by Relentless
Pia shuddered and drew again, sucking hard, pulling blood from his extremities in a rush of cold-hot sensation that brought him to the brink, but held him there. His cock was so hard the skin that clothed his shaft felt tight enough to burst. His balls, nestled in the cavern of her mouth, grew hot and impossibly harder, but she controlled his release, keeping him at the brink until he thought his heart would explode in his chest it beat so fast.
Then she moaned and her hips rocked, and he was flying, his cock erupting in a geyser of cum that never seemed to end.
Pia’s cunt convulsed and she cried out, the spasms stroking his tongue. Until they both slowed their rhythmic shudders.
She licked the punctures closed and let go of his cock, laying her head on his thigh as she dragged air into her lungs.
Max eased his fingers from her ass and gave her one last soothing lap of his tongue and then swept his arms around her hips, holding her tightly for a long moment. Giving her time. Time he knew she used to gather herself, to consider what she’d just learned.
Then she tensed and struggled against his hold.
He let his arms fall to his side and lay on the bed while he watched her climb off him and turn.
Her expression was wary, then her eyes widened. “It was you on the beach!”
Max nodded, waiting to see what she’d do next.
“I didn’t want to believe…” Her lips twisted in self-disgust. “I smelled wolf all over you. I just wanted to think you’d rolled on the ground with one of those monsters—but I knew better when I cleaned your wounds.”
“I wondered how long it would be before you pieced it together,” he said softly.
Pia’s cheeks grew red as her anger built. “I didn’t want to believe what my brain was telling me all along. But you knew what you were doing—deflecting me with sex. You must have thought I was incredibly stupid. Probably laughed at me the entire time.”
Max kept his face solemn and he shook his head. “Never.”
But she acted like she hadn’t heard him, lashing out at him. “I should have known. You’re stronger than any human I’ve ever encountered. And your tongue! No human has a tongue like that.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “There are advantages to having a werewolf lover.”
Pia’s eyes narrowed. “I would never have fucked you that first time if I’d known.”
“Well, now you can’t deny it.” He kept his voice deliberately mild. He needed her to let loose all over him, so he prodded. “What are you going to do about it, sweetheart?”
Pia launched herself at him, her hands curved into claws, her mouth open, teeth protracted to slash at his flesh.
He caught her and rolled, pinning her to the bed.
She bucked, nearly unseating him, but he straddled her body at the tops of her thighs to keep her legs in check, and held her arms above her head. “Listen to me.”
“No! You’re a goddamn werewolf. I knew it! You were too good to be human.”
“You knew it all along. Don’t pretend otherwise.” He pressed her hands into the mattress. “In the back of your mind you had to know. Did it excite you? Having an animal between your legs?”
“Bastard!” She bucked harder, panting with exertion.
Max felt his belly tighten in renewed arousal. “Did you like what my tongue did to you? Would you like a wolf’s cock fucking you?”
“Get…off…me!” she said between gritted teeth. “We don’t mix. It’s impossible. We’re mortal enemies, and it’s my duty to kill you.”
Max held her, not an easy task since she was strong and writhed like a snake. He ignored his arousal stirring between his legs. “Mine too, love. But I saved your ass. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
Her eyes blazed with anger and betrayal. “It only tells me you’re more devious than the hounds who slaughtered those vampires.” She lifted her head and banged her forehead hard against his chin.
Max tasted blood from his split lip. “Pia, stop fighting me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“And I should believe you?” she yelled. “You lied to me.”
Max heard the hurt and confusion in her voice. “I never lied.”
“Then you should have told me.”
“I just did. I let you bite me for fucksake!”
She halted her struggles. “You should have told me,” she repeated, this time her voice broke on a whimper.
“Like you told me you’re a vampire?” he asked softly.
“That’s not the same!”
“But it is, baby. What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, Pia. I’m a werewolf.’ Could I trust you not to tell the others? I work surrounded by your kind. How long do you think they would have let me live?”
