Chapter 10
"Yes!" Logan gloated the next morning, as Lorelei got dressed. "Victor is sanding the floor in the new place today and we're moving in." He grabbed and kissed her deeply, fondling her breasts at the same time. "How many nights has it been that we've had guests sleeping next to us? A million?"
"Three," replied Lorelei. She giggled a little, but gripped his hands to get his attention. "Babe! I'm looking forward to getting back in bed alone with you, too. But can I talk to you about last night?" She took a breath. "I understand that you love me the way I am, and I love that about you. You just . . . when you said don't do it again, that sounded a little scary."
"Oh," Logan said with surprise. "I don't mean to scare you."
"You were out running with Victor last night, or I would have said something sooner - I wanted to talk to you about it privately," she murmured, sliding her hands around his waist and kissing his chest, then looking back up at him, her shirt gaping just a little to reveal a circular red spot on her neck.
Last night, after another windblown trek through the forest with his brother, Logan had come back to bed absolutely transfixed, holding her body tightly as they came together. His lips had traveled all over her, landing at the base of her throat for an extended period, eventually yielding the mark he'd just noticed.
"Oh, shit, looks like I gave you a hickey," Logan said. "I'm sorry for that. About what I said . . . I guess I just spoke straight from my gut. I didn't realize it made me sound like such an Alpha."
"Alpha is a good description," Lorelei noted, touching the tender place on her neck. "So, can I try on you again? See if I can concentrate on suppressing my powers?" she asked, rubbing her cheek on his sternum.
"No." His voice was definitive, and he patted her bottom to try to defuse the situation. "Can we talk about this later? I have to go to work, and I want you right here, your same wonderful self, when I come home."
"Okay," she said reluctantly, as he kissed her good-bye thoroughly. He grabbed the truck keys and darted out the door of the cabin.
Lorelei stood in the doorway, watching him prepare to leave. Victor was just outside, and he glanced up at her, doing a double-take when he saw the mottled red circle of broken blood vessels on her neck. In an instant, he was hot all over and on his feet, indignant and jealous.
He strode over to Logan's truck, catching and holding the driver's side door just before Logan was about to slam it shut. Victor gritted his teeth, his voice low. "You tell me not to call her a frail, but do you understand she is frail? Take. It. Easy. I have used women and broken them before - she can't take everything that our nature wants to give."
"And just what makes that your business? Why are you even looking at her?" Logan squinted at him, appraising. "Maybe I do need to mark her, before you start getting crazy ideas like thinking you want her."
"Everyone wants her!" growled Victor. "And you have her. So don't fuck it up, Runt." Logan wrenched the door out of his grasp, closing it this time.
With two young children, their mothers, and two feral men making up the population of their little homestead, they were all early risers, so Victor got to work sanding the floor of the new cabin when Logan left, and Lorelei brought him breakfast after a short while. Tanya was sitting on the porch with both Jamie and Spark on her knees, waiting for Lorelei to fire up the little white fuel camping stove that was only used for coffee. "Thanks," she said, when Lorelei offered her a cup.
"You're welcome," said Lorelei, tossing her long hair off her face. She noticed when she did that, Tanya's eyes were riveted to her neck, and so she ran her fingers through her chestnut locks, flicking them forward over her shoulder to cover the mark just beneath her collarbone.
Tanya whistled audibly, seeing Lorelei's embarrassment about concealing the mark. "Hey," she said, softly. "You know that's normal, right? Him marking you? C'mon, Lorelei."
Lorelei blushed, covering herself with her hand. She hesitated, but eventually she spoke up. "He's not really done that before, in the years we've been married. Just . . . now."
Humming a little bit, Tanya looked at her, then stood, gently displacing the two boys. "That might be because of his brother. You said Victor's only been here a month or so? I remember that used to happen with Deek." She looked at Lorelei, to make sure she didn't object to hearing more about Tanya's brother, her erstwhile abductor.
"Whenever he would spend close time with other feral males - continuously - he would get more dominant and physical than usual." She smiled, trying to make light of it. "He'd expect me to just submit and do whatever he said, and I'd play nice, to an extent; I am female, after all. But after awhile it's like, 'Shut up, Bro, I'm not your mate.'"
