Bryce, page 12
part #2 of Anarock Shifters Series
Alexa plunged at Jamison and planted one hand on Jamison’s chest and the other against Riley’s. With a single powerful shove, she knocked them apart and sent Riley spinning backward.
Riley staggered out of the light and somersaulted backward into the shallow water. She rolled on her shoulder. The next instant, she exploded out of the swamp. A geyser of droplets erupted around her shifting in mid-flight. She spread her wings and rocketed away into the dark.
Bryce didn’t have time to watch her go. The instant Alexa touched Jamison, he reacted. He stumbled two steps away and caught his balance. He transformed so fast that Bryce didn’t see it happen. In a fraction of a second, the fearsome monster pounced onto all fours. A long, snaking tongue slithered out of his mouth and shot at Riley.
Alexa took a flying jump. The tongue that almost dragged Riley back to captivity struck Alexa instead. It lashed around her neck and yanked her off her feet. It plucked her out of thin air and whipped her straight toward the monster’s gaping jaws.
Bryce couldn’t watch this. He couldn’t watch Alexa meet her fate defending Riley’s escape. At the last possible second, he lunged. He threw both his arms over the slithering tongue. Alexa slammed into his side, but his body blocked her from entering that thing’s mouth.
The awful beast roared and spat and jabbered. It resembled nothing Bryce had ever laid eyes on. The force with which it hauled Alexa to her doom pinned both her and Bryce against the fiend’s muzzle. Neither of them could move but it couldn’t bite them, either. All three flailed and struggled in a death match, strength against strength.
Bryce couldn’t see any way out. On pure adrenaline, he wound back his fist and smashed his knuckles into the bony armored plates of the thing’s head. He withdrew his hand bloody and destroyed. He didn’t even make a dent in that thing.
To his horror, the creature collected itself first. It loosened its hold on Alexa and moved her back a foot before it brought her in with another catastrophic yank. The impact knocked the wind out of Bryce. He had to do something. He had to get Alexa free but he didn’t even have a weapon that would penetrate the creature’s hide.
The thing bellowed again. The noise would wake the dead. Any second now, more wacky beings would tumble out of camp. They would take Bryce and Alexa prisoner and their whole plan to fly away tomorrow would evaporate.
Jamison unfurled his tongue one more time. He lifted Alexa on high for another sucking pull into his mouth. The creature rotated its head sideways and hooked Bryce out of the way. He tried to correct to get in between the thing’s mouth and Alexa, but he didn’t have time. Jamison’s tongue whipped in the air. Alexa clawed at the rope cinching around her throat. Her face bulged, but she couldn’t make a sound. How long could she last?
Jamison’s tongue twanged retracting her to her end. Bryce watched the scene in helpless panic, but before he could do anything, Alexa whipped her arm behind her back. She pulled a hidden knife from somewhere. She rotated her shoulder around as Jamison hauled her in. With one flying thrust, she dove straight at the creature’s head. She brought the knife down with all her strength.
The monster’s eyes rolled upward watching the knife descend. His tongue was moving too fast bringing her closer. The momentum of his own movement gave her the additional leverage she needed to puncture his skull—at least, Bryce hoped so.
In front of Bryce’s shocked eyes, another tongue shot out of its gullet. The first tongue crashed Alexa into the monster’s snout. She folded forward and stabbed the knife down. It crunched through the plates as the second tongue made contact with her chest. A blast of crackling electricity hit her in the heart. It flung her free from the first tongue’s grip and she sailed backward with a pained grunt. She splashed into the water and the creature folded to the ground with the knife hilt protruding between its eyes.
14
Alexa groaned in agony. She tried to raise her hand to her head, but a crushing pain hit her in the gut. She wound up hugging both arms over her abdomen. She wanted to roll over into the fetal position, but every move hurt.
Someone touched her forehead and Bryce’s voice came to her ear. “Lie still. Don’t try to move.”
“Aargh! I feel like shit!”
