Lizzy's Lessons (The Hunt Family Series) (13 page)

*****

Cole wanted to cry. He wanted to howl, cry, and rip everything he saw apart. He ran through the woods in his lynx form trying to run away from the sweet and delicious scent of her skin, but it was no use because it clung to him.

Images of the sorrow and pain he saw on her face when he told her he didn’t love her passed through his mind, making him want to cry even more. Luckily, he was in his lynx form or he probably would have been like a balling baby on the forest floor.

She’d said he was her true mate, but that was impossible. There would be no way the fates would match her with someone who would die on her in a couple hundred years.

He had felt great hope when she’d said that, but reason had come back and he knew it was just a ploy to get him to let her stay. While it was a good one and he would have happily agreed, he couldn’t put himself through that kind of pain when her true mate did actually come along and she took off.

She was so selfish to say something like that, just to get him to let her stay.
Did she care about his emotions at all? Or, was this all just a game for her?

He jumped over logs and branches until he cleared the edge of a tree line and stopped, realizing he was in his Aunt Adala’s territory. He sat on his haunches for a moment, staring at his aunt’s cabin, until the door to the cabin suddenly flew open and his aunt stood there staring back at him.

“Cole, nephew, what are you doing out there just staring at my house?” She growled.

Cole changed forms and went to stand at the bottom steps of her porch.

“I’m sorry Aunt Adala,” he said. “I was just thinking and ended up here. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

She looked at him for a moment then shook her head, “Well you may as well come in.”

She gestured for him to come in and walked back into the house herself, as he followed her.

She sat on her sofa and flipped the television off. Adala wasn’t like most lynx-shifters. She loved technology and being around people. Anything new and exciting, she was there.

“So have a seat and tell me what has you looking so forlorn,” she stated, gesturing to the love seat across from her.

Cole sat down, noting the soft suede against his naked flesh, and wondering if it would be so bad to have something like this in his cottage.

“What makes you think there is something wrong?” Cole said, defensively, which only made Adala laugh.

“Oh come, boy,” she stated. “I’ve known you all your life. I know when something is bothering you. Besides it’s not as if you pay me any visits any other time.”

Cole felt embarrassed, “I’m sorry for that, Aunt Adala.”

“No sorry,” she waved it off. “Just tell me, who is she?”

Cole’s eyes snapped to his grinning aunt’s, “Who is she? How do you know it’s a she?”

“Well, unless it’s a he,” she teased.

“No, no,” Cole snapped, feeling more embarrassed by the minute. “It’s a she, but how did you know. We’re lynx-shifters. We aren’t supposed to have relationship problems because we don’t have relationships.”

“We do too have relationships,” Adala snapped. “They may not last forever, but they are relationships. Besides, you are more like your dad than the rest of us, so it only goes to tell that you have found someone you wish to spend the rest of your life with.”

Cole felt his heart twist in his chest at the mention of his father, “Yes, but my father ended up miserable and alone in the end.”

“No, he did not,” Adala snapped, and Cole looked at her, astonished. “Your father was one of the happiest people I had ever known. Even until his dying day, he cherished what time he got to spend with your mother and celebrated that life. He was even happy to be able to be one of the only lynx males to actually have a relationship with his son.”

“But every time I saw him, he looked miserable,” Cole responded.

“Yes, well, by the time your mother died you were out of the house and off on your own, and you rarely came around to see your father. Your father came to my house all the time and recounted stories of the wonderful things he’d done with your mother. He loved her dearly and was happy to have gotten to be with her.”

Cole’s eyes burned, “But, then he went to her grave to die.”

“Well, yes, why wouldn’t he?” she asked, but continued before Cole could answer. “He loved her. He wanted to be with her, so when he felt it was his time he went to her. Now, they are together forever and not even death can break them apart.”

Cole looked up at his aunt to see the tears shimmering in her eyes and the wistful smile on her face, and wondered if his aunt wished for the same thing.

