by Jessica Snow
Kat clutched at the pine needles underneath her, her fingers digging into the soft loam of the earth as she struggled to comprehend the sensations inside her. Her thighs trembled and her breasts heaved as she gasped and groaned under his loving tongue, swept away as her first orgasm smashed into her. It was always like this with Liam, no matter how hard she tried to hold back or to make it last, his passion would drive her wild and shatter her ability to resist. Instead, she cried out, pushing back into his face and feeling every drop of her wetness carried away on his tongue. “Fuck, oh fuck me, oh please,” she begged. “Give it to me.”
Liam pulled his mouth away from her still twitching pussy to get behind her, his cock rubbing against her slit and covering itself in her wetness. “This is what you want? Do you want to give yourself to me? Are you good enough for it?”
“Teasing me...” Kat sighed happily, hearing the playfulness in his voice. It was a little game they’d developed after she’d gotten pregnant and she’d moved in with him into the townhouse. It was half game, half serious really, a way for him to feel secure in his prime alpha male status even though she technically was physically stronger than him, and besides, she did enjoy giving him control. She sighed, pushing back into him and rubbing her hips back and forth, both of them teasing the other with his cock sliding between her lips but not into her, the heat of her thighs and the tease of her body keeping him rock hard for minutes on end as the heat built up between her legs again. “I know what I want. I want my mate. So… this is what you want?”
Liam growled, his fingernails scratching lightly on her back as he acknowledged his want and she groaned deeply, lowering her head and presenting herself to him. “Take me please, my mate.”
Liam needed no more encouragement, driving his massive cock into her in one powerful thrust and pushing her cheek into the soft pine needle floor of the woods. Maybe they’d been having sex for close to a year, and maybe she had pushed three babies out through her body, but Liam’s cock always stretched her as he filled her for the first time, the pleasure and pain a heady, amazing mix that left her breathless and moaning for more. She was all woman, always had been and always would be, more than a match for any normal man… but Liam wasn’t any normal man, and the speed and power of his thrusts made her body shake as he pounded her.
Their grunts and growls of passion touched them to the depths of their very souls, a coupling that brought not just waves of pleasure but explosions of erotic energy that crackled in the air. With each harsh slap of their skin together Kat knew that she had made the right choice, that Liam was the one being on the planet who was right for her. The energy that built inside her was explosive and heady, a primal rush that made her rejoice in her uniqueness, knowing that there was no other woman in the world that could feel the same way she did at that moment, her mate’s cock driving into her as he growled and yipped while her fingers dug into the rich woodland earth and she pushed back, sweat running off her body in rivulets to stain the dirt black as testament to their bonding.
“Liam!” Kat cried out as her pussy squeezed him again while she came, her body exploding as he literally howled in triumph and release, his come blasting deep inside her and making her scream in pleasure and ecstasy. When it was over she felt boneless, supported and reassured in his arms as he lifted her and they rolled to the forest floor, his arms curling around her protectively. She was assaulted by the rush to her senses, the clean sweat of their bodies, the tangy aroma of their love juices, the woodsy pine scent while the pine needles tickled her skin. Even more than smell though was the feeling of warmth and reassurance of her mate right by her side. She hummed, turning around and laying her head on his chest. “You… you’re amazing. I love you.”
“I love you,” he whispered, stroking her hair and inhaling her scent, something Kat knew was yet another of his unique little things that made him different from normal men. “I was so...”
“I know,” she finished, giving air to the words they’d not let anyone else hear, the words of fear and less than total assurance in their future. Maybe other wolves could say it, but Liam was the Alpha, he could never be less than one hundred percent confident to the rest of the pack. Kat knew this and knew that her role was to be the one person he could always be honest with, no matter what. “But we’re making steps together. We have McKenzie back, our babies are safe, and let’s face it, we got a bonus in my Mom. Tomorrow, we’re going to find my Dad’s Bear Stone, and we’ll get him back.”
Liam chuckled, kissing her on the temple. “That’s going to be something to get used to. And McKenzie and Zack?”
Kat sighed, snuggling against Liam and kissing his chest. “I can’t call her a little girl any longer. I might not like it, but I also know something.”
“What’s that?” Liam asked, distracted as Kat’s tongue found his nipple and started tugging, making him moan. “Mmmmmm… not as tasty as yours, but that feels great.”
“I know that if Zack hurts her, there might not be too many pieces left for me to get pissed off at, after Kenzie, you, and Ashley get done with his ass,” Kat teased, sliding her body on top of Liam’s. It was another thing about being with him that she appreciated. She could get on top and ride him as much as she liked, and he was one bronco who never got broken. Talk about being in heaven. Kat reached down and fondled his cock while leaning down and kissing his lips, feeling a little twitch as she did. Perfect. “Now, let’s see if this big cock of yours has one more blast of come tonight for me.”
