They’d been ripped apart, literally. This hadn’t been a kill for food, but a brutal show of strength. Tears filled my eyes as I walked closer to where Jillian was staring into the sky, as if her killer had stood above her, taunting her. I followed her eyes, and then looked to the damp ground at huge paw prints that seemed to be everywhere around her body, but also, foot prints—bare human footprints.
I walked over to Bonnie, who had the same prints around her body. Bloody handprints covered her thighs as if they’d been held apart. Wolves didn’t work with humans…right? They’d been ripped apart, and yet Bonnie had been raped. The proof was there for everyone to see. The next question was, had she been dead before they’d raped her corpse or was she raped and then killed? Did the wolves show up after the humans had raped Bonnie and killed them both? And why was only Bonnie raped? My mind whirled with scenarios, none of them making any sense.
“What kind of sick bastard would do this?” I whispered, horrified as I turned to find Jaeden and his men staring at me. I knew that look, it was the one that said at any moment they expected me to shatter and break into a million pieces. I wouldn’t; instead I was disgusted. I was disgusted at what I was doing while this was happening. How long had I been in that house, being seduced by Jaeden?
I didn’t know shit about him, and for all I knew, I could be standing beside the killer. I doubted it, since they looked as disgusted as I felt about what had occurred here. I kneeled beside Bonnie and reached for her leg to close it, to give her some resemblance of dignity in death, but when I grabbed her leg, it detached from the body. Muscle gave way, and the sound would haunt me forever. Bone had been severed by something besides the wolves. It was a clean break, and as I looked to her arms, I realized they too had been set back in place.
“Emma,” Jaeden said gently as he held out his hand for mine. I glared up at him as I ignored his hand and reached for my handheld radio.
“Addy, call everyone in. Now. I want a full head count of every soul that belongs to the shelter. No one goes out, and no new person comes in. Lock it down,” I ordered.
“Everything okay out there, Ems?” Addy’s distant voice came back over the radio.
“Bonnie and Jillian are dead, and I need you to issue that order, now.”
“Will do, and Ems, be fucking careful. Bring them back if you can, please,” Addy said.
“They’re in pieces, Addy, actual pieces. I can’t bring them back like this, it would only cause panic. I need everyone inside and do a headcount. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Bitch, are you safe?” she growled and I could hear her panic even over the radio and static.
“I’m with Jaeden and his men,” I admitted.
“Be safe, and if he doesn’t keep you safe, I’ll cut his balls off and feed them to him!”
I caught sight of Jaeden wincing but ignored it. “Call it, and lock it down.”
“Sending it now,” she said.
I knew the moment she did it, because Jillian’s radio went off.
“Get the fuck back here! Two down, call out!” Addy shouted to the radio. I listened as one after another sounded off. Jaeden’s eyes narrowed as he listened as men and women sounded off. Yeah, I had a large group. He’d had no idea of just how big that group was. After some fifty people sounded off, I responded.
“Get back to base, and be safe. We are no longer safe in the woods. Once inside, you are to stay there. Addy and Jimmy will do a head count. If at that time, we find others missing, I will find them.”
The radio seemed to explode with chatter, everyone asking questions at once. “Enough; you’ll be told when we are all back and safe. For now, all you need to know is we lost two and I won’t lose anymore. God be with you, and watch your six, over.”
I turned to Jaeden and nodded. “Let’s find the sick pieces of shit,” I said and watched his face clear of all emotions.
“Come again?” he asked with a serious look on his face.
“I’m finding who did this, with or without your help,” I bit out crisply as I did a check of the ammunition I had on me. He seemed to consider it briefly before making up his mind.
“These were wolves, Emma, very dangerous ones at that.”
“Yeah because we all know wolves are in to fucking humans, and raping them? Since when did wolves become able to unbutton pants? Someone put them back together. Wolves don’t do that, not even rabid ones.” I watched as his eyes narrowed at my quiet sarcasm.
“Good point,” he said, but I got the feeling he was either hiding something or covering it up. I also had a feeling he wasn’t used to being questioned.
“What is it you aren’t telling me?”
“Nothing,” he said as he stepped closer, and I stepped back. “Don’t do that, Emma.”
“Do what?” I snapped.
“Don’t pedal backwards with me. I don’t regret what we did, and neither should you.”
“Shouldn’t I? I was with you when I should have been with them! I could have helped them!” I was ashamed of what I’d done. I’d been so close to having sex! I’d let my guard down, and they had paid for it. I was so sick of this shit! Too many people were being killed, and while I hadn’t been a huge fan of either of the girls, I wouldn’t wish this kind of death on anyone.
Life kept throwing curve balls at my head, and the only thing it was doing was improving my skill in dodging them. I was tired of dodging, I needed a friggin’ bat. It was time to knock a few home runs out of the park, and after all, I had home field advantage. This was my town. I knew it like the back of my hand, and had lived here for my entire twenty-one years of life.
“You should go home,” Jaeden said with a tinge of anger lacing his tone. “Try to think of it as this; if you’d been with them, you’d be lying beside them in pieces right now. What we did? It saved your life.”
