A Pack For Christmas (Kansas City Vampires Book 7) (7 page)

Julia leaned into Alex’s embrace. She was filthy and smelled like rust. Alex had declared his love for her, and the rawness of the emotion had moved her. She knew in the moment of his declaration, she loved him. Physically, she’d been attracted to him since the beginning, but she’d been scared -- afraid of being a third wheel in their party of three with Rafir. Deep down, she’d believed Rafir and Alex were a better match for each other than she was for either of them. She’d been pushing Alex away, and by doing so, she’d pushed Rafir away as well. How could they love her or want her? Her body lacked the firmness of youth and the scars marred whatever beauty her skin might have held. But here Alex was… loving her.

She knew it had taken an incredible amount of strength on his part to resist forcing her to feed his hunger. Alex wasn’t even a year old yet. A complete baby in vampire years. He could kill Julia, and no one would blame him. It would be the werewolves’ fault.

Alex’s lips were luscious and full. The heat and passion in his eyes made Julia’s pussy slick with heat. Alex wanted her, and not just for food or a Rafir substitute. Impulsively, she kissed him.

He pulled back, licking his lips. “This is dangerous.”

Julia smiled. Fuck the wolves. She would not give them the satisfaction of breaking them. She would do what was necessary to save Alex, and in turn, save herself. Looking into his hazel eyes, she knew he’d been honest. He desired her, and he loved her. “I trust you, Alex. I… I want this. I want you.” She meant every word.

Alex curved his hand around Julia’s waist and down her hip, drawing her closer to him. “I don’t know if I can do this. Not without blood,” he murmured against her hair.

She slid her arms around his waist and pressed her bare skin against his body. “I trust you, Alex.”

His embrace tightened, and the strength of his arms made her shiver. He sighed a small sound of relief. He kissed her neck, sliding his tongue over the drying blood. A low moan escaped his throat. She could tell he was fighting for self-control, but for once she wasn’t worried about what a vampire might do to her. Alex was her only concern.

“It’s all right,” she whispered, caressing his hair, guiding his head toward her breast. “Take what you need, Alex.”

He rolled her sideways to her back, cupping her buttocks with one hand while gently placing her head on the floor. Julia reached for his cock, still soft without the magic of blood to fill it. She wanted him hard and unyielding inside her.

Alex licked and sucked his way around the scars populating her chest. His fangs grazed against the few smooth undamaged places not tainted by her past. The sensation made her gasp. The floor was rough against her back, but she didn’t mind. She wanted to possess Alex, the same way Rafir did, and make him hers as well. His gentleness touched her. For the first time, she really understood why Rafir had brought him home and into their lives. They were all damaged goods, but together they were stronger. She’d made them weak by not accepting Alex. She’d made Rafir weak. And the love she felt from Alex now made her want to weep for her own months of loss.

Alex brought back the memories of her years as a slave, but he also made her face the parts of herself she’d given up to survive those times. He made her feel like a boy should make a girl feel, desired. Her years of captivity had killed the young woman inside, dying minute by minute over a decade of torture. Alex made her feel… giddy. Even in this place, a captive once again, he made her feel like a teenager with a major crush.

“Please,” she begged. “Take my blood, Alex.” She took his hand and pushed it between her legs, his fingers slipping between the folds of her sex. “I want you in me.”

“Shit,” he muttered. “You’re so wet. So hot.”

“Yes.” She panted while his fingers danced over her swollen clit, the pressure mounting an assault on her senses. “For you.”

She felt his fangs lance the flesh at the top of her left breast, the small pain turned pleasurable as he sucked the fresh wound while sliding his fingers inside her pussy. Julia shuddered under the press of his body. She could feel his cock growing stiff between them, and she fumbled to take it in her hands.

“In me.” She moaned. “In me now.”

Alex licked the puncture marks, then sat back on his heels. He swept his arm behind Julia’s back and pulled her off the ground and into his lap. He held her up, her sex hovering over his erection. “I’ve wanted you, wanted this for so long. Are you sure?”

His vulnerability, along with his unkempt sandy-brown hair, hazel eyes, and deliciously pouty mouth, almost made her want to laugh. But she didn’t. She met his gaze, conveying all her passion through her eyes.

She leaned down, taking his lips. She pushed her tongue into his mouth as he lowered her down and sank his cock inside her slick, hot pussy.

She was wet and open for him. And Alex was long, and hard, and thick. Perfect.

His cock slid inside her sex. The cool length fueled her burning desire. Being in Alex’s powerful arms, his shaft thrusting hard, made Julia vibrate with delicious pleasure. Impulsively, she traced her fingers down his tightly muscled arms. He felt strong and capable -- powerful. Lowering her head, she kissed his luscious lips. She darted her tongue between his teeth and tasted her own blood in his mouth mingled with saliva.

Alex moaned. Julia swallowed as he thrust his tongue inside her mouth. He grabbed her by the thighs, lifting her as he slammed his cock deep inside her pussy.

