Late as a Rabbit (Sons of Wonderland Book 2)

by Kendra Moreno

  I wait for White to follow suit and strip his pants and boots free, but instead, he drops to his knees in front of me. He lifts my leg to hook it over his shoulder.

  “Your freckles cover your body,” he comments, kissing my thigh. “They’re beautiful. Like a constellation that I want to trace with my tongue.”

  I reach down and wrap my hand around his ear gently.

  “I thought you said you weren’t sweet and soft?” I tease.

  His eyes flick up to mine, and the sight of him kneeling before me sends my heart into overdrive.

  “Oh, I won’t be, but first,” he lifts my other leg, so I balance against the wall and on his shoulders, “I’m going to taste you.”

  White presses his lips against my core, and I throw my head back, just barely keeping from slamming against the stone wall and knocking myself out.

  “Oh, damn,” I groan, gripping the base of his ear a little harder.

  He chuckles against me, the vibrations going straight to my ovaries. He slides his tongue straight up my slit before sucking on my clit hard. I buck against him, my thighs tightening around his shoulders.

  When he repeats the action before swirling his tongue, my thighs shake from the pleasure. I thread my hands through his hair and hold him against me as I ride his face, completely oblivious to the fact that we’re in a cave, during a deadly Chimera Storm, in the Dark Lands, and I’m being eaten out by the White Rabbit. What the hell has my life become?

  I cry out when White sucks harder, and I feel his finger probe at my entrance. I come apart around him, my hands digging hard into his scalp as I ride out the waves. He eases back before gently dropping my legs to the ground. They’re shaking from the after effects. He rises, slowly kissing up my body, taking time to lave attention on my breasts. My body immediately heats up again, ready for more.

  He leans back enough to tilt my chin up, to meet his eyes and take in the bright silver glow.

  “Would you have me wild, Jupiter?” he asks, his voice low, sensual. “Would you accept me for the monster I am?”

  I rise and press a kiss against his lips, my hands winding around his neck.

  “Even monsters have hearts,” I reply. “And I will have you however you are.”

  Shock flickers across his face for a moment before he leans down and kisses me on the tip of my nose.

  “You’re too good for Wonderland,” he whispers.

  “No, Rabbit.” I capture his lips with mine for a small bite. “I’m where I’m meant to be.

  My hands drop to the fastening of his pants, and I pop the button free, before sliding the pants over his hips and down. He immediately kicks off his boots and the leather. I should have known he wouldn’t be wearing anything else. His cock springs free with the movement, and I’m surprised to see the filigree tattoos on his shoulders continue down, down, until I can see them shining on his cock. I wrap my fingers around him and squeeze, and he growls while thrusting into my hand.

  “Give me your wild,” I whisper.

  White grabs a fistful of my hair and kisses me, letting me taste the evidence of my arousal on his lips.

  “As long as you give me your light,” he growls before claiming my mouth again, as if he’s trying to absorb whatever light he sees in me. Before I met a certain white rabbit, I wasn’t sure I still had a light.

  White drops his hands to my ass and lifts until my legs are wrapped around his waist again. His cock nudges at my entrance, and I fight the urge to squirm against him. He presses me back against the wall as I tangle my fingers back in his hair. When he begins to press inside me, I bite my lip. He’s only a few inches inside when he suddenly slams in to the hilt, and I scream out in pleasure.

  “I’ll never be the gentle lover,” he growls as he squeezes my ass hard enough to bruise. “I’m too corrupted by this world.” He pulls out and slams back in again. I clench around him. “I’m going to take you as hard as I am, make you scream until you’re hoarse, lick you until your juices coat my face.” He repeats the action, and I swear my eyes roll back in my head at the feeling. “You’re mine, Jupiter, and I won’t let you forget it.”

  And then he’s pumping into me, the sound of our bodies slapping against each other sending juice running down my thighs. I cry out with each thrust, my voice echoing around the cavern, repeating back to me in a symphony of pleasure. My core clenches tightly as he hits the sweet spot inside of me, and I move against him, tilting my hips to meet his thrusts.

