Return Amid Rising Instincts

The border markers appeared just as the sun bled orange through the pines. Tiana slowed her pace, boots crunching on fallen needles, and let the familiar scent wash over her. Pine sap. Earth. Moss. Underneath it all lingered something thicker, something that made her stomach clench and her thighs press together beneath her jeans.

Mating season. She had forgotten how early it started. How the very air grew heavy with it.

Three years away. A thousand nights roaming the northern territories alone, building a life that answered to no pack and no alpha. Years of cold beds and empty howls and the kind of freedom that tasted like loneliness when she was honest enough to admit it.

And now she was back.

The lodge rose through the trees like a monument to everything she had run from. Stanford and timber sprawled across the clearing, smoke curling from its chimneys. Lights glowed warm in the windows. Figures moved inside. Her pack. Her blood, even if the turning had been a choice she made at nineteen.

Tiana stopped at the edge of the property and breathed deep. The pheromones hit her like a wall. Musk and heat and the sharp edge of something primal that made her wolf stir beneath her skin. She could taste it on her tongue. Salt. Copper. Want.

She forced herself to keep walking.

The front door swung open before she reached it. And there he was.

Carter Stanford filled the frame like he had been carved from the same wood as the lodge. Broader than she remembered. Harder. The pack tattoos winding up his arms seemed darker against his skin, and those familiar green eyes locked onto her with an intensity that stole her breath.

"Tia."

His voice was rougher too. Lower. It scraped over something inside her chest.

"Cal." She kept her tone light, easy. "You look like you've been eating your protein."

He didn't smile. His gaze traveled down her body and back up, slow and deliberate, and when it met hers again there was heat there that had nothing to do with nostalgia.

"You came back."

"I said I would."

"You said a lot of things." He stepped aside, gesturing her in. "Then you left."

The lodge hadn't changed. Same high ceilings. Same massive stone fireplace. Same smell of wood smoke and pack musk and something almost like home. But everything felt different. Tighter. Louder. The air itself seemed to vibrate with tension.

Pack members moved through the main hall, and their gazes slid to her with a hunger that made her skin prickle. She knew what that look meant. She could smell what they were thinking. The season was upon them, and here she was, returned and ripe and unclaimed.

Carter's hand landed on her elbow, and the contact sent a jolt up her arm. "Walk with me."

It wasn't a question.

She let him guide her away from the main hall, down a corridor lined with hunting trophies and woven tapestries. His fingers stayed wrapped around her arm, thumb pressing into the soft inside of her elbow, and she could feel the heat of him through her jacket.

"You're early," he said. "Season doesn't peak for another week."

"I know."

"Then why are you here?"

She pulled her arm free and turned to face him. "Because I got the letter. Because Elder Kira asked me to come. Because I thought maybe it was time."

"Time for what?"

The question hung between them. Heavy. Loaded.

"Time to stop running," she said quietly.

Carter stepped closer. Close enough that she could smell him. Pine and leather and something darker, something that made her wolf sit up and take notice. His chest brushed hers, and she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze.

"You smell different," he said.

"So do you."

"Different how?"

Her throat went dry. "Stronger."

His hand came up, fingers brushing the curve of her jaw. The touch was featherlight, almost questioning, and she hated how her body leaned into it. How her lips parted. How her pulse hammered against his palm.

"You shouldn't have come back during season," he murmured. "You know what it does to me. To us."

"I know what it does to everyone."

"That's not what I meant."

His thumb traced her lower lip, and she forgot how to breathe.

The front door of the lodge slammed open.

Carter's hand dropped. He stepped back, and the loss of his heat made Tiana's skin ache. She turned toward the sound, and the scent hit her before she saw him.

Foreign. Dominant. Thick with alpha musk that made her knees want to buckle.

The man who strode into the lodge was enormous. Taller than Carter, broader in the shoulders, with silver-streaked black hair that fell past his collar and eyes the color of a winter sky. He moved like he owned the ground beneath his feet. Like everything in his path was already his.

