I thought by walking into Jake’s Family home we would be ready to go, all done, finished with the tough decisions. But Jake’s strong confidence had been shaken, and I felt like the slight foundation we had built already had cracks in it.
Chapter Fifteen
The meeting was underway when we entered what appeared to be a den. This den was much more showy than ours at the apartment. The furniture was antique. The electronics were sleek and blended into the décor instead of being the feature. There wasn’t a single fingerprint on anything. Either these people were super clean, or this room didn’t get a lot of use. A semi-circle of vampires formed around Shelly as she faced off with the Matheo. At least the focus was on someone other than Jake and me.
“You told me—you told your Family—that our Protector was on a Blood Holiday. You spoke of this to us days ago. And you lied about not only his whereabouts, but his activities and his safety. In this, you put all of us in danger for the loss of our miasma. What have you to say for yourself?”
“I will say that I was trying to keep our Family together.”
“Why would our Family not remain together?”
“Because he won’t let you kill his mate.” Shelly said the words loudly. I felt the push of them toward us, even though her focus remained on the Matheo.
Jake grabbed my hand, motioned for me to be silent and began backing us out of the room. I followed his foot pattern. He was avoiding creaks in the floorboards. He picked up the bag he had left at the door.
How did it go so badly before we even had a chance for it to go even a little right? I guess the bright side was that my sis-in-law was getting reamed in there. She had warned us off.
I wasn’t positive that there could never have been a compromise, but by our pace and silence, Jake had put the happy ending out of his head.
The raucous conversation in the conservatory was the only thing that allowed our escape. Multiple voices rang out. The vampires were threatening various forms of punishment on Shelly for what was apparently a horrid crime. For the first time, I had a little pang in my chest for the bloodsucker. She had to be aware of what would happen to her by covering for us. Yet she did it anyway.
She lied to her Family for Jake. For
me
. I held tight to the most solid thing around me. Jake. We were going to start a really un-fun existence.
His eyes scanned the pictures and artwork that expertly decorated the walls around the house as we walked out the door. He was leaving behind a lot, just to walk out with me. I’m not sure how I felt. I have been a wolf longer than I was a human. This was the first time in the better part of a century that I felt scared.
Doc would always say any fear I had was the human left in me. Wolves were connected to the earth and knew that death was a part of life. If we did go out, we did it fighting. Daddy knew all about fighting. As Alpha, he had the responsibility of a Pack, sure, but he also had the support of one. He was covered. I was going to take that same security away from my mate. We hadn’t been together long, but I was growing to love him with the same passion my wolf claimed his with. Could I put this life on the man I loved?
We were only in the driveway when I planted my feet. “You’re not going to do this.”
“We can’t fight them all. We have to do it this way—at least for now.” Jake seemed to be giving up. Was he doing it to be sensible? Or if I weren’t involved, would he have stayed to fight?
“We have to go to see my Pack first. I have an idea.”
“You really think we stand a chance at changing the mind of the Matheo? The man has existed over a millennium.”
I pulled his hand. He allowed me to take him toward the woods. We would make better time cutting through these woods on four feet than we would on four wheels through the traffic. I stripped. He followed my example and we used his duffle to attach our clothing and belongings to my back. My wolf was a lot smaller than his, and it was less likely I would shred the handles with change.
It’s not a long trek to my Pack home. I did everything I could to drag it out just a bit. Jake and I needed to let our wolves take over. He might not recognize the restless urge to let the wolf free, but I had no doubt this run would do him just as much good as it was doing me. Fur sprouted. Bones cracked, and with the practice he had, Jake only took a fraction of a second longer than me to shift. We ran.
He cocked his head at me when I changed direction, but followed anyway. There was life in the cabin. I didn’t stop to identify the smell. It didn’t matter who it was, so my wolf just dismissed it and moved on. We needed to be alone. Just for a minute.
