Page 11 of Blood Pack Beginning (Pack #5)

CHAPTER TEN

Cyrus couldn’t shake an itch. Not the kind he could scratch but the version that nagged the mind. It started a few hours ago, waking him from a nightmare. What he’d dreamed slipped elusively from memory but left him agitated and ready to fight. Probably some leftover adrenaline from the battle in the subway tunnel.

Hunting actual monsters and eliminating them had been satisfying on a level he’d not expected. Used to hiding his true self from the world, for the first time, Cyrus bad been able to unleash the beast and be a hero. An unsung hero, but he had the satisfaction of knowing he’d helped save lives, and it felt damned good.

So why the agitation coursing through him now?

He tried working it off in the training yard, exchanging punches with Amir until his friend huffed, “Jeezus fucking Christ. What’s gotten into you?”

For some reason, that question brought to mind Sasha, a woman who confused the fuck out of him, mostly because, despite knowing his buddies had the hots for her and that she was an actual goddamned vampire who drank blood and had a mouth like a trucker, he wanted her.

Wanted her so bad his balls ached.

The first woman to ever have him panting like a dog in heat, and he didn’t know what to do about it. Well, other than fuck her in the hopes of getting her out of his system.

“Earth to fucking, Cyrus. What’s up with you today?”

“I don’t know.” He rubbed at his jaw, freshly shaven during his shower. It hadn’t been the hair from his stubble that clogged the drain, though. He’d been a mess after the fight.

“Waiting to see who gets to be with Shorty first?”

Cyrus snorted. “She’s going to beat us for that nickname.”

“She can beat me anytime she likes,” Amir drawled.

“I’m not sure what’s wrong with me today,” Cyrus admitted. “Feeling a little out of sorts.”

“Full moon is coming in a few days, and it’s supposed to be a blue one. Could be what’s making you antsy.”

“Maybe. I’m going for a run. Coming with?”

Amir shook his head. “Nah. I gotta go deal with Omar. Time to let him know I’m sticking around so he can figure out his next move.”

“Good luck with that.”

“More like give me fucking patience. I know he’s gonna bitch about it, but if he’s not happy, then he can leave. To my surprise, I like it here. It’s nice feeling like I belong and being able to do something about the evil in the world.”

“Is that the only reason you want to stay?” Cyrus not so subtly poked.

“One of them. There’s also Sasha.” Amir paused before adding, “I never thought I’d be able to find a woman who could handle me. With the human chicks I’ve dated, I’ve always had to hold back lest I hurt them or scare them without meaning to.”

“I get the impression Sasha would encourage vigorousness.” It was one of the things that appealed to Cyrus, too.

“Yeah, I get that as well, and she seems keen on following the old pack law of multiple mates.”

“Mates?” Cyrus’ brows rose at the odd choice of word. “She’s not Lycan.”

“And?”

“I’ll be honest, while I’ve thought of banging her, it never occurred to me it would become anything more than sex.”

“Mated or not, she’s made it fairly clear she wouldn’t mind being with all of us.”

“As lovers,” Cyrus pointed out. “You shouldn’t assume she wants anything more.”

“Her boss is mated to a pair of Lycans.” Amir’s defensive reply.

“All the power to him. Sasha’s not Thaddeus.”

Amir’s face went stiff. “Maybe you don’t see her as potential mate material, but I do.”

“Is this your way of warning me away?”

To his surprise, his friend immediately softened. “No. If she’s determined to share with a few men, then I’d rather it be with guys I know and trust.”

“I can’t even believe we’re talking about this.” Cyrus shook his head.

“Me neither.” Amir chuckled. “Guess the potential for this to turn into something long-term has me trying to make sure I don’t fuck up.”

“Remember what auntie used to say?”

“Don’t overthink shit.” Amir chuckled. “She always had a blunt message. I’m going to miss her.”

“Me, too, bro. Me too.” With that, Cyrus clapped Amir on the shoulder and took off at a jog. He did a wide circuit around the house and both the front and rear yards. His gaze kept straying, though, fixing on the mansion with a crazy number of bedrooms. One of which held Sasha.

Sasha…

For some reason, her name pulsed inside him along with an urgency to see her. She’s suffering. He couldn’t have explained his certainty, and yet it saw him suddenly veering from his jogging route to the house. He entered and weaved the passages, only to be stumped by a keypad allowing entry to the section of the house where the vampires kept their personal quarters.

The keys had been recently wiped, the scent of a cleanser making it impossible to gauge what buttons were usually pressed. The need to get through that door to find Sasha pulsed.

He had to get inside.

Without thinking, or knowing why, he began punching in numbers, his fingers moving quickly to enter six digits.

Beep . The lock released, and he passed through, his pace quickening as he headed for her room, somehow knowing which door was hers. Once more entering a code he shouldn’t have known.

