Belong To The Night

by Shelly Laurenston

  Buck knew it, too. He could see it in her eyes, understood it because she didn’t move away from Sen. She could tell he was grinning, even though he was still wolf. He lowered his body and charged straight at her.

  Jamie waited, her body tensing, the pain getting worse as Sen had warned.

  He was almost on them, only a few feet away, when a sudden flurry of feathers startled her and Buck.

  Rico’s talons extended and tore at Buck’s face, trying for his eyes. Tully pulled away from the two wolves holding him back, slamming them to the ground before charging over to Buck, and brutally dragging his father down. Kyle joined him, focusing on the old wolf’s hip and tail.

  Jamie was grateful for that, grateful she didn’t have to stop her coven from what they were doing. Grateful even as the pain grew horribly, horribly worse.

  Nothing would stop him now. Nothing would stop him from killing the one wolf who deserved it.

  If Buck had merely tried to kill Tully, had merely tried to become Alpha Male of the Smithville Pack, Tully would be able to let this go. He’d be able to walk away and let his father limp off to lick his wounds and try again another day. Like Buck had been doing for his entire life.

  But Buck Smith had crossed the one line no self-respecting shifter would ever cross. Forced matings were one thing. A few decades ago, they happened all the time. But that wasn’t what his father had been doing. He knew that because he knew Buck. Knew what the old man would do to make the witch his. He’d allow his Pack to fight to the death in his name while he used the battle to keep his firstborn busy so he could rape and mark Tully’s woman.

  Knowing the pain Jamie had suffered, knowing the fear she must have felt…

  For that alone, the old man would die, and Tully would be the one to kill him.

  He’d just gotten his jaw wrapped around Buck’s throat, was moments from tearing out flesh and fur and a nice, thick artery, when he heard, “Tully. Don’t.”

  Keeping his grip, Tully looked up and saw Jamie standing in front of him. Her face was no longer swollen, her bruises and cuts nearly gone. “Don’t,” she said again.

  Growling, he dug his fangs in deeper, bit down harder, tasted blood. How could she want him to stop? How could she want to let Buck Smith off for what he’d done and what he’d been trying to do?

  “Remember, Tully. There’s some lines you can’t cross. Once you do, there’s no going back. Take this step and you become him. I love you too much to let that happen.”

  He stared at her. Hard. He saw the truth of her words in the way she gazed down at him, the way she gave him a soft smile. “Please, Tully.”

  It was strange, the way the fighting sort of tapered off. Everyone pulling back and watching…waiting.

  With a nod to Kyle, Tully and his brother stepped back from Buck. And, like everyone else, they waited.

  Jamie went to her knees beside Buck’s wounded body. She petted his fur and Kyle glanced at Tully, probably thinking the same thing he was, What is she doing?

  Jamie placed one hand on Buck’s side and one hand on the ground, fingers digging into the dirt. She closed her eyes, her brow drawn down in deep concentration. Her coven stood behind her, Seneca now being held up by Mac. The poor thing looked moments from passing out.

  Light came up through the ground, swirling around Jamie, covering her from toes to head. She gasped, she panted. She threw her head back as she often did when she was in the middle of an orgasm. The air crackled around them and lightning shot threw the sky.

  She tore away from Buck, her body shaking. Kenny and Emma caught hold of her, held her up while Tully glanced at his father. He was still lying there, unconscious, except that he’d shifted back to human.

  Still shaking as if she were freezing cold, Jamie said through chattering teeth, “Better this way, baby. Worse than death. Promise.”

  Without another word, the coven turned and walked away, each of them leaning on the other for strength and support.

  All of them, local and interloper, watched the full-humans walk away. Then, once they were gone, they all focused on Buck.

  He didn’t look different. He didn’t have horns and a pointed tail. He was still breathing, although covered in fresh wounds.

  Knowing that everyone was waiting for him, Tully carefully walked forward. He leaned down, trying to catch a glimpse of something…anything that might be different about the old bastard. That would prove Jamie had done something to the old wolf who’d assaulted her.

