"His heart. They had torn the heart out of my father's body. William would take it before the pack, let them smell-smell my father-and then he would eat it." Tori blanched, wheeling away and pressing her face to the cool pane of gla.s.s as she battled nausea. Declan stood behind her, his clenched fists shoved deep into his pockets while he breathed slowly-through his nose, out of his mouth- battling down the helpless rage.

"They met only a few days later. He wanted them under his control before the next full moon because he intended to lead a rampage. He intended to start hunting the way the were hunted centuries ago.

Hunting humans."

He turned away, sighing. Reaching up, he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, rolling it in effort to relieve the tension. "I was only sixteen, but I was my father's son. He had been a good man, an honorable one. And he did his best to raise me that way. And I was still all too human. A lot of weres lose some of their humanity when they change. I never did. The thought of hunting people for sport, when the urge to hunt can be overcome, sickened me.

"I had been in the shadows and when he started telling the pack how things would be, I wanted to go out. But Aidan kept me back. I'm not sure what he was waiting for, but he made me wait."

"And then William's people brought forth this little Styrofoam cooler and took this b.l.o.o.d.y pulp from it. It was the men who had led the ambush when my father was killed-they all stood around, almost smiling-they were f.u.c.king proud as they held this b.l.o.o.d.y pulp like some prize. And I smelled it, my father's blood. I lost control, well, maybe not lost. I never tried to stop it. I s.h.i.+fted and charged out of the shadows where Aidan was holding me and tore through the crowd. The pack scattered, and they all cowered. I killed them, the men who had ambushed my father. Aidan had already rounded up the men loyal to my family and they cornered William while I ripped out the throat of one.

The other took off running. I think he thought I was my father. I jumped on him and s.h.i.+fted before I snapped his neck."

His hands ached. Looking down, he flexed them. "They had killed a good man. I can't say I regret killing them.

But I think I hated them more because I had to kill them. Killing them changed something inside me.

Something that even being bitten by a were could not have touched. Killing them cost me more of my humanity than anything else has." He could still feel it, still feel the hot rush of blood as he bit down through warm, struggling flesh. Feel the pop as he snapped the bones in the neck. That had started him down the road he was still walking, decades later, and though he didn't regret the choices he had made, he often wondered what it would have been like, if he hadn't been infected.

Two hands came down and covered his, wrapping them and lifting them upward until she could press a kiss to each palm. "If it hadn't hurt you inside, then it would mean you were just as twisted as they were,"

she said softly, wrapping her arms around him and cuddling her body to his.

"I had to kill William as well. Not that I hadn't wanted to, but after I killed the second man, I lost some of the anger, and I could feel them all, feel their hunger, their terror, their excitement. I killed him. And then I walked away."

"Walked away?"

"I am solitary. I run with no pack. I left them there in the clearing and told Aidan I wanted no part of them.

Their politics are why my father died. Da was trying to change things. And things were getting better, would have been better still. But the pack was lazy. They didn't want to learn control, didn't want to change."

"Then that just means they are still more human than they want to think. Humans hate change. Hate trying the unknown." She led him to the broken down recliner in the corner and curled up on his lap. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

Running one hand down her back, savoring the warmth of her flesh under the silk s.h.i.+rt she had snagged from his closet, Declan said, "I do not know what it is like to live with the monster you now have inside you. But I understand not being completely human. You're not alone."

He could feel her smile against his chest, feel the warm caress of her breath through the s.h.i.+rt he wore when she whispered, "I know."

When her body s.h.i.+fted and straddled his, he thrust his hips up, rubbing his hardening length across her exposed folds. The ripening scent of her body beckoned him as he reached up and grabbed the s.h.i.+rt she wore, jerking until it fell from her smooth white shoulders in shreds. She laughed and stroked her hands up until she could cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, rubbing her thumbs against her reddened nipples before one hand went down to pluck and stroke her c.l.i.t.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l," he hissed as he watched the play of her long slim fingers on her flesh-working her body closer to climax. He could smell her-peaches, s.e.x-growing stronger as her arousal grew. He lifted her with one hand, trapping her fingers between them as she started to slide them inside her wet v.a.g.i.n.a. She laughed as he tore his jeans open before catching the cheeks of her a.s.s in his hands.

