The Konig Cursebreakers

by Brenna Lyons

  “Nope, but you don’t want him to. Be honest with me, at least. I think your worries are baseless. Do you really think the stone would allow a König child to be so fragile? Any Warrior child, really? Cursed genes seem to supercede any weakness. We don’t get sick. We don’t miscarry. We didn’t even die in the times of high infant mortality. If anything, you’d have a capable, strong Warrior who was able to see shimmers. That would be incredible. Besides, you know Hunter couldn’t care less whether or not he had children as long as he had you.”

  Sarah grimaced at that. Children were Hunter’s duty. That wasn’t an option. She smiled. “Like you could have a baby with midnight blue eyes?” she asked pointedly, wagging her eyebrows for effect.

  Erin blushed and shook her head slowly. “Never going to happen,” she assured Sarah.

  “You know, Hunter told me that the stone doesn’t let people ruin its plans.”

  “So? This isn’t the kind of thing the stone can control. I mean, unless it wants to arrange a virgin birth, I have a little say in the whole thing.”

  “Why are you so sure he wouldn’t be willing?” Sarah picked that thought from her mind easily as it flitted through. “Curt, I mean.”

  “I know what you mean. We’re friends. We’ve always been friends. There’s nothing more there for me. If there were... Let’s just say he’s had more than ample opportunity to express it.”

  “There are rules of sanction, you know. Maybe he wasn’t expressing it because of that? You didn’t have autonomy, after all.”

  Erin shook her head. “No. Things like that never existed between Curt and I. If there were something there, he would have let me know. I know he would.”

  “The one man who has a chance isn’t interested? The stone isn’t that sloppy.”

  “Maybe it’s getting old and worn out,” she replied acidly. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’m too much a Warrior. I don’t think I’d make a good mother, but Hunter would make a great father. I know. He should be the one to have children.”

  “Don’t give up. Some men are just dense. Maybe some time away from him would make him wise up.”

  Erin sighed. “That’s the plan, anyway. Well, not the wising up part. I know better. I just can’t stay around him. It hurts.” She winced and closed her eyes. It did hurt, more than Erin would ever admit openly.

  “Is that why you told him you’d never print and asked to leave his range? Because it would give you an excuse to cut yourself off from him along with all the other men?”

  “Pretty pathetic, huh? The mighty Blutjagdfrau is scared to death of one man. I ran away, because I was afraid ‘Sweet sixteen and never been kissed’ would be too much for me. Can you imagine my father giving me my autonomy and me throwing myself into a disinterested man’s arms to exercise it?” She closed her eyes and laid her head back on the tree trunk. “So, I left before I could make a fool of myself,” she finished miserably. “Pathetic.”

  “No. It’s not pathetic at all. I’m terrified of Hunter — and for Hunter,” she admitted. “I don’t want him to end up like Darrien and Corwyn did.”

  “I’m not worried about that. Hunter is much stronger now. Besides, eventually I’ll bait that beast back to me and finish the job myself,” Erin said bitterly.

  Sarah shuddered at the young woman’s resolve. “You want to face him?”

  “Not particularly. I’m not planning on hunting him, if that’s what you mean. I just want to be free of him, and doing it myself seems the most expedient way. After all, the stone gave me this ten-megaton reaction for a reason.”

  Sarah stilled, a disturbing thought rushing through her that her mind refused to look at too closely.

  Erin opened her eyes and furrowed her brow. “What’s wrong? Your mind is a riot, and I can’t sort it out.”

  “I was just wondering if our link means I’m supposed to help you.” She shivered involuntarily as something chilled her, not the thought but something else.

  “Not a fun idea,” she agreed.

  “That isn’t the problem.” Sarah opened her senses fully, looking for the source of her unease.

  Erin’s eyes narrowed and she stood and moved closer in a defensive position in front of Sarah. “What is?” she growled under her breath.

  Sarah sighed in relief. Your father is ghosting up on us.

  Erin’s eyes glittered and she smiled a predatory smile. Laughter, harsh and playful at the same time. Want some training, Sarah? Teasing. Hopeful.

  Her eyes widened. Against Talon? Why?

