Trent: Her Warlock Protector Book 7 (8 page)

“I don’t know about this…”

Trent traced his hands over her ass again and then leaned down, licking a line over each cheek, tasting the sweet saltiness of her.
 

“How do you know if you don’t try?”

She tried to look at him from where she was propped up on her elbows and knees on his mattress.
 

“I want to do this, but it seems silly.”

“Not to me,” he growled.

With one hand under her flat stomach to steady her, he slapped her ass with the flat of his palm, marveling at the slight red mark that showed up there.
 

Elaine arched her back and moaned in shock and pleasure.
 

“Jesus, a little warning.”
 

He grinned, showing his canines, still a wolf even in human skin.
 

“Do you not like it? We can sleep. Maybe watch bad infomercials?”

“Don’t you dare!”

“You’re mine, country gal,” he said.

He grabbed a condom from the night stand and quickly slid it on. Taking the lube from his night stand, he went back to his ministrations. His hands lovingly caressed her ass cheeks, and he gave them a strong squeeze, enjoying it as she shuddered at his touch.
 

“This might be a little cold at first,” he said.

He ran the lube over her opening and then around the puckered lips of her anus. Liberally, he added lube to his length, the touch maddening him. His cock jerked under his grip, and he bit his lip to keep himself focused. He wasn’t some fool adolescent, and his job was to help Elaine regain her strength, to give her all the pleasure he could. Taking his position behind her, he teased his tip on her entrance.
 

“Ready?”

She didn’t say anything but just nodded.

Sliding in was slow at first. Every inch of her ass was tight, wrapping around his cock with a pressure that drove him mad and made his balls pulse with need. As he eased into her, he reached down and found her clit, his fingers circling that sensitive bundle, sliding first counter clockwise and alternating fast the other way.
 

The air was thick with her scent.

Finally, his dick was deep inside her, enough for his balls to be flat against her ass, but he paused.
 

“All right?”

She hissed and nodded. “Goddess, please, don’t stop.”

Trent started then, rocking back and forth. It was a slow rhythm at first, delicious and evil in order to pay her back for some of her teasing on the field. While one hand grabbed her ass, clutching it tight, the other played with her clit. His thumb tapped out a fast tempo while a couple fingers teased at her slit. Elaine moaned again, and his control was all but gone. The juices of her pussy flowed liberally over his hand. He pressed his fingers deep inside her, and let the heel of his palm massage her clit. She came first, spasming around his fingers and grinding into his cock.

It was enough to send him over the edge as pleasure poured through every muscle, nerve and ounce of skin. He was shivering even as he came, thick cum trapped by the condom. But he wished he could truly initiate her, make her his. She hadn’t asked though, and he had no right to gift her immortality, not if she didn’t want it.

Not if she didn’t want
him.

When they were done, he slid out of her and they spooned together, her back up against him. Reaching down, he stroked her labia, enjoying the sensation of it, the wetness he’d brought out in her.
 

“Was that enough?”

“Goddess yes.”

He smiled and kissed her temple.
 

“You were amazing, love. Get some sleep. We have more training tomorrow.”

“CARRIE, I CAN’T talk long,” Elaine said, as she hopped out of bed.
 

She paused and slipped onto the porch. With their senses, she would probably still wake Trent, but at least she could try and avoid it.
 

“I’ve got to get to the stables. I promised I’d help do some fall cleaning. We’re inundated with equipment no one uses anymore.”

Her friend chuckled on the other end, and she could picture those mischievous blue eyes twinkling with mirth.
 

“You can’t talk long or you can’t talk loudly?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh please, I called you at your apartment last night at eleven about a question and no answer. Could it have anything to do with the hot, city guy?”

Elaine blushed and was glad that she hadn’t put it on face-time. That would be too incriminating.
 

“It’s not like that.”

“Oh I can hear the smile in your voice. Someone got laid and well.”

She rolled her eyes and chuckled, despite the early hour. Carrie just had a way to get you relaxed with her perkiness.
 

