by Jenna Payne
He slid between the sheets and settled close to her, trying simultaneously to keep from touching her and falling off the bed onto the floor. Sterling followed suit, his face set in a grim line as he removed his boots and went to the other side of the bed. Conrad smiled knowing when Sterling’s nostrils flared at the sight of her milky flesh beneath the blanket. His friend wasn’t hesitant because it was a bother; he was attracted to this woman, and he was trying his best to hide it.
Conrad winked at Sterling, he shot him an angry look before slipping in between the sheets. The bed was large, but it wasn’t meant to accommodate the three of them with any room to spare. Both Lycans were forced to move beside her, lying on their sides and cradling her between their bodies.
Lizette sighed heavily and some of the stress melted off her face.
“That’s a lot better. Thank you.”
She rested her head on Conrad’s shoulder and nuzzled her cheek into his back. He faced away from her, eyes riveted to the wall, mind focused on keeping his arousal under control. She smelled beautiful, and it was all Conrad could do to keep his thoughts chaste.
Lizette reached behind her and pulled Sterling’s arm over her hip, wiggling until her hips fit neatly into the bend of his. Sterling suppressed a groan. Her backside was resting against him, heat seeping through his thin trousers and making it hard to control himself. He closed his eyes and counted, slowly, willing his growing erection to stop before it was too late.
She wiggled again and slid her hand down between them, running her fingers over him and making it clear that she was well-aware of his erection. Her fingers teased the edge of his waist band, working their way inside. Sterling held completely still, wondering if he was dreaming. When her hand wrapped around his shaft, he knew he was awake.
Conrad heard the sharp intake of breath from Sterling and turned over in bed. His eyes met hers and she bit her lip before leaning in to kiss her. Was he dreaming again?
“I just want to forget about today, about the danger. I want to feel alive and safe.”
She squeezed Sterling, causing him to groan softly. She used her free hand to pull Conrad toward her, kissing him deeply once more.
“Are you sure? You don’t owe us anything.”
“I do. I owe you my life, but that’s not why. Please, don’t argue with me. I just need this.”
He didn’t need to hear any more to know that he wasn’t going to turn her down. Over her shoulder, he locked eyes with Sterling, who nodded his head in agreement. This wasn’t the first human woman they’d shared, but she was by far the sweetest.
Conrad slid the shirt over her head while Sterling slid off his trousers behind her. Lizette helped Conrad remove his own clothes as Sterling trailed affectionate kisses down her neck and spine. His hand slid down her back, over the smooth curve of her backside and between her legs. She was hot, and ready.
He moved against her and pulled her knee back and over his hips. She moved into him and he slipped inside her. He rocked slowly, his movements slow and steady. Conrad kissed her deeply, his hand fondling her breasts, his body pressed against the front of hers.
The three of them moved together, each finding his or her own beat in the shared rhythm. There made love slowly, unhurriedly. While Sterling filled her and stretched her, Lizette held Conrad’s rigid shaft, stroking him in time with Sterling thrusting inside her. Her mind cleared and she relaxed.
The tension built within her so gradually that her orgasm caught her by surprise. She gripped Conrad tightly, her strength almost more pleasure than pain as Sterling rocked her over the edge. Conrad held her tightly as she fought the passion, trying to move away from it before it overtook her entirely. Her orgasm was replaced with a more intense one, crashing over her like violent waves along the shoreline. She screamed out but Conrad covered her mouth with his. She trembled and bucked between them, the intense pleasure more than she could bear.
When Sterling was thoroughly spent he slowed, struggling to catch his breath. He stayed inside her for several moments, enjoying the way her body flexed involuntarily around his. Conrad continued stroking her face, running his hands down her body as she floated back down to reality. He murmured softly to her, his words tender and loving. Sterling drifted off to sleep, still resting inside of her as he listened to the two of them talking quietly together.
His last thought before sleep overtook him was that he would never be the same again, and that was all right with him.
***
Epilogue
Owen Wrigley came to on the hard stone floor, his blurry vision slowly coming into focus. A rotund woman moved around the room, humming to herself while she set the table while another man brought food out on large serving trays. Owen could hear the steady drone of conversation around his.
Several men sat around the large room, some on plush sofas and others in a semi-circle of gathered chairs. No one seemed to pay him any mind at all.
He pushed up and leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes against the wildly spinning room and willed his head to clear. The last thing he remembered was being so close to his goal and then falling into a trap.
Across the room, a handsome man with long, straight blond hair watched Owen as he fought to fully regain consciousness. The man stood and walked towards him, a brilliant smile gracing his face.
He kneeled down so he was eye-level with Owen.
“I’ve spared your life, Friend. I’m sure you’re eternally grateful for that, as many humans are.” His smile widened as he spoke. “I have a proposition for you.”
***
PART 2
Sterling tilted his head up, trying to catch the scent on the breeze. Like his hair in his human form, as a wolf his fur was significantly lighter than most Lycans, making blending into the dark shadows harder. Conrad, the typical dark-furred wolf with deep brown eyes, was nearly invisible in the shadows across the path. Even with Sterling’s heightened senses, he could barely make out the outline of his friend ten feet from where he stood in the pitch black night.
