Gifted - The 5 Book Paranormal Romance Box Set

by Amira Rain

  I soon put on a pair of my favorite khaki summer shorts, discovering that they wouldn't button, when just a few days earlier, the last day I'd worn them, they had. Smiling a little to myself, I went next door to my old room, deciding that it was time to pull out a few items from the store of maternity clothes in the walk-in closet. Eventually, I found some roomy-yet-still-cute summer tops and several pairs of shorts with elastic on the sides to give the button closures a little more give. Putting on a white pair with a white-and-fuchsia ruffled top, I figured this temporary new wardrobe of slightly-larger clothes would hold me just fine for at least another month or two, when I'd move into a wide rack of cold-weather maternity clothes that were considerably larger.

  When Cole came home for lunch early that afternoon, I met him right in the marble-floored foyer, gave him a big kiss, and then told him to look at my stomach. "I'm starting to show already."

  He surveyed my stomach with a grin before pulling me close with one arm, free hand covering my little bump. "Yes...you're starting to show, and I think you're the most beautiful, radiant pregnant woman I've ever seen in my life. I first noticed your little bump last night while you were sleeping. You rolled over onto your back, and I ran a hand over it, then even sneaked a kiss...and you didn't even wake up."

  Disappointed that I'd missed that, I asked him if he'd do it again. "Just if you want to, though."

  Lips twitching with a grin, he began caressing my little bump with slow circles. "Just if I want to? I hope you can get used to me kissing your little belly a lot in the coming months, because I think I might like to do it every day...maybe a few times a day, if you can stand it."

  I was pretty sure that not only would I be able to stand it, I'd love it, and I told Cole this, making him grin even harder as he dropped to one knee in front of me and lifted the hem of my top. But then his expression became a bit more serious, and he just looked at my bare lower stomach for a long moment before pressing his lips against my skin and letting them linger for at least two or three seconds before pulling away to look up at me.

  "I love our baby already, Lauren. I have for a very long time."

  Since I'd only been pregnant for roughly three months, I wasn't quite sure how he could consider that a "very long time" even if he'd started loving our baby from day one; but I smiled anyway, thinking that maybe he was so excited to see our baby that the pregnancy had already started to feel like a very long time or something. As he rose to his feet and took me in his arms again, I told him that I loved our baby already, too, and I did. Even at this early stage, I just couldn't wait to meet him or her.

  Our sharing lunch together ended up being put on hold by Cole eventually picking me right up off my feet and carrying me out of the foyer and down to our bedroom. There, he undressed me slowly, helping me out of all but my underwear, kissing my stomach again as well as many other parts of my body along the way before setting me on the bed. Reclining, I expected him to climb on top of me once he'd gotten undressed, but instead, he positioned himself between my legs, planted a few tender kisses along my inner thighs, making me sigh, and then took one side of my lacy white underwear in his teeth with a low growl. Stifling a laugh, I began to ask him what he was doing, but then I got it. He was actually going to try to remove my underwear by pulling them off with his teeth. Very wolf-like, I thought with amusement, but also a little tremble of excitement.

  I'd had a boyfriend try this once before, and it hadn't exactly gone well, with him kind of giving up after a while and me awkwardly pulling my own underwear down. With Cole, however, this experience didn't repeat itself. Growling quietly nearly the entire time, he pulled one side down, then the other, repeating the process a few times with the only help from me being a brief lifting of my rear. When he got my underwear down to about mid-thigh, he paused, breathing in deeply with a low growl, as if he found my natural scent arousing, which I found arousing. Then, with his gaze locked on my now-slick feminine lips, he brought his mouth to them and slowly flicked his tongue up one side and down the other, making me sigh with growing desire and anticipation.

  By the time he finished the job of removing my underwear with his teeth a short while later, I was beyond ready to feel his tongue flicking across my most sensitive spot. However, in what I considered an act of cruelty, he made me wait, raking his tongue across each of my inner thighs several times first, while I raised my hips a few inches off the bed, nearly whimpering, desperate for him to move his stroking tongue inward.

