Steal the Sun: (Book 1)

by Stephanie Kelley

  “Shit.” Rhen muttered. I was shocked he understood that.

  Cash cleared his throat on the other end of the line. “Sorry, Sugah, didn't know you were looking to hide the sugah stick tonight or I wouldna called.”

  Hide the sugar stick? That was a new one.

  “Its not like that Cash, it’s nobody important.” I didn't bother to look at Rhen, I knew it would hurt. It stung to say it, I wasn't sure if I meant it, but I was too tired to deal with the emotions anymore today.

  “These loup things, they usually hire out their services, Sugah. At least they do down home, we call ‘em rougarous. They're happy as a pig in shit to do your dirty work for the right price. They are shifters who still got all their wits about them when they wolf out. Speech, magic, they keep it all when the dawg comes out. Usually hide behind a local legend too so they can throw people off. In Alaska, I don’t know what it would be-”

  “It’s mimicking the Amaroq. Takes people who are by themselves at night.” Rhen interrupted. “But ours wants shifters.”

  Shit.

  “Hot damn, my friend.” There was an awkward pause. “Whoever you are.”

  There was glass breaking and silence from Cash’s end of the line. I tried to keep composed but my blood pressure soared. Rhen went silent again, hands resting on the steering wheel.

  “What happened?”

  “It’s Snowbear, Sugah.”

  “And?”

  “Got here maybe an hour ago, sitting in the corner with a bottle of whiskey muttering something about river and a green man. He's really gone nuts this time. His hands are covered in blood. He’s got some little book. I don't want to get close to him.”

  “Was that a glass?”

  “Bottle.”

  “Damn it.”

  What the Hell did Kenai go do that he was bloodied? The book was his list of the names associated with the tally marks on his arm. Now who had he killed?

  “He needs sleep.” I sighed heavily. “Give him the bottle of belladonna I have stashed in the safe and my keys to the office, let him pass out there. Caleb is in his usual room if you need help.”

  I saw Rhen’s knuckles turn white at the mention of the merman’s name as he gripped the steering wheel harder.

  “Will do boss.” Cash paused for a moment, “Kodiak, Sugah, be safe.”

  “Night, Cash.”

  Rhen crooked an eyebrow at me as I hung up the phone.

  “You sleep with Cash too, or are you just into Others now?”

  I threw his coat at him, catching him across the face with a sleeve. “You don’t get to play the jealous boyfriend role.”

  “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “Belladonna, Koda? Who are you telling him to drug?”

  “Ken.” I snapped at him as I reached for the door handle.

  “Snowbear is Kenai? You're telling him to drug your brother?”

  “You don't get to question how we do things.” I cringed inwardly. Gods, I sounded like Dez.

  “You're right,” the anger in his voice burned me as he slammed the door to the SUV. “I'm just the hired help anymore.”

  I stepped out into the crunchy snow and every hair on my body stood on end. Snow started to collect on my lashes as I watched him stomp around.

  My damn phone beeped with a text message notification and before I let him pull me into the fight, I checked it.

  “You're pale again. Now what?”

  “Sleep tight.” I read him the message. “From Snow.”

  His phone went off before he could respond.

  His cheeks burned red when he opened the message.

  “What did they send?”

  “Get in the cabin,” he said trying to wave me off as the snow started to fall heavier. “The snow is only going to get worse.”

  He didn’t put up a fight as I grabbed his phone. Snow had sent a photo of two harbor seals mating.

  “What the Hell are they getting at?” I handed him back the phone. “Prove they’ve been stalking us for years and know our habits?”

  He shook his head, raking a hand back through his black waves. The spark of panic in his eyes was so foreign it made my stomach turn. When the foundation cracks, everyone takes a step back and that moment of wildness in his eyes gave me pause.

  “It's too late for this, Rhen. Let's get the cabin going and get some sleep.”

  He managed a nod.

  “And no, I didn't sleep with Cash. Give me some credit. He’s an employee for gods sake.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Kodiak

  The fire snapped and popped, waking me from my sleep on the old worn out mattress. The small two room cabin had been in our family since the beginning of the gold rush was about an hour and a half drive up mountain. I hadn't been here in about four years. Anytime Kenai had a few free days to disappear, this was where he came. He used to rent it out in the summer, but this year he hadn’t bothered.

  I remembered stripping my boots and jeans and crawling under the heavy quilts on the bed while he built the fire. I don't know how long he had stayed up tending the fire, insisting he guard the door in case that thing showed up. Old habits are hard to break and I’d snuggled right up next to him in my sleep once he came to bed.

  Stretching out my limbs, I realized I had not slept so well since he left. Knowing subconsciously he was there and would protect me, I let down that wall I hadn’t realized was there and slept like the dead.

  He’d grabbed a separate quilt to sleep under and now it barely covered his waist the way he slept. My head resting on his bare chest, he wrapped a strong arm over me in his sleep, the other covering his face to block the light from the fire. Had I been beside another man I would have thought they were pretending to sleep, but not him.

  His split lip wasn’t nearly as bad as it had looked last night. The bruise from the black eye Connor had given him was already staring to lighten. I didn't want to move as I listened to his heart. He always smelled like the open ocean, and he still did now. I missed that smell on my pillow when he left for work in the morning. How had I forgotten how this man had smelled?

