by R. A. Boyd
Ronin dropped his face to the bend of her neck and sucked on the tender flesh between the curve of her cheek and the bottom of her ear. With a feral sound that tapered off into a helpless noise, Ronin’s movements became erratic as he took her, drawing out her orgasm. He slammed into her one last time and then froze. His shaft pulsed and lengthened inside of her, and his seed warmed her sheath from the inside.
Willow’s eyes fluttered as she looked up at the night sky. She couldn’t tell whether she was floating, flying, or falling. Maybe she was doing all three at the same time. It didn’t matter. She was here with Ronin.
A lump lodged in her throat as she truly understood how much Ronin meant to her. They’d been made for each other. Had his grace been a part of her since the Great War in Heaven? That’s when it had been taken from him. They’d been with each other for millennia now, finally able to join and experience life together.
As tears welled in her eyes, Willow huffed out a low laugh as she ran her hands up and down Ronin’s wide back. She could feel his muscles tense and release as he sucked in gasps of air.
“Fuck a duck,” Ronin breathed out. He rested on one elbow and looked down at Willow, laughing as he closed his right eye to keep the sweat from getting into it.
She reached up and wiped sweat from his forehead before it had a chance to fall in his other eye. “Fuck a duck? Is that a good thing?”
The euphemisms she learned by being around the Ghost shifters would forever be printed on her brain. She laughed again, but then winced when he pulled his shaft from her still quivering pussy.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked, all traces of humor now gone from his face.
Willow snorted and lifted her torso to kiss his chin. “I’m good. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had sex, and you are a very large man. All over. Besides,” she said, reaching up to cup the side of his handsome face. The scruff of his beard tickled her hand. “You can’t stay in there forever.”
He groaned, and Willow could feel his heart as it thundered in his chest against hers. He nipped her bottom lip with his teeth and then kissed it. “That actually sounds a lot like fun. And yes, when I say ‘fuck a duck’ I mean it in a great way.”
Wrapping his arm around her waist, Ronin rolled to the side and brought Willow to lay on top of him.
“No,” she muttered, wiggling until they both lay on their sides. “I want to see the sky and I can’t do it if I’m laid out over your chest.”
They moved around a bit more until Willow was half on top of his body. She looked up and breathed a sigh of satisfaction. The blue-black sky was lit up by pinpricks of bright stars. The half-moon looked so far away, but when she lifted her hand from his chest and pretended to hold the moon, it seemed much closer.
A cool breeze moved across the clearing, making the low grass and tall trees dance in its silent song. She was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She shivered as the wind danced along her naked body. Willow pointed to the sky and traced the imaginary lines that made up the constellations. “There goes the Big Dipper. And the Little Dipper. And Draco.”
Ronin stared at her with adoration, as if she were one of the beautiful stars shining in the night sky. She’d grown heart-sick when she watched the men and women of the Ghost clan look at their mates this way. She had wished in her heart that one day a man she loved would look at her like that. Like this. It was lovely.
For so long, Willow thought her destiny was locked with the Coven of the Fallen. She thought she would be their leader and that nothing else mattered. But Ronin showed her another way. Hell, she didn’t even want to go back to the coven house. Living in New Rose was freeing. She laughed, relaxed, and felt like she was part of something important.
Oh, she knew that her place with the Coven of the Fallen was important, but someone always wanted something from her when she was there. No one ever asked if she was all right. No one wanted to talk about how they felt or what made them tick. Living at the coven house was like being locked away in a twelfth-century nunnery where emotions and laughter were frowned upon.
But not here with the Ghosts.
They shared what they felt. They talked about their feelings and worked through things, whether that meant having a civil conversation or fighting it out until they were laughing. Or bleeding. It was really a toss-up here.
Ronin lifted one arm and put it behind his head. “This hole in the ground was not made for stargazing. Or being naked,” Ronin said against the top of her head. His fingers painted lines between her shoulders. “I really don’t want my ass on the dirt. But for you, my love, I will do it.”