  “You’re so damn radiant,” he growls, biting at my neck, marking me.

  Just as I feel my body peak, ready to topple over the edge, he pulls free. I’m about to protest—what kind of man brings you to the ledge and stops?–except he turns me and pushes me down to the floor onto my hands and knees, before slamming inside me again. The feeling sends me over, and I scream out in ecstasy, but he doesn’t relent. He continues to slam inside me from behind, pressing my chest to the floor, my head turned to the side as I take him. He grabs my hair in his fist and yanks me up.

  “I always make good on my punishments,” he whispers in my ear, just before his hand comes down across my ass.

  I scream out in pleasure at the sting. He bites my neck again hard, before spanking me across the other cheek.

  “Call me bunny again,” he hisses.

  “Bunny,” I groan, so lost in the euphoria, I don’t care what he does to me. And I’m not ashamed to say that I like when his hand comes down across my ass cheek again. I jump and moan, pressing back hard against him. “Bunny!” I scream out. Smack. He rams back inside of me hard enough to sting. He wraps his arms around my chest and hauls me up, his fingers grabbing handfuls of my breasts between his fingers, caressing, squeezing, rolling my nipples, all while he continues to pound inside me. One hand trails down my stomach to rub my clit. I feel his rhythm stutter, hitting me harder as he fights to hold on, to send me over the edge first.

  My breaths come out ragged as he strokes my clit with one hand, and his other wraps around my neck as he holds me to him continuing his relentless pace. Lost in the haze of pleasure, I groan out two words.

  “My bunny.”

  The fingers against my clit slap down, gentle, but enough to sting. I shatter into a million pieces around him, screaming out my pleasure as he pumps inside hard, hard, hard, before following me over the precipice. I feel the hot spurts of his release coating my thighs as it begins to leak from our joining. I can’t breathe, can’t comprehend anything around me except for the warm body behind me, keeping me safe, keeping me wild.

  When we collapse to the floor in a heap, and my eyes close from pure exhaustion, I pull him as close as possible, his head pressing against my chest. As I fall asleep to the soft tickling of his ears against my cheek, my heart opens up just a little bit. . .

  . . . and I feel my light grow that much brighter.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Screaming, there’s lots of screaming as I run through an opulent palace. Blood splatters the walls around me, coating the floor, causing me to slide when I try to gain purchase. But I’m not moving, not as I should. Instead, the laughter grows louder behind me, the sound evil and terrible, and I know I’m in danger.

  “Catch her,” the voice commands. “Off with her head!”

  I push myself harder, and I slip, slamming down into the warm blood. It’s still fresh, thick enough to coat my body.

  Just when I’m about to scream in terror and the laughter draws closer, the scene fades away until I’m lying in nothing but darkness. I push myself to my feet and look around in confusion.

  A woman steps out of the shadows, clothed in a colorful jeweled dress. Her eyes are large and intimidating, her face sharp like a bird’s. Feathers lay on top of her hair and surround her face. The woman’s head cocks to the side, studying me as I do her.

  “Who are you?” I ask hesitantly.

  “I could ask you the same, Fire Child,” she says, her voice lyrical and laced with permanent pain.

  “Can y
ou make this nightmare stop? Can you make it go away?” I take a step towards her, studying the different colors on her dress and in her feathers. Bright greens, blues, yellows, reds, almost like a parrot.

  She frowns and shakes her head.

  “My poor sweet child.” She takes a step closer. “If you can’t wake up from the nightmare, then maybe you aren’t asleep.”

  I wake with a start, my heart beating a rapid rhythm in my chest. I gasp at the feeling, as if I have just broken the surface of a lake after struggling beneath it until Death reached out and stroked his fingers down my spine. Beside me, White springs to his feet at my sudden awakening, tense and ready to fight.

