Wild and Free by Kristen Ashley
“You got it, Hook. Just a second,” Abel said quietly. He left the door slightly ajar and disappeared.
It didn’t take long before Lilah filled it, opening it further, doing this wearing her man’s thermal.
“Daddy?”
He forced a smile, his heart heavy, his gut gnawed raw with unease, his beautiful little girl, who now had it all—finally—standing in front of him.
“Just wanted to say good night, Lilah.”
Her expression softened and she moved into him, wrapping her arms around his back and pressing her cheek to his chest.
“I’m glad,” she said softly, giving him a squeeze.
He’d curved his arms around her and he took her in, felt her solidness, her softness, her warmth, smelled the sweet scent of her hair, felt her love for him burrowing deep. He did this remembering the first time she was put in his arms. She was naked. Goo all over her barely wiped off. Arms and legs pumping. Eyes squeezed shut. Mouth open, bawling.
She had been the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and that was the most precious moment in his life.
Until she gave him more.
And more.
And more.
His arms got tighter.
As did his throat.
He coughed shortly to clear it before he said, “You sleep good.”
“I will, Daddy. You too.”
He gave her a squeeze and let her go.
She didn’t let go until she gave him a squeeze back.
He didn’t prolong it. He couldn’t. He was a tough guy, but that…that he couldn’t take.
He just gave her a smile, turned, and began to walk away.
“Daddy,” she called.
He turned back.
“Love you,” she said quietly.
A lump hit his throat, threatening to suffocate him.
“Love you more, little girl,” he replied gruffly.
She smiled and he saw the wet hit her eyes.
He tipped his head to the side, forced a return smile, turned, and walked away from his baby, hoping like all fuck that whatever was going to happen within these walls, it wouldn’t be the last time.
* * * * *
Aurora
“Oh goddess, sweet goddess,” she moaned as Yuri, behind her and under her, his cock driving deep and hard, his arms around her, the fingers of one hand toying with a nipple, the fingers of the other toying with her clit, had his face buried in her neck.
He’d just torn through and she felt her blood flow.
She also felt her climax devour her, violently bucking her against his hold as it laid her to waste.
The first time her vampire fed.
Unbelievable.
Vaguely, due to her orgasm and the numbness Yuri had explained she’d feel, she felt him lap at the skin of her neck before he pushed her gently down, cheek to the covers. He held her there with a hand between her shoulder blades, keeping her steady against the beautiful brutality of his lovemaking with his other hand clasped at her hip, as he continued to power between her legs.
The climax was receding, but Aurora kept moaning as she took him.
She loved what Yuri could give her. She loved the way he played with her. She loved his tender dominance. She loved the velvet violence she received once he was inside. She especially loved that every time he gave her something exquisite: an orgasm that was always better than the ones he’d gifted her with before.
But she also loved this, when she was done and he was not. She could come again, easily, but she tried to hold it back. (This failed when he wished for her to orgasm. Yuri tended to get what he wanted and Aurora always liked giving it to him.)
She tried to hold it back because she wanted to be all about him after he’d been all about her. She loved the sound of his grunts and groans. She loved the feel of him losing control and rearing inside her before he found his own climax. She loved the power it made her feel, knowing their play seemed as if she handed it all to him, but in these moments, she knew she held it all along.
She gloried in it.
Power over a vampire.
Power over her vampire, Yuri.
She gloried in it.
She was, of course, a witch.
So she would.
And right then, he gave it to her. Sliding the hand between her shoulder blades to the side of her waist, he clamped on and lost control, thrusting wildly, his grunts filling the room, his groan of release thrilling through her with enough power to make her whole body quiver, inside and out.
He made love to her gently as his climax descended, and she knew it had left him when his hands slid high on her hips so he could stroke her bottom with his thumbs.
Finally, he slid himself in to the root and asked gently, “All right, button?”
“Yes, sweetheart,” she replied.
“Mm,” he murmured, the purr of it making her clit twitch.
Oh yes, she gloried in her power over her vampire.
Slowly, he slid out and she bit her lip at the disappointment of losing him.
Then she felt his tongue lapping the swell of one of the cheeks of her bottom.
Another lap and she made a soft mew when she felt the dull bite of his fangs sinking through.
She tipped her bottom up, deeper into his mouth.
He growled against her skin, gripping his fingers high on the inside of her thigh before she felt his tongue again. Then with his natural speed, she was on her back with her vampire on top.
She looked to his face, which could be cold, or remote, or bland, and it was often this way when he looked at her.
So she didn’t look at his face.
She looked in his eyes, eyes that always told her what she wanted to know.
That he gloried in his witch just as much as, if not more than she gloried in him.
More power and he gave that freely.
She loved that, maybe most of all.
No. Aurora Lenox knew what she loved best.
She loved the fact that she was falling in love with a vampire.
She smoothed her hands over his shoulders, lifted up, and kissed the underside of his chin.
When she settled back down to the pillows, it wasn’t only his eyes that told her everything. It was his whole face.
