Outcast (Hunter: A Thieves Series Book 4)

by Lexi Blake

  Attracted to Gray? It played at the edges of my saner mind, but I shoved it aside. I didn’t want to be sane. I wanted to follow my instincts. He was trying to chain me again, though this time he was using words and feelings, and I didn’t want those.

  I growled as I tried to watch my back. They were circling me, waiting for the moment when they could take me down.

  “I never wanted to leave you,” Gray swore.

  “And yet you did it every single time. Every time you had a choice, you walked away.” The words came from my mouth unwittingly. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to do this weird therapy session the boys seemed to be going through. It had probably been Marcus’s idea. That fucker had left me, too.

  Emotion welled again, but this wasn’t rage. It was hurt and fear and the terrible idea that I would be alone if these men left me. If this didn’t work between the three of us, I would lose something precious.

  And I realized why I wanted those children. I wanted them because I didn’t trust that Trent and Gray would stay with me. They would walk away or something would take them. The universe wouldn’t allow me to keep them. My stepfather’s appearance was proof of it. I wanted to keep a piece of them, something in each that would live on in those kids.

  God, I wanted a piece of me to live on.

  “That’s right, baby,” Trent said soothingly. “Talk to us. Tell us what’s really wrong.”

  I shoved it all down and went for the door again. I didn’t want to do this. Rage felt way better than that terrible vulnerability. I hadn’t been designed for joy and happiness and a white picket fence with the men of my heart. The universe created me to kill, and I was going to fulfill my purpose.

  Something hit me in the back and I went down, my body slamming into the hardwoods. Fucking magic. There weren’t actual hardwoods in our Tardis-like tent, but they damn straight felt like it when I banged into them. My chin slapped against the floor and pain flared. It was good because it reminded me this was a fight. The physical I could handle.

  I brought my head back and smacked it against whoever was on top of me.

  Gray moaned and rolled off. “Damn it, Kelsey.”

  I immediately took advantage and tried to take off again. All I could see was that door and freedom. I would run into the woods. I would let her take over and we wouldn’t try any of this again. We would be free.

  I slammed into the floor again and then I felt something that made my whole body go stiff. Teeth. Trent put his teeth on my neck. He bit down just enough to let me know he could break my neck with those powerful jaws.

  Fuck, that made my whole body go soft.

  When I get like this I have two choices—I can fight or I can fuck my way out. Trent had just made me think seriously about the second option.

  “What are you doing?” Gray asked, horror plain in his voice. “You could hurt her.”

  Yeah, he could hurt me. He could take me down here and now. I went still beneath him, the she-wolf responding to him, submitting to him. If it had been another wolf I would have let him break me before I would submit, but this was my mate and despite the state I was in, I still knew it deep down.

  We hadn’t made it formal. He’d never howled for me, but I loved him. Even when I’d hated him, I’d known there was something between us. And apparently something between him and Gray and yeah, I was intrigued.

  The teeth came off my neck.

  “I’m strong right now, baby,” Trent whispered in my ear. “Let me use this on you in a pleasurable way. I can fuck you so hard.”

  He’d made a mistake. He’d backed off and I was strong, too. I suspect there are hormones involved in the she-wolf rising to the surface. They make me faster, stronger. Way more stubborn.

  I pushed off the floor and threw his alpha ass back a couple of feet.

  That was when Gray picked me up by the neck, his clawed hands going gently around my throat. He lifted me up so I could look into his completely alien eyes. He’d gone full-on demon, the violence in the air likely triggering the change in him. Gray’s skin had gone a lustrous red, his horns coming out and rounding. His face was still ridiculously handsome, but it was sharper than it was in his human form. And those fangs threatened. If he put them on my throat, he could rip it out.

  “You aren’t getting out.” The words were thick coming from his mouth. “We can do this one of two ways, Kelsey mine. I’ll have Trent cuff you to the bed. Yes, I brought shackles for you. I thought we could play, but we can do it this way, too. You’ll be locked down, your hands to the bedposts, that mouth of yours gagged so you can’t try to bite your way out, and I’ll bind your legs and feet. You’ll stay like that until Marcus can get here and then we’ll all prove we’re not strong enough together.”

