by Scott, Talyn
“In the air?”
“Of course. And after you heal, I’m sure I can feed from you very soon,” he whispered, his eyes closing at that relishing thought. “I dream of feeding from you again and again – without you dying on me. I’ve been practicing, you know.”
The females he’d killed, feeding them his blood and, in turn, trying to feed from them without killing them. But it had never worked. “Well, I want that, too, Extol. To feel you at my throat would be a pleasure.” Her eyes flicked to Heath and he wasn’t watching her, was staring behind her. He opened his mouth in another wordless warning. When Extol noticed their exchange, he hissed in the way of vampires. In an effort to pacify him, Molly whispered throatily, “I need to be with the strongest male. And if you can take down an ancient werewolf such as H-heath then I need to be with you.”
He then pressed his lips to the side of her throat, his fangs grazing her back and forth. “For what it’s worth, I loved Wilson.” He shuddered against her body, keeping his face buried against her. “I wanted to share you in the way your werewolf males share you, but Wilson would hear none of that.”
“In many ways, Wilson was selfish,” she offered, reaching up to stroke his gleaming blond hair. She pulled a few pieces of debris away, a loving gesture. When she gently worked her other hand behind his head, she fixed the two keys between her fingers, the metal cutting into her scorched flesh, but she didn’t care.
“Wasn’t he selfish?” he asked on a pained sob. “I found out that he was cheating on us. But don’t give it a second thought, Dibosa met with an unfortunate accident just this morning.”
“You fed from her?” Molly closed her eyes, readying herself, and when she did, white sparks popped in the darkness of her vision. No doubt, she had retina damage.
With a voice nearly lifeless he said, “No, I would never touch her after Wilson fucked her. She was driving, I coerced her to take a wrong turn. From there, she ended up in a canal. Since it wasn’t yet daylight, the roads were slow, no one around to notice.” He shrugged and she realized he’d stayed and watched Dibosa drown.
Sure, Molly had loathed her, but she couldn’t imagine wishing a drowning death on anyone. She noticed Heath trying to move. Something was shifting all around them, Molly could sense it, but she had no clue if it was good or bad. “Kiss me again,” she said finally, “like you did the other night.”
His breath caught as he quickly lowered his lips to hers. When he brushed them once, twice, she heard Heath’s strangled growl. “Don’t worry about him,” Extol whispered, his breath tasting of tin and copper, “he cannot transform with the silver pressing on what’s left of his skin.”
“T-that’s a relief.” She gripped his hair, pulling him closer, tightening her grip on the keys. When he again brushed her lips, she position a key right at his ear and slammed inward as hard as she could.
“You bitch!” He pulled back and bared his fangs at her, blood pouring from his ear.
Before he could register her next move, she wrenched the keys from his ear. When he made to grasp them, she thrust her knee in his stomach. It wasn’t enough to hurt a vampire, but she caught him off guard and he was disoriented from the undoubted pounding his ear injury caused him. With the same grip, she slammed the keys in one of his butterscotch eyes, not even stopping when he dug his claws into her wrist, pressing all the way in until she felt his orbital bones meet the metal and wrenched them out. When Extol turned to the side, she reached for the door handle on Ail’s car and managed to get herself inside, locking it behind her though she knew it would only buy her a second or two.
After wiping the goo from Ail’s keys on her thigh, she shoved the key in the ignition, nearly breaking them off in her haste. She wasn’t alone for long. Faster than any human could move, Extol opened the door, his blood literally pouring from the side of his face and head.
He bared his fangs at her. And in one svelte move, he was attached to her throat, his fangs buried deep in her jugular. The burning was nothing she had felt from Dru, the pain overshadowing all other pain before it. Her body was loosening, going limp with lifelessness, her heart stuttered a few times. She had no idea how long it went on, maybe a few seconds, minutes, or hours. But she heard someone frantically call her name. When she opened her mouth, she tasted blood…her blood. At the sound of pounding boots, Extol increased the pressure, sucking the very life out of her.
