Hounded_A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy Read online

  WARNING

  Moonlight Inn is reverse harem, which means Lyra doesn’t have to choose between her many lovers. This book contains sexual scenes.

  This book was written, produced, and edited in the UK where some spelling, grammar and word usage will vary from US English.

  Copyright © Leigh Kelsey 2018

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the author

  The right of Leigh Kelsey to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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  Cover by LSK Designs

  HOUNDED

  LYRA

  In the pocket rainforest world where we shifted from human to wolf and back again, Casimir Mrozinski and Jack Simmons prowled into the waterfall’s pool, their stares dark and hungry enough to make my breathing stumble. I devoured them with my eyes, Cas broad and pale, so good looking it hurt my heart to look at him, with his pale fall of hair, his stark tattoos, his liquid silver eyes; and Jack, brown-skinned and more muscular than any man had a right to be, the flex of his stomach muscles making my mouth water as he came towards me.

  And they were mine.

  Mine, along with Gray, my wild wolf, my best friend. He sat at the edge of the pool, watching with luminous hazel eyes, a grin on his face. His long brown hair was a total mess, thanks to my hands running through it as I rode him hard and fast mere minutes ago. Oops.

  Smooth hands braced my waist and I glanced up into Jack’s hunger-dark eyes, my heart stuttering. I slid a hand over his shoulder, down one of those massive arms, and as if the touch had unleashed him, his mouth surged forward and claimed mine. A shiver worked through me as he kissed me hard, water swelling around us as I pressed as close to him as I could get. I gasped as his hands slid down to the backs of my thighs and lifted me up against him, my legs automatically locking around his waist.

  “Jack,” I exhaled, that place in my chest where we were bound pulling taut, velvet warmth and dark shadows stretching between us, a deeper connection than the pack bond. I wanted to know what those shadows were, wanted to know Jack inside out.

  I locked my arms around his neck and slowed our kiss, slanting my mouth over his as our tongues traced slow and long caresses that made my pussy drip molten ore.

  When we broke apart, gasping, Jack’s eyes traced over my face with a look I could only describe as adoring. “I’ve wanted you for so long, Lyra Ripley.”

  I grinned, my stomach dancing with a swarm of butterflies. “Really?”

  He nodded, brushing my mouth with a gentle kiss. “Yes.”

  I slid one hand over his shoulder and down his chest, loving his heated skin under my palm. Droplets rolled down his skin from the waterfall roaring close by; I traced one with my fingertip before lowering my mouth to lap it up with my tongue.

  “Lyra,” he groaned, tightening his grip on me.

  I grinned wider. I could feel it—his need. It wasn’t a heavy punch or a lightning bolt but a storm roiling beneath waves, building into something massive, destructive, and beautiful. Something that would mark me forever.

  I slid my gaze over Jack’s shoulder at Casimir, my alpha, but he seemed content to watch for the minute, or he was letting me have this time with Jack before he took me. I’d wanted Cas for so damn long that the idea of finally being with him, my new mate … I had a feeling it was going to shatter me.

  “Think you’re strong enough to hold me like this for a while?” I asked Jack, lowering my eyes to his, heated chocolate brown and glazed with need.

  “I could hold you like this for hours,” he replied in a voice like grating boulders. He might have been able to hold me like this for hours but his patience wouldn’t last that long. I slid a hand along his jaw, my heart turning to a puddle of sap as he leaned his face into the touch. I’d never been this tactile a person except for in wolf form when touch was common among pack, but this … I loved it, the simplicity of touching him, and I loved his reaction too.

  I leant across the few inches between our faces to lay a kiss on his jaw, then his lips, and was so damn glad that shifting had wrecked our clothes and brought us back naked as I lowered myself gradually, carefully—I’d seen what sort of weapon he was packing and there was no way I could rush this—onto his length.

  The growl that came out of him as the head slipped in … I shuddered hard, clinging to him, my eyes mashed shut at the feeling of being filled, as I waited for my pussy to adjust.

