Bonds of Fire: The Bellum Sisters 2 (paranormal erotic romance) (11 page)

Draven glanced at the bed if only to break her stare. That didn’t help either though as he pictured her riding him, breasts swaying before his eager mouth. A sweat broke out over his brow. Dammit.

“No. Thank you,” he added as an afterthought. “You take it.” Even feeling like he couldn’t possibly sleep a wink, he grabbed a pillow and spare cover from the bed and tossed it on the ground. He laid on top of it and closed his eyes. If he thought that would help, he was wrong.

Instead his ears got to listen to her soft steps as she moved around the room. He heard the sound of ties being unlaced and he nearly groaned. Rolling onto his stomach to hide the wood he was sporting, Draven couldn’t stop the mental picture that floated into his mind.

He could see her in his mind as sure as if he was watching her and not listening. Untying the cords at the back of her dress took forever, almost as if she was purposely going slow to torture him.

He heard the soft slide of cloth as she pulled her arms from the velvet sleeves. Smooth beautiful skin, that’s what would be there. He heard the dress pool to the floor then her light steps walking to the bed.

Painful thoughts floated through his mind. Was she naked underneath that gown? Was she lying right now in that bed with nothing but skin separating them? He tried to picture her in conventional underwear—the thought was laughable. This woman probably wore a white shift underneath with sexy little ties that he could unravel with his teeth.

Damn, his cock was about to dig a hole in the floor beneath him. He had to cool his thoughts or the sweats would never go away. The Bellum sisters, think about them. He could almost laugh.

After his investigation in Germany, he found serious evidence of another
jaheera
demon. Where it was now, he had no clue, but Henry was back at the castle sifting through human’s news footage to see if anything had been noticed. So far, no. Was that a good sign? His instincts told him no. That this demon was in the rift, building an army, collecting power, eating babies or whatever it does.

“Warrior?” said a soft, hesitant voice. Draven squeezed his eyes shut.

“Call me Draven.” He could practically feel her blush from the floor.

“Of course, my apologies. Do you wish to...feed tonight, Draven?”

She’d turned off the light as she gotten into bed. With the dark room, her sultry voice, and his hard cock, hearing the words feed and his name—damn the way she said it—sent his cock near to bursting. With a soft hiss, he reached down and gripped his cock through his pants. He squeezed tightly until some of the pain registered over everything else and deflated his erection, only a little.

“No, Lucinda. Go to sleep.” He thought he heard her sigh, but over his own hiss, he couldn’t be sure.

“Goodnight, Draven.”

Draven shut his eyes and tried to sleep and not think about the woman in the bed.

* * *

“Lyonis wants us to keep an eye on the vampire demon.”

Jackie didn’t turn around to face him. “I know.”

Thane shook his head and wished he could shake some sense into her. “Wait up, dammit. We need to talk.”

“I don’t think so,” she sang, stepping into the mat room they used for training and sparring.

The mat room was bigger than most training rooms. Nearly the size of a football field and under the pack’s town, the room was perfect for sparring while transforming. Every now and then they even put on a show for the kids with animal verse animal fights between members of the pack.

“Listen, whatever’s up your craw needs to be canned. We have work to do around here and we can’t do that if you’re ignoring me at every turn.” Something he said struck a chord because she stopped hard and spun around. The look in her eyes was hot with anger. His dick lengthened at it and he had to focus to tamper it down.

“What’s up my craw? Nothing’s up my craw. Why don’t you mind your damn business? We’re partners, nothing more.”

“Maybe you need something up your craw, might loosen you up a bit.” The close-fisted punch slammed into the corner of his lips before he saw her move. His eyes flashed at her in warning, a growl erupting from his throat. She didn’t back down but matched his. Dominant to dominant.

“You might like loose women—”

“Is that what this is about?” he said. She puffed out her chest and lifted her chin, fingers twitching with the need to fight; the need to shift. One that he was getting excited to give her.

“Oh, please. Not everything is about you and who you fucked this week.” His eyes narrowed hard on hers.

“You sound as if you care. Tell me Jackie is that what this is about? Are you jealous of the women I take, of the women who offer themselves to me?” Her jaw crunched side to side before she spoke.

“I don’t think your ego can stay contained in this room,” she said with tightly controlled anger. “Hear me this one time. I do not care who you fuck. It’s not my business. Take every free submissive in the entire pack, in all the packs in the country because I...don’t...care.”

Thane rolled his shoulders as the urge to fight stroked him. “Maybe you should try it sometime. Maybe that’s all you need—a cock to loosen up that tight ass of yours.”

Her war cry gave him only a second warning before his back slammed hard against the blue mat. His teeth clanged together hard, the breath whooshed out of him, and she didn’t wait for him to recover but let out a flurry of punches he barely managed to dodge and slap away.

With a growl of his own, he tackled her and slammed her back into the mat. She panted below him, teeth bared, eyes glowing with the urge to shift and really fight. Thane didn’t know what came over him. He caught her strong arms in his hands and planted them next to her face. His hips pressed against hers.

Her eyes widened, lips parting on a gasp. He didn’t hide his erection but rubbed it sensuously against her core. She let out a feral growl at him—a warning.

She didn’t scare him. He brought his face close to hers, lips inches apart as he watched her flashing eyes.

“Admit it,” he said, punctuating his words with a roll of his hips. “Tell me how wet you are for me. How bad you want my cock filling you up.”

Suddenly her thighs locked tight around his waist and he actually groaned. But then she launched him, using the hands holding her and pushing back against him. He went flying through the air. Wind rushed by him as he landed hard and rolled.

She stalked to him, a snarl on her face. “Never touch me again.” She turned and walked away.

