Astrid Cielo (14 page)

"Xavier!"

"I've
got you, baby,
touch
yourself."

Aspen
braced herself on one hand and her other hand circled her clit.
 
Aspen moaned and fell forward when she came,
her vaginal muscles milking his climax from him.
 
Her teeth sank deep and he could feel his
soul reaching.
 
One moment he was Xavier,
Skylar's mate and the next he belonged to Aspen and Skylar.
 
He'd never said it
before,
although being mated to Skylar had felt right he'd never felt that completeness
that everyone talked about when you mated.
 
Now, as that feeling washed over him he understood.
 
He'd never been complete until this moment.

"Now,
I've claimed you," she said after they’d both caught their breaths.

He
kissed her and she sank into him.
 
He
rolled pinning her beneath him.
 
She
smiled up at him, but slowly her smile faded.

"How
will we tell Skylar?"

Xavier
smirked.
 
"I'll tell him in exactly
the same way he told me about you."

"And
how was that?"

"Oh,
I sniffed it out of him."

Aspen
laughed her grey eyes lighting up.
 
He
loved putting that look on her face.
 

"Sniffed
it out of him?"

"I
could smell you on his skin and I must say I wasn't happy at first."

Her
mouth formed into an 'O' and he couldn't help but kiss her pretty mouth.

She
rested her head on his shoulder and her hands petted his chest.
 

"I'm
sorry, Xavier.
 
I didn't know."

He
rolled pinning her beneath him and captured her face with his hand.

"I'm
not.
 
I didn't know what I was missing
until I met you and I understand now how Skylar could lose control.
 
From the first moment I met you, I've wanted
to strip you bear and taste every inch of your skin."

Her
breath hitched at his words and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
 
The scent of her arousal thickened and he
growled.
 
It seemed his mate was ready
for another round.

A
pounding at the door made him growl for an entirely different reason.
 
Xavier bent and kissed Aspen's lips one last
time the incessant pounding at the door ruining his once lax mood.
 

"Don't
move," he said when he rolled off the bed and pulled on a pair of
sweats.
 
"I've got plans."

Aspen
laughed and he went to answer the door.
 
The strawberry-blonde smiled and Xavier growled.
 
He remembered this kid from when he picked up
Gunner.
 
Zackary.

"We've
got a situation and Skylar is requesting your presence."

Guilt
assaulted him, but he beat it down.
 
Aspen was his and now all Sky had to do was to claim her.
 

"What
situation?"
 
He hated the growly way
he addressed the male, but couldn't help it.
 
He had other places he wanted to be.
 
Although, if Skylar joined them...

"My,
someone is growly this morning.
 
Anyways,
there was a body discovered on pride lands.
 
Skylar processed the scene and then requested you.
 
Caleb didn't give me all the particulars, but
well I'm just the messenger."

Somehow
Xavier doubted that Zackary didn't know entirely too much about most of the
situations going on in Pinewood Creek.
 
The boys hazel eyes were full of intelligence, and he couldn't even call
him a boy.
 
No, he may be only on the
cusp of manhood, but he knew that look.
 
Saw it in the mirror at times.
 
This cougar had seen things that shocked him out of his innocence quite
early.
 
Skylar's eyes held the same look,
but Xavier had always accounted it to his job.

"I'm
coming.
 
Let me-"

"Tell
Aspen and then I'll show you where to go.
 
Oh, and tell Aspen that I said hi."

Xavier
growled and Zackary raised his brow.
 
Xavier
shook his head trying to dispel the need to rip the boy limb from limb.
 
Aspen had confided that Zackary always looked
out for the well being of those in the pride.
 
He was Caleb's beta after all.
 
She'd even relayed how he'd almost absently nursed her back to health
right after she'd learned she was pregnant.
 
Maybe that was the root of his jealousy, the fact that Zackary was there
for a moment in Aspen's life when it should have been Skylar and himself.
 
But, Xavier knew better than anyone that the past
couldn't be changed.
 
One just had to
look toward the future.

His
future laid in bed her eyelashes lying like crescents on her cheeks.
 
He sat on the bed beside her and picked up
strands of her hair that lay across the pillow.
 
Her eyelashes fluttered and he stared into her grey eyes.
 
Her smile was beautiful, just like her.

"I've
got to go help Skylar."

Her
body tensed and she shot into a sitting position.

"Is
something wrong with him?"

