Beauty and Pain

Abel

 

Do not attack! Abel ordered Callum, his brothers, and Ryon even as he leaped to man.

But he figured they weren’t going to attack anyway.

Because he was standing before them.

Even though it wasn’t him.

Keeping his eyes pinned to what could be none other than his brother, Abel prowled to his jeans and bent to snatch them up.

“We’re lucky girls,” he heard murmured and looked to the woman with his brother.

Her eyes were on his cock and she was smiling.

She was also addressing Delilah.

Abel ignored the woman checking him out and looked back to his brother as he jerked on his jeans. He barely had them over his ass when he felt Delilah’s hands on him, one at his lower back, one at the side of his waist. Then she had the side of her front pressed to the side of his back, pressed deep, as close as she could get.

It should have made him feel better. In any other circumstance, his mate’s silent support would have made him feel better.

Staring at his blood brother, he didn’t feel better.

The others prowled the room, keeping a distance, remaining wolves.

He felt Delilah move, staying close, which was the only way he’d let her move, and he knew she’d nabbed his thermal Henley when she pressed it into his hand.

He kept eye contact with his brother, losing it only when he pulled the shirt over his head.

Even when he tugged it down his stomach, he still said nothing.

“You wanna start?” the vison of him asked. “Or you want me to do it?”

“You,” he grunted, and Delilah pressed even closer.

“This is Teona,” he stated, curling the woman in the curve of his arm closer. “My mate. My witch.”

He saw in his peripheral vision that she waved a hand in a half circle in front of her. “Hey.”

Abel didn’t take his eyes off his brother. “You?”

He watched the man tense.

“I’m Cain.”

Abel stared.

“Seriously?” Delilah whispered.

“Abel, is everything all right?” Lucien asked from behind them. He knew the vampire had been standing in the door since the wolves came in, but Delilah jumped against him when she heard Lucien speak.

“Meet my brother, Luce,” Abel invited. “This is fuckin’ Cain.”

He felt Lucien approach and stop at his side, though he did it partially to Abel’s back.

Not aggressive.

This was Abel’s play.

“It would appear your parents have an unusual sense of humor,” Lucien remarked.

Abel didn’t reply.

“You wanna call off your wolves?” Teona requested.

He felt Callum’s canine eyes on him.

“Go,” Abel said and finished, “But come back.”

The wolves whirled and exited the room.

He watched his brother’s gaze move to Abel’s mate.

“Delilah,” he said softly.

“Eyes to me,” Abel barked, and his brother cut his gaze back to him.

“I have a mate, Abel. I know you two are new, but you’ve got to know that I’m no threat,” he stated.

“So you know,” Abel returned, and Cain shook his head with apparent confusion.

“I know?” he asked.

“You know that wolves are protective of their mates. Fiercely protective,” Abel explained.

Teona shifted uncomfortably, doing this pressing closer to her man.

Cain held his brother’s eyes.

“I know,” he said softly.

“How?” Abel asked.

That was when his brother, who he’d known for less than five minutes, gutted him.

“Pop taught me.”

They’d left Abel in an alley.

But they’d kept Cain.

Instantly, Delilah slid to his front, doing it keeping herself plastered to him along the way. When she got there, she put her hands to his abs and started pushing at him gently.

She did this speaking.

“Lucien, can you see to it Cain and Teona are made comfortable? Abel and I have to have a chat.”

“Of course,” Lucien agreed.

“We’ll be back,” she went on, but seeing as he didn’t take his eyes from his brother, he only assumed she was speaking to Cain and his woman.

She kept pushing.

He didn’t budge.

“Baby, in the hall,” she urged softly.

“You knew our parents?” Abel asked his brother.

She pushed harder and was louder when she said, “Please, Abel honey, in the hall.” He opened his mouth to say something else to his brother, but Delilah fisted her hands in his shirt and her voice was ragged when she begged, “Please.”

It was her tone that got to him. He tore his eyes from his brother and looked down at his mate and saw it immediately.

This wasn’t about her pushing him to do something she wanted him to do when he wasn’t ready to do it.

This was something else.

She was suffering.

For him.

Therefore, without hesitation, he clamped an arm around her and pulled her into the hall and down to living room five. There, he walked them in and shut the door.

