Wolf Tales 11 (24 page)

Thank goodness Jazzy was the one to stay home with her. She’d liked her from the first moment they met, and it wasn’t just the fact their chocolate au lait skin color was so close they could have been sisters. Besides, her blond curls were nothing like Jazzy’s long, straight black hair, but then Jazzy’s Asian background had beat out the black genes when it came to hair.

Of course, in Tia’s case, her dad’s blond color had beat out her mom’s black curly hair, though she’d definitely gotten her mom’s curls. They were softer now, from shifting, but nothing like Jazzy’s board-straight locks.

No, it wasn’t looks that made her love Jazzy so much. It was attitude. Jazzy had it in spades. Maybe, if Tia was lucky, a little might rub off. Not that she was a wuss, but this morning’s attack had left her badly shaken.

Well, she’d just have to get over it. No way was Shay and Cami’s mama going to set a bad example. Those girls
were going to grow up with a mother who loved them and wanted them to be tough and brave and self-confident.

Everything it had taken Tia ages to figure out on her own.

With that thought in mind, she grabbed a bottle of chardonnay out of the refrigerator and a couple of glasses, flipped out the lights, and met Jazzy in the family room. A group of candles burned in the corner and another flickered from atop the bookcase, but otherwise the room was dark. Jazzy was curled up in the shadows at one end of the big leather couch. Luc’s Enya CD was still playing. Tia thought about switching to something else—the same music had been on early this morning when she’d left to go shopping with Lisa and Tala—but she loved the sound and it fit her pensive mood.

She poured a glass of wine for Jazzy and one for herself and then flopped down beside Jazzy on the comfortable couch. “They’re asleep?”

“Finally.” Jazzy laughed and took a sip of her wine. “I love babysitting those two. It’s like birth control. Spend a few hours with a couple of live wires like your girls and I know for sure I’m not ready for motherhood.”

Tia chuckled, remembering how ambivalent she’d been. Thank goodness Luc had wanted children or she might still be wondering if the time was right. Now she couldn’t imagine life without Cami and Shay. “When it’s time, if you don’t know, Logan will tell you.” Laughing softly, she curled her feet under her and turned toward Jazzy. “Have you heard from Logan?”

Jazzy sipped and nodded. “Yeah. While you were checking the locks. He said Lisa and Tala are fine, but they’re getting impatient. Logan and the others are almost ready to go in.” She grabbed Tia’s hand and squeezed. “Stuff’s going to start happening in just a few more minutes.”

Tia nodded. “I’ve stayed out of Luc’s head. I’d hate to think my curiosity screwed up his concentration and endangered the president. Can you imagine what the guys are thinking right now? I mean, this is so far beyond a kidnapping. It’s huge.”

Jazzy gazed at Tia over the rim of her wineglass. She stared for so long, Tia almost squirmed in her seat. Then Jazzy’s full lips tilted up in a big smile. “I have an idea how we can take our minds off things.” She shrugged. The wide neck of her sweater slipped off one rounded shoulder.

Tia realized she was imagining Jazzy losing the sweater altogether. She took another sip of her wine. “Well, Anton did say he could use all the energy he can get.”

Jazzy’s grin spread slowly across her face. “And those two little monsters you call daughters are sound asleep.”

“Out for the count.” Tia took one more swallow and set her wineglass aside. Slowly she leaned over, took Jazzy’s glass out of her hand, and put it on the table beside her own.

“We don’t have very long,” Jazzy said, reaching for the hem of her sweater. She peeled it quickly up her slim torso and tugged it over her head. She wasn’t wearing a bra. Her dark nipples beaded up as the cool air touched them.

Tia was already unzipping her jeans. “Then we’d better not waste any time.” She glanced at the clock, laughing. “How hot can you get in seven minutes?”

Laughing, Jazzy rushed through the rest of her clothes, peeling her tight jeans and panties down her long legs while Tia stripped off her sweatshirt and bra. Within seconds they were both naked and giggling on the couch.

Caught for a moment in the pure eroticism of a night alone with a young woman she loved so dearly, Tia took a deep breath, let it out, and took one more. She’d fantasized about this before, but the time had never been right. Maybe the timing tonight wasn’t perfect, but that didn’t
seem to matter to her libido. She felt a warm pulse between her legs, and a slow, even clenching that seemed to start deep in her womb.

