by Sam Crescent
She wrapped her arms around his neck and offered him a smile. “You’re not mad?”
“What could I possibly be mad about?” He gripped the back of her neck, holding her close. “We’re going to start a family.”
He claimed her lips. Both of his hands moved down to cup her ass. There was no full moon tonight, but she didn’t need it to ride this high that was already consuming her. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she felt the hardness of his cock and wanted more.
“Fuck, babe. I need you.”
“I’m not complaining.” They were deep enough into the forest that there was no risk of them getting caught. All they needed was privacy, and they had it.
He pulled at her skirt, tearing her panties from her body. She reached down, grabbing his belt, tugging them open. She had to feel him against her. She was hungry for him, for all of him.
She gripped his cock the instant she got his pants open. The tip was already slick with pre-cum. Up and down, she worked his length.
He pushed her hand out of the way, and within seconds, he was at her entrance. Poised against the tree, he lowered her onto his cock. Inch by inch, he took her body, and she relished it.
“Yes,” she said.
“You’re going to want for nothing, Jenny. You’re all mine. Every single part of you.”
“Fuck me, Liam.”
He didn’t need to make her his. In her mind, body, and soul, she belonged to this man. In fact, she knew without a doubt that she was completely and absolutely in love with him.
He stroked her cheek as he fucked her hard.
The bark dug into her ass, but she didn’t care about the slight hit of pain. All she wanted was to feel him.
“Touch your pussy.”
She reached between them, stroking her clit. At the first touch, they both groaned, but he wasn’t done with her yet. Nor was she done with him. He continued to fuck her, driving in and out of her at a speed that took her breath away, but she didn’t want it to stop.
Teasing her clit, she felt the start of her orgasm building. She didn’t prolong it. There was no reason to. As he filled her, driving inside her over and over, she came, his name spilling from her lips.
Liam didn’t last long either. He joined her, spilling his seed inside her.
Resting her face against his neck, she laughed. “That was so good.” She flicked her tongue across his pulse. “So, so good.”
“I could get used to being inside your cunt all day and night.”
“That’s tempting.” She lifted up, cupping his face. “You’re really happy?”
“Babe, I want my life with you. No one else. You’re the only person I want.” He kissed her lips, sliding his tongue across them. She opened up to them, moaning as he kissed her deeply.
He slowly pulled out of her pussy and she felt his seed spill down her thigh.
“I think you’re going to need to start buying me some new panties.”
“Nah, they get in the way.” He used the torn shreds of her panties to clean her pussy. She gasped, closing her eyes as he touched her tender flesh. He didn’t throw her panties away. Instead, he pocketed them.
“You’re dirty,” she said.
“I don’t see you complaining.” He nibbled on her neck and she giggled.
“I’m not. I like you just the way you are. I’ve got no complaints.” She felt complete with Liam.
When she first learned of her impending marriage, she’d had nothing but regret. All her life, she’d been rejected and with Liam, she’d expected to feel the same way. Only, he’d not once pushed her away or looked at her like a freak. He’d wanted her.
That feeling was a heady one.
She knew she could live with it for the rest of her life.
“Do you know if it’s going to be a boy or girl?” Liam asked.
She giggled. “I don’t think our baby is even old enough to have any sexual organs.” She put her hand on her stomach. Liam stopped and pressed his hand next to hers.
“Can you feel it?” he asked.
“No, not yet. I know he or she is there. I don’t like calling our baby it.” She wrinkled her nose.
“We’re going to have to think of names.”
“Isn’t that bad luck?”
“I don’t believe in that kind of stuff.”
Jenny paused. “What … what if our child has my gift?” She looked at Liam, fear rushing through her body. “This is … it’s not easy. People are not as open as you. My father, even he hated it.”
Liam gripped her neck, silencing her with his lips. “Don’t. I’m not your father. I don’t see your gift as a curse or a pain. I see it as part of who you are. I don’t care that you talk to the dead, or that you see them. I wish I could see them with you. To know what you see. To be able to protect you.”
Tears filled her eyes. “How do you always say the right things?”
“I’ve got a talent for it.” He kissed her again. “If our child has your gift, then he or she will only ever know it as a blessing. I will talk to them, and I will make sure she or he only feels love.” At each point, he was so close to calling their child it.
He made her laugh.
“I’m so lucky to have you.” She kissed him back, hoping that one day, he could love her as much as she loved him.
“No, Jenny. I’m the lucky one. You’ll see it one day, and I hope you’re used to being around me so that you never want to leave.”
Chapter Eleven
“I don’t think this was the most sensible choice. We need more backup,” Ben said.
Liam removed the last of his clothes and stood tall, staring at his brother. “I told you, we can’t have any more backup. Too many bodies draw attention.”
“And a guy getting completely naked doesn’t do that in any way.”
“Stop being a pain in the ass and just keep an eye out, okay?”
Ben took the clothes he handed to him. “What are you supposed to be finding anyway? Some kind of old gold? Something ancient?”
“I’ll know it when I smell it.”
“Whatever.”
