Found in Flames

by Desconhecido

  A moan escaped her when his fingers slipped beneath her no-longer-tucked-in shirt. He flattened his palm over her spine, pressing her closer as he sucked her tongue into his mouth. It was all she could do to push up to her tiptoes and wrap her arms around his shoulders, kissing him back feverishly. A stroke of the tongue, an arch of the back, a nip of the teeth, and a growl, and Luka slid a hand down her back until he had taken firm hold of her ass. He lifted her entirely from the ground, his other arm still wrapped around her torso, and plunged his tongue back into her mouth.

  Instinct had Joella wrapping her legs around his hips, her fingers threading into his thick hair as she dragged her teeth over his tongue. His erection was pressing firmly against her inner thigh through the denim of his jeans and the thinner material of her slacks. She scraped her nails against his scalp as his tongue picked up a rhythm that sent liquid heat pooling low in her belly. He growled again against her lips, sending delicious shivers down her spine, and her hips rocked into his on instinct.

  Luka hit his knees, the motion grinding their bodies closer together and pulling a moan from some part of her that Joella had nearly forgotten. And then she was on her back on the grass, Luka’s larger, sculpted body covering hers as he used the new angle to deepen his kiss. His powerful tongue was everywhere, stroking and rolling and teasing and driving her insane. Her nails scraped his scalp as she clung to him. He rumbled again, not quite a growl, and broke from the kiss.

  Joella hadn’t yet recovered her breath when Luka ripped her shirt off. The motion was so quick she wasn’t sure if he’d tugged it over her head or literally torn it in half. More importantly, she didn’t care. Either way his obvious need for her was sexy as hell. He was going to dominate her and she absolutely could not wait. So when he destroyed her bra she gave his hips a squeeze, caught his nearest wrist, and deliberately set his palm over her breast.

  Luka didn’t require encouragement. His hand curled around her breast, fingers kneading and tormenting as his lips latched onto her throat. She moaned loudly, her hands sliding around his shoulders and torso in a desperate need to touch more of him. He sucked and licked on her throat while his thumb rubbed along her nipple and Joella swore foreplay was not supposed to feel that good. Then his kisses began trailing lower and her body quivered with anticipation. His tongue slid along her collarbone as he gave her breast a final squeeze. The next thing she knew, he’d latched his lips to her neglected nipple and was sucking hard.

  She gasped, her back arching, and he slipped an arm behind her waist to hold her closer. His tongue stroked along her breast, teasing her nipple and sending fire through her veins, but it was nothing like when he nipped a moment later. Joella swore she was about to fall apart and he hadn’t even removed her pants!

  As if reading her mind, Luka suddenly released her and dragged his large, calloused palms along her sides until he’d reached her knees. Deliberately pushing her legs to the ground. Her slacks, shoes, socks, and panties were gone in quick succession, tossed haphazardly aside one after the other. And just like that she was entirely bare and wantonly exposed in the moonlight beneath the most gorgeous and sinfully masculine man she’d ever known. But instead of scrunching his nose in distaste, Luka’s hands landed back on her thighs and slowly slid up, burning along her skin as he leaned forward. His chest expanded as he drew in a deep breath and he bowed his head, pressing a kiss to her belly button before moving lower.

  His lips met her tender flesh and she moaned. Immediately he plunged his tongue into her center and Joella arched on a broken gasp. The fire already consuming her suddenly threatened to overtake her and her hips bucked as he continued to sweep his talented tongue into and around her center. He gave a long, slow lick before pulling back and her eyes were drawn to his on some silent command.

  He held her gaze as he plunged two fingers deep into her core.

  Her body arched, but he refused to let her look away. “Luka,” she pleaded breathlessly as his fingers began pumping into her.

  “I’m going to ruin you, Ella,” he promised, his deep voice caressing her skin and raising goosebumps on her arms. Then he promptly lowered his head again, pumping harder, and caught her clit with his teeth. A lick, a sharp pump with his fingers, and a hard suck was all it took to send her flying over the edge.

