by Brenna Lyons
“I don’t know much about anything.”
Katie scanned his body slowly. “That’s not true.”
Scott laughed in spite of himself. “You don’t have to be a Warrior to be good in bed.”
She ran her fingertips through the beast blood splattered on his jacket. “I meant your skill at battle. You know, you’ll have to trash this when we get back.” She glanced down at his feet. “And the boots. The rest can be washed.”
“That’s no problem. I hate this jacket and these boots, anyway. I’d rather wear my own.”
Katie lifted his hand away from the handlebars, urging him back by lifting her leg over the seat. She settled into his lap, her thighs over his, face to face with him. “Why don’t you?”
Scott felt his cheeks heat. He trusted her. She hadn’t asked much about him in the last few days; she’d respected his privacy. He had brought the subject up, and it was only to be expected that she’d ask.
She raised an eyebrow, her face contemplative. “They ordered you to wear the standard jacket and boots.”
“It was all I could do to keep my blue shirts. Apparently, your cousin helped with that. As for the boots... Only the Blutjagdfrau wear something that varies.”
“Hmmm... I thought you met my Uncle Adam.”
Memories of Adam Lord Maher flitted in his mind. “Son of a bitch! He wore those high moccasins.”
“Yes. I guarantee he did.” She shifted against him, and her heat registered against his leg, making thinking difficult. “Feel free to inform them that a Warrior’s personal appearance is not something they order.”
Scott’s shock dissipated into unease as she collected more of the beast blood from his jacket on her fingertips. She reached for his face, and he grasped her wrist, shaking his head.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
Katie smiled a feminine smile that bordered on sensual. “You earned your seal tonight, Scott. Several times over, in fact. As the sealed Warrior in battle with you, I reserve the right to paint them in the blood of a beast you killed.”
He released her, settling his hand on her thigh. The touch of her fingers was almost enough to make him forget that Katie was spreading the foul-smelling blood over his forehead in the glyph that represented Syth, the Stone. She dragged up at his shirt, painting the matching seal over his heart.
Her fingers trailed down his stomach, rubbing lightly at his cock. Scott leaned over her, closing his eyes as she tilted her head back and met his lips. She wrapped her legs around him, crossing her ankles on the seat behind him.
Scott pulled her into his lap, trying to argue his way out of peeling her out of her jeans right there. Visions of Katie on his lap, his full length inside her, danced in his mind. As he had the last few nights, he sensed her, making sure she wasn’t approaching her fertile window.
At the word of the other Warriors, he hadn’t bothered with condoms for women who weren’t near ovulation since he’d reached their range; it seemed Warriors didn’t have to worry about sexually-transmitted diseases, something his mother hadn’t told him. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to pick women for the night who weren’t ‘high cycle’ to capitalize on that fact, enjoying the freedom from latex.
For Katie, he’d make the exception. Realization that he’d not only use a condom just to make love to her but that he’d trust her enough to simply toss it in the trash can at his bedside shook him. He was definitely far gone, if he was considering that.
Katie isn’t my mother. She isn’t out to trick me.
But she was out to drive him over the edge. Her hand was under his shirt, baring his chest to her as she met his mouth, grinding her heat against his jean-covered cock. He groaned in surrender, reaching for her zipper.
The sound of an engine and a car horn broke him out of his daze. He looked up, scowling at Corwyn.
“Let’s go, Kates,” he ordered gruffly.
Scott grumbled a curse. There it was again. The princess couldn’t be seen with the likes of him, and her family didn’t approve, as he’d guessed they wouldn’t.
Katie smiled and placed another quick kiss on his lips, unhooking her legs. “It’s just to put my parents at ease,” she said by way of assurance. “If I showed up—”
“Yeah.”
She seemed confused by his curt response. “We can finish this later. This is not the place—”
“I’ll see you then. Same time, same place.”
He moved his arm and watched Katie climb into the truck with her brother, torn between his heartbreak and the mad need to have her again.
“You’re going to do it,” he berated himself. “You are the stupidest man on the face of the Earth, Scott Danvers.” Scott headed for the house, his mind full of conflicting feelings about Katie.
* * * *
“Not smart, Kates,” her brother admonished her, handing back the two throwing blades he’d collected for her.
Katie sighed. “Shut up, Bear. We’ll see how easy it is for you to think when you’re printing.”
Gods help her, she needed to think, to analyze why Scott was angry with her. If she’d showed up back at the training house without Bear after they’d battled together, her parents would have heard about it, and there would have been more than a little discussion about it. Why was he upset about that?
Her brother interrupted her again. “You’d’ve really...made love to him right on the road, wouldn’t you?”
At least Bear’s frustration with her made sense. “May I remind you how we were conceived?”
Bear grimaced. “If you must.”
“I think you get my point.” She wondered if it was simply the fact that Scott ached for her and that stopping wasn’t comfortable. It was a possibility, but the feeling that it was more than that plagued her.
A smile touched her mouth at her relief that Scott hadn’t been with another woman. He didn’t smell or taste of one, and with her Warrior senses, she’d know if he had so much as snuggled, beast blood masking it or not. A fervent hope that he hadn’t been able to assaulted her. If he wasn’t able to, he was printing, whether he recognized it for what it was or not.
