Violet's Shadow, page 3
“You’re hot, then cold right? Nerves spasming in your spine? Can’t sit still? The room seems brighter and things get wavy all of a sudden?”
She stared at him, and her shoulder twitched. Her mouth opened but nothing came out.
“You’re getting ready to shift for the first time. And it can be dangerous. And we’re incredibly vulnerable out here. We need to get you home.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Do I look like I’m playing with you?”
“No. Which scares the shit out of me. And how am I supposed to get to Destin? My plane doesn’t leave until—”
“Not Destin.”
“But you said home.”
“Yes. I did.”
“You’re infuriating.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Rule number one in…whatever it is we’re doing here. You don’t order me around.”
The smile lifting the corners of his lips disarmed her in ways nothing else could have. She was such a sucker for a nice smile. “Agreed. Rule number two.” He got good and serious real quick. “No lies. I can smell them anyway, just to let you know. So the doozy you told earlier about not having seen me before? Didn’t fly.”
“Ugh.” What could she say in response? He was right. She rubbed her temples, her neck.
He moved even closer and brushed her cheek. Fuck, he smelled good, and she licked her lips. “I can’t wait to kiss you again.”
“And who says I’m going to let you?”
“Who says I’m going to give you a choice?” He grabbed her hair and pulled her mouth to his.
The touch of his skin against the palms of her hands jolted her into some kind of panic. Not panic he would kiss her. Panic he would stop.
A moan of need rattled inside her chest and she opened her mouth to ask what he’d done to her. Why she needed him, his touch? But before she could even mumble a word, his lips were on hers. He’d used her momentary shock to his advantage, giving her his kiss as he took hers, coaxing her touch for touch and taste for taste.
He moved one of his hands beneath her tank top, searing her flesh with the pads of his fingers. Violet broke the kiss to pant, already on the verge of climax. Something tenfold better than anything she’d ever experienced by her own hand or anyone else’s sat just out of reach. “What have you done to me?”
“Nothing yet, mate. But I’m sure as hell going to.”
“I want to touch you. I need to.”
“No.” His eyes flashed and he walked her backward into the shadows of the room until her backside hit the wall. Two seconds later, her wrists were shackled in his fist behind her. Discomfort flared up her arms, heightening the pleasure. “I’ve waited three centuries to touch you. I win.”
She expected him to rip her clothes from her body, bare her to his hungry gaze and take her right against the wall.
So when he stared down at her for long moments and then gently cupped her cheek she held her breath, not knowing what the look in his eyes meant.
“U kibr tiy. Nt nsyr. Nubr. Gubskkt…nubr.”
The words he spoke were so sincere and beautiful; tears sprang unbidden to Violet’s eyes. She didn’t care if what he said meant nothing. She didn’t understand what was happening to her, to them, it didn’t matter. She wanted…needed to give him something in return. “I have nothing to give you. Nothing but me. My body. I’m scared, but right now, all I know is I need you inside me.”
“But you don’t know me.”
“I’ve never met you before, but I know you.” She held his stare as he popped the button on the fly of her jeans and snicked the zipper down one tooth at a time.
“And how’s that? How do you know me?” The backs of his fingers brushed her stomach as he stroked beneath the lacy top of her panties.
“I’ve dreamt of you,” she whispered. Waiting for the ridicule to start proved fruitless. The same disbelief and anger she’d received from her mother never came. He simply nodded and moved his fingers lower to the trimmed hair of her mound. Didn’t question her. Didn’t demand to know what she spoke about. Just accepted it. Just like that. It was so amazing she wanted to cry.
When he wedged his huge thigh between her legs, he opened her sex to his questing fingers. “Fuck, you’re wet. For me?” Didn’t seem as if he needed a response. He captured her mouth in a deep kiss. He breeched the opening of her pussy with a single finger. His rough palm skimmed her clit, sending fireworks to dance across the little nubbin. He filled her a half a dozen times, pulling more moisture from her core. Each thrust of his thick digit and her pussy got tighter and tighter as if she were about to come. “I want you to come for me. I need it.”
“But it normally takes me forever to get off.” The words came out of her mouth and they were absolutely true. One hundred percent the truth, but apparently, her pussy didn’t care. It fluttered around his finger as he continued to fill her.
“You needed another Shadow. Only another Shadow is sexually compatible. Your body’s been waiting for this moment. For me.”
“For you.” They said it at the same time, and then her mouth opened on a scream.
But it never found voice. His mouth came down, covering hers and he took her pleasure. Took it and doubled it. Tripled it maybe as he continued to finger her through her orgasm. She jerked against him in time with the contractions of her core. Electricity seemed to explode all along her cells and she didn’t understand how she stayed upright. If he hadn’t been there, she’d have been a puddle on the floor. A very happy, contented puddle.
He held her up as he gave her pleasure, and all she could think about was fucking him. She needed his cock inside her. She needed his cum inside her.
Breaking the kiss, she was ready to tell him, order him, to drop the blanket. The order swam inside her head as a physical thing, but it got stuck in her throat as he removed his fingers and then sucked each one clean.
