Darkest Risings

by S. K. Yule

  “You were in love with someone right before you met me?” An unfamiliar streak of jealousy slithered through her veins.

  “No. I thought I was in love. Turns out I mistook a close friendship for love.”

  “You thought you were in love with Alaina, didn’t you?” She frowned.

  Now the fuse of jealousy was lit and burning rapidly. Alaina was everything Wilhemina could never be. Tall. Leggy. Thin. Gorgeous.

  “Yes, but what I felt for her was not love. You, however, make me feel things I never thought I could feel. I’ve told you about my dominance preference in the bedroom?”

  She nodded.

  “While I will probably always be a little rough around the edges where making love is concerned, I don’t have any need to use you for stress release. With you, I only want to please you, to possess you, to make you come so hard you’ll never forget me. There is an urgency within me where you are concerned. An urgency to climb inside you and stay there forever.”

  She took a deep breath as heat shot through her body. Concentrating was becoming difficult when all she wanted to do was make love to him.

  “Why did you avoid me for the last two days then?”

  “Because I was a coward. I was worried that you were going to tell me that you couldn’t be with me because of your sister, and I wouldn’t have blamed you. But at the same time, I couldn’t bear the thought of it. I understand what you went through with your sister. I understand the anger you hold toward Marilena for it.”

  “How can you possibly understand?”

  “I had a sister too. Her name was…” He squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Estril,” he whispered. “She was beautiful, kind, lived to help others. There was not a mean bone in her body. She was perfect. My mother’s actions may very well be the indirect reason she is…” He swallowed hard again. “Dead.”

  “Oh, Aldin.” She reached up and covered his hands with hers while tears pooled in her eyes. “I’m sorry. But it’s not the same. I have my sister back. You will never have yours. Damn, I’ve been selfish and unthankful for what I’ve been given.”

  “You have not. You have dealt with the situation admirably. While I’m severely pissed at my mother, I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you have Lindsey back. I would never wish for anyone to lose a sibling.”

  “Damn,” she whispered. “Thank you for telling me about Estril, Aldin. Even though I’ve never met her, I will honor her memory forever.”

  “I love you so fucking much it hurts, Wilhemina,” he gasped.

  “I came to your room today to tell you that I want to be with you, that I know we can work things out. I love you. And you may be many things—stubborn, sullen, predatory, to name a few—but you are no coward.”

  “You want to be with me?” Aldin whispered.

  “Yes, but I might need some time to come to terms about becoming a vampire.” She smiled up at him. “I’m not extremely keen on the idea of drinking blood.” She was even less keen on the idea of him, his family, or anyone else dying because of her decision. Thankfully, she’d already made up her mind to be with him.

  He chuckled and bent to place a quick kiss on her lips. “It’s not bad. You can get all of your nourishment from me.”

  Strangely, the idea of drinking his blood didn’t repulse her. She thought about the times he’d taken her blood. It had been an enjoyable experience for her, and had obviously been so for him.

  “And you can get what you need from me?” She arched a brow in question.

  He nodded slowly. “Unless I’m injured. It seems as if I should heal faster if I’m wounded and drink from another vampire, but it has quite the opposite effect. In cases such as those, the consequences could be dire. Possibly fatal.”

  “I don’t like the thought of you drinking from someone other than me.” She frowned.

  His eyes went dark. “I feel the same, but understand that there are times when it will be necessary for survival.”

  She thought back to when she gave Aiston her blood, and only now realized how hard it must have been for Aldin to watch her do so. “I hope I’m never injured because I can’t tell you how distressing to me even the thought of drinking someone else’s blood is.”

  “You won’t get injured as long as I’m around. I won’t allow it.”

  “Conceited much?” She snorted. “You can’t protect me from everything all of the time.”

  “Watch me.” He kissed her again then trailed his lips along her jaw to her ear.

  “I wonder why the thought of taking your blood doesn’t bother me all that much?” she said quietly.

  He sucked her earlobe into his mouth before gently nipping it. “Drinking from one another is considered an intimate act by most vampires. It can be quite…stimulating.”

  Heat shot straight to her core.

  “If our love-making gets any more stimulating, I’m not sure I’d survive it. When we are together, it’s beyond amazing.”

  “I’d make sure you survived. I’ll always take care of you.” He nuzzled her ear.

  She closed her eyes and let the feel of his tongue and lips curl through her. “Hey?” She finally managed a hoarse whisper.

  He straightened to stare down at her. “Yes?”

  “You have to let me take care of you too. And if we are going to do this relationship thing, I need to know that you are comfortable enough to tell me anything. I want to be there for you. Will you let me?”

  “I’m not used to sharing my feelings, Wilhemina, but if you’ll be patient with me, I’ll do my best. I can’t deny the thought that having someone to talk to is nice. For most of my life, I’ve kept to myself.”

  “I can be patient. As long as you understand that I sincerely want to be there for you.”

  He nodded. “I understand. I feel the same about you.”

