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

by C. D. Gorri

  He pulls me to him, his hand moving through my hair and holding the back of my neck, drawing my mouth to his.

  My heart pounds in my chest. I know him. I have always known him. We are finally together and there is nothing I want more than to be here with him in this place.

  Jason.

  His name is like a song in my mind. I hum it and let it fill me. I want him to take up every space inside me. My eyes, my mind, my soul.

  His tongue moves with mine, a director with all the moves. He coaxes me to open my mouth wider, to offer my tongue to him.

  Flames course through my body and lick at my skin. My entire body aches for his hands, his mouth, him.

  My clothes slip off of me like bedsheets. I watch them float away as if on a breeze. When I look back at Jason, he is naked, and his cock is huge and hard. He’s ready for me, and the sight of him sends a rush of heat between my legs that makes me gasp.

  He wraps his arm around me and brings me to him. When I am in his arms he lifts my legs, over his hips, spreading me wide and urging me ever closer.

  I found you.

  His words move through my mind, mingling with my thoughts and making me feel safe.

  He presses his cock against my entrance, slowly, tentatively, waiting.

  It’s you.

  Jason thrusts inside me once and it’s like the world explodes around us. His mouth falls open and his head falls back as he lets the passion take him

  The stars are gone, and there’s only light. The darkness doesn’t exist—did it ever exist? We are floating and we are one and we are together and that’s all there is.

  We move together like we’ve done this a thousand times before. The feel of him inside me is familiar and at the same time it’s new and exciting and complete.

  Jason takes my breast in his mouth, sucking and kissing and biting gently. The sensation courses through me like a thousand tiny shocks. Then he kisses the hollow at my throat and pulls back, holding my gaze with his.

  It’s you. It’s always been you. It’s only you.

  He grabs me by my hips, his fingers pressing into my flesh. He takes control of our rhythm, rocking me up and down his length, filling me and pulling away. I know he pulls away so he can return but even the slightest distance is a deprivation that I can’t stand. I ache for him even though he’s right here and I want more. I need more.

  “More!” I whisper. The word is desperate and needy. I call out to him, my voice drowned out by all the light. So much light.

  Our bodies read each other. We are so close. Almost there. The reward for all this is almost within reach. Jason holds me as I ride him, his face buried in my neck, his mouth sucking and licking as we climb that magnificent peak.

  Every muscle in my body quivers. I pull him to me, spreading myself as wide as I can, ramming myself onto him so I can take all of him in. He fills me to the hilt, stretching me with delicious pain until we buck and writhe and lose control, our mouths searching and our hands clutching and my legs wrapped around him as we continue floating on the bliss of absolute satisfaction.

  I’m home. This is home. He is home.

  “Jason!”

  I gasp as I wake and blink myself back into the room. I look around and stare at Jason on the couch across the way. He is still unconscious, oblivious to his surroundings. Oblivious to me.

  I touch my lips. I can still feel his kiss. I run my finger down my neck where he sucked and licked. My heart is racing and my breathing is shallow from the exertion.

  Wow. Okay then. That was something new. I lay back on my pillow and try to process that little dream. I wonder how accurate my imagination was because holy giant cock. I laugh to myself. A girl can dream, right?

  A green beam of light moves across the ceiling, catching my eye. I follow it, trying to comprehend what it is I am seeing. It’s familiar. I’ve seen this before. That’s right, it’s like one of those new tech cameras with the flashlights that are invisible to infrared and laser security. I’ve never seen it in person, I’ve only ever watched if through a computer screen.

  I bolt upright as the realization finishes rendering in my brain.

  Oh shit!

  Two of the window panels explode into the apartment, sending millions of broken glass shards raining through the room. Four men fly into the apartment from outside on black ropes attached to harnesses around their hips. From the angle of their landing, it appears they must have dropped in from the roof.

