And she will be here to see it...No matter how much I protested, she refused not to follow us down here to the docks.
“It’s dangerous, and I can’t afford to be distracted by looking after you, sweetheart,” I said and was rewarded with a fierce glare.
“I can look after myself, and besides, this is my family. I have every right to be there.”
I can’t really argue with that but I still wish that she had stayed where it is safe. Her presence is making me extra alert, extra wary, and I can sense it’s having the same effect on my men.
Shannon herself stands behind me, my pistol tucked into the waistband of her jeans and her breath warm on my arm. Even in this situation my cock pulses at the nearness of her and her scent fills my nose. I can’t afford to get distracted here. One wrong move and the lives of the captives on that boat will be at stake.
Headlights approach the docks and I see the same large van pulling up where the captives were herded into before. “They’re here,” I say and feel my brothers and the men tense behind me. Shannon grips my arm and stands on her tiptoes to peer over my shoulder just as the first guy gets out of the van and looks around him. I’m pretty sure he deliberately glances up at the warehouse.
Then the moon comes out behind a cloud and I see his face. Shannon lets out a shocked gasp.
It’s Sean. He’s betrayed us.
Yet, if that’s the case, why are they still here? Why haven’t they either called off the meet or attacked the warehouse? As my hand goes reflexively to my gun Shannon puts her hand across the top of mine.
“He’s still with us,” she whispered. “If Patrick knew, there is no way he wouldn’t have attacked first.”
“Could be a trap,” I murmur back, but Shannon shakes her head decisively.
“He’s my brother,” she says simply. But so is Patrick, I think. I glance around at Brendan and Aiden, wondering what their take is. They both look grim.
“Stick to the plan,” I say, “but be prepared to deviate from it if needed.”
My brothers know what I mean. If it becomes necessary we shift and tear their throats out. I look at Shannon.
“If he’s betrayed us, take Sean O’Donnell alive,” I say. Brendan, always the bloodthirsty one, raises an eyebrow.
“I said alive,” I say firmly and he nods. Unlike the O’Donnell brothers, we’re a unit.
Patrick gets out of the van after Sean and three of their henchmen pile out, heavily armed with machine guns like those our two men are carrying. They’re necessary when one doesn’t have supernatural strength, speed and healing abilities. Mind you even with those things, being riddled with bullets from a machine gun is no joke. It’s unlikely to kill us, but can do a lot of damage. We will need to strike fast and quick. There are five of us and five of them, and likely a few men on the boat, but I doubt they will join in. As long as they get their money, they won’t care. The priority tonight is to take Patrick out. I can investigate the other end of the chain later.
So I wait, holding my breath while Patrick steps forward as two men step off the boat, herding six young men between them. The lads can’t be more than twenty and are all strong looking. Obviously destined for forced labor...it’s big business right now. I snarl silently and in unison hear my brothers growl low behind me.
“Son of a bitch,” spits Brendan.
“I know. Wait. Remember the plan.”
As soon as the exchange has happened and the captives are being loaded onto the van, that’s when we strike. Brendan will head off the van and kill the driver while Aiden and our men take on the rest of the goons. Patrick is mine.
Sean’s presence however has thrown an unexpected wild card into the mix and I have no idea what he is planning to do. Or how Shannon will react to whatever it is he does do. I look at her, drinking in her beauty, and say seriously, “Stay here...you promised.”
She nods. “Just don’t hurt him,” she begs. I don’t respond, knowing that if he does anything to endanger Shannon then I will rip out his throat.
At the docks Patrick has handed over a suitcase and the foreign men are now counting the cash. Satisfied, they hope back onto the boat without looking behind them. One of Patrick’s goons is herding the prisoners into the van.
“Now,” I say, just as I see Sean look up towards the warehouse and give a grim nod. A signal to us. He’s still on our side.
I run with all of the speed I possess and am virtually on Patrick when he fires at me. I curse and double over, seeing him run to the front of the van, but Brendan is already there, discharging his weapon into the driver. Seeing Aiden take out one of his men just as another goes down under machine gun fire, Patrick shouts to his remaining man, “Get rid of the evidence!” The man aims his machine gun at the prisoners, who cower in fright, and I have to leave Patrick and tackle the man to the ground, ripping the gun from his hands as he stares at me in shock. After all he has just seen me get shot. I elongate my canines and rip out his throat, too angry to remember to avoid showing my fangs to the prisoners. Sean has run to them and is undoing their bonds, leaving Patrick momentarily stunned.
“You feckin’ traitor,” he spits, “you’re with the Killanney’s?”
Sean looks at him calmly, although I detect a deep sadness in his eyes. This can’t be easy for him.
“You’ve gone too far Pat,” he says quietly. Patrick raises his gun and I lunge at him, managing to knock him over, but not before he has shot Sean in the thigh. I reach for Patrick’s throat as I rip the gun from his hands.
