The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) (29 page)

Her mind blinked ‘vacant
’
as she careened over the edge, exhilarated
by the boneless feeling that left her sinking into the mattress. He pulled
his fingers free of her, stroked her overly sensitive folds, forcing one final cry out of her. She tried to bring him back to bed when he stood and walked back into the bathroom, but she lacked the energy or the words to do so.

HE
’
D TAKEN AN ARCTIC SHOWER,
letting the water rain down
on him and freeze the boiling heat of his lust from his body. He
exited the bathroom – fully dressed to avoid temptation – and tried
to keep his thoughts trained on things less attractive than the woman
reveling in the aftermath of her pleasure. Thinking about the way she
sounded in the grips of her orgasm only made his yearning worse, so
he forced the thought away. If he caved, he
’
d fuck her. Just like he said:
hard and fast, rough and animalistic.

She r
olled
over and faced him. “Is there a
reason we didn
’
t have sex
?”

“I told you earlier.”

“You want to fuck me. Got it. So why didn’t you?”

“Too soon after my shift. Rough might be too rough for you,” he lied.

The truth was he wanted to make up for the fact that he hadn't
treated her virginity with the reverence it deserved. Was he going to
make it sappy and put rose petals all over the floor? Hell no, but he
did want it to be more than just a joining of their bodies, more than a shredding of their clothes, bending her over and slamming into her, more than…Yeah that.

He pulled his thoughts to something less erotic and tempting, but
it was hard, literally, to think with her on the bed as if she was just
waiting for him to cave.

“Do you want to do something today?” he asked.

Alexis
a
rched
a brow at
him
. “You
have too many
clothes on to do it.”

He choked back a laugh. “Other than that.”

“Nope.”

“You sure?”

“What I want to do is either completely inappropriate or you aren
’
t
willing to do it.”

“What’s inappropriate?”

“I train on downtime.”

“Oh.”

He didn
’
t have anything else to say. What else could he expect from
someone who breathed for their job and was good at it? He studied her.
She was losing everything, and in general, he wasn
’
t losing anything
.
Though she
’
d never give him the children he
’
d always wanted, at least
he’d found his Soul’s Mate in her. With him, she only got a mate, but lost her entire way of life.

She came to stand in front of him. “What are you thinking so hard
about?”

“You.”

She smiled. “What about me?”

“Depends. My thoughts range from lecherous to thoughtful.” He
kissed her lightly on the head. “Put some clothes on. I can’t think when
you’re naked.”

She laughed. “You don’t really want me to.”

“No, I don’t, but I’d still appreciate it.”

She grabbed the towel she’d used earlier and wrapped it around herself. “Better?”

“Yeah.” He frowned at her bag as she began rummaging through
it in pursuit of clothes. “I
’
ll send someone out to get you more clothes
.”

She turned back to face him, confusion etched on her face. “Where
would they go?”

Stores in the local area weren
’
t good places to buy clothes. Besides,
shopping so close to home brought an unnecessary risk to the pack.

“I
’
ll send someone – probably Jillian and Trinity – with some guards
to Atlanta. The malls are better than anything we’ll find out here.”

“Isn
’
t that a bit risky? That
’
s where the Hunter headquarters is
located.”

“That may be true, but it
’
s also the home to the largest pride of
Alesers in Georgia and has been so for the last seventy-five years.”

“There’s lions – er – Alesers in Atlanta?”

He laughed. “It used to belong to a few packs of Talas, but they left, needed
more room to run.”

In general, Lycans didn’t lord over a territory to the point that no
one could come through a zone. Visitors were welcome. Squatters
tended to receive an aggressive ejection from the area.

“But…How?”

“Hunters tend to look in smaller towns, and frankly the lions like
cities more than most of the other Lycan types.”

The war between her obligation to the Hunters and her new reality
among the Lycans played out on her face. Kyran wanted to tell her that
it
was okay, that he understood why she felt the way she did. But really,
how would that sound? Instead he kept quiet and let her come to her own conclusion.

“Well, I’m going to shower and get dressed. You should grab
something to eat.”

“I can wait. You need to eat, too.”

“I don’t eat much. I’m fine.”

Kyran sighed. Her and that word: Fine. She was always fucking
fine. It made him wonder if she had any other adjectives to define the
way she felt or if
fine
the extent of it. Besides, she was being all too
obvious that she was avoiding eating in the dining hall.

“Alexis, if you aren’t ready to eat with the pack, that’s okay. Tell me what you want to eat and I’ll bring it here.”

“I’m not picky; bring me whatever.”

“Alright, I’ll be back in a little while.”

Kyran turned to leave, but a haunted look ghosted its way across
Alexis
’
face. He was about to ask when she smiled at him, her features
telling him that she was fine. Always fine.

***

The last time Kyran said he would be back in a little while, Alexis
had watched as his life-blood soaked into the floor of the room Theo
occupied. She had struggled to keep Ronan from going rogue, knowin
g
that if he did, Kyran was dead as she and Theo would be, not that she
spared Theo any sympathy. Watching Kyran now, Alexis knew he would
be okay, but that memory still haunted her. Apparently the emotions that she felt weren’t boxed up as tightly as she had thought.

Alexis inclined her head and turned around to go take a quick
shower and get dressed. Lycans had amazing noses, last thing she needed
was for the pack to catch a scent of her post aroused state.

