She eventually collapsed but Hank never let up. She panted and moaned while he ravaged her, and then mewed and growled when he found ways to tease her. Through it all, she kept riding a wave of pleasure that she didn’t know existed. It crested higher and higher until he lifted his head up and she saw a loving look on his face that was turning to one of concern. “Crys, I—”
“Do it,” she panted. She forced her muscles to obey and lurched up to capture his mouth with hers. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she clung to him, hanging free save for her lower back on the bed.
Hank growled into her mouth and bottomed out, striking something inside her hard enough to make her see stars. She felt him tremble and swell and then crush her against him with each spasm that seized him. She kissed him and held on to him, her heart filled to the point of bursting.
Chapter 10
Hank rolled onto his side and then collapsed on his back with a grunt. Crystal followed, curling into him and pressing her lips to his heaving chest. She rested on him, taking in his warmth and reveling in how wonderful everything was.
He’d taken her to a new place. Every time together was better for them. Well, maybe last time didn’t count but it had started out great. Her hips ached a little and she felt warm and numb where he’d stretched her open. It was a good feeling. She was happy she could do that for him. Give him what he wanted.
Her eyes widened as she remembered how their lovemaking had started. She gasped. “Oh my God! How could you, um, do that? With your mouth, I mean.”
Hank chuckled. “Easy. You taste delicious.”
She grimaced. “Eww! I haven’t had a shower in, like, forever!”
He shook her with his laughter. “Crys, Ember and Gwen cleaned you up after you shifted back and passed out.”
“Oh!” Crystal clamped her lips together. How did she feel about that? It only took a moment for her to shrug it off. It should have felt weird or wrong, but Gwen and Ember were family now, as far as she was concerned. “So, um, do you want me to do that to you?”
Hank lifted his head. “Right now?”
“Oh my God, no!” Crystal blushed. “I meant, um, sometime. I’ve never done it before, but I will. For you. If you want.
Hank chuckled and hugged her to him with one arm. She kept her mouth shut and focused on enjoying the moment instead. Cuddle time was worth every second she could squeeze in.
The door to the trailer opened, jerking Crystal out of her happy stupor. She picked her head up from Hank’s shoulder as the bedroom door opened and Ember stuck her head in. The redhead sniffed, her nose wrinkling, and her eyes took in their sweat-glazed naked bodies. “Glad you had fun,” she said. “Now get up. We’ve got company.”
“Company?” Crystal mumbled and picked her head up.
Hank slipped up into a sitting position. “Who’s here?” he grunted.
“Someone looking for Crystal.”
Hank jumped and grabbed a pair of jeans out of a drawer. He tugged them on while Crystal stared at Ember and frowned. “Um, I don’t have any clothes.”
Ember grinned and pulled her arm out from behind her back. She tossed a couple of black garments onto the bed. Crystal grabbed them and held them up, and then looked at her pack-sister. “You’re kidding me!”
Ember shrugged. “Hurry up,” she snapped before turning and heading back out.
Hank glanced at the clothes in Crystal’s hands and smirked. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
Crystal gawked and then narrowed her eyes. “You, sir, are a pervert!”
He grinned and nodded, earning a second open-mouthed gasp from her.
“Oh my God, you are!”
“My girl’s beautiful. Of course I want to show her off.”
Crystal frowned. “Um, wait a minute. Show me off?”
“Not share you,” Hank assured her as he stepped up to her and gave her a hard kiss. “Show you off. You’re mine.”
Crystal felt her cheeks warm and it spread into her chest to match the butterflies in her stomach. “Damn right I am,” she whispered back before kissing him again.
He slapped her naked butt and stepped back. “Get dressed, gorgeous.”
Crystal snorted and walked out of the bedroom, swinging her hips and earning a wolf whistle from him. She made her way to the bathroom to clean up and wrapped the miniskirt around her hips. She adjusted it several times, trying to decide if she wanted to risk showing off the bottom or the top of her butt. She ended up wearing it as low on her hips as she could and pulled the spaghetti string halter top on. It left her midriff bare and was pulled tight across her chest. It was black but she was pretty sure that didn’t do anything to hide her nipples denting the shirt.
