Chapter 171
[ 1,430 words ]
Ronan
If I could frame a picture of Aria just as she is right now, I would.
My mate is art with her pupils blown wide, lips parted and swollen, shirt lifted over her perfect full tits and pants discarded somewhere on my office floor, as they should be.
I run a hand over her round belly and the thought of her carrying our second pup makes me so hard I could hammer nails with my dick.
Even her delicious scent is sweeter, more addictive. It calls to my protective and possessive instincts and makes me want to accost her, to stow her away until there is no more danger.
“Are you just going to stand there and look at me?” she pants with an indignant little frown.
Little minx. “Maybe later.”
I plunge into her. Her body welcomes me, opens and sucks me in, gripping greedily. My balls tighten from the slick tightness of her hot center.
It feels like I’m coming home.
Like finding peace in a storm.
Like all of me centers around, in, and because of her.
Snapping my hips forward in a hard, measured rhythm, I let the sensation of being inside her draw out, letting it lead my body into a state of bliss I can ride.
“Yes. That’s it. Please… Ro… I need more,” she orders, her blue eyes misted over with lust.
“Don’t worry, baby, I’ve got you,” I growl. “You know I’d never let you go without.”
I drag my cock inside her, making her feel every inch as I pick up the pace. Moving faster and faster until I’m pounding into her.
Our bodies meet in a familiar claiming, a possession, a submission as we feed the need between us.
Her pussy flutters around my cock, letting me know she is reaching her peak. But I don’t want her to just fall; I want her to crash, for the fire of her yearning to burn every cell on the way down.
I rode her harder, lifting her hips and angling her to hit her G-spot just right.
Our pleasure filters through the bond, and I don’t know whose is whose anymore.
Lightning shoots down my spine, sweat beading my brow as I ride her rough and deep.
“Oh Goddess, I’m gonna…” she screams, her eyes fluttering closed as her orgasm crashes into her.
My teeth find my claim mark, and I bite down, satisfaction and indulgence shattering control as I release my hot come into her.
As we come down from our post orgasm high, I lick the sting from the bite as my hips lazily fuck in and out of her.
“I could live inside you, you know,” I say, only half joking.
“Keep making me come like that, and I might let you,” she says, wrapping her arms around me and gently scraping her nails against my scalp.
Careful to keep my weight on my elbows, I groan. “I don’t want to move,” I confess.
“If I were sure you wouldn’t crush me eventually, I’d be happy for you to stay there.”
With a playful nip to her ear, I put my Alpha pants on and get up so I can try and focus on some work.
She takes my hand as I help her off the desk and onto a lounge chair I had put in just for her.
“Felix thinks he may have found a temporary solution to the crow problem,” she says, absently rubbing her stomach.
“Really? What did he come up with?”
“He wants to put motion cameras on the trees so that we can not only know when they’re here, but capture them.”
My wolf gives the plan his full support.
Without their little spies, they won’t have the leverage of being two steps ahead. It might even level the playing field.
Or, it might make them pull back, for fear that we are on to them.
That option might sound like a good thing, but with everything happening, all their retreat would do is prolong their final attack and keep everyone in a state of anxiety.
“I can see why he thinks that would work,” I say diplomatically.
Her sapphire irises study me. “But you don’t approve?”
“It’s not that I don’t approve; it’s that doing so could lead to various reactions, and we have to be sure we have the position to deal with the fallout.”
Barric’s earthy scent reaches me before I walk into the office.
“I thought I’d find the two of you here,” he says, walking over to Aria to give her a kiss and her stomach a little stroke.
“Did you?” I raise my brow.
He shrugs. “That’s the story I’m going with.”
“How is Marcus?”
“He’s locked in. Says the cunts did their work to buy the leads and build a fortress around the location, but he’s already making mouse holes in their defenses.”
“Does he think we’ll be able to get through on time?”
“He’s refusing to fail the juveniles. He’ll break through,” Barric says vaguely.
I nod.
Taking advantage of having him here, I give Barric a rundown of Felix’s possible solution.
Leaning on the edge of my desk, Barric crosses his arms, thinking.
“What do you think?” he asks finally.
“No, I want to know what you think,” I press.
“I feel like this has the potential to backfire, but honestly the risk is worth it.”
“Mmm,” I lean back in my seat.
“Let’s say the worst possible outcome happens and they decide that now we know it’s time for them to start holding back. Then we will be ready. No matter what they choose to do, the fact remains that now we are on a more even playing field.”
He’s correct. The element of surprise is no longer a card they hold, my wolf says.
And if we force them into the light, they will have no choice but to meet us head-on.
The thought of them losing the ability to hide behind smoke and mirrors gives me a vicious sort of excitement.
“So you think we should take the birds,” Aria asks.
“I think we should blind them. Taking their birds is only the first step.”
Barric looks at me with the intensity of a viper preparing to strike. It’s a look Low inherited, especially when he wants something he thinks is out of reach.
“I like that look. It usually means good things for us,” I say.
“From your lips to the benevolence of the Goddess,” he says. “I was giving their attacks some thought, and I noticed that every time someone is targeted, they are secluded. What do you think that says about them?”
“That they don’t want to be seen,” Aria says.
“Or that they don’t have the numbers for confrontations,” Barric says.
“Why do you think that is important?”
“At first I overlooked it. That was until Kade came back with that video and the proof of that emerging human group. I started looking at the video with Marcus, and I realized something.”
He takes out a hard drive and opens up my laptop. Firing up the engine, he looks over at Aria. “You might not want to see this.”
Her face hardens. “I don’t, but I have to. How can I help protect people from a threat I dont fully understand?”
I move closer to her and put my arm around her to support her in case she needs it.
Barric starts the video, and as it plays, he says, “Pay attention to the male bringing her in and the ones who stay in the cage with her.”
Aria’s breath hitches, and I feel the horror and increased tension building in her limbs as it goes on. I rub her back, comforting her, hating every second she subjects herself to this but admiring her strength for not hiding from anything that could affect our people.
She squeezes my forearm.
I watch, blocking out the horrific act and focusing on the male in the video, and that’s when it clicks. The way they are overpowering her and holding her down. How they are ignoring her claws as they come out and scratch and maul them.
Even the strongest human is no match for the weakest shifter.
“There are shifters,” I breathe.
“Bastards. How could they do this to their own kind?” Aria spits.
“Maybe we are not their kind, not to them,” I suggest. “Ideas can be powerful, terrible things if they are bred in the wrong hands. And to do this, they have to have a special kind of darkness in them.”
Barric nods. “And either the humans don’t know a shifter is pulling the string, or someone on their hire-ups isn’t telling them.”
“Which gives us the ability to cut off their lackeys and shorten their reach,” Aria concludes, a dark gleam in her eyes.
“It will reduce the spread of information, and once we let the other packs know about the crows, they can take the same action. Then the real hunt can begin.”
If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.