by Jenny Penn
“Come on.” Coaxing her to move with him, Chance led her to the edge of the pool.
It dawned on Lacie then how much he treated her like a child, taking control and assuming authority over her down to what position her body was in. No doubt the trait came from his lycan genes. The arrogant presumption might be irritating at times, but right then it felt kind of comforting, like she was being cherished.
Held safe in Chance’s arms, Lacie could feel Davis’s heat crowding her from behind. Without a word his soapy hands settled on her shoulders and began rubbing the tightness right out of them. Her eyes almost rolled completely back as his grip melted every muscle in his path.
Lacie’s head fell forward, banging her cheek into Chance’s chest. Lost in the warm, calm pleasure, she gave herself over to those wonderfully strong hands massaging her every worry away. It was heaven. Davis knew where to touch, how hard to press to roll the stiffness right from her body.
She was free here in their arms, captive only to her own desires. All Lacie wanted was them. She offered no resistance as Davis lifted and stretched her limbs one by one, cleaning her with the most soothing caresses.
His callused fingertips traced over every intimate curve of her body, leaving a trail of bone-melting pleasure. There was Chance acting as her strength, holding her still and steady, secure in the heated cocoon of their bodies.
Between the two of them, the only thing Lacie felt was loved. Lifting her heavy lids as they turned her, Lacie saw Davis’s gentle smile and knew it wasn’t just a feeling. It was a fact. Total adoration shined in his eyes.
“If I promise to do this every day, will you promise to stay?” Davis’s voice whispered out, a rough caress that warmed her cheeks and sparked an electric thrill deep in her heart.
“But then I won’t get the thrill of trying to escape and you…” Lacie rubbed her breasts into the hard wall of his chest, sighing at the pleasure humming out of her tits. “And you won’t get to enjoy catching me.”
She’d been teasing him, but Davis’s expression hardened instantly. “You can’t run, Lacie. Not now. Not again. Not until it’s safe.”
He muttered those grim words into her hair, his arms wrapping around her with a strength that betrayed his fear. Fear that could only be for her, for what could happen to her, but that possibility only existed if Chance and Davis failed to protect her. Failure would mean their deaths because they wouldn’t leave her undefended as long as they could draw breath.
“I’ll stay, but only if you promise not leave me alone again.” With them at her side, she could know they were safe.
“We promise, baby.”
Chance’s tone was gruff, but the hands that wove shampoo through her hair were gentle. Leaving her to sigh all over Davis’s chest, Chance slowly worked his fingertips over her scalp, working the suds into a lather while easing all the strength and tension from her scalp.
The soft, warm vibrations rolled down her neck, leaving a limp stalk for her head to roll around on. As Chance released handfuls of water over her, the spray cascaded the hazy delight down over her spine, making her whole body buzz with the pleasure.
Lacie murmured her approval. It just felt wonderful to relax and let the peaceful calm invade her senses. By the time he’d finished, Lacie was ready for her nap. Lifting her heavy lids, she couldn’t help but smile at the tender expression Davis wore.
“Thank you.” Wanting to return the comforting warmth filling her, she wrapped her arms around Davis’s neck and lifted her chin to brush a kiss over his lips. She’d only meant to give him a quick peck, but Davis caught her head when she started to pull back.
“You’re more thankful than that,” he murmured against her lips before sealing their mouths back together.
Lacie didn’t resist when his tongue licked across the seam of her lips, asking entrance. With a sigh, she granted it, letting Davis sweep her up in the exciting thrill of being savored once again. He tasted delicious, and the wicked motions of his tongue reminded her of how good it felt to have him licking her all over.
Moaning over the memory, a blush raced over her body as her blood began to heat with the need for something more. Instinctively seeking the warm, solid press of his body, she shifted deeper into Davis’s embrace, delighting at the feel of his hard chest rubbing against her tits. Grinding against him, Lacie drove his kiss from a hungry tasting to a frenzied state of need.