“I’m going to get her for this,” Crystal muttered before walking out of the bathroom and joining Hank in the main room of the trailer.
“Fuck me,” Hank blurted when he saw her.
Crystal blushed but managed to retort, “Just did. It was awesome and I plan to do it again later. Should I wear this then?”
He clamped his jaw shut and nodded. Crystal rolled her eyes and burst out laughing. “Come on, perv!”
“No underwear?” he wondered as he stepped behind her.
“Don’t have any, why?”
He growled softly behind her. Crystal couldn’t resist the urge to push her hips back and rub her butt against his crotch. She felt the telltale bulge that proved he meant what he was saying and bit her lip to keep from smiling. She wanted to turn and throw herself on him. He was amazing! He really felt the same about her that she felt about him. It was crazy but she knew it was real.
“Go,” he said in a husky voice. “Before I have to spend time in the bathroom again.”
Crystal laughed and reached forward to open the door. She walked out with Hank behind her. Ember saw her and grinned, and then winked at her. Crystal sent her a part smile, part snarl back and turned to see a teal-colored Mazda sitting at the end of the drive. She tilted her head; the car belonged to Rebecca, the girl leaning against it. She was another friend of Stephanie’s. Or a former friend: the two had a falling-out earlier in the year and Crystal hadn’t seen the two of them together ever since.
“Rebecca?” she asked.
Rebecca pushed herself away from her car and walked up to her, looking her up and down as she approached. “That’s a new look for you,” she said, her tone dripping with disdain.
“It’s been a hard week on my wardrobe,” Crystal said without taking too much offense. Or at least trying not to.
Her eyes flicked to Hank walking behind her and then returned to Crystal. “You’re limping. Are you okay?”
Crystal’s eyes widened. Limping wasn’t exactly the way to describe how it felt trying to walk after what she and Hank had done. She pressed her lips together. “I’m fine. What’s up?”
Rebecca took a deep breath, her sneer fading as she did so. “Look, I told Steph I’d do this, but that’s it. I’m done, okay?”
“What?” Crystal shook her head. “Do what? What are you talking about?”
“Steph and I go way back,” she explained. She opened her mouth and then shut it with a wave of her hand. “That’s not important. Well, it is, but it’s none of your business.”
“Oh my God!” Crystal muttered. “I don’t care what your deal is. I never had a problem with you, so I don’t know what the problem is now. If you’ve got issues, I’m sorry. Just do what you came to do and we can move on.”
Rebecca’s cheek twitched and she sighed. “This is ridiculous. Look, Steph wanted me to tell you that she needs you, but she can’t get away. I don’t know what kind of sick thing you’ve done to her, but you need to stop, okay?”
Crystal jerked her head back and saw Ember out of the corner of her eye. The redhead leaned forward from where she was sitting on the steps of her trailer. Crystal focused her attention back on Rebecca and said, “Um, okay. Why can’t she come see me?”
“Her parents won’t let her leave. They won
’t tell her why, but she said they warned her you were in a lot of trouble.”
“Is that right?” Crystal mused.
Rebecca stared at her a long moment. She turned and glanced around at the trailers and looked back. “So this is it? This is what’s so much better than going to school and hanging out with people who like you?”
Crystal opened and shut her mouth. She didn’t need to turn and look to see the others were nearby and paying close attention. Her new family. Her pack. Hank was the closest, standing at arm’s length. “You don’t know what’s happened. I didn’t skip because I wanted to.”
“You don’t look like a prisoner.”
“No, I’m not,” she said and glanced at Hank. His lips twitched and she smiled at him before looking back. “It’s complicated. I’ll get with her.”
“Don’t text her.”
“What? How am I supposed to get with her then?”
