Captiva Master - Vampire Warewolf Menage Six Feet Under Series Book 4) (9 page)

Maestru didn’t expect that. “The Dynasty specifically ordered
Dakota’s
hunt?”

“That’s what I’m saying, though I don’t know what monarch made the demand. Secondly, I picked Isla’s name out of the vampiress’ brain. Her thinking of Isla while I was moving inside her was too funky to be a coincidence.”

“I’ll say.” Maestru thought about the female, werewolf mixed blood, Isla. Not long ago, she was abducted from the local university by Poison’s rogue Lovci and imprisoned the same as Amy. Difference was – Isla had been mysteriously turned over to the Dynasty Empire in Italy, where Blythe had lived, which wasn’t a good thing. Jayce’s Pack had been trying to retrieve her in vain. “The werewolves can’t hire any vampire mercenaries?” Maestru had hired them when he went to Ciaran’s ground in Scotland. Forced to play dirty, it was the only way to free his Species females from Rave’s clutches.

“Not many vampires want to be associated with the werewolves. Even underground, talk happens. Any mercenary worth his salt doesn’t want to be exposed. Without their anonymity, they’re nothing.”

“Tell Bane I’ll see if I can pull any strings.” Maestru had to give Oycher some honesty, if only to further protect his Dakota. “The female I’m keeping inside my home, I don’t consider a Blood Pet.” He searched for the moon, but the clouds rolled across, casting them into deep darkness. A perfect atmosphere for the Lovci to continue their hunt, he thought. “So if anything happens to me” - Maestru locked eyes with Oycher, willing him to understand the gravity of his feelings for Dakota - “I want you to place Dakota under your protection, by hiding her on one of your properties, until her human life passes from this earth.”

Three heartbeats passed. “As you wish, My Master. She would want for nothing.”

By his claim, Oycher promised to provide for Dakota as well. What he didn’t know was that Maestru would bequeath everything he had to Dakota, a considerable amount, and she wouldn’t need Oycher’s financial support, only his protection. But he didn’t have to explain that now. That’s why wills were drafted. “Now, there’s another female I need to discuss with you, one located inside Volos’ very castle. The Prince claims her as his own, but I have a few ideas disputing this…”

Fifteen minutes later, Maestru and Oycher glided up his main staircase. Maestru wondered if he’d ever gone this long without sleep. Thankfully, Oycher had just fed him so he didn’t have to exert more energy by hunting prey. He rolled his shoulders, relaxing, until he heard Dakota arguing with Adam. Apparently, she wasn’t hungry. He pushed through his bedchamber door, opening it in the human way. When he saw her, Maestru released a slow breath, astonished at his sense of peace, of rightness in having her where he slept.

Need hit him, he wanted to knot her luminous hair in his fisted hand, take her soft skin beneath his fangs, and slam into her repeatedly, until the sun lifted high over the ocean. He basked in the fact that he could feel alive again, when she was near him. Maestru neared his seating area, a gathering of furniture he never used, and introduced her to Oycher.

Adam arched an eyebrow over his dark glasses. “She refuses sustenance. I know humans need food.”

“I appreciate the food.” She leaned away from Oycher as he sat down next to her, putting as much distance as she could between them. Nevertheless, the settee was small, and every small movement brushed their thighs together. “But I’m not hungry.”

Oycher leaned closer, pretending to study her tray, wanting her to get used to his nearness instead. Still, it was obvious she wasn’t going to relax next to another enormous and dominant male. However, Oycher had a way with women. “You don’t enjoy chicken and rice?”

Maestru had instructed Luisa to prepare something bland and easily palatable for a human. Maybe Dakota didn’t enjoy this dish at all, though he doubted it. His Dakota was greedy for something she found more desirable: his blood. She just didn’t realize this. After Oycher did what he had to do, Maestru would feed her.

“Just not hungry,” Dakota reiterated.

Dakota pushed her hair away from her face. Maestru’s eyes were drawn there, to her pert nose and the depression atop her upper lip. He wanted to dip his tongue there, trailing it down until he licked her plentiful mounds. “Very well.” Somehow, he tore his eyes away from her to address Adam. “Your quarters are three doors to the left.” 


“On this floor?”

