The Lord of Near and Nigh: Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 2) (40 page)

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened?”

“He proposed.”

“And what? You said no?”

Lily fires me a sly, teasing smile. “As a matter of fact I haven’t answered him yet.”

“What? Fucking
ouch
.”

“For him or you?”

“Me. Who gives a fuck about him?” I say, grinding my hands together.

“Exactly. Remember that when you meet him. He’s no one you need to give a fuck about.”
 

Lily slips her hand along my thigh, brushes her fingernails across my cock. I can’t help myself: my cock stiffens and a growl rumbles way in the back of my throat. “Did you fuck him?”

Lily squeezes my cock hard enough it stings. “What do you think, Mr. Outlaw?”

“When? When was the last time you fucked him?”

“Oh, I dunno. Yesterday?”

“Yeah? Yesterday?” The fucking bitch. My blood pounds in my ears. “Did Mr. Rich fuck you like you need it?”

“Yeah,” Lily whispers in my ear. “The hot rich guy fucked me good and hard.”

My cock throbs with heat and my throat tightens because mixed up in my desire to slam my cock into this mouthy little slut is jealousy and hatred and fear and embarrassment—all these nasty things swirling my blood into a toxic stew, driving me out of my mind, and even if I know she’s playing me it doesn’t matter, the rich motherfucker means less than nothing…but thinking of
her
with him, my girl, my marked
bloodmate
…well, that’s a mind fuck like I’ve never known, and so my rational mind shuts down and my body acts: I rip Lily’s hand from my throbbing cock, grip her throat, push her hard to the ground and hold her there.
 

She gives a little yelp that’s muffled by how hard I’m squeezing her throat and her eyes widen and she’s startled and maybe even a little afraid, because my fucking claws are dropping, pressing into the soft skin around her windpipe…but there’s also a challenge in how she looks at me, the fucking bitch, and way back in my head I know she intentionally teased me into this, got my anger up because a part of her
likes
having her throat squeezed, likes me holding her down, and that makes me even more pissed off, makes me want to show her I’m not to be fucked with, makes me want to teach her a fucking lesson—

“You fucking slut,” I growl in Lily’s ear while I press her head to the floor and use my other hand to tear her legs open. She struggles and bucks against me, trying to break my grip, and my cock’s fucking rock hard at the thought of taking her—

“Did he fuck you like this? Did he? Like you need it?”

Lily brings her knee into my crotch, mostly getting inner thigh but just grazing my left nut. The pain makes my stomach twist. The fucking bitch. I squeeze her throat with one hand and wrap my arm around her thigh with the other, forcing her legs open.
 

She’s strong, no doubt, but right now I’m stronger, my wolf fucking howling with jealousy and rage and the need to prove what’s his, and when Lily’s legs part I see the wet slip of her pretty cunt ready for me and the warm scent her reminds me of an evening thunderstorm, electric energy buzzing in the air, trees burning on the hillsides from lightning strikes, and as I steer my swollen cock toward her she rakes her fingernails across my cheek hard enough to draw blood and that fucking does it, the silly cop bitch has
no idea
what she’s toying with.
 

I lift my head to the ceiling and howl, then smack her hard across the cheek.
 

The smack echoes in the room and Lily claws at me again, kicking and lifting her hips, putting up a damned good fight, and the more she struggles and resists the more I want her, so I smack her again, harder, and this time I feel her go soft beneath me so I loosen my grip on her throat and lean real close to her ear and say, “You’re mine. You’re fucking
mine
. Say it. Say you’re mine.”

Lily laughs, digs her long red claws into my back.

I roar and press my hips onto her, pinning her down, then grab my belt, grip her wrists and tighten the belt around them. Lily’s breathing in short quick gasps and her face is flushed and her lips hot and swollen and I feel the moist heat of her cunt sliding along my throbbing cock but she tries to scoot out from under me, still resisting, so I grab the belt that’s wrapped tight around her wrists and use it like a handle to hold her beneath me, then in one hard unforgiving motion I thrust my cock into her so hard my balls slam against her asshole, and that gets her, the fucking cop bitch, she shrieks and tosses her head from side to side and then I pinch and tug at her hard nipples, the animal in me desperate to fill her with his seed, and the second thrust is even harder than the first—
 

Lily’s eyes squeeze shut and then I’m fucking her so hard every thrust makes her scream and moan and bite her lips and dig her claws into my pecs, shoulders, arms.
 

