Prymal Lust (18 page)

“For the record, sis, right now everything points to Uncle Viktor. We,
I
, don’t believe either Dad, or, Breede, or Mishe are involved.” Jaz met his sister’s gaze without flinching.

“
You
don’t believe, Jaz. What about the rest of you? Lycus? Bandit? Kid? Jurango? Axe?” She had gone as white as fresh fallen snow.

Axe tried to drag her close.

She swatted at him, held her palms up in a don’t-you-come-nearer gesture, and scooted around the far corner of the bench. “You think my father and Breede and Mishe are murderers?”

Tania held her breath. She couldn’t haul her gaze from Axe’s.

If he so much as vacillated, she’d have a meltdown.

Uncle Viktor.

Oh gawd.

Had Viktor compromised Dad somehow?

Viktor was the Prakov alpha and controlled the Prakov millions, but Dad had gained a considerable fortune when he’d been mate allianced with Mom. Her father ran Kiev Insurance, the business her mother’s father had founded.

Triple W Corporation had
nothing
to do with Kiev Insurance.

“I may have had my suspicions before. But now I don’t. No, I don’t believe either your father, or Breede, or Mishe are involved.” Axe looked at her without blinking. His declaration positive, steel-certain.

Tania deflated. She slumped onto the edge of the bench and let out a hiccupped sob. Laid her head on her hands and let the relief wash over her. For there was no way she could do a Sophie’s Choice. Because she knew Axe and the rest of the Prymal founders would eradicate whoever was behind the slaughter of their packs.

Fate would’ve dealt her the cruelest blow if she’d had to watch her mate kill her father or brothers.

Her mate. Tania stared unseeing at a black swirl in the wood of the picnic table.

Axe was her mate.

She chewed the insides of her cheeks.

Acknowledging that fact meant letting go of everything Wylfen. Including her family.

Did she have a choice?

She had been exiled.

Her brain hurt.

“We’re done for tonight,” Axe growled even as he leaped to Tania and gathered her into his embrace.

She pummeled his chest feebly, but he ignored her attempts to thwart him, and wound his arms tighter around her.

He marched to the back door, kicked it open, and threw a glance over his shoulder. “Don’t disturb us.”

Axe hurried to the master bedroom.

Halfway down the hallway, she shuddered, and leaned her forehead on his ribs. She couldn’t fight this anymore. Axe was her haven, her heaven, her everything.

Axe was her mate.

She sniffed his T-shirt. Sighed as the familiar, reassuring aroma of her mate filled her lungs. Unable to resist, she nosed his collarbone. Noticed the prickly stubble coating his jaw. A strange, languid, calmness seeped into her bones.

“What, sweet girl? Talk to me. You promised, remember? To talk to me.” He walked straight to the bed and sat with his back to the headboard. He arranged her sideways on his thighs, and draped the covers over her shoulders.

Her fingers had gone icy so he warmed them between his palms.

Tania couldn’t get either her vocal cords or her limbs to work.

Axe removed her flip flops, and massaged her chilled feet. “Tania, if you don’t speak to me, we’re both going to have a freezing shower followed by a piping hot bath. What’s scaring you?”

“Tell me again. That you don’t believe my family’s involved in the slaughter.” She stared into his eyes.

“I’m positive no member of your immediate family, your father, mother, or any of your brothers, is directly responsible for the pack slaughters.”

She worried her lower lip. “Directly responsible. What does that mean?”

Axe set his palms to her cheeks. He met her gaze without a blink or flinch. “It means I have a hunch that Mishe and Breede might suspect that Triple W Corporation’s activities aren’t all above board.”

“Why? How could you even know about Mishe and Bre—oh. I get it. You’ve been investigating us. You Prymals.” Bitterness soured the saliva in her mouth. “Do you have a, what’s the word? A dossier on me? Did you set out to fuck me?”

“Tania, listen to me. The last, last thing I expected was to recognize you as my mate. That first glance in the mirror—it dropkicked me into an abyss. Yes, we have ‘dossiers’ on all of you. We’re hunting a cold blooded killer. Someone who murdered our loved ones. But, this, this between you and me, was never part of our plan.”

She so wanted to believe him. “It worked out perfectly for you though, didn’t it? You got what you wanted. Me exiled and here with you.”

