Blood Wolf Dawning (23 page)

Scraping onto every ounce of strength he could find, Cian finally managed to force his heavy eyelids open. He found himself staring up at the tearstained face of the most beautiful girl in the world—but he didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her. All he knew was that someone out there had given him a second
chance, and he was taking it. Grabbing on with both hands and taking the hell out of it.

“Shh,” she whispered against his ear, when he tried to speak. “Shh. Just lie here and heal for a moment. You’re almost there.”

Against his will, his heavy eyelids drifted shut again, and he existed in a strange dreamlike state, not asleep, and yet, not completely awake. Sayre’s mouthwatering scent
was all around him, soothing and warm, and he knew his friends were close by, their voices reaching out to him in soft murmurs and broken phrases.

“So she knew he was going to die for her?”

“Never thought it would happen to him.”

“About damn time that it did.”

No shit
, his wolf grunted, its gruff laughter echoing in his head.

With a smile on his lips, he let himself go
back under, no idea how much time had passed when he next opened his eyes. But he could tell that someone had put a pair of jeans on him, since he was once again in his human form, and Sayre was no longer holding him on her lap. Instead, he was lying on the blood-soaked ground in the middle of the clearing with something soft under his head, and Brody was crouching down beside him, a fierce scowl
etched onto the Runner’s scarred face.

“Hey, would you look at this,” Cian croaked. “It’s Broody Brody to the rescue.”

Brody snorted, his green eyes glittering with relief. “Shut up, you lucky jackass.”

Surprised by how good he felt, he managed a lopsided grin. “I know that look. You want to hug me now, don’t you?”

“I think I’ll leave the hugging to your woman,” the Runner
muttered, shaking his head. “But I’m thinking I could probably welcome you back home now without constantly wanting to kick your ass.”

“Thanks, man. You’re all heart,” he said drily.

Brody laughed, and Cian sniffed the air, searching for Sayre’s scent. “Speaking of my woman, where is she?”

Jerking his chin toward his right, Brody said, “Right over there, giving your old man hell.”

“That’s my girl,” he rumbled with pride, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He purposefully kept his head turned away from Aedan’s body, not wanting to see it. Though he definitely didn’t regret what he’d done, knowing it was the only way, it wouldn’t be a sight he could stomach.

As if he’d read his mind, Brody lowered his voice so that no one else could hear him. “She saved
you, man. Brought you back from a one-way trip to Hell. And you were ready to spend eternity there to protect her. I...I don’t know what to say to that exactly, except that I’m happy for you. You went all in, Cian, and you came out breathing on the other side. Now you can leave the past in the past, where it belongs, and move forward by having a kick-ass life with your little witch.”

“You
know, when you put it like that, I’m pretty fucking happy for me, too.”

“Yeah, I can see that you are.” A low laugh rumbled up from the Runner’s chest as he eyed Cian’s smile. “Christ, that girl has you
so
wrapped around her little finger.”

“That’s only fair, since I plan on keeping her wrapped around certain parts of me pretty much twenty-four seven.”

“Watch it, Cian.” Jillian’s
laughing voice came from somewhere behind him. “That’s my baby sister you’re talking about.”

“And she’s
my
woman,” he said with a wealth of satisfaction, watching her giving his old man absolute hell for not doing anything to help him during the fight. No matter what, the little witch was always fighting for him—fighting for
them
—and he knew there were going to be some serious changes taking
place in his life, the first being that he was going to stop buying his own bullshit. Because he finally got it.

Anyone could walk away.
Anyone
. But it took a real man to face the truth and accept that one little slip of a girl held his entire world in her hands. The smartest, sexiest, most incredible girl there was.

“And she’s ours,” he growled under his breath.

About. Fucking.
Time.

He gave a low laugh, agreeing with the beast completely.

