by CJ Cooke
Davion nodded thoughtfully. “Strange that they would be attracted to you though,” he said, almost more to himself than to us.
He was the second person to say that. Was it that they were attracted to me? I’d assumed the one at the wards was just looking for a way into the packlands, but that wouldn’t explain the presence of the one we’d seen at the wholesalers.
“We were attacked last night,” Davion suddenly said. His voice was completely flat, devoid of any emotion. He sounded haunted like he was reliving the events as he spoke. “The sun had just set and the clan was going about its normal life. We hadn’t seen any shadow demons or any indication that the wraith was in the area, but we were still being careful. I was downstairs with James, helping him with his transition, when I heard the first screams. I ran upstairs, and did what I could, but we have no weapons against them. There were just so many…”
We didn’t interrupt him as he spoke. His eyes were fixed on one spot on the wall, but I doubted he was seeing anything but his clan being killed in front of him.
“They ripped through us, almost like they were just playing. I saw it, standing back, in the shadows. It was like the wraith wanted to make sure the job was done properly. I could’ve sworn the fucking thing was smiling as it watched my family being slaughtered. Then all of a sudden, it just fell to its knees, clutching at its head, screaming, and they all disappeared. Faded away in front of us. The five of us are all that’s left.”
Davion couldn’t hold back his tears at that point, and they slowly trailed through the blood coating his face. He made no move to wipe them away or even acknowledge their presence. Davion seemed locked in the moment of reliving what had happened to his clan. “The five of us are all that’s left,” he quietly said again.
I had no idea what to say. What do you say to someone who just watched their family get slaughtered in front of them?
“I need to check on the others,” Davion suddenly said, standing up from the sofa and smoothing his torn and bloodied clothes down. It was like he was trying to pull back on his usual persona, but it just didn’t quite fit as well over the new broken edges.
“I’ll show you where they are, and then you need to rest,” Grey told him kindly. “We all do. Tomorrow we start putting together the pieces of what happened and make a plan to move forward. You should be safe here if the wards are indeed keeping them out.”
“And if they aren’t?” Davion asked.
Grey shrugged as he strode out of the library with Davion and I trailing after him. “Then I suppose I’ll die beside you.”
It was a morbid thought, but it was exactly what I needed to hear. We had the potential of a weapon against these things; we just needed to understand it more. But these were the stakes we were playing with, and I couldn’t afford to lose. We couldn’t afford to fail at this because so many lives were on the line—my mate’s life was on the line.
50
Tanner
The house was quiet this morning, and no one was moving around yet. Even the kids were sleeping in, having gone to bed stupidly late for the second night in a row. Staring down at Calli, fast asleep at my side, I’d never felt more relieved to see her healthy and whole. She seemed worn out from using her magic last night, or maybe it was because of the twenty-four hours she’d spent in that trance thing helping Holly through the transition. Fuck, I hoped it worked. The pack wouldn’t be able to take a loss like Holly.
River was snuggled up on Calli’s other side, still asleep. Having the new, unexpected house guests had led to some of us having to double up, and Grey had ended up on the sofa in the library.
Seeing the two of them curled up together reminded me of the last time we’d found ourselves in this position and the sudden interruption from the kids. It should’ve been enough to stop me in my tracks, but sensible was one word people would never describe me with.
Calli had fallen asleep in one of my old shirts, and I’d tossed and turned all night, the question of what she had on underneath plaguing me. I was seconds away from sliding my hand up her thigh to check—who was I kidding? My hand was already moving.
As my hand started to trail up her creamy thigh, River shuffled sleepily behind her. Freezing with my hand where I was, I waited to see if he was waking up. He would need to wake up at some point, but I had plans for what I wanted to happen before he did.
When it was apparent from his soft snores he was still asleep, my hand continued its journey, pushing the old shirt up as I went revealing my very naked mate.
I had to bite my lip to hold the groan of anticipation in. It wasn’t even my birthday, but this was the best fucking birthday present I’d ever had.
Calli shifted in her sleep, giving a sleepy moan, and it set a devilish idea in my mind.
Scooting down the bed, I brought Calli’s thigh over my shoulder and licked a long line up her core. Her half-asleep groan couldn’t be mistaken this time or the way her hips thrust against my tongue. With a wicked grin on my face, I went again. There was nothing like the taste of my mate; her pussy was addictive.
Calli started to move the more I teased her clit with my tongue. From the sounds of her moans, she was slowly starting to wake up. The moment she gasped my name, I knew she was fully awake, but the way she said it gave me the confidence she didn’t want me to stop.
“Oh, fuck yes,” she groaned, grinding her hips down.
“I take it, you don’t want me to stop,” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Don’t you dare!” she gasped.
Slipping a finger inside, I could feel just how wet she was.
“Quit moving, I’m trying to… oh,” River sleepily mumbled.
In the back of my mind, a small voice was telling me I should feel bad about this. Unfortunately, the much louder voice was pissing himself laughing and howling in delight.
