Every Dawn Forever (21 page)

Dropping to her knees in front of him, she rubbed the back of her knuckle along his rapidly swelling cock through the thin material of his pants and looked up at him.

She could have said something profound, about how she wanted to worship him the way that she felt like he always worshipped her.  But as she tugged his pants down his thick legs and his cock popped free, all thought left her mind, replaced with heavy desire.

His cock rose in front of her and she lifted her hands and grasped the thick shaft, watching as he braced his hands on either side of the hallway and stared down at her.  Stroking her tongue over the hot head of his cock, she smiled inwardly as his eyes shuttered closed and his upper body tensed.  She released his cock and spread her hands across his hips, holding him as she took his shaft into her mouth.  She opened her mouth wide and leaned forward, taking as much of the hard length into her mouth as she could.  It brushed the back of her throat and she pulled away, swirling her tongue around the broad head and deviling the sensitive place underneath.

She was ruthless as she went down on him, sucking him hard into her mouth until her cheeks hollowed and stroking the vein with her tongue.  His body tensed and she could tell he was fighting to keep still and let her do whatever she wanted to him.  It made her want to give him pleasure even more.

One hand left the bruising grip on his hip and cupped his balls, massaging them in her palm and stroking the soft skin just behind them with her middle finger.  She didn’t take her eyes off him as she moved faster on his cock, taking him all the way to the back of her throat and then nearly completely out of her mouth.  A sheen of sweat made his body glisten.  With his arms braced on the walls like he alone was holding them up, she watched as his stomach muscles tensed harder and harder.  His head dropped back and the cords of his neck stood out in stark relief.  He was so close she could taste the pre-come on her tongue, and it only made her stroke him faster.  She wanted to see what he looked like when he fell apart.

With the first jerk of his cock in her mouth, his jaw fell slack and he let out a gusty groan, his hips flexing as his cock spurted in her mouth and his body trembled against her.  She growled in happiness as she swallowed every drop of his come and then let his cock slip free of her mouth.

Sterling dropped his head suddenly, his eyes flashing.  He grabbed her under her arms and hauled her up, pressing her against the wall.  Shoving his hand down her shorts, he pushed two fingers inside her pussy, which was tingling and wet with arousal.

His teeth raked down her neck as he growled, “My fucking sweet Little One, so hot and ready.”

Her nails dug into his shoulders as he drove her fast into pleasure.  “Yes, oh yes,” she moaned.

His thumb latched onto her clit with brutal efficiency and she teetered on the edge of climax for just a moment before his blunt teeth sank into her shoulder and she fell off the edge into white hot blinding pleasure with a scream on her lips.

He used his fingers to ride out her climax, wringing every ounce of pleasure from her that he could, until she sank against him with a moan.  His drenched fingers slipped from her shorts and he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, where he lay down with her while she caught her breath.

She rolled to her side and threw her leg over his waist.  “You have the best hands.”

He chuckled and kissed her forehead.  “You’ve got the best mouth.”

When her heart had stopped pounding and the aftershocks of her climax had ceased, she went up on her elbow and said, “What are you up to down here?”

“It’s a surprise,” he winked and rolled over on top of her, caging her in his arms.  After a quick kiss, he said, “Are you hungry?”

She nodded.  Her stomach took that moment to growl in agreement, and they both laughed.  He stood and righted his clothes, helping her to stand and holding her hand as they walked upstairs.  After some discussion in front of the fridge, he settled on a tall glass of milk and a few protein bars, and she pulled out the bowl of fruit salad from the night before.  It was a big glass bowl that was still half full.  She put the bowl down on the kitchen table and got out a big spoon from the drawer, not bothering to get a bowl from the cabinet.

He laughed as he opened a bar.  “You’re going to turn into a strawberry if you eat all that, Little One.”

She scooped up a selection of berries and grinned.  “If I keep eating like this, I won’t be your Little One anymore.”

“You’ll always be my Little One, Syd.  Didn’t I tell you that already?”

Her whole body warmed.  While they ate, they talked about the party on Sunday.  She was curious what he was doing in the den, but knew no matter what it was, that she’d love it.

That night, she and her guys walked through the woods to visit Dante’s clan, who had called to say they had news to share.

The woods were quiet as they walked, the setting sun lighting the way enough for them to see easily.

When they entered the kitchen, Nyte and his clan were standing around the large island with Alyssa and her mates.  Sydney hadn’t gotten to know Nyte and his brothers very well yet, but she looked forward to learning more about them as they became family.

Dante put his hands on Alyssa’s shoulders and squeezed.  “We wanted to share our good news with our
baro
.  Alyssa is going to have a boy!”

The men all hooted and cheered, clapping Dante and his brothers on their backs in that macho way that men did.  Sydney hugged Alyssa.  “I’m so happy for you!”

Alyssa grinned.  “We found out on Thursday, but we had to tell their parents first and we couldn’t talk to them until this morning.”

“I thought you’d just decided not to find out and that’s why you never said anything.”

Alyssa was six months along, and Sydney thought that most ultrasounds were done in the fifth month.  “The ultrasound machine at my doctor’s was broken for a little while and it took them so long to get it fixed that they had a huge backlog of patients when it was ready.  So it took longer to get it done than we thought, but I already knew it was going to be a boy.”

“Oh?”

Alyssa nodded.  “Hyena females are rare.  I read that only one in one fifty hyenas are females.”

Orion put his arm around Sydney and kissed her temple. “It’s one of the reasons that our people have always clanned with multiple males sharing a single female.  And now, when many clans are choosing brides that are from different weregroups or human, the chance of females being born is growing slimmer by the generation.”

“Why is that?  Don’t mixed weres produce children of one group or the other?”

