Chapter Four
Valerian
I wasn’t at all comfortable with leaving Mason behind at his brother’s lodge. It wasn’t that I feared for his safety. Mason was safe enough with his brother’s pack. I felt confident that the wolf pack that had once been Mason’s family wanted only to kill Finn and me, not Mason. What made me uncomfortable was being without Mason. I’d already tried being separated from him, and I wasn’t thrilled about doing it again—not even for the half a day or so it would take us to get back to the campsite, tell Roark and the rest of Finn’s pack what was going on and move the camp. We planned on bringing Roark and the others close to Mason’s brother’s lodge and that big alpha Marco had given his permission for us to camp out—temporarily—on his land. So long as we didn’t mind a few of his guards around. Or even if we did, those were his terms.
I had a feeling he wanted Finn and me there too, and not inside Cade’s lodge, just like I knew Mason would kick up another fuss about it. Personally, I’d be happier entirely on my own. I had the stench of wolves permanently lodged in my nostrils by this time, it seemed, and no amount of cologne could disguise it. Not that I could mention that to Finn, of course. Or Mason, for that matter. Mason wanted me close by and wouldn’t be satisfied with less, so for now, at least, I’d have to endure. I was planning on taking possession of the coven house again once we returned to Virginia. I wasn’t about to move into Finn’s little shack of a cabin. I believed I could talk Mason into living there with me—and I suppose, Finn too—after we returned. Finn’s wolves could rebuild their little hovels on the property, I suppose. Just not too close by.
Finn was quiet for the first part of the journey back to the cave. I thought he was brooding over leaving Mason. That, coupled with the fact that Mason hadn’t allowed Finn or me to make love to him had made him out of sorts for days, so when we stopped by a mountain overlook for a moment to rest for a moment and admire the view, I wasn’t surprised at his question—the first thing he’d said to me since we left the lodge.
“What are we going to do about our, uh, situation?” Finn asked.
Frowning at his question, I asked, “What situation are you referring to? The one where Mason’s pack wants to kill us? Would that be what’s troubling you?” I shrugged. “It’s not exactly surprising to me. You wolves have always been the kill-first-and-ask-questions-later kind.”
He looked over at me and quirked an eyebrow and I had to look away. Finn was growing on me. Quickly. And I wasn’t happy about it. I was even growing accustomed to his scent. In a way. It wasn’t quite as abhorrent to me as the other wolves’. In point of fact, I’d been thinking of him too much lately. Mason and Finn—if my thoughts weren’t on Mason, then I was daydreaming over Finn. My mind had become a vicious cycle of erotic thoughts involving each of my lovers—or both of them at the same time.
Finn had been stomping through the woods on the way back to the campsite, making enough noise to wake the dead. Since I had first-hand experience at how graceful and deadly Finn could be, I knew he was being obnoxiously loud hoping to pick a fight with any creature within a fifty-mile radius. Since he hadn’t gotten to finish what he’d started with those other wolves, he was frustrated and spoiling for a good fight.
He stopped walking and turned toward me. “Kill first and ask questions later, huh? That’s a good one coming from you, Nightslayer. Besides, that’s not what I’m talking about,” Finn corrected. “I’m talking about the situation where Mason has decided not to sleep with either of us until some vague time in the future because he—what is it he says? He needs time. I’ve got what he needs, right here,” he said, grabbing his crotch in a crude gesture. “And don’t give me that look. I know you’re missing burying yourself in Mason’s tight body too. You look at him like a man lost in the desert looks at a pool of cool water.”
When I started to complain about…well, about every damned word that had just come out of his mouth, he held up his hand to stop me in typical Finn manner. It was times like these that I was reminded of my old quest to hunt him down and kill him. He was the most annoying, overbearing, bullheaded…provocative wolf I’d ever come across.
“Don’t deny it, Val,” he argued, using that stupid shortening of my name that I so despised. “You want him as badly as I do. Hell, I can’t wait till we both have him at the same time,” he growled in a voice that spoke directly to my cock. Directly bypassing my brain and heading straight to it. Every. Damned. Time. “We need to form a plan—something to woo him back. What are you thinking? Got anything?”
