Force of Nature Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4) (32 page)

Guiding her down over him and onto him, she took his mouth when she was across him. His fingers dug deep into her ass as he pulled her to him.

“Ride me. Slowly. I want to savor you.” He grinned suddenly. “Savor you for as long as I can.”

Wrapping her legs around his hips, she rolled her body against him. He filled her, his cock touching her deep. His mouth was everywhere, touching and tasting, nipping and biting her. She moved her mouth along his throat, nearly taking him again. As she started to pull back, he cupped the back of her head and held her to him.

“Bite me. Drink from me while I release my wolf enough to mark you. He needs to make you his.” He ran his tongue along her neck where her shoulder met her neck. “He will mark you, scar you, and make you his. Take from me, Alexis. Take what I offer and make me yours.”

Her canines elongated. She felt them burst from her gums and her mouth watered to drink. She heard him snarl and looked up at him. He had changed. His eyes had darkened, his canines were there, long and sharp. She felt her climax rising and when he snarled at her to take him, she sank her teeth into his throat and felt him do the same to her.

Chapter 11

Darcy watched the couple come into the house. She didn’t move from where she was, but knew the moment that the man saw her. She stepped out of the dark corner and looked at him. He was huge, but he didn’t frighten her, not like her father did…at least not as badly. He didn’t snarl and snap at her either, which she was surprised about. Her father always did.

“Darcy.” He moved slowly and she was still afraid, but not terribly. “Are you okay? Your aunt and I are just going to get something to eat. Would you like to join us?”

She didn’t answer him, but she did move to follow them. Her aunt put her arm around her and she stiffened, but Aunt Alexis didn’t pull away. Darcy knew that she should do something…anything to let them know she was okay, to at least make them stop worrying, but she wasn’t sure what
was
wrong with her.

Bits and pieces of what happened had come back to her. She was remembering more and more all the time, but what it all meant was still foggy. There was a large dog, but somehow she knew it was more. Then there was redness. She felt a pain in her head when she thought of the redness, and was nearly blinded by it when she thought of her mother.

“Have a seat, sweetie, and I’ll get you something to drink too.” She glanced up at Aunt Alexis and then back at the table. She felt shame for something and wasn’t sure what it was.

“Darcy, look at me,” the man said to her and she obeyed. Once she looked into his eyes it was like she couldn’t look away. “You’re going to be safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll protect you all.”

She found that she wanted to believe him. More than anything she wanted to, but there was something that she knew, something that she was sure was going to come and get her. She looked back down at the table when she felt the release and then put her hands on the table.

The pictures she’d been drawing. If she could make them look at them she knew that they’d understand what she wanted. Death. If she could just simply die then she’d be better. She glanced over at the knife, the one she’d been coming down to get when they’d come into the house, and wondered if she could snatch it up and plunge it into her chest before they could stop her.

“There’s a festival this weekend at the high school. I thought we’d go and check it out,” the man…she couldn’t remember his name…said. “The weather is nice enough, but I think it’ll rain.”

Aunt Alexis laughed and Darcy looked up quickly to see if she was laughing at her. But it was the man…he was tickling her aunt. Darcy started to get up, to leave them, but the man put a plate in front of her and said to eat. Picking up the bread, she played with the crust.

Tell them
, her mind screamed at her.
Tell them, tell them, tell them
. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to tell them, but she knew that sooner or later they were going to need it. Glancing at the man again, she stood and left the room. The pictures were in her hand and she was back in the kitchen before she realized what she was going to do.

“What do you have…?” He lifted her chin when she continued to look at the table after handing him the drawings. “Did you draw these, Darcy?”

She pulled away from him and picked up the bread again. She didn’t know what the pictures were, she wasn’t even sure if she’d drawn them, but she had them and when she looked at them, her head hurt. She knew when her aunt had looked at them. The sharp intake of breath was all she’d done, but the man, Gordon she suddenly remembered, sat next to her at the table.

“These are very good. I’m impressed with the detail in them. Is this a wolf?” She glanced over at the big dog she’d seen on the top most pictures and went back to her sandwich. “And this one, is this your house?”

She didn’t answer him, but she heard her aunt tell him it was. The house she’d been in before, the one she and her sister and brothers had been in. She took another bite of the sandwich and listened to them.

