25
KARESSA
They’d gotten away somehow. Again.
Damn.
It was the only thing I could think about. The only thing that mattered, this night, and the night before, and every time I’d called them to mind over the past several months.
Only this time they took something. This time, they actually won.
I was still seething at the news Damien’s totem had been stolen. Or rather, stolen back. That wasn’t the point though. The point was they’d promised me it would be safe. That in keeping it on them, the three of them could protect it better than it resting in any one location.
I looked down at Christophe, sweating beneath me, my palms splayed out over his heaving chest. He writhed upward, lifting his ass from the bed. Pushing himself as far inside me as my body would allow.
“Give me more,” I ordered. “Deeper.”
And yet even he had failed me. My beautiful, beautiful Christophe. The successor. The alpha. The one I’d counted on to fill Broderick’s shoes.
He began thrusting harder, working to give me every last inch of his manhood. Shoving it deeper into my grinding, churning womb.
“More…”
There was a fire in my belly — an itch I just couldn’t scratch, no matter what I tried. One that hadn’t been scratched since… well, not in a long time.
It was unfortunate, losing them the way I had. Broderick and Damien had been intelligent. Fearless. As lovers, they’d been as beautiful as they were insatiable.
Maybe you moved too quickly. Maybe you shouldn’t have—
No. Bullshit. In the end, they’d made their choice. They’d gone against us — against me — and for that, there was no turning back for them. At one point maybe, if they’d got on their knees and begged. But certainly not now.
Not after her.
“Are you sure he has it?” I growled, my hands clawing into my lover’s chest. I went just a little too hard. Christophe flinched as ten red streaks sprang up across his hard pectorals, some even trailing blood.
The sudden bucking motion felt great inside me, though.
“Are you sure you didn’t drop it in the courtyard, or have it torn from your neck during your struggle in the underhalls?”
Christophe responded by digging his fingers deep into the supple flesh of my hips. Pain flared, causing me to gasp sharply. But it was just enough pain. Exactly enough. He shifted into me and thrust hard against my gyrating hips, causing a wave of intense pleasure to ripple through my body.
YES!
He fucked me hard, using his strong arms to keep me centered on his body. Rocking me back and forth along the length of his hard shaft, a motion designed to get him off more than me.
This is why I mated him.
He was taking what he wanted, as an alpha should. Not really caring for my own needs at all. That was okay though. I knew well enough to take care of myself.
He reminds me of Broderick…
I squeezed hard with my inner muscles, milking him inside me. I didn’t stop until I heard him groan,
And of Damien.
Three. I was mated to three now. And three of course, was better than two. Or so I’d told myself, after they’d left.
In reality though, only Christophe was this satisfying. Boone too, but to a much lesser extent. And Lionel…
Lionel not at all.
I sighed, reveling in the feel of being taken hard and deep. Of being dominated by someone, even just temporarily. I could feel the heat again, rising up, coming from that special place. Making me want to let it all go. Making me want to surrender.
It’s still not like it was, though.
The voice in my head made me angry. I shoved it away in frustration, just as Boone leaned in to kiss me from the side. I’d been neglecting him. Probably intentionally. His fault though, for not taking what he needed.
He’s not like Damien or Broderick. Not at all…
I turned my head. Boone followed with his lips, kissing my neck, but I only thrashed away. I could come, if he’d leave me alone. It was the exact opposite of what I was used to.
“Finish me,” I groaned in frustration. “Christophe, I—”
He knew enough to do the right thing. Rolling me onto my back, he pushed my legs over my head and began screwing me with hard, deep thrusts. His hands clamped my ankles, and I could feel the enormous strength there. The tension in his forearms, as he tried to hold back.
It felt good. Finally! My eyelids fluttered as I gave myself over. My hands clawed out for something… anything at all. They finally settled over the bulge of his biceps, triggering my orgasm.
“FUCK…”
I clutched him against me, even as my core contracted around him. Christophe’s scrotum, pressed heavy and full against my entrance, began twitching and pulsing as he dumped himself inside me.
Oh God…
For the one shining moment we were one. Two beautiful bodies, melded against one another, sharing in the highest levels of mutual pleasure. Our mouths sought one other’s as we rode through over the pinnacle and down the other side, coasting through euphoric ecstasy, breaking free — at least for a minute — of anything and everything else.
Moments later he was nothing more to me than a hot, heaving sack of muscle and sinew. I rolled out from beneath him, my own chest rising and falling with each gasping breath.
“Now go…” I breathed. “See if you can find them.”
Christophe allowed himself a minute, then rolled off the bed. His expression was loyalty. Loyalty and something else. Whatever it was, I didn’t care. Outside of our sexual energy, there wasn’t enough of a connection between us to care.
I watched him leave, admiring his nakedness from behind. His body was built to please. For that at least, I was thankful.
“Karessa…”
Boone had been waiting there patiently, as usual. He pushed forward, seeking to enter me again. I clamped my legs closed. He looked back at me all wounded, like a child that had been denied a treat.
“Not now,” I said flatly. I really didn’t need to explain myself. “Later, maybe.”
He lowered his chin and accepted the refusal. That he did so easily, and without even a fight, made me fiercely angry.
My other mates would never have accepted such a rejection…
Not Broderick. Not Damien. Not in a million years.
No, they would’ve taken what they wanted.
“Go help Christophe,” I ordered. “I want them found tonight.”
Boone looked down at the floor as he began pulling on his clothing. “They may not be so easy to find,” he offered. “From what I understand—”
“Excuses,” I snarled. “Always with the excuses.”
I rolled onto my stomach. Physically I was sated, at least for now. Mentally and emotionally however…
“Look for the girl,” I said. “Find her, and you’ll find them.”
The girl. She’d shown up earlier in the week, to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. Her whole damned organization was like that. ‘The Order’, or something along those lines. I’d been only marginally familiar with it. Told stories by the elders.
I knew exactly why she was here, too. Her people had helped Damien once, and now it seemed they were aiding him again. Only there was something else, also. Something they wanted.
Something from the ruins, deep beneath this place…
I glanced around as the door closed. The inner sanctum of the cathedral was Gothic and beautiful, even with all these modern touches. It had been an amazing place. Our place. The place where I’d taken Broderick upon first making him. The place we’d brought Damien, still confused and frightened, into our fold.
It was a place we always ran to, hearts pounding, blood flowing hotly through our veins. A place we writhed, the three of us, beneath these very silken sheets. Rutting like animals…
I growled, angrily. That we might have to abandon it simply because of the intrusion of this girl made me want to pound her through a wall. She was an interloper! An outsider!
And then Damien had mated her…
My vision went blood red. My body shook. I was on the edge now. The very edge of—
The door opened and Lionel limped in. He took one look at my face and stopped dead.
“Karessa,” he mumbled hesitantly. “I—”
CRASH!
The door splintered behind me as I rushed through and slammed it shut.