Jazzy leaned close and pulled Tia into her arms. Breasts met, nipples aligned perfectly. When Jazzy’s lips touched hers, Tia didn’t even try to stop the soft moan from escaping. Jazzy took control. Tia relaxed entirely and let it happen. Warm lips moved along her jaw, down the side of her neck, over her chest. A tongue flicked across her left nipple, and then the right.

Jazzy suckled each of her breasts, moving slowly and yet surely from left to right to left again before she slipped off the couch and knelt on the floor. Then she helped Tia turn and slide forward until her butt hung off the edge of the seat and her legs sprawled ingloriously over Jazzy’s shoulders.

As ready as she thought she was, when Jazzy’s tongue swept between her labia, Tia cried out and jerked her hips. Closer? Away? She had no idea what she wanted, but the sensation of warm tongue and full lips, of teeth and breath and Jazzy’s soft hum of pleasure took her very quickly to the top.

After a couple of minutes, Tia forced herself to scoot away. That damned clock on the wall was just too easy to see. Panting, she cupped Jazzy’s shoulders in both her hands. “You. Me. Sixty-nine now.”

Laughing, Jazzy glanced at the clock. Just a few minutes to go. Since she was the tallest, she stretched out on the bottom with her legs hooked over the arm of the couch. Tia straddled her, held her long legs apart, and dipped her tongue between the buttery folds.

Jazzy cried out and then did the same for Tia. It was a race now, one both of them intended to win. With the big clock ticking steadily and the seconds passing by, Tia went to work on Jazzy Blue. It was so hard to concentrate, with Jazzy’s tongue exploring Tia’s folds, with her long fingers
probing and stroking, but Tia found her rhythm just as Jazzy found hers, each of them sucking and licking, tasting and touching.

Racing the clock to the finish, minds open, ready to give whatever Anton asked, but taking all the pleasure they could, each from the other. Aware of the energy building between them, Tia put her fears for Lisa and Tala aside. She concentrated on her arousal, on Jazzy Blue, and gave herself over to sensation.

Lost as she was, her body so perfectly in tune with Jazzy’s, with her touch, her taste, her loving heart, Tia was aware of the power building, of the massive burst of energy just the two of them made.

It was good. All of it good, and all of it for Anton.

Tala? I’m linked with Beth and the guys. Can you pick them up?

Yeah, sis. I’m ready when they are.

Good. Our guard just left the room. He’s talking to the other two guys and telling them we’re asleep. He wants to stay out there and watch the game with them.

Lisa listened a moment longer and then she squeezed Tala’s hand, but she was including Beth, Mik, and Logan in her mindtalking. She wasn’t certain about Igmutaka. You never knew quite what the spirit guide was thinking, or how much he was paying attention.

I am here, Lisa. And I am most definitely paying attention.

Oh, shit. She heard Tala snort in her ear. Shush! We don’t want them to know we’re awake. Okay. Our guard is staying out there. I’m going to shift and find a place in the room to hide.

Mik’s strong voice filled Lisa’s mind. Don’t take any chances, Tala, but if you can get all three of them in there at the same time, and Lisa can freak them out by disappearing, it’s going to give us an edge. Two minutes, ladies.
I love you, Tala Quinn. Be safe or I’ll make you regret it. Are you ready?

Tala answered him. Damn but I love you, Miguel Fuentes. In exactly two minutes, I’m gonna start screamin’ and cussin’ and askin’ what they did with my sister.

Lisa heard Tala silently counting off the seconds in her head. She shifted, relieved when the plastic ties holding her wrists snapped and broke. Silently she slipped over the edge of the bed and crawled out of the baggy maternity clothes tangled on her wolven frame. Using her nose she pushed the wrinkled but undamaged clothing under the bed. Silently she padded across the floor and found a dark corner behind an overstuffed chair on the far side of the room.

She could still hear Tala’s silent count as the seconds slowly passed. The men in the other room talked softly, too quiet for her to hear what they said. She made herself as small as she possibly could and hoped like hell they wouldn’t spot her. Her baby kicked. She almost sighed in relief.

She’d not let herself think of the fact she was eight months pregnant and had just shifted, contrary to everything they’d believed in the past. It looked like Liana really did know what she was talking about. One of these days, they all needed to sit down with the ex-goddess and get a few lessons in female Chanku physiology. Some day, when things settled …

“Hey, damn it! What’d you do with Lisa? Where’s my sister? What the fuck did you do with her? Bastards!”

