Cold Mercy (Northern Wolves) (21 page)

She didn’t know how long they lay there like that, neither one of them capable of speech. Long enough for their breathing to slow, their hearts to steady. Long enough for him to grow hard inside her again. She felt his hips arch up slightly and gasped, her hand fisting against his chest. Then Bay helped her up until she was straddling him, staring down into his eyes. They were softer now, calmer, and as his body tensed to thrust, she lifted herself off him and then back down, sheathing him deep inside her.

They both shivered, but she couldn’t look away this time anymore than she could the last. This time was slow, gentle. His fingertips toying over her breasts, down her body. They slipped between the slick folds of skin as she rode him, found the nub of her clit and circled it, drawing her higher, winding her body so taut with pleasure she thought for sure that this time she’d break.

But hadn’t she broken last time? Splintering apart in his arms until he remade her with his climax? “Bay,” she whispered, and his name ached across her lips, drawing a groan from him in turn. It was the first word either of them had spoken since they’d started and it broke the barrier.

“Fuck. Eden, I—” Whatever else he was about to say was swallowed by the groan that tore through him as she slid back down the length of his cock. “You’re mine,” he whispered softly, the sound not quite human, but completely
Bay
.

A laugh sprang out of her as that hole in her soul stitched itself back up.
His. Mates.
Everything about it felt right. And this time when they came it was together, his finger on her clit steering her at his pace, until they both shattered over the brink in one another’s arms.

Chapter Fourteen

Bay woke to the warm press of a body against his, the sweet smell of jasmine lingering in his nose. He breathed the scent of Eden in deep, content. He could wake like this every morning for the rest of his life. Eden made a soft noise and cuddled in closer, the blanket tugged up under her chin, and Bay angled his head to look at her. White blonde hair ruffled from sleep, a few strands strayed over her cheek.

She looked like an angel in his arms. He trailed a finger through her hair, savoring the delicate strands, like silk against his fingertips. The corner of her lip lifted in a smile, but her breathing didn’t change. Still sound asleep then. He couldn’t resist. Trailing one finger down along her jaw, Bay tiled her head slightly and kissed her. His lips moving against hers in a tentative dance to lure her awake.

Eden stirred against him, her body molding to his as she turned into him, lips parting. A soft moan slid out of her. He pulled away so he could watch as her eyes opened, that beautiful crystalline blue staring up at him still groggy with sleep. “Mmm,” she said, smiling. “I could get used to this.”

Languorously, she stretched against him, and Bay watched the flicker of pain flash across her face. Damn. Last night’s fear spilled back into him in a rush. He’d been—
Not in control
. Wild. Frenzied. Not the man he’d once been, and he’d hurt her. He knew he was changing, but fuck, he’d hoped he’d been better than a beast last night. Then Eden trailed a hand along his cheek and leaned up to kiss him again, this time with the hunger and an impatience she’d shown him last night.

The angry rumble of her stomach broke them apart and she laughed, leaning back into the pillow. “Oh, I definitely could get used to this.” Her hand strayed down his chest. “And stop looking like that. Enjoy the afterglow, damn you. You can’t even begin to lie to me. Last night was good. Great. Fucking amazing.”

Her eyebrows arched in a silent dare and Bay felt his heart soar.

“Yeah. Better,” Eden murmured. “Now you look like a man who had the best sex of his life.”

A rough laugh burst from him then. That he had. An ache throbbed in his heart. It had been so much more than sex, last night, it had been something different. Wild the first time, unfettered, and the second, God the second time, they’d made love. “No worries there.”

He kissed her brow to hide the sudden swirl of emotions inside him. But he couldn’t help but replaying last night in his mind over and over again, her eyes on his, unwavering as they crashed into one another.

And above everything, she’d been right. She’d given him control. Oh, he’d felt like she was stripping it from him. He’d thought he was going to lose it all and go wolf on her bed inside her, but he couldn’t have stopped himself then. But he hadn’t. Coming home to Eden had bound the wolf inside him tighter, linked his soul with the animal’s more closely than he’d thought possible, but more than that, it’d drowned out Morrigan.

