Chapter Four
Jonah held Bre against his chest long after the others had left the room. He thought she might have fallen back asleep. She disabused him of that idea when he went to ease her back onto the bed. Her fingers dug deeper into his skin as she held tight.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.” He soothed her until her grip eased again. “Let’s lie back down. That sound okay?”
She let him help her get back under the sheet and comforter but didn’t settle until he was beside her. This time, she didn’t turn so they could spoon as they usually did. Instead, she looked up at him with her large, haunted green eyes.
“I’m sorry about the panic button. I should have trusted no one could get in here without me knowing.”
She shrugged, and Jonah hated the uncertainty on her face.
“You know I’d do anything to protect you, right?
” He leaned close, face hovering over hers as he stared into her eyes.
She took his breath when she leaned up and pressed her lips to his.
It was soft, tentative, and she pulled away far too quickly.
He forced himself to stay still, not to give in to the need to meet that kiss and take it deeper, make it last forever.
He dropped his gaze to her chest when she tapped it then moved her hand and tapped his.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” he whispered. “I know you’re not ready, but you can talk to me. Just me if you want. Please, Bre. I need to hear your voice.”
“Trust.” She moved her hand between their chests again. Her tone was low and husky, and he wanted to hear it every day for the rest of his life.
“I’m glad you trust me. I trust you, too.”
She nodded vigorously then paused, tapping her finger against her temple.
“Gone.” She made a fluttering motion with her hand making it seem like something was flying away.
“Your memory?” Jonah said, tilting his head as he ran through everything since she’d left the room earlier in the day. “You dreamed of Finn. Did you remember something?”
“I…” She paused, rubbing her palm up and down her throat.
“Water.” Jonah bounced up and headed toward the small fridge he’d had installed in the corner of their room. He grabbed a few bottles then set two on the bedside table before handing her the third. “Here. Drink this.”
He watched as she unscrewed the cap, guzzling down half before easing back and taking sips.
Her gaze never left his, as if she needed him to ground her, to remind her of something.
That she wasn’t alone? That she was alive?
That she was awake? That the past was just that?
In the past. He’d provide all of that for her and so much more. As much as she’d allow him to.
She opened and closed her mouth several times, and Jonah fought between a need to hear that amazing voice and telling her not to worry. She could stay silent.
But the truth was, she couldn’t. They couldn’t let her.
Her gaze held secrets, and secrets could save lives.
There were still so many shifters missing.
The two big bads of the hunting society were no longer, but that didn’t mean the war was over.
When an entire group makes it their mission to wipe shifters off the face of the earth, there’s enough bad to go around.
Since the deaths of the butcher doctor and the head of the Blane family, many groups had popped up vying to be the new top dog.
Jonah and the rest of them had hoped infighting would keep them occupied, but shifters were still captured, tortured, and murdered.
“I was a girl.”
Jonah’s gaze focused on Bre. She was still rubbing her throat with one hand, the other clutching the nearly empty bottle.
“They… She was dead. Cold and…dead. I couldn’t warm her up.”
Her voice shook. Nerves? Exhaustion? Memories? Lack of use? How long had she been silent before she’d been tossed at their feet?
“They were hurting him. Holding him down. Beating him. Kicking. Punching. Just a boy.”
“Finn?” Jonah asked.
Bre shook her head. “Murphy. He had the wild in him. A bit of the wild.” A soft brogue flavored her last phrase, as if she were repeating something she’d heard before.
“I’ve heard a little of their story,” Jonah told her. “But you said Finn earlier.”
“They broke his leg.”
“Murphy?”
She shook her head. “Finn. He wouldn’t stop trying to get to Murphy. They finally broke his leg to make him stay put.”
“How old were you?” Jonah asked.
Bre shrugged. “Young. Little.” She paused then pushed another word into the air. “Powerless.”
Jonah leaned in, slipping the bottle from her fingers and sliding another between them instead. He gave her hand a squeeze, palm to palm.
Her lips curved a bit before falling again. “He sent them away. Told me I couldn’t go. That I had to forget them.”
“Who did?”
“Da,” she answered quietly, and when a shudder coursed through her body, he didn’t hold back. He moved so his back was against the headboard then pulled her onto his lap. He linked their hands again then wrapped his other arm around her waist, holding her.
“Your father did this?” Jonah asked, making sure he followed what she shared.
“Yes. No.” She knocked her fist against her head. “It’s all jumbled.”
“That won’t make it any clearer.” Jonah took her fist, releasing her fingers from the tight grip she had them in and laying it against his chest. “You’re not sure if he’s your father.”
