Baby + the Late Night Howlers Read online

  “Here’s your bags, baby girl,” Jonah said. I met him on the marble, Bullet following behind me and taking the bags before I could slide them onto my own shoulders.

  “You won’t leave tonight, right?” I asked Jonah, uncertain if the others would come find Bullet and I later, or if they’d leave me to handle our edgy alpha.

  “No, we’re takin’ a couple days to settle you in,” Jonah said, leaning and pressing a kiss to my raised lips. He bent and pressed his lips to my ear. “We’ll come find you after we get the lay of the land.”

  I nodded and then stepped back into Bullet’s arms and followed his guiding touch up the broad and curving staircase into the ‘right-wing.’ It was dark and Bullet didn’t bother with any lights, just tucked my hand in his and pulled me along. We passed shadows of heavy gilded frames on the walls, their contents obscured in the dark. The hall went on with a near nightmarish length, the wing almost comically large.

  “You told me you grew up here,” I said.

  Bullet was quiet, although I thought I caught his head nodding ahead of me.

  I spoke slowly, hoping he would pick up the thread of thought for me. “Like… it was… your parents’ house?”

  “Yeah. Well, technically grandparents, but my mom and her alphas lived here with them. Here.”

  Bullet stopped in front of a narrow door and jiggled a handle open. His shoulders barely fit through as he stepped inside, jerking in the bags of bedding and my clothes that had been hastily packed. He flipped a switch and I braced myself for sudden, harsh light, but the bulbs overhead warmed gradually, a soft glow from round bulbs that circled the curling staircase.

  “Bullet, is this a turret?” I asked, a slight giggle escaping.

  “Um, yeah kinda.”

  The stairs were polished wood with dense carpet, so it couldn’t have been that old. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I wouldn’t have thought you came from…”

  “Old money?” He paused, and this time when he looked over his shoulder at me I could make out his grin in the soft light. “Yeah. I can’t say I never fit in while I was growing up. But things definitely changed after my designation came in.”

  He continued up, and I chased his heels until we broke out of the spiraling steps and onto a landing. There were two doors at an angle. Bullet opened one and flicked a light switch, revealing black and gold tile, another smaller chandelier hanging above a deep clawfoot tub. There was a shower booth big enough for four, and on the opposite side of the room was a long bar with a wide countertop and two sinks.

  The other door opened to a second set of steps and I watched Bullet disappear up it, my eyes lingering greedily on the luxury bathroom. Curiosity won out, and I followed Bullet up. It was only a handful of steps that opened into a small, round room. The walls were a deep and velvety blue, curving up the sides to a domed ceiling with a modest, rounded, glass roof at the very top. The floor was made of a memory foam mattress, and Bullet tossed the bags down and then toed off his boots on the final step. I shuffled out of my own shoes and watched his feet sink into the cushions with the first step.

  The floor seemed to follow a gentler opposite curve to the ceiling, pooling into the center where a tangle of velvet pillows and silky sheets and chenille blankets and downy black comforters waited for me to dive into them.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  Bullet huffed and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me to his chest and burying his face in my hair. “Hoped you’d like it.”

  “It smells like you,” I said. It smelled like roses at least, and I remembered what he said about his mother and her alphas. “It was your mother’s?”

  “It was mine,” he said.

  I jerked back at that and spun to face him. “Yours?”

  Bullet sighed and scuffed his hand through his beard. Then he turned and let himself fall carelessly backwards into the bedding, a fluff of pillows and comforter bouncing around him as he landed. It looked like a soft landing and I was dying to copy him.

  “C’mere, kitten,” Bullet purred from inside the nest.

  A nest. A real nest, with a low ceiling and a skylight and a never-ending bed. I took one step onto the platform and whimpered as memory foam swallowed my foot. I ran forward, bouncing through cushions and then dove onto Bullet. He caught me with an oof and a laugh as I burrowed over him and into a deep well of blankets.

  “Omigod, omigod,” I sighed as I rolled in infinite softness, grabbing up each texture and nuzzling into it.

  Bullet purred at my side and it drew me back to him, twisting through blankets to roll to my side and face him. His eyes were drowsy, but he seemed relaxed finally.

