Remembering Melaina

by Maia Dylan

  Hell, she would bathe in the blood of her father and smile while she did it. Yep, she truly was a vengeful bitch.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Hey, Blue Eyes.” Kyle almost ripped the front door off its hinges as he opened it.

  Melaina stood on the porch, her hand still raised to knock on the door, a look of surprise on her beautiful face. “Hey back. What were you doing? Standing by the door waiting to spring it open and surprise me?” The small smile on her face had him fighting the urge to lean forward and nibble on her bottom lip.

  “Basically, yes.” Kyle shrugged, reaching out to pull her into the house. “I’ve been pacing back and forth in the hallway waiting for you to get here. Despite the fact that we’ve seen you every day since we’ve been back. Not having you with us for the last three nights has been fucking horrible. It makes me happy to have you in our home and know you’re here for the night, and it pleases the fuck out of my wolf, too.”

  Unable to resist a moment longer, he pressed his lips to hers, swallowing her laugh and reveling in the moan it changed into. He walked her back a couple of steps until he had her pressed against the front door, his body pushed into hers from knee to shoulder, his hands lifting to the silken strands of her hair, tilting her head to the right angle for him to take what he needed. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, stroking it against hers, loving the fact that she sucked on it strongly.

  He reached down and tugged the soft blue sweater she wore out of the way so he could press his hands to the soft skin of her taut stomach. He pulled his mouth away with a growl, then moved his mouth to the soft skin beneath her ear, nibbling his way down the column of her neck. Melaina groaned, arching her neck to give him access, and pressed her hips forward. When she lifted her left leg to his hip, he pushed his hips forward.

  “Goddamn it,” he whispered harshly against her neck. “I had planned to seduce you over dinner so that by the time Grant got home from work you would be aroused and ready to make love with us. But it’s been three days, three long fucking days, and I don’t think I can wait.”

  Melaina cried out when he reached down and cupped her pussy through her jeans. He could feel the heat of her through the denim and cursed at the feel of it, moving his palm in a couple of tight circles.

  “I had plans, too,” Melaina admitted breathlessly as she rolled her hips into his palm, “but they pretty much went like this, so I’m all good!” Kyle laughed as her hands slid under his T-shirt and pulled it up his chest. He released her for a moment and reached behind him to help her pull the shirt off over his head.

  “Well, in that case, let’s run with your plan.” Kyle stepped back to divest himself of his jeans, his eyes riveted on the swath of soft, alabaster skin emerging before him as Melaina stripped off her clothes as quickly as she could.

  “Goddamn it, you two,” Grant mumbled down their link and they both froze. “I have thirty minutes of my shift left and I am standing here talking to old Mrs. Emerson about her lost fucking dog, who has been gone now for twenty years, waiting for the nurses to come and collect her and my fucking dick is hard. It looks like I have a fucking hard-on for a ninety-six-year-old woman who taught me to tie my shoes in preschool. Will you build your shields while you get to the naughties and take a little pity on me?”

  Melaina’s burst of laughter was cut short when she slammed her own hand over her mouth, but Kyle’s rang throughout the entranceway.

  “I am so sorry, Grant,” Melaina sent back, a wide grin on her face. “Kyle attacked me when I walked in the door. We can wait until you’re home if you like.”

  “What!” Kyle shot her an incredulous look.

  “Ha! As if that could actually happen,” Grant scoffed. “I can assure you, baby, that if the positions were reversed, I certainly wouldn’t be stopping and would use every weapon in my sexual arsenal to get you to agree. No, you two have fun, but keep your shields up. And Kyle? She’s mine as soon as I get in the door.”

  “Okay,” they both agreed quickly, then shut themselves off from the link to Grant. Melaina reached out for Kyle as he stepped into her arms, and kept going until he had her pressed against the door once more.

