by Susan Bliler
War sobered. “Regardless, he doesn’t want you traipsing into his territory. You’re not welcome. But I told him I’d like a tour, and he’s granted it, which means you have limited time and limited access to get done what needs to be done.”
Tallius nodded and walked to War before making to pass him. War shoved him in the chest and jammed a finger in his face. “No kidnapping! No taking her and fucking running, you got it?”
Tallius nodded reluctantly, his plan now foiled.
“Say it,” War commanded.
“I won’t kidnap her.”
“Good.” War looked down his nose at Tallius. “You got until we get there to come up with a plan B. I suggest you try just talking to her. Tell her the truth, man. Offer what you have, and if she wants it, she wants it.”
Tallius nodded again, but the prospect of asking Mira to be his was a whole lot more worrisome than simply taking her and dragging her back to the Fortress. War was right though. Tallius didn’t want to take Mira, not really. Deep down, he wanted her to give herself to him. Freely. He wanted her to want him the way he wanted her.
Chapter 20
Summoned by Aydin, Mira shuffled her way down the hall and clomped unhurriedly down the stairs of the main house. She’d been trying, unsuccessfully, to nap in her room. It was a habit she’d been spending a lot of time at lately, and she knew it was grating on Aydin’s nerves. She figured it was why he wanted to meet with her now, but she couldn’t seem to muster up a single concern. Tired. She’d been tired and uninterested in everything, and it was only getting worse, which meant this was probably a “come-to-Jesus” meeting. She wasn’t surprised. Her moping hadn’t gone unnoticed, and she deserved whatever reaming Aydin was about to give her.
I gotta snap out of it, she inwardly self-admonished. But it was hard to do. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t already tried. For days she’d been trying to sink back into her old routine, but something had shifted. Something within her had changed, and she couldn’t find her cadence. It was like she kept missing a step, and it was throwing everything off. She felt off-kilter, unhappy. It felt like she was floating alone in a bubble that didn’t seem to touch anything. She felt . . . lost.
Stepping into entryway of the den, she found Aydin with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked pissed as he half sat on the back of one of the large couches that faced a massive flat-screen TV.
“Alpha,” she greeted respectfully as she took the three steps down into the massive room but stopped there. She stayed a good distance from him because he’d been acting different lately too. At Baldie he’d revealed his attraction to her, and once they’d returned home he’d continued to pursue her a little too aggressively for her liking.
Before Aydin could tie into her she held up a hand. “I know. I know I’ve been fucking up lately. You don’t have to tell me. I see it. I know it. And I’m sorry. I’ve been out of it, but I’m working on it. I’m . . . I’m ready to get back into the thick of things,” she lied.
Eyes narrowing on her, Aydin asked, “What’s going on with you?”
She shrugged. Anything she said would be a lie because she sure as shit couldn’t tell Aydin the truth.
“You haven’t been the same.”
“I know,” she bit out. “I’ve . . .” She didn’t know what to say. Could she admit the truth to Aydin? Doing so would get him to back off of her and maybe get her a slight reprieve from her duties until she could sort it out.
Before she could say anything, Aydin said, “Your wolf has needs, Mira, and . . .”
His words pissed her off. “And I’ll see to them,” she bit out a little too vehemently. “I take care of me, Aydin. Always have. Always will.”
His expression went a little sheepish as he glanced to the side. It had her feeling a little guilty about her outburst.
Stepping further into the den, Mira slammed to a halt when her eyes landed on War and Tallius. They were standing across a glass-topped coffee table, eyes on Aydin, who was just across from them. The WG Alpha and Beta were looking right at her. Mira gave War a cursory glance before her eyes locked on Tallius. Holy hell! He looked so fucking good, even better than she remembered. Self-consciously, she smoothed a hand over her hair. She looked like shit and she knew it. She hadn’t slept and had been eating trash and drinking too much, and here was Tallius looking like the Viking War God that he was, while she probably look like she’d just rolled out of bed. Hell, she was even wearing a pair of cotton leggings that hugged her legs and a muscle tee that bared her shoulders and arms. Feet clad in clunky boots, she’d opted for no makeup on account of her depression and all, and, fuck!
