Shit. She tried to hide the thrill of excitement she felt at his words, tried to pretend she was aggravated by his domineering ways. But she missed him. Wanted his touch, wanted her wild man to take her the way he had before.
Their last encounter, when he’d taken her high up in the trees, had been electrifying. Animalistic. She’d never felt so alive. Even now, her body trembled at the memory, her sex tingling, readying itself for his cock, his mouth.
She thought about being restrained again, this time on her bed in Deva castle. Her wrists would be bound to the posts with silken scarves, her body his to do with as he would. She wanted to introduce him to her toys. To feel him filling her ass again as he fucked her pussy with her favorite vibrator. She wanted—
“That line of thinking is doing nothing to delay me, Lizbeth.” The voice in her head was rough with his own renewed passion. She shivered, walking slowly up the stairs as he whispered in her mind “I will give you all you want and more. Would you like to hear what I’ve been imagining? Wanting? I want to bend you over those stairs and kneel at your feet. Want to drink your sweet cream, lap every drop until I’m sated. Spread the soft cheeks of your ass and taste you there as well. Unbutton those tight leather pants, wildcat. Touch yourself for me.”
She couldn’t resist. She was so aroused and she could sense no one on the stairwell, no one would know.
“No one but you and I. Do it, wildcat.”
She slipped the top button out of its loop, then another, until her leathers were spread wide and loose. Her hand caressed her lower belly, hesitating.
“Don’t tease me. Slide your fingers through those tight auburn curls and feel how wet you are for me. Show me how much you want me. Need me.”
One hand gripped the railing as she obeyed, moaning at the wetness beneath her fingers, the wonderful pressure of her palm against her clit.
“Before now it’s been wild and fast. Too fast. I want time to taste every inch of you. Make you come with my mouth, my hands, those toys of yours. And when I’ve made you come so many times you’re sure you have nothing left, then I’m going to fuck you. Fill that hot pussy with my cock instead of your fingers. But now I want you to fuck yourself for me, wildcat. Three fingers, that’s right. Deep. I want to fuck you deep.”
She fell to her knees, pumping her fingers inside her sex, imagining they were his. His need fed off of hers, and she couldn’t tell where his desires ended and hers began. But both were focused on making her come.
“Goddess, I wish I could watch you. Wish I could watch you riding your hand for me. Tell me, Lizbeth. Tell me who you belong to, who your grathita is.”
“You are. I belong to you.” Mother help her, it felt so good, but she needed more. She couldn’t get deep enough. Couldn’t thrust hard enough. She needed him. Needed to feel her mate.
“I’m close to you whenever you need me. Can you feel how close?” A naked male body was suddenly behind her, pressed against her, and she jerked in surprise. “Can you feel me now, wildcat?”
She’d been so caught up in her own need for pleasure that she hadn’t sensed his arrival. Her pants disappeared and there was nothing between her heated skin and his. “Aye. Oh, aye.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” He kissed her neck, one of his hands covering hers as she continued to thrust her hips against her hand. “As beautiful as this is, I’m jealous. I want to be the one inside you.” He removed her fingers, licked them, and then placed her damp hand on the railing beside the other.
“Please. Please.”
“Please what, Lizbeth? Tell me what you want.”
“You. I want you. Your cock deep inside me. Fuck me, mate. Wild and fast.”
“Anything, grathita mine.”
She bit her cheek hard to hold back her scream of need as the head of his cock pressed inside her. Slowly, teasingly. Every sensation was heightened by their new connection. His pleasure as her sex drenched him. She gripped the railing tight and pushed back against him until his hips were pressing into hers, every long, hard inch of him deep inside her.
“Fuck.”
“Aye. Fuck me. Fuck me.”
He growled, the only warning she had before her mate took over. So deep. He was fucking her so deep. This was what she needed. What she’d been dying for. Her wild man. Midnight.
He spread her cheeks and pressed his thumb against her ass. “Is this what you want, wildcat?” She inhaled sharply as he pushed inside, loving the feel of her muscles relaxing to take him. “You like being filled front and back?”
