The mattress sagged and then a hand landed gently on her shoulder. Her entire body responded. She knew that touch; she knew that hand. It was Sebastian.
“What do you want?” she said.
“To live the rest of my life with you. I know it sounds a little hasty, all things considered. But I want to say ‘fuck you’ to destiny and do exactly what I want. I want to go to Hawaii. And right now, this second, what I really want is a shrimp po’ boy. I think that about covers it.”
Cara rolled over and looked up at him. His handsome face was so dear to her. “Do you think it’s possible, Sebastian? Do you think we can just say ‘fuck you’ to destiny?”
“No, but I think we can tell it to wait its turn.”
“How do we do that?” Her words were a whisper.
“Like this.” His lips met hers in a soft, slow kiss. Her mouth opened as his tongue ran across her full, soft lips and then traced the outlines of her teeth. His tongue slipped past her teeth and into her mouth, teasing her until she began to meet his kiss with her own.
Their tongues intertwined, danced and caressed. His hands held her face tightly as he lowered himself onto the bed next to her, pulling her body snugly against his. Cara could feel his hardness; it pressed against her lower belly and she ran her hands down his back to the waistband of his tight jeans. Her fingers dipped below that waistband, traced the lean angle of his abs then slid forward so that her fingers were brushing against the thick blonde bush of his pubic hair.
His low gasp told her that he wanted her as much as she wanted him. Cara already knew that if he was here, it meant that her father was going to allow whatever happened between them to happen. Maybe he figured that if she could have this one day, then she would go willingly into the circle tonight. She shut those thoughts out, not wanting to think of anything else, not wanting to know of anything else. All she wanted right now was to be here with Sebastian.
His fingers tugged at her pink tank top. She’d never gotten around to changing it after they’d come back from the Queen’s house, and when he lifted it off her head, she could smell a faint tang of sweat in the material. His mouth moved to her neck and his teeth nipped gently at the flesh just below her ear. She shivered all over and her nails bit into his shoulders as she moved his own shirt up his long torso and over his head. Her fingers went back to the waistband of his jeans, dipping below them and then coming back out. She pressed her hips into his, grinding and rubbing against him as their kisses turned more serious and passionate.
His hands bound her breasts and then his head bent to those ripe, firm globes. His tongue streaked across her nipples and made them harden, lifting towards his cunning tongue.
He pressed her back into the mattress and positioned himself over her, his head dipping lower as his fingers went to the buttons on her jeans and began to unfasten them.
Cara’s fingers struggled with his buttons. She somehow managed, amidst some laughter and a lot of kissing, to get his boots off. They made a heavy thumping sound when they hit the floor; she knew that all of the men gathered downstairs would know what that meant, but she didn’t care.
Sebastian didn’t care either. The only thing he cared about was this beautiful and glorious woman that he loved. He shouldn’t love her; it was against every rule and it would probably cause ruination, but he couldn’t help it. She was everything he had ever wanted.
Her lovely translucent skin fairly shone against the sheets. He touched her reverently, gently and deliberately. Each caress was intended to bring her pleasure, and it did. He opened her innermost folds with his fingers, dipped inside her softly and gently stretched her wide so that she would be ready for him.
Cara cried out as sensation rolled through her body. His tender lovemaking was exactly what she needed. He seemed to know every secret desire lurking in her heart. His fingers found the delicate, sensitive area between her anus and swollen channel and pressed into it, causing her legs to spread wider, and then he pulled back.
Cara could feel the air stroking her wetness, could feel her fluids dripping onto the sheets below her as he gave her a kiss so intimate that it made her toes curl and her back arch. Her fingers clutched at his hair; her hips rose and fell faster and faster as his tongue and fingers stroked her inner folds and the tight hard nub that lay above. Cara muffled her cries and deliberately bit one of her pillows to keep her cry from her sounding out and spilling into the hallway. Her thighs clenched and her toes curled. Her fingernails left tingling scratches on Sebastian’s scalp as he took her to the edge and over it.
He wasn’t done yet, though. He positioned himself between her open legs and took himself in hand, guiding his stiff shaft to her still-pulsing opening.
He entered her gently and then slid along her walls, moving further and further into her until he was completely encased by her tight sheath.
He looked down at her. Her black hair was spread across the pillows and her pale skin was mottled with slight red patches from her orgasm. “I love you, Cara. No matter what happens, I want you to remember that.”
“I love you too, Sebastian.” It was the truth.
He withdrew only to plunge deeply inside her once more. Soon they were creating a rhythm with their bodies, their hearts aching as they sought to fulfill each other’s desires in the only way that they had left. They both knew that by the end of this night everything would change, and that they may not ever be able to see each other like this again.
