by Reina Torres
“What I’m going to do to you,” Valerio barely managed to heave each breath through his lungs, “no doctor will be able to fix.”
“Wait, please! Wait-”
Lance’s words turned into incoherent babble as Valerio shifted before him. Human rage melted into animal bloodlust and bared teeth turned into snapping jaws.
Instead of choking Lance, Valerio’s bear ripped out his throat, leaving it a mess with blood spurting from ruined veins. Heavy paws lifted and fell, crushing through ribs, puncturing a lung, robbing Lance of what oxygen he had left.
As his head lolled to the side, his cheek falling to the cold concrete at an unnatural angle, the last thing Lance ever saw was Allegra, her face alight with love as she wrapped her arms around the neck of a bear.
Chapter Sixteen
The Police Chief himself gave the order to break the locks on the old entrance doors to the subway station and directed the officers to hold back the press and curious onlookers as the Orsino Security SUV backed down into the pitch-dark passage. From there, their own security men took over.
Salvatore slid from the driver’s seat and picked up a bag from the back of the vehicle. Each of the brothers kept a bag in the back of all the company cars, changes of clothing, towels, cleansers. Just enough to make them passable on the street if they had to shift.
By the time Valerio carried Allegra to the main landing of the old subway station, he smiled at the sight before him. Leaning closer to Allegra he gently whispered into her ear. “Salvatore is here. He’s going to take us back home.”
She lifted her head from his shoulder. “The concert-”
“Has been postponed.” Valerio placed a kiss on her forehead.
“Essa sends his love and wants you to rest.” Salvatore’s normally gruff voice was carefully schooled, taking on a lighter tone. “I can set her in the car.”
Valerio felt Allegra tense in his arms.
“Sure,” she managed to keep her tone even, but he felt the tremor that shot through her body, “I can go with Salvatore if you have something to do.”
Valerio answered for himself, turning slightly to nuzzle his cheek against hers. “I’m not letting her go. Not until we’re home and safe.”
He felt Allegra’s shock and then he felt the way she relaxed against him, her arms tightening around his neck, pressing her closer to his chest. His bear agreed that this was much better than the alternative. Even his bear knew that Salvatore was family, but they’d come so close to losing her, that neither of them could part from her. Not for a moment. Not yet.
Salvatore set the bag back in the back of the car and shut the door. “I’ll stay here. We’ll handle the cleanup.”
Valerio moved to the side of the car and one of their security officers opened the door for him, a blanket draped over his arm. It was a thoughtful gesture for their mate and Valerio nodded at the man before turning his attention back to Salvatore. “Can you call Natale and ask her-”
“She’s taken care of everything. Allegra’s clothes are laid out, fresh towels and linens. Food when you’re hungry.”
Allegra’s tears trailed down the side of his neck and he held her closer. He could only nod to his brother before stepping into the car, his mate cuddled against him.
Allegra lifted her head when they entered the penthouse, listening to the room and finding it empty, her expression pinched into a confused frown.
Valerio knew what she was thinking. “Natale’s asleep. She took care of everything but knew that we’d need some time.”
Nodding, she leaned against him and sighed, feeling the tension draining from her shoulders. “I love your family, but yes, time alone… at least until tomorrow… sounds like heaven.”
“Our family loves you right back, Allegra. Remember that.” He only held her closer, not too tight, but securely against him.
She barely moved when he set her down on the bench inside the shower, leaning back against the cool tile and enjoyed the slight scratch of the sandy texture against the back of her dress. “I can’t imagine what would have happened to me today if I hadn’t met you.”
A soft series of beeps sounded as Valerio set the controls for the shower and she heard the soft hiss of a showerhead and listened to it run. A slight hum reached her ears and then another beep told her that he’d set the temperature for her. A soft smile touched her lips. “If you want to shower first, go ahead and make it hotter. I promise I won’t peek.”
There was a silence and then a soft chuckle. “You are so very brave, Allegra. You humble me.”
And his words, she decided, made her weak in the most delicious of ways.
“I want to bathe you, Allegra,” his words sounded more like a confession. “I need to touch you and know that you’re safe… whole… alive.”
The subtle, humid heat from the water made the air heavy, misting her skin with moisture. Sighing, she gave him a smile, realizing that he needed her just as much as she needed him.
“I want you to touch me, Valerio. I need you to wash away his touch.” She swallowed at the feelings that her own words brought back. “I need to feel alive under your hands… whole with you inside me… and alive and loved in your arms.”
She felt his hands on her face and leaned into him as he pressed his lips against hers and then slanted them over hers as his tongue sought entrance into her mouth. She welcomed him with a gasp, drinking in his heated breath, taking the air from his lungs.
As his tongue tangled with hers she lifted her hands to mirror his gentle hold, feeling the scratch of beard against her palms. The friction sent soft jolts of lightning through her body, making her skin tingle, the tips of her breasts tighten against the damp layer of her clothing.