The instant he did, she wrapped her arms around him, pressed close, and held on tight.

“Just hold on,” she whispered into his chest.

He folded his arms around her, dropped his mouth to the top of her head, and did as told.

It took a while, but the feel of her, the smell of her, what he knew she wished desperately to give to him penetrated, and the numbness, which had invaded in order to control the fury, slid away to a stillness that he knew was fighting the fury.

“I love you,” she whispered, and the stillness became warmth that wasn’t the blaze of anger but a soothing balm so beautiful, in centuries, he’d never experienced anything like it.

He knew she loved him. She’d mostly said it.

But not straight out.

Not like that.

But she wasn’t done.

“I love the way you love your family. I love how protective you are, of me and of everyone you love. I love how into me you are. I love how you seem to be able to give me everything I need before I even know I need it. I love that you say you’re sorry straight up when you feel those words. I love that you’re beautiful to look at. I love that that beauty runs so deep, even when I have it for eternity, I know I’ll never find the end. I love the way you touch me. I love the way you smell. I love the way you dress. I love the feel of your hair. I love the sound of your laugh. I love that you’re smart. I love that you’re fierce. I love that I know I have thousands of more things I love about you, and I love that you’d stand there, holding me and listening to me, even if it took a year for me to say them.”

“Yeah, ’cause you’re tellin’ me how awesome I am,” he replied, his voice gruff, and lifted his head when hers tipped back. He caught her eyes. “Any guy would stand here for a year and listen to that.”

She kept whispering, her heart in her eyes, her love for him etched in her expression, and it was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in two hundred years.

And he knew right to his gut that it would be the most beautiful thing he’d see for eternity.

“And I love it when you’re a smartass.”

He’d had enough. More than he could take. He’d never known beauty needed limits, but he now knew that if you took in too much, like all Delilah was giving him, you might explode.

So he had to stop her.

He did that by slanting his head and dropping his mouth to hers, drinking deep, taking all he could get.

And as usual, Delilah, his temptress, his mate, his woman, the love of his life, the only love he’d had, the only love he’d ever have, held on tight and gave him everything she had.

When he broke the kiss, he didn’t move away.

He stayed close, looking in her milky-green eyes, eyes he hoped like fuck he’d be able to look into for eternity, and it was him who was whispering.

“I love you too, bao bei, with everything I am, and I’ll do it until the sun falls from the sky.”

He saw tears glisten in her eyes so he slid a hand up her spine, curled it around the back of her head, and shoved her face in his chest.

They held on to each other and they did it a long time.

And as they did it, it hit Abel that, with what had just happened, like she said he gave to her, before he knew what he needed, she’d given him exactly that.

An anchor.

A safe harbor.

A sense of belonging.

The certainties of his world, love and life, all this inextricably mingled with loss, took new meaning.

It became nothing but a journey, a journey filled with beauty and pain.

A journey that led to her.

A journey that would never end, but now one thing would remain constant.

She’d be at his side.

He closed his eyes against the stinging he felt in them and bent his neck, pressing his lips to the top of her head.

He took in a deep breath, taking in more of her scent, letting the feel of her in his arms, the feel of being in hers, soak in deep.

Then he said into her hair, “I’m good to go back now.”

He again lifted his head when she tipped hers back. “You sure?”

He nodded.

She studied him for a moment before he felt her hands fist in his shirt at his back.

“He’s your twin,” she noted quietly.

“Yep,” he replied.

Her lips tipped up. “You’re hotter.”

That was when it happened. Something he couldn’t imagine happening so soon after he came face-to-face with the brother who, for centuries, he hadn’t known he’d had. Something he could imagine happening so soon after Delilah shared the depths of her love.

He threw his head back and burst out laughing.

“It’s true,” she said through his laughter, giving his shirt a tug.

His body was shaking and he was still laughing when he dipped his chin to again catch her eyes, and when he did, he caught her grinning.

“He looks just like me.”

“A mate can tell the difference. And anyway, every girl knows that scars are hot.”

“Right,” he said through his continuing chuckles.

“Though, I’d bet the farm she’s a biker bitch. That outfit, which, by the way, when this is done, I’m getting one just like that, screams biker.” She pressed into him. “She’s something.”

