He gripped the edge of the table so hard that his knuckles turned white and his claws curved out and sank into the wood. “I gave you an order, Petra.”
“But…you said people are asking questions. They’ll be watching us. It won’t be safe. I can’t do it.”
Panic and red-hot fury swelled up in him and threatened to choke him. Damn it, damn it. He sensed his control over her slipping. She’d never argued with him like this in the past. He wanted to scream, to threaten her, but she knew too much. He had to get her back to pack lands first. Then he could take care of her.
“Listen,” he gritted out. “We’ve been working on this for twenty years. We are not going to abandon all our plans now. You’re as much a part of this as I am.”
“I know.” Her voice was miserable rather than proud. She was ashamed of his perfect plans. She was ashamed of what they’d done to bring the pack glory.
When the time came, she’d die slowly, he vowed.
“The Pack Games are in two months, and after we win, we will have enough supporters in our corner to overturn that rule. I will be Alpha. Then I will consider ending the program.”
“Really?” Her voice was hopeful. She believed him. Stupid bitch. Such poor genes in his lineage; he was ashamed, which made him even angrier.
“Really.” He forced all his rage down, but it was still there, a seething volcano about to erupt. “Talk to you tomorrow,” he choked out, and hung up. Then he hurled the phone across the room and it hit the wall.
He grabbed a chair and began bashing it on the floor as red fury flooded through his body.
“Earvin?” The astonished voice of his Mage, Nathaniel, raked through the mist of rage that consumed him. He looked up with a snarl, realized he was halfway shifted. He forced his wolf back down.
“Are you here to question me too?” he barked at him.
“Question you?” Nathaniel gasped. “Oh, no, of course not. Never. I came to offer my support.”
“Weaklings! Cowards! Traitors!” Earvin howled. The most infuriating thing of all was that he even had to hide like this, that he had to carry out his program in secret. The sickly and weak had no right to live; they should be eliminated at birth, without question. Someday, when he had enough power, he’d make that the law of the land.
“Sir,” Nathaniel said timidly. “The council is coming. They’re right outside. I think I hear them in the hall. Sir, please, can you control yourself?” He was cowering, his tone pleading.
More traitors come to question him! Earvin’s fury boiled over and he went full wolf. He had just enough control to stop himself from attacking the astonished council members as he raced past them in the hallway. He ran down the hall, out the front door and into the woods, tearing through the underbrush in a frenzy.
Chapter Eighteen
“So, no meeting after all,” Mary said.
Jarrod shook his head. “No meeting. No changes with Briony – she’s still heavily sedated. But it’s a beautiful evening and I’ve got dinner set up for us on the balcony. Maybe we can forget our worries for one day and have a beautiful evening together. There’s just one thing left that I need to do.”
Mary glanced at the wall. It was 7:00 p.m. sharp. They had fifty minutes.
“Give me your phone,” Jarrod said to Mary.
“Why?”
“I need to make a phone call.”
She handed it to him, and he scrolled through her contacts.She heard Hilda’s outraged squawk. “You dare call me after you ruined my life? I never want to hear your voice again! You have the nerve—”
“You dare speak to my bride-to-be like that after I told you not to?” Jarrod said, his voice harsh.
There was a stunned silence on the other end.
This didn’t sound like Jarrod fixing things with Hilda. This sounded like Jarrod making sure that Hilda made a voodoo doll of Mary and burned all their family pictures.
Jarrod ignored Mary as she frantically signaled at him.
“Let me tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to call every Alpha on the East Coast and tell them that if they do business with you, it’ll be a Death Challenge. That’s just for starters. Then I’ll move on to the Midwest. Then I’ll do the West Coast. Matched and Mated will never see another bridenapping in the history of the universe.”
More silence.
Mary glared at Jarrod and made throat-slashing motions with her hand.
Jarrod’s voice went calm and soothing. “Of course, I have a lot of influence with Alphas. A lot of friends. I know several Alphas who are looking for mates right now, and who would like to be able to arrange very public bridenappings. I could call them up and tell them how you ensured that I found the love of my life. I could offer alliances with them if they went through your agency. But I would only do that if you apologized to your sister. Right. Now.”
And he handed the phone to Mary.
What followed was several minutes of the most obsequious groveling that Mary had ever heard.
Finally she handed the phone back to Jarrod.
“That’s better,” he said coolly to Hilda. “Call my business manager in the morning. And don’t ever let me hear you verbally abusing your sister again.”
He hung up the phone and turned to Mary.
“So? Dinner?” he said, with a gleam of triumph in his eyes.
She glanced at the clock on his wall again. 7:08 p.m. Yikes.
“Will you talk to me about why you were such a jerk to me back in high school?” she asked.
“I’d rather talk about which wine you’d like to enjoy with our dinner tonight.” There he went again. Deflecting her questions.
She knew better, she really did, but she found herself letting him feed her chunks of lobster dripping with salty butter, all the same.
As he sat there and talked about their wedding plans, about the dress fitting she’d have next week, about the food they’d selected for the wedding banquet, she found herself relaxing.
