Chapter 26 #2
“From what she told us, it must have been hell. The Leons wanted her to mate with Steve, but she knew how brutal and violent he was. He beats women, he sexually assaults them. Danielle said that had she agreed to mate with him instead of fleeing the pack, she would be as good as dead now.”
Shock charged through him. “Fuck! No wonder Jude had a new identity made for her.”
“What?”
“Eve mentioned it the other day. She said that she saw the new driver’s license and passport that Danielle received. They don’t show her real last name. Jude said that every woman who mates with an alpha of the Werewolf Alliance gets a new identity.”
“I’ve never heard of that rule,” Charlotte said with a frown.
“That’s because I suspect that rule doesn’t exist. He gave her a new identity to protect her from the Leons. No wonder he lied to Eve.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened. “You can’t tell anybody in your family. Nobody can find out. Please.”
Byron put his fingers under her chin and tipped her face up. “I promise you, my lips are sealed. Nobody will find out from me, not even my own family.”
“Thank you.”
She pressed a kiss to his lips.
“You don’t have to thank me, babe. I would never do anything to hurt you or the ones you love. Besides, Danielle is a good woman, and she’s my family too.”
She nodded.
“Tell me: how did your parents react to Danielle’s story?”
“You heard them: my dad thinks it’s an elaborate lie we concocted to convince them not to force me to mate with Steve. He doesn’t believe a word of it. I know my father. He needs concrete proof. And we have nothing.”
“That’s not true. We have a lead. Tim called me earlier today. He’s flying down to San Bernardino to follow up on it. He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t suspect that there’s something seriously wrong when it comes to the Leon pack.”
“Is Tim a werewolf?”
“Yes. And he can take care of himself. If Steve is like Danielle described him to you, there will be evidence of his deeds. If he sexually assaulted women, there’ll be witnesses.”
“But his pack members aren’t gonna testify against him. He’s the alpha’s son.”
“That may well be, but somebody like him won’t keep his violence contained within the pack.
There will be other women, humans, that he’s assaulted.
I know his type. He likes it when women can’t fight back, and human women are physically too weak to fight him off.
A man like him likes to feel superior, and what better victim than a human who has no chance against him? ”
Charlotte seemed to shiver, though it didn’t appear that she was cold.
“Danielle said she fought him off, and he got angry.”
“See? In order for him to feel strong after not succeeding with Danielle, he would have gone out to find a weaker woman just to satisfy his need for superiority.”
“It makes me sick.”
He pulled her closer. “Your instincts about him were right. Let me talk to Danielle in private. Maybe she can give me more details that will help Tim find the proof we’re looking for.”
And find it fast, because he doubted that Charlotte’s parents would stay longer than a night before trying to drag Charlotte with them. And he couldn’t allow that.
“But what if he can’t find it in time?” Worry clouded her beautiful face. “I think we have to make sure that my parents can’t make me go through with the mating.”
“But that’s what we’re already trying to do.”
She shook her head. “I have to get pregnant by you. Then they have to back off.”
Shock coursed through him. “No. That’s out of the question!”
She pushed against his chest to make space between them. “You don’t want me to carry your child?”
Recognizing the hurt look in her face, he gripped her shoulders and looked into her eyes.
“Of course I want you to. But you don’t want that, not yet.
You said so yourself. You’re not ready for a baby.
I can’t let you make that sacrifice. Because that’s what it would be for you: a sacrifice.
We can’t start our life together like this.
I would hate myself if I agreed to that. There will be another way.”
Besides, if he could believe Austin, then a pregnancy wouldn’t mean that her parents would consent to their union.
Tears welled up in Charlotte’s eyes.
“What have I done?” he asked. “I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t mean to hurt you with what I said.”
Charlotte shook her head and sniffled. “You didn’t hurt me. I just realized how much I love you for understanding me. And for respecting my wishes.”
He combed his hand through her hair, brushing the long curls out of her face.
“That’s what love is,” he said gently and drew her back into his arms. “I’d never do anything that you don’t want.”
“How about what I do want?” she asked, her eyes sparkling now.
“What would that be?”
“Make love to me.”
“Here? Right now?”
“Yes, because I’m afraid that once we’re back at the house, my parents will make absolutely sure that we won’t get a single minute alone.”
“Well, if you put it like that…” He dug into his pants’ pocket and retrieved a condom. “As luck would have it, I have a condom on me.”
“I love a man who plans ahead,” she murmured in that seductive voice that sent blood shooting into his cock in two seconds flat.
Already, he could feel Charlotte’s hands on his pants, unbuttoning them and lowering the zipper. He helped her, shucked his shoes, and rid himself of his pants and boxer briefs. She snatched the condom from his hand and tore the foil pack open.
“May I?” she asked, taking the condom out and placing it on the tip of his fully erect cock before he could answer.
As she rolled the condom over his shaft, he let his eyes roam her body.
She still wore his shirt, but she hadn’t bothered buttoning it up, so it was open in the front, giving him a perfect view of her firm, round breasts.
Hard nipples topped them, and he refused to believe that it was just the cold around them that made them hard.
He filled his hands with her breasts, enjoying their weight as he squeezed them in unison.
