by Skye Jones
Jackson had been busy, making one of the outside huts liveable… ish. The fucker could stay there. It was close to the house, within the fenced off perimeter and he could arm himself, and even take one of the dogs, but he wasn’t staying in the house. Of course, Jackson hadn’t told the others this yet, but he wasn’t going to give on it, and it pissed him off that there should even be a discussion about it.
Hence him being up in the attic alone, with a punching bag he’d retrieved from one of the cellar rooms. He’d remembered it when he’d been staring morosely at the wall as the other’s chatted last night and excused himself there and then to go and hang it in the attic. He’d gone a few rounds last night, but now he went for it.
His arms were aching, and his gloveless knuckles were a bloody mess, but still the rage simmered.
A creak on the stairs told him he had company, and he swung around, bleeding fists raised, ready to punch whoever it was in the fucking face if they said one wrong word to him.
Her scent reached him first, and it took his aggression levels down a good few notches. Milly reached the top couple of stairs and stepped into the room.
He braced himself, waiting for her condemnation, her dismay at him not being able to be all calm and rational and shit like Alex. Instead, she looked at him with something else. Hurt when she saw his knuckles, desire too, and, he thought, respect.
Why though? He couldn’t be the civilized male she obviously wanted.
“You’re wrong.”
He frowned. “What?”
“I don’t want a civilized male.”
“You’re in my head?”
She nodded and gave a small smile. “Been practising all morning with Angel. I don’t want a civilized male. You’re perfect to me as you are.”
He shook his head. “No, Alex is. Doc even. They can be rational, I know you’re right about Slim. Deep down. I know it. But I can’t feel it. It makes me rage to think of him in this house, near you. In fact, he isn’t going to be. I will let him come and stay on our land, but at night he sleeps in one of the out buildings. I’ve got to put your safety first. I don’t have a choice.”
“And that’s the reason I can bear him to be here,” she said simply. “I’m glad Alex can be civilized, as you put it. And that we can all discuss things, and that even when you don’t like the outcome, you can accept the group decision. But I wouldn’t be able to bear the thought of Slim anywhere near me if I didn’t feel protected from him. Safe. You’re the reason I feel safe. You.”
“The others will protect you too,” he said.
“I know. But you… you’re special, Jackson. Don’t get me wrong, I love you all, but you… it’s always been you from the first moment I saw you in that canteen at the prison. You’re wild, and I like it. It scared me at first, but it always turned me on, from the first glance.” She flushed and looked away for a moment before giving him her gaze again. “I feel like I can only try to be rational, and try to be good, because I have you here, at my back. I know you’ll do anything to protect me, and I’ve never had that. Never. You can’t know what it means to me. What a gift it is.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she came to him.
“The other guys, Jackson, they have my heart, but you, you have my soul.”
He gathered her in his arms and he had all he’d ever wanted and more.
CHAPTER SIX
Milly: Wild and Unbridled.
Jackson held me as I told him what he meant to me, and he didn’t say anything; he didn’t cry the way I did, but I felt his heart hammering in his chest, pounding against the place where our bodies met.
There was something in him, something elemental which called to me and wove a dark web of desire around me. I knew that, unlike Alex, he had to control the violence within. I knew he’d kill for me and do things for me that Doc would balk at. In a lot of ways, he was most like Ben, but while Ben had an actual alter ego, Jackson fought every day to maintain control.
As he held me, he hardened.
“Are you still in my mind?” His voice rumbled through me.
“No.”
“Pity, you’d get to see all the things I want to do to you.”
“Why don’t you show me?” My eyes burned with desire.
“I own your soul?” he asked, eyes full of wonder.
“You own my soul, Jackson, lock, stock, and barrel.”
He made a sound, a sort of aborted groan, and then he was on me. His hands fisted in my hair and tightened to the point of pain on my scalp, and his mouth crashed against mine. There was no build up, he went for it, kissing me as if he were a dying man. He claimed me with every movement of his lips, every rake of his tongue.
