Cara rolled the statement around in her mind. She didn’t trust either of them to just believe what they said but this statement it fit with the things Darian said about the poison and about Aldrich.
“I’ll have to change his mind,” Cara decided aloud.
“He’s not going to change his mind. He’s stubborn,” Jules said.
Cara nodded. “Yeah, but I’m ten times worse.”
With her plan forming in her mind Cara left Rafi and Jules staring after her. She went to the wardrobe room and took her time finding items she hoped would aid her plan.
After bathing she dressed in the stretchy, form fitting, lavender dress. Then she brushed out her short hair and looked herself over in the mirror. “Not bad.”
We look good.
Cara smiled. Kate was right about growing to love her spirit wolf. Cara liked her more and more with each passing day.
She found Darian helping to set the table.
Tonight, was a formal night. Not every dinner with the pack was eaten at the table. Sometimes, they took the food outside and ate either on blankets or on the grass. Cara loved it most when they got to eat outside but tonight, eating inside suited her plan best.
“You look beautiful,” Darian said when he saw her. “Are you still angry with me?”
“Yes,” Cara said. “But not terribly furious. Do you know why?”
He smiled drawing closer to her. “Why?”
“Because I know how I’m going to change your mind.”
His smile seemed to flip over as he frowned. “You won’t change my mind.”
“I didn’t learn a lot of useful information in Aldrich Town but there is one thing that I know to be true.”
“What’s that?”
Cara leaned on the bravery of her spirit wolf and took a step toward him. She reached up and put her hands on the back of his neck guiding him toward her.
Her heart hammered in her chest as she recognized that heated gold hue in his gaze. Avoiding his kiss, she whispered in his ear, “Men are driven by sex. They need it. They crave it and when they want it most is when they can’t have it at all.”
“Cara,” her name sprang from his lips in a warning tone.
“I refuse to mate with you until you agree that I can fight Aldrich.”
Darian growled a deadly sound but Cara wasn’t afraid of him. She released her hold on him and kissed his cheek as she began pulling back.
Darian reached out and caught her hand before she could dash away. “You want to kiss me Cara? Kiss me.” He took her mouth with his. His lips heated like his gaze. Her body seemed to melt against his with the heat. His hand cupped her breast through the thin material of the dress.
Cara arched her back pressing into his hand as her nipples hardened with anticipation.
Then he let go of her hand and her breast pulling abruptly away from her lips. “Two can play at this game, Cara.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“She’s killing me,” Darian admitted to Killian.
“Why not claim her?” Killian asked. “It’s clear she loves you.”
Darian barked out a laugh. “She loves me? The woman wants me to die of an aneurism.”
Killian shook his head. “I don’t see how-”
“Last week she reached under the table and stroked my dick until I was so hard, I could have drilled a hole through our table.”
Killian’s dark brows rose. “And you just let her?”
“I returned the favor, but… The more I touched her…”
“I’m actually surprised you didn’t give in that night,” Killian admitted. “Is that the last time she tried to get you to fold?”
I wish.
“I’ve been sleeping in the office. It’s the only way I can be sure I won’t give in during a weak moment.”
Killian exhaled shaking his head with a smile on his face that pissed Darian off.
“Are you going to help me or not?”
“You are the alpha. You don’t need my help.”
Darian growled with his wolf. “I look forward to the day you fall in love Killian. I’m going to laugh in your face, you know that?”
“I’m not the mate for life type. Sorry.”
“I cannot command her to submit. You can’t be that stupid when it comes to women, Killian.”
Killian laughed. “I probably am but that isn’t what I meant.”
“Well? What did you mean?”
“She’s in love with you. Tell her how you feel and let her love for you make up her mind for her.”
Darian rubbed his eyes. He was so tired. Sleep was impossible to find because his body was in a constant state of arousal and need. “I hope you’re right.”
“We all do. You two are a permeating aphrodisiac walking around. It’s putting me in a really shitty mood, Darian. Like I said, I’m not the mate for life kind.”
Darian left Killian’s office and found Cara training with Rafi, and Jules. Cara was working hard. That look of solid determination on her face was the same as the one she’d worn when she made that leap, climbing the mountain.
“Leave us,” Darian roared as he stalked to the center of the courtyard where Cara stood.
She was breathing hard as he approached. Her pupils dilating as she looked up at him. “Had enough?”
“Have you?”
“You have to let me fight him. You have to let me face him. Don’t you understand that I can’t live with what I’ve already done? I stood by and did nothing. I have to do something. It has to stop.”
Darian reached for her ignoring her hands as she swatted against his hands and pulled her into an embrace. “None of that has anything to do with the fact that we’re denying ourselves each other. I want to marry you Cara. I want to protect you and keep you safe.”
“And you want-”
“Yes,” he growled. “I want to make love to you, Cara. I want to belong to you as I feel you do to me. We are predestined. Fated. I know you feel it.”
Cara pushed away from him. Tears slid down her face. “It’s all I have to make you listen to me. I want you like I was never supposed to want anyone. If you love me even half as much as I love you then you’ll let me go after Aldrich.”
