It had been a few hours since Jason first infiltrated the foreign pack. He knew so because he kept glancing at his wristwatch whenever he believed that nobody was watching. Having snuck out from seeing Lara in the nick of time before Tyson returned for whatever twisted game he had planned for her next, he had found his way up to the second floor of the main building. He quickly learned that he had been right the first time he entered the warehouse. He had really heard women and children on the floor above his head when he first entered. Moving among their ranks, Jason quickly came to realize that there were actually many more women and children than there were men in the pack. The men could have been counted on his two hands and so he did, counting only nine of them including Tyson. Whether there were more elsewhere, Jason couldn't be sure. But for every man, there was a woman and a few more besides. Each woman seemed to have young children or even a babe in their arms. All looke
Lara was more than a little relieved that she didn't have to tell Jason what she needed aloud. He already seemed to know, and she got the sense that he had learned so from her wolf. The beast was practically on her back, whimpering with submission and desire even as Jason converged on her and took her into his arms. Lara could only imagine how ridiculous it would have been if she were a fragile, delicate human who had been tied up and held captive for over a week, but she wasn't human and from the moment she felt Jason's palms cup her face, she felt energy surging back into her limbs. Though her hands and feet still ached from being tied up so long, she was finally able to stand on shaking legs with her palms pressed against Jason's chest for support. She could feel the torn shreds of his t-shirt, but beneath them his wounds were almost entirely healed and she could feel the strength pulsing throughout his entire body. Soon it would pass from him to her. Yet she could feel him holdi
Upon returning to the floor of the warehouse where the women and children had been spending most of their time, Jason quickly realized that several of them had disappeared while the children cowered in several small groups, dotted around the room. At the sight of them doing so, Jason began to feel sick. The thought that any of these children should be fearing for their lives made him angry and nauseous. Tyson should be ashamed of himself, Jason thought, thinking not just of the children’s living conditions but also just how close they were to a prisoner of the pack, living and experiencing things that no child should ever have to witness. I should be ashamed of myself too, Jason realized with some disgust. If not for him finding Tyson’s pack, the Silverdale wolves wouldn’t be trying to knock down their front door right now. Yet deep down he knew that he had little choice. The children whimpered and one of them even screamed, a baby beginning to cry as the sounds of battle began t
Wholly prepared for Tyson coming to get more information or even just to have a little fun, Lara was more than a little surprised when Jason arrived once more in the basement. Having thrown herself down onto the chair at the sound of footsteps above her head, placing her feet beside the chair legs and her arms upon the rests as if she were still tied to the damned thing, she jumped up with relief the moment that Jason’s familiar scent wafted down the stairs with the opening of the door. Yet even as he hurried down the stairs toward her, the scent of another werewolf hit her nostrils and she quickly dropped back down onto the chair, half-expecting another to follow him inside. Though she desperately wanted to cry out to him to make sure that he was okay, she held her breath waiting until the door slammed shut behind him, surrounding them in darkness, and all Lara could hear was the sound of a single set of footsteps coming down the stairs. “Jason, what the hell is going on?” Lara d
“Hey man, she’s going to be alright.” Tyson’s voice caused Jason to almost jump right out of his skin. Although he had been waiting with him outside the room where Lara was being treated by the witch for quite some time, neither of them had really spoken. Several minutes had passed by in silence save for the odd whimper or squeal coming from inside the room. The last he had seen her, he had been cradling her in his arms, not letting her go since the moment that she passed out against his shoulder. It had taken Layon, Tyson, and several others to finally remove him from the room so that Barach could take a look at her and the moment he heard her waking, he had wanted to go to her. “I know,” Jason sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, gritting his teeth against the urge to rush right into the room every time he heard or sensed pain from Lara. He’d done that once already, and he was sure that Layon wouldn’t let him off so easily again for disobeying direct orders. After all,
Lara was more than a little relieved when Jason didn’t try to fight her again. Instead, he caused her stomach to do a somersault as he suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist and flipped, effectively trapping her beneath him on the bed. Wearing nothing but a silken nightgown that she always kept spare in her wardrobe at the Silverdale Manor, she was ready for him. “Jason, I need you right now!” she growled against his lips even as he kissed her. Hungrily, she tore at his belt buckle and popped the top button of his jeans. In one swift motion, Jason knelt and yanked off his tshirt, coming back down on top of her within seconds to kiss her again. The warmth of his body on top of hers was intoxicating and she arched her back, trying to get as close to him as possible even as she shoved his jeans down over his hips. He moved his legs quickly, urging them down the rest of the way, and Lara felt more than saw him kick them right off the bed along with his boots, deftly removing all
