by Talyn Scott
Oycher agreed, “It’s alluring, the promise of never having to go without anything again.”
Jayce snorted. “The cost is too high for that kind of promise.”
Maestru waved his hands. “Go on, Sage. We have matters to handle.”
“All over the world, college-aged females have been selectively and secretively approached for various virgins clubs. Their biggest numbers, however, are right here in Southwest Florida.”
“So you’re telling us,” Jude said, “that this revolting trend is also in our back yard?”
“Yes,” Sage confirmed, “particularly with the use of mixed bloods.”
Because mixed bloods handled the changeover from human to vampiress better than one only of human blood, then bodily risk was nil. Jude looked at the hardened features on each of the males present. No matter that the females agreed to the situation or not, no Pack male wanted this happening on his turf. When one human discovered their presence, the knowledge spread like disease. And apparently, many humans were now privy to their existence.
Sage continued, “From what our undercover sources can decipher, the mixed bloods are being told the truth in every stage of the ritual. The vampires are telling them exactly what will happen, and the females are more than happy to accept their new husbands.”
A muscle pulsed in Bane’s jaw. “Any information on who started this whole mess?”
“Not yet,” Maestru replied, “but when I find out, and I will, he or she will have me to contend with.”
“Our only weapon to dissuade these females,” Oycher put in, “is this serial murderer. We’re spreading the word underground, hoping to smoke out the females. And whenever our operatives spot a human working the scene, they wipe her memories and send her packing.”
Archer scrubbed his chin. “So these vamps are too respectable to seek out virgins predatorily, but name the game in advance and buy them off? I guess I can respect about half of that, but given they’ve involved humans and lured away our potential mates, I’m sharpening my claws for a complete takedown.”
“We’re agreed on that,” Oycher said, fingering his favorite blade. “In this country, I will shut down every club.”
Jayce seethed. “So whoever is staking these mixed bloods, saying save the innocent on wooden stakes, is what? Deranged over these underground clubs?”
“That’s one of many theories we’re going on,” Sage responded, “But for whatever reason or reasons for the kills, we’re dealing with one sick fucker.”
Jude looked at Jayce. “I can’t get a scent trail, nor can I figure out why the killer would be-spell a weapon to kill a mixed blood.”
Jude nodded. “It gives a new meaning to overkill, makes a fucking statement to the immortal world.”
Maestru turned to Jayce “It’s one hell of a statement, but I’m thinking it’s something more.”
Chapter Twelve
When Kalen emerged from the bathroom, she tugged Mason’s soft, gray T-shirt over her panties. It wasn’t as sexy as lingerie, but she’d brought none on this trip and longed to wear something of his. It was a comfort thing, she supposed.
“Movie’s ready and so is the popcorn,” Mason yelled.
Kalen flipped open her suitcase, searching for a pair of socks. Oddly enough, she was hot and cold, most of her body set afire the second Archer and Jude had misted home from the meeting, though her feet and hands had gone icy. “Be there in a sec. Go ahead and start it,” she called back.
“We’re waiting on you, lass,” Jude’s rolling burr thundered through the house.
She shivered, the aura of Jude’s werewolf touching her somewhere foreign inside, a place she hadn’t realized existed until he’d first introduced himself to her on the deck.
Kalen slipped on her socks, realizing blatantly they were mismatched, and walked through the small hallway separating the bedrooms from the media room.
“Waiting impatiently,” Archer teased as she walked through the arched doorway. His eyes swept from her damp hair to her makeup free face, then over the shirt Mason had loaned her, to her bare legs before finally landing on her socks — one pale pink and one black and white striped. “That had to have been the longest running bath known to man or Beast.”
She planted one hand on her hip. “Worried I jacked up the water bill?”
“It’s not the water bill that’s concerning me.” Archer’s mouth lifted on one side. “Mason came out half an hour ago. If I didn’t know any better, sweetheart, I’d think you were trying to avoid being alone with us.”
