by Amy Star
Lavinia looked up into Parker’s eyes. So far he had been so understanding about her needs. To finally feel resistance from him was new, but she thought he’d fold if she struggled too hard.
“I just think I need more time before I can go out. Is that okay?”
Parker began to crumble in the face of her big sad eyes. In desperation, he looked to Thearon. “That’s fine with me, Lavinia.”
Thearon rumbled from her other side, “But if you continue to stay in bed, I’m removing your guard. If you’re going to stay in this room, I don’t see a need to waste the man hours guarding you against the boogie man. Callia can do that just fine on her own.”
Lavinia went still. “You wouldn’t do that. As Queen, I need to be guarded. I’ve just had an attack on my life.”
“You’ll still be secure. Someone would have to fight through at least fifteen other guards and Callia before they reached you. If you plan on spending the rest of your life in bed, I can’t imagine the risk of a threat even making it far enough into the palace to wake you up. You’ll be fine.”
No, she would not be fine. Lavinia's heart began to race as she thought that she wouldn’t have professional backup around the clock.
Thearon’s voice drifted through her panic in a calm and logical fashion, “If you agree to one hour of physical therapy a day, I’ll let you keep the guard. I don’t want to risk you walking across the palace without one.”
Lavinia’s eyes narrowed, “Only one hour?”
“One hour.”
Parker squeezed her hand and Lavinia gave up. “All right then, I’m sure I can shift my naps for one hour of physical activity a day.”
“I’ll be there for every one of them,” Parker promised, before placing a kiss on her forehead.
Lavinia settled back down under the covers, searching the scene to figure out how she had been played. Was there a way to get around the unnecessary physical activity? Her brain was still spinning as she drifted off yet again. This time to the dreamless depths of unconsciousness.
***
The first day of physical therapy had done more to scare Lavinia than Thearon’s threat to remove her guard. Before marriage, Lavinia hadn’t exactly been athletic, but she had slogged through various DVD programs with Callia and when the weather was nice, enjoyed a slow jog through the gardens. She had taken being active for granted her entire life, up until now. Looking over the bulk of her years, she realized that never had she gone more than two or three days without working out in some capacity, even if she wasn’t passionate about it.
That first day, Callia had woken her up early from her midday nap with a sports bra and workout capris. They both chose to ignore how the previously tight fabric drooped and bagged in places it hadn’t before. Suited up, Lavinia gripped the hand of her bestie and ordered her guard to stay close as she moved out into the general palace hallways for the first time since she had returned to the hospital.
At first, Lavinia had been terrified, but as she walked the ten minute walk across the main hallway she was distracted from fear by the heaviness of her legs. By the time she entered the palace gym, she was in need of a rest. Thank goodness the physical therapist had a bunch to say before they began.
Revived after the small break, Lavinia figured that the tiredness had sprung from the fear of walking out in the open. The therapist started her off walking for a bit on a treadmill, fitting her with a heart monitor to track her reaction to each of the exercises. As exercise after exercise passed and was added to by stretching in between each set of reps, Lavinia felt her body break down.
After about twenty minutes, the therapist called a halt to it all. Parker had only entered the room five minutes earlier, he looked shocked and dismayed to see the havoc twenty minutes of light stretching and walking had done to her. Parker wasn’t alone; Lavinia, too, was worried by her condition.
All that time she had been lying in bed, Lavinia had just assumed that if she so chose she could have gotten up and resumed her normal life. Lavinia knew she had been hiding out; she just hadn’t realized that all of the sleep had ravaged her body almost as badly as the gunshot.
So, day after day, Lavinia gave herself little goals. Shorten naps by a few minutes and do a few more steps on the treadmill. Lift the weights a little higher and read a little more. Get back into the politics of the Tribe. Her hard work paid off, and eventually, the physical therapist considered Lavinia recovered and Lavinia was holding regular meetings in her offices again. But it wasn’t enough for Lavinia. She wanted more—she wanted to feel stronger than ever and she never wanted to feel that weak again.