  “Lyra,” he groaned, thumbs rubbing tender circles on my thighs. “Lyra, fuck—”

  I pushed down a little further, still going slowly, until a few inches were inside me. He was nowhere near in but already my eyes wanted to roll back, already every inch of my body had lit on fire. My stomach expanded with a breath as I used my grip around Jack’s neck, and his hands on my thighs, to lift myself off him and plunge back down.

  My breath shot out of my lungs as he slid further inside, his hands digging into my thighs, right over the tattoo I had of a full moon and four silhouetted wolves—my pack. Now, me and my mates.

  I blinked open my eyes to look into his deep brown irises and I had to kiss him—it was a need, so strong I had no chance to fight it. He was my mate, my Jack, and I was going to spontaneously combust if I didn’t kiss him. So I did, gripping tight around his neck, my fingers interlocked as he used his grip on my thighs to move me up and down his cock.

  His breathing hitched as we kissed and I felt it, felt his stomach jump against mine, hard muscle skimming my lithe curves.

  “Lyra,” he warned, fingers digging into my thighs as I bounced faster up and down his dick. I was so wet now that he slid fully inside and I paused, just for a second, to feel it—that connection, the way we were one being, utterly bonded. I knew he could feel it too because I sensed his shock, then his wonder. The velvet touch of his bond slid around me, warm in my chest.

  I kissed him long and hard, moving faster as that bond filled my chest until it felt full to bursting. Gasping into the kiss, I dug my nails into Jack’s muscled shoulders as orgasm built low in my belly.

  “I can feel it,” he said, somewhere between a gasp and a pleased growl. “I can feel you.”

  My breathing broke the closer I got; I just held him tighter and writhed against him, the tip of his cock so deep inside me it was an unreal, unexplainable sensation I’d never felt before.

  “Still okay holding me up?” I asked, breathy.

  “Fine,” he bit out, and I knew he was close too, maybe because of my own climax barrelling down on me. “I won’t let you go, Lyra.”

  That sounded as much a vow as it was a reassurance that he wouldn’t drop me into the waterfall’s pool. My heart stuttered. I dropped my head onto his shoulder, losing control of my hips and my breathing as climax raced for me. It wasn’t the forceful crash of pleasure that I’d had with Gray but something much, much longer that burned like fire in my body. My back bowed, and only Jack’s grip on my legs kept them locked around him, kept me plunging down on his throbbing cock as I fell apart.

  “Lyra,” Jack barked out, and then I felt the rush of his pleasure through the mate bond, wringing another throb from my sensitised pussy as I sagged against him.

  True to his word, he didn’t let me fall, but when we’d caught our breaths, he slowly, gently set me down. My bare fee
t brushed cool stone under the water but my legs gave out and I ended up slumping anyway—right into Cas’s arms as he swept me up.

  “Um,” I said, thoroughly dazed. “Cas, I don’t think—”

  His deep chuckle cut me off. “I know, Lyra.”

  I lay my head against his chest and sighed, cracking my eyes open to check Jack’s legs hadn’t given out too. He was okay, wilted against the curved stone wall a few paces away.

  “But—”

  “Home,” Cas said, and it had the ringing of an alpha command to it.

  I didn’t fight him one bit as he held me against him and carried me to the portal.

  LYRA

  I’d recovered my wits during the walk back to the portal and then the cottage—well, as I was carried to the cottage—the brisk sea wind waking me from the pleasure daze I’d fallen into. I couldn’t stop grinning, though. I kept looking at them and thinking, these are my mates. They’re all my mates. Jack—Gray—Cas.

  “I can’t believe I laughed at you when you suggested this,” I said in the dark hours of morning, stretching out in bed. His bed. Hazy yellow lamplight bathed his tidy furniture, his neat bed, and the stacks of clothes on shelves opposite us. The whole space smelled of Cas and had me in a cosy, relaxed state. “This is the best idea you’ve ever had.”

