The Hunters Series

by Shiloh Walker

Declan stroked his hand over Tori’s flesh, feeling the rough touch of goose bumps chilling her skin. Though Eli’s body was warm now, it would eventually cool, and it would leech away whatever heat Tori had. Declan snagged a blanket and covered them before saying quietly, “Something inside her is gone. I’ve sensed it before, but I thought it was because of the change. But it was her sire. His hold on her is gone. That taint is gone, I can’t smell it, or feel it, or sense it.”

  “I know. I recognized his touch, though it took me some time to place a face to that feel, I recognized his taint the moment she entered my territory,” Eli said, resting one hand on her hip, stroking his thumb absently over her flesh. “That is why I forced that confrontation on Tori when she first came. Not for form, but because I needed to make certain she was not feral.

  “I do not follow the rules that so many of my kind cling to. Unless, of course, those rules suit my purposes. Any may enter my territory, so long as they pose no threat to me or mine, so long as they follow my rules.” He met Declan’s gaze, his golden gaze sad and lonely and sighed, saying, “He cannot call her, cannot claim her, cannot control her. Her soul is her own again. Her heart, however, belongs to you.

  “She is yours, now. God, how I envy you.”

  Declan’s lids slid down, shielding his eyes from his friend. He also still rested inside Tori, his semi-erect cock twitching occasionally. He hadn’t intended to hurt Eli, but he realized it had happened. Declan had found something that Eli had been searching for centuries to attain. And not only had Declan found it, he had asked Eli to help him keep it, he had allowed Eli to take her body and taste her, taste them both.

  But soon they would leave.

  And the vampire would be alone, again.

  Eli sighed and murmured, “Do not do this to yourself, pup. She was always yours, and though I may yearn, she isn’t for me.” With a soft laugh, he added, “But I hope, if she is willing, you may find it in yourself to share her again.”

  Rolling his head, Eli stared out the window into the night. “He has been here, his essence. I can feel it. Will you take the fight to him, or let him bring it here?”

  “Tori’s call. Her fight, her call.”

  “Urge her to remain here. Though she is not in his thrall any more, he is centuries old and will not be easy to defeat. On my territory, I can offer defense to whom I will. And if she starts to falter, I will aid her.” Eli snuggled closer to her and murmured, “I am weary. Do you know how long it has been since I’ve done this?”

  Declan remained silent, his hand curved possessively over Tori’s hip.

  He kept it silent, but he could feel Tori’s every heartbeat, like an echo in his chest. He had felt the orgasm that had rocked her, the breaking of that insidious hold, and wondered if she would feel it as well.

  Eli had caught the backlash of the bonding, Declan was certain. But he hoped it was something that would fade from him. While he may not have any problems sharing Tori from time to time with his friend, he had no intention of sharing her completely and indefinitely.

  “We will stay here,” Declan said, shifting and moving until he could rest his head on Tori’s chest, feeling her soft, shallow breaths. “He is near anyway.”

  Stupid bitch.

  Foolish bitch.

  Traitorous bitch.

  Fleeing and hiding and surviving when she had been meant to die, slowly and painfully and alone.

  Worse, she had found a protector, a bloody shifter. One who had the look and smell of a Hunter about him.

  And the English fop of a bastard.

  Oh, Manuel hadn’t forgotten Eli, hadn’t forgotten slipping from the bastard’s grasp nearly two centuries past. Elijah Crawford, one who hunted and destroyed his own kind. Instead of bathing in blood and relishing the power of being immortal, the fool clung to the ways of his human life, spouting harm-no-one shit and protecting the humans.

  They were all going to die.

  Fucking in that bed, feeding off each other, using the body that he had thrown aside.

  She shouldn’t have lived. But since she had, she belonged to him.

  The shadow, an extension of himself, hovered by the window, watching with wide eyes that missed nothing. Manuel paced the confines of his resting place and plotted while the shadow watched. The shadow was supposed to lure the bitch out of Eli’s stronghold and seize her mind, holding her until Manuel could arrive.

  Instead, she had thrown off his summons again, while she let the two men fuck her in unison.

