by Honor James
“I agree completely, Miklos. We will worry about that when it is time to worry. Right now it’s just time for us.” She smiled up at him and nodded. “I have some time to figure things out while I heal. When I go back to work it will be with a clear choice we have both made together, Miklos.”
“All right then,” he said softly before moving and settling at her side so he didn’t crush her with his weight. Pulling her gently into his arms he nibbled on her shoulder. “You should sleep some more, love,” he told her as he glanced over her head, to the wolves. “They’re both asleep and we need to get some more, too. Sleep please,” he said, stroking her hair, gently pressing a kiss to her neck.
She nodded and yawned. “All right.” She rubbed her cheek to his chest. “Love you, Miklos,” she whispered for a moment before giving up and falling deeply asleep.
“I love you, too, Harker,” he murmured, holding her to him, his fingers stroking through her hair gently. Breathing her in he closed his eyes and let himself fall into sleep with the feeling of her hair slipping through his fingers like satin ribbons.
She turned and ran to him. The storms overhead were riotous. “Miklos.” She was afraid. This wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare, and she trapped him there with her, or he her. No matter how hard she ran she couldn’t quite reach him. Tears ran down her face as she heard the growls and snaps so close to her heels. “Please.” Her hands stretched out, reaching for him and knowing that once he held her again it would be okay. It had to be okay.
Stunned at the violence of the dream they were in Miklos grabbed Harker when he found her and pulled her up hard against his chest. Holding her he let out a warning growl, the sound deep and evil in tone as he stared at whatever was trying to pull her apart. When the growls faded he pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Shh, love, I’ve got you,” he whispered softly against her cheek as he rocked her back and forth.
“Whose nightmare is this?” she whispered. “Never let me go, Miklos, I need you too much. Please never let me go.”
“Not happening,” he murmured, looking around and then he knew. “Oh god,” he breathed, his knees feeling weak. “It’s not a nightmare, Harker, it’s a memory.” Swallowing hard he looked to the tree line not far from them and then up to the sliver of moon. “Mine to be exact,” he whispered in horror.
“What is it?” she whispered as she turned to place herself between him and whatever pain was waiting for him. “What is happening, Miklos? Please talk to me?”
Swallowing again he looked around and pulled her closer. “We were on the run,” he said softly, half-afraid of what was going to happen and soon. “The rebels were close this night and we all got separated from one another. But we knew where to meet up again. Unfortunately they called out the hunters to track us. We were too young to take them all on,” he told her, trying not to hyperventilate. “Laszlo took out the two that cornered him and then went to help Ben, Kris, and Janos. But they couldn’t find me right away, the hunter’s scents masking mine as they tracked me.”
Looking around he backed her to a tree and pressed his forehead to hers as he closed his eyes and fought to get out of the nightmare. “The scar on my thigh is from them,” he told her. “It sliced through the major artery in my leg, and only out of pure luck did my brothers find me in time. I had six Wolves on my ass, one got in a lucky swipe with his claws. After that I went down. I couldn’t fight. All I could do was try to keep from bleeding out.”
She held onto him and then let her hands move to his cheeks, lightly caressing and saying, “I’m here with you, Miklos. I promise you that I won’t let them hurt you again.” She promised him as her hands gently moved over his arms and shoulders. “You got away from them, they found you in time, and I will never let you be lost again, Miklos, I swear it.” They had GPS nowadays and she could somehow figure how to place it on him so that if he did get lost, she would always be able to find him.
“Just hold me,” he breathed out softly, wrapping his arms around her even tighter. He felt the Wolves getting closer and knew what was coming. “When I let you go, run,” he whispered against her ear. “The dream always ends the same way. I’ll be fine and I’ll wake up soon enough. But I can’t have them focus on you, not here, not now, not now,” he repeated. “I’ve just found you. I can’t lose you now.”
“You aren’t going to lose me.” She was crying even in reality. “Please don’t ask me to leave you, Miklos, wake up. Wake up now and be with me.” She begged him as she clenched him tightly, “I can’t run from you, not when all I want to do is protect you. Please don’t ask this of me.”
