Hearts Unleashed: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by C. D. Gorri

  I was his.

  I knew this like I knew my own name.

  He was mine.

  I knew that as well.

  His hands came down to my face to cup it so that he could look at me while propped on his elbows. “Where have you been all my life?”

  “Somewhere I shouldn’t have been.”

  “That is the absolute truth.” He kissed me, the movement of his hips not slowing.

  My hands moved up and down his shoulders, his back, and then to his waist, feeling his muscles as he moved, feeling the welling of my heart.

  Bran kept his eyes on me. It was intense. Even more so than the fact that we were together, having sex. Seeing into his eyes made me feel like he was someone I used to know, and it wouldn’t take long for me to remember him.

  I knew him.

  He was part of me.

  We’d just been apart for a little while.

  His rhythm increased, and his back was slick. The air smelled of us, our coupling, and something spicy and fresh that had to be Bran.

  His hands came over my head, and he reached for my hands, his fingers threading through mine, tightening as he drove into me.

  Harder, faster, my legs wrapping around his ass, not wanting to let him get too far away. Our breath came heavily, mingling as we became one. His lips captured mine, a sort of sloppy, wet, passion-filled kiss.

  “Sweet hell.” His groan tore out of him.

  Something about his voice, the way I could feel it in my bones, made me arch against him even more, and a wonderful heat moved through my body. I felt hot, so hot, and I could feel my face sweat. My hands were tingling, and it felt as though my body was starting to shake. If I couldn’t control it, my legs were going to shake like mad.

  My center felt like it was a clenched fist, waiting to release, and then as Bran continued his loving assault on my body, my head fell back, and I cried out. The clenched fist within my core released, and I thought that I would die of pleasure.

  I mean, I could feel this in my toes.

  My toes.

  Bran was watching me, and his eyes glowed, a sign that his wolf was just below the surface. His fingers gripped mine, and while I didn’t think it was possible, he drove even harder into me. Then his back arched, and he cried out, between a shout and a howl. I felt him pulsing within me, which made me wrap my arms and legs around him, holding him even more tightly.

  Neither of us spoke.

  This was my first time.

  With a man I didn’t love yet, but I knew I would.

  I turned my face toward his chest, overcome. I couldn’t help it, but the tears slid down my face. Trying to be quiet didn’t work with someone who was attuned to you.

  “What’s wrong, Lena?” Bran’s voice was soft.

  There was heartbreak in his words.

  I met his eyes, hoping he could see how happy I was. “I’m happy.”

  “These are happy tears?”

  I nodded, unable to speak. More tears slid down my face.

  His smile could light up a room—a whole lot of rooms.

  “Lena—”

  “I know.”

  I couldn’t move. My entire body felt like after I’d orgasmed, I’d started to sink into the bed.

  I didn’t want to move. I wanted to be here with Bran.

  But my legs were still shaking.

  “I only have one complaint.”

  “What?” My head whipped around, and I stared at him.

  I could find the strength to kick another guy right in the wolfy bits, no matter how good those bits had just made me feel if he kept on like this.

  “You didn’t scream out my name and wake the neighbors.”

  I laughed, partly in relief and partly because he was funny. “What neighbors?”

  “The ones about ten miles away.”

  We both laughed then.

  Bran eased off me and then off the bed. He headed for what I thought was the bathroom. I’d need to visit, but not right now.

  I must have been really tense because the back of my neck was killing me. I rubbed at the spot that felt painful. Nothing was there, and after a moment, the pain faded.

  Bran was back, climbing in next to me quickly. “You want to stay the night?” He slid under the covers and held them up so I could join him.

  I managed to turn to look at him. I couldn’t get enough of how he looked. Zane was dark, and… and… ordinary, although handsome. Bran was on an entirely different level.

  His eyes were bright silver, beaming at me.

  For me, I hoped.

  “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  His arms slid around me, reaching under me and shifting me closer to him. “You are here with me. You can stay here as long as you want.”

  “You’re a Blackwood.”

  He sighed. “I know.”

  “What about your family?” They had to despise the Darkbanes as much as the Darkbanes loathed them.

  “My dad is going to either be pissed or dancing in the streets.”

  “You don’t know?”

  Bran shook his head. “He hates the Darkbanes, and Zane is a particularly snotty piece of shit. Oh.” He looked down. “Sorry.”

  “Your dad is absolutely right.” I couldn’t keep all the anger and hurt from my tone, even though the gods knew I’d tried.

  “You want to tell me what happened?”

  It was my turn to heave a sigh. “No, because I’d rather just wallow in happiness, here with you. But to pretend that there won’t be something said with my leaving—”

  “Or worse.”

  “Surely not. I’m not that important.” I shook my head.

  “Is that what Darkbane told you? Made you feel?” He used one finger, gently, to turn my face to his. “He’s a fucking moron.”

  “He’s mean.” It came to me then. Zane was mean and small, and he did things that made me feel small.

  I knew without a doubt that he’d always been like this—remembering when I’d called him a filthy little toad when I’d first come to live with the Darkbanes—but for some reason, I hadn’t been able to see it for years.