  The fact that watching them had aroused Manuel beyond all reason, beyond any hope of satisfaction, infuriated him even more.

  Oh, they were all going to die.

  The shifter first.

  He’d seize the bitch first, and hold her, while he killed the shifter in front of her. Then Elijah Crawford. His human, a little less handsome now after several brutal beatings, wasn’t quite so human anymore. Manuel had lost control and fed too much, letting the man hover too near death, leaving Manuel with no immediate servant at hand. Manuel was left with no choice but to force a bond on him.

  Now the man was a true slave, inhumanly strong, his mind receptive to his master’s every whim, his will and mind all eradicated under the lash of Manuel’s power. He could feed off of blood, off of food, but mostly he would prefer flesh.

  His slave would take care of the vampire—he had silver for just that purpose, and while Eli lay wounded, Manuel would behead him in front of the bitch.

  She would be last.

  And she would pay for defying him, for refusing his summons.

  Maybe he’d allow his slave some pussy, or a piece of ass, before they killed her and fed. Between the two of them, they could feast on her blood while they fucked her raw and ripped her apart.

  But first, Manuel had to wait for his slave to return with dinner.

  After fighting half the night to bring her to his side, Manuel’s reserves were wearing thin. Not that she was too strong for him. It was simply the distance. Yes, the distance. And the men that surrounded her would block much of his summons.

  Once he was there, he was certain he would control her again.

  Of course, his shadow was already there, had been there half the night.

  And she still slept on, cuddled between the two men like she hadn’t a care in the world.

  Manuel snarled, his fangs gleaming like ivory in the darkened room. The shadow seemed to flinch from his wrath and when the door opened, the slave hesitated.

  Manuel stared at the pale blonde dancer and laughed. “My little dancer,” he crooned before launching himself at her.

  She went down screaming.

  Chapter Eight

  Tori awoke at dawn, right as Eli was sliding into slumber. There was an eerie prickling awareness of him in the back of her mind. She knew he was aware of her waking, and jealous of it. She knew he was aware of her, her scent, her warmth, the blood in her veins.

  “What’s going on?” Tori asked quietly. So much of the past night was a blur. She remembered it vaguely, and that miffed her a bit. She wanted to remember in great detail. And she was tempted to kick Declan’s ass for springing it on her.

  But, like that eerie prickling awareness of Eli, she was aware that Declan hadn’t put her up for a three-way fuck just for doing so.

  She could feel his words in her mind before he even replied. “We helped you break your sire’s hold,” he murmured against her chest. The puff of air from him speaking caressed her skin and her nipples drew tight.

  “What else? Why can I feel Eli in the back of my mind? And why are you in mine? It feels like you are inside me, and I don’t mean your cock,” she said, pulling back and looking down at him.

  He arched his neck, propping his chin between her breasts, and staring up at her. His eyes shone with love, lust, adoration and need, sending hot little tingles of pleasure down her spine. “I’ve always loved you,” he murmured. “Always.”

  Tori’s face heated slightly at that bald, unconditio
nal exclamation. But she wasn’t surprised. She had always known, but hadn’t accepted it. Fool. What woman didn’t want to have all that focused solely on her? “I know that. I love you, too.”

  He smiled slowly, a pleased, smug, totally male smile as he rubbed his chin back and forth on her skin, caressing her roughly. “I know that. We belong together. You know that, don’t you, girl?”

  The rough, husky words, with that lilt of Ireland, rolled around her, caressing her just as surely as his hands were starting to. Weakly, she replied, “I do.”

  “We bonded last night,” Declan rasped against her flesh, pulling her underneath him and spreading her thighs. “Bonded—body, mind and soul. I’ll know your every emotion, and you’ll know mine.”

  Tori gasped, her lids fluttered down as he reached down and trailed his fingers against her opening—she was already wet but swollen and sore. “I know you’re sore. I feel it as well. But I want to make love to you, and I can feel that you want it, too.”

  Her eyes drifted toward Eli, who slept deeply, that awareness stretched thin and taut. But he was still dimly aware of them. And she felt his hunger for this as well. If this had happened yesterday, she couldn’t have.

