“Stop, sweetheart. I want to be in you.” He cleared his throat. The sweet torture of her tongue licking him had rendered him basically mindless. “Please.”
She raised her eyes, amusement glistening in them. “All right.” She pulled off. “But it’s your loss because I’m really good at that. When you finally let me suck you to completion, you’re going to wish you hadn’t stopped me now.”
He laughed, the sound pounding out. “By the moon, the things you say. I love it.” With a tug, he pulled her to him and then flipped her over so that she was under him. She ran her hands over his chest, and he shuddered.
“You’re so muscular. Do you lift weights?”
Her words caught his attention, and although her eyes were guileless, the slight scent of fear tinged her scent. When he’d let her take on the blowjob, she’d been in charge. Had he taken away her comfort by reasserting himself?
“Have you changed your mind, sweetheart?” He smoothed the hair on her forehead, loving the way her brown tresses ended with the blue dye. His unique love…
“Why would you ask that?” She scrunched up her nose, and he kissed the end of it.
He would always tell her the total truth. Unless it put her life at risk. Then he’d lie every time to keep her safe. “Two reasons. The first is that you just asked me if I lifted weights. Seemed kind of off to me. And the second is that I can scent your nervousness”
“Okay.” She poked at his chest. “We’re going to have to work on you pretending that you can’t scent all my emotions because we’ll never be on even footing where that is possible.”
He stroked down her chest from her chin to her belly button. “You can see potential futures. I think you’ve got me beat.”
“And I can remember them for ten minutes.” She shrugged, and her naked breasts moved when she did. His cock jumped. Somehow he had to find the strength to be patient about this. Even with her nude and laid out in front of him like a goddess.
His good intentions flew away the second she grabbed his cock. “Does this seem like the actions of a person who doesn’t know what she wants? Even if I’m slightly nervous.”
He kissed her mouth hard, trying to show her with his passion that she need never be afraid around him. She returned his intensity, and he finally let himself relax. This was going to be okay. She was his mate, and they’d work it out.
He touched her everywhere, loving the small moans she made and the way she squirmed when he hit the right spot. Her knees seemed to be one of her most sensitive areas, and he grinned about it. Now, anytime he wanted to, he’d simply reach under the table and stroke her there, knowing he could turn her on in public.
She ran her hands up and down his back, and it made his balls harden to the point of actual pain. Chelsea bit down on his shoulder, and he shuddered as a thought plowed through his consciousness.
“I’m going to bite you.”
She smiled, showing teeth. “Yes, please.”
“No, I mean when this is ending, I’ll bite down on your shoulder. Mark you. It will be the sign of our True Mating. Anytime it starts to heal, I’m going to feel compelled to redo it. I can’t control it. One of the werewolf things.” And he really hoped it didn’t weird her out too much.
When she spoke, her voice had lowered a notch, and he didn’t detect any new alarm in her scent. “Bite me, Hayden.”
Her words fueled him forward. He slipped a hand between them and rubbed her clit. The small nub pulsated beneath his fingers, and he intensified his strokes based on the noises and movements she made. Damn if she wasn’t the most responsive lover he’d ever had.
He took her nipple in his mouth. She tasted sweet, and he sucked until it stood at attention and she groaned his name.
“Hayden. Please.”
He knew what she asked for, and it was his pleasure, his honor to give it to her. She pulled up her knees, asking for what she craved next with her body. He moved over her.
“Sweetheart.” He kissed her all over her face. “I want this so much.”
He reached past her and pulled a condom out of his bedside drawer. If she were a werewolf, he wouldn’t be able to get her pregnant unless she was in heat, but his lovely mate was human. He would protect her in any way he could. And thanks to Sal’s interference, he was prepared.
She grabbed the foil from him. “Here, let me.”
He’d take her help. His hands shook, and it might take him forever to perform such simple a task. She handled it and then spread it over his cock, rolling it down him seconds later until he was covered. Her eyes met his, and heat shimmered from them.
