by Lexi C. Foss
“It probably wasn’t a dream. Cole and Rhys were just both in mine, and they figured out where we are hiding. Let’s go,” I said, slipping my feet into the sandals before grabbing the keys off the nightstand.
“You’re a slow driver, give me the damn keys,” she groaned, slipping on her shoes before she moved toward the bathroom. “If you need to use the bathroom, do it. I don’t intend to stop until we’re at least over the mountain pass.”
We piled into the Land Rover and started down the small dirt road, hitting the highway. I had just leaned back and exhaled when Nyx slammed on the breaks, bringing the SUV to a stop. I peered through the windshield, staring at Rhys, leaning against the dark Jeep with his arms crossed over his chest, dressed in tactical gear. His eyes held mine as he uncrossed his feet, standing up. Their SUVs blocked the entire road. I groaned, turning to look at Nyx.
I wanted to slap the smug look on his face, violently. Car tires screeched behind us as a motor revved, causing my body to swivel in the seat. Trucks blocked our retreat, and then the car lurched, and I turned, noting the side road.
“It’s gravel,” I pointed out, and she shrugged.
“It’s the road less traveled, and those shows always talk about taking them.”
“I think it’s supposed to be a metaphor, not literally. Especially not when being chased,” I pointed out, gasping as we hit a bump.
“Van Helsings surround us. Would you rather we attempt to drive through them?”
I sat back, frowning as the car hit a dip, and my head slammed against the top of the interior. Reaching over, I grabbed the seat belt, pulling it across my lap as Nyx turned on the music. Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust started playing loudly, and she smiled brilliantly, nodding.
“So, let the prey become the hunted,” she mused.
“Hey, I’m not the prey. It’s just that Rhys is so…” We hit a bump, and I yelped, “mean! Jesus, stay on the damn road, woman. Remember, I am mortal!”
“I can’t help it. The road is filled with craters the size of Texas!” She rounded a corner, and I groaned, staring at the end of the road. “Okay, I’m going to get out and run one way, and you’re going to go the other. Every movie has the blonde captured first, and the redhead is smarter, so she makes it further into the movie.”
“That’s in the movies, Nyx.”
“Yeah, and when she gets caught, she gets fucked. Sounds great to me,” she snorted, shrugging her delicate shoulders.
“Murdered, she gets murdered,” I groaned, climbing out of the Land Rover.
“Stop ruining my fun! I like my version better.”
The sound of cars moving toward us forced our attention back the direction we’d come. Nyx wiggled her fingers, using her inhuman speed to zip into the woods. I groaned, moving toward the heavily wooded forest beside the dead-end road. It was almost as if they’d wanted us to take it. My eyes rolled, and I started moving as if the hounds of hell were chasing me.
If I’d known they would find us via my dreams, I’d have taken caffeine pills to stay awake, and we could have been miles away from them before they’d figured it out. But no, I was mortal and young, and my brain worked with logical facts.
Facts like men didn’t really walk into your dreams and figure out where you were hiding from them. Or, you know, wake up with their dick buried in your throat, because hey, hussy, I was trying to impress dream Rhys with my unskilled throat.
Tripping over a low-hanging branch, I caught myself before planting my face into the forest floor. I could hear the sound of my heartbeat thundering in my ears loudly, which made it harder to discern anything else. I started at a decent pace, wishing I’d done all those suicide lunges in training instead of pretending I had.
I spun around as my lungs burned, noting the forest floor grew more thickly covered in debris as I started up a rock cliff, digging my fingers into the jagged rocks to pull my weight up until I reached the top.
Staring out over the barrage of trees, I deflated with the lack of anything or anywhere to hide. I moved forward, reaching the trees as the wind kicked up, and something brushed against my arm. I turned toward it, finding nothing there. Stepping backward, I shivered as the oversized clothing allowed the wind to send chilled air against my skin.
I moved through the woods until I hit a meadow, stopping on the edge. I wanted to stomp my feet at the nothingness in this place as I peered into the empty field. Slowly, I moved away from the cover of the trees and entered the clearing. Flowers bloomed everywhere I stepped, and a deep growl caused me to pause, turning back to look toward the direction I came. A shadowy figure stood on the edge of the meadow with the morning sun to his back, blocking out his features.