“Woo him?” I frowned and stopped walking, surprised at this word coming from him. It wasn’t his style, that was for sure. He stopped a few steps away up the trail and turned back to me. He was larger even than most of the gray wolves we’d just left, with a muscular frame and tanned skin that spoke of a life lived mostly exposed to the elements. Quite the opposite of my own.
It was a myth that vampires couldn’t be in the sun, like some of the other old legends that said we were repelled by crosses or holy water. Wishful thinking on the part of the European peasants my kind used to prey upon, I suppose. But it was true that we were sensitive to bright, hot sunlight, and we were happiest at night, when the glare from the sun wasn’t as bright and the temperatures dropped to more comfortable levels. We could travel in the daytime just like anyone else if our need was great enough.
Finn had turned around to look expectantly at me, giving me his full focus. It was one of the things I loved most about him—the intensity of his gaze on me. His entire physical presence was intense, for that matter.
When Finn turned all that intensity on me, it was almost alarming
. Finn’s beauty, so different from Mason’s angelic allure, was just as stunning. His dark eyes with those thick eyelashes swept over me now and his gaze still left me enthralled and, oddly enough, confused. How could we have hated each other so badly all those years, ready and willing to destroy one another, looking for the perfect opportunity to kill one other one minute but then panting after each other the next? I still had no idea.
It was different with Mason. The moment I’d caught Mason’s scent, I’d known he belonged to me. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything and I’d never wanted to do anything to him except protect him. With Finn, though, things had started so differently…and still ended up the same. I had feelings for him. Deep feelings that I didn’t want to name, because they seemed too ridiculous.
Was it even possible? Both Finn and Mason preached the absolute truth of soul mates, or what they called a blood match, but my kind didn’t really support the fairytale belief of mates, true love, and little birdies that twirled around our heads when we thought of each other. Creatures like me saw something we wanted and we took it. End of story—literally, in some cases. At other times we turned the object of our attention into a nightslayer and became their sires—it was a deep, unbreakable bond that was part parental and part lustful.
However, though I’d shared blood with him, I certainly didn’t feel parental in the least about Finn, though I had, technically, turned him when his heart had stopped after being shot with the silver bullet. And oddly enough, though Mason was young and beautiful, and though I’d been the one to turn him, I didn’t feel like his sire either. Perhaps because he’d already been bitten by Finn before I got to him. That’s not to say I didn’t lust after him. The thought of Mason—or Finn—ever leaving my life gave me a searing pain in my chest that I couldn’t quite identify. Before the two of them, it had been hundreds of years since my heart ached, if that’s what this was.
Not that I hadn’t had many, many sexual partners over my long life—there was one in particular that I still couldn’t talk about. Couldn’t even think about, even now. But I’d been human the last time I’d felt an emotion like love. Yet when Mason was taken from me, and later told me he hated me, I’d considered ending my own existence. There had been only one other time I had ever felt that way, and it hadn’t been because of unrequited love. It had been because it was the only way I could think of to escape my lover’s all-encompassing focus. His soul-consuming jealousy and possessiveness. When I’d finally found a way to escape him, I’d run as far and as fast as I could and never looked back.
“Yeah, woo him,” Finn said, interrupting my thoughts and jerking me back to the present. “That’s the word, right? You know, make him realize how much he loves us? That enough time has passed, and he’s just stalling now. So…tell me. What’s your brilliant plan? Do you have one?”
“No, I don’t have a plan, damn it. Forming some scheme to trick Mason back into our beds is out of the question. Have you learned nothing about him? You do realize that the maneuvering and the lying is what got us into this predicament to start with, don’t you? Using my ability to compel him and your-your knot to remove his opportunity to choose is where both of us fucked up the first time. Please tell me you understand that.”
