4: Resistance

Jack    

Let me carry you.

I don’t want to be carried, Triumvir.

Listen, Tessa, we’re on a time crunch here. When Ian says, ‘don’t be out here long’— I gesture to the edge of the orchard we have only just reached, the one I think we’ve been trying to get to for a few years—it means get the job done pronto.

Alpha understands that I am old.

There’s something in the way she says ‘old’ that makes me pause. She really is a cute old lady and I like her. How old are you, Tessa?

Nearly eighteen in human years.

I’ve given up trying to convince her to let me carry her—for the moment—and just listen as we make our way through the orchard. Wow. That’s a long time for a dog. I’m twenty-five.

I’m fortunate indeed. I’ve outlived my sister. That’s her tree there.

Tessa noses towards a tree we’re passing, a young sapling barely a few feet tall. I don’t know the species, but I could see it growing this big after three, maybe four years. I glance around the orchard and a thought hits me. Tessa, are all these trees for those of you who’ve departed?

Yes, Triumvir.

I’m struck dumb and just stare. There must be a hundred trees here. How many dogs does she have at a time?

My sister and I were orphaned. Milady would not leave one of us. Usually, she only keeps one.

We’ve reached the edge of the orchard and stopped. The meadow between the grove and the forest surrounding us is narrowest here—a good choice for cover—and I scan with my senses before we step out of the trees. Tessa’s going to get carried now, whether she likes it or not. I don’t have time to amble at the pace of a twenty-year old dog…

Twenty-year-old dog. One dog at a time.

I turn around and look back at all the trees in the orchard. I can count everything I know about faery folk on one hand—they existed at some point and until we came to this cottage, no one knew if they still did. I do a rough calculation in my head.

Noooooooooo.

Tessa, how old is your mistress?

I don’t know for certain, Triumvir, but much older than me. She plants a tree in the forest around us for each year of her life.

I whirl around, staring at the copse of trees across the meadow that rings the cottage. Though they’re only a few deep, given the size of this small valley, there’d have to be a couple thousand of them at least, probably more.  Have you ever met another fae?

No, Triumvir. A few humans—those that rescued my sister and me when I was very young. But no one besides you since Milady brought us here.

No other humanoid creatures in your entire life?

I’ve seen and smelled a few vampires when they attack. Those strong enough to penetrate Milady’s first wards. This morning one made it to the edge of the orchard. It wounded one of the trees trying to enter before Milady destroyed it.

Triumvir, what happened to pronto?

I look down at the dog and grin. She wags her tail. “I’m going to carry you. You know that, right?”

**

Darby    

It’s dark when I wake. Though I half expected it, I’m not lying on the floor of my surgery in a puddle of clotted were blood. In fact, I’m not lying on the floor at all. As my eyes adjust, features of my room become visible and I know I’m on my bed.

And, though I’m wrapped in my towel, I’m completely naked.

Damn weres.

Delicious heat rolls over me from behind and as I try to sit up, I realize my hips are pinned by a heavy arm resting over them. Well, shit.

I roll to my back, and the were’s heavy hand settles into the space between my hips, pressing me into the mattress. The distance from fingertips to the base of his massive palm spans the entire breadth of the widest part of me. It’s rather impressive.

And warm. His body radiates heat along my left side, and into me where his hand rests on my abdomen. It feels nice. Simultaneously stoking and soothing the fire he causes beneath it.

I turn my head to look at him, unsurprised to confirm the were in bed with me is the alpha. Moonlight pours over him from the window, washing out his tawny skin and glinting blue-black in the waves of his shiny, pitch-dark hair. His full mouth is relaxed, even tender looking, and built entirely for kissing—deep breath-stealing kissing. The thought makes me flush.

Damn weres.

Beside me, the alpha’s nostrils flare at the end of his straight, narrow nose and he takes several quick breaths, scenting the air. One straight brow flicks up and I wonder what he’s dreaming. Then he inhales deeply, relaxing again with a heavy sigh.

Since I can’t move my hips, I turn at the waist, rolling onto my shoulder in as much as I can. Reaching across me, I trace his dark brows with my fingertip and brush the hair away from his temple, staring at him.

