Alex held her tight in his arms, keeping them joined. He filled her with every tight inch of his rigid length, stroking half in and half out with a steady rhythm. Within moments, she felt the pressure building again as the soreness in her clit shifted to pure pleasure once again. She didn’t think she could come again after the first mind-blowing orgasm, but her body had other ideas.
Julia murmured his name, “Alex, Alex, Alex,” over and over. He kissed her neck, her chin, her cheek, all the while kneading her back and buttocks with his strong, deft fingers.
He could have ripped her throat out and drained her dry, and in that moment, she would have died with the biggest smile on her face.
“Julia,” he said. He bit her lower lip between his teeth. “I am yours.”
“You are mine,” she agreed as he brought her screaming, and screaming, and submerged into an orgasm so intense her entire body shuddered with abandon.
Alex cried out as his embrace tightened again, holding her writhing form in place over his cock as the first throes of ecstasy hit him. He bowed forward, dropping one hand to the ground to brace her back off the cement as he thrust the last of his desire into her.
After a few seconds, she began to laugh, low and soft. Alex met her gaze and smiled.
“Do you think anyone heard us?” she asked.
Alex sat up and pulled her close. His softening cock withdrawing from her. “I don’t care if the whole world heard. If I die tonight, I will die knowing true happiness. You and Rafir have healed me, Julia. I am yours for as long as you’ll have me.”
“Forever then.” A pang of human awareness settled in her thoughts. She didn’t have forever, but she would take him as long as time permitted. “I am yours as well.” She looked around the cage again. They needed to survive. She wanted to show Rafir she could happily live the life he wanted. She wouldn’t be the weak link in the pack any longer. But first they’d have to make their escape. “Now,” she said, kissing Alex on the nose. “Let’s figure out how to get out of here.”
“One thing,” he said, holding her to his lap.
“Yes?”
“If we make it out of here…” He glanced away almost shyly.
“Go on,” she prompted, tilting his chin back to her.
He flexed his fingers on her thighs as if steeling courage. “I’d like to have Christmas.”
“You’re a vampire,” she said exasperated. He would not give up on this whole notion of Christmas. “Doesn’t that go against some kind of moral code or something?”
“I’ve never had a family, Julia. I grew up in foster care, and all I dreamed about was having a family of my own to celebrate the holiday with.” He looked at her directly, the gold flecks in his hazel eyes bright. “I have a family now.”
“Oh.” Shame warmed her cheeks. “Oh.” The proper response eluded her. Instead, she simply nodded her head.
A tension she hadn’t realized Alex had been holding released, and as much as she could see it relax his face, she felt it in the carriage of his body.
“Thank you.” He gave her a quick squeeze and her back cracked.
“Ouch.”
He smiled. “Sorry.”
The door at the top of the stairs rattled.
“They’re coming.”
Hank and the guy in the black jacket walked down the stairs. Hank had a gun. He pointed it through the bars at Julia. “Make a move, vamp, and I’ll kill her.”
Chapter Twelve
Rafir didn’t struggle as Bernard’s enforcers took him downstairs. Rage tempered with training poured hot over his skin. Up ahead he heard Julia before he saw her. The oaf in coveralls had his arm around her neck and a gun to her head. It was all the weapon they needed to keep Rafir under control. The blood they’d poured over her had become streaked and flaky, and he was pissed she didn’t have clothes on. These bastards couldn’t even give her that much dignity.
He tried to convey assurance with his eyes, and Julia blinked, her fear evident. Even through the mess she was beautiful -- still everything he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. And now, he could see even more in her. An inner peace she’d never had before. Alex had done that for her, not Rafir. For that and more, he was grateful.
A noise down the hall drew his attention. Two men dragged Alex across the floor. The chains binding his wrists to his feet rattled. Rafir growled. They’d stripped them naked to humiliate them and punish Rafir in the process, but their tactics had failed. Rafir had never been more proud, and he’d never felt stronger than he did right then. He would make Bernard pay.
They were taken to a large room, probably where dances and banquets had been held back when the house was first built. The paint on the crown molding around the ceiling and archways leading in and out of the room flaked with years of neglect. The hardwood floors were scuffed and dull. Stains spattered the white walls. This was a killing room.
