by Susan Bliler
Tyson let his head fall back as a shuttle blasted through him, regenerating the rest of his clothing just seconds before he was moving. Jamming his phone in his back pocket, he was out of his room in a flash, jerking his bedroom door open so hard that it banked off the wall with a loud bang.
With his first steps, Monster lunged for the surface, but Tyson shoved the fucker down hard.
No!
Monster wasn’t taking over here, but Tyson wasn’t gonna do this alone either. That’s where he’d gone wrong with Monster. He’d been holding the beast down when he should have been giving him equal say. Together! He growled inwardly. That’s the only way this would work now. Man and Monster working in tandem. They’d bring their woman back, or together they’d fucking die trying.
Chapter 24
Cersi woke with a pounding headache and a mouth so dry it felt like she’d mopped the floors with her tongue. Peeking one eye open, she squinted at the shaded window and tried to gauge the hour. Apparently, it was too-bright thirty.
With a groan she rolled to her side, giving the window her back as she buried her head beneath a pillow and stretched her legs. God, she needed Starbucks, and cold pizza, and…and Tyson.
Rolling her eyes, she heaved a sigh and inwardly cursed herself for thinking of him. “Honestly,” she muttered aloud. “Can I have two fucking seconds of consciousness before obsessing over him?”
She tried to will herself back to sleep but knew it wasn’t happening. Already, her mind was reeling with memories of her Monster. God, he was a magnificent creature. The man, the beast, they were both equally beautiful and powerful. She remembered how when he’d taken her BlackLodge that first time, he knew something was wrong. They’d parked his truck down the mountain, and he’d practically dragged her up the mountainside. His eyes had been so damn intense. They’d changed color like they had that night they’d spent together. She now knew it was a sign that Monster was close to the surface.
Ffffffuck! Why did she have to think of that night? Instantly, her pussy was wet. Clamping her thighs tightly together, she fought to ignore the ache that throbbed in her clit at the memory of how he’d buried himself deep inside of her like he’d owned her. He had. At that moment when his big body was settled between her thighs, she’d felt so damn powerful. She shouldn’t have because he’d been on top and had been doing the penetrating, but there was no mistake who was in control. It had been her. She could have stopped him at any time, but she hadn’t. No, she’d wanted to see him lose control, and he had, and it was the most heady experience of her life. He’d lost himself in her body, and she had never felt more powerful, or beautiful, or wanted. It was the wanted that did her in. She’d never been wanted, not by anyone. Hell, even just remembering how desirable she’d felt in his arms had her chest aching and tears welling.
Pressing her wet eyes into the pillow, she jerked it off her head, tossed it on the bed with a sigh, and climbed off the mattress. Rummaging through her dresser drawer, she pulled out fresh clothes and made her way to the bathroom where she brushed her teeth before climbing into the shower. She let the water get good and hot before she pulled the hand shower off the mount and adjusted the setting to pulse before slamming a hand against the wall and panting hard as she relieved the ache between her thighs with her eyes pinched shut. Images of Tyson filled her head and her heart and when she finally came, her legs buckled and she slid down to settle on the shower floor, hand shower still blasting water as she pulled it to her chest and cried.
Fuck, I want him. I want him so damn bad.
She wanted Tyson with a ferocity that was unrivaled. Even all those years in foster hell, wishing her parents would come find her, was nothing compared to this. She wanted Tyson so damn bad that it was hard to breathe.
Choking back her sobs, she focused on simply breathing. Drawing in big gulps of air, she held them in before letting them out on slow exhales.
BlackLodge. She needed to go there. It felt like that’s where she belonged. She could go back and say it was to check on Vesa and to apologize to Tyson for how she’d left. She could feel him out, see if he was still interested. She could take that chance. She should take that chance! It was better than slowly dying here in the city of a broken heart.
But what if he decides he doesn’t want me like everyone else? Could I live through that?
