by Talyn Scott
After a moment, with her standing by his side, her hand gripping his wrist when spotting Ail and Archer in mid-transformation, he felt assured all was well and brought her to the deck. They ascended the narrow, wooden staircase leading to the stilt house. After reaching the landing of his wrap-around deck, Mason glanced between Ail and Archer. “Kalen's edgy, tamp your Beasts. And keep it quiet, Jude’s inside sleeping off his latest hunt.” After they brought themselves down to their most human forms, he asked Ail, “What’s with the vamps tailing us?”
“They scented a female, Bro, picked up on her vamp blood.”
Mason wasn’t buying it. “That’s it?”
Archer leaned against the deck railing, trying to shrink his Alpha male body to ease Kalen’s nervousness. But his shoulders stayed hunched over, his hands gripping the railing as though he were trying to hold himself back. “I can’t apprehend those vamps for anything, Doc. Even if they stepped foot on Sanibel Island, which, technically, they didn’t, no one committed an infraction.”
A rumble left Mason’s chest, and next to him Kalen stiffened. “What would they have done, if I hadn't been with her?”
“Pardon my next words, female, since my brother can’t read between the lines,” Ail apologized to Kalen before he turned to Mason and clarified. “The vamps claimed that they sensed her dual hungers, were looking to feed her and then sate her.”
Kalen gasped.
Mason’s werewolf picked that moment to splinter his skull, internal shards flying all over the place. He fought not to rub his head in front of the other males. “I was with her,” he hissed when another sharp pain nearly splintered his right eye. “The vamps would have smelled my Beta Blood for miles, long before they scented her… needs. They weren’t looking to sate anything. They were looking for trouble.”
Archer shifted uncomfortably, glancing at Kalen with a silent apology. “They thought they’d join the two of you, Doc. Werewolves aren’t the only creatures who enjoy group sex,” he reasoned in low tones. “So they scared her.” He lifted his shoulder in a half-shrug. “Going by her scent, you’re doing a bang-up job of scaring her yourself.”
A strange sound left the back of Kalen’s throat, but her feet stayed planted right where they were.
Mason closed his eyes a second, breathing slowly. In that moment, he felt more animal than doctor. After a few more deep breaths, he opened his eyes and remembered his manners. “Kalen, I don’t know if you remember my brother Ail.”
“Sure, I do.” She started to shake Ail’s hand but thought twice, her heart hammering inside her chest. “I recall my cousin, Jenny, following you around the marsh while Mason and I fished off the pier.”
Ail crossed his arms, a mischievous glint lighting his eyes. This meant he was going to pry. “So you’re here visiting Jenny?”
“For the most part,” Kalen answered, peeking up at Mason with a pleading expression. She didn’t want him to share her need to find her father. “Jenny sounded worse the past few phone calls, so I took an early vacation and flew down.”
“So where do you work?”
“I’m a chef.”
Ail grabbed his stomach. “Do you think you can teach my Molly how to cook… anything?”
“Between visiting Jenny and the others I want to see, I don’t think so this time around.”
“Too bad cause she burns everything. Well, I’m sure seeing you will help Jenny some. My mates and I checked on Jenny yesterday, brought her some lunch.”
“Thank you.”
“She’s well enough to leave the facility but she won’t.” Ail added, “She’s gotta stop sitting and dwelling, you know?”
Mason raised a brow at his brother, thinking Ail should just stay away from the Pack female. Jenny’s injuries weren’t the only things she was dwelling on. She’d been in love with Ail since the beginnings of her puberty, and after he mated Molly Shirley, Jenny had lost her heart. That coupled with what those rogue Gryphs did to her was a one-two punch, one that would have rolled down the fiercest Alpha Beast. But she’d held on somehow. Mason felt bad for the female, wishing he could heal Jenny emotionally, not just physically, but even a trained doctor hadn’t that kind of power.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Kalen glanced at her watch. “I guess I’m going to be seeing Jenny tomorrow, though. It’s getting late.”