“You’re hotter.”

Her grin remained in place, but her eyes warmed, and seeing as they were already warm, the affection in them now was amazing to behold.

But she didn’t reply to what he said. She rolled up on her toes and kissed his throat.

When she rolled back, the warmth was still there, but the grin was only lingering.

“We should go back.”

He nodded.

She gave him a squeeze before she let him go with one arm, keeping the other around his waist. He did the same but with an arm around her shoulders.

Holding each other, they walked back to where they’d been.

When they arrived in the room, everyone was there. Callum and Sonia. Lucien and Leah. Jian-Li, Xun, Wei, and Chen. Hook, Poncho, Moose, and Jabber. Yuri and Aurora. Barb, Ruby, Jezza, and Flo. And Gregor.

All eyes came to him and he immediately felt overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the wave of loyalty and tenderness that swept over him, nearly taking him back on a foot, definitely settling firm in his soul in a way that felt like it’d be there forever.

He gladly took that feeling and turned his attention to his brother and his woman.

Cain didn’t look comfortable.

Teona didn’t look happy.

It was Teona who spoke.

“You think we could do this a bit more private?”

“This is my family,” Abel declared. “And when something important is happening, I keep my family close.”

He felt Delilah move and looked down at her to see her exchanging glances with Jian-Li. And if Delilah’s look mirrored Jian-Li’s, it was filled with pride.

Abel felt his back get straighter and he threw out an arm.

“You wanna take a seat?” he offered.

“Good standing,” Cain muttered.

Abel nodded and then got right down to it.

“You grew up with our parents.”

Cain watched him warily and nodded.

“Why didn’t I?”

“We’re twins,” Cain stated.

“Got that,” Abel returned.

“We’re anomalies,” Cain told him.

“Got that too, though, found out when I was two hundred and five when you were lucky enough to have your parents share that info with you,” Abel replied.

Cain took that hit with a subtle wince but powered through it.

“They knew of The Prophesies.”

“And how’s that?” Abel asked.

“Pop knew King McDonagh,” Cain answered. “When we were born, the king explained.”

Abel said nothing, but he felt Callum become even more alert.

“Through The Prophesies, they knew it would be you,” Cain went on.

“There were two of us. How’d they know that?” Abel asked.

Cain shook his head. “I’ve no idea. But I’ve not fathered a child. I have no idea what parents know and what they don’t. They just knew, and turns out they were right.”

Abel couldn’t argue that.

“I’m your keeper,” Cain said quietly and with total seriousness, regardless of his words. “What our parents did was necessary.”

They’d get into that in a second.

“Are they alive?” Abel asked and braced when he felt what was coming from Cain and Teona.

“No. Pop died when we were attacked when I was forty-seven human years, about nine wolf. But he gave Ma and me time to run. We got away. She was killed fifty-two years ago. She died protecting me. They took her head, but she succeeded in her goal. I got away.”

His words were terse and he didn’t hide the burn in his eyes.

Abel got that.

The first, their father, with Cain that young, he’d had no choice but to run.

The second had to kill.

“I’m sorry,” Abel murmured and felt Delilah put her hand, light and soothing, on his abs.

Cain lifted his chin. “Pop was wolf. Ma was vampire.”

“They found Hui for me, didn’t they?” Abel guessed and got a short nod.

“Ma told me she was always feeding stray dogs and cats. Giving them scraps,” Cain confirmed. “A puppy, she’d take in. She took you in. Ma told me Pop watched and waited. Made sure she looked after you. They stayed close as long as they could. Then they were after us so we couldn’t.”

Somehow, from somewhere he didn’t get, Abel understood.

And he whispered, not bothering to hide his shock, “They used you as a decoy.”

Cain’s mouth tightened. “The immortals after us didn’t know there was another.”

“Oh my God,” Delilah breathed even as he felt the spike of tension hit the room.

“Ma found Teona for me,” Cain went on. “Teona masked me so you’d never scent me. That way, I could get close, keep watch, you wouldn’t know. She also cloaked me so no one else could find me. Took Teona and me about a minute after we met to realize we were lifemates. She’s been at my side for decades.”

“You were always close,” Abel said. “To me,” he finished.

