Amazon (The Ushers 1) (9 page)

“I want you to claim me, too.” The words came out of his throat as barely more than a whisper.

She nodded her understanding, and he let go of her hair, placing his hand over her mouth. He leaned forward and bit down on her neck, pinning her beneath his driving hips. She cried out against the hand cupping her mouth and then bit down into the flesh of his palm. She felt their connection sweep through her as she exploded a third time, coming around him as her wolf sank sharpened teeth into his hand. He growled around her neck, and she felt him swell impossibly bigger before he came, releasing his seed into her body as he let go of her neck and licked at the drops of blood that had formed where he broke the skin.

Mated.

She rolled over underneath him as he withdrew, and she tugged him down beside her. She picked up his hand and kissed and licked at the little wounds her teeth had caused, and he felt her through the connection they now shared, a curious wonder working its way through her—wonder at the depth of the connection, the bond growing stronger as they lay there and held each other. Appreciation of the gift the Mother had chosen for her people.

“Thank you.”
He sent the thought to her and watched her eyes close and a very lupine smile cross her lips.

“I…I’m amazed by this, Jack. I don’t know if it’s love, but I know it’s changing me.”

Her thought felt like a caress to his spirit, which had so recently felt the despair of severing from his pack.

She kissed his shoulder, rubbing her face against him, tying their scents together.
“You still hurt.”

It wasn’t a question. Yes, he could feel the pain of severance still. But it had lightened so much as their bond formed, scaled back to something more manageable.

“You saved me; you’re my anchor.”

“Hmmm, well, you know you’ll have to return the favor someday.”
The thought was light, tinged with a smile, but underneath, he felt her mind flicker to Sara, and the sacrifice they had discussed in the tense meeting in Monica’s apartment. God, was that only an hour ago? It filled him with sadness that he wouldn’t be able to spare her that.

“Lovely, don’t bring your mate down.”
He felt Sara’s rebuke to Bianca, knowing that Sara could touch him now, too, because of his connection to Bianca. He found it comforting and he sent a gentle thought of thanks to Sara for sharing her connection, for knowing how every connection counted in the loneliness of severance from his pack.

“Sorry.”
Bianca’s thought was sheepish. He could feel her somewhat shutting the door she’d opened by thinking of Sara, and he held her tightly to his chest. Suddenly, he found himself selfishly glad for this time with her—wolves by nature were territorial, but not selfish. He found his feelings for his mate confounded everything he expected. Through their connection, he felt her satisfaction.

“You owe me three more…”
He poked her slightly, just because he could.

“Three more what?”
her sleepy thought touched him.

He smiled against her hair.

“I told you I’d make you come six ways from Sunday, and I’ve only counted three so far…Hmmm…let me rest a bit, and we’ll take care of that, okay?”

“If the lady needs her rest…”
He let the thought trail off affectionately as he snuggled her close. He’d never felt so close to another wolf as they wrapped around each other to doze off in a state of bliss.

B
IANCA
A
WOKE
S
LOWLY
, stretching her limbs, which were achy and tender. She touched the mark on the back of her neck and shivered with desire. It was incredible, the way mating to Jack had amplified what was already an overwhelming desire to touch him, feel his skin against hers. She sighed and snuggled closer to the warm wall of his chest, feeling his steady breath in her hair. She felt his awareness opening up to hers and realized he was waking, too. She smiled against his skin and then pressed a kiss to the satiny flesh that covered his ribcage.

“Hi there,” she whispered.

“Hi.”

She looked up into his amused brown eyes and sensed only satisfaction emanating from him. Well, satisfaction and a little something else.

“Little?”
he teased her, sounding more amused than wounded.

“Ha! I forgot how sensitive you dudes are about those things.”

“Things? You mean my big hard cock that is just aching to take a lovely white wolf for a ride?”

She sat up, sputtering and blushing, refusing to meet his eyes. She covered her face with both hands as she fought back a giggle. He reached up and tickled her vulnerable side, left exposed when she covered her face. The giggle turned into a guffaw, which turned into a snort, which turned him on to no end, and the next thing she knew, she was flipped over on her back, her knees pushed up to her ears, and he was inside her with a groan and a stretch that echoed through their connection.

“Goddess, woman, what you do to me.” He shook his head and thrust, his teeth clenched in need.

“It’s nothing you don’t do to me.” She sighed, taking him deep and stretching back, exposing her delicate throat to him. He leaned forward and licked at the pulse he saw there before tenderly touching his teeth to her throat. He didn’t bite down, just touched her there enough to make her shudder and arch against him. He picked up the pace of his thrusts, taking her hard and fast. That touch of his teeth threw her onto the precipice before orgasm, and she wanted to fall into it, to fall into him, recklessly.