Tiana's wolf surged forward, and heat flooded through her body. Her breasts grew heavy. Her nipples tightened beneath her shirt, aching against the fabric. A pulse started between her legs, deep and insistent, and she had to lock her knees to keep from swaying.

No. Not now. Not with him.

The stranger's gaze found her across the hall, and he stopped. His nostrils flared. His jaw tightened. And she watched his pupils dilate as he breathed her in.

"Romero Blackclaw." Carter's voice was flat. Controlled. "You're early."

The alpha didn't look away from Tiana. "I could say the same."

He crossed the distance between them in three long strides, and Tiana felt like prey caught in a spotlight. Every instinct screamed at her to run. Every instinct screamed at her to drop to her knees and present. She did neither. She held her ground and met his gaze, even as her body trembled with the effort.

"You must be Tiana." His voice was deep, resonant, and it vibrated through her bones. "I've heard about you."

"All good things, I hope." She managed to keep her voice steady.

The corner of his mouth curved. "All interesting things."

He was too close. His scent wrapped around her like a blanket, thick and intoxicating. She could smell the power rolling off him. The confidence. The raw, primal hunger that made her inner wolf whine with need.

Carter stepped between them. "Romero. The elders are waiting."

"Are they?" Romero's gaze flicked to Carter, and something passed between them. Something sharp. Something territorial. "Then I suppose I shouldn't keep them waiting."

He looked at Tiana one last time, and the promise in his eyes made her core clench. "I'll see you at the gathering, Tiana Locke."

He said her name like he was tasting it. Like he was already imagining what it would sound like when she moaned it.

Then he was gone, striding toward the elders' wing, and Tiana let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

Carter turned on her. "You need to stay away from him."

"I didn't exactly invite him to sniff me."

"This isn't a joke, Tia. He's a rival alpha. He's here to negotiate an alliance, and if he sets his sights on you during season, there's nothing I can do to stop it."

"Nothing you can do, or nothing you're allowed to do?"

Carter's eyes flashed. "You don't understand how this works anymore. You've been gone too long."

"Then explain it to me."

He grabbed her arm again, pulling her close. His voice dropped to a growl. "The elders are going to use you. You're returned, unclaimed, and hitting your heat cycle right as the season peaks. Do you know how valuable that makes you? Do you know how many wolves are going to want to breed you?"

Her heart pounded. "I'm not a broodmare."

"No. You're a prize. And Romero Blackclaw is the kind of alpha who takes what he wants."

She pulled free, stepping back. "And what about you, Carter? What do you want?"

His expression flickered. Something raw and vulnerable passed through his eyes before he shuttered it. "You know what I want."

"Say it."

"I want you." His voice cracked. "I've wanted you since we were kids, Tia. And watching you walk away almost broke me. Now you're back, and the season is here, and I can smell you. I can smell how ready you are. How wet you are."

He closed the distance between them, backing her against the corridor wall. His hands found her hips, fingers digging into the denim, and she felt the hard length of him press against her stomach. Thick. Insistent. Unmistakable.

"It's taking everything I have not to throw you over my shoulder and take you to my den," he growled against her ear. "Not to strip you bare and bury myself so deep inside you that you forget any other wolf exists."

His lips brushed the shell of her ear, and she shuddered. Her back arched off the wall, pressing her breasts against his chest, and the friction sent a bolt of pleasure straight to her core. She could feel herself growing slicker. Hotter. Her body preparing itself for him whether she willed it or not.

"Cal," she breathed. Her hands found his chest, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, but she wasn't pushing him away. She was pulling him closer.

"Do you know what I think about?" His mouth trailed down her throat, hot and open, tasting her pulse. "Every night for three years. I thought about this. About your skin. Your scent. The sounds you'd make when I finally got my hands on you."

