Dawn’s Awakening (22 page)

She turned her back on him. Slender, stiff hands propped on her hips as she paced off the other side of the room, glancing back at him with a furious curl on her lip. For some reason, Breeds always thought that flash of canine would intimidate. He wondered what she would think if she knew that the sight of her canines just made his dick hard.

“Don’t you have a party to attend?” she sneered. “Go right ahead and take care of business, Seth. I’ll sit right here where I can’t embarrass you with my uniform and my lack of class.”

He almost snorted at that one. Instead he just tilted his head and watched her. She needed to get the anger out first and he’d be damned if he’d let her do it by fighting with him.

A furious growl left her throat before she clamped her lips shut and turned her back on him. A second later the tension left her shoulders enough that they seemed to slump dejectedly. And that broke his heart. He hurt for her, with her. His little Dawn. She didn’t understand Callan’s love for her any more than she understood how to handle the emotions that only built between her and Seth.

He forced himself to stand where he was, to let her work through that initial fire.

“Dayan made me watch those discs,” she finally whispered, and Seth flinched at the raw pain in her voice. “For years. Years and years, over and over again. He made me watch them. I never remembered what they did to me, but I remember watching those discs.”

Dayan had been insane. Seth thanked God he was dead; it saved him the trouble of fighting Callan for the right to strike the killing blow.

“After the escape, I went to sleep. Callan said I slept for days. When I woke up, I didn’t remember any of it. I remembered the labs, I remembered the beatings and the training and the pain. But I didn’t remember the rapes clearly.” Her voice was at a near whisper, confusion filling her tone. “How do you just forget something that molded you?” She turned back to him then, and the aching pain and loss on her face tore at his soul.

“Sometimes, God gives us strength, Dawn, where we only perceive weakness.”

She sneered at that. “God didn’t create me, Seth. Don’t pull that on me. He had nothing to do with this.”

He shook his head at that. “You can’t convince me of that, Dawn. Would you like to know why?”

“I guess you’re just going to tell me whether I want you to or not,” she bit out resentfully.

“Man can’t create a soul, Dawn, only God can. And you can’t live without your soul. You know that as well as I do. If what you’re saying is true, then the Breeds would be no more than the automatons the Council dreamed of creating, rather than free and fighting to live and to love.”

With those words he moved toward her. She stared back at him, denial and furious pain resonating in her eyes. Those beautiful eyes. Not the amber of Callan’s, but the color of sweet honey touched by fire. And they broke his heart with the shadows that filled them, even as the heat that seemed always present now simmered his blood.

She was a part of his soul now, and he wondered if she even realized how much a part of him that she was, that they were of each other. Earlier, as morning filled the sky and only the dimmest light pierced the bedroom, he had felt it. Felt it as she moved over him, as she purred for him.

“I wanted to come to you without those images between us,” she whispered hoarsely, refusing to shed the tears he knew lay trapped within her. “I wanted you to touch me without remembering that, without seeing another man touching me.”

The shame that curled inside her nearly brought her to her knees now. She had no idea what to do with the emotions ripping through her, the need for something that she couldn’t identify, and a sudden terror that the shadows she could feel pressing against her mind were memories she didn’t want to see.

“And do you think that’s what I saw, Dawn?” he asked her gently, his hands settling on her shoulders before running lightly down her arms. “I didn’t see another man touching you. I saw a monster attempting to destroy something so pure and so innocent that it defies my ability to describe it. And I saw its inability to do so. Because the soul of that child was too strong, and too well protected by the being that gave that soul to her. You’re pure. As innocent as a baby’s breath, and, whether you believe it or not, sweetheart, protected by the most powerful being in the universe.”

Dawn shook her head. She couldn’t believe that. Not again. Not ever again. Because if she dared, then she might trust again, and if she trusted in His help then she might as well trust in a coyote’s.

“Yeah, real pure and innocent,” she sneered instead. “So pure that you ran the second you saw it. Just took Callan’s word for the fact that I was too weak to be a mate. Too damaged to be your woman.”

