The new sensation of us calling each other our mates was tantalizing. I’d said it a few times before now, but standing here with him after our night together, it was finally real. “We went from friends to mates overnight.”
“Please.” He pulled me closer to him. “You were my mate long before both of us realized it.” I smiled up at him and for a brief moment let my guilt in. We had been mates for a long time, even before our first kiss that day when the Hunters captured us. If only I’d realized that. I would’ve never… “I forgive you,” Knight whispered, bringing me out of that rabbit hole. I kissed him slowly, tenderly, letting him know exactly how sorry I was, and how much I loved him. He drew his head back and pet my hair. “You’re going to make me lose the ability to speak, woman.”
“It’s time for a shower,” I declared with a flirty grin.
“Duh huh, what are words, okay, shower. Cool.” He cleared his throat trying to look serious. As we were already naked, it was simple to slip inside the small hotel tub and switch on the shower. Knight came in behind me and took my hips in his hands, pulling me roughly against his erection.
I turned with an evil glint in my eyes. “Nuh uh,” I chastised with a shake of my finger. “I seem to recall last night was your time. It’s my turn.” I sank to my knees in front of him as he stared into my purple irises, and I stuck my tongue out, dragging it up, up, up, the long length of his hard cock.
“For fucking shit’s sake,” Knight swore, putting a hand on the tile wall to steady himself. “You staring at me while you’re doing that, I’m going to lose it.” As an answer, I sucked the tip of his dick into my mouth without breaking eye contact and my pussy quivered when his eyes rolled back and he almost fell backwards.
Grinning, I popped his cock out of my mouth. “Good?” He groaned and didn’t answer verbally, just nodded his head. Ready to blow his mind, I adjusted my legs so I could sit up on my heels, and I took as much of his length in my mouth as I could, which considering how big around he was, it wasn’t much, but the effect was palpable when Knight’s fingers fisted my hair and his legs started shaking. I knew from experience that meant he was trying to stave off an orgasm, and I’d hardly even started. Wrapping both of my delicate hands around his hardness, I suckled the top like a popsicle and jacked him off with my hands. It was interesting to see what made him moan, shake, or tug on my hair. Alternating techniques, he was putty under my hands.
“Fucking hell, if you don’t stop, I’m going…”
I had no intention of stopping. Paying close attention to the intensity of his moans, I swirled my tongue around his tip, and when I knew he was just on the verge of an orgasm, I sucked my cheeks in and took him a tad bit further inside my mouth. His fingers pulled on my hair so hard it almost hurt, but he was lost in pleasure and his legs clenched a second before he started coming in my mouth, his hand busting a hole into the tile wall when he lost control. He babbled incoherently, shooting over and over onto my tongue. I put my hands on his ass cheeks so he could slowly thrust into my mouth just a little with the last remnants of his orgasm spurting out.
Content with myself, I gave him one final lick before leaning back and letting his flaccid cock fall out of my mouth. He’d planted his face against the tiles, right next to the hole he made, trying to find a way to breathe again, so I moved backwards until the spray of shower water cascaded over my naked body. Apparently his recovering time for a blow job was longer than actual sex, because it was at least several minutes before he moved. He met my eyes with a hazy look, as if he was still trying to catch his breath.
“You broke the wall,” I noted, smiling at him.
“You broke me, for fuck’s sake, woman. That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Next time you put my cock in your mouth, I’m blindfolding you. I almost came the instant your tongue touched my dick because of the look you were giving me.” I gave him that same look again and leaned my head back to get my hair wet under the water, pushing my breasts out for him to see. I expected a comment, something, anything from him, but when I opened my eyes he was staring at me, slack jawed, like he’d never seen my tits before.
“How many times are you going to lose the ability to speak during this shower?” I asked him teasingly.
“So, so many.”
I’m incorrigible, I know. Now that I had him, I was never letting him forget what he’d gotten himself into. He helped me up and we cleaned each other off, washing our hair with the little hotel shampoos. Of course I wanted to fuck more, but we had to get ready.