  But the more he looked, the less he saw. Until his eyes watered and Tully jumped back, sneezing and sneezing, trying to get that scent out of his nostrils.

  “What?” Kyle asked, shifting back to human and watching him. “What’s wrong?”

  Tully shifted, as did almost everyone else, and he watched as Buck began to wake up, his head slowly lifting off the ground.

  Unable to help himself, Tully laughed. Just a little. “Worse than death,” he repeated.

  Kyle shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

  Tully pointed at Buck. “She made him…she made him full-human.”

  Jack came around Kyle, staring down at Buck with something akin to pure horror. “That’s impossible.”

  “Not for her,” Tully said. “Not here.”

  Buck glared up at him, talon marks covering his face from Rico. “Wrong. You’re wrong.”

  “I know what I smell, old man. And I smell a full-human. She made you full-human.” And Jamie was right. To them, to shifters, no matter the breed, being full-human was worse than death. It was death. But especially for someone like Buck. For someone whose whole being was wrapped up in the strength and force he wielded from the wolf inside him.

  Buck closed his eyes and they watched him struggle to do what had always come so easy to them as soon as they’d hit puberty. To shift to wolf.

  But nothing happened.

  “Won’t last,” Buck said desperately.

  “It smells like it’ll last,” Jack sneered.

  “She got you, Buck,” Tully said, backing away from him as did everyone else, even his sons. Buck had raised them so that their loyalty would always be to the strongest of their Pack. A full-human would never be the strongest. Unless it was someone like Jamie…and Jamie was his.

  “She got you,” Tully said again, and this time he laughed. So did his Pack, his family, his neighbors. They all laughed. And he knew this was so much worse than death to Buck.

  Tully turned his back on Buck, something he would never have done even ten minutes ago, and walked off.

  “Don’t you walk away from me, boy!”

  But Tully did, and he laughed as he did. Never once looking back.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Emma met Kyle and Tully outside Tully’s house. As soon as she saw them, she said, “I can’t believe this is your house!”

  Kyle shifted and glared at her. “Could you focus?”

  “It’s amazing! Why haven’t you had a party here?”

  Grinning, Tully kissed her cheek. “Thank you, darlin’.” He glanced at the house and back at Emma. “How is she?”

  “Sleeping. What she did…took a lot out of her.”

  “Will she be all right?”

  Emma smiled. “Absolutely. She just needs sleep.”

  Mac and Kenny walked out, Seneca in Mac’s arms, snoring against her shoulder. “So does this one.”

  “He broke Jamie’s jaw,” Kenny explained, her hand resting on Tully’s shoulder when he cringed at her words. He’d already known it, but it still hurt to hear. Still hurt to know how much Jamie had suffered. It simply never occurred to him that his father would go that far. But now he knew.

  “It’s healed,” Kenny went on. “Sen did an amazing job.” She winked at him and whispered, “But don’t tell her I said so. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “Make sure she eats when she gets up,” Mac explained as Kyle took Seneca out of her arms.

  “I will.”

  “I found y
our cell and programmed my number in it. Any problems, you call. Okay?”

  “I sure will. Thank you all.”

  Mac lightly punched his shoulder before saying to Kyle, “Can you take us back out to the woods?”

  “What for?”

  “We need to clean up some…uh”—she glanced at Tully—“burnt remains. Nothing to worry about it.”

  They headed toward Emma’s bright red Jeep and Kyle looked back at Tully before following after them, Seneca still in his arms. “What burnt remains?” Kyle asked Mac. “What does that even mean?”

  “You going to be all right?” Emma asked Tully.

  “I’ll be fine. He wanted Jamie all along, didn’t he, Em?”

