Leader of the Pack (31 page)

Rafe felt her intrusion into his thoughts, and anger flashed red hot on his face. He leaped across the limo and backhanded her so hard that she fell off the seat onto the floor. Pain, from the sudden movement and from the impact, swirled in her brain, almost knocking her unconscious again.

“
Never
do that,” Rafe said manically. “Apparently you still don’t know who is in charge here or where you fit in.” Rafe went back to his seat. He was furious. An image of his hands around her neck and her breath being slowly squeezed out of her drifted through his mind.

Aislinn stared up at him defiantly. She couldn’t manage to get back up into the seat herself. On the floor, the lioness was uncomfortably close to her and leaned down to sniff at the blood running from Aislinn’s lip, which had split with the impact of Rafe’s attack. Kara’s large cat tongue snaked out of her mouth and licked the blood off of Aislinn’s face. Aislinn pulled back in revulsion.

Rafe smiled triumphantly as he watched Aislinn try to escape Kara’s wet caress. He sank down into his seat once again relaxing into the comfort of the soft leather. “We have at least an hour before we reach the reservation.” Rafe’s eyes flashed with pleasure at Aislinn, and she knew that he was about to cause her more pain. “I’m bored with the trip. Jenna, entertain me.”

Jenna felt the man’s touch on her mind. She knew what he wanted her to do. She pushed her vehemence at being used like this down. If he knew how little control he actually had over her, then he would attempt to fix it. She didn’t know if she could regain her senses in time to use the upcoming opportunity to her favor if Rafe did that. So she moved to Aislinn and helped her back up onto the bench seat.
Besides,
Jenna thought,
it’s not as if I won’t enjoy tormenting the druis for what she’s done to me.

Aislinn was watching Jenna move. The woman had a blank stare on her pretty face, as she laid Aislinn on her back across the bench seat. Aislinn was at a strange angle with her hands tied behind her. Rafe watched with delight as Jenna untied the bonds on Aislinn’s ankles, then forced her legs apart. Aislinn started to squirm to get away, but there was nowhere to go. Rafe’s smile broadened, when she looked at him pleadingly, as if he might save her.

Jenna dropped the shoulders of her red dress off her arms and let it puddle on the floor around her knees, as she knelt between Aislinn’s legs. The angle was bad; Jenna had to arch awkwardly, fighting to keep Aislinn’s legs spread, so that she could accomplish Rafe’s mental order. Jenna was just glad that the asshole thought she was too stupid to do anything about him. He tended to only send her orders, and never really messed with actually reading her thoughts, as long as she smiled mutely and did as she was told. The few times he had tried to read her, she was able to use her experience with sending thoughts in her other forms to protect herself. All lycans learned how to think selectively in order to communicate in their other forms. Jenna was counting on Rafe’s overconfidence and tendency to underestimate lycans.

Jenna only sneered for a moment, when she caught the full intensity of Aislinn’s scent emanating from her sex. Rafe’s eyes glowed happily, as he watched Jenna bend down and draw her tongue along Aislinn’s thigh. Her hands pressed against Aislinn’s knees to force cooperation. Aislinn was in too much pain, from whatever Rafe had injected into her to be capable of fighting with much strength. Even Jenna was able to subdue her this way.

Aislinn flinched when she felt Jenna’s tongue stroke her sex. While Aislinn had nothing against oral sex with other women, Jenna touching her was just as paramount to rape as Rafe’s touch was. When Aislinn tried to get away, she hit her head against the car door. Rafe’s smile broadened. Kara laid her head down on her paws with disinterest. Jenna repositioned herself and moved down on Aislinn with more enthusiasm than Rafe had expected. He was pleased that Jenna appeared to be thoroughly enjoying this. He reached down and started stroking himself through his pants.
I may have to make this a regular thing. Keep the bitch around to play with instead of giving her away as a prize.
He would have to think about it. He adjusted himself and moved for a better angle to watch the show.