Tala was sitting up in the bed, screaming for all she was worth. Cursing and the sound of heavy footsteps. The lights went on and Tala kept on screaming holy hell.

“Shut up, bitch! What the fuck? Where the hell’d the other one go?” The sharp sound of his hand connecting with Tala’s face and her shriek of anger covered up the sound of the door in the other room bursting open.

Before any of the three men had time to react, a huge mountain lion leapt through the open door into the bedroom. Two wolves followed close behind.

Igmutaka took out the one man who was holding a gun in his hand. The automatic pistol clattered across the floor. Lisa charged out of her hiding place and raced after it. She grabbed the thing up in her jaws as Mik and Logan flattened the men they’d each gone after.

Within seconds, Igmutaka sat on one terrified man and Mik and Logan each held down another. Beth stood in the doorway with a frown on her face and a faraway look in her eyes. After a moment, she stepped into the bedroom, grabbed Lisa’s clothes out from under the bed, and took them into the bathroom. Lisa slipped in behind her, dropped the automatic pistol into Beth’s outstretched hand, and watched as Beth left the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Within a couple of minutes, Lisa stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed, as if she’d been in there all along. Beth had all three men restrained with the same kind of plastic ties they’d used on her and Tala, but none of them paid her any attention at all. They were so focused on the snarling cougar and growling wolves, they hadn’t noticed her as a wolf. Didn’t take note of her now that she was here in the room when they’d thought she was missing. Tala was free, sitting beside the big, black wolf who was her mate, her arms wrapped around his neck.

She was crying. Tala never cried. Not ever. Lisa knelt beside her. “Sweetie, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Tala shook her head. “I don’t know if it is or not. None of us know.” She glanced at Beth and then leaned her head against Lisa’s shoulder. You know how Beth can read minds really well? She picked up that older guy’s thoughts. Not enough details, but she learned that our guys at the auditorium are a diversion. There’s a bigger plan, a scarier
one. She’s warned Anton, but she doesn’t know enough. She’s trying to get what she can out of these bastards before the police get here.

And there wasn’t a damned thing any of them could do. Whatever plan Anton had was already in motion. So was the enemy’s.

Lisa glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost nine.

The first band hit the stage hard with a loud set, heavy on the drums, with a lot of bass guitar. Beth’s first warning caught Anton by surprise. He’d been so certain he was keeping an eye on the right people that she literally knocked the pins out from under him. What she told him now had him stunned. He acted immediately, mentally shouting orders.

Thank goodness everyone was in position. Keisha, protect the president! Get down, now! AJ! Grab the guy behind him, the man to his right. He’s armed. Get the gun. Luc, cover me.

Anton pressed his back to the wall of the stage, opened his mind, and reached out. He’d felt the power building, knew the energy was there, waiting for him, growing stronger, reaching its climax.

He called it to him, holding his hands high, acting as a lightning rod, a conduit pulling the shared energy into himself. Calling on each member of the pack, demanding their power.

Seconds felt like hours. Everything around him slowed. His focus expanded, and the members of the pack heeded his call across the miles.

It wasn’t Manda’s voice that sent Baylor over the top, wasn’t his mate’s permission that sent him soaring into his own climax to drag the others right along with him. No, it was Anton’s voice, his powerful voice, there in his mind as clear and close as if the man stood beside them.

Anton, asking his Chanku for what they’d promised. Calling to each of them, demanding their power, now.

Knowing he and Manda weren’t alone, aware, suddenly, that they were but one cylinder in Anton’s huge engine, Bay set himself free. His orgasm slammed into him. He knew and accepted that part of it was Anton’s doing, that somehow the climax each of them felt was shared, and sharing the sensations made them all the more powerful.

He’d not imagined such an amazing link. He’d expected to share Jake and Shannon’s arousal, and yet he sensed Stefan, Oliver, Xandi, and Mei, Adam and Liana, all the Chanku still in Montana. Ulrich and Millie, Daci, Deacon, and Matt joined them from Colorado, and in San Francisco, even Jazzy and Tia added their own potent jolt of sexual energy. Each of them reaching their sexual peak, sharing the sensations, the joy, and the absolute love, one for the other and each for the pack.