Fuck that. He wasn’t done with her. Thane stood and stalked to her. She spun before he could touch her and flashed him a warning with her eyes. She was breathing hard. Perspiration dampened her hair and neck, molding her tight tank top even closer to her lithe body.

It was on the tip of his tongue to apologize but instead he said, “Fine, then tell me why you’ve been angry with me.”

Her jaw fell open. Then her arms shot wide to encompass the gym. “You insulted me you half-wit!” Thane let her own insult slide as he thought back throughout the day and to yesterday when this whole thing started.

“The comment about your hair?”

If possible, her jaw dropped even further and then she clamped it shut and started to applaud—slowly.

“You, Sir, are worthy of a Nobel Prize. You are obviously a very intelligent man.”

A tic formed at his right eye and he gritted his teeth to keep from snapping at her. “What’s the big deal, Jackie? It was a joke.”

Some look he didn’t recognize flashed across her eyes. She stood up straighter, spine erect and said, “It’s a big deal to me. How do you think it feels being the only ginger in the entire pack?” Thane’s eyebrows shot up as suddenly he understood. He’d hurt her feelings. They sparred with words so much that he never even thought the barb had stuck.

“It’s not really the color of ginger, more like copper.”

She made a sound of disgust and turned away. Thane didn’t like this. Not at all. He didn’t know exactly why or what was the cause of it but he had to fix it. He stalked to her and pulled her into his arms.

It was like trying to trap a squirrel. She wiggled, squirmed, and fought against him until finally he shouted, “Stop it!”

She did, her surprised eyes wide as she looked up at him. Thane quickly thought up what to say but then his eyes fell to her hair. He caught it in his hand, watching as the fluorescent lights beat off it in streams of golden reds.

“Let go of me, Thane.” She’d quit struggling but a hard frown pulled at her mouth.

Thoughtfully he said, “No, your hair isn’t the color of ginger but a beautiful copper that catches the eyes and makes it hard to look away.” He meant every word of it. What he’d said yesterday had been a barb at her but he didn’t know it’d upset her. He looked down at her unreadable eyes.

Slowly she reached up and touched the hand he held her hair in. Then viciously she yanked it away and pushed him back. He went, startled at her anger.

“I am not some submissive who will cow-tow to your pleasure on a whim.”

God dammit. “I know that. That wasn’t what this was about.”

She cocked a brow. “Oh really, then what was this about?” She crossed her arms and stared at him.

Thane threw up his hands in defeat. “Never mind. I was just trying to pay you a compliment. Obviously your hard ass is too good for that.” He walked around her to leave.

“The next time you want to flirt, pick a submissive. At least she will be flattered by your...charms,” she said after him. That tic picked up again at his eye. Thane turned just in time to see her giving him her back.

Thane’s eyes flicked over her once. “At least she would know how to please a man.” He saw her back straighten and instantly hated himself.

Whatever. He gave as good as he got; that was his motto. Why should she be any different? He turned back and left her alone.

Chapter 12

Lyonis wrapped up his workout as his lieutenants came into the room. Grabbing a towel, he wiped the sweat from his face. He noticed the tension between Jackie and Thane right away.

“What’s wrong?”

“We have a situation,” Jackie said. Lyonis’ gut tightened with fear.

“Willow?”

Thane shook his head. “No, the McLannahans reported their daughter missing this morning.”

Lyonis’ brows shot up. “Stephanie?”

Jackie nodded grimly. “Apparently she went for a run last night and never came back.”

“Organize a search party, check the town, hell check the whole city.”

Nodding, Jackie hesitated. “Sir, but we don’t have enough guards with the ones watching your...Willow.”

“Use them. With that vampire Draven here, she has her own guard. Find Stephanie, see if anyone else was out running last night and saw her.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Thane said then ran out of the room with Jackie on his heels.

His mood infinitely diminished, Lyonis left the gym and headed to the McLannahans. When he arrived, there were already other pack members visiting the distraught family. Stephanie’s mother, Laura, rushed to him with tears in her eyes.

“Alpha Lyonis, she’s gone. She’s gone!” A harsh sob left her as she broke down. Lyonis held her close to him. Nothing he could do would soothe her now, unless they found Stephanie alive.

“Tell me everything that happened.” Her mate Rick came forward and pulled his wife into his arms.

“Stephanie said she wanted to go out for a wolf run last night along the pass. It was about ten o’clock when she left—she never came back.” His wife cried harder and squeezed him tightly.

“Has she been seeing anyone, dating anyone she’d want to sneak off with?”

“Not that we’re aware of,” Rick said. “She said she was stressed about some school work but that was it.”

Lyonis came forward and embraced both of them. When a tragedy happened in the pack, all of them felt it as if it were their own child that was missing. He pulled back with promises that the guards were out searching for her right now.

“I will find her,” he promised. Rick nodded grimly, his face etched with pain.

Lyonis started back to his truck when a hard voice stopped him. “Your mate should be here to comfort the family.”

Lyonis slowly turned around, not surprised that it was Amy who’d spoken. The entire pack watched them both with wide eyes. Very few dared to use such an attitude with their Alpha, let alone question his mate. That she was only bitter because she’d pursued him for years almost made him angry enough to shout. As his father had taught him though, one cannot rule in anger; one cannot lead a pack with rage in the heart.

Lyonis spoke calmly even though her nasty attitude made him want to reprimand her. “Willow has not yet taken that step with me, but she will. She is still unaccustomed to our ways.”

Amy’s eye narrowed with a flare of victory. “Because she isn’t one of us! She’s isn’t a shapeshifter.” Lyonis nodded in agreement.

“Yet the bond I feel for her can no more be ignored than the moon rising each night. I hope that one day you will feel the same thing, Amy. Let’s try to focus on what’s really important right now. A pack member is missing.”