She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer. “Please.” The word was mumbled into my mouth as our tongues tangled together.
I moved forward another inch, maybe two, giving her time to adjust. It would hurt. I knew it would. There was no way of getting around the initial pain. I just prayed I’d relaxed her enough that it wouldn’t last too long.
The torture was all mine now, halfway in, halfway out. I strained against the base need to thrust. Against the instinct hounding me to stroke and join our bodies in a frenzy.
“More.” She arched her hips, taking more of me than I’d planned to allow, but she didn’t cry out. We hadn’t gone far enough yet. It was right there. I could feel the barrier inside her holding me back.
I slipped my arms beneath her shoulders, wrapping my palms up and around, locking her into place, while resting most of my weight on my elbows so I wouldn’t crush her. My heart clutched inside my chest. Our gazes met. I raised my head and stared down at her beautiful face. Her bright brown eyes darkened with desire and hunger and an eagerness that made my beast want to roar.
“You are more than I ever could’ve imagined.”
A soft smile curved her lips. “You are everything I always knew you were. Soft and gentle and kind beneath that rough, protective outer armor.”
“You’re the only one who’s called me gentle or soft.” I swallowed the emotion bubbling inside me. “I need you.” The words came out choked.
“Take me.” The trust in her gaze wrenched my gut, and I couldn’t hold back another second. The sensation of her warmth and silky heat clenched down as I thrust deep.
A short gasp slipped between her lips.
“I’m sorry.” The apology came out instantly along with a moan of pleasure. I fought to remain still. To give her time. I’d hurt her. I’d felt her tense. I knew she was in pain. A slight sheen of sweat coated her from head to foot, coated us both.
She rocked her hips, and I groaned, nearly spiraling straight into an orgasm. She was perfect. This was perfect. We were perfect. “Don’t move, or I won’t be able to go slow.”
“I don’t want you to go slow.” She rocked her hips again and traced her fingertips along my neck.
Pleasure twisted inside me in a straining knot of anticipation. Permission granted, I surged forward, pressing deep inside. Her body cinched to mine. I pulled back then thrust again, building from slow methodical strokes to a more desperate, uncontrolled tempo.
Her face flushed pink, and I lowered my mouth to her nipple, taking it deep. She matched my rhythm. Our hearts beat together, also syncing in the moment. She panted and whimpered, and our slick bodies rocked together, the sounds nearly enough to send me cascading into a climax. I reached between us and pressed hard on her clit, moving my mouth from her breast to her lips at the same time.
Her muffled scream came from deep within, filling me with its rawness, and I felt my release surge forward. We flew together in that moment, our bodies burning with the heat of our desire. It felt so perfect.
Too perfect.
Doubt tried pulled me back from bliss, but I banished it from my mind. Nothing would spoil this night, even if it was the only night I ever got with her.
Chapter 18
GRETCHEN
I shifted in his grasp, cracking my eyes open at the rays of sunlight stabbing through the darkness of Alek’s bedroom. His arms tightened around me, and he muttered something about taking me again if I tried to leave his bed.
I snuggled into the embrace and let a slow sigh of contentment slip between my lips. Last night had been…so much…so much more than I’d ever realized. Alek had made love to me and made me come over and over through the night until my body had become a boneless mass of blissful satisfaction.
His mouth had tasted me from head to foot in the most intimate of ways, ways I’d never imagined. Ways none of the Sisters had shared. I was more than happy to exist solely in his bed, between his strong arms for as long as he’d let me stay, although nature’s call and my rumbling stomach were determined to force me down a different path.
I wriggled a little, trying to see if he’d relaxed his grip.
“I told you to stay.” The rumbling growl at my back gave me goosebumps.
“I need to—” I didn’t want to leave, but my body wasn’t really going to give me a choice.
His arms relaxed immediately. “Very well, but you must return promptly so that I can ravish you again before breakfast.” His voice was playful, but a sad undertone made me wonder what he was thinking.