“Well, that was awkward,” Tyson announced the moment Jason stepped out of the room, leaving Layon and Lara to talk. He was already at his wits’ end with tension, and he cast a warning glare at his friend. Barach, who had clearly been stood talking to Tyson the entire time that Jason and Lara had been busy in the bedroom, at least had the decency to glance away the moment that she saw he was still practically half-naked. There might have been a time when Jason would have joked that she could look if she wanted, but the thought of anyone but Lara seeing him made him angry, and so he quickly dropped his boots and pulled on his t-shirt. “Tyson, I think maybe we should give your packmates a little space,” the witch suggested, and Jason almost thanked her, though he was too busy trying to listen in on what was being said inside the bedroom. He hated the thought of Lara facing Layon alone, especially after having just found the two of them in such a disheveled state. Yet he barely heard a
Just a few days later, only hours after Jason had spent the longest half an hour Lara had ever experienced in the alpha’s office, she joined him beneath the largest sycamore tree on the Silverdale estate. Though it was not their official wedding due to the lockdown that had been put in place upon the entire community, Lara couldn’t have wished for anything more. She would give her parents the large wedding they obviously desired to show off their power and wealth, but right now, in this moment, everything was for her and Jason. With their entire pack surrounding them and some of the women and children who had remained from Tyson’s pack, Lara and Jason allowed Layon to wrap a crimson ribbon around their hands, binding them together. Tears pricking the corners of her eyes, Lara gazed up into the eyes of her mate and bit the inside of her lip in an attempt to stop them from falling from her cheeks. “Though we are limited due to the lockdown, Jason and Lara have asked that we all gath
“You have got to be kidding me!” Emily’s exclamation startled Tyson. It had been the last thing he expected her to say when they stopped walking outside a psychic’s shop in a small human town just outside of Silverdale. “What’s the matter? Didn’t the tracking spell work?” he asked, feeling his gut beginning to churn. They couldn’t possibly have traveled all this way just for Emily to tell him that the spell had failed, that it had brought them to the wrong place. The tall and slender witch who wore a long, velvet gown cinched at the waist by a leather corset, stood at the bottom of the steps that led up into the shop and glowered up at the store front window. “No real witch would advertise herself in this way!” Emily snapped, practically spitting, and Tyson struggled to stop himself from shrinking away from her, reminding himself firmly of his reason for even being there in the first place. This is for Barach. “Then your outburst has nothing to do with this being the wrong pla
At first, everything was darkness. Then she felt it. One minute it was just the gentle brushing of something soft against her lips. Then she felt the suddenness of a most passionate kiss pressed upon her. Hands stroked down her ribcage, causing her to suck in a deep breath and then those same hands cupped her hips, drawing her closer to the warmth of the person they belonged to. Though at first, she could not see him, she could feel him. She could feel the smooth softness of his skin, the tender tautness of that skin pulled tight over thick bands of muscle. She could feel his callused yet somehow soft hands moving around her hips and back toward her buttocks, hooking her into place against him even as the lips upon hers added pressure and the kiss became even more passionate. Then finally, he pulled back and she was able to open her eyes. Dazed at the sight of him, Barach could only smile. She opened her mouth to speak but found there were no words to say. Instead, she wrapped he
Sitting by her bedside, Tyson couldn't help but think of the moment when he thought he had lost Barach forever. He had held her in his arms in the center of the small warehouse, cradling her on his lap as he watched all of the color drain from her face and her eyes roll back in her head, helpless to do anything else. Only the gentle sound of shallow breathing, that he would not have picked up had he been human, alerted him to the fact that she was still with him. I should never have let you go in the first place, he told himself even as he thought of how he had ditched everything, thinking of nothing else but getting her to safety. He had picked her up in his arms, alarmed at just how light she had become. The last time he had carried her, she had been kicking and thrashing and doing everything in her power to get him to put her down. Now she was deathly still, her face so pale and her eye sockets going so black as she lay in a bed at the Silverdale Manor, that he felt as though h