“They lived there most of her life. It’s the house her mother got in the divorce when they…when Paddy left them. They’ve only been living here since I had the renovations finished. Before that they all lived with Aunt Glad and Aunt Jessie.” Finished now with the sandwich, she picked up the glass and stared into it as Gordon sorted through the pictures. He continued to talk to her.

“Darcy, can you please tell me about this one? It’s a very violent picture, and if you tell me about it, I can try and help you make sense of it.” She glanced over at the picture then back at the glass of milk. “I think you know more than you’ve let on. You know about your father, don’t you?”

“Don’t,” her aunt said, but Darcy got up and looked over his shoulder at the picture. When her aunt started to speak again, Darcy put her hand on Gordon’s shoulder and held on. Aunt Alexis moved to the other chair and didn’t speak again.

“This one shows a man changing into a wolf, I think. I can see his paws here and I think this is his fur. Paddy is a brown wolf so I’m assuming this is of him.” Darcy started to nod, but didn’t. “And I can see his canines. Did you know that that’s what wolves’ teeth are called?”

Darcy knew that, but didn’t answer, as much as she wanted to. She found that for the first time since she’d awakened in this house she wanted to say something. Darcy rubbed her hand over his shirt and felt his warmth. She moved closer, feeling…safe for the first time since she was little.

He was handing her a pencil and she took it. Before she knew it, she was sitting at the table again and had a sheet of paper in front of her. Her mind drifted away and her eyes became unfocused. Blurry images seemed to come into sharp pictures, and then she was crying. Then when she felt someone hugging her, she wrapped her arms around them and held on. It wasn’t until later, when she was nearly asleep, that she realized it was Gordon that held her, and Gordon and her Aunt Alexis who put her to bed. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep even before they left the room.

Darcy sat up, sweat drenching her and her eyes wide with fear. Breathing hard, she looked around the darkened room and searched. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but knew, just knew that it was right there with her. When she saw the bright eyes she whimpered and pulled back on the bed. Suddenly he was on the bed licking his lips, and that’s when she screamed. Screamed over and over until the lights came on and she was jerked up from her bed.

“It’s all right. I’ve got you. Come on, baby, wake up. I’ve got you.” Aunt Jessie was holding her. There were others in the room, but Jessie was holding her. “Open your eyes, come on, Darcy. You scared fifty years off me; good heavens, girl.”

“It’s the drawings. I was worried about that, and I told you no good could come from it,” her Aunt Alexis said. Gordon came to the bed with her and sat there, smiling at her. “You should be whipped.”

“She thinks she can whip me. I think I can take her. What do you think?” She looked at Gordon then back up at her aunt, who was pacing. Neither of them seemed really mad, but she didn’t know. Darcy pulled the blanket up and started to lie back down, but Tim came into the room and hopped on the bed with her.

“If everybody is up, do you think I can have some pancakes and waffles? I’m really hungry.” Tim held her hand and she looked away, but back at him when he started to fib about her. “Darcy and I been talking, and she really likes pancakes and waffles together, don’t you?”

He winked at her. Then Darcy looked over at Gordon who winked as well. She nodded once then started to get up, but Sis tackled her first.

“She talked, didn’t she? Darcy can talk again. Come on, Darcy,” Sis said to her pleadingly. “Say my name and I’ll give you my favoritest dolly. The one that Aunt Jessie made for me. Please? Say ‘cat,’ just like that, ‘cat.’”

Darcy looked up at her Aunt Alexis and the connection was suddenly there. And then the memories flooded her mind. The dog was a wolf, but there was a man too. Big and mean, and he had a cane. Aunt Alexis came then and she was covered in red; not paint like she’d thought, but blood. Her own. Aunt Alexis had gone after her dad and he’d…he’d hurt her. The man with the cane had hit Darcy, hit her so many times that she hurt for so long, then nothing. Then she’d awakened in the barn at her mother’s house.