“He was the man who raised me, but I don’t think… I hear snippets in my head. Conversations.” She shook her head. “I can’t reach them.” She blinked, and tears spilled down her cheeks. “He left me. They all left me.”
Jonah held her while sobs ripped from her chest. She broke his heart.
He needed to ask more about Finn and Murphy.
He knew basics on both, a little more on Murphy since he’d mated Tony’s cousin, Oakley.
He’d been avoiding both of them since Bre had landed in his arms. Well, technically, he’d scooped her off the asphalt and into his arms, but semantics.
“Don’t leave me.” Her whisper was so soft, he almost didn’t hear her.
“I won’t,” he vowed, feeling the rightness of it to his core. “Anything you need. Tell me. It’s yours.”
“I want…” She swallowed, lowering her gaze briefly before moving it back to meet his. “I want to touch you. Kiss you. I want to feel alive.”
“Bre.” Jonah swallowed. “I don’t want to take advantage of you.”
“Anything I need,” she said, giving his words back to him, then wiggled on the erection he’d never attempted to hide from her. “I know you want me.” Then her deep green eyes pulled him in, drowning the voice of reason that held him back. “Please.”’
It was as if a switch flipped with that one word. She moved until she straddled his thighs. Her hands sank into his hair, tugging as she skimmed her lips along his jaw. He let her take the lead, willing himself to stay still while she explored with soft hands and even softer lips.
“Bre,” he warned when her tongue licked over his bottom lip.
She stilled, the heat of her sex settling over his shaft. “Love me, Jonah. Please.”
His control snapped. She was under him in one move, wrapping her arms and legs around him.
His mouth ate at hers, their tongues tangling and dancing as he moved his hands along her sides.
Clothes were jerked off and tossed carelessly aside.
Then it was skin-on-skin. A feast for the senses.
That was what she was, and he craved all of it.
He wanted to touch and taste every inch of her, but Bre pulled at him when he tried to move down her body.
“Let me taste you, love,” he whispered against her skin, tongue flicking out to tease a tight nipple.
“Later,” she panted, though she urged her nipple against his lips and groaned when he sucked it into his mouth. “Now, Jonah. I need you.”
He reached between her thighs which were thankfully already slick with her desire for him.
She moved beneath him, lifting her sex to rub against him sensuously.
With a growl worthy of the shifters he protected, he guided his cock to her opening and thrust deep.
He felt the give of her flesh but didn’t pause until he was fully seated inside her.
Only then did he recognize what he’d encountered and broken through.
“You were a virgin.”
“So it seems,” she agreed, wiggling her hips under him. “Don’t stop.”
He tried to be slow, struggled to be gentle, but she was fire, and every inch of him was caught in her flames. She lifted her legs, moving them until he went deeper with every penetration.
“Bre.” His breath caught as he cupped her face, needing her kiss to ground them in the intimacy of the moment. He brushed a tear from her cheek and paused.
“No,” she cried. “Don’t stop. I feel…alive. God, I feel alive.”
“Alive and beautiful and mine.” He shouldn’t have said the last, but there was no holding it back anymore.
She’d been his since he’d lifted her into his arms and carried her home.
She’d been his every night since, when they’d lain in bed, cuddled together.
When he soothed her nightmares. When she’d climbed into his lap and tucked her head into his neck when the world had seemed too much for her.
“Yes,” Bre agreed. “Yours.” Her gorgeous eyes opened, and the green seemed to glow as if the animal inside her agreed. “Just as you’re mine.”
Perhaps claiming rather than agreeing.
He groaned as she leaned up, licked the base of his neck, sucked it, then bit down hard, breaking his skin as her teeth sank deep into tissue.
He gripped her hips, pounding into her as pleasure drugged them both.
She tightened around him as she came, marking him with her bite while he filled her with his seed.
It was primal. It was visceral. It was more than claiming each other.
It was a mating. Bre had accepted him as her mate, and mating was forever.
He eased out of her, his cock twitching when she moaned as he finally slipped from her tight embrace.
“Shh, love. Lie still. I’ll be back in a minute.” He slipped into the bathroom. His gaze snagged on the tint of red on his softening member as he washed it clean before moistening another cloth to take back and clean Bre.
She was sprawled on her back when he returned.
Her body had softened in slumber, one knee lifted and out to the side, leaving her open to his gaze.
She’d been a virgin. She’d been as surprised by that as he was.
He ran the cloth over her, smiling when she muttered and rolled to her side.
Finally, he slipped into bed beside her and tugged her until her back was snug to his chest. No clothes between them now. Flesh to flesh.
“Jonah,” she murmured as she wiggled in an attempt to get even closer.
“I’m here, love,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”
And he’d never let her go.