Violet's Shadow, page 4
“Didn’t you take care of her already?” accused a couple people at once.
Silence.
“Rayden?” Freeman barked at him, effectively pushing off the mute button.
“No.”
Morgan spoke up. “No? You left her, what? In a state you know gets her stuck halfway there, where she’s in excruciating pain. Oh, my God, you did. And then you, what? You bolted?”
Morrison cursed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “What were you thinking? You can’t leave her now. She won’t be strong enough to shade into the compound. And we have no other way to get her in. You know all this. If you didn’t complete the rights, then give her to me and I’ll—”
A deep-throated growl split the air. Vicious. Territorial. Threatening didn’t even scratch the surface. Took Rayden a few seconds to realize it was him making it. Morrison was in his crosshairs and if he didn’t get his hand off his mate, he was going to remove it. Permanently.
Thunder clouds rolled in without any forecast of rain. Morrison was pissed. He could give two shits. “Remove. Your. Hand.”
Before anything else could happen, Collins spoke calmly and lifted Morrison’ hand away. His gaze was on Rayden, though. “Morrison step back.”
“The fuck I will.”
“I do not believe you’ve noticed Rayden’s eyes the past few minutes, now have you? They’re still red. Have been the whole time since we walked up.”
“Oh…”
“Fuck.” Kris and Lynn spoke. Who started the word and who finished it really didn’t matter. The feeling behind it was probably felt by all parties involved.
Rayden sure as hell agreed.
Morrison backed off with a giant deep breath and the clouds above slowly dissolved.
Violet stirred, her lashes fluttering as she tried to focus again. Her glassy eyes focused on Rayden, and he kissed her forehead. She was burning up. “Why…hurt…so…bad?”
“’Cause Rayden’s a dumbass,” Morrison mumbled hopefully too far away for her to hear.
A low rumble shook his chest as he glared at Morrison and then focused on Violet again. “In the cabin, I started something but I didn’t finish it.”
“Does it have something to do with our eyes?”
He stared at her as her face twisted in pain again. “Yes.”
A howl in the distance brought each of them to attention. They all knew that howl. Mathias’ pack wasn’t done stalking her and they probably pulled a few more wolves for the job this time. Each of the other enforcers straightened and immediately surrounded Rayden and Violet. They faced outward to protect them from any kind of attack.
Violet’s hands opened and closed and she couldn’t keep from licking her bottom lip. “What does it mean?” she added between harsh breaths. “All of this. I don’t understand. And I’m so hot.”
There was the truth, which he needed to tell her and then there was the almost truth he ended up on. He left rule number two intact…barely. “Means we need to get you out of here through the shadows. It’s the only way we can get you to the compound. The only place you’ll be safe to complete your transition, and take your place in the pack.”
Her violet eyes glowed as he spoke. The irises iridescent with the most vibrant shimmering he’d ever seen. “Scared.”
“Don’t be scared, beautiful. We’ll get you through it. We’re a family. Remember?
Before she could answer, another round of awful left her barely conscious and shaking from the need for…him.
He was what she needed.
A heady thought for a man who’d convinced himself long ago he’d never let anyone need him again.
But he couldn’t say no. Wouldn’t turn her down. Didn’t want to. Couldn’t walk away. He wanted to be the one to help her enter their world. No matter how big of a bastard it made him, he still wanted to be the one.
All of a sudden, Violet whimpered and opened her mouth to scream again. But they couldn’t draw Mathias’ animals to them. They had to have time to get her out. He covered her mouth and swallowed her pain-filled cry.
It was as if she’d been connected to a battery charger. She opened her mouth, twisting in his arms until she clung to his body with her legs wrapped around his waist.
Clutching her backside to him, he ground his cock again her denim-covered sex.
Needing to be inside her was a driving force he wasn’t going to be able to ignore for long. Five seconds sounded like an eternity to his aching cock.