“Yes, I’m called away many times during the night. After what happened earlier with the hunter, there’s no point in taking any chances with her, no matter how acute your hearing.” What he didn’t say was far worse than a hunter taking her: Prince Volos was aware of her presence in his home, and if tonight’s Lovec thought to challenge Maestru over Dakota, he’d take it up with Volos first. “Oycher has agreed to be our,” he stopped, wondering how to word this delicately, “back up.”

Oycher put his arm around Dakota, sliding his fingers around her shoulder. It was a possessive gesture and the act wasn’t lost on her. “Dakota, I would never hurt you,” he promised.

Adam walked to the door, his body tensing with each step. “I’ll hunt and then return to sleep.”

Maestru nodded. “Perfect.”

When the door closed, she asked, “Hunt…people?”

“Humans or amiable immortals, why?” Surprisingly, he scented jealousy, and that wouldn’t do for so many reasons. Besides, Adam had no choice but to feed.

She put her napkin on her tray, facing him. “Does he -”

Maestru cut her off, directing Oycher, “Keep it inconspicuous by marking her inner thigh.”

“Marking my thigh?” Dakota grabbed a knife from her dinner tray. “You want to run that by me again?”

Maestru lowered himself on one knee, pressing his weight between her thighs for two reasons. One, he wanted to bury himself there. Two, he needed to relax her for Oycher’s mark of protective claiming. “Oycher is the acting commander of my Vampyr Vojaks, an honorable warrior who has agreed to take you on as a human ward, in the event of my demise. The oath he is swearing to protect you is not taken lightly, and I am grateful for his pledge. I’m sure you understand that he is a far better choice than, say, Ryan, who is also noble yet a mere civilian.”

“I would be passed over from your dead hands to Oycher, as though I’m property,” she said, pressing the dull blade against Maestru’s throat. “
I’m not a piece of luggage
.”

Of course, she wasn’t, which was the very reason Maestru was protecting her in this way. “Love, lesson number one is you can’t kill a vampire with a butter knife.” Gently, he pulled her hand away, kissing her wrist while prying the knife from her grip.

Oycher shook his head, laughing. “ Dakota, I think already you’ve lightened the stern hand of our Master.”

She bristled. “He’s not my - ”

“Dakota,” Maestru thundered, “those hunters are on to you, and Oycher can’t stop the Dynasty from taking you, that is, if they were to get their hands on you. However, if something were to happen to me, and he hid you on one of his properties, you would still need his claiming bite in order to keep other Species Vampires from taking you. This is necessary, and could have been over with a minute ago.

Her face paled as she silently nodded her acceptance.

Maestru looked at Oycher. “Now.”

In his native speed, Oycher traded places with him. Maestru pulled Dakota into his lap and latched his mouth onto hers in a devastating kiss. She stiffened, stunned, but she didn’t push him away. Oycher secured her knees, hissed in the way of vampires, and sank his fangs into her upper thigh. Dakota jumped and cried out Maestru's name, but not in fear. No, she felt the difference of Oycher’s bite, since she was under any sort of attack or frenzied feeding.

Her brows rose. “It's not the same bite as it was before, not the same at all!”

“Most vampires’ bites are pleasurable.” He dipped his head and sucked her breast deep into his mouth, using his tongue to work the shirt's abrading fabric over her nipple. Maestru watched the Vojak's chin come close to her patch of blonde curls as he worked his mouth, swallowing Dakota's Donor blood, marking her for life. Maestru fought not to strum her sensitive and swollen bud, so ripe for his mouth, as she bucked into an impending orgasm. Even though he enjoyed witnessing her pleasure, Maestru had already shared her earlier orgasm with Adam. Her next one would belong solely to him. Using his inherent abilities, he slowed the contractions in her sleek channel before she flooded Oycher's face.

Oycher licked his bite closed with a special enzyme, which would keep her marked for immortal eyes. Afterwards, he stared at her wet sex a long moment, gripping her knees, his orange irises bleeding into the whites of his eyes. In all fairness, he kept himself in check while drinking a potent and addictive aphrodisiac-laced blood, from a beautifully wet female.

"Are you in control, Oycher?"

"For the most part, however, I have to leave before I take her, My Master."

In past centuries, protectors took advantage of those rights. Even so, Oycher would not be permitted to touch Dakota in that way. When the Vojak cooled down from his Donor high, he would realize this. Reverently, Oycher kissed his mark on her thigh and disappeared.