A faint blush tinged his high cheekbones, so I was certain I’d touched a nerve. Yes, Finn damned well knew what both of us had done to Mason and how badly it had hurt the man we both loved. He was frowning, but nodded an agreement to me. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He kicked out bad-temperedly at a passing and unsuspecting squirrel but missed it, as it squeaked and scampered away. A lucky escape.
Something told me I should just let the subject drop, but I simply couldn’t. I needed to know. Was it only Mason that Finn was worried about? That Finn…loved? Or did he feel the same for me as I was beginning to feel for him? Was his heart experiencing the excitement that mine felt whenever we were near one another? When he looked into his future, did he see the three of us together or did his visions hold only him and Mason?
Hating myself for being so needy, I kept my gaze on the blue mountain vista in front of us and just asked him. “You-you said you wanted both of us to share Mason. Is that all you want? Am I just a stand-in until Mason is ready to welcome you back into his bed? Or, worse, am I just some erotic kink to add to your bed occasionally? If so, I’d like to know. And don’t give me Mason’s feelings on the subject. I know how he feels—I’m asking you.” I glanced over at him, hating this stupid feeling of insecurity.
Never in my almost three hundred years of life had I felt more insecure than I did now that I was involved in a love triangle with these two men. I detested insecurity. It made me feel weak.
Finn stepped in closer to me and for a man who rarely showed gentleness of any nature, he seemed almost tender as he slowly raised his hand and cupped the back of my neck. It wasn’t his usual display of dominance. Though there were times I didn’t mind that either. No, this touch was…different. His other hand reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear. His fingers played with my hair for a few seconds, as if testing the texture of it and a soft smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
“I love your hair. It’s so soft and silky. I’ve never been crazy about long hair on a man before, but it’s perfect on you.” His eyes lifted to meet mine. “Everything about you is perfect.”
Feeling stupid for what I’d said and the weakness I’d shown, I started to pull away from his grasp. “You don’t have to do this. I’m not some female whose feelings you have to soothe. I simply asked a question. To clarify things.”
His grip tightened, and his voice softened. “I see. Well, don’t worry, I definitely know you’re not female.” He brushed his lips over mine and my knees weakened a little. I hated that he had that power over me.
“Do you honestly believe what we’re doing, the lovemaking we’ve shared, is just because of Mason?”
“I…I do at times,” I admitted. “Come on, Finn,” I urged. “You have to admit it’s a hard pill to swallow, considering our history.”
Finn chuckled. “A hard pill to swallow, huh?” he asked. “Look at you going all modern with your words. If I didn’t know better, I would think Mason and I had been a bad influence on your aristocratic vocabulary.”
“Stop teasing. I’m serious, Finn.”
Finn stepped away and I missed his touch immediately. The warmth that his hands always brought me vanished as he moved away from me. Immediately, I wished I could take back the words that had caused him to put distance between us. I opened my mouth and I’m ashamed to say that I was considering asking him to touch me again, but I quickly pressed my lips together when I realized what he was doing.
Stripping. The man was taking off his clothes right there on the trail where anyone could come along. He was getting buck-ass naked and I sighed. Apparently fucking your lover into submission whenever they expressed any concern was the answer for every alpha wolf. I enjoyed being fucked into submission at times. On the rare occasion. But I didn’t enjoy it when he was using it to manipulate me.
“What are you doing, Finn?” I asked in what I hoped sounded like a bored, disinterested voice. My attempt more than likely failed if he’d noticed how intently I was staring at his huge cock when he slid out of those tight jeans and it bounced back against his stomach. I narrowed my eyes at him. No underwear again. The man was a Philistine. He tossed some of his curly hair away from his face and straightened up. With a willpower I wasn’t sure I possessed, I made myself look in a totally different direction.
Oh, look, a squirrel. No, that didn’t work.
My eyes drifted back to grab another look at him. Fuck, but if I paused long enough to think about it, I couldn’t help but be amazed that his cock fit inside either me or Mason. The knot at the base? Its size was in proportion, but still impressive. I looked away as the thought occurred to me that he’d only shared that with Mason. The one he called his blood mate.
“Sex doesn’t fix everything, Finn,” I hissed, more angry at myself than at him.
