Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
RíO
I used a light, hatching motion to shade the sketch I’d been working on in the moments Ramona and I had like this over the past few days. Where we lay next to each other in our nest, doing our own things together. She had a book propped up on her bent knees, while I leaned against the headboard on the side of the bed nearest the lamp, my sketchbook open.
The sleek Gray Wolf sat on her haunches, head turned to look over her shoulder at me. The stoic expression of her light eyes contrasted with the playful tail I imagined wagging when she bared her teeth. Her ears were pinned back on her head in challenge, and I smirked as I continued to shade the swaths of darker areas of fur on her back and face.
Ramona shifted beside me, sending a current of our scent my way as our nest moved beneath her. We both lounged naked, and the way she’d repositioned herself left the dip of her lower back arched just before the perfect swell of her ass. She crossed her legs at the ankle and left them swaying in the air as she propped up on her elbows to keep reading.
Her brows were pulled in the little frown she usually got when she was reading, and I abandoned my Wolf sketch for a moment to look over her shoulder.
Three sentences in, and I couldn’t resist giving her a hard time. I set down my sketchbook and pencil and straddled over her, my half-hard cock resting between her cheeks. My hands planted on either side of her book, and my loose hair was a canopy over her head. “‘He gripped her hair with an unflinching hold’” Ramona sputtered indignantly, but I kept on reading with my grin evident in my voice, “‘pulling at her hair just enough to draw tears while he thrusted his cock to the back of her throat. She sighed in bliss’—Princess, you are a dirty girl, reading porn before bed.”
She twisted around to glare up at me, shoving her book to the edge of the nest. “It’s not porn . And how do you think I knew at least a little about sucking dick the first time we met?”
We’d been resting in our nest of blankets and pillows and clothing, recovering from the dinner with her mom and the sexy as fuck round of bondage, for a few hours, but the memory of my mate slipping so nicely into my command without even knowing me had my gut swooping. What could I say? I liked both submitting and controlling.
And though my princess liked it when I took over, I now had first-hand experience of how much she liked to exert her power over me.
I snarled playfully and shot down to her neck, nipping along her skin and making exaggerated grumbling noises. She batted against my shoulders and arms, and her surprised chuckles turned to full-out giggles as I brought my hands into my tickling. While I nipped along her shoulders and cheeks, my fingers danced along her sides and armpits, letting my mate’s mirth fill the tranquil air.
“Río,” she gasped, but my princess was as strong as I was. She held me close and didn’t try to push me away. Even the annoying glass lenses before my eyes didn’t obscure my view of Ramona, flushed and happy in my arms. Her hair was freshly braided and fuzzing as a result of her writhing. I loved it.
“What is it, baby?” I added a little more force to my biting at her mark while gentling my fingers fluttering along her ribs.
She was still smiling, but her eyes narrowed. “What happened to you being a good boy?”
My cock gave a happy jerk at the pet name, recalling very well what she’d just done to me, and I smiled cheekily. “Hmm, Good Río can’t come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name and num—” the rest of my words were muffled beneath her hand clasped over my lips with her expression turning dry and amused.
I, for one, thought I was fucking hilarious, so I just took a good lick against her palm. She grimaced and retracted her hand to wipe it on the blanket beside us. My lips fell into a pout, “Come on baby, don’t act like you don’t like my tongue. You’ll hurt my feelings.”
Ramona rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at me like the delightful brat she was. Joke was on her, because I was a brat, too. I quickly grabbed at her jaw so that she couldn’t escape as I extended my tongue to lick at hers. My sweet and sour persnickety Wolf didn’t shove me away. No, she opened her mouth to lengthen the contact of our tastebuds that still held each other’s flavor.
My mate whimpered under me, still allowing me to lick her, and the insistent cloud of arousal grew around us. But as mates now, the scents were so intertwined that it was impossible in our nest to decipher from which of us it originated. With my hand still holding her face in an immovable grip, I moved to her cheekbone, licking and tasting while she hitched a leg over my shoulder. “Baby,” her plea was breathy, and how could I deny her?
In her ear, I growled, half-shift already starting. “What is it, mi alma gemela? Do you need some help? Craving my dick in that tight pussy so badly already?”
I released my hand on her jaw and brought her other leg over my shoulder, bending her in half. She squirmed impatiently, making the sweetest little mewling noises of frustration. I’d bet that she didn’t know she was doing it, and I wasn’t going to draw attention to her wordless begging for what only I could give her.
