by Jodi Vaughn
He felt her quiver as her climax washed over her fast and hard. She laid her head against the wall, shivering as pleasure swamped her body.
He quickened his pace, thrusting deep inside her body. Lust licked the pit of his stomach and he growled as he came.
“That’s a pretty good warm-up.” Ava lifted her head and stared into his eyes. Her pupils were dilated. He knew that look. She wasn’t done with him yet.
“I heard that females who are with child are unusually…”
“Horny?” She finished the sentence for him and smiled.
“Yeah.” He grinned as he trailed his finger down between her breasts and circled a pretty pink nipple.
Her eyes drifted shut and she moaned.
“We should definitely get all the sex in that we can now. Who knows how much sex I’m going to get once the baby arrives.” The thought had his chest expanding with pride.
“Oh, that’s not going to change. You have to promise me sex at least twice a day.” She looked at him and sucked his finger into her mouth.
His cock stirred. He wanted her again.
“Twice a day? That’s all?” He arched his brow.
“I don’t want to tire you out with your job as Guardian and being a new father and all.” She pressed her lips to his neck and sucked.
His body tightened and he was ready to have her all over again.
“Baby, I have enough stamina for all that and you.” He kissed her hard, and when he pulled back to look at her, his heart nearly exploded with all the love inside his chest.
“I love you, Damon,” she whispered.
“I love you too.” He carried her to the bed and laid her down. “Now let me show you how much.”
* * *
Barrett watched his Guardians filing one by one into the Compound. He had seen the females sneak inside. He’d had a hard rule about no females in the Compound where the Guardians slept, but that was before so many of them had mated up.
He had to remind himself to act pissed tomorrow at his Guardians for allowing the females in. In reality he didn’t mind. He knew his men needed whatever encouragement they could get tonight, and if the females could deliver, then then so be it.
He frowned and wondered what it would be like to be mated. He’d never given it a thought for himself. He didn’t need the distraction, nor did he want the inconvenience. He had a job to do, and having a female around twenty-four-seven would just get in the way of his purpose. And his purpose was to bring order and peace to Arkansas.
He would need to brief Damon on what was to be expected at the Tribunal, but he knew that the Were was with Ava.
He would talk to him later. He headed towards the woods located behind the Compound. He needed to be somewhere solitary and think. He couldn’t do that locked up in his office or some other room.
He kept walking away from the security lights toward the dark. He blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. His footsteps soon left the concrete for the grass, and he was walking farther into the thick woods.
Mosquitoes buzzed near his ear, and an owl hooted from her perch on a nearby branch. He lifted his face as a breeze of summer air whirled across him. He stopped when he came to a large oak tree near a small pond.
The pond was overgrown with weeds and shrubs. He doubted there were any fish in the water, but he was pretty sure there was more than one water moccasin gliding across the surface.
He pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket and dialed in a number.
“Hello?”
“Ryker. It’s me.” He looked up at the sky and was struck by how completely void of stars it was. Not even the moon was out.
“Barrett. What’s up?” Ryker asked.
Barrett’s gut twisted, and he fought back the sense of dread that he’d been feeling all day long. Even before the showdown with Boudier, Barrett had been getting a very bad feeling that something big was to go down between the Packs. Something he didn’t think he could control.
“How’s the situation with the Fae in Vermont?” He blew out a breath and waited for the report.
“If you would have told me a week ago I’d be in New England fighting alongside an army of fairies against an army of demons and a sadistic Fairy Queen, I would have told you to fuck off,” Ryker said.
Barrett snorted. “And now?”
“While I don’t like to get involved with other species’ problems, I have to say it was a hell of a fight. Those fucking fairies are pretty damn strong,” Ryker admitted. “And that Celeste, well, she not only can fight, but she can heal people. Never seen anything like it. Not to mention she’s hot as fuck. But married. Definitely married.”
“I wouldn’t be messing around with Celeste Nordstrom, Ryker. Her husband, Eric is not known to share anything, and I’m sure when it comes to his wife, he’d kill a fucker,” Barrett stated.
“You know Eric Nordstrom?” Ryker asked.
“He’s a past acquaintance.” Barrett didn’t tell Ryker that he’d once done business with Eric. They were both from wealthy families, and their pasts were very similar.
Ryker didn’t need to know that. None of his Guardians did.
“Where are you?” Barrett asked.
“I’m crossing the Mississippi River Bridge back into Arkansas. I should be at the Compound in a few hours,” Ryker said.
“Well, don’t stop at the Compound in Little Rock. I need you to head on to Petit Jean State Park.”
“What the fuck are we doing there? Cooking hotdogs?” Ryker groused.
“There is to be a Tribunal. And that’s where it is to be held.”
“Fuck. A Tribunal? For what? Jaxon crossing across the state line?”
“Let me catch you up.” Barrett quickly filled Ryker in on all the details of what had happened.
“Are you fucking kidding? Man, Boudier isn’t going to let Jaxon walk away from punishment. That asshole is going to demand blood,” Ryker said.
“I know.”
“Do you have a plan? Please tell me you have a plan.”