Towards the end of dinner, she was glancing at her watch with both regret and trepidation. She wanted to stay. Of course she wanted to stay. But she needed to keep a clear head. There were strange happenings on the pack lands that Jarrod still wasn’t coming clean about
She had three minutes left. Why had she drawn it out for so long? Why had she savored every bite instead of eating faster?
She set down her fork sadly.
“Leaving so soon?”
“Only to escape your lair of deception.”
“Lair of seduction, I believe you were saying.” He leaned back in his chair, and she bit her lip, looking at him. Those soft lips of his were curled in a seductive smile. His eyes gleamed with a deep, carnal hunger.
She turned and hurried towards the door.
“Come live with me, and be my love, and we will all the pleasures prove,” he called out.
She stopped where she stood. “That valleys, groves, hills and fields, woods or steepy mountain yields,” she answered without thinking.
One of her favorite poems. He had remembered.
He leaned back in his chair, his gaze roving over her in that familiar fashion that she found so arousing. “And we will sit upon the rocks, seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,” he said.
I’ve got to get out of here, now, she thought.
But instead she heard herself say, “By shallow rivers, to whose falls, melodious birds sing Madrigals.”
He nodded approvingly.
“And I will make thee beds of roses, and a thousand fragrant posies. A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.”
She turned around.
“Oh yeah?” she challenged him. “Do you even know what a kirtle is?”
“No, do you?’
“That’s not the point.”
“Whatever they are, if you want one, I’ll make it for you.” And then it hit her.
It swept over her, just as it had the last time, except that this time she didn’t fight it. S
he couldn’t. She didn’t want to. Maybe moonrise made Alpha wolves irresistible to all women, but that didn’t matter. Jarrod had always been irresistible to her.
She knew he was probably going to hurt her. Reject her. Leave her lost and lonely and empty. She didn’t care. It would be worth it to be with him again, to feel him moving over and inside her.
His touch was whisper-soft as he undressed her, skimming her dress over her head and leaving her soft, pale flesh exposed to his gaze. He ate up the sight of her with hungry eyes and she reveled in the feeling. How could she feel self-conscious when he regarded her with such naked devotion?
He pushed her gently back into her seat, then sank to the floor and parted her thighs. He kissed the hollow on the inside of her ankle, ran his palm up the smooth, warm flesh of her calf.
He kissed her knee, licked the damp, sticky flesh on the inside of her thigh that was slicked with her juices. His mouth descended on her mound and he kissed her pussy, teasing apart the swollen petals so he could flick his tongue against the hard, tingling nub of her clit. A bolt of sensation shot through her and she thought she’d lose her mind.
She moaned and wriggled, and he pulled back, his breathing harsh and traces of her excitement shiny around his mouth.
“You’re mine, Mary. I knew it from the first time I saw you.”
He worked his fingers against her clit and she fought against the rising tide of excitement that swelled inside her.
“That was just…hormones,” she panted. “Puppy love.”
He rose to his knees and kissed her breasts, sucking one nipple into his mouth and sending an electric line of excitement straight to her pussy before he said, “Yes. But more than that.”
He gazed up at her with heavy-lidded, lustful eyes. “Who ever loved,” he quoted, “that loved not at first sight?”
Marlowe.
She would have replied, but before she could, he thrust two fingers into her tight channel, rubbing her clit with his thumb until she was groaning and bucking against him.
His fingers were sure and firm, and he curled them back against her inner wall, seeking that little bundle of nerves that would send her over the edge. He flexed his fingers in a beckoning motion, asking her to come.
She didn’t want to. She wanted him inside her, wanted to ride his cock until they were both sweaty and brainless and sated.
She opened her mouth to voice a protest, but then she was coming, clutching around his fingers in helpless spasms and shouting his name as she rocked against his hand.
Before the convulsions of her orgasm had faded away to flutters, he pulled her down to the floor and flipped her over so she was on her hands and knees, presenting to him like a bitch in heat.
He kneaded the soft globes of her ample backside and groaned his want as he positioned himself at her entrance. She could tell from the sticky slickness off his cockhead that he was eager to be inside her, and her pussy pulsed in response.
His first thrust inside her was rough but welcome, sending a sweet burn through her and making her clench against his rigid length.
She gasped, but he didn’t stop, drawing back to surge inside her again.
He twisted her hair around his fist, pulling her head back and bracing her with his other arm around her ribs so he could pound into her, shouting out with each thrust as he stoked them both higher.
Mary was coming, her vision blurred with the intensity of sensation as he pounded into her and worked her ever higher. She felt mindless with bliss, sure she had reached the very peak of physical sensation…
Until he sank his teeth into the soft flesh of her throat and her whole being shuddered and locked in a ferocious spasm that stole her breath before, moments later, she pulsed around him, spiraling down into an orgasm made all the sweeter by the way he held her against him.
She could feel his heart pounding against her back, strong and fast and sure. His scent surrounded her. His hard length filled her. There was nothing in the world but Jarrod.
She felt dazed as he sucked and soothed the bruised flesh of her throat where he’d bitten her, and then she peaked again, shouting and squirming as he thrust into her.
He came with a long, low, powerful groan, burying his face against the nape of her neck and shuddering wildly as he found his release.
