Sanibel Surrender Vampire Werewolf Menage (Fanged Romance Series Book Five) (26 page)

She gasped. “For me? You're putting it on me?”

“Yes,” Ail replied. “Heath pierced your clitoral hood before he took you. The slight pain is over and it will slide right in, if you’re accepting. For centuries, males have foregone this tradition. Recently, Rock reestablished it with his beloved mate. It’s a specific piece marked for possession, but it also aids in sexual stimulation. Can you imagine how much pleasure you would receive when wearing it? When we brush up against you as we ride you hard or suckle your swollen clit?”

Molly looked between the two of them, both staring back at her with utter adoration. “Yes, please, I want this.” She nodded. “Thank you.”

With careful movements, Heath eased her own boring inside the fresh hole he’d made with his canines, and it didn’t hurt one bit. Ail, with a look of pure pride, flicked it around with the back of his claw. She felt a jolt all the way to her womb. She groaned, thrashing her head back and forth, her long hair sliding off the edges of the table. “We’ll never get pertinent things taken care of, if you keep that up.”

Mason called from the hallway, “Fuckall, Ail, we’ve all been trying to call you!”

“Don’t step another foot closer or I’ll have to kill you. I’m done with everybody putting their eyes on what’s mine!”

His footsteps slowed. “With the way you guys have been going at it night and day, no one’s demanding Rights to Mate anymore. Anyway, something has changed and we’ve been called to a Joint Faction Meeting. Hell, we should’ve shown up at Marco Island fifteen minutes ago.”

The seriousness of the moment washed over her, casting a shadow on the pleasure they just shared. “Are you going to be okay, Ail? Can I come with you?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine No, you cannot attend, but thanks for that show of support.” He closed those navy blues for a moment. “You’re always supporting me. I want to deserve you every day. Somehow, I will.”

“You will? You
do
,” she said, leaning up to pull him in for the tightest hug she could muster. He wrapped those big arms around her. “I meant what I said. I’m falling for you, Ail Ruyter.”

He pulled back, brushing her hair from her eyes in a smooth caress. “I knew you couldn’t resist me, Molly Ballbuster.” After a gentle kiss, he whispered, “I gotta get to this meeting.” He shrugged with a forced casualness. “My second one, so it’s old hat, right?”

“Right,” she said with the same forced casualness, watching as he misted away. She heard him rummaging in the back bedroom, obviously dressing before he left. She forced it back, clenching her hands on her lap.

After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, Heath kissed her knee. “He’s gone now, lass.” Without another word, he cradled her tightly against his chest – her safe haven, and Molly simply broke down.

***

If the Vampyr Vojaks insinuated to Heath that they were going to get to the bottom of this Extol thing, they sure weren’t backing their pretty promises with words. But what did he expect? An absolution wasn’t going to happen, and in a few days, he would be forced into a Blood for Blood court, the same as dying.

The Gryph’s widow showed up, baring her fangs at him every time he looked her way. So he stopped looking. It wasn’t his fault that her dumbass mate struck a deal with the dark side, not that any side in the vampire world was, indeed, light. But even they had some type of lines they shouldn’t cross, right? At least, that was a logical notion. A sense of decency and morality wasn’t that hard to dig up so long as you looked in the right place.

He took a deep breath, sitting on his claws. Bane was arguing with Maestru, when in walked who Ail figured could only be the Prince of Vampires. All Vampyr Vojaks immediately dropped to the floor, kneeling on one knee, immediately contrite. It was a sight to remember. And if he wasn’t so nauseas, he would have laughed. Maestru, on the other hand, only bowed his head. Ail figured it was a show of ranking, but, right now, he couldn’t give two shits.

Ignoring everyone, the prince approached Ail. He would never bow to anyone other than his Alpha – and Jayce never required that of his Pack males – so he stayed seated. He wouldn’t beg someone for his life if he knew, in fact, that creature would still refuse him. And his inborn Were refused to grovel at a vampire’s feet, no matter who that vampire was.

When they were sharing the same breath, the vampire lowered his weird eyes, their color similar to butterscotch, and raked him from head to toe. “You killed one of my Gryphs and severely crippled the other. And you have the gall to sit before me while I stand.”