"What's your hurry?" she asked, leaning forward to press her lips against his in a slow, tender kiss while she resisted the pull of his hands. "I want to taste you."

His hands paused, hesitated and fell away as she leaned down. But it wasn't his neck she was going for.

Her hot, wet mouth trailed lower and lower until she s.h.i.+fted out of the chair to kneel in front of him.

Wrapping one hand around the base of his shaft, she gave a low hmmm of approval before she leaned forward and daintily licked from root to tip. Taking that fat flared head that enticed her so into her mouth, she suckled on it before pulling away to stare up at Declan. "I'll try to do this without nicking you this time," she murmured before she took his length down her throat, again, and again-until Declan's hands closed over the arms of the chair and his nails tore into the fabric as he struggled not to come in the wet cave of her mouth.

His c.o.c.k head lodged down her throat, blocking her air briefly before she figured out she really didn't need to breathe as much as she once had. Keeping him there, she rocked back and forth slightly, shuddering with pleasure as the low groan vibrated from his chest throughout his body.

Through the s.h.i.+eld of her lashes she looked upward, staring up the length of his body, at his quivering belly, the shuddering of his chest as he struggled to breathe, the fine sheen of sweat that covered those yummy muscles, up the line of his throat to stare at his face.

His lashes were lowered to half-mast, his lips parted, a look of half bliss, half torture on his face. Sliding back down, she savored the smooth, thick length in her mouth, the salty taste of his skin, the pulse of life just underneath. Her lungs started to ache just a little and she pulled away, took a breath and lapped at the underside of his c.o.c.k before taking it back into her mouth. He hissed again when one of her canines grazed his flesh. Jerking away, she whispered, "I'm sorry."

Declan seized her head and guided it back to his c.o.c.k, to the tiny drop of blood that beaded along the shaft.

"Again," he whispered roughly, slipping his thumb inside her and opening her mouth. "Again." When her mouth closed over his c.o.c.k, he groaned in ecstasy. Her tongue sought and soothed the tiny nick while she suckled on him, eagerly lapping up the scant amount of blood before she went back to taking his length down her throat.

One hand buried and twisted itself into her tumbled hair, while his other hand went to cup his b.a.l.l.s as she relaxed the muscles in her throat until she had taken as much of him down her throat as she could. Unable to stop, he reared up, clasped her head in both hands and pumped his hips, shoving his c.o.c.k in and out as hot spurts of come pulsed from his c.o.c.k into the wet silk of her throat.

His hands fell from her scalp, half numb, and she started to pull back, allowing his semi-hard c.o.c.k to slip from her grasp-pausing to swab it with her tongue before she went to nibble and suckle on the head of his d.i.c.k, probing the small hole at the tip with her tongue for a few seconds-then lifting her head to stare at him.

"You taste good," she murmured, pressing a kiss to his flat belly before settling back on her heels and staring up at him, her hands pressed together between her knees.

He lifted heavy lids to stare at her as she knelt in front of him. He reached for her and drew her onto his lap, his c.o.c.k starting to twitch as he smelled her. f.u.c.k, she was even more turned on now than she had been before she started. Cupping her p.u.s.s.y in his hand, he discovered she was wet-wetter than she had been before she'd gone down on him.

"Ride me," he whispered roughly, guiding her wet entrance down until the tip of his shaft was encased in her tight little sheath.

Hooking her ankles behind his back, her arms around his shoulders, she obeyed, rolling and rocking against him lazily as he took the tip of her breast in his mouth, capturing the hard nub of her nipple between his teeth.

