Whirlwind Revolution (26 page)

“I agree. I already told the bird elder it’s not an option though I would make sure you understood fully the responsibilities I have as King.”

I should have known he’d handle the situation and it warmed my heart that he did it as he did and we were on the same page again. “Is that where you’ve been?”

“Mostly. I had some things to attend to for tonight’s ceremony and party, but yes, I spoke with him.” He rubbed his hand over my cheek. “You’ve been out of it awhile. Woodrow was getting worried.”

I glanced up, and from the shift in sunlight on the walls, I saw it had been at least an hour or more that I’d been lost in my thoughts. “Whoops. I’m starved.”

Torr rolled to his feet and turned away, glancing at me over his shoulder. “Too bad you said we’re waiting for tonight to have sex again. That leaves
me
off the menu. Otherwise I would have gladly offered up myself for all your dining needs.”

“Oh. My. Gods,” I groaned, watching his tight little ass sway as he walked over to the sideboard. “Mean, babe. Totally mean.”

“You’ll live,” he snickered. He made us some plates of breakfast and came back by me, plopped on my lap, and we watched the debating like a tennis match. He pressed his lips against my ear and chuckled. “I find it’s best to let them get it all out of their systems like children with too much energy. Then I give my answer as if it wasn’t going to be that answer all along and declare the debating over.”

I couldn’t hold in my laughter when a few heads snapped in our direction. “Babe, some people here have better hearing than you’re used to.”

“They’ll get over it.” He shot me a smirk, shrugging as he bit into a plump strawberry. “I am
King
after all. They can’t fire me.”

I hugged him closer, adoring the way we fit together and choosing to be so close even at a time like breakfast. “You should get saucy like this more often,” I praised. “It’s sexy and you deserve to be this confident. You’re an awesome leader whose people love him.”

“I’m getting there in feeling that way. I have a gorgeous snowy owl that lets me see that side of myself.”

I honestly think that was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said about me.

14

After breakfast, we all headed to the designated “War Room” while the casters got to work on a vault room for my mate. While everyone else had been bickering, Woodrow had shown them what brand and model we’d want. Then Samantha gave them the space needed, and hopefully by our claiming ceremony, all the feline valuables of the royal court would be secured and waiting for our biometrics to be added to the system.

Worked for me!

“Okay, so it looks like you filled in most of the gaps of where we left off,” I mulled as I studied the table Emrys had sent ahead. I shot a glance at Glenda who had taken to the project like white on rice. “Fill me in.”

She did and I noticed it was Aurelo, Seattle, and Boston moving in closest and paying attention.

“Are you keeping up with all of this?” I heard Fabian ask Woodrow under his breath.

“No. This is the shit that makes my head hurt. I protect my people and our way of life. This battle plan crap makes me want to vomit,” he bitched, and I saw Torr nod in agreement.

“Which is exactly my point and plan with this,” I chuckled, turning to face them. Fabian winced while my father knew I would have heard. “The leaders
should
be in charge of our people. The president is. But he has generals and admirals that handle the other shit. Heads of all those wonderful three letter agencies. My point in all of this is to plan out the defensive and offensive. Plus, unfortunately, poke some holes in the plans you already have.

“But none of the planning could be perfect. You’ve had what nine or ten days to plan out
everything
?” I shook my head and pointed around the room. “Glenda’s ex-Naval Intelligence. I’ve had training in all branches of military but not that position.” Then I gestured to Aurelo. “Department of Defense right here, baby.” After was the Niska brothers. “PP guards who used to go into the shit of human military and know strategic plays like their names.” Next was a caster whose name I didn’t know. “And you scream Spook.”

“I am an intelligence officer,” he chuckled. “I was called back out of deep cover to Langley, but I found out the news first and figured out why. They think I’m stuck in China having some bullshit to work out before coming home.”

“Smart,” I approved before facing the leaders there. “You have the people in place to make us a formidable opponent. Let’s be smarter than the humans and
use
that.”

“Done,” Woodrow chuckled. “Just let us know before mounting an assault of any kind. Those we need to be included in.”

“Agreed,” Torr and Fabian said together.

“Good, then tomorrow I want to call a meeting of everyone who will be here that has the experience we need. Not just fighters but commanders and strategists.”

“Does that include the computer nerds who will handle our defenses?” Milwaukee asked as he glanced at Chicago. “We’ve figured out how to hack into the Department of Defense’s missile system but we’re still working on what we’ll need and building a top-notch command center.”

A thrill went through me at the news. That was a
huge
step in the right direction. “Yes, you guys included. I know the backdoor to the drone system so you’ll need that from me.”

“We’re going to get to fly drones with weapons!” Chicago exclaimed, him and Milwaukee doing a little dance.

“I think you just gave the computer geeks wet dreams for a week,” Torr snickered. They both nodded and everyone had a good laugh at that. “Okay, so what did we miss?”

“There are more wolf packs than strongholds,” Glenda answered. “Feline groups as well. Some will have to double up and dissolve into each other. I have an idea for that.”

“Not changing titles but making one assistant Alpha?” I asked her. She nodded. “That’s what I was thinking as well. So say there’s three wolf packs. They still go to their normal Alpha for advice or whatever, but any wolf decisions are made by one Alpha named as head Alpha of the wolves at that stronghold.”

“That’s smart,” Director Fabian hedged, studying the map closely. “We have more covens as well and were discussing that as an option. We already agreed with some of the heirs to have each stronghold with a King be our version of NORAD as Glenda explained to us. We’re looking at twelve to fifteen strongholds then instead of thirty something. The bigger the stronghold, the more people it can hold and more resources it has. It’s a good plan.”