Cara’s tears ran down her face. Sebastian tasted them as he kissed her fully and furiously. Her fingers were on his back now, her nails leaving little scratches that healed almost as soon as she left them behind. When this was over he wouldn’t even have the slight scratch marks on his back to remind himself of this moment. For some reason that loss — as small as it should have been — broke his heart utterly and completely.
With the final thrust, they came together. They collapsed, exhausted and limp but still wanting more.
Sebastian turned her over gently, staying inside of her because he could not bear to leave her — not yet. His arms wrapped around her and he pulled her head to his chest. His chin rested atop of her silky tresses and his fingers rubbed the small delicate bones along the column of her spine.
Cara whispered, “I will find a way to be with you if you’ll have me.”
“And I you.”
“As Queen, it will be up to me to lead by example. I’m not sure what my people will think of me meeting with a Wolf.”
“At least I’m royalty.”
He could always make her laugh, even when things were at their darkest. “I have to go to the circle tonight,” she sighed. “I have to dance for my place. I don’t want to. I used to want to run away from home, change my name and just be somebody else.”
He stroked her hair with a gentle hand. “Why didn’t you?”
“This is my family,” she said simply.
“I thought you’d say that.”
“I can’t leave them, and I can’t shirk my duty.”
“Neither can I.”
“The circle is designed to keep Wolves out.”
“I know.”
“I want you there.”
“I have something I must do as well.”
His entire body was tense. She lifted her finger and placed it on the flesh right above his heart. “What you need to do?”
“I have to kill my father.” His words were hushed, almost inaudible, but she heard them. Pain smote her so harshly that she could barely stand it.
“I’m sorry, Sebastian.”
“He chose to do this.” His voice sounded dead and sad. “I have no idea why. I don’t understand it; we have fought against rogues my entire life. My father was King, so he could not hunt them down, but my uncle did, and it was my uncle who taught me how to do it. We don’t tolerate them. We are human and we have always lived as humans, despite the fact that we turn without silver. I don’t understand why he would do such a thing.”
Car
a knew there were no words that she could give him that would change anything. All she could do was hold him and give him the comfort of her own body, her warmth and her love.
Sebastian knew the same things. The moment was ending. Dusk was creeping in; purple–blue light mingled with a lemony yellow had begun to shine through the glass and he knew that pretty soon the women would arrive and prepare her for her dance. They would have to leave each other.
Maybe this was destiny. If it was, he wanted no more part of it. It seemed cruel and unforgiving.
He would have liked to stay with her forever, but if he was going to protect her, he had to leave her. He could only hope she would she understand that.
There was a loud pounding at the door, and a woman’s voice. “Cara, come out of there now. You have to be readied for this evening. Time is running out. Get up and get out here.”
Cara turned to him and their lips met him one last, Arctic kiss. His hands held her shoulder so tightly that when he finally released her, small red marks showed wear he had held her. She looked up at him and whispered, “I will find a way, Sebastian.”
She grabbed her robe and dashed out the door. Sebastian wanted to roll over and sniff the pillows and revel in the scent of their lovemaking forever, but he couldn’t. He had to find a way to track down his father and his wayward younger brother or she would die tonight.
Cara walked into the bathroom where the tub waited. It had been filled with water that was purified, blessed, laden with many different herbs and flowers and oils. Steam rose from the surface, bringing the fragrances to her nose. She knew this was necessary; she must be purified as well. She must go into the circle clean and sweet-smelling, but she didn’t want to. Sebastian’s seed was still within her and she wanted it there; she wanted to feel the imprint of his fingers on her flesh, smell his scent on her body.
As she shed the robe and stepped into the tub, she wondered why it was that what she wanted did not seem to matter.
CHAPTER 9
The circle was there, right in front of her. The other women were already dancing and the henna on her body was dark in the moonlight. The people gathered around the fire were all tense, the spells in the air shimmering and silvery.
Broken bits of colored glass had been strewn around the perimeter of the giant parking lot where they gathered. In every RV hung amulets and charms. Every tire was marked with more of them.
Jaelle and many other women who had done this dance once before were dancing also, in a second Circle, outside of Cara’s. The spells they chanted were intended to protect those within the inner circle.
Every person there knew that tonight, they needed more protection and they had ever had before. Families had gathered from everywhere: Europe, Canada, Central and South America. Many of them spoke a language other than English, but Romani was the only language being spoken here tonight. The smells of incense and food rose high in the air. There was a feast being prepared; every RV had been the site of much cooking earlier that day. Children sat, unusually silent and solemn, on the opposite side of the fire, facing the Council of Elders.
Almost every female here, no matter her age, had what was commonly referred to as Duc. That meant magic, or a type of second sight. All of them had it in varying degrees; some had so little that they mostly relied on it as a form of strong intuition rather than spellcasting.
