Dark Wolf Unbound (Heart of the Shifter #2) (11 page)

J
ace snapped awake
, bolting upright in bed. The room was pitch black, but his eyes adjusted swiftly as he rapidly assessed the situation. Abby was asleep on a chair next to the cot, and Drake was standing guard in the hallway just outside the door. He could sense the other two shifters in a room down the hall, but he couldn't find Kiernan. He sensed no other shifters at all.

The hold was secure.

Some of his tension eased, and Jace took a moment to look around. He was in a windowless, cramped room, less than six feet wide, housing only the cot, and Abby's chair. The night was silent, and quiet, no tension lurking, giving him the chance to breathe again. He was in Kiernan's lair, and it was secure at the moment.

With no pressing danger looming, Jace took a moment to study Abby, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. She was curled up in the chair, looking tiny and vulnerable. Her hair was tumbling down around her shoulders, falling across her face. He studied the wayward locks, his hand clenching against the instinct to brush the hair back from her face. He remembered the reassuring touch of her hands when Kiernan had been healing him, the way her voice had taken the edge off his agony.

Gentle.

Soft.

Kind.

Unable to resist, Jace rolled onto his side to face her. He cautiously reached across the space between them and brushed the stray lock back from her face. Her hair was soft, like silk, softer than he could remember feeling.

Her eyes flickered open. For a moment, she stared at him sleepily, as if she were still hovering between dreamland and reality. He smiled at her, and something turned over in his chest when she smiled back at him. "How are you?" she asked.

At her question, he suddenly realized that the pain that had been haunting him for so long was absent. He'd reached out with his injured arm...and it was much improved. The scars were shiny, but on their way to healing, and he could tell that the internal damage had been repaired. "Damn. I'm impressed." Then he focused on his shattered ankle. No pain. Frowning, he flexed it. To his shock, it moved easily, with only a dull ache of pain. He sat up, frowning as he moved it again, testing it in every direction. He had full mobility. "Impossible." He leapt off the cot and landed on his right leg. He braced for debilitating pain and a collapse to the floor, but his ankle held up. It trembled under the impact, but he was able to keep it straight and solid with a little focus. The faint ache was astoundingly minimal, easy to compartmentalize. Son of a bitch.
His ankle had been reconstructed. He was back.

He sank back onto the cot and bowed his head, unable to contain his sudden rush of emotion.
His ankle was healed.
He was strong enough to be the alpha who protected his pack and his mate. He could do what he'd thought he'd never be able to do again.

"Jace?" Abby's hands slid over his bare shoulders. "It didn't work?"

He caught her hand and looked up. She was sitting beside him, her face inches from his. "You did this," he said, his voice hoarse.

Wariness flickered in her eyes. "Did what?"

He slid his hands through her hair, emotions thick in his chest. "My ankle was done. I couldn't be an alpha, or even survive in a pack with a crippled leg. It was over...and now it's fine."

Her face lit up. "It's healed? Really?"

He turned toward her, swinging his legs around her so he flanked her hips. "You did it. You brought me here. You ignored my orders and dragged me to Kiernan." He tunneled his hands through her hair. "You gave me back my life, when all you should have done was hate me." He didn't understand her. He could barely grasp what she'd done for him. He'd resigned himself to his useless leg, and to have it given back to him was overwhelming, a gift he would spend a lifetime trying to be worthy of.

She encircled his wrists with her fingers. "Jace, you need to stop," she said gently. "Hating yourself for what you did allows Grigori to win. You were coerced to do something completely against your nature. If I can see that, why can't you?"

"Because I relive her murder every second of every day." He tangled his fingers in her hair, needing to ground himself in her. Even as he tried to convince her of his guilt, at the same time, he needed her to argue with him, to not let him win. "I
wanted
to kill her. My wolf thrived on the attack. I felt it inside me, a sense of victory when she died. Do you understand? I became a monster that day. It wasn't simply that I killed her. It was that I
wanted
to do it." The words were ugly, a hateful ugly truth, but he had to say them. He was ashamed of what he'd been, of that truth, but he didn't want to hide from it anymore. Abby had given him so much. She deserved to know who he really was, and what he'd become inside.

Abby sighed, and turned toward him. She slid onto his lap and wrapped her legs around his hips.

Jace stiffened, his body going hard at the intimacy of the position. He pulled his hands from her and held them up, forcing himself not to touch her. "What are you doing?"

She clasped her fingers behind his neck and tried to tug him toward her.