I moaned into him, my body softening and going pliant at his dominance. He recognized it, the moment I gave up all control, and he took his hands out of my hair and used them to rip my shirt right down the middle. He didn’t pause, but pulled my bra up and off, abrading my skin, not bothering to fiddle with the clasp.
My skirt went next, and then my panties as I hastily kicked off my shoes.
Still dressed, he undid his zipper. The sound loud in the room. An inherent violence in the action. He didn’t pull his jeans down; instead, he took himself out and hoisted me into his arms.
“Wrap your legs around me, baby,” he demanded.
I did as he said, my legs coming up around his waist, my arms around his neck as he spun us around and flattened me against the wall.
His mouth found mine again, once more taking from me in a fevered meeting of lips, tongue, and teeth.
The blunt head of his thick cock nudged at my entrance and I braced, but he didn’t push in. Instead, his fingers found me there and dipped inside, gathering my wetness and spreading it around my entrance, making sure I was ready.
Then he pushed in. Unlike the other times we’d done this, he didn’t pause. Jackson didn’t slowly work his way inside me, instead he forced his way in, breaching me in one smooth thrust.
I gasped, and my fingers dug into his shoulders, my nails probably marking him through the thin cotton of his t-shirt.
As he began to fuck me—setting up a punishing rhythm, my back rubbing against the wall as Jackson pumped into me—I understood something. All those other times, Jackson had held back.
He’d locked down the wildest parts of himself, and had only shown me elements of it. Even when he was demanding and controlling, all alpha, it was nothing compared to this. Now, he didn’t feel the need to hide. He gave me all of himself.
It was raw, brutal, and beautiful.
“You’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, inside and out,” he said as he fucked me. “And you’re mine. And every day when I wake up the first thing I want to do is taste you, feel you, and see you. Every night before I go to sleep, I want to sink balls deep into you, and the only reason I don’t is because I know you need rest. You need a break. Your body needs to recover. If I could, I’d tie you to my bed and never let you go. I’d have you spread out for me every day to kiss, eat, and fuck.”
His words gave me a perverse thrill; they were almost unhinged but that wild, dark little place in me that I kept locked down took flight at getting to experience this part of Jackson. His dark heart that he thought he’d had to hide from me.
“You’re fucking perfect. So fucking beautiful, untouchable, but I get to touch you and it makes me want to roar.”
His words sent me over the edge, and I came around his cock, my whole body tipping over the edge as I screamed. A hand slammed over my mouth, and Jackson continued to pound into me. The action only turned me on more, extending my orgasm as his thrusts became erratic and he found his own release, grunting against my neck, his head bowed.
We sank to the floor together, Jackson cushioning me, cradling me, as he hit the ground and lay on his side, keeping me right with him. Heavy pants filled the air as we both struggled to get our breath.
“Are you okay?” Jackson turned to me, apprehensive. Unsure.
He’d shown me his monster, and now the concern on his face was evident. Did he think I’d reject him because of a rough fuck? I’d loved it. I looked him in the eye.
“I’m more than okay. I loved that, Jackson. I love you. Every bit of you.”
“Christ.” He pulled me in closer and kissed me, this time soft and languid and beautiful.
We stayed that way for a long time, and then I began to shiver a little. The air in the room wasn’t cold, but buck naked, it wasn’t hot either.
“Come. Let’s get dressed, and we can go find the others. I’m sure they’re wondering where we are.”
Jackson shot me a grin that told me he was going to love the others finding his scent all over me.
I slapped his arm affectionately and began to gather my clothes up and dress myself. “I’ll need to stop off at my room on the way downstairs, since you ruined a perfectly good shirt.” I shot him a dark look, but he only grinned more.
Then he did a half bow, swept his arm in front of him, and said, “Lead the way, Madame.”
When we found Ben and Doc, they were in the room that had been converted into a den and sat on the old sofa playing a game on what looked to be an ancient game console. Some basic, silly game where they had to make a pixelated character run and jump along a platform.
