Vaewolf: Damn the Darkness: The Prophecy's Promise (Hearts of Darkness Book 3) (26 page)

“You’re bothering me.” Then her dark fae rose to challenge him. “Are you going to stand there teasing me with your sexy scent, or are you going to let me touch you so we can mutually satisfy each other’s cravings?”

“Come here,” he ordered, his tone deep and husky.

She stood her ground. If there was anything Caitlin’s fae enjoyed, it was taking control from his big bad wolf. “You have no idea how hungry I am for you.”

“Yes, I do,” Jackson said and sniffed the air. “About as hungry as I am for you.” Jackson might be wary of losing control, but the wolf could never deny his mate.

“When are we going to stop fighting this thing between us? I’m desperate for you. I’m hungry, and I need to be fulfilled. It’s your responsibility to satisfy me until Dylan returns.”

“Caitlin, fight back the darkness,
cher.”

For a split second, Caitlin surfaced and wondered if he’d back out the door and run. Then she smelled how strong his wolf’s arousal was and knew he wouldn’t deny her fae.

And now what did it matter?

The mixture of forest wood and male, pine, loam, and musk sent heat raging through her. The alpha beast in Jackson wouldn’t be denied tonight. A rumble, more like a purr than a growl, started somewhere in his chest and then moved to his throat.

~~~~

Caitlin’s fae need spurred the alpha wolf in him. She was a temptress. He watched her eyes glow with desire and pushed back the indecision grating on him. He hesitated, exhaling to prevent his wolf from taking over.

Oh yes, he wanted her—this sexy siren—his vampire mate, his bitch, his soul mate, his lover.

“It’s what we want. What Dylan expects. Do what destiny intended and give me some peace. Stop this damn pain.” She dropped her hands to her sides and sighed. “Is this about her feelings for Dylan?”

Maybe it was. He wanted to reach out and console Caitlin, but the fae stood between them. Even if Caitlin wanted him, she didn’t need him the way she needed Dylan. And if not, he’d have to learn to deal with it to keep her alive. With her emotions on the table, her pain laid at his feet, he knew how she felt even without free access to her thoughts. If they fed from each other, he’d know the truth, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for that truth.

“Jackson, let it go. She loves him. She can’t help her feelings. But I want you.”

He tried to release the tension, balling the fists at his side and unclenching his tight jaw. Think. Regain control. The wolf jumped in. His mate was unhappy. Her happiness was his responsibility. In response to his wolf, the muscles in his body physically rippled with his emotions, emotions he usually held closely checked.

“Let it go for tonight. Just feed her,” Caitlin sighed and whispered. “You and I, we’ll deal with the issues later.”

It was a miracle he could hear her above the sound of his heavy breathing in the silent room. He stalked across the threshold toward her, and paused. Caitlin moved toward him. The fae emerged and took over, hips swaying, hands running over her breasts and down her abdomen to the wedge between her thighs.

He froze then took the two steps separating them.

Jackson gave up the battle. The wolf inside him was loose, and with a feral snarl of frustration, he pulled her into his eager embrace. Cuffing her hands in his behind her back, he pressed his aching cock forcefully against the juncture between her thighs.

“Look at me,” he demanded. If he was going to lose control after she fed from him, he’d make damn certain she knew who was in charge now. If she took his blood, it weakened his resolve. Besides, how hungry could she be?

“Okay. Feed, but only enough to take the edge off.”

The artery provided more oxygen enriched blood than the jugular, so she wouldn’t need as much, wouldn’t take as long, and maybe, just maybe, he’d get through this without shifting out of control—or worse—coming in his pants like a damn fool

She leaned against him and sighed. The sound made him hard. Hell, everything about her made him hard. Since the first moment he’d seen her, he’d been lost to Caitlin. He was always ready for her, to feed her, make love to her, or just to be her friend.

With one hand still gripping her hands behind her back, he stroked her jaw with his other, trying to take it slow while Caitlin and her fae’s hunger beat at him.

The canines inside her mouth extended into thin, sharp fangs.

Jackson brushed his fingers up her neck then through her silken hair. Hair pale as moonlight, eyes light as a warm spring sky—she was his day and his night—today, tomorrow, and forever. Cupping her head, he pressed her mouth over his carotid and ordered her to feed.

“Remember, just a taste, enough to ease your hunger.”

Her cool lips brushed his skin, she licked, and murmured, “Mmm, yes,” right before she clamped down to feed. She didn’t take it slow.

She lowered her long, thick lashes, closing her eyes in ecstasy, the crimson color they turned when she fed, hidden from him.

“Open your eyes and look at me,” he said, wanting to see the turbulent desire when it overtook her. “You’re so damn beautiful.” But when she did open them, her eyes were solid black, and Jackson knew Caitlin wasn’t there.

The sexual pull started immediately. As her fingers absently played with his nipple, she suckled at his throat, and his erection rose high and tight inside his pants. The pressure on his cock and balls was as impossible to ignore as the pain of wanting her. He wished the sensation could go on forever, wanting to take it to completion, but…no he didn’t dare.

“Fuck. That feels so good.” He risked lowering his hands to grip her ass so he could grind against her and ease himself. Then his skin started tingling, the shift threatening. The change was close.

“Caitlin, enough. Anymore and I can’t guarantee what I’ll do.” When his balls rose, tightening against his body the moment she wrapped her hand around his shaft, he tried to push her away

“I don’t want a guarantee. I want you inside me,” the dark eyed temptress whispered.