I scurried to the bathroom to fulfill my body’s needs and then returned to the bedroom. He hadn’t moved, but my stomach was cramping. The last meal I’d eaten had been breakfast the morning before. So much had happened yesterday…food just hadn’t been important.
His eyes opened, brown with flecks of honey-gold. Our gazes met, and then his drifted down to my chest. I was naked and should’ve felt shy, but I wasn’t. I wanted him to see me. I loved the hunger I’d seen last night.
He rose from the bed and walked to where I stood in the doorway, concern or surprise etched into his expression. I couldn’t decide which because his naked and fully aroused body was making me forget how hungry I was.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, trying not to stare at his…cock.
“The white marks on your collarbone, I don’t remember seeing these last night.” He traced his finger across my chest, and I gasped. My skin heated under his touch in certain places, and I felt a rush of something I’d never felt before. A cloud of warm energy encircled me, spinning and twirling around my legs and arms and entire body.
“What marks?” I tried to gather my wits and look down to where his fingertips touched my skin. A pattern of glyphs crisscrossed my collarbone like a necklace had been painted on—but each mark glowed as he traced it, like a lamp had been lit beneath my skin, but only when he touched the marks. Once his fingertips passed by, it faded back to white.
I looked up, my gaze stopping at his biceps where the same glyph pattern was etched in a ring around both of his upper arms. “You have them, too.” I reached out, touching the marks on one of his arms. They lit, just as mine had, under my touch then faded when I pulled my hand away.
He looked at his arm and brushed at the marks. Nothing happened when he touched them. Then he focused his gaze on me again. He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me away from him. “It’s draped around your shoulders like a necklace.”
“Do you know what they are?”
He turned me again so that we were facing each other. “I know that my parents had them. I remember seeing them on my father’s arms when he would bathe. My mother’s were usually covered, but I remember seeing glimpses when she would fall asleep on the couch and the shoulder of her dress would be crooked from turning in her sleep.”
“I am proud to wear your mark.”
“But I don’t know how—” His voice carried even more confusion now. “I don’t know what this means for us.”
I stretched to cup his face in my hand. “It means we belong together. Don’t worry about the rest. We will learn in time, just like you did with your Gryphon’s abilities.”
He grasped my hand and turned to kiss the palm. “I’m four thousand years old, and I still don’t understand everything about being a Gryphon. What if we never understand the link we’ve created? What if I do something to ruin it?”
I’d never seen him so unsure, so anxious. He was always calm and in control in the library. Like steel, strong and unyielding. This tense and worried Alek was a stranger to me, but the marks didn’t bother me, and I didn’t have a driving need to understand them at this very moment.
“Nothing is going to happen right now.” I kept my voice soft and steady, trying to ignore the small slice of pain that’s stabbed my heart at the mention of his age. We would never have that much time. Our relationship would feel like the short season of fall in Texas—so brief you had to be looking for it or you’d miss it.
He drew in a deep breath, and I could see him centering his mind— like he’d taken all the extra thoughts and concerns and filed them away and out of sight. “You’re right.”
“I think we will both feel better if we eat.” My stomach growled loudly, echoing its agreement to my statement. I pushed away my worries and smiled up at him.
A chuckle slipped from Alek, and one of his rare smiles brightened his face. “Very well.” He left my side briefly, walking to a dresser across the room, and returned with a large black t-shirt—very much like the one he wore almost every day, steady and predictable. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him wear anything other than a pair of jeans and a plain t-shirt. The color of the shirt varied a little, but they were mostly black.
He pulled the soft cotton over my head, and I smoothed it down my body, not surprised to find the hem at nearly mid-thigh. Alek was a large man, seven feet tall and broader in the shoulders than most doorways. His waist and muscles tapered into this beautiful V-line that made my insides quiver with a very different kind of hunger every time I looked at it. It made me wonder if he had the same reaction when he looked at my breasts…or lower.
