Monsters & Guardians Read online

  Raine’s throat worked as her brain processed all the information he’d just given her. Then her lungs seized, her brain had a meltdown, and she heard Malachi curse his brother out like a sailor. “I fucking told you to leave it to Finn! Jesus, I don’t think she’s breathing.”

  She found herself flat on her back, two concerned pairs of eyes staring down at her as they kneeled. The panic attack grew claws as she imagined those same eyes boring into hers as their bodies pounded into hers, opening her freaking cervix for maximum penetration. She wheezed out a choked breath and slapped at their hands, not wanting any part of them touching her ever. “Don’t touch me!”

  “Raine—”

  She crawled backward, hands fisting on rocks she fully intended to throw at them if they came near her. Her vision swam, turning murky and gray. Bile rose in her throat more easily than breath. Sobs strangled her, destroyed the restriction in her chest, and she keened brokenly, rolling into a ball away from them.

  “Well shit,” Quinn muttered.

  “Fucking told you, Quinn. You did this, you damn well fix her.”

  “Come on, sweetheart, let’s have you up.”

  Hands slipped beneath her, scooping her up effortlessly despite her body remaining tightly balled. Cradled into a hot, solid chest, she shoved away from him, only to find herself unfolding as he painstakingly pried open her protective position and wrapped her around his body. Arms around his neck, legs around his waist, her head tucked into the curve of his neck and shoulder.

  She bit him as she wept.

  “Ow! Savage little minx.” But Quinn chuckled and pressed one hand to the back of her head while his other arm supported her ass.

  This was the closest she’d ever been to a man, especially one half-dressed. The heat of him surged inside her, flooding her veins and burning away the chill. Head on his shoulder, she let herself drift, too tired to contemplate the ramifications of what was happening.

  “She’s gonna fight whoever gets her first,” Malachi murmured.

  “Not necessarily. Much as I want her, my vote goes to Finn. He’ll control himself better than any of the rest of us.”

  Malachi snorted. “Fuck, what does it matter who goes first? It’s not like any of one of us is smaller in size than the rest.”

  She stirred restlessly, disturbed by the conversation, filing it all away as she floated. There was a hissed shush, followed by near silence. Only the sound of the night remained and the soft pad of footfalls. Snuffling softly, she focused on the stroke of Quinn’s hand down her back.

  “Think she’s the one?”

  Quinn’s chest rumbled with a growl. “So many questions, Mal. We won’t know until one of us knots her, and that could take some time. Now would you be quiet or go for a run, something. She’s damn near asleep and she doesn’t need your inane twenty questions working her back into a panic.”

  “Fine. Sure you can manage her?”

  “Positive. Fuck off and burn some energy away before we get back to the den.”

  “Well, in that case, I might go hunt me down a deer for breakfast.”

  Disturbing noises twisted her belly into knots. What sounded like bones cracking, snapping, distorting. Raine kept her eyes firmly closed and shuddered, promptly soothed by Quinn. Within moments, heavy panting reached her ears, and pounding footsteps disappeared to the left.

  “Everything will be fine,” Quinn crooned in her ear. He walked steadily, with purpose, and his hold on her was so secure she had no fear of falling. “Destiny has a funny way of showing itself, but when it does, don’t fight it. Don’t fight us, Raine. God, I love your name. Brings to mind the fields at home after a spring shower, all green grass and glistening flowers.”

  Pretty words in a pretty accent from a pretty guy, Raine told herself. Pretty littles lies designed to make her submit. Maybe he offered her comfort and compliments, maybe he made her feel safe right now, but she needed to remember that when he had her pinned down, her rights stripped away and her body violated, there would be no comfort, no compliment, no protection great enough to compensate for his actions.

  Their actions.

  “Honestly, I don’t know how to prepare you for the next few days, sweetheart.” He did appear to be disturbed by that, she’d give him that much. “We’re not monsters, we don’t mean to be brutal, but those damn pheromones of yours...they’re a drug to us, Raine, and we’re addicts who haven’t had a hit of the real deal in two years.” He sighed and tried to pull her in tighter against him, for his comfort or hers, she didn’t know. “It’s going to hurt. Admitting that shames me, knowing I’ll be part of it, because we don’t want to hurt you. None of us, no matter how much blustering Dubhlainn does.”

