“Please,” I murmured.

  Taking himself in one hand, he slid the tip of his cock against my clit, and I almost moaned at the feel of him sliding against me. I rocked back, pressing my ass against him. His ab muscles rippled against me as he chuckled.

  “Greedy,” he said, but he still let me slide back until his tip pressed into me. He paused, pressing a kiss to my lower back. “You sure?”

  “Very,” I promised him.

  He slid inside. My hands tightened on the grass at the feel of his big cock filling me up, and once again the pleasure and pain divide was blurry for me. When he slid back out, he hesitated, just his tip brushing against my clit now.

  I wanted him. I wanted life with all the pleasure and pain it had to offer, all these sensations: the heat of his body insulating me from the cold of the wind, the slap that made me throb, the sound of the waves rocking against the shore, and his body rocking hard against mine.

  I pushed back on him, and he exhaled as I slammed back until my ass pressed against his hard lower abs. Then he began to move in time with me. His hand slid between my thighs, finding my clit and beginning to tease it as he rocked into me over and over. His cock was hard and punishing, but it was just what I wanted right now.

  I threw my head back, feeling my hair whip into his face as sensation and heat overwhelmed me. No matter how cold it was outside, I was warm now as he sunk himself deep inside me over and over, and the two of us moved together.

  When I came hard, shuddering around his cock, he growled out, “Piper.”

  It might not have been my name, but his rough, raspy voice as he came was the sweetest sound I’d heard.

  The two of us collapsed into the grass, his warm body against mine. He drew me into the curve of his body as he sighed contentedly. “Mine,” he said.

  “Yours,” I agreed. Because I was his, absolutely, even if I wasn’t only his.

  Chapter 43

  “Goodnight, Piper.” Arthur lingered outside the door to my room. It was strange to see this man hesitate outside my bedroom door, his tall, powerful presence filling the hallway. It seemed as if for once in his life, he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

  “Goodnight.” I couldn’t hide the smile that tugged at the corners of my lips, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he was funny to me right now, or because I was happy.

  His gaze sharpened as he took in my smile, but there was warmth in the way he looked at me. Maybe he couldn’t tell either.

  “I wish I could tell what was going on behind those eyes of yours,” he said, his voice suddenly husky. He tucked a strand of hair back behind my ear and then leaned forward, kissing my cheek where the damp strand had clung.

  “It’s nothing too complicated,” I whispered.

  “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t lie to me anymore,” he murmured.

  “I was thinking about this,” I said, and I caught his t-shirt with my hand and tugged him down to me. I pressed my lips against his.

  When he kissed me back, his hand tangled in my hair and his lips parted, kissing me with fresh passion. Arthur never did anything by halves. I smiled against his lips helplessly, and he pulled back, one eyebrow arched suspiciously.

  “If you keep kissing me like that,” I said, “I don’t think either of us will get any sleep tonight.”

  He grunted. “I’m taking some of my guys and running the island. Going to make sure there are no more surprises tonight. But Logan is right next door if you need him.”

  “Okay.”

  He cupped my face with his hands and pressed his lips to my forehead. “Are you sure you’ll sleep tonight? After all that?”

  “The sleep of the innocent,” I promised him, and when his eyebrows rose, I told him, “or at least the sleep of the lucky.”

  He nodded and turned abruptly, walking away from me down the hall without saying goodbye.

  But he stopped at the top of the stairs and looked back over his shoulder, and the little smile lingering on his lips would stay with me for a long, long time.

  Late that night, I bolted up in the dark and pressed my palm over my mouth. My heart was pounding, my throat ragged. Had I really screamed out loud?

  I reached out to snap on the light. The room turned bright, and I was alone. My father wasn’t there at the foot of my bed, reaching out for me, and I exhaled, my chest aching. I’d dreamed about him. I’d dreamed about that day in the basement. I’d dreamed about a weeping witch-mother and a dead girl, and my father telling her she just had to believe, she just had to follow him. “You doubted me,” he’d told her. “You doubted my methods.” His eyes had flickered to me, and I understood that I was his methods. And she had wept and promised him her undying loyalty.

