"Come here," he said, his voice strangled and hoarse. I went without question, stretching alongside him, feeling the pebbles of my cold nipples press against his chest.
His lips went to the scar and as they touched, some bubble inside me burst. I didn't expect his touch to ignite such a fever in me that I would moan as though I'd been waiting forever to feel it.
"I know," he said against my skin. "I've wanted this too for so long," he said. "It's kept me awake at night."
The lust clogged my throat and made my chest ache. I couldn't pull his clothes from him fast enough, couldn't spread my legs to take him before he was parting them for me. There was no hurry, but there was demand. Plenty of it. I threw my head back, eyes closed and let him ride me in a delirium of lust and sleep-drenched fantasy. I could forget everything except the way our bodies joined and moved and came together in a slow and languid dance. I even cried out when it was over because I wanted more. I wanted it to last until I could forget everything that had happened in the last days. Forget the things still left to be done.
"Was that some kind of pity screw," he asked afterwards.
I chuckled. "It might be our last screw altogether," I said.
He pulled me closer into the crook of his shoulder. "You say that as though you think one of us will die today."
"One of us might." I said carefully, not sure how to tell him I doubted that person would be me. Caleb had gone to these lengths to use my position to secure his, so I knew he wouldn't kill me. At least not yet. He would use me as was his full intention. Jeb, on the other hand, would no doubt be expendable as a human once Jeb delivered me safely to my bridal bed.
I shifted away from him slightly, fully intending to extract myself from his embrace now that I was sated but he gripped me by the waist tight enough that I had no choice but to give him my attention if I wanted up.
"You don't think I'll make it," he said.
"I didn't say that," I hedged and he pulled his arm from beneath me and pushed himself to his elbow.
He glared down at me, his crystalline eyes looking black in the early dawn.
"When you say one of us, you mean me."
"When Caleb discovers what you've done," I said. "He'll give you no quarter." I couldn't look in his eyes as I said it. Something about the words made my throat hurt.
"You underestimate me," he said.
"You're human," I said. "It's not a matter of underestimating. It's a matter of understanding your limitations."
He pushed himself to his feet and pulled on his khakis. His breath in the air made rapid puffs of smoke as though he was trying to keep his temper. I caught a short glimpse of muscled belly as he jerked the waist band together and zipped the fly. I had licked that belly, savored every inch of skin.
"You have no idea what I am," he said, twitching his shirt over his head and poking his head through the collar. "Or what I'm capable of."
I stood with him, pulling the blanket around my shoulders. I didn't want things to finish this way. It had been good, the two of us. We worked well together and we loved well together. The feel of his touch on my skin still burned.
"I think I have some idea," I said, clenching the blanket edge.
He turned a stoic gaze on me, all buttoned up and closed off so very carefully.
"Some idea," he said. "That's all."
"I didn't mean anything by it," I said, unaccustomed to apology, especially to a human man.
He swung to face me. "I know," he said but he didn't look forgiving and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what had his dander up so high.
"We have much to do," he said. He started to gather up remnants of our stay. He tossed the apple core into the woods and stood staring at where it landed for a long moment. Then he turned to me with a sigh.
"We have to make a plan."
"I thought we had a plan."
"We need a new one. I can't say whether or not you'll save my sister if it comes down to it," he said avoiding my gaze. "And of everything, that's the most important to me."
"How could you say that?" I said. "A bargain is a bargain."
"Is that all?" he said. "A bargain?"
I couldn't do more than blink at him. "It's a good bargain. Fair."
He pulled away and stood with his fists clenched at his side.
"What if we have to choose between the two of them? Your brothers or my sister?"
"I would choose my brothers."
His jaw seesawed back and forth.
I squinted at him. "Are you're saying that if you had a choice, you wouldn choose my brothers over your sister?"
I reached for the T-shirt when he didn't answer and pulled it over my head. I was trying to pull on the pants when I felt his arm on my elbow. He spun me around to face him.
