Hunger of the Wolf (21 page)

She couldn't consider staying, though. She just couldn't.

She felt like crying all over again every time she thought about it. And railing against fate that she'd been born different and couldn't have anything she wanted.

She supposed everyone felt that way at least sometimes, felt the unfairness of life.

She'd have some compensation, though—if she was lucky and it was born healthy.

She wasn't going to borrow trouble, she told herself. She had enough on her plate, and now she was going to have to worry about someone else.

She would have to plan very carefully, she decided. The next move and identity had to be perfect, designed with as much permanency as she could possibly manage. She didn't want to be dragging her child all over the place. She wanted it to have a sense of home and security—everything she'd always wanted and hadn't been able to manage before.

First, though, she was going to have to figure out how to evade her adorable and adoring pack of males. This was not the sort of situation where it would do any good at all to assert herself. They would just guard and protect her more ferociously.

* * * *

Shilo felt almost her old self by the following day, mostly, she thought wryly, because she finally got some real food. She still tired easily, but she was strong enough to get up and leave the room to try to discover what all of the hammering and sawing was about downstairs. She wasn't really enlightened after she discovered Dante was having the den remodeled, though. He didn't volunteer anything and even though he seemed a good deal less aloof than he had before, he still refused to enlighten her. All he said was it was a change that needed to be made.

Heartened that he at least seemed to be thawing, she ‘cased’ the house to ascertain just how difficult it was going to be to make her getaway.

Not easy at all, she realized very quickly.

With the house full of men working, they still weren't distracted enough to allow her to slip off. No matter where she went, she was within view of two or three at all times and she knew it wasn't by chance. They were keeping an eye on her.

She wasn't really up to it at the moment anyway. By the time the construction was finished and the male population dwindled she'd be strong enough to travel, she assured herself, and she needed time to work out a game plan anyway, not just for the escape itself, but for what she'd do afterward.

She was startled when she emerged from the bathroom that night to discover both Dante and Maurice in the room. She studied them warily for a moment. They paused in the act of undressing and studied her in return as if trying to gauge her receptiveness. Her belly went weightless at the sight of their beautifully sculpted, bared upper torsos, her kegel muscles clapping in anticipation of the ‘treat'.

Smiling tentatively, she dropped her towel instead of heading for a clean night shirt as she'd intended and moved to the bed, settling in the middle.

Dante and Maurice exchanged a speaking glance and finished stripping. Maurice, closest to the bedroom door, flipped the lights off. Dante moved to the bathroom door to pull it closed so that only a thin wedge of light spilled into the room, and they followed her into bed.

Uncertain of what to expect, Shilo merely waited to see what they would do. She didn't have long to wait. Dante scooped her into his arms the moment he got into bed, burrowing his face against her neck and dragging in a deep breath before nuzzling his face against hers. “You're certain you're up to this?” he asked hoarsely.

She didn't know, but she was sure as hell up to trying. Instead of answering verbally, she curled more tightly against him and offered her lips. He seized upon it with the feverish intensity of a man dying of thirst. Her awareness of Maurice, sharing the bed with them, vanished like mist, her perception of anything but the feel of Dante's body against hers, his mouth, the feel and taste of him as he claimed her mouth with feverish need.

She'd missed him so much, she thought dizzily. She was already intoxicated with desire, breathless and shaking with anticipation when he broke the kiss and explored her body with an escalating, unmistakable urgency that fired her blood to the point that her body seemed ultra-sensitized. Every touch, every brush of his lips and hands, every stroke of his tongue, the exquisite suction of his mouth sparked and jolted her nerve endings until her pleasure center was under a constant barrage, firing almost continuously.

She was hardly aware of his goal. She was too wrapped up in trying to breathe, trying to retain consciousness when she was gasping so hard she was over-oxygenating her brain. She felt a split second of distress when he grabbed her thighs and parted them, a fraction of time to realize he didn't mean to give her cock at once when she was desperate to feel him plowing into her. She completely lost her mind, however, when he dove for her and fastened his mouth hungrily over her clit.