“You don’t know that,” I said as I met his soul-piercing eyes. “I’m a fighter, Jaeden. I know everything there is to know about this town, and for all you know, I could have stopped this from happening.”
He smiled but it was cold. “You need to face reality, little lady. You’re small, and while I’ve seen you fight, you wouldn’t win this one. This was a pack of rogue wolves. They are deadly, unlike any other animal you’ve ever met.”
“Well since I haven’t met many wolves before, that tells me absolutely nothing. Wolves are wolves, and I have never heard of any kind of wolves doing anything like this before.”
“Emma, go home. I’ll let you know if I find the animals that did this,” he snapped.
“Those are my girls on the ground, Jaeden! I’m either coming with you to help kill the monsters that did this, or I’ll go out by myself. You can’t stop me!” I seethed. Who the hell did he think he was?
“Bjorn?” he said as he focused his attention on his handgun and checked the magazine.
“Yeah?” An extremely tall man with jet black hair and cold, blue eyes stepped up.
“Secure Emma, and protect her with your life. Lock her in my bedroom if you have to, but don’t let her out of your sight.”
I snorted. Right! Not gonna happen—I was captured in a bear hug before I’d even noticed him move. He tightened his hold on me even as I kicked his legs and screamed. “You’re an asshole! You have no right! You can’t do this to me!”
Jaeden smiled as he slipped his handgun into the back waistband of his pants. His eyes lifted to mine, and he strolled over to where I was thrashing in the giant’s arms. “Cease struggling, sweet Emma, before you hurt yourself,” he replied. His hand came up to touch my cheek before his thumb traced the fullness of my bottom lip. “I’ll see you when I get home from hunting, honey.”
Chapter 9
I was shown to a massive bedroom and none too gently reminded to stay put. Jaeden and his group had
taken over the old manor house which had been built for one of the owners of one of the biggest logging companies that helped our town establish its footprint in Pend Oreille County. This meant the house was ancient. Ancient, but beautifully crafted. Much of the place had been falling down, which made many of the kids in Newport believe it had been haunted; they only went in it on a dare. Just before the flu wiped out the town, the mayor had led a renovation project on the estate that would be managed eventually by Pend Oreille County Historical Society as an extension of their museum complex.
The room I was in was gigantic, and must have been part of the finished wing, since it had a huge, black four poster bed that had a billowing canopy of white silk and gauzy panes that draped to the floor at each corner. The room was masculine, yet looked as if it had a woman’s touch to it. The bed had a gray silken duvet with black trim and matching silk sheets, with an insane amount of pillows of the same material scattered against the headboard. The walls were painted in a darker shade of gray, with black crown molding around the ceiling.
There was a huge settee at the end of the bed, which was silver in color, and had a white fur throw placed over it. I ran my fingers over it and smiled. “PETA would have a field day here…” My eyes landed on the massive tub that took up a corner of the room, already filled with water. I walked over to it and stuck the tips of my fingers into the blissfully seductive depths. It was warm…
I smiled. A bath. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d taken a bath. We only had showers at the shelter. It was ideal for the amount of people we had there, but I missed bathing. Did I dare? I did, but first things first. I walked to the door and tapped on it.
Bjorn was just on the other side of it, so I knew he’d hear me splashing if I indulged, and I didn’t wish to have him walk in on me. “What?” he asked gruffly.
“The bath in the room, may I use it?”
“If you wish to use it, I can abide giving you privacy,” he said with a stern look. “Do not make a mess for Jaeden to return to.”
“Okay, are there towels? Do you know how long he will be gone?” I asked as an afterthought. No way in hell was I going to chance having him return to find me all naked in his tub.
“Step aside,” he ordered, and I quickly obliged. He was either a soldier by nature, or had served his country, based on his stance. He was aware of where I stood and what I did, even as he moved around the room to a locked armoire and pulled out some items for me. “Is there anything else you need?’
“No,” I replied looking at everything he’d brought out. There was a tray, and on it, an iPod, washcloths, a towel, and several bars of sweet scented soap as well as an assortment of bath salts. Based on where Bjorn pulled these items from, either Jaeden had found these items here, or he’d planned on entertaining women here.
“Do you require sustenance?” he continued.
“You mean food?” I asked, wondering who the hell referred to food as sustenance in this day and age. Hell, maybe Jaeden had found Bjorn here with the house and resurrected him or found him in a dusty old home in his old country. Bjorn had the same odd accent Jaeden did.
“I’ll bring you food when you finish bathing, mistress.”
Mistress?
I waited for him to shut the door, and then smiled. A friggin’ bath! I did a happy dance around the room with a grin from ear to ear covering my face. I was dancing around when I caught sight of the huge stones beneath the black clawfoot tub, and paused. No way. I walked over and yes, I got on my stomach to look at the huge boulders. It was friggin’ genius! I reached out to run my finger over one of the round stones and cried out. “Ouch!” It was hot!
Okay, so obviously it was genius, and I was an idiot. There was no faucet, but there was a cold bucket of water that was close enough to the stones beside the tub that the water wouldn’t be ice cold. I looked around the room as if I expected Jaeden to jump out at any second.