  “What did he do to you?” Bran’s voice came out like ice.

  “For starters, he was sleeping with my best friend.”

  He sighed.

  “You knew.”

  “I knew he wasn’t faithful.”

  I was about to demand to know why he or someone else hadn’t told me, but I remembered he was a Blackwood. And they were the enemy.

  Were the enemy. I wasn’t a Darkbane. I had never been, and now never would be.

  “It wasn’t like it was a big secret, or he tried to hide it.”

  “He hid it from me. They all did.” That hurt. A lot.

  “I wonder why. What else is there about you, Lena Raff?” He peered at me. “Is your dad Marty Raff?”

  I nodded.

  “You don’t look like him. I’ve met your sister, Melanie. You don’t look like her, either.”

  I shrugged. “You must have been really young when you met Melanie. She’s a lot older than I am. Do your brothers look like you? And how old are you?”

  Bran laughed. “I’m twenty-four. So are my brothers. And no, we don’t look alike. We all have different mothers.”

  “What?”

  “My dad was playing the field, to put it nicely.”

  “That’s one way to put it.” I couldn’t keep the scorn from my words. Not after what I’d seen tonight.

  He laughed, not offended at all. “Hey, my brothers are the best, and so are their moms. I don’t have just one mom. I have three, and every one of them would come after me if I were starting shit.” He laughed, his eyes distant with some childhood memory.

  He looked at me once more. “My dad was playing the field, but he did right by all our moms. Not only my mom, Caroline, but Alec’s mom, Andi, and Conan’s mom, Morena, who scares the hell out of all of us to this day.”

  “Why is she so scary?” I found that
his descriptions of his mothers were funny.

  “She’s tall, like Conan, and she has this look. She was the alpha of her pack after her father was killed, and she took down all comers. She still is the alpha of her pack, although they’re aligned with us, and the wolves in her pack will listen to my dad. To Caroline and Andi, too.” He was thoughtful. “It’s like there are four alphas, the three women and my dad. It makes all of them strong.”

  “I didn’t know that.” In all the years I’d been with the Darkbanes, I’d never heard that.

  Of course, I realized practically every second here with Bran that they’d kept me sheltered, away from the knowledge I should have known, considering I was marrying the next alpha.

  “Well, we don’t hide it, but we don’t put up a billboard, either. They’re a team, a force. I think my moms like each other better than my dad sometimes.”

  “What are they going to say about this?”

  “If I’m happy, they’ll be happy. Morena will be plotting. She’s the best plotter, right up there with my dad.” But he didn’t look completely confident when he said it.

  “I’ve heard the Blackwoods are sneaky.”

  “Oh, we are, but that might almost be a compliment if a Darkbane said it.”

  I stared at him, and then we laughed.

  “I’m more like Andi, Alec’s mom. We’re the softies. Alec and my mom, Caro, they’re practical. Like, even when everything is going to shit, they are both all about, ‘Well, let’s get things done.’” His voice changed, imitating either his mom or brother. I wasn’t sure which.

  “So you asked me to dance because you felt sorry for me?”

  “No. I couldn’t stop staring at you. Gavin, my dad’s lieutenant, was hissing at me like a snake, telling me to sit my ass back down. But I couldn’t.”

  “I’m glad.” I kissed him. Gavin must have been the man I heard in the bar, telling someone else to leave me alone.

  “So am I. You’re staying here, with me. You don’t have to go anywhere else. Is there anything we need to get out of your house?”

  A feeling of sadness came over me. No. There wasn’t. Everything I had, all my possessions—they’d all been chosen for me by Sofia or Zane. All my own stuff had gradually been donated or thrown away. I doubted that my dad had kept anything of mine.

  I had nothing.

  “I will get you whatever you want, whatever you need.” Bran’s voice interrupted my thoughts, almost as though he could read my mind.

  “Okay.” I yawned, feeling not just tired but like one of the dead.

  “Before you go to sleep, you know what happened between us, right?”

  I nodded. “This is a mate bond, isn’t it?” I needed to ask, to know, to be sure.

  “I think so. I mean, I’ve never had one before.”

  “It sounds like what Sofia told me about.”

  Bran made a noise that wasn’t flattering, but he didn’t say anything.

  “It’s a good thing that you walked out on the piss ant because it would have had to end.”

  I nodded again. “I know. At least, I think I know. I think Sofia told me the truth. But this is going to cause problems, isn’t it?”

  “For a while. They’ll go away.” He was more confident than he’d been a moment ago.

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “That’s one thing you’ll learn. I’m eternally optimistic, and I’m often right.” He laughed, seeing the expression on my face.

  “Oh, okay.” I rolled my eyes.

  He laughed again and kissed me. It was a deep, searching kiss, one that sought to know me.

  “Let’s try and get some sleep. We’ll start dealing with things tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” I should feel worried and anxious at his words, but instead, I felt better. Comforted.

  We curled into one another, and before I could even begin to puzzle things out, I was asleep.

  I slept deeply. Until the dark blankness of my sleep faded into something else. Something more.

  Something dangerous.

  I was in a room. There were no lights outside of the moonlight streaming in the large open window off to the left.

