Hunting Season (The Gathering Book 1)

by Shelly Laurenston

  Neecy frowned. “Just like that?”

  “Yup. Just like that, and no Odin. I met him by accident three years later. I ran over his foot with one of the Elder’s Ferraris. That’s when I learned drinking and driving… very bad.”

  Neecy’s head was down, but her entire body shook from laughter.

  “Oh, sure. Laugh. But let me tell ya… for a god, he was awfully asshole-y about the whole thing.”

  Clearing her throat, Neecy continued with her questions. “And your parents didn’t freak out about any of this?”

  “Not at all. I come from a very long line of Vikings. And a few from our line had been called by Odin before.”

  “So they just… handed you over? To some strangers?”

  “Yup. They were honored.”

  “And you?”

  “Me?” He shrugged. “I’m good at what I do.”

  Neecy nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Me, too.”

  They both stared into the fire crackling in his fireplace. Both of them had started down these paths so early in life, but he couldn’t say that if anything had been different, their lives would have necessarily been better. He found himself damn grateful to Skuld. If she hadn’t taken Neecy, she wouldn’t be here now. Right where she belonged, as far as Yager was concerned.

  Her soft lips brushed against his throat and he closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her mouth on his body. As the day wore on, Neecy became more and more affectionate and he loved every minute of it.

  She kissed her way up his neck. Her arm stretched across his shoulders as she breathed into his ear, “Fuck me, Will. You feel so good inside me.”

  He melted at her words, leaning down to kiss her. The woman had no idea what she did to him. How much she made him want to chain her to the bed so that she could never leave him.

  She had no idea when he unfurled his wings, but nothing felt as cool as having those wings sweep across her naked back. She pulled out of their kiss, gasping in surprise.

  “Oh, my God!” She twisted her body a bit so she could watch the feathers glide along her skin. “That feels amazing.”

  “You’ve never done this before?” A mischievous grin spread across his face. “Even with the other Crows?”

  Smirking, “You guys have a whole lesbian-fantasy thing going on over there at that Mountain Ridge, Mountain Creek, Mountain Cock… whatever ya call it.”

  “Just a little one. All those tough women alone… wearing leather. There’s gotta be some wrestling going on that involves oil, right?”

  She bumped her shoulder into his. “I find that such a sad, pitiful, all-male statement.”

  “Even the Warriors of Odin have their sad, pitiful, all-male moments.”

  She stretched, her back arching as the tip of his wing kept up its steady movement against her flesh. She especially loved when the feathers swept across the scar tissue that hid her own wings. They’d always been kind of sensitive, but this was mind-blowing.

  Who knew she’d enjoy spending time around Wilhelm Yager? Up to now, she just thought he was another dumb rich guy looking to slum it a bit with the Crows. She’d quickly found out he was anything but dumb and not once the entire day had Yager made her feel different or low class or less than anything else in the world. He actually made her feel… well, kinda special.

  Neecy’s body jolted as Will’s feathers slipped between her legs. Her head dropping to rest on her folded arms. “What are you doing?”

  “Amusing myself.” His wing stroked her pussy lips. “Mine for twenty-four hours. Remember?”

  How the hell could she forget? She was already dreading the end of this. But it would end. It’s not like she could live like this forever… right?

  “Spread your legs, baby.”

  She looked up at his smiling face through her too-long tangled bangs. She really needed to get them cut. “Must you call me that?”

  “I like calling you that. Now spread ‘em.”

  She did and he glided the tip of his wing against her clit, flicking it with a twist of his feathers.

  Neecy’s body jerked again. She’d heard about getting a feather-tease, but this was ridiculous. And delicious. “You have got to be kidding me.” No way would she let him get her off with his wing, but she seemed unable to stop him. It felt too good. He felt too good.

  “Nice, huh?”

  She nodded and moaned, but kept her head down. For some reason, she felt acute embarrassment the man could get her off so easily and had been doing it all day. It didn’t take her long to realize there would be no controlling Wilhelm Yager—in bed or out.

