Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (118 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

There were sixteen wolves and two vampires at the table that morning. The one vamp Airic had met and she tried to ignore him. Aaron, he had told her, was the man from her house. The other was a big man too, and just as gorgeous as the others. Bradley had called him Dominic; he was a tracker.

The breakfast had been a good idea, the men were starved. It got a little dicey there for a few minutes when she began pouring tea in everyone’s glasses. She hadn’t asked if they wanted it, just poured. When two of them looked around for the potted plant that she’d had moved outside to the deck in deference to the large crowd, she nearly laughed out loud. Bradley looked panicky and nervous, especially when his grams, as he called her, told him she was trying a different way to brew the tea, and she wanted him to taste it for her. He cautiously put the glass to his lips and pretended to take a drink.

“Oh come on now, take a healthy drink. I need to know if I should add more sugar or not.” She watched in amazement as he put the brew to his mouth and took a big swallow. The look on his face was priceless. He had expected it to be so sweet, as she had always brewed it, but was surprised by no sugar at all.

“Hey, hey, this is really good. Really, really good.” She watched as he realized what he had said and his face flamed red. His grams took pity on him and kissed his cheek and told him that Airic had made it, and she was handing the tea brewing over to her in the future.

After all the food was eaten and the plates cleared away, Bradley asked to speak to her. She told him she was drying dishes, but if he wanted to come in and help, she’d get it done a lot faster. She didn’t think he would, but he followed her in the kitchen and took a towel out of the drawer. After the others realized he wasn’t kidding and he was going to help, clean up began.

“Grams, thanks so much for getting this done. I didn’t realize how hungry everyone was until we smelled the food coming across the field.” He was drying one of the large plates that wouldn’t fit in one of the two dishwashers.

“I didn’t do it, Airic did. She said you guys would want a fine meal and told us what to do.”

Airic glared at her. All she had said was they’d be hungry.
Fine meal indeed,
she thought with a huff.

“You did this, all of this?”

She looked at his shocked expression and got even madder. “You know, I can think beyond the wheel, you moronic ass. And that’s another thing. I’d like for someone to take me home. Today.” She had just finished drying the last pot and hung the towel over the oven door like her mother had always done.

“I can take you; you must be running out of clothes. I should have thought of that. But my shirt on you looks mighty delicious. I can’t wait to take it off you, button by button, inch by inch. Tasting you as I go.” He had moved closer once he had set his towel aside, his voice getting deeper and warmer. Her body responded to it, nipples hardening, breasts tightening. Need, she felt his need for her touch her in very intimate and seductive ways.

“No, not you. You…you must be tired. I can have one…don’t do that, Bradley.” He was touching her again. She could not think when he touched her.  “Please, you have to…”

“Yes, I do. I have to very badly, love. I want you, Alastriona. I need to bury myself deep inside of you.” His mouth moved along her jaw and to her ear. He nipped at her lobe and she felt the room tilt. He moved his hands up her ribs and cupped her bare breasts, his thumbs finding her nipples and caressing them. He moaned deep from his chest. It vibrated along her skin like a caress. She noticed that they were alone again. Everyone had cleared out without a sound.

“Unbutton your shirt. Unbutton it for me.” With shaky fingers, she moved to do what he asked. When it was undone, she looked at him and closed her eyes when she felt the cool breeze touch her. “Look at me, Alastriona; I want you to watch me as I take you into my mouth.” She opened her eyes again and he lifted her up off the floor, lifting her by her ass and along his body to have her wrap her legs around his waist. When her breasts were level with his mouth, she opened the shirt and cupping her own breasts, fed him them.

“Oh Bradley, yes!” She watched as he suckled at one breast then the other, nipping harder and harder with each pass of his mouth. She was rocking into him now; her release was close, so close she could almost taste it.

“I want you, to be inside of you. Now, Alastriona, now.” While she tightened her legs around him, she felt him move to his pants. The zipper moving down, each tooth opened was like a sensual stroke along her clit. Running her fingers through his hair and gripping it tightly between her fingers, she pulled his mouth up and to hers. Her tongue invaded his mouth, taking and dueling with his, tasting his heat, his need.

“Please, hurry, please.” She was begging, begging him to complete her, fill her. Her body wasn’t just on fire; it felt like molten lava was running through her veins.

