by Susan Bliler
She gasped at how suddenly full she was. Her mate was long and almost too thick, stretching her and filling her in a way she’d never experienced. He pounded into her like a man possessed, the sounds of their wet sex and slapping skin filling the room. Jenny felt tension coiling in her middle, but before she could fall over the edge, Bishop picked her up and flipped her over. Shoulders pressed into the mattress, ass presented to him, she screamed into the bed as he impaled her. It felt so good, so right. She thrust back against him. Her fingers clawed at the bed while Bishop pounded his hips against her ass with an almost violent fervor.
Monstrous mate! My mate! She smiled into the bedding even as climax tore through her and had her crying out again as her toes curled and her body seized.
Bishop continued to thrust into her a few more strokes before he slammed home and came with a roar. His hips worked in slow, jerky movements, drawing out both their pleasure until he was emptied inside of her. When he pulled out and dropped to the bed beside her, he pulled her up onto his chest and pressed his lips against her hairline.
“I love you,” he whispered against her skin.
“Love you more,” Jenny breathed into the quiet room. She could feel Bishop smile against her skin as his heart actually accelerated beneath her palm.
“Impossible, Jen. Im-fucking-possible!”
And with that little admission, flitter-flies started a brawl right in her middle. The sensation had her hunching her shoulders and beaming against the happiness that assailed her.
It hadn’t been too late. She hadn’t completely ruined things for her mate or for herself, and for all the rest of her days she vowed to never take him for granted or to keep anything from him again. Because that wasn’t how love worked. You didn’t get to make decisions based on what you thought was best for your mate. No, you talked it out and made decisions together based on what was best for you as a couple. She’d never forget that! Even more, it was actually nice realizing she didn’t always have to carry her burdens alone anymore. It was a big deal for someone like her who was always in charge, always in control. Her shoulders were often weighed down with the burden of duty, but now she had someone to help her shoulder that burden. And, not just someone. She had Bishop, her big bad monstrous mate whose shoulders were wide enough and strong enough to carry everything on his own, but who chose to see her strength and let her help him too. A team. That’s what they were, two people, on the same side, working toward the same goal.
By the Gods she loved him, and until her time on this earth ended, she’d spend every second proving it, but first, she had to know.
“You sent me away. When you were in the infirmary, you sent me away. I thought that was it. I was so sick with how it’d ended.”
“Didn’t want you seeing me like that, all weak and laid up. I wanted to be strong for you. Wanted to be enough for you.”
“Bishop,” she pressed her body closer to his and let soft sobs wrack her body. “You’re perfect. You’re my perfect mate.”
“And you’re almost my perfect mate too.”
Jenny sniffed and looked up confused. “Almost?”
“Yeah,” he grinned. “Something’s missing?”
Wordlessly, he reached up and pulled the double-helix halo from his throat, a brand searing his flesh with its removal.
“Bishop!”
That one word from her was so full of hope that Bishop’s own eyes glistened with emotion. “You’re mine, Jen. Forever.” He slid the helix-halos around Jenny’s throat. A high-pitched whine filled the air as ethereal light flashed.
“Yours,” Jenny breathed mere seconds before her eyes fluttered closed.
Pulling her closer, Bishop held her tight determined to protect her from their enemies, their allies, themselves. Anyone or anything that wanted to get to Jenny would have to go through him first, and as he held her, he made that vow to the Grandfathers.
Chapter 23
Lying in bed the next morning, Bishop had Jenny tucked up against his chest, one arm slung over her shoulders as he drew lazy circles over the scar on her back where the Megalya implant—that had been inside of her for years—had been removed. Last night had been the best night of Bishop’s life, and he felt so damn grateful knowing that it was the first of many. Knowing that though, he also knew he wanted to start off with a clean slate, which meant telling Jenny everything.
“Do you forgive me?” she asked quietly.