His chest shook as he laughed, and the vibration shook her breasts. Damn-it. She was butt ass naked outside on the ground. In a hole.
Willow took in a deep breath and held it for a moment. She let it go and giggled as Ronin tickled her ribs. “Aww. For me? Now I feel special. I would say we get up and go home, but my legs are freaking noodles. I’m hungry. And sleepy.”
“We can stay here for a while,” Ronin whispered. “Then we can go home, shower, eat, and sleep. That sounds like a beautiful ending to a day like this.”
She snuggled closer into Ronin’s warm body and kissed his chest. “That really does. Let’s do that.” Willow looked up and saw the constellation The Seated Queen. Cassiopeia. “We’re going to need to help Cass before things go wrong. If we can.”
Ronin’s body tensed for just a second, but relaxed as Willow rubbed her hand over his chest.
“We will,” he said, his inhalations beginning to match his exhalations. “But not tonight. It’s just us tonight. Let’s have this before things get crazy.”
He was right. Tonight was just for them.
Louis Erin, Remus, and all the problems the Ghost shifters faced every day would still be there tomorrow. But tonight was for them.
“I love you, Willow. Thank you for being you.”
Willow smiled and nuzzled her nose against Ronin’s neck. “I love you too. Everything is going to be fine.”
And it would be.
The Ghost shifters had been made a promise eons ago, and Willow knew it would come to fruition. They just had to make it through the storm that was coming.
They would. But they would start tomorrow.
Tonight was special. Tonight was for Willow and her mate Ronin, the strongest man she’d ever met.
Willow had never been happier to weather the storm with anyone. But with Ronin and the rest of their clan, she would face the tempest with a smile.
Chapter 12
Ronin listened as Jax and Damon tried to come up with a way to keep Cass from the inevitable fall that loomed over the entire clan. The emotions that rolled off his Alpha and Omega made his saber-tooth rear up and want to kill things on their behalf.
He glanced down at him and Willow’s joined hands and traced the nailbed of her thumb. The pale pink polish on her nails complimented her soft fingers. He thought back on this morning when she’d slipped into the shower with him.
Steam filled the bathroom as the hot water beat down on his back. She’d wrapped her supple hand around his cock and drew him deep into her mouth. He remembered looking down at her polish as her thumb pressed at the base of his cock. She damn near swallowed his dick this morning. The whole time she worked him over, he promised he would give her anything, be her everything, and do everything she instructed him to do. He almost passed the hell out when she sucked in his entire length, squeezed his balls, and hummed deep in her throat.
“Dude,” Damon gritted out as he tore Ronin from his memory. “Please stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking right now, or get out. I’m fucking ecstatic you’ve found your mate, but I am not in the mood to block out your feelings. It’s disgusting, brother.”
Shit. Ronin forgot just how great Damon was at picking up on the emotions of the clan. As the Omega, it was his job to offer emotional stability to them all, and he could pick up on what they were feeling. Damon had always been good at helping the
m any way he could, but he couldn’t stand when any of them became sexually excited around him. He said it was like walking in on one of your siblings about to have sex, but ten times worse.
Ronin winked at Willow and then cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
“So,” Jax said, tone short and clipped as he ignored their exchange. “There is nothing we can do to help Cass? That’s fucking bullshit. Samael could be wrong. I can kill Louis and get rid of his body. She’ll never find him.”
Willow shook her head and sat forward on the love seat she shared with Ronin. “No. Samael told me too. This is something Cass has to go through. We all know she’s been waiting to find Louis Erin, but she—”
Jax slashed his hand in the air and stood up. “She’ll go over the deep end if she kills him.”
“She might go over the deep end if she doesn’t. Vengeance has a way of tainting people, and it’s growing inside of her,” Ronin said. “Samael told us that this is something she has to go through. And when she comes out on the other side, it’ll make her and the clan stronger.”
