He caught her between her legs with his palm and she groaned as he massaged her. But his own need, with the smell of her blood in his nostrils, ramped up and he did his own unzipping.
Once he had his slacks below his ass, he backed her up to a tree but kept one arm behind her to cushion her. He lifted her hips with his free hand and she quickly wrapped her legs around his waist. When he guided his already stiff cock to her entrance and began to push inside, she groaned heavily.
He’d never been so out-of-control, so heated up in his life as he began to pump steadily.
Hannah was panting, her well gripping him and pulling on him, her need as profound as his own.
The smell of her blood, laced with the sweet scent of roses and the rich scent of the seashore, had him nuzzling her neck, licking up her vein.
“Jude, drink from me. My heart is full, ready for you.”
He could feel that her supply had almost doubled and all because of Malik.
Some dark part of his brain filled with rage toward Malik that he’d been so close to Hannah, another mastyr ready to take his fill.
He pumped faster and deeper, needing Hannah to feel him and to know she belonged to him and to no other man. His mating frequency shot forward as well and penetrated her body, seeking her frequency. Finding it, he wrapped her up.
Take me, Jude. Help me. Take me.
Her desperation fueled him.
He angled his head and struck her vein, hitting the right depth. He then formed a seal around the wounds with his mouth and began to suck.
You’re mine, Hannah. You don’t belong to anyone else. You’re never to feed anyone else, share your body, or your mating frequency.
She panted as she gripped his shirt, tearing at it, forcing the buttons to pop until she could push the fabric away and dig her nails into his shoulders.
I’m yours, Jude. I don’t want anyone else. I’m yours, make me yours.
He drank deeply for several minutes, holding his orgasm off. Waiting was damn hard, but he wanted to finish his feeding before he brought her to a climax.
She whimpered, as though in agony, but she panted throughout and didn’t urge him.
When he’d had his fill and her heart had returned to normal, he drew back to look into passion-filled, violet eyes. He braced one arm on the tree above her head and as her legs gripped his waist, he began the push to the end.
He thrust with deep curls of his hips so that he could hit her just right. She held his gaze and he could sense her passion rising higher and higher until she was gasping for breath. “Jude, I’m ready.”
He added a vibration to his cock, which made her gasp, then speeded up his thrusts. Her mouth opened and he quickly covered her lips with his hand.
You can scream against my palm.
She let loose, and her body writhed against his as he pumped into her. Her orgasm put a fire deep in his sac, and the next moment, his release exploded through his cock, a lightning streak of pleasure so profound that he couldn’t contain the roar. Hannah was his woman. He was marking her. She belonged only to him.
He kept roaring and Hannah screamed and cried out against his palm as ecstasy took him into the world beyond.
After a long moment, his body settled down and Hannah no longer panted.
But all was not well with her. He could feel it in his bones.
When he released her mating frequency, she uttered an unhappy, “Thank God for that.”
He didn’t know what exactly was wrong until she looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Jude, I don’t want this to be my life. I mean, I love having sex with you, but this is all too much. I was driven toward Malik the way I’ve been driven toward you. This isn’t right, it isn’t fair and it isn’t what I want.”
She pushed at his shoulders.
“Hold on for just a minute.” He took off his torn shirt and as he eased out of her, he pressed his shirt between her legs. “I’m sorry, Hannah. I asked Malik to come to the orchard thinking you’d be well away from him. But I forgot to tell you he was coming. It didn’t occur to me that you’d sense his presence and seek him out. This is my fault and I’m sorry.”
Her shoulders drooped. “I think you missed my point. Jude, I absolutely hate not having control of my own life, my own destiny. And I want to go home. Now.”
Chapter Seven
Hannah flew with Jude back in the direction of Port Townsend. He now wore his Guard uniform and frowned heavily. He wasn’t a happy camper, but right now she didn’t care.
