by Thorne, Elle
Then his hand was on her back, rising, slowly to her nape, shifting her hair away from her neckline.
She felt his lips against the sensitive skin at her hairline.
“And now, your life’s in danger. You’ve risked everything by telling me this.”
She didn’t reply. She couldn’t have. At the very second his lips touched her flesh, her breathing had frozen, her pulse had slowed, sped up, then slowed again. She could feel her heartbeat in her brain. It seemed like a wind tunnel was drowning out the world.
His body was pressed against hers. His muscles were hard, as if crafted from stone, a contrast to the lips that fluttered across her skin, tracing the skin on her neck. She could feel his arousal, pressing on her, a very defined pressure along her derrière.
Releasing her hair, his hands dropped to her hips, and slowly turned her around.
She stared into his eyes. Those eyes of his, dark blue—she’d never noticed before—but now, she saw something else.
“Your eyes.”
He tilted his head. “What?”
“There’s this golden flame—that’s the only way I can think of describing it—in the middle of the blue color.”
“My wolf.”
Now she was confused. “Explain.”
He leaned forward, his lips almost touching hers.
“When my wolf is stronger—more at the forefront—it shows in my eyes.”
She studied them, keeping her gaze locked on his.
He smiled. “Now tell me why your eyes do what they do.”
“You mean during the fight?”
“Exactly, my amazing warrior woman.”
“All Valkyrie are born with two identifying marks. Violet eyes—”
“That turn black when you’re in the middle of conflict,” he finished for her.
“Yeah.”
“And the second?”
She raised her hand and showed him the inside of her wrist where there was a tattoo. It wasn’t much larger than a coin, probably a quarter.
“You’re born with that? The tattoo?”
“It’s a rune. It identifies my sect.”
It was two intersecting circles, one on top of the other. It looked like a figure eight, almost, except rings overlapped. Two vertical parallel lines bisected the circles.
“Sect. Define how that relates to you.”
“Range.”
Chapter Eighteen
Range looked into those violet eyes.
“What?”
“I don’t want to say more. If anyone knew you knew anything…” she breathed out, a heavy breath that made her breasts rise and fall.
And made Range all the more conscious how much he wanted her.
“I shouldn’t say more about my kind. I put you in enough danger already. You could be captured and interrogated, most likely tortured.”
He brushed a gentle kiss across her lips. “Understood. But one day, you’ll let me in. You’ll have faith that I will be fine. I can’t be touched, or taken.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “We’ll see when that day comes, okay?”
He nodded. Because right now, there was nothing he wanted more than to see all of her. Lying next to him. Flesh next to flesh, with nothing between.
Eira grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closer. Her nipples were hard, pressing against his shirt, giving him images of touching, licking, kissing, and all sorts of other things he wanted to do to them. Desire slammed into him with a force of an F5 tornado.
He almost didn’t recognize the groan that came out of his mouth. “Lock the doors. I want you now.”
“I was going to take you up to—”
“Now.” Urgency colored his voice with gruffness that was forged from lust.
Her eyes locked with his. She reached over without looking and fumbled with the key card. He heard a click while he was sliding his hands under the neckline of her peasant blouse, pulling the elastic down her shoulders, leaving her exposed to his fevered gaze.
“Stunning. So stunning. By all that is holy, I want you.” He traced the fabric of her bra, pulling on it, dragging it down closer and closer to the nipple that poked out, a hard bud begging to be touched. The scent of her sex wafted upward, infiltrating his senses, taking control of his lust and pushing it into deeper realms.
Eira pushed closer to him, her body against his shirt while she reached behind her back, and with a deft, practiced move, she flicked the bra loose and shrugged it off.
Two full mounds with dusky pink tips were there for his pleasure. He cupped their fullness, weighing them while his thumbs pressed into her nipples. He traced her dusky points, relishing the way her tips grew harder.
Eira moaned low, her head thrown back slightly.
Lowering his head, Range closed his mouth over a rosy tip. Her groan became louder, driving him to take her by the hips and pull her body firmly to his.
His hardness pressed against her with an insistence he couldn’t deny.
Eira’s hands moved with a ferocity that stunned him as she removed her pants.
While one hand played with her nipple between his thumb and fingers, Range’s other hand dropped down, over her stomach to her hip. He lowered his hand toward the waistband of her panties, tracing and teasing her flesh.
With each passing second, the scent of her desire grew stronger, infusing every nerve in his body with a surge of energy and yearning.
She twisted out of his grasp, and unbuttoned his pants, then pulled at his zipper and eased him out with a speed that fueled his need.
She straddled him, pressing down on his erection, her moist panties the only barrier that kept him from the target he coveted.
The heat of her sex pressed on him, and her eyes were locked on his as she touched her panties where her mound was clearly visible, lips wonderfully outlined.
His wolf howled for her in Range’s head.
“I want you.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her index finger as it traveled the course of her panties, teasing herself.