Needing to hold her more than he needed his next breath, he managed to push himself up on his knees, and while he was a bit shaky, it was a goddamn miracle he was alive. Suddenly, kneeling in the middle of that godforsaken clearing, he realized something that was pretty damn important. For the first time, he saw, and actually
believed
, that everything really did happen for a reason. All the pain and heartbreak and fear and loss. He’d spent so many years wishing he could undo it all, but it was those things that had brought him here, to this point. Made him who he was. If he’d been different, fate might have never chosen him for Sayre at all, because it was the sum of all those parts of him that made him hers. That
put the two pieces of them together, clicking them into one.

Each decision and step they’d made had led them to this point.

Every single goddamn one of them.

It was the kind of thing that could twist your brain into a pretzel if you thought about it for too long, and he didn’t need to waste his time. He wasn’t fighting this outcome. No, he was grabbing on to it as hard and as tight
as he could, and holding on forever.

Holding on to her. His woman. His beautiful little bad-ass witch.

He didn’t care what Colin Hennessey or anyone else thought of what he was about to do. The only person who mattered was Sayre, and Cian knew she would understand the symbolism behind the way he started crawling toward her on his hands and knees. Before his father and friends and God,
he was humbling himself for her, making it clear to one and all that he would crawl after her over any distance, for any amount of time, until he finally had her in the end.

She ran toward him the instant she caught sight of him, tears streaming down her flushed face, and he moved to his knees again so that he could catch her against him, his head tilting back as he stared up at her, getting
lost in those big, beautiful eyes. “You’re
mine
,” he told her, his big hands gripping her hips. “That means I’m never letting you go, Sayre.”

He couldn’t stop the slow, satisfied smile that lifted the corner of his mouth when she dropped to her knees before him. “It’s about time you said that.”

“And?” he murmured.

She blinked, looking adorably confused. “And what?”

“There’s
something else it’s about damn time that I said to you.” Looking her right in the eye so that she would know just how much he meant it, he cupped her precious, tear-drenched face in his palms, and told her,
“I love you, Sayre.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered, crying even harder. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

He could hear his father bitching from somewhere behind her about how he was
making a spectacle of himself and that real men didn’t grovel, but Cian just tuned out the jackass, unwilling to let him intrude on this moment. Then he heard Jeremy mutter, “You know, I didn’t think it was possible for someone to be an even bigger pain in the ass than Cian. But I was wrong. His old man
sucks
.” He snickered under his breath. “That’s kinda fitting, I guess, seeing as how he’s a
vampire.”

“Seriously?” Carla asked. “You’re making jokes
now
?”

“You know what Jeremy’s like,” Mason murmured. “The End of Days could be here and he’d still be laughing it up.”

“Speaking of jokes,” Cian said, raising his voice so the group could hear him, “when we get home, I want my cabin stripped down to the baseboards, ready for Sayre and me to make it the way we want it.”

Jeremy snickered again. “I think we can manage that. But what do you want us to do with all the green shit?”

Keeping his eyes locked tight on Sayre, unwilling to look away from the love he could see shining there in that smoky, smoldering blue, Cian grinned as he lowered his voice and said, “Let’s ship it over here. I’m betting my old man would love it.”

The others all laughed, but he
was already sipping from Sayre’s soft lips, her sweet taste fueling him with energy, making him feel like he could take on the entire bloody world. But the world would have to be taken on by someone else. All he cared about taking was
her
—as hard and as often as she’d let him—and he couldn’t wait a goddamn second more.

“Let’s get out of here,” he growled against her hot little mouth as he
quickly moved to his feet with her in his arms and carried her away from their cheering friends, up to the bachelor’s house, his body growing stronger with each step that he took. He felt as though he’d existed in two parts: the man he’d been before he started to see clearly, who wanted to put his hands around fate’s throat and squeeze the life out of him. And then this one, who was ready to embrace
the shit out of that fucker and thank him for making this incredible woman a part of his life, because he wouldn’t change it for anything.

Seriously. Not a single goddamn thing.

Though they managed to make it through the front door, they didn’t get any farther than the entryway before their desire got the better of them and they went wild on each other.

