by L. L. Raand
“Meaning?”
“The Pack owes her respect, and she doesn’t need to submit to anyone, not even me.” Sylvan’s eyes flashed gold. “And she has claimed Raina as hers—and by doing so, takes responsibility for her. We can’t reasonably chain the cat without cause.”
“But Lara also agrees not to challenge you, isn’t that right?”
Sylvan grimaced. “Not unless she wants my Pack.”
“I will never let that happen.”
Sylvan leaned back, frowning. “This is not your fight.”
Drake laughed, making Sylvan growl. “This is my Pack and you are my mate. If she challenges you, she challenges me.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“Believe me, I haven’t forgotten that. And you”—Drake leaned forward and kissed her—“are my mate. This is our land, our Pack. No one will endanger it.”
“Lara is not interested in this Pack. I don’t think she realized her strength until just this minute. I suspected—when we were trapped underground, she partially shifted—but I’ve never seen an Alpha manifest so late. Something—something happened when she transformed. Her wolf survived, but she’s changed.”
“Do you trust her?”
Sylvan sighed. “I love her. She’s been my friend, my guard, all our lives. We’re blood-bonded, and she gave her life for me. I would not trust her with my mate, but I trust her to be honorable.”
“She’s still your wolf, Sylvan, no matter how much she’s changed. We don’t want to lose her.”
“I’m afraid we already have.”
*
Lara waited until the door closed and she heard the Alpha and her mate move down the hall before she knelt next to Raina, putting their heads at eye level. Raina’s eyes were deep green, ringed in gold, narrow and distrustful. Her ears were back, her body coiled to spring. Lara reached out, and Raina hissed but didn’t move. She stroked the dark bands of fur that streaked her muzzle. “So beautiful.” She let her hand drift lower, over the powerful neck. Raina’s muscles twitched and she drew back her lips, showing canines that could tear Lara’s arm off. Heat poured from the cat’s body. “Can I see the cubs?”
Raina growled softly.
“I noticed one of them was ready to fight. Takes after you.”
Lara heard a faint scratch on wood and looked down, saw the tiny cub, no bigger than Raina’s paw, staring at her with challenge in her eyes. She laughed. “What’s her name?” She didn’t expect an answer, but a silent reply echoed in her mind. Tessa.
Lara bent lower until her nose nearly touched the cub’s. “Tessa. Good name for a warrior.”
The small female hissed and her fur rose along her back.
“Where’s the other one?” Easing forward, Lara peered around Raina’s shoulder. The second cub crouched a little off to the right, a good position to protect the flanks. “A soldier. Smart one already.”
The great cat shivered, moaned softly, and Raina fell onto her knees with her arms extended, the cubs safely shielded in the outer curve of her body. She panted softly. “You came.”
Lara tentatively brushed the damp strands of hair that fell around Raina’s face, cloaking her in gold. “I said I would.”
Raina flung her hair back and stared up at Lara, questions warring with rage in her eyes. “Why? Why did you bring me here? Why, if only to make me a prisoner?”
“I had no choice. I couldn’t kill you.”
“Why not?”
Lara slipped her fingers into Raina’s hair, her need and wonder tangling her insides. She held Raina motionless and leaned closer until her mouth almost brushed Raina’s. “I think killing you would have left me truly dead.”
“What are you?”
“Does it matter?” Lara’s chest ached, knowing her answer would drive Raina away. They were enemies as Weres, but she was not even that anymore. She was…other.
“I don’t know,” Raina whispered.
“I do.”
*
Veronica stirred and opened her eyes to murky darkness. She sensed rather than felt the bed was empty. No light came under the door. A row of dim lights along the baseboard provided just enough illumination for her to make out shapes. She turned on her side, waiting for her eyes to adjust. She was tired, her limbs shaky, but the lingering satisfaction of her incredible orgasms still hummed through her. She sighed and brushed her fingers over her breasts. Her nipples were hard, sensitive, almost too tender for her to touch. Her breasts were sore, and she had a fleeting image of Henry’s mouth moving over her. Her clitoris throbbed, reawakening at the memory. “Luce?”
