by Kate Douglas
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” she admitted.
Blaez took a deep breath, expelling it slowly, his broad shoulders rising and falling as he did.
“You were specially Selected to be with someone, a lycan. Selene made this choice and branded you so that all would know.”
“Only my mother,” she said quickly. “Only my mother and I know about the mark. My … Penn … he never cared about me either way. I was a girl, not a son to carry on his bloodline, to take over his pack. He despised me for having to one day give up his pack because I was born of the wrong sex.”
Blaez looked over his shoulder at her. “He may have despised you for much more than that. You and your mother.”
Kira shook her head, not wanting to hear any more. “Stop,” she said softly, closing her eyes.
“You have to understand,” he continued. “You may be meant for someone else. No matter how much I may want you, how much…” His words drifted off and she could hear movement although she refused to open her eyes.
“I don’t think of anything but you,” he continued, his hands clutching her shoulders, shaking her until she looked up at him. “That night in the woods I felt you before I saw you. I should have turned away, but I couldn’t. You were right, I shouldn’t have brought you here, because you were meant for someone else.”
There was no more air.
Kira’s chest heaved, but it was a reflex, nothing more. She felt no incoming or outgoing, just the suspension of their locked gazes, her mind whirling around all he’d just said. He was wrong; that crescent shape on her back was a birthmark. It had to be, or her mother would have told her differently. She would have let her know if she was meant for … wait a minute.
There’s more for you, Kira. More than I could ever teach you, more than you could have ever imagined. Beyond these walls and this pack, there is something for you. A destiny neither of us could ever have imagined.
No. her mother would have told her. She would have explained all of this to her. This would not be the first time she was ever hearing about this.
“I don’t understand, Blaez. I don’t understand what you’re telling me,” she said, even though Kira was deathly afraid she was starting to understand. “You’re wrong,” she said, leaning into him. “This isn’t a true story. It’s just something that maybe your parents heard in passing. Maybe someone made it up. It wouldn’t be the first time myths have been faked. If I were meant especially for someone I would know. Wouldn’t I?”
“Or you would know who that someone was not,” he told her.
She gasped and he dropped his forehead until it rested on hers.
“I want you,” she whispered, because with every fiber of her being that’s what she wanted. She knew that now without a doubt. It didn’t matter what was on her back or what some goddess who had never even met her might or might not have pre-ordained. She wanted Blaez.
Lifting her hands, she cupped his face again, tilted him up, and went in for a kiss. Her lips touched his and he didn’t respond. Her heart pounded once again, her entire body shaking. “I want you, Blaez,” she whispered. “I. Want. You.”
He opened his mouth to speak and Kira took the plunge, her tongue dipping inside to tangle immediately with his. He grabbed her then, wrapping his arms tightly around her and pulling her onto his lap. Kira gasped and fell deeper into the kiss, deeper in love with this lycan whom she’d sworn she would hate for holding her captive.
This was her first kiss. The first real, live soul-searing kiss of her life. Blaez held her tightly, like maybe he was as afraid to let her go as she was. He licked her mouth, every crevice and every core, stroking the heat that had been steadily brewing there. She wrapped her legs around him, loving the feel of his strong arms wrapped tightly around her. He pulled her closer, took the kiss even deeper as she gasped for air.
“Blaez,” she managed to whisper when he finally tore his mouth from hers, kissing along the line of her jaw and down her neck when she arched in his arms.
“I’m going to have you,” he whispered over her bare skin, his tongue snaking out to touch her nipple. “I’m going to suck your plump tits, and lick your wet, juicy pussy.”
Kira was on fire. Every inch of her body quaked at the sound of his voice.
“I’m going to be so deep inside of you, there will never be another you want fucking you besides me.”
“Yes,” she whimpered. “Yes. You. Just you.”
* * *
Blaez didn’t give a damn about the moon, the sun, the stars, or anything in between.
He had to touch her, to feel the tight walls of her pussy clenching him. He needed to taste her, to lick the sweet, thick honey from her plump folds, drowning in the pure bliss that only she could offer. This was why he was here, why he had not been killed with his family. For this moment, to lay her back on the bed, strip his clothes off, and return to her again. In this second, this infinite time in space that they would never get again, this was his sole purpose in life.
“Open wide for me, lýkaina. Show me that beautiful pussy,” he told her, a growl rumbling loudly in his chest.
When she spread her thick thighs apart it was like heaven on earth. Her vulva lips opening like the most delectable flower, glistening with her arousal. He lifted her by the backs of her knees, dropping her legs onto his shoulders as he went in, inhaling deeply of her intoxicating scent before licking the sweet nectar from her skin. She bucked beneath him, lifting her hips to feed him properly, and Blaez was grateful.
From that night he’d found her in the woods, the moment she’d opened her mind to him and let him guide her to an orgasm and that steamy hot shower had given him his first intense taste of how sweet this alpha female could really be. He licked her long and slow, loving the feel of her smooth, soft skin along the contours of his tongue. His lips were wet with her juices, his chin, cheeks. She was all over him, just where he’d wanted her to be.
