Night Fall on Dark Mountain (6 page)

The door behind him whooshed, accompanied by the odor of singed flesh. “Could we have stopped someplace
less infested
?” Joe hissed. “It reeks of dog here.”

“Scared, Garcia?” Max drawled, while his own heart rate thumped faster.

“Screw you!”

Max pushed through the inner doors and walked down the line of metal desks. The few officers not on patrol turned, their senses alert.

A few had been deputies when Max had run the store, but their expressions weren’t welcoming now. Their gazes narrowed, and he knew hackles rose.

One deputy hit the intercom switch. “Sheriff, you won’t believe who just crawled through the fuckin’ door—”

Max gave Todd McGwyre a lethal glare and continued to the oak door at the end of the row.

Behind him, chairs scraped the floor and booted footsteps closed in.

There would be no retreat.

The door swung open, and Max’s breath caught.
Oh shit, one more complication.
With his heart squeezing inside his chest, he braced himself. “Hello, brother.”

‡

W
ith his hackles
rising, Alec eyed his older brother, barely sparing a glance for the vampire at his side.

Is he so arrogant he thinks I won’t kill Garcia where he stands?
Yeah, he knew who the vamp was—he’d shared a beer or two back in the days before Joe joined the fanged brotherhood. Before he’d become “the enemy”. But he could dust the bastard later. Instead, he narrowed his gaze at Max.

What was Max thinking, entering were territory when he’d aligned himself with the other camp?
He’d fucked a vamp female and not by accident. He decided to cut him where it hurt. “Put the vamp in the pit,” he growled, looking over Max’s shoulder to his deputies.

“Back off!” Max glared behind him, halting the deputies, and then shared a charged glance with his buddy.

That little look riled Alec even more. Max had chosen an enemy over family. “You aren’t in charge here,” he said, his voice low and lethal.

“And you’ve been in charge about two seconds.” Max’s eyebrows lowered, and his shoulders bunched. “But this isn’t about us. This isn’t about The Wars either. It’s bigger, little brother. We’ve come to ask for your help.”

Alec’s lips lifted in a snarl. Max’s life was in his hands—and his older brother knew it by his wary stance. The knowledge was gratifying after the way Max had turned on him in Vero when he’d taken the battle into his own hands. But curiosity about Max’s “problem” and the need to prolong his satisfaction had Alec raising a hand to stay the deputies surrounding the two interlopers. “Put them both in the pit.”

Max’s hands curled into fists. “We don’t have time for this shit.”

Alec snorted. “Sure you do.” He nodded to Todd and another deputy who clamped handcuffs to the men’s wrists.

He was disappointed when neither resisted. So rather than stay there and let Max’s frustrated glare undermine his authority, he swept past them and strode down the long aisle to the doors and out into the parking lot.

Darkness had fallen, and a hot breeze stirred the trees.

A pickup turned into the lot, lights arcing, and his body roused instantly—urgent and hard.
Stasia.

The driver’s door opened and slammed, and Stasia’s light footsteps slapped the pavement. She drew around the end of the pickup and planted herself in front of him, hands on her hips. Her dark gaze pinned him and fevered color filled her cheeks. “Is it true? Did Max bring a vamp here?”

Alec smothered his irritation that she hadn’t bothered to offer him a greeting first before launching into a conversation about Max. The oversight only reminded him that once, a long time ago, Stasia had shared his brother’s bed, too. When he’d been top dog in Dark Mountain.

Alec ran a finger along her cheek, his gaze falling to her mouth and that full upper lip that formed a permanent pout. “Are you asking because you’re curious or because you’re worried about your old boyfriend’s safety?”

She slapped away his hand. “He’s fucking a vamp. What interest would I have in him now?”

Her vehemence sounded a little forced to his ears. Alec gripped her upper arms and dragged her close, bending to glide his lips along her cheek. “Run with me tonight,” he whispered.

She jerked her head back and glared. “Will you tell me what he’s doing here?”

Alec let her go and raked a hand through his hair. “Stasi, must this always be a transaction?”

Her gaze faltered.

Another sin to lay at Max’s feet. When the warlairds had called for volunteers to infiltrate vamp territory and keep tabs on their activities, Max had been so eager he’d left Stasia without a backward glance. What remained of her heart was a hollow space.

At least her hormones were still ruled by the moon. “Run with me,” he repeated, his hand slipping beneath her T-shirt to cup a heavy breast.

Her breath caught, and a hardening nipple poked against his palm. “Is our clan alpha asking?”

He squeezed her breast hard. “Yes, damn you.”

She shrugged from his embrace and turned, pulling her T-shirt over her head. “Can’t say no, can I?” she drawled, her gaze boring into his.

Alec trembled with rage.
Does she think to shame me into rescinding my invitation?
While he seethed deep inside, he reached for the button at the top of his uniform shirt and flicked it open. Stasia needed what he was about to give her, and in precisely the way he would do it. “Just strip.”

The parking lot lights illuminated them, so that anyone looking out the station windows could see them both tearing away their clothes. Alec didn’t care. His body tightened, reacting to the rage his brother’s return and Stasia’s continuing rejection had built. Through the blood challenge just weeks ago, he’d won the right to choose his mate—choose as many as he wanted. He’d have Stasia whether he was her first choice or the very last. Damn her.

Naked, he felt the breeze lift the hairs sprouting from under his skin. He watched hungrily as she pushed her jeans down her slim, muscular legs and flipped them into the bed of her pickup truck. Her long brown hair curved around her shoulders and her full breasts. Her eyes, with their slight upward cast, glinted mysteriously in her oval face.