I kiss her then, tasting her blood, and the fucking bitch drops fang and bites at me, our blood mingling in our mouths and I feel my come building deep in my gut, a burst of primal heat that makes me roar, and then my cock throbs so sharp it stings as my hot come laces into her. Lily pushes up into me, her cunt squeezing around me, the little slut greedy for every drop of my seed, and our bodies go rigid against one another as we come and I have Lily pinned to the floor between my cock and my mouth and the belt tight around her wrists.

She’s mine, I fucking
know
she is, and as the last surge of liquid heat pours into her Lily’s eyes glow red and she tears her head to the side and sinks her fucking fangs deep into the soft flesh at the base of my neck, the pain and pleasure making me roar and slam into her once more and I feel her taking a long, desperate drink of my blood and a red haze hovers at the edge of my vision and she’s so tight and hot and perfect and then my hand slips from her wrists and I lay my head on her shoulder, our bodies wet with sweat and we’re both gasping, trying to return to our rational selves, and I’m wondering what is this thing we have, how can she do this to me, and in the moments just after there’s a closeness unlike anything I’ve ever known, but also a
hollowness
, like I’ve been scoured clean of something foul, and I know that foulness is the fear of dying alone, and I fucking tell you this: no one should die without feeling this way at least once, a feeling so ancient and wild there’s not even a word for it, born of the stars shining over an empty grassland, born of the hunt, of predator and prey, a primal dance of life and death and rebirth, and isn’t that a fucking laugh…that we have words for every trite, inconsequential bit of bullshit in the world…but not one for
this
?

Lily’s running her claws across my back, gently now.
 

I lift my head and peer into her eyes.
 

She smiles beneath me and says, “Well, okay. No one ever fucked me
quite
like that.”

“Say it.”

Lily pauses, flicks her hair. Still teasing.

“Say it.”
 

“I’m yours,” she says with a shrug and a coy smile.

“You mean it?”

“You have the bite mark to prove it.”

I lay my head on her shoulder. It’s true. Her mark’s stinging at the base of my neck.
 

That means more than any Skin union.

It means we’re tried-and-true Pureblood bloodmates. If Mia were still around she’d be screeching like a jilted fucking banshee.
 

Still, I don’t like him. The rich prick.
 

That’s all right.
 

I don’t like most people.

My cock is still inside Lily’s warmth. I’m softer now, sensitive to her heat. We lay close for a long while, and eventually Lily says, “I lied, Aaron. About this feeling new? Us? It doesn’t. It feels…old. Like we’ve been together for a long time. A very long time.”

“Bored already, huh?” I say, slipping away and sliding a blanket around her shoulders.

“Uh, no. Like how people talk about knowing someone in a previous life? It’s all new in the here and now, but beneath it there’s another current…like a memory. Of a different time together. Do you feel that too?”

“No. You just got a real nice pussy.”

She slaps at me, playing, then sits up and sighs. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Yeah. I’m with you. Fuck, do I miss my bike. Times like this I’d go for a ride in the mountains. Everything narrows if you go fast enough. Lasers in.”

“You went riding to help you think?”

“No. To help me
not
think. And after a ride, when I was back with the crew, drinking a beer, my nerves still buzzing, that’s when I’d know the answer to whatever was nagging at me. Sometimes we need to get away from a problem to see the solution.”

“But I can’t get away from this,” Lily says. “She’s inside me.”

“This guy…the rich prick’s son…what’s his name?”

“Connor.”

“Ha. Yeah. That’s a rich prick name for sure. Why aren’t you into him?”

“I dunno. He’s just…wispy,” Lily says, shrugging. “He’s a lot of things a lot of girls would want: rich, handsome, smart, even charming. But there’s no
there
to him, y’know? No grit. He’s like a fluffy cloud drifting across the sky. I need someone I can dig my claws into.”