  At first, I don’t understand what drew me from my nightmare. The cave is near silent, the storm no longer raging outside and beating against the entrance. Vaguely, I recall the dream and the strange woman who had made an appearance there. I turn towards White, who’s still prepared for a fight, about to tell him the odd things I’d seen, when there’s a shuffling from the entrance. I jerk my head towards the sound and clutch White’s waistcoat against my naked chest. Shit, we are not prepared for a fight. Neither of us are wearing any clothing. Stupid thing to do in such a hostile situation.

  A large shape shifts in the dark opening, and I squint my eyes as the form grows bigger, moving closer. Whatever it is, it’s massive. Its head goes to the top of the cavern, its body wide and imposing.

  “What are you doing in my cave, Fire Child?” a husky voice echoes throughout the stone room. The voice sounds hoarse, as if it’s been screaming in agony for decades, and it’s definitely feminine. “And White? I really hoped I would never see you again.”

  White winces, the dying campfire still glowing enough to show me the expression on his face. He immediately stands down, his entire body relaxing. I have no idea why he isn’t worried when he’s naked and facing another creature.

  “Doe,” White whispers and inclines his head in a bow towards the mysterious voice. “We didn’t know this was your cave.”

  “Of course, not,” the voice replies, and then the shape is moving into the light.

  I can’t stop the gasp that slips past my lips. As the form comes into focus, I see her feet first, giant eagle-like claws, pale and razor-sharp. Those claws are longer than my forearm, and they dig into the dirt floor, leaving little tracks that I quickly realize repeat around the cavern, proving she frequents the area.

  Her body is next, a giant pale form, riddled with scars, a few lone feathers sticking out in odd places. It’s as if she’d been plucked, her body naked without what once must have been magnificent feathers. When her face comes into view, I instantly know who she is. The Dodo bird looks like she’s gone a few rounds with a lawnmower, but she’s unmistakable. Her large, pronounced beak shows even more divets and scars, and I frown, trying to imagine how she could have turned into this. She’s intimidating, and when her eyes narrow in on me, I immediately attempt to cover up even more, to hide my nakedness from her gaze. Then she focuses her attention completely on White, and I scramble to pull on my clothing as fast as possible, hiding behind his broad shoulders.

  When I turn back around, Doe is still staring at White, and I can’t tell if it’s in hatred or just distaste.

  “Funny,” she says, tilting her head to the side. Her eyes flick to me once before returning to the Rabbit beside me. “The last time I saw you, Rabbit, you were watching as the Red Queen stripped me of my feathers to make herself a bonnet. I would have been roasted over a fire pit if it wasn’t for the Hatter.”

  I jerk my head towards White in question, my eyebrows raised high. He stiffens but doesn’t meet my eyes, and I suddenly know there’s many things I still need to learn about Wonderland and the White Rabbit himself.

  “You know there was nothing I could do, Doe.”

  She harrumphs rather rudely before turning her attention back on me. I force myself not to stiffen under her intense gaze.

  “Tell me, Fire Child, what are you doing with this rodent?”

  White frowns at the word but doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t disagree. I watch his face closely, searching for any sign of cruelty, or any clue as to a man harboring evil. I don’t expect to find any, and I certainly shouldn’t be able to tell after hardly knowing him, but my instincts scream at me to step forward. I listen to them.

  I thread my fingers through White’s where he stands as still as a statue. He jumps the tiniest amount at the contact and looks down at our joined fingers in surprise. I curl my lips the barest amount at him before facing off with the roughened Dodo bird in front of me.

  “Apparently, I’m prophesied to be here. I’m Jupiter. How do you feel about helping us take down the Red Queen?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  I’m not sure what Doe expects of me. Perhaps, she doesn’t expect me to stand at White’s side after her comment, but I don’t know all the facts, and so, I withhold any judgement. It’s not my place, and I don’t want to crucify White for something I haven’t heard the whole story for, especially if it’s in his past.

  Doe tilts her head to the side, those brightly-colored beady eyes meeting mine.