He smiled and stepped right back into my personal space. His nimble fingers started working at the buttons of my shirt. I half expected to hear the fabric rip when he grew frustrated, but it didn’t happen. He patiently worked at the tiny buttons until he was finished and my chest was bare.
“No, my beautiful aristocratic lover, sex doesn’t fix everything. I know this,” he said with one of his most sensuous smiles. “I also know that you, for reasons beyond my understanding, are having doubts about how I feel about you and where you fit in this relationship. I don’t like you having doubts, babe.”
“Babe…” I scoffed. “What a ridiculous term.”
“That’s what you are.” He leaned in and kissed the corners of my lips and then traced the shape with the tip of his tongue. “And I don’t like this frown.” A nibble along my jawline. “Or the fact I’m responsible for it being there.”
His lips were magical. A shudder ran through me as I allowed him to nuzzle my throat. “Maybe sex does fix a few things,” I grumbled as I shrugged out of the shirt he’d unbuttoned and tossed it aside and began to unfasten my trousers. Once I was naked, I looked up to find him smiling at me. His eyes making no secret of the lust consuming him. If nothing else, Finn could always make me feel attractive…if nothing else.
“So, uh, how do you want to do this? Should I get on my hands and knees or were you thinking of me up against a tree?” My words sounded stupid, but then Finn didn’t usually pause long enough that I had time to worry about what position he wanted me in. In typical alpha fashion, he simply pounced and the fucking commenced.
When he continued to stand there, I fought the urge to squirm. Vampires didn’t squirm. We were at the top of the food chain and squirming was not part of our repertoire. Well, at least it was generally frowned upon.
“What are you waiting for?”
“I’m just enjoying the view,” he answered. “Is that so bad?”
“You’ve seen the view often enough, Finn. Get on with it. With my luck, Roark could be roaming the woods, and while you might have forgiven him for his transgressions, Mason and I haven’t forgotten about the fact he tried to kill you. I’m not fond of the idea of him wandering up on us and finding me in compromising position.”
He kissed me then. A slow, dangerously seductive kiss that succeeded in invading every corner of my body, staking claim to everything I had to offer—even the parts of me I’d tried to hold back. There was nothing aggressive about the kiss. It was all about seduction. I felt my body melt against his. My desire for Finn was a weakness I guessed I would have to accept because it clearly wasn’t going away anytime soon.
“Val, even when I thought I wanted to kill you, my mind had these fantasies about keeping you captive for a while, fucking you until I grew bored, and then dispatching you. Trouble was, I couldn’t imagine ever getting bored. I swear, I couldn’t wrap my mind around ever actually hurting you.” He breathed me in and smiled. “I should have known then what you meant to me.”
“I wouldn’t have minded keeping you captive and having my way with you either.” I wanted to tell him that he had no idea how many times I could have killed him but something inside me would always stop it from happening. I would do things to sabotage my own assault. I tried to come up with excuses as to why, but nothing made sense, so I stopped thinking about it altogether. I wanted to say all that, but somehow, I couldn’t get the words to come. He was far too arrogant as it was anyway.
He drew in a sharp breath as if the idea of being my captive excited him. He reached down and stroked his cock, taking a few seconds to toy with the knot at the base. My gaze followed his hands without my conscious volition. Damn him. I knew for a fact that he’d knotted Mason the first time they were together. He’d been “kind” enough to videotape it for me. Back then it had been his way of taunting me. But why did I care now? It wasn’t as if I was in love with the wolf. Yet I was nearly dizzy with desire as I envisioned Finn’s knot locked inside of me, tormenting my prostate as I came over and over again. I lowered my hand and pressed a fist against my own aching cock and determinedly turned away.
Finn’s hands reached for me and drew me close to him. “What is it, sweetheart?”
I looked up in surprise. Terms of endearment, except for stupid ones like his earlier babe were rare with Finn. I found I liked hearing it a little too much.
“What do you want from me, Finn?”
“I want you to make love to me,” he said, one eyebrow raised. “Was I not being clear enough?”