  “And we all know I’m good at holding you down,” Trent said bitterly.

  They would do it, and if Marcus had to come all the way from Dallas to calm me down it would be a long time until I saw the outside world again. I might even find myself back in Italy. Or Hugo and Henri might cart me off somewhere. I wouldn’t be able to protect Lee. I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to save Gray.

  I kicked out and managed to get free. My feet hit the floor, but Trent was on me in an instant. He shoved me back, but I came at him again.

  He caught me in his arms and his mouth was on mine.

  Fire sparked through me. Lust started to crowd out the rage as his body brushed mine and I could feel his cock. Trent’s dick was hard and rubbed against my belly. That wasn’t where I needed it.

  But I still had a damn demon hand. I pulled away, shoving my red arm behind my back.

  Gray reached for it and dragged it back, hauling it to his naked chest. “Don’t hide it. I love it. You can’t hurt me.”

  He dragged the talons down his chest and they barely scratched him.

  “You can’t hurt her, either,” Trent said from behind me. His hands moved over my shoulders. “She’ll like a bite of pain in this state. Honestly, she likes a bite of pain most of the time. You treat her like she’s fragile.”

  “I tie her up because I want to see her bound,” Gray shot back. “You think I don’t get rough with her? You don’t know everything. I promise you our sex life isn’t fucking vanilla.”

  But it had been lately. For the six months since he’d moved in with me, he’d been passionate but he hadn’t played those nasty games with me he’d played in the beginning.

  Gray lifted me up and I realized they were changing the game. I wasn’t sure I wanted the game to change. Lust warred with rage, and I didn’t know which way this would go. If it had been only one of them, I could have relied of the other side of my nature. Had it only been Gray, my wolf would have raged, and the opposite with Trent. But I hesitated because they were both here and they weren’t fighting.

  “Yeah, fight me all you like,” Gray said, starting toward the big bed. “I’m not calling Marcus in. You’re mine and I’ll take care of you.” He frowned. “We’ll take care of you.”

  I struggled in his arms because I wasn’t ready to give up the fight yet.

  He tossed me on the bed and that was when I realized they’d been ready for everything they’d promised me. I hadn’t noticed the handcuffs before, but they were attached to the headboard.

  Damned if they were going to get me into them.

  The minute Gray dropped me on the bed, I was trying to get up. Trent stood over me, warning me that he could start this fight again. I looked up at him, considering my next move. It wasn’t that I was scared of the handcuffs. We’d played with them before, but I would lose any shot at taking out my stepfather if they got them around my wrists.

  Trent’s hand found my hair, the king’s blood in his system making him hyper strong. He held me easily. “Stop fighting me.”

  He used his free hand to rip the shirt off my body. The bra followed close behind, his fingers tearing through the material like it was made of paper.

  “You think I won’t run without my cloth
es?” I snarled his way, not wanting to acknowledge that my nipples were incredibly hard and I could even smell my own arousal. “I assure you I can kill that fucker naked.”

  “You’re not killing anyone tonight.” Gray shifted back to human, but he didn’t need claws and horns to be super strong. “Not like this. We’ll come up with a plan, but we’ll do it methodically and in a way that doesn’t get one of us in trouble. Hold her down. Marcus said this could take a while. He said she doesn’t want to feel this way. You don’t, do you? It’s a trick of your nature, you know. None of what’s going through your head right now is true.”

  He sounded so reasonable, so rational, but I wasn’t ready to listen. I twisted in Trent’s grasp.

  He responded by jumping on top of me. Jumping is the wrong word. He was much more graceful than that. He kind of flowed over me, trapping me in the cage of his arms and legs. His canines were long and thick, his eyes turning that fascinating dark they got when his wolf was close to the surface. He closed them and breathed in deeply. “She doesn’t want to feel aroused either, but god, I can smell her.”