“I can’t, I’ve never been able to wake up before it’s over,” he whispered to her. Cupping her face he kissed her tears away, brushing his lips back and forth. “It’s bloody, love,” he warned softly. “If you stay you need to remember this is from the past. When we do wake it won’t be real, you can’t react like it is.”
“It’s real enough to you and so to me as well,” she whispered softly and kissed him back. “I love you, Miklos. Move to a good dream with me, and force the memory away?” She was reaching, clutching at straws and she knew it.
“I’m trying,” he told her with frustration in his voice. The damned nightmare didn’t want to let him go. It was always that way. Growling as he heard the wolves approaching with blood on their minds he shifted to protect her from the oncoming attack. “Help me, Harker. Give me something, anything to focus on to break through this please,” he begged her.
She moved to him and wrapped herself around him. “Me, focus on me. On us, on our pallet and in front of the fire.” And then, then she did the only thing she could think of and kissed him. She moved so that her body was between him and the oncoming hunters, more than willing to take the pain in the dream if it shielded him and kissed him. Her body poured out all the want, desire, and need, but more than that, love. “Wake up and make love with me,” she said against his lips.
The thought of the hunters closing in and her resolve to take the brunt snapped him from the dream faster than anything else could have even though he knew they’d just pass through her to get to him logically. The soft promise of her body, though, made the sudden waking less jarring. “Harker,” he croaked her name as he turned his head to see if she was awake.
Her eyes opened with a blurring sensation and then she grinned as she moved closer to him, her mouth closing over his as she pressed ever closer to him desperately. No words were given, just the feel of her body pressing to his, the touch of her hands into his hair tugging him closer.
Groaning softly he kissed her back, slipping his leg up between hers to press against her hot pussy. Sliding his hands down to her bottom he worked the shirt up and the over her head eventually. Pulling her back to him he avoided her mouth and took her breast into his, suckling hard at her soft flesh.
She tugged the blankets so that they covered them, still too aware of the wolves before the fire. She moaned loudly when he took the aching peak into his mouth and rubbed her hands down to the band of his shorts and slipped her fingers in, tugging him closer. “Shorts,” she whispered needing to feel him naked against her.
Growling he let her go only long enough to get rid of his clothing and hers and then tugged her back to him and put his mouth right back to where it had been. Nibbling on her flesh as he tugged her over him, he ensured she was covered knowing the alpha was watching them with interest, damned voyeuristic wolf.
Her hand moved between them, her fingers closing around his aching erection with a slow slide. She lifted her hips and with a gentle hand settled her pussy over him with a moan of pleasure. “Miklos,” she breathed roughly. “Harder.” She began to move on his cock, carefully holding the blanket over them as she rode him.
Growling softly so as to not alarm the wolves Miklos sucked on her flesh, letting it slide slowly free as he scraped it with his teeth and repeated. Cupping her ass he helped her to move so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Shifting slightly he took her other bre
ast and pulled her down closer to him as he watched her face.
Biting her lip she rode his cock harder and faster until finally she clenched and shuddered around him. “Miklos.” She said his name on a breath of need, pleasure, and complete happiness. “Come with me,” she begged softly before she bit down hard on her lip and arched her back, her climax coming hard and fast.
Growling he let go of her breast as he arched up into her pussy, his eyes crossing as his neck practically snapped from the strain as he pressed into her. Panting as he collapsed he let out a low groan when she shifted slightly, his cock feeling it like a massive movement, everything tightening inside and jolting hard.
She fell down onto his chest, panting and gasping for air. Grinning at him she stroked her fingers over his chest before closing her eyes. “Thank you, Miklos, I needed that.”
Groaning weakly he jerked his chin in a semblance of a nod as he tried to swallow and therefore speak. But he didn’t get a chance before a wet, cold nose bumped his cheek. “Ew!” he grumbled. “Dude, seriously, go back and lay with your woman. Mine just tried to kill me. I’m going to need a couple before I feed you.”