Ramona bit at her lip and tried a weak glare up at me, as if she didn’t wanna give me the satisfaction. But the first brush of my hard cock against where she had already gone all sweet and slippery had both of us groaning. “Fuck you, yes . Give it to me.”
I angled my hips to nudge just the slightest bit into her, feeling her lips part around me. A full-body shiver shuddered under my skin. Even still, I tsked, trying to ramp her up even more. “Now, that’s not how you get what you want, Princess. I’m in control again.” I was thrusting shallowly into her, teasing the both of us.
Somewhere under one of her satin-covered pillows, Ramona’s phone started ringing and vibrating against the bed, but we both ignored it. She hitched up onto her elbows, contorting her body even more and creating a delicious angle for me to fuck into. This time, she didn’t glare or spit another demand. Her arched black brows drew up in the middle, and her slender throat worked in a swallow. “Please, Río. I want you so badly.” She chewed at her lip, and I felt my restraints rapidly fall away. “Just hold me down and fuck me and take what’s yours.”
Oh, she was good. I wasn’t a territorial Wolf, but my Jaguar reacted just as any shifter would to that taunt. Even if it was blatant manipulation, there was no holding myself back from sinking my teeth into her mark and bottoming out into my mate.
She screeched, ending the noise on a drawn-out moan as she let me take her with the same ferocity as I had in the tree. I pumped my hips and pulled my fangs out of her neck to suck and lick at the emphasized claim I had on her. Her toes dangled helplessly in the air as I fucked into my mate like we’d never get to do this again. She’d made me desperate for her then turned around and similarly showed her belly to me. She was fucking perfect, just whimpering with each thrust and holding on. She clenched tightly on me, letting my rough fucking take her up and over the edge. It was a dream, it was bliss, and my body was on fire with her shaking beneath me.
I kept on, chasing my own release, and Ramona petted my back through my fast and erratic movements. “Mm, that’s it baby, you fuck me so good, Río, te amo, te amo.” Her voice was hoarse but sated and full of love, and it was her use of my name and my first language that snapped the last string holding my orgasm back.
It almost hurt in the way the pleasure balled and exploded, where I couldn’t see or hear, just feel . And as I filled my mate, her walls still convulsing and milking me, I was forever grateful that I’d decided that night during my closing shift to not bolt it out of town.
That I let my Jaguar instincts guide me the second I’d seen her honey eyes. If I knew the fucker at all, he’d been leading me to her all along.
It took a while for the world beyond the comfort of our joined scents and the warmth inside my mate to filter in. The taste of her blood still lingered in my tongue, and I took her jaw again, forcing her mouth open. Ramona was so fucked out that she just smiled and opened up, trusting me wholeheartedly. I spat into her mouth, demanding she taste us both, and she took it in, just as greedily, with a hum. Fuckin’ perfect.
She rubbed her hand against my hips, reminding me that I still had her folded like a pretzel. I pressed up a little and gently guided her legs to the mattress, still unwilling to pull out of her. What would she do if I gifted her a plug for nights like this? So she could keep my cum in her while it was just us in the safety of our home.
The idea and her inevitable irritation but secret excitement about the notion had me grinning down at her and snuffling into her hair.
The insistent ringing over her phone jangled against the soupy bliss both of us were very much enjoying being lost in. With a grumble, I followed the noise and vibrations, pawing through the mound of us-scented fabric until I found her phone almost fallen off the edge of the bed.
A photo of her brother smiling softly while he tossed Dahlia in the air took up the whole screen. It looked like something she’d stumbled upon and took in secret. “Who is it?” Ramona mumbled.
“Your brother,” I went to put the phone back on the bed, but she stilled and scrambled up.
Without resistance, I handed the phone to her, wondering what was so special about her brother calling, but sat back and waited.
She leaned on an elbow, and I half listened while still marveling at where we were connected. When she answered the call, however, I froze as I could hear crackling of chaos on the other line.
Over that, her brother growled a bone-chilling note. “Where the fuck is your mate? Is he with you?” Shit. Why did I feel like I was about to get punched again?
I didn’t even need to try and remember how to get there. The smoke rising into the black sky was enough of a beacon. I ground my teeth, pushing my bike as quickly as I could go with Ramona clinging to my back. The house wasn’t far from my apartment, and the smell of ash and doused flames was already stinging my nose and eyes, even beneath my helmet. Ramona’s arms tightened around me, and I squeezed her hand reassuringly before returning it to the handlebar. Not ten seconds later, we were pulling into… what was left of the white house.