Tearing her eyes from Tallius, she frowned at her Alpha. “Aydin?”
“Mira, you know Tallius.” Aydin gestured toward their guests. “This is his Alpha, the WG Alpha, War.” He motioned toward her. “War, Mira.”
Mira glanced at War and dipped her chin by way of greeting before her eyes ghosted over Tallius. Even that brief connection of their eyes had heat sizzling through her.
Looking back to Aydin, she asked, “What’s going on?”
“War requested a tour.” Aydin glanced at War. “It’s customary when packs form a new alliance.”
Unable to look at Tallius, Mira kept her eyes on Aydin, waiting for further explanation. And he gave it to her, but his words morphed into background noise as every inch of her honed in on Tallius. He wouldn’t stop staring. Without even looking at him, Mira knew that Tallius hadn’t taken his eyes off her since she’d stepped into view. She could feel his attention on her, and it had her shifting uneasily. Finally, sliding her eyes from Aydin to Tallius, she confirmed her suspicion. His greedy eyes were devouring her and had goose bumps rising all along her skin.
She shot him a look, but only earned herself a cocky grin.
“How about a perimeter run first.” Aydin’s suggestion had Mira’s gut clenching as she gave him her attention.
“That’d be fine,” War agreed, and Tallius nodded.
Glancing between the three men, Mira knew she had no choice to admit, “I can’t.”
“Why not?” Aydin asked, eyes narrowing on her.
Angling her face away from them, Mira spoke softly, “I just . . . can’t.”
Tallius’s brows speared down as he took a step toward her. “Mira?”
“Look,” she retreated a few steps, “my wolf’s . . .”
Aydin advanced on her too, his look intent. “Your wolf’s what?”
Not looking at either man, Mira kept her eyes down. She didn’t want to tell them the truth, but knew that they’d scent any lie she gave, so she settled on somewhere between. “She’s not fully healed yet.” Eyes shifting up, she forced them to go to her Alpha instead of straying to Tallius like they wanted to. “I can’t shift just yet.”
In a move so fast that he blurred, Tallius closed the space between them. One hand gently collared Mira’s throat while the other clamped possessively at her lower back, forcing her body into his.
“You’re still hurt?” he demanded harshly.
A snarl behind them was the only warning they got before Tallius was ripped backward. The action jerked Mira forward and she just barely kept herself from landing on her face. Head snapping up, she watched as Aydin and Tallius went nose-to-nose.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Aydin growled.
Tallius’s tone was just as menacing when he snarled, “She ain’t yours!”
Aydin pressed his forehead to Tallius’s. “And she ain’t yours!”
Mira muttered an exasperated, “Oh dear God.” Holding up her hands, she demanded, “Stop! Both of you! I don’t belong to anyone!”
“Stand down,” War boomed, but it didn’t carry any real weight.
Tallius ignored them both, his lips twisted in a sinister grin. Eyes still locked on Aydin, he goaded, “Don’t pretend you can’t smell me on her. Aside from her beauty, it’s the first thing I noticed when she walked into this room.”
His
words shocked Mira, and her hands lowered as she turned her head toward her shoulder and sniffed. She didn’t smell anything, but the expression on Aydin’s face said that Tallius wasn’t lying. Great! Just fucking great!
“It doesn’t matter what she chose to do with you at the cabin. It matters what she chooses now.”
Aydin turned and looked pointedly at her. Tallius took advantage of the opportunity to shove the Alpha hard, forcing him to stumble back.
“Tallius!” War boomed.
When Aydin steadied himself and took a step toward Tallius, Tallius jammed a finger in Aydin’s face and snarled, “Don’t! I ain’t in the fucking mood for your Alpha bullshit, and if you press it I’m gonna lay down a challenge, right here, right fucking now!”
That had Aydin’s brows dipping into a sneer.
Mira’s eyes rounded, and she breathed, “Wow. You guys are really something else.” Rolling her eyes in feigned boredom, she turned and made for the door.