“River,” Calli gasped and, peering up from between her legs, I saw him reach up and cup her breasts from behind as he pressed his lips against the side of her neck.
“Did you wake up feeling mischievous this morning?” he grinned against her skin.
“This isn’t my fault. He was already down there when I woke up,” Calli said indignantly, but it was ruined by a long moan as I sucked her clit into my mouth.
“What can I say?” I laughed, thrusting a second finger inside of her, “I woke up and saw you both lying there fast asleep, and a brilliant idea occurred to me.”
“And what idea was that?” River said, meeting my eyes as I ran my tongue around Calli’s clit. They flashed with the silver of his wolf, and I could tell he was there for whatever idea I’d had.
“Your mate needs you, River. Your mate needs more,” I told him with a wicked grin on my face, pulling my fingers out of her pussy and sucking them into my mouth.
“And what are you going to be doing while I’m seeing to our mate’s needs?” River asked, sounding confused.
“Well, you see, our beautiful mate here is a very complex creature, and as such, she has many needs that need seeing to. So, I’m going to keep making sure that I’m meeting this one,” I told him, leaving the ball in his court as I dipped my head down and started to tease Calli more.
I knew she was getting close to coming. Her moans were getting louder, and her breath hitched every time I flicked my tongue across her clit.
I wasn’t sure if I actually thought River would follow through. This wasn’t something we’d ever done before, in fact the last time he’d joked that it wasn’t something he’d do. And I was starting to realise that while the thought of sharing Calli would be hot as fuck, I didn’t know what her other mates thought about the idea.
When I heard Calli gasp again as River grabbed her hip and slipped his cock inside her now soaking wet pussy, I was actually surprised. I’d half expected him to chicken out.
“Don’t blame me if my balls start hitting you in the face,” River chuckled as he started to move in and out of Calli.
But I didn’t care; all I
cared about right now was listening to Calli’s sweet moans, to hearing her gasps of ecstasy. We could have lost her yesterday, and this morning, I wanted to give her something that would make her glad to be alive.
River started to pick up the pace, his grip tightening on Calli’s hips, holding her in place as he hammered into her from behind.
The fact that it was so wrong was what made it oh so right. Hearing her screaming River’s name as she came around his cock shouldn’t have been as good as it was. It shouldn’t have turned me on so much. Did this make me gay or bisexual? Fuck if I knew, and I wasn’t really sure I cared. Whatever this was, we should do it every morning.
51
River
By the time we made it downstairs, nearly everyone else was gathered around the table, and it looked like breakfast was nearly over. The kids were nowhere to be seen, but before any of us could ask, Blake told us.
“Jean has the kids set up at ours to start some of the homeschool stuff today.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Calli told him quietly, and I could see the guilt flicker across her face. She wasn’t quite used to the pack way yet, but she needed to start realising it didn’t all have to fall on her shoulders.
Blake shrugged, “She wants to help out with the homeschool stuff once she’s had the baby, and I think this is her way of showing you she can. If you’d just consider it, I know she’d be grateful. I think she’s going out of her mind with boredom over there at the moment, and right now, she needs something to keep her mind off Holly.”
“How’s she doing?” I asked.
Everyone seemed in a sombre mood, but surely they’d have come and told us if the worst had happened.
“She’s hanging in there, but she still hasn’t shown any signs of waking up,” Aidan said sadly.
Nash wasn’t here, and I didn’t doubt he’d be by her side. There’d be no moving him away from her. I’d be exactly the same in his position.
“She was gravely injured before the transition. It’s only natural her body would need to heal,” Cassia told us all. “The fact that she’s still alive now is an extremely good sign, I believe.”
“Wait, what’s happening?” Davion asked, looking confused. Seeing the vampire clan head sitting at our kitchen table sipping tea from a china cup was completely messing with my mind right now.
“The person who was injured by the shadow demon was a human. The only way we could save her was to attempt the transition,” Grey told him.
Davion squinted in suspicion. He could tell we weren’t telling him everything. It didn’t take a genius to figure out we were protecting Calli. What else could it possibly be? Davion at least had the good graces to nod thoughtfully and not ask any further questions, though.
The room fell quiet. No one really knew how to start the ‘what the fuck do we do now?’ conversation.
Snagging a piece of bacon from the platter on the table, Calli was the only one brave enough to break the silence.
“How’s the rest of your family doing this morning, Davion?” she asked him gently.
“Much better, thank you. James came around not long after we put him in the cage. He was upset initially, but once we explained the situation and made him more comfortable, he was more than understanding. The others are in a deep healing sleep. Alexander will stand guard over them until they awaken, but I will need to find a supply of blood for them for when they do.”
This was something we hadn’t considered. The vampires had a food source we didn’t usually cater to.
“How will you go about doing that?” Grey asked gruffly.
Davion met him with his trademark smirk. He knew the rules. We wouldn’t allow him to hunt in our territory. Just because we were giving them shelter and Grey had declared them friends of the pack wasn’t going to change that.
“Don’t worry, alpha. I have a contact who will provide donated blood. It is our preferred source. We’re not all killers stalking the night, you know.”
