Leader of the Pack (27 page)

In seconds the kiss went from experimental and tentative to explosive passion. Celia’s tongue delved into his mouth and danced with his. Without breaking the kiss, Mack picked her up by the waist, and her legs wrapped around him. He backed them into the elevator, and they fumbled for the key to the panel. Mack had to put her down as they exited the elevator and stumbled down the hall for her room. Both of their eyes swirled amber.

Celia’s door slammed behind them, and she began tearing at Mack’s clothes. He grinned, watching as she ripped them to pieces and pushed him back toward the bed. Celia knew that he was stronger than her. He was letting her run the show to prove a point, but at that moment she didn’t care. Her clothes quickly followed his in shreds onto the floor.

Mack found himself pushed back onto her bed. The scent of her overwhelmed him. He’d never managed to get into her room before. He just hoped she’d be this enthusiastic about him when it was all said and done. Any way it turned out though, he knew he’d wait for her forever if he had to. Celia looked down at Mack’s form on her bed. She couldn’t decide what she wanted to do to him most, until she caught the look in his eyes. The first thing she wanted was to wipe that adoring gaze off his face.

Celia climbed onto the bed, and much to Mack’s delight she turned away from him, then straddled his face. She pressed her sopping sex down onto his mouth while she leaned down and took his cock into her mouth. Mack grabbed hold of Celia’s writhing hips and plunged his tongue into her. Dying for a better taste, he let his wolf slide out into his hybrid form. Celia moaned with delight as his cock grew in her mouth. She licked around its head, and then plunged back down onto it. Mack’s tongue was much longer and more maneuverable than his human tongue. He drove it deep into her pussy, lapping teasingly at the walls and the more sensitive spots, until he could just reach her cervix. Breathing her scent in his wolf form was what told him that she was about to go into heat. He growled at the temptation. The scent wasn’t strong enough for him to catch in his human form, but inside her sex and in his current state he couldn’t miss it. She would probably get her heat that night or the next morning. But really it was close enough to make pregnancy a concern and for the scent to cause his wolf to fight for more control than he should allow.

He growled hungrily. He had already purposely let his control slip. Now the intelligent half of him was arguing with the beast. She belonged to him. The fates had dictated this from the day they were born. She brought him here. She was the one who started fucking him. He could feel her hot wet mouth sliding up and down his shaft, her hand playing with his knot. She had to know what she was doing. Mack pushed Celia off of him and grabbed her by the waist before she could get away.

“What do you think you’re doing,” she squealed, as he forced her onto her hands and knees.

What does it feel like,
came the guttural response in her mind.

Celia couldn’t restrain the moan of pure bliss that escaped her mouth as he drove his huge member into her wet heat. He filled her completely and then forced the knot inside as well. She was panting with the effort of trying to pull away from him. At the same time, her wolf was screaming at her to just hold still. She cried out breathlessly as he managed to completely take her onto himself. They both stood still on their knees, on her bed, minds blank and just feeling the ecstasy of being joined together.

Mack’s voice was almost angry in her mind.
Tell me to stop now and I’ll leave.
He didn’t want to end up accused of raping her in the morning.

Celia whimpered. “Can’t you just do it and we’ll argue about it tomorrow?” She bent her elbows and buried her face in the bed, trying desperately to contain her own wolf.
Gods that feels good!

Mack smiled as he picked up on her thought. Her bending down only gave him a better angle and he pushed himself deeper, the head of his cock buried against her cervix. She moaned and pushed back against him.
Tell me you want this,
he thought at her, fighting his wolf desperately to keep from fucking her brains out without the approval. His human half wanted something more. Celia had been stomping on his pride too long. He thrust against her once.
Say it,
he demanded.

Celia moaned into the pillow.
Alright, Mack please fuck me. I want you to fuck me.
As she finished the thought, he felt her shift in his hands.

He watched fur grow along her back and sides. His claws dug into her hips, and he began fucking her with quick hard thrusts that made her growl with delight. He could hear her begging for more in his mind, and it was driving him crazy. When he began to swell inside her he stopped, and pulled out, suddenly realizing how dangerous a position they were actually in.
Elders won’t be happy with this
, he thought at her in warning. Not that he wouldn’t do it if she let him. He didn’t care what the elders had to say on that account. He just figured that he’d give her a last chance to get out of it. Then she wouldn’t be able to accuse him of trapping her.

It was the stopping that did it. Celia was too close to being in heat and too far gone with their rutting to allow for a lull at this point. She turned on him, forcing him onto his back. She sat down on him, growling her delight as his swelling member filled her again. She began humping him wildly, and he watched as her breasts bounced beautifully before him. He reached up and squeezed them savagely, causing her to moan some more. He pinched and twisted her nipples, then pulled her down to him so he could suck on one while she fucked him.

When she started to come he stared into her eyes. He thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He was mesmerized by the exquisite look of tortured bliss on her face. Mack forced a couple quick thrusts up into her while she writhed above him, and he joined her over the edge.

Cullen,
Celia’s mind moaned sadly as she realized that this was truly the end of her ambitions to alpha bitch. Even if he didn’t mate with Aislinn, Celia had just given herself to Mack.

When Cullen’s name drifted into his mind from Celia’s, Mack went into a rage and nearly threw Celia through the wall. He pushed her off of him so forcefully that both of them felt the pain of his swollen member being ripped from her body. Mack’s wolf howled in misery and retreated back into him, leaving the human standing staring glassy eyed and pissed at Celia on the floor.

“Galla,” he swore at her. “I can’t wait to see the look on your face when he mates with Aislinn. He doesn’t want you. He never did,” Mack spat at her. “I don’t know if I do now.” Of all the things she had ever done to him, this was the worst.

She shook her head at him,
You don’t understand.