“Shit,” he muttered, dropping
down on his knees, his hands digging into her sweet little ass as she wrapped herself around him like a vine. “I’m still covered in blood, baby.”

“Don’t care,” she gasped, kissing her way up the side of his throat, her lips and tongue driving him mad, while practically all the blood left in his body shot south, hardening his cock to the point of pain.

“Damn it, Sayre.” His voice was
raw and graveled with need. “You deserve better than this.”

She pulled back just far enough that she could smirk at him. “Blood is a part of your life and it always will be. Which means it’s a part of mine, too. So I doubt this is the last time we’ll go to bed bloody.”

“We’re not even in a bed,” he grunted, coming down over her as he laid her back on the hardwood floor. His right hand
fisted in her silky hair, while his left one settled on her waist, his thumb stroking the soft skin on her belly.

With a devilish light in her eyes, she said, “I don’t care about that, either.” Then she lifted her head, nipped the edge of his jaw with her teeth and asked him, “Are you hungry for me, Cian?”

“Starved,” he groaned, ripping at her clothes so that he could get to that soft,
bare skin underneath. “And too damn desperate to wait, Sayre.”

“Good,” she said with a wealth of satisfaction that made him feel like he could level a bloody mountain for her, if that’s what she wanted. What she
needed
.

“Tell me you’re happy, and mean it,” he said in a rough, breathless rasp, as he shoved her shirt up over her head, then quickly got rid of her lacy bra. “Because I can’t
let you go, Sayre. I did it once and it killed me inside each day. I can’t do it again.”

“You won’t have to,” she told him, running her greedy hands over every part of him she could reach, her delicious scent only getting richer with the rise of her need. “You aren’t ever getting rid of me, and happy doesn’t even begin to describe how freaking good I feel.”

“Thank God,” he groaned, pressing
his parted lips against the center of her chest.

Lifting his face with her hand cupped under his chin, she waited until his molten gaze had reconnected with hers, before taking a quick breath, and saying, “I want this—want
you
—but I need to tell you...I mean, you probably figured it out...but I never actually fooled around with anyone else. So this is my
first
. My first time.”

His breath
jammed in his throat, and he blinked as he touched his tongue to his lower lip, letting those husky words work their way into him. It didn’t change how he felt about her, or how much he wanted her, because he was in this no matter what. Whether she’d had fifty lovers...or none. But he’d have been lying through his teeth if he’d said he wasn’t happy as hell about it.

“Mine, too,” he finally
managed to choke out, while his blood pounded in his ears, his heart damn near jerking its way through his chest. “It’s mine, too, baby.”

“Cian!” she gasped with a laugh that felt like pure, white-hot sunshine being injected straight into his veins. Then she smacked him in the shoulder for making what she thought was a joke. But it wasn’t. Stripping away the rest of her clothes as quickly
as possible, along with his jeans, he lifted his head and looked at her. Watched her luminous eyes go heavy with need as he lowered his hips between her parted thighs and rubbed his hot, granite-hard erection against her slick folds, his own eyes no doubt burning red with the ferocity of his need.

“I mean it,” he told her, his deep voice as low and fervent as a vow. “This
is
a first for me,
Sayre, because I’ve never
made love
to any other woman in my life.”

“Then do it now,” she whispered, slaying him with her beautiful smile as he reached between those slender thighs and pushed a long finger into the tight entrance nestled there, finding her deliciously hot and slick, melting for him like sun-warmed honey. “Make love to me, Cian. Don’t make me wait.”

“Gotta make sure you’re
ready,” he groaned, squeezing a second finger into that tender, cushiony sheath, the way she clasped him, so tight and hot and wet, shooting a jolt of heat up his spine that had him gritting his teeth, fighting for control.

Then her next words shot it to hell.

Chapter 17

“P
lease, Cian. We’ve had freaking days of foreplay. I need you
now
,” Sayre begged, thinking that he felt so much harder, pressed against her inner thigh, than he had the other times that they’d done this. Well, not
this
. But the lead-up. The slow build of their lust and love and need that was
finally
going to have its day. Hopefully before they detonated from the heat.