I touch the tender scratches on my face. “Yeah you do.”
 

“I’m sorry I worked you up like that. For a fuck. A
great
fuck, by the way.”

I think about what I want to say next. How much to reveal. Then I think of Sorry, how he lived with his heart on his sleeve, and how maybe I could learn something from that. “I’ve never felt…jealous before. Never understood it. Always thought it was weakness. Insecurity. Fear. And maybe it is. But it’s also just…giving a shit for once, y’know? For someone? This is…it’s really fucking new to me.”

“Yeah. It’s new to me too. You think you can see him?”

“You mean restrain myself from ripping out a rich prick’s heart? Maybe.”

“I need a promise.”

“Fuck.”

“Seriously.”

I groan and say, “I promise not to rip out the rich prick’s heart.”

Lily smiles. “That leaves
way
too much wiggle room. Just promise you won’t hurt him.”

“Unless you give me the green light. I promise I wont hurt the slimy little rick prick.”
 

“You should probably stop calling him that, too.”

“What? He sensitive about his money? Poor little rich boy?”

“Aaron…”

“Fine. I’ll play nice. But how does the rich prick…how does Connor…know about the First Fallen?”

“Because I think he’s like us. Like you, I mean.”

“A Pureblood?”

“Yes. Maybe?”

She’s starting to piss me off with the maybe’s and I don’t knows. “A straight fucking answer would be gold.”

Lily’s eyes blaze in a quick-tempered way I’m beginning to recognize. “I don’t have answers. You know that. Shit! Of all people you should know that.” Lily gathers the blanket tight around her chest and says, “We need to leave. Now.”

“No way. We just got here. You ever here of
resting
? That’s why we’re here, remember? You just got your ass handed to you by a three-eyed monster in the sky. Yes? And all the shit before that? I doubt you could even summon her right now. And if you did…she’s sure to tear you to pieces. It’s a lousy time to go looking for this Stricken jerk-off, if you ask me.”

“See that’s the thing, Aaron. I
didn’t
ask you. And I won’t.”
 

Lily stands, wavers, catches herself and says. “I think he has them, Aaron. The First Fallen has my packmates. Maybe even my son. I’m going to find them. I should have done it to begin with. They’ve been searching for me for a long time. The least I can do is meet them halfway. Trish will drive. I’m sure you and the rasta will enjoy your mountain lovenest.”

Lovenest? Damn. Bitch has a tongue. “We need time to load weapons and provisions.”

“We leave in fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen? Fuck sake Lil—”

“Trish!” Lily screams. “Trish! C’mon girl! Lets get the fuck out of this patchoulis-stinking hippie den.”

She’s on the move.
 

Which means I am too, whether I like it or not.

S
EATTLE
’
S
BURNING
.
 

T
HE
streets reek of scorched tires and melting plastic and terror.

There’s a part of me that
likes
it.

I know my animal came to me on the mountain ridge when I was trying to heal Sorry. I felt her, her true spirit, hovering over me. I felt her power. Aaron’s right: I’m not strong enough to control her if I have to call her again.
 

But sometimes I don’t want to control her.
 

Sometimes I want her free.
 

Tate’s driving. Trish is in the back of the van, spotting in case someone decides we’re worth chasing. Aaron’s in the passenger seat, an M16 assault rifle in his lap. I’m in the middle, sandwiched between the two captains chairs.

“Jesus fucking shit,” Tate whistles through his teeth as we weave through a twenty car pileup on the I-5. We’re in the industrial area south of Tacoma. Warehouses, storage units, light manufacturing factories—they’re all on fire, sending poisonous black smoke curling into the grey overcast sky.

“Turn the radio on,” I tell Tate.

He flips through a dozen channels. All dead. Finally he hits an AM news station. The announcer is breathless as he reads…
martial law declared in eighteen states…riots plaguing LA, New York, London, Tokyo…the list goes on and on…the cloud blocking the sun over Europe is in its ninth day…China blames Western world for catastrophe, close to declaring all-out war…massive tidal surges caused by ocean storms swamping lowland areas, local governments advise anyone on the street after curfew will be shot on sight…