“Okay so it might be like that.”

“Ooh dish!”

“I am not going to do that,” she said, peaking in through the blinds at Trent. The sun hit his perfect torso and she had to lick her lips at the sight of him. “Still, it was nice. I might have almost forgotten what that feels like…and discovered a few new things period.”

“You know one morning when you’re
not
heading off to the farm you’ll have to tell me. Diagrams optional,” Carrie trilled.

“Carrie!”

“Okay just kidding, but you’re happy, right? I haven’t heard you sound this carefree in forever. Is there a beaming smile on your face to match?”

Elaine shook her head and conceded to everything, taking a quick selfie and sending it along. The squeal on the other end sent her ears ringing, and made her growl a bit under her breath.
 

“Happy now?” Elaine asked.

“Yup! I don’t know much about this guy from New York, but I want to meet him and then you
have
to hold onto him. You can’t afford to lose someone who makes you that smiley!”

Elaine sighed and bit at a hang nail. “Maybe that’s not a choice I get to make.”

“One or two guys turn out to be dicks. It doesn’t mean they all are. Jeff and I are happy.”

“It’s not that. It’s just…”

“What?”

He has a mission and something bigger to do than be with me. I can’t compete with stopping Knights and conspiracies.

But of course she couldn’t say that any more than she could talk about her shifting. Talking about secret wars might lose you friends.

“A couple nights don’t make anything forever.”

“They’re a start. Seriously, you and the dish need to come with me and Jeff on a double date. I bet the Moundville festival will be perfect and–”

“I have to go,” Elaine said. “I really do. I’m going to be late.”

“Sure mucking out stalls and tossing out frayed reins,” Carrie said, giggling. “I’ll get you with the third degree eventually. Talk later?”

“Of course,” Elaine said, clicking off the phone.

 
It was great to have someone to share her happiness with, but it stung that she couldn’t share her greatest fears. Maybe normal women had that issue too. Elaine guessed she’d never know. Grabbing up her purse, she hurried back into the house and wrote a quick note before rushing over to campus. She could get her car and be at the farm within the hour. She’d still be late, but maybe turning into a wolf could be considered extenuating circumstances.

Sorry I was late. I turned into a giant dog and then had the best sex of my life.

That’d go over well.

• • • • •

When she hopped out of her truck, the first thing she noticed was the smell. The tang of copper was thick and heavy in the air, so dense that even a normal human would have noticed it. Blood. A lot of it. The second thing her sensitive nose was able to discern was the familiar scent, the musk and sweat of Rainstone.

He’d bled.

Running full out, she rushed into the stables and into the set of a horror film. There were sheriff’s deputies everywhere and animal control too, their insignia embroidered on their khaki suits. Most of the horses had been moved out of the stable, but what was left made her bend over and retch. May, an old spotted Appaloosa, was lying on the main floor of the barn. It looked like she’d managed to kick her way out of her stall but hadn’t gotten any farther. Her throat was torn and the white of her fur stained crimson with the blood that had crusted there. Her eyes had glazed over and flies were already hovering on them.

“My god, what happened?”

Floyd was the first one to come to her. He separated himself from the farm owner and gave her a hug.

“There was a wild animal attack.”

She blinked. That didn’t make sense. They were in Birmingham. It wasn’t like there were bears around or wolves––
except there were
.
 

Taking a deep breath, she forced her senses to dig deeper than just the scent of blood. That coppery stench was so pervasive that it was gagging her throat. Underneath the arterial spray, though, was something distinct, something her brain would have picked up immediately if she wasn’t reeling with the blood.

Wolf
.

A large male wolf had been here.

Elaine clung tighter to Floyd, desperate to use his solid frame to steady her. What she was feeling just couldn’t be true. It didn’t make a damn lick of sense.

“Is there anyone else hurt but May?”

He pushed her back a bit and squeezed her shoulder, his concerned eyes boring into her own.
 