  When he finally did, I cried out, clutching the bedsheets, although soon I moved my hands to tangle my fingers in his thick, dark hair. Holding his head in place while he used the tip of his tongue to pleasure me with rapid, flicking movements, it wasn't long at all before I felt a powerful orgasm building. When it crashed over me in waves, I ground myself against Cole's mouth and rapidly-stroking tongue, completely unable to help myself. He didn't seem to mind this, though, and in fact, even seemed to enjoy it, gripping my hips and increasing the pace of his tongue movements with a low growl rumbling deep in his chest.

  Once the last spasm of my ecstasy had passed, Cole pulled himself up to lie beside me, and I saw that he had indeed enjoyed our recent activity. His manhood, thick and long, appeared to be fully erect, and I realized that the prospect of soon having it inside of me struck me as a much more exciting idea than having lunch.

  We didn't end up making our way to the dining room until two, and bless her, Mary Alice just smiled sweetly and brought our lunch out to the table, not writing a single word about our tardiness on her notepad. She also didn't let her gaze linger on my hair, which was still wet from Cole and I taking a long, soapy shower together once we'd finished with all our activities.

  While we enjoyed whole wheat pita pockets stuffed with lettuce, halved red grapes, celery, and chicken salad, Cole wondered out loud if I should see a doctor or a midwife soon. "There's a registered nurse midwife who lives in Northwoods, and I'm thinking maybe I should ask her to come here for a visit, just to make sure that you and the baby are both perfectly healthy and well."

  Although I'd been taking prenatal vitamins that Cole had brought home from Northwoods, I knew that most women sought actual prenatal care sometime during their first trimester; being that I was close to my second, I thought Cole's idea was a good one, and I told him so. After setting his pita pocket down, he took out his phone and said he'd dial up the midwife right then.

  After a brief call, he pocketed his phone and told me that she was happy to come out and would arrive in a week. "And in the meantime, she said to just keep doing everything that you have been to give you such a gorgeous pregnancy glow."

  Fighting a smile, I gave Cole a look. "Being that she's never seen me before, I don't think the midwife said anything about me having a 'gorgeous pregnancy glow.'"

  Seeming to be fighting a smile himself, Cole picked up his half-eaten pita pocket. "No, maybe she didn't say that. But I am. You look so radiant I'm honestly having a hard time taking my eyes off you long enough to eat."

  I smiled, immensely pleased, though thinking that all the mind-blowing sex I'd been having probably had just as much to do with my "glow" as my pregnancy did. I was definitely the most sexually satisfied I'd ever been in my life, and then some. I was honestly satisfied to a degree I'd never even dreamed possible. And yet, everyday, my physical desire for Cole only seemed to grow.

  Later that day, after he'd gone back out, intending to do some surveillance on a few areas to the north, south, and west of the village, looking for any signs of North Haven scouts or any of Dominic's men, I was all but kicked out of the house by Mary-Alice. She and another older woman from the village were doing the weekly ground-floor dusting of the vast mansion; and I insisted on helping, but Mary-Alice insisted that I didn't, scrawling on her notepad that cleaning might be too strenuous for me in my "condition."

  Finding her concern almost too sweet for words, yet entirely ridiculous, I fought a giggle. "Oh, so dusting would be too strenuous
for me, but digging in a garden isn't?"

  She gestured one second, scrawled something else, and showed me her notepad. Good job reminding me- I think you should be taking it easy on that, too!

  I eventually left the house, but only after promising that I was just going out for a brisk walk, and maybe to see if I could find Cassie somewhere in the village, just to visit. Which didn't seem like it should be that hard to do, considering that there weren't many places she could be. There was her house, the flower and vegetable gardens, the bar, which she hardly ever went to, and the brand-new mini-store and lending library, which was being run by Ella. Yet, checking each of these places, I didn't find her, so I continued on with my walk, heading down the new trail that began at the vegetable garden, wondering where she could be.

  I didn't have to wonder long. I'd only been walking for maybe a minute when she came speed-walking up the trail, face white as a sheet. I immediately asked her what was wrong, and she just shook her head.

  "Not now. Let's keep walking. My house."