  “Bullet, honey. You’re an alpha,” I said.

  “I am.”

  “How come you have a nest in a mansion that no one in our pack seemed to know about?”

  “There’s more than one question in that,” Bullet said, and I shrugged. “Umm, so my mom’s family was pretty matriarchal. Long history of having omega children. But my mom, she had a hard time getting pregnant, which is rare for omegas. So when she got pregnant with me, everyone assumed I’d be…”

  “An omega,” I finished for him, my eyes wide.

  “Instead they had me. Barking, snarling. Dirt behind my ears at the dinner table. My mom and my grandfather tried to groom me. Thought that when I was old enough my designation would start to flip in the right direction…”

  “I don’t, I can’t—“ My eyes drifted up the ceiling in confusion. “I don’t know how anyone could mistake you for anything other than alpha.”

  Bullet hummed and his arm slithered under the pillow holding my head up, tugging me back to his warm chest and planting a kiss on my forehead. “I think Mom knew, but the doctors told her she wouldn’t get pregnant again and she felt like she let her… I dunno, legacy down, or whatever. And, you know, I wasn’t always so big and scary.”

  I tilted my head back to see him smirk, his eyebrows waggling. I snorted and relaxed into his arms. “Scary’s not the word I’d use,” I said.

  He grunted. “Oh yeah? What word would you use then, kitten?”

  “You’re gentle with me,” I said, and Bullet purred.

  “I’d never hurt you, Baby,” he said, the teasing vanishing from his tone.

  I shifted, abandoning the cloud-soft nest for my rocky and muscular alpha, stretching myself over his chest. His hands slid down my back and settled themselves comfortably on my ass, squeezing briefly.

  “I know you wouldn’t.” I nuzzled into his chin and left a kiss there. “But I think the word I would use is…sexy.” Bullet purred, and I stretched up to peck his lips and pull away before he could chase me. “Or protective.” I kissed the side of his mouth. “Or patient.”

  “Not always that,” Bullet said, words vibrating in his throat. And despite the claim he held me loosely so I could lounge over him, his hands keeping me steady on his chest.

  “Is that why you always look so sheepish when you growl or bark?” I asked him. “Because you were raised to be an omega?”

  “S’pose so. When my bark came in—I mean, really in—it was a rough couple years. My dad tryin’ to keep me in line, and me being a shit and takin’ advantage of my grandad falling in line when I barked. So it’s a little bit guilt too.”

  My legs slid open pushing myself up to sit, feeling Bullet’s hips below mine, admiring him in the mess of jewel-toned pillows, hair falling loose from where he’d tied it back.

  “I love that you’re sweet and careful,” I said, watching his smile grow slowly across his face. “I love hearing your growl too,” I added, and his smile stilled and eyes widened. When I emphasized my point with a roll of my hips, his lips parted. “Your bark makes me wet.”

  “Kitten,” he said, and the word was halfway between a purr and a growl.

  “I don’t need you to be anything other than yourself, Bullet,” I said, rocking almost imperceptibly above him. “If there’s some Quincy in that too, well he�
��s more than welcome. And if there’s more alpha than you were raised to be, that’s fine with me too.”

  “You tired, Baby?” Bullet asked, voice gravelly low and eyes hooded. His hands tugged my skirt out and then slid beneath to hunt for skin.

  “I napped in the car,” I said, grinning and waiting for the predator beneath me to lunge.

  “Then take your clothes off.”

  The words were soft, almost whispered, but they held the beautifully dark and open echo at the back of his voice. My alpha just barked.

  28

  Bullet

  It’d been a long time since I used my bark intentionally. It snuck out now and again. In the army plenty. In the club occasionally, like while I was bouncing at the bar and a dickhead couldn’t take a fucking suggestion without you proving you were the bigger alpha in the argument. I’d never used it like this though, and in spite of Baby’s careful coaxing, I flinched at the sound, soft as it was.

  That flinch melted in the face of my sweet kitten’s beaming smile, brilliant in the shadow of the nest. If I weren’t so perfectly satisfied beneath her, I would’ve gotten up and turned some lights on. But my eyes were adjusted to the dark and I could see the most important thing in the room.

