by Nina Croft
A scuffle at the edge of the circle drew his attention. Two wolves were surrounded by a score of others. Even in their wolf form, he recognized his father’s seconds, the two who had murdered Kelly and Jason. The pack was about to dispense its own justice. Caleb turned his back.
As he strode away with Regan, a howl rose up from the wolves, then a scream of pain. He ignored the sound, stepping into the darkness of the surrounding trees. He kept walking until the sound diminished to a quiet roar, then turned around and dragged her into his arms.
Chapter Nineteen
Caleb’s whole body thrummed with power, but Regan could get no sense of what he was feeling. Did he regret his father’s death? Was he relieved it was now over?
But then it wasn’t over. It was only beginning.
Whether he realized it or not, Caleb now had a duty to the pack. He had killed their leader. Granted, Ethan had been totally crap in the leader business, but even so, he’d done a job, and someone had to take over. And for all his denial of his heritage, she knew Caleb would make a great alpha.
She’d remained silent as he pulled her after him into the dark forest. He turned her in his arms, and she opened her mouth to speak. Then shut it again.
His eyes were hot and filled with a burning hunger. She was suddenly very aware that he was naked, while she was dressed in nothing but his white shirt. He pushed her back against the tree trunk behind her, and the rough bark scraped her skin through the thin silk. Then his body pressed against hers, the hardness of his erection pushed against her belly. He raised his hands and framed her face, staring down into her eyes.
“I need you,” he ground out, almost against his will.
She had no thought to deny him. Instead, she pushed back into him, rubbing her hips against his hardness until he groaned. His hands moved between them, ripping the shirt open, devouring her breasts with his hungry eyes. He cupped one in his large hand, then lowered his mouth to her. Regan held her breath as she waited for his touch. He took one swollen nipple into his mouth and suckled hard, sending darts of pleasure through her body to ignite a fire low in her belly. He bit down and her sex flooded with hot, wet heat. Raising his head, he stared down into her eyes, his nostrils flaring as though he could scent her arousal.
He captured her gaze with his own as one hand slid down the curve of her waist, across the flat plane of her belly. Excitement held her rigid as he trailed his fingers through the curls at the base, then lower to cup her in his palm. He leaned toward her so his forehead rested against her shoulder, and she breathed in the scent of him, sweat and musk.
For a minute, he remained immobile, but she could sense his tension in the labored breaths, the thud of his heartbeat. When she could bear the anticipation no longer, she shifted slightly, raising one leg to allow him more access, and he sighed against her skin. He raised his head and kissed her as he massaged his palm against her sex. His tongue thrust between her lips as his fingers pushed inside her. His mouth slid from her mouth to her cheek, then down to nuzzle her throat and all the time his clever fingers played with her, dipping inside then stroking lightly over her swollen nub until she was writhing against him.
“I need you.” She repeated his words, and they were true. If she didn’t have him inside her soon, she would shatter.
His hands shifted to cup her bottom, and he lifted her until her shoulders pressed up against the tree. She leaned back for balance as Caleb held her poised. His erection nudged at the entrance to her body, then he pushed inside and filled her with one fluid move of his hips. Regan wrapped her legs around his waist, her hands gripped tight on to his shoulders.
His fingers dug into the flesh of her bottom, holding her in place as he moved her on him. He flexed, pulled out of her, and then slowly thrust back with a roll of his powerful hips. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the feeling as he deepened his movement, grinding his body against hers with each stroke.
Finally, he sheathed himself fully, rotating his hips in slow teasing circles so the pressure mounted higher, concentrated on that one small point between her thighs. He tensed as her inner muscles clamped tight, and she exploded against him. He thrust harder and faster until he was slamming into her, and the world ceased to exist except for his big, hard body. She opened her eyes as her climax built a second time, wanting to watch him come. The pleasure amplified until it was almost unbearable, and she threw back her head and screamed into the night as he spilled himself inside her. His head went back, and his voice joined hers. He was still moving inside her as though he couldn’t bear to stop, and she leaned forward, tangled her hands into his hair, brought his face to hers, and kissed him.
At last, his body went still, and he fell to his knees with Regan clasped in his arms. He rolled as he fell, so he hit the ground beneath her, and she ended up on top, straddling his hips with him lodged firmly inside her.
She lowered her head so it rested against his chest, closed her eyes, concentrated on her breathing and the sound of his heartbeats as they gradually returned to normal.
Raising her head, she stared down at him. Caleb’s eyes were closed, his mouth relaxed, and she could tell nothing from his expression. She looked lower. There was a wicked wound in his shoulder where Ethan had gotten that first bite, but the bleeding had stopped. She leaned forward and kissed it. Still he didn’t move, and she looked at him suspiciously.
“Are you asleep?” she asked.
“No,” he murmured. “Just recovering.”
She was unsure whether he meant from the fight, from the death of his father, or from making love. Probably all three. She stroked the hard lines of his face, over his cheekbones to the shadowed hollows beneath, trailed them over the sensuous lower lip, delving inside as his mouth opened for her, loving the feel of his hot tongue lapping at her fingertips.
