I was thinking the same thing about you. I just…I love you very much, Slone. With all my heart. And I don’t know what he’ll do. This will devastate him.
He pulled her into his arms as they watched
. I really have no idea how he’s hanging on to her like this. He has never spoken a word to her, never touched her before this, and here he is, on the verge of losing it all.
“Luke, let her go. It was too much on her.” Hunter felt the tears stream down his face when his dad approached the bed. “Come on, son; you tried and she was just too weak. You did all you could for her.”
The low growl made Hunter’s own wolf stir. He was protecting his sire, and Hunter had to work hard to calm him. But when Luke jerked his mouth in her belly and growled again, Jack moaned. His dad moved up closer but never touched either of them. When he cocked his head toward her, he turned to Hunter and smiled.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Hunter started to ask his dad what when he heard it too. Her heart beat was picking up. Not only that, but he could see the burns on her face starting to heal as well. She was going to make it. Christ good Lord, she was going to make it.
After another ten minutes Luke let her go. He never left her side but lay on the bed over her while she continued to improve. Five minutes before the plane was to land, Hunter went to get Allen. She was far enough along now that anyone could see that she was going to wake up and be just fine.
As soon as he opened the door, Allen stood up. He looked like he’d been preparing for the worst. But when he nodded and invited him in the room, Allen sat back down. Hunter sat down beside him. The man had been through just as much as they had, and he was only a human.
“She’s going to be pissed.” Hunter didn’t know the woman, but he was pretty sure her brother was right. She had to have a strong will to have survived what she’d been through in the last few days. “I don’t know what to tell her about this, but I’m taking full responsibility. And Jack always did have a temper that would peel paint off the wall. Now that she’s a wolf….” Allen shivered, and Hunter laughed.
“You saved her life.” Allen shook his head. “Yes, you did. Had you not given Luke permission, he would have had to wait to speak to me before he could convert her. Without permission, he could have been killed by the pack for doing what he did. It’s the law of our kind. You do not convert someone on a whim, nor do you do it without permission. You saved them both by telling him to do it.”
“Would you have been all right with him changing her?” Hunter nodded, but told him he’d have had to get permission from the were council as well. “That would have been too late, wouldn’t it? While—what I’m assuming is as much a governing thing like what I work for is—while we waited for them to answer, she would have died.”
“More than likely, yes. They can take their time on things like this because they need to be sure they’re doing the right thing. In this case it was the only thing, but it would still have taken too long.” Allen sat there for several more seconds until the seatbelt light came on. He buckled in when the rest of them did, and no one mentioned Luke. He wouldn’t leave her until he had to and even then, Hunter doubted he’d do it willingly.
As soon as they had Jack in their home, someone went to the pack house to gather some clothing for Luke. He couldn’t have taken her to his room at the pack house, and Hunter and Slone could help him take care of her. She was going to live, but Jack was a long way from recovered. As Luke settled in the chair next to Jack’s bed, Hunter and Slone moved down to their living room and left the young couple alone.
“She is really strong.” Hunter nodded as he pulled Slone into his lap. “I remember the first time I woke up. I was in the hospital still, but I could swear I could smell every meal they’d served in that room for a year.”
“Me too. I mean I was born a wolf, but after your first shift, things seem to get more everything. Brighter, louder, and even more intense. Dad had to lock me in my room for the first night. I wanted to go out and kill every bug outside.” Slone laughed, and he put his hand over her still flat belly. “I love you.”
“And I’m sort of fond of you too.” Slone snuggled in his arms. “I’m going to help her. She might not care for me at first, I’m betting, but I’m going to help her. She’s the closest thing to a sister I’ve ever had.”
“She’ll love you. What’s not to love?” She snorted. “I love you, so she’ll have to. And while we’re talking about her, I wanted to tell you how much I like her brother too. He could have made it hell on Luke, yet he supported him all the way.”
“They didn’t get along, Jack and Allen. I think it has to do with the dad, but I’m not sure.” Hunter had heard Allen talking on the phone with someone just before they’d gotten on the plane, and it was heated to say the least. “We might want to have him come here to stay for a while too. I’m not sure, but I think it would be safer for him.”
