“You want it bad don’t you Kass?”
She managed to nod her agreement to the dark statement.
“Then do it. Come.” A light pinch to the swollen nub at the centre of her thighs had her body floating on cloud nine.
Her scream of pleasure filled his hears and the urge to mark her again rose. Snarling against her throat he sunk his fangs into her skin. She moaned in response making Wyatt tempted to come and experience the same pleasure she was feeling. Drawing on reserves of strength he hadn’t known he’d had Wyatt resisted the silky folds fluttering around him. His tongue swiped against her bloodied flesh before he placed a soft kiss to her skin.
“You mean everything to me Kass. Everything.”
The pure emotion in his words brought a tear to Kass’ eye. Although her throat was raw from screaming, her lips parted to form a response. Any words she might have said vanished when Wyatt’s thick length pulled free of her body. Suddenly she felt empty, incomplete. She could have wept for the injustice of it.
Sensing her distress, Wyatt stroked her back gently. Don’t worry my heart, I’m not finished with you yet.
The world around her blurred as Wyatt turned her on to her back, moving her body about with ease. His glowing amber eyes devoured her, setting her heart racing and her skin on fire. She cupped his cheek, bringing his lips down to meet hers in a tender kiss. The kiss soon became wild with tongues clashing, teeth biting and hands roaming over every inch of available flesh. Consumed by him, Kass didn’t notice his hands moving to her hips until it was too late.
Wyatt tiled her hips up to meet his and with a single stroke seated himself deep inside her body. Stunned, Kass pulled back, her body shaking in anticipation and fear.
“Wyatt,” she groaned. “I don’t think I can do this again.”
His wolfish smile made her heart race. “Yes you can.” He spoke with the confidence of a man used to getting his own way.
His words were a command and her body hurried to obey. Her swollen folds stretched around him and soon she was panting in pleasure. His every withdrawal made her body clench tight around him and the pleasure built to unbearable levels. Her nipples stabbed painfully against his chest as she rocked her hips against him and clawed at his back. Smooth thrusts quickly became wild, savage in their force but through it all Kass felt nothing but pleasure.
Their eyes met again and what Kass saw in the golden depths made her shatter. Wyatt groaned above her seconds before his warm seed flooded her and triggered another orgasm, less intense than the first but sill powerful enough to make her see stars.
Sated and content Kass smiled, content to lay like this forever. She felt his hips move and her hands flew to his waist and kept him still. “Don’t. Stay with me just like this.” Unwilling to experience the unpleasant sensation of emptiness again, her legs wrapped around him keeping him inside her body.
A relaxed smile came to his lips. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.” Rolling them, he stopped when he was on his back, her deliciously warm body splayed over him like a blanket. Wrapping a strand of fiery red hair around his finger he asked the question he dreaded hearing the answer to. “You okay?” Now that he’d claimed her his mind was calm, calm enough to realise that he’d been rough with her delicate body. He cursed himself silently and waited with baited breath for her answer.
“I’m fine,” she said, snuggling into his chest.
With their bond firmly in place he could feel her body as well as he could feel his own. Her words were a beautiful lie. Her hips were sore from where he’d gripped her too hard, her thighs would bare the marks of his roughness in the morning and her sex ached from his savage claiming of her innocence. Guilt began to build inside him, the pain creeping up behind his temples.
“Don’t.” Kass snapped. “Don’t you dare try to make this into something dirty. I wouldn’t change anything. Not a single thing. Everything that happened between us I wanted to happen. I loved it all.”
“You won’t be saying that tomorrow when you wake up sore and in pain.”
She shrugged her shoulders in response. “Tomorrow I might wake up feeling like crap but my mate will take care of me. I have nothing to worry about.”
The ache that had been building in his head and chest eased with her words. She was right. He’d caused her to be sore and aching, he’d damn sure be the one to see her back to full strength.