Their mouths clung to each other, their hands starting to caress and slide over skin prickling with the desire to be touched. Just when Lacie felt the painful pinch of needing something more, Chance’s hand pressed against her spine, shoving her forward.
She’d have broken the kiss if Davis had allowed it, but caught in his arms, Lacie could do nothing more than cling to him as he floated backward. Slowly they stretched her out between them, allowing her legs to lift to the surface of the water and slide right over the hard roll of Chance’s shoulders.
For the second time that day, Lacie found herself caught, floating between her mates. While Davis’s mouth held her captive on one end, the silky tickle of Chance’s hair brushed along her inner thigh on the other end. A heated breath flamed over her weeping folds a second before a mischievous tongue licked straight up her slit. It danced over her pussy to find her sensitive clit, already swollen and begging for attention.
Lacie broke Davis’s kiss to gasp when Chance focused all his attention on tormenting her tender bud. His hands bit into her hips as he held her still for his tasting. Darting in and out of her cunt, his tongue flicked upward to tease her clit before dipping back down to lap up the cream his teasing caused to roll out of her pussy.
Overwhelmed by lust, Lacie bucked backward, attempting to force him to give her a longer, deeper stroke of his tongue or maybe something just longer and thicker.
All the while, Davis watched her begin to come undone by Chance’s intimate tasting. With his big palms cupping her cheek, he forced her gaze to remain locked on his, not allowing her to hide a single second of her pleasure from him.
“He really is a bastard,” Davis finally muttered. “That’s supposed to be my pussy.”
“There’s no reason you can’t share it.” Lacie offered that wicked suggestion, emboldened by the intense hunger in Davis’s gaze. Her brazen behavior had his lips tipping up as his hands slipped downward in a slow, sensual slide.
“Is that right?” His fingers curled around her breasts, cupping them as his thumbs spread over their tips, trapping her tits beneath their hard, circling rub. “Or maybe I could just take a taste of these.”
Lacie gasped, her back arching as she tried to lift herself out of the water far enough to offer him the nipples puckering beneath his fingertips. Davis growled, slipping forward and using his own strength to hold her aloft as he nuzzled her neck and nibble his way down toward her chest.
Neither man showed her any mercy. While Davis began devouring her tits in an endless rain of nibbling licks, Chance began fucking his tongue into her spasming cunt. In seconds her hips were countering his thrusts, trying to increase the pleasure as she ached for a release. It just wasn’t enough, and she groaned over the misery of being trapped in an endless spiral of wanton need.
Then Davis’s hand dipped, his fingers curling over the top of her mound before slipping into her parted folds. A second later Lacie’s world went bright white as Davis discovered her clit. With a simple strum of his fingers, he snapped the threads hold her climax back and sent her sobbing over the edge.
Wildly bucking, she rode both Chance’s tongue and Davis’s fingers until every bit of pleasure had been sapped out of her orgasm, leaving her limply collapsing back into Davis’s embrace. Her legs sank, heavy and useless. Lacie would have followed them if not for Davis’s strong arms keeping her from drowning. “You all right, honey?”
“Mmhmm,” Lacie murmured. “Ready for my nap.”
Chapter 13
Lacie hadn’t lied. They hadn’t even finished lifting her out of the pool
and drying her off before she lost awareness. Muttering and grumbling, she still gave them grief in her sleep, but at least she couldn’t run again. For that Chance would be thankful.
Carrying her back up to their room, he held on to Lacie while Davis pulled down the covers. Even then, he resented having to let her go. She felt so soft and warm in his arms, the gentle expanse of her chest pressing against his a rhythmic reminder that she was safe and well. As horribly off track as everything had gone that day, he reveled in the assurance that it hadn’t ended badly.
Technically they’d won the first round. Lacie was alive and unscarred physically. She would stay that way, Chance vowed silently as he settled her onto the mattress. Nothing would harm her. Chance would sacrifice his own life to see that pledge through.
