Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2)

by Sam Hall

  “For what?” I asked, knowing it was useless to ask but unable to stop myself.

  “For you to come into your powers and then pass the burden on.”

  “Right.” My voice was sharp, crisp, already pulling the phone away from my ear. “I’ll be in touch if we decide to head back to town.” I didn’t wait for her reply, ending the call abruptly. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the shadows on the wall, observe the way they slowly faded back to nothing. Then I straightened up and looked around the room.

  “You saw all of that?” I asked, a redundant question, but I got the slow nods anyway. “Nothing unexpected, I guess. It confirms what we’ve already learned.”

  “Except what it says about our future.” Greta settled back against the couch. “I’ve seen revolutions come and go. I was a child when the Nazis rose in my country. I don’t remember much from the war, didn’t see the disgusting, horrific things done to those they put in the concentration camps, but I saw the aftermath. So much pain, so much destruction.”

  If you’d asked me before, I would never have thought she was old enough to have those memories, but as she spoke, something seemed to come over her, repress her natural vitality.

  “There are no bloodless revolutions, I will tell you that. No change without pain.” Her eyes burned into mine for a few beats before she shook her head, sitting up and becoming all business again. “But if this is what must be, then we will train you as best we can. Margaret, make the calls, gather the other matriarchs. Tell them it’s time.”

  “Of course, Mother,” she said and got to her feet.

  Chapter 37

  When they left, Zack drew me up by the hand he held and looked over his shoulder to the others. “C’mon,” was all he said before walking down the hall to the main bedroom.

  If this was our jail cell, we were being spoiled. Like the place Zack had built, a massive bed spanned the back wall of the room, leaving more than enough space for all of us, and all of us were going to be on it.

  Zack drew me close now, an echo of what had happened in the haunted house, but so much better now. He pressed his mouth against mine, just feeling me for a second, before parting my lips and forcing his tongue in. He kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in weeks, like he had nearly lost me and couldn’t believe he had me in his arms right now, and that felt right. I found myself clawing at his shirt, disgruntled at even a thin barrier being between us, something he righted quickly, pulling back for only a second to whip it up over his head.

  Fuck yes… I thought as my hands touched his hot skin, felt all those well-developed muscles tense and flex as he moulded my body to his. He suckled my bottom lip for one last time before pulling away and placing a gentle kiss on my forehead and letting me go.

  “Always thinking of everyone else,” I said, my fingers still lingering on his skin as he pulled back to let the others come through. “Making sure everyone gets their needs met.”

  “We’re all wound up tight as a vise after what fucking happened, about what will happen.” His eyes took in the others briefly. “We’re a team, and we need to work as one, but…” Those eyes blazed bright as they met mine again. “If you think I’m not gonna lick, suck, and stroke every damn inch of you before I force my knot into you, you’re insane. I need you just as much as they do. Need to feel your skin on mine, need to feel you gasping beneath or above me. Need to lock myself deep inside you. So see to your mates, placate them, then tease them out of this shit mood we’re all in, because then you’re coming back to me.”

  My steps, when I took them, were halting and stuttering, my eyes still trained on Zack. His smile told me exactly how he felt about that. But strong hands grabbed me and turned me around, forcing my attention on Declan.

  There was none of my laughing, teenage boyfriend right now. A man stood over me, one whose fingers dug into my arms slightly, his eyes studying me, taking me in. He forced himself to calm down, and I saw it in the swallow of his throat, the brief flicking away of his eyes before they were drawn back to me, in the gentle sweep of his hand down my face.

  “I’m so fucking sorry,” he started to say. “I had no idea…”

  He was holding it back again, that more dominant side that had come roaring up at the theme park. Instead, it was getting buried under Declan the Nice Guy again. Of course he was sorry. There was no way to anticipate what the Father Wolf would have done. He just wanted to get me alone somewhere cheesy and have a bit of fun.

  My hand shot up, wrapping itself partly around his throat, his eyes widening then going heavily hooded when he felt the press of my thumb against his Adam’s apple. The excuses and explanations stopped, and I liked that. He reached up and tightened my grip just a little, then nodded. I drove him back until his legs hit the bed, then he sat down, my knees going on either side of his thighs when he did.