No one answered. She wondered how much time had passed. She didn’t like the idea of having been helpless, almost unconscious. The sex had been wonderful—more than wonderful, incredible, the intensity of the physical release so exquisite she’d lost her breath, literally lost her mind. She didn’t know how it was possible, but she wanted to come again.
She pushed up in the bed. She was naked. “Luce?”
The door opened, and a figure entered. Just as quickly the door closed.
“Dr. Standish. I’m so very glad you could join us tonight.”
Veronica had the urge to pull the sheet over herself but resisted. Instead, she pushed herself upright, exposing her breasts. “Regent. Thank you so much for your hospitality.”
“I trust it met with your satisfaction?”
Veronica laughed. “Oh, I would say very much so.”
Smiling, her perfect face luminous in the near dark, Francesca leaned down and drew a fingertip along Veronica’s jaw. “I’m so very glad to hear that. I think we’re going to be very good friends.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Are you ready?” Lara inclined her head, listening. “The centuri will be here soon.”
“Will they collar me again?”
“No,” Lara said roughly.
Raina returned the cubs to the crib. Despite being exhausted, they both complained when she set them down. She wouldn’t leave them there alone if she had any other choice. She glanced again at the small windows across the room, calculating how quickly she might shift, grab the cubs, and force her way to freedom. Alone, she might have a chance to escape the wolves. With the cubs in tow, she would have none.
“Outside that window,” Lara said, “you’d have two hundred yards of open Compound to cross before you reached the stockade. It’s twelve feet high and guarded at ten-yard intervals. If you made it over, the woods are patrolled by our sentries for five miles in all directions, and beyond that the mountains are filled with our soldiers.”
“Remaining here is no safer.”
Lara glanced into the crib. The cubs were huddled in one corner, uncertain but defiant. She stretched out a finger, and Tessa raked it with a claw. She smiled. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to protect them.”
“No? Then why did you come when we were in trouble?”
Lara thought about the urge to protect Raina and the cubs that had driven her since she’d found them. Maybe she was just trying to recapture what she’d lost. A fruitless, sad exercise, and not something Raina needed to know. “Habit, probably. I was one of the Alpha’s personal guard, until…”
“Until?” Raina heard the despair coloring Lara’s voice and, more than that, resignation. As if she had given up. Raina couldn’t imagine what would have caused a warrior of such strength to lose her spirit. She remembered the fury with which Lara had fought, her power and relentless determination. What enemy could have vanquished that? “What happened?”
Lara glanced at the cubs again, then Raina. She couldn’t pretend to be other than she was—she couldn’t hide behind the scent of Were that clung to her when every day she became more Vampire. “I died. Only a Vampire brought me back.”
“A Vampire.” Raina chilled inside. Cats hated Vampires almost as much as they hated wolves. In the ancient wars, the Vampires had commanded armies of wolves that had destroyed entire Prides as the Packs claimed territory for
their masters. “You were turned?”
“Yes,” Lara said flatly. “Now I live—or exist—somewhere between the world I once knew and the world I awakened in.”
“You fed from me out there, didn’t you?” The chill inside turned to ice. All her life she had fought for her survival and the survival of her Pride. Never once had she submitted, not even when the furious need of her heat had forced her to couple or lose her sanity. She had never submitted, even then, and when the coupling had been over, she had thrown him off. She’d paid for that show of independence when he and his supporters tried to kill her, but she would make the same choice again.
“You weren’t healing,” Lara said. “I didn’t want you to bleed to death.”
“So you took my essence?” Raina said bitterly. This Vampire had taken her against her will, and for that alone she would kill her if she ever got the chance.
“Yes, and gave you some of mine.” Lara shrugged. “You survived.”
Raina snarled. “You expect me to thank you?”
“No. I don’t expect anything.”
Raina struggled with her fury, as enraged by her impotence as by the knowledge she’d been taken against her will. She still needed an ally, and this one was powerful. Until she could find a way to escape, she needed her. “I’m in your debt. What is it you ask of me?”