He
cupped her cheek.
 
"Zackary didn't
say, just said that Skylar wanted me there."

Her
brows drew together.
 
"I
don't-"

"Understand?
 
Me neither, but I'll make sure Sky is okay
then we'll both come back to you.
 
Deal?"

Aspen
nodded.
 
Concern still etched her small
smile and he bent to kiss her lips.

"Zackary
says hi."

Aspen
smiled and he left her.
 
Now to see what
his other mate was up to.

Warmth
surrounded him from behind and a familiar scent tickled his nostrils.
 
Xavier
.
 
Skylar grabbed Xavier by the hand and pulled him
deeper into the woods and away from prying eyes.

"Where
are they going?" Daphne's voice rang out.

"Give
them some time," Zackary's voice said as they left the group behind.
 

Skylar
turned and took Xavier's mouth, their heights almost identical.
 
Xavier never hesitated but kissed him
back.
 
Still he didn't understand what
affected him so about this case.
 
It was
just another case, but something had unsettled him and his wolf.
 
Everything faded but his kiss with
Xavier.
 
It was exactly what he
needed.
 
Well, if he were honest, he
needed Aspen too, but refused to expose her to such travesty.
 
Xavier sucked his bottom lip into his mouth
and nibbled before pulling away.

"Are
you going to tell me what's going on?"

Skylar
nipped at Xavier's jaw.
 
"I don't
know, but something isn't right."

Skylar
bent to nip at the mating mark he'd left on Xavier years ago only to
pause.
 
Small and fresh, a new mating
mark met his eyes.
 
Skylar sniffed his
mate and rage and hurt flooded his veins.
 
The smell of their mixed passions only made it worse.
 
He pushed Xavier.

"You
mated with her?"

Xavier
reached out for him, but Skylar stepped out of his reach.

"It
just sort of happened.
 
She's been trying
to seduce you for three days.
 
Even asked
me how to tempt you-"

"And
that doesn't explain how you mated her."

"Look,
you of all people should know how hard it is to resist her.
 
I couldn't help myself."

Skylar
shook his head and everything snapped into space.
 
He reached out for Xavier and jerked him into
his body.

"I
know, but something is driving me crazy lately."

Xavier
bit gently at the mating mark that he'd recently made fresh and Skylar groaned.

"You
need to claim her.
 
We need to claim her
together and I think you'll realize that being this close to her and
no
t claiming her is what’s messing with
your mind."

Skylar
nodded.
 
He needed to get his head in the
game.
 

"This
murder shouldn't have happened."

Xavier's
brows drew up.
 
"I don't think any
murder should happen."

"That's
not what I mean.
 
The patterns, the
scents, and the victims they all match my last case."

"But
didn't you finish your last case."

Skylar
ran his hand through his hair.
 
"I
executed the guy, a wolf shifter who enjoyed hunting his victims before killing
them."

Xavier
never said a word.
 
Probably surprised
Skylar had shared this much of a case with him.
 
He was notorious for taking a day or three away from everyone and
everything after a case so he could forget.
 
This time he was stumped and with the mating heat riding him hard he had
to enlist the help of Xavier.
 
He needed
information.

"Anyways,
just now while checking over the crime scene I scented that same wolf
shifter.
 
I remember every detail of his
death, so it's just not possible."

Xavier
nodded.
 
"What is it that you need
from me Skylar?"

"I
hate to ask you this, but I need you to find out some information-figure out
what's going on."

Xavier
clapped him on his shoulder.
 
"Of course."

"How
does it feel to be mated to her?"

Xavier
smiled.
 
"I didn't realize how
incomplete I was until that moment that I claimed her and she claimed me.
 
I can't wait for you to make her yours."

Skylar
felt his fangs burst free. He couldn't wait to claim her either.

***

Aspen
squealed when something wrapped around her foot and started dragging her down
the bed.
 
She'd just dozed off after
making love to Xavier her dreams teasing her with what was to come with
Skylar.
 
She kicked out only to have her
other foot captured in a big hand.
 

"You're
all
mine
now Aspen."

Aspen
stilled at the husky timber of Skylar's voice.
 
Her whole body tensed in anticipation and she looked into his green
eyes.
 

"Skylar?"

He
pulled her to the edge of the bed and parted her thighs to bend at her
knees.
 

"Don't
move, baby."

Aspen
froze and her body trembled at the intense look he gave her.
 
