Prymal Lust

  Her shriek melded with his howling roar.

  They climaxed together. He came in long, jerky ejaculations. His sperm hot and streaming inside of her. They fell asleep while still locked together.

  •●•

  A rooster crowed somewhere in the distance. The cock-a-doodle-doo echoed and wound around Tania’s brain. Vague reality crept into her half-awake senses. Her pussy pulsed. She shivered when her nipples grazed the fine cotton sheets. The delicious tingle almost too much to bear.

  She peeked from under lowered lids. Sunlight, muted by the gauzy drapes, drifted and rippled over the planked hardwood floor. It was morning.

  Tania knuckled her eyes and twisted to Axe’s side of the bed.

  Empty.

  He had left for the base already.

  She should’ve known Axe wouldn’t wake her. He had been so concerned about her not getting eight hours of sleep. Resting her head in her linked hands, she stared at the ceiling. In all her twenty-four years, she’d never felt so carefree, so delirious with happiness.

  Axe had washed away all the misconceptions battered into her from birth. Simply by being himself. By his actions, cooking for her, refusing to let her clean up, her mate had erased the hated tenets drummed into her during Decorum, Discipline, and Deportment training.

  She grinned.

  The three D’s were now history. Fucking history.

  “Fucking history.” The last couple of years she’d lived a double life. At school and work, she did everything not approved of at home. She swore. She screwed cute boys. She drank. Tequila shots, in particular, because Tania knew her father would’ve had a hissy fit if he knew. She’d even tried illegal substances.

  Turned out Axe wanted Tania to shed all her inhibitions, to do what she wanted, and he didn’t give a “double crap” about what anyone else thought. He liked her in jeans. Thought her hair loose and wild was sexy. Didn’t think she needed makeup.

  She stretched, her arms high over her head, fingers splayed, and toes pointed and curled to that sweet-pain point of locking in place. Prymal, being a new pack, and one forged from different breeds of shifters, had no formal rules and no traditions handed down from one generation to another.

  The world was theirs for the taking.

  She flipped over onto her tummy, buried her face in his pillow, and allowed herself the treat of wallowing in Axe’s incredible aroma. She sighed. Turned her face to the side, and glanced at the bedside table.

  A single rose lay on the lace doily.

  She smiled. Reached across and picked up the flower. Sniffed the tight budded red rose. No odor at all. Must be a hothouse flower. Still it was a romantic gesture, though she much preferred a simple bunch of Sweet Peas to thorny and much over-rated roses.

  Then she glimpsed the time. Nine o’clock. The events of early morning came back to her in a torrent.

  Eva.

  Damn it, she had wanted to cook breakfast for Eva and her mate.

  Galvanized, she rushed to get showered and clothed. In record time, she was ready. In case Eva needed medicine or supplies, Tania’d dressed in “street clothes,” black jeans, a blousy emerald sweatshirt, and comfortable wedge sandals.

  Humming, she hurried to the kitchen. Not a soul was in sight. She checked the dishwasher, empty. Touched the stove burners, cold.

  Good, no one had awoken.

  She brewed a cup of coffee.

  Rolled her eyes when she recalled Bandit complaining that the Keurig was the most pedestrian of all coffee makers on the market. The man was a total coffee snob.

  “Tania?”

  She jumped, spilt coffee all over the counter, and her hand. Choking back an epithet, Tania spun around.

  She recognized the build and height of the man facing her. “Dax?”

  “In the flesh. Eva likes you.”

  Tania blinked. “Ah, that’s nice. I like her too.”

  “She’s awake.”

  Not quite certain what Dax expected, she tested the waters. “Do you think she’d like coffee and some breakfast?”

  He snorted. “She’d like it all right, but that’s not happening.”

  Whaaat? Dax didn’t intend to give his mate what she wanted?

  “She wants to see you.”

  Dax enunciated the sentence in a tone similar to the one Axe used for issuing SOPs. Tania set her mug down.

  “Is she up to a visit?” No way would she let him bully either her or Eva.

  The fine lines bracketing eyes the color of a cloudless noon sky deepened. “Yes. Go.”

  Okay, Dax and Jurango shared a common trait. They both hated verbosity.

  “I said, go,” Dax snarled.

  She took one look at his knitted bushy black brows, the gleaming canines bared by his ferocious snarl, and scudded out of the kitchen.

  Why on earth had Eva married such an angry and grouchy alpha? If the man cracked a smile, the poles would surely reverse.

  Tania padded down the hallway and slowed when she realized the door to the last bedroom door stood ajar. A faint glimmer of sunlight spiked through the open space. She edged into the room keeping her tread light and, hopefully, noiseless.

  Eva lay on the bed in a half-sitting position with the pillow propped behind her back and head. The drapes had been drawn and the sun’s brilliant rays vanquished any would-be shadowy corners. She was looking out the window, and all Tania glimpsed was a strand of her straight-as-a-pin thick blonde hair poking out from under the blanket.

  Had Eva fallen back asleep?

  Tania held her breath when ever so slowly, Eva twisted to face the room’s entrance.

  “Oh God.” Tania rushed around the bed, sat on the mattress, and reached for Eva’s hands. After checking to ensure her fingers hadn’t been broken or injured, Tania clasped her hands, and gave Eva a soft, reassuring squeeze.

  She scanned Eva s wounds and, mindful of Jaz’s advice earlier that morning, didn’t attempt to stifle her instinctive winces.

  A pentagram had been carved into Eva’s forehead. Her cheeks had been slashed, her lips were swollen, and the corners had deep cracks. “Oh Eva.”

  “Hi.” Eva’s voice was coarse, the single word barely decipherable.

  “Don’t talk. I can see how much it hurts. Oh God, Eva I’m so sorry that this happened to you. I’m so sorry about the baby. I wish, I just wish, I could’ve done something to stop the Jäegers.”

  The pain Eva must have endured. Still must be in. How could anyone have hurt such a gentle soul? A murderous rage had Tania seeing scarlet. She’d take a machete and hack off the fingers of each of the Jäeger who executed this carnage.

  “Can write,” Eva mumbled.

  “Are you sure you’re up to it?”

  Exhaustion lined Eva’s features. She had dark shadows under her honey brown eyes. Yellow and purple bruises marred her normal peaches and cream complex. Her nose, once the perfect example of a cute up-turned one, had been smushed to one side.

  Eva shook her head and pointed to a yellow pad and pen lying on the dresser.

  Tania fetched both items and handed them to Eva who began scribbling furiously. She studied her friend and realized that one of Eva’s eyes was almost closed shut, noticed that her hair had been chopped in places, and that one ear lobe had been ripped.

  Had Eva’s father and mother condoned this butchery of their daughter? Tania couldn’t begin to imagine how betrayed and distressed Eva felt. The agony and anguish of having your own family turn on you.

  Eva tapped the pencil on Tania’s knuckles and turned the pad around.

  Tania jerked out of her morbid musings. “Sorry.”

  Need to shift. Dax won’t let me. Help me. Get rid of him. Then help me shift.

  “Why doesn’t Dax want you shifting? I won’t help you unless you tell me.” Tania tried to keep her tone even and mellow, but she remembered the acute bolt of pain that had hit her during her shifting.

  Eva wrote. Her hands and fingers working swiftly.

 
; Last time shifted was with you. Dax says will hurt. Damn alpha. Can’t handle me being in pain. Won’t let me have coffee.

  “It does hurt. Not so much the going to wolf form, but the changing back. I shifted with Axe yesterday. That was the first time for me, too, since our run thirteen years ago. Shifting will accelerate your healing, right?”

  Eva’s hunched shoulders relaxed. She nodded, attempted a smile, and groaned.

  “Can it harm you in any way?” Tania had already decided to help Eva shift, but she needed to know the repercussions, if any.

  “No,” Eva croaked.

  “Okay. I’ll tell Dax that you want me to fix your hair and help you with ‘woman stuff.’ Trust me, if he reacts the way Axe does to those two words. He’ll vanish like that.” Tania snapped her fingers. “I’ll be back as soon as I get him out the door.”

  Not ten minutes later, Tania returned to Dax and Eva’s bedroom. She found Eva sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Hurrying over to her, Tania declared, “Worked like a charm. Dax went to the barn. I told him to come back in ninety minutes.”

  Tania helped Eva to stand and supported her until her shaking limbs settled. “You shift first, okay. That way if anything happens, I can help.”

