by Ally Summers
“This isn’t good man.”
“No, it’s not.” I slapped him on the back. “You driving?”
“Sure. I’ll pull the car around back and meet you two on the steps.”
“I’ll make sure Ava is ready for this. See you in five minutes.”
Griffin walked out of the rear entrance for the precinct and I headed to my desk.
“Hey, there.” I winked. I didn’t know how to break this to her.
“Hi. Everything okay?” she asked.
I sat on the corner of the desk. “Depends on your definition of okay I guess.” I smirked.
“Just tell me what it is,” she pressed. “I can take it.”
I ran my hands through my hair. “It’s not something I want to do. Okay?”
“It’s okay, Nolan. Just say it.” Her hand landed on my knee. I wondered how many of the other guys were picking up on our exchange.
“Let’s head out for some fresh air,” I suggested. I didn’t want anyone to overhear what I was about to tell her about the super shifter’s body.
“Now you are starting to scare me,” Ava whispered as I maneuvered her out the same door Griffin had used.
As soon as it closed behind us, I checked for anyone taking a smoke break.
“Listen, it’s about the crime scene.”
“Okay.” She looked at me expectantly.
“The captain says when they went up there, the body was gone. The super was gone.”
Ava gasped.
“And your house was wiped clean. We don’t know what they took, but we’ve got to go up and there and start an inventory list of every single thing that’s missing from you house.”
Her hands covered her mouth. “Allied was in my cottage?”
“We don’t know that it was them for sure.”
“Who in the hell do you think it was?” she fired.
“Okay. I’m sure it was, but it would help if we knew what they took. What they needed.”
“Nothing. I have nothing from my time there.”
“Are you absolutely positive?”
I looked up when Griffin pulled into the semi-circle drive with one of the station’s unmarked SUV’s.
“Who is that?” Ava asked.
“It’s Griffin. One of the detectives working the missing hikers cases. He offered to go with us as backup.”
“I see,” she whispered. “I have to go?”
“I don’t want you to go up there, but the captain could fire me, and then how do I help take Allied down? It’s a shitty situation, but we’ll be in and out.”
I wrapped my arms around her, letting my palms rest at the small of her back. “Don’t be mad with me. I’ll keep you safe. I swear. And I’ll make you dinner tonight to make up for it.” I waggled my eyebrows.
Ava pouted. “I guess it was stupid to think I wouldn’t have to go back.”
“I can’t blame you. But it’s an active crime scene. Evidence is evaporating. It’s slipping away the longer we’re in Hunter’s Lake.”
She sighed. “Everything’s happening so fast. The supers. Allied. You and me.”
“Hey.” I squeezed her gently, drawing her to my chest. “We have all the time in the world. The rest of our lives. That’s how mates work, baby.” I grinned. “I’m going to get you through all the rest.”
“Does he know about me?” She nodded toward Griffin.
I chuckled. “I think he’s probably figured it out in the past five minutes.”
Ava giggled. “Okay. One last trip to Sweet Willow Lane.”
“God, you’re incredible.” I kissed the top of her forehead.
She shrugged. “Well, doesn’t make sense for both of us to be out of a job.”
I laughed. “Come on, smartass. Let’s get this over with.”
Eleven
Ava
I insisted Nolan sit up front with Griffin so they could discuss the cases they were working on, while I took a break from thinking about police work. I stretched out in the third row of the long SUV during the drive to Thunder Pike. My body was sore and sated in the most amazing places. The adrenaline from having sex with my bear shifter mate was starting to fade enough for me to realize how exhausted I truly was. I let me eyes close as we drove farther into the mountains.
“Ava. Ava,” Nolan called when we parked in the driveway.
I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window. It felt as if we had arrived in five minutes. I must have slept hard. The cottage looked as serene and cozy as it always had. No one would know something was killed here.
Nolan held my hand as I stepped from the vehicle. “Ten minutes,” he promised. “That’s all.”
“You two take your time.” Griffin folded his arms over his massive chest. “I’ve got the perimeter check for you.”
“Thanks, man.” Nolan nodded at his buddy and we walked up the steps together. “It won’t take long.”
The front door was open.
“Are you sure this is safe?” I asked, feeling nervous about going in the house.
“I’ve already been inside,” Nolan answered. “You were hard to wake up,” he teased.
I scrunched up my nose. “Someone made me very tired.”
“I’ll be easier next time,” he leaned to whisper in my ear.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned.
We crossed into the kitchen. The coffee pot was clean. Even our cups from the first interrogation were washed.
“Who cleans dirty dishes when they are committing a crime?” I murmured, wandering into the laundry room. Everything looked just as I had left it. I tried not to think about Allied walking through the cottage and touching my things. Instead, I tried to look at it scientifically.
“Anything yet?” Nolan asked. “It might not seem significant to you, but just the smallest thing could lead us to Allied’s next target.”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
I poked my head in the bathroom. Luckily, when Nolan packed for me last night he had already taken my makeup bag and my toothbrush. The towels were perfectly aligned on the rack. I turned off the light and headed into my bedroom.
The window I had used to escape had been closed and locked.
