Micah (Warrior World Book 2)

by Rebecca Royce

  We kissed, caressing each other’s lips, and I drowned happily in her sighs. This was how I wanted her. Relaxed and ready for me. I stroked my finger down her face, over the bridge of her nose, to her mouth. She bit down on my fingernail and then grinned at me.

  “I love you, Micah. Please don’t die again. I don’t think I can take it.”

  I shook my head. “None of the dark right now. I love you, too.”

  The slowness faded. I needed her. Right then and forever. Totally naked, we pressed our bodies together in the way two people do when they understand each other’s wants and needs. I knew there was a place behind her knee; if I stroked it, she would sigh. She knew I loved it when she kissed me on my chest.

  We were all hands and mouths. Touching. Tasting. Loving. When I finally pressed inside of her, we both had tears in our eyes that I knew we’d never talk about. Life didn’t have room for them, but in here, at this moment, they were precious sentiments of how we felt about each other. I didn’t want to rush this, but the second I was deep within her warmth, all I wanted to do was lose myself within her. She wrapped her arms around my neck.

  I pressed in and pulled out, lost in her noises, as though nothing outside ever existed. I pushed her knee back to get further inside of her, and she moaned loudly. “Micah. Yes. Please. More.”

  I’d always give her more.

  And that didn’t even frighten me. Not at all.

  Always.

  We kissed our way to completion, and when I did find home that night in between her legs, I didn’t feel like a man who had died the day before and become, temporarily, a Vampire. I was the lucky asshole who got to love Brynna.

  As the next few days passed in a flurry of snowflakes, I started to feel the cold again. Coming back to life from the Vampire virus hadn’t changed me permanently. Brynna ran a hand down my arm. “We don’t have to do this.”

  “We do.”

  When I’d met Brynna, she’d had one goal in mind: find others like her who could be brought back. We were going to find them, and we were going to start the process today. The council had voted. They liked my idea of changing the setup of Genesis. They were going to have the engineers build the walls and forts.

  I hoped I wasn’t a total idiot and I didn’t get us all killed.

  Deacon tugged his coat up further. “If I get turned into a Vampire, I want your girlfriend to punch Margot.”

  I side-eyed him. “I’ll let her know. But don’t get killed. Lydia is scary. I don’t want her to hurt me.” I wasn’t kidding. The longer I knew Lydia, the more I understood Deacon’s wife would do anything for Deacon, whatever was required.

  Brynna and Chad stood a little bit away from us. She turned to stare at me, and when she caught my eye, she nodded toward the group of Vampires up ahead. We were lucky. This grouping was outside. We didn’t have to crawl through holes to find them. They’d been spotted, and we’d come to see if any of them set off a trigger inside Brynna.

  It looked like one had.

  We didn’t know if this Vampire was on Margot’s list of potential Vampires who could change back or not. We’d grab the potential Vampire and go from there.

  Of course, grabbing a Vampire was fine in theory, but doing it was entirely different.

  “Hey.” I nudged Deacon. “Glen any closer?”

  “No.” Deacon shook his head. “There are all kinds of things built into that small machine that are making it impossible to shut it down. Like, did you know they have somehow hooked what little electricity we do have into that thing? He could bring down the grid.”

  Well, that was interesting. We wouldn’t be getting rid of cloning so fast, it would seem. “Do you know what he means when he says grid?”

  Deacon smirked. “Fuck you. I don’t.”

  “I didn’t think so.” I smiled.

  He held up the device in his hand. “But he did make this while he stressed over that. It’ll knock the Vampire stunned for a few minutes while we grab it.”

  “You zap. I grab. Chad stays here and pulls us out if we’re in trouble, and Brynna tells us which one.”

  My best friend nodded. “Do you remember when we used to, you know, just kill them?”

  “Easy days, my friend. Easy days. Ready? Brynna, which one?”

  I was running the second she told me. Some things would never change. I would always love a good fight. I would always be a little crazy.

  I found the right woman who got my level of nuts. And maybe she tempered it a little bit. Or maybe we were good together. Stake in hand, I’d take out any of the others who got in my way.

  And because of Brynna I knew that would be a huge relief to them. We’d all been harmed in a sick game not of our doing. We had to live in it. One way or another.

  As it turned out, his name was Benjamin Haynes. He lived for ten minutes after Margot returned him to his human state. Enough time for him to thank us, enough time for all of us to realize none of this would be easy. Why Brynna had lived—and why I did—was still unknown. My love wept for two days after his death. She’d held on so tightly to the idea she wasn’t alone in the universe. And maybe she wasn’t, but it wouldn’t be Ben who would change things for Brynna.

  When she could smile again, I proposed.

  She wasn’t alone. She’d always have me.

  TEN YEARS LATER

  “What did Deacon say?” Brynna approached my perch on top of the outpost. I felt her coming more than witnessed it. Some things hadn’t ever returned to normal after my Vampirism. Or maybe it was the mating. But my connection to my wife was super strong. I could always tell when she was near. It was like something inside of me that went cold whenever she wasn’t with me warmed when she returned.

  I stared out into the dark night. We weren’t alone. The First Vampires were coming. I could feel it, and not because Icahn had set me up to do so. I knew they were there because the last decade had made me a hunter.

