Wolves

Everything went silent as Vincent made his way to our table. He looked at me with lust and hatred and then at Matt with undisguised anger and hatred. Matt glanced at him as if he were no more than a pesky insect and then gave him an indulgent smile.

"At our mating reception? Really?" he asked.

"What better time?" Vincent replied, "Everyone is here and my mate can see what a real wolf looks like."

Vincent palmed his crotch and thrust his hips at me. Matt's arm was around my shoulders and he gave me a reassuring squeeze. Kevin's hand was on my knee and I felt him begin to stroke it trying to keep me calm, the others were standing behind me each of them touching me somewhere.

"I think that our mate is quite content with us but if you would like to continue with this challenge, here are the rules. First of all, it you lose you will leave immediately and your followers will leave with you. If you are caught you will die, no questions asked, secondly; if any of your friends interfere, you forfeit the fight and you will leave. Do you agree to the terms?" Matt asked, his voice relaxed.

Vincent looked a little unsettled and then gathered himself. I think Matt's nonchalant tone shook him. He looked at me and grinned.

"I am looking forward to fucking you and putting a cub in your belly." he sneered.

I glared at him and said, "Then you'll be fucking a corpse, I'll die before I let you touch me."

He gave me a surprised look and walked away without replying.

Thirty minutes later both men were in the center of a huge circle made up of the people present. Kevin, Tony, Louis and Paul were scattered throughout the circle in the front with Paul staying with me.

"You don't have to watch this." he whispered in my ear.

"I'm staying." I said.

After all, this was my world now and I didn't want to appear weak in front of these people. I looked toward the men in the circle and saw two wolves. Matt was easy to pick out, his coat was a beautiful silver with blue highlights while Vincent was a nondescript gray.

Vincent charged first his jaws snapping. Matt moved out of the way easily and snapped back, his teeth grazing Vincent's hind quarters hard enough that Vincent yelped. They circled each other and then once gain Vincent charged, Matt wasn't quite quick enough that time. I closed my eyes as Vincent tried to get a hold of Matt by his neck. Kevin held me tight but I could feel his tension which only fed into mine. Time seemed to stop as the fight continued. I froze when I saw Matt go down and not get up.

"Come on Matt!" Kevin murmured.

I was instantly alarmed and pulled away from Kevin. At the top of my lungs, I screamed.

"Matthew Christianson, you promised!"

Whether he really heard me or not I didn't know but suddenly, he was standing over Vincent, his teeth bared. I saw Vincent cringe as Matt lowered his snout toward him. All was silent when Vincent conceded defeat and whimpered. Still standing over Vincent, Matt let out a howl of victory and moved away from Vincent who immediately jumped up and ran with his tail between his legs. I was going to run toward Matt who had changed back to his human form when Kevin held me back.

"No sweetheart, he's got to make his way toward you and then you can touch him."

That, I decided was one of the silliest things that I had ever heard but I complied. Matt finally reached us and I hugged him thankful that he was alive. I was surprised when he gently pushed me away and headed for the house. Kevin and Tony walked on either side of him while the rest of us followed, once we were inside of the house; Matt collapsed. He had been hurt more than he let on. Tony and Kevin carried him to the bedroom while I ran ahead of them and grabbed towels and washcloths to clean his wounds.

"He's going to be alright." Louis assured me as he rubbed my back.

Matt was laying face down on the bed because most of the wounds were on his back. Some of them were deep enough that I thought that he would need stitches but even as I cleaned them they were healing from the inside out any dirt being pushed out.

I took a minute to look him over; he really did have a great ass.

"Stop looking at my ass!" Matt exclaimed. His voice was filled with humor, "I'm injured."

We were all so shocked that none of us said anything at first and then we all laughed. My laughter was mixed with tears of relief.

Ever the alpha, Matt sent Louis and Paul to make sure that Vincent and his followers were gone. Within the hour, he was up and dressed. There were cheers when we walked back to the party. From what I could tell, Vincent and his friends weren't' very popular.

It was dawn before the party broke up and I have to say that I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was cuddle with my guys. Matt hugged me and whispered in my ear.

"Go get ready for me."

"What about the others?" I asked confused.

"They'll join us but I need to talk with you alone." he replied.

I was nervous. I tried to think if I had broken some rule that would allow Vincent to come back. I was showered and in bed in less than ten minutes. Matt came in a few minutes later, lay down next to me and turned to face me. I waited for him to say whatever it was that he needed to say.

"Allie, you shouldn't have called out to me; it gave me an unfair advantage."

I was about to cry but I got mad instead.

