by K Loraine
Letting out a growl, she reared back and attempted to slam her forehead into mine, but I shifted just in time for her to miss. That slight movement gave her the opening she needed to shove me off her and back to the floor.
She straddled me, her hands holding my wrists now, body pressed hard against me. “Don’t fucking move.”
I laughed. “Are we playing again, Briar? Or should I call you mistress?”
Her eyes darkened as she stared down at me. One measured roll of her hips against my already hardening length had me groaning. “Oh, we are. You’ve missed me. I can smell how much you want me.”
“You’re a fucking pig.”
“Then tell me you aren’t wet right now.”
She moved again and I groaned. “So pain still does it for you?”
It wasn’t just pain. It was her. It was being so close to her.
“Do your worst and find out.”
Blazing violet irises bored into my soul and she bared her fangs, fangs that I gave her. A thrill ran through me at the sight. I gave her something Nik never could have. Although she hated me for it. I’ve been hated for worse.
Another delicious roll of her hips, and my cock jerked under her. “God, yes, please.” I dragged out each word, exaggerating the moan she pulled from me.
“Are you this way with every person you get under? Have you become the kind of man who’ll spread himself across the world without care? Or were you always this and I didn’t see it?”
“I don’t make it a habit to get under anyone.” I cocked a brow. “Except for you, it seems.”
Pain spread through my arms, starting at my wrists where she held me against the floor. I bucked my hips in response. Her fucking claws dug into my flesh. “Don’t make me kill you, Lucas.”
Pulse pounding in my ears, I groaned. “You won’t.”
It was true. I sensed it in her mind. Her eyes widened, fear flickering in them for a scant moment. “You don’t know me anymore.”
“But I know what’s in your mind. You can’t hide from me. I am your maker. You’ll always be drawn to me.”
She leaned close, her lips a breath away from mine. “I won’t be drawn to you if you’re dead.”
I couldn’t stop myself from lifting my head and closing the space between us. My mouth brushed hers, the contact instantly sending a shock through my body and straight to my already aching length. I expected her to back away. Instead, she tensed for a fleeting moment, then her grip on my wrists faltered.
A soft sigh against my lips gave me the opening I needed. I freed my arms and used the opportunity to run my palms over her leather-clad thighs until I gripped her hips.
“Briar,” I whispered, urgency and desperation pouring from me. I lost my heart to her a hundred years ago, and I never expect to get it back.
“This is not…it’s not anything more than sex.” Her voice was breathy and filled with a need that echoed my own as I kissed my way down her throat.
“You said the magic word.”
“What?”
“Sex.” I slid my palms over her waist and up until I cupped her breasts. “Thank fuck corsets never made a comeback.” I tugged at her shirt, pulling it higher until she sat up and tore it over her head. She was my fantasy returned to life, full tits on display framed by a black lacy bra, hair wild and falling around her in a cascade of honey, eyes blazing just as they did in my dreams. “You’re devastating.”
She smirked. “You have no idea.”
I pulled her down until her lips were crushed to mine again, then I rolled us together, pinning her to the floor, my hips between her thighs. She broke the kiss, and for a terrible second I feared she was going to end all this here and now, but then she trailed kisses across my jaw and down my neck. The graze of her fangs along my jugular had me bucking into her, rutting like a beast in search of his mate. Her hands on me drifted down to my waist where she made quick work of opening my trousers and freeing my cock.
Fuck, her hands on me. It was everything I needed. She was everything I’d been missing. “A hundred fucking years, Briar. I’ve gone without you for a hundred years.”
I wanted inside her more than I wanted anything else. I was so close. So fucking close.
“Are you hungry, Briar? Do you need something only I can give you?”
A low growl rumbled in her throat. “Starving.”
Her hand released my cock, and I almost groaned in protest, but when I realized the only reason she’d gone was so she could shove her pants down, I didn’t complain. I backed away and helped her pull them all the way to her ankles. Then I placed my knees between those thighs again and spread her legs.
“Give me what I need.” It was a demand, an order, and the sound of her telling me to fuck her nearly had me coming right then and there.
“Anything you want. You only have to ask it of me.”
She was slick and ready. Open for me. But I needed her to tell me what she wanted.
“Lucas. Now.”
“What do you want?”
She gritted her teeth and grabbed my ass, shoving my hips forward until I pressed inside her, just an inch, but enough to light my whole body on fire. “Fuck me.”
“With pleasure.” I thrust all the way inside, her tight heat surrounding me and tearing a groan from deep in my chest.
It was fast and frantic. No time for slow and restrained. I hadn’t had this woman in longer than a lifetime and whether or not she would admit it, she was made for me. Trailing my fingers down between us, I played over the rise of her clit, remembering exactly how to bring her to her pinnacle.
Her moans told me I still knew how to touch her, and before long, she was shuddering, her slick cunt tightening around me and bringing me to the edge. She cupped my face and stared into my eyes, threading her fingers in my hair.
“Fuck, Briar. I’ve missed you so—”
The world went dark with a snap of my neck at her pretty hands.
