Dancer's Heart (16 page)

Chapter 12

Dani blinked at the bright morning light when
she awoke as Adam carried her from the SUV toward their home. She
hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but she’d found it impossible to stay
awake after the stress of her kidnapping. Jeremiah walked ahead of
them and opened the front door. She yawned, and Adam whispered,
“Let me put Dani to bed and I’ll be right back.”

She hugged her arms around his neck a little
tighter and chuckled. “Aren’t you supposed to stay with me if you
put me to bed?”

“You need to rest, and I have to talk to
Jeremiah about a few things.”

She couldn’t keep from yawning again. “Okay.
But you have to promise to join me as soon as you can.”

“As if I could stay away from you long,” he
murmured as he lowered her to the bed and began to gently strip her
out of the clothes the herd had given her. “I hope you don’t mind,
but I’m going to get rid of these things.”

“That’s fine with me.”

He pulled the blankets over her and pressed a
kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”

She thought she wouldn’t be able to go back
to sleep, but she had no trouble slipping back into a deep slumber,
nestled in her mate’s warm bed. When she woke several hours later,
Adam was lying next to her, one arm around her and one bent behind
his head as he stared at the ceiling. She snuggled closer, rubbing
her cheek against his shoulder.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

His hand tightened on her shoulder.
“Malachi’s security company is in the backyard putting in safety
measures. I’ve been listening to them for the last few hours.”

“Are you mad?” She went up on her elbow and
looked down at him.

“Of course not. I’m just disappointed that it
never occurred to me to do it in the first place. If I’d had
perimeter alarms or motion lights, or if I’d even thought for a
heartbeat that
he
would be so callous as to turn you over to
save his own neck, I would’ve done more, and you never would have
been taken.”

“We can spend all our time worrying about
what we could have done differently, but the truth is it’s in the
past. I know you were terrified for me, and I was scared, too, but
they didn’t hurt me. It could have been so much worse than it was.
You came for me.”

He stared at her intently. “I love you.”

“I know. I can feel it all the way deep
inside of me. I love you, too.”

He got up from the bed and scooped her into
his arms. She giggled in surprise and threw her arms around his
neck and kissed the space under his ear. “Where are we going?”

“Shower.”

She hummed. “Together?”

“Of course.”

He set her on the counter and turned, pushing
the shower curtain aside. He bent to turn on the water, and she
smiled at his cute butt. At the moment it was encased in black
boxer briefs, but she still thought it was really sexy. She’d never
really thought much about butts before, but Adam’s was great. He
looked over his shoulder at her, one hand testing the spray.

“See something you like?” he asked, his voice
a deep rumble.

“I like everything I see.”

He straightened, and she could see his
erection through the thin material of his briefs. She was naked,
and the air in the bathroom was cool. Her nipples pebbled, but it
had nothing to do with the temperature. He closed the distance
between them, pushing her thighs apart roughly and then tugging her
against him with a growl. She lifted her face to him, anxious to
feel his mouth against hers, and he didn’t make her wait. Their
lips met and parted, their tongues tangling in a heated dance that
made her shiver with anticipation. She slid her hands down his back
to the waistband of his briefs, and pushed down on them until she
could free his erection.

He smiled against her mouth and nipped at her
lower lip. He pulled from her and cupped her face, his gaze
serious. “Are you sure?”

“About what?”

“We don’t have to do anything right now.”

Grasping his erection, she stroked his thick
length slowly. His eyes narrowed, and he growled softly. “This begs
to differ,” she teased.

“Dani,” he said roughly.

She stopped stroking him and grasped his
hips. “I know we don’t have to make love right now, but I want to.
We were supposed to run around in the yard last night and then make
love until dawn. I feel cheated by what happened. We need to
celebrate that we’re safe and together and no one is going to
separate us again.” She kissed his lips and then trailed kisses
down his chest, lightly biting his nipple. “Remind me why having a
wolf truemate is so awesome.”