He left the bathroom before I did so he could get dressed. Our happy little bubble was going to burst very soon when we had to go back home. I stepped out of the bathroom wearing a robe and running a towel through my damp hair. Knight sipped coffee looking out the window, now fully clothed. I approached him and hugged him from behind. His hand found mine around his waist, holding it still.
“What’s so interesting?” I asked him cutely, my hand starting to delve lower to his delicious cock hidden inside his pants. Maybe we had some time after all.
“The Lycans are here,” he answered evenly, like it was completely normal, and he took another sip of coffee. What he didn’t take into account was me in a bathrobe where the Lycans could clearly see me, and my hand was halfway to an exploration of Knight’s zipper. One of them waved from the street.
I shrieked and backed away from the window. Knight laughed at me over his coffee. Jerk. “Fuck! Didn’t they say they were getting here at ten?” I grabbed some clothes from my suitcase and got dressed quickly, tripping over my feet a few times and falling onto the edge of the bed.
Knight’s bemused smile as I struggled with my pants made me want to punish him. Slowly. “They did. And it is. We woke up late. The penalty for being up most of the night, and that lovely display in the shower. Not that I’m complaining,” he added with a wink.
Finished dressing, I braided my curls quickly and came over to grab his coffee. I downed it in one go, set the mug down on the table, grabbed Knight for a sweet kiss, and grabbed his succulent ass.
“Time to go, sexy.”
Many hours and a few layovers later, we emerged into the airport of my hometown just before sunset. Wrangling dozens of Lycans was a job I didn’t want, especially after sleeping in an airport, but thankfully as long as I had the Alpha, Ignacio, within my sight, he made sure they obeyed anything I asked. Mostly things like, no I’m not buying you souvenirs, no I don’t have Emilia Clarke’s number, please stop breaking everything you touch. Several payments for broken items later, we were on the streets of my city, and I was regretting all my life choices.
All but two. Knight, my ever-present and loving mate. And Kitty, the baby I needed to get back to more than anything in the world. Back to her little toes and her pink cheeks. Maybe there was a third too, involving a stoic blonde warrior that I was missing almost as much as my little girl.
The pack insisted on food before we went any further. I figured my favorite tea house would be out of the question, so with the help of google maps, I led the Lycans to a pizza place. Knight held the door for everyone, and before half of the pack had gone inside, my phone buzzed in my jacket pocket. I saw Olivier’s number, checking Knight’s position at the door before I clicked to answer.
The voice on the other end was frantic, and I heard a baby crying in the background. Kitty. My blood ran cold. “Lisbeth! Lisbeth, there’s an army here! Come qui—” The phone cut off with a startling crash.
The world slowed down. I dropped my phone, Knight turned, the Lycans stopped in their tracks. They’d all heard the phone call and knew my home was being attacked.
I dropped my bag and took off running. I ran faster than I’d ever run before. My senses pushed out around me, Knight was running at my side with the pack behind him, all of them moving as one unit. As we got closer, the Lycans started to transform as they went, until it was only Knight and myself running with dozens of wolves.
It seemed like an eternity before we got the
re, every second passing a second was a second I couldn’t protect my baby, but we finally made it to the castle. I stopped briefly to take in the scene. The front gate was open, broken off the hinges. Vampires were fighting off strange creatures in the front garden. They didn’t smell human or vampire, but somehow smelled of both. I focused on one of them and gasped as I realized what they were.
Drones. The turned had created drones.
They’d taken innocent humans, bitten them, fed them Born vampire blood, and denied them their first taste of human blood. Now the humans were locked in a state of perpetual hunger that could not be sated, slaves to the will of the one whose blood was used to change them. There was no salvation for these creatures, only mercy in death.
I could smell none of the other packs, only the drones and Born vampires. Our help had not come when we needed it most. Knight stopped by my side with the wolves close behind. I reached for my phone but remembered I dropped it, and Knight handed me his before I could ask. Keeping my eye on the battle in front of us, I quickly sent a mass text to all the Lycan Alphas in his phone.