“They aren’t monsters!”
“And I am?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Damn you!”
“Sweetheart.” He sighed and let go of her hands.
She didn’t fly at him. She covered her face and sobbed.
Max climbed off her and gathered her into his arms.
“Wh-what are we going to do?” she asked, burrowing her head into the crook of his shoulder.
He stroked her hair and her back. He didn’t know what to say.
* * * * *
From a distance, Max heard the muffled rattle of his garage door opening and the roar of a motor. Alec was back. He glanced at the clock. It was nearly dusk.
With Pia sleeping like the de—well, like a vampire, Max decided not to join his brother in the kitchen. Alec could eat his way through the groceries for all he cared. He had more important things to consider—like the woman lying in his arms and his future, now that he’d been outed.
He wouldn’t ask Pia to keep his secret. Too many weighed on his conscience as it was. Besides, an idea had planted a seed. One that could potentially grow to bridge their worlds.
The garage door closed and Max heard a car engine rev. Alec was in a hurry. Max settled his head in his pillow, ready to return to sleep, and then a niggling thought brought him wide awake.
The golden wolf. Not so unusual a shade. But he remembered something—something masked by his transformation the evening before. A scent. One familiar.
Max rolled out of the bed and quickly donned a pair of sweatpants. Then he headed to the garage. He flicked on the light switch. As usual, Alec hadn’t bothered to give the bike a wash before returning it. As meticulous as he was about his appearance and his own belongings, he wasn’t careful with Max’s things.
Max knelt beside the bike and sniffed. Above the scent of gasoline, rubber, and oil he smelled traces of wolf. And on the seat, beneath a leather strap, he found a tuft of hair—from a golden wolf’s coat—and a smear of blood.
A cold knot of anger settled in his belly. Damn Alec!
* * * * *
Max quietly entered Alec’s apartment and followed rustling sounds down the hallway to his bedroom. He eased open the door to see Alec slinging clothing into a duffel. “Little brother, what have you done?”
Alec froze, but kept his back to him. “What you should have been doing. Killing vamps.”
“If your cause is so righteous, why are you sneaking away?”
“Because you’d never approve. You always follow some rulebook the rest of us haven’t read and don’t understand.”
“You killed humans. What do you think our pack will think about that?”
Alec’s broad shoulders tensed. “They’ll understand. Those humans were garbage. They fed vampires, willingly. Besides, I didn’t kill them. I just couldn’t stop—”
“You couldn’t control those mindless beasts you made. Could you, brother?”
“No.” Alec turned, his gaze was fevered. “I didn’t intend for it to happen. We talked about it beforehand, but they seemed crazed by bloodlust.”
“It was you at that bar last night, too. You knew how unstable your cubs were, but you brought them there anyway.”
“Yeah, and we would have killed every last vamp in
that bar.” Alec picked up a shirt, wadded it into a messy bundle and stuffed it into his bag. “What of it? You stopped me from killing your girlfriend. Your vamp girlfriend.” He tossed the duffel aside and turned, his fists clenched at his sides. “She had your scent all over her. Can you imagine how sickening it was to discover you’d fucked one of those creatures? You! My own brother?”
Max felt his body go cold. “Go home, Alec. Don’t come back. If you do, I’ll have to kill you.” He turned on his heel and walked away.
“You’d kill your own?” Alec screamed after him. “For what? That bitch? That fucking vampire whore?”
Max left the apartment, climbed on his bike, and sped to the station. He needed to see Pia. Needed to hold her and remind himself why he was turning his back on his own kind.
* * * * *
Pia slid the keys to the sedan across the conference table.
Joe raised an eyebrow. “What’s this? Max still not feeling well? He didn’t drive you?”
She shook her head. “No, he left me a note to say he’d meet me here.”
The conference room grew still. Pia glanced around the table and noted for the first time that only vamps were in the room—Dylan, Quentin, and Joe.
“He was on his bike then?”
