Love Is Mortal

by Caroline Hanson

  Jack felt off…different from head to foot. And the smell. It was like his nose was on overdrive. It almost hurt to breathe, as if the air were freezing cold. The room smelled like old stone, stale air and sex.

  Had they? No. He wouldn’t have. Rachel’s gaze skated over him and he felt it like a touch, as if it were her finger trailing down his neck and chest to where the sheet lay, covering the lower half of his body. She pouted when her gaze reached the sheet.

  He took in her choppy dark hair, the pouty lips and stunning beauty. Her neck was dark, bruised, as if an animal had given her a hickey.

  What the fuck happened last night? “We didn’t…” he said, demanding confirmation.

  “We did. In fact, I did—more than once.” She threw him a glance over her shoulder, and he tried to ignore the effect it had on his libido. “You did too. I’m impressed. What you lacked in finesse, you made up for in enthusiasm.” She smiled at him, and denials came to him, begged to be spoken. But he just couldn’t say them.

  They were in Cerdewellyn’s creepy castle, and he was tucked up in a huge canopy bed, the sheets musty and rumpled. He scrubbed his face with his hands. He needed to shave. Shower. Get the fuck out of here. “Why are we here?”

  Rachel cracked her knuckles, and he could feel how agitated she was. “Hmm. Okay. I will give you the recap, because I think you’re going to be ornery otherwise. We stormed the castle, you got swiped by a werewolf and almost died. I saved you, you’re welcome, and then you had to be bound to someone. Yada, yada, yada, and you chose me. After that, it got physical. And now it’s time to go.”

  Parts of that made sense. “Explain more,” he said, and began looking for his clothes. He threw the sheet aside and picked up his boxer briefs, aware that Rachel was watching him dress. He scowled at her. “You can look away, you know.”

  She put her hands up in the air in disgust. “Now you tell me. If you’re going to stride around tackle-out, then I’m gonna look. Besides I saw it last night.…saw it, touched it, tasted it,” she said, voice changing from suggestive to slutty in six little words.

  He froze, jeans in hand. Thoughts and feelings swamped him. Jack pushed them aside, forced himself to keep moving. He was not going to be thinking with his dick.

  “You don’t want to talk about it?” she said, taunting him.

  He sent her a malevolent glare, hoping it would unsettle her as much as she was trying to unsettle him. Actually, she wasn’t trying. She’d succeeded. He was fucking unsettled. “I don’t remember it, so what do you want me to say? It doesn’t seem like something you should brag about, getting someone who was ‘near-death’ as you put it, to bone you. Congrats. Good work. I’m sure I had an excellent time. Now where the fuck is Valerie?”

  He found his shirt and pulled it on.

  She pursed her lips. “Do you see differently? Smell things slightly oddly? Your senses are enhanced because you’re a werewolf now. You’re stronger too. You could rip a human’s head off without breaking a sweat. When the full moon comes, and you’re looking for outfits to coordinate with your pelt, we can talk about the wolf thing.” She laughed and it sounded bitter. “No rush. But the more important thing is that we need to leave. And now.”

  Jack finished lacing his shoes. So many questions, so many things she was telling him, and yet it wasn’t quite right. “Where is Valerie?”

  “Hmm. So, you’re not going to make this easy, are you?” Rachel asked. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Get up. Follow me. It’s time to go,” she said, voice thick with command and power.

  Jack stood. What the fuck? Suddenly, they were walking out the door, and Jack didn’t remember putting one foot in front of the other. He tried to stop walking, but couldn’t. All he could do was follow her as she walked down the hall.

  “What did you do?” he growled, rage suffusing him as he followed her down the corridor. It wasn’t a slow burn, but instant combustion. It scared him, thrilled him, and made him look up at the woman in front of him and want to do something terrible.

  And Rachel ignored him. Unimpressed with his fury. She led him up a staircase, and they stopped before a door. A shining iridescent glow seeped out from underneath. She turned the handle and stepped inside. “Take my hand and follow me,” she said.