This time it was she who heard the person at the door, she who snarled at him to go the fuck away.

“You really need to come out here, my lord. There is a man here who says he’s here because of a rogue wolf that they have tracked to our territory. I thought it could be the one from yesterday.” The man on the other side of the door sounded terrified. He fucking well should be, she thought.

Her body hurt, ached like it never had before. Bradley was still holding her, his pants not quite all the way open, and she wondered if he felt the same way. When he didn’t answer the man, she heard him clear his throat again and she answered for the alpha.

“Tell him that he’ll be right there, please. Put him in the small room off the front door, the one with the pretty blue vase on the table.” She leaned her head back against the cabinet behind her when he sat her down on it.

“Small salon, Samuel, put him in the small salon as the mistress said.” He was still looking at her hungrily as he pulled the tab back up on his trousers and redid his belt. With that look, she started panting again. “You keep looking at me like that, love, and that man could good and well rot away in there for all I care.”

“I hope he does rot. Fucking dick head.” She didn’t get down, but watched him get dressed and straighten his clothes. He was grinning now, the arrogant ass.

“We are going to have to find a place where no one knows where we are. Then I’m going to fuck your brains out. Then when I’m finished, I’m going to do it again. Then maybe a couple more times for good measure.” He placed both hands on either side of her, trapping her where she was. As if she needed to be trapped, she thought. He kissed her. Pulling away much too soon for her, he pulled her shirt closed, picked her up, and stood her on the floor. With a stern, “get dressed,” and a hard swat on the ass, he left the room.

Tossing another “arrogant asshole” his way, she went to the laundry room. She knew he heard her, because she heard him laugh as he went.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

He stared at the man across from him. Donna had brought in iced tea for each of the three men, the man who said his name was Peter Alastair, Dom who was acting bodyguard for Bradley, and himself. The story he had told them did not set well with Bradley.

“We have come into your territory without notice, sire. And I want to extend my master’s apologies. We have tracked a rogue male into this region who we believe to be dangerous and quite mad. He has killed before, humans and weres alike without discrimination, and had now gotten the taste of human blood. We will destroy him as is our way.” Peter recited this speech. Recited it because, Bradley thought, he’d done this many times before.

“Where do you think this rogue wolf is, and why come into my territory?” The man wasn’t lying, not really. He did believe the wolf to be dangerous and maybe even mad, but not about him being destroyed.

“We have tracked him a short distance from here, in small region just north of the city. About seventy miles, I think. We believe that he may be holing up in a house there with a woman. The woman maybe a part of this or not, we cannot say.” The man took a gulp of the tea and set it on the table next to Alastriona’s pretty blue vase. Alastriona lived about seventy miles due north of here.

“This region, do you have an address of the female helping him? I’ll send you help and get this taken care of very quickly. I don’t want a rogue in my territory any longer than necessary.” Bradley watched the man stiffen.

“Oh no! I mean, no, that’ll be all right. We will…can. We can take care of him, the male. It’s a rogue male, I believe I mentioned. They can be quite mad, and dangerous, as you may already know. My master has said that while we appreciate you wanting to help, he would rather take care of this on our own.”

“I see. The address then. I wouldn’t want my men to stumble into your trouble then. Donna, would you please ask your mistress to meet me in the barn, please? Dom, go with her.” Bradley had put just enough command in his voice to have his wolves obey without question, even to the point of leaving the alpha alone with this man. The other man, Peter, didn’t feel a thing, which Bradley found to be curious, but he would think on that later. For now, he didn’t like this, any of this.

After securing the address and giving him the assurances that they would be close if they needed any extra help, Peter left.

Putting out a mental call, Bradley had three of his wolves track the man in the limo. As soon as he left the estate, Bradley would know where he was at every second. He strode to the barn and to his mate. Moving with quick strides, he pulled out his cell phone and made three calls. The first was to his brother David, the cop.

“David, a man just left here saying that he had a rogue were on the loose close to here. Said he was dangerous and that he is living with a female helper in this territory.” He saw her then, leaning against the fence, petting his favorite ride.

“Do you think it was the were that killed last night?” He could hear David shutting the door to his office as he spoke.

