Chapter 4

Jadrian

Jadrian watched Allana as they walked to her room, her hips swaying under her green skirts in a way that drew his gaze. He wanted to know if they swiveled liked that when she was coming. Telling himself he was on a mission, not out for a good time, Jadrian entered her room and sat in the soft brown velvet chair she indicated.

“So, you’re the other brother. The adopted one, right?” She said it as though he should be stung by the words but he wasn’t. He knew what he was and where he fit into the scheme of things.

“I am, indeed. Human through and through, but still an Alexander.” He sipped the Scotch, watching her over the rim of his glass as she walked back to retrieve her own drink.

“No resentment then? You don’t feel as though they take you for granted or anything? Maybe think less of you?” She stood before him, the long material of her dress hiding the length of her legs. Was she goading him, or just too rude to hide her curiosity?

Jadrian felt his pulse begin to race as he imagined shoving the skirt up her thighs and burying his head between the parted flesh. What would she taste like? Would she taste of danger and the promise of ecstasy?

“Not a single issue there, Allana. Just devotion, the same as them.” He sat back, shifting his hips to ease the tension in the front of his pants. The movement caught her gaze and a sparkle of amused curiosity came into her eyes. He took it a step further and let his middle finger fall into his glass, swilling the liquor inside with a slow swirling motion. Her eyes were glued to his fingers, watching with parted lips. She was interested then.

He’d spent hours wanting to catch her eye and now that he had it he couldn’t give in, not too much anyway. No matter how desperately his body wanted to. There was something going on with this shifter.

“Oh, I think you might be very different in one aspect. Shifter men are, well, to put it delicately, endowed with certain attributes. Do you measure up?” She sipped at her drink, teasing him by licking the last drop of the amber liquid from her lips.

His eyes followed her tongue, transfixed as his desire grew. Two could play that game but her game would lead to unknown places. She beckoned him into a world of sensuality without even trying. Shifter women were like that though, always enticing, always seductive, always fucking hot. He held himself back though, wanting her to make that first move, wanting her to be the one that broke.

“There is only one way to find out for sure. I could tell you I am just as generously endowed as any shifter but I could be lying. Perhaps I put them to shame? You’ll never know…” He allowed the words to dwindle off, letting her interpret how she chose to take it.

“Mm, that sounds like an offer. Was it?” Her eyebrow arched, a slim flame above her eye, and her lips twisted into a sultry pout that he quite liked.

The tightness in his pants liked it too and he had to shift once more, the tension becoming almost unbearable. When she leaned forward and ran a finger down his cheek he felt his stomach drop and he sucked in a breath. If just her finger on his cheek felt that good, what would it feel like to have the rest of her pressed to him?

“I think I will take you up on your offer, Mr. Alexander.” Soft and sensual, her words were whispered into the shell of his ear, her hot breath sending a shiver of anticipation down his spine.

His eyes went to her garment, wondering how to get it the hell off of her. But she wasn’t interested in taking her own clothes off, at least not yet. It was hard to pretend he wasn’t intrigued by her words when all his brain was screaming at him to do was push her far enough away to get his head between her thighs and taste her but he held himself still, his hands clenched on the arms of the chair to hold them in place.

You are only here to get into her good graces, Jadrian, he reminded himself, you do not get to fuck her. Not yet anyway.

She slithered down his chest, landing on her knees between his legs, looking up at him with a hunger he’d never seen from a woman before. With her eyes glued to his, she reached out to him, her hand going over the large ridge in his pants. Her hands were small but the size of his erection made her fingers look even smaller. Jadrian couldn’t stop himself, he thrust into her hand, his body doing as it wanted, ignoring his commands.

Biting her lip she gave a murmur of delight and held back a smile. Her pale fingers ran over him as she rubbed at his hardness, teasing him through the restraining fabric.

“Shall I do something about this, now that I know you weren’t just full of shit?” She brushed her hair over her shoulder, revealing the long length of her pale neck. He wanted to crush his lips to the delicate skin there, to make her shiver with delight.

“Do whatever you like, Allana. I’m not going to stop you from sucking my dick if that’s what you want to do.” There, he had thrown out his own challenge. It was up to her to accept or run away.

“Ah, what I’d like to do and what I’m going to do are totally different things.” She didn’t elaborate but opened the button and the zipper on his pants instead.

He felt the instant relief of his cock being released and gave a sigh of pleasure as the thick length escaped the confines of his pants. Jadrian wasn’t sure if it was from the pleasure of the tightness disappearing or the cold feel of her fingers wrapped around the heat of his very aroused dick. Again he thrust into her hand, his hips moving of their own will, and she sighed.