  Joella cried out, her hips surging up to meet him of their own volition, as the fire within her finally found release.

  He retreated, but it took her a moment to focus her attention. When she did she found him stepping out of his jeans. Her mouth watered at the impressive sight of his erection and her body temperature spiked again as his promise repeated in her memory. A man like him could ruin any woman he touched. And he wanted her.

  Luka returned to her, bowing his head in order to drag his nose from her soaked center up, up, up to her throat where he growled and latched his lips to her skin. Kissing, licking, sucking, nipping. From the base of her throat to the underside of her jaw, slowly, while he pressed his hard and toned chest into her breasts and his erection teased her center. In no time Joella was burning again, so hot that she couldn’t help but squirm beneath him as her hands found purchase on his skin. One curled over his spine and the other returned to his hair.

  “Let me hear you,” Luka rumbled with his lips grazing her ear.

  In the next instant his hips snapped forward and he’d buried his entire length in her core.

  Joella cried out, her vision blurring for a moment as her back came as high off the ground as his body allowed. She tightened her hold on him, lifting a leg and curling it around his hip.

  Luka growled in her ear, his forehead falling to her shoulder, and one hand landed on her hip possessively. He rolled his hips, grinding hard into her, and withdrew slowly. Letting her feel every delicious inch of his rigid cock. Then he’d caught her lips in a crushing kiss, his tongue invading her mouth, and he thrust back into her a beat later. She moaned shamelessly into his kiss, doing her best to press her body closer to his. She wanted all of him, everywhere, all at once. So when he picked up a deep, grinding rhythm without releasing her lips she was eager to reciprocate.

  He sank into her body with a passion just short of ferocity. His hand held her hip in place in order to allow him the access he needed. With every forward surge he would pause, buried deeper than should have been possible, and grinded his hips hard into hers before retreating to do it all again. Every time he filled her, she thought for sure she would explode, but he never quite allowed it. Over and over again he thrust into her, all the while sucking the air from her lungs and stroking her tongue sensually.

  Then he dragged his teeth over her tongue before breaking the kiss, braced his weight evenly on both elbows, and drove himself home again. She exploded the moment his hips began to roll, crying out breathlessly and digging her nails into his skin lest she literally fall apart. Luka growled next to her ear as his own release took him and he leaned more heavily into her as his hips slowed.

  Joella was still breathing heavily when their bodies finally stilled. Her vision was still half white and blurry. She felt weightless. “Wow,” she gasped thoughtlessly. Never in her life would she have thought she’d be taken quite so… powerfully.

  Luka rumbled something, but she couldn’t quite make it out. He followed it up by trailing light, surprisingly gentle kisses up the side of her throat until he found her lips. The kiss that followed was slow and sensual, less demanding but no less intoxicating. Then he retreated, disentangling from her body in order to roll them both over. Him on his back and her sprawled on his chest.

  “Luka,” she started, not entirely sure what she actually intended to say.

  “Shh,” he interrupted, tangling one hand in her hair. “Rest, Ella. We can talk later.”

  Rest. Yeah, she could go for that. It’d been a long, stressful day and now that her body was thoroughly sated, the fatigue was hitting her hard. Rest would be good.

  ****

  Luka took his time with his rounds the
next morning. He could barely focus past falling asleep with Joella sprawled across his body on that hillside. He’d been hard for the woman since he first caught a whiff of her scent, it was true, but he hadn’t expected to come that hard when he finally got her alone. His instincts had taken complete control and he’d damned near claimed her as his mate without her permission. And the very fact that ‘without her permission’ was his larger concern terrified him. Since when had he even decided he wanted a mate?

  He really wasn’t sure. He just knew that when he’d found her and Michelle’s pup being cornered by Char he’d nearly lost it. Then he found out about the mountain lion. So many ways she could have died while he’d been away, chasing false leads no less. There really was no excuse for that. Except that her fate really shouldn’t have concerned him as much as it did. He’d never bothered to care for a human before.

