by Ranae Rose
The silence of the autumn night reigned for a while, and the air seemed to grow colder as a feeling of foreboding crept over Mandy. She snuggled deeper into Jack’s one-armed embrace.
“He’d come home one day to find his mate and their child dead. Their son in his crib with his little throat cut and the mother gone, her blood spilled all over the room. They’d taken her for a trophy – leaving the baby was a message.”
Mandy had to swallow a knot of horror in order to speak. “I thought you killed all four of the hunters responsible for the massacre.”
“We did. And like idiots, we thought it was all behind us after that, that we could start over. But the news spread among the shifter-hunters’ extended family, and others decided to pick up their weapons and see that we were exterminated. They saw us as rogue killers, the most dangerous of our kind. It didn’t matter to them that we’d only been avenging our family members, our packmates. They didn’t give a damn about our lives or who we’d loved. There’d been a price on all our heads for months, and we hadn’t even known. We weren’t like the shifter-hunters – we’d killed the murderers, but not their families, and that shred of humanity came back to bite us in the ass.”
“That’s why you left,” Mandy said, the realization tumbling from her mouth. “To prevent the same thing from happening to us.”
He nodded, and for a moment, it seemed as if he’d lost the ability to speak. He recovered after a few minutes. “Every day was hell. All I could think about was coming home to the apartment one day and finding your mother dead, the life inside her wasted. Or that maybe a few months in the future, when we had a little girl or boy of our own, I’d come home to a bloody nursery like Billy had.
“Your mother was my mate, whether she knew it or not, and there’s not a shifter alive who wouldn’t do anything to protect their mate. So I left. I left and I’ve hated every day of my life since.”
“They chased you for that long – for thirty years?” This time, it was Mandy’s mother who’d spoken up, her voice a mixture of pain and surprise.
He nodded again. “After I left Nashville, Billy, Adam and I banded back together and started targeting the Gruens again. We killed their family patriarch, and as far as they were concerned, it was outright war after that. Over the past three decades, someone’s always been after me. I had some victories, and they had some of their own. They killed the others – Billy and Adam. And I killed plenty of them. Eventually, I was the only one left. Some days I just wanted to give up, or kill myself and deny them the pleasure. But hope kept me going, even through the worst times – hope that one day I’d finally be able to wipe the last of that family off the earth, and then maybe, if I survived, I’d even be able to return to my mate and my child.”
“Dad…” The word slipped out before Mandy could think twice and hung in the air between them. She decided to go with it; there was no denying the avalanche of emotion that had overtaken her heart as she’d listened to his story. She couldn’t doubt him – not after what he’d done that afternoon. A man who’d taken a bullet to save his daughter’s mate wouldn’t lie.
“Yeah, Mandy?” he asked, his voice a little softer than before.
“I’m sorry I was so cold to you the other day when we first met.”
“You had every right to be.” His voice regained its rough edge. “I damn near got you killed. After all those years of misery, all that sacrifice, I threw it all away. Truth is, I’d planned an attack on the remaining Gruens and figured I might not survive. I wanted to see you before I died, and you nearly ended up taking my place because of my foolishness.”
“It doesn’t matter now. We’re together and I want you to be a part of my life and a part of your grandchild’s life. But…” She swallowed another knot and gathered her resolve. She had to be absolutely sure. “There were so many hunters after you – are you sure the ones who died today were the last?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. I know that family better than I know anything else – unfortunately – and those were the last of the Gruen hunters.”
Mandy exhaled and nodded, absorbing the knowledge. Finally, after all the blood and bullet wounds, it was over, and the family she’d never had was together in a way she’d never imagined. “What next?”
The look in her father’s eyes softened again. “I’m gonna take your mother back to her vacation cabin and make sure she gets some rest, if she’ll let me. I reckon this has been one of the hardest days of her life.” There was a note of hope in his voice – a tentative edge that was balanced by the sheer affection and worry evident in his tone.