He watched her, anticipating each move she made, his eyes growing wider as she leaned into him. Whatever game she was playing, she apparently enjoyed sucking dick, if that look of greedy hunger on her face was any indication. Slowly her lips parted and his muscles tensed, his eyes glued to her beautiful face as she took him into her mouth, tasting him with a moan. Her tongue darted out to test his feel and he almost came, the picture of her tongue on his dick almost too much to take.

Her mouth opened again as she winked up at him tauntingly, and Jadrian watched each inch slide in between those peach colored lips of hers, counting the seconds as she went down, down, all the way down until her nose met the wall of his abdomen. Her eyes flashed up at his and she swallowed, winking up at him as he gasped out her name.

Oh she was a dirty girl, but he loved that about her. This was no wilting damsel, this was a woman in charge of her own life, willing to kick ass and take names. But she was also willing to suck cock and make his toes curl. He might have just found the perfect woman.

She pulled away from him and he groaned as his cock slid out of her throat, out of her tight lips. He loved the way her cheeks caved in as she sucked every inch of him until he popped out of her mouth. He watched her lick her lips as she smiled up at him.

“Oh yes, you measure up just fine, cowboy.” She didn’t give him time to respond, she just went straight back to his cock, sucking at him with an intensity that had his toes curling in his boots.

He wanted to come, he wanted to unload all of the night’s tension deep inside of her throat but the pain of just how hard he was wasn’t unendurable. He held back, grinding his teeth until he couldn’t take any more of it and pulled her head away.

“What’s the matter?” She looked upset that he had stopped her.

Jadrian had been just on the edge of teetering into the abyss but he’d stopped her, placing his hand over his rigidly erect length, amazed at just how hard he really was. He wasn’t sure he had ever been so hard, or enamored with a woman.

“Nothing, I’m not ready for this to end yet. This is not how I fuck. It’s not a rush to get it over with, or a race to the finish. It’s an all-night exploration of seeing just how many ways we can make each other climb the wall. It’s about the experience, and about getting off in the most exquisite way possible. It’s not just about fucking to me. I can fuck anytime I want to. I want more with you.”

He saw her eyes flashing, curiosity filling their depths as she moved from her knees and held out his hand.

“And how do we go about that, then, Mr. Alexander?” Her body swayed as she walked to her bed, one of the larger beds the monastery offered, and climbed up on it. She tucked her feet beneath her as he stood in front of her, watching as she pulled buttons to reveal bare flesh.

He was spellbound for a moment, entirely caught up in the way she revealed her skin to him. She wasn’t only beautiful, she was brave, intelligent and just on the verge of being his. He pulled his own top away, anxious to feel her warm skin against his.

“By exploring limits, my dear. By pushing until we have to stop, by pressing until the end is near, and stepping away. By making it last all night rather than just a few moments that will not matter the next day.” Jadrian leaned down, taking her delicate face into the rough expanse of his hand and stroking her lip with his thumb. “We do it by taking it one step at a time, Allana.”

He let his head slowly down to hers, his tongue darting out to wet his lips just before he pressed them to hers. Their breaths mingled as they both sighed at the pleasure the contact caused. Jadrian felt a pulse of heat blaze down his spine as soon as his lips touched hers, an awareness that something had just happened, but not something he could explain or define. She pulled away, gasping, as she looked at him in surprise.

He looked back, unsure of what to do next, of what had just happened but she moved, taking the decision away from him as she sat up on her knees and clasped her arms around his neck. They moved together as the kiss deepened, Jadrian took up position on the bed and Allana wrapped her legs around his waist, clasping him tight to her. Her dress hiked up around her hips and Jadrian felt her bare flesh pressing into his lower abdomen, still bare from her earlier actions. He had removed his shoes before getting onto the bed and as he felt her feet twining together at his back he knew she’d lost hers at some point as well.

They were pressed together intimately, both breathing harshly as their tongues began to tangle together. Jadrian felt her hard nipples pressing into his chest through the material of her dress and wanted to tear the material away, to have the peaks in his mouth and hands, but held back, telling himself to take it slow. Instead he teased her by running a finger over a bare hip, a movement that jolted her body as she felt the intimate brush.

Normally he had no problem with control but something about Allana made him want to completely lose it. He wanted to have her, wild and wet beneath him, open to only him, fucking him as frantically as he wanted to fuck her. Normally he didn’t like sex like that but something was different, something had changed. Jadrian wasn’t sure what it was but he knew it all the same.

