Jack was thrusting into her slowly, shallowly, but somehow managing to brush up against her g-spot with every movement of his hips, even while his fingers worked away at her clit. Mia had never felt so completely on edge, so close to orgasm and yet not close enough, in her entire life. She changed the positioning of her legs, pushing her hips back up against Jack and beginning to ride him harder as he thrust into her, his hands teasing her clit and her breasts equally. The water sloshed dangerously as they moved together, and Mia was crying out, moaning Jack’s name over and over again. She grabbed at Jack’s thighs, at his arms, as she twisted and writhed. “Oh, oh god, oh, Jack,” she was saying, trying to take him as deeply as possible. His cock was driving up against her inner walls, sending jolts and tingles of pleasure through her body.
In a matter of moments, Mia was almost shouting with the pleasure that was coursing through her body as she reached her orgasm. Jack continued thrusting into her, hard and fast, holding onto her body tightly as she arched and writhed. Mia felt Jack’s cock twitching inside of her again, felt him tense up as he reached his own orgasm, a sound between a growl and a moan leaving his throat as he finished. Mia was left shaking and trembling, her arms and legs feeling not quite real as she sagged against Jack’s body in the hot water, thoroughly satisfied and exhausted by her repeated orgasms. She barely managed to twist around on top of him to face him, kissing him deeply as they relaxed. “I think,” she said between gasps for breath, “I think I’m done.” Jack chuckled, holding her close.
“Let’s go to bed then,” he told her. “But first let’s clean up.” Mia smiled as he reached for the soap, lathering it up and running his hands over her body. Mia relaxed into his touches, sighing in contentment.
Chapter Twelve
Mia had become so accustomed to taking her medicine that at first she didn’t realize that her daily dose—given to her by Jack as they lounged in the hotel room—tasted a little odd. She didn’t think much of it, though it was strange; there was an extra level of bitterness she hadn’t been anticipating that made it difficult for her to get the full dose down. Jack suggested they take a walk before the moon came up, and Mia thought that since he was voluntarily away from the pack during the full moon just to be with her for a romantic getaway, it was the least that she could do to oblige him. He led her out of the hotel, and Mia started to feel slightly dizzy. She brushed the sensation aside, shaking her head to clear it. “Are you okay?” Jack asked her with concern. Mia smiled at him, straightening and continuing to walk.
“Just a little dizzy. I should be okay in a minute,” she said, taking his offered hand and a deep breath to dispel the odd sensation. Jack was telling her a story from the town, a kind of urban legend, and Mia felt the dizziness returning as they moved farther and farther away from the hotel. This time the sensation didn’t go away—it intensified. Mia struggled against it, not wanting to worry her lover on the romantic outing he had planned. She found herself gripping Jack’s hand more tightly, though he didn’t remark on it, and Mia’s mind flashed to the taste of the medicine he had given her; it wasn’t right, she thought as she fought to keep her sense of equilibrium. It hadn’t tasted like the normal medicine. What if it had somehow been made incorrectly? Mia shook her head firmly, as the world began to spin rapidly around her, dark spots flying across her vision. She came to a stop, letting go of Jack’s hand and leaning against the fence surrounding a house they were passing by. The dizziness became more and more intense, and Mia tried to speak, but she was completely occupied with trying to stay upright.
Jack was hovering nearby, and Mia swallowed against the rising nausea she felt. How could it be that the medicine wasn’t working? Even if it had been made improperly, why should she be feeling so nauseated, so dizzy, so lightheaded? Mia tried to hold herself up against the fence, even as it felt as though the world was pitching and yawing underneath her, like a ship in turbulent waters. “Jack, something’s wrong—I—” Mia struggled to the last to hold herself up and instead found the dark spots growing, spreading over her vision. Her body became incredibly heavy and incredibly light all at once, and Mia made a sound she couldn’t quite hear as a rushing wind filled her ears, her legs turning insubstantial underneath her; she fell without being completely aware of falling, blackness overcoming her vision and her ears going deaf.
