KateUndone (5 page)

Jesse removed the restraints from her wrists and ankles. He
rubbed her skin until the feeling came back, treasuring her, treating her like
a cherished mate.
The way he always had.
But he didn’t speak.

“Jesse?” she whispered, confused, ashamed and overjoyed all
at once. God, if what they’d said was true…

Jesse rolled onto her, levering his weight on his forearms.
She felt his hard cock against her belly and shivered under his intense stare.
“You hurt him, Kate.”

She didn’t like feeling this way. Lonely was bad enough, but
that she’d made Logan hurt pained her
guer
. To her astonishment, she
again felt the tentative reach of his animal energy and tried to pull him to
her. But he shied away, and she was left grasping nothing. Jesse, as usual,
remained closed to her.

“Go get him,” she said. “Please. I didn’t understand. I
thought you both wanted Vicki. And I was—I was jealous.” She swallowed hard.

“Logan needs time to cool off. He gets overemotional.
Besides, all that feeling bullshit gives me a rash.” Jesse’s eyes narrowed and
cruel amusement lingered around his mouth. “So you’ve been treating us like
trash because of Vicki.”

“Not exactly.” God, out loud like that, she sounded petty
and immature. “There was a lot more to it.” Her insecurities played out, but
that just made her sound self-involved.

“She’s our queen, Kate. Not our mate, our ‘love’ or the
future mother of our young.” Jesse removed the clamps from her breasts and
tossed them to the floor.

The rush of blood back to her nipples hurt, and she exhaled
on a moan. Jesse sucked a hard bud into his mouth. The pleasure nearly made her
come.

“I’d never do this to Vicki.” Jesse sucked the other nipple
before nipping it with a slight sting. “She’s not my responsibility.”

“Y-you slept with her.”

“Technically, no, I didn’t. I helped initiate her into the
pack.”

“Using sex,” Kate spat, totally losing her perspective at
thoughts of her mate with another woman. The thought of Jesse or Logan with any
other female made her want to kill.

“Kate, we’re Ravager. Nearly everything we do involves
fucking.” Jesse shook his head. “Hell, you want the details? I came down her
throat, once. Happy now?”

She wasn’t, but the fact he hadn’t planted his seed inside
the woman somewhat soothed the animal inside her.

“My
guer
grabbed onto hers, the same way Logan’s did,
and we held her for Eric. For our prime,” he emphasized and gripped her wrists
tight. “Have Logan or I given you a hard time about having sex with Diana’s
mate? Have we punished you for giving a human what clearly belongs to us?” he
growled.

She panted, scenting the violence and raw need riding Jesse
hard. “Wh-what?”

He ground against her, his body hot and unforgiving. Like
living steel caging her to the bed. She couldn’t move under him, and her
inability to maneuver him made her wet and wild, wanting more.

Jesse grinned at her with wicked intent. “You’re a lot more
like Vicki than you think, sweet,” he said, twisting the knife, and he knew it.
“So human, wanting
love
, wanting your mates to claim
you
.” Even
as he insulted her, he nuzzled her cheek, kissing and whispering words of
praise…at first. “So strong, so beautiful. So incredibly stupid.”

“
What?
”

“How hard would it have been to ask us what we wanted
instead of assuming?” Jesse roughly kneed her thighs wider.

She obeyed without thinking.

“Why couldn’t you have told your mates what you needed? Why
leave us floundering to find out on our own,
after
you ditched us?”

She writhed, caught in a voracious hunger. It didn’t help
matters when Jesse’s nails scored her wrists, the scent of her blood and his
skin a potent combination. “What’s wrong?” she taunted, unable to acquiesce too
easily. “Can’t handle the clan thinking you’re weak? That you can’t satisfy
your mate?”

Kate knew how much Ravagers respected strength, how much
they relished the challenge, because she felt the same. One thing she could say
about her mates. They weren’t easy, not in any way, shape or form. And even
though some part of her wanted to submit to Jesse and Logan, the warrior inside
her couldn’t. Her submission had to be taken, earned.

When Jesse bared fangs and his irises swallowed the slimming
band of his pupil, his
guer
staring out at her through dark brown eyes,
she knew she’d scored a direct hit. “You little bitch.”