Cain nodded again. “So was Ma, as close as she could get without you feeling her when you were old enough to understand what you might be sensing. Best day of her life was when I could go out on my own. Look after you. And by then, cameras had been invented. Made me take any shot I could get. In the end, she must have had thousands of pictures of you.”

Delilah’s hand pressed deep as everything about Abel strung tight to fight the feelings his brother’s words caused.

His mother had had pictures of him. His family stuck close. They’d had to let him go to keep him safe, but they’d stuck close.

For centuries.

He knew that had to kill too.

It was almost too much to fight, but in an effort to do that, he said, “You saved me in Dallas.”

Cain’s eyes slid to Jian-Li before looking back to Abel. “That witch located you. Don’t know how. Only one who did until you hit Serpentine Bay. With the Bay, my guess is, you and I were so far off the grid, they’d had no shot at finding either of us. So they somehow sniffed out Delilah. Followed her. Put her in danger to draw you out. Figure this since the witches did that before.”

Abel’s body got tighter at the glance to Jian-Li, which kept happening as his brother spoke.

But he knew that glance meant they’d also taken out Jian-Li’s husband, his brothers’ father, Ming. He also knew when Cain said the witches had done that before, they’d made the attack on Ming in a failed effort to do the same thing.

Ming had died for Abel. Senselessly.

He fought the burn as he fought looking at Jian-Li, at Xun or Wei or Chen. He wasn’t going to explain about Ming to them. Not now.

“Any clue why the witches got mixed up in this?” Abel asked.

Cain shook his head. “No, just know they weren’t working with immortals. Their activities in Texas were theirs alone. You took off after what happened to you, they lost you. But whatever they were up to, that witch wasn’t going to kill you. It was about capture, not kill. Witches have a hybrid at their command, they got power. At least that’s what Teona believes. History bears this to be true. Not the first time witches tried to leash immortals. But if they got one of the three immortals who are noted in The Prophesies, it’d put them at the upper hand with all immortals. Something they’d want after all they went through. Especially that coven. They’d been harboring ill will for a very long time.”

This made sense. It was clear that the witches held great amounts of anger. Vengeance wasn’t a far path to stray when you held that kind of anger for that long. Witches with one of The Three at their command would have both sides of the immortals at their mercy.

Since that made sense, Abel let it go and pointed out, “It was vampires and wolves who went after Delilah in Serpentine Bay.”

“Yes.” Cain nodded.

“Any idea about that?” Abel pressed.

“No clue, except it was clear the other two of The Sacred Triumvirate had been identified,” Cain told him. “Which meant The Prophesies were unfolding and the Noble War almost upon us. The existence of magic has been hidden for centuries, but obviously, it’s out there. Witches. Seers. These rebels, they’ll do anything, as they’ve proved, including finding someone to force into guiding their way.”

That made sense too.

“So you, our mother, and our father lived your lives hunted because they thought you were me, but at the same time you stuck close to make certain they couldn’t actually find me,” Abel summed it up.

Cain nodded and confirmed, “Yep.”

It sucked, but Delilah was right.

He should have waited to get pissed until after he got his brother’s story.

“And you’re here now…?” Abel asked.

“I’m here now for the same reason I’ve been anywhere since almost the time I started breathing. Because Teona and I have been staying close to make sure no threat can get to you. But I’m here now”—he pointed at the floor when he said here—“because you seem to be finding any threat before we do and you either neutralize it or it’s neutralized for you.”

The wary intensity Abel’s blood brother had worn on his face since he appeared in the room cracked as his lips quirked.

“And last, I’m here now because you got a bunch of witches on my ass and it’s annoying my mate. She’s not big on being annoyed, but she is big on telling me when she is and I’m sick of hearing that shit.”

He felt Delilah relax against him, but he was stuck back on something Cain had said.

I’m here now for the same reason I’ve been anywhere since almost the time I started breathing.

Almost the time I started breathing…

He stared at the vision of himself that was not himself. He stared at the only other living vampire werewolf on the planet. He stared at the man who’d been hunted, whose father died protecting him, whose mother died the same, whose family he’d lost, and didn’t have any to take their place, until he found his mate.

He stared at the man who had a different story than Abel’s, but it wasn’t any prettier.

