“She could see the future. Small glimpses of it, at any rate. They probably thought she was the second coming,” I reasoned gruffly.
“Verbiage aside, you might be right,” Ethan agreed. “If she sprinkled doses of the future, offered them insights that helped them grow their wealth, their prestige and position, then why wouldn’t they think the clan’s destiny rested with her?”
Accepting that because it made sense, I demanded, “Why did she think hurting us would help you?”
“Because one of her sister’s mates was destined to kill her. The other one, the younger one, we had under investigation. She had no mate. Therefore, she was safe. You have three. Powerful alphas all of them. If you died, then she was safe.”
The logic wasn’t great. Especially as none of my mates had been the one to kill the bitch.
I reached up and scrubbed my eyes. “Well, considering my mates weren’t behind her death, that tells you how powerful Jana was, doesn’t it? How well she could see into the future.”
His eyes flared at that, as he registered the truth, and small cackles whispered from the cages, a weird chuffing sound that made me realize they were communicating.
“Your clan had no ill will against the pack aside from her so-called premonition?” I inquired. “Does it really make sense that, to get to my mates, you’d attack a large pack?”
“I’m only low on the pecking order, ma’am,” the hyena rasped, ducking his shoulders, which had to hurt with the cuffs he had on his arms. “I wouldn’t know the full story.”
“Who would?”
He gulped, but twisted around, looking over his shoulder to stare at the cages, to find the one he was looking for. “Fourth row down, the one in the middle. Second row to the back, the one on the left.”
“Who are they?”
“Jana’s mate, Michael, and the other is a female, Kim, who was her second-in-command.”
“Do you know how Jana came to the clan?”
“She said she was one of the daughters Draga Krasowski offered as payment for debts outstanding. Naturally, we welcomed her into the clan.”
My mouth tightened. “All of us were payment?”
“Every daughter he had,” he confirmed, a malicious gleam in his eyes that had me backhanding him.
The act, so violent and so like my father, had me jerking back in surprise.
How many times had he done that to me? To my mother? To Jana and to Lara?
How I didn’t storm out of the room, I’d never know. I just knew that if I did, the hyenas wouldn’t respect me, and apparently, we needed that. We needed them to know I was in charge, because I was the only one they’d answer to.
No way in hell did I intend on having a bunch of hyenas moldering away in my basement, so they needed to be dealt with, and fast.
“I’m nobody’s idea of payment,” I spat.
“Any debts accrued, for which Sabina and her sister Lara cost, will be covered by the pack,” Eli intoned, and it amazed me that he sounded bored of all things. “Seeing as they’re mated, they’re no use to you anyway, are they?”
The hyena hunched his shoulders. “I wouldn’t know. You should speak to Michael or Kim.”
“Don’t you worry, we will,” Austin grumbled, before he slammed his fist into the bastard’s face, broke his nose, and knocked him out for good measure.
Eli
I sensed Sabina’s distress throughout the remaining interviews with Jana’s mate and second-in-command.
We learned little from them other than the fact that her sister was a bitch. She controlled her mate by leading him around by his dick, and her version of a beta was so far up her ass, it was a wonder Jana didn’t have hemorrhoids.
The level of manipulation Jana was capable of was actually impressive. For a single human female to rule over a wealthy and powerful clan like this spoke of her abilities at twisting people around her finger. As far as we could tell, she’d slipped into the clan at sixteen and had been spawning whelps ever since.
That, along with her visions, was why she was the leader.
She had six children to Michael. Six. Even for hyenas, that was unheard of. But she’d led them into an unnecessary battle, and the numbers they so zealously groomed, had been ripped in half after she’d brought them here to win a war she was destined to lose.
There was a backward coming forward kind of logic to their intent. They believed that drawing the pack of naturals into the action would bring us out, and it had worked. Only the fact we had the supernaturals on our side had saved our asses, or we’d be out there, becoming at one with the earth like their fallen. Which was why I knew the loss was destined.
The supernaturals were proof of that.
We’d been fated to fight that war, to win it, and for Knight to bring our dead back to life.
My natural inclination, in the aftermath, was to slaughter the lot of them. They’d all agreed to attack a pack, based on some stupid ‘vision’ their bitch leader had, which meant they were too stupid to live, but I knew that such mass-killings would hurt my mate…so I didn’t.
I let them go.
It went against my better instincts, and my wolf snarled with rage at their release, especially when I handed over a check for three hundred grand to Kim, the new clan leader. A lot battered, a little broken from the clash, she’d accepted the check, which I’d handed her with the warning that if she even so much as entered Washington state again, I’d find out and I’d come and slit her throat myself.
Whether she was scared or not, I’d find out if she attacked in the future. And while it felt ridiculous to let them go, I had a woman who sensed far too much, who felt far too much, to comfort. Sabina had to hurt someone, several someones, in fact, and it was going to weigh on her. What would my ordering their deaths do?
Sometimes, instincts were like pig shit. The stench traveled far and wide, impossible to get off your boots, but if you wanted bacon, you had to deal with it.
So deal with it I did.