He resisted, his hands still in the air. "Abby. You need to get off my lap. Seriously. Right now." Desire raced through him, a deep, relentless need to slide his hands through her hair and drag her toward him. To sink his mouth onto hers and claim her. To toss her onto his cot and strip off her clothes, layer by layer, until she was all his.

She ignored him. Instead, she leaned into him and pressed her mouth to his. Her lips were soft and tentative, igniting a fierceness inside him he'd never experienced. With a low growl, he opened his mouth, taking her offering with a searing kiss of unrestrained hunger. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as fiercely as he was kissing her. The need was uncontrollable, raging through him with relentless heat. He'd burned for her since the first moment he'd seen her, fighting the battle every moment, but she shattered the last vestiges of his control.

"Kiss me, Jace," she whispered. "I want you."

Another surge of hunger, and his kisses became a frenzied, desperate claiming, far beyond his ability to control them. He needed to touch her, to kiss her, to feel her bare skin beneath his palms. His wolf craved her, and so did the man, unified in their need for the woman in his arms.

Abby was so brave, and yet, at the same time, so vulnerable. Her courage to bring him to Kiernan when Lucius was hunting them astounded him. Her ability to forgive him for the unthinkable was beyond comprehension, a gift he was clinging to desperately. She was brave, but at the same time, she was soft, offering Jace comfort and faith when he deserved none. He was so lost right now, drowning in the chaos his life had become, but she had stood by him, giving him purpose, never judging, never doubting. She saw in him the man he'd thought he was, giving him hope even when he knew he didn't deserve it.

She'd given him so much, and he felt as though he'd only taken in return. He knew he didn't deserve this moment with her. She should be punishing him, not giving him the most precious gift on earth, her faith, her trust, and her kiss. He knew this, but he couldn't make himself break away. He needed what she gave him. He knew that without Abby, he wouldn't still be alive. His soul wouldn't still be hanging together by a sliver, refusing to shatter completely.

He needed Abby in a way he'd never needed anyone or anything. He ran his hands down her spine, beneath her shirt, tracing each bone. Her body was a miracle to him, curvy, soft, and yet strong at the same time. Unrivaled elegance and beauty...and the body of a survivor.

He palmed her belly, pressing his hand against the hard ridges left behind by Lucius. Abby tensed and she stopped kissing him, though she didn't pull back. Suspended in fear, waiting for his next move.

Anger rushed through him, a fierce outrage that Lucius had taken away Abby's understanding of her beauty, stripping away self-confidence in who she was. She was wrong to fear his reaction to her scars. Resolution flooded him, and he shifted, rolling her onto her back on his cot.

The moment her shoulders hit, Jace stretched on top of her, sliding low enough to press a kiss to her stomach. Abby tensed, touching the top of his head. "Jace, you don't have do that—"

He caught her hand and kissed her fingertips. "Look at me, Abby."

She propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at him. The vulnerability on her face made his heart turn over. He pressed another kiss to her stomach, keeping his gaze pinned on her face. "When I look at you, do you know what I see?"

She shook her head once, her gaze riveted to his.

"I look into your eyes, and I see a woman who loved her sister, a woman who's so loyal to those she loves that she's willing to do whatever it takes to keep them safe, including teaming up with the bastard who killed her sister."

Her face softened. "Jace—"

He pressed another kiss to her stomach. "When I hear your voice, it's as if the angels have gifted me with a moment of perfection, a whisper of peace in a life that doesn't deserve it."

Her eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. "My voice has done so many terrible things," she whispered. "You might feel guilty for killing my sister, but I've been responsible for destroying good men and making them kill hundreds of innocents."

At her words, he finally began to understand why she could look at him and not see a murderer, because she believed she was the one truly at fault. He laughed softly, a laugh filled with the shared pain of causing harm they'd never intended. He moved up her body and kissed her, trying to pour into the kiss the words he couldn't articulate, a kiss that told her that he understood her pain, and that it would never mar the way he saw her.

He broke the kiss, searching her gaze as he pressed his hand to her stomach. "And when I kiss these scars, I see a woman who endured a hell that would have killed most people. I see courage." He kissed her. "And beauty." He kissed her again. "I see a survivor so brave that I'm humbled by the fact you look at me and see anything worthwhile."

A tear trickled down her cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry that my voice made you do something so terrible. It's not your fault. You need to understand that. It's my fault. I'm the one responsible for my sister's death. I killed her, Jace.
Me.
"

He took away her words with a kiss, using the intimacy to shield them both from the pasts that tormented them so deeply. He palmed her belly again, kneading the ridged flesh with his knuckles, as if he could break apart the scar tissue and give her a second chance at life. He deepened the kiss, pouring himself into it, wanting nothing more than to take away her pain. "Kiss me back, sweetheart. Let yourself feel how incredible I think you are."