Kira arched up off the bed, his name falling from her lips in a guttural moan that echoed throughout the room. Blaez held her close, drinking her release like it was the sweetest wine, knowing he would never taste anything as wonderful again. The softness of her inner thighs cushioned his face as her climax continued to wrack through her body, his lips gently kissing her now, praising everything that was her.
When she’d gone still, her hips moving only slightly against him, Blaez pulled back, looking down to her once more. Her breasts were large, dark, pert nipples staring back at him. He moved between her legs, letting his dick tap lightly against her clit. Her eyes opened wide, her tongue stroking along her bottom lip.
“I want you to watch as I sink inside you,” he told her, and she came up on her elbows her gaze fixed between her legs. “That’s good, lýkaina. Look how hard you’ve made me. How crazy I am with need for you.”
She gasped. “This is not just the needing, Blaez. It’s so much more,” she told him.
He heard her words, heard the truth laced in them. “Right now I need to be inside of you. Watch me slip inside of you.”
They both watched as the bulbous head of his cock pressed between the saturated folds of her pussy. He moved slowly, loving the sting of the torture it was to wake against the promise of the pleasure once he was tucked securely inside. She lifted her hips ready to take him in. He pressed farther, his dick sinking into her; the sound of her sucking him deep joined their gasps for air.
Her hands grabbed the sheets, her legs shaking beneath his arms. And Blaez went deeper, dipping into the heat, feeling her cream coating every inch of his dick.
This was where he was supposed to be, where he desperately needed to be. The wolf inside threatening to howl its ultimate pleasure, dangerously close to wanting to claim her completely.
With that thought Blaez began to move, thrusting in and out of her, circling his hips, pulling almost completely out before sinking back in once more. He lifted her legs high, spreading them into a V shape so that he could have more f
reedom to move inside her at his will. A glimpse at her and he saw that she stared up at him, her eyes glassy with desire, her lips parted slightly, breasts jiggling with their motion.
His mind was flooded with Kira, her smile, her laughter, the way she chewed, the way she smiled. If he closed his eyes she was there, lying against the soft pillows of her bed sleeping soundlessly. When he opened them again she was coming from the gym where she’d been working out with Malec, her body slick with sweat, those damned pants she liked to wear molded to her body. He saw her cooking in his kitchen, laughing with his pack, smiling up at him when she thought it was okay. His arms trembled first, then his legs, and Blaez knew he was about to come.
He pulled out of her quickly, moving them so that she was now standing, bending forward onto the bed. He gripped her ass, loving the feel of her plump cheeks in his hands, spreading them wide apart. Leaning down, he licked her crease, down past the rim of her anus, wet from her cream that had coated her completely. He suckled her there, at her entrance, his tongue dipping deep before coming out to lap quickly over her clit. She shivered, her ass cheeks bouncing against his face. Blaez groaned, pulling back and sinking his rigid cock inside her again. Holding her ass tightly, Blaez pumped deep inside of her. His hips rocked against hers and he fucked her with every ounce of desire he possessed, every thought of intimacy, every inkling of emotion that dared seep inside his soul.
And when he came he emptied everything he had inside of her, giving him the man and the wolf that he was. Giving her his all, knowing damned well they would both eventually pay the ultimate price.
Chapter 11
“Where’s Channing?” Kira asked as soon as she entered the kitchen the next morning after she’d showered and dressed.
Blaez had already left by the time she’d awakened, which hadn’t surprised her. What had been different this time was that he had left her a note telling her that her clothes and personal belongings had been moved into his room. She’d read the note a couple of times before finally getting out of bed and going to see if what he’d said was true.
She dropped the sheet and padded to the now-familiar bathroom. There were fluffy towels and more body washes in the stall, she noted as she leaned inside to turn the water on. Coconut-scented shampoo, cocoa and shea-butter body washes, the ones she’d selected from that online store when she was shopping with Channing, all lined up neatly in Blaez’s bathroom as well as the private one she had in the room where she’d been staying. She’d smiled at the sight, ignoring the sense of dread that was clinging to the back of her mind.
After the long steamy shower she’d found more of her things in one of Blaez’s bureaus. All of the items that she and Channing had ordered, blouses and slacks, jeans and dresses, were hanging neatly inside. There had been a flurry of questions crowding her mind by that time. About her future with Blaez—if there was one—and about what he’d told her last night. Some pieces to the puzzle of her life had appeared and she was anxious to try them out, to see what fit.
First up, she had some questions and she knew Channing would know the answers; after all, he’d been the one to mention something about “being Selected” the other night. She hadn’t caught the meaning then, not until Blaez’s announcement last night.
“It appears he’s not here,” Phelan told her.
Kira had then moved to the coffeepot, remembering where the filters were kept and putting on a pot of dark roast as she knew was both Blaez’s and Phelan’s preference. For herself, she liked a glass of orange juice first thing in the morning, so she went to the refrigerator remembering that Malec and Channing had been busy last night, which was most likely why Channing wasn’t already in here preparing breakfast himself. The meals that she’d prepared in the last couple of days they’d talked about first because Kira hadn’t wanted to intrude. Actually, she’d denied wanting to cook at all, but Channing—in his kind and almost unassuming way—had been steadily pushing her to do more around the house, to take more responsibilities … the alpha female responsibilities.
