Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
In the aftermath of being thoroughly dominated by two of my mates, I finally do as I am told.
Krall
I step outside the cabin once we are sure Tabby is asleep. I am proud of the way we handled her, and I am also proud that she seems to have gotten over her train-related fear…
Whomp!
My world pitches to the side as a massive fist makes sharp contact with my jaw.
Thorn has been waiting, and he has not calmed down at all in the interim. He looks at me with a seething kind of fury as I retain my balance. My head is ringing, but my fury is contained. Having just come deep inside my mate has put me in a good mood, and he is fortunate for that. Any other time, any other circumstance, this hall would run red with his blood.
“Sucker punch,” I say, straightening. “Where’s the honor in that, boy?”
He was expecting me to fight him back. His fists are raised, his chin is low, his eyes are dilated almost black. As he realizes I am not taking a fighting stance, he lowers his fists and screws up his face.
“She’s mine as much as she is yours. You had no right to take her from me.”
There we go. He’s jealous. He can’t help it. Nature demands he’d want to mate as much as we do, or more.
“I did when it was obvious you were making things worse,” I say. “Comfort works sometimes. It wasn’t working this time.”
“She wanted me to comfort her,” he says. “She wanted me. And you took her.”
I should be beating the hell out of my kid brother. The nerve to take a cheap shot like that. But he’s as mad with mating lust as the rest of us are, but has been able to do it less. He is right in saying I took her from him.
“We can’t beat the shit out of each other out of jealousy. Your turn is the next turn,” I tell him.
“Alright,” he says. “But she’s going to be sore again. I want to have her at a time when she’s not aching with use. It’s not fair on her, or on me.”
He doesn’t understand entirely how much she loves pain, and how integral that can be to the entire mating process. He can learn all that on his own. And she will not have to suffer the fumblings of a younger man entirely, because she has Skor and me to show her what a proper fucking feels like.
“We’ll give her some time to recover,” I say.
“Alright,” he nods. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I say. “But, boy? If you ever hit me like that again, I will beat you until you can’t move. I promise you that.”
Thorn looks ashamed. His temper got the best of him. He’s still young and impulsive and he doesn’t like being at the bottom of our dominance hierarchy.
At that moment, Skor steps out behind us and shuts the door. It’s good timing. Breaks the tension somewhat. Though of course he’s aware of it instantly. Skor has always been a freak bastard when it comes to knowing things he has no right to know.
“Is everything alright?”
“Yes,” I say, my eyes locked with Thorn. “Everything is fine.”
“I’m going in,” Thorn says.
“She’s sleeping,” Skor says. “Maybe let her rest.”
Thorn falls back. “Are the two of you planning on gatekeeping her forever? Am I to have no rights to my mate except when you deem it appropriate?”
Skor looks at me, as if he expects me to respond.
“We are going to have to find a way to share her that we are all happy with, but I think letting her sleep now is a good idea. When she wakes, she’s all yours.”
That satisfies Thorn.
“Good. Then I am going in to watch her sleep. Someone should be with her. The two of you can find some other way to entertain yourselves.”
He steps into the cabin and shuts the door behind him quietly.
Skor looks at me. “This is not going to be easy.”
What a hell of an understatement.
CHAPTER 7
Thorn
The train rolls into Broken Belly just as night is falling. There’s no dinner car yet, and all the passengers are hungry. My hunger is for more than food. I have been watching Tabby sleep for hours, and thinking about what I am going to do about my overbearing brothers in arms. I will not be pushed around. Rank and age have no place in this equation. I am also a force to be reckoned with, even if I am not an aged, tortured warrior. I think Tabby quietly likes me the best.
She starts to stir as the train slows.
She opens her eyes and smiles at me.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey,” I say back. “We’re coming into town.”
“Why’s it called Broken Belly?”
“Because some settlers came out this way a few hundred years ago and starved,” Krall says.