Amazon (The Ushers 1) (8 page)

“When did you get so damned smart, Teddy?”

“I was born this way. Claim your mate. Take your place in her pack. I’ll handle Paddy.”

“I love you, bro,” Jack said, feeling the words burst out of him.

“Hey, no need to get mushy. We’re wolves and all. Just howl at me sometime.” Jack heard his younger brother’s laugh, and he ached to run with him.

“Teddy, thank you.”

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll add it to your tab. You’d better call Paddy. And Jackie. Congrats. I’m really happy for you and your mate. It’s a blessing.”

He hung up the phone. His hands buried themselves in his hair.
Bianca.
He wished they were already mated so that he could share the rush of feelings he felt. Fear at the prospect of severing from his pack, anticipation of belonging to her, always.
Almost there, darling.
He picked up his phone again for what would be one of the most difficult conversations of his life.

“Murphy.”

“Paddy, we need to talk.”

“Jack, have you found out anything new?”

His brother’s voice rushed through the telephone connection, and he felt himself bristle.

“Paddy, I am severing myself from Mid-Atlantic. I need to claim my mate.”

“You’re leaving the pack for a girl?” Paddy’s voice was incredulous.

“Patrick, you’re my big brother, and I love you. I’ve been your biggest supporter since we were kids. But you will not disrespect my mate. She is everything, and I will protect her,” he snarled.

“Damn it all, Jack, settle down,” his brother snarled back.

“Patrick Murphy, I am severing myself and my wolf from Mid-Atlantic. I will join Amazon Pack at the next full moon,” he intoned formally, knowing that as the words were said, he was losing his connection to all the other wolves who had been a part of him his whole life.

“Not all of us, big boy. You’re joining a new pack now,”
Kathy reminded him.

“Thanks, little sister,”
his wolf responded to her. “
You going to keep me company for a week and a half?”

“You won’t need me…”
He felt her slide away.

“Jack, this isn’t fucking over. But you are severed from Mid-Atlantic Pack. You are hereby stripped of rank and are considered a rogue wolf.”

Patrick’s voice carried the weight of Alpha, and Jack shuddered as he felt his connection to the pack cut. He threw his head back and howled his loss. Over the line, he heard his brother do the same. He ended the call without saying goodbye and returned to the room where the women waited for him.

“Jack.” Bianca’s face was calm, her eyes red. Sara sat next to her, holding her hand. Ellen and Kathy stood flanking Monica, who reached out to him, taking both of his hands in hers. She rubbed her cheek along his in a comforting manner.

“I will join Amazon Pack at the next full moon,” Jack said, still flinching from the loss of his pack. He met Monica’s eyes as he continued. “I believe, wholeheartedly, in what you mean to do. I severed from Mid-Atlantic Pack for you. Don’t fuck this up.”

“Thank you, Jack,” Monica said, cupping his face in her palm. “You’ll be a strong addition to our pack. Go with your mate. Spend some time together, complete the claiming, and create your bond. We’ll be here for you.”

Bianca stood and took his hand. He held to her like a life-raft. She wrapped an arm around his waist and tugged him toward the elevator. As they stumbled inside, he let his head fall to his chest, his breath tearing from him in a ragged sob against the pain. Bianca let the doors close and pushed the stop button.

“Jack.” She stroked his hair, hands feathering over the scruff of his second-day beard. “It’s going to be okay.”

His despair was palpable, a living thing that crowded them together in the elevator. Severing from a pack was agony, and most wolves would never do it willingly.

“I know, but it fucking hurts.” He gasped as if he’d just been running for his life, and she held him tightly. “I only have Kathy now.”

He felt weightless in a stomach-clenching, horrifying way, without the feel of Pack running through him. He realized this was what ghosts felt when their wolves had gone.

“No. You have me. Claim me, Jack. Mark me, and take me as yours.” She smiled, taking his hand and placing it at the back of her neck where he’d told her he’d bite her during the claiming. “When you mark me, we’ll be connected as deeply as two wolves can be, and I can anchor you until you join our pack.”

“Ahh, Bianca, I want you so much,” he said, pulling her pelvis in line with his.

