Wild: Hangman's Haunt Book 1

by Kay Elle Parker

  “I’m not, baby. I’m just holding you.” His arms held her secure, his cheek against her hair, as he rocked her quietly.

  “Why don’t you hate me?” The question burst from her, strained and pleading. “You should hate me.”

  “Do you want me to shout at you, rage at you? Tell you what an epic failure you’d be as a mother? Would it make you feel better if I hated you, if that volatile emotion turned the blood in my veins black with the fury of it?” Daxon sighed, shook his head. “I can’t—won’t—do anything along those lines, Baylee, because I wouldn’t mean them. How could I, when the words would shatter the woman I love?”

  The dark knot of self-loathing inside her shifted, cracked. She held on to it, needing to keep herself locked in the torment. If no one else would hold her accountable for the loss of her cubs, she would. The abyss had been her punishment, she knew that now.

  “Goddamn it, Baylee! I can see you dying from here. Slipping through my fingers and I haven’t got a fucking clue how to stop you.” He heaved out a breath that sounded more like a growl, and traced the circles beneath her eyes. “Let me inside, baby. Show me where it hurts, let me fix it.”

  Baylee hated the urgency in his voice, the vocalized plea. His pain ricocheted into her, fed the animosity eating away at her soul. He didn’t deserve the hurt she was causing him; she just couldn’t stop herself from doing it.

  Slipping through his fingers, she thought, was horribly right. Bit by bit, she disappeared, evading every safety net and lifeline thrown at her. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, Sheba battered on the prison wall holding her in.

  Daxon stiffened; alarmed, Baylee peered up at him and watched his eyes darken. She tried to wriggle free, unable to face the wrath of his inner beast, but his hands held her in place effortlessly.

  “Release her, Baylee.”

  She blew out a shuddering breath. “Vex. He shouldn’t have surrendered control. This isn’t for you.”

  The right side of his mouth curled into an eerie smile. “Daxon was given no choice, little one. He is weak when it comes to you; I am not. I will make you feel again, Baylee. I will open the doors and whatever haunts you will be freed.”

  “No.”

  Vex flicked an eyebrow up, then pushed her off his lap. She flailed for balance, managed to stay on her feet for a split second before Vex stripped her in quick, efficient movements and threw her back on the bed. “You are killing us all. My mate and yours, with your reluctance to forgive yourself.”

  Her heart bounded in her chest as Vex disrobed without modesty. He had nothing to be ashamed of—Daxon’s body was carved perfection from the breadth of his shoulders to the powerful muscles of his thighs. With the face of an Archangel.

  She crawled backwards up the bed; Vex caught her ankle and hauled her back down to him, flipping her over so she lay face-down. She kicked at him, fire boiling in her belly when her foot connected with his hip.

  “You will submit to me, Baylee. Submit and give me the pain rotting you away.” His hands lifted her by the hips, positioning her on her hands and knees. “Who do you fight, little one? Me or him?”

  “You’re the same!” Baylee set her feet against his stomach and shoved.

  He chuckled, and the sound was...thrilling. She felt herself respond to the darkness of it, to the sharp bite of pain as his hand cracked over her buttock. “Wrong, Baylee. We are two sides of the same coin, but those sides couldn’t be more different. Daxon adores you, has debated being rough with you, forcing you to face your troubles.

  “I don’t debate; I do.” His hand slid between her thighs, unerringly found her seam. He hummed in approval as his fingers parted her, found her soft and warm. “Fight me, Baylee. Fight for your life.”

  His other hand grasped her around the throat as his cock replaced the fingers stroking her pussy. She yelped, scratching at the constriction when his grip tightened in time with that first shocking thrust. Her world splintered, fell apart only to reassemble with pieces missing.

  “We came after you in the forest like a hellhound. We could hear the screams, the sounds of a fight. The others, they thought we were too late, and we so nearly were. But the pride we felt when we saw what you’d done? There are no words to describe the beauty of having a warrior for a mate, one willing to die—and kill—to save her family.” Vex withdrew, slammed back inside her hard enough to draw a quavering wail from her lips. “Where is that mate now, Baylee? Where is she hiding? Fight me, show us where she lies, where our fierce and daunting huntress huddles in fear.”