He gazed up at her, his eyes as blue as the summer sky in the dim, shadowy light. They were peaceful, and some of the tension drained out of her.
“You recovered now?” she asked, shifting her hips and feeling his cock swell inside her.
He smiled and nodded, thrusting up into her. Still sensitive, her muscles clenched around him, and he groaned low in his throat. Raising his hands to her waist, he held her as he turned them both so she lay beneath him. Leaning down, he kissed her, and she opened her mouth to the slow, erotic thrust of his tongue.
This time their lovemaking was languid and sweet, and they came together in an explosion of pleasure that left Regan limp and boneless. Caleb collapsed on top of her, then rolled them both so they lay arms and legs entwined on the forest floor.
***
Caleb did not want to think, and he did not want to move. Regan’s legs wrapped tightly around his waist, while her arms wound about his neck, her face burrowed against his throat. Her long hair tickled his nose, and he breathed in her scent, like wild flowers.
He’d needed her as an affirmation of life. Because his father was dead.
He had killed his own father. Wasn’t there supposed to be a corner of hell reserved for people like him? But he knew it wasn’t guilt he was experiencing. Ethan had deserved to die, had needed to die.
Regan shifted beside him. She loosened her grip on his neck and inched away, resting her chin on her hand and staring into his face.
“I can almost hear your brain working,” she said.
He frowned. “Ethan is dead, and I thought I would feel nothing, but—”
“But?”
“I hated him, but he loved me.”
“He tortured you. You have nothing to be guilty about.”
“I don’t feel guilty. I just wish it could have been different between us.”
“Do you believe he was telling the truth about your mother?”
Caleb had been avoiding thinking about that one. It was inconceivable that his mother had been alive all these years. In some ways, it was yet another betrayal. One more person who had walked away from him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “The
re was no reason for him to lie. And does it matter? If she is alive, she obviously wants nothing to do with me.” He could hear the bitterness in his own voice.
“Perhaps that’s not her fault,” Regan said gently. “You heard what Kael said—she’d been a prisoner for two thousand years. Can you even begin to imagine what that would be like, what she went through? Gina told me they almost broke Raven, and they only had her for seven years.”
Caleb closed his eyes. She was right—he couldn’t imagine it. He did know how his father’s treatment of him had twisted his whole character. What would it be like to suffer torture year after year, knowing that there might never be an end to it? Could he blame her?
“We’ll find her,” Regan said. “If she’s alive, then we’ll find her. Kael will search to the ends of the earth.”
“My father told me she was broken,” Caleb said. He shook his head. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found.”
Was she even still alive? Or had she gone away on her own and died somewhere alone? He hoped she’d found peace wherever she was.
Regan leaned down and kissed him briefly. “Then once we know she is safe, she can be alone again.”
They were silent for a few minutes. Caleb rolled onto his back and stared at the tree canopy above them and beyond it to the star strewn sky. Then he remembered something.
“By the way,” he said, “you ever do that magic shit on me again, and I’ll—”
She grinned. “You’ll what?”
“I’ll be really pissed off.”
“I definitely won’t do it then.” She pulled away from him and sat up. She still wore his white silk shirt, but the buttons were gone, and it hung open at the front. She glanced down as she caught him staring, then back at his face and smiled, a slow, seductive smile that caused the blood to thicken in his veins.
“We should get back,” she murmured.
He didn’t want to go back, but he knew she was right. There was the pack to sort out and—
“Oh, God,” he said. “Your sister, Catrin. We left her with all those wolves.”
“She’ll be okay,” Regan replied. “She could do with a little excitement in her life.”
“They’ve probably eaten her.”
“Don’t be silly—she’s a witch. But we should still get back.”
There had been no sound from the clearing for a while, but at that moment, a howl went up from the wolves. Caleb scrambled to his feet.
“What the hell’s that?”
“I think maybe the cavalry has arrived.”
“The cavalry?”
“The Council. I told Catrin to tell them what was going on. That was when I thought she might need the help, before I realized she would completely go against my wishes and bring you along.”
Caleb remembered Kael’s words about how the wolves would pay for what had happened to his sister, and a sense of urgency filled him. No way was the Council touching his people. They would have to go through Caleb first.
Reaching down a hand to Regan, he pulled her to her feet. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty
They came to a halt at the edge of the tree line, and it took Regan a few seconds to make sense of the scene. The place was teeming with people. Although “people” was probably the wrong word.
At this side of the clearing, the pack milled, still in wolf form, and every few seconds, one would throw back its head and howl. Regan could sense their nervousness, but beneath that, they were ready for a fight. They had tasted blood and were eager for more.
The Council faced them from the far side of the clearing. Kael stood at their center, Darius to one side, with at least twenty others ranged around them. She looked closer and realized that most of them were vampires. She shivered in the cool night air, pulling the shirt around her. They’d obviously come in force, and she appreciated that they had taken her request seriously, but she wished they were not quite so blatantly antagonistic.
