Coda (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 13) Page 4

  “While you two are being careful, they could be finding and killing wolves. Or trapping them. Either way, waiting around can get your people sold to rich human fucks on the black market.” Seething at the very thought, Arys rocked forward on the balls of his feet, like he struggled to stay put. “I won’t take that risk. Not with either of you.”

  So that was what had Arys so uptight. He feared for us and could only show it by acting impulsively, driven by emotions he still didn’t understand.

  “We can’t be impulsive. It’s risky too.” I sighed when he began shaking his head before I’d finished. The man was a petulant pain in the ass at times. So damn stubborn. Although, I’d be hard pressed to convince anyone I wasn’t.

  Arys studied me pensively. His gaze darted to my jugular repeatedly. “So if there’s risks either way, then we might as well jump on it. No time to waste.”

  Irritated by his refusal to listen to reason, I muttered, “I’m not fucking arguing about this with you right now.”

  As my temper flared so did Arys’s. He kicked a chair out of his way with more force than necessary as he shoved by. He closed the blinds over the sliding door off the kitchen against the coming sunrise.

  He snapped, “Then don’t argue and just do things my way for once.”

  Well, damn. A deadly silence descended. Shaz sucked in a breath and held it, most likely waiting for me to explode.

  Somehow I didn’t. Oh but I wanted to. Arys’s smug expression begged for a punch. Clenching my hands into fists, I sat there rigid, doing my best to convince myself to stay seated.

  “This doesn’t need to be an argument at all.” Shaz situated himself between us. So he could block if one of us went for the other. Yeah, things had been tense lately. “We all want to find them, and we will. Let’s just drop it until we can actually do something about it.”

  Even without his tie to us, Shaz still tried to play peacemaker. Making Willow human had changed many things for many people. It had torn away the only thing keeping Arys and me from killing one another. Our keystone.

  But Shaz wouldn’t give up so easily. He believed that he belonged with us, that we needed him. And he was right. Unfortunately, he couldn’t prevent the inevitable. Not that he ever really could. Yet I adored him for trying.

  I got up to wash the blood stains from my hands. Anticipating Arys’s grab for me as I passed by, I avoided him with a perfectly timed sidestep. Standing at the sink, I turned on the water, keeping an eye on him.

  It didn’t matter. My avoidance only encouraged him. As he drew closer, I trembled slightly in expectation.

  Right behind me, Arys pinned me against the sink with a hand on either side, gripping the counter. Preventing my easy escape.

  Two sides of me warred with one another. One that wanted to headbutt him in the face and whirl around to kick him in the crotch. The other side that melted when he pressed his lips to the sensitive spot beneath my ear. I wanted to fight him as bad as I wanted to fuck him. This right here was why twin flames went mad.

  “Alexa,” voice low and sultry, Arys murmured my name. Pressing close, his hard-on nestled against my ass. “I only want to protect you, my wolf. Both of you. I’m sure you understand.”

  My gaze strayed to Shaz who watched us, ready to fly out of his seat at the first sign of violence. He knew how bad things had gotten between Arys and me. He was probably the only person who knew the depths of our destructive urges. We could barely get through one night without some kind of altercation. Each seemingly worse than the last.

  A dizzying sensation washed over me, a subtle power push but not subtle enough. Even as I ground my ass against him, I said, “Don’t try to manipulate me. It won’t change how I see the situation.”

  “Manipulate you?” Down the side of my neck, Arys placed one kiss after another. A delicious tickle raced down my spine. “Love, I’m just trying to make you wet. All that pent-up anger you carry? Don’t you want to work it out of your system?”

  His brazen admission sent a shockwave of heat to my groin. Damn him.

  “Get you out of my system?” I laughed. “Impossible.”

  Just to test him, I made as if to get away. As expected, he held tight to the counter, preventing my exit. I dried my hands on a dish towel beside the sink and turned to face him, still trapped in his arms.

  Within his eyes a storm brewed. A collision of desires. To harm me. To screw me senseless. To protect me. And of course, to kill me.

  His gaze traveled over my face. “You know we’ll never purge ourselves of one another. So why not embrace the chaos? Maybe if we stop fighting it and just give in, it really won’t be so bad.”