“If you don’t mind, you can store it in the fridge in my house for the first couple of days. I’d prefer the children weren’t too in the picture. We’ll arrange for something here as soon as we can. Unless you’d feel more comfortable at the other house, it’s still quite set up furniture wise,” Calli offered.
“That’s very kind of you, but we won’t impose upon you for long. As soon as my family is healed, we should move on,” Davion told her.
“That doesn’t seem sensible. Until the situation is handled, wouldn’t it be better if you were close by? The only way we’ve been able to deal with a shadow demon so far is with the moonlight funnel, and I’m the only person you know who can do that.” Calli frowned as she thought it through. There wasn’t a single part of her considering why it was a bad idea for this family of vampires to move into our town. I suppose she’d been brought up in a very different world than we had, and even though we didn’t think they did, those learned prejudices were still there to some degree.
“Whilst the way your beautiful mind works is admirable, my sweet Calli, I don’t think the pack and the clan could co-exist in such a small town for an extended time,” Davion told her, putting it a lot more diplomatically than most would.
“But why?”
“There is too much hate in the world for two strong species, such as ours, to live in close proximity,” Davion explained.
“That’s ridiculous,” Calli scoffed. “And you know it is. The underground is an example of how species can mix peacefully.”
“How is it?” Blake asked, looking genuinely interested. I would never have pegged him as the pack member that would become Calli’s study buddy, but he seemed to be loving every second of it when he had the chance.
“Because they live together just fine,” Calli said slowly, almost like she didn’t quite understand the question.
“I do wish you wouldn’t give away all of our secrets quite so easily, Calli dear,” Sean said, surprising us as he strode into the kitchen and straight up to her. Dropping a kiss to the top of Calli’s head, he murmured, “It’s good to see you doing well, kid. Let’s keep the long trances to a minimum in the future, shall we? This old man can’t take much more of this.”
“I’ll do my best,” she grinned up at him, making absolutely no promises.
Sean didn’t miss it and, with a humpff, went and took one of the few empty seats at the table. Aidan was looking at Calli with a frown, which was nothing compared to the look on Grey’s face. I was glad we couldn’t hear Grey’s thoughts when he was in human form because I was sure he’d be agreeing with Sean.
“We should talk about what happens now,” Cassia said, quickly changing the subject, unfortunately, it was to something none of us really wanted to discuss.
I scooted my chair closer to Calli. What should be happening next was that we ran for our lives. But with Grey marked for death, that wasn’t exactly something we could do, not to mention Jean and Blake’s baby, Nash and now Holly as well.
“You said this moonlight funnel killed the shadow demon?” Davion asked, curiosity lining his features.
“Well, it exploded, so we’re pretty sure it’s dead,” Tanner said grumpily, this new subject killing the good mood we’d all been in just minutes before.
“And it was only one. How many came to the clan house?” Grey asked him gruffly. I could see where he was going with this, and it wasn’t going to be good.
“I would say, at least twenty,” Davion told us thoughtfully. “The fact that you could take out even one is impressive. Nothing we did even seemed to distract them from…” he trailed off as the horror crossed his face again before he shook his head, almost like he was trying to dislodge the thoughts.
Davion might not be pack, he might not even be a shifter, but he was a man who needed to talk to someone about what he’d seen. I was going to make sure that even if he didn’t want me to be that person, he found someone else he was comfortable talking to. We couldn’t afford a clan leader to go off the
deep end, and from the look on his face, Davion was a ticking time bomb right now.
“I don’t think it was the moonlight funnel that killed the shadow demon,” Cassia told everyone around the table.
“But it died! We all watched it explode,” Blake said, his eyes wide in panic before they flicked in the direction of the front door.
“Let me rephrase, the moonlight funnel definitely did something, but there was something else in that magic energy ball that Calli crushed into it. Until we know what that was, we won’t know how to recreate it, and we won’t know if it’s what’s needed to make the process successful.”
“Also, and I hate to be the one to put a downer on this super awesome situation we find ourselves in, but I don’t know if I can do that twenty times,” Calli winced. “And, logistically, how would we even go about doing it? I’d have to draw down the moonlight for the funnel in between each demon. They’re not just going to form a line and wait for us to get to them.”
“So we need to find a way to amplify the output,” Blake said, rubbing his chin in thought.
“Not necessarily,” Cassia interrupted. “Calli cast the moonlight, and whatever else it was, into the ball because that was the easiest way for her to push out the energy. I could teach her to push it in more of a wave, which, assuming we could get them all in front of her, could work.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Davion asked.
“Then I’d suggest we run very fast before they have a chance to regroup,” Cassia shrugged like it was the only option we had. She didn’t have to voice the only other option we had; we stood there and waited for them to kill us.
52
Maverick
After the disaster that was the impromptu meeting we’d had in the kitchen this morning, everyone had separated out with their own tasks. I’d ended up taking the library shift with Calli and Tanner to research whatever screwy thing she’d done with her magic.