by Lacey Thorn
A purr left her lips. Her bear hummed with appreciation as she rubbed her cheek against his head. She wanted to caress his neck, to reach down and cup his groin, to stroke his cock with her palm. An aroma filled the air, tickling her nose, and the man at her breast groaned, tugging the bud with his teeth before releasing it and working his way over to her other nipple.
She wanted to rip the lace off, to feel him on her bare skin. As if he sensed her need, her bra was shoved up out of the way and her wish was granted. His tongue laved her flesh, tasting and teasing as he worked her closer to orgasm. The scent tickled her nose again, richer, stronger.
She opened her mouth then realized she still didn’t know his name, only that he was a Holloway. She tugged his head up, needing to taste his kiss again. There were too many clothes between them, and they were all hers. Naked. She needed to be as naked as he was.
He released her breast with a growl and claimed her lips once more. They ate at each other, teeth nipping as tongues tasted. It was her turn now. She broke the kiss and scraped her way down his neck. She nuzzled, licking and sucking his skin and found the scent coating him. She nuzzled more, the aroma ramping up her desire.
Mate. The word whispered in her head, jolting her and clearing away some of the fog, enough of it that reality sank in. That scent was her sneaky ass bear trying to claim something Xandra was dead set against. There would be no mate. Not for her. Not now. Not ever.
“We can’t do this,” she whispered, fingers pushing between them.
He lifted his head, nostrils flaring, ruddy color suffusing his cheeks as he seemed to gather himself.
“Put me down,” she commanded, needing the distance to help clear the rest of the lustful fog that surrounded them.
He slowly eased her down, and she pressed harder against the tree as her legs shook beneath her. “No” became a mantra she repeated over and over in her head. He stepped away, and when her gaze dipped below his waist, he turned, pacing away from her, palms laced behind his head. He looked just as gorgeous from the back. She wanted him with a fierce hunger that settled an ache in her stomach. Air. She needed air that wasn’t saturated with the scent of…them.
She turned from him and forced her feet to move.
“Where are you heading, Xandra?”
She swallowed, pausing but refusing to turn around. She couldn’t look at him, not now when she still tingled from what they’d been doing moments ago.
“What are you doing here?” she countered. “The Holloways aren’t supposed to know we’re alive. Lawrence and the other elders took great pains to keep us hidden from you.”
“And how’s that worked out for all of you? Hiding for five fucking years? And the person responsible? He’s still out there, smug and untouched because of the shielding hands of our elders.” The last word was sneered.
She jerked around and met fiery blue eyes simmering with anger. “I didn’t make the choice.”
“Didn’t you? Didn’t all of you when you went meekly along without challenging any of them?” He stalked her as he spoke, not stopping until they stood toe-to-toe, which suited her fine
She lashed out, her fist grazing his jaw, as he snapped his head back. He didn’t lift a hand, merely crossed his arms over that massive chest and stared down at her.
“For the first few months, I was a walking zombie. I did little more than go through the motions.” She turned away from him again, pacing on weak legs. “Every time I closed my eyes, I relived the day my family was attacked. I couldn’t get the smell of blood out of my nostrils, the feel of it off my hands. By the time I snapped out of it, too much time had passed. I wasn’t sure where the twins were, and Lawrence wasn’t big on talking to me. At me, yes. To me? No. I learned to stay quiet and out of the way.”
“For five years?”
“Lawrence was quick to remind me of what happened before and warned that if anyone found out I still existed, they’d be back to finish what they’d started. Do you think I wanted to put my sisters through that again? To put any of the survivors through that? I’ll never forget the horrified faces that filled my family’s den in the aftermath of those attacks.”
“None of you will ever relive those attacks. Never again,” he swore.
“Tough words from a man who was nowhere to be found when you were needed,” she snarled, turning to face him.
His jaw clenched, but he didn’t say anything. No remonstrations. No excuses. Somehow, his silence shamed her. She dropped her gaze and found it automatically snagged by the hard cock he still sported. She bit off the I’m sorry that hovered on her lips. She wasn’t sorry for speaking the truth. He might know where she’d been for the last five years, but that didn’t mean he knew what she’d been through. She doubted anyone knew what Lawrence was capable of. Even she’d been surprised.
“We need to head back,” he said. He shook his head, the fingers of one hand raking through his hair. She got the impression there was something he wasn’t sharing, something he’d just remembered and wasn’t happy about.
“I appreciate you checking on me, Mr. Holloway, but I’m afraid I’m not going back with you,” Xandra stated.
“And where do you think you’re going?” he challenged.
Away from you lingered on her tongue, but she managed not to voice it. She had no mate. She didn’t want one and had no intention of taking one. If anything happened between her and this Holloway, it would be sex and nothing more.
“If you’re trying to find your way back to Lawrence’s, you’re way off course.”
She shook her head. “I’m not trying to find Lawrence.” Finding him was the last thing she wanted. Not when she’d finally gotten away.
“Where’re you going then?” he asked again.
“Home.” The word was whispered, as if voicing it too loud would free the avalanche of emotions she held back. She couldn’t let that happen. Tears accomplished nothing. They were weak.
