“Fionn,” she whispered, shaking his shoulder.
He sat up next to her, disoriented. “Mo?” He looked in her eyes, searching.
“Whatever Annie was waiting for…” she began.
“It’s happened.” He grinned. “Where is she?” They both closed their eyes for a moment, feeling along the connection.
“At the gate. Let’s go.”
Monica threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, not bothering with underwear, sliding her feet into her shoes. As she pulled her hair back in a loose knot at her nape, Fionn was getting dressed just as quickly. He leaned in and planted a kiss on the skin behind her ear, causing her to shiver and smile over her shoulder. Both dressed, they hurried for the front gate.
Annie was pacing in her panther form just inside the gate, a low whine coming from her throat. As always, Monica was taken aback by Annie’s sheer bulk. Huge, black-furred muscles flexed in the moonlight as she paced. As Monica and Fionn approached, she sat on her haunches and let out a sound that reminded Monica of a super-sized “Mee-ow!” Monica and Fionn both stroked her gigantic head, caressing the velvety ears. Purrs resonated from her, so loud they felt like a car idling nearby.
“He’s here. My brother is here.” The joy she felt came pouring through their link with the image of the big Bear. The sensation of the projection was sharply feline, rough like a cat tongue, and Monica was taken aback by the almost painful feeling of having another species project so strongly into her head.
“Bear is here, where?” Fionn looked around, as though he would see the man in front of them.
Annie shifted, standing naked by the front gate. Monica felt a tiny surge of jealousy as she realized that her mate had made love to that perfect body. Fionn arched a brow at her, shaking his head.
Ignoring the unpleasant undercurrents that her nudity had provoked, Annie pointed through the gate. “Out there. He’s in the woods. I have to get Bianca and Jack.”
“Why?” Monica turned, but Annie was already gone, sprinting toward the building where Bianca and Jack lived. Moments later, they returned, Annie dressed in a blue sundress that Monica suspected had come from Bianca’s closet. She smiled her thanks to the cat, who winked back at her.
“What’s going on?” Bianca asked groggily. Jack rubbed her shoulders and stared at Annie for an explanation.
Annie ran to the guard post. “Open the gate,” she demanded.
The guard looked to Bianca, who nodded. As the gate swung open, a man approached it cautiously, wearing jeans and no shirt. He was huge, long brown hair hanging over his shoulders, his massive muscled chest covered in hair so thick, it was almost fur, large palms gripping a backpack that looked toy-like in his gigantic hands.
“Annie.” He reached for his sister. Taking his hands in her own slender ones, Annie stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. He looked over at Bianca and smiled.
“Bianca Murphy, Alpha of Amazon. The two families united, you bear the third Usher. I will be her Guide. You may call me Gerard.”
Bianca’s mouth formed a round “O,” and she clutched her rounded belly.
“Our little one is the third Usher?” Jack erupted, aghast.
“The two families are United; she is destined. She will open the barrier that holds the Mother.” The large man shrugged, a gesture reminiscent of Sara, Bianca’s Guide. “I am her Guide, and I will be her protector, as well.”
Monica studied the conversation with interest. It made sense, that the mating between Albina and a Murphy would produce powerful offspring. She wondered about the child’s future, that she would require a huge Bear as protector.
“Usher.” Gerard turned to Fionn. “Be wary. The Goddess is weak where you go, and the wolves are strangers, but they have something precious to you.”
“Thank you, Gerard.” He bowed his head. Sarita’s Guide still spoke in the formal, stilted voice that Annie had when he’d first met her. He thought back on that time briefly before turning to his own Guide.
“Annie…”
“Yes, we can leave tomorrow. I was waiting for Bear. I didn’t realize until he was here, but it’s time.” The grin that filled Annie’s face was glorious, heart-stopping. Fionn realized he hadn’t felt the waves of pure joy like this emanating from his Guide since before Sara had been killed.
“Annie, do you need a few days with your brother?” he asked in her mind. He felt her purring through their link. “Your family, they are so important to you.”
