by Selena Scott
At this point, his only plan for her to see his love had been to wait interminably and hope she got the picture. A little action was a good thing.
He shot a text off to Kain and got one back in return. Perfect.
-Well, Kain and Valentina are cutting through to Herta for a rescue mission later this morning. So perfect timing. They were gonna do it over by my house anyways.
-I’ll be there.
Sure enough, two hours later, Kain, Valentina, Griff, Alayna, Milla, and Ansel all stood in the woods out back of Griff’s house. They tried to vary the locations of where they cut through to the other world, and here was as good a place as any.
“Are you all going through?” Alayna asked in surprise.
“Not for the entire mission,” Milla answered, fixing her grip on her crossbow. “But the hunters are attracted to portal openings. So if there are any in the area, they charge. We’re just a little extra protection for these guys at the beginning.”
Alayna shook her head in amazement. “And you guys are going through for a few days and fully expect to bring back another round of freed shifters?”
Kain nodded, an easy grin on his face. “Pretty cool, huh?”
Alayna said nothing. She didn’t know what to think of these people.
“Enough chit-chat. Let’s get this over with.” Griff cracked his neck and swung his arms.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ansel asked gruffly. Griff was his soon-to-be wife’s little brother, and Ansel loved him. He hated it every time Griff put himself through this crap. He finally understood why Griff put himself through it, but still.
“Yes.” There was no hesitation.
“Alright, kiddies.” Milla pulled a small flute out of her pocket and held it to her lips. There were many scientific modifications to it. Alayna knew this was the tool that Matt had invented for opening and closing portals.
A few seconds of blowing through the tool and Alayna gasped as the golden, glowing window into her motherland grew before her eyes. She felt a tug, a biological one, to step through. God, she hated Herta. It summoned the shifter inside her, wanting nothing more than to enslave her.
No. Thanks.
She took a defiant step back even as everyone else but Griff stepped through. He held a hand out, telling her to stay away even as he peered through the window. It was then that she noticed he had a bow and arrow notched to his back.
He pulled it and aimed it in through the window, even as he stood on the Earth side.
All the others were poised and ready in fighting position as well. Alayna nudged forward just a touch in order to see better.
And not five minutes later, sure enough, a band of bone-faced hunters sprinted through the woods toward the shifters. They aimed to kill Valentina and to drag the shifters to the slave markets. Alayna fucking hated these guys.
They’d dogged her every step in Herta for the last eight years. She’d learned many ways of dealing with them.
And apparently so did everyone else. There was the flash of steel, a few quick grunts, the whiz of arrows, the zing of knives and then the forest was still.
“Eight down!” Kain crowed as he surveyed the wreckage. “Hell, yeah!”
Just then a hunter lurched at Kain’s feet and immediately fell backwards with a knife in his throat.
Everyone slowly turned to look at Alayna who stood inside Herta now, through the portal and holding her knife-throwing stance.
“Wow,” Milla said, going around and collecting her arrows. “I knew I liked this chick.”
Alayna shrugged. “You live in Herta, you learn how to live in Herta. Or else you die in Herta.”
“Amen,” Valentina said, sheathing her knives. “Thanks for the assist.”
Alayna couldn’t help but smile at her Hertian sister’s warrior pose. “Knee-jerk reaction to hunters.”
“You’ve had to kill them before?” Griff asked, his voice gruff as he spoke from the other side of the portal. He hated to see her standing there in Herta, as out of reach to him as she’d been for the last eight years. He hated knowing that she’d had to kill to protect herself all while he’d been safe on Earth, unable to get to her.
“Them or me.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Alright. Let’s get this over with. Everybody ready for the fireworks?”
“Are you?” Kain asked. He hated watching this as much as Ansel did.
Griff didn’t answer. He just tossed his bow to one side and stepped through. Alayna held her breath.
At first, he seemed fine. And then, almost instantly, his eyes dilated down to pin pricks, his breath cut off and he fell. First to his hands and knees and then curled on his side. A low, horrifying keen of pain peeled out of him and Alayna was instantly on her knees beside him.
A thin stream of blood started coming out of his nose as tendons stood out on his neck. His forearms bulged and his shirt was already sticking to him through the sweat.
“Get him back through,” Ansel growled to Kain, both of them stepping forward to drag their brother back out, where they knew the pain would barely subside. He’d be in pain for hours and out of it for a few days after that. The man was straight up allergic to Herta. And each time it seemed to get worse.
“Wait.” Alayna held up her hands and stopped them. She couldn’t watch this. Couldn’t be close to it. She couldn’t have watched this happen in a stranger. But this was Griff. It was Griff.
And it all hit her at once.
This was Griff right here in front of her. A grown man version, but still the boy she’d loved, who’d loved her, was inside this man’s heart. She saw the horrible pain on his face and it was exactly like all the pain he’d endured on Herta before. Most of which had been at the hands of her father. She felt a pull inside her to alleviate his pain, to heal him. A pull that she couldn’t stop. And wouldn’t have if she could’ve.
