Three’s a Clan (5 page)

Chapter Seven

Kari

So. Weak.

Food was fed to me again. Water rushed over my face. Cold. I drank as much as I could swallow before it ran into my ears. I was too weak to shake it away. I knew there would be more, but I never knew when. The waterfall continued down my body and washed away the dried blood and urine. The bindings at my wrists chafed more. I didn’t cry. Strength. I could pull the strength from around me. I had escaped to the garden in the backyard. No more. I wasn’t even removed from the bleeding table to be fed.

I let my eyes roll back. My body relaxed. I escaped in meditation. I turned up my chakras. Let them brighten and pulse above my prone body. I couldn’t use my hands, but I felt the earth beneath me. There was life nearby. The energy of the plants wasn’t in my hands any more, but my spirit held the memory and knew the way back.

I found her dreams. The one we needed was near my sister witch. I could count on her. She would save me. She would save us all. It was her strength that would tear everything down. Her tenacity would help create what our world needed.

It was fitting that her name was that of crystal known for grounding. I broke through the barrier. Nighttime. She was asleep. Amber could do this. It wasn’t only her fight, but she had the ability to unite them all. The stars had chosen her long ago. I had never been more sure.

Panting with effort, I touched the mind of my sister. Sweet Mary, who had gone through so much. I showed them. I let them see. My strength faltered. I couldn’t hold the connection much longer. When I regained my focus, I had both of them looking at my projection. I yelled it. I let it pulse from my very being. I could only hope they heard. Then the exhaustion took me and I passed out.

The darkness was a blessing.

Chapter Eight

Rick

The sun rose. Another day. My hand still went for the pouch that was no longer in my possession. Even though it was my idea to give it away, I still missed the comfort the token had given me over the years.

I hadn’t given Lily everything she needed to fill her heart. I was going to be damned if my daughter went to her death without knowing the love she desired. Lily would help me make sure of that. If my wife was with us in any capacity, Amber needed her more than I did right now.

My hands scrubbed my face. I let the colors of the new morning dance under my eyelids. I had hundreds of years ahead of me. I wondered if every one of those days would begin with my regrets. Things I hadn’t reached for. Things I had let pass me by. I told myself that I couldn’t give Lily all she wanted. I couldn’t let our family be outcast by our neighbors. I had to have the standing in the community to provide for us. My dear Lily. She understood, but now with the Alpha magic in my blood, I know that I had the power, even as a human to make the world bend to me. If I didn’t create the world that needed to exist for those I loved, I was damned sure going to leave it knowing I fought with everything I am for those who couldn’t.

I was never scared of Lily not having enough love for me. I was pissed at whoever the other guy was for stepping back instead of stepping up. He didn’t allow me the option of giving my wife what she wanted. What her soul needed. She was too much woman for one man. We denied her fulfilling her ability to love. I held her many nights, knowing that she needed more than I could give her. How could a man, a true man, deny her anything?

I don’t know if I would have fought to bring another to our bed, and to be the social pariahs that we surely would have become, but the man—the Alpha that I was—bristled at being denied the choice.

Lily never told me who he was. But she carried the small leather pouch with her. I never knew his name, but I knew she needed it because it was her goodbye from him. I caught her holding the parcel to her lips a few times.

Had he died? He must have after so long. Hard to hold anger for the dead.

The sun was getting higher in the sky now. The brilliant golden light brushed my skin. I stripped and let the heat build under the surface. Slowly, my mind left the past. I should get dressed or shift. But I held off. I let the nakedness of my human skin be touched by the rays.

When even my skin started to become uncomfortable, I realized it wasn’t what I wanted. It was the sun-blonde tresses of a certain vampire that I wanted to feel on my body. Shelly’s scent had distracted me to the point of combustion last night. I shouldn’t react to her like that. It pulled me. A mate’s pull. But I could sense that Doc felt it too. So it couldn’t be mating pheromones. It was a distinct lack of sex. Had to be.

Beneath the morning sun, my hand found my cock. I imagined Shelly’s hand was mine. Her hair would brush against my stomach, warm as the sun’s strengthening rays. Her diamond point nipples would drag against my thighs as she sank down to lick me. I spread my thumb over the slit of my cockhead. The precome was no surprise.

