“There are too many to list,” Kara said, crossing her arms like she was pondering the question. “But one benefit, as Estella could tell you, is that when a Valkyrie is changed by a shifter, she recovers much more quickly than a human does.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“For humans, the change can hit like a poison consuming them from the outside. The bite of a shifter is severe, like no other pain known to humans. I’ve heard that it’s an agony that lasts for days, sometimes even months, like one’s body has been taken over by a force so powerful that it’s impossible to fight it off. They crave death, but their animal won’t allow them to die. It’s torture.”
I swallowed hard, my mind venturing to thoughts of Tristan. My heart hurt to think what he must have gone through two centuries ago when someone had inflicted the change on him.
“You’re saying that for a Valkyrie it’s not like that?”
Kara shook her head. “For us, they say it’s almost natural. Like our bodies were meant for the change.”
“But I’m confused,” I told her, my fingers toying with the red folds on my gown’s skirt, “you said there aren’t many half-breeds. I would have thought there’d be a ton.”
Kara let out a chuckle that seemed colored by cynicism. “That’s mostly because no shifter would dare to change any of us without our express consent. Shifters know better than to do anything to us without asking first. The truth is, most Valkyries prefer to remain pure-blooded. Half-breeds are looked at unfavorably by most of our kind.”
“But you’re telling me Estella was changed with her blessing. She wanted it?”
“Yes. Apparently she was wrapped up in a pretty intense love affair at the time with a certain dragon shifter. I don’t know the details, though. I’ve never asked her who it was.” She threw me a sly smile. “Anyhow, none of this should matter much to you. You aren’t a full Valkyrie, of course. But you do have my blood coursing through your veins, so you’ve probably found that you feel different from before.”
I nodded. “I do feel stronger,” I said, “though it’s not like I go around picking up buildings or anything. I don’t feel like I could take on the world just yet.”
“Well, if you had the blood of a shifter, you probably could,” Kara said, her eyes moving towards the room in the distance where the festivities were still raging. “Any shifter would tell you, Estella is the most powerful person at this party. She may seem a bit ridiculous, but she’s stronger, even, than Tristan. Her dragon is a force to be reckoned with. Then again, so is the alpha’s wolf.”
“I don’t suppose I’ll ever know how strong Tristan really is,” I replied. “But I have to admit, now you’ve got me curious.”
“Well, you have plenty of time to learn everything about him,” Kara said. “For now, just try to enjoy yourself. Tristan’s not a man who’s going to divulge all his secrets at once. You need to let him offer you morsels.”
“You’re right about that,” I sighed. “But I don’t really appreciate morsels when I’m craving a feast.”
“I hear you. Well, I should get back to the party…”
“Yes, and I should use the powder room.” As I took a step forward, though, I stopped and turned back to the Valkyrie. “Oh, listen, I ran into Rourke earlier.”
“Oh?” she asked, her cheeks flushing red.
“I got the impression that he wouldn’t be adverse to running into you tonight.”
Kara tightened, her already tall body straightening to an impossible height. “He should stay a thousand miles away from me,” she said with a sudden coldness.
Then she walked away.
If Estella preferred love to war, I got the distinct impression that Kara would have taken war over love any day.
I was beginning to think she had as many secrets as my lover did.
Chapter 11
When I’d finished up in the powder room I headed back towards the makeshift ballroom. I scanned the vast space for Tristan only to find that he was nowhere to be seen among the hordes of half drunk party-goers.
So instead of standing around like an awkward crimson loner, I decided to explore the house a little more. I headed down yet another hallway which led towards the western end of the enormous mansion, knowing full well that if and when Tristan wanted to find me, he’d have no trouble doing so. The man’s incredible nose could pick up my scent from miles away.
My route took me down a red-walled corridor, past a series of closed white doors until I came to one that stood half open. For some reason, I stopped and peered inside.
At first all I saw was a series of tall bookshelves covered in leather-bound volumes, and the corner of a white billiard table coated in red felt. Balls were scattered across its surface, seemingly undisturbed. But as I watched, one of them began rolling across the table.
Okay, so someone was inside.
Curious to see who was playing, I pushed the door open slightly, just enough to see movement. That’s when I froze in my tracks, stunned by the sight in front of me.
A woman lay on her back across the other end of the table, dressed in a pink and green striped dress that had been pulled down to expose her breasts. A white mask coated in feathers lay on the floor nearby.
Two tall, young-looking men stood near the woman, smiles on their faces as they gawked at her half-naked body. Oh God. I’d stumbled upon our hostess, who was apparently wrapped up in some kind of pool table sex-fest.
Each of Estella’s hands held onto some piece of their clothing. A tie here, a sleeve there. She was pulling them close, murmuring pleading words.
When the two had bent obediently to her will, she kissed one man long and hard, before locking lips with the other one.
Paralyzed, I held my breath as I watched the proceedings unfold. I couldn’t help but wonder why the hell she hadn’t brought the men to her bedroom, or at least shut the damn door. It was almost like she was hoping to have spectators.