She didn’t think twice before laying her hands on him. Skin to skin. One on his cheek and one on his bulging, twitching bicep. Instantly she felt the insane sear of his pain. The man was not faking. This was pain so acute that she’d never experienced anything like it. This was dying pain. She drew it from him, tossing it into the air and away from them as fast as she could and still there was more. He’d experienced this level of pain before and had come back to Herta? Over and over again, just to try to get to her? He came back to Herta, withstood this pain, knowing this would happen, just to show her?
Just so she’d trust him again. Believe his story.
Alayna took her hands away. She could clear this pain if she tried hard enough, but it would be better if he weren’t in Herta. There would always be more pain if he were in Herta.
“Drag him out,” she whispered.
And Kain and Ansel were immediately on him. They took him clear through the portal and in through the back door of his house, laying him on the rug of his living room. He’d gone limp.
“I’d love to stay, but my girl is currently in Herta, so…” Kain pointed two thumbs out the back door and was gone.
Then it was just Ansel looking down at Alayna as he stood over Griff.
“It’s always like that?” she asked, tears in her eyes.
“Always,” Ansel answered.
“Oh, God. How could I have not believed him? Of course he’d tell me the truth.” She looked up at Ansel. “I’ll take his pain away. I’ll heal him. I promise.”
She was promising him because she could see his love for Griff was written all over him. Ansel nodded and headed out the back way to go help Milla close the gate. So much had changed. So much had changed.
***
The only thing Griff knew was pain. Horrible, grating pain that stripped him clean and turned him into nothing. He couldn’t even sob. Or grimace. All he could do was die.
It was like this every time. He knew he just had to wait it out a few hours and then he’d be able to sleep. His body would heal.
His brow furrowed, eyes still closed, as something
akin to a cool wave of water washed over him. The pain eased. And then there was more of that cool water feeling. One by one, his muscles relaxed. His skin wasn’t just burning magma, threatening to swallow him alive. His eyes, if he tried, he could open. The light was too bright and he squinted again. Not yet.
But little by little, he was coming back into himself. Was he dreaming? The pain had never lessened this quickly before. Minutes passed, with balm being spread over every wound he never even knew he’d had. When his eyes opened this time, he saw the roof of his living room. He felt the rug at his back, and he felt the weight of a woman over his chest.
Alayna.
Seashore, flowers, and fanciness. He’d know that scent anywhere. “Alayna.”
She lifted her head and he saw there were tears in her eyes. He also saw, with a lightning-like jolt, that she was naked. He sat partway up. And so was he. And she was laid out all over him, touching every part of him that she could.
“What the fuck?” he gave his head a shake. “No! Damn it. We aren’t supposed to–”
He tried squirreling out from under her but she held tight and pushed him back to the floor. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay, Alayna, I need you to trust me and you never will now.”
“Griff. I trust you, okay? I just saw everything I need to see.” She sat up and straddled him, holding his palms down with hers. “I understand why you couldn’t come to me. I felt your pain. The amount of it. I’ve never felt pain like that before from someone. And,” she took a deep breath and her dark eyes threatened to overflow with tears. She nodded toward his tattoo. “I understand that you loved me.”
“This is a dream.” He plunked his head flat down on the ground and looked at the ceiling again. “Nothing in my life is this good.” He looked up at her naked body straddling his and he nodded, almost business-like. “Yup. You’re naked and touching me. So, definitely a dream.”
She laughed. “Feels like a dream to me, too. To have you this way.”
“We’re not going to have sex,” he told her point-blank.
“Excuse me?”
“Every time I have sex with you in a dream, I wake up and it’s like I lost you all over again. I’m not putting myself through that again.”
“That’s a shame.” She attempted to hold in her smile. “In that case, let me just take away the rest of your pain and then I’ll go.”
She lowered her head and pressed her mouth to his. Griff grunted immediately. Because the second her lips touched his, he realized that this was real. She was on him and giving and tasting so goddamn good. He could feel the remainder of his pain still leaving his body. The skin to skin was definitely still affecting him. But it wasn’t that he thought of when he swept his tongue into her mouth. No, it wasn’t anything but finally.
Finally.
The kiss spanned out and out. It was slow and heavy and powerful. It was a kiss that blurred the lines between who was who. Between past and present. Both of them thought of those first kisses when they were young. He’d only been there a week before he’d gotten up the courage to lace his fingers in her hair, to lean as close as he’d so badly wanted to. To press his lips to hers for four of the most lovely-nervous seconds of his life. And then, her big, fancy dress billowing behind her, she’d crawled forward, and kissed him back. They’d made out for hours then. Soft and slow, always a hurry to deepen the kiss, but not to move past the kiss. Just like they were doing now.
Her mouth was the softest, hottest, sweetest. He was lost in her and while her lips were on him, he forgot all about the years of pain he’d endured. There wasn’t anything else to think about but her tongue on his, her plush softness. She was doing the thing she used to, where she’d kiss him so openly, so deeply, and then she’d pull back and make them prim little kisses again. And he’d start all over seducing her, gently pressing his tongue through the plush wall of her lips, tasting everything.