He tried to break the kiss to tell the others what they needed to do, but Violet latched on to his hair and held his mouth to hers.
Another howl broke the silence, and the group as a whole growled, including Violet.
Second. Sexiest. Noise. Ever.
The first? He’d heard in the cabin when she came for him.
Violet nipped his lower lip and then kissed across his jaw, stopping only to lick his throat.
Barely able to focus, Rayden informed the others what they needed to do. “She’s on the cusp of shading. I can feel it beneath my hands. And if she doesn’t understand where she needs to go, then she’s going to be lost in the shadows with no ability to find her way out. We’re going to lose the woman meant to lead us.”
Collins spoke up, clenching both hands at his sides and glancing at Rayden over his shoulder. “Not an option. We will not lose her. I will not lose her.”
“We have to get her back to the compound, and she’s too far gone for me to tell her what she has to do. We’re going to have to get her in another way.”
“Not without her consent. You know the rules, Rayden.” Morgan shook her head and her short ponytail bounced from side to side.
Rayden hugged Violet to him as she ground her pelvis against him. “I give consent for her,” he added through gritted teeth. He couldn’t hold out much longer either.
Morrison glared at him. “You can’t do it. Not unless you’re her—”
“Look at my fucking eyes, asshole. I’m exactly what I need to be to get her through this. I’m her…ticket into the compound.” He almost said something else. He almost called her his nsyr. His mate. He’d already fucked up once with Violet. Sure as hell didn’t need the rest of the pack hearing it when he had no ability to claim her past her changing.
He couldn’t, no matter how badly he wanted to. No matter how badly the thought of someone else even touching her made him homicidal.
“Oh. Shit,” Sofia not so helpfully responded, putting two and two together. Rayden had already realized earlier what was going to have to happen. “You’re right. You can. But you know it comes with rather weighty…complications. And we don’t have a lot of time.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Lynn asked. “’I’ve never heard of any other way into the compound.”
Vinson scanned the tree line. “I’d heard rumors, but I thought that was all they were.”
“They’re not rumors, and we’re out of time. If anyone else has any other helpful suggestions, this would be the time to bring them up. If not, we’re out of options.”
Morrison glared at him. “Fuck. Move her. But it’s your head on a platter when she comes to later and figures out what you’re about to do.”
Before Morrison had even finished speaking, Rayden was already on the move. He carried Violet to a large patch of grass, and the circle of enforcers moved with him. They spread out just enough to give him room to take her down onto the ground. His hips fit perfectly into the cradle of her thighs.
Violet clung to him, the sweet scent of her arousal filled his head, obliterating his ability to focus on anything else. So he finally let the animal stalking beneath his skin out to play and blocked everything else out.
Unhooking her ankles from behind him proved to be difficult and fuck if he didn’t love having to overpower her. Probably made him a monster and he was more than okay with it. He stripped her jeans from her legs, along with her panties, and she helped kick them off.
Her core was soaking wet, and by the tilt of her hips she was searching for him just as much as he was searching for her.
“Please, please,” she whispered as she tried to pull his larger body down to hers. “Help me.”
Filling her body with two fingers happened in less than a heartbeat. They slid inside and stretched her pussy lips, coated by her saturated juices. She purred her approval as she swiveled her hips, seeking pleasure. But a simple orgasm wasn’t what she needed. Coming on his fingers as she’d done earlier was nothing but a sneer to what she really needed.
His cum.
He shook his head, trying desperately to clear it. Maintaining some kind of buffer between what his duty to the pack was and what every cell in his body was telling him. Every thought in his head. Taking her was a means to an end. That was it. He tried again to convince himself. The last thing he should be thinking was—
“Nubr,” he whispered through their connection. Mine.
Violet stilled and reared away enough to stare up at him.
Gathering her wetness, he coated the tip of his cock. Not that he needed it. Not with the amount of pre-cum steadily leaking from the head. He pumped his cock into his fist, teasing the entrance of her pussy with it.
