"Is Mr Famous getting all jealous?" He laughed and surged inside of her body ready to start another round.
This time Ellie wanted control; she flipped their position so she was straddling him without knowing that this position allowed him a deeper entrance in her body. The surprise and pleasure was in his eyes, as she set her own pace while staring at his beautiful face until he touched her body just near her vagina causing her to lose her rhythm as electricity rocketed trough her. Righting herself while Luke stroked and kneaded her breasts before the pleasure ripped through them.
By the time they orgasmed both were exhausted and hungry. Luke insisted they eat naked which initially made Ellie uncomfortable, until she saw the desire on his face as he feasted his eyes on her.
They spent the rest of the night alternating between making love and talking about their childhood and families. As the morning started to greet them, both fell into a tranquil and well needed sleep.
Chapter 30
Ellie woke to the sound of the front door opening, immediately alert she knew it wasn’t Luke, though how she scented Claire she didn’t know for her sense of smell had never been what would be termed as remarkable. The knock on the bedroom door could only be described as one laced with hesitation. She couldn’t see Luke, but as she moved and remembered the night before she smiled prompting Claire to raise an eyebrow as she came into the room.
"I take it last night was what you expected."
She stretched her arms and felt the well exercised muscles cry out. "No, it was so much more."
Claire smiled and sat down on the bed next to her. "I am so pleased, you deserve it."
Did she deserve it, it didn’t take Ellie long to answer her own question, yes she did deserve it? It was then that she noticed Claire's anxiety.
"What is it Claire?"
As she watched her sister debate telling her something, Ellie waited patiently. "I don’t know if I should tell you this Ellie, but something is wrong with Sandy, do you know where Luke is?"
Ellie took in the room which was now minus Luke's clothes, sitting up she found a rose on the bedside table along with a note. Lifting the paper she read the words 'don’t ever doubt that I love you, you are my warrior, and I am sorry'."
She jumped up forgetting her nakedness, slinging on some clothes before rushing to dress. Darting out of the cottage and ran to the main house only to find Sandy sitting at the kitchen table with tears streaming down her face, while Albert was wandering around the house muttering, but Ellie could hear the fear in his voice. Sandy's hands held another note.
"Where is he Sandy?" Sandy shook her head at Ellie's question.
"He doesn’t want me to tell you." Ellie's thoughts ran in obscure directions, had Luke truly enjoyed last night, had he become bored of her already, was he running from her, had this all been a game to him? The list was endless though none of them seemed likely.
"Right now I don’t give a damn what he wants, if he has moved on already I deserve to know."
With pain glaring from her eyes, Sandy frowned. "He loves you Ellie, he wouldn’t do that."
A weight started to sit on her chest, this was bad, inside she knew it. "Sandy you need to tell me, trust me to help him."
"Something's happened and he has gone to find his father."
Ellie's heart almost broke at the pure agony on Sandy's face before Ellie's own fear turned to anger. "Son of a bitch."
She stomped off to her room to pack after giving a series of orders to Albert who she needed to get her supplies."
Looking at her watch, she knew she had to call Vlad even though he would be pissed. Claire and Sandy had followed her.
"Ellie, what are you doing?" She was pulling her clothes out of the draws and throwing them to the floor, none would be right.
"I am going after the ass; does he really think he can do this alone?"
Claire's next words stopped Ellie in her tracks. "I am coming with you."
"No you aren’t. She turned to face her sister, who look determined to get her own way.
"Yes I am Ellie, if you don’t take me then I will follow and who knows what trouble I would get into."
Ellie didn’t have time for this shit. "Claire, you can't, you don’t even know where I am going."
Now it was Claire's turn to smile a smile that seemed way too self-assured. "You are going to the rainforest where the Jaguar's live. There is an old man there who has called Luke to ask for help. Ellie I have been dreaming of this for days, I need to come with you."
Her face dropped at Claire's words, her sister had recently disclosed that on two occasions she had dreamt of two murders of people they knew, the dreams came on the night they happened. Claire had never had a dream that brought pleasant premonitions.
"Ellie it's not as before, I have been dreaming of the forest for weeks, it's as though I NEED to go even though I don’t know why. I know that this is my destiny."
The dilemma hit Ellie in the face, and she didn't know what to say. "Fine but you do everything I say, and we have to tell mom and Ben first."
Claire looked as though she would argue until she thought better of it.
"Damn it Claire, we need to shop before we leave, damn I don’t have time for this." She was flustered and anxious, feelings that were increasing as the list of things to do increased with every new thought.
Neither noticed that Sandy had left until she returned with her hair piled on top of her head, wearing a pair of shorts with a black tank top and on her back she carried a huge rucksack.
"I am ready."
For crying out loud this was getting worse, Ellie's head had taken to painfully pounding with all of the drama going on around her over who was and wasn’t going.
"Absolutely no bloody way, Sandy there was a reason you ran and that reason is why you stay."
