The Red Veil Diaries (Volumes 1-4)

by Marianne Morea

  Holding the central ring he slid his thumb through the hole and splayed his hand across her stomach, keeping the chain taut on her stiff peaks.

  Derick dipped his head and worked her clit the same way, teasing and biting until the nub hardened, swelling past its fleshy hood.

  “Ready for the next one?” he asked, using his thumb to circle her nub and slide up and down her wet slit.

  Annika lifted her hips, her hands pushing his thumb into her pussy, she cried out in frustration as he curled the thick digit up and flexed. He pulled his hand from her folds.

  “Sit on your hands, Nika.”

  Her eyes opened. “What?”

  “No touching. Sit on your hands.”

  She eyed him, but did as he said.

  “Good girl. If you move your hands again, I’ll tie them above your head.”

  Nika’s eyes went wide and her pussy puddled and the sound of his command. She nodded and he attached the third clamp, testing its pull with the center ring.

  Annika cried out, digging her bare heels into the car floor. Her hips came up and she hissed as pain and pleasure flooded her body in tense bliss.

  “Do you want to come?”

  She stared and him. “Derick!”

  He chuckled, reaching for his fly. He unbuttoned his pants and pushed his jeans to the floor, tossing them to the side.

  “Sit up,” he ordered. “No hands until I say.”

  He released the ring chain and fisted the back of her hair, kissing her hard. He devoured her mouth before wrapping his other hand around his swollen shaft.

  He rubbed precum on her lips. “Open your mouth, Annika.”

  She took him in, swirling her tongue around his hard ridge, sucking the salty musk from his head. She drew him in fully and he growled.

  “Spread your legs.”

  She slid her knees apart and he pulled his cock from her mouth and picked up the ring again, giving it a series of short yanks, tantalizing her with each pinch. She hissed, squirming against the seat looking for release.

  He pulled her to her feet and clipped a fourth chain to the ring. This one was split, like the reins on a horse.

  “Turn around.” She faced the leather seat and he pressed her forward so her knees butted against the seat.

  Derick eased the chain over Annika’s hips and held them in one hand. He tugged again and she sucked in a breath, and as she did he grabbed her shoulder with his free hand and drove himself deep between her folds.

  He thrust deeper and harder and each time he pulled back he tugged on the chain.

  Little pleasure pained shocks intermingled and scorching need spread from her clit deep into her pussy and she pushed back on Derick’s engorged cock.

  He let go of the chains and wrapped his arm around her waist. She lifted one leg onto the seat and he thrust up, sliding his hands up to cup her breasts.

  They dropped forward and he grabbed her hips driving hard and fast until they both cried out, her body spasming, her walls convulsing, milking every drop as he spilled deep inside her.

  Together they collapsed in a sated, sweaty mess on the limo floor, his arm still around her waist.

  10

  Derick let Annika sleep. The two arrived at the dock a little after nine a.m. They had both been up for almost twenty-four hours.

  The house was bigger than he expected. Thank God no paparazzi were camped out, and he had the feeling it was all Guy Fortinet’s doing. He was the last word when it came to the law in these parts, and the fact he was also a shifter made protecting his own even more part of his blood.

  Derick sat on the porch watching Annika dream. Curled up on the couch just inside the screened porch, she looked like a child. Peaceful.

  He smirked and his cock jerked thinking about their limo ride. She was most definitely not a child. He pursed his lips. Problem was he didn’t know what she was to him. He enjoyed her, that’s for sure. He shook his head. Now was not the time to dwell on the what ifs.

  The here and now. That was what mattered. What he always counted on. That and himself. The what ifs caused pain because they brought hope.

  “Penny for your thoughts, boy.”

  Derick turned to see Guy Fortinet walking silently up the back steps from the yard.

  “Sheriff.”

  “Long time no see, son. How you been?”

  Derick nodded, wary. His usual when it came to any male from the Terrebonne packs. “Been good.”

  He laughed. “Until now.”

  Derick exhaled, picking up his beer to take a swig. “That’s for sure.”