BRIAR
Lucas was still hard inside me even after I snapped his neck. I shoved him off of me before standing and righting my clothes. His handsome face, exactly the same after all these years, made my chest flutter. I hated how he could affect me so completely. I wanted him to suffer for what he did, but my body craved his.
This was the best punishment. I got off. He didn’t. I wondered if he’d wake up still hard and on the edge of orgasm. That would be interesting, to say the least.
After closing his trousers, I ran a hand through my hair and grabbed him by the ankles. To the basement. Not quite a dungeon, but it would serve to keep him out of my hair.
“Are you quite finished with him, then?” Seb’s voice was hard and a little angry.
“Yes. Unfortunately for him, though. He’s not.”
Grabbing Lucas under his arms, Seb helped me carry the vampire bastard down the stairs. “You didn’t have to fuck him.”
I shrugged. “But it was fun.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Do you still have feelings for him?”
My heart squeezed. “No. I don’t have anything for him.”
“Lock him up with the silver chains. We’ll weaken him for the witches.”
We set him on the floor between the two shackles bolted to the cement floor. Then with our hands carefully protected, we chained the man I used to love. Part of me screamed that I owed him more than this, but then I remembered the moment I died, the events that lead to my ill-fated wedding to Nik, the torture the insane shifter subjected me to. This was less than Lucas deserved for what he did to me.
Seb took my hand. “I don’t want you to stay here with him.”
“He can’t break out. He’ll be weak.”
“No. Come to the camp with the others. This isn’t something I’m willing to argue about, Briar.” His jaw was set, tight and determined. “He clearly has some kind of power over you, even if you don’t see it. I’ll be here when he wakes to make sure he understands his place.”
I frowned and crossed my arms over
my chest. “Seb.”
He cupped my face and stared at me. “Please, do this for me. You mean too much to me to let him hurt you again.”
“He can’t hurt me. I’ve spent a hundred years getting over him. There’s nothing left for him to hurt.”
“Then why are you looking at him like he’s something you lost?”
Shaking my head, I backed away from him. “I’m staying. He can’t be trusted with anyone but me. Go to the others so we can get a message to the witches. The sooner we trade him for protection, the better.”
“Bri—”
“I said, go!” My power flared within me. I could feel the wolf rising, the dominance.
Seb frowned. “You’re not my alpha, Briar. Don’t try to be.”
“Someone has to be the leader of this pack.”
“We’re a family. Not a pack.”
“I’m not putting the rest of you at risk because we are a family.”
“Fine, but I’ll be back.” Pulling me close, he wrapped his arms around me in an embrace, then released me before walking away without looking back. Everything in his posture said he was angry, but he wouldn’t fight anymore. He knew I was right.
I didn’t relax until the front door slammed shut and silence took over the house again.
“Always between two men, aren’t you, Briar?”
I sighed. “I thought you would be dead for at least an hour or two.”
He smirked, the devious glint in his eyes not going unnoticed. “And I thought you were dead for the last hundred years. Seems both of us lived to prove the other wrong.”
“I wouldn’t consider that something to be proud of.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
The chains rattled as he shifted to stand. He grinned. “Oh, Briar, restraints? It’s been a while, but I suppose we can go straight to the kinky stuff. My safe word is van Helsing.”
“Don’t make me break your neck again.”
“But you’d have to touch me to do that. Might be worth it.”
I hated his playful demeanor. I had him captive in my basement. At my mercy. And the bastard was toying with me. “Now that I’m sure you’re still alive and in one piece, I have better things to do with my time. Scream if you need anything, Lucas.”
“Worried about me, darling?”
“No. I knew you’d bounce back. You’re like a syphilis infection. You never quite go away.”
“You’re thinking of herpes.”
“Yes, that’s the one. Painful, unsightly, and annoying.”
Hand on the stair rail, I began my ascent. I had to force myself not to grin at the snarky banter between us. Even chained to the floor, he was charming and cocky.
The handsome ass.
“You know, I’ve been held captive once or twice, but never by you. We really should take advantage of these chains. They could make things very interesting.”
“They’re silver. They’re supposed to burn.”
A dark chuckle filled the room, making me break out into goosebumps. Fuck him for still being able to get a reaction out of me. “They do burn. If you recall, I like it best when you hurt me then kiss it better.”
I had to steel myself against the pure desire in his tone. He was not getting another taste of me. I may have loved him once, but I hated him now.
6
LUCAS
God almighty, having my neck snapped mid-thrust and waking up with blue balls was not how I’d planned this evening. My wrists burned from the silver cuffs keeping me in place and stealing my energy. It would seem my wild wolf had gone feral. I would simply have to tame her…a little.
If I could break free of the bloody shackles, I’d repay the favor, toss her over my shoulder, and haul her home. “It’s always the wolves that get me,” I muttered, tugging hard and wincing when the silver dug into my flesh.
Sighing, I rolled my shoulders and closed my eyes, pulling on every ounce of power remaining in me. I yanked hard, but nothing happened aside from a trickle of my blood dropping to the floor.
“Fuck!”