“It’s as if I wasn’t here for two months,” I whispered, noticing how the bed was made with hospital corners.
“Fucking weird.” Nolan stood next to me.
There was one more room. We both wandered into the office.
“Oh my God.” My jaw hung open.
“Everything.” Nolan’s eyes darted from end to the other. “It’s gone.”
I nodded. The room had been stripped bare. Even the office chair was gone.
“Do you think you can remember what was here?” he asked.
“The map.” I pointed to the wall. It was the only thing they had left.
Nolan immediately wrapped his arms around me and hauled me out of the room. “Don’t look at that,” he growled, carrying me off the front porch.
Griffin was at the bottom of the stairs. “What is it?”
“Go in and take pictures in the office,” Nolan instructed. “The map. Just grab it. And put it in something. Ava doesn’t need to see that shit again.” I saw the worry on his face.
“I’ll take care of it,” Griffin responded.
“You can put me down,” I wiggled, pressing into the hard planes of his chest. I wondered if I would ever stop noticing just how sculpted he was.
“You sure you’re okay?” Nolan asked after Griffin jogged into the house.
“You seem to forget I worked for them.” I eyed my shifter. “I know how Allied operates. I know they use fear to motivate and control. It was a scare tactic. That’s all.”
“But what they put on the map. Ava, I think they wrote in in blood.”
My eyes fell to the row of hedges blooming. “It probably was.” I didn’t want to think about whose blood they used. I already had an idea.
“Come here.” His arms circled me. “I’m not going to let them near
you. Never. You’re staying with me. We’re not coming back to Sweet Willow Lane.”
“Can I just make the list for the captain and get out of here?” I asked.
“Of course.”
We waited next to the vehicle while Griffin took pictures for the evidence file and carried the map out in a large brown envelope.
“That’s everything,” he reported.
“Thanks, man.”
Nolan looked at me. “Is there anything else you need to pack or take before we leave?”
I shook my head. “No. They have my tablet and my computer. Everything else is replaceable.”
“All right. Let’s go home, baby.”
Nolan and Griffin climbed into the front seat of the SUV and I sat in the back. He tried to crawl into the third row with me, but I told him he was being ridiculous. I was fine. I wanted Nolan to know I was strong. I didn’t want him to think Allied could break me. But I needed the entire car ride back to Hunter’s Lake to deal with the message they left me.
Your blood for his.
Twelve
Nolan
It had been two weeks since Ava had left the cottage in Thunder Pike. I had made sure to show her every day how glad my bear was that he had finally found her. For a moment, things had calmed down. There hadn’t been any new attacks all week. Rawlings was trying to track down the missing stone that had been stolen from the library. Griffin was working all the angles he could on the Allied case. It gave me a chance to focus on my mate.
I walked in the door from work, ready to tell her I had a full weekend to devote to her. I had a bottle of bubbly wine she liked and an arm full of flowers. Tonight, we were going to celebrate a week together.
I stopped in my tracks when I spotted her in the kitchen.
“Holy fuck,” I growled.
Ava drew her bottom lip under her teeth. “Do you like it?”
“Do I?” I placed the champagne on the table and the flowers next to it. I walked toward her. My eyes started at the pointy high heels she was wearing and traced up the lines of her legs to the garter fastened at her thighs.
My palms flattened against her belly and circled to her back, absorbing the smooth satin. I cupped her ass. The back was a thong, and there were laces barely keeping her tits tied in.
“What is this thing called?” I asked.
“It’s a corset.” Her voice was throaty and seductive. “I ordered it online yesterday. I didn’t think it would get here so fast, but voila. It’s here.”
She stepped out of my hold to turn around. “Do you like the back?” She leaned over the counter, showing off her delicious ass. I snapped the thong in place and she moaned. “So that’s a yes?”
“I can’t decide if I need to fuck you in it or out of it.”
She twisted to face me. “How about both? In it first,” she teased, working the buttons on my blue shirt.
My mouth crushed hers and our tongues tangled. I sucked on her lips, making her moan and coo at the force.
“I brought you champagne,” I whispered, taking her chin in my hand and kissing her throat. “Want some?” I offered.
“After you fuck me,” she whispered. “I missed you all day.”
Her hands landed on my belt buckled and she unfastened it at shifter speed. I was impressed with her level of skills. She yanked my pants to the floor.
I watched in awe as she sank to her knees, dragging my boxer briefs down my thighs as I kicked them off.
My cock bobbed free and at attention in front of her lips.
“Mmm,” she moaned.
I pressed the thick tip to her mouth and pushed forward as she sucked in, swallowing me with expert pressure.
“Oh fuck, Ava.” I grabbed the back of her head, sliding between her lips.
I worked my shaft in and out, hitting her throat in deep thrusts. Her tongue made circles and her breath turned ragged as I quickened my pace.
“You’re so fucking perfect,” I groaned as she sucked. “But I want you in that outfit.” I withdrew my cock from her mouth and laughed when she pouted.
I helped her from the floor. “Turn around.”
She smiled, spinning on the toes of her heels.