Parker had switched his workout routine to match Lavinia’s physical therapy, and when the therapy sessions ended, he suggested that they start working out together in the gym. So they started sparring. Lavinia had long since mastered free weights and running. Solitary workouts had left her finally feeling confident enough to get physical, so Parker suggested kickboxing. It would challenge Lavinia physically while also giving her some practice fending off attacks.
Today they were reaching the end of their session, sweaty and breathing heavily, Parker was trying to urge Lavinia on. He was frustrated at her inability to tackle him.
“Vinny, you need to come at me with more force. I’m bigger than you and stronger, and yet, you need to know how to knock me over. You need to be able to put my ass on the ground.”
The corner of Lavinia’s mouth turned down, “It’s slightly unfair that not only are you the one who taught me all of the moves to knock someone over, you’re also the person who taught me to evade them all, too. I don’t know how to lay you out if you know all the ways I’m capable of doing that.”
Parker stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow, “What, so your excuse is that you only know how to fell someone who is unsuspecting or weaker than you? That’ll protect you from what? Half of the population? Maybe less? And quite frankly, I don’t think they’re the ones you’re going to need to know how to handle. You have to figure this out.”
Lavinia stood up too. Hands on her newly shredded waistline, thanks to the hours she now spent in the gym, Lavinia walked around the edges of the practice mat allowing her heart rate to lower as she thought the problem over. How to get Parker’s ass on the mat... Sneaking a look at her husband as she hydrated with some water, Lavinia watched as Parker shifted from side to side, working to loosen up. His muscles gleamed with the damp sweat covering his body and the twisting and turning of their bulk made Lavinia want to run her hands all over his impressively naked flesh. The man really was built like a Greek god.
Suddenly a thought occurred to her, Parker’s challenge only stipulated that she get him on the floor…
Lavinia continued to pace around the mat till she reached Parker’s side. He was focused on reading email on his phone when Lavinia reached out and gave him a light shove.
“Okay, I’m ready now.” Lavinia stepped back and put her hands up in a defensive position, the black tape covering her knuckles and wrists an exact match to the black sports bra and booty shorts she wore on her body. It helped her to know she looked the part.
Parker tapped out a few more words on his phone before setting it down and assuming the position himself. Lavinia was further spurred on when she noticed he no longer took in the view of her half-naked. When had that stopped? She needed to rectify that oversight immediately.
“Okay, come on.” Parker impatiently moved from side to side and gestured with his hand for her to attack.
Lavinia let out a battle cry and launched herself at Parker. However, instead of reaching for his ears to twist and force him to his knees, or to throw a punch at his gut or throat, Lavinia wrapped her long legs around his waist and pressed her hard body into his. Parker instinctively caught her with an “oof.”
Lavinia quirked an eyebrow, in the weeks since she’d started working out in earnest, she had gained back all the weight she had lost in the hospital and then some. The “then some” being a few pou
nds of well-used muscle. In workout gear, her defined frame looked every inch the Werebear warrior Queen she was molding herself to be.
Tightening her legs, Lavinia leaned down and bit Parker on his neck. His quick intake of breath showed his shock and he held it as Lavinia licked the wound, soothing his hot and salty skin. Lavinia moved her tongue up his neck and suddenly Parker stood stock still, the only movement happening below his waistband, as Lavinia felt him harden for her.
She felt his cock connect with her most intimate parts and the sudden rush of need for him caught her by surprise. True, she had wanted him, watching him move around the gym shirtless all these weeks, touching him, learning every flip and attack had been physical, but nothing compared to having him back between her legs. The lust that had remained asleep since the attack now roared to life like a hibernating bear waking up for spring.