Pia wondered at Joe’s pointed question. His gaze was too alert for it to be a casual inquiry. “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen a bike. Why? What’s going on?”
“The team ran a check on all the vehicles parked along the boardwalk last night,” Dylan said, his voice even—a little too controlled. “Max’s motorbike was among them.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Neither do we,” Dylan said. “That’s why we asked.”
“But he didn’t drive there on a bike. He arrived with Joe and me.”
“What do we really know about Max?” Quentin asked.
Pia turned to Joe. “He was your friend before you turned.”
“We drank beer,” Joe said, his eyes narrowing, “and watched each other’s asses on the job, but I wouldn’t say we were ever bosom buddies. I didn’t even know he had a brother in town.”
That caught her short. “A brother?”
“We ran some checks on my old buddy. Max has some deep, dark secrets.”
“We’re thinking he has some big hairy ones actually,” Quentin said.
Pia blushed guiltily.
“You know, don’t you?” Quentin asked softly.
She raised her head reluctantly, afraid they’d read Max’s secret in her eyes.
Quentin’s narrowed gaze pinned her to the spot. “He’s a fucking werewolf, isn’t he?”
Fear for Max instantly dried her mouth. Her heart pounded in her chest.
Joe rose from his seat and grabbed her upper arms. “Pia! This is important. Is Max a werewolf?”
Tears pooled in her eyes and trickled down her face. “He’s not dangerous to us.”
His face grew red, his mouth twisted with anger. “Goddamn! Fuck!”
“Where is he?” Quentin asked, rising from his seat.
“H-he’s supposed to be here,” she whispered.
“All of us are supposed to be here,” he said, his voice deadly calm.
“Lily! He’s going after Lily!” Joe released her. “We’ve got to get back to The Compound.”
“He’s not like that,” Pia cried out. “He wouldn’t hurt her. Why would you think he’d hurt her?”
“If he finds out she’s carrying vamp kits, he’ll fucking kill her!” Joe shouted.
“She is?” Pia grew cold. “I wondered, but the women were so tight-lipped.”
“She’s having my babies—and if anything happens to her, I’ll kill anyone responsible.”
“Let’s go,” Dylan said. “Call the women on your cell, Quentin. Let them know we’re on the way.”
A phone. Shocked and feeling like events were whirling out of her control, Pia could only think that she needed to get to a phone. The second part of her mission was accomplished. Navarro needed to know his hunch was right, a breeder was pregnant by a vampire.
Instead, she let the men herd her outside the station and into the sedan. As the tires spit gravel, she wondered where the hell Max was and hoped he’d gone to ground. If the vampires found him, he was a dead man.
* * * * *
Finally, the sedan came to a screeching halt. Max waited long heart-stopping minutes before he opened the trunk latch and climbed out onto the driveway inside The Compound.
His impulsive action to hide inside the sedan had paid off. Although their voices were muffled, he’d discovered they were on to him. His life in Vero was forfeit. After he learned the truth for himself about Joe’s wife, he would disappear. He couldn’t return to the clan. He couldn’t remain in his “blended” world either.
He couldn’t have Pia.
Her tearful comments to the rest of the SU vamps had tugged at his heart. He was warmed by her defense.
“He wouldn’t hurt us,” she’d said. “He saved my life last night.”
“I don’t know what Max’s game is,” Dylan had said. “But there’s a reason he’s still hanging around. I just hope it’s not the one I’m thinking. If it is, we have to hope like hell he hasn’t had time to tell others of his kind.”
What had they been talking about? They were speeding toward The Compound. He knew because Quentin called the women to tell them to make sure the place was locked up tight. The only reason Max could think for their desperation was that he’d been right about the woman, Lily.
But he had to know for sure.
Max kept to the bushes next to the house, looking for an unguarded entrance. Finally, he spied one, fifteen feet above him—a balcony. He stripped in the darkness and shifted into werewolf form, telling himself to follow the scent of the breeder. Hoping he’d remember his purpose once he’d changed.