He felt bigger, too, and she knew this was going to be anything but easy. But she didn’t care. Nothing worth keeping ever came easily, and she was keeping this man with her for...well, forever.

Suspecting he was worried about hurting her, she was ready to start pleading again, when he pulled his fingers free and notched the thick, heavy tip of him against her opening. Digging her nails
into his shoulders, she panted with excitement as he started to carefully push forward, forcing her to stretch open for him, her power bursting free in a glittering array of sparks, letting him know exactly how desperate she was for this moment.

“So bloody tight, Sayre.” He muttered the words directly into her ear, his voice so low and sensual it made her shiver even harder, her hands clasping
his hips as she tried to pull him closer. “I
knew
you would be like this, lass. So damn perfect it blew my mind.”

“Please,”
she gasped through trembling, tingling lips, not even sure what she was begging for. More? Faster? Deeper? All of them?
Yes!
All of them. She needed
everything
.

As if he heard her silent demands, he put one of his big, hot hands under her ass, tilting her up to
him so that he could wedge more of that broad shaft inside her, keeping his rhythm slow and easy, rubbing and stroking all those wickedly sweet spots that were making her slippery and hot and so damn desperate for him she was digging her nails into his hard, gorgeous skin and moaning her head off.

Then he finally bit out a gritty curse, gripped her hips in his strong hands and shoved himself
impossibly deep, forcing every single inch of that massive erection inside her. She cried out as he hit the end of her, his cock throbbing against her sensitive tissues, so big she couldn’t breathe around the shocking sensation. But who needed air when she was full of this magnificent male, his teeth nipping her tender earlobe as he breathed in a harsh, ragged rhythm, his powerful, bad-ass body
buried deep inside hers? Then he started to move, their heat-glazed stomachs and chests sliding against each other, his mouthwatering muscles flexing beneath his tight skin as he rolled his hips against hers, thrusting in a breathtaking rhythm that was getting better each time he pushed inside her.

“How’s that feel?” he asked, his husky voice low and intimate at her ear.

“Insanely freaking
amazing,” she gasped, arching her back so that she could press her swollen breasts harder against his chest.

He breathed a dark, devastatingly sexy laugh into her ear, but she meant every word. He was so big that it kind of felt like she was being split in two, and yeah, that hurt. But there was something beautiful behind the pain—a fullness and need and sense of rightness that overshadowed
the discomfort and made her want
more
. Made her need it...
crave it
. She ran her palms up his sleek back, loving the play of powerful muscles beneath his hot skin and the hunger she could feel burning inside him as he used that magnificent body to claim her. Each time that he withdraw, her body fought to hold on to him, and he came back into her even harder, the sounds he made and the way he moved
letting her know he needed her just as badly as she needed him. If not more.

“Ah...
fuck
, that’s so sweet,” he groaned against her temple. He nuzzled her hair with his nose, his right hand curled possessively around her breast as he drove inside her. “So goddamn
perfect
.”

“What is?”

Pulling his head back, he locked his scorching, molten gaze with hers. “You’re opened up to me, lass.
Completely
. I can feel everything. Everything that’s in your heart, and it’s... Christ, Sayre, there aren’t even words.”

Her throat shook, melting with emotion. “Love you so much,” she whispered, pushing her fingers into the thick, damp strands of his hair.

Staring down at her as if she were a miracle, something cherished and infinitely precious, he said, “I know, Sayre. God, baby, I
know. And you are so bloody beautiful, inside and out. The most beautiful woman in the world.”

She couldn’t help but smile with pleasure, because even though she knew it wasn’t true, he made her feel that way. Because she knew it was how he saw her. Even when she was old and gray, she knew she would be able to see this same devastating level of devotion in his eyes, and
God
, that was so freaking
sweet.

“I want it harder,” she moaned, curling her hands around the back of his neck, his skin feverishly warm to the touch.