  He reached down to wrap a hand around the back of her hips and urged her up until she lifted both her legs and wrapped them around his waist. Once she was wrapped tightly around him, he reached around to place his cock at her hot entrance. He stared into her blue eyes as he rolled his hips forward, not stopping until the head of his cock slipped into the wet opening of her pussy and surrounded him in heat. They both moaned at the feeling.

  “Damn, baby, you feel so fucking hot,” he whispered harshly, his heart pounding in his chest as she moved her hips, sliding herself down to take him to the hilt. “Gods! So damn hot, and so fucking wet.”

  Kyle leaned back a little to let her move and loved that she took her cue so sweetly, lifting her hands to his shoulders and moving herself up and down on his dick, fucking him as he held her against the door.

  “Mmm, you feel so good inside me.” Her breathy whisper was almost a purr. Palming her ass, he squeezed the fleshy globes, loving the feel of her moving against him. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered as her eyes closed and her head fell back.

  “Oh, hell no,” Kyle growled, “you don’t hide from me when I fuck you. I want to see you, see everything you are feeling, Blue Eyes. There is nothing you can hide within those beautiful sapphire eyes.” Kyle leaned in slightly and took control, rolling his hips forward and slamming his cock into his mate.

  He watched as her eyes filled with heat, and her nails pressed against his shoulders. Absently, he hoped they left a mark. He’d love to bear her mark just as she wore his. He felt the familiar tingling at the base of his spine that told him his orgasm was fast approaching. His movements became jerky as the wave drew ever closer.

  “Come for me, Melaina,” he ordered, his voice harsh. “Come hard for me and let me feel that beautiful pussy ripple around my cock. Now. Fucking now!” With a shout, she came hard, shuddering around him as her body shattered, pulling him into the storm at the same time. He roared her name and slammed into her as he came, once, twice, three times as he emptied himself into her. The triumphant shout she gave as he shuddered against her had his wolf howling in approval. She took everything he had to give her.

  Melaina slumped against him with a groan and he gulped in huge gasps of air, locking his knees to keep them both from tumbling to the floor. “Jesus, woman, you fucking destroy me.”

  Melaina’s laugh was breathless as she, too, fought to catch her breath. She lifted her head, sweeping her black hair behind her ear as she cupped his cheek with a hand that still trembled slightly. “That is entirely mutual, my wolf.”

  Everything within him warmed at her claiming him as her wolf. He and Grant had noticed that she never referred to them as her mates, or her men or hers, in any way. But to hear her say it had his heart stuttering within him. Until this moment, he hadn’t known how desperate he was to have this strong, independent, beautiful woman claim him as hers. Having been given this gift, he was determined to fight and convince her of his love and their life together until she willingly called him mate. And eventually husband. His cock thickened again at that thought and Melaina’s eyes widened. As he was still buried within her, she’d felt it.

  “You know what else is entirely mutual?” he asked, as he pushed off from the door and turned around to walk through the house, intent on taking her with him into the bedroom to take her again. “I missed you, too. Let me show you how much.”

  * * * *

  The irony was not lost on Grant that, had he been in a position to actually catch himself speeding on the way home that night, he would not have hesitated to give himself a ticket. But despite knowing he was in the wrong, he couldn’t find it in himself to give a shit. Melaina was in their home. They had been back for three days, and Melaina had rightfully chosen to ensure that Pepper was safe and settled in her newly furbished apartment above Xant
he’s shop than be with them. The Greyson brothers had spent the last three weeks cleaning the upstairs space, installing security systems, and running repairs after a man from Parris’s past had caught up with her in that apartment.

  Grant had seen the crime scene photographs from that night and it had turned his blood cold. Parris had fought with everything in her to survive that night, and from what Rhys and Jase had told him, she had not only survived but had managed to remove the threat to her that no one had seen coming. Melaina had apologized to Parris, stating that it had been her fault, that she hadn’t seen him coming and should have.

  Parris had told her to pull her head in, and the look Melaina threw back at her still had Grant grinning. It was an unusual mixture of reprimand and pride. There had been no way of knowing. That guy had been out of the picture for years, and as they were all looking in Aristos’s direction as the most plausible threat to Parris, this other guy managed to step in and make his move.