“You saved me.” Darcy was startled by her own voice, but she said it again, said it to the woman who had put her hands on her and saved her. “You saved my life, but couldn’t my mom’s because you said she was too far gone.”

~~~

Paddy paced outside the gate. He wanted in and he would have been in except for the hum of electricity that told him that scaling the fence would get him hurt badly. He was waiting for someone, anyone to come out of the gate and he’d slip in. Of course, that had been the plan over three hours ago. Now he just wanted to hurt someone.

He was afraid, not that he’d admit that to anyone but himself, but the police showing up at his door shortly after he’d gotten back in the house made him realize that he shouldn’t have killed Logan. And raping his cook, or almost doing so, didn’t seem like such a good idea now either. But they had hurt him. She, or someone there with her, had hit him hard enough to make it so that the cops had almost gotten him. He hoped that they got what they deserved.

There were other wolves around the compound and he could smell even more that had been around recently. Even in his young life as a wolf he knew that one of them was powerful…an alpha if he didn’t miss his guess, and one of great strength. He wondered, not for the first time, if it was the one who’d marked Alexis, but he’d missed cataloging the scent and now he was lost. He was still learning more and more every day, and making mistakes, especially one like that, made him angry.

The car coming down the road made him pause. He watched as it drove by slowly but didn’t stop. Didn’t these stupid people need to get stuff or something?

Food, for one thing. He had been here for several hours off and on and couldn’t believe that not one person didn’t need to get something from the store or just to get out into the open. He’d been to the store down the street three times since the crack of dawn, and still nothing from the people inside.

Another car came down the street and this one slowed in front of the gate, but drove on. The prick was teasing him and Paddy just knew it. If he wasn’t so afraid of missing the chance to get inside, he’d have gone after the driver and torn him to bits just to prove who the bigger man was. Smirking, he wondered what the guy would do if a big, bad wolf jumped in front of him. Probably piss himself.

Paddy tried to shake the feelings he was having. Terror and anger, meanness and hatred seemed to roll over him in waves until he had no idea what to do other than just let them go. The worst was his need to fuck. Everything that walked, and it mattered little to him what the sex was either. He started to pace again and looked at his latest problem. The gate was keeping him from getting what he wanted.

The monstrosity behind him was made of stone and metal and, in addition, electricity. He was left wondering who the hell she’d been trying to keep out when Alexis had had it installed. He knew it was more than likely him, and then smiled when he remembered why she’d been trying to keep him out. He’d tried once before to get in, before the fencing had been put into place, and that hadn’t gone well. All that had gotten him was a workman trying to shoot him. The ignorant ass had had a small peashooter on him at work, for Christ’s sake.

He’d followed the worker home after that. He’d found him outside the gates and made sure the idiot never shot at him again. Of course, that had earned him a swift and horrific punishment from the guy paying the bills, but it had been worth all the pain to taste his first human blood.

He began thinking of one of the other times he’d tasted blood. It had been his ex-wife’s, and it hadn’t been as sweet as he’d hoped it would be. Terror made the blood rich and spicy. Judith’s was hard, bitter, and a little on the sickening side. She’d been protecting her cubs, Tom had said, and that made her blood nasty. He would know, Paddy supposed. He’d been around for a long time. Frowning, he tried to remember more of what had happened at the house, but drew a blank.

Alexis must have been there when he and Tom Garrison had shown up to get Judith and Darcy. Judith had been packing a van with suitcases when the two of them had come to the house. When he’d been trying to scare his wife into cooperating with him, Alexis had come from nowhere and jumped him. Paddy hated Alexis after that. Didn’t mean he didn’t want her, but he did hate her.

Paddy knew that she’d hurt him that day. He wasn’t sure what she’d done to him, but when she’d hit him it had hurt more than anything he’d ever had happen to him. He told Tom that she’d stabbed him, but he swore that she’d only touched him. What the hell did he know anyway? The pain had been stab-like, not touch-like at all.

He’d lost control then. His wolf had sort of jumped out and taken over his body and mind before he knew it was even possible for it to happen. Things had blacked out for a time after that. When he’d come back from his wolf he was in the back of a car and it was speeding down the road. His naked body was covered in blood and his head was pounding. Tom was staring at him with mean eyes when he looked up at him, and before he could ask what had happened, the cane the man always carried was coming down across his head. He was out again before he knew it.

The next time he woke he was in a cage and still a human. While there were people all around him, none of them made any sort of move to release him. There was a guy in a lab coat, a pretty nurse he instantly wanted to fuck, and Tom.