37. Coyote
THIRTY-SEVEN
COYOTE
I’d never considered myself on the same level as other humans. But wearing this getup, harnessed and leashed and collared like some sort of pet, really drove home the differences between us and them. Even though Dingo and Jackal were a bit feral, they had nothing on me.
Something inside me, however, preened at the idea of being led around like a pet.
Especially if it was by a woman like Ivy.
Jackal spent half the time being tugged back into place. He had a habit of disobeying Ivy’s orders and pulling on his lead any chance he got. I lost track of what was intentional and what was just habitual for him.
Dingo spent half his time contemplating the situation he’d found himself in. Once or twice, I caught him muttering under his breath as Ivy stood behind him and ran her fingers through his hair.
When it came time to eat, she had our chairs taken away, and we knelt on the floor like actual fucking dogs, waiting for her to decide to feed us. Dingo was allowed his plate on the floor, much to Lilly St. Clair’s amusement, and me, she hand-fed off her own plate.
Something feral inside me had me licking her fingers whenever I was given the opportunity. The shivers that ran down her spine as she jerked them away from my mouth scratched an itch inside me that I didn’t understand.
Well, that was a lie.
I understood damn well why something inside me preened at the way I affected her. It was because she affected me the same way, too.
The way she smiled when she thought we weren’t looking, the way her shirt rose and bared her flat stomach when she put her hair up, the way the sunlight danced across her skin when she stood in the kitchen and stared out at the back lawn. All of it drove me wild .
And there was the habit she had of strolling through the quarters wearing nothing but an oversized shirt and a pair of barely-there panties, taunting us with her bare thighs and that full, round ass.
I’d never wanted to fuck something as much as I wanted to fuck her. The feeling was foreign to me. The only things I’d ever felt so moved by in life were survival and ridding the world of horrible people who didn’t deserve to be in it.
And now, I was motivated by the chance to taste her on my tongue like she’d let Dingo do. To bury myself in her like Jackal had. I wanted to hear her moan for me instead of them.
I was jealous.
I coveted that which I’d not been offered yet.
But none of that mattered compared to the need I had within me that drove me to please her.
If we were dogs, then I was her willing pet, eager for anything she’d toss my way.
A part of me wondered if she could read me like a book.
My thoughts were jumbled when I was with her. My words, always so scarce, felt like they’d bubble over the second she was within earshot. I had the urge to tell her things I’d never told another person; the desire to speak was there, but they never left my lips.
It felt like she could understand, even when I didn’t speak, though.
Odd.
She stood off to the side of the room with us, three leashes in hand, her grin as vast as an ocean as she met the eyes of everyone who passed us. We got a fair bit of curious looks, some even bordering on amusement. As long as the Skeleton Crew didn’t come past us, Jackal might be able to keep his cool long enough to make it back to the room in one piece. I did not doubt Ivy would flay his skin from his flesh if he didn’t act the part of obedient pet .
She was more than capable of far more heinous crimes against men.
My collar was tight against my throat, not uncomfortable but enough to remind me I was not my own man tonight. The feeling wasn’t as constraining as I’d thought it might be, at least not when she was the one holding the other end of my chain. I’d never been anyone’s dog, but for her . . .
“I’m bored,” Jackal muttered under his breath, his eyes cutting to the door any time it opened as he watched for his mortal nemesis, Nash Blackwood, to walk in and complete his embarrassment for the night. “How long do we have to stand here and suffer this indignation?”
Ivy’s chuckle reminded me of wind chimes in a summer breeze. “When I’ve had enough, we’ll go back upstairs.” She eyed him carefully, sensing his agitation was more than just skin-deep. “Are you worried a certain someone will see you like this?”
“No,” he said too quickly, his voice cracking. “I just think this harness is uncomfortable.” As if to prove his point, he tugged gently at it, twisting his mouth into a scowl.
She didn’t buy it for a second.
