Finn knew by walking in the house that there was no one there, though. He definitely would’ve sensed a rogue by now, especially because he was on such high alert.
“You want a beer?” Lea asked as she walked into her kitchen, Finn trailing behind her. Even in those baggy, standard shifter gym clothes, her body made him want more.
Cursing at himself in his head for his lack of control, Finn quickly affirmed that he would, indeed, like a beer. He would only sip on it, though. If he had a lot of alcohol in him, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to control himself. Hell, he could barely control himself now! And he was as sober as one could get.
“I’m surprised you even have beer,” he replied when he saw the amount she had in her fridge. Lea laughed and handed him one, grabbing one for herself as they both sat down at the little kitchen table she had.
“I have older brothers who are constantly over,” she said, and Finn nodded his head. He had forgotten that she had a huge family in Maine. He hadn’t met any of them through her, but he thought that he possibly met her brothers at the gym or through Ethan or Lukas.
“Are you and your family close?” Finn wanted to keep her talking. If they stayed on safe subjects like this, maybe his desire to see her undressed would slowly diminish. He took a long sip of his beer, making his desire level notch up a bit.
“Well, my three brothers and I are,” she replied, smiling as she thought of them. “My mom and dad . . . they’re great people, they’re just different. They’re not as . . . open, shall we say, with some of the things that my brothers and I are open about. That doesn’t mean they’re horrible people, they just don’t understand why Hann or Kato would want to be with a human. Take a human as their mate. They’ve changed a lot since then, though, especially after everything that happened with Kaiser. They realized how horrible that line of thinking can get, and I think they’ve realized that their anger is so misplaced. Because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, regardless of the situation or reason. We are a pack, and we always will be.”
Finn thought that she looked beautiful right then, with her blonde hair lighting up in the dark-yellow light that the cheap lightbulbs were emitting. The desire to hold her in his arms hit him full force then, causing him to grip his beer bottle and take a long swig. This wasn’t a good idea. He had known that before he walked through the front door, and he knew that now as he stood across the room from her, watching her every move. The way she batted her eyelashes. The way her lips puckered together slightly as she took a drink of her beer.
Everything set him on edge, but he forced himself to stay in control. He began to mentally tell himself that she was too good for him over and over again, hoping that the thought would push him away from doing anything that he would eventually regret. But he couldn’t stop looking at her. He couldn’t stop wanting her.
“Thanks for everything tonight,” she told him, breaking the little pause they had fallen into. He could tell that she was nervous by the way she had downed that beer in a few minutes. He was still working on his. “Again. That is.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” he replied, shaking his head. She got up to put her bottle in the trash, and Finn quickly finished his in a few seconds, standing up with her to throw away his. He immediately regretted it when he found himself face to face with Lea, both of them staring at each other, so much emotion and lust going unsaid.
And when Lea took a step closer to him and gently kissed him, he lost all the control he had barely been keeping in.
In an instant, Lea’s back was pressed up against the fridge, her hands resting on his neck, his arms wrapped around her lower waist and pulling her body close to him as if his life depended on it. Lea deepened the kiss, playing with his hair and driving him crazy.
A little voice at the back of his head told him that he should probably stop. He should probably take a step back and realize that this wouldn’t lead to anything but broken hearts and the blame being put on him. But something told him that this was right–righter than anything else he had ever done in his life. His veins seemed to boil with desire and need, making him hold onto Lea just a little bit tighter and deepen their kiss just a little bit more. His heart felt like it was a second from failing because it was beating so fast. Finn felt Lea’s heartbeat against his chest, and he smirked in their kiss when he found that it was beating just as fast and hard as his was.
His brain seemed to remind him just what he’d promised himself he wouldn’t do in that moment. He knew that he couldn’t lead her on like this, even though he desperately wanted her.
“Wait, Lea,” he managed to say after he pulled away from her sweet embrace. “We can’t do this. I can’t do this to you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked him, confused. She looked at him with such desire and lust in her eyes that he almost forgot what he was saying. “Why can’t we?”
Finn sighed. He didn’t know what to say other than the truth, so he decided to just give her his honest answer.
“I’m not good for you,” he told her, shaking his head. “I’m not . . . . I’m not some good guy. You’re too good for me. You’re perfect.”
“I’m not,” she told him, a blush popping up on her cheeks that made her look even more irresistible than she already did. “And so what? I want you. That’s all that matters.”
And when she pulled him to her, planting her lips on his, he immediately forgot all of his concerns about how he wasn’t good enough for her. He wanted her, and maybe it was his selfishness that told him to shut up, or maybe it was her admittance that she wanted him that caused him to pick her up in his arms and carry her to her bedroom upstairs.
After trying a few rooms, to which Lea laughed and told him her bedroom was down the hall, Finn finally found her bedroom and walked inside. The two immediately fell on the bed, both of them laughing.
