Haulcon's Revenge

by Yvette Hines

  Meeting her gaze, he told her, “You are mine, Adair. Now and always. Where I am you will be.”

  She slid her fingers through his hair and cupped the back of his head. “Yes.”

  Needing to hear nothing else, he pierced the side of her neck and sealed their bond as he made love to his woman.

  Chapter Eight

  “How is it that this room isn’t filled with the musty scent of sex?”

  “The valf naturally have a chemical in their body that rejuvenates and regenerates us. It not only keeps us cleansed but allows us to heal very rapidly.”

  “Like when you were wounded in the woods.” She glanced up at him. “I could have only been out for hours, but when I came to you were completely healed from the man I saw bound to the forest floor.”

  “Most of my nature did that, however, your blood also helped. Sorry I need so much. Luckily most of the silver from the blade had bled out of me along with my blood.”

  She lay against the massive chest of her man/valf and listened to the sound of his heartbeat. Until that moment she hadn’t even known they possessed a beating heart, she thought of valfs as the mythical vampires that played out in the movies.

  “My heart beats for you.” He caressed her spine.

  This mindreading stuff will take some getting used to.

  You will get used to it. We have the rest of our lives. His fingers danced along her spine until they arrived at her ass and cupped her there.

  She moaned. She couldn’t believe that as much sex as they’d had in the last few hours, her body would crave more.

  “It is—”

  “Your essence. I know.”

  He chuckled, his body shaking beneath hers.

  “Do you want to talk about why you were out there like that in the first place?” She propped her chin on her palm and balanced her elbow on his chest.

  His hand never stopped stroking her ass. But, he was quiet for a long time. Even his thoughts were silent.

  She wondered if there was a way he was blocking her from reading them.

  “You don’t have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable.”

  “Any time one valf plots against another and his entire clan it is uncomfortable to speak off. We protect one another.”

  Her heart ached with the pain his was feeling. She knew that because of their connection she could now feel his emotions just as intensely as if they were her own.

  “I’m sorry they hurt you.” She placed a kiss in the center of his well-muscled chest.

  He squeezed her against him. “I am Alpha of my clan.”

  “Does that mean you are in charge?”

  “Yes. I’m the leader of my people.”

  “How did that come about? Do you all hold elections like we do for president?” His people and their way of life fascinated her.

  “No. The position is usually inherited.” With his free hand he stroked her cheek and brushed her lips.

  Sticking her tongue out, she licked the tip of his finger as it passed.

  Growling, he asked, “Do you want to talk my mate or have more pleasure?”

  Tough choice. Her body ached for him.

  He chuckled.

  “Let’s finish talking. For now.” She traced an invisible design along his chest. “Was your father the prior Alpha?”

  “No. He was not. You will meet my parents.”

  “I do not understand then. Did your previous Alpha not have any offspring?”

  He sighed and sat up.

  She could feel the tension in his body. Sitting up with him, she placed a hand on his thigh. “Talk to me, Haulcon.”

  Those moss green eyes of his met hers. “Do you remember when we were in the wolf den and you asked me if I was the Alpha how is it that I was treated in such a way by my people?”

  “Yes.” Everything about their first meeting was ingrained deep into her memory, and her belly too, evidence of their child she carried.

  “Well, that is the problem that comes when an Alpha’s son or daughter is…shall we say a ‘bad seed’.”

  “Oh. So, I take it the person that should have been the next in line was not worthy of the position.”

  “Correct.” He inhaled and held it for a moment, staring off toward one of her walls but truly not seeing it. After he exhaled, he continued, “Ridok, our former Alpha, had only one child, Jacin. However, since we were all small and in training everyone in the clan could clearly see Jacin lacked compassion for anything or anyone besides himself.”

  He paused. “He’d torture animals. We feed off them and even kill them at times for sustenance, but we are taught to end a life quickly, causing minimal pain.” Haulcon’s brows were drawn tight as if seeing old memories play out in his mind. “That wasn’t Jacin. He would do things like remove all the animal’s limbs and watch it flop around, bleed to death. Things like that. Humans were off limits to us. Over the centuries our kind has learned to keep to our area and allow the humans their’s.”

  “That seems fair.”

  His gaze met hers. “It was at one time. However, I will admit that in the last fifty years it has become harder and harder. Our area, food source and things have been depleted. At one point we had acres and acres to run free, hunt and lead our way of life, but humans are greedy. They have taken more and more of our land. Killed off more and more wild game.”

  Adair knew what he was saying was true. There were several organizations established to save the Rain Forests, Trees and stop the killing of endangered species. “So, what are you all going to do?”

  “We will learn to adapt and survive.”

  “I take it Jacin didn’t agree with that theory?”

  He pulled her along his side as if he couldn’t stand not touching her. She didn’t mind and went willingly, admitting to herself that she enjoyed his attention.

  “No. Jacin thought that we should start to take back from humans. Take over and make them subject to us, the more dominant species.”

  “Whoa! Kill humans and move into the cities?” She leaned back.