  Max and Noah are on their feet almost instantly. They stand up and face the danger, hunched over and ready in a fighting stance. They are both barefoot and all I can think about is that they shouldn’t move, or they will tear their feet apart.

  The black clad men are all holding automatic weapons. They separate and move apart, as they step closer, so they are two targets instead of one. Noah moves across the room next to Jason and in the blink of an eye they transform into a pair of enormous black wolves. They stand guard on either side of their brother, stepping around the sofa so they can keep themselves between the intruders and Jason.

  But the men ignore them. They glance at each other and nod in agreement and then all four of their guns are trained on me.

  I throw my hands up in the air as best I can with the fucking zip ties holding my wrists together. I hoped it wouldn’t happen. I hoped there was some way that he wouldn’t find my marker and I could just disappear. But I know that was a fantasy. There’s nothing I can do with these fucking ties on my wrists and ankles, so I don’t fight. What’s the point?

  The best-case scenario is I go back to working for Malovich, but I’ve never seen him give anyone who crosses him a pass. The more realistic scenario is that Malovich is going to kill me. And I’m kind of surprised at how calm I feel knowing that it’s coming. But I know he wouldn’t send a hit team to blow my head off in the field. Not a chance in hell I’d get off that easy. No, this is a capture mission. They’re going to bring me back and make sure that I learn my lesson before I die.

  I take one last look at Jason, wishing he would open his eyes and give me just one more glimpse of whatever that magic was. I want to remember it. I want to remember him. If I’m going to die, I would love to slip away into outer space and be somewhere else when it happens.

  In a matter of seconds, one of the men grabs me, pulling me to my feet. He wraps his arms around me while the other man backs away toward the window. Then the black ropes the men are connected to snap taut, and the man holding me is dragged toward the window.

  The wolves growl and one of them—I think it’s Max, but I can’t tell because they look identical—leaps across the living room toward me as I am being dragged backward in the man’s arms. The other wolf charges at the men near the window.

  Brilliant golden eyes fill my vision as the wolf leaps at me. All I see are white teeth and black fur and flashes of glowing gold. Automatic rifle fire explodes in the air and the room is suddenly filled with the acrid scent of gunpowder and heated metal

  The wolf crashes into me, knocking me from the man’s grasp. Then there’s a scream and a burst of something warm and wet hits my back like a bucket of hot water. When I turn around, the attackers are gone. There’s a severed arm wearing black tactical gear sitting on the floor, but the person it belongs to and the other three with him are nowhere to be found.

  “What the fuck just happened?” I stare at the severed arm and feel like my blood sugar is just dropped through the floor and into the basement.

  Max morphs back into his human form and as soon as he’s on his feet he’s shouting. “We have to go!” He stands in the middle of the room, totally naked, and then as I watch, clothing morphs out of thin air and he’s dressed in the sweatpants and tee shirt he changed into after dinner.

  Red footprints mark the path Noah took as he ran into the bedroom. He streaked by in a flash of naked skin. Was he bleeding?

  Noah runs back into the living room with three enormous packs slung over his shoulders. He’s dressed in jeans a
nd a tee shirt. His boots are unlaced. He tosses a pair of black motorcycle boots to Max and then he comes for me.

  “We’re out of here, Chicken.” He leans over and grabs me around my thighs and bends me over his shoulder with the packs.

  Max heaves Jason over his shoulder and the two of them hurry through the apartment into a bedroom. They step into a closet and Noah reaches up and slides the fluorescent light housing to the side, revealing a handprint scanner embedded overhead. He presses his hand to the pad and the back wall of the closet slides open, revealing a tiny square room with a spiral staircase leading down.

  Max goes first. He has to turn sideways to maneuver in the narrow staircase with Jason on his back, but he moves like he’s done this a million times and it’s just a bit of an adjustment with a giant on his back.