  The strange lilt in his tone alarmed me. It stood out to Shaz too because he rose and came toward us.

  I couldn’t say that part of me wasn’t just a little tempted to let go of all my control and let fate happen. Staying strong and fighting the forces that sought to tear us apart was so friggin’ hard. So very exhausting.

  But we had to fight it. We just had to. “We’re not giving in, Arys. That’s not who we are. You said this wouldn’t change us. That we wouldn’t be like the others. Remember?” Despite the predatory hunger commanding his every move, I brushed my lips against his. It was a silent but desperate plea for him to stay with me. To fight this battle at my side.

  His mouth moved on mine. A deep, drowning kiss took us to that place of passion and power. And then doubt. “I remember. But I see you and I start to forget. I smell you and I want you to bleed. I dream of you, live and breathe you, can’t fucking escape you. You’re in my head, Alexa. You are my soul. And it’s making me crazy.” Arys fisted a handful of my hair and ran his tongue over my bottom lip.

  I touched the side of his face. “No giving in. We’re not Lilah and Salem. You said so yourself. I love you.”

  Resting his forehead against mine, he whispered, “I’ve loved you for longer than you’ve been alive. I will love you forever.”

  Again that odd tone.

  As the divide between us grew, we struggled to hold onto one another. But for how long? I told myself I’d never give up, but five minutes ago I’d wanted to hurt him. Like he wanted to hurt me now.

  “Arys.” With a tentative touch, Shaz put a hand on his arm. “Let me help.”

  Arys looked him over, eager at such an invitation from our white wolf. He eased away from me and turned to Shaz. “Think you’re ready for that, pup? It’s been a while.”

  It sure had. Understandably Shaz had been reluctant to offer himself to Arys. The vampire’s current obsession with wolf blood made him more unpredictable than usual. It was too easy for things to get carried away. Under Arys’s thrall there were no safe words. No turning back. It was all or nothing.

  “It has,” Shaz agreed. “But I think it will help. Redirect your focus, so to speak.”

  Intrigued, Arys wasn’t about to turn down a taste of Shaz. He shoved into Shaz’s personal space, daring him to step back.

  But Shaz wouldn’t be intimidated. He stood his ground. Because ultimately, he wanted it. And the danger in Arys’s eyes only made him want it more.

  Yeah, I got it. Every encounter with Arys was a dance with death. A dance so alluring, so dark and deadly. And so damn satisfying.

  I moved away from them, not trusting myself. The light and dark forces within me twisted together in an unnatural tango.

  “This is what you want?” Arys asked, seeking Shaz’s clear consent. Which gave me some relief. He wasn’t so deep in his hunger that he saw Shaz as a true victim but as the willing participant he was. Not our conquest but our lover.

  I caught Shaz’s eye and shook my head. He didn’t have to do this. It had never been his job to save us.

  He nodded, telling Arys what he wanted to hear. “Yeah. It’s what I want.”

  I had my reservations. “You know, we don’t have to do this. It’s cool. I’m just going to—”

  Arys jerked Shaz around so his back pressed into the vampire’s chest.
Blue eyes found me over Shaz’s shoulder. With a sexy smirk Arys grabbed a handful of platinum hair and jerked our wolf’s head aside, baring his lovely neck.

  “He wants it, my love. Who are we to deny him?”

  Because it was carved into my nature to contest Arys, I asked, “What if I don’t want it?”

  Arys scoffed. Cocking his head to the side, he studied me with an amused grin playing about his sensual lips. “No sense lying. I know you do. Your hunger is my hunger.”

  Shaz held out a hand to me. With Arys’s tight grip on his hair and menacing position behind him, he should’ve been tense. Maybe a little fearful. All I saw in his eyes was the thrill.

  “Lex.” My name was a husky murmur. Shaz beckoned with a finger.

  It wasn’t that I was reluctant to be with them. When the three of us were together, I found a semblance of peace, of understanding how the pieces fit. We were magic together. No, it was the look in Arys’s eyes. This was a power play to him, the power play every intimate encounter had become. No longer was it a meeting of minds, souls, and bodies on equal ground but an aggressive back and forth push and pull of dominance and submission. An occasionally violent war of wills that nobody could win. More potent and deadly than it ever had been before.

