Demon Dreams (3 page)

Alec came to his knees in front of me and nuzzled my breast, then his tongue snaked out and licked the stiff peak. Even though I couldn’t see his hand, the movement of his shoulder and hips made it clear he was fucking his fist as he started to tongue my nipple in earnest.

“Now, Alec!” Samuel’s order came at the same time he lifted my left leg at the knee, spreading me open as he plunged his fingers into me as far as they would go, then he fucked me with them fast and hard as his thumb flicked my clit. Alec sucked my nipple hard and I threw my head back and keened as I came on Samuel’s hand.

Alec moaned against my breast, still sucking and licking as he stiffened.

Samuel groaned against my shoulder as he rocked against my ass harder. I felt wet heat dampening the fabric on my backside and the front of my thigh.

It was that sensation that had me coming out of the fog of desire.

Wait? What? Oh Christ, was this really happening?

“Shh, Becca.” Samuel’s whisper had me sinking back into the soft haze. “Shh…sleep now, Sweetness. It was only a dream.”

As I followed his instructions a part of me wished that it hadn’t been.

* * * *

“Samuel, did you have to do that?” Alec asked in a harsh whisper as I was carried in his arms.

“Yes. She was starting to freak out,” Samuel’s weary voice answered him. “She’s not ready yet, Alec.”

Alec gently laid me down on the bed. “I don’t know how much longer I can hang on.”

A part of me responded to the emotion in his voice and tried to wake but a soft, unintelligible whisper dragged me back down.

Alec continued, “It took everything I had not to pin her to the floor and claim her.”

“You have to hang on a little longer.”

Alec gave a bitter laugh. “I’ve been waiting over eighteen years.”

“So have I, but if we push too hard she could run from us.” Samuel’s finger traced my cheek. “I know she will be everything we’ve prayed for but we have to ease her into it or…” He sighed. “She’s worth the wait.”

Alec took my hand. “Yes, she is… and so much more. I’m just afraid of not being strong enough to give her the time she needs.” He sighed. “We shouldn’t have touched her tonight.”

“I know, but Gods, her desire and need were so sweet… and strong. I have never felt anything like that before… I couldn’t walk away from her, could you?”

“No. When I saw the way she watched me… No, I would’ve done anything for her then.” Alec sighed. “And now for that matter.”

There was silence then I felt them leave the room and the dream faded away.

Chapter Two

When my eyes opened, I had to blink at the sunlight leaking through the blue curtains. I was naked. Confused, I turned to the dresser. My clothes were still folded, right where I had left them.

More dreams? What the hell is in this mountain air?

After another minute, I stumbled into the bathroom and started getting ready. I had a few brief moments of déjà vu like when I automatically reached for the shampoo in the shower without having to look for it or check the bottle.
Weird.

Even stranger was when I went to shave only to see I didn’t have nearly the stubble I had thought I had. Almost as if I…

No, not possible.

My thoughts drifted as I towel dried my hair, and fragments of the dreams teased the outer edges of my mind. And not just the sexy ones either.

It was almost as if I’d had a lifetime of dreams in one night.

Most had been of me as a young girl, playing in the woods near Papa’s cabin. My times spent there had been some of the happiest of my life, so dreaming of that time hadn’t surprised me. But dreaming of playing with a wolf had.

Now I remembered that I used to dream of that wolf often back then. Chasing after him and squealing with laughter when he had let me catch him and a voice teasing and laughing along with us as we played.

A voice that I almost recognized.

More and more fragments came to me as I brushed out my hair. How could I possibly have had that many dreams in one night? And why did they feel almost… real?

I shook off the dreams as best I could.
You have other things to worry about, Becca.

Wasn’t that the fucking truth? After securing my hair in a thick French braid that went halfway down my back, I straightened up the bathroom, wiping over the tub to clean up any hair I had left behind. When I finished making the bed I realized I couldn’t put off facing the day any longer.

Alec and Samuel were already up, sitting on stools by the long, narrow island, and they had steaming mugs of coffee in their hands. The rich aroma had me salivating. “Is there any more?”

“Oh yeah. Alec fixed an industrial-sized pot this morning. There’s sugar and sweetener in the cabinet right above the coffee maker. Milk is in the fridge if you like that.” Samuel smirked at Alec. “There’s also three containers of a white chocolate raspberry creamer that he’s addicted to.”