  Baby, peeling that sweet little dress of hers up over her head, the lacy red bra Bomber had picked out for her turned gray against the blue dark of the room.

  “Hands by my head,” I said, that hollow ringing command still held in check.

  Baby paused and raised her eyebrow at me. “I was undressing.” But she didn’t resist the call, her body leaning forward until her hands were sinking into pillows on either side of my head.

  “I’m helping,” I said tipping my head beneath hers and then hooking my thumbs into the hips of her leggings and panties, and caressing the soft skin I found as I pulled them down. “One leg out.”

  Her cheeks flushed and tiny quick breaths panted from her lips as she peeled one leg free. I guided her knee up to next to my side and then freed her other leg. Baby’s bottom lip was between her teeth as I settled her knees on either side of my chest. Goddamn, she had freckles all the way up to her sex.

  “Kiss,” I said, goosebumps rolling under my fingertips as I used my alpha bark on her.

  I stretched so she didn’t have to contort so much, sucked hard at her full lips as if they were fruit until she was whimpering against my mouth. Then I relaxed back into the nest and grinned at her.

  “Your other lips, kitten.”

  Baby moaned and sat up on her knees, her sex already shining as she shuffled forward to poise herself above my mouth.

  “What’s a girl got to do to get a fuckin’ knot around here?” she asked, grinning. Her thighs were trembling, and I couldn’t wait to really make her shake.

  “Sit on my face and find out,” I answered, dropping the bark for the moment. Fuck, if she really wanted my knot, it was certainly doing it’s best to be ready for her.

  “Shit, Bullet, I—“

  “Sit.”

  Just like that, I had a mouthful of silky-soft, slippery, wet pussy. Baby and I both laughed at her quick response to my bark, then she whined and her thighs trembled and tensed, holding herself back from grinding. That wouldn’t do. I wanted my sweet girl so out of her mind, she couldn’t help but ride my mouth for more.

  I wrapped my hands around the full cheeks of her ass and gripped tight, my chest puffing up at the hitch in her breath. I pulled her down to press against my mouth, parting my lips and dragging my tongue slowly through her slit, parting tender folds with a cut of pleasure until I found her clit.

  “Fuuuck,” Baby hissed as I sucked on the spot, her hips already bucking. I purred and her laugh was high and breathless, trembling with a whine.

  The room was thick with honeysuckle and cake, and I was sucking her flavor down with every lick. I wanted to throw her to the mattress, tear open my pants, and fuck her until she was too full of me to even think of words. Shit. Baby was gonna put me in a rut to match her heat. Her body bowed above me and I feasted on her, gazing up at her breasts hanging and heaving with desperate breaths. I wanted my mouth on those too, leaving beard burn on that perfect, freckled skin.

  I growled as her hands dug into my hair, her hips lifting from my mouth slightly.

  “Can I?”

  “You better hold on, kitten. I’m not comin’ up for air again until you’ve soaked my beard in that sweet cream of yours,” I growled.

  Baby’s giggle was nervous. “Now who’s the feline?”

  I grinned and then slid my hands from her ass to her thighs, guiding her back down. It was about time my girl knew how long I could hold my breath. I pulled her higher, teasing the lips of her sex with sucks and nibbles, her thighs around my ears muffling her happy cries. When I found her opening with the tip of my tongue, all sounds above stopped as she held her breath and waited. I didn’t. I fucked my tongue up inside her, growling at that tart fruit and cake batter flavor of her. I’d grabbed dinner on the road, and now I wanted my fuckin’ dessert.

  Baby’s fingers clenched in my hair, and her thighs squeezed as she wiggled and squirmed. I growled and thrust my tongue inside of her, slurping and devouring every drop of her. My nose was against her clit, nudging as I feasted, my beard massaging every swollen and needy inch of her pussy. Thank fuck Juliet had given me her extreme conditioner, ‘cause I wanted my kitten feeling my beard in the best way rather than the one that would leave her stinging.

  “Oh fuck, Bullet, honey, I need your cock,” Baby whimpered. I tugged her harder against my face, purring for her pleasure and wanting to grin at the high squeaking sighs it caused to fall from her lips.

