Page 68 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

“Yes, jeez!” he said, dramatically rubbing the red mark that appeared on his stinging flesh.

“All right, all right. I’ve been overruled.

Take care of Carson’s body, can’t have it just lying there forever.

Take it up to the burial grounds. He may have been a power-hungry wretch, but he was still a werewolf.

Then you are dismissed. Spread Luca’s decrees. See you all at the next full moon.”

A few wolves started to move toward Carson’s body.

“You really have to take this seriously. It’s a big responsibility and…”

Kyle put a finger to Hayley’s lips. “I know, honey, I know. I am,” he assured her.

“There’s one of yours over there by the rock cliff,” Gabriel told Kyle.

“And another down by the water,” Nick added with an ashamed grimace.

“You four, with me,” he called to Adam, Kip and two others.

“I’ll be right back,” Kyle said to Hayley.

He placed a hand over hers, resting on her stomach, and kissed her on the hair.

“The rest of you, go home to your families. Nurse your wounds and kiss your loved ones. This fight is over.” The remaining wolves nodded their compliance and dispersed.

Kyle turned away from his wife, took a deep breath, and walked toward the fallen werewolves. He sighed deeply, not wanting to know who had lost their lives in this fight. However, it was his responsibility now. Luca had trusted him with it; he was not going to let anyone down.

Jules stepped out of her bedroom once the back door opened. Luca, soaked and sandy, came walking in from the beach. “Is the pack settled?”

“As settled as we can get them in one day. Kyle’s first full moon gathering is going to be…” He paused, thinking while he pulled off dirty converse. “Interesting.”

“Are you okay? Leaving the pack in his hands?” Jules approached Luca, wrapping her arms around his torso.

“I had the birthright to a pack’s rule once. This one was never mine.” Luca brushed her hair behind her ear. “Besides, he’ll be fine.” He rested his hands on the sides of her still healing neck. “He has Hayley.”

“True.” Without indication Luca slid his hands under Jules’s backside, lifting her up to his level.

Jules let out a little shriek and then chuckled.

“Everyone gone home?” Luca asked.

“Well…”

“Except me. Everyone has gone home, except me,” Nick said walking from where he’d made himself comfortable in the living room, to the kitchen where they’d stashed a resupply of blood sent by Nick’s bar owner friend Cleo.

“Yeah,” Jules began looking back at Luca. “About that…”

Luca laughed. “He’s your brother. I’ll get used to him.”

Jules could hear Nick heating up yet another mug of blood in her microwave. Luca bent his neck enough to touch his lips to Jules’s neck, right under her ear.

“You have a blood problem,” she said as Nick reappeared. Luca laughed into her skin.

“Yes, I have a blood problem. And a sex problem. And commitment issues…”

“Well,” Jules was responding to her brother but looking deep into the eyes of the werewolf who held her.

“I think I’m about to have a sex problem.

” Luca growled and pulled her closer to him.

Rotating her head sideways as he kissed down her neck to the top of her breasts.

“So you should probably take your blood to-go for the moment.”

“Oh hell no.” With less than a moment’s hesitation Nick was gone, out the front door and probably three streets over.

Together, Jules and Luca laughed while he carried her back into the bedroom.

The French doors were open, the sound of rain and waves crashing into the room rhythmically.

Luca set Jules down slowly. Pulling off his socks and jeans, kicking them aside, he dropped to his knees in front of her.

Peeling his wet shirt off, it joined the rest of his clothes.

Luca reached out, pulling her towards him by cupping the back of her thighs.

He kissed her on her stomach over her shirt and then lifted the fabric so his lips could touch her skin.

She pulled it off, revealing yet another of her lacey bras and multiple healing stab wounds.

Her hands found his hair, tugging on it slightly, she pulled his gaze up to her.

His chin nestled between her breasts. “Hi.” She smiled down at him.

“Hi.” He smiled back and then pulled his gaze away.