Alec’s shoulders hunched slightly, obviously a bit embarrassed. “Hey, it’s good stuff.”

His eyes widened as I hurried to the fridge and pulled out a creamer bottle. When I hugged it to me and called it
my precious
Alec started laughing. “Glad I’m not the only one who does that.”

I doctored up a huge, Alec-sized mug of coffee and joined them at the island, grateful when they let me drink in silence.

But I should’ve known it wouldn’t last.

Samuel exchanged a look with Alec then he spoke. “Becca, the power is back on now and so is the Wi-Fi.”

A sinking sensation formed in my belly as I watched him hesitate over his next words.

“I went online to the local news station, for the weather reports—your picture came up.  It’s one of the top news stories,” Samuel said.

I could feel the color draining from my face and gave a bitter laugh as I wondered how long I had before cops showed up. “Let me guess. I’m a person of interest in the murder of my boss?” I clenched my fists against the need to just lie down and give up.
No, I won’t make it easy for David.

Samuel nodded while Alec said gently, “We haven’t told anyone you’re here.”

My mouth dropped open as I nearly fell over in relief. “Why?”

Samuel shrugged. “When we brought you in, you had hypothermia. You rambled a bit in your sleep and said some things. We thought at first that it may have been just some bad dreams but when I read the story…Well, I wondered.”

“What did I say?” Not that it mattered.
Why would they believe me?

“You said Tony. That’s your boss, right?” At my nod he continued, “You were scared and told him to look out, that David had a knife. There wasn’t much else.”

Alec took my shaking hand in his. “You can trust us.”

Could I really?

What choice did I have? Even if I couldn’t convince them about what really happened I owed them truth. No…I
wanted
to give them the truth.

So I took a deep breath and started from the beginning. “I live and work in a small town in the Oklahoma panhandle, at a small diner attached to the truck stop. There’s this cop that came in a lot. Flirted with me.” I sighed. “I thought he was cute, not that it matters.”

Alec gave a soft growl that had Samuel shooting him a warning look before saying, “Okay.”

“I worked days but that night I stopped by in the middle of the night. I had gotten back from visiting a friend in Enid, a few hours away. Decided to get a drink before going home. When I got out I heard Tony’s voice from behind the diner. I had also seen the police car in the parking lot, so I was concerned.” I grimaced as I remembered my stupidity. “Tony liked to get BJ’s from the hookers that frequent truck stops. He’d give them free food and stuff like that. A place they could clean up and rest. He’d also warn them who to stay away from.” I remembered Tony explaining himself to me when I had caught him. I also thought of all the small kindnesses I had seen from him, to me and others. I shrugged as I tried to defend him. “He was a little sleazy, but he wasn’t a bad guy.” It bothered me that they might not understand.

“Okay, you’re the one that knew him. Keep going,” Alec said when I paused.

I took a deep breath as I saw it unfold again. The flash of the knife as it caught the light from one of the parking lot lights. “I looked around the corner and David, the cop I told you about, he had Tony pinned against the wall. There was a girl on the ground, not moving. Then I saw David stab Tony.”

“And you ran.” Samuel’s gentle voice was understanding.

“Yeah, I did call the police in Guymon, the next closest town, but the person I talked to berated me for making a crank call about a good cop, so I didn’t give my name. I didn’t have to. My roommate Katie called a few minutes later to say the cops were looking for me.”

“David?” Alec growled.

“Yes. He must’ve seen me.” I rubbed my face. “Likely decided I’d make a good patsy. So now it’s my word against his.”

Samuel titled his head. “There was no mention of a second body. Just that the diner had been robbed and the owner had interrupted it.”

“I thought this crap only happened on TV.” I slumped in my chair. “I didn’t know what to do so I came here. I hoped Papa’s cabin was empty and I could hide while I thought about what to do.”

Alec and Samuel moved next to me and pulled me to my feet. Samuel comforted me, “We’ll help you figure it out.”

When they hugged me between them I finally let myself go and cried out my fear over the danger I was in. I didn’t want to be locked away in a prison. And, not the least of all, my grief over a man that had been a friend even if he had been far from an angel.

* * * *

We spent the next few days preparing for the next storm that was going to hit. Since it was supposed to be much worse than the few inches that fell the other night, Samuel and Alec had run to the closest town, which was about thirty minutes or so away.