  “Is this what you want?” I asked, squeezing just slightly. The neck had too many fragile little bones to get too enthusiastic, but he didn’t get a chance to answer. Lorcan slid onto the bed, taking in me, Declan, and my grip with glittering eyes.

  “You gonna dominate him?” he asked, a slow smile spreading across his face. But there was nothing mocking in it. Rather, it was as if he had stumbled onto something delicious.

  “Maybe. If that’s what he wants,” I replied, but that was a partial lie. I was presenting this as something I was doing for Declan, but a part of me that didn’t get to see the light of day often rose at the thought of this. Part of me that was cold, hard, completely unmoved by them or their desires. Part of me that could see me ordering them around, using my dominance to force them into increasingly complex scenes. I smiled back, and Lorcan nodded slowly.

  “Then pull your hand free. You can’t negotiate like that.” I dropped it reluctantly, liking the possessive look of it around my lover’s neck, while Declan’s hands moved restively like he wanted it back. “You need to find out what he wants. Dominance and submission is what it sounds like. You call the shots, he does what you tell him, or he gets punished.” Lorcan’s eyes twinkled at that. “Sadism and masochism is another element. When he gets pleasure from being hurt, when you get off on hurting him.” I frowned slightly at that, my eyes switching to Declan, searching his as if I’d find the answers there, but I just saw those alien, moonlit eyes staring back at mine.

  “You want me to hurt you?” I asked, unable to keep the shock out of my voice.

  “You do anyway.” Those words came out quick and unfiltered, and I watched Declan regret that. “Not on purpose, not in any way you need to change, but…the uncertainty, the waiting, the longing… It all fucking hurts.”

  Lorcan nodded slowly. “And this way, you can externalise that pain, process it.”

  “Yeah, I think? Mostly, it just gets me hard, the drama, the theatre of it. It’s kinky as fuck, and that’s a turn-on in itself. But also?” His eyes held mine for just a moment. “The girl that’s giving me a hiding? I know I’m her entire focus. Right then, it’s just me she’s seeing. My arse, my skin as it goes red, my cock as it hardens. She sees me, and she pushes me to my limits.” He shook his head as if to break the mood, and it worked, somewhat. But the others drew closer, hungry looks in their eyes as they created a little cocoon around us. “It’s not something I want all the time, but sometimes…sometimes, I want that intensity.”

  “Well?” Mason asked me with a cocked eyebrow. I just looked at him for a second, taking in his stern expression, his crossed arms. He was always the hardest to read, but if I had to guess, I’d think there was a protectiveness there.

  “You want me to spank Declan?”

  “We’ve all walked away from what happened pretty fucking shell-shocked. As beta, I can feel some of what goes on inside my men and they’re…unsettled. They need grounding. If we were back at the house, I’d get them to go for a run or work off some of it on a bag…” he replied.

  My fingers flexed, feeling the need to do the same, then considering using them to hit something e
lse altogether. Dec’s eyes met mine, flaring brighter as he obviously thought the same.

  “There’s risks to this,” Mason said, his eyes flicking to the shadows on the walls. “He seems to like to come when we get together like this, when we mesh as a group, but Greta seemed confident that whatever we might bring through, she could keep contained, so…help him settle, Paige.”

  “Want me to talk you through this?” Lorcan asked. “I’ve done a few scenes up here in the city, when I’d come up for sex parties and the like.”

  “Which is something we need to talk further about,” I said through narrowed eyes. I knew Lorcan got up to a lot before he met me, but right now… I eyed that well muscled form, those beautiful tattoos, and resented every single person who had touched what was mine. Lorcan grinned in response, looking very pleased.

  “Ask him what his limits are,” he prompted, nodding to Declan when it took me a minute to respond.

  “I’m gonna do just as you said, in the theme park.” I watched Declan, saw the moment he recalled our conversation, heard the whistle of his breath as it began to come faster. “That work for you?”