Hunter thought so too and was glad Slone had thought of it. “Luke said he was having some issues with the chief and Emmett Osborne, of Osborne Construction. I think for the time being I’ll keep someone on them as well. I don’t want anyone to get into trouble right now.”
Hunter went to the office and made a few calls. He also had Pete come over when he could. The older man had been there most of his life, and could more than likely tell him of every skeleton in every closet in this town. He said he’d come by for dinner. Just as Hunter hung up, his dad came into the room.
“You think this girl will be like your mate?” Hunter wasn’t sure what he was asking and asked him to clarify. “You know, friendly like Slone. Open to having me around? I know you said I could stay here for my life, but there was just the two of you before. Now there’s another couple here.”
“You think she won’t like you?” That surprised him because Hunter knew that everyone liked his dad. “I think she’ll love you a great deal. Just like Slone does. But I doubt this is a permanent thing. Luke will want his own home with her. But I don’t think they’d be a problem anyway. Why do you ask?”
“She has a daddy.”
Hunter started to tell him that was a stupid reason to think someone wouldn’t like him when it dawned on him. “You think because her and her dad aren’t close she won’t be with you.” His dad shrugged. “Dad, I think she’s going to welcome you into her life in much the same way Slone did. Her relationship with her dad is not going to have any bearing on you and her at all, other than she hates him and not you. Allen likes you.”
“Yeah, and I like the kid too. But Allen said their dad is a real bastard. I’d adopt that boy too if he’d let me. Never have seen a brother do so much without being sure of her love for him.” Hunter had thought of that too. Allen had done a great deal for his sister, and it would more than likely not strengthen their relationship very much at the beginning. He felt sorry for the kid and hoped that he’d be okay.
“I think she’s going to be just fine. She’s going to need some adjustment time, I guess, but she should fit right in with the rest of us. And of all the men in this family, Luke is the most patient of us all. He’ll bring her around.”
“I hope so. But I have a feeling that she’s going to be harder to tame than one of them wild wolves out there in the yard, and a good deal less receptive of Luke. He might have to be a little more…I was going to say firm with her, but I’m thinking he might have to beat her butt a few times to get her attention.”
Hunter stared at his dad. He wanted Luke to beat his mate’s butt? That just didn’t sound like him at all. But when he stood up and moved out of the room, Hunter called him back. His dad turned and asked him what he wanted.
“You don’t mean that. You don’t think that Luke will have to beat his mate to get her to understand…I don’t know what she’d have to understand, but I doubt beating her ass will do it.” His dad shrugged. “Dad?”
“I didn’t say it had to be painful, I just said he had to get her attention. Nothing like a naked bottom on your knees to make a man want to have a woman see reason more than anything.” Hunter flushed and thought of Slone over his knees, and his dad laughed. “See? You’re already thinking about ways to get that little miss of yours to listen to you, aren’t you?”
“I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.” His dad laughed harder and left the room. A few minutes later, Slone came in and she smiled at him.
“Your dad said you needed me for something.” Hunter laughed. “He said it was important. Is it?”
“It is. Come here, wife. I have a desire to bend you over my knee and see how pink I can make that pretty ass of yours.” She stood there for several seconds before she turned back to the door. He thought for sure she was going to leave him when he heard the lock click in place.
“We need to go over this very thoroughly, I think.” He nodded and moved back from the desk. “And when you’re done with my bottom, my nipples could use a little help too. Do you think you could, I don’t know, suckle them until they’re nice and pink too? If we’re going to do some research on this, we should be very detailed.”
When she was within touching distance, he pulled her over his knees. As soon as he had her there, he swatted her ass hard. She squealed but didn’t move off. He smacked her again.
“Stand up and strip for me.” She did as he said, and when she bent at the waist and pulled her pants and panties off, he could see where his hand had connected with her. Christ, his cock felt full enough to explode. Pulling her back to him, he turned her and suckled at her naked breasts as she curled her fingers into his hair. He looked up at her when she jerked him back.