“I need to taste you. Straight from the source.” His voice was liquid sex as he licked her juices from his hand.
He’d let go of her wrists at some point and she’d latched on to the blanket wound around his waist. She tugged the loose end free and the material pooled at their feet.
His cock bobbed high toward his bellybutton, and he growled when she grasped it. The growl. It made her think of a word he’d used right before he moved her against the wall. And the same word again, but in a language she’d never learned.
Nysr.
Her lips curled upward into a satisfied smile.
Mate.
Just like that he was gone. Disappeared. As if he’d never existed.
Step four. Start seeing things that aren’t really there. Check.
A wave of heat filled her entire body, making her grit her teeth to keep from crying out. Everywhere his hands had touched were burning, searing through her as if she’d been plunged into a molten bath.
The other parts ice cold.
All of her begging for him to return.
He was real. I know he was real.
Several minutes later, a growl rumbled from out on the porch. Before she’d felt nothing but fear. Not knowing what was out there made her want to hide. To cower.
Now?
She needed to get out there. Was it Rayden? One of the assholes from earlier come back to finish the job? Or some other creature from her visions come to finish her off?
What if it was someone else sent to protect her and they were in danger?
No!
Pain the likes she’d never felt before shot down her leg as she tried to take a step.
And the world all around her started to shimmer.
Chapter Three
He materialized on the porch after he’d heard her thoughts. Mate.
What in the hell had he been thinking? He’d practically claimed her against the wall. His hand on fire, ready to mark her as his forever. The words of the mating ritual leaping from his tongue without a thought for the future. Or the past.
The prophecy said…
Shaking his head kept him from finishing the thought. He would not be party to getting someone else killed. Someone he loved. Living through it before had nearly destroyed him. He’d nearly gone rogue to avoid seeing the memories everywhere he looked inside the compound. Hanging on had been a daily struggle. Sometimes hourly.
The blame for her death lay squarely at his feet, and adding another to the pile wouldn’t happen if he had any say in it. Especially not a young woman who knew nothing of what she was born into nor asked of her, needed of her or the sacrifices they had all made to find her. And now she was there, on the cusp of the change.
Squeezing his neck to calm his temper did little to settle him as he scanned the tree line.
He’d had every intention of shading into the trees and letting one of the other enforcers takeover. He’d made it no more than twenty feet before his body stopped him, yanking him onto the porch. One flimsy door stood between him and the soon to be Alpha female of his pack.
The scent of the air changed as other members of the pack grew closer. Two teams of enforcers had been assigned to her detail since she’d arrived almost two weeks prior. They normally traded off, but when he’d gotten wind of the other pack closing in on her, he’d called in the other team. Reinforcements were a necessity when it came to protecting the woman in the cabin. The Shadow in the cabin.
Four male and female pairs now surrounded her, keeping her completely protected from anything intending her harm. To lose her now would mean the end of their pack. Not a fate he ever wanted to live to see. Kris had placed wards on the cabin the first night Violet had arrived. They would keep all Shadows not in their pack from being able to materialize inside the circle. Nor could they shift within it. They would also want to go the opposite direction if they wandered close, but some Shadows were smarter than the magical wards. Some could feel the ward and fight against its effects.
The air shifted around him and he caught the scent of Violet’s sweet juices still clinging to his flesh. Before he could stop himself, he licked his bottom lip and her taste exploded across his tongue.
Nothing had ever tasted as sweet as her kiss. No. One other thing had. Her desire. She wanted him nearly as bad as he wanted her.
His body tightened and the urge to return to her…to take her nearly overwhelmed him. The tight clasp of her body called to him, begging him to return and finish what he’d started. What he’d been tasked to do. What his duty was.
Duty.
He was specifically sent to get her through the change so she could ascend to lead. The pack she was destined to help needed her gifts, her wisdom and her visions. More than he needed a mate. More than he needed a partner.
They didn’t understand that in claiming her, he’d seal their fate. Ruin any hopes of their survival against Mathias.
The scent of several males approaching flipped some switch in his head and he growled. Not a quiet sound in greeting, but a warning.
Do. Not. Touch. My. Mate.
Thank, God, he’d been smart enough to stay in human form or all his thoughts would have been broadcast to the other enforcers. He took enough of their shit every day without needing their ribbing when it came to his love life. Or lack thereof.
He was just going to have to suck it up, go back inside, convince her to come with him without any more questions and then someone else could explain to her what was happening. And possibly why he was ripping the head off a fellow Shadow because they were appointed her new guide.
Darkness had fallen while he was inside with her and the moon was curiously hidden behind clouds. Morrison was most certainly amongst the Shadows moving steadily closer.
Rayden stepped to the bottom of the porch and waited as one Shadow at a time materialized at the tree line. Eight in total. All were in human form as they had earlier discussed when making contact. It’s not every day a normal sees Shadows for the first time.
“What’s wrong?” Freeman asked as he moved closer, looking on both sides of Rayden with a bit of a smirk. “Where is she? Or did your normal lack of conversation fail to inspire her to fall in line like a good little soldier?”
