Sworn to the Wolf (15 page)

“Sounds fun!” It had been years since Rain had real girlfriends.

“And every six months we go up to Vancouver to see Ellen. The shopping up there is fabulous,” Kari said.

Rain stiffened. “Oh.”

Laurent opened one eye and met Ryan and Skye’s. He nodded.

Kari patted Rain’s hand. “Laurent told you then? It was a shock I’m sure. It was for me too. But know that Ellen is a wonderful woman who loves her husband deeply. They go about their mating differently than Andreas and I do but she wouldn’t ever attempt any untoward behavior with Laurent. She’s not the type. Laurent has made it absolutely clear that he’s in love with you and has no intention of sharing, even though some males who shall remain nameless did ask him right off.”

Laurent glared at Ryan and Skye. Skye winked at Rain and she blushed, flicking his ear.

“That’s how you have to handle Skye. He’s a total flirt. But he’s generally harmless—to those he loves anyway,” Laurent told her.

Anna came in to announce that dinner was ready and they all stood up to go into the dining room. Andreas and Kari went first, followed by Sean and Emma, Laurent and Rain, Devon and Perri and so on. Rain was beginning to get the idea about the whole hierarchy thing. As bodyguards, Phillip sat next to Kari and Alek sat next to Andreas. Rain couldn’t help but feel a bit smug at how far down the table Paloma sat. It was also a relief that Laurent never even glanced her way but doted on Rain’s every movement and word. The kids all sat at their own table to the right of Andreas and within reach of both him and Kari.

After the meal people got up and milled around, chatting and visiting with each other. A tall gray-haired man who had to be related to Andreas pulled Devon out of his chair to sit between Rain and Perri, putting his arms around the backs of their chairs.

“Welcome, my lovely new daughter-in-law-to-be.” He kissed her right on the lips, the sly fox! She quirked a smile at him and laughed.

“You must be Tomas.”

“Yes, I see my reputation precedes me.” He laughed and gave Perri a smooch too. “I’m old, Rain, but never too old to appreciate a beautiful female. Lucky for me each of my sons has married an absolutely stunning woman and you all seem to fit a different part of the feminine spectrum. Every one of you a man’s dream.” He winked.

“Watch it there,” Laurent growled and they all laughed.

“Are you telling me you never noticed how sexy Rain’s lips were?”

“I noticed. When she gets up, check out her ass, it’s perfectly heart-shaped,” Skye added helpfully.

Laurent threw a roll at him. “No one needs to check out Rain’s bottom, thank you very much.”

“I’ve noticed both the lips and may I also say that your body is so lovely and lush, all curvy and sexy?” Ryan added with a wink.

Andreas laughed so hard his eyes watered and Kari smacked his arm. “What are you laughing about? You don’t think it’s funny when they do it to me.”

“Exactly! Yes, I told Laurent that he’d get his comeuppance when he met his Mate and brought her here. He thought it was funny to join in the fun when they pulled this sort of thing with you and I had to grit my teeth. Well suck it up, brother of mine, the piper’s come to call.” He started laughing again and Laurent growled, making an anatomically impossible suggestion.

Kari leaned across the table. “Don’t worry, Rain. They don’t mean anything by it, they do it all the time. They can’t help but act like twelve-year-olds.” She rolled her eyes and Emma and Perri nodded sagely.

“Well, it’s not like it’s a horrible fate to have the stud patrol here compliment you on your appearance.” Rain laughed and shrugged. Laurent hauled her into his lap.

“Stud patrol?”

“They’re all quite stunning, aren’t they?” Perri asked as the four of them looked around the room at the men sitting there.

The women burst out laughing and Laurent picked Rain up, sweeping her out of the room. “See you all tomorrow morning,” he said as they left.

“Wait! Uncle Laurent, Rain is going to tell us a story,” little Devon cried out and Rain had to stifle a laugh at Laurent’s anguished groan. He set her down with a dramatic sigh.

“Okay, you can borrow her for a while. I need to talk to Phillip anyway.” He kissed all of the kids and then laid a long, lingering kiss on Rain’s lips. “Very sexy indeed,” he murmured into her ear.

As Kari and Rain were herding the kids upstairs, Paloma called out, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep him entertained for you.”

Rain looked back at the woman and narrowed her eyes. “Try it and you’ll discover the true meaning of pain.”

