Reign

Little Dove.

The nickname had slipped out during the kiss, and at this rate, I was starting to think I needed to avoid Candace like the plague.

My control was unraveling fast and at this rate the walls I had built around my heart were cracking. Sage was losing his mind inside me, throwing himself against my ribs and howling her name.

I dragged a hand down my face, trying to wipe away the memory of her soft whimper when I caught her bottom lip between my teeth.

It didn’t work. Nothing worked. Her scent — daisies and vanilla and pure sin — clung to every inch of my skin as though it had been seared there.

It might as well have been, because she was all I could smell.

"Fuck," I muttered, voice rough. This was a serious disaster.

I couldn’t walk into Father’s study like this. Not with Candace saturating every inch of me. One deep breath from Ragnor and one probing look from Ryker would have me explaining why I had broke the vow we made three years ago.

I dragged my feet out of the pool area willing my eyes to not turn back to see the emotions on Candace’s face.

"No. No!" I growled at myself, severing the image before it could take full shape. I practically bolted to my quarters, heart hammering as though I had just fought off a rogue attack single-handed.

A rogue I could handle any day over facing the woman I had no right to want. The moment I was inside, I shoved the bathroom door shut behind me, stripped, and stepped under the shower, cranking the water as hot as it would go.

The spray hit my chest and I groaned. My cock jerked at the memory of her legs locked around my waist, her body grinding against me through the thin, wet fabric.

I pressed one hand flat against the tile and let the water pound down my back.

She tasted like heaven, Sage purred, refusing to let it go. So soft and sweet.

And wet, I added, and he growled in agreement.

You felt how she came apart for us. She wants us. She’s ours.

"The river running through packhouse grounds is also ours, but you don’t see me trying to drown in it," I muttered, snatching up the soap and scrubbing my chest roughly. "We can’t have her. We made a vow. We promised each other — after River—"

River wouldn’t want this, Sage cut back sharply. River loved her. You think he’d want you treating his Candy like something disposable?

I scrubbed harder, trying to erase the sensation of her fingers threading through my hair, tugging like she needed me closer. My hand drifted lower without thinking, closing around my throbbing cock. One stroke, then another.

"Fuck... Candy," I breathed before I could stop myself.

Her golden eyes glazed with want flashed behind my eyelids. The small gasp she made when I pressed against her. How perfectly she had fit against me.

I moved faster, shame and pleasure knotting together in my gut. My forehead dropped against the cool tile as the hot water poured over me.

I could still taste her. Still feel the softness of her pressed to my chest, still hear that breathless Reign against my lips. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

I squeezed my eyes shut, hips rolling into my fist as the pleasure climbed, sharp and scalding—

"No!" I snarled, wrenching my hand away. My cock throbbed furiously. I drove my fist into the tile, chest heaving.

What the hell was wrong with me?

I hated that I wanted her. Hated how vividly my body remembered her. Three years of forcing myself to keep away, of keeping her out of my line of sight so I wouldn’t crack. Now that she was legally bound to us for a hundred and fifty days, staying away felt like a particular kind of madness.

I finished washing in quick, punishing strokes, scrubbing every inch of skin until it stung, trying to grind out every trace of daisies and vanilla. It barely made a difference. Her scent was stubborn — just like her.

Where the hell are you? Ryker demanded through the mindlink.

I snagged a towel. "Calm down, bro. I’ll be there in a minute."

Father’s waiting, Ragnor added, his voice as flat and unmoved as ever. Don’t make us sit here.

I pulled on a black shirt and dark trousers, grabbed a cigar from my drawer, and lit it the second I stepped outside.

The smoke burned down into my lungs, steadying my fraying nerves. I hoped it would bury whatever was left of her scent on me. I took long, slow drags as I walked toward Father’s study, unease crawling beneath my skin.

Why had he called all three of us in? I crushed the cigar out just before reaching the door, heart knocking against my ribs.

When I pushed it open, the weight in the room hit me immediately. Three pairs of eyes swung toward me.

Ragnor’s face was unreadable as always, it impossible to tell what he was thinking that way. Ryker sat with his phone in hand, thumb tapping rapidly against the screen.

And behind the wide desk sat my father, grey eyes narrowing the moment they found me, the displeasure in them unmistakable.

Damn. Had Deidre gone to him directly? That would not end well.

Smoking again? Ryker taunted through the mind-link as I settled into a chair, fixing my gaze on the tall shelf behind Dad packed with pack law volumes. Anywhere but his face.

You can’t see it, but just know I’m giving you the middle finger right now, I replied.

Piss off, he shot back.

Same to you, brother.

Focus, brothers. Father is speaking, Ragnor cut in.

Father cleared his throat and started speaking but nothing could have prepared me for what came next — because what Father said had never once occurred in the entire history of Gracespring Pack, or perhaps in the history of our kind at all.