  He lowered his head down and ran his nose along my neck. His hands pinned my wrists to the mattress, his legs weighing down mine. I could feel his erection. It sat right over my clitoris and I felt a rush of anticipation every time that damn wolf shifted over me. Our chests brushed together, my breasts nestling to him. He rubbed himself over me and I kind of wished he’d gotten rid of my jeans, too.

  She-wolf liked how he smelled. She-wolf’s bio clock was chiming hard.

  The trouble was my human self was still pissed. She-wolf might be able to change the minute her libido hits, but I couldn’t give in easily.

  “Get off me. I’m not letting you put me in chains. When I needed sex, you two decided to fight. Too late now. You don’t get to drug me and then get some.”

  “It’ll kill me, but I won’t take anything for myself,” Trent promised. “This is only for you. God, I want you. I want everything you promised me. I just want to start our family. But I won’t. I won’t until you want that, too.”

  Fucker knew exactly what to say to me.

  My spine relaxed, the she-wolf wanting every word of his to prove true.

  The human side wanted it, too.

  “That’s better,” Gray said. He was standing to the side, his face tight. “It’s working.”

  Trent’s head came up. “Don’t listen to him. He’s not good at this. We went past the point where we’re doing this to get you to calm down. I’m here for sex, baby. I’m going to do anything and say anything to get inside you. That fight we had, it was all foreplay, and I know you’re pissed about the drugs, but we had to do it or they were going to shoot you.”

  He pressed kisses to my forehead and cheeks and nose, little busses of pure affection. My mate, giving me everything he had to calm me, to soothe me. He rubbed our cheeks together, showing me how much he loved being close.

  Physical contact was doing more than words ever could, far more than Casey’s voice in my head had. My heart was still pounding, but it was doing it in time with his, sparked by lust and love and longing instead of rage.

  When his mouth found mine I opened for him, my arms coming around his torso as I started to give over to him. He kissed me, softly at first, and then his tongue tangled with mine. My arm was back to normal. It was what Gray had been talking about when he’d said it was working.

  Gray. What was I going to do with Gray? I was mad at him, but I wanted him, too. My body longed for him. Now that the rage was dissipating, lust had started to fill me, and I wanted sex. Rough, hard, satisfying sex. With both my men.

  Trent kissed me one last time and got to his knees, letting my hands free. “Are you going to play nicely, baby? Or do you need me to cuff those hands of yours before I shove my face in your pussy?”

  “Do you want me here, Kelsey?” Gray was standing apart.

  “Yes,” Trent replied. “She wants you here, but you’ve got some shit to work through. Now isn’t the time. Now is the time to show her how we feel.”

  “How are you better at this than I am?” Gray asked.

  “Because I’ve always known what she is and what she would need,” he replied. “From the moment I saw her I’ve plotted and planned and been in her face.” He stared down at me even as he spoke to Gray. “I knew I would be the one she needed when the bond with Marcus faded. He knew it, too. But the reason our relationship is easy—I’m linked to the wolf side of her. It’s a less complex relationship. It’s based on instinct. You’re connected to the human side. Humans are difficult.”

  I started to struggle, not wanting to lie here while they discussed me like I was some kind of split personality. I wasn’t. Mostly. We worked together and we were fond of both of them, though she-wolf really thought it was hot that Trent was baring his fangs.

  “Stop fighting.” Trent dropped back down. “If he can’t help me, I’ll take care of both of you. I’ll fuck that rage right out of you. Human, wolf, I’ll take care of you. And then when you’re so tired you can’t remember why you started fighting, that’s when I’ll feed you. Eddie’s making roast beef and homemade mac and cheese, and there’s a chocolate cake for dessert. You can eat it straight off my body if you want. I’m here to give you anything you need with the exception of a killing spree.”

  I felt a big hand circle my wrist. When I looked up, Gray was gently pulling my hand up.

  “I know what the human part of her wants,” Gray said, snapping the cuff around my wrist. “She needs permission to feel pleasure and I’ve neglected her. She needs to be taken out of that head of hers. I’ve been denying us both because I feel like I should give her something normal.”

  “We’re not normal,” Trent replied. “Thank god. Is her stepfather why she’s uptight about sex?”

  “I’m not uptight,” I started.

  Trent nipped my ear. “Hush. Let us talk. We’ve only done this twice and you hadn’t been coming down from a psychotic rage either time. Did I mention you’re fucking hot when you want to kill everyone?”

  It was good that he could joke.

  Actually, it was really good that he could joke about it. He wasn’t drawing away from me now that I was coming around to their way of thinking. I still felt like a cannon waiting to go off, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to happen and I could be a bit more patient.

  Gray moved to the other side and I was suddenly bound to the bed.

  He was right. It oddly made me feel safe now that I was in the right mindset. I couldn’t get out of them so there was nothing to do except wait and accept what they wanted to do to me.

  Again, if it had been anyone except these two men I would have fought. But as I’d been drugged with rage, I felt the same with lust now.

  “I don’t know why she feels like she’s not sexy,” Gray said as Trent moved off me. He went to stand next to Gray, the two of them staring down at me.

  Gray’s tat was on spectacular display. When I touched that dragon my hand heated and I could feel the emotion rolling off my demon lover. His dragon was a piece of his soul. Sometimes I thought it was the piece that didn’t lie to itself.

  “She won’t believe words,” Trent said. “Words don’t work on the wolf. Only one thing works on her.”

  His hands went to the fly of his jeans and he shoved them off his hips, kicking his boots off and coming back to stand before me gloriously naked. More than once I’d woken up to that gorgeous body wound around mine after a run. When the moon was full, I would sneak away from Council headquarters and spend three days and nights with my wolf in his tiny cabin in the woods. We would run and play and he would hunt, and in the morning we would wake up and make love.

  He was right. Words didn’t work on my she-wolf. Actions did. Touch did. The look in his eyes assured me he wanted me, and not because he was here to spy for Donovan. He couldn’t pretend to have an erection that size. And I didn’t think he was a good enough actor to fake the softness on hi
s face as he gazed down at me.

  “Do you have any idea how happy I am to get to fuck you in a nice bed,” he said with a smile on his face as he pulled my shoes and socks off. “That bed at the cabin is part of Gray’s revenge on me.”

  “You could have fucked me in a nice bed two nights ago,” I pointed out.

  “That was Gray’s bed and I’m not welcome there,” he replied, his face going solemn. He dragged my jeans down and tossed them away. “God, you’re gorgeous, Kelsey.”

  His big palms ran up my legs, making my skin sing. I needed this. I needed it so fucking bad.

  “It’s not that you’re not welcome.” Gray stood at the edge of the bed, staring down at us. His slacks had tented and the dragon tat was practically glowing. “It’s that I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know that I should do this.”

  He was going to leave again. He was going to leave and I would be alone. Trent would try his hardest. I knew he would, but I would feel Gray’s loss forever. All those sweet possibilities I’d seen the day I’d balanced Gray as he’d transitioned to a prophet would be gone, lost to me.

  Trent growled and rolled off the bed. “Stop it. Just fucking stop it. I’m done talking to you. There’s only one way to deal with you.”

  Trent reached out and put his hand right over the dragon.

  Gray’s whole body stiffened and then relaxed as though something deep inside had been aching and now found some relief.

  “I am your family, Grayson Sloane,” Trent said. If he was bothered at all by the fact that he was naked and nearly pressed up against another man, he didn’t show it. “She is your family. Stop worrying about being alone and enjoy what you’ve been given. You’re not pissed at me for killing your brother. You’re pissed at yourself for hesitating. You’re angry that you didn’t do it. You were scared. You didn’t want to go to the Hell plane with no one at your side. I’m fucking telling you right now that if you need me, I will go with you. She will go with you and we will survive all of it. Together.”

  They were so close. All it would take was one of them to lean in a bit and their mouths would meet and I would watch them. I wanted to watch them. I wanted them together, too.