She leaned into the kiss and his fingers traced the column of her neck, careful of the tender skin where she’d felt the painful squeeze of Lance’s hands less than an hour before. The thought only crossed her mind for a moment, because when the tips of his fingers feathered over her mark, a keening cry burst from her lips as the faint echo of an orgasm arced through her body pooling liquid heat between her legs.
Her hands reached out and grabbed onto his shoulders for support.
“More,” she demanded, “I need you against my skin.”
His hands grasped the neckline of her dress and a moment later she offered up a silent prayer of thanks that the fabric gave under the needy pressure of his hands. Peeling her top from her shoulders to her elbows, he reached his arms around her, leaning her forward from the wall into his open embrace as he opened the back of her bra and brought it down her arms to settled against the fabric of her dress.
She felt his hesitation and smiled. “I can stand.” And instead of waiting for him to argue, she shifted her position on the bench and stood. She might have shocked him, but he recovered well, peeling her dress down to her waist where his thumbs hooked into the elastic waistband of her panties and drew the rest of her clothes down to her feet.
Before she could sit back down, she felt his hands on her hips and wondered again how he could make her feel so loved and desired, and that was before she felt the reverent kiss he placed on her belly.
“I want a family with you, Allegra. How truly beautiful our children will be with your heart and your beauty.”
She blushed at the compliment and sought to reassure him as well. “How brave they will be because of you.”
She moaned as she felt his tongue sweep over her skin, licking the moisture from her skin.
“If they have your courage, Allegra, then they will truly be gifted.” She felt him tremble through his hands on her skin. “I have never known such terror,” he laid himself bare before her, “I could only see one outcome of the moment. I needed you back in my arms. And if I had to kill hundreds of men to save you, then I would have done it.” He shook his head and she felt the soft brush of his hair against her belly. “I was not brave,” the words stumbled across his tongue, “I was desperate to save your life, for you hold mine in
your hands, Allegra. Without you, I would be empty.”
She lifted her hand and set it on the top of his head and then comb it through his hair until she cupped his cheek in her palm. “The same would have been true for me, Valerio.” She couldn’t stop the hitch in her voice. “Take me to bed, my love… my mate. Fill me until we’re sure, so delightfully sure, that we’ve begun both our lives together and our new family.”
He stood and easily lifted her against him as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He wanted to wait until they’d reached the bed, but she’d pulled her lower lip in between her teeth and angled her hips against him, touching her full curve of her luscious backside against the sensitive tip of his erection.
“Love you,” the words growled from his lips. He shifted her slightly and lowered her over his thick length until he felt her body swallow the tip of him and ripple against him, “need you.”
“Then have me, Valerio,” she rolled her hips and took him deeper in her body. “Now.”
He kissed her, not just as a distraction, but because he needed to taste her and have his tongue stroke hers until his body could take over.
He laid her out beneath him, cushioned by the comforter that had been left on the bed. Valerio shifted his hold on her, cupping the rounded swell of her behind in both hands he held her in place as he began the long slide into her tight body. The single stroke only ended when he felt himself fully seated in his mate.
The bear roared his satisfaction as Valerio held still inside of her. Her body welcomed his, wet and tight around his thickness. He felt her wiggle a little, and the grip of her walls eased enough to let him pull back. He felt her close around him, holding tight to the tip of his cock as if she was afraid he’d pull all the way out of her.
“Easy, my love,” he groaned and slide back into her tight sheath, “I’m not leaving you.”
She shook her head from one side to the other. “I’m not leaving again,” she groaned and he felt a ripple of sensation along his erection. “Faster, Valerio, harder. Don’t hold back.”
He heard the need in her voice and felt the same hunger for her. She’d given herself into his care and taken his own love into her heart for safekeeping. There was nothing that he would ever deny her, not when she brought him such joy.
He leaned over her, thrust into her, and as their hands caressed each other, they wrought such infinite pleasure from each other’s bodies that when they collapsed, boneless into each other’s arms, they didn’t need a single word to speak, all they had to do was touch.
Sneak Peak of Book 3
Their UnBearable Destiny
By: Reina Torres
He’d only been back in his hometown for less than an hour when Uberto had his first revelation. The cobblestone streets of Santa Biago were hell on his shoes. New York streets were bad, but this was going to take some getting used to.
Ten years felt like a lifetime
And somethings felt like he’d only made a quick trip outside of the town and turned right back around a few minutes ago. The market at the end of the street looked like it always did. The stalls out in front had a fresh coat of paint on them. And Mrs. Mancini was standing beside the door, her broom in her hands as she swept at the invisible specks of dust off of her front step.
She looked up and smiled at him as if she did it every morning.
He returned the grin because Mrs. Mancini had always been a sweet lady. On the worst day of his life, she’d taken him in, sat him down on a chair beside her counter and gave him a soda. She let him sit there staring at the open mouth of the bottle for hours before he finally drained the thing in one long gulp, stood up, and walked home.
Wasn’t that exactly what he was doing here? Walking home. There were a few people standing outside the butcher and the conversation stopped as he walked by. He gave them all a nod and kept walking. To be honest, it was a better reaction than he had expected since he hadn’t told anyone that he was coming.