Archer’s canines flashed when he offered, “Tomorrow, I can take you to the facility while Doc makes his hospital rounds.”
Ail nodded. “The only way to go.”
Kalen said, “I thought she was back on Sanibel.”
Mason explained, “Jenny refuses to come back here, so we’re keeping her on Marco Island. That’s why you should accept Archer’s offer, unless you want to wait until after my hospital rounds to see her.” He’d rather keep Kalen in bed all day, but he had patients to attend. “I have a twelve-hour shift tomorrow.”
“This is where I come in.” Archer’s eyes moved up and down her body, his cock hardening behind his fly, but he kept a careful distance from her. “You’re not protected by Alpha Jordan, Kalen, so you can’t otherwise get inside the Joint Faction facility without a Pack male escorting you.”
Mason said to Kalen, “He’s Archer Jordan, one of Alpha Jordan’s brothers.”
Archer’s eyes started glowing again, his Alpha Beast refusing to ease back entirely. “Mason insists on shamelessly fueling my Middle Child Syndrome. That way, he can feel better about his troubling inadequacies.”
“Yeah, Arch, that’s me. Inadequate to the bone.” Mason gripped Kalen’s hand when she meant to pull away from him. He wanted more of her touch, the contact he’d missed for so long, so Archer and Ail needed to leave. “You two on guard tonight or did Bane flush you out?”
“On guard,” Ail answered with a knowing smile, reading Mason the way brothers do, “so get some rest and we’ll circle close in case those vamps didn’t heed our first warning.” He faded quickly before he shot to the sky in a celestial mist.
Hesitantly, Archer nodded a silent goodbye, his eyes taking another walk all over Kalen. When she flushed and looked away, Archer followed Ail’s trail into the sky.
Mason turned to Kalen, bringing her hand to his lips. He kissed each knuckle, breathing in her scent while tasting her flesh. “You grew so tall,” he whispered, staring down at half-lidded eyes before dropping his gaze to her plush mouth. Her endless legs went on for miles. Though Mason remained a head taller, he didn’t have to bend so far to reach her mouth.
“Too tall, big-boned, chubby, white hair, pointy incisors,” she said with an eye roll. “I’ve heard it all.”
“From human men,” Mason surmised as he flipped over her hand and bit down on her palm. She nodded as her lips parted, a small groan escaping, her blue-green eyes turning glassy with desire. He couldn’t imagine a human male satisfying her, much less appreciating the nonhuman features of her delectable body. “Subconsciously, human men realize you could kill them just as easily as you could fuck them, so the urge to run doesn’t sit too well with their pride.”
“I noticed.”
He released her hand and reached up, pushing his finger between her lips and prying them open. “When confusion mixes with pride, men say things that they don’t mean,” he explained as he stroked one of her tiny fangs. “White hair? It’s the color of moonbeams, and my Beta Beast wants to comb it with its canines. Too tall? I want those long legs wrapped around me while I lift you up and down on my cock.” He moved the tip of his finger across her front teeth, smoothing over her opposite fang. “Big-boned, chubby? Means I wouldn’t have to hold back. That you could take the pounding I would deliver.” He rolled his finger over the sharp tip, imagining her biting him everywhere. “Pointy incisors? I want them buried in my flesh.”
She pulled away from him. “You want me to bite you?”
Mason’s erection wouldn’t go away. He wanted this female, wanted inside Kalen so badly that standing next to her nearly made him come in his pants. W
hen was the last time that had happened? Never. “I want to feed you.”
“No strings attached?”
“No strings attached,” he promised. “This is more than Syon offered you, yeah? He wanted everything you have, expecting an eternity of blood slavery in return for feeding and protecting you.” He pulled her to the door and ushered her inside.
“Are you sure?” She licked her lips, her tiny fangs pricking her lower lip. Blood welled into two droplets. “Blood’s a hard thing to turn away.”
Leaning, he wrapped his palm around the back of her neck and pulled her to his mouth. Instead of kissing her, he sucked her lower lip into his mouth and tasted her crimson. Flowery and tangy, her essence made his balls throb in anticipation of release. “I’m hoping,” he said after he finally released her, “that you enjoy the taste of me half as much as I do you. I swear I’m high from the taste of you.”