Come to the castle. The war has begun.
I slipped Knight’s phone into my pocket and looked back to the Alpha wolf. “Kill the attackers. No survivors,” I commanded. The wolf Ignacio nodded his furry head and took off inside the gates, his pack behind him.
Taking a few moments to assess everything and find where I was needed the most, Kitty cried somewhere in the castle, and that flew out the window as I bolted down the walkway and through the broken front door. Knight was step for step, up the stairs and towards Kitty’s wails. Across every corner, there were drones attacking my people, and I passed them all by. Kitty’s cries grew louder as we got closer. My suite door was ripped off the hinges, letting in a swarm of drones whose only task in their new existence was trying to get inside my door.
Claws and fangs out, I jumped in the middle of them, swiping and biting. Sprays of blood hit the walls, splattering in a sickly fashion. I tore at the drones with Kitty’s cries pounding in my ears, igniting a fury so encompassing, nothing stood in my way. The more I killed, more came at me. Knight was not as powerful in his human form, but with his help, we made some ground enough to get inside the room. Olivier was locked inside my very sturdy birdcage with Kitty wrapped in her arms. Arthur stood in front of it wielding a very scary looking mace covered in nails and dripping with blood. He saw me and swung the mace, connecting with a drone’s head in a bone-crunching crash. The room was covered in blood and gore with bodies everywhere.
As soon as I started towards him, a drone sprang at me and I went down. The blood-crazed woman snapped and tried to bite any part of my body that she could get her teeth around. I held her neck firmly with one hand to keep her mouth away from me but she was wickedly strong. I struggled to push her away with her arms scratching at me so hard I saw pieces of my skin peeling off.
“Lisbeth!” Arthur shouted from the cage. Knight bent over me, grabbed the drone’s arms, releasing her grip on me enough for me to snap her neck. She collapsed and Knight flung her away, checking me for bites. We had just enough time to get up before the fight began again and the room flooded with drones. Leaving carnage in my wake, I made my way to Arthur, slamming myself against the cage and automatically reaching out for his hand as my other one went through the bars to Kitty’s tiny fingers that she wrapped around mine. Her excited coo enraged the drones, making it clear they were focused on one thing in the room.
Her.
Every time she made a sound, they grew more frantic to get inside the cage. They needed to get her. They were ordered to get her.
I saw red, and rage grew inside me until only a single thought remained in my brain: kill everything that threatened my baby. The noise that came from my mouth was not human by any stretch of the imagination. It was enough to make every creature in the room cower with fear at my wrath. My limbs pulsed with fury, and I flew through the drones, cutting into them like butter. They were all laid waste beneath my ire.
None could survive a daughter of Bathory.
Drones continued to come, but I refused to back down. I would protect my baby until my last breath. We fought them into the hallway when the wolves descended. They bounded up the staircases, teeth bared and feet pounding.
The cavalry had arrived.
With the new numbers, we ripped into the ranks of endless drones until they stopped coming and we were on the bottom floor of the castle. The tile floor was littered with pieces of bodies. Vampires and Lycans alike gathered in front of the house. Not one of us wasn’t absolutely covered in blood, apart from Olivier. She came down the stairs holding my baby and I ran to grab her, filthy as I was. Kitty squealed when I snuggled her against me. I sank to the floor in relief that she was unharmed and finally in my arms.
I’ll never leave you again, my precious jewel.
She felt a little bigger, but not enough where I lamented the change, which was nice. Her baby smell was everything, and I cherished having it in my nose again. Knight and Arthur approached, both out of breath. I stood up and held Kitty close, turning to Arthur.
“They’re all dead, my lady,” Arthur reported. He leaned against his mace and wiped his forehead. For a brief second, he turned his head to the side and furrowed his brow, his eyes focused on my neck. He could see the mark Knight had made, claiming me as his mate. It was still bruised, turning yellow and fading away, leaving only the bite mark behind. I met his eyes, almost sheepishly, but he nodded to me in approval.
