. “That will make my plans easier.”
“What plans?” I ask.
The bastard only grins.
I am a Beta wolf, so it is in my nature to latch with an Alpha and follow. Yet, I still do not have a fucking clue how I end up rutting a lass in the forest a short distance from the huts and cottages of her home.
This is all because Fen is hellbent on causing mischief with their king’s son, Eric.
Eric is besotted with Gwen. I heard that he gifted her flowers the other day. What a fool! Gwen is as tall as most Beta men and has better combat skills than half of Eric’s clan. The idiot should have claimed her long ago. He doesn’t even have an enraged father getting in his way.
Fen has determined that Eric needs a little push. Also, Fen is Eric’s rival as far back as time and cannot help but bait him about the lass.
He cannot help baiting everyone, truth be told.
The lass’ name is Gwen, and she is a warrior maiden from the Halket clan.
The only thing I get out of this mischief is a clear determination that I don’t want any lass but Jessa. The fire flashing in her pretty eyes as she boldly stood between Gage and me, and called us a pair of