No. No, she didn’t think she could survive Tyson throwing her away, but she didn’t think she could survive this either. It felt like part of her was dying, so why not just give him a try. Die now or die later? She turned her head and pressed her forehead up against the shower wall. You only die later if he ends up discarding you, there’s a chance… But she couldn’t even think about that possibility because hope had always been her downfall. All those years of hoping her parents would come for her when the never had. Then when she’d emancipated and stumbled her way into adulthood to become a bounty huntress, one of the first things she’d done was hunt her parents down. Even then, she’d held hope that there’d been a reason they’d given her up. She’d convinced herself that something awful had happened, something where they couldn’t keep her. She’d fooled herself into believing that they’d been searching for her the whole time. What she’d found out was that her mother had died of an overdose when Cersi was three. Her father, August Valle, was also a drug addict and a thief. He’d gone to prison when she was one. He stayed there until she was eleven. When he’d been released, he’d relapsed into drugs and had died shortly after in a robbery attempt. There had been no mistake. Her parents had abandoned her intentionally, and they’d never looked back. Still… She had to have the courage to give her and Tyson a chance.
Courage.
Yeah, that’s what she was lacking, and it was out of character because she’d spent her life making herself tough as iron. Running wasn’t like her and hiding was even worse.
Sucking back her tears, she shoved up off the floor and replaced the hand shower before twisting the water off. Dressing in record time, she had a small bag packed and tossed into the back of her jeep before she was on the road, headed back to BlackLodge…headed back to Tyson.
***
Tyson used his shoulder to force his way into Cersi’s apartment, but already knew what he’d find. Her little green jeep wasn’t parked out front, and he couldn’t hear any sounds coming from within. Inside, he found the place empty, and it twisted something awful in his gut. His first thought was that she’d run as far and as fast as she could, but scenting the place, he picked up on several things. Alcohol and anguish filled the space and the deeper he went into the apartment, the stronger it got. Her bedroom was dark. Her bed was a mess of sheets and pillows. Sitting, he picked up the nearest pillow and brought it to his nose. It smelled like alcohol and tears and woman. His woman. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who’d had a rough time since they’d been apart.
Snooping around her apartment, he found little evidence of where she’d gone. Dishes piled in the sink led him to believe she’d be back, so he dropped onto her couch and dropped his head into his hands. So much for his plan of kicking in her door and hauling her into his arms. Shaking his head with a deflated chuckle, he leaned back and pressed his shoulder into the cushions of the couch. He hated waiting. He wasn’t patient. Hell, he wasn’t even semi-patient, but for Cersi he’d wait. He’d wait until the rivers ran dry.
Fffffuck! He scanned the room again, looking for anything he’d missed, but nothing looked out of place. He hated this. Staring around her room he wondered how long he could keep Monster preoccupied before the fucker started ripping into him. In that instant, Monster ran his claws down Tyson’s insides forcing him to grunt against the pain. His goddamn beast needed distracting. Tyson knew he would. Wolves weren’t waiters. They were hunters. Action, action, action. That’s what Monster needed, but unwilling to leave without Cersi, Tyson stormed to her room and dug through her closet and under her bed until he found as much luggage as he could. Without hesitation, he started packi
ng her shit. Luckily, it was enough to appease Monster. They weren’t leaving this place without Cersi and Monster liked that plan. Tyson liked it too.
Chapter 25
Cersi rolled slowly onto the grounds of BlackLodge. From the road, she could see the main house and disappointment slammed into her chest like a sledgehammer when she saw his truck was missing.
It could be parked at his cabin, she told herself. But, he’d never parked it there before, he always kept it at the main estate house.
As she parked and pulled her keys from the ignition, Brayden and Afften came out the back door.
“Hi,” she offered lamely as she closed the door of her jeep.
“Cersi, what are you doing here?” Brayden looked over her shoulder. “Where’s Tyson?”
Brows spearing down, she shook her head. “I don’t…”
“He went to find you,” Afften beamed. “He was gonna bring you back.”
“When?” Cersi asked breathlessly, “When did he leave?” Heart pounding out an excited rhythm, she struggled to hear over its frantic beating.