Rebecca shrugged. “She said to let you know and that you’d figure something out. Her folks are freaking out about that wolf that was spotted running through her neighborhood and won’t let her or her brother out without being with one of them.”
Crystal stiffened. “Wolf?”
“Maybe you should spend time away from the commune,” Rebecca said. “There’s some albino wolf running around town. Old Man Brown claimed he shot it a couple times but some guy on a motorcycle rescued it.”
“What?”
Rebecca glanced at all the motorcycles. “Crazy, right?”
“Uh, yeah,” Crystal lied. She forced out a laugh. “How could somebody rescue a wolf on a bike?”
“It’s Old Man Brown—everybody knows he’s crazy. Still thinks Nazis are going to pay him back for storming one of those beaches seventy years ago.”
Crystal blinked and laughed at her joke. “Will you tell her something for me?”
Rebecca scowled. “One thing. That’s it. Then I’m done with this shit. I spent too long getting over her.”
“Getting over…oh my God! She messed with you too?”
Rebecca glared at her. “What do you want me to tell her?”
Crystal bit her lip and nodded. “Okay, um, crap. I don’t know.”
Rebecca sighed. “This is stupid.”
Crystal turned and met Hank’s gaze. He shook his head slowly to show he had nothing to suggest. She turned back. “All right, tell her, um, tell her we can go look for a four-leaf clover sometime soon.”
“What the fuck does that mean? Some kind of lesbian lingo?”
Hank snorted behind her and Crystal blushed. “I’m not a lesbian!”
“Everybody knows about that kiss.”
“Oh my God! That was such a huge mistake. It was to prove a point, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh,” she said. “Whatever. Fine, I’ll tell her that. Whatever it means.”
Crystal nodded. “Thank you.”
Rebecca opened her mouth and then shut it. She turned and walked back to her car. She glanced at Crystal again and then sat down in her car and started it up. Crystal watched her back up and turn around, and then kick up some dirt as she gave it too much gas and nearly ran off the road into a tree before she got it under control.
Hank snorted behind her again and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
Crystal sagged into him and sighed. “Why can’t people let me be happy?”
“That’s my job in life,” Hank said. “To make you happy.”
“So far, you’re doing a good job. Keep it up,” Crystal said and turned to burrow into him. She glanced at his t-shirt and then pulled her head back. “Oh my God! That’s why she looked at you—your shirt’s on backwards!”
Hank glanced down and grinned. He shrugged but didn’t have a chance to say anything as the others walked up to officially join them.
“Welcome back,” Adrian said with a smirk.
“Gee, thanks,” Crystal mumbled. She sighed and turned away from Hank. It was back to business, as much as she wanted to run away with her dark knight. “So what the hell are we going to do? I want to run and hide but Stephanie will go crazy if she doesn’t go to Clover and get help.”
“We don’t run,” Guntar said.
Crystal let out a frustrated squeal and said, “Then what?”
Ember and Adrian looked at each other and then turned to Guntar as the alpha declared, “We hunt them down and kill them.”
Chapter 11
Crystal shook her head. “I—I can’t!”
“Can’t? Can’t what?” Guntar asked. “Kill the men who tried to kill you?”
She swallowed and nodded. “I know, it sounds stupid, but, I mean, I don’t want to hurt anyone!”
Adrian snorted. “That’s not the way the world works.”
“Well it should be!” she protested. “They should have let me live in peace and I’d do the same to them.”
“People have been saying that for thousands of years,” Adrian admitted. He lowered his head, taking on a more serious and sinister look. “Those people have also not gotten anywhere because they were killed.”
“Well, they shouldn’t have been!”
Adrian threw his hands up in the air and muttered something about her being childish and naïve.
“I’m not going to argue with you,” Guntar said. “If you won’t help, then you won’t help and we won’t force you.”
“Really? But you’re still going to?”