When she exited the shower, she found Kyran sitting in the chair he claimed he hated her in, watching the news. He gave her outfit a once over before he turned his attention back to the TV.

“I brought you a pizza and soda.” He motioned to his desk where
a large tray sat.

He told her about the team going to Atlanta for her clothes – an
endeavor that wasn’t entirely necessary – before she settled down at
his desk. Alexis took a bite of the obviously homemade pizza that was
heavy on a variety of meats, and moaned. She hadn
’
t really been all that
hungry to begin with, but she devoured the pizza as if it was the only
meal she would get to eat that day. She heard Kyran muffle a laugh. A
glance at the TV said that the show wasn
’
t the source of his amusement.

“Trinity makes the best pizza I have ever had,” he said. “She made
me put in a brick oven just so that she could make them.”

“I can’t remember the last time I had a pizza. I watch everything I eat meticulously. Occasionally, I even go on a vegetarian diet.”

She smiled when he cringed at vegetarian.

His gaze drifted over her. “Don’t you need more calories than a vegetarian diet? And why would you be on a diet anyway?”

“Some men know just what to say to a woman,” she laughed. “I told
you. I breathed for my job. By diet, I just mean I was very careful about
what I ate. On occasion, I’d do a cleanse. That’s when the vegetarian diet came in. I do whatever I can so that I can stay in top shape."

Kyran came to stand beside her. “I could get you something else.”

“Kyran, I’m on a hit list for the Hunters. If Lycans caught me out by myself, I’d be on theirs, too.” She took another bite and gave him a joking glare. “I’m eating this damn pizza.”

He laughed and sat back down. “Alright, but if you keep inhalin
g it like that you’ll get heartburn.”

“I doubt I’ll care. This is worth it.”

Alexis continued to devour the personal sized pizza, relishing each
bite while he went back to watching TV, randomly flipping channels while he waited in silence for her to finish. When she was done, she
washed her hands, slipped on her boots, and sat on the arm of the chair.

“Ready?” he asked, flipping off the TV.

She stood and tried to calm the uneasy feeling in her stomach. Kyran
wanted to take her around the compound so that she would be familiar
with the layout. “Yeah.”

Alexis stood with him and followed behind as he grabbed her plate and empty can. She protested, saying she could carry it, but he laughed
and told her she didn
’
t even know where the kitchen was. He was right,
but it still felt wrong.

After they had stopped by the kitchen, they headed down a series
of stairs. At the bottom was a steel door with two sets of scanners: one
retina and one fingerprint with a number pad.

“
Your security is ridiculous. How do you get out in an emergency?”

He smiled back at her. “In an emergency, the more extreme measures
are taken down and the only thing that someone has to do is place their
thumb or eye in the scanner.”

“Worried about an invasion?”

“No, but Nigel claims to know where we are located. We were
already in the process of moving the pack to the Blue Ridge pack house,
which my father built, but I wanted to wait until the remodel was
completed
so that we can fit the new members comfortably. I’d rather move and have to bunk together than risk the safety of the pack.”

She waited until he finished doing the scans and putting in the
codes before she said anything else.

“What’s your plan anyway?”

“I have to contact Othion. He’s the god who has helped me so far trying to get the prophecy satisfied.”

“He didn’t tell you what had to be done?”

Kyran snorted. “The gods never do anything directly if they can avoid it. If they did, I wouldn’t be as old as I am still trying to figure out how much of an accord I have to come to with a Hunter.”

She jerked to a stop. “How does the prophecy go?”

He stopped and frowned at her. “When the Lycan and the Hunter
come to an accord, the fallen goddess – ”

“Will be restored.”

His frown deepened. “Who told you that?”

“Lykil.”

“
I don’
t suppose he told you what the hell they want from me,
did he?”

“Nope, just that I would know what it meant when I needed to
know.”

He laughed. “See. Told you. Nothing direct about it, is it?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I have to settle things with getting Marcela to be a part of this
pack, but after that I will try and get Othion here to see what more he
wants from me. I thought that I had things on the right track with Torin
.”

Somewhere, buried in the recesses of her mind, Alexis had an
inkling what was required, but she stuffed it back in whatever thought
box it had escaped from. Neither of them was ready for the implications
of what that thought required.

The doors slid open, and she followed him into a hall that led into
a brightly-lit underground gym.

Though the gym was empty, Alexis knew from the faint smell of sweat that the gym had recently been used. She turned around to see Kyran leaned against the wall.

“I trust you, Alexis. This is your home now, and I want you to have
the same freedom as any other member of the pack. You can work
out tomorrow. Today, let your body recover.” He waved her out of the
gym. “Come on. I have some other areas you should see.”

She followed him throughout the compound and took in the way
the pack interacted with each other. They were a family, a true family.
Nothing like her dysfunctional unit, bonded only by genetics and a war
started long before they existed in the minds of anyone beyond fate.

Hope rose in her guarded heart for some form of familiarity among
the pack – anything to make her feel like she was less like the outsider
she really was.

THOUGH ALEXIS HAD LIVED
at Kyran
’
s compound for weeks,
she didn’t consider it home. She had clearance to go anywhere in the
compound and permission to do as she saw fit, but the reality was she
didn
’
t feel like she fit in. How could she? She was their enemy, even if
they did try and make her feel welcome.