Mack didn’t want to hear it. He turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Celia had never seen that look in his eyes before. She hadn’t meant it.
Gods what did I just do?

The pain they were feeling doubled as a partial bond took hold. They didn’t complete the mating, but there was just enough done for them to know how much misery the other felt.

* * * *

Brinah had a new respect for Cullen. The pain on his face when Aislinn slammed the door was evident. “Alright,” she called, but Aislinn was gone. Brinah decided that if Cullen was willing to send Aislinn home, then she would give them what she could. Brinah also had to admit that to some extent he was correct. If what Brinah wanted was her family to be whole again, then she would have to have Rafe dealt with. There was no way she could explain to her daughter, after having hid it this long, what was going on, and that they would have to move and change their names and hide. Brinah really didn’t have a choice. “The first thing you have to understand is that Rafe has two things going on. He’s a druid and an alchemist. The druid half gives him some ability to move in dreams, influence thoughts. It’s kind of like a hypnotist. The alchemist half gives him the knowledge to work with herbs and elements to make compounds that can aide his abilities, make people more pliable and willing to let him influence them.”

Cullen picked up the bag of herbs he had on his desk that had been added to the bonfires at the mating ceremony. He couldn’t believe that it had only been a few nights ago. He handed the bag to Brinah, and she poured the contents out on the table. She looked through the contents. “Okay, I’ll give you a list of what I will need. This doesn’t look too complex.”

Cullen looked over at Keith. His friends had remained silent throughout the meeting. When he met his friend’s eyes, he could see the sympathy there, and it made him angry. He didn’t want to be pitied. He was doing what was best for Aislinn. “Get Brinah what she needs,” he said flatly. Keith nodded and took down the list of things that she wanted and the quantities.

Brinah sat thinking. “That will allow me to make a compound that will counteract the one he’s using. But that won’t stop him. It will only make it harder for him.” She thought some more. Cullen could see her mind working over what she had been told earlier. “If he’s making weres, then he has to have recreated something ancient. When I was still with the Circle, that kind of alchemy wasn’t practiced any longer. I know that in ancient times, when Rome threatened the Celts, the Circle created a compound that when mixed with animal blood and ingested over a period of time would give the person who drank it the characteristics of the animal that the blood came from. It was a lengthy and painful process. When it was completed, the person was able to change into that animal. Hence all of you. It was done by a small group within our number that thought we should fight back. Seeing as we weren’t fighters, and Rome was so powerful, they theorized that the only way for us to protect ourselves was to have guardians that were stronger than the Roman legions.”

Sarah shook her head. “I always thought that was a story told to us when we were children to make us more sympathetic to the druids. I thought that the druids started that story because they wanted to guilt us into protecting them. Make it seem like we should show them respect and loyalty.”

Brinah smiled. “In the end, all creatures with a brain assert themselves. We watched the lycans grow and move on to create their own identity, and we were pleased to see it. Humans who didn’t understand us or what we had done turned it all into stories about druids being shape shifters, able to speak to animals, and things like that. Everyone creates their own legends to make what they don’t understand make sense. I’m sure that even
our
stories about that time have become tainted over the years. Believe what you like about your origins. The truth about history isn’t what the current dilemma is about. Right now, if Rafe is using ancient alchemy to create weres, there is nothing I can give you to stop that. Once it’s done then it’s done. I can only tell you that it is possible.”

Cullen nodded. “If it takes a long period of time to do, are there stages? Does it just stop if you stop drinking the compound?” He was trying to ask the questions without bringing up Aislinn. She had obviously not told her grandmother about what Rafe had done to her. So he didn’t want to make things worse between himself and Aislinn by saying something she didn’t want said. He had a hope that Aislinn would understand and not leave hating him. The thought of her leaving ripped through him and he lost track of the conversation momentarily. Brinah’s answer snapped him back into the moment.

“I don’t know for certain,” she said. “It was taught as history when I was a child. The details of the compound and how it worked weren’t included in the lesson. There were some, like Rafe, who tried to find the old compounds and spent a great deal of time researching our past. I was never one of them.”

“You talk like you knew him,” Cullen replied in a despondent tone.

“A long time ago. He wasn’t a very friendly child. I was on my way out of the Circle at that time. He was still very young. He just had… cruel tendencies. There wasn’t a member of our group who didn’t know about that child.”

Cullen nodded. “So then what about the stones. Apparently he wants them for some reason.”

Brinah didn’t really want to explain that one, but she had come this far. “The stones aren’t what he wants. The stones are just a marker. He could find what he wants in any number of places. The stones are just an indication that he definitely found the right spot. We used the stones to demark the location of an intersection of ley lines. It’s a point of power. If you know how to use the power, it can be a very dangerous place.” Brinah took a breath. “It’s a place for holding rituals. The site could be used to make compounds stronger, if that’s what he’s doing. It’s hard to say what kinds of things he might be up to if he’s determined to take possession of that location. You’d be better off dealing with him in a different place.”

“Is there anything else significant that you might be able to add to this?” Cullen wanted to be done with the meeting.

“I’ll keep thinking. But from the sounds of things, he has you outnumbered, with stronger fighters, and he’s using alchemy to undermine your ability to fight him. It doesn’t sound very promising.”

Cullen nodded. “No it doesn’t,” he said. At that moment he just didn’t care. He got up from his chair and headed out of the office, leaving all of them sitting there.

Keith and Sarah looked at each other. This wasn’t good. Sarah was the one who spoke. She was completely unable to hide the frustration in her voice. “Brinah. I totally sympathize with you wanting your granddaughter back. But it seems to me that someone who left her own family, or Circle, or whatever you had behind, to marry someone and cut yourself off from everything you knew, might understand what’s going on between them.”