chapter EIGHTEEN
“Kill him.” Angela stood on the front porch, her arms folded tight across her chest.
“Now you wait a damn minute!” Brian took a step back, stared at her and then looked back into the eyes of two very frightened men. Tears streamed down their cheeks and left the front of their shirts peppered with wet spots. Even from the distance he stood he could see the tremble in their muscles.
He didn’t know what to do. If he got too close and the grenade exploded, they would all be killed. If he did nothing, surely the two men would parish. No one deserved such a fate. He mocked himself at his own hypocrisy. Lincoln pushed out of the car and stood on the sidewalk.
“What are we going to do?”
Brian raised a shoulder. How do you disarm a pin less hand grenade that was taped to someone’s mouth? Damn if he knew.
“I said, kill them!” Angela stormed down the steps, and toward the two men on the lawn.
Brian grabbed her around the waist as she moved past him, slinging her back toward the house. “You’ll get us all killed!”
“Look at his neck.” She pointed to one of the men and the dried trickle of blood staining his skin. “He’s been bitten! He’s one of them!”
“You don’t know that.”
“Don’t I?” She struggled against his hold, clawing at his arm, hoping she’d inflict enough pain to make him let her go.
He wouldn’t. There wasn’t much more abuse she could put him through. He’d endured months of it, years even. No, there wasn’t much more. “Stop it, Angel!” He picked her up and dragged her back to the porch. He lowered his voice and said, “If you kill all of us, who will finish the quest?”
It was as if he’d offered her the world. She stilled, her breathing grew quiet, her hands caressed the length of his arm.
“That’s right, baby. Let me handle this.”
“Okay,” her voice was a mere whisper, a baby’s coo. She looked up into his eyes, smiled a soft parting of the lips but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Alright.” She patted his cheek and stepped back into the house, leaving the door open behind her.
He turned towards the two men, knowing they wanted to know their fate. Hell, he didn’t know. He looked toward Lincoln, seeking assistance. He’d moved to the opposite side of the car, puzzlement etched across his face.
Dread slid across Lincoln’s face as his eyes popped wide. His hands drew up, his mouth open to a scream but nothing came out as he ran toward Brian, body slamming him. His feet went airborne as his body left the ground, just as a loud boom fractured the silence of the air. He didn’t know which came first, the pain of his body meeting the hard surface or the pounding in his head. They lay there for one long minute, Lincoln’s body covering his, as they waited for the inevitable. It never came.
There was no explosion, no body piercing shrapnel, no instant death, only the one single boom ringing in his ear.
Lincoln rolled, sat up, the expression on his face, pure shock. What the hell happened? He stared, his mouth wide open, at the two men and the whole in the head of the bitten one. The other sobbed uncontrollably, the grenade yanked from his mouth lay on the ground next to them. What had Angela done?
She’d shot him. Angela had actually gone inside, gotten the rifle and shot him. She didn’t care that it could, would have killed them all if that dang blasted grenade had been anything other than a dud. If he’d known, he would have released the men and sent them on their way, but not in a million years did he think she’d do something so callus, so cold. But then again she was cold and unforgiving, mad even. He stood, walked over to the surviving man and kneeled in front of him.
He opened his mouth to speak and just as quickly closed it and shook his head. What could he say? He untied the man, grabbed him around his collar and pulled him up to stand. “Go, get out of here,” he said in his ear.
The man cut his gaze at the bloody lifeless body sprawled on the grass, half of his head gone and then back toward Angela. “I’ll take care of this, his voice a mere whisper.”
The man nodded, backed up and stumbled over a shallow hole. He crawled, ran from the yard, never looking back.
“Was he bitten, too?” She lifted her chin toward the man running away, her voice as cold as her eyes. Angela started to raise the rifle again and he dove for her, grabbed it out of her hands and tossed it across the yard.
“Have you lost your mind!” He gulped in much needed air, not even knowing why he asked that question. Surely she’d lost her mind, a long time ago. He should have done something with her in the beginning. But he loved her, or at least he thought he did. He wasn’t sure about anything anymore. Especially when it came to his angel and her war.
Lincoln stepped up behind him. He’d forgotten he was there.
“Let me get a blanket. I’ll help you dispose.”