“I only rented the cabin up until last night,” Kimberly said, still holding his hand. “I was supposed to leave for Nashville this morning.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jack said, his rich Southern cadences gracing the conversation for the first time. “Nobody else has rented it, and I’ll take care of it. You’re free to spend the night there.”
“Thank you,” Kimberly sighed. “I’ll go then.” She rose and walked to Mandy and Jack, wrapping them both in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” Her relieved tone faded, shifting into mom-mode. “Make sure you get plenty of rest. Neither of you should worry about work tomorrow – sleep in, all right?”
Sandwiched with Jack in her mother’s embrace, Mandy could hardly speak. “Okay, mom,” she managed to say, her voice muffled by her mother’s thick hair.
Apparently satisfied, Kimberly released them, stepping back and taking Michael’s hand again. “Good night.”
“Wait,” Mandy said. “There’s no way you two are walking up the mountain to your cabin after what you’ve been through today. Let me give you my car keys – you can return it tomorrow.”
It didn’t take much to persuade them. Soon, they were climbing into her car and turning the keys in the ignition, bringing the motor to life.
“You ready to head to bed, sweetheart?” Jack asked as the car’s red taillights disappeared behind the screen of pines.
She nodded and he immediately wrapped his arms around her, slipping one beneath her shoulders and the other beneath her knees, lifting her.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she protested as he cradled her against his chest. “I’m completely healed and I feel fine.” The moon had left her feeling whole, renewed and a little less tired than she should have been.
“I wanna carry you,” he said as he stepped into the cabin. “I wanna hold you and I never wanna let you go.” He managed to lock the door while still holding her. “Plus, I owe you a wedding night, and it’s traditional for the groom to carry the bride over the threshold.”
“A wedding night?” Mandy’s heart skipped a beat as memories from the evening after their wedding ceremony flooded back to her. God, before she’d been taken… Phantom heat blossomed in her core and her skin tingled. They’d been set up for a truly sensual night; when she thought about it, she could still feel the heat of his kisses lingering on her skin. It was such a shame that they’d been interrupted before they’d been able to celebrate their marriage on the most intimate level.
“Mmm-hmm.” He carried her into the bedroom and lowered her onto the bed, leaning over her and brushing his lips against her neck. “Course, we could always wait until tomorrow night.” He blazed a trail of light kisses down the arch of her neck, all the way to her collarbone, which peeked from above the V-neck of her sweater. “If you’re too tired…”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I’m not.” More memories of that night in their bedroom were coming back to her, so vivid they caused her recollection of the harrowing events that had occurred afterward to fade into the recesses of her mind. This close to Jack, with his body firm and hot against hers and his woodsy, masculine scent rushing into her lungs and making her head spin, all she could think about was him.
He settled a hand on one of her breasts, kneading it softly through the knit fabric of her sweater and the thin cup of her bra. “You sure?
”
In answer she raised her head from the mattress and pressed her mouth against his, parting her lips in invitation and letting his tongue slip inside. As their tongues entwined, he reached below and slipped a hand beneath the hem of her sweater, slowly caressing the curve of her belly before he touched her breast, dipping his fingers into her bra cup and teasing her nipple.
She pulled apart from him, letting her head drop back onto the mattress. She’d waited for more than a day to make love to her husband and she didn’t want to draw out the wait any more. “Help me out of these,” she breathed, waving a hand to indicate the sweater and skirt Jack had dressed her in while she’d still been unconscious. Her injured shoulder and knee had dictated his choice of clothing; the sweater was a cardigan that buttoned down the front, and the loose skirt fell just above the knee and had allowed the moonlight to bathe her injured one.
“With pleasure,” Jack said, and quickly divested her of her sweater, popping the buttons through their holes one by one, pausing only to press a quick, hot kiss against her cleavage. When he reached below, she expected him to shimmy her skirt down over her legs, but instead he pushed it up to her hips and pulled her panties down, tossing them aside.