“You should put on something, too,” I said, licking my lips and taking in the magnificent view below his waist.
A mischievous grin I didn’t recognize spread across his face. I’d seen the rare smile on his face—the amusement he usually hid—but this was something else. Something predatory and dangerous that made the skin on my body prickle with excitement.
“I don’t think you’re as hungry as you claim. On the bed, hands and knees.”
I sucked in a quick breath, surprised that those few words turned my knees to jelly. My legs were useless, like my brain had forgotten how to function. Instead, something deep inside my belly throbbed, coiling in anticipation.
He put a hand at the small of my back and guided me toward the torn-apart bed. The coverlet lay on the floor in a heap, and most of the sheets had been shoved to the side from our vigorous activities during the night.
I crawled onto the edge on my hands and knees, fully aware that his shirt wasn’t covering most of my bottom. One of his hands cupped my ass while he used the other to push the t-shirt well above my waistline, baring me fully.
“Absolutely gorgeous.”
The tip of his cock brushed my slick center, and a second later, he was all the way inside me. Air rushed from my lungs, and my stomach tightened. My well-used, still-sore muscles took a few seconds to relax into his slow strokes.
He slipped his hands from my hips around to my bobbing breasts inside the t-shirt. The nipples were already stiff, and he immediately rolled and teased them between his thumb and forefinger.
I dropped to my elbows with a moan of tortured bliss… His paced increased, and our bodies slapped together harder and harder. Pleasure swirled inside me, coiling and winding up like a snake getting ready to strike. My breath turned to pants, and my heart thumped hard in my chest like someone going at a wall with a hammer.
“Alek,” I half-sobbed, half-begged. The entire lower half of my body thrummed with the need to release. His fingers dug into my hips, just rough enough to give an edge of pain to the pleasure of being filled by him. “Please.”
He released one of my breasts and slid his hand down between my legs, halfway bending his body over mine. It was so much. So deep. I buried my mouth in a pillow and came with a half-scream before his fingers even touched the little nub hidden in the folds of my sex.
A growl erupted from his chest, and he drove into me one last time before I felt his warm seed spill into me. My muscles quivered, and I gasped for breath, willing my heart to slow.
He released my body from his grasp and helped me lie on my side while I continued to catch my breath. Then he left the bed and walked into the adjoining bathroom.
I closed my eyes and just breathed, content and sore, though I knew I would be ready for another round in less than an hour. I couldn’t get enough of him, and I couldn’t help but worry that every second I got with him might be my last.
How long would it take for my sisters to find the man I’d knocked out?
How long before someone saw the rope I’d made from curtain ties flailing in the wind on the side of the castle?
How long before Rose would separate me from the man I loved?
A dark, slimy thread of despair wound through my stomach.
“Gretchen, you are safe with me. Don’t be afraid.” He’d returned to the bedside and began wiping my thighs and between my legs—cleaning me until every trace of his seed had been removed by the warm washcloth in his hand.
“How did you know I was afraid?” I sat up on the edge of the bed and caught his equally confused stare.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head and walked away, disappearing into the bathroom again. When he returned, he was wearing a pair of jeans that hung low on his waist, distracting me from my thoughts with the vision of his sculpted torso and the trail of dark hair that led my eyes lower and lower to that delicious V-line.
“Hey.” He touched my chin, making me meet his gaze.
“Sorry, you’re distracting.”
“I know the feeling. Breakfast then shower?”
I nodded. Eating was much higher on my priority list than removing the scent of our lovemaking. In fact, I was perfectly willing to be coerced back into bed after breakfast had been consumed.
We walked down the short hallway to his tidy kitchen, and he ushered me to a barstool while he moved silently and methodically, gathering the ingredients for an omelet.
“Do you like spinach?” He looked up from the cutting board, his hands full of chopped spinach. “I didn’t ask before I started.”