  Baylee gasped, her fingers clutching the ones banded around her neck. She could barely breathe, and part of her wanted to roll over and surrender, let death take her on this last ride. “She doesn’t exist anymore.”

  His nose ran up the nape of her neck, sniffed at her hair. “If you draw breath, she exists. Set her free, Baylee, let her out and show us what she is capable of when she defends herself.”

  No, it couldn’t be allowed. Baylee shuddered, braced on the line of orgasm with the scent of blood flooding her senses, images of savaged bodies flashing through her mind. The faces on those bodies slid away to leave Daxon’s features on each and every one. “She’ll kill you.”

  “No, she will not. She will save you from this self-pity you wallow in.” Vex built a rhythm, short and sharp, so their bodies met with quick slaps. He groaned. “Break for us, Baylee. If you trust me, if you trust Daxon, break down these walls and let us in.”

  Her hands dropped to the bed, fisted in the spread. Her breath thumped out of her in bursts with every thrust and she tried—God knew she tried—not to succumb to the vital connection vibrating like a plucked chord between them.

  “Live again, Baylee. Forgive yourself for imagined sins and come back to us. We need our Baylee back,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “We want our special girl back, not this facsimile. We miss her smile, and the light in her eyes. We want to hear her laugh again.”

  Baylee mewled softly, a reaction to both his words and the sudden change in tempo. No longer did their bodies collide in tempo; his withdrawals were prolonged and unhurried, his inward drives torturously lazy. She mewled again, struggling to keep the love she felt radiating from him eating away at the foundation of her defenses.

  The orgasm rippled through her, gentle and calming, and she thought she’d die from the tenderness.

  Dax withdrew completely, and she gave a heartfelt prayer that he’d stopped before he destroyed everything she’d constructed to hold herself together. That prayer evaporated in a wisp of smoke when gentle hands gripped her hips and rolled her onto her back.

  Oh no. Baylee stared into Daxon’s—Daxon’s—eyes and tried to shore up the rapidly crumbling holes in her mental walls. “Please don’t. Daxon, please don’t.”

  He covered her, entered her again with such gentleness she choked on it. His lips pressed to her sternum, trailed butterfly kisses over her breasts, nibbling on one pert nipple before moving to the other. “Don’t what, baby? Don’t love you? Don’t show you what you mean to me?”

  She whimpered, reveling in the way his mouth brushed over her skin as it travelled up her throat, tickled the underside of her jaw, then claimed hers in the softest kiss she could have imagined. She breathed in his love, couldn’t stop it from filling her as fully as his cock filled her sex. It wormed inside her, possessing her, devastating her.

  “I’ll never stop,” he promised her, moving within her. When her eyes closed, he growled low in his throat. “Ah-ah, eyes on mine, Baylee. You can’t avoid this. You can’t deny this as you’re trying so hard to deny what happened in California.”

  Baylee didn’t want to remember California. She wanted to go back, back before they’d gone on the road trip to Hell, when she and Dax had made love in the woods and life had been perfect. If they’d stayed there, stayed in that perfect stretch of time, she’d still have her babies growing inside her and the fire in her heart that gave her life meaning.

  �
�Open your eyes, Bay.” His voice dropped several octaves.

  Her pussy slickened as though he’d pressed a magic button; that voice triggered her basest responses. Her eyes snapped open and immediately locked onto his, enthralled by the riot of emotions swirling in his. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, Dax.”

  “Bay.” A wealth of exasperation tainted her name. “What hurts is what you’re doing to yourself.”

  Her toes curled as he pushed forward, striking a place inside her that quivered for more. “I left you a note, Dax. A fucking note. If I’d died, that’s all you’d have had left of me, of us. And there wasn’t an alternative to dying, not in that moment in the woods. I knew it, recognized for what it was. I grieved, Daxon. I had regrets. And I couldn’t stop what I put into motion.”

  His strong arms scooped her up, gathered her close. Still joined together, he rose and turned, sat on the edge of the bed. The change in position urged him deeper, pressed him hard against her cervix. She gasped, arched, welcomed the brief nip of pain.