He sighed and rolled the tension from his shoulders. “You have to keep your cool when we get back. If you blow, it’s not going to go well.”
Katie fought for clarity. “What are you talking about?”
“Scott is in a lot of trouble. You can’t interfere in his judgment. You know you can’t.”
“He’s not in any trouble,” she stated. In fact, by the time he’d slid into place at her back, she’d worked out how to head that off.
Bear’s look of disbelief was almost comical. “What are you saying? Do you have any clue what penalty Tyler is likely to take for his breach of conduct?”
“None. Just follow my lead, and Scott is off the hook.”
He muttered a curse in Italian, then another in Gaelic, fisting his hands on the steering wheel. “I am not going to enjoy this.”
“You don’t have to enjoy it. You just have to do it. I’m—I’m asking you to do this for me.”
He nodded, his jaw tight in anger. “Do you Blutjagdfrau ever do anything the right way?”
She smirked at him. “Never. That’s why you Soldat find it more expedient to just agree with us.”
Bear cracked a smile. “I was afraid of that.”
The remaining miles passed in silence. They entered the house and came face to face with Tyler and Matt.
The Lord Armen panned his eyes down their befouled clothing and equipment. “That was quite a hunt,” he noted carefully.
Katie didn’t beat around the bush. “I owe you an apology,” she stated calmly. “I overstepped my bounds tonight.”
The two men looked at each other in confusion, then back at her.
“For hunting our range?” Matt asked. “You know you have leave to hunt wherever you wish, König.”
“Not that, of course. I—” She paused, looking around as the front door opened
again. She’d hoped to have more time to soften the blow, but it was head-on now.
Scott strode in, splattered in beast blood, his t-shirt untucked and bunched at the center of his belt, the seal standing out in stark contrast to the skin of his forehead. He came to a halt, his eyes darting from one person to another, his hands fisting and jaw tightening, most likely in the realization that he still had to face sanction.
“Scott,” Tyler greeted him gruffly.
“You first nighted my son?” Matt growled.
Bear turned on him, his hand hovering at the hilt to his weapon in warning. There were formalities to be met, and Bear wouldn’t allow him to simply attack in anger.
Scott opened his mouth to speak, but Katie cut him off, turning to face the Armens as she did. “Yes. I gave him permission to fight at my back,” she lied. “Scott didn’t know when he started following me that I was baiting beasts in. I could have sent him away, but I didn’t.” At least, that much was true.
She offered a quick dip of her head. “I take full responsibility for allowing this. It was a chance that wasn’t mine to take. Despite his prior success in battle and his prowess in training, I might have gotten Scott killed tonight. I submit to my true judge.”
“No,” Scott protested. “You—”
“Quiet,” Tyler barked. “Kaitlyn knows the laws she broke. You do her a disservice by interfering.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Scott argued. “I—”
“Did she tell you to leave?” Bear interrupted him.
“No, but—I wouldn’t have left if she had.” His voice was laced in frustration, perhaps even desperation.
Katie managed not to wince. Scott wasn’t helping himself by admitting that. “It doesn’t matter what you would have done. A sealed Warrior not of your house allowed you to fight.”
“Damn this, Katie! You cannot—”
“She’s right,” Tyler barked. “Stay out of this, Scott, or face me.”
“I don’t care if you—”
“Scott!” Katie cut him off, turning to face him. She mouthed a ‘please’ at him, praying he’d back off. Everything she was doing would be for nothing if he didn’t stop.
Scott shook his head, Blutjagd flickering in his skin, grinding his teeth to keep from arguing with her. She turned back to her judge with a silent prayer of thanks to a handful of Gods that she’d silenced him.
Tyler turned to Matt. “He’s your son. You are judge here.”
Matt looked from one face to the next, fighting back a heavy dose of Blutjagd. Katie stiffened in response, then forced herself to relax. There was a very real possibility that she was about to face one hell of a beating in Scott’s place.
From Matt’s point of view, she’d endangered his son, a son he was only now getting to know, perhaps in its novelty a relationship he would view as he would a father with a new baby. This was one of the fiercest states a Warrior experienced, second only to a mate being lost or endangered, and there was no telling what a Warrior in the grips of this particular madness would do.
Matt stepped forward, his hand fisted, his eyes crazed.
Katie waved her brother away as he stiffened. This wasn’t something he could interfere in. Whatever price Matt took, within reason, it was his right to take it.
The room went silent, her heartbeat the loudest thing she could hear.
Matt hesitated, looking at his fist as if in indecision. Was he assuring himself that what he intended was rational and reasonable under the rules of sanction? Was he reasoning his way out of harming her simply because she was Blutjagdfrau?
“I am not above the rules of sanction,” she stated proudly. “I accept your blow, if that’s what it takes.”
“No.” Scott’s voice was the deadly calm that comes before the storm of bloodlust.
Katie motioned him to silence.
“Are you injured, Scott?” Matt managed.
