Elaina closed her eyes, palming his muscular chest, finding his nipples that she squeezed playfully. Liam chuckled low in his throat. He released her tip and went on his knees, but before he was able to unhook his jeans, Elaina rubbed her hand over his concealed hardness, followed by her mouth, pressing her lips against the fabric, she worked her mouth along the bulge in his pants and could almost taste his muskiness through the fabric, but when her lips became almost raw, she moved his zipper downward and smiled when his hardness sprung upward. She traced her tongue on the head, lapping up his salty essence. She gazed up at him, enjoying the ecstasy displayed on his handsome face.
He rocked his hips forward and the head of his manhood disappeared between her lips. He moved it in and out of her mouth, but not too far until she clenched both hands on his ass cheeks, which drove him deeper inside hot mouth. With wild abandon, he thrust into her mouth and she sucked him in enjoyment, enjoying how he took charge.
Liam pulled out and helped her out of the rest of her clothing, his tongue and fingers working magic from her head to her toes. Elaina writhed on the ground in desire, feeling more wanton than she thought she could. His fingers plunged into her moist cavern and she thrashed on the ground as an orgasm ripped through her and her love channel constricted around his pumping fingers.
“Please, Liam.”
He lay on the ground next to her and pulled her across his lap where she straddled him. As Elaina mounted Liam, it was all she could do not to cry out and scream that she loved him, but she held back since she wasn’t sure how he felt. She longed to sink her fangs into the flesh of his shoulder, claiming him forever, but instead rode him like a starving beast, lifting herself up and in for a fuller penetration. She had to bite down on her lip as she felt the wave crash over her, but she was desperate to continue, rather enjoying the control she had, something that was hard to do with another shifter. He was her alpha, and in this moment she knew he knew it, too.
A howl escaped her lips and Liam put a hand over her mouth as she bucked wildly against him. “Shhh, you’ll bring the clan down on our heads.”
He pushed her off him, positioning her onto her knees, his hardness ramming at her entrance. When he pushed forward further, he claimed her completely. His fangs then found the flesh of the back of her shoulder, and he penetrated it as he bit down.
Elaina responded by gyrating against Liam despite the momentary pain. She hoped that it meant what she had hoped it did, that he was claiming her as his mate for now and forever.
Liam gripped her large hips with two meaty hands and pounded Elaina until she clenched him tightly from within, and only then did he tense and spill his seed inside her.
They collapsed to the ground and Elaina tried to relax her breathing as her heart pounded inside her chest, nearly out of control. Her mind reeled and she let the words escape. “I love you, Liam. I have grown to care for you more than that of my friend. I want you as my—”
“Someone’s coming this way,” Samson’s voice carried over to them.
Liam and Elaina hastily dressed and when they met Samson, he was not alone. Two large men wearing leather battle gear stared down at them, and as they did, they sniffed the air. “I smell a werewolf,” one said and then spat on a grasshopper that hopped by.
“Yes, I’m a werewolf,” Samson admitted. “It’s me you must smell.”
“I don’t think so,” the other said. He stepped closer to Liam and sniffed the air once more. “It’s you.” He then stared at Elaina. “You, too.”
“I’m all werebear. But who are you?”
“We’re guards for the Clan of the Werebear’s fortress, and you’re trespassing on their territory.”
“Good, we have been trying to find the fortress for many days now,” Elaina said. “We we’re planning to ask for refuge. These two werewolves are my guides. I hail from the east—”
“It matters not where you’re from, but we’ll take you before the elders for punishment. No werebear would be caught dead using any filthy werewolves for a guide.”
Liam nodded. “The same has been said of werebears, but I’m willing to overlook it if you are.”
The men whispered to each other and ordered them forward. “We’re taking you along with us.” They did a quick search to assure that they had no weapons, and up the trail they went, allowing them to take their bags with them, luckily spotting only the clothing on the top, and not the bones that were hidden beneath them.
Elaina held her head high as they were directed to a trail leading north. She was not about to let these clansmen know how frightened she was. They climbed a hill and on the other side of a valley was a mountain, the granite walls looming high in the air. Certainly there was no fortress to find at all. As they neared the rock, there was a waterfall that dropped to a clear pool of water that they were ordered to enter. They waded in the waist-deep water and were instructed to climb a ledge on the right side of the waterfall. It was only two feet wide and led directly behind the raging waterfall. One of the men took a flashlight from his pouch and shone the way through the path that led through the mountain to the other side.
When they stepped out into daylight again, they were not in a village like Cullen and Damon lived, but what looked like a town of sorts with houses made of gray stone that had been cut in precision and obviously put into place. Along one wall were chains with restrained men that Elaina knew were werewolves. They growled in response, obviously smelling their own kind.
“Stay here,” they were ordered.
Samson and Liam flanked either side of Elaina. “I don’t like this,” Samson whispered. “I don’t have a good feeling about this at all.”
“Me either, but we need to stick to our plan. Perhaps we’ll be simply given shelter.”
“You, perhaps,” Samson said. “We’re werewolves and won’t fare as well.”
“We’re the enemy of the clan, don’t forget,” Liam said.