J
ace knew
the moment Abby succumbed to the kiss. Her body softened, and her arms went around him again, holding him tight against her. With a low growl, Jace moved his hand along her ribs. He slipped his hand under her bra and cupped her breast, flicking his thumb over her nipple.

She twisted under him, a tiny gasp of pleasure escaping from her. He grinned and grasped her shirt, pulling it over her head in one deft move. The moment her shirt was off, his world seemed to stop. He was stunned by the magnificence of her body. Her breasts swelled above the cotton of her sports bra, and he loved the curve of her hip. Her belly bore the marks of her bravery, the beauty of her soul that had survived the abuse, and triumphed over the assault.

Abby put her hand on his arm. "The way you look at me is amazing," she whispered, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "I never thought anyone would look at me that way."

Jace stretched out beside her and kissed her, framing her jaw with his hand for a moment, before sliding his palm lower, along her neck. He traced the curve of her collarbone, then let his fingers drift over the cotton of her bra. He hooked his fingers beneath the elastic band, then slipped it up her arms and over her head.

The moment it was off, he palmed her breast, letting the soft flesh fill his hand as he kissed her again. Her skin was soft, almost like silk, her body blessed with all the curves of being a woman. Desire mounted inside him, and his wolf paced restlessly, needing to claim her. Jace held both in check, however, determined to make Abby understand how much he cherished every kiss, every touch, every moment with her.

Still rubbing his fingers across her nipple, Jace kissed her jaw, grazed her earlobe with his teeth, and then scraped them across her collarbone. Abby slid her fingers into his hair, her gentle touch like fire.

Jace kissed his way across her skin, honoring every dip and curve of her body, until he reached her breasts. He swept his tongue across her nipple and then blew gently. Satisfaction surged through him when she shifted restlessly. He could feel she was completely attuned to him, sensitive to his slightest touch, as he was to her.

He slid his hand over her hip and to the waistband of her jeans as he continued to weave magic with his lips on her breasts. When his fingers landed on her zipper, he felt the subtle shift of Abby's hips toward him, accepting his touch, asking for more. He was so connected to her, he could sense every move. It was as if he could feel her soul inside his body, as if every one of her emotions had become a part of him.

He'd never been so connected with another human being. It was surreal, and probably should feel threatening, but it didn't. It made him burn with life and desire, awakening parts of him that had been long dead, or maybe never even alive.

He caught her mouth in another kiss, this one more desperate than the last, as his need for her began to escape the edges of his control. He unfastened her jeans with one hand, and then palmed her stomach, lower this time, his fingers touching the edges of her underwear. Raw, carnal need ate away at him as he recalled touching her on the stairs. She'd been so responsive, completely entrusting herself into his safekeeping. Her orgasm had been a gift, proof that she'd relinquished fear about Lucius so she could focus on Jace, trusting him to alert her if danger mounted.

That was what he lived for: safeguarding those he'd vowed to protect. To have Abby surrender to him so completely when hell was breaking loose around them had awakened in him a fierce, almost savage need to protect her, to rise above the shit that Grigori had thrust him into.

He slipped his hand lower, his fingers tangling in the silken curls and then the damp folds of her body. She gasped his name, but he deepened the kiss, not allowing her space to break free of him. Her hips moved restlessly under his hand, matching the rhythm, inviting the intimacy.

"I need more," he whispered into the kiss. "I need all of you."

She nodded, her fingers going to the waistband of his jeans. Primal need poured through him and he rolled off her, shucking his jeans and tossing them aside. Abby propped herself up on her elbows, her eyes burning with emotion as he grasped her jeans and tugged them down over her hips, taking her underwear along.

He couldn't take his gaze off hers as he slid her pants over her feet. They dropped to the floor with a soft thud, and then he lowered himself on top of her, letting their skin touch inch by tantalizing inch. Her breasts brushed his bare chest. His thighs settled on hers. His cock rested on her stomach. The sensation of her body against his was electric, a whirring hum of sparks shooting through him, eliciting searing awareness in every nerve.

Abby smiled and slid her arms around his neck. "Amazing," she whispered.

"Perfection," he agreed, as he bent down to kiss her.

