by L. L. Ash
Jo came up to the counter next, a flimsy, pale yellow translucent outfit, not much different than mine. Raymond ushered us out after the last purchase and got us into the car, letting out a relieved sigh as he started the car and headed out.
“What did you get?” she asked, peeking into my bag.
“Nothing. It’s none of your business.”
She tried harder to get into my bag but I pushed her away.
“What are you hiding,” she demanded.
“Nothing.”
She scowled, pouting in the seat beside me.
When we got back to the warehouse Jo marched right up to Eddie, who was playing wrestling games with the younger wolves and shrieked his name.
He looked up, sweat coating his face and his shaggy hair stuck to his forehead. His grin melted away as he saw a furious Jo stomping toward him. Sighing, he stood up and told the boy he’d been playing with to go play without him.
Motioning us toward the bedroom, he led the way while Raymond followed with our purchases. He dropped them inside the door and slipped out.
“What is it now, Jo?” Eddie demanded right back at her, his arms crossed across a sweaty chest.
“You need to teach this one to obey me, Eddie.”
He looked taken back.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“We went to a shop,” she said angrily. “We both got something, one of us more than the other. She saw what I bought but she refuses to show me what she got! It’s disrespectful and I won’t have it!”
“What, so you’re jealous?” he asked with a laugh.
“I am trying to keep my position, Edmond James,” she growled back.
“Oh, sweet, sweet, naïve Jo,” he whispered, touching her jaw gently. “You lost your position here the moment Addie arrived. Your selfish, demanding, entitled attitude made sure of that.”
She gasped.
“She’s a whore!” she screamed, lunging at me and catching my arm.
Her fingers dug into the skin and I felt a sharp pang as her claws emerged and dug long, bloody streaks through my arm from elbow to wrist.
I screamed in pain as Jo went on.
“She’s in invader! There can’t be any other than ME!”
Eddie roared, grabbing Jo by the neck and pulling her away from me, tossing her against the wall like a ragdoll.
“Get out,” he said in a low voice, turning to take my damaged arm in his hand. “You’re no longer welcome here.”
Jo’s mouth opened in shock as Eddie lifted my arm to his lips, licking away at the wound until it closed with tingling pressure.
“Eddie...”
“GET. OUT.” he clipped in a deep, threatening voice.
Jo turned and fled out of the room.
“Are you ok?” Eddie asked, licking again at where the wound used to be.
“I… I’m ok. But it hurt.”
“Yeah, it hurts, but you heal.”
“I always wondered what it felt like.”
“A little warm and tickly?” he asked, one side of his lips tilted up.
“Tingly,” I added, suddenly feeling a little twisting and turning in my stomach.
“Just relax for a little bit,” he said motioning me toward the bed. “Once I get the bitch off the property I’ll come check on you.”
“No. I’m going with you. You’re not doing this for me, on your own.”
“If you insist,” he said, taking my hand and heading out of the bedroom.
Blood still caked the inside of my arm, smearing against my t-shirt as I walked. Jo was making a ruckus near the door, demanding someone step up and defend her. Adonis looked confused, but he put himself between brother and queen.
“What’s going on, Eddie?”
Eddie held up my arm, still coated in blood.
“This is what she did,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear.
“It’s shameful, but is it really enough to exile her?”
“Do you question me, brother?” Eddie asked, puffing out his chest and dropping my arm to lift himself in challenge. “Do any of you question me? Any of you want to defend her? The queen who injured the other queen, experienced taking advantage of the inexperienced. I welcome the challenge. But any who challenge me will not receive mercy and will die at my hand.”
The entire room hushed. I saw Yuri Sr. and Jr. in the crowd, the elder trying to comfort the younger one who was bawling. I left Eddie’s side long enough to approach and put my arms out to the little boy. He looked at me with tear-webbed lashes before throwing himself into my arms. Hugging him tightly to my chest, he ceased in his sobbing and hiccuped. My chest tightened with tears, but I refused to let them come while I comforted a baby.
“This,” Eddie said gently but loudly, before pointing to Jo. “Or this. The choice is not much of a choice to me.” His other arm stretched towards me and I took a step toward him, holding Yuri close. I turning back with a reassuring nod at his father before going up to Eddie’s side.
“This pack needs a mother, a sister, and a queen, not a spoiled child.”
Murmurs spread through the group and Eddie turned in a circle.
“Do you support my decision, or do you wish to challenge me?”
I watched Adonis as he struggled. He obviously held affections for Jo, and after knowing her, I could imagine he’d received kind words and affections from her. But his loyalty won out and he moved, slinking back into the lines and removing Eddie’s obstacle from Jo.
A wretched groan peeled out of her lungs before she turned and opened the heavy door, slipping through it. A couple men followed, then came back in a moment later and cinched the doors closed again.
“She’ll find another home, likely with Gregor and his pack. Don’t worry about her. She’s a cunning, sharp witted thing. She’ll be fine.”
Many nods followed his statement and the group started to disassemble.
“You ok, little man?” I asked Yuri, still snuggly in my arms.
He nodded and stuck his little thumb in his mouth.