Finn rolled on top of Lea, hovering over her body as they kissed. Her hands rested on his chest, feeling his abs beneath his shirt and caressing the area where she felt his heartbeat. He knew that she could feel it quicken when she touched him, and he didn’t care. He hoped she could tell how crazy he was about her.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” he murmured in her ear as he began to kiss her neck. He smiled when he heard her slightly giggle before inhaling quickly as his lips touched her neck.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” she replied huskily as she quickly took off his t-shirt, throwing it to the ground where it fell in a heap.
Things were progressing fast between them, but Finn didn’t care. He loved it. He wanted it. His desire and lust for her had grown and grown since that day they’d talked in the café, and one look into her bright-blue eyes told him that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Her blonde hair was splayed out on the pillow below him, making her look like an angel.
In what seemed like a second, both of them had taken the clothes off of one another, leaving them naked in front of each other. Hands began roving, even more, discovering each other and touching each other. Finn felt like he was in a dream. He looked at her as if through a haze, and he knew that desire and lust were overtaking his senses. He felt the wolf inside of him seem to act up and howl from that same desire.
And Lea looked like she wanted him just as bad, which turned him on even more
Finn took it slow, wanting to make sure that she was comfortable with everything that they were doing. As he kissed her neck and seemingly every part of her body that he could, she caressed his body with her hands. And she began to give him bliss when she found how hard his desire was for her, he moaned out in gratification. She was giving him pleasure like nothing before, and he was going crazy just from her touch.
He began to realize, in between his moments of bliss, that this was a woman like no other before. He’d never been with someone like her before. He’d never felt like this before.
Finn felt like he was going to lose control right then and there from the pleasure she was giving him,
and when she lifted up her legs as he leaned even closer to her, his desire and lust flared up even more. He entered her in one quick movement, both of them gasping from the quick fulfillment they gained. And when Finn began a steady pace of thrusts, Lea begged for more, turning him on and making him harder.
Her constant noises of delight and encouraging moans echoed his own, making his thrusts pick up speed with each one. He was crazy about her, and as he looked down and saw her eyes shut, her mouth making wonderful sounds, he knew that he would never be sick of her. She made him crazy, and he wanted to always make her feel this pleased. He would do anything to bring her happiness.
When she cried out and released with him still inside of her, he immediately fell on top of her, clutching her to him as he moaned and finished with her. He noticed that their bodies fit together like puzzle pieces. Their breath, however uneven, was paced in the same way. They finished at the same time.
They were in sync like never before. And he loved every single second of it.
Chapter 10
Gabriel wasn’t mad. Gabriel wasn’t angry. But Gabriel wasn’t happy, either. Gabriel was being practical and safe, taking his time with his movements and announcements to his rogues and followers. There was only one problem: Gabriel had no patience.
None.
Gabriel paced around the decrepit castle in Ukraine that he was staying at, forever hating the place. He missed the castle he had in France. That luxurious castle, full of history and glamor, had been his resting place for a few months before Michael and the demented Hann and his Moonlight Maine Pack members forced him back on the run. And Gabriel really hated this castle in Ukraine.
Uninhabited in the last seven decades, the place took the cake if one was looking for a new set for a horror movie. Gabriel absolutely hated it. While most would probably think that he loved the gloomy atmosphere, he hated it. He liked the nicer things in life, and if he could be staying at his castle on the French Riviera, he would. Ukraine smelled of death and despair in the forest surrounding the castle, and he hated that there were no paintings on the wall.
How he longed to walk down a corridor full of art and paintings to make him feel at ease. How he longed for the times when he didn’t have to deal with the disgusting rogues that came from every part of the world to see him. To look at him. To understand their fearless leader.
Oh well. He would play whatever role that got the job done. Even if that meant meeting people that he used to belittle with just a look. He had revenge to enact, and he would take whatever help he could get.
He couldn’t wait to get his revenge and enact the final punishment to Michael. To Hann. To everyone.
“The rogue we sent to Maine on that lone wolf mission has been captured alive, Elder Gabriel,” one of Gabriel’s Elders said behind him.
Gabriel was currently in what used to be a library a very long time ago. Now, it was quite literally nothing but torn apart furniture and broken windows. Just being in the room made Gabriel’s heart ache with so much pain. How he missed luxury. He was a luxurious type of person–and he always had been.
He hated Michael a little bit more as he thought of all of the luxuries that his enemy probably lived in.
“Which rogue was that, again?” Gabriel asked as he strolled around the room, letting the sunlight bathe his pale-white skull from the shattered window. He hated this place. He wanted to leave.
A voice at the back of his head told him to just stay calm. It will all have been worth it soon.
“The big one,” the other Elder responded, almost seeming to grunt. Elders didn’t care for regular shifters or rogues. They were all the same. However, Gabriel needed rogues on his side in this battle, so he had to play nice. But that didn’t mean the rest of the Elders with him were happy about it. “He’s the only one we sent. Cold killer, that one. Had plenty of deaths on his hands before he even became a rogue.”
“Ah, yes.”
Gabriel knew exactly who he was talking about now. The rogue had wanted to come into contact with Gabriel a few weeks ago. Gabriel thought the brute was an utterly tasteless shifter that just longed for killing, but he could use his strength and anger and direct it towards his friends over in Maine.