“Aye.”
“I don’t think I could share you, Lizbeth. Not in a thousand years. But you’ll never be sorry.” He added another finger, her back arching at the delicious stretch. Again and again he took her to the edge, sharing through their connection all that he felt for her, how hard it was for him to hold back.
He hesitated before biting her. “I almost killed you.”
She knew he was thinking about her illness. About what the Shadow’s curse had nearly done to her and she shook her head. “You didn’t. Don’t stop, baby. Bite me.”
He sank his fangs into her neck, and that was all it took. They came together, the world disappearing as they reveled in their shared climax. Unity. This was what it was. What it meant. A connection that nothing could sever, not even death.
Without warning, Malcolm’s face appeared in her mind. His expression the moment he realized she wasn’t his true mate. The sadness he couldn’t quite hide. She’d never understood until now. When you knew something like this existed for you, anything less was, well, less.
Midnight’s body, lax with satisfaction, tensed. Damn it. He pulled out of her body, clothing them both in an instant.
“Someday other men won’t fill your mind when I touch you.”
“Midnight, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
She started to turn to face him, but something stopped her. Large blue grey eyes, wide with shock. And arousal. Hannah stood, her mouth covered by Jasyn’s hand. He was grinning. The beast. “You two have a little exhibitionism thing going on. I understand. I just wish you’d found a room, because I’m damned uncomfortable right now. Especially with Wyley and Lux here.”
Liz caught the tip of a dusty cowboy hat and a flash of long, burgundy hair and closed her eyes. Just what she needed. An audience. She’d wanted time to explain. It was all happening so fast, and it was hard for her to come to grips with everything. Her feelings were chaotic. Unbelievable and intense. But chaotic.
“You’re mine, Lizbeth. I can see I just need to be more persuasive. Next time.”
He helped her up, his hand wrapped possessively around her waist. “Now let’s go see your friend, Nicolette.”
They walked up the stairs, the others following. Liz couldn’t be sorry that he was here with her. As much as she hated to admit it, she was beginning to need him. His strength. As if hers was somehow connected to his.
“Unity doesn’t make you weak, wildcat. It adds to what you already are.”
He caressed her hip with his fingers, and she nodded. She knew it was true, and yet, even with this connection, it was hard for her to let go of old habits. Hard to trust that something wasn’t waiting around the corner to rip it all away.
They headed toward the room and her throat closed. The door to Nicolette’s loft was ajar.
The room was empty.
Liz tried to push back her creeping concern. “Hannah? Have you tried to communicate with your sire?”
Hannah blushed. “I haven’t thought about anything since…”
“The Were and Unborn have mated as well, Lizbeth. I’m sure that has affected the strength of her connection.”
Liz sighed. “Can you try?”
Hannah tilted her head in concentration. “It’s not as strong, but she’s there. She says the Healers left, she spoke to the children for a while and then, after they’d nodded off, she decided to go and see Elder Abaddon.” Hannah’s forehead wrinkled. “She sounds
…wonky. I don’t know how else to describe it. She didn’t even call me darling. Didn’t ask me where I was, how you were. Nothing.”
“Why the hell would she go back there without us?” Liz pushed past Jasyn and Wyley without apology and crossed the hall. She threw open the door to Zander and Regina’s apartment. “I need to speak to Alexei.”
“I told you we should’ve gone back to the estate. There’s less interruption.”
“Babe, I’d rather Liz walk in on us than your mother.” Regina scrambled out of the bed, a robe covering her body before her feet hit the floor. “Although I wasn’t expecting an entire entourage. I was worried, Liz. I’m glad you’re back.” She hugged her warmly while her golden gaze landed with delight on Midnight. “Zander has told me all he remembered about you, which isn’t much. I’ve been dying to meet the Trueblood that finally…Liz? Liz what’s wrong?”
“Where’s Alexei? Pax? Rhys?”