“No, I think he’s lying. The address this man gave me, he claims this male is hiding out in is Alastriona’s. I think it’s either the man from the phone call, or he’s his flunky and they’re here to take her back with them. That isn’t going to happen, David. She’s mine, Alastriona is mine.” Bradley saw that Dom was scanning the area, watching. Good, he understood that he had wanted him to protect her. It was several seconds before he realized that his brother hadn’t said anything.

“David, what is it?”

“When I got back to the house this morning, Donna told me that Airic, what she told them to call her by the way, had made her sit down and rest her feet as soon as she came downstairs. She apparently came down just after we left this morning. She’d even gone so far as to get a bucket of cold water for her to help with the swelling of her ankles. It seems that throughout the morning she had made all the breeding women go out to the poolside and drink a glass of juice and rest ten minutes out of every hour. Not asked, but commanded, Bradley, while she, your alpha, made biscuits and brewed tea with them and worked beside them. Donna said that when Phil and Daniel came in, the two pups from last week, she asked them to help out Martha and weed the garden and she’d pay them for their troubles. She gave each of them twenty bucks apiece and several of the first batch of her biscuits with honey on them. Since I’ve been in my office, I’ve had twenty-three phone calls asking if the rumors were true, that the alpha has yet to claim his alpha queen. Bradley, have you? Claimed her, I mean.”

His alpha queen, not bitch but queen. That was the highest honor given to a pack bitch. It wasn’t something that you claimed as yours, but was given to you by your people. Alastriona had been with the pack for just over twenty-four hours and she was their queen.

“I need you to watch things for me until tomorrow. I’m going to call Grandda and Aaron too. If you need me, and you had better really need me, your queen and I will be at the cabin.” He heard David laughing as he hung up. He called his grandda next, telling him that he was going to be out of touch until tomorrow, and asked if he could keep an eye on things.

“You gonna claim that girl? Heard tell they’ve made her their queen. ‘Bout time if’n you ask me. Breed that one quick, boy. I ain’t getting any younger.”

With a very heartfelt “fuck off,” Bradley hung up on him. He called Aaron next and told him the same thing. But Aaron had news for him too.

“Pete just called, she’s got a name for the phone you gave her. A Christopher Alastair is the owner of the number that called the phone delivered to Airic. He’s an alpha from Europe, or so the address says. She got with Bailey and she was able to run down some other interesting information. It seems there are several unsolved deaths that may or may not be connected to him. Over the past several years, hummm, eight years, there have been nine women whom he claimed as his mates that were found brutally raped and beaten to death a few months later. There are eleven other women still missing in that region. I’ve contacted the master vampire of that realm and he said that there have been several of his female vamps raped as well, but they can’t give a description of the man, or sometimes men, who did it. But he did say that a male wolf was involved. Not alpha, but a male wolf.”

“This Christopher, does he have a brother named Peter by any chance?” Bradley started toward Alastriona again, his fear for her safety paramount.

“Yeah, and one named Slavic. Slavic was one of the ones Bailey took out two years ago when she was hired by Mel to find them. He was the leader of the six she tracked to Airic’s cave. Maybe he wasn’t the leader, but this Christopher was, you think?” Bradley had always liked Aaron’s quick mind. They could and had worked out issues together any number of times since becoming friends. He needed him now.

“I was going to the cabin in the woods on the estate. I was going there to be alone with Alastriona, but now I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. I don’t suppose you’d put us up for the night and leave us the fuck alone, would you? Aaron, I’ve been trying for three days to claim my mate and there have been any number of crises occurring to prevent that. I need to claim her now, before this jackass tries to take her from me.”

“I’m sorry, buddy, but if the only reason you’re claiming her is because you don’t want this guy to take her from you, then no. Sara’d have my nuts in a jar so quick I wouldn’t know they were missing until it was too late. But for love, ah, that I can do.”

As soon as this was over, he was going to make a list of those who he was going to kill first, and the deaths would be very slow, long and slow. Aaron was working his way to the top, right after his grandda, he thought

“I love her, you prick, and you damn well know it. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Less if I can get her to shift with me.” He hung up on him as well.

Now, he had to tell Alastriona what they were going to do and hoped that his nuts weren’t in the jar next to Aaron’s.