“That was weird, embarrassing,” she whispered, burrowing her face against his throat, “and even though I don’t want you, Coven Master, I still want you.”

For the first time in centuries, he couldn’t breathe, his body and his mind melding with hers. When his fangs lowered, Maestru kissed her, searching deep inside her mouth.
I will learn everything about you.
A rush of hunger hit, but it wasn’t his. He stood up with her in his arms, their mouths still licking and suckling, and walked her to his bed, to a place he had never allowed another female.

He scented her growing wetter, her body desiring what her mind didn’t want to acknowledge. Maestru craved bathing in her natural fragrance, rubbing his face and cock all over her wet pussy. When he placed her on the duvet, he broke their kiss and kneeled over her. “You don’t want food because you want my blood,” he explained away her disinterest in her dinner, staring down at her, the sensation of Dakota aroused on his bed tightening his balls.

She didn’t argue with him. “What’s happening to me?”

Miasma shimmered between them, something warm and magical, a feeling, a smell, and the power of joining flesh to flesh.

He put his hand on her knee, waiting for her to push him away. She didn’t. “I don’t have an answer yet, Love. But when I do, you’ll be the first to know.” He parted her thighs, keeping his eyes on her face instead of viewing what he smelled so fragrantly inviting. “Would you welcome me here while you feed” – He placed his other hand gently on her stomach – “if only so I can hold you?”

Licking her lips nervously, she sucked in a rush of air before she agreed, “Yeah, I guess I’m stupid enough to poke a stick at a rattler, too.”

She had that backwards. If anyone were doing the poking, it would be him. Leaning some of his weight onto her, Maestru nestled his clothed erection against her dampened core. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was looking at her the same way she was looking at him – with raw hunger.

“If I’m drinking from you,” she asked, as if reading his mind, “why do
you
look hungry?”

“For the same reason you’re lying beneath me in terrified arousal, enjoining the mix of sex and danger more than you care to admit. We want each other.” With his hand, he cupped one fleshy mound, squeezing lightly. He couldn’t forget that she was naked beneath his shirt. How could he? In her father’s store, Maestru had enjoyed the briefest glimpse of her entirely nude, not enough to satisfy his hunger, just enough to whet his appetite. He wanted more. He wanted it now. Maestru longed to pull the pink crests of her nipples into his mouth, sucking the flesh between his fangs. He raked a fingernail over her tightened bud pebbling beneath his shirt, she arched into his hand with a loan moan, honing her blue eyes on him.

Naturally, he craved her blood, the pulling of her hot life force into his veins. Nonetheless, she was too weak, and luckily, Oycher took very little blood from her. “ Dakota, are you ready to take my shirt off your gorgeous body?” She chewed her lip while he worked her breast, sliding his thumb across the tightening peak as his leather-covered erection took its first swipe against her core.

“Give me a minute.” She slid those delicate fingers down his chest, stopping at the top button on his pants.

Releasing a growl, he tore his eyes away from her and punched a hole in his throat, with a protracted claw. Ignoring Dakota’s startled gasp, he drew her head to his neck. After a few shakes of her head, she welcomed the taste of her vampire. “That’s it. Enjoy me.” He locked one hand on her thigh and the other around the back of her head. This was his dream. Her consciously feeding from him, taking a part of him into her body while awakened. Damn, he wanted to do this every night. Come home to her and feed her as they coupled languidly in his bed or fiercely in his cellar. Only once had he ever felt this sort of possession for any other female.

When she made this little smacking sound while lifting her hips in welcoming, he nearly exploded. Purposefully, he’d kept his endorphins from his blood, wanting to experience her reaction to him, not his natural aphrodisiacs, and he was astonished when she drew him to her, digging her fingertips into his shoulders, pulling him closer. Upon Dakota’s next gyration, his blood thickened in his veins and a shot of pre-cum left his cock. Biting back a curse, he praised her openness, for no longer fighting what was between them. Whispering encouragements in her ear, he reveled in the intimate experience of Dakota consuming him for her sustenance.

When she whimpered, her thighs clenching around his hips in need, he stopped whispering his encouragements and made a startling vow. “I’m so selfish for wanting you, but I’m going to make you love me. Do you hear, Dakota?” Circling his tongue inside the shell of her ear, he managed to hold back his Master Species, though he was unable to hold back his threat, “I vow that I will never let you go.”