Paloma sat there with her mouth open and Rain turned back to Kari, who gave her a thumbs-up. “That’s how you have to handle it. It’s a reality with all the unmated females here,” Kari murmured as they got the kids settled.

Rain sat in Hellie’s bed with the kids all snuggled around her and gave Chapter two of the superhero story she’d told the last time she visited.

Afterward she met Kari, who sat at a table in the hallway playing cards with Phillip.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful your children are.”

“Oh please! It’s you. Honestly, they’ve never taken to anyone else this quickly. Even Tommie adores you and he’s such a daddy’s boy. By the way,” Kari said, turning to the man who had joined them when Andreas came up the stairs, “have you met Alek? He’s Andreas’s personal bodyguard.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I hear you’ve taken Laurent’s old spot, he speaks very highly of you.”

“Coming from Laurent that’s high praise. It’s very nice to meet you, by the way, welcome to the family.” He rubbed his face along the line of her cheek and she stiffened at first and then went with it. She’d have to get used to it sometime.

“Have you seen Laurent?” she asked Phillip.

“Last I saw he was in the study with Ryan and Skye, brainstorming about what to do with your father and that bastard Anthony. I heard what he did to you and what he said to you today. I’m surprised that Laurent hasn’t flown back there and torn him apart with his bare hands.”

Rain blew out a breath. “Well, let’s hope he doesn’t do anything so stupid. Anthony isn’t worth murder one.” Saying her good nights, she wandered down the stairs and into the study where Laurent, Skye and Ryan sat, drinking Scotch and talking about her situation.

He looked up, smiling when he saw her, and warmth spread through her veins at his attention. “Hi there, handsome.” She sat next to him and took a sip of his sScotch before tucking close into his side. Skye snuggled into her other side and Ryan pulled her feet into his lap. “It’s like a werewolf sandwich,” she said and Skye laughed.

“Hmpf.” Laurent raised his eyebrows at Skye and Ryan but they both ignored him. “Punks. We’re going to wait until after the conversion and you’re officially brought into the Pack with the Mating ceremony before confronting your father directly.”

Rain’s eyes widened. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Can’t we just ignore him?”

“I won’t have you living in fear for the rest of your life. I’m going to make contact with the Eastern Seaboard Clans, get them onboard. Your father has to know that you’re married to me now. That you don’t want any contact with him or Anthony, and that should any harm come to you or anyone close to you damaging information will be sent to the police and the newspapers. We do need to gather that information, I’m assuming you have some?”

“More than I want but yes. Why involve the other Packs on the East Coast though? I hate making anyone else a part of this.”

“Insurance. I want them to be watched, even just casually. Any word about you or harm to you and yours will be reported to me immediately and dealt with. Werewolves have been around a lot longer than organized crime. If Anthony wants to play rough I
will
make good on my threat to him today without remorse. You need to understand, Rain, I’ll do anything to keep you safe. Killing a waste of skin like Anthony Vargas wouldn’t cause me even one moment’s grief.”

“I can’t say that it doesn’t scare me to have you talk like them but I’m happy to say you’re on my side.”

“I don’t hurt innocents. That’s the difference between me and your father and Anthony. But I can rip out a throat in ten seconds, and I will, without hesitation, to protect you or anyone else I care about.”

“Uh, okay,” she murmured and put her face into his neck and breathed him in. She felt better as the warmth of his body rolled over her. “Mmm.” Suddenly things tightened low in her gut and a warm wave of desire oozed through her.

“Watch what you’re doing, love,” Laurent growled softly. Instead Rain moaned and snuggled into his side more firmly. The heat of his skin called to her. Unable to resist, she slid her hands up under the hem of his shirt, stroking over his bare skin.

Something about the man just drove her to distraction. She never felt like a sexy siren in her entire life and now he had her feeling him up in public. A laugh bubbled up at the thought of ripping off his clothes and ravaging him right there and then. But the laugh was low and velvet, startling her.

“What have you done to that sweet shy girl you brought here a few weeks ago?” Ryan asked with an eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know what he does to me. I can’t keep my hands off him,” she answered as she nibbled on Laurent’s earlobe. He growled and electricity arced down her spine and landed in her pussy as honey gathered.