  “You got a plan?”

  “Yes, sir, I do.”

  “You gonna share it with me?”

  Derick shook his head. “No, sir.”

  The sheriff whistled low. “Still protecting those good for nothings? When you gonna learn they don’t want you and they never will. You’re better off without them, son. Don’t you know that by now?”

  “Sheriff!” Annika’s voice was sharp. “Kindly refrain from insulting my guests in my home.”

  The older man looked from one to the other and pushed his hat back on his head. “Lordy, I should’ve known. You’ve always had a soft spot for the LaFont boys, didn’t you, cher.”

  “My last name is Bergeron, Sheriff. I’m not protecting anyone except Nika and her mother, and would hope it was the same with you. As for my personal history with the LaFont pack, my father was nothing more than a sperm donor. I owe them nothing.”

  The sheriff nodded. “Glad to hear it, son.” He eyed the boy. “Look, we got off on the wrong foot, again. I want Jolene back safe and sound as much as ya’ll do. Let me help. Hell, I love that woman.”

  He looked at Annika. “Louise tell you I proposed to your mother?”

  Eyes wide and a smile tugging at her lips, she shook her head. “No, she didn’t. Not that I gave her a chance.”

  Guy nodded. “Yeah. The day she went to stay with your aunt. I drove her out there and we went for a walk. It was time. I should’ve done so when you were younger, but she wasn’t ready.”

  He kicked at the loose paint on the porch floor before looking up at Nika, his eyes pained. “I should’ve taken her worries more seriously, cher. It’s my fault Jesse got to her. I thought she was overreacting because of you and the trial and such.” He paused. “I’m sorry, bebe.”

  Nika’s heart squeezed at the very personal endearment. Only her mama called her bebe, and that he did made her realize how much he did love her.

  Annika opened the screen door and stepped out into the heat and into Guy’s waiting arms. He stroked the back of her hair. “We’ll find her, honey. Don’t you worry.”

  “Sheriff?”

  Annika stepped back and Guy cleared his throat before looking over at Derick.

  “I plan to set out as soon as it’s dark. I think it’s best if you came, too. Jolene doesn’t know me, and it’s clear Nika needs us to work together.” He offered the man a small smile. “Plus it stacks the odds in our favor for a successful hunt.”

  He nodded. “For sure, boy. For sure.”

  Annika crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Then I’m coming, too.” She eyed them both, daring them to argue.

  

  The three pushed the outboard from the dock as quietly as they could. Crickets and cicadas deafened the swamp with chirping. The water was black, and the submerged plants looked like fingers reaching out of the murky dark.

  When they made it through to the cypress forest, they cut the engine and used poles to push forward, trying to stay as quiet as possible.

  The marshy ground made sucking sounds as they moved along, telling Derick the swamp floor was boggy and dangerous. Like slush or quick sand, and if they abandoned the boat they might sink and not come out.

  “Careful. In case being away has stunted your memory, a gator can strike faster than you can snap your fingers.”

  Derick smirked. “I remember.”

  “Well, the terrain has chang
ed a lot since you were a boy.”

  “It’s not that different, Sheriff. Even then the land changed every hundred feet or so, and with storms blowing through it was even more so. My gran-mere used to say the land isn’t rooted to the earth. It was rooted to the spirits and that’s why it had to be free to float.”

  The sheriff grinned. “I respected your gran-mere, but lord, her hocus pocus scared the bejesus outta everyone around here and you know it.

  “Some say this swamp is the Bermuda Triangle of the south, as dangerous as the predators lurking beneath the surface. You can get in, but you ain’t getting out.”

  Annika looked at the two. Both had taken strategic positions in the boat, and though they chatted like they were out fishing on a Sunday afternoon, neither missed a thing going on around them. Eyes and ears and every Were sense they possessed was in high gear.

  “Are you sure this is the way?”

  Derick nodded. “I tracked him this far this afternoon, but now I’m positive.”

  “How?”

  “You called him as instructed, right?”

