by Brenna Lyons
Relieving themselves posed a more formidable problem. Hunter had to leave her to do it. Not only could he not hope to find a way to excuse it despite the setbacks releasing her caused, but the very idea of touching Sarah while he was unclothed, even in that context, made him hard. Relieving himself would be physically impossible. Hunter cursed his lack of control.
Thankfully, Sarah didn’t need to go often. She padded to the bathroom with his hands on her waist to steady her. She set the stage the first time in, and it worked well. Sarah had him turn his back to both her and the mirror — for which his libido was eternally grateful. Her arm brushed the backs of his thighs while she worked. It was the barest of contact, but it was enough to sustain her.
Her toileting wasn’t nearly as disconcerting as the washing she accomplished after dinner. Hunter steadied her, while Sarah splashed warm water on her face and neck and dried herself with a soft towel. His eyes followed several water droplets in the mirror as they slid from her neck to the swell of her breast beneath his shirt.
Her nightshirt, he corrected himself sternly. It had to be simply her nightshirt, because the thought of her in his shirt was too appealing. He tore his eyes away, embarrassed at the direction his mind was taking.
“I wish there was a way to shower,” Sarah mused in her recovering whisper of a voice.
Hunter closed his eyes, reining in his tortured mind. “I don’t think I could justify that one to Kohl,” he growled in a rougher voice than he intended to use with her.
“I have autonomy,” she replied simply.
His eyes flew open and he looked at the teasing glint in her emerald green eyes in the mirror. “I have half a mind,” he began dangerously.
Her eyes widened in something akin to fear. “I’m sorry, Hunter. If you go—”
His anger and frustration dissolved into regret for the fear in her eyes. “I won’t. As long as you need me, I’ll stay,” he promised.
Sarah lowered her face, her hair shielding it from his gaze. “If I’ve offended you, please go. I have four brothers, Hunter. I’m afraid I don’t have much practice in discretion. Any barb is fair with them.”
“You sound a lot like Erin. I prefer it when people are direct. It saves a lot of trouble. You haven’t offended me. Now let me get you back to bed. You’re shaking like a leaf.”
She nodded quietly and allowed him to lead her back and scoop her onto the bed. Hunter could feel her exhaustion. Sarah shook in it as much as in dizziness and her lack of food. He couldn’t imagine how she managed this when she was sedated, on IVs, and not eating at all.
He had started to lift her back into his lap, when she spoke. “Would it — would it be too much for you to lay with me instead? It would be more comfortable.”
“If it will help you sleep. I’ll have an easier time relaxing that way.” Hunter positioned them in the middle of the bed and pulled her body into the shelter of his own.
Kohl checked on them before he retired for the night and nodded grimly at the sight of his daughter wrapped in Hunter’s arms before turning away without comment.
Hunter didn’t sleep for a long time after Kohl left. He watched Sarah sleeping, touching her in the same ways he had all day and aching for more. One kiss. One caress, his mind taunted him. Hunter bit back a groan. Then what? He wasn’t stupid enough to think he could stop at that. He surrendered to sleep — and to dreams of Sarah surrendering to him.
* * * *
Her mouth was mind-altering. Even as he emerged from his dream, Hunter knew he would give anything to feel Sarah’s mouth on him like that.
Like this! He opened his eyes to confirm what his mind was telling him. Her fingers ran trails through the black curls over his heart and traced his blood mark while her lips followed each of his scars slowly, torturously retracing them with the tip of her incredibly soft, inviting tongue.
Hunter panted, running his two-day growth of beard through her hair and inhaling the musk on her skin, feeling himself at the edges of control. He ran the fingers of one hand through her thick, silky hair, cradling her head to him and encouraging her to discover all of him she cared to. With his other, he reached beneath the edge of the shirt she wore, cupping her bottom and sliding her against the rigid length of his arousal, giving her every chance to protest, to stop him.
Sarah arched to him. Far from stopping Hunter, she moved her mouth to his throat and groaned into his skin, her hands raking the curls down to the waistband of his jeans. They gasped together, Hunter as her mouth nipped gently at his jawline and Sarah as he crushed her to his hardening member.