I found what I was looking for. That good ole bird-watching post presented itself at the perfect moment. Thank the gods it was unoccupied. I started to scale the pillar as a wolf, but was unable to make the climb and shifted mid-step on the ladder. It was a straight climb up wrought-iron bends as steps. The air behind me shifted, and I knew Jake was following me now, instead of the wolf.
“Amber, what are you doing?”
“Remembering what I’m fighting for. And reminding you.” Leaving his Family was not about giving up. He needed to remember that we were meant to be. I needed to show him how right this was, and maybe get his superbrain to ignore some of the excess crap we had to wade through to get where we needed to. I knew exactly how to distract him.
I didn’t turn around to see his reaction to my words. His eyes were on the prize, though. I felt him blow a puff of air between my legs as we climbed. The warm air lent to even warmer shivers. Guess I didn’t have to try too hard.
As soon as we hit the platform above, I dropped the bag from my shoulders, and he was on me. His wolf pushed to the forefront, and his wolf agreed with me. This was exactly how we needed to regroup. Jake backed me against the railing, and I wrapped around him. My arms around his neck, my legs around his waist, I ground myself against him. I could feel the coarse hair on his lower abs abrading my sex in the most delicious way. His hands were under my ass to support me. Then they spread my cheeks, and a finger began to work its way toward my aching pussy.
He slipped a digit inside, and I rode his hand and his stomach. The pressure building was incredible. I was wet. I was hot and I needed more.
More
.
This was my mate. I needed him. Adrenaline was coursing through my body. We were running for now, but neither of us were one to roll over and take our lashings.
Fuck that
. We were going to be together, and I wanted him to understand how much he wanted me, too. I could feel the length of him bobbing beneath my legs. The heat from his swollen head was searing my skin when he thrust against me.
“Please, Jake. Fuck me.” I pulled at his shoulders.
Closer
. I had to hold him closer. “I need you. I need my mate. We have each other right now.”
I had to believe that right now was all that mattered. No amount of running away was going to make our problems go away. I couldn’t ignore what was going on around me anymore. But I had Jake. He was worth waking up for.
“Remind me that this is all I need. Take me. I need it.”
He pulled his finger from me and sat me atop the railing. If anyone happened by, they would be getting a hell of a show. I could have dripped down the walls I was so wet with need. Jake had his hands on me, and there was no clothing or wolf’s fur that could compare with the way I wore his touch.
A breeze brushed against my heated skin. My nipples puckered and goose bumps sprang up everywhere. Jake’s hands brushed the chill away and the sensation was incredible. I let the moan escape from my mouth as my head fell back. He was on my neck and bit my matemark. Waves of pleasure flooded my skin. His teeth set off tremors that ran from my neck in a straight shot to my pussy. The orgasm hit me with no other touch from his hands.
My breath left me when my blood rushed into his mouth. I don’t know if it was lack of oxygen or an overdose of “hell yeah”, but I went weak. My bones melted, and in that state as I throbbed around him, I felt his pleasure. I felt his need. His cock was straining against my leg, and his body was the tightest wound coil.
Before my flutters could stop, he thrust into me with such force the rail beneath me cracked and began to give way. I screamed with the impact, and fought for more breath before he took it away from me again. My hungry cunt gripped him, and he growled around the meal he was making of my blood.
He picked me up and off the rail before it gave way. I heard the bits of the wood hit the forest floor. One swift roll, and he lay beneath me. He released my neck, and there was no greater turn-on than watching him lick the drops of red from his swollen lips. I rode him with all I had.
When I leaned back, his cock went so deep that he hit that magic spot inside of me, and I was panting with the need to come again. A driving need to mark him began to work its way into my brain. Women don’t mark the men, but there was something inside me that wanted to cover him in my scent. He was mine. He needed to come, and I needed to satisfy him.
“I want you to come for me, Jake. Can you do that? Come for me.” I rotated my hips and squeezed my muscles. I could feel him jerk inside me, and the power I held was intoxicating.