Between the two groups, and apparently all that separated them, stood the small figure of her sister, Catrin. A massive hellhound flanked her on either side, but it was Catrin that kept them apart. Even from this distance, Regan could see that her sister bristled with hostility.
Caleb strode forward, pulling her along with him. She wondered whether he realized that he was naked and she was near enough. If he did, it wasn’t slowing him down. She thought about magicing up some clothes, but then it was too late—all eyes in the clearing turned to them.
Caleb dragged her to a halt beside Catrin. Her sister turned from where she confronted Kael, her eyes widening as they looked from Caleb to Regan. Regan’s hand tightened on the shirt where she held it closed at her front, and Catrin’s eyes narrowed, a look of disgust flashing across her small, expressive face.
Regan opened her mouth to speak, but Catrin beat her to it. “I cannot believe you two disappeared off into the wood for a quick shag at a time like this.”
“I— ”
“Don’t try and deny it,” Catrin shouted. She took a deep breath, and her eyes flashed brighter. “I can smell it on you.”
Regan glanced around her. Everyone in the clearing had gone silent while they listened to the conversation. Kael looked amused, Darius was grinning, and Regan realized with a start of surprise that she felt embarrassed. It wasn’t something she could remember feeling before.
“Catrin, shut up,” she muttered.
“No, I won’t shut up! I came to rescue you, at great personal inconvenience, and you left me with a pack of hungry wolves.”
“They’re not hungry,” Regan replied, trying to calm her sister.
“That’s only because they just ate three people. Whole. In front of me. But I’m sure they could have found room for one more.”
Annoyance pricked at Regan. “What?” she snapped. “Now you’re helpless?”
Catrin took a deep breath. “I just think you could have waited.”
“You were the one that told me I needed to get a man.”
“So, you’ve got one. There’s no need to flaunt him quite so much.”
Catrin was jealous; it came to Regan in a flash of insight. Her little sister was mad with jealousy. Regan glanced at Caleb, who stood beside her, holding her hand, quite unconcerned by the fact that he was naked, and his sex life was being discussed. She let her eyes wander over him—he was definitely worth looking at, big and powerful. Her eyes dropped lower.
“Stop looking at him like that,” Catrin ground out. “And tell him to put some clothes on.”
“Tell him yourself,” Regan said.
Caleb pulled away from her and crossed the clearing to where his clothes lay in a pile. He pulled on his pants and came back to them but wisely remained quiet. Regan didn’t know what to make of her sister in this mood.
“Better?” Regan asked.
Catrin nodded sullenly.
“So, what’s going on here?” Regan asked.
“He,” Catrin said, pointing toward Kael, “wants to take them,” she turned and gestured to the wolves, “into custody for questioning.”
Caleb swung round to face Kael, his eyes narrowing. “Leave them alone,” he growled.
“I was trying to tell him that,” Catrin replied. “But I could have done with a bit more help.”
Behind them, the wolves settled. Regan turned to look at them. They were all focused on Caleb. Some even lay down on the ground and watched with their heads resting on their paws. They obviously trusted him to look after them, and she smiled. It looked as if—whether he liked it or not—Caleb was now pack leader.
He stepped up to Kael, stood facing the other man. They were the same height, Kael blond while Caleb was dark, but there were similarities in the underlying bone structure when you knew to look.
Someone came to stand beside her, and she glanced around at Darius. His eyes made a slow perusal of her body, down over her long bare legs and back to her face.
“Catrin’s right,” he murmured.
; “What about?” she asked suspiciously.
He breathed in deeply. “You reek of sex.” He nodded toward Caleb. “Is your boyfriend going to cooperate?”
“I suppose it depends what you want him to cooperate with,” she said. “Why don’t you listen and find out.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be feeling all mellow?” he asked, and she scowled and turned away.
“My father is dead,” Caleb said.
Kael looked around the clearing. “Where’s the body?”
“It was disposed of according to pack law.”
Beside her, Darius grinned again. “They ate him, didn’t they?”
Regan ignored the comment.
Something flashed across Kael’s face, and Regan got the distinct impression that he would have liked to see a body.
“It’s true,” Catrin spoke up. “They ate him. I saw it. Close up.”
Regan rolled her eyes and turned back to listen to Caleb.
“The rest of the pack has nothing to do with you,” he said. “They’re mine. Leave them alone.”
Kael nodded. “Okay.”
Caleb looked a little nonplussed at the easy answer. He frowned.
“I’ll leave it up to you,” Kael said, “but I want to know everything they knew about my sister.”
Caleb glanced back at Regan before answering, and she nodded slightly.
“She may be alive,” he said.
Shock flashed across Kael’s face. “What?”
“Before he died, my father told me that my mother might be alive.”
“Might?” Kael’s brows drew together in a frown, but a flicker of hope showed in his eyes.
“After I was born, he let her go. He said she was wearing some sort of spell that kept her trapped. He made a deal—give him a son, and he would destroy the spell and release her.”
“You believe him?”
“There was no reason to lie—he was dying.”
“So where is she? Why didn’t she come back to me?”
Caleb was silent for a minute, and Regan knew he must be thinking how much to tell Kael.