“You want to go back to daddy?”
He nodded again. Eddie’s hand touched the small of my back as we both went over to where Yuri Sr. stood. Little Yuri put his arms out to his father and the man took his son, holding him tightly. He looked at me and smiled, but quickly averted his eyes and met Eddie’s gaze before bowing out of our presence.
Everyone else gave a wide berth as we walked, Eddie’s hand leading me toward the bedroom. His scent wafted over me and I became heady, the salt and testosterone on his skin like an aphrodisiac to my senses. My breath started coming quickly and I felt my lower regions engorge, growing more sensitive with each step. Eddie fisted the shirt where his hand had previously rested against my lower back, and I felt him tense beside me as we made it the last few feet, little smiles on unfamiliar faces before they turned, giving us an even wider berth. His chest rose and fell quicker, and my hormones spiked, suddenly feeling like I had a magnet between my legs instead of flesh, and I suddenly felt breathlessly insatiable.
I heard someone chuckle and Eddie growled in his direction before we reached the door, his palm flattening against it as he slammed it closed. His face was intense and I wasn’t sure if I was in trouble or what, exactly, was going on. I had never felt like this before, and I’d never seen a look quite like his.
Taking some initiative and hoping it was going in the direction I thought, I gripped the hem of my baggy t-shirt and pulled it, lifting it over my head. He watched, the look of a predator in his eyes, lips turning into a frown as his head tilted a little, eyes roaming.
Wiggling out of my sports bra, I tossed it onto the ground and unbuttoned my pants, letting them gather around my ankles with the weight of my moist underwear before stepping out of them, toward him. Fast as lightning his hands were on me, my feet were off the ground and wrapped around him, and his mouth was feasting unceremoniously on my breast. Panting, my hands wrapped around his head, pressing him closer as he took som
e steps forward. I wasn’t prepared when he dropped, my back hitting the mattress with a thud but it excited me more, my heart pumping harder, my breath becoming harder and harder to inhale. I reached behind him and peeled his shirt up, his shoulder and arms complying as he helped me shed it, going next to his shorts buckle. Frantic couldn’t even begin to describe it. Our movements were jerky, quick and unmeasured. Once he was naked, he grabbed one butt cheek in his hand, readjusted my hips and slid the same hand down to my thigh before lifting it and letting it rest on his shoulder before he thrust in.
A roar escaped him and a shout burst from me simultaneously at the feeling of him entering my swollen flesh. Each movement elicited a noise. Groans, moans, gasps and pants with the friction, warmth and fire spread through me, ecstasy a moment away and hurling quickly toward me.
Knock-Knock-Knock
“My king,” Raymond’s voice came hesitantly through the door as it squeaked open.
“OUT!” Eddie roared.
The door shut with a bang and I threw my head back, not even caring that someone had heard us, maybe even seen us.
Eddie didn’t even slow down, he kept going as if our very lives depended on it. It certainly felt like it did.
Quickly, we were both gasping for air as he pounded in the last couple of times, followed by the familiar pulsing and warmth. I squeezed around him with my release, gazing at him through a veil of euphoria. Sweat beaded on his neck and chest, making his hair cling to his forehead again and the smell, the sight was just so good… I pressed my arms back behind me and pushed up, brushing my tongue against his salty, musky skin. Pressing a hand to the back of his neck to steady myself I kept licking and he nuzzled me, dropping my leg from his shoulder and pressing his hand to my back to bring me closer.
“My king,” the voice said again through the squeaky door as it opened a touch.
“It can wait!” Eddie called back, swiveling his head to look toward the door which left the other side of his neck open for exploration.
“It’s the vampire.” Raymond said with a low voice. “He’s here.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What?” Eddie called back, dropping his hand from my back and settling onto his side beside me.
My hands and mouth stilled, the thought of Clarence under the same room while I sexed the hell out of another man made my stomach churn.
“Clarence I think is his name. He’s demanding to see you and the queen.”
“Fucking hell...” Eddie wiped at his forehead and glanced over at me, displeasure written all over his face. “Do you want to see him?”
“He’s demanding to see us both.”
“That doesn’t mean he gets what he wants,” Eddie scoffed. “This is my house, and he’s a reluctant guest. He’ll get what I give him.”
“He probably just wants to check on me. Make sure I’m ok.”
He pressed his thumb and middle finger to his eyebrows and rubbed as if he suddenly had a headache.
“We’ll be out in a minute,” Eddie responded and the door squeaked closed the couple inches it’d been opened.
“I’m sorry Adds,” Eddie sighed. “This isn’t how I wanted this to go. It doesn’t seem like anything has been going how we want it to.”
I shrugged.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that nothing turns out like we think it will. Instead of the school year fling I was aiming for, I met a vampire and learned that there’re actually creatures that go bump in the night. Instead of working a job and earning money for college, I get bit by a werewolf and end up as a miracle queen of a pack. Instead of having a parent to turn to when life gets hard, my mom died and any last relatives I have thinks I’m either dead or kidnapped. Not exactly the life I had planned.”
