Page 27

TWENTY-SEVEN

Reed

K ane was waiting for us at the gate, wearing a concerned expression. Fiona and Leigh went over to chat with Elodie, who’d just walked up with a small duffel over one shoulder, with her usual wide grin and plain clothes. Her butterfly sword was in a nondescript black case over her shoulder, but it was safe to assume she was still armed to the teeth with more discreet weapons. I turned my attention to Kane.

“Everything okay?” Gael asked, apparently clocking the same thing I did.

“I still haven’t gotten word back from Lucien. The IGC secretary says he hasn’t been in to sit in his council seat for more than a week.”

“That’s not good. Do you have anyone else locally who can track him down? He’s been known to disappear to Fiji with a hot blonde and too many bottles on occasion.”

Kane looked at me derisively. “You know as well as I do that he never lets his extracurricular activities get in the way of duty. No, if he’s gone, something’s happened to him.”

Gael chimed in, “The locals are all tied up dealing with the castle fire and Petró’s goons harassing the pack at every turn. We might have to call someone in from Alaska.”

Kane nodded slowly. “I hate to take Julius. He’s protecting Blackwater while the three of us are gone.”

“Samuel could do it. He speaks the language, and he’s discreet,” I suggested. The pack’s fifth was our only remaining option, and he was capable.

“I’ll call him in,” Kane said, slapping first me, then Gael on the shoulder. “Thank you both. It grates on me not to be able to do this myself, but I can’t expose Brielle, not yet.”

“This is what pack’s for, Alpha.” Gael bowed formally, and I followed suit.

After that, it was time to go.

* * *

The trip to the airport was uneventful, Gael driving so I could ride in the back seat with my arm around Fiona. She was all excitement, gabbing with Elodie, who was practically bouncing with her glee at getting to leave the enclave.

I couldn’t blame her, because the heavy stone walls had been starting to close in on me too, and I didn’t live there full-time.

My jet was waiting on the tarmac, freshly shined and with the staff waiting at attention as we stepped out of the SUV a few feet from the stairs.

“Holy crap, your pack really has a jet.” Fiona stared wide-eyed at the waiting crew, from just inside the door to the SUV, as if clutching the door would keep her upright.

Leigh snorted. “Yeah, the pack has a jet. But not this one—this is Reed’s.”

Fiona blinked over at me, the question plain in her expression.

“This is my European jet. Slightly smaller, best for intercountry trips and smaller regional airports. I have a full-sized jet for crossing the pond. I do a lot of business internationally, so it’s necessary.”

“Crossing the pond.” She mouthed the words as if they were foreign. “We’re not in the same stratosphere, are we?”

I hooked my arm around her waist, leading her away from the SUV. “As my mate, all this is half yours. So actually, we’re in the exact same stratosphere.”

She stopped, a look of panic crossing her features briefly before she got it back under control. “This is fine. This isn’t overwhelming at all.”

“This is fucking cool ,” Elodie said, interrupting the potentially tense moment with her infectious enthusiasm. She was the first one up the stairs, waving at the flight crew on the way by and narrowly missing smacking the copilot with her padded sword case.

“Reed.” My assistant, Quinn, was waiting at the front of the receiving line. One perfectly shaped eyebrow was arched at my pack mates, but she was too professional to comment on the fact that none of them were members of Monstru Fine Dining International, and this was clearly not a business trip.

“Quinn, this is my girlfriend, Fiona.”

“Ma’am.” She nodded respectfully but kept her obvious surprise to herself. I wasn’t a man who claimed women. Fucked? Yes. But gave titles to or saw for more than a few months? Never.

Until Fiona.

Luckily, Fiona was too awed by the jet and staff to pay attention to the moniker, which we hadn’t discussed yet.

“Your onboard closet has been stocked. There are two hanging bags and a rolling suitcase.”

“Excellent, Quinn. Thank you.”

“Do you need me to come along? I’ve cleared your schedule as you asked, so I’m free.”

“No, this is personal business. Please go back to New York for the opening and give my regrets to the head chef. A case of champagne should ease the sting.”

“Of course, sir.”

Quinn was a top-notch assistant, and I had no doubt that a case of France’s finest champagne would be delivered to my head chef tomorrow like clockwork. I worked only with the best.

It was necessary when you were a shifter who had to step away from the business periodically to deal with pack matters. My organization was fully human; they saw me as an enigmatic billionaire and nothing more.

I liked it that way.

We boarded the jet, and I settled into the aisle seat next to Fiona. Leigh took the couch along the opposite wall, lying down with her feet in Gael’s lap, while Elodie sat across from us. Fiona’s eyes were wide as she took it all in, demurely ordering a soda from the flight attendant, Sheila.

After takeoff, everyone had settled in, reading or napping. I was answering work emails from my phone, when all of a sudden, Fiona’s scent changed. Arousal .

I was instantly sporting a half erection, which was damnably inconvenient on a small plane with my pack mates mere feet away from us. Granted, none of them were paying attention. Leigh was lightly snoring.

I closed my phone, sneaking a sideways glance at Fiona. She was reading something, and I called on my wolf to sharpen my eyesight enough that I could catch it over her shoulder.

He thrust in to the hilt with one smooth stroke, pressing my legs back so that my knees almost touched my shoulders.

Damn.

She was reading that wolf smut book she’d read to me earlier while I was shifted.

As a wolf, I’d been enjoying the sound of her voice, not caring about the story or the juicy bits, as she called them. But as a man, knowing from her scent what that scene was doing to her?

Fuck, it was hot.

I didn’t let myself overthink it. I just grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her seat without a word.