Instead of arguing Sandy smiled. "Ellie you will be an extraordinary daughter in law and my son is lucky to have him; however I am an adult who can make adult decisions. Where you are going is a hard place to navigate, especially if you don’t know what you are doing. That place is my home and it is time for me to return and stop running away. I am going regardless of what you say; I can help you find Luke, he's my baby, and I won't stay here waiting for you all to return."
This was getting ridiculous; she didn’t have time for it. "I don’t need you to find Luke; Vlad will do that for me."
"I am still going Ellie, with or without you this is my son you are talking about." Ellie nodded her head in acquiescence before calling Danny.
"Danny I need you to get me some supplies, yes the one we talked about." She reeled off the things she needed before hanging up to call Beth.
"Hey princess, sorry to wake you, but I have lost Luke and need to find him ASAP. Can you wake Vlad." She listened to Beth grumble at waking her husband, but she did so anyway. Ellie didn’t want to worry Beth so she didn’t tell her what was going on, her sister was heavily pregnant, and there was no way Ellie would stress her out.
It was only minutes later when Vlad poofed into her room. "Ellie, do you always have to do this during the day? Claire you look well." As he looked at the three women he frowned. "What is going on?"
"Don’t worry about that just take me to Silvers and then to Luke."
"Us too, please Vlad." He looked at Claire and the determination on her face.
"I will take you nowhere unless you answer my question."
Ellie was set to argue with him until Sandy answered. "Luke's making his way to the rainforest to find his father, who will in turn try to kill him."
They watched Vlad contemplate this. Wearing a pair of lose grey pants with his long blonde hair also lose he looked strange, normally he wore a suit with his hair tied looking every inch a vampire leader who would kill any that stepped out of line.
"No, I will come back at nightfall and take you but not before then." Ellie was not waiting.
"What if it was Beth, would you wait?"
"That is unfair
Ellie."
She waited him out. "Fine, but when we get to Silvers you tell your mom and Ben, if not I will leave you there and find Luke myself at nightfall."
Ellie wasn’t happy at the prospect of telling her mom and Ben, but she would take what she could get. As Vlad took them back to Silver's where they landed in the kitchen mid breakfast, Ellie prepared for the epic fight that would come from Ben. She explained and waited, her mom was the first to say something.
"Ellie I don’t want you to go, but I know you will so I will go with you."
"Mom this is my fight, you need to stay here with the boys so thank you for not fighting me, but I refuse to take you."
Ben had remained silent watching her so she decided to face this head on. "Ben I don’t have time to wait you out, let's speed up the argument so I can go. Although you could do me a favour and make these two stay here."
She was talking about Sandy and Claire who decided to stand firm in their insistence on joining her.
"Regardless of what I say you will go so here it is, your mom stays here, but I am coming."
She wanted to bang her head on a table, this was turning into a pack day out which was increasing in numbers by the minute as Imogen, Theo, Danny and Leyland walked in.
"We are all set to go." Damn Ben and his telepathic link, so while she had been waiting for him to speak he had been calling reinforcements.
Ellie lost it. "I am going to a damn rainforest, not a war. This is ridiculous you can't all go."
"We can Ellie and we will; this is a Pack where we stand together. The twins are staying here with your mom, and the rest of us go. Imogen has the supplies we will need."
Imogen nodded. "How the hell?" Ellie's question was directed at Ben.
With a smile Ben explained. "Luke told me where he came from; I did some digging and found out what a bastard his dad was. I knew that when you found out, you would not let it go so we have been preparing."
Throwing her hands in the air she stomped to her room pulling out her old Forces equipment. When she returned she told Vlad to take her first.
They materialised on a private jet about to take off where a pacing Luke looked at her in astonishment. "Ellie what………"
Her anger exploded causing her to hit him on the shoulder. "How dare you run off to play soldier without talking to me about it? What did you think I would do sit at home and wait for the brave pussy cat to return?"
She expected him to apologise so he surprised her when he answered sharply. "If I thought that you staying at home were a possibility then I would have told you, I don’t want you to get hurt because of me."
"Too late, you hurt me by not respecting me enough to talk to me. You are an idiot, I am still coming with you but instead it is now a bloody party."
Luke looked confused until Vlad reappeared with Ben and Danny who gave no explanation as Vlad disappeared again.
"Morning Luke, can we sit anywhere?" Luke didn’t answer which made no difference to them as they sat themselves down after stowing their bags under a seat, just in time for Vlad to return with Imogen and Theo. "Hey Luke, nice plane."
When Vlad returned again, Luke found his voice after his mom arrived. "No way, take her back."
Sandy kissed Luke on the head before making her thoughts clear. "No Luke, it is time I faced my past and your father. Don’t make me chastise you in front of these fine people."
Thinking everyone was here, Ellie was surprised and unhappy when Vlad reappeared with May, at least this time Danny joined her anger. "Vlad take her back."
Vlad shook his head. "What am I, a bell boy, bring me, send them back, bring me, send them back? Next time I suggest you send out some invites."
Rather than being angry at them for trying to leave her behind, May appeared to have missed the questioning faces. "You didn’t think you would get to run off to somewhere exciting and exotic and leave me behind did you? Did you know that over twenty five percent of medicines come from plants, and there are over three thousand fruits in the rainforest, and the plant life is phenomenal some of them even have the ability to fight cancerous cells? This is so exciting i just needed to collect a few things, which I have so let's go."