His finger joined, then replaced hers, skimming the fabric, allowing it to caress her mound, letting it go a little deeper as it pushed against the spot his hardness needed to be buried.
Eira’s body flinched, overcome by desire. She leaned back, her hands behind her, her face the picture of sweet torture.
Range could do this forever, touching her, her body arched, her breasts thrust forward and her nipples, tight, and sexy on her full breasts.
In a split second, Eira removed her panties.
Range feasted on the glorious view before him. Above it, a strip of trimmed red hair shaped into a perfect rectangle beckoned.
Eira adjusted her body, took him by the shoulders, her heat almost touching his hardness, and his pulse raced with a burning need.
He grew harder, his erection straining for her.
In one svelte move, she speared herself on his cock.
Her gasp volleyed through his body in an eruption of adrenaline, testosterone, and an overwhelming emotion he hesitated to name.
He gripped her shoulders and pushed her down. Her gaze darkened as she took him in deeper, her body flexing around him, fitted and slippery, a casing that he was ensconced in flawlessly.
Chapter Nineteen
Eira panted, closing her eyes, caught up in the sensations that touched her nerve center.
She’d been with other men, of course, but with Range…
She couldn’t even concentrate.
“That’s it.” Range’s voice was enough to drive her to a climax.
She rocked her hips, riding him, tilting and angling her body until she was feeling him strike every part of her.
Range raised her, almost completely off his length, and then he dropped her onto his cock, plunging deeply into her, impaling her with one long stroke that ripped her breath away and forced a low moan from her mouth, stretching her, pushing her to new heights.
With a fierce growl, Range pivoted, twisted, and had her
on all fours, his shaft lined up, spearing into her with a primordial growl.
Wave after wave took her to new levels, each one better than the one before.
He placed a kiss at the nape of her neck, his breath warm.
She felt a sense of homecoming she’d never known in all her years as a Valkyrie.
* * *
Range’s lips hovered above hers. “Go with me.”
She studied his eyes, the wolf in his look, the wolf in his soul. “Life could get rough.” She’d tried to hide the emotion that coursed through her voice, but couldn’t.
“It’s never been easy,” Range assured her. “My life’s never been easy.”
He locked his lips to hers, claiming her mouth and her soul.
Chapter Twenty
Somewhere in the wilds of Alaska.
Alaska.
Eira wondered at the cool whiteness. The stark green of the trees against the white backdrop. The ethereal beauty of a land that was as unapproachable as her own kind.
She shivered. She may have been descended from a group that lived in the cold north, but that had been a long, long time ago. Her kind’s blood had thinned over the centuries it seemed.
And still, she found a kinship in this land.
She glanced across the Hummer at the man driving. Range. A shifter. She inwardly shook her head at herself. At her situation.
She’d gone off and fallen for a wolf shifter. She—who’d never so much as met a shifter. She-whose kind was enemies to shifters once, long ago, having been responsible for turning bear shifting northerners into berserkers. And to think she’d not told her sisterhood anything. Not even her full-blood sister Emme.
Forgive me, Freyja. She called to the ancient goddess, once a member of their tribe, a high-ranking priestess and witch, the one who’d cursed the berserkers.
A glimmer of sun broke through the overcast, cloud-laden sky.
I’ll take that as a sign of forgiveness.
And though Eira felt she might have Freyja’s forgiveness for the path she’d chosen, she was unsure where that path would lead.
What would life with Range be like?
Hell, who was Range? What was he? Other than a wolf shifter. It occurred to her she’d given a lot of trust to the shifter.
Then again, it’s not like I can’t handle myself. This was true. She could take care of herself if push came to shove.
“How much farther?”
“Not much. Maybe another hour.”
“Great. So that should be enough time for you to fill me in.”
They’d hardly talked about him, his life, his family. Nothing.
He gave her a glance from the corner of his eye, then turned his attention back to the road. “Fill you in on what?”
“You. Your life. Your brothers. You said we’re going to where you live. With them.” She couldn’t really say anything about him living with his siblings. Hell, she lived with the sisterhood, and with her own sister. Then she thought of something else. “What you do for a living—exactly. What you used to do. Ex-military and all that. What it’s like being a shifter…” She could go on and on with questions.
He exhaled. “I don’t think the rest of the drive is going to be long enough for all that.” He gave her that crooked smile, which she’d come to find ridiculously sexy.
“It’s a start.”
Range nodded. “I’m the eldest of four brothers. We served in the military. We aren’t in it anymore. We live alone—just the four of us—in Alaska, where I’m taking you right now.”
Really? That’s all he was going to give her? That was hardly a long story. It wasn’t even the beginning of a long story. “And…” she prompted.
This earned her another frown, albeit, not a serious one. “And what?”
It was her turn to exhale. “Well, okay. Fine, we’ll break this down, piece by piece.” She propped her feet up on the dash and half-twisted her body to face him. “Why do you and your brothers live together, so far from society?”