Tanya reached out, slowly, and touched the spot on Lorelei's neck, though Lorelei didn't look at her. "Blaze used to mark me - harder than that," she whispered. "You just don't have a healing factor. But it will fade. You know he loves you . . . separate from this," she brushed the welt again. "The physical connection is different than love, for males. My mate marked me, but he didn't love me."
Lorelei felt a twinge of sympathy for this part of Tanya's past. "I understand," she said quietly. "It's just that he's not usually like that."
Tanya rolled her eyes; her patience had run out. "Lorelei, don't be such an infant. He's not human, and neither are you - you can't expect him to just act like a regular man. This is his nature. Don't put a leash on a Wolverine and pretend that he could be satisfied with that, for the rest of his life." She flounced away, crunching across the fir needles.
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The day flew by, and soon Victor had finished with his work inside the new house. Lorelei came in, energetically sweeping the floor and admiring the nearly-completed project from the inside. Everything was done, save for the windows that were arriving soon, and the front door, which Logan and Victor were still going to make, by hand.
Inside her new home, Lorelei could not stop grinning. "Thank you so much, Victor," she said effusively. "It wouldn't have been done so soon without you. It was really considerate of you to stay here and help."
He looked at her, broom in hand, her smile wide and her gaze sincere. He noticed that for the first time since he'd encountered her in the woods, all those weeks ago, she was looking at him like a regular man, not like someone who had wrestled her to the ground with the intention of forcing himself on her.
But I didn't know her then. The thought drifted through his mind, and he smacked it away. What should that matter? He was Victor Creed, after all, and to him, frails were only good for one thing, right?
More than one thing, insisted the annoying voice in his head, as he watched Lorelei beam down at her child toddling into the yawning front doorway of the house. He snorted, trying to tamp down the jealousy he felt for his brother and the life that was right in front of him: loving mate to warm his bed and give him young, a son who idolized and adored him. It was getting harder and harder for Victor to pretend he didn't want these things.
Tanya came in through the doorway now, carrying two of the dining chairs, with Spark hauling the third one in behind her. "Moving time, huh?" the female feral said to Lorelei, sounding pleased.
"Oh, thank you!" Lorelei said. "I think the big bed is the only other crucial thing to bring over tonight, and that can get done when Logan comes home."
"I got it," insisted Victor, heading into the little cabin. He kicked himself for not thinking about the scents that he would detect from the large mattress, activating his jealous bone again. He eased the wooden bed frame apart in several pieces to carry across the yard, and luckily Logan returned home from work within a few minutes, so the mattress fell to him to transfer to the new house.
There was a flurry of activity, with the men moving furniture, the women readying dinner, and the children running around ecstatic between the two houses. Eventually, everyone was fed, settled, and retiring to their respective places of rest for the night.
Lorelei folded up several blankets and quilts for Jamie to sleep on next to their bed, since the new house had so much more available floor space compared to the tiny cabin. Once Tanya and Spark weren't using the trundle bed, they could move that into the little alcove they'd created for it in the new house, but for now, Lorelei wanted their baby to feel reassured by the closeness of his parents sleeping nearby.
Logan, meanwhile, called out good-night to his brother, privately wondering how much longer Victor would want to bed down outside on the grass, now that the new house was pretty much finished and the weather would be turning cooler. As much as he'd appreciated all the help Victor had provided, he felt a nagging sensation after their brief argument that morning, telling him that it was probably time for Victor to go. Something about two dominating, competitive males sharing such close space did not seem like a good idea.
Once their little boy had fallen asleep, Logan leisurely removed his wife's clothing, reveling in the opportunity to admire her body uncovered. He was so careful as he stroked and manipulated her, making love to her in a way that felt safe and familiar, and Lorelei sighed with happiness that her husband seemed back to his normal self, without the neck biting and marking.
Although . . . she did distantly note that it had been a long time since he'd let her be on top for sex - he only ever wanted to feel her underneath him, lately. She cast this aside for now, drinking deeply of his lips and relaxing in the security of his arms.