His nostrils flared. “Let’s take this home. I need you.” He stood, easily picking her up as if she weighted nothing so she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Okay. Whatever. Wherever.” She rolled her hips, grinding herself over his cock, and he drew in his breath.

“Damn,” Ryan said and got up and had to adjust himself. “I need to look at some human women. First Kari, then Emma and now Rain. I’m missing something for sure.”

“Later,” Laurent called out, striding from the room, Ryan and Skye laughing in their wake.

Laurent kicked the door of the cabin open and slammed it shut behind him. His eyes glowed with heat as he deposited Rain onto the bed. She watched, speechless, as he ripped his shirt off and stripped his jeans from his body.

He growled low and carnal as his eyes greedily took in Rain’s movements as she rose to her knees. Slowly she pulled her shirt off, exposing her breasts. Her hands went to her jeans but he shook his head.

He stalked to the bed and pushed her onto her back. Grabbing an ankle, he pulled her to the edge of the mattress and made quick work of her jeans and panties. Eyes on her pussy, he dropped to his knees and kissed a hot, wet trail up the inside of her thigh until he reached just where she wanted him most.

“Sweet, sweet, Rain, I love you so much,” he murmured and kissed her passionately. Kissed her pussy like a lover—licking, laving, sucking across fevered, swollen flesh.

Rain’s breath left her body in a gusty sigh as she reached down to thread his hair through her fingers.

His fingers joined in the erotic assault on her pussy, one hand tickling the star of her ass while the other slowly slid two fingers into her, hooking until he stroked over her sweet spot.

No one had ever made her feel so good, feel so much at once. It was more than the combination of his mouth and hands, it was
him
. It was the two of them together that made it so hot between them, she was sure of it. Even the stroke of his hair over her belly and thighs turned her on.

Liquid pleasure stole over her, built and built until she nearly overflowed and still he went on. Continued as she softly cried out his name, rocking her pussy against his mouth because she could do nothing else.

“Mmm, now then.” Grinning, he stood up and pushed her back a bit on the bed, still between her thighs. While her cunt still fluttered and her skin was still flushed with pleasure, he guided the head of his cock to her gate and plunged deep into her.

Rain cried out again, wrapping her legs around his waist. He nearly lost his mind with each stroke as her velvet heat surrounded him again and again.

He loved how responsive she was to his touch. Looking down at her, he hummed his delight at the shine of her lips as she licked them. Her eyes, half lidded with desire, were passion-glazed. Her hands had been stroking over his back until he increased his speed and the strength of his thrusts, and then her nails dug into the muscle of his thighs. The edge of pain added spice to the encounter.

His hair, loose, swept over her bare skin. Over the curves of her delicious breasts and across her nipples. The juxtaposition of the dark hair over the creamy skin of her breast and the coral pink of nipple and areola was disarming and unbelievably erotic.

“Laurent! Oh!” She gasped as he changed his angle and stroked across a different path of nerve endings. She fluttered around him and he fought for control, a fight he was quickly losing. “Yes. Oh god yes,” she moaned as yet another climax hit her. The power of her inner muscles fluttering and pulsing around him was too much and it pulled him in with her and he came with a hoarse whisper of her name.

Pulse after pulse he released his pleasure, his love, his joy into her and she received him. He felt as if he’d come home. She was his safe harbor. He fell to his side and moved her with him, staying buried within her, not wanting to leave the tight heat of her flesh.

She let out a long breath. “I love you, Laurent.”

“I love you too.”

“So you never did tell me about you and Phillip and Ryan. Are you bi?”

He shrugged. “How much detail do you want?”

She laughed. “Are you kidding me? Give it to me, all of it.”

He kissed the top of her head. “It was just a few times over the years. I don’t know if I’m bi or not. I certainly enjoyed myself so if that makes me bi I guess I am. I’m not much hung up on definitions. Anyway, like I said, sometimes sexual touching is a comfort. Werewolves are very sexual creatures. There are times when we’re up here for weeks at a time and don’t leave the area. If I’m horny and Phillip is horny too there’s no reason not to work that out.”

“Holy shit. Can I watch?” She sat up. He started to laugh but found the idea was one that titillated him.

“I hadn’t planned to be with anyone else but you. But should I ever feel the need for another cock in the equation I’ll be sure to have you there. Would you like that?”