Excessive Force (Force of Nature Series) (12 page)

“That was right fine.”
Ethan couldn’t eat anything else with this man sitting across from him, and wasn’t surprised when he said he’d take what he’d not eaten. Before he killed the man outright, he got up and went to the bedroom for a few seconds to regain control. His temper wasn’t the best when he was stressed out, and he was afraid of killing the man in the hotel room, and people knowing it was him. The phone ringing startled him.

“People
are going to think you had something to do with his brother’s death if you keep him around you.” Ethan knew the voice. It was the man from the cemetery. “He murdered his own brother and will more than likely try and kill you if I don’t miss my bet.”

“Who is this? How
did you know he was here?” Ethan looked around the room when he heard the old man laugh. “You’re not human, are you?”

“Got it in one.” The man laughed again.
“You’re not nearly as stupid as I first thought you were. But have you figured out who I am yet? Have you a clue who I might be from your past?”

The line went dead
, and Ethan held the receiver in his hand like he was expecting someone to take it from him. The man knew that Curt was there. That frightened him more than he could think, because if he knew and the stupid man turned up dead, he’d know he’d done it. Ethan put the receiver down and went to the living room where Curt was laying back on the couch and sleeping. The moron had covered himself with the otherwise unused napkin like it was a blankie. Ethan sat down to think.

She wasn’t Jodie Turner
, and she wasn’t related to this man. So killing him would only link him to the murder as well as his brother’s death. The man on the phone knew him from sometime in the past, and Ethan had a feeling it wasn’t something that was nice. He glared at the fucking bastard across from him. This was not turning out to be nearly as easy as he’d hoped.

The wolf
that had been holding her was his only hope. If he could get the man to see reason and give her up, he’d be home free and whatever powers that she had would be his. He’d no doubt that she’d never even realized she had them and she did have a great many. She was going to be his, and soon too. He needed what she had desperately. Ethan decided to let the man sleep while he tried to think who the caller was. He closed his eyes, and instead of thinking about his looks, concentrated instead on his voice.

In all his years
, he’d met up with millions of beings like the old man. But he didn’t think the man was human, and now that he knew the man was someone from his past for sure, he no longer thought he was as old looking as he’d thought. His first thought was vampire and he went with that.

There were nine or ten of them that he’d had dealings with in the recent past. Three he’d killed
, so he knew that it couldn’t be them, and the other half dozen or so would never have contacted him. But he still thought about their voice. No, none of them. As he was trying to think about other beings, he came back to the vampires. He just knew it was them.

One in particular kept at him. This man, a very old and very strong vampire
, had been chasing him for some reason. Not that it mattered, but Ethan thought of the dead man anyway. There was something so…Ethan opened his eyes, staring at nothing while the incident with the man played out.

“You’ll not get it,” the man
had said to him as he held the book tightly to his chest. “It’s not for a man like you.”

Ethan tried to concentrate on the book to think what it had been when it occurred to him.
It was the book of vampires, the beginning. Ethan thought it was called the
Book of Life
. The first book that they’d brought when vampires first came here.

“I’ll have it and kill you for thwarting my plans.”
Ethan had moved forward toward the vamp only to come up against a wall. The vamp had been stronger than he’d thought, and for a small second that had made him nervous. And when he was nervous, Ethan used his magic as if he had so much to spare, when in reality back then, he’d had very little. He was pulling from the elements, stealing what wasn’t his, when the man spoke again.

“You’ll regret this.”
Ethan had laughed at the vampire as he spoke softly.
“Sed ad locum, ubi tu mihi nemo poterit. Dilectus meus mihi, et ego non nisi redibis nomen.”

The book disappeared
, and it had taken him several seconds to translate the Latin he’d spoken.
Go to a place where no one will find you but me. You'll return to me only if I say my beloved's name.
He unleashed on the vampire. His temper got the better of him, and he simply let himself go.

“Mother fuck.”
Ethan stood up and paced, concentrating harder on the voice. It was him, he knew it, but he’d killed him. There was no way for him to have survived the blast that had hit him.

Still he looked down at the man in front of him
, not really seeing him but aware of him. Leaning over slowly, he sniffed the man and staggered back. It was the vampire. His scent was on the half breed, but more than that, so was the girl. The girl smelled just like the vamp.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
She’d been with the vampire. Whoever they were, whatever they wanted, wasn’t going to be good for him. They were conspiring together to harm him, and that just would not do.

Chapter 12

They were finally all gone.
Reid watched Jodie as she moved around the room touching things, but he’d bet if he asked her she’d not know what they were. He had a feeling that she was trying to work up the courage to say something to him, and she thought it would upset him. Reid was in love, and right now she could tell him she had three heads and he’d not care.

Reid let her think.
He had some thinking to do on his own. The things that she’d told him in the kitchen had frightened him a little. He could shift too, into anything that he wanted. So far he’d only thought about it, but doing it was what had him a little nervous. He also had fangs, something he’d been able to feel in his mouth since she’d told him. When she spoke, he looked at her, pushing his fear away.