  The sound of an incoming call on his car phone brought him out of his thoughts and he answered the call.

  “Grant speaking.”

  “Hey, Grant, this is Hunter Reed.”

  Grant frowned. Hunter was the leader of the top shifter Enforcer team on the planet. His team was charged with protecting the head of the Shifter Council. As of the last vote, and the night Ty removed the previous head of the council’s head from his shoulders, Ty and Trent were jointly in charge. There might be any number of reasons for Hunter to pick up the phone and call him, not least of which was the fact that his mate and Grant’s were sisters. But Grant had always been a glass-half-empty kind of guy, and he figured there was a more worrisome purpose behind the call.

  “What’s happened?” Grant stepped even harder on the accelerator, the need to get to Melaina driving him hard.

  “That’s what I like about you Grey River wolves”—Hunter sounded amused—“always assuming the worst.”

  “Dude, can you blame us? There has been so much shit hitting the fan in this town lately, I’m surprised we aren’t all running around fully loaded down with weapons and shooting any unfamiliar prick who passes through.”

  Hunter’s laugh sounded through his car, making Grant grin and ease off the accelerator slightly. If he was laughing and not growling, roaring, or ordering people around, then Grant figured, whatever he had to say, it didn’t mean hitting red alert just yet.

  “That’s true. But, I wouldn’t rule it out. Word has spread throughout town about young Pepper and what she talked about the day you guys rocked back into town, and pretty much everyone is looking out for her.”

  “That’s my town,” Grant said with pride. “Grey River will look out for their own, and all of those women Aristos thought he could torture, abuse, experiment on, and use for his own personal gain are ours. He comes here at his own risk.”

  They had been meeting each day to talk through any updates from Zane and Riley, who were still in Oklahoma City, watching the compound Aristos was holed up in. The meetings were held down at the sheriff’s department board room, and Ty or Hunter would lead them. He was always there, and one of the Reyes brothers would almost always attend, which wasn’t surprising, considering they had recognized Pepper as theirs. Melaina never missed one.

  Kyle and Grant had spoken to Ty and Hunter about Melaina’s determination to be the one to end Aristos, and they were all in agreement. They would all do everything in their power to make that happen, up until the moment it might look like she was unable to complete the task, and then it was open season on the fucker and the first one to him was to gut him. Literally.

  “That he does. Despite the fact he fathered the woman Dane and I love her more than life itself, we are all in agreement. He gets put down, and he gets put down hard.” Grant heard Hunter’s lion in his voice, the growling, raspy tone that told him his animal was just beneath the surface. “Zane informed me tonight that it won’t be much longer. He believes that Aristos now has everything he needs to make his move.”

  “He won’t get the girls,” Grant snarled, his wolf making itself known in his voice, too.

  Hunter sighed. “That’s just it. I’m not sure if getting the girls back is what he is after.”

  “Why would you think that? The bastard has always been about getting them back. Melaina told us he was continually stressing to that fucking doctor of his that it was integral that she be operational. Why wouldn’t he want her back?”

  “Look, I could be wrong,” Hunter conceded, but it didn’t sound like he thought he was. “Maybe his aim is to get the girls back. But when he came here and confronted my Xanthe, he had powers. He slipped in past our defenses like they weren’t even there. What if his abilities are just as impressive as Melaina’s? If he’s ensured that he no longer needs her, or any of the girls, what do you think he is going to want to do next?”

  The answer came immediately and filled Grant with dread. “He’ll want them gone. He sees them as failures, as disrespectful children who need to be disciplined. He’ll come here to kill them.”

  “That’s what Ty and I reckon as well. We’ll meet tomorrow as usual and check in with Zane and Riley. But if they haven’t made a move by five tomorrow, then they will force Ty’s hand, and we’ll take the fight to him.” Hunter sounded positively gleeful at the thought of that, and Grant couldn’t blame him.