The men came back and they were led into the largest of the stone houses. Inside torches lit the room, and down the corridor that they walked down. It opened up into a large room where two men with white hair and beards were waiting for them on iron chairs.
They were ordered to stop ten feet from the men, and one of them said, “Come forward, child.”
Elaina trembled inside, but she wouldn’t let them know it. She stepped forward and bowed her head, one knee to the ground, and she came up with the only reasonable excuse that she could for coming here. “I ask for shelter. I have been staying in a village to the east, but my werebear protectors have deserted me.”
“On your feet, dear,” one of the men said. “I’m Bedic and this is my brother, Walkar. We’re the elders of the clan. Tell us more of this village to the east?”
“Cullen and Damon are of Russian nobility.”
“I know of them,” Bedic said. “I can’t believe they would leave a dove like you to your own defenses. We have left that area to live in peace many years ago.”
Elaina felt her heart rapidly beat. “Haven’t you at least inspected their village to assure yourselves that the rules of the clan were upheld?”
“No. As I have said, we haven’t been back to that area in many years. We’re too busy keeping the rogue werewolves at bay here.”
“So you haven’t squashed their rebellion yet?”
“Werewolves are not so easily dominated. How have you tamed yours?”
Elaina popped a glance at Samson and Liam, both of their faces tense. “They are not mine to tame. They live as free shifters in the east.”
Walkar’s eyes narrowed. “While we don’t venture to the east to enforce our laws, we certainly do here, and you, girl, smell of werewolf.”
Bedic sniffed the air, rubbing his chin. “Ah, yes. We’ll need some time to decide what to do with the lot of you. It’s forbidden for a werebear and werewolf to mate. Take her to the tower room, and chain these werewolves to the wall!”
The guards moved forward, but Elaina pleaded with
them, “We’re from the east and don’t abide by those laws.”
“Then you should have stayed in the east, not traveled here for shelter. We have suffered too much in the past to allow such a transgression to be unpunished.”
“Yes, one you have created.” She opened the bag and presented the skulls of both a wolf and bear. “One of you murdered Anna and her lover, not to mention my parents! And this is proof!”
The skulls rolled to the floor as well as a band of cloth that resembled that of the banner that hung behind them. It had green stripes and red diamonds.
The men stood up. “How dare you! And it’s not possible that your parents were murdered by any member of the clan since we have no idea who you claim to be. It’s known throughout the territory that Anna’s werewolf lover murdered her. Anna’s sister, Felicity, ran off, and while we’re aware that she had two half-breed children with her werewolf lover, we have never found them. We believe that they left Alaska.”
Samson tried to stop Elaina, but she pulled away. “You lie! I saw that banner that was found with the skulls, and it’s the same one that’s behind you. My mother was the mate to my werewolf father, not simply lovers, and I’m here to stop the war.” When they laughed, Elaina continued. “How many werebears have you murdered and blamed it on the werewolves? You’ve murdered an alpha for no reason at all. Everyone with half a brain knows that Anna’s werewolf would never have murdered her. He loved her and no werewolf would ever murder his mate.”
“Seize them,” Walkar ordered.
Elaina was grabbed by the guards and watched helplessly as both Samson and Liam were dragged away. She shifted and roared at the guards, but another guard pulled out a dart gun and shot Elaina. She slumped to the ground when the needle penetrated her thick body, and within minutes, felt woozy. Before she passed out from the drug from the dart, she heard them warn Samson and Liam that if they shifted, they’d kill her.
Chapter Sixteen
Elaina woke up with a headache. She lay on a bed, the soft sheets tickling her bare skin. She pulled the sheet over her chest as she sat up, careful to cover herself. Her shoulders slumped when she eyed the iron bars of the cell she was in. She scooted off the bed and made way for the window, and when she glanced outside, she could make out the shape of Liam and Samson near the wall with metal collars around their necks, a guard posted nearby.
The sound of hammering was heard in the distance and tears dropped when she saw that a wooden platform was being built with posts that formed an upside down L.
Elaina turned at the sound of a tray scraping the floor. “I’ve brought you food,” a wide-eyed woman said.
Elaina raced to the bars, dreading what she had feared. “What are they building outside?”
She backed up like she was afraid. “Well, it’s a hangman’s post, or so I heard the elders say. You’re to be executed at first light.”
“No. You’re mistaken.”
“No mistake, miss, but I thought you already knew that.”
The door behind the woman opened and she left in a hurry as Beldic and Walkar entered the room.
“I see you’ve awakened,” Beldic said. “I hope you’re not too uncomfortable.”
Elaina rolled her eyes. “Like you care if I’m comfortable. Is it true? Are you planning to execute me?”
“Yes, all of you actually,” Walkar said. “We can’t afford to let you live now. You’re the only ones who know that the clan killed you parents, and it won’t be long before the rest of the clan knows the truth. Luckily, only our guards heard your wild accusations. It’s unfortunate, really. Both Anna and you mother, Felicity, chose to ignore their arranged marriages. When Anna was found murdered five years before, you’d have thought that your mother, Felicity, would have known what was at stake.”