One side of his mouth lifted with the realization that she awake and had been lying in his arms stressing too about how they’d started out.
“You never said the words to me.” She continued. “You told me that you love me, but never that you forgive me. I need to hear it.”
He sighed heavily and pressed his lips to her forehead before answering. “I realize now that I couldn’t forgive you, Jen, because I couldn’t forgive myself.”
One dainty hand flattened on his chest as she shoved up to look at him. “Bishop, I told you what happened that first time we were together in the infirmary was my fault. I don’t blame you for that. I never have.”
“I’m not talking about that.” Drawing in another deep breath, he steeled himself for the revelation. “You know I’ve got three older brothers?”
Jenny nodded and relaxed back against his body, “And one younger sister.”
“All my brothers are soldiers,” Bishop continued, looking down to stare at the satiny skin on her shoulders. “All three of them have been in the military for some time, and it was always someplace I couldn’t follow them. My whole life I emulated them, wanted to be them. When they each joined up, I knew that’s what I was gonna do too. I was gonna be a man just like them.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No,” he shook his head sadly. “I didn’t.”
Jenny’s tone was soft when she asked, “Why Bishop? Why didn’t you follow your brothers into the military?”
“I couldn’t. When I was fifteen, me and my best friend, Billy, were down at the creek behind the house. We were horsing around, swimming and shifting. Seeing what animal forms swam the best.”
He knew if Jenny could see them right now that his eyes would be haunted. “It was early June and black bear hunting season had already started.” He shook his head. “We weren’t hunters, just dumb kids, so we didn’t know.”
He felt Jenny suck in a sharp breath like she knew what was coming.
“Billy shifted to bear form and was standing up on this cliff we liked to dive off. I’d just gone, so I was making my way out of the water when rifle shot cracked the air.”
He rushed out the rest because he knew he’d never get through it if he didn’t. “He looked right at me, and everything froze. At first, I didn’t know what was happening and then a second shot rang out. Something hit Billy, and as he stood there looking right at me, pieces of him blasted out one side. He didn’t even blink, just went down. I screamed and ran to him, but it was too late. When those hunters came into the clearing, whooping and congratulating each other, I lost it. I raced toward ‘em, and they both stopped, staring at me confused. They didn’t even get the chance to react before I shifted and attacked. My mountain lion, small as it was, killed them both.” He shook his head once. “I killed them both, and it didn’t matter because Billy was gone.”
Jenny’s eyes flooded with tears, “Bishop!”
“My parents and brothers found us and cleaned up the mess. The papers said the hunters died from an animal attack and hunters and game warden’s flooded our land for weeks. Lots of innocent predators died, but even after months it still wasn’t over. I got PTSD. Didn’t know what it was at first. I’d just wake up screaming and sweating. Sometime’s I’d shift, sometimes I wouldn’t, but I always attacked. No matter who woke me or who was around, I always attacked.”
He turned his head away in disgust as he glared at the wall. “Ma still has scars on her arms and neck from me. I wasn’t safe to join the military because I was a liability both to whoever was aro
und me and to Skin Walkers because when I was asleep, I couldn’t control my shifts. I was useless. And all through adolescence and into adulthood this shit plagued me. I couldn’t shake it. When I came to StoneCrow, I thought I’d found my place, but… ” He let his words die off.
Sighing sadly, Jenny answered, “But then me.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m not blaming you for anything. I’m just saying that initially when I thought you didn’t want me that it fucked with my head. It was me not being good enough all over again.”
“You’re more than good enough,” she interjected leaning up and capturing his jaw with one hand to force him to look at her. “Actually, you’re too good for me, but I’m a selfish bitch, and I’m keeping you.”
He smiled, but it slowly faded as he turned serious again. “When I started having trouble sleeping due to the affliction…”
“Oh God, Bishop!” She tried to shove up, but he held her clamped firmly to him.