“I’m not surprised,” he murmured. “Your heart stopped. You would have been dead, but Francois saved your life. You took one hell of a jolt right to the chest and Jamison nearly strangled you. Your neck looks like someone tried to hang you.”
She blinked. “Why can’t I see anything?”
He chuckled and she felt him sit down next to her on her old cot. “It’s dark. It’s nighttime.”
She tried to look around at nothing, but her neck hurt too much. “Still? How long have I been out?”
“You’ve been out for over twenty-four hours. It’s the next night after you killed Jamison.”
She froze. “Is he dead?”
“He’s kaput and he ain’t coming back.”
“Wait! The assault!” She lunged upright only to collapse back. “We have to stop it!”
He laid his hand on her shoulder even though she couldn’t get up if she tried. “Don’t worry. McCain delayed it after the fight. Enough people saw what happened and they took us prisoner. They all saw you let Riley get away. We’ll never be able to fly over the city now.”
She sighed and relaxed. What choice did she have? “At least she got away. She’ll tell Victor what’s going on.”
“You were amazing out there,” he breathed. “You killing Jamison gave Anarock another twenty-four hours’ warning. They’ll be ready for the Battalion now. A whole lot of people owe you their lives.”
“They owe us their lives.” She tried to see him in the dark. She would give anything for one glimpse of his face right now. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
His fingers tightened on her shoulder. Then he slid his warm palm up to her cheek. He stroked her face. Man, he felt good next to her again! She couldn’t imagine going through this without him.
He sat strangely silent. She crawled up his arms and tried to pull him down. “Come here. Lie down with me.”
He resisted. “I don’t want to. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t. I need you.”
Was he smiling in the dark right now? When he spoke, he barely whispered. “I think I’m in love with you, Alexa Weeks.”
Her heart flipped. “You think?”
Out of nowhere, his lips made contact with hers. That faint butterfly kiss spasmed her heart with emotion more than all the flaming passion of sex. “I love you.”
She grappled to get hold of him. This time, she succeeded in clutching her arms around his neck and hugging him down on top of her. She wanted him with her. She wanted to feel his weight pinning her down, but he wouldn’t move.
He let her hug him and then he pried himself loose to sit up. “You need to recover. I’m not going anywhere. Just lie still and rest.”
“I can’t.” Her throat constricted. Why did he have to stay so far away? “I need to feel you next to me.”
His fingertips grazed her cheek again. “Shh. You’re hurt.”
She tried to get hold of him, but he wouldn’t budge. He just sat there, immovable. She gulped back tears. “Bryce?”
“Yep?”
“What did you mean when you said they took us prisoner? Where are we?”
“We’re in our tent,” he replied. “We’re stuck here until McCain decides what to do with us.”
She rotated her head sideways. “Is anyone else here? Are we under guard or something?”
“No, we’re alone.” His voice came from far away. “They put a spell on the door so we can’t leave. Other than that, we’re free to do what we want as long as we stay inside. We have plenty of food and water. McCain ordered Francois to heal you. The others wanted to let you die, but McCain said the Battalion needed both of us. I don’t know for sure because he didn’t tell me, but I think he might have the same idea about us torching the city.”
Alexa closed her eyes and turned away. “I won’t do it. I don’t care if they kill us both. I won’t fight against Anarock.”
“I feel the same way you do, but we might not have a choice. When the shooting starts, we might have to fight to stay alive.”
“I don’t care.” She strained to sit up. “I would rather die than fight against Anarock.”
He sat still and silent for too long. “I know one thing. I’m not letting anything put you in danger again. I’m not ready to die and I’m not ready to let you die, either. We’ve come too far and been through too much to defeat this cocksucking Battalion. I’m not giving up yet until we put an end to them all, especially McCain.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
When he spoke this time, she heard the pinched muttering growl of a smile behind the words. “I don’t have a plan yet, but I’ll find a way.”
She put out her hand. “Please, Bryce. Please lie down.”