  No way could she have made love to Declan while somebody else was in the room, sleeping or not. But this wasn’t somebody, this was Eli. And he felt like he was a part of her now.

  “He is. We’re linked, the three of us.” Declan kissed his way down her body, nipping gently at one nipple, rolling the other between his fingers, before he continued to trail his mouth down her body. “Will you let him be with us again?”

  “You want to share me with him?” she asked, her eyes clouded with lust and confusion. His mouth was creeping ever lower and he was expecting her to carry on a conversation?

  “Not share,” he argued softly just before he spread the swollen lips of her sex and blew a cool puff of air on her inflamed, sensitive flesh. “Be with. And not for always. You liked it, didn’t you?” Just then, he stroked her open, from bottom to top, with one wet swipe of his tongue.

  Tori shuddered and whimpered, the words, “I can’t even lie to you about it. You know I liked it, why ask?”

  “Enough to do it again?” he asked, nuzzling her clit with his nose before catching it between his teeth, gently, and laving it with his tongue.

  “Hell, yes.” The two of them, inside her body at one time? Images swirled in her mind, her taking Declan in her mouth while Eli drank from her vagina. Declan’s tongue stroking in and out, like he was doing now, while Eli nipped and fondled her aching breasts.

  “We will do that,” Declan whispered as he trailed one finger from her wet clit to her bottom, pressing against the sensitive flesh of her anus.

  “Ohhhh,” Tori whimpered as he repeatedly pressed against her rosette while he flicked his tongue against her clit and suckled on it. “Just how…ah, how far inside…mmm, my head can you go?”

  “Only as far as you want me to,” he murmured. “You can feel me, too—inside your head—and you inside mine. “ He propped himself up, taking two fingers and sliding in and out of her wet passage. “Close your eyes,” he urged. “Concentrate on me.”

  “How can I not?” she asked wryly, her hips rising unconsciously to meet the strokes of his hand. But her eyes fluttered closed and she shuddered, that dim awareness of Declan in the back of her mind rushing to the forefront, and she could feel the way her own body felt to him—could taste the way she tasted to him, could feel the tight, pulsing, pounding sensation that was his cock—feel it as if she was actually inside his body.

  She could feel his emotions, his fears, his wants.

  She could feel him covering her body while he was wearing nothing but the pelt that covered him after he shifted, taking her like that, underneath the full moon, in the woods. She could feel the intense, insatiable need for sex that rode his back and feel the hunger that he had focused solely on her from day one.

  He left her pussy with one last rough swipe of his tongue before he came up her body and spread her thighs; draping them across his while he remained upright on his haunches, pulling her pelvis lower until he could work his cock inside her while they both watched. The fat, ruddy head of his penis stretched her swollen opening and she flinched a little, Declan soothing her with gentle stroking caresses on her hips. Her breath left her lungs in a shuddering rush when she lifted herself on her elbows to watch with him as his thick cock sliced through her until he was buried inside her—the furred sac of his balls swinging against her bottom with each deep, gentle stroke. She hooked her ankles together just atop his butt, holding him deep inside her. Her body quaked as he used the flared tip of his cock to stroke that tiny spot inside her body. She wanted to feel his body against hers but before she could move, or even voice the urge, he had grasped her around her waist and drew her up, catching a tightly beaded nipple in his mouth as he aligned their bodies, her sitting astride him and rocking her hips slowly.

  Lifting his head, he stared up into her eyes as he took her bottom in his hands and lifted her weight, guiding her in a slow, easy rhythm. Declan groaned and muttered under his breath as her silken sheath contracted around him, tight, hot and wet—swollen from his and Eli’s rough usage of her the past night. “So fucking sweet,” he murmured, nipping at her lip before kissing her gently, his tongue sliding inside to taste and seduce as one warm hand left her hip to cup her breast, his thumb stroking the nipple.

  “Mmm,” she murmured, licking her lips after his left hers. “Tell me about it.” His taste intoxicated her—salty, spicy, so totally male, but so uniquely him. “Want another taste,” she murmured, seeking out his mouth.