Chapter 44
Victoria Greyson sighed and tossed back the rest of her whiskey, knowing that it was the wrong time for such a strong drink, but not really giving a damn. Not after the way her husband had been acting, and not after what he’d just told her. Nine months of worrying, of keeping her concerns to herself as much as she could, of denying her mothering instinct… and he didn’t even tell her until now. “You got a call from Liam and you didn’t tell me? Dammit, Lance, why’d you have to be so petty?”
She hadn’t meant to snap at him with the last question, but for months, ever since he’d heard about the firebombing of the townhouse that he only found out afterward belonged to their wayward son and the destruction of the main meatpacking plant, he’d been harsher than ever. He’d always been the epitome of an alpha wolf, decisive and ruthless, but recently he’d been crossing the line between ruthless and enraged. And while she had tried for months now to comfort and support him, not letting her even know her own son had called until well after the fact pissed her off.
“Petty?” Lance shot back, his fingers digging into his desk so much that he nearly pried into the mahogany even without extending his claws. “How dare you call me petty, Victoria?”
“I called you petty because that’s exactly how you’ve been acting for the past nine months, Lance!” Victoria yelled back, slamming her tumbler down on the wet bar and making the crystal shatter. There was a momentary wince of pain as a shard pierced the meat of her palm and she paused to pluck it out, watching in irritation as her regenerative abilities soon left not even a red mark behind. The pain helped her calm down some at least, and she knew that there was no way she could take on her husband head-on. She had to handle this her way, in the way wolf women handled things. “I can understand you being pissed off still, Lance, and there’s a lot of your business that I don’t inquire about. That’s our way or at least the way that you and I have been able to have a good marriage for all these years. But I am your alpha female, and when it comes to our family, I am your partner and equal. Or don’t you remember the vows you made on that?”
Lance growled, shaking his head. “Victoria, if you could understand… the truce with the Lillys, that was one thing. It seems that his reservations about mating with their crazy bitch of a daughter were justified. But the way he did it! Taking Carly from us, getting the plant destroyed, and never mind what the rumors are saying! And now, his tone of voice...”
“Was exactly what you told me you wanted him
to have one day,” Victoria finished for him. “You raised him to be an alpha, Lance. Don’t be pissed off that he became that alpha, even if his choices might not be the ones you’d have made. I remember a certain young wolf who ruffled his own father’s fur when he was chafing as just the alpha-in-waiting and thinking that the old man was ready for the retirement house.”
Lance usually was placated when Victoria brought up their early marriage before Liam had been born. It was true, her husband had long chafed under the strict control of his father, and when he had finally knocked the old man from his perch as head of the Greyson clan, the first thing they’d done was mate so fervently that Liam had, in fact, been the result. There had been quite a few whispers that Liam’s fiercely independent nature was a direct result of the circumstances of his creation as if there was some sort of psychic connection to the events of his conception. Victoria had always laughed them off but now, she wasn’t so sure.
That day, though, Lance was having none of it. “This is a different Victoria. When I took the alpha status from my father, I did it directly, face to face. Not slinking behind his back, and I did nothing to hurt the rest of the family. What he’s done...”
Lance’s words were cut off, as the two of them heard movement outside the mansion. It sounded like a group, and they were not members of their pack, Victoria knew that almost immediately. She’d been the alpha female for too long to not know what her pack sounded like. Lance held up his hand, silencing his wife as he turned towards the window. “What the hell?”
There was a crashing sound from the kitchen, and then a gigantic floomph! The explosion carried with it the smell of gasoline, as Victoria knew somehow within who was outside. “Crystal Lilly.”
“That bitch doesn’t know who she’s messing with,” Lance growled, pulling his shirt from his chest. Egyptian cotton parted like a cheap tissue paper beneath his hands, soon he was bare from waist up, his muscular chest and arms gleaming in the light from the chandelier overhead. Victoria also reached for the neck of her dress, but before she could get fully stripped, the window of the study exploded in gunfire. Lance and Victoria both dove to the floor, and Victoria was chilled when she smelled silver in the air. Lance’s nose also twitched, and she could see him reach the same conclusion she had. “We need to get out of here.”
While on the floor, Lance reached over and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. He was smiling, the confident smile he’d had years before, long before the stress of being a pack alpha had taken the joy out of his grin, but at the same time, she could see the concern on his face. With the small nod, they ran for the door of the study, blowing it off the hinges with their combined impact. The first floor was already in chaos, flames eating their way out of the kitchen. Two more big Molotov cocktails shattered big glass windows by the main entrance, and suddenly the entryway was consumed in fire. “This way!” Lance yelled, pointing towards their bedroom. “It’s the only way out now!”
Before they even reached the stairs, a crash from the direction of their bedroom followed by a pair of deep growls told her everything she needed. They were cut off, they had to fight. The only question once which direction they would have to fight in. “Keep in the bedroom,” Lance said, his eyes glowing at his claws extended. “I’d rather take on wolves than silver bullets.”