She flicked her gaze up at him, and he gave
her a look hot enough to melt her panties, if she’d been wearing
any. He slid his hands up her thighs and then jerked her forward on
the counter until her pussy was bare inches from his cock. She
skimmed her hands up his back and tipped her face up for a kiss.
When their lips met, he growled possessively and spread her pussy
lips apart with one hand and began to lightly rub her exposed clit
with his thumb.

She moaned into his mouth, her hands
tightening on his hips. She tried to pull him forward so he could
enter her while he played with her clit, but he remained immobile,
holding himself away from her while he rubbed and flicked, driving
her wild.

Her pussy clenched and her belly fluttered as
he worked her, moving rapidly until she was hovering on the edge
and then easing away. Her body throbbed with need.

“Adam,” she whimpered, pressing her forehead
against his chest.

He teased the opening of her pussy with two
fingers. “So wet. I love how your body responds to me.”

Her nails dug into his flesh, and she gazed
up at him as he slid two fingers into her. She gasped. “Only
you.”

He snarled possessively. “Mine.”

She moved her hips, wiggling on the counter
as he began to fuck her with his fingers. His thumb latched onto
her clit, and he placed his hand on her lower back and held her in
place while he fingered her.

Letting her head drop back, she gave herself
over to the pleasure that coursed through her. Adam was done
teasing her, his body tense as he pushed her toward climax with his
fingers. Heat pulsed through her, and she screamed his name as her
body gripped his fingers and she came.

His cock replaced his fingers, sliding into
her pussy as he lifted her from the counter and turned, pressing
her against the wall. His arm protected her back as he began to
pound into her, his face buried in her throat as his teeth latched
onto her flesh. A growl vibrated in his chest as he took her, and
she hung on for the ride. She closed her eyes and lost herself in
the pleasure he gave her, pushing her further and higher, until
heat crescendoed inside her and she cried out again.

He bit down on her neck and she shuddered as
another spike of pleasure pulsed through her. Lifting from her, he
shouted her name as he came, his cock thickening inside her as he
rocked into her once more and held her tightly.

She went limp, resting her head on his
shoulder. Her heart was racing, and her limbs felt like jelly. “I
love what you do to me, how we are together.”

“Me too, sweetheart.”

Nuzzling her neck, he kissed the mark he’d
made and then carried her to the shower. They were still locked
together when he stepped under the spray, which had long since gone
cold. She curled her toes with a gasp as the icy water hit her.

“Sorry baby,” he said with a chuckle as he
eased her away from him and she put her feet on the ground. “We’ll
have to shower fast.”

“And maybe invest in a bigger hot water
tank.”

“If I’d had any blood left in my brain, I
might have turned the shower off before we played.”

She ducked under the showerhead, biting back
a squeal at the frigid water. After washing as quickly as she
could, she hopped out and grabbed two towels.

“Brr,” Adam said as he shoved the faucet off
with a little more force than necessary. Dani smiled, her teeth
chattering as she handed him the other towel.

When they’d dried off, they dressed and
walked into the family room. She prepared hot chocolate with lots
of marshmallows while he made a fire in the fireplace. She carried
the mugs over to the coffee table in front of the fireplace and set
them down, settling onto the couch and watching him stare intently
into the flames.

“Fire used to bother me,” he said. “For
years, actually. Even the scent of burning wood would make me
panic.”

He stood slowly and rubbed absently at his
thigh. She recognized the motion as something he did when his leg
hurt.

“What did you do?”

“I had a teacher in high school, her name was
Mrs. Gracin. Her husband was a psychiatrist and she brought him to
school to meet with me. The pack doesn’t like it when humans
intervene in wolf affairs, so we kept the meetings a secret.”

He dropped heavily onto the couch next to
Dani and put his arm around her. She wiggled close. “Why wouldn’t
the pack want you to have help? You were very seriously injured
because your father was an asshole.”

He kissed the top of her head. “It’s a wolf
thing, I guess. I saw Doctor Gracin twice a week during my
lunchtime for two years. In the summer, I would call him and we’d
talk on the phone when my dad was gone. Without that help, I think
I would have spent my whole life being afraid of being burned
again.”