As the clan of hyenas ran away, their tails tucked between their legs, I watched them leave, well aware that when the pack gathered tomorrow, there’d be explanations they’d be demanding, justifications expected for the reason for my leniency.
But that was tomorrow.
Another day.
Another time.
The pack of supernaturals, who had fought with us, and all without needing Knight to revive any of their wolves, as well as Ethan and Austin, had the hyenas’ backs and the right and left flanks. As a unit, they charged them onward, making sure they didn’t break off from the group, that they left our land, which placed me alone with Sabina in our quarters.
We both stood on the balcony, watching them go, and when she turned into me, relaxing into me to the extent where it felt like she could have passed out, I clutched at her, wondering what the hell was going on.
Then she blew out a relieved sigh, and rasped, “Mother, I’m glad they’re gone.”
“They stink. That’s for sure,” was all I said, hugging her back and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Come on, you need to get some rest. The last few days have been hard on you.” As I urged her into moving, tucking my arm around her, I muttered, “I’m sorry you had to go through that. I never expected you to close yourself off to me, and to be honest, that was more of a punishment than I could imagine.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“No? Then why did you do it?”
“I think I was shutting them off. It’s only now—” She broke off, but she paused, bringing me to a stop too as she peered up at me. “You know when reception is bad on a radio?”
“Yeah.”
“I had all the pack stuff, the grief and then the stress and the concern, plus that. It was strange.”
“Makes sense. You’re powerful enough to pick up on the way they communicate, but I guess it’s like you don’t speak their language.”
Her eyes widened a little. “That fits. I can feel their presence. Can hear thei
r heartbeats too, so I guess that just added to the chatter.”
I shrugged. “Mate, in all honesty, I’ve never known an omega like you. What you can do boggles my mind, so if you could communicate with all kinds of shifters, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Her lips curved. “You have that much faith in me, huh?”
I wasn’t sure what I’d done or said to earn that smile, but I knew what it meant, especially when she pressed her hand to my chest and slipped it over and up to cup the back of my neck.
“I missed you,” she whispered, leaning up on tiptoe and pressing her mouth to mine.
“I missed you too,” I admitted on a rumble, pulling back only slightly to whisper the words. She moved closer into me, those luscious tits of hers flattening against my pecs, making me ask, “Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Seeing as I have zero idea why we had to wait anyway, I’d say I was ready a few weeks ago.”
“You should have spoken with the other women. They would have explained—”
She arched a brow at me. “Nobody gets it. It’s just a cultural thing. An old wives’ tale.”
“Maggie’s an old wife,” I said wryly. “I bet she’d have an answer.”
“I asked. She said when she went through it, she was too horny to care why, just suffered through it.”
I had to laugh at the candid response that was trademark Maggie. “Maybe that’s what it’s about. Through all the sleepless nights, early mornings, the spit up, the diapers, and the endless laundry—admittedly, we don’t have to handle those things—but it’s the Mother’s way of making mates want to reconnect.”
Her nose crinkled. “I didn’t need a milk moon to remember that.”
Grinning, I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I’m glad you’re hungry for me, my mate.”
She sighed. “You know I love it when you call me that.”
“And you know I love that you turn to mush when I do.”
Her laugh was a happy bubble that was such a stark contrast to her melancholy of earlier, and it filled me with relief to know that she didn’t hold what we’d had to do against us.
I wasn’t going to say that she wasn’t affected by it, but I thought she knew we’d had to do what we had to get the answers we needed.
The pack would want a reckoning tomorrow. They’d be demanding answers as to how we managed to revive over forty-three brothers and sisters, and while that was for tomorrow, I was glad we had the dumbass reasoning and a ‘promise’ that the hyenas would never chase up the Krasowski sisters again over their father’s debt.
Not that that would appease the pack, but I’d paid off the loans with my personal fortune, so it had nothing to do with my people. Not a goddamn thing.
Running a hand over her back as I pulled her in closer to me, I muttered, “I’m lucky you don’t hate me.”
“You did more brutal things out on the battlefield.”
“I did. Yes.”
“I know that was the heat of the moment,” she reasoned, “but I also know that you’re not human. You do things your own way. I saw how the hyena reacted when Austin kept shooting looks at me—” She gulped. “I guess I misunderstood that too. I thought he wanted forgiveness for what he was doing, when, really, he was just looking for me to take over.”
I hushed her. “Don’t be hard on yourself. We should have warned you, but sometimes, it’s just for the best to let someone’s natural instincts take control, and you, my mate, have the best instincts of anyone I know.”
Sabina
Feeling silly for being pleased by his compliment, which was essentially his way of telling me I’d make a good serial killer, I leaned up and pressed my lips to his.
“Knight’s napping.”
His grin flashed like lightning, and he rubbed his nose against mine before he dropped his head, letting his nose maintain the connection as he moved down to my chin, all along the side of my jaw. “Do you know what I scent when I do this?”
“Me? Milk?” I teased, but I managed to stop the breathy sigh that came when his tongue flashed out to lick where he’d touched.
“Us. I scent us.” He inhaled. “It’s bliss. There is no perfume like it. I can scent our unit, our family. Knight. Daniel. All of us.”