Clawing at the bedding, she uttered a series of gasping ‘ohs’ as he sucked and tugged and licked her clit, and then tensed for explosion and screamed with the force of the climax that hit her like a bomb exploding. She was almost sobbing by the time he finally ceased to torment her and withdrew so that her body could stop convulsing.

She quivered and jerked as he made his way upward again, each caress almost painful. She hadn't managed to touch down when he drove into her. She gasped as he forced his cock along her channel, fighting his way past the quivering, tightly clenched muscles until he'd driven to her depths. The moment he began to glide in and out of her, her body tensed for another leap into rapture. She clutched at him tightly, digging her nails into his flesh mindlessly, curling her hips to meet his forceful thrusting.

A shudder worked its way all the way through her as she reached the summit again, her cries hoarse and desperate as she came. She was the next thing to comatose when Dante uttered his own guttural cry of triumph and pumped his seed into her in a hot tide.

Chapter Twenty

He sank heavily against her in the aftermath, every muscle in his big body quivering with the effort to hold even part of his weight off her. Limp as a rag-doll beneath him, Shilo merely accepted his nuzzling appreciation, too near unconsciousness to offer reciprocal accolades.

"Baby?” he murmured finally.

"Umm?” she managed.

"I didn't hurt you?"

"Still ‘mong the living,” she assured him, her voice slurred with the sleep trying to overtake her.

He moved off of her, dragging her onto her side to face him and snuggling her against his body. “I'm glad you're not angry with me anymore,” she murmured, snuggling her face against his hard chest as he stroked his hand along her back.

He let out a harsh breath that spoke volumes. “I'm not sure I'll ever get over that completely,” he said finally. “But I was more scared than angry ... I think.” He fell silent for a time, stroking his hand over her. “It's been hard for me to adjust, too—to us not being the same. I was afraid the bonding hadn't formed between us—with you, because you aren't lycan. I knew it had formed with me. I was sick with worry that you didn't feel what I do, that you would reject our pup because it was half lycan."

As deep as she was, she heard the need for reassurance in his voice, or maybe it was
because
she was almost too near asleep to actually assimilate the words that she ‘heard’ the emotion in them better than the words. She rubbed her cheek against his chest and then kissed the spot. “I love you. How could I not love your baby?"

The tension went out of him. He said nothing for a while, merely stroking her lazily. She'd begun to drift away when he spoke again. “You don't have to worry about anything anymore, baby. I had a long talk with the Feds and we've come to an understanding."

"You did?"

"Yeah, they understand that if I see them anywhere around you again, I'll kill them."

That penetrated even her drugged state of euphoria. “You told them that?” she asked uneasily.

"We'll have to keep an eye out until we're sure they're not too stupid to take the warning, but I don't think it'll be a problem. It was that rogue that drew them down on you. I was sorry at the time that I'd already killed the bastard cleanly. If I'd known beforehand what he'd done, I would've made it a lot nastier."

Shilo digested that in silence. “How did the rogue know about me to call them?"

He shrugged. “Found out the same way I did, I suppose, tracked you through the net."

As horrified as she was to learn that Dante had threatened the Feds, Shilo struggled with information overload and a surfeit of pleasure for a few minutes and finally gave up with the reflection that she could consider all of it the next day when her brains were less scrambled.

She didn't know whether to be annoyed or pleased to be awakened to the feel of a mouth exploring a northbound path from her belly to her breasts. Her body decided for her, blossoming with heat as that talented mouth finally attached itself to one nipple and sucked fire into her loins. Murmuring a sound of pleasure, she lifted a hand to thread it through his hair as she opened her eyes a fraction and looked down.

Surprise flickered through her when she discovered it was Maurice, but it didn't dim her pleasure.