“Thank you.” His voice sounded hoarse.
“No.” She licked her lips. “Thank you. Or maybe that’s preliminary. I haven’t seen what you can do with that big dick yet.”
“We’ll have to do something about that.” He scooted over her until he positioned his cock right outside the entry of her hot pussy. Her words fueled him to move faster. She wanted this as much as he did.
With one quick movement, he pushed inside of her, balls deep while she took every inch of him. Her pleasure-filled gasp told him that the same ecstasy travelling through his veins must also be in hers.
He wanted to give her so much pleasure she’d never forget it, ever. Moving slowly at first, he waited until her hip movements matched his pace. Then he sped them both up. She seemed to moan the loudest when he rubbed against her clit, and so he made sure every movement he made included that maneuver.
His ears rang, and sweat formed on his back. By the moon, he craved this woman. Needed her above all things. His mouth ached, and he took a deep breath, trying to hold off the instinct as long as he could. Biting Chelsea would happen, but first he had to see to her pleasure.
“Oh, Hayden.” She squirmed beneath him. “Oh, almost.”
Her body shuddered under his, and he bit down on his lip so hard his extended canines drew blood. Damn it, he couldn’t hold off any longer. With Chelsea’s juices coating his dick, he bit down on her shoulder. She cried out his name, and her fingers dug into his back.
He tried to keep it light, but the animal in him would have none of it. The wolf wanted ownership. Chelsea belonged to him, and the permanent mark he left there would tell the world to back the fuck off. Or they’d be dead.
Her pussy clenched against his still-hardened cock. He tried to make sense of the sensation. She’d already come, and he hadn’t moved since he’d spent inside her. Was the bite doing that? Did she like the feeling?
“Oh, Hayden.” She spoke with her eyes closed. “Do that again.”
He grinned as he let go of her skin. “Count on it.”
****
Hayden wasn’t sleeping when the knock on the door came. He’d scented Sal’s approach earlier. Chelsea slept deeply next to him, her gentle snores telling him how out of it his mate remained. Hopefully whatever Sal wanted wouldn’t take up a great deal of time. He wanted to have Chelsea again before dinner. They’d had three rounds of amazing sex before she’d finally given in to exhaustion.
For his part, he was too wired to close his eyes.
He dressed quickly and cracked open the door. Sal stood looking at the floor.
“Sal?” Hayden spoke and Sal’s raised his eyes, obeying the unspoken command, and finally met his gaze. .
“I’ve had a breakthrough with the True Believers. We did as you said, traced the money starting with the car we hid in the back. And I have an address. Shall I go investigate it?”
Hayden took a deep breath. So much for an afternoon of pure sex. “No. I’ll go.”
“My Alpha…”
Hayden interrupted the complaint he knew Sal would make. “She’s my mate, and it’s my right to defend her. Text me the address. I’m not going to do anything dumb without the pack at my back to defend me. But I’m going to go look so I can see just how much planning we need to do to get them.”
Sal nodded. “We’ll take care of your mate while you’re gone. It’s only
half an hour away. Online it looks like a shipping warehouse.”
“Interesting cover.” He nodded. “Tell the guys I’ll be back in a bit.”
He closed the door on Sal and stood still for a moment to steady himself. There was no way in hell he’d let any of them come with him to do what needed to be done. Although his pack would always be loyal, they’d also consider it being protective of him to show up even after he’d told them not to.
They’d all put their years with Lucian behind them. They weren’t torturers anymore. But if he found any of the people who had been holding his mate captive for all that time, he’d gladly sacrifice the years he’d spent reinventing himself and become the werewolf he’d been before.
Anything to get to the heart of the group that had harmed his mate and had targeted his people. He’d be damned if they ever got another try at him or anyone else he knew.