Vlad nodded at Ben which Ellie surmised to mean that they had formed some sort of plan which Ellie would likely be unhappy about, he left muttering something about a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.
As the plane took off Luke didn’t know what to say or do. On the one hand he was furious that his mom had told Ellie, on the other he was terrified that she would be hurt, but there was a little part of him that knew his warrior wouldn’t stay behind. What had really shocked him was that all of these people would stand beside him and fight a fight that wasn’t theirs; he was a little in awe of them.
As soon as the seat belt light went out Ellie went into action. "Right let's identify a plan." Pulling a map from her bag, she allowed his mom to take them through the rain forest talking about the climate, the plants, and animals.
Everyone listened intently, May was studiously taking notes, he watched Ellie as she took in every word his mom said no doubt filing it away somewhere safe. May went off to do her own research, firing up her laptop flicking through pages every couple of seconds. As everyone drifted off to read or explore the plane, Ellie watched in amusement as Theo delved into his bag and checked his cache of weapons. He was as always prepared for the occasion with an impressive array of knives and guns.
Finding herself alone with Luke, she saw his gaze watching the white clouds roll by the clear blue sky peeping through them.
"So what prompted this trip to the forest?"
She wasn’t sure if he would answer so she was surprised when he did. "My father caught my brother sneaking a supposedly dead woman out of the forest. That was three days ago, and he hasn’t been seen since. He was supposed to go to the village yesterday so when he didn’t they sent someone looking for him. Although they didn’t find him, they heard whispers that he had been taken."
Nodding, Ellie contemplated the probability of him being alive which was fairly good if the father had found out about his gift. Luke's father would want him for some elaborate scheme Ellie was sure.
"Luke do you trust me?"
With a smile in his sad eyes he nodded as he stroked her face, without realising, she was tense which she only noted when she felt it seep from her at his touch. She now understood that the night before had been real and memorable for them both.
"Then let me plan this, teach me about the lands and then let me take over. This is what I am good at." She hoped he would agree, if he did it meant that maybe he saw her as an equal. As she watched him consider this she hoped he felt the same way as she did.
"I will on two conditions, one my father is mine to deal with, two keep my mom away from him and my uncle, I couldn’t bear it if they got to her again."
Not only did she agree she understood why he wanted to keep his mom safe. They had an agreement but more than that they had made a partnership. As he lifted the arm of the chair between them and pulled her close Ellie felt like she was at home in his arms.
"Ellie in case I forget to say it later, thank you for coming. I hate to admit this, but I feel better having you by my side."
And she felt better knowing this.
******************************************
As they landed in Iquitos Peru, the humidity hit them immediately, though it hit Theo and Ben more who were dripping with sweat within minutes of landing. While the rest of the group were lathering mosquito repellent into their skin after changing into shorts and t-shirts, Theo and Ben declared that they would be fine in their jeans and long sleeved tops not wanting to risk getting bitten to death so early in the trip.
Luke had booked a whole floor in a nearby hotel; he had no intention of staying, however it gave them an opportunity to shower and eat. The dense humidity was heavy and hard to endure taking her breath away at the same time as the sweat beaded onto her face before trickling down he
r neck and back.
She saw Luke tense the minute the plane landed, and much to Ben's disgust she took his hand in a show of comfort and solidarity. Theo broke the tension when he declared that Iquitos was not what he expected from a jungle, and maybe it wouldn’t be as miserable as he expected. When Imogen pointed at the high trees that camouflaged the onset of a vast and heavy forest he cursed quite colourfully. Having seen what appeared to be a thriving city, Theo obviously figured that the rest of Peru would be similar.
Ellie left everyone to shower and eat while she wandered the city telling the others that she wanted to explore, which was only partially true. The reality however, was that this was Recon for her; she listened to the people speaking Spanish with an unusual twang, Ellie was satisfied that her understanding of Spanish was accurate enough to determine that most of it was normal hum drum daily conversations. After an hour she ventured into the bar of the hotel thankful for the air conditioning. It was while sat at the bar that she heard the bartender telling the story of two tourists who had been missing after losing their tour guide two days earlier. The bartender continued feeding them with fear as he spoke about the people who entered the forest and never returned. According to him, as long as you didn’t venture too far into the heart of the jungle, it was fairly safe, if you were to go any deeper into the forest the predators increased in numbers.
Heading up the stairs, she walked into a frantic Danny. "There you are thank god; May is refusing to leave the bathroom unless I find you."
Taking the steps two at a time she followed Danny to where May was indeed locked behind a bathroom door. "May, let me in."
"Not until Danny leaves." Was the muffled response she received from her sister.
Torn between fear that she was hurt, and a fear that she would remain forever in the bathroom Danny eventually left. "May honey, he's gone let me in."
As she opened the door, she found May sat on the toilet seat with a towel wrapped around her with her face grim and her open bag on the floor. "Promise you won't laugh Ellie."
Taming the Warrior Page 18