“Of all the supernaturals,” I whisper, my thumb tracing the margin of his bottom lip, “you weres are the beautiful ones.”

When he doesn’t stir, I stroke the backs of my fingers against the grain of the scruff along his jaw like I’ve been itching to do since I first set eyes on him. “But you, Alpha, you’re ludicrously handsome. Not that you need me to tell you.” Reaching the edge of his jaw, I open my palm, lay it flat on his neck beneath his ear.

There’s a strong, reassuring pulse beneath my hand. Solid. Reliable. Like him. I linger letting it throb against my palm. It’s comforting. Lulls me into wondering just how dangerous a were like this alpha really is.

My eyes drift downward, linger on his smooth pectorals, his six-pack abs. Just because I want to—and, hey, turnabout is fair play, right? – I let my fingers follow my eyes down the gorgeous muscled length of him to his navel. There’s a thin line of hair that trails downward below it and doubtless leads to trouble of the most enjoyable kind.

My nipples pebble at the thought and the alpha draws another deep breath and lets out a contented sigh. His warm breath tickles my shoulder, becomes a cool caress by the time it reaches my breasts making my nipples draw tighter. Unable to stop it, a sighing moan escapes me at the unintentional caress and my aroused mental meanderings. I flatten my palm against his side, and unconsciously one finger traces the path of the deep V line that lays beneath it.

Great goddesses. His kind are so alluringly sexual even without trying.

I know I must be mistaken, but it seems like he’s warmer and I bask in it, siphoning it into my slightly achy body. It’s irresistible, his heat. My hand wanders along his narrow hip to his powerful thigh, tracing well-defined muscle groups in unadulterated appreciation. Another exhaled moan escapes me. The heat coming off of him is enough to make me dizzy.

Damn weres.

I’ve grown confident that my explorations aren’t enough to wake him. Which seems reasonable, since he spent his morning battling vampires and fleeing for miles for his life. And frankly, I’m curious. “Well,” I whisper, letting my hand roam towards his midline, “since I’m already here.”

I can’t help the gasp when my fingers stumble upon it. “Oh. My. Word.” His hands aren’t the only massive thing about him. Slowly, I trace my fingertips up the generous length of his sex. I breathe out, “Ooooooh!” and bite my bottom lip, wrapping my fingers around the head.

Emboldened, I draw my hand down the thick girth of him to the base, closing my eyes to reduce the distraction of any sense but touch. Impossible as it seems, what’s beneath my fingers swells more, then twitches slightly, and feels incredible to handle.

“Holy goddesses! You’ve created perfection.”

**

Ian    

I lie in the bed with Darby the rest of the afternoon. She sleeps cuddled into me, scarcely stirring long after the light fades and Arianrhod starts her path across the night sky littered with stars.

Jack let me know through our link when he returned. He’d brought down a young buck in the forest and returned to carve the carcass and fix something to eat. Though it smells incredible and I’m starved, I’m not leaving this bed until my mate wakes.

And maybe not even then.

Maybe not especially then.

She’s my mate after all. And I’ve been searching for her for a decade. Which makes me wonder again why the goddess gave me a faery. One with incalculable abilities and power at her disposal.

Not that I care about those things. My job as a mate is to give her what she needs because every second of her pleasure comes back to me multiplied. I nuzzle the back of Darby’s neck, inhaling her scent until my lungs ache, they’re so full. Fuck—she smells so damn good and that excited tingling burns at the back of my neck again. Exhaling slowly through parted lips, I leave a thin, damp path from the crook of her neck to her shoulder with the tip of my tongue. Her tiny shiver earns her unconscious form a delighted growl. Goddess, she’s perfect.

When she doesn’t move again, I settle in behind her, pulling her snug against me. Eventually, I doze, and Arianrhod rises high, smiling down on us through the window.

I’m awake when Darby wakes later, but I lay still as she gets her bearings, tries to sit up against the weight of my arm, then gives up.

I like where this leaves her.

My palm rests flat, low on her abdomen. Right at the top of her mound. I’m debating my course of action when she squirms—wonderfully— turning her upper body toward me.

I can feel her eyes on my face and wonder what she’s thinking now. That’s when the first delightful hint of it hits. The enticing fragrance of her arousal. To be certain, I sniff the air, drawing a deep breath when it grows stronger.