“I’m going to come like this if you keep this up. Wouldn’t you like it better if we were in our nice big bed and you were eating my pussy?” He nodded. “Or you could just take me here.”
Slone sat on his desk and opened her legs for him. Hunter moved his chair closer and buried his mouth over her. When she cried out, he knew that he’d be deep inside of her before long.
“Slone, have I told you lately that I love you?”
She grinned. “Shut up, love, and do me. I’ve a powerful need to bring the house down around your ears.” There was no way he was going to let her go around with that sort of need, and he took her clit into his mouth and bit her. She came, crying out his name.
Hunter decided right then and there that his dad was right. He wasn’t going to tell him of course. His head was big enough. But he’d been right about this.
Chapter 4
Jack felt her body come back to her in small increments. First she felt her fingers, then her hands. By the time she’d made her way to her head, she was turning it to look at what could be weighing her down so much. The top of a head startled her. Then the small laugh to her right had her turning that way. Her eyes seemed to have something wrong with them, because everything seemed to be too…everything.
“Allen?” He nodded but only stared at her. “What are you doing in my room, and who the hell is this?”
The man—because she suddenly had no doubt it was a man—moved. When he stretched out his body over hers, Jack moaned. There was no help for it, she told herself, and she’d been without sex for….
“Where am I? I know this isn’t my house…it burned down.” Allen nodded again. “Do you think you could do something more than act like a fucking bobble head right now? I swear to Christ, I am about two seconds from freaking the fuck out.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Jack looked at the man again when he spoke. She thought maybe she was dead, because there was no way in hell a man like this one would end up in her bed. When he laughed, she had a very real feeling he could read her mind. “Jacklyn, what’s the last thing you remember?”
“It’s Jack, and I remember everything. Except how I ended up in this bed with my brother sitting there staring at me like I have three heads.”
Allen finally spoke and she asked him what he’d said.
“I said, I’m just thrilled to death that you’re not dead. You’ve no idea how close…Christ, Jack, you went into a burning building. What the hell did you think was going to happen?”
“This from a man who continued to do drugs after several of his friends were killed by them. Drove a car stoned when he had just totaled his car the week before.” She felt horrible by what she said the moment he stood up. “Allen, I’m—”
“I’m sure you can handle this from here on out. Right, Luke?” Allen didn’t wait for an answer but left her. She turned to the man, who she was assuming was Luke, when he sat up. Christ holy shit. He didn’t have a shirt on.
“You should know that he’s been sitting in that chair for the last five days just waiting for you to wake up. Never left, only to go to the bathroom. He had his meals brought in here so he’d be close if you needed him.” Luke stood up and stretched again. Jack watched him as every muscle on his body seemed to move with it. When he caught her looking at him, he grinned again. “I could join you in that bed if you’d like. Nothing right now sounds better than to taste every part of you.”
“No.” When she realized how loud she’d been, she cleared her throat and tried again. “No. That won’t be necessary. If you could just tell me how I can get home…well, that’s not going to work. I couldn’t get there even if I had a ride to do it in. And I’m pretty sure my car has been impounded. I sort of left it in the middle of the road. And I’m babbling. If you don’t mind, I’d like to leave now please. I’m not really sure why I’m here but…why am I here?”
“I brought you here. It was easier for me to take care of you here rather than in a hospital. You never answered me. What’s the last thing you remember?” She closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted. He asked her if she was all right.
“Just peachy. The last thing I remember…my apartment was covered in smoke and there were firefighters everywhere. I don’t know…I got inside because I wanted to see if I could save some of my things. I don’t have a lot…well, less now, but I didn’t have a lot and I didn’t really want to lose any of it.” She looked up at him. “There as a man on the steps as I was going up. He had blood on his shirt and…he was breathing but not awake. I pulled him down two flights of stairs before someone came and got him. Another firefighter. He was going to take me but leave him and I couldn’t have that. Not for me.”
“He would have died without your help. The other firefighters were already out of the building and hadn’t been able to find him. The man who went in to get you had to go against his commander’s orders to find his friend. He said he thought he saw someone go in and he had to check. It was you he saw, and you led him right to his friend.” She waited for him to tell her that she was stupid for going in, but he only sat in the chair that Allen had been in. “What else?”