  “I don’t think so. I’m of the mind”—she grinned at him—“I got that line from Kyle.” She chuckled, before finishing. “I’m of the mind he thought Wanda and her coven, the Lightest Dawn”—she rolled her eyes in disgust at that name—“would be able to fight us. I mean, they weren’t bad. They blocked their presence and who Wanda was a lot longer than most could. Using the patchouli was really smart. Jamie hates that crap so much, she was always busy trying to get away from Wanda rather than focusing on her energy. But when Wanda wasn’t strong enough to fight Jamie one-on-one, I think Buck’s interests—moved.”

  “That sounds about right. He always liked strong females but they always ended up trying to kill him while he slept.”

  Emma giggled and patted his shoulder. “Look, don’t worry about Jamie. She’ll be fine. Just make sure she sleeps and eats, in whatever order she wants to.”

  “Okay.”

  “And Tully”—she took a breath—“what she did to Buck…it’s not something you guys have to worry about. She can’t go around ripping everyone’s DNA apart.”

  “You don’t have to explain it to me, darlin’.”

  “I guess I don’t want everybody afraid of her, thinking that if she gets pissed over someone giving her the wrong change or bumping into her, she’ll do that.”

  “No worries, darlin’. I’ll make sure everybody understands.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now you take that pretty face home and let Kyle whine about his pathetic excuse for wounds.”

  “You two are so hopeless,” she teased, going up on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek.

  He watched her go down the stairs and get in the front passenger seat. Once the Jeep was heading down the road, Tully opened the door and walked into his house.

  Jamie was in his bed, right where she belonged, and out cold. He thought about taking a shower first, but he needed to touch her, to hold her, to make sure she was okay.

  He slipped in beside her and she made small mewling sounds in her sleep. He shushed her and brushed his hands against her hair and body as he settled in behind her, spooning his body around hers. She grabbed his hand and held it between hers, sighed once, and slept peacefully again.

  Tully kissed her forehead, thanked any stronger power than himself that might have helped him in the last few hours, and dropped off.

  Tully woke up when he finally couldn’t ignore the sun beating against his face. His momma had been right. He needed some damn blinds. Ruin the aesthetic, my ass.

  Jamie was comfortably wrapped around him but still sleeping hard. Making sure to not wake her, he eased out from under her, his body grumbling at the loss of her warmth. But he didn’t want her to wake up to a dirty, blood-covered male. She deserved more than that. So he silently headed to the bathroom for a quick shower with additional plans on making her some breakfast before they had a nice little discussion about their future together.

  Tully was in the middle of washing his hair and debating on pancakes or waffles or both, when the shower door opened, slamming against the wall beside it. The sound had him spinning around, ready for a fight until he saw Jamie standing there…staring at him.

  “Jamie?”

  Her gaze swept down to his feet, then slowly back up until she gazed into his face. Tully instinctively took a step back. “Jamie?”

  She licked her lips and stepped in to the shower. Water poured down on her and she used both hands to swipe her hair off her face.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Uh-huh.” She openly stared at his cock, the damn thing rising without direct orders from him. “I feel great.”

  “Are…are you sure. Because you don’t seem yourself.”

  She stepped closer and Tully realized he was now backed up to the shower wall—and his shower was not small.

  “When you”—she licked her lips again, blew out a long, desperate breath—“use as much power as I did last night, there are…side effects. Remember? We talked about side effects.”

  “Right. Sen gets angry and you get—”

  “Horny.”

  “Horny?”

  She pressed her hands against the shower wall behind him and leaned in, taking a long sniff before she let out a groan. “Yeah. I usually take care of it myself with an hour or six with my vibrator.”

  He swallowed. “Six?”

  “But it’s back at the house and you, oh, God, you smell so good.”

  “But—” he stopped, cleared his throat because it was cracking, and tried again. “But we’re supposed to talk.”

  “Talk?” She glared at him. “I don’t wanna talk. I wanna fuck.” She reached out, wrapping her hand around his cock.

  Tully felt his knees weaken, much more and he’d drop completely.

  With soft fingers, Jamie slowly stroked him. “Don’t you want to fuck me, Tully?”

  Tully nodded. “Uh-huh.”