Regina stepped back, and Zander came around the other side of the bed, his smiling gaze studying Midnight intently. “They are across the hall visiting with Nicolette. Alexei couldn’t wait to see her once Mysha and Glynn pronounced her fit for visitors. And we were glad to have our favorite babysitter back for a moment.” His laughter faded in the silence. “Elizabeth, is everything all right?”
“Nicolette left them in the loft and returned to Abaddon manor. But we’ve just been in the room.” Liz saw a spark of panic light in Regina’s eyes. “The children are missing.”
Chapter Eight
Regina stumbled, would have fallen if Liz hadn’t been there to catch her. “Haven is protected. How could anyone have gotten to them?”
Liz sensed the Reader reaching out, her mind scanning those below, reading Liz. “No one saw them. No one saw anyone come or go until Liz arrived.”
Liz’s head hurt from the panicked mother’s mental searching. It was as though she couldn’t stop, couldn’t quite believe that no one had seen her child. That she hadn’t sensed his cries for help.
“Reggie, you need to calm down. Pull back. You could hurt someone.” Liz wrapped her arms around the petite beauty, holding her as she looked around the room. “Hannah, go check the room again, we may have missed something. Zander, you and Lux close the pub and talk to the Sariel guards. Where’s Kit?”
Wyley stepped forward. “We, uh, parted ways when he went to pick up his wife. Said he thought the Cursed—I mean Midnight here might need some time to get used to him.”
Liz met Midnight’s unapologetic gaze. “I am a ‘wild man’ remember? I do not share what is mine.”
“Oh for the love of—there’s nothing between us.”
“Not anymore.”
Jasyn joined Hannah and Lux and Zander moved swiftly, needing to take action, needing to do something. Liz turned back toward Regina. “Just breathe, little Gypsy. I don’t think someone took them. And you don’t either.”
Regina shook her head. “He wouldn’t have. After the danger he and the twins put Hannah in, he promised… Why would Nicolette let him?”
“She wouldn’t. Nicolette didn’t know. She left them fast asleep. Safe.”
Regina pulled out of Liz’s embrace, using her abilities to dress herself in black jeans and a T-shirt with a thought. “Let’s go. We need to find my son, so I can lock him in his room for the next century. And what the hell is Nicolette thinking, going back to that mad house?”
“We can both ask her as we drag her out by her hair.”
“I feel like I’m intruding, but is there anything I can do?” Wyley looked decidedly uncomfortable, so different from the laid back Were Liz had met in Montana. No doubt being surrounded by so many vampires would make any werewolf a bit edgy. He caught her eye, and his cheeks darkened.
Jasyn pulled Hannah in behind him, smiling in understanding at the American Were. “You’re fine, Wyley. You can distract Nicolette while we hog-tie her if you like. She has a little crush on you.”
Wyley took off his hat and crushed it between his hands nervously. “She does? But I’ve never had the pleasure…”
Regina looked him up and down, distracted for a moment from her worry. “You will.” She shifted on the balls of her feet. “Hannah, did you find anything?”
Without a word Hannah handed a crumpled note to Regina, who read the childlike scrawl quickly, and then again, landing on the edge of the bed when her knees gave out.
Liz took the paper from her friend’s limp hand. It was from Alexei. They should have named the child Houdini. He could block better than his mother ever could.
I’m sorry we left when you said not to. Don’t worry I am watching the twins. Max is following Aunt Nicolette. We are following Max. She is still in danger until we find the secret. We will hide in the special place in her room until you come.
Luv,
Alexei, Pax & Rhys
“When we have children, remind me of this day, Lizbeth.”
“Children?”
They’d all gathered downstairs. The Sariels, their guards—sans Max and Kit, and Sylvain. “I left the twins with Max and Nicolette to take Mysha to visit Glynn Magriel at her home. When Lux sent word to me, I went to the ruins, thinking they might be there.” Lux hugged his mate close, his expression grim.
The ruins. The Sariel’s underground safe house where Zander and Lux had taken Regina after Grey Wolf attacked Haven. But they all knew it wasn’t where Alexei had gone. Alexei had taken children with Were blood into Abaddon manor. The adults in the room were all hoping the six-year-old had enough power left to block those of the Abaddon Clan who might use Pax and Rhys as an example.