Chapter Nineteen
The sun splashed across the scattered, empty dishes on the dining room table. Mary leaned back in her chair and patted her stomach with satisfaction. Breakfast had been delicious. Angela had been sitting next to Craig, cooing affectionately, and Regina had, at Angela’s urging, eaten an entire muffin.
Jarrod and Craig had headed out early to meet up with the pack council and to try to talk to Briony. Angela had gone to her room to change out of her pajamas.Mary sipped the last of her coffee, pushed her chair back and stood up. Today would hold plenty of challenges, that was for sure. They needed to find out what had really happened with Briony, and Earvin was obviously up to something, and she still didn’t know where she stood with Jarrod, for that matter. Washed in the afterglow of last night, and with her stomach full, Mary felt as if she were ready to face anything the day threw at her.
So, of course, Hilda called right then.
“Good morning, Mary!” Hilda sang into the phone. She certainly was all sweetness and light; it was as if, overnight, she’d changed into a new person.
“Hilda. What’s up?” Mary felt a little bit of the glow fading.
“Well, I already have three bridenappings arranged,” Hilda said. “That Jarrod sure means business! I just wanted to let you know, you can have your old job back as soon as he sends you home.”
“Sends me home?” Mary echoed with a sick feeling in her stomach. Did Hilda know something she didn’t? Like, did she have a specific date in mind or something?
“Well, obviously,” Hilda said, sounding puzzled. “Has he given any indication of how long he’s going to keep you there?”
“Uh…not exactly. He’s spending most of his time planning the wedding with me and talking about names for our cubs.” And reciting my favorite poems and giving me the most mind-blowing orgasms I’ve ever experienced, she added silently.
Hilda let out a peal of laughter. “Oh, Mary, that’s adorable. Obviously you’re not falling for it, are you? I mean, you pointed out yourself that the only reason Jarrod would possibly be interested in someone like you is to get back at his uncle.” Mary didn’t remember putting it quite like that.
“Well?” Hilda said impatiently.
Mary struggled to find an answer. Was she falling for it? And for that matter, wasn’t it possible that Jarrod was telling the truth and he really did want her there?
“I see,” Hilda said. “Well, you never were the brightest one in the family, but I certainly gave you more credit than that. I thought you had at least a little bit of smarts.”
Mary was about to say “Thank you”, even as her breakfast churned in her stomach and pain clenched in her chest.
Then she remembered what Jarrod had said about Hilda being passive-aggressive.
“Apparently you were wrong,” she said coolly. “I’ve got to be going.”
“Well, with that kind of attitude, I don’t think I can keep your job waiting for you after all,” Hilda said in deeply wounded tones.
Oh, that’s unfortunate. I’ll miss our little chats, Mary thought.
“Now, remember, when Jarrod does ask you to leave, please try to be dignified about it. Don’t beg. This reflects on me as well, and I can’t have—”
Mary hung up with a decisive click.
The phone rang again. Hilda. She grimaced and answered it.
“You think you’re so much better than me.” Now, there was the Hilda she was used to. The Hilda she wasn’t going to put up with anymore, she realized.
“Hilda, I’m tired of this. I agree with Jarrod. You can treat me decently, or don’t speak to me at all. I’ll talk to you after the wedding.” As soon as the words left her lips,
she stifled a gasp. After the wedding. She was really starting to believe it.
“‘I agree with Jarrod’,” Hilda said, mocking her. “You think you’re so smart. There’s a lot you don’t know about what happened back in high school, Mary. And about our mother. There’s a lot that Jarrod isn’t telling you.”
Mary hung up on her and turned her phone off, but she was shaken.
She turned her attention back to Regina, who was looking longingly at the plate of muffins.
“Oh, go ahead and eat it,” Mary said.
“I already ate one. I’m not supposed to eat carbs at all. I’ll wait until lunch,” Regina decided.
“What are you guys up too?” Angela called out. She was standing in the doorway, shoving her phone in her pocket, and she also looked less than thrilled.
“That was Hilda,” Mary said, as Angela came and sat next to her. “She was saying that there’s stuff Jarrod isn’t telling me, about my mother and about what happened back in high school.”
“She can’t stand to see you happy. Of course she’d say stuff like that,” Angela said, but it looked as if her mind was elsewhere.
“And what’s bothering you?” Mary asked her.
“My mother called. I mentioned Craig to her, and she was all, like, ‘I knew some day you’d listen to us and stop dating total losers’.” Angela made a face. “Am I turning into my mother?”
“That’s not even possible,” Mary said with exasperation. “You guys aren’t of the same species. She’s some kind of futuristic etiquette-bot, and you’re… Well, I don’t know what you are, but whatever it is, I’m pretty sure you were swapped by gypsies at birth.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I think she’s right,” Regina said, looking surprised at the notion that Mary could be right about something. “I think you should make up your own mind. There was this guy in my computer class that I liked. I think I might call him.”
“Good plan,” Angela sighed. “I’m going to go to my room and be miserable.”
Regina watched her go. “I think our club is breaking up already,” she said unhappily. Then she straightened up. “I’m going to keep the club going. I guess I’ll just go back to hacking.”
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