Absolutely. Delicious.

Her touch is like wind, so light I’m almost uncertain it’s happening at all. Then she touches my mouth and whispers, “Of all the supernaturals, you weres are the beautiful ones.”

I felt that. I felt all of it.

“But you, Alpha, you’re ludicrously handsome. Not that you need me to tell you.”

It’s all I can do not to smile.

Darby grows still, her delicate hand resting on my neck. I prick my ears, thinking perhaps she’s falling asleep again, but that’s not what her breathing sounds like. It’s too shallow, too fast. Then her hand glides down my body, achingly slow, and I know exactly why her breathing sounds like that.

Same reason mine does.

She traces the oval of my belly button with the tips of her fingers, more than once starting lower along my happy trail. Disappointingly, each time she turns back, but the scent of her feminine desire is stronger.

Much stronger.

I breathe it in again, press the air against the combination scent-taste receptors in the roof of my mouth.

Oh, great goddess of the moon!

I exhale slowly, only because I’m forced to do so in order to inhale again. Right then, Darby lets out a whispering moan and my wolf half comes undone.

If she doesn’t make a move soon, I’m going to make a feast of this woman.

Her hand lingers at my hip for longer than I’d like before it drifts to my thigh. When she gives another sighing moan, it’s all I can do to keep still. But she’s exploring and I want to know exactly how far she’s willing to go by herself.

I don’t have to wait long.

“Well, since I’m already here.”

Adorable.

She’s not the only one who gasps when her hand closes over my erect cock, but she’s entirely absorbed with her own investigation and doesn’t even notice that my eyes are open and trained on her. 

“Oh. My. Word.”

You betcha, baby. Every inch is for you.

My lips pull up in a pleased smile, happy to know my body thrills her. Her slender hand strokes lower and I fight the urge to pounce on her right then, winning a small victory and knowing I’ll lose the war when her slim fingers close over the sensitive head.

“Ooooooh!” she whispers, breathless, then bites her lower lip. 

I twitch and grow rock hard as she makes her way up, worrying her bottom lip with her eyes squeezed closed, her dark eyelashes leaving long shadows on her cheeks. The room is filled with the smell of deep female arousal, and I suck it in, revel in it. Ahhhh, at last, my mate.

“Holy goddesses! You’ve created perfection.” Her tip-tilted eyes open and meet mine, but for a delayed second, she doesn’t process it. Then those gorgeous green-gold eyes of hers go wide and she jerks her hand away.

I catch her wrist, pin it beside her head as my body pins hers beneath me.

**

Darby    

Lightning fast, the alpha is on top of me, pinning my hands on either side of my head. Adrenaline courses through me, revving up my heart and breathing rates, even faster than my lust had them. Not that there’s anything I can do with it—he outweighs me by double and is undoubtedly stronger. And I couldn’t care less.

Every part of me is on fire.

There’s nothing soft on him. Nothing. He’s a spectacularly molded mountain of primal sensuality. Potent. Flawless.

And gently but insistently pressing his knee between mine to separate my legs.

Over me, the alpha’s eyes are dilated and so dark purple I struggle to discern a color from black. But the color isn’t what’s relevant.

It’s what in them.

For this magnificent beast of a man, they’re half-lidded and lit with ravenous desire. For me! They drift slowly from my face down my neck to my heaving chest, lingering on the taut tips straining towards him. His gaze is so intense it feels like touch, like he’s about to devour me. My nipples tighten in response and his eyes flick from one to the other hungrily.

“Darby.”

My name comes out as a low snarl and I struggle to think. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Alpha.”

“That’s how I like you.” This almost purrs. He shifts his weight to the thigh between mine, brushing against my clit and I tremble as a heretofore unknown torturous pleasure spirals through me. His nostrils flare with his next breath and the purr is a low sensual growl. “The better to see to every pleasurable need you have.”

Big bad devilishly sexy wolf. Oh shit.

His eyes are on my face again. Which is good, because I’m terrified and wholly turned on at the same time. I want to see what he’s thinking but his gaze is unreadable. Or—maybe there’s just nothing else there except raw lust. My tongue makes a purely seductive trip over my bottom lip hoping that’s the case.