Lavinia ground her hips into the long hard length of him and then did it again because it felt so darn good. Both she and Parker let out twin moans of need with her movements. Parker’s grip tightened on her ass and he started massaging the tight muscles as his own neck curved to kiss Lavinia's. Standing in the middle of the mat, they were as locked together as two people could be, feasting on each other’s flesh like starving animals. Even as Parker’s lips locked on the vein that ran up Lavinia’s neck, sucking until pleasure started to mix with a little pain, it wasn’t enough.
Reaching between their bodies, Lavinia groped for Parker. Simply grinding against him wasn’t working fast enough. Reaching into the elastic waist of his shorts, Lavinia wrapped her hand around the hard length of him and moved her fingers up and down the smooth skin. It was then that she won the bet.
Parker dropped to the mat, landing on his ass so hard that the free weights across the room rattled. Lavinia’s hand lost its grip on him and she reached out to steady herself on the floor. Parker used her momentum to push her back on the mat. Leaning over her body, he ripped off the booty shorts and ran his hands back up her inner thighs. Lavinia felt herself quake with the sensation. The gentleness of his hands was at distinct odds with the need in his eyes. Opening her legs for him, Lavinia beckoned Parker to make his move.
Dropping further to his knees, Parker ran his tongue all around her folds. Spiraling towards her center, leaving no skin untouched on his path, Lavinia felt herself go molten in a gush. She could feel herself growing close to the edge. Lavinia lifted her hips, silently asking Parker to move up her body, to take her now. But instead, Parker’s hands gripped her hips and held her in place.
“I want to taste you. I need to taste you on my tongue.”
“No. No. Gods, Parker I want…” Lavinia’s voice drifted off as Parker moved one large finger, and then two, inside her. She could feel the friction of the digits feeling her out, testing how ready she was for him to fully enter her.
Parker laughed into the very core of her. The reverberations of his voice trembling her insides. “What is it that you want?” Parker moved the fingers buried deep inside her while simultaneously flicking her clit with his thumb, “Do you want this? Or perhaps you want this…” Parker leaned down again and somehow managed to add his tongue to all of the other appendages touching her clit. The sensations had her clawing toward the edge of an orgasm.
“You! I want you! That’s what I want.” Lavinia breathed heavily through the statement and as Parker’s mouth left her, the orgasm retreated slightly.
“That you can have,” he answered gruffly.
Parker removed his hand from her and quickly stripped his own shorts. The view was glorious as Lavinia took in every inch of his golden skin in the late afternoon light. Settling himself back between her legs, he surprised her by entering her in one swift thrust. Again and again he thrust into her and Lavinia met him inch for inch. When she didn’t think she could hold back any longer, she reached behind him and gave his ass a loud smack. The dampness from his sweaty body making that sound satisfyingly loud and sharp. Lavinia could feel his control start to slip so she did it again.
Parker growled at her and Lavinia gave him a smirk and urged him on with a slap one last time. She felt his control snap. Faster and faster he slammed into her and Lavinia’s whole body tightened around him in response. Together they reached the peak of their orgasm and flew off into sheer nirvana.
Rolling off of her, Lavinia and Parker lay on the mat side by side holding hands, waiting for their bodies to come back to them. Eventually, Parker let out a small laugh, “Gods how I’ve missed that.”
“Hmm. Yes, I have the best ideas. I totally won your challenge the instant your ass hit the floor.”
“I guess that means I have the best ideas, then.”
“Let's say for now that we’re evenly matched,” Lavinia allowed as they cooled down.
*
Thearon reread the memo that Security Team B had put together. It wasn’t the information he’d hoped to receive. He set the memo down, frustrated. In doing all he could to improve security, Thearon had recently renamed the security teams with letters rather than the name of the area of security they worked on.
Thus, no longer was there a Web Security, Personal Security, or Guard Units. Now they were named for random letters—B, X, V, etc. The literature Thearon was reading up on said that random naming helped. Obviously, if given enough time and intel, they were never going to be difficult to crack, but it did give security extra time to plug the leak and rename the teams. It was like changing a password and so far everyone was remembering their new name quite well.