“Glad you asked. Because I’m going to need to you to be ready for anything when the time comes.” Barrett studied the ground.
“Anything, man. Whatever you need. I’m there.”
“Good.” Barrett wasted no time and ended the call.
Now he had to get ready. To hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“You should get some sleep.” Jaxon looked at Ginny and nodded toward his bed. He’d been the last of the Guardians to head into the Compound. He had hung around outside after they’d arrived as all the other Guardians had introduced themselves to Ginny. He was glad that they all seemed to welcome her into their Pack and didn’t judge her for who her father was.
“The Arkansas Guardians are different from the Louisiana Guardians.” She eased onto the bed and looked at him under her lashes.
“How’s that?” He sat in the chair by the TV and pulled off his boots.
“They spoke to me.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked at her. “The Louisiana Guardians don’t speak to you?”
“No, they’re not allowed.” She shrugged. “Apparently, my father and husband didn’t want them associating with me.” She looked at the ground. “But I wonder if it’s because they hate me simply because of who my father is.”
“But the Louisiana Guardians are loyal to him.”
“They are loyal out of fear. Not out of undying love or commitment.” She licked her lips. “I didn’t realize that a Pack could be welcoming.” She rested her hand on her stomach.
“How are you feeling?” He walked over to her and sat next to her on the bed. His gaze drifted to her stomach.
“My stomach feels a little crampy, but I’m fine.”
“Crampy?” He frowned. “We have a doctor here at the Compound. I can send for him so he can check you out and make sure you’re okay.”
“No, I’m fine. I’ve had these cramps before.” S
he shook her head. “It usually happens after John gets angry and…” Her voice trailed off.
“He hit you knowing you’re pregnant.” He tried to keep the anger out of his voice, but the bitterness was still there.
“I never told him I was pregnant. He made it clear early on that he didn’t want children. He saw a baby as a threat to his opportunity to be next in line for Pack Master.” She looked at him. “I didn’t even tell my father I was pregnant.”
“Boudier doesn’t know about the baby?”
“No.” She stood and walked over to the window.
“Can I ask you something?” He stood and waited until she turned around and faced him. “How do you feel about the baby?”
She folded her arms across her chest and took a deep breath. “At first I was horrified, knowing that I was carrying part of John inside me. I worried the baby would turn out like him. I didn’t want him at first.” She glanced down at the floor. “But as the weeks went by and the baby survived despite the beatings, I began to see her—or him—as a survivor. Like me.” She looked up at him.
He nodded. He could understand that.
“Do you hate me because I’m carrying another male’s child?” She asked, the tone of her soft voice uncertain.
“What?” His chest clenched at her question. “I could never hate you. I love you.”
Silent tears slid down her cheek. She didn’t bother wiping them away but let them find their course to her clasped hands in her lap.
“After everything that I’ve done to you, leaving you without telling you why, marrying another male, and now carrying his baby, I don’t understand how you could still love me.” She shook her head and looked at the floor. “I’m not the perfect girl you fell in love with. I’m ruined.”
“Listen to me.” He tilted her chin up with his fingertip, forcing her to look into his eyes. “I want you to hear what I’m going to say because I’m only going to say this once.”
She blinked, her attention on him.
“You’re not ruined. You are perfect. And you are perfect for me. I will love that baby inside of you because it’s part of you. I could never hate you or the child you are carrying. That child is going to need a father and, Ginny, I want to be that for her or him. I want a life with you and that child and the many other children who will fill our home. That’s what I want. But I need to know if you want the same things.” His swallowed back the emotion in his throat. He spoke the words without hesitation, and he meant them with all his heart.
“Jaxon, I love you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest.
He held her tight, her body snug against his own. He could feel her heart beating against his like they were one. His chest swelled with emotion, and a sense of complete joy washed over him.
The struggle they were going to face over the next twenty-four hours would determine their fate forever. But in this moment, he pushed those thoughts away, determined to stay in this moment with her.
He bent his head, pressing her lips to hers. She relaxed in his arms, melding her curves to his edges. She sighed and opened under his lips. He dipped his tongue into the sweetness of her mouth, teasing her tongue with his and eliciting a moan.
Her hands slid down his chest. Her fingers found the bottom of his T-shirt and she tugged it up. He broke the kiss long enough to pull his shirt over his head and toss it on the floor.
Her fingers were everywhere, touching and caressing and teasing.
His stomach burned with desire to have her underneath him and to make her his in every possible way.
He lifted her shirt over her head and then stood, pulling her up with him. She reached up on tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his in a heated kiss.
Her fingertips fumbled with the zipper of his jeans before she managed to shove them down his hips. Her cool hand wrapped around the length of his hard cock and squeezed.
“Easy,” he groaned and thrust into her palm. He wanted this to last, to make love to her until daylight. He wanted this seared into his memory forever.
She moved her hand and shimmied out of the rest of her clothes leaving them in a pile on the floor. She stood there before him, naked, with only her blonde hair flowing across her shoulders.
She looked like an angel. His angel.