  “I try,” he replied with a quicksilver grin, a flash that was there and gone. It made my stomach flip to see it. I felt … giddy.

  “Come here,” I said, holding out my hands. Cas’s eyes softened as he crawled across the bed but I reached forward and plucked the plate out of his hands and he barked a surprised laugh. “The cake, Casimir. The cake.”

  If anything, his silver eyes just got softer. He settled in beside me, pulling the covers over himself. Pyjamas—Cas slept in pyjamas. Well pyjama pants, a deep maroon check pattern in the softest brushed cotton. It was freaking adorable. He was huge, barrel chested, and with his tattoos and alpha-ness, he gave off serious don’t fuck with me vibes. And even with his chest bare, he looked so normal right now, so soft and cuddly. Like the polar bear I often compared him to.

  I sighed as I dug into the huge slice of triple chocolate cake with a fork, moaning in bliss as it met my tongue.

  “If you make sounds like this,” Cas said in a low voice, “I will not control myself. You will not finish the cake.”

  I was sorely tempted to moan outrageously with the next bite but I couldn’t risk losing the cake. Even after the meal we’d eaten when we got back, sometime after two a.m., I was still hungry. I guess that’s what happened when you hunted three wolves and had crazy-good sex with two of your mates. I devoured the rest of the outrageously chocolatey slice in silence, set the plate aside, and snuggled into the pillows.

  Sex was one thing but this … this was something else. I turned to the side to just look at Cas, that grin fixing itself to my lips again. His icy-blond hair was rumpled, the sides needing shaving again—but finding time for that between fighting rogues, running the Moonlight, and taking care of us would be nigh on impossible. I met his liquid silver eyes and—frowned. Creases and shadows circled them. I lifted a hand to gently trace those shadows, my heart melting when his eyes drifted shut.

  “Did you sleep at all last night?”

  “Three hours,” he replied. His voice … I’d never heard him sound like this. It was a quiet, night-time voice, any masks and strength stripped away. It felt a lot like something private, and that he was showing me this side of him … it was a gift. “I’m fine, Lyra.”

  “You’re exhausted,” I sighed. “You should have had some of my cake. The sugar wouldn’t hurt.”

  He smiled, his eyes opening. “You are worried.”

  “Yeah,” I said, laughing through my nose. “No shit.”

  He shook his head, hair ruffling on his pillow. “You are rude.”

  “Yup.” I shrugged, smiling wide. “You’re stuck with me now. Mate bond—no take backs.”

  His arm snaked around my waist, pulling me in close. His scent—pines and oak trees and wolf fur—curled around my senses and I fucking melted, relaxing against his chest. “I am stuck with you and happy.”

  “Yeah,” I said softly. “Me too.”

  We were quiet for a while, but a good quiet—a restful, mutual kind.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, his arms loose around me as he traced my bare shoulder with gentle fingers.

  I took a breath, letting my thoughts run and trying to find the answer among them. “Yeah? I mean, I think so. I’m fine with the mating bonds, and all of this. I just … I’m still pissed about the red pulse and the lone wolves.”

  “You’re still scared,” Cas corrected.

  “Both,” I conceded, tipping my head up to look at him and propping my chin on his chest. “What about you? Other than being exhausted, how are you?”

  His thumb came up to brush the delicate skin of my cheekbone. “Happy. Relieved.” His eyes flickered. “I’m still furious. I want to know how this happened, and why you are hunted.” He met my eyes, his hand cupping my jaw. “I am happy, Lyra. You are meant to be my mate.”

  “Right? We should have mated months ago.” I glanced away. “I’ve wanted to for a while.”

  “A while?” he repeated.

  “Fine,” I spat. “For a year. Maybe two. It’s fine, don’t dwell on it.”

  His laugh warmed me from the inside, a long, rolling chuckle. “I have felt the same. My wolf tells me to claim you.”

  “Maybe you should have listened,” I said, shoving his shoulder.