  I’m tired of him spying on me. I want to teach him a lesson. You in?

  Sarah bit back a wide smile. You bet! Close your eyes and concentrate on the shimmers in my mind.

  Got them. Good, he’s closing on me. Talk about something to keep him off guard. Not Curt, okay? Nervousness. Anticipation.

  I’d never. “I just think we should consider it. Working together has to be better than tearing each other apart.”

  “You’d trust me to guard you in battle?” Erin countered cynically. My shimmer really is pretty. Cool.

  “Actually, I’d trust the other Warriors to stop without hurting me,” she shot back. Yeah, it is. Wait until you see Hunter’s.

  “People die that way. If a beast moves suddenly, Warriors have made the mistake of following through into the victim.” Can’t wait!

  “Wonderful. Maybe, I could do it from another position.” Like I am now. He’s almost on top of you.

  Erin shook her head. “Bad idea. At least at the Warrior’s back, he knows where you are at all times. You go elsewhere in the enclosure, and there’re blades everywhere.” I see him. Calm. Peace.

  “Great,” she grumbled. “I knew you were more dangerous than a—”

  Sarah cut off the fake conversation as Erin went nuclear. The young Warrior swept Talon down using his shimmer for relative placement. Before his Blutjagd had response time, his daughter was planted on his hips with her thighs blocking his weapons, one blade to his ghosted heart and the other tucked under his chin. “Unghost,” she demanded.

  Talon did as she ordered, staring at her in shock and dismay. “How?” he asked in confusion.

  Sarah laughed hysterically, flopping to the hard ground. “That was great,” she whooped as Erin pulled back her bloodlust and joined in her mirth.

  “Don’t sneak up on me, Dad. I told you how much I hate it,” Erin replied simply.

  “So, Hunter’s idea works,” he mused. “Do you mind?” he asked pointedly.

  “How far are the others, Sarah?” she called sweetly, ignoring his plea for freedom.

  “Closing fast. Kohl and Jayde are up front, but Hunter’s not far behind.”

  “Excellent. I’m hooking in again.” She furrowed her brow in concentration. “You’re right. Hunter’s shimmer is gorgeous.”

  “Erin,” Talon reminded her impatiently.

  She smiled crookedly. “Aw… You do want everyone to know what a success we were, don’t you?”

  “Erin,” he growled in warning.

  “Don’t sweat it. Here they come.” Erin smiled up at the crowd skidding to a halt around them. “Good morning, folks. Since Dad has already had his workout, who wants to try after breakfast?”

  “Erin, get off your father,” Jayde ordered in annoyance.

  “Do you promise not to spy on me anymore?” she asked hopefully.

  “Of course not,” he shot back.

  Erin sighed and sheathed her weapons. “Thought not. So much for autonomy.” She slid off of him and shrugged at Sarah. “Told you he was impossible.”

  Sarah nodded in understanding. “Leave a scar next time,” she suggested. “Warriors seem to respect that.”

  “Yeah, they do at that,” she mused as if she was seriously considering it.

  “Sarah,” Kohl thundered.

  “What? You think I would have put up with that shit?”

  Her father cringed at her choice of words.

  Erin bit back a laugh. “Taught you well
, I see.”

  “Damn straight.”

  That time, they both laughed.

  Kohl turned a vivid red. “Well, no, but—”

  “Just because you couldn’t get away with it doesn’t mean Talon should be able to because he can — or could.”

  Talon paused in the task of dusting the frost and dirt off his clothes and stared at her angrily for the implied alliance against him. “You’ve never had to try and raise this hotheaded hellcat,” he countered, waving his hand at his daughter hopelessly. “You have no idea how nerve wracking she’s been.”

  Sarah laughed heartily. “I think it’s safe to say that I know better than you do. I know things you never will.”

  He snapped a startled look at Erin’s raised eyebrows.

  Erin chuckled and clapped Sarah on the back. Nice move! Let him wonder for a while. “It’s a deal. You don’t tell my family. I don’t tell yours. Nobody tells the damn beasts. I’ll even make it a blood oath.”