He turned his face, brushing his lips over her cheek until he encountered the edge of her mouth. His hips moved against her restlessly, seeking the response her body was giving without pause.
“If I kiss you, I won’t be able to stop. I won’t be able to let you go,” Hunter warned softly. “If you want me to stop, tell me now.”
Sarah panted hot trails against his cheek. “Hunter, can you—” She bit back a groan as he ground himself into her.
“Tell me,” he breathed. “Anything in my power to give is yours.”
She stilled. Her breathing came in gasps as her eyes widened and she started to distance herself from his body. “No, you can’t do this,” she decided miserably. “I shouldn’t have started this.”
“Why?” He tried to keep the hurt out of his voice, but his body and emotions were raw.
Sarah shook her head and pulled out of his arms. Hunter was sure she closed her eyes more out of pain than an emotional response, but she tried to wrench out of his arms when he reached for her.
Hunter dragged her to his chest. “Stop it,” he ordered quietly. “I won’t force you, Sarah. I won’t kiss you or touch you other than this. I’ll even go back to cradling you if you feel safer that way, but I won’t let you hurt yourself because of me.
“Like it or not, you don’t have your medication, and something about me brings you relief. Until you have a choice, you’re stuck with me — for this and nothing else. You have my word on that.
“You don’t want more. I got it. I won’t ask you to explain it. Right now, it might be better if you don’t try to explain it.” Hunter sighed, realizing he had stopped acting on reason long before. “Never mind. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Just get better.”
Sarah looked at him through tears. “It’s not your fault, Hunter. I knew better than to start something. I let myself get carried away, and that’s unforgivable. You should go.”
“Why? Are you planning on baiting me again?” His anger deflated in light of her stricken expression. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t called for. I think I’ve lost my mind.” That almost seemed a certainty all of the sudden. Hunter was insane, and he had no idea how and when it happened.
“I didn’t mean to,” she moaned.
“I know. Go to sleep.” Hunter didn’t know what just happened, but he wanted to know. No, he wanted to know, but he wanted to finish what she started more than that.
* * * *
Sarah handed Elani Kaufmann the brush and sat back to allow her adoptive mother to brush her long, black hair as she had every night for the last seven years. “Tell me about the Königs, Mama Elani,” she sighed.
Elani started brushing her hair, brushing away her worries with the tangles that she removed. “The Königs,” she said in her heavily accented English, laced with amusement. “Every night it is the Königs or the Hunters. The Warriors have many stories. Let me tell you them.”
“I’ve heard them, Mama. I like the stories about the Königs and the Hunters.”
Kohl laughed from the doorway. He leaned across the bed to kiss Sarah’s forehead and smiled indulgently. “Tell her about the Königs, Elani. After all, a princess like ours should hear about the kings. If it makes her happy, tell her.”
The woman sighed and scowled at her husband, leaving the thoughts of how he spoiled her unsaid. They each spoiled Sarah in their own ways, so it was silly for one to chastise th
e other for indulging her whims when they did.
Elani ran the brush through her hair. “The Königs are our kings, the stone chosen elder killers that will end the curse. Corwyn Lord Hunter, master trainer, stone lord, and elder hunter — and Anna, the human elder hunter, were the parents of Erin Jayde, the first Blutjagdfrau. Jade survived twenty-four years with only an amulet and no lord’s blessing or Warriors to guard her. Talon of Crossbearer slew a red named Grelden who dared lay hands on Lord Hunter’s daughter and brought her home to the Warriors. He gave her his blessing, trained her as a Warrior, and gave her his love.”
Sarah closed her eyes and imagined the Warrior woman that was stone chosen as Raga.
“Jayde killed Veriel to save Talon, to save herself, and to save the child she carried.”
“Hunter,” Sarah breathed, letting Elani’s shimmer wash over her — green shot through with silver and just a trace of blue. “He’ll have his autonomy soon.”