Rayden narrowed his eyes at the other enforcer and took a step sideways to faceoff with the other man. “She’s—“
The door to the cabin swung open and Violet stumbled through it. Rayden got to her just in time as she collapsed into his arms.
“You’re real,” she whispered as she shuddered in pain.
As she curled into his body, he lifted her closer to his chest. “Of course I’m real. I already told you I was here to protect you.” Her body shook and the heat already had a firm grip on her.
Her violet eyes tipped back to stare at him. But you left me.
Even if he couldn’t read her thoughts, he would have been able to read that one. The accusation in her gaze gutted him.
Violet jerked several times and then settled again in the cradle of his arms.
“Is it her?” Morgan, one of the female enforcers asked. “Is it really her?”
All of a sudden, Violet seemed to realize they weren’t alone. She stiffened, but it didn’t take long for her strength to sap. “Shadows?” She looked at each of them in turn.
Rayden expected her to be scared or wary, but instead she surprised them all.
“You’re wearing clothes.” She looked at the guys. All naked. And then at the girls who each had on a tank top of some kind of shorts. “I expected a pack of naked people.”
Sofia spoke up. The roll of her eyes said it all. “Some of the guys just like to be dramatic.” She stared at the guys on both sides of her and then rolled her eyes again. “They can shift in clothes just like we can. Though the girls tend to keep the beast at bay more and just shade in human form. Maybe they see it as against nature to shift into a wolf with clothes, even though they disappear and reappear. Or maybe it’s just too hard for them.”
“Long, black hair. Slight Spanish accent. Attitude. You must be…Sofia?”
Sofia froze and then nodded once.
Violet turned to the man standing next to Sofia, concentration clear on her face. To try to place him or to hide the pain he wasn’t sure.
Scars crisscrossed the man’s chest she was looking at. Shaved head. Big muscles. Military straight spine. “Vinson. You’re Vinson.”
“And what about us? Do you know us?” Two of the other female enforcers stood together. Almost mirror images of each other, but they weren’t sisters, though no one would ever know, since they were inseparable.
The ghost of a smile lifted her lips. “Lynn and Kris. Best friends forever and filled with bliss.”
“Oh, my God. We’ve had that mantra since we were kids. How do know us?”
“I’ve dreamt of all of you. Freeman, the instigator—”
“Ha! She knows you well, man,” Morrison clapped him on the shoulder and smiled a big toothy grin.
“And you’re Morrison, the weatherman.”
“At your service, milady.” Charming the pants off any female Shadow was his goal and vocation. Violet had never met any of them before. He was sure of it, but yet, she knew them. Each of them.
Violet’s face twisted in pain, but she locked it down, unwilling to let it beat her. She couldn’t have known what was happening. Especially without being raised around Shadows, but she bore it as if she’d been waiting for it all her life. Preparing for it.
His heart shouldn’t have constricted when her eyebrows dipped low.
Woulda, shoulda, coulda was going to kick his ass this time, and he couldn’t let it. Not when he was warned beforehand. Not when so many lives were at stake.
“And Collins and Morgan,” Violet added through gritted teeth. “I know all of you. I’ve seen you in my dreams for years. Always thought maybe you guys were my imaginary friends growing up. But none of you ever spoke directly at me, except…” She glanced up at Rayden and drew in a shaky breath. “What do you think it means?” she whispered as if the others couldn’t hear.
Collins answered, which was impressive, because he normally spoke less than Rayden did. “It means it looks as if the prophecy is true.”
“Prophecy?” Violet inquired, sounding more and more tired.
Collins nodded, and Sofia took over the explanation. “The great leader of our pack would come to us with violet eyes, and she would come in a time of great need.”
“What great need?”
“Mathias,” Morrison added. “Leader of a stray pack of Shadows. Threatening to kill us all and take over.”
“And this great new leader is supposed to what? Fix everything and have a clue where to start, right?”
“Exactly. Easy peasy.” Morgan smiled with a nod.
“You’re all crazy. Seriously certifiable.”
“You’re the one who talks to imaginary strangers in her dreams,” Lynn offered up with a helpful smile.
“Is it a Shadow rule to point out stuff most people won’t bring attention to or just particular to a few of you?” She glanced at Rayden again with a half-smile warming her face. Her palm smoothed across his chin.
Between one moment and the next everything changed.
A wave of debilitating pain twisted Violet’s small frame so hard Rayden was barely able to hang on to her. She cried out, the sound echoing between them. Her eyes fluttered for several seconds and her body finally overpowered her resolve.
Fear gripped him for just a second as she lay lifeless in his arms. Then he focused on her chest as it rose and fell. She was breathing.
“Why’s she still hurting?” A medic through and through, Sofia took her pulse.
“Pain should be better by now. Or is it different for an Alpha?” Vinson asked no one in particular.
Morgan responded. “I don’t know. All the Oracle said was she would be found and ready and able to ascend. The rest is up to fate.”
Rayden cringed hearing the prophecy.
All of a sudden, all eyes were on him.
“Tell me you didn’t start and not finish.” Collins growled low in his throat, knowing all too well the effects of interrupting a claiming.
“Surely you didn’t stop.”
