*Maddox*
“Are you going to be a good girl for me while I’m gone,” I rasp into her ear. We’re covered in sweat, and I’ve been drawing out every minute of the last hour to make this last as long as possible for both of us.
I’ve made Isla come at least three times, but I’m not done with her yet. It could be months before I see her again.
“Probably not,” she whimpers, but her mouth curves into a devilish smile. I thrust into her, hard, and she arches her back, crying out softly as I continue to drag my cock in and out in a desperately slow motion.
Her nails have left long red scratches down my back that I’ll feel for weeks. I hope I do. I hope I taste her on my tongue and smell her scent on my skin until the day I return home.
“Please, Maddox,” she whispers, her nails digging into my sides. “I’m so close!”
I pick up the pace, reaching between us to circling my thumb over her clit in a way I know will have her screaming my name in a matter of seconds. I rise up so I’m kneeling over her, one hand toying with her clit while the other presses her down against the mattress, forcing her to still. She tries to arch her back into my touch, but I prevent it. I want to watch her come. I want to see that tidal wave of pleasure wash over her face. I want to remember the way her mouth parts and her brow furrows while she loses herself.
I want us to come together, and when she clamps those tight, throbbing muscles around my cock, I finally let myself fall over the edge of oblivion at the same time she does.
“Isla,” I grunt, gritting my teeth as I hold her down and spill myself into her. “Goddess, I fucking love you.”
She’s panting beneath me, her eyes open to slits. Her cheeks are burning with heat, beads of sweat prickling over her hairline. This is where she’s the most beautiful–right here. Beneath me, our bodies still joined. I don’t move until I’m spent, and I don’t pull out until I feel her body relax.
She caresses my face as I lean down, brushing my lips over hers.
“I want to see you with my child in your belly when I get back,” I whisper, drawing her lower lip between my teeth. She is in heat. I could sense it, smell it. Those senses are a luxury awarded only to me as her mate. It has been driving me mad for the last few days. I always want Isla in my bed, at my will, but never more than right now. I’ve restrained myself until tonight.
We’d talked about having another child. It is something we both want, even though Isaac is still so young. But Isla almost died giving birth to him, and that horrible night left a scar in my mind and my heart. If she hadn’t wanted to have another child I would have respected that.
But she gave me the green light to at least try, and I took it.
“Will you be disappointed if it doesn’t happen?” she asks sometime later. We’re lying in bed together, moonlight dusting over the tangle of sheets as I hold her to my chest.
“No,” I say, and mean it. “That’s up to the Goddess, not us. If Isaac is meant to be our only child, then we’ll already have a full and blessed life.” I tuck her closer to me, laying my cheek against the top of her head. We should be asleep. It’s nearly morning, and I have to leave in a few hours.
But we both know that this is it for a while, and neither of us are willing to admit that ever present threat against my life, simply because I am who I am, and there will always be someone who wants to see my title fall–that’s the reason neither of us have been able to close our eyes.
I have to come home for them. I hate that I can’t make them any promises.
“I don’t want you to go,” she says so sadly it nearly shatters my heart.
“I know,” I breathe, running my fingertips over her arm.
* * *
Three days later.
Commander Fendley, a.k.a. Leo, one of my favorite people on this planet, gets into the young warrior's face and shoves him backwards onto his ass. The warrior pales, crawling backward and away from Leo’s wrath.
I sigh heavily as I press my phone against my ear. No reception. Damnit.
Rain pelts over the top of our heads as we stand by the gates to a once great castle on the outskirts of my territory. I was under the impression this part of my territory had been abandoned long ago, before my time as Alpha. Dead vines climb up the crumbling wall that surrounds the darkened castle. The front garden is totally overgrown, the pathway leading up to the castle itself isn’t even visible under layers of earth and grasses taller than my head.
It would seem that no one could possibly live here, but someone does, and that someone is preventing the caravan of cars escorting me through my territory from going any further.
He–whoever this mysterious Alpha is–sent out over a dozen warriors to block our path. So, I’d strode right up to his front gate in the pouring rain and let Leo bully everyone who tried to stop us.
My own warriors are getting antsy. Everyone is starting to hiss and growl at each other. We’ve been standing out here for an hour at least in the rain. Everyone is hungry, tired, and we are burning precious daylight. We were supposed to be in the Dayfall pack territory tonight, where there is a small city and a friendly, allied Alpha I’m supposed to dine with while my warriors enjoy themselves.
I have a feeling that’s not going to happen today.
“Go inside,” I tell the unfamiliar warrior belonging to whatever the hell pack this is, “and get me your Alpha.”
“No,” he says, and Leo punches him in the gut. I snort, turning to look at Commander Givens, who has his arms crossed with a smug grin on his face.
I tuck my phone in my pocket. I’ve already tried to call the few Alphas and Betas I know that live in this area, but I can’t get through, and we’re too far away for the mind-link.