“Then tell me how you want me.”
“No, sweetheart. You tell me. This will be your show.”
“What do you mean? Anything is fine, if you hurry up with it. I don’t want…”
“Roark to see your ass. I know. But we both know I would have scented Roark a long time ago if he were anywhere near. We’re alone, Val. And I want you to make love to me.”
I glanced over at him sharply. “When you say make love to you…”
He gave me that same sexy grin. “That’s right. Your cock inside me. It comes highly recommended.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Mason told me you were a beautiful lover. I want to see for myself.”
“But you’re an alpha.”
He shrugged. “And being the alpha of a wolf pack usually means I’m the biggest, strongest, and most dominant. Also, with my pack at least, the smartest wolf around. Being in charge came with the territory until Mason showed up. But Mason likes being submissive to me in bed. It’s the only place he is, actually. I sense that you’re not as comfortable with it. And besides, when it comes to you and me, I’m definitely not the only dominant one.”
I shrugged negligently. “I’ve lived a long time, Finn. I’ve done both and, as Mason says, it’s all good.” I looked up at him. “Especially with you.”
“I don’t know, Val. I think I might like to find out what would have happened to me if you had ever caught up with me and held me captive. I’ve always wondered.”
“Really?” I looked him up and down and smiled. “Then get your ass up against that tree and bend over, wolf man.”
Finn’s eyes lit with interest and maybe just a touch of defiance. Good—I could work with that.
“Well? I’m waiting. I said, get against the tree.”
Slowly, with lots of glances up at me from under those thick eyelashes, Finn began to walk over toward it. He turned to look at me when he reached it, his cock bouncing around a little. He reached to stroke it again and I knocked his hand away. “That’s mine, boy.”
“Oh really? Who says so, Bloodsucker?”
Finn leaned up against the tree and started lazily stroking his big cock, punching it through his fist and looking at me challengingly with a smartass grin. I closed the short distance between us, pushed his hand away and slapped his erection with an open hand. As my palm made contact, he hissed sharply and all his arrogance drained out of him along with all the color in his face. His erection sagged, and he fell to his knees, clutching his cock. I tipped up his chin and made him look me in the eye. “Don’t get cocky with me, Wolf.”
He blew out a deep breath and then his eyes lit up with fiery expression of excitement. He was turned on by this, the kinky bastard, and his big cock thickened again. I’d always figured he’d be open to trying just about anything sexually. I grabbed him by the dick and hauled him back up to his feet. He came along with a groan and a nervous little grunt. I pushed him back against the tree and turned him around to face it.
“Bend over.”
“Uh, Valerian,” he said, turning right back to me. “Maybe you could use a little lubrication? I haven’t…I mean, this is fun and all, but I’m not used to…”
I slapped him on his ass and pushed him around to face the tree again. “Hold on to the tree!” I ordered and he gave me a confused glance and wrapped his arms around it. I may have used a touch of compulsion on him to make him stay put. Maybe a little more than a touch. I drew back and slapped his ass again. Hard. And then I did it a few more times for good measure. He rose up on his toes at the strength of each slap, grunting with pain as each one hit.
“Damn it, Val!”
“Now are you going to bend over for me or do you want more of the same?”
He gave me an injured look and bent farther over, sliding his hands down the rough bark of the tree and pushing out his ass. “I don’t think I like this game after all,” he complained, but we’d gone too far to stop now. I fell to my knees behind him, pulled open his ass cheeks and gave his ass a lick from his balls all the way up to his tight hole. He squealed with surprise and pleasure, and then, embarrassed at the noise that came out of him, he tried to turn the squeal into a cough.
“Hold still for me—babe,” I ordered, and proceeded to fuck his hole with my long tongue. After only seconds of this treatment, he was babbling and making incoherent sounds that no longer sounded even remotely human. When the begging started, I finally relented and got back up to my feet.
“Is that enough lubrication for you, wolfie?”
