Authors: Kristen Ashley

With Everything I Am (73 page)

BOOK: With Everything I Am

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“You know I love you?” he asked back by way of answer.

“With everything you are,” she whispered.

He dipped his face to hers and murmured with feeling, “With everything I am, baby doll.”

“And I you, my handsome wolf.
With everything I am, with everything I’m meant to be and with eternity to be it in, that’s a lot.”

Callum grinned at his
wife.

Then he shifted his head and again marked her temple.

His.

And, as he did it, she did the same.

Hers.

As it was.

As it always would be.

For eternity.

* * * * *

At that exact moment… elsewhere…

Oh my God, they were hunting me.

Hunting me!

I ran, my breath ragged, a stitch cutting agony through my side, as I heard them getting closer.
Closer.

Fast.

Too fast.

I was a girl and
maybe not Jackie Joyner-Kersee but I wasn’t out of shape
. They’d gain but not that fast.

No way.

That didn’t mean they weren’t gaining that fast.

They were.

And I was terrified.

I turned into an alley, hoping in the darkness to lose them, and ran with everything I had left.

Straight to a dead end.

“Shit,” I breathed, panting, turning, feeling them closing in on me.

Then there they were, on me as in
on me.
In the blink of an eye I was on my back, one of them pinning my body down with his on mine, one holding my arms down over my head, one my legs at my ankles while, I stared to the side in disbelief, two humongous, terrifying
dogs
circled, snarling and snapping their sharp, alarming teeth in my direction.

“Rip her throat out and have done with it,” a voice coming from over my head bit out and my attention went back to the enormous man who was lying full on top of me, pressing the breath out of me and staring down at me in a way I did… not…
like.

I tried to struggle but the hands at my wrists and ankles held so strong, it was preternatural how strong they were. I wasn’t pinned. I was completely immobilized.

“In a minute,” he grunted, his eyes not leaving mine. “Christ, smell her. Divine. Fuck me, absolutely fucking divine.” His face changed to a look I liked even less and he finished, “First I’m going to feed.”

He was going to feed?

Oh man. What did
that
mean?

I didn’t know. What I knew was
,
it was not good.

“Are you insane?” a voice coming from my feet asked like he thought the dude holding me was, indeed, insane.
In fact,
very
insane.
At the same time, ugly, scary growls came from both of the dogs.

It seemed to me these were warnings but the guy on top of me was, apparently, insane because he ignored the warnings of the huge, vicious, snarling dogs. His head dipped toward me, slanted then his mouth was at my neck.

Oh shit. Oh
shit!

This was
definitely
not good.

I belatedly opened my mouth to scream.

Not that first sound came out because, suddenly, I wasn’t immobilized. Nothing was on me, nothing holding me down.

I still didn’t move.

This was because something I couldn’t see, and not only because it was dark but because it was happening so… damned…
fast,
was whirling around me.

I would know what that was when sickening, warm gushes of blood spurted across my chest and neck about a half a second before I saw a canine head (with no body, mind) roll across the asphalt in front of me. More blood splashed the pavement beside me in a hideous surge and I heard the heinous noises of body after lifeless body thudding to the ground.

Then I was up, my own body swinging like it was flying through the air but I felt hands on me. A breeze was blowing through my hair, I was moving so fast, and then my back slammed against the brick wall of the building at the side of the alley.

I blinked, feeling the wall at my back but the intense, hard-muscled warmth of a body pressed to my front and before my eyes, a man.

A shock of black hair.

An intriguingly tilted set of eyes, the hue I couldn’t make out in the dark but, shockingly, I could see one was a color that was light the other a color that was definitely dark.

Strong jutting jaw, sharp cheekbones, heavy brow.

The slash of an angry scar that went across his forehead, through his left eyebrow, disconnected then rejoined on his cheekbone to slide all the way down his face, curling around his jaw and disappearing.

I panted in his blood-stained face.

He stared, intense and frightening, into mine, his gaze, honest to
God,
like a touch.

I stopped panting because I stopped breathing.

His face came closer and my stomach clenched, my muscles tensed near to snapping, my chest burned but his head veered and he touched his temple to mine, slid it back, rubbing it through my hair.

I sucked in breath only to hold it again when his hands left my armpits. One to travel down my side and then curve to become an arm around my back holding me so strong, I was plastered to his front.
One going up, over my shoulder and in to curl tight and freakishly warm around the side of my neck.

His chin dipped and I felt his lips at my ear.

“
Mine,
” he growled in a deep, guttural, forceful way that even I, who had no clue what was happening, I just knew I didn’t like it one… single… bit, agreed.

When he said “mine”, he meant
me
.

Uh-oh.

* * * * *

Lucien stood in the alleyway with Gregor who had summoned him.

They both stared at the smoldering remains of three vampires and the blood and gore of the beheaded corpses of two violently mutilated wolves still in wolf form.

He felt Gregor’s eyes on him and he cut his to the vampire.

“Five against one,” Gregor noted.

Two immortals could do that.

Lucien and Callum, King of the Werewolves.

Now, the third.

“I’m thinking the third
set of lifemates have
been found,” Gregor went on to mutter drolly.

Lucien cursed and pulled out his phone. He hit one button and put it to his ear.

Four rings later, he heard a wolf growl, “This better be good to interrupt my honeymoon.”

“The third lifemates have met.”

“Fuck,” Callum grunted.

“My thought exactly,” Lucien concurred.

There was silence from Callum then he remarked, “My wife and I have had a good night. I’d like her to enjoy the rest of it as I intend to enjoy the rest of it with her. We’ll be on a plane tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry, Callum,” Lucien murmured.

“It’s begun, therefore
it’s
closer to done,” Callum replied.

“Indeed,” Lucien muttered.

“We’ll taste victory,” Callum told him.

“We fucking will,” Lucien agreed.

“Tomorrow,” Callum stated.

“Tomorrow, Callum.”

He heard Callum disconnect and he slid his phone back in the inside pocket of his leather jacket.

His dark eyes again surveyed the carnage.

Then, without another look at Gregor or any of the other members of The Vampire Council on the scene, he turned away and strode to his Porsche so he could leave the slaughter behind, for now, and get home to his bride.

It had begun.

They had very little time

So he and Leah were going to fucking enjoy what little they had.

The Three Series will continue…

With the story of the final two.

####

About the Author

Kristen Ashley grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.

Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).

Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.

And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.

Discover other titles by Kristen Ashley:

Rock Chick Series:

Rock Chick

Rock Chick Rescue

Rock Chick Redemption

Rock Chick Renegade

Rock Chick Revenge

Rock Chick Reckoning

Rock Chick Regret

The ‘Burg Series: