Chapter 10

TEN

Max

Dawn breaks gently, shafting pristine morning light through the blinds of the motel room. Asha lies still beside me, her breathing slow and deep. The breath of untroubled slumber. Finally .

It took nearly all night for her to accept sleep’s grace. Little twitches against my arm informed me that she kept startling awake every time she began drifting off. When at last I felt her still beside me, I allowed myself to get a little shuteye, albeit shallow.

Her eyes flash open, and I suddenly find myself swimming in their incredible mismatched depths. I don’t know what to do, so I hold steady, unsure of where her mind is. Not sure of how fragile she still feels.

To my surprise, she leans up and kisses me. It’s soft, gentle, almost like a thank you for the night before, but she never needs to thank me. This woman has my heart. Hell, she might have my soul too, with the way my wolf seems to love her.

I would do anything for her, a hell of a lot more than just a night of holding her.

But then our kiss deepens, and every muscle in my body stiffens, including my dick. I’m trying not to let my mind go to dirty places when she might not realize what she’s doing to me. It’s not until her hand slides over my stomach and down to my boxers that my blood starts humming in anticipation.

Her hand feels tiny as it wraps around my hard length, but the strength of her grip is enough to send my head spinning. She strokes slowly, unevenly, as if teasing me, but it’s not a teasing touch. It’s a torturous touch from a woman who can seduce me without a word.

When her lips part, my tongue sweeps inside, and a possessive hunger fills me. I want to mark this woman. Brand her. Show the world she’s mine and only mine. The impulse to do so is strong enough that a shudder rolls through me, and I have to dig my hand into the mattress to hold myself back.

No one brings out my shifter side like Asha.

I know what I want. I want to slide into this woman, fill her with my cum, and make certain she smells like me. But I need more than that. I need her scent to surround me.

Rolling her onto her back, I slip her underwear off and toss them across the room. I push her hand away from my cock, and slide down her body. She makes a small sound as I spread her thighs with my hands, and then I’m between her legs, licking my way down her slit, drawing a gasp from her lips when I press my tongue deeper, tasting her sweet, sweet body.

Goosebumps erupt on my skin, and I press my face in deeper, licking, sucking, and tasting my sweet mate. Loving the scent of her. Loving wrapping myself in her.

The muscles in her thighs quiver. Her legs try to close, but using my shoulders I force them to stay open. She moans my name, and my cock twitches with a need to release, but I’m not done yet. When I find her clit, I circle it with my tongue, then suck.

She cries out and grabs hold of my hair. Pushing me deeper.

I oblige, going crazy, feasting on her, and her moans and cries turn me the hell on. Finally, I feel her body shudder, and then she’s bucking against my face. Riding me so hard, with such desperation, that it’s taking everything in me not to explode.

Screaming my name, she goes crashing over the edge, but I don’t stop. I just keep feasting on her until her hands grow loose in my hair, and she collapses back.

Fuck. I pull myself away from her, changing my view, spreading her pussy, and staring at her as she lays back. She looks like a satisfied woman. Just the way my woman should look. Beautiful and erotic in a way I’ve never seen a woman before.

Sliding up her body, I pull her shirt off, then slip out of my boxers. Moving to her breasts, I start sucking. Enjoying. Feeling the weight of her perfect breasts in my hands. Mine. These are fucking mine!

She sighs and tangles her hand in my hair again. I like the way she seems to have relaxed under my touch. And my wolf likes it too. There’s something beautiful about my mate trusting me so much.

“Max, come inside me.” Her words are soft, coming out in a rush of breath.

And I’m more than happy to obey.

I climb on top of her, spreading her legs even further. My cock nudges her wet opening. She’s fucking ready for me.

Without hesitation, I plunge inside, and even though she’s wet and ready, she’s also tight. So tight that I nearly blackout from the incredible feeling of her squeezing my most sensitive nerves. I have to take several deep breaths to keep from embarrassing myself and spilling my seed like a horny teenager, but it works. I draw back, then plunge in deeper. Over and over again. Thrusting so hard and fast that stars dance in my vision.

This is what I fucking needed. There were women before Asha, but no one like her. No one I had to have. No one where I’d lose my mind if I lost them.

Damn it. Maybe she is my mate. I don’t know.

My eyes open. I hadn’t even realized they’d closed. I stare down at her. Head thrown back. Hair spread out behind her. An expression of ecstasy on her face. She’s perfect.

Her muscles squeeze me tighter. She gasps, and her eyes fly open. Her orgasm hits her so hard that she begins chanting my name, her voice shocked and husky all at the same time.

My cock takes her deeper with every thrust, and as her muscles continue squeezing around me, I come. Hard. So hard it’s almost painful. So hard that my brain can’t seem to process just how good it feels.

And I watch her. Feel her. Her orgasm, the knowledge of her pleasure, building my own.