“No. He’ll be here when we return. I should have realized that Sarita would be the third Usher. It all makes so much sense.”
Monica reached out and touched Fionn’s arm, a gently seductive smile spilling across her lips. Fionn felt a wave of desire wash over him, and he growled.
“Good night,” was all he said as he grabbed his mate’s hand and towed her, laughing, back to the library.
“Finnnn!” She laughed as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, her delectable ass in the air for all to see. Monica felt weightless in his arms, but it wasn’t just her body that felt weightless. Her heart felt light, giddy; she could float away like a kite on the wind. After over a hundred years alone, with nothing to occupy her nights but ominous responsibility or a passing encounter with a friend like Angelo, she now had a partner with whom she could share her life. As he stalked into the library elevator, she pushed against his back with her hands. He closed the elevator doors and set her on her feet. His mouth descended over hers with a delicious hunger as he pushed her up against the wall, his hands raising her T-shirt.
“I can’t wait.” His growl was almost apologetic.
“Neither can I,” she whispered, reaching for the button on her jeans.
She’d shucked them to the floor of the elevator before he could get his own unbuttoned, but then he lifted her into his arms, and she sank down onto his heat with a gasp. His mouth met hers again, tenderly this time, reminding her of that first time he kissed her the night they mated. One hand supporting her behind her waist, the other stroked her fevered flesh, pinching a nipple to hear her gasp, stroking low over her belly, and then back to cup the other breast, all while his lips and tongue devastated her own. Monica felt a wave of tenderness wash over her, and she realized it was coming from him.
She tore her lips from his. “I love you so much,” she whispered, feeling tears filling her eyes.
He groaned and thrust harder into her. “I love you too, my beautiful mate,” he whispered back, reaching down between them to tease at her clit.
As they rocked against the elevator wall, Monica felt the delicious tension building within her before she shattered around him. Not wanting to leave him behind, she leaned into him and bit down on his shoulder, her sharp teeth sinking into the firm skin. He came with a fierce warrior’s cry that made her heart glad in a primal way.
They stood like that for a few moments, pressed against the wall of the elevator, bodies sweaty and spent as their chests heaved in tandem.
“God, woman.” Fionn smiled at her. “I don’t know how you avoided beating me with a club and dragging me back to your cave when I was resisting you. I had no idea it would be like this.”
Monica laughed, her joy spilling through them both. “You have the rest of our lives to make it up to both of us.” She pressed a kiss to the shoulder she had bitten.
Easing out of her, he helped her pull her jeans back on and then buttoned his own. He pressed the button for the top floor, and they began their ascent as they nuzzled and kissed.
“Now you’ve done it in an elevator,” he murmured into her ear, delighting in the peal of laughter that she made.
She patted his cheek gently. “Oh, lover, you say the sexiest things,” she teased.
He barked a laugh, and the next thing she knew, they were out of the elevator, and she was tugging him back through their apartments to the bedroom they shared, tearing away their clothes and pushing him back on the bed.
“I’ll never stop needing you…this,”
she whispered as she climbed over him. “I’m ready for you again already.”
“Good.” He reached up and, with one smooth motion, sank her down on top of his erection. “I love you. Whatever happens tomorrow and the next day, we’re in it together, okay?”
She nodded, throwing her head back and riding him, slowly at first, then faster as the heat and hunger built to a fever pitch. This time, it was his teeth that sank into her shoulder, sending her off the precipice with a shout of eternal joy before he joined her in bliss.
Chapter Ten
THE NEXT MORNING, Fionn and Monica’s crew climbed into Monica’s black Mercedes Benz R-class and prepared to drive south to West Virginia. Bianca and Jack saw them off with hugs and a few tears. Bianca blamed her pregnancy for the overflow of emotion, but Monica knew it was more. In any other pack, Bianca might have been killed at birth by superstitious wolves. But not Amazon. Bianca had risen in the pack over the years because she was strong and smart and fierce. She’d been the target of bullies and prejudice, and she had overcome all of it. Now, she was Alpha of the strongest pack in North America.