  “A lot?”

  “Uh-huh.” He swallowed again, his eyes crossing as he desperately tried to focus. “But we need to talk.”

  “About?”

  Panting, he said, “About…uh…us.”

  “What about us?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  She smiled, the sweetest smile he’d ever seen. “Then we’ll talk when you do remember.”

  “But,” he said quickly, his mind trying to work past what her insistent hand was doing to him, “you went through a lot last night. I should be taking care of you, pampering you, showing you I’m sensitive or whatever.” Oh, my God! What is that twisty thing she’s doing with her hand?

  “Tully,” she purred, “I want you to take care of me and pamper me and show me you’re sensitive and all that other bullshit people need. And, yeah, I sometimes need it too. But right now all I need is a good, solid, hard”—she pressed her lips against his chest—“fuck. Think you can help me with that?”

  “You’re—Lord, that feels good—sure?”

  Her tongue swirled around his nipple while her thumb swirled around the head of his cock. “I’m sure.” She looked up at him with those dark brown eyes. “I am so fucking sure.”

  He shrugged. “Well…all right then.”

  She’d been pushing him hard, demanding what she wanted and needed from him. She needed to know now if he could handle this side of her. It happened anytime she called on that level of power, used that amount of energy. Because of what she’d done the day before, the need for sleep came first. Other times her first need was food. And sometimes all she needed was to fuck. This time she needed all three, but her body told her in what order. Sleep first, fuck second, food third.

  But Jamie knew it wasn’t that easy. Her ravenous needs after casting had scared off more than one man. All men said they wanted a sex machine…until they actually got one. Then suddenly they were overwhelmed, she was too needy, and how could anyone expect them to live this way? If Tully couldn’t handle it, she needed to know. Would she end it? No way. She loved him. But she’d have to arrange her schedule differently, make sure the freezer was always full with lots of easy-to-make meals, and that she maintained her monthly delivery of batteries for all her vibrators. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes she’d made with her ex. Not with the way she felt about Tully. She loved him so much it hurt. And she wouldn’t risk losin
g that because maybe he couldn’t handle—

  Tully lifted her up, turned, and pushed her into the wall. With one hard thrust he was inside her, Jamie crying out as he drove into her, nailing her against the wall with the strength of his body and the power of his cock. And he was relentless, his mouth finding hers, his tongue stroking, his hands gripping her flesh hard.

  It was too much. It wasn’t enough.

  Jamie’s legs tightened around Tully’s waist, her heels digging into his ass, her arms holding onto his shoulders as the orgasm ripped up her spine, exploding through her. Tully followed close behind, his body shaking as he released inside her, his mouth pressed against the side of her neck. They stood there, for how long she didn’t know, holding onto each other.

  Finally, Tully reached over and shut off the water. Still holding her, still buried deep inside her, he walked out of the shower and back into the bedroom. With each step he took, the amazing sensation of his cock inside her radiated through her, and she knew she wasn’t done. Knew she needed more. The beauty of it? She didn’t have to say a word. Tully stopped by the bed and then he was taking her down to the mattress. By the time she felt the comforter against her bare ass, Tully was hard again and driving into her.

  Worries about finding workarounds to manage the immediate hours after spellcasting flew out of her head as it suddenly occurred to her she wouldn’t be needing any of that. Not with her horny wolf. He was as insatiable as her, as demanding. And he gave as good as he got. She couldn’t have asked for more, hoped for more.

  She couldn’t help but smile either at the realization and Tully, not missing a thrust, said, “Look at that smile. Tell me what I need to do, beautiful, to keep you smiling like that every day.”

  Jamie laughed, hugging Tully tight against her. “Well, um…this works.”

  They slept most of the afternoon, both exhausted to their bones. But when Tully woke up, he was alone and didn’t like it. He went down to the first floor and when he heard the ocean, he headed to his kitchen. His sliding door was open, which explained the ocean sounds he heard, but he barely glanced at it with all that food covering his kitchen table.