His breath rushed hot over her sex, just as it had on their real wedding night. She arched against the mattress and gasped when he pressed his tongue against her clit, causing it to swell with a few deft strokes. “Jack…” she breathed when he pressed his tongue between her folds and inside her, simultaneously using his hands to spread her thighs wider.
His pushed his tongue deeper inside than she’d previously thought possible, causing her channel to tighten and grow instantly wet against his face. “You haven’t shaved in … forever,” she managed to gasp as he thrust his tongue in and out, making love to her pussy with his mouth. The events that had transpired since her abduction had left no time for things like shaving, and Jack’s jaw was dark with a scratchy shadow of stubble.
He withdrew his tongue and raised his head slightly, so that his breath streamed over her slick skin, teasing. “That a complaint?” He arched a dark brow.
“No,” she said quickly. His stubble felt good against her ultra-sensitive skin – at times it almost tickled, but it definitely felt good.
“Good,” he said, lowering his head so his lips brushed her clit. “I missed the taste of you.” He dragged his tongue over her clit, sending a million little bolts of pleasure through her body.
She was still gasping when he rose from between her legs, finally grasping handfuls of her skirt and pulling it down over her ankles, letting it fall to the floor where her sweater was. Her bra was the last to go; he unhooked it quickly and lowered his face so his warm breath and stubble combined to make her breasts tingle.
He kissed his way over the slope of one breast and drew her nipple into his mouth, reaching below to tease her sex with his fingertips, dipping them, just barely, into her heat.
A part of her didn’t want to move, didn’t want to do anything other than lie back and let him set her body on fire with his mouth and his hands. But he was still dressed – a fact that bothered her. She slipped one hand beneath the hem of his t-shirt, letting her fingers skim over the firm surface of his washboard abs.
He took the hint, but he also took his time. He slipped two fingers inside her, stretching her channel as he released her nipple, quickly closing his lips around the other. She moaned as a pulse began in her core, urging her to bear down with her hips, driving his fingers deeper, burying them all the way to the knuckle. His rough fingertips dragging down her inner wall made her middle clench with longing – longing for him to strip off his clothes and finally make love to her, as he’d promised to the night before. She could feel the same desire that’d been in his voice then radiating from his body now, fueling each thrust as he filled her pussy, his fingers invading and retreating in a steady rhythm.
He withdrew his fingers slowly from her body and rose, finally getting rid of his clothing.
He was just as hard as he’d been the night before; the sight of his cock protruding, rigid, from between his leanly muscled hips made her pulse leap and sent a shiver of need down her spine. He’d gotten her so worked up the night before, it was almost a mercy that she’d been knocked unconscious by a blow to the head – nothing else would’ve been able to tear her out of the haze of raw longing she’d been walking in. Even now, her skin seemed to sizzle at the thought of it. He leaned over the bed and grasped one of her breasts, massaging her nipple. It tingled, going a little harder, and an answering throb made her clit ache for his touch.
The mattress shifted and the bedclothes rustled as he climbed back onto the bed, his normally sharp golden eyes looking a little hazy. As soon as he was near enough, she reached out and wrapped a hand around his shaft, pumping it from the tip to the root and back again. Soon, it would be her pussy wrapped around his cock, so tight it would feel like he was a part of her. The best part. Her channel tightened, ready to be filled, ready to let him claim her as not just his mate, but his bride, and to drive out the deep ache the night before had left her with.
He moaned, even as he caught her wrist, stopping her mid-stroke. Gently, he pried her hand from his shaft. “I don’t wanna wait any longer to be inside you.”
