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The wolves kept their tight-knit ring but no one stepped forward.

"No one?" Justa demanded as he stalked and looked each in the eye. "Jared?" he growled.

The wolf in question whimpered and wriggled against the dirt, rolling over onto his back and lifting his head to expose his throat. "No, Alpha."

Justa raised a furry brow. "I'm not Alpha," he gestured to Alice, "That's your leader. Not me."

Alice scoffed. She could lead wolves but she couldn't deny Justa was a force unlike any other. "No, Justa. You should be Alpha."

Justa chuckled a dark raspy growl. "I only need to be alpha in one place, Alice," he scolded.

Alice raised her head to meet his eyes. "That's the one place I won't yield," she challenged him.

The watching wolves coughed and looked away.

"Now that we've settled that, I have another matter to tend to." Alice turned from the pack and ran. She ran as fast and as hard as she could. She'd put it out of her mind, but it was time to face up to what she'd left behind.

Her house was quiet, but the smell was off. The aroma of cinnamon and apples tickled her nose and she growled as she stalked through.

She stopped short as she saw Sucrose sitting in a chair fast asleep with a bundle of bloody rags held to her chest. Beside her and leaning against the wall was Mark.

As his eyes met hers he smiled. "Alice," he greeted.

"You're not dead," Alice said.

Mark laughed. "I'm not. Your friend here helped keep me patched together and I'll be around to bother you for a while yet." He grinned. "You can't get away from me that easily."

"Oh?" questioned a deep rumble from behind her.

Mark's eyes widened but he stayed where he was. "That explains a lot," he chuckled. "I hope you realize I don't care how big you are, Justa. I'm not backing down."

Justa chuckled as he stood next to Alice. "Considering our discussion before, I don't expect you to. But you will know your place, Second."

Mark nodded. "That's fine."

Alice looked from one to the other. She was missing something. "Why aren't you tearing each other apart?" she demanded.

Justa didn't seem the type to share.

"We already came to a mutual understanding," Justa replied. "Unless you are wanting us to fight to the death over the pleasure of getting to mate with you."

When he said it like that, with such promise, with such finality it made her warm inside.

"You're staying," she whispered the words. If she uttered them any louder the spell would break.

Justa nodded. "I'm staying. I can't stay with humans. I want to keep them safe, but the safest way to do that is inside a pack. It's a lot easier to keep these ones in line and know if other wolves are about than it would be to be with the humans and wait for an attack."

Justa was staying.

Alice couldn't believe it.

Justa rubbed his cheek against hers again. "You got your way this time, Alice. Don't expect it to be so easy. I won't let you become too spoiled now."

"I'll take care of the spoiling," Mark said with a grin. "It'll be my pleasure."

Justa's tail swished. "Whatever time you have from not being a babysitter, feel free to spoil away, it just won't come from me."

Babysitter?

"What are you talking about?" Alice demanded.

Justa grinned at her. "If you're going to get your way, then I'm getting mine. You belong to me now, Alice. I'll share you with Mark, only because you need someone you can dominate, but don't expect me to let another male so much as sniff at you."

Alice opened her mouth to argue when she thought about his words. It would be fun to dominate Mark. With Justa, she had to struggle for that position, but with Mark, she could be in complete control and she did want to see what his skin would look like reddened under her care.

"That's why I'm letting you do that," Justa whispered into her ear. "That look there. I'm going to enjoy watching you in that role."

"What's all that noise?" Sucrose yawned and blinked at them. "Welcome back?" she stared at the tiger and leaned closer. "Wow, where did you get this one? I don't think I've ever seen a tiger with such bold stripes before."

"That's Justa," Alice pointed out. Sucrose didn't seem the least bit scared. "You don't have to worry about Harris any longer."

"You killed him?" Sucrose grinned. "Thank you. Now I can go back to experimenting in peace."

"You're not even surprised?" Alice shook her head. "You're such a weird wolf."

Sucrose shrugged. "I don't care if I'm weird. As long as I can continue to do what I love that's all that matters to me."

Mark nodded. "I like that sentiment. It's how I feel about cooking. Sure most wolves would just eat the food raw, but after trying it that other way? I want to learn all I can."

"You'll learn more than you ever realized," Justa replied with a smirk. "And then some. Just be prepared for punishments if you mess up."

Mark's eyes widened and the wolf froze. "What?" he whispered. Alice couldn't blame him. The note of darkness in Justa's voice was the same he used when he talked about punishing her.

Justa chuckled as his tail swished from side to side. "You heard me."

The thought kept turning over and over in her mind. How could he be willing to just accept this so easily? Maybe she misunderstood. "By punish you mean-"

Justa's eyes sparkled like priceless jewels. "The same way I plan to punish you when it's warranted, Alice. Over my knee."

Oh.

Oh.

Oh!

Alice blushed and was once more thankful for her wolf form. She'd considered being shared between Justa and Mark, but sharing Mark with Justa? That was not something she'd expected to think about at all.

At Justa's amused smirk Alice wriggled and resisted the urge to wag her tail. Her wolf was silent too the animal didn't know how to handle this type of relationship. Still, she needed to make sure of something. "Why are you okay with staying?"

Justa cocked his head. "You want me to leave instead?"

"No! That's not what I mean. But you went from not staying here longer than a week, to accepting to stay here."

Justa nodded. "As I said, it'll be easier to take care of the humans this way."