This would be a correct assessment, but she smiled instead of alluding to her nervousness. Why should she admit it, after all? As their mate, they could smell most of her emotions or needs from at least a mile away. “By now, I could have checked into The Blue Pelican.” She stepped completely in the room, seeing Mason sitting on one end of the sofa and Jude getting comfortable at the other. “As you can see, I’m still here.”
Mason chuckled as he stood, stretching like a jungle cat while making his way to her side. “Nice duds.”
She wiggled her toes. “I was a little cold.”
Mason looked at her feet before he studied the rest of her. “I like the way your body looks in my shirt.”
She tilted her head, staring up at the tantalizing man candy that was Mason Ruyter. “And I like the way your body looks without this shirt.” Her eyes skated over his bare chest. She wanted to yank on his nipple rings with her teeth, pulling him closer to her until they meshed body and soul. Kalen needed this male, craved him with a frightening ferocity she could barely leash.
More than that, she wanted to tell him that she loved him. That she’d never stopped.
Mason eased her into his arms, his hands grazing her back though stopping at the slope of her ass, the trail of heat he left behind warmed her at an alarming rate. “You keep looking at me that way, and I won’t be responsible for what my tongue, teeth, and cock do.”
Slowly, Kalen reached up and traced his bottom lip with her fingertip. She blinked a few times, going over what he’d just said. “Did you say teeth?”
“That’s what I said.”
Jude watched her from the sofa, chomping on a bowl of popcorn. He lifted his finger in a silent answer, tapping the side of his throat where the tendons met the shoulder. Ah, so Mason wanted to mark her.
One of Mason’s hands secured her hip, the other lifting and threading through her hair; he pulled her to his mouth in a languid yet hungry kiss, moving his tongue everywhere inside her mouth and leaving nothing unexplored. She wondered, as her aching breasts mashed against his chest, if he would make love to her in the same way. Kalen was more than ready to find out.
But then came the hard part, she reminded herself as her nipples hardened against the steel-like planes of Mason’s chest: No matter how natural it was to werewolves, she didn’t exactly feel comfortable making love to three males, at least not at the same time. Maybe the werewolf blood inside her was more diluted than she’d thought.
“Still cold?” Mason asked when they came up for air.
She glanced down and immediately crossed her arms over her pebbled nipples, her swollen breasts feeling heavy against her arms. Achy, even. “Don’t make fun.” Kalen squeezed them harder, trying to dispel the visual sign of her arousal.
“I would never joke about your incredible body,” Mason responded firmly. “And although I love the way your hands stroke my face when you kiss me, they’re freezing.” He took them in his warm palms and led her to the sofa. “Are you feeling all right?”
“I can go get your medical bag, Doc,” Archer offered with a wag of his eyebrows, his eyes appraising her ass. “We could take her temperature.”
Out of instinct, her hands dropped to her ass cheeks. “Oh, no! I don’t like anything put there.” Cue the chirping crickets. It was as though time had suddenly stood still. That she’d made an unrecoverable gaffe. Kalen looked at each of them. They were in what appeared to be a state of shock: Ju
de’s hand hovering over the popcorn, Archer’s eyes flashing cerulean, Mason’s mouth hanging open so wide she could actually see his uvula. Even the inside of his mouth was gorgeous.
Kalen laughed. “Can we get serious for a minute?”
Mason said, “We are serious.”
She rolled her eyes. “I was talking to Jenny about possibly finding a place down here.”
Jude sat up straighter, his smile guarded. “Is this house no’ big enough for you? ‘Cause we can buy or build another. Together.”
“I’m talking about a restaurant.” She’d never managed a restaurant, and the task seemed daunting. “Maybe I should start with a bistro… or a hot dog stand.”
“No hot dog stand,” Archer said with an infectious grin. “We can buy you any damn restaurant you want. Name it and it’s yours.”