  I clawed at his arms, but he pressed my head under the water. I squeezed my eyes and mouth shut until my chest ached, and when I tried to release some of the bubbles from my mouth, water slipped in and I choked. I thrashed, my heels kicking out over dry ground, my fingers around his wrists. But there was no escape.

  There was a soft tap at the door.

  “Piper?” There was a familiar voice, a mix of rough masculinity and honey warmth.

  Shit. I must have screamed.

  I didn’t want to be alone, though, even though I also did not want to be with Logan. I slid out of bed and crossed to the door so he would hear me through the wood, without yelling.

  “I’m fine,” I said flatly. There was still something comforting about knowing he was right there on the other side. I pressed my palm against the door as if I could absorb the warmth of his body through it.

  “Come on, Piper,” he said. “Open the door.”

  There was that familiar commanding edge in his tone. As if, should I refuse, he was going to kick it open to make sure I was okay.

  That would be an awful lot of drama though, when I would never be more important than his pack.

  It wasn’t that I expected I should be; it was just he’d said that to hurt me. He’d succeeded.

  Reluctantly, I unlocked the door on my side and stepped back, pulling on the knob.

  The door swung open, revealing Logan braced with his arm against the doorway, his handsome face grim under his flop of dark hair. “You all right, Piper?”

  I held my hands out, flashing him a tight smile, and then did a spin in a circle. He could see for himself that I was fine.

  His lips tightened. Oh, he didn’t like that.

  “You cried out. Like you were being hurt.”

  “I’m in one piece.” I put my hand on the door, about to close it between us once again.

  He put his arm on the door, holding it open. “A bad dream?”

  “You asked if I was fine, and I’m fine,” I shot back. “We don’t need to talk about my dreams.”

  Of course, it wasn’t really a dream. It was a memory, resurfacing from under the fake memories that the coven had planted in my mind.

  “I really have to learn to swim,” I muttered, thinking about the drowning in my memory—not that I’d had any way to escape that one—and the near-drowning earlier that night.

  “I’ll teach you,” Logan offered quickly.

  I looked up into his face, his deep blue eyes full of desire and protection. And I said, “Pass.”

  “Why are you being like this?” he demanded. “I’m just trying to help, Piper.”

  “I know. Tomorrow you’ll be back to making sure you don’t give a damn, but tonight is different. Tonight you care.” I turned my back on him, heading for the windows. Not that they offered any escape after Arthur had sealed them shut.

  Logan closed the bedroom door softly behind us.

  The lamplight against the window cast my faint reflection back to me in the midst of the night’s darkness. For a second, my reflection looked like someone else.

  Like the dead girl, who breathed in sudden, desperate breaths as I fell onto the wet carpet beside her. I was too weak to do anything but lie there and gasp as water trickled out the corner of my mouth. Our eyes had met for one desperate second.

  I remembered her mother carrying her tenderly out. My father had said, “She’ll stay this age forever. You’ll have to keep her away from anyone who might ask questions—but she’s yours again.”

  I’d been left alone, cold and shivering in that room as even the candles flickered out.

  My ‘father’ had used my powers to bring someone back to life. Some daughter of the coven.

  Which meant that someone could have brought him back.

  I whirled on Logan, who was starting to say something. As he took in my face, the words died on his lips, and he crossed the distance between us in a few quick strides.

  “What is it?” he asked me urgently. “It’s okay, Piper. I’m right here. Talk to me.”

  “I don’t think he’s dead.” As soon as I said it, I realized my tumble of words didn’t make sense. “My father. I think he’s alive.”

  “He’s not your father,” he said. “And he’s not alive. Callum killed him.”

  “Yeah, he did,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean he stayed dead.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “My father—”

  “Stop calling him that!”