“Why do you and your sisters and your roommates live together?”
She slapped her jean-clad thighs with her palms. “Range.”
He gave her a quick glance and a raised brow. “Eira.”
Eira nudged him with her toe. She’d gotten rid of her shoes not long into the drive. “You’re withholding.”
“It’s not easy talking about myself. My brothers. Our life. Our past.”
“Tell me about it. But I did. With you. And you don’t live under the same kind of rules I do. You don’t divulge under the penalty of death. It’s not forbidden under any kind of edict by your people.”
Chapter Twenty-One
A tic had developed in Range’s jaw. He could feel it pulling against his cheek. Luckily, it was on the side that wasn’t facing Eira. He kept his eyes focused on the road, trying to deal with the emotions battling within him.
He’d never been one to talk about his brothers or his life. Or their time with Mae, the military, or the testing even. But she’d opened up to him; she had a point about that.
“You’re right. There’s no group that my brothers and I are a part of that’s threatening to kill us if we divulge any information about ourselves. But…” He took a deep breath. He hated talking about this shit. He’d rather keep his past buried.
She watched him silently, her look telling him she still expected him to push through it and fill her in. And he supposed he owed it to her. He’d brought her into his life. He’d made promises with his lips and his body. And she’d accepted those promises. And above all, she’d shared with him. Told things she’d never shared with anyone else, and sharing those things could get her killed.
He didn’t even know where to begin. Maybe she’d be happy with a brief summary, and perhaps later, he could fill her in, bits and pieces, as time passed.
“My brothers and I live in a remote area because we’d rather not be found. Once, long ago, we served in the military. In a unit composed of shifters only, a special ops unit under Joint Special Operations Command. We signed up together and were scheduled to be released when we were approached and asked to be a part of an experimental study.” Range wished he could have kept the sneer that he knew had come to his face, as it did every time he thought of that decision. “Mae advised us against it—”
She sat up a little straighter. “Who’s Mae?”
“Mae—” He rubbed his jaw, and couldn’t help that his sneer turned to a smile. Every time he thought of her, he smiled. “Mae’s the woman who took me and my brothers in when we were younger.”
Eira raised a brow.
He knew where that expression was going. “We can cover some of the details of our lives later, right? I mean, it’s not like we can tell our entire life stories in one sitting, right?”
She conceded the point with a nod, then waved her hand as if inviting him to keep on telling her his story, adding, “So against Mae’s advice, I’m guessing you…”
He nodded. “Right. We agreed and went into this study. Pretty much a black ops situation. Secret laboratory. No telling anyone anything, we weren’t to know where it was, we couldn’t leave. Testing, blood drawn, injections, blah, blah, blah. A year later, we were gone.” And worst for wear.
But Range wasn’t going to get into that. He wasn’t going to tell her how messed up he and his brothers were when they were set free from their obligation. How the repercussions from that still followed them, affecting their lives, and not for the better.
“And after you were gone?” She pushed her hair away from her face impatiently then swooped it into a loose bun and secured it with a band she retrieved from her back pocket.
“We found that we were being observed. And followed. You see, they wanted to keep studying the effects of the testing, but we were done with it. So, we went off the grid. Bought the property in Alaska under someone else’s name, handled everything through him as far as utilities and such.”
“You really are under the radar.”
He nodded. “Yeah.” What he didn’t add, and my brothers will be livid when I bring an outsider in.
Outsider, that’s what Eira was, whether he wanted to admit it to himself or not. And he’d taken it on himself to decide to incorporate her into the mix. Oh, yeah. Asa’s going to flip. Asa, who had a quick trigger finger before the study, was now even quicker to jump to conclusions and solutions. Though, really, it wasn’t as if all four of them didn’t rise to occasion a little too quickly at times.
He glanced at her and caught her studying him with an odd expression—one he couldn’t pin down. He raised a brow “What?”
“Just wondering what you’re thinking.”
That the shit’s going to hit the fan when my brothers see you. “That we’re pretty close.”
Her expression turned quizzical. “How close?”
He pointed. “That driveway right there.” And he reached for the remote for the daunting gate that would halt all progress halfway down the two-mile driveway.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Eira stared. “This is home?”
Range nodded. “It’s a custom-made bunker complex that adjoins to a subterranean structure. Our own personal command center.”
“What the hell do you guys command?”
He laughed. “We like to be in command of ourselves, I guess.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “This is like something I’d expect to see in a military science fiction movie.”
He shrugged muscular shoulders. “I suppose. The entrance to the subterranean—underground—”
She laughed. “I know what subterranean means, you know.”
Range offered a sheepish smile. “Sorry. So, the subterranean access is down a narrow sloping corridor in the main house, but it’s hidden behind a bookshelf.”
She gave him a wink. “Clever. That’s not cliché, or anything.”
“Hey, don’t knock it until you’ve seen it. It’s some damned fine carpentry and well-hidden.”