I shook the hands of the rest behind Markus. There was Brent, who looked like he was seventeen and belonged behind the counter of a record store. Then there was Dave, who was wearing a mechanic’s grease stained shirt. He looked to be in his late twenties with his deep brown hair under a baseball cap. Finally there was Nora. Nora was a Goth girl and Brent’s fraternal twin sister. I raised an eyebrow at William at that and he just smiled like a sphinx.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” I said after all the introductions had been made. Well, except for Sharon, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud. I went back to William who placed his hands on my shoulders, kneading between them gently which did nothing to dissipate my nerves.
“Really William? A
Hunter?
” Sharon asked after a protracted silence. The others with her turned and the looks weren’t all entirely friendly.
“A Hunter’s
daughter
,” William snapped. “Who had no idea what her father really was or what he did.”
“How about we all just have a sit and let William explain? How does that sound?” Markus said and it was probably the most reasonable suggestion made thus far, except for it wasn’t exactly a suggestion. Not the way he said it. Nope, no and no. Though he spoke the words the tone he used made me want to snap to attention and be the first person with their ass planted in a seat, listening attentively.
I let William guide me to the large living room with a couch and some recliners, easily able to seat a dozen comfortably. He dropped down onto one end of the couch and pulled me into his lap. I went gratefully, folding myself against him. He wrapped one arm around my waist, the other he settled across the tops of my thighs, palming the outside of my right one, squeezing gently, a reassuring touch. I soaked in his warmth and resisted the urge to kiss him.
I felt calmer, when he held me like this. It felt like, in such a short time, William had become my only constant, my only shelter while the whole world went topsy-turvy around me. He spoke and the people around us listened. Expressions went from curious, to somber, to outraged, to grim.
“She’s The Hangman’s
daughter
.
Do you honestly expect anyone to believe her?” Sharon asked disgusted after he finished explaining how I got my dad to cop to killing their Alpha. I perked up slightly when she called him the Hangman. What was that about? Now obviously wasn’t the time to ask but I made a mental note to grill William about it later.
“Do
you?
” I asked her, meeting her light hazel eyes with my own.
She huffed out a sigh, “Yes,” she growled as if it was the most painful thing she had ever been forced to admit. “I don’t smell any lie coming off of you. I always knew that Romulus and Remus were power hungry, but
patricide
?
I never thought they would go that far.”
“Trouble is proving it. Chloe’s word isn’t going to be enough.” Markus rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “There’s a lot of support for Romulus becoming Alpha, Boy. He’s strong, he has his brother for Beta and Lucinda–” Nora scoffed and turned her head to the side, staring out the window into the dark.
“That power hungry cunt,” she said bitterly.
Okay. No love lost there, obviously. Sharon looked Nora over and nodded her agreement with the assessment.
“That may be, but I don’t see any other female Pack member challenging her for Alpha Bitch,” Markus remarked dryly. William pulled me down to him, placing his lips against my temple, he closed his eyes and breathed me in for a moment, pressing a kiss to the side of my head before letting me straighten again.
Everyone present stared at him with gross fascination which made me blush hotly. I mean, they were
really
staring, like we’d just done a new and interesting trick.
“Pack meets tomorrow. Unofficial like, the full moon ain’t until two weeks from now. Best shot you have at swaying them for the Full Moon Council is then. After that it’s up to the Pack as a whole.”
“I don’t like this,” I whispered and searched William’s face.
“Don’t have to like it, Darlin’. This is just how it is,” Markus remarked. I nodded silently. I mean, what could I say? This was William’s world, and while I’d been forced to leave mine behind, there was no telling where my future was going to lie, not now. I certainly didn’t have a place here.
“Any idea who else might still be in my camp?” William was asking, but my eyes were skating across the mistrustful looks that were being cast in my direction.
Markus was in the middle of speaking when I suddenly got to my feet and William let me, slightly surprised by my leaving his embrace. “Excuse me please,” I said politely, “I have a lot to think about.” I left them to their wolf-kind political machinations and slipped through the door and into the Library.