The opposite door opened. Familiar fingers pressed against her throat, trying to disengage Extol’s fangs without ripping out her throat. She knew it was impossible, the vampire had transformed into a nightmarish monster the minute he had tasted her.
“Molly!”
Ail, she thought, just leave. Her upper body was pushed back, Extol leaning into her, and she landed in the tiny space behind the front seats. Ail was screaming alongside Bane, and in the corner of her dimmed vision, she spotted Ail’s quiver. You only have one wooden arrow left. Would it work? Using her shoulder, she moved her arm incrementally. It was sluggish, as though she’d been sleeping on it all night, but she managed to grip the tip. As if Extol knew what she was trying to do, he left her throat. Next grabbed her hand and nearly crushed her bones, leaving the arrow in two pieces. Ail had him by the throat and reached for the sharpened tip. In a reddish-purple blur, he brought the arrow to Extol’s throat and stabbed him, his blood immediately arcing out in sprays timed by heartbeats. Ail had hit his jugular.
She must have blacked out, for when she came to; she was against Ail’s chest. He looked down at her, his face pale, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “My mate, you will rest now.” The words pierced her skull, his compulsion overriding her mind, but she had to know if Heath was okay. When she opened her mouth to ask him, he stopped her by answering her unspoken question. “He’s going to be fine, though I think both of us had heart attacks.” When she drifted back, she looked to the side, taking in the carnage, her vision going in and out. Ail demanded, “Stop fighting me. I don’t want to pressure you more than I have to.”
She looked for bodies. And sadly, she spied a few. But what she found shocking was a mound of dying, wingless Gryphs topped by the most horrifying creature possible, his claws filled with blood and broken feathers. “W-what is that,” she whispered, touching her painful throat with her fingertips.
Ail looked down at her, his piercing navy blues now glinting with his Beast. “Someone no one should fuck with, the Alpha of North America.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Two weeks later.
“If you keep fidgetin’ with that ring, lass, you’re going to wear a hole in that finger.”
“How can I not fidget with this?” Molly looked down at her engagement ring slash rock. White diamonds flanked the largest emerald she’d ever seen, and she would be afraid to wear it in public without one of them with her. It had belonged to Heath’s Scottish grandmother, and to Molly’s surprise, the woman was still alive. Heath and Ail had presented the ring to her this morning, both going down on one knee and asking her to marry them in the human tradition. However, Molly no longer cared about human tradition. She’d never fit in anywhere until she came to know them. Now, she was comfortable. Now, she was home. No matter what continent they lived on, which was still up in the air. But she refused to bring that up right now, not on a night such as this, when they could finally go out as a family.
Heath growled low, “You’re not thinkin’ about that ring anymore and you know it.”
“I’ll never tell,” she said with a mischievous smile. Ail looked down at her, and she brushed the dark bangs from his eyes. “There you are.”
“And here we are,” he said reluctantly, opening the door when the SUV came to the stop. When Terje jumped out of the driver’s side to help them, Ail waved him off and reached in for her. Molly’s strength was back to normal, and she could stand on her own two feet quite well, but she’d grown to love his pampering. Next, he helped Heath from the car. To save Heath’s male pride, Molly made a pointed effort t
o study the roof on Renee’s house. “Is that a Blue Heron up there?”
Terje stopped next to her, looking up, “Yep, your eyes are getting better every day.”
And Molly would never take her eyesight for granted again. She looked at Renee’s side deck and made for the stairs. When walking up them, she realized for the umpteenth time that she would never take her family for granted again, either. She hadn’t been able to go to see Tatum as she had planned and Dru feared her delivery date was coming up sooner than he would like for it to. And after the Gryphs revolt, things were on the shaky side between the factions. Jayce and Bren had hidden Tatum from everyone, including her family. She had a feeling Bane knew where they were, but no one was getting it out of him. And Molly had to remind herself that if anyone knew what he was doing, it was Jayce Jordan. So everyone would just have to deal with his decisions, which was the way of honoring the Alpha.
Heath and Ail had misted beside her, especially since Heath couldn’t take the stairs. Molly stood on her tiptoes and pulled him to her lips. “I love you, Heath Faden.”
