by Reese Rivers
As he shifts back into his wolf, I bring forth my own demon. “So be it.”
We find seven in the nest all tangled up together and by the time we step out all three of us are coated in the blood we spilled, making each death more painful than the last. None of the newly turned vampires were able to answer our questions no matter how badly we hurt them, telling me they all had been compelled to silence by whoever sired them. The wolves leave me to find a stream to clean the blood from their fur. I have a change of clothing in the saddlebag on my horse that I will change into once I get back to it. Turning back to the hovel full of the dead I consider burning it to the ground but with no idea who the last vampire is or where to find them, I decide to leave a calling card instead. I pull the silver dagger that caused so many screams from the dead inside from its sheath and stab it into the wood that the door used to be connected to. My du Gaul crest is stamped into the hilt and will let anyone who finds it know that my house is responsible for the carnage they will discover inside.
I blur at my top speed back to the horses, not wanting the sour blood to dry on my skin and quickly strip my clothing and use the water from the skin attached to the saddle to wash away as much as I can before redressing in the fresh clothing that I brought with me. By the time I’m done the wolves pad into the clearing and shift back into their human forms and quickly dress as well. None of us speak of what we just did with knife, fang, and teeth. We are all in agreement that our actions were justified and no more needs to be said on the matter. It’s a two-hour ride back to the manor so we will arrive home after dark. We have only been riding for twenty minutes when Cade and Finn start exchanging troubled looks and nudge their mounts into a faster trot. I chalk it up to them wanting to get back to their witch faster as we continue.
The longer we ride the more bothered they seem and the faster they ride. I shake my head over the obsession they have with the woman and am about to order them to ease off the pace we are riding at when they both let out strangled cries full of pain and flog their horses into a flat-out gallop. I don’t know what has happened and they’ve pulled too far ahead of me to ask but I trust my life with their senses so if they have a fear that something is wrong then something is wrong. I whip my horse to match their speed and hope whatever has caused their panic is not something that will irreparably damage my family.
Our mounts are lathered and heaving by the time we reach the well-lit manor and the wolves waste no time jumping from their saddles to rush in. I hear them calling out Eden’s name with desperation but they race back out the door wild-eyed.
“She’s not here and neither is Luca!” Cade barks out, running both his hands through his hair in worry.
“Where would Luca take her? He knows of the threat so why would he have her out after dark?” Finn snarls as his eyes search in every direction.
A hit of unease slithers down my spine as I consider the missive from Pierre might have been a way to lure us away but quickly dismiss it. The witch hasn’t left the grounds since we brought her here. No one even knows of her existence. A groom comes running over to lead our horses away so I call out to him in French asking if he knows where Monsieur Soriano and the mademoiselle have gone.
He tells us that he saddled mounts for them in the late afternoon but they have not returned yet. He does not know where they have gone.
I turn and pin the two wolves with a commanding glare. “What is going on? What made you race back here with such urgency?”
They stare back at me with defiant looks but before they can answer, first Cade’s and then Finn’s head shoots up and they both sniff at the air. They shift so fast it’s a blur and as their clothes drop they launch themselves off the steps and into the night. I stand there with my fists clenched and jaw locked at being left with no answers. I’m just about to stomp into the house and pour a large glass of brandy when my hearing picks up the sound of hoofbeats coming from down the lane so I stay put and wait. The unease I felt comes roaring back when I realize that there is only one horse coming this way instead of two. Suspicion fills my mind and I swear if the witch has done anything to harm Luca I will not hold back the demon from getting answers from her this time.
Relief fills me when Luca rides into the torch-lit courtyard and comes to a stop in front of the stairs. I can see that he’s holding the witch in his lap but her back is to me. I open my mouth to demand answers when the sweetest smell of her blood hits my senses and my eyes flare red. I track the shame that crosses his features as he drops his head but I’m already striding down the steps and pulling her from his arms. I turn her to face me and with no hesitation at all she wraps her legs around my waist and her arms go around my neck. I stand as stiff as one of Luca’s statues in surprised shock but when she kisses my neck my arm tightens across her back to hold her closer and the other moves down to cup her bottom. I almost swallow my tongue when my hand finds bare skin and she licks at my neck. I have no idea what is going on but a few more minutes with this sexy woman in my arms and my cock may explode so I carry her up the stairs and into the house straight to the library where I know a fire will already be lit. Her skin is like ice against my fingers no matter how hot her mouth is on my neck.
Once I have us in front of the fireplace I peel her arms and legs from my body and force her to stand on her own feet. She sways towards me with a pout on her lips that makes me want to devour her mouth with my own and stare into her lust-filled eyes as I brace her shoulders to keep the distance between us and look her over from top to bottom taking in her silky, smooth shapely legs. The hem of the bloody blouse she’s wearing barely covers the junction between her legs and my fingers inch with the need to lift it that last inch so she’s completely exposed to my eyes. I rip my gaze away from the tantalizing image and move them up taking in the dried blood that had saturated the fabric and see the outline of her hard little nipples against the fabric of the blouse. She moans in desire and tries to move towards me but I hold her in place. One of the sleeves droops down her arm where it’s been sliced away and here is where I can smell the sweet blood that I know is hers. My thumb traces an angry red line on her arm where the sleeve has been cut away. It looks like a freshly healed injury. The pieces click into place. The healed wound, the strange sexual behavior she’s exhibiting, and the blown pupils. The bloody woman is blood drunk! I push her father away from me, now knowing that it’s not me she wants but any cock to satisfy the itch crawling through her mixed blood.