  “How?” Eva asked.

  “Remember how we used to do it? Close your eyes and imagine running with the wind, racing up the mountain, feeling the breeze ruffling your fur—” Tania had to stuff a fist in her mouth to suppress a yelp, for Eva had shifted in a blink.

  Memories of her last run with the Wylfen pre-pubescent pack females flooded Tania’s brain. She’d forgotten the incredible golden hue of Eva’s sleek fur. Tania grinned, for the wolf bitch before her bore not a single injury. This was going to work like a miracle.

  Eva yipped, a short, impatient low bark.

  Hurry.

  Tania lifted her head, let the images fill her mind, and she shifted.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Axe, Jaz, and Lycus entered the kitchen together an hour before sunset.

  “What the—?” Axe bit off the epithet. He’d decided to clean up his language that morning. When not on base. In preparation for the birth of the cub growing in Tania’s womb.

  “Axe.” Tania dropped the dishcloth she held onto the counter, beamed at him, and jogged to his side. “Jurango said you wouldn’t be home until dark.”

  “Bandit offered to take half my sessions.” He snagged an arm around his mate’s waist, kissed Tania’s temple, and refocused his attention on Eva whose face bore no trace of the battering she had taken days before. “You shifted.”

  “She did. With your devious mate’s help. Behind my back,” Dax snarled.

  Eva, seated on Dax’s lap, looped her arms around his neck. “I thought we’d agreed that all’s well that ends well? I’m healed. Now, can we get down to the business of revenge?”

  “I will be the one who avenges you. You, mate, will remain here. Don’t even think about it, Eva. I will hogtie you and imprison you in Axe’s underground shelter, if I have to. Got that?” Dax barked.

  “Yes, sir.” Eva fluttered her eyelashes. “My hero, sir.”

  “Insolent, woman,” Dax muttered and nuzzled her shiny mop of blonde hair now shorn into a tousled pixie style.

  “We ordered pizza. I didn’t, ah, have time to cook,” Tania declared. She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “You have an underground shelter?”

  Axe’s nape hair bristled. Tania had guilt written into not only her features, but her stance. He’d come to recognize her guilt tell-signs—she traced patterns with her big toe and studied the floor.

  “Glad to see you’re all better, Eva. When do we expect the grub?” Axe wrapped his hand around Tania’s. “We’ll discuss the shelter later.”

  “Forty minutes,” The Kydd replied. “Jurango and I are going on a beer run. We’ll pick up the pizza.”

  “I need to purchase a few items. Dax and I will go with you,” Eva said.

  “Not happening.” Dax shot his mate a fearsome glower.

  Eva cupped a hand over Dax’s ear and began whispering.

  He shook her off. “Damn it, Eva. You know every alpha in this room can hear you.”

  “You feel like buying tampons and a douch—”

  “Enough. We’ll go. But you’ll do exactly what I say and you will remain glued to my side.” Dax lurched to standing holding Eva in his arms.

  Eva laid her cheek on Dax’s chest. “Don’t I always?”

  Tania butted her head against Axe’s bicep. A slight chuckle escaped the lips pressed into his flesh. The delicate fluttering of her mouth went straight to his dick. He lost the rest of the conversation that ensued before every man, jack, half-breed, and woman evacuated the room.

  “We’re alone.” Axe tugged Tania out of the room. “For a full fuck—fricking forty minutes.”

  “I don’t object to the word fucking. Actually, it really turns me on. It’s so fucking unladylike.” She skipped a step trying to keep up with his fervent marching pace.

  His cock loved the way she said fuck. His scrotum tightened. His dick engorged. Axe halted in mid-step, he swept her high against his chest, sprinted to the bedroom, and dumped her onto the mattress.

  She bounced a tad and sent him this sexy come-get-me half-hooded glance that had him tearing off his shirt. “Naked. Fast.”

  “Oh yeah.” Her voice had gone all dusky with desire.

  He cursed when his laces snagged, but managed to fumble his boots and socks off.

  Looked up to find her amazing breasts bared, the areolae a mouthwatering milk chocolate color, nipples all fat and pointed.

  Axe licked his lips. “Pinch them.”