After changing her clothes and packing up her things, she’d asked that he return her to the Gold Rush so that she could get back to her life. She was done with this horrible, sick situation. He’d just have to figure out some way of dealing with Margetta and her mist by himself. As for other mastyr vampires, Jude had better get his shit together and figure out how he and his men could keep her safe.
She was done.
She had her arm around his neck, but wished she didn’t have to be so close to him.
The recent experience when she lost complete control of her will in facing Malik had thrown all her feel-good up into the air. She’d spoken exactly right when she’d said she hated not having control of her own destiny. But driven as she’d been toward Malik, made her distrust everything about her current experience with Jude. How true were any of her emotions right now, or his? If they completed the blood-rose bond, would they suddenly discover they’d been tricked into a long-term relationship that neither of them really wanted?
If she understood the process, based on what the women on the loop said, once that bond was completed it would be permanent. And right now the only advantage she could see in having their mating vibrations lock into place, was ending forever her desire for other mastyr vampires or their drive toward her.
Big fucking deal.
She knew she wasn’t entirely rational, but she was enraged by what had happened. She’d finally awakened to the reality that if she continued down this path, she’d bond with Jude just out of a desperate need to keep other mastyrs away from her.
All her options appeared to be gone.
Hannah, we can figure this out for you. I don’t care about how this affects me, or having my blood-needs met. But I do care that you feel as though you’ve been stripped of your choices. What can I do to make this right?
Is that your phone ringing?
she asked.
Yes, but I’m not going to answer it.
He slowed his speed down.
Talk to me Hannah. Please. You’re important to me on so many levels. You’re my friend and I care about you. I know you didn’t ask for this, but …
You’re thinking about Margetta.
Hannah, we need you right now. At least until we get the mist thing figured out. I’ve put some of my best fae on the problem, and Vojalie said she would contact the Sidhe Council to see if a spell might be concocted to counter the mist’s effects. This difficult situation is just temporary, but we need to stick together.
His words had a calming effect and she started to relax. She knew she was overreacting, but the events of the past two days had started taking a toll, and she didn’t know just how much more she could take. She liked Mastyr Malik and knew him well because Jude had brought him to the Gold Rush at least a dozen times over the past couple of years. And she was completely embarrassed by her conduct and distressed that she’d caused Malik to feel an inappropriate drive toward her.
If he hadn’t kept her away with a low setting of his battle frequency, she would have climbed all over him and begged him to feed.
And do other things.
Her cheeks grew hot and uncomfortable as she thought about it.
As Jude drew close to the access point, the guards waved them through. The tunnel of mist that made up the connecting point between worlds appeared and Jude flew them straight in.
But as they emerged from the mist tunnel, and Port Townsend came into view, Hannah gave a cry. A terrible black plume of smoke rose near the docks. “Jude, hurry. I have the worst feeling.”
By the time they’d crossed half the distance over the Sound, Hannah felt her heart sink into her stomach. “The Gold Rush is on fire.”
Once they were fifty yards away, Hannah asked Jude to remain in the air so she could see what was going on. She fished her phone from her pocket and realized she’d turned the ringer off and now had a dozen messages from Amelia and Sandy, no doubt telling her about the fire.
She couldn’t believe what was happening. The blaze engulfed the entire building. Though two fire trucks sprayed massive amounts of water on the site, the building was too far gone for anything to be salvaged.
Her throat felt like she wore a noose.
But there was one thing she needed to know.
She called Amelia. The tough-as-nails woman who never cried could barely control her emotions as she spoke. “Hannah, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. The smoke alarms went off then the automatic sprinklers. Everyone was racing to get outside not so much because of the fire, but because of the sprinklers. No one got hurt, thank God, but the fire spread so fast.”
“Did everyone get out?”
“I think so.” She took a moment to blow her nose. “All the staff, for sure. And I ran through the entire building, checking bathroom stalls, the supply closets, the bunkroom, everywhere that I could think of. By then, the fire just kept getting stronger even though the water was pouring all over everything. Hannah, even if the fire hadn’t destroyed most of your stuff, the water has done so much damage. I’m sick. I’m just so sick.