~~~~

When Caitlin noticed the blood running from the wounds in Jackson’s neck, her jaw clenched, and the instinctive need to soothe him took over. After licking the puncture wounds closed, she said, “You taste like a rich dark wine, mellow and wild at the same time.”

The pin pricks healed with her saliva, instantly, faster than he would with his own natural ability.

“One taste of your blood is all she needs to bring me to the edge of orgasm.” The way she shuddered with her climax made him want to take her higher, but she came with merely the taste of his blood on her lips, and that was a huge turn on for the fae within her. “So close to completion, so close to pure satisfaction...”

“Caitlin, baby, stop.” Jackson pushed her gently away—his chest rising and falling—ragged breaths coming hard and fast. His arousal matched her own desperate need. “Anymore and this will be over before we start. Understand?”

“Yes.” Sniffing his scent one more time before retracting her fangs, she did as he asked. She licked her lips, the fae savoring his zest. “Taking blood is essential to maintaining my existence. Taking yours is always pure pleasure.”

“Damn, that was close. I almost shifted.” He cursed a few more obscenities. “Shit, I almost came.” The gruff, aroused rasp of his voice sent her pulse pounding.

“Would coming have been so bad?” She looked up and knew black eyes met his.

“Yes.” He stared at her as if she had two heads. “I want to be inside you, Caitlin—not her—when I come.”

“Then remove those clothes so I can admire you, and take me to bed.” Caitlin blinked, and she emerged, her own eyes staring back at Jackson. “It’s me, but she’s taking control, and I can’t stop her. She’s dark fae, and Simone says I’m getting too weak to fight her. I’m fading. My essence is dying within me, and tonight, I decided that isn’t going to solve our problem.”

“Dylan—”

“Is gone. I heard him say goodbye in my mind, and he sounded pretty final.”

For a second Jackson just stared at her, taking time to comprehend what she’d just admitted. His eyes narrowed, then he said, “You remove them.”

Caitlin never expected him to give in so easily.
Where to start?

“God, you’re even sexier when you’re in full alpha mode.” She removed the black leather vest and ran her hands down his bare chest to his belt buckle. Pausing she said, “You know, three years ago, I would have laughed at how your dominant behavior affects me. No man successfully pulled off alpha with my FBI-Special-Agent-in-Charge attitude—not back then.”

Not before she died.

