Page 11 of Claiming Starlight
There would be fallout from the vampir and their spell-casters—didn’t matter. It was an undecided contest of who Micah hated more, vampir like Sophie’s masters or the sorcerers who used her virgin’s gifts to twist out powerful blood magic. They were both at the top of his forever shit list.
But those players had to get in line behind enemy number one. They were bad, and their alliances with other bad men turned them into a force to be reckoned with inside the Old City, but the Morghanna fae was the top of his list of evil enemies. That soul-sucking devil of a goddess was one who reveled in depravities Sophie couldn’t comprehend.
Unfortunately, Micah had a nasty pinch between his shoulder blades, set deep in the scars the Morghanna left him with, which always warned him she was near. Gods damned it above and below—that pinch was never wrong. The old fae’s favorite treat was handsome young men, after all.
He had no proof yet she was involved in this. Last Micah knew, the Morghanna was sleeping in a volcanic tomb across the ocean. Since he had no way, yet, to kill her, that was as good as Micah could hope for. She should not be in the Old City anywhere near Micah’s territory, or in a position to buy any young men from the vampir in Hyde.
A dead troll, a missing brother no one remembered, shifters in Hyde where they didn’t belong, vampir, and probably the Morghanna were all connected to one starlit virgin seer. She was some fucking piece of trouble and had no idea.
He turned his guzzler through the gates of home-sweet-home. Girl’s entire body stiffened up like she tasted something sour before giving him a nervous glance over her shoulder. This didn’t look like home to her, and she didn’t know what he planned next.
Was it her innocence keeping her clueless, or just some kind of dogged refusal to face reality?
He didn’t know. Didn’t care. The first smell of her, the first touch of her lily-white skin when he held her kicking and trying to escape his arms, his balls drew up like rocks and his cock became iron in his jeans, making it damn uncomfortable to walk—he knew what he wanted right then. She should know it, too. Girl needed to school herself on that, lock down the denial and accept the inevitable.
The old warehouse had been home to him and his guys since moving into South Bloc after the veil opened in his world. What the humans here didn’t understand was that whatever had caused their Apocalypse had, in its turn, crushed Micah’s world to nothing. Time and space folded in on itself, a black hole sucking at his homeland so that coming to this backwater, upside-down, colorless planet was the only choice left to those close enough to the opened ley-line rift if they didn’t want to sink into the nothingness of their dead world. As far as Micah knew, the same thing had happened to every blue-blood creature on this planet. None of the blue-bloods wanted to be here.
When scouting, they found the warehouse perfectly equipped with end-of-time necessities, including a big-ass generator, the restored and running gas guzzler, and enough fuel to run both for twenty years, all set aside in handy, air-tight, thousand-year drums.
The previous owner of the warehouse pointed the double barrels of his shotgun at them first, not asking questions. Micah didn’t blame him at all. They’d been a pack of thirteen in full shift, using their senses to find a suitable den. But he also felt no guilt about killing the guy and taking over what he left behind. He was grateful for him. When he got to feeling religious on moon nights, he’d howl out his thanks to the man’s spirit for the blessing his death gave them.
At the side of the building, he punched the remote, watching in satisfaction as the doors swung wide without a sound. His world had nothing like this, and he’d never get over the easy way of things here. There was so much neat crap made in this world’s glory days that years later, after the end of it, there was still enough to go around for those with the ability to take and hold it. He drove on through the entrance; the doors closing behind them as an auto lamp flicked on.
Sophie made a squeaky noise that Micah felt right at the base of his cock, the place where his knot would form when he took her in his other shape. He’d make her squeak like that again, on his own terms, with her laying on her back and him mounted on top. Her pink tipped tits were going to shake and wobble with every thrust while he made her squeak again and again.
Twisting her hands together, the girl was overthinking, running through all kinds of ugly scenarios about what he planned to do to her. Her inexperience went beyond being untouched and into a place of naivety so pure that she couldn’t even fathom the things he would do. He wanted to cover every inch of his skin with her untainted purity. Fuck, the girl drew him like a beacon.
She was just too juicy not to be bait, even if they didn’t deliberately target him.
Her brow wrinkled with worry, and her plump bottom lip in her teeth, her eyes scanned the lowest level of the warehouse for options and escape routes. Her fear changed her sweat to a scent that made him feel high. Every inhale of her increased his craving to hunt and fuck.
Her pupils expanded when he got close, the irises of her eyes changing to purple sapphires as he opened her door. She got out of his ride with as much confidence as she could call up. Her hand went to the side of the vehicle, white against gleaming black, rather than to take his hand to help maintain her balance—they were going to work on her trust issues.
She didn’t speak. He was content to watch her body do the talking. With a gesture, he pointed to the door of the stairwell leading to his living space.
There was a secure room down below, under layers of concrete capable of surviving a war, but Micah was no cave dweller. It was a place to hide if they got desperate, but he didn’t live there. He moved all the comfortable and necessary contents up to a better place for shifters, converting a corner of the old brick-built foundry into a flat for himself, his brother Dante, and their cousin, Jumper. They built the same for the other singles in his pack on a different floor but let them go out and find their own comfortable shit for living.
The girl was pleasantly shaky, so he put his hand on the small of her back to guide her. She startled at the touch, not used to any of that, but then quickly relaxed into the touch. He felt her tension uncoil and wondered if she realized she reacted that way to him. He stood right behind her on the landing, crowding Sophie against the metal door, and reaching around her to use his key. Two feet shorter than he was, the back of her head hit the middle of his chest, and her tight little ass rubbed his thighs. He could have her standing on the side seat of the big shower, facing away from him, arms braced against the wall, one leg held raised in his hand, and pound that crevice from behind.
Fuck, his balls ached.
He watched her when he led her inside the girl scanning his place–a sectional couch and table piled with electronic systems and remotes in front of the television. Human technology included endless amounts of time-wasters and diversions. He spent many a restless day indulging and learning about this world from their old media. Living under vampir thumb, she likely knew less than he did about this world’s past.
His mouth watered with the amazing possibilities laid out before him. New to every sensual experience, even the most basic of touches surprised her and gave him a satisfactory reaction. Body, face and scent, she gave him signal after signal and didn’t know she was doing it. Sweet little thing.
Next to the open kitchen was the hall to the bedrooms. He kept the door to his room locked too, not just because he didn’t trust Jumper, but he also didn’t trust the females they sometimes brought home. He hated waking up to find an uninvited naked woman trying to crawl into his bed. Cleaning up the bloody chunks they left behind already cost him one good bed. He didn’t want a repeat.
This girl, this girl would be invited into his bed as often as he could get her there. He didn’t plan to give her much choice in the matter, really. Whichever ancient god had shaped together the flesh, blood, and spirit of Sophie had made the perfect female, summoning his beast-side in the best way. But he’d have to keep that information away from her. Girl didn’t need the power of knowing his first instinct was to drag her to his den where he could protect her—after he fucked her senseless.
Sophie again made that perfect noise little noise of alarm and tried to turn and leave when she saw the bed. Now she was getting the idea.
“No, it’s all right, Sophie. You’ll stay here with me. I got roommates. Jumper and Dante. I’m not sleeping on a couch when there is a bed here that fits me.”
He moved his hands to her waist, kept her still. Too late for panic. She was in his territory now, and everything here, he owned.
“I don’t want this. Please. I can sleep on the couch.”
“Leave you out there with Jumper? That what you want?” Jumper wouldn’t dare touch her, but the scrawny bastard would stand over her drooling, for certain. She didn’t know that, though.