“When I first got here
, I healed a little boy. I didn’t get his name, but he’d hit his head pretty hard running after some little girls.” She turned from the framed picture she was looking at to stare at him. “When I did that, healed him, I took a little of him into me.”

She shifted so suddenly that he felt his breath catch.
Before him was standing Connor’s little boy, Allen. He was bloodied on his forehead, and when he…she smiled at him, he smiled back. Then Jodie was herself again.

“I’m assuming because you took some of him in you, you can be him.”
She nodded. “And me as well?”

Again
, the shift was seamless and instant. She was him right down to the clothing he had on and the small bruise on his hand where he’d hit Mike earlier. Sitting up, he asked her to shift back. It was very…strange was an understatement, but that’s all his befuddled mind could capture as a word right now.

“I can shift into anyone who’s touched me as well.” Nancy, Hope, Austin
, and Dallas moved over her body in fluid motion until he was nearly ill from it. “I can touch anyone and become them, but only the ones I take into me, from healing or…sex…can I talk like them. I can also control their thoughts. Not yours for some reason, but I can be you.”

“Don’t.”
He looked up at her. “Please don’t shift like that for a little while. I’m still…Christ, I’m not sure, but I think I’m about as overwhelmed as a person can be.”

“You can as well.”
Reid leaned back and stared at her as she moved toward him. “Anyone. You’re my mate as much as I am yours. Anything I can do, think, or be, you can as well.”

“No, I don’t think so. When someone is changed…converted
, I guess…there’s something that happens. Nothing has happened to me. I’m still the same.” She straddled his lap so that she was facing him and nodded. “Okay, then tell me how to do it and I’ll show you.”

“Think of…anyone you’ve touched.
You’re the touchiest man I know. Anyone you’re near, you have to put your hands on them.” She smiled, and he realized she was trying to calm him. “Think of your alpha, Austin. Close your eyes and think of him.”

There wasn’t any pain
, though why he thought there would be he had no idea. But when he looked at her, he knew that he was no longer Reid Atkins but Austin Force. He lifted his hands and looked at them. It was the one thing that he’d always admired about Austin. He had the biggest hands, but they could be so gentle. Especially when he put them out for you as a lifeline, as he’d done for him and his brother countless times.

“What about animals? Do I have to touch them as well to become them?”
His voice, while not his own, didn’t seem to bother her. She shook her head and stood up.

“We can go outside
, and you can do it. But I need to caution you on a couple of things. There are some problems with shifting to animals you’re not familiar with.” He asked her what kind. “I use a hawk quite a bit. And it took me a while to get the feathers right so that I wasn’t all one color. And flying can be a bitch until you get used to it.”

“I can see that.”
He stood up as well, and when she took a step back from him, he pulled her to his body. “What I’m really hoping is that I can convince you to shift into your wolf and let mine fuck you.”

Her response was intense.
Jodie moaned and buried her nose in his throat and licked him. Reid held her not because he wanted to touch her…he did…but because he was afraid he’d fall if he didn’t.

“You should know that now that you shift, it’s no longer necessary for you to be naked.” She nipped at his pounding pulse
, and he gripped her tighter. “But I’d love to see you naked. I love the play of your muscles when you move, the way your skin ripples over your chest, and your nipples when they get hard.”

“Jodie, I’m not going to make it if you keep this up.” He pulled her head back by taking a handful of her hair and yanking her back. “I want you.”

“I’m yours.” Taking her by the hand, he led her to the door that spilled out onto the back deck. It was a private deck from this room, but the rest of the house from the back of the house had access to a bigger one as well. He moved past the hot tub, wondering if it was working when the jets suddenly turned on. Then he nodded in satisfaction. He’d have to thank Tristan for it. There wasn’t one there when he’d bought the house.

“Strip.”
Jodie stared at him for all of two seconds when she started to unbutton her blouse. She was slow, and her fingers fumbled twice. Finally his wolf decided that he’d been patient enough and snarled. Reid tore it from her body. “Christ, I want you now.”

The wolf startled him for several seconds when Jodie shifted.
She was much bigger than he’d expected, and she was silver, not black like he was. When he called his to him, his own wolf moved along his skin quickly, absorbing his clothes as if he was wearing nothing. He blinked twice and noticed that she’d changed to black.

“I want you to be silver.
It’s beautiful on you.”
Starting at her muzzle, she shifted back to the silver, and he moved along her body
. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”

“I’m a dog, so no, I don’t.”
Reid nipped at her shoulder as he passed her, and she growled low.
“I don’t become a wolf much. My brother could find me better when I was.”

“You’ll not have to worry about him. I know that you can protect yourself
, but so long as he’s a threat, I’ll do my best to keep you safe.”
She nodded and looked out into the woods.
“Go. Run so that I can chase you down.”

The leap over the railing was almost as if she’d been on springs.
She was running to the woods as his wolf sniffed the air. She was his, and she was aroused. Taking off after her, Reid paused for a second to let the other wolves on the property know that he and his mate were out there and that they wanted to be left alone. Randy laughed at him.

“A man gets one night off to go have some fun and what do you do? You rain on my parade.”
Randy laughed again as he continued.
“I saw her just now. Christ, she’s fucking huge and silver. What the hell? You have a silver wolf? She and CJ are going to be amazing together. One white and one silver.”

