Page 89 of Entombed By Blood
No. It seems like I’m not going anywhere. I wriggle, testing him, and Draven hisses out a breath.
“Keep doing that, doll. See where it gets you,” he promises, not bothering to keep his voice down.
The hard, scalding line of his erection presses into my lower back at the same time that his thumb reaches up to stroke the underside of my breast. I can’t help the warmth that spreads to my cheeks and lower.
It’s one thing for things to get heated like they did when he chased me. Quite another for him to claim a casual intimacy like this in front of the rest of my thralls. Finn and Silas shoot me knowing looks, but Gideon and Frost are still too locked in their argument to notice.
“Who’s in charge?” I finally whisper in an attempt to distract myself from the sensation. “I thought Gideon was working for Frost, but…”
“They both are,” Silas answers.
“Lycans need an alpha at the head of the pack,” Finn explains. “And Gid is an alpha and the most dominant. But Frost is the head of the resistance, and he doesn’t exactly do well with taking orders.”
“So they share,” Silas finishes. “I know it’s hard to believe, but most of the time, they actually agree on things. When they don’t… well, there’s always a compromise.”
It seems like a chaotic way to lead a rebellion, but I don’t say that. “And what if you disagree?”
“We’re pack by choice, not by birth,” Silas replies. “Gideon is one of the few lycan alphas left who listens to what his pack has to say, and Frost is the same.”
“It was part of what earned him so much respect as a human,” Draven adds, offhandedly.
His thumb hasn’t given up, and damn my body for responding like I’m in heat. My nipples are almost painfully hard and rub against the soft cotton fabric of my top. My panties are growing embarrassingly slick from his teasing. When he ducks his head down and runs a fang over the sensitive skin of my neck, I have to bite back a moan.
“No—yes—Fuck! I can’t think when she smells like that!” Frost snaps, cutting off Gideon’s calm, reasonable argument as he turns on his heel to glare at Draven.
I feel the other vampire’s grin against my neck, and I realise he did that on purpose. When I elbow him in the stomach to punish him, he doesn’t react beyond grinning harder. All I have to show for my efforts is a light bruise. Just how hard are this male’s abs?
I don’t need Draven’s help to make the situation between Frost and me any more fraught with tension. We’re doing perfectly well at that all by ourselves.
Draven doesn’t apologise. Nor does he stop what he’s doing. “The conversation is pointless. We can’t do anything to help Vane because we’re stuck here for the next four days until the full moon has passed and you three”—he gives Finn, Silas, and Gideon a look—“finish howling at it.”
“We can work during the day,” Silas insists, but Frost grimaces.
“You know how wearing it is on your kind. We’d make mistakes, and that could cost Vane his life. No. Draven is right.” It’s clear from the exasperation in his tone that making the admission is painful. “Any rescue will have to wait until after the full moon. Cain knows it’s when we’re at our weakest.”
I bite my lip, considering what he’s saying. Lycans can choose to change between their human and beast forms. The only exception is the three nights of the full moon when they have no choice but to turn—and stay turned—until the sun grants them a reprieve.
When we lived at the manor in the Old Country, Cain would chain those lycans loyal to him and lock them in the tunnels beneath our home to stop them from indulging in the needs of their beasts—namely, fighting and fucking. There were a few instances where one got free and had to be put down before it harmed anyone. A lycan under the influence of a full moon doesn’t care who he bites, or who he kills.
I have no idea what a full moon spent among a lycan pack is going to be like. The old Evie would never consider it. It’s suicidal.
The old Evie also believed Cain when he said that all lycans were savages, unable to overcome their bestial nature. Yet my thralls are the opposite. They’re warmer—more human—than any immortals I’ve ever met, and they’re smart. I may not know much about this modern world yet, but staying one step ahead of my sire takes brains.
Okay, Cain might be wrong about some things, but I’ve seen lycans under the full moon. I’ve witnessed firsthand the way they can and will rip into anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. It’s hard to imagine my thralls doing anything like that, but hundreds of years of experience isn’t something you easily shrug off.
Some of my distress must show on my face because Finn rises to his knees on the sofa and leans forward to grab my chin, using his thumb to free my lower lip from my teeth. In the two days since we came here, I’ve spent the most time with him. Enjoying his company and watching as he fusses over Silas. He may enjoy being sarcastic, but he’s also one of the most genuine, open people I’ve ever met. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have a doesn’t have a deceitful bone in his body.
Watching him tear up as he cared for his beta’s broken body was what convinced me to risk giving Silas my blood in the first place.
To think the same man will turn into a mindless beast for three nights makes me shiver.
“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not like that.We’renot like that,” he promises, stroking the abused flesh before pulling away and settling back into Silas’s arms. “The full moon is very different for lycans in a healthy, functioning pack than what you’ve seen. We run, fuck, play… and yes, there is the occasional howl.” He glares playfully at Draven. “But it’s nothing like Cain’s Hall of Chains. I promise you. Those Lycans have no omegas, no pups, and no elders—it’s those family bonds that keep us sane.”
“We’re guests of this pack,” Gideon explains. “And as such, Alpha Echo has kindly agreed to let us run with them, but it will be safest for you to remain inside. Draven and Frost will guard you.”
“It’s either so dangerous I shouldn’t leave the cabin, or so safe I shouldn’t worry,” I reply. “Which is it? Because I’m getting a whole lot of mixed messages here.”
Silas laughs, the sound breaking the tension in the room. “He means, if you don’t want to be fucked by all three of us, you should probably stay indoors.”
