by Milly Taiden
“Mason—”
“Promise me you will stop the suicidal visits to the vamps.”
She couldn’t promise him that. It went against everything she believed in. If the vamps had Maria then she’d do whatever was necessary to find the girl. “Help me find Maria.”
“I’m trying. There’s been no trace of her.” She tried to look away, but his grip on her hair kept her still. “I’m doing the best I can. We do have a war raging with the Rahound pack. It’s only a matter of time before lives from our pack are taken.”
She nodded. “I understand. You do what you need to do.” She bit her lip, hoping he wouldn’t take her next words negatively. “I’ll do what I have to do as well.”
“Emma...” He growled her name as if ready to snap.
“I don’t look to put myself in danger, Mason. But you have to understand that I won’t let a young girl go missing and leave it at that.” She tried pulling out of his hold again, to no avail.
“I have people looking into it.”
Not good enough. Emma wouldn’t feel right about letting others handle it and sitting back. What if Maria was in trouble? What if she needed help? Emma knew all too well what it was like to be a teenager rebelling against the world. Her heart ached just remembering her family. She’d rebelled alright. To the point she’d lost them.
“I appreciate all you are doing and have others doing to help find Maria, I really do. But I can’t act like nothing is wrong. I can’t go back and teach her sister and say someone else will let me know what happened to her. I could not live with myself going to bed at night knowing that child is out there and not at home with her parents, where she should be.”
He snarled and released her arms. “I’ll find her.”
“You’re so hard-headed,” she sighed. “You really don’t want me to look for her?”
She gritted her teeth and marched for the car. He stopped her just as she reached the driver side door, flipping her around and pressing her against the side of the car. His naked, hard body plastered to her.
Their gazes met and the torture she saw in his eyes took her breath away. “You don’t understand how precious your life is to me.”
She gulped. Knots formed in her chest. Her heart beat tripled and she tried to calm the rapid rush of air in and out of her lungs. The words sunk through her pores to heat her from the inside. “I—”
He shook his head. “Don’t say anything. You’ve fought me every step of the way on us. I know there’s things about you I don’t know and until you feel comfortable sharing, I won’t push, but your safety is not something I am going to relent on.” He caressed his hand over her jaw. “I couldn’t survive without you.”
“But nothing—”
“You don’t know the future,” he chastised. “Listen to me carefully. Your life means more to me than my own. I would give mine up in a second for you.” He frowned, the glow in his eyes dimming with a flash of pain. “Life wouldn’t be worth living without you in it.”
She tried to find something to say, but couldn’t. What was there to say when a man said something that special to her? Mason had always been intense. He’d always tried to boss her around and for the most part she ignored his overbearing ass. But she hadn’t truly realized that he honestly worried her life could be in danger.
She lifted on her tip toes and kissed him. There was nothing she wanted more than to show him how much she loved what he’d just said. A rollercoaster of emotions bloomed in her chest. Need skyrocketed inside her body, urging her to find release.
She raked her nails down his chest, smoothly down to his cock. She curled her hand around his shaft and jerked him in her grasp. He inhaled sharply, the vein on his cheek quivering.
“I want to fuck you, Emma.”
“You’re such a romantic, Mason.” She slid down until her face was level with his dick. She glanced up and licked her lips. “I want you in my mouth.”
“Sounds like a fantastic idea.” He thrust his hips toward her mouth. “Open wide and take me.”
She did just that. Darting her tongue over his hot length, she encased his head with her lips and sucked.
He groaned and gripped clumps of her hair. “Your mouth is hot and wet. I fucking love it.”
She licked around his dick, using her saliva to lubricate him. Then she sucked around him, down to his balls. She licked and sucked them into her mouth and back up to the crown of his cock.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Take my dick to the back of your throat.” His words were soft growls.
Emma opened her mouth wide, sucking him as far down her throat as possible. She stopped when her gag reflex kicked into place. She jerked and sucked him. Loud slurping noises sounded as she did.