It had been a long time since Victoria truly had to fight for her life, but the instincts were still there. She was next to her mate, all the other stress and bullshit were ignored as they did what they were created to do. The two wolves who greeted them as they approached the bedroom were young, easily in the prime of their youthful strength. But while Victoria Greyson might not have been quite as young as she has been twenty-five years before, she was still an alpha female, born and bred for domination. Her husband was the same, and the sound of his fist crashing into the jaw of the first wolf, a sharp uppercut that flipped it fully around to land in a heap on the bed demonstrated that clearly. The young male who attacked Victoria had a little bit better luck, his claws scratching her shoulder before her own powerful slap twisted his head and sent him flying. Under normal circumstances, the two would have paused to destroy their enemy, but they could hear more outside, there was no time to waste.
“I’ll take the lead,” Lance said, his voice filled with both battle rage and regret. They could feel the potent heat from the rapidly expanding fire on their backs, and the light from the flames illuminated the lawn as they emerged, revealing their enemies to them in the darkness. Victoria was shocked. There weren’t that many, only seven, and five of them were in wolf form. What truly scared her was the other two, one of whom she identified easily as Crystal Lilly, although the young woman was horribly scarred. She was carrying two pistols in her hand, and as soon as she saw them, she raised them and started firing. The other unchanged member of her pack joined her, and Victoria felt the acidic sting of silver against her outer thigh. Lance was hit in the shoulder, his grunt of pain scaring her more deeply than anything else. Even when he had been locked in mortal combat with his own son, Lance had never made a sound like that before. “Go! Through the changed ones!”
“What about you?” Victoria asked, her heart breaking when she saw the look in his eyes. They’d been together for over thirty years, and in his eyes, she could see there wasn’t going to be a thirty-first. “Lance...”
“I love you,” he said simply, dropping to his hands and feet and letting his body start the change. “Tell him… tell him that he was right. Now go!”
The painful howling scream that ripped from Lance’s throat as his silver-damaged body went through the change galvanized her, and she took off, heading toward one of the changed members of Crystal’s pack. Her leg burned where the silver bullet had creased her thigh, but the whelp in front of her stood no chance. Her extended claws caught him by the throat, tearing it open and sending him flying into a marble statue of a wolf decorating the back lawn. It had been sort of an altar, especially to Victoria and Liam, and the idea of a blood sacrifice gave her wild hope. She turned around, ready to join her mate and fight for their lives, when Crystal’s pistols fired five times rapidly, catching her husband in the side and piercing his body through and through. Lance dropped, his arm frozen in mid-swing, and the last thing she saw before the light fled from his eyes was him turn to her, saying goodbye in the only way he could. She screamed but had no choice as Crystal and the others turned their attention to her, she took off running as fast as she could. She could hear the enemy behind her, and let her body undergo her change, her clothes ripping as she emerged into the true form of her beauty and power. While Lance had been bred for brute strength and domination, she had always been a speedster, and she depended on this ability for her very life now, streaking through the woods as fast as her wounded legs could carry her.
Never in the hundreds of hunts and dozens of fights she’d been in had Victoria run with such fear motivating each and every step. She had chased down hundreds of whitetail deer, thousands of other animals, and even one time on a honeymoon safari to Africa, she’d easily outrun gazelle and springbok. This time, though, she was the hunted, not the hunter, and she finally understood what it was like on the other side. She has no time to reflect on the philosophy of it all, however, and instead used every trick she knew to try and throw off her pursuers. But she was one against a pack, and she knew the odds. When a pack tracked a single prey, the pack usually won.
Her husband was dead. Her house destroyed. Only a single idea kept her legs moving as she ran harder and harder. That was finding her son. If anyone could help her now, it would be him.
A laughing bark behind her reminded Victoria that before she could exact her revenge, she first had to survive the next ten minutes. It added a little bit to her speed, and took away, at least for the moment, some of the pain. Maybe a pack could take down normal prey easily, but she was not normal by any definition of the word.
Come on then. Let’s see what this old body can do.
Ch
apter 45
Liam woke up to the sound of his cell phone vibrating on the table. He didn’t even realize someone had brought it to the cabin, but then he remembered that Elizabeth had started to take it upon herself to be quote-unquote ‘tracker of stuff.’ It helped with things like keeping their hands on cell phones and keys and wallets. He rolled over, carefully taking his arm out from under Kat, who stirred and mumbled. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know,” Liam whispered softly, giving her a kiss on the temple. “Go back to sleep.”
Liam got to the phone on the fifth ring, picking it up and seen that it was coming from a local number. “Hello?”
The panting, exhausted voice on the other end confused him for a moment, but then she spoke, and Liam felt fear creep down his spine even before his mother finished her words. “Liam. They burned down the house. They got your father.”
The words hit Liam like a punch to the chest, not only because of what his mother said but because of the way she said it. She was breathless and exhausted and obviously shaken up. If anything, for the first time in his life Liam thought his mother sounded scared. “Mom! Where are you?”
“Don’t worry about that, I think I’ve given them the slip for now. There were five of them who came after me, and you were right, Crystal Lilly was in charge. They firebombed the house, shot your father with silver. They got me too, but only a flesh wound on my leg. I got one of the bastards at least,” Victoria said. “Liam, your father’s last words to me work for me to tell you that you were right.”