Moonlight hit his skin making his shaft harden inside her body. He needed more, needed to cover her completely in his scent so there was no doubt about who she belonged to. He needed to cloak himself in she scent so that he’d have her with him always. His needs were inconsiderate especially now. Her body couldn’t take much more. When Kass moved he expected to see disgust all over her beautiful face. There wasn’t any. Her smile was sex incarnate and his shaft jerked in response.
“If I’m going to be sore in the morning I might as well make love to you a few more times. I want more. I need more.”
Silver reflected in her normally blue eyes, the stars completely taking over her pupils until the blue backdrop had practically disappeared. Wyatt’s heart shot into overdrive at the sight. He didn’t know much about phoenixes but seeing her now it looked all too likely that they were just as effected by the moon as werewolves like him. If her instincts needed more then he’d give her more. Pulling her down for a fierce kiss scattered Wyatt’s thoughts and left them both slaves to their instincts.
God I love her. It was Wyatt’s last coherent thought of the night but as he worshipped her body under the moonlight he made sure his every action screamed the words. By the time morning came Kass was convinced that there was no other woman in the world who was loved quite as much as she was.
Chapter Twenty-One
“I’ve done it!” Kass crowed in triumph clutching the mobile phone to her chest and beaming as she looked around the empty bedroom that she now shared with her mate. It had taken days but she’d finally done it. Not only had she got her hands on a phone but she’d also managed to get the privacy to use it.
Wyatt was a very protective man and with their history Kass had known that wasn’t something he’d be able to change easily. Still, she had presumed that he’d relax after the claiming. At twenty-seven she was now an immortal phoenix with the additional benefit of being mated to a werewolf. Her need for protection was low, very low, but Wyatt acted like danger was around every corner. When she’d tried to talk to him about it he’d shrugged his shoulders and told her he had no intention of changing his ways. To him it boiled down to three things. He was a wolf, she was his mate and that meant they had each gained a second shadow. Any other complaints she’d had disappeared when he stripped them both of their clothes and proceeded to show her the benefits of having your mate nearby. Heat rushed to her cheeks as she thought of Wyatt’s hot, hard body beneath her.
Shaking her head she dislodged the memories that were bringing a flush to her cheeks and focused instead on the present. Dylan had dragged her brother off somewhere but they could be back at any moment. She fully intended to enjoy the few minutes she had alone with her father before she had to share the two men in her life.
Throwing herself back against the thick mattress she felt her face erupt into a broad smile. Her fingers flew over the digits and she pressed the small device against her ear and waited and waited and waited. Just as she was about to hang up, convinced that Charlie wasn’t at home, she heard the distinct click that told her she wasn’t going to have to have a conversation with herself.
“Charlie!” she beamed, her smile carrying through the phone. “It’s Kass.”
Silence followed her announcement. Kass looked at the phone contemplating the distinct possibility that she was speaking to a voicemail. Her finger hovered over the button that would end the call when a voice came through the speaker that sent a shiver down her spine.
“Hello Kass.” Ethan’s voice filled her with dread.
Kass shook her head in disbelief. This couldn’t
be happening. She hadn’t managed to gain her freedom only for Ethan to threaten the man who had dedicated his life to seeing to her protection. Gulping in apprehension she gathered her courage and spoke again hoping that the voice that would fill her ears would be that of her beloved father and not her worst nightmare given flesh. “Dad?” she croaked, her normally confident deserting her.
“Sadly not Kass. If I were your dad then I wouldn’t have waited this long to cut your heart out.”
Ethan’s voice came again bringing tears to her eyes. She tried to choke back a sob and failed miserably.
“Kass.” Ethan’s poisonous voice continued to fill her ears. “We need to have a talk.”
Her skin pale, she clutched the phone to her and sat up, feigning bravery she didn’t have. “We have nothing to talk about.” Though she tried hard to keep the tremor from her voice it still came through and she silently cursed herself for showing Ethan how afraid of him she truly was. She was miles away from him; there was nothing he could do to hurt her. She had no need to be afraid.