“Yes!” she cried out. “Fuck, yes.” She wanted Alex, all of Alex, and with his body so interwoven with her own, she knew without a shadow of doubt he wanted her back.

Alex quickened his strokes, driving deeper and more insistent with every upward thrust of his hips. Julia could feel the release building -- a volcano, ready to erupt.

His mouth tore from her as he leaned Julia back and captured a taut nipple between his teeth. She threw her head back and screamed in raw ecstasy. Her pussy exploded around his cock. Her whole body shuddered as the orgasm shattered every doubt she’d ever felt about Alex.

Alex held her tight in his arms, keeping them joined. He filled her with every tight inch of his rigid length, stroking half in and half out with a steady rhythm. Within moments, she felt the pressure building again as the soreness in her clit shifted to pure pleasure once again. She didn’t think she could come again after the first mind-blowing orgasm, but her body had other ideas.

Julia murmured his name, “Alex, Alex, Alex,” over and over. He kissed her neck, her chin, her cheek, all the while kneading her back and buttocks with his strong, deft fingers.

He could have ripped her throat out and drained her dry, and in that moment, she would have died with the biggest smile on her face.

“Julia,” he said. He bit her lower lip between his teeth. “I am yours.”

“You are mine,” she agreed as he brought her screaming, and screaming, and submerged into an orgasm so intense her entire body shuddered with abandon.

Alex cried out as his embrace tightened again, holding her writhing form in place over his cock as the first throes of ecstasy hit him. He bowed forward, dropping one hand to the ground to brace her back off the cement as he thrust the last of his desire into her.

After a few seconds, she began to laugh, low and soft. Alex met her gaze and smiled.

“Do you think anyone heard us?” she asked.

Alex sat up and pulled her close. His softening cock withdrawing from her. “I don’t care if the whole world heard. If I die tonight, I will die knowing true happiness. You and Rafir have healed me, Julia. I am yours for as long as you’ll have me.”

“Forever then.” A pang of human awareness settled in her thoughts. She didn’t have forever, but she would take him as long as time permitted. “I am yours as well.” She looked around the cage again. They needed to survive. She wanted to show Rafir she could happily live the life he wanted. She wouldn’t be the weak link in the pack any longer. But first they’d have to make their escape. “Now,” she said, kissing Alex on the nose. “Let’s figure out how to get out of here.”

“One thing,” he said, holding her to his lap.

“Yes?”

“If we make it out of here…” He glanced away almost shyly.

“Go on,” she prompted, tilting his chin back to her.

He flexed his fingers on her thighs as if steeling courage. “I’d like to have Christmas.”

“You’re a vampire,” she said exasperated. He would not give up on this whole notion of Christmas. “Doesn’t that go against some kind of moral code or something?”

“I’ve never had a family, Julia. I grew up in foster care, and all I dreamed about was having a family of my own to celebrate the holiday with.” He looked at her directly, the gold flecks in his hazel eyes bright. “I have a family now.”

“Oh.” Shame warmed her cheeks. “Oh.” The proper response eluded her. Instead, she simply nodded her head.

A tension she hadn’t realized Alex had been holding released, and as much as she could see it relax his face, she felt it in the carriage of his body.

“Thank you.” He gave her a quick squeeze and her back cracked.

“Ouch.”

He smiled. “Sorry.”

The door at the top of the stairs rattled.

“They’re coming.”

Hank and the guy in the black jacket walked down the stairs. Hank had a gun. He pointed it through the bars at Julia. “Make a move, vamp, and I’ll kill her.”

Rafir didn’t struggle as Bernard’s enforcers took him downstairs. Rage tempered with training poured hot over his skin. Up ahead he heard Julia before he saw her. The oaf in coveralls had his arm around her neck and a gun to her head. It was all the weapon they needed to keep Rafir under control. The blood they’d poured over her had become streaked and flaky, and he was pissed she didn’t have clothes on. These bastards couldn’t even give her that much dignity.

He tried to convey assurance with his eyes, and Julia blinked, her fear evident. Even through the mess she was beautiful -- still everything he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. And now, he could see even more in her. An inner peace she’d never had before. Alex had done that for her, not Rafir. For that and more, he was grateful.

A noise down the hall drew his attention. Two men dragged Alex across the floor. The chains binding his wrists to his feet rattled. Rafir growled. They’d stripped them naked to humiliate them and punish Rafir in the process, but their tactics had failed. Rafir had never been more proud, and he’d never felt stronger than he did right then. He would make Bernard pay.

They were taken to a large room, probably where dances and banquets had been held back when the house was first built. The paint on the crown molding around the ceiling and archways leading in and out of the room flaked with years of neglect. The hardwood floors were scuffed and dull. Stains spattered the white walls. This was a killing room.

Rafir met Bernard’s eyes. He would not be submissive. Not today. Not ever. “I invoke the right to challenge. Be it witnessed by all.”

Bernard jerked his chin up, clearly startled. “You can’t challenge me.”