He gripped her hands in his and kissed her senseless, instinctively understanding where her thoughts had traveled. Despite supernatural strength no mere mortal dared test, there was still a dead heart beating in her chest and nothing but immortality looming ahead. And her life mate denied her. It was daunting for her.

Jackson growled, kicked off his boots, and dropped his pants.

So much for patience. He was more than ready to satisfy her when he scooped her up like a feather and stalked to the bed.

~~~~

“How do you feel?” Jackson looked concerned.

“I’m here and feeling stronger. I guess as long as the fae gets what she wants, she’s willing to let me survive.”

Now that the dark fae had retreated, Caitlin felt a little uncomfortable with the decision to save her life this way. But if Dylan wouldn’t come forward, what choice did she have. They would find answers, she was sure, but before they did, what purpose would dying serve?

That mental break up was the coward’s way out, especially since she and Jackson had held out this long. Was this what Dylan expected? If so, he’d better have a damned good reason and be prepared to deal with the consequences. She’d be really pissed if he could have stopped this tonight and hadn’t. Because for as hard as they’d fought off their dark beasts, Dylan forced their hand.

“I folded.” Jackson winced. “If the herb ran out, and Dylan knew what the consequences for you were, the answer to the prophecy must be us.”

“It always has been,” she murmured and gave Jackson a sideways glance. “He forced the issue to prove a point. But he’s wrong. The prophecy needs the three of us. I feel it in my soul.”

“The idea of him being in pain is killing me.”

“Me too.”

He ran his fingers down her cheek. “Nothing could have kept me from you once I sensed how dangerous the needing is for you. Dying? Your essence being taken over by her is never going to happen. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something very compelling about her…and after all, she is you in a dark, irresistible, tempting way.”

In spite of finally satisfying the fae’s hunger, Jackson’s disappointment in himself felt like a thorn in Caitlin’s side. “Don’t worry. I get it. Your wolf sort of appeals to me too, and not just
her.”

“Really?”

“Okay, time for a new subject. I’m not completely comfortable with all this, yet. Do you mind?”

“No. Hell no. I understand.” Jackson got up and paced the room naked after patting her shoulder. Try as she would, she couldn’t conceal the hollow space Dylan left inside her by leaving. And Jackson felt it as much as she did. The inevitability of that vision of their future loomed darkly ahead.

He was back and avoiding her. Double damn him for hurting Jackson this way. The full scope of her anger simmered beneath the surface. No one had seen her truly angry since she’d been turned. She hoped no one would considering the strange darkness lurking behind her light.
Damn, Dylan where the hell are you?
Caitlin didn’t believe this was the end for them.

“Don’t worry,
cher
. We’ll find him, and he’ll have answers.”

Jackson knew. He always knew.

If they could just confront this problem and move on. She ran her fingers through her hair, rumpling it, wanting to scream. A vital part of her, the piece of the puzzle that completed her, was missing.

“It’s like death for you to be without a part of him. I just never comprehended factoring in the absence of a life-mate into our dilemma,” Jackson said, admitting he’d been experiencing her emotions through their link. He experienced her desperate craving for Dylan as if it was his own.

She tried to separate him from her pain, mainly because he hated himself for not being able to stop it.

“If he returned to break up with me, why can’t I sense him?”

“Dylan never exposes his strengths. His mind is more powerful than anyone imagines, and no one can sense him when he’s blocking. I don’t know why he’s avoiding us, but together we’ll track him down and get some answers.”

“No matter what the council or the pack believes, something within me is as bound to you as it is to Dylan. The connection is strong. Your very essence touches my soul.”

Even though she tried, Caitlin couldn’t hide everything from Jackson, and less when he tried to distract her from thoughts of Dylan. His awareness about the emptiness she lived with every day in Dylan’s absence was different from allowing him into her mind to experience it firsthand. It would only cause him more unhappiness and frustration, something he experienced often enough when her hunger for Dylan sliced into him. He, more than anyone, understood no one could compensate for his loss. Not that he hadn’t tried. He just couldn’t.