She reached up and traced the column of his throat, stopping over his hammering pulse point. “Are you sure about this?”
“Positive.” His mind a riot of swirling thoughts and inherent needs, he couldn’t distinguish between his werewolf’s thoughts and his own, and he wondered how he was going to deny his werewolf even mid-transformation when he couldn’t separate desires, as well. It was as though his werewolf wasn’t merely speaking to his mind but sharing it, the two becoming one.
Guiding her quietly past Jude’s door, he brought Kalen into the third bedroom, which he used as an office. Lifting her by her waist, he put her on his desk, kissing the tip of her nose as he placed his satchel next her. “I have something here for you.”
She placed her hands on either side of her hips, her dress riding up her porcelain thighs. “I’ve never gone this long without blood and my body’s weakening by the second.”
“So is food even a necessity for you?”
“It is, but blood keeps me functioning above anything I can eat or drink.” She chewed her lip, causing more blood to well. “Where do you prefer I bite you?”
“Just a second.” Mason searched his satchel as Kalen searched him. His shirtsleeves were rolled high on his forearms; the tribal tattoos he’d earned after leaving Youngling status etched from his wrists up, moving above his lines of muscle. Judging by her increase in scent, she liked what she saw. He wasn’t bulky in the way of human body builders, the ones pumping themselves with drugs and weights. No, he was the real deal: a celestial werewolf parading as a man.
Her scent changed when he pulled out a bag of blood, a single bag that could never quench her thirst much less sate her for another day. Her heart rate doubled. “Settle down, Kalen.”
“A bag of blood?”
“It’s immortal blood.”
Platinum eyebrows slammed over her furious eyes. “One pint isn’t enough. You said you were going to feed me.”
“It’s my safety net.” He sensed her raging hunger and it would take him days to regenerate, if she were to rip out his throat. “Get the edge off with this pint, and then I’ll let you near my carotid.”
“Listen, if you’re uncomfortable — "
“I don’t say what I don’t mean,” he growled, the deep rumbling from his werewolf suddenly bouncing around the room. When Mason placed the bag in her hands, the proximity of viable food caused her dainty fangs to erupt full force. Kalen working her tongue around them cranked him higher.
Her fingers tightened around the plastic. “Thank you.”
To give her privacy, Mason faced the window and studied the moon. He heard Kalen shove the bag to her open mouth, her tiny daggers piercing the plastic. He rubbed the heel of his hand over his zipper, imagining his flesh piercing beneath her bite, his blood sliding over her tongue. He sensed her eyes on him and he turned, finding her dilated pupils zoned in on his throat. “You really want to bite me, don’t you, Kalen?”
Fueled by his playful taunting and her burning thirst, Kalen squeezed the bag and expelled every available drop while a hiss left her throat. Unlike a human, Kalen could feed from him until well sated, so long as she didn’t tear out his throat. “Baby, the bag is completely empty. Calm yourself before you take my vein.”
In a feeding haze, Kalen lifted her head, scenting the intoxicating aroma of nearby prey. Mason moved in Were speed, gripping her wrists in one of his hands, his hold was careful yet unbreakable as he pressed her against his desk.
“I’m. So. Thirsty,” she panted, her breaths sawing in and out of her open mouth.
“I know.” Tenderly, he traced his fingertips over fangs, one and then the other, cleaning away the remnants of her feeding. “Fight the blood lust.”
Kalen’s breathing still ragged, the words blood lust flashed through her mind in the way neon flickered on a lonely highway. The consequences of its unadulterated selfishness were endless. Blood lust destroyed everything in which it came in contact, ruining families and even killing strangers. It left blood all over the kitchen floor… and soaked the hem of her sapphire velvet dress Father had given her for Christmas Mass.
“Kalen.”
There was her lifeless mother, staring through deadened eyes with blood dripping from her -
“Are you with me, Kalen?”