  She nodded.

  “And he demanded you alone so you could talk things out.”

  “I already told you this.”

  Derick nodded. “You also said he had a fit when you refused. Like a toddler throwing a tantrum.”

  “Jesse is melodramatic. That’s no surprise.”

  “No, it’s not. At least not to me. While you took a nap, I went out an did some tracking in the swamp. One thing that never changes about Cajuns is how much they love to talk, especially when the story is juicy.

  “Word on the canals is Jesse’s family abandoned him when the record company put a lien on their shrimping boats to cover what he owed on the unfinished record.”

  Annika shook her head, confused. “That doesn’t make any sense. I finished the album with Ari, and I even made sure Jesse got his royalties from the album same as me. He didn’t owe the record company anything.”

  “People around here don’t like big companies messing with folk and their livelihoods. The LaFonts aren’t anyone’s favorite by a long shot, but they’re still townies.”

  The sheriff agreed and Annika crossed her arms in front of her chest. “So they’re protecting him, even after what he’s done to my mother.”

  “Noooo, cher. You got that wrong. Folks just want it to be me who deals with him…or Derick, since he’s one of our own as well.”

  “Seems Jesse made his family silent partners in his share trying to be a big man in the pack, but he also made them responsible for his debt.”

  The sheriff coughed.

  “What?” Do you know something we don’t?”

  He nodded. “After Jesse was arrested, he gave his father power of attorney. They spent every dime of his royalties. It seems Jesse took large advances against those royalties without letting anyone know. It’s how he kept up with the Hollywood set.”

  Annika shook he head. “I can’t believe it.”

  “When Jesse skipped town, prosecutors put pressure on the record company to lien the shrimping boats. They were hoping Jesse’s family would give him up to avoid ruin. They didn’t. The prosecutors also told us Jesse killed Ki not just because of you, but because Ki planned to tell the rest of the band and get him kicked out.”

  “Jesse is a coward and he’s desperate. When he was a kid, any time he’d got into trouble or couldn’t get his way, he’d hide out in one place. And right now I’d bet my last dollar he’s there. But we have to be quiet and stealthy. The place is warded and booby-trapped.”

  “Booby-trapped? You mean like with trip wire and rabbit-snares?”

  He shook his head. “With IEDs”

  Annika looked at the sheriff.

  “An improvised explosive device. That means a simple bomb made from household items. What they lack in sophistication they make up for in deadly force.”

  She clamored up onto the very back bow as if to get as far away from the idea as possible.

  “You can’t be serious. How they hell are we supposed to navigate around that? We need to call in special services.”

  “Calm down, cher, we have something they don’t.” He pointed to his nose. “We can smell them.”

  The sheriff nodded. “The Weres on the force go through very strict swat team training and we use any and all talents. I’d put our swat team up against any other in the country.”

  “That’s great, Guy. But your swat team isn’t here.”

  He grinned. “Yes, they are.” He glanced toward the shore and there they were in wolf form running along the marshy ground alongside them. “I’ve got their gear in the boat with us.”

  Derick signaled, telling everyone to be quiet. He pointed ahead to a hollowed out cypress trunk at the edge of a part of the forest hit by lightning. The lack of foliage made it easier to see, and the full moon gave them enough light that their own dual-natured night vision sufficed.

  The ground cover was an obstacle course of ferns, brush, and overgrown roots along with fallen branches.

  Heat and humidity drenched them as they geared up and fanned out. Up ahead was an abandoned camp. Rundown with broken windows and a ramshackle porch. Smoke rose from a pipe poking through a makeshift hole in the roof that looked seconds from collapse.

  Annika closed her eyes and inhaled. Her mother was here. Her natural scent underlined by her favorite perfume filled Nika’s nose. She smelled blood and pain as well and her eyes burned with anger at what her mother had endured.

  “She’s here. I can smell her. What do I do?”

  “You, cher, are our bait. I want you to strip down to whatever you feel comfortable in so if you need to phase you can. Your mother is too injured to phase, that much is clear from her scent,” the sheriff replied, loading his hand cannon.