“He picked me up. The second one, he’d picked me up, but I couldn’t leave the hurt guy there. So I made him carry him instead of me. I was supposed to hold onto his belt or something. But I couldn’t for….” When Luke laughed, she glared at him. “He was just going to leave him there to die. After I’d carried him all by myself down those stairs, he was fucking going to live.”
“He did. Dave Patrick is his name. He and his wife are expecting their first child in a few weeks. When he was coming down the stairs, he was hit by a beam that had fallen from the upper floors. He never knew what happened until a few days later, when he was told you saved his life. Needless to say, he’s very grateful that you decided to be stupid.” She wanted to take offense to him calling her stupid, but she’d done enough calling herself that when she’d been in the house. “You hit your head.”
“Yes. When…I’m not sure if I fell and hit my head or I hit my head and fell. I was pretty dizzy by then and couldn’t really think very well, much less breathe.” She took a deep breath and smiled. “I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought, right?”
When he leaned back in the chair, she had a feeling he was keeping something from her. And as much as she hated secrets, she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know whatever it was right now. If ever. When he didn’t tell her, she felt her body tense up more for some reason. Jack wanted to run, get far away from him and whatever he had to say right now.
“Your lungs were burnt badly. They had you on a machine that helped you breathe, but you’d done so much damage to your lungs that they were beginning to shut down. All of your body was fighting just to help your breathing. Basically, you were not breathing on your own at all, and you were suffering from it.” She nodded, very afraid. “The rest of your body was being used up because it was working so hard to keep oxygen flowing to your brain. When we got to the hospital, you were given less than a five-percent chance of surviving.”
“Yet here I am.” He nodded. “Why do I have the feeling that you know something I need to know? I’m not saying I want to know, just that you know it.” She was babbling again and tried to slow her brain down, but all sorts of things were popping in and out, like a skipping record.
“I do. I’m just not sure how to tell you. If we hadn’t done what we did, you’d be dead, not sitting there looking like sex on a stick on my bed.” She shifted under the blanket and realized she was naked. “Yes, you are naked. As you know, all your things were burned up.”
“Nobody had a shirt they could put on me?” She looked around the room slightly panicky, and he stood up. “Just don’t touch me right now. I feel…I feel like one of those plants that dies if you touch it. Not a good way to put it, but right now I’m sort of…is it really loud in here? And bright? Is it really, really bright in here?” Her breathing seemed to be caught somewhere between her lungs and her nose. Nothing was moving; she was becoming really light-headed. Then suddenly her head was down and he was talking to her.
“Take a deep breath.” He lifted her chin up to stare into her eyes. She was still trying to figure out how he’d gotten across the room so fast when he told her to breathe again.
“I’m fucking breathing. In fact, I swear I can hear your heart beating. Fuck, I’m stressing out here.” She could feel her head begin to spin again, and she knew that she was losing it. Suddenly his mouth was taking hers.
The kiss…it was the best kiss she’d ever tasted, but the kiss was making her think things she’d not thought of in months, maybe even years. When he ran his tongue over her lips, she opened to let him in and grabbed his arms. He was devouring her. When he lifted his head, just a few scant inches from her, he looked down at her with the most amazing eyes. Jack wanted to moan, wanted to beg him to continue, but she could only stare at him.
“You taste delicious.” She nodded and licked her lips to taste him there. “Jacklyn, I want to kiss you again. Would you mind?”
“No.” Before she could form the rest of the sentence, like “but it’s not a good idea,” he was taking her again. This time it wasn’t gentle or even soft, but a kiss that made her think he was hungry and she was the entire menu. Her back touched the pillow, and she felt him settle over her. Jack ran her hands down his back and felt his muscles ripple under her fingertips. He moaned when she dug her nails into him. Christ, the man was like holding onto a live wire.
“I want you.” She wanted him as well and moaned when he cupped her breast. “I want to suckle you. I want to drink from you until you fill me with your cream.”
