Chapter 8
Lanie
“You want me to what?!”
“We have to sleep together tonight,” Xander repeated.
“Are you kidding me? Is Alice going to be joining us?”
Both Xander and Zane stood in front of me, jaws clenched, arms crossed over their chests.
Dear go d they were se xy.
| wanted nothing more than to sleep with them tonight.
But not under these circumstances.
Had this been a typical mating, | would have sprinted to their bed after the ceremony.
Instead, Alice was looming over us.
And not even that, this was the Alpha and Beta, which added a whole other level of pressure and difficulty. “Lanie.”
And there it was. The Alpha voice.
“No. You will not use your Alpha voice on me to get me into bed with you. Not happening. You can use that s hit on Alice when you get the Elders to mate her to you, but not on me.” | crossed my arms as well, matching their stances and meeting their gazes, my Doc Martens planted firmly.
Xander narrowed his eyes.
00
Movement from behind him caught my eye.
And there she was.
Alice, peeking around the corner and into the luxurious study filled with dark hard woods, masculine leather,
and walls of books.
| met her gaze and held it.
Her curious expression shifted, and anger filled her eyes, darkening them as her wolf started to come forward.
What the hell?
Shy, quiet Alice had a malicious side?
| made a m ental note of it and re-focused back on Xander and Zane. Right now, | had to slay one dragon ata
time.
“I'm not going to sleep with you and look like a fool after you’ve hoisted me off and mated Alice. Not happening. | have more self- respect than that.”
“If we don’t complete the mating, then we will have broken our laws, and-”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.
“And if we break the law, it'll make it harder for you to protect Alice,” | cut Xander off. | almost smirked as smoke practically came out of his ears. “Yeah, | get it. But that’s not my problem. That’s yours. I’m happy to sit around and not be mated.”
It was almost amusing to watch Xander’s brain seize up.
The rage and power radiating off him was sexier than anything I'd ever witnessed.
The scent of it enveloped me, my core clenching and panties growing damp.
Not to mention, my wolf was in heat in a big way for these two.
I'd heard people talk about being in heat, but | had no idea what they meant.
Until now.
Everything in me was fighting the urge to drop to all fours and rub up against them.
Nope. Not gonna happen.
Couldn't happen.
| wasn’t going to be slo ppy seconds.
“Lanie, please be reasonable.” Zane stepped forward and reached a hand out. For what, | didn’t know, “You know as well as we do that there are certain...expectations that have to be met. For the sake of all of us, for the sake of the pack. | know it feels a bit awkward right now, but trust me. It'll be okay.”
| threw my head back and laughed. “What? You'll be sure to make it real good for me? Give me an or gasm or two and everything will be fine?”
“Zane, | swear to g od...” It was almost cliche how much Xander’s chest was heaving in anger.
“No. Both of you shut the f uck up,” Zane growled.
Zane
ww
Something in me snapped watching the two of them go back and forth, t it for tat.
We all knew what the score was.
If Xander and | didn’t mate Lanie tonight, we would have failed in upholding the laws set forth by the elders. SS
Ss
Which meant that Lanie would be re-mated and we would never receive another mate.
Wolves who didn’t mate with their she-wolves were held in contempt.
After all, if men and women were allowed to refuse a mating by not mating, the whole system would fall apart. Therefore, punishments had to be dealt out for those who didn’t comply.
And if Lanie were to be re-mated... they'd mate her to the worst pair they could find.
Plus, it wasn’t like we all didn’t want to mate.
The scents in the room were overpowering. Full of lust and heat and desire. ..and heat.
Oh, s hit. Lanie was in heat.
That's what her scent was.
Oh, f uck me.
| scrubbed a hand over my face, turned around, and walked away from the two of them to stand at the window.
From this vantage point, | had a clear view of the grounds and the town...and the forest. The forest | so badly wanted to escape into right now.
This whole situation was f ucking impossible on a multitude of levels, and | had no idea how to even begin to fix it.
time.
We had to mate Lanie or else we could never be assigned a mate.
If we didn’t mate Lanie, she would be assigned to go d only knew what awful men.
We wanted to mate Alice.
Alice was mated to Gregory and Lucas, but with the loophole and investigation, we had bought her some 00
Plus, if this managed to prevent Gregory and Lucas from being mated ever again, that would be nice.
But if we mated Lanie tonight...what the hell happened with Alice?
How would we mate Alice later if we were forced to mate Lanie tonight?