“And I love you, lass.” Every day he improved, and Dru felt that he would make a full recovery. His skin was back, and physically, he looked the same. But inside, his muscles were still weak from such severe silver poisoning. So she and Ail had to coddle Heath, without him knowing it.
“And you, Ail Ruyter,” she growled the way he liked. “I love you.”
He closed his eyes, savoring her words. “I love you, Molly Ballbuster.” With Ail’s mouth slanting over hers, taking possession of her tongue, Heath reached around them and knocked on the side French door. Captiva’s moonlit surf was amazing. Indigo blue as far as her eyes could see mingled in with dark ocean greens. It was peaceful here. Yeah, an evening of tranquility would fit the bill. However, when Bane opened the side door, her tranquility floated away.
“Hospital corners?” Renee shrieked from somewhere behind her husband. “Why would I want hospital corners on my bed?”
“It looks neater,” Granny growled.
Bane said nothing and simply gestured for Molly and the crew to enter his home. Fortunate for him, he stepped outside on the side deck with Mason in tow for a private chat. Molly wouldn’t mind stepping back out herself. In front of her, Granny was strolling through the kitchen with her rolling walker, shaking her disgruntled head in perpetual dismay. Molly couldn’t help but notice that her grey-blue dome hadn’t budged a fraction. As though she’d shellacked it with no less than two cans of spray just this evening.
“No one’s going to see the bed, Granny. Why does it matter?” Renee groaned, biting the inside of her lip so she wouldn’t shoot off her mouth and say what she really thought.
“I’m seeing it. And tighten those sheets the way I taught you! Check the guestroom, you can bounce a quarter off my bed and I’m ninety-three!” Granny strolled right over a hissing Scoopy’s tail. But in Granny’s defense, the cat had gained far too much weight to get out of his own way.
Renee’s eyes narrowed. “If you can make it up to my third floor bedroom and check out my unmade bed, I’m wondering why you need a cane or that wheeled walker-thingy you stroll around behind.”
Molly made her presence known, pulling Renee in for a hug. “Granny has to knock us around with something.” She then reached over and hugged Granny, whispering, “Anyone who can move that quickly doesn’t have rheumatoid arthritis.”
“Doctor says I do.”
“Well, of course.” As long as the doctor said so, it was sealed in concrete. “What can I help with?” Molly spun, surveying the kitchen. In typical Renee style, the counters were a disaster, no rhyme or reason, just health food galore scattered everywhere.”
“First things first,” Renee said, her raven brows drawing, her hands gripping Molly’s arms, “do you want to talk about it?”
“Not at all, I told you a week ago that I was fine,” Molly answered, eyeing yet another new Pit Bull trudging through the kitchen. “What’s that one’s name?” She stepped back warily. “And how’s his temperament?”
“This is Thor. Temperament’s fine.” Renee placed her hands on either side of his head and gave him a kiss. “He has a sensitive stomach, so don’t feed him anything off your plate.”
“It must be pretty bad if you named him after the god of thunder.” Molly veered around the kitchen island. “Don’t worry, I don’t want to dangle any food in front of those teeth.” She stepped to the sink, washed her hands, and tied on one of Renee’s aprons. Reaching for a bowl of salad fixings, she watched Heath settle onto the sofa with Rune, becoming quickly captivated with a ball game. “Hand me a cutting board and your sharpest cleaver for a little chopping therapy.”
“Yeah, knives are the epitome of physical therapy,” Renee said with a laugh.
“Need some help, sweetheart?” Ail came behind her, discretely pressing his erection against her lower back. She fought not to be embarrassed, understanding the full moon was driving him bat-shit and he and Heath planned to mate her this night.
“Maybe,” she said, leaning back against him. Molly didn’t look up when Renee handed her the knife and cutting board, instead, going right to work on the nearest cucumber. “Are you hungry?”
“Oh, I’m hungry alright,” he whispered against the side of her throat. “I can think of many interesting ways to use that cucumber. Shall I demonstrate inside the confidential confines of the pantry?”