He sighed again. “I need you to come back to Holloway land with me, Xandra. Laramie will want to ask you questions. Things we need to know.”
So this brother wasn’t the alpha. That left him as one of the younger brothers, but which one? She tried to go through the names in her head. Her mother had spoken of the Holloway boys often enough. Laramie was the oldest, the last Kodiak now that his father was gone, and the alpha of their pack. Next was Koby. Along with Laramie, he’d been one of his father’s enforcers. She tried to remember the other names. Jensen, maybe. Slade and it seemed like the youngest was named Matheus. There were two others. Declan and Brock. Those were their names. Which one was he?
She forced the thought away.
“I have things I need to do, as well. Questions I need answered.”
“Maybe, I didn’t phrase it right,” he said. “I wasn’t inviting you, Xandra. You’re going back with me.”
“I’m not going.”
He was in her face in an instant, teeth flashing as he snarled at her. “You’ll do exactly as I say, Xandra. I didn’t come all this way to let you go on your merry little way and get yourself killed. I’m here to find you and bring you back to Holloway land where you’ll be safe.”
“Thank you but no,” she huffed, gritting her teeth in frustration.
He stalked her, and she didn’t realize she’d been backing away until she found herself trapped between him and a tree again. He dipped his head until they were nose-to-nose.
“Don’t think I didn’t catch that scent you were putting off earlier. We both know what that means. From this moment on, you go where I go.”
“I’m not choosing you,” she growled. “I won’t take a mate.”
“Then I guess we’ll just be lovers, because the one thing I’m sure of right now is that I’ll be sating my dick in your sweet pussy before this day ends.” He inhaled deeply. “Oh yeah, I can smell how much that turns you on. We’ll finish what we started, but first, we need to get back to my brother. He fell prey to one of your little traps.”
&
nbsp; She’d set the traps for Lawrence, afraid he’d hunt her down when he discovered her missing. She hadn’t considered that someone else might come after her. They hadn’t for the last five years. Why bother now?
“Xandra?” he prompted when she didn’t respond right away.
“Just sex,” she ordered, knowing there was no way for her to fight him and her bear. “And you’ll take me to my house after I meet with your brother and tell him what I know.”
He nodded, and she took the gesture as agreement to both conditions.
“I’d like to know your name before we…”
“Fuck,” he supplied when she let her sentence taper off unfinished.
“Fuck,” she agreed.
“Declan,” he replied, and her bear purred again.
She had blood to avenge, sisters to find, a brother to locate and an alpha to appease. Then there was Lawrence and the plans she had for him. Yet, the only thing she could focus on at the moment was the man in front of her and the desire he brought to life just by being near her. The sooner they had sex the sooner she could get him out from under her skin.
She swore her bear snorted with amusement, but she refused to acknowledge it. Declan Holloway wasn’t her mate. End of discussion.
Chapter Three
Declan grabbed his clothes from a smirking Brock and got dressed. It had taken longer than he’d anticipated to get back to his brother. Xandra had refused to shift. She hadn’t given a reason why, just a swift refusal. So he’d shifted, feeling more like a dog herding her toward where his brother waited. Declan was angry and horny and didn’t have an outlet for either feeling at the moment.
Brock tried to speak to Xandra, but she was doing a good job of acting like a brat, sitting with her arms crossed over her chest and steadfastly ignoring them both. The little minx thought they’d just have sex and she’d be able to walk away. He’d let her have her delusions for now. She’d find out soon enough that it wasn’t so easy to walk away from one’s mate.
Christ! He was mated. No matter how much Xandra fought it—and he could see her fighting the bond, felt it when she’d pushed away from him—their fate was already sealed. He should take her right now, on the ground, with her riding him to completion. Or with his back against the tree, her hands braced on his shoulders while he supported her hips to help her glide up and down on his shaft.
Fuck! He had it bad. His cock was a permanent ache. He cupped it with one hand while he worked the zipper of his pants with the other.
“How’s the head?” he asked Brock as he tugged his shirt over his head. He knelt beside his brother.
“Hurts like a bitch,” Brock replied then glanced toward Xandra. “Nice shot, by the way.”
“Sorry,” Xandra said. “They weren’t intended for you.”
“Who were they intended for?” Declan pounced on her reply. She still hadn’t told him what had happened to send her fleeing into the woods, laying traps along the way.
Her gaze flicked to his then moved away. He practically felt her pressing her lips tightly closed.
“It’s not safe to have you shift with a head injury,” Declan told his brother.
Brock nodded then added, “I’ll risk it.”
“I won’t,” Declan said. “Besides, Xandra can’t shift. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
She growled at him, teeth flashing, and his dick pulsed against the metal teeth at his fly. He wanted that mouth on his skin while he fucked her hard and deep.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Brock tried to shuffle closer to Xandra, his gaze flicking over her, searching for injuries.
Declan felt a rumble of displeasure building in his chest and swallowed it down. Brock was just being Brock. His brother had always been a sucker for a pretty face and always played the hero for a woman in need. It would get him killed someday. Declan glanced back at Brock’s head, where the baseball-size bump was already bruising though it appeared the bleeding had stopped.