“This is different, she isn’t human, she’s a vampire,” Cole stated.

“So?” his aunt asked. “If you two are meant to be, then it shouldn’t matter what she is.”

“Vampires only have one true mate and they mate for eternity,” Cole snapped. “I am not immortal and one day she will leave me for her true mate.”

“What if you are her true mate?” Adala responded.

“That’s impossible,” Cole answered, not wanting to meet his aunt’s eyes anymore.

“Why?”

Just then, the front door to Adala’s cabin flew open and a large, naked man stood in the doorway, growling and snarling.

“Oh, shut up, Bruno, it is only my nephew,” Adala snapped at the man.

He stopped snarling, but walked into the room slowly, assessing Cole.

“What are you doing on my territory, boy?” Bruno asked.

“Your territory?” Adala yelled. “Since when is this your territory?”

“Since I am mating you,” Bruno responded, as if that were a good enough answer for Cole’s aunt.

“Bullshit,” she responded. “We may be mating for the season, but this will always be my territory, and you will be nicer to my guests or you can go find another pussy to fuck.”

Cole winced at his aunt’s crude language and the images it brought. Bruno cringed and suddenly looked like a whipped child, instead of a powerful, male lynx-shifter.

Bruno sat next to Adala, and Cole had to avert his eyes or get a show of more naked male than he was willing to see.

“I’m sorry, my sweet,” Bruno whined to Adala. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Adala let the man kiss her, and then she slapped him in the face, “There, now never do it again.”

Bruno rubbed his cheek, but didn’t say anything.

“Now,” Adala said, turning back to Cole. “What makes you think it’s impossible for you to be her true mate?”

Cole felt uncomfortable talking in front of the new audience, but responded anyway, “Because, I am not immortal and will die. She is a vampire, I am a shifter.”

“So?” Bruno responded, making both Adala and Cole look to him. “My great, great, great uncle is mated to a vampire and he’s a shifter.”

“You great, great,
great
, uncle?” Adala asked, putting emphasis on the last great.

“Yeah,” Bruno nodded. “He is a true mate to a vampire woman he met in a village about 500 years ago. She mated him and made him immortal, and they have been together ever since.”

“So your uncle became a shifter-vampire?” Cole asked, confused.

“Nope,” Bruno replied. “He’s still just a shifter, only immortal. I guess she drained him, and then fed him some of her blood to turn him immortal, but it didn’t turn him into a vampire. All though, he does crave her blood every once in a while, but that’s more just a bonding thing than a survival thing.”

“I didn’t even know that was possible,” Adala admitted.

“Yep,” Bruno answered. “It sucks for their kit though because they
are
shifter-vampires and have to deal with that whole one true mate thing. My cousin, Grete, can’t have any kit until she is mated to her one true mate. She’s been waiting about 200 years. Luckily, I don’t have to deal with that.”

Adala slapped Bruno again, and Cole had to stifle a laugh, “You are going to be dealing with finding another mate for the season if you don’t stop offending me.”

“I’m sorry, baby, that’s not what I meant,” Bruno answered, trying to pull her in for a hug.

“I’m sure it’s not,” she responded, pushing him away. “Well, Cole, there you go, it’s not impossible for you to be her true mate.”

Cole swallowed around the lump that formed in his throat. His heart swelled with hope and he suddenly had the urge to jump up and leave to get back to his Elizabeth. He only hoped she hadn’t left by the time he got there.

“Thank you, Aunt Adala,” he said, standing up and reaching over to hug his aunt.

He heard Bruno growl behind her, but she turned around and glared at the poor man, “Will you shut up.”

“I will as soon as he leaves,” Bruno growled, glowering at Cole.

“I’m leaving,” Cole assured. Walking to the door and chuckling to himself as he heard his aunt yelling at Bruno while he left.

When he got outside and changed back into his lynx form he wondered if she would give him another chance after all the nasty things he had said to her, or had he screwed up, forever.