Then he looked to that man’s mate.

“Thank you for keeping my brother safe.”

He heard a telling noise come from Delilah as she pushed super close. He also saw a telling sheen at the edge of Teona’s eyes and he was glad for it.

This meant she felt deep too.

For his brother.

And then Abel didn’t waste another moment.

Carefully guiding his silently crying mate to his brother, he stopped two feet in front of him, left Delilah leaning on him as he moved his arm from around her, and stuck his hand out to his brother.

Delilah straightened away as Cain took his hand.

Cain’s grip was strong, warm, and sure.

Feeling it, Abel’s throat got tight.

Then he jerked his brother’s hand until both were caught against their chests and he wound his other arm around Cain’s shoulders.

It felt fucking good when Cain returned the gesture.

It was then he heard more than one sob. He knew one was Delilah’s, the other he reckoned was Leah, and the third he figured was Aurora. He thought this because Sonia was queen, she kept her shit sharp. And Jian-Li would do that in private.

“Fuck! This means party!” Hook shouted, and Abel pushed back but not far. He kept his hand on Cain’s shoulder. Cain did the same. “Gregor, you vampire motherfuckers are cool customers, but please, God, tell me in this huge-ass house you got the makin’s of a low-down, tits-up, ball-bustin’, howl-at-the-moon shindig.”

“Essentially, my father-in-law,” Abel explained quietly.

“Ah,” Cain murmured, lips again quirking.

“If they don’t, a wolf can make a party out of anything,” Sonia announced. “Hook, let’s go see what we’ve got to work with.”

Abel stepped back, dropping his hand from his brother’s shoulder but keeping hold of their grip, and looked toward Hook only to see Hook headed his way.

When he got close, he pounded Abel on the back, the man’s eyes locked to his.

“Glad for you, bubba,” he muttered. “Beside myself, son.” He pounded him once more, dropped his hand, and looked to Cain. “And fuckin’ pleased to meet you, brother. Know it.”

Cain gave him a chin dip and Hook whirled away.

“Now, little queenie, let’s get this party rollin’!” he yelled at Sonia.

“Right on!” Jabber yelled after him.

That was when Abel was forced to let his brother go. Everyone moved toward them to get introductions and give greetings. After that, many moved out to help Hook and Sonia make a party.

It was only Gregor who dampened the mood.

“It’s always important to celebrate when a celebration is in order,” he said low. “But Cain, there’s a great deal you need to be briefed on.”

“How about you give the family an hour to get to know each other and then we can give my brother his briefing?” Abel suggested in a tone that stated plainly Gregor had only one choice of response.

Not a stupid man, he gave that response, but he shocked the shit out of Abel when he did it with a smile that said the vampire was happy for him.

“Of course.”

Gregor moved away.

Delilah took over, gaze aimed at Teona.

“Babe, seriously, if you don’t tell me where you got your outfit, we’re starting our relationship with a catfight.”

“No need, sister, I’m a bitch who likes to share the wealth,” Teona replied.

“Right on,” Delilah returned.

Abel looked to Cain.

“From the look of your woman, not to mention you.” Abel tipped his head to the familiar uniform Cain was wearing. “I take it you got a bike.”

“Fuck yes,” Cain said firmly. “Harley. Vintage. Got my first about a week after you got yours.”

It was a hit, knowing this and learning it so far after the fact.

But it still felt good just knowing it.

“Pop would have loved motorcycles,” Cain said quietly. “Ma said the minute you got one, then I did, she wasn’t surprised because she knew if he had the chance he’d get one too and his boys were both just like him.”

That was a hit too.

But this time, it felt fucking great knowing it.

“How about we share over bourbon?” Delilah suggested.

“My baby likes Kentucky’s finest, but you got vodka, this sister will be grateful,” Teona said.

Delilah gave her a huge smile, moving around and tucking her arm through Teona’s.

“We’ve got everything. Let’s get you set up!”

Then she led Teona out, and as she did, Teona threw a sexy, happy grin over her shoulder.

Delilah threw just a happy grin over hers.

Abel tossed out an arm and muttered, “Let’s get set up.”

His blood brother jerked up his chin and moved forward.

Abel followed.

And he did it knowing he, too, was wearing a happy grin.