  “It’s what I called him for years,” I said. “And it’s my business what I call him, Logan. Not yours.” Trying again, with dignity, I said, “He used me to reanimate a corpse once. A girl. I think she had drowned.”

  There was a flash of sympathy in his eyes. “And that’s why you—”

  “I’ve drowned a few times now apparently,” I said bitterly.

  “Never again.” He ran his hand up my arm.

  It was only when his touch brushed over my skin that I realized I was trembling. Everywhere his hand swept, warmth sunk through my skin, into my muscle and bone, and I went still.

  “You can’t make me any promises,” I said softly.

  “Let me stay with you tonight,” he said. “No more nightmares. In the morning, if he is alive, we’ll find him. We’ll figure it out together.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m fine. You can go, Logan.”

  “Piper.” He sounded anguished as he raked his hand through his hair. “Come on. You really wouldn’t feel better if I stayed?”

  I wanted more than anything right now to melt into his arms and believe that he could protect me from the coven. They would come for me, sooner or later.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Of course I would.”

  “Then what are we doing here?”

  “I’d feel better for now,” I said. “But then I’d feel worse when you were cold with me in the morning. I can’t do this hot-and-cold bullshit, Logan.”

  “Then we won’t,” he said. “I won’t. I promise.”

  I was still shaking my head, refusing to believe him, when he gathered me into his arms. He kissed me tenderly, his lips brushing mine with easy confidence, as if—even when I was furious at him—he still knew what I wanted, deep inside.

  He kissed the corner of my mouth, his hand sliding across the side of my face to hold me possessively. “Forgive me,” he murmured. “I was an idiot.”

  I turned my face to kiss him back, seeking his lips helplessly. But I was still so angry about what he’d said that night. He’d hurt me so badly.

  I took a step back, shoving myself away from him. Drily, I said, “You know exactly what I want to hear.”

  “I mean it,” he said. “I’ll show you.”

  “The test will come in the morning,” I muttered.

  “Then I’ll show you in the morning.” He wrapped his arms around me, and I let him gather me close. I wrapped my arms around his hard waist, resting my head against his chest. He smelled so good, masculine and clean all at the same time. “But let me stay tonight. Let me keep the nightmares away.”

  “All right,” I whispered.

  Logan’s arm tightened around my back as he leaned down, scooping my legs up underneath my knees. He lifted me easily against his chest. As he carried me toward the bed, he kissed me again, and my lips parted, welcoming him in.

  When our tender kisses paused, he still held me there against his chest, and I could feel his heart thundering. He pressed his forehead against mine. “I’ve missed you, Piper.”

  “You don’t have to miss me,” I said, my voice husky. “I’m right here.”

  The smallest, rueful smile twisted one corner of his lips. “I just have to not be an idiot?”

  “You just have to not hurt me,” I said.

  The smile dropped away, and I could tell I’d hurt him. I put my hand on his hard jaw and kissed him again, wanting to take away the pain I’d just inflicted. “Logan, I’m sorry,” I breathed into the space between our lips. “I didn’t mean it.”

  “No, you did.” His nose nuzzled mine, his deep blue eyes affectionate even though they were filled with regret. “And I deserved it. I’ll make it up to you.”

  “I know,” I murmured, and I did.

  When Logan curled up with me in bed, my head on his shoulder, his arm wrapped around me, I felt as cozy and warm as if I had just come home.

  Chapter 44

  The night was an escape from the reality of our days, but morning always comes. And mornings are dangerous.

  Especially, for me, when I haven’t had my coffee yet.

  Sebastian got the medic’s blessing to take a shower and join the rest of us for breakfast. He was favoring his side still, wincing whenever he moved, but he was doing remarkably well.

  This time, it was all five of us that sat down in the library for a private breakfast. The table was piled with food, the scent delicious in the air.

  “I think this is the first time we’ve all been together like this,” I said, and Arthur surprised me by pulling my chair out for me.

  He gave me the briefest, curt nod, as if he couldn’t believe it either. “Don’t get used to it.”