He’d gone hunting, which meant I had time to enjoy the tub. I felt bad for not mourning the girls, but they’d screwed up, and even though it hurt to know they’d died as they had, I couldn’t change it. I was still pissed that Jaeden had detained me as if he owned me, but more than an hour had passed since our confrontation and with the distance and time, the anger had dissipated.
I finally scrounged up the courage to undress, but not before I’d sprinkled bath salts into the water. I placed the tray at the end of the tub and slipped into the water with a groan of absolute pleasure. My pussy still ached from his touch, which was where my hands wanted to go. I shoved away the urge to finish what he started, but barely.
I wasn’t a prude, and I knew what sex was. I just hadn’t wanted to be used and discarded like some play toy. I’d made myself explore every curve of my body, and knew the difference now between how his hands felt, and my own. His made my body go into a state of emergency, while mine just did what was necessary for relief.
I closed my eyes, but the idea of music and a bath was seductive. I hadn’t charged my iPod in ages and wondered how many generators they were using to keep the electricity going in this place. I reached for the headphones, and slipped them on over my head. After I’d looked through the playlists and had found one labeled ‘slow submission’, I smiled. On it was a ton of hard rock, but there were also other songs which both relaxed and seduced my senses.
It was stupid, I knew it. I was in his room, listening to his playlist…or one he’d made for another woman. I felt like an interloper, and yet I didn’t care. The smell of rose in the water was provocative, and eventually, I placed the iPod which was in a waterproof case—handy—on my chest, while my hands skimmed over my flesh.
I moaned low in my throat, and then reminded myself of whom and where I was. I closed my eyes as I felt my nipples harden while the image of Jaeden flashed in my mind. The way his touch sent my body into overdrive, with a simple look or touch. One of my hands slipped beneath the surface to explore the ache between my legs, while the other played with my nipples.
The idea of getting off in his bedroom was both intoxicating and arousing. He’d never know what I’d done, because I was the only one here. I listened to the beat of the music as Puddle of Mudd’s Control played through the buds in my ears. My fingers found the beat, and I gasped as my fingers stroked the small bud in the junction of my legs.
He’d turned me on, and left me unsatisfied. It wasn’t his fault of course, because I’d have stopped it…or I’d like to think I would have. The idea of a man like him between my thighs drove me wild, but it could be because I’d yet to experience what he could do. That might explain why it was so easy for him to turn me on. I was a twenty-one year old virgin. Probably the only one in my town before the flu hit, and probably the oldest living one in the world now.
I allowed a finger to slip between the folds, and rocked my hips against it. My lips trembled as my nipples turned into hard pebbles. I could come so easily. A single finger slipped inside of me, and I gasped and opened my eyes to make sure the door was still locked, but it wasn’t the door I should have been worried about.
Nope, it was the six foot five male who was watching me with intensity so dark and hot in his eyes that instead of closing my legs, they fell open with a knee resting on both sides of the tub. I didn’t stop. I should have, but his eyes feasted on my bare pussy, and what I was doing to it.
“Fucking hell, Emma,” he growled. It was the only warning I got before he strolled to the tub and pulled me out of the water. “I expected you to be pissed. Instead, I come home to a fucking nymph in my bathwater.”
“I wasn’t…it wasn’t…where are you taking me?” I sputtered with a guilty blush spreading over me from head to toe. I landed on the bed with a whoosh of air that escaped my lungs. His mouth devoured mine as his hands took over what mine had just been doing.
“I love the way you tremble for me,” he growled. “The way y
our skin grows flushed, and your pussy weeps with the need to be fucked,” he murmured as he kissed his way down my flesh.
“Jaeden, what are you doing—” his mouth found the sweet nub of my core and my hips bucked against his mouth and the deliciousness of what he felt like there. “Oh, wow…” I moaned and made incoherent noises as the sound of his mouth sloppily sucking and licking my flesh echoed in my ears.
“You taste like heaven,” he replied as his mouth continued to ravish my sex. It wasn’t until he slipped a single finger inside of me that I knew I had to stop this. It was too much, the feeling intense and overwhelming. I wrapped my legs around his shoulders, baring myself to him until I felt exposed, and instead of being embarrassed, I called his name and encouraged him to do even more.
“More,” I ordered and listened as he laughed without removing his mouth from my very wet, very close to coming pussy. “Yes! Oh God, that’s so good!”
Another finger was added, and soon I was riding it until I thought I would break into a million tiny pieces. I called his name, but then he was gone. I looked around the room, and felt the weight of his stare. Something was still touching me, and yet it wasn’t him.
I sat up in the tub and looked around. Jaeden sat in a chair on the other side of the room, watching me. I looked down at my body, and found my hand still buried in my naked flesh. My nipples were hard, but the iPod continued to play, something slower than it had been. “I was asleep,” I said to myself. I’d dreamt of him, and he’d been in the room with me as I had!
“Tell me, Emma, why were you calling my name in your sleep?” he asked from where he sat in a dimly lit corner. He stood and walked towards me, until I could see he was half undressed. His belt was undone, and his shirt was gone. I could see his massive length, hard and ready beneath the jeans.
Darkest Before Dawn Page 9