  I sought them out. I killed them. The Warriors fought the regular Vampires, and I took down the big bads we hadn’t even known would be our biggest problem until…

  I shook my head. I didn’t need to think about what happened when the First Vampires originally came right now. Brynna was here. I extended my hand, and she took it.

  I drew her into me, and finally, she spoke. “Deacon says you have to deal with the crew you have. He’s not making inappropriate Warriors to fill ranks.”

  I groaned. “The boy needs to come out here and fight for a couple of weeks. Remember what this is like.”

  “He would if you invited him. The last time he came out here, you told him to go back home to his wife and sons.”

  I had. Genesis was safe, and it always would be as long as I ran the night. The night had become my daytime. I controlled it. Here, I was in charge. “Hold on, love.”

  I stepped forward, pulling my bow and arrow from my back. We’d not had these special ones when Keith trained us. We hadn’t known we needed them. But my brother-in-law invented and invented. I loved him for it. I’d sent Deacon back. Chad back. Rachel back. I’d sent every one of my contemporaries back home when they came because this was the life I’d promised them. I took care of the danger, and they created a universe without it inside the barriers I made for them.

  This was my role.

  Glen had invented a stake on the end of the arrow. I examined it to make sure everything was fine before I lined it up on the bow. The extra weight made balancing the bow tricky for the newbies, but during their two years with me, the newbie Warriors learned quickly. I sent the arrow into the air straight toward the First I’d been feeling. It tumbled backward, turned to dust on the ground.

  Brynna sighed. “I didn’t feel him.”

  She didn’t share memories with the ones Icahn and Doubleday had created so long ago to be soldiers in a war that would never happen. They’d messed with the genome, created a virus they’d never really understand, and we all lived with it now.

  “That’s okay. I did.”
>
  We stared into the night together, and she finally pulled back to stare at my face. “If Deacon won’t play ball, you know what has to happen.”

  “Can we get a note to Jason? He’ll reach out to the Werewolves. Margot will be on board. She can make it okay with the council after the fact. I’ll make apologies, instead of asking permission.”

  Brynna nodded. “We can, and she will. This will end it. We’re almost to a point where it’s okay out there, Micah. I can see a future where we win.”

  She’d become an optimist, and I loved her for it. I wasn’t. I never would be. That was okay. I was the man I had to be. As long as she loved me, I was enough. As long as she loved me, we were enough.

  I don’t know if anyone will ever read this. If I get to live to be an old man, I’m just going to be that crazy man in the Outpost the kids talk about because he’s muttering to himself or something. But my sister-in-law said to write this up, and so I did. My wife is calling to me. Got to go.

  Other books by Rebecca Royce…

  Wings of Artemis

  Kidnapped By Her Husbands

  Rescued by Their Wife

  Crashing Into Destiny

  Meeting Them

  Reclaiming Their Love

  Loving Them

  Ship Called Malice

  Saving Them

  Dark Demise

  Light Unfolding (coming soon)

  Last Hope

  Tradition Be Damned

  Past Be Damned

  Destiny Be Damned

  Compassion Be Damned (coming soon)

  Dragon Wars

  Forever

  Eternal

  Always

  Evermore

  Endless

  Wards and Wands

  Hexed and Vexed

  Curse Reversed (coming soon)

  Safe Haven

  Everywhere and Nowhere

  Dimension X (coming soon)

  More coming soon….

  Soul Bound

  Prisoner of the Dragons

  More coming soon….

  Shadow Promised

  Strange Days

  Weird Nights

  Bizarre Years

  More coming soon…

  The Warrior

  Initiation

  Driven

  Subversive

  Redemption

  Justice

  Warrior World (spin off of The Warrior)

  Deacon

  Micah (coming soon)

  The Westervelt Wolves

  Her Wolf

  Summer’s Wolf

  Wolf Reborn

  Wolf’s Valentine

  Wolf’s Magic

  Alpha Wolf

  Angel’s Wolf

  Darkest Wolf

  Lone Wolf

  Fallen Alpha

  Alpha Rising

  Alpha’s Strength

  Alpha’s Sacrifice

  Alpha’s Truth

  Alpha Enticing

  Hidden Alpha (coming soon)

  The Capes

  Seductive Powers

  Adrenaline Rush

  Last Ascension

  The Conditioned

  Eye Contact

  Embraced

  Unlawful (coming soon…)

  The Outsiders

  Love Beyond Time

  Love Beyond Sanity

  Love Beyond Loyalty

  Love Beyond Sight

  Love Beyond Expectations

  Love Beyond Oceans

  Love Beyond Flames

  Love Beyond Lies (coming soon)

  Cascade

  Haunted Redemption

  Phoenix Everlasting

  Fragility Unearthed

  Persuasion Enraptured

  Reverse Harem Story

  Unconventional

  Unexpected (coming soon)

  Stand Alone Titles

  Planet Bear

  Under The Lights

  No Quitting Allowed

  Mr. Wrong

  Bite Marks

  Bitten Surrender

  The Vampire and The Virgin

  Demon Within

  Crimson Lust

  Find Me (coming soon)