“I do.” I said, nodding.
“What were you afraid of?” He sprinkled the spinach into the egg mixture already in the frying pan and followed with a little bit of crumbled white cheese. “I don’t know how I knew, but I did.” The small glass cell phone on the counter buzzed, and he frowned, grabbing it up and typing out something on the screen. I couldn’t read it before he pressed send and set it back down. “And I need you to be honest with me.”
“I was scared about what happens next.” The words were barely audible to me, but he could hear them, just like all his neighbors could hear our conversation right now if they tried. What was even more ridiculous was that the Lycans in town could also read my thoughts. I might be a Sister of the House of Lamidae, but physiologically, I was a human.
“We’re leaving, Gretchen. We’re going to eat, clean up, and leave. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He set a half of an omelet in front of me on a white plate. “Eat up. We need to go soon, before the town starts looking for you.”
“You weren’t okay with leaving Sanctuary before. You want to go back to the Veil. I know you do.” I spoke slowly, doing my best to keep from breaking into tears. His words from yesterday in Miles’ office still stung. What if he changed his mind again?
“I want you more than I want vengeance. You are mine, and I know in my heart you are the only one who will ever truly be mine. Gretchen, I—”
A loud crash and the sound of scraping metal made him move around the counter, blocking my body from view of whoever had just come crashing through his front door. “Alek Melos, you’re not sick. Get your fucking ass out of bed and down to the—” The fire chief’s voice died off and I could practically hear the disappointment scrawled across his face. “Fuck me. You could’ve warned me that we’d need an exit strategy today instead of trying to shove off without a word.”
Alek moved aside, his shoulders falling, and I locked gazes with the man Alek considered his best friend—his brother. Out of everyone in the town, Jared MacKay was one of the only people Alek ever spoke about during our visits in the library.
The Phoenix was just as tall as Alek, though not quite as broad. Instead of short dark hair, Jared had long light brown hair th
at brushed his neck just above his shoulders. His bright steel-blue eyes flashed, but not with anger like I expected. Instead, his gaze carried concern—for me and for his friend.
“I didn’t want you in the middle of this. There’s no reason for you to leave Sanctuary.”
“Dude, you’re an idiot. No one can get out of Sanctuary. Are you forgetting the Lamassu-witch powered shield that is failing to keep out the fucking Djinn and traitorous asshole Lycans?”
An angry snarl tore from Alek’s mouth. “Fuck.” He tossed his uneaten half of the omelet into the sink. The pottery plate smashed into a dozen pieces, and I cringed.
“What barrier?” I whispered. The only barriers I knew of were the blue shields that guarded all the buildings. They prevented Djinn from teleporting in and out, but they didn’t keep anyone from walking in or out.
“More got in?” Alek asked, ignoring my question.
“Five are dead. Riley found them this morning. Throats were cut. Not a single one looked like they’d woken up.”
“How did they get in the house without waking someone? The teleporting barriers are still functioning.”
“Riley can’t figure it out. The door was jimmied, but it should’ve made enough noise to wake at least one person in the house. They murdered the kids, too, Alek.”
Bile burned the back of my throat. “Why aren’t we told about what’s going on outside in the town?” I spit the words out, angry that I’d been kept in the dark. I knew the town worked to keep us safe. I even knew that lives had been risked when Protectors were sought out and people left town, but I didn’t know the town itself was under attack or that children were dying… “How could she keep something like this from us?”
“Your Oracle knows.” Alek turned to me, his expression stark and cold. “Rose didn’t feel it was necessary to burden the rest of the Sisters with the knowledge of the war that has slowly made its way to Sanctuary’s door.”
Jared released a heavy sigh. “This is why Sanctuary has moved every few decades for as long as long as I can remember. We’ve been in this town over a hundred years. That’s a record. The longest we ever stayed in one place before settling here was the thirty years we spent in the Appalachian Mountains.”
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