“Banner, you need to calm down. You all need to calm down before something is done that can’t be taken back.” Mam tried to reason with us, but surely she could sense that was a losing battle.
Da stopped before we reached the front doors, turning and looking at her, the concern on his face unable to outweigh the pure aggression toward Luca that covered his expression.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Mam whispered. “You guys have been suffocating her. She’s probably just walking around. Cian and all the others are out there. They’ll keep her safe.”
My father made an indistinguishable sound and gave a nod, but we all knew there was no emotion behind it. He was purely working on instinct right now, his Lycan taking control just like the rest of ours.
He looked at my mother, and then at the three of us, before he said, “I have a feeling she went out tae see that motherfooker.”
This wasn’t a hunch on his or anyone's part. We all knew that’s probably where she was. She needed to go see him, and the fact that we were keeping her from the wolf was enough to have her risking her very life.
Did I think Luca would actually harm her? My wolf said no, but that didn’t mean anything. The state he was in was too feral. He'd been like that for far too long; I didn’t think he even trusted himself.
“Darlin’, I need ye tae stay here, just in case we’re wrong and she comes back, okay?”
Mam looked like she wanted to argue, but as she stared at the four of us, it was clear she knew it would be safer and better if she stayed here.
“Maybe she’s just somewhere in the estate,” she murmured to herself as she stared at the front doors.
We knew that wasn’t the case, but if that’s what Mam needed to tell herself to stay calm, then that’s what she needed to do.
My Da cupped Mam’s cheeks, leaned in, and gave her a long, deep kiss. And then he was clearly forcing himself to pull back. “We’ll bring her back home safe, my darlin’.”
Before any of us could tear out of there, three hard pounds came on the front door.
Da turned and opened it instantly, Cian standing on the other side, his body slightly bigger as he’d let his wolf rise up for the task at hand.
“She’s no’ on the property, and if she’s no’ in the estate, she’s somehow gotten past the sentries and over the wall.”
I sensed my mother’s worry, but she held it together, having learned after all these years it was better to keep your emotions in check and be stoic in the face of tension.
“I’ve sent Lycans over the wall tae search the woods. We’ll find her.”
My father grunted, and I watched as his body started to become bigger with his wolf rising up.
“If he so much as touches her…” Lennox was the one to speak.
“We’ll fooking tear him up,” Tavish finished.
“Tavish, Lennox, ye take Aodhan and Cathal tae the airstrip. We’re expecting crazy-arse company.” Da looked at Mam after he spoke, but his expression showed relief that she’d called in her vampire family to help. It was clear we needed the extra Otherworld power.
“Let’s go and finish this.”
This wasn’t just a battle we were going into.
It was a war.
14
Luca
To feel my mate’s lips on mine, an act she initiated, one of her own accord, had the last of my self-control fucking leaving.
I groaned and pushed her back up against the tree, using it as leverage to keep her in place as I pressed my body completely against hers.
She made the sweetest fucking sounds, but when I pressed the hardest part of me against her belly, that soft sound turned into a shocked gasp.
With her mouth open slightly, I plunged my tongue inside, her flavor exactly as I’d envisioned it.
Sweet. Addicting. Consuming.
I couldn’t control myself before I touched her, and I sure as hell couldn’t now. I’d been waiting for this—for her—my entire life.
Over four hundred years of hoping and wishing, of envisioning and fantasizing who my mate was, where she was from, how good she’d feel when I finally had her…
I could have never conjured up a more perfect mate than Ainslee.
And I finally got to experience that now, finally knew they’d have to kill me to take me from her.
“Luca,” she murmured against my mouth, and I groaned anew at the sound of my name from her lips.
I ran my tongue over one tiny fang, the tip so sharp it instantly broke the skin. My blood rushed into her mouth, and I pushed my tongue in deeper, making her take me... needing her to.
She sucked on my tongue so fucking erotically my cock gave a mighty fucking jerk. I kept grinding myself against her, rolling my hips forward and retreating. Forward and back. I could have come from this. I’m going to come from this.