Knowing they would continue to bleed, he pressed two square pieces of gauze together and taped them over the wounds. He would check them every two hours or however long it took for the gauze to become completely absorbed by blood and change them out until she started to regenerate.
After they were covered, he gently rolled her onto her side and peeked at the entrance wounds on her back. Since bullets always entered smaller than they exited, the bullet wounds on her back were already healed.
Noah reached for one of his thermal shirts and pulled it over her head, adjusting it before he laid her back down on the makeshift bed. The thing was huge on her, but he knew it would keep her warm. He covered her with the sleeping bags, making sure that no part of her body was exposed to the elements.
With time ticking by as he waited for any sign of consciousness from Jade, he glanced outside and watched as the snow swirled around the windows. The forecasted blizzard had arrived, and every once in a while, the SUV rocked with the fierce force of the wind.
Unable to stay away from Jade, he reached for an MRE and grabbed a canteen and settled near Jade’s legs. He swung them over her covered ones and placed another sleeping bag over himself, leaning against the side of the SUV. He shivered when his neck brushed against the side window and reached for the heater, bringing it closer.
He watched Jade’s chest move up and down steadily. He ripped open the MRE and began eating, but the worry he had for Jade made the hot meal tasteless. She hadn’t moved since he’d brought her to the SUV, not even a flutter of her eyelids letting him know that she was dreaming.
Noah finished his meal and drank a bit more water. He straightened up and found an extra bag for trash, and soon, he had nothing to do but wait.
He glanced at his watch and noted it was only seven, but figured he could get some sleep with the storm overhead, and prayed that in the morning when he woke, the snow storm moved on and Jade would be awake.
***
Jade
What time is it?
What happened?
Noah!
Jade blinked her eyes open and noted she was surrounded by darkness. Her senses went haywire for a minute and she couldn’t smell, see, or feel anything. She pushed down the panic that threatened to overwhelm her and took a deep breath.
There. Noah.
And a second later, she heard his deep breathing, letting her know that he was asleep. There wasn’t anything indicating that he’d been hurt; his even inhales and exhales were what she remembered when they’d slept together in the cave. She blew out a breath.
He was fine.
It took her a moment to realize that they weren’t in the cave they’d occupied the first time they made love. The ground she slept on wasn’t cold, not like the rocks they had laid their sleeping bags on, but there was a loud wind blowing and rocking whatever she was in.
Her hand shot out and when she felt the door panel of her Land Rover, she knew Noah had made it back to the car with her in tow, but what she didn’t understand was why they were sleeping in the car.
As she brought her hand back to her sides, she felt a twinge of pain blooming from the middle of her chest. She moved her hand over her chest and encountered a thermal, long-sleeved shirt that must’ve belonged to Noah. Unable to feel the damage through the thick material, she slid her hand under her shirt and the first thing she encountered was soft gauze and cool tape holding the pieces to her chest.
With slow, deliberate movements, she peeled one of the gauze patches off and with a gentle touch, brushed her fingers over her wound. It felt itchy and raw, but it didn’t actually hurt.
“Jade?”
For a reason she couldn’t understand, tears formed in her eyes and flowed down the sides of her face as Noah’s voice washed over her.
“Hey, you okay?”
His low chuckle sent shivers of pleasure throughout her body. When she asked the question again, her voice was husky with desire.
“Yeah, I wasn’t the one who’d been shot six fucking times and passed out. Not that I blame you for that. You just scared the shit out of me.” Noah captured her lips in the softest touch.
“I don’t remember much except the pain and wanting to get you to safety. Have we stopped somewhere or are we still stuck where we parked?”
Noah chuckled. “Same place. The blizzard grew fierce right as we got into the SUV and I knew there wasn’t going to be a way to drive through it. But the question is, are you okay?”
Jade wondered herself and slowly made her way onto her elbows and then sat up completely. Other than the tape that pulled at her skin, she felt no pain from the bullets that penetrated her skin.
“Yeah, I’m good. Not completely healed, but close enough.” Jade started pulling the pieces of gauze and tape off her chest, surprised at the amount of blood on each square. When she was done, Noah handed her a makeshift trash bag and she shoved them inside.
“Who did you shoot at, the first shot you took?”
“He looked like a shifter but he wasn’t near the others. When I shot at the tree above his head, he disappeared and I kept looking around for him, but there was no sign of him after that. From the way you described the man back at Ghost’s office, it was the same man. And since you scented him, I’m pretty sure he’s the same man.”
Jade could feel her brows draw down in confusion. “When I first spotted him, I thought he looked familiar and his scent is now starting to smell familiar. I wonder why he didn’t join in the fight. He wasn’t the one who shot me?”
“No, that motherfucker got his spine blown off by my .308.”
“Thank you for taking care of me. I hope I didn’t scare you when I passed out. It’s how my body deals with trauma.”
Noah blinked a couple of times before he spoke. “Yeah, that was fucked up. I noticed when I patched you up that your shoulder was already healing, so that gave me hope you would be fine. But you bled, a lot.”
“Yeah.”
