Electric series- Raven Investigations BoxSet

by Stacey Brutger

  “Go slowly. It takes practice.” He gave her a pained smile, but the glimmer in his eyes said he would trade places with Durant and endure the torture in a heartbeat.

  She leaned closer to Durant, barely brushing her lips against his, marveling when he trembled beneath her. Then she stopped thinking as she nibbled on his bottom lip, until a pained groan tore from him.

  Her senses prickled painfully at the back of her mind, and she craved more, wanted everything, so much so, it was a struggle to contain the broiling emotions. She pulled back, wanting a few seconds to catch her breath, but Durant lifted his head, following her lips and deepening the kiss.

  And Raven let go of the fear and control.

  She reached for his face, sank her fingers into the soft strands of his hair, half aware that she was getting lost in the feeling of him, and not giving a damn. Magic trickled away from her and snapped around them. Only when he grunted did the haze lift from her mind, and she tore her mouth away.

  That’s when she saw Jackson standing in the middle of the room, raw energy crackling around him, the current moving like an invisible wind. His pants were slung low on his hips, zipped but unbuttoned.

  The need to touch him was irresistible, and she watched in amazement as the current wrapped around him, brushing over his skin, his whisky-colored eyes splintering to a neon yellow.

  A hungry growl escaped him, and he lunged.

  Durant flipped her over onto her back, then launched himself off the bed, the two bodies colliding with a heavy thump, their vicious snarls echoing in the room. Raven rolled, then froze as she saw the two men straining against each other. She watched them, every inch of her body aching with the raw need to be touched.

  As if drawn to the masculine power, Raven dragged herself off the bed and placed her hand against the molten gold symbols embedded along Durant’s back. His shoulders dropped, and he inhaled deeply, as if he’d just run a marathon while being chased by a pack of wolves.

  When Jackson moved to go around him to get to her, Durant’s head snapped up, and he grappled to hold him back.

  “Maybe it would be best for you to take a shower and cool off.” The tiger didn’t look at her, his voice low and guttural. “When we can no longer smell your lust, we should be able to regain our sanity.”

  Though he spoke gently, the words slammed into her like a blow, and she hastily backed away from them.

  She was like poison, her touch just as deadly as ever. Pain battered both her mind and body like someone was carving her open and rearranging her organs.

  She turned and stumbled blindly into the bathroom, the door shutting behind her with a small click, shattering her heart in the process.

  A heavy thud landed on the door a second later, the latch cracking. The door slammed into her back, and she was catapulted forward. Before she could land, strong arms caught her around the waist and picked her up.

  Jackson.

  “Release me.” She hated the sob in her voice.

  Instead, he turned them, and she saw Durant standing in the doorway, breathing hard, his wild mane of untamed hair sticking up, the golden tints gleaming under the harsh lights. He boldly stepped closer, sandwiching her between the two men, when his lips slammed down against hers.

  She resisted for a few seconds, not wanting to set them off again, but their hold only tightened, the kiss turning punishing. Jackson grabbed her clenched hands, placing one on Durant and kept the other, wrapping it around the back of his neck.

  Everything inside her went boneless, the hunger relentless, but touching both of them eased the constant ache, leaving her in a puddle of mindless pleasure.

  Jackson tipped his head down, nibbling along her neck, biting hard enough to sting, and she arched into them in a silent demand for more.

  Then as quickly as they came, both men pulled away, leaving her staggering for footing. The men walked toward the door without a backward glance.

  “What the hell?” She wanted to follow them, but her legs were useless, leaving her clinging to the sink to remain upright.

  Both men turned, Durant with a satisfied curl to his lips, while Jackson only raised a brow. “We were treating you as we would any normal female shifter. That was our fault. You have never been normal, and we forgot to take that into account. When you focus on just one of us, you quickly overwhelm our senses, and our beasts want nothing more than to lay claim. When we both touch you, your focus is divided, leaving us with our wits intact enough to control ourselves.”

  And left her a mindless idiot.

  Raven straightened, not sure she liked the glint in his eyes, suddenly uncertain of his intent.

  “Which means you no longer have to hide when you’re with us. When your power rises, we’ll distract you.”

  “What?” she managed to croak, her throat too dry to speak properly, and she shivered at his tone.

  “You still haven’t accepted your power, so you’re overwhelmed when it rises. When we distract you, every thought about your powers or animals vanishes.”

  Durant sounded smug, the ass, but he wasn’t wrong.

  She shook her head, her heart clenching at their idiocy for risking their lives over a kiss. “You don’t know that.”

  “Don’t we?” Durant raked his eyes down her body, as if wanting to prove his point to her all over again, and her breath caught in her throat.

  Were they right?

  Before she could formulate a protest, they shut the door in her stunned face. If she listened hard enough, she could hear them discussing plans for her.

  “She won’t refuse us.” Jackson seemed almost worried.

  She was ashamed to admit that even if it meant putting them in danger, she didn’t think she could turn them any longer.

  “No,” Durant agreed. “But she’s not ready yet. Not until she feels in control of herself and her powers.”