Aislinn squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to think about the woman licking gently at her nether lips. Jenna slipped her tongue over Aislinn’s pussy with infinite care. She made sure to stroke every inch of bare flesh with her tongue, before moving to suckle on Aislinn’s clit. Rafe watched the agony on Aislinn’s face, and the tears squeezing out of her eyes. He pulled his cock out of his pants and began to stroke himself in earnest as he watched the two women.

Jenna took turns between sucking on and licking Aislinn’s clit. The more Aislinn wriggled to escape, the more delight Rafe took in watching. Aislinn fought to control herself and not let Rafe take any more from her. Her mind reeled with the tormenting sensations that Jenna was causing. Aislinn wondered if things like this were what she had blocked out of her mind and never managed to remember, from the last time she was with Rafe.

Aislinn shuddered and tried to relax. When Jenna felt the fight go completely out of Aislinn, she released her hold on Aislinn’s leg and inserted a finger, then two into Aislinn’s now dripping cunt. Jenna smiled with pleasure as Aislinn whimpered and pressed her face to the leather seat. Aislinn hated her body for reacting to the woman’s mouth. There didn’t seem to be anything she could do to stop the impending orgasm. At least it wasn’t Rafe. Aislinn gasped as her body tightened, and her cunt rippled around Jenna’s intruding digits. Jenna continued her tongue lashing and stroking until Aislinn lay limp again, panting for air. Then Jenna withdrew her fingers and, much to Rafe’s delight, sucked the last of Aislinn’s juices from them, while she stared into his eyes.

Rafe toyed with himself, trying to decide which of the three women in front of him deserved the pleasure of helping him find his release. He finally decided that Aislinn would be receiving that gift soon enough, and Jenna had hers not too long before, but he had been neglecting Kara since their move into the Tairneach manor. Kara. The one truly loyal follower he had. He had never been forced to manipulate her in any way. If he asked her to do something, she willingly did it. She worshiped him. Rafe had often wondered why he felt nothing for her. Perhaps she ruined her chances with him when she posed no challenge. He didn’t know. Every so often he felt obligated to reward her for her loyalty.

Rafe nudged the lioness with his toe, and she eagerly stood and presented herself for his approval. Rafe made sure that the large cat was positioned so that he would be fucking her right in front of Aislinn’s face. “Watch this,” he said grabbing Aislinn by the hair and forcing her face to angle up. Jenna sat back on the seat to watch Aislinn’s misery. All Aislinn could think was that at least it wasn’t her.

* * * *

Cullen had left some men at the reservation to defend the territory. But the vast majority of the Arnauk had returned to the city in order to find out what happened after the mating ceremony. No one expected another attack on the reservation so soon. Cullen had word that a significant force would be coming. But the preparations for the battle had only just been started.

An alarm blasted through the manor-like cabin, as the Tairneach vans crashed through the front gate. The driveway to the cabin was long. That gave them some small amount of time. The Arnauk inside the grounds scrambled to assemble, in order to defend their territory. Men and women took up positions at windows holding guns and waited.

The Tairneach pulled up in front of the cabin. As the lycans and other weres got out of the vehicles, the Arnauk began a volley of gunshots that forced the Tairneach to jump for cover. Rafe completely ignored the battle. He got out of the limo and his driver open the trunk, as if nothing were happening. He pulled a duffle bag out of the trunk that clinked of glass, before he headed toward the wooded area that concealed the standing stones. Jenna spared a glance of concern for her men, who were taking fire, before trailing along behind Rafe obediently. Kara was left to drag Aislinn along.

Aislinn was shoved out of the limo. Pain shot through her body again, and she fell to her knees, then onto her chest. The gravel from the drive dug into her breasts as she hit the ground. She only barely managed to lift her head high enough to not scrape her face on the driveway. Kara growled impatiently and shifted into her hybrid form so that she could carry Aislinn.