I stepped back, slowly moving as he started forward. My heartbeat hitched, beating relentlessly against my ribs until it filled my ears. He slowly moved toward me at an unhurried pace. I spun around, rushing toward the woods, but slammed against something hard and unmoving. Rhys peered down at me, watching as I fell to the ground ungracefully.
The moment my back touched against the ground, he dropped and easily captured my arms, pinning them above my head as his gaze searched mine. His knee parted my legs, and he smiled coldly. My chest rose and fell as he remained unnervingly silent.
“You ran from me, woman,” he growled, pushing his knee against my apex, studying my reaction.
“You’re the bad guy,” I whispered breathlessly.
His smile widened, and he lowered his mouth to kiss my racing pulse. I moaned from the heat, my frozen body still yet to thaw fully from the ice-cold water we’d hidden within for hours. My knees lifted, cradling his body to retain his heat.
Rhys didn’t release my hands, not even as his mouth claimed mine hungrily. His tongue pushed past my lips, dominating and controlling the kiss, nipping my lip before he pressed his tongue against mine.
I rocked against his muscular frame, unable to stop my body’s reaction as need coursed through me. It was like his mouth held all the answers to the world, and when it brushed against mine, all my worries and troubles melted away. The only thing that mattered was getting him deeper into my soul.
Rhys pulled back, searching my face before he spoke thickly. “If I’m the bad guy, Remington, why do you kiss me like I’m your fucking savior?”
“I didn’t say it made any damn sense. I was just pointing out facts,” I replied softly, peering into eyes that studied me.
“If you run from me again, I’ll ensure it will be the last time. I won’t give you another warning,” Rhys growled, lowering his mouth to crush against mine as my legs lifted, cradling him against my body.
Moaning, I allowed him to continue distracting me, holding my hands above my head as he showed me who was in control. Rhys didn’t just kiss. He dominated, devoured, destroying you for every other male on the planet. His lips were sin, wrapped in seduction, and the moment they touched you, you were lost to him before you even realized his game.
He pulled back, releasing my hands, chuckling darkly at how weak I was to resist him. I hated him a little for knowing that he held that control over my senses. Rhys pulled me up from the ground, and I moved my knee, hitting him in his balls. I started forward as he dropped to the ground hard.
I ran toward the forest without peering back, knowing I’d merely bought myself a few moments before he’d catch me again. I wasn’t entirely sure why I thought that kneeing him in the nuts was wise. I had enjoyed the shock on his face as I’d landed my knee against his groin. A moment before I would have pushed through the forest line, a large grey wolf exploded from the brush, and I skidded backward, trembling with fear.
“Bad doggie! Please don’t eat me. I’m not old enough to be tender yet and haven’t had enough time even to marinate to taste good!” I cried, only to have a firm, large, very angry Van Helsing shove me behind him.
“Stand down, mutt. She’s mine,” Rhys growled, and I peered around his shoulder to see if the wolf listened.
My eyes wid
ened as power rushed through the clearing, and the wolf trembled, growing hands before the rest of him started mirroring human parts. He lifted from the ground, baring teeth that had yet to finish turning blunt, and Rhys snorted.
My attention lowered to the enormous appendage between his legs, and my mouth dropped open. “Holy dick,” I whispered in amazement as Rhys turned his head, glowering at me with annoyance. “What? It’s huge and very hard to miss!”
“Stop looking at the mutt’s cock, Remington,” he hissed, moving his attention back to the man, who had just shifted into a human.
“Why’s your bitch on my land, Helsing? My pack is hunting tonight to feed, and this isn’t the time to be having some honeypot out in my fucking woods. Not to mention, judging by the scent of her trailing from the road, she’s fucking mortal.”
“Conrad MacGregor, meet Remington Silversmith. If you’d have answered the fucking summons, you’d know who she was. She’s also under my protection. Make sure the other mutts and savages get that memo because I won’t give it again.”
