CARNAL, The Beast Who Loved Me (34 page)

His head came up. She couldn’t make out his expression in the dark, but could tell that his eyes were shining. He, on the other hand, seemed to be studying her face, searching for something. What, she didn’t know.

He adjusted his hips and let her guide his cockhead to her entrance. She released her hold on him at the exact same moment he entered her, crying out at the sensation of intrusion and the pleasure of being filled deep and wide. She hoped the sounds of the storm would mask the noise she was making. She didn’t want to seem disrespectful of the household, especially not on a night such as this.

Carnal’s thrusts eventually became a slow and steady rhythm, guided by Rosie’s responses. He seemed to be hyper attuned to every move, sound, and breath. Rosie was aroused by the physicality of the lovemaking almost to the point of pain, but also by the primal noises Carnal made. When he stiffened, signaling release, he lifted himself above her and found her clit with the softest part of his thumb. Within seconds he’d coaxed a climax from her body so that she finished right after, reveling in both the orgasm and the warmth of his semen spilling inside her womb.

She wasn’t worried about pregnancy because she could control whether she conceived or not. Likewise, disease wasn’t an issue. She hadn’t mentioned it to Carnal, but during her time at Newland, she’d learned that Exiled could always tell if they were sick. At that point she knew enough about Carnal to trust that he wouldn’t take risks with her.

He collapsed on top of her, but moved most of his body to the side so that she wasn’t taking his full weight. He buried his face in her neck and began nuzzling. And purring. Against her skin, she felt his lips pull into a smile.

“Rosie,” he rumbled. “Mine.”

Her body shook with laughter at the textbook caveman statement. “You’re purring,” she said.

He rolled to her side, but left his arm over her waist. He gave her a light squeeze. “Mine.”

“You sound like a caveman, Carnal.”

“I’m not a man, Rosie. I’m a beast.” He nuzzled her ear, which managed to tickle and arouse her at the same time. “A beast who loves you.”

Rosie turned away and scooted back so that they were spooning. She grew drowsy with the sound and sensation of Carnal’s deep purr at her back, coupled with the sound of the rain lashing the windowpane. She wished she could freeze the moment in time because she was sure she would never feel so perfectly content again. “Yours,” she whispered as she clutched the muscled arm around her middle a little tighter. And she knew she’d never leave him so long as he needed her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sometime during the night, Carnal jerked awake so suddenly and violently that it shook Rosie instantly awake. She felt the unpleasant tingles from a spike of adrenaline, courtesy of the fraction of her genetic makeup that was human. “What’s wrong?” she asked, but he didn’t answer.

Carnal sprang from the bed and began pulling his pants on. Rosie sat up and looked around, trying to identify something that had caused the disturbance.

“Dad!” he screamed into the dark room.

“Carnal. What’s wrong?” she repeated. She fumbled for the oil lamp, but wasn’t good at lighting it in the dark. With building frustration, she said, “Damn thing!”

She could tell that Carnal stopped momentarily to look at her.

“We have to go now!” He sounded like he was part way to hysteria.

“Go where?”

He didn’t answer, but tore out of the room.

Rosie finally got the lamp to light, blew out the match, pulled her shift over her head, and went after Carnal.

By the time he’d opened the door of the room where he’d slept with Rosie and taken two steps toward the stairs, Free was there with Serene right behind. Charming had come down from the attic room and was standing on the bottom tread. Rosie stood at the threshold holding the lamp, taking in the scene of the strange nocturnal family meeting.

“We have to go now!” Carnal said to Free.

With a textbook inflection of déjà vu, Free’s brow crunched together as he said, “Go where?” It was clearly more than casual curiosity. Free looked seriously concerned about the wellbeing of his oldest son.

“To get Crave. We have to get everybody up and go now!”

Free’s shoulders slumped . “Carnal…”He started.

Carnal snarled. “Listen!”

Rosie watched the expression on Free’s face change from concerned to alert as understanding washed over him. Rosie had no idea what coded message had just passed between father and son. She looked at both Charming and Serene, but they looked every bit as clueless as she felt. Charming’s gaze flicked to Rosie’s questioning look and he shrugged to confirm that he had no idea either.

Free continued to stare at Carnal as they seemed to be conducting a wordless conversation with eyes alone. Abruptly Free ended the semi-mystical connection and turned to Serene.

“The rain,” he said, eyes darting around like he was processing a deluge of thoughts. Carnal nodded. “It’s raining over the wasteland.”

Serene cocked her head, still not grasping the implication any more than Rosie did.

“It’s impossible,” Free said. “If it was just us, then maybe. But we’re counting on the humans and their weapons. We don’t have a plan.” Free started shaking his head. “It can’t work.”

Carnal snarled loudly. “It will work. It has to.”

“I can’t stand it another minute. What are you talking about?” Rosie had taken two steps closer and held up the lamp.

Free and Carnal both turned toward her, but Carnal answered. “It’s raining on the wasteland. That hasn’t happened in decades. What it means for us is that we can surprise the Rautt. Wet sand means we won’t raise any dust.”

“By the time they know we’re coming, they won’t have time to prepare,” Charming offered.

“Exactly.” Carnal looked at his younger brother. “We get Crave out and then have the humans launch their missiles. We’ll raze the place to the ground.”

Serene’s eyes were wide and her hands had come up to cover her mouth.

“We haven’t prepared our people to fight with humans. More importantly, we haven’t prepared humans to fight with us,” Free said.