It was all sounding great to her and she shifted beneath him to have him between her thighs. The moment his thick cock touched her clit, she cried out against his mouth as a small yet powerful climax left her wanting more. A great deal more.
“Please. I need you.” He growled at her and she pulled him back to her breast. “Make me come again. I need it desperately. I need to come, please?”
He moved down her body, and she wanted to sob. He was leaving her, and she needed something from him. When the blankets were pulled off her, she looked down at him as he lifted her leg up to his mouth. The moment he licked her calf, Jack laid back and closed her eyes.
“Watch me, Jacklyn. I want you to watch me while I feast on you.” She lifted her body up enough to rest on her elbows. Christ, he was so close to her pussy that she lifted her hips up for him to take her. “Tell me what you want.”
“Eat me.” He nodded and ran his fingers over her hips. “You’re killing me. Just do it so I can come. I’ve not had sex in an extremely long time, and right now I could slide my fingers in me and get off, but I have a feeling you’re going to be much better. Will you show me? Please?”
Luke lay down between her legs again and she watched him. When he lowered his head to her pussy, she felt her entire body tense for what he was going to do. The moment he licked her clit, ran his tongue deep into her nether lips, Jack cried out another quick release that had her panting and begging him again.
Luke pulled her thighs wider apart and covered her entire pussy with his mouth. He ate at her like it was his last meal. Jack felt her climax rise again and curled her fingers into his hair to hold him to her when she did. When his fingers slid into her, fucking her with his tongue, Jack came so hard that she saw stars dancing behind her closed lids. Before she could catch her breath, he was climbing up her body, biting at her, and then licking the tiny wound with his tongue.
His cock was thicker than she’d ever seen, and he was spilling precum on her as he moved closer to her mouth again. All she could think about was him fucking her, taking her so hard that in the morning she’d be sore and not give a shit.
“I’m going to hurt you a little.” She nodded, thinking that right now, she didn’t care so long as he filled her. “Open for me, baby. I need to fuck you.”
Opening her legs as wide as she could, he slid his cock just to the tip inside of her. Jack felt her pussy pull at him, and she rolled her hips up to take more of him in. When he chuckled a little, she looked up at him.
“Take me.” He slammed forward, filling her up and taking her breath away. When he moved, sliding out then back in, Jack held him tightly because she knew that when they came—and there was no doubt that it was going to be very soon—it was going to be explosive. Wrapping her ankles around him, she felt his teeth graze over her throat to her shoulder. When he bit her, not hard but hard enough, she screamed out his name as her body detonated. And when he sank his teeth into her harder, the only thing she could think of was biting back. Pulling his shoulder to her mouth, Jack felt her teeth sort of shift in her mouth, and she sank them deeply into his hot skin. Blood filled her mouth and she realized how starved she was for the taste of him. Drinking it down, she came again when he lifted her ass up for harder thrusts.
When he came, roaring out her name, she came a second, then a third time when he threw back his head and howled. Jack fainted, her vision blurring and her body spent. She thought of the man she’d just had the most incredible sex she’d ever had with. Christ, she didn’t even ask him for a condom.
~~~
Luke was afraid to move. He really wasn’t even sure he could. Lifting his head, he looked down at Jacklyn. She was even more beautiful now that she was all mussed and swollen from him. He kissed her lip gently where a drop of blood was and knew that it was his. She’d bitten him. Not only had she bitten him, she’d claimed him as well. Luke felt as if he’d been given the best gift in the world. Now all he had to do was tell her what she’d done by making love with him.
Luke rolled to his back and pulled her over him. She was warm, like all weres were, and she fit him like a nice warm blanket. When she shifted, positioning herself between his legs, Luke felt his cock thicken again at the thought of taking her. He glanced down her body and saw her lovely ass and cupped her to him. She moaned and moved again. This time her pussy wrapped around his cock. He either had to get up, wake her up, or take her again. She lifted her head and looked at him.
“Do you know that we didn’t use protection?” Luke nodded. “I won’t even go into the fact that I have no idea where I am, who you are, or how the hell I got here. Is that something you could share with me before I get up and ride you?”