I slowly lifted my gaze from the man’s very thick, large appendage to meet his heated stare. He had sharp features, and he didn’t look friendly in the least bit. Dark hair was disheveled, which looked pretty damn hot on him. His arms were covered in black and grey tattoos, while his chest held scars and a full moon over his heart. My stare dipped down again, and his cock jerked, forcing my gaze to lift to the wolfish grin marring his sensual mouth.
“Silversmith, and under your protection? Are you planning to fuck her then, Van Helsing?”
“That isn’t your problem. Is it? She’s untouchable unless I say otherwise, MacGregor. You have yet to respond to my invitation to Beltane. I suggest you respond to it soon. The heads of the houses will all be in attendance.” Rhys stepped in front of me when Conrad continued staring at me as if he wanted to say something else.
“Funny, last I remembered, my pack wasn’t worth your fucking time. Now, all of a sudden, a Silversmith shows up, and you want us at your party?” he asked, lifting a brow in challenge.
“I was being generous asking for your attendance, asshole. It wasn’t a request. Vampires have turned up in daylight, and they’re unresponsive to the normal shit that should be killing them. That’s a problem, and with Laura currently recovering from wounds inflicted during a conflict with my little honeypot, as you referred to her, all heads of houses have been called here for Beltane.”
“You took down the evil bitch?” Conrad asked, moving around Rhys, inspecting my borrowed clothing and disheveled appearance. “Did she do that to your head?” he questioned, stepping closer to sniff me. “If she’s yours, Rhys, why the fuck does she smell of other men? Losing your touch at seducing women in your old age?”
“The caravan she was in was attacked last night. I am currently retrieving her from her own stupidity.”
Conrad whistled, lowering his mouth to lick over the cut on my head as Rhys snorted, holding me still as the wolf tended to my wound. It was awkward and disgusting, but the moment he’d started licking my head, the dull throb had relieved. When Conrad finished, he stepped back, uncaring that he was naked in front of us.
More wolves escaped the woods, mid-shift to human as bones cracking and reforming sounded in the meadow. A woman silently made her way to where I stood, lifting a dainty nose in the air before glaring at me. Her hand moved toward the alpha with a territorial look as she began stroking his hard erection in front of us. His head fell back and rolled on his shoulders before his eyes turned to hold mine. I swallowed, uncomfortable with the blatant erotic scene unfolding.
She dropped to her knees, intending to do more, but he growled, and she bared her teeth at him, growling back. Other women slinked out of the woods, joining her to caress him, and he smiled at the blush filling my cheeks.
“She’s young, Van Helsing.”
“Very young,” Rhys agreed, pulling me against him as one of the women moved toward me. “She’s mine, Caroline. Remington is off-limits.”
“She’s beautiful and smells unsatisfied. I can help her,” Caroline offered, her hand moving to her large breasts.
“She isn’t interested in being an omega to your pack,” Rhys snorted and lifted his eyes to the last female who entered the clearing, moving directly toward Rhys with purpose. She lifted on tiptoes when she reached him, kissing Rhys with wild abandonment, causing my brows to rise and a growl to build in my throat. Rhys didn’t kiss her back, but he didn’t stop her either. “Abigail,” he grunted as she tried to push her hand into his pants.
“I’ve missed you coming to find me when I am in heat, hunter,” she purred, turning her stare to me as it dripped with indifference. “I want to fuck.”
“I’m busy,” Rhys said, pulling me against him. “See that you come to Beltane, and bring your bitches. I’m sure everyone will eagerly welcome them, MacGregor.”
“You know I don’t like sharing my bitches.”
“You can’t fuck them all on Beltane, asshole. Let’s go, Remington,” Rhys stated, grabbing my wrist painfully, which told me he was a little hot over me kneeing him. “You ever do that again, and I’ll pull your pants down and spank your ass until I’m confident that you’ve learned your lesson, or maybe I’ll leave you to the wolves.”
“I’m not a child,” I muttered. “Honestly, you should have seen it coming. And I can handle wolves on my own. I don’t need saving. I could have talked it down, or done something.”