“No objection you can raise will equal the advantage we could gain from surprise.” Carnal stepped in to his father as if to emphasize his point. “And you know it.” A clap of thunder punctuated Carnal’s impassioned argument right on cue.

There was a tense silence while Free’s thoughts raced around in his head. When he looked at Serene, she nodded, her eyes bright with tears at the prospect of freeing Crave.

“Let’s do it, Dad,” Carnal said quietly.

Free looked at Charming. “Go wake the elders. Tell them I said to get every able-bodied fighter ready to go to Farsuitwail. We leave in an hour.”

Charming whirled around for the steps but Carnal pulled him to a stop. “Go to Dandy first. Tell her to look for Easy at the gate. She can ride with him. My crew will look after her.”

Charming looked confused. “She’s not a fighter.”

Carnal’s expression softened. “She deserves to be first to know. There’s no point in debating whether or not she should go. I don’t think anything could keep her from going.” He looked at Rosie. “You’ll understand when you find your mate.”

When Carnal released Charming, he took the steps to the attic room four at a time and was gone in a flash.

Free had cringed and looked at Carnal apologetically. “Glad you thought of that. I would have felt bad later to know she’d heard at the same time, in the same way as everybody else. My thoughts must be scattered. I’m counting on you to keep me straight.” He reached out and squeezed Carnal’s shoulder.

Next Free turned his attention to Rosie and said, “Get dressed. You’re going to help us get the humans ready.” He looked at Carnal. “Make your crew responsible for getting everybody in rotation to the gate and ready to go in an hour. Trainees, too.”

“Trainees?” Carnal scowled.

“We’ll put them on patrol north of the city. It’ll be their job to make sure that, if there are any Rautt sympathizers, they don’t get a message out. After you get your crew ready, go to the city. Find out where the mayor lives. Get him up and let him know that we’re taking the fight to the Rautt today. Get him to come up with a plan for waking the humans who know how to use the weapons and getting them ready to go by early morning. With luck, the rain will continue and make the morning dark longer. Chances are, since the Rautt have never been attacked, they don’t even have guards posted.”

“Somebody in Farsuitwail is in contact with them.”

“But it’s apparently somebody who doesn’t know about the humans’ plan to attack or the Rautt would have already come to destroy the facilities and kill a new generation of educated humans.”

Carnal nodded, looking like he’d gained a valuable insight. “All the humans don’t know. They don’t even trust each other.”

“By the time you have a plan in place with the mayor, we’ll have the trainees watching the north of the city. Take the mayor to City Hall and wait for us there. We’ll meet at the park.”

“I’ll take Rosie with me. She can help manage the humans.”

Rosie looked at Serene. “Who’s going to watch the kids at the Weavers’ Barn?”

Serene was clearly touched at Rosie’s concern. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll be leaving more people behind this time because it’s a bigger risk. Mothers of the really young, the disabled, there will be people to take care of them.”

“Okay, then.” Rosie hurried to get ready. As Carnal passed his own room on the way to Crave’s room, where he’d been staying intermittently, he ducked in, and grabbed Rosie as she was hurriedly pulling on her riding clothes. He kissed her like his life depended on it, then said, “You’re riding with me, little demon. I’ll be back for you in fifteen minutes.”

“But…”

“Mine. Rosie.”

“Yeah. We established that last night, but…”

“Fifteen minutes.”

He let her go and moved so fast he practically vanished, taking his warmth with him.

“Bossy,” she yelled after him.

Carnal never said anything he didn’t mean. To him fifteen minutes meant exactly that, not a second more or less. Rosie barely had time to wash the sleep out of her eyes and brush her teeth before Carnal had returned to pull her downstairs.

“Mom!” he yelled on the way down. “She needs something to keep the rain off. She’s fragile.”

“I’m not fragile,” Rosie protested, but he ignored her. She supposed she needed to keep up pretenses and pretend that she was. After all, her cover was that she was human.

They stopped at the closed door to Free’s and Serene’s bedroom. Abruptly the door opened. “I have this. It hasn’t been worn since it was rewaxed.” Serene shoved a duster at Rosie. It was split in the back for riding. It was big on her, of course, but would do a fine job of keeping her covered. It also had a hood with a rope string she could tie under her chin.

“Yeah,” Carnal said. “It’ll do.”

“What about the rest of you?” Rosie asked. “It’s cold out there. And with the rain…”

“Don’t worry about us, lit…” He stopped himself just short of calling her demon, as she’d warned him he would. “We’re hardy.” He touched her nose in a playful way, which was so out of keeping with the monumental event at hand.

Pulling on the coat at the front door, she said, “You seem in a good mood.”

Carnal grinned as he took it on himself to personally tie the hood under her chin. “I am in a good mood. We’re going to get my brother back.”

When he opened the door, Rosie could see that, even in the dark, through the pouring rain, unbelievable as it was, the settlement was already bustling with people preparing to muster for the pre-battle journey to Farsuitwail.

The motorcycle shed wasn’t far. Rosie had never been there. Seeing it for the first time, she realized that, like the Weavers’ Barn, it was misnamed. A hundred and forty-three motorcycles looked like a sea of bikes when they were all together in one place. Carnal walked right to his, while Rosie noted that he was parked in a prestigious spot near the entrance. His crew member, Yellow, was there, waiting next to Carnal’s bike, already astride his own. There were three dozen Exiled in the shed fueling bikes with hoses running from huge wooden drums.

“Am I ready?” Carnal asked one of them.