“It gets worse,” the Elder told him as he walked deeper into the room. Gabriel closed his eyes and seemed to revel in the little sunlight that came through that shattered window. “He didn’t even take anyone down before he was captured. And we have our friend Michael to thank for that.”
“Of course,” Gabriel sang, his eyes still closed. He lifted his hand to dance and bathe in the little sliver of sunlight. Oh, Michael. Continuously ruining all of Gabriel’s well laid-out plans. Not to say this little stunt was a plan–he just wanted that rogue gone and doing something.
The little idea itself was one that Gabriel’d had on his trek from his gorgeous castle in France, which he found himself longing for more and more each day, to the little, beat-up and about to be torn down castles that littered Europe. They were abandoned. They were full of creatures like bats and rats. But Gabriel had to live in his castles.
Even if they were falling apart. A regular house or apartment just wouldn’t do.
The plan itself was for any rogue out there that didn’t have the patience to sit around and wait for the next big uprising to occur. Gabriel planted the idea of lone wolf attacks, from rogues around the world, in the hope to bring more people over to the fight. There were many rogues around the world that had dismissed Gabriel, and Kaiser before him, because of their loner status. They didn’t want to join in with these other rogues–and a lot of times, these uprisings of rogues would turn into the rogues turning on each other in rage. A bunch of psychologically insane shifters who have torn away from their pack, with some mental consequences at times, tended to bring about violent tendencies in the most innocent of situations.
Gabriel knew that he needed these rogues on his side in some way. He needed to grow his ranks, somehow. And in this way, rogues could do whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted.
The goal was disruption and destruction within the shifter society. It was plain and simple. What better way to reach this goal than to cause packs to be on alert on a continuous basis?
It was a shame about the rogue being caught alive in Maine. Of course, Michael would want to question him. That rogue wouldn’t tell anything, though, simply because he didn’t know anything. He was too crazy to be anywhere high in the ranks, and when Gabriel met with him earlier, he made sure to leave his normal habitat so that no one would even know which castle or town he was in.
He didn’t want Michael in on his living situations. Michael had come very close to finding Gabriel in France. He didn’t want that to happen again.
Not when he was planning so much for his dear old friend.
“It’s alright, my friend,” Gabriel finally told the Elder behind him, who was waiting for a response. Gabriel turned around, white eyes open now, and walked to the other Elder, pulling him into a little side hug as they walked out of the sad little library. “He was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. While the Moonlight Maine Pack, and the rest of the little shifters around the world, are so focused on these new attacks, we will be patiently building up our next uprising.”
“So, you are going to start another one? Are you sure this one will even work?”
It took everything in Gabriel to not snap the neck of the Elder right then and there. He hated being questioned, and the hint of disbelief in his voice made Gabriel’s skin crawl. He had to take a deep breath and compose himself before he answered. He couldn’t bear to lose any other Elders that were on his side. He needed them. For now.
“Yes, my friend. This time . . . this time, we will taste victory for ourselves. This time, we will bathe in their blood, and they will hear our battle cry. And we will win.”
Gabriel laughed as he left the room, squeezing the Elder’s shoulders as he imagined what it would be like to taste the blood of the
alpha of the Moonlight Pack. Oh, Hann’s blood would taste so nice. A victory would taste so nice.
He just had to be patient, and everything would work out just how he planned. He could hardly wait.
Chapter 11
Lea couldn’t describe the things she was feeling. She had never felt this way before in her entire life. It was like she had woken up from a deep sleep, seeing the world for the first time. The trees were greener, the sky was brighter, and her feelings and emotions were stronger.
And it was all because of Finn.
Of course, she would never tell him that. She didn’t even know where they stood in their relationship–therefore, it was best to keep her feelings to herself. For now, at least. Until Finn told her where he stood. She doubted he felt what she was feeling.
She didn’t care, though. She didn’t care what she felt and what Finn didn’t feel. She liked how their relationship had changed. And she wanted more. She needed more. Being apart from Finn was proving harder and harder as the day wore on, and Lea had to think of their night of bliss before she felt any better.
The incident with the rogue was far from her mind, and Lea realized that she was probably not dealing with the anxiety and fear that showed itself during that situation by just focusing on her night with Finn. She was solely focusing all of her energy on that moment. She knew that she was refusing to deal with the situation at hand, but she didn’t care.
She just wanted to see him. She needed to. She craved him more than she had craved anybody else.
Instead of focusing on channeling her energy into work, helping out the humans in her town, or doing anything productive, Lea seemed to walk around in a daze. A sexually-liberated daze, that is. She didn’t care, though. Even in that daydream-like stance, she still did her job better than some. But she couldn’t get her mind off of Finn, and there was that weird feeling deep in her chest that constantly longed for him. Was that her wolf? No, that couldn’t be her wolf side. She had heard of wolves being possessive while still in human form, but she’d never felt a sensation like that. Now, as she went about her day, she realized what those shifters meant when they said the wolf was possessive and didn’t like to be away from the one they liked.
Moonlight Wolves Box Set Page 42