I didn’t know where else to go. Behind me I heard Nora hissing quietly, probably to Brent, “William doesn’t let anyone in there.”
“Don’t exaggerate,” William chided her and their voices faded to a muted background noise as I climbed the stairs to the tower. “No wonder he’s in such good shape,” I muttered. “These stairs’ll kill yah if you don’t get stronger.”
I climbed up on the bed and hugged a pillow to my chest and stared off into space. From the foot of the bed, half way between me and the far wall stood a large telescope pointing up at the blank, windowless ceiling. I looked around for a moment but I didn’t see any windows of a size that would make a telescope useful up here when my eye landed on a length of chain hanging from the ceiling. It was a pull system. The chain ran around a wheel set into the floor and up to the ceiling above. A tug on one side of the chain revealed nothing so I pulled on the other and gasped as a crack appeared in the roof. I pulled again, and kept pulling, hand over hand as the roof slid back almost silently on a hidden track until it was a wide opened door, revealing the night sky in all its brilliance. The true purpose of the tower finally becoming clear.
It was an observatory.
With the roof opened up, the air coming in was a bit chilled so I sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped myself in a blanket, unwilling to close off the view yet. I thought about a lot of things. My dad, William, his Pack, my life up to this point, and what would happen after tomorrow… still, what hit me hardest, I mean literally right between the eyes was the fact that the only thing left out of all that damn thinking to make me tear up, to make me want to sob like a little girl, was the thought of leaving William.
My tears did spill over then, hot and salty slick down my face and though I didn’t make a sound, William was there, kneeling by the bed, his warm gaze so full of tenderness pinning mine in place. Cool moonlight washed over us, drenching everything in a liquid silver radiance. He sighed and raked his hands through his hair, holding it back from his face, to the back of his neck. He bowed his head, pulling on his neck with his hands to ease the tension there as he huffed out a frustrated sigh. I reached out and cupped the side of his face with my hand and he looked up.
“Just make me forget for a little while… I’m so tired and I don’t want to think about anything but you. Fuck those people. Fuck your brothers, and my father, and this whole screwed up mess, just for a couple of hours,” I said and sniffed.
William closed his eyes and pressed his palm to the back of my hand. He turned his head, pressing his lips into my palm, breathing me in and nodded as if he had made some kind of decision. He pressed a kiss to my palm again, once, twice, and drew back to look at me.
“Okay, Sugar. I can do that,” he said, voice gentle yet low and intense. He stood and discarded his jeans, the moonlight causing deep shadows to play across the lines of his body. I set the pillow aside and he gripped the hem of his tee, whisking it off over my head, leaving us both completely naked.
“Lay on your stomach,” he commanded softly and I was so tired, I didn’t argue. I lay on my stomach and William straddled the backs of my thighs. He pressed his palms into my back and applied gentle pressure until the bones popped quietly into place and the muscles gave a delicious little stretch that had me sighing out, groaning in relief. The heat of his body against mine and the cool breeze blowing across our flesh created a sensational counterpoint that put my body into a relaxed and floating state of euphoria.
“I’m so sorry, Chloe…”
“I don’t want to talk about it, William,” I said and winced at how sharp it sounded, “Please, it will be there tomorrow. I just want this, right here and now, with you. Just you, just me, no more visitors or guests. Can I please just have that?” I asked and I hated how I sounded like I was begging.
“They’re gone, Sugar,” he bent over me and planted a gentle kiss to the back of my shoulder, “It’s just you and me.”
I closed my eyes and relaxed under the heat of his body against mine, protected, safe in his embrace. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted and I knew it. William did too I think. He massaged my back until I was limp and almost drowsing beneath him before he nudged my legs apart with one knee.