Bolstering her courage she forced her voice to come out calm and even. “You and I have nothing to talk about. You have no idea where I am and even if you did, Wyatt wouldn’t let you get anywhere near me. I’m not afraid of you.”
“So you found yourself a protector? Or is that just what he wants you to think? You really think that he can resist the lure of immortality? You’re stupider than you look. Your heart is mine Kass and you will not give it to some stupid idiot who doesn’t deserve it.”
Hearing the frustration in Ethan’s voice brought a smile to Kass’ lips. Her body relaxed as she chuckled down the phone. “It’s my heart. I can do whatever I want with it and there’s nothing you or anyone can do to stop me. You can’t hurt me anymore.”
Ethan tsked down the phone. “Wrong, wrong, wrong. You are so wrong on so many accounts Kass. That heart in your chest is mine; you’ve just been keeping it warm for me. And even if you’re not with me there are still ways I can hurt you or have you already forgotten who it was you were trying to call?”
Colour leeched from her face. “Charlie,” she gasped.
“Yes. The man who took you in and raised you. Your father, the bane of my existence. I’d have caught you years ago if it wasn’t for his interference. I was going to let him go once I’d found you but since you’re not here I think I’ll make him suffer twice as much for the inconvenience. How much pain do you think your dad can withstand before he begs me to kill him? Don’t doubt even for a second that I’ll kill him Kass because I will and unlike you he isn’t immortal. If I kill him then that will be the end for him. Your entire family wiped off the face of the planet in a single stroke of a blade or the pull of a trigger. Tell me which one you want and it’s yours. Do you want me to blow his brain out or slice his throat and watch him bleed to death?”
“Stop it!” she shouted in frustration. “You’re lying.” She prayed her words were true. “Charlie is too smart to let himself get caught by you and he has no idea where I am so he couldn’t help you even if you did catch him.” The words gave her a measure of relief because they were true. Charlie had spent her entire life evading being captured by Ethan and men like him. He was an expert at knowing when the net was drawing in close and getting out before it closed. He’d escaped. He had to have done.
“Even after all this time you’re so beautifully naïve Kassandra. I’m well aware that Charlie hasn’t got a clue about where you are. He told me so himself…eventually. He was a tough cookie to crack but everyone has limits to the pain they can endure. Your father may be a smart man but he let his guard down when you were out of the picture. He wasn’t as careful with his safety as he would have been with yours. Don’t believe me? Then ask him yourself.”
Waiting with baited breath Kass didn’t know whether to be relieved when silence filled the air for long moments. In those all too brief seconds she let herself think that Charlie hadn’t let Ethan sneak up on him. The unfortunately familiar sound of flesh pounding flesh filled her ears and she winced in sympathy for whoever it was that was enduring the beating.
“You’re just making this worse for yourself. “Ethan’s deceptively calm voice made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Nothing good could come out of her speaking to whoever his prisoner was.
Kass was tempted to hang up, to end the conversation before it even began but at the back of her mind a voice niggled at her conscience. What if he really did have Charlie? How could she abandon him to Ethan after all he’d done for her? She had to know, had to find out if it really was him.
“You might as well talk to her. Who knows when you could take your last breath? Don’t you have anything that you want to tell your daughter? This could be the last time she hears your voice before it becomes too hoarse from screaming to form words.”
“Kass. Don’t give him what he wants.”
Her heart plummeted through her body and hit the ground with a resounding thump. Even though it was wheezy, choking on pain and suffering, she’d recognise that voice anywhere. It was a voice that had reassured her when she was in pain, had told her that everything was going to be alright when they’d been forced to flee home after home, that voice had told her that she was going to have a future. “Dad.” Tears burned behind her eyes, tears that she fought valiantly to keep at bay. She wouldn’t let Ethan hear her weakness. The bastard had taken enough from her, she wasn’t going to give him this.