He frowned and touched his hand to the back of my head before kissing my forehead.
“I can’t change that, but I’ll try to make up for it.”
I shrugged and sighed as he stood, his tight butt at eye level.
Grinning, I pinched a cheek and he jumped, looking down at me and laughed before retrieving his clothes.
“I like you this way,” he said with a relaxed smile on his face.
“What way?”
“Playful.”
I found my own pants but ran to the bathroom to quickly clean up before dressing again.
Eddie was leaning against the wall near the door, waiting for me.
“You don’t have to wait for me,” I started but he shook his head.
“We’re a team, a partnership. Equals. I’ll always wait for you. We should meet him together, anyway.”
Nodding I put on one of my new bras and a shirt I found in one of my shopping bags from earlier. Not five minutes later we were holding hands, leaving the room together. It felt as if something had changed in regards to me and the men. They looked upon me with respect instead of curiosity now, and gave us room to walk as we headed for the conference room.
“He’s getting anxious,” Raymond said, jogging up to us from the door ahead.
“He can suck my dick,” Eddie spat as he marched with purpose into the room.
Clarence was standing across the room, palms flat on the table and anger written across his face.
“You don’t come into my home and demand my attention, blood sucker. I don’t care who you think you are.”
Clarence wasn’t listening to Eddie’s rant. He was looking at me with the most curious expression.
“What is that?” Clarence whispered, his eyes begging mine for something.
“What’s what?” Eddy demanded.
“What’s… that smell?”
Clarence took a moment, looking me over from head to toe.
Taking a step forward and partially in front of me, Eddie slammed his hands down on the table and said, “She’s in heat.”
Clarence gulped and shut his eyes quickly, as if he could shut out the words. The back of his hand pressed against his mouth and he turned for a second, as if having to take a moment to compose himself. I took a moment too, to come to terms with what Eddie had just said.
Heat? Was that the strange feelings, the strange smells, the strange cravings and desperation? It had to be.
Clarence turned back to us, taking a steadying breath before saying, “Mason needs more blood. He insists that the werewolf blood won’t affect her DNA enough to consider it useless.”
“And why should we give it to you?” Eddie sounded angry.
“Because Addie’s blood is our best defence against this clan. If he can devise a cure, a permanent cure, he can create a vaccine as well.”
“Isn’t that what got us all into this ginormous pile of shit in the first place?” Eddy droned.
“A ginormous pile of shit that left you pretty well off, I might add.”
Clarence’s eyes narrowed as his voice turned cold.
Eddie’s teeth started to grind together and I saw the rippling beneath his t-shirt of muscles preparing to morph into a beast. Placing a hand on his shoulder, he tensed, then relaxed a little.
“I seem to have better luck than you, at least,” Eddie settled on, going for an emotional dig instead of physical violence.
Clarence’s jaw worked and he licked his lips as if trying to bite back a retort.
“Now, I don’t appreciate you coming here unannounced,” Eddie told him, pressing his hand backward and resting it on my stomach, slightly curling his fingers around my ribs. “We were busy and you interrupted us. Get your blood and leave.”
Silently Clarence opened a pack and extracted a needle and butterfly sticker, along with a rubber tourniquet and four glass vials. After motioning for me to sit at the table, he knelt in front of me, wrapped the tourniquet around my upper arm and brushed a little alcohol pad over the inside of my elbow. Uncapping the needle efficiently, he touched a fingertip to my skin to find a good vein and inserted the needle, pressing down the butterfly sticker so it wouldn’t move and cause pain as he filled the vials.
“How do we know you won’t just drink it?” Eddie asked, standing close behind me.
“Your blood is sour,” Clarence mumbled, pressing my arm down to the table with his hand and arm as he filled a second vial.
Feeling his cool touch against my skin sent so many different emotions through me, and at the moment, I was feeling them all through a loudspeaker.
As he filled the last vial a tear dropped from my eye, blue eyes meeting my newly green ones.
Clarence reached up and pressed his thumb under my eye and wiped away the tear before removing the vial, unsticking the needle and slowly removing it with a cotton swab on top to catch the little bead of blood that was always left.
“How did you learn to do this?” I asked Clarence and Eddie’s hand tightened on my shoulder.
“I’ve been around a while,” he answered, removing the rubber tourniquet. “And Mason has been on this mission for almost just as long. It comes with the territory.”
“Get out,” Eddie growled as Clarence put the vials in a leather bag and gently placed them in the case he’d brought, along with the rest of his equipment.
As he headed for the door, he stopped beside Eddie and leaned forward a couple inches to say in his ear, “I am in your home, and I may have interrupted your conquests, but Addie will not tolerate a brute in any case.”
Leaning just an inch closer, his lips almost touched Eddie’s ear as he stood stock still, listening. Clarence’s voice dropped again in pitch, probably hoping I wouldn’t hear as he added, “And as you bed her, remember one very simple, but very real fact. I had her first.”
With that Clarence drew away, leaving the room at a brisk pace. I heard Eddie’s molars grinding and watched his jaw muscles twitch as he stared at Clarence’s back, receding toward the exit.