Things That Go Hump In The Night (83 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

What Will Be

As
soon as the fight was over, he felt a lessening of psychic control in the air. He could feel where his clan was, and he knew their general emotions. Stepping back from Mara’s kiss, Riker let himself slip back into the minds of his clan.

While Jonathan was joyous, triumphant even, the others seemed to cower in his mind’s eye. They knew he was angry about the position they’d put him in, by both kidnapping Mara and setting the shifter leaders against their kind.

Thieving and shifting in public, hmmm?
His disapproval echoed out over the psychic link they shared.
We’ll talk about all this later.

“Riker.” Stepping forward, Daniel held out his hand for him to shake. Though his throat and ribs still ached from the werelion’s jaw, Riker grasped it firmly and shared a long moment of mutual silence with the other man.

“No hard feelings over my win, I hope,” he said.

“The rules are the rules. Your fight is far from over. We’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

Kip stepped forward to say her peace. “And if the feds get on our trail, you’ll wish you’d rolled over and played dead today. The bloodbath will be bad for us all.” Her eyes briefly strayed over to Mara, who she looked at with some measure of significance.
Watch your back if you’re going to bed down with a human. Her weakness will be yours.

Riker ignored her. “We’ll be going home, if you don’t mind. My girl and I have some catching up to do.”

As they turned away, hand in hand, he felt Darren’s voice in his head.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry we endangered her. I didn’t think we had a choice.

Squeezing Mara’s hand, Riker drank in the sight of her beautiful face.
If you had succeeded in your attempt to harm her, you would be dead. I would’ve made sure of that myself.

His
apartment seemed different in the light of day—whether he acknowledged it was his or not. I could tell he took no joy in living here, but I still wasn’t sure I understood why.
Questions, questions.
I had too many of them to count. I started to ask my first one—when exactly did he become a shifter—when a jaw-cracking yawn split my face.

“You should rest,” Riker said, kissing my forehead gently. “I’ve got to take a shower and get a fresh change of clothes. But you’ll be safe here. I promise.”

Glancing around, I noticed once again that the furniture in his apartment didn’t quite seem to fit his style. “One question first: whose apartment is this, and why do you live here?”

Sighing, he led me over to the couch, where we both sat down. “Are you sure you want to know? It’s a long story.” There was weariness in his eyes.

“I want to know everything I can about you. If you’re willing to tell me.”

Lacing his hand through mine, he took a measured breath. “When I was a kid, my parents died.” I opened my mouth to console him, but he hushed me. “It was a long time ago now, and I don’t need your pity.”

“Still, I’m sorry,” I said.

“I know.” Clearing his throat, he went on. “Like any unwanted teenage boy, I was put into the system. It wasn’t great. I bounced from foster home to foster home, getting labeled with words like ‘troublesome’ and ‘rebellious.’ Half my foster parents were just in it for the government handouts, and the other half thought they were fucking angels for taking care of other people’s messes like me. As soon as I was old enough, I ran away.

“The streets weren’t kind to me, of course.” From the far-off look in his eyes, I could tell Riker was recalling memories he’d buried. I squeezed his hand. “I survived for as long as I could, but pretty soon I had two options: starve, or join a gang.”

I sucked in my breath. “Is that what those tattoos are about?”

He smirked at me, a bit of that rebellious front coming through. “No, princess, they’re not crime-related. Not really. But I’ll get to that.

“We weren’t drug dealers or murderers; we were thieves. An older man led us, named Pierce. At the time I thought he was a god, but really he was just some 30-year-old loser hanging out with a bunch of abandoned teenagers. He called us a family, said we’d stay together through thick and thin. And I believed him.”

He was silent for a long moment, so I prompted him. “Then what happened?”

“He brought us to the Cave of Sorrows.” His voice was rough with the past. “We needed more strength, he said. We’d go in together. I didn’t want to, but it was clear I wouldn’t have a choice; we either jumped into the notoriously deadly water, or we’d be kicked out of the ‘family.’ So I jumped. Every day since I wish I’d been brave enough to walk away.”

“You were young,” I said, holding back tears at the thought of his pain. “What choice did you have?”

“Not much.” Clearing his throat, he continued. “For a while, everything was wonderful. We were part of a larger community, and we felt invincible. After surviving instead of dying, what could go wrong? I grew up with my closest friends at my side. But our leader, Pierce, kept looking for more and more power. And he found it, along with more money, and more… things.”

He waved his hand around, indicating the lavishly decorated penthouse apartment we sat inside. “It never seemed to end with him. Eventually I’d had enough, and so had a few of the others. We wanted to leave. But he wouldn’t let us.”

“He sounds like a real tyrant,” I said.