She laughed, the sound echoing as she rubbed her cheek on his chest. “Besides the fact that you are still locked inside of me, right?” she asked when she sat up a little to look down at him, grinning like a crazed lunatic.
“That is completely beyond the fact,” he told her with a grin pulling one arm free of the blanket to scratch the alpha’s chin. “Go and lay down, buddy. We’re both, mostly, alive here and once I can move I’ll feed you,” he promised, stroking the wolf’s ears gently.
She tipped her head as they heard the soft whine and smiled. “I don’t think it’s as much for him as his mate. Listen to her.” It was a faint sound but he knew it was definitely from the female. “I think that if it was him he would simply wait till morning and hunt for himself, or am I wrong?”
Shifting slightly Miklos looked to the female and frowned. “Damn,” he muttered and wondered how the hell he was going to do this. Thinking boring thoughts helped a little bit, thinking of his brothers helped more until he was able to slip from her pussy with just a bit of resistance. “Sorry, love,” he murmured, kissing her as he snagged his shorts and got up. Moving to the female he ran his hands over her side and stopped when she yipped and shifted. “She’s not hungry, she’s in pain,” he said. “One of the gashes must be infected,” he sighed looking to his mate. “We need to reopen it and clean it out again,” he told Harker softly.
“Oh honey,” she said with a frown and wiggled into her clothes before getting up as well. “All right, I will get the medical supplies.” She turned on her heel and headed back to the kitchen to grab up the kit.
When she came back she asked, “Do you want me to try this time, love?”
Looking to her he nodded. “Yeah, I think so, besides”—he grinned slightly—“I can’t feel all my limbs still so I think your hands might be a hair steadier than mine.” Chuckling when she blushed Miklos grabbed the alpha and pulled him around to his other side. “You only get one girl, wolf.” He glared at the too-friendly animal and swore he was grinning.
“He has eyes only for one girl,” Harker muttered as she tugged on gloves and threaded the suture needle. Grabbing the scissors she whispered, “I’m sorry, honey, this might hurt.” She hated that she might cause the wolf more pain. “Are you sure that we can’t take her to a vet, Miklos?” she asked hesitantly.
“Not without fully tranqing her,” he told her as he eased the female wolf’s head into his lap and sat stroking her silky ears. “It’s too dangerous for the pups to drug her and, with her being a wild animal, they won’t let her in without being out of it. We are it, love. Just cut out the other sutures, clean it all up good again, and close it again,” he said, reaching out to touch her cheek. “Be as quick as you can, Harker, that’s all we can do,” he told her, softly stroking his fingers over her soft flesh.
Harker nodded and, ensuring that everything was around and easily in reach for a fast-paced fixing up, she began. She hummed lightly, very quietly, to ensure that the wolf was relaxed, and so she could have a pace for the snipping and stitching.
The first stitches were out of the wolf quickly and she cleaned in movements that spoke of experience before starting to stitch again. She didn’t pause, didn’t slow, just worked in a fast-beat pace, keeping up with the humming of the tune in her mind.
Finished she pulled back and checked her handiwork and nodded, petting the wolf after peeling off the bloody glove. “You are a great patient, Mommy.”
Looking down in the wolf’s eyes Miklos smiled at the low sound she was emitting. “Yeah, she’s a keeper,” he murmured to the wolf leaning down to rub his cheek to hers. “Rest for now, darling. I’ll get you something to eat but you stay put,” he said gently as he eased her big head back onto the comforter. Getting to his feet he held his hands out to Harker. “We’ll leave the wounds unwrapped for now, just in case we need to do this again,” he sighed. “I really hope not, she can’t afford an infection.”
“I agree, neither she nor her pups can.” She let him tug her up and leaned in close to him. “We need to feed her soft food, that way when it’s time for her to release a bowel movement it hopefully won’t be hard on her so that she has to strain and possibly pull the stitches out.” Disgusting topic yes, but necessary.