“Or drive us insane.” Jax sat back down and rested his elbows on his knees. He clasped his hands in front of him and slowly shook his head. With his shoulders hunched and a frown marring his face, he looked hopeless. “How the hell is she even capable of this? Why her?”
Ronin didn’t have a clue. He was new to all of this and needed answers, just like Damon and Jax. The thought of Cass going insane and dragging them all with her frightened him. Ronin already had his fair share of time in Crazyland, and he had no desire to go back.
Fuck. They would all end up in the catacombs of the Coven of the Fallen if things didn’t go their way.
Willow squeezed Ronin’s hand at moved closer to him. She looked up, eyes going back and forth between Damon and Jax. “Once you found Cass and claimed her that opened up the gateway for everyone else to find their mates. Imagine someone in a dark hallway opening the door to a brightly lit room, and that light illuminated everything around it. Cut off that light and everything on both sides goes dark. Cass is that door. Hell, she’s probably the lightbulb inside the room. Compromise Cass, and darkness falls on the Ghosts. If either one of you went crazy, you would slowly take the rest of your clan with you.” She shrugged and made a low clicking sound in the back of her throat. Her sympathetic eyes moved back and forth between them. “She was chosen to be your mate for a reason. Her being a conduit, I believe, is the key. Who and what else could call forth the mates of a group of fallen angel-shifters? A conduit. It’s that simple.”
Damon threw his hands in the air and stood up from where he sat. A muscle twitched beneath his left eye, and a low growl rumbled in his chest. “How the fuck is that simple? Does this make any sense to you?” His voice was sharp, and it pissed Ronin off that he would talk to Willow like this.
Red swirls of anger darkened Ronin’s vision. He draped his arm across Willow’s lap and had to stop himself from punching Damon in his fucking throat. “Cool off. It’s not Willow’s fault, Damon. Would you rather we kept our mouths shut so you can keep on thinking you’re in control of Cass?”
Damon walked back and forth across the living room a few times, the snarl in his throat getting louder and louder. The dominance and pain wafting from both Damon and Jax set Ronin’s beast on edge. He felt a building growl low in his chest, but he pushed it down. His friends were in pain. They felt lost.
When Damon finally stopped pacing, he laced his fingers behind his neck and leaned his head back. “I apologize, Willow. I just… I just want to keep her safe. I just want to make sure she doesn’t suffer.”
“Yeah,” Jax agreed. “She’s been through enough. And now, because of this clan, she has to go through something that could alter all of our lives, and we can’t do a damn thing about it. I don’t even know where to start.”
“You can start by trusting me,” Cass said.
They all startled hard and turned around to see Cass, standing in the doorway of the kitchen as if she’d been there the whole time. With one ankle slung over the other, she leaned against the doorframe on one shoulder. Her round face and sharp cheekbones held a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
Ronin worried, wondering how much she had heard. She wasn’t even supposed to be here. She’d left half an hour ago to sit with Emma and Jace as their daughter Lily battled the stomach flu.
How the hell did Cass even get into the house without any of them hearing her?
Cass lifted her hand and gracefully swept it across the room where they sat. “Are the four of you trying to make decisions for me?” Her low monotone didn’t hold any of the kindness that usually accompanied her words. “Don’t trust me enough to do my part in the Triad? Well,” she chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest, “that sucks. You know, when it comes to that bastard who murdered me, you two,”— she said, pointing to Jax and Damon—“treat me like I am incapable of making a clear decision. How dare you? Everything I do is for the stability of this clan. I can’t freaking help it. It’s inside me now. You see me every day giving my all. And you still don’t trust me!”
Jax and Damon both moved to go closer to her, but she held up a hand and took a step back.
“No,” Cass growled. She pulled her shoulders up to her ears and blew out an angry breath, sending the dark coils on her forehead flying around her face as if they alone could convey how pissed she was. “Stay over there.” She lowered her head and swallowed a few times. When she lifted her eyes, they glowed bright as the moon. “I’m going to kill Louis Erin. You can trust me on that. And whatever happens to me after that depends on you. On all of you. If I do happen to lose it, then it’s up to you to bring me back. But give me something to want to come back to. Don’t push me away by trying to decide what I can and can’t handle. Trust me like I trust this clan to be my anchor. Like I trust you two to be my anchors.” She sniffed and took a few trembling breaths. “I need space. I’ll be in one of the empty houses. Do not follow me.”