"And why do you do that? What is it about them that made you decide to protect them?" Alice couldn't help the sharpness of her tongue. She wanted to be the only one that Justa took care of.

Justa sighed the laughter died out of him. "Because, when I was a leader of my streak, my pack if you will, I made mistakes that cost a lot of lives. Live I can never replace. However, I can keep any other humans I find alive."

Alice frowned. "But what happened that was so bad?" Her insides twisted into knots. Did this mean that somewhere out there that Justa had a mate of his own? Would his people come to find him someday and take him away?

"I was like Harris. I believed that all humans were evil and that they needed to be eradicated. I went out of my way to kill them. A pack of their own attacked my people while I was gone, and slaughtered all of them."

Alice wrinkled her nose. "But doesn't that mean you'd hate them more?" She growled. But a stray awful thought crossed her mind. At least she didn't have to worry about some tiger mate coming to claim him.

"Revenge is an endless cycle, Alice. If I would have continued to go after them they would have just continued to kill not only my people but all shifters. So instead I took my human form and I journeyed through their communities. I learned what I could about them and their motivations. I heard many children telling stories about a vicious white tiger that killed their parents."

Mark shifted against the wall closer to him. "They were talking about you."

Justa nodded. "And from then on I refused to take that form. I didn't want to hurt anyone any longer. I just waited and protected the kids from that community. Then one day I was taken to a hunt, where I met you, Alice."

Alice shivered at his words. If she had been in his situation, she wouldn't have turned her cheek so easily. She would have razed cities down in order to exact her revenge. But Justa was not like her at all.

"Now, since I'm staying we're going to have to figure out names," Justa mused.

Names? "What for?" Alice demanded. "You don't like the name Justa?"

Justa chuckled. "No, Alice, we're going to have to figure out names for our cubs."

Alice craned her head to look at her stomach. It didn't look any different. Besides, it had only been a matter of days since they'd been together. And, what she didn't want to think about, she'd been with Harris at the same time. "I don't understand."

"Alice, my genes are strong. You're guaranteed to have cubs once you've been with me. I hope you're prepared for that. But if you're not, like I said, Mark can be our babysitter, and also you better be prepared for big litters."

**

The forest was still. Birds chirped but short high-pitched tweets relaying their nerves.

The grass swayed in the light breeze and Alice sighed as it ruffled her fur. It was good to be away from the pressures of being Alpha even if for a little bit. Justa would be better suited for the job, but the defiant ass refused and insisted only on being dominant when it came to their bedroom.

Her ass was still sore from the last session. She loved to rile him up, but sometimes the punishment was a bit more than she could bear. Though she always begged for more.

The birds fell silent and the breeze died out. Alice tensed as she lowered herself in a crouch. Two dark shapes dashed through the grass keeping close to the ground.

She pounced.

The tiger cub ducked beneath her and stuck its tongue out as she soared overhead. Alice whirled with a growl when a sharp crippling pain erupted from her tail. She turned to see a wolf cub identical to her hanging off of it. "Excuse me?" she demanded.

The pup grinned but didn't let go.

"All's fair in war, mama," Chimed a light gray tiger cub with dark streaks down its fur. "We won, admit it."

"Never," Alice growled as she put a paw on her son's stomach.

The tiger cub giggled at her even as one of her daughter's stayed stuck on her tail.

"Attack!" Piped another small voice and a moment later a white wolf cub tackled her and hung off her back leg chomping on it with his tiny canines. "I got her! Go, guys!"

"I won!" chirped another voice and Alice sighed as her youngest hopped over with the prize limb in his mouth. "We did it!" The five of them was more than she could handle at times.

Alice let her cub go and finally her tail got relief as the others released her. "You did well, but next time move with the grass. When you waited for the wind to pass you stood out."

"We still won, so we did something right."

Alice glared at the youngster. This was the one that was always standing up to her. That cub was going to be a leader of her own pack one day if they accepted a tiger that was. "You can always learn more. Don't be overconfident, Diona."

"You look like you're having fun." Justa joined her on one side while Mark arrived on the other. "But, it's time for you to spend some time with me, Alice. The cubs will be fine with Mark."

Alice nodded and reached over and licked Mark. The other wolf swooned before jerking to attention. "Okay you rascals, it's time to learn something new. I'm going to be hiding and you're going to find me this time."

Alice kissed each of her cubs goodbye while Justa did the same before meeting up with him once more. "You weren't kidding when you said we'd have a large litter."

Justa grinned at her. "And we're going to have many more, Alice." He licked her, his tongue rough against her cheek. "You're mine, and I'm going to spend every day proving it to you as you scream my name, no mercy."

Alice chuckled and licked him back. "No, Justa, I think you forget whose turn it is to dominate who. I still need to get you back for that spanking last time, and I'm dying to show you a new toy I've created using my magic and Sucroses's know-how."

Justa laughed at her. "If you plan to dominate me, come and get me, Alice." and the great beast took off running away from her.

Alice grinned and chased after him. Overtaking him in a matter of minutes and pinning him below her before they shifted and their limbs entwined.

Yet another time they didn't quite make it back to their house before they devoured each other.

Others were wanted and fun. She enjoyed time dominating Mark and playing with Sucrose's toys on both herself and the little-she wolf. But there was only one thing that Alice knew for certain.

All Alice needed was Justa, and all Justa needed was Alice.

The End

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