  “Yes.” He didn’t hesitate. “He held the belief that once Ridok passed he would take his rightful position as Alpha and stir the pack in the direction he thought best. But before Ridok passed he declared me his heir. I was his second in command.”

  “A wise choice.” She snuggled against him again.

  “Ridok was wise. He’d expressed to me many times about his concerns with Jacin. Ridok himself said his son’s soul was tainted. He died at one hundred and forty-five sunsets. One of the longest reigning Alphas.”

  Hearing the age of the valf that died saddened her. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized in another forty or fifty years she would pass away, but Haulcon would continue to go on living. Possibly take another mate.

  He gave her shoulder a firm squeeze until she glanced up at him. Angling his head down, he kissed her. When he pulled away, he declared, “There will never be another mate for me. Valfs only link their souls to another once and even death does not change that.”

  She smiled. This mindreading thing wasn’t looking so bad after all, if her man would be able to hear and alleviate the concerns of her heart.

  “Thank you for telling me.”

  “You’re welcome. Furthermore, my serum in your blood will expand your life as well. Maybe not as long as my own, but close enough that we will have many decades ahead of us.”

  “How old are you now?”

  “I’ve met five decades of sunsets.”

  “Wow. You don’t look a day over three decades.” Their DNA evidently kept them young, fit and attractive for a lot longer than humans.

  “I would not have reached the wisdom I hold at three decades.” His brows were pinched about the bridge of his sharp, angled nose.

  She patted his chest. “It was a joke, sweetheart.”

  His frown deepened as he thought about it. She could hear him running the words and phrase backwards and forward as he attempted to figure it out.

/>   “So, to look younger is a good thing for humans?”

  “Yes. We all want the fountain of youth.” She kissed his chin. “I have now found it, it seems.”

  “Well, as a valf higher age is honored.”

  Reaching up she caressed the gray streak present in his hair that wasn’t there a few weeks ago when she saw him. “Well, being Alpha must age a valf rapidly for you to already be going gray. For a human president it at least takes a full first term before they go all snowcapped.”

  “Another joke? The snowcap?”

  “It’s a way of saying gray-haired on top.” She patted her head.

  Nodding he said, “Well. I’m not entirely sure what exactly caused the transformation to the front of my hair.”

  “When did you notice it?”

  “After I killed Jacin.”

  Tensing, she swallowed. “What?”

  Locking his arms around her, he pulled her onto his lap. “It had to be done.”

  Curling against him, she listened to his heartbeat. Her man was grieving. His thoughts were blank at the moment, but she could feel the tightness of his muscles and hear the heaviness of his breathing. She waited, not rushing him. Allowing him his time until he felt like opening up to her. If his people cared so much about woodland animals then how much more would they not want to see the death of another valf—especially at their own hands.

  “It was Jacin who plotted to kill me and take my position as Alpha. He was angry about his father’s choice. He had already been gathering sympathizers to his idea and presented them frequently to Ridok attempting to gain his support. However, Ridok did not want a war with the humans. We had seen how you all easily destroy and torture one another with such hate.” He brushed her hair back behind her ear and cupped her cheek.

  “On the night Ridok passed into the arms of the Great Spirit, Jacin had a message delivered to me. It said that another valf body had been discovered out the back gate of the compound. You see, over the last year several valfs have gone missing and their corpses found days later at the base of the mountain.”

  “What is happening to them?”

  “We don’t know the cause. Most of them are weaker valfs or young ones.” He shook his head and sighed.

  “Was there another body beyond the gate?”

  “No. It was treachery. I was attacked by a group of valf that supported Jacin. They took me far away from our territory and into the human grounds a few hours before dawn. Jacin cut open my side deep with a blade. They left me there to die either by blood loss, silver poison or sunlight.”

  She shivered recalling how he had looked out there beaten, bloody and tied to trees.

  Curling a finger below her chin, he tilted her head back and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “I am grateful to the Great Spirit that he sent a human angel along my path.”

  “I’m no angel, but I’m glad I was there to help you.” She gave him a kiss and smiled as she pulled away. “Where does this leave your clan now?”

  He leaned his head back against the headboard. “We are united now. So, I want to believe. However, valfs are still going missing and showing up dead. There have been two more since Jacin’s death. If he was not the cause, I am clueless to what or who is.”

  They sat silently, both of them in their own thoughts.

  “That’s the reason you are in the city isn’t it?”

  “Yes and no. That is why I have spent most nights searching the perimeter of the city, but you my mate is what had drawn me beyond my boundaries. My need to see you and be near to you.”

  Staring up at him, she asked, “Do I want to know how long you have been stalking me?”

  “Too long, since I have been denying myself a taste of your delicious body.”

  Haulcon rolled over and placed both his hands flat onto the bed with her beneath him. “Dawn will be upon us soon and I will need to get back to my clan.”

  “Then let me not keep you,” she teased pretending to move away.

  “Oh, no, my sweet. I will join with you again before we must leave.”