  “You want me to stop?”

  She shook her head.

  “Are you avoiding me, baby?”

  She nodded.

  “Why?”

  “I’m embarrassed by my weakness.”

  “Why? Because I can make you come whenever I want?”

  Her head snapped up, an angry glare etched across her beautiful face. But before she could start ripping the feathers off his wings, he flicked her clit again. Her body stiffened, her eyes slammed shut, then her entire body clenched and she came hard and fast. He kept the pressure up, enjoying just watching her body writhe in release.

  After a few moments, it seemed she couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop, stop, stop!” She pulled away, panting hard, and rolled onto her side. “Well, that was freakin’ amazing.”

  “Thank you.”

  She rolled onto her back and stared up at him. “Can I ask you something else?”

  “What part of ‘ask me anything’ are we not grasping here?”

  She rolled her eyes at his tone as her cheeks turned red. It took him a second to realize she was embarrassed and not by what he’d said either.

  “I can’t believe I’m asking this, but—” she took a huge breath, “—could you really not tell you were holding onto my tits the other night?”

  He snorted. “Of course I knew.” He brushed his cheek against her forehead, marveling at the realization that Neecy had let him see a side of her he knew she’d never show anyone else. “And, to quote you, they felt freakin’ amazing.”

  Reaching up and punching him lightly in the chest, she teased, “That’s sexual harassment in the workplace. I could complain to Odin, ya know?”

  “Odin is sexual harassment in the workplace.”

  “I have noticed an even bigger increase in the jiggle factor with the newest crop of Valkyries.”

  She watched as Yager retracted his wings and stretched out next to her on the floor, the two of them staring up at the ceiling. “Well, you’ve met some of the older Valkyries. They’re exceptionally cool. Very kick-ass. Brutal. But Odin met that stripper a few years back and it’s been downhill ever since.”

  Had it ever. And Neecy was the one who decked their leader, Clarissa. Or as all the Jersey Crows liked to call her, “That Valkyrie bitch Clarissa.” It was during the infamous Valkyrie-Crow bar fight in Yonkers. And every second she spent in jail that night… totally worth it.

  The pair grinned as Yager suddenly took hold of her hand and intertwined their fingers together. Part of her wanted to snatch her hand back. Not that it didn’t feel good. It felt great. Too great. The act itself seemed so intimate to her. Almost more than the two of them fucking.

  “Okay. Another question for you,” Yager said as he continued to stare up at the ceiling. “If you hadn’t… uh…”

  She knew where this was going. “Died? If I hadn’t died?”

  “Man, you guys deal with that really well.”

  She smiled. “Well, we’ve already done the hard part.”

  “True. Okay, so if you hadn’t died, would you still be dealing drugs?”

  “Oh, no. No, not at all.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh, yeah. I was planning on moving into gun-running. I hated dealing with addicts and the asshole kept pushing me to deal the harder shit, which meant the scarier addicts. So, I thought… gun-running. My whole goal was simple…”

&nb
sp; “Money?”

  She shook her head. “College. I didn’t care what I had to do. I was going to college. I used to watch TV and I’d see all these people with good lives and they all seemed to have college educations.” She finally pulled her hand away from his, put both her arms over her head and stretched. “The Gathering was actually perfect for me. They didn’t care if you hunted every night, all night, for ten weeks in a row. Your grades better be A’s or high B’s, and your SAT scores better be high. If your grades slipped because you were screwing around, you got what we refer to as a Raven Elder-type beating.”

  Grimacing, Yager said, “That’s brutal.”

  “Yup. Needless to say we all work to keep our grades up. The other option’s just too scary. But they pay for all your education right through master’s and doctorate work, so it balances out.”

  “And you seem relatively unscathed.”

  “‘Cause I’m really, really smart.”

  He laughed and she decided to change the subject, hoping to get them back to safer, non-Neecy-related ground.

  “Will… what exactly do you do?”

  “You mean besides save the world from evil?”