“But once your wounds were tended to, I listened to your deep, even breathing and I knew you would be okay. I didn’t expect you to be okay this quickly though.”
“It’s weird that we have regeneration. But what Liv hasn’t figured out yet is Ara healed Reaper, twice—the second time she brought him back from the dead. His regeneration comes in minutes instead of hours like the rest of us. She suspects it has something to do with the venom we each carry and venom is what transitioned us in the first place.”
“How does that work, exactly?”
Jade glanced at Noah and tried to read his expression, but whatever he was thinking, he kept to himself.
“With mates, it usually happens during sex, during their orgasm. The immortal bites into the vein in between the shoulder and the neck, injecting some venom into their mate’s bloodstream. The venom latches onto the cells and transforms them. It takes three days to transition and I won’t lie, it’s very painful.
“Ara described it as being scorched from the inside out and the worst ache in your bones that you will ever feel. She says the ache is similar to the worst case of flu you ever had on top of feeling as though your bones are breaking from the pressure. Liv was unconscious when she turned, so she doesn’t remember anything. Frost went through the same pain as Ara, but Reaper gave Xander some tips on how to make it more comfortable and although she remembers the pain, hers didn’t seem as bad as Ara’s transition. Seth was given morphine by Aubrey and he only remembered the pain for a fleeting moment during the end of his transition.”
Noah thought about that for a moment. “I’ve talked to everyone who went through a transition. Aubrey said it was more painful than anything else she’d ever gone through, so did Frost, but all of them told me it was worth it. Not because they are immortal, but because they chose to be with their mate forever.”
Jade nodded.
“So, you don’t mind if I think about what I want?”
Jade gasped. “No, I didn’t tell you so you have to choose. That’s a deci
sion that you have to make and if you didn’t want to transition, I would respect that decision. No one wants to start off their life in pain, so I could totally see why you wouldn’t want to. But just know there’s no pressure and you can decide not to.”
The conversation waned when she yawned, still trying to recover from her wounds. Noah cuddled against her side and, after a quick press of his lips to hers, said, “Sleep, Jade. You scared me when you went down, but I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks for taking care of me.”
Jade didn’t hear Noah’s response because exhaustion caught up with her and she drifted into a deep sleep.
Chapter Ten
Jade
Despite the fact Ghost had told them to check in as soon as they arrived back in Snowfall, Jade had more pressing matters to deal with.
They stumbled their way through the door of her cottage. Jade couldn’t stop her hands from roaming under Noah’s shirt, wanting to rip it off him, but she restrained herself. She managed to turn them so her back pressed the front door closed, their mouths never separating, even for a moment.
“Where are we?” Noah’s lips moved against hers, causing a shiver of need to wash over her.
“My place, my cabin. We’re about three miles from Kai’s and ten or so from Xander’s.”
Without commenting on their surroundings, Noah kissed her again, sweeping his tongue inside and groaning as she sucked on it.
Her body was vibrating, even more than the first time they’d made love. She knew what it felt like to have Noah inside her, to feel his cock expand as he released, moaning her name. Jade wanted to feel that again.
The kiss broke off when they needed air and Noah took the opportunity to look around. She glanced around and looked at her house through Noah’s eyes.
Her walls were painted the same color as the sky on a beautiful Colorado winter day. She had plants in pots in corners and on tables. She had two very comfortable chairs where she loved to read, and a dark-blue couch that complemented the color scheme. Her favorite part of the house was the wraparound, closed-in porch out back from the kitchen. She had it heated and when you sat out there, you could see the clouds move over the Rocky Mountains.
She splurged on her kitchen since she did like to cook, and she would describe the majority of her house as comfortable.
Noah turned back to her and reached for her. Before he pulled her into a hug, he paused and glanced down with a grimace. “Why don’t we shower together? I’m sure you want to get the blood off your skin.”
Jade smiled a wicked smile. “Oh, shower sex.”
Noah threw his head back and laughed. Jade loved to see him so carefree and relaxed. Other than in the few moments they had made love, Noah hadn’t expressed many emotions, other than anger and a desire for revenge. Now that they were able to find the other shifters’ operating base, Noah showed more emotions.
She thought back to the conversation they’d had where Noah asked her about transitions. Although she would never pressure him, she felt a twinge of hurt at the thought of Noah rejecting her. Even if he chose to be with her but chose not to transition, she would still lose him when he grew old.
But Jade understood his decision to wait and think it through. She’d seen parts of Ara’s transition and the anguish on Reaper’s face, but after she became a wolf shifter, they couldn’t be happier. And Jade knew Ara would have gone through it all again just to be with Reaper.
Earlier that morning, Jade had woken to see Noah balancing his head on his hand as he laid out next to her. His eyes roamed over her face, never moving past her neck, and she wondered what he was thinking about. When she asked the question aloud, he gave her a small smile and let her know the snow had let up sometime in the early morning and melted enough they could get out.
Her thoughts about the drive flitted from her mind when Noah slid his hands around her shoulders to remove her parka. She sucked in a breath when his hands shimmied underneath her shirt and his hot skin touched hers.
“Shower sex sounds wonderful.” Noah kissed her breathless, walking her backward. “Which door?”