  “I don’t recall agreeing to go with you.”

  “I am your mate……..” he recited her words back to him.

  “No fair. I said those under duress.”

  “What duress?”

  “Passion.” She laughed.

  He smiled. “Then let’s see how else I can get you to agree.” He brought his lips down to hers as he slipped between her thighs and entered her slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.

  ~YH~

  “You must hurry and get the things you will need. Later we can come back for more.” Haulcon was dressed and passing before her window as he watched the skyline begin to change.

  “Hey, you’re the one that just had to have sex again…not once but twice.” She held two fingers up before him.

  “It is not my fault you are irresistible and I can’t get enough of you.”

  “Just like a man…blame it on the woman’s charms.” She shoved the stuff from the floor that she’d already been preparing to take with her to the Grand Canyon into her backpack. The other night she had already secured her camera in the lower padded compartment made for it.

  Damn, that was something she would need to do—call Mr. Cook and cancel. She hated not completing an assignment, but realizing she was carrying a child put her life in a different perspective. A valf child at that. She didn’t want to be in the desert with no one but a tour guide to help her if the baby came way earlier than an all-human child.

  “Five months.”

  “What?” She glanced at him on her way into the bathroom for her toiletry bag.

  “That is the length of time that valf females carry their offspring.”

  “Oh.” Tossing the smaller bag into the pack, she asked, “Is there a way to turn off the mindreading thing?”

  He stopped pacing and stared at her. “Why would you want to do that? Mates should be able to communicate with each other anytime they want.”

  Setting her hands on her hips, she tilted her head and stared at him. “Don’t act like you don’t have some magical way of shutting me out. I know there are times you have been thinking about something serious…I can see it almost written on your face, but I can’t hear one thought.”

  Shoving a hand through his hair, he said, “There is a way to put up a shield. Forgive me for doing it to you. Some of the things that happened when I confronted Jacin I did not want to allow you to experience, such as the gory details.”

  “Thanks for that. But, will you teach me the mind shield trick?”

  “I will consider it.”

  She rolled her eyes. This was a debate she would return to later. “Okay, I think I have everything for a few days. However, I need to make a call really quick.” Grabbing her cell phone from the counter she dialed Mr. Cook.

  The phone rang four times before his office answering machine picked up. “Mr. Cook, this is Adair Ellis. Something unexpected has come up in my life and I will need to cancel the Grand Canyon shoot. I will be…” she thought for a moment how to explain the situation at hand. She came to the quick decision that the less information provided the better. “Leaving out of town for a while. I’m okay. No need to worry, but something I need to see about that’s extremely important.”

  That was the truth, her and Haulcon’s baby, even though she hadn’t been expecting to get pregnant, was still more important than anything else in her life right now.

  “Thanks for everything, Mr. Cook, talk to you soon.” That was at least the good thing about being a freelance photographer, she didn’t have to get permission not to do a shoot or take time off.

  “Done?” Haulcon asked, glancing anxiously again toward the window.

  “You’re not going to burst into flames or anything if we get caught out in the sunlight are you?”

  He gave her a sharp look that said there you go again with the vampire malarkey.

  “No. The UV rays of the sunlight pull the oxygen from
our blood and cause our lungs to seize up and we die.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. “I’m ready when you are.”

  When they started toward the door, her cell phone rang. Rushing to the counter where she had placed it after leaving the message for Mr. Cook, she answered it.

  Immediately she recognized the number, Princess Smith. “Princess, it is almost five o’clock in the morning, I can’t image what could be so important.”

  “I need your camera skills right now, Adair.”

  “What? We already had this discussion. I’m not—”

  “Haven’t you been watching the news?”

  “No.” She glanced at the imposing, sexy man in her living room. “Other things have been occupying my time.”

  “Well, you need to turn on Channel 9 now. They found one of those things.”

  “What things?”

  “Those hideous human-devouring monsters.”

  “A valf?” As soon as the word came out of her mouth, Adair wished she could draw it back.

  “What? Valf? How do you know what they are called?” Then joy laced Princess’ voice and she was practically shouting with glee. “You have been working on the assignment for me. I knew you couldn’t walk away. You love wild creatures too much. Money always talks, darlin’.” Princess was babbling nonstop.

  Adair was barely listening to the sleazy tabloid editor because her focus was zeroed in on the angry valf Alpha in her living room. His face had turned dark like a summer storm cloud was brewing inside of him. Those sexy moss green eyes appeared almost black, not with passion, but forest green.

  If she could have pulled out a measuring tape, she would have sworn that Haulcon’s height and width had expanded another six inches in both directions.

  She attempted to mouth to him. ‘It is not what you think.’ Then she recalled he could hear her thoughts. Haulcon, I know this sounds bad, but it isn’t what you think.

  Where is the body? He didn’t even address what she said.

  “Princess, where was the body found?” Adair rushed to the television remote then turned the power on and a minute later the news report appeared on the screen.

  “The carcass was in a ditch on the outskirts of town.”