“I shot you!” he gasps. “Why aren’t you dead?”
I grin at him.
Then I hear Shannon. Screaming Sean’s name, she is racing down the hill towards him. Instinctively I jump up to protect her and Patrick grabs for his gun. I freeze as he aims it at Shannon and Patrick shuffles away from me. I can reach him in a single leap...but I can’t risk him getting that shot off.
“What are you doing here?”
Crouching next to a groaning Sean, Shannon lifts her head and looks defiantly at her eldest brother.
“I’m with Cormac,” she says. Patrick looks at me in horror...then closes his finger on the trigger.
I leap at him, putting myself in the way of the bullet, but the bullet never comes. Instead one whizzes past me and hits Patrick squarely between his eyes. He crumples to the ground. Dead.
I look around to see Sean pointing his gun in shaking hands. His face is white and I wonder if it’s from blood loss or the shock at the fact that he’s just killed his brother. He looks at me.
“He was going to shoot Shannon,” he says in disgust. I nod angrily then walk over to them, pulling Shannon into my arm as I expect Sean’s wound.
“No major artery...you’ll live,” I tell him. Then I hold my hand to him and wordlessly, we shake hands. Shannon looks from one to the other with tears in her eyes. Then Sean looks behind me and laughs, although I can tell by the following grimace that it hurt him to do so. I turn around to see what he’s laughing at.
The O’Donnell men are dead apart from one, who is being punched repeatedly in the face by one of the former prisoners while the others cheer. Rough justice. I grin again as I walk over to them. The man doing the punching stops and looks at me warily.
“Do you speak English?”
He shrugs.
“A little.”
“Okay. My brother Brendan is going to take Sean here to a friendly doctor that we know to get stitched up. We can take you all wherever you need to go. The police?”
He looks frightened and shakes his head.
“They deport us. I cannot go home. War.”
I inhale deeply, feeling out of my depth here.
“Well, we’ll get you a safe house, clothes and some money, okay? Then you can make up your own minds.”
The guy translates to the others, who nod distrustfully. I can hardly blame them. Then I have an idea.
“Why don’t you come and work for me? Real work with a real wage. I can get
you papers.”
So now I’m a people smuggler. Great. But what else can I do? The poor bastards didn’t ask to be here.
Shannon loops an arm through mine at my side.
“You do have a heart, Cormac Killanney,” she murmurs. I kiss her softly and my men cheer. Even the prisoners are grinning.
“You’re my heart,” I tell her. “Marry me?”
Her face splits into a wide grin and she throws her arms around my neck with such force she makes me stumble.
I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Shannon
Cormac meets my eyes as I walk towards him and I can tell he approves by the way his eyes narrow and darken and then sweep up and down my body. I can feel my skin tingle where his eyes touch as though a caress. Six months in and he has the same effect on me as he did that first night in the warehouse, if not more so. Six months of being his mate and his lover and it has got hotter every day. Just when I think I can’t want him more than I already do, my body and my heart prove me wrong.
I love him. I’m head over heels, completely and utterly smitten. And best of all I know he feels exactly the same way and always will. He’s a wolf, an Alpha through and through, and I’m his mate for life.
And now we’re declaring it publicly. As I walk down the aisle I wonder what the priest would say if he really knew the truth about the man I’m marrying today.
I’m leaning on Sean’s arm, hardly able to believe he is here. After the whole drama at the docks Sean went to America for a while to lie low, while Cormac and his brothers sorted out the fall-out from Patrick’s death. Now he’s back, and heading up the O’Donnell crew. The big difference now is that the O’Donnell’s work with the Killanney’s, although Cormac is undoubtedly in charge. Sean is a lot happier now that he’s out from under Patrick’s grip and has actually become good friends with Cormac, something that never fails to amaze me given the past rivalry between our two clans. I guess Cormac and I are kind of like a modern day Irish version of Romeo and Juliet. Except without the tragedy and with added fangs.
I couldn’t be happier. As we reach Cormac Sean lets me go and sits down and Cormac takes my hand, his eyes full of pride.
“You look beautiful,” he tells me, and I have to stop myself from smiling as I see he’s fighting to keep himself from staring at my boobs. The corset on this dress is pretty eye-popping, giving me curves on top of my already existing ample ones. I can’t wait to see his reaction to the lace thong, stockings and garter that I’ve got on underneath. I feel myself growing moist between my thighs as I think about him peeling that garter off me with his teeth, and I drag my eyes away from him and onto the priest, trying to concentrate on the reading. I’m already impatient for the service and reception to be over so that we can get on with the wedding night...
