by Aliya DalRae
“I sat in that tree until the fire grew cold, and the last of my Bella blew away with the wind, taking my soul along with it. Afterwards, I flew straight to the pier, lit on a ship I heard was bound for the New World, and I made my way to the Americas. I won’t bore you with the rest. Suffice it to say, I found what I was looking for in the Legion, and Mason never judged me.”
“But what about Raven? How can you stand to be in the same room with him?” Kythryn thought about how that murdering bastard had sat across from them at the meeting earlier, and she could practically feel the steam ready to burst from her ears.
Harrier shrugged again as he crossed the room to retrieve his beer. Certain it was warm by now, Kythryn rose to grab another from the fridge and brought it to him. He accepted it without a word, twisted the cap and drank.
“That was nearly six hundred years ago, Kitty. Did I mention, I’m old?”
Kythryn’s face reddened at his joke. It seemed misplaced, a forced attempt at levity neither of them felt. Bonus points for trying, but he sure didn’t have to do that on her account.
“Sorry if I don’t share your ‘let bygones be bygones’ attitude,” she said. “It may have been centuries since he broke your heart. For me it was just a few months ago. I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to forgive him.”
“For Malcolm.” Not a question, but then why would it be. She answered him anyway.
“Yeah, you know I loved him.”
“I do.”
“You know, Malcolm broke my heart three times, though I guess the third time was more Raven’s fault than his. Still, I kept running back. He married my sister, which lead to the whole mercenary deal. Then Anna died, and I tried to be there for him. But no, he turned to that stupid human instead.”
“My niece.”
Kythryn blushed again. She’d forgotten they were related. “Yeah, sorry. Your niece.” Kythryn lifted a shoulder and put some distance between them. When she turned to face him, he was studying her, his eyes taking on a soft yellow glow.
“When he died, I didn’t think my heart would ever be whole again. But then your big ass showed up, with your stupid sweat pants and ridiculous socks, and you did something I didn’t think possible. You filled a hole in my heart that was so deep, I’d have sworn there wasn’t enough—anything—out there to heal it up again. You did that, Harrier, and as much as I tried to deny it, sometimes the Goddess sends you what you need before you know you need it.”
Harrier was still watching her with that odd, bright and shiny look. A second later, his eyes returned to normal. He took another drink and walked away from her, returning to his spot by the window. That was not the response she was hoping for, and Kythryn dug down deep to grab onto a bit of her previous sarcasm to help her though this next part.
“Okeydokey. Guess I totally missed where this conversation was leading. I thought you’d tell me your sad story, I’d tell you mine, and we’d declare our feelings for each other and live happily ever after. No, seriously, it’s okay. I was working from the wrong script.”
Harrier drained his beer and set the bottle on the floor. He scrubbed his big paws over his face and sighed. Had she really misread things so horribly? Apparently, but…
No. She wasn’t letting this go. She couldn’t.
Kythryn crossed the room to stand by Harrier, who was looking past her with vacant eyes.
“Harrier?”
He looked down at her then, his face drawn in a puzzle as if just discovering she was there. He reached out to her, touched her cheek, traced her lips with his thumb. Finally, he spoke, though it was barely a whisper.
“Bella was so long ago,” he said. “I shut myself off, Kitty. Do you understand? I haven’t allowed myself to feel anything since then. At least not as I’ve felt since apprehending you at my niece’s home.”
“You kidnapped me,” Kythryn whispered.
A hint of a smile pulled at his lips. It was brief, but she was certain she hadn’t imagined it. “Maybe I did,” he said, his fingers still tracing the lines of her face. “Jessica formed the first crack in my wall, did you know that?”
Kythryn gave a small shake of her head, not wanting him to stop touching her—ever.
“When I found out she was my niece, my family, I had to learn all over again how to be with people. Rachel joining us has helped. She reminded me what it was like when we were young, when I had a wee bit o’ family there for me. And of course, the twins kick at my heart every chance they get. But Kitty, it’s been so long since I allowed myself to care about anyone, I’m having to relearn everything. And that’s with my family.”
He switched hands, lifting his other to trace the line of her hair against her forehead, the straight length of her nose, her eyebrows.
“What about the Legion?” she asked. “Surely you care about the guys that have your back?”
Harrier shrugged, his eyes focused on her face as his hands continued their exploration. He was like a blind man, discovering her, “seeing” her, for the very first time.
“Some are more tolerable than others, and I would never leave one of them in danger. But it’s not the same.”
“What about us?” she whispered, afraid he wouldn’t answer, but more terrified that he would.
“Is there an ‘us,’ Kitty? Do we even know what this is?”
Kythryn looked at her feet and Harrier withdrew his hands, leaving her feeling cold and alone. “I thought I did.”
Harrier lifted her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes, those glorious eyes that melted her soul.
“You’ve done something to me, Kitty. Awakened something I thought well and buried. You’ve managed to do everything I could imagine to irritate me, your table manners alone…”
“Hey, I’ve been good lately.” The response was automatic and a bit defensive, but it helped her to regain her footing.
Harrier’s eyes softened. “Yes, you have, which has made it so difficult for me to ignore you, to ignore what you do to me.”