“They’re looking for the wolf. We’ve had the cops here for hours, and the animal control team is already scouting the surrounding area. Everyone’s doing everything they can.”

Her breath stilled. “That’s not what I asked. I know they have to be trying, but I wanted to know if we lost any other horses?” Floyd looked down at his boots, and he was clearly hesitating before answering. It was all the confirmation she needed. “Not Rainstone, please!”

“I’m sor–”

She didn’t even let him finish, just broke away from him and ran to Rainstone’s stall. Unlike May, he hadn’t been able to make even an attempt at an escape. Maybe the wolf had caught him asleep or maybe it had cut off his access to the stall door. Either way, the blood was everywhere, dripping down the walls. His body had been covered by a horse blanket, but she could still see where some of his intestines were strewn across the hay.

Elaine retched again, this time only bile.

Trembling, she sat down hard, just outside the stall. Floyd brought her a blanket. It was ninety degrees outside in the fading summer, and she couldn’t stop shaking. A strong arm wrapped around her shoulders and it took a while for her to realize that he was rocking back and forth with her.
 

“Elaine, is there anything I can do?”

“I…who found them?”

“I did. I came in at five to clean the stalls like usual and prep for the massive leather throw out. I called the cops as soon as I saw everything.”

“Did you see the wolf?”

He frowned. “Hell no. I’d be dog food if I had, I’m sure. I thought at first with the damage that it might have been a bear or something, maybe a cougar. It was the response team that decided on wolf. They found paw prints and the tooth marks are pretty distinctive, turns out.”

Frowning, she reached down and touched the wolf’s tooth charm around her throat. It felt heavy. The last thing she wanted to become was a wolf. Never again.

Did Trent kill Rainstone?
 

It was the only thing that made any sense. She’d been deep asleep after a night of love-making–

No, not that,
fucking
. Call it what it was.

He could have shifted and killed Rainstone. Did he need her to come with him for extended training? Was he trying to isolate her? Goddess, what? Would he have eliminated her father or Carrie next in order to make it easier to leave with him? Who had she slept with? The man she saw behind Trent’s eyes, the one who adored her? Or was it the ruthless soldier, that lieutenant caught in an eternal war?

She didn’t know and it made her tremble even harder.

“Seriously, I…if there’s anything you need, I’m right here,” Floyd said, stroking back her braids. “I can go get Cynthia. She can…”

“There’s nothing she can do and she’s got to deal with the police. I mean, she just lost May. I need some air,” she replied, stumbling out and back to her car.
 

There was only one place she wanted to be.

TRENT WAS DISAPPOINTED at the way he woke up. Instead of a beautiful country girl wrapped up in his arms, with her ass snuggled up against his hard cock, all he saw was an empty expanse of mattress and a note. While he understood that she had other duties that didn’t involve him, it still stung a bit that she hadn’t even shaken him awake to say goodbye. They had more training to do, more forms to acclimate her to, and there was still the need to get her to the coven house in Atlanta. There, a variety of Wiccans could train her in her gifts, help her grow from novice to expert. It was beyond his talents, and, besides, it was expected from the Magus Corps.

Even if he didn’t want to just dump her off there.

He wanted her for himself. He’d spent the early morning caught up in erotic dreams about how much pure ecstasy it would be to initiate her. Frankly, he wanted that connection with her, of soul touching soul, and magics entwining.

The cold bed was a reminder that she might not feel the same.

Besides, he was a warrior. This was about doing the job and getting back in good graces. He was supposed to be taking on Knights. He wasn’t ready to settle down. Not that entering a coven or training was about that. The Wiccans they collected were encouraged to grow in their gifts and join the fights as they could. But joining in that way with Elaine would change who he was and what truly mattered to him. He was still only a first lieutenant and his low rank haunted him. Being captain was something he’d fought towards for a decade. One day he wanted to be treated with the respect of a general or commandant. Someday—maybe hundreds of years from now––he might rise high in the Corps. He’d made one mistake and let a novice slip from a coven, but he could recover.