  But it was a command. Something he couldn’t stop himself from doing. Like falling asleep against one’s will. He thought about freezing in place, about objecting, and still he was moving forward. She stepped into the blue light, and he did too, and then it was gone, and they were back in the Roanoke Forest.

  “Thank God,” Rachel said.

  “No. You didn’t…you didn’t just take us out of there.” He wanted to throw up, he wanted to kill someone, he just couldn't believe it. “We…we have to go back! What about Valerie? Christ, what about Lucas? You can’t leave them there. I will kill you if you don’t get us back there right now, do you understand?”

  Rachel chuckled and came closer. He wanted to strangle her. Something inside of him snapped, and he surged towards her with an inhuman snarl, the reaction primal and…perfect. He slammed her up against a tree and had the satisfaction of seeing shock on her face that he’d managed to move on his own. No longer following her around, and doing what she bid like a little puppy dog.

  “It’s done. Fey is far behind us. If you want to go back and help Valerie, then you’ll come with me and tone down the alpha bullshit.” Her gaze locked on his lips.

  “Where is Valerie?” he demanded and shook her hard.

  Rachel jerked away from him. “You’re a broken record, you know that? She’s trapped with Cerdewellyn. Lucas is his prisoner.”

  With a snarl, he took her down to the ground, rolling her on to her stomach. He used his weight, his strength, and a new hidden reserve of power to keep her there. He could smell her, smell himself on her, and it pushed the anger back, made lust rise in its place so that he felt himself hardening as he rested on top of her. He shifted, cock settling between her cheeks as he ground into her.

  She stilled and his hands moved, pinning her wrists above her head, his hands on top of hers, twining their fingers together. He put his lips next to her ear, took her flesh into his mouth and bit lightly. Fuck, he needed to say something to her. There were things he had to know, but all of it was fading. All of it was unimportant and forgettable as she lay beneath him. She said his name, and it made his cock pulse in his pants.

  “I want to be inside you,” he said, and his hand went to her waistband ready to rip them off her.

  “Think, Jack. Shut it down. I can help you, but you have to be on board too. Valerie is stuck in Fey. I’m Rachel…you kind of hate me…and as impressive as that erection is, we have to go.”

  Her words were a slap, and he felt the peace coming from her, travelling down an invisible connection, like an umbilical cord between them. All he had to do was take it, accept what she was offering, and he’d be able to think. Some part of him conceded, rolled over and off her, back on the ground as he hauled in breath after breath. Fuck, even his breathing was angry, and he wasn't sure that was possible.

  “Why am I like this?”

  She pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  He frowned, tried to puzzle it out. Walking down the path, being in the cabin, the certainty that Valerie was lost to him forever, deciding he would kill Lucas. The fight, watching as Lucas was about to be torn to pieces and then…nothing. Haziness.

  “Lucas. I was about to kill him.”

  She laughed, but it wasn’t happy. “Great. Yeah, I hate to tell you, but stronger, less human men have tried and guess what? 1600 years and they didn’t win. Shockingly, you didn’t either. He gutted you, and you almost died. I saved you. You can thank me later. I take cash, visa or flowers.”

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her, the way she moved, the way her breath went in and made her breasts swell. “Why do I want you like this?” he asked.

  Sh
e snorted indelicately. “Who are you kidding? You have always wanted me.”

  “No. Not like this. Not like…” He needed to have her, needed to sink himself inside of her before he could worry about anything else. His voice was low, filled with need and pain, “Like I’ll die if I don’t get inside of you.”

  The need in his voice snuck through her, and she felt her body respond. His hands moved, one arm around her rib cage, his hand covering her breast tightly. Her nipples pebbled against his palm, and he growled in response. His other hand slipped around her hip and settled between her legs.

  “Spread your legs for me. Let me in,” he commanded her, and she felt light-headed with desire. She whimpered and shifted, his hard length pressing more firmly between her cheeks. His hips bucked against hers at the move. The length of his fingers rested against her core, and he rubbed at her hard and fast, his only goal to make them both come.

