Prey (Blackwater Pack Book 2)

by Hannah McBride

  He crossed the room, wrapping his arms around her from behind and hauling her against his chest. Dipping his head, he whispered something in her ear that made her jaw drop and ears turn red.

  But she refolded the bottoms and shoved them back into a drawer.

  I chuckled as Rhodes tossed me a smug smirk. He zipped up her bag and threw it over his shoulder, all teasing sliding from his features as his gaze sharpened while stepping into the hallway and looking around. “That everything?”

  Larkin nodded, exiting the room at the same time Katy did. Will pushed off the wall and fell into step with us. We waited until everyone was gathered downstairs before heading to the cabin as a unit, making the short trek to the other side of campus in a silent pack.

  When we made it to the cabin, we all filed in. The fireplace was still going from earlier, but the embers were starting to fade to a soft glow. Will walked over and tossed a few logs onto it, bringing the flames back to a roar.

  The door to Remy’s study was shut, and I didn’t hesitate. I crossed the floor to it, opening the door silently and slipping inside before I pulled the door shut quietly behind me.

  Remy looked up from where he was on the phone, probably with his dad. The stark relief in his eyes when he saw me made me smile softly at him.

  The agitation my wolf and I had struggled to keep down while he was out searching receded as we both took a deep breath and relaxed.

  Our mate was safe.

  Our pack was safe.

  I went to his side, sliding an arm across the tight muscles of his shoulders, wanting to offer comfort. Without breaking the conversation, he pushed back from the desk, hooking an arm around my waist and pulling me into his lap. His strong arms banded around me, squeezing so hard for a second I couldn’t catch my breath.

  When I could wriggle an arm free, I looped it around his neck, leaning my head to his shoulder and breathing in his scent.

  Remy reached over and hit a button on the phone, setting it on top of the desk.

  “Skye’s here,” he said. “I put you on speaker phone.”

  “Hey, sweetheart.” Gabe’s warm voice filled the room, and I relaxed even more into Remy. “How’s my favorite kid?”

  I loved his family. They had not only given Mom and I sanctuary when we were literally at the end of our rope, but they had taken me in as one of their own when Remy and I bonded. I had spent almost as much time with his parents over winter break as I did with my mom.

  “Hanging in there,” I answered, giving Remy a quick glance.

  Remy smiled, the action breaking some of the tension from his face. His thumb caressed my hip in a gentle, sweeping motion.

  “Any word on Kit?” I asked him, my nose almost brushing his.

  His eyes flashed with bitterness. “No. Not a damn clue.”

  “I was telling Remy that we’re sending more guards for the school,” Gabe told me. I could hear the frustration in his voice. “We’ll be taking more precautions moving forward, but for now it’s imperative everyone stays alert and doesn’t wander off alone.”

  “The good news is, if she was taken by whoever had been abducting shifters, they only seem to strike in one pack or one place before they move on,” Remy muttered.

  That was the good news?

  “Still, we’re increasing patrols and sending more guards,” Gabe said firmly. “I’m not playing games with anyone’s safety, and neither are the other packs. We have a conference call with all the Alphas in a few minutes I need to get ready for.”

  “Okay, Dad,” Remy said, picking the phone back up. “We’ll be in touch if anything else happens.”

  “You two take care of each other. Call if you need us.” Gabe sighed. “Remy, if this is too much …”

  “I’ll let you know,” he replied firmly. “We’ll check in with you guys in the morning.”

  “Tell Katy your mother and I love her. And we love you guys, too.”

  A warm fissure cracked open a piece of my heart, heating me. I swallowed hard and licked my lips. “We’ll be safe,” I assured Gabe. “We love you, too.” The words rolled easily off my tongue, the way they had for the last few weeks.

  I had left the broken omega behind and was starting to finally find my footing with my pack and my family.

  “Bye, Dad.” Remy hung up the call, dropping the silent phone back onto the desk with a groan. He closed his eyes, his head dropping back in exhaustion.

  I framed his face with my hands. “Talk to me, Rem.”

  He blinked at me, his dark eyes churning with a hundred emotions. “It’s like she vanished, Skye. We completely lost her scent on the road.”

  “Were there any other scents with hers you guys could make out?”

  He frowned. “Ryder thinks he noticed two sets of human tracks where the scent ended. But we couldn’t get a read if they were normals or shifters.”

  “You think the same people who took Kit took the other shifters?” I asked slowly.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he replied.

  “But Kit’s a teenager. Haven’t they been abducting adults?” My brow furrowed as I tried to remember the specifics of the missing shifters.

  Remy nodded, one hand sliding up my spine to toy with the ends of my braid. “It’s definitely a break in their MO, but the circumstances fit.”

  I exhaled through my nose, a headache forming between my eyes. “So, what happens now?”

  “Now we go on lockdown,” he replied grimly, lips pressed together in a tight line. “Dad is talking with the other Alphas. They’ll all send more people to help guard the school.”

  I traced an abstract pattern into the shoulder of his shirt. “Is your dad coming here?”

  He shook his head, his expression turning fierce. “No. For now, they’re trusting us to handle things. They’ll intervene if they have to, but it’s on the campus alphas to keep everyone safe.”

  I framed his gorgeous face with my hands. “We trust you, Remy. Tell us what to do.”

  He smiled grimly. “For starters? No female goes anywhere unescorted. At least not until we have a perimeter around the school I know can’t be breached.”

  “Katy will love that,” I murmured.

  “Katy will deal with it,” Remy said with a sharp finality. “Until we can be sure the school is safe, and the extra guards arrive, I’m not taking chances with anyone’s safety.”

  “Hey,” I said softly, waiting until he was looking me in the eye before continuing, “I get it. The girls will all be on board. If they aren’t, I’ll yell at them for you.”

  A smile ghosted across his lips, something like pride shining in his eyes. “I heard about the cafeteria.”

  My brows shot up. “What?”

  “You took control, calmed the masses.”

  “Not exactly masses,” I murmured, weirdly embarrassed by the attention he was giving me. I bossed around a few dozen girls.

  “I’m proud of you, babe,” he told me honestly, sincerely. “It’s exactly what you should have done. What needed to be done. You’re pretty amazing, Skye.”

  I smiled sardonically, even as warmth spread in my chest at his praise. “You might be a little biased.”

  “Doesn’t make it any less true,” he replied softly before kissing me slowly. His lips moved across mine, coaxing them open so he could deepen the kiss.

  Both my arms circled his neck as I pressed myself closer, angling my head to completely yield to him as his hands tightened around my waist, pulling me against the solid muscle of his chest.

  Until loud voices reminded us that we had a house full of our pack mates, and the only thing separating us from them was a pair of glass doors.

  With a groan, I pulled my mouth away, but Remy’s hands kept me pinned to his body, his eyes still dark and intense as he studied me.

  “What?” I finally asked, shifting on his lap as a small smile tugged at my lips.

  A wrinkle creased the skin between his eyes. “Something about this whole
thing feels wrong, and I’m fighting the urge to barricade you somewhere safe until I know you aren’t at risk.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Can you barricade yourself with me?”

  He chuckled quietly, his gaze drifting to my lips. “God, I wish.”

  Everything in me wanted to kiss him again. To fuse my mouth to his as my hands explored every part of his skin. My wolf whined in agreement. She had seriously turned into a horny little bitch recently, my dreams taking a more … adult turn when I wasn’t having a nightmare.

  Especially when I was in Remy’s bed.

  But there was always something around the corner to keep us from doing much more than kissing or a heavy makeout session.

  Case in point, the room full of packmates a few feet away.

  “We should get out there,” I said softly, loving the way his dark hair felt sliding through my fingers.

  “I know,” he agreed with a heavy sigh before standing up, still holding me in his arms for a second before letting me slide down his body to the floor.