Liz shook her head. “The special place? That manor is all smoke and mirrors, full of trap doors and secret hallways. But as far as I knew, there was nothing in Malcolm’s room. Nothing where Nicolette was staying.”
Lux and Zander turned toward Midnight, who was rubbing the back of his neck with a pained expression. “It’s jumbled, memories out of time or unclear. But when I heard the words special place, I saw something. I think I could find it.”
“Do we want anyone to know you’re here yet?” Wyley took a step back when they all whipped around to stare at him. “It just strikes me that this secret might be connected to Midnight.”
Zander Sariel strode up to the lanky Were and stared him down, every inch the intimidating Mediator. “Shadow Wolves marked him. Everyone, including his twin brother believed him dead. What makes you think his family wouldn’t be overjoyed at his return?”
“Don’t piss all over the boy, Zan. He’s only saying what we already know.” Midnight moved to stand beside Wyley in silent support.
Zander’s lips quirked. “You and Malcolm used to call me Zan. I’d forgotten.”
Midnight smiled. “So had I.” He gestured to Wyley. “He’s a smart Were. Alpha if I ever saw one. And he’s right. There were marks from Shadow on my skin, but I was trapped by Truebloods. The information Nicolette and Jasyn found no doubt alluded to the same connection mine did.” Jasyn nodded, and Midnight continued. “So the not so secret secret is revealed. A devil’s bargain, formed before we were born, is responsible for the start of the war. Though it doesn’t seem to have turned out the way they wanted.”
“The way who wanted? What did they want? What the hell were you into, Marcus?” Regina stood closer to Zander, comforting him.
Liz had the desire to do the same for Midnight, but he shook his head, not taking his gaze from the Sariel. “The asura saMsaki, the Demon Coalition.”
“That’s just a conspiracy theory of bored vampires.”
Midnight shook his head at Zander’s flippancy. “They wanted anarchy and chaos, a world without Trueblood or Were law, where only the strongest Clan survived and the humans were naught but cattle.”
Regina touched the bindu mark on her forehead. “The way it was before the Mother created Readers to maintain the balance.”
Midnight dipped his head. “Exactly. And despite your arrival, and the death of the known Shadow lead
ers, it seems some of the members are still hard at work, determined to keep their secrets buried.”
Lux narrowed his brilliant blue eyes. “Who? Name names, Midnight, that we might repay them for all the Trueblood slaughtered during the war.”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if I never did, or I just don’t remember yet. But there was an Elder I was highly suspicious of.”
“Who?”
“Elder Abaddon. My father.”
Wyley, Jasyn and Hannah were assigned to stay behind, in case Max or the children returned. The fact that they were Weres no doubt had something to do with it. Sylvain was the exception. There was no keeping the mother from joining the others. As Antara, Jasyn supposed she had that right. What would they do? Turn away a woman who could rend their house in two with a few well-placed quakes?
He wanted to be there. A Were was wired to protect their own. His niece, his nephew. Even Nicolette. After their forced intimacy he had to admit his feelings for her had changed. He cared about her and wanted her to find happiness. Someone to love her. He’d sensed her loneliness when he’d taken Hannah. The deep ache inside her for passion and companionship. Jasyn would storm that manor and help her if he could, keep her safe.
He could only imagine how his brother Arygon must be feeling, so far away from his mates with his children in danger. Jasyn would be climbing the walls. Or tearing them down to get to his kids.
He hadn’t let himself think of children for so long. But the only woman he’d ever imagined as their mother was finally his. At last. His mate. Hannah. He studied her, curled up in the corner by the fire. Her eyes were closed in concentration. She was searching for any thread, no matter how slender, of the connection she’d shared with Alexei and the twins since Nicolette was purposely ignoring her. Desperate to help in any way she could, and just as unhappy as he was at being left behind.
Midnight Falls: Children of the Goddess, Book 4 Page 11