His cell phone beeped indicating that Sal had texted him the address. Chelsea mumbled something and rolled over. He crossed to the bed and bent over to kiss her on her cheek. “Sleep. I’ll see you when I get back. Everything will be better then. I promise you that.”
First, he’d find out who was after them, take care of that problem, and then they’d work on figuring out what was going on with her talents. There had to be someone else on the planet who had gone through what she did and knew what to do about it.
He’d find them. Hayden had always been good at tracking down information. It was a gift. Or maybe a curse.
Hayden closed the door behind him and headed down the stairs. He nodded at a group of tourists, and an older white-haired woman with glasses pointed at him. Hayden shook his head. The damn Wine Spectator article.
He walked to his car but stopped halfway there. A cold breeze touched the back of his neck, and he turned around, sniffing the air. There was no scent of anything out of the ordinary to catch his attention, but a shimmering object lay on the ground.
Hayden bent over to pick it up. It was some kind of necklace. Well, it was more like a totem attached to a leather strand that could be worn as a necklace. It was the design itself that caught his attention. Carved out of wood, a female werewolf stared back at him.
He sniffed the jewelry. Although the most recent scent on the piece was human and male, specifically from one of the True Believers he’d destroyed, there was also the distinct scent of female werewolf on the piece. Who the hell had it belonged to?
Hayden shoved it in his pocket. He didn’t have time to work out that mystery with so many left for him to solve. If it proved not to be unlucky, and he’d do an internet search on it to find out, he’d give it to Chelsea as a gift. He smiled at the thought. His honey mate would love small gestures like that. It had been way too long until someone had taken care of her.
He continued on to the car. It started right up, but before he drove away, he stopped to look at his vineyard. In terms of size, it wasn’t as impressive as some of the older, original, or corporate-owned places, but he was damned proud of it. After Savage had handed him the Napa Valley and told him to go make himself a home, he hadn’t really known what to expect. This place, pushed into a hillside, with vines, at least half of which he had planted himself, had become their sanctuary.
He had a mate to help it feel like home. Maybe there would be more than survival. Maybe there would be a future.
But first people had to die. And he would be their executioner.
Chapter Six
Chelsea had no idea how she’d gotten where she was, and she really didn’t care to find out. The moon shone down on Hayden’s bare back. He walked through the woods wearing his black pants as if they’d been made for him. She wanted to get them off his body immediately. She’d push him against one of the many trees and finally get his cock deep down her throat.
Her pussy wept at the thought, and she nearly tripped over a root in her distraction. He turned around and grinned at her. “You’ve got to keep up, princess, or we’ll miss the appointment. Then you’ll never catch up to me.”
She heard the laughter in his voice, and although he normally chased her for fun, this time she didn’t manage charging after him as though she was the one with wolf blood instead of him.
“Hayden.” A male voice called him from a distance, and she stopped short, nearly colliding with her mate when he halted.
She grabbed his hand in hers, wondering if the forest had really dropped ten degrees or whether it was only in her own head. “Who is that?” she whispered, although why she felt the need to be quiet was beyond her when whoever had spoken clearly knew they were there.
“Lucian.” Hayden dropped her hand and put his hands on his hips. “I wonder what he wants here.”
“Lucian?” Her voice squeaked. “Isn’t he dead?”
When Hayden turned to regard her, he had one of his eyebrows raised. “Where would you have gotten an idea like that?”
As if conjured by the moonlight, Lucian appeared before them. She blinked rapidly. How had he done that? In fact, what was going on here? How had she gotten in the woods?
“Don’t worry, seer. This will all make sense soon.” Lucian turned to Hayden. “I made a mistake. You have to find him. It was always you who would.”
She tried to focus on what her mate said to the man who had nearly destroyed him with his dark expectations, but all she could seem to hear was the soft swishing sound the wind made and all she could see was the way the moon the shone down on them all.
Daughter of mine.
She gasped and covered her mouth. Had the moon spoken to her?