“Then claim me, Jack. I have a room here, in one of the dormitories. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s mine, and we can be private there.” She tugged his face to hers, pressing her lips to his in a kiss, allowing all her passion to flow into him through that tenuous physical connection. All her reluctant yearning for a deeper connection touched him. Reaching out and releasing the stop button, she pushed the button for the ground floor as she sank into their kiss. This time, their kiss was lush and full of promise and acceptance. His sadness at leaving his pack transformed into a hunger to connect with her wolf on the deepest, most primitive level their kind knew. His teeth shifted in anticipation of the bite. He felt her run her tongue across them, and his heart swelled with tenderness.

He didn’t know how they made it out of the elevator and across the street to the dormitories without tearing each other’s clothes. It seemed to him that they barely took their hands off each other, but the next thing he knew, they were in another elevator, with a pair of giggling females watching them with bemused eyes. Bianca blushed and smiled at him. When the doors opened and she dragged him down a hall, he threw his head back and laughed a sound of tortured desperation. Agony and bliss so close together, he felt like he must be on the verge of losing his sanity. She fumbled in her pocket, producing a key ring triumphantly and managing to get the key in the door and turn it while he pulled her close and nipped at her ear. She groaned, forcing the door open and pulling him behind her. He pushed the door shut with his foot, and she locked it behind him.

“No more waiting, Bianca,” he said firmly, pulling her hard against him. “You’re mine.”

“You’re mine,” she replied with a smile, lavender eyes meeting his brown ones, darkened to near black with passion.

He growled, showing her his elongated fangs. The sight sent a rush of desire through her, and she clenched her legs together with a moan.

“Take off your clothes, and lay on your back on the bed,” he ordered, pointing.

Her eyes widened. She had fantasized about him as a dominant lover, and he was giving her that fantasy. With shaking fingers, she stripped off her clothes and lay down. She watched as he removed his shoes and then his shirt. He unbuttoned his jeans, and she saw his arousal. Her eyes closed, and her tongue darted out to moisten her bottom lip. His gaze, sweeping like fire across her body, made her drip with want. She tossed her head back, feeling her teeth lengthen, and a tight tingling pleasure bloomed in her.

His fingertip feathered a touch over her knee, sending another wave of heat through her. “Open your eyes, Bianca.” His voice was as rough as her breathing.

She opened them, and her breath caught. He stood naked before her, a lupine Adonis, his hard body chiseled perfection. A current of need rushed through her. Had she thought him beautiful clothed only in moonlight, in the harsh reality of a single fluorescent fixture, rather than exposing flaws, his perfection was confirmed. Rather than looking weary and wan in the shadow of severance, he looked fierce—voracious.

“Jack, you’re beautiful,” she said, meaning it with every fiber of her soul.

“I have nothing on you, Bianca. You’re my home now.” His voice was a caress, achingly sweet and sensual.

He lay down beside her on the bed, tracing her face with one finger. As he passed it over her lush bottom lip, she nipped at it. He felt a surge of heat and tenderness as he felt the sharpened tips of her teeth. His mate. His wolf was at the very edge, pushing his need forward, and he could see hers shimmering about her eyes. Slowly, he began caressing her beautiful body, running one hard hand down her belly and then up her side and over one perfect breast. She arched into his hand, and he teased at the nipple with his thumb, a light caress, feeling the little nub stiffen under his hand. He didn’t take his eyes from hers as he treated the other nipple to the same light touch. Impatient, she grabbed his hands, knocking him off balance as she pressed them hard onto her breasts, holding them to her as she worked them in tight circles. He smiled into her eyes, and she let go of his hands as he continued the caresses. She reached for his chest, running her fingers over it, flicking his own nipples with her fingers and feeling them harden. Her eyes rolled back a bit as she groaned. He could feel how turned on she was, heat radiating off her in waves. The scent of her arousal wrapped around them, the smell of musky feminine fantasy.

“Tell me,” he demanded, his voice husky as he rolled on top of her.

“Wh-What?” she whimpered.

“Tell me what you’re feeling. I want to know how it feels to you. You feel so amazing under my hands, and I’m so hungry for you, I feel like if I don’t get inside you now, I’m going to die. I want to know how it feels to you. Tell me.”

“Oh, goddess…” she groaned, and he took his hands away, forcing an inarticulate sound, hoarse and angry from her.

“Tell me, Bianca, and I’ll give you what you want.” His voice was smoky, dark, and she shuddered at the tone of control.

