Javier’s fingers slipped lower and slower until he found the folds of her womanhood. Nora hissed at first contact. He paused, waiting to see if she was hurt, then continued when he saw her look of heated desire.
His fingers parted her folds. She was already slick with desire. Reaching down, she undid the button on her jeans to allow him to reach further. She wanted everything he could give her. Her body ached for it. They’d only been apart for a night, but already her body demanded his touch.
Javier was hers forever. She would make sure of it.
Her breath caught in her throat as his finger made a lazy circle around her bead of desire. She could barely breath past the surge of sensation rising through her. It rose and crashed to swell in her core. Not yet would it burst and take her.
His hand dipped lower. His thumb took the place of his finger while his fingers found her opening. It wasn’t what she wanted, the growing bulge in his pants making her mouth water, but it was enough to turn her inside out. Slow and excruciatingly, he teased her opening. His fingers slipped around the opening before diving inside. At first, he only pushed shallowly, then he flicked his thumb and pressed deeper.
Nora sucked in a breath. Her stomach flared with pain, but she could barely feel it. The pain helped to pull her back and force her to remember herself. She needed to be careful, but it was so hard with Javier beside her. Nora wanted to peel his shirt away from the toned planes of his chest and take in all he had to offer.
Javier was beautiful. His eyes sparkled like obsidian in the light of the moon. His lower lip pouted on its own, so full and begging to be nibbled by her teeth. She reached for him and twined her hand in his hair, so thick she could barely feel her own fingers. She pulled him close for a kiss.
As their lips met, his fingers plunged deeper. He took her and pulled back, plunging over and over while his thumb slipped over her bead of pleasure. Each stroke made her feel as though she were an instrument and they were making music. The song flooded her. It filled her core, rising and falling like the melody.
Soon, the crescendo would hit her. Soon, the song would break into a cacophony of sensation. Javier’s tongue flicked hers before it pressed as deep as his fingers. He belonged inside her. They belonged together, two halves coming from either side of the country to make a whole.
“Thank you for bringing me back,” Javier whispered into her lips.
The sound of emotion gripping his voice brought her to orgasm. She came in a furious blast that ricocheted through her body. Javier devoured her screams of pleasure with his mouth. He swallowed them as though they could offer him sustenance.
When she was done, her body trembled with the force of the orgasm that had taken her. Nora licked her lips, starry eyed and grinning. Her eyes slid down her mate’s body to catch on the bulge still barely contained by his pants. Even though her stomach ached and begged for her to be still, she reached for his groin.
Javier caught her. His obsidian eyes darkened, and he threaded his fingers through hers. “This isn’t about me.”
“But you… you didn’t get anything out of this.” Nora was confused.
Javier brought her hand to his lips and laid a gentle kiss on them. She was greedy for the contact, for his touch, so she didn’t fight against it.
“Not everything needs to be an even trade. Just knowing what I can give you is enough for me.”
“But it doesn’t have to be.” Nora had never known a sexual experience in which a man didn’t put himself first. The moment confused her. To be honest, she didn’t understand why he wouldn’t want what she offered.
The confusion must have shown on her face because he spoke. “There will be plenty of time in the future for you to repay whatever favors you feel need to be paid, but right now you’re injured. We shouldn’t even have done what we did.” His hand slid down her groin, and he grinned. “But, it felt too good not to.”
Chapter Twelve
Sydney swung the door open, not bothering to knock. She fumbled at the door upon seeing them before turning on her heel. Javier took his time reclaiming his hand, sharing a secret smile with Nora. Her body was still quivering and her breath shallow from the orgasm he’d given her with his hand alone, but she forced herself upright.
“What are you so excited about?”
It was hard to imagine from Sydney’s beaming expression that Nora had pulled a gun on her only weeks ago. Sydney didn’t seem to hold it against her. Of all people, she knew life was rough and didn’t bother holding grudges. Or, maybe there was a strange kind of kinship between them. Both lost lovers in the past few years.
Nora had lost her husband to a sudden heart attack, and Sydney lost her last detective partner and lover on the job. Now, both found love with shifters. Had it convinced Sydney to forgive her? Nora couldn’t help but wonder if Sydney had even held a grudge at all?
“Oh, um. It can wait, I guess.”
“You just blasted in here like a kid’s drink mascot,” Javier grumbled. “You can tell us whatever it is.”
“Are you… Are you proper?”
Nora rolled her eyes. Javier took a moment to help pull a long sleeve shirt over Nora’s head. Lifting her arms to slide them through the sleeve tugged at her stiches and made her grimace, but she managed well enough. While Nora contemplated living in a poncho until her wounds healed, Javier told Sydney she could turn around.
While her cheeks were pink with embarrassment, Sydney still grinned. “Cordelia missed a court date!”
Javier shrugged, but Nora knew what it meant. Their eyes met, and Sydney nodded with enthusiasm. She lifted her hand and swung her patrol car keys around her finger.
“Looks like I’m picking someone up again.”
“Not without me you aren’t.” Nora swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Every movement hurt more than the last, but she was determined.