“I’m going to finish making one of the outbuildings safe for Slim to sleep in. He’s not staying under this roof, no arguments,” Jackson said with a hard glare at Doc.
Doc held his hands up. “Suits me fine. I hardly want him here either, but I’m looking at the bigger picture.”
“And I’m focusing on keeping Milly safe,” Jackson growled.
Doc sighed and scrubbed his hand over tired features. “Yes, I get as much, but your version of keeping her safe is all based on the here and now, the immediate threat; whereas I am seeing the bigger picture and long-term safety issues. If we don’t have a cure, Milly and her family are always vulnerable. I understand where you are coming from, but it fucking pisses me off that you and him,” Doc broke off and jabbed a finger in Ben’s direction. “You and him seem to think Alex and I aren’t concerned with her safety. Which is fucking offensive and untrue.”
With those words he gave me a small smile, got off the sofa, and left the room.
I went to go after him, but Jackson held my arm. “Leave him. I’ll talk to him later.”
Then he turned to Ben. “You gonna help me make this place kind of habitable for our unwanted guests?”
Ben gave a grunt and got up too, following Jackson out of the room.
Alone, I went and checked out the game they’d been playing and decided to have a try. A long while later, I was still playing when Angel came looking for me.
“Ivan and Alex will be waking soon. What time will our guests be arriving?”
I shrugged, still focused on the screen. “Not sure, but after dark, as he’ll need to bring his sister, and she can’t move in the daylight without it hurting her.”
“Wonder how the hell he will bring her without getting bit?” She shivered.
“I don’t know. Half of me doesn’t care if she does bite him, after what he did to me. Then the rational side of me kicks in, and I know we need him to find the cure.”
“What did he do to you?” She clambered on the sofa beside me and crossed her legs.
Not sure how much I wanted to share, I shrugged. “He hurt me with a flogger, a crop too I think.”
She gave a little shiver and then a small smile. “Ooh, the crop is my favorite, but I can’t imagine how horrible it must be if you’re not into that sort of thing at all, and you don’t know how hard someone is going to get. The whole point of it is to have consensual boundaries, and that even if the top pushes, you remain in ultimate control. You can safe word out at any time.”
I stopped the game completely and turned to study her. “Did you honestly enjoy being hit with a riding crop?”
She nodded and flushed a little. “I did… do. It’s a sharp bite of pain, and I like that. Back of a hairbrush too, if it’s used gently. A heavy suede flogger is a different kind of pain, more dull, more of an ache. And then, of course, there’s being spanked. That’s my least favorite, pain wise, but it’s hot in other ways.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t sure what to say to her. The idea of Jackson giving me any more of a spanking than the other night might get me hot on an intellectual level, but I didn’t think I’d like it in reality. Plus, Jackson exerted enough control without needing to do any of those things to me.
She watched me, and her lips turned up a little. “It’s not your thing, and that’s okay. You’re submissive, sexually, I think? But you’re not into being hurt in any way, and that’s cool. Although, I wouldn’t put it past Jackson to give you a spanking if you pushed him by being a bad girl.”
The words bad girl rolled off her tongue in a sensual way, as if they were chocolate coated or something.
I gave a small laugh. “Trust me, I’ve been a bad girl on a few occasions.” I didn’t share what he’d done the other night, mild as it was, or my reaction to it.
“Yeah, maybe he’ll tie you to the bed and torture you another way if you went too far.” She gave me a wink. Then her face went serious. “Although, you keep him in line too. Don’t you?”
I supposed I did, in some ways. Or at least tried to curb his most excessive instincts when it came to hurting others or vengeance.
“Me, I can see the appeal, but I need someone a lot more… someone who will take control of me no matter what I want. Jackson cares too much about upsetting you. I need a guy to push right through that and be in charge.”
“Why?” It was a simple question but one of the most complex I had ever asked.