“He loves you, Dawn. Like a brother. Like a father. Like the man who failed to protect you when he knew you needed him the most, and he was determined not to fail again. Will you punish both of you by refusing to forgive him for it?”

She jerked away from Seth, tossing him a resentful glare as she moved jerkily to the bar and pulled a water from the mini-fridge there. More as an excuse for time than out of any real thirst.

As she drank, she fought the logic he was using against her, as well as the heat beginning to build within her. She wanted to fight that logic. She wanted to fight Seth, Callan and Jonas. She wanted to tell them all to fuck off, to leave her the hell alone. And she couldn’t. She couldn’t because she loved both Callan and Seth too much.

“I should have had a choice,” she whispered as she capped the water and set it on the bar.

She hunched her shoulders against the pain driving inside her like a bitter blade. “Someone should have given me the choice.” The choice to accept her mate, to grow strong beside him rather than without him.

“Yes, we should have.”

He surprised her with his answer. It didn’t surprise her that he followed her, that he cupped her cheek and stared down at her, his gray eyes cloudy, darkening with emotion and with acceptance.

“You deserved the chance to choose for yourself, and I’ll take that blame on my shoulders Dawn. Callan shouldn’t have to. I was the one who walked away when I knew better. I walked away because I was terrified of putting fear in your eyes, and I knew I was too damned weak to bear to see it there.”

And she was weak. Too weak to listen to this. Too hurt and too unsettled by the emotions and the edge of panic she could feel rising inside her.

“Do you see fear?” she snapped back at him.

His lips quirked, sadly, wryly. “I don’t see fear, Dawn.”

She reached up, speared her fingers in his hair, gripped the silken strands and pulled his lips to hers.

“Prove it.”

She licked his lips then pushed her tongue past them as they parted—to argue or to kiss, she didn’t know, and she didn’t care. The mating hormone had been spilling into her system for hours, burning through her, lashing at the control she prided herself on.

She didn’t have to have control now. She didn’t have to wait or suffer in silence. This was her mate, and she was tired of waiting.

“Fuck!” Seth’s head jerked back, but she knew the heat was in him too. She had smelled it on him, she could taste it in his kiss.

“Yes, fuck,” she hissed. “Right here. Right now.”

She jerked his belt loose as he stared at her in surprise, and a second later had the zipper lowered. Before he could form the words she saw hovering on his lips, she had his cock free and she was on her knees.

She had been dying to taste him. For years she had dreamed of tasting him, of taking him with her mouth and her tongue, laving the mating hormone over the stiff flesh of his erection just to see the result.

“Oh hell, Dawn.” A strangled groan left his throat as she gripped the hardened shaft with both hands and her head lowered to consume the throbbing tip with her mouth.

Desperate fingers drove into her hair then. Seth’s fingers. They grabbed handfuls of hair and clenched, just enough. Just enough to prick at her scalp, but not enough to cause pain or fear. Just enough to make certain she didn’t release him.

She had no intention of releasing him. The taste of male lust and strength filled her mouth now, and she found she was a hungry woman. She might very well have found her favorite treat.

Treat nothing, this was a smorgasbord. A banquet of male flesh rising stiff and hot for her pleasure alone. Heavily veined, throbbing with desire, the thick crest dark and spilling precious drops of pre-cum, it filled her mouth, her senses and her desperate heart.

He was hers. She had waited ten years. Ten years to feel his touch and know his passion, and she would be damned if she would let him go now.

“Dawn, we need to talk.” Seth’s breathing was hard, sawing from his lungs as he groaned the words.

But he didn’t move his hands. He didn’t let go of her hair and he didn’t stop thrusting against her lips. They didn’t need to talk. They needed to touch. They needed to still this fire raging between them and burning through her defenses.

As she felt his cock head throb against her tongue, she tucked under the sensitive flesh beneath it and rolled her tongue against it before drawing back. Slowly, so slowly, staring up at him, seeing the glitter in his eyes, and knowing, feeling the certainty that he belonged to her.

He would never again lose the hormone that filled his blood now. He would never again walk away from her into the arms of another woman. He would never want to, even if he could. He was hers. It was there in his eyes, in his expression, in the muttered groans of pleasure and the hard hands in her hair.