He couldn’t wait any longer. He took her in his arms and kissed her. He picked her up and carried her to the bed. Laying her in the middle, he hovered over her. She caressed his face and pulled him down for a slow, sensual kiss.
He sheathed himself in her body, melding them together as one. He moved slowly against her as they made love in the shadows of the darkened room. Time seemed to be suspended, and reality only consisted of them in their own little world.
His fingertips memorized the soft curve of her hip and the shape of her soft breasts. He dipped his head and captured her nipple in his mouth. She moaned as he sucked the hard bud, teasing her with his tongue.
How had he lived all these years without her? How had he existed?
She moved under him, arching her body and straining toward him. She hooked her ankles around his thighs, forcing him to drive himself hard and deep inside her willing body.
Urgency boiled in his blood as pleasure soaked through every cell of his body. He forced his body into submission, to hold off his own pleasure until she found hers.
She arched and dug her nails into his back as she climaxed. He thrust faster, matching her pleasure with his own and spilling his seed into her body.
He continued to move until they’d ridden out their orgasms together. Exhausted, he pulled her trembling body against his and cradled her in his arms.
He held her close and forced his racing mind to shut down. He needed to find his own rest. Even if it was for a few hours. He needed his strength, and he needed to be prepared for whatever Boudier was about to throw their way.
Chapter Thirty
Barrett had arrived at Petit Jean State Park hours before his Guardians. He’d left Damon at the Compound to update the Weres about the Tribunal set for midnight. The Guardians were set to arrive that afternoon to start securing the area high on the mountain where the meeting would take place.
He squinted up at the sun beating down on his back like a relentless bitch. He stared down from his perch on the mountain to the waterfall below. It had to be at least a hundred, a hundred and twenty feet down from where he stood.
He had notified the Southern Pack Masters of the time and place of the Tribunal. Besides Arkansas and Louisiana, the other states that would be present would be Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Even Milfred Jones, the Pack Master of Kentucky, had agreed to come to the Tribunal, although it had taken some convincing. Milfred hated taking sides and getting involved. He wanted to stay out of everyone else’s business and wanted to be shown the same courtesy.
Barrett couldn’t blame him. But things were different now, and all the Pack Masters knew that whatever went down tonight at the Tribunal would somehow affect them all.
“I wouldn’t get too close to that edge, man. The fall won’t kill you, but it will hurt like a motherfucker,” Ryker said.
Barrett turned and faced Ryker. “Have you been updated by Damon?”
“No. I drove straight here because you told me to. Besides, you’re my Pack Master, not Damon.” Ryker crossed his arms, and Barrett could tell the Were was studying him behind his sunglasses.
“Tribunal starts at midnight. The Pack Masters will arrive around eleven.”
“What about the Council?” Ryker asked.
“They will be here and will rule with the final decision.” Barrett turned his gaze back out across the state park.
The gray mountains dotted with green trees jutted out of the ground and rose to the sky. The rhythmic splash of the waterfall below and the scent of dirt and leaves and nature surrounded him. Usually, just being in nature calmed him, allowed him to be more in tune with what he needed to do in certain situations. But not today. Today he was
as conflicted over how he was going to get Jaxon free of the charges brought by Boudier.
Barrett knew that Jaxon hadn’t killed Caroline or John. And he also knew that the Were wouldn’t let Ginny take the blame either. He knew Jaxon well enough to know that he would go to his death declaring Ginny’s innocence.
The only way he was going to get out of having Jaxon killed was to try to talk to Boudier and broker a peace. If he gave Ginny back to her father it might appease him enough that he’d let Jaxon go. He hated doing that. It went against everything he believed in. But he couldn’t let another Guardian die.
Ryker’s cell phone buzzed.
“Fuck.” Ryker scowled.
Barrett turned and his heart rate increased. “What is it?”
“Things just got complicated.” Ryker lifted his gaze from the phone.
“Things were already complicated,” Barrett growled.
“Well, things just got fucking complicated.” Ryker shook his head. “Just got a text from Damon. Did you know that Ginny is pregnant?”
Barrett’s stomach dropped.
“Why the fuck didn’t Jaxon tell me?” Barrett growled.
“Jaxon just told Damon.” Ryker shook his head. “Said he didn’t want Ginny to be at the Tribunal tonight because of her condition. Boudier doesn’t know she’s pregnant.”
“She has to be there. She has to confront Boudier about the allegations she made against him. If she doesn’t go, then Boudier will ask the Council to have her returned to him.” His gut twisted. This was worse than he suspected.
“The Council will order you to return Ginny if she doesn’t show and present her case. Boudier will kill her once he gets his hands on her,” Ryker stated.
“No. He’ll torture her for betraying him. He’ll make sure she stays alive so he can make her pay for the rest of her life.” Finality settled over Barrett like a death shroud.
Boudier would be outraged once he found out about Ginny’s pregnancy.
“So what do we do?” Ryker asked.
He had no choice. Barrett walked down the trail back to where he’d parked his Harley. “Make sure my Guardians are all accounted for when they start arriving. Boudier wants blood. So we give him blood.”
