Soul Enslaved (Sons of Wrath Book 3) (35 page)

“Gavin, seriously—”

“I won’t tell you again. Relax.”

He slid her gown all the way up to her belly, and Sabelle flinched when he kissed her navel. Slipping his fingers inside the strings of her panties, he pushed the fabric in a slow glide down her thighs, his tongue already puckering as her beautiful sex lay exposed before him.

***

A sharp exhale blew across Sabelle’s sensitive flesh as she waited. Waited for whatever the man planned to do with her while spread out before him like a feast.

“Gods, woman, you are a vision of perfection.”

His warm breath feathered against her skin, and goosebumps broke along her body. She instinctively lifted her hands off the pillow.

“Keep your hands where I told you.” Gavin’s flat, commanding voice issued a warning.

She lay, waiting. Anticipating. Wondering. Shriveling a little. The longer she waited, the more excited she became, though. Did he watch her? Was he staring at her body? She shifted on the bed and cleared her throat.

“Getting ancy?”

“A little.”

His knuckles brushed her skin at her breastbone, and a moment later, cool air hit her nipples as the unbuttoned front of her nightgown peeled back. Lips clamped down on her breast, and Sabelle’s mouth parted, her back arching into him as she released a soft moan. He tickled and teased her nipple to a hard nub, the sensitivity shooting pangs of lust straight to her core. A brief moment lapsed, and he imparted the same attention to the other nipple. Much as she felt the urge to tangle her hands in his hair, she didn’t. She kept them at her sides, as he’d told her. She could’ve damn near come from that alone.

Except that he stopped.

Seconds passed and she yearned for his touch. The resonating tickle of her nipples left her bowing her back to keep her breasts out. Pert.

A kiss brushed her leg, and a warm wet tongue glided across her skin, before he gave a soft bite of the joint at the apex of her thighs. Sabelle jumped, and a quiet moan passed her lips. He did the same to her other thigh, and though she’d expected it that time, her muscles still recoiled at the nip of his teeth.

Fingers pressed into each petal of flesh and spread her open. Laying her exposed. Completely. The imagined bird’s eye visual excited the shit out of her, as cool air danced across her sensitive skin, and she rolled her hips.

Gavin’s warm silky tongue slid across her nub and Sabelle cried out.

“Holy fuck!”

The sensation disappeared for seconds, then another lap, that time the tip of his tongue flicking against it, feather-light and teasing, creating trembles through her thighs. Maddening. She writhed, lifting her arms again, only to slam them back onto the pillow.

“You taste ambrosial,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Like nectar from the gods.”

His lush lips sucked where he’d licked, and his tongue dipped into the folds. Licking. Sucking. Flicking. Teasing. The agony, an overwhelming need to be filled, had her pushing off the bed. Sabelle rolled her head back against the pillow, and a long, tormented moan echoed inside her mind, as he slid a finger inside her. He pumped and curved his finger, the combination of that and his tongue forcing Sabelle to cry out.

Flames seared her muscles, as she clung to the sensations. The tension inside her mounted, burned, climbing toward something she knew would be extraordinary. Her stomach tightened and relaxed, tightened and relaxed in pulses, as each lap of his tongue dragged her closer to the edge.

“I want you to shatter in my mouth, Sabelle.” He kissed and licked, still pumping his finger in and out.

A beat of stillness followed, and wet tickling danced along her clit before sliding inside and curving upward, where he nailed the jackpot.

“Oh, fuck!” Sabelle arched into his mouth, as his tongue did wicked things to her senses.

“D … d… don’t sssssssoh. Gods. Oh, gods, Gavin!”

Climbing, climbing, she hung on to what little thread she could, before her body snapped, and Sabelle went flying straight into ecstasy.

A bomb went off inside her head, in a flash of light. Her body exploded in a rush of absolute pleasure, the heat spreading out to her limbs like a shockwave.

She called out his name over and over, whether aloud or in her own mind, Sabelle wasn’t certain, but the sensation kept on. Wave after glorious wave and wetness slid down her thighs.

An ache burrowed in her stomach and detonated into full-blown hunger. Something deep within tugged her throat, as if she had no control over her breaths. Lips parted, she lay almost paralyzed, as the empty space deep inside her body filled with nothing more than air, in spite of its craving for souls.

Breathing deeply, she pushed the ravenous sensation away and opened her eyes to the blackness of the blindfold. Smiling. Wanting to giggle like a fool. Her thighs trembled, still splayed to the side from weakness.