* * * * *

“It no longer matters,” Jian-Li whispered to the window.

“Sweetheart,” Abel whispered to her profile.

“It no longer matters,” she repeated, not looking to him.

Abel had just told her about Ming.

“Ma—” Chen, close to her other side, started.

But he stopped when she suddenly turned her head and tipped it back to look up at Abel.

“He would die for you.”

Abel clenched his teeth to beat back the emotion her words caused, emotion that was threatening to bring him low.

“He would, tian xin, for all of you boys,” she told him gently. “He’s at peace having died for you, Abel. And you know this is true.”

He knew it was true.

Wei and Xun, who were at their mother’s back, close to their huddle, got closer.

They knew it was true too.

Abel lifted his hand and touched her chin with his finger. When he did, it was the first time in a long time sadness didn’t sift into her eyes. Her gaze simply held his steady.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“You had no control over it,” she replied.

“It was senseless,” he told her cautiously.

“Nothing is senseless,” Jian-Li returned. “We may not be able to make sense of it, my Abel, but that doesn’t mean it was senseless. We moved soon after that. We moved to a place we were all much safer for we were all possible targets. If that’s the only purpose of my husband’s death, and he knew it, he would die a million times to make that so.”

That was true too.

Knowing it, Abel swallowed and slid his finger along her jaw to curl his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her into his chest.

She wrapped her arms around him.

Her other sons drew closer. Chen lifted his hand to rest it on the small of his mother’s back. Wei drifted a finger through her hair, over her ear, to the bun at the base of her neck. Xun pulled one of her hands from around Abel so he could hold it.

Jian-Li allowed this affection for a few beats before she pulled away from all of them and looked through them, saying, “Enough sorrow. There’s a celebration happening. Sorrow has it’s time. That sorrow has had its time. Now, we celebrate.”

As ever (well, mostly), when Jian-Li spoke, her sons listened.

This time, she made them do it by promptly walking out of the room on a trajectory to rejoin the party, which was in full swing.

After exchanging looks, her sons followed.

* * * * *

“Can you believe Teona is ninety-eight years old?” Delilah asked, leaning heavily on Abel as he opened the door to their bedroom.

His woman was sloshed.

Suffice it to say, a biker and the queen of werewolves could throw together a fuckuva party. It was three in the morning and Ryon, Moose, Jabber, Poncho, Calder, Caleb, Regan, Jian-Li and the boys, Hook and his vampire, Ursula, Barb, Ruby, Jezza, and Flo were still at it.

The rest, having mates, decided to take their parties elsewhere.

Cain and Teona had taken off five minutes before Abel and Delilah.

Abel knew why he stayed as long as he could. He wouldn’t have guessed it, but getting to know his brother and hearing about his parents far from sucked.

What also didn’t suck was the fact that Cain, even while getting cues from Teona like Delilah was giving him that they were in the mood for a different kind of celebration, stayed as long as he could.

This meant Cain thought sharing with his brother far from sucked.

Abel liked that.

But a brother was a brother, long lost or not, and a mate was a mate.

Eventually, you couldn’t ignore the call of the wild.

“Yeah, pussycat, I was there when she shared that tidbit,” Abel murmured, a smile on his face as he guided his mate into their room and shut the door behind them.

He watched Delilah take two unsteady steps in front of him before she turned, whirled (his hands flew out when she started teetering, but she got herself sorted), then planted her fists on her hips and tipped her head saucily to the side.

“I’m so gonna love being young forever,” she declared, and his smile got bigger.

There were many times in his life he’d thought that sucked.

Being the same, young forever, but doing it with her, finally, he was looking forward to it.

“Yeah,” he agreed, getting close.

When he got close enough, she put her hands on his chest and leaned into him.

“In case you’re keeping track, that’s something else I love about you. That you can give me that.”

Her words were kind of slurred, but they were still beautiful.

“Me too, bao bei.”

She tipped her head to the side again and asked, “You know, there’s something else I left off my list.”

He rested his hands on either side of her neck. “What’s that?”

She slid one hand down his chest, his stomach, to cup his crotch.

He pulled in a hissed breath, but his breath snagged when she gave him a squeeze.

“This,” she whispered.