She kissed his cheek and hugged him. “I’m
glad your teacher saw that you needed help.”

“You had the bears. Were you ever scared of
losing them the way you’d lost your family and herd?”

She leaned back, resting her head on his arm.
“For a while. The first time Alice shifted to go hunt with the
other females, I panicked. I was so scared she was going to be
killed. Fayar felt bad for me, and he sent some of his best guards
to follow the females. The guards were in their human form and had
rifles. He promised me that they wouldn’t let anyone hurt Alice or
the other females. Row and I stayed in Fayar’s house with his sons
and waited until the females came back. When they were home safe,
Fayar said to me, ‘I told you I’d keep them safe, and I’ll keep you
safe, too, little reindeer.’”

“I’m glad you found them.”

“Sometimes I think about how dangerous it was
and how easily I could have died out in the woods all alone.” She
looked at her mate for a long moment. “Even when I was living with
the bears, I always figured I would someday mate with a reindeer
and have kids, and I’d end up being nomadic like my herd had
been.”

“I wish I could have met your family.”

“Me, too. I know they would have liked
you.”

She leaned forward and picked up their mugs,
handing one to him. The marshmallows had mostly melted, forming a
glossy white surface on the top. “I have a lot of wishes about
things that could have been different about my past and yours, but
I feel like if anything was different we wouldn’t have met. I
wouldn’t trade you for anything.”

He smiled. “I wouldn’t trade you either,
Dani.”

They tipped their mugs together until the
edges clinked. “To fireplaces and hot chocolate.”

“To us and the rest of our lives.”

She took a sip of the hot brew and sighed
happily, leaning against him. It was her turn to stare into the
fire, watching the orange and amber flames as they licked at the
wood. A day earlier, they’d been getting ready for the full moon.
It was hard to believe that so much could have changed in
twenty-four hours. She was glad that some things had changed; she
and Adam were still together, and their bond was even stronger than
it had been before she’d been taken.

Being taken hadn’t made her fear being with
Adam. She knew he cared about her safety. Something out of his
control had happened, but she had no doubt he would make sure
nothing of the sort ever occurred again.

Chapter 13

Later that night, Adam stood outside in the
dark with Malachi and his partner, a human male named Lucian.

Mal held up a tablet and said, “I set this up
for you. It’s synced to your phone and Dani’s, too. We’ve got
perimeter alarms at a quarter mile into the woods surrounding the
house. If someone triggers the silent alarm, a digital camera will
take a ten-second video and e-mail it to you. There are more
cameras one hundred feet into the woods, and some actually on the
fence. If someone triggers the fence cameras, floodlights will
illuminate them as well and an alert will be sent to our company,
as well as me and Lucian.”

“Obviously,” Lucian said, “you’ll want to be
paying attention to any of the alarms. If you see something
suspicious, it’s better to err on the side of caution and call
someone to check it out. Mal said that you weren’t sure if the
people who engineered your mate’s kidnapping were all dead or
not?”

Adam’s gut tightened. “I know there were a
lot of bodies. Whether they represented the entire organization or
whatever bullshit my father was involved in, I’m not sure.” He
looked toward the house. Inside, Dani was making pot roast for
dinner, because she knew it was his favorite meal. He didn’t want
her to be afraid that someone would come for her again.

Lucian cleared his throat, and Adam turned
his attention back to him. “I checked into the reports of what
happened at the park, and according to what the police on the scene
said, it doesn’t seem likely that anyone would be able to connect
you, Dani, or the Wilde Creek Pack to anything that happened there.
The herd torched everything, from the buildings to the grounds.
There wasn’t any evidence left behind except the bodies.”

“That’s probably not a complete relief,” Mal
said.

“It’s better than nothing.”

“Vigilance is the key,” Lucian said. “If you
need anything at all, call me or Mal and we’ll do whatever we can
to make sure you have no trouble keeping your mate safe.”