Her breasts heaved against his chest and he finally pulled away from her mouth to inspect the mountain of cleavage peeking over the top of the dress. He used his lips to kiss the soft globes and inhaled the scent of her, an intoxicating smell, and moved his hands down to her bottom. With his hands he pressed her into him, her wetness finding his hardness, and they both moaned. She twisted in his arms, freeing her top from the confines of the material, delighting him with a corset the same color as her dress that only pushed her breasts up from the bottom without covering her nipples.

Her nipples matched her lips, a peach color, and Jadrian’s gaze was glued to them. His hands pressed into her bottom again and they started a rocking rhythm, a rhythm that made her gasp as the head of his erection teased at the pleasure nub hidden between her nether lips. Each time he thrust into her she gasped, but when his lips wrapped around the bud of her nipple she made a more satisfying sound. She moaned his name.

“Jadrian.” She sighed as she said it, and Jadrian felt himself grow impossibly harder.

“What, Allana?” The words were rasped against her breast, his control almost snapping.

She tossed her head back and he saw just how beautiful she was in the dawning morning light.

“What do you want? Tell me.”

Allana’s brows creased and she gave a mewl of dissatisfaction but he waited. She had to tell him. He needed to hear her say it.

“I want to get off, Jadrian. Get me off.”

“Greedy bitch.” But he laughed as he said it, a gentle sound not meant to provoke but to tease. “Just breathe and let yourself feel, just feel it. Let it consume you.”

Her eyes opened, their blue depths just as startling as ever, and she looked down at him, her hips moving in time with his. “Feel your cock sliding against me? Or how your mouth pleased my nipples, dragging out pleasure I never knew existed? I do not think anyone’s ever sucked them so well.”

His eyes gleamed with satisfaction as she spoke. She was getting it. This wasn’t just about touching, it was about feeding all of the senses.

“You’re so wet, Allana, I could just breathe the right way and slide into you but you’re not begging for it yet, not yet.”

“Make me.” Her words drug another groan out of him. He was almost ready to beg for it, even if she wasn’t.

Jadrian let his lips go back to her nipples as she spoke, her arms pulling him tighter as her nails dug into his back. He groaned at the intensity of it all, releasing some of his own tension into her as his fingers dug tighter into her ass, holding her still as he began to thrust between her lips, but not into her. His fingers kneaded her ass, caressing the delicate star with her own skin, her own muscles. He hadn’t planned on letting her come so quickly but the sensation must have been too much for her.

Allana cried out his name and her eyes flew open as she gasped loudly, her body tensing as the waves began to shake her. She didn’t scratch him, not much, as the first flutters started to grip her. As the pulsing pleasure intensified her nails dug further into the flesh of his back, broke the skin ever so slightly, and dug just a little bit further as she rocked with the force of her ecstasy. Jadrian was fascinated as she came apart in his arms, and didn’t notice the slight pain, it only added to his enjoyment as he watched her explode.

She let go completely, her hips riding him, her breast pressed into his face, her back arched in an oh-so-lovely way. Jadrian couldn’t look away and didn’t want to as he witnessed the magnificent woman completely lose it. He was going to sink right into her as soon as the spasms stopped, he was going to take her even higher, and he was poised for the moment, only a breath away from shifting into her, when a noise intruded. Jadrian had started to slide into her, even when the voice intruded but he knew he had to stop. He was going to murder someone.

“Alpha, you’re wanted in the hall.” A male voice intruded into their secret world, a world he had never wanted to leave, and Allana was gone. Jadrian felt the coldness left behind by her leaving, the emptiness she left in her wake, and looked up in confusion.

“What…” he started, but she had thrown on a robe and opened the door.

“What is it, Razor?”

Razor, Jadrian scoffed to himself, what a stupid name. He shifted on the bed, hoping she would come back.

“The Alexander Alpha can’t find one of his brothers, have you seen him?” The voice stayed outside in the hallway, Allana had only cracked the door enough to stick her face through.

“Which brother? Oh never mind, I’ll be out in a minute.” She quietly closed the door and came back into the bedroom. “Dress yourself, your brother needs you.”

Jadrian had jumped from the bed the moment his brother was mentioned and had his shirt in hand. “Do we continue this later, then?”

She paused as she threw another dress over her head, and looked at him as though he’d lost his mind. “Of course, now get out. I’ll see you later.”

Jadrian put his shoes and top back on and left the room, his thoughts turning to his brother but he turned before he left. “Until then, Allana.”

She gave him a promise with her eyes, a promise he planned to hold her to.

It was going to be a long ass day, a very long ass day.

Jadrian left her room, his body more than a little put out with him, and went in search of his eldest brother. Something must be up for him to go to others. Was Jacob still missing?

“What’s up, Cade, which one is missing this time?” Jadrian’s tone was exasperated, his frustration levels higher than he had ever felt them before. Maybe it was the vampire blood but Allana got under his skin in a way he wasn’t sure was normal.