“You’re a bad liar, Jackal,” she teased, running her nails along the curve of his spine. “I measured you in your sleep to make sure this was a perfect fit. It’s not too tight.”
He blinked slowly, like a lizard who’d been out in the sun too long. “You . . . what?”
“You heard me,” she replied dryly, her attention turning to Dingo. “Can’t you behave like this one is?”
Of course, Dingo chose that moment to growl in her direction, practically daring her to call him ‘behaved’ one more time.
They’d never learn.
Dingo’s eyes followed her when she moved anywhere in his line of sight, and I was beginning to suspect he was developing feelings for her. Jackal was an enigma, not easily read, and it was less obvious if he wanted more than just in her pants .
I wanted something more.
I just wasn’t sure what that more was.
She turned her attention to me and scratched the top of my head playfully, tugging me closer to her in the process. “You’re the only good one here, Coyote.” Her nose crinkled as she inhaled the cologne wafting off the man who passed by us, seemingly drenched in the stuff. “Ugh, why do people insist on covering themselves in such offensive scents? It’s not like perfume can hide their evilness.”
“Is that why you don’t wear any?” Jackal shot back, baring his teeth mockingly. “Makes sense. Too much bad in you; we’d need to drown you in a vat of perfume to cover your stench?—”
She chose that moment to tug roughly on his collar, effectively cutting off his bratty tirade. He choked and sputtered as she slowly let go of the lead, giving him room to breathe without giving him any ideas of freedom or escape.
“You insult me one more time, dog, and you’ll sleep on the floor while I take your bed.”
Jackal snorted. “Absofuckinglutely not, bitch.”
“Try me.”
Just then, Lilly St. Clair stood over with a smile on her face, one she didn’t even bother to try and hide as she surveyed the four of us, her eyes dancing over the harnesses with glee.
“You three look fancy,” she mused, her voice tinted with amusement. “Lose a bet or something?”
“Or something,” Dingo muttered, his arms crossed over his chest. “Nice party, boss.”
“Of course it is,” she replied, her hand on her hip as those piercing eyes fell on Ivy. It felt like she could see right through a person, and for some reason, I found myself stepping slightly in front of her to put myself between the two females. “I orchestrated it.”
“Your party planning skills are definitely top tier,” Ivy mused, her hand on her chin. “Why waste your time wrangling a bunch of criminals when you could be hosting high society parties as the wife to some rich man?”
Her eyes darkened, and for a moment, I caught a glimpse of the woman she was before she found the Guild and turned it into what it was now. “Not all of us hunger for power or riches, Ivy. Some of us prefer to see justice carried out like it should be. Or maybe I just prefer the freedom that a life of crime in the shadows affords me.”
“Mmm, contemplating world domination again, St. Clair?”
Her on-again, off-again cop ex-husband slid up next to her, his hand wrapping possessively around her waist as he stared down the four of us for a moment. Lilly just shrugged his embrace off and stepped aside, putting distance between her and the man I was convinced kept her from going to jail for the rest of her life.
“Nothing so drastic,” she quipped, tossing her hair to whip him in the face. To his credit, he withstood it with a fair amount of grace, more than most men. “I’m just explaining to Ivy here that I’m not like most women she knows.”
Officer McCoy grinned, his eyes cutting over her features with lust and admiration. “You are very much a one-of-a-kind woman, Lilly St. Clair.”
“For once, we agree, Keehn.” Her eyes trailed over the room, and she waved at someone over our shoulders as she dismissed herself and made a beeline through the crowd. Officer McCoy, of course, followed in her shadow like a whipped dog, always chasing after the woman who’d gotten away. I didn’t know the history there, but I suspected there was more there than I’d ever know for sure.
The affairs of others didn’t concern me.
“I need to take a leak,” Dingo said suddenly, his lips twitching. “You plan to follow me in there to watch me piss?”