“I’m not coming yet, baby. You first. I want to watch the next orgasm make your body shake.” He reached up and pinched my nipples. He rolled the tips between his thumb and forefinger while his pinkies traced a ring of fire around the hard points. One hand trailed lower, and his nails scored my skin. I gasped and gripped his pecs so hard he hissed.
His thumb found my clit in the next second and began a superhuman vibration that threw me over the edge again. I know I lost the rhythm, but I couldn’t help it. My body was exploding from the inside out. He milked every last shudder from me and then pushed hard against my swollen nub until I began to wiggle against him again. He could have whatever he wanted of me. I gave him everything. I was an endless orgasmic playground for him and I knew in that moment that my body would never get enough of his. I could do this forever.
“Now I get mine.” He flipped us. I was on my hands and knees; the wood floor beneath us was threatening to give way with the speed and force of the impact we made. He was back inside me in an instant. His hands on my hips, he pulled me onto him. He dominated me, and I loved it. “I always get mine, Amber, and you are mine. You belong to me. I will take everything.”
“And I’ll give it.”
He released a roar. It echoed through the woods, but I had no time to wrap my mind around getting caught. He bit me again. This time he didn’t draw blood, he just held my matemark between his teeth. If I didn’t have the hearing I did, I would have missed his words as he released inside me with the last forceful thrust.
“I love you.”
That was from both his vampire half and his wolf. I had all of my mate now. My heart swelled with a different magic. Love was so much more powerful than any change.
Chapter Sixteen
Sure we were on the run, and we had probably scared all the animals out of the woods for a good hundred-yard radius, but a girl gets at least five minutes of cuddle time. I was lying across his chest. My head was tucked beneath his chin, and he stroked my back. Even if I weren’t part wolf, I would have loved this petting.
“So…do you have a plan, or did you just want to go out in an epic fashion?”
“If we are going to die, this is definitely the way I want to go, but no, I don’t plan on letting them slice your brain open to get at the miasma. We are heading to my Pack.”
“My Family will come for me. Do you want to bring them there? We could be starting the war that we were trying to avoid.”
Yeah. I never said my plan was without flaws. Part of me felt like I was running home to Daddy, but I wasn’t going looking for protection. I had a plan. As asinine as it was, I was going to ask for Doc’s help to change me. If there was anyone who could figure this crap out with me, or comfort me if it went horribly wrong, it was Doc. I told Jake about my idea. He wasn’t jumping up and down with joy at my brilliance.
“Turning you was to help you join my Family. If you remember, my father seemed to prefer you dead and skinned alive. ”
“All this talk about using me for a wolf-skin rug is the signal I was looking for to get dressed.” I found our duffle and tossed on some clothes. Jake followed my lead.
“We’ll walk from here. It’s not far. What I have planned is not ideal, but it just might work.”
My mate happened to be a silent walker. This was good. My brain was jumping neural pathways like a jackrabbit on speed. I knew that we were no Romeo and Juliet, but it looked like we were going to have just as epic an amount of bloodshed. I didn’t understand why the feud would continue with our mating. If anything, something as sacred as the mating call should have brought us all together.
I’m no expert on the practice of starting a new Pack, but the Matheo should have been congratulating us, not calling for my head. Yes, we had a rough history, but my father had his retribution, and no other deaths or fights had occurred since. Why the animosity?
Vampires were steeped in tradition too. I didn’t know much about their specifics, but every supernatural sect had some pretty strict law enforcement. Eye for an eye didn’t even begin to cover it. No matter the infraction, once both sides agreed to a suitable punishment or payment, they let it go. Day-to-day life is deadly at times, but it’s not like we can turn to the human police force for times like this.
“Is there a reason besides the treaty that my father-in-law wants my ass?”
Jake was trying not to smile.
Right
. My ass.
Hornball
.
“I have no idea why the treaty is still active. We follow agreements of this type much as you werewolves. The fact that the treaty was formed between species should make no difference.” It was scary how close Jake was to my own train of thought. His eyes dipped to my cleavage. The sexy part of the connection worked for me though.