Probably because when he called to say that he was coming back, he was told to stay away or he’d find his family jewels in a box. He should have stayed back in New York for that alone, because he was kind of attached to his family jewels, even though they were particularly blue. Bluer than the Hope Diamond, but that was a problem for another time.
What he had to deal with would keep him busy enough while he was here. He’d worry about the other problem after he got home.
A window shot up down the street and an older man looked out, leaning on the window frame. “Uberto!”
He stopped and lifted his hand up in a greeting. Mr. Cassini had taught him as a child.
“What are you doing back? Tired of the big city?”
Uberto opened his mouth to reply and found himself silent and rooted to the spot. At the end of the street, a big red door opened up into the house. He didn’t have to ask himself who it was behind the door. He knew exactly who it was.
But he didn’t expect her to look… like that.
The woman who stepped out into the warm midday sun wore red heels, with little bows at the top of the back, drawing his gaze to her ankles and then her calves, and by the time his eyes met the flirty box-pleats just south of her knees, he was shaking.
By the time he got around the sweet curves of her thighs he was ready to fall on his knees and beg her for another chance. That’s exactly why he didn’t move.
He was far enough away from her that he’d have a few moments to enjoy the view before she sank fangs into his throat and tried to kill him.
Emiliana turned around on those gorgeous heels and nailed him with a look. A look that said she knew exactly what he’d been thinking and the smile on her face said, she was ready for a fight.
When she started to move it wasn’t a run, it wasn’t even a fast walk. Instead, the woman who’d made every night that they’d been apart a nightmare, walked toward him like a model on a catwalk. Her heels, the flirty skirt, and the deep V of her blouse that gave him a view that was even better than his dreams.
And her face. There was no one in the world who could make hate look so good.
Really, Emiliana Bruno should have been a snake shifter. She knew how to pin a man to the spot with those eyes and while he was standing there dreaming of her naked and writhing in the sheets, she could get close enough to rip out your throat.
He just hoped that he’d get to kiss her first.
“Hello, Emiliana.”
“Hello?” Her voice dripped with venom and he couldn’t help the smile that twisted at his lips. “You’re American now?”
“I’m the same man that I was the last time we… saw each other.”
Damn if she didn’t look disappointed. “Well, it was to be expected.”
“Expected.” What he wouldn’t give to turn her over his knee.
“And don’t you look at me that way, Uberto.”
Oh, he heard a hint of fire in her tone. He’d rather that than the frostbite he’d had a moment before. Holding up his hands in surrender he let out a pent-up breath. “Ana, I-”
“Don’t you call me that, ‘Berto!” She was suddenly close enough to breath in and hot enough to melt him into a little puddle. Her hands were fisted in his shirt and the top button had come undone and still they weren’t close enough. Not nearly close enough.
His bear raged at him, clawed at him from the inside until he felt raw and bleeding. One look into her midnight-dark eyes said she felt the same thing. Their bears had more sense than they did, but he wasn’t going to say that to her. He liked having his body in one piece.
“We can’t keep going like this,” he told her, his whole body was begging him to pull her closer, tell her everything was going to be okay, that he’d fix everything for her, but telling her that was going to put them on opposite sides again.
“Going?” She huffed. “You were gone!”
Gone. On opposite sides of the world, okay, but while he was in Santa Biago, he wanted to be able to see her and not end up fighting. At lea
st not like this. If she wanted to fight, they could go into the woods and shed their skin, wrestle until one of them had their teeth dug into the other’s neck. And then sink other things into the other until they were too weak to fight.
Or he’d love to take her dancing. He’d learned a lot of things since he’d left Italy. Seen a lot of things too.
Like his brothers finding their mates. Finding love.
It was a hard thing to admit, even to himself, but the last time he’d seen Emiliana-
“Go back to America, ‘Berto.” She hissed out the words.
Shaking his head, he looked over her beautiful face. “At least you didn’t use your claws on me.”
Her smile was real. A flash of sweet recognition and base pleasure in her eyes. “You remember that too?”
He did. He remembered it all too well.
She’d stalked him through the woods, bear hunting bear. He’d scented her power and her passion and it made him slow, just a hair too slow.
Emiliana Bruno, the middle child of Alfonse Bruno, the fiercest shifter he’d ever met, had taken him down at the knees, driven him into grassy floor of the forest and wrapped her fangs around his neck.
They’d tumbled and twisted, finally coming to rest under a tree, fur receding into their skin, leaving skin slick with sweat, the scent of arousal hanging heavy in the air.
Her mouth was still on his neck, her hands wrapped around his torso. He’d turned the tables on her in a heartbeat, twisting around to cage her luscious body in his embrace. He’d pressed her into the grass, his hands moving over her body. Her breasts molded into his hands, her hips pushed back against his. It didn’t take long before he’d slid into her body, her slick heat welcoming his thick intrusion.
From there it was all instinct and hormones, nature’s pull and the need that rushed through them both.
Her fingers bit into the ground as her teeth had taken hold of his neck. He felt the sting and prick of his wounds as his sweat made him itch.