  “Well, shit. I do that. What else do you do?”

  “I don’t wanna tell ya.”

  “Oh, come on. Admit it. The Ravens don’t have to work, do they?”

  “What gave you that idea?”

  “You guys always seem to be lounging around with your incredibly hot cars. I mean, all of you have offices, but we just figured none of you actually worked in them.”

  “We do work. All of us.”

  “Then what do you do?”

  He sighed. “Me, Tye, and Mike design game software.”

  “No. Seriously.”

  “I am serious.”

  She snorted a laugh. “My God. You’re a geek!”

  “Shut up.”

  “A big, giant geek.” She laughed harder and suddenly he was straddling her hips. The man was so enormous and she realized he may not take too kindly to her laughing at him. Most guys didn’t. The drug-dealer boyfriend sure didn’t.

  “You know, I actually take what I do quite seriously. It’s an art.”

  “An… art?”

  Fresh round of laughter from that. Man, she really hoped this guy had a sense of humor because she was practically hysterical at this point with a naked giant sitting on her.

  “You’re making fun of me.”

  “Well, yeah. I mean, come on! Computer games? What are you? Twelve?”

  “What do you think paid for this apartment? And my house out on the Island? And Tye’s Lamborghini? And the lawyer for Mike during that whole paternity mess? So, we’re not geeks.”

  Neecy choked back the laughter. “Okay, then… where did you go to school?”

  “MIT and Caltech.”

  She pushed herself up on her elbows, staring straight into his eyes. “Geek. Geek. Geek. With some nerd thrown in for flavor.”

  Yager leaned down, their faces inches apart. “Yeah. And this geek has been getting you to scream his name. All. Day. Long.”

  Damn right he had. And she’d been enjoying every goddamn minute of it.

  “Pure luck,” she smirked. “But I bet you can’t do it again.”

  “Neecy Lawrence, you know a Raven can never turn down a direct challenge.”

  “Really?” she asked in mock innocence. “I’ve never heard that before. It must be a Viking thing. You know with my girl brain, I’d never understand any of that.”

  “You know, Lawrence,” he began as he settled himself comfortably against her hips, his naked ass rubbing against her pelvis, his big hands framing her face. For such a big guy, he knew how to handle his size well. And nothing was more delicious than having Will Yager’s hard body at her disposal. “You really do talk some shit.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. And I think it’s time we find something else for your mouth to do…”

  Rachel lost sight of her prey as he went over a fence. She spread her wings and followed. As she moved something flashed past her, slamming into her wing and yanking her back, nailing her to a wall.

  Screeching in rage, Rachel stared at the all-metal spear jutting from her body. Covered in Nordic runes and infused with powerful magic, it pinned her to the red brick. Her feet didn’t even touch the ground.

  Again she screeched in pain and rage. She reached for the spear as men stepped out from the shadows. Human men. Hunters. They were dressed like they were hunting deer in the mountains. She didn’t understand. How the hell did they see her? It was dark—cloaking time. Once her wings came out at night, only her prey, some Norse-descendent Shifters, and other Clans could see Crows when they were on the hunt. But these men were looking straight at her.

  “Bastards!” she spat in Russian. She only used her father’s language when she was really pissed off. “I’ve already been killed by better than you.”

  “Is it her?”

  “No. Waste her.”

  One of the men raised a rifle and aimed it at her. So focused on her, they never saw her sisters coming. Crows never fought alone. They’d been moving toward her from her first screech. Now her team leader, Delia, landed behind the one with the gun. Snatching his head back, she dragged her blade over his throat while another sister grabbed the gun from his hands before he could fire. They both moved so fast, the man didn’t even have a chance to whimper.

  The other Hunters realized females surrounded them, so they went for their weapons. But they’d never be fast enough. Not against Crows.

  Rachel gritted her teeth and yanked the spear out of her wing. She dropped to the ground and gutted the first Hunter who crossed her path. She liked this spear. She planned to keep it and use it for future hunts.