“Luca!”
“I had no choice.” He says quietly, in a tone filled with shame.
My head swivels in his direction and I see him, Cade, and Finn standing just inside the door staring at me and the witch. I grind my teeth to try and form a reasonable reply to that as I take in his appearance.
He’s bare-chested but covered in blood-soaked squares of fabric that have been bound to his body with long strips of fabric that I can only assume was once the witch’s skirt. Cade reaches out and roughly turns Luca so his back faces me and my eyebrows go up at the sheer number of fabric bandages that cover his back as well as the large one sticking to his side.
“Leave him alone!”
A petulant voice whines from beside me as she…stomps her foot? All of our eyes turn to her and we find her erotically sucking on her finger. She begins trailing it down between her breasts as she pouts in my direction.
“Why do you always have to be so mean? Luca was hurt so badly and I saved him. I would do the same thing for you.” She tells me, stepping toward me and looking up at me through her long lashes. “Why don’t you kiss me instead? I’d like to feel your…” My hand quickly comes up to cover that sweet, tempting mouth and stop her from saying just what she’d like to feel from me. A man can only take so much.
“You will stop speaking.” I compel her before sweeping her up into my arms and heading for the door. All three of my brothers block the way with frowns on their faces so I growl out, “I’m taking her to her room and compelling her to bed so we
can have a proper discussion on what the hell happened today. After that you can all go and tend to the many needs she will have over the coming days. Now, move!”
The three men I call family all look away with contrition on their faces for thinking the worst of me and move aside so I can exit through the door. As I carry her down the hall her icy cold hand slips inside my shirt and she starts tracing circles around my nipple. I do my best to ignore it and bark orders to the footmen stationed at the foyer that leads to the stairs to the second level. I order a tub and hot water to be brought up and left outside her room as well as food and drink. It should be ready by the time I’m done dragging the answers I want from the three of them and they can bathe and feed her themselves. I block out what else they will be doing to her again and again until the blood she drank from Luca cools enough to mix and dilute with her own.
I drop her back on her feet once we enter her room and the door is closed behind my back. She makes to move up against me so I gently push her back a few feet.
“You will stay there and answer my questions truthfully.”
A small whine sounds from her throat at being forced to do what I say.
“Summarize what happened today after you left the house with Luca.”
“We went to the village to order more clay and the people there separated us, dragged me towards a post to tie me up and burn me for being a witch. They stabbed Luca so many times in the back and once with an ax in his side. I fought off the men who had me, threw a knife at Bridgette but only hit her in the leg because it was too heavy and went to help Luca. A guy sliced my arm with his sword and then Luca went all vamp and ripped heads off but he had already lost so much blood by then that he could barely stand. The torch and pitchfork mob was coming after us so he managed to get up on the horse so we could get away but he was too heavy for me to hold up on the saddle so I hid us in the trees and he fell off. I ripped my skirt apart and bandaged him up but he was so pale from all the blood loss. He begged me to leave, to run and he was so scared he would hurt me but I made him drink from my wrist and it was fucking amazing. I think I must have passed out cuz’ the next thing I know I was sucking his blood from his wrist and then his tongue was in my pussy licking me and when he thrust his fingers inside me I came so hard I saw stars. Then I dropped down on his cock and…”
“Enough! Hell’s bells, woman! Enough.”
I drag my eyes from her and throw both hands up through my hair to try and keep my head from popping off at the visual she just painted. I swallow hard and reach down to adjust the beast in my pants that is straining to be free. Movement has me looking back to her just as she whips the bloody shirt over her head and tosses it to the side. I take in her full breasts with pink rosebud nipples begging to be sucked on, the matching bite marks on her shoulders, and the four moons branded under one breast in a glance. Her eyes have locked on to the bulge between my legs and she bites her lower lip as she starts to pant in need while one of her fingers slips inside her bare mound and most of my control cracks straight through.
“It’s so hot in here. You should take off your pants.” She moans. “I’d lick your cock like a lollipop and swallow your cream straight down.”
I have her pulled against me, crushed against my chest in less than a breath. My mouth hovers over hers as one hand slides down and roughly drags her soft rounded ass closer so she’s pressed hard against my throbbing cock. I manage to stop myself from going any further as my brother’s faces flash before my eyes. I growl down at her.
“You will answer my questions truthfully.” I see her brow furrow at the command she can’t refuse.
“Where are you from?”
“Seattle.”
“What year?”
“2028.”
“Why did you come here, to this time?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“How do you go back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you a witch?”
“No!”
“Do you have plans to harm or hurt me, Luca, Finn, or Cade?”
I see the hurt flash through her eyes and know she will remember this after the intoxication fades but I need to be sure.
“Never.”