“It is still Jacob and I do not sense him. I do not sense him anywhere.” Cade’s back had been turned to Jadrian as he typed something into his phone but now he turned haunted eyes to Jadrian.

Jadrian stepped back, the fear in Cade’s eyes making his stomach drop to somewhere subterranean. He had never seen Cade with such a pained expression, not even when Kane was in an accident and had barely clung to life.

“I looked everywhere here at the complex. Has he gone back to Kansas for some reason?” Jadrian’s mind was in a panic now, if Cade was that worried something was wrong. How did he calm his brother enough to keep him from falling into the same panic?

“Not that I know of, no, I would still sense him, even that far away.” Cade looked closely at Jadrian for a moment, his gaze a little confused, but that cleared and he shook his head. The haunted look came back and Jadrian felt his heart breaking. He didn’t like that look on his brother, any of his brothers. Especially when there was little he could do about it.

Going to his brother he grabbed his shoulder and pulled his gaze away from the phone. “We’ll find him, we’ll find him alive, and you will see this worry was for nothing.”

Jadrian gave Cade a searching glance, looking for proof his brother believed him but didn’t find any.

“I always know where you all are, always. I can’t feel him at all now.” Cade wiped a broad hand across his face, trying to wipe away the worry.

“I will do another search of the lower levels and outside. We’ll find him. I will find him, Cade.”

“Keep in contact then. I can’t lose two of you.” Cade already wore a defeated look and Jadrian felt like a failure for not giving his brother hope. But Cade knew things, had mad skills that only Alphas could have. Jadrian felt his stomach drop out again and his heart squeeze in panic. Where was Jacob?

Jadrian squeezed his brother’s shoulder again and left the room. He tripped over his sister-in-law Damesha’s dog Annie halfway down the hall, the dark passage barely lit by dim wall sconces.

“Annie, what are you doing here, girl?” Jadrian bent down to pet her. Annie was a special dog, they had all come to notice that over their time with her and Jadrian wondered.

“Have you seen Jacob, Annie? Do you know where he is?” Jadrian scratched her ears as he talked to her, and she ate the loving up.

When he stopped she looked at him with her own set of grim eyes and stood still, her body relaxed in a way that spoke of the same defeat Cade obviously felt.

“Not good then, huh?” Jadrian felt dread taking the place of the panic and pulled out his own phone, sending Jacob several texts when he didn’t answer his phone. The reddish brown and white dog, medium in size, stood by his side, her Beagle-like features just as worried as his.

* * *

Jacob

“I cannot ease your pain now, this part you will have to survive on your own.” Her voice, in his head, all around him, eased the worst of the pain only briefly.

Whatever was happening to him had reached his eyes, his brain. The pain stole his thoughts, spun him into a world of misery unlike anything he’d experienced before. Could he endure this? He wondered in a brief moment of lucidity before the pain ate into his brain and his eyes once more. He would have screamed an eternal scream if he had been capable, but he couldn’t even produce that in his state.

He heard her voice, no longer the soothing sound that eased his pain with her tale, but another annoyance. She had done this to him. If he survived, he was totally driving a stake through her heart, mistress or not. At least he assumed that is what the tale she’d told him meant. He’d be hers until she tired of him. He couldn’t believe his will could be so totally subverted. He was an Alexander, no matter what form he took.

She would die the moment he could hold a dagger, a knife, or even control his hands. He’d tear her heart out with nothing more than his fingernails if he had to. Sure, she had a sad story to tell, but didn’t they all? Alright, she’d been basically tortured, her brain probably snapped all those centuries ago, that would explain this completely abhorrent idea she had come up with. She’d told him she knew what it was to be taken without permission but she’d done it to him. No, Jacob decided, she had to die before she caused more chaos.

But the memory of the way she’d looked earlier; sweet, innocent, totally carnal, intruded in a moment of clarity. Her sweet beauty filled his mind and he wondered how a man, any kind of man, could have abused such loveliness. She must have been amazing as a human, full of kindness and care. The monster that he’d seen wasn’t her.

Then the pain was back but it wasn’t as soul-shattering. A plan was forming as the pain eased once more. He couldn’t kill her, she’d only wanted to do what was best for the world. She’d only wanted love in her life, her story had told him that, but she’d never quite found it. He still wanted revenge but her death wasn’t so high on his list of priorities as he finally, peacefully, came back to reality. He’d get his revenge on her in a way he knew he could truly hurt her.

Jacob opened his eyes and saw her standing over him. He stared into her eyes, his own cold with the pain he’d just endured. He would make her pay for what she’d done to him.