Kythryn pulled out one of her evil smiles as the ground evened out beneath her. “Good.”
“That first night in the cabin, when you…”
Okay, so maybe not exactly even. Her cheeks reddened and she looked away. “Moving on…”
She heard the humor in Harrier’s voice as he continued. “I knew then that I’d fallen for you. You were so bloody hateful, and still that night I found you irresistible.”
“You managed, though. To resist.”
“Aye.” He dragged that hand through his hair again. “I had to, Kitty. We got distracted tonight and it nearly cost you your life. I don’t…I don’t know what I would have done had I not gotten to you in time.”
Kythryn’s heart nearly burst. She stared up at him. The distance between her five-foot frame and his giant redwood one felt like miles. Quickly, before the moment was lost, she scanned the room, found what she was looking for.
Giving him the wait-a-minute finger, she retrieved a sturdy-looking chair from behind the desk and plopped it in front of a confused Harrier. She used his arms to brace herself as she climbed up on the chair, finally able to look him right in the eye.
“That’s an antique.”
Kythryn rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, so are you. Shut up and kiss me.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
H arrier hesitated only a moment. Then his eyes sparked, filling the room with the glow of molten lava as his lips claimed hers. Her skin was warm against his, igniting a fire inside him, between them, that threatened to consume everything in its path. Kitty snaked her arms around him, buried her hands in his hair, her thumbs stroking the sides of his neck. His blood pulsed at her touch.
Kitty broke their kiss, nibbling her way across his jaw as her hands wandered south. She tugged at his shirt, and before he knew it, had managed to remove the thing and throw it—somewhere.
“I need to see you,” she said. “All of you.” She fumbled with the button on his jeans, the zipper. He gasped wh
en she freed him, leaving his pants to fall at his ankles as she held him, stroked him.
“That’s not looking.” He gasped as she teased her finger across his head, growled when she nipped at his neck, drug her soft tongue across his carotid. “And I liked you better in nothing but my shirt,” he said.
Kitty paused in her explorations to give him one of her patented Kitty-smiles, the kind that said she was about to do something really bad. Or good, depending on one’s perspective. She was naked in record time, so fast he barely had time to miss the feel of her hands on him.
She was stunning. Everything about her was small, from her breasts to her hips, but her body was supple, strong and athletic. He paused to admire her a moment longer, but a moment was all he was willing to take.
“Better?” she purred.
“Much better.”
“I could go find one of your shirts if you’d rather.”
“Don’t you dare.”
With her standing on his favorite Chippendale, she was at the perfect height. He didn’t have to bend at all to claim her mouth again, to kiss her shoulders, and but a wee bit to wrap his lips around her breast. Her breath hitched as he sucked her nipple in, giving it a gentle tug with his teeth.
“Harrier,” she said on a ragged breath. “If you don’t bend me over that sofa and take me now, I’m gonna scream.”
Harrier stopped what he was doing.
“Oh, no you don’t,” she cried. “We’re doing this. Right here. Right now.”
He took a step back to put some space between them and captured her chin in his hand. She was shaking so bad he feared she would tumble from her precarious perch if he let go entirely. Her jaw was set in an obstinate line, but her eyes told a different tale, begging, pleading.
Harrier shook his head. “I’ll not take you like a whore our first time together, no matter how much you insist on talking like one.”
Apparently, he’d said the right thing. She was practically beaming as he swept her from the chair and carried her into his bedroom. He threw her onto the mattress where she bounced a couple of times before resting on his gold duvet, her body bare and open to him. Her hair lay in a dark halo, framing her perfect face and when he caught her eye, she literally took his breath away.
“Are you going to stand there all day gawking or am I going to have to come and get you?” Her tone was soft, seductive, but the words were all Kitty.
Harrier grabbed her legs and pulled her toward him until her ass was at the edge of the bed, her legs dangling off the sides. He placed a palm on each breast then stroked his hands down the length of her body where they came to rest at her hips. His thumbs found their way to the creases of her legs, mere inches from that little spot of heaven he’d watched her take into her own hand. But it was his turn now, and he didn’t think touching her would be nearly enough.
He knelt on the floor and threw her legs over his shoulders, dragging her toward him that last little bit that placed her exactly where he wanted her to be. He inhaled deeply, pulling the scent of her into him where he could commit it to memory, a little something to hold onto should he ever lose this, lose her. He didn’t want to forget anything about this moment.
He blew out a breath and she shuddered.
“Harrier.”
“A moment, wee Kitty, as I’ll never get another first look at this treasure.”
“Harrier.” It was more of a whine, a sound of desperation. Her breaths were coming in a soft pant as her hips ground the air, searching for something. Searching for him.
“Aye,” he whispered. He took one more mental screenshot, then buried his tongue into the sweet flesh between her legs.
“Jesus, fuck!” she cried out, and Harrier smiled as he devoured her. Ever the lady, he thought, but her taste was as sweet as her scent, and he gave no quarter. He licked and he sucked until she laced her fingers in his hair, pulling him to her. She screamed his name as he sent her to the heights of ecstasy, then pushed at him as though the feel of his tongue on her was more than she could bear.