"We are going to have to work quickly," Barach whispered. Though they had managed to secure themselves in one of the outer buildings on the industrial estate, just close enough to every point of the area that her spell would reach Layon and Jason no matter how far they moved, she knew all too well that the longer they remained, the more danger they were placing themselves in. Having added all the ingredients to the spell in the small cauldron she'd placed in the center of the room on a pile of old boxes, she had only one final thing to do. Holding two bundles of sage, lavender, and fennel in front of her with a lighter in her other hand, she pointed out, "This may well attract Tyson's wolves to our location, but I can't do the spell without it." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tyson stiffen. It was clear that he didn't like the thought of her being put in danger at all. She could feel his concern in the way he stared at her, feel it in the way his entire body tensed. Being
The pack was clearly restless. They stood all around the dining room awaiting Lester’s return, unable to stay still, several of them murmuring among themselves about what was taking so long. Tyson remained silent, watching Barach as he stood close by, unable to stray too far from her for too long. With everything going on, he was on edge and in full protection mode. Everyone fell silent the moment that Lester returned to the room and settled back into his seat at the head of the table. “So you’ve located her?” he asked, looking at Barach, who stood at the far end of the table, close to the doors, looking like an outsider. Even against Lester’s steady gaze, Tyson felt the urge to protect her, and he was barely able to stop himself from stepping between them. Barach nodded. “She’s in the industrial estate just as I said she’d be,” Jason snarled through gritted teeth and Lara, who had taken a seat beside him, quickly placed her hand on his shoulder again, warning him silently to be
When she had left, Silverdale had been on high alert, but on returning, things appeared to have gotten ten times worse. Though on the outside things looked entirely the same, the moment Tyson's truck passed through the gates and they closed automatically behind them, Barach felt as though a weight had landed heavily on top of her shoulders. She could practically feel the tense energy coursing throughout the streets of the locked community, and she was certain that something serious had to have happened since she left. If Tyson attacked us in New York, then he knew I wasn't keeping my eye on things here, Barach thought grimly, glancing at Tyson in the driver's seat to see if he had thought the same thing. Was the attack on us just a distraction from something going on here? It was clear from the way that he glanced at her, his hands gripped tightly to the steering wheel and his body so tense he looked like he might snap a bone, that he was having exactly the same thoughts. They wast
She tasted just as he might have expected, like cherries and cream, and her lips were plump and soft and smooth as if she were wearing Chapstick. When she opened them to him, he dipped his tongue into her mouth, tasting her further when she offered the same in response. They kissed as though it was their first and their one hundredth time all wrapped into one.Everything was heightened, the pleasure and desire and the sensation of having her close to him and yet he felt as though it was practiced, something they had done many times before, something they had been meant to do together. It was then that the need started to pulse between them. He could feel it coming off Barach in waves even as he realized he could fight his own urges no longer. When he felt her beginning to pull on the hem of his t-shirt, yanking it up over his muscular torso, he knew there was no turning back. Instinctively, he shrugged off his jacket, barely hearing its zips clattering onto the hardwood floor behin
The moment they stepped out of the truck, Tyson became even more on edge. He felt far too exposed standing out on the front steps of the shop, waiting for Barach to open it up. The shop itself was just as Tyson had expected. Two huge display windows out front were decorated with candles, gemstones and small statues, glass bottles and vials, and all manner of other witchy things. Even though the place was locked up tight, he could faintly smell the scent of all manner of herbs coming from under the front door and guessed that inside the smell would be almost intolerable. Though he hadn't been inside many witches’ shops, he had been in enough to know that his senses were about to be irritated big time. Gritting his teeth, he stood by, waiting for Barach to do what she needed to do. "Well, do you have a key or not?" he asked when she didn't pull one from her pocket. Glancing down at her, he realized there wasn't much chance of her having anything on her. All she was wearing was a v
Why the hell did I just tell him that? Barach thought grimly even as she relaxed back into the passenger seat of his truck and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. Although he was driving like a maniac, it wasn't that telling her she should have him stop the car. It wasn't even the fact that she was still feeling the urge to turn around and go back for her grandmother's body. It was the fact that she was suddenly alone with him, trapped in a confined space and with no hope of escape until the truck drew to a halt. The worst thing was, Barach wasn't sure she wanted to escape him. Although there was plenty of room inside the truck, Barach could sense how close their seats were, how easily she could reach out and touch him. No, this is not going to happen, she told herself firmly before she spoke aloud through gritted teeth, "We should go back." Tyson flashed an incredulous expression at her before turning his eyes back onto the road, still speeding well over the limit and g