“Yes. And much more than that. He told us that we could leave the clan, after one more job. But that job was for a politician who’d done something horrible.” I noticed the shame in his eyes, and felt for him. “It isn’t my proudest moment, but I decided I could go along with anything he wanted, as long as he let us go. It seemed like a fair price to pay. But when we got there, the job was… not what I expected. There’d been a witness, you see, and the politician wanted her taken care of.”

“Oh my god.” Horror filled me as I realized what he meant.
He can’t have gone through with it.

“She was just a child, Mara. I couldn’t let it happen. But Pierce was determined—he had a lot riding on this job. He said we’d have someone on the inside to protect us, in case the feds ever came after shifters again. So I had to stop him, and in the end…” His voice was quiet, low. “In the end, I killed him.”

Our hands were still laced together, so I could feel the slight tremble go through him. I didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry. That must have been awful.”

He nodded, straightening up and shaking himself off like he was leaving the past behind. “It was. The worst part of all of it, though, was that the others looked to me for leadership after that. I wanted nothing more than to leave the clan forever, but they insisted I needed to step into the void left by Pierce’s absence. And I could feel it: the power that had once been his alone was passed on to me after I killed him. I’d become the strongest shifter among us by default. It disgusted me.”

“So you left.”

“Yes. I told them to give me a few years to live a normal life. I assumed that while I was gone, they would straighten themselves out and find a new leader, but clearly that didn’t happen. In the meantime, the only place I had to live was… his.”

I looked around us in dawning horror. “All this was his?”

“Most of it.” Riker sighed. “I tried to sell the place, but no one else seemed to want it. The apartment, most of the things in it, all the money he had… I never wanted them to be mine. I don’t even touch his bank account. I’d rather be broke than profit off the things he did.”

“But surely it wasn’t all bad,” I said, trying to find some hope in the horror.

“The bad far outweighs the good.” Looking at me, Riker searched my face as if trying to read my thoughts. “Do you hate me now? After everything you’ve seen and everything I’ve told you, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t.”

I pursed my lips. “Hate you? No. It changes just about everything I thought I knew about this city when I first moved here, but I don’t hate you. It’s not your fault.”

An entire weight seemed to lift off his shoulders at my words. “I promise that from now on, I’ll keep that whole world separate. The beast is not who I am, Mara. You’ll never have to see a single shapeshifter for the rest of your life if I can help it.”

I hesitated as I chose my next words. “Riker, I don’t think you
can
keep that separate. That world is a part of you. Knowing about it means knowing you.”

His fingers slipped from mine and he turned away from me, a dark expression on his face. “So that’s it. We’re over.”

I shook my head. “No, whatever this is, I need to see it through. I have to find out if we can have something. Somehow, I feel like we can.” Reaching out, I turned his face back towards me, my fingers on his chin. “Maybe it’s time for you to give in to your inner nature instead of denying it. Isn’t running away what got you here in the first place? And it didn’t work. If we’re going to try and have a relationship, you should be who you are with me, Riker. All of you.”

Leaning forward, he kissed me. This kiss was powerful, strong; it felt like the promise of something new.

“You’re amazing, Mara,” he murmured against my lips, his eyes swirling between green and yellow. “Truly fucking amazing.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Ever After

Riker’s
bathroom, which I hadn’t seen my last time here, was a literal heaven on earth. I spent a moment deciding between the jacuzzi and the shower; looking longingly at the spa jets in the jacuzzi, I reached over to turn the shower on. The jacuzzi looked like it would take an hour to fill with water.

“Take as long as you need,” Riker said, as he pulled plush towels out of the linen closet.

“What about you? Don’t you need to wash all that blood off?”

He chuckled. “There’s another bathroom, princess. It is a penthouse suite, after all.”

“Oh.” I colored lightly, realizing some part of me had been hoping to share the shower with him.
He’s tired and injured, not horny,
I scolded myself internally; there was plenty of time to get physical after we’d both recuperated from our ordeal. “Thanks.”

As he passed me on his way out the door, Riker leaned down and kissed my cheek. “I’m glad you’re safe, princess.”

“Me too. When you were fighting that other guy, I thought…”

“That I was about to bite it? All an illusion. I’m stronger than I look.”

He looked pretty strong to me. Stepping out, he closed the door behind him and left me by myself for the first time since this whole ordeal started. Without the distraction of my own safety or anyone else’s, I felt all the fears and anxieties of the last twenty-four hours crash down on me. Shoulders curving, I sat down on the edge of the jacuzzi and let tears of fear and relief fall down my face.

I’m alive,
I told myself, grateful for everything. It seemed strange to realize I still had school, and homework; that I’d have to go home to the dorms before long.