I cleared my throat. “Arthur, gather the Council in the smaller drawing-room. Let me know if any of them are among the dead.” He bowed his head and left.
Alexander, in human form now, came through the ruined entryway, as bloodied as the rest of us, some of which was his own. “We came as soon as we got your text. I hope we got here in time.”
I swiped at my bloodied forehead, very aware I was just making it worse. “We’re very grateful. You helped when we called, and we would’ve been lost without you. Thank you, Alexander.”
He whistled high pitched and all the packs came up to the doorway. Kitty squirmed and complained in my arms at the noise. “Pick up the bodies, gather them all out in the field. We’ll burn them to ash.” He whistled again and the Lycans fanned out to start the clean-up. Picking up the bodies was only part of the work. Cleaning up the blood would be a different story, and one I was very much so not looking forward to.
For now, we met Arthur in the bigger drawing-room standing outside the smaller drawing-room door. Kitty was quickly falling asleep in my arms with her little fingers on my neck.
“Council members only,” Arthur said flatly, looking briefly at Knight and away again.
“I don’t appreciate your tone,” I cautioned him, raising an eyebrow. “But he is correct. You’ll have to stay outside.” I turned to my mate and leaned in for a sweet kiss. His mouth had some blood on it, but I didn’t care much as I could still taste him underneath. “Be good,” I whispered to him and disappeared into the smaller drawing-room, Kitty in tow.
Nine Council members had survived the escape from their homes when they came here for refuge. Eight were seated in the room before me. With three members now gone, we had to think about re-filling their, but now was not the time, sadly.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked as they grew silent. Most answered yes. Estinien made sure to show me his broken arm and whined that it had taken a full five minutes to heal itself. One of the other members was completely missing his arm, and there wasn’t a peep from him. He did appropriately glare at Estinien though.
“They came so fast,” Thaddeus groaned from the corner. “I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. There is no possibility that an army that size could’ve come all at once unless they planned this. They waited. They knew. They knew where to strike, they knew the vulnerabilities. This was not an attack. It was an invasion.”
The wheels in my head started spinning. The turned had also attacked when they knew t
he Lycans were away. None of us would turn on our own kind, at least I hoped not, so they must have scouts watching us. Where was their base of operation? If we could find it, we could gain the upper hand.
“What do we do?” Castilla asked me. She sat as dainty as ever on the edge of a sofa, stained in blood like the rest of us, but she’d gone to the trouble of re-fixing her bun.
Me again. Why was I always in charge? I didn’t want to be in charge. No one likes the boss. They all hate the boss. They talk about her behind her back about how much of a bitch she is. Not to mention I was younger than most of the members, and age meant something to us in terms of leadership.
Someone. Anyone. Take the wheel. I was far too lazy for this shit.
An idea came to me and I kissed Kitty on the head, then I opened the door to the larger drawing-room. Knight was lounging on a couch playing on his phone with one leg on top of the couch and one hanging to the floor, and Arthur leaned against one of the walls, trying to be nonchalant about staring at the other man.
“Arthur, we need your expertise.” He pushed away from the wall and passed me to get inside the doorway. Knight smiled at me, his eyes lowering to the sleeping infant on my chest. I winked at him and closed the door again. Turning, Arthur stood far too close to me, waiting for orders. I took a step back and willed my cheeks to not flush. “The turned knew when, where, and exactly how to strike at us.”
He launched into Hunter mode, as if nothing was amiss. “They must be nearby, or have scouts watching us. We should set up sentries, choose some of us with better senses so they can reach further out. It wouldn’t hurt to put up some motion sensor cameras in a perimeter around the castle. None of us can mask our scent from them, but that means they can’t mask from us either. If any come near, we can hit them with a tracking dart. It won’t pierce their skin, but it can leave the tracker on their clothing, providing they don’t notice it until they get back to their base. Then we’d have them.” He stopped for a breath and looked down at me for confirmation.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 48