  Sarah blanched. Thanks for the return favor. Kohl’s already wondering. “That’s not necessary. My word is as good as a blood oath.”

  “I’ll accept that.” Yep. Oh, he’s funny.

  Of course, I never said I wouldn’t tell Curt…

  Erin smiled at her, releasing a razor flash of Blutjagd as a warning. “I like you, Sarah, but don’t push it too far.”

  “I’m kidding,” she protested.

  “You better be. I have secrets to tell, too.”

  Sarah glanced at the milling crowd and locked on Hunter as he turned away. The stone doesn’t let anyone escape his or her fate, does it?

  Not from what I’ve heard.

  Chapter Ten

  Sarah startled at the sight of Hunter in her room. She knew he left the breakfast table before her, but she hadn’t expected to see him here. She replayed her discussion with Erin in her mind and wondered how she could open a conversation after the way she hurt him.

  Mistaking her silence, he sighed. “Relax. I’m just getting some clothes,” he assured her. “I’m not here to ambush you.”

  She examined his shimmer and felt a stab of regret. He was hurting, and he was angry. The red braid of Blutjagd was expanded into a barely-controlled band. Hunter grabbed a handful of clothing from the drawers of the dresser he kept for himself. He was hurting because of her.

  Sarah touched his shoulder gently, letting his shimmer flow over her. She watched, mesmerized as the Blutjagd shrank almost back to the non-existent braid. The purples became dominant in his shimmer, swirling in a hypnotic pattern before her eyes, dancing with her fingertips on his shoulder. “Hunter,” she whispered, identifying the beautiful new development to her mind.

  Hunter shuddered under her hand. “Don’t,” he pleaded. “If you do this, I can’t promise I’ll be able to stop this time.” Please, mean this if you start it.

  “You still want me.” She said it in disbelief, but the knowledge sent a spike a pure pleasure through her. She hadn’t lost him after all. Sarah kissed the spot on his back where the purple swirls seemed centered, shivering at the pulse of pleasure that arced from him to her at the slight touch. Suddenly, conversation didn’t feel so necessary.

  “Sarah, please tell me. Yes or no? I want forever. If I can’t have that, I have to go before it’s too late.” It will already be more than I can bear. His breath hitched as she traced the expressive purple with her fingertips. “Sarah, please tell me.”

  She could see the desperate longing in him, in the swirls that played at her fingers. Her body responded in a flood of warmth that took her breath away. Sarah circled him slowly, tracing her hand through his shimmer and drawing the swirling colors with her as if she were a magnet affecting filings. More purple appeared with each passing second.

  Her mind worked slowly as the sensations washed over her. How could she have doubted this? Every touch intensified the longing in her. “Forever,” she whispered.

  “Tell me,” his voice was rough in his restraint. The drain on him was massive, but he wouldn’t touch her without her vow. He couldn’t.

  Sarah took the clothing from his hands and drew his palm up to her lips. “Touch me,” she pleaded with him, laying a kiss in his palm.

  “If I do, I can’t ever walk away,” he warned her, nuzzling his face close to hers. Don’t make me walk away.

  Sarah turned her face to brush her lips through the now-purple shimmer to the sensuous lips that held her in thrall. She wanted to feel his mouth again, not tentative this time, but hot and demanding on hers. “Take me, Hunter. Make me a part of you.”

  “You’re not afraid?” he asked with infinite patience.

  She laid an enticing kiss on the edge of his lips and smiled at the tremor that raced through him. “With this much self-control, how can I think you’ll be anything but gentle.”

  “Then, say it,” he whispered, his hand moving to cup her head, pulling her lips to within millimeters of his own. Please, let this be real.

  “I want you, Hunter. I want to stay with you forever. I want you to take me to your bed as your wife and give me your sons to carry.” Sarah thought over it. She was pretty sure she covered all the things he had to know to finish printing.

  “Say it.” He brushed his lips over hers lightly, and she was at a loss to remember what he could be looking for. I love you, Sarah. I’ll be lost without you. Please, say it.

  “I love you, too,” she replied quietly.