The room beyond didn’t have any light, but he didn’t require one to cross the space to the bed where a body thrashed and faintly moaned.

Sasha appeared to be in the grips of a nightmare, and the closer he got, the stronger he sensed her need for saving.

But saving from what?

There was no enemy in the room, only whatever plagued her slumbering mind. He grabbed a flailing hand and gasped as he could suddenly see, not through his eyes but someone else’s.

A carnage of bodies and blood and screams of people begging for mercy while receiving none.

As if burned, Cyrus released Sasha and closed his eyes in an attempt to shake off the disturbing vision.

Sasha moaned. “No. What have you done?” The anguish in her tone, unmistakeable.

Bracing himself for another nasty visual, Cyrus reached out again but this time avoided flesh-to-flesh contact, gripping her shoulder to give it a shake as he shouted, “Wake up!”

It worked. Sasha roused abruptly with a snarl, her hand moving lightning quick to squeeze him by the throat, her fangs coming bitingly close.

“I am not food,” he barked before she could chomp.

Her lashes fluttered, and she froze in place before murmuring, “Cyrus?”

“Yeah. Sorry I woke you, but you didn’t seem to be enjoying your dream.”

“Not a dream,” she muttered, releasing his neck. She leaned away from him and clicked on a bedside lamp, which had him blinking before he could focus on her. The usually tough Sasha appeared softer than usual in her faded pink T-shirt and tousled hair.

“Reliving something from your past?” he asked.

“Not mine,” she said with a grimace. “I partook of Morpheus’ ashes, and it came with some side effects such as remembering some of the things he’d done.”

“Doesn’t sound fun.”

“It wasn’t. Thanks for waking me. Although, gotta ask, how did you get in here? Don’t tell me the staff aren’t wiping down the keypads? They were supposed to start after Amir figured out how to crack the door codes.”

“This is going to sound crazy, but it’s like I knew the combination.” Cyrus raked his fingers through his hair, “Just like I knew you needed help. It was the weirdest thing.”

She stared at him a moment then at her arm, the one chomped in the fight, now healed.

“You ingested my blood.” A reminder he’d given the wound a lick after tearing the ghoul away, an instinctive thing when faced with an injury.

“And?”

Her lips quirked. “It would appear the ingestion of my blood created a link between us.”

“What kind of link?” he asked suspiciously.

“One that let you know I needed aid and gave you my code to enter.”

“Does this binding mean you can control me?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d have to ask Thaddeus what happened when he exchanged blood with Toni and Marc.”

“We didn’t exchange though. I was the only one to get a taste.”

“Meaning it will likely be one-sided.”

“Will the effect wear off?”

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see.” She paused before asking, “Does it bother you to know we might be forever bound?”

He opened his mouth to say yes, only to find himself replying, “No. At least, not yet. Ask me again later if it proves to be a PITA.”

“A what?”

“Pain in my ass. I’d rather not be dropping shit and running every time you have a mood swing.”

Her brow arched. “I am not that temperamental.”

“No, but you are bossy.”

“You have a problem with an assertive woman?”

“No, so long as you don’t think that makes me your personal doormat.”

“I doubt you’d let anyone walk over you,” she offered with a small laugh.

The sound stirred something in him. Something more intimate than he’d felt with her so far in their time together, and for some reason, it discomfited. “I should get going now that you’re awake and okay.”

“Must you leave right yet?”

He paused. “Did you need a hand with something?”

She hesitated before nodding. “I need a shower, since I sweated something fierce.” Her nose scrunched up. “Thing is, this morning when I rinsed off was when the first of the visions hit. If you don’t mind sticking around and making sure I don’t pass out in the shower…”

A part of him wanted to flee, the thought of her naked and wet almost too much for his poor blue balls to bear. Instead, he nodded.

“I’ll stick around and make sure you don’t drown.”

“I don’t think a vampire can drown, but I’d like to make sure I don’t break my nose if I pass out. Nothing worse than having it heal crooked and having to smack it again to straighten it.”

“Wait, you want me in the shower with you?”

“How else would you catch me if I fall?”

His mouth went dry. “Uh…”

She rose and stripped her shirt off, baring her perfect peach-sized breasts. “You should probably get undressed, too, unless you don’t mind your clothes getting soaked.”

Getting naked meant no way of hiding his erection. Fuck. But he couldn’t exactly refuse.

Didn’t want to refuse.

She glanced at him over her bare shoulder. “You coming?”

He probably would, because the sight of her had him pulsing. What kind of pheromones did she ooze to make him so fucking horny?

Cyrus followed her to the bathroom, where she leaned into the shower to turn on the taps, tempting him further with her tight ass encased only in a pair of tiny bikini briefs.

As the water warmed, she turned to him. “Do you need help?”

He shook his head as he peeled his shirt and kicked off his shoes. His hand hesitated on the waistband of his track pants. Her hands covered his, and he swayed on his feet as she knelt to yank them down and tug them off.