The fire truck parked out front had its flashing lights turned off. The firefighters almost finished packing up their stuff, now, and commotion of multiple humans and shifters assaulted my senses. But I fought through the cacophony to stay steady and strong for my mate. And to prepare for the onslaught that was sure to come my way after what my sisters had done.
The white witch house was a charred, smoldering mess. Wolves milled about like concerned citizens, but I knew that they were trying to catch any helpful scents that would aid them in their own investigation of what happened.
Ramona and I had just hopped off my bike and taken our helmets off when the Leader came around what was left of the house and stormed toward us. His green eyes were blazing, glowing in a way that was far from human, and I caught the scent of forest still strong on him. The pack had been on a run, and I knew immediately that Cata and Mara had planned this around the event. Knowing that the pack would be occupied.
The Leader’s usual orderly curls were a mess about his head, and I suppressed a growl when his hands connected with my chest, grabbing at my shirt. He was shaking, trying to hold back his Wolf since there were a few concerned human neighbors present as well, but I wasn’t going to fight back. “What the fuck do you know about this. Tell the truth, or I will fucking kill you.”
“Orion, stop!” Ramona urged with her own growl. Seemed like we’d been through this scenario before.
I kept myself steady and open. Any type of defensiveness would set him off, and we obviously had bigger problems to worry about. “I assure you, Leader. I had nothing to do with this. And I will stand with you to get revenge.” I let my Jaguar slip a little to the forefront, taking advantage of his eyes staring mine down to see the sincerity of my words. Ramona was my family, and by extension, this Wolf. His mate and children were all mine to defend, too, and the times I’d been here, I knew how special this place was to all of them.
He sniffed the few inches between us, claws ripping into the shirt I’d hastily pulled on when Ramona answered her brother’s call. We’d dressed as quickly as possible, and I’d popped in my contacts so that my glasses wouldn’t get in the way.
Orion’s growl settled a bit, and when he eventually dropped his hold on me, I surreptitiously released a long exhale. Ramona clutched my hand in hers. Her eyes were glassy with tears as she faced her brother who had calmed only a fraction. “How bad is it?”
He swept his hands up and down his face, before dropping them to his sides. Not only did his fingers and hands twitch, but his wrists jerked in agitated movements as well. “Bad. Whatever they did blazed right through the wards Sylvie and Josie had kept up over the years.”
“And the garden?” Ramona croaked. We couldn’t see it here, with the blackened skeleton of the house and smoke blocking our way. By the lack of hope in her question, I knew she already had a feeling of what his answer would be.
I brought a hand around her waist, bracing for her brother’s response. “Destroyed.”
My princess let out a little distressed whine, and I tucked her head into my neck while fighting back my instinct to take this on as my fault. Would they have still done this if I hadn’t mated Ramona? When Mara interrogated me about my mate who wasn’t even my mate at that point, I’d been tightlipped. As if the powers that be took some small mercy on all of us, her scenting was weaker than other shifters, so maybe not. But she could’ve still smelled Ramona on me. And the familial note that ran through her and the Pack Leader.
Orion went to go speak with another Wolf who eyed me suspiciously but said nothing, and I rubbed soothingly at Ramona’s shoulders. She stayed rooted in place, unwilling to go closer and see one of her favorite places gone. My mate let me comfort her as silent tears spilled down her cheeks. My Jaguar grumbled, itching to retaliate against those that’d made my mate upset.
A flash of rage shot toward us, something I’d never experienced before, and it took too long for me to recognize Sylvie, rushing from where the garden once was. Her hair was down and wild, with twigs and leaves that’d probably been a result of full immersion in the interrupted run.
Her cherry-red painted nails resembled drops of blood, and they were like talons, aimed for my chest like she wanted to pull out my soul. Her brown eyes were glazed and wrathful, even as Ramona lunged between us.
“Sylvie!” Ramona snarled just as Orion wrapped a hand around his mate’s waist to keep her from going at me. My princess held her sister at arm’s length, muscles bulging as the witch continued to press forward. She was mumbling in a foreign language, using words that weren’t of this world at all.
Fuck, I caused this. Right? My family had destroyed something sacred to my mate and her family, and I was the link in between.
I wanted to say something, but my words were more than just stuck in my throat. It felt like it was slowly closing, invisible hands circling around my windpipe while cotton was stuffed down my throat. Ramona was struggling in front of me, but I couldn’t get my body to obey. My muscles were trembling, not unlike when I was about to shift, but it was wrong and painful. I clutched at the base of my neck, not knowing how or what to do to make it stop.