One of the men lifted her voluminous skirt, pushing it up above her knees. The other moved to the far side of the table and grabbed her arms, holding her down as she arched her back in mock resistance. She squirmed, moaning with pleasure as man number one leaned down and drew her nipple into his eager mouth. Meanwhile, man number two got on his knees, tugged her panties to the side and feasted on her, his fingers flexing greedily into her white thighs.
I gasped when she turned her head and looked my way, her strange emerald eyes fixing on my own as if she’d known the entire time that I was there. Letting out a long moan, she gyrated her hips to make a show of her pleasure, a knowing smile flashing across her face as she pulled her gaze back to her two lovers.
I shouldn’t have been watching. I should have fled to another part of the house, gone searching for Tristan. But curiosity—or something even more powerful—was forcing my hand. Not to mention my arousal. What was it about this woman, this insanely confusing creature, that made people bend to her will? What was it that made me go against my very nature and stand frozen, gawking at her half-naked body like a spectator at a sporting event?
With a violent shudder I recalled the effect Krane had on me, both in his dragon form and in person. He’d pulled me in, intrigued me, attracted me in a way that I found infuriatingly hard to resist. Maybe it was that same blood, the potent genes of a dragon, that gave Estella the ability to control me now.
If so, Kara had been right. Estella was more powerful, even, than Tristan. I understood now why he’d been so reluctant to try and explain her to me. How could anyone find the words to describe such a woman? She was an impossible combination of age and beauty, power and unadulterated glee. I’d never met anyone like her…and I hoped I never would again.
A second wave of arousal hit as I watched her hips buck under the touch of one lover’s tongue. Man number two was crawling up onto the table, his knees anchored by her head as he unzipped his pants. Though I tried not to look too closely, I was fully aware that he was offering her his hard cock, whi
ch she took eagerly in her mouth. The man, seemingly oblivious to my presence, watched her suck with an expression of the purest pleasure on his face.
In that moment I found the strength to pull away, slipping quickly back into the hall. I spun around, pushing myself out of sight of the doorway and padding farther down the hall. I wondered if anyone walking by would know that I was only pretending to study the series of paintings hanging on the wall as I tried to catch my breath.
The world of shifters and Valkyries, aside from being mysterious and difficult to grasp, was proving somewhat more sexually open than the human world I’d always inhabited. I couldn’t imagine such a sight at any cast party I’d ever been to, and actors weren’t exactly sexually repressed creatures.
No, this was free, open, unabashed lust. Desire that wished to be satisfied at any cost. Estella had found two Lessers that she could bend to her will with little effort. She’d offered, no doubt, to teach them how to pleasure their future mates, and in the bargain they’d offered her an evening of erotic delights. As far as I could tell, all three of them were loving every minute of it.
“No harm done, I guess,” I muttered under my breath as my eyes locked on a painting of a rainy landscape.
“Tell me,” said a deep, slightly muffled voice from somewhere behind me, “did you enjoy watching Estella in all her glory?”
I spun around, flustered and mortified at the thought that someone knew what I’d been up to, only to see Tristan’s wolf mask staring me in the face.
“Oh, thank God it’s you,” I sighed. Having my lover catch me playing voyeur was marginally less embarrassing than if it had been a stranger. “I didn’t mean to spy on her. It was just that I was a bit surprised to see…that…on a pool table.”
“It’s quite something to watch a woman being pleasured by two men, isn’t it?” he asked softly, stepping forward and pressing his body towards mine. I pushed my back against a section of bare red wall, wondering if Estella could hear our conversation from the game room. She’d probably love to know that we were talking about her. “I’ll bet you’d like the same treatment she was getting, wouldn’t you?” the voice behind the mask asked. “Admit it. You’d love to have two mouths on you. Two hard dicks for your personal pleasure.”
A wave of dizziness overtook my head, all but throwing me off balance. I wasn’t sure whether to feel excited or angered by my lover’s words.
What exactly was he saying? Did Tristan suddenly want to invite someone else to partake of our private encounters?
I shook my head. I wasn’t interested in anyone else. I couldn’t even imagine desiring another man, other than for a fleeting, confused second. “It only made me want you,” I protested. “I’m not interested in ménages, thanks.” My voice was wearing thin with confusion and mild irritation. Enough with the teasing and cryptic language, Tristan. Just be honest and tell me what it is you’re after. “Are you saying I’m not enough for you?” I asked. “After a few weeks with me, you already want to change things up?” I pushed in closer to him and whispered, “Even after what we did on the elevator and in the garden just now?”
He laughed. “Oh, you sweet thing, I’m sure you’d be enough for any man. But I do think it’s a shame that you’re not into threesomes.” An odd, low purr had begun to take over his voice, a sound I’d never heard from the man I thought I knew.
I narrowed my brown eyes at the bright blue irises that were staring at me from behind the mask, my mind a mess of questions. Since when did Tristan talk like this? Had he somehow drunk six bottles of champagne in the few minutes since I’d last seen him?
Because he sure as hell wasn’t acting like himself.
“Why exactly do you suddenly want another guy in our bed?” I asked. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“Why do I want it?” he asked, easing closer. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I’d really like to be inside you at the same time as my brother.”