If it’s even possible, my heartbeat ticks up another notch. He’s drifting towards one hand he has pinned near my head and my eyes follow, locked with his savage blue ones. “I meant your name.”

Though he doesn’t let go, he kisses my wrist tenderly. His lips are warm, and slightly wet. A wild electric jolt shoots through me, settling at the base of my skull as an excited prickling, unlike anything I’ve felt in my life and low in my body, the hot ache I didn’t know I could feel tightens and writhes in agonizing anticipation. Closing his eyes, he presses more kisses into my palm and out to the tip of each finger, taking his unbearably sweet time about it.

There’s a smile playing at the corner of his lips when he casts me a sidelong glance with those Aegean blues, but still I struggle to read him. “It’s Ian.”

Ian. The intensity of the prickling increases. A lot. Down low, my naked thighs glide over each other with the soft shush of skin over skin, and between them, I feel the seep of slick wetness. Then Ian closes his mouth over my entire thumb, his teeth digging in just to the point of pain. I gasp, and the prickling zips down my neck, zapping my feminine core as he starts sucking gently. He’s watching me, reading my expressions, the ones my mutinous body refuses to hide, drawing out every salacious thought I never knew I had and panting moans to go with them.

Releasing my thumb, he whispers, “You’re my mate, Darby.” He nuzzles into my neck, inhaling deeply, his hand stroking the tender underside of my arm, arousing the sensitive nerves there to a frenzy, his creeping fingers drifting towards my body. “I’ve been searching for you for years.”

I can’t help it. It’s more than just that I haven’t left my valley for more than a few hours in eighty years. Being alone doesn’t bother me. Being a virgin doesn’t bother me.

Being naked and pressed up against this man bothers me. Big time. In all the best and most unbearable ways. I moan, then pant, “I’m not a werewolf. There must be some mistake.”

He dots little kisses along my jaw to my chin and I groan when his large warm hand closes over one breast. His thumb brushes my nipple and it tightens so hard it hurts. Suddenly, the only thought in my head is him soothing the hot tightness sucking each pebbled tip into that wickedly sensual mouth of his and I flush, embarrassed at my own vulgarity. The prickling at the back of my neck has spread all the way down my spine and settled in my hot wet core, pulsing there, as if to spite my feeble attempt at propriety.

“I can smell your desire,” Ian rumbles huskily. “There is no mistake, mate.”

The way the word comes out of his mouth doesn’t bring to mind one part of a matched pair.

It brings to mind breeding—long and rough and hot—and my body responds with a fierce trembling. I’m seeping wetness onto my bed and I know he can feel it on his thigh.

He glances toward my lower body, forces my legs further apart with his and inhales again. “Mmmmm. You smell delicious.”

Between us, his erect cock is exquisitely hard and I itch to stroke it, just to know what it would do to him. My traitorous body arches my hips toward his eagerly.

“Not yet.” He frees one hand and presses my hip down. “There are thousands of ways I can use my body to give yours pleasure.” Ian kisses my mouth, nudging my lips apart before breathing into them, “I intend to get through all of them.”

**

Ian    

The sum total of Darby’s resistance consists of her telling me she’s not a were.

Good, because I didn’t want to start by breaking her slowly, which is what winds up happening with she-wolves. Darby’s already delicate and soft—naturally yielding—and I like her that way.

Love her.

Her skin doesn’t feel like a were’s either. It’s softer than sand slipping through my fingers, or a breeze through my hair. And fuck! she’s so damn sensitive, twitching and shivering at my slightest touch or even glance. I can barely control my wolf half, insensible and raging to let him have his way with her.

Taking my time, I put every inch of her in my mouth, one delicious piece at a time, growling at the agonized delightful sounds she makes, those ear candy little whines and whimpers, how she pleads for me to stop then begs for more. I draw her right to the edge, then back away from her orgasm, whispering, “Not yet. Not yet,” and making her plead again as she writhes underneath me in frustration.