Flinching, she tore away from the past. “I’m here.” Her eyes focused on his collar where Mason’s tanned throat peeked from his pristine white shirt. He released her hands, and she lifted them to his broad shoulders, his skin sizzling beneath the soft fabric.
“What happened? Where’d you go?”
“A memory resurfaced of my mother. It seems to happen lately, during the past few weeks or so, when I need blood.”
“I’m so sorry.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Do you want to - ”
“No I don’t want to talk about it.”
“All right.” Mason inclined his head, baring his throat. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Although she felt him shiver beneath her hands while he waited patiently for her next move, Kalen knew it wasn’t due to fear but in anticipation. In response, she felt her sex clench. That had never happened when she’d fed from Carther back home. “I feel strange.”
“It’s not strange, Kalen.” He moved back and sat on his desk chair, his knees opening in that guy way right before he eased her between them. “You’re responding to me the same way you responded at Six Feet Under.”
She grew wetter, but there was more to her feelings than mere horniness. “I’ve never felt like this before a feeding.”
He nodded in understanding. “I’m glad to hear it. You know what I want. What do you want to happen?”
She wanted to be with him forever. That’s what she wanted to happen, but what were the odds?
“Answer me, Kalen. Tell me what you want.”
“You.” In this position, they were almost at eye level. He was so beautiful that she nearly had to look away to catch her breath. Mason’s scent, however, propelled her pelvis forward, making it rock faintly.
His hands traveled down her sides, his fingertips sinking into her hips. Kalen breathed in slowly, taking his moonlit-beach aroma through her mouth instead of her nose. She closed her eyes for a moment and rocked closer… closer…and closer. Until mere inches separated their bodies, and her thirst escalated right when her arousal slammed into overdrive.
“Then take what you want. Take me.” His thumbs started moving between the lines of her hips and her pubis in tiny, maddening circles. Kalen’s mouth slanted over his, brushing his lips tenderly instead of savaging them the way her body needed. “True mates or not, there are ways,” he admitted between kisses. “I want you to stay this time. I want you for forever.”
“How?”
He lifted her hands around the back of his neck, entwining them. “We’ll still find a way to make it work.”
Chapter Five
With her fangs still lowered, she nipped at his lips, wanting a taste of his tongue again, just as much as she wanted a taste of his blood.
Mason pulled his mouth from hers and pres
sed it to her ear. “Drink from me.” When he left her ear to trail kisses down her jaw, she groaned. “Sink your fangs into me,” he demanded in a rough growl. “Show me you’re mine no matter what.”
Her heart sped up. “I am yours.” Kalen went for his mouth again. His freshly lowered canines clanked against her fangs as his mouth melded to hers. He gripped a fistful of Kalen’s hair and tugged her head back as his tongue plunged into her mouth. His answering groan rumbled against her chest, and then he was everywhere.
Filling her mouth.
Filling her nose.
Filling her sex with the scrape of his thick thigh.
When she was at a sudden loss of air, Kalen realized this werewolf was too much for her untried sex. But that didn’t stop her from leaving his hair to grip the strong lines of his biceps and smashing her aching breasts to his rumbling chest. Oh, the way he vibrated against her nipples! In seconds, Kalen sensed her skin matching the temperature of his, Mason’s shirt a barrier she mentally wished away.
Mason left her mouth and lowered his head to her neck, his finger tugging her neckline to the side. He studied her throat for what felt like an eternity before grazing his teeth across the valley of her breasts. She edged her shoulder closer, hoping he would bring a throbbing nipple to his mouth, but he stayed put. The only concession he granted was the molding of her right breast with his expert hand.
He inhaled languidly between long licks. “You are ripening for me, female.”
Not only were her breasts swelling but also her sex, growing thicker and hotter. She pulled his hair when his head dipped finally to claim a covered nipple between his canines. Gasping at the exquisite contact, her legs stiffened, readying for the orgasm he could easily coax from her body.
Instead of answering her body’s call, Mason tightened his thighs around the outside of her legs, locking her down with that blasted restrained strength he wielded so easily.