“What’s on the menu this morning?” Phelan asked from the doorway.
“I’m not sure, since I wasn’t made aware that I would be preparing it,” she replied as she poured herself a glass of juice.
“Something’s bothering you,” he said, surprising her even more than the fact that Channing wasn’t already down here cooking. “Thinking about how close it’s getting to the full moon and your pack eventually coming to make their move against us?”
Phelan was wearing all black today, jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. The dark clothes added to the short black hair on his head and the expertly groomed low-cut beard gave him a very ominous look, a dangerous persona that reached to the crisp green of his eyes and the grim turn of his lips. The scar just beneath his left eye that looked like three jagged claw marks was prominent and scary, and yet Kira felt like that made him the most vulnerable of each of them.
“No, actually, I’m thinking about Blaez,” she said in an attempt to take that smug look off Phelan’s face.
It worked. At least momentarily, as Phelan blinked once, then leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table.
Five days ago Kira would have felt defensive; she would have stood her stance prepared to do and say whatever she needed to prove her point or to make it known that she wasn’t afraid. This morning, she simply took a sip of her juice and continued to watch him.
“Do you know what it means to be Selected, Phelan? Have you ever heard of the process?”
His silence, coupled with the twitching of that rugged scar on his face, said he did, so before he could deny it or say something else designed to piss her off instead of answer her question, Kira continued.
“Blaez thinks I’ve been Selected.”
“For him?” Phelan asked, raising his brow.
“No,” she replied quietly, even though there was a part of her that wished like hell that was true.
“I know that you’re doing something to him,” Phelan countered. “He’s not the same since you’ve been here.”
That had her moving slowly, setting the glass down on the counter. “I’m not the same as when I first came here,” she said, because it was true. In the days that she’d been here, reading those books in the library about the lycan history and Blaez’s family, cooking and talking to Channing, training in the gym with Malec, Kira had begun to feel very differently about herself.
“What do you think is going to happen now? Are you planning to become the alpha female of this pack?”
Kira immediately shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s what he wants.”
“Is it what you want? Are you going to stand there and tell me that you’re in love with him, that you want the same things he does, that this is where you think you belong? Because just a few days ago you were going around here checking every window and door, searching for a way out.”
“A captured wolf will try to escape,” she quipped.
He raised a brow. “Or it will kill everyone in its way to get what it wants.”
“I’m not a killer.”
“No,” he replied tightly. “But you are a Hunter.”
“You’re wrong. My father’s pack were Hunters. I am me, a female born into a society of which I did not create the rules, nor can I change them. I didn’t choose which pack to be born into,” she told him, anger slowly building.
“But you remained loyal to them. It was a choice.”
“Just as me leaving was a choice. Does it matter when we decide to make the right one?”
He paused then and Kira wondered if they’d made some sort of progress, crossed an invisible bridge of some sort, because the corner of his mouth lifted and she thought for one moment that maybe Phelan might just give her a smile.
“She asked you about being Selected, Phelan, not to badger her about the pack to which she was born,” Channing said, finally making his appearance in the kitchen, Malec not far behind him.
“You knew, didn’t
you?” she said immediately. “That’s why you said what you did the other day. What I don’t understand is how? There’s no way you could have seen my mark.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Malec said, heading straight to the refrigerator to grab a bottled water. “We both saw your mark. Those yoga pants you wear don’t exactly keep you covered when you’re working out.”
“Or bending and reaching for things in the kitchen,” Channing added.
“So everybody knew but me?” she asked, looking from one lycan to another. They were certainly a hot bunch, but right not she wasn’t very impressed with them.
“It’s not for us to get involved in,” Phelan told them, looking pointedly at Channing and Malec and then finally to her. “Your status is your business. Just like Blaez’s is his.”
“But you’re his family,” she said.
“We’re his pack. We protect him and fight beside him; we do not interfere in what has been put on his shoulders to handle,” Phelan continued.
Channing set the cup of coffee he’d just fixed down so that it clinked against the marble countertop. “She asked a general question about the selection process. I can answer that.”
Kira sighed. “Then would you, please? I’m sick of being the only one not knowing what’s going on.”
“The Luna goddess Selects a mate for a lycan. It’s a match she believes will be powerful and will somehow aid the breed in their struggle. It is her way of arming us against Zeus and his unstable attitude. Selecteds are also given extra abilities, ones not found in the other lycans; this is what sets them apart from the rest. It’s what makes them so valuable to the mate they are promised to.”
When he was finished Kira was shaking her head. “I don’t have any special power.”
Malec looked at her then. “The Selected comes into their power the first full moon after their twenty-first birthday.”
“How old are you?” Channing asked.
Kira swallowed. She licked her lips and tried like hell not to twist her trembling fingers together, a sure sign of her nervousness.