But Harrier hadn’t had nearly enough. He stayed where he was, his arms laying heavily on her stomach so that no matter how much she wriggled, how much she screamed, his mouth was exactly where he wanted it to be.
When he felt she’d had enough—though he knew then and there that it would never be enough for him—he gave her clit one final suckle, sat back on his heels and rested his hands on her thighs.
Kitty threw her arms out across the bed as her entire body quivered beneath his palms. “That was…”
“Yes?”
“Not bad.”
Harrier frowned. “Not bad?”
“Yeah,” she gasped as she struggled to push herself onto her elbows. When she’d managed it, she sighed. “Very not bad.”
Harrier growled, but that only made her grin that mischievous grin of hers. “Not bad,” he repeated as he crawled the length of her body to join her on the bed. When they were face to face, he narrowed his eyes at her, said, “I’ll show you not bad,” then kissed her long and hard.
Once she was breathless, gasping for air, Harrier felt the need to warn her. “Prepare yourself, Kitty. I’m about to bury myself inside you.”
“Balls deep?” she asked with a grin.
Harrier’s smile was wide, baring fangs he could no longer contain. “And then some.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
T he size of the fangs Harrier was showing off should have shocked Kythryn. Comparatively speaking, they made his ginormous cock look average. But when it came to doing the deed, he was nothing but gentle.
When he entered her—finally, at long last, thought it would never happen—her world shifted on its axis. It was as if Mother Moon had created him just for her, and as his thrusts intensified, she knew the earth was about to spin out of control. She met each push with one of her own, matching him force for force as wave after wave of orgasms assaulted her.
Harrier groaned. “I want you inside me.”
What?
She might have said that out loud, it was hard to tell. Maybe her brain was fuck-fuzzy, she didn’t know, but his words did not compute.
He must have sensed her confusion because, thank all that was holy, he elaborated without her having to sound like an idiot. “I’ll not take your blood without your okay, but know that my gums are aching with the need of you.”
Kythryn grinned. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to say this to you, but—bite me, Harrier.”
And he did. He took those great big fangs of his and sunk them into that soft place where shoulder and neck joined. There was a prick of pain followed by the most mind-blowing orgasm she’d ever experienced. As he sucked at her neck, each pull created tiny little explosions throughout her body, and great big giant ones in her hoo-ha. Kythryn thought regular oral sex with him had been hard to handle. This was a whole different kind of oral, the kind folks don’t talk about at tea parties. If Shifter ladies knew what Vampire sex was like, there would never be any more pure-blooded baby Shifters. That was pure fact.
After the thousandth little climax had her about to climb the walls, Harrier came up for air. There was a smear of blood—her blood—on the corner of his mouth, and she reached up to kiss it away. No, she wasn’t a Vampire, but that didn’t mean she had an aversion to hemoglobin. Her cat would eat practically anything, blood, guts and all. A little of her own blood after an erotic experience like this? An aftershock rocked her body as the taste of copper filled her mouth, followed by the silky sensation of Harrier’s tongue tangling with her own.
Gods, he was sexy. When she pulled away, he watched her through a curtain of russet hair, those golden eyes of his glowing, lighting the room up like a hot summer day. He blinked a couple of times, causing the light in the room to strobe, then leaned down to lick her neck where he’d bitten her.
The spark in his eyes dimmed, and Kythryn assumed he was going into that after-sex stupor most guys, and girls for that matter, fell into, but somethi
ng about the look on his face said there was more to it than that.
He licked her again, this time without the tenderness that spoke of more hotness to come. When he looked at her this time, it wasn’t panic, exactly, but something wasn’t right.
“What is it?”
“Your wound isn’t sealing. I don’t under—”
Kythryn reached up to find that, yeah, there were still two puncture wounds on her neck weeping blood. She pulled her hand away and looked, because that’s what you do, and yep. That was blood.
Harrier sat up, a look of pure horror on his face.
“I’m so sorry, Kitty. I didn’t think…”
“Didn’t think what? What happened?”
“I don’t think about my Shifter side often,” he whispered. “I know the physiology of it, I know the rituals, but I live my life as a Vampire. I wasn’t thinking.”
Kythryn sat up and grabbed his arms, shook him a little. “Stop fucking with me, Harrier. What the hell did you do?”
“I’m sorry Kitty, but I think I’ve marked you as my mate.”
Chapter Fifty
W ell, wasn’t that a kick in the teeth? Being marked by a Vampire had never occurred to her either, was the farthest thing from her mind, but that wasn’t the worst of it. When his words registered, Kythryn’s hand rose to her shoulder of its own accord—not the one Harrier had bitten, but the other one. The one with the scars.
Harrier didn’t miss a trick, his eagle eye locking on to what she was trying to cover up. He laid his hand on top of hers and gave it a little squeeze before moving it out of the way. She knew the moment he saw it. His hand tightened around hers, only this time it wasn’t in a gentle, reassuring way.
“Kitty?”
She didn’t answer, couldn’t even look at him until he forced her to. Devastation bled from those golden eyes, like she had taken his favorite bird toy and flushed it down the toilet. It was so heavy, so palpable she could practically feel his emotions spinning inside her.