  After signing off and ending the call, Grant pulled into the driveway of the house. He turned the car off and sat in the dark, his thoughts swirling within him. He thought back to the night of his mother’s murder. His father had tied him and Kyle to two large trees out near a clearing at the base of Red Ridge. He had called their mother, demanding that she come and collect her bastards. When she arrived, she had pleaded with her husband to let Kyle and him go. Grant would always remember and be tormented in his dreams by her screams, her pleas for mercy, her rage at having her children fathered by a man who could threaten to harm them all.

  His mother had fought, but there was no real hope for her. She was a human woman fighting against a shifter. A man with increased strength, speed, and an insanity that had him tormenting her before he killed her. Their father had dragged their mother to kneel on the ground before them. She had been bleeding, beaten, bruised, and despite all that, she still tried to calm her children. She told them that everything was going to be fine, that George and Henry Jamieson, their pack Alphas, were coming. The last thing she told them before their father snapped her neck in front of them was that she loved them.

  Grant closed his eyes as the visions hit him hard. What followed had happened in a blur. Their father had stalked toward them, looking to no doubt end them at the same time. Kyle had screamed for their father to leave them alone, but there had been no stopping him. Grant shuddered as he remembered the fear of seeing the large man he had always thought he wanted to be when he grew up come toward him with death on his hands and shimmering in his eyes. Their Alphas arrived then, with only moments to spare, ending their father’s life quickly.

  He and Kyle had then gone to live with their grandmother. Kyle had asked her once why she thought their father had killed their mother. “Some wolves are just not meant for mates,” was all she said. Grant had worried that perhaps Kyle had taken that to heart, refusing to even be open to the idea of having a mate until they met Melaina.

  And just like that, the darkness of that night evaporated beneath the thought of his mate. Melaina. Shaking his head, furious that he had allowed the memory of that night to keep him from immediately going to her, he threw open the door of his truck and climbed out, slamming the door behind him.

  He ran for the porch and leaped up the six steps that led to the veranda that wrapped around the entire house. He threw the door open, intent on finding his mate and showing her exactly what she meant to him, but froze in the doorway. Kyle was leaning with his back against the doorway that led to the living room. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his face was expressionless. Both of these things told Grant that K
yle was either pissed or feeling a little off-balance about something,

  Kyle looked up at him, his eyes a blazing arctic blue. “I was watching you out the window.”

  Grant came in and closed the door, leaning back against it. “Oh, yeah? What did you see?”

  “A man in turmoil, one who was locked in the past.” Kyle sighed as his eyes returned to the green they both shared. “I didn’t know if you were going to turn and run again or not. I was just going through what I would have done if you’d run in my head.”

  Grant grinned. “What did you come up with?”

  “Nothing. I wouldn’t have had to do anything.”

  “Because I would have chased you down.” Grant’s gaze shot to the end of the hallway, to the door to the room he and Kyle had built for a mate they had never let themselves acknowledge might exist. But exist she did, and there she was, standing in the doorjamb wearing what looked like his Brad Paisley concert T-shirt, which stopped mid-thigh on her, and nothing else, her beautiful black hair falling in a silken wave down her shoulder and her brilliant blue eyes staring intently in his direction.

  “You would have, huh?” Grant asked.

  “Oh, hell yeah.” Melaina nodded, then tilted her head to the side. “Would I have had to?”

  “You made her question her ability to keep you.” Kyle’s growl came down their link. When Grant looked, he saw that Melaina still had it closed off. “You need to fix this. She still has the stupid idea in her head that she has something left to prove to us. I got her to admit to calling me her wolf tonight, and I want her calling us mate soon. Show her that there is no way in hell that you could leave her.”

  “Never,” Grant snarled the vow. “She’s mine, I’m hers, and fuck it, yeah, I’m yours as well. We are in this together, brother, as mates and partners to the woman the fates deemed us worthy of.”