Sylvie’s hands were trapped by Orion’s arms, opening and clenching at her sides, and when she met my panicked stare with my mate still struggling in the middle, she smirked in a dark, possessed way that was nothing like I’d seen before.
Ramona cast a worried glance at me over her shoulder, and, through the black now creeping in on my vision, I saw her eyes widen even more as she took in my state, now kneeling in grass, mouth opening and closing uselessly. “No, Sylvie! He didn’t do this! O, get her to stop! Where the fuck is Josie? Can you call her?”
A few more seconds of agony, just as I started welcoming in unconsciousness as a reprieve from this pain, it stopped. Well, the force causing it stopped, but I coughed until my throat was raw, and my limbs were still tingly and sore. Ramona collapsed by my side—when had I fallen completely on the ground?—and ran her hands over my face. Her whines of distress were nice and something to hold onto, so I let her cool citrus fill my lungs and calm my racing heart.
“She’s still helping Juno—Sylvana, mo ghrá, I’m here…” The Leader was speaking low and urgent, and when my clearing vision focused on them standing just a few feet away, the witch was now weeping in her mate’s chest. Great, big wails that grated on my ears, but I was just thankful that she was no longer trying to murder me with whatever fucking kind of magic that was.
A couple humans and Wolves jogged over, obviously seeing me on the ground, and asked if I needed assistance. With lame assertions that I just tripped and fell after arriving, they eventually backed off and continued to look over to the scene of smolder and ruin.
I sat up slowly with my mate’s arms still around me, breathing through the lingering tremors. Witches could be particularly nasty, but the dark power off of Sylvie wasn’t fucking human magic. How in the hell I hadn’t realized until now that she was Fae, I didn’t know. Now those were some vengeful fuckers.
Ramona kissed my face relentlessly, still making that very canine sound of distress. “Are you okay, baby?” She scented at my neck, and the gesture itself was bolstering my energy and making me feel better.
Slowly rubbing my cheek on her temple in return, I tried a deep breath, finding my lungs aching but otherwise okay. “I’m okay, Princess. Really thought I was gonna be killed by a faerie for a second.”
But my mate was unamused by my try at humor. She shot me a look that was full of worry, relief, and irritation. “Don’t even joke about that. If she weren’t grieving, I would’ve had to knock her on her ass.”
A warning growl carried over to us, and I shifted a little to see the Pack Leader still cradling his mate in his arms. Her sobs were calmed to little hiccups, and an older woman with fiery hair had wandered over and was rubbing Sylvie’s back. Whoever she was, the combination of she and Orion’s reassurances were working, and the churning rage was all but gone from the air.
“Watch your mouth, Mona.” The Leader grumbled, and his face was sharp.
Ramona bared her teeth. “And you watch your mate. We’re family, but I won’t have her hurting mine. Especially when he had nothing to do with this.”
I tried to sigh, but everything was still raw, so I coughed halfway through the gesture. Ramona rubbed my back in soothing circles, and I was eventually able to draw in enough air. “It’s okay, Princess. I get?—”
“ No . Don’t you fucking try and make excuses for someone attacking you, Río. I won’t hear of it, so just be quiet if that’s what you’re gonna do.” She punctuated her command with a kiss on my temple. There was no hope for me ignoring a directive like that, so I just leaned into her and tried to begin forming a plan.
Another car drove up, the engine growly and smooth. Confused about the scents that came with it, I looked over my shoulder to find Tyler shooting out of his challenger, along with that blond Wolf I almost killed.
“Oh my god!” The non-shifter Wolf ran over, rivers of tears running down his face. He dropped down beside Ramona, but before he could put his arms around her, I bared my fangs in warning. Ramona had assured me that he had no desire for her, but forgive me for being a little on edge.
The guy blanched, and Tyler placed a pale hand in his blond locks and hissed at me. What the fuck was going on? “W-we saw the smoke, and I just felt something was wrong. What can we do?” He looked from my mate and I to the Leader, his mate, and the older human.
Instead of answering that question, I turned back to Orion. “Where’s the rest of the pack?”
His jaw tightened, and he looked over his mate’s head on the scene before us. “Here. Or somewhere safe and protected.”
I didn’t comment on him keeping the details of their whereabouts from me. Instead, my mind was clearing and whirling with possibilities. What would I have done if I were still an enforcer when a Pack Leader refused to cooperate? Be irritated, for one. Intimidate, which was obviously what this was. Then, hit them where it hurt most. Which, for proud Leaders, typically wasn’t threats to their own wellbeing.
“We—”
“Leader! We got one!”