She reached down with a golden clawed hand and took hold of Aislinn’s limp form. “You make me ashamed to be a woman. When I took the change I didn’t roll about on the ground whimpering. If I’m going to have to put up with you being around again, the least you could do is make an attempt at dignity,” Kara snarled as she flung Aislinn over her shoulder like a rag doll.

Aislinn looked up toward the cabin. It was obvious that the Arnauk would lose this battle. The Tairneach had already reached the front door and were climbing in some of the windows. As Kara toted Aislinn easily into the woods, she saw someone crash out of a window on the top floor and scream before hitting the ground. Aislinn let her head fall back down, as Kara entered the woods and trailed after Rafe and Jenna toward the standing stones.

* * * *

Cullen drove like a maniac. The caravan of SUVs blasted down the highway, trying to close the distance between themselves and the Tairneach. Cullen had called in a favor that was owed to him by some friends on the highway patrol and was managing to make it across the state in record time.

As he gripped the steering wheel of the lead truck and gunned the gas even more, his cell rang. He reached into his pocket with the intent of taking note of the caller ID for a future pummeling. The name of his federal contact flashed across the display. Cullen closed his fist around the cell, and an audible crunching noise told everyone else in the truck that calling the man right now was not a good idea. Cullen tossed the cell into the backseat, nearly hitting Sarah in the head with it.

Keith tried desperately to find humor in the look on Sarah’s face, when Cullen’s cell went flying passed her head. Even he was having a hard time seeing the good in this situation. The truck reeked of the lovely perfume Brinah had whipped up, which caused Keith to wrinkle his nose and try to put his mind on something else to keep himself from being sick. Keith was trying to calculate the odds of getting disemboweled by a were-tiger or whatever else he might be about to fight. “Well,” he said, trying to lighten the tension in the truck, “At the very least, if this stuff we’re sprayed down with doesn’t stop Rafe from his mind control caoch, we might be able to stink the lot of them off our territory.”

Cullen’s growl told him that his attempt at humor had not been appreciated. Keith grumbled a bit and settled back to watching the road speed past them. At this rate they would make the reservation in less than an hour. Hopefully that would be soon enough. Though what they were going to do when they got there, he wasn’t sure.

Cullen knew that his pack was uneasy. His brain was working overtime for a solution to this one. He knew that if Rafe didn’t have Aislinn, he would have waited and thought it out. It didn’t make sense charging into this, and he was pissed at himself.
How many people are going to die
, he asked himself over and over again. But, that thought wasn’t enough to stop himself in the head long charge. He didn’t know how he was going to do it, but he would bring her out of this safely. Then he was going to hunt down Ranaild. He felt like his entire pack was falling apart, and it started with him.

“Brinah,” Cullen demanded with a growl. “Are you able to do anything like what Rafe can do?”

Brinah shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She had been wondering when they would get around to that. “Most of the Senach were able to do things similar. All of our talents lay in slightly different places though. My talents tend toward premonitions, but I closed off that part of my mind a long time ago. There are consequences to seeing the future.” Brinah hesitated, as though there was a bad memory attached to that statement. “I believe Aislinn is fairly gifted in premonitions as well. I was never very good at using my talents, and I never put the effort into developing them. They always used to control me. Then I fell in love with a human and left the Circle without looking back. I forced that part of me into silence. I can’t claim that it could be of any help to you now. Aislinn’s abilities always concerned me. I tried to stop her mother from encouraging her. She seemed to manifest the talent for dreams without even trying. I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do to Rafe or the Tairneach to help you, in that way.”

A defeated silence fell over the truck. Brinah was so worried about Aislinn that she twisted the handle on the bag she was holding until it ripped off. “I did make some salves and things that might help anyone who becomes hurt,” she said hopefully, as if that would fix everything. “What you truly need are some druids who can heal wounded or some who can manipulate nature. Those are the Senach who would be able to help here.”

Cullen was pissed, and Brinah’s voice was just pissing him off more. “Got anything to bring life back to the dead,” he asked sardonically. The people in the SUV went back to riding in silence.