"You misunderstand me," he said. "What I'm trying to tell you is that we have to get both. There can be no choice."
"No choice?"
"None," he said. "Agreed?"
I nodded. If I had his word, I could give mine. There would be no choice. It was all or nothing.
"So it's settled," I said. "I'll distract Caleb. Let him think I got taken hostage by your.. overpoweringly manly skills," I grinned at him, trying to reinstate some sort of lightheartedness that had somehow gotten wedged out and now spread like a great chasm between us. "Somehow you overpowered me, and here we are again. Me trapped with Caleb and pretending to be willing to bond with him for the sake of saving my brothers."
"With one difference," Jeb said with a wink. "This time he dies."
The dew lay on the grass heavy as we trekked through the woods. Even the birds still hadn't untucked their noses from beneath their wings. I was surprised at how stealthily Jeb could move. I watched his movements from behind, assessing them, measuring them. It didn't take long for me to realize he did have some skills. He too, was an assassin; whether he was my calibre or the calibre he seemed to indicate he was, would remain to be seen.
He'd been trained, according to him, to take down threatening factions from the supernatural world. While I had been meant to take down threats from the human one. The dichotomy wasn't lost on me, as we walked silently through the woods. Both of us heavy in thought over our next actions. The sun had risen above the trees when I felt his arm against my chest, stopping me.
"One more thing," he said.
We were within the borders of my pack's territory, and I could smell the difference in the air. It wouldn't be long now. I felt my chest tighten with anxiety and expectation. When I looked up to his face and saw those ice blue eyes, the clenching lessened somewhat. I felt I could relax.
"What one thing?" I asked him.
I watched him chew his bottom lip for several seconds and had to prod him with an elbow to get him to speak.
"I'm going to have to shoot you," he blurted.
I stepped back voluntarily and he advanced on me as I moved.
"Hell no," I said.
He reached for me. "Think about it," he said. "Caleb would never believe I brought you to heel without putting silver in you."
"Then put silver on me," I said. "I won't suffer a bullet again."
"It has to be a bullet," he said. "How else would I have brought you down?"
I'm no fool," I said. "It will keep me from transforming. I need to be able to transform."
He nodded. "I know, but you're stronger than that."
He had no idea, but now wasn't the time to explain exactly how adept I was at handling the burn of silver. I simply didn't want to do it.
"We agreed it was all or nothing." He stepped back, and his hand went beneath his hand moved to the side of his hip. "Do you want him to kill your brothers?"
He knew the answer to that.
I heard a click come from the holster. He'd flipped off the safety. My back tensed and the hairs on my arms lifted.
"Do you want him to take control of your pack?" he said.
My jaw clenched. "Over my dead body."
"Not dead," he said
with a smile. "Just a little bit shot."
I shook my head, the wolf in me preparing to take over. It wasn't pleased at the thought of silver taming it.
"Shana," he said. "All or nothing."
I sighed, trying to smother the instinct that wanted to either clobber him or flee into the woods. I had just about mastered both of them and was about to tell him to go ahead, that I could take it, when I felt the impact in my shoulder. I fell to my knees even as I heard the report. My hand went to my shoulder in reflex. I looked at him, dazed and angry.
"Bastard," I said even as he stepped forward to embrace me. Gritting my teeth, I sucked in my breath.
"I'm sorry, Shanna," he said into my ear and I felt his breath snake down my back. "It's a clean shot of salt laced with colloidal silver and a small pellet. Just in the tissues."
"You've been planning this," I said through gritted teeth. For salt spray, it certainly hurt.
"I prepare," he said simply.
I nodded, miserable with the pain, my vision a wash of tears. I couldn't help feeling a little betrayed.
"Are you okay?" he said and his finger went beneath my chin. He stared into my eyes. "Tell me you're okay."
I jangled my head up and down because I couldn't do much more, and he nodded to tell me it was enough. I watched him pull his backpack from his shoulder and rummage through it. A soft-bodied First Aid kit appeared from his pouch. He tossed it once and caught it, righting it in his hand before he placed it on the forest floor and zippered it open.