  “This isn’t good enough,” he said darkly, and then his hands left her, and she heard him unbuckle his pants, take down his zipper, and as she turned to look back over her shoulder, he took his cock in hand and stroked it from root to tip. His eyes burned as he looked at her. “Pull your pants down or I’ll rip them off you,” he threatened.

  She tried to turn over, and felt his hand on her lower back keeping her on her stomach. “Not this time,” he said.

  Her body spasmed in response, and she lifted her hips awkwardly, unbuttoning the snap of her jeans. His hand landed on her ass as she raised her hips, and then he was pulling her pants down, only to mid-thigh; her legs trapped in the material. And then he was on her, his hand back under her body and between her legs, spreading her open to take him while the weight of his chest kept her on the ground. He thrust inside of her sharply, his hips instantly taking up a furious rhythm. He circled her clit with his finger and worked her hard, her body gushing in response to the passionate attack.

  Jack was wild, lost to his desire for her, and she came hard, her body milking his shaft. His body froze behind her as his orgasm swept over him, and she felt him coming deep inside her body. They lay there for a long minute, and Rachel could hear Jack’s heart beating.

  “We have to go,” she said, voice trembling. That mating and loss of control had been a primal thing, and made Rachel feel disgustingly emotional. He never would have taken her like that if he hadn’t been under the wolf’s influence.

  He was going to kill her. “What did you do?”

  “I saved your ass. Valerie is in deep shit. You were going to die unless you had an anchor, someone to tie yourself to.”

  “And so what? Did you hurt her?”

  She looked confused for a moment. “Who? Valerie? No. I’ll have you know you chose me of your own accord. Good thing too, because I wouldn’t have taken no for an answer.” Her look was suddenly fierce. “And then she would have gotten hurt.”

  “I chose you?” His brow furrowed, and his lip hurt as he bit down on it hard, trying to think about what had happened the night before. “I love Valerie. Like a…well, it’s not really definable—”

  “Bullshit. You love her like a sister. You were undergoing a transition. Becoming Other. That is about power, passion and death. When the choice came, you didn’t choose comfort and family. You chose revenge and death. You chose me,” she said, fiercely, keeping eye contact, willing him to see the truth.

  He drew in a ragged breath. Speaking in a gentle tone, she said, “You were infected by a werewolf bite. I had enough magic to bring you back, but it was too late. You’re a wolf. Wolves are bound to someone. Always. They go nuts otherwise. Like Fido, but psycho. Maybe Old Yeller. Valerie wanted to bind you to her…but Jack, she’s stuck there. With Cerdewellyn. You would have belonged to him. Or maybe Lucas would rescue her, and then Lucas would have had you through Valerie.”

  “So what you’re saying is that you were the best of a terrible bunch of choices?”

  “Yeah. I guess I am.”

  He needed to move, couldn’t stay here any longer. He felt like his muscles were going to explode. “Let me the fuck go.”

  She arched her hips up, rubbing herself against his hard length. A promise. “You sound so dangerous when you talk to me like that. Are you going to hurt me, or fuck me again, Jack?”

  He made a noise, and was happy it was mostly rage, and only a twinge of frustrated lust. “I am not your—“

  “Bitch?” she interjected happily. “Cause that would be funny if you said bitch now that you’re gonna be a dog.”

  He threw himself backward, commanding his body to move off her, to escape her and respond to his will. His pinky didn’t even twitch.

  Her tone was carefully neutral. “Listen, Jack. Here is the plan. You and I are going to—”

  “I’m not going with you. I have to help Valerie.”

  “That’s not an option,” she said flatly, and then she reached behind her, and the next thing he knew she had a knife. She brought it to her wrist and then flashed him a coy look, as if they were teenagers, and she was about to take off her bra. She made the cut slowly, slicing lightly, but he knew the moment her skin parted and her dead blood hit the air because he could smell it. It made his mouth water, made his cock weep with need. If she hadn’t been controlling him, he would have ravaged her…again.

  Nothing.

  He’d never wanted anything so much in his life. It scared the hell out of him.