Wrinkling his nose at her he shook his head. “Only a woman would think of that,” he said, trying not to gag. “Some things a male just never needs to know or hear about. Remember that please when it’s your turn to go through pregnancy. Some things I just do not need to know.”
She laughed. “And I intend on making sure that you know each and every thing that happens in our pregnancies, Miklos. I want you to live them with me, sweetheart, so you should likely accept that now.” She was stroking his arm as she spoke. “God I love you. It would kill me to see you hurting like she is.”
“I heal faster,” he said softly, looking down at the wolf. “You should have seen my back after I crashed through the plate-glass window at the warehouse, now not a single mark to show for it.” Rubbing his chin in her hair he squeezed her gently. “If it was you though I’d have to kill someone.”
She had forgotten that fact. “See, you get all healed and better, and me, I get my own personal path of scars and a mate who is afraid he will reopen my back making love with me.” She squeezed him slightly. “I adore you, Miklos, but you have to know that I will always tell you if you hurt me, honey.”
“All right,” he said softly, looking down into her eyes. “I’m trusting you to tell me if I go too far, Harker,” he murmured, wondering if she’d realize just what that kind of trust cost him, on a very real level. “I never want to hurt you, babe, never,” he told her even as his head ran a tally of what he’d already done to the poor woman up to that date.
“I always will, Miklos, I promise you that I always will.” She touched his cheek and smiled. “You won’t hurt me, Miklos, but if you do, I will stop you, I promise.” She looked up at him and smiled. “And stop trying to think of what you term as things you have done to hurt me. It’s just life.”
Letting his face go blank he stared at her. “I have no idea what you mean,” he said in a bland tone. Feeling a head smack his thigh he looked down. “Yeah, yeah, I’m going,” he muttered. “Since someone is getting impatient with the lack of food, would you like to come and help out with breakfast for both them and us?”
“Sure.” She scratched the wolf female once more and smiled. “Let’s go and get them some food and us as well.” She patted her belly. “I’ve somehow worked up an appetite. That would be your fault by the way.” She winked at him, and what a great way to work up an appetite, too.
Growling at her he led her away from the wolves and into the kitchen. Digging through the fridge he found some of the chuck beef he had in the chiller unit and pulled it out. “In the cupboard by your left leg is a container of some
thing that looks like dog kibble. Can you grab it and two of the metal food dishes in there please?” he asked as he set the meat on the counter before going back for eggs, bacon, ham steaks, and bread for their own breakfast. Passing her the beef he grinned. “Mix the kibble and the meat for a half and half for him and be a little more generous on the meat for her. There are rubber gloves in the same cupboard. It’s just easier to mix by hand,” he explained at her look.
She looked at the meat and then him. “You are giving her raw meat?” It didn’t seem to click in that she ate raw meat in the wild, that they didn’t cook their food. She pulled on the gloves anyway and shook her head. “Are you sure about this, Miklos?” Her stomach rebelled at the task but she began it anyway.
“Not like she pulls down a deer and then fires up the barbie, love,” he pointed out with a dry look her direction. “If you’re going to gag I’ll do it and you can start cooking our stuff. I just thought you’d want to help cement your relationship with the alpha by feeding him and his mate.”
“No, I will do it.” She internally shivered. “I won’t gag but remind me never to watch them as they eat, all right?” She gave him a smile and nodded. “Besides, I happen to like having you feed me so I will feed our alpha pet and his mate.” And the puppies.
“Not a pet.” Miklos winced at the word. “Wolf friend or furry guardian. Those work, but he is not a pet. Damned thing would want to sleep in the bed and kick me out if I let him, I’m sure,” he grumbled as he started a couple of pans heating for their food.
“He would kick me out, too, so that his mate and their pups had room, I’m sure of that.” She laughed as she combined the kibble and meat. “When are the pups due anyway, Miklos?” She was sure to be liberal with the meat for the female. She needed the extra protein for the puppies.