Betrayed (Wolf Gatherings Book 6) Read online

  “Let’s go for a walk.”

  Natalie took Heather’s plate and silently went inside.

  Marcus reached for her hand. “It’s so nice out this morning before the heat of the day moves in. Come on. I’ll watch out for snakes.” He grinned at her.

  Heather took his hand and let him lead her down the steps and away from the house. They walked in silence for several minutes. Marcus didn’t falter in his steps. This wasn’t a leisurely stroll. He had a destination in mind.

  Her heart beat faster as she kept up with his longer stride. Just being next to him made her pulse beat faster. She held him tight, trying to close the distance between them.

  “It’s beautiful here.” He lifted his gaze to the sky. “I can see why you stayed.”

  “Yeah. I love it, and the Spencers are wonderful people. They took me in and treat me like their own. I could never repay them.”

  “And they don’t expect you to.” He pulled her closer, tucking her under his arm. She warmed. Marcus led her to the edge of the corral and leaned against the fence.

  “I spoke to Kenzie earlier.”

  Heather lifted her gaze to his. “Oh. How’d it go?”

  “You were right. She’s very gracious. Drake had prepared her. I’m not sure I could be as forgiving if someone treated me the way I treated her at The Gathering.”

  “Kenzie’s very sweet. I expected nothing less.” She watched his face, seeing the calm descend. Speaking to Kenzie seemed to have lifted a weight off his shoulders he’d carried a long time.

  Marcus cleared his throat. “I want you to tell me what happened to you. All of it. It’s niggling at the back of my mind.” He paused. “I get the gist of it, but you’re my mate and I don’t want this unspoken horror between us while we’re starting off together.”

  Heather swallowed. She’d relived her week of terror several times for counselors and The Head Council, and even in group sessions with the other women. They all had a story to tell. And Marcus was right. It would be weird for her not to share what happened with him. Clear the air.

  She ducked her head. “I was out jogging near my home in Oregon. It’s a small town. I told you that much. Nothing happens there. No real crime. It’s the safest place on earth. Or it was.” She shivered. It was half the reason she couldn’t go back, if she were honest. She’d never feel safe there again.

  Marcus tipped her face up. “Go on.”

  “Someone grabbed me from the road I was jogging on, threw a hood over my head, and tossed me in the trunk of a car so fast, I didn’t have time to react.” Her voice rose, and she wrung her hands together as she thought back again. It only got marginally easier with each telling. “I fought hard. I swear. But there were several of them, and I’m small. I wasn’t strong enough. It was pitch dark under the hood, and they easily wrestled me into the trunk. I tried to kick. I screamed. But no one was around to hear me. A needle jabbed my thigh, and in seconds everything went black.

  “When I woke up, I had no idea how long I’d been out or where I was. Someone was carrying my body over their shoulder. I still wore the hood. I didn’t know if it was day or night. My arms were tied behind my back, and my feet were strapped together.

  “Panic like you can’t imagine filled me. My heart raced through the fog of the drugs. I couldn’t have escaped even if I hadn’t been bound. I was weak, barely lucid.

  “Whoever carried me made no attempt to be gentle, which scared the fuck out of me. I thought I was dead for sure. I screamed inside the hood as soon as I could get my voice to work, but all I got in response was laughter.

  “The next thing I knew, the man had entered a building. I heard the door shut behind us. His footsteps made more sound on the wood floor. I could smell coffee and cigarette smoke. He took me down some stairs, slamming my body into the sides of the narrow stairwell without a care. When he reached the bottom, he flopped me on a mattress on the floor and injected me again.”

  Heather looked into Marcus’s eyes. They glistened, but he didn’t interrupt. His lips were pursed tight. He uncrossed his legs and fisted his hands at his sides. His chest rose and fell.

  Heather set her hands on his pecs. “Don’t freak. That’s about all there is to tell. I spent the next week in that basement. I don’t think the men who brought me there were around very much. They didn’t stay there. They left me alone most of the time. I had a bathroom, and they left me food and water.