Something hot and wicked moved through his eyes. “Good, because I’m about to take you so hard you won’t be able to walk up to bed, and then I’m taking you even harder.”

“Do it,” she gasped, unable to keep the smile off her face when she noticed his fangs,
gleaming and white, drop beneath his upper lip. They definitely weren’t his wolf’s fangs. They were sharper, deadlier. But she didn’t care. If she’d wanted easy, she’d have fallen in love with another man. But she’d chosen
him
, because he was everything she could ever want or need or desire, and she wanted the full experience. Every single scream-inducing thing he could do to her.

“Do
all
of it,” she moaned, turning her head so that the tender side of her throat was left vulnerable and exposed, her blood thundering through her veins. “Make the bite, Cian. Make me yours.”

“Don’t,” he grunted, his gaze immediately narrowing to sharp, piercing points of gray beneath his lowered brows. “Don’t tempt me.”

“But it’s time.”

Shaking his head, he argued, “I’ve lost too much
fucking blood tonight and you smell too damn good. It’s too dangerous right now, Sayre. We need to wait until my control isn’t shot to hell and back.”

“I don’t care about your control. I trust you and it needs to be
now
, when we’re finally together like we’ve been meant to be for so long. This is perfect.”

“Sayre,”
he growled, his hammering thrusts getting rougher...deeper, driving her
deliciously close to a powerful release she knew might damn well make her faint, it was going to be
that
intense.

Clutching his hard, slick shoulders, she stared up at his beloved face and said, “You’ve
died
for me, Cian. Do you really think there’s any way any part of you would let me come to harm?”

“No,” he grunted, and she figured she’d finally managed to convince him, because his
hand was suddenly in her hair, wrenching her head to the side, exposing the tender column so that he could drive those sharp fangs deep into her throat, piercing her tight flesh and making the bond. That unbelievable, tilt-the-world-on-its-axis bond that had her fighting for air, so filled with emotion there wasn’t room for anything else. Just love and trust and hope. Joy and happiness and a soul-deep
need for this man who was the other half of her heart.

When he tried to pull his head back, she fisted her hands in his thick hair and held him to her, saying, “More. Take more, Cian. Drink
 
from me.”

He stiffened at the end of a hard downstroke, packed up thick and deep inside her, his powerful frame shuddering. “No,” he snarled against her throat, pulling his fangs back with a wet pop.
“I won’t use you like that.”

“You will,”
she breathed, keenly aware of the hot blood streaming from the bite he’d made, the two puncture wounds flowing freely. “You promised me everything I’ll ever want, and I want this. I want as deep inside you as you are in me.”

“It’s wrong,” he rasped, his body rigid with tension.

“I belong inside you, Cian, pumping through your veins. Filling
your belly.” She arched her back, pressing up against him, loving the way their damp bodies rubbed together. “Nothing between us is wrong. Nothing is a sin. I offer this freely, and I’m even begging you for it. I want to be the thing that nourishes you. That gives you what you need.”

“Shit,” he growled, already lowering his head again, his warm breath rushing against her. “You’re too damn
perfect to be real.”

She screamed in ecstasy only seconds later, holding him to her tighter as a lush, breathtaking orgasm pulsed through her, her hands fisted in his hair as his open mouth closed over the punctures and he started to suck on her. Driving himself inside her with a thick, aggressive rhythm, he devoured the hot blood that flowed through her veins as if it were the most exquisite
thing he’d ever tasted. “Oh, God! That’s so amazing, Cian.”

He gave a low, animalistic growl against her flesh, and she grinned, knowing it was because he’d liked hearing her. When he finally pulled his mouth away, he pressed a gentle kiss to her throat, lapping at the tender skin where he’d bitten her, and she hissed from the pleasure. “Come for me again, lass. Give me one more.
Now
,” he
growled, dropping his forehead against hers, “’cause I’m about to come for you so bloody hard.”