  A hooded figure stood in the shadows. Just when I thought this was a picture or something, she moved, coming forward into the moonlight. The hood slid back on her head, showing her hair. It might have been brown or red. It wasn’t dark enough for black hair or light enough for blond. Her face was drawn and pale, and she looked as if her world was ending. I could see the tracks of dried tears on both sides of her face.

  As though she could hear my observations, she rubbed hard at her face. She said something, but I couldn’t hear it. She leaned over—a table? I couldn’t tell what it was, but whatever it was, this was the cause of her sadness.

  Then she drew herself up, steeling herself. She walked over to the right and lit a candle on a long table. The candle was purple, and the flames themselves looked purple rather than gold.

  The woman passed something through the flames and the rising smoke of the candle. Her eyes were closed, making me think she was chanting or praying. Then she brought the thing to her heart, her head bent.

  Her pain was another person in the room.

  She turned back toward the window, both hands still clutched at her heart. Her lips were moving without sound. This was a good thing because I felt sure I would be sobbing if I could hear her.

  Just as I made to step closer to the woman, a door slammed open, my eyes flew wide, and my heart started to race. I was back in the room with Bran, the dark room of my dream gone.

  Bran and I both jumped, and Bran was out of bed, crouched and ready to shift, the growl rolling from his mouth.

  “What in the name of fuck have you done?” The roar made the walls shake.

  Chapter Six

  Lena

  “What are you doing here?” Bran roared back.

  No one other than me seemed bothered that Bran was stark naked.

  “I’m trying to find you before someone ends you and mounts your dumb ass hide on their wall.” The tall, dark-haired man with light black curly hair and blazing green eyes didn’t ask for permission as he strode in.

  “No one’s coming after me, Conan.”

  This was Conan, the scary brother. Or was it a scary mother? It was early, and I was fuzzy.

  “You haven’t been out since you two came here, have you?” Conan looked at me then, and his eyes narrowed.

  Judging.

  “No. Why would we?”

  “The Darkbanes are on the warpath. They want their girl back.” His head jerked toward me, even as he didn’t look at me, staying focused on his brother.

  “I’m not going back. And since it’s my life, I think my opinion is the one that matters.”

  “What are you going to do, Lena Darkbane? Aren’t they ‘your everything?’” He didn’t even bother to hide the sneer.

  At the same time, he looked just as good as if he were smiling. Not that I knew what such a thing looked like. Conan Blackwood hadn’t smiled since he’d burst in through the door.

  He was a handsome man, but he was the polar opposite of Bran. Dark where Bran was light, angry where Bran was calm.

  Fierce.

  The word came to me unbidden.

  “She’s going to stay here.” Bran was as stone-faced as his brother.

  “She can’t. This is not worth a war.”

  “We have the mate bond.”

  If I hadn’t been stressed and angry, I would have laughed. Conan’s face was something to see.

  He looked at Bran, and his mouth opened and then closed. Then his gaze flew to me, and his eyes narrowed again. His lips thinned.

  I’d bet his arms were going to cross next.

  Conan crossed his arms and leaned against the dresser. “You sure about this?”

  I was about to nod. It seemed like a reasonable question.

  Bran obviously felt differently. He leapt at his brother with a snarl that tore through the
room. He was at Conan’s throat and said something so quickly that I couldn’t understand. Then Conan replied, and the air around me felt like it was being ripped apart by their snarling.

  I pulled the blankets up closer to my neck.

  Bran had said that they got along, right? I struggled to remember.

  I needed four cups of strong tea and something to eat.

  “There’s no way, man!” Bran shouted.

  “You. Have. To.” Conan struggled with him.

  It looked like they were trying to get each other to the floor.

  Zane had wrestled with his cousins like this. Most male wolves did. The best thing was to wait it out and hope no one got too hurt.

  “I can’t.” Bran stepped away from his brother, his hands at his sides. “I can’t.” He looked at me, and I could feel the love from where he stood. Love. I could feel his love shining through all the mess of this morning like a beacon.

  I needed to explain. Things didn’t need to be this way. I didn’t want Bran fighting with his brother. I didn’t want anyone fighting over me. “They really don’t want me,” I started off.

  “Oh, they most definitely do. It’s not official yet, but they aren’t going to let you just waltz off without a word. And did you steal Zane Darkbane’s favorite bike?” One eyebrow went up on Conan’s face.

  “After she kicked him right in the nuts.” Bran laughed.

  “Really?” Something that might have been respect showed in Conan’s expression for a moment. Only for a moment, and then it was gone.

  “He earned it.” It was my turn to cross my arms.

  Conan took a step toward me, looking at me intently.

  It made me nervous.

  Bran stepped in front of his brother. “Back up.”

  “I was going to ask why they wanted you back so bad. Sofia Darkbane is crying all over the place to anyone that will listen, privately and behind the scenes, of course, that she wants her daughter home so that they can have the wedding they’ve been planning. The tears even look real.” This last bit was added.

  “I can see that.” Sofia was the most amazingly, terrifyingly practical woman I’d ever met. She wasn’t given to emotional anything, her explanation on mate bonds notwithstanding.