A soft moan escaped her lips, and he lifted his gaze to look into her face. “Why don’t you ride me so I have my hands free to caress your gorgeous tits?”
“I’d like that.”
She smirked and swung herself over him as if he were a horse and she an experienced jockey.
Taking his hands off her breasts temporarily, he adjusted his cock so it was pointed straight at Charlotte’s pussy.
When she lowered herself onto him, warmth and wetness engulfed his erection.
She took him inside her tempting cave until he could go no further.
“Damn, babe,” he murmured, once again taking her breasts into his hands to knead them. “You drive me absolutely crazy.”
He lifted his head so he could lick her nipples when she finally began to move in a rhythm as old as time.
He loved her in this position because he could drink her in with his eyes, his hands free to caress and explore her as he pleased.
Charlotte could go at her own rhythm and tempo, ride him to her heart’s content, while she forced him to submit to her wishes.
He knew she needed this more than he did.
She was in control, and he didn’t mind it one bit.
In fact, it turned him on to see her like this, taking what she wanted.
He was more than willing to give her what she needed from him, because in return, he received everything he’d ever dreamt of in a woman.
A self-confident, strong woman able to tame his wildness, a woman who trusted him with her body and mind, a woman who looked like a goddess and a vixen at the same time.
He watched how a thin film of perspiration covered her silken skin, how her long hair flew in all directions, some of the strands clinging to her damp skin as she rode him.
She had endurance, her hips working hard to lift her onto her knees to let his erection slip out of her body, but for the very tip, then swallow him inside her welcoming sheath again.
With every movement, their combined moans and sighs added to the sounds of the forest, because they, too, were animals that belonged here.
Having met her wolf earlier, he could now sense it lurking just beneath the surface, ready to emerge if needed.
He felt his own wolf respond to her, demanding he make her his here and now.
But the man in him held back, reminding the wolf that Charlotte would be the one who would make that decision when she was ready.
“I love you, Charlotte.”
She locked eyes with him then, echoing his words, “And I love you.”
She changed her rhythm and bent over him, forcing him to let go of her breasts.
“Kiss me.”
He followed her demand and captured her lips, kissing her with every ounce of passion and desire he had in him.
She responded to him with the same fervor, her tongue dueling with his, their breaths mingling.
He could feel her hunger and her need, the same that lived inside him.
Needing more of her, he took her hips and supported her movements, making her take his cock faster inside her delicious cave.
When she suddenly ripped her lips from his and gasped, he recognized how close she was to her climax.
She threw her head back, riding him as if the devil was chasing her.
He brought one hand to where their bodies were joined and found her clitoris, rubbing his finger over the engorged organ, when he felt her interior muscles clench around his cock.
He felt the waves of her orgasm physically, and the pressure around his erection was too much.
He had no time to brace himself and resist. Instead, his cock spasmed, and his hot seed shot from the tip as he climaxed.
He shuddered, his orgasm stronger than he’d ever felt.
He realized then that he was putty in Charlotte’s hands, and he would never be able to get out from under her spell. He was her prisoner.
Charlotte collapsed on his chest, her face nuzzled in the crook of his neck, her breath caressing his skin, while he wrapped his arms around her back, holding her tightly so she couldn’t leave, because she too was a prisoner. His prisoner.
Byron blew out a breath. “Wow, babe. I’m speechless.”
She chuckled, and the sound tickled his skin. She kissed his neck before she lifted her head and looked at him.
“Thank you for finding me. Without you, I wouldn’t know how to deal with all this…”
She made a hand movement in the direction of the mansion. He understood.
“I’ll make all of it go away,” he promised. “Soon, you and I will be together for good. No more sneaking around, no more opposition from your family or mine…”
“Yours? Are you saying that they are against us, too?”
He forced a smile. “They’re not against you in particular, but rather the fact that you are Jude’s sister. Not everybody has accepted him as the alpha yet.”
She lifted herself up a little and rested her arm on his chest to shelf her chin on it.
“And you? Do you accept him as alpha?”
Byron sighed. “I didn’t for a long time.
But you’ve opened my eyes. I think it was never Jude himself whom I didn’t accept.
It was more about Cameron and my father.
I was angry with them for landing us in this mess.
It’s not Jude’s fault that Cameron was a psychopath, and my father enabled him. He was just sent to clean up.”
“I’m glad.” She smiled at him. “I love my brothers, even if they are sometimes overbearing and overprotective. But they only mean well. And Danielle is really sweet.”
He had to agree with her on that. “Danielle is a good woman. I never talked to her much before we found out that she was my half-sister. I’m actually glad that Jude took Danielle as his mate.”
“Why?”
“Because he and Eve would be awful together. You can’t unite a pack when the couple on top can’t stand each other. Danielle, on the other hand, understands what this pack and its alpha need. And once you and I mate, it will only cement the ties between the Gallaghers and the Beaumonts.”
And once the next generation was born, the two families would truly become one.
“I can’t wait,” Charlotte murmured, and her eyes shone with love and tenderness.
“Me neither. How about we stay here a little longer?” he asked and reached for her to kiss her.
“I’d like that a lot.”