Chapter Ten

Liz lay on the floor crying until she heard footsteps on the porch. Then she jumped up and flung the door open.

“Cole?” she shouted before she even saw who it was, but then her voice caught in her throat and her blood ran cold.

Dorian Czernobog sneered down at her, “Well, well, well, my dear sweet Elizabeth, fancy meeting you here.” he said, in his thick Russian accent.

“What are you doing here, Dorian?” Liz snapped, trying to be brave, in spite of the fear that radiated through her.

“I just came to see if a job had properly been done for me,” he said, nonchalantly. “I see it hasn’t.”

He looked her up and down and Liz suddenly felt like putting something else on.

“You were always so beautiful, Elizabeth,” Dorian stated, lingering on her breasts, which could be seen clearly through the lace of her teddy. “You should have said yes to my marriage proposal.”

“I told you, Dorian, I was waiting for my true mate,” she answered, and his eyes snapped up to hers.

“Did you find him?” he asked.

Liz thought about telling him yes, but Cole had already told her that he didn’t even want her or love her.

“No,” she replied, even though every fiber in her being said that was a lie.

Dorian tsked, “That’s too bad. It looks like you’re never going to find him now.”

As soon as he said it, two large men came around the door and grabbed her. She fought them, but knew they were shifters of some kind and she’d probably not be able to fight them off.

“Bring her with us,” Dorian commanded, turning his back on her and walking off the porch. “We need to leave before her little pet returns.”

The shifters dragged her out of the house and Liz automatically felt the biting chill of the winter night on her skin.

She wondered how they had gotten there. There was no car parked in the driveway, but her question was soon answered when they carried her, on foot, to the tree line and walked into the forest.

She punched and kicked at the man who was holding her, “Where are you taking me?”

“Not far, my sweet,” Dorian answered. “Just to a little cave we found a little ways from here. Then we will kill you and leave you for your pet to find.”

Liz screamed for Cole, knowing it would be of no use, but wishing he were around to hear her.

“Your pet won’t hear you,” Dorian replied. “He was last seen going into the home of some female shifter.”

Liz’s heart broke with the thought that Cole had betrayed her, yet again, and went into the arms of another woman. She cried out, trying to fight free of her captor but unable to.

Finally, they dropped her on the ground and Dorian came to stand over her.

“How does it feel to be lying in the same spot your pet’s little whore was the other night, while he was fucking her?” Dorian laughed, coldly.

Liz looked around at her environment and realized she was in a cave. She could smell the scents of dying leaves, dirt, and musty water, but it wasn’t until she breathed deeply that she smelled the faint scent of Belinda and Cole mixed together. Her stomach turned and she wanted to cry as her heart broke into two again, thinking about the many times and ways he had betrayed her.

“You’ve been watching this whole time?” she finally asked.

“I had to make sure the job was done,” Dorian replied. “I couldn’t trust someone I didn’t know to take care of something as important as you are, my dear, sweet, Elizabeth.”

He knelt down in front of her and grabbed her chin to force her to look at him. She looked at his face and wondered what she had once found handsome about him. He had dark hair that was always kept cropped short, dark devious eyes, a long straight nose, a slightly rounded jaw, and thin, red lips. Nothing like Cole, but then Cole had hurt her more than Dorian ever could.

“Just get it over with, Dorian,” Liz spat, finally ready to face her fate and end her painful life. “I have nothing to live for anyway.”

Dorian just smiled at her, and then picked her up from where she lay on the ground, “It would be my pleasure.”

She felt the piercing of his fangs going into her flesh and knew her death was going to be agonizingly long, but she didn’t care anymore.

She heard rustling behind him and what sounded like animals fighting, but she didn’t pay attention because her head was already swimming from the loss of blood and she really just couldn’t care anymore.

*****

Cole lunged at the first hyena shifter he saw when he broke through the trees to the mouth of the cave.