  Even though they’d talked, she couldn’t miss the fact that he was still tense. There was something else bothering him.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “The first wave of the uprising starts tonight.”

  “No! I thought this wasn’t supposed to happen yet?” Fear gnawed at her insides.

  “It’ll be all right.”

  “No.” Tears began to slide down her cheeks. “You could get hurt or…worse. I don’t want to lose you. I just found you.”

  He cupped her cheek with his hand. “I promise I will come back to you, Wilhemina. I have too much to live for now.”

  “When do you have to go?” She wished she could whisk him away somewhere safe right this very minute. But he would never turn his back on his family, her, or his duties.

  “Soon.”

  She sniffled and forced back the tears with determination, determination to not waste one single moment she had with him. “Did I mention how mouth-watering sexy you look?” She raised a brow and didn’t miss the way the black started bleeding out over the turquoise of his eyes.

  “No. But I like hearing it.”

  “This”—she slid her hands up over the front of the duster—”is hot.”

  He chuckled. “You’re hot, and you make me hot.”

  “I plan to make you a whole lot hotter.”

  His eyes were nearly all black now. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

  “I’ll show you,” she whispered before firmly shoving him back until he sat on the edge of the bed.

  She dropped to her knees between his legs and scraped her fingernails along the tops of his leather encased thighs. When she reached for the fastening on the front of his pants and quickly released him, his cock sprang out rock hard. The need to taste him shot through her like liquid fire. She looked up to find onyx eyes peering down at her from under half-closed lids and she licked her lips.

  He groaned and tunneled the fingers of his right hand through her hair before urging her forward.

  “Show me how to please you, Aldin.” His heated gaze locked with hers before he nodded.

  She l
icked her lips again when she saw a clear drop of moisture beading from the slit on thick head of his cock.

  “Taste me with that incredible tongue.”

  She licked the tip of him and moaned when he hit her taste buds. “Salty. Good,” she purred.

  “Twirl your tongue around the head and take me into your mouth.”

  She ached to make him want her as desperately as she wanted him, wanted him to lose control when she touched him the way she did when he touched her. The thought of bringing this beautiful, powerful, proud man to his knees with pleasure drove hot shivers through her body and straight to her core.

  She curled her tongue around the crown of his erection and slowly sucked the tip into her mouth as he’d asked. A soft whistle escaped from his lips as he urged her forward with his fingers tangled in her hair.

  She sucked him a little deeper and was disappointed when he hit the back of her throat. She wanted more. She encircled the base of his thick shaft with one hand and tried to swallow more of his length without success.

  “Relax, Wilhemina.” He gently massaged her throat then eased her over him.

  Her muscles relaxed and he slid further down her throat. When she moaned around him, he groaned low, the sound sending vibrations to her clit. She never thought she could find pleasuring a man with her mouth this enjoyable, but Aldin wasn’t just any man. She could happily lick on him all night.

  “Damn, you’re good at that, honey.”

  She hummed around him in response.

  “Fuck! You’re going to make me come if you keep doing that.”

  His fingers tightened in her hair, and she managed to get him another inch down her throat. She loved making him lose control.

  She looked up at him as she let him slide almost all the way out of her mouth, and smiled before deep-throating him again while humming. His hips surged forward and his thick cock slid impossibly deeper.

  He urged her up from him, but she wanted to taste him when he came, wanted to watch him come undone with her mouth on him.

  “Wilhemina. Stop. I’m going to come.”

  She dug her fingers into the tops of his thighs, refusing to release him.

  He flexed his hips once, twice, then once more as he slid deep again. He growled out as he held her over him. His release came fast, and she sucked hard, coaxing every last drop from him.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Wilhemina’s mouth was unadulterated sin. She had just given him eye-crossing, knee-buckling pleasure like he’d never known. And although he’d just come, the need to have her surged through his blood like electricity.

  Aldin was still worried he’d imagined the part where she’d agreed to be his, couldn’t fathom that he’d found his life mate and that she loved him, wanted him, desired him as much and as desperately as he did her. The need to protect her, love her, burned through his veins, his cells, his soul. He, his brothers, and the other hunters had to be the victors of this uprising. If they weren’t? Pain tore through him.

  If he died, that was one thing. But if Wilhemina died? A shiver of dread slithered through him like a deadly asp. The mere thought of her being hurt in any way, of something happening to her, of the possibility that she could be taken from him… He closed his eyes for a moment trying to force back the wave of pure anguish threatening to overtake him.

  Now that he’d found her, he couldn’t live without her. He’d welcome death with open arms, greet it like an old friend, rather than live without Wilhemina.

  He gazed down at her, her lips swollen and glistening from the wicked blowjob she’d given him. He stood, pulled her up in front of him, then bent and took her sexy mouth in a searing kiss that left him aching for more—and more he’d have.

  “Thank you.”

  “There’s no need to thank me. I enjoyed every moment of it.” She brushed her fingers over his chest.

  “I need you right now,” he murmured as he began tugging at the buttons on her blouse.