“Thank you, but it’s not the money that concerns me.” Her mother and father had provided for her generously, though she’d hardly touched any of that money apart from her school needs. Plus, Carther paid her handsomely for headlining his kitchen in Chicago. “I’m not sure if I should start small and work my way up. My management skills are sorely lacking. More like nonexistent.”
Jude tapped his fingers on his thigh. “You could always hire Pack members as Bren Walker does for The Blue Pelican.”
Archer agreed, “He dug that place out of the crapper. Now, Bren’s forced to turn patrons away.”
“I’d like to go there.”
“We’ll take you.”
She caught sight of a picture on the mantle, Mason smiling in his cap and gown while surrounded by the Ruyter brood. “I thought I didn’t belong here. That I couldn’t deal with the immortal world. Fact is, my arguments don’t hold up. I drink blood. That makes me more of a creature than a human.”
Archer pursed his sensual lips. “So you’re really considering moving here?”
“It’s a thought I can’t shake, having a family again and stamping myself on the island somehow, but I would feel bad for leaving Carther after everything he’s done for me. He’s my friend. In fact, he’s responsible for kicking off my career in Chicago.”
Archer rolled his neck. “I should be grateful for any male who has helped you, Kalen.”
Should be? Archer was jealous, she realized. “Carther has never tried anything with me. In fact, he’s fed me almost daily without seeking payment.”
“So he feeds you,” Jude repeated, “provides your job, and doesn’t ask for anything in return? Sounds like a god.”
“Close enough, he’s a Holt,” Mason quipped. “Carther is Dru’s baby brother.”
Archer crossed his ankles on the coffee table. “How did you two meet?”
“A job fair where my culinary school participated. He interviewed so many potential students that I thought he’d be cross eyed by the time my turn rolled around.” Kalen could remember that day vividly. “But Carther greeted me with a warm smile, and unlike the other interviewers, he talked to me instead of down to me. Later, he brought me to his restaurant for a tour and offered his vein without price.”
“Considering how generous he’s been with you and the fact that he’s a Holt, not only do I think he’ll support your decision to leave Chicago, but Carther might give you some pointers on setting up a restaurant here.”
Kalen looked at Mason. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I’ll call him when he comes back from Slovakia.” It seemed sorta awkward then, with all of them staring at her. “Movie time?”
Without another word, Mason plopped down, laying on his side, and made room for her on the oversized sofa by sinking into the back cushions and patting his arm for her to place her head on. Kalen glanced at Jude and Archer, both smiling measuredly, before she settled down next to Mason.
When she nestled her head on his biceps, Kalen had to clench her thighs together to ease the emptiness. Frustratingly enough, her actions only made the problem worse. He reached behind them and pulled down a chocolate-colored chenille throw, wrapping it around both of them to warm her. She knew he had the power to heat her with his Beta Beast. That since she was his true mate, all he had to do was will his body heat into hers and warm her, but he held back, trying to act more humanly to make her feel more comfortable. And although she didn’t want to see him transform, to be around him when he was one with the Beta Beast, Kalen had a hard time appreciating the gesture when it was, in fact, unnatural to him.
“Just be yourself, Mason. I’ve fed from you, which isn’t a human action in the least,” she whispered as Archer sat between them and Jude. His arm hovering close to her head as he worked the remote, but he didn’t quite touch her.
“I want to be next,” Archer whispered as the movie started. “At least, it would be something of mine — my blood, inside your body.”
Her eyes flipped to Archer, studying his strong jawline, the way he sat proudly as Alpha royalty should sit. His eyes tipped up on the edges, the blue so startling she didn’t know how he walked among humans without constantly covering them with sunglasses. “Thank you,” she said simply, acknowledging his offer.
“Shh movie’s starting.” His lips curved before he reached over and snatched a handful of popcorn from Jude. “Now, is this the one where the possessed puppet removes the eyeballs from his captive with an icepick, or was that the sequel?”
She jumped up, nearly clocking Mason in the chin. “Huh?”