They chose humanity to have you. You and your sisters. Have you forgotten? Has it already left your memory? Why are you not feeding the dreams? Your mate is in danger of losing himself.
Wait…what? Her mate was right next to her. She turned to look at him and found that he wasn’t there. Nothing surrounded her, not even the trees, just the light of the moon shining down on her.
You need to see, daughter of the moon. You need to see.
She grabbed at her eyes as energy surged through her and brought her to her knees. This wasn’t real. This was a vision. She’d fallen asleep and woken up in another reality. That was the only explanation she could come up with. Chelsea couldn’t remember previous visions, but she hoped they hadn’t all gone like this. Did she end up in horrible pain every time it happened?
The scene changed, and instead of the woods with the moonlight, she stood back in the labs. Well, specifically one of the offices connected to the labs. Hayden stood in front of her. He was dressed this time in the same clothes he’d been in before they’d made love.
“Hayden.” She called out his name, but he didn’t turn around. “That’s right. This is all coming back to me. You can’t hear me. I can only see what might be happening to you. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe this is some kind of possibility that will never actually occur. I hate these fucking visions.”
Hayden moved forward, and that was when she saw the doctor. He’d wanted her to call him Robert. And then he’d poked at her, sneered at her, and ultimately made a pass at her before threatening her life.
“You.” Hayden pointed at Robert. “You’re going to answer my questions. Or I’m going to make you hurt. You can believe me when I tell you about the pain. Dishing out punishment always came easily to me. But you and I don’t have to go there. Not if you answer my questions.”
Robert jumped to his feet. “No one talks to me like that. Certainly not a werewolf like you. All of your kind need to be put down.”
Hayden sighed “That’s what I thought you’d say.”
“Hayden.” She called out last though he could hear her even knowing he couldn’t. “Don’t do that. You’re not that man anymore. You’ve made a life for your pack. You have me now. There’s no need to go back to the darkness.”
If he continued forward, that was what would happen. Hayden, whose eyes hooded when he talked about his time with Lucian but who glowed with light when he walked through his vin
eyard or managed his pack, could not be allowed to travel backward to the place he had left behind. Not for her. Not ever.
She could stop him. This hadn’t happened yet. It could still be prevented. She needed to wake up. Open her eyes. Stop the vision and get help before it all faded away. Somehow she’d done it before, and she could do it again.
She. Had. To. Wake. Up.
Her eyes flew open, and she darted upward. A hand restrained her, and she blinked, trying to clear her blurred vision. Two figures, a male and a female, stared down at her, and she didn’t know either of them.
“Relax, human who belongs to my brother. No one is going to hurt you.”
A load groan sounded next to the man who had spoken. The woman who spoke sounded annoyed. “Don’t talk to her like that. She doesn’t belong to your brother, fleabag. Humans don’t own each other. She’s her own person, and she’s clearly just had a vision, so why don’t you just shut the hell up?”
“Woman.” The man growled.
Chelsea’s eyes cleared, and she stared for a second. There wasn’t much time, and maybe he could help Hayden. If not, she was going to go find Sal. Finally, she spoke to the man. “You said Hayden was your brother?”
“I am Savage.” She’d heard that name.
“I’ve had a vision, and I’m going to lose my memory of it, but someone has to go help Hayden. He’s in danger of doing something that will be horrible for him. He’s going to sacrifice years’ worth of progress he’s made toward letting go of the past. Please, someone has to find him.”
“Is he in danger?” A growl sounded from his mouth. “Sal said he’d only gone to scout things out.”
“Please, I can’t argue with you. The longer I wait, the less chance I’ll have of remembering. He’s going to torture one of the True Believers.”
The woman spoke again. “Why are you going to lose your memory of the second-sight? Drink your shake and move on.”
Her words didn’t make any sense. “Shake?”
“I told you, Viola, that my brother said she loses her visions. They fade. You are here to help her with that. And, evidently, I have to find out what has happened to Hayden.”