Her walls clenched tightly on him, making him groan and she laughed, repeated it over and over again.

Behind her, he started to probe the entrance of her a.s.s.

She went stiff, lifting her head to stare down at him.

Her eyes were foggy and slitted with l.u.s.t, but Declan sensed the reluctance inside her. "What bothers you about this?" he asked, easing his index finger inside until it was seated down to the webbing of his fingers.

"It's just s.e.x, someplace I could put my c.o.c.k and have you coming like you've never done before."

She started to shake her head no but then he rolled his hips as he pulled his finger back and slid it home again.

"That feel good?" he purred when her eyes flew wide and then fluttered closed. "You're so tight," he crooned, setting his hips to a slow gentle rhythm while he finger f.u.c.ked her a.s.s, using that stimulation to bring her to climax. "It does feel good, doesn't it, Tori?"

"Yes," she gasped as she climaxed around him, her v.a.g.i.n.al walls milking his c.o.c.k, while the muscles in her r.e.c.t.u.m gripped his finger.

"It could feel better," he offered when she collapsed against him.

He was still hard inside her.

She lifted her head slowly to stare down at him. "Will it hurt?" she asked breathily while he continued to move her hips against him.

"If it does tell me, and I'll stop," he promised, lifting her from him. He came free from her with a soft, wet, sucking sound and deposited her in the chair before he left the room. She eyed him warily when he returned, a tube in his hand. "Turn around," he ordered softly after he pulled her still shuddering body to her feet.

She started to hesitate but remembered-remembered how he had hesitated when she had told him she wanted to taste him. Taste his c.o.c.k, not his blood. And he had let her taste both. She turned and got down on her knees when he urged her to, bending over the chair so that it supported her torso.

He warmed whatever lubricant he had retrieved between his palms before coating her a.n.u.s and then his c.o.c.k. She jumped when he started to probe and heard him laugh as he slid into her body, spreading her l.a.b.i.a and driving his length into her until he was fully seated.

Into her stretched, swollen sheath while he started to spear her a.n.u.s with his fingers, like he had been doing earlier. She quivered under his hands and whimpered when he leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"I've dreamed of this," he told her in his low, smoky voice with its faint hint of Ireland. "Dreamed of riding you, of eating you up in three greedy bites. Dreamed of coming inside your mouth and your bottom. Push down."

She did and gasped when he easily slid two fingers inside her bottom.

"We can stop there, for now, if that's what you want,"

he murmured, bracing one hand low on her spine while he slid those two fingers in and out of her a.n.a.l pa.s.sage, his c.o.c.k filling her sheath.

But she panted and twisted under his hands and whispered, "More." It wasn't enough. It felt too good, too d.a.m.n good, to stop there. "More, Declan."

He paused and held still inside her. She squirmed and lifted her a.s.s, silently begging. She started to quake moments later when the broad head of his c.o.c.k replaced his fingers.

The dark, ruddy head stretched the tender pink opening, parting her as he pushed inside, his breath catching in his chest as her tight, virginal muscles closed over him.

Slowly.

Tori heard his quick intake of breath over her hungry little moans, but she was too caught up in her own needs to wonder at it. Too slow...He was going so d.a.m.n slowly she was sweating and squirming and half mad before he was even half way inside her. Bracing her hands on the floor, she snarled and shoved back, taking his entire length inside. She cried out, half in pain, half in pleasure, as she felt his c.o.c.k slicing through her tight, unused tissues. His c.o.c.k was hard and hot, twitching and pulsing inside her while she shuddered and twisted, trying to relieve the intense pressure that was bordering on very real pain.

"Declan, stop, it hurts..." she gasped, trying to move forward.

Declan growled warningly when she started to pull away. "Too late for that," he rasped, reaching around and pinching her c.l.i.t, sliding his fingers in and out of her p.u.s.s.y, bringing her back to the edge she had been teetering at before rus.h.i.+ng and taking him in too quickly.