A dewy film erupts all over her, a sweet sweaty perfume of lilac and shortbread. And between her legs, the fragrance of her honey is even sweeter, her taste, sweeter still. This woman will be the death of me. When I come back to her head, it’s time for twos. Plunging my tongue into her willing mouth, I let my hand wander towards her heavy breasts. Beneath me, Darby twists and arches wantonly, demanding more.

Demanding all. Can she really doubt she’s my mate? Who else but a mate could send your senses spiraling with such hot need?

“Not yet. You’re not ready.” I pin her hips down with mine, leaving only enough room for me to ease my hand between her silky thighs.

She cries out, shuddering, when I slip first one, then quickly two fingers inside her. I feel her maidenhead reluctantly yield to my probing fingers and Darby thrashes at the pain, begging me to stop. I still, fighting my dark desire at the fluttery spasms of her virgin walls until she adjusts and relaxes again.

Kissing her lush mouth, I swallow her breathless cries, then tease the sensitive nerves along her throat with my tongue. When her hips arch to me, I curve my fingers still inside her silky tight walls and caress the hot spongy center of her pleasure tenderly, soothing. “Better?” But when in response she groans into my mouth, shuddering, it’s all I can do not to bury myself in her and fuck her hard into the mattress.

The tingling I felt at the back of my neck when I stepped through her warding in the meadow is back and pulsing with excitement. I lean into her harder, plundering both sets of her sweet juicy lips, demanding her tongue and scissoring imploring shrieks from deep inside her. I’m so intent on driving her to the edge of her sanity, I don’t notice until she’s banging hard against my shoulder with the heel of one hand.

I back off immediately. “Oh shit! Did I hurt you?” I bury my face in her neck. “Oh sweet goddess, Darby. I’m so sorry.” Inside my head, my wolf half rolls his eyes, shakes his head and calls me a dumbass.

Shut the fuck up! You’re not helping, asshole!

Lying flat on the bed, Darby takes a minute to catch her breath, then runs her fingers into my tousled hair. “I’m alright. But you’re bigger than me, Ian. And heavier. You were crushing me underneath you.”

“I’m so sorry, my love.” I reach across and wrap my hand over her hip. “Let’s fix that immediately.” I roll, pulling her on top of me and kiss her mouth gently.

She adjusts her knees around my hips, then walks her hands backward down my chest and abs, lifting herself over me. The silky skein of her hair trails down behind her like a dark veil, tickling my thighs. Between us, my cock throbs, aching to sate my need inside her and she strokes its exposed length with her hands.

“Fuuuck.”

My mouth drops open and I can’t move. Not only is the woman above me doing something that feels so good that I’m mind-erased, she’s spectacularly beautiful, her gorgeous curves enough to drive any man mad with lust. And the fae half of her—aroused and excited—is fully visible in the dim light now that I’m not smothering her beneath me. She—well, she sparkles and emits an incredible soothing luminosity, warm and rosy like the first rays of the sun.

I’ve never seen anything like her.

And I’ve never wanted anything more.

I ease myself up to my elbows, staring at her and trying to keep from coming in her slender hands. The violent tingling at the back of my neck has spread down my spine and across my back and grows stronger the longer I look at my mate.

Perched on top of me, she’s pulsing faintly in the darkness. Silvery-white light swirls under her luminous skin and makes her golden-green eyes glimmer. Sitting up fully, I reach for her hips with both hands, hold her tightly, my fingers digging into her soft flesh. My low growl rising in harmony with her sighing moan as I touch her and the tingling explodes along every nerve pathway.

Darby lifts herself up and the engorged tip of me presses against the silky tight wetness between her thighs. She whimpers at the pressure, then screams as every thick inch of me plunges deep inside her.

**

Darby    

“Fuck!” Ian groans, his fingers digging into my flesh, bruising. But I don’t care anymore. I need the unbearable interminable anticipation to stop.

My nails clench in his warm, tawny skin, and his abs tighten at the simultaneous pain and pleasure. I sympathize completely. Stretched taut and spasming to take all of him, merging this deeply is so intense neither of us can move. The prickling has spread to every part of me, burning and aching and I have to wait several minutes for it to ease before we start moving.

Ian’s kissing and sucking in the crook of my neck outwards along my collarbone toward my shoulder and I caress his muscular back, loving the way he holds me, surrounds me. The slow rolling of his hips that pushes and pulls him from me, only to push him into me again feels so good, I can’t think of anything else but the feel of him, hot and rigid, forcing my body to swallow him whole.