“Shit, Emma. That sounds so fucking hot.”
She licked and sucked, jerking him at the same time. He held her hair, pushing his hips further into her mouth. He snarled, his hips driving harder into her mouth.
“That’s my girl. Your mouth is fucking perfect. So fucking perfect.”
Moisture trickled down her legs from how wet she was. She loved giving Mason pleasure. Loved hearing him moaning for her to continue. His grip on her hair turned tighter. He pulled her up and off his cock.
“Your mouth is sexy as hell, but I want your pussy.” He growled, tugging on her clothes. “I want my dick branding you from the inside. I want my come trickling down your legs. You’re mine.”
“Oh, God,” she groaned.
He turned her to lean on the trunk of her car and slipped a hand between her ass cheeks. “I can’t wait to fuck you in the ass, baby. You’ve got the tightest little hole.”
Emma moaned. He urged her to push her ass out and use the trunk of the car for stability. He kissed his way down her back and tapped her ass.
Slap.
“You have such a sexy fucking ass.”
She moaned and glanced over her shoulder. “You mean big. I have a big ass.”
She knew that though. Her entire body was big all over. She didn’t mind. Fuck that. She’d learned to embrace it and loved her body. Still, it was awesome to hear Mason tell her how much he liked her body. How much he was turned on by her curves. It was like living her own porn movie. A hot man wanting to fuck her all the time and telling her how hot she was. It didn’t get better than that.
“Big is sexy,” he growled.
“I’m big all over,” she grinned.
“Everything about you is gorgeous. From your pretty tits down to your hot pussy.”
She bit her lip and pushed her ass out some more. He spread her cheeks open and fingered her hole. “I’ll get in here, but not now. Tonight I want to fuck your pussy and come hard in you.”
He pushed his cock into her from behind, holding her by the hips as he drove forward. She gasped, unable to do more than close her eyes and moan. He propelled back and immediately plunged even deeper into her.
“Fuck!” He growled.
Emma clawed at the metal under her hands. She had nothing to hold on to, but was lucky he had a tight grip on her hips as he drove forward repeatedly.
“More,” she demanded breathlessly. “Keep going.”
Mason twined his hand into her hair and tugged, pulling her head back to make her meet his gaze.
“You’re mine, Emma.”
She mewled. Her body burned with how hot she was inside. He released her hip and slammed a hand on her cheek.
Slap
The stinging caught her by surprise. He’d hit her harder than before. Another plunge and he continued fucking her mercilessly from behind.
“Oh, God!” She screeched as her body tightened.
Another stinging tap on her cheek and she groaned.
Slap
“Your pussy squeezes my dick when I slap your ass. It feels fucking amazing.” He snarled. “Let’s get you over the edge, baby. I love feeling the gush of wetness from your pussy when I go so deep inside you. It feels like I’m in heaven and then you come.”
She leaned most of her body on the car, hoping she didn’t slide down the side. “Mason, I...I’m so close.”
“Let’s finish it.” He whispered from behind, scraping his canines over her shoulder. Not enough to break skin, just enough to drive her crazy. He drove faster. Harder. Rougher. “Take my cock. Fuck, your pussy’s rippling around my dick.”
Emma gasped. Her body froze and a sudden unraveling assaulted her. Waves of pleasure stroked through her body, liquefying her bones and muscles. She tried to catch her breath as he continued to fuck her with more speed. He yanked on her hair as his thrusts slowed down and his body tensed behind her.
“I fucking love how you suck my dick with your wet pussy.” He growled and then howled. “So wet. So hot,” he choked. “Want my cum deep inside you. My mate.”
Emma lay sprawled over the trunk of the car, hoping he’d help her into the car because her legs stopped functioning a while back. Mason pulled out of her and lifted her into his arms to put her in the passenger seat. She yanked the blanket she carried in the backseat and covered herself with it.