She followed me to the back of the plane, past the small washroom and into the bedroom. It wasn’t large, but it was luxurious, with plush linens and sleek fixtures. It was also quiet, the soundproofing in the wall that separated it from the rest of the jet very effective.

I pushed her back onto the bed, tangling my hands into her hair as I kissed her, plundering her lips like the treasure they were.

She arched into my hold, gasping when she felt my steel-hard erection. I used the opening, plunging in to taste her more deeply.

Fiona hummed happily and wound her fingers around my neck, but then seemed to catch herself, pushing me back an inch, even as her chest heaved with the effort.

“Reed! We can’t do this back here while everyone else is just… out there, knowing what we’re doing .”

I grinned at her shyness, then used her hair as leverage to tilt her head back, exposing her neck for my attention.

“I have a secret for you, Stormy. They don’t care what we’re doing back here. We’re adults. We can fuck if we want to.”

She moaned, hands going to my hips to hold me tightly as I bit and kissed along the column of her throat, my hands going to the hem of her shirt. This time, she didn’t push me back as I lifted it off her. She relaxed, succumbing to my desire so beautifully, it could make a man weep if he wasn’t busy taking care of her.

I tossed the shirt on the wide counter that ran along the other side of the room, tracing her collarbone with my lips as I reached behind her to unclasp her bra. It sprang free, and I laid her back, pressing her into the soft mattress with one knee against her core.

Moving more slowly, I eased the cups away from her breasts, inch by inch revealing the beautiful, soft flesh. When she was fully free, I stopped, leaned back to better take her in, bare to me fully for the first time.

“You’re going to make a girl self-conscious, staring like that,” she whispered, and I could see the uncertainty in her eyes, though she had nothing to be self-conscious about.

“Absolutely not,” I murmured, cupping her with both hands, the perfect handful, and a bit more. “You’re lush and so soft,” I growled low in my throat, as the need to claim her, mark her rose up suddenly.

Damn, my wolf was pushy. I stayed there for a moment, concentrating on pushing him down so I was fully in control again. And then I leaned down, taking her nipple into my mouth. I worshipped one side, then the other, moving back and forth until her hips were pulsing beneath me, grinding that sweet little pussy against my thigh, desperate mewls coming from her lips as she sought more pressure, more sensation.

“What a good girl, Stormy. Do you want me to taste this pussy next?” I trailed my fingers down her jeans to trace the seam where it sat over her core.

“Oh, God, yes.”

I grinned like a wolf alone in the sheep’s pasture as I slowly freed her legs from their denim confinement, taking her panties with them in one smooth motion.

Every part of her was smooth, shapely curves. I hadn’t let myself spend much time enjoying her shape before now. It was important to me to be a gentleman, to take things slow so she knew I valued her as a person as much as I valued her beautiful body.

But now, I was a beast unchained, free to admire her softness, her perfection. I cupped her calves, spreading her legs wide, baring her glistening pussy for my perusal.

She was wet, swollen perfection, perfectly rosy and needy for my tongue, my fingers. I ran my hands up her inner thighs, holding her wide as I swept in.

With the first press of my lips to pussy, she cried out, grinding up against my face with her urgency. I licked and sucked, feasting on her like I was a man starved, until she was rocking against me, fingers tangled in my hair as she begged for more. Her scent was stronger at her core, drenching the room with water lilies and amber, sweet apricots blooming in spring. I wanted to bathe in it so everyone knew she was mine and I was hers.

“Please, please, please, Reed, I need more, I need—” Her words cut off on a keening cry as I thrust in two fingers, curving them upward as I moved, sucking her clit between my teeth. Lightly, I held it as I teased with my tongue.

When she came, it was the most magnificent thing I’d ever seen, ever felt. She arched beneath me, squeezing my shoulders with her legs as she moaned low and long, her body dissolving into satisfied shudders as I kept working her, wanting to wring every ounce of pleasure out of her before I took my own.

She was clamping rhythmically around my fingers, arching against me as I worked toward drawing a second release from her, when her skin started to blush blue. I didn’t stop, unconcerned if she let out her wilder side.

But a moment later, when the plane lurched roughly, she froze, looking up at me with panicked amber eyes instead of pleasured bicolored ones.

“Reed? What’s happening?” Her breaths were still coming rapidly, her chest heaving with the blue flush.

The plane jolted again, and the pilot’s voice came over the sound system.

“We seem to have hit a freak storm. Fasten your seat belts, and if it doesn’t ease up, we’ll find a place to set down.”

That was the pilot, Rich, always concise, even in a potential crisis.

“Oh my God, Reed, I think it’s me.” I eased back from Fiona, whose panic had turned her sweet, abundant scent sour. She fanned her face, as if cooling off would make it stop. “I’m going to make us crash! Oh my God. I don’t know how to pull it back in. I can’t calm down. Fucking shit!”

“Fiona!” I put a little bit of alpha bark on her name, and she finally looked up, meeting my eyes. “You’re not going to crash this plane. Rich is a world-class pilot, and we’re going to be perfectly fine. But panicking about calling a storm isn’t going to make it any easier to control your powers. Deep breaths. Hold my hands,” I ordered, kneeling in front of her on the bed. She rose up on her knees, pressing her palms to mine and lacing our fingers together like she’d been doing it her whole life.

I took a slow, deep breath, and she mirrored it, eyes pinned to mine as if I was the only thing keeping her grounded.

“That’s it, Stormy girl. You’re in charge. Now concentrate and calmly pull the power back into yourself. We don’t need a hurricane today.”