Conrad stood still as the pair listened for any sign of trouble. Another pair of sentries, James and Tristan, had seen a vampire moving a little too close to the protected wood, but Tristan had lost sight of him an hour before. When Tristan and James had come in to change shifts with Sterling and Conrad, Tristan was still angry at letting the vampire slip through his fingers.
A branch snapped softly several yards to their left. Sterling crouched down further under the overhanging brush, keeping completely still in the darkness. The two wolves watched the path ahead of them, waiting to see who – or what – was coming their way before attacking. Bradenton had a curfew, but occasionally a youth would sneak into the woods after being dared by his friends. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if two of the werewolf sentries killed a young human. Accidental or not, such a death would likely cause the bond that the Lycan clan and the villagers had formed over the generations to break. Even if it were a foolish youth.
A single man stepped into sight, and Sterling had to steel himself against acting too hastily. The vampire stood in path, scanning the ground before him, his nostrils flaring slightly. A second vampire came up behind him, surveying the forest beyond briefly before speaking.
“Can you smell her?”
“I can, but this forest reeks of Lycans, and it’s hard to tell where her scent is strongest under the mangy dog stench.”
Conrad rolled his eyes. The vampires were less than ten feet from them, but somehow completely unaware that the overwhelming scent was because they were right there. Conrad wondered to himself for the millionth time how this clan of vampires had survived this long. Aside from their leader, Dallin, they were quite literally a band of fools.
“I smell her too. Do you think they have her?”
“Dallin thinks they do. He tracked her to the edge of this forest and almost immediately, the smell of dog covered up hers. He doesn’t think she could have gotten to the village before he discovered he
r missing without help. It is much too far a distance for a human on foot.”
The men kept walking, moving closer and closer to where the men waited to ambush them.
Suddenly, the man in the lead stopped, holding his arm back to stop his companion from moving forward.
“Do you smell that? They’ve been here recently.”
“It smells the same to me.”
“No, it’s thicker here. It’s almost nauseating how they smell.”
Sterling motioned to Conrad and the two leapt out of their hiding places; there was no use hiding any longer, and the vampires were almost on top of Sterling and Conrad. Better to grab them now when they were distracted by their conversation.
Sterling tackled the first vampire fiercely, taking him down hard on the ground. Conrad passed over them as he ran after the second one, who had spun on his heel and fled like a coward the instant he saw Sterling appear in the darkness.
Growling, Conrad sailed into the air, catching the man and taking him down in a flurry of fur, tail, and flailing vampire.
Sterling fought the one beneath him, teeth bared, trying to get his mouth on his throat. There weren’t many ways to kill a vampire in wolf-form; ripping their heads off was pretty much their only death dealing blow available. But the vampire under him knew this, and was protecting his throat all the while trying to bite Sterling with the sharp points of his fangs.
The vampire pulled his legs up to his chest, working his feet beneath Sterling, and kicked him as hard as he could. Sterling yelped and flew through the air. His body hit a large, old oak tree. With a thud, he landed at the base of the tree, out cold and completely vulnerable.
Conrad, still holding his pinned vampire beneath him, turned in time to see Sterling slam into the tree and fall to the ground with a sickening thud. His friend lay in a heap on the ground as the vampire advanced on him, but he didn’t move a muscle.
Conrad looked to his friend, weighing his options for a moment before turning to protect his friend. Unconscious, he was at the mercy of the approaching vampire, and Conrad wasn’t about to let that undead beast kill his friend.
With an angry growl, he jumped onto Sterling’s assailant’s back, teeth sinking into his flesh. The vampire turned, slamming his back against the tree and crushing Conrad between himself and the mighty oak. Conrad held on, shaking his head and burying his teeth further, pulling with all his might as the vampire slammed him against the tree repeatedly.
Conrad released his jaw and opened wide, going in for the kill. The vampire dropped to his knees, nearly severed neck holding his head on with a narrow strip of flesh and connective tissue. He collapsed, breathing heavily and in agony. Conrad was on top of him in a moment, pinning him down so he could deliver the final bite that would destroy him once and for all.
“You’ll never stop us.” The vampire’s words were labored because of his wounds. “Dallin won’t stop until he has her back. Is every life in the village worth less than a single, useless girl?”
Conrad sunk his teeth into the vampire’s throat once more, ripping his head off and flinging it to the side. The vampire’s body dissolved into a pile of ashes almost instantly. Its head hit the ground, exploding into a burst of powdered ashes on impact.
The other vampire was long gone, having fled towards the safe-zone without bothering to look back to see if his comrade was alive.
Conrad shifted back to human form quickly, running towards Sterling. He ran his hands over Sterling’s shaggy fur, looking for signs that his friend was still alive. A faint heartbeat pulsed beneath his skin and he was breathing. Groaning under the weight of his friend, he threw the heavy werewolf over his shoulder and began walking back to their cabin. Muttering about vampires as he went.
***
Lizette sat on the thick rug in front of the blazing fire. The evening was chilly, and without Conrad and Sterling to keep her warm, Lizette had been shivering on the makeshift bed across the room.