The wolf backed up several feet from the wall and ran at it, leaping into the air to catch the railing above with his paws. Then he was over it, standing on the balcony. He heard voices within, raised in shouts. A woman—his woman—crying. His hackles rose on his shoulders and back. He lowered the door latch with his nose and crept inside the darkened room.
The room held faint traces of popcorn and beer, he rushed past sofas redolent with human and vampire scent to the door, which stood open. The light from a hallway shone like a beacon. He peered around the door into the hallway, raising his nose to catch scents in the air.
He smelled a woman with a muddied aroma—human-vampire-breeder. He knew he should follow it, but the other scent, his mate’s, was the one that pulled him down the hallway to an open area.
A railing stood between him and the large, hollow-sounding room below. The voices came from there. The overriding odor of several vampires set his heart beating faster—he peered between the rails and found his woman surrounded by large male vampires. They emanated anger and spoke harshly to his woman. Two human women, pregnant by their scent, and a vamp female hovered around the edges of the circle.
Then the male with hair the color of sunlight, lifted his face, his nose twitching. His gaze rose. He’d caught the wolf’s scent.
Letting a warning growl build in his throat, the wolf leapt over the railing to land at the feet of the woman.
Pia screamed as a large black beast leapt into their midst. He whirled in front of her to face the group closing in around them, snarling, his long fangs bared in a feral grimace.
Weapons were drawn and aimed directly at his broad chest.
Oh God, Max! She threw herself over him, clasping her arms around his neck. “Don’t shoot him!”
“Stand away from him,” Joe yelled.
She held on to the bristling male wolf whose deep-throated growl raised goose bumps on her flesh. “You can’t shoot him. I won’t let you hurt him.”
“He’s here for Lily,” Joe said, his face darkening, his face transforming into a vampire’s mask.
Joe’s leer was every bit as frighten
ing to Pia as the rumble emanating from the wolf’s chest. Still she clung to Max.
“Damn you! He’ll kill her. Step aside, or I’ll shoot you both.”
“Joe, please,” Lily said, clutching his sleeve. “He’s surrounded anyway. Think!”
Joe hesitated. “Stand behind me, Lily. He’ll have to come through me.”
“Fine,” she said, slipping behind him. “Be a hero. Just hold your fire.”
Pia leaned close to Max’s twitching ears. “Please baby. Come back to me. I need you to change now.”
The wolf shuddered beneath her. The rumbling didn’t lessen.
“Max! I love you. If you don’t change, they’ll kill you. They’ll kill both of us. You’ll leave them no choice.” She hugged him hard. “Please, baby. Come back to me.”
The wolf grew silent, his body tensing at every restless movement made by the men, but Pia sensed he listened. Some part of his animal brain heard her.
“I love you, Max. I trust you.”
From one moment to the next, the wolf shuddered and fell to his haunches. He whimpered as he curled on his side, then the hair covering his body seemed to melt away, his body grew broader, his legs straightened. Pia let go of his neck and watched as his face morphed into the one she loved.
“Max,” she sighed and threw herself against his bare chest.
He rolled to his back taking her with him. “Pia.” His fingers swept away the tears she hadn’t known were on her cheeks. “I heard you crying,” he said, his voice sounding rough and husky. “Did I also hear you say you love me?”
Pia gave him a smile, knowing her lips trembled, but not caring he saw how much he meant to her. “Yeah. I’m crazy in love with you.”
His hand cupped the back of her head and forced her down. His lips captured hers with a “Max” kiss—hard, forceful, passionate.
Pia opened her mouth and groaned, taking his incredible tongue into her mouth. Her hands smoothed over his bare chest and upward to cup his face.
“This opens a whole new avenue for my research,” Lily said. “And I’m never going to take a vamp’s word for a wolf’s attributes again.”
“Lily! Just keep that damn tape measure in your pocket,” Joe grumbled.
