Chapter 18
TALBOT
There was a fine line to conducting missions.
Rush in, and you ran the risk of botching the whole project.
Wait too long, and the trail could run cold, or worse, intel could leak.
While I trusted Vance and Franklin as much as I trusted myself, the rest of the mercs we worked with were an unknown factor.
The team started to arrive slowly under Alexander’s orders, and while they were all shifters I’d worked with before and respected, my bear didn’t like them this close to the dens. Neither did the lions, if the rate at which my phone was blowing up was any indication.
I hated the idea that Dawn would have to meet them.
My bear rumbled low in my chest. I couldn’t keep her secluded up here in the dens, otherwise I was no better than her old pack.
Dawn deserved to live, which meant letting her make her own decisions, and she’d been adamant that she wanted to be involved in the execution of her former Alpha.
My lead on the pups had fizzled. Deep in the forums on the dark web, I was reading threads of the usual bullshit.
I was focusing my search for Dawn’s cousins on the West Coast, from Canada down to Mexico, but nothing was popping.
Dawn had said that one of the pups had been an Omega, and normally that would cause a little chatter, but nothing was coming up.
I was hitting dead end after dead end, and I growled in frustration. Dawn deserved closure, and more than that, those pups deserved to know someone was looking for them, and that someone cared.
There was a knock on the door, and I knew who it was. My soul would know hers no matter where we were, even with all my senses dulled. “Come in,” I called softly, spinning in my chair as Dawn entered. She smiled shyly at me. “You never have to knock.”
She frowned incredulously. “What if you want privacy?”
“There’s nothing I could be doing in here that you couldn’t see. Showering? Join me. Sleeping? Join me. Jerking off? Join me, please,” I teased. I held my arms out to her, and she wandered into them like it was the most natural thing in the world.
It felt like it was. I dragged her into my lap and nuzzled her throat. She bared it for me, and the trust she showed us was a heady thing. She smelled so fucking good. I kissed the sharp point of her jaw, and then the hollow beneath her ear, and she sighed happily.
My dick was achingly hard.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked.
I held her more tightly to my chest. “Looking for the missing pups,” I told her softly.
I didn’t want to lie to her. I wanted her to trust every single word that came out of my mouth as truth.
That was the only way I wanted to live with my soulmate.
We might not be fated mates like she was with Vance, but she’d been it for me since she smiled at me at that first gathering, her soft hair shining beneath the bright morning sun, looking angelic.
I’d lost my heart to her then, and I’d never gotten it back.
“What will you do if you find them?” she asked quietly.
“Whatever you want me to do, Dawn. We’re yours, we’ll do whatever your heart needs us to do.”
I held still as she moved her mouth across my cheek to brush her lips across mine. I took a back seat, letting her set the pace, and when she deepened the kiss, I moaned.
The sound seemed to spur her on, and she kissed me deeper. Fuck. I groaned as she turned in my lap, straddling me, and my cock nudged the apex of her thighs. I could feel the damp heat of her core and scent her arousal. I was going to die right now, but it was the best way to go.
I gripped her hips, not directing her or confining her, just letting her lead. I didn’t want to traumatize her any more than she had been, and despite the fact that she said the guy she was with was nice to her in private, I didn’t want to assume anything.
“Talbot,” she whispered with a soft little moan that made my dick throb.
“Take what you need, baby. Make yourself feel good. I’ve got you.
” She let out a choked noise then pressed her sexy body right along mine.
She rubbed herself on the hard line of my cock, and I thrust up, helping her grind.
Goddess, she was fucking beautiful with her head tipped back, her skin flushed pink.
“Oh God, Talbot. I’m going to, I’m—” Her thighs clenched around mine, her nails digging into my shoulders as her body stiffened and she keened out a cry.
Her sweet little pussy gushed her release, and I could feel the wetness soaking through my pants.
She collapsed onto my chest, her nose tightly against my throat, sucking in air.
My cock ached with the need for release, but I held back. This was for Dawn.
“I’ve never…” She trailed off, and I stroked my fingers through her hair, breathing her in.
“Never what?”
“Orgasmed before,” she mumbled.
My eyes widened, but I controlled my body so she didn’t feel my shock. “Never? Not even with your own hand?”
She shook her head. “No. It felt… dangerous. The scent would have riled the males, and it wasn’t something I wanted to risk. And my mate was, uh, not good?”