I felt the telltale tingling at the back of my spine and the tight pull of my balls against my body. Just the image of her wet and ready in my mind had me near bursting. I rubbed the liquid around the purple head. I imagined it was her little pink tongue tasting the treat I had for her. My hand pumped. I didn’t have to loosen my grip to imagine it was hers. She was older than me. She would have the strength to strangle an orgasm from my body.

My hips thrust at the thought of her smiling smugly from between my thighs. She would too. She would smile at me. Knowing my need to send hot jets of semen down her throat. She was strong. She was beautiful, but I would take her. My hand would grip her hair. I would pull her back by that mane and she would gasp at the pain. I wouldn’t need control. I couldn’t hurt her in any lasting way. The wildness and feral power would be unleashed.

She would swallow me whole as I pushed past her resistance and her vocal chords. She would hum around me as I grabbed her nipples and plucked them to points. She wouldn’t be able to knick me as those gorgeous fangs lengthened. She would be too distracted by Trevor pounding her sweet pussy from behind.

The orgasm pulsed over my hand at the image of her I had created. Harder and harder I pumped as the semen shot so high it hit my stomach.

The hair about my abs gelled together. I had to open my eyes as I acknowledged what I had dreamed of doing to push myself over the edge.

Alphas were possessive, weren’t they? So then why was I fantasizing about having Trevor pound away on Shelly’s wet pussy while she lost herself and swallowed me whole? The thought of the push and pull of her between us had my cock springing back to life, like I hadn’t even touched it yet.

I wiped my hands on the grass and shifted. I was going hunting. I needed a distraction. I had thought enough for the day. Instinct was going to take me away. The desire to hunt was always amplified when I couldn’t give the wolf what he wanted. This time I agreed with him. Killing something sounded great.

Chapter Nine

Shelly

I was cut off.

I almost missed the incessant meaningless problems of the humans. It broke up the monotony of life with my Family. With Jake gone, we had returned to the old ways. We got drifters occasionally who came to show respect for the Matheo and his territory. But it was all tradition and cold.

Well, not everything was cold. The blood came in warm. I hadn’t found the entrance yet, and the Matheo gave me enough book keeping and mundane projects in the house that even leaving the front door was impossible most days.

We did have a few donors that were kept in the house with us. Humans who had no ties to the outside world. They were well taken care of—I ensured that—but they were compelled. They didn’t have minds of their own anymore. It was like a giant Barbie doll with a straw sticking from her neck.

As if I summoned it, Karma made my phone buzz. Well, not Karma exactly. But close enough.

The screen read
Mattell
. That brainy wolf had even hacked my contacts list.

It was my sister-in-law who first called me Barbie. I had never had a nickname beyond Shelly. Barbie started from annoyance, but grew into mutual respect. This was what I had been waiting for. If I wanted to do something, I might have backup.

In town. It will begin soon. Hope you’re still on our side. It will be bloody. I’d hate to take your tail this time.

I couldn’t text back. Craig, the wolf who had defected to join their little ragtag group, happened to be a bit of an electronics wiz along with his financial expertise. Every time my fingers flew across the on screen keyboard, they never got a response off fast enough before the number no longer existed.

As far as in-laws went, I couldn’t think of a better bitch to battle with. The desire to do more than the simple recon and damage control I’d been working on was making the synapses in my brain go haywire. Acceptance and readiness bubbled up from the blood I sipped in my veins. Things had begun to change nearly a century ago. Delineations weren’t as black and white as they used to be. This would be the chance to annihilate the fucking lines altogether.

“Shelly?”

I flicked the button to put my phone to sleep. A slip to my pocket and I turned my mind toward the wonder twins as they descended the stairs. Steven and Matthew twittered at each other like birds as they flowed down the carpeted steps.

I didn’t respond. These two talked enough for an entire conversation between five people. They would fill in the
what?
my glare implied eventually.

“Well, doesn’t she seem to retain that log up her rectum?” Steven kissed Matthew on the temple and they continued through the room without bothering to stop and tell me what they’d originally wanted. I heard them snickering and cooing at each other.

The two of them had been partners for so long you would think they’d be over the honeymoon stage.
Blech.
It was not all that unpleasant to hear them during a hot session of sex. Add in their fondness for each other and vampire strength and stamina and I found myself reaching for the popcorn on some nights.