  Perplexed and vaguely alarmed, I did as she'd said, speed-walking back to the vegetable garden alongside her.

  Neither of us spoke until we got to her house, and even then, other than a few words, we really didn't speak until we were in her kitchen, sitting up to the tile-topped island with glasses of iced tea.

  Cassie took a long, thirsty drink of hers, then set the glass on the island with a sigh. "Way, way too much going on today. Way, way too much.""Well, what do you mean? What happened back in the woods?"

  Frowning hard, drawing her gingery brows together, Cassie sighed again. "Basically, I overheard something and found out Cole is in danger, as is Clark, and are several others -- and we are, too."

  *

  Before I could respond to what she'd said, Cassie continued. "Oh, and to get technical about it, our babies are in danger, too, because we are."

  Mind reeling, I just stared at her for a moment. "Wait a second. 'Our' babies? You're pregnant, too?"

  Making her short red bob swing, Cassie nodded. "Yes. And despite how I might look right now, Clark and I are elated about it. We found out this morning. Total surprise. Three days late, so I took a pair of old tests under the medicine cabinet, and we got the news. Which I thought would be the biggest news all day, and my head was even kind of buzzing about it, and I was so happy, but all my circuits were kind of on overload, so...when Clark went back to work with Cole, I guess I just thought a nice, quiet walk through the woods might clear my head a bit, and then I was going to go up to the mansion to tell you and Mary-Alice. But then I overheard what I overheard."

  "And what was it? And who said it?"

  "As to who said it, it was Derek and Mike."

  "Who are they?"

  Despite having lived in the village for a few months by this point, I still didn't know everyone by name.

  "Derek is an Angel, and Mike is an Angel wolf. Derek is married to that blond girl Naomi who never comes out of her house."

  I was ashamed to realize that I didn't even know who Naomi was.

  "She's one of the ones I think of as 'Angel groupies'...the women who weren't kidnapped, but got with their Angel men voluntarily, because they thought that Angels were the ultimate bad boys...only to find out that many of them really are, but not in any appealing sort of way. Something tells me that these days, Naomi regrets her choice. But, anyway, as unfortunate as that is, that's neither here nor there, at least when it comes to what was said it the woods."

  "And what was said?"

  I couldn't deny that I was growing increasingly anxious.

  "Well, here's the gist. Derek and Mike don't like Cole. They don't like his rules and regulations, and they apparently don't like the fact that men can't go around New Bad Axe assaulting women with impunity anymore. Derek has already been jailed three times for beating Naomi, so he's now approaching his final choice to leave the village or die if he beats her again. So, he knows he's on thin ice.

  "So, apparently, from what I could gather, he somehow contacted Bennett, Dominic's brother a while back, and they, along with Mike, decided to work together to try to take out Cole. Dominic wants revenge for Cole killing his brother, and Derek has it in his head that he wants to take over as leader of the village. Mike's just along for the ride, I guess, probably hoping to be Derek's second-in-command. So, currently, Derek and Mike are feeding Bennett information, such as who Cole is sending out to do patrols daily and where he's sending them, and what different areas around here that he continually has under surveillance.

  "When Bennett feels like he has a good enough handle on everything, he's then going to attack the village with his men, and Derek and Mike are going to help him fight. And if the two of them end up feeding Bennett enough information about the patrol schedules and such, it probably won't be that hard for Bennett and his men to come right on in the village and attack. Although from what I heard Derek say, he's still a good distance away right now, hanging out maybe fifty miles south of Northwoods, which is where he and his men have been the whole time. They were just able to avoid Cole and the Angels with him because Derek was on that trip, and he kept feeding Bennett information about where to go next to avoid detection."

  I just sat for a long moment, stunned, before speaking. "And you're sure you heard all this right? You were close enough that-"

  "Yes. I was literally about five feet away, and I heard every word of a conversation that was at least twenty minutes long. It was Derek and Mike, talking about strategy, and Bennett, and Cole, and the whole thing. I'd walked all the way down to the stream, and then I decided to sit beside the bridge for a while with my feet in the water. Then I saw some little crayfish I just wanted to watch for a while, so I kind of scooted more beneath the bridge, almost directly under it.