  “Don’t,” she muttered against his chest.

  “Raine?”

  “Don’t be like this. Don’t be sweet and kind.” Her voice slurred with sleep, but she wanted to say it. Say the words that would burrow under his flesh and haunt him when he forced his body inside hers. “All of you know what you’re doing. What you’re going to do. Whether I want it or not.”

  “Yes.” His body, so straight and proud, sagged a little.

  “So don’t sugarcoat it and throw fake fucking flowers over the shit like being nice is going to make up for raping me. Don’t mistake how I am now, exhausted and scared, for capitulation.” Raine infused her voice with a strength she didn’t feel, couldn’t physically muster. “I will fight every single one of you. I will draw blood, leave scars, rip you into so many shreds shifting won’t put you back together in one piece. I am not weak. I will not roll over and submit. I’ll treat you like the monsters you are.”

  Chapter Two

  Dubhlainn

  Sneaky little bitch.

  Despite the fact she’d inflicted pain—no, correction, sheer fucking agony—on his person, Dubhlainn had a begrudging respect for the fiery little redhead with stunning pewter eyes. Not many had the stones to attack the likes of him, his size and bulk intimidated most into backing down at the first sign of intimidation. But that firecracker? Fuck, she’d not only opened his chest and driven that damned knife into his belly without hesitation, she’d continued and wounded two of his brothers.

  That wasn’t just stones; that was warrior blood in her veins.

  Cabhan and Finn watched him with mild concern as he kneeled on the ground, staunching the flow of dark red blood oozing from his stomach with his fist. His jeans were no longer tatty and faded blue, they were tattered and scarlet, sticky with his life’s essence.

  “Just shift, Dubh. Your wolf will take over and do it for you once you pass out anyway,” Cabhan advised. The cocky bastard had already completed his shift and healed the nasty chest wound Raine had slashed into his flesh, and the fucker was remarkably cheerful about the whole thing.

  Dubh, however, was seething inside. Not only had his potential mate attacked him and brought him unceremoniously to his knees, his fucking brothers were talking about denying him his right to claim her first. And, hot damn, did he want to claim her before any of these reprobates got their dirty paws on her.

  Two years they’d been exiled from Maigh Cuilinn, the werewolf village of their youth, and in that time they’d never stumbled across a mortal female with the necessary pheromones. Travelling around the globe, they’d relieved various itches with female wolves from other packs, but not one jumped out as a mate. And then there were the three.

  Three mortal women with knowledge of wolf shifters—not through Dubhlainn or his brothers—who had insisted they could take what the brothers had to give. Had done so before, they all proclaimed, with ease and pleasure. Lovely, confident, passionate women with experience and humor and the willingness to carry the pups of any brother who succeeded in his duty to the line.

  All three had succumbed to internal injuries.

  All three had lost their lives in horrendous pain.

  All three haunted Dubhlainn from waking to sleeping and every hour between.

  But Raine...
there was something different about her, and he didn’t think it was just the right balance of hormones needed to make her fully compatible with the bachelor pack. He was aware Finn had picked up on it too, whatever it was.

  She could rip this little band of brothers into pieces.

  Sickness roiled in his belly and he took that as a sign he needed to get his ass into gear and shift. He didn’t have a good reason for not doing so before now. He’d just been...contemplating the situation, as his blood pooled around his knees and soaked into his pants. Yeah, Raine had him all tied up in knots.

  He was going to reciprocate the favor.

  Growling under his breath, Dubh released his hold on the wolf, on the other, vital part of him. Without the big black bastard, he’d be half the man he was and not jus physically. The wolf gave him strength, passion, courage, power. What Dubh lacked in his human self, the wolf gave him in spades, shoring up self-doubts. It also had a compassionate side that balanced out Dubh’s natural assholery.

  He gritted his teeth and grunted as the initial spasms twisted the muscles in his back, his legs and sent him onto his side. Pain, fond and distant, skated along his spine as it cracked, elongated, strengthened to bear the weight of the wolf, followed by his limbs. He breathed through the snap and reforming of bones, and then everything else was forgotten when the wolf caught Raine’s scent.