It seemed he'd finally gotten the message.

He
bent and nipped at her thighs.
 
Her
channel clenched in anticipation when she felt the heat of him get
closer and closer to her core.
 
She let
her thighs fall open farther, wanting to feel his mouth on her.

"Please,
Skylar."

He
didn't make her wait and she cried out when his mouth settled over her
clit.
 
So good.
 
She couldn't believe this was happening.
 
Months of wanting him, her body so sensitive
that she thought she would burst into flames and here he tasted her.
 
Taking her to new heights.
 
His tongue was relentless in its assault of
her intimate flesh.
 

Aspen
tunneled her fingers into his tawny hair and moved her hips against his
lips.
 
She could feel the climax building
and wanted it with every fiber of her being.
 
Skylar's tongue dipped into her pussy and her back arched off the bed as
completion rolled over her like a blanket.
 
Everything seized within her, even her vocal cords wouldn't allow for
any sound to be emitted as she climaxed.

Aspen
panted as she came down from her orgasm, and her heart skipped a few beats when
Skylar gathered her in his arms and placed her on the center of the bed.
 
He pulled his shirt over his head and all she
could do was stare.
 
She watched as he
bared
his sculpted chest with is light dusting of
hair.
 
Taut abdominal muscles tapered off
into lean hips and strong thighs, each
bared
as he
pushed his pants down and freed his erection.
 

She
moaned as her channel clenched in anticipation of him joining her, moving deep
inside of her.
 
How had she been reduced
to this?
 
Just this morning she'd had sex
not once but twice with Xavier and had been well on her way to a third when
they were interrupted.
 
Now she couldn't
help herself but want--no need--Skylar to take her.
 
Fuck her.

Skylar
stroked his heavy shaft and Aspen could remember the taste of him sliding down
her throat.
 
Remembered
every detail of their first time together.
 

He
stepped forward and Aspen moved back to the end of the bed and reached for
him.
 
Her hands skimmed his chest and
moved down over his taut abdomen.
 
Even
lower her hands ventured until she took him in her hands.
 
Soft and hard at the same time, she thought
while she stroked his shaft.
 
He growled
and pulled her hands away from him.

"I
want to be inside you, baby."
 

Aspen
nodded and then leaned back once more spreading her thighs as far as they could
go for him.
 
Skylar was just tall enough
that he had to bend at the knees.
 
He
stroked her pussy coating his dick in her juices three times before he growled
in frustration.
 
Skylar bent and lifted
her and placed her in the middle of the bed.
 
Aspen wanted him so badly, her channel clenching as he climbed in the
bed to get to her.

She
groaned as he aligned their bodies, his shaft bumping her clit again before
lodging at her entrance.
 
Her breath
stilled waiting for him to fill her, but he stayed poised his green eyes
seemingly penetrating her soul.
 
Aspen
wiggled her hips and a low moan broke from her throat.

"Skylar,
I need you."

He
took her mouth capturing her next needy moan and all too soon he pulled back.

"I'm
going to claim you Aspen.
 
I have to make
you mine."

Her
whole body already burning with need felt as though it would combust with the
wave of love and lust that coursed through her veins.
 
Skylar growled low in his throat before
tunneling his cock into her channel.
 
Slow but never stopping he bottomed out deep within her and clamped his
teeth on the opposite side of Xavier's bite.
 
Anticipation zinged through her as he slowly fucked in and out of her
channel, his teeth never breaking skin though her body needed to feel the
pleasure/pain of his bite.
 
Her soul
reached for his, ached to join with its other half--or third.
 
Its need to feel complete jarred her animal
side.
 
A side she kept mostly in check,
but she couldn't--not this time.

A
strangled feline growl forced its way past her vocal chords as her claws popped
free.
 
She tried to keep from scratching
Skylar, her human side appalled at hurting him, but tried though she might,
Aspen knew she was scratching his shoulders.
 
She moved her hips aggressively hoping he'd catch the hint and fuck
her.
 
She needed to feel him pounding
into her, claiming her.
 
Needed to feel his bite.
 
She needed it now.

"Skylar!
 
Fuck me."

Skylar
released his hold on her neck and Aspen wanted to weep with frustration, but
the look in his green eyes stole her breath.

The
whole world seemed to stop on its axis as they stared at each other, as his
wolf rose to the surface to stare at her cougar.
 
Time stood still.