  Perhaps having Shaz present would change that. Bring us some balance. Or maybe it would just confirm what I knew to be true. That our white wolf no longer held any power over the fragile bond between Arys and me.

  Refusing to let fear rule me, I went to Shaz. Sliding my hands up his body to cup his face, I kissed him. A soft gentle caress.

  Surprising me, Arys released his aggressive hold on Shaz and stepped back to watch. Such a voyeur. But he didn’t go far.

  Tasting Shaz, his wolf and pine scent filled my nose. His lively energy tempted me. My senses lit up one by one as I touched him. As our kiss deepened my reservations began to fall away. I pressed my mouth to his jugular, letting the steady pulse lull me. The taste of him lived in my memory, and I ached to sink my fangs. No, too soon for that.

  His hands on my waist encouraged me. It could be different with him here. Arys and me, we could be different. More grounded. Like we used to be.

  Placing my hands on Shaz’s chest, I guided him into the dining area, but before I could push him down onto a chair, he lifted me onto the table. Needing to feel his skin I lifted his shirt. The direct touch helped me draw more fully on his energy, breathing it in like the first breath of spring air after it rains.

  Shaz peeled my pants off, taking my underwear with them. Two fingers slid between my legs, feeding my desire. Arys gravitated closer, his pupils like two drowning black holes. Already the sex-charged vibe in the room had grown thick with yearning.

  Seeing as the three of us hadn’t been together in a while, the need was there. I was already working to free Shaz of his jeans when Arys eased ever closer.

  “Take her, Shaz. Make her yours.” Arys’s command was filled with darkness and desire.

  He wanted the moment of climax, when our energy peaked. Then he would go for the bite. That timing increased the anticipation for all of us and brought us to greater heights.

  Clutching my hips, Shaz thrust into me. His eyes were wild, all wolf. Once our bodies joined, Arys approached. He stood behind Shaz to lock him between us. With a gentleness that made Shaz sigh, he ran a finger slowly down the side of his neck.

  Midnight blues locked on me. As Shaz’s body claimed mine, it was Arys I gazed into. Desire smoldered within him. I felt the echo of it inside me. A need that wouldn’t be denied.

  Ever so slowly Arys’s finger trailed a path over Shaz’s jugular to the hollow at the base of his throat. One by one each finger settled against his skin until Arys’s hand gripped Shaz’s throat. Tight, but not so tight as to be restrictive. Just enough to enforce a sense of possessiveness and control.

  Shaz’s thrusts came harder, faster. I held tight to his forearms, trying to focus on his face. A thin line of sweat formed on his brow. His upper lip curled in a silent snarl. As much as I enjoyed watching my white wolf in the throes of passion, my gaze kept slipping back to Arys.

  He watched me too. Our eyes locked, and he held my gaze as his hand crept up Shaz’s throat to grasp his chin, turning his head to the side. Arys leaned in to brush his lips over Shaz’s.

  Without hesitation Shaz caught Arys’s bottom lip between his teeth. He bit down just hard enough to draw a droplet of blood. Then he kissed him back with head-spinning enthusiasm.

  The power raging around us soared, taking us with it. Shaz was forceful in his kiss, commanding. Sending the message to the possessive vampire that he too held power in this arrangement. And Arys was more than ok with that.

  He dragged his lips down Shaz’s neck, his tongue pressed to the pulse there, tasting Shaz. Waiting. The moment Shaz came, Arys bit deep. The force of the moment rocked me. Watching them took me to a place of beauty and pain. I loved them both with everything I had.

  But would that be enough?

  Shaz twitched inside me as I climaxed. Arys withdrew back from the bite, and I pulled Shaz closer so I could put my mouth where Arys’s had just been. Blood spilled into my mouth, and I sighed against Shaz’s wounded flesh.

  What I didn’t expect was for Arys to grab my wrist and jerk it to his mouth. He bit me with an aggressiveness that shocked me. This was no love bite. It was a power play to the fullest extent.