“He left…” Brayden stopped mid-sentence and lifted his head. “Someone’s coming. It’s probably him.”
Excited and suddenly nervous, Cersi turned to face the road. Her hands lifted and attempted to smooth down her unruly hair before dropping to rest anxiously on her thighs.
“Shit! It ain’t him. Afften get Noah. Cersi get inside.”
Eyes still on the empty road, Cersi didn’t understand what was happening. Apparently, Afften did though because she snarled. “I’m not leaving you. Cersi go find Noah and then stay inside.”
Find Noah? Stay inside?
She was just about to ask what was going on when a line of trucks crested the ridgeline and descended quickly into BlackLodge.
Fuck!
Cersi couldn’t keep the worry from her voice as she asked, “Brayden?”
He barked, “Go find Noah, Cersi, and then stay inside!”
She didn’t race for Noah though. She asked, “Where’s Haddix?”
Afften was the one who answered, and when Cersi turned to the female shifter, she looked nervous. “He took Vesa to town. They went to a movie.”
Fuck!
Without hesitation, Cersi turned and raced to the door, jerking it open she rushed inside bellowing, “Noah!”
Noah was already making his way out of the living room to her. “Who the fuck is here?”
She pointed to the door. “Trucks, lots of ‘em.”
Noah brushed past her as she hurried out the door. Cersi stalled long enough to whip out her phone and punch in a group text to Vesa and Tyson.
‘Trouble at BlackLodge come quick!’
She pushed send just as she heard a truck door slam and not wanting to give away that there was someone in the house, she tiptoed to the alcove window and peeled back the curtain just enough to peek out.
There were six trucks parked haphazardly behind the ones belonging to the BloodMoon’s out front, but that wasn’t all. There were giants. Giants everywhere! All the men were bigger than Noah and Brayden, hell they even rivaled Haddix’s stature. Cersi counted eight standing in front of their trucks with another four who remained in the vehicles.
Twelve men! We can’t beat twelve men!
Her eyes darted to her jeep where she’d left her purse that held her pistol. There was a knife in her boot, but that wouldn’t do shit against twelve shifters. For an insane moment, she considered calling the police, but bringing more humans into what looked like the makings of a shifter war was only ensuring their deaths. Besides, they didn’t know if these new men meant any harm.
“We’re here for the Monster.”
Shit! Yeah, they weren’t here for a visit.
Whipping out her phone, she typed in, ‘Tyson don’t come home! They’re looking for you. Stay away!’
“He ain’t here,” Brayden answered gruffly. “And neither is our Alpha, so you need to take your men and leave, Regan.”
Cersi winced at Brayden’s dipshit admission. Honestly, who in the hell admitted their numbers like that?
Noah bit out, “Who the fuck are you?”
A few chuckles went up before the man standing in front of Brayden, the one he’d called Regan, answered. “The Council sent us.”
“The Council?” Afften tried to step around Brayden, but his hand caught her hip and held her back. It didn’t keep her from gritting out, “We have two females here! Haddix and Brayden are both mated, and we’ll have a third female in our pack soon. We are in compliance!”
Regan looked from Afften to Brayden, “That true?”
Brayden grabbed Afften’s hand. “She’s mine, and Haddix is mated too. He participated in The Hunt. There’s no need for the Council to summon any of us. We’re not in violation of their goddamn rules!”
Regan slid his gaze from Brayden to Noah. “So where is she? This third woman you’ll be claiming.”
“Not me,” Noah smirked and crossed his arms triumphantly over his chest. “She’s Tyson’s, and she’s inside.”
Jesus fucking Christ!
Cersi dropped the curtain when a dozen pair of eyes snapped toward the house.
Idiots! Idiots! She was surrounded by idiots! Why were they telling these men anything?
Jerking the knife out of her boot, she flipped it open as she backed up toward the stairs looking for a place to hide. She didn’t find one before all hell broke loose outside.
Brayden bellowed, “Hey! Hey!”