Neither man spoke as they rolled the body in the blanket Lincoln found in the back shed. Neither spoke as they dropped the man in the trunk and closed the trunk lid. They didn’t even speak when he pulled the car away from the curb and the sound of Angela’s loud laughing circled their heads and sent a wave of putrid bile to the pit of his stomach. What was he going to do? She was mad and he’d helped her get there. How much more would he allow? He only found solace knowing it would be over soon. One more and he’d walk away, his mind free, his heart broken.
* * *
“It wasn’t supposed to be like that.” Denver rolled up on her elbow and stared at Reed. “It was supposed to be just sex… driven by the blood lust.”
“Blood lust? Hum.” Reed touched a finger to her mouth, trailed her lips, the sensations sending electrical impulses through her body, clenching her core, and heating her body. “Is that what you’re calling this?”
He tilted his head and captured her nipple in his mouth and nipped.
“Ohh,” she moaned, loving that he could do that to her. She was fooling herself if she thought she could walk away from him. Deep down she knew it would never happen, not in a million years. Her hand grasped the back of his neck, pulling him closer, tighter to her body. She wanted more. She’d always want more.
Sudden confusion entered her mind. Now that he’d released everything she’d tucked inside her body, everything she’d hidden, would he be able to give her what she needed, craved? No one had been able to do this in the past. That was one of the reasons why she’d closed her body and mind off to the life she should have had. Wanted. Needed.
Coolness lapped across her breast as his mouth left her nipple. Reed looked up into her eyes. His most devilish smile tilting his lips. “You’re thinking too much, too hard.” He moved up her body and placed his mouth at the side of her neck where her heart pulsed erratically. His fingers toyed with her nipples. He lifted his head and said, “Let me give you something else to think about instead.”
Slowly he crawled down her body, kissing, licking, leaving a hot trail of kisses along her skin. Her body squirmed to the sensations racking through her. Perspiration coated her body, dripped between her breasts. He kissed her inner thigh at the apex, where leg met pubis and her body shot into outer space.
“Oh, God!” How can it be this good each and every time he touches her body? Was this even possible? His tongue brushed across her throbbing nub and her body arched off the bed. “Please, Reed. Pahleese!” She gasped for the much-needed air her body craved but it wasn’t there. Dizziness swarmed her head. The room spun as prisms of light danced behind her eyelids.
“Open your eyes, Denver. Let me see your eyes when I do this.” His mouth clamped onto her mound, his tongue rapidly licking across her *.
It was too strong. The electrical impulses criss-crossing through her body was going to kill her. It wasn’t going to be Schemellie and his idiotic men. It was going to be Reed and his erotic tongue. It took every bit of energy to pry her eyes open, to look down at his face. The primal gaze he sent her was all her body needed to explode.
The orgasm hit her like a Tsunami. Wave after wave of what she’d previously thought forbidden pleasure slammed into her. The sensations too great, not like anything in the past, she wanted to get away, put distance between her body and Reed’s mouth. But he wouldn’t let her. His hands held firm to the side of her hips, refusing her escape.
“It’s too much.”
“Never.” He lifted his head, placed his body between her thighs and plunged. One swift stroke and he was in her. She gasped at his fullness, how hard he was. Silk over steel. But he didn’t stop. Slowly he pulled out and pushed back in, inch by slow inch.
All she could do was hold on for the ride. He was going to torment her. He’d already branded her, what more was left. “Please, Reed. I can’t stand it.” She’d closed her eyes again, clenched them so tight her lids pulsed.
“Then open your eyes and look at me.” His voice came out in a low growl. “See what you do to me.”
She reopened her eyes and stared into his face. The muscles in his neck and arms evident of the force he used to hold back. To hold his release at bay, until she’d given him all she had. Reed gyrated his hips rapidly, brushing against nerve endings along her core, tormenting her aching, begging, throbbing *.
She wanted to explode. Just one more second was all she needed. She felt it building all the way from her toes, curling the hair on the top of her head and then he did the unthinkable.
He stopped.
Just like that.
He stopped.
Reed pulled his cock out of her core and ceased his movement. Its head just centimeters from totally coming out. Torture. Pure unadulterated torture. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t gather enough oxygen. All air left her lungs. Her senses scattered. She couldn’t make sense of any of it, the pleasure, the burning pain throbbing in her *, the heaviness of her breasts and the best of all, the pleasure rippling along her core.
He mumbled something but she couldn’t make out the words. Maybe he was gasping for breath as she was. She couldn’t get enough. He smiled at her and then… and then he plunged back into her.
“Now.” He filled her to completion. Instantly her body imploded. Every muscle, every nerve, every molecule fractured into a million pieces. She knew the instant his control snapped.