  Seeing him yesterday was a shock to my system. Then having him show up at Broken Tusk, and the alley, it was too much. I shouldn’t have kissed him. I seriously thought seven years would be enough to be over someone, I was wrong. The moment he touched me it all came rushing back. The raw need for that one person I thought completed my soul came back, too. I had never hated someone and wanted them so bad at the same time. Good memories from our time together weren’t hard when he was sleeping right beside me; sledding, hiking, tending the dredge for him while he dove, weekend long camping trips, and so much more.

  I heard our phones ring but ignored them. I was tired of that electronic leash. I wasn’t giving up this stolen moment.

  Amber light from the fire played across the layers of blue and green ink that graced his skin. To see him with the intricate knot work that covered his arm and wrist was very odd to me, but it was sexy as it defined his muscles. My eyes tried to follow a single strand in the knot work that covered his left forearm. In the middle of the knot work on his left arm was a seal, done in the ocean colored swirls and intricate patterns. He’d always called seals his spirit animals and I’d spent hours watching them with him at the harbor.

  I propped myself up on my elbow to watch him breathe and caught myself smiling. He was just as delicious looking now as he slept, as he was in the memory. Curiosity got the best of me and I peeked underneath the quilt. Yep, he still slept in the nude, and he had more tattoos on his legs, a band of swirls on his left thigh and cuffs around both ankles to match his wrists.

  The glitter of gold around his neck caught my attention as he stretched in his sleep. I reached out and fingered the fine gold chain he had been absently playing with at my bar, on it was the tiny ring that had been his comfort. It was a beautiful gold ring too small for him to wear, inlaid with abalone and mother of pearl. I had never seen anything like it before, it was
beautiful and unique. As I turned it on its chain, I read the engraved phrase on the inside of the ring. I knew what those words meant to him. The two word phrase had become synonymous with “I love you” for us.

  Had that ring been meant for me at some point? I felt the jealousy rising at the thought of him using our phrase with someone else, and I wanted him. Break up sex was certainly over due. What was one last romp after that kiss in the alley?

  I crawled under his quilt with him, pressing my bare legs against his. I remembered him as being athletic, but he had definitely stepped up his game after he left. I traced the muscles defined on his abs, then his chest. When I felt him stir, I straddled his waist. I remembered the lazy weekends when we lived together and how he liked to spend them. I drug my nails lightly down his chest as I gently rocked my hips against him. He grabbed my wrists without opening his eyes.

  “Koda, what are you doing?”

  “If you have to ask you've either gone religious, or playing for the other team.”

  “Neither.” His smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, pulling at the white scar on his cheek. He let my hands free, resting his on my thighs. “Please tell me I’m not dreaming.”

  “Definitely not a dream.”

  His calloused fingers traced lazy swirls across my skin. I let my eyes travel to where my hands rested against his chest. He had a jagged, raised half moon scar that ran from the top of his right collar bone near his throat, just under his pectoral muscles and on his bicep. I had been so engrossed by his tattoos and the ring that I had missed it.

  “Looks like you've gotten yourself in some nasty trouble while you were gone. How’d you get the new scar?” The one on his cheek had come from one of my father’s dogs. This scar, while it looked like a bite, I didn't have any idea what would leave a bite on a person like that big.

  He sighed heavily as he moved to brush those unruly black waves off of his forehead. He refused to look at me. That sigh caused him to rub against me where I straddled his body. My stomach fluttered as frisson of heat ran through my body.

  “I had a run in with a blackfish. It bit me.”

  I froze at the shock of his words. “You were bit--by a blackfish? An Orca?”

  “Just a baby.” He sighed again, taking care to restrain his movements. When I didn't respond he opened his amber eyes and met my gaze. “I was working on a dive job a few miles out in the Gulf. On the way back up the blackfish had decided to be curious. It grabbed me pretty hard. Guess I didn't taste enough like seal, so it tossed me. The deck boys stitched me up with fishing line. It was pretty bad. I lost a lot of blood.”

  “Didn't you go to the hospital?” Gods, why did I care, he was going to leave me again.

  He shrugged.

  “Yeah. Not much that the boys hadn't already done. I was touch and go for a week or so.”

  He looked away from me, towards the wall. “Koda, last night, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have stayed. I shouldn't have been drinking. But those guys, seeing you laughing and ruffling their hair, it got my blood boiling. All I wanted was you. I had no right to toy with you like that. The only reason I was at Broken Tusk was to talk, to explain what actually happened before I left-”

  He sighed as he cut himself off from his own frustrated words.

  “Pretty obvious what happened. I walked in on you fucking someone else.” I spat as I scratched his chest with my free hand.

  He hissed in pain, eyes snapping back to meet mine as he reached for my hand again. His thumb absently rubbed over the scar on my wrist he was still holding. It was an old habit that had once comforted and grounded me. He’d done it so often, that it was second nature to us when he touched me, even after all this time apart.

  “Gods, I hate your eyes like that. Why are you wearing those contacts?” He asked as he glared up at me.