“Holy shit, Sabelle! I’ve never seen anything like that before!” He lapped at her sex once more, and another explosion rocked her body. “So sensitive,” he mumbled against her flesh. “Taste so good.”

“Gavin, please! It’s building again. I can’t …” She tore away the blindfold.

He lifted his head, and his brows came together. “Your eyes … they’ve turned violet. They’re … beautiful.”

She smiled. “Then, it’s official. I’ve reached renoshza. Without taking life.”

He dipped his head between her thighs.

“What are you doing?”

“Prolonging the celebration. I want an encore.”

***

Ayden sat on the edge of the bed, watching the boy’s eyelids flutter. His pain seemed to have abated as morning drew closer.

Sensing a presence, she twisted to find Kane leaning against the door.

Arms crossed, his gaze fell on the young lycan. “How is he?” He didn’t bother to approach them.

She returned her attention back to the boy. “Stable right now. Had a pretty rough night, though.”

“You know, what happened back at the church. I’d never hurt him. I don’t know what that was, but I’d never hurt him.”

“I know. I just wanted to make sure you did.” She huffed. “He’s having nightmares. Talking in his sleep. His parents … must’ve been attacked by wolves.”

“Could be the wolf that bit him.”

She frowned and gave a glance back. “Yeah. You know what eats at me? What if I’d stumbled upon him a year ago? Would I have killed him?”

“Don’t punish yourself, Ayden. You can’t change what you were a year ago. Only what you’ll be tomorrow.”

She smiled. “Wow. Did you come up with that all by yourself?”

A flash of white shone with his smile. “You like that?”

Ayden cocked a brow, eyes roving Kane’s tight form, from shoulders down to his small waist, which boasted the dimensions of a man who worked out religiously. “I think—”

The boy moaned before his eyes flipped open. Wide. His eyeballs did a quick one-two across the room, and he shot backward, mouth agape in a silent scream. Just as Kane’s had done in his early transformation, the boy’s legs must’ve gone fragile. His upper body showed little pockets of muscle along his arms. Muscles that shouldn’t even
be
honed on a ten year old, which only made Ayden hate what’d been done to him even more.

“Where am I?” His chest rose and fell in panting breaths.

“You’re safe. I’m Ayden.” She jerked her head back. “That’s Kane. He’s lycan, just like you.”

His eyes shifted, as if all his memories arrived in one overwhelming chunk. “I … I … I’m one of them?”

“This sounds familiar.” She shot Kane a quick smile before nodding toward the boy. “What’s your name?”

“Rome.”

“Like the city?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“Where’s your mom and dad?”

He cast his gaze downward, fingers fidgeting in the sheets. “Dead.”

“Any other family?”

A shake of his head summoned an ache in her heart. She’d come across a lot of kids on the streets, most of them runaways, meaning they
had
someone, they just preferred not to be there.

“You’ve been on the streets by yourself?”

He nodded. “I have a friend. Barret. He’s lycan. Told me, if I wanted to stay on the streets, I’d have to become one.” His shoulders slumped, telling her he probably hadn’t wanted to. “What’s going to happen to me?”

Kane shadowed her side, a flicker of pain dancing across his face.

“In seven days you’ll change,” Ayden said. “It’ll be painful, at times.” She reached for his hand but, when he withdrew, rested it beside him.

“I … I want to go.”

“You’re safe here, Rome. No one will hurt you. We’ll help you get through your change and when seven days is up, you can decide where you’d like to be.”

“They’ll find me.”

“They won’t. The people who own this house won’t let them near you.”

“Who owns it?” Rome asked.

She held onto his hand. “Something much stronger.”

***

Screams woke Calix from dreams, and he nabbed the dagger from his nightstand and shot out of bed, racing into the next room. The Alexi soldier he’d saved from the Sang thrashed on the floor, must’ve fallen out of bed, and his wounds had opened again, evident in the blood smeared across the sheets.

At Calix’s approach, he stilled, and whispers from the soldier carried across the room in a chant.

“
The boy has the journal. Find it, and we shall not perish. The journal has the cure. Penwell. He’ll destroy it. No one will be safe. The horde is coming
.”

Calix came to a stop beside him, staring down a moment before he knelt alongside the soldier, setting the dagger beside him.

The soldier’s eyes remained opened, but his pupils were so dilated his entire eyeball appeared black, aside from the golden rims. When threatened, the Alexi soldiers’ eyes changed, much the same way that Calix’s turned red. “The boy. He stole it. In the raid.”