The start of her transformation shone in those eyes, light reflecting against the golden irises. “Think you’ll catch me?” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder, not caring she’d just bared her breast to his view.

Alec growled and let his change flow rapidly. When he dropped to his paws, his intellect faded, replaced by a hunger that burned in the wolf’s loins.

The wolf raised his head and howled, and when the woman melted and shimmered into a lean, brown-furred bitch, he loped across the parking lot and into the forest beyond.

*

Alec rolled from
his side to his knees, leaves sticking to his moist skin. Beside him, Stasia stirred and sat up. He cursed. His cock was limp and wet, and he had only fading memories of mounting her body.

“Well, that was quick,” she said, shaking out her hair, a trace of mockery in her voice.

He flushed, angry she’d prodded him into taking her in his wolf-skin—again. Frustration, sharp and fierce, rushed through him. He sprang on her, forcing her back against the carpet of leaves. When he stretched over her, pinning her limbs beneath his, he held his lips a fraction of an inch above hers. “Did I disappoint? I can remedy that,” he drawled, slipping a knee between her thighs.

“I wasn’t disappointed,” she blurted. Blood pulsed at her temple. Her nostrils flared.

Was she wary or aroused? “No?” he said, dipping his head to drag his lips across hers. “Then you came?” he asked, his tone silken.

She arched, trying to lift him. “I don’t remember,” she ground out.

“Can’t have you wondering.” He centered his hardening cock between her thighs and nudged between her slick folds.

“Alec, enough.” Stasia tried to roll to the side.

He braced his legs, resisting. His gaze was unwavering—as was his intent. He had her attention now.

After several moments of futile writhing, she went still beneath him and glared. “Don’t you think we should get back? Max and that vamp—”

“Are being watched.”

She pushed at his chest. “You said you’d tell me why he’s here.”

“And I will—when I know,” he drawled.

Stasia gasped. “You don’t know?” Her voice rose. “You led me on.”

His gaze pierced hers. “You thought you could get what you wanted by giving me sex.”

Her brow creased as she scowled. “So what? I have to lie with you anyway.”

“It’s not enough, Stasia,” he said, his throat tight, fighting the overpowering need she inspired. But why her? He nuzzled under her jaw and growled, “I want you howling in my arms.”

“I already did,” she gritted out.

“I don’t think so.” He nipped her earlobe. “I would have awakened with the sound ringing in my ears.”

She shoved him. “Let me up.”

Her scent was strong, ripe—arousal perfumed the cream seeping from her body. She could deny him until Christmas, but he knew her body wanted this.

He settled more heavily upon her. “Not yet. I’m still hungry.” He nudged her again, but when her legs pressed in at his sides, trying to close access, he pulled away. They both knew he was stronger, and he could overcome her physically, but he wanted her participation this time. He rose up on his arms and quickly moved down her body, nipping her collar bone and the top of a breast as he went.

Frantic now, she slapped his shoulders and pulled hard on his hair, but he clamped his lips around a spiking nipple and bit.

Stasia cried out and clawed at his back. When he didn’t let go, she yanked harder on his hair…but her legs rubbed restlessly against his.

Alec growled in smug satisfaction. He’d found the key to her passion. The little wolf-bitch liked to play games. Releasing her nipple, he pried her hands from his hair and stretched them above her head. “So you like it rough, baby?”

“Bastard. I don’t like it any way with you,” she spat, her body shivering beneath his. Her expression was fierce and unrelenting, but her pungent arousal grew stronger.

“Liar,” he whispered. “Was Max rough? Is that what you miss?”

Her mouth tightened. “I don’t miss Max. Get off me.”

He rasped his chin across her nipple. “Not until I have my due.” Then he opened his mouth wide and sucked as much of her plump breast into his mouth as he could hold. With one hand holding her wrists away, he dragged the other down her body, following the honed and rippling muscles of her abdomen and hips. Arching his middle over her, he made room to sink his fingers between her legs and into her silky, slick cunt.

Her body betrayed her instantly. Stasia’s hot pussy released a gush of molten excitement that coated the fingers shoving deep inside her.

Alec groaned, pleased beyond words at her response. His own body reacted to her quickening pulse with a hardening that threatened to release the wolf. He let go first of her breast then her hands and scooted further down her body. When his nose nudged her pussy, Stasia whimpered but her thighs spread wide.

Pulling out his fingers, he parted her dripping flesh and tongued the edges of the thin quivering lips, while dipping between to lave the cream her body offered. His tongue lapped inside, sliding over the silken folds, stretching to caress her inner walls as her hips jerked and rolled beneath his mouth.

He spread her sex wider and pressed a thumb to pull up the delicate skin shrouding her hardened clit. Exposed and engorged, it ripened further as Alec rubbed his thumb in ever-tightening circles. A sliver of moonlight revealed the swollen pink lips below were darkening as her passion increased.

“Too much. Alec, it’s too much,” she keened.

He tongued her clit and murmured, “Are you sensitive here?”

“Please, Alec,” she sobbed. “Please stop.”

Regret thrust a shard of ice into his chest. “Can’t, baby.”
Even if I could.
“I’m hard as a rock—ready to explode if I don’t have you now.”

“I hate you,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“Do you?”
Maybe she does.
“I don’t give a damn as long as you want me,” he lied, plucking her clit between his thumb and finger.