  “So we wait.”

  Tears sprang into her eyes at the care they took of her, and she blinked them away, knowing that they were purposely talking loud enough for her to hear.

  They were giving her time.

  Oh, she didn’t doubt that they would push her, but she was pathetically grateful that they hadn’t given up on her yet.

  Raven stripped and stepped into the shower, turning the dials all the way cold to get her head back in the game. She needed to figure out a way to accept her newly changed powers, and the only way to do it was to stop hiding, stop running.

  She needed to train.

  It was the only way she was going to learn.

  The last thing she wanted was to bring more people into her life, but she only knew of one person who was ruthless and vicious enough to keep her in check, who would do what needed to be done if she lost control.

  Randolph—the pack assassin who had been sent to kill her on more than one occasion.

  He would come if she asked. He was a psychopath who killed without remorse, his powers similar to her own. He considered her a curiosity. Though he called her a friend, she didn’t believe he really knew the meaning of the word. She was a mystery he couldn’t solve. She constantly had killers hunting her. He considered them comrades, twin souls, but she didn’t doubt for a second that he would try to kill her if he believed he would come out the victor.

  To him it was all a game.

  He loved the hunt, the thrill of the chase, and she was the ultimate beast. Killing humans had become too easy, so he switched to paranormals. The ParaConsulate who ruled over the paranormals in the region had given him their blessing, as long as the kills were sanctioned.

  Randolph would come if she dangled the right bait, and what better than a secret society of hit men?

  Satisfied with her somewhat reckless plan, she shut off the shower and quickly toweled dry. She hesitated by the door, listening for movement, but only silence greeted her. Cautiously cracking open the door, she nearly sighed with relief to find the bedroom empty.

  The bed was made, the room spotless, everything so normal
it was as if the drama this morning never happened.

  She quickly dressed, her hands hesitating over the drawer that contained the gloves, then resolutely turning away. After years of wearing them to protect others from her deadly magic, the freedom to touch another person still made her pause.

  Heated skin.

  Cool stone.

  Warm sunshine.

  Touch was a blessing most people took for granted.

  Not her.

  Unless she was given a reason, she was going to trust her powers to keep them safe. Before the others could stop her, she dialed Randolph’s number and left him a message, keeping it as cryptic as possible. He would either come or he wouldn’t.

  She just hoped she hadn’t made the situation worse.

  Chapter Ten

  Raven was surprised to feel a little anxious without the guys surrounding her. She’d been separated from her pack for much too long, still worried that something would happen if she wasn’t there to protect them.

  As she headed toward the door, the mating heat began to rise again, and she cursed. Like a jinx, she wondered if she’d summoned the cravings simply by thinking about her men.

  She yanked open her door, hounded by her troubled thoughts, and she scurried out…only to lurch back when she nearly plowed into Jackson.

  “Hulking much?” She should’ve sensed him in the hall and resented his ability to rattle her.

  As if amused by her thoughts, he crossed his arms and raised a brow. “I was waiting for you. One of us needs to be near you at all times.”

  She scowled. She did not need to be treated like a kid who needed babysitting.

  Halfway down the stairs she noticed the house was eerily silent, and she slowed her mad dash.

  They were plotting without her.

  Again.

  She halted at the base of the steps, then turned and crossed her arms, drumming her fingers in annoyance when Jackson continued to calmly saunter down the stairs.

  Everyone else believed she was the one in charge, the pack leader—which was laughable. If only they knew the truth. Someone really should inform the rest of her pack. She glared at Jackson. “So what have you all decided?”

  “They’re in the kitchen.”

  Raven narrowed her eyes and whirled away from him, huffing out a breath of pure annoyance when he remained silent.

  Obstinate bastard.

  A snort sounded behind her, and she stiffened, realizing that she must have said that last bit out loud.

  She headed toward the kitchen, conscious of him following so closely she could literally feel him breathing down her neck. She slammed into the swinging door, only to stop short when she saw the room was empty except for London.

  She expected to face the tribunal, and she suddenly felt uncertain about being alone with the big shifter after his confession yesterday. He had his back to her, pouring a cup of coffee. Seeing that the table was still full of food, she gingerly sat. Though Dina was a wonderful caretaker, she was a horrible cook. Since the food look edible, she suspected Taggert had a hand in cooking this morning.

  When London turned, she expected him to grunt at her and leave the room the way he usually did. Instead, he placed a cup of coffee on the table at her elbow and nudged it toward her. She was so startled, she froze and the food slid off her fork to plop back onto her plate. “Huh?”

  A bear never shared food.

  He barely tolerated being in the same room with her every morning…her thoughts trailed off.

  Picking through her memories, she realized for the first time that they had spent almost every morning together since he came to live with her. If he wanted to be alone, he could’ve easily avoided her. Instead, he always had coffee prepared just the way she liked it.

  He grumbled at her, a scowl on his face, and she grabbed the offered coffee. He grunted, and she was shocked to realize that his mood wasn’t annoyance as she normally thought, but pleasure that she accepted food from him.

  She nearly choked on her coffee when it went down the wrong pipe.