Lara stepped closer, her canines diamond points of light glinting beneath her full upper lip. She traced the pulse in Raina’s throat with a blunt claw. “Would you give me your blood if I asked?”
Raina heated inside, her sex throbbing painfully. Her breath poured from her in sharp, hard pants. She wanted to resist, but with every passing second the urge to bare her throat grew larger. Even her heat had not stripped her control so easily. She whined softly in the back of her throat, her need a living beast inside her, shredding her willpower. “Yes. I would give you my—”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Lara said coldly, stepping away, allowing her thrall to diminish, watching the rage and loathing return to Raina’s eyes. “You wouldn’t give me anything. You’d let me take you, but you don’t want me. Any more than I want you. I have others who want what I offer—who willingly feed me for the pleasure it brings them.”
“If you desire me,” Raina said, willing to do anything to keep the interest of the only being who might help her survive, “I want—”
“I don’t want your lies.” Lara gripped Raina’s throat, strangling the words before Raina prostituted herself and truly hated her for it. “Don’t. I don’t want you.”
Raina didn’t struggle, though her cat screamed in fury. Lara wasn’t preventing her from breathing, and she forced her cat to retreat. Submitting to Lara’s hold, she sagged until her thighs and breasts brushed Lara’s. Her nipples tightened at the contact and her pelt line flared. She didn’t want to desire her, but her blood remembered, calling up the moments of ecstasy she couldn’t purge from her mind. She moaned.
Lara wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her close. Her canines were sharp against Raina’s throat, and Raina whimpered again. Lara’s mouth moved over her neck, velvety soft, flame hot. “I can taste your desire,” Lara murmured, licking the spot she had bitten. “But your eyes don’t lie. You don’t want this.”
She did. With every cell, with every beat of her heart, despite everything she feared and hated and knew to be wrong, she wanted the wild ecstasy of Lara’s mouth on her. The place on her neck Lara had bitten throbbed, and thick tendrils of desire wended from it, wrapping around her insides like a vine encircling a tree. Lara’s earthy scent filled her nostrils, recalling the forest after a hard rain—lush with life and dark secrets. Lara’s skin blazed against hers, bringing her to readiness with a burst of fire. Raina gasped. “I—”
Abruptly, Lara released her and stalked to the door. “The escorts are coming. This time if you challenge, one of them will kill you.”
“I won’t.” Raina hesitated, her cat crowding her mind, demanding something she didn’t understand. “Will you come with me?”
“Yes.” Lara laughed bitterly. “No matter what you think of me, you’re mine now.”
*
“Come,” Francesca said, holding out her hand. “You need nourishment.”
Veronica pushed the sheet aside and sat up, her heart pounding with excitement and arousal. She hadn’t expected to see Francesca, at least not more than a glimpse somewhere in the shadowy recesses of the club, if she was lucky. And now, Francesca was inviting her…somewhere. Where didn’t matter. Francesca was the most powerful Vampire in North America, possibly the entire Western Hemisphere. Luce and the others had given her pleasure beyond anything she’d ever experienced, but the thought of Francesca and what kind of ecstasy she could bestow surpassed her wildest fantasies. She was at a disadvantage in the dim room—unable to gauge the Vampire’s response by her expression—but she knew Francesca could see her. She could tell by the glint in her eyes she was watching, and she took her time rising, letting Francesca look. She brushed a hand over her breasts and down her belly. “Should I dress?”
Francesca laughed softly. “Would you prefer I led you through the club with a leash and collar around your neck?”
Veronica’s thighs grew damp and her pussy clenched. “I’d prefer you do whatever you’d like.”
Francesca was on her before the last words left her mouth. Francesca’s mouth covered hers, her tongue molten pleasure slipping between Veronica’s lips. The Vampire’s breasts caressed hers as if she were being anointed with a thousand kisses from a thousand hot, hungry mouths. Veronica’s thighs turned liquid and she sagged in Francesca’s embrace.