  "And that was when Derek and Mike came along with their lunch buckets and their nasty-smelling cigars. They sat right down on the opposite side of the bridge with their backs toward me, so I could peek up and see them, but they couldn't see me. At first I almost popped up, said hello, and left, wanting to get away from their gross cheap cigar smoke, but then right away, they started talking about killing Cole and everyone else in the village who remain loyal to him, so I put my phone on silent and just stayed put, trying not to even breathe too loud or move a muscle.

  "And by the time they'd finished with their lunches, I'd pretty much heard everything about their plot, and what I didn't hear, I could fill in the blanks. Then, they both got up to leave, and I was just about scared witless, thinking that Mike might smell my scent if he shifted into his wolf form to head back to whatever patrol he's assigned to today. But, thank God he didn't. Then I just waited around the bridge for a little while and made my way back up the trail, calling Clark to quickly tell him everything once I was pretty safely out of range of all patrol areas. Then I ran into you pretty much right after we hung up."

  "So, you think Cole already knows about this all? You think Clark has already told him?"

  "I'm pretty positive, since Clark was so eager to tell him that he really hustled me off the phone."

  Still stunned, I just sat quietly for a few seconds, and after a sip of iced tea, Cassie continued.

  "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more than a bit rattled by this all, and that's putting it very, very mildly, and I know you're probably rattled, too. I probably don't need to spell it out, but if Derek were to take over this village, we'd either be killed or enslaved."

  The very thought gave me a chill, even though Cassie's sunny kitchen was quite warm.

  "I do not think that's going to happen, though. With as strong as Clark is, and with as strong as Cole is, not to mention all the men loyal to Cole as their leader, I think it's Derek, Mike, Bennett, and all Bennett's men who are going to end up dead."

  "So, you think Derek and Mike are the only ones from the village in on the plot?"

  Picking up her iced tea again, Cassie nodded. "Derek kept telling Mike to not slip up and let anyone else in
on the secret. He seems to know full well that most men are loyal to Cole at this point, and the ones who are maybe on the fence, apparently Derek doesn't trust them enough to even try to sway them to his side."

  "So, basically, it's just Derek, Mike, Bennett, and Bennett's couple of dozen men that are going to be attacking our maybe hundred men."

  "Basically, yes. But now that they have knowledge of all this, I don't think Cole and Clark will let things get as far as an attack on the village. Hopefully, they'll be able to get some advance warning or something and head off Bennett and his men before they can even get too close. My guess is that Cole will carry on things as usual, just maybe having Clark do a bit of surveillance on Derek and Mike; that way, when Bennett and his men begin to make their way to the village, Cole and Clark can learn their location probably just by observing Derek and Mike heading to a secret meeting or something."

  Becoming nauseated, I didn't respond, and Cassie reached across the table and gave my hand a light squeeze. "Don't worry. This is very stressful, yes, especially for two pregnant ladies, but I think in the end, it's all going to be all right. We just need to have faith in our men. Then once the dust clears, everything will be back to normal, but even better, with our village getting prettier, us waiting for our babies, and all traitors having been killed or kicked out of the village. You'll see. Everything will be just fine."

  I squeezed her hand back, hoping with all my heart she was right.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I walked home from Cassie's house in something like a daze, thinking that of course something had to happen just as I was entering a very happy phase of my life, probably the happiest one I'd ever experienced. Something just had to happen to threaten that happiness. It figured.

  Mary-Alice and her dusting helper were in the bird room when I got inside, and I went straight to Cole's and my room without even being seen, feeling too troubled for any conversation. On one hand, I believed that Cassie was right, that everything would be just fine in the end. Our men would protect us, and when it was all over, the community, and our relationships, would be better than ever. But on the other hand, I was concerned about what might happen on the way to that end. I supposed that I had faith, but I was nervous about the what ifs. Such as, what if Bennett was a stronger Angel than Cole realized? What if his men were stronger than Cole realized? What if Derek and Mike were stronger than Cole realized?