  “He still doesn’t like us,” Finn said. “He was relieved Seb wasn’t dead for a good hour, so that was touching. But now it’s over.”

  “It was over as soon as you two started annoying me again,” Arthur grumbled.

  Logan put his hand on the back of my chair and leaned into my side, his lips brushing my hair. Three sets of jealous eyes followed the gesture.

  Logan paused and looked at them, then leaned back. “All right. I was going to whisper to Piper that I’d like to talk about her theory from last night, but apparently I can’t get a little privacy here.”

  My stomach tightened as I thought about last night’s dreams of having my head forced under the water, my father’s face blurry as I tried to scream.

  “What’s Piper’s theory?” Arthur asked, although he gave Logan a long look like he’d also like to know when we were discussing that theory.

  “I think my father’s still alive,” I said, and everyone leaned forward, suddenly intense.

  I told them everything I remembered, and I could almost feel their rage—their desire to kill someone for me—in their gazes, even as Logan rested a comforting hand on my thigh. Arthur leaned over to caress my back, his touch tender despite the angry tic in his jaw like he wanted to tear someone from limb-to-limb.

  Arthur’s phone rang. He glanced at it and said, “It’s Callum,” before he answered, and we all stopped talking and listened to the conversation.

  “We got one alive,” Callum said, his voice excited.

  “You went hunting without me?” Arthur sounded offended, which was surprising for someone who pretended that having my men for company on the hunt was a necessary evil.

  “Yes, I went hunting without you,” Callum said. “We were attacked at the house. I think one of them followed us back.”

  “Us too,” Arthur said. “It really was a trap.”

  “A trap for them,” the two of them said at almost the exact same time, and then fell silent, as if they were embarrassed.

  “Did you get him to talk?” Arthur asked.

  “Yep,” Callum said. “He said they hired the merc. But they did on behalf of a shifter in your pack. Inzel. Part of a deal they cut.”

  “I’m going to kill him,” Arthur said, and it sounded like a simple statement of fact. He wasn’t even mad about it. “Anything else I need to know?”

  “Before you kill him,” Callum said drily, “would you please find out who he was working with? Better yet. Get Logan to ask him.”

  “I can be gentle,” Arthur said.

  No one at the table, or over the phone, believed that.

  “Maybe we could flush them out,” Logan said slowly. “Maybe it’s time to spring our trap. What if they thought there was a reason to reveal themselves?”

  “Like what kind of reason?” Sebastian asked.

  “If there was a challenger for alpha,” Logan said, “Inzel might be willing to talk to that person, to get him on board before the power shift. Especially if someone was looking for an unfair advantage.”

  Arthur leaned back in his chair. His brows quirked skeptically, and then he said, “It will have to be you. You’re the only one strong enough for Inzel to believe you had a chance.”

  “Hey,” Finn said, but without rancor.

  “Everyone knows you two are besties for life,” Sebastian said, which earned him a quick backhand to the back of the head from Logan. Sebastian rubbed the back of his head, undeterred. “So there’d have to be a reason. A public falling-out.”

  “I think we’ve got a pretty obvious source of angst right here.” Finn nodded to me.

  “That hurts my feelings,” I said.

  Finn ruffled my hair with one hand. “You’re a source of joy and happiness, Piper. But you also could just as easily be a source of angst for….lesser men. And if you weren’t so darned perfect yourself.”

  Arthur snorted at that.

  “I can’t imagine why anyone would get sick of Arthur’s attitude and challenge him,” Finn said airily.

  “We’ll have to stage something,” Sebastian said.

  The table exploded in ideas.

  When we left breakfast, Arthur went with me. He kissed me goodbye at the porch of the house before he went to visit the young shifters practicing on the lawn. It was a quick, chaste kiss, but it did not pass unnoticed by the shifters on the lawn. As soon as their practice session was over, they ran off instead of lingering in the grass continuing to practice throws or kick a soccer ball around as they usually did.

 

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