Ail waited a beat, figuring Prince Volos had something to add to that but he stayed quiet. When he opened his mouth, Bane interjected. “Whose orders do your Gryphs follow, Prince Volos?”

The prince spun, hissing in the way of vampires, his power crackling like a livewire. When he reached Bane, a thunderous yet familiar voice resounded in the small, underground cavern. “I was just about to ask the same thing.” Jayce Jordan walked in, his stance deceptively casual. “Volos, I’m wondering why you would hold a meeting without inviting me. But, hey, I’ve been wondering a lot of things lately, when it comes to you.”

Ail could have sworn he saw the devil himself flash behind Volos’ eyes, but it could have been the lighting. “You did not receive notice due to your queen’s current fragility. Why would you attend?”

“She may be grumpy, but she’s far from fragile.” Jayce turned his back on Volos in a blatant show of disrespect and… confidence. After all, who wouldn’t be afraid of the Prince of Vampires poised at your back? “You okay, Ail?”

Ail cleared his throat, rising to stand but Jayce waved away his effort. “Yes, I’m fine,” he lied and everyone could probably smell it. He wasn’t exactly afraid of dying, knew that Heath would take care of his Molly. Simply, Ail wanted to spend the rest of his immortal life with her, sparring with her and making babies. She wasn’t the only one who had fallen hard. He had, too. And he should have had the courage to admit this to her before coming here. “Thank you for attending, Alpha Jordan.”

“No need for thanks, my man,” Jayce said with an easy smile. “It’s what I do.”

Bane would never talk mind to mind in deep-shit situations, figuring the vampires could listen in, and he always blocked Ail. So he reached out to his Alpha. If anyone else besides the Beta Beast could hear Ail, it would be Jayce. He projected his thoughts, just as Jayce turned to Volos.
Tell Molly that she’s the most ornery female I’ve ever met. And even though she doesn’t always listen to what I tell her to do, I wouldn’t change a thing about her. I –I love her and she should know. And if something happens to me now or in the next few days, I want her to remember
us
as good thing.

Jayce looked over his shoulder, his eyes flashing the Alpha Beast. “You are going to relay that message personally. Now, Prince Volos, back to the Gryphs,” he said with a nod towards the vampiress. “You might want to excuse the widow. Some things are hard to hear, especially about the ones you love. Or in her case, possessed.”

When Oycher made a move to collect the vampiress and herd her out of the Joint Faction Facility, she gripped one of his daggers made from ancient, Habaline ore and came after Ail with all she had. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he wasn’t going down at a vampiress’ hand. He couldn’t shame his family that way. Oycher gripped her just as Ail kicked out, but the flimsy chair hampered his move and metal bolts flew in all directions. In a blue blur, Jayce had the female by the throat, holding her out as she fruitlessly kicked at him. With a scowl on his face, Jayce asked, “Who has her leash?” Oycher came up to her, bit her throat, and misted her away.

Once again, Jayce faced Volos. “You don’t care what happens to her, do you?”

Volos turned nearly purple. “How dare you.”

“How dare I?” Jayce mocked. “Even though you and I have had a long-distance acquaintance, I always felt comfortable with you since you and my father got along alright.” Jayce’s lip curled when he said, “But I’m not comfortable anymore.”

“Over a youngling, you would degenerate centuries of harmony?” Volos hissed, tossing his blond hair over his shoulders.

“Unlike your kind, I will back each and every member of my Pack. The werewolves and mixed bloods who have trusted in me to care for them and their generations, to look over them, to hand them loving discipline when they get out of line. I take my position seriously, just as my father did before me.”

“I see where this is leading and I am more than surprised that you would challenge me to a Death Match, when you have an Alpha Youngling on the way, your Pack’s next leader.”

“Firstly, and I say this with all due respect, I’m not too concerned about the outcome of any Death Match with you. Still, if in this hypothetical match, things don’t go accordingly for me, my mates will raise my Alpha Youngling in the way I would raise him myself. And I’ve made provisions for any possible circumstance. Funny about sons, isn’t it? You would do anything for them, even before they’re born. But I don’t have to tell you that - do I?

“I’ll take you word for it as I’m still unmated.”