Her lips were soft, but her kiss was bold and courageous, stripping him of what little resistance he still had left. He was insatiably aroused by her vulnerability and courage, but her boldness undid him. With a low growl that was more wolf than man, he slid his knee between hers to part her legs. She locked her ankles around his hips, a statement of such trust that his throat actually tightened. With Abby, it didn't feel like sex. The physical attraction was undeniable, but it was so much more with her. He felt like the physical need thundering through him was driven by his soul's need to connect with hers, not just the way her body felt against his.

His cock ached with need, and his muscles were trembling with the effort of holding back, but he would not take her before she was ready. He wanted to make this more than right for her. He wanted to make it a moment that would heal all the broken fragments of her soul and wipe away all the remnants that Lucius had left behind.

He kissed her again, more deeply, summoning all the tenderness he'd had to shed when he became alpha. He reached inside, trying to find the softness that he wasn't allowed to have, while he slid his hand over her hip, tracing designs on her skin. Her fingers tightened in his hair, and he felt her body soften under his as she allowed herself to merge with him, allowing them to merge into a perfect union.

She was damp and ready for him, and he knew he couldn't wait anymore. He tightened his grip on her hair and then adjusted his hips so his cock was pressed against her entrance. He wanted to keep kissing her, but even more, he wanted to see her face, and he wanted her to see his. He needed her to ground herself in him, to know that the man she was with treasured her. He broke the kiss and pulled back, just enough to be able to make eye contact. "You need to know something," he said, as he moved his hips, pressing more tightly against her.

Her eyebrows went up. "And what's that?"

"I will always protect you. You're mine now, and that means you will never have to fight your battles alone." As he spoke, he sank inside her, connecting them the only way that mattered.

She gripped his shoulders, shifting as he drove deeper. "You don't need to say that, Jace. I want this as much as you do. It doesn't have to come with promises—"

Anger rushed through him, a deep fury that she actually believed that. "Wrong." He stilled his hips, forcing himself to stop, refusing to continue until she understood the truth. "This
does
have to come with promises. You matter. You deserve to be worshipped, not used and tossed aside." His fingers tightened in her hair, and urgency coursed through him. "Don't
ever
say that this doesn't have to come with promises. There's no other way. You need to understand that. You deserve promises, and you have them from me."

Her brow furrowed as she listened. "You mean that," she whispered, her voice soft with wonder.

"Damn right." He drove deep again, satisfaction rolling through him when she gasped. "I've been living as an alpha for years. My job has been to protect and lead, not to feel or care, but you've reached inside me and ripped apart the shields keeping me focused. You make me want to be a better man, not just a better alpha." He framed her face. "When you look at me, you see the man I want to be, the one I've been trying to be for so long. You make me feel like I have a chance. You matter, and
this
matters." He buried himself even more deeply inside her, and she gasped again, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

He grabbed her hand and set it on his chest, over his heart. "Tell me you feel this." His heart was thundering, and it felt hot, as if the wolf inside him was clawing to get out.

Her eyes widened, and she nodded. "I do." She spread her palm across his chest. "It feels like I'm touching your soul."

"You are."

Her face softened. "Thank you, Jace."

He framed her cheeks with his hands and kissed her, summoning the most tender, most passionate, most honest kiss he could summon, trying to let her see everything he was and everything he wanted to be. She wrapped her arms around him and held him to her, accepting his kiss, and offering him the same.

His throat tightened, and for a split second, he couldn't breathe. He felt as though he needed to wrap himself around her, threading his soul through hers until they were so tangled that they'd never come undone.

She gasped and arched beneath him, her hips moving in a tantalizing rhythm with his. He braced his palms by her shoulders, his muscles flexing as he thrust again and again, the heated coils within him twisting tighter and tighter until—

"Jace!" Abby gasped his name, her body tensing as the orgasm ripped through her, dragging Jace ruthlessly with her. He bucked against her, holding onto her as the orgasm claimed him, ricocheting back and forth between them until all that existed was an unending cycle of climax and completion, again and again until finally, mercifully, it released them both.

Jace sank down beside her, keeping most of his body on top of hers, just allowing his weight to settle on the cot. She snuggled against him, tucking herself into the shield of his body as they both fought to catch their breath. Perspiration was glistening on her body, giving it a magical sheen that almost did justice to the enormity of what had just happened.

What
had
just happened? He felt as though he'd fallen thousands of feet through a vortex, being spun ruthlessly around and around, until he had no equilibrium, no foundation, and no sense of where he was supposed to be. Except he knew exactly where he was supposed to be: right there, with Abby, and nowhere else.