  “The worst part was the injections. Scared the fuck out of me. But everything has left my system by now.” She wrapped her arms around his middle and held him.

  He seemed to need the comfort more than her. It took him several moments to unclench his fists and grasp her, but when he did, it was with tremendous force. He knocked the wind out of her, holding her so tight and burying his face in her hair. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

  She squirmed to lift her gaze again. “And I’m okay now. I had it better than most. I had enough to eat, and I was only there a week before NAR busted into the house and found me. The other women have much worse tales to tell.”

  “I don’t think I could stand that.” Rage lurked beneath the surface. She could see it in his eyes. “If I ever get my hands on those bastards…”

  “Well, you probably won’t, so don’t get your hopes up. I couldn’t describe them if I had to. I only had a few glimpses. They didn’t let me see them.”

  He met her gaze, his eyes hard. “I will find them.”

  “Marcus…” She didn’t know how to finish her thought. The last thing she wanted was for him to go on a rampage traipsing around the country looking for two assholes so he could extract revenge.

  He tucked her under his chin and held her against his chest again. “Don’t think about it now.”

  “Okay.” As if that were possible. Sure. Now she had to worry about him going behind the scenes of the enemy and hunting down the assholes who’d kidnapped her.

  They stood there for a long time, listening to the horses in the barn and the birds chirping in the trees. Finally Marcus pulled back. “Come on.” He took her hand again and led her away with purpose.

  “Where’re we going?”

  “You’ll see.”

  He aimed for the row of cabins on the other side of the corral. She’d stayed in one of the ten cabins when she’d first arrived. Normally they were used for families on dream vacations. The Spencers ran a dude ranch. And one week a month they catered to children with disabilities.

  But not for the last few weeks. They’d donated their ranch to help the women and hadn’t reopened for regular customers yet. And they wouldn’t until they were sure it was safe. It hadn’t been long since a massive battle of wolf shifters had been fought right in the middle of the clearing. Humans would have had a heart attack to have seen that. Hell, even regular shifters had a few years shaved off their lives when they saw the size of those enhanced wolves.

  Marcus stopped in front of the first cabin and turned to her. He held up a key with a huge grin.

  A slow smile spread across Heather’s face. “Ah. Splendid idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Can’t take the credit, actually. Jerome handed me the key this morning with a smirk. We’re taking up residence here as of now. Unless it makes you nervous not being in the main house.”

  She shook her head and pulled up on her tiptoes to kiss his lips. “Not now that you’re with me.”

  “This way no one will hear you when I make you scream my name, except maybe the horses. The barn is closer than the main house. But I spoke with them each earlier, and they promised to keep our secrets.” He waggled his eyebrows and turned toward the cabin, pulling her along.

  “You spoke with the horses?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Just checking. That’s what I thought you said.”

  “You heard me.”

  She giggled. “And what makes you think you can make me scream your name?”

  Marcus opened the cabin door as she spoke. He turned toward
her, grabbed her around the waist, and threw her over his shoulder. “Challenge accepted.”

  Heather squealed and then laughed. “You’re on.”

  “Baby, you don’t know who you’re messing with. By the end of the day, I’ll have you begging for mercy.”

  “Really?” She held on to his shirt as he entered the cabin, kicked the door shut, and strode straight to the small bedroom. Plastic shopping bags littered the floor. Ah, so he’d stopped here and dropped off his purchases before finding her.

  He tossed her into the center of the bed and raised an eyebrow.

  She stared up at him, unable to breath. Goose bumps rose on her skin as his gaze narrowed with lust.

  Heather reached for the hem of her shirt and lifted it over her head. She unbuttoned her shorts, slowly lowered the zipper, and then lifted her hips provocatively to wiggle them over her thighs. “Are you just going to stand there?”