This was what Sara had wanted—a big fucking distraction for Bianca all wrapped up in a pretty Jack-shaped box. As much as she wanted this, craved it, couldn’t possibly do without it, she couldn’t help but feel a flash of resentment for what she knew had to happen. He turned his head and bit down hard on her shoulder, breaking the skin slightly and marking her again. That was all it took to send her over the edge with his name on her lips. As her shudders subsided, she leaned forward and bit down on his shoulder, sending him off the same precipice. Through their connection, she felt his orgasm like lightning down her spine as he thrust into her one more time.

“When has it ever been like this?”
Jack tried to remember laughing in bed with a woman turning into maddening lust and couldn’t remember it ever happening like that before. The majority of his sexual experience had been the satisfaction of physical needs; friendship and affection were part of it, but this woman’s laugh made him crave her.

“I crave you, too, you know,” she said, a delicate white finger tracing along his face. “And I like that you make me laugh. My wolf needs it. I lead a pretty serious life. You know, all that ‘chosen one’ stuff.”

He watched the emotions crowd her face, felt her annoyance, resentment, resignation.

“Speaking of needs…Are you hungry?”

“Mmmmm…maybe. But not enough to get dressed just yet.”

“You’re going to need your energy, White Wolf,” he said, sitting up in the bed and taking her hand. “I have plans for you.” He waggled a dark brow at her, and she laughed again and sat up.

“Is that so? Well, I guess we’d best go eat, then.” She threw a pillow in his face and stood.

He half-reclined on the bed, watching her cross the room to a small closet, her lovely pale ass swaying. She kicked his jeans at him with a flick of a foot from the floor, and he caught them easily. She pulled a dress from the closet and slipped it over her head. The dress was a soft blue color that made him think of a cloudless sky. It clung to her curves in all the right places, and he groaned, suddenly having second thoughts about food.

“Oh no, lover boy. We need to keep our energy up. I still owe you two more, and I always pay my debts,” she teased, her lavender eyes sparkling.

“Witch,” he growled, tugging his T-shirt over his head. He tugged her close to him and tilted her face up, making her meet his eyes. “I’m not a distraction, mate.”

A guilty red flush pooled in her cheeks, and he knew he’d gotten it right. The resentment in her mind, that had been for him. For this. Whether she didn’t think she deserved the happiness, or thought she wasn’t entitled to it without a price tag, he wasn’t sure. But he wasn’t about to let her treat him as anything less than her partner. He took her face between his hands and kissed her, teasing at her with gentleness until she relaxed and leaned into the kiss.

Hand in hand, they walked to the cafeteria building, each enjoying the warmth of the other’s touch. He held the door open for her, and she gave him a look that said she was pleased, if a little embarrassed, by it. They took their food to a table farther apart from others, and ate quietly. Nonetheless, several wolves came by to say hello and to congratulate them on their mating. Jack was impressed with how each wolf who addressed him was precise and polite and gave him exactly the respect he was due as Second, though he hadn’t officially joined their pack. None seemed resentful of his presence, though none lingered, either.

“So, I’m sure you have responsibilities,” he said at last. “Do you need to go to work?”

“Well, yes and no. Ellen and Kathy can take care of a lot of things and call me if something needs my attention. Right now, the important thing is you. We’re going to have to determine how we’ll approach your brother about our bid for recognition. We still want him to call for a council.”

Good. Something they could work at together. A way he could be helpful for more than just fucking.

“He’s pissed at me,” Jack said, considering his oldest brother. “But I believe that if it makes sense for his pack, he’ll do it. He’s a good Alpha. Just kind of a dick.”

“Who is going to take your place as Guardian? Ted?”

“Maybe. Ted is strong, smart, and tough. Either him or Fionn. Paddy might put Fionn on the job to keep him out of trouble.”

“There’s a story there.”

It wasn’t a question. He’d told her that Fionn liked the ladies, but really, it went far beyond that. He searched for the words to describe his charismatic youngest brother.

“He screws around…a lot. With humans. To top that off, he’s the best-looking one of us by a long shot, and the girls are wild for him. Exposure risk goes way up when you have a wolf like Fionn in your pack.”

“Yeah, I can see how that would be. Why is he such a hound?”

“He met a woman about twenty years ago, was smitten with her. Convinced himself they were mates. She didn’t agree and left—moved across the country to get away from him. He never got over her, and he fucks to forget.”

“That’s awful. Any chance they were actually mates?”

Jack tried to imagine meeting his mate just after coming of age and shifting for the first time. So young for such a commitment. His brother’s broken-hearted pining for the woman had lasted years and set forth a pattern of reckless behavior that continued to this day.

“I suppose there might be, especially if she felt she had to put that much distance between them. It just about destroyed him. But he was barely more than a pup.”

“Poor Fionn. Poor woman. What a horrible situation all around.” She frowned.

He took her hand. “Let’s not waste too much pity on Fionn—he’s gotten more pussy in the last twenty years than any wolf has a right to. Thank the Mother we don’t carry STDs. As it is, he has two human children, each with a different mother. He loves his kids, but they aren’t Pack, so there is a huge exposure risk for him to spend time with them. They think he travels a lot for work, and that’s why he’s never contested the mother’s custody.” He could feel her empathy for his brother, and he appreciated the way she cared.

“How would Patrick feel about you speaking to Ted?” she asked, one pale eyebrow arched at him.

“He would expect me to call Ted. We’re family, and we’ve always been close. He would be pissed at Ted for sharing information since I’m not a pack-mate anymore, so I wouldn’t expect Ted to talk about anything important.” He sighed. He would miss Ted the most of his former pack, but what was done was done, and they were still family. He’d still be able to commune with them when he visited. He believed that, even though he was severed, he could still trust all three of his brothers.

“At least you have that.” Bianca smiled at him, speaking to his thought more than his words as she took his hand. “Now, I want to hear about those plans you spoke of earlier.”

“Hmmm. That’s a conversation that should happen in private.” He winked at her.

“Then let’s go somewhere private, Jack.” Her smile was full of promise.

Damn, I’m a lucky dog.
Jack grinned as he stood up and followed her back to her—no, their—little room.

That night, an old nightmare came to haunt Jack:

He was on an island, soaking wet and mosquito bitten. He was huddled into a tent with another man—a human—and they were trying to sleep. The moon was nearly full; he had only a day or two before he would shift. He knew it was coming, could feel it, his wolf growing restless within. He needed sleep more than ever, but his bunkmate was sick. He’d been having diarrhea for days, had a fever, and was covered in sweat even though it was cold at night. Jack hugged his knees to his chest, watching the other man shake with fever. He drifted to sleep and woke up clinging to a corpse.

“Jack? Jack! Wake up!” Bianca’s voice roused him from the grasp of the dream, and he felt her warmth creeping into his skin.

“Bee?” He cupped her face with his palm. “Oh, thank goddess.” He sighed heavily and sat up.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

“About what?” His face was wooden, hard and unemotional, but he knew she could feel his upheaval through the bond.

“About whatever makes you cry out in your sleep. About whatever is making you try to hide your pain from your mate. Which you can’t do, by the way. We’re connected much deeper than that.”

Jack sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face.

“War,” he answered finally. “Sometimes, when I’m asleep, I remember the war. I was a lieutenant in the Navy, but out there, the mosquitoes didn’t care. They bit us all with equal enthusiasm, officers and enlisted men alike. And the mosquitoes were gentle compared to the diseases. The first time I saw a dead body, it was my bunkmate. He’d been sick—a fever. I woke up, and he was gone.” Jack’s eyes closed. “And that was before I started leading men into enemy fire. I knew I’d heal, the Japanese weren’t firing on us with silver bullets after all, but those boys—they were just boys, my marines—they wouldn’t. They thought I was some kind of miraculously lucky bastard, but in the end, I was the one who had to watch my men die. I would have rather died myself.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I served my country, Bianca, and it was horrible.”

Bianca clung to Jack as he started to shake in her arms. She murmured soothing whispers against his ears, stroking his hair with her hands. When the first sob racked his sturdy frame, she tightened her hold on him. As wave after wave of grief washed through him, she rocked him in her arms, sending her love and peace through the bond until his sobs quieted. She gently eased his head down to the bed, stroking his face. She snuggled into the vee of his shoulder and held him until they both drifted off to sleep.

When Jack awoke from that thankfully dreamless sleep, he felt Bianca’s hand pressed to his chest. He picked it up in his own hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. He thought of the way she’d cradled him in her arms as he’d sobbed the night before, and he felt a pang of sadness at what mating him would bring her. His nightmares would haunt her now, too; through their bond, she’d feel the terror and the grief and the rage of war.

“It’s okay, Jack.” Her voice was husky with sleep. “We all have nightmares.”

“Mine isn’t one I’d wish on anyone.” He sighed.

“It’s not so horrible, the feeling I get from you when you’re dreaming. It’s muffled. It’s okay, really. I’m not experiencing it firsthand the way you did.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” At least he could spare her that. “Thank you for waking me up last night. And for…well, for being there.”

“You’re welcome.” She pressed a kiss to his chest before meeting his eyes. “I’m here because this is where I belong. With you.”

He smiled at her as he vowed to himself to lock the nightmares away as much as possible. He felt a confused tenderness from her and realized it mirrored something growing in him. He hesitated, in the aftermath of his severance, to name the attachment, but he could be patient. He’d know soon enough, wouldn’t he?