His cock jutted, practically waving in her face, and what did the minx do?

Licked her lips and smiled as she peered at him through her lashes. “I see someone is eager to collect the promised prize.”

“I, uh, you don’t?—”

She rose and put a finger to his lips. “Stop talking. I want this. You want this. It’s going to happen.”

He could have argued, but that would have been dumb. He did want her like he’d never wanted a woman before.

His arm snaked around her waist and drew her close as he growled, “No biting.”

“No worries, Grouchy. I won’t nibble unless you ask me to. But feel free to give me a chomp. I hear a Lycan’s bite during orgasm can make it more intense.”

He shuddered because he’d heard the same, but only if it was done with a mate. And he wasn’t ready yet to know—or admit—that Sasha might be the one.

He lifted and carried her into the shower, the press of her body an erotic delight. He set her on her feet, and she lifted her face to the warm spray and looked so tempting he couldn’t help but lean in for a kiss.

Her lips parted, and she sucked in a breath as they embraced, their lips sliding and teasing. His hands cupped her ass, the soaked fabric of her panties a barrier that didn’t last long. He tossed the scrap aside and palmed her flesh, lifting her on tiptoe to deepen the kiss.

She swayed against him, and he paused to murmur, “You okay? Is it another vision?”

“I’m fine. The only thing I’m visualizing right now is you between my legs.”

No man alive could have resisted that less-than-subtle hint.

Cyrus dropped to his knees, and Sasha lifted a leg to plant her foot on his shoulder, exposing herself to him. Even with the water of the shower sluicing, he could smell her arousal. Sweet ambrosia that he couldn’t wait to taste.

He leaned close and blew hotly against her sex and was gratified as a quiver went through her. Next, he parted her nether lips with his tongue and licked. Licked and groaned at the taste of her.

Her fingers laced through his hair as she held on, uttering soft grunts of enjoyment, her hips thrusting lightly in time with his licks. He paused his feasting of her honey to flick her clit with his tongue, teasing it and making it swell. When he grabbed it with his lips in a gentle pinch, she gasped.

“Yes, yes,” she chanted as her hips undulated, thrusting against his mouth.

He wasn’t about to stop, but he also wasn’t letting her come. Not yet. Not so soon. When he felt her drawing too close to the edge, he stopped and simply blew hotly on her, until she whimpered.

“Don’t tease.”

He would tease if he wanted to. He wanted to enjoy this moment. He nuzzled her and began licking again, savoring the unique flavor of her, until she whispered, “Fuck me.”

Not a command he could resist.

He stood and found himself distracted by her breasts. He latched onto a pert nipple and sucked, teasing the taut bud, drawing it into his mouth.

While he suckled, he slid a hand between her legs to rub against her clit. She swayed and moaned, her hands clutching at his shoulders. He slid a finger into her. She clenched it tight. He dipped another, and her hips jerked as she tried to fuck those digits.

Might have come on them, too, if he wasn’t greedy. He wanted to feel her orgasm on his cock.

His arm wrapped around her waist and lifted, partially turning her so her back rested against the shower wall. Her legs parted, and the tip of his cock found the entrance to her sex and teased it.

She wasn’t in the mood for playing though. Her thighs gripped him around his waist and cinched tight, drawing his cock into her hot and slick channel.

It felt so fucking good. She kissed him as he held her up, her ass filling his palms, her pussy gripping him tight. His hips rotated as he ground himself deeper. Stuffing her channel with his cock. Making her tighten. Which led to him pulsing and thrusting harder.

“Yes, that’s it. Keep hitting that spot,” she murmured.

He tapped her G-spot harder, the deep nudges making her sex squeeze his cock in a way that was pleasurable pain. He wanted to come so fucking bad, but he held on, held on until he felt that ripple. Until he heard the low moan and her body went rigid.

Only then did he let himself spill. Coming more intensely than he’d ever experienced. Almost blacking out as if his orgasm drained every last bit of strength from him. However, even though weak in the knees, he never lost his grip on her.

When she murmured, “Hot damn, Grouchy. I knew it would be good, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that good,” his chest swelled, even as his mind tried to tell him what it meant. Insisted that there was a reason their sex was exceptionally epic.

But he wasn’t ready for that truth yet.

So he set her on her feet, turned her into the spray, and said, “Soap up, Shorty.”

“Shorty?” She turned a glare on him. “Didn’t you learn your lesson last time?”

“Would you prefer Pint-Sized? Or Munchkin?”

Her scowl made him laugh.

He should have known she’d get him back.

She grabbed him by the balls and purred, “Care to repeat that?”

He kissed her and growled against her lips. “Keep holding me like that, and you’ll be a wrinkled prune before we get out of this shower.”

They both were by the time they dried off.

But Cyrus didn’t mind, because, while he might not have left any teeth marks on her flesh, there was no doubting: he’d found his mate.