She'd just gotten totally focused on the sensations pelting her when Dante planted his hands on the bed beside her and leaned down to ravish her mouth in a brief but thoroughly invigorating kiss. “I have to go to work,” he murmured when he broke the kiss.

Maurice lifted his head and glared at him for the distraction.

Dante shrugged and strode from the room whistling.

Maurice studied her face. “Where was I?” he muttered.

Shilo stared back at him a moment and then cupped her unattended breast in offering. His eyes narrowed with heated promise. Lowering his head, the teased the tip with his tongue and lips until it was almost painfully engorged and then covered it, tugging at her nipple with the suction of his mouth until Shilo was writhing feverishly beneath him, panting for breath.

Releasing it at last, he levered himself upward, grabbed a pillow and shoved it beneath her hips to curl them upward. Planting his palms on her knees, he pressed her thighs upward and out, watching as he aligned his cock with the mouth of her sex and pushed inside of her.

His face taut with need, his eyes blazing with it, he lifted his head after a moment and studied her face. “Now where, I wonder,” he asked huskily, “is my little hummingbird's sweet spot?” He pushed deeply inside of her, rotating his hips until her eyes slammed shut and she arched upward with a gasp. “Ahh,” he murmured with satisfaction. “There?” He withdrew and pushed inside of her again.

Shilo shuddered as a current of heat went through her.

He repeated the motion over and over, moving a little faster as she began to squirm and pant for breath and then tensed all over and cried out when she came, drawing her climax out until she'd ceased to buck with the tremors. He paused then for several moments, withdrew until little more than the head of his cock was inside her and thrust shallowly until she'd caught her breath. The moment she did, he thrust deeply again, going unerringly for her ‘sweet spot’ and stroking it until she felt herself lifting once more toward release.

She moaned as her body wound tighter and tighter, clenching her fingers into the bedding as she exploded with hard jolts of pleasure and the impact dragged harsh, choked cries from her.

Again, he hesitated, stroking slowly and shallowly. Shilo groaned as he thrust deep again. “Maurice!” she gasped, arching her back and digging her head into the pillow as her body raced upward a third time.

"Yes, Hummingbird?” he growled.

"I can't ... I can't,” she gasped breathlessly.

"You can.” Releasing his grip on her knees, he leaned over her, thrusting harder and faster until he was pounding into her. She screamed hoarsely that time as her climax hit her again, so hard she felt like she would black out. He shuddered when she came, ground his teeth, and then groaned as his body joined hers in pleasurable release, straining deeply as his cock jerked and pumped his seed into her.

He remained braced on his extended arms for many moments afterward, shuddering with the aftershocks, struggling with his ragged breath. Finally, he pushed himself upward and moved to the bed beside her. Rolling onto his side, he dropped a heavy hand on her belly, curling his fingers into her and then lightly rubbing it.

As near death as she felt, his focus penetrated her stupor. She opened her eyes with an effort and studied his face. Her throat clogged with emotion at his expression. Even if he hadn't already told her how much he was looking forward to her having his baby, his expression said it all. “I love you, Maurice,” she whispered.

His head jerked upward. He studied her face for a long moment and finally scooped her closer, nuzzling his face against hers. “I adore you, woman,” he muttered.

She smiled faintly. “I'm mad for you,” she countered.

He chuckled, lifting his head to stare down at her with laughing eyes. “I cherish you with every beat of my heart."

She grinned back at him and searched her mind. “I've come up empty."

His eyes narrowed. He slipped a hand down her body and pushed it between her legs, stroking her cleft. “Not exactly, Hummingbird.” Desire lit eyes. His lips curled. “Want to go for four?"

She looked at him doubtfully and he laughed. Leaning down, he kissed the tip of her nose. “Just as well, I have to go to work."

She stretched languidly when he got up to dress, considering whether she wanted to get up or roll over and go back to sleep.

"Careful, lady, or you'll get four whether you're interested or not."

She dragged the covers up.

When he'd left, she discovered getting up wasn't really an option. She could hardly keep her eyes open.