  House full of shifters, I reminded my hormones, unable to suppress the shudder of want that shook my body and had Remy licking his lips a second before stepping back.

  Reaching down, he grabbed my hand in his and led us out into the main room to talk to the rest of the pack.

  5

  Silence greeted me when I woke up, which was kind of surprising considering all the extra bodies in the house.

  Katy had taken ‘my’ room, even though I had never actually used it. Larkin was down the hall in Rhodes’ room, Ainsley and the younger girls were in the room with a couple sets of bunk beds, and several guys had camped out downstairs in the living room.

  I glanced at the clock on the bedside table near my head. We still had a few hours before classes started.

  GPA had decided that classes would commence as usual, but Remy went over instructions that the Blackwater pack was on lockdown, even going as far as to assign escorts to all of the females.

  I turned over and looked at my assigned guard, sleeping soundly beside me. All the lines of tension that had tightened his face last night and even as he gathered me in his arms to go to sleep, were finally relaxed as he rested.

  I felt like a total creeper watching Remy as he slept. I was fascinated by the tiny movements he made. The unconscious twitch of a finger against my hip, the tiny frown lines that appeared and then smoothed between his eyes, the steady rise and fall of his wide chest.

  Lifting my head slightly from his shoulder, my eyes slid down to where my hand rested absently on his stomach. Even relaxed in sleep, the ridges of his muscles were pronounced. One of my fingers slid into the groove between the muscles, lightly tracing the outline of his abs.

  I followed the contour of muscle, outlining each ab, counting as I went. I frowned when I got to the last one and did a quick recount.

  In all of the romance novels I tended to binge, the heroine always talked about the guy’s six pack. But I was definitely counting eight on Remy’s firm stomach, not counting the grooved indents that curved down into an enticing v that disappeared into the low band of the gym shorts he slept in.

  The finger I had been using to trace his body now skirted the elastic band. I bit my lip, curious and wanting to go farther, but also feeling a little awkward.

  This was new territory for me. Then again, almost everything was new territory for me. But in the quiet of the morning, with weak tendrils of dawn creeping into the room, it felt more intense. Intimate.

  I glanced up at Remy’s face and nearly jumped when I saw him awake and looking at me.

  With huge eyes, I swallowed hard, guilt swamping me. “I’m sorry—”

  I started to jerk my hand away but his long fingers caught my wrist, keeping me still.

  Then I noticed the heat in his gaze as it burned off the last traces of sleep that lingered. A muscle ticked in his jaw, all eight of those abdominal muscles flexing and rippling.

  “You can touch me,” he whispered, his voice rough and thick.

  That oh-so-familiar tug between my legs had me pressing my thighs together.

  My teeth caught my lower lip again, and, watching his face the whole time, I slipped my hand under the band of his shorts.

  “Is this okay?” I asked softly, keeping my eyes on his.

  He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving mine as I explored.

  I slid my hand lower, lower, lower. Each centimeter I gained, his eyelids drooped a bit more. When my hand brushed against the hard, hot length of him, he hissed and squeezed his eyes shut like he was in pain.

  I almost pulled away, worried I had done something wrong. But then I saw him swallow again, his Adam’s apple bobbing desperately in his throat, teeth clenched, muscles shaking as he forced himself to be still.

  It wasn’t pain he felt. It was a pleasure so intense it bordered on the edge of pain. A sensation Remy had wrung out of me before.

  And I really, really wanted to do the same thing to him.

  “Still okay?” I needed to hear for myself he wanted this.

  His eyes flew open, pure heat and lust pooling there.

  “Very okay,” he rasped out. His hand fisted in the sheets at his side as I tentatively traced the outline of his cock, testing the weight of it in my hand, circling it in my fist.

  My fingers couldn’t circle around the base of him.

  That made me swallow.

  A groan fell from his lips as I moved my hand up to the soft tip, my finger gently touching the bead of moisture I found there before smoothing my hand back down.

  “Jesus,” he hissed, his head thrown back against the pillows. The muscles in his neck and shoulders corded with taut tension as he tried to stay as calm as possible.

  “Am I doing this right?” I asked, hesitating with uncertainty. The weight of my inexperience was making me nervous.

  His eyes found mine again, practically devouring me with their hunger. “You’re perfect. Anything you do is perfect, babe.”

  I licked my lips, daring to look him in the eyes. “But I want this to be … good for you.”

  I mentally high-fived myself for saying that without blushing.

  He gave me a long look and then nodded. “Okay.” He let go of the sheet slowly with one hand, and threw his arm across the bed, pulling out the drawer at his bedside table. I heard his hand moving, searching for something. After a second, he raised his hand.

  My brows flew to my hairline.

  “Lube?” I asked. Something dark twisted in my stomach. “What do you have that for?”

  Shit. I flinched at how accusatory that sounded.

  But I knew what lubricant had been used for in my former house. There was almost always a supply of it in drawers all around the house we lived in.

  The memory felt wrong in this space, dredging up dark and haunted thoughts from a life I wanted to forget.

  Remy only smirked at me, the warm teasing look he was giving me eased some of the unease currently swirling in my head. “I have an insanely hot mate. What do you think it’s for?”

  My brain short circuited as I connected the dots.

  “You mean,” I sputtered, struggling to find actual words to say what was happening in my brain. “You … When you …”

  He chuckled, the sound low and throaty. “Jerk off thinking about you?” He lifted up to one elbow, putting himself eye level with me. “Every chance I get.”

  His cock twitched in my hand as if agreeing with him, the length impossibly thickening in my hand.

  With a shaky breath I released him, pulling my hand from the sheets and extending my palm. He squirted some of the lube into my palm, his gaze latched onto the way my hand dipped back under the covers, finding him without issue.

  “Fuck,” he muttered, flopping down to his back and dropping the tube with a thunk to the floor.

  I watched him for cues as I worked my hand over him, watching to see what made the pulse in his throat jump, what made his fists clench, what
made his breath hiss through his teeth.

  Finding a rhythm, I tried different speeds and different pressure, finally settling on the one that made his entire body shudder. I repeated the action again.

  Again.

  Again.

  Every time I slid my hand down him, up him, his muscles went tighter and tighter, coiling with a pressure I could feel pulsing steadily—relentlessly—between my legs.

  “Jesus,” he gasped, his eyes unfocused as he turned his head and looked at me. “Skye—”

  I leaned over, kissing him hungrily as I felt him pulse in my hand. He barely finished his release before he was flipping us over, my back landing against the mattress with Remy’s weight pinning me to the bed. He reached down, pulling out my hand that had been smashed between our bodies.

  In one fluid motion, his hips were between my thighs, and he had my wrists pinned to the bed on either side of my head as he devoured me with his mouth, licking and nipping my lower lip, my jaw, my throat.

  He pressed himself against me, and whatever release he found with my hand moments earlier clearly wasn’t enough because he was still hard and ready against the inside of my thigh.

  Needing to touch him, I tried to pull free, but his hands tightened around me, keeping my wrists firmly encased in his hands as his hips pinned me to the bed. He pushed up my shirt with his free hand, exposing my skin to the air as I tried to move under him.

  Remy was too big, too strong. I could lift my hips as his mouth moved to the underside of my jaw, his hot breath sending the wrong kind of chills through me as my muscles remembered this moment from my former life.

  And just like that …

  … I was gone.

  “Fight harder, Skye. I love it when you fight me.”

  The grass was non-existent behind the school as Cassian pinned me to the ground, Preston and Marc laughing above us, arguing over who got their turn next. I could taste dirt in my mouth from where they had pulled me outside and thrown me down.

  I could feel Cassian’s breath hot against my neck as he ground his hips into mine, using a knee to pry mine apart. I tried to jerk, to buck him off of me, but clearly he was loving that added friction. My feet scrambled for traction on the dirt.