Hunter Reborn (9 page)

He didn't want to give her space, but knew he should. The vibe between them changed so quickly he wasn't sure what to do or say to make it right. They
might have just shared something intense and intimate, but for her, they were still more or less strangers. Though he didn't want to, Aiden left the room. The place had three other bathrooms so he headed for the closest one.

After he'd showered and shaved, he found Larissa lying on her side under the electric blankets. Her back was to the doorway, but he had no doubt she was aware of his presence.

“Is the room warm enough?” he asked as he closed the door behind him, hoping to keep the warmth contained.

“It's perfect. Thank you.” She turned over to face him, her eyes a bright beacon in the darkness. “Sorry if things got weird. I didn't want to make things awkward. I'm just trying to adjust to everything.”

“You don't have to apologize for anything.”

“I'm still sorry.”

“Let's just get some sleep. Is it okay if I sleep with you?”
Please say yes.

Her gaze landed on his bare chest and she nodded before turning back over. Her look had been unreadable and he could feel her shutting him out. Their bondmate link made it impossible to completely do that, but she was trying. Which told him she clearly wanted privacy from him and that she was getting stronger already.

He didn't intend to let her push him away that easily.

He slipped into the big bed, but instead of giving her space, he sidled up behind her and wrapped an arm
around her waist, tugging her close. She was wearing a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants and already felt much warmer than she had earlier.

Sighing softly, she laid her arm over his and slid her fingers through his. “I like you holding me,” she murmured, her voice already drowsy with sleep.

He didn't trust his voice so he just tightened his grip. Right now he didn't give a shit about all the unknowns in their lives, he just cared that Larissa was in his arms and wanted to be there.

*   *   *

Her back arched under the onslaught of his wicked, talented tongue as he stroked her to her fourth, or maybe fifth, orgasm. The male was too much. Too intense. Far too dominating. And she couldn't get enough of him.

It seemed to go on forever, the climax punching out to all her nerve endings until she collapsed boneless against the silky sheets. Staring up at the high arched stone ceiling of his castle, she tried to catch her breath.

As he started to climb up her body, his shoulder-length blond hair tickled her bare stomach, then breasts before he captured her mouth with his in a purely dominating move. His hands were on either side of her head, his body caging her in as his erection pressed against her belly.

She slid her hands up his chest, over his shoulders and linked her fingers behind his neck as she wrapped her legs around his waist. A frustrated moan escaped her lips when he pulled his head back. “Why are you stopping?” she whispered.

Sighing, he stretched out over her, though made it a point to keep most of his weight off her. “We have to get back to the main castle for the meeting.”

She frowned, hating that he was right. His pack had a huge castle where the majority of his packmates lived, but they also had a few other castles on their land. And her Aiden had his own castle . . .

Larissa jerked up in bed, her heart racing. Before she'd even sat fully up, Aiden moved, his blond hair free from the tie he'd used to secure it earlier.

“What's wrong?” he rasped out, looking around the room for danger. The sun had already risen; she could see the outline of light at the edges of the dark draperies covering the windows.

“Nothing.” She reached out and fingered the soft strands of his hair. “Your hair is the same as it was before, right?”

Turning into her hand, he made a soft, growling sound she felt all the way to her toes as she cupped his cheek. “Yes, why?”

It had to have been a memory. “Is your pack considered royalty among humans?”

He shook his head. “Not in the way you think. But they're very,
very
wealthy.”

“They have castles?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn't pull away. “Yes. Why?”

“I had a dream. Or I think it was. Were you and I ever in a room in a castle with a four-poster bed, a high arched ceiling. . . .” She trailed off, trying to remember more of the setting. The dream or memory was fuzzy around the edges and she'd been so focused on the very naked Aiden.

He smiled, more than a hint of a wicked gleam in his
eyes as he lay back, pulling her with him. She laid her head against his chest and splayed her hand over his stomach. She savored the gentle way he stroked up and down her back. “We were in my room many times. What were we doing in this dream?” For the first time since she'd spoken to him in those icy woods last night, she could hear the tiniest hint of a Scottish accent. He must have buried it deep when he left his pack. The thought made her sad. How he must have suffered if his own pack had rejected him. She might not remember them, but she knew how shifters were. They were so family oriented. She wondered if his new pack was better than his old one. But she held off on questioning to answer him.

“I think you can guess,” she murmured, feeling her face heat up.

“Yes, but I want you to tell me.” There he went again, with that wicked charm.

“The dream was brief, but I distinctly remember your head between my legs and neither of us had any clothing on.” She smiled against his bare chest as he stiffened.

“Did you like what I was doing?” His voice was strained as he spoke.