  “I didn’t read the note.”

  Baylee blinked through a haze of tears. “What?”

  “There wasn’t time. Sheba explained everything to Vex when the trouble started, and Vex woke me. From that point, things start to blur a little.” Dax rested his forehead against hers as his hands worked her hips, rolling her along his erection. “If the worst had happened, Baylee, and you’d died, I had one consolation.”

  “Just one?”

  “Just one. I wouldn’t have been far behind you. I think when it comes to true love, that’s the hardest part to think about; one of the people in that relationship is destined to die before the other, with the odd exception. I couldn’t stand to spend the next forty or fifty years living without you. I don’t know how they live their lives knowing that one day death will inevitably separate them for a period of time.” His hand stroked down her back, rested on the curve of her ass. “With us, we know death will claim us both quickly. That we’ll be together again before we realize this life is behind us. That was my consolation.”

  The tears fell, slow and thick. The way he said those words tore away another layer of her shield. His faith in them hadn’t wavered, his love had not waned. He saw them as timeless, bound to each other not just in this life but whatever came after. Through his words, she believed.

  “I know you grieve for the cubs, baby. I understand you feel responsible, but you’re not. Do you want me to tell you the way I see it, how I’ve dealt with the loss of them?”

  Her body worked on autopilot, guided by his hands. She rode him in quiet surrender, nodding her head as he kissed away her tears. The rift in her heart caused by that unforgivable loss threatened to widen, to shear her in half.

  “They were tiny, Bay. No fingers, no toes. Just tiny forms with no sentience. They didn’t feel pain.” He sighed heavily, and his arms drew her even closer. “It hurts to know we won’t watch your belly swell as they grow, that we won’t hold them as they take their first breaths.” His voice tightened, choked. “But they weren’t tangible, Baylee. We have no bodies to grieve over, no faces to remember. We can grieve their potential, and we shouldn’t forget them. We won’t forget them.

  “One day, we’ll be blessed with cubs, and we’ll hold them, love them, and we’ll remember the tiny lights we never got the chance to hold. But right now, we need to let them go. We have to set them free so somewhere down the line in this cosmic wonderland, they get the opportunity to make someone else happy.”

  Baylee rested her forehead on his shoulder, and the sound she made shocked her. It rose from the deepest recesses, a mournful wail of pain that scoured her soul and shattered the remnants of her defenses.

  He speaks the truth, Sheba said quietly, and Baylee’s heart gave a hard thump of surprise. They did not suffer, even as we did. They didn’t know fear, experienced no pain. They just...faded away.

  I’m sorry, Baylee told her. I’m so sorry, Sheba.

  A feminine chuckle that ended on a purr echoed through her mind. You had your reasons. I just wish you could have let me in, let me help you. You shouldn’t have gone through this alone.

  “Shush, baby. Shush.” Daxon sounded as though he balanced on the edge of tears himself as he rocked her. “Everything’s okay now. I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.”

  The horrible sound cut off and left her feeling weak, drained. A crippling weight had been lifted off her shoulders and she felt as though she could finally breathe. She wrapped her arms around her mate’s neck, breathed deep of his scent, and just...let go.

  DAXON FELT HIS WOMAN surrender, felt the tension that had plagued her for weeks dissipate. She slumped in his hold, and to his utmost relief, that haunting wail stopped before it destroyed him. It gave substance to what Baylee had been holding inside her, the pain and the grief and the rot that had been festering in her soul.

  No wonder she’d shut down, closed him out.

  He reached between them, stroked her clit as her hips rocked. He hissed out a breath when her muscles clamped down on his cock in a stranglehold, gave a soft curse when he felt her climax spasm around him.

  Her quiet moan urged his own orgasm into reality and he spilled inside her with a soft grunt. Sated, he let himself topple backward to lay on the bed with Baylee sprawled over him. He smiled as their heartbeats meshed, merged into one beat.

  He couldn’t stop touching her, stroking his hands over every inch of her exposed back. His fingers traced the slightly raised flesh here and there, visualized the fresh pink scars that marred her skin, marked her irrevocably as a warrior. His warrior. His champion. His love.