  Ownership. Dominance. A promise.

  In seconds we’d gone from sharing Shaz to Arys claiming the both of us as his. And we were. But this was different. This was him making a bold statement. I might be his queen, but he was no servant. I wondered if perhaps Juliet’s snarky remark had gotten to Arys.

  Arys was mine in every way, as I was his. And our battle would never end.

  Hot on my bitten wrist, his tongue darted against the wound, tasting me. Stunned, I stared at him both loving and hating his uninvited touch. Suddenly infuriated, I jerked my arm away and hopped off the table to get away from him. Killer.

  Shaz pulled his pants back into place and turned to look at us.

  “What the fuck, Arys?” I held up my bloody wrist. “This was supposed to be about Shaz. What kind of bullshit is this?”

  Standing there half naked, fuming, the spellbinding high crashed, and it crashed hard. In the grand scheme of things, maybe it wasn’t that bad. I was overreacting. I told myself that, willing the sudden, all-consuming, and entirely irrational rage to vanish as fast as it had come.

  “It was about all of us. As it always is. Why are you so pissed? There’s always blood between us.” Completely unapologetic, Arys licked crimson from the corner of his mouth.

  “That is not what that was,” I shouted, unable to contain my sudden flare of temper. “I saw you do the same thing to Jenner. That wasn’t love or passion. It was ownership. Domination.”

  Arys looked me full in the eye and with total confidence said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. It was a little rough. I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

  He hadn’t hurt me. Not physically. No, the attack had been mental. Emotional. That was worse. So much worse.

  The self-assured expression on Arys’s handsome face, the satisfaction, it had me seeing red. I knew it wasn’t real, fabricated by the force that wanted to destroy us. Feeding it would be shooting myself in the heart.

  So why couldn’t I stop?

  “You’re sorry?” Power smashed through me. My hair billowed on a wind with no source other than me. Oh, he’d be sorry alright.

  Shaz held up both hands toward me, trying to keep me from blowing. “Time out, ok? Let’s take a break. Lex?”

  I thought I might explode if I had to stay there with Arys for another moment. In him I saw everything I wanted for us and everything that would never be.

  “Yeah, we’ll take a break,” I muttered, stripping off the last of my clothes. Striding to the sliding door, I shoved the blinds aside and jerked it open, standing just clear of where the sun’s be
am fell.

  Arys said my name but I ignored him. Shifting to wolf, I stepped into the doorway, savoring the sun on my face. The warmth and light. Something Arys would never again feel.

  And without a glance back, I bounded out into the morning.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Lunging into the snow packed backyard, I fled the house, exhilarated by the knowledge that Arys couldn’t come after me. Snow crunched under my paws. Flecks of it flew up into my furry face, refreshing. And I was free.

  I didn’t feel free much these days. Nights. Whatever. The demands on my time and my abilities had grown. Not to mention my heart and mind. A woman could only take so much shit before she snapped.

  I was afraid I might snap.

  So I ran. And I ran like the devil himself chased me. In some ways he did. But as far and as fast as I could run, I would never escape Arys. He was inside me.

  My brief bouts of freedom from the pain of reality was found running on all fours or in the arms of a fallen angel. And I didn’t get to do that as often as I’d like. Apparently forming some kind of metaphysical link to me had scared Falon. Big baby.

  It hadn’t been my fault. At least, I didn’t think so. If anyone was to blame, it had to be the evil entity that dwelled on the FPA property. It had coerced me to claim him, to mark him somehow as mine. It had also instigated our very first time together.

  I’d considered confronting the entity but doubted I’d get any straight answers. Talking to that thing would probably be a mistake in itself.

  After a two-hour run through the woods that exerted every muscle in my body, every piece of me that was wolf, I headed for home. Shaz had left the sliding door open wide enough for me to squeeze through.

  I shifted in the shaded area of the dining room. Carefully I closed the door and shoved the blinds into place. A tiny shard of light hit the back of my hand. A little cursing and it was fine. When I turned to find a hole the size of Arys’s fist in the wall I had to count backwards from ten to keep the calm I’d managed to achieve.