Grinning, she nodded. “Oh yeah.”

“Do you remember anything else?”

“No, it was very brief.” When he didn't respond, she continued. “What is your current pack like?” She was still learning a lot about this new world, especially since shifters and vampires had come out to humans. That alone was jarring.

“Are you asking if they'll accept you?”

She didn't respond because she wasn't sure if that's what she'd wanted to know. If she was asking that, it meant she was thinking of a future with this male.

“They will,” he said quietly when she didn't answer. “My Alpha and his mate have adopted a jaguar shifter and one of our warriors just mated with a royal member of the fae. They're out of town on a brief assignment for her family, but should be back in a day or so.”

At that, her head popped up. “A
royal
member of the fae mated with a shifter? Who?” Though her coven had had enemies in every supernatural community, she'd known almost all royal fae. It seemed impossible that any one of them would have mated with a shifter.

He watched her carefully. “Brianna O'Brien.”

Larissa didn't bother to hide her shock. “Rory and Eoghan's baby sister?”

“You know her?”

She nodded slowly. “We were not friends, but acquaintances. I knew her brothers well, though.” When he growled, his expression turning fierce, she grinned. “Not like
that
.” Laying her head back against Aiden's chest, she closed her eyes and was thankful when he didn't press her for more. That was certainly interesting. When she'd been put into stasis, a shifter-vampire mating had been unheard-of. Especially for someone royal like her. But if Aiden's pack had interspecies matings, maybe she and Aiden had a chance after all in this new world.

The thought soothed something deep inside her. She wasn't ready to evaluate it yet so she let her body relax
as sleep once again claimed her. The memory of drinking Aiden's blood was so fresh, she could practically taste him as she drifted off. With every second she spent with this male she grew more and more attached and that terrified her. Everything about this new world was jarring and Aiden felt like a constant, the only safe place in a storm.

And something told her that a nasty storm was coming soon.

R
yan sighed with pleasure as he poured his first cup of morning coffee. After three hours of sleep he was ready to go again. Not that he really had a choice anyway, not after all that shit from the club and the recent vamp blood dealings.

Three of his laptops were running various facial recognition software programs. One that the Council of lupine shifters used for their own investigations and two human government databases he'd hacked into. He'd plugged in different photos of individuals he'd managed to isolate from the videos he'd taken last night. Most of them were probably just supernatural beings looking to unwind and have a good time. But he hoped to get a hit on something more.

Anything to guide them in the right direction. Jayce was already working an angle with Kat—though Ryan was pretty sure she and the enforcer had come back a couple of hours ago to snag some sleep too.

Needing to sleep was such a bitch.

As he stepped away from the counter he scented and heard Lucas at the same time. The ten-year-old hadn't exactly learned how to stay quiet yet. While their predatory nature was inborn, for a shifter Lucas still had a lot to learn. He stomped into the kitchen, his expression serious.

Ryan raised his eyebrows. “You hungry?”

Lucas nodded. “Yeah, but I'm heading over to the main house. Vivian called and said she was saving me a seat and some chocolate chip pancakes.”

Shit, right. Ana was cooking for everyone. He didn't have time to join them. “Will you grab me a plate?”

He nodded, but instead of leaving, sat at the center island in the kitchen. Lucas watched Ryan silently for a long moment and thanks to Ryan's blasted “gift” he could sense the boy's pain and confusion. Damn it, he needed to talk to Teresa about his gift soon. Hell, he needed to tell his Alpha too. He just didn't want to.

“What's wrong, Lucas?” he asked quietly, setting his mug down and moving to the island counter, where he took a seat next to the boy.

“Are you going to mate with Teresa?” Lucas asked.

Wasn't that the question he'd been asking himself for the past three months? He sure wanted to. “How would you feel if I did?”

Lucas shrugged and another shot of pain rolled off him. Dread surged through Ryan. If Lucas didn't accept her, he had no clue what he'd do. “I thought you liked Teresa.”

The boy finally looked at him and when he did, a light
sheen of tears was in his eyes. Shit, shit, shit. “I do, but if you mate with Teresa, won't you be related to Ana?”

Blinking, Ryan nodded slowly, trying to figure out why that would matter. “Sort of. Teresa and Ana are cousins.” They were all packmates anyway.

“And Ana's basically Vivian's mom. And you adopted me so you're like my dad.”

Hell yeah, he was. Adopting Lucas was the best thing Ryan had ever done in his life. “Okay.”

“If you mate with Teresa, does that mean . . .” He cleared his throat nervously. “Does that mean I can't mate with Vivian when we're old enough?” The tears were gone, but the seriousness was there.