As if her pleasure were his to call and control, they crashed over that dark, devastating edge together, his hips slamming and grinding against hers as he pulsed inside her, his hands gripping her body hard. His raw, guttural curses and her keening cries filled the air, while her power consumed
them, fueled by the bond that now flowed so strongly between them. To another’s eyes, they would have no doubt looked as if they’d been engulfed in crackling, crimson flames, yet they were thankfully unburned, if not completely shattered when he finally collapsed in her arms. He was still gently thrusting inside her, as if he couldn’t bring himself to stop, his hot face resting against the cushion
of her breasts as they struggled to catch their breath.

“God, Sayre. I could feel that sweet burn
inside
you,” he groaned, sounding drowsy with satisfaction. She let her eyes drift closed as she stroked his head, running her fingers through his hair, and had no idea how much time had passed when he carefully withdrew from her. Then he pushed himself to his feet, lifted her into his arms and
carried her upstairs to the bathroom, where he put her in a hot, steaming shower.

Holding her face in his hands, he took her mouth with lush, drugging kisses, while the water sprayed down on them from above, washing them clean.

“It’s never been like that for me before,” he told her, when they finally had to stop kissing long enough to breathe. Keeping his head bent over hers, he held
her face as he stared deep into her eyes, saying, “Nothing ever even came close. And now you own every part of me.
Own
it, Sayre. And I’m so damn sorry. Christ, I’m so sorry, for everything, baby. I told myself for so long that I couldn’t love you because I was too much like my father. Because his blood ran through my veins. But the other night, after Aedan came to the Alley, I finally started
to figure out that it was just a lie. The truth is that I’ve been too afraid to let myself love you because I was terrified of ending up like my mother. Of losing...everything. What if you didn’t love me in return? What if I gave you my heart and you broke it?”

Clutching his strong wrists, she blinked the water from her lashes as she said, “I wouldn’t. I won’t. I’ll protect it with my dying
breath, Cian.”

“I know, baby. I know. I’m just sorry it took me so long to figure it all out. To see that love doesn’t make you weak, so long as you’re giving it to the right person. When that happens, it only makes you stronger.” A wry, lopsided grin started to twitch at the corner of his mouth as he added, “And I’m probably going to have my man card revoked for babbling like this, but even
if you didn’t love me back, I would still love you like this, Sayre. With everything that I am and will ever be. With every part of me.”

“But I do love you. I love you so much. More than anything.”

Touching his open mouth to hers, he smiled as he nipped her bottom lip. “I know, lass. I could feel every breathtaking part of it when I was buried deep inside you. So deep I was practically
coming out your mouth.”

She couldn’t help but laugh against those sexy, smiling lips. “Keep talking like that and I think your man card is gonna be just fine.”

“Face it, witch. You love my dirty mouth.”

“I do,” she gasped, already shivering with need for him. “I love everything about you, Cian. And that’s why I’d like to come back here. I’d like to split our time between the two
countries.”

“Why the hell would you want to do that?” And then in a drier tone, he said, “Are you sure you’re not just trying to avoid your mother? Because
that
I would actually be okay with.”

She shook her head as she laughed. “Don’t worry about Mom. She’ll come to love you, I promise.”

He still looked skeptical, so she leaned closer, pressing her lips to his for another kiss,
this one brief and sweet. When she pulled back far enough to see his eyes, she said, “I want to spend time here because I can sense how much you love this country. Maybe not
here
, where your father is, but you love Ireland, Cian. This land, it’s in your blood.”

“
You’re
in my blood.”

“And this place is, too. I want to make happy memories here for you. I want the children we’ll have one
day to know both our countries.” She could see the fear that darkened his gaze at her words, and so she said, “Not all wolves and witches are good, and not all vampires are evil. You’re proof of that, Cian. It’s love that builds a person’s heart, and we’ll give our children so much they’ll glow with it.”

He swallowed so hard that she could see the movement in his throat, but he didn’t say
anything. Just stared down at her with those dark, smoldering eyes.

“Unless you don’t want that with me,” she murmured, stroking the rigid muscles at the back of his neck.