“I feel like I’m on fire. I can’t get enough of you, Jack,” she began, and he bowed his head to lick at her breasts. Encouraged, she buried her hands in his hair and continued, “And when you do that, it’s like you’re fanning the flames a little. I get hotter, and wetter, and I feel like little electric impulses are shooting from my breasts straight to my cunt.”

His head whipped up, a feral gleam in his eyes. “I like it when you use words like cunt. It’s hot,” he praised, raising an eyebrow at her and sucking the nipple into his mouth.

She arched.

“And when you do that, it’s like being wound up, so much tension coiling, and I can’t keep still.” Her hips began to undulate against him, reinforcing her words. “I’m so achy, and I have so much want inside me, it’s…oh! It’s like being drawn into a vortex, everything is so hot and rushed feeling, and I’m on the edge of being torn away from everything I know.”

He remembered her words from the car, describing being able to come just from having her breasts touched. He bit gently at one nipple while pinching the other hard between the sides of his index and middle fingers, scissoring against them.

“Oh, Jack! It’s so intense, darling, I…”

She stopped, panting, and he released the nipple for long enough to whisper,

“That’s it, love, come for me.” And he redoubled the efforts at her breasts while she shattered, her hips bucking and her limbs shaking as she came, just from his caresses on her nipples.

“Aaahhhh! Jack!” she cried out, pushing his head away from her suddenly too-sensitive breasts, the shudders racking her body overwhelming her. He took her in his arms, held her tight against him as her crisis passed.

“Not enough, dammit.” She groaned. “Jack, I need you.”

“Oh, sweet, you’re so impatient,” he teased.

Her eyes flew open, the pale violet-gray piercing him as a growl rumbled from her throat. Her wolf was speaking to his in a language deeper than lust.

“Fuck,” he swore, laying her back down on the bed and kneeling between her legs.

She reached for his erection, but he slapped her hands back and bent to eat at her pussy, as if he were determined to hold out until she’d come over and over. She cried out and arched against him, rocking her hips in time to his thrusting tongue. He held her ass in his hands, his shoulders keeping her legs spread as he teased her clit, circling and putting pressure just
there
on the underside where she’d described when she was driving.

“You taste better than anything I’ve ever imagined in my life, Bianca,” he said, teasing at her some more. “You taste like honey and salt and heaven.” He slipped his tongue into her, piercing her with it as her hips bucked up against him.

She was scared now, the waves of mindless lust and incoherent need tearing down her carefully-crafted independence. She was giving it to him, putting it in his hands for the taking.

“Jack,” she growled, trying to sit up.

He held her in place, continuing to tease at her silken folds until she surrendered and lay back down with a throaty groan. He reached one hand around her hip and pinched her swollen clit, once, twice, rubbing at it hard, and then grinned his satisfaction against her as she came again, her body hurtling into the orgasm and a stunned sound coming from her throat. He gentled his caresses as the orgasm ebbed from her body. The sounds she had made had worked his wolf nearly to a frenzy, and he had to have her now.

“Bianca, I can’t wait any longer.” His voice was unrecognizable, throaty and hoarse with his need.

Lavender eyes met his once again, and she smiled tenderly as she rolled to her belly, pulling her knees up, sending her pretty ass up toward the ceiling.

He covered her body with his own and whispered in her ear.

“I need you, my mate. I can’t wait to be bonded to you so that you can know how much.” Hands gripping her hips, he gently pushed inside her, a hiss of pleasure escaping his lips as she pushed back against him. “Goddess, love, you’re so tight,” he gasped.

She growled his name, calling up his wolf as if it were hers to beckon…and it was. He let the mating instinct take over, thrusting into her again and again, feeling her body getting hotter and wetter around him.

Bianca thought she would explode. He had brought her twice, and now that he was inside her, she felt heated, stretched to capacity, and so very close to him. She felt more animal than human at that moment, her wolf rearing back to seize her mate. Her teeth were tingling, sharp and sweet with the need to mark him.

Her head tossed back as she felt the overwhelming tension building again, laced with her desire to belong to this man, this wolf. Jack growled against her ear, and she knew he was close, too. Sweeping her hair to one side, exposing the back and side of her neck, she needed his mark, his claim. He kissed from her ear down to the back of her neck so tenderly, she wanted to weep. His tongue swept across her neck in a teasing caress, and she shook in anticipation. He grabbed her by the hair with one hand and turned her head to look at him. The tug on her hair was almost enough to push her over the edge, but she held back.