Reed groaned, or was it a growl. He pumped hard two times and turned his head to the ceiling. His body was covered in sweat, the pulse of his heart evident at the side of his neck. He held onto her body as if it were a lifeline, as if he needed her for his existence. He did. They needed each other. They were nothing apart. She didn’t know how she survived before meeting him. His body jerked as he held himself above her, he throbbed and she felt every engorged vein, every pulse of blood. Her sheath spasmed in wave after wave of cataclysmic proportions. Minutes passed before he collapsed, his body covering her, his face tucked between her breasts. Reed sucked in breath after ragged breath as if gathering her scent to imbue in his brain.
“My God, baby. You almost killed me,” his voice a murmur. He rolled to his back and stared at the ceiling. “Give me a minute. I don’t think I can move.”
She frowned at the sudden emptiness when he pulled out of her body, the sudden coolness as the air kissed her damp skin. “I may never move again.” Every time she tried to sit up, to move an arm, a leg, more waves of pleasure danced through her body. All she could do was lay there, pulling much needed oxygen into her lungs and relish in the afterglow. After all, her muscles were mush; if she didn’t move for days, it would be too soon.
* * *
“Why are you staring at me?” Reed asked an hour later. Her gaze held questions he knew she didn’t want to ask. “What’s on your mind, Denver? Did you not get enough?” He arched an eyebrow. “Cause I don’t think I can give up anymore for at least,” he glanced at the clock on the bedside table, “Twenty minutes.”
“Are you mated?”
“What.”
“With anyone, have you?”
Reed tensed, his nostrils flared with sudden anger. He cut his gaze at her so fast if there’d been daggers in his pupils she’d be dead. He sat up quickly and swung his legs off the bed, the cover barely shielding his nude body.
“If I was I wouldn’t have been in your bed… in you.”
Embarrassed and ashamed she brought up the subject she lowered her head and stared at the floor.
“What are you thinking?”
“Why not? Why aren’t you mated with someone?”
He grew quiet, turned away. Tension bunched in his shoulders, ticked in his jaw.
“Who was she?” Denver reached out to touch him but pulled her hand back.
“She’s dead. A long time ago.”
“Tell me about her.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She has no place here. It was a long time ago. Ancient history, Denver, leave it alone.” He leveled his gaze on her face, stared at her. “Why these questions, Denver? Why now? After all we’ve done, had. Why now?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know. It hit me… hard. Everything. It hit me, you seem to be a relatively good catch.”
That brought a snort of amusement from his throat.
“Has there ever been anyone else you wanted to make yours?”
You.
“Why hadn’t you? Answer me, Reed.”
He sucked in a breath, let it out slowly and then gazed into her eyes. What he saw astonished him. It wasn’t the lust he’d seen before, but what he knew was love simmered right below the surface.
“It’s not something that’s taken lightly, Denver. The bond between two people is sacred.”
“I know.” She moved up to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her turned head on his back between his shoulder blades. “Mine.”
His breath grew ragged. He grasped her hand and flattened it above his heart. “Yours.”
“Make me yours, Reed. Please, make me yours. Make it too hard to leave, to walk away. Make me yours.”
Reed turned, laying her down onto the bed. “It’s got to be more than that, Denver. It has to be.”
She nodded her head slowly. Her breathing hitched. Reed’s eyes turned to molten lava. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air and then nuzzled his face under her chin and between her breasts.
“I don’t want to hurt you. Mates have been injured beyond repair, some are killed.”
“I’m stronger than most.”
His tongue dragged down the front of her body, stopped at her navel, swirled around the small button igniting flames from deep within her core. She squirmed under his assault.
“You—you won’t hurt me, Reed. I promise. Please. Please. Don’t’ make me beg.”
“Like I’ve begged you so many times.”
His tongue flicked across her heat, the surge of sensation jack knifing her off the bed. His hands grasped her hips, pressed her back to the mattress and held her firmly in place. One hand pressed her to the bed as the other lifted her leg and placed it over his shoulder. He buried his face in her heat and feasted.
It was too much. It wasn’t enough. Her liquid desire rushed from her, saturating her mons. Reed lapped it up as if it was life giving water. The moans from his throat only accentuated the impulses slamming into her, through her. His fingers separated her folds and his tongue took a long slow torturous glide from her core to her * and back to her core. He probed her opening gently at first and then with more force right before his tongue stabbed into her. The orgasm slammed into her immediately. She thrashed in the bed with the need to get away. It was too much, yet, his hands held her firm.
When the sensations began to ebb, Reed rolled her onto her stomach and pulled her up onto her knees. Her hips to his pelvic, his shaft hard as a pole, long and thick, grazed against sensitive flesh. Sensations began to build again skidding through her mind, her body.
In one swift thrust he impaled her core, pulling a yell from her. She sheathed him like a hot glove, wrapping around him, holding him. Reed grabbed her hips, paused and allowed her body to accommodate him, to mold to him. He pressed his lips to her lower back, between her shoulder blades as his finger toyed wither swollen, throbbing nub.
“Oh, God!”
Denver’s body betrayed her. She started gyrating her hips, pumping them, begging for more. She wanted all of him. Slowly, Reed started to move, dragging his shaft along sensitive nerve bundles almost to the tip of him right before slamming back in to the hilt. His tongue licked across her shoulders. His teeth nipped at her neck, her ear. His breath, hot against her skin sent her into a frenzied mess. Prisms of light shot behind her eyes and her body began to tremor.
“Tell me you’re mine, Denver. I need you to say it.” He slammed in and out of her as if she was his life line, as if it was his last day alive.
She nodded rapidly as her body met him with thrust for glorious thrust.
“I need to hear you say it. I need to hear the words.”
“Oh, God! Damn it, Reed. Yes. Yes! I’m yours. I’ve always have been from the first time you opened your eyes and looked at me. Yes! I love you!”
She didn’t see it, but felt it. Electrical energy vibrated from Reed, like sticking her finger in an outlet. His jaw began to change, elongate. His teeth became razor sharp. Yet, only his face changed, became lupine. His hands continued to toy with her throbbing womanhood and her breast as his shaft pummeled her.
Reed brought his face next to hers, inhaled deeply and then growled, “Mine.”
His tongue, hot as fire slid across her shoulder, down her neck. Like a star burst, her body erupted into a million pieces. His teeth sank into the curve of her neck where the shoulder met. The pain of it shot through her like a lightning bolt. She wanted to get away, needed to make it stop. It was a mistake, thinking she could be his, would be. She tried to pull away but his hands stilled her, held her firm.
Reed growled against her neck as his teeth sank deeper. Vibrations danced along her nerves. The heat from his mouth, the passion from his body fitted against her so tightly shot her into out of space. Everything fractured, molded back together. Wave after wave of cataclysmic eruptions lifted her body and slammed her back to earth. From Reed’s shaft sliding gloriously in and out of her core to his mouth still clamped on her shoulder her worlds collided. Her past was now her future. Her future was now his to have. Nothing would ever be the same.
One last pump and Reed emptied himself into her on a growl that vibrated through her body, her soul. Tenderly, he released his hold on her. His tongue gently licking her torn flesh sending her body into more uncontrolled tremors, he pressed her to him as he lay beside her. His shaft still cradled in her core.
“Wow.”
“Wow is right.” Reed placed his hand above her heart. “Mine.” He whispered as he pulled her tighter to him, his shaft pulsing, stirring, growing hard again inside her.
“Mine.” Denver murmured as she pressed her body back and gyrated her hips ignoring the tears that fell from her eyes. His.
***
He had wanted her as his mate for so long, yet he’d kept it bottled up inside, hidden. Reed listened to the soft purr of Denver’s breathing. She’d fallen into a deep sleep almost immediately after they’d made love for a second and then third time. Now she carried his mark. He couldn’t get enough when he sank his teeth into her flesh it was pure ambrosia. The mere thought that he’d bonded with her boggled his mind. The things others had, had been pushed from his mind, his heart, having thought it was an impossible task. Who’d want him?
It scared the crap out of him when he couldn’t overcome the urge to mark her, give her what she pleaded for. Mating through a bond with someone who wasn’t at least one half Lycan was unheard of, unprecedented. It could have killed her. And then, that first prick, that first electrical impulse coupled with her out cry of pain and he almost released her, set her free but he couldn’t. Make her yours. He had to have her.
He focused every ounce of energy he had on his beast and prayed for control. He knew the only way she would survive mating with him in a way that vented back to ancient times was to control his beast and humanity.
Reed sighed inward, loving the way her body felt curved against him. It actually worked. Thank God, it worked. Now she was his and he was hers.
Denver.
She stirred and immediately his body tightened, grew hard. Damn, he’d never get enough of her.