Mia was unaware of the passage of time; she couldn’t tell how long she had been out when her awareness started to come back to her slowly. She groaned as her body started to come awake, feeling a strain in her arms across her wrists, tightness in her legs; there was a faint pain in one knee, burning and tingling, gnawing away at her consciousness as she swam up out of the darkness. When she opened her eyes, Mia thought at first that she was alone—utterly alone—tied up by the wrists and ankles on a hard surface with grass all around. She blinked with eyelids that felt sandpapery and heavy, looking up at the sky; the full moon was in the sky, moving gradually towards its apex. It had been not quite dark out when the dizziness had overcome her—what time was it now? Where was she? Mia’s heart began to pound in panic. What had happened to her? Where was Jack? Mia called for him.
“I’m right here, Mia,” Jack said, and Mia turned her head in the direction of his voice. He was standing a few feet away from her. All at once, seeing the headstones surrounding her, Mia realized that she was in a cemetery, and that she was on top of a grave, tied up.
“What happened? Where am I? Why am I tied up?” Mia’s voice became more and more shrill as she began to struggle, uncomfortably aware that the hard surface underneath her was a gravestone, that there was a dead person several feet underneath her.
“You became unconscious. I drugged you. You’re in a cemetery,” Jack told her slowly, approaching to within a foot of where she was tied. “You’re tied up because I can’t risk you getting away.” Mia looked up at him in panic and confusion, pulling at the bindings on her wrists and ankles. Looking down at her body, she realized that in her fall, she’d skinned her knee; but that was almost irrelevant in the face of how completely terrified her current predicament made her.
“Why am I tied up on top of a grave? If this is your idea of a joke—or some kind of kinky werewolf thing—” Jack shook his head.
“Let me explain. It will all be okay if you let me explain, Mia.” Mia bit her lip; she had trusted Jack—she had stood by him when Caleb had tried to warn her off. This was much more than a simple rejection of her because she was a half-werewolf and not a full one. The situation she found herself in was utterly inexplicable—nothing could justify it that she was aware of. But she was not in a position to demand anything. Mia nodded, trying to restrain her sense of horror and panic.
“Okay. Explain this to me,” she said, taking a deep breath in spite of the fact that her heart was pounding.
“I haven’t told you this, but before I met you—before Caleb met you—I had a wife, Lena. She was the most wonderful mate that any werewolf could ever hope for.” Jack smiled slightly. “She was beautiful, strong, tough—but kind and gentle at the same time. We were looking forward to taking care of the pack, and raising our children in the pack’s community.” Mia bit her tongue, pressing her lips together to stop from telling Jack that she already knew about his wife. This was his story, she thought, almost irrelevantly. “I loved her so much, Mia—you have no idea. I would have gladly given my life for her. But I never got the chance. We were out on a hunt one night on the full moon, with the rest of the pack; we’d chosen a new part of the woods to explore. Lena stumbled upon a bear.” Jack shuddered. “She’d gotten separated from the rest of us, even me; I was overseeing the collection of the spoils of the hunt when I heard her howl of distress.” Mia saw tears forming in Jack’s eyes.
“By the time I got to her, she was already injured beyond the ability of anyone to ever fix; the bear had opened up her abdomen, and her organs had come out. She was in human form, lying there naked, barely breathing. We couldn’t even have gotten to a hospital in time
for them to see her, and even if they had…” Jack shook his head, the tears flowing in earnest. “She wouldn’t have lived through the night. The injuries were just too much. She died in my arms, Mia.” Mia nodded, feeling brief sympathy for the man; it had to have been devastating—the love of his life dying like that, and she knew that he had probably blamed himself for it happening. For a long moment, Jack was quiet, the only sound coming from him the hitched breath and soft sobs of his crying.
“That must have been a very difficult thing to go through—it must have been completely devastating,” Mia offered softly. “But that… it doesn’t explain why I’m here.” Jack wiped at his face, looking at her with an odd emotion haunting his dark eyes in the moonlight.