She’d driven off Morrigan’s call so completely he wasn’t sure the Fae queen could ever call him again. But even if she did, Bay would never answer her. Before, there had always been chance that she could hook her claws back into his soul...but he didn’t belong to her now. He belonged to the woman in his arms and only her. As much as he’d told Eden she was his, the opposite was far truer.

For Bay, there would never be anyone else.

His hand stroked down her arm as they lay there, silence stretching between them like a great cat, powerful and wild. She felt as swept up in the recollection of what had happened between them as he did. She worried at her bottom lip and he wanted to kiss it away. Kiss every part of her again until he could slip back inside her, let her body wrap him tightly in hers.

Shit
. A sudden flare of panic sparked inside him and Bay froze. Eden looked up at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Protection. Uh, yeah, fuck. I didn’t even think.”

He couldn’t be a father. Not when everything was out of control, not with some mad wicked Fae witch in the forest he still needed to deal with. Her smile stopped the panic clawing in his chest. “I’m on the pill.” Her head thumped against his chest. “For the record, I normally prefer both.”

“Normally?”

“You’re a special case.” Eden slid out of bed and stole the breath right out of his lungs as the sheets slipped off her body. Damn, but he wanted her all over again. To take his time, explore and cherish every inch of her. She looked at him, her nipples puckered to firm peaks at the cold air in the room.

“Gorgeous,” he murmured, appreciation showing in his voice.

“Get your ass out of bed. I have dogs to feed.” But he caught the flush of red over her cheeks at the compliment as she turned away. “You’re making breakfast for us. I like my eggs over-easy.”

She flung open the closet doors but Bay couldn’t bring himself to move. He watched as she flicked through her clothes, the swell of her ass bouncing slightly as she moved. The lean line of muscles in her thighs bunching as she bent over to open a drawer. She still had her socks on from last night, and only her socks. And yet, looking at her right now was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen in his life.

“And my bacon crispy,” she continued, though he had a feeling he’d lost a few instructions along the way. She kept shorting out his brain. Eden shimmied into a thin pair of black panties, her breasts jiggling, and he felt his mouth water. The only thing he was hungry for was her. “Of course, if you don’t move I’m leaving and I’ll eat breakfast in town. Alone. And there will be no after food rendezvous.”

That
jarred his butt out of bed. “You wouldn’t,” he said, feeling the wicked brunt of her teasing smile. Oh, but she would and they both knew it.

She wiggled her eyebrows. “Guess you better get me those eggs before I’m done with the dogs.”

Bay scrambled to snatch his clothes off the floor as Eden dressed and headed down the hall. He made to the kitchen only a few seconds behind her. By the time she got back in, her face flushed from the cold, he was scooping the eggs onto their plates. “Couldn’t find the bacon,” he told her, but one look at her and he knew it didn’t matter.

They left the eggs cooling on the table as she led him back to her room.

***

Darkness filled Zeke’s days, an endless helplessness that he couldn’t break. He was chained, trapped in his own damned mind, unable to do anything but sit there in the dark and think. The demon ruled everything. It chose when this body breathed, where it moved, what it
ate
. Zeke gave a mental shiver as he tried to block out the images of things the demon had eaten before, the things it craved now.

Zeke hoped he was long dead before the demon ever caught a child again. No. He hoped he survived to kill this bastard before it ever had a child again. Every day he stretched in his mind, flexing for control, trying to wedge his way out of the darkness and back into possession of his body. A wolf’s body, but something in Zeke’s mind insisted that this body had once been his as a human too.

It didn’t make sense, but none of this should have even been possible.

The demon gave an angry grumble, like the warning hiss of a cobra, and Zeke strained to see out of the wolf’s eyes. Most days he could watch through the demon’s eyes, unable to act on anything he saw, but at least he wasn’t completely cut off from the world. Though, even with this little porthole in the darkness, Zeke feared he’d soon go insane.