First, though, he’d sacrifice Davis. Tossing his partner a smirk, he eyed the other lycan, assessing the goofy look on Davis’s face as he stared down at their mate.
“You’d die for her.” Chance caught Davis’s gaze. “Wouldn’t you?”
“You even have to ask?”
“Good.” Chance ignored the dirty look Davis shot him with his answer. “You can go first.”
“Ha.” Davis’s scowl broke into an honest grin. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m the one who’s going to be babysitting. You’re the one who’s going to be fighting, Alpha. That kind of puts your number before mine.”
Chance’s nose wrinkled at that retort. Davis had it right. As the future Alpha of the clan, Chance would be busy and kept busy for most of his life with pack business. Davis, on the other hand, would be busy with their family.
While Chance traveled for business, Davis would be at home playing daddy to the pups. Through all the long nights that Chance would be handling the inevitable problems that sprung up in the clan, Davis would be at home handling their woman. Unless, of course, Chance wasn’t Alpha.
“You never know.” Chance leaned down to tuck the covers in tight around Lacie. “I might lose the fight.”
He spoke of the battle him and Davis would engage in on the night of the full moon. Whoever won would be Alpha of the family and have first mating rights when it came to their woman. A big deal normally as it set the hierarchy of the family in place. Right then, Chance would have chosen a lower rank for more time with Lacie.
“Nah, you won’t.” Davis didn’t look the least bit worried by Chance’s threat as he went to check the shelter’s security system for updates. “It’s not in your nature to throw a fight.”
“It’s not in any of ours.” Chance didn’t argue the point, knowing Davis was right. In wolf form under a full moon, he wouldn’t be rational, calculating or even worried. He’d crush Davis and take what was his. That was the nature of the beast.
The reward would be that he had first rights to Lacie’s cunt whenever he wanted. Better yet, after the full moon, Davis wouldn’t be allowed to dick around with Lacie’s pussy until after Chance got her pregnant. That explained Davis’s bitching given he knew in two weeks, he’d have no chance at Lacie’s cunt for at least the next two.
Hell, it could be longer—after all, there was birth control. For as much as Chance wanted kids, he liked the idea of making them the best. Of course the clan would get feisty if Lacie didn’t start growing a belly full of pups within a month of their mating. So Chance couldn’t keep Lacie’s cunt to himself for too long.
“Ah, crap.” That groaned complaint drew Chance from his pleasant contemplations to Davis’s dour scowl.
“What’s up?”
“We got company.” Davis flipped closed the laptop that attached into the shelter’s main security system. “In the kitchen.”
Chance didn’t bother to ask details, but turned toward the door that led to the other apartments that made up this suite. The entire underground complex was made up of suites. Every three bedrooms fed into the same kitchen and living shelter. All were attached to the communal living areas that they’d passed through to get to the bathing pool.
Lacie had mistakenly guessed that they feared some nuclear holocaust, but lycans didn’t fear the destruction of this world by man. They had many worlds in which they could live, making Earth relatively unimportant.
The only value Earth had was as a buffer between the worlds they preferred and the chaotic, shadow worlds that lied on the other side Earth. It was inevitable that at some point that darkness would punch through, turning Earth into the next battleground. When those days dawned, this underground facility would be used as barracks for the soldiers who would heed the call of war.
“Hey.” Davis blocked Chance’s hand from the door latch leading into the kitchen. “What about?” Chance followed Davis’s nod to where Lacie lay curled up in the bed. “She wakes up and we’re not here, God knows where she’ll go next.”
“We could tie her to the bed.”
“Or we could leave a note.”
“Won’t work as well as ropes.”
“She’ll wake up mad.”
“Better an angry mate than a dead one.”
Chance won with that argument. Less than five minutes later they had each one of Lacie’s limbs secured to a different corner of the bed. Still they had to wait another minute for Davis to write a note and leave it on the pillow beside her. Chance knew his buddy hoped that would mitigate Lacie’s response if she woke up early, but still considered it a futile gesture.