“Which one of you was my mother supposed to marry?”
Beldic stepped forward. “It was me, but I really had only planned to murder her mate and of course, you and your brother, but things happened that were out of my control. She waged quite the battle while her mate was forced to look on in horror. I never planned for her to die that day. I wanted to simply bring her home.”
Elaina pressed her face to the bars. “Like she’d have just gone willingly along after you killed my father and her cubs.”
“She would have in time, I assure you. In the beginning, I would have had to lock her away. That’s why there’s a cell up here. It was designed for your mother. Once I had a cub in her belly, she’d have submitted to her lot in life.”
“Why is it that women are simply given away so easily?” Elaina spat as the notion sickened her.
“It wasn’t easy for her father at all, but he had sworn his alliance to the clan. He died after your mother’s death. His heart simply gave out after we came home and had to tell him that his last living child had also died.”
“How do you plan to explain my execution?”
“That you have broken the laws by mating with a werewolf.”
“You can’t do that or this war will never end. He’s an alpha of his pack.”
Beldic shook his head. “What alpha would leave his pack to accompany you on such an impossible journey?”
“One that loves me.” At least she thought he did. “I lived with Cullen and Damon and might carry their child now. Would you also be so willing to kill a woman who carries a royal werebear?”
“They’ll never know since they have already deserted you, or so you say. I have heard talk of how they share the females of their village. My belief is that they simply got weary of you, and you either left or were asked to leave.”
“What of the other clansmen searching for me?”
“No one has searched for you. We believed you were dead.”
“If you didn’t find me when you murdered my parents, why would you think I was dead?”
Beldic stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Well, it was winter, and without the protection of your parents, we assumed that you’d perished from the elements.”
Elaina’s shoulders sunk. If the clan wasn’t behind searching for her, then who was? “Why do you insist on doing this and prolonging a misplaced war? It’s time for it to end. Why don’t you see that?”
“It’s the way it’s always been, and it’s important for the clan to remain in superior authority. We need for the clan to be all werebear, not half-breeds.”
“You’ve made that decision for your own welfare and to conceal your own guilt. It’s time for it to all end. Werebears and werewolves need not be enemies. As humans push into the territories, it’s important for all shifters to band together, not kill each other. Don’t you see this?”
“I see a werebear that is a half-breed and every time I look into your eyes, it’s a painful reminder that I was set aside in favor of another,” Beldic said with clenched teeth. “As long as I breathe air, the laws of the clan won’t change and that includes this war.”
The elders left and Elaina sunk back to the bed. She had given those bones up too easily, but it couldn’t be helped. There was no way that they’d have been able to hold on to that bag, and at least she had played her hand and was now certain that both of the elders had started the war and were content to see it continue. Whoever was searching for her had other motives. All this time she had been running from them, but in truth, they might be her only allies.
* * *
Elaina was given jeans and a shirt early the next morning. She was asked what she desired to have for breakfast and when she said the elders’ hearts, she was left alone to dress. What of Cullen and Damon? Were they still in the forest searching for the clansmen who had pursued them, or were they hopelessly lost? If Cullen and Damon weren’t truly part of the clan, then who had made pains to make them believe it?
* * *
Elaina was pulled from the cell and a metal collar was snapped around her neck, with metal spikes on the inside. It was apparent that if she shifted, they would go right through her neck and kill her. So much for her plans
to fight her way out of this. All morning, all she could think about is how she had brought Liam here and how she was responsible for leading an alpha to his death. She wished she could turn back the clock. She wished she had never left Samson all those days ago. He had warned her of what the clan was capable of, and now it was too late for any of them. Samson had been a great protector, but instead of her destiny being the one who could stop the war, she’d just be another casualty.
Liam and Samson stood on the wooden platform when Elaina was pushed up the stairs leading to it. She swallowed hard, which caused the metal bars to poke the delicate skin of her neck.
“I’m so sorry,” Elaina said to Liam and Samson. She held back the tears and took her place between the werewolves.
Their hands interlaced as they stared out into the crowd of men and women, holding on to their children to witness the execution. The crowd was quite big already, with the elders taking their place on a wooden platform opposite them.
Beldic motioned for the crowd to be silent with a wave of a banner held in his hand. “We have been at war many years and we’re not about to change our laws now. It’s forbidden for a werebear and a werewolf to mate, and today we’re going to make an example of what happens when our laws are broken.”
An executioner with a black hood brought ropes forward and placed it around the necks of the accused. Elaina took in a sharp breath and said, “This is wrong and you all have the right to know it. The elders have lied to you all for years. They are the ones responsible for murdering Anna and her werewolf mate. They’re responsible for starting the war.”
“Don’t listen to her,” the elders shouted. “Drop the doors. Kill them, kill them!”
The lever was thrown back, the ropes tightened around Liam, Samson, and Elaina’s necks, but instead of them choking to death, they fell through the trap doors where they were caught by two men waiting below. Damon and Cullen! The ropes were removed in haste, their collars unlocked and removed.
Betrayed (Werebear Shifter Romance) Book 3 (Clan of the Werebear) Page 9