“When we made love in the shower, I knew it could be the end of my involvement with Prymal. By mating with you, I had fucked up all our plans, unless I gave up any hope of ever having you as my mate.”

“But you didn’t. I mean, you know, the greenhouse.
I
wasn’t the one who pushed things.”

He bumped their foreheads together. “No, you didn’t. And I couldn’t give you up. You’re my crack cocaine. The most beguiling, most exquisite, and only drug I’ll ever need. When I’m away from you, all I can focus on is how to get to you. I love you, Tania. I know you’re not ready to commit to me. And that’s A-Okay. I’ll wait as long as you need.”

Axe’s fierce declarations dissolved what was left of Tania’s dwindling doubts. That this incredible alpha bared his soul and was willing to wait for her welled a tsunami of conflicting emotions. Joy, an unbearable tenderness that had Tania on the brink of exquisite, happy tears, and a certainty so poignant, she absolutely knew what to do.

No more half-truths.

No more avoidance.

They were mates and she belonged by his side. Axe needed all the information ammunition she could give.

She raised her head and looked right at him. Her lips trembled. There was no going back. “I wasn’t surprised.”

Axe flicked his thumb over the cleft in her chin, brows gathered above his nose. “Surprised about what?”

“Uncle Viktor. I don’t know how to explain it. I was shocked, but deep down, I wasn’t.” She covered her face with her hands.

Axe eased her fingers away. Tipped her head back. “Tell me.”

“Uncle Viktor’s a fanatic about the purity of a species. He doesn’t tolerate mongrels of any sort. Aunt Dozene, she’s my godmother, and Viktor’s wife’s youngest sister. She started feeding this stray cat.” Tania pressed a hand to her mouth and waited for the surging wave of nausea to subside.

Axe cocked his head.

She knew he wondered what her aunt had to do with anything. “We have family Sunday lunches at Aunt Dozene’s once a month. I must’ve been nine at the time and I adored Millie. The cat. I couldn’t find Millie anywhere so I asked Aunt Dozene for her. Long story short as you said before. Viktor wrung Millie’s neck. In front of everyone.”

Tania’d never been able to erase the memory of the cat’s surprised mewl, or her frantic struggle before that horrible snap.

Axe hugged her tight, tangled his hand in her hair, and kneaded the coiled muscles in the small of her back. “Sonofabitch. He did that in front of a little girl?”

“Aunt Dozene was never the same after that. I was actually glad that it was time for me to go to boarding school in Connecticut.” At first, she had loved boarding school, loved meeting ‘normal’ girls, both human and Wylfen, loved not having to face Uncle Viktor every Sunday.

He drew back. Trailed a finger the length of her throat. “Thank you.”

She didn’t get it. “For what?”

“Trusting me.”

Tania’s chest ached at the expression on Axe’s face. His gray eyes were haloed amber and she glimpsed his need in his dilated pupils. In only a few days she’d come to recognize when his desire surged, the impatience evident in the slight flare to his nostrils, and the way he carefully composed his features when he tried to mask his uncertainty.

He still worried about his scars. She knew that from the way Axe always shifted so he never presented his marred cheek to her. There was some deeper concern there, but Tania couldn’t identify the reason why he believed she would reject him.

Time to commit.

“I’m ready.” Deliberately, she grasped his jaw so he had to give her his full frontal.

He peered at her from half-hooded eyes. “For?”

“Show me how to claim you.”

Axe’s bared fangs had already lengthened. The gray halo around his black pupils pulsed with amber glints. Under her palms, his chest heaved.

He touched her brow with his. “I should question you. Make sure you know what you’re doing.”

She loved that he croaked the words. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Bite here.” He arched to one side and placed her forefinger on the crook of his neck and the bridge of his shoulder. “Draw blood.”

When he growled that way, she creamed. It was uncanny and she relished her reaction to him. Tania nuzzled the corded tendons wrapped around his throat. She nibbled the spot he’d indicated.

Glanced up at him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Do. It.”

The rumbled command galvanized her. She set her teeth to his flesh and bit down. Instead of nausea, as she’d expected, the coppery taste of his blood flooded her mouth and sparked a tidal wave of desire. Some instinct had her licking the small bite mark on his neck. To her amazement the tiny scrape throbbed beneath her tongue.

