Into Their Woods (The Eerie, #1)(103)

I’ve asked this question before to Alpha Morgan, and he said he wasn’t sure, but they have to have some theory or guess, and it’s bugging the shit out of me. I don’t want those bastards in my head.

Gannon’s muscles tighten with anger, and fury settles in his eyes. “There’s no way another alpha entered Arcan territory without us knowing. That would be an act of war.”

I gulp but can’t quite manage to swallow down the boulder that appears in my throat. I have to speak around it, voice narrow and strained as I ask, “Okay…then how?”

His lips twist in frustration. “I don’t know,” he admits, echoing Alpha Morgan, the last word more snarl than speech. I get the impression that Gannon likes unanswered questions about as much as I do. “He shouldn’t have been able to,” he adds, fist clenching and then unclenching.

My stomach dips. Some of that fear that I couldn’t seem to muster up when all four men were in the room wriggles through the cracks in my defenses. It widens them and makes them bigger fractures full of worry.

I grab a dish towel from the island and start drying the bowls, trying to contain the barrage of possibilities floating through my mind.

“Does…does that mean they could be my mates, like he said?” I ask hesitantly, my stomach knotting up at the thought.

The silence stretches out so long that I end up repeating my question, under my breath, almost to myself. “Could they be my mates?”

“No,” Gannon answers resolutely.

“But how do you know?” I challenge, annoyance riding my tone.

“Because I know. That’s not how this works,” he gestures from me to him. “You were claimed by our den. Unless another den bites you and overrides that claim, your connection is to us, no one else.”

“Could they have bitten me when they attacked me? Before they left me in the forest?”

“Even if they did, it doesn’t matter. Because I bit you. And right then and there, our claim, our bite, would override any others. Trust me. You’re ours, Noah. No one else’s. I don’t give a shit what some mongrel says. If they wanted to claim you the honorable way, they could challenge our den. They haven’t and they won’t. And that tells me all I need to know about these spineless fuckers.”

The declaration and his vehemence has heat dipping low in my stomach and warming me from the inside out. I start wiping the counters with the dish towel in my hands, fighting against the toe-curling sensation that washes through me.

Why do I like that so much?

My inner thighs tremble at the idea that he’s staking a claim.

Gannon shadows me, following me around the kitchen, but keeping his distance. I can’t tell if he’s stalking me or being protective. Maybe both. But it makes some primal desire rise up. My cheeks heat as I pretend not to notice what he’s doing, pretend to be casual as I walk over to the far counter next to one of the fridges and wipe away imaginary specks of dust.

I lick my lips as I try to think of a question, to continue our current conversation and keep my rational side engaged so that the wolf side doesn’t rip away my good sense and inhibitions and beg Gannon to take me on this counter. “So, if one den bites me, I can only mate with the men in that den?”

“Yeah.”

“And they only mate with me—”

“Our den only wants you.”

“You guys don’t…with each other?”

A wicked twinkle shimmers in his eyes. “No, the only one taking our cocks would be you. But, you should know that our bond as a den means I’ll enjoy my brothers fucking my mate and cumming all over you almost as much I’ll enjoy doing it myself.”

Well, set me on fire and melt me down like a candle…shit.

I clear my throat and shake my head a little in an effort to clear it too. My entire body is suddenly taut with need, but I’m not done with my questions yet.

“Is…sex the way the mate claim gets settled?”

Gannon visibly startles. He blinks a few times before giving me a disbelieving expression. There’s a hint of caution and maybe even a bit of hope in his voice when he softly asks, “What?”

“You heard me. A den and their mate fuck and it’s done…or…?”

He probably thinks I’ve lost it. Fuck. Maybe I have. But despite our previous friction, I know Gannon will give it to me straight with no chaser. I don’t want to be handled like I’m fragile about this. I want to know exactly what I’m walking into, and regardless of all his hard edges, I know he’s a soft place to land.

“Sex is part of how a mate claim becomes a mate bond, but a mating is sealed through a pair bite, which means you bite us and we bite you and it locks the bond.”

“So it’s a group activity?”

Gannon chuckles. “The pair bite is, but the fucking doesn’t always have to be. And since you’re tiptoeing around the question you really want to ask right now, I’ll throw you a bone,” he gibes, looking annoyingly smug. “Fucking can be no strings. I could bend you over the counter right now if you wanted me to. There wouldn’t have to be any biting involved.”

A shiver of pleasure tickles down my spine, wrapping around my hips and diving between my thighs.

I give a dubious look around the kitchen. “I thought you said Ruger didn’t like water spots on his counters; I don’t think he’d take too kindly to me cumming all over them.”