He glared at his brother, but rather than linger with the conversation, he transitioned from man to beast. Staring at his brother in his wolf form, Ben merely shook his head.
“You still don’t look like a big dog,” he said. “Ugly-looking thing that you are, I’m surprised your wife likes you.”
Liam turned on his heel and left, not bothering to complete the conversation. Nothing good could come of it, and besides, as his wolf, he couldn’t exactly speak either. Just a lot of grunting.
Leaping out of the edge of the dark alley, he charged up and cleared the gate, landing on the ground with a thud. He didn’t wait around for someone to come looking for him. Sniffing the ground, he tried to pick up scents.
The smell of death was quite heavy, which he was expecting and wasn’t surprised about. There was a lot of it around the grounds. This was one of the many reasons he tried to avoid turning into a wolf in the city. There were too many acrid smells to pick up. Most of them filled with death and despair.
He nudged some debris out of the way with his nose, moving closer. Part of the building hadn’t collapsed and he took a chance, entering it, his movements slow. Even though he was a wolf and healed quickly, as Lewis proved, there were injuries they couldn’t heal from, and if the last of the building collapsed on him, he was a goner.
As he sniffed the ground, something dark and musky filled his nose.
A memory.
The barest hint of leather. He licked the ground and as he did, something assailed him. In the back of his mind, it was like a pressure. A need. An impulse.
He thought about Jenny.
How she looked. Her smile.
“Out of the line of my family that inherit my gift, my grandmother is the only one who lasted as long as she did. My mother, and there was an uncle, great-grandmothers, all of them, they … they’re cursed. We don’t last all that long.”
Liam shook his head, trying to clear the words.
“Help her!”
Liam spun around. The words were whispered right next to his year. He didn’t know where they were coming from, but it took every single ounce of control not to freak out. Whatever was in this building, it was deadly, and it wasn’t finished. He couldn’t see any ghosts.
He had to get to Jenny.
Rushing out of the building, he quickly turned back into a human, running toward his brother who had already snuck into the site.
“That was fast,” Ben said.
“No, there’s not enough time. I’m not going to make it. I need you to kill me. More specifically, I need you to suffocate me, have me out for like a couple of minutes, and then bring me back.”
“What? Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Ben asked.
He grabbed his brother’s shoulders. “I have to do this. Jenny is in danger. She’s carrying my baby. I’ve got to go help her. This is the only way I can be sure she is going to be safe. She has no one.”
“Liam, you’re asking me to kill you. I can do that. but bringing you back, there’s no cure for death. You’re just going to be dead.”
“I need about ten minutes, tops. Please, trust me.”
“Liam?” he asked.
“Just do it, because if you don’t, I’ll be forced to take an alternative route and we all know there’s nothing bringing me back from that.” Liam nodded at his brother, sure and ready.
Ben sighed, throwing his clothes to the floor. “This is so fucking messed up.”
Liam waited as his brother put his arm across his neck. He didn’t take a deep breath. The moment pressure was applied, he tried not to fight, but that was impossible. It was a natural instinct to fight.
Ben was able to overpower him, mainly because Liam was only fighting on instinct. Another part of him was trying not to fight. It was a battle of wills.
Jenny.
He had to get to Jenny.
The world started to fade.
Everything went dark.
This could be a giant mistake.
Liam felt something wrap around him and in the next instant … he stood over his dead body.
He felt a lightness to him.
Looking at his hands, he couldn’t believe it was him. As he glanced around, he stood in the same spot, and Ben was on the ground. His hands shaking as he covered his body, then started to check his watch.
“Damn it, Liam, you better be right. You’re a pain in my ass, but you’re still my fucking brother and I love you.”
“Go to her.”
Liam turned to see an elderly lady. Gray hair, aged features.
“Now! She’s not going to make it.”
Jenny.
He closed his eyes and he was at the swimming pool. His stomach turned. What was he doing at his building’s swimming pool?
The sound of a scream drew his attention.
Jenny was in the pool, and right there, hovering over the water, he saw the ghost, or more accurately, the beast like the man Jenny had described to him. He held Jenny’s head under the water.
“Hey!”
The ghost jerked, letting Jenny go to look at him.
Slowly, the features started to fade, and before him stood a man he recognized.
“Wayne?” he asked.
Wayne, a member of an MC whose main members were wolves, stared back at him.
“You.”
They hadn’t been friends. There was a time Wayne had been part of his father’s group of soldiers. Dedicated to protecting and serving the Wolf family here in the city. The biggest problem was Wayne’s thirst for power, for more. He kept on demanding until Liam’s father decided to tear him down and send him back to his family.
From what his memory recalled, Wayne’s own family couldn’t stand him. He wouldn’t just do as he was told or fall in line. He was always after more, demanding more.
“This crazy cunt belongs to you.” Wayne smiled.
“You were in the warehouse. What the fuck were you doing there?”
“What most people are always doing, taking what belongs to them. You stole. Your entire family are thieves.”
Jenny gripped the edge of the pool, gasping for breath. She turned toward him and the moment she looked at him, her eyes filled with tears as she shook her head. “No.”