“When this is done, my sweet, I wish for you to consider moving in with me.”
She blinked as her heart skipped over itself with glee.
He smiled.
He’d heard her heart.
“Really?” she asked.
He moved his hand to caress her side.
“Really,” he confirmed.
She felt her brows draw together. “Do you live in Texas?”
He shook his head. “No, I have homes in Napa, Tuscany, and Miami, as well as apartments in New York, Paris, Sydney, and Barcelona, and last, a villa on Crete. Once this is done, we’ll need some time to recuperate. You can pick where you’d like to visit first.”
She knew her eyes were big when she asked, “You have all that?”
“Yes, and before this started, I was in negotiations to purchase a residence in Japan.” He bent closer. “The garden is extraordinary.”
“I’ve always wanted to see a Japanese garden,” she breathed. “A real one, like, in Japan.”
“Then you shall,” he told her.
“I, well…” She hesitated. “I have a job. A house. I gave my boss an excuse when all this started and they gave me a leave of absence. But I—”
“You don’t understand,” Yuri interrupted.
“I…okay, then maybe you should explain it to me.”
“If you wish to work, but also wish to spend time in one of my homes, we’ll find you a job. If you enjoy your current employment, I’ll purchase a home for us in Dallas. However, if you wish to enjoy the opportunity I can afford you and explore what my world has to offer, I’ll take care of you. You can also do any combination of the above. Whatever you wish, Aurora, you will receive.”
“Wow, t
“Perhaps,” he murmured.
Aurora gave him a squeeze. “It’s a lot, Yuri.”
“To you, absolutely. To me, not quite.”
“Seeing that it’s that to me, then—”
“My sweet,” he whispered, then touched his mouth to hers before he lifted his head half an inch. “I’m not done explaining.”
“Okay,” she whispered back.
“I’ve lived a long life,” he told her.
“I know,” she replied.
“And I have never, in all those centuries, found someone like you.”
Her breath stuck.
Yuri stopped caressing her side and trailed his fingers down her arm until he found her hand. He curled his big one around her small one and pulled it up, pressing their hands to his heart.
Aurora kept not breathing.
“I wish to keep you with me,” he said gently. “And my further, most fervent wish is that you wish to keep me.”
She forced her breath out, saying, “I do.”
She felt him relax and hadn’t realized he was tense.
And when she did, she thought that was unbearably sweet.
“After the world is saved, we’ll work it out,” he declared.
“Yes, Yuri. After the world is saved, we’ll work it out.”
His eyes warmed and he bent again to give her a deep, lavish kiss.
Only after he broke it did he reach to the light to extinguish it.
Then, as he always did, he positioned her as he wanted her. This night, spooning, his arms around her, pressing her smaller body deep into the warm, hard curve of his bigger one.
She found his hand and laced her fingers through.
When she did, his tightened.
Again, unbearably sweet.
“Good night, sweetheart,” she whispered into the dark.
“Good night, button,” he murmured into her hair.
As cute as, he’d said.
Her vampire.
Unbearably sweet.
On that thought, she tried to relax, tried to calm her heart, knowing he’d know exactly when she went to sleep.
She couldn’t do either.
Now that it was quiet and he wasn’t touching her, making love to her, coloring her world by offering her his, in the silence, Aurora fretted.
She didn’t want to take him on the journey she knew she would make that night. It was dangerous. Too dangerous. And she was falling in love. She didn’t want to risk the chance of losing him.
But when she came back, he’d be so very angry that she went alone without him to protect her.
She had not known him long, and although they spent a lot of time together, he was centuries old. There was much to discover about him so she still did not know him well. Though, she was learning.
The one thing she did know was that he would indeed be very angry with her in a way that it wouldn’t earn her an enjoyable spanking ending in an outrageously fantastic orgasm.
He might never forgive her.
And she couldn’t have that.
Because, she couldn’t be sure, but she was beginning to believe, she wouldn’t be able to live without him.
So she had to take him.
And she hated that.
Even so, she prepared, keeping her hand tight with his and shifting her leg so he had no choice but to hook his thigh over her hip.
Tangling them up together, so that in sleep, they were connected.
So that when she dreamed, she would take her sweet vampire with her.
* * * * *
Abel
“Oh yeah, fuck yeah, Abel, baby, yes!” Delilah cried as she reared back into him on all fours and came.
He reached out, grasped her hair, and drove her back on his dick, listening to her pants and whimpers as she kept taking him, kept coming, the smell of her cunt in his nostrils, until all that and her sweet pussy drove him over the edge and he exploded, embedding himself inside her and shooting his cum deep.
As he came back to himself, he felt her fucking herself gently on his cock. He let her hair go and bent over her to kiss her shoulder blade.
“Love you, baby,” she whispered.
“Love you too, pussycat,” he whispered back and pulled out. “I get to clean you tonight.”
“Whatever you want,” she murmured, dropping to her side, curling up, and giving him her eyes.