  “Fuck, yes,” he growled.

  “Anything I need to watch out for?” I asked.

  “I’ll safe out if I don’t like where things are going. For me, no doesn’t necessarily mean stop,” he said with a lazy grin. “But if I say ‘pineapple,’ everything stops.”

  “OK.” I nodded to Declan, then turned to Lorcan. “Is it OK?”

  He snorted. “Barely, but everyone here will spot you, make sure nothing goes awry. If he safes out, you’ll need to perform aftercare. Actually, you should anyway. Everyone’s adrenalin is still pumping way too high, and this’ll cause a drop.” A beatific smile spread across his face. “That can feel like heaven…or hell.” He sobered quickly. “Depends on who’s there to catch you.”

  “Me,” I said definitely, even though I didn’t know what I was signing up for. “Always me.”

  “Then show us what you talked about in that shitty little haunted house,” Lorcan replied, a glimmer of challenge in his eyes.

  Zack would laugh, but I approached this in much the same way as I did training. Break a goal down into little achievable pieces first, then work on each one. Not super sexy, I know, which was weird, because I felt achy and hot for him. But my brain, it was ruling the roost right now, pushing aside the clamouring needs of my body as I inspected Declan closely, wanting to trace every freckle with my fingertip. Instead, I shoved his T-shirt up and over his head, my attention instantly falling on all that muscle on display.

  “You were always good-looking,” I said, tracing his collarbone with my finger. “But I gotta say, adult Declan is fucking hot.” He snorted at that, a few of the guys chuckling. “Sorry, I’m supposed to be all ‘bow down at my feet, worm,’ but I just had to say it.”

  “You can tell me that any damn time you want,” he replied, surging forward and taking my mouth, our display momentarily disturbed by our kisses. Finally, I pulled away, getting off the bed and pulling him with me to complete the final stage of his disrobing. I sat down on the bed, feeling my heart in my mouth, the fast beats rocking my whole body as Declan watched me, as everyone watched me, as my love hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his shorts and jerked them off.

  Is there anything hotter than the slap of a hard dick against rigid abs? He was long and hard for me, so hard. My body could not understand why I wasn’t just throwing him down on the bed and, as Bridge said, riding the baloney pony to victory, reacquainting myself with a body I’d known so well. Instead, I patted my thigh in what I hoped was an appropriately authoritative way. I must have done something right because I could hear his ragged breath when he climbed on the bed, laying himself over my lap.

  “Uh uh,” I reprimanded when he did so in a way that would press his cock into my thigh on every downstroke. He hissed in frustration, going on all fours and then repositioning himself so his cock hung between the gap in my thighs, untouched. I couldn’t help but run my hand up and down his spine, just glorying in the feel of his muscular body spread across mine. I glanced up, almost afraid the others would have gone and disappeared when the universe worked out just how many riches it had bestowed upon me. But they just clustered closer, watching my hand move, catching my eyes, communicating something hot and chaotic in their collective gaze.

  “So is there anything specific I need to watch for?” I asked Lorcan as my hand tightened around one firm globe of Dec’s arse. The muscle was so taut, there was almost no give in it. “Or do I just go for it?” My hand rose and slapped down, the palm stinging with the impact, but that’s not what had my attention. It was their reaction, something hungry rising in Lorcan’s eyes, in all their gazes, as I listened to the rapid pant of Declan’s breath.

  “Do what you’re doing,” Lorcan finally ground out. “Stay in the moment. Stay connected. Read him, read us, read the situation, and if you are worried, don’t be afraid to break a scene and check in.” He swallowed hard, looking at the red mark on Declan’s arse.

  “Do you wish this was you I was doing this to, or you were the one administering the beating?” I asked him.

  His eyes darted to meet mine, and then he smiled before crawling across the bed and kissing me, before pressing my hand down harder on Declan’s skin.

  “I just want to be with you, love, in any way I can.” He slid in behind me, raining kisses down my neck, making my back arch and my fingers clench, which made Declan groan. “Look after your boy,” he said against my skin, “and I’ll look after you.”