“Baby,” he groaned.

Her other hand slid down and she undid his zipper.

“Mama feels like sucking cock,” she shared, her voice hot, her eyes bothered, all of it telling him she really wanted that.

“Not me gonna stop you,” he told her.

She grinned, cute and inebriated.

Then she dropped to her knees, pulled him out, and hesitated not a second before she commenced going down on him.

His head dropped back and he slid his fingers into her hair.

“Fuck, you’re good at that,” he growled.

She took that encouragement and did amazing things with it. She did them for a while and she gave them her all.

And she did it until he could take no more.

“You wanna swallow or you want me in you?”

She pulled him out, rolled his head with her tongue, and tipped her eyes to him. When she did, it was a wonder he didn’t come all over her lips. Her eyes were drunk. Drunk with booze and life and sex and love, wild and alive and carefree.

It was a close second, but it was nearly as good as the beauty she’d given him that afternoon in living room five.

“Your choice,” she whispered.

He took his choice, fast, so she only had time to gasp before he had her jeans over her ass, her torso bent over the back of a chair, and she was taking his cock.

She didn’t take it long before he leaned over her, prepared her neck, and sank his fangs in.

Her blood gushed into his mouth and she came instantly.

He kept at her, pounding hard, jolting her, forcing the chair forward, pushing her orgasm to the limit, his hand finding her tit, pinching and twisting.

She cried out, arching her neck, rearing her ass into his hips as he gave more, she took more, and she gave it all to him.

He swept her wounds with his tongue, drove a hand into the curls between her legs, and found her, still pinching and twisting her nipple, still driving deep.

“Keep coming,” he ordered roughly into her ear.

“’Kay, baby,” she whimpered, the words ending on a moan, her head still back, her mouth opened as the moan continued but went silent.

Her cunt gripped him and he kept working her, reaching for it, getting close.

“Keep coming, pussycat,” he groaned.

“Yeah,” she panted, clutching him with her pussy, her breaths hitching as she rode the wave of a long orgasm, or the span of several.

He loved that.

Fucking loved it.

Giving it to her and knowing she had it in her to take it.

Now it was his turn.

He shoved his face in her neck and pulled hard on her nipple.

“I’m there,” he snarled as he drove himself in to the root and exploded.

It was raw, it was wild, it was phenomenal, so it took him time before his head cleared. After it did, he cupped her breast, lapping gently at the fast fading marks on her neck.

“Knew drunk sex with you would be the bomb,” she said quietly, her voice still breathy.

“Any sex with you is the bomb,” he told her and got silence for long moments.

She broke it, saying, “Yet another thing I love about you. That you think that.”

He shoved his face further into her neck and he actually felt the roughness in his voice when he asked, “Anything you don’t love about me?”

“Not yet.”

Christ.

“You have an eternity to find something,” he told her.

“Figure it’ll take that long.”

Christ.

His temptress, his mate, his woman.

The fates fucking loved him.

“You sleepy or you got more in you?” he asked.

“I can go all night,” she answered.

“Not hard, since it’ll be morning in about two hours,” he teased.

She twisted her neck to look at him. “Then I can definitely go that long.”

Slowly, he slid out, and when she lost him, he bent in to touch his mouth to hers.

When he lifted his head, he whispered, “Then get naked for me, pussycat. Wanna see how long you can go.”

“A challenge,” she noted.

“Yeah.”

“Accepted,” she declared, then pushed him back, shuffled two steps, and stood in front him, getting naked.

He watched, loving what he saw.

Abel was immortal. He had super strength, super senses, and super stamina.

Delilah was not. She didn’t have any of that shit.

But his bitch still wore him out.

Fuck yeah.

The fates fucking loved him.

* * * * *

Yuri

Lazing on an elbow in the pillow, his other hand toying in her wetness, Yuri watched, smelled, and listened to what he was doing as it took hold of Aurora.

She was on her knees in the pillows, those knees spread wide at his command, hands to the headboard, back arched, ass tipped to the ceiling, and she’d been that way for a long time as Yuri toyed with her.

She was gripping hard, panting, her heart tripping over itself, the musk of her sex strong. Her body had long since grown taut, searching for it, wanting it, desperate for it, but he withheld.