“Yes. In just a few months.”
Elani slid the brush through her hair again, enticing her to sleep. As Sarah’s mind relaxed, it went seeking Elani’s, gathering information — a river of stories that were shelved there.
“Tell me about their women,” she mumbled.
“All their women are bold and fierce. Anna fought Veriel three times. She, as a human, even drew his blood while she stood over her husband’s fallen form.
“Jayde was a Warrior born and stone chosen to give birth to the true elder killers, the princes of the Cursed Warriors, and she is their queen. It is said that in all the world, only Talon has been capable of defeating her in battle since she killed Veriel. At Hunter’s birth, Jayde planted a blade in Cerran while she nursed her son. At Erin’s birth, she handed her babe to her son and battled for her children’s lives while she still bled from the birth.
“Erin, they say, fears nothing. She is every bit the Warrior princess she was born to be. Someday, she will choose a Warrior as Jayde chose Talon and give birth to more princes.”
“And Hunter?” Sarah asked, half asleep already. She tried to picture his shimmer, but no color would come. It was blank to her, a pure white aura the likes of which an angel might have.
“Hunter is the prince, the next Lord König. He will find a human as special and bold as Anna was and make her the mother of his young princes. His bride shall be a human Warrior, and he will know her immediately, as Corwyn knew Anna and Talon knew Jayde. She will provide him with fine, strong sons to ensure the end to the curse and battle for them as a true Warrior woman should.
“Already, Hunter rivals his father, and it will take an exceptional woman to be worthy of his seed…”
As usual, Sarah was falling asleep to thoughts of the Cursebreakers, surrounded by the stories hidden in Elani’s mind, spoken and unspoken.
* * * *
Sarah let a single tear fall as she opened her eyes. She surveyed Hunter’s face in the lamplight. She would have done anything to let him finish what she started, but she couldn’t risk the future that way — or him. Not only would Lorian kill any man that touched her, but Hunter was destined to marry a Warrior woman. His wife would be human but equal to Anna in strength and skill.
That definition hardly represented Sarah. Hunter needed a woman that could stick a blade in an elder for him, not one who would be weak as a baby and helpless for days after an encounter. Hunter needed a wife that could be depended on in battle, not one who would become dead weight at a moment’s notice — with one slip that let a beast touch her.
No, as much as she wanted Hunter, as much as she had wanted him ever since she read his concern for her in his mind in battle, Sarah couldn’t risk fouling his destiny. No. She realized she had wanted Hunter for even longer than that. Sarah had wanted him all her life, or maybe what she wanted was to be the bold Warrior woman he sought instead of the five-year-old sobbing in the rock crevice.
Chapter Seven
January 8, 2025
Erin answered the light knock at the door. It was barely sunrise, and she was the only Warrior awake in the house to answer it. She recognized Damien Kaufmann from the book of current houses that each house kept.
Damien looked at her in surprise and bowed his head, earning Erin’s annoyance. “Erin of König, may I enter?” he asked in the formal manner of the old-world Warriors she had met over the years.
She pulled the door wide for him. “Come in, Damien. We weren’t expecting you for another four or five hours.”
His eyes slid over her, and her heart sank. Yet again, Erin was being sized up as a brood mare and plaything for some Warrior. Damien met her eyes again and smiled the predatory, male smile she had come to despise. It never ceased to amaze her that the men always thought they were so sly and underhanded when they gave her that look and smile. It reeked of their hopes to bed Erin for her position, and she hated it.
“I got lucky making connections,” he explained. “Noon was my worst case scenario.”
“I understand. Would you like breakfast? You look exhausted.”
“No. Sarah needs her medicine. I should take care of that first.”
Erin pulled herself up onto the edge of the mahogany table in the entryway. “Well, she’s asleep right now. Is it necessary to wake her?”
Damien raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Asleep? I guess there was no real rush after all. Your father made it sound like an emergency. Sarah must be feeling much better if she’s asleep without her medication.”