“I thought I was getting worse. I was so damn relieved when RedKnife told me about the affliction. Then, when I found out about your nightly ritual, the bad dreams you had, I can honestly say that I saw myself in you. I learned, through you, how to care for someone dealing with that. You taught me to learn to take care of myself. Seeing you go through it taught me that it wasn’t my fault. You taught me that I wasn’t fucked up. I couldn’t be, because you weren’t. Being captured and tortured wasn’t your fault. Just like me being traumatized by my best friend’s death wasn’t my fault. What happened to me was fucked up. What happened to you was fucked up, but we aren’t fucked up. Because of you, I’ve made peace with myself. And because I’ve made peace with myself, I haven’t had a night terror since I found you on the floor at my cabin in your make-shift cage. Sick as it sounds, seeing you like that fixed me, and I’d be a cruel, selfish fuck to not forgive you. I get why you did it now. You’re a protector, Jen. A doctor, a fixer. You wanna make the world right and no way can I fault you for that, woman. It’s what makes you perfect.” He pulled her in and kissed her lips as her eyes filled with emotion. “It’s what makes you mine,” he breathed against her lips. “And you are mine, Jenny Arkinson.”
He grinned when he felt a shiver course through her at their mingled names. “I’m keeping you from this day until the end of my days.”
“Until the end of my days,” she repeated against his lips and then melted against him, opening her mouth and inviting him in even as she straddled his hips. When she slid over him, he caught her hips before she could take him inside her. Shocked, she opened her eyes and looked at him in silent question.
“I love you, Jenny.”
She didn’t smile when she answered, “I love you, Bishop.”
Epilogue
Jenny hung up the phone and turned a confused look on Bishop where he sat at the dining table, one hand closed around a cup of steaming coffee.
“What?” he asked.
“He…he doesn’t want to meet with me.” Jenny shook her head causing dark locks to brush along her cobalt colored sweater. “Why doesn’t Monroe want to meet with me? He knows what I did. He has to.” Jerking a thumb over her shoulder toward the phone, she continued. “Lilly says he wants me back at the infirmary as soon as I can manage it. He’s…he’s putting me back to work.”
She’d been fearing banishment but expecting it. At the very least she assumed Monroe would remove her from her duties, and issue some sort of reprimand. He wasn’t doing any of that. He wanted her back to work, and it was baffling. Yes, she was aware that he hadn’t told anyone else on the estate how she’d been meddling with each of their blood samples, but now trepidation tore through her at the why of it.
“Son of a bitch!” Bishop’s curse drew her attention. “He doesn’t want to meet with you, Jen, because he doesn’t want to know what you did.”
“But he must know. He has to have figured it out by now.”
“You don’t get it.” Bishop shoved his coffee away and stood to pace the length of the table. “He’s removing himself from any liability by sticking his head in the sand. If you don’t come clean to him than he can deny any knowledge of what you’ve been doing.”
“But why?”
Bishop stopped pacing and gave her a hard look, lips thinning into a grim line.
RedKnife’s words when he’d healed Bishop slammed into her. Eyes rounding, Jenny breathed, “He wants me to keep going.”
“And you’d be the only one at risk.”
“I can’t do that,” she shook her head. “Look what happened to us. It could’ve been disastrous. Hell, it was disastrous!”
Bishop stopped and planted his hands on his hips. The look he gave her was severe. “But it helped too.”
Her tone was incredulous when she asked, “What?”
“It was,” he argued. “You learned how long a Walker could survive the affliction. You learned exactly how feral we could allow ourselves to become.”
“It wasn’t an absolute, Bishop. Every Walker could be different. They probably are!”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “But now you have a starting point, right? A standard.”
She stared at him wide-eyed. “Are you hearing yourself right now? It sounds like you’re actually encouraging me to do Monroe’s silent bidding and keep this up.”
He shrugged. “Jen… maybe I am.”