“Who knows? Daddy issues. Although, I don’t think so. Maybe mummy issues. Or, I simply know I’m a brat and need a firm hand. I like it. It’s why I like Ivan so much, he’d take no shit. Ivan is the real deal. Look at Slim. He thinks he’s scary and bad. He thinks he wouldn’t ever take shit, and he is bad-ass, don’t get me wrong, but Slim is too soft deep down.”
I stared at her and tried to comprehend what she was telling me. “Are you saying that you think Ivan is harsher than Slim and for that reason you want to be with him?”
She laughed, got up, and went to the side of the room where someone had left an old-fashioned decanter full of amber liquid and five glasses on a tray. “Yep. Slim would be fun. He knows his way around a playroom I’d bet, but he’s not the real deal. Ivan is.” She poured two fingers of the amber drink into two glasses and came back to me, handing me one as she settled again.
“When I was in his head, I saw stuff I maybe shouldn’t have. Took a peek around, beyond our conversations. He used to be a pair, him and this other vamp, and they had like… a harem of three or four females who lived with them and pleasured them. I wanted to be in it so bad. Then, centuries later, Ivan hooked up with two men, humans, and they shared this one female vampire. She fed off the human men, Ivan fed off human volunteer females, but the sexing only happened between him, these two men, and their female. Again, I would have loved to have been her.”
“What happened to them all?” I asked.
Her face fell. “The guys died. One of cholera and the other got shot over a stupid debt. Then Ivan and his female moved back to the old country, back to Russia. She got her head chopped off one day when Ivan was away travelling, and he never forgave himself. He’s been single ever since.”
“But you want him.”
“I crave him, and here’s the thing.” She leaned in close and lowered her voice further. “He’s going to need to feed, and soon. They made sure he had a supply of female blood in the facility, but he hasn’t got that now. Of course, I am sure your boys here will try to find him a willing donor, but I’m going to offer first.”
I swallowed, remembering the erotic power of having Alex drink from me. “I hope you get what you want, Angel,” I told her, sincerely.
She surpris
ed me by reaching over and giving me a hug.
“I hope we both do.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Milly: Too Many Alphas Spoiling for a Fight
As Angel and I lapsed into a companionable silence, we heard the door from the kitchen open and the heavy footfalls of Alex and Ivan. Alex must have ended up sleeping downstairs this day.
The previous evening, he had slept with us, the shutters in Jackson’s room down, all of us squashed in the bed together, Doc muttering about needing a bigger one.
Last night however, we’d all crashed early, and I figured Alex must have got bored, ended up heading downstairs to talk with Ivan and spent the day there when the sun rose.
The two men… males really because they weren’t human men at all, walked in.
“Where is everyone?” Alex said, coming over and giving me a soft kiss on the lips.
“Ben and Jackson are making one of the out buildings safe because Jackson says no way is Slim sleeping in this house with me.” I sighed. “Oh, and Doc is upset because he thinks that Jackson and Ben think that you two don’t care enough about keeping me safe.”
“And what do you believe?” Alex walked over to the drinks tray and poured one for himself, holding the glass up toward Ivan who nodded.
“That you care deeply, as does Doc, but you see the bigger picture; whereas Ben and Jackson focus more on the immediate issues. And, to be honest, I agree with you and Doc, but I think Jackson is struggling with Slim coming here, so you guys need to cut him a break.”
Alex handed Ivan his drink and walked back to me. Lifting my chin, he swept a warm kiss over my lips and then my forehead. “And that’s why you are amazing because you have a smart head and a big heart, and you’re not scared to let them both do the talking.”
Ivan stood by the old fireplace, almost every room in this place had one, and rested one arm on the marble surface, the other holding the drink dangling loose.
He was broader than Alex. Not quite as big as Jackson, but a powerfully built male. At first glance his dark blond hair and almost pretty features might lure you into a false sense of security, but then you noticed the jut of his jaw, the breadth of his shoulders, the power of his thighs, and the threat of violence that hung over him like a cloak. Yeah, he was dangerous, alright. Jackson levels of dangerous. I hoped Angel knew what she was doing, but then I had been a total innocent when I’d gotten involved with my men, and Angel was anything but.