Fuck, so goddamned beautiful, it hurt looking at her.
But he couldn’t stop himself. The hurt felt too good.
He slid a hand over her hip before he got out of bed, went to the bathroom, wet a washcloth with warm water, came back, and gently cleaned her while it sounded like she purred, letting him.
He didn’t bother going into the bathroom when he left her to return the cloth. He just tossed it into the sink from the doorway, then with his vampire speed, he was in bed with his mate, pulling her close, yanking the covers over them, and finally nestling deep.
“You good?” she asked.
“Real good,” he answered.
There was a pause before she went on, “You ready?”
“More than ready,” he told her. “Whatever happens, after it’s done, finally, we get wild and free.”
“Wild and free,” she whispered, burrowing closer.
“Wild and free, baby. You and me for eternity.”
She kissed his chest, settled in, and held him tight.
It shocked the shit out of him, but his Delilah had no trouble finding sleep.
Abel did not have the same.
Staring at the ceiling, holding her tight, he did it hoping he hadn’t lied. Hoping he was ready. Hoping all of them were ready. Hoping that whatever was going to happen, he and his mate got wild and free.
After doing that for a long fucking time, finally, Abel fell asleep.
* * * * *
Gregor
Having not slept a wink, at six o’clock the next morning, Gregor moved into the room, which was already bustling with people and filled with equipment, including a large television camera aimed at an armchair set close to a fireplace, a warm fire blazing in its grate.
“We’re ready, sir,” a man wearing big headphones and sitting at a bank of monitors said to him.
Gregor nodded but kept his eyes on the woman standing by the chair.
He approached her, taking her in.
She wore a lovely frock, red satin embroidered with delicate wisps of green and blue flowers. Mandarin collar. Her graying black hair was smoothed into an elegant knot at the nape of her neck. Her makeup was dramatic, highlighting her exotic eyes.
She appeared calm.
The red was chosen as it was a power color, but the deepness of its hue and the delicacy of the embroidery, they were assured, would also communicate tranquility along with its strength.
“Are you ready?” he asked quietly.
“I am,” Jian-Li replied.
He nodded.
“They’re starting,” someone announced, and he turned his head to the bank of television screens.
“Volume, please,” he called.
The volume came up and Gregor watched a black woman with soft curls in her long bob of hair, who was wearing a smart and stylish but casual outfit all in taupe—woven cashmere turtleneck, ribbed cardigan with long lapels, expertly tailored wool slacks. With this, she wore understated gold jewelry but exquisitely elegant, spike-heeled pumps.
They’d been assured, with her history of demanding frank, in-depth interviews, prompting surprising candor and emotion from her subjects, that she was by far the most trusted member of the media, not only in the United States, but in all of English-speaking North America.
On screen, she was walking up a wide, sweeping set of stairs at the base of a castle. She moved toward the balustrade that led up from its end, which had a statue of a proud wolf carved in stone.
She did this speaking.
“I stand on the steps of Canis, the home of the king of wer
She stopped and laid a taupe, leather-gloved hand on the balustrade.
“I am at Canis,” she went on, “but I’ll begin my report not with King Callum and his queen, Sonia. I begin my report with Lucien, a vampire whose strength is said to be unparalleled. A vampire who was the general in the last battle the immortal vampires fought alongside humans against a foe who wished the freedom to hunt, feed from, and kill members of the human race. This was a secret battle that was deadly, and great losses were suffered on both sides, but the vampires and their human allies prevailed.”
Her expression became grave before she carried on.
“But during it, Lucien lost his human partner, a woman he loved implicitly. She was captured by his enemies, tortured, and put to death. I tell his tale first, along with that of his human wife, Leah. A concubine, these being not what you might think they are when I say that word. They are a centuries-long line of strong women who swore duty to vampires, giving them their allegiance, and their blood, in order that vampires could sustain without hunting humans. Protecting us. Keeping us safe. Strong women who many saw brutally violated and murdered in recent videotapes streaming online.”
Pictures of Lucien and Leah, with Leah’s photos starting from birth, came on with the presenter’s voice telling stories of them, moving onward to photos of their Claiming Ceremony. Both of them smiling. Both of them clearly outrageously happy.
This moved on to the presenter introducing Sonia and Callum’s story, with more pictures as their tale was told.
And this continued with the presenter introducing Abel and Delilah’s story, a montage of photos of them also helped to tell their tale.
The stories were powerful and presented beautifully, but Gregor felt Abel and Delilah’s played the best. Although both of them were extraordinarily good-looking, each had led very humble lives and he believed theirs would be the one that would resonate the strongest.
By this time, the presenter was inside Canis, seated in a chair in what looked like a warm and welcoming (because it was) library.
She had an attractive earthenware mug sitting on the table at her side. Nothing extravagant, the power behind the throne was depicted by her walk up the steps to the castle. Now she was metaphorically seated in the lap of the werewolves—unpretentious, openhearted, relaxed, gracious.