Ryan's eyes widened. That's what this was about? “You and Vivian will never be related by blood.” They weren't even the same species so it wasn't even an issue. “So if you want to mate with her and she wants to mate with you, then when you're old enough, you can.” Good God, though, Ryan didn't even want to think about Lucas growing up so fast.

“Oh.” The cub slid off the chair, his boots thumping loudly on the hardwood floor. “Okay then. I hope you mate with Teresa. I like her a lot.”

Relieved, Ryan followed suit and stood. “So why are you so sure you're going to mate with Vivian?”

Lucas stared up at him as if he was stupid. “She's my best friend and she already takes all my toys anyway. If we live together, we can keep all our stuff together.”

Ryan bit back a smile, but it was hard. “Have you told her of your intentions?”

Lucas snorted. “No way. You don't tell a girl that.” He shook his head and ran out the front door, letting it slam behind him as he left.

Before Ryan had turned back to his coffee and laptops, the front door opened again. Jacob strode in, looking exhausted. Ryan knew he'd been out patrolling the property all night. All the warriors took shifts making sure the property stayed locked down. They'd had issues in the past few months, and with the hundreds of acres of land the pack owned, sometimes it was difficult to keep every square inch secure. Luckily, as shifters, they could typically scent intruders easily enough. He nodded at the pot of coffee. “There's a full pot on, unless you're crashing?”

Jacob scrubbed a hand over his face and looked at the pot before shaking his head. “Thanks, but I'll pass. I need to snag a few hours of sleep. I've got a run planned later this afternoon.” The way he said it made all the hair on the back of Ryan's neck stand up.

He tried to keep his wolf locked down, but he was agitated thinking of Jacob running with Teresa. “Run? With a female?”

Jacob's eyes widened a fraction before he grinned. “Yep.”

Ryan resisted the urge to bare his teeth at his friend. “With who?”

“Why's it matter, man?”

It mattered because not too long ago Jacob had planned to ask Teresa out. The other shifter had had every right to, but Ryan had seriously considered beating the shit out of his friend for even contemplating it.
He'd settled for threatening his packmate's manhood instead.

Jacob held up his hands in mock surrender and Ryan realized he'd started growling. Damn, he needed some more freaking sleep.

“It's not Teresa, jackass. Though . . . you might want to think about speeding things up with her. That is, if you
ever
plan to make a move.”

Oh, he'd made a damn good move last night. And he planned to speed things up. First he needed to tell her a few things. If she still wanted him when she knew the truth about what he was, then there was nothing holding him back. Hell, at this point he didn't know that he could hold back anyway. After the way she'd melted in his arms in this very cabin . . . “Wait a minute. Why do I need to speed anything up?”

Jacob shrugged and headed toward the stairs. “You're not the only one interested in her.”

He started to go after his packmate to question him when two of his computers made dinging sounds almost simultaneously.

The same image remained static on two of his screens. As he pulled up a chair at the counter, the third pinged with the same picture. The male who had been talking to Natalia last night. She'd pointed him out to Ryan in the videos earlier. Ryan hadn't even had a chance to tell his Alpha or anyone else. Now he was glad he hadn't because the male's name was Aldric Kazan.

Jayce Kazan's brother.

Holy shit. Ryan hadn't even realized the enforcer had any relatives. Much less one with such an
interesting record. He'd never been prosecuted for any crimes, but according to the human databases, he was a person of interest in a few unsolved vampire murders. He was also in the shifter database, but there wasn't much information associated with him. Just a name and a note that he was Jayce's brother.

Ryan immediately texted Connor with a 911, asking his Alpha to get to the cabin. As he set his phone down, the front door opened. When he turned and saw Jayce there, he immediately closed all three laptops. In hindsight he realized how stupid that was. He should have just changed screens. Too late to do anything about it now.

The way the cabin was set up, the living room and kitchen were all joined into one big area with little separation.

Jayce glanced at the living room area, then strode toward Ryan, his expression curious. “You all right?”

“Yeah. You?”

Jayce watched him with those eerie gray eyes, as if trying to get him to confess to something. Hell, maybe the deadly enforcer was. As a warrior, Ryan could hold his own against most, but he knew Jayce hadn't earned his reputation for being lethal without being able to back it up. Finally he spoke. “Find out anything usable from the videos?”

Ryan shrugged. Without giving a yes or no, he wouldn't put off that metallic stench associated with lies. There were always ways around answering things you didn't want to. “Where's Kat?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Busy. I don't know what you're holding back, but . . .” Jayce trailed off and headed to the living room. He flipped on the flat-screen television so Ryan followed and stood next to him as he found a national news channel.