As if Cass wanted to say something more, she stared at her mates until her glowing eyes finally bled back to their normal soft brown color. She blinked, and twin tears slowly rolled down her round cheeks.
A punch of sorrow slammed into Ronin’s chest as he watched her walk away. He knew what it was like to slowly lose who you were on the inside, not knowing how you would react in different situations, wanting people to trust you to make the right decisions while at the same time not quite sure if you can trust yourself. Ronin saw that in Cass.
Risking Jax and Damon’s wrath, Ronin glared at them and snarled. “I know I’ve only been back for a few days, but you need to knock this shit off. I’ve listened to the both of you talk about Cass when she’s not around, attempting to decide what’s good for her. Judging what she shouldn’t and shouldn’t be doing. And you know what? She’s better than both of you.” Ronin stood and pulled Willow from the chair. “Everyone here talks about how good Cass is. About how she helped heal the clan. And I see it. But I don’t think either of you sees it.”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Jax belted out. “We fucking worship her. You think Damon and I don’t revere that woman for being exactly who she is?”
They really had no idea what they were doing to her? There was no doubt in Ronin’s mind that they loved her, but their reverence lifted her to an untouchable space that Cass wasn’t supposed to occupy.
“I know you adore her.” Ronin shot his gaze to Willow and then back at Jax. “I love the shit out of Willow. I want to do everything for her. But I can’t. She’s a grown-ass woman who makes her own choices, who learns her own lessons. You’re trying to protect Cass from that, and the only thing that’ll do is push her away, just like she said.” He closed his eyes and hooked his thumbs through his belt loops on either side of his waist. “She’s going to fall. She’s going to lose her shit and go flying in a direction that neither one of you can control. Samael has all but assured us of that shit.”
“I don’t think Samael told us so that you can prevent it.” Willow tucked her hair behind her ears. “I think he did it to prepare you. Prepare us. Cass is like a sister to me. I know that now. Don’t hurt my sister. She doesn’t deserve that. And if Audra were here, she would tell you that, too. Cass will make it through this.”
Ronin loved Willow even more for saying that. She was standing up to two apex shifters who were powerful as hell. She was standing with him as they told Jax and Damon exactly what they didn’t want to hear.
Ronin let off a grim chuckle and shook his head. “You think she’s fragile and can’t handle herself? Shyit, I remember when Samiyah was in control of me and tried to take her on at the pub in town. That was the one time he willingly relinquished his hold on me and looked to me to fight our way out. All I could do was try and keep Cass from mauling me. She’s stronger than you give her credit for, and I’m not just talking about her physical strength.”
He took Willow’s hand. He tried to lead her out of the room, but she stopped and looked back and Jax and Damon.
“I’m so happy Ronin and I found each other,” Willow said. “He feels like home to me now, and I don’t want to go back to the coven house unless he comes with me. But to be honest, New Rose is my home, here with Ronin. And guys, I don’t know if Cass feels like you two are her home anymore. You put her up on this pedestal, and I think she’s getting tired of being up that high. You three are a team. You should all be working together, not working to shield her from what pains her. You feel content, as long as she’s safe in this community, and I get it. I do. But you can’t shield her. Give her some space. And when she comes to you, just listen and hear her out.”
Chapter 13
“I’m okay with you living in my house.” Sabastian nodded and then quirked his lips to the side.
Willow’s eyebrows shot up as she watched him unwrap a stick of gum and shove it into his mouth. She didn’t care whether or not he was okay with her living in his house. He’d abandoned it decades ago to go live in Salvatore, Maryland. Jax and Damon told her she could have it as long as she wanted. She’d even redecorated most of the house.