“You took from me, Liam, and now, I get to take from you.”
Wayne was suddenly beside Jenny, shoving her head back into the pool.
Liam merely reacted. He didn’t know how it happened, but he was there, next to Wayne, reaching out and gripping him.
With one grip, he threw him across the room, but since they were ghosts, he didn’t get to go far.
“You think you can get rid of me that easily? Her line is supposed to die at our hands. You think you can protect her forever?”
“He’s not alone,” her grandmother said.
“She will never be alone.”
Liam turned to see another woman he remembered from pictures—her mother.
Next, her uncle, followed by Lewis and Anna, then several more of Jenny’s generation. He saw them, their power. With one touch, they linked, and as he stared at Wayne, it was like he knew what to do.
The energy flowed through him and as he stared back, Wayne’s confidence faltered. He stumbled back away, and then finally, as he kept on fighting, his screams filled the air until finally, the scary shadow exploded, disappearing into thin air.
Even the scent in the air changed as his presence ceased to exist.
Jenny was out of the pool, and he turned toward her. Some of her family faded away, and he imagined they were the ones that didn’t wish to be seen. At his side stood her grandmother, mother, Lewis, and Anna.
She rushed toward them, only to stop.
She was alive.
They were all dead.
Suddenly, Liam jerked.
“It’s time for you to go, son,” her grandmother said.
“I didn’t cause the burning,” Lewis said. “I was there purely because I heard a rumor of it functioning again.”
Another jerk.
“Go,” Jenny’s mother said. “We’ll tell her everything she needs to know.”
Another jerk.
“Go! Before it’s too late.”
As he was pulled back a fourth time, he didn’t fight it, he went willingly back, coming to with a giant gasp.
“Holy fucking shit balls. You scared me.” Ben slammed his palm against his shoulder. “Don’t do that again. You crazy-ass fucker. Damn it.”
Liam breathed deeply. “You brought me back.”
“I thought I was going to have to declare you dead. Fucking … ugh… I hate you right now. I don’t know what the hell happened, but I hate you.”
“It was Wayne,” he said. His voice croaky from the tight grip that his brother had on him.
“Crazy fucker Wayne?”
“Yes, the very same one.” He got to his feet and swayed a little.
Ben grabbed him. “Whoa, you’ve got to take it easy.”
“I don’t have time. I need to go see my wife.” Liam stumbled.
“Okay, let me take you to your wife, and you concentrate on just, you know … breathing.”
****
“Mom,” Jenny said, tears filling her eyes.
“He’s back where he needs to be, sweetie, but don’t let him do that again.” Her mother came forward and reached out as if to grab her, but she never touched. Like always, so close, but never enough.
“He’s safe?”
“Yes, he’s safe.” This came from her grandmother.
She nodded, pleased. Seeing him like that, she was heartbroken. “I can’t live without him. I don’t want to.”
“You won’t have to. He’s coming back to you.”
“Before I go back with Anna. I had nothing to do with the fire, Jen.” Lewis stepped forward. “Tana set the fire. It’s why she feels guilty. Wayne had negotiated guns, drugs
, and women. Tana was there, she overheard everything, and she got scared. Anna had followed her there. She didn’t realize.”
“What was Wayne doing?”
“I don’t know. I was there because I had asked Tana to … check on things.”
“Lewis?”
“This was before the negotiations. Afterward, I made sure Tana knew this and that was why I was there. I was going to pick her up and make sure she was safe.”
“Why didn’t you say all this when you were alive?”
“I was pissed off. Tana was going crazy. I couldn’t find Anna. Liam looked so fucking calm and collected, and it’s no excuse, but I wanted to annoy everyone. Instead, I didn’t put my seatbelt on and I got to be with Anna.” Lewis offered her a smile. “Go and take care of your husband. I’ll see you around sometime.”
Anna giggled and waved at her.
Jenny tensed and glanced behind her toward the door. She had a sense that she needed to move. She’d always felt it was her sense for the dead, but now she was starting to see it was her wolf. Her beast was inside her somewhere, not too close, but enough to keep her safe.
“Go.” Her family all spoke in unison, and she laughed with them, turning on her heel and rushing out of the doors. She didn’t stop as she took the stairs, not caring that she was in a swimsuit. No one stopped her.
As she came out of the ground-floor doors, Liam charged through the main ones. He was dressed, but it was clear he’d dressed in the dark.
She ran toward him as he came toward her. After she threw herself at him, he picked her up, spinning her around as she kissed him. Sinking her fingers into his hair, she moaned his name.
Liam did the same, gripping the back of her head tightly. She didn’t want to let him go.
Coming up for air, she smiled at him.
“I fucking love you,” he said. “So damn much.”
“I love you too, and don’t you ever do anything like that again. You’ve got to promise me.”
“The only thing I’m going to promise you, baby, is that I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect you. I told you, I don’t want to live without you. You own my heart, and you’ve got to keep me safe.”
She put her hand on his chest, right where his heart should lay. “I love you, Liam. I thought … I thought I’d lost you.”