“I never dreamed you’d feel like this. This is where I’m meant to be, Darby. This is where you’re meant to be. You’re my mate.”

Everything about him is bursting with sexual tension, but this, these words, they’re purest love. They promise to protect. To fulfill. To cherish. The prickling subsides into a tingling warmth everywhere except two spots on my back.

My wings.

Trapped inside me with nowhere to release the sexual energy this alpha were, my supposed mate, is generating in me. I push against his shoulders. “Lay back,” and he complies.

When he’s lying flat, I release my wings, fanning them out and up. I shudder with relief as they unfurl through my hair loose down my back and beneath me, Ian gives an agonized groan as I contract around him where we’re joined.

“Sweet goddess! You are so beautiful!”

He smiles that devastating smile of his, his eyes roving over every part of me and that’s as much adjustment time as he gives. Lifting my hips, he rolls into me like waves, steady, rhythmic, and fluid, shoving into me with his entire length in slow, deep strokes, pulling out to the tip where my lips grip and catch the raised head of him.

And holy goddesses, it feels like heaven. He fills every part of me, stabbing against my sugar walls, stretching me snug around him. My pussy lips clutch at his engorged cock and a low growl rumbles beneath my fingers pressed on his chiseled chest.

He bends his knees and plants his heels in the mattress, surging into me powerfully, meeting my every downward movement with his upward stroke. He’s pounding into me and I never want it to stop. A new wave of need floods over me, slicks the length of him inside me and out between us. “Mmmmmmm!”

“Are you okay?” He hesitates, his thrusts slowing.

“Yes. Please, don’t stop. Go faster. Harder.”

“Darby, it’s your first time—.”

“I don’t care. Go faster. Harder.”

Ian growls as his cock plunges into me, his large hands push me down onto him and I feel him even deeper, clamp around him urgently. “Don’t stop! Don’t stop!” 

“Oh! Fuckfuckfuckfuck!” he groans. “You feel so fucking good!” His abs flex beneath my hands as he draws on more to satisfy me. “Holy fuck! Darby, your wings are pulsing with light. Like a firefly.”

“Don’t stop! Oh, please don’t stop!”

Pushing my hips, he slides me backwards, directly over the base of his cock. I gasp as that tiny adjustment aligns him just right with my g-spot, and he glides over it again and again, ripping mind-erasing pleasure out of me until I’m gripping him like a vice and he’s working harder to move.

“Ahh! Right there! I’m so close, Ian. So close.”

“I can feel it, baby.” He heaves a tense sigh. “Holy goddess, it’s so good.”

Rising, he wraps both strong arms all the way around my waist, clutching me to him and fucks me harder, banging against the door to my womb. The tingling is fever pitch and I feel like I’m going to die if I can’t orgasm. I don’t know how much closer I can get and not. All my muscles knot tightly, right at the edge of release.

My orgasm explodes out from my core, sending white-hot electricity zipping along every nerve and shorting all the circuitry in my brain. I grip Ian’s shoulders hard, shuddering as the last of it rolls through me once more.

With a loud groan, Ian climaxes with me, bathing my inner walls with his thick seed. Filling me up, his muscles tighten and his sculpted body shudders and quakes, pumping spurt after spurt and coating my velvety walls.

Beneath me, Ian’s strokes become languid, easing the last of the tension from us both. He lays back, drawing me down onto his chest. “Your wings are almost blinding when you orgasm,” he whispers. He strokes my hair and kisses my forehead. I can tell he’s watching them dim and slowly retract.

I ease my legs out from under me, stretching out on top of him. Smiling, I nestle against his chest and sigh contentedly. “Only if you’re a good lover.”

With a vicious snarl, I’m flipped over roughly, the force of Ian’s entire weight crushing the breath out of me. His hand—so big it’s like a medical collar— constricts around my throat cruelly. He scowls, his teeth bared barely an inch away from my face, the canine incisors elongating as I watch. His beautiful deep blue eyes are black with flecks of yellow and green.

Just like that. The big bad alpha wolf half is in control.