He growled and almost stood up, but I pushed him back over and bit one of his ass cheeks. He yelled and kicked back at me, but his hands still stayed wrapped around the tree because I was exerting my influence on him to make him think he couldn’t break free. I laughed and a long shuddery moan was his only reply.
I unfastened my trousers, preparing to take him. I wet my finger and fucked him with that for a minute or so, just to make sure he was good and ready, enjoying the little sounds he made as I tapped his prostate over and over and made him squirm and writhe in place. Then when I thought he’d had enough of that, I leaned over him and murmured in his ear. “Get ready, boy.”
“Jesus, Valerian,” he growled and shivered all over. I guided my cock to his little pink hole, slowly worked in the tip and grabbed his hips.
“Say my name.”
“What? Why?” he said as he glanced back at me.
“Because you’re going to scream it in a second. You need the practice.”
He raised his eyebrows smugly and sneered. “Fuck you.”
“No,” I advised. “It’s going to be the other way around.” I thrust up and into him, shoving my cock all the way in till my balls rested against his delectable ass and listened with pleasure to his scream.
“Valerian! Goddamnit!”
“What did I tell you?”
He reared his head back and howled, almost more wolf than man, but in another few seconds, he’d regained control and looked back over his shoulder at me, his eyes wide and his pupils blown with pleasure. He was still angry, but it was hard to work up a good mad when someone was stroking your cock the way I was stroking his. I had reached around him to grab his big dick and I was working it rapidly up and down. His knees quivered and his lips were red from where he’d been biting them. His hair was wild and all over the place and he had tree bark plastered to his forehead. He was absolutely gorgeous, and in that moment, he was all mine.
I laughed, and was surprised at how raspy and sensual it sounded. I slapped his sweet ass again just because I could, as I fucked in and out of him, his hole wet from my pre-cum. It was hot and raw and sticky and he was moaning so loud I thought the gray wolves at the lodge might hear him.
“So good,” he cried out. “Don’t stop.”
“I have no intention of stopping,” I said and fisted his hair, pulled his head back and bit him on the side of his neck. I poured my venom inside him and he cried out again and began to come, spurting his cum against the side of the tree.
I couldn’t hold out much longer after seeing him like that, and my orgasm hit me like a strong wave, crashing over me and sweeping me along with it. I strained against him and filled his ass with my cum until it ran down his legs. When it was over, I collapsed over his back and tried to catch my breath. He was gasping too and trembling all over. After a while, when I regained the ability to speak, I whispered in his ear. “You can let go of the tree now, Finn.”
He made a surprised noise and straightened up, whirling around to look at me and swiping out at me with his fist. I laughed, jumping back out of the way. He pointed his blunt finger at me.
“You compelled me.”
“That I did.”
“And you spanked my ass!”
“Yes. That was perhaps the best part.”
He rubbed his ass. “For you, maybe. Definitely not for me.”
I laughed at him as I pulled on my trousers and refastened them. He stomped around, picking up his clothes. He stopped and glared at me again. “Next time, I’m on top again.”
“Mm, we’ll see.”
He narrowed his eyes and foolishly tried to stare me down. Since vampires don’t need to blink, it didn’t work out too well for him. Eventually, he gave up and sat down hard on a rock to put on his shoes. When he jumped back up again and grabbed his ass, I almost fell over laughing.
“I think I’ve created a monster,” he grumbled, rubbing his ass cheeks and I smiled again.
“Babe, you have no idea.”
He finally got his jeans and boots on again and came to stand over me. I looked up at him and cocked an eyebrow. “You have something to say?”
“Just this,” he said, and swept me up into his arms, picking me up so that my feet were off the ground. He kissed me until I was shoving at his chest with my hands, then he raised his head, stared down at me and kissed me some more. I grabbed his shoulders and held on, sagging against him but he kept kissing me until I was practically swooning. And vampires don’t swoon. As a general rule.
He finally pulled his head up and looked down at me with satisfaction. “Maybe you created one too.”
He put me back on my feet and sauntered off down the trail, leaving me to blink at his retreating back for a few moments before I stumbled down the trail behind him.