“Stay away from here,” he ordered. “You’re safe and that’s all that matters. I don’t care what happens to me–”
“But I do!” she wailed, interrupting whatever self-sacrificing lecture he was about to give her. She’d heard it all before. Her entire life he’d told her that he didn’t matter, that she was the one that needed to live and if it came down to a choice between the two of them she was meant to save herself. She’d listened to the words but never really thought that they’d ever be in this situation. He couldn’t seriously expect her to wave him off to his death with a smile and a well done could he?
“That was so touching.”
Ethan’s voice burned in her ears and a scowl came to her face. A monster like him had no business living. He didn’t deserve an extra minute of life let alone the hundred years her heart would provide. An image of her tearing out his heart filled her mind and she felt anger rise, burning away her fears and tears until all that was left was the desire to see Ethan’s head removed from his body and his heart twitching in her palm. “What will it take for you to let my dad go?”
“You of course. I’m going to need your body first and then your heart.”
Confused she mumbled, “My body? I don’t understand.”
“I’m a man of vision Kass. A hundred years is good but why settle for that when I can have immortality? I’m going to breed you Kass. I’ll keep you locked up until you’ve given birth and then I’ll cut out your heart. Your child won’t give me anywhere near the same amount of grief that you have because I’ll raise them in that cage. When the time comes I’ll breed them too, cut out their heart and do it again.”
A hand flew to her mouth as she tried to stop the contents of her stomach exploding. “You’re sick!”
“Yes.” He paused, considering how true her words were. “I very well might be but it doesn’t change our circumstances one bit. You’re going to come home like a good little girl and you’re going to do it alone. The man I saw you with…you’re going to leave him behind. I don’t want any surprises this time. Do as I say and your father lives. If you don’t…well then I’m going to need you to make that decision for me. Brains or throat.”
A scream welled up in her throat but she clamped her jaws shut before it could erupt from her mouth. If only he knew how impossible his demands were. Kass marshalled her defences and tried to block the connection she had to Wyatt but knew it was too late. She could already feel him moving towards her, compelled to her side by the deluge of raw emotion that had flowed into him. Wyatt woul
d never let her go to Ethan even if it was to save her father’s life. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I’m going to give you three days to get back here. After that I’ll take his heart, put it in a box for you and give it to you the next time we meet. Make no mistake Kass I will find you, I always do, so you might as well save me the trouble of looking for you and save your dad in the process. I’ll see you very soon.”
The line went dead just as the doors swung open and a tense Wyatt strode in to the room. His fangs were bared, his amber eyes wild as he scanned the room searching for the enemy and when his eyes landed on her broken form he let a low growl fill the air.
“Kass?”
She burst into tears. He was at her side holding her against his chest in seconds. “Tell me,” he demanded. “Tell me who you need me to kill and I’ll do it. No one makes my mate cry.” She sobbed harder and clutched his shirt. Stroking her back gently, Wyatt kissed her hair softly. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone,” he mumbled to himself. “I won’t be doing that again.”
As soon as the words left his lips her body tensed against him. Pulling back she looked at him through bleary eyes. “You have to let me go Wyatt.”
Eyes narrowing, he let loose another growl. “Never. Tell me who I need to punish. I can’t smell anyone in here which means that whoever upset you was talking to you on the phone. Either you tell me yourself or I find out on my own. The outcome is going to be the same. Not only did they make you cry, they filled your head with ideas of leaving me. That’s a crime punishable by death to me.”
“It’s my dad–”
“That doesn’t mean that he has the right to make you cry.”
“You don’t understand,” she wailed. “Ethan’s got him. He’s going to kill him unless I go back and give myself to him!”
Amber eyes narrowed in anger as Wyatt remembered the threat that Ethan posed to his mate’s wellbeing. “So he can cut out your heart? Never! If the man is really your father he wouldn’t hesitate to let himself die so that you can live.”
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