  Marcus hadn’t moved. In fact, he leaned against the dresser, watching her. His face had lost the mirth of a minute ago. His gaze strayed up and down her body, now clad in only her matching bra and panty set. “Enjoying the show. Keep going.”

  Heather inhaled long and slow as her body betrayed her, her pussy tightening at his tone of voice. She bit her lower lip and squirmed out of her panties and then popped off her bra. She piled everything on the end of the bed.

  Marcus stared at her until she shivered. “God, you’re sexy.” He righted himself from the dresser and sauntered toward her. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

  “I could say the same thing.”

  “It’s only been a little over a year since I attempted to mate not one but two unwilling women in one evening against their will. I was an ass. I deserved a longer celibacy sentence.”

  Heather inhaled sharply. “That wasn’t your fault.”

  He shook his head. “I know that, intellectually, but it doesn’t change what I did. It doesn’t change how I made those women feel. And it doesn’t change the guilt I have for the way I treated them.”

  “It’s only been one month since I was abducted and held against my will for an entire week. I understand your guilt. Do you think I don’t question my part in that every single day?”

  “What part did you have in it? There’s nothing you could have done.”

  “Really? What if I’d fought harder? Chosen a different route that day to run? Maybe I didn’t scream loud enough. Maybe I was dressed too provocatively.”

  Marcus leaned over the bed, grasped her shins, and pulled her closer until she fell onto her back, straddling him near the edge of the bed. “That’s ridiculous, baby. You couldn’t control any of those things.”

  “Yeah? And your guilt isn’t just as ridiculous after a man you should have been able to trust drugged you with enough stupid sex serum to make you irrational?”

  He stared down at the V of her legs, his fingers inching up her thighs toward her center. Finally he lifted his gaze and spoke again. “So we’re both in the same boat. Maybe we can work through these issues together?”

  “I’d like nothing more. Now, take off some clothes so I don’t start feeling self-conscious.”

  He gave her a small smile as he released her to kick off his shoes and tug off the rest of his clothes to drop them haphazardly on the floor.

  Her skin prickled with goose bumps. It was warm in the cabin. She could hear the whir of the air conditioner, so he must have come earlier and turned it on, but it hadn’t cooled down enough to chill her skin. The goose bumps were from nerves.

  Chapter Seven

  His dick nearly ached from wanting her. It bobbed against him, pulsing prematurely.

  Heather scooted back across the bed as he approached and crawled up next to her. When he reached her side, her face dipped as she gazed at the length of his body. “Lie back,” she insisted. “I need some time to explore. I’ve barely seen you naked.”

  Marcus flopped onto his back, his cock stiffening further at the way she took him in with her gaze.

  She leaned over him, shocking him, her eyes glued to his length, her mouth open. Without pausing, she reached with one hand and delicately stroked a finger up the top of his cock until it flicked over the head.

  So much for exploring. That act was zero to sixty in less than a second. He’d never last through her perusal.

  Marcus cupped her breast with one hand, letting his thumb flick over her nipple, hoping to distract her enough to slow down her process and possibly save him some embarrassment. He gritted his teeth against the need to come. She deserved this concession. However, if anyone could make him come with her gaze alone, it would be Heather.

  Marcus continued to graze his fingers over her breast while she wrapped her hand around his girth and gently pumped up and down the length. He squeezed his eyes closed to concentrate on the feel of her wrapped around him.

  When her tongue flicked the head, his eyes jerked wide. He hadn’t realized she’d leaned so far forward. He gripped her breast and pinched his lips together.

  Suddenly Heather sucked his length deep into her mouth.

  Holy mother of God.

  Her cheeks hollowed as she firmly established her authority over his cock. He would forever be putty in her hands if she was going to do this very often. And he was powerless to stop her.

  The little imp had a wicked mouth that threatened to drain his balls before he reached the back of her throat. And God how he wanted her to suck him farther.

  She moaned and took him deeper.