Snarling filled the air followed by the unmistakable sounds of violence. The BloodMoon’s were fighting. She considered her options, but it lasted only a second before the front door was ripped open.
Regan stood there staring straight at Cersi. Lip curling up in a silent snarl, his eyes drifted up and down her frame before he sneered, “So Monster likes dark meat, eh?”
His words pissed her off and snapped her right out of her indecision. Tightening her hand around the hilt of her knife, she vowed to go down fighting.
Regan leered at her before yelling, “She’s here!”
Several bodies filled the space behind Regan, but Cersi kept her eyes on him.
“Bring the Monster’s mate,” he commanded and then turned and gave her his back as the men who’d entered slowly stalked her.
Waltzing out the door, Regan crowed, “We’ll make him come to us.”
Doing a quick count, Cersi realized there were just too many men to face alone, and yeah, she was a fighter, but she wasn’t an idiot.
Spinning, she made a run for it, but a fist caught her hair and jerked her back hard. Her knife shot out quick as lightning, but the deep gouge she left on the arm holding her only served to piss off the shifter holding her. He shifted partially, and sharp teeth snapped at her face. She cried out when a hand gripped her wrist tightly and squeezed so hard she swore her bones were going to shatter. The knife clattered to the floor, but fuck that, she was going down fighting and fight she did. Kicking, punching, biting, clawing, she bucked as two men grabbed her arms and two grabbed her legs hoisting her off the ground. The strain on the gunshot wound to her shoulder burned so damn bad that she couldn’t help but cry out at the pain. Still, she fought even when she felt her incision ripping and liquid warmth running down her skin.
“Get the fuck off me!”
They didn’t. They stretched her out until a fifth man came into view. The last thing she remembered seeing was his fist hurtling toward her face.
Chapter 26
Tyson had packed all Cersi’s clothes into the luggage he’d found before rummaging around and finding some boxes in a back room. Into those, he’d packed up some of the stuff he thought she might want to take to BlackLodge. Then, he’d he waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Monster had gone to sleep, tired of the sport, and Tyson had eventually drifted off too. The buzzing of an incoming message on his phone woke him, and he jerked awake. Staring groggy eyed around Cersi
’s apartment, it took a moment to get his bearings before he lifted his phone, punched in his code, and squinted at the screen.
The second he saw that the text was from Cersi, he snapped wide awake. The words that appeared next though had his mouth going dry. His belly clenched with nausea. He read the text twice before Monster roared to life inside of him.
‘Trouble at BlackLodge come quick!’
He was up off the couch in a flash, Cersi’s things forgotten as he raced from her apartment and down to his truck. A million scenarios ran through his head. Was Haddix hurt? Had something happened to one of his pack? Phone pinging again, he lifted it and felt panic seize him as he read, ‘Tyson don’t come home! They’re looking for you. Stay away!’
Enemies! Enemies were at his home, and Cersi was there too!
A wave of helplessness like none he’d ever experienced before crashed over him as he started his truck and tore out of the parking lot. It’d take hours to get home!
One eye on the road, the other on his phone, he called Cersi’s number, but it rang and rang. Hanging up, he called Haddix who answered on the first ring.
“What the fuck is going on?” he snarled.
He could tell by the gruff tone of Haddix’s voice that his wolf just under the surface. “Me and Vesa were in town. We’re heading home now. No one’s answering.”
In the background, he heard the distress in Vesa’s voice as she asked, “Why is Cersi at BlackLodge? And why are people after Tyson?”
He didn’t have answers to either question, so he clipped out, “I’m on my way!”
He hung up and drove as fast as his truck would take him. The ride was long and tense, and when he was thirty minutes from home, his phone rang. He answered without looking to see who it was. “What?”
Afften’s worry-filled voice carried over the line. “They took her, Tyson! The Council sent Regan and his men for you! When you weren’t here, they took Cersi! We tried to stop ‘em. Noah and Brayden were hurt.” The last was said with tears in her voice.