“Yes. These kinds of people can’t be reasoned with. They don’t understand anything but what they believe. They’re no different in some ways than the terrorists who blow themselves up to kill innocents. If we run, they will come after us. That, or they will go after someone else. These people burned witches, whether they were guilty or not.”
Crystal held up her hand. “Okay, okay, I get it. I just—I don’t want to hurt anyone!”
Ember walked up to her and looked her in the eye. “Crys, I love messing with you. I’ll tease you and argue with you and make your life difficult as long as we’re alive.”
As soon as Ember stopped to take a breath, Crystal said, “Um, okay. Love you too.”
“I do love you,” Ember said. “You are my sister in blood and in spirit now. As much as I might like torturing you, I will stand by you—or over you—and fight for you. I will kill for you.”
Crystal leaned back and would have taken a step if Hank hadn’t been holding on to her. She stared at Ember and then glanced up at Hank. He met her eyes and distracted her with the brilliance of his blue eyes. They were more than entrancing; they were magical.
“Close your eyes,” Hank said.
Crystal snapped her eyes shut without questioning him.
“Ember’s on the ground—she’s been caught in a rope net laced with silver, like the cords you were tied down with. She’s bleeding and burnt. Hurt badly. One of those men is there, standing over here. He’s got a gun. A gun with a silver bullet, like the one he used to shoot your friend in the head with.”
Crystal gasped, caught up in his hypnotic deep voice.
“You’re behind him. Only you, Crys. No one else can help. No one else can stop him. Only you.”
She shook her head and whimpered, “No. We wouldn’t let it happen. We can’t!”
“It is,” Hank said, his voice stronger. More harsh. “You can save her, but you have to act. You have to use the wolf. You have to kill him. Will you?”
“Help me,” Ember whispered. “Please!”
Crystal snapped her eyes open and gasped in a deep breath. She looked around and then pulled away from Hank. She turned to glare at him and then looked at Ember with the same hard look in her eyes. “I don’t know what you just did to me, but I don’t appreciate it. Don’t do it again. Ever!”
Hank’s face paled for a moment. “I just created a scene and asked a question,” he said.
“Would you help me?” Ember pushed. “Or let me die?”
Crystal snapped her head around and glared at her. “Yes, I would help you if it came to
that. I’d even kill for you. But I don’t want to and you damn well better not put me in that position!”
Ember leaned back from the finger pointing at her face and grinned. She blew Crystal a kiss and said, “Love you too, sis.”
Crystal opened and shut her mouth, and then glared a moment longer before turning to the others. “Okay, fine. I’ll help. But I don’t want to hurt anybody. At least, not like that. Can’t we scare them or maybe make them think we’re going to kill them, then spare them at the last minute if they promise not to come after us or anyone else ever again?”
“Nobody wants to kill them,” Guntar said.
“I do,” Adrian snarled.
Everyone glanced at him except Guntar. The pack’s alpha sighed and nodded. “Okay, most of us don’t want to, but that’s what it will come to. It always does.”
Crystal frowned. “I’ll find a way,” she said.
Hank squeezed her and Gwen chuckled. The waitress turned wolf said, “I bet if anyone can, it’s you.”
Crystal stared at her a moment until she was sure Gwen’s comment was genuine. She smiled and looked away. “So, how do we do this? There’s at least five of them, including the county sheriff. Five of them and five of us, but there’s no way we can get that lucky.”
“One at a time,” Adrian said. “We’ll pick them off.”
“That’s really freaking scary,” Crystal said. “You’re talking like some kind of serial killer or something.”
Adrian shrugged.
“This could work,” Guntar agreed. “Especially since they want you and a man on a motorcycle.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That farmer, he knows what he saw,” Guntar said. “Hopefully he didn’t see well enough to know it was Adrian who rescued you.”
“Why?” Crystal asked.
“Yeah, why?” Adrian agreed.
Not to be outdone, Crystal added, “And I’m not so sure—he shot me twice while I was running! Pretty good eyes, if you ask me.”
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