  The door behind us slides shut and Noah starts heading down. The apartment was on the third floor of the building, but we’re descending so much longer than it seems we should be. There are no windows in this space. It’s like it was carved between the walls just for the purposes of escaping.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Max holds the heavy metal door open for Noah. He steps through and into a dark, dank underground. A single light flickers on overhead as Noah places me on my feet. We’re in a tunnel. It ends at the door and stretches out in the distance so far that I can’t tell if the opening is within sight.

  I glance down at my shirt and realize I am covered in fresh, wet blood. I gasp and try to feel around but the stupid zip ties are impossible.

  “I think it’s mine.” Noah gets down on his knees and does a quick check of my body. He runs a gentle hand over my belly and around my back and then up and down my legs and arms. “No holes, Chicken.” He smiles and stands back up, wincing and bending to favor one side.

  “Wait, are you hurt?” I say, as if there was something I could do for him.

  He lifts his shirt and runs a hand along his side under his ribcage. There’s a thick gouge taken out of him, from a bullet that looks like it came pretty damned close to some serious damage.

  He inhales sharply as he inspects the wound, and then he smiles again. “Flesh wound. I’ll be all right.”

  “Give me a hand here,” Max calls from the SUV where he’s got Jason sitting in the back seat and he’s trying to buckle him in.

  Noah climbs in the other side and buckles Jason’s belt and then climbs out and lifts me into the seat. He secures my seatbelt and then tosses the three packs he was carrying into the back.

  Max gets behind the wheel and turns the key and the engine roars to life.

  He glances back at me and then shakes his head. “Fucking hell.”

  Then he floors it and we’re racing through the tunnel and into the darkness.

  Chapter Seven

  NOAH

  The wound in my side is superficial, and by the time we get to the cabin, it’s stopped bleeding. One of the biggest pains about living in this realm is that the healing properties of the wolf move a lot slower. But I am not going to die, so that’s good. And our little Chicken isn’t hurt either.

  Little Chicken. I think the name is perfect for Dana. Partly because it’s so funny, and partly because little emu doesn’t have the same feel, but mostly because every time I say it the toughness leaves her face and all that’s left is this confused look that I find adorable.

  It’s almost dawn when Max turns off the two-lane onto the unmarked road to the cabin. We haven’t had to come here in so long, it’s weird to see it looking so overgrown and unused.

  The cabin comes into view and it’s oddly comforting. Of all the places we’ve lived over the years, this one is my favorite.

  Max drives past the cabin and into the woods behind it, following the old trail. A fallen tree blocks us from getting all the way there, but it’s not far so we’ll just have to hoof it.

  “Leave the packs. Get her inside as fast as you can. They are probably still tracking her.” Max opens the door and climbs in to undo Jason’s seatbelt.

  Poor Jase slumps over and falls onto Max. He shifts so Jase basically lands on his shoulders in the perfect position, and then he starts walking.

  I hurry around the other side of the van and unbuckle her seatbelt. Lifting her out of the truck. “You ready, chi—?"

  She shoots me an eyebrow and lifts her wrists so she can point at my face. “If you call me Chicken one more time, I am going to have to hurt you.”

  I shrug. “Little Emu?”

  “Don’t you dare.”

  “Fine. Have it your way. You ready, Dana?”

  She smiles. “Am I getting on your back or are we going for the distressed damsel’s carry?”

  I feel bad because it can’t be comfortable being tossed around and manhandled like she has been, but whatever Max says goes, and until he decides she can have her cuffs removed, there is nothing I can do.

  “Well, I need to run, and there’s a bit of a climb, so…” I lean in toward her, lowering myself so she can get on.

  “I can’t believe I am actually having this conversation.” She lays over my back and shifts a little until her hip is on my shoulder.

  As soon as I start running, a funny thought hits me and I can’t help it. I have to tell her.

  It’s nice to talk to someone who isn’t always angry, always planning, always frustrated and stressed out. Since Jason was kidnapped, it’s been even worse. I love both my brothers. I’d die for them without a second thought.