"What the hell? You're my husband and I'm not allowed to encourage you? That is just stupid!" I said, "And not only that, my calling out gave him just as much of an advantage as it did you. If you will remember, he wanted to make me carry his cub as he called it and I meant it when I said that I would die before I let him touch me."

I was crying now. Matt took me into his arms and kissed me.

"Sweetheart, I'm not angry. I just had to tell you that as the Alpha but as your husband, I thank you. We would never have let him take you away from us or hurt you."

I breathed a little easier and snuggled closer.

"I asked the others for time alone with you for another reason, I wanted to give you a private kiss."

The kiss he gave me curled my toes. After it was over, he whistled and the others came in and lined up at the foot of the bed. It took me a minute to realize that they were waiting for me to say something.

"I'm glad that I'm here and I love you."

That was all it took before they were all stripped and in the big bed with me and Matt. Matt lay on his back and helped me sit on top of him. When I was sitting on his cock, Kevin took a breast and Louis took the other while I took a cock in each hand and began to stroke them. Paul positioned himself above Matt's head and slipped his cock into my mouth. It wasn't long before all of us came, it was like a domino effect that started with me and worked it way down until the last man which would have been Matt came. I fell asleep with arms and legs covering me.

When I woke up, I was in the bed alone. There was a stack of my books and a tray with juice and muffins on the table next to the bed. I sat up and wondered what had happened because for as long as I had been with them, I never woke up alone.

Matt peaked around the door coming in when he saw that I was awake.

"Stay in bed today, we haven't given you much time to rest and relax. Marshall will bring you lunch later."

"Matt?"

I waited until he was looking at me.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Nothing for you to be worried about." he replied as he sat on the bed next to me.

One of my pet peeves is being patronized and that's what he was doing.

"Matt when I agreed to come here as the mate to all of you I was agreeing to be a part of your world. That means that you don't get to pick and choose what you tell or don't tell me. You wanted me to trust you when you told me that you wouldn't get yourself killed, and now you need to trust that I'm no fainting violet. This is my life, the good, the bad and the ugly so tell me what's going on."

For just a minute, I thought that he was going to pull his alpha wolf thing but he didn't.

"Vincent came back last night. One of the sentries found him hiding in one of the tunnels toward the back of the property."

I was shocked that he would be so stupid as to come back.

"Allie, he was coming back for you." Matt said.

"Me?"

"Yes you. He wanted to kill you."

"Why? I didn't do anything to him."

"It wasn't really about you. You were a way for him to hurt us. Allie, we have to kill him; if we don't he'll keep coming back."

I didn't know what to think about that. They would really kill him?

"Do you have to kill him? Don't you have a prison for werewolves or something like that?" I asked.

Matt hesitated; there was a place that they could send Vincent to without killing him.

"Allie, sweetheart listen to me. This wolf plotted on the life of the alpha male's mate. That is an offense punishable by death. You wanted to know what was happening and I told you but you have to understand that there are things that can be changed such as the wife being able to encourage her husband during a challenge and there are things such as this that can't be changed. He dies but in deference to you, it will be quick and relatively painless."

I knew by the tone of his voice that there was no compromise on this so I didn't even try.

"Are you going to kill him now?" I asked.

"Yes, the others are waiting for me. We'll be back soon."

Two hours later they were back. Matt came up first to check on me I guess.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

To be honest, I wasn't sure. It was a hard thing to wrap my head around the fact that as I lay in bed someone was being killed. The bottom line was this, this is their world and I'm a newcomer. Either I accept things as they are or I try to change the things that could be changed. I chose the latter.

We had dinner in bed that night and stayed in bed until the next afternoon only getting up to shower. That night we had another party since the original one had been marred by the challenge. As I danced with my husbands, I could feel eyes on me. I turned around to see a woman staring at me, I asked one of the other women who she was and found out that her name was Misty and that she was Marshall's sister. I blocked Misty out and concentrated on the party, I would find out later that she left the pack for one more in keeping with the philosophies of her dead brother. I also knew that I would be seeing her again.

Even after all that's happened, a small part of me wondered if I was going to wake up and find myself back at my house, alone and wishing for someone or someones to care for me. I was dancing with Louis as these thoughts ran through my head.

"This is real." he assured me, "You will never be alone again."

The party ended around dawn, I went to bed surrounded by five gorgeous men who loved me. This was my life now and I could say with one hundred percent honesty that I was happier than I've ever been in my entire life. I would have to deal with my family at some point but that was for later. The last thing I heard as I fell asleep was five voices saying "I love you."