  “No.” He shook his head, his eyes on me incredibly soft. “It was meant to be this way. Stara miłość nie rdzewieje.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “And for those of us who don’t speak Polish…”

  His lips curled on the edges, the softest smile I’d ever seen on his face. “Old love does not rust. This love is … stuck, always, with no end.” The little scrunch between his eyebrows told me he was struggling for a word.

  “Permanent?”

  “Yes.” His eyes lit from within. “Yes, Lyra. My love is permanent. Waiting, it did not change it, make it less.” He skimmed my jaw with the pad of his thumb, his other arm still holding me close. “But waiting … I think maybe it was planned.”

  “By your god?” I asked. Unlike me, with my hazy belief in a higher power, Cas was staunchly religious, and his faith was unshakeable.

  “By my god,” he agreed. “Things happen the way they happen.”

  I nodded, setting my head down on his chest. “For a reason.”

  “Yes.”

  “You think I was always supposed to mate you three, at once?” I shivered at the feeling of his hands brushing through my hair. So, fucking, good.

  “I do.”

  “Hmm.” I wasn’t sure what to believe, but I wasn’t complaining about the current state of my love life. “I guess all that matters is it did happen.”

  “Yes.” He paused. “And that is wise. Uncommon, for you.”

  I poked him in the ribs. “Now, you are rude.”

  His deep rumble of a laugh made my belly fill with butterflies. I felt, again, like I was seeing a side of him that very few did. “I apologise, my Lyra.”

  I could stand to hear that again a few million times. My Lyra. I propped myself up on my elbows above him, smirking down at him. “Yours, huh?”

  “Yes.” His voice brooked no argument.

  “Alright then, alpha. Why don’t you prove it?” We still had to consummate the bond between us. It had been in the back of my mind for the past hour or so, distracting me even from my giant plate of food, if not the cake.

  He moved so fast I shrieked, rolling me under him and pinning me to the bed with his considerable strength. My heart pounded.

  “Do not challenge me, Lyra,” he said, dipping down to speak into my ear. “You are mine now.” His hand slid down my waist to grab my hip. “I will make the world black out around you.”

  Holy fucking shit.

  I wa
s so breathless, I couldn’t respond.

  LYRA

  Our first full day of being mated went without incident, if you didn’t count Cas fucking my brains out an incident. No—fucking wasn’t the right word for it. The whole time, he’d kissed me or kept eye contact or whispered words of adoration, his hands placing reverent touches on my face, my breasts, my stomach as he thrust slow and deep into me.

  He made love to me, and I’d never, in my life, had an orgasm quite like it. Less physical than a kiss laid on my soul. My breathing had shattered, my body twitching as pleasure tore through me … and I’d cried. And immediately sworn Cas to secrecy about it, even as he kissed the tears away and murmured to me in a languid mix of Polish and English.

  I definitely classed that as an incident. But today? No attacks, no lone wolves, nothing out of the ordinary. So maybe there was something to Cas’s theory that having three mates would keep me safe.

  I wasn’t holding my breath.

  I’d curled up on the couch with my mates for most of the day, Jack holding me from behind, my feet on Gray’s lap, and Cas sat on the floor where I could run my fingers through his hair while we watched Netflix. This was new, but it was instinct to be close to them, touching and showing affection. This was what wolves did.

  I’d spent the second half of the day crammed into a tiny basement room with fifty other people, watching Screaming Cerberus howl through a set-list. The Cellar stank of stale beer and smoke-machine smoke and the sound was a bit dodgy, but it felt a lot like home in the same way the Moonlight did.

  Or maybe that was the music, vibrating through my ribcage as Rhiannon, their lead singer, howled about injustice and love. Mostly in separate songs but sometimes all at once. I sipped a JD and Coke, watching Gray beat the shit out of his drum kit, his face drenched in sweat and his hair tied in a knot on the back of his head. Ever since we’d mated, my emotions kept doing unexpected things. As I watched Gray, I felt a surge of pride at my man.