Darian’s forehead creased as he studied her. “You mean to go after him yourself? By yourself?”
“Yes,” Cara said the sweet vulnerability she’d given him a glimpse of disappearing as her determination pushed to the front. “He won’t expect that I would kill him. He’s wrong.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Cara woke in Darian’s bed once again finding herself alone. Two weeks of pleading with him, begging him, touching him, trying to tempt him and Darian had the same answer for her.
Today will be different. She told herself as she climbed out of the bed. Cara was sore from training and she was sad because she thought that by now Darian would understand.
She didn’t see him at breakfast.
He’s avoiding me again.
Cara met Jules and Rafi for a run. It was supposed to build up her endurance but today they didn’t push too hard. It wasn’t a day to overdo.
They didn’t talk much. Cara was nervous. Her window of opportunity to get into Aldrich town was closing. Soon she would shift and the chance to end the terror he inflicted would be gone.
After lunch, they worked on training again. Cara thought she would not see him at all and hated that her insides ached and hurt with how much she missed him.
It wasn’t until she was eating dinner that she felt his gaze on her. She turned around finding him standing on the second floor. Cara could see him through the window of his bedroom.
I love you.
She swallowed the ache in her throat as she remembered what he’d said to her when he’d pleaded with her to stop the standoff. He looked as alone as she felt.
Darian, I love you. Why can’t you trust me to be brave enough to stand against Aldrich?
As if he could hear her thoughts, Darian turned away from the
window, leaving his bedroom.
He’d go back to his office, where he’d have tea and arrange for more supplies to be delivered from their allies in Sacramento. He clung to pack business waiting her out.
The pack began to shift to go for their evening run. Tonight, they were combing the mountainside behind the Rizer Fortress.
Cara returned to the community with Jules and Rafi. Her hands were sweating as she tugged at the skirt of the thin pink dress she loved so much.
“Here you go,” Jules said handing Cara the teacup and saucer.
She took it from Jules and went to his office before she lost her nerve. Turning the handle, Cara pushed the door open and walked entered without knocking.
“Your tea,” Cara bit out setting the cup in front of him on his desk.
Darian’s jaw clenched as he gave a sharp nod. “Thank you.”
Cara remained where she was waiting for him to look at her.
“Is there something else?” He asked tightly, still not looking up at her.
“I’m waiting for the teacup.”
Darian lifted the cup of hot tea and tossed it back like a shot of strong alcohol. “There.” He nearly broke the cup as he smacked it against the saucer.
“Let me go after, Aldrich.”
“No.”
Cara slammed the office door shut still standing inside with Darian. “Who are you to decide what I will do? I shouldn’t need your permission.” She slammed her hands down on his desk.
Darian looked up from the paperwork at last.
Every time he looked at her, his body grew hard. The sound of her voice made his shaft thicken, and the way she licked her lips made him crave the feel of her skin against his lips.
“Please, Darian. Seven years of my life he’s stolen, keeping us in that cage. You don’t know what it’s like not to feel the sun on your face for days at a time.”
Darian stood leaning over the desk to meet her gaze. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have survived if I were put in so small a space. It is unspeakable what Aldrich has done and is still doing to the people of the town. But, Cara. You have suffered enough. Leave him to me.”
“You’ve had seven years to get to him,” she challenged. “Tell me what I have to do to prove to you I can do this.”
A million sexual requests shot through his mind as he met that warrior fire in her eyes. He would not ask for any of them. Nothing was more important than keeping her safe. “You have too many scars already. I will not allow you to be hurt again.”
“Jules thinks I can do it,” Cara said as he rounded the desk heading for the door.
Of course, she did.
Darian turned back around and took a step back into the office. “Jules wants you out of her way so she can try and be the wolf at my side. You can’t believe a word she says.”
Cara folded her arms. “Why not? At least she’s talking to me.”
“I’m talking to you, Cara. I’m just not giving you your way,” Darian said closing the space between them. “I’ve been holding back. Enduring all your teasing without pushing you to the brink as you’ve done to me.”
Cara licked her lips the blue in her eyes brightening as he wrapped his arm around her waist. Darian framed her face with his other hand and claimed her lips with his. She was stiff under him, fighting what he knew she felt too.
So, bloody stubborn.
He swept his tongue over the seam of her lips, loving the taste of her. She was just as sweet as her scent. Darian tilted her head to get better access to her mouth. As he tried again to get her to open to him.
When he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, and pulled her firmly against him. His hard and shaft pressing against her soft flesh.
Cara gasped.
The whimper of sound coming from Cara reminded him of her fear, and her innocence. He began to withdraw from her slowly. Darian could feel her tongue moving with his. He couldn’t take what she wasn’t willingly giving.
“Cara,” he said her name, his voice thick with his desire for her.
“Did you touch Jules like you touch me?” Cara asked him, her voice quiet.
“No,” Darian answered. “There is no one else but you, Cara.”