“Nubr,” he repeated one more time as he breached her entrance, but then retreated. In with a shallow push, and withdrew with a tilt of his pelvis.
Several more strokes and he’d buried himself inside her. At the hilt, the head of his cock brushed against the opening to her womb and his shaft grew harder. Thicker. More pre-cum combined with her slick wetness to make it easier for him to take her.
Claim her.
He wanted to rip her tank top off, strip her bra from her chest and cast it aside so it would never have the ability to cover her from his gaze, but the action would require him to stop. To pause, and neither one of those was an option. He couldn’t stop. Even if the sky fell right then, he wouldn’t have been able to convince his muscles from thrusting forward into her waiting body.
A word made him pause. Barely a hint of a whisper in his head. Barely loud enough for him to make out what he wanted to hear. Was it needed to get her home to the compound? No.
Was it needed for him to be able to function another minute? Yes. Yes, it was.
So he picked up speed, thrusting into her as he urged her to wrap her legs around him again. But she didn’t do that. What she did delighted him and threatened to suck the cum from his body before he was damn near ready to give it up.
She wrapped her feet over his legs and then used them to gain traction so she could take him deeper as he fucked her. Laying there wasn’t what she wanted to do. So damn sexy. She wanted to be a part of it. Needed to be.
He leaned down and kissed her mouth, sliding his tongue past her lips until they dueled for power over the taking. Wrapping his arms beneath her body, he kissed her for a couple more seconds and then touched his forehead to hers. Whispering in her head, “I’m going to come inside you. When I do, and you come apart, we’re going to disappear. You’ll shade with me into the compound, with my seed inside you, and I’ll keep you safe. I promise. You just need to trust me and you’ll know exactly what to do, and where to go.”
He moved away a couple inches to stare into her eyes. “Do you trust me?”
Her eyelids fluttered, but this time it was on the cusp of orgasm. He could hear her thoughts, but they were jumbled, as if she couldn’t focus on his question because she was so busy convincing herself she could do it. Her eyelids were shut as she tossed her head back and forth.
Kissing her again, he thrust into her hard, raising one leg to get as deep as possible. “Nsyr,” he called her one more time. “Look at me.”
Her eyelids flipped open and those violet irises had almost completely taken over, obscuring the white and leaving nothing but perfect shimmering beauty.
That’s what she was in that moment beneath him.
Perfect.
The first shot of his cum pulsed from his cock and he grunted as her pussy locked on to him. He knew there was supposedly an extra band of muscles at the entrance of an Alpha’s pussy constricting when she came. Logistically, it was to increase chances of conception with her mate.
But he didn’t know it constricted in waves, squeezing and rolling against his shaft to milk the cum out of him. “Fuuuccckkkkk…” was all he got out before her pussy locked down on his cock.
Her orgasm ripped through her, and his pleasure skyrocketed.
Before he could stop himself, he grabbed a handful of her hair. Jerking her head to the side, he exposed the vulnerable spot on the side of her neck where it met her shoulder. A mate. Only a mate bit that spot. Only a mate put a permanent scar, which would never fully heal. A scar he’d be able to lick any time, any day, any moment and bring her pleasure.
He latched on to her, unable to stop himself. Violet cried out. Arching against him, her entire body jolted with every contraction of her core.
With his last bit of conscious thought before losing himself in her body he closed his eyes to take her home. Slowly, he felt them disappearing and only then did he hear her speak to him. It was a single word, but it linked their lives together.
For better or worse.
Sickness or sorrow.
Happiness or health.
With her…he wanted it all.
“Tiytd,” she vowed inside his head.
Yours.
Chapter Four
If there was a love child between groggy and antsy out of her skin, then Violet awoke in such a state. Her skin was doing that hot cold thing again and her legs wouldn’t stop shifting back and forth beneath the sheets.
Sheets? And in a bed? In the dark?
She wasn’t normally very good with in the dark.