“What?” Brock demanded.
“Xandra isn’t hurt,” Declan said. “She won’t say why she won’t shift, but that’s what took us so long to get back here.”
Her gaze met his again, and the lift of one delicate brow called him a liar, loud and clear. Okay, so that hadn’t been the only reason they’d been so long in returning to check on Brock.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, but I can feel the tension from here,” Brock said. “Did something happen?”
His brother’s glance bounced back and forth between Declan and Xandra. Declan stared at her, too.
“Why don’t you want to shift?” Brock asked.
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Xandra admitted. When she looked back up at Declan, her gaze was bleak. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” Declan demanded.
“Just that, I can’t.”
“I’m going to ask you one more time,” Declan stated. “What the hell happened at Lawrence’s to send you running? Why were you heading home?”
“Were you drugged?” Brock asked, and Declan growled when she nodded.
“How? When?”
And she clamped those lush lips closed again.
“One way or another, I’ll find out what the hell happened to you,” Declan warned.
“Fine,” she snapped. “I was drugged. I can’t shift.”
“Were you darted?” Declan asked. He pulled her to her feet and ran his hands over her. When he tugged at her shirt, she slapped his hands away.
“Stop,” she hissed. “I wasn’t shot with a dart.”
“Then why can’t you shift?”
“I just can’t!”
“Whoa,” Brock said. “Everyone calm down. Why don’t we focus on getting out of here first. Not to play the injured card, but my head is throbbing like a bitch. It sounds like I’ve got a hell of a walk in front of me, so the quicker we get started the quicker I get this taken care of.”
“Fuck,” Declan bit off. He jerked Xandra to him, wishing he were naked again. One hand gripped her hair using the dark mass to point her face up toward his. “I’m going to find out what happened,” he warned again.
She snarled at him. Teeth gritted, lips parted, a rumble escaping her mouth. He couldn’t deny the need to taste her again. He dropped his head while jerking her up to her toes. Her hands lifted to clench in his hair, and he felt the prickles of pain as she pulled at it. She grazed his jaw first, scraping it with her teeth before nipping his bottom lip. The kiss was fierce, possessive, though he knew she’d deny it later. She needed him as much as he did her.
He dropped his other hand to her hip, realigning their bodies until her core rode over his denim-covered dick and her legs were wrapped tightly around his waist. She undulated against him, rocking her pussy along his shaft and creating a friction that had him close to coming in his jeans.
“Fuck,” he muttered as the fog emptied from his head. His brother was clearing his throat, and Declan had no idea how long Brock had been doing it. Xandra made Declan lose his head when she was near.
“Yes,” she moaned, rotating her hips and grinding her heat against him.
“Xandra,” he murmured, turning his head.
She nuzzled his neck, and he smelled the bonding scent her body secreted. Did she realize she was already marking him as hers? Did the aroma do to her what it did to him?
“Xandra,” he said again and gave her ass a tap, trying to get her attention.
She growled throatily, making him believe she’d enjoy some frisky play in the bedroom or wherever they were when they finally consummated what was between them. Now wasn’t the time though. Not with his injured brother as an avid audience.
He smacked her ass harder, and her head snapped up, her teeth clicking in his face with warning. He nodded toward Brock, who still stared at them. Her head turned, and his brother gave her a finger wave, a big ass grin stamped on his face.
She dropped her head to Declan’s shoulder with
a groan and slowly unwound her legs. He held her as she regained her feet, not wanting to give up the sensation of her plastered against him. His want was fueling a need that would be explosive when they finally came together. Was this how it had been with his older brother Koby when he’d mated Xandra’s sister, Sidia?
“You need to talk to me,” Declan told her. “To us. Tell us what happened.”
“I’m not sure you’ll believe me,” she admitted.
Declan smoothed a hand down her back. “I’ll believe you.”
“So will I,” Brock added.
Xandra paced away then back again. Declan noticed she hovered close to him and wondered if she realized that. Probably not or she’d purposely put more space between them.
“Lawrence…” She paused, and Declan got the impression she was choosing her words carefully. “He isn’t what he seems.”
“What do you mean?” Declan questioned.
“I didn’t notice it when we first arrived at his house. I was too out of it. By the time I shook it off, he’d already begun spiking my food or drink with something.”
“Wait. You’re saying Lawrence drugged you?” Brock asked.
“There wasn’t anyone else in the house,” Xandra replied.
“Why would he medicate you?” Declan asked. He wasn’t doubting her. He didn’t understand why Lawrence would rescue her then drug her. What was the purpose?
“I don’t know why the fuck Lawrence did the things he did. All I know is he made sure I wouldn’t be a problem for him, and he continued to make sure for five fucking years.”
“Why didn’t you leave?” Brock questioned. “Surely, he wasn’t watching you twenty-four-seven.”
“He didn’t have to,” she told them. “All he had to do was keep pumping the drug into me and make sure to keep me under lock and key.”
“You were locked in?”
She nodded, arms wrapping around her middle, making him think there were details she’d left out.