  I was struggling. My body was screaming for them, but my brain was too engaged, a feeling that I needed to keep myself in control, for Declan, for me, beating down hard. But as Lorcan did his level best to draw my attention out of my head and back to the moment, his fingers and lips completing complex tracery all over my skin, it started to come to me. When he stroked me, I stroked Declan, following the lines of the marks I’d left on his skin as they rapidly faded, then applying more. Lorcan’s teeth bit down on Micah’s mating mark as my hand cracked down on Declan.

  Both of us jumped at the two different sensations, my hips squirming just like Declan’s did, seeking some sort of satisfaction. Lorcan’s hands slid around my ribcage, covering my breasts, then his fingers clamped down on my nipples, a sharp spike of lust forcing my hand to slap down over and over. Lorcan’s ministrations grew more and more intense, pushing me harder and harder, making my cunt twitch and my hand rise and fall, until a long moan escaped Declan.

  “Are you OK?” I asked, freezing still.

  “Fuck yes…” he groaned. “Cock’s fucking hard.”

  I smiled on reflex, the sound of his desperation somehow pleasing.

  “What? This cock?”

  I pushed my hand under his hips, his body moving quickly enough to admit me, but it froze when my fingers encircled his throbbing length. For a moment, all I got was a series of grunts from Declan as he fought his body. His cock was diamond hard, his knot a rigid lump at its base. I worked my hand down his shaft in a tight O until I reached it.

  “No…no…” he gasped out. I could hear and feel the tension in his body. Everything that was happening, that had happened today, was ready to burst out of him if I just… I let my fingers squeeze the very top of his knot, his cries and struggles getting louder and more pronounced.

  “He hasn’t said pineapple yet,” Lorcan said, the devil on my shoulder. The devil whose mouth latched onto my mating mark, whose fingers raked my skin, teased my nipples mercilessly until I was gasping too. And that shit works both ways doesn’t it? My hand spanned as much of Declan’s knot as I could take, his pleading broken and coming in fits and starts.

  “No!” He tried to jerk away but didn’t, his hips bucking, his cock throbbing as I squeezed down. “I’m gonna fucking come.”

  “Don’t,” I said, injecting as much dominance into the command as I could. I’m not sure why. The guys’ refractory time was daun
ting. He’d be hard and ready to plunder me before I was done with the others, but it seemed like part of this whole thing. It was the tease, not the orgasm, that was the point. We’d lose it and come eventually, but not right now.

  “Squeezing his knot?” Lorcan said with a purr. “You savage bitch.” But he just seemed inordinately pleased with what I was doing. “We can’t hold out on that, not for long. When something squeezes on it, we come. It’s the Mother’s gift.”

  “Don’t come,” I said again as I clamped down harder, feeling the ripple inside, his body readying itself to empty. “Lift your hips higher.” He was on his hands and knees now, hovering over me as I slapped one hand down hard on his butt, hearing him say yes over and over as I did before returning my other hand to his knot to torment him.

  “Fuck!” he roared, bucking up off my lap, throwing me back on the bed, and following me down. “I’m done. I need in you. I always need in you.”

  “You didn’t say pineapple,” I said with a smirk.

  “Pineapple, pineapple, fucking pineapple,” Declan said, parting my thighs and swiping his fingers through my folds. “Fuck, you’re drenched.”

  “Because I need you. Always need you,” I replied, my voice hitching as I felt him fit his cock and then thrust inside me. Tears formed in my eyes, in his as he did, not from pain but because it felt like he was going in as deep as his cock did. Why now? Why this? I wasn’t sure. Maybe because my boy with the ready smile was gone, and instead, there was just him and me. “I love you,” I told him. “You know that.”

  He paused for a moment, just hovering there, limbs trembling, a frown forming.

  “Yeah…at least I hoped so. But fuck, Paige. I wanna hear it. Say it, scream it, growl it, howl it to the moon. I’ve spent every damn day loving you, but so little of it with you. You’re mine,” he snarled, dominance rising in his voice. “Say it.”