  “You gonna stand there bleedin’ or you gonna kick a little ass, Rach?”

  Rachel looked up at her team leader, and smiled.

  Karl Waldgrave watched as the team of women ripped apart his men. He knew when he sent them out, they wouldn’t come back alive. They were necessary sacrifices to give him and the other Hunters an idea of how these females fought.

  And even Waldgrave had to admit, as legendary a Hunter as he was, his goddess had given him a true challenge.

  He offered up a silent thanks to Her as he planned his next move.

  Chapter Seven

  Neecy picked up her crumpled jeans from off the floor and dug her cell phone out of the back pocket. She flipped it open. “Yeah.” She cringed at the croak she wanted to pass off as a voice.

  “Am I interrupting anything?”

  “What is it, Didi?”

  “Get your ass back to the house. But feel free to stop at your place and shower first. It’s not that big a rush.” Didi hung up.

  Flipping the phone closed, Neecy slid it back into her jeans. She shook her head, trying to clear her brain. She couldn’t remember the last time she was this exhausted. Her entire body sore and sticky.

  A big hand gripped her jeans and pulled them away, dropping them back to the floor.

  “Yager, I gotta go.”

  “I’ve got an hour left.” He kissed her neck, his lips sliding down to her breasts.

  “Didi wants me back at the house and I need to go home and get some clothes, catch a shower… ah!” He sucked her nipple hard into his mouth and Neecy couldn’t help but squirm in response. How did the man keep doing this to her? Damn him! She needed to get out of here or she may never leave.

  “Shower here. I’ll give you one of my sweaters.”

  “Sweaters? What happened to my—”

  “It got dirty on the butcher’s block.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “No buts. My time. Didi can fuckin’ wait unless she said it was an emergency.”

  True, she could lie to him. But Neecy didn’t lie. Didi didn’t tell her it was an emergency. Otherwise, she would have ordered her back to the house immediately.

  “I’ll take your silence to mean it’s not an
emergency.” Yager pulled himself up until he hovered over her, his arms braced on either side of her shoulders. “I still have an hour. Which means this sweet body still belongs to me.”

  Her body may belong to him at this moment, but once she walked out of his apartment that would be it. She’d allowed herself this indulgence, but never again. At least not with Yager. It would be way too easy to lose herself to this man. Way too easy.

  But, hell, what was one time? And it was just one time. She and Yager had an agreement.

  Neecy looked up into his gorgeous face and smiled. “Tick-tock, Raven.”

  Yager pushed her up against the wall, his mouth fastened to hers. Her hand reached out, fumbling for the door handle. He grabbed it and her other hand and pinned them both above her head.

  She pulled her mouth away from his. “I’ve gotta go,” she gasped.

  Leaning his body into hers, “Stay.”

  “I can’t… No, no, no! Not the neck! Not the neck!” He gripped the flesh of her throat between his teeth. Once he found out how much nipping her neck turned her on, he did it all night long. Of course, he didn’t bother telling her he’d riddled her poor neck with hickeys and he kept her away from mirrors as he got her showered and put her in his turtleneck sweater.

  “Off! Off! Off!” She pulled her wrists out of his grasp and pushed against his chest. “We agreed to twenty-four hours. We are now past that.” Way past… he’d kept her busy for another two hours after Didi called.

  “When will I see you again?”

  “You won’t… unless we’re at one of those hideous Valkyrie parties or I’m kicking your ass.” She pulled away from him and snatched his front door open, stumbling out into the hallway.

  Neecy turned around and glared at him. “And remember our agreement, Yager.”

  “Right. Twenty-four hours and you go. That was our agreement.”

  “And we never discuss this again, we never meet again, and you stop looking at me that way you have… which you’re doing right now!”

  “I didn’t agree to that.”

  Neecy stared at him. “Yes you did.”

  “No. I didn’t. We shook on the twenty-four hours. You mentioned those bullshit rules after we shook hands. All I did was shrug. I didn’t agree to anything. It’s not my fault you didn’t confirm the terms of our agreement.”