“Be careful what you offer, Dr. Standish,” Francesca whispered in her ear. “You would make a marvelous pet, but I think you’ll make a much more important partner.”
As quickly as Francesca had embraced her, she was standing across the room again. Veronica gasped for breath, so close to orgasm she couldn’t think.
“Go ahead,” Francesca whispered, “finish for me.”
“Oh God,” Veronica moaned, her fingers trailing down her belly to the delta between her thighs. Her fingers trembled, and when she brushed over her tight clitoris, her hips thrust into her palm. She searched for Francesca’s face in the darkness, felt Francesca’s gaze lock with hers. She stroked and pleasure ripped through her. “I’m going to come any second.”
“Tell me. Is it good?”
“Oh God, yes. So good. So, so good.”
She gasped, her fingers flashing as she squeezed and fondled. “I’m going to come.”
“That’s right, darling. You are.”
“I’m coming. Coming.”
Her vision tunneled and she stumbled forward and Francesca was there again, holding her as she cried out, convulsing.
When she was aware again, she discovered Francesca had wrapped a black silk dressing gown around her shoulders.
“Thank you,” Veronica murmured, her limbs weak.
“You’re very welcome.” Francesca kissed her, slow and intimate. “You are very beautiful, Veronica.”
“As are you.” Veronica wanted to kiss her again but didn’t want the need building inside her to show. It wouldn’t do for Francesca to know she would do anything to feel her bite.
Francesca took her hand. “Come. Michel is waiting.”
Veronica followed as Francesca led her through a series of hallways lit by flaming sconces. The floors were cool marble, the walls dark, opulent wood. The room the Vampire took her to might have been part of a king’s castle—filled with priceless rugs, elegant furnishings, glinting silver and china settings on the low table between two brocade sofas. Michel, barefoot, lounged on one, her shirt open, her glance casually seductive.
“Come here, my dear,” Francesca said, guiding Veronica to the sofa opposite Michel. “First, you should have something to eat and drink. I’ve provided a supplement to help restore your blood volume.”
Veronica ate and drank automatically, her scientif
ic mind wondering what exactly the pungent claret-colored liqueur was meant to do, but for the first time in her life, she couldn’t bring her considerable mental powers to bear against the corporeal sensations overwhelming her. Every square centimeter of her body tingled, every impression so exquisitely sharp she could taste the air she breathed, smell the excitement in her own blood. She was reduced to pure animal instinct, unimaginably uncivilized, and some part of her reveled in this freedom. She wanted the Vampires to take her again. She wanted to relive the incredible power of feeding them. Only a lifetime of control kept her tethered to reality, enough that she kept her thoughts and her desires to herself.
“I hope it’s all right with you that I visited this evening,” Veronica said at last.
“Of course,” Francesca said. “It’s a pleasure to have you as our guest.”
“You treat your guests very well.”
Francesca laughed. “Henry is a delight, isn’t he? And Daniela—so fresh and eager. And Luce, Luce is such a dark pleasure.”
With every word, Veronica was drawn back into that darkened room, to the place where she lay helplessly beneath the feeding Vampires, a willing victim of her own pleasure. Her breasts rose and fell rapidly and her hands trembled. “They were exquisite.”
Francesca drew her legs up onto the sofa, the champagne silk of her gown drawing up her thighs. She stretched one arm out along the back of the sofa until her red-tipped nails rested against Veronica’s shoulder. Indolently, she drew strands of Veronica’s hair through her fingers, as if she were stroking a favorite pet. “I hate to mix business with pleasure, but sometimes expediency demands it. You’re aware of Nicholas’s…actions recently?”
Veronica struggled to think through the haze of erotic thrall enclosing her. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
“No? He didn’t tell you that he planned to blow up one of Sylvan Mir’s laboratories?”
“No,” Veronica said vehemently. She wasn’t sure if Vampires could tell if someone was lying, but she wasn’t, actually. Nicholas had told her he’d planned to draw attention away from the explosion at their hidden laboratories, but he hadn’t told her what he’d planned. “I understood from the news that one of the more violent animal rights groups had taken credit for that.”