Chapter 12
Wait—at the same time as my…brother?
The moment the words hit my ears, my heart stopped.
Everything stopped.
Had I really just heard what I thought I’d heard? Had Tristan Wolfe just said he wanted to make love to me alongside his devilish dragon shifter of a sibling?
No. No way in hell would he ever make a proposition like that.
As a chuckle erupted from behind the wolf mask, a sudden wisp of a familiar, imposing scent met my nose, sending a frigid shot of terror pulsing through my bloodstream.
“Krane,” I gasped, my body frozen tight against the wall. Oh, God. How had I not known it the instant he’d pulled up behind me? How had I not sensed his presence, or picked up the cruelly erotic scent that I’d come to dread?
The wolf mask nodded, and I knew from his narrowed eyes that the bastard was smiling. Amused by my discomfort. His hands were still pressed to the wall on either side of my head, but he pulled one away for a second to lift the mask and reveal his face.
He was exquisite. Mischievous, sexy, those full lips of his twitching up into the most wicked of grins.
Damn him.
I needed to escape. He was far too close for comfort, the invasive bouquet of his flesh too consuming.
Why was he doing this to me?
Part of me wanted to scream, another part wanted to command him to get away from me. If his brother found out he was here, I could only imagine what he’d do to both Krane and me. No matter what happened, this meeting of ours wasn’t going to end well.
“We haven’t formally met,” Krane said, cocking his head a little as Tristan sometimes did. A mist of sensual aromas swirled around my head. Tantalizing, sweet, savory at once, I did everything I could to push them away. This had to be some trick that the dragon shifter was playing on my mind. He’d done it to me in his dragon form, then again in the subway station. He’d made me stop cold, forced my eyes to stare into his own. He’d driven my mind to delve into places I’d never wanted to venture.
This man had powers that I didn’t begin to comprehend, and I didn’t like them one bit.
“You know what? I don’t want to meet you,” I said, shaking my head slowly. “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to know you.” I turned my head to see it anyone was coming, but his thick arm was blocking my sight lines.
He glanced down, eyes locking on my breasts. Self-consciously, I crossed my arms, trying my best to conceal my bare skin from him. My chest belongs to Tristan, I wanted to say. Not to you.
“Damn. You’re really something,” he said. “I can see now why my brother wouldn’t want to give you up.”
“Give me up?” I asked. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Why would Tristan need to give me up?
“You probably satisfy all his needs, don’t you, little thing?” he asked, edging still closer.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I spat.
“I know everything about you,” he said, sniffing the air around us. “I even know that some part of you wants me, and badly. I can smell how turned on you are right now. You know, I’d fuck you right here if it weren’t for that damned brother of mine. I’d claim you for my own.”
“Arrogant bastard,” I said, grabbing his arm and trying, but failing, to yank it down from its locked position beside my head. He was too close now for me to bend down and duck under. However strong Kara’s Valkyrie blood might have made me, I was no match for this man. “Let me out of here,” I commanded in my best I’ll kick your ass voice.
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll…” The truth was that I didn’t know what I could possibly do against an adversary like Krane.
“Oh, I get it. You’re going to tell him, aren’t you?” he asked in a mocking tone. “You’re going to tell my brother on me.”
“I don’t know,” I muttered, trying to solve the unsolvable problem before me.
“You’re going to tell me what?”
Tristan’s voice, usually the most beautiful, sexual soun
d in the world, hit me like the cruel bite of a whip. I slammed my eyes shut, willing myself to sink into the floor and disappear from the universe.
The dragon shifter pulled away from me at last, freeing me from the temporary prison he’d created.
“Hello, Brother,” Krane said, turning to Tristan, who’d pulled his mask off and was standing a few feet away, arms crossed over his chest. The look on his face was enough to terrify me. I’d only ever seen such an expression on his features once before, when Craster’s wolf had threatened me in my apartment.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.
“Funny thing,” Krane said. “You might be interested to know that your lover here…” He gestured slowly, casually, in my direction. I wanted to plead with him. Stop talking. Please. Stop. But he wouldn’t have listened. He didn’t care what I had to say. His sole aim was to ruin my life. “She and I have met before. Twice, actually. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that she hasn’t told you about our little trysts.”
Tristan’s eyes shot to my own, and I could feel his rage directing itself towards me, sending a fierce jolt of shame through my chest. My throat dried, my hands trembled.
“Is this true?” he asked.
“We’ve never met, not officially,” I replied, shaking my head violently. “We’ve never spoken to each other until a minute ago, and that was only because I thought he was you.”
“I’ll give her that much,” said Krane, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest casually, lips twisted in a mischievous smirk. “We’d only met through sexy gazes and shared moments of fierce eroticism. No words, though. Just looks…and lust.”
By now, I was fairly sure that any activity in the billiard room down the hall had come to an abrupt stop. Eyes were trained on us from the direction of the living room, and Estella was probably sitting up on the pool table, listening, amused by the confrontation unfolding in her hallway.
“Ariana,” said Tristan, “is it true that you’ve seen my brother before and you didn’t tell me about it?”
Wolf's Secret (Alpha's Hunger Book 2) Page 7