Normally, Kate would have sliced off the balls of any man
who talked to her like that, but on Jesse’s lips,
bitch
came out as a
compliment.

His eyes glittered with barely suppressed excitement. His
thick cock was wet with arousal. “You want satisfaction? Let this satisfy you,”
he growled and plunged inside her. He slid through her easily, but his girth
made it a tight fit all the same.

He took her brutally, and she loved it. Because with each
push, he pressed deeper inside her. Working her, owning her. Jesse mastered her
body and her responses, claiming her the way she’d dreamed of being claimed.
Yet even through his rough taking, Kate saw the care he tried to hide in his fathomless
gaze. She could almost feel the love he held inside, though she knew he’d be
the first to deny himself capable of such soft emotion.

“No, not like this,” he rasped and withdrew, leaving her on
the verge of begging for more.

She wanted to cry, being denied his ultimate possession.
Until he flipped her onto her hands and knees and took her from behind. “Like
this, mate. You’re mine now.” Jesse buried himself balls-deep in her pussy. He
withdrew and slammed inside her again, hitting that spot that made her see
stars.

As his strokes pummeled her, he knocked her flat onto the
bed and grabbed her by the hair, drilling her with pure animal intensity.

“So good, oh yes, yes,” she cried as he dragged her orgasm
from her in a huge wail. The cathartic release eased the last wall inside her
preventing her from taking what belonged to her—what had always belonged to
her.

Her
guer
probed but found Jesse’s protective shields
still in place. Her Jesse, such a cautious warrior. But when he came a few
seconds later, she took the opportunity and stabbed between his inner walls.
Grabbing onto his
guer
and fusing it
with her own, she sealed the
bond between them.

“Oh fuck, shit.” He swore and ground into her, coming so
hard she felt her thighs slick with it. “Yes, baby. So good.”

It took Kate a minute to understand the sheer bliss she felt
wasn’t hers alone, but Jesse’s as well. The echo of pride, satisfaction and joy
arced through her with a masculine feel she recognized.

“Fuck, Kate. Why the hell have you been holding out so
long?” He rotated his shaft inside her and groaned, pumping a few more times
before he finally pulled out.

She had a hard time catching her breath. The minute Jesse
parted from her body, she felt his
guer
try to withdraw and held tight
until the wild animal relaxed, recognizing her.

A glance beside her showed him frowning.

“What’s wrong?” she asked softly.

“I feel weird.”

She snorted, too worn out to do more than relax into his
warmth as he pulled her closer. “You feel me.”

He blinked in surprise. “So you finally claimed me, huh?”

For all his bluster before about her leaving him behind, he
didn’t sound happy that she’d given him what he’d been asking for. “Jesse?”

“You’re a mess.” He sniffed and relaxed next to her, pulling
her into his warmth. “You smell like sex. Like me.”

She knew she needed to clean up, but he wouldn’t let her.

“Uh-uh. I like you this way. Soft, sexy and messy.”

Kate yawned. “We really should find Logan.”

“So you can apologize?” His arms tightened around her.

“Jesse—yes, okay? So I can apologize. Asshole,” she
muttered.

He chuckled. “Always knew you’d be a handful. Don’t worry
about Logan. He’ll be fine. Ravager needs to stop thinking like a woman and act
like a man.”

“Oh?”

He held her against his chest, ignoring the claws she dug
into his biceps. “Scratch me up, baby. Yeah, I like that,” he rumbled. “I like
a bit of pain, just like you. Logan likes everything to feel good, so we’ll
have to be gentle with him.”

As they lay together, her mind drifted to the three of them
in her own happily-ever-after. After a while, she said, “Do you think he’ll
forgive me? I never meant to hurt him. Or you.”

Jesse sighed. “The man is in love, Kate. Of course he’ll
forgive you. Though it wouldn’t hurt if you groveled a bit. We’ve had more than
a few fantasies of you on your knees, begging to make it up to us.”

“Jerk.”

“Bitch.”

“Yeah, but I’m your bitch.”

“You sure the hell are. Now go to sleep.”

She wanted to argue, but pushed past her limit, she promptly
fell asleep.

Chapter Four

Logan kicked a plastic bottle out of his way and swore under
his breath as he walked the halls of this shitty human hotel. A woman walking
back to her room at this late hour stared at him with wide eyes, her fear ripe
in the air.