She wanted to discuss this more. She’d already resigned herself to ending all her tests and sample manipulations because it’s what she expected Bishop to ask of her. She didn’t get to discuss it though because a mental nudge had been plaguing her for the past five minutes, so she permitted the contact with a resigned, “Yes!”
Law’s smooth tone sailed to her through the mist. “’Ello love!”
“Law?”
“Yeah, just wanted to shout a quick farewell. Me and a Crows are flying a coup. ‘Eaded back to de island. So I just wantin ta say goodbye and sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry, Law. Never to me. Besides, you didn’t know about Bishop and me, so you touching me wasn’t your fault. I know you’d never intentionally hurt me.”
“Actually…” A pause hung between them.
“Law?”
“I knew what touching you would do. I knew what was ‘appening between you two a second I saw ya togeva.”
“So you….”
“Yeah. I did in on pu’pose. I called his bluff. I ain’t gonna just sit around and watch any man torture you, love. Ain’t 'appening, not on my watch!”
“Law,” she sighed gratefully and asked, “Don’t you ever get tired of saving me?”
“Neva! Take care yourself and tell ‘at ornery bastard to treat you right. I don’t wanna ‘avta come back and end him, but I will.”
Jenny laughed. “Thank you, Law. Thank you for everything.”
The connection severed, and Jenny turned to find Bishop watching her curiously. “Who was that?”
“Lawder,” she answered with a smile stepping up and wrapping her arms around his neck. “He said you better take care of me or he’ll come back.”
Bishop’s expression hardened. “That motherfucker.”
Lifting his hands, he had every intention of peeling Jenny off of him and going to find Lawder, but Jenny held tight, leaning forward to bite his neck and suck the skin there into her mouth before pulling back.
“Instead of fighting, how about you do as he says and take care of me instead.”
All the fight left Bishop. “I’ll always put you first, Jen.”
She waggled her brows. “Prove it.” She jumped up and wrapped her legs around Bishop’s waist.
Smiling, he used an arm to shelf her ass as he turned them toward the bedroom.
“Oh I’m gonna prove it,” he grinned and kissed her lips before pulling back. “And prove it.”
Kiss.
“And prove it.”
Kiss.
“And prove it!”
Jenny smiled into his kiss, her heart thumping wildly against her
chest with mingled excitement, contentment, and love.
Available NOW
by
Susan Bliler
Skin Walkers: Conn
“I don’t know who’s paying you boys, but you’re about to find out that you’ve fucked up royally.”
York looked from Aries to Conn. She could tell by his look that he was inclined to believe her. Conn, on the other hand, ignored her completely.
Several minutes into the flight, Conn pulled a map from the leg pocket of his fatigues and motioned for his men to come closer. Conn sat across the cabin, in the furthest seat from Aries. York and Shane, who’d been on either side of Aries, both took a knee in front of Conn as James slid down his seat to get closer to their Commander as the group huddled, quietly discussing some unknown plans.
Watching them, Aries saw that James and Shane also wore the same band around their throats. She wondered if it was some new military device.
As the men talked, Aries inched closer and closer to the open doors of the helicopter. When she felt Conn’s eyes on her, she feigned a slight tremble, wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing up and down in what she hoped was the appearance of a woman cowering in the grip of her fear of heights. It worked. Conn snorted his derision at her weak reaction, turning his eyes back to the plans he and his men were scanning intently.
Before any of them even realized what was happening, Aries dropped to her knees and rolled. Her arms snaked out and snagged a bundled parachute just as her body was sucked out the door of the helicopter. Four sets of eyes snapped to the open door.
“Holy fuck!” James’s tone was reverent.
Conn and his team wasted precious seconds as they stared dumbly at the now vacant doorway before Conn finally broke free of his disbelief. “Get your asses out there!” His words were a low, harsh growl, filled with self-disgust. In response, York, James, and Shane quickly donned chutes before dropping wordlessly from the still moving copter as Conn barked orders for the pilot to circle back.