“Tell me if anything hurts,” he said as he slid the loose sweatpants and panties down her body, tossing them aside.

“Or if you aren’t comfortable with something.

” His fingers trailed up the back of her thighs and over her ass, while she pulled her bra over her head.

Moving back a little, she leaned down and placed her lips on his.

“I will,” she whispered into his opening mouth.

Their tongues wound together while his fingers glided between her legs from the back, to caress her center.

She moaned. He growled. Already wet and aching for him she deepened the kiss, craving every connection with him she could get.

Luca backed out of the kiss, pulled Jules’s body toward him, and sucked a hard nipple into his mouth.

Jules moaned at the sensation, leaning heavily into him.

Head dropping back. Trembling legs barely kept her standing as he slid one finger inside her, while another continued to massage her just where she craved.

When a second finger joined the first inside, her body erupted into orgasm. Trembling, her knees buckled.

Catching her with his other arm he smiled a gratified grin. “You good, Baby?” he asked her as he lifted her off her feet and onto the bed.

She mumbled an incoherent response as she felt all contact evaporate.

Moments later he was back, hovering over her, fully nude and ready.

Opening her legs, she beckoned him up the bed.

Instead of verbal consent she reached down and placed his large shaft at her entrance herself.

He groaned as she slid him inside. Stroke by stroke he went deeper.

There was no thought of the past. No thought of pain.

Or feelings of lacking control. With Luca she knew he didn’t want power, he didn’t need to dominate her to find release.

He wanted pleasure with her. He wanted to be one with her desires and needs.

And she found she wanted the same for him. They fit in a way no other had.

One of Luca’s hands glided up her body, pinched her nipple, and then found her hand. Intertwining their fingers above her head. Her other reached up to push against her headboard so she could meet him in every thrust.

Together they found release. Together they panted, boneless, and satiated.

Luca dropped down on the bed next to Jules.

She turned on her side, watching the waves from the open doors.

Unwilling to let her go just yet he reached forward, pulling her hips back into him.

Arms wrapped tightly around her, he moaned contently in her ear.

Her fingers intertwined his as she tucked his arm close to her heart.

After a few quiet moments she spoke. Softly, tentatively, she said, “Nick and I were talking earlier, and we started reminiscing about England. Would you consider…”

“You want to leave Aboit?” He cut her off, propping himself up on his elbow to gaze down at her.

“Not right this second, and only if you’d want to,” she told him, twisting to look at him. The look in her eyes told him she wanted to go, but, that she’d be willing to compromise if he wanted to stay.

“But we’re safe now. There’s no threat. Why leave?”

She reached up and brushed his lips with her fingers. “I said only if you wanted to. And I don’t mean forever. But with everything that’s happened,” she paused and sighed, “I just feel like maybe I need a change.”

He considered this. “Kyle does have the pack now, and Hayley, and the new baby on its way. But I can’t leave until after his first full moon. Maybe two.”

“No. I know that. It’s just that Gabriel and Eileen have already decided they are leaving.

They are leaving the country for a while, because people still think he's the Phantom. Tai’s finishing up his general education classes.

So, he and Monica will be going off to some prestigious university soon.

And if I’m being honest, Nick will get restless at some point.

I don’t know how long he’ll be willing to hang around here.

” There was desperation in her tone and expression.

Silence stretched between them for a few moments as they studied each other.

Luca smiled. “With every end, there is also a beginning.” His life with the Aboit pack might be coming to a close, but his life with Jules, the love of it, was just beginning.

Luca watched Jules laying there, looking up at him with a gaze full of love. His eyes drifted to her mouth and he leaned in. She lifted her head ever so slightly to meet him in a kiss.

It was always as if time stopped. Nothing in the world mattered to him but her.

They were two bodies with one heartbeat.

Hers would never beat again, and right now his beat fast enough for them both.

Where they were didn’t matter. How they chose to fill their hours didn’t matter.

That they were completely and inescapably in love was the only thing that mattered now.