He saw his brother leave the woods.
Randy and he had talked about the house and his wanting to live alone for a while. He’d also confessed that he wasn’t ready to find a mate right now, and if he had a house, then women would be swarming all over him.

“You know they think that because you have a mortgage then you must be stable or something.
Broke is all you are, and I’m not…I don’t want to settle down. I need to build up my practice, and Phil is going to help me with that. Do you understand?” Reid assured him that he did. “That money Mom and Dad had, do you think you’ll use it now?”

“I don’t know yet. I have a mate, one that I want to give everything to
, so maybe.” Randy nodded, and Reid felt compelled to tell him all of it. “We can’t have children. Jodie was hurt some time back and she can’t have children of her own. But we might adopt. If we do, I’m not going to be a parent anything like ours were.”

“The more…CJ and Austin saved our lives.
I don’t mean because we almost got Austin to kill us by being stupid, but we would never have survived if they hadn’t taken us in. I know that now.” Reid nodded, knowing that what his brother said was true. “We owe them everything.”

“I don’t think they’d see it that way
, but you’re right.” They’d talked a bit more before Randy had left. That was two days ago and things seemed to be back to normal for the two of them now.

Just as he started to search for Jodie
, he saw her moving. She was low to the ground, and he wanted to move up behind her and tackle her, then take her to the ground. When she turned back to look at him, Reid felt as if he’d been given a great and amazing gift. He was so much in love with his mate that he ached with it. He moved slowly to her, thinking of all the ways he was going to show her how much he loved her.

~~~

Jodie had felt him behind her. She’d only turned to see how close he was when he started walking to her. Stalking was a better term for how he moved, like sex on two legs. When she stood up, he didn’t slow but continued that slow steady walk that told her that she was his.

“
Your brother was here
.” He nodded but didn’t say anything. “
He said we were messing up his day off. I didn’t know that he used these woods too
.”

“
There were any number of wolves here as well as a couple of cats. Austin has made it known that others can use the land, and sometimes it spills over into ours. Does it bother you
?” She told him it didn’t. “
The land that Austin bought from you, he’s going to make into a sort of open fields so that anyone can use them. He said we’ll maintain it, but it will be a gathering place for all species
.”

“
That’ll be nice
.” He was standing close enough now that she could touch him and ran her body down his to mark him. “
You smell like him. Your brother. I have his scent now
.”

“
I want you
.” She nodded at him and moved to face him. When he circled her, she stood as still as she could until he was behind her. “
Do you know how delicious you smell to my wolf? You’re driving him insane with need
.”

“
Please
.” Jodie thought her body was going to combust she needed him so badly. When he mounted her from behind, she felt her body respond with a fire that she knew he’d feel once he touched her. His low growl made her think that he could smell her too.

Her wolf fought him.
Jodie wasn’t really sure why because she wanted him as much as he did her, but fight she did. When he sank his teeth into her shoulder, Jodie cried out not from pain but from the intensity of the emotions that went with it. As soon as he had her shoulders to the ground, he entered her, and she growled.

“
Christ, you’re so tight
.” He slammed into her hard, and she growled again. “
Don’t move. I swear I’m barely holding him back now
.”

“
Fucking take me, Reid. I need it
.” The growl from him ran along her skin, and she knew that he was still fighting for control. But she shifted beneath him then, and he took her hard. She wanted to come, needed to, but he wasn’t giving her what she needed. When he tore at her shoulder, the pain this time took her breath away, but the pain was soon replaced with the most incredible connection she’d ever had with another person. As soon as she felt it, she knew that he was close to coming and moved again. When Reid touched her sweet spot, her body reacted as if he’d pressed a button. She came screaming out his name.

Reid lifted his head from her as her body
continued to vibrate with her release. When he roared, the hair on her body danced, making every nerve ending feel like he was sending currents to them. His command to shift had her rolling to her back and bringing her human forward all at once.

“I want to taste you.” She nodded as he stood up over her.
“Christ, coming in you like that was fucking fantastic, but now I want to drink from you.”

His cock strained from his body
, and she wanted to touch him. But when she reached for him, he told her no. He was too close. She knew the feeling, so when he dropped to his knees before her, fisting his cock, she sat up on her elbows to look at him.

“You’re beautiful like this.
Naked and hard. Do you know how much I want to take you into my mouth again and suck you?” He shivered, and she ran her foot over his chest to his cock, curling her toes around him before he rocked into her foot. “Can you come on me like this?”

“Yes
, but if I don’t taste you now, I’m going to fucking die.” Moving his hands up her thighs, he lifted her up off the ground so that only her shoulders were touching. He never took his eyes off her when he licked her from gate to clit. “Delicious. Just as I knew you would be.”

He didn’t just lick her but devoured her.
Every time she thought she was going to come, he would move to some other erogenous place on her body until she was ready to reach between her legs and show him what she needed. Suckling her clit was driving her insane with need, her nether lips were nibbled on until she was dizzy with it. Every time he fucked her with his tongue she felt it to her head, but it was never enough. And begging him didn’t do anything but make him tease her more.