“There’s something you don’t know about the werewolf community. Every so often, there’s a wolf born with the ability to predict things, to have visions.” Mia nodded slowly. “It’s not common, but it does happen occasionally. In the case of our pack, our elder is one of those wolves. She has had visions since before she came into her werewolf abilities, and the visions have only become more potent the older she’s become.” Mia wished with irreverent annoyance that Jack would get to the point already; her panic and terror were transforming into anger at the position she was in, at Jack for drugging her and tying her up on top of a grave. “After the death of my wife, my beloved, this elder had a vision, and made a prophecy. She said, ‘One of half-blood will come to know, secrets kept hidden from show. The Alpha’s desires will come true, when the full moon shows its brightest light true; the past is washed away with the possibility of life anew.’” Mia stared at Jack not quite understanding what the point of the prophecy was. He smiled, an expression so chilling that it made Mia instinctively try and pull back from him, in spite of the bindings holding her in place. “I am the Alpha, of course, and my desire—the only thing I have ever wanted, for years now—is for Lena to come back to me.”
“But—but, Jack, Lena is dead,” she said. “You’re… you’ve been with me. You’ve taken me as your lover.” Jack shook his head slowly.
“The prophecy said the Alpha’s desires will come true—and the possibility of life anew. It’s obvious what she meant,” Jack said hurriedly. “She meant that I would be able to get my mate, my love, my wife back.” Again he smiled the discomforting smile, and Mia pulled at her bindings, feeling a renewal of her panic. “I’ve come to care about you a lot, Mia, and you’re the only woman I’ve had any feelings for since Lena died. But if I can have my true love back, what kind of person would I be if I didn’t do anything that would make it happen?” He looked at her, his dark eyes full of grief and hope that made Mia uncomfortable. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes. If that means that you have to go away, then I’m sorry—but my love for Lena is just too strong to save you from that fate.”
Mia began to struggle in earnest, anger and fear warring in her mind. “Jack, this isn’t rational!” she said, thinking that if she could just get through to him, maybe she could avoid the fate he thought was her destiny. “Lena couldn’t come back to you anyway; if she’s been dead this long, there’s nothing left of her to come back.” Jack shook his head.
“It’s not my job to question magic,” he said, “Or miracles. If the elder said that I would get my desires, there has to be some way that your presence here will bring her back. I don’t know what will happen to you—but I have to assume that Lena will take your place.” Mia felt the ropes cutting into her skin, felt her heart pounding and her breath coming more quickly.
“But how can that even be, Jack? I’ve accepted a lot of strange things in the course of learning about the werewolf community, but I’ve never heard of any one of you being able to enact magic that brings people back from the dead. Have you?” Jack shook his head, his expression still firm. “Then there’s no way that my dying, or disappearing, or whatever you think is going to happen to me when the moon reaches its high point, is going to bring Lena back.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest.
“It was a prophecy. And you are the only one the elder could have been talking about. I don’t know why you have to have a part in this, but you should be glad—you’re infertile, you’re going to be sick for the rest of your life, wouldn’t you rather give up your place in this world so that someone who is so loved can come back?” Mia stared at Jack in shock. It was bad enough that his grief for his wife had clearly made him deranged; he obviously didn’t even have casual feelings for her—he didn’t even seem to value her as much as he might a stranger on the street. The comment about her infertility, about her state of health, rankled in Mia’s mind, and for a moment she felt an angry retort rising to her lips—but she suppressed it.
There was nothing she could do, Mia realized as she tugged ineffectually at her bindings. Jack wasn’t going to untie her, and if he was right, she was going to disappear—or something—in a matter of only a little while. Mia wondered what he would do if the moon reached its peak and nothing happened to her. In a panic, she realized that a man who could consign her to nonexistence was a man who could probably also kill her if he thought he had to. Would he try to force the magic?
Before she could think any further, Mia heard a rustling sound in the grass. Jack heard it too, and they both turned in time to see Caleb approaching. He was walking quickly and firmly, clearly having found them. He stopped a few feet away from where Mia was tied up, and he barely glanced at her before turning his full attention on Jack. “Jack, this has gone too far,” Caleb said firmly. “I know that you miss Lena, and that you loved her, but what you’re doing just proves that you’re not in your right mind.” Jack turned to face Caleb fully.