Monica held Bianca tightly and whispered, “Bee, you’re going to be great. I’m going to miss you. But we’ll be back after the full moon.” She looked at the large man, who stood silently off to the side.
“Gerard, take good care of them,” she directed.
He nodded, his expression bland.
Blinking back tears, Monica climbed into the passenger seat, and Fionn started driving. Taking a deep breath, she looked out the window, watching the world go by outside. The compound gates closed behind them, it suddenly seemed real that she was no longer Amazon. For so long, Amazon had been everything to her. It occurred to Monica that she hadn’t left the compound in years and that she had well and truly severed from Amazon, the pack she built from nothing. She felt a wave of nostalgia as she remembered Sara bringing her those first ghost wolves. The early years had been frightening, but they’d grown into something so much more powerful than she’d ever imagined. She felt Fionn’s hand stroking along her knee, offering comfort. She looked up at him.
“Your wolf is crying,” he said quietly, not taking his eyes off the road. She hadn’t realized she’d been making noise, but she heard it then, the keening whine that was coming from her lips. She pushed the animal side of her down, tightening her control.
“Sorry.” She sent the sheepish apology to everyone in the car.
“Don’t worry about it, Monica.” Graham smiled at her, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners. “We can only imagine how odd this feels to you.”
“Odd is one way to put it.” She smiled back to Graham. He was Angelo’s right-hand man, smart and suave. She was used to seeing him presiding over meetings in the pack businesses, dressed in a suit and tie. In jeans and a T-shirt, he looked young, innocent. His blond hair curled around his ears, giving him a distinctly cherubic look.
Conversation moved to lighter topics, and Monica felt heart-glad when Fionn smiled across the front seat at her.
“I don’t like that we’re starting this trip in West Virginia,” Annie hissed suddenly from the middle seat.
“Why?” Fionn met her eyes in the rearview, responding to his Guide’s clear agitation. “A big part of it is Mid-Atlantic territory where it borders Appalachia. It seems like the perfect place to start.”
“I don’t know. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing on end.”
Monica could feel Annie’s frustration through the link and reached out to hold the Guide’s hand.
“It’s going to be okay, Annie. You would know if something bad were going to happen.” Monica smiled reassuringly at the Guide.
“Let’s be sure to stay in Mid-Atlantic territory, just in case. Ted has willingly given his obeisance and allows us to shift at will in his territory.” Fionn’s face looked thoughtful. “Kirk’s next revival is scheduled just before the full moon in Bluefield. That’s really close to his home. Virginia is Ted’s territory all the way through, so we’ll cut through Virginia on our way to Bluefield.”
The rest of the group agreed with the wisdom of that choice. By the time they reached their destination, a campground on the northern end of the Monongahela National Forest, Annie’s uneasiness had waned. Monica stepped out of the car and looked around with a scowl.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay in a hotel?” She turned to Fionn.
He threw his head back and laughed as she wrinkled her nose in distaste. “What’s the matter? Does my big bad Alpha bride not like sleeping in the woods?”
“Oh no, sleeping is fine. It’s the lack of plumbing that I don’t care for.” She turned hopefully, banking on Ellen and Annie to have her back. She was disappointed to see Ellen hiding a laugh behind her hand and Annie enthusiastically grabbing camping gear out of the car, as though she knew what to do with it. Which, considering her free-spirited ways, she probably did. Annie had probably picked up a merit badge in following the Grateful Dead back when that was a thing.
Taking pity on her, Graham leaned in and whispered in her ear, “They have toilets here. Sinks and showers, too.”
“Oh, thank the Goddess.” Monica sighed with relief as they all burst out laughing.
“Monica, when’s the last time you went camping?” Annie asked, curiosity plain on her face.