"Just bandage it up so he doesn't see how fresh it is," he said. Then he industriously worked away, cleaning the wound and packing it up. All through his work, I had to keep telling myself it was for a cause. That I could trust him. I had to trust him. I tried to catch his eye to reassure myself, but he wouldn't look up. The wound seemed to be of more interest to him than the way my heart was beating so hard I was sure he could hear it.
When he was done, he gripped both of my shoulders and twisted me to face him, lifting my chin with his finger and locking his eyes on mine. I almost lost my legs to that gaze.
"We're in this together," he said as though he had understood the meaning of the language my heart was trying to tap out. "You can trust me."
Then he kissed me. And everything in me went limp.
If my beast could trust him, then I suppose the human woman could.
I let him help me to my feet.
"Then let's go," I said, pulling in a bracing breath. "Let's get this done and over with today."
Some Badass Assassin
We didn't sneak into the mansion. We blundered through the door like a couple of amateurs bent on stealing a bit of pot or crack from a druglord. Jeb threw open the door, dragging me in by the arm. I didn't have to act as though I was in pain; the pellet in my shoulder was sending slices of agony down through my tissues and the instinct to wince with each movement was too much to keep to myself. I swore out loud as he pushed me ahead of him through the door, using me as a shield as he pulled that damnable weapon out again. I saw it waving in my peripheral vision, smelling of silver and the stink of gunpowder. I was working at not fainting and he was blubbering about doing what he'd been paid to do. He was a consummate actor, Jeb. He gripped me again by the elbow and shook me at the three guards who recovered their shock just in time to see the pistol aiming at my temple. He might handle me as though I was nothing more than a sack of potatoes that had to be delivered to the cook, but these henchmen knew my value. The two of them who had stuck their hands beneath their jackets, withdrew them and held them out to show how empty they were of weapons. The third belched with enough force that his chest heaved, then he peered at his feet, ashamed.
Some henchmen.
It was the first time I had seen the foyer since Caleb had shown me my brothers in chains and my father's head in his clasp. Everything was clean and tidy. The tiles sparkled as though they had never been washed in blood. The white shone enough to hurt the eyes. I couldn't bear to look at it.
"Get Caleb," Jeb demanded of the sentry inside of the door. Two younger shifters ran in from the library, engaging their bullet chambers and pointing directly at us both.
"Lower your weapons," he said with a measure of calm that could strike fear in a rattlesnake. "Drop them on the floor and kick them at me or I swear as sure as your mother's twat still aches from birthing that monstrous head of yours, I'll kill this bitch. "
This hadn't exactly been how I thought it would play out. I had thought he would move into the mansion with something akin to meekness, and offer me up like a trophy. Instead, he was blustering like a hurricane moving through fully leaved trees. He would knock them over, sure as shooting.
And then where would I be? Dead from his foolishness, that's what, with two dead brothers to boot and my pack lost.
All five of them crouched, with eyes on Jeb. One by one, they placed their weapons at their feet and kicked them forward.
"Good," Jeb said and his fingers clenched around my elbow. A wave of pain crested in my shoulder and I grit my teeth.
"Now," he said. "I want my sister, and I want her now. Find whoever has the keys to Caleb's dungeon up his ass and get him here."
One of them blew his lips. "There's no dun--"
His second elbowed him in the ribs and cut him off.
Jeb's threatening stance was an act, of course, and knew that if I wanted to free my brothers, I would have to trust this man. I just had to do my part, pretend everything was as Caleb wanted it until Jeb could find his way to where Caleb was holding Luca and Lynden. Just moments more. That was all, and those boys would be free, and I would kill Caleb. The sweet promise of vengeance was the only thing keeping me on my feet.
Fat chance of keeping that promise to myself. Jeb pushed me hard enough that I stumbled, and when he realized that I had lost my footing, he shoved me all the way to the floor with his boot. I barely caught myself in time to keep myself from hitting face first on the tiles. I glared at him over my shoulder. There was that implacable and stoic face again.