He lingered there on the edge of the cot. Every minute away from him ached. Then, to her relief, he turned around and jammed himself in next to her. “All right. Just don’t try anything. You’re too weak and I wouldn’t want anyone suggesting I took advantage of a woman who spent the last twenty hours on the brink of death.”
Now that her arms wrapped around his form, she finally relaxed. She could appreciate his humor. “What if I was the one to take advantage of you? Would that make you feel better?”
“No, it wouldn’t.”
She closed her arms around him in blessed relief. “I just want you here. I need you next to me.”
He settled in and clasped her to his heart. She couldn’t move much, but at least he was here. He made her feel better just lying against her like this. His big presence made all the other horror bearable.
He breathed into her hair. “You feel good. I missed you these last few days.”
“I missed you, too.” She closed her eyes into him. She never had to miss him again. “I don’t know why we stayed away from each other.”
“We stayed away because we were upset not to be able to help Anarock, but that’s all taken care of now. Riley will be back in the city telling everyone who will listen what’s going on. They’ll get all their people ready to take down the Battalion when the time comes.”
“Maybe McCain will call off the assault,” she suggested. “Maybe he’ll think twice.”
She felt him shake his head against her scalp. “He’s too plumb crazy for that. He doesn’t care if Anarock is prepared for him. He’s dead set on plundering and clapping everyone into slavery. He’s cracked in the head, that fool.”
“What about the others? Is anyone else advising a change of plan?”
He snorted and his chest shook. “Are you kidding? No one dares say anything to him about anything. They’re all too scared to open their mouths especially now that Jamison is gone. They’re all afraid they’ll get appointed to take his place.”
She couldn’t laugh at the joke. Her mind turned to the assault, but before she could come to any conclusion, she became aware of his body next to her. She eased closer and pressed against him. She couldn’t turn on her side, but she could nuzzle up next to him.
She managed to raise a hand and touch his face. She explored the contours of his cheeks. She strained to kiss his neck and nibbled up his jaw to his mouth. His lips closed over hers and she slid her tongue inside.
His hot saliva tingled, but a second later, he pulled away. “What did I just say? You’re on bed rest, girl. Don’t try to pull one over on me.”
He felt too good, too tempting lying so close to her. She raked her fingers down his chest and pulled up his shirt. “I need you. I gotta have you.”
He grabbed her wrist. “You can’t! You’re half broken now and you want to do that?”
“Yes.” She burrowed down trying to touch his stomach with her mouth. She wanted him in her mouth and inside her body. “I want to.”
He pushed her down. “I said stop it.” She kissed him again and this time, he answered her for longer before he broke off. He eased back and his breath rasped. “You’re wild, you know that?”
She lay flat on her back, but she couldn’t stop staring up at where his features ought to be. She stroked her fingers under his shirt and caressed his chest and nipples and up to his neck. Her body seethed with inner fire. She yearned for him the way she should have had him all these lonely days. She had to make up for that lack. “Bryce?”
“Hmm?”
She gulped. If he rejected her now, she didn’t know how she could stand it. “I…..I need you…..I need you one more time before the assault. I don’t want to have to go through with this without feeling you one more time.” On an impulse, she groped for his wrist. She steered his hand between her legs and clamped it into place. “I need you inside me. I don’t want to die without feeling you here.”
He held dangerously still, but he didn’t take his hand away. He held it there unmoving for a second. Then, slowly, painfully, he started to massage her enflamed crotch. “You want this? You really want this?”
She mewed, convulsing under his hand. “Yes please Bryce. Please, I need it so bad.”
His throat cracked fighting for air. His touch got stronger and his circuits quicker. He kneaded her cunt hotter and deeper. He dug his fingers into the seam of her jeans where her slit was. He found her clit and worked it through the denim.
She thrashed on the cot cycling up to a blistering climax. She never thought she could want a man so bad. This could be her last time on Earth and she wanted more than anything to have him. She wanted him to be the one who gave her that last, ultimate gift. She didn’t want anyone else.