Rafir met Bernard’s eyes. He would not be submissive. Not today. Not ever. “I invoke the right to challenge. Be it witnessed by all.”
Bernard jerked his chin up, clearly startled. “You can’t challenge me.”
“Oh, yes, I fucking can.” He’d grown up in a pack. His own father had been pack master. It was one of the main reasons he’d chosen lone wolf status, but it didn’t mean he’d forgotten pack politics. Anyone could challenge for pack master. It just didn’t happen often because you don’t get to be lead dog unless you were one bad ass motherfucker. “Your enforcers are here as witness.”
He’d called Bernard out. If the pack master refused, and just killed Rafir outright and not in a fair fight wolf to wolf, he would appear weak to his people. A weak leader wouldn’t last very long.
“After I chew your beating heart from your chest, Rafir Caras, I am going to dine on vampire and human. You could have saved them with your sacrifice, but now I’m going to kill you all.”
“You going to talk or fight?” Rafir shook himself loose from the two enforcers holding his arms. He pushed the magic transforming him until he felt his muscles shift and bulge, bones snapping and reforming as hair sprouted fine, but dense along his skin. His clothes tightened and ripped as his body grew more than double in thickness and a least a foot more in height. Bernard shifted just as easily.
He might have been a small man, but his yellow-brown, beastly form was huge. Even bigger than Rafir’s. Rafir drew strength from the love he felt for Julia and Alex. He would win. He had to for all their sakes.
He waited. He’d fought in many battles, sometimes in were-form. He’d learned the art of controlling his instincts when strategy was necessary. He would analyze Bernard’s movement and strike at the pack leader’s weakness.
Bernard was pure brute. He launched himself at Rafir, roaring and snapping as he reached, claws out, for Rafir’s throat. Rafir easily sidestepped the telegraphed attack. He spun, hitting the other werewolf in the back, using Bernard’s own momentum to send him crashing against the wall. The large werewolf raged in frustration. He quickly turned on Rafir, sweeping a leg and catching Rafir’s ankle.
The wind whooshed from Rafir when he hit the floor. Bernard didn’t waste a second. He jumped on top of Rafir, his claws carving painful and bloody runnels into his chest. Julia screamed.
Rafir threw up an arm, pushed with his knee, bucking Bernard forward. He latched on to the pack master’s chest with his teeth.
Bernard howled. He punched his massive fists into the sides of Rafir’s head, trying to break his hold. Instead, Rafir clamped his jaws tighter. He could feel pure bone beneath his teeth, and if he wasn’t careful the muscle would come away and he’d lose the hold he’d gained. Bernard made the option moot when he put his hands on the floor, and using his legs and arms, sprang away from Rafir, leaving him with nothing but muscle and blood in his mouth.
Quickly, Bernard recovered his feet and grabbed Rafir by the back of his neck and hit him in the jaw hard enough to send the glob of flesh sailing out of his mouth. Rafir snarled, throwing an elb
ow into Bernard’s wounded side. The pack master was strong, unbelievably so, but Rafir had had years of training and discipline. The wolf believed sheer force would win the fight, but Rafir knew better. Overconfidence was Bernard’s weakness. The way to beat the asshole was to make him believe he was winning the contest. He took a punch to the head that sent him careening backward. He landed flat on his back, but when Bernard pounced again, Rafir had already rolled away. He huffed, blood flying from his flaring nostrils. Bernard charged again, but this time Rafir leaned to one side, threw out a leg, and with both hands yanked Bernard off balance. He used the pack master’s stunned surprise to finish the fight by clamping his teeth against his throat.
“Kill them!” Bernard roared, the words thick and rough coming from his beastly maw. “Kill them now!”
The look of triumph in Bernard’s golden eyes, even in this moment of defeat, startled Rafir. He lifted his head to use words to stop the pack from carrying out their orders, but he was silenced by a deafening shout.
“Enough!”