Each pump is pleasure so intense that she’ll be dripping with my cum when she’s done. It’s so good that I’m groaning, lost to the sensation of her around me. Coming with her… it’s unlike coming with anyone else.

I collapse, feeling content, body and soul.

She holds me close. “Max, that was…”

“Yeah.” I stroke her hair, kiss her lightly.

We shift on the bed until I’m behind her. She pulls my arms tight around her body and snuggles in. I don’t say anything. There are no words. I just lay still as her breathing slows and sleep sweeps her under once more.

My thoughts run away with me. Is Asha my mate? It shouldn’t be possible… she’s a half-breed. And yet, that’s how this feels.

Our situation is complicated. More than complicated. How am I going to be a good leader if I let this obsession with her grow? I smirk, looking down at her. I think that ship has sailed.

When Braxton appears in the doorway between our rooms, the muffled sound of his footsteps draws my attention, pulling me from my thoughts. Trouble sits patiently beside him, the dog’s nub of a tail scrubbing at the carpet. Braxton nods towards the window, outside. I raise a finger, indicating I’ll be out in a minute. Braxton and Trouble slip away and I turn back to Asha.

Air streams through the small parting of her lips. Two strands of her white-blonde hair are draped over her mouth, dancing wildly with every exhalation. Relaxed, I take the opportunity to better appreciate her beauty, even though I feel the minutes ticking. As dawn light fills the room, the softness of her features strikes me, as though this quality was hidden before now.

Fuck . In musing about Asha, I discover a tender region of my heart activated by her presence. It’s larger than a soft spot, verging on full-blown affection. I haven’t felt this at ease with a woman in years.

Which immediately puts me on edge.

I feel my wolf pace in anxious frustration. Reflecting on his state over the previous days, I recall instances of agitation whenever Orson looked at Asha, made her smile, made her laugh, or even just returned eye contact. I’m feeling primally territorial over a woman.

That’s way more involved than I wanted. How involved did you want to be? None seems the obvious answer, which was why I didn’t want to get saddled with this mission in the first place. I prefer a solitary approach to my work. It’s complication free, which is vital in matters of life and death. An Enforcer’s job requires putting oneself in potentially fatal danger constantly. In an Enforcer’s mind, they must already resign themselves to death. It’s the only way to do this work.

So, having not one, but two reminders of why life’s worth living — my brother and now Asha — makes every situation we enter trickier to navigate. It’s tougher to see through the haze of emotional attachments. God forbid I start giving a shit about Orson .

Asha sighs in her sleep and I feel that tender spot ache again.

When the time came, I planned on selecting a mate better suited for my job. I envisioned a woman who would create a warm, loving environment for the two of us. And when I hung up my spurs, I would disappear into the life she created. We would bring children into that life, untouched by the malice and cruelty in the world, the ugliness I deal with as an Enforcer. We would raise a family, safe and sequestered from violence.

An upbringing I never had…

Asha is about as far from that ideal, uncomplicated woman as I can imagine. Sure, maybe I’ve been naive, but I don’t think this was what I should have expected. Tripping down love’s slippery slope into a romance beset by savagery shouldn’t be the only option.

She makes a little noise while resettling her head on the pillow. Guilt seeps into my thoughts. What sort of man am I for her?

Cautiously, so as not to rouse her, I slip my arm out from under Asha. I stand beside the bed and observe her a moment longer, pleased I haven’t disrupted her sleep.

Quietly, I dress and step outside, easing the door shut behind me. The sun peeks above the horizon like a perfectly round, yellow-white hill. The predawn sky clings to night at its western fringe, but the stars have gone, and morning’s blue light filters down from the bruised firmament, casting the desert in subdued tones. It dulls the environment’s sharp edge, robs the dry waste of its threat.

“You’re waxing poetic in your head right now, aren’t you?” teases Braxton.

“Fuck off.”

“It's the damn effect of a woman's touch.” But he says it in a teasing note that irritates the crap out of me.

“She makes me crazy,” I admit grumpily.

Braxton laughs, then launches Trouble’s chewed up tennis ball across the dusty landscape. The dog shoots after it.

“She doing better?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah.” The dog returns the ball, depositing it at Braxton’s feet. He turns his snout up at his master, a tacit request to repeat the cycle. Braxton obliges.

“How are we going to handle her, Max?”

That's exactly the problem, isn't it? The complication making an already difficult mission even harder.

I draw in a breath of the crisp morning air, then sigh. “Are you hung up on her?”

His face softens in a way that's rare. “I think you already know the answer to that question.”

He’s in as deep as I am. As weird as I should probably feel about falling in love with the same woman as my brother, I simply don’t. Whatever competition that might have sprung up between us has been nullified by familial bonds, by shared experience. Our unlikely fit of passion earlier in the week tore down whatever barriers there would have been. It’s freeing, in a disconcerting way. Nevertheless, I won’t go sniffing around for conflict where there isn’t one.