He didn’t waste his breath complaining, though, knowing the argument would only delay them longer. Chance was itchy to get into the kitchen and hear what had happened. When the two-foot, steel door finally slid back to reveal a room packed full of Alphas, Chance had at least one answer. Things had gotten worse, which at this point seemed to be the trajectory they were on.
“Hey, son.” Chance’s dad looked up from his seat at the back, right next to the door Chance and Davis strutted through. “Welcome to the party.”
Moving out of the way as the door started sliding shut behind him, Chance hovered next to his father. “And it looks like a big one. Why is everybody here?”
“To get our marching orders.” Ron glanced back at the door that clicked shut. “How is she?”
“Tired.”
“Amazing,” Davis answered at the exact same time, drawing a grin from Ron.
“Yeah, I heard she came barreling out of the shelter with a shotgun, all ready to find you and kill whatever she had to on the way.”
“More like she almost got herself killed.” Chance didn’t like the pride in his father’s tone, not wanting anybody to encourage Lacie into even more reckless behavior. “Speaking of, did all yours turn out to be zombies, too?”
“Yeah and fresh, too.” Ron’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Couldn’t get a useful word out of them.”
“And—”
“Silence!”
Konor Kragen’s roar brought the room to an immediate still as every lycan stiffened up at their king’s command. Kragen Kings were not anointed based on bloodlines, but were born with fate’s own mark encircling their necks. The dark, tattoo-like collar flexed and bulged with the tension of the muscles beneath as all attention focused on Konor.
“As you all know, a demon has decided to wage war against our mates and us through them. We will put this rebellion down. That is why you have all been called here. Edward?”
Konor nodded to one of the smaller lycan’s lingering by his side. Old enough to have seen more than one century pass, the elder wore the robe of the high council and that alone demanded respect even if his frail appearance made him one of the weakest men in the room.
“We were informed of the threat by the Masters of Cerberus. They presented us with a list of mates that were considered targets.” The white-haired elder’s voice rang out clear and loud in the large room, his words bringing little comfort. “Their concerns were confirmed today with an attack on the Dillon mate.”
That drew a lot of glances in Chance and Davis’s direction. Neither said anything, not needing to explain that the situatio
n was secure. If it wasn’t, Chance and Davis wouldn’t have been there.
“Obviously we are working with The Masters to determine the exact nature of the threat, the intent behind it and how the identities of our mates were discovered.” Konor stepped in to lay out the assurances that were taken for granted, but still had to be given.
“But we have gained some valuable information from today’s events.” Edward began dancing about the crowd, darting between the large lycans as he handed out a stack of folders he’d lifted off the kitchen counter.
“First, we know right now that the immediate threat is coming from a demonic disciple going by the name of TJ Carver.” Edward flashed past Chance in a cloud of herbal incense and leaving behind a blue folder. “That’s obviously not his real name and irrelevant to the fact that he’s clearly been building an army of undead.”
“Kill the disciple and the zombies will fall with him.” Konor scanned the crowd, his ebony brows lowered like a thick band over his penetrating gaze. “He’s our priority. All of you gathered here, except the Dillons, have no mate at stake and will bring the full force of your might into this battle.”
Chance listened with half an ear to the rest of Konor’s orders as he laid out the plan to find and catch Carver, more interested in the file Edward had handed him. Thick and full of information, it even had a picture clearly taken from a video of Carver leaving the grocery store with Lacie.
They stood shoulder to shoulder, Lacie looking up with a smile on her face while Carver’s blond head dipped down, his smirk only half visible. She’d been that close to danger, and it made Chance sick, especially given the rest of pictures included with the file.
Carver liked women, liked to hurt them, to butcher them, to raise them from the dead enslaved to his will. But he would not get Lacie, and neither would any of his zombies. Chance might not have been there to stop Carver from getting close to Lacie that first time, but he was here now.
“Chance?” Jolting at the sound of his name, he looked up to find Konor towering over him, a hand extended in welcome.