He was her mate.

Seth couldn’t believe what he was seeing, what he was feeling. Dawn’s mouth wrapped around the crest of his dick, sucking it into the hot cavern of her mouth, stroking it with her tongue.

The inexperienced caresses were hotter than anything he had ever known. Her pleasure in it, seeing it in her eyes, hearing it in her mewling little moans, was almost too much to bear. Because those moans were vibrating on his too-sensitive flesh, stabbing into his balls and nearly destroying his self-control.

There he stood in his fucking sitting room, his pants and underwear around his thighs, and her absorbed, passionate expression filling his gaze. Dark gold eyes gleamed in the dim light of the room; her face was flushed, her lips becoming swollen as he slowly fucked the hard flesh past her lips.

“I won’t last.” It was all he could do to breathe.

Heat was curling up his spine, building at the base of his neck. He could feel the warning tremors of his nearing release clenching his testicles. If he didn’t come soon, he wondered if he would die.

She moaned for him again. Half purr, half feminine hum of satisfaction and pleasure.

She was still dressed, for God’s sake, as was he. He wanted her naked. He wanted to watch her naked breasts rising and falling, see her nipples stiff and flushed. And he wanted to see her pussy. Wanted to see it slick and hot with her need, ready to take him as he worked every inch of his cock inside her.

“God, your mouth is hot,” he panted, unable to hold the words back as that heat, the sucking of her mouth and her sweet lips drove him insane with lust. “So sweet and hot, Dawn.”

He clenched his hands in her hair again, kneaded her scalp, felt the sweat dampen his back. She’d always done that to him, even before the mating heat began. Just being close to her, smelling the sweat scent of her, and he would sweat. Ache. She made him crazy for her then and she made him even crazier for her now.

There was nothing he wouldn’t do to touch her. No one he wouldn’t kill just to ensure that he held her in his life forever.

“Dawn.” He groaned her name, clenching his teeth as she licked and sucked and made him crazy with the need to come. “Let me have you.”

Her answering moan was definitely a denial.

“Sweetheart, I’m going to come.” Any second now. And instead of trying to pull away from her, what the hell was he doing? Holding her still, fucking her mouth, feeling the come building in his balls and threatening to explode.

“Dawn, for pity’s sake.” He clenched his teeth and fought to hold back.

The pleasure was incredible. It lashed at his senses, burned through his system, and before he could find a chance to catch his breath, it exploded out of control.

His body tightened to near breaking point, his head fell back, and before he knew it he was pumping hot, furious streams of his semen into her mouth.

Where she consumed him. She moaned and licked and drew every drop from his body for her consumption.

He had held back for so long. He had fought the rising force of lust, need, love and hunger for so many years that he found himself unable to fight it any longer.

Somehow, Seth managed to pull free of her sucking mouth, his cock still furiously hard, raging, desperate for more. He lifted her to her feet and tore at her pants, so violently aroused he didn’t bother with her boots. He pushed her pants to her ankles, turned her, and there, with her pretty butt lifted for his viewing pleasure, he slid his hand between her thighs.

“You’re wet, Dawn,” he bit out, finding the sweet, heated syrup that ran from her body.

“Go figure.” She panted, pushing into his hand, moaning as his fingers slid over her clit.

She needed this. Dawn had never needed anything as desperately as she needed Seth to fill her right now. She was burning, on fire from the taste of his lust and her own needs. They singed her flesh, stroked her nerve endings and clenched her womb in hard blows.

“Smart-ass.” He leaned over her and bit her ear, and Dawn nearly came in his hand.

She ground herself into his hold, panting for breath as her head tipped back against his chest and a cry fell from her lips as he pulled his fingers from her.

A second later, the thick, pulsing head of his cock parted the sensitive lips and tucked against the clenching opening of her sex.

“What are you waiting on?” she cried out, pushing her legs farther apart as she felt his knees bend behind her. “Next year?”

“Smart-ass,” he groaned again.

“So spank me. Later.” She rolled her hips and growled. A heavy, feline sound of need that almost had the power to shock her.