  Her eyes widened. She raised one shoulder and peeked up from under sultry- lidded eyes at him. Cupped her breasts. Her lips curved.

  Mesmerized, he fixated on her long, slender fingers, and hissed when she rolled one swollen peak. She circled the bud and scraped a red-painted fingernail across the flat surface. “Need you to do me hard here, sailor-boy.”

  His knees folded and he had to lock them out. His erection thickened and lengthened. The head of his cock scraped the cotton of his boxers.

  Axe whipped his belt off, hurled the leather, and worked his pants and boxers down his legs.

  “Gawd, I love your cock.” The lust evident in her way her nostrils flared knitted his groin and pelvic muscles.

  “Naked.” No longer capable of sentences, he footed his clothes off, and fisted his hands. His chest rose and fell. He breathed so hard the sound of him inhaling and exhaling reverberated around the room. Watching her shimmy the jeans and thongs down her legs was better than any strip show he’d ever seen, would ever see.

  She tried to kick the black pants free of her feet, but the cloth twisted around her ankles.

  He knelt at the side of the bed and captured her heels. “Lie down.”

  “Oh yeah,” she crooned. “Your command is my wish. Whatever.”

  Axe dragged the jeans and lacey panties free of her bare feet and flung the garments over his head. Palmed her ass cheeks and drew her to the edge of the bed.

  Draped a knee over each shoulder, and sniffed from side to side.

  Paradise.

  Musk and spice and all aroused woman.

  Her engorged folds had gone from dark pink to a deep burgundy. Translucent cream slickened the pretty petals. Axe shifted Tania so her butt hung off the mattress. His nose brushed her damp pubic curls. He set his coarsened tongue to her clit.

  She grabbed his head and pressed him closer. “Please. Please.”

  Intoxicated by his first taste of her honey, Axe couldn’t hold back his wolf. The primitive beast in him had craved this for too long. He lapped around her center, flicking quick, teasing licks inside. Pressed a thumb to her clit and rotated.

  “Axe,” she shrieked.

  He couldn’t drag his gaze away from her beautiful pussy as she came. His balls blued and tightened in cadence with her contracting vaginal muscle
s. When she gushed more cream, he inserted a finger into her heat, peeled back the hood guarding her clit, and suckled the reddened nub.

  She locked her legs around his head.

  The Feral in him erupted.

  He ate at her. Finger-fucked her, plucked her clit into full song, and drank every drop of cream. She arched off the bed and grabbed the back of his head. “Bite. Please.”

  Incited by her pleas, he grazed his fangs back and forth over her clitoris.

  She shuddered. “Oh yeah. Harder.”

  He kept her on the edge. Bringing her to point, and petting her back down from climax over and over.

  “Axe.” The desperation in the way she whimpered his name gratified his alpha need to dominate.

  “Beast!” He loved it when she tossed her head, bared her teeth, and tried to angle for more friction.

  “Please.” Perspiration stippled his forehead. Her ardent plea ramped him into overdrive. He willed his nuts under control.

  “In me.”

  Her fervent, panted begging did him in. He untangled her legs, stood, grabbed three pillows, and stuffed them under her butt.

  Thumbed her folds apart and positioned the crown of his cock at her center. Pushed in slowly.

  Her sex gripped him like a vise.

  He was ready like Freddy. Too fucking close. Sweat dripped down his cheeks. He froze. Contracted every pelvic muscle and battled the surging orgasm.

  “Hard. Do me hard, sailor-boy.”

  “Fuck,” he grunted and drove into her. “Hot. Tight. Paradise.”

  Axe hammered into her convulsing walls. He pressed her thighs further apart keeping her wide and open to his fanatical pounding. Couldn’t take his eyes off his cock pistoning in and out of her pussy.

  The climax hit him like a thunderbolt. Sizzled through his groin. Drew his stones tight. Flooded blood and semen to his dick. He went ballistic. Ejaculated like a fucking geyser. Spurted cum into her sweet heat. Her fiery sheath squeezed every last drop from his cock. She wrung him dry.

  Axe’s legs shook. His elbows dug into the mattress. He shook his head in a last-ditch effort to clear the climax-induced languor intoxicating his blurred vision. Checked her face and relaxed when she met his gaze and gave him a lazy, cat-drank-all-the-cream smile.