He had been running for only minutes, but it had seemed like an eternity.

When he’d returned to the cottage to see the front door wide open and Elizabeth gone, he almost thought she had just left him quickly, on foot. However, as he got closer he scented the two hyena shifters and another vampire, and knew she had been taken.

He followed the scent that lead him to Belinda’s cave and attacked the first shifter he had seen.

Another shifter came up to his side and lunged for him, but he knew they were there and kicked out his hind legs, tripping the hyena and hindering their assault.

He fought with the one in front of him, baring fangs, and clawing at him, as the hyena tried to bite and claw him back. After only a few seconds he had the hyena on his back and pushed his teeth into his throat, before he ripped out his esophagus and let the beast bleed out, laughing until it took its last breath.

Then he turned to the other hyena, which had been trying to get at him the entire time he was dealing with the first. He swiped at its muzzle and drew blood, but the hyena still laughed.

You won’t be laughing for long
, Cole thought as he circled the animal.

Cole continued to circle him as he circled Cole, looking for the best opportunity. Then the hyena lunged at him and Cole took the advantage to come up underneath him and lock onto his throat before he even touched the ground, flipping him onto his back.

The hyena laughed and Cole twisted his head, snapping its neck and halting its laughter.

Then Cole turned to the vampire who was feeding off his mate. He looked at Elizabeth’s glassy eyes and pale skin, and knew the man was draining her, which made him see red.

He quickly changed into his human form and just walked behind the unsuspecting vampire, then ripped his head from his shoulders, dislodging his teeth from Elizabeth’s neck and causing her to spill more blood.

He didn’t wait for the man’s body to even hit the ground before he picked Elizabeth up and started carrying her back to the cottage.

She blinked a couple of times, and then looked at him, weakly, “Cole?”

Cole felt the tears he’d been keeping back for days roll down his face. This had been his fault. He had left her and allowed her to be attacked and now she was going to die because of his selfishness. He didn’t deserve her and now he would be without her for the rest of his life.

He ran through the woods, trying not to jostle her, until he got back into his cottage, where he took her to his bed and sat with her on his lap.

“Elizabeth,” he said, grabbing her chin and turning her head toward him. “Elizabeth, wake up.”

She didn’t respond at first, so he tapped on her cheek, “Elizabeth, meine Leibe, wake up, please.”

Her eyes fluttered open and she just looked up at him with hazy eyes.

“Cole, you came for me?” she asked, her voice raspy.

“Yes, meine Leibe, I will always come for you,” he answered.

“You don’t want me, you said so,” she said and her body lurched as if she were trying to swing herself out of his lap.

He tightened his grip on her and held her closer, “I’m so sorry, Elizabeth. I should have never said that.”

“Why couldn’t you just let me die?” she cried, and he cried with her, knowing the pain he had caused her.

“No, Elizabeth, I could never do that,” he sobbed, kissing her forehead.

“You don’t love me. You said so,” she repeated his words and he hated himself more and more.

“Please, Elizabeth, you know that’s not true,” he begged.

She glared at him, “Not true? Then why did you say it? Why have you gone out of your way to hurt me time and again? And why are you running to all these other women?”

“I’m sorry I hurt you, and I only said those things because I thought I was doing the right thing by driving you away from me. I just wanted you safe and happy and didn’t think you could have that with me,” he explained.

“And the other women?” she asked.

“What other women?” he asked her, confused.

“Oh come on, Cole, don’t play dumb now,” she snapped at him, even though she was too weak to even move her body. “I smelled you and Belinda all over that cave. I know you were with her. Dorian told me he watched you go into another woman’s cabin earlier.”

Cole wanted to smile at her jealousy and her will to fight even when she was so weak, “I told you about what happened between me and Belinda, and the other woman was my aunt. I just went there to talk to her.”

She looked at him, disbelieving for a moment, and then her features softened, “I just don’t know, Cole. You’ve hurt me so much. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

Suddenly, her head fell and her eyes rolled back.