Forcing her eyelids to open didn’t help much because the room she was in was so dimly lit, but she knew this place. It felt like…ginr. Home.
What language was she speaking? She’d almost failed French when she’d taken it in high school and now all of a sudden another language was inside her? It made no sense and made her mind feel muddy to concentrate.
She shook her head, trying to focus on the last thing she could remember.
Rayden. She stumbled out the door of the cabin to get to him when she knew it was him on the porch. She met people… No. She met Shadows. So many of them with faces she’d seen for years.
Then an argument. Something about her. A hand on her arm. A flash of remembered pain jolted up from her forearm. Something about…getting her home.
Rayden’s eyes. Everyone else had been weird about his red eyes. She thought they were beautiful.
Then he’d whispered to her. Not remembering the word bothered her, but she sure knew how it made her feel. Warm. Happy. Horny—
“Are you thirsty?” A deep male voice resonated through the room, and she jerked beneath the covers. He smoothed a hand along her exposed arm and her skin literally sang at the contact.
“Rayden.” She sighed and relaxed into his touch. It wasn’t a question. She knew it was him. She’d know him anywhere. And one of her shoulders, it—
His fingertips danced across the tender spot and instinctively she thought it would hurt. Instead it seemed to have a direct connection to her clit. Pleasure danced through her system, and he seemed to know exactly what he was doing to her.
Several more passes over the spot left her feeling fevered and needy. And the pain? It disappeared when he touched her. With his hand on her all she could think was how wonderful he made her feel. Vibrant.
“So beautiful.”
She licked her lips and tried to see through the darkness as the mattress dipped beside her. “Why’s it so dark in here? I can’t see you.”
The movement of his hand along her collarbone stuttered for just a moment, but she didn’t miss it.
“What?”
He settled beside her and tucked her body into the curve of his much larger one. “It’s actually not dark.”
“Umm…I beg to differ. It’s dark. I can’t see anything.”
“It’s part of the transitioning process.”
Fear crept into her head and it didn’t take long to dig its claws in.
He soothed the worry creasing her forehead, and he answered her unspoken question.
“It’s temporary. Once you learn how to shift into your wolf and your night vision kicks in all your sight will even out. And I promise. We all went through exactly what you’re going through so you don’t have to—”
“When you transitioned, did you have sex with someone on the ground outside a rented cabin, surrounded by eight other Shadows who you’d kind of met before?” Some of the details of their…exchange…were fuzzy, but she remembered enough to get her point across.
Definitely enough if the sound of him swallowing was any indication.
“Not exactly.”
“Not exactly. Right.” Fear was feeding part of her attitude, but not all of it. Pushing his buttons still totally did it for her no matter the fact they’d just had voyeuristic sex so she could gain entry into a secret compound of mythical people. And a place she apparently couldn’t see until she passed some kind of hoobie hoobie wolf test.
“Our situations are so different. I was born here. I knew the rules. Knew what to expect and had been training my whole life for when I could shift. So when the fever hit I was ready. You’re…upbringing, made your entry here a bit more…special.”
A snort punctuated his last word. “Special? As in the short bus kind of special?”
He nuzzled her throat and licked across the bite mark again. “Nope. A very different kind of special.”
She sucked her lips between her teeth and finally convinced herself to relax. “You bit me?”
“Yep.”
Waiting proved fruitless since no other info was forthcoming. “Why did you bite me?”
“I couldn’t not bite you.”
“Double negatives make my eye twitch.”
A laugh of air tickled her mouth as he propped himself up on his hand to stare down at her. “I needed to bite you. Needed it. And I want to do it again.”
His words incited her lust and she wanted him to bite her. She wanted his teeth on her. His mark. She shifted closer as she felt his cock jolt against her hip. But then she realized he lay atop the covers and she was trapped beneath. What separated them was a quarter inch too far. “Why are you up there? I want to touch you.” She ran a hand down his side, heading for his cock, but he grabbed her wrist.