“The Fire Marshall is pretty sure it was arson. By his guess, someone poured accelerant all around the outside of the building. He can’t account for a sudden, engulfing blaze otherwise. But there will be an investigation. He even asked if you had enemies.”
Did she have enemies? Just one major piece-of-work that moved with a beautiful golden light and created mist from her limbs. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was behind this blatant attack on her. But what did Margetta hope to gain by burning down the Gold Rush? It was just a bar. A human bar.
And it was really important to Hannah.
Maybe that was the point. Margetta had hit her where it hurt.
“Where are you?” Hannah asked, searching the crowd below. Needless to say, people had come from all over to witness what for most would probably be a once in a lifetime event. “I’m in the air with Mastyr Jude. Wave if you can.”
“Okay, I’m waving.”
The police cars at the scene had taped off a long section around the building to keep the people back, so it took a few seconds to finally see Amelia flipping her arm back and forth. Somehow it eased her to see her manager waving. “I see you. I’ll join you in a minute.”
Still holding Jude’s neck, she shoved her phone back into her pocket.
~ ~ ~
Jude felt something important slipping away from him so fast that his brain scrambled. It had been such a long time since he’d been this close to a woman that he’d honestly forgotten how to function, how to think in terms of her, how to react.
Despite the fact that in his gut he knew he was doing the wrong thing, he did it anyway and pulled Hannah close. “I can’t let you go. You have to stay with me. At least for now.”
She pulled her arm from around his neck. “I need to be with my people. Their lives have been turned upside down. My entire staff. And by the way, Amelia said there was no reason for the fire and that the captain said it was probably arson. Of course we both know who’s behind this. But what I don’t get is why Margetta gives a rat’s ass about the Gold Rush, unless she’s just a vindictive bitch besides being a flaming psychopath. And if I hadn’t had the sprinklers in order, everyone inside would have died. You have to let me go.”
Her eyes were wild and she started pushing against him. She had no real physical ability to escape his hold, but she pushed anyway. “Hannah, don’t do this.”
“Let me go, Jude, please. Cut me some slack. I just lost my bar.”
“We’ll replace it, Hannah, I promise you. We know who’s at fault here, which is one more reason to stick together right now. Margetta is a psycho but she’s also deliberate in what she does. She had a reason for doing this.”
“Put me down now!”
Jude felt desperate. He didn’t know how to reach Hannah, though he sure as hell didn’t blame her for fighting.
He saw something flash at the corner of his eye. Turning to look, he saw nothing, but he almost lost hold of Hannah, who started slipping down his body. He caught her quickly.
She yelled at him. “What are you doing? You know I can’t fly. You have to lower me to the parking lot.”
“I thought I saw something.”
“You did: My life burned to the ground.”
When he heard the catch in her voice, he realized that tears were rolling down her cheeks.
But another flash distracted him. Yet, once more when he turned to look, nothing was there. What the hell was going on?
“Why are you shifting around in that weird way?”
“Because something realm is here and it’s not good.”
“Just let me go.”
He heard the sadness and the resignation in her voice. He hated that his life had intruded on hers in such a way that she’d lost so much.
“Fine, but let me come with you.”
He descended slowly, dropping down between a row of cars. But as soon as he released her, she sprinted away. He followed swiftly after, but just like that three wraith-pairs appeared in front of him, cutting him off.
“Hannah!” he shouted, knowing full-well that the burning of the Gold Rush was just a ploy and that she was in danger. But she didn’t respond.
The Invictus began releasing red streaks of battle energy, so that he had no way to get to Hannah except through them. He raised his blue energy shield, which when struck by the wraith-pairs’ energy, deflected and started bouncing off cars, making a fireworks show out of the parking lot.
He switched to battle mode and focused only on the work that needed to be done in front of him. If he worked fast, maybe he could reach Hannah before anything happened to her.
He geared up and sent energy bursts in quick succession that struck the wraiths and their mates. Two pair fell prone immediately.