“You know, back in the old days, we didn’t ‘go camping’—we ‘made camp,’ and we had to grow or hunt whatever we ate and tried not to be too far from a fresh water source at any given time. We didn’t carry handguns—” she glanced at Fionn’s 9mm Ruger in his underarm holster “—we carried rifles, and even the little girls knew how to shoot.” She still remembered the weight of her blunderbuss in her arms, all these decades later, the smoothness of the flared barrel next to her bed, a comfort when she woke in the middle of the night. She could remember the times she’d fired it, the way she’d braced the gun’s stock with her hip to counteract the fear-induced shaking of her hands. “Our first shift couldn’t come fast enough, because only then would we have teeth and claws to defend ourselves if, Goddess forbid, we were caught by a predator…and I’m not necessarily talking about animals…without a gun.”
Monica watched as her companions’ faces drew grim as their imaginations took over where her words left off. Werewolf women on the American frontiers had lived dangerous, brutal lives. Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Monica was a young wolf, unmated women would have been treated as property by alpha males, owned by whoever was strong enough to keep them. Ensconced in her library apartment with its big screen TV, computers, and elevator, Monica seemed a thoroughly modern woman, but underneath, she was still the same little girl who’d slept with a gun and prayed to the moon Goddess for her first shift to hurry up and grant her claws and teeth. And then when her mate had died and she became a ghost-wolf, she was just a woman in a human’s weak body, alone with no wolf and no gun, her only protection her faith in Sara’s curious instructions to march ever east and not look back.
Swallowing hard, Fionn stroked her cheek with a finger. “You should have said something. We can go find a hotel.”
“No, I’m fine. I don’t like to be reminded of that time. That’s all.” She bared her teeth in what he suspected she meant to be a smile, but it looked more like a grimace to him. Annie and Ellen crowded close to her, wrapping her in their arms.
“Goddess, mate, I had no idea.” Fionn’s clear voice in her head resonated with her own pain.
“I’m fine; it’s fine. I didn’t mean to make a big deal out of it. There are toilets and showers…How bad can it be?” This time when she smiled, it felt genuine.
Annie and Graham set up the campsite, their easy-going banter lightening the mood. Ellen was making a fire, and Fionn was on the phone with Ted. Waggling her fingers at him, Monica walked a few steps away from the campsite and shed her clothing. She changed, hard and fast, and took off at a run through the woods. She hadn’t meant to bring her friends dow
n, but she had sworn to herself when she bought the school that housed Amazon’s Compound that she would never lack for modern convenience. And she hadn’t.
She didn’t really plan to become as reclusive as she had, but between running a large pack and keeping their presence more or less a secret, it had happened slowly over time. Truth be told, she had barely noticed. She heard a whine coming from behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see Annie approaching in her cat form. She stopped and shifted back. When Annie reached Monica, she shifted as well.
“You didn’t have to run after me. I’m okay.” Monica touched the Guide’s face.
“Oh, I know you’re okay. I just thought it might be nice to talk, just the two of us, so I grabbed my chance. Ellen and Graham are capable of prepping the campsite.” Annie sat down on a large rock, obviously impervious to the cold granite under her naked skin. After a moment, Monica joined her, putting her head on the Guide’s shoulder.
“It’s been a long time since you were that little girl, Mon.”
“I know.”
“I was around then. But I mostly stayed in my animal form. I guess some things are easier about being solitary. That, and I was created with the ability to shift. I wasn’t born, so I never had to grow into it.”
“Yeah.” Monica met her eyes. “It wasn’t an easy time to be a woman.”
“You’re luckier than most. You got away from there, came east. You ended up in Boston, and now you’re like the leader of the free Were world.”
“Thanks to Sara.” Monica smiled, a thought occurring to her. “Why did she come to me? Why wasn’t it you?”
“I knew who you were. I didn’t know that you would mate with Fionn. Sara knew you’d be important in creating a haven where Bianca could be born safely, but even she didn’t know you’d mate with Fionn until more recently. I mean, he wasn’t even born yet. And it could have been one of his brothers. We knew the second Usher would be a Murphy, but that was about it. At the time, I was mostly looking over his family, waiting for them.
“Patrick was born first, of course; however, by puberty, it was clear that he didn’t have the temperament to be Alpha. Jack was born a few years later, followed by Ted only two years later. I thought for a while that Jack might be the second Usher, but he was never ambitious enough…or brutal enough.”
United (The Ushers) Page 7