She stilled when Tallius commanded, “Mira, leave this room and you’ll fucking regret it!”
His words were weighted with promise, but there was an undercurrent of primal intent. His demand felt like he was declaring ownership of her, and for a moment a shiver of approval coursed through her at his command, but the audacity of him snapped her right out of it.
Head slowly turning, she glared over her shoulder at him, her eyes narrowing as she asked, “The fuck’d you say?”
Tallius’s eyes slid from Aydin to her, and she realized that maybe she was pushing him too far. His typical blue eyes were obliterated by his blown-out pupils. His animal was right there, coiled tight just beneath the surface and waiting for an excuse. A long snarl blasted up his throat and had Mira backing up a step. Her foot hit the bottom step and she tumbled, nearly landing on her ass, but she caught herself and skirted the stairs. She hadn’t done that before. She hadn’t run from a male since the night the WG attacked her pack. The realization had her spine snapping straight as fury flooded her. Her mouth slashed into an angry scowl, and her eyes narrowed to thin slits as she stated in a voice that was deceptively calm, “Don’t tell me what to do, War God. This ain’t the Fortress. I ain’t your pack. And you have no authority here.”
“The fuck I don’t!”
He stalked her, and as Mira backed up, he matched her step for step until her back hit the wall and the air left her lungs on a little “Ooomph.”
“Tallius,” War growled on a warning, but his Beta didn’t slow.
Shoulders pressed into the wall behind her, there was no escape for Mira as Tallius towered over her and canted his head. Behind him, Aydin stood motionless, but Mira knew he was considering the ramifications of attacking the WG Beta. She didn’t want that, and the Fury certainly didn’t need the kind of wrath rained down on them that War and his pack would bring. So, eyes locked defiantly on Tallius, Mira bit out, “Leave us.”
At first Aydin didn’t move, so Mira inhaled deeply and asked, “Aydin, War, please. Leave us.”
A triumphant grin wrecked Tallius’s face. Behind him Mira knew Aydin was debating his next move.
Finally, after several tense minutes, Aydin snarled, “Fine! But hurt her, Tally boy, and you’ll be the one regretting.”
Aydin stormed from the room followed by War, and the second they were alone, Tallius reached down and lifted Mira. With one arm shelving her ass, his free hand caught her jaw as he pressed hard between her thighs before taking advantage of her startled gasp to seal his lips over hers. His tongue plunged into her mouth, and before she could even react, he was kissing her so thoroughly that it took her a second to register and then react.
Bucking against him, she shoved at his chest. A growl rattled its way up Tallius’s throat and had her inner wolf shooting to her feet for the first time in six days. Lusty little she wolf wanted more of the WG Beta.
A hand flattened on her back and pushed her body more firmly into his so that all she could do was writhe against him. It proved to be a bad idea because the friction between her legs had heat pooling low in her belly and her sex growing wet and ready. The scent of her own arousal filled her nose, and she knew the second Tallius scented it because his growl tapered into something else. Something dark, something possessive, something hers!
Unable to stop herself, she kissed him back. Arms wrapping around him, she devoured him. This! This was what she’d been missing and craving. This was what she’d been needing. God, she wished they were in her room or someplace more private than the TV room of her pack’s main house, because she wanted him inside her like she wanted her next breath.
Chapter 21
Tallius kissed Mira long and deep until he was so light-headed with lust that he swore his balls were going to explode from the need for release, and not just any release. No, he wanted to shred the clothes separating them and bury himself so fully inside Mira’s tight little body that he’d brand her forever and she’d never question again who she belonged to.
Breaking the kiss, Mira pressed her forehead to his and panted, “What are you doing?”
His head was still so full of her that he couldn’t even come up with a response.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she panted, and finally pulled back to look at him. “We worked each other out of our systems. It’s over. End of story.”
“The fuck it is,” he snarled. “We didn’t work out shit. If anything, being with you was a shot of adrenaline straight to my fucking heart, pretty wolf.” He ground his hips against hers and watched her eyes flare with lust. “I’ve been hopped up on you ever since.” More seriously, he said, “I’m addicted to you, Mira. Consumed. I need you with me.” His brows speared down, “And I’m not leaving here without you.”