Her pussy ached.

She wanted him inside her. Now.

“Love. You.” He tugged her T-shirt over her head.

Tania unbuttoned his pants.

Axe unfurled his claws and ripped her jeans down the sides.

She shoved his black T up and bared his chest. Found a flat, pink male nipple and tongued the sweet bud. Grouched when he stepped back.

Axe peeled off her denim. Shredded her panties and bra.

Frustrated when he hindered her attempt to pull his shirt off, she said, “I need you. I want you in me so bad.”

His answer was a low snarl.

Within seconds they were skin-to-skin on the mattress with Axe on top of her. She ran her hands over him. Stroking his back. Raking her nails on the bridge of his shoulder. Arched her hips to grind her clit on his rock hard erection.

Axe stilled. He lifted her leg and wrapped it around his lean hip, opening her sex to him. Leaned on one elbow. Met her gaze. Flashed an uneven smile that revealed glistening wolf fangs. “Mine”

He bent to the crook of her neck. Sank his teeth into the tender flesh there.

The orgasm ripped her apart.

She shuddered through the violent contractions.

Felt his rough tongue soothing the bite. Soothing her.

The fierce stinging faded.

Axe gathered her thighs with his arms. Spread her legs wide.

Tania glanced down their bodies. Her pussy clenched at the exquisite vision of his cock poised at her entrance. She whimpered.

“To me.”

She met his predatory gaze.

“Say it.” He demanded.

“Yours. I’m yours. All yours.” Not for a second did she hesitate.

He plunged into her.

Penetrated to her core.

She convulsed around him.

Her walls snatched his hot, throbbing cock.

“Mate,” he muttered. Rooted around her claim spot, laving her flesh, and licking the bite mark.

“Move,” she pleaded, wriggling under him, trying to grind her clit on him.

He lifted his head, palmed her cheek, and kissed her. A moist, heated exploration with his coarse tongue. She tingled all over when he rubbed the roof of her mouth. Melted into the mattress when he dropped quick, biting kisses along her jaw.

“Move, please,” she begged and squirmed under the heavy pressure of his groin holding her in place

“Again,” he commanded and gripped her hipbones to still her furious writhing.

She tangled her hands in his hair.

Their stares met.

“Yours. I’m all yours. Mate.” The words came out as an avowal. A declaration. A promise. A till-death-do-us part oath.

Her pledge unleashed the wolf in him.

Fangs bared, a scarlet drop shimmered on one gleaming canine in the hazy lamplight, head thrown back, he howled. The primal, victorious bay echoed around the bedroom.

She clung to his shoulders when he began pounding into her. Locked her ankles on his back. Dug her nails into his flesh with each hammered thrust. Cried out when his groin battered her clit.

Another climax thundered through her.

He angled just so.

The crown of his cock pummeled the sensitive nerve bundles inside her pussy.

A violent orgasm coiled tighter and tighter.

He fucked her and fucked her.

She came and came and came.

Perspiration drenched their bodies.

Right when she hovered on the edge of collapsing, he claimed her again.

His teeth sank into her claim spot and he jetted into her welcoming womb.

She felt each fiery spurt.

Desperate to capture every drop of his seed, she contracted her vaginal muscles.

This time when his cock fattened and sealed their mating, she relished the way he distended her walls. Closed her eyes and let the delicious aftershocks tremble through her. Nosed his chest and licked the salty sweat coating the coarse hairs on his chest. Drowned in their mingled aromas, his pungent musk, her spicy cream.

“Too heavy for you.” He rolled them over, and straddled her legs wide over his groin.

She rested her cheek on his ribs. Listened as his heartbeat slowed to a steady rhythm. Boneless, totally relaxed and content, Tania couldn’t lift a finger.

“Okay?” He threaded his hands through her hair. “I lost it there at the end. Got kind of rough.”

Tania managed a drunken grin. She linked her hands on his chest, and rested her chin on her knuckles. “Sailor-boy—don’t you know by now that I like it when you do me hard?”

Axe didn’t return her smile. “I put a pup in you.”

“Oh yeah. You know that for sure?” She didn’t want him to go all serious on her. The whole claim experience had shaken her foundations. Tania needed time and distance to wrap her head around what she’d done. To sort out all the implications.