Traitor, my mind shrieked at me. I should have known the human mercenary would betray me. Use me to get what he wanted from me all along. Trick me into thinking he cared enough to want to help me. Lies. All lies.
"Bastard," I said. Meaning it. "I'll tear your throat out."
"Go on and give that a try," he mocked. "There's a bullet in your shoulder and five others in my pistol that say otherwise."
He spun on his heel to face the sentry nearest the stairs.
"Get Caleb," he said. "I'm done playing these games. I'm delivered the bitch, now deliver Olanna."
With a deafness of hand that I didn't expect from him, he pulled a second pistol from behind his waistband. I hadn't even been aware he'd had a second. Two-fisted, he manoeuvred so that his back was against one of the walls, and he pointed each weapon at the hardiest of the wolves.
"And I want my men," he said. This time, he followed the threat up with a shot to the leg of the closest shifter who obviously thought a human man easy quarry and had begun to transform. I heard the impact as it hit bone, and the wolf fell to his knees, the human in him calling out in pain. I might have thought the rest of them would retreat or freeze, but they were young wolves and foolish. I could only hope their age would press fear forward before testosterone.
No such luck. One of them leapt for Jeb despite the threat and while the others hung back, content to let him do the work. Jeb swung with easy grace toward the would-be attacker, simultaneously scooping the nearest weapon closer as he calmly squeezed the trigger in his right hand. The blast took the shifter in the belly and the sickening sound of bowels bursting hit my ears at the same time as the stink of shit and blood rose to my nostrils. The shifter froze in his tracks, clamping his fingers over his wound and sinking to his knees. His mournful moan almost made me pity him. Almost. As it was, I wasn't sure who to root for, and I certainly wasn't about to make a move until they had done some of the job for me.
&n
bsp; "I mean business," Jeb said.
"You have no right to order us around," I said to him. "You have no rights here at all, human."
He swung his gaze to mine and I found myself looking into the face of a stranger. His crystalline eyes had gone ice hard. His jaw tight with focus.
"This little backpack full of silver-stuffed grenades says otherwise," he said, and then he grinned, but it didn't reach his eyes. Hell, it didn't get as far as the corners of his nose.
I couldn't tell if he was bluffing, but I did know he had already pulled a dastardly lot of stuff from that backpack.
"For the love of god," I said, drilling one of the shifters with a furious gaze. "Go get Caleb. Or there'll be no pack left."
As it was, no one needed to scurry to find the rat. He came down the stairs swinging a set of keys on his index finger. He stopped at the landing and tossed the keys at Jeb. Like a true soldier, Jeb let them land at his feet rather than catching them. Caleb's eyebrows rose appreciatively. He couldn't have been expected Jeb to fall for that cliche.
"It's what you wanted isn't it?" Caleb said. "And a deal is a deal."
"Where is she?"
Caleb's hands went into his jeans pockets.
"That's the other part of the deal," Caleb said. He turned his beady green eyes on me. "I'm not fully bonded, yet, you see. So you haven't really fulfilled your part of the obligation. Once I do that, you'll be shown the door that key opens."
"Just give it to him," I said to Caleb, pushing myself up, thinking to find a less submissive posture than lying prostrate on the tiles. "I want my brothers alive and I won't risk this stupid, mercenary human to risk that."
Caleb cocked his head at me. "And what makes you think they're still living?" he said. "You took off. You broke our bargain."
I shook my head. "You wouldn't do that," I said. "You have some honor, Caleb. Unlike this bastard." I glared at Jeb.
A slow smile spread across Caleb's face. "An alpha needs fear more than honour at a time like this," he said. "Now whether or not you're in pain, whether or not you're tired, whether or not you're covered in filth, you will do as you're told and you will do so immediately."
Rogue Huntress: a new adult urban fantasy novel (Rogue Huntress Chronicles Book 1) Page 13