When I was sexually under-satisfied, like now, it was more frustrating than enjoyable. Hell, were I their type, I might have considered knocking on their door for a little relief.

Alpha Paulson held too much of my mind. Well, not my mind exactly. More often the man held my libido in a vise grip that he couldn’t help but squeeze with those healthy muscles of his. Too bad my sister-in-law was his daughter.

I shook my head and stood to trek into the lower levels to work on the blood inventory. I was damn near a whole episode of Maury with this crap.

I went through the new numbers the Matheo had provided. I understood the blood needs of hybrids after living with Jake. The miasma attached to my brain had been inside Jake long enough that his acquisitions were imbedded there as well.

We kept, at the Matheo’s request, extra blood for guests and for healing injuries that might occur. Even if we were in full battle and entertaining a dozen bloodthirsty guests, this new level of requirement leant to a minimum of two dozen hybrids. How large of an army had the Matheo amassed under my nose? What good was all this knowledge if I was putting the pieces together too late?

Another text vibrated my phone.

Two hours. Meet at the bird watching platform. If you don’t make it, I will assume you are not with us. Fight right, Barbie. Be there.

Working with Alphas was a pain in the ass. Two hours wasn’t a lot of time, but I would get to this meeting. The donors needed food, and I’d make sure one of the refrigerators would malfunction. I went to the donor’s wing with a wire stripper in hand.

Chapter Ten

Rick

Doc jumped from behind the bale of hay we were using as a shield. After a few cursory shots with his paintball gun, we moved back a little more to the edge of the field.

“I can’t believe this is how we are meeting.” I could have thrown these balls faster than this weak air rifle shot them. “I feel like an idiot.”

“Are you kidding? This is brilliant.” His laugh was more of a wolf wheeze than a human chuckle.

“I can’t believe you are older than me.” Part of me envied Trevor’s ability to let go and enjoy every little thing. No matter our mission there was still time for him to smell the roses. I always ended up trampling the flowers before I got a whiff.

Bang! Bang!

Green paint exploded across the chest of a member of my Pack, and I crouched back behind the bale. The wolf fell to the ground and began to writhe in pretend agony. The paint balls stung, but with our physique, the marks were minimal and healed quickly. We wore no armor when we played here. Heck, half of us were without shirts.

Human men used shirts versus skins mainly for basketball. With our high metabolism and tolerance for temperature fluctuations, it was good for
any
battle. We were currently on the skins side.

I usually stayed out of the paint gun wars, which were a favorite among the Pack. I told everyone it was because I had an unfair advantage as Alpha and could sense where they were. In reality, I found the whole thing rather foolish. Doc brushed some errant green paint blowback from his eyebrow. He had taken a head shot awhile back. There were really no rules in our paintball wars. Mostly the guys who played seemed to like to shoot each other in various places to try and cause pain. Stress relief at its finest.

“The guys needed some bonding time. And we needed an excuse to get out of the apartment and closer to our meeting spot with Shelly.” Trevor fired off two more shots before ducking back behind our barrier. “Besides, if the two of us go off together without explanation much more, the Pack is going to think there is a
major
reason why neither of us are mated.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Doc was probably right. There were already whispers. There was a small gay community in the wolf population, but it was frowned upon by the eldest Packs as taking away potential breeding opportunities. If all they wanted was semen, they were welcome to it. Some of the more boisterous males offered to jerk off into a cup for the elders at a Council meeting. The majority politely declined.

Wolves are usually very fertile once mated. Who was I to say the mating pheromones wouldn’t activate between two men or two women? Who was I to say the pheromones wouldn’t activate between a trio?

I looked at Trevor and frowned.
Not going there.

I smacked him with my paint gun to get his attention. “We need to get going.”

“I am well aware of the time.” My Beta said as he ran behind the barrier next to us and dodged a few dozen shots.

No need to worry about sexy feelings between Doc and myself. The man was pissing me off. I didn’t want to be late.

“I am just ready to get this thing with Shelly started.”

Doc grinned. “I am too.”

The growl left my chest and bounced around the clearing. I stood and left the field. I didn’t need this. Luckily for my Pack, no one shot at me.