“I’m not going to eat you,” he snapped and continued down
the hall, not pleased at her shriek as she scurried away.

The only woman he wanted to eat thought him a social
climber. Christ, how the hell could she think he’d want anything to do with
clan hierarchy? He’d gratefully left the prime’s pack just so he could be with
her. Her rejection hurt more than it should have, and not for the first time
did he consider Jesse might have the right of it.

Love didn’t fit the Ravager lifestyle.

Ravagers needed sex like they needed to breathe. Jealousy
had no part in their lives. Yet the thought of Kate with anyone but Jesse or
him bugged the shit out of Logan. He still wanted to pound Sean Morely into the
ground. The man was now happily mated to Kate’s sister, yet Logan couldn’t
forget the fact that Sean had fucked Kate. The woman who’d rejected Logan had
taken a human for a plaything.

How fucked up was that?

He growled and muttered to himself as he stalked past
another stupefied couple and made his way to the stairs. Descending a few
flights, he wondered again why Kate had chosen this hotel in midtown. Not all
the humans in Cross Step liked the Voiders who’d invaded their world. Rumors
swirled that a group of them had formed to exterminate any Voiders unlucky
enough to be caught alone and unaware. Just what he needed, to find himself
abducted by Voider-haters in the middle of midtown.

Annoyed with his own paranoia, Logan pushed open the door to
the fourth floor. He walked down the hall, wondering about his new pack and
when, if ever, he’d finally think of them as a family.

Jesse could be a pain in the ass, but he was solid. Though
the Ravager might never admit it, he loved Logan as much as he loved Kate.
Jesse didn’t do softness and feeling. His youth had been a warzone. Tender
emotion wasn’t the Ravager way, at least not in the homeworld. But here they
didn’t have to scavenge for every scrap of food or affection.

In Cross Step, a male didn’t have to hide his female for
fear she’d be taken from him, raped and killed if she failed to reproduce.
Ravagers could afford to feel something other than pride in a mate. Hell, look
how strong the prime’s pack was. All four of them loved the hell out of each
other.

Logan wanted that for himself, for Jesse and Kate. The
stubborn woman needed them. Jesse would temper her wildness, and Logan would
encourage her humor and her need to be free.

In retrospect, he knew it wasn’t fair to blame their
distance solely on Kate. Jesse was a hardcase, but Logan could have talked to
her. He could have tried to reason with her, to get her to see how much he
cared. But he’d been afraid she might not want him. Not wanting an answer he
wasn’t ready for, he’d left Kate alone, hoping she’d eventually come to them.

But she hadn’t. It had taken Jesse and his fuck-the-world
attitude to claim their mate.

Logan took a few deep breaths as he paced the empty hallway.
The darkness outside told him it was still too early for most humans to be up
and moving about. And much too late to undo what had already been done.

He needed to fix things, and feeling sorry for himself at
three or four in the morning in a crappy hotel in midtown wasn’t solving
anything.

He turned to make his way back to the stairs when the
familiar scent of blood hit him. Human blood. His
guer
perked up, and he
followed the scent to one of the rooms. Staring at the closed door, Logan had
second thoughts about intruding. But the idea of someone in trouble forced him
to intervene.

He banged on the door. “Hello? Anyone in there?”

He listened close but didn’t hear anything. Then the
doorknob turned and he stepped back, prepared for the worst. The pungent scent
of blood and entrails hit him hard, awakening his need to shift into his
guer
.
Past the room’s short hallway, he could see the lit bedroom. Dark red
handprints covered the white duvet of the bed. A small hand reached out to him,
hanging off the edge, the body smothering in pillows and rolled in a thick
blanket.

“What the hell?” He took two steps into the room when the
door slammed shut behind him and the sense of danger overwhelmed. Logan would
know that fucked-up scent anywhere. “Will Lawless,” he hissed. But before he
could do anything about it, something solid slammed into his head and he saw
nothing more.

* * * * *

Jesse sat up, breathing hard. His heart pounded and he felt
as if he’d just wakened from a nightmare. He looked beside him at the clock and
noted the hour. It was nearing eleven in the morning. He and Kate had slept the
night and the morning away. Little wonder after their marathon sexcapade.