She squirmed and wriggled against him, pus.h.i.+ng at his hands. "It hurts," she whimpered, trying to pull away from the burning, burgeoning fullness in her bottom. Tears filled her eyes, her heart pounded in her chest as a sob started to rise in her throat. "Because you went too fast," he murmured. "Because you won't be still and let your body adjust." He pinned her easily, bending over and pressing her between his chest and the seat of the chair. "Your body wants this, Tori. I can smell it, feel it. Your nipples are hard as diamonds and your heart is pounding almost as fast as mine. You're hotter and wetter here,"-he showed her where with a clever little twist of his fingers-"than you have probably ever been. Just be still, and let me..."

He proceeded to show her, keeping his thrusts tiny and slow until her body calmed around his, the tense muscles in her a.s.s relaxing to a silken, clinging caress around his c.o.c.k.

"Feel that?" he whispered, keeping his body against hers, intentionally hampering his movement so he couldn't ream her a.s.s the way he wanted. The feel of those virginal muscles clenching, then relaxing around him was driving him mad. He took her hands and laid them beside her head, covering them with his, and lacing their fingers.

He pulled a little further out and thrust back in, growling in pleasure when she accepted it, accepted his c.o.c.k inside her this way. "It feels good, doesn't it?" he asked.

Her body shuddered beneath his and she moved, pus.h.i.+ng back against him, faster, harder, and hungrier.

"Yes...Declan, please."

Declan snarled when she started to shudder and quake on his impaling c.o.c.k. When she started to come, he growled in triumph, wrapping his arms around her and straightening, taking her body with him, hands looping beneath her thighs and bringing her knees to her chest, holding her writhing form open and wide for his c.o.c.k. He took her hard-in deep, driving digs-and he howled when she started to come again.

Cream dripped from her, sliding down to wet his shaft further, easing his penetration even more. He fought his own climax, unwilling to let this end so soon. He kept her pinned against him with one iron arm banding her around the waist. The other he used to shove her hair aside, his head swooping down and raking her exposed flesh with his sharp teeth.

"More," he ordered in a low, silken throb while he continued to ream her a.s.s. She shook her head and pushed against him, which only drove her further and harder down. He caught her c.l.i.t between his thumb and forefinger and pinched, tweaked, and tortured until she started to sob again.

"More," he repeated, s.h.i.+fting, turning, shoving her body to the floor and crouching over her. He used his hands to guide hers where he wanted them- one hand stroking and pinching her nipples, the other hand between her thighs, masturbating. Then he braced his hands flat, and stretching them both out on the floor proceeded to f.u.c.k her the way he wanted.

This was his weakness. Not the yearning for the moon, nor the urge to hunt, not the need to taste warm flesh in his mouth, but Tori-spread out and open, taking him wherever he wanted and however he wanted. Taking his c.o.c.k down her throat, or taking his c.o.c.k in her a.s.s, as often as he wished, however he wished. The need for s.e.x that rode his back-his own personal demon-had focused solely on this woman and he had been waiting since he had first laid eyes on her.

Sweat dripped from them as he forced her into a third, and a fourth climax. He rose back up, keeping her p.r.o.ne on the floor while he crouched between her thighs, spreading the cheeks of her a.s.s with his hands and watching as she took his c.o.c.k, as she took him. The tight ring of muscle relaxed and she opened to take his c.o.c.k back in every time he pulled out. The smooth, satiny skin of her b.u.t.t, the way her slender torso rested against the floor, the faint cries she m.u.f.fled against the chair arm, all it of drove him insane.

He covered her again when he felt his climax approaching. He bit into his wrist until he felt and tasted blood, then shoved it to her mouth, "Feed," he growled in her ear. "Suck me hard." He wrapped his free arm around her so that she was pinned, arms against her sides, his weight keeping her thighs open and spread.

