Big-Dicking Another Alpha Before Dawn

The redhead was on her knees between Riven's thighs when Fin entered.

Riven didn't stop or look up. His hand moved through her hair with the absent rhythm of a man petting something that required no thought.

His mother Velora sat across from him. She looked up and smiled, gracious, as if her son wasn't being pleasured three feet from her.

"Alpha Shadowclaw." She gestured to an armchair. "Please, sit."

Fin crossed the room and sat without breaking stride, his face giving nothing away.

He settled into a chair. Colonel Sterling stood along the wall behind him, one shoulder against the stone, arms folded.

Sterling: I have served your father for thirty years and I have never once walked into a negotiation and seen this.

Fin: Noted.

An omega handed Fin a drink, which he accepted. "We'll speak plainly."

Riven looked up then and held Fin's gaze with unbothered confidence.

His fingers pressed down once on the back of her head, guiding her deeper, then reached for his whiskey with the same hand.

"Plainly works for me."

Fin leaned back in his armchair, perfectly at ease in a room that hated him.

Sterling: He just. With his hand. And then the whiskey. With the same.

Fin: Sterling.

Sterling: I'm fine. I'm a professional. I've seen war.

Fin: Then act like it.

"Here are the facts," Fin said. "You're bled thin. Your borders leak like a gutted boar. Your enemies are circling, and they've learned patience. They don't need to break you. They just need you to keep bleeding. And you believe a wedding will stop that bleeding."

Riven's fingers tightened on his glass, but his voice stayed level. "You need this alliance too. Shadowclaw fights on every front."

"You're right. I do need an alliance. I do not need you."

Fin's wolf laughed in his mind, amused.

Xeon: Oh, he hated that. Say it again. Slower this time.

Fin kept his face neutral.

"You need our territory," Riven countered.

"I need stability in the west," Fin corrected. "And you need more time."

"Then we have an agreement."

"Not yet."

It took a second for that to sink in. Riven blinked. "What else could you want?"

"There's one additional term. Nonnegotiable."

"And that is?"

"I'll take your sister. And I'll take the girl in the east tower."

Nobody moved or breathed.

Riven went very still, his fingers tight in the redhead's hair again. "How do you know where she is?"

"I make it my business, to know what's inside the walls of any kingdom I negotiate with."

Riven's eyes darkened. "Nova is not a matter for negotiation. You say her name like it belongs here. It doesn't."

Xeon lunged, trying to surface.

Xeon: Bite him. Just once. A small bite. He won't even miss the finger.

Fin took a slow sip of whiskey and kept his face still. "On the contrary, her name belongs exactly here."

Riven studied him for a moment too long, then the mask slipped. "You overreach, Shadowclaw. You walk into my keep and think you can dictate terms?"

He laughed and shook his head.

"No. You'll take the alliance as offered and you'll leave the tower girl out of this. She's insignificant."

Fin lifted his glass, his voice low. "If she were nothing, you wouldn't keep her locked in a tower. And you wouldn't care this much that I've seen her. So let's not insult each other with lies."

"So that's it," Riven snapped. "You wake me in the night because you found her and decided you want her. And now you think you can claim what's mine?"

For a fraction of a second, panic flickered behind his eyes. He recovered.

"You misunderstand. She's my bastard half-sister. A lapse of my father's. My mother kept her out of pity."

"Pity," Fin repeated.

"She isn't right," Riven continued. "Illiterate. Disobedient. She has fits. Visions. We keep her locked away for safety."

"If she were broken, you'd use her." Fin swirled his whiskey, and let the silence stretch. "But you don't. You hide her. Which means she has value. And that's why she's part of the deal."

For three full seconds, nothing moved in the room except for the fire.

The redhead didn't make a sound.

Then Riven exhaled through his nose, fingers resuming their rhythm like a clock restarting.

Sterling: That's not how a man reacts to news about his sister.

Fin: No.

Sterling: Gods.

Velora rose smoothly. "Alpha Shadowclaw, allow me to clarify."

Riven glared. She ignored him.

Xeon: Ah. Mommy's taking over. Fascinating.

"The girl is a remnant of a shameful chapter, unfit for service or court, a liability Ashbane contains discreetly. Surely you won't endanger an alliance over someone without worth."

Fin let her speak.

Across from him, Riven thrust his hips forward once with a groan. His shoulders dropped a fraction.

Done. He reached for his whiskey without looking down.

"Leave."

The redhead rose without a sound, smoothed her dress, and was through the side door before the fire crackled twice.

Riven didn't watch her go. He was already looking at Fin, like the last thirty seconds hadn't happened.

Sterling: I'm going to need something stronger than whatever's in that decanter.

Fin: You and me both.

"You want her as your mistress," Riven clipped. "I won't allow it. You won't insult Meredith that way."

Fin turned his head slightly.

"A mistress." He looked at Riven the way one looks at a child who has said something embarrassing at dinner. "No. That's not how I operate."

Velora raised a hand. "Enough."

She regarded Fin coolly. "If you insist, we won't obstruct. She leaves temporarily. Lowest omega rank. No privileges. She serves Meredith."

"These terms are nonnegotiable."

Fin considered it for a moment. Then he inclined his head once.

"Done."

Riven stared. "Done?"

"She leaves with me before dawn."