She considered that. Matt was beyond thinking. If any of them had been injured, every Warrior in range of them would have felt it. But, he was trying to be rational, trying to gauge the appropriate response to the offense to his family. That meant he wouldn’t go too far, not that she would have taken him to judge if he had.
“No. I’m fine.”
He nodded, unfisting his hand. Matt met her eyes, looking pained—and slapped her backhand across the face. Bear grasped her shoulders, steadying Katie for the few moments until her bearings righted themselves.
Matt swallowed hard, looking like he was on the verge of tears. “Repayment in kind,” he muttered.
Katie dipped her head again. “My apologies, Matt.” She turned and headed up the stairs with Bear a few steps behind, praying that her sacrifice would head off any further violence.
* * * *
Scott glared at his ‘father and grandfather,’ cursing them to their version of hell for this. “This is how you revere your women? This is how you protect them?” he spat.
“Kaitlyn is a Warrior,” Tyler began.
“She’s innocent,” he countered. “I shouldn’t have followed her into a battle. Even though she was penned in, I shouldn’t have barged into her fight. But even if she’d ordered me away and I chose to obey her, I would have had to kill beasts to leave the area.
“It’s only common sense. I don’t wear an amulet. What the hell would you have done if a beast had confronted me in town? It’s happened before, you recall, which is why I’m in this mess in the first place. Would you have punished me for defending myself?”
“Of course not!”
“Then why the hell did you do this? That’s all it was, defending myself. And her. I won’t lie about that. I saw—a Warrior in trouble, and I was already in the thick of it, too late to back out without battle.” He tried not to contradict her. If they had even the slightest inkling that Katie had lied to them, she’d face a lot worse than she already had.
He almost groaned at the idea that he was lying to them, too. All that time of keeping to the letter of the law, and now I’m blowing it. Well, what they don’t know can’t hurt me.
Matt sighed, rubbing a hand over the stubble on his chin. “She broke the rules of sanction, Scott. Whether you had to fight your way out or not, she should have ordered you back. You weren’t hurt, by the grace of Fih, and that’s why she only faced a single open-handed blow.”
“She shouldn’t have faced anything,” he thundered.
“You don’t understand the rules of—”
“I understand them just fine.” I also understand that the people enforcing them are completely without common sense. “In fact... Since I’m a sealed Warrior now, I request permission to roam.”
The older men shot each other a calculating look.
“Denied,” Tyler stated.
“What?” Scott forced his voice to a conversational tone and his hands not to fist. “Why not?” Though he knew they still had the right to order his movement, he’d counted on their willingness to give him space.
“It’s obvious that you still lack the proper respect for our laws.”
“I respect the laws just fine,” he managed through gritted teeth. “It’s you I find hard to respect.”
For a moment, they simply stared at him. Scott prepared for the beating he’d take for that. Whatever they did to him, it would be worth it for admitting how he felt about them.
“Well then,” Tyler responded in an even voice. “I suppose you’ll have to stay here until you learn the proper respect for both the laws and the lord of your house.”
Scott nodded stiffly and headed for the stairs.
“Scott,” Matt called after him.
He stopped on the third riser. “Yes, Matt?” Here it comes. Tyler didn’t intend to take him to trial, but the old man did as a show of his control.
There was a moment of silence. “I’m proud of you. You battled well. I want you to know I’m truly proud of you for it.”
“It’s my duty. I don’t have much of a choice in that.”
; He took the rest of the stairs two at a time and closed himself into his bathroom, noting the trash bags that had been stored on the shelves since his arrival and the chute to the furnace in new appreciation. He started undressing, his movements measured and his mind busy.
Down the hall, the shower between Katie and Corwyn’s rooms was already going. He vaguely wondered which of them would bathe first, then decided that Corwyn would defer to his sister.
At a loss for something to distract him, Scott started analyzing the interactions downstairs. Conflicting emotions washed over him. The more he tried to understand Katie and Matt, the less he did.
* * * *
Katie planned her presentation carefully. She sat at the head of Scott’s bed, her robe opened around her body, her legs spread, one knee bent and the other crooked behind it, so she was on display for him.
The shower turned off, and her heart rate stepped up in anticipation. There were a few torturous moments before Scott slipped into the bedroom. He went still, closing the door behind him, scanning her body, the towel around his lower body tenting as he hardened. Scott crossed the room, pulling off the towel and throwing it over the footboard, his expression intense.
She forced a breath, noting her spinning head. Scott paused, then sat beside her, his eyes locked on her face. She reached for him, but he gripped her hand before she could connect.
“You shouldn’t have...” He took a calming breath. “You lied to them.”
“I didn’t stop you. If I didn’t, it was as good as giving you permission.”
Scott ground his teeth. He moved abruptly, wrapping one arm around her back and the other around her cheek. Katie gasped as he dragged her down the bed, around his body, and lay over her.
His fingertips brushed the tender spot on her cheek. “I take my own blows. What was it that Tyler said? You do me a disservice by interfering.”
Katie felt her cheeks flush. “You had no choice in what you did. You felt that. You had to feel it.”
The desperate need to know that Scott was printing settled in her. When she’d seen him under attack, it had affected her. What would it have been like for him? Scott would have known his mate was threatened from miles away.