I wanted to pull my own weight so I had volunteered to help with the cooking and so they had offered to pick up whatever I needed along with the other items.

Alec and Samuel had chopped an unbelievable amount of wood and I had helped them stack the more seasoned ones in the woodshed off the back porch. They had assured me that if we lost power again that we would be well stocked for weeks if needed.

I almost hoped we were snowed in for that long because I would be able to use that as excuse to keep hiding. I knew I would eventually have to figure out where to go to report my side of things.

But I felt safe here.

Even more than that, I just didn’t want to leave Alec and Samuel. I still dreamed nightly. Vivid dreams of wolves and more. Being loved by two faceless men.

And during the day I imagined Alec’s and Samuel’s faces when I thought about the dreams.

I wanted to thank them, so I scrubbed and scoured the entire cabin while they were gone. The bedding Alec used at night was washed and folded on the coffee table. I had tried to convince him to let me sleep on the sofa but he had insisted on my using his bed. He said I needed the privacy.

Samuel had volunteered to let me have his room so Alec could sleep in his own bed again but had dropped it quickly when Alec had given a low rumble, almost a growl, of anger.

As much as I loved the cabin, I wanted to stretch my legs before I was snowed in again. So I bundled up in Samuel’s coat and the extra pair of boots he’d given me, then wandered outside. I remembered to take a large stone with me, one that would make a good mark on trees so I would be able to find my way back.

After exploring for about twenty minutes, I decided I’d better head back before the cold started to get to me.  About halfway there I heard a sound. It didn’t quite fit with the previous noises. I swallowed down the lump in my throat as I realized there was movement among the trees.

I saw gray fur out of the corner of my eye and my first reaction was a stunned joy. But I saw another flash and then another.

We were on the fringe of the Rockies in Colorado. There were not supposed to be any wolves left in the wild here.  A memory of a news report stating that a gray wolf had been killed in Colorado, the speculation that they were making a comeback came to the forefront of my mind.
Oh fuck!

The three wolves weren’t hiding any longer. They stepped from the shadows, about thirty or forty feet away, and I froze, dropping my eyes enough that I would not be challenging them. If they had seen me as prey I would already be dead. They must be trying to figure out if I was a threat so I tried to calm my heart but it was no use.

The one on my left started to growl. Then another joined in. Still I held my ground and stayed motionless. There was no point in running.

Then I heard a voice cut through the crisp air.

“Becca!”

Alec!

The sound caused the wolves to growl more menacingly and edge closer.

Oh God, Alec has no idea!

I carefully slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled out the cell the guys had given me while they were gone. I slid my gaze down just enough to shoot Alec a quick text.

Wolves!

The fur on the back of the wolves raised up as the growls intensified. I swallowed as I realized they were going to help David out with his little witness problem.

David, you bastard! I hope Karma makes you its godamned bitch!

The wolves burst into motion, and I spun on my heel and ran. It was futile, I knew, but my survival instinct stepped the fuck up and took the wheel. I could hear the wolves gaining on me as I ran. Then I saw another one running from the direction I was fleeing to. It was bigger and it howled in fury and flashed vicious fangs.

I had been surrounded and hadn’t even known. The larger one was almost to me and I instinctively dropped to the ground and balled up my body. I couldn’t hold back my scream as it reached me.

Then my scream cut off in shock as it sailed over me. My head whipped around in time to see it land on a smaller wolf and rip out its throat in a matter of seconds. The other two wolves quickly attacked. I heard the sounds of vicious fighting as I rolled away and clambered to my feet, intending to run when I heard the large wolf cry out in pain.

And somehow I knew it was him.

I spun back around to see him standing over the body of another one. The last of the three smaller wolves was racing away. I was frozen in place as I watched him stagger forward before stopping. His soft whine had me moving forward as scenes played in my mind.

Chasing a wolf through the grass.

Pulling a fluffy tail as he yipped in delight.

Collapsing to the ground to catch my breath as a furry body lay down next to me.

A bear lumbering toward me.

Strong arms holding me tight.

Gold eyes and smooth voice.

“Sleep, Sweetness.”

The pieces clicked in my mind and suddenly I understood. Not dreams.
Oh God, not dreams!

I slowly walked to the wolf as I realized where I had truly been running to when I had come here.