  The whole damned situation confused him. All he really knew at this point was that protecting Joella was incredibly important. She was his. At least for now.

  “Alpha,” Chad called, pulling Luka’s focus back to the moment. The younger wolf was coming up from the edge of the territory, the line he’d been patrolling during the night.

  Luka arched a brow at him, staying silent. He expected Chad would want to head off straight away.

  Inclining his head as a show of respect, Chad said, “The twins just departed for their hunt. I haven’t caught any traces of the lion’s scent, I don’t think it’s come back. Also … I suspect Max will want to stay and defend the pack today instead of come hunting with us.”

  Not a word about the chase…. That was a good thing, but it honestly surprised him. Instead of voicing that, however, Luka replied, “Good. And you’re probably right. We’ll be another nose short today. Go get some rest. I’ll send Lew to wake you when the meal’s ready.”

  Chad nodded and moved away to do as he’d been told.

  Luka stayed still for a moment, reflecting on the aspect of their situation he hadn’t really given thought to yet. With Justin gone, he had no Beta. And while it was true a wolf pack could function without a Beta, it was just as true that a pack couldn’t function well or for long without a properly established leadership. As much as he loathed the idea, Luka really needed to be thinking about his options. He could hold off on choosing a new Beta until the chase was over, return with whatever was left of the pack to their former home territory, and choose from whomever stuck around. But that was all presuming he survived. And if he didn’t—if he died before a Beta was in place—the pack would fall apart.

  They’d become Rogues.

  Michelle and Lew’s pups would never be safe. The twins would likely get themselves killed. No one would put up with their attitudes for long. If Emily wasn’t healed yet, she and Max would be easy targets. Chad and Russell had a chance on their own. They were strong and not incompetent. But even if the entire group stuck together, there wasn’t an Alpha among them. There would be in-fighting at best, they’d tear each other’s throats out at worst. In reality they would likely split and be picked off one at a time.

  He needed to choose a Beta. A Beta could hold them together long enough to get them back home, where hopefully they could find or establish a new pack. So he would pay attention today, and maybe tomorrow, and see who seemed to be the most pack-minded. See who, if it came to it, took it upon themselves to back or enforce his calls. Who the pack listened to and who the pack ignored.

  In the meantime, now that his rounds were done, all he could do was return to Joella and wait for the twins to return with their breakfast. And, hopefully, no one would wander out of the territory while he was hunting.

  Chapter Seven

  “I can’t believe you destroyed my bra,” Joella said, again, when Luka returned to the small ‘cave’ he’d adopted as his spot. She’d attempted to lecture him on this same subject when they’d woken at daybreak, too. It was such a shame humans were raised to hide their bodies so much.

  “It was in my way,” Luka countered, knowing his response wouldn’t appease her. She was sitting on a boulder with her back to the cave, as if to get fresh air. She’d changed, of course, into some of the clothes he’d acquired for her the day before. They suited her far more than the stiff professional clothes she’d previously been wearing.

  Joella scrunched up her nose and stood. “You didn’t pick up a replacement, so what am I supposed to do? Hide in this hollow rock all day?”

  “Of course not,” he said, deliberately stepping into her personal space. “Why would you do that?” He knew the answer, but he wanted to make her say it.

  “Because I’m—!” She cut herself off, waved her arms in a broad generic gesture, and finally said, “I’ve got big boobs, okay? They’ll bounce all over the place. It’ll be embarrassing!”

  At this Luka grinned and swept his hands up beneath her shirt until he’d caught her aforementioned breasts in his hands. She gasped, cheeks immediately flushing, and he leaned close. “Oh, I noticed,” he assured her with a deliberate squeeze. “But these aren’t anything to be embarrassed about.” He grazed his thumbs over her nipples as he spoke, enjoying the shudder that rolled down her spine and made her breath hitch in her throat.

  “Th-that’s cheating,” she whispered, trying—and failing—to keep the desire in her scent from coming out in her voice.

