Free Found in Flames by Desconhecido Page A

function well or for long without a properly established leadership. As much as he loathed the idea, Luka really needed to be thinking about his options. He could hold off on choosing a new Beta until the chase was over, return with whatever was left of the pack to their former home territory, and choose from whomever stuck around. But that was all presuming he survived. And if he didn’t—if he died before a Beta was in place—the pack would fall apart.
    They’d become Rogues.
    Michelle and Lew’s pups would never be safe. The twins would likely get themselves killed. No one would put up with their attitudes for long. If Emily wasn’t healed yet, she and Max would be easy targets. Chad and Russell had a chance on their own. They were strong and not incompetent. But even if the entire group stuck together, there wasn’t an Alpha among them. There would be in-fighting at best, they’d tear each other’s throats out at worst. In reality they would likely split and be picked off one at a time.
    He needed to choose a Beta. A Beta could hold them together long enough to get them back home, where hopefully they could find or establish a new pack. So he would pay attention today, and maybe tomorrow, and see who seemed to be the most pack-minded. See who, if it came to it, took it upon themselves to back or enforce his calls. Who the pack listened to and who the pack ignored.
    In the meantime, now that his rounds were done, all he could do was return to Joella and wait for the twins to return with their breakfast. And, hopefully, no one would wander out of the territory while he was hunting.

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    “I can’t believe you destroyed my bra,” Joella said, again, when Luka returned to the small ‘cave’ he’d adopted as his spot. She’d attempted to lecture him on this same subject when they’d woken at daybreak, too. It was such a shame humans were raised to hide their bodies so much.
    “It was in my way,” Luka countered, knowing his response wouldn’t appease her. She was sitting on a boulder with her back to the cave, as if to get fresh air. She’d changed, of course, into some of the clothes he’d acquired for her the day before. They suited her far more than the stiff professional clothes she’d previously been wearing.
    Joella scrunched up her nose and stood. “You didn’t pick up a replacement, so what am I supposed to do? Hide in this hollow rock all day?”
    “Of course not,” he said, deliberately stepping into her personal space. “Why would you do that?” He knew the answer, but he wanted to make her say it.
    “Because I’m—!” She cut herself off, waved her arms in a broad generic gesture, and finally said, “I’ve got big boobs, okay? They’ll bounce all over the place. It’ll be embarrassing!”
    At this Luka grinned and swept his hands up beneath her shirt until he’d caught her aforementioned breasts in his hands. She gasped, cheeks immediately flushing, and he leaned close. “Oh, I noticed,” he assured her with a deliberate squeeze. “But these aren’t anything to be embarrassed about.” He grazed his thumbs over her nipples as he spoke, enjoying the shudder that rolled down her spine and made her breath hitch in her throat.
    “ Th -that’s cheating,” she whispered, trying—and failing—to keep the desire in her scent from coming out in her voice.
    Luka danced his lips over her jaw, up to her ear, and purred, “Just be glad I didn’t destroy all your clothes.”
    Her hands landed on his bare chest bracingly and her head fell to his shoulder as he continued to knead her breasts. It took her several seconds to find her voice, and when she did the desire in it shot straight to his cock. “What if I … destroyed your pants?”
    Letting his nose slip into her hair at the base of her throat, Luka replied, “Then I guess I’d be naked. Would you like to destroy my pants, Ella?”
    Her nails curled into his pecks and he distinctly heard a heavy swallow.