  She was shaking and riding my face, her little fingers threatening to rearrange my hairline, but I wasn’t gonna stop until Baby screamed my name and gave my thirsty mouth a good drink.

  Apparently, that wasn’t gonna take long.

  “Damn, your fuckin’… omigod, Bulllllll,” she squealed as I wormed my tongue around the inside of her cunt, growling and burrowing against her, my chest tight for air.

  And then she squeezed, thighs shaking fully, her voice crying out and body swaying as she lost control and came to a fast and ragged climax. I groaned, pulling her slowly back so I could catch my breath and lick my goddamn lips because Baby had turned me into a frosted cupcake and I was feeling it.

  “Fuck me,” Baby sighed, which might have been an expression of shock more than a request but since that was the plan anyway, I threw her back into the cushions, limp and covered in a blush of arousal.

  Baby grinned at me as I shuffled up onto my knees, my hands going for my pants. Her eyes were heavy-lidded with satisfaction and she stretched in the nest, knees high and parted wide to welcome me, pussy still glistening with her release.

  “You better be taking all of that off,” Baby said, raising an eyebrow as I pushed my pants down my hips.

  I looked down. My cock was out and aching, and my knot was all but fully blown. But Baby was right. I didn’t wanna fuck her like a bar hookup, ready to pull my jeans back up after getting my dick wet. I yanked my t-shirt up over my head in a clumsy maneuver that made my girl release a sweet giggle, and then scrambled out of my jeans and boxers. I fell forward as I kicked out of the last leg of my pants, catching myself above Baby’s grinning face.

  That face needed kissing.

  She giggled and sighed as I dove down for her mouth, her hands reaching up to hold my jaw. She wasn’t shy of her own taste on my lips. Instead, she tried to pull me closer, one hand sliding down my back to try and force me to fall against her. Baby liked having us close, and it gave me a giddy sensation to be needed by her. There was just something I needed first.

  I licked into Baby’s mouth, teasing against her tongue like I had in her cunt, waiting until she was whining at the back of her throat to pull away. I ducked out from under her hands, taking them in my own and pushing them back into the pillows above her head as I licked swirling patterns down her throat,
over her chest, to her breasts.

  “Bullet, honey, I need your knot.”

  She did. I could hear it in her voice, bordering on pain for how badly she wanted to be filled. I wasn’t in much better shape, my knot throbbing, but if I was going to fall into a rut once I got balls deep in my kitten, then I wasn’t going to rush getting there. She deserved pleasure too intense to think straight and I liked to hear her beg.

  I pulled a breast to my mouth, sucking at the perfect pointed tip, dragging my teeth across as I fondled the other in my hand, fingertips mapping every plush inch. Baby’s fingers dug into my hair again, long slender legs twisting around my hips, heels digging into my ass in an attempt to drive me in. I sank slightly, letting her feel my length against those tender lips I’d savored.

  “Bullet, please,” Baby cried.

  I rolled my hips, coating myself in her juices, teasing her clit with the head of my cock. “Kitten, hasn’t anyone taught you patience?” I asked, grinning. I lifted my head and marveled at the sight before me. Lips bitten and swollen, pupils blown black with desire. Baby looked senseless and lost to her heat. It was time to stop teasing my girl.

  I sat back on my heels and wrapped my hands around her hips, lining myself up at her entrance with three more quick slides against her dripping core. I knew Baby would want me close and heavy against her, but there was no way I was missing the view of sinking inch by inch into her tight, wet heat as her body arched into the pressure, voice singing out in relief as I filled her.

  I didn’t stop, didn’t test her with a few thrusts. Baby needed me, and she would have me from tip to hilt.

  Her body barely resisted my knot, greedy lips swallowing me down. It was agonizing and perfect, and I strained against the impulse to let my eyes slide shut in pleasure, especially as she started to clench and flutter around me, an orgasm immediate upon my knot swelling and filling her. Another time, I would fuck her with my cock until her release ran down my thighs, but right now Baby needed a different kind of pounding, one that was all pressure and little thrust.