“Nora!” Realizing in horror that she was probably worried sick for me, I shot out of the bathroom to find Riker talking on the phone just outside. “Riker, I need to call my roommate. She must be worried sick.”

“Nora? She’s right here.” Smiling, he handed the phone over to me. “I was going to let you relax in the shower for a while before I told you I called her. I’ll be in just the other room if you need me.”

“Nora, it’s Mara,” I said into the receiver, mouthing my thanks to Riker as he left the room.

“Thank god! When I went to the police station to report you missing, they acted like I was overreacting. One of the officers even insisted you were probably sleeping off a hangover somewhere.” My best friend sounded more than a little irked at the suggestion. “I’ll never go to BCPD for anything important again, I swear. Some officer named Rico practically told me to go fuck myself.”

“Well, I’m glad we didn’t need to involve the police. Are you okay?”

“Me? It’s you I’m worried about! And I’m okay. Looking forward to seeing you again. When will you be home?”

I glanced longingly towards Riker’s large, beautiful bathroom and the jacuzzi inside. “I might take a bit of a break from classes. Riker and I are…”

“Back together, I’m guessing.” She didn’t sound thrilled.

“Yes, pretty much. And we have so much to talk about. But I don’t want you to worry about me. I just had a bit of an adventure.”

“Okay. Well, can we meet up today? I can bring you your cell phone and purse.”

I’d forgotten all about my stuff. “Of course. I’ll have Riker call you with the address here. And Nora? Thanks for worrying. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Same here, chica.”

Once I hung up the phone, I could hear the sound of Riker’s shower running.
I’ll have to thank him after he’s done cleaning himself off.
Suddenly I felt like rushing through my shower to reunite with my long lost roommate. Peeling off my dirty clothes, I jumped into the scalding water and hurried as fast as I could.

It
was so simple to relax into the hot water; minutes after I stepped under the amazing water pressure in Riker’s bathroom, I realized I’d be taking my sweet time.
Showering in the dormitory stalls is going to be impossible after this,
I thought.
I never knew how bad I had it until now.

My right foot was bothering me. Glancing down, I saw a wide strip of red skin stretching from my big toe to my ankle bone.
That’s strange.
I rubbed at it, but it wasn’t a stain, and the mark didn’t hurt.
I must’ve just brushed up against something, like poison ivy.
To make sure, I washed it off thoroughly, then relaxed back into my shower.

The minutes ticked by long after I’d washed the shampoo from my hair and the grime from my skin. A light knock at the door got my attention and I turned the faucet off.

“Sorry, am I taking all the hot water?”

Riker stepped inside, fresh from his shower and wearing comfortable sweats. He gazed at me for a long moment, his eyes drinking up my naked body. I reached for a towel as I stepped out of the shower stall.

“Don’t cover yourself up so fast.”  He reached out towards me, grasping my arm in his hand.

“I’ll get you wet,” I protested as he pulled me against him.

“Fuck it.” Leaning down, he kissed the water droplets off my lips. His arm bent me gently at the waist, his clothed hips brushing against my skin. I braced myself against his shoulder, enjoying the soft feeling of his worn sweats against my bare skin.

“Let’s get reacquainted,” I said, staring up into his star-flecked eyes. “Not here. In the bedroom.”

He smiled. “I can think of nothing better. In fact, I don’t even know why I bothered getting dressed.”

Sweeping his arm behind me, he picked me up off the ground and carried me out of the bathroom. Echoed memories of our first night together danced in my head, but I knew this time would be much more. We were connected, no matter what.

“Alright, princess,” he said, laying me down on top of his bed, “it’s time to make you mine.”

I squirmed at the stark naked look of desire in his eyes. “I already am yours. I thought today made that clear.”

Reaching out, he stroked my cheek with his hand. The irises in his eyes had turned completely yellow, and they pierced into me like nothing else.

“I want to claim you as my mate, so that any shifter who sees you knows better than to touch you. It’ll keep you safe.”

“Claim me? How?”

He smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “Just a little bit of magic. Nothing painful. You won’t even be able to tell it happened. The only thing you might notice is the ability to tell when I’m coming into a room; before you see me, you’ll sense me, like a premonition.”

“That sounds spooky,” I said. “Are you sure you need to do something like that?”

“I’m sure that from now on, I want to keep you safe. I’m all in for us, Mara, and I hope you are too.”

“I am.” Reaching up, I played with the fringes of his still-damp hair. “So claim me. I want the world to know I’m yours.”

A sound came out of him, low and animalistic. It wasn’t a growl, though; to my surprise, he was purring. The sound thrummed through me where our bodies touched, making my skin vibrate and tremble.

Reaching down, he tore the clothes from his body and threw them on the ground. Then he clasped our naked bodies together, his lips like fire on my own.