When she started to tremble, he understood. He felt like a lightning rod for her emotions at that moment, sensitive to each and every little fluttered breath that left the gorgeous, precious body in his arms. She trembled harder and he knew she needed his weight. And honestly, he needed her under him. He was rolling them, held up on his arms and his hips jutting into hers. They both groaned when the hard rod of his cock kissed her wetness.
He’d had wild plans of drawn-out seduction. Hours of torturing both of them. No stone unturned. But then they got naked and started touching and she was spreading her legs under him and lifting her head just so. He knew how to read a room.
“What do you say we go real fast and then real slow?” he asked her.
“Yeah,” she moaned, pushing down toward him. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
He was anxious, but not so anxious that he didn’t think about her. She hadn’t had sex in eight years either and he couldn’t just slam into her.
He pulled back and slipped his hand between them, instantly replacing his cock. She arched her back when he pressed a thick finger into her. She was insanely wet from their kisses. From the heat and slick of their bodies.
“Yeah. Fuck. Jesus.” He dropped his lips to her neck and sucked. Just sucked on that flavor of hers. Like an absolute maniac. “You remember that last time we were together?”
“Oh, God,” she tossed her head to one side and pressed her breasts against his chest. “Yes.”
“I had your hair wrapped around my fist.” His thumb brushed over her clit and he was very obliged to see that that still made her shiver and press into him. He slipped another finger inside her, preparing her, stretching her.
“You left a bite mark on my collarbone,” she whispered, clamping down on his fingers and spreading her legs even wider.
He shook his head. “No, I had you from behind that time. Over top of you.”
She nodded. “Yeah, but first I was on your lap.”
The memory exploded through him. How could he have ever forgotten that part? “That’s right. You told me you loved me when I made you come on my cock.”
“Yes,” she moaned, her eyes closed and her hips rising off the floor. He curled his fingers in her and her eyes flew open. “Come on, Griff. I need you. I don’t care if it hurts. I need you.”
His cock pressed up against his own hand, pushing his fingers further inside her and making them both gasp. He pulled his hand out and pressed the head in. Shit. She was tight. As tight as she’d been when they’d fucked for the first time. He’d been terrified of hurting her then and he didn’t feel different now.
“Fast and then slow,” he reminded her.
He rolled them. Brought her knees to either side of his hips. His hands traveled up to those heavy breasts of hers and he lost his train of thought. But then her wetness captured the head of his cock and he focused real fast.
“You do it, baby. Show me how much you want me.”
Her eyes heated and flared as she planted her hands on his chest and started working herself down on him. And he was glad he’d switched. Because now he got this view. The view of this perfect, gorgeous, curvy woman over top of him. He’d never imagined she’d turn into this much woman. Her breasts spilled over his big hands and as he lowered his palms to her hips, she was so soft he had to hiss air out of his teeth.
She took an inch and another and then had to stop, breathing hard. He brushed his thumb over her clit and rose up to take one of those perfect nipples into his mouth. She started swiveling her hips and he groaned into her skin as she sank down further and further. When she was seated completely, entirely filled with him, Griff leaned forward more and smashed his forehead to her shoulder. It was almost painful it was so good. And for one quick second, he felt her gift. Felt the way she took any discomfort or pain and dissolved it. He was balls deep in the whitest light, both overmuch and perfect at the same time.
They stayed there, not moving, joined and panting. It had been so long. And yet, it was so familiar. Neither of them could believe ecstatic pleasure like this c
ould possibly exist. Her inner muscles squeezed him and he growled, baring his teeth and leaning forward to take her mouth.
He meant to lay back, to let her ride him. But her tongue was warring with his, taking and punishing, her hands were tangled in his hair and her pussy was just destroying him. He rose up with her in his arms, laid her back on the couch, and sunk into her again.
“Griff,” she groaned, as he rearranged one of her legs over his shoulder, making her take him even deeper.
He was half on the couch and half off. One foot planted on the floor and one knee on the cushions. “You have no idea,” he tried to tell her, but the hot wet heaven he was pressing into made him lose his train of thought again.
He fell forward and took her leg with him, opening her up even more. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you. Oh fuck.”
She squeezed down on him and lifted up to press her teeth into his neck. He rolled them and then he was seated on the couch, her over top of him.
“Of course I know,” she groaned, taking his lips and swiveling on his cock. “You ruined me. I couldn’t even look at another man.”
He didn’t want her to have been lonely, but her words sent up a burst of pride through him. And relief, because he undoubtedly felt the same way about her. He pulled her off of him, turned her around and sat her right back down on his cock.
“Yes,” was the only word for it. Her ass smashed against his stomach, her hair spilling everywhere. He leaned her back to his chest and pivoted his hips right up and into her. She screamed and tightened and a feral smile gripped him. One hand found her clit and one hand found her breasts as he pinned her back and filled her up.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he grunted with each thrust into her hot sheath and he tipped his chin over her shoulder to enjoy the view. All at once, it was way too much. The sight of her taking him in, the scent of her, the slip of her clit under his fingers. He rolled them again until she was flat on her stomach on the couch and he laid his full weight on her. He couldn’t get as deep this way but he didn’t care. Just as long as he could touch her, be close to her.