As we say our vows Cormac stares deep into my eyes and I feel my heart ready to burst with love for him. My man. My wolf. And now my husband. We have our first married kiss to raucous cheers from the guests, much to the disapproval of the priest. Then Cormac lifts me up and carries me in his strong arms down the aisle while the guests shower us with confetti. Sean catches my eye, winks and gives me a thumbs-up, a proud smile on his face. I couldn’t have asked for things to work out any better.
And I still have a surprise in store for Cormac.
He barely takes his eyes off me through the reception, and when it’s time for our first dance he leans down and whispers in my ear.
“I want to get that dress off you, wife.”
“Not long now, husband,” I murmur back.
Hours later he carries me into the honeymoon suite in Dublin’s finest hotel. We will spend our wedding night here before jetting off to St Lucia in the Caribbean tomorrow morning. Cormac sets me on my feet and I turn around, sweeping my hair over one shoulder to reveal the low back of my dress.
“Unzip me,” I say softly. I feel his fingers on my back, gently sliding the zip down to my tailbone, and I step out of the dress with a sigh of relief. It made me feel like a goddess, but boy was that dress tight.
I turn round to face him and watch his eyes light up at the sight of me topless in a tiny cream scrap of lace, stockings, suspenders and a matching cream garter. He growls and goes down on his knees, burying his head in the lace that covers my crotch and kissing me through the thin material until I feel a rush of wetness between my legs. I want his mouth on my pussy.
But I have something to say first. I put my hands on his cheeks, tipping his face up to me.
“I have something to tell you,” I whisper, wondering how he’s going to take the news. I’m pretty sure he will be delighted. It’s something we both want, although I don’t think either of us were planning on it happening quite this soon.
“What is it?”
I press one hand to my lower belly.
“I’m pregnant.”
His eyes go wide. “Seriously?”
“Yes. I only found out yesterday.”
A grin splits his face and he strokes my stomach, staring at it in wonder.
“I’m going to be a father.”
With a whoop of delight he leaps to his feet, lifts me into his arms again and carries me over to the bed. He lays me down gently and parts my thighs.
“You’re happy then?”
He grins at me wickedly. “Let me show you just how happy I am,” he says, and then he bends his head...
Extended Epilogue
Fifteen Years Later
Cormac
I stand at the window looking out at the sunset. There will be a full moon soon and I can already feel its magnetic pull and feel the blood in my veins singing in response. I have to shift every full moon, but this one will be different.
I sense Shannon enter the room behind me and turn to look at her. Even after a decade and a half together she still takes my breath away. My mate, my woman and the mother of our children...three of them, to be precise. I would happily have had a whole wolf pack but Shannon is adamant that three boys, all as boisterous as each other, are enough. Of course, they’re getting older now...and tonight will be my eldest Connor’s first shift.
“How is he?” I ask. She smiles as she comes into my arms and I inhale her fresh perfume. My senses are on high alert and the scent of her fills my nostrils.
“Excited, but nervous.”
I nod. I was the same when I went on my first run with Uncle Padraic all those years ago, and I had my brothers with me too. I bury my face in Shannon’s hair, feeling a rush of love for her.
And desire...always desire. I still want her as much as I did the first time I saw her, and I know that will never change. I love her so much it makes my heart thump, and her body still drives me wild. As I hold her tight I can feel my cock stiffen. Feeling it too, she laughs.
“Cormac Killanney, you’re insatiable,” she laughs.
“What do you expect? You come in here half-naked...” I nibble at her ear as she snorts with laughter.
“Cormac, I’m in my pajamas.”
“But you’re naked underneath them,” I point out seriously. She rolls her eyes at me and then smiles and lays her head on my chest. “I love you,” she says and I can hear the contentment in her voice.
“I love you too wife.”
I couldn’t be prouder of Shannon. After Connor’s birth she started a blog about the ups and downs of new motherhood and it was wildly popular. She now has a high ranking website and a YouTube channel with millions of views and is what she tells me is called ‘a social influencer.’ Watching her success has been exhilarating. Shannon is her own woman, and no matter how protective and Alpha male I might be by nature, behind closed doors she’s the Queen in this household. I adore her.
My own career has taken some fairly unexpected turns too. The Killanney clan is now pretty much fully legit and we own a chain of popular clubs and hotels all over Ireland and in parts of the US, headed up by my brother Aiden. Okay, maybe we’r
e not totally legit, but old habits die hard. But these days, most of our millions are honestly come by. I want to leave the children a legacy they can be proud of.
Shannon reaches up on her tiptoes and nibbles my neck and I feel a sharp stab of lust.
This wolf has been well and truly tamed. But as I run my hands under Shannon’s top and across her soft skin, I know that there are plenty of wild nights left to come.
With my love, my life, my mate.
NEWSLETTER
_______________________
Wake up to a free, new, original story on
Easter morning by joining my
mailing list and staying subscribed.
Click here >> Get a FREE book for Easter
A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Claimed By The Enemy (Irish Wolf Shifters Book 3) Page 6