Too much solitary, too much horror, too much evil leeching into his soul. A man couldn’t take this for forever. But for now, he held strong, took to watching every move the demon made, doing his best to learn the monster. Because everything in life had a weakness. Why should the creatures of Hell be any different?

The black wolf stalked through the forest and Zeke felt the muscles in his body bunch and pull with the movement. A flicker of green moved in the white sea of the forest and Zeke wanted to scream. It was a clawing, begging need inside him as delight reared its ugly head in the demon. Elation rolled off it in a sickly sweet tang that burned at Zeke’s soul.

They’d been hunting for over a week now, trying to find the perfect candidate for Morrigan’s next wolf. A wolf, Zeke had already guessed, that would be like him. A man trapped in the body of a demon. But Bali was being picky, discarding people left and right. Too weak, too unpredictable, too strong to be controlled. He was picking the next member of his pack, but it was more than that, this one was important to Morrigan—more so than any other save Bali himself. And the demon would not choose lightly.

Not that the time he took was making her happy and that was something Zeke delighted in. She was furious, rampaging each night he came back without a victim. She rent bark from trees and gouged dirt from the ground. Though, when Zeke was honest with himself, it wasn’t just Bali’s slowness that aggravated her.

It was the missing wolf too.

One of them had broken free. Hope bloomed inside him every time he dared to think of the wolf Bali could no longer feel. The demon could touch every member of the pack, he was their alpha and he controlled them every bit as much as Morrigan did, but this one, had simply vanished.
How?
Zeke struggled against the desperation roiling inside him.
How had one managed to break free?

He hadn’t died. To Bali the other wolf was a traitor, he’d left the pack. Which meant there was a way Zeke could too. If he could figure out how to take back control.

The green figure moved again, drawing Zeke out of his thoughts, and he watched as the Fish and Wildlife Department officer moved amongst the trees. His hair was cropped close to his head, and he was bundled in the thick ranger’s coat. When the man angled his head to look around him, it wasn’t a face Zeke recognized but he’d been new in town when the wolves had taken him. Not even sure he’d intended to stay long at the motel.

Now he wished he’d never come.

The wolf hunkered lower in the snow and for the first time in their hunt, Zeke felt the demon set his sights on prey.
This one would do. Strong, but not too strong that he wouldn’t be malleable
.
They wouldn’t make that mistake again
. Zeke clung to that thought. Was that how the other wolf had broken free? He’d simply been stronger? Zeke reared up in his mind, battering imaginary fists against a cage he couldn’t see. He strained and struggled, trying to take back his body, but the demon didn’t even flinch.

The forest ranger let out a sigh, stuffed his gloved hands in his pockets, and turned back towards the road. With his back finally to the wolf, Bali moved. Lunging out of the shadows as Zeke screamed in his head, thrashing wildly, but it never even slowed the demon from his attack. He landed easily on the man’s back, great jaws opened wide as the clamped down on the man’s shoulder, hard enough Zeke heard him cry out.

The man fought as violently on the outside as Zeke did on the inside. He rammed his elbow back into the side of Bali’s head but the wolf merely shook him out like a ragdoll. Zeke lost track of how long he fought, exhaustion filling his spirit until he lay still in his own mind, unable to stop the demon. Instead, he watched as the wolf shook the ranger one last time and then dragged him through the snow.

They took the same path they always took when returning to Morrigan. The man whimpered a few times, coming awake to try and beat the wolf off of him, but each time he was knocked back into unconsciousness. Just as each time Zeke managed to dredge up the mental energy to fight, he beat uselessly against an invisible wall he couldn’t breach.

Like the man in Bali’s jaws, he was helpless.

But unlike the ranger, Zeke knew what lay at the end of the curving path with its large boulders and splintered trees. He knew what stood beyond the screaming howl of ghosts and banshees, of the large trolls that moved in the forest, their sinister grins mocking as Bali dragged the man up further.