But others were strong, so strong that they could create fire, wind, or even rain during a drought. Some were able to read minds, mesmerize others or speak to the dead. There were spellcasters, fortunetellers and those who could see far into the future. Of all of the Tribe, it was always the women who possessed the greatest magic.
And many of the Elders knew that this was the strongest generation they had ever seen. In a world where magic lay dying, shattered by a lack of faith and that enemy, science, women had been born whose magic was stronger than any of the past two generations. It was as if they had known that the old Queen would not be displaced until now. It was as if they had reached out their long fingers and gifted these women with powers that had not been seen since the time of their great-great-grandmothers.
Despite the introduction of gadjo into their bloodlines, despite lack of faith and the sagging structure that was family, somehow, the blood had risen and created these women.
And it still might not be enough.
Somewhere out there, the night rogues hunted — rogues who had somehow learned how to control their shapes. It was unheard of, and it was unholy. It was enough to destroy the Tribe forever.
What most wolves did not know, but the Tribe did, was that the Covenant worked two ways. If the rogues rose up, destroyed the humans and took over the world, the Tribe would die. The Covenant that the tribe had made years ago, long before Wolf in any of their forms had walked the earth, decreed that the Tribe were the protectors of the people.
And how they had paid for that pact!
The eldest of the Elders sat silent, his face impassive as he stared into the flames. Darlo was 101 years old, not that it showed. His back was still straight; no confusion clouded his eyes and his hands did not shake. Most days, he did not feel his age, either, but tonight he felt every year, and he felt afraid.
All his life, Darlo had feared this moment. He’d seen three Queens come and go. He attended his first ceremony as a child suckling at his mother’s breasts. He didn’t remember that ceremony, or that short-lived and tragic Queen. He only knew the legends of her, and he only knew that because she was his family. Her story mostly went unsung and untold because it was said that to even speak her name was gajengi baxt — bad luck of the worst kind.
After her, an older woman, strong and capable, had come into power. Her time as Queen had only been a few short years because she had succumbed to cancer. The Queen who had just passed had been next; she had reigned for almost 70 years. Darlo wished the new Queen would have such a long life, but he feared that hope might not come to pass.
The music began. The ones who would be Queen began to move, their hair flying, the bells around their ankles chattering and clattering, their fingers snapping.
Cara was there, a part of the inner circle. Nausea rose up in her stomach and she had to look away from the flames, fearful that she would become hypnotized by them, stagger right into that fire and burn herself alive.
What had happened to Sebastian? Where was he now?
She was dressed in a long silk and gauze skirt. With every shake and swirl of her hips, the fabric moved across her long slender legs and allowed the flames to silhouette her figure. Her long jet-black hair was down, unadorned except for the thin coating of precious scented oil that the women of her family had rubbed into it. Her fingers held the clackers, finger–bells that rang out merrily in a counterpoint to the bells on her ankles.
Her top was a simple diaphanous scarf twisted many times around her breasts. Its fiery red color accented the red and black of her skirt and the henna on her arms, back and belly.
The music rose higher and higher. A primitive beat began in her blood and she could feel it coiling up into her stomach — her magic. Her bare feet touched wet grass and broken concrete. The starlight glittered on the silver rings she wore on her fingers and the brass finger bells she clutched.
Her hair moved across her back, silk and satin. Her hips undulated and her arms moved in a snake–like gesture.
She could see admiration on the faces of those gathered around the fire. Of all the women dancing, she was the best. A knot formed in her chest, making it impossible for her to breathe, to swallow. She had drunk the sacred wine earlier as well, they all had. Cara was not a fool; she knew that the Elders spiked that wine with a head-spinning combination of drab — medicinal and magical herbs. That wine would allow the women who were fighting for the position of Queen to forget their fear and nerves; it would allow them to forget their inhibitions and dance wildly.
The taste in her mouth was sour, bitter. She wanted to spit but knew that would be disrespectful
.
Several men and a woman were playing the bari lavuta — a violin. Their music spun higher and faster. The drums moved with that rising tempo and voices began to chant in unison.
Cara felt dizzy, frightened and alone. The bodies pressing into hers belonged to some women that she had known her entire life and some that she’d only met this night. Many were young, but others were not.
One by one, they began to form a line. The music changed, grew softer, slower. It was mournful on the soft night wind. Cara looked at the outer circle. The women there were doing their best to make sure that the magic being spent here tonight was not being seen outside the circle, but she had a feeling that nothing would stop the rogues from finding them. Looking around, she could see the same fear on every other face, even those of the Elders.
Surrender (The Tribe MC: Chase of Prey Book 2) Page 7