I growled at the thought of that male. I didn’t tell Dawn, but he wasn’t going to live to see the sunrise when we went in either. She might not have approved that death, but he was going to be an unfortunate bystander.
“Your pleasure is the most important thing to me. Franklin might kiss like he’s checking for tonsil stones, but I promise he feels the same way.
Vance too.” I brushed her lips with my own.
“I hope you enjoyed your first orgasm, Dawn, because I am going to give you so many over the course of our lives that you’ll barely remember a day when you haven’t come on my tongue, my cock, or both.
” I gripped her ass in my palms, grinding her on my cock. “Preferably both.”
She blinked up at me. “I read about that in romance novels I flipped through at the post office in town. I could never afford them, and I couldn’t bring myself to steal them, but the old lady behind the counter let me stand there and read them chapter by chapter.
I read one where he used his tongue, and I thought it was just done in romance books.
My husband never did anything like that. ”
Fuck.
I stood up, my hands under her ass, holding her easily.
“We have a couple of rules, and you have to swear you’ll follow them,” I told her, my tone serious.
“If I do anything you don’t like, tell me immediately.
If I do anything you love, tell me then too, though I’ll probably already know.
” I winked down at her. “If you want to stop, we’ll stop.
Don’t worry about anything or anyone else but your own comfort.
If you aren’t into it, say the word, and everything ends.
It’s really important. I don’t care if I’m two strokes from blowing my load, Dawn. If you want to stop, then it ends.”
Pushing into my room, I kicked the door closed. “Do you understand, baby?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her eyes looking a little dazed.
“I’m going to make you come on my tongue now, if that’s what you want.”
She nodded furiously, but I wanted more. I wanted her to use her voice. “With words, Dawn.”
“Yes, please, Talbot. I want that.”
I decided not to push her anymore and laid her gently on the bed. I hooked my fingers on her yoga pants and tugged them down her thighs. The perfume of her wet pussy almost made me come in my pants, and I groaned, closing my eyes.
Slow, I told myself. Slow and steady.
While I wanted to ravage her and give her so much pleasure she’d never think of leaving us, I knew I had to take it slow step by slow step.
When her pants, shoes, and socks were off, she sat there in her plain cotton underwear, looking like a wet dream—a wet dream I’d had so many times over the last five years.
I left them on for a moment then knelt at the foot of the bed. Slipping one leg over my shoulder, I kissed up the other thigh. I brushed my nose over the damp material of her panties and her clit. She moaned, and I tongued her clit over the fabric.
I looked up at her face, and she blinked down at me owlishly. “Still good?”
“Yes! Please, Talbot,” she squeaked, and I hooked my fingers in the waistband of her panties and tugged them down until I could slide them off her ankles.
I stared at the pink folds that I’d dreamt of over and over, about to do the one thing I’d wanted to do since I was a horny, teenage boy who met the love of his life.
I swiped my tongue up her slit, and she moaned.
Jesus Christ.
I was going to fucking blow in my pants. I nudged her thighs wide so I could slide my hands under her ass and lift her to my face, then I did my best fucking work.
I ate her sweet little cunt like it was candy. I sucked, licked, and stroked until she screamed, begged, and panted my name. All I could taste, smell, and see was her. She came once, and I chased the next orgasm.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she chanted like she was worried I’d stop and ask her if she was okay again. I smiled against her sweet core, spearing my tongue inside her. I couldn’t undo the pain of her past, but I could give her pleasure for her future, happiness, and pure, unadulterated joy.
When she came again, her thighs pressing against my cheeks so hard I probably looked like a fish, I came right along with her, helpless to stop myself from unloading into my boxer shorts as I groaned against her clit, making her orgasm go on and on.
Finally, her legs fell limp, and she rasped, “No more.”
I grinned, climbing up on shaky legs so I could kiss up her body.
I kissed over the raised, red scar, and she tensed but didn’t stop me.
One day, I would lick every inch of it, so she knew I loved every single part of her, but I didn’t push.
I kissed the soft spot at the base of her sternum between her breasts, and then I straddled her torso and kissed her.
The taste of her was still on my lips. “You are the best fucking thing that’s happened to us. ”
I rolled to the side and pulled her against my chest, covering her with a blanket so she didn’t get cold. I needed to change my fucking pants, but I didn’t want to break the spell of this moment.