She smacked his hand away when he reached for the long cucumber. Then she glanced at Granny, who had settled in the kitchen chair, quietly snapping a bowl of green beans, ignoring them. Molly cleared her throat. “I hope you like tofu burgers without cheese, Ail. Renee is a full-fledged vegan now. She won’t even look at an egg.”
Ail wadded up paper towels and wiped off something that resembled pureed squash from the counter. His arm kept brushing up against hers, and although Molly was fully dressed in a skirt and blouse, topped by a full apron, her nipples puckered for him.
“Maybe I’ll dig up something tasty in the marsh,” he said under his breath for Molly’s ears only. With a tray of food in hand, Renee pecked Ail on the cheek and walked to the table. “How are you holding up, after last night?” he whispered, his breath ruffling strands of hair that had escaped her conservative twist.
After waiting for her to get well, they had both finally taken her together. “Beautifully and I’m waiting for a repeat later.”
He tugged on a piece of her hair. “You remember everything I told you about mating?”
“Yes,” she said. Ail explained the aspects of mating, that he and Heath would take her together under the full moon. She would have to drink their blood and they would have to drink hers. Afterwards, she would become immortal like her sisters.
“Good, just remember not to run. It’s a night of complete surrender.”
“Don’t run and surrender. I think I’ve got it.” When he reached over her, snagging a slice of cucumber, she inhaled his scent. Ail didn’t wear cologne, but there was something so masculine about the way he smelled. Even though they weren’t necessarily touching, the heat of his body seemed to slide into hers.
He tossed the cucumber slice in his mouth, crunching deliberately. “You sure you won’t change your mind about going into the pantry. You may have sliced up this cucumber, but I have a non-vegetable alternative,” he whispered, his navy blue eyes peeking beneath that sexy length of midnight hair.
“Someone’s going to hear you,” she said in exasperation. He picked up a carrot, scrunched his nose and then tossed it back.
His eyes dropped to her chest and hers followed. With an inward groan, she realized her borrowed apron had a graphic of two friend eggs strategically positioned over each breast, taking sunny-side-up to a naughty level. Thanks, Renee. When she jutted her chin at him, Ail asked in a conspiratorial whisper, “What does Renee have against eggs?”
“Ail?” Heath called for him.
“Coming,” he yelled back. To Molly, he said, “
Seriously, I’ll meet you out back in a minute. Snag some of those carrots.”
Her lips parted as Ail sauntered away and joined the rest of the men. Out of nowhere, Arian plopped down five over-browned hotdogs on the counter in front of her, followed by a two-liter of warm, greenish soda. “Molly Girl, don’t expect anything decent to eat around here. Renee won’t allow it.” He spun his white-blond head around, searching for his wife while acting as though he’d just robbed a bank. “This is the best I can do, for now. Hurry up and eat. I think she’s on the phone.”
“Uh.” Molly raised a brow when he singlehandedly smothered all five hotdogs with a bottle of red sauce entitled Satan’s Balwz. “Thanks, but I’ll stick with the salad.”
“Cause you don’t know what’s good,” he argued, licking a dab of sauce from his fingers before offering one to Granny. “Mrs. Shirley,” he raised his voice, “how about you?”
Granny looked startled, her brows lifting above her glasses like angry, blue lightning bolts. “Sure, brute, I’ll down one if I want to spend what’s left of my life inside the can.”
“Jeez, Granny.” Molly could feel her cheeks instantly burning.
“Have at it, Thor.” Arian kept three and tossed two hotdogs at the Pit Bull. With a low snarl, Thor snapped them up before they even hit the floor.
“Ah, Arian, I know you needed to destroy the evidence.” Molly said, recalling her sister’s words. “However, Renee warned me that Thor has a sensitive stomach.”
“What?” Arian’s lips thinned before he raced to side French door and attempted to shoo out Thor. The dog wouldn’t budge an inch. “Are you sure she wasn’t complaining about that sick, little feline who keeps taking a dump inside my favorite golf bag?”
“Oh, I’m sure she was referring to this dog right here.” Molly sidestepped Thor. “Don’t you listen to anything your wife says?”