“Elizabeth, you need to feed,” he stated, ushering her into a sitting position. “Sit up and feed, baby.”

She didn’t respond to his pleas as he positioned her head at his neck, and Cole began to worry that he had already lost her.

“You don’t even love me,” she whispered against his neck, and Cole felt the heat of her tears on his shoulder.

“Yes, I do, Elizabeth,” he answered. “I will always love you, and promise to make everything up to you as soon as you feed. Please don’t leave me now, Elizabeth, I would die without you.”

He felt nothing and thought he had already lost her, but then he felt a pinch as her fangs went into his neck, and he wanted to rejoice. His body quickly rose to orgasm, but Cole pushed it down, knowing this was nothing about sex and everything about saving his mate. The only joy he would take from this bite would be in knowing that she lived.

His body grew weaker as she continued to feed, until he felt the need to lie back on the bed, which he did. All he could hear was the suckling of her lips against his throat and the distant and slowing thump of his heart, but he closed his eyes and smiled, thinking he had at least saved his mate.

Suddenly, she pulled away from him, but he was too relaxed and weak to notice, until wetness dripped on his lips and a sweet coppery taste hit his tongue. He licked at the source, not being able to get enough, until he latched onto it and drank in earnest.

It didn’t take him long though, until he was hit with a white-hot ball of pleasure and pain, and he threw his head back as his body finally gave in to the orgasm he had been trying to restrain.

Why do I go off like a damn teenage boy all the time now?
He thought to himself, but chuckled lightly.

Slowly, he returned to himself and felt soft lips kissing his skin all over his chest. He opened his eyes and smiled at the woman who sat on top of him, kissing him everywhere she could reach.

“Mmm, that feels good, meine Leibe,” he growled, playfully. “Maybe you should go a bit lower.”

She lifted her head and smiled at him, as she slid down his body until she nestled between his legs on the floor.

“Like this?” she asked before she grabbed the head of his cock and kissed it.

Cole groaned and his hips bucked, “Yes, just like that.”

She swirled her tongue around the mushroomed tip, dipping it into the slit to gather his pre-cum, and then licked down his long, thick shaft. Over and over, she continued to lick him, driving him insane.

“Suck it, Elizabeth, and quit toying with me,” he commanded, and she took it into her mouth, immediately sucking it down until it hit the back of her throat. Then she relaxed her throat muscles, like he’d taught her, and took even more of him.

His body tingled all over with the extra energy her blood gave him and the feelings her mouth around his cock were giving him. He didn’t know his left from his right or his up from his down, just the extreme pleasure of having her mouth on his cock.

He grabbed her hair and guided her mouth as he began to pump his hips, going even deeper than before, but she didn’t gag. She just took all that he gave her, willingly.

Then he felt her grab his balls and start to massage them, so he tried to prepare himself for her little tickling trick, but it never came. Instead, he felt a slippery finger touch his anal ring and almost jumped off the bed.

“Don’t you dare, Elizabeth,” he growled, and felt her chuckle around his cock, sending vibrations down his length.

Her finger disappeared, but when he looked down his body, he noticed she was fingering herself.

“Only I can bring you pleasure, little one, stop playing with yourself,” he commanded and she gave him a coy look, with her lips wrapped around his cock.

Then she pushed the finger she’d been using to finger herself into his ass and his whole body burned with pain. She hooked the finger and rubbed across something deep inside him, while she sucked, hard, on his cock, and he exploded like nothing ever before.

His whole world went upside down and his body shook with the power of his climax. He almost thought he would die.

When he came down from cloud nine, he looked down between his legs to see his mate wasn’t there. Then he felt her tiny hand on his chest.

“Oh, Elizabeth, you will be seriously punished for that,” he growled at her.

“Hmmm, I hope so,” she replied, and Cole couldn’t help but laugh.

He had created a monster.