“Pack. Our pack,” I agreed, tightening my arms about his neck as I leaned up on tiptoe.
“Yes. Ours. I never thought I’d have this,” he continued, the words whispered against my ear. “Never thought I’d be lucky enough to have what I almost lost in the woods, but instead, here I am. With my woman. My pup napping in the bedroom, my brothers helping me, my right-hand men. I’m a lucky man.”
“At least you know it,” I said gruffly, tipping my head back when he traced his lips down my throat. “You’ll never forget what you’ve got. Never stop appreciating what you have.”
“No,” he agreed. “Never. And you’ll never let me.”
He reached down and hiked me up, stunning me when he pressed my butt to the wrought iron railing that surrounded the balcony. With any other man, I’d have been scared about his intent. I’d have feared falling, but Eli would die before he let that happen.
And in all honesty, he wasn’t that much of a risk-taker, so my blood quickened in my chest as I thought about him taking me like this. Here.
When his lips caught mine, his kiss was rougher, harder than before. Not as cherishing, more loaded with a need that he’d evidently been dampening down as the weeks passed without us able to touch one another.
The joy of knowing your mate wanted no other was that there was no fear of straying, so it would make sense that the pack’s old wives would tell us to abstain, just to amp things up. And boy, was I feeling amped. Amped wasn’t even the frickin’ word.
I growled against his lips as I thrust my tongue into his mouth, not letting him stop, keeping him ratcheted up high, so that he wouldn’t remember he’d just leaned me on a railing that might not be able to take the strain of his pounding into me.
Okay, so that made some reason penetrate my brain. As was the fact that anyone in the pack could pass by the house and see us, but Eli’s hands dropped to my ass, and he began to knead the flesh, his fingers growing steadily rougher, until I heard the fabric of my pants tear.
The prospect of having ten tear marks in the seat of my favorite pants should have pissed me off, but instead, it turned me red hot.
In seconds.
He’d lost control.
My mate had lost control.
It seemed impossible, unlikely. Not Eli, who was impervious to all things that busted someone’s self-control, but I supposed, in the aftermath of the hyenas’ pointless and stupid attack, he’d be feeling a little raw, a lot rough.
And whatever he needed, I’d give him.
Always and forever.
When he sliced through my pants like they were made of cobwebs, I wasn’t surprised when my panties shared a similar fate. He spun me around then, and my legs caught his hips as I hiked myself up him.
As our mouths tangled, he bit into me, devouring me with his kiss while he strode forward and pinned me against the wall. My back just glanced off the patio door, and I arched my shoulder in time.
The move disturbed him, broke into his concentration, and he froze for a second, before he hefted me with brute strength alone off him. Before I could complain, he spun me around like I weighed nothing so I was facing the wall this time. I raised my arms, laying my forearms against it as he positioned me.
He grabbed my hips, dragged them out, then pushed one hand to the bottom of my spine. As he moved me right where he wanted me, he bent over me, his fingers coming to my chest where he tore through my shirt, ripping it off me, my bra as well, leaving my boobs dangling in a way I probably wouldn’t be able to maintain for long. Knight was going to wake up for food soon, and my tits had received that message loud and clear.
But I pushed my focus off my baby and focused on my mate—a mate who very much needed me.
His
hands were trembling as he let the claws move over the sides of my waist, along my length, before both of them framed my butt, the tips digging in as he stared at me.
I might have felt self-conscious. Might have felt uneasy or uncertain, but I felt neither.
If anything, I was euphoric with the sensation of being alive, and real, and loved.
So fucking beloved.
This man, with all his flaws, all his strengths, wanted me. He thought I was perfect. Thought I was his dream girl, and how couldn’t that make me feel like I was walking on sunshine?
I tipped my hips up, needing him inside me more than I needed my next breath, and when he rubbed his dick against me, I groaned, “You need to get naked. Fast.”
His only answer was a low grunt, but I heard his zipper lower and rolled my eyes at the notion that he could tear my clothes off but had the wherewithal to pull down his fly.
Typical man.
Then, of course, I wasn’t thinking anything.
I was thinking of his dick as it thrust into me.
Having long since ceased being amazed by how wet I was around them, how quickly my arousal could stir, he slipped into me with an ease that had us both sighing with relief.
The sensation of being at one with him was too powerful to ignore, and when he started to rock into me, harder, a little faster, the thing that really got me hot? When those claws of his dug into my hips. It was something new in their repertoire and, Kali Sara, it felt good. So damn good that I could have screamed, if I didn’t think it would have woken Knight up.
Instead, I gritted my teeth, my eyes closed as the sun beat down on me, on us, bathing us in a pool of light that felt holy. That felt blessed.
Unable to stop myself, I leaned on just the one arm, then reached down between us and began to rub my clit. Instantly, it was like a light show went off behind my eyes. Those crazy lasers that had the power to light up the sky with their strength—that was what I felt.
He slapped my ass, just a little, and the jiggle had me shuddering as I moved my fingers faster, harder. Needing more, needing everything he could give me.
Moon Child: A PNR Shifter Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 2) Page 27