  Mate. Female. Ours.

  She will be, Dubh promised. We need to heal, we need to prepare, and then we will make her ours. She is beautiful and feisty and put a knife in us. Perfect for what we need in a mate and the mother of our pups.

  Now.

  Change complete, Dubh cursed inwardly as the wolf launched to its feet, sniffing frantically along the ground. There was little control left when the beast threw its head back and howled triumphantly, body vibrating with the knowledge that their mate was within reach.

  “Dubh! Don’t you fucking dare!” Cabhan’s arms were around the wolf’s neck, struggling to hold onto the powerful animal. “Jesus, he’s bloody strong. Finn, get the other side of him!”

  The wolf snapped and snarled, and got a fist in the nose for its trouble. Finn set up for another blow, his eyes steely-gray with determination. He punched the wolf again, harder this time, and almost got his hand bitten off at the wrist, but the sharp blows were loosening its hold on the reins.

  Reins Dubhlainn quickly pulled in tight.

  “Under control?” his brother demanded.

  Dubh nodded and soothed his wolf, vowing they would fuck the female at the soonest opportunity. Grumbling, it retreated, and Dubh let the shift wash back over him, leaving him naked. Disgusted, he kicked at the pile of ripped material that had been his pants. Every fucking time, he ruined his goddamn pants and ended up going home buck-ass naked.

  “Going somewhere?” Finn asked with a smirk.

  “Wolf caught her scent. Wolf now agitated and wants to fuck her senseless.”

  “Nothing new there then,” Cabhan muttered. “Like human, like wolf.”

  His lip curled. “You have the same struggle with your wolf, Cabhan. We all do. They want what they want. We want what we want. When we both want the same things, it’s only a matter of time until we get it.”

  Finn studied the sky, pursed his lips. “Walk and talk, lads. We should catch up with Quinn and Mal in case the pretty little assassin is giving them shit.” He set off without waiting for his brothers, eyes still trained on the sky. “Your wolf is more volatile than any of ours, Dubh. Just like you’re more intense than us. Alpha material, through and through. Which is why you need to consider Raine before we get to the den.”

  Dubhlainn rolled his eyes. “Her virginity is mine, Finn.”

  They walked, keeping pace with each other now. Purposeful, with a destination in mind. Though tension simmered between the three, it didn’t come to a head. But it waited, brewing, with the potential to explode with a wrong word.

  “Consider Raine,” Finn said pointedly. “Raine, Dubhlainn. The female who has never had sex and is facing the prospect of being brutally fucked by five hellish men in a short period of time. I’ve seen you fuck; hell, we’ve all seen each other fuck, and you are a machine. Wet pussy wraps around your cock and you lose focus of everything but trying to force your knot in.”

  Dubh growled, insulted. “I’ve had no complaints.”

  “They come, several times, so I doubt you would. My point is, she’s going to be lucky if her body responds to us. She already sees it as rape; she’s going to resist. Between her virginity and resistance, there’s going to be pain. We need to be prepared for tearing, for internal damage. Not the first time,” he reminded his brother with a glare. “You jackhammering her pussy into a bloody mess will only turn her further against us. We need to coax her to us, tempt her, persuade her to let us in. Terrifying and torturing her is the wrong way to do things.”

  “Turned into a wise little fucker, didn’t you?” Dubh gave his youngest sibling a fond cuff around the ear. “You’re in tune with your feminine side, Finn; sure you’re not swinging for the wrong team?”

  Finn just laughed, unoffended. “Any man would be lucky to have me, Dubh. But unfortunately for you losers, my cock likes the women, so I’ll have my turn with Raine the same as you. No cutting me out of the line.”

  As they trailed after Quinn and Malachi, Dubh thought over what Finn had said. Maybe he did have a tendency to pound a female hard, all the better for leverage when it came to pushing in those extra few inches that made up his knot. It was possible, he supposed, that his main goal during sex was to tie to the bitch beneath him. And perhaps the wellbeing of said bitch became second in priority.