I gasped into his mouth, hips canting up to press against his naked erection. I opened my legs to let him rest cradled against me, my thighs pressed against his muscled sides. He kissed across my cheek and down to my jaw and throat, sucking lightly on the side of my neck.

With eager fingertips I traced his shoulder tattoos, drawing the edges of black ink soaked into naked skin.

“Someday, I’ll tell you all the stories of how I got those,” he said.

“I want someday to come today.”

He smiled, kissing my mouth with a feather-light touch. “Later this evening, then.”

With a twist of his hips he brushed his cock against me, pressing the head against the sensitive lips around my entrance. I moaned at the feeling of our bodies rubbing together, wishing for more of him.

Grasping his hips with my legs, I pulled him closer. “I want you inside me.
Claim
me, Riker.”

“So impatient,” he teased, drawing little circles on my thigh with his erection. “Haven’t you heard about foreplay?”

I groaned. “Save the foreplay for later. I
missed
you.”

“I can tell.” Drawing his fingers up between my thighs, he pressed the first two inside me and crooked his knuckles. “You’re so wet already.”

Like magic, he hit the right spot inside me and sent me twisting in the sheets. Leaning down, he continued his campaign of pleasure by drawing one of my nipples into his mouth and sucking on it delicately.

“Riker!” I cried out, pressing myself against him. His teeth nipped at my flesh, the purr in his throat making me wild. A moth to a flame, I needed his touch, and I couldn’t wait for it any longer.

So I did what I knew he wanted me to do: I begged for him. “Please fuck me.
Please
.” His purr grew louder at the sound of my wanton pleading. “I want to feel you inside me.”

His fingers slipped in and out of me, his thumb pressed against my clit. I bit my lip as he lined his cock up with my entrance, slowly trading his digits for warm, hard flesh.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured as he entered me, working his hips until he filled me up.

I gasped at the sensation, my back arching up towards him. Twisting his fingers in my hair, Riker
pushed
inside me and slowly glided back out, working his strokes up to a rhythm that made me see stars.

“Just like that,” I whispered, whimpering softly in the back of my throat. “That’s it.”

He smiled softly, his fingers drawing strange patterns on my neck.

“I think I’m falling in love with you, princess,” he said, his voice surprisingly soft. “I can’t imagine my life without you.”

My heart melted. “Me too. On both fronts.” Our lips met in a satin soft kiss, his thrusts slow and measured inside me. Together, our bodies said what words failed to say completely.
Mine.

Pressing deep inside me, Riker shuddered as my flesh enveloped his. “I’m going to claim you now.”

“Do it.” Drawing his head to my neck, he pressed bare flesh against my flesh. I gasped. A dizzying sensation passed through me, like the floor was buckling beneath my feet; seconds later it was gone, but the skin on my neck felt hot where two sharp teeth had barely nipped me.

“That was easy,” Riker said, his voice full of surprise. “It’s meant to be difficult to claim a human.”

I smiled, pressing my fingertips against his love nip. “Maybe we were meant to be.”

Drawing him towards me, I urged him to claim me with his body, too. He complied, his hips picking up rhythm as Riker lost himself to animal thrusts and moans. Arms around me, he picked me up and pressed us together, his panther purr soft against my belly.

With expert precision, he aimed his hard thrusts to maximize my pleasure. I groaned, my hips meeting his as warm sparks ignited inside me.

“Come for me, baby,” he said, his yellow eyes fierce on my face. “I want to hear you scream.”

I gasped, soft little exclamations falling from my lips as the bed squealed in protest beneath us. I closed my eyes. Lost in pleasure, I let myself go, muscles contracting around the hardness inside me. Riker moaned, his thrusts frenzied inside me. My orgasm poured down over me, my voice crying out in wonder and pleasure.

“Riker!” His name came out of me over and over again. “Ah, Riker, yes!”

He
growled,
ramming himself inside me faster and faster. I felt his balls draw up against my skin as he neared his own orgasm, his muscles spasming tightly.

“Mara.” He groaned my name against my shoulder, his brand hot on my skin. “Ah, I’m coming.”

I threaded my fingers through his hair, still lost in the edges of my own orgasm. “Come inside me. Please.”

My voice set him off, his thrusts stuttering as warmth flowed from his body to mine. Hot wetness spilled out of me, our hips twisting and shaking as he plunged in and out. I gasped, touching two fingers to my clit and rubbing myself to another small, light orgasm around his flesh.

“You feel so good,” he murmured as he relaxed against me, kissing my neck. “My Mara. My mate.”

Lips curving at his declarations, I fell back onto the bedsheets, bringing him down beside me. We curled against each other, our bodies filling a silence that needed no words. We fell asleep with matching breaths and hearts that beat as one, mated together for eternity.