“Who?” Calix asked.

“On the streets. The boy. The cure is in his hands.”

“Cure to what?”

“
Sang
,” the Alexi hissed.

“What journal?”

“Alexi journal.” The soldier continued to stare off, as if in a trance. “Wade’s. I took it. When the Alexi compound went up in flames. Stole it. Penwell wants it. In the minds, evil is at work.” His words arrived as rapid bursts, in spite of his golden, dilated pupils.

“Whose minds?” Calix tipped his head.

The male’s eyelids clamped shut, his lips forming a tight line, as if a round of pain had struck him. “All of us. Were hunted. We didn’t know.”

Keeping with his half-conscious interrogation, Calix asked, “Who?”

“Alexi.” The soldier’s eyes grew wide. “I’ve said too much.”

“It’s okay. You can trust me.”

“No. This information is classified. Only the Alexi.”

Calix scrubbed his face. Calla. He might talk to Calla. Lifting him up onto the bed resulted in a howl of pain, the male planking in Calix’s arms before he set him down on the mattress. “I’ll be right back.”

He shot down the hall to Logan’s room and knocked on the door. Dangerous, but Calix didn’t care—the Alexi soldier might know where to find Ava. He knocked again and heard a roar of anger from inside.

Logan threw back the door, eyes red, a towel covering his naked bottom half. “This better fuckin’ be good.”

“I need Calla.”

“What for?” He threw a glance over his shoulder. “She’s busy.”

“It’s okay, Logan.” Calla sidled up beside him, cheeks flush, wearing one of Logan’s shirts.

“Calla, the Alexi I brought home, he’s talking about a journal. Wade. Penwell. He won’t tell me anything else.” Calix tried to keep the urgency out of his voice, but damn, the soldier hadn’t talked in a couple of days. “Says its classified Alexi.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Logan’s lip soured to what would be the equivalent of a pout, if the guy pouted. Instead, it just looked like he was pissed off.

“Sorry, bro. I just want her back.”

Scratching his chin, Logan gave a nod and retreated back inside, kissing Calla as she slipped past him in a pair of shorts with Logan’s shirt.

Both hustled back to the room, where the Alexi still whispered. Calix walked ahead, tiptoeing across the floor, until he reached the side of the bed. “I have an Alexi soldier who wants to talk to you.”

The soldier’s eyebrow lowered to a relaxed state, and Calix stepped aside to allow Calla forward.

The guy’s eyes widened to popping point as he released a blood-curdling scream. “Keep her away! She’s one of them! Get her away from me! Oh, God!” His gaze shifted, landing on Calix’s lower half. The soldier shot up like a bullet, hand already reaching for Calix’s weapon, and before Calix could stop him, he slid the dagger across his own throat.

Blood spurted into Calla’s face, and arms flinging out, she screamed.

The soldier slid to the floor again, as Logan punched through the door. Dagger drawn, he ended the soldier’s sufferance with a pop of his blade to the skull.

“’The fuck, man!” Calix pushed him back. “He didn’t hurt her!”

Chest heaving, Logan’s eyes widened, and he scrubbed a hand down his face. “Fuck. I heard her scream. Saw blood.”

“He slit his own throat.” An air of sadness carried in Calla’s tone. “I recognize him. From Ryke’s dungeon. One of the Alexi I was forced to feed off of. Paul.” Her eyes filled with tears. “He thought I wanted to feed.”

“I’m so sorry, Calla. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have brought him here. I shouldn’t have called you in here.”

“It’s okay, Calix. I know you want to find Ava.”

“If what he said is true …” Calix bowed his head. “I might be too late.”

CHAPTER 14

Gavin pushed through his home office door and slammed to a stop. For years, he’d come bounding through his office, looking for solace. Escape. Room to breathe.

On the couch beside the bookshelf, Sabelle lay sleeping, TJ and Janie sprawled across her chest. He padded quietly across the room, coming to a stand beside them. Janie’s fingertips rested against Sabelle’s cheek, as he’d seen once before—a comfort. Wearing almost a smile as she slept, Sabelle seemed contented, which forced a half smile from Gavin.

Why they’d chosen his office, out of all the many bedrooms in the house, he didn’t know. There was nothing particularly cozy about the leather, but the gesture matched his frame of mind. Even so, sharing the three of them in his small haven felt … right. Their presence only added to the tranquility of his surroundings.