She wrenched her mouth up to his and devoured him in manic kisses. She nipped his lips and tasted his tongue. He answered her all the time fingering her through her jeans. She humped his hand, but she couldn’t build up enough pressure to cum.
Without breaking contact with her mouth, he seized her fly and ripped it open. He laid it aside and dove his fingers into her gash. Her spongy wetness swallowed his hand and his fingers drilled inside her. In an instant, she tumbled over the precipice into orgasm, but his mouth stifled her moans.
She hurled herself at him, cumming again and again. Her cream saturated his hand and still he kept banging his palm into her clit and stabbing his fingers to her center. She yelped and cried. She thanked God his mouth muted her screams because she couldn’t keep quiet.
She got lost in his kiss and the steamy ecstasy washing her away. It healed all the pain in every corner of her body, but she still couldn’t get up. In the midst of sobbing and whining in torrential passion, she tore her mouth away. She stared up at the eyes she couldn’t see and a strange voice came out of the distant ether. “Please, Bryce. Please. I need it so bad. Please.”
She clawed down his stomach to his crotch and felt him hard and tight inside his pants. In desperation, she squeezed his shaft through the fabric. “Please. Please, Bryce, don’t leave me like this. I need you so bad. Please. Please.”
He pulled back and his breath came right in front of her face. His fingertips dragged against her cheek and temple. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”
“You won’t,” she pleaded. “Please. Please. I need it. I need it, Bryce.”
He kissed her again and whispered low. “Shh. You’re all right.”
“Please. Please.” She couldn’t stop begging. She never knew she could need something so bad. The hardness in her hand felt so impossibly good. Her pussy ached for it to be inside her. She couldn’t live without it.
He reared a few more inches away. “Are you sure?”
“Yes! Please, I need you.”
He didn’t answer. He sat up and removed his soaked hand from her jeans. Her molten channel quivered for more, more, so much more.
He swiveled around to sit on the edge of the cot in the same position. His hands ranged over her until he dug around her jeans and slid them down. She lifted her pelvis as much as she could to help him, but he wound up doing most of the work.
He tossed them aside. She could only track his movements by sound and feel. She never knew a night could be so impenetrably dark.
All at once, without warning, something tight and hot closed over her crotch. She tensed gasping at the intensity of his mouth eating her out. His powerful lips plucked her frills and he sank his teeth ever so gently around her clit.
She trembled trying to sustain so much emotion and sensation at once, but he wouldn’t let up. He mangled her, plunging his tongue inside. He slathered his boiling saliva on her sensitive flesh.
He shoved her thighs apart and crawled between her legs. Before she could stop him, he munched her to an explosive peak once again. Her hands flew to his head. She couldn’t push him into her hard enough and she couldn’t tear him away. She could only twist and squirm on that evil tongue.
He drove her clit to distraction. She whined in anguish. She wanted him, his thickness inside her, not this torturous teasing mouth licking her to insanity. He clamped both muscular arms around her ass and chomped huge mouthfuls of her dripping gash. His saliva dripped down her ass and formed a wet patch on the cot. Even that spiked her desire out of all proportion.
She touched his scalp. His ears and neck and short hair and forehead intoxicated her out of her mind. She couldn’t…. she couldn’t…. she couldn’t….and yet she did. He made her.
He stabbed two fingers into her hole and screwed her deep. She spiraled on his knuckles unsure whether she was dying or being reborn as someone completely new. He left her bare and exposed and utterly at his mercy.
She got lost in one wave of bliss after another. It overwhelmed her until she couldn’t think. It didn’t stop when he sat up and got to his feet. He pushed down his pants and leaned forward. He braced his chiseled arms above her head and levered his body down on top of her.
She thought she wanted it. Now she wasn’t sure she could stand it. His stiff prick touched her slit. For a fraction of a second, she was scared she would die if he really got inside her. What if she disintegrated? What if she went somewhere and couldn’t come back? What if she lost herself forever?