Both Rafir and Bernard looked up. It was Guillermo Perez. He hadn’t come alone. Nathaniel Greer, his lover, and Nadine and Tyrsgard Madds, the Viking vampire and his bride, were in the room as well. Guillermo had brought them as insurance.
“Stay out of this, Perez,” Bernard growled.
“You’ve lost, Bernard.” Guillermo stepped toward them. “Rafir has beaten you.”
“I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
“Yes, but only because you --”
Before Gui could finish, Rafir, without hesitation, bit down hard and tore out Bernard’s throat, before the gurgling from the escaping air could finish hissing from the gory wound, Rafir punched his claws through Bernard’s stomach and reached up to find his dying heart. He ripped it from Bernard’s chest and shoved it into the ex-pack master’s mouth.
“Chew on that, you son of a bitch,” he said. “I win.”
Guillermo raised a brow. “You certainly do.”
Rafir had already begun shifting back to human form. He needed to touch Julia and Alex, he needed them to be near him. Instinctively, they ran to him, meeting him in a desperate embrace.
“What will you do now, my friend?” Gui asked.
“I’m going home.”
“I meant with the pack. They cannot be left on their own, unless you’d like me to kill them for you. That would be one way to clean up the mess, no?”
“No,” -- Rafir shook his head and could sense the relief from the other wolves in the room -- “they’re mine now. I’ll take care of them.”
Guillermo nodded. “Let me know if you change your mind. I haven’t seen this much excitement in years.”
Chapter Thirteen
Rafir had instructed his new enforcers to clean up the mess, then had one of the other pack members give the three of them -- himself, Alex, and Julia -- a ride home. He couldn’t really blame the pack for the treatment of his lovers, but he wasn’t going to let them off the hook just because Bernard was dead. No way.
He made the guy in coveralls, whose name was Carl not Hank, even if it was embroidered on his work clothes, stand guard outside the busted front door. His job in the morning would be going to get the parts to actually fix the door.
“I need a shower,” Julia said once they were alone.
“I could use one, myself,” Alex agreed. “Rafir looks pretty messy as well, don’t you think, Julia?”
“Oh, I agree,” she said sincerely. “He could use a good scrubbing.”
Rafir looked at the two of them. Their serious expressions were ruined by the smiles twitching at their lips. They both walked to Rafir and grasped a hand. Julia took point and led them to the bathroom. Alex turned the water on to warm it up as they took off the borrowed clothes they’d taken from Bernard’s lair. Now Rafir’s lair. The thought made him shudder.
He should have felt spent and wasted, instead he felt powerful -- like an engine souped up with a turbo boost. It was Alex and Julia’s energy that fed him. They were in harmony. Finally.
He smiled and cupped Alex’s face with one hand and Julia’s with the other. Jointly, they helped Rafir out of his clothes. The claw wounds on his chest were already scabbing over. Alex dipped his head and kissed a ragged line.
“Come,” Alex said, leading the three of them into the warm, pulsing shower.
Rafir looked at Julia.
She smiled. There was no hesitation in her eyes. “I can’t wait to get my hands on you.” She glanced at Alex. “Both of you.”
The dried blood rinsed from their bodies turned the water crowding their feet brown.
Alex shook his head. “What a waste.”
Julia smacked him on the chest making Rafir feel lighter than he had in months. She really had accepted the vampire. It was everything he wanted and more. Alex’s ass brushed against his waist. An invitation. Julia kissed down Alex’s chest until she was on her knees with his cock in her hands. She glanced at Rafir. “I think tonight should be about Alex. I think I’ve left him out long enough. Don’t you?”
“I’ve always said you were wise, my love.” Rafir grinned. “Way beyond your years.”
Alex leaned back against Rafir’s chest. Tears rimmed his eyes as he turned his head and faced him.
Rafir kissed him as he reached around Alex and cupped his balls. With his other hand he tilted Julia’s chin. “I want to watch you suck him,” he said to her.
“I’d like that,” she responded. Her bow mouth slipped over the vampire’s pale, thick shaft.
