Caleb left first, citing a previous engagement for which he was late. Rory smelled it for the lie it was. Fortunately Shay’s senses weren’t as keenly developed, or she was distracted by her conversation with Kiesha.
Nikolai must have telepathed Shannon, for she cut off midsentence in whatever she was saying, shooting a startled glance at her mate, then a wary one at him. “Nikolai’s ready to leave. I’ll call you tomorrow,” she told Shayla.
“You sure you don’t want any of this food? There’s plenty.” Shay indicated all the plastic containers being placed in the fridge.
“No, we’re fine.”
“All right. See you later. Don’t be a stranger,” Shayla said.
“We need to be going too,” Alex said.
“Oh, but—” Kiesha began.
“It’s getting late. We both have work tomorrow and a long drive ahead of us,” Alex stated, giving her a meaningful look.
Kiesha pouted a bit, then said, “Let me finish helping Shay with this stuff. Then we can go.”
Alex motioned Rory out the room and over to the living room door. “It should go without saying, but in case you didn’t know, we’re family now. More than that, we’re friends. Your mate’s blood kin to mine. You trusted your sister to my keeping, and now she’s a valued member of my pack. Screw interpack politics. You need anything, anything,” he stressed, “call and we’ll come running. Friends watch each other’s backs.”
Rory mused on that a moment. Friends? He guessed they were. “I’ll do that.” Rory stuck out his hand. Alex clasped it hard and held. More than a handshake, it was an acknowledgment of the bond between them. A bond cemented by the women in their lives.
After Kiesha and Alex left, Kian took one look at Rory’s face and disappeared. But Rory was sure he’d return. Rory didn’t know what magic Shay had worked in his absence to pull his brother out of his shell, but he was glad to have his twin back.
Rory made sure the house was locked up good and tight, then followed his mate to their room. She had her laptop on her lap and seemed very intent on whatever was on the screen.
“Shayla.”
No response.
“Shayla.” This time Rory put a little force behind it.
“What?” Eyes that sparked fire glared at him over the top of the monitor.
“You are the air in my lungs, the very blood in my veins. There is nothing, absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do to please you. But”—he captured her gaze with his and held it hostage—“when it comes to your safety and that of our children, I will be obeyed. Completely and totally,” he finished in a firm tone that brooked no argument.
Shay’s expression went from anger, to a blooming flush of pleasure, to something indescribable as he finished his statement. His gaze dominated hers until after a long, silent, tension-filled minute, Shay capitulated by looking away first.
He continued to stare at her, his will an invisible but weighty force.
“In matters of our safety,” she reluctantly agreed.
He crawled onto the bed beside her. “Shay, don’t you realize you hold both of our lives in your hands? Do you think after having known you, after loving you, I could live without you?”
“I…” Through the bond he felt her need for independence war with his need for her. Love decided the battle, and she surrendered. “I know. You’re right. I love you too. I’d go crazy if something happened to you. I just want this over and done with. I want us to move forward with our lives without any threat to me or our child.”
He pulled her close to him. Shay caught the laptop before it could fall off the bed, shut it down, and set it to the side on the floor. Once it was safely out of the way, she snuggled close and rested her head on his chest.
“I thought about what you said,” Rory said as he stroked her hair.
“About?”
“About the damage it would do to the pack if I killed Laurie Bell,” he said.
“Not to mention the difficulty of hiding the body. You can’t just make people disappear like in the old days before computers,” Shay added.
He chuckled at her naïveté. “Shay, people go missing every day. The law is the least of my worries. Besides, it’s not like there’d be anything left of her to find.”
She tilted her head back to look at him, eyes rounded in shock, mouth gaping.
Using the tip of his finger under her chin to close her jaw, he continued with what he was saying. “I wanted to modernize the pack, so we’ll try doing this the human way first.”
Still looking a bit shocky, she asked, “And if that doesn’t work?”
“Then she dies.”
Shay stared for another moment, then shook her head and sighed. “As much as I like the picture you plant in my mind of her being eaten”—he flashed a brief grin—“dying’s too good for her. I want Laurie Bell to suffer and suffer hard for every second of panic she put me through. I want to find out what she desires most in life and take it from her. I want to watch her beg and plead until her tears turn to blood. Then I want to make her really pay,” she finished in a growl, golden sparks lightening her eyes.
Bloodthirsty, vicious, full of vengeance, and all mine. His smile, when it appeared this time, was slow and full of promise. “I think I can manage that.”
With one accord, they brainstormed the rest of the night.
Ashley knelt on the bed, facedown, ass high, arms outstretched and bound. Michael mounted her from behind. The first surge of his cock was deep, hard, and punishing. The second took him in to the hilt. He alternated thrusts with stinging, openhanded blows to her hips that set her pussy ablaze.
The rougher he got, the more she loved it. She was addicted to his brand of dominance. Though she told herself she was still in control, deep inside she knew she’d crawl over broken glass if Michael beckoned.
She clenched her vaginal muscles, smiling into the pillow when he groaned, then praised, “Such a sweet little pussy. You like the way I fuck it, don’t you, little girl?”
“Yes, alpha,” she gasped.
“Beg me to fuck you,” he commanded.
“Fuck me,” she parroted.
He stopped, going motionless. She whimpered and pushed back with her hips.
“Say it like you mean it,” he ordered.
“Damn you! Fuck me!” she screamed.
He laughed, a cold, cruel, mocking sound. Then he began to move. “Later I’ll do something about that dirty, disobedient mouth of yours.”
Punishment. A shiver of delight slithered down her spine, shaking her body, and caused her pussy to spasm.
“Oh yeah. You like that. You’re a good little bitch.” He spread her butt cheeks. “Look at the way your pretty pink pussy swallows my cock, leaving it all wet and shiny.”
Ashley clenched her inner muscles again, trying to lock him to her. She’d never had a man like Michael. One that knew how to turn her body inside out and make her crave it. With him the lines between pain and pleasure burned in an ecstasy so sweet. She’d laid a trap for him, but she was the one ensnared.
He placed a hand between her shoulder blades and pushed down. She obediently lowered her cheek to the mattress, her nipples rubbing back and forth against the sheet. This new angle allowed him to plunge deeper. He thrust harder, faster, until he pounded into her. Sounds of flesh smacking together and wet suctioning with each withdrawal filled the air.
“Please please please,” she begged. She was so close to the edge.
“Don’t come,” he ordered.
Ashley hung there at the pinnacle with every nerve ending screaming for release.
Michael reached a hand beneath her and viciously pinched her clit, ordering, “Now!”
She screamed as she erupted, coming so violently consciousness faded for a few brief seconds. Vaguely Ashley was aware of Michael drilling into her to the hilt, then grinding his pelvis against her ass as his cock pulsed and jerked in release.