His knee pushed between her thighs, parting them, and she let him. She let him press the hard muscle of his leg against her center, and the pressure made her whimper. The denim was too thick, too much barrier, and she wanted it gone. She wanted his skin against hers. She wanted to feel him everywhere.

"You're soaking through your jeans," he murmured against her neck. "I can smell it. Can feel it. You're so ready for me, Tia. So fucking ready."

His hand slid from her hip to her stomach, fingers splaying wide, and she felt her muscles clench beneath his palm. He moved lower. Slowly. Teasingly. His fingertips traced the button of her jeans, and her breath came in shallow, desperate gasps.

"Tell me to stop," he said. His voice was barely human anymore, thick with the wolf beneath his skin. "Tell me to stop and I will. But you have to mean it."

She opened her mouth. No sound came out.

His fingers popped the button free. The zipper followed, and his hand slid beneath the waistband of her underwear. The first touch of his fingers against her slick, swollen flesh made her cry out. Her head fell back against the wall, and her hips rolled forward, seeking more pressure, more friction, more of him.

"God, Tia." His groan was guttural. "You're so wet. So hot. I could slide into you right now and you'd take all of me. Every inch."

His fingers moved through her folds, finding the entrance to her body, and circled it. Teasing. Testing. She whimpered and tried to push herself onto his hand, but he held back. Just barely. His control was a fraying thread, and she could feel it in the tremor of his arm, the ragged catch of his breath.

"Tell me," he said again. "Tell me you want this."

"I want this." The words came out broken, desperate. "I want you, Cal. I never stopped wanting you."

He groaned like she had wounded him. His finger slid inside her, and she gasped at the intrusion, at the stretch, at the way her body opened for him like it had been waiting three years for exactly this. He curled his finger, found the spot inside her that made stars burst behind her eyes, and pressed.

Her nails dug into his shoulders. Her hips moved against his hand in instinctive, rolling thrusts. He added a second finger, stretching her wider, and his thumb found the swollen bud at the top of her sex. He pressed and circled and pressed again, and the pleasure built inside her like a storm.

"I want to taste you," he growled. "I want to feel you come on my tongue. And then I want to flip you over and take you from behind like wolves do. Mount you. Fill you. Knot you until you can't move."

The words pushed her higher. She was close. So close. Her inner walls clenched around his fingers, and her thighs trembled on either side of his leg. He pressed his forehead against hers, breathing her in, and his green eyes were molten with hunger and something deeper. Something that looked like worship.

"Come for me, Tia. Let me feel you."

His thumb pressed hard against her clit, his fingers thrust deep, and she shattered. The orgasm crashed through her in waves, and she bit down on his shoulder to muffle the scream that tore from her throat. Her body clamped around his fingers, pulsing, squeezing, and he worked her through it, drawing out every tremor until she was left gasping against the wall, knees buckling, held up only by his body pressed against hers.

They stayed like that for a long moment. His fingers still inside her. His breath ragged against her neck. The evidence of her release soaking his hand and her underwear and the inside of her jeans.

Then he withdrew slowly, and she whimpered at the loss. He brought his fingers to his lips and tasted her, his eyes never leaving hers, and the sight of it made another pulse of heat roll through her exhausted body.

"That's not fair," she whispered, her voice unsteady.

"None of this is fair." He pulled back, fixing her jeans with careful, deliberate hands. "But it's real. And you need to decide what you want before the season decides for you."

"What if I want both of you?"

The question surprised her as much as it surprised him. She saw it land. Saw the flash of jealousy and something darker cross his face.

"Then the season will tear this pack apart," he said quietly. "And you along with it."

He turned and walked away, leaving her standing in the corridor with her body still thrumming and her mind spinning.

From the shadows near the elders' door, Elder Kira Stanford watched. Her amber eyes took in Tiana's flushed cheeks, her quickened breath, the way her hands trembled at her sides. She said nothing. She simply observed, and her silence spoke louder than any warning.

The triangle had formed. The season was beginning. And Tiana Locke was caught in the center of it, whether she was ready or not.