She was smart, I’d give her that. But I’d known that going into this. She’d always been cunning. I didn’t take her for the devious sort. That was where I’d gone wrong.
Sliding to the floor, I let the cool stones ground me as I worked to find a way out of this mess. I could sacrifice a hand, pull until the cuff sliced through my wrist, but I was rather fond of my hands. I needed them for…things. I supposed I could do without the right one. The left was indispensable, though. There were too many things I used that one for. I wouldn’t want to be without it for long.
No. There had to be a way out of this without relinquishing a body part. I wouldn’t escape. Briar wouldn’t let me. I saw the determination in her eyes. She needed me for something. Just as I needed her. It would take some convincing, but I could get her on my side. I knew it. There had to be some part of her, the old her, inside. My heart was gone, battered and useless at this point, but hers had to still be there.
A pang of despair sliced through me at the thought of her silent heart. I still couldn’t believe it. I was her sire. I was her mate. But her chest remained cold and quiet. That shouldn’t be. Unless we really weren’t mates. My back throbbed where the mating mark she’d given me so long ago hid under a mass of scars. Had her transition changed her so completely that her soul no longer called to mine?
I let out a bitter laugh. Who was I kidding? If after all this time I hadn’t realized the truth, I was an even bigger idiot than my father always told me I was. I didn’t have a soul to join with hers. Not any longer. Perhaps I’d had one a century ago, but I sold it to the highest bidder—more than once.
If she wanted freedom from me, so be it, but not until I made sure she was safe and that my family was free from her pack’s threats.
I sat motionless on the floor, watching as the occasional spider crawled across the stones, until golden rays of morning light spilled in through the window to my left. They grew longer with each passing minute, closing in on me, sending panic racing through my body.
If you need anything, just scream, she’d said. Bloody hell, she knew this would happen.
“Briar!” I wouldn’t call it a scream, more of a bellow really, but she didn’t come. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Briar!”
The daylight was mere inches from my thigh. I was strong, but this wouldn’t be pretty. Without the blood of the sun in my system, now possibly never to exist again, I’d die. My thoughts went to Olivia, my brother’s former captive turned mate. Her blood had been the only thing capable of allowing vampires to walk in daylight. I’d experienced it. I’d done a lot of things for her, for them. Now look where it had gotten me. Chained to a dank, dirty basement floor with a cockstand the size of a soda can and the sun creeping toward me.
The instant the light hit me, I gave in and screamed.
BRIAR
My eyes popped open at the sound of Lucas screaming. I hadn’t meant to sleep so long, but being around him was exhausting, mentally and physically. There was something off about the color of the sky. It wasn’t the dark gray of pre-dawn as it should have been. It was warm gold.
“Oh fuck,” I muttered, running at full speed down the stairs and bursting through the basement door in less than a second.
Lucas sat where I’d left him, but a curl of smoke rose from his thigh.
“Fucking hell, Briar. I get that you hate me, but this is a touch extreme. Van Helsing. Van Helsing.”
I frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?” Then I remembered. His safe word. Even now, with his leg on fire, he was toying with me.
I walked in front of the beam of light before reaching up and drawing the shade that Seb was supposed to have taken care of while I slept. “There.”
Lucas stared at me with utter disbelief in his eyes. “You just walked in front of the light.”
Cocking a brow, I worked to keep my nerves under control. “Hybrid perks.” I sauntered over to him and patted t
he smoldering fabric of his trousers until the fire was out. “All better.”
“All better? You just tried to barbecue me, but now it’s all better?”
“Oh, stop being so dramatic. You’re just a little singed.”
“All that time with Nik seems to have turned you into—”
“Into what? A monster? No, Lucas, you did that.”
“Briar. I didn’t think this would happen. What would you have had me do? You were dying. I didn’t want to lose you.”
My chest ached for the sadness in his voice. Was he sincere? “And yet, you abandoned me.”
“I didn’t fucking know you were alive to abandon.”
“You’re telling me that you didn’t sense it the moment I woke, terrified, starving, hurting? You didn’t feel everything I felt? Because I felt it every time you fed from someone. Every single time you fucked someone else to get me out of your system.”
His eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”
We were connected until the day Seb saved me. A painful link reminding me of how incredibly naive I’d been. Lucas Blackthorne ruined me, and even after he left me for dead, he continued to destroy what was left of my heart. “I was yours for nearly one hundred years, Lucas. But you were never mine. You gave yourself to someone else. You crushed the heart that would have beat only for you.”
“No. You don’t understand. I had to.”
I laughed, dark and deadly. “You had to. You bonded with someone who wasn’t your true mate. I hope she’s dead. I hope you never recover from her loss, because I’ll never be the same after feeling your heart be given to her.”
Shaking his head, he tried to get up and come toward me, but the chains stopped him.
“Don’t fucking touch me. You are here for one reason. You’re a bargaining chip. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t exist. From now on, Seb will be dealing with you.”
LUCAS
“Briar!” I called as she made her way up the stairs. We had so much to talk about. I had so many years of debauchery to atone for.