“Yeah, it’s a little different for the Dynasty Vampyr as opposed to a Species vampire, though. Whereas a Species has a fated Bride, you can choose and bring your own female to your way of
eternal
life. Mate them the way a Species takes his one and only Bride. Or not. You can choose lovers and procreate wherever, whenever. I guess that suits royalty, the ability to choose among many.”

“Your point.”

“My point is that we will bring your bastard
son
, Extol, down. Now, I suggest you drop this ridiculous Blood for Blood trial against Ail.”

He sputtered. “You can prove nothing!”

“Not only will I challenge you, I will make sure all factions know the years you’ve covered up Extol’s and many other Dynasty Vampyrs’ self-inflicted sickness. Even
vampires
want a leader who can protect them, but what if he doesn’t protect them from themselves? Yeah, I know all about it. Unfortunately, my sister by mating was caught in the middle of his psychotic life, but you knew all along, didn’t you? Cover up after cover up, daddy wiped Extol’s dripping claws.”

Jayce addressed Ail, “You know Dynasty Vampyrs can only drink from Donors, a classification usually made up of mixed bloods who the Dynasty Vampyrs receive their sustenance. Problem is they are so very rare. Centuries ago, and I have this straight from Alpha Ciaran’s records, Extol experimented, trying to create Donors to feed the Dynasty Empire. His expenditures funded by Volos himself. Of course, like all things creepy, Extol’s plan backfired.”

“This is nonsense!” Volos screamed.

“Hush, now,” chided Jayce. “I’m not finished. In the process, Extol and many others drank from those other than Donors, keeping the humans and mixed bloods alive by feeding them Dynasty Blood as anti-venom. Sometimes it works, right? Other times,” Jayce said with a negligent shrug, “not so much. So many, many innocents died in the process. But what was even more frightening was that Extol and the other Dynasty Vampyrs became deranged form drinking non-Donor blood. All those years ago, it was swept under the rug. Recently, you tried to do the same, covering up for his addictive bloodlust. And what has that cost you? More lives have been lost. And for what? Your pride?” Jayce pointed at Ail. “You would execute one of my werewolves to cover up your deranged son’s behavior, take away his life so Extol can run free to kill again. What kind of leader are you?”

“I tried…” Prince Volos said wearily.

“If you tried something
right
, it would have worked. But you’re going to stop this now, and you’re going to drop these fraudulent charges against Ail Ruyter. Or you’ll face me one on one. You may be the Prince of Vampires, but I guarantee, you’ve never fought anything like me.”

“It’s a trap,” Volos said, clenching his teeth.

“What did you say?” Ail growled. “What’s a trap?”

“He took her clothes…made her think she was having a job interview.”

“We know the historical museum is a trap,” Ail snapped. “And we have a kickass counterplan.”

Prince Volos closed his eyes. “It won’t work if the historical museum isn’t the actual trap.”

Explosions.

Three to be exact.

Heath’s hands came high over her shoulders as he pressed her to the cobblestone sidewalk, where Bane’s property joined the compound. Molly angled her head, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening. She saw Rune’s frantic face, as he called for his brother, pitted against the oddly blue fire behind him. He was in mid-transformation with blood quickly saturating his shirt. Molly hearing was going in and out, though there was a distinct ringing.

She remembered Heath walking next to her as they veered toward the main building of the werewolf compound. They were headed towards Ail’s car in a rendezvous with Arian and his brothers to do their part in the counterplan against Extol. “Heath,” she said as loudly as she could, though it came out as a desperate whisper. “Can’t you get…off me? I’m fine.” He was too heavy, and she tried to ease from under him.

“You’re not alright, lass,” he said, cursing loudly. “Give me a minute. I have to get you to safety, and I cannot sense where the worst of the fires are.” What he wasn’t saying is that he didn’t know where the next explosion might erupt.

She blinked several times, her lashes sticking together, though she wore no makeup. There was someone down at the steps that led to the long, wooden walkway which trailed the marsh, and his limbs were back in a way she knew that he was dead. Bile rose in her throat. “Heath,” she nearly choked on the words, “is this Extol’s depravity in action…could he have done this?” A searing pain went through her stomach, just as another explosion rocked the compound. In its ground-jolting wake, she heard the muffled sounds of someone calling out clipped orders and a grumbling series of growls.