Chapter 10
Lily
The next morning, when I open my eyes, Vaughn’s side of the bed is empty.
Last night floods back to me. The party went on until late, and it was a lot of fun.
I turn my head from side to side experimentally.
I had a couple beers, but there’s no trace of a headache.
Vaughn took good care of me, making sure I ate enough and drank plenty of water.
His pack is awesome. Onyx and Kellie feel like good friends already.
“Tough girl,” is the first thing Onyx said to me, after she’d wrapped her wiry arms around me.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I’ve got a sense for these things,” she said, with glint in her black eyes. I smile at the memory. Vaughn’s pack are all pure-blood weres, and I’m flattered if they see me as one of them.
I like all the guys, too. Bank and Craig, the mated ones, are more relaxed around me, while the others are careful to keep a little distance. I’m touched by the respect and loyalty they have for Vaughn, and even more touched at the thought that he was willing to leave all of that behind—for me.
I pick up a hum of voices from downstairs.
Last night, I sent the mated couples to sleep in the guest room and living room, while the single guys slept outside in their wolf forms, keeping watch.
I felt safe here when it was just the two of us.
I knew Vaughn would protect me from anything.
But I’m real glad we have the pack here, too, so he doesn’t have to be on high alert all the time.
I try to tune my ears in. The conversation sounds good-natured, but kind of intense, like some plan is being discussed.
Just when I’m thinking about getting up, the bedroom door swings open and Vaughn bounds in.
He’s wearing jeans, but his gorgeous muscular torso is bare.
Yearning blazes through me at the sight of him.
When he sees that I’m awake, his eyes light up and he comes over to the bed and slides in beside me.
“How did you sleep, baby?” he asks, covering my face in kisses.
“So well,” I tell him, snuggling into his chest. “I had a lot of fun last night,” I add. “Your pack is great.”
There’s a trace of pride in his grin. “They love you, too—”
The smile drops from his face and he gives me a kind of stunned look. “And so do I. I love you, Lily.”
I stare at him, too shocked to reply.
His eyebrows draw together. “I know it’s too soon. And it probably sounds crazy. But I couldn’t say my pack loved you without—” he breaks off helplessly.
My heart blooms. I never thought I’d see this big fierce wolf at a loss for words.
“I love you, too,” I say.
Relief sweeps his handsome features. “You do?”
I stroke his angular jaw with my fingertips. “It’s not soon. I feel like it’s always been there, between us.”
He lets out a groan. “Oh, god, me too.” He dips his head and kisses me long and deep.
He loves me.
My heart soars, through the ceiling of my mom’s old house, and up to the sky.
When my hand strays to his rock-hard abs, he unfastens his jeans and I watch, transfixed, as his cock springs out. It’s already hard, and at the sight of it, need burns through my body and my pussy aches in anticipation.
He draws back for a moment. “I’ve been speaking to the pack, and we were thinking we could go to your hometown today. Pay your father a little visit.”
“What—the whole pack?”
“Yup. I know you want to confront your father. And it’ll be safer if we’re all there.”
“And… and they’re happy to go?”
He shrugs. “I’m their Alpha. They do what I tell them. But when they heard what you’d been through, they were ready to tear your father and that asshole apart.”
I blink as I absorb the news. “You’d all do that for me?”
“It’s the least I’d do for you, honey. I just want you to stop worrying and start looking forward to our life together.”
I close my eyes. “That sounds like heaven,” I murmur. “When do we leave?”
His expression turns wicked. “This morning, once I’ve given you a few orgasms.”
“But it’s a whole twelve hours away.”
“Six,” he says with a grin. “We ride fast.”
“I’ll ride on the back of your bike?”
“Of course,” he says. He spreads my thighs wide, climbs on top of me. “Wrapped around me all day long.”
“All day long.” I sigh out as the tip of his cock slides up and down my pussy. I’m already wet for him, but he’s determined to tease me, sliding it up and down, driving me crazy. I give a groan of frustration and try to reach for it.
“No.” He grabs my wrists and suddenly they are both grasped in one of his big hands and lifted up above my head. Then, with my wrists captured and my thighs pinned down, he begins to slide his cock into me. Maddeningly slowly.
“Just fuck me already,” I groan.
“Not so fast,” he says, as he fills me up a quarter of an inch at a time. My pussy clenches around him in little spasms, already eager for the orgasms I know are going to come.