“Yuri,” she gasped, twitching her hips to find his fingers after he took off the pressure and made them merely a whisper. Vague and magnificent, her eyes found his. “Please.”

“Have you had enough, my sweet?” he asked calmly, a calm belying the pounding throb in his cock.

“Yes,” she panted.

“All right, my love,” he murmured and drove two fingers deep into her drenched pussy as his thumb manipulated her hard nub.

Her spine arched forward even further, her head fell back, her hair swaying against the smooth, creamy skin of her back, and her hands clutched the headboard as the sweet little noises of her climax poured from her throat and she ground into his hand.

When it began to leave her, he stroked her deeply but gently, pushing high inside but taking his thumb from her clit, and he watched her head fall forward as she kept her ass tipped to the ceiling, enjoying what she was getting as he enjoyed giving it to her.

“All right, button?” he asked.

“Yeah, sweetheart,” she breathed.

He slid his fingers out, running his hand over her ass, murmuring, “Relax.”

She did as he lifted from his elbow, wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her to him. Sliding them down in bed, he twitched the covers over them and settled her snug to his side.

She rested her cheek to his chest and whispered, “What about you?”

The answer to her question was, by giving her that but not giving himself release, when he had her next, his orgasm would be extraordinary.

Or more extraordinary than what his little witch always gave to him.

Sometimes it was good to give so that what you took later could be so much better.

He didn’t explain that.

He gave her an alternate explanation that was nonetheless true.

“You’ll learn, sweet, that I take pleasure in pleasuring you.”

She pushed closer and snaked an arm around his middle. “I’ve already learned that.”

He smiled at the ceiling.

“Are you…eventually are you…” She lifted up and caught his eyes. “Are you ever going to, you know, um…feed from me?”

His heart thumped and his still-hard cock jumped.

“Do you think you’re ready for that?” he asked.

“I’ve heard that it’s…well, nice.”

“It is,” he confirmed.

“You’ve given me a lot of nice things, Yuri.”

He was delighted she thought so.

He gathered her closer, pulling her up his chest, and lowered his voice when he said, “I intend to continue giving you a variety of nice things, Aurora, for a very long time.”

Her face warmed, those big, blue eyes telling him how she felt about that idea.

“So, will you…soon?” She didn’t spell it out, but Yuri understood.

“Tomorrow morning,” he told her, and she relaxed into him.

“Good. I like the idea of getting something nice.” Her hand slid up his stomach, his chest, to the base of his throat. “And I like it more that I finally get to give something nice to you.”

“My sweet, if you don’t think that watching you take pleasure from me, which means you’re allowing me to give you pleasure, isn’t giving me something nice, you’re very wrong.”

She bit her lip and dipped her face closer.

Letting her lip go, she whispered, “Good.”

“Now kiss me, Aurora, and let’s get some sleep.”

A smile hit her eyes before she bent to him and pressed her mouth to his. Her timid tongue touched his lips and he gave her access, allowing her to taste him before he tightened his arms on her and gave her the good-night kiss she deserved.

Her heart was slamming in her chest when he released her mouth and pulled her back down his body.

“Settle in, my sweet,” he murmured as he reached to turn out the light.

When the room was swept with darkness, she did as told.

But she didn’t sleep.

He allowed this for some time before he called, “Aurora?”

“I’m not a seer,” she said strangely.

“Pardon?”

Her arm around his stomach went tight.

“I’m not a seer, Yuri, but I still can’t get it out of my head that something is gonna happen soon. I’ve never had this feeling before.” She took in an unsteady breath. “And it kind of scares me.”

He turned into her, keeping her close, and when he settled on his side, he tucked her closer.

“This is just a feeling?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“No visions with it?”

She shook her head on the pillow and said, “No.”

“It isn’t a stretch, button, to have anxiety about what’s happening.”

She was silent, thinking on this, before she said, “I hope that’s it.”

Yuri hoped the same.

“Try to set it from your mind so you can sleep.”

“Okay, sweetheart.”

He gathered her closer at the same time she snuggled deep into him.

Having given her concerns to him, she found sleep quickly.

Smelling her, feeling her tiny softness pressed close, her warmth, listening to the steady thrum of her heart, even with all this, Yuri did not do the same.