  “You can’t sell dreams to someone who has walked through nightmares, Fire Child.” Her hoarse voice echoes within the cave, and it feels like she’s wrapping around me. I suddenly ache with the pain in the words, and I frown. “My time is coming,” she continues. “I will die here, and Wonderland will die with me.”

  “How can you say something like that?” I ask, my voice strong. “Where is your fight?”

  “It left me with my blood as I lay mutilated and broken at the Red Queen’s feet, my throat too crushed to beg for mercy as she plucked my beautiful feathers free one by one. My fight left me even before the Hatter escaped his own bonds and dragged me to safety here in the Dark lands, nurturing me back to health even though I asked him to end my suffering.” She pauses, a tear slipping down over her cheek, and I find myself wanting to reach out to her and attempt to ease her pain. “I used to be so beautiful,” she mourns. Her head dips, and she turns in on herself.

  White’s fingers twitch in mine and when I look at him, I see shame written across his face. I’m standing on difficult ground, not understanding exactly what happened but knowing I’m supposed to fix it in some way.

  “You’re still beautiful.” My voice breaks the silence as I step forward. Doe glances up at me as I move closer. When she doesn’t move away, I continue until I’m close enough to reach out my hand and touch the base of her neck. My head barely reaches her chest as I brush my fingers along the leathery, scarred skin. “You’re a survivor, and that’s beautiful. Survivors do what they have to, sacrifice pieces of themselves in order to keep going. You’re beautiful, and you honor me by baring your soul.”

  Doe’s eyes widen, and she shifts on her feet.

  “Do you mean that?” she rasps.

  “I do.” I smile up at her, before taking a step back to give her room. When her eyes meet mine again, it sends a bolt of recognition through me, and my jaw drops. “Were you in my dream?”

  “I have a talent for dream walking, yes. But it was not I who called out to you. I was drawn to your dream like a beacon.”

  “But you were humanoid in my dream. Why are you not here?”

  Doe frowns and shakes her head. “I haven’t been able to shift into my true form since the Red Queen bound me.” She lifts her head high and reveals a softly glowing cord wrapped around her neck. The glow is miniscule, barely detectable unless I really focus. “Her enchantment forces me to stay in this form, to be reminded about what she’s done. Just before the Hatter got me out, she placed the cord around my neck.”

  “Can I take a look?” I ask, moving closer again and lifting my hand towards the cord.

  “Feel free. I tried for many years to remove the blasted thing only to be disappointed each and every time.”

  I study the cord in depth, turning my head this way and that to get a better look. It look
s like an ordinary length of cord except for the pale-red glow emanating from it. I slip my knife from my pocket and lift it.

  “Hold still please,” I say before attempting to cut it.

  “Do you think I haven’t tried something so simple?” she asks.

  I stop sawing long enough to see there’s no damage to the cord. I slip my knife away.

  “I’m gathering the facts.” I sigh. “Did you hear the enchantment? Did it have words or was it like a hocus-pocus type thing?”

  Doe frowns at my terminology but nods her head.

  “I remember the exact words.

  With this cord, bathed in pain, I bind thee,

  Only blood of time can set you free.”

  I scrunch up my nose at her words. It’s short and not much to go on, but it’s something.

  “I hate vague things like that. Exactly the reason I never went into archeology. I love dinosaurs, but no way am I going to read a thousand-year-old curse and hope I translate it correctly. Talk about a Mummy Returns scenario.”

  Doe smiles at my chatter, not seeming to know what I’m talking about but hanging on every word either way. It’s humbling, to know that I amuse her in some way. I kind of want to keep doing it. She deserves a reason to smile.

  “Can you figure out what it means?” White asks, shifting uncomfortably. For the first time, I realize he never put on his clothes. I give him a funny look and point my finger at him.

  “First, you need to put your pants on, Rabbit. I can’t focus if you’re letting it all hang out.” White smiles and immediately searches for his clothing. “I’m certainly going to try and remove it. But I need something to write with.”