I slide my thumb over her bottom lip and her tongue darts out to give it a little lick and I just can’t help myself from asking one more question.
“Would you really let me drink from you willingly?”
“In a heartbeat, and so much more.”
A shudder rolls through me at her whispered words and the lust that has filled her gaze again. The strain of stopping myself from taking everything she’s offering is staggering. My voice shakes as I order her, “Go to the bed and stay in it until your men come in. They will fulfill your every desire.”
She turns and walks to the bed giving me the perfect view of her rounded hips and biteable bottom. When she reaches it she lays her chest on it and lifts that ass in the air on her tiptoes so that her wet sex peeks out at me, wiggles it in my direction and then sends me a smoldering look over her shoulder.
“And you? Will you fulfill my every desire too?”
Words refuse to form so I turn and quickly leave the room like hell hounds are on my tail.
Finn
The three of us wait for Bas to return without speaking. Cade is prowling the room with a dark scowl on his face, Luca sits on the edge of his chair with his head down in his hands, defeat and shame clear in every line of his body. I pour myself a glass of Bas’s brandy and down it in one go with a shudder. I keep telling myself that Eden is fine to keep my wolf calm but it only keeps the rage barely contained.
The bond we have with her through the claim mark isn’t as strong as it will be eventually with more care and tending but it was strong enough to feel a trickle of her fear and panic and when that trickle began to fade and disappear completely it left a spike of pain as emptiness filled the space. It doesn’t matter that it came back. The few moments it was severed will haunt me and Cade forever.
It didn’t matter to us that we had only known her for a short time when we marked her as ours. We’ve been with many, many women and shared the majority of them but Eden is different. She blew into our lives like a breath of sweet air we didn’t know we needed and at first captured our interest and lust but it quickly changed to love as we learned how strong, kind, and open she would be with us. She had suffered the same loss of family that we did and understood the depths of that sadness we carry.
Eden felt like a long-missing piece of our souls and we both knew immediately when we had her pressed between us, skin on skin, that she was what we needed to be complete.
Sebastian will rant and rave over our marking her as our mate so quickly but I know she’s affected him as well even though he would try to hide and deny it.
I look over at my suffering brother and wish I could hear what happened so we can find a way to reassure him but I know he won’t speak to us until Bas is back in the room. He’s been broken since we met him and I know without a doubt Eden will be the one to mend him and give him back the love and happiness he’s lived so long without.
Cade growls low in his throat and kicks a stool out of his way, causing Luca to flinch but he never lifts his head, locked in the misery he’s feeling. I catch Cade’s eye as he passes by on his next pace and one look and a tilt of my head towards our brother has his expression softening. We both move as one to stand behind the vampire and we each place a hand on one of his shoulders. As much as our brother does not like to be touched, he needs this connection with us right now. We still don’t speak, we just stand with our hands on him, showing him that he has our support and love. He is pack and his pain is our pain.
When Sebastian slams into the room his normally perfectly groomed hair is standing in every direction as if he’s plowed his fingers through it repeatedly and his eyes are a little wild. I work very hard to conceal the grin that wants to form. If anyone needs a little shaking up, it’s Bas.
/> Where Luca desperately needs to be mended, cared for, and loved, Bas needs the rigid control and ice he’s formed around himself shattered. I know right down to my toes that with time, Eden will tear all of that away and rebuild him into the man that I catch glimpses of now and again when he lets his guard down.
I hear Cade smother a laugh and know he’s thinking about how hard that control must have been for Bas to hang onto with our sexy mate blood-drunk and begging to be pleasured. The next few days will be an orgy of sin as we soothe the sexual intoxication the heated blood running through her veins is causing her to feel. Cade and I have both been through it ourselves three times as Bas shared his blood with us to solidify our pack bond and elongate our lives. The bloody vampire was smart enough to plan each time so that we were in a brothel full of willing women that we fucked our way through for the days it took to mix our blood fully.
With my hand on his shoulder, I feel Luca tense as a shudder ripples through him. With one hard squeeze to let him know I’m here for him, both Cade and I step back so he can get to his feet and face Sebastian who is now pinning him with his signature cold glare. His voice comes at Luca like a whip.
“What were you thinking? You know very well what could have happened. Is that what you want for her? To spend years under the curse of bloodlust? The woman she is today would be erased completely by the acts she would commit under that curse. You yourself should know that better than anyone!”
Luca’s face pales even further at the thought of that happening to our woman and he shakes his head.
“No! Of course I don’t want that for her. I didn’t know she had lost so much blood from her wound before I drank from her! I am lost as to why she wouldn’t have bound it before she tended to me. I never would have taken from her if I had known. I was weakened…I was weak. I am sorry.”
His head drops again but Bas is not having it.
“Yes, weakened! Why is that? We’ve battled side by side against seasoned soldiers and you’ve come away with hardly a scratch so tell me, Luca, how is it that a puny gathering of peasants managed to overcome you and cause such damage?” He waves his hand toward the multitude of fabric patches Eden used to bandage his many wounds. “You look like the seamstress’s pincushion! How is that even possible when you are capable of slaughtering a mob in minutes?” He spits out, practically snarling.