That got a response from her, but it wasn’t the one he’d expected. Shoving at his chest and kicking her legs, she growled, “Let me down.”
He didn’t want to because the sweet scent of her wet cunt was owning his wolf’s attention, and once he put her down, he knew he’d have a hard time controlling himself. His unmated female was in territory foreign to him. It was territory that housed dozens of unmated males, and that didn’t sit right with him. Reluctantly, he did as she asked.
On her feet, Mira pulled down the hem of her shirt that had ridden up to expose the smooth skin of her stomach. “What do you want, Tallius?”
His answer was simple. “You.”
With a roll of her eyes, Mira snorted, “Yeah, well get in line.”
Her words pissed him off. For the past six days he’d been thinking about Aydin and his clear infatuation with her. For six days he’d been imagining the Fury Alpha making passes at and flirting with Mira, and her words now only confirmed that his fears were valid. Instantly, his body tensed as rage ripped through him. “I’m taking you home,” he growled then jerked his chin toward the door. “Get your shit!”
Mira only stared at him in shock before her delicate brows speared down. “Don’t be ridiculous, and don’t come in here making demands.” More quietly she hissed, “You and War may be Gods where you’re from, but right now you’re in my pack’s territory. You’re outnumbered and you can’t win. Aydin would have the pack kill you both for trying to take me out of here.”
“Fine,” he snapped. “If this is how I end, then I guess I’m going down like this.”
“Are you seriously pretending to be so cavalier with your life?”
He turned serious. “I’m not pretending, Mira. All my life I thought I was strong. The older I got, the bigger I grew, the more muscle I built. In my head I became a beast, and for a long time I was. Until I met you.” Stepping to her, he lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. “I’m strong enough to handle anything on the face of this fucking earth. Thought I was strong enough to face anything, but I’m not.” He shook his head slowly. “You taught me that. Because I can’t live like this, Mira. I can’t.” He swallowed hard. “And I don’t want to.”
“L-live like what?” she stammered.
“Live
without you. I’m not doing it. And like I said, I ain’t leaving here without you.”
He watched her lips part as surprise filled her eyes. “But . . .”
“But nothing,” he cut her off. “My wolf attached to yours. I attached to you. I’ll fight every wolf in this pack. I’ll burn this motherfucker to the ground if I have to.”
He realized what a mistake his words were when she recoiled. “What!”
“Shhhhit, Mira. I meant . . .”
She recovered quickly, her anger snapping her right out of her shock. “You meant exactly what you said. Fffuck!” she breathed, and shook her head with a disbelieving huff, backing away from him. “You’re the same as I thought you were.” Her dismay morphed into anger. “You think you can just go wherever you want and take what you want! Hurt who you want?” Fisting her hands, she dipped her chin. “It ain’t happening here, War God. This isn’t FourClaws, and the Beta before you isn’t gonna go down like Roe did.”
“Mira, I’m not here for war. I didn’t come to fight you or to hurt anyone. I came here to fix things.”
“Fix what?” she snapped.
“I shoulda . . .” He fidgeted nervously before heaving a weighty sigh. Eyes locked on hers, he admitted, “I should have done it right the first time.” He swallowed hard, and his jaw ticked once before he laid it all out there. “Mira, I should have loved you right the first time. I don’t regret what happened between us, but I wish it had happened differently. I should have done so much differently. I shouldn’t have killed Roe the way I did. I didn’t want to. I gave him a choice, you need to know that. I told him he could run with the others. I told him we’d let them all go if they surrendered. No one had to die that night. But Roe didn’t want that, and when he attacked me, I reacted. You saw the worst of me that day. I wish to God you hadn’t. I wish we’d met under different circumstances. The look on your face when you saw what I did . . . It still haunts me, Mira. I wish I could go back and start new with you, but I can’t. All I can do is move forward from here. I didn’t come here to hurt anyone. I’m not here to declare war, but I meant what I said, pretty wolf. I am not! Leaving here! Without you!”