“You would have ended up pinned to the ground, fucked into submission, and then eaten for trespassing on their land. Those bitches would have picked their teeth clean with your bones,” he growled. When I snorted, he turned, moving in a direction as if he had changed his mind.
“No!” I cried out, pulling his arm as he stopped, turning angry azure eyes on me. “I don’t even know if I like doggie style.” What the fuck? Did Nyx just really come out of my mouth? I had to stop listening to her talk when it was about sex.
His lips twitched as his eyes narrowed on me. “You’ll figure that one out soon enough. I’ve imagined your pretty thighs parted, and me holding you apart as I fuck you from behind. You’ll come for me like a bitch in heat when I fuck you like that.”
“You imagine me being fucked… by you?” I stammered as he walked me backward until my back touched against a tree.
“Indeed, Love. I have dreamed of little else since meeting you. I’d show you, but you seem to have left my balls in my stomach and killed my erection. Now fucking walk, because the others are starting to assume I have beaten you into submission, and are giving us privacy so that I can fuck you.”
“Oh,” I frowned, turning on my heel to stare into the woods. “My sense of direction in the forest isn’t great,” I groaned. He smiled, threading his fingers through mine as he directed me out of the meadow, where the cars waited. “I didn’t make it very far, did I?” I muttered.
“No, but it was cute that you thought you could outrun me.”
19
I drove back to the estate with Rhys in silence, sulking at my inability to give him a decent chase. Of course, my job at E.V.I.E. had been to create weapons and make ammo ready for the operatives that actually hunted down vampires. My fingers tapped on the side panel and seemed to annoy Rhys, who continually swerved until I stopped.
Turning, I silently took in his angry profile. His bone structure was perfectly asymmetrical, with the five o’clock shadow that normally wasn’t there. “Where’s Nyx?” I asked curiously.
“Being taught a lesson as to why you don’t run from Van Helsings,” he said without looking away from the road.
“Excuse me?” I demanded, turning to face him.
“She’s being punished. Do you need me to spell it out for you? She hasn’t complained about it, and Acyn seemed rather inclined to show her that she couldn’t escape him.” He snorted as I huffed, crossing my arms to stare at him as we drove through the estate gates.
“Take me to her now,” I hissed.
“You sure?” he asked, and when I just continued glaring at him, he shook his dark head and exited the car, moving around it to open my door. “I’m not sure you want to know what Acyn’s punishments include, Remington.”
“Now!” I demanded, following his stare toward the house.
He shrugged as if it didn’t bother him one way or the other and started forward. We entered the silent house, and I followed him until he leaned against the wall, nodding at a door. I opened it just as a scream ripped from Nyx’s throat, stopping dead in my tracks as my eyes rounded.
Cole was holding her up as Acyn moved behind her, both of them buried in her body. Cole turned dark eyes on me, slowly letting them drift down my body with open hunger. Cole’s body rippled with power as he spread her body further, showing me his thick cock in the process. My teeth worried my lip, and my heated stare slid up the heavily tattooed muscular build of his body. Nyx screamed, her noises mixed with pleasure and pain as Acyn slammed into her, turning his blue depths to stare at me.
“Either strip and join us or get the fuck out, Silversmith,” Acyn growled.
I slammed my hand over my eyes, realizing I was watching the threesome happening with open curiosity. “So much dick,” I groaned, moving to the wall beside Rhys, who reached around me, peering into the room before closing the door.
“Curious little thing, aren’t you, Remi?” he asked, turning to stare at me with glowing blue eyes. “Would you like to be punished?”
My eyebrows hiked to my hairline as my mouth opened and closed. I was stuck in a house of sex! He stepped closer, cupping my cheek as he inhaled my scent. His hand released my face to push against the wall as he pinned me between his arms.
“Can I spread you apart and fill you, wrapping you around my cock until you’re in pain? I bet those other boys you let play with you never made you ache as they fucked you, did they?” he asked, lowering his mouth to kiss the side of my neck as he captured my hands, pinning them above my head.