  “Don’t you need time to, um…recover?” She frowned then giggled nervously.

  “I assure you I do not.” He raised a brow when she looked down and saw that his cock was erect once again.

  “Oh my.”

  “One of the benefits of being a vampire.”

  “I think I’m going to like that benefit,” she whispered.

  “I’ll make sure of it.”

  He unsnapped her bra and when her full breasts spilled free, he groaned. They filled his hands perfectly as he cupped and kneaded them gently before urging the nipples into hard, rosy tips with his fingers. She responded to him, to his touch instinctively, without hesitation.

  He shrugged his duster off, hiked her skirt up around her hips, and gasped when the tiny scrap of black that barely covered the treasure he sought was revealed. He bent and kissed her. His tongue dipped, tasted, then tangled with hers as she wrapped her arms around him, clung to him, strained against him as if she couldn’t get close enough.

  He felt the same way. He wanted to crawl inside her and stay forever. He shoved his pants lower on his hips so his cock was unhindered by the leather before lifting her up.

  “Wrap those gorgeous legs around me, honey.”

  She did so immediately. He loved that about her. She trusted him, never questioned the things he requested, confident that he’d never ask something of her that would make her uncomfortable. Her gray eyes burned with want, with need, and he cupped her ass and guided her over him. She sank down until he was buried to the hilt. He took a deep breath and rested his forehead against hers.

  “I can’t find the words to explain what you do to me, Wilhemina.”

  “You don’t have to,” she gasped. “I feel it too.”

  “I don’t think things are going to be slow and easy this time. I need you too much,” he ground out hoarsely.

  She rotated her hips and his knees nearly buckled. “I’m good with fast and hard.”

  “God, you are going to kill me, woman.”

  When she leaned in to kiss him, and he lost all control. His mouth slammed down on hers as his body claimed her. She was tight, wet, and he plowed through her slick sheath over and over. She clung to him and he drank every cry of pleasure wrung from her. Still, even with his cock buried in her, his mouth and hands on her, he craved more.

  “Can I taste you, Wilhemina?”

  She leaned back to expose the creamy column of her throat as he continued pounding inside her, but he didn’t want her throat. He bent and suckled the tip of one nipple as he flexed his hips upward. She cried out again, and he swirled his tongue around the tight peak then flicked the pebbled point. She dug her nails into his shoulders and panted.

  “Do it, Aldin. Take me how you want. I am yours.”

  He kissed the top of her breast then lightly scraped his teeth over the delicate skin. The sound of her heartbeat, the push of blood through her veins with every thump, called to him as she strained toward him.

  “Please, Aldin.”

  His fangs slid out and he bit down, careful not to tear her skin. The pop of his teeth gliding into her vein and the rush of her coppery, rich life force hitting his tongue pushed him close to losing control.

  “So good.” He sucked and the blood that filled his mouth hit him like a train. His hips surged upward hard of their own accord. “So tight. Just for me.”

  “Yes! Only for you. I love you, Aldin.”

  “I love you too, Wilhemina.”

  Suddenly, her inner muscles clenched around his cock so tightly he went to his knees, but never stopped drinking her or plowing through the spasms of her climax. She screamed his name over and over, and before her orgasm reached its pinnacle, his release burst forth. He cried out against her skin before guiding his fangs out of her vein and burying his face against her neck.

  With each stroke of his hips, hot jets of his release erupted inside her. She held on to him tightly while her inner muscles clamped around him as he spent every last drop.

  Afterward, he relished
being held by her while his cock dwelled inside her. He breathed in her feminine scent mixed with his musky scent and kneaded her ass gently as the waves of both of their releases subsided to a pleasant lull. He’d never wanted to be held by a woman until he met Wilhemina. In her arms, anything was possible. In her arms, the world was a better place.

  She unwrapped her legs from his hips, and he reluctantly let her stand. No sooner had he slipped from her warm sheath when his body—he—craved to be back inside her. He stood, sat on the side of the bed, and pulled her down so she sat sideways on his knees.

  She was beautiful with her breasts bared to his view, the tight, glistening curls between her thighs on display, and her kiss swollen lips. Her pale skin was flushed from their love-making, and he settled his gaze on the place just above her breast where he’d tasted her. He bent and licked the two punctures to help them heal, and her coppery blood hit him again.

  “You are the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth.” He sighed before pushing some stray red hairs off her face and behind one small ear.

  “Even though I know I’m not, I feel that way when you say it.” Her breathless words were low and husky.

  “It’s the truth. To me, no other woman could come close to your beauty.”

  “Uh huh. Not even Alaina, huh?” She snorted.

  “Not even close.” He kissed her long and slow.

  “Aldin. Things are starting to heat up here. You need to get back soon.” Ashe’s voice had never been as unwelcome as it was at that moment.

  As much as he wanted to ignore Ashe, he couldn’t. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “See you soon, brother.”

  He sighed and looked at her.

  “I hate that look. You have to go, don’t you?” She frowned.

  “You already know me so well.”

  “I’m scared. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She leaned against him.