  She lay limp, her rapid breaths calming as his hands worked their magic. He felt the tears trickling over his skin and said nothing, just comforted her as the last of her pain washed free.

  Time skipped past and he couldn’t care. The giant chasm between them that had grown every day was gone, and Dax finally felt as though they were on even footing once again. Solid ground beneath their feet, level enough to begin building their life again.

  “Bay?” he murmured.

  She made a purring sound, rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.

  “I think a long, hot shower is in order,” he said, nuzzling against her hair. He wanted to pamper her, to wash her from head to toe and imagine the last dredges of darkness disappearing down the drain. “Followed by a decent meal, a full-body massage, and a good night’s sleep. What do you think?”

  He had the pleasure of watching her blue eyes flutter open and the contented blurriness focus on his face. “Sounds wonderful,” she agreed in a slurred voice. “But I don’t think I want to move.”

  “That’s okay, I’ll do all the moving.” It took some effort, but he managed to shove up into a sitting position, then rise with her still wrapped around him. Her legs hooked securely around his waist as he supported her bottom with one arm and kept the other banded around her back. He grinned when she moaned, his cock half-erect inside her rubbing all the right places if the sounds she made were any indication. “I’ve missed you, Baylee.”

  He crossed the room, carrying his slight burden and opened the door with a bit of creative maneuvering. He stepped out into the living room to take her to the bathroom, and froze in mid-stride as three pairs of shocked eyes raked the pair from head to toe.

  Shit, he’d forgotten about Cassie. He hadn’t expected she’d still be here or that she would call Brenna and Allix over. Embarrassed heat rose up his neck to match the flush Cassie sported. Brenna just lifted an eyebrow before she diverted her gaze, but Allix grinned and gave him two thumbs up.

  He mouthed shush and made a hasty retreat into the bathroom, slamming the bathroom door shut behind him. He heard a low whistle of approval, and assumed Allix approved of the—his—rear view.

  Baylee’s head jerked up. “What?”

  He decided to say nothing of their unintentional exhibitionist display; he just hoped the three women beyond the door could be trusted not to use it as a w
eapon to tease her. “You okay, baby?”

  Her head dropped back down. “Tired.”

  “I know.” He lifted her free of him, hissing as the warm clutch of her sex dragged over his sensitive cock, and set her on her feet. “Can you stand?”

  Baylee wobbled a bit, eyes half shut, swaying. He kept one hand on her hip and used the other to set the shower going. Then he turned and kissed her, grateful she’d come back to him, that the wall she’d hidden herself behind was no more. As steam began to rise, he helped her under the stream of water and stepped in behind her.

  Brenna had obviously left some goodies behind; he plucked up a citrus shower gel, sniffed and liked the strong scent. With tender care, he cleaned every inch of the pliable woman in front of him, not aiming for seduction but just taking care of her. When she was rinsed off and all the foam swirled away, he started on her hair, massaging and sluicing away shampoo that smelled like blueberries into the black tresses.

  He left her momentarily to step out and grab a towel, then turned the water off and draped the towel around her lean body. Her grief and her injuries had eaten away at her flesh, honing her down to near skin and bone. Painstakingly, he dried her off and bundled her into the thick robe on the back of the door.

  “Feel better?” he asked, hooking a dry towel around his waist.

  His heart stuttered when her hand slipped into his, like a child seeking comfort from an adult. “You’re too good for me, Dax. If I didn’t love you so much it hurts...” She paused, seemed to withdraw for a moment. “Never mind. We’ll just leave it at I love you so much it hurts.”

  “Good job I feel the same way, Bay.” He kissed her again, felt her sigh into his mouth. “Ready for something to eat?”

  She blinked at him, then dropped her gaze to their joined hands. “I have something to ask you, Dax. I know now’s probably not the best time, but...”

  “Anything, Baylee. You can ask me anything, you know that.”

  She became ominously quiet and he could all but see thoughts and words spiraling around in her brain. Her fingers flexed in his, only to be soothed by the stroke of his thumb over her white knuckles.