The startling pink of her lips against his nearly white skin turned Rafir on. He’d had her lips on his own cock -- often -- and he knew how good she could make a man feel. Watching her give the same attention to Alex should have triggered jealousy, or even envy, but it didn’t. If possible, he loved her even more. She reached behind Rafir and slid her hand up his thigh. Using the wetness of the water along with the slickness of shower gel, she pushed Rafir’s cock up so it sat against Alex’s buttocks. She stroked the length of him, playing it against the crack between Alex’s cheeks.
Both men moaned simultaneously.
Julia rewarded them by sucking and stroking faster. She nudged Alex’s legs shoulder width apart. He put his hand on the wall to brace himself. Water slipped down the side of her face, but she kept her eyes open. Rafir watched her as she watched them.
She used her free hand to finger Alex’s ass and with her other, she guided Rafir’s cock to the hole, teasing it in circles. He felt his knees give a little as he realized she was preparing Alex for him. His skin buzzed with passion and desire. He wanted them both so badly his vision blurred as blood rushed away from his extremities to his groin.
Alex reached down and pulled Julia off his cock. She yelped with surprise when he lifted her up and pressed her back against the shower wall. “I want to fuck you.”
Julia panted, the adrenaline stealing her words. She nodded and spread her legs. Rafir stepped back, his hand replacing Julia’s on his own cock stroking the rigid length as he watched them. Alex leaned forward and dipped his finger between her legs. “Your pussy is so wet, so slick and hot.”
“Yes,” Julia murmured.
Rafir knew she was more than wet, more than ready. Being inside her sweet, hot pussy had been a privilege he’d never take for granted.
Alex lifted her feet off the shower floor, spreading his legs as he drew her thighs up to straddle him. He turned to Rafir, a naked wanting in his eyes. “Fuck me.”
“Yes,” Julia cried out as her body sank onto Alex’s cock.
Rafir nearly came in his own palm. He moved behind Alex and slid his fingers into the crevice of his lover’s buttocks. He splayed the firmly rounded cheeks apart, his thumb brushing against the puckering anus. He pressed the tip of his finger through the tight, circular muscle, massaging the edges until Alex completely relaxed -- ready to be fucked. Rafir replaced his finger with the tip of his cock, easing into Alex inch by merciful and glorious inch. He was al
ways startled by how cold the vampire felt against his own heat. It sent a rush through his groin and a flutter in his stomach.
Alex moaned. “In me. God. Deep. I want you so fucking deep.” He pushed back onto Rafir before thrusting his hips forward into Julia.
“Shit.” Rafir leveraged himself against Alex’s thighs. “I’m not going to last.”
Julia wrapped her legs around both of them until her ankles locked behind Rafir’s ass and pulled him all the way in. She cried out as her back bowed and her hips gyrated in a shuddering grind. Alex moaned, then yelled, “Yes!” as his own orgasm shattered, the spasm of it gripping Rafir’s cock and massaging it until Rafir called out his own pleasure. He thrust and thrust, and ground his hips against Alex until he finished coming, and they collapsed against the wall in an Alex sandwich.
“I love you,” he said as his softening cock slipped from Alex’s sweet, tight ass. It was the first time he’d said the words out loud to Alex. The look on Alex’s face made the declaration even more amazing. Julia’s eyes glittered with tears as she smiled over Alex’s shoulder and stroked her fingers through his hair.
She kissed Alex’s cheek. “You are loved.”
Chapter Fourteen
Alex stretched in bed as the sun settled under the horizon. Once again full of soul and life. He could hear a giggle from the living room, and a masculine “Shhhh.”
He turned sideways and extended his back. He felt stiff when first waking, but never sore. Except for the stomachache -- the dull ache which grew moment by moment until the vampire in him had its satisfaction. He smiled. Yesterday had started so awful, well, the whole week had been terrible. But today was a fresh start.
Rafir peeked around the corner. “Good. You’re up.”
Alex looked down his body at his limp cock. “Not yet,” -- he wiggled his eyebrows -- “but soon and very soon, eh?”
Julia popped up behind him. “Is he awake yet?”
“Yes,” Rafir said, a grin splitting his face. “And apparently frisky.”
A Pack For Christmas (Kansas City Vampires Book 7) Page 7