Sydney jumped forward, ready to push her friend back onto the bed, but Nora slapped her hands away.
“You’re in no condition to do anything!”
“There’s no way you’re bringing that witch in without me and you know it.” Nora’s chest burned with a sensation that wasn’t pain. It was indignation, anger at her mother for finally casting her aside, anger at her mother for tormenting the man she loved. “You need me, and you know it. I can get you past her traps and safeguards.”
Sydney looked to Javier for help, but he marched around the bed and lifted Nora into his arms.
“Looks like you have company,” he declared.
Nora smiled. She reached to kiss his jaw, but the pain in her stomach stopped her short. Instead, she decided to leave a kiss on his collarbone.
Sydney kept casting nervous glances in their direction, but, in the end, she opened the passenger door for Javier. He placed his mate in the seat and carefully pulled the seatbelt to buckle her in. Nora’s determination to accompany them was less about the traps and safeguards and more about watching her mother get what she deserved.
A week ago, Nora had been nervous, afraid of her mother and the retribution she would drop upon them. Now, Nora wanted to watch everything Cordelia had built burn into cinders. Even though she had nothing to protect herself with, Nora wasn’t afraid.
The time for fear was over.
***
Fear turned Javier’s stomach. He watched the back of his mate’s head while guilt and fear ate at him. She was in pain because he hadn’t been strong enough. If she marched into the hunter’s den and it came to a fight, Nora would be defenseless.
Still, she refused to sit by the side while the law worked. Nora wanted to make sure her mother got what was coming, and Javier wasn’t going to be the one to stop her. All he could do was stand beside her while the world fell apart and rebuilt itself.
All he could hope was that they lived to help rebuild it.
He’d agreed to go not only because his mate craved to see her mother’s fall, but he wouldn’t allow Sydney to walk into the den by herself either. Both would walk
out safely if he had anything to say about it.
The Virginia wilderness rushed past his window as Sydney took the winding streets at a breakneck speed. She was excited to see this finished, to see retribution paid. This small group of shifters had already done so much. There were only four of them, but they’d somehow managed to stage three rescue missions already.
He’d listened each time, waiting for his own cage to open so that he could find his own revenge. Perhaps smartly, they’d avoided his cage each time. His soul was already twisted. It hungered for revenge, for blood and fury. Had they released him, he would have rained hell upon that farmhouse.
And, he might have hated himself for it later.
Without his soul, he was calmer. He could think before he acted. He was sad to say it, but if it weren’t for Nora, he wouldn’t want it back at all. The work it would take to undo what had been done to it would take years. Everyday would be work.
He reached forward and pushed his fingers through the cage that barred him from the front of the vehicle. Nora sensed his presence and leaned toward his touch. His fingers found her soft, red curls. He wanted her to turn and look at him, but he knew that was asking too much in the state she was in.
Around her, everything was stronger. He’d noticed the change. No longer was the world drab and gray. Even without Nora in his presence, he was starting to feel again. It made him wonder if a small sliver of his soul hadn’t returned. If it had, how had it happened? The longer he stayed in his mate’s presence, the stronger it felt. He could no longer ignore the emotions that threatened to take him.
But, they didn’t threaten to break him the way they once had. This fragment of soul didn’t howl like the one he’d had. Instead, Javier felt more like the man he’d been before the hunters found him. The thought made his breath stick in his throat.
What if… No, it wasn’t possible. He was imagining things. Still, there was no other explanation for what he felt inside himself. Each moment spent with his mate, the hours he spent with the pack, all of it was giving him back his soul. Not the soul that rested in the hands of the witch. This was different. It was as if he was re-growing it, like a wound that slowly healed when treated properly.
Javier looked between the shifter in the driver’s seat and his mate, and he realized he’d never felt anything like this when he lived in California. Sure, his mother had been a loving and strong woman, but the only love he’d known had been from her and his sister. This pack shared it like it was nothing.
“If she skipped her court date, what makes you think you’re going to be able to pick her up?” Javier asked the question no one else had yet voiced.
Sydney was silent, her eyes on the road ahead as if she hadn’t heard. Javier could see the turmoil tightening her jaw. Sydney had heard, and she feared the same thing.
“The woman is shifty and dangerous,” Javier continued. “We cannot expect to walk in there, pick her up, and carry her out. Not only will she have defenses in place, she has the hunters at her back.”
“Don’t worry about them.” Nora’s voice was resolute. “I’ll take care of them.”
Javier wished he could reach through the grate that separated them and touch her, shake her from whatever daydream she was in and expose her to the reality of the situation. There was no telling her she shouldn’t be there, but Javier ached to pluck her from the seat and run.
“This is going to be so much harder than last time,” Sydney noted. She glanced in the rearview mirror to catch Javier’s eye. “Last time we went through the front door, I learned the hard way that all her knickknacks are made of silver. Hurt like a bitch.”
The newest shifter was trying to make light of the situation, inject some humor to ease Javier’s concern, but it did nothing. He gave her a tight-lipped smile and gripped the grate between them. Her eyes narrowed at his fingers threaded through the metal. She knew that with one good tug, he could yank it free.