  “I could be gentle,” he mused. Mulling it over, he thought he might be able to keep himself in control and not traumatize her when he fucked the innocence right out of her. “Yeah, I could do that.”

  “No,” Cabhan said vehemently, “you couldn’t. It’s not your MO, big brother. You like to fuck, you like to fuck hard, and you’re not too bothered whether your partner enjoys it or not. Like Finn said, they come so they don’t complain but I wouldn’t be surprised if you sent half of them home raw and bleeding.”

  “So who are you suggesting then?” Irritated beyond belief, Dubhlainn snapped his teeth. Is that what they honestly thought, his brothers and the women from his past? That he wasn’t bothered if women enjoyed themselves with him in bed? How demoralizing. “You? Or you?” he demanded, pointing his finger at both his brothers.

  “Quinn would be my logical choice.”

  “Quinn? Seriously?”

  “Yes, quite seriously. He is quiet, he is controlled up until his orgasm. By that time, Raine may have reached her own if Quinn plays her right. It might still be against her will, but at least her initial experience with sex could be...tolerable, with Quinn.”

  “And ten minutes later, when the next one climbs on top of her, is she going to tolerate that as well? How about the third time, the fourth, the fifth? There is no tolerating us, Finn. There is only enduring.”

  Regret flashed in Finn’s eyes, his soft heart shining through. “I know this. I hate it. Hate that she will suffer because of what we are, what our nature demands. Raine is our dream, our Holy Grail, and we are her nightmare. Doesn’t that weight heavy on you, Dubh? Cabhan? It’s a fucking mountain on my shoulders.”

  Cabhan shrugged but there was uneasiness in the gesture. “We’ve never taken a woman by force before. Yes, it weighs heavy, Finn. It will leave a mark on my soul and I’ll be judged for it when the time comes. We all will. And I hope Raine is there on judgement day to bring down the hammer for what we do.”

  Dubhlainn lifted an eyebrow. “That’s really how you feel?”

  “Yes. There’s consequences to be paid for what’s coming, Dubh.”

  “So why do it? Why participate when you know there are consequences?”

  Cabhan rubbed his chin slowly and blew out a breath. “Like you said, the wolf wants what it wants. I can fight it all I wa
nt, maybe I can win. Any other woman, I would win. But Raine...the pheromones...sometimes you have to decide whether to fight a losing battle or simply pay the piper when he calls.”

  “Hold up,” Finn muttered and held up a hand for them to stop. He sniffed the air, frowned. “They’re not too far ahead. See if they’re handling her; if they are, we’ll go hunt something down for breakfast.”

  “Mal can get his own damn breakfast,” Cabhan muttered.

  “Maybe Raine will be hungry. She will be hungry at some point, whether she admits it or not, and she’ll need to keep her energy levels high.” Finn said it matter-of-factly, but his voice was strained with worry. “Let’s just see what’s what.”

  Stealthily, they hurried to catch up with Quinn and Mal, only to find Malachi gone and Quinn cuddling their female. She was wrapped around him, her head on his shoulder as he walked, but the conversation was not flowers and rainbows by any means.

  “Don’t be like this. Don’t be sweet and kind.” Raine’s voice slurred with sleep, but her tone was cutting, almost savage with intensity. “All of you know what you’re doing. What you’re going to do. Whether I want it or not.”

  “Yes.” Quinn’s straight posture, usually so full of pride, faltered as her words sliced into him. While he wasn’t as sensitive as Finn, Dubh knew, Quinn was probably the next most caring brother. He had a heart, well-guarded, but Raine had slipped the proverbial knife under his shields as easily as she had the literal one in Dubh’s belly.

  “So don’t sugarcoat it and throw fake fucking flowers over the shit like being nice is going to make up for raping me. Don’t mistake how I am now, exhausted and scared, for capitulation.” Her voice throbbed with conviction and Dubh believed every word she spat with venom. “I will fight every single one of you. I will draw blood, leave scars, rip you into so many shreds shifting won’t put you back together in one piece. I am not weak. I will not roll over and submit. I’ll treat you like the monsters you are.”