Jade, not moving her lips from his, tilted her head to indicate when they reached their destination.
Without a word, Noah picked up Jade and encouraged her to wrap her legs around his waist. He stepped inside and closed the door, pressing her against the solid wood and kissing her breathless. There was a sort of desperation in his kiss, but before she could figure out why, his lips traveled down to her neck and he sucked, hard, as if he intended to leave his mark on her skin.
“Noah, more. I need you.”
With one last suckle on her skin, he pulled away before he made quick work of her clothes. When she stood there, naked and panting at what was to come, Noah curled his hand around the hem of his shirt and started to peel it up his body, exposing inch after inch of beautiful, tanned skin. His washboard abs made her shiver, but when he lifted the cotton above his pectorals, she noticed his nipples were hard. The muscles in his arms flexed as he slipped the shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor.
Her breath held in her chest as he reached for the button of his jeans, flicking it open with ease with two of his fingers.
“When did you start being a tease?” Her voice came out low, almost a growl.
“The moment you started looking at me like that. Your skin’s flushed and your green eyes are so wide that I almost can’t see the emerald ring around them. Your chest is rising and falling with deep breaths and you look like you’re shaking, trying to hold back from touching me.”
Noah paused and captured her gaze in his. “You don’t have to hold back. I’m not breakable and I want to be inside you as much as you want me.”
Moving before he said the last word, Jade reached for his jeans and without thought, shredded them, doing the same with his boxer briefs, leaving him naked and his cock pulsing against his stomach.
Jade reached around and turned on the shower, waiting until steam started pouring out of the glass enclosure, before she walked Noah inside. She reached blindly for the door and once she had it closed, she dropped to her knees and took Noah’s hard cock in her mouth.
“Fuck!”
Noah’s hands clenched in her hair and she liked his reaction. She quickly swallowed him down, relaxing her throat, until her mouth had taken him all in. Without knowing quite what she was doing, having only done this one time, Jade pressed her mouth closed, keeping her teeth out of the way, and slowly moved her mouth up while her tongue licked the underside of his cock like a lollipop.
When she reached the tip, she slicked her tongue back and forth against his slit, tasting Noah and savoring his flavor.
“Jade, baby, I’m not going to last long.”
With reluctance, torn between wanting him to come in her mouth or deep inside her pussy, she stood and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“Fuck me. I need you inside me.”
Noah cupped her ass and lifted her up until her hips met his. Unintentional or not, Noah slammed her against the back wall of the shower, causing her to groan and shivers of pleasure to wash over her. With the sight of the water pounding against his shoulders and back, his hair wet, and his chest heaving up and down with effort, she felt a gush of wetness run down her thigh.
Noah groaned when he lined up his cock and felt her slicked wetness leaking from her pussy.
She opened her mouth to beg, but at that moment, Noah pressed his chest to hers and drove inside. The anticipation and the unpredictability of his stroke caused Jade to clench down on his cock, squeezing him as he clenched his cheeks and pulled back.
“So wet for me, baby. What was it? The anticipation of my cock pounding you until you came?”
“Yes, all of it. You looked sexy standing under the stream of water but I love how rough you are with me.”
Noah leaned forward and bit her lip gently between his teeth. He slanted his head and devoured her mouth. When a fresh wave of her wetness was
hed over his cock, his tongue explored every inch of her mouth as he lifted her hips up and dropped her down on his cock as he brought his hips forward. He was impaling her on his cock and she couldn’t get enough.
He lifted her up until his mouth could reach her nipples. He sucked one into his mouth, tonguing the nipple, and Jade shivered in his arms as he overloaded every one of her nerve endings. He dropped her back down on his cock, before he lifted her again, feasting on the other nipple.
“I love how you grip my cock, as if you never want me to leave your tight—”
Noah threw his head back when Jade squeezed him, her orgasm striking her without warning, and she screamed his name. His hips never stopped moving, fucking her orgasm out of her as she shivered in his arms.
Her head landed on his shoulder when her orgasm passed. His cock twitched inside her, and she groaned, loving the pulse of his heartbeat against her ear.
“Sit on the bench behind you. I want to ride you until you come deep in me.”
Noah moved slowly and lowered himself down until he was seated on the wooden bench out of the direct line of the shower head. She stepped onto the floor and turned around, Noah facing her back. She straddled his legs and arched her back as she sank back onto his cock, drawing a low groan from deep in his chest.
Going by instinct alone, Jade raised and lowered herself on Noah’s cock, loving that this position left his hands free to explore and he took advantage of their position.
Noah’s grips started on her hips before traveling up her sides, his destination obvious when he cupped her breasts in his hands and groaned. The rough pads of his thumbs caused her to shudder on his lap, but she didn’t stop her movements. Every once in a while she would add a twist to her hips, clenching down on him, as her head tilted back, moaning his name over and over again.
His fingers reached her clit and when he squeezed it between his forefinger and thumb, another orgasm washed over her body and she could hear the splash of her release on the marble tiled floor of the shower.
“That’s fucking sexy, when you come all over me.”
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