“Let’s go home,” he said, slipping into the driver’s side. He glanced at her with a serious gaze. “Don’t think that I’ve forgotten what we discussed.”
“Mason...” Geez he was going to talk about that now?
“Your life is important, Emma. There’s not buts here.”
She licked her dry lips and sighed. “Fine. Can we go home? I need a nap.”
“We’ll get you a bath and bed.” He said, starting the car.
“Can I get another spanking?” She grinned.
He laughed, pulled onto the same dirt road they’d been on before. “You enjoyed it too much. You’re not supposed to.”
She cleared her throat. “Okay. Next time I’ll try to remember not to enjoy it so much.”
He glanced at her from the driver’s side with a grin that made her girl bits sigh. “You’ll always enjoy it. Your pleasure is my ultimate goal in everything.”
“I can live with that.”
SEVEN
Aria glanced at the group assembled in her study. She’d called on her advisors to find out if anyone knew what was going on at Embraced. If a human girl was taken or worse, used as a blood slave, she needed to know.
“I won’t tolerate lies,” she said with steel in her voice.
She paced the large study, her red heels clicking on the marble floor. The mansion had been in her family for generations. As the daughter of a blood born and a blood born herself, she led her clan with strict rules.
“Aria, maybe you’re going a bit overboard,” her secretary said softly. Chantal didn’t normally argue with Aria’s commands, so this was new.
Aria swirled to face the other woman. Chantal didn’t cower like most would. She knew Aria didn’t want to hurt them. There was a first time for everything.
“I don’t think that human’s disappearing and being linked to Embraced is going overboard,” she snapped. “This is how wars begin. Rumors.”
“Mistress, if I may,” Claude, her cousin tried to intervene, “I understand where you are coming from, but we’ve stayed out of the shifter war.”
True. But she had a feeling something was going on that she didn’t know about. That child had to be linked to either the southern clan or her own. If someone was using human blood slaves, her clan could be at war themselves soon. Not only with the shifters, but with the humans as well.
“Humans do not go into Embraced,” she restated, marching to the large window by her desk where the moon shone through brightly. At least she still had that, the brightness of the moon. She’d stopped walking in the daylight just a few short years back, but she still missed the sun.
“I have not heard of any reports of a human going into Embraced,” Anton, her oldest advisor said. Anton had been with the clan since her great grandparents’ time. He’d been the one to tell her parents’ of her grandparents’ death. Older than most of the others, he didn’t turn until he was almost sixty, almost four hundred years back. But he wasn’t a blood born like Aria, so he wasn’t as strong.
Aria, whose family blood line directly connected her back to Miralla Abarca passed their power and strength to each blood born. Though he was older than Aria, he had a tendency of treating her as if she were still a little girl learning how to lead. “You shouldn’t worry over humans, Aria. That’s what we are here for. To take care of those matters.”
Aria stopped herself from the instant urge to turn and lift Anton by the throat. She counted to ten and back. Lately, she felt as though everyone thought she was nothing more than a child. She glanced back at the group with pursed lips. “I will not ignore what is under our noses, Anton.”
“Yes, child—”
“Don’t—,” she gritted her teeth, “call me child again.” Her Spanish accent came through more pronounced when she was angry. At that moment, she was livid. “Matters of the clan are my responsibility. It is not your job to decide what I should or should not worry about.”
Anton lowered his head in acknowledgement. “I understand.”
Aria gave a sharp nod. “I want to know if there have been humans at Embraced.”
“Aria, that goes against the rules. Who would be stupid enough to allow a human in there?” Chantal exclaimed, she stared at her folded hands on her lap. Chantal had been assigned to Aria since her birth. Though Chantal was at least one hundred years older than Aria, she treated her like a sister. As an only child, Aria had appreciated having someone who she could be close to, but that didn’t mean she would allow Chantal or anyone else to undermine her authority.