“I guess we share her,” I say matter-of-factly.

Braxton nods, watching Trouble fetch. “I guess we do.”

I release a slow breath. At least we're on the same page of this insane book. I just wish I knew where Asha was at. What she was thinking.

“It won’t do her any favors if we let it get in the way of our mission. She’s powerful, which makes her dangerous. It’s our duty—was even before falling for her—to make sure she’s safe. To protect her from herself.”

Braxton clicks his tongue. “That’ll be hard to manage.”

I scoff. “You have no idea.” I turn to my brother and he turns to face me. “Are you ready for another war?” There’s no getting around it. This business with the Raven Pack will yield some bloody days ahead.

Braxton looks back at me with resolution. I hate for this mess to envelop him, but at the same time, I can’t deny I’m glad I’m not alone. “Oorah.”

The door near us opens, disturbing our peace, and out comes Orson in his boxers and sandals. He smiles when he sees us, as if completely unaware that him being half-naked with us is weird. As if, for some reason, he thinks he’s approaching friends.

“I thought I heard voices. Out enjoying the early morning air?” He stops beside us, grinning out at the sunrise.

“We came out for some peace and quiet,” Braxton tells him, throwing the ball for Trouble again a little harder than he had been, his gaze bordering on a glare.

“Peace and quiet, what a novel idea, but one that should be appreciated more.” He seems oddly content, gazing out at the world as if it’s something wondrous.

“Aren’t you cold?” Braxton asks, his voice a little chilly.

Orson looks down at himself and shrugs. “My wolf and I always prefer the cold to the heat.”

He and I are alike in that regard.

“So, when will Asha start feeding on me?”

My jaw drops, but I have to recover quickly, because Braxton looks like he’s ready for a fight. “That’s only one of the reasons you were brought onto this team. The main one was for your computer skills. From what we’ve seen so far, I don’t think it’ll be necessary for Asha to feed on you.”

And we’ll kill you before we let that happen.

Orson nods like he doesn’t sense the tension in the room. “How painful is it?” When I stare at him, he simply shrugs. “Like most shifters, I’ve never had much to do with vampires. Not that Asha is one. There was a lot redacted in her file, but that much was clear.”

“It’s not any of your business since she’ll never feed off of you ,” Braxton snaps, puffing out his chest.

Orson eyes him. “Interesting.” Then, he turns back to me. “And is your relationship just a work one, with the occasional more social interactions, or is it something more than that?”

“What the fuck did you just say?” Braxton says, taking a step toward him.

Luckily, Trouble is back with the ball, and Braxton is momentarily distracted when he has to throw it again. I might have been annoyed about the dog coming with us in the beginning, but I’ve more than seen his value over the course of this mission together. Including right now.

I clear my throat. “What makes you think our relationship is… anything but professional?”

Orson grins, but there’s nothing malicious in his expression. “You know I’m a shifter, right? Her scent is all over you. Hell, I could hear you two this morning. Kudos, by the way, on that. It sounded like an impressive effort.” I open my mouth to say what, I’m not sure, but he continues. “Even the first time I was stuck in a car with you three… well, you can imagine that the scents in that car made your relationship clear. Well, at least one aspect of it. I just think it’d be easier to navigate my role here with more information.”

I shift on my feet, at a loss for words, but manage, “The nature of our relationship is namely professional.”

His eyes widen. “So, she’s not yours?”

“She’s fucking ours,” Braxton says, pounding a fist to his chest like a damn caveman.

Our eyes lock, but Braxton has that crazed look in his eyes. The one that tells me his wolf is riding close to the surface, and if I’m not careful, he’s going to shift. Damn it. Something about this Orson gets under his skin. Or maybe it’s the fact that we can both sense something between him and Asha.

I rub the back of my neck. “We aren’t officially anything but co-workers.” Before Braxton can say more, I push on, “but I also wouldn’t advise you go anywhere near her.”

He nods, still seeming completely at ease. “Understood.” He sighs. “Well, I’m going to try to catch a couple more hours of sleep while I can. You don’t get a bed that soft every damn day, after all.”

We exchange a look as he heads inside. The motel beds are hardly comfortable. This man is something else. Something I can’t quite figure out.

When the door closes behind him, Braxton growls, “Why didn’t you make our position clearer?”

I turn to face him. “Clearer? What did you want me to tell him? That she might be our mate? Or that she’s just a woman we’re infatuated with? What is our relationship, Braxton? Do you even know how she feels about us?”

He crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t know, but she’s ours, and that asshole better watch himself.”

“Of that, we’re in agreement,” I say.

I don’t like that Orson asked about Asha. What was his intention? Just to change the power balance and make us uncomfortable? Or was he taking an interest in our woman?

My wolf bristles inside of me, and I hate that we’re both feeling the same way. Orson should be watched. Carefully.