  “Because I got tired of being called a freak once you left.”

  “Koda, you're not a freak. I left because -”

  “I know why you left. You got caught. Fuck you, Rhen.” I hissed at him, trying to yank my hands out of his grasp.

  “Do you really think I’m that -Koda, she was-”

  “She was my best friend,“ I finished his statement as he let my hands go and tried to sit up. I saw the guilt and sadness in his puppy dog eyes as he let me push him back onto the mattress. If I thought on it too long, I’d break down. I’d held onto the hate that he’d left me with for seven years, I wasn't letting it go that easily and just be numb to it again.

  “Will you let me explain, please?”

  “Not until you fuck me like you did her.”

  “No.”

  I should have listened to him, but there was a growl in his voice that I took as a challenge.

  “Why? You know you want this, too.”

  I pulled the shirt I had slept in over my head and tossed it away from us. I reached back and undid the twist in my hair, letting it fall down about my shoulders, tickling the small of my back, covering my chest with a small shake of my head. I arched my back as I rocked against him. He was already growing hard beneath me. Some things never change I guess. I heard a muffled groan come up from him.

  “Give me what I want, then we’ll talk about the past.” I said as I ran my hand up my body and grabbed my breasts giving him a show, biting my lip as his body involuntarily twitched against mine making me ache for him, not bothering to look him in the eye.

  I heard him repress another soft groan as I moved against him. He was fighting himself and I was winning. His hand grabbed my hips, trying to hold me steady. His fingers played over the tattoo on my hip, a raven holding a sun disk. I’d gotten the tattoo for my eighteenth birthday as a reminder of that day on the glacier, but he paused when he saw the addition to it.

  “Are those Caleb’s initials in the sun?” he growled, fingers biting into my skin.

  I couldn't bring myself to tell him the truth. I didn’t have it in me right now. Let him think what he wanted and be tortured by it.

  “Hurts doesn’t it?”

  “So you lied about it being a fling?”

  His eyes were dark and wild as I looked down at him. He was pissed. I’d seem him frustrated, and flustered with me before, but he was truly pissed. And seeing him angry turned me on as much as it tore at my heart knowing I was purposely toying with him for my own agenda twice in one day. I caught myself licking my lips as his fingers bruised my hip, I was enjoying the pain. At least it was real between us.

  “What if I did? Doesn’t change what you did. I wasn't enough for you? You had to go after someone else?” I heard the edge in my own voice and I hated it. It reminded me of what I had turned into because of his actions. I needed this, for me. I wanted this for closure. “Come on Rhen, show me what was so worth going to someone else for.”

  “You don't deserve it,” he managed, his voice grating.

  I slapped him.

  He blinked up at me for a moment. One blink his eyes were solid black, the next, cognac brown. Was I already that far over the edge mentally I was seeing things?

  I was face down on the mattress, my breath vanished from my lungs before I registered his movements. One of his hands was holding both of mine at the small of my back, pressing me into the worn mattress as he leaned over me.

  “It was hate sex,” his voice was a strained growl that vibrated through me as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. His left hand supporting his weight by my head. “That’s why you don’t deserve it.”

  The definition in the muscles of his forearm and wrist accented by intricate swirl and knot work of his tattoos made my heart race. I wanted to trace the designs there with my tongue and taste his skin. I wondered if he still tasted like the ocean.

  “Why don't you quit telling me what I deserve and give me what I want?” I challenged. I could barely hold my composure, all I wanted to do was beg to feel him.

  “What you want? Seems to be all I keep hearing since I’ve been back. Do what the Sesis want or else.” His voice trembled
with the undertone of a deep growl, the last bits of his control completely frayed. I’d never heard him this way. “You want used like that bitch was? Hard and rough because that's all she was good for that day?”

  I shivered. The man that had left me that day would never have spoken those words to me. I didn't know who this stranger was, but I liked it. I felt alive as a ripple of electricity ran up my spine and the past disappeared, all that mattered was now. I wasn’t giving this up.

  “That a yes, Kodiak?” He pressed his hips against me and my body betrayed me. I pushed back against him, the heat already pooling between my legs.

  “Yes.”

  Rhen sat back on his heels, his hand closing tighter around my wrists. I tried to push myself up onto my knees while he still had my hands pinned, but he grabbed my hip with his free hand to stop me, fingers biting into my flesh again. He forced my legs apart with his knees as I still lay face down on the mattress. I bit my lower lip to keep from panting audibly as he reached his hand between my legs and ran a finger through the wetness he had caused. I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of him licking his finger clean. His eyes were so dark and wild I didn’t know the man that was behind me.

  With a rough pull on my hips and wrists I felt his thick thighs against mine as he slid me back on the mattress. The motion had left me with my ass in the air and face in the bunched up quilt. I didn't have time to try to reposition myself before he ran the head of his cock through that same wetness before he pushed partially into me.

  My breath rushed out in a sharp gasp wishing I could clutch at the bedding for something to grab onto as my body resisted him. I had forgotten just how big he was and I was not ready for him. But that heady rush, the feel of him thick and hot, the pain of being stretched to accommodate him, was delicious and addicting. He felt so damn good.