Before she got a chance to reply to Chantal’s words, Claude cleared his throat. “Perhaps we don’t know enough.”
Anton turned his head to glare at Claude. “Foolish boy, of course we know. I know. No one is allowing humans in the club. They know the rules.”
Aria glanced back out her window. The hairs on her arms raised and for a second she swore someone out there was watching her. Impossible. Everyone was gone for the night and the only people in the mansion were there with her. The guards were out front, so the idea was ludicrous. Still, a sliver of discomfort kept her staring into the woods.
“Do you have anything in mind about this human problem?” Anton asked. His tone was high with a sort of whininess she hated. He only used it when he thought she was being stupid or dramatic.
“Yeah,” she snapped. “Try finding out if anyone knows where the human girl is!”
Chantal rolled her eyes. “How did you even find out about the kid? If we didn’t know, how do you?”
Aria moved fast, picking Chantal up by the throat and shoving her up a wall filled with books. A collection of priceless first volumes fell to the ground as Chantal’s back slammed on the row of books.
“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” Aria muttered, her fangs descending. Unlike most humans believed, fangs didn’t just peek when a vampire was going to bite. They descended whenever a spike in emotions happened. Whether thirst, anger, or even sexual excitement.
“I’m sorry,” Chantal squeaked through the vice of Aria’s hand on her throat.
She let Chantal fall to the floor with a thump and turned to the others in the group. “I want information on the girl. Who took her and why. I don’t want our clan pulled into a shifter war. If they want to kill themselves, I’m fine with that. The minute it is said vampires are responsible for any human deaths, we’ll have our own war on our hands.”
The two men nodded quietly. She didn’t miss the flash of anger in Anton’s gaze, nor the frown on Claude’s. Good. Maybe now they’d start to realize she wasn’t a child any longer. She was their leader and if they wanted to stay in her family, they’d need to start paying attention to her orders.
A shifter war was fine with her. Her clan getting pulled into it? That was the last thing they needed. She’d find that child. Even if she had to do it on her own.
* * *
Emma sipped
on her coffee while staring off into space. She needed to do something. Maria’s mother had called her again, desperate to know if Emma had discovered anything about her daughter’s whereabouts. It had sickened her to hear the poor woman crying over her missing child. Emma didn’t have the heart to tell her that her daughter might be dead due to vampires.
“That bad, huh?” Ellie’s voice asked from the entrance to her room.
She hadn’t even heard Ellie enter her classroom. Glancing around the empty room, she focused her gaze on her friend. Ellie’s hair was already growing from the short spiky cut she’d recently gotten. If only Emma’s hair grew that quickly. She worried over cutting her long locks because it took forever for it to grow. The memory of her mother filled her brain. She used to tell her ‘you get what you get and you don’t get upset.’ That was her answer to all of Emma and her brother’s complaints when they’d been kids.
The sound of the chair scraping close to her desk pulled her out of her memories. She watched Ellie sit with a deep frown. “Come on, Em, tell me what’s wrong?”
Ellie leaned forward, staring deep into Emma’s eyes.
“Nothing.”
“Emma...”
Damn. That’s right. Ellie could tell when she was lying. “Fine. Sorry. I’m still trying to figure out how to find out if Maria got into Embraced.”
Ellie placed a warm hand over Emma’s fisted one on the table and patted her softly. “The best thing to do is let Mason find out what he can for you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t just sit here doing nothing. It’s going to drive me insane. Not to mention I keep hearing poor Maria’s mother’s voice in my head asking me to help her find her daughter.”
“Geez!” Ellie leaned back and brushed a blonde lock of hair behind her ear. “Well what do you have in mind?”
She needed to get into Embraced. But how? “Well...”
“Oh, no. I know that look,” Ellie exclaimed, rubbing a hand on her temple. “You’re going to get us arrested again.”
“Why are we getting arrested?” Nicole asked, joining them with a box labeled from their favorite pastry shop.