It was as if he’d read her mind. She pressed her hand against the mattress instead as he reclined on one side, positioning himself to enter her in the position they’d been favoring ever since her pregnancy had begun to show. She raised her feet and let them rest lightly on his thigh as he took his cock in his hand and rubbed the head against the seam of her sex, brushing her clit and causing fresh moisture to dampen her pussy as he teased her. She could have come like that, with the blunt tip of his erection creating heavenly friction against her clit. When he stopped, she was close, her body aching, tingling and burning – reaching for climax.
He almost pushed her over the edge when he slid inside her, filling her channel with one long, slow stroke that left her breathless. Her pussy stretched, accommodating his hardness as he sighed, pulling back and flexing his hips, sinking deeper with the second thrust.
She reached out, found one of his hands and squeezed it as her breath hitched; the pleasure his third stroke brought had taken her by surprise.
He squeezed back as he continued to rock into her, and her pussy seemed to become tighter with each stroke. Tension coiled in her belly, forcing her to take deeper breaths as she squeezed her eyes shut and let the pleasure take over every corner of her mind. When Jack placed his free hand between her thighs and pressed his fingertips against her clit, beginning a slow massage, she gasped.
Her climax was fierce and almost electric in its intensity, shocking a ragged moan out of her and causing her channel to clench around his hard cock. In that moment, she forgot about everything but the feel of Jack’s hand wrapped tightly around hers and the breath-taking pleasure of feeling him thrust hard inside her. Her channel was wracked by contractions that seemed to be pushing him over the edge, too.
He moaned as he drove himself into her, tightening his grip on her hand. The entire bed rocked as the heat of his release filled her and her pleasure ebbed, fading to a sense of satisfaction, of completion – there’d been a lot of bloodshed along the way, but they’d finally made it back into each other’s arms and had their wedding night.
The metal of her wedding band seemed a little warmer against her skin as he withdrew and settled beside her on the bed, wrapping an arm around her and drawing her close. A light breeze rushed through the room, causing the red curtain that hung over the only window to flutter. “The window’s open,” Mandy said.
“Must’ve forgotten to close it yesterday. I had it open while I was changin’ clothes for the wedding. Between the nerves and that hot, black tux, I thought I might spontaneously combust.”
“You were nervous?” Mandy asked, rolling onto her side to watch him as he stood and walked across the room to the window. Of all people, she wouldn’t have th
ought Jack would get worked up over a wedding – especially not when he was already mated to the bride.
“Yeah.” He pushed aside the curtain and moonlight poured through the window, illuminating his muscled frame and casting deep shadows across his broad shoulders. “Not because I was unsure about marrying you – I was already more committed than any ring or piece of paper could make me – but because I wanted to make everything perfect for you.” He closed the window, shutting off the flow of cool night air. “That, and I’m not used to wearing so much clothing.” His shoulders twitched, as if he were trying to shrug away the memory of the confining tux.
Mandy laughed. “You looked great in that tux; I’m glad you wore it.” Of course, she had a healthy appreciation for his usual attire, which typically consisted of well broken-in jeans and – occasionally – a t-shirt or open flannel that revealed more of his body than it left to the imagination. But it had been nice to see him dressed up for their wedding. And way beyond nice to watch him strip the tux off. “And everything was perfect.”
“No it wasn’t,” he said, a shadow darkening his eyes as he climbed back into bed and wrapped an arm around her again. “Being abducted is hardly what I’d call a part of a perfect wedding night.”
Mandy opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced her with a light kiss, brushing his lips against hers. His scent surrounded her, woodsy and masculine, an aroma she couldn’t fall asleep without breathing in anymore. “It’s all right,” he said, pulling the quilt up over their naked bodies and drawing her close, “things are perfect now.”
Epilogue
“Okay, push.”
Mandy had been pushing for the past hour. She gave it another try, heeding Clarissa’s advice though at this point, she didn’t really need it – every fiber of her being was screaming for her to push. She couldn’t have resisted if she’d wanted to. She’d been in labor for twelve hours, and she was so eager to hold the baby she’d been waiting nine months to greet that the desire almost overshadowed the pain. Almost.
