As far as bloodletting went,
it was a satisfying kill. His belly was full. His cock
ached, but he’d drive it into Caris that night and…Jax
grinned as he ran back down the trail to her home.
The wild game here was
scarce.
That would be a problem.
At least her home was
surrounded by forest, that was some help. Life abounded in
the mountains in the distance, so vibrant and rich he could
taste it from here. Even there, he could hunt there if he
must.
His fangs had retracted into
their sheaths finally, and the bothersome ache in his jaws
had faded away. The wind blew through his hair, caressed the
skin of his face, neck and hands. There was nothing like the
feel of life that ran through the body after a feeding.
Unless it was the fucking
that followed.
He grinned.
Too bad there were so many
people in Caris’ house.
He came to a soundless stop
outside her house and cocked his head, listening. A slow
smile spread across his face. The mountain was slowly and
scathingly being torn down into small, tiny little rocks,
ground into pebbles beneath the sole of Caris’s delicate
little foot.
He padded on silent feet
around the house, following the voices. They were in the
room she called the library, filled with old…books? Yes,
books and a machine she called a computer. It was like the
nav-screen he used for reading, gaming, and entertainment
back home.
“You arrogant, old fashioned,
mother-fucking son of a bitching jealous prick! What right
do you have to tell me what I can and can’t do? And what
right do you have to question who I take to my bed?” she
snarled. She stood no taller than Dustin’s breast bone, but
she hissed angrily into his face, and hammered his wide
chest with her fist. “If I want to fuck every male I see,
wherever I see him, it doesn’t concern you, Dustin.”
Dustin, wisely, was silent.
His lips, nose and eyes were bruised and swollen.
“Damn your ass to hell and
back, Dustin. If you didn’t like it, you could have gone
outside. What in the hell were you doing up, anyway?
You’ve got a bloody suit. It’s stocked, damn it. You
could live happily in those rooms for a month and you came
roaming out in the middle of the night and got offended when
you heard me getting fucked! What were you expecting?
“This is my damn house and I
can do what I want in it!” she shouted when he made no
response.
Dustin blinked, and looked
away. His face was red, underneath the colorful bruises.
“What in the flying fuck
where you thinking? You saw what kind of shape Sage was in
yesterday. Were you trying to kill him?” she shouted when he
didn’t reply.
“He was feeling good enough
to get fucked, wasn’t he?” Dustin muttered.
She punched him.
Through the window, Jax
watched and grinned widely as her powerful little uppercut
sent Dustin’s head snapping back. She wasn’t strong enough
to knock him off his feet, but she sure as hell hurt him.
“Bastard,” she seethed. “Why don’t you get it? I don’t want
you.”
He smiled, then, a sad, odd
little smile. He glanced out the window and met Jax’s eyes.
Jax lifted one brow. He had sensed him. How odd.
“You don’t get it, Caris. I
do understand—you don’t want me, you never have and never
will. But I still want you. And I’m always going to.” He
moved away, slowly, stiffly, but not showing any sign of the
pain Jax knew he was feeling. Even through the glass and the
distance, he could smell a strong scent of internal
bleeding. Oh, he’d be all right, Jax had not done any severe
damage.
But he was in some bad pain.
“I was wrong,” Dustin said
quietly. “I knew that then. I know it now. Sage was my
friend—I may well have lost that. But nothing is going to
change what I feel, Caris.” He paused long enough to add,
“We have troubles coming. I know it. If Morgan did not need
me here, I’d get the hell out. He’s gonna find a way to see
it happen soon anyway.
“If I thought y’all might not
need me, then I’d go. But I can’t just walk away from what’s
coming, Caris. You couldn’t either.”
* * * * *
Caris was sitting in her
chair, glaring into the distance when Jax came into the
room. “Stupid fuck,” she whispered, her eyes stinging with
tears. “I’ve known him since I was a kid. He’s always been—”
“In love with you?” he
finished for her as he lifted her out of the chair and sat
down, taking her onto his lap.
She flushed red. “You beat
the hell out of him. I don’t want it worse,” she said
flatly.
“He is lucky I did not give
him worse.”
“I meant I don’t want you
adding to it. If I’d been awake and seen him fighting Sage,
I’d have probably strangled him,” she snapped, her small
hands clenching into tight fists. “Damn it, Sage could have
died yesterday. It has happened, you know, when one of us
has pushed too hard. I was a damn fool for letting what
happened last night happen—”
“Sage was well enough.
Otherwise he would not have woken up. His body wouldn’t have
let him,” Jax interrupted, stroking a hand down her back,
easing the tense muscles. He pulled the band from the end of
her braid, freeing her hair from the thick, complicated
cable and stroking it until it hung free and loose around
her shoulders. “Do not feel guilty. You had nothing to do
with why he is lying in the state he is in.”
She flushed, her pretty
golden eyes flashing with fire. “I knew Dustin was in the
house. If I had stopped to think—but damn it, I shouldn’t
have to!”
“No. You should not. And you
will not,” Jax said easily. As he spoke, he slid one hand
between her thighs and pressed.
Her eyes went wide and
rounded. “Oh,” she whispered. He shifted again, spreading
her legs and pulling them so that she was straddling him,
then he rocked his cock against her cleft.
“I’ve a need to be inside you,” he
said roughly. “I went too long without feeding and hunted an
animal. But I need sex and I need it now. I thought I could
wait until tonight, but looking at you, smelling you…” He
pushed his cock upward against her cleft and rocked,
shuddering as the scent of her arousal filled the air.
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