  “This isn’t real,” he said, as his mouth filled with saliva. He didn’t know if he wanted to fuck her or drink her or both.

  “It doesn’t matter, Jack. Just drink and then we can go.”

  “What happens when I do?” Not ‘when’, but ‘if’ he told himself sternly.

  “It’ll put hair on your chest. All the kids are doing it.”

  “No,” he said.

  She stared into his eyes coldly, pitilessly. “Drink now, Jack. And then we go. You’re fighting me is not good. I need to feed. You need to feed. Don’t push me, or I can promise you we will both regret it. No more worrying about Valerie. Don’t ask me to go back there and get her. Valerie is fine,” she said, voice trembling.

  He believed her. Was she making him believe her? Did she control him that much? There were dark circles under her eyes, and the wrist she held out to him trembled slightly. Was it hard for her to keep control of him? Or was it just her hunger? And then it didn’t matter; her wrist was at his mouth, he was sucking her down greedily, and the only thing that mattered was her.

  Chapter 5

  THE SILVER shackles were tight. No slack. Lucas pulled with all of his strength, but didn’t feel the slightest give. His chest was tight with panic. Should he scream? Do not scream you fool, that would be pathetic. But the urge was there, even tighter than the bonds. Strangling him, chanting to him that death was not the worst thing that could happen to him.

  Lucas had woken up in a dungeon, chained to a wall. Alone. He hoped that Valerie had escaped, left him here and disappeared back to a mortal life. Against all odds and all reason, he wished for that.

  Helpless. He laughed and couldn’t stop. It had been a very long time since he’d been at the mercy of another. He jerked against the metal and hated himself for doing it. He knew it was useless, so why did he keep struggling? Because you are weak. He exhaled shakily, aware that he was breathing fast, close to hyperventilating.

  Emotion. It would kill him. He couldn’t do this. Lucas heard the sound of footsteps as someone came down the stairs towards him. And who would show up to pay him a visit this time, he wondered, and forced himself to breathe evenly.

  Lucas stood straight, his expression that of a mask, hiding the torrent of emotion that burned through him. Still bluffing. The game is still playing. Nothing is over yet.

  “Your empath is stronger than she looks,” Cerdewellyn said as he rounded the corner. He tossed that scrap of information out to Lucas and waited for him to bite.

  Do not respond.

  Cer was watching him, wanting to know just how much Vale
rie’s blood had altered him. How many weaknesses were now exposed. Cer was tall, almost the same height as Lucas, but leaner, perhaps more graceful. In almost every respect, they were opposites. Lucas was light, and Cerdewellyn was dark. Cerdewellyn had been regal, born to wealth and privilege. Whereas Lucas had been little better than an ignorant peasant, graduating to a ruthless upstart who was willing to kill to get to the top.

  Cer crossed his arms and took a step closer. “I did not understand how she could fight so hard. I had broken her, you see. Every bone smashed in. She was almost dead. Weak. Vulnerable. But now she is not. It is amazing,” he said. But it was clear that he wasn’t amazed; he was furious.

  Lucas felt his heart begin to pound in what had to be terror. He wanted to lick his lips, avert his gaze, do something. He looked past Cer’s right shoulder instead, hoping the tiny gesture gave nothing away.

  “She is still fighting. It might go on for hours. I feel a bit ridiculous that it took me so long to figure it out. You drank her. She drank you. You are giving her your strength, so she does not give in to me.”

  Cer wanted answers. But he was always so bad at getting them. The man just didn’t know how to torture. That struck him as funny, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

  Cer smiled derisively and made a tsking noise. “You know the dangers of feeding her. And of feeding from her. Has nothing changed in all these years, Lucas? You still cannot resist an empath? How important is she to you right now? Will you die to protect her?” he asked quietly.

  “Are you jealous?” Lucas asked. Stop provoking the captor. His fists clenched. Cer smiled.

  “Over the centuries, there was one constant. The empath died, and you survived. But, this time will be different, do you know why?”

  “I assume you are going to tell me, and the asking is rhetorical,” Lucas said, voice raspy. It shamed him.