  Shifters only shared food when they were courting. London only made one pot of coffee, and he did it every morning, then stood in front of it territorially, drinking one cup after another, but making sure to always save the last cup for her.

  He considered it a necessary food group—meat, sweets, and coffee.

  How could she have been so blind?

  Instead of leaving and disappearing into his den as he normally would, he lingered next to her, as if patiently waiting for her attention. His brown eyes were so dark they appeared almost black. Some might mistake him as being devoid of emotions, but they were wrong. He simply kept things close to his chest.

  “Tell me.” She kept it blunt and to the point. He hated bullshitting as much as she did.

  Instead of speaking, he stripped his shirt off over his head, and she fell back against her chair, surprised by his bulk and the sheer muscle mass of the man. His skin tone was a honey color that no sun could produce, his chest covered with black hair, not overgrown and disgusting like a scraggly mutt, but intriguing enough that she wondered what it would feel like to skim her palms over it.

  Stunned by her thoughts, she jerked her attention away from him and peered over his shoulder, looking anywhere but at him, wondering about her unexpected reaction.

  It was the mating heat that triggered it…right?

  Only instead of getting away from him, he stepped closer, the large mountain of a man blocking her view of everything but him. She’d never seen anyone so tightly packed with muscles. His arms were corded, his veins stood out, and his pecs were so well defined her fingers itched to explore. Though his stomach wasn’t as defined as some…he was too big a man…there wasn’t an inch of fat on him, which she could attest to up close and personal.

  There wasn’t anything soft or gentle about him.

  “Ummm, what’cha doing?” She reluctantly forced herself to meet his gaze, then wished she hadn’t. She scraped back her chair and lurched to her feet, nearly jumping a foot in the air when the wooden chair smacked the floor with a clatter.

  She began to back away, but he only followed her until they ended up circling the table. Realizing how foolish she was being, she stood her ground. Running from a shifter not only showed her as weak, it marked her as prey.

  He narrowed his eyes at her, then gave her his noncommittal grunt, and she had the sudden suspicion that he had enjoyed the chase.

  Instead of grabbing her as she expected, London did something much worse.

  He knelt at her feet.

  “I would like to formally request to be made a member of your pack.” The rough, gravelly request made her heart hitch.

  “London—”

  “You can either accept or refuse me at your discretion, but I have no intention of going anywhere. While officially adding me to the pack might seem more dangerous to you, it’s the opposite. You’ll be better able to protect me.”

  Sneaky bastard.

  He was manipulating her.

  But unfortunately, he was also right.

  She couldn’t think when he was on his knees in front of her. “Get up.”

  Only when she found him studying her did she realize he’d done it on purpose to unsettle her. He slowly lumbered to his feet, and she swallowed hard.

  So big.

  He towered over her by a few inches, but the sheer mass of him was distracting, especially since she ended up with her face directly in front of his bare chest. She closed her eyes in an attempt to collect her scattered wits, trying to ignore his small, smug smile.

  He was preying on her worst fears and desires. She hadn’t claimed Jackson when she had the chance and nearly lost him. Not only would claiming London mark him as hers, but it would also give him more rights over her as well.

  “You’re worried about sex.” Warmth rushed to her face at his blunt statement. “Don’t. The choice is yours. No one expects to be granted the privilege of bedding their alpha. The b
lood exchange is meant to strengthen the pack.”

  “But it’s different because I’m a female alpha, isn’t it?” The more people who were tied to her, the greater the danger…to them.

  London shook his head. “Though you might wish otherwise, people are drawn to you. They’re drawn to power, and you carry it with ease. They will follow you regardless. You have hundreds of petitions requesting to be added to your pack, many wishing to claim the honor. You’re going to have to choose wisely.”

  Those were the last words she expected to hear him say, but she understood that he was just trying to help. It was his job as a security person to advise her, and she trusted him. “What would you suggest?”

  “You and I both know war is coming. You might be able to avert the worst of it, but only if you have a strong pack behind you. The joining isn’t one-sided. The more power you gain, the stronger your pack becomes, and I fear that we’ll need all the help we can get if you want us to survive.”

  Curse him, but he was right.

  “And sex?” She flushed when her voice squeaked. She expected him to laugh, but his face was solemn.

  “With or without the bite, I will stand with you to the end.” Tension in her relaxed slightly, then he had to go ahead and speak again, a dangerous twinkle in his eye. “But I’ll wear you down eventually.”

  Raven sputtered out a laugh, knowing he was completely serious, and she was charmed despite herself.

  But he was right on one account. She already considered him pack. If she could protect him more by claiming him, what right did she have to refuse?

  “Fine.” She looked anywhere but at him, unable to face him. Only when the silence became louder and louder each second did she finally relent and peer up at him.

  He lifted an eyebrow at her, as if in challenge, and she swallowed hard, mentally grumbling at his stupid patience. She narrowed her eyes, contemplating his hugeness, then began to smile. “I’ll take your blood. But blood only. No bite.” When he didn’t protest, something inside her eased. “Turn.”