“Right! Like she can’t eat or drink or talk or accept a touch... I’m starting to think you people don’t know much about Sarah,” Erin shot at him, annoyed at the second blatantly sexual look he gave her.
“Touch? I can touch her? Now?”
“Probably not,” she admitted. No, touch was definitely Hunter’s thing.
“Look, you’re not making much sense. I need to see Sarah and give her a dose of her medicine.”
“Fine with me, but I think you’re wrong.” She slid off the table and headed for the stairs, well aware that Damien was watching every sway of her hips despite the fact that he was almost twice her age and she still didn’t have her autonomy.
At Hunter’s door, Erin knocked lightly. She heard her brother’s mumbled reply and entered quietly with Damien close at her heels.
She smiled at the sight of Sarah wrapped in Hunter’s arms. The young woman’s cheek was nestled to his chest, and his arm was wrapped around her waist, his thigh tucked between her legs.
Erin turned abruptly as the malevolence built behind her. Damien’s blade was drawn and his eyes burned. He moved as if to launch himself toward the couple on the bed. With a muttered curse, Erin locked her left hand around Damien’s wrist, swept his feet from beneath him and landed astride him with her right blade to his throat.
“Stupid move, Warrior,” she growled at him. “Attacking my brother for helping Sarah is about as brainless as attacking a Cross in Crossbearer range with a König in the room. Oh wait. You did that, too.”
“Erin, stand down,” Hunter ordered.
“When he drops his weapon,” she reminded him patiently.
“Now, Erin. This is my range.”
“You are temporarily incapacitated. You are my responsibility for the duration.”
“I gave you an order in battle.”
“I’m not human anymore, and my training demands that I never release an armed foe. Just drop the blade, Damien. Drop it, and I will gladly release you.”
He glared at her and let his blade fall to the carpet.
Erin snatched it up and launched off of him. She sheathed her own blade and twirled his lazily, testing the balance and finding it perfect for a throwing blade. You could learn a lot about a Warrior by the balance of his blade, she discovered. Damien cared for his blade. Too bad he didn’t show as much concern for other areas of his training.
Damien pushed to his feet uncomfortably and put his hand out to her. “My weapon,” he demanded.
“I don’t think so. I’l
l hold onto it for awhile. Until you learn when it’s appropriate to draw it, maybe?”
Damien darkened, but he didn’t refute her charge in any way.
“Erin,” Hunter warned.
“Keep it, Erin,” Sarah groaned. “He needs taught a lesson.”
“Give it back, Erin,” Talon chimed in from the doorway.
“You have to be kidding, Dad,” she complained.
“Is that all the better she’s trained?” Kohl demanded.
Erin sighed and shoved the weapon back into Damien’s hand. “Here. Oh, yeah. You’re well trained,” she drawled. “No wonder your father wants better for Sarah.”
Damien sheathed his weapon and shot her a scathing look. “I don’t suppose you’d consider a fair fight?” he growled at her.
Erin raised an eyebrow at him. “More fair than a Warrior half your size and half your age taking you down and disarming you when you were already in motion with your weapon drawn?” she asked cynically. “Out of curiosity, what did you have in mind? Binding me or hobbling me?”
“A challenge match.”
“After breakfast — with my father’s permission, of course.” It couldn’t hurt to remind him that she didn’t have autonomy. Maybe Damien wouldn’t make a nuisance of himself in the sex-chase if he remembered that.
“You have it,” Talon granted.
“After breakfast,” Damien agreed.
Hunter laughed heartily. “Call that doctor, Kohl. Your son is going to need it.”
“That’s his problem,” the old man decided.
Erin smiled coldly and wrapped her arms around her chest. No, he’d only need the doctor if he forgot his place and got too friendly during their match. If Damien fought her fair, she’d just defeat him. That was Erin’s personal rule on the subject.
* * * *
Hunter sat on the edge of the bed with a tray of dinner on his lap. Even with the influence of her drugs, Sarah still responded favorably to his touch alone. As long as it made the difference between getting a modicum of nourishment down her or hooking up an IV, he was at her service.