I slid the thong to the side and ran a finger between her folds. She hissed as I massaged her soaking wet pussy. She didn’t need me to get her ready for my solid cock. The blowjob had already turned her on to a ten.
“Spread your legs, baby,” I growled. “And hold on.”
I pried her velvet petals wide as my cock speared her with a single slice.
“Oh shit,” she moaned, throwing her head back.
I’d never seen her like this naughty and beautiful before. I loved the lingerie. The thong. The lace ties. And I loved her ass.
I hilted myself inside her until she groaned for release. I wrapped my hand to her stomach and slid it under the front of the thong, clasping her clit.
“Oh God, yes,” she moaned. “Please, Nolan.”
I grinned as I plucked her swollen clit until the first climax hit her. She convulsed and vibrated around my cock. It was enough to make me want to come hard, but we had only started.
She panted for breath when I pulled out.
“Come here.” I lifted her in my arms, throwing her hands on my neck.
She smiled at me. “I have to get you out of this. I’m the only one naked in the kitchen.”
“Is that a problem?” she teased seductively.
I pulled one of the ties until one of her nipples popped over the edge of the corset.
“Ohh,” she purred.
“You look fucking sexy in this thing. Have I told you that enough?”
“You can never say it enough.” Her eyes lit with mischief, as her free hand traveled to her other tit and freed it with a tug of the string. The corset was loosening and unraveling on her torso. It made her tits look enormous.
Fuck, taking her to the bedroom. I laid her on the kitchen table, moving the flowers and champagne out of the way. I leaned over her ripe body, sucking her tit in my mouth. She arched her back, offering me to lap at her breast, while she squeezed the other one.
“I’m going to fuck you every way I can tonight,” I promised.
“You better,” she whispered, taking my cock in her hand. She fisted me lightly as I pointed it for her pussy.
“This thong makes it seem like you want to be off limits to my cock, baby.”
She shook her head. “Why would you say that. It clearly says, come fuck me.” She licked her lips.
“How many knots are in this damn thing?” I stared down at her gorgeous body, writing beneath me on the table. She was desperate for me. I could smell her. Taste her. Her hands began to travel to the apex of her thighs. I watched, fascinated as she unhooked one of the snaps.
“There,” she purred. “Can you get the other one?”
I nodded as I flicked it with my thumb. Suddenly, I could move the thong in any direction I wanted while she was on her back. I peeled it an inch along her thighs.
She hissed. “More.”
I rested the top of it against her clit, and grinned as her hips rocked wildly, looking for friction.
“Did you forget your mate gets to decide how you come?” I taunted.
Her palms flattened on the side of the table. “Tell me how,” she whimpered.
I reached for the champagne next to me, and popped the cork. Ava’s eyes widened.
“You wouldn’t?”
I chuckled. “I want to taste this on your clit.”
“Oh God,” but her hips bucked as I let a few drops run between her legs. I bent to lick between the thong and her clit. She squirmed. I poured more of the champagne on her body, lapping from her navel to her clit.
The closer my tongue got to her clit, the harder she bucked for its contact. I smiled.
“Want some?” I tempted.
She nodded.
“After you come.”
She glared at me, but my lips returned to her stomach and she
moaned. I wiggled the thong back and forth and she panted harder and faster, rocking wildly for me to touch her. To taste her.
As soon as my hand slid under the thong to cup her heat she exploded in my fingers. I sank them deep inside her. She clenched and gasped to ride the orgasm to its fullest.
“That’s it,” I coaxed, untying the last restraint on the thong. I tossed it on the floor with the rest of my clothes. I pushed the head of my cock to her aching pussy and looked in her eyes.
“I want my champagne,” she teased.
I handed her the bottle. She took a swig as I thrust inside her.
Thirteen
Ava
I gasped and almost choked on the champagne when Nolan’s cock filled me. I would never get used to how big he was. How he stretched and pulled my body in new directions. How he made me his with the sexiest fucking skills in the world. My pussy was his. My breasts were his. My lips. All my body belonged to his body when we were like this.
He moved in and out of me with precision, sending strokes of pleasure to my core.
“Oh yes,” I whimpered as he spread my legs wider. “Please don’t stop fucking me, Nolan.”
“I won’t. Ever.” He breathed harder. His eyes narrowed as his animal instincts took us to the brink of passion.
He hit deeper and harder. The kitchen table rattled beneath me. I wondered if it was built to withstand this kind of abuse. I was willing to find out as he took me to another level of bliss. One kitchen table was a good trade for this kind of earth-shattering sex.
Nolan roared, dragging my hips closer to the edge of the table and his fingers sank into my waist as he angled down.
“Oh fuck, Ava,” he growled. “You feel like heaven.”
I loved when he called my name. When his bear growled for me. It was what I always needed, and never knew. He was my amazing, loyal, sexy bear. And I was his mate.
“We’re moving,” he stated.
“Oh?”
His hands cupped my back as he lifted me from the table’s surface. I clung to his neck as he carried me into the living room. Our mouths were hungry for each other. Our tongues twisted and flicked. He adjusted me so that my legs wrapped around him.