Her breasts were rising and falling with each breath she took. Her nipples were tight and pressed against bodice of her dress, calling to him to be tasted, touched, and teased.
I don’t know how much longer I can stop myself from claiming her. Please Cara, tell me you want this. You want me.
He looked at her with desire in his eyes. Cara didn’t feel nervous or afraid that he might try and force himself on her. She knew he wouldn’t.
Darian, said things to her that made her feel beautiful and loved. It was the kind of things she’d longed to have said to her. He cared about her, and was gentle with her.
The connection they shared through their spirit wolves gave her a glimpse of what he was feeling for her and the sensation of devotion and love humbled her. She’d been cold with him all this time and now that she wanted to respond to him she didn’t know what to do.
“If I… if we mate, will you let me train to lead the pack with you against Aldrich?”
“No,” he answered without hesitation. “I love you. There is nothing anyone could give me that would make me change my mind and allow Aldrich to be anywhere near you.”
His strong, protective tone heated her from the inside out. She wanted to kiss him, to have his hands on her body, to feel his skin against hers.
Cara walked over to the door Darian left open and pulled it shut. She wasn’t sure what to do or say. She only knew that she wanted to be with Darian, she wanted to experience what it felt like to be loved.
“I mean what I said, Cara. You will not return to Aldrich town. It is far too dangerous.”
She took a few steps toward him, but her knees started to shake with fear and nervousness, so, she stopped. Her fingers found the top button on the front of the dress. She undid the button, reminding him of the first time she’d stripped for him.
The vein in his forehead stood out further as his golden eyes watched her fingers. “I want you so much that I can barely breath, Cara. But I won’t have you this way.”
Cara gulped, her fingers catching and accidentally releasing the second button.
“Please, Cara. I am Alpha but I am still a man. You are pushing me too far.”
Cara lowered her gaze and could see the evidence of his arousal, straining against his pants. His hand wrapped around the edge of the desk as she looked at him. He was growing longer and harder under her gaze.
It has to be tonight, Cara. Her spirit wolf urged.
“Darian, I know you won’t give me permission or help me to get Aldrich myself.”
His golden eyes concentrated on her face, he was trying so hard to keep from looking lower where her luscious curves called to him.
Maybe I’m not doing this right?
Cara walked across the room, ignoring the way her legs seemed to wobble with each step. “Kiss me?”
Darian was looking at her like he wasn’t sure if he’d heard her correctly. Then he asked, “Where would you like me to kiss you, Cara?”
Everywhere.
“Wherever you like,” Cara said to his chest. She was too afraid to look him in the eyes and see him laughing at her. This seduction thing wasn’t as easy as she’d thought it would be.
Darian dipped his head. His soft black hair caressing her cheek as he passed her waiting lips. His hot mouth kissed her breast, sucking her tight bud deeply into his mouth through the material of the dress. Her fingers tangled in his hair as her mouth fell open.
He moaned a sound against her breast that shot heat down her body and wet heat blossomed between her legs.
His hands parted the V shaped opening, popping off the remaining buttons. They scattered across the floor as his tongue swept over her breast, his lips blazing a trail on her sensitive skin.
Watching him taste her, suck on her sent another electric
wave of heat down her body. She squeezed her legs together at the overwhelming sensation.
“Cara, tell me to stop now if you want me to stop,” he pleaded. “I want you so much. I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop if you wait much longer to tell me you don’t want to let me claim you tonight.”
He was looking at her wet breasts, moist from his hungry mouth.
“Tell me what to do,” Cara said. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Are you sure this is what you want? To be mine?”
Cara smiled down at the kindest, most powerful man she’d ever known. “Yes. I love you.”
Darian swept her up in his arms as he stood. He kissed her as he carried her out into the hallway and into his room at top speed, it made her dizzy. His bed was beneath her so fast she had the sensation of falling but in his arms, she wasn’t afraid.
“Pull up your dress for me, Cara” he said cupping her breasts.
Cara reached down and slid the skirt of the dress up her legs, over her thighs. His eyes were watching with baited anticipation. She pulled the dress off over her head.
Darian made a guttural, growling sound of approval as he looked at the soft down of her golden curls.
She knew that having sex was painful for the woman and Cara braced herself as he lowered over her. His mouth pressing wet hot kisses down her stomach.
“What are you doing?”
“I want to taste you, Cara. All of you.” His eyes were locked with hers as he nuzzled the apex of her legs with his mouth. His tongue delved hungrily between her folds, reminding her how good he could make her feel. The sweet vibrations of his groan against her sensitive flesh had her pressing against his mouth.
Darian shoved down his pants kicking them to the floor. “I want to be inside you. Open your legs for me?” he asked.
Cara opened her knees and gasped at the sensation caused by Darian’s cock rubbing over her clit and teasing her entrance. The heated push of his rounded member pressing at her opening intensified the ache for him. “I want you inside me, Darian,” Cara breathed.
Claimed by Love (A Rizer Pack Shifter Series Book 3) Page 18