Her tongue lashed out, catching the blood as she drew on his flesh, falling into a rhythm that mimicked the one he was performing on her. Tori couldn't handle it, the fast, brutal digs in her a.s.s and t h e hot spicy wa sh of blood in her mouth as she fed. She exploded, screaming and bucking beneath him, fighting his confining grip. She bore down and climaxed around him a fifth and final time as her fangs slid out and into his flesh, as he released the bonds on his control and jetted his seed inside her.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h," Tori whispered weakly a little while later. "We're going to kill each other." She daintily licked his wrist one last time before snuggling against his chest.

Feeling slightly sluggish, satisfaction coursing through him with every pounding beat of his heart, he grunted in agreement. "But can you think of a better way to go?"

CHAPTER FOUR.

Tori followed Declan out into the coming twilight. The sun still shone high on the western horizon, but in the east, clouds and the coming darkness were starting to gather. She paused by the car, standing still and feeling the sun on her face, warming her.

"I can't imagine how awful it would be to live in total darkness," she murmured as the sun started to paint the sky in vivid reds, pinks and golds as it neared the horizon.

"Neither can I," Declan replied quietly, resting one hand on her lower back. He cuddled her against him and watched the sun set with her before urging her into the car. "We need to be going. I left a message with Eli's people that we are coming. It will take a while to get there."

"Where does Eli live?"

"West Virginia. I had planned on leaving earlier, but some wanton lady kept seducing me," he said blandly, snapping his seat belt into place.

She slid him a sideways glance and s.h.i.+fted a bit uncomfortably on the seat. Her bottom hurt, just slightly, a vague ache of muscles never used in such a way.

And her entire pelvic area felt bruised, in a rather lovely kind of way. "Not exactly the way I remember it," she drawled, pulling one foot under her to support her weight and relieve some of the pressure on her a.s.s.

Declan saw it and flushed slightly. He started the car before leaning over and pulling her to the middle of the seat. He bussed her mouth sweetly before nuzzling her neck. "I can't help it." He stroked her back with possessive hands. "You cannot know how much I've been needing you. Aching for you."

He kissed her, sliding his tongue inside her mouth and groaning with satisfaction as her taste flooded him. Moments pa.s.sed before he started to pull back, nibbling at her lower lip, pressing a kiss to her jaw as he cruised up to her ear. "I've one true obsession," he told her.

"Since I changed that first time, s.e.x is the one thing that rides me, the need to f.u.c.k, and do it often. But since I met you, you are the only woman I have wanted, and I haven't touched another woman in nearly six months. I thought I was going to go mad." He returned to her mouth and kissed her roughly, greedily, as though he feared she would disappear into the coming night.

Her fingers pressed against his head and she whimpered, straining against him, squirming against him. Only when she was panting and losing all ability to think, did Declan shove the urge to mate aside. Her safety first, that was what mattered.

He pulled back and met her eyes levelly. "I know it's not the best of times for you right now. We need answers, and we need you to be someplace safe. But we're needing to talk about this. I don't think I can let you go."

Her eyes dropped, a slow burn starting inside her heart. Curling her fingers around his healing wrist, she pressed a kiss to the scars that were already fading. "I can't think about that right now," she said honestly.

"But I really can't see me leaving either."

She kissed him softly and wrapped her arms around his neck, twisting awkwardly in the seat to press her body to his. She felt a soft caress of her hair as he sighed into the tumbled brown ringlets, squeezing her tightly before releasing her. "Come. Let's go find some answers," he murmured, setting the car in motion.

"How are you feeling?" It was past midnight, nearly three hours had pa.s.sed and they were well into the mountains of West Virginia, traveling down the interstate under the light of the quarter moon that hung in the sky.

Declan had driven like a bat out of h.e.l.l, covering hundreds of miles in only a few hours.

The wonders of being a cop, she mused. If he had been pulled over, just flas.h.i.+ng his badge would get him out of it. It wouldn't have been the first time she had seen it.