Maeve was the only female Lycan working as a sentry. The rest preferred to live inside the village proper, running various shops and businesses. They were all trained and willing to fight, but tended to prefer life in the village.
A few years older than twenty-year-old Lizette, she was energetic and quick-witted, but Lizette knew the woman was suspicious of her. Brought to Maeve’s cabin along the village wall under the guise of keeping her safe while Sterling and Conrad were away, it didn’t take Lizette long to figure out that the rest of the Lycans did not trust her.
Maeve had spent more than an hour asking Lizette question after question before she finally went to bed. Leaving the room, she let Lizette know that she had a bell in her room that rang when the door was opened, and she would know if Lizette tried to run away.
“I’ll be pretty angry if I have to chase you down in the middle of the night on my one night off-duty.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I have no intention of putting myself at risk of becoming a vampire slave.” Or worse, she thought.
Maeve hadn’t been happy with her answer, but she didn’t have much of a choice.
In truth, Lizette was too exhausted to run away anyway. The day before, when Sterling and Conrad had first captured her, had been a blur. She’d been running on pure adrenaline.
After a long day running for her life, followed by a night of passion with two men she’d just met, Lizette was feeling every scratch and every pulled muscle in her entire body. Each and every step was painful, though she hadn’t let on how much pain she was in before Conrad and Sterling had left for the evening. Nothing besides rest would heal her pain, so whining about it wouldn’t help anyone.
So she’d kept her mouth shut and suffered in silence.
Back chilled and face hot from the fire, Lizette gingerly turned over onto her other side. The thick fabric of the clothing that Maeve had loaned her had no give, making turning over difficult without injury. Her skin slid against the fabric, causing her to itch all over.
She snuggled as far into the rug as she could, wishing that Maeve had saw fit to loan her a blanket, or at least a thin towel with which to cover herself. Eyes closed, she focused on trying to sleep so she could get the night over with.
A loud knock jarred her out of her thoughts. Someone on the other side of the door pounded rapidly, shaking the heavy door on its hinges. Lizette sat up and pulled her knees to her chest, watching the door with dread as the pounding continued.
Maeve strode to the door, her face broadcasting her annoyance as clearly as if she’d spoken aloud.
“You’re going to just open the door? You don’t know who’s out there.”
“Enemies don’t knock.”
“Oh.” Lizette had to admit, it made sense.
Maeve unlocked the door and it swung inward. Conrad walked in, and a limping, bleeding Sterling hobbling along beside him.
“What happened?” said Maeve. Lizette rushed to Sterling as Conrad and Maeve helped him to the chair by the door.
“Vampires,” Conrad answered.
“Within the protected forest?” Maeve’s face was angry. She didn’t even wait to hear his answer before she started gathering up her cross-bow and arrows made of carved wooden stakes.
“Yes, in our forest. I killed one, but the other fled.”
“What were they doing here?”
“They were hunting for her.”
“What in the world is so important about her?” Maeve turned and looked her over, her once thinly-veiled dislike for Lizette no longer hidden.
“He wanted her for breeding. Dallin can’t afford to turn people into vampires when food is so scarce, so he’s doing the next best thing.”
“Isn’t breeding them the same thing though?”
“Not really. Vampire offspring gestate three times faster than humans. Each human woman could give birth to four vampires a year. I’ve never seen one first-hand, but my grandfather used to tell us stories about them. They’re like baby rattlesnakes; more deadly, more aggressive, and
more vicious than adults. They mature within days of being born. With enough women, he could grow his army exponentially in a year.”
“So what’s so important about her? Why doesn’t he just get another breeder?”
Conrad looked at Lizette, “I can’t figure it out either. Maybe it’s just the fact that she escaped. That had to be a huge blow to his ego. That’s really the only thing I could think of.”
“Well, whatever it is, we need to tell the Captain immediately and warn the others. If Dallin is hell-bent on having this specific woman, tonight is just the beginning.”
Conrad nodded his agreement. Now that Dallin knew without a doubt she’d come this way and been picked up by Lycans, he wouldn’t stop until he had her.
***
Owen Wrigley sat in the wooden chair, growing impatient with Beth as she worked on him. After putting a final dressing on his healing wounds, she began the tedious process of changing his looks.
Beth was already slow, and her recent wounds were slowing her down even further. A large cut slashed across her face, still healing and an angry red color. She was missing one eye and the corner of her mouth, where the scar ended, turned down slightly when she spoke.
Beth took a paint brush, dipping it in foul-smelling liquid that looked like tar.
“What is that?”
“We can’t have you showing up to the village in that bright red hair of yours. They’ll spot you a mile away.”
Owen didn’t like it, but he knew she was right. Already, his thick beard had been shaved completely. He hadn’t even recognized his own face in the mirror, which was good. If he was going to sneak back into Bradenton to retrieve Dallin’s girl, he was going to have to appear to be a stranger selling his wares.
Beth moved closer, her sagging bosom shoved into his face as she leaned over him and parted his hair. She was careful, turning the brush over several times over the bowl so it didn’t drip on his skin or the floor. The stench was appalling and Owen wondered how long he had to leave the dye in his hair for it to set.