At last, with a big shove, he hits home, his pelvis pressing up against my clit.
And then he takes me. It’s as rough and passionate as yesterday, but there’s something new in there, now.
As I come around his cock, again and again, I feel the love flowing between us.
“My mate. My love,” he growls, when he finally comes inside me.
Two hours later, I’m sitting on the back of Vaughn’s Harley, clinging to his broad back while we tear up the highway. The speed is breathtaking, and I try not to look as we stream past one vehicle after another.
A werewolf’s reactions are so much faster than a human’s, Vaughn assured me before we set out. We see things coming from a long way away.
I try to keep that in mind as we come close to breaking the sound barrier. I’m wearing a brand-new set of leathers that he just bought for me from a store in Perdue, and I feel protected. I know my mate would never let me come to any harm.
His packmates’ bikes are right behind us, traveling in formation. We’re invincible. Supernatural.
Every couple of hours, we pull into a gas station and have food or coffee. We chat and laugh, and it helps me forget about the reason for the journey.
But at last, a sign for my hometown appears, and my gut tightens.
Vaughn’s hand comes down on my thigh and gives it a little squeeze.
Everything is going to be okay.
The sentence appears in my head, as if he spoke it.
He senses my nerves. Because our souls are connected, I think, and the thought gives me courage.
I stay calm as we pass through the familiar streets.
But when we arrive at my father’s pack compound, and the high, mean-looking gates that front it, my stomach turns another notch.
I hated everything about the territory. The ostentation, the flashiness. I always refused to acknowledge that I was part of the pack. I spent most of the time in my grandma’s little wood cabin at the edge of the territory.
Vaughn pulls up close to the security panel. I touch my key fob to the entrance and the gates slide open.
As soon as we all pass through, a stocky man appears, drawing a gun from his holster. Benson, one of my dad’s henchmen. “How the hell did you get in here?” he bawls.
I unfasten my chinstrap and pull off my helmet. “Is my dad home?” I say casually.
“Lily?” He goggles at me. “He’s been looking for you everywhere.”
“I bet he has. Where is he?”
“In his office probably.” He angles his meaty jaw at the sprawling McMansion my father built in the middle of the compound.
“Don’t tell him I’ve arrived,” I say.
He blinks. He’s not used to me speaking to him like this. The poor, cowed girl I used to be. He watches in stunned silence as our phalanx of bikes roars up the driveway.
We pull up thirty feet from the house and the rest of the pack strips off their leathers and shoves them into the box on their bike. A prickle of nerves goes through me. I know what this means—they’re readying themselves to take on their animal forms. Which means one thing:
War.
Vaughn drapes a protective arm around me. “We’ll follow your lead. Our objective is to get your dad to promise to leave you alone, and get out of here without any bloodshed.”
I nod. “Yup.”
We’ve discussed the strategy already, but it calms me to hear it from him again.
As I stride across the gravel driveway, the pack masses behind me.
The sound of their heavy feet is music to my ears.
All these years, my dad belittled me and my mom.
Bullied and threatened us, and made our lives miserable.
Now here I am, with my own people. Showing him I’m no longer afraid.
When I approach the set of faux marble steps that leads up to the porch, the front door swings open, and there’s my father’s thickset figure. His expression shifts from confusion to anger, to uncertainty as he takes us all in.
Good.
I’m not used to him looking anything other than arrogant and self-assured.
“Lily! Where have you been? I’ve got people out looking for you. And where the hell is my Alfa Romeo?”
I plant my hands on my hips. “In the wrecker’s yard; and getting as far away from you as possible. Not in that order.”
He shakes his head, like my words are too much for him to process. “What?”
“Not as easily led as you thought, huh?”
He squints. His world is tilting on its axis. It’s almost funny.
Almost.
He turns his attention to Vaughn and the others. “And who are these…these…?” He falters. And there’s a flash of something in his eyes.
I’ve never seen it before, but I know it right away—he recognizes he’s in the presence of a more dominant wolf.
My heart swells with pride.
Then his hand twitches to his waist, where I know he keeps a concealed weapon.
I shoot Vaughn a warning glance, then I take a deep, calming breath. “I’ve come to tell you that I’m not your daughter anymore. I’m divorcing you as a parent. I’ve got my own pack now, and I’m going to live with them.”
“What?” my father splutters, and his face turns purple. “What the fuck are you talking about, you little b—?”