  But sometimes, I just want to forget about the end of the world stuff for a few minutes. And Dana is that opportunity.

  Even now, when we’re on the run for our lives. When she’s definitely on the run for hers.

  “Hey, Dana?”

  “Noah.” Her tone tells me she is out of patience.

  I start giggling even before I say it. “Why did the chicken cross the road, Dana?”

  She is quiet for a beat. “Dear god. Please tell me this is going to be over soon.”

  Chapter Eight

  DANA

  When we drove past the cabin, I assumed we would end up in another cabin, something smaller and more rustic hidden deeper into the woods. I don’t know what I was expecting, exactly, but it wasn’t a cave.

  As soon as he puts me down, Noah starts gathering wood from a neat stack filling one section of the wall and arranging them in the center of a stone ring. He stuffs some dried grass between the logs and then layers some smaller twigs all around. When he lights it, the whole thing catches immediately, filling the cavernous space with golden light and glorious heat.

  Max arrives a few minutes later with Jason. Noah hurries over to take Jason from him and brings his still-unconscious brother over to the fire. He places him gently down on the ground next to me and then heads back to the cave opening.

  He touches Max’s shoulder. “I’ll get the packs.”

  Max nods and then moves past me, to a pile of boulders. He moves the first couple of stones aside and then reaches his hand into the space between two larger rocks. He pulls out a shiny black stone.

  He comes back to the fire and sits down with the round stone in his lap. It’s almost perfectly round, and there is a small triangle cut into the center.

  “That looks like a magic eight ball,” I say, because it does. The triangle looks like it was chipped from the surface and the rest of it has been polished so it’s perfectly shiny.

  “Is everything a fucking joke to you?” His scowl is back.

  “Is everything always so fucking serious to you?” I scowl back at him.

  He shakes his head and pulls a necklace from under his shirt. The chain is long enough so the medallion hangs down in the middle of his chest. The medallion is a black triangle that looks like it is made of the same stone he’s holding in his lap. He positions the black stone so the triangle cutout is at the top and then he places the medallion in the slot.

  Max closes his eyes and holds his hands out at his sides, palms up. “Acora golantu singitus.”


  Pale blue light shoots out from the triangle and beams straight up to the ceiling of the cave. Hundreds of bats squeal at the disturbance and explode from the back of the cave. They stream out the opening in into the morning light.

  The light fans out and spreads over the cave like a scanner. It keeps moving until it does a full sweep and then the light goes out. Max lifts the medallion from the orb and puts it back over his neck.

  “What was that?” I ask. I’ve seen lots of different kinds of magic in my time, but nothing like that. That was like Merlin-level shit like you read about in fantasy books.

  “That was a protection spell. Whatever they are using to track you won’t find you now.”

  “I saw you evicted the bats.” Noah arrives with the packs and tosses one to Max. Max unclips the buckles and opens the drawstring and pulls out a heavy wool sweater which he tosses to me.

  “Put it on.” A command, not a request.

  I push it off my lap and let it fall next to me. “I’m fine by the fire,” I say.

  He pulls another sweater from the pack and pulls it over his own head. “Don’t be so fucking difficult. The fire feels warm now, but the stone you’re sitting on is cold, and it’s going to stay cold. You need to keep your body heat.”

  I glance over at Noah who is zipping a parka onto Jason. He nods at me. “You’ll be glad you did.”

  I lift my cuffed hands. “You going to take these off? Or should I just drape it over my shoulders?”

  Max grumbles and digs in his pack. He pulls out a knife and leans over and cuts my wrists free. He doesn’t even glance at my ankles.

  “So, who the hell are you?” Another command.

  I rub my wrists, careful not to brush the gauze dressing Noah had done for me. “I told you everything already.”

  He shakes his head. “No dice. Malovich sent a fucking commando team to come get you. I thought they wanted Jase, but no. It was you they were after. So… who the hell are you and how did he track you to our place?”