  Tiny noises coming from Heather vibrated against his cock, making him stiffen more. He lifted his torso to meet her thrusts. Even though he still held her nipple between his fingers, he couldn’t concentrate on anything but his growing need. He gripped the sheets with his other hand, attempting to judge the moment he would need to pull out. He didn’t want to force her to swallow him.

  In one powerful second, Heather slipped lower, her face almost touching his pelvis. She tightened her grip with her lips, and Marcus could hold back no longer. He came, deep in her throat, his cock pulsing so hard one would think he’d never had an orgasm before.

  He released her nipple and lifted his hand to thread his fingers into her hair.

  She never hesitated. Her free hand toyed with his balls, weighing them and learning their texture. When had she begun to fondle him there?

  When he finally relaxed, easing the tension from his tight ass and thighs, he groaned. He was doomed to this mate of his. His life would never be the same. Sated, he managed to pull her off his cock and settle her against his side with her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. Glorious red locks lay spread all across both of them.

  But he needed more. It wasn’t enough that he just came. Somehow the act didn’t sate him. He wanted to hear her scream, as he’d threatened on the front porch.

  With the hand wrapped around her middle, he held her tight. He lifted his knee to force her legs open, his thigh pressing against her pussy.

  Heather sucked in a breath and wiggled against him, her wetness dripping onto his leg.

  He grabbed her thigh with his free hand and pulled it higher, opening her wider. And then he reached across her ass and stroked his fingers down her crack until he could stroke through her folds.

  She moaned, squirming against him, her hands pressing against his chest in an attempt to dislodge herself from his grip.

  He held tighter to her waist. “Where do you think you’re going?” he teased.

  She inhaled sharply as he finished his question by thrusting two fingers inside her. Her hips bucked toward him this time as she gave up the fight. Or forgot to keep it up.

  “I love your little sounds, baby. But I want to hear more.”

  She groaned as her head rolled back and forth against his chest.

  Marcus smiled. He was making headway. He pulled her moisture from inside her pussy to drag it around her clit until she held her breath.

  “What’s the matt
er, baby?”

  “God, Marcus. I need you. Please…” A long breath escaped her lips against his chest.

  “You need what, exactly?”

  “I need you inside me,” she whispered. “Please.”

  He added a finger and thrust three into her fast and deep. “Like that?”

  She whimpered. “No. Please, Marcus. Let me climb on top of you.” She made a lame attempt to press against him, undoubtedly knowing full well he was way too strong for her.

  He dragged his fingers across her G-spot, his grip on her waist keeping her firmly in place.

  Short gasps from her mouth told him he’d hit the mark. Her moisture increased, and he withdrew his fingers to circle her clit again, not quite making contact with the little nub.

  Heather lifted her hips the tiny fraction available to her, trying to cause his fingers to do what she wanted.

  “You challenged me,” he reminded her. “I’m just making good on that.”

  She lifted her face enough to meet his gaze. Her eyes were wide. “I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not a screamer.”

  Marcus could feel the grin spreading wider across his face until his cheeks ached. “You did not just say that.”

  She turned a deep shade of red and pushed on his chest. “It’s true.”

  “Correction. It was true.”

  She froze.

  “And then you met me.” If they had to stay in this bed all day and all night, he would make his woman scream. He had no doubt. To emphasize his position, he thrust his fingers into her again, dragging them out faster and harder, knowing his thumb pressed against her clit with each pass.

  Her eyes drooped as she went cerebral on him. Good. She probably had no idea her fingernails dug into his pecs.

  When she gasped, he let up. He didn’t want her to come until he was sure she could do it without holding back her sound. He needed her so aroused she couldn’t keep from screaming.

  She panted as he slowed his movements and avoided her clit.

  “So wet for me, baby.” He kissed her damp forehead and then let his lips linger on her skin. “Does that feel good?” he asked against her.

  “Mmm. Why did you stop? I was so close.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.