I went to push myself up, but a gentle palm between my shoulder blades pressed me back to the mattress. He leaned over the top of me and sought my entrance with the head of his cock. I was more than ready to have him inside me. I ached for it, I wanted nothing more than to be as close to him as possible. I was well aware that these stolen moments were growing fewer and that I may not be able to stay with him or him with me. The future was such a convoluted mess of secret organizations, political dealings and an utter cluster fuck of race wars… God! I resolutely shoved those thoughts from my mind as William slid into me, making me groan, my hips raising off the bed ever so slightly to meet his gentle thrust. And there it was. With William inside me we were very nearly as physically close as it was possible for two people to be. And I needed that. I needed to feel close to him to feel filled by him.
His palms found the backs of my hands, his fingers laced between mine and he held them to the mattress and let his hips do all the work.
“William!” His name spilled from my lips, an impassioned plea for him to never let me go and he moaned, a tortured indecisive sound. I cried out, “Oh!” as he rode over that sensitive place inside me, his thrusting causing just the right amount of friction against that sensitive bundle of nerves against the covers.
My body grew weighted with that sense of impending orgasm and I squeezed my pussy tight, down around him. William gasped and bit the back of my shoulder sending a jolting little thrill through my body.
“Oh God! Oh Yes!” I gasped desperately. I wanted him to. I could deal with forever tomorrow, but I wanted him to so badly. He growled, a passion filled, yet frustrated sound and I bit my bottom lip.
“Please? Oh God, please William!” He bit down harder and I screamed as the wave of orgasm swamped me, pulling me under, rolling me so completely that up became down, left became right, and night became day, as wild starbursts of white hot light went off behind my tightly shut eyelids.
I lay panting on my stomach, William a warm weight pressing me into the covers. He groaned and rolled off to the side of me, slipping from my body. I pushed myself into a sitting position slowly, my left shoulder where it curved up into my neck giving an angry throb. I looked at William who was looking at me, deathly pale. Panic in his eyes, a dot of crimson on his bottom lip. I touched my shoulder and neck and looked at my fingertips which were stained with a bit more of my blood.
“Oh shit, oh Chloe…” he looked so afraid and I didn’t want him to be, I wanted him to know that I accepted this. I understood, I looked at William who looked at me with an expression that was half drunk and half dazed. I scooted across the bed closer to him, and reached for him, capturing his face between my hands.
I kissed him then and sweet copper pennies exploded across my tongue. Beneath that, the pure masculine taste of William. He froze for a moment then crushed me to him as I kissed my hearts blood from his lips and drank his insecurities. I loved him. It was terrifying and things were so uncertain and I quailed when it came to saying the words aloud and so I let my body do the talking. It could speak for me when I feared my voice would only betray me. I was so afraid, afraid for William, for myself, and for what all of this would mean and I didn’t want him to think I feared him. Because I didn’t. Because I couldn’t. Because there, bathed in moonlight and held in his embrace I knew that I loved him, and I didn’t even know how it’d happened.
Chapter 13
William
I’m sure my eyes were ridiculously wide. They certainly felt like it. My heart was pounding so hard and so fast in my chest that I couldn’t get my breath. I felt like I was having a heart attack.
Could I even have a heart attack?
Was that even possible for one of us?
A stroke perhaps?
Then she kissed me, and some of the terror fled from my body. There was a fervent desire in her kiss. A passion that hadn’t been as prominent before. She was always passionate, but that kiss just seemed different, stronger, more sure than any before it.
We made love again and after, she fell asleep, tangled in my arms with her head resting comfortably on my chest, the blankets drawn over us to ward off the chill. I had tried to get up to close the ceiling but she had refused, watching the stars from her place on my chest until her eyes had grown too heavy and she’d fallen asleep. I’d found sleep to be a far more elusive thing. Wolf-kind mating with a person still human wasn’t
unheard of
.
It just wasn’t exceptionally common. But still, it
did
happen. The problem was, I honestly hadn’t paid that much attention when the Betas went over the lessons on the mating bite. I needed to talk to someone. I was going to lose my mind if I didn’t, and so I carefully extracted myself from beneath Chloe.