The memo in question was an overview of the threats encountered and avoided over the last week. Thearon never got used to seeing everything in the form of a list. It was pages long each week. Some of the threats he navigated during the week himself. Larger or difficult items were always passed over his desk, but some of the lesser threats or conspiracy theories were trouble-shooted by the individual teams.
Even seeing the little stuff that hadn’t come to fruition was hard, but it wasn’t the problem this week. What bothered Thearon was that Team W hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the Royal Werebears who had attacked Parker and Lavinia. They were still maintaining radio silence. No one could confirm that they’d left New Orleans and his intel across the country hadn’t seen them either. It was as if all six of them had simply disappeared.
Team W’s latest report guessed that, according to the statistical probability, they had left the Big Easy. If they were right about the previous attack in New York on New Year’s being connected, then they weren’t likely to wait this for a second attack as the first time they had failed they had simply moved on.
The team was using this to buoy the idea that the completion of the mission didn’t mean as much as the attempt. They believed it was more about the political statement. Beyond statistics, Team W had also performed a sweep of the city and had come up with nothing. If the Werebears were hiding in New Orleans, they were doing it well. His staff was convinced that they were gone, but something in Thearon’s gut warned him that they were out there somewhere just waiting.
In the middle of brooding over all of the possible threats on his life, Thearon’s assistant of the week knocked on the door.
“Omega, the Alpha is here to see you.”
Thearon looked up from his screen and frowned. Looking back, he pulled up his schedule to confirm. “No, it looks like I have an afternoon session on security concerns. Tell the Alpha I’ll talk to him later.”
“Uhm, Omega, he’s who you’re meeting with to discuss security concerns.”
Thearon hung his head. He was not mentally prepared to have the Alpha nit-pick the security of the palace apart. These meetings were becoming weekly events and it seemed as though the Alpha had caught on to Thearon ignoring requests for meetings with the Alpha as they were now happening under assumed names.
“All right, tell him I need five minutes and then send him in.”
“Actually, I only have twenty minutes for this meeting and I need it to start on t
ime,” Parker, said striding into the room.
Thearon quickly pulled the screen saver on his computer and drew a stack of newspapers over the memos on his desk. However, he wasn’t quick enough for Parker’s sharp eyes.
“So you’ve been unable to locate the Werebeast group. What does the team assigned to them think of the situation?”
Thearon tapped the stacked paper and eyed Parker up, not knowing what to reveal and what to play close to the vest. The entire situation was a house of cards and he wasn’t sure which piece of information would be its downfall.
“They have no new information. The group has yet to surface,” Thearon admitted.
Parker slammed a fist on Thearon’s desk, further disrupting the order. “Damn it, Thearon, you need to be on top of this. This is the primary concern for our Tribe. Our Queen hasn’t left the palace in almost two months and is only just physically recovered. We can’t risk another assassination attempt.”
Thearon finally broke. Jumping to his feet he exclaimed, “I don’t know why, all of a sudden, the assassination attempt became my fault. Weren’t you the one escorting her? Weren’t you the one who called off the guards? This was not a failure of our security, this was fate and this was bravado.”
Parker stilled and Thearon realized he’d finally said it out loud. For the first time since the Queen had been shot, Thearon had acknowledged that Parker had played a part in the shooting.
Slowly sitting, Thearon began, “Parker, I…”
“No. I will not stand here and be dragged into a fight that lays on your shoulders. I’m only holding these weekly meetings because I thought it was pushing you to do more with security. By now I expected to see reform and change, but all I see are a few extra men milling about the grounds and a constant black-clad annoyance in my blind spot. I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not turning away the manpower and I’m making an effort to help Lavinia heal her wounds, both physical and mental. Speaking of which, when was the last time you saw your wife, Thearon?”
When she was fucking you, Thearon thought. He had walked in on them one day after the physical therapist had stopped coming. He’d planned to rearrange his schedule so that they could all work out at the same time. Thearon had thought it would help them reconnect as a couple, but he’d stopped short when he saw them on the mat together.