Nyte said, “Yes and no.  If Alyssa were having a female, it would most likely display wolf characteristics and shift into a wolf as a teenager.  Because she’s having a male, it could be either wolf or hyena.  I’ve never heard of a wolf-hyena pairing where a female child shifted into hyena form.  I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, simply that it hasn’t.  In mixed pairings, the hyena DNA is stronger than most others out there and our DNA favors males over females.”

“Right, but we know because of her hot flashes that it’s definitely a hyena, so we already suspected that our child was going to be a male.”  Cairo pointed out.

“Hot flashes?”  Sydney asked in surprise.

“They’re not so bad,” Alyssa winked.

Mason laughed.  “Of course not.  Especially when you have three males waiting on you hand and foot to make sure you’re comfortable.”

Cairo punched Mason in the arm with a grin.  “You love it.”

Mason shrugged and rubbed his arm, smiling broadly.  “I do.”

Dante suggested a toast, and Mason and Cairo handed beers out to all the men as Dante filled two wine glasses with pink liquid and handed them to Alyssa and Sydney.  Alyssa said, “Mason’s famous raspberry lemonade.  It’s really terrific and Cole can’t get enough of it.”

“Cole?”  Sydney asked.

Alyssa said, “Now that we know for sure it’s a boy, I’m trying out names to see what sounds good.  I like Cole.”

Dante snarled.  “No way.  You are not naming my son Cole Stone.”

Sydney giggled at the name as Alyssa and Dante argued playfully about baby names.

“I don’t care what we have,” Sydney turned around and faced her mates, “as long as he or she is healthy.”

Dante said, “To healthy sons and daughters, and our gorgeous mates.”

The
baro
cheered and clinked glasses, and Sydney touched her glass to her mates’ bottles and took a long drink of the sweet and tart concoction.

She kissed her mates and turned her attention back to the group, while Crux joined Mason and Azrael at the refrigerator and they began to pull out snacks for everyone.  Sterling slipped one arm around her, his hand resting possessively on her stomach, and she smiled, joining in the conversation about potential baby names and reveling in being a member of such a tight, amazing group of people.

Chapter 18

Sterling brushed a lock of hair from Sydney’s shoulder as she talked to Alyssa about potential baby names.  His mind was on the cub in her belly, but not necessarily on names.  He’d been worried about her health and happiness from the moment that they found her that first night, and now he was adding a child to the list of people that he loved and cared about.  He was already mentally making a list of things that needed to be done to make the house more baby-friendly, along with the den nursery that he had finished up earlier.  She’d almost busted him, but he was glad that she hadn’t pressed to know what he was doing in the room.  They were going to tell her in the morning, as a wedding day gift.

He tossed a sliced cucumber into his mouth and surveyed the room, his other hand pressed lightly, but possessively, on Sydney’s stomach.  This was his family.  Not only his clan, but his cousins.  He had missed Dante when he and his clan came north to start their business.  It was cool to have everyone together again.

A knock on the front door caused the voices to die down immediately.  Alyssa asked, “Who would come here at this hour without calling first?”

All the males tensed at her simple question.  Dante straightened from where he had been leaning against the island and turned towards the door.  Orion and Nyte joined him and the trio walked down the hall and answered the door.

Sydney asked, “What’s the big deal?”

“We’re so out of the way back here that no one comes to the door by accident.  Whoever it is, they’re here for a reason.”  Cairo said, one hand on Alyssa’s arm, his eyes boring straight ahead.

His own protective desires were rising full force and he subtly moved himself in front of Sydney.

Voices rose from the hallway, feminine ones that mixed with his family’s more masculine tones, and Sydney gasped.

“I know those voices,” she said and stepped away from him.

“Whoa, Little One,” he cautioned, holding her arm to keep her from barging into the hallway.  “If Orion says it’s okay to come to the door, then I’ll take you myself. Otherwise, just hold on.”

“Who are they?”  Crux asked her.

“Some of the females from my former pack.  I recognize their voices.”  She looked up at him with pleading eyes.  “Just come with me, then.  Don’t make me wait out here.”

He stared down into her blue eyes for a long moment and blew out a harsh breath.  “Alright, but stay behind me.”

She nodded, smiling in relief, and followed him as he walked slowly down the hallway.  As they grew closer, he could hear the females were arguing with his brother and cousins.

“Look, we just want to talk to Sydney Nichols.  Is she here or not?”  One woman demanded.

“Tell us why you’re asking,” Orion snarled, “or fuck off.”

Another woman said, “Calm down Lita, you’re just making things worse.”

“Worse?”  The woman identified as Lita snorted, but said nothing else.

Dante’s voice was low and reasonable.  “Look, ladies, we’d like you to tell us why you’re looking for Sydney Nichols and then we’ll go from there.”

“Orion?”  Sydney asked from behind Sterling, where he held her against his back with one hand firmly on her side.

Orion’s head snapped back and his eyes flashed in anger, directed at Sterling.  “Baby, go back into the kitchen.”

One of the woman said, “Sydney?  Is that you?  It’s me, Marianne.  We don’t want anything bad, we just want to talk.”

Lita suggested, “Come out here on the porch where these Neanderthals can keep an eye on things and stop worrying about your safety.”

Sterling looked back at Sydney; she mouthed
please
and he turned his head to look at Orion, who was still glaring daggers at him.  “Have them step down onto the grass and we’ll bring her out onto the porch.”

After some shuffling noises, the women moved away from the door, and Orion, Dante, and Nyte stepped onto the front porch.  Sterling and Sydney walked out the door behind them.

Sterling cupped her face in his hands.  “If you feel like you’re in danger, run into the house and I’ll protect you.”