Jude’s rolling laughter met her ears, Mason’s answering laughter rumbling against her back, as he repositioned her back to his front . “He’s joking.”
Archer leaned over Mason and Kalen, kissing the dip beneath her bottom lip, his hands traveling down her arm and readjusting the blanket to cover her. “Lighten up, my mate. Half of this movie involves a canoe, a lake house, chaste kisses, and a never-ending sunset. The other half involves a lot of crying and random trips to a cupcake shop.” He winked at her. “My eyes will be crossed before we reach the credits. If that doesn’t scream chick-flick, I don’t know what does.”
Mason’s big arm came over her, the tribal ink swirling beneath his skin. He pulled her into the cradle of his chest and pelvis to spoon. His touch similar to when they were teens but stronger, more confident. Then again, he was a full grown male, his size far larger than that of a human, but she wasn’t afraid of their difference in size. His Beta Beast, however, was a different story. Last night, she’d had nightmares filled with werewolves chasing her through the marsh.
And she hadn’t escaped.
“Stop thinking so hard, my lass,” Jude said, moving closer to Archer and offering her the popcorn. “My mother always said it would all come out in the wash.”
She didn’t feel like she could compare any of this to a laundry analogy, but she took the popcorn from his fingers, the tips of hers brushing across his skin before lifting it to her mouth. “It’s good,” she mumbled around a small bite.
Jude lifted another piece with his forefinger and thumb, waiting. Kalen knew what he was asking. That he wanted to feed her in the way of the werewolf. She swallowed roughly and nodded her assent. His silver eyes brightened into moonbeams as he brought the offering to her mouth, slipping it past her lips like a delicacy. His thumb lingered at her lower lip as she chewed, feeling her mouth work around the food.
“I would do that the rest of my life, my lass. Every morning I was no’ hunting, I would cook your breakfast, feed you bite after bite in bed until your hunger was quenched.” He offered her more popcorn, and she again accepted his hand to her mouth. “Then I would offer my throat to you, let you take from my life-force until your body was sated.”
Archer leaned, his hand brushing the short layers around her face behind her ear. “Then we’d start at your toes, running our tongues up your body, driving you crazy until we reached the spot you really wanted us to lick.”
Mason peppered soft kisses across her jawline, ending at the corner of her mouth. His hand moved beneath the blanket and wrapped around her lower stomach. “I don’t deserve y
our virginity, but it’s mine, Kalen.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “it always has been.”
Again he fitted his lips over hers, tasting like her dreams-come-to-life. The good dreams, not the ones she’d had last night.
Kalen reveled in the way she moved perfectly in his arms, against his mouth. She only hoped that she would fit perfectly around his cock, too. From what she’d seen of him in the bath, it was questionable.
When he lifted from their kiss, he gazed into the depths of her eyes. She tried not to think about the wasted days of yesterday when today and tomorrow were staring her straight in the face.
“When you are ready, baby,” Mason murmured across her lips. “Just tell me when, and I’ll be careful, so very, very gentle with you.”
Kalen sighed against his mouth, the emptiness between her legs transforming into something more urgent. He kept his eyes trained on hers as his hand moved from her lower stomach to her sex, his fingers gently wrapping around her mound and cupping her possessively. After staying a few seconds, seeing if she would push him away due to Archer and Jude’s presence, he pushed her against his hardened groin again. He wore athletic shorts, and his big bulge settled more firmly against the crevice of her panty-clad ass. She shuddered at the forbidden sensation, though it wasn’t as forbidden as she’d originally thought.
Chapter Thirteen
Jude stared at the movement beneath the blanket, making out the obvious. “Is Mason showing you how much he wants you?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes as Mason pressed an open mouth kiss against the side of her throat, his tongue circling her skin and causing goosebumps to rise everywhere. Another set of lips rained a deluge of kisses over her nose and cheeks, before dipping beneath her lower lip and licking the tiny divot there. Her core pulsated in response, her sheath tightening, her ass straining to meet Mason’s erection.