Connor and Liam strolled in as Jayce grunted at the screen. “You guys need to see this.”

A female reporter came on screen talking about how the following story wasn't suitable for minors and might offend some viewers. Most of the image was blurred out, but a man had been beheaded and his naked body nailed up onto a billboard in Winston-Salem.

Ryan frowned as he listened to the reporter talk in circles, basically saying nothing as she talked about how police weren't releasing any details except the victim's name. Ned Hartwig.

Suspected drug dealer—whose laptop Ryan had in his possession thanks to Jayce stealing it from him.

“You do that?” Connor asked Jayce wryly, not exactly joking.

Jayce snorted. “The last time I saw him he was terrified of his dealer. More terrified of him than me. I'm guessing his dealer did that.”

“Nice warning,” Liam muttered.

That was
exactly
what it was. When supernatural beings killed, they knew how to dispose of a body. Displaying the human's body like that was a warning to all others by whoever Hartwig had worked for.
You fuck with him, you end up dead.
If only they knew who that someone was.

“We need to follow up with more of his contacts,”
Jayce muttered, more to himself than the others as he muted the television.

Ryan nodded in agreement, then motioned toward his closed laptops. “I might have another lead.” He shot Jayce a quick look before he focused on his Alpha. “Last night a male at the club made Natalia nervous as she was arriving. She told me about it on the drive back to the ranch. His picture was among the ones I ran through the facial recognition software programs.”

Connor's dark eyebrows raised. “And?”

“And I just got a hit.” Sighing, he flipped open the closest laptop.

As the other three males stared at the screen, reading the name and other information next to the male's picture, Connor and Jayce let out curses at the same time.

*   *   *

Aiden slid out of bed as quietly as possible and was surprised when Larissa didn't stir. She'd fallen asleep hard this time. Clearly she needed it and he had to check in. He grabbed his phone and the battery and headed downstairs.

Once he'd checked the place again to make sure everything was secure and that he didn't scent any intruders, he slid the battery into his phone and called his Alpha. As he sat on the long couch in the living room, Connor picked up on the second ring.

“Hey, you guys doing okay?” he asked immediately.

Aiden liked that he asked about both of them. He knew his Alpha was fair and gave everyone a chance, but he was still worried about the dynamics of bringing a vamp onto the ranch. “We're good. Holed up in an
unused cabin at the Sugar Mountain resort. As soon as she wakes up though, we're heading out and I'm buying disposable phones for both of us. I'll call you from mine.”

“Sounds good. How's she adjusting to everything?”

“Considering she was put in stasis the year color TVs came out, Stalin died, and our kind was still living in secrecy, I'd say pretty damn good.”

Connor let out a low chuckle. “I can't even imagine waking up in this technology-filled world overnight.”

“No shit.” Aiden was impressed by how well Larissa was taking everything in stride.

“Listen, I don't like leaving you out in the cold like this. If you think she's safe and she's not being tracked anymore, bring her to the ranch. We can protect her.”

Aiden's throat tightened for a moment at the gesture. “I appreciate it, but with the cubs . . . I just can't take the chance until we know more. I'm not worried about her, but whoever is after her.” He wanted that clear. Larissa would never be a threat to his pack.

Connor let out a small sigh of what sounded a lot like relief. “I agree—I just hate you not being able to come home. If you're not coming back here, what are you planning?”

“Finding the witch who released Larissa from stasis.”

“Good. Brianna and Angelo just returned. I'm sending them to meet you. Just give me the address whenever you're settled somewhere.” He spoke with the confidence of an Alpha and had clearly been ready for Aiden's answer.

Normally he had no problem following his Alpha's orders. But Aiden didn't want to share Larissa with anyone for even a moment, his wolf acting more dominant than usual. But Connor was right. Whatever the hell was going on, they'd need backup if they came up against the witch. She was an unknown and Aiden hated that. “The witch's name is Magda and she's got ties to Larissa's former coven. Supposedly.” The female had told Larissa that her ancestors owed hers a debt. There might have been some truth in the woman's words.

“Noted. We'll go back to that, but I've got some other interesting news.” The way he said “interesting” set off alarm bells in Aiden's head. “Jayce apparently has a brother and he was at the club last night. He was talking to Natalia. This might have nothing to do with the blood dealing, but we're looking into him. I'm going to text you a picture. Show it to Larissa, see if she knows him.”

He'd already known Jayce had a brother because Kat mentioned it during a conversation. Aiden hadn't thought it had been a secret, but hadn't seen the need to tell anyone about it. “Will do. Listen, uh, has Ryan attempted to look into Larissa yet?” Because he had no doubt his packmate would have done just that as soon as Connor ordered.