  His hand tightened on her ass and he drove a little harder inside her. Tori cried out, squirming on his lap, rubbing herself against him. His hand left her breast to circle around her throbbing clit and he went back to rocking slowly inside, stilling her attempts to drive herself down on his cock. “You’re too sore,” he rasped against her mouth.

  “I want—”

  “I know what you want,” he said with a smile as his fingers gripped one ass cheek and pulled, separating her crevice, exposing her puckered rosette to the gentle caress of air. “But you can’t have it right now. I want to love you right now. Love you, not fuck you. Ride me. Just ride. Let me take you slowly, Tori. Let’s let it last a while.”

  His final words were whispered against her breast as he trailed his mouth down and closed over one nipple, raking his teeth gently against it before sucking and taking her flesh deep inside his mouth.

  It built slowly this time, every time Tori sought to plunge and thrust, his hands restrained her. By the time the climax had built inside her, she was sweating and panting, tears flowing down her cheeks, her skin stretched tight and hot as though her entire body was going to explode the minute the climax rolled through her.

  “Now,” he whispered against her mouth, feeling the tight, clenching caresses of her sheath as her body tightened and prepared for orgasm. She was hotter and wetter, straining and panting—pleading and crying out against him. He gripped her shoulders and forced her down, rocking inside her as she shattered against him.

  Tori sobbed as it rolled through her, each wave seeming to last longer than the last. His cock pulsed inside her and she screamed weakly when she felt the hot jets of his sperm flood her. Another orgasm wracked her body as her head fell back, her body going limp while he continued to thrust and rock inside her, riding his orgasm until she had drained him dry.

  He rolled them to their sides, Tori’s body pressed once more between his and Eli’s. She felt the hard pressure of Eli’s cock at her back and she flushed, realizing just how aware part of him really was. Vaguely, she grew aware of something, a dull pounding ache between her thighs. When Declan eased his semi erect shaft out of her, tears flooded her eyes and she gasped in pain. Soothing kisses dried the tears from her eyes while Declan murmured in her ear, “I’m sorry, baby. So sorry.”

  She felt the rising
tide of guilt and self-anger that rose in Declan and she arched up to press her lips to his mouth. “Shh,” she whispered. “I’m fine, just not going to be up to much playing for a while.”

  He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. “I want you so much,” he muttered as shame and anger flooded his gut. Sympathy pains, or echoes of the pain Tori was feeling had his lower abdomen and groin throbbing and aching and he could only imagine how badly she was hurting now. “I’ve been told the need does lessen, in time.”

  “Need?” she repeated, curling her knee up slightly, stroking one hand down his stiff side.

  “Aye. You’re my mate, you see. The shifters, inherents or otherwise, have a driving need for a mate. Once you find it, you want it, always and forever and you’re overtaken by an urge to mark your mate,” he said quietly. “I’ve known you were mine since I first saw you, and I’ve controlled the urges. I’m afraid I am losing control now. All I have to do is think of you and I get hard. The need to mark you and ride you and fuck you constantly is driving me insane. I can’t control it.” He didn’t speak of how the urge to fuck had been augmented by his need to do everything to protect, until the need had near driven him insane.

  But she knew.

  With a smile, she kissed his chest, nipping gently at one flat nipple before she said, “I think of you and I get wet. Stop feeling bad. I heal quick, right? That’s part of this. And it was worth it.” She closed her eyes in remembered ecstasy—the feel of his cock inside her, the feel of being pressed between their two bodies. The feel of Eli thrusting that thick cock of his in her ass while Declan pummeled her vagina. Even the thought of it had tight little spirals of need spiraling through her belly, even though her aching pussy begged for a respite.

  Oh, yeah. Worth it.

  Declan’s shame at his lack of control faded as he felt that deep satisfaction that radiated from her. “You’re not angry, are you?”

  “For what?”

  “I bound us together last night. And I never gave you a chance to say no,” he said, lifting her chin and staring into her eyes. “You understand, don’t you, that you can’t go walking away from me, from us. Not now, likely not ever.”