Ivy’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Gods, no. But I’m watching the clock, Dingo. Don’t keep me waiting. ”
“I’ll go with him,” Jackal started, and surprisingly, Ivy leaned over and unclipped both of them, rolling the leashes up around her forearm.
“Go, hurry,” she said quietly, shooing them with her hands.
They wasted no time in disappearing around the corner. I doubted they’d come back, now that they had their freedom.
That left me and Ivy alone in a room full of strangers.
I turned to her, hoping for some cues to follow, but she was miles away, her eyes unfocused and glazed over as she drowned in her thoughts. Her grip on the end of my leash was tight, her knuckles whiter than snow, and my hand reached out of its own accord and covered hers, massaging the tension from it.
“Where are you, Ivy?” I whispered, not expecting her to hear me.
“Hell,” she whispered back, her hand turning over in mine to clench onto it tightly. “I’m in hell, and I’m never getting out, am I?”
I tugged her into a nearby hallway, thankful for the quiet it provided. “What do you mean, hell?”
She sighed, her hair falling into her face as she leaned against the wall and sagged to the floor. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me,” I murmured, brushing her hair out of her eyes so I could stare into their depths.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Her eyes sought mine, and for a brief, breathless moment, I worried she might just stand up and leave me there wondering. “It’s not important.”
“To me, it is.”
I had no idea what I was saying, but if I stopped now, who knew when I’d work up the courage to speak to her again?
“You shouldn’t care about the woman who’s going to eventually kill you.”
I didn’t believe she’d kill us, not anymore. Her threat had started ringing hollow a while ago, and though she didn’t stop making the idle threats, I knew she realized it, too. Though she probably had quite a bit of inner conflict going on because of that epiphany.
I played along, though, because I wanted her to keep talking to me. I’d do anything for her attention right now, one on one. “I know,” I uttered, inching closer to her, our noses almost touching. “Don’t care.”
Her lashes fluttered to half-mast as she eyed my lips with interest. “What if I tell you you’re not allowed to care about me? You’re bound to follow my orders by your own promise.”
“Don’t.”
I didn’t want to have to disobey her, but I couldn’t stop myself from caring for the only woman who’d ever seen me as whole.
Her lips parted, and I took my chance, leaning in to press my mouth against hers in a desperate plea. She froze, likely surprised by my sudden advance, but it only took a second or two for her hands to move up and thread themselves in my hair, tugging us closer as she took over the kiss.
She was demanding, her lips eager and hungry as they devoured mine, like soft clouds against my skin as she worked her way to the edge of my mouth, her teeth nipping at my jaw playfully. Breath rushed from me in a shocked gasp, and I felt myself grow hard as I fell back on my ass and she climbed over me. Our limbs intertwined as she arranged herself in my lap, hands following the lines of the harness, her nose running along the length of my throat. The moan she made in my ear when I grabbed her waist melted me, and I groaned in return, a growl starting deep in my chest as our lips met again, and I tasted Nirvana.
Hell and damnation, she tasted like the sweetest berry on the late blooming bushes of fall. She was delectable, everything about her driving a hunger inside me I wasn’t accustomed to. I wanted all of her, wanted so much more than this stolen kiss in a quiet hallway, inches away from a raging party where she’d just been showing us off like her pets .
But my brain wasn’t thinking rationally right now.
We pulled apart after what felt like ages but could have only been minutes. Voices grew closer, and with a jolt, she stood up, adjusting her top and hair to make sure they showed no indication she’d been in the throes of passion moments ago. Her eyes scrutinized me, a blush working its way up her chest as she looked away.
“I think I’m ready to go home,” she murmured, her voice quiet. “Go find the others for me and meet me at the stairs.”
I nodded and rushed off to do her bidding, ever the dutiful dog. I didn’t question her sudden change in attitude, nor did I stop to ask why she’d send me alone after them, when she’d been so adamant about keeping us close tonight.
The thought that she might have ulterior motives never even crossed my mind.