“Oh, yes, I fucking can.” He’d grown up in a pack. His own father had been pack master. It was one of the main reasons he’d chosen lone wolf status, but it didn’t mean he’d forgotten pack politics. Anyone could challenge for pack master. It just didn’t happen often because you don’t get to be lead dog unless you were one bad ass motherfucker. “Your enforcers are here as witness.”

He’d called Bernard out. If the pack master refused, and just killed Rafir outright and not in a fair fight wolf to wolf, he would appear weak to his people. A weak leader wouldn’t last very long.

“After I chew your beating heart from your chest, Rafir Caras, I am going to dine on vampire and human. You could have saved them with your sacrifice, but now I’m going to kill you all.”

“You going to talk or fight?” Rafir shook himself loose from the two enforcers holding his arms. He pushed the magic transforming him until he felt his muscles shift and bulge, bones snapping and reforming as hair sprouted fine, but dense along his skin. His clothes tightened and ripped as his body grew more than double in thickness and a least a foot more in height. Bernard shifted just as easily.

He might have been a small man, but his yellow-brown, beastly form was huge. Even bigger than Rafir’s. Rafir drew strength from the love he felt for Julia and Alex. He would win. He had to for all their sakes.

He waited. He’d fought in many battles, sometimes in were-form. He’d learned the art of controlling his instincts when strategy was necessary. He would analyze Bernard’s movement and strike at the pack leader’s weakness.

Bernard was pure brute. He launched himself at Rafir, roaring and snapping as he reached, claws out, for Rafir’s throat. Rafir easily sidestepped the telegraphed attack. He spun, hitting the other werewolf in the back, using Bernard’s own momentum to send him crashing against the wall. The large werewolf raged in frustration. He quickly turned on Rafir, sweeping a leg and catching Rafir’s ankle.

The wind whooshed from Rafir when he hit the floor. Bernard didn’t waste a second. He jumped on top of Rafir, his claws carving painful and bloody runnels into his chest. Julia screamed.

Rafir threw up an arm, pushed with his knee, bucking Bernard forward. He latched on to the pack master’s chest with his teeth.

Bernard howled. He punched his massive fists into the sides of Rafir’s head, trying to break his hold. Instead, Rafir clamped his jaws tighter. He could feel pure bone beneath his teeth, and if he wasn’t careful the muscle would come away and he’d lose the hold he’d gained. Bernard made the option moot when he put his hands on the floor, and using his legs and arms, sprang away from Rafir, leaving him with nothing but muscle and blood in his mouth.

Quickly, Bernard recovered his feet and grabbed Rafir by the back of his neck and hit him in the jaw hard enough to send the glob of flesh sailing out of his mouth. Rafir snarled, throwing an elbow into Bernard’s wounded side. The pack master was strong, unbelievably so, but Rafir had had years of training and discipline. The wolf believed sheer force would win the fight, but Rafir knew better. Overconfidence was Bernard’s weakness. The way to beat the asshole was to make him believe he was winning the contest. He took a punch to the head that sent him careening backward. He landed flat on his back, but when Bernard pounced again, Rafir had already rolled away. He huffed, blood flying from his flaring nostrils. Bernard charged again, but this time Rafir leaned to one side, threw out a leg, and with both hands yanked Bernard off balance. He used the pack master’s stunned surprise to finish the fight by clamping his teeth against his throat.

“Kill them!” Bernard roared, the words thick and rough coming from his beastly maw. “Kill them now!”

The look of triumph in Bernard’s golden eyes, even in this moment of defeat, startled Rafir. He lifted his head to use words to stop the pack from carrying out their orders, but he was silenced by a deafening shout.

“Enough!”

Both Rafir and Bernard looked up. It was Guillermo Perez. He hadn’t come alone. Nathaniel Greer, his lover, and Nadine and Tyrsgard Madds, the Viking vampire and his bride, were in the room as well. Guillermo had brought them as insurance.

“Stay out of this, Perez,” Bernard growled.

“You’ve lost, Bernard.” Guillermo stepped toward them. “Rafir has beaten you.”

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but only because you --”

Before Gui could finish, Rafir, without hesitation, bit down hard and tore out Bernard’s throat, before the gurgling from the escaping air could finish hissing from the gory wound, Rafir punched his claws through Bernard’s stomach and reached up to find his dying heart. He ripped it from Bernard’s chest and shoved it into the ex-pack master’s mouth.

“Chew on that, you son of a bitch,” he said. “I win.”

Guillermo raised a brow. “You certainly do.”

Rafir had already begun shifting back to human form. He needed to touch Julia and Alex, he needed them to be near him. Instinctively, they ran to him, meeting him in a desperate embrace.

“What will you do now, my friend?” Gui asked.

“I’m going home.”

“I meant with the pack. They cannot be left on their own, unless you’d like me to kill them for you. That would be one way to clean up the mess, no?”

“No,” -- Rafir shook his head and could sense the relief from the other wolves in the room -- “they’re mine now. I’ll take care of them.”

Guillermo nodded. “Let me know if you change your mind. I haven’t seen this much excitement in years.”