  Annika glanced at the gun and then up at the sheriff again. “Are you planning to use that?”

  He nodded. “When I shoot darlin’, I shoot to kill. If Jesse phased to escape once, he’ll do it again. I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t be. In my gut, I knew his cousins didn’t break him out. When the news said his escape was an inside job, I had my suspicions. You just confirmed what I already knew. Somehow he taught himself to shift to a small, insignificant creature.”

  Derick frowned. “A rat. It certainly fits. He probably crawled through the sewers and blames you for it.”

  Her mouth dropped. “I didn’t tell you that part.”

  He shrugged. “You didn’t have to. I told you I know him.”

  The men covered their bodies with mud from the swamp to cover their scent and Guy gave the signal and they closed in.

  The four swat members broke into pairs and circled either side of the dwelling. Guy took the rear and Derick stayed by the front entrance with Nika.

  “Go, I’ve got you covered. It’s been far too long for him to remember my scent, but he’s not stupid. He’s got to know people are around.

  She nodded and stripped out of her leggings and tank top, handing them to Derick to stow in his pack. In a pair of black boy-short underwear and matching sports bra, she walked through the soft leaves and mulch to stand ten feet from the front of the house.

  “Jesse!”

  No sound. No answer.

  Derick motioned for her to call him again.

  “Jesse Andrew LaFont! You wanted me here, so I came.”

  The door creaked open and he stood in the doorway, a jug of moonshine dangling from his thumb and forefinger.

  “If it isn’t the slut.”

  “Jesse, please. You said you wanted to talk, so I’m here to talk.”

  “You’re here for your mama.” He pointed his finger, stumbling two steps forward.

  “You’re drunk.”

  He nodded. “How very observant, Nika.” He licked his lips and gave her an appreciative once over. He grabbed his crotch and rubbed, his lips pursed. “You’re certainly dressed for negotiations. How’d you know I’d be horny eno
ugh to fuck a fat bitch like you?” He laughed, putting the jug on a broken lawn chair.

  Jesse unzipped his fly and dug out his flaccid member, jerking the limp flesh with his tongue shoved out the corner of his mouth.

  “Where’s my mother?”

  He jerked his head toward the door. “Inside. You come up here and get on your knees and I’ll let you have her. You can beg while you suck me off.”

  She snarled, eyes turning green as the anger sent the need to phase tingling across her skin. “You’d need an erection first, Jesse. But you can’t get it up anymore. Just look at that limp piece of meat. Like a shriveled cocktail wiener.”

  He threw his head back and roared, leaping for her over the railing. Bone and muscle reshaped on the fly as sleek brown fur rippled over his skin.

  Shock tore a scream from her throat. She turned to run, to give herself time to shift but his paws hit her in the back knocking her to the ground.

  The impact forced the air from her lungs in a painful rush and she struggled to suck in a breath before she passed out.

  Jesse threw his head back, his sharp canines descended, ready to strike when he flew off her body with a loud screech.

  She struggled to her knees scrambling away from whatever it was that attacked.

  The animal was majestic and she blinked, thinking the impact from Jesse’s blow had caused hallucinations. Dire Wolf.

  The name formed on her lips but she shook her head. Impossible. They were a myth. Yet there it stood, dwarfing Jesse’s panther.

  A mane of fur surrounded its head and chest, flowing along the line of its spine and top flanks. Two fangs curved upward from its lower jaw, each razor sharp and the size of a man’s forearm.

  The cat twisted away, leaping to the branches of a dead cypress. The large feline launched at the creature, its scythe like claws swiping the animal’s jaw.

  The dire wolf howled, blood pouring from the wound. It reared up on hind legs, knocking the cat to the ground with a bone-crunching thud. The feline tried to stand but slumped to the moist earth, blood dripping from its ears.

  “Nika!” The sheriff rounded the side of the property, gun drawn. He pulled her out of the line of attack, propping her against the side of an old rowboat. “You okay? Can you move?”