“Then have your men move out of the fucking road so we can continue on our way,” I hiss down at the warrior, who only steels his expressions and glares up at me.
“No,” he repeats. Leo growls, clenching his fists.
All of us turn to the gate where a fierce looking teenage girl has appeared without making so much as a sound. She glares at all of us, her chin tilting toward the sky.
The girl has jet black hair that falls down her back in thick, tight ringlets. Her golden-brown skin glistens against the white and blue raincoat she’s wearing, her dark eyes flashing with what I can only assume is both fury and intrigue.
“Can I help you?” she snaps.
“Do you live here?” I ask, giving Givens a look before turning back to the girl, who can’t be more than sixteen, maybe younger.
“What's it to you?”
“I’m the Alpha King,” I saw, taking a stop toward the gate. She doesn’t flinch as I bare my teeth but looks me up and down like she’s thoroughly unimpressed.
“So?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused,” she says curtly, tilting her head to look down at the warrior still sitting on the ground. She arches her brow at him, willing him to tell her what’s going on. He cowers a bit under her gaze and looks down at his lap.
“They came up on the castle–”
“We made a wrong turn on the highway,” Givens cuts in, stepping forward. The girl blinks at him, looking just as unimpressed as she did when sizing me up. “We’re just trying to get back on course, and these warriors are preventing us from getting back on the road.”
“Who are you?” I ask. “Where is your father?”
“Dead,” she says casually, her eyes boring into mine.
“Your mother?”
“Also dead. Very dead.”
I glance at my commanders, wondering what the fuck is going on.
“What pack is this?”
“Obsidian Temple.”
Obsidian Temple was disbanded decades ago, by my own father.
“Obsidian Temple?” I laugh. “That is a lie. I need to speak to whatever man is masquerading as the Alpha–”
“I’m the Alpha,” she says coldly as she takes a step toward the gate, her fingers gripping the iron bars. “And this is my home. You’re trespassing on my lands.”
“My lands,” I growl. “I am the king–”
“Not my king,” she whispers, her mouth curving into a smile. “I am the king here.”
Well. It looks like I need to start the real work of this trip a little earlier than I thought. I have more enemies than I realized. Why the Diamond hasn’t made her bow to me, I’m not sure, but maybe it’s because she seems to be some sort of a rogue.
And this one is no older than Ben.
She holds my gaze, narrowing her dark, depthless eyes. A chill runs up my spine as I break from her gaze and turn to look at the warriors who are standing in front of our vehicles. Children. All of them are too young to even shift.
I look down at Wilcox, or whatever the hell his name is, the warrior who is still sitting in a puddle of mud next to Leo. He isn’t old enough to grow a beard.
I hadn’t thought it was strange when we’d first been stopped. A lot of packs had their youths, especially the males, out in warrior garb and in training before they reached the age of twenty-one.
Commander Givens stiffens as he sees what I just noticed. There are no adults here. Not a single one.
“What the hell is going on?” Givens whispers to me.
“Let them pass,” the girl says, and her warriors immediately move off the road. I look right at her, seeing a smirk play over her lips.
“Who the fuck are you?” I ask hotly as another chill runs up my spine. I can’t allow this. I can’t allow a pack full of children, led by a child, to remain unchecked. Something happened here, and I need to find out just what.
But I already know none of my men are getting inside this castle without a fight, and I cannot hurt a child. I can’t. Even one like the she-devil standing just inside the gate.
“Emery,” she says, her mouth lifting into a cold smile. “I’ll be the last thing you see if you ever trespass on my lands again. Remember my name.”
With that, she turns on her heel and disappears into the tall grass. I watch the door of the castle, waiting to see her slip inside, but the door remains closed.
Wilcox gets up and sprints away, joining the ranks of Emery’s other warriors as they press themselves to the wall, waiting for us to load up and move on.
“Make note of this location,” I tell Givens, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “We’ll be coming back.”
“Yes, Sir. What do you think happened here? Obsidian Temple hasn’t been a pack for forty years.”
“I don’t know,” I breathe as I stand outside the car I’m riding in with Givens. I count the heads of my warriors as they get inside the other vehicles, making sure we don’t leave anyone behind. And not because we’d have to come back for them, no. Because I was sure something sinister was taking place here, and I knew if anyone was left behind, we’d never see them again.
“I’ll call Elijah once we’re in cell range,” I tell Givens as I slide into the passenger seat, shivering as he turns on the heat full blast. “He can look into it. I don’t want this getting in the way of getting home to my Luna.”
“They were all kids, Maddox,” Givens says after a moment, slipping up and using my name. I don’t hold it against him. I’m just as shaken as he is. I nod in agreement, my eyes fixed on the winding, forest lined dirt road ahead.
I try to imagine Isla. I try to count the days I have left until I see her again.
But I can only picture the face of the girl who ruled over a pack long lost, a pack that once threatened my family and paid the ultimate price.