“I am absolutely in my right mind. You heard the prophecy as well as I did. I am the Alpha of the pack, and I can decide who is expendable.” Caleb shook his head slowly, looking at Jack with sympathy—followed by a firmness that Mia found more impressive than even when he had taken on the bikers on their first date.
“As your second, it’s my responsibility to call you out if you’re not acting in the best interests of the pack. I challenge you for the title of Alpha—the winner decides what happens to Mia.” Jack glanced at her, and for a moment, Mia saw his uncertainty.
“Fine. If I bring you down, though, it’s not just Mia who will be out of the pack—it’s you.” Caleb shrugged and began stripping down. Mia blushed as his exposed skin wrung a response out of her, reminding her of all the times that they had had sex, before he had turned her over to the Alpha. She felt embarrassed at the fact that at a time like this, she was becoming aroused.
Caleb and Jack stripped out of all but their underwear and sank down onto the grass, a haze enveloping them both as they shifted from their human form and into their wolf forms. Mia had never seen Caleb as a wolf before; the fur that flowed out over his skin was darker than she would have imagined, save for a bright diamond-shaped patch in the center of his chest. Both men became fully wolves at almost the same instant, and Mia couldn’t stop herself from staring at the contest, even though she was terrified, and even though she didn’t know who to root for—both men, in their separate ways, had betrayed and used her, and while Jack was certainly the worse of the two, she couldn’t quite feel entirely optimistic or cheered by the fact of Caleb coming to her defense.
The two wolves squared off, circling each other for several long, tense moments while Mia watched. She knew that battles like this, between wolves, tended to last a long time before either opponent made the first move, and she was pulled from her sense of panic and terror into the drama of the moment. Jack sprung first, launching himself at Caleb, and Mia cried out, startled in spite of the fact that she had been expecting an attack from one side or the other. Caleb evaded the attack, feinting away, turning around quickly to throw his weight at Jack and knock him aside. The two wolves began to fight in earnest while Mia watched in horror and a kind of odd fascination, staring and uncertain. Caleb was not as tall as Jack, but Mia could see that in wolf form as well as i
n human, he outweighed the Alpha, with more strength in his body.
In a matter of moments, it seemed—though afterwards Mia would realize that it had been longer than she thought—the battle was over. The two wolves threw themselves at each other repeatedly, snarling and growling as they battled, tangling up occasionally. Caleb moved quickly, knocking Jack around, throwing him off balance, and suddenly, Caleb was on top of Jack, his mouth closed around the other wolf’s throat, a low, steady growl rumbling through his body. Caleb had won the fight; Mia knew that Jack, even in his desperation to get his wife back, was ruled by the laws of the wolf—he had been bested, he would have to submit. Mia’s heart was still pounding, her mind reeling with the speed of the attack, with the situation she was in. Suddenly remembering the underlying issue—the prophecy that Jack was apparently acting on, the full moon and what it was supposed to be going to do—Mia looked up at the sky, feeling a fleeting panic in spite of her rejection of Jack’s interpretation of the prophecy.
The moon, full and bright, was exactly overhead, at its apex. Mia cried out, looking down at her body, around the cemetery. She looked to where Caleb and Jack were, and saw that both men had transformed back into humans, Jack submitting to Caleb, who still had him pinned down for a long moment. “Caleb! Look up!” Mia called out. Caleb glanced at the sky, and for a moment Mia could see the panic on his face—but then he looked at her, and so did Jack. Nothing was happening to her, and Mia saw Jack shuddering as he realized it.
Caleb let go of the former Alpha, standing and coming over to Mia quickly. “I’m Alpha of the pack now,” he said to Jack, standing in front of Mia. “I decide that Mia must go free.” Jack had sat up, and Mia looked around Caleb’s bulk to see him looking from the full moon above, to where she was tied down to the grave, realization dawning on him.
Half-Blooded: The Alpha's Mate (BBW Shifter Romance) Page 13