“Okay then. We know of five locations for sure then. Any others? Let’s get the other tentative ones on the map and start designating who goes where. It will make facilitating evacuations easier.” Then I had another thought. “Does this place have a landing strip?”

“It does,” Torr chuckled, shaking his head. “We’ve already been discussing using my private jets to pick up as many groups as we can and get them here with a few vampires on board to cover the plane with mist.”

I shot my mate a wink and slid him a shot glass to represent a stronghold. “All right, so let’s get to it.”

* * * *

Right at sunset I was experiencing everyone’s nightmare. I was in the middle of the room, naked, and people were about to start laughing. Well, there was reason to but I hoped they had better manners than that.

“Hadley, it’s okay. I understand—”

“If the next words out of your mouth are
it happens to everyone
, I’m going to scream, Torr,” I threatened. I stared down at my limp dick in his hand and willed it to get hard.

“No, nothing that contrite,” he chuckled as he gave it an affectionate squeeze. “I was going to say I understand this is a lot. I’ve known all my life I would have to go through a ceremony like this, maybe more than once.” My gaze shot to his and it wasn’t a very friendly look. “But this will be the
only
ceremony I have, I swear it.”

“Right, good.” I glanced down at my cock again and sighed as I pulled away, sitting back on my feet. “Torr, I can’t do this. It’s so much more difficult than I would have thought.”

“Being with me?” he whispered sadly. I grabbed him around the waist and yanked him onto my lap.

“Being with you is worth
every
extra hoop or treaty. Please don’t ever doubt that.” I gave him a soft kiss, and he whimpered against my lips. “Having sex and biting or my talon marks is one thing to do in front of
all
these people. But just jacking each other off for their viewing pleasure is something I can’t seem to get into. It’s too cold for something that’s supposed to be all heart.”

Understanding shone in his eyes, and I felt the weight on my chest dissipate. At least he saw now it wasn’t him or
us
. It was all the eyes watching
us
.

“I see,” he purred as he kissed the underside of my chin and worked up to my ear. “But, Hadley, my love, you
adore
making sure every feline smells I’m taken. Think about it. Wolves will be here soon. We have canines staying here as well.
All
of them will know I’m yours just by smelling me.”

“I do like that,” I conceded as his rough tongue lapped at my earlobe. I moaned as he gave it a nip and started kissing my neck. And in a flash I was hard as a rock. “Apparently all I needed was to see you were into it too, not just the clinicalness of the moment.”

“I’m into
all
things, Hadley,” he promised. “Touch me, my love. Take us both into that big, strong hand of yours and bring us such pleasure we scream.”

I smiled as I did what he asked, identifying he was laying it on thick because he
knew
it would keep me in the moment… And focused on him, where I should be.

“Later, I want you to mark my ass again. That was so fucking hot. You showed me how much you want me to belong to you and no one else.”

“You
do
belong to me,” I snarled as I grabbed a handful of his ass, stroking us faster. “This ass is mine. This cock is mine. That tongue driving me nuts is mine. Your
heart
better be mine.
You
are
all mine, Torrance Folkvar!
”

“I am,” he cried out and shot all over my hand and both of us. I followed him over, the sight so erotic and heart-filled I couldn’t hold back my pleasure. Never with Torr would I hold back.

When we were done and it was time for him to take me, bite me for all to see, I pressed my lips against his hear. “I realized something earlier when we walked out here. I’m too tall. You won’t be able to reach my neck if you take me from behind.”

“Good call,” he snickered, shaking his head. “You just think of everything, don’t you?”

“I figure you think of half, and I’ve got the other half covered,” I offered as I laid back and spread my legs for him.

We both knew I wasn’t talking sex right then.

Torr’s eyes misted over as he pulled out the plug stretching me, moved into place, and pushed inside me. His eyes went wide as he panted, totally about to burst. “Oh my
gods,
this is better than any pussy I’ve ever had!”

“Why thank you, darling,” I drawled, rolling my eyes at him. “Such a sweet talker.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think there’d be that big of a difference,” he rambled but of course didn’t know when to quit and kept going. “I mean, it’s worlds different when you fuck me, because, well, I’m getting fucked. But I figured this would be about the same. But it’s
not
! Shit you feel good!”

“Shut up and kiss me, you goof.” I sat up enough to yank his head down to mine, and we both moaned as he bottomed out inside me. We made out as he gave me time to adjust and then I laid back just enough to be comfortable but so he could still reach my neck. Torr thrust a few times to make sure I was okay and then his eyes practically rolled up in his head.

“Oh gods, I’ve known for over a hundred years what I’m supposed to say during this part of the ceremony, but your ass is so good it’s robbing me of my memory,” he mewled as he took me faster. “Fuck the damn script. I’m King. I love you. Wanna mate me and be Duke or whatever?”

“Wow, that’s um—right—” I grunted as he picked up the pace. “Sure?”

He froze and stared down at me with that lopsided grin I loved so much. “I’ve already said everything else to you, Hadley. We want tons of little monsters, owls and lynxes. I will love you forever and never take another though we might have some fun playtime with a third since you love a sandwich now and again. I want you to be in charge of my Royal Guard because there’s no one else I’d trust with my safety and the safety of all my people than you.

“So fuck the script. I promise to be adventurous with you always and opened-minded. Except with clams. I hate them and they kinda freak me out.” Everyone got a good chuckle at that one. “I promise to listen to you when you say I need a break and suffer through the ways you like to distract me.” I tightened the muscles in my ass on his cock and groaned loudly, his hips moving on their own. “Forgot what I was saying again. Need you too much.”