  Hunter groaned as he pulled her mouth to his own, his tongue pleading mutely for entry that she granted. In her mind, Sarah could see his shimmer: all purple, bathing her, enflaming her, sensitizing her as his hand touched her with infinite care.

  He lifted her to his chest and carried Sarah to the bed, following her down onto the thick quilt. “Are you sure about what you said?” he breathed.

  “How can you ask that?” she inquired, having difficulty believing he couldn’t feel her arousal in that searing kiss.

  “Not this.” He brushed his lips down her neck to the vee of fabric between her breasts. “Do you want children? Are you sure? I have protection. I can see if we need it. I’ll use it as long as you want to use it,” he offered.

  Sarah smiled. “Don’t check. Don’t get anything. Love me and leave every time alive with the possibility.”

  The purple intensified as his hand started working at the buttons of her shirt, his mouth following behind, tracing fiery lines down her chest and stomach to the waistband of her jeans. She arched to him, and Hunter smiled a lazy smile.

  “Soon,” he promised.

  He pushed her shirt from her shoulders and peeled it down her arms slowly then pulled off his own and pressed her down into the bed, skin to skin, as his mouth captured hers again. Her breasts swelled against his chest, and she gasped into his mouth.

  Hunter’s eyes flashed with pure need as he dropped his mouth to her chest, laving her nipples in slow, torturous movements that had her arching her body closer to his. Sarah groaned deep in her throat as she cradled his head to her. He responded to her encouragement by sucking her breast into the heat of his mouth and teasing the sensitized nipple with his tongue until she was rolling her hips against him, begging with her body for more.

  “So impatient,” he teased, moving to the other breast to continue the exquisite torture.

  “Hunter, I have to feel you,” she breathed. “I need every inch of your body close to mine. Please.” She wound her hands in his hair and arched to him again.

  Hunter pulled himself over her, pressing the hard ridge of his arousal into the sensitive core of her through their jeans. His eyes closed and he half-swallowed a deep groan. “This?” he panted. “Is this what you want?”

  Sarah squirmed against him, straining to the intimate sensation and still needing more. It wasn’t enough. “No. All of you,” she decided. “Not your jeans. Skin to skin.”

  That time, he did groan. “I want to take you slowly.” Hunter nipped at her ear as he poured the words into her mind. “Every time y
ou demand more of me, that gets harder to do.” Already, Sarah could feel the tension in him. Holding back was so difficult.

  “Roll off of me,” she suggested.

  Hunter looked at her in dismay, and she kissed him slowly.

  “I’m not stopping you,” Sarah assured him. “Trust me.”

  He nodded his agreement and rolled to his back. “Now what?” His eyes were wide and earnest.

  “Stay there.”

  She stood next to the bed, slowly unbuttoning her jeans and pushing them over her hips. Hunter’s breath caught as he watched her undressing for him. Heartened by his reaction, she kicked her jeans away and reached for the lace waistband of her silk panties.

  “Let me,” he requested simply.

  Sarah smiled and took her hands away. “Get rid of your jeans, and I’ll come to you,” she invited.

  Hunter smiled a predatory smile as he panned his eyes over her near-naked body. “What if I come after you?” he asked.

  “When I get what I want, you’ll get what you want.”

  “Sooner than you realize if you insist on this teasing,” he growled.

  She folded her arms under her breasts, shelving them on her crossed forearms. “You’ll be gentle,” she decided.

  Hunter pulled open his buttons with a single tug and eased his jeans down his legs without taking his eyes from hers for a moment. They seemed a deep, smoky black in his excitement, and she was lost in their depths. He rose to sitting as he tugged the stubborn material from his bare feet. Sarah held her breath as he tossed his jeans away. Hunter moved slowly, with animal grace, his muscles rippling smoothly as he lay back down just as she suggested.

  “Your turn,” he crooned. Satisfaction seemed etched on his face, as she looked at the hard length of him jutting rigidly off the surface of his stomach.

  Sarah moved slowly, crawling up the foot of the bed until she knelt next to his hips and drawing her hand over the silk-wrapped steel of him. Hunter pushed into her hand, reacting with a hopeless, guttural sound to her touch and hardening further in her grasp.