  Luka danced his lips over her jaw, up to her ear, and purred, “Just be glad I didn’t destroy all your clothes.”

  Her hands landed on his bare chest bracingly and her head fell to his shoulder as he continued to knead her breasts. It took her several seconds to find her voice, and when she did the desire in it shot straight to his cock. “What if I … destroyed your pants?”

  Letting his nose slip into her hair at the base of her throat, Luka replied, “Then I guess I’d be naked. Would you like to destroy my pants, Ella?”

  Her nails curled into his pecks and he distinctly heard a heavy swallow. “At the moment … maybe,” she finally admitted, voice breathless.

  He grinned and took a single step backwards, withdrawing his hands from her shirt. “Glad we understand each other, then,” he said with a smirk. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were glazed over with lust. The scent of her arousal had him straining in his jeans and he was very seriously tempted to continue their game, but he knew he couldn’t. Not yet. “Come sit with me,” he requested, stepping past her and into the little cave. “I want to ask a favor of you.”

  That was bound to get her attention.

  “You what?” she asked, clearly thrown enough for the lust to be cleared a little from her brain. She followed after him immediately, claiming a seat within arms’ reach next to him.

  Good.

  Dropping an elbow onto a lifted knee, Luka said, “While I’m out today I’d like it if you could interact with the pack. Keep your ears open, but don’t be obvious about it. I want you to listen to their conversations, try to get a sense of their impressions of each other.”

  Curiosity was flooding her scent now. “What do you mean? Do you have a traitor in the midst or something?”

  “No,” he assured her. “I need to choose a new Beta, and the Beta has to be someone they trust. Someone they respect.”

  Joella was quiet for a moment, processing his words. “I kind of get that, but…. Is ‘Beta’ wolf-speak for, like, ‘prince’ or something?”

  Again Luka’s lips twitched and he met her gaze easily. “Not quite. Think of it more like your military. It’s ‘wolf-speak’ for ‘second in command’.”

  Her delectable lips made a perfect ‘O’ and she nodded. “Okay, I get it.”

  Unable to help himself, Luka teased, “Otherwise it’ll have to be you.” Not that that was possible, but she didn’t know that, and all of a sudden he just had to have a little fun with her.

  Joella sputtered, eyes widening, and screeched, “Me?” Shaking her head, and her hands, wildly, she added, “Uh-uh, that would never work. For one, I’m human.”

&
nbsp; “Obviously. I’d have to Turn you.” And he knew she didn’t know the implications of that. He had no intention of explaining them just yet, either.

  She paled, swallowed, and hesitantly asked, “Are you … planning on doing that?”

  So she wasn’t ready. That didn’t surprise him. Hell, he wasn’t really sure he was ready for that, either. But the fact that he’d thought it, in a round-about way earlier, had forced him to realize he would very likely need to be giving that idea some serious thought in the near future. For now, though, he could answer honestly. “No,” he replied. And to distract her from his own terrible choice of subject, he exaggeratedly rolled his eyes and added, “I’d have thought you had a sense of humor.”

  Joella balked. “That was a joke?” She reached out and swatted his scarred shoulder. “I didn’t think you had a sense of humor!”

  “I like to keep everyone on their toes,” he said easily, glancing forward as a new breeze rolled in. The twins were returning, breakfast would be soon.

  “Now that I believe,” Joella mumbled. Then she did the most unexpected thing. She adjusted her position until she was leaning into his side, her head on his shoulder, and let the fingers of one hand dance along his nearest leg. Except her scent indicated she wasn’t trying to make a move. She was just … resting. Casually.

  And he liked it. Fuck.

  She sucked in a sharp breath, body immediately tensing, and straightened as if she’d taken offense to his realization. Which was impossible, so he frowned, intending to ask her what was wrong. She groaned before he could speak and turned horrified eyes to him. “Luka … we didn’t…. Oh my God, I can’t believe I was so thoughtless!”