Music in an unrecognizable language filtered through the vehicle with a surprisingly upbeat tune for the situation they faced. Sydney had it turned low, but Javier could see her fingers tapping the time on the steering wheel. The shifter was still struggling with her beast, Javier realized.
Moments of heightened emotion or fear sent her beast reeling. The urge to defend herself would tear through her and make her feel shredded, at best.
“Nothing is going to hurt you,” Javier whispered.
Nora’s gaze snapped to Sydney. She noticed the way the shifter was tapping her fingers. Sydney offered them all a grim smile that was less than reassuring. She was afraid of going back into the hunter’s den, no matter what kind of enthusiasm she showed earlier.
“I promise you that we will all walk out of that house unharmed today.” Javier and his beast agreed. Revenge would taste good, but nothing compared to protecting those who offered him slivers of his soul. He owed them everything he had.
Sydney’s shoulders relaxed, and she let out a breath. “In our Pack, only Thalia and Jax have ever known what it’s like to have Alphas. I don’t think either of them know or remember what it was like to have a good one, either. We’re just a hot mess of monsters.”
Javier’s lip curled in disgust. “I see no monsters among you.”
Sydney’s smile was sad. She kept trying to twist the expression into something that resembled cheer but failed over and over. Exhaustion was setting in. They were all ready for Cordelia and her den of hunters to be gone. Maybe then, the pack would know what it is like to live.
Just live.
They should not have to answer to fear or rise to the roles of heroes so often. Perhaps Thalia’s mate, Rhylan, lived for it as an emergency room doctor. Sydney might have dreamt of it, but the strain of losing those around her was taking its toll. Javier wished he could lift those burdens from their shoulders. He would carry it himself if it meant their lives would be easier.
Finally, he dared to glance out the window beside him and found the SUV careening up a narrow street on the side of the mountain. The drop off at the edge of the pavement was sharp and led down to a number of jagged rocks below. His hand on the grate tightened until they all heard the groan of the metal.
“What’s going on back there?” Nora’s voice hitched. She couldn’t twist in her seat to see what was wrong with her mate. “Are you alright?”
He took a moment to force a breath past the lump in his throat, swallowing it down. Of all the things to fear, he thought. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
Nora caught the hint of laughter in his voice and tried to turn to look at him. It only made her hiss in pain.
“Woman, care for yourself first.” The grate between them continued to vex him. He should have pulled her into the back seat along side him. There should never be anything between them again. “If you don’t stop moving, I will make Sydney pull this car over and put you back here with me.”
Nora’s profile settled into a look of defiance, but Sydney snorted and broke the tension.
“He could do it, you know? If he put a bit of power into his voice, I’d have no choice but to pull this car over and sit your ass back there with him. I wouldn’t fight it, either. I know we’ve had our differences, but I’m no grudge holder. Take care of yourself. You’re practically Pack to me.”
Javier caught the glimmer of tears in Nora’s eyes before she turned away. Gone was everything Nora once knew. She no longer had a mother, a family, or a husband. She was outcast and adrift. But, this pack had caught her and reeled her in. They saw her past and put it aside. To them, Nora was only the person she was in this moment.
He wanted to tear down the grate between them, pull her into his lap, and remind her she would never be alone again. Javier would always be tthere for her, the family she deserved. The world might not have given her blood that loved her, but Nora was loved none the less.
She was his family. He was sure Thalia would come around someday and become the sister Nora never had. Even Sydney was closer to family than Nora
thought. She wasn’t alone, the same way Javier wasn’t alone.
Each day together brought not only Javier and Nora closer, but the whole pack. Javier sat back and hoped he lived through this. His mate would need him the same way he needed her. He also hoped that when everything was done and over, the mountains safe for everyone again, that they could join this pack.
That way, neither of them would be alone again. They would officially be a part of the family that loved them. He looked to the back of his mate’s head and made a silent promise. He would live through this. Javier would not become Cordelia’s monster, but rise to become a hero like the other wolves in this pack.
He would do it for her, because she deserved a hero, too.
Chapter Thirteen
The house looked different than she remembered. The windows were dark and some of the white siding was peeling away at the corners. A single shutter from a second story window had disappeared and left behind a ghostly white shadow where it’d once been. It was as though, without Nora, everything about the family was falling apart. Even the house.
“Are you ready?” Sydney asked. The female shifter looked as though she’d rather lock Nora inside the SUV than let her waltz about.
Nora did not wait to give her the chance and shoved the door open. One foot hit the ground, and she hissed. The stiches pulled and made her stomach throb. There was no way around it as each step tugged at her stomach, but Nora refused to be left behind. If anyone could talk to these people, it was her.
Before she could take another step, Sydney released Javier from the backseat. He appeared beside her, hand on her elbow. She wanted to jerk it out of his grasp and show that she was